In Medieval Europe, Monks Competed With The Poor By Begging
If begging in the streets wasn’t already hard enough, the difficulty was compounded by the fact that many Christian monks chose a life or poverty as a way to honor God. In the early 13th Century, society saw a rise in mendicant orders. (Not to be confused with the monastic orders!) Members of the mendicant orders preached the Gospel by moving from town to town. Rather than living in self-contained monasteries, these mendicant monks begged for alms after they were done preaching. It was their motto to “take nothing for the journey, neither knapsack, nor purse, nor bread, nor money nor walking stick.” They believed that in doing this, they were copying what Jesus Christ did when he was alive. However, many members of the church believed this way of life was actually sinful or heretical.