C O N T E N T S
CHAPTER I
CH ILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF ST DOM IN IC
CHAPTER I I
ST DOM IN IC AND THE ALB IGENSES
CHAPTER I I I
FOUNDATION OF THE MONASTERY OF PROU ILLE
CHAPTER IV
FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER OF PREACH ING FR IARS 6 1
CHAPTER V
ST DOM INIC, MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER
CHAPTER V I
ST DOMIN IC’S JOURNEYS AND PREACH I NG
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V I I
ORGAN ISATION OF THE DOM IN ICAN ORDER
CHAPTER V I I I
DEATH AND bANONISATION OF ST DOMIN IC
B I B L IOGRAPHY
THE LIFE OF SA INT DOM IN IC
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF ST DOMINIC
1 170—1203
IN beginning this Life o f St Dominic it i s impo ssibleto ignore the diffi culties presented by the under
taking . The founder of a religio us order p laying agreat pa rt in history, the saint has been the object
o f the extra va gance o f praise and o f critici sm alike .
His adm irers and disciples have not been content
with the info rmation , sometimes va gue o r scanty ,furn ished by thirteenth century writers and inparticula r by hi s successo r, Jordan of Saxony, andever s ince the end o f the fo urteenth century legend
has mingled with history. By Alain de la Roche it
was pro fusely scattered througho ut the pages o f hi s
biography, his zeal —as pious as i l l -advised—onlyserving to render the l ife o f his hero additio nallyobscure ; Jean de Récha c , i n the seventeenth century ,in a biography o verflowing with the marvel lous andmarked by an entire absence o f critici sm ,
fol lowed
in hi s steps ; whi le on the other hand the enemiesof the faith have too often seen in St Dominic the
fo under o f the I nquisitio n a lone , hi s figure appear
ing to them in the sinister light o f the faggots .A 3 2 x
2 THE LI FE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
Thus Llo rente di splays him at Lagrasse , nea r
Ca rcassonne , celebra ting Mass upo n a fla ttenedhi l lo ck , “ while at the fo ur co rne rs o f the pla tfo rm
sta kes had been erected and flames were devo uringthe victims.” 1
The hi storian should beware of exaggeratio ns o f
thi s kind . Without denying the ma rvello us o r them i raculous, it is his duty to weigh evidence , a nd
even though it should be necessary to set a side
po etic and attractive legends , to a ccept that o nly
which appears to him authentic . Nor wi l l he lo ok
upo n the subject o f hi s histo ry in the l ight o f a cl ient
whom he is bo und to j ustify in every pa rticular, even
at the cost o f truth . The sa ints themselve s m ay
have been mistaken , and to however great a degree
divine grace may have a bo unded in them , i t wa s noi nfa l l ible preservative from al l erro r or from everyfault . Had St Dominic committed acts o f crue lty
we sho uld feel no difficulty in acknowledging thefact ; but, pla cing the saint in his own age and
environment , and ta king above all the cha ra cter o f
his o ppo nents into co nsideratio n , he a ppears to have
been a defender, wise a nd temperate , no t o nly Of
faith and morals , but also o f civi l i satio n , threa tened
as it was by the subversive doctrines o f the
Albigenses .
St Dominic was born a t Ca la roga in the kingdom
o f Léo n , abo ut the year 1170. His na tive co untry
had gallantly regained her liberty from the Ara bs
a fte r a pro longed crusade la sting o ver several
centuries , and not far distant from the town which1 H istory (f t/wI nqu isit ion,
vol. i i . p . 67.
CH ILDHOOD AND YOUTH 3
was his birth -place was to be seen the tomb o f the
Cid , the terror o f the Moo rs . Mo nastic institutio ns
had flo uri shed aro und C a la roga ; within less than
fo ur leagues, in the midst of the mo untains , stoo dthe ancient Benedictine monastery of Si los , refo rmed
by the Abbo t Dom inic . 1 At La Vigne the Prem onst ra tens ia ns had j ust founded a flourishing con
vent . Final ly, a t Uclés there was a house belonging
to one o f the great m i l itary orders o f Spain , St
James of the Swo rd .
The parents o f the saint , Felix de Guzman andJ o a nna d’
Az a , be longed to the nobi l ity o f the co untry .
The scrupulo us criticism o f the Bo l la ndists has
thrown some doubt upon thi s fact ; a nd it must
be admitted tha t the exaggeratio n s of certainwriters deserved to awaken it, Lo pez Agurlita
making St Dominic co usin of Bla nche o f Ca sti l le
and o f St Fe rdinand ; altho ugh in no ne o f the
numero us acts i ssued in fa vo ur o f the Friars
Prea chers do either St Lo ui s o r hi s brother
Alfonso of Po itiers cla im so saintly a connection ,nor does Jorda n o f Saxony , di scip le and successor
o f the saint , anywhere ascribe to him such ani l lustrious origin .
2
1 St Dom inic o f Si lo s had becom e abbo t o f th is m onasteryabout the yea r 1040, and had set to wo rk a t once to refo rm i t.Cf:Mabillon, Anna les Ordim
'
s St B enedicti , vol. i v. p . 407.
2 The ancient Bo l landists ha ve ca l led in question the
lza ute noolesse a t tributed to the pa rents o f St Dom inic . A t the
present day, d istrust is, m o re than ever , fel t o f genea logies drawnup in the seventeenth o r e ighteenth centur ies they were to o o ftenthe wo rk o f unscrupulous vani ty . Ana lecta B olla ndiana
,vol.
xii . p . 3 2 2 .
4 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
I t seems , nevertheless , to be proved that, whetheron the side o f the Guzmans o r o n that of the Azas ,the saint was descended from a line o f no ble knights ,who had fo ught during several centuries fo r Spa inand for the Christian faith . His parents we re pious .His mother, hono ured as a saint ever since the
thirteenth century, was bea t ifi ed by Leo XI I . in
182 8 . He had two elder bro thers who , l ike himself,dedicated themselves to God : Antho ny, after sol idstudy, becoming ca no n o f St James , and vowing
him self in that capacity to the service o f the poor
and o f the sick ; while Ma nés a l so fol lowed the
Univers ity course , but in 12 17 made hi s professio nin the hands of his brother, and having become FriarPreacher, helped to spread the infant o rder in
Casti l le . He was bea t ifi ed by Grego ry XVI .
The birth o f St Dominic was attended by marvels.While his mo ther was awaiting her delivery , shehad a strange vision . She ima gined , says Jordanof Saxony, “ that she bo re in her womb a dog , and
that it escaped from her, a burning torch in itsmo uth , with which it set fire to the world .
” “ The
day o f hi s ba ptism ,
” relates Thierry o f Apolda,“ t he
godmo the r o f the sa int had a vision in which the
blessed child appeared to her, marked on the forehea d with a radiant star, o f which the sp lendo ur
il luminated the entire earth 1—forcible and gracioussymbols of the effect which was to be produced bythe burning zeal o f St Dominic and his spiritual
SOHS .1Q uétif Echa rd , Scr ip/or es ordin is m i ica fom m
,vol. i.
p . 2 . Bo l landists, A ri a Sa nctorum , 4 th August.
CH I LDHOOD AND YOUTH 5
Joanna d’
Az a bro ught up her son herself for the
fir st seven years o f hi s l ife ; but when his educa tio nwas to begin she recognised the nece ssity o f a
sepa ration . He r bro ther was a rch -
prie st o f Gum ie l
d’
Iz a n, no t fa r dista nt from C a la roga , a nd t o him
she intrusted Dominic , who remained unde r hi s
ca re fo r seven years . No deta i ls o f hi s studiesrem a in ; they we re do ubtle ss identica l with tho se o f
al l ch i ldren of go o d family - classical Latin , the
Latin o f the Fathers of the Church , with exerci ses
in rhetoric serving in al l probabi l ity as their fo unda
tion .
When the young pupi l had attained the age o f
fourteen the arch -priest was compelled to find am ore lea rned teacher for him and St Dominic was
sent to Palencia This was one o f the most
im po rtant towns o f the kingdom o f Leon . Tho ugh
its univers ity was not definitely fo unded by Alfo nsoIX . ti l l the year 1209, i t already po ssessed thoseschoo l s which in the Middle Ages grew up unde r
the shadow o f the a bbeys o r ep i sco pa l pa la ce s .1
We know tha t St Dom in ic passed t en years there ,
o f which the first s ix were dedicated t o the l iberal
a rts , by which were understood the exerci ses o f the
tr ivium and o f the quadrivi um , prepara to ry to the
m astership o f arts—that i s , gramm ar, po etry andlogic ; arithm etic , a lgebra, music a nd astronomy .
1 The scho o ls o f Pa lencia were very ancient ; i t is sa id tha tthey went back to the t im es o f the Go ths . Lucas de Tuy, dea cono f Leon, who wro te his chronicle about 1 2 3 9, says tha t there hadbeen a lways scho o ls in Pa lenc ia , Temper ioi mg aiz sc/zola st ira
sap im t ia . Cf . Denifle , Les Univer siz‘
és a n M oy en Age, vol. i .p . 472 .
6 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
After this double cycle o f genera l studies , he was
in a po sition to select the specia l science which he
des i red to cultivate . This wa s the o logy , a nd to itbe devoted fo ur years , from 1 191 to 1194 .
He gave himself up to it with a rdour, so his
biographers say, making mentio n of his long vigi ls
and a bove‘
al l o f the bo oks covered with notes , whichhe was forced t o sell in orde r to supply him self withmoney fo r charity vendidit l ibros suos manu sua
glo ssa to s .
” 1
Mixing as a student with the young men , sometimes noisy and dissipated , belonging to the schools ,St Dom in ic never lost the seriousness and puritywhich had distinguished him from chi ldhood .
Already conspicuo us for the refinement o f hi s habits
and the discretion o f his character, hi s conduct
had nothing o f the young man abo ut it , and beneath
a youthful exterio r was hidden the wisdom o f age .
