Course info

This module explores the early history of one of the most extraordinary movements of the late Middle Ages: the orders of Mendicant friars and sisters whose influence spread from Latin Europe to North Africa, the Middle East and beyond. It begins by investigating a rare combination of written and visual sources (manuscripts, paintings, and buildings) to understand and compare the personalities, careers and cults of saints Francis, Clare and Dominic. It then turns to their impact and that of the orders they founded, exploring the problems of poverty and preaching for these religious, male and female, relations with papal and secular government, the impact of gender, learning, heresy and inquisition. It closes with a consideration of their activities in Morocco, the Middle East and China.