Exploitation of the Fear of Death

Friar: a kind of monk; of the various orders of religious "brothers" or friars, the most important were the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Augustines, and the Carmelites.

"The evangelical humanists were often bitterly opposed by the friars who had a virtual and lucrative preaching monopoly, and it is certain that the exploitation of the fear of death in later medieval religious practice was partly nourished by the economic needs of the clergy."

Erasmus, Praise of Folly (1509)
[translated by Betty Radice, notes by A. H. T. Levi (1993)].