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Religious Orders

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, there were two types of clergy members. One group, known as the secular* clergy, lived in the world and tended to the spiritual needs of laypeople*. The other type of clergy belonged to religious orders—groups of men or women who lived according to a religious "rule," usually involving vows of poverty, chastity*, and obedience. Many new religious orders appeared during the Renaissance, and many existing orders underwent reforms.

REFORMS OF EXISTING ORDERS

By the 1400s, most religious orders had strayed far from the ideals of their founders. Traditional monasteries, which followed the Benedictine Rule (a series of rules laid down in the 500s by St. Benedict), had fallen into decline in the 1200s and 1300s. They faced competition from the rise of mendicant orders, whose members lived by begging and were forbidden to own property. At the same time, a new system known as the commenda was placing many monasteries in the hands of people who often ran the houses purely for their own gain. During the 1300s, even the mendicant orders fell away from their basic ideal of poverty.

All these problems helped contribute to the growing sense of need for reform within religious orders. Many orders began to return to their founding rules. For example, the Franciscans—an order founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the 1100s—had begun as a mendicant order of hermits. Over time, however, the papacy* had eased many of the strict rules under which the Franciscans lived. In the late 1300s a group of monks who followed a reform movement called the Observance sought to restore the order's original ideals. Observant houses appeared throughout Europe during the 1400s. However, other Franciscans, known as Conventuals, opposed their reforms. After years of controversy, Pope Leo X divided the Franciscan order into two parts, the Conventuals and the more rigid Friars Minor. Two even stricter groups of Franciscans, the Minims and the Capuchins, appeared in the late 1400s and early 1500s.

Reform of the Dominicans, another mendicant order, also began in the late 1300s. Dominican religious houses joined together to form larger groups called congregations that were independent of Dominican control but still linked to the order. By the late 1400s nearly all Dominican congregations, except in England, were reformed.

The old-fashioned order of the Benedictines also underwent reforms beginning in 1424. The reform movement tightened the union between abbeys and required monks to take vows to their congregation, not to a specific abbey. These reforms began in Padua, Italy, and spread throughout Europe. One congregation in Austria contained over 100 abbeys.

NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS

Beginning in the 1500s, several new religious orders arose throughout Europe, especially in Italy. Many of these were a different kind of order known as clerics regular, or priests living under a religious rule. Although they took the traditional vows of monks, they also devoted themselves to active ministries, mostly in schools and parishes. The largest group of this type was the Jesuits. However, a variety of smaller orders for both men and women appeared at this time.

The Jesuits. The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, first appeared in 1534 when IGNATIUS LOYOLA and six other students at the University of Paris made a pact to travel to the Holy Land to convert the Muslims. They took vows of poverty and chastity and eventually became priests. However, war prevented them from continuing to Jerusalem. In 1539 they formed a new plan to spread the faith through preaching, hearing confessions, and performing works of mercy. They took a special vow to make themselves available for missionary work anywhere in the world. By the end of the 1500s, Jesuits had missions in India, Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, and other parts of Spanish America.

In 1548 the Jesuits opened their first school in Messina, Sicily. Until then they had avoided permanent assignments, but the school was so successful that soon the order considered teaching its primary mission. The Jesuits thus became the first teaching order in the Catholic Church. They came to exercise a great deal of influence on education.

Like the Dominicans and Franciscans, the Jesuits remained independent from the control of local bishops. However, the group differed from other orders in several ways. They did not gather together during the day to sing hymns or pray, and they did not wear a distinctive habit. More importantly, the Jesuits used a book written by Ignatius, the Spiritual Exercises, as their guide to spiritual life. This practice unified and motivated the order. Ignatius also insisted on frequent correspondence between Jesuit leaders and the members of the order. This helped to promote a common outlook among Jesuits. Their letters have since provided a highly valuable resource for historians of the Renaissance. Humanism* had a profound impact on the Jesuits. Because of their emphasis on teaching, many Jesuits became expert in subjects such as science, philosophy, and theology. The Jesuits played a leading role in the spread of humanist ideas.

Other Male Orders. Most of the new Italian orders dedicated themselves to charitable acts such as helping the poor, tending the sick, or educating children. One major teaching order was the Piarists, founded by St. José Calasanz. In 1597 he opened a free school in Rome, paid for by donations from wealthy clergy members. The school educated poor boys in the catechism* and in other subjects that helped them to earn a living. Pope Clement VIII approved the order in 1604. The order grew rapidly, but this caused several problems. Standards fell as the Piarists rushed poorly trained teachers into classrooms. Also, the Jesuits grew to resent the Piarists as a rival teaching order. In 1642 the Roman Inquisition* briefly arrested Calasanz and forbade the order to take in new members. However, the Piarists thrived after the pope restored them as a full order in 1669.

