Hinweise zur Catholic Encyclopedia
Order of Preachers
As the Order of the Friars Preachers is the principal part of the entire Order of St. Dominic, we shall include under this title the two other parts of the order: the Dominican Sisters (Second Order) and the Brothers of Penitence of St. Dominic (Third Order). First, we shall study the legislation of the three divisions of the order, and the nature of each. Secondly, we shall give an historical survey of the three branches of the order.
I. LEGISLATION AND NATURE
In its formation and development, the Dominican legislation as a whole is closely bound up with historical facts relative to the origin and progress of the order. Hence some reference to these is necessary, the more so as this matter has not been sufficiently studied. For each of the three groups, constituting the ensemble of the Order of St. Dominic, we shall examine: A. Formation of the Legislative Texts; B. Nature of the Order, resulting from legislation.
A. FORMATION OF THE LEGISLATIVE TEXTS
In regard to their legislation the first two orders are closely connected,
and must be treated together. The preaching of St. Dominic and his first
companions in Languedoc led up to the pontifical letters of Innocent III, 17
Nov., 1205 (Potthast, Reg., Pont., Rom.
, 2912). They created for the first
time in the Church of the Middle Ages the type of apostolic preachers, patterned
upon the teaching of the Gospel. In the same year, Dominic founded the Monastery
of Prouille, in the Diocese of Toulouse, for the women whom he had converted
from heresy, and he, made this establishment the centre of union of his missions
and of his apostolic works (Balme-Lelaidier, Cartulaire ou Histoire
Diplomatique de St. Dominic
, Paris, 1893, I, 130sq.; Guiraud, Cart. de Notre
Dame de Prouille,
Paris, 1907, I, CCCXXsq). St. Dominic gave to the new
monastery the Rule of St. Augustine and also the special Institutions which
regulated the life of the Sisters, and of the Brothers who lived near them, for
the spiritual and temporal administration of the community. The Institutions are
edited in Balme, Cart.
II, 425; Bull. Ord. Præd.
, VII, 410; Duellius,
Misc.
, bk. I (Augsburg, 1723), 169; Urkundenbuch der Stadt.
, I (Fribourg,
Leipzig, 1883), 605. On 17 Dec., 1219, Honorius III, with a view to a general
reform among the religious of the Eternal City, granted the monastery of the
Sisters of St. Sixtus of Rome to St. Dominic, and the Institutions of Prouille
were given to that monastery under the title of Institutions of the Sisters of
St. Sixtus of Rome. With this designation they were granted subsequently to
other monasteries and congregations of religious. It is also under this form
that we possess the primitive Institutions of Prouille, in the editions already
mentioned. St. Dominic and his companions, having received from Innocent III
authorization to choose a rule, with a view to the approbation of their order,
adopted in 1216, that of St. Augustine, and added thereto the Consuetudines
which regulated the ascetic and canonical life of the religious. These were
borrowed in great part from the Constitutions of Prémontré, but with some
essential features, adapted to the purposes of the new Preachers who also
renounced private possession of property, but retained the revenues. The
Consuetudines
formed the first part (prima distinctio) of the primitive
Constitutions of the order (Quétif-Echard, Scriptores Ord. Præd.
, L 12-13;
Denifle, Archiv. für Literatur und Kirchengeschichte
, I, 194; Balme, Cart.
,
II, 18). The order was solemnly approved, 22 Dec., 1216. A first letter, in the
style of those granted for the foundation of regular canons, gave the order
canonical existence; a second determined the special vocation of the Order of
Preachers as vowed to teaching and defending the truths of faith. Nos
attendentes fratres Ordinis tui futuros pugiles fidei et vera mundi lumina
confirmamus Ordinem tuum
(Balme, Cart.
II, 71-88; Potthast, 5402-5403).
(Expecting the brethren of your order to be the champions of the Faith and true
lights of the world, we confirm your order.)
On 15 Aug., 1217 St. Dominic sent out his companions from Prouille. They went
through France, Spain, and Italy, and established as principal centres, Toulouse,
Paris, Madrid, Rome, and Bologna. Dominic, by constant journeyings, kept watch
over these new establishments, and went to Rome to confer with the Sovereign
Pontiff (Balme, Cart.
II, 131; Annales Ord. Præd.
, Rome, 1756, p. 411;
Guiraud, St. Dominic
, Paris, 1899, p. 95). In May, 1220, St. Dominic held at
Bologna the first general chapter of the order. This assembly drew up the
Constitutions, which are complementary to the Consuetudines
of 1216 and form
the second part (secunda distinctio). They regulated the organization and life
of the order, and are the essential and original basis of the Dominican
legislation. In this chapter, the Preachers also gave up certain elements of the
canonical life; they relinquished all possessions and revenues, and adopted the
practice of strict poverty; they rejected the title of abbey for the convents,
and substituted the rochet of canons for the monastic scapular. The regime of
annual general chapters was established as the regulative power of the order,
and the source of legislative authority. (Script. Ord. Præd.
, I, 20; Denifle,
Archiv.
, I, 212; Balme, Cart.
, III, 575). Now that the legislation of the
Friars Preachers was fully established, the Rule of the Sisters of St. Sixtus
was found to be very incomplete. The order, however, supplied what was wanting
by compiling a few years after, the Statuta, which borrowed from the
Constitutions of the Friars, whatever might be useful in a monastery of Sisters.
We owe the preservation of these Statuta, as well as the Rule of St. Sixtus, to
the fact that this legislation was applied in 1232 to the Penitent Sisters of St.
Mary Magdalen in Germany, who observed it without further modification. The
Statuta are edited im Duellius, Misc.
, bk. I, 182. After the legislative work
of the general chapters had been added to the Constitution of 1216-20, without
changing the general ordinance of the primitive text, the necessity was felt, a
quarter of a century later, of giving a more logical distribution to the
legislation in its entirety. The great canonist Raymond of Penaforte, on
becoming master general of the order, devoted himself to this work. The general
chapters, from 1239 to 1241, accepted the new text, and gave it the force of law.
In this form it has remained to the present time as the official text, with some
modification, however, in the way of suppressions and especially of additions
due to later enactments of the general chapters. It was edited in Denifle,
Archiv.
, V, 553; Acta Capitulorum Generalium
, I (Rome, 1898), II, 13, 18, in
Monum. Ord. Præd. Hist.
, bk. III.
The reorganization of the Constitutions of the Preachers called for a
corresponding reform in the legislation of the Sisters. In his letter of 27 Aug.,
1257, Alexander IV ordered Humbert of Romans, the fifth master general, to unify
the Constitutions of the Sisters. Humbert remodelled them on the Constitutions
of the Brothers, and put them into effect at the General Chapter of Valenciennes,
1259. The Sisters were henceforth characterized as Sorores Ordinis Prdicatorum.
The Constitutions are edited in Analecta, Ord. Præd.
(Rome, 1897), 338; Finke,
Ungedruckte Dominicanerbriefe des 13 Jahrhunderts
(Paderborn, 1891), D. 53;
Litterae Encyclicae magistrorum generalium
(Rome, 1900), in Mon. Ord. Praed.
Hist.
, V, p. 513. To this legislation, the provincials of Germany, who had a
large number of religious convents under their care, added certain admonitiones
by way of completing and definitely settling the Constitutions of the Sisters.
They seem to be the work of Herman of Minden, Provincial of Teutonia (1286-90).
He drew up at first a concise admonition (Denifle, Archiv.
, II, 549); then
other series of admonitions, more important, which have not been edited (Rome,
Archives of the Order, Cod. Ruten, 130-139). The legislation of the Friars
Preachers is the firmest and most complete among the systems of law by which
institutions of this sort were ruled in the thirteenth century. Hauck is correct
in saying: We do not deceive ourselves in considering the organization of the
Dominican Order as the most perfect of all the monastic organizations produced
by the Middle Ages
(Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, part IV, Leipzig, 1902, p.
390). It is not then surprising that the majority of the religious orders of the
thirteenth century should have followed quite closely the Dominican legislation,
which exerted an influence even upon institutions very dissimilar in aim and
nature. The Church considered it the typical rule for new foundations. Alexander
IV thought of making the legislation of the Order of Preachers into a special
rule known as that of St. Dominic, and for that purpose commissioned the
Dominican cardinal, Hugh of St. Cher (3 Feb., 1255), but the project encountered
many obstacles, and nothing came of it. (Potthast, n. 1566; Humberti de Romanis,
Opera de vita regulari
, ed., Berthier, I, Rome, 1888, n. 43)
B. NATURE OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS
(1) Its Object
The canonical title of Order of Preachers
, given to the work of St. Dominic
by the Church, is in itself significant, but it indicates only the dominant
feature. The Constitutions are more explicit: Our order was instituted
principally for preaching and for the salvation of souls.
The end or aim of the
order then is the salvation of souls, especially by means of preaching. For the
attainment of this purpose, the order must labour with the utmost zeal - Our
main efforts should be put forth, earnestly and ardently, in doing good to the
souls of our fellow-men.
(2) Its Organization
The aim of the order and the conditions of its environment determined the form of its organization. The first organic group is the convent, which may not be founded with less than twelve religious. At first only large convents were allowed and these were located in important cities (Mon. Ger. Hist.: SS. XXXII, 233, 236), hence the saying:
Bernardus valles, montes Benedictus amabat,
Oppida Franciscus, celebres Dominicus urbes.
(Bernard loved the valleys, Benedict the mountains,
Francis the towns, Dominic the populous cities).
The foundation and the existence of the convent required a prior as governor,
and a doctor as teacher. The Constitution prescribes the dimensions of the
church and the convent buildings, and these should be quite plain. But in the
course of the thirteenth century the order erected large edifices, real works of
art. The convent possesses nothing and lives on alms. Outside of the choral
office (the Preachers at first had the title of canonici) their time is wholly
employed in study. The doctor gives lectures in theology, at which all the
religious, even the prior, must be present, and which are open to secular
clerics. The religious vow themselves to preaching, both within and without the
convent walls. The general preachers
have the most extended powers. At the
beginning of the order, the convent was called praedicatio, or sancta
praedicatio. The convents divided up the territory in which they were
established, and sent out on preaching tours religious who remained for a longer
or shorter time in the principal places of their respective districts. The
Preachers did not take the vow of stability, but could be sent from one locality
to another. Each convent received novices, these, according to the Constitutions,
must be at least eighteen years of age, but this rule was not strictly observed.
The Preachers were the first among religious orders to suppress manual labour,
the necessary work of the interior of the house being relegated to lay brothers
called conversi whose number was limited according to the needs of each convent.
The prior was elected by the religious and the doctor was appointed by the
provincial chapter. The chapter, when it saw fit, relieved them from office.
The grouping of a certain number of convents forms the province, which is
administered by a provincial prior, elected by the prior and two delegates from
each convent. He is confirmed by the general chapter, or by the master general,
who can also remove him when it is found expedient. He enjoys in his province
the same authority as the master general in the order; he confirms the election
of conventual priors, visits the province, sees to it that the Constitutions and
the ordinances are observed and presides at the provincial chapters. The
provincial chapter, which is held annually, discusses the interests of the
province. It is composed of a provincial prior, priors from the convents, a
delegate from each convent, and the general preachers. The capitulants (members
of the chapter), choose from among themselves, four counsellors or assistants,
who, with the provincial, regulate the affairs brought before the chapter. The
chapter appoints those who are to visit annually each part of the province. The
provinces taken together constitute the order, which has at its head a master
general, elected by the provincial priors and by two delegates from each
province. For a long time his position was for life; Pius VII (1804), reduced it
to six years, and Pius IX (1862) fixed it at twelve years. At first the master
general had no permanent residence; since the end of the fourteenth century, he
has lived usually at Rome. He visits the order, holds it to the observance of
the laws, and corrects abuses. In 1509, he was granted two associates (socii);
in 1752, four; in 1910, five. The general chapter is the supreme authority
within the order. From 1370, it was held every two years; from 1553, every three
years, from 1625, every six years. In the eighteenth and at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, chapters were rarely held. At present they take place every
three years. From 1228, for two years in succession, the general chapter was
composed of definitors or delegates from the provinces, each province sending
one delegate; the following year it was held by the provincial priors. The
chapter promulgates new constitutions, but to become law they must be accepted
by three constitutive chapters. The chapter deals with all the general concerns
of the order, whether administrative or disciplinary. It corrects the master
general, and in certain eases can depose him. From 1220 to 1244, the chapters
were held alternately at Bologna and Paris; subsequently, they passed round to
all the principal cities of Europe. The generalissimo chapter acknowledged by
the Constitution and composed of two definitors from each province, also of
provincials, i.e. equivalent to three consecutive general chapters, was held
only in 1228 and 1236. The characteristic feature of government is the elective
system which prevails throughout the order. Such was the simple mechanism which
imparted to the Order of Friars Preachers a powerful and regular movement, and
secured them for a long time a real preponderance in Church and in State
(Delisle, Notes et extraits des mss. de la Bibl. Nat.
, Paris, xxvii, 1899, 2nd
part, p. 312. See the editions of the Constitutions mentioned above: Const. Ord.
Fr. Præd.
, Paris, 1, 1888, Acta Capit. Gen. Ord. Fr. Præd.
, ed., Reichert,
Rome, 1898, sq. 9 vols.; Lo Cicero, Const., Declar. et Ord. Capit. Gen. O. P.
,
Rome, 1892; Humbert de Romanis, Opera de vita regulari
, ed. Berthier, Rome,
1888; Reichert, Feier und Geschäftsordung der Provincialkapitel des
Dominikanerordens im 13 Jahrhundert
in Römische Quart.
, 1903, p. 101).
(3) Forms of its Activity
The forms of life or activity of the Order of Preachers are many, but they
are all duly subordinated. The order assimilated the ancient forms of the
religious life, the monastic and the canonical, but it made them subservient to
the clerical and the apostolic life which are its peculiar and essential aims.
The Preachers adopted from the monastic life the three traditional vows of
obedience, chastity, and poverty; to them they added the ascetic element known
as monastic observances; perpetual abstinence, fasting from 14 Sept. until
Easter and on all the Fridays throughout the year the exclusive use of wool for
clothing and for the bed a hard bed, and a common dormitory, silence almost
perpetual in their houses, public acknowledgment of faults in the chapter, a
graded list of penitential practices, etc. The Preachers, however, did not take
these observances directly from the monastic orders but from the regular canons,
especially the reformed canons, who had already adopted monastic rules The
Preachers received from the regular canons the choral Office for morning and
evening, but chanted quickly. They added, on certain days, the Office of the
Holy Virgin, and once a week the Office of the Dead. The habit of the Preachers,
as of the regular canons, is a white tunic and a black cloak. The rochet,
distinctive of the regular canons, was abandoned by the Preachers at the General
Chapter of 1220, and replaced by the scapular. At the same time they gave up
various canonical customs, which they had retained up to that period. They
suppressed in their order the title of abbot for the head of the convent, and
rejected all property, revenues, the carrying of money on their travels, and the
use of horses. The title even of canon which they had borne from the beginning
tended to disappear about the middle of the thirteenth century, and the General
Chapters of 1240-1251 substituted the word clericus for canonicus in the article
of the Constitutions relating to the admission of novices; nevertheless the
designation, canon
still occurs in some parts of the Constitutions. The
Preachers, in fact, are primarily and essentially clerics. The pontifical letter
of foundation said: These are to be the champions of the Faith and the true
lights of the world.
This could apply only to clerics. The Preachers
consequently made study their chief occupation, which was the essential means,
with preaching and teaching as the end. The apostolic character of the order was
the complement of its clerical character. The Friars had to vow themselves to
the salvation of souls through the ministry of preaching and confession, under
the conditions set down by the Gospel and by the example of the Apostles: ardent
zeal, absolute poverty, and sanctity of life.
The ideal Dominican life was rich in the multiplicity and choice of its
elements, and was thoroughly unified by its well-considered principles and
enactments; but it was none the less complex, and it, full realization was
difficult. The monastic-canonical element tended to dull and paralyze the
intense activity demanded by a clerical-apostolic life. The legislators warded
off the difficulty by a system of dispensations, quite peculiar to the order. At
the head of the Constitutions the principle of dispensation appears jointly with
the very definition of the order's purpose, and is placed before the text of the
laws to show that it controls and tempers their application. The superior in
each convent shall have authority to grant dispensations whenever he may deem it
expedient, especially in regard to what may hinder study, or preaching, or the
profit of souls since our order was originally established for the work of
preaching and the salvation of souls
, etc. The system of dispensation thus
broadly understood while it favoured the most active element of the order,
displaced, but did not wholly eliminate, the difficulty. It created a sort of
dualism in the interior life, and permitted an arbitrariness that might easily
disquiet the conscience of the religious and of the superiors. The order warded
off this new difficulty by declaring in the generalissimo chapter of 1236, that
the Constitutions did not oblige under pain of sin, but under pain of doing
penance (Acta Cap. Gen. I, 8.) This measure, however, was not heartily welcomed
by everyone in the order (Humbert de Romanis, Op., II, 46), nevertheless it
stood.
This dualism produced on one side, remarkable apostles and doctors, on the
other, stern ascetics and great mystics. At all events the interior troubles of
the order grew out of the difficulty of maintaining the nice equilibrium which
the first legislators established, and which was preserved to a remarkable
degree during the first century of the order's existence. The logic of things
and historical circumstances frequently disturbed this equilibrium. The learned
and active members tended to exempt themselves from monastic observance, or to
moderate its strictness; the ascetic members insisted on the monastic life, and
in pursuance of their aim, suppressed at different times the practice of
dispensation, sanctioned as it was by the letter and the spirit of the
Constitutions [Cons
. Ord. Praed., passim;. Denifle, Die Const. des
Predigerordens
in Archiv. f. Litt. u. Kirchengesch.
, I, 165; Mandonnet, Les
Chanoines - Prêcheurs de Bologne d'après Jacques de Vitry
in Archives de la
société d'histoire du canton de Fribourg
, bk. VIII, 15; Lacordaire, Mémoire
pour la restauration des Frères Prêcheurs dans la Chrétienté
, Paris, 1852; P.
Jacob, Memoires sur la canonicité de l'institut de St. Dominic
, Béziers, 1750,
tr. into Italian under the title; Difesa del canonicato dei FF. Predicatori
,
Venice, 1758; Laberthoni, Exposé de l'état, du régime, de la legislation et des
obligations des Frères Prêcheurs
, Versailles, 1767 (new ed., 1872)].
(4) Nature of the Order of the Dominican Sisters
We have indicated above the various steps by which the legislation of the Dominican Sisters was brought into conformity with the Constitutions of Humbert of Romans (1259). The primitive type of religious established at Prouille in 1205 by St. Dominic was not affected by successive legislation. The Dominican Sisters are strictly cloistered in their monasteries; they take the three religious vows, recite the canonical Hours im choir and engage in manual labor. The eruditio litterarum inscribed in the Institutions of St. Sixtus disappeared from the Constitutions drawn up by Humbert of Romans. The ascetic life of the Sisters is the same as that of the Friars. Each house is governed by a prioress, elected canonically, and assisted by a sub-prioress, a mistress of novices, and various other officers. The monasteries have the right to hold property in common; they must be provided with an income sufficient for the existence of the community; they are independent and are under the jurisdiction of the provincial prior, the master general, and of the general chapter. A subsequent paragraph will deal with the various phases of the question as to the relation existing between the Sisters and the Order of Preachers. Whilst the Institutions of St. Sixtus provided a group of brothers, priests, and lay servants for the spiritual and temporal administration of the monastery, the Constitutions of Humbert of Romans were silent on these points. (See the legislative texts relating to the Sisters mentioned above.)
