Why and How Do Religious Orders Come into Existence? Pierre Mandonnet OP and the Disagreement on the explanation of Church History.

Abstract

The article first introduces a distinguished French Church historian Pierre Mandonnet OP (18581936), who taught at the university of Fribourg/Switzerland, and greatly contributed to the modern critical study of the work of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The main focus is on Mandonnet?s explanation of the origins of religious orders as tools produced by the Church in order to face new challenges of changing historical circumstances. Their purpose, the sense of their foundation, then gives concrete forms to their activities and to their inner structure.

These theses presented in December 1911 in front of a mixed Protestant-Catholic audience in Bern in the atmosphere of anti-modernist hysteria provoked a negative reaction within the integrist circles. The article considers the arguments and motivations of both parties, and generally deals with the situation of modern critical historical research in the Catholic Church at that time.