Frances Andrews

The Other Friars examines four medieval mendicant orders which have not received as much scholarly attention as the better known Franciscans and Dominicans—the Carmelites and Augustinians, whose orders survived the Second Council of Lyons in 1274, and the Sack and Pied Friars, whose orders did not. While the latter orders in particular are difficult (even by the standards of medieval history) to study because of a paucity of surviving sources, Andrews does a good job of showing that just because theirs are not familiar names nowadays does not mean they were unimportant in the medieval period. She marshals an impressive array of primary and secondary sources from across the majority of the geographical area colonised by the friars. Not all points are footnoted as thoroughly as I would have liked, for the purposes of following up interesting titbits of information, but there is a highly useful 'Further Reading' section which seems perfectly suited for anyone beginning research on the subject of mendicancy.… (more)