(5) The Third Order
St. Dominic did not write a rule for the Tertiaries, for reasons which are given further on in the historical sketch of the Third Order. However, a large body of the laity, vowed to piety, grouped themselves about the rising Order of Preachers, and constituted, to all intents and purposes, a Third Order. In view of this fact and of some circumstances to be noted later on, the seventh master general of the order, Munio de Zamora, wrote (1285) a rule for the Brothers and Sisters of Penitence of St. Dominic. The privilege granted the new fraternity 28 Jan., 1286, by Honorius IV, gave it a canonical existence (Potthast, 22358). The rule of Munio was not entirely original; some points being borrowed from the Rule of the Brothers of Penitence, whose origin dates back to St. Francis of Assisi; but it was distinctive on all essential points. It is in a sense more thoroughly ecclesiastical; the Brothers and Sisters are grouped in different fraternities; their government is immediately subject to ecclesiastical authority; and the various fraternities do not form a collective whole, with legislative chapters, as was the case among the Brothers of Penitence of St. Francis. The Dominican fraternities are local and without any bond of union other than that of the Preaching Brothers who govern them. Some characteristics of these fraternities may be gathered from the Rule of Munio de Zamora. The Brothers and Sisters, as true children of St. Dominic, should be, above all things, truly zealous for the Catholic Faith. Their habit is a white tunic, with black cloak and hood, and a leathern girdle. After making profession, they cannot return to the world, but may enter other authorized religious orders. They recited a certain number of Paters and Aves, for the canonical Hours; receive communion at least four times a year, and must show great respect to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. They fast during Advent, Lent, and on all the Fridays during the year, and eat meat only three days in the week, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. They are allowed to carry arms only in defense of the Christian Faith. They visit sick members of the community, give them assistance if necessary, attend the burial of Brothers or Sisters and aid them with their prayers. The head or spiritual director is a priest of the Order of Preachers, whom the Tertiaries select and propose to the master general or to the provincial; he may act on their petition or appoint some other religious. The director and the older members of the fraternity choose the prior or prioress, from among the Brothers and Sisters, and their office continues until they are relieved. The Brothers and the Sisters have, on different days, a monthly reunion in the church of the Preachers, when they attend Mass, listen to an instruction, and to an explanation of the rule. The prior and the director can grant dispensations; the rule, like the Constitutions of the Preachers, does not oblige under pain of sin.
The text of the Rule of the Brothers of the Penitence of St. Dominic is in
Regula S. Augustini et Constitutiones FF. Ord. Praed.
(Rome, 1690), 2nd pt. p.
39; Federici, Istoria dei cavalieri Gaudent
(Venice, 1787), bk. II, cod.
diplomat., p. 28; Mandonnet, Les règles et le gouvernement de l'Ordo de
Poenitentia au XIIIe siècle
(Paris, 1902); Mortier, Histoire des Maîtres
Généraux des Frères Prêcheurs
, II (Paris, 1903), 220.
II. HISTORY OF THE ORDER
A. THE FRIARS PREACHERS
Their history may be divided into three periods: (1) The Middle Ages (from their foundation to the beginning of the sixteenth century); (2) The Modern Period up to the French Revolution; (3) The Contemporaneous Period. In each of these periods we shall examine the work of the order in its various departments.
(1) The Middle Ages
The thirteenth century is the classic age of the order, the witness to its brilliant development and intense activity. This last is manifested especially in the work of teaching. By preaching it reached all classes of Christian society, fought heresy, schism, paganism, by word and book, and by its missions to the north of Europe, to Africa, and Asia, passed beyond the frontiers of Christendom. Its schools spread throughout the entire Church its doctors wrote monumental works in all branches of knowledge and two among them, Albertus Magnus, and especially Thomas Aquinas, founded a school of philosophy and theology which was to rule the ages to come in the life of the Church. An enormous number of its members held offices in Church and State - as popes, cardinals, bishops, legates, inquisitors, confessors of princes, ambassadors, and paciarii (enforcers of the peace decreed by popes or councils). The Order of Preachers, which should have remained a select body, developed beyond bounds and absorbed some elements unfitted to its form of life. A period of relaxation ensued during the fourteenth century owing to the general decline of Christian society. The weakening of doctrinal activity favoured the development here and there of the ascetic and contemplative life and there sprang up, especially in Germany and Italy, an intense and exuberant mysticism with which the names of Master Eckhart, Suso, Tauler, St. Catherine of Siena are associated. This movement was the prelude to the reforms undertaken, at the end of the century, by Raymond of Capua, and continued in the following century. It assumed remarkable proportions in the congregations of Lombardy and of Holland, and in the reforms of Savonarola at Florence. At the same time the order found itself face to face with the Renaissance. It struggled against pagan tendencies in Humanism, in Italy through Dominici and Savonarola, in Germany through the theologians of Cologne but it also furnished Humanism with such advanced writers as Francis Colonna (Poliphile) and Matthew Brandello. Its members, in great numbers, took part im the artistic activity of the age, the most prominent being Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolomeo.
(a) Development and Statistics
When St. Dominic, in 1216, asked for the official recognition of his order,
the first Preachers numbered only sixteen. At the general Chapter of Bologna,
1221, the year of St. Dominic's death, the order already counted some sixty
establishments, and was divided into eight provinces: Spain, Provence, France,
Lombardy, Rome, Teutonia, England, and Hungary. The Chapter of 1228 added four
new provinces: the Holy Land, Greece, Poland, and Dacia (Denmark and
Scandinavia). Sicily was separated from Rome (1294), Aragon from Spain (1301).
In 1303 Lombardy was divided into Upper and Lower Lombardy; Provence into
Toulouse and Provence; Saxony was separated from Teutonia, and Bohemia from
Poland, thus forming eighteen provinces. The order, which in 1277 counted 404
convents of Brothers, in 1303 numbered nearly 600. The development of the order
reached its height during the Middle Ages; new houses were established during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but in relatively small numbers As to
the number of religious only approximate statements can be given. In 1256,
according to the concession of suffrages granted by Humbert of Romans to St.
Louis, the order numbered about 5000 priests; the clerks and lay brothers could
not have been less than 2000. Thus towards the middle of the thirteenth century
it must have had about 7000 members (de Laborde, Layette du trésor des chartes
,
Paris 1875, III, 304). According to Sebastien de Olmeda, the Preachers, as shown
by the census taken under Benedict XII, were close on to 12,000 in 1337.
(Fontana, Monumenta Dominicana
, Rome, 1674, pp. 207-8). This number was not
surpassed at the close of the Middle Ages; the Great Plague of 1348, and the
general state of Europe preventing a notable increase, The reform movement begun
in 1390 by Raymond of Capua established the principle of a twofold arrangement
in the order. For a long time it is true, the reformed convents were not
separate from their respective provinces; but with the foundation of the
congregation of Lombardy, in 1459, a new order of things began. The
congregations were more or less self-governing, and, according as they developed,
overlapped several provinces and even several nations. There were established
successively the congregations of Portugal (1460), Holland (1464), Aragon, and
Spain (1468), St. Mark in Florence (1493), France (1497), the Gallican (1514).
About the same time some new provinces were also established: Scotland (1481),
Ireland (1484), Bétique or Andalusia (1514), Lower Germany (1515).
(Quétif-Echard, Script. Ord. Praed.
, I, p. 1-15; Anal. Ord. Praed.
, 1893,
passim; Mortier, Hist. des Maîtres Généraux
, I-V, passim).
(b) Administration
The Preachers possessed a number of able administrators among their masters
general during the Middle Ages, especially in the thirteenth century. St.
Dominic, the creator of the institution (1206-1221), showed a keen intelligence
of the needs of the age. He executed his plans with sureness of insight,
firmness of resolution, and tenacity of purpose. Jordan of Saxony (1222-1237)
sensitive, eloquent, and endowed with rare powers of persuasion, attracted
numerous and valuable recruits. St. Raymond of Penaforte (1238-1240), the
greatest canonist of the age, ruled the order only long enough to reorganize its
legislation. John the Teuton (1241-1252), bishop and linguist, who was
associated with the greatest personalities of his time pushed the order forward
along the line of development outlined by its founder. Humbert of Romans
(1254-1263), a genius of the practical sort, a broad-minded and moderate man,
raised the order to the height of its glory, and wrote manifold works, setting
forth what, in his eyes, the Preachers and Christian society ought to be. John
of Vercelli (1264-1283), an energetic and prudent man, during his long
government maintained the order in all its vigor. The successors of these
illustrious masters did their utmost in the discharge of their duty, and in
meeting the situations which the state of the Church and of society from the
close of the thirteenth century rendered more and more difficult. Some of them
did no more than hold their high office, while others had not the genius of the
masters general of the golden age [Balme-Lelaidier, Cart. de St. Dominic
;
Guiraud, St. Dominic
(Paris, 1899); Mothon, Vie du B. Jourdain de Saxe
(Paris, 1885); Reichert, Des Itinerar des zweiten Dominikaner-generals Jordanis
von Sachsen
in Festschrift des Deutschen Campo Santo in Rom
(Freiburg, 1897)
153; Mothon, Vita del B. Giovanini da Vecellio
(Vecellio 1903); Mortier,
Histoire des Maîtres Généraux
, I-V]. The general chapters which wielded
supreme power were the great regulators of the Dominican life during the Middle
Ages. They are usually remarkable for their spirit of decision, and the firmness
with which they ruled. They appeared even imbued with a severe character which,
taking no account of persons, bore witness to the importance they attached to
the maintenance of discipline. (See the Acta Cap. Gen. already referred to.)
(c) Modification of the Statute
We have already spoken of the chief exception to be taken to the Constitution
of the order, the difficulty of maintaining an even balance between the monastic
and canonical observances and the clerical and apostolical life. The primitive
régime of poverty, which left the convents without an assured income, created
also a permanent difficulty. Time and the modifications of the state of
Christian society exposed these weak points. Already the General Chapters of
1240-1242 forbade the changing of the general statutes of the order, a measure
which would indicate at least a hidden tendency towards modification (Acta, I, p.
14-20). Some change seems to have been contemplated also by the Holy See when
Alexander IV, 4 February, 1255, ordered the Dominican cardinal, Hugh of Saint
Cher, to recast the entire legislation of the Preachers into a rule which should
be called the Rule of St. Dominic (Potthast, 156-69). Nothing came of the
project, and the question was broached again about 1270 (Humbert de Romanis,
Opera
, I, p. 43). It was during the pontificate of Benedict XII, (1334-1342),
who undertook a general reform of the religious orders, that the Preachers were
on the point of undergoing serious modifications in the secondary elements of
their primitive statute. Benedict, desiring to give the order greater efficiency,
sought to impose a régime of property-holding as necessary to its security and
to reduce the number of its members (12,000) by eliminating the unfit etc.; in a
word, to lead the order back to its primitive concept of a select apostolic and
teaching body. The order, ruled at that time by Hugh de Vansseman (1333-41),
resisted with all its strength (1337-40). This was a mistake (Mortier, op. cit.,
III, 115). As the situation grew worse, the order was obliged to petition Sixtus
IV for the right to hold property, and this was granted 1 June, 1475. Thence
forward the convents could acquire property, and perpetual rentals (Mortier, IV,
p. 495). This was one of the causes which quickened the vitality of the order in
the sixteenth century.
The reform projects of Benedict XII having failed, the master general,
Raymond of Capua (1390) sought to restore the monastic observances which had
fallen into decline. He ordered the establishment in each province of a convent
of strict observance, hoping that as such houses became more numerous, the
reform would eventually permeate the entire province. This was not usually the
case. These houses of the observance formed a confederation among themselves
under the jurisdiction of a special vicar. However, they did not cease to belong
to their original province in certain respects, and this, naturally gave rise to
numerous conflicts of government. During the fifteenth century, several groups
made up congregations, more or less autonomous; these we have named above in
giving the statistics of the order. The scheme of reform proposed by Raymond and
adopted by nearly all who subsequently took up with his ideas, insisted on the
observance of the Constitutions ad unguem, as Raymond, without further
explanation, expressed it. By this, his followers, and, perhaps Raymond himself,
understood the suppression of the rule of dispensation which governed the entire
Dominican legislation. In suppressing the power to grant and the right to
accept dispensation, the reformers inverted the economy of the order, setting the
part above the whole, and the means above the end
(Lacordaire, Mémoire pour la
restauration des Frères L Prêcheurs dans la chrétienité
, new ed., Dijon, 1852,
p. 18). The different reforms which originated within the order up to the
nineteenth century, began usually with principles of asceticism, which exceeded
the letter and the spirit of the original constitutions. This initial
exaggeration was, under pressure of circumstances, toned down, and the reforms
which endured, like that of the congregation of Lombardy, turned out to be the
most effectual. Generally speaking, the reformed communities slackened the
intense devotion to study prescribed by the Constitutions; they did not produce
the great doctors of the order, and their literary activity was directed
preferably to moral theology, history, subjects of piety, and asceticism. They
gave to the fifteenth century many holy men (Thomae Antonii Senesis, Historia
disciplinæ regularis instaurata in Cnobiis Venetis Ord. Præd.
in Fl. Cornelius,
Ecclesiæ Venetæ
, VII, 1749, p. 167; Bl. Raymond of Capua, Opuscula et
Litterae
, Rome, 1899; Meyer, Buch der Reformacio Predigerordens
in Quellen
und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Dominikanerordens in Deutschland
, II, III,
Leipzig 1908-9; Mortier, Hist. des Maîtres Généraux
, III, IV).
(d) Preaching and Teaching
Independently of their official title of Order of Preachers, the Roman Church
especially delegated the Preachers to the office of preaching. It is in fact the
only order of the Middle Ages which the popes declared to be specially charged
with this office (Bull. Ord. Præd., VIII, p. 768). Conformably to its mission,
the order displayed an enormous activity. The Vitæ Fratrum
(1260) (Lives of
the Brothers) informs us that many of the brothers refused food until they had
first announced the Word of God (op. cit., p. 150). In his circular letter
(1260), the Master General Humbert of Romans, in view of what had been
accomplished by his religious, could well make the statement: We teach the
people, we teach the prelates, we teach the wise and the unwise, religious and
seculars, clerics and laymen, nobles and peasants, lowly and great.
(Monum. Ord.
Præd. Historia, V, p. 53). Rightly, too, it has been said: Science on one hand,
numbers on the other, placed them [the Preachers] ahead of their competitors in
the thirteenth century
(Lecoy de la Marche,
La chaire française au Moyen Age
,
Paris, 1886, p. 31). The order maintained this supremacy during the entire
Middle Ages (L. Pfleger, Zur Geschichte des Predigtwesens in Strasburg
,
Strasburg, 1907, p. 26; F. Jostes, Zur Geschichte der Mittelalterlichen Predigt
in Westfalen
, Münster, 1885, p. 10). During the thirteenth century, the
Preachers in addition to their regular apostolate, worked especially to lead
back to the Church heretics and renegade Catholics. An eyewitness of their
labours (1233) reckons the number of their converts in Lombardy at more than
100,000 (Annales Ord. Præd.
, Rome, 1756, col. 128). This movement grew rapidly,
and the witnesses could scarcely believe their eyes, as Humbert of Romans (1255)
informs us (Opera, II, p. 493). At the beginning of the fourteenth century, a
celebrated pulpit orator, Giordano da Rivalto, declared that, owing to the
activity of the order, heresy had almost entirely disappeared from the Church
(Prediche del Beato Fra Giordano da Rivalto
, Florence, 1831, I, p. 239).
The Friars Preachers were especially authorized by the Roman Church to preach
crusades, against the Saracens in favour of the Holy Land, against Livonia and
Prussia, and against Frederick II, and his successors (Bull. O. P., XIII, p.
637). This preaching assumed such importance that Humbert of Romans composed for
the purpose a treatise entitled, Tractatus de prædicatione contra Saracenos
infideles et paganos
(Tract on the preaching of the Cross against the Saracens,
infidels and pagans). This still exists in its first edition in the Paris
Bibliothèque Mazarine, incunabula no. 259; Lecoy de la Marche, La prédication
de la Croisade au XIIIe siècle
in Rev. des questions historiques
, 1890, p. 5).
In certain provinces, particularly in Germany and Italy, the Dominican preaching
took on a peculiar quality, due to the influence of the spiritual direction
which the religious of these provinces gave to the numerous convents of women
confided to their care. It was a mystical preaching; the specimens which have
survived are in the vernacular, and are marked by simplicity and strength
(Denifle, Über die Anfänge der Predigtweise der deutschen Mystiker
in Archiv.
f. Litt. u. Kirchengesch
, II, p. 641; Pfeiffer, Deutsche Mystiker des
vierzehnten Jahrhundert
, Leipzig, 1845; Wackernagel, Altdeutsche Predigten und
Gebete aus Handschriften
, Basle, 1876). Among these preachers may be mentioned:
St. Dominic, the founder and model of preachers (d. 1221); Jordan of Saxony (d.
1237) (Lives of the Brothers, pts. II, III); Giovanni di Vincenza, whose popular
eloquence stirred Northern Italy during the year 1233 - called the Age of the
Alleluia (Sitter, Johann von Vincenza und die Italiensche Friedensbewegung
,
Freiburg, 1891); Giordano da Rivalto, the foremost pulpit orator in Tuscany at
the beginning of the fourteenth century [d. 1311 (Galletti, Fra Giordano da
Pisa
, Turin, 1899)]; Johann Eckhart of Hochheim (d. 1327), the celebrated
theorist of the mystical life (Pfeiffer, Deutsche Mystiker
, II, 1857; Buttner,
Meister Eckharts Schriften und Predigten
, Leipzig, 1903); Henri Suso (d. 1366),
the poetical lover of Divine wisdom (Bihlmeyer, Heinrich Seuse Deutsche
Schriften
, Stuttgart, 1907); Johann Tauler (d. 1361), the eloquent moralist
(Johanns Taulers Predigten
ed. T. Harnberger, Frankfort, 1864); Venturino la
Bergamo (d. 1345), the fiery popular agitator (Clementi, Un Santo Patriota, Il
B. Venturino da Bergamo
, Rome, 1909); Jacopo Passavanti (d. 1357), the noted
author of the Mirror of Penitence
(Carmini di Pierro, Contributo alla
Biografia di Fra Jacopo Passavanti
in Giornale storico della letteratura
italiana
, XLVII, 1906 p. 1); Giovanni Dominici (d. 1419), the beloved orator of
the Florentines (Gallette, Una Raccolta di Prediche volgari del Cardinale
Giovanni Dominici
in Miscellanea di studi critici publicati in onore di G.
Mazzoni
, Florence, 1907, I); Alain de la Rochei (d. 1475), the Apostle of the
Rosary (Script. Ord. Præd., I, p. 849); Savonarola (d. 1498), one of the most
powerful orators of all times (Luotto, II vero Savonarola
, Florence, p. 68).
(e) Academic Organization
The first order instituted by the Church with an academic mission was the
Preachers. The decree of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) requiring the
appointment of a master of theology for each cathedral school had not been
effectual. The Roman Church and St. Dominic met the needs of the situation by
creating a religious order vowed to the teaching of the sacred sciences. To
attain their purpose, the Preachers from 1220 laid down as a fundamental
principle, that no convent of their order could be founded without a doctor
(Const., Dist. II, cog. I). From their first foundation, the bishops, likewise,
welcomed them with expressions like those of the Bishop of Metz (22 April, 1221):
Cohabitatio ipsorum non tantum laicis in praedicationibus, sed et clericis in
sacris lectionibus esset plurimum profutura, exemplo Domini Papæ, qui eis Romæ
domum contulit, et multorum archiepiscoporum ac episcoporum
etc. (Annales Ord.
Præd. I, append., col. 71). (Association with them would be of great value not
only to laymen by their preaching, but also to the clergy by their lectures on
sacred science, as it was to the Lord Pope who gave them their house at Rome,
and to many archbishops and bishops.) This is the reason why the second master
general, Jordan of Saxony, defined the vocation of the order: honeste vivere,
discere et docere
, i.e. upright living, learning and teaching (Vitæ Fratrum, p.
138); and one of his successors, John the Teuton, declared that he was ex
ordine Praedicatorum, quorum proprium esset docendi munus
(Annales, p. 644).
(Of the Order of Preachers whose proper function was to teach.) In pursuit of
this aim the Preachers established a very complete and thoroughly organized
scholastic system, which has caused a writer of our own times to say that
Dominic was the first minister of public instruction in modern Europe
(Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire; Universel du XIXe Siècle
, s. v. Dominic).
The general basis of teaching was the conventual school. It was attended by
the religious of the convent, and by clerics from the outside; the teaching was
public. The school was directed by a doctor, called later, though not in all
cases, rector. His principal subject was the text of Holy Scripture, which he
interpreted, and in connection with which he treated theological questions. The
Sentences
of Peter Lombard, the History
of Peter Comestor, the Sum
of
cases of conscience, were also, but secondarily, used as texts. In the large
convents, which were not called studia generalia, but were in the language of
the times studia solemnia, the teaching staff was more complete. There was a
second master or sub-rector, or a bachelor, whose duty it was to lecture on the
Bible and the Sentences
. This organization somewhat resembled that of the
studia generalia. The head master held public disputations every fortnight. Each
convent possessed a magister studentium, charged with the superintendence of the
students, and usually an assistant teacher. These masters were appointed by the
provincial chapters, and the visitors were obliged to report each year to the
chapter on the condition of academic work. Above the conventual schools were the
studia generalia. The first studium generale which the order possessed was that
of the Convent of St. Jacques at Paris. In 1229 they obtained a chair
incorporated with the university and another in 1231. Thus the Preachers were
the first religious order that took part in teaching at the University of Paris,
and the only one possessing two schools. In the thirteenth century the order did
not recognize any mastership of theology other than that received at Paris.
