Buddhistische Mönche und der franziskanische Armutsstreit

Abstract

Buddhist Monks and the Franciscan Poverty Controversy. How the East Asia Mission Influenced Late Medieval Latin Europe This article scrutinizes the 14th century’s controversy about the doctrine of Franciscan poverty. It considers an overlooked foundation of these debates: the encounters between Franciscan missionaries and Buddhist monasticism in Southern, Central and Eastern Asia since the mid-13th century. By taking a global perspective on a controversy traditionally understood as endemic to Europe, the article shows that European travellers’ experiences in Asia shaped the Latin Church in a deep and consequential way. Instead of looking eastwards to the success (or failure) of the missionary work in India and China, this study argues that we must pay attention to the use and effect of narratives about Buddhism by missionaries who returned to Latin Europe. This enables us to better understand some of the canonical sources that are central to such debates, such as Dante Alighieri, John of Montecorvino, and the Italian version of Nicolaus Minorita. In making this argument, this study brings multiple scholarly discourses into conversation with one another for the first time.