For from that tim e fo rth he was a cqua inted with
a ll that i s stem and exalted in the sp iritual l ife .
Giving himself up to tho se austerities practi sed byhim to the end, he abstained fo r rr o re than two
years from wine ,2 and mo st o ften , aft e r long vigi l s
devo ted to study or penance , slept o n the bare
gro und .
At the sam e tim e he was lavi sh in hi s charities ,1 Evidence o f Bro ther Stephen a t the Process o f Canonisa t ion.
Cf . Bo l landists, A .S . , 4 th August , p . 3 89.
2 This fa ct is rela ted by m ost o f his biographers, pa rt icula rly byEudes de Chfi teauroux in one o f his serm ons veniens Palenciam ,
ub i tunc flo reba t studium ,a vino ab stinuit per illas qua tuo r anuo s,
qu ibus studuit et e t iam per sex ui a l io s sequenter.”
Cf. Denifi e,
op . ci t . p. 473 .
CH I LDHOOD AND YOUTH 7
be stowing upon the poo r, togethe r with spiritual
co nso la tio n , a ll tha t he saved from his perso na l
ne eds . H is bio gra phers give ma ny insta nces o f his
se lf-sa c r ifi ce . During hi s theo lo gical studies , the
town , together with the whole o f Spain , underwent
a sea so n o f fam ine , that sco urge o f the Middle Ages
o f which the ravages a re we l l known . Many o f the
po o r were dying o f hunger and neglect . Dominic
co uld no t endure the spectacle , a nd he sold all he
po ssessed , even t o hi s books a nd hi s notes . His
exam p le was fo l lowed by severa l o f hi s comrade s,and the prevai l ing misery wa s allevia ted by the alms
o f students and teachers , stirred by the exam p le o fthe saint . The forerunner o f St Vincent de Paul ,he a ttempted seve ra l times to sel l h imself for his
neighbour, endeavo uring in the first instance to
substitute himself for a pri soner whose si ster wa sanxio usly endeavouring to free him from the Mo o rs ,a nd attempting later on to l iberate after the sam e
fa shion certain wom en who were kept by poverty in
the power o f heretics . One biogra pher—his contempo rary, Ba rtho lomew o f Trent—says be severaltimes renewed hi s heroic endeavours .I t i s impo ssible to discover the precise date a t
which S t Dominic received H o ly Orders ; fo r with
regard t o the earl ier po rtio n o f hi s l ife the deta i l s
preserved by histo r ians are scanty and brief. Certain
biographers have attempted to supplement these
uncertainties by means o f suppo s itio ns . Jo seph
the la st century, was a nxio us to prove that the sa int ,wh i le sti l l a student at Pa lencia
,had taken the
8 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
habit o f St No rbe rt at Our La dy of La V igne ,l
retaining it t i l l the yea r 1203 ; but however ablehis a rguments may be , they are no t convincing ,since in thi s same year Dom in ic wa s a lready prio ro f the Osma chapter, signing in that capacity a
dip loma of 1203 ; besides which , the Prior Provincialo f the Dominicans o f Lom bardy, Bro ther Stephen ,giving evidence during the process o f cano nisation ,declared that while a student of theo logy
Palencia—that i s, before the year ll94—his masterwas a lready canon o f Osma.With the view of faci litating the course o f study
to certain chosen clerks, the Church was i n the habito f conferring canonries upon them , accompanied by
di spensations from the duty of residence, the revenuesof the stal l serving to maintain the student. Such
was do ubtless the case with St Dominic , since while
l iving a t Pa lencia he already belonged to the Osma
cha pter. His studies terminated, he pro ceeded , m1 194 , t o ta ke po ssession of his stal l and to fulfi l itsfunctions . “ At once ,
” says Jordan of Saxo ny, hebegan to a ppear am o ng his brother canons as aburning to rch , the first in sanctity , the lowest o f all
i n humil ity, shedding aro und him an o do ur of quicken
ing life , a perfume like incense on a summer’ s day.
Like a n o l ive tree which throws o ut branches , l ike
a growing cypress , he remained day and night in the1 He dwe l ls upon the rela t ions existing be tween the Pre
m onstra tensians o f Our Lady o f La. V igne , and St Dom inic’sfirst m a ster, his uncle, a rch -
pr iest o f Gum iel . I t is, however ,certa in tha t the sa int wa s we l l a cqua inted w i th the Order o f St
No rbert , since , a s w ill b e seen in the sequel , he frequentlybo rrowed from i t in the const i tut ions o f the Fria rs Preachers,
CHI LDHOOD AND YOUTH 9
church , devo ted ceaselessly to prayer, and scarcelyshowing himself beyond the C loi ste r, lest he should
lo se lei sure for contemplation . God had given him
grace to weep fo r sinners , fo r the unha ppy, a nd fo r
the a ffl icted : and thi s so rrowful love , oppre ssmg hi s
hea rt, fo und outward vent in tears . I t was his
custom , rare ly bro ken , to pass the night in prayer
a nd, with shut doors , to give himself up to
comm union with God ; and there we re then som e
times heard voices and sounds as if groans , whichhe was unable t o restrain , were breaking from him .
One special demand he constantly addressed to God- that there might be bestowed upon him a true
charity, a love which sho uld count nothing too dearfo r the salva tio n of men . He was a ccustomed
to read a book named The Conferences of the
Fa thers , treating alike o f V ice and o f spiritual
perfectio n ; and in reading it he learnt to knowa nd to follow out a ll the pathways of virtue . This
book , assisted by grace , rai sed him to a nice purityo f conscience , to a bundant i l lumina t io n in contempla
tion , and to an eminent degree o f perfectio n .
” 1
The vi rtue a nd the zeal of the yo ung cano n
co rresponded admirably with the pro j ects o f the
Bisho p o f Osma, Martin de Bazan , and o f his friend ,Dida cus d
’
Az eve’
do .
I n spite o f the reforms which had been carried
o ut by Gregory V I I the cathedral chapters were
lending them selves t o la xity. Taking their names
lJo rdan o f Sa xony. Que
’
t if and Echa rd,op . ci t . vo l. i . p . 4 .
In this quo ta t ion, a s in m any which w il l fo l low , we bo rrow the
transla tion of La co rda ire Vie do S . D om inique) .
Bl z
10 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
from seignorial fi efs , and rebels aga inst episcopa l
authority, som e o f the canons were tem po ral princesrathe r tha n members o f a religious order ; a nd
heretics, a lready so numero us in Spa in , I ta ly and
the so uth of France , did not fai l to denounce such
abuses . I t had been a ttempted by several refo rmers
to restore regula rity to the ca no nical o ffice and torecall the ca no ns t o their re l igio us Observances ;such having been the a im set be fo re him in 1 106 byWil liam o f Cham pe a ux, cre a to r o f the Canons
Regular o f St Victo r, a nd in 1 120 by St No rbert,founder of the Order of Prem o nstratensians . Sincetheir time , several bishops had succeeded in inducing
their chapte rs to a do pt the rule o f St Augustine ,and amongst them had been Martin of Baza n a t
Osma , about the year 1 195 . I n spite o f a ce rtain
amo unt o f o ppositio n , the regular l ife was professed
by the ca no ns of tha t p lace ; a nd in 1 199 the new
and stricter statutes which they had received at thehands o f the i r bi sho p were co nfirm ed by I nnocent
I I I . Dida cus d’
Az evédo and Dom in ic proba bly
assi sted the prelate in carrying o ut thi s re fo rm ,
since immedia te ly a fterwards the one was na inedprio r, the o ther sub -prio r, and when , about 12 01 ,Dida cus succeeded Bisho p Martin , St Dominic
became , with the title o f prio r, the head o f the
cha pter.1
Applying him self to the task o f maintaining the
new Observances in al l the i r rigo ur, he him self setthe example o f strictness , pra ctising the community
life with hi s collea gue s , a nd quitting the ce l l o r the1 Cf . Ba lm e, Ca r in/a ir: de S a int Dom inique, vo l. 1. pa ssien.
CH I LDHOOD AND YOUTH 1 1
C lo i ste r o nly to chant the divine office in the
ca thedral or t o pass long hours o f meditatio n in hiso ratory . Thus were spent nine ye a rs in retreat ; it
was his hidden life . Whether owing to the factthat it presented no striking features to the eyes o f
men , being s imi lar in all externa l matters to thatled by the other canons , or because hi s biographershave been able to obtain few detai l s relating to thi s
period , very l ittle i s known abo ut it.
Alain de la Roche a nd, fo llowing upon him , Jean
de Récha c and Bai l let, decl ine , however, to resignthem selves to th is lack o f information . By dint o f
co l lecting together worth less legends , they have con
structed a fa bulo us l ife o f St Dom inic . According
to these writers , those nine years had been devotedby him to missions ; he had travel led over severalprovinces of Spain , preaching against Saracens andheretics , and had even , no t far from St J a m es o f
Com po st ella , fa l len into the hands o f pira tes .
Bo rne awa y by sea into ca ptivity he had sti l led the
vio lence o f a tem pest ; and by virtue of the Rosary,o f which he had j ust received the revelation , had
m ade converts o f the crew. Re stored to l iberty,he had carried hi s wanderings further sti l l , had
prea ched devo tion to the Blessed Virgin through theRo sary 1 i n Armo rica, and especially in the dioceses
1 We purpo sely om i t in this biography any a ccount o f the
o rigin o f the Ro sary o r o f any effo rts o f the sa int to furtherthis devo t ion . I t is a quest ion m o re and m o re contested , sincethe se rious doubts thrown out during the la st century by theBo l landists (of . Aeta Sa nctorum , 4th August ) ; while a b io
graphy o f the present na ture shoul d deal only wi th scient ificcerta inties.
12 THE L IFE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
Of Vannes and o f Do l, return ing to Spa in in o rde r toe sca pe the burden o f the ep i sco pa te , which the Co unt
o f B r ittany de sired to la y upo n him . Susta ined by
divine grace he had , i n the co urse o f the se aposto l icjo urneys , m a de num erous im po rta nt co nversions
tha t o f theLom bard he resia rch Ra in ier in particular,tra nsfo rmed thereafter into a zealous prea cher o f
the o rthodo x fa ith .