Usually the masters did not teach for any length of time. After receiving their
degrees, they were assigned to different schools of the order throughout the
world. The schools of St. Jacques at Paris were the principal scholastic centres
of the Preachers during the Middle Ages.
In 1248 the development of the order led to the erection of four new studia
generalia - at Oxford, Cologne, Montpellier, and Bologna. When at the end of the
thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century several provinces of the
order were divided, other studia were established at Naples, Florence, Genoa,
Toulouse, Barcelona, and Salamanca. The studium generale was conducted by a
master or regent, and two bachelors who taught under his direction. The master
taught the text of the Holy Scriptures with commentaries. The works of Albert
the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas show us the nature of these lessons. Every
fifteen days the master held a debate upon a theme chosen by himself. To this
class of exercises belong the Quæstiones Disputatæ
of St. Thomas, while his
Quaestiones Quodlibeticae
represent extraordinary disputations which took
place twice a year during Advent and Lent and whose subject was proposed by the
auditors. One of the bachelors read and commentated the Book of Sentences. The
commentaries of Albert and Thomas Aquinas on the Lombard are the fruit of their
two-year baccalaureate course as sententiarii. The biblicus lectured on the
Scriptures for one year before becoming a sententiarius. He did not commentate,
but read and interpreted the glosses which preceding ages had added to the
Scriptures for better understanding of the text. The professors of the studia
generalia were appointed by the general chapters, or by the master general,
delegated for the purpose. Those who were to teach at Paris were taken
indiscriminately from the different provinces of the order.
The conventual schools taught only the sacred sciences, i.e. Holy Scripture
and theology. At the beginning of the thirteenth century neither priest nor
religious studied or taught the profane sciences As it could not set itself
against this general status the order provided in its constitutions, that the
master general, or the general chapter, might allow certain religious to take up
the study of the liberal arts Thus, at first, the study of the arts, i.e. of
philosophy was entirely individual. As numerous masters of arts entered the
order during the early years, especially at Paris and Bologna, it was easy to
make a stand against this private teaching. However, the development of the
order and the rapid intellectual progress of the thirteenth century soon caused
the organization - for the use of religious only - of regular schools for the
study of the liberal arts. Towards the middle of the century the provinces
established in one or more of their convents the study of logic; and about 1260
the studia naturalium, i.e. courses in natural science. The General Chapter of
1315 commended the masters of the students to lecture on the moral sciences to
all the religious of their convents; i.e. on the ethics, politics, and economics
of Aristotle. From the beginning of the fourteenth century we find also some
religious who gave special courses in philosophy to secular students. In the
fifteenth century the Preachers occupied in several universities chairs of
philosophy, especially of metaphysics. Coming in contact as it did with barbaric
peoples - principally with the Greeks and Arabs - the order was compelled from
the outset to take up the study of foreign languages. The Chapter Generalissimo
of 1236 ordered that in all convents and in all the provinces the religious
should learn the languages of the neighbouring countries. The following year
Brother Phillippe, Provincial of the Holy Land, wrote to Gregory IX that his
religious had preached to the people in the different languages of the Orient,
especially in Arabic, the most popular tongue, and that the study of languages
had been added to their conventual course. The province of Greece furnished
several Hellenists whose works we shall mention later. The province of Spain,
whose population was a mixture of Jews and Arabs, opened special schools for the
study of languages. About the middle of the thirteenth century it also
established a studium arabicum at Tunis; in 1259 one at Barcelona; between 1265
and 1270 one at Murcia; in 1281 one at Valencia. The same province also
established some schools for the study of Hebrew at Barcelona in 1281, and at
Jativa in 1291. Finally, the General Chapters of 1310 commanded the master
general to establish, in several provinces, schools for the study of Hebrew,
Greek, and Arabic, to which each province of the order should send at least one
student. In view of this fact a Protestant historian, Molmier, in writing of the
Friars Preachers, remarks: They were not content with professing in their
convents all the divisions of science, as it was then understood; they added an
entire order of studies which no other Christian schools of the time seem to
have taught, and in which they had no other rivals than the rabbis of Languedoc
and Spain
(Guillem Bernard de Gaillac et l'enseignement chez les Dominicains
,
Paris, 1884, p. 30).
This scholastic activity extended to other fields, particularly to the universities which were established throughout Europe from the beginning of the thirteenth century; the Preachers took a prominent part in university life. Those universities, like Paris, Toulouse etc., which from the beginning had chairs of theology, incorporated the Dominican conventual school which was patterned on the schools of the studia generalia. When a university was established as in a city - as was usually the case - after the foundation of a Dominican convent which always possessed a chair of theology, the pontifical letters granting the establishment of the university made no mention whatever of a faculty of theology. The latter was considered as already existing by reason of the Dominican school and others of the mendicant orders, who followed the example of the Preachers. For a time in the Dominican theological schools were simply in juxtaposition to the universities, which had no faculty of theology. When these universities petitioned the Holy See for a faculty of theology, and their petition was granted, they usually incorporated the Dominican school, which thus became a part of the theological faculty. This transformation began towards the close of the fourteenth and lasted until the first years of the sixteenth century. Once established, this state of things lasted until the Reformation in the countries which became Protestant, and until the French Revolution and its spread in the Latin countries.
The archbishops, who according to the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council
(1215) were to establish each metropolitan church a master of theology,
considered themselves dispensed from this obligation by reason of the creation
of Dominican schools open to the secular clergy. However, when they thought it
their duty to apply the decree of the council, or when later they were obliged
by the Roman Church to do so, they frequently called in a Dominican master to
fill the chair of their metropolitan school. Thus the metropolitan school of
Lyons was entrusted to the Preachers, from their establishment in that city
until the beginning of the sixteenth century (Forest, L'école cathédrale de
Lyon
, Paris-Lyons, 1885, pp. 238, 368; Beyssac, Les Prieurs de Notre Dame de
Confort
, Lyons, 1909; Chart. Univer. Paris
, III, p. 28). The same arrangement,
though not so permanent, was made at Toulouse, Bordeaux, Tortosa, Valencia,
Urgel, Milan etc. The popes, who believed themselves morally obligated to set an
example regarding the execution of the scholastic decree of the Lateran Council,
usually contented themselves during the thirteenth century with the
establishment of schools at Rome by the Dominicans and other religious orders.
The Dominican masters who taught at Rome or in other cities where the sovereign
pontiffs took up their residence, were known as lectores curiae. However, when
the popes, once settled at Avignon, began to require from the archbishops the
execution of the decree of Lateran, they instituted a theological school in
their own papal palace; the initiative was taken by Clement V (1305-1314). At
the request of the Dominican, Cardinal Nicolas Alberti de Prato (d. 1321), this
work was permanently entrusted to a Preacher, bearing the name of Magister Sacri
Palatii. The first to hold the position was Pierre Godin, who later became
cardinal (1312). The office of Master of the Sacred Palace, whose functions were
successively increased, remains to the present day the special privilege of the
Order of Preachers (Catalani, De Magistro Sacri Palatii Apostolici
, Rome, p.
175).
Finally, when towards the middle of the thirteenth century the old monastic
orders began to take up the scholastic and doctrinal movement, the Cistercians,
in particular, applied to the Preachers for masters of theology in their abbeys
(Chart. Univ Paris
, I, p. 184). During the last portion of the Middle Ages,
the Dominicans furnished, at intervals, professors to the different orders, not
themselves consecrated to study (Denifle, Quellen zur Gelehrtengeschichte des
Predigerordens im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert
in Archiv.
II, p.165; Mandonnet,
Les Chanoines Prêcheurs de Bologne
Fribourg 1903; Douais, Essai sur
l'organisation des études dans l'Ordre des Frères-Prêcheurs
, Paris: 1884;
Mandonnet, De l'incorporation des Dominicains dans l'ancienne Université de
Paris
in Revue Thomiste
, IV 1896, p. 139; Denifle, Die Universitäten des
Mittelalters
, Berlin, 1885; I, passim; Denifle-Chatelain, Chart. Univ., Paris
1889, passim; Bernard, Les Dominicains dans l'Université de Paris
, Paris, 183;
Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'averroisme Latin au XIIIe siècle
, Louvain,
1911, I, n. 30-95). The legislation regarding studies occurs here and there in
the constitutions, and principally in the Acta Capitularium Generalium', Rome,
1898, sq. and Douais,
Acta Capitulorum Provincialium
(Toulouse, 1894).
The teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organization placed the
Preachers in the forefront of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages. They
were the pioneers in all directions as one may see from a subsequent paragraph
relative to their literary productions. We speak only of the school of
philosophy and of theology created by them in the thirteenth century which has
been the most influential in the history of the Church. At the beginning of the
thirteenth century philosophical teaching was confined practically to the logic
of Aristotle and theology, and was under the influence of St. Augustine; hence
the name Augustinism generally given to the theological doctrines of that age.
The first Dominican doctors, who came from the universities into the order, or
who taught in the universities, adhered for a long time to the Augustinian
doctrine. Among the most celebrated were Roland of Cremona, Hugh of Saint Cher,
Richard Fitzacre, Moneta of Cremona, Peter of Tarentaise, and Robert of
Kilwardby. It was the introduction into the Latin world of the great works of
Aristotle, and their assimilation, through the action of Albertus Magnus, that
opened up in the Order of Preachers a new line of philosophical and theological
investigation. The work begun by Albertus Magnus (1240-1250) was carried to
completion by his disciple, Thomas Aquinas (q. v.), whose teaching activity
occupied the last twenty years of his life (1245-1274). The system of theology
and philosophy constructed by Aquinas is the most complete, the most original,
and the most profound, which Christian thought has elaborated, and the master
who designed it surpasses all his contemporaries and his successors in the
grandeur of his creative genius. The Thomist School developed rapidly both
within the order and without. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed
the struggles of the Thomist School on various points of doctrine. The Council
of Vienne (1311) declared in favour of the Thomistic teaching, according to
which there is but one form in the human composition, and condemned as heretical
any one who should deny that the rational or intellective soul is per se and
essentially the form of the human body
. This is also the teaching of the Fifth
Lateran Council (1515). See Zigliara, De Mente Concilii Viennensis
, Rome, 1878,
pp. 88-89.
The discussions between the Preachers and the Friars on the poverty of Christ
and the Apostles was also settled by John XXII in the Thomistic sense [(12 Nov.,
1323), Ehrle, Archiv. f. Litt. u Kirchengesch.
, III, p. 517; Tocco, La
Questione della povertà nel Secolo XIV
, Naples, 1910]. The question regarding
the Divinity of the Blood of Christ separated from His Body during His Passion,
raised for the first time in 1351, at Barcelona, and taken up again in Italy in
1463, was the subject of a formal debate before Pius II. The Dominican opinion
prevailed; although the pope refused a sentence properly so called (Mortier,
Hist. des Maîtres Généraux
, III, p. 287, IV, p. 413; G. degli Agostini,
Notizie istorico-critiche intorno la vita e le opere degli scrittori Viniziani
,
Venice, 1752, I, p. 401. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
Thomist School had to make a stand against Nominalism, of which a Preacher had
been one of the protagonists. The repeated sentences of the universities and of
princes slowly combatted this doctrine (De Wulf, Histoire de la philosophic
médiévale
, Louvain-Paris, 1905, p. 453).
The Averroism against which Albert the Great and especially Aquinas had
fought so energetically did not disappear entirely with the condemnation of
Paris (1277), but survived under a more or less attenuated form. At the
beginning of the sixteenth century the debates were renewed, and the Preachers
found themselves actively engaged therein in Italy where the Averroist doctrine
had reappeared. The General of the Dominicans, Thomas de Vio (Cajetan) had
published his commentaries on the De Anima
of Aristotle (Florence, 1509), in
which, abandoning the position of St. Thomas, he contended that Aristotle had
not taught the individual immortality of the soul, but affirming at the same
time that this doctrine was philosophically erroneous. The Council of Lateran,
by its Decree, 19 Dec., 1513, not only condemned the Averroistic teaching, but
exacted still further that professors of philosophy should answer the opposing
arguments advanced by philosophers - a measure which Cajetan did not approve
(Mansi, Councils
, I, 32, col. 842). Pietro Pomponazzi, having published at
Bologna (1516) his treatise on the immortality of the soul in the Averroistic
sense, while making an open profession of faith in the Christian doctrine,
raised numerous polemics, and was held as a suspect. Chrysostom Javelli, regent
of theology at the Convent of St. Dominic, in agreement with the ecclesiastical
authority, and at the request of Pomponazzi, sought to extricate him from this
difficulty by drawing up a short theological exposé of the question which was to
be added in the future to the work of Pomponazzi. But this discussion did not
cease all at once. Several Dominicans entered the lists. Girolamo de Fornariis
subjected to examination the polemic of Pomponazzi with Augustin Nifi (Bologna,
1519); Bartolommeo de Spina attacked Cajetan on one article, and Pomponazzi in
two others (Venice, 1519); Isidore of Isolanis also wrote on the immortality of
the soul (Milan, 1520); Lucas Bettini took up the same theme, and Pico della
Mirandola published his treatise (Bologna, 1523); finally Chrysostom Javelli
himself, in 1523, composed a treatise on immortality in which he refuted the
point of view of Cajetan and of Pomponazzi (Chrysostomi Javelli, Opera
, Venice,
1577, I-III, p. 52). Cajetan, becoming cardinal, not only held his position
regarding the idea of Aristotle, but further declared that the immortality of
the soul was an article of faith, for which philosophy could offer only probable
reasons (In Ecclesiasten
, 1534, cap. iv; Fiorentino, Pietro Pomponazzi
,
Florence, 1868).
(f) Literary and Scientific Productions
During the Middle Ages the order had an enormous literary output, its activity extending to all spheres. The works of its writers are epoch-making in the various branches of human knowledge.
(i) Works on the Bible. - The study and teaching of the Bible were
foremost among the occupations of the Preachers, and their studies included
everything pertaining to it. They first undertook correctories (correctoria) of
the Vulgate text (1230-36), under the direction of Hugh of Saint Cher, professor
at the University of Paris. The collation with the Hebrew text was accomplished
under the sub-prior of St-Jacques, Theobald of Sexania, a converted Jew. Two
other correctories were made prior to 1267, the first called the correctory of
Sens. Again under the direction of Hugh of Saint Cher the Preachers made the
first concordances of the Bible which were called the Concordances of St.
Jacques or Great Concordances because of their development. The English
Dominicans of Oxford, apparently under the direction of John of Darlington, made
more simplified concordances in the third quarter of the thirteenth century. At
the beginning of the fourteenth century a German Dominican, Conrad of
Halberstadt simplified the English concordances still more; and John Fojkowich
of Ragusa, at the time of the Council of Basle, caused the insertion in the
concordances of elements which had not hitherto been incorporated in them. The
Dominicans, moreover, composed numerous commentaries on the books of the Bible.
That of Hugh of Saint Cher was the first complete commentary on the Scriptures
(last ed., Venice, 1754, 8 vols. in fol.). The commentaries of Bl. Albertus
Magnus and especially those of St. Thomas Aquinas are still famous. With St.
Thomas the interpretation of the text is more direct, simply literal, and
theological. These great Scriptural commentaries represent theological teaching
in the studia generalia. The lecturae on the text of Scripture, also composed to
a large extent by Dominicans, represent scriptural teaching in the other studia
of theology. St. Thomas undertook an Expositio continua
of the four Gospels
now called the Catena aurea
, composed of extracts from the Fathers with a view
to its use by clerics. At the beginning of the fourteenth century Nicholas of
Trevet did the same for all the books of the Bible. The Preachers were also
engaged in translating the Bible into the vernacular. In all probability they
were the translators of the French Parisian Bible during the first half of the
thirteenth century, and in the fourteenth century they took a very active share
in the translation of the celebrated Bible of King John. The name of a
Catalonian Dominican, Romeu of Sabruguera, is attached to the first translation
of the Scriptures into Catalonian. The names of Preachers are also connected
with the Valencian and Castilian translations, and still more with the Italian
(F. L. Mannoci, Intorno a un volgarizzamento della Biblia attribuita al B.
Jacopo da Voragine
in Giornale storico e letterario della Liguria
, V, 1904, p.
96). The first pre-Lutheran German translation of the Bible, except the Psalms,
is due to John Rellach, shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century.
Finally the Bible was translated from Latin into Armenian about 1330 by B.
Bartolommeo Parvi of Bologna, missionary and bishop in Armenia. These works
enabled Vercellone to write: To the Dominican Order belongs the glory of having
first renewed in the Church the illustrious example of Origen and St. Augustine
by the ardent cultivation of sacred criticism
(P. Mandonnet
Tràvaux des
Dominicains sur les Saintes Ecritures
in Dict. de la Bible
, II, col. 1463;
Saul, Des Bibelstudium im Predigerorden
in Der Katholik
, 82 Jahrg, 3 f.,
XXVII, 1902, a repetition of the foregoing article).
(ii) Philosophical works. - The most celebrated philosophical works of
the thirteenth century were those of Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas. The
former compiled on the model of Aristotle a vast scientific encyclopedia which
exercised great influence on the last centuries of the Middle Ages (Alberti
Magni Opera
, Lyons, 1651, 20 vols. in fol.; Paris, 1890, 38 vols. in 40;
Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant
, I, 37, n. 3). Thomas Aquinas, apart from special
treatises and numerous philosophical sections in his other works, commentated in
whole or in part thirteen of Aristotle's treatises, these being the most
important of the Stagyrite's works (Mandonnet, Des écrits authentiques de St.
Thomas d'Aquin
, 2nd ed., p. 104, Opera, Paris, 1889, XXII-XVI). Robert of
Kilwardby (d. 1279) a holder of the old Augustinian direction, produced numerous
philosophical writings. His De ortu et divisione philosophiae
is regarded as
the most important introduction to Philosophy of the Middle Ages
(Baur
Dominicus Gundissalinus De divisione philosophiae
, Münster, 1903, 368). At the
end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century, Dietrich of
Vriberg left an important philosophical and scientific work (Krebs, Meister
Dietrich, sein Leben, seine Werke, seine Wissenschaft
, Münster, 1906). At the
end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century the Dominicans
composed numerous philosophical treatises, many of them bearing on the special
points whereon the Thomistic School was attacked by its adversaries (Archiv f.
Litt. und Kirchengesch.
, II, 226 sqq.).
(iii) Theological works. - In importance and number theological works
occupy the foreground in the literary activity of the order. Most of the
theologians composed commentaries on the Sentences
of Peter Lombard, which was
the classical text in theological schools. Besides the Sentences
the usual
work of bachelors in the Universities included Disputationes and Quodlibeta,
which were always the writings of masters. The theological summae set forth the
theological matter according to a more complete and well-ordered plan than that
of Peter Lombard and especially with solid philosophical principles in which the
books of the Sentences
were wanting. Manuals of theology and more especially
manuals, or summae, on penance for the use of confessors were composed in great
numbers. The oldest Dominican commentaries on the Sentences
are those of
Roland of Cremona, Hugh of Saint Cher, Richard Fitzacre, Robert of Kilwardby and
Albertus Magnus. The series begins with the year 1230 if not earlier and the
last are prior to the middle of the thirteenth century (Mandonnet, Siger de
Brabant
, I, 53). The Summa
of St. Thomas (1265-75) is still the masterpiece
of theology. The monumental work of Albertus Magnus is unfinished. The Summa de
bono
of Ulrich of Strasburg (d. 1277), a disciple of Albert is still unedited,
but is of paramount interest to the historian of the thought of the thirteenth
century (Grabmann, Studien ueber Ulrich von Strassburg
in Zeitschrift für
Kathol. Theol.
, XXIX, 1905, 82). The theological summa of St. Antoninus is
highly esteemed by moralists and economists (Ilgner, Die Volkswirtschaftlichen
Anschaungen Antonins von Florenz
, Paderborn, 1904). The Compendium theologicæ
veritatis
of Hugh Ripelin of Strasburg (d. 1268) is the most widespread and
famous manual of the Middle Ages (Mandonnet, Des écrits authentiques de St.
Thomas
, Fribourg, 1910, p. 86). The chief manual of confessors is that of Paul
of Hungary composed for the Brothers of St. Nicholas of Bologna (1220-21) and
edited without mention of the author in the Bibliotheca Casinensis
(IV, 1880,
191) and with false assignment of authorship by R. Duellius, Miscellan. Lib.
