Innocent [IV], servant of the servants of God, to his most beloved son in Christ [Henry III], king of England, sends greeting and apostolic benediction. Although all Dominicans and Franciscans are forbidden to ride on horseback we gladly give assent to your prayers and grant those friars, both Dominican and Franciscan, whom you may wish to take with you on your journey over sea, our full and free permission to ride on horseback whenever, on account of the exigencies of the journey, you may wish them to do so.
272. Alexander IV Condemns the Attacks made on the Friars because of Their Idleness and Begging, 1256.
Denzinger, p. 131.
The Friars soon became the favorites of the popes, who gave them almost unlimited concessions and privileges. By these privileges the authority of the Friars was made far greater than that of the parish priest. Before long the parish clergy complained that their authority was weakened and undermined by the Friars. The Friars despised the parish clergy, who in turn hated the Friars and resented their interference in the local affairs of the parish. The Friars generally were more lenient confessors and had more liberal indulgences, and hence the parish priest soon saw his parishioners deserting him and flocking to the Friars. This meant not only a diminution of his authority and influence in his own parish, but also a reduction in his income. He complained also that he could not maintain strict discipline and holy living in his parish because his people found it easy to secure light penance and large indulgences from the Friars. A long and bitter struggle ensued between them. The two following documents illustrate the criticisms which the secular clergy made on the Friars. It will be observed that in both cases the pope condemns these criticisms.
In 1256 Alexander IV condemned the following sentiments as errors: That the Friars, both Dominicans and Franciscans, are not in the way to be saved. Their begging and poverty are neither meritorious nor able to secure their salvation, because, if they are strong, they ought to work with their hands and not remain idle in the hope of securing aid from others. And that they should not have the permission of the pope or bishops to preach and to hear confession, because by this great harm is done to the parish clergy.
273. John XXII Condemns the Theses of John of Poilly in which He Attacked the Friars, 1320.
Denzinger, p. 140.
John of Poilly, a professor of Theology, attacked the Friars and set forth the following theses, which were condemned as erroneous by John XXII, 1320:
1. That all those who confess their sins to Friars who have only a general licence to hear confession are bound to confess the same sins again to their own priest. 2. That so long as the edict "Omnis utriusque sexus" stands, which was enacted in a general council, the pope himself is not able to release parishioners from the duty of confessing their sins once a year to their own priest, that is, their parish priest. Nay, more, not even God himself can do this, because it involves a contradiction. 3. That the pope has no authority to grant a general licence to hear confession.[{121}]
{121} The parish priest received a licence to hear confession only in his own parish, while the Friars received a general licence to hear confession everywhere. The decree "Omnis utriusque sexus" (All persons of both sexes) is the twenty-first chapter of the decrees of the Lateran council of 1215, and concerns the duty of making confession. According to its terms every Christian must confess at least once a year to his own parish priest. If he wished to confess to some other priest, he had first to secure the permission of his parish priest to do so.