The term, coming from French gyrovague, itself from Late Latin gyrovagus (gyro-, "circle" and vagus, "wandering"), refers to a type of monk, rather than to a specific order, and may be pejorative as gyrovagues are almost universally denounced by Christian writers of the Early Middle Ages.
[2] Augustine (354 – 430) called them Circumcelliones (circum cellas = those who prowl around the barns) and attributed the selling of fake relics as their innovation.
Cassian (c. 360 – c. 435) also mentions a class of monk, which may have been identical, who were reputed to be gluttons who refused to fast at the proper times.
Up until the time of Benedict, several attempts had been made by various synods at suppressing and disciplining monks who refused to settle in a cloister.
[3] In Defence of the Mendicants, the Flemish Dominican Thomas of Cantimpré wrote: Well, my brethren, you need not be ashamed to be called or to be gyrovagues.