четверг, 4 марта 2021 г.

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From the end of the XI century. in Western Europe, new monastic orders begin to take shape, partly opposing themselves to the Benedictines. The difference was emphasized by the fact that the "new" orders preferred a different color of clothes and wore cassocks of simple bleached linen (the Benedictines traditionally dressed in black). The most popular of the new orders was the Cistercian; its name was derived from the Latin spelling of the French city of Sieve, where the main abode of the order was located. The statutes of the new orders required the return of the monks to manual labor and removal from the world; according to their founders, the Benedictines were too much mired in worldly affairs. Church services fade into the background in the lives of "white" monks, but the main business of a monk is the salvation of his own soul, attempts to "see" God by mystical means. The monasteries of the "new" orders are becoming a haven for enthusiastic fanatics of the faith and subtle theologians, inspired preachers of the crusades and desert dwellers revered by the people. Foundation of new monastic orders in the XII century. turns into a fashion: it was enough to slightly change one of the existing statutes, introduce new elements of clothing and obtain the pope's permission to organize a monastic community - and a new order was born. Fearing that the monastic movement might get out of Roman control, the popes forbade the founding of new orders.


And yet, at the beginning of the 1st century. this ban was violated, and new orders - mendicant monks-preachers - were created at the initiative of the popes themselves. In Rome, they realized that a new weapon was needed to fight heresies and freethinking, and they saw such a weapon in the monastic movement of St. Francis from the Italian city of Assisi. Francis began his preaching in 1206; 20 years later he died, exhausted by poverty and disease. At first, Francis himself pretty much looked like a heretic and looked very doubtful in the eyes of the Roman church: he refused to own property (and Francis was the son of a wealthy merchant), did not take money in his hands, and led a wandering life with his students. Francis clearly imitated Christ, which he did not try to hide. This already brought Francis closer in the eyes of Rome to the Waldensian heretics; moreover, the disciples of Francis, who pejoratively called themselves "little brothers", Minorites, wandered along the roads in cassocks of coarse burlap, girded with ropes, in groups of two, just like the Waldensians.

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Pope Innocent III wished to meet a suspicious preacher in Rome. He was able to appreciate the purity of Francis' thoughts, and the sincerity of his faith, and his great personal charm. Francis was not a danger to the church, but he could be useful to her. The pope agreed to approve the minority community on the condition that they become real monks, accept their charter and submit to the church. Otherwise, Francis and his friends would have been constantly threatened with accusations of heresy.

Francis agreed to the Pope's proposal, but entrusted the leadership of the Minorite Order (it was also called Franciscan) to his more enterprising comrades. The second generation of Franciscans largely abandoned the legendary simplicity of the founder of the order. The Franciscans were immensely popular; the order accepts many gifts, which it spends on pleasing

God cares: the organization of hospitals, schools and shelters. The monasteries of the Franciscans are based in the very thick of the then life - in the center of large cities; Minorites see the meaning of their activity not in escaping from the world, but in preaching the word of Christ among the laity.

Similar changes during the XIII century. occur with the second order of mendicant monks, founded at about the same time as the Franciscan - Dominican. It was named after the Spanish monk Saint Dominic, a learned theologian, a specialist in the fight against heresies. Both orders enjoyed the special patronage of the popes and often competed in scholarly disputes, charitable deeds, and the spread of the Christian faith. Gradually, a distribution of responsibilities developed between the orders: the Minorites basically "worked with the people", preached among the widest sections of the population, while the Dominicans were more engaged in church science, theology - after all, it was in theological disputes that Catholics in former times sometimes yielded to heretics.

The late Middle Ages finally turns monasticism into one of the main weapons of the "militant church." The Jesuit Order (the correct name is the "Society of Jesus") is created by its founder Ignatius Loyola and the Popes as a powerful means of influencing the souls and minds of believers. The monastery walls, which in former times separated the brethren from the world, become thin and transparent, like glass. The Jesuits live "in the world" like ordinary people, wear the same clothes as everyone else, are engaged in teaching at schools and universities, literary creativity, political intrigues, courting ladies. At the same time, they remain devoted servants of the church, secretly and openly defending the interests of Rome.

A medieval monk could hide from the world behind thick monastery walls, as the Benedictines did, or draw an invisible line between himself and the world, like the Jesuits - in any case, he remained part of the society he left. The monk was not free from the sorrows and worries of the great Christian world; to this world he gave his feelings and ideas, born of solitude and peace. The medieval monk did not at all despise the society he had left, he simply wanted to live in the society that he himself had chosen.

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