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Gyrovagues (sometimes Gyrovagi or Gyruvagi or gyratory monks ) were wandering or itinerant without fixed residence or leadership, who relied on charity and the hospitality of others.
The term, coming from French gyrovague, itself from Late Latin gyrovagus ( gyro-, "circle" and vagus, "wandering"), refers to a type of monk, rather than to a specific order, and may be pejorative as gyrovagues are almost universally denounced by Christianity writers of the Early Middle Ages. The Council of Chalcedon (451) and Second Council of Nicaea (787) prohibit this practice. The "gyrovagi" were denounced as wretched by Benedict of Nursia (480 – 547), who accused them of indulging their passions and cravings.
Augustine (354 – 430) called them Circumcelliones (''circum cellas'' = those who prowl around the barns) and attributed the selling of fake [[relic]]s as their innovation. [[Cassian|John Cassian]] ( 360 – 435) also mentions a class of monk, which may have been identical, who were reputed to be gluttons who refused to fast at the proper times.
As with the term Sarabaites, after the eighth century the term Gyrovagi was sometimes used pejoratively to refer to degenerate monks within a monastery, or to travelling salesmen.
In the early 13th century, some of the first Friars Preachers of the Dominican order were dismissed as gyrovagues, and their active preaching dismissed as beneath the dignity of the serious religious who lived in monasteries.Murray, Paul. The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality: A Drink Called Happiness. London: Burns & Oates, 2006. Page 15.
In Defence of the Mendicants, the Flemish Dominican Thomas of Cantimpré wrote:
Well, my brethren, you need not be ashamed to be called or to be gyrovagues. You are in the company of St. Paul, the teacher of the nations...While they the sit in their monasteries...you go touring round with Paul, doing the job you have been given to do.
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