Friars, Universities and ... Footwear. The Exegesis of the Minorite Rule Between Theology and Law in the 13th Century

Abstract

The article aims to give an insight into the importance of the thirteenth-century exegesis of the Minorite Rule for the history of late medieval culture. After showing how the friars commented on their Rule, what difficulties they had to face, what ends they pursued, and what was at stake, the contribution focuses on the relationship that the Minors established with the contemporary theological and juridical culture elaborated in the most important universities of the time. By reviewing the exegesis, proposed by some commentators, on an apparently entirely marginal subject, such as the footwear that the friars were supposed to wear, the article shows how contemporary juridical and theological reflections on the limits and value of the law were originally grafted – through, in particular, the considerations on the derogation by necessity and on the division of the prescriptions into precepts and counsels – into the discourse on the Minorite Rule.