Third order

The term 'Third Order' signifies, in general, lay members of religious orders, who do not necessarily live in community and yet can claim to wear the habit and participate in the good works of some great order. Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism all recognize Third Orders. They were a twelfth century adaptation of the medieval monastic confraternities. The term 'Third Order' signifies, in general, lay members of religious orders, who do not necessarily live in community and yet can claim to wear the habit and participate in the good works of some great order. Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism all recognize Third Orders. They were a twelfth century adaptation of the medieval monastic confraternities. Members of third orders, are known as tertiaries (Latin tertiarii, from tertius, third). In some cases, they may belong to a religious institute (a '|congregation') that is called a 'third order regular'. Roman Catholic canon law states: 'Associations whose members share in the spirit of some religious institute while in secular life, lead an apostolic life, and strive for Christian perfection under the higher direction of the same institute are called third orders or some other appropriate name.' Religious orders that arose in the 12th-13th centuries often had a first order (the male religious, who were generally the first established), the second order (nuns, established second), and then the third order of laity who were established third. Saint Francis of Assisi, for example, is said to have established the Friars Minor, the Poor Clares, and the Third Order of Saint Francis. The name 'tertiary' comes from the Latin tertiarius meaning basically 'third'. Hence it has been used for centuries to denote those who belonged to a third order. Tertiaries are those persons who live according to the Third Rule of religious orders, either outside of a monastery in the world, or in a religious community. The idea which forms the basis of this institute is in general this: that persons who on account of certain circumstances cannot enter a religious order, strictly so-called, may, nevertheless, as far as possible enjoy the advantages and privileges of religious orders. This is most clearly expressed in the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis which, although not the oldest, has, nevertheless, become the model for the rule of almost all other Third Orders. Tertiaries are divided into Regular and Secular. In some cases the members of a third order, wishing to live in a more monastic and regulated way of life, became 'regulars' (religious living under a rule, in Latin, regula) as members of a religious institute. These religious institutes or 'congregations' are classified as belonging to the third order regular. The old monastic orders had attached to their abbeys confraternities of lay men and women, going back in some cases to the 8th century. The Confraternity Book of Durham is extant and embraces some 20,000 names in the course of eight centuries. Emperors and kings and the most illustrious men in church and state were commonly confraters of one or other of the great Benedictine abbeys. The confraters and consorors were made partakers in all the religious exercises and other good works of the community to which they were affiliated, and they were expected in return to protect and forward its interests; but they were not called upon to follow any special rule of life. The general idea of lay people affiliated to religious orders, such as the Benedictine Oblates or confraters developed as founders and benefactors of monasteries were received into spiritual fellowship, and later clothed in death in some religious habit. So too the Templars had a whole system whereby layfolk could partake in some sort in their privileges and in the material administration of their affairs. But the essential nature of the tertiary is really an innovation of the thirteenth century.