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The Coming of the Friars and Other Historic Essays
Chapters:
1. The Coming of the Friars
2. Village Life in Norfolk Six Hundred Years Ago
3. Daily Life in a Mediaeval Monastery
4. The Black Death in East Anglia
5. The Black Death in East Anglia (Continued)
6. The Building Up of a University
The Prophet of Walnut-Tree Yard
1. The Coming of the Friars
2. Village Life in Norfolk Six Hundred Years Ago
3. Daily Life in a Mediaeval Monastery
4. The Black Death in East Anglia
5. The Black Death in East Anglia (Continued)
6. The Building Up of a University
The Prophet of Walnut-Tree Yard
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1895
About the author
Augustus Jessopp
129 booksAugustus Jessopp was an English cleric, historian, biographer, editor and essayist.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 15, 2022
A swift flowing read about the "Coming" of the friars... as opposed to explicitly focusing upon the friars themselves. Francis of Assisi's life experience briefly helps to open the pages of this work. Seeing clearly the bondage of wealth, humility bore its fruit with the coming of the friars, or more Biblically exampled as a return to the humility found in the normal Christian life for those devout to God, being free from what we observe of others during that time: "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." -1 Timothy 6:10 | Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.
Supportive history plays the important and predominant part of this work, building a surrounding structure to the times, events, and cultural mentality of our read. A great deal portrays the times of 600 years prior to this work's authorship, with plenty of detail to stimulate further research for the reader. The section on daily life in a monastery was of particular interest to me, as was the section on the Black Death... "The Angel of Death moves at no laggard pace when once he begins his march with his sword drawn in his hand... To the great cemetery within the Close the people brought their dead, the tumbrels discharging their load of corpses all day long, tilting them into the huge pits made ready to receive them; the stench of putrefaction palpitating through the air, and borne by the gusts of the western breeze...."
The 'Law of the Land' and the 'law of the Church' are presented:
"Six hundred years ago it may be said that there were two kinds of law in England, the one was the law of the land, the other was the law of the Church. The law of the land was hideously cruel and merciless, and the gallows and the pillory, never far from any man's door, were seldom allowed to remain long out of use... The law of the Church, on the other hand, was much more lenient. To hurry a man to death with his sins and crimes fresh upon him, to slaughter men wholesale for acts that could not be regarded as enormously wicked, shocked those who had learnt that the Gospel taught such virtues as mercy and longsuffering, and gave men hopes of forgiveness on repentance. The Church set itself against the atrocious mangling, and branding, and hanging that was being dealt out blindly, hastily, and indiscriminately, to every kind of transgressor."
- Excerpts:
"Verily when the thirteenth century opened, the times were evil, and no hope seemed anywhere on the horizon. The grasp of the infidel was tightened upon the Holy City, and what little force there ever had been among the rabble of Crusaders was gone now."
"People talk of 'Monks and Friars' as if these were convertible terms. The truth is that the difference between the Monks and the Friars was almost one of kind. The Monk was supposed never to leave his cloister. The Friar in St. Francis' first intention had no cloister to leave. Even when he had where to lay his head, his life-work was not to save his own soul, but first and foremost to save the bodies and souls of others. The Monk had nothing to do with ministering to others. At best his business was to be the salt of the earth, and it behoved him to be much more upon his guard that the salt should not lose his savour, than that the earth should be sweetened. The Friar was an itinerant evangelist, always on the move. He was a preacher of righteousness. He lifted up his voice against sin and wrong. 'Save yourselves from this untoward generation!' he cried; 'save yourselves from the wrath to come.' The Monk, as has been said, was an aristocrat. The Friar belonged to the great unwashed!"
"It was not ungodliness that Dominic, in the first instance, determined to war with, but ignorance and error. These were to him the monster evils, whose natural fruit was moral corruption."
"We in England now recognize only three orders of clergy—bishops, priests, and deacons. But six hundred years ago it was very different. In those days a man might be two or three degrees below a deacon, and yet be counted a cleric and belonging to the clergy."
"When the Friars came into a village, and it was known that they were going to preach, you may be sure that the whole population would turn out to listen. Sermons in those days in the country were very rarely delivered."
"At the time of the Norman Conquest it may be said that all English monks were professedly under one and the same Rule—the famous Benedictine Rule. The Rule of a monastery was the constitution or code of laws, which regulated the discipline of the house, and the Rule of St. Benedict dates back as far as the sixth century, though it was not introduced into England for more than a hundred years after it had been adopted elsewhere."
