Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Apostolic poverty
Apostolic poverty is a Christian doctrine that states that members of the clergy should live without ownership of lands or accumulation of money, following the precepts given to the seventy disciples in the Gospel of Luke (10:1-24). It was notably professed in the thirteenth century by the newly formed mendicant orders in response to calls for reform in the Roman Catholic Church.
This provocative doctrine challenged the wealth of the Church, which reformers saw as corrupting and contrary to Christ's absolute poverty. Although apostolic poverty was eventually condemned as heretical by Pope John XXII in 1323, the belief was controversial and found sympathetic audiences among the disaffected poor of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries.
The debate on apostolic poverty is one of the main themes of Umberto Eco's 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, which is set in 1327 amid renewed controversy on the question and the persecution of radical Franciscans.
The ascetic Pope Paschal II's solution of the Investiture Controversy in his radical Concordat of 1111, repudiated by the cardinals, was that the ecclesiastics of Germany should surrender to the imperial crown their fiefs and secular offices.
In Northern Italy, Spain, and France primarily, a religious movement of people called the Apostolic Brethren was a large advocate of this idea. The word "Apostolic" used to describe members of the Brethren was also used as a label for people from similar religious sects.
The Humiliati, also known as the "Humble Ones", were a major proponent of apostolic poverty. Founded by a wool merchant, they established communities scattered around Italy and France, organized on the principle of a simple way of life for the laity, who shared their goods while remaining in family units. They remained primarily a lay movement, and came to reject the authority of the hierarchy and the clergy. For this and other reasons, they were later to be declared heretical by the Catholic Church.
It is often assumed[by whom?] that Saint Francis of Assisi was inspired to form the Franciscans by their movement, in an effort to emulate the poverty of Jesus Christ and to bring his message through a simple life and example, while strictly adhering to the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Saint Dominic founded a similar order, the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans.
Sometime during the 1170's, a wealthy cloth merchant known as Waldes or Peter Waldo experienced a religious conversion, which some have attributed to a minstrel he heard tell the story of St. Alexis. After hearing this recital, Waldes visited a master theologian in order to determine the surest way to salvation, to which the theologian replied he should follow the scripture; specifically Matthew 19:21: 'If you wish to go the whole way, then go and sell everything you have, and give to the poor'. Waldes then, after providing for his family, gave away all of his possessions and followed a life of apostolic poverty. He had the Gospel translated and began openly preaching, gaining many followers who also embraced lives of apostolic poverty; these men and women became known as the Waldensians. Walter Map, though critical of the Waldensians' lack of education and therefore their inability to preach, conceded that they did truly live in a state of poverty comparable to the apostles, describing them as having 'no permanent homes...possessing nothing and having everything in common like the Apostles, naked, following a naked Christ'.
Hub AI
Apostolic poverty AI simulator
(@Apostolic poverty_simulator)
Apostolic poverty
Apostolic poverty is a Christian doctrine that states that members of the clergy should live without ownership of lands or accumulation of money, following the precepts given to the seventy disciples in the Gospel of Luke (10:1-24). It was notably professed in the thirteenth century by the newly formed mendicant orders in response to calls for reform in the Roman Catholic Church.
This provocative doctrine challenged the wealth of the Church, which reformers saw as corrupting and contrary to Christ's absolute poverty. Although apostolic poverty was eventually condemned as heretical by Pope John XXII in 1323, the belief was controversial and found sympathetic audiences among the disaffected poor of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries.
The debate on apostolic poverty is one of the main themes of Umberto Eco's 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, which is set in 1327 amid renewed controversy on the question and the persecution of radical Franciscans.
The ascetic Pope Paschal II's solution of the Investiture Controversy in his radical Concordat of 1111, repudiated by the cardinals, was that the ecclesiastics of Germany should surrender to the imperial crown their fiefs and secular offices.
In Northern Italy, Spain, and France primarily, a religious movement of people called the Apostolic Brethren was a large advocate of this idea. The word "Apostolic" used to describe members of the Brethren was also used as a label for people from similar religious sects.
The Humiliati, also known as the "Humble Ones", were a major proponent of apostolic poverty. Founded by a wool merchant, they established communities scattered around Italy and France, organized on the principle of a simple way of life for the laity, who shared their goods while remaining in family units. They remained primarily a lay movement, and came to reject the authority of the hierarchy and the clergy. For this and other reasons, they were later to be declared heretical by the Catholic Church.
It is often assumed[by whom?] that Saint Francis of Assisi was inspired to form the Franciscans by their movement, in an effort to emulate the poverty of Jesus Christ and to bring his message through a simple life and example, while strictly adhering to the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Saint Dominic founded a similar order, the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans.
Sometime during the 1170's, a wealthy cloth merchant known as Waldes or Peter Waldo experienced a religious conversion, which some have attributed to a minstrel he heard tell the story of St. Alexis. After hearing this recital, Waldes visited a master theologian in order to determine the surest way to salvation, to which the theologian replied he should follow the scripture; specifically Matthew 19:21: 'If you wish to go the whole way, then go and sell everything you have, and give to the poor'. Waldes then, after providing for his family, gave away all of his possessions and followed a life of apostolic poverty. He had the Gospel translated and began openly preaching, gaining many followers who also embraced lives of apostolic poverty; these men and women became known as the Waldensians. Walter Map, though critical of the Waldensians' lack of education and therefore their inability to preach, conceded that they did truly live in a state of poverty comparable to the apostles, describing them as having 'no permanent homes...possessing nothing and having everything in common like the Apostles, naked, following a naked Christ'.