(Augsburg, 1723, 59). The Summa de Poenitentia
of Raymond of Pennafort,
composed in 1235, was a classic during the Middle Ages and was one of the works
of which the MSS. were most multiplied. The Summa Confessorum
of John of
Freiburg (d. 1314) is, according to F. von Schulte, the most perfect product of
this class of literature. The Pisan Bartolommeo of San Concordio has left us a
Summa Casuum
composed in 1338, in which the matter is arranged m alphabetical
order. It was very successful in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The
manuals for confessors of John Nieder (d. 1438), St. Antoninus, Archbishop of
Florence (d. 1459), and Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) were much esteemed in
their time (Quétif-Echard, Script. Ord. Praed.
, I, passim; Hurter,
Nomenclator literarius; aetas media
, Innsbruck, 1906, passim; F. von Schulte,
Gesch. der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts
, Stuttgart, II, 1877,
p. 410 sqq.; Dietterle, Die Summæ confessorum … von ihren Anfängen an bis zu
Silvester Prierias
in Zeitschrift für Kirchengesch.
, XXIV, 1903; XXVIII,
1907).
(iv) Apologetic works. - The Preachers, born amid the Albigensian
heresy and founded especially for the defense of the Faith, bent their literary
efforts to reach all classes of dissenters from the Catholic Church. They
produced by far the most powerful works in the sphere of apologetics. The Summa
contra Catharos et Valdenses
(Rome, 1743) of Moneta of Cremona, in course of
composition in 1244, is the most complete and solid work produced in the Middle
Ages against the Cathari and Waldenses. The Summa contra Gentiles
of St.
Thomas Aquinas is one of that master's strongest creations. It is the defense of
the Christian Faith against Arabian philosophy. Raymond Marti in his Pugio
fidei
, in course of composition in 1278 (Paris, 1642; 1651: Leipzig, 1687),
measures arms with Judaism. This work, to a large extent based on Rabbinic
literature, is the most important medieval monument of Orientalism (Neubauer,
Jewish Controversy and the Pugio Fidei
in The Expositor
, 1888, p. 81 sqq.;
Loeb, La controverse religieuse entre les chrétiens et les Juifs au moyen-âge
en France et en Espagne
in Revue de l'histoire des religions
, XVIII, 136).
The Florentine, Riccoldo di Monte Croce, a missionary in the East (d. 1320),
composed his Propugnaculum Fidei
against the doctrine of the Koran. It is a
rare medieval Latin work based directly on Arabian literature. Demetrius
Cydonius translated the Propugnaculum
into Greek in the fourteenth century and
Luther translated it into German in the sixteenth (Mandonnet, Fra Riccoldo di
Monte Croce, pélerin en Terre Sainte et missionnaire en Orient
in Revue
Biblique
, I, 1893, 44; Grabmann, Die Missionsidee bei den
Dominikanertheologien des 13. Jahrhunderts
in Zeitschrift für
Missionswissenschaft
, I, 1911, 137).
(v) Educational literature. - Besides manuals of theology the
Dominicans furnished a considerable literary output with a view to meeting the
various needs of all social classes and which may be called educational or
practical literature. They composed treatises on preaching, models or materials
for sermons, and collections of discourses. Among the oldest of these are the
Distinctiones
and the Dictionarius pauperum
of Nicholas of Biard (d. 1261),
the Tractatus de diversis materiis prædicabilibus
of Stephen of Bourbon (d.
1261), the De eruditione prædicatorum
of Humbert of Romans (d. 1277), the
Distinctiones
of Nicholas of Goran (d. 1295), and of Maurice of England [d.
circa 1300; (Quétif-Echard, Script. Ord. Præd.
, II, 968; 970; Lecoy de la
Marche, La chaire française au moyen âge
, Paris, 1886; Crane, The exempla or
illustrative stories from the 'Sermones vulgares' of Jacques de Vitry
, London,
1890)]. The Preachers led the way in the composition of comprehensive
collections of the lives of the saints or legendaries, writings at once for the
use and edification of the faithful. Bartholomew of Trent compiled his Liber
epilogorum in Gesta Sanctorum
in 1240. After the middle of the thirteenth
century Roderick of Cerrate composed a collection of
Vitæ Sanctorum
(Madrid
University Library, cod. 146). The Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis
sanctorum
, composed in 1243 according to the Speculum historiale
of Vincent
of Beauvais, is the work of Jean de Mailly. The Legenda Sanctorum
of Jacopo de
Voragine (Vorazze) called also the Golden Legend
, written about 1260, is
universally known. The success of the book,
writes the Bollandist, A. Poncelet,
was prodigious; it far exceeded that of all similar compilations.
It was
besides translated into all the vernaculars of Europe. The Speculum Sanctorale
of Bernard Guidonis is a work of a much more scholarly character. The first
three parts were finished in 1324 and the fourth in 1329. About the same time
Peter Calo (d. 1348) undertook under the title of Legenda sanctorum
an
immense compilation
which aimed at being more complete than its predecessors
(A. Poncelet, Le légendier de Pierre Calo
in Analecta Bollandiana
, XXIX,
1910, 5-116).
Catechetical literature was also early taken in hand. In 1256-7 Raymond Marti
composed his Explanatio symboli ad institutionem fidelium
(Revue des
Bibliothèques
, VI, 1846, 32; March, La
, in Explanatio Symboli
, obra inedita de
Ramon Marti, autor del Pugio Fidei
Anuari des Institut d'Estudis
Catalans
, 1908, and Bareclona, 1910). Thomas Aquinas wrote four small treatises
which represent the contents of a catechism as it was in the Middle Ages: De
articulis fidei et Ecclesiae Sacramentis
; Expositio symboli Apostolorum
; De
decem præceptis et lege amoris
; Expositio orationis dominicae
. Several of
these writings have been collected and called the catechism of St. Thomas.
(Portmann-Kunz, Katechismus des hl. Thomas von Aquin
, Lucerne, 1900.) In 1277
Laurent d'Orléans composed at the request of Philip the Bold, whose confessor he
was, a real catechism in the vernacular known as the Somme le Roi
(Mandonnet,
Laurent d'Orléans l'auteur de la Somme le Roi
in Revue des langues romanes
,
1911; Dict. de théol. cath.
, II, 1900). At the beginning of the fourteenth
century Bernard Guidonis composed an abridgment of Christian doctrine which he
revised later when he had become Bishop of Lodève (1324-31) into a sort of
catechism for the use of his priests in the instruction of the faithful
(Notices et extraits de la Bib. Nat.
, XXVII, Paris, 1879, 2nd part, p. 362, C.
Douais, Un nouvel écrit de Bernard Gui. Le synodal de Lodève,
Paris, 1944 p.
vii). The
Discipulus
of John Hérolt was much esteemed in its day (Paulus,
Johann Hérolt und seine Lehre. Ein Beitrag zur Gesch. des religiosen
Volksunterrichts am Ausgang des Mittelalters
in Zeitsch. für kath. Theol.
,
XXVI, 1902, 417).
The order also produced pedagogical works. William of Tournai composed a
treatise De Modo docendi pueros
(Paris, Bib. Nat. lat. 16435) which the
General Chapter of 1264 recommended, as well as one on preaching and confession
for school children. (Act. Cap. Gen.
I, 125; Script. Ord. Præd.
, I, 345).
Vincent of Beauvais wrote especially for the education of princes. He first
composed his De eruditione filiorum regalium
(Basle, 1481), then the De
eruditione principum
, published with the works of St. Thomas, to whom as well
as to Guillaume Perrault it has been incorrectly ascribed; finally (c. 1260) the
Tractatus de morali principis institutione
, which is a general treatise and is
still unedited (Script. Ord. Præd.
, I, 239; R. Friedrich, Vincentius von
Beauvais als Pädagog nach seiner Schrift De eruditione filiorum regalium
,
Leipzig, 1883). Early in the fifteenth century (1405) John Dominici composed his
famous Lucula noctis
, in which he deals with the study of pagan authors in the
education of Christian youth. This is a most important work, written against the
dangers of Humanism (B. Johannis Dominici Cardinalis S. Sixti Lucula Noctis
,
ed. R. Coulon, Paris, 1908). Dominici is also the author of a much esteemed work
on the government of the family (Regola del governo di cure familiare dal Beato
Giovanni Dominici
, ed. D. Salve, Florence, 1860). St. Antoninus composed a
Regola a ben vivere
(ed. Palermo, Florence, 1858). Works on the government of
countries were also produced by members of the order; among them are the
treatises of St. Thomas De rege et regno
, addressed to the King of Cyprus
(finished by Bartolommeo of Lucca), and the De regimine subditorum
, composed
for the Countess of Flanders. At the request of the Florentine Government
Girolamo Savonarola drew up (1493) his Trattati circa il reggimento e governo
della cittá di Firenze
(ed. Audin de Rians, Florence, 1847) in which he shows
great political insight.
(vi) Canon law. - St. Raymond of Pennafort was chosen by Gregory IX to
compile the Decretals (1230-34); to his credit also belong opinions and other
works on canon law. Martin of Troppau, Bishop of Gnesen, composed (1278) a
Tabula decreti
commonly called Margarita Martiniana
, which received wide
circulation. Martin of Fano, professor of canon law at Arezzo and Modena and
podeatà of Genoa in 1260-2, prior to entering the order, wrote valuable
canonical works. Nicholas of Ennezat at the beginning of the fourteenth century
composed tables on various parts of canon law. During the pontificate of Gregory
XII John Dominici wrote copious memoranda in defense of the rights of the
legitimate pope, the two most important being still unedited (Vienna,
Hof-bibliothek, lat. 5102, fol. 1-24). About the middle of the fifteenth century
John of Torquemada wrote extensive works on the Decretals of Gratian which were
very influential in defense of the pontifical rights. Important works on
inquisitorial law also emanated from the order, the first directories for trial
of heresy being composed by Dominicans. The oldest is the opinion of St. Raymond
of Pennafort [1235 (ed. in Bzovius, Annal. eccles.
ad ann. 1235 Monum. Ord.
Præd. Hist.
, IV, fasc. II, 41; Le Moyen Age
, 2nd series III, 305)]. The same
canonist wrote (1242) a directory for the inquisitions of Aragon (C. Douais,
L'Inquisition
, Paris, I, 1906, p. 275). About 1244 another directory was
composed by the inquisitors of Provence (
Nouvelle revue historique du droit
français et étranger
, Paris, 1883, 670; E. Vacandard, L'Inquisition
, Paris,
1907, p. 314). But the two classical works of the Middle Ages on inquisitorial
law are that of Bernard Guidonis composed in 1321 under the title of
Directorium Inquisition is hereticae pravitatis
(ed. C. Douais Paris, 1886) and
the Directorium Inquisitorum
of Nicholas Eymerich [(1399) Archiv für
Literatur und Kirchengeschechte
; Grahit, El inquisidor F. Nicholas Eymerich
,
Girona, 1878; Schulte, Die Gesch. der Quellen und Literatur des Canonischen
Rechts
, II, passim].
(vii) Historical Writings. - The activity of the Preachers in the
domain of history was considerable during the Middle Ages. Some of their chief
works incline to be real general histories which assured them great success in
their day. The Speculum Historiale
of Vincent of Beauvais (d. circa 1264) is
chiefly, like the other parts of the work, of the nature of a documentary
compilation, but he has preserved for us sources which we could never otherwise
reach (E. Boutarie, Examen des sources du Speculum historiale de Vincent de
Beauvais
, Paris, 1863). Martin the Pole, called Martin of Troppau (d. 1279), in
the third quarter of the thirteenth century composed his chronicles of the popes
and emperors which were widely circulated and had many continuators (Mon. Germ.
Hist.: Script.
, XXII). The anonymous chronicles of Colmar in the second half of
the thirteenth century have left us valuable historical materials which
constitute a sort of history of contemporary civilization (Mon. Germ. Hist.:
Script., XVII). The chronicle of Jacopo da Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa (d.
1298) is much esteemed (Rer. Ital. Script.
; Mannucci, La Cronaca di Jacopo da
Voragine
, Genoa, 1904). Ptolemy of Lucca and Bernard Guidonis are the two great
ecclesiastical historians of the early fourteenth century. The Historia
ecclesiastica nova
of the former and the Flores cronicorum seu cathalogus
pontificum romanorum
of the latter contain valuable historical information.
But the historical activity of Bernard Guidonis far exceeded that of Ptolemy
and his contemporaries; he is the author of twenty historical publications,
several of which, such as his historical compilation on the Order of Preachers,
are very important in value and extent. Bernard Guidonis is the first medieval
historian who had a wide sense of historical documentation (Rer. Ital. Script.
,
XI K. Krüger, Des Ptolemäus Lucensis Leben und Werke
, Göttingen, 1874; D.
König, Ptolemaus von Lucca und die Flores Chronicorum des B. Guidonis
,
Würzburg, 1875, Idem, Tolomeo von Lucca
, Harburg, 1878; Delisle, Notice sur
les manuscrits de Bernard Gui
in Notices et manuscrits de la Bib. Nat.
, XVII,
pt. II, 169-455; Douais, Un nouveau manuscrit de Bernard Gui et de ses
chroniques des papes d'Avignon
in Mém. soc. Archéol. Midi
, XIV, 1889, p. 417,
Paris, 1889; Arbellot, Etude biographique et bibliographique sur Bernard
Guidonis
, Paris-Limoges, 1896). The fourteenth century beheld a galaxy of
Dominican historians, the chief of whom were: Francesco Pipini of Bologna (d.
1320), the Latin translator of Marco Polo and the author of a Chronicon
which
began with the history of the Franks (L. Manzoni, Di frate Francesco Pipini da
Bologna, storico, geografo, viaggiatore del sec. XIV
, Bologna, 1896); Nicholas
of Butrinto (1313), author of the Relatio de Henrici VII imperatoris itinere
italico
(ed. Heyck, Innsbruck, 1888); Nicholas Trevet, compiler of the Annales
sex regum Angliæ
(ed. T. Hog, London, 1845); Jacopo of Acqui and his Chronicon
imaginis mundi
[(1330); Monumenta historiæ patriæ, script. III, Turin, 1848];
Galvano Fiamma (d. circal 1340) composed various works on the history of Milan
(Ferrari, Le cronache di Galvano Flamma e le fonti della Galvagnana
in
Bulletino dell' Istituto Storico Italiano, Rome, 1891); John of Colonna (c.
1336) is the author of a De viris illustribus
and a Mare Historiarum
(Mandonnet, Des écrits authentiques de St. Thomas d'Aquin
, Fribourg, 2nd ed.,
1910, p. 97). In the second half of the fourteenth century Conrad of Halberstadt
wrote a Chronographia summorum Pontificum et Imperatorum romanorum (Merck,
Die
Chronographia Konrads von Halberstadt
etc. in Forsch. deutsch. Gesch.
XX,
1880, 279); Henry of Hervordia (d. 1370) wrote a Liber de rebus memorabilibus
(ed. Potthast, Göttingen, 1859); Stefanardo de Vicomercato is the author of the
rhythmical poem De gestis in civitate Mediolani
(in Script. Rer. Ital.
, IX;
G. Calligaris, Alcune osservazioni sopra un passo del poema 'De gestis in
civitate Mediolani' di Stefanardo
in Misc. Ceriani
, Milan, 1910). At the end
of the fifteenth century Hermann of Lerbeke composed a Chronicon comitum
Schauenburgensium
and a Chronicon episcoporum Mindensium
(Eckmann, Hermann
von Lerbeke mit besonderer Berücksichtigung seines Lebens und der Abfassungszeit
seiner Schriften
(Hamm, 1879); Hermann Korner left an important Chronica
novella
(ed. J. Schwalm, Göttingen 1895; cf. Waitz, Ueber Hermann Korner und
die Lübecker Chronikon
, Göttingen, 1851). The Chronicon
or Summa Historialis
of St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, composed about the middle of the
fifteenth century is a useful compilation with original data for the author's
own times (Schaube, Die Quellen der Weltchronik des heil. Antonin Erzbischofs
von Florenz
Hirschberg, 1880). Felix Fabri (Schmid, d. 1502) left valuable
historical works; his Evagatorium in Terræ Sanctæ, Arabiæ et Aegypti
peregrinationem
(ed., Hassler, Stuttgart, 1843) is the most instructive and
important work of this kind during the fourteenth century. He is also the author
of a
Descriptio Sueviæ
(Quellen zer Schweizer Gesch.
, Basle, 1884) and a
Tractatus de civitate Ulmensi
(Litterarischer Verein in Stuttgart, no. 186,
Tübingen, 1889, ed. G. Veesenmeyer; cf., under the names of these writers,
Quétif-Echard, Script. Ord. Præd
, Chevalier, Répertoire … du moyen-âge;
Bio-Bibl.
, Paris, 1907, Potthast Bib. Hist. Medii Ævi
, Berlin, 1896; Hurter,
Nomenclator Lit.
, II, 1906).
(viii) Miscellaneous works. - Being unable to devote a section to each
of the different spheres wherein the Preachers exercised their activity, we
shall mention here some works which obtained considerable influence or are
particularly worthy of attention The Specula
(Naturale
, doctrinale
,
historiale
; the Speculum morale
is apocryphal) of Vincent of Beauvais
constitute the largest encyclopedia of the Middle Ages and furnished materials
for many subsequent writers (Vogel, Literar-historischen Notizen über den
mittelalterlichen Gelehrten Vincenz von Beauvais
, Freiburg, 1843; Bourgeat,
Etudes sur Vincent de Beauvais
, Paris, 1856). The work of Humbert of Romans,
De tractandis in concilio generali
, composed in 1273 at the request of Gregory
X and which served as a programme to the General Council of Lyons in 1274,
contains the most remarkable views on the condition of Christian society and the
reforms to be undertaken (Mortier, Hist. des Maîtres généraux de l'ordre des
Frères Prêcheurs
, I, 88). The treatise is edited in full only in Brown
Appendix ad fasc. rerum expectandarum et fugendarum
(London, 1690, p. 185).
Burchard of Mount Sion with his Descriptio Terræ Sanctae
written about 1283,
became the classic geographer of Palestine during the Middle Ages (J. C. M.
Laurent, Peregrinatores medii ævi quatuor
, Leipsig, 1873). William of Moerbeke,
who died as Archbishop of Corinth about 1286, was the revisor of translations of
Aristotle from the Greek and the translator of portions not hitherto translated.
To him are also due translations of numerous philosophical and scientific works
of ancient Greek authors (Mandonnet Siger de Brabant
, I, 40). The Catholicon
of the Genoese John Balbus, completed in 1285, is a vast treatise on the Latin
tongue, accompanied by an etymological vocabulary. It is the first work on
profane sciences ever printed. It is also famous because in the Mainz edition
(1460) John Guttenberg first made use of movable type (Incunabula xylographica
et typographica
, 1455-1500, Joseph Baer Frankfort, 1900, p. 11). The
Philobiblion
edited under the name of Richard of Bury, but composed by Robert
Holcot (d. 1349), is the first medieval treatise on the love of books (ed.
Cocheris, Paris, 1856; tr. Thomas, London, 1888). John of Tambach (d. 1372),
first professor of theology at the newly-founded University of Prague (1347), is
the author of a valuable work, the Consolatio Theologiæ
(Denifle, Magister
Johann von Dambach
in Archiv für Litt. u. Kirchengesch
III, 640). Towards the
end of the fifteenth century Frederico Frezzi, who died as Bishop of Foligno
(1416), composed in Italian a poem in the spirit of the Divine Commedia
and
entitled Il Quadriregio
(Foligno, 1725); (cf. Canetti, Il Quadriregio
,
Venice, 1889; Filippini, Le edizioni del Quadriregio
in Bibliofilia
, VIII,
Florence, 1907). The Florentine Thomas Sardi (d. 1517) wrote a long and valued
poem, L'anima peregrina
, the composition of which dates from the end of the
fifteenth century (Romagnoli Frate Tommaso Sardi e il suo poema inedito dell'
anima peregrine
in Il propugnatore
, XVIII, 1885, pt. II, 289).
(ix) Liturgy. - Towards the middle of the thirteenth century the
Dominicans had definitely established the liturgy which they still retain. The
final correction (1256) was the work of Humbert of Romans. It was divided into
fourteen sections or volumes. The prototype of this monumental work is preserved
at Rome in the general archives of the order (Script. Ord. Præd.
I, 143;
Zeitschr. f. Kathol. Theol.