An exam inatio n , however superficial , o f thesestories , suffices to prove their mythica l cha ra cter ,teeming as they do with anachro nisms and im pro bab ilit ies .
“ All this ,” says a Dominican , Fa the r
To uro n , can be bro ught into ha rmony neithe r w ith
the rest of the histo ry o f o ur saint , no r with the
t e stimo ny bo rne by o lder writers .” The Bo l la ndists
have , since , no t hesitated to declare tha t the se
legends are valueless , and La co rda ire has passed
them over in co ntem ptuo us si lence . Fa r from
t rave l l ing o ver Chr i stendom and prea ch ing the
Rosary to the wondering peop le s o f Spain a nd
B r it ta ny, St Dom in ic , during these n ine yea rs , says
J o rdan ,1 rarely went beyond the precincts o f hism o na stery .
I t was by a m e re cha nce tha t he le ft it . In 1203 ,
Alfo nso I X King o f Ca sti l le , sent the Bishop o f
Osma t o dem a nd from the Lord o f the Marche s
the ha nd o f his daughter on beha lf o f his so n,
Prince Fe rdina nd . Dom in ic accom panied Dida cus
o n thi s embassy. Histo rians have ra i sed que st io ns
co ncerning these M a rches , to which thirteenth
century chro niclers a l lude in terms so la co nic .1 Jo rdan, op . cit . p . 3 vix extra sep ta m ona stem com pa reba t.
”
14 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
At To ulo use , perce iving tha t thei r host wa s o ne
o f the se bo ugre s ,” St Dom in ic se t to wo rk at o nce
t o convert him ; when—a rgument , co ntroversy and
exho rtatio n having fai led t o pro duce any result —thechange so ardently desired by the saint was one
night e ffected by divine grace . “ From that time ,”
says Bernard Guido nis , “ he cheri shed in his heart
the project o f spending himself fo r the sa lvatio n o f
misbelievers , and of instituting to that end a preach
ing Order, to be devoted to the evangeli satio n of the
nations.”
The journey from Spain to the Marches was madetwice over by Dida cus and hi s companion ; in the firstinstance to demand the princess i n marriage , a ndthen , accompanied by a bri l l iant escort , to fetchher away . On this second o ccasion , however, thei r
missio n came to a tra gic end , and they arrived only
to be present at the o bsequies of the yo ung betrothed .
Dida cus despatched the melancholy intel ligence t o his
sovereign ; and , there being nothing further to detain
h im in the Marches , he went with St Dominic ,towards the end of the year 12 04 , t o Rome , desi ring to resign h i s bishopric , and having placed it
‘ i n
the hands of the Pope , to devo te the remainder o f
his l ife to the evangeli satio n o f the Cum ans and
tho se other unbel ievers who were wanderers in the
steppes of the Dnieper and the Vo lga. The attention
o f I nnocent I I I . was , however, at the time engro ssedby other countries , and he was far mo re absorbedin the Albigensian heresy and the dangers ari sing
from it to the Church in the very heart o f her
empire . Refusing, therefore , to release Dida cus
CH I LDHOOD AND YOUTH 15
from his episco pa l functio ns , he sent him inste a d
to prea ch in Languedo c .
Of the visit of the Bisho p of Osma and hiscompanion to Rome very little further i s known .
Acco rding to Bernard Guidonis they won the favour
o f the Po pe and o f tho se who surro unded him ; and
there were thenceforward esta bli shed between StDominic and the Cardinals Savell i and Hugolinoafterwards Popes , under the names of Honorius I I I .and Grego ry IX .
- those!
friendly relatio ns which
were to prove so useful i n the foundation of theFriars Preachers .I t was to the Cistercian Order that I nnocent 111.
had j ust intrusted the subj ugatio n o f the Albigenses .Am a lric , Abbot o f Citeaux, with Peter o f Castelnauand Raoul , monks of Fontfro ide , were to lead the
preaching crusade against the heresy ; having re
ce ived fo r that purpose ful l powers and authorityfrom the Ho ly See . Desirous o f offering their
a ssi stance , the Bisho p o f Osma and hi s canon
repaired from Rome to Citeaux, and there Dida cus ,fi l led with adm iration for the mona stic Observanceso f that celebrated co nvent , conceived the scheme
o f carrying away with him several monks whosho uld implant the Order in his own diocese I f
H umbert de Romanis is to be believed , he himselftook the Cistercian habit , not indeedwith the intention
of embracing the monastic l ife in al l its strictnesss ince I nnocent I I I . , by retaining him in his diocese ,had rendered this impossible—but in order that hemight participate , as an Oblate , in the merits of the
Order.
16 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
These travels of Dida cus and St Dominic ha ve
served as a pretext fo r fresh legends , propa ga ted like
the rest by Ala in de la Ro che and Jea n de Récha c .
On their way to Denmark the two envoys o f
Alfo nso IX . are said to have vi sited the Co urt o f
Phil ip Augustus , and there to have been ho no ur
ably enterta ined by the king’s daughter-in-law,
Blanche o f Casti l le—this princess being , a ccordingto t he mythical genealogy a rra nged a fter the event
fo r the saint , the co usin o f Dominic Guzman . The
marria ge o f Louis of France and o f Blanche , up to
that time steri le , i s repo rted to have owed its
marvel lo us fruitfulness to the prayers o f St Dominic ,who, five yea rs in advance , predicted the birth o f
a.
son .1 Aga in , in their natural desire to make the i r
own Orders participate in the glory o f St Dom in ic ,certa in monastic writers have made the saintsojo urn in convents belonging t o them and even
make hi s rel igio us pro fession there . According to
Denys the Carthusian , St Dominic , on hi s way to
Citea ux, vi sited the monaste ry of the Grande
Chartreuse , i n order there to become a mo nk ; but
the prio r, fi l led with a sp irit of pro phecy, re fused
t o pro fe ss him , saying : “ Go , you are reserved fo rmightier things ,
” and giving him the missio n o f
preaching against the Albigenses . According too ther writers , it was St Bernard
’s ha bit which
was received by St Dominic , at the sam e tim e as
hi s bisho p ; and after having been Premonstratensianand Ca rthusia n , he became Cistercian , without
1 Ma rried May 2 3 , 1 2 00,Louis and Blanche o f Cast il le only
had the ir first chi ld , Phil ip, in 1 2 09 (if . Sepet , Sa int Lou is, p .
CH I LDHOOD AND YOUTH 17
m o reover cea sing to be Canon Regular o f St
Augustine !
I t i s use le ss t o dwe l l at grea ter length upon theselegends . Be side s the fact tha t they are related
neithe r by J o rda n , no r by Hum be rt, no r by Thierry
o f Apo ldia , no r by any chro nicle r o f the thirteenthcentury , they swa rm to such an extent with im prob a bilit ie s a nd a na chro nism s a nd a re in such evident
co ntra dictio n w ith wha t i s po sitive ly known a bo ut
the l ife o f the sa int , tha t it would be im po ssible tha t
they sho uld arrest the a ttentio n o f the histo ria n .
From Citea ux, Dom in ic a nd Dida cus pro ceeded
t o the so uth o f Fra nce , the i r a po sto la te beginning
from tha t tim e . Tha t o f Dida cus was to last less
tha n two yea r s—until hi s dea th in 12 06 ; tha t o f S t
Dominic wa s to be lo nger and more fruitful , sincehis prea ching t o the Albigenses was carried o n ti l l
the year 12 15 ; a nd from thi s mission resulted the
creatio n o f the Preaching Order.
CHAPTER 11
ST DOM INIC AND THE ALB IGENSE S
EVER since the first half o f the twelfth century
the preaching o f here sy had been a ctive ly
carr ied on, and neo -manichae i sm had m a de grea t
progress in Aquita ine and Languedo c . I n 1 13 9 thevenerable Peter had deno unced t o the Provencal
cle rgy the secret practices o f Peter o f Bruys and
hi s principal di sciple , Henri .1
The Wa ldenses , the Patarins and the Ca tha ristshad com e from I ta ly t o prea ch their do ctr ines in the
so uth o f France a nd had met with a fa vo urable
reception there . The no bi lity had been won o ver by
teaching which de l ivered up the pro pe rty o f the
Church to their greed, legitimi sing their usurpatio ns
in a dvance ; the a rtisan and peasa nt classes had
app lauded the vio lent attacks directed by t he
sectaries against the tempo ral power o f the clergy,the dues , a nd the rights o f al l kinds po ssessed by
it o ver the fa ithful ; this rel igio n o f individua l i sm
had , i n fact , po sse ssed from the first the power o flea ding awa y many so uls , even amo ng the most
scrupulous . Civi l autho rity shu t its eyes to the
progre ss o f the heresy, o nly sending to the stake
such enthusiastic m embers o f the sect as incited the1 V acanda rd, H irto ir e de Sa int B erna rd, vol. 11 . p . 2 2 0.
1 8
SAINT DOM I N IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 19
pe o ple to o o penly to the destructio n o f churche s o rthe pil la ge o f eccle sia stica l pro pe r ty .
I n the year 1 145 , St Bernard had given vent
to an elo quent cry o f di stress : “ What have we
lea rnt ; and what a re we dai ly learning ! What i lls
has the Church o fGod suffe red and is suffering sti l l , atthe hands o f the heretic Henri ! The basi l ica s are
em ptied o f the faithful , priests are witho ut hono ur,churches a re regarded a s synagogues , the sa cram ents
a re de spised , feasts no lo nge r solem nised . Men
die in their sins , so uls appear before the terr ible
tribunal unreconci led by penance , unfo rt ifi ed by
Ho ly Communio n . By the refusal of the grace o f
Ba pti sm the children o f Chri stian parents a re even
deprived o f the life o f Jesus Chri st .” 1
St Bernard was not satisfied with denouncing the
evi l ; at the request o f the H o ly See he was rea dy
to comba t it in person ; but it was in vain . I n 1 145
he travelled o ver the so uth o f France , vi siting in
turn Bo rdea ux, Be rgerac , Périgue ux , Sarlat , Caho rs ,B ellepe rche , and Toulo use . I n spite o f hi s elo quence
he rarely achieved a success ; whi le at Verfei l , he
fa i led so much as to ga in a hea ring ; his indigna tion
at the o bstinacy o f the inhabita nts being so great ,tha t in departing he left his maledictio n upon thi s
nest of heretics : V ir ide folinm , desiecet te Dens.
