Edward Cuthbert Butler

“ Among the Franciscans themselves it has been the occasion of endless strife, and has been kept alive only by dint of successive reforms and fresh starts, each successful for a time, but doomed always, sooner or later, to yield to the inexorable logic of facts. ”

“ The social fabric was built up not on the towns, but on the great landlords; and when the centre of gravity began to move, first of all in Italy, to the towns, and crowded populations began to be massed together in them, the parochial systems broke down under the weight of the new conditions, and the people were in a state of spiritual and moral no less than physical destitution. ”

“ Moreover, besides the various orders of friars, there were the lay Tertiaries that arose and spread far and wide in connexion with the Franciscans and other mendicants, and the similar institute of the Humiliati (see Tertiaries) . These facts clearly show that the Mendicant Movement responded to widely spread and deeply felt needs of the time. These needs found expression not only in the Mendicant orders within the Church, but also in a number of more or less heretical and revolutionary religious sects. ”