, VII, 10). A portable copy for the use of the
master general, a beautiful specimen of thirteenth-century book-making, is
preserved in the British Museum, no. 23,935 (J. W. Legg, Tracts on the Mass
,
Bradshaw Society, 1904; Barge, Le Chant liturgique dans 1'Ordre de
Saint-Dominique
in L'Année Dominicaine
, Paris, 1908, 27; Gagin, Un manuscrit
liturgique des Frères Prêcheurs antérieur aux réglements d Humbert de Romans
in
Revue des Bibliothèques
, 1899, p. 163; Idem, Dominicains et Teutoniques,
conflit d'attribution du 'Liber Choralis'
no. 182 du catalogue 120 de M. Ludwig
Rosenthal in Revue des Bibliothèques
, 1908). Jerome of Moravia, about 1250,
composed a Tractatus de Musica
(Paris, Bib. Nat. lat. 16,663), the most
important theoretical work of the thirteenth century on liturgical chant, some
fragments of which were placed as preface to the Dominican liturgy of Humbert of
Romans. It was edited by Coussemaker in his Scriptores de musica medii ævi
, I
(Paris, 1864). (Cf. Kornmüller Die alten Musiktheoretiker XX. Hieronymus von
Mären
in Kirchenmusikalisehes Jahrbueh
, IV, 1889, 14.) The Preachers also
left numerous liturgical compositions, among the most renowned being the Office
of the Blessed Sacrament by St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the masterpieces of
Catholic liturgy (Mandonnet, Des écrits authentiques de S. Thomas d'Aquin
, 2nd
ed. p. 127). Armand du Prat (d. 1306) is the author of the beautiful Office of
St. Louis, King of France. His work, selected by the Court of Philip the Bold,
came into universal use in France (>Script. Ord. Præd. I, 499; Notices et
extraits des manuscrits de la Bib. Nat.
, XXVII, 11th pt., 369, n. 6). The Dies
Iræ
has been attributed to Cardinal Latino Malabranca who was in his time a
famous composer of ecclesiastical chants and offices (Scritti vari di
Filologia
, Rome, 1901, p. 488).
(x) Humanistic works. - The order felt more than is commonly thought
the influence of Humanism and furnished it with noteworthy contributions. This
influence was continued during the following period in the sixteenth century and
reacted on its Biblical and theological compositions. Leonardo Giustiniani,
Archbishop of Mytilene, in 1449, composed against the celebrated Poggio a
treatise De vera nobilitate
, edited with Poggio's De nobilitate
(Avellino,
1657). The Sicilian Thomas Schifaldo wrote commentaries on Perseus about 1461
and on Horace in 1476. He is the author of a De viris illustribus Ordinis
Prædicatorum
, written in humanistic style, and of the Office of St. Catherine
of Siena, usually but incorrectly ascribed to Pius II (Cozzuli Tommaso
Schifaldo umanista siciliano del sec. XV
, Palermo, 1897, in Documenti per
servire alla storia di Sicilia
, VI). The Venetian Francesco Colonna is the
author of the celebrated work The Dream of Poliphilus
(Poliphili
Hypnerotomachia, ubi humane omnia non nisi somnium esse docet
, Aldus, Venice,
1499; cf. Popelin, Le songe de Poliphile ou hypnerotomachia de Frère Francesco
Colonna
, Paris, 1880). Colonna's work aims to condense in the form of a romance
all the knowledge of antiquity. It gives evidence of its author's profound
classical learning and impassioned love for Græco-Roman culture. The work, which
is accompanied by the most perfect illustrations of the time, has been called
the most beautiful book of the Renaissance
(Ilg, Ueber den kunsthistorisches
werth der Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
, Vienna, 1872; Ephrusi, Etudes sur le
songe de Poliphile
in Bulletin de Bibliophile
1887, Paris, 1888; Dorez, Des
origines et de la diffusion du songe de Poliphile
in Revue des Bibliothèques
,
VI, 1896, 239; Gnoli Il sogno di Polifilo, in
Bibliofila
, 1900, 190; Fabrini,
Indagini sul Polifilo
in Giorn. Storico della letteratura Italiana
, XXXV,
1900, I; Poppelreuter, Der anonyme Meister des Polifilo
in Zur Kunstgesch.
des Auslandes
, XX, Strassburg, 1904; Molmenti, Alcuni documenti concernenti
l'autore della (Hypnerotomachia Poliphili)
in Archivio storico italiano
, Ser.
V, XXXVIII (906, 291). Tommaso Radini Todeschi (Radinus Todischus) composed
under the title Callipsychia
(Milan, 1511) an allegorical romance in the
manner of Apuleius and inspired by the Dream of Poliphilus. The Dalmatian, John
Polycarpus Severitanus of Sebenico, commentated the eight parts of the discourse
of Donatus and the Ethics of Seneca the Younger (Perugia, 1517; Milan, 1520;
Venice, 1522) and composed Gramatices historicæ, methodicæ et exegeticæ
(Perugia, 1518). The Bolognese Leandro Alberti (d. 1550) was an elegant Latinist
and his De viris illustribus ordinis praedicatorum
(Bologna, 1517), written in
the humanistic manner, is a beautiful specimen of Bolognese publishing (Script.
Ord. Præd.
, II, 137; Campori, Sei lettere inedite di Fra Leandro Alberti
in
Atti e memorie della Deput. di Storia patria per le prov. Modenesi e Parmensi
,
I, 1864, p. 413). Finally Matteo Bandello (d. 1555), who was called the
Dominican Boccacio
, is regarded as the first novelist of the Italian
Cinquecento and his work shows what an evil influence the Renaissance could
exert on churchmen (Masi Matteo Bandello o vita italiana in un novelliere del
cinquecento
, Bologna, 1900).
(g) The Preachers and Art
The Preachers hold an important place in the history of art. They contributed
in many ways to the artistic life of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Their
churches and convents offered an extraordinary field of activity to contemporary
artists, while a large number of the Preachers themselves did important work in
the various spheres of art. Finally by their teaching and religious activity
they often exercised a profound influence on the direction and inspiration of
art. Primarily established under a regime of evangelic poverty, the order took
severe measures to avoid in its churches all that might suggest luxury and
wealth. Until the middle of the thirteenth century its constitutions and general
chapters energetically legislated against anything tending to suppress the
evidence of poverty (Archiv. f. Litt.-und Kirchgesch.
, I, 225, Acta Cap.
Gen.
, I, passim). But the order's intense activity, its establishment in large
cities and familiar contact with the whole general movement of civilization
triumphed over this state of things. As early as 1250, churches and convents
appeared called opus sumptuosum (Finke, Die Freiburger Dominikaner und der
Münsterbau
, Freiburg, 1901 p. 47; Potthast, op. cit., 22,426). They were,
however, encouraged by ecclesiastical authority and the order eventually
relinquished its early uncompromising attitude. Nevertheless ascetic and morose
minds were scandalized by what they called royal edifices (Matthew Paris, Hist.
maj.
, ad. ann. 1243; d'Achéry, Spicelegium
, Paris, 1723, II, 634; Cocheris
Philobiblion
, Paris, 1856, p. 227). The second half of the thirteenth century
saw the beginning of a series of monuments, many of which are still famous in
history and art. The Dominicans,
says Cesare Cantù, soon had in the chief
towns of Italy magnificent monasteries and superb temples, veritable wonders of
art. Among others may be mentioned: the Church of Santa Maria Novella, at
Florence; Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, at Rome; St. John and St. Paul, at Venice;
St. Nicholas, at Treviso; St. Dominic, at Naples, at Perugia, at Prato, and at
Bologna, with the splendid tomb of the founder, St. Catherine, at Pisa; St.
Eustorgius and Sta Maria delle Grazie, at Milan, and several others remarkable
for a rich simplicity and of which the architects were mostly monks
(Les
Hérétiques de l'Italie
, Paris, 1869, I, 165; Berthier, L'église de Sainte
Sabine à Rome
, Rome, 1910; Mullooly, St. Clement, Pope and Martyr, and his
Basilica in Rome
, Rome, 1873; Nolan, The Basilica of St. Clement in Rome
Rome,
1910; Brown, The Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novelli at Florence, An
historical, architectural and artistic study
, Edinburgh, 1902; Berthier,
L'église de la Minerve à Rome, Rome: 1910; Marchese,
San Marco convento dei
Padri Predicatori in Firenze
, Florence, 1853; Malaguzzi, La chiesa e il
convento di S. Domenico a Bologna secondo nuove richerche
in Repertorium für
Kunstwissenschaft
, XX, 1897, 174; Caffi, Della chiesa di Sant' Eustorgio in
Milano
, Milan, 1841; Valle, S. Domenico Maggiore di Napoli
, Naples, 1854;
Milanese, Le Chiesa monumentale di S. Nicolò in Treviso
, Treviso, 1889;
Mortier, Notre Dame de la Guercia
Paris, 1904; Ital. tr. Ferretti, Florence,
1904; Oriandini, Descrizione storica della chiesa di S. Domenico di Perugia
,
Perugia, 1798; Biebrach, Die holzgedeckten Franziskaner und Dominikanerkirchen
in Umbrien und Toskana
, Berlin, 1908).
France followed in Italy's footsteps. Here mention must be made of the
Jacobins of Toulouse (Carrière, Les Jacobins de Toulouse
, 2nd ed., Toulouse,
s. d.); St. Jacques de Paris (Millie, Antiquités rationales
, Paris, 1790, III,
1); St. Maximin in Provence (Rostan, Notice sur l'église de Saint-Maximin
,
Brignoles, 1859); Notre-Dame-de-Confort at Lyons (Cormier, L'ancien couvent des
Dominicains de Lyon
, Lyons, 1898). A comprehensive account of the architectural
work of the Dominicans in France may be found in the magnificent publication of
Rohault de Fleury Gallia Dominicana, Les couvents de Saint-Dominique en France
au moyen-âge
(Paris, 1903, 2 vols. in 4). Spain was also covered with
remarkable monuments: St. Catherine of Barcelona and St. Thomas of Madrid were
destroyed by fire; S. Esteban at Salamanca, S. Pablo and S. Gregorio at
Valladolid, Santo Tomas at Avila, San Pablo at Seville and at Cordova. S. Cruz
at Granada, Santo Domingo at Valencia and Saragossa (Martinez-Vigil, La orden
de Predicadores
, Barcelona, 1886). Portugal also had beautiful buildings. The
church and convent of Batalha are perhaps the most splendid ever dwelt in by the
order (Murphy, Plans, elevations, sections and views of the Church of Batalha
,
London, 1795; de Condeixa, O mosteiro de Batalha em Portugal
, Paris, 1892;
Vascoucellos, Batalha. Convento de Santa Maria da Victoria
, Porto, 1905).
Germany had beautiful churches and convents, usually remarkable for their
simplicity and the purity of their lines (Scherer, Kirchen und Kloster der
Franziskaner und Dominikaner in Thuringen
, Jena, 1910; Schneider, Die Kirchen
der Dominikaner und Karmeliten
in Mittelalterliche Ordensbauten in Mainz
,
Mainz, 1879; Zur Wiederherstellung der Dominikanerkirche in Augsburg
in
Augsburger Postzeitung
, 12 Nov., 1909; Des Dominikanerkloster in Eisenach
,
Eisenach, 1857; Ingold, Notice sur l'église et le couvent des Dominicains de
Colmar
, Colmar, 1894; Burckhardt-Riggenbach, Die Dominikaner Klosterkirche in
Basel
, Basle, 1855; Stammler, Die ehemalige Predigerkirche in Bern und ihre
Wandmalerein
in Berner Kunstdenkmaler
, III, Bern, 1908).
Whatever may be said to the contrary the Dominicans as well as other
mendicant orders created a special architectural art. They made use of art as
they found it in the course of their history and adapted it to their needs. They
adopted Gothic art and assisted in its diffusion, but they accepted the art of
the Renaissance when it had supplanted the ancient forms. Their churches varied
in dimensions and richness, according to the exigencies of the place. They built
a number of churches with double naves and a larger number with open roofs. The
distinct characteristic of their churches resulted from their sumptuary
legislation which excluded decorated architectural work, save in the choir.
Hence the predominance of single lines in their buildings. This exclusivism,
which often went as far as the suppression of capitals on the columns, gives
great lightness and elegance to the naves of their churches. While we lack
direct information concerning most of the architects of these monuments, there
is no doubt that many of the men who supervised the construction of its churches
and convents were members of the order and they even assisted in works of art
outside of the order. Thus we know that Brother Diemar built the Dominican
church of Ratisbon (1273-77) (Sighart, Gesch. d. bildenden Künste im Kgn.
Bayern
, Munich, 1862). Brother Volmar exercised his activity in Alsace about
the same time and especially at Colmar (Ingold, op. cit.). Brother Humbert was
the architect of the church and convent of Bonn, as well as of the stone bridge
across the Aar, in the Middle Ages the most beautiful in the city (Howard, Des
Dominikaner-Kloster in Bern von 1269-1400
, Bern, 1857). In Italy architects of
the order are known to fame, especially at Florence, where they erected the
church and cloisters of S. Maria Novella, which epitomize the whole history of
Florentine art (Davidsohn, Forschungen zur Gesch. von Florenz
, Berlin, 1898,
466; Marchese, Memorie dei più insigni pittori, scultori e architetti
domenicani
, Bologna, 1878, I). At first the order endeavoured to banish
sculpture from its churches, but eventually accepted it and set the example by
the construction of the beautiful tomb of St. Dominic at Bologna, and of St.
Peter of Verona at the Church of St. Eustorgius at Milan. A Dominican, William
of Pisa, worked on the former (Berthier, Le tombeau de St. Dominique
, Paris,
1895; Beltrani, La cappella di S. Pietro Martire presso la Basilica di Sant
Eustorgio in Milano
in Archivio storico dell' arte
, V, 1892). Brother Paschal
of Rome executed interesting sculptural works, e.g. his sphinx of Viterbo,
signed and dated (1286), and the paschal candlestick of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin,
Rome (Römische Quartalschrift
, 1893, 29).
There were many miniaturists and painters among the Preachers. As early as
the thirteenth century Hugh Ripelin of Strasburg (d. 1268) was renowned as a
painter (Mon. Germ. Hist.: SS., XVII, 233). But the lengthy list is dominated by
two masters who overshadow the others, Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo. The
work of Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole (d. 1455) is regarded as the highest
embodiment of Christian inspiration in art (Marchese, Memorie
, I, 245; Tumiàti,
Frate Angelico
, Florence, 1897; Supino Beato Angelico
, Florence, 1898;
Langton Dougias, Fra Angelico
, London, 1900; Wurm, Meister und Schülerarbeit
in Fra Angelicos Werk
, Strasburg, 1907; Cochin, Le Bienheureux Fra Giovanni
Angelico da Fiesole
, Paris, 1906; Schottmuller, Fra Angelico da Fiesole
,
Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1911 (Fr. ed., Paris, 1911). Fra Bartolommeo belongs to
the golden age of the Italian Renaissance. He is one of the great masters of
drawing. His art is scholarly, noble and simple and imbued with a tranquil and
restrained piety (Marchese, Memorie
, II, 1; Franz, Fra Bartolommeo della
Porta
, Ratisbon, 1879; Gruyer, Fra Bartolommeo della Porta et Mariotto
Albertinelli
, Paris-London, s. d.; Knapp, Fra Bartolommeo della Porta und die
Schule von San Marco
, Halle, 1903). The order also produced remarkable painters
on glass: James of Ulm (d. 1491), who worked chiefly at Bologna and William of
Marcillat (d. 1529), who in the opinion of his first biographer was perhaps the
greatest painter on glass who ever lived (Marchese, Memorie
, II; Mancini,
Guglielmo de Marcillat francese insuperato pittore sul vetro
, Florence, 1909).
As early as the fourteenth century Dominican churches and convents began to be
covered with mural decorations. Some of these edifices became famous sanctuaries
of art, such as S. Maria Novella and S. Marco of Florence. But the phenomenon
was general at the end of the fifteenth century, and thus the order received
some of the works of the greatest artists, as for instance the Last Supper
of
Leonardo da Vinci (1497-98) in the refectory of S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan
(Bossi, Del cenacolo di Leonardo daVinci
, Milan, 1910; Sant' Ambrogio, Note
epigrafiche ed artistiche intorno alla sale del Cenacolo ed al tempio di Santa
Maria delle Grazie in Milano
in Archivio Storico Lombardo
, 1892).
The Preachers exercised a marked influence on painting. The order infused its
apostolic zeal and theological learning into the objects of art under its
control, thus creating what may be called theological painting. The decoration
of the Campo Santo of Pisa, Orcagna's frescoes in the Strozzi chapel and the
Spanish chapel at S. Maria Novella, Florence, have long been famous (Michel,
Hist. de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours
, Paris,
II, 1908; Hettner, Die Dominikaner in der Kunstgesch. des l4. und 15.
Jahrhunderts
in Italienische Studien zur Gesch. der Renaissance
, Brunswick,
1879, 99; Renaissance und Dominikaner Kunst
in Hist.-polit. Blatter
,
LXXXXIII, 1884; Perate, Un Triomphe de la Mort de Pietro Lorenzetti
, Paris,
1902; Bacciochi, Il chiostro verde e la cappella degli Spagnuoli
, Florence;
Endres, Die Verherrlichung des Dominikanerordens in der Spanischen Kapelle an
S. Maria Novella zu Florenz
in Zeitschr. f. Christliche Kunst
, 1909, p. 323).
To the same causes were due the numerous triumphs of St. Thomas Aquinas (Hettner,
op. cit.; Berthier, Le triomphe de Saint Thomas dans la chapelle des Espagnols
à Florence
, Fribourg, 1897; Ucelli, Dell' iconografia di s. Tommaso d'Aquino
,
Naples, 1867). The influence of Savonarola on the artists and the art of his
time was profound (Gruyer, Les illustrations des écrits de Jérôme Savonarole et
les paroles de Savonarole sur l'art
, Paris, 1879; Lafenestre, Saint François d'
Assise et Savonarole inspirateurs de l'art Italien
, Paris, 1911). The
Dominicans also frequently furnished libretti, i.e. dogmatic or symbolic themes
for works of art. They also opened up an important source of information to art
with their sanctoriaux and their popularizing writings. Artistic works such as
the dances of death and sybils allied with the prophets are greatly indebted to
them (Neale, L'art religieux du XIIIe siècle
, Paris, 1910; Idem, L'art
religieux de la fin du moyen-âge en France
, Paris, 1910). Even the mystical
life of the order, in its way, exercised an influence on contemporary art
(Peltzer, Deutsche Mystik und deutsche Kunst
, Strassburg, 1899; Hintze, Der
Einfluss des mystiken auf die ältere Kölner Malerschule
, Breslau, 1901). Its
saints and its confraternities, especially that of the Rosary, inspired many
artists (Neuwbarn, Die Verherrlichung des hl. Dominicus in der Kunst
, 1906).
(h) The Preachers and the Roman Church
The Order of Preachers is the work of the Roman Church. She found in St.
Dominic an instrument of the first rank. But it was she who inspired the
establishment of the order, who loaded it with privileges, directed its general
activity, and protected it against its adversaries. From Honorius III (1216)
till the death of Honorius IV (1287) the papacy was most favourable to the
Preachers. Innocent IV's change of attitude at the end of his pontificate (10
May, 1254), caused by the recriminations of the clergy and perhaps also by the
adhesion of Arnold of Trier to Frederick II's projects of anti-ecclesiastical
reform, was speedily repaired by Alexander IV [22 Dec., 1254; (Chart Univ.
Paris
, I, 263, 276; Winckelmann, Fratris Arnoldi Ord. Præd. De correctione
Ecclesiae Epistola
, 1863; Script. Ord. Praed.
, II, 821 b)]. But as a general
thing during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the popes remained much
attached to the order, displaying great confidence in it, as is made manifest by
the Bullarium
of the Preachers. No other religious order, it would seem, ever
received eulogies from the papacy like those addressed to it by Alexander IV, 23
May, 1257 (Potthast, op cit., 16,847). The order co-operated with the Church in
every way, the popes finding in its ranks assistants who were both competent and
devoted. Beyond doubt through its own activity, its preaching and in instruction,
it was already a powerful agent of the papacy; nevertheless the popes requested
of it a universal co-operation. Matthew Paris states in 1250: The Friars
Preachers, impelled by obedience, are the fiscal agents, the nuncios and even
the legates of the pope. They are the faithful collectors of the pontifical
money by their preaching and their crusades and when they have finished they
begin again. They assist the infirm, the dying, and those who make their wills.
Diligent negotiators, armed with powers of every kind, they turn all to the
profit of the pope
(Matthew Paris, Hist. Angl.
, III, 317, in Rer. Brit. Med.
Æv. Script.
). But the commissions of the Church to the Preachers far exceeded
those enumerated by Matthew Paris, and among the weightiest must be mentioned
the visitation of monasteries and dioceses, the administration of a large number
of convents of nuns and the inquisitorial office. The order attempted to
withdraw from its multifarious occupations, which distracted it from its chief
end. Gregory IX partially yielded to their demands (25 Oct., 1239; cf. Potthast,
op; cit., 10,804), but the order never succeeded in wholly winning its cause
(Fontana, Sacrum Theatrum Dominicanum
pt. II, De S. R. Ecclesiae Officialibus,
Rome, 1666; Bull. Ord. Præd.