” 2
The efforts o f the Po pes and o f their Legates
no twithstanding , heterodox doctrines continued to
1 V acanda rd,op . cit . vol. 11. p . 2 2 2 , from which a re a lso bo rrowed
the fo l lowing de ta ils concerning the serm ons o f St Berna rd .
2 V erfe i l , m ay God w1ther thee .
”The sa int p lays upon the
e tym o logy o f the nam e , wh ich signifies a lso green lea f.
20 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
spread during the second half o f the twelfth century .
At the beginning o f the thirteenth , a n a vowed
heretic , Bertra nd de Saissac , guardia n o f Raymo nd
Roger, Visco unt of Bez iers a nd o f Carcasso nne , hadthe governm ent o f part o f La nguedo c in hi s hands ;while the Co unts of Fo ix and To ulo use had been
secretly gained over to the cause .1
The heresy had been so firmly implanted in the
co untry that it po ssessed an o rga nisatio n of its own
and o ppo sed its hierarchy to that o f the Catho l ic
Church . To ulouse and Carcasso nne had each theirAlbigensian bi shop , Isa rn de Castres being , be fo re
the time o f the crusa de , the “ bi sho p o f the heretics ”
at Ca rcasso nne , whi le at Toulo use the post was
fi l led by Berna rd de la Mothe and Bertrand Marty .
The bishops we re assi sted by deacons who had fixedresidences in the larger vi llages, from which they
served the country ro und, preaching the new doctrines
o r presiding at the rites of initiation o r Consolamentum .
Raymond Bernard was dea co n at Mo ntréal , Guila bertde Castres ho lding the ofli ce at Fanjeaux before he
becam e him se lf bi sho p o f To ulouse . Fina l ly, as in
the prim itive Church , the faithful were divided intotwo classes . Of these , the Perfect or B onshonzm es
had received complete initiation o r Consolam entum ;
the entire doctrine had been made known to them and
it was their duty to teach and sprea d it ; they were
bound to abstinence and fasting , to celibacy and toa ll the Observa nces o f the sect , and were sometimesdistinguished by a special dre ss . Those who had
1 Cf . H istoire o’u Languedoc, by Dom V a isséte (ed. Molinie r ) .
vo l. vi . p . 1 54 , e tc.
2 2 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOMIN I C
turns a t Arago n a nd a t Monta live , nea r Fa nj eaux .
I n 12 06 , Isa rn de C a st re s‘
m ade a pa sto ra l vi sitatio n
in the ne ighbo urho o d of Mo ntréa l , and a t Villeneuve
co nferred the Consolam entnm o n Audia rda Ebra rda .
Guila be rt de Ca stre s had a ho use at Fa nj e a ux and
there ta ught the Albigensian do ctrines in public .1
I n the time o f St Berna rd a lm o st a ll the knight
ho od o f Languedo c was alrea dy heretic : “fere omnesnzili tes , says the ho ly abbot of Clairvaux de spond
ently . The situa tio n had no t altered by 12 06 ; and
I nnocent I I I . was not m i sta ken in attributing the
pro gress ma de by the Albigensia n doctrine to thefavo ur shown t o it by the no bi l ity . I t wa s very
frequently in the ho uses o f the knights and even o f
.the lo rds o f the co untry tha t the Pe r fect he ld their
meetings , and amongst tho se who were present are tobe fo und the grea te st names o f the neighbo urho od .
I t must not , however, be understo o d tha t , if the
heretics had an esp ecia l value for the suppo rt o f the
grea t lo rds a nd fo r the protectio n a ffo rded by them ,
they therefo re showed any neglect o f the humbler
but m o re num e ro us citizen a nd peasa nt cla sses . I n
the neighbo urho od o f Ca ram a n a nd o f Ve rfei l ,-on
the borders o f To ulo use and La uragua is , the entire
po pula tio n had been won o ver a nd few perso ns died
witho ut the Consola m entum . At Fa njeaux and a t
Mo ntréal la bourers ca rried on thei r wo rk o n Sunda ys
and on festivals ; and fo r repro a ching one o f them
1 We a re furnished wi th this info rm a t ion a s to the pra ctices o fthe here t ics in Languedoc a t the beginning o f the thirteenthcentury by the va luable registe rs o f the Inquisi to rs o f To ulo use
preserved in the libra ry o f tha t town, pa rt icula rly in MS. 609.
SAI NT DOMI N I C AND THE ALB IGENSES 2 3
with this on the feast of St John the Ba pti st , St
Dom in ic cam e ne a r to be ing assa ssina ted a t Champdu Sica i re . I n o rde r t o a ttract a rti sans , the Pe rfect
had e sta bl ished wo rksho ps a nd manufactories where
the yo ung were instructed at o nce in heretical
do ctrine a nd in a trade ; a ndmany o f such esta bli sh
m ents existed in the township o f Fa njea ux alone .
To sum up , at the arriva l o f Dida cus and St
Dom in ic , the county o f To ulo use , and pa rticula rly
La uragua is and Ra zes , were deeply permeated byheresy. I t declared itself o penly , sa ng its ca nticles
eve n in the churches o f Ca stelnauda ry, robbed theBisho p o f Toulouse o f hi s dues and , menacing thecha pter of Bez iers in its own cathedral , o bliged it
to entrench itse lf w ithin its wa l l s . Now the tri umph
o f Albigensianism would ha ve mea nt the ruin o f
Chr i stianity, of which it constituted the radical
nega tion .
Fo r , a ccording to these neo -ma nichaeans , the
wo rld , instea d o f being the creatio n o f a bene fi centGod, was the wo rk a nd remained the t oy , o f a male
vo lent being ; the mystery o f the Tr in ity disa ppeared
in the duali sm o f two e terna l pr incip le s , that o f good
and tha t o f evi l ; the wo rk o f the Redem ption and of
Ca lva ry had be en no th ing but a sham , a divine being
ha ving been inca pable o f suffe ring in the flesh o r o f
dying . The me rits o f Je sus Chr i st ha ving as l ittlereality as the exp ia tio n m ade by H im , salva tio n
thro ugh ba ptism , grace a nd the sacraments was
an i l lusio n , and the practices recommended o r
enjo ined by the Church were co nsequently a s un
pro fitable a s her teaching . The dogma s o f the future
2 4 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
life , o f the rewa rds o f Heaven , the e te rna l punish
ments of Hell , the tem po rary expiatio n o f Purga to ry ,the resurrectio n o f the body a nd the Comm unio n o f
Sa ints , were repla ced by the do ctrine o f metem
p sycho si s a nd the indefinite tra nsmigratio n o f souls
from o ne body t o another . No ha rm o ny was there
fo re po ssible be tween the Catho l ic and the Alb igen
sian creeds ; the one was bo und to ki ll the o ther ;and it was because be perceived this clea rly tha t StDom in ic devo ted himself with so great a zeal to
prea ching aga inst the heresy .1
H a ving quitted Citeaux in the course o f the first
mo nths o f 1205 , the Bishop of Osm a and his ca non
went to Languedoc , there to j o in the m i ssio na ries
sent by I nno cent 111. against the he retics ; finding
them nea r Montpell ier, pro foundly despo ndent , and
questio ning whethe r their work , l ike tha t o f tho se
who had go ne be fore them , had no t proved a fai lure .
Heresy was in fact a stronger fo rce than they had
im agined , posse ssing a s it did a ble a nd learned
le ade rs , capa ble o f ho lding their own i n theo logical
controversy , howeve r arduous . But it was in their
asceticism tha t the strength o f these Albigensia n
doctors chiefly la y . Made up o f a bstinence and
ha rdship , their l ives in spired with the greatest
respect the popula tio ns who witnessed them ; whi lethe conduct o f the Cistercians sent o ut as de fenders
o f o rthodo xy was a ltogether diffe rent . I nste a d o f
pro ceeding on fo ot from township to township , as
was the custom o f the Perfect , they rode surro unded
1 Fo r the A lbigensian do ctrines see Doua is,Les Heron
'
s/nos da
Com to'
do Toulouse.
SAI NT DOM I N IC AND THE ALB I GENSES 2 5
by a bri lliant escort ; yoke s of o xen were necessaryto carry their clo the s and their provi sions ; and
these luxurio us habits created a scandal in countries
which had felt the fascinatio n o f the a usterity o f the
B onshomm es . See ,” they said , the m in i sters o f a
God Who went o nly on fo o t , riding ; the wealthy
missionaries o f a GodW ho was po or ; the envoys o f
a GodWho was humble and despi sed , loaded withhono urs .” 1
Such were not the habits o f the Bishop and Cano n
o f Osma. Cal led to give evidence co ncerning St
Dominic during the process of Canonisation in 12 3 3 ,the inhabita nts o f Fanjeaux declared they had never
seen so saintly a man . Two women , Guillelm a and
Tolo sana, reported that they had ma de him hair
clo ths . Sti l l more intimate ly acqua inted with hi s
manner o f l ife , Bro the r John o f Spain told o f hi s
penances and mace ra tion s : Maste r Dominic had
the discipl ine administered to him , a nd sco urged him
self besides with a n i ron chain .
” By these mea nsDida cus and he were able , witho ut presumptio n ,to recal l the Ciste rcia n missio naries to apostol ic
austerity.
