[MR] Friars of the Sack

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today I was reading a brutally scholarly tome while I waited in my car for
a yard sale to open, NORTHERN ENGLAND AND SOUTHERN SCOTLAND IN THE CENTRAL
MIDDLE AGES. I was fighting ZZZZs when I noticed mention of six friaries in
Berwick. Then in 1274 one, the "Friars of the Sack", was suppressed.

Wait what? Who were the Friars of the Sack, and why were they . . . uh . .
. sacked?

Well, I can't completely answer that, though there are apparently several
equally somnambulistic scholarly books out there that discuss the Sack
Friars in mind-numbing detail (like one title spanning three volumes!). But
here's what I gleaned:

The Friars of the Sack, more properly the Brothers of Penitence, were a
minor order of religious Augustinian brothers who adopted extreme poverty
and worked among the poor (as did friars of most other orders). They went
to the extreme of never eating meat, drinking only water and not wearing
shoes. Their habits were made from sack cloth, thus the name. There were
several similar orders on the Continent such as the *Fratres Saccati *in
France*, *with whom the English friars seem to have been very loosely
linked, and the Bonites in Italy (the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA and Wikipedia
are both very confusing on these relationships).

The Brothers of Penitence first appeared in England in 1257, and are
mentioned by Matthew Paris as "a certain new and unknown order of friars"
as having settled in London. Later other houses were established, but the
order seems to have been very loosely governed, and that may have led to
its downfall.

At the Second Council of Lyon in 1272-1274, regulation of friars was on the
agenda. Four mendicant orders were recognized under the umbrellas of
already established monastic orders: Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans
and Franciscans, but many other less formal groups were "suppressed",
including the Friars of the Sack. All their houses, including the one in
Berwick, were ordered closed, and the members drifted off to join the
officially recognized brotherhoods.

So no great scandal (like the Gilbertines, who made the mistake of having
both men and women live in supposedly divided monastic houses. Ha!).

There isn't much on Wikipedia, but you can satisfy yourself with having
read nearly as much as I did at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_of_Penitence .

Yours  Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.