Friar

Friar, a name common to the members of certain religious orders in contradistinction to the names Monk and Regular Clerk. The name friar, although from its etymology (frère, 'brother') it belongs to the members of all religious brotherhoods, yet has come to be reserved almost exclusively for the brethren of the Mendicant orders; who at their institution stood to the old established orders as poor to rich, rude to cultivated, popular to aristocratic, the ascetic and self-denying to the comparatively leisured and comfortable. It is applied chiefly to the four great orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Carmelites, and later to the Trinitarians and Servites, and to the various branches of these orders. The Franciscans were properly denominated 'Friars Minor' (Fratres Minores). The Dominicans received, in contrast, the title 'Friars Major,' which, however, was perhaps rather a sobriquet than a serious name. From the colour or other peculiarity of their habit, the Franciscans were popularly called Grey Friars; the Black Friars were Dominicans; the White Friars were the Carmelites; Austin Friars were the Augustinians; and the Crutched or Crouched Friars was the name given to the Trinitarians, from the cross which was embroidered upon their habit (Cruciat, 'crossed'). In the Mendicant orders the friars in priest's orders are styled 'father,' the other members simply 'brother.' See the articles on the several Mendicant orders, also MONACHISM; and Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars (1888).