Reaction was inevitable. Particularly under the influence of the "learned friars" of the Order, a less mystical, a more reasoned theory of mission evolved.

To that end missionaries had to be trained in languages and all forms of the humanities. Llull's approach was less practical, more mystical. During his long lifetime (he was over eighty years old when stoned to death by irate followers of Muhammad), he wrote almost 300 books to demonstrate that Christianity had a ground of basic truth: his "necessary reasons" which would bring unbelievers to accept Christ.³⁸ To the end, however, thwarted by the Muslim rejection of what he regarded as irrefutable, he never abandoned his conviction that by "martyrdom and the greatness of charity, the whole world could be won over to Christianity. "³⁹ And this led him to the primitive Franciscan tactic of reckless confrontation.

A knowledge of the language and the culture of the peoples among whom the friars went to missionize gradually came to be considered an appropriate qualification for those friars destined to evangelize non-Christian communities. But it appears that the ministers provincial, whose duty it was to judge the fitness of prospective missionaries, continued to give equal, if not greater, weight to the "divine inspiration" which motivated friars expressing such a desire.⁴⁰ The Council of Vienne (1311-12) had encouraged the founding of "language schools," but there is no evidence that the order initiated its own such schools.⁴¹ The first Franciscan missionary college was not founded until 1622, twelve years after Paul V had directed religious orders to establish such institutions.⁴²