The Dominicans and Franciscans were mendicant orders of the Catholic Church founded by Dominic and Francis, respectively, begun in Europe in the early 13th century, and tasked with spreading the gospel of salvation through Christ's blood. You may be aware of the poverty-promoting antics of St. Francis of Assisi or the bloody shenanigans of the original Dominicans. Let's dive deeper into detail and compare and contrast these two mendicant orders.
Dominicans and Franciscans Definition
Below are concise definitions of what it meant to be of the Franciscan or Dominican orders.
The Dominicans are an order of the Catholic Church founded in the 13th century, sometimes called the Order of Preachers. They are known for their strong academic traditions, preaching, and ability to track down heathens during the Inquisition. They are sometimes referred to pejoratively as "God's hounds."
The Franciscans are a collection of mendicant Christian orders, mainly of the Catholic Church (though some Protestant orders are active today). Founded in the early 13th century and approved by Pope Innocent, the associated orders follow the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, who preached a rule of total poverty.
mendicant (noun): a person who begs.
Fig. 1 - A Dominican Friar circa 1900
Dominicans and Franciscans History
Dominicans
St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers in 1215. Dominic was a Spanish priest who founded a convent for converts in Southern France in 1206. From there, he had the idea of establishing an order for converting the Albigensians of Southern France. Pope Innocent III soon approved this idea, and the first settlement was made in Toulouse.
St. Dominic established that the new order would follow the teachings of St. Augustine. Significant priority was given to the order's two precepts: vigorous religious and academic study at the top divinity schools in Europe; and preaching.
A few years later, Thomas Aquinas joined the order and became one of its essential acolytes. He introduced the confluence of philosophy and religion into the mix when he found out about texts in which Aristotlean teachings had been mixed with those of the Catholic Church. Thus emerged a conflation of persuasive faith and reason for which Dominicans became known.
Franciscans
Fig. 2 - Saint Francis, Public Domain
Dominicans and Franciscans Order
Established most likely in 1207 by Francis of Assisi in Umbria, Italy, the Franciscans are one of the four orders of mendicants of the Catholic Church. St. Francis received his rule order from Pope Innocent III, which became a mandate for total poverty and homelessness. These street preachers would soon expand outward from Italy as missionaries, and they persist today as an excellent and charitable order of the Church.
The rule of order was relaxed slightly in 1223, but this led to many ongoing disagreements within the order regarding the degrees of poverty to which should be adhered. These schisms yielded offshoots of the original order of lesser Brothers (so-named because of their devotion to impecuniousness).
The order itself is made up of three orders. These include:
Order of Friars Minor (or Order of Lesser Brothers)
This was the first order of mendicants associated with St. Francis' original rule of poverty. Some of their numbers trace their origins directly back to St. Francis. These men are known as friars or minorities. Today it is made up of three orders, all of whom follow the Rule of St. Francis:
- The Order of Friars Minor
- The Order of Friars Minor Capuchins
- The Conventual Franciscans.
Order of St. Clare
Also known as "Poor Clares" in English, this was the Franciscans' second and only all-female order. Before 1263, they were known as "the Poor Ladies," "The Poor Enclosed Nuns," or "the Order of San Damiano."
Third Order of St. Francis
The third order of Saint Francis is co-ed, with many male and female members. It is divided into two branches:
- The Franciscan Secular Order - these men and women try to live out the ideals of St. Francis in their daily lives, eschewing institutions.
- The Third Order Regular - grew out of the Franciscan Secular Order; these folks adhere to the more traditional elements of St. Francis's teachings.
Dominicans and Franciscans Facts
The Rites Controversy
A moral panic ensued when Dominican and Franciscan missionaries arrived in China in 1634. These tardy missionaries were mortified to find that the Jesuits, who had co-existed peacefully with the Chinese for years, had given the OK to translate Christian religious terms into Chinese. Furthermore, the tolerant or conflict-averse Jesuits refused to teach converts that the philosopher Confucius was a non-believer who went to hell. The pious and heathen-obsessed Dominicans and Franciscans were appalled.
