Note 527 — Chapter XXII · THE FRIARS

Despite the willingness of St. Francis here expressed to get on peaceably with the secular clergy, i.e., the bishops and priests, the history of the mendicant orders is filled with the records of strife between the seculars and friars. This was inevitable, since such friars as had taken priestly orders were accustomed to hear confessions, preside at masses, preach in parish churchyards, bury the dead, and collect alms—all the proper functions of the parish priests but permitted to the friars by special papal dispensations. The priests very naturally regarded the friars as usurpers.