THE FRIARS.
III.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE FRIARS.
The reformation of the thirteenth century owed its permanent results to the fact that two Orders of widely different kinds and with widely different aims came into being almost at the same moment; and these two Orders in a marvellous way supplemented one another. Dominic had the sense of organisation; Francis had a new spiritual impulse. These two great factors coming from opposite sides were gradually amalgamated and consequently produced permanent results. Dominic gave to Francis the outward shell which preserved the fruits of his enthusiasm. Had it not been for the organisation which the Franciscans gained from the example of the Dominicans, though their first enthusiasm might have been very beautiful, it would have rapidly vanished. On the other hand, had not Francis given Dominic a new spirit, the revival of the old mechanism at which he aimed would not have been productive of the results which the Dominican Order was afterwards enabled to accomplish. Really the two worked together, a fact which is made plain by the study of the history of the Orders.
