The Fourth Lateran Council in November 1215 promulgated a full pastoral programme for the rejuvenation of the Catholic Church. Innocent III had already imparted his blessing upon the nascent mendicant orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, before the ecumenical council. Although both orders were then hatchlings and friars were relatively few, both prospered in the wake of the ecumenical council and began to attract a large number of recruits, who propagated papal teaching throughout the western Church; Dominicans and Franciscans were enthusiastic champions of the papal reform and they assisted prelates in a variety of ways through teaching, preaching and hearing confessions. The canons of this council created a template for ecclesiastical reform, which can be detected in the pastoral dedication of friars such as Haymo of Faversham, who embodied the spirit of the Council. Franciscan literature provides innumerable examples of the friars responding to these canons and fervently promoting its teaching in the subsequent diocesan synods. The Revd Dr Maurice W. Sheehan, OFM, Cap, regarded the friars as a providential response to the problems besetting the Church, especially in the urban centres. He added:

The canons of this council framed the pastoral outlook of St Francis, as his writings show. His emphasis on eucharistic piety was communicated to the friars and it became the cornerstone of their teaching and preaching.