, I-II, passim; Potthast, Regest. Pont. Rom.
,
Papal Register of the XIII cent. in Bib. des Ecoles Françaises d'Athènes et de
Rome
).
The Dominicans gave to the Church many noted personages: among them during
the Middle Ages were two popes, Innocent V (1276) and Benedict XI [1303-4;
(Mothon, Vie du B. Innocent V
, Rome, n 1896; Fietta, Nicolò Boccasino di
Trevigi e il suo tempo
, Padua, 1875; Funk, Papst Benedikt XI
, Münster, 1891;
Grandjean; Benoît XI avant son pontificat
(1240-1303) in Mélanges archiv.
- Hist. de L'école française de Rome
, VIII, 219; Idem, Recherches sur
l'administration financière du pape Benoît XI
, loc. cit., III, 1883, 47; Idem,
La date de la mort de Benoît XI
, loc. cit. XIV, 1894, 241; Idem, Registre de
Benoît XI
, Paris, 1885)]. There were twenty-eight Dominican cardinals during
the first three centuries of the order's existence. Some of them were noted for
exceptional services to the papacy. The earliest of them, Hugh of Saint Cher,
had the delicate mission of persuading Germany to accept William of Holland
after the deposition of Frederick II (Sassen, Hugh von St. Cher em Seine
Tätigkeit als Kardinal, 1244-1263
, Bonn, 1908). Cardinal Latino Malabranca is
famous for his legations and his pacification of Florence (1280; Davidsohn,
Gesch. von Florenz
, II, Berlin, 1908, p. 152; Idem, Forsch. zur Gesch von
Florenz
, IV, 1908, p. 226). Nicholas Albertini of Prato (1305-21) also
undertook the pacification of Florence (1304; Bandini, Vita del Cardinale
Nicolo da Prato
, Leghorn, 1757; Fineschi, Supplemento alla vista del Cardinale
Nicolò da Prato
, Lucca, 1758; Perrens, Hist. de Florence
, Paris, III, 1877,
87). Cardinal Giovanni Dominici (1408-19) was the staunchest defender of the
legitimate pope, Gregory XII, at the end of the Great Schism; and in the name of
his master resigned is the papacy at the Council of Constance (Rossler,
Cardinal Johannes Dominici, O.Pr., 1357-1419
, Freiburg, 1893; Mandonnet,
Beiträge zur. Gesch. des Kardinals Giovanni Dominici
in Hist. Jahrbuch.
,
1900; Hollerbach, Die Gregorianische le Partei, Sigismund und das Konstanzer
Konzil
in. Römische Quartalschrift
, XXIII-XXIV, 1909-10). Cardinal John de
Torquemada (Turrecremata, 1439-68), an eminent theologian, was one of the
strongest defenders of the pontifical rights at the time of the Council of Basle
(Lederer, Johann von Torquemada sein Leben und seine Schriften
, Freiburg, 1879;
Hefele, Conciliengesch.
, VIII)
Many important officials were furnished to the Church: Masters of the Sacred
Palace (Catalamus, De magistro sacri palatii apostolici
Rome, 1751);
pontifical penitentiaries (Fontana, Sacr. Theatr Dominic
, 470; 631, Bull. O.
P.
, VIII, 766, Poenitentiarii; Goller, Die päpstliche Ponitentiarii vor ihrem
Ursprung bis zu ihrer Umgestaltung unter Pius VII
, Rome, 1907-11); and
especially pontifical inquisitors. The defense of the Faith and the repression
of heresy is essentially an apostolic and pontifical work. The Preachers also
furnished many delegate judges holding their powers either from the bishops or
from the pope, but the order as such had no mission properly so called, and the
legislation for the repression of heresy was in particular absolutely foreign to
it. The extreme dangers run by the Church at the beginning of the thirteenth
century owing to the progress of the Albigensians and Cathari impelled the
papacy to labour for their repression. It first urged the bishops to act, and
the establishment of synodal witnesses was destined to make their mission more
effective, but the insufficiency of their arrangement induced Gregory IX to
advise the bishops to make use of the Preachers and finally doubtless owing to
the lack of zeal displayed by many bishops, to create inquisitorial judges by
pontifical delegation. The Preachers were not chosen de jure but de facto and
successively in the various provinces of the order. The pope usually charged the
Dominican provincials with the nomination of inquisitorial officers whose
jurisdiction ordinarily coincided with the territory of the Dominican province.
In their office the inquisitors were removed from the authority of their order
and dependent only on the Holy See. The first pontifical inquisitors were
invariably chosen from the Order of Preachers, the reason being the scarcity of
educated and zealous clerics. The Preachers, being vowed to study and preaching,
were alone prepared for a ministry, which required both learning and courage.
The order received this like many other pontifical commissions, only with regret.
The master general, Humbert of Romans declared that the friars should flee all
odious offices and especially the Inquisition (Opera, ed. Berthier, II, 36).
The same solicitude to remove the order from the odium of the inquisitorial
office impelled the provincial chapter of Cahors (1244) to forbid that anything
should accrue to the friars from the administration of the Inquisition , that the
order might not be slandered. The provincial chapter of Bordeaux (1257) even
forbade the religious to eat with the inquisitors in places where the order had
a convent (Douais, Les Frères Prêcheurs en Gascogne
, Paris-Auch, 1885, p. 64).
In countries where heresy was powerful, for instance in the south of France and
the north of Italy, the order had much to endure, pillage, temporary expulsion,
and assassination of the inquisitors. After the putting to death of the
inquisitors at Avignonet (28 May, 1242) and the assassination of St. Peter of
Verona (29 April, 1242) (Vitae fratrum
, ed. Reichart, 231; Perein, Monumenta
Conventus Tolosani
, Toulouse, 1693, II, 198, Acta SS., 29 April) the order,
whose administration had much to suffer from this war against heresy,
immediately requested to be relieved of the inquisitorial office. Innocent IV
refused (10 April, 1243; Potthast, 11,083), and the following year the bishops
of the south of France petitioned the pope that he would retain the Preachers in
the Inquisition (Hist. gén. du Languedoc
, III, ed. in folio, proof CCLIX, Vol.
CCCCXLVI). Nevertheless the Holy See understood the desire of the Preachers;
several provinces of Christendom ceased to be administered by them and were
confided to the Friars Minor viz., the Pontifical States, Apulia, Tuscany, the
March of Trevisa and Slavonia, and finally Provence (Potthast, 11,993, 15,330,
15,409, 15,410, 18,895, 20,169; Tanon, Hist. des tribunaux de l'inquisition en
France
Paris, 1893; Idem, Documents pour servir a l'hist. de l'Inquisition
dans le Languedoc
, Paris, 1900; Vacandard, L'Inquisition
, Paris, 1907; Lea,
Hist. of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages
New York-London, 1888, French tr.,
Paris, 1900; Frédéricq, Corpus documentorum Inquisition is hæreticæ pravitatis
Neerlandicæ
, Ghent, 1900; Amabile, Il santo officio della Inquizione in Napoli
Citta di Castello, 1892; Canzons, Hist. de l'Inquisition en France
, Paris,
1909; Jordan, La responsabilité de l'Eglise dans la répression de l'hérésie au
moyen-âge
in Annales de Philosophie chrét.
, CLIV, 1907, p. 225). The
suppression of heresy which had been especially active in certain more affected
parts of Christendom, diminished notably in the second half of the thirteenth
century. The particular conditions prevailing in Spain brought about the
reestablishment of the Inquisition with new duties for the inquisitor general.
These were exercised from 1483 to 1498 by Thomas of Torquemada, who reorganized
the whole scheme of suppression, and by Diego de Deza from 1498 to 1507. These
were the first and last Dominican inquisitors general in Spain (Lea, Hist. of
the Inquisition of Spain
, New York, 1906, Cotarelo y Valledor, Fray Diego de
Deza
, Madrid, 1905).
(i) The Friars Preachers and the Secular Clergy
The Preachers, who had been constituted from the beginning as an order of
clerics vowed to ecclesiastical duties with a view to supplementing the
insufficiency of the secular clergy, were universally accepted by the episcopate,
which was unable to provide for the pastoral care of the faithful and the
instruction of clerics. It was usually the bishops who summoned the Preachers to
their dioceses. The conflicts which broke out here and there during the
thirteenth century were not generally due to the bishops but to the parochial
clergy who considered themselves injured in their temporal rights because of the
devotion and generosity of the faithful towards the order. As a general thing
compromises were reached between the convents and the parishes in which they
were situated and peaceful results followed. The two great contests between the
order and the secular clergy broke out in France during the thirteenth century.
The first took place at the University of Paris, led by William of Saint-Amour
(1252-59), and was complicated by a scholastic question. The episcopate had no
share in this, and the church supported with all its strength the rights and
privileges of the order, which emerged victorious (Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant
,
I, 70, 90; Perrod, Etude sur la vie et les uvres de Guillaume de Saint-Amour
in Mémoires de la société d'émulation de Jura
, Lons-le-Saunier, 1902, p. 61;
Seppelt, Der Kampf der Bettelorden an der Universität Paris in der Mitte des 13.
Jahrhunderts
in Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen
, Breslau, III, 1905; VII,
1909). The strife broke out anew in the north of France after the privilege of
Martin IV, Ad fructus uberes
(13 Dec., 1281), and lasted until the Council of
Paris in 1290. It was to a large extent conducted by Guillaume de Flavacourt,
Bishop of Amiens, but in this instance also the two great mendicant orders
triumphed over their adversaries, thanks to the energetic assistance of two
cardinal legates (Denifle-Chatelain, Chart. Univ. Paris
I, passim; Finke, Des
Pariser National Konzil 1290
in Römische Quartalschrift
, 1895, p. 171; Paulus,
Welt und Ordensclerus beim Ausgange des XIII. Jahrhunderts in Kampfe um die
Pfarr-Rechte
, Essen-Ruhr, 1900).
The order gave many of its members to the episcopate, but endeavoured to
prevent this. Sts. Dominic and Franeis seem to have disapproved of the accession
of their religious to eeelesiastical dignities (Speculum perfectionis
, ed.
Sabatier, Paris, 1898, p. 75; Thomas of Celano, Legenda secunda S. Francisci
,
III, lxxxvi). Jordanus of Saxony the immediate successor of St. Dominic, forbade
all acceptance of election or postulation to the episcopate, under pain of
excommunication, without special permission of the pope, the general chapter,
and the master general (Acta Cap. Gen.
, ed. Reichert, 4). During his
administration he resisted with all his strength and declared that he would
rather see a friar buried than raised to the episcopate (Vitæ Fratrum
, ed.
Reichert, 141, 143, 209). Everyone knows the eloquent letter which Humbert of
Romans wrote to Albertus Magnus to dissuade him from aecepting the nomination to
the See of Ratisbon (1260; Peter of Prussia, Vita B. Alberti Magni
, Antwerp,
1621; p. 253). But all this opposition could not prevent the nomination of a
great many to high ecclesiastical dignities. The worth of many religious made
them so prominent that it was impossible that they should not be suggested for
the episcopate. Princes and nobles who had sons or kinsmen in the order often
laboured for this result with interested motives, but the Holy See especially
saw in the accession of Dominicans to the episcopate the means of infusing it
with new blood. From the accession of Gregory IX the appointment of Dominicans
to dioceses and archdioceses became an ordinary thing. Hence until the end of
the fifteenth century about fifteen hundred Preachers were either appointed or
translated to dioceses or archdioceses, among them men remarkable for their
learning, their competent administration, their zeal for souls, and the holiness
of their lives. (Eubel, Hierarchia catholica
, I-II; Bull Ord. Præd.
, I-IV;
Script. Ord. Præd.
, I, p. xxi; Cavalieri, Galleria de' sommi Pontefici,
Patriarchi, Areivescovi, e Vescovi dell' ordine de' Predicatori
, Benevento,
1696; Vigna, I veseovi domenicani Liguri ovvero in Liguria
, Genoa, 1887.)
(j) The Preachers and Civil Society
During the Middle Ages the Preachers influenced princes and communities.
Princes found them to be prudent advisers, expert ambassadors, and enlightened
confessors. The French monarchy was much attached to them. As early as 1226
Jordanus of Saxony was able to write, in speaking of Blanche of Castile The
queen tenderly loves the friars and she has spoken with mc personally and
familiarly about her affairs
(Bayonne, Lettres du B. Jourdain de Saxe
Paris-Lyons 1865, p. 66). No prince was more devoted to the order than St. Louis,
nor did any grant it more favours. The French monarchy sought most of its
confessors during the Middle Ages from the Order of Preachers (Chapotin, A
travers l'histoire dominicaine:
Les princes français du Moyen Age et l'ordre de
Saint Dominique
, Paris, 1903, p. 207; Idem, Etudes historiques sur la province
dominicaine de France
, Paris, 1890, p. 128). It was the entrance of Humbert II,
Dauphin of Vienna, into the order, which gained Dauphiny for France (Guiffrey,
Hist. de la réunion du Dauphiné à la France
Paris, 1878). The Dukes of
Burgundy also sought their confessors from the order (Chapotin, op. cit. 190).
The kings of England did likewise and frequently employed its members in their
service. (Palmer; The Kings's Confessors
in The Antiquary
, London, 1890, p.
114; Tarett, Friars Confessors of the English Kings
in The Home Counties
Magazine
, XII, 1910, p. 100). Several German emperors were much attached to the
order nevertheless the Preachers did not hesitate to enter into conflict with
Frederick II and Louis of Bavaria when these princes broke with the Church
(Opladen, Die Stellung der deutschen Könige zu den Orden im dreizethnten
Jahrhundert
Bonn, 1908; Paulus, Thomas von Strassburg und Rudolph von Sachsen.
Ihre Stellung zum Interdikt
in Hist. Jahrbuch
, XIII, 1892, 1; Neues Archiv
der Geschellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde
, XXX, 1905, 447). The
kings of Castile and Spain invariably chose their confessors from among the
Preachers (Catalogo de los religiosos Dominicos qui hen servido e a los Señores
de Castilla, de Aragon, y de Andalucia, en el empleo de sus Confessores de
Estado
, Madrid, 1700). The kings of Portugal likewise sought their directors
from the same source (de Sousa, Historia de S. Domingos particulor de Reino, e
conquistas de Portugal
Lisbon, 1767; Grégoire, Hist. des confesseurs les
empereurs, des rois et d'autres princes
, Paris, 1824).
The first to be established in the centres of cities, the Dominicans
exercised a profound influence on municipal life, especially in Italy. A witness
at the canonization of St. Dominic in 1233 expresses the matter when he says
that nearly all the cities of Lombardy and the Marches placed their affairs and
their statutes in the hands of the Preachers, that they might arrange and alter
them to their taste and as seemed to them fitting. The same was true of the
extirpation of wars, the restoration of peace, restitution for usury, hearing of
confessions and a multitude of benefits which would be too long to enumerate
(Annales Ord. Præd.
, Rome, 1756, append., col. 128). About this time the
celebrated John of Vicenza exercised powerful influence in the north of Italy
and was himself podestà of Verona (Sutter, Johann von Vicenza und die
italienische Friedensbewegung im Jahre 1233
, Freiburg, 1891; Ital. tr., Vicenza,
1900; Vitali, I Domenicani nella vita italiana del secolo XIII
, Milan, 1902;
Hefele, Die Bettelorden und das religiöse Volksleben Ober-und Mittelitaliens im
XIII. Jahrhundert
, Leipzig-Berlin, 1910). An idea of the penetration of the
order into all social classes may be formed from the declaration of Pierre
Dubois in 1300 that the Preachers and the Minors knew better than anyone else
the condition of the world and of all social classes (De recuperatione Terre
Sancte
, ed. Langlois, Paris, 1891, pp. 51, 74, 84). The part played by
Catherine of Siena in the pacification of the towns of Central Italy and the
return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome is well known. She was the greatest
figure of the second half of the fourteenth century, an Italian, not only a
saint, a mystic, a miracle-worker, but a statesman, and a great statesman, who
solved for the welfare of Italy and all Christendom the most difficult and
tragic question of her time
(Gebhart Une sainte homme d'état, Ste Catherine de
Sienne
; in Revue Hebdomadaire
, 16 March, 1907, 257). It was the Dominican
Bishop of Geneva Adémar de la Roche, who granted that town its liberties and
franchise in 1387 (Mallet, Libertés, franchises, immunités, et coutumes de la
ville de Genève promulgés par évêque Adémar Fabri le 23 Mai, 1387
in Mémoires
et documents de la société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Genève
, Geneva, II,
1843, p. 270). Finally reference must be made to the profound influence
exercised by Girolamo Savonarola (1498) on the political life of Florence during
the last years of the fifteenth century (Vilari, La Storia di Girolamo
Savonarola e dé suoi tempi
, Florence, 1887; Luotto, Il vero Savonarola
,
Florence, 1897).
(k) The Preachers and the Faithful
During the thirteenth century the faithful were almost without pastoral care
and preaching. The coming of the Preachers was an innovation which won over the
people eager for religious instruction. What a chronicler relates of Thuringia
was the case almost everywhere: Before the arrival of the Friars Preachers the
word of God was rare and precious and very rarely preached to the people. The
Friars Preachers preached alone in every section of Thuringia and in the town of
Erfurt and no one hindered them
(Koch, Graf Elger von Holmstein
, Gotha, 1865,
pp. 70, 72). About 1267 the Bishop of Amiens, Guillaume de Flavacourt, in the
war against heresy already mentioned, declared that the people refused to hear
the word of God from any save the Preachers and Minors (Bibl. de Grenoble, MS.
639, fol. 119). The Preachers exercised a special influence over the piously
inclined of both sexes among the masses, so numerous in the Middle Ages, and
they induced to penance and continence a great many people living in the world,
who were commonly called Beguins, and who lived either alone or in more or less
populous communities. Despite the order's attraction for this devout, half-lay,
half-religious world, the Preachers refused to take it under their jurisdiction
in order not to hamper their chief activity nor distort their ecclesiastical
ideal by too close contact with lay piety. The General Chapters of 1228 and 1229
forbade the religious to give the habit to any woman or to receive her
profession, or to give spiritual direction to any community of women not
strictly subject to some authority other than that of the order (Archiv. f.
Litt. a Kirchengesch.
, I, 27; Bayonne, Lettres du B. Jourdain de Saxe
, 110).
But the force of circumstances prevailed, and, despite everything, these clients
furnished the chief elements of the Penitential Order of St. Dominic, who
received their own rule in 1285, and of whom more has been said above (Mosheim,
De Beghardis et Beguiniabus
, Leipzig, 1720; Le Grand Les Béguines de Paris
,
1893; Nimal, Les Beguinages
, Nivelles, 1908). The Order especially encouraged
congregations of the Blessed Virgin and the saints, which developed greatly,
especially in Italy. Many of them had their headquarters in convents of the
Preachers, who administered them spiritually. After the Penitential movement of
1260 confraternities were formed commonly called Disciplinati, Battuti, etc.
Many of them originated in Dominican churches (there is no general historical
work on this subject). In 1274, during the Council of Lyons, Gregory X confided
to the Dominicans the preaching of the Holy Name of Jesus, whence arose
confraternities of that name (Bull. Ord. Præd., VIII, 524). Finally the second
half of the fifteenth century saw the rapid development of confraternities of
the Holy Rosary under the influence of the Preachers (Acta Sanctae Sedis nec
non magistrorum et capitulorum generalium sacri ordinis Prædicatorum pro
Societate SS. Rosarii
, Lyons, 1890). With the object of developing the piety
of the faithful the Preachers allowed them to be buried in the habit of the
order (Cantimpratanus,
De bono universali apum
, lib. II, viii, n. 8). From the
time of Jordanus of Saxony they issued letters of participation in the spiritual
goods of the order. The same general established at Paris the custom of the
evening sermon (collatio) for the students of the University, in order to turn
them aside from dissipation, which custom passed to all the other universities
(Vita fratrum
, ed. Reichert, 327).
(l) The Preachers and the Foreign Missions
During the Middle Ages the Order of Preachers exercised considerable activity
within the boundaries of Christendom and far beyond. The evangelization of
heathen countries was confided to the nearest Dominican provinces. At the
beginning of the fourteenth century the missions of Asia became a special group,
the congregation of Friars Pilgrims for Christ. Some of the remote provinces,
especially those of Greece and the Holy Land, were recruited from volunteers
throughout the order. Besides the work of evangelization the religious
frequently assumed the mission of ambassador or agent to schismatic or pagan
princes, and Friars Preachers frequently occupied sees in partibus infidelium. A
number of them, faithful to the order's doctrinal vocation, composed works of
all kinds to assist their apostolate to defend the Christian Faith, to inform
the Roman Church or Latin princes concerning the condition of the East, and to
indicate measures to be taken against the dangers threatening Christianity.