“ I t wi l l not be by words alone ,” they
said , “ that yo u wil l bring back to the faith menwho rely upo n example . Loo k at the heretics ;it i s by their a ffectation o f ho l iness and o f
evangelical poverty that they persuade the simple .By pre senting a co ntra st yo u wil l edify l ittle , youwill destroy much , you wi l l gain no thing . Drive out
one nai l by another ; put to fl ight the show o f
ho l iness by the pra ctices o f sincere religion . The1 A cta Sanctorum , August 4 .
C1 2
2 6 TH E LI FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
lesso n was taken home ; return ing to simplicity o f l ife ,the Cistercia n monks sent back al l the trivial ities
they had bro ught with them . Only retaining their
books of Hours , with such volumes as were indispensa ble for controversial use , and l iving in the
strictest poverty , they went on foo t from village to
vi llage , without esco rt, without money , alo ne in the
midst of heresy ; a nd, says Jordan o f Saxony, when
the Perfect saw the change they redoubled their
energy i n order to resist the assault which was
prepa ring .1
Under the direction o f the Legate s St Dominicand Dida cus set t o work without delay. William of
Puylaurens describe s them going barefoot from
pla ce to place . At the inns where they lodged theylived upon little , practi sing tho se abstinences which
were later on included in th e Rule of the Friars
Preachers . I n 12 07 Dida cus went back to Spain ,dying there at the moment that he was preparing to
return to Languedo c for the prosecution o f hismissionary labours ; and from thencefo rward St
Dominic continued alone the work he had undertaken . 0
Bo rn in 1 170, he was at hi s ful l vigo ur when
hi s bishop gave him the directio n o f the com
pa nions who had fo l lowed them . One would
wi sh to have a reproduction o f his co untenance i norder to learn from it the secret of the irresistible
1 Podites, sine expensis, in o olnnta r ia panper ta tefi dom anna n
t ia rc capernnt . Qnod nbi vidornnt he ret ici , cooper a nt ot ipsi ox
adver sofor tins pre dica re. Jo rdan (cf Quétif and Echa rd , op . cit.
p . s)
SAI NT DOM IN I C AND THE ALB IGENSES 27
power he exerci sed over them , but it i s poss ible tosupply the place o f it by the po rtra it which has been
drawn by o ne o f those who witnessed hi s last years ,Sister Ceci lia, o f the co nvent of Saint-Sixtus . He
was o f middle height ,” she says ,
1 his countenancebeautiful , with little colour, hi s hair and hea rd o f a
bright blo nd , his eyes fine . A certain ra diant l ight ,”
she adds naively, sh in ing from his brow and from
between hi s lashes attracted love and respect.He was always radia nt and joyous , except whenmoved to compassio n by some misfo rtune o f his
neighbours . Hi s hands were long and bea utiful , hi s
strong voice noble and sonorous . He never becamebald , and always retained his monk
’s coronet , sownwith some few white hairs .” 2
Jordan of Saxony also lays stress upon th isluminous expression , i f it may be thus described ,shining from the features of St Dominic l ike a radiance proceeding from his soul . No thing disturbed
the equanimity of hi s soul , excepting his sense ofcompassion and pity ; and because the countenanceof a man i s brightened by a happy heart , it was easyto divine , by the kindliness and joy o f hi s face , the
serenity within . Notwithstanding the lovableand gentle l ight which i l luminated hi s countenance
,
that l ight never allowed itself to be despised ,gaining with ease al l hearts , so that scarcely didm en look upon it before they were conscious of itsattraction .
”
1 Sister Cecil ia ’s narra t ive , ci ted by Laco rda ire , op. cit . p . 2 19.
1 This la st cha ra cteristic evident ly refers to the la st years of thesa int a lone .
2 8 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
The sermo ns directed by him aga inst heresy
ma nifested thi s natura l ascenda ncy , and , even t o
a greater degree , the equanimity o f hi s temper and
the serenity o f hi s so ul ; for difficulties were no t
wanting . Like St Be rnard , he had t o bear with
outra ges from the heretics they m ocked him ,
sa ys J o rdan , and following him as he went, castat him al l manner of gibes .” 1 “ Sometimes insults
were accompanied by menaces , met by him with
a firmness the more unshaken since it was due
to an ardent desire for martyrdom .
‘ Do st thou
no t fear death ! ’ he wa s asked by some astonishedheretics . ‘What wo uldst thou do were we to lay
hands on thee ! ’ I would entreat you ,’
5he replied,
‘ not t o put me to death at o nce , but to tear me
l imb from limb , so as to prolong my martyrdom .
I would fain remain a dismembered trunk, havemy eyes torn o ut , be covered with blo od , i n order towin at last a fairer martyr’s crown ! ” 2 And whenhe passed through a vi l lage where hi s l ife was indanger, he crossed it singing .
“ Persecution never
tro ubled him ,
” sa ys an eye-witness ; 3 “o ftentimes
walked in the midst o f danger with intrepid confi
dence , and fear never once turned him a side from
hi s path . Rather, when overcome with slumbe r,he would lie down by the side o f the road and sleep
there .” Several times , however, the threats of theheretics came near to being reali sed . One day, whenhe was ascending from Proui lle to Fanjeaux by asunk en road , “ feel ing a presentiment that an ambush
1 Jo rdan o f Saxony, op . ci t . p. 9.
1 I bidem .
3 Engu iry of Toulouse.
3 0 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
which was most frequently terminated by a vote o f
the assembly . Jorda n of Saxony makes mention
o f balloting as taking place at the end o f the
meetings ; no do ubt according to the o rder of theday and fo r the purpo se of giving tho se present
an o pportunity of expressing their opinion upon thediscussion they had heard .
St Dominic held a large number of these meetings .The first of them too k place at Servian , near Beziers .Accompanied by the Bishop and by the Ca no n o f
Osma, the papal Legates came from Montpellier,putting the austere counsels o f Dida cus fo r the firsttime into practice . Now at Servian the two cathari stministers , Baldwin and Thierry, were enjoying fulll iberty in the matter o f preaching , thanks to the
especial favour shown to them by the territorial lo rd .
But when from the heights o f the ramparts the
people saw the mi ssio naries o f the Holy See ascending towards them with bleeding feet and humblebearing , they compel led the two heretics to accepttheir invitation to public controversy. I t lasted for
eight days and pro duced so deep an impression thatthe peo ple escorted St Dominic and hi s companionsa league on their way to Beziers.
From Servian they went on to Bez iers , one o f
the strongholds of heresy. There the Perfec t were
all-powerful , thanks to the connivance o f the V iscount ,o f the consuls and of the bishop himself. Duringa fortnight preaching and controversy were carried
on : but the efforts of the missionaries did not meetwith the success they deserved ; and if several
isolated convers ions took place , the mass of the
SAI NT DOM IN IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 3 1
population remained faithful to the Waldensian
doctrines .
Carcassonne was the third halting-place o f the
mission . Fo r eight consecutive days public con
t rove rsies succeeded one another without engaging
the heretic forces .1 At last the pasture landsof La uragua is and To ulousain were reached—thedi stricts which were to be in some sort the headquarters o i St Domin ic ’s preaching . Thencefo rthFanjeaux became the favourite residence o f him
self and hi s companions, from whence he wentin al l direction s to challenge the Albigensianministers to discussion .
At Verfei l his measure o f success was no greaterthan that of St Bernard himself, and the Bishop
o f Osma was exasperated to such a degree by theobstinacy of the inhabitants that , l ike the Abbot o fClairvaux, he too launched hi s anathema upon them“ Cursed be ye , unmannerly heretics ; I should havecredited you with better sense .” 1
The conference which took place at Pamiers inthe fol lowing year (1207) was one of the most important o f all . The Count de Foix was himself thecha l lenger and it was held in his castle . Like most
o f the southern lords, Raymond Roger had been wonover to the new doctrines ; while hi s s i ster B scla rmonde was one o f the most fervent adepts of theAlbigensian faith , o f which she made public profession. Nevertheless, priding himself upon hi s
1 We borrow these deta ils from the Ca r tnla ire de Sa int
Dom inique, by Ba lm e .
2 W ill iam of Puylaurens, Chronicle, 8.
3 2 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
to lerance and his impartial ity , he invited to his ho usethe representatives o f the two rival parties who
carried most weight , St Dominic and Dida cus meet
ing there Foulques and Nava r, a rdent defenders o f
the orthodox faith , who had j ust repla ced heretics in
the sees o f Toulouse and of Conserans .1 The discussion was carried on with much animation , and onEscla rm onde interpo sing on behalf of the heresy she
drew forth from Brother Stephen the bo ld a pos
t rophe :“ Get yo u to your dista ff ; it does not be
come you to meddle in thi s affa i r ! ” The day was
favourable to the Catholic cause ; the Waldensianmin i ster, Durando de Huesca, was converted , presently founding the Order of Po o r Catholics ; hi s
example was fo l lowed by Durando o f Najac , Will iam
de Saint-Antoine , John o f Narbo nne, Erm enga rd
and Berna rd of Bez iers ; the umpire o f the meetinghimself, Arnold de Cam pragna , who had hithertoinclined to the Waldensian do ctrines, offering himself and his goods to the Bishop o f Osma, a nd
becoming later on the faithful and zealo us friend
o f St Domin ic .2
Jordan o f Saxony makes mentio n o f frequent
meetings o f the kind at Mo ntréa l a nd a t Fa njea uir
froqnenter ibi disputa tiones fi ebant. One o f them
was marked by a miraculous o ccurrence .
“ I t
chanced that a great conference was held at
Fanjeaux , in the presence of a multitude o f the1 Foulques had been bishop from 1 2 05 , hav ing then rep laced
Raym ond de Raba steins, deposed a s guil ty o f conni vance withheresy. Nava r had only been bishop som e few m onths.
