Brothers of Penitence

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The Brothers of Penitence or Fratres Saccati were an Augustinian order also known as Boni Homines, Bonshommes or Bones-homes.^[1] They were also known as the The order was known as the or "bluefriars" on account of the colour of their robes.^{[citation needed]}

1 Foundation
2 Ashridge
3 Edington
4 References

[edit] Foundation

Little is known about how or when they were founded. It is known that they had a house at Saragossa (Spain) in the time of Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) and one about the same time at Valenciennes (northern France). Their rule was founded on that of St. Augustine. They had one house in Paris, in a street called after them the rue de Sachettes, and in 1257 they were introduced into England. Matthew Paris records under this year that "a certain new and unknown order of friars appeared in London", duly furnished with credentials from pope; and he mentions later that they were called from the style of their habit Fratres Saccati. Paris' notation about a "novum ordum" has led some to suggest that the Fratres Saccati were the order quite soon afterwards established at Ashridge and Edington, though this was repudiated in an article by Richard Emory in the journal Speculum (1943), who attributes the original connection to Helyot's Dictionnaire des Ordres Religieux, which was compiled in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. There is in fact nothing to connect the Fratres Saccati with the Boni Homines of Ashridge and Edington.

[edit] Ashridge

Main article: Ashridge Priory

The priory was founded in 1283^[2] and finished in 1285. The last rector was Thomas Waterhouse (1529), who surrendered the house to Henry VIII. The suppressed college was eventually granted to the Egertons, later created Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater. The church was destroyed under Elizabeth I.