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

ABSTRACT
The historiography of medieval Franciscan education has been dominated
by two general approaches that appear unjustifiable. The first has been to assume
that the Franciscan educational organization was a later copy of the Dominican
organization, and therefore to use Dominican evidence to fill in the gaps in the
Franciscan picture. The second indefensible approach has been largely to ignore
the fact that Franciscan educational organization went through an evolution. The
foremost aim of this thesis is to present the story of the rise and
institutionalization of learning in the Franciscan Order of the thirteenth and early
fourteenth centuries, without taking refuge in the much fuller evidence that exists
for the Dominican system, but with an emphasis on the chronological
development both of the Franciscan educational system itself and of attitudes to it
within the Order.
Included in this study are discussions of some controversial topics such as
the intention of the founder with regard to education, the position of the
Spirituals, and the problems that possession of books and libraries caused. In
order to compensate for the absence of Dominican evidence, a wide range of
sources has been employed in the research. The resulting picture of the
Franciscan involvement in education appears to be quite different from that of the
Dominicans in its organization, scope, speed of growth and in the effects on the
internal harmony of the Order.
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