1 Pierre de V aux -Cernay, H ist. do la Gnorre dos Albigeois,ch . vi.
SAINT DOM I N IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 3 3
faithful and unfa ithful who had been summonedthither. The Catholics had prepared several memora nda contain ing reasons and authorities in suppo rtof the i r faith . But , after a compari son o f them ,
they gave the preference to the one written by the
blessed servant o f God, Dominic , and determined
to oppose it to that of the heretics. Three
arbitrato rs were chosen by common consent to
j udge to which party belonged the best arguments
a nd the mo st sol id faith . Now , when after much
talk these arbitrators could no t agree together, the
idea o ccurred to them to cast the two memorandainto the fire , so that , should one of them be sparedby the flames , it might be certain that it containedthe true doctrine of the faith . A great fire i s
therefore l ighted and the two volumes are cast into
it ; that o f the heretics i s consumed ; the other
written by the blessed servant o f God , Dominic
no t o nly remains intact, but is thrown forth by theflames in the presence o f the whole assembly. A
seco nd a nd a third time it i s cast into the fire ; asecond and a third time the result i s the same
,
m anifesting clearly on which side l ies the truth a ndtesti fying to the holiness o f him by whom the boo kwas written .
” 1
Peter o f Vaux-Cernay , and after him the chron ic ler
1 Jo rdan o f Saxony, cp . Quétif, op . ci t . p . 6 . The tradition o f
this m ira cle has been preserved a t Fanjeaux. About 1 3 2 5 theconsuls o f the town bought from Raym ond de Durfo rt the housebelonging to his heret ica l ancesto rs where this prodigy to ok p lace,m aking o f i t a chape l which they dedica ted to the sa int andwhichrem a ined the church o f the convent of the Prea ching Bro thers a tFanjeaux unt i l the Revo lut ion.
3 4 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
Mathieu de Feurs , place thi s mira cle at Montreal
and relate it with some sl ight variations .According to them , one o f the heretics had stolenthe memo randum prepared by the saint fo r the
conference “ then his companions said that heshould cast the paper into the fire , and that if
it was burnt, their faith should be true ; and thatif it could not burn that the faith o f the RomanChurch should be true : for which reason it wasthrown into the fire . And after the same hadremained a little space without any scorching , i tleapt o ut o f the fire, at which al l remained amazed .
Then , said one o f them more obstinate than therest, let it be thrown in again , and thus shal l weprove more plainly the truth ; which then happened
after the same manner as before . And again hesaid , let it be cast in a third time and then we shallknow, without any doubt , the truth ; and cast againinto the fire, it came out whole .
” 1
These prodigies notwithstanding, coupled with hi sapostolic zeal , St Dominic
’s preaching did not meetwith al l the success which had been hoped for. Butevents, hasten ing on from 1208 to 12 15—the crusa
.de
which threw itself upon the south and the friendship
o f Simon de Montfort—lent new strength to theproceedings o f the saint .
On the 15 th of January 1208 , one o f the CistercianLegates, Peter of Castelnau, died by the daggero f a heretic , in consequence o f having called upo n
Raymond V I. to obey the Church ; and on the
fol lowing loth of March , I nnocent I I I ., in letters1Quo ted by Ba lm e, op . cit. vol. i . p . 1 2 4 .
SAI NT DOM I N IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 3 5
ful l o f fire , wrote to stir up the indignation of thefaithful against the crime , excommunicated theCount o f To ulouse and decreed the crusade . I n thespring o f the next year the chivalry o f the north
flung themselves upon the south by the valley o f theRhone and the passes of Auvergne , and in spite o f a
spirited resi stance , took possess ion , by one blow
after another, o f Bez iers , Narbonne and Car
ca ssonne ; whi le , by 12 10, lower Languedoc was inthe hands o f the crusaders , who placed o ver it ashead their own leader, Simon de Montfort .1
Now, the Count de Montfo rt lost no time informing a strong friendship with St Dominic ; he
conceived for him a great affection , having fo r thesaint, says Jordan , a special devotion .
” “ They hecame so intimate ,
” adds Humbert ,2 that the Countchose the saint to give the nuptial bless ing to hi sson , Amaury, and to baptiz e the daughter who hecame prio ress o f Saint Antoine at Paris.” Againand again the two friends were bro ught togetherin the co urse of their labours , pursuing as they did ,tho ugh by difl
'
erent means , the same end . On
September 1st , 1209 , at the head o f his army, Simonpassed by the foot of the hil l of Fanj eaux, whereit i s possible that their first interview took place .In 12 11 , at the s iege of Lavaur, Domin ic was at
Simon ’s side as was also the case , in J uly 12 12 , atthe capture o f La Penne d’Ajen. Some monthslater, the leader o f the crusade summoned together“ the bishops and the nobles o f his domin ions at
1 H istoire o’u Languedoc, vol. vi. p . 3 2 5 , etc.
9 Acta SS . , 4th August .
3 6 THE LI FE OF SAINT DOMI N IC
Pamiers , i n o rder to puri fy the country from the
uncleanness o f heresy, to esta bli sh there go od mo ralsand customs favo urable to rel igion , to peace and to
security.” Dominic obeyed thi s fresh cal l . Somemo nths later , i n May 12 13 , important military rein
forcements arriving from France , Simon came toreceive them at the foot o f Fanjeaux ; and as
Chaplain o f Fanjeaux and Prior of Prouille , St
Dominic o nce more rejoined him . On the 2 4 th ofthe fol lowing J une an imposing ceremony took place
at Caste lnaudary . In the presence o f a numerous
company, on a vast plain covered with tents , Simonbe stowed knighthood on his son Amaury ; while onceagain , as the friend of the young man—to whom hewas later on to give the marriage blessing—anda s representative o f the Bishop of Carcassonne ,Dominic stood beside him .
Lastly, at the decisive battle of Muret , on the
12 th September 12 13 , the saint was among the
monks and prelates who gave the leader of thecrusade their counsels and their prayers . “ During
t he fi ght , the six bi shops who were present—Foulqueso f To ulo use, Guy of B é z iers ,Theodis ius ofAgde , thoseof N imes , of Comminges and o f Lodeve—the threeabbo ts o f Clairac , Vil lema gne and St Tibéry, with
several monks , amongst whom was the friend of God ,Dominic , Canon o f Osma, withdrew into the church ,and following the example o f Moses as he lifted hishands to heaven during the battles o f Joshua, theyentreated the Lord on behalf o f His servants .
With such ardour did they rai se their cry to heaven
that it seemed that they shouted rather than prayed :
3 8 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N I C
to the fire o f the stake .1 But by the eighteenth
century, when more tolerant views had made progress, Father Echard refused to believe in such
severity o n the part o f the saint , and describes himas “ subduing heretics by argument and example ,without having recourse either to the sword, tosteel , or to fire , with al l of which he had nothingto do .
” I n thi s assertion the Bo l landist , Will iamCaper, saw a
.
concession to the spirit o f the age ,made at the cost o f histo rical truth ; and afterclaiming for the Church , as St Thomas also did,the power o f excluding her foes from the society o fthe living , as wel l as from the communion of the
saints , he tries to prove that St Dominic made use
o f that right . “ The impenitent Liberal ,”La co rda ire ,
wr iting his Life o f St Dominic , with the object o f reestabli sh ing the Order o f the Preaching Friars in
n ineteenth century France , took up once more thepo s ition o f Fa ther Echard ; and the friend o f Simonde Montfort appears i n h is work with the features ,so to Speak , of an editor o f the Avenir—o f La co rda ire
himself. “ These ,” he says, “ were the weapon s
to which Dominic had recourse against heresy andagainst the evi ls o f war—sermo ns in the midst ofabuse, controversy, patience , voluntary poverty, al ife of hardship for himself, un l imited charitytowards others , the gift o f miracles , and lastly,the promotion o f the worship of the Blessed Virginby the institution of the Rosary . The light o f history
i s wanting, because the man of God withdrew from
1 Cf . on this quest ion the excel lent disserta t ion o f the Bo l landistsin their Acta SS . , 4 th August .
SAINT DOM IN IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 3 9
clamour and from blood , because , faithful to hi smission
,he o nly o pened hi s l ips to ble ss , his heart
to pray, his hands to perform the offices o f love , andbecause virtue when it i s solitary has no sun but in
God .
” 1
Eager for the truth and taking account o f noth ing
else,the histo rian can o nly seek in documentary
evidence the solutio n o f a ll these contradictio ns .
Now, we possess upon this question two documents
o f St Dominic’ s own :
2 i n the one he reconciles the
converted heretic , Ponce Roger, “ in vi rtue o f the
authority intrusted to him by the Lord Abbot o f
Citeaux , Legate o f the Apostolic See ” ; imposing
upon him a canon ical penance to be performedunder pain o f being treated “ as forsworn andheretic , excommun icated and cut o ff from the bo dyof the faithful .” I n the other he intrusts to a
citizen of Toulouse the supervision of a convertedheretic , pending the decis ion of the Cardinal Legate .Finally, a writing o f Thierry o f Apo ldia , quoted by
La co rda ire him self, shows him in the exercise o f
the functions intrusted to him by the representa
t ives o f the Holy See : “ Certain heretics havingbe en taken a nd convicted in the country of Toulouse,were delivered over to the secular court , becausethey refused to return to the faith , a nd were condemned to be burnt . Dominic , looking upon one o f
them with a heart in itiated into the secrets of God,
1 La corda ire , Vie do Sa int Dom inique, p. 1 17. I t is difficul tto im agine a passage a t once so fi ne from a li tera ry po int o f viewand so devo id o f histo rica l crit icism .
2 They have been published by the Bo l landists (Acta SS . 4th
August) and by Echa rd (Scr ipt . 0rd.
40 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
said to the o fficers o f the court Se t this one
apart , a nd take heed not to burn him . Then turn
ing with grea t gentleness towards the heretic , I
know, my son, he said to him ,“ tha t you need time ,
but that in the end yo u will become good and holy.
”
Alike wonderful and lovable ! That man remained
twenty mo re years in the blindness of heresy ; after
which , touched by grace , he asked fo r the habit o f a
Preaching Friar, l iving thencefo rwa rd , and dying , in
the fa ith .
