section_path: Orders, groups, and societies/Augustinian Friars/History of the Friars/Grand Union of 1256
section_name: Grand Union of 1256
paragraph_text: Grand Union of 1256
  
  In 1255 Innocent's successor, Pope Alexander IV, issued the papal bull Cum Quaedam Salubria summoning all the various groups of Augustinian hermits and the Hermits of Saint William to send two representatives to Rome for a General Chapter, again to be held under the supervision of his nephew, Cardinal Annibaldi. During this chapter the following groups of hermits, inter alia, were amalgamated to the Order, which up to then had only consisted of the groups of the Tuscan hermits (including the Hermits of the Holy Trinity):
  
  At this Chapter Lanfranc Settala, the leader of the Bonites, was elected Prior General. The belted, black tunic of the Tuscan hermits was adopted as the common religious habit, and the walking sticks carried by the Bonites in keeping with eremitical tradition—and to distinguish themselves from those hermits who went around begging—ceased to be used. The 12-year-old religious Order of friars now consisted of 100 or more houses.
  
  On 9 April 1256 Pope Alexander IV issued the bull Licet Ecclesiae catholicae (Bullarium Taurinense, 3rd ed., 635 sq.) which confirmed the integration of the Hermits of John the Good (Rule of St. Augustine, 1225), the Hermits of St. William (Rule of St. Benedict), the Hermits of Brettino (Rule of St. Augustine, 1228), the Hermits of Monte Favale (Rule of St. Benedict), other smaller congregations, and the Tuscan Hermits into what was officially called the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine. Almost from the beginning the term "hermits" became a misnomer for they ranked among the friars, and became the fourth of the mendicant orders. The observance and manner of life was mild relative to those times, meat being allowed four days in the week.
  
  In August 1256, a number of Williamite houses withdrew from the newly formed mendicant order and were allowed to continue as a separate congregation under the Benedictine rule.
  
  The early years in the order's history featured a great devotion to learning, to study, to prayer, to service of the poor, and to defense of the Pope and the Church – a particular charism of the Order rooted in the fact that it is the only Order in the history of the Church to be founded directly by a Pope. In his work The Life of the Brothers, the 14th-century Augustinian historian and friar Jordan of Saxony writes:"It is certain that in its modern state the Order is principally founded on spiritual works, those that pertain to the contemplative life. These are as follows: the singing of the divine office; the service of the altar; prayer; psalm singing; devotion to reading or study of sacred scripture; teaching and preaching the word of God; hearing confessions of the faithful; bringing about the salvation of souls by word and example.".
  
  The Order expanded beyond Europe to the eastern Mediterranean, briefly acquiring a convent in Acre just prior to its conquest in 1291. In the middle of the fourteenth century, the Augustinian Friars acquired the large convent of San Salvatore in Venetian Heraklion (medieval Candia) where they attempted to use the cult of Nicholas of Tolentino to appeal to the local Greek-speaking population. The building stood on Kornaros Square until its demolition in 1970.
  
  The Augustinians count among their number over a dozen saints and numerous members declared blessed by the Church. Bishop Robert Prevost was the latest member of the order to be elevated to the cardinalate until his election as Pope Leo XIV in 2025.