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Crutched Friars

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Statue of two Crutched Friars in London

The Crutched Friars (also Crossed or Crouched Friars, cross-bearing brethren) were a Roman Catholic religious order in England and Ireland. Their name is derived from a staff they carried with them surmounted by a crucifix.[1] There were several orders devoted to the Holy Cross, collectively known as Crosiers, that had some presence in England and there is much confusion regarding which specific order the friars belonged to.[2] Earlier literature linked most of the Crutched Friars to the Italian Crosiers, but later it was proven that they were a branch of the Belgian Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross.[3][4] The Crutched Friars were suppressed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538.[4]

England

Their first appearance in England was at a synod of the Diocese of Rochester in 1244, when they presented documents from the Pope and asked to be allowed to settle in the country. They established eight or nine houses in England, the first being at either Colchester (according to Dugdale), or at Reigate (according to Reyner), founded in 1245. They settled in London in 1249, where they gave their name to the locality, near Tower Hill, still called Crutched Friars. Other houses were at Oxford; York; Great Welnetham (Suffolk); Barham (Cambridgeshire) (a cell to Great Welnetham); Wotten-under-Edge, Gloucestershire; Brackley, Northamptonshire; and Kildale, Yorkshire. The order was dissolved, along with other Catholic orders, by Henry VIII in 1539.

Ireland

The Fratres Cruciferi appeared in Ireland at some time before 1176 when they are first listed as being in possession of the Hospital of St. John without the New Gate in Dublin.[5] It is likely that they based this hospital on the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem.[6] The founding of these hospitals gave care to both men and women from all religions. The Hospital (which became known in later centuries as Palmer's Hospital and had a capacity of 155 beds) had been founded by the Norse-Gael Ailred the Palmer and his wife some time prior to 1188 when Pope Clement III granted the Hospital certain privileges.[7] The Hospital occupied the site on Thomas Street, Dublin now occupied by the Augustinian Church of Saint Augustine and Saint John the Baptist now served by the mendicant Order of St. Augustine[8] (not to be confused with either the Augustinian Canons – who had many foundations in Ireland, introduced by St. Laurence O'Toole as Archbishop of Dublin to, amongst other churches, Christ Church Dublin[9] – or the Fratres Cruciferi). The Register and Charters of the Hospital have survived in manuscript;[10] they were published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission in 1937 (in the original Latin).

The order owned several hospitals and priories in Ireland,[11] including Palmerstown (which was owned by the Hospital of St John the Baptist without the Newgate in Dublin[12] pictures,[13] County Dublin (the town of Palmerstown is named after [Ailred de] Palmer named the founder of the hospital); Kilkenny West, County Westmeath; the Priory and Hospital of St. John the Baptist of Nenagh, County Tipperary; Rindoon, County Roscommon; King's Island, Limerick City; Ardee, County Louth; Castledermot, County Kildare; Athy, County Kildare; New Ross, County Wexford; St. John's Priory, Trim, County Meath; and Dundalk, County Louth. The dissolution by Henry VIII of the Order in England in 1539 also applied in Ireland. George Dowdall, last head of the Irish order, was compensated by becoming Archbishop of Armagh.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Crutched Friars — (Or Crossed Friars).

An order of mendicant friars who went to England in the thirteenth century from Italy, where they existed for some time, and where they were called "Fratres Cruciferi" (see below). There first appearance in England was at a synod of the Diocese of Rochester in 1244, when they presented documents from the pope and asked to be allowed to settle in the country (Matthew Paris). Each friar carried in his hand a wooden staff surmounted by a cross and also had a cross of red cloth upon his habit, from which circumstances originated the name by which they became commonly known. Their rule was that of St. Augustine and their habit originally brown or black, was later on changed to blue by Pope Pius II. They established eight or nine houses in England, the first being at either Colchester (according to Dugdale), or at Reigate (according to Reyner), founded in 1245.They settled in London in 1249, where they gave their name to the locality, near Tower Hill, still called "Crutched Friars". Other houses were at Oxford (1348), York, Great Weltham (Suffolk), Barham (a cell to Gt. Weltham), Wotten-under-Edge (Gloucestershire), Brackley (Northants) and Kildale (Yorkshire).