” Acco rding to Consta ntine of Orvieto , who
relates the same fa ct in almost the same words , hi s
name was Raymo nd Gros . Compa ring with all
these documents the canon of the Co unci l o f
Ve rona , renewed in 1208 by the Counci l o f Avignon ,1
which orders tha t apo states who , after being con
victed o f heresy by their bi sho ps o r their representa
t ive s , should obstinately persi st in their errors , sho uld
be del ive red over t o the secular arm , it wo uld seem
that it must be concluded that , by virtue of the dele
gated authority o f the Cistercian m o nks , St Dominic
was to convict the heretics ; and that , in convicting
them , he del ivered them up , indirectly but surely, to
execution , unless he suspended , by a n act o f clemency,the actio n o f that do ci le instrument o f the Church ,the secular arm . Do ubtless , he did not him self
pronounce the fata l sentence ; but during their trial
he played the part o f an expert in the matter o f
o rthodoxy ; or even of a juror, transmitting to the
co urt a verdict o f gui lty while capable at the same
time of signing a recommendatio n to mercy .
I nstead of expending their ta lents in subtle argu
1 Labbe , Concilia , vol. xi. p . 4 2 .
SAI NT DOM I N IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 4 1
ments with a susp icio n of special pleading aboutthem , Echard and La co rda ire would have done
better to exp lain the l ine of conduct pursued bythe Holy See and St Dominic . Without goinginto the fundamental do ctrine o f St Thomas , andbearing in mind the evangelical precepts , Love one
ano ther . Do unto a ll m en a s y e would they
should do unto y ou . A ll they tha t ta ke the
sword sha ll per ish with the sword ; which , better
than the indifference o f the sceptic , contain the
principles o f tolerance ; and no t even believing
that pure reasons o f state , so o ften quoted againstthe Church , can j ustify persecutio n , i t would never
theless seem that the repression of the Albigensianheresy was demanded by grave social interests . I twas not a question of bringing straying nations backto orthodo xy , nor even o f reducing political rebels toorder, but of protecting society from subversive and
ana rchic doctrines . I n the thi rteenth century, asever, the Church was fighting at one and the sametime fo r herself and fo r so cial o rder as a whole . I t
m ust be confessed ,” writes the author of Additions
it l’
H isto ire da L anguedoc,“ that the principles o f
Manichaeism and o f the heretics o f the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries , attacking society at its veryfo undations, would have been productive o f the
strangest and most dangerous disturbances, a nd
wo uld have permanently shaken both law and
po l itical society.
”And the learned archivist of the
Gironde , M . B ruta ils , arrives at a like conclusion .
“ The disorders and incalculable evi l s caused by theAlbigenses and other sects , had led the Papacy and
D 1 2
42 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
the sovereigns o f western Europe to take severemeasures against heretics. Such a proscriptio n wasnot the effect o f that fierce hatred o f the misbel iever
which i s imputed to the prince s o f that day. I t was
dictated by a consideration ha ppi ly summed up by awriter who says that heresy was then as much asocial as a religious crim e .” 1
I t would indeed be difficult to find in the works o f
Schopenhauer, o f Niet z che , and o f o ther contem
po ra ry pessimists and n ihi l i sts any doctrines moredeceptive o r mo re discouraging tha n those o f the
Albigenses. According t o their ministe rs , the worldwas the wo rk of the devi l—the creator o f al l visibleth ings , and if God had intervened at al l in thi sshaping of existences , He had done so on ly i n orderst ill further to weaken man , endowed with too muchstrength by the demon . Every l iving creature wasunclean ; l i fe was the supreme misfo rtune ; to com
m unica te i t was to participa te in the diabolical a ct
o f creation duty consisted alone in its destruction .2
This was the reason of the horror entertained by theheretics fo r marriage and the fami ly. Marriage isnothing at al l ,
” said some . “ I n the marriage .statesalvation i s impossible ,
” asserted Po nce Gr im o a rd o f
Castelsarrasin . Not only could it not lead to salvatio n , but it was the mortal s in pa r excellence—“
a
man sin s as much with hi s wife as with any other7,woman . And ca rrying o ut their views to their
1 B ruta ils, Les Popula tions rur a les do Roussillon a u m oyon age,
p . 2 96 .
2 Cf: Abbé Doua is, Les He’
re’
tiques du 0077t do Toulouso ou
SAI NT DOM IN I C AND THE ALB IGENSES 43
0
conclusion they ended by saying , l ike our modernanarchists , “ Marriage i s legali sed concubinage .” 1
Thus the Perfect vowed themselves to perpetua l
celibacy, no t from love o f virgin ity, but from disgustand hatred for existence .
Several among them went further sti l l and preachedthe necess ity under which each individua l lay of selfannihi lation . To be swallowed up in nothingness inthe same way as the mystics are swallowed up inGod ; to abstract themselves from life to the po int
o f becoming unconscious o f it and to fall into thatwhich
.
the I ndian fakir calls Nirvana—such was thepractice o f their saints. Berbeguera , wife o f Lobent ,a knight of Puylaurens , went out o f curiosity to see
one of these heretics : he seemed to her, she says ,the strangest marvel ; having for long remainedseated in h is chair, as motionless as the trunk o f a
tree .2 From such doctrines as these , being as theywere radica l negations o f human activity and of thefamily, greater respect for social ties was not to beexpected. Doubtless , l ike Luther and other heretics
who enjoyed for a tim e the support o f princes, theAlbigenses did not always insist upon theories whichwould have alienated useful protecto rs ; but the lesspo l itic amongst them did not hes itate to declare lawsvain and social sanctions i l legitimate , nor to stig
matise as an assassin the j udge by whom a ca pita l
sentence was pronounced .
Now these doctrines did not remain confined to
1 Exam ina tion of Bernard de Caux in 1 2 45 . B it]. of Toulouse
2 lbidem .
44 THE L I FE OF SA INT DOM IN IC
a narrow circle of adventurous spirits : through the
preaching of the Perfect they had penetrated
the lowest classes ; so that at Gaja 1 the veryvagrants were found discussing the Eucharist . Thecommon people accepted these bel iefs the more
readi ly fo r the very reason that , being incapableo f understanding them , they were attracted by themystery which surrounded them . How many free
thinkers of modern times have been won over toFreemasonry rather by the obscure character o f
the asso ciation than by any enfranch isement o f their
own l imited intel l igence ! And , with the rites of
the Consolamentum , celebrated in the presence o f
in itiates , with its ral lying s igns and its secret dis
c ipline , Albigensianism was , in the thirteenth century,the freemasonry o f the south o f France ; while inany case its theories , the number of its adherents ,and its o rganisation made it a public danger, sothat , from this point of view, its repressio n was anecessity . Those who , in our own day , and without
the least prej udice , either phi losophical o r rel igious ,have made laws and enacted the necessary penaltiesagainst “ associations of malefactors ” are in noposition t o blame the Church and St Domin ic forhaving protected society after the same fashionfrom the fanatics o f a s imi lar nature by whom itsexistence was menaced in the thirteenth century.
Do ubtless the means taken were violent and some
times cruel : no one in our day would think ofl ighting funeral pi les in order to defend socia l order ;1 A vil lage si tua ted be tween Fanj eaux et Castelnauda ry, in thedepa rtm ent of Aude.
46 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
that his purity was un sullied . I have never
seen a man so humble o r one who more despisedthe glory of the world and all that belongs to it .He accepted insults , curses , abuse , with patienceand joy , l ike gifts of great price . He despisedhimself greatly, reckoning himself as nought . Withtender kindness he comfo rted those o f the Fatherswho were s ick , bearing admirab ly with their in
fi rm it ies . I have never seen a man to whom prayer
was more habitual . He passed whole nights withoutsleep , sighing and weeping for the sins o f o thers .
Generous and hospitable , he gladly bestowed uponthe poor all that he possessed . I never heard o r
knew of his having any other bed but the church
when a church was within reach if the church waslacking , he lay upon a bench o r on the ground , o rupon the planks o f the bed which had been prepared
for him , after taking the bedding o ff it . He loved
the faith and he loved peace , and as much as in him
lay he was the loyal furtherer o f the one and of theother.” 1
His influence increased from day to day . The
canon who had accompa nied his bishop in a hum blecapacity had become one o f the great powers o f
orthodoxy and had fo rmed ties of friendship withFo ulques, b i shop of Toulouse , Garcias de l
’
Orte ,
bishop of Comminges , Navar, bishop o f Conserans ,a ll o f whom had been witnesses o f his z eal and ofh is controvers ial ski l l . One of his companions , Guyo f Vaux-Cernay, had become bi shop of Carcassonneand often had reco urse to him for help and counsel .
Inquisi t ion o f Toulouse. B oll. Acta SS. 4 th August .
SAI NT DOM I N IC AND THE ALB IGENSES 47
I n the beginn ing of the year 12 13 e specia lly this wasthe case . The threaten ing attitude of Pedro , Kingof Arragon , who had for al l ies the Counts ofToulouse and of Foix, had compel led Simon deMontfort to demand fresh reinforcements from thenorthern knighthood, and the two bishops of Toulouseand Carcassonne had repaired to France in order to
gain over Philip Augustus and his son Loui s to thecause of the crusade and to obtain fresh recruits fo r
the Catholic fo rces. At hi s departure , Guy in
trusted to St Dominic the spiritual care o f hi sdiocese ,1 and from the first da ys o f Lent 12 13 (theend o f February) the sa int , accompanied by Stephen
o f Metz , was in stal led in the episcopal palace o f
Carcassonne . He did not for that reason discontinuehi s sermons , and heretics being very numerous i nthat town he held conferences for them in the
Cathedral of St Nazaire ; while increasing , these
occupa tions notwithstanding , hi s Lenten austerities ,“ l iving upon bread and water alone and nevermaking use o f a bed .
