FRIAR, the English generic name for members of the mendi cant religious orders (from Lat. frater through Fr. f rere) . For merly it was the title given to individual members of these orders, as Friar Laurence (in Romeo and Juliet), but this is not now common. In England the chief orders of friars were distinguished by the colour of their habit : thus the Franciscans or Minors were the Grey Friars ; the Dominicans or Preachers were the Black Friars (from their black mantle over a white habit), and the Carmelites were the White Friars (from their white mantle over a brown habit) : these, together with the Austin Friars or Hermits, formed the four great mendicant orders—Chaucer's "alle the ordres foure." Detailed information on these orders and on their position in England is given in separate articles. The difference between friars and monks is explained in article MONASTICISM.
See Fr. Cuthbert, The Friars and how they came to England, pp. 11-32 (1903) ; also F. A. Gasquet, English Monastic Life, pp. (1904) , where special information on all the English friars is conven iently brought together.