One of the more controversial Italian orders was the Barnabites, founded by St. Antonio Maria Zaccaria. In 1533 he and two friends set up a community of priests living the simple life of monks. A friend of his, the countess Ludovica Torelli, founded a similar order for women, known as the Angelics. Several of Zaccaria's married friends then set up a confraternity* called the Devoted Married Laity of St. Paul. Many church leaders saw these three organizations as being too closely linked. The order further damaged its image by its public acts of penance*, in which mixed groups of priests and nuns painted their faces and whipped themselves. The Barnabites fell under suspicion from the Inquisition but eventually received approval from Pope Clement VII in 1533.

New religious orders arose in France partly in response to problems within the Catholic Church, which had been heavily drained by the extended WARS OF RELIGION that ended in 1598. The most influential new congregation was the Oratory of Mary and Jesus, founded by Pierre de Bérulle in 1611. Bérulle saw the priesthood, not the vows of religious orders, as the source of all holiness in the Church. Thus, he established an order of priests who lived together without taking vows and devoted themselves to training new clergy members. Several other orders arose either directly or indirectly from the Oratory, including the Congregation of St. Nicholas-du-Chardonnet and the Congregation of Jesus and Mary.

In 1625 Vincent de Paul established the Congregation of the Mission, another order of priests. Its members, known as the Lazarists, preached, taught catechism, heard confessions, and tended the sick. One of Vincent's followers, Jean-Jacques Olier, founded St. Sulpice seminary, which became a leading center for the training of priests in France.

Orders of Women. The role of women in the Roman Catholic Church underwent a profound change during the Renaissance. Developments within society and the church encouraged women to take a more active role in religious life and to engage in charitable work aimed at helping the poor, the sick, and orphans.

In the late 1300s the Dutch priest Geert Grote founded an order called the Sisters and Brethren of the Common Life. His goal was to promote a religious life devoted to prayer and meditation. Unlike nuns, members of the Sisters came mostly from noble or middle-class backgrounds, did not take vows, and maintained the right to own property. These secular features made the order more acceptable to the public, which feared the growth of religious groups that did not pay taxes. Over time, however, religious and secular authorities began pressing the Sisters to adopt a religious rule. Many of them formed convents and placed themselves under the authority of the church.

In 1535 Angela Merici, a young Italian woman, established a confraternity called the Company of St. Ursula for women who wished to devote themselves to God but could not afford the entrance fee required by most convents to help support the new nun. The order sought to protect the virginity of its members, but did not require them to take vows. The Ursulines taught catechism to young girls and promoted female education. In France, the Ursulines eventually formed traditional convents, and French Ursuline nuns established the first female mission in Canada in the early 1600s.

The Angelics of St. Paul, the female counterpart to the Barnabites, also led a religious life that included performing acts of charity. Their main work involved reforming convents and helping the sick, orphans, and former prostitutes. In time, the independence of the Angelic Sisters aroused opposition from church leaders, and in 1552 the order adopted a cloistered life, shut away from the public.

(See also Clergy; Confraternities; Devotio Moderna; Education; Inquisition; Missions, Christian; Women.)

* secular

nonreligious; connected with everyday life

* laypeople

those who are not members of the clergy

* chastity

purity or virginity

* papacy

office and authority of the pope

* humanism

Renaissance cultural movement promoting the study of the humanities (the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome) as a guide to living

* catechism

handbook of religious teachings

* Roman Inquisition

religious court started in Rome in 1542 to deal with those accused of straying from the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church

* confraternity

religious and social organization of Roman Catholics who were not members of the clergy

* penance

act performed to show sorrow or repentance for sin

Woman's Work in a Man's World

During the Renaissance, the Roman Catholic Church made it difficult for women to perform missionary work. After the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the papacy would approve only cloistered orders of women. As a result, those who wished to work in the world often did so without papal approval. For example, Mary Ward of England founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the early 1600s. The institute opened several colleges and taught girls in many countries. However, the papacy refused to recognize it as a religious order because its members were not cloistered and because they performed tasks considered unfit for women. Pope Clement XI finally approved the order in 1703.