section_path: Orders, groups, and societies/Augustinian Friars/History of the Friars
section_name: History of the Friars
paragraph_text: History of the Friars
  
  The Augustinian friars originated after the older Canons Regular. The friars represented part of the mendicant movement of the 13th century, a new form of religious life which sought to bring the religious ideals of monastic life into an urban setting which allowed the religious to serve the needs of the people in an apostolic capacity. At this time a number of eremitical groups lived in such diverse places as Tuscany, Latium, Umbria, Liguria, England, Switzerland, Germany, and France. The Fourth Council of the Lateran of 1215 issued the decree Ne nimium to organise these small groups of religious people by requiring them to live in community, to hold elective chapters, to be under obedience to a major superior and to adopt one of the Rules of community life that were approved by the Church.