Poverty and Devotion in Mendicant Cultures 1200-1450

Since the time of Francis of Assisi, a commitment to voluntary poverty has been a controversial aspect of religious life. This volume explores the interaction between poverty and religious devotion in the mendicant orders between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries as reformers within the Church sought new ways of encouraging identification with Christ. Drawing on history, literature and visual arts, it explores how the orders continued to transform religious life into the time of the renaissance, and considers the paradoxical tension between voluntary poverty as a way of emulating Christ and involuntary poverty as situation demanding a response from those with the means to help the poor.