The Friars came as helpers of the poor town clergy, just
when those clergy had begun to give up their task as hopeless. They
came as missionaries to those whom the town clergy had got to regard
as mere _pariahs_. They came to strengthen the weak hands, and
to labour in a new field. _St. Francis was the John Wesley of the
thirteenth century, whom the Church did not cast out_.
Rome has never been afraid of fanaticism. She has always known how to
utilise her enthusiasts fired by a new idea. The Church of England
has never known how to deal with a man of genius. From Wicklif to
Frederick Robertson, from Bishop Peacock to Dr. Rowland Williams, the
clergyman who has been in danger of impressing his personality upon
Anglicanism, where he has not been the object of relentless
persecution, has at least been regarded with timid suspicion, has
been shunned by the prudent men of low degree, and by those of high
degree has been--forgotten. In the Church of England there has never
been a time when the enthusiast has not been treated as a very
_unsafe_ man. Rome has found a place for the dreamiest mystic or
the noisiest ranter--found a place and found a sphere of useful
labour. We, with our insular prejudices, have been sticklers for the
narrowest uniformity, and yet we have accepted, as a useful addition
to the Creed of Christendom, one article which we have only not
formulated because, perhaps, it came to us from a Roman Bishop, the
great sage Talleyrand--_Surtout pas trop de z?le!_
The Minorites were the Low Churchmen of the thirteenth century, the
Dominicans the severely orthodox, among whom spiritual things were
believed to be attainable only through the medium of significant
form.
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