Finally they frequently shed their blood in these inhospitable and unfruitful
countries. The province of Spain laboured for the conversion of the Arabs of the
Peninsula, and in 1256 Humbert of Romans described the satisfactory results (H.
de Romanis, Opera
, ed. Berthier, II, 502). In 1225 the first Spanish
Dominicans evangelized Morocco and the head of the mission, Brother Dominic, was
consecrated in that year first Bishop of Morocco (Analecta Ord. Præd., III, 374
sqq.). Some years later they were already established at Tunis [Mon. Ord. Præd.:
Hist.
, IV (Barmusidiana) fasc. II, 29]. In 1256 and the ensuing years Alexander
IV, at the instance of St. Raymond of Pennafort, gave a vigorous impulse to this
mission (Potthast, 16,438; 17,187; 17,929).
In the north of Europe the province of England or that of Dacia carried its
establishments as far as Greenland (Telié, L'évangelization de l'Amérique avant
Christophe Colomb
in Compte rendu du congrès scient. intern. des Catholiques
,
1891, sect. hist., 1721). As early as 1233 the province of Germany promoted the
crusade against the Prussians and the heretical Stedingers, and brought them to
the Faith (Schomberg, Die Dominikaner im Erzbistum Bremen
, Brunswick, 1910, 14;
Bull. Ord. Præd.
, I, 61; H. de Romanis, Opera
, II, 502). The province of
Poland, founded by St. Hyaeinth (1221), extended its apostolate by means of this
saint as far as Kieff and Dantizig. In 1246 Brother Alexis resided at the Court
of the Duke of Russia, and in 1258 the Preachers evangelized the Ruthenians
(Abraham, Powstanie organizacyi Kosicio lacinskiego na Rusi
, Lemberg, 1904;
Rainaldi, Annal. eccl.
, ad ann. 1246, n. 30; Potthast, 17,186; Baracz, Rys
dziejó Zakonn Kaznodzie jskiego w Polsce
Lemberg, 1861; Comtesse de Flavigny,
Saint Hyacinthe et ses compagnons
, Paris, 1899). The province of Hungary,
founded in 1221 by Bl. Paul of Hungary, evangelized the Cumans and the people of
the Balkans. As early as 1235-37 Brother Richard and his companions set out in
quest of Greater Hungary - the Hungarian pagans still dwelling on the Volga
(Vitæ Fratrum
, ed. Reichert, 305; De inventa Hungaria Magna tempore Gregorii
IX
, ed. Endlicher, in Rerum Hungaricarum Monumenta
, 248; Ferrarius, De rebus
Hungaricæ Provinciæ S. Ord. Præd.
, Vienna, 1637).
The province of Greece, founded in 1228, occupied those territories of the
empire of the East which had been conquered by the Latins, its chief centre of
activity being Constantinople. Here also the Preachers laboured for the return
of the schismatics to ecclesiastical unity (Script. Ord. Præd.
, I, pp. i, xii,
102, 136, 156, 911; Potthast, 3198; Vitæ fratrum
, 1218). The province of the
Holy Land established in 1228, occupied all the Latin conquest of the Holy Land
besides Nicosia and Tripoli. Its houses on the Continent were destroyed one
after the other with the defeat of the Christians, and at the beginning of the
fourteenth century the province was reduced to the three convents on the Island
of Cyprus (Script. Ord. Præd.
, I, pp. i, xii; Balme, La Province dominicaine
de Terre-Sainte de 1277 à 1280
in Archives de l'Orient Latin
; Idem, Les
franciscains et les dominicains à Jérusalem au treizième et au quatorzième
siècle
, 1890, p. 324). The province of the Holy Land was the starting point for
the evangelization of Asia during the thirteenth century. As early as 1237 the
provincial, Philip, reported to Gregory IX extraordinary results obtained by the
religious; the evangelization reached Jacobites and Nestorians, Maronites and
Saracens (Script. Ord. Præd., I, 104). About the same time the Friars
established themselves in Armenia and in Georgia (Bull. Ord. Præd.
, I, 108,
Script. O P.
, I, 122; H. de Romanis, Opera
II, 502 Vinc. Bellovacensis,
Speculum historiale
, l. b XXI, 42; Tamarati, L'Eglise Géorgienne des origines
jusqu'à nos jours
, Rome, 1910, 430).
The missions of Asia continued to develop through out the thirteenth century
and part of the fourteenth and missionaries went as far as Bagdad and India
[Mandonnet, Fra Ricoldo de Monte Croce
in Revue bib.
, I, 1893; Balme,
Jourdain Cathala de Sévérae, Evêque de Coulain
(Quilon), Lyons, 1886]. In 1312
the master general, Béranger de Landore, organized the missions of Asia into a
special congregation of Friars Pilgrims
, with Franco of Perugia as vicar
general. As a base of evangelization they had the convent of Pera
(Constantinople), Capha, Trebizond, and Ncgropont. Thence they branched out into
Armenia and Persia. In 1318 John XXII appointed Franco of Perugia Archbishop of
Sultanieh, with six other Dominicans as suffragans. During the first half of the
fourteenth century the Preachers occupied many sees in the East. When the
missions of Persia were destroyed in 1349, the Preachers possessed fifteen
monasteries there, and the United Brethren (see below) eleven monasteries. In
1358 the Congregation of Pilgrims still had two convents and eight residences.
This movement brought about the foundation, in 1330, of the United Brethren of
St. Gregory the Illuminator. It was the work of Bl. Bartolommeo Petit of Bologna,
Bishop of Maragha, assisted by John of Kerni. It was formed by Armenian
religious who adopted the Constitution of the Dominicans and were incorporated
with the order after 1356. Thirty years after their foundation the United
Brethren had in Armenia alone 50 monasteries with 700 religious. This province
still existed in the eighteenth century [Eubel, Die während des 14.
Jahrhunderts im Missionsgebiet der Dominikanel und Franziskaner errichteten
Bistümer
in Festchrift des deutschen Campo Santo in Rom
, Freiburg i. Br.,
1897, 170; Heyd, Die Kolonien der römischen Kirche, welche die Dominikaner und
Franziskaner im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert in dem von der Tataren beherrschten
Ländern Asiens und Europas gregründet haben
in Zeitschrift für die historische
Theologie
, 1858; Tournebize, Hist. politique et religieuse de l'Arménie
,
Paris, s. d (1910) 320; André-Marie, Missions dominicaines dans l'Extrême
Orient
, Lyons and Paris, 1865 Mortier, Hist. des maîtres généraux de l'ordre
des Frères Prêcheurs
, I, IV].
(m) The Preachers and Sanctity
It is characteristic of Dominican sanctity that its saints attained holiness
in the apostolate, in the pursuit or promotion of learning, administration,
foreign missions, the papacy, the cardinalate, and the episcopate. Until the end
of the fifteenth century the order in its three branches gave to the Church nine
canonized saints and at least seventy-three blessed. Of the first order (the
Preachers) are St. Dominic, St. Peter of Verona, martyr, St. Thomas Aquinas, St.
Raymond of Pennafort, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Antoninus of Florence. Among the
Dominican saints in general there is a predominance of the intellectual over the
emotional qualities; their mystical life is more subjective than objective; and
asceticism plays a strong part in their holiness. Meditation on the sufferings
of Christ and His love was common among them. Mystic states, with the phenomena
which accompany them, were ordinary, especially in convents of women in German
countries. Many received the stigmata in various forms. St. Thomas Aquinas and
Meister Eckhart were, from different standpoints, the greatest medieval
theorists concerning the mystical state (Giffre de Rechac, Les vies et actions
mémorables des saints canonisés de l'ordre des Frères Prêcheurs et de plusieurs
bienheureux et illustres personnages du même ordre
, Paris, 1647; Marchese,
Sagro diario domenicano
, Naples, 1668, 6 vols. in fol.; Manoel de Lima,
Agiologio dominico
, Lisbon, 1709-54, 4 vols. in fol.; Année dominicaine
,
Lyons, 1883-1909, 12 vols. in 4; Imbert-Gourbeyre, La Stigmatisation
,
Clermont-Ferrand, 1894; Thomas de Vallgormera, Mystica theologia D. Thomae
,
Barcelona, 1662; Turin, 1911, re-ed. Berthier).
(2) Modern Period
The modern period consists of the three centuries between the religious revolution at the beginning of the sixteenth century (Protestantism) and the French Revolution with its consequences. The Order of Preachers, like the Church itself, felt the shock of these destructive revolutions but its vitality enabled it to withstand them successfully. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the order was on the way to a genuine renaissance when the Revolutionary upheavals occurred. The progress of heresy cost it six or seven provinces and several hundreds of convents, but the discovery of the New World opened up a fresh field of activity. Its gains in America and those which arose as a consequence of the Portuguese conquests in Africa and the Indies far exceeded the losses of the order in Europe, and the seventeenth century saw its highest numerical development. The sixteenth century was a great doctrinal century, and the movement lasted beyond the middle of the eighteenth. In modern times the order lost much of its influence on the political powers, which had universally fallen into absolutism and had little sympathy for the democratic constitution of the Preachers. The Bourbon Courts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were particularly unfavourable to them until the suppression of the Society of Jesus. In the eighteenth century there were numerous attempts at reform which created, especially in France, geographical confusion in the administration. During the eighteenth century the tyrannical spirit of the European Powers and, still more, the spirit of the age lessened the number of recruits and the fervour of religious life. The French Revolution ruined the order in France, and the crises which more or less rapidly followed considerably lessened or wholly destroyed numerous provinces.
(a) Geographical Distribution and Statistics
The modern period saw a great change in the geographical distribution of
provinces and the number of religious in the order. The establishment of
Protestantism in Anglo-Saxon countries brought about during the sixteenth
century, the total or partial disappearance of certain provinces. The provinces
of Saxony, Dacia, England, and Scotland completely disappeared, that of Teutonia
was mutilated; that of Ireland sought refuge in various houses on the Continent.
The discovery and evangelization of America opened up vast territories, where
the first Dominican missionaries established themselves as early as 1510. The
first province, with San Domingo and the neighbouring islands for its territory,
was erected, under the name of the Holy Cross, in 1530. Others followed quickly -
among them St. James of Mexico (1532), St. John Baptist of Peru (1539), St.
Vincent of Chiapa (1551), St. Antoninus of New Granada (1551), St. Catherine of
Quito (1580), St. Lawrence of Chile (1592). In Europe the order developed
constantly from the middle of the sixteenth century till the middle of the
eighteenth. New provinces or congregations were formed. Under the government of
Serafino Cavalli (1571-78) the order had thirty-one provinces and five
congregations. In 1720 it had forty-nine provinces and four congregations. At
the former date there were about 900 convents; at the latter, 1200. During
Cavalli's time the order had 14,000 religious, and in 1720 more than 20,000. It
seems to have reached its greatest numerical development during the seventeenth
century. Mention is made of 30,000 and 40,000 Dominicans; perhaps these figures
include nuns; it does not seem probable that the number of Preachers alone ever
exceeded 25,000. The secularization in Austria-Hungary under Joseph II began the
work of partial suppression of convents, which was continued in France by the
Committee of Regulars (1770) until the Convention (1793) finally destroyed all
religious life in that country. The Napoleonic conquest overthrew many provinces
and houses in Europe. Most of them were eventually restored; but the Revolution
destroyed partially or wholly the provinces of Portugal (1834), Spain (1834),
and Italy (1870). The political troubles brought about by the revolt of Latin
America from the mother country at the beginning of the nineteenth century
partially or wholly destroyed several provinces of the New World (Script. Ord.
Præd.
, II, p. I, Analecta Ord. Præd.
, I sqq.; Dominicanus orbis descriptus
;
Mortier, Hist. des maîtres généraux
, V sqq.; Chapotin, Le dernier prieur du
dernier couvent
, Paris, 1893; Rais, Historia de la provincia de Aragón, orden
de Predicadores desde le año 1803 haste el de 1818
, Saragossa, 1819; 1824).
(b) Administration of the Order
During the modern period the Preachers remained faithful to the spirit of
their organization. Some modifications were necessitated by the general
condition of the Church and civil society. Especially noteworthy was the attempt,
in 1569, of St. Pius V, the Dominican pope, to restrict the choice of superiors
by inferiors and to constitute a sort of administrative aristocracy (Acta Cap.
Gener., V, 94). The frequent intervention of popes in the government of the
order and the pretensions of civil powers, as well as its great development,
diminished the frequency of general chapters; the rapid succession of masters
general caused many chapters to be convened during the seventeenth century; in
the eighteenth century chapters again became rare. The effective administration
passed into the hands of the general assisted by pontifical decrees. During
these three centuries the order had many heads who were remarkable for their
energy and administrative ability, among them Thomas de Vio (1508-18), Garcia de
Loaysa (1518-24), Vincent Giustiniani (1558-70), Nicolo Ridolfi (1629-44),
Giovanni Battista de' Marini (1650-69), Antonin Cloche (1686-1720), Antonin
Brémond (1748-55), John Thomas de Boxadors (Mortier, Hist. des maîtres
généraux
, V sq.; Acta cap. gen.
, IV sq.; Chronicon magistrorum generalium
;
Regula S. Augustini et Constitutiones Ord. Præd.
, Rome, 1695; Paichelli, Vita
del Rmo P. F. Giov. Battista de' Marini
, Rome, 1670; Messin, Vita del Rmo P F.
Antonino Cloche
, Benevento, 1721; Vita Antonini Bremondii
in Annales Ord.
Præd.
, Rome, 1756, I, p. LIX).
(c) Scholastic Organization
The scholastic organization of the Dominicans during this modern period
tended to concentration of studies. The conventual school required by the
Constitutions disappeared, at least in its essentials, and in each province or
congregation the studies were grouped in particular convents. The studia
generalia multiplied, as well as convents incorporated with universities. The
General Chapter of 1551 designates 27 convents in university towns where, and
where only, the religious might take the degree of Master in Theology. Through
the generosity of Dominicans in high ecclesiastical offices large colleges for
higher education were also established for the benefit of certain provinces.
Among the most famous of these were the College of St. Gregory at Valladolid,
founded in 1488 by Alonzo of Burgos, adviser and confessor of the kings of
Castile (Bull. O. P., IV, 38); that of St. Thomas at Seville, established in
1515 by Archbishop Diego de Deza (Historia del colegio major de Ste Tomás de
Sevilla
, Seville, 1890). The Preachers also established universities in their
chief provinces in America - San Domingo (1538), Santa Fé de Bogotá (1612),
Quito (1681), Havana (1721) - and even in the Philippines, where the University
of Manila (1645) is still flourishing and in their hands. During the sixteenth
and following centuries the schedule of studies was more than once revised, and
the matter extended to meet the needs of the times. Oriental studies especially
received a vigorous impulse under the generalship of Antonin Brémond (Fabricy,
Des titres primitifs de la Révélation
, Rome, 1772, II, 132; Acta. Cap. Gen.
,
IV-VII; Bull. O. P.
, passim; V. de la Fuente, La enseñanza Tomistica en
España
, Madrid, 1874; Contarini Notizie storiche circa gli publici professori
nello studio di Padova scelti dall' ordine di San Domenieo
, Venice, 1769).
(d) Doctrinal Activity
The doctrinal activity of the Preachers continued during the modern period.
The order, closely connected with the events of the Reformation in German
countries, faced the revolutionary movement as best it could, and by preaching
and writing deserved what Dr. Paulus has said of it: It may well be said that
in the difficult conflict through which the Catholic Church had to pass in
Germany in the sixteenth century no other religious order furnished in the
literary sphere so many champions, or so well equipped, as the Order of St.
Dominic
(Die deutschen Dominikaner in Kampfe gegen Luther, 1518-1563
,
Freiburg i. Br., 1903). The order was conspicuous by the number and influence of
the Dominican bishops and theologians who took part in the Council of Trent. To
a certain extent Thomistic doctrine predominated in the discussions and
decisions of the council, so that Clement VII, in 1593, could say, when he
desired the Jesuits to follow St. Thomas, that the council approved and accepted
his works (Astrain, Historia de la Compañia de Jésus en la asistencia de
España
, III, Madrid, 1909, 580). The Catechismus ad Parochos
, the composition
of which had been ordered by the council, and which was published at the command
of Pius V (1566), is the work of Dominican theologians (Reginaldus, De
catechismi romani auctoritate dissertatio
, Naples, 1765). The Spanish Dominican
School of the sixteenth century, inaugurated by Francisco de Vitoria (d. 1540),
produced a series of eminent theologians: Melchior Cano (1560), the celebrated
author of De locis theologicis
; Domingo Soto (1500); Bartolomé de Medina
(1580); Domingo Bañez. This. line of theologians was continued by Tomás de Lemos
(1629); Diego Alvarez (1635); Juan de S. Tomás (1644), [Script. O.P.
, II, s.
vv.; P. Getino, Historia de un convento
(St. Stephen of Salamanca), Vergara,
1904 Ehrle, Die Vatikanischen Handschriften der Salamanticenser Theologen des
sechszehnten Jahrhunderts
in Der Katholik
, 64-65, 1884-85; L. G. Getino, El
maestro Fr. Francisco de Vitoria
in La Ciencia tomista
, Madrid, I, 1910, 1;
Caballero, Vida del Illmo. dr. D. Fray Melchor Cano
, Madrid, 1871; Alvarez,
Santa Teresa y el P. Bañez
, Madrid, 1882].
Italy furnished a contingent of Dominican theologians of note, of whom Thomas
de Vio Cajetan (d. 1534) was incontestably the most famous (Cossio, II
cardinale Gaetano e la riforma
, Cividale, 1902). Franceseo Silvestro di Ferrara
(d. 1528) left a valuable commentary on the Summa contra Gentiles
(Script. O.
P., II, 59). Chrysostom Javelli, a dissenter from the Thomistic School, left
very remarkable writings on the moral and political sciences (op. cit., 104).
Catharinus (1553) is a famous polemicist, but an unreliable theologian
(Schweizer,
Ambrosius Catharinus Politus, 1484-1553, ein Theologe des
Reformations-Zeitalters
, Münster, 1910). France likewise produced excellent
theologians - Jean Nicolai (d. 1673); Vincent de Contenson (d. 1674); Antoine
Reginald (d. 1676); Jean-Baptiste Gonet (d. 1081); Antoine Gondin (d. 1695);
Antonin Manoulié (d. 1706); Noël Alexandre (Natalie Alexander) (d. 1724);
Hyacinthe de Graveson (d. 1733); Hyacinthe Serry (d.1738) (Seript. O. P.
, II;
Hurter Nomenelator
, IV; H. Serry, Opera omnia
, I , Lyons, 1770, p. 5). From
the sixteenth century to the eighteenth the Thomistic School upheld by the
authority of Dominican general chapters and theologians, the official adhesion
of new religious orders and various theological faculties, but above all by the
Holy See, enjoyed an increasing and undisputed authority.
The disputes concerning moral theology which disturbed the Church during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, originated in the theory of probability
advanced by the Spanish Dominican Bartolomé de Medina in 1577. Several
theologians of the order adopted, at the beginning of the seventeenth century
the theory of moral probability; but in consideration of the abuses which
resulted from these doctrines the General Chapter of 1656 condemned them, and
after that time there were no more Probabilists among the Dominicans. The
condemnations of Alexander VII (1665, 1667), the famous Decree of Innocent XI,
and various acts of the Roman Church combined to make the Preachers resolute
opponents of Probabilism. The publication of Concina's Storia del probabilismo
in 1743 renewed the controversy. He displayed enormous activity, and his friend
and disciple, Giovanni Vicenzo Patuzzi (d. 1769) defended him in a series of
vigorous writings. St. Alphonsus Liguori felt the consequences of these disputes,
and, in consideration of the position taken by the Holy See, greatly modified
his theoretical system of probability and expressed his desire to adhere to the
doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas (Mandonnet, Le décret d'Innocent XI contre le
probabilisme
, in Revue Thomiste
1901-03; Ter Haar, Des Decret des Papstes
Innocenz XI über den Probabilismus
, Paderborn, 1904; Concina, Della storia del
Probabilismo e del Rigorismo
, Lucca, 1743; Mondius, Studio storico-critico sul
sistema morale di S. Alfonso M. de Liguori
, Monza, 1911; Dölinger-Reuseh,
Gesch. der Moralstreitigkelten
, Nordlingen, 1889).