"Six years went by, and the plague came. It fell upon the district round with terrific fury, and the people died in that dreadful April, 1349, as the locusts die when the hurricane drives them seaward, and they rot in piles upon the shore."
- Also of possible interest:
The Other Friars: The Carmelite, Augustinian, Sack and Pied Friars in the Middle Ages
The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck : His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Moengke, 1253-1255
Into Great Silence (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [2006] [DVD] - Philip Gröning
Run time: 2 hours and 49 minutes
Writer/Director Philip Gröning's award-winning documentary about life in the Grande Chartreuse monastery, the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order in the French Alps.
Supportive history plays the important and predominant part of this work, building a surrounding structure to the times, events, and cultural mentality of our read. A great deal portrays the times of 600 years prior to this work's authorship, with plenty of detail to stimulate further research for the reader. The section on daily life in a monastery was of particular interest to me, as was the section on the Black Death... "The Angel of Death moves at no laggard pace when once he begins his march with his sword drawn in his hand... To the great cemetery within the Close the people brought their dead, the tumbrels discharging their load of corpses all day long, tilting them into the huge pits made ready to receive them; the stench of putrefaction palpitating through the air, and borne by the gusts of the western breeze...."
The 'Law of the Land' and the 'law of the Church' are presented:
"Six hundred years ago it may be said that there were two kinds of law in England, the one was the law of the land, the other was the law of the Church. The law of the land was hideously cruel and merciless, and the gallows and the pillory, never far from any man's door, were seldom allowed to remain long out of use... The law of the Church, on the other hand, was much more lenient. To hurry a man to death with his sins and crimes fresh upon him, to slaughter men wholesale for acts that could not be regarded as enormously wicked, shocked those who had learnt that the Gospel taught such virtues as mercy and longsuffering, and gave men hopes of forgiveness on repentance. The Church set itself against the atrocious mangling, and branding, and hanging that was being dealt out blindly, hastily, and indiscriminately, to every kind of transgressor."
- Excerpts:
"Verily when the thirteenth century opened, the times were evil, and no hope seemed anywhere on the horizon. The grasp of the infidel was tightened upon the Holy City, and what little force there ever had been among the rabble of Crusaders was gone now."
"People talk of 'Monks and Friars' as if these were convertible terms. The truth is that the difference between the Monks and the Friars was almost one of kind. The Monk was supposed never to leave his cloister. The Friar in St. Francis' first intention had no cloister to leave. Even when he had where to lay his head, his life-work was not to save his own soul, but first and foremost to save the bodies and souls of others. The Monk had nothing to do with ministering to others. At best his business was to be the salt of the earth, and it behoved him to be much more upon his guard that the salt should not lose his savour, than that the earth should be sweetened. The Friar was an itinerant evangelist, always on the move. He was a preacher of righteousness. He lifted up his voice against sin and wrong. 'Save yourselves from this untoward generation!' he cried; 'save yourselves from the wrath to come.' The Monk, as has been said, was an aristocrat. The Friar belonged to the great unwashed!"
"It was not ungodliness that Dominic, in the first instance, determined to war with, but ignorance and error. These were to him the monster evils, whose natural fruit was moral corruption."
"We in England now recognize only three orders of clergy—bishops, priests, and deacons. But six hundred years ago it was very different. In those days a man might be two or three degrees below a deacon, and yet be counted a cleric and belonging to the clergy."
"When the Friars came into a village, and it was known that they were going to preach, you may be sure that the whole population would turn out to listen. Sermons in those days in the country were very rarely delivered."
"At the time of the Norman Conquest it may be said that all English monks were professedly under one and the same Rule—the famous Benedictine Rule. The Rule of a monastery was the constitution or code of laws, which regulated the discipline of the house, and the Rule of St. Benedict dates back as far as the sixth century, though it was not introduced into England for more than a hundred years after it had been adopted elsewhere."
"Six years went by, and the plague came. It fell upon the district round with terrific fury, and the people died in that dreadful April, 1349, as the locusts die when the hurricane drives them seaward, and they rot in piles upon the shore."
- Also of possible interest:
The Other Friars: The Carmelite, Augustinian, Sack and Pied Friars in the Middle Ages
The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck : His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Moengke, 1253-1255
Into Great Silence (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [2006] [DVD] - Philip Gröning
Run time: 2 hours and 49 minutes
Writer/Director Philip Gröning's award-winning documentary about life in the Grande Chartreuse monastery, the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order in the French Alps.
Displaying 1 of 1 review