To my family for giving me life and love - Bilkent University

given to education in the Order. The Dominicans, from the start were a clerical
Order; there never were lay Dominican friars.
There are examples of other significant differences between the two
Orders, which one would expect to affect the organization of their studies. By the
end of the thirteenth century, the Dominicans had a total of only seven studia
generalia, since constitutionally each Dominican province was allowed to have
only a single one. 7 At the same date, the Franciscans, on the other hand, had
thirty-two provinces, and while some provinces had more than one studium
generale, some did not have any until the late fourteenth century.
Another difference derived from the settlement policies and patterns of
the Orders. Although the Dominican Order had an approved Rule by 1215 and
swiftly moved on to the university cities, their general spread and settlement was
much slower than Franciscans. For the Province of Germany, Freed’s detailed
study on the settlement of Franciscans and Dominicans in Germany points to
three types of difference. The first difference was due to the number of convents
founded. The number of Franciscan convents by 1300 was approximately 200,
whereas the Dominicans had only 111. The comparison includes the sixteen
Polish and one Italian Dominican priory which would have been considered
German under the Franciscan provincial structure. 8 Secondly, it seems that the
Franciscans tried to reach any town they could find, without any criteria of
7
M. Mulchahey, “The Dominican Studium System and the Universities of Europe in the
thirteenth Century” in Manuels, Programmes de Cours et Techiques d’Enseignement dans les
universités médiévales, ed. J. Hamesse (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994), p. 301, n. 70.
8
J.B. Freed, The Friars and German Society in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1977),
p. 51.
6