” 2
I t was wished to raise him to the episcopate ;and after the dea th o f Bertrand d’Aigrefeuille inJ uly 12 12 , and at the instigation o f the archdeacon ,Peter Amie], the future archbisho p of Narbonne , he
was chosen by the Chapter o f Bez iers for theirbishop ; whi le no t lo ng aft er, on the translation of
the bishop o f Comminges , Garcias de l’
Ort e , to the
arch -episco pal See o f Auch and upon hi s recom
m enda t ion, the cano ns of St Liz ier wished to make
1 Thierry o f Apoldia , Bo l l . A cta SS . 4 th August.11 Ba lm e , op . ci t . vol. i . p . 375 . Laco rda ire
,op . cit. p . 2 3 2 .
48 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOMIN IC
St Domin ic his successor. Lastly, about 12 15 , whenthe bishopric o f Conserans became vacant by thedeath o r resignation o f Navar, another attempt was
made by Garcias de I’Orte to ra i se the saint to the
episcopate by placing him at the head o f that
dio cese . Dominic , however, always declined with the
greatest determinat io n , declaring “ that he wo uld
so o ner take fl ight in the night , with nothing but hissta ff, than accept the episcopate .
” 2 His reiterated
refusal was no t the result o f extreme humility alo ne :according to the testimony o f the Abbot o f Bo ul
bo nne ,2 the saint desired to remain at l iberty to
devo te himself to the two great creations o f which
h is missions had pr oved to him the need ; he had,he said , “ to busy himself with the establi shment of
the Friars Preachers and o f the nuns o f Pr o ui l le .
This was hi s wo rk and hi s mission , and he wo uld
undertake no o ther.”
1 I bidem , vol. 1. p . 479 .
11 Inqu isi tion o f Toulouse .
CHAPTER I I I
FOUNDATION OF THE MONASTERY OF PROUILLE
THE heretical leaders made great account o f the
co -o peration o f women , and were bent upon
winning them over to their sect . Thro ugh them
heretical doctrine was preserved on the domestic
hearth and was transmitted to future generations .
I f Aim ery , lord o f Mont rea l, was one of the most
energetic supporters o f Albigensianism , it was
because his zeal was unceasingly kept up by hi s
mother Blanche and his si ster Mab ilia ; while at
Fanjeaux , V é z iade de Festes , the wife o f o ne of
the principal knights o f the neighbourho od , had beenbrought up by her grandmother in these doctrines ,and had practised them from chi ldhood . With
wha t ardour Escla rm onde de Fo ix had taken the
catharistic s ide at the Pam iers conference has beenalready shown ; and later on one o f the bitterest
Opponents o f the crusaders , Bernard-Atbo de N iort ,declared befo re the I nquis ition that he owed his zealfo r heresy to the education given him by hi s grand
mo ther, Blanche de Laurac .1
I t was also most frequently women who suppliedthe catharist bi shops and deacon s with their meeting1 All this info rm a t ion is drawn from the inquisi toria l repo rts o f
1 2 4 2 - 1 2 45 .
50 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
places . The mother o f the Sire de Montréa l andthe grandmother of Bernard de N iort , Blanche deLaurac , put her house at their disposal from 1203
to 1208 ; and heretical assemblies were also held atthe houses of Wilhelmina de Tonneins at Fanj eaux ;of Fa brissa de Ma z ero les , Ferranda, Serrona , and
Pagana at Mont rea l ; and at that o f another noblelady, Ala z a
’
is de Cuguro , herself a preacher o f heresy,at Vi l leneuve . I t was in the power o f the wives o fthe poorest of the people to render to the causeservices o f a different kind ; executing commissionsand carrying secret messages with so much the moresuccess by reason of the obscurity o f their rank ,which permitted them to go about witho ut attracting
notice . Begging by the way, l iving on bread andnuts , Wilhelmina Marty rendered the greatest help
by conveying to the heretic weavers the orders o ftheir co -religion ists .Now there were in these districts o f Languedo c ,nobles who were induced by poverty to intrust thebringing up and education o f their daughters t o
heretics.” 1 I t was thus , no doubt, that at two
years and a half o ld, Na Garsen Richo ls was
clo thed at Bram in 1 195 with the Perfect habit ,which was also taken by Saura at Vil leneuve-la
Comtal at the age o f seven . When she had scarcelyreached her eleventh year, P . Covinius was givenover by her brother Peter Coloma to the heretics ;at Castelnaudary Guiranda being yet quite l ittle
”
was made an in itiate, as was al so the case with
1 Jo rda in de Saxe and Humbert de Rom anis. Echa rd, i .p . 6 .
THE MONASTERY OF PROU I LLE 5 1
Arnalde de Frém ia c “ during her chi ldhood , and
Florence de Vi llesiscle at the age o f five .To receive these chi ldren heretic convents hadbeen organi sed . The women o f whom they were
composed had received complete initiation , were
distinguished by a special dress , and practised theObservances of the sect in all their severity. One
o f these train ing houses for novices existed atCabaret ; to which , when scarcely seven years old ,Maurina de Vi l lesi scle was taken to be with her aunt ,“ who , together with her associates , l ived there .”
Blanche o f Montrea l directed a community o f the
kind at Laurac . Towards the year 1200, Saura wasbrought up under the like conditions by Ala z a
’
is de
Cuguro a nd her a ssocia tes ; and in the same little
town ,1 Bernarde de Ricord presided over a simi larassembly—it was from the latter and her a ssocia tes
that Audia rda Ebra rda received the initiation . Thesecommunities kept up a correspo ndence with one
another, and were l ike houses o f the same religiousorder, a mutual support . I n 1206 , Dolcia left her
husband , Peter Fabre , to embrace the heresy, coming
to jo in Gai llarde and her associates at Vi lleneuve ;but , doubtless, not finding herself in sufficientsecurity there , she was sent to Castelnaudary “ to
Blanche and her associates,” where she remained
for a year, separated from her fami ly. Having
afterwards left th i s asylum , she came to Laurac1 “ Saura testis jura ta , dixit quo d, dum esset sep tem
anno rum , feci t se hereticam et stetit heretica induta per tresanuos et staba t apud V i llam no vam cum Ala za icia de Cuguro
et so ci is suis hereticabus.” B ioliotlz . do Toulouse MS . 609,
E 14 3 .
5 2 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
“ to B runissende and her associates , a nd a t the
end o f a year was admitted to the noviciate steti t
in pro ba tione.
”
Thus were these in itiates trained whose apostolate was so fruitful among women . I n the meet
ings o f the sect the feminine element was alwayslarge . At Fanjeaux most ladies o f rank were
fervent adepts in the heresy , the lady o f the
castle herself, Cava ers , being affi l iated to the sect .Several were not co ntent with the po sition o f sim p le
Believers , but demanded complete in itiatio n—theConsolam entum—in order to be admitted into the
class o f the Perfect . In 1204 , a t a so lemn a ssembly
where al l were met together, Guila bert de Ca stre s
conferred the Consolam entum o n three women belonging to the i l lustrious house of Durfort , as wel l
as on the Suz eraine o f the place herself, Escla rm onde
de Foix . 1
In the course o f hi s missio ns, it was impossiblethat St Dominic should have fai led t o become
interested in a propaganda o f this nature ; and
women , bes ides , were in the habit of assi sting a t
the public conferences at which the discussionsbetween the saint and the heretics were carried on ,several having thus been brought back to ortho doxyby means o f the arguments of St Dominic and
Dida cus . Now it i s related by Hum bert'
de Romans
that on a certain evening in the year 1206 , St
Dominic having gone into the church o f Fanjeaux
to pray, after one o f his open air sermo ns , seve ral
o f these women initiates introduced them selves to1 B a lm e, op . cit . vol. 1. p . 108 .
5 4 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
a ssocia tion for the N ew Converts. Whether St
Dominic alone conceived the idea , as Humbertasserts , or whether it was shared by Dida cus , it i simpossible to say. One may, however, observe that ,at the time when Jo rdan was writing , St Dominichad not yet been canonised , as he was in Humbert
’ s
day , and that it i s possible that , after the solemn acto f canonisation , Domin ican historians felt a natura ltemptation to attribute everyth ing that had beendone to the saint, and that the nuns o f Proui lle maylikewise have been led to claim him as the solefounder o f their commun ity.
Marvel lous signs‘
indica ted to St Dominic the spot
on which the new monaste ry should be rai sed . On
the even ing o f the Feast o f St Mary Magdalen (J uly2 2 , 1206 ) he was resting from the fatigues o f the day,and , seated in front of the northern ga te o f Fanjeaux ,was contemplating from that height the vast plain
which lay at his feet , stretching to the di stant slopes
o f the Montagne Noire and j ust then l it by thesetting sun . His eyes could reach as far as thepasture lands o f La uragua is , between Castelnaudaryand Carcassonne ; and nearer sti l l lay Mo ntre
’
al ,firmly seated upon its hi ll , the vi llages o f Villeneuve,Villa savary, Villesi scle , Bram and Alzonne , all
scattered upo n the plain , with the forts 1 o f which
the towers marked the limits o f Razes . Be fore hisspiritual vis ion the remembrance of his apostoliclabours , o f which this region had been the theatre ,unfolded itself ; his thoughts turning themselves
1 These were fo rtified rura l groups. Du Cange transla tes thewo rdforcia by muni t io.
THE MONASTERY OF PROU I LLE 5 5
afresh to t he convert for the new converts which itwas his dream to found ; and he implo red Our La dy,i f such was the divine wi l l , to inspire and to ass ist him .
All at once a luminous globe descends from heaven ,hovers in space , and leaving a wavering trai l o f fire
behind it , floats above the plain , and over the forsakenchurch o f Proui lle . On the two following days , thewonder again took place ; after which there was nofurther doubt o r hesitation—the foundation of themonastery o f Our Lady of Pro ui lle was decided upon .
Thereupon , by a deed which , though undated ,must have belonged to the period between themonths o f August and December 1206 , Foulques ,bisho p o f Toulouse , presented to Dominic o