FRIAR (from the Lat. (rater, through the Fr. frere)

This article appears in Volume V11, Page 212 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FRA-GAE

FRIAR (from the Lat. (rater, through the Fr. frere) , the English generic naive for members of the mendicant religious orders. Formerly it was the title given to individual members of these orders, as Friar Laurence (in Romeo and Juliet), but this is not now common. In England the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

orders of friars were distinguished. by the colour of their habit: thus the

Franciscans

FRANCISCANS (otherwise called Friars Minor, or Minorites; also the Seraphic Order ; and in England Grey Friars, from the colour of the habit, which, however, is now brown rather than grey)

or Minors were the Grey Friars; the

Dominicans

DOMINICANS

or Preachers were the Black Friars (from their black mantle over a white habit), and the Carmelites were the White Friars (from their white mantle over a brown habit): these, together with the Austin Friars or Hermits, formed the four

great

GREAT

mendicant ordersChaucer's " alle the ordres foure." Besides the four

great

GREAT

orders of friars, the Trinitarians (q.v.), though really canons, were in England called Trinity Friars or Red Friars; the Crutched or Crossed Friars were often identified with them, but were really a distinct order; there were also a number of lesser orders of friars, many of which were suppressed by the second council of Lyons in 1274. Detailed information on these orders and on their position in England is given in

separate

SEPARATE

articles. The difference between friars and monks is explained in article

MONASTICISM

MONASTICISM (Gr. p.ovacrnabs, living alone, ľ6vos)

. Though the usage is not accurate, friars, and also canons

regular

REGULAR

, are often spoken of as monks and included among the monastic orders.
See Fr. Cuthbert, The Friars and how they came to England, pp. 11-32 (1903) ; also F. A. Gasquet, English Monastic

Life

LIFE

, pp. 234-249 (1904), where

special

SPECIAL

information on all the English friars is coveniently brought together. (E. C. B.)

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