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A discussion has come up regarding the Robin Hood gestes on a list that I am on. This question was posed this morning:
"I understand that if an ordinary person broke the law they would be dealt with in the normal way though the courts and if it warranted it they would be outlawed.
Now it appears that the mendicant friars were committing all sorts of offences but they were doing it in the name of God and the church, and as members of the church they would be tried under ecclesiastical law rather than civil law?
Except, it wouldn't happen would it because what they were doing had the blessing of the Pope and the church who much of the time were the beneficiaries."
Leaving aside for the moment the not-so-veiled accusation that all churchmen were thieves, I'd like to focus on the question of what kind of law were the mendicant friars subject to. The truth is, I don't know the answer off the top of my head. However, I know that I have a number of both medieval scholars and church history scholars, as well as armchair version of both among my friends, so I thought I'd throw the question out there before I waste too much time searching down the answer myself.
A little bit of background:
The discussion started with the place of Friar Tuck among the Merry Men. It was pointed out that if he was a Friar, it meant he was a member of one of the mendicant orders (like the Franciscans). Since they didn't come into existence until 1209 and didn't come to England until 1224, that makes the traditional setting of the Robin Hood tales during the reign of Richard the Lionheart (1189-1199) problematic.
So the discussion moved to setting of the Robin Hood tales a century and a half later, during the reign of Richard II. Then the question of the conduct of the mendicant friars in general in 14th century England came up. Basically, the line of reasoning presented was the Robin Hood's gang all disguised themselves as mendicant friars in order to commit highway robbery since that's what the friars were doing anyway.
I also have questions about this characterization of the mendicants. It's not something I've looked into before and I really have no way of knowing how true it might have been, although my gut reaction is 'it can't be!' since such behaviour would have been essentially antithetical to the teachings of St. Francis.
"I understand that if an ordinary person broke the law they would be dealt with in the normal way though the courts and if it warranted it they would be outlawed.
Now it appears that the mendicant friars were committing all sorts of offences but they were doing it in the name of God and the church, and as members of the church they would be tried under ecclesiastical law rather than civil law?
Except, it wouldn't happen would it because what they were doing had the blessing of the Pope and the church who much of the time were the beneficiaries."
Leaving aside for the moment the not-so-veiled accusation that all churchmen were thieves, I'd like to focus on the question of what kind of law were the mendicant friars subject to. The truth is, I don't know the answer off the top of my head. However, I know that I have a number of both medieval scholars and church history scholars, as well as armchair version of both among my friends, so I thought I'd throw the question out there before I waste too much time searching down the answer myself.
A little bit of background:
The discussion started with the place of Friar Tuck among the Merry Men. It was pointed out that if he was a Friar, it meant he was a member of one of the mendicant orders (like the Franciscans). Since they didn't come into existence until 1209 and didn't come to England until 1224, that makes the traditional setting of the Robin Hood tales during the reign of Richard the Lionheart (1189-1199) problematic.
So the discussion moved to setting of the Robin Hood tales a century and a half later, during the reign of Richard II. Then the question of the conduct of the mendicant friars in general in 14th century England came up. Basically, the line of reasoning presented was the Robin Hood's gang all disguised themselves as mendicant friars in order to commit highway robbery since that's what the friars were doing anyway.
I also have questions about this characterization of the mendicants. It's not something I've looked into before and I really have no way of knowing how true it might have been, although my gut reaction is 'it can't be!' since such behaviour would have been essentially antithetical to the teachings of St. Francis.
