medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
"When a mendicant takes upon himself the right to preach, does he
require any form of legal or written endorsement from the main
establishment in late medieval England and France?"
One distinction which has not yet entered into this discussion
is the distinction between penitential and dogmatic preaching. Early
mendicants, including Francis, may have been allowed to wander about
insofar as they were seen as preaching penance and telling how God
worked in the world and in their own lives. Many ecclesiastical
administrators felt that such "testimonials" did not necessarily require
theological training or holy orders. But once preachers claimed to
interpret the Bible or the teaching of the church, then that was quite a
different matter.
When mendicants won, and then partly lost, particular legal
privileges concerning their license to preach, then this distinction
about types of preaching became less relevant to them.
--John Howe, Texas Tech University
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