the union of various abbacies in the hands of a single individual, the
custom of holding abbacies /in commendam/, and the wholesale exemption
from episcopal authority for which many of the religious orders
contended, are sufficient to account for this general relaxation. The
state of the various houses and provinces even belonging to the same
order depended largely on the character of the superiors, and hence it
is not fair to judge one country or one province, or even one house,
by what happened in other countries, provinces, or houses. Hence
arises the difficulty of arriving at any general conclusion about the
religious houses. It is safe, however, to say that with the exception
of the Carthusians all the older orders required reform. From the
beginning of the fifteenth century attempts were made to restore the
old discipline in the Benedictine communities and with considerable
success. The Carmelites were divided into two main branches, the
Calced and the Discalced; the Franciscans were divided into three main
bodies, the Conventuals, the Observants, and the Capuchins; the
Dominicans made various efforts to restore the ancient discipline
especially from about the beginning of the fifteenth century; while
many of the Augustinians who were determined on reform established new
congregations, as for example, the Discalced Augustinian Hermits, who
spread themselves over France, Spain, and Portugal. In addition,
various new congregations, amongst them the Oblates founded in 1433 by
St. Francisca Romana, and the Hermit Brothers in 1435 by St. Francis
of Paula, were established to meet the necessities of the age.[9]

Unfortunately the endless disputes between the religious and secular
clergy[10] at this period tended to distract the attention of both
from their spiritual work, and to give rise to considerable disorder
and discontent. On the one side, men like the Paris professor, John
Poilly and Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh, were too extreme