The name
Boni Homines ('Good men' in Latin) or
Bonshommes (the same in French) was popularly given to at least three religious orders in the Catholic Church:
Grandmontines
The Order of Grandmont, founded by
St. Stephen of Muret, were an austere order of either
Augustinian or
Benedictine friars. By the end of the twelfth century they had more than sixty monasteries, principally in Acquitaine, Anjou and Normandy. The rules of the order were relaxed to a great extent after 1643. In the Eighteenth Century they had three convents of nuns.
L'Histoire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires, et des congregations séculières de l'un et de l'autre sexe, qui ont été établis jusqu'à présent,
Pierre Helyot (1714-21), cited in the article in the
Catholic Encyclopedia The order was suppressed in the
French Revolution.
The Fratres Saccati, or Brothers of Penitence
The Fratres Saccati, or Brothers of Penitence, were an order that were active in Spain, France and England. It is said that they controlled
Ashridge Priory and
Edington Priory in England, but this has been completely 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.
The Portuguese Boni Homines of Villar de Frades
The Portuguese Boni Homines were founded by
John de Vicenza in the fifteenth century. -......
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