Many currents in a complex and many-sided movement for renewal, of the Church in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries were stimulated and shaped by the ideal of evangelical poverty. The Church – not only or even mainly the hierarchy – was attempting to do justice to the contemporary situation, to find a form for itself that would both accord with its tradition and be appropriate to the times.

The original concern of the reform movement was to establish the “liberty of the Church”, to free it from lay control as embo…