(e) Scientific productions
The literary activity of the Preachers of the sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries was not confined to the theological movement noticed above, but shared
in the general movement of erudition in the sacred sciences. Among the most
noteworthy productions were the works of Pagnini (d. 1541) on the Hebrew text of
Scripture; his lexicons and grammars were famous in their day and exercised a
lasting influence (Script. O. P., II 114); Sixtus of Siena (d. 1569), a
converted Jew created the science of introduction to the sacred Books with his
Bibliotheca Sancta
(Venice, 1566; op. cit., 206); Jacques Goar, liturgist and
Orientalist published the Euchologium sive rituale Græeorum
(Paris, 1647), a
work which, according to Renaudot, was unsurpassed by anything in its time
(Hurter, Nomenclat. litt.
, III, 1211). François Combefis (d. 1679) issued
editions of the Greek Fathers and writers (op. cit., IV, 161). Michel le Quien,
Orientalist, produced a monumental work in his Oriens Christianus
. Vansleb (d.
1679) was twice sent by Colbert to the Orient, whence he brought a large number
of MSS. for the Bibliothèque du Roi (Pougeois Vansleb
, Paris, 1869). Thomas
Mammachi (d. 1792) left a large unfinished work, Origines et Antiquitates
Christianæ
(Rome, 1753-57).
In the historical field mention must be made of Bartholomew de Las Casas (d.
1566) who left a valuable Historia de las Indias
(Madrid, 1875), Noël
Alexandre (d. 1724) left an ecclesiastical history which was long held in esteem
[Paris, 1676-89; (Dict. de Théol. Cath., I, 769)]. Joseph Augustin Orsi (d. 1761)
wrote an Historia eelesiastica
which was continued by his confrère Filippo
Angelo Becchetti (d. 1814). The last edition (Rome, 1838); numbers 50 volumes
(Kirchenlex., IX, 1087). Nico, las Coeffeteau was, according to Vaugelas, one of
the two greatest masters of the French language at the beginning of the
eighteenth century (Urbain, Nicolas Coeffeteau, dominicain, évêque de Marseille,
un des fondateurs de la prose française, 1574-1623
, Paris, 1840). Thomas
Campanella (d. 1639) won renown by his numerous writings on philosophy and
sociology as well as by the boldness of his ideas and his eventful life (Dict.
de théol. Bath., II, 1443). Jacques Barelier (d. 1673) left one of the foremost
botanical works of his time, which was edited by A. y de Jussieu, Icones
plantarum per Galliam, Hispaniam et Italiam observatarum ad vivum exhibitarum
[Paris, 1714; (Script. O. P., II, 645)].
(f) The Preachers and Christian Society
During the modern period the order performed countless services for the
Church. Their importance may be gathered from the fact that during this period
it gave to the Church two popes, St. Pius V (1566-72) and Benedict XIII
(1724-30), forty cardinals, and more than a thousand bishops and archbishops.
From the foundation of the Roman Congregations in the sixteenth century a
special place was reserved for the Preachers; thus the titulars of the
Commissariat of the Holy Office and the secretary of the Index were always
chosen from this order. The title of Consultor of the Holy Office also belonged
by right to the master general and the Master of the Sacred Palace (Gams,
Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae
, Ratisbon, 1873; Falloux, Histoire de
Saint Pie V
, Paris, 1858; Borgia, Benedicti XIII vita
, Rome, 1741; Catalano,
De secretario Indicis
, Rome 1751). The influence of the Preachers on the
political powers of Europe was unequally exercised during this period: they
remained confessors of the kings of Spain until 1700; in France their credit
decreased especially under Louis XIV, from whom they had much to suffer
(Catalogo de los religiosos dominicanos confessores de Estado, 1700
; Chapotin,
La guerre de succession de Poissy, 1660-1707
, Paris, 1892).
(g) The Preachers and the Missions
The missions of the Preachers reached their greatest development during the
modern period. They were fostered, on the one hand, by the Portuguese conquests
in Africa and the East Indies and, on the other, by the Spanish conquests in
America and Western Asia. As early as the end of the fifteenth century
Portuguese Dominicans reached the West Coast of Africa and, accompanying the
explorers, rounded the Cape of Good Hope to settle on the coast of East Africa.
They founded temporary or permanent missions in the Portuguese African
settlements and went in succession to the Indies, Ceylon, Siam, and Malacca.
They made Goa the centre of these missions which in 1548 were erected into a
special mission of the Holy Cross, which had to suffer from the British conquest,
but continued to flourish till the beginning of the nineteenth century. The
order gave a great many bishops to these regions [Joao dos Santos, Ethiopia
oriental
, Evora, 1609; re-edited Lisbon, 1891; Cacegas-de Sousa, Historia de S.
Domingo partidor do reino e eonquistas de Portugal
, Lisbon, 1767 (Vol. IV by
Lucas de Santa Catharina); André Marie, Missions dominicaines dans l'extrême
Orient
, Lyons-Paris, 1865]. The discovery of America soon brought Dominican
evangelization in the footsteps of the conquistadores, one of them Diego de Deza,
was the constant defender of Christopher Columbus, who declared (letter of 21
Dec. 1504) that it was to him the Sovereigns of Spain owed the possession of the
Indies (Mandonnet, Les dominicains et la découverte de l'Amérique
, Paris 1893).
The first missionaries reached the New World in 1510, and preaching was quickly
extended throughout the conquered countries, where they organized the various
provinces already mentioned and found in Bartolomé de las Casas who took the
habit of the order, their most powerful assistant in the defence of the Indians.
St. Louis Bertrand (d. 1581) was the great apostle of New Granada, and St.
Rose of Lima (d. 1617) the first flower of sanctity in the New World (Remesal
Historia de la provincia de S. Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala
, Madrid, 1619;
Davila Padilla Historia de la fundacion y discorso de la provincia de Santiago
de Mexico
, Madrid, 1592; Brussels 1625; Franco, Segunda parte de la historia
de provincia de Santiago de Mexico
, 1645, Mexico re-ed. Mexico, 1900; Melendez,
Tesores verdadero de la Indias en la historia de la gran provincia de S Juan
Bautista del Peru
, Rome, 1681; Alonso d' Zamora, Historia de la provineia de
San Antonio del nuevo reyno de Granada
, Barcelona, 1701; Helps, Life of las
Casas, the Apostle of the Indies
London, 1883; Gutierrez, Fray Bartolomé de
las Casas sus tiempos y su apostolado
, Madrid, 1878; Fabie, Vida y escritos de
Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
, Madrid, 1879; Wilberforce, Life of Louis
Bertrand
, Fr. tr. Folghera, Paris, 1904; Masson, Sainte Rose, tertiaire
dominicaine, patronne du Nouveau Monde
, Lyons, 1898). Dominican evangelization
went from America to the Philippines (1586) and thence to China (1590), where
Gaspar of the Holy Cross, of the Portuguese Congregation of the Indies, had
already begun to work in 1559. The Preachers established themselves in Japan
(1601), in Tonking (1676), and in the Island of Formosa. This flourishing
mission passed through persecutions, and the Church has raised its numerous
martyrs to her altars [Ferrando-Fonseca, Historia de los PP. Dominicos a las
isles Filipinas, y en sus misiones de Japón, China, Tungkin y Formosa
, Madrid,
1870; Navarrete, Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos y religiosos de la
monarquia de China
, Madrid, 1676-1679, tr., London, 1704; Gentili, Memorie di
un missionario domenicano nella Cina
, 1887; Orfanel, Historia eelesiastica de
los succesos de la christiandad de Japón desde 1602 que entró en el la orden de
Predicadores, haste el año de 1620
, Madrid, 1633; Guglielmotti, Memorie delle
missioni cattoliche nel regno del Tunchino
, Rome, 1844; Arias, El beato Sanz y
companeros martires
, Manila, 1893; I martiri annamiti e chinesi (1798-1856)
,
Rome, 1900; Clementi, Gli otto martiri tonchinesi dell' ordine di S. Domenico
,
Rome, 1906]. In 1635 the French Dominicans began the evangelization of the
French Antilles, Guadaloupe, Martinique etc., which lasted until the end of the
eighteenth century (Du Tertre, Hist. générale des Antilles
, Paris, 1667-71;
Labat Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique
, Paris 1742). In 1750 the Mission
of Mesopotamia and Kurdistan was founded by the Italian religious; it passed to
the Province of France (Paris) in 1856 (Goormachtigh, Hist. de la mission
Dominicaine en Mésopotamie et Kurdistan
, in Analecta O. P.
III, 271).
(h) Dominican Saints and Blessed
From the beginning of the sixteenth century members of the Order of St. Dominic eminent for sanctity were the subjects of twenty-one canonizations or beatifications. Some of the beatifications included a more or less large number at one time: such were the Annamite martyrs, who formed a group of twenty-six beati canonized 21 May, 1900, by Leo XIII, and the martyrs of Tonking, who numbered eight, the last of whom died in 1861, and who were canonized by Pius X, 28 Nov., 1905. Five saints were canonized during this period; St. John of Gorkum (d. 1572), martyr; St. Pius V (d. 1572), the last pope canonized; St. Louis Bertrand (d. 1581), missionary in the New World; St. Catherine de' Ricci (d. 1589), of the second order, and St. Rose of Lima (d. 1617), tertiary, the first American saint. (See general bibliography of saints in section Middle Ages above.)
(3) Contemporaneous Period
The contemporaneous period of the history of the Preachers begins with the different restorations of provinces under taken after the revolutions which had destroyed the order in several countries of the Old World and the New. This period begins more or less early in the nineteenth century, and it cannot be traced down to the present day without naming religious who are still living and whose activity embodies the present life of the order. The revolutions not having totally destroyed certain of the provinces, nor decimated them, simultaneously, the Preachers were able to take up the laborious work of restoration in countries where the civil legislation did not present insurmountable obstacles. During this critical period the number of Preachers seems never to have sunk below 3500. The statistics for 1876 give 3748 religious, but 500 of these had been expelled from their convents and were engaged in parochial work. The statistics for 1910 give a total of very nearly 4472 religious both nominally and actually engaged in the proper activities of the order. They are distributed in 28 provinces and 5 congregations, and possess nearly 400 convents or secondary establishments.
In the revival movement France held a foremost place, owing to the reputation and convincing power of the immortal orator, Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802-61). He took the habit of a Friar Preacher at Rome (1839), and the province of France was canonically erected in 1850. From this province were detached the province of Lyons, called Occitania (1862), that of Toulouse (1869), and that of Canada (1909). The French restoration likewise furnished many labourers to other provinces, to assist in their organization and progress. From it came the master general who remained longest at the head of the administration during the nineteenth century, Père Vincent Jandel (1850-72). Here should be mentioned the province of St. Joseph in the United States. Founded in 1805 by Father Dominic Fenwick, afterwards first Bishop of Cincinnati, Ohio (1821-32), this province has developed slowly, but now ranks among the most flourishing and active provinces of the order. In 1910 it numbered 17 convents or secondary houses. In 1905 it established a large house of studies at Washington.
The province of France (Paris) has produced a large number of preachers,
several of whom became renowned. The conferences of Notre-Dame-de-Paris were
inaugurated by Père Lacordaire. The Dominicans of the province of France
furnished most of the orators: Lacordaire (1835-36, 1843-51), Jacques Monsabré
(1869-70, 1872-90), Joseph Ollivier (1871, 1897), Thomas Etourneau (1898-1902).
Since 1903 the pulpit of Notre Dame has again been occupied by a Dominican. Père
Henri Didon (d. 1900) was one of the most esteemed orators of his time. The
province of France displays greater intellectual and scientific activity than
ever, the chief centre being the house of studies at present situated at Kain,
near Tournai, Belgium, where are published L'Année Dominicaine
(founded 1859),
La Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Theologiques
(1907), and La Revue de
la Jeunesse
(1909).
The province of the Philippines, the most populous in the order, is recruited
from Spain, where it has several preparatory houses. In the Philippines it has
charge of the University of Manila, recognized by the Government of the United
States, two colleges, and six establishments; in China it administers the
missions of North and South Fo-Kien, in the Japanese Empire, those of Formosa
and Shikoku, besides establishments at New Orleans, at Caracas (Venezuela) and
at Rome. The province of Spain has seventeen establishments in the Peninsula and
the Canaries, as well as the missions of Urubamba (Peru). Since 1910 it has
published at Madrid an important review, La Ciencia Tomista
. The province of
Holland has a score of establishments, and the missions of Curaçao and Puerto
Rico. Other provinces also have their missions. That of Piedmont has
establishments at Constantinople and Smyrna; that of Toulouse, in Brazil; that
of Lyons, in Cuba, that of Ireland, in Australia and Trinidad; that of Belgium,
in the Belgian Congo, and so on.
Doctrinal development has had an important place in the restoration of the
Preachers. Several institutions besides those already mentioned have played
important parts. Such is the Biblical school at Jerusalem, open to the religious
of the order and to secular clerics, and which publishes the Revue Biblique
,
so highly esteemed in the learned world. The faculty of theology of the
University of Freiburg, confided to the care of the Dominicans in 1890, is
flourishing and has about 250 students. The Collegium Angelicum, established at
Rome (1911) by Hyacinth Cormier (master general since 1902), is open to regulars
and seculars for the study of the sacred sciences. To the reviews mentioned
above must be added the Revue Thomiste
, founded by Père Thomas Coconnier (d.
1908), and the Analecta Ordinis Prædicatorum
(1893). Among the numerous
writers of the order in this period are: Cardinals Thomas Zigliara (d. 1893) and
Zephirin González (d. 1894), two esteemed philosophers; Father Alberto
Guillelmotti (d. 1893), historian of the Pontifical Navy, and Father Heinrich
Denifle, one of the most famous writers on medieval history (d. 1905).
In 1910 the order had twenty archbishops or bishops, one of whom, Andreas
Frühwirth, formerly master general (1892-1902), is Apostolic nuncio at Munich
(Sanvito, Catalogus omnium provinciarum sacri ordinis praedicatorum
, Rome,
1910; Analecta O. P.
, Rome, 1893 -; L'Année Dominicaine
, Paris, 1859 - ). In
the last two publications will be found historical and bibliographical
information concerning the history of the Preachers during the contemporaneous
period.
B. THE SECOND ORDER; DOMINICAN SISTERS
The circumstances under which St. Dominic established the first convent of
nuns at Prouille (1206) and the legislation given the second order have been
related above. As early as 1228 the question arose as to whether the Order of
Preachers would accept the government of convents for women. The order itself
was strongly in favour of avoiding this ministry and struggled long to maintain
its freedom. But the sisters found, even among the Preachers, such advocates as
the master general, Jordanus of Saxony (d. 1236), and especially the Dominican
cardinal, Hugh of St. Cher (d. 1263), who promised them that they would
eventually be victorious (1267). The incorporation of monasteries with the order
continued through the latter part of the thirteenth and during the next century.
In 1288 the papal legate, Giovanni Boccanazzi, simultaneously placed all the
Penitent Sisters of St. Mary Magdalen in Germany under the government of the
provincial of the Preachers, but this step was not final. The convents of
sisters incorporated with the order were especially numerous in the province of
Germany The statistics for 1277 show 58 monasteries already incorporated, 40 of
which were in the single province of Teutonia. The statistics for 1303 give 149
convents of Dominican nuns, and these figures increased during the succeeding
centuries. Nevertheless, a certain number of monasteries passed under the
jurisdiction of bishops. In the list of convents drawn up during the generalship
of Serafino Cavalli (1571-78) there are only 168 monasteries. But the convents
of nuns are not indicated for most provinces, and the number should really be
much higher. The Council of Trent placed all the convents of nuns under the
jurisdiction of bishops, but the Preachers frequently provided these houses with
chaplains or almoners. The statistics for 1770 give 180 monasteries, but they
are incomplete. The revolutions, which affected the ecclesiastical situation in
most Catholic countries from the end of the eighteenth century, brought about
the suppression of a great many monasteries; several, however, survived these
disturbances, and others were re-established. In the list for 1895 there are
more than 150 monasteries including some of the Third Order, which are
cloistered like the Second Order. These monasteries are most numerous in Spain.
In Germany the convents of nuns in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
witnessed the development of an intense mystical life, and several of these
houses have preserved accounts of the life of the sisters, usually in the
vernacular. The Dominican sisters, instructed and directed by an order of
preachers and teachers, were remarkable not only for spiritual but also for
intellectual culture. In the course of seven centuries various nuns have left
literary and artistic works which bear witness to the culture of some of these
monasteries (Script. O. P.
, I, pp. i-xv; II, Pp. i-xix, 830; Bull. O. P.
,
passim; Mortier, Hist. des maitres généraux
, passim; Danzas, Etudes sur les
temps primitifs de l'ordre de St. Dominique
,IV, Poitiers-Paris (1877);
Analecta O. P.
, passim; Greith, Die deutsche Mystik im Prediger Orden
,
Freiburg i. Br., 1861; de Villermont, Un groupe mystique allemand
, Brussels,
1907).
C. THE THIRD ORDER
Neither St. Dominic nor the early Preachers wished to have under their jurisdiction - and consequently under their responsibility - either religious or lay associations. We have seen their efforts to be relieved of the government of nuns who, nevertheless, were following the rule of the order. But numerous laymen, and especially lay women, who were leading in the world a life of penance or observing continence, felt the doctrinal influence of the order and grouped themselves about its convents. In 1285 the need of more firmly uniting these lay elements and the idea of bringing under the direction of the Preachers a portion of the Order of Penance led the seventh master general, Muñon de Zamora, at the instance of Honorius IV to draw up the rule known as that of the Penance of St. Dommic. Inspired by that of the Brothers of Penance, this rule had a more ecclesiastical character and firmly subordinated the conduct of the brothers to the authority of the Preachers. Honorius IV confirmed the foundation by the collation of a privilege (28 Jan., 1286). The former master general of the Friars Minor, Jerome d'Ascoli, having become pope in 1288 under the name of Nicholas IV, regarded the action of his predecessor and of the master general of the Friars-Preachers as a kind of defiance of the Friars Minor who considered themselves the natural protectors of the Brothers of Penance, and by his letters of 17 August, 1289, he sought to prevent the desertion of the Brothers of Penance. Muñon de Zamora discharged his office of master general as it had been confided to him by Martin IV. The Order of Preachers protested with all its might against what it regarded as an injustice. These events retarded the development of the Dominican Third Order, a portion of the Preachers remaining unfavourable to the institution. Nevertheless, the Third Order continued to exist; one of its fraternities, that of Siena, was especially flourishing, a list of its members from 1311 being extant The sisters numbered 100 in 1352, among them she who was to become St. Catherine of Siena. They numbered 92 in 1378. The reforming movement of Raymund of Capua, confessor and historian of St. Catherine, aimed at the spread of the Third Order; in this Thomas Caffarini of Siena was especially active. The Dominican Third Order received new approbation from Boniface IX, 18 January, 1401, and on 27 April of the following year the pope published its rule in a Bull, whereupon its development received a fresh impetus. It never became very widespread, the Preachers having sought quality rather than number of tertiaries. St. Catherine of Siena, canonized in 1461, is the patroness of the Third Order, and, following the example of her who has been called the Joan of Arc of the papacy, the Dominican tertiaries have always manifested special devotion to the Roman Church. Also in imitation of their patroness, who wrote splendid mystical works, they endeavoured to acquire a special knowledge of their religion, as befits Christians incorporated with a great doctrinal order. The Third Order has given several blessed to the Church, besides St. Catherine of Siena and St. Rose of Lima. For several centuries there have been regular convents and congregations belonging to the Third Order. The nineteenth century witnessed the establishment of a large number of regular congregations of tertiaries devoted to works of charity or education. In 1895 there were about 55 congregations with about 800 establishments and 20,000 members. In the United States there are flourishing convents at Sinsinawa (Wisconsin), Jersey City, Traverse (Michigan), Columbus (Ohio), Albany (New York), and San Francisco (California).
In 1852 Père Lacordaire founded in France a congregation of Priests for the
education of youth called the Third Teaching Order of St. Dominic. It is now
regarded as a special province of the Order of Preachers, and had flourishing
and select colleges in France at Oullins (1853), Sorèze (1854), Arceuil (1863),
Arcachon (1875), Paris (Ecole Lacordaire 1890). These houses have ceased to be
directed by Dominicans since the persecution of 1903. The teaching Dominicans
now have the Collège Lacordaire at Buenos Aires, Champittet at Lausanne
(Switzerland), and San Sebastian (Spain). During the Paris Commune four martyrs
of the teaching order died in company with a priest of the First Order, 25 May,
1871. One of them, Père Louis Raphael Captier was an eminent educator (Mandonnet,
Les règles et le gouvernement de l'ordo de Poenitentia au XIIIe siècle
in
Opuscules de critique historique
, IV, Paris, 1902; Federici, Istoria de'
Cavalieri Gaudenti
, Venice, 1787).
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