Even worse, converts were still permitted to participate in rites honoring their ancestors and Confucius. The Jesuits reasoned that the rituals were a secular and cultural phenomenon. But the church got a whiff of idolatry. Cue moral panic in Rome. Pope Clement XI responded with a statement promptly banning the offending activities, including funeral rites, those honoring Confucius, and the rites of spring.
The Inquisition
The Catholic Church was responsible for engineering one of the darkest chapters in European history: the Inquisition. Initially set up at the behest of Pope Gregor IX in 1227, thousands perished under the misguided attempt to weed out heresy from the Church. A series of tribunals was begun in Florence, but this was soon expanded. It was paramount that the sanctity of the church is restored and maintained at any cost. The progenitors of this atrocity ripped a page or two from the rule book of earlier European witch hunts. Torture was permitted, and countless thousands lost their lives to the Inquisition. Jews, Muslims, and non-Catholics would be spared the ax, according to the rules Gregor drew up in 1231.
In Gregor's papal bull of 1233, he tasked the Dominicans with carrying out the Inquisition. After all, the recently-established (in 1220) order counted such learned, saintly scholars as Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus among its members.
Fig. 3: Dominican monks burned at Stake
The Inquisition was a time of great horror perpetrated by horrible people and fear endured by masses of Catholics. One of these perpetrators was Robert LeBougre, a violent ex-heretic appointed chief Inquisitor general in the South of France by Pope Gregory. He once burned 180 people at stake in one day. LeBougre was eventually sacked and imprisoned for his penchant for going too far with the tortures and executions.
The Dominicans were a natural choice for this position. They had been established to preach to Albigensians in Southern France, making up a large portion of the idolatrous interviewees of the Inquisition. After all, Dominic's great mission had been to reach out to and convert heathens with persuasion and by the holy life he led, demonstrating a powerful confluence of faith and reason. What could go wrong?
As it turned out, plenty could and did go wrong when the Dominicans joined the Inquisition. Torture was permitted and relished by its practitioners. Though instructions placed limits on the torture's extent and conditions, the Dominicans paid no particular heed. In the Catholic Church, executions were usually carried out as burning at stake.
Some Dominicans participated in the Inquisition; some didn't. Some were appalled at the sinister goings-on or simply found them too over-the-top and resigned rather than carry out their duties. However, this didn't take away from the fact that their good name had been forever tarnished as pre-eminent symbols of religious hypocrisy and aggressive piety manifested in great violence. Soon after the Inquisition, the Dominicans were saddled with the sobriquet Domini canes, or "God's dogs."
Differences Between Dominicans and Franciscans
There were several similarities between the Dominicans and the Franciscans. They were both devoted to the concept of living simply and trusting God. Both orders came from the Roman Catholic tradition and were founded in the early 13th century. The idea of creation was central to the teachings of both orders.
The Dominicans and the Franciscans did differ on a few topics, though. The founder of the Dominicans, Dominic, was a highly educated priest who focused on clear communication in his preaching in the academic tradition. Francis could claim a straightforward preaching style, as he was a layperson, not an academic.
While both orders stressed the importance of living simply, the Franciscans were somewhat obsessed with the idea of poverty, for its own sake, as a way of life. The Dominicans saw poverty as a means to end, stripping things back to their bare essentials and getting their message out there.
| Dominicans | Franciscans |
| Academics | Laypeople |
| Focus on preaching and teaching | Focus on preaching |
| Poverty as a means to an end | Poverty as a way of life |
| Scholarship | Charity |
Did you know that St. Francis of Assisi implemented a particular order of poverty in which he commanded his followers to, among other things, wear a simple, unique tunic at all times?
Franciscan and Dominican Missionaries - Key takeaways
- The Franciscans and Dominicans are two orders of the Catholic Church, founded in the early 13th century.
- The Dominicans were founded by Dominic, who initially went to Southern France to preach to the Albigensians and cure them of their heathen ways. Their focus is on scholarship and finding the connections between faith and reason. Its members include Thomas Aquinas.
- Pope Gregor IV tasked the Dominicans with helping the Inquisition. Many of them were overzealous in their punishments and violence and soon gained a reputation as "God's Hounds" or "God's Dogs"
- The Franciscans were founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the Italian state of Umbria. He preached a philosophy of total poverty and required members to give up all earthly possessions, beg, be homeless, and wear a simple white tunic.
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