Fratres Cruciferi

The origin of these friars is somewhat uncertain. They claimed to have been founded in the East, in the first century, by St. Cletus, and to have been reconstituted by St. Cyriacus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the fourth. It is not known when they came to Italy, but they were certainly there in the twelfth century, for in 1169 Pope Alexander III gave them constitutions and a rule of life similar to that of the Augustinians. Pope Pius II prescribed for them a blue habit and substituted a small silver cross for the larger wooden one they had hitherto been accustomed to carry in their hands. It was from this custom that they obtained their name. Their monasteries were at one time numerous in Italy, numbering two hundred and eight, divided into five provinces: Bologna, Venice, Rome, Milan, and Naples. The priory of S. Maria di Morella at Bologna was made chief house of the order by Pope Clement IV, and it was from this that the English Crutched Friars came. In later times corruptions were allowed to creep in, and from that and other causes their numbers dwindled down to no more than fifty houses in 1656, when the order was suppressed by Pope Alexander VII. A similar order of friars, known by the same name and like them claiming to come from the East, also existed in France and the Low Countries, having been introduced or organized in 1211 by Théodore de Celles. Hélyot says their houses were numerous, but the order suffered extinction in the French Revolution. These friars wore a black habit with a red cross upon it. Other Fratres Cruciferi were also to be found in Bohemia in the thirteenth century and some said to have existed in Ireland, but there is practically no reliable information to be obtained about them.

Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, Rolls ed. (London 1866), II; Tanner, Notitia Monastica (London 1744); Dugdale, Monasticaon Anglicanum (London 1817-30, VI; Reyner, Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia (Douai, 1626; Gasquet, English Monastic Life (London, 1904); Helyot, Hist. Des ordres religieux (Paris, 1792), II; Heimbucher, Orden und Congregationem (2nd ed., 1907), II, 33-37.

G. CYPRIAN ALSTON

References

  1. Back to citation Gwynn, Aubrey; R. N. Hadcock (1970). Medieval Religious Houses Ireland. London: Longman. p. 208. ISBN 0-582-11229-X.
  2. Back to citation Chettle, H. F. (October 1949). "The Friars of the Holy Cross in England" (PDF). History. 34 (132): 204–209. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1949.tb00935.x. ISSN 1468-229X.
  3. Back to citation Beck, Egerton (1913). "The Order of the Holy Cross (Crutched Friars) in England". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 7: 191, 194–195, 198. doi:10.1017/S0080440100014511. ISSN 1474-0648. JSTOR 3678421. S2CID 176857897.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Hayden, J. Michael (2000). "Religious Reform and Religious Orders in England, 1490-1540: The Case of the Crutched Friars". The Catholic Historical Review. 3 (86): 422–423. JSTOR 25025765.
  5. Back to citation "History". Johnslane.ie. Archived from the original on 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  6. Back to citation Pickus, Abigail (2013-08-05). "Massive Crusader hospital uncovered in Old City". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  7. Back to citation Charles McNeill, The Hospital of St. John without the New Gate, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1925, No. 1
  8. Back to citation "Order of Saint Augustine". Augustinians.net. Archived from the original on 2019-07-07. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  9. Back to citation "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  10. Back to citation "Early Manuscripts at Oxford University". Image.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  11. Back to citation "The Monastic Orders: Fratres Cruciferi – Monastic Ireland – A Comprehensive Database of Sites and Sources". Monie.tth2.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  12. Back to citation "Palmerston - Chronology". Archived from the original on 2014-10-15. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  13. Back to citation "Ireland In Ruins: Old Palmerstown Church Co Dublin". Irelandinruins.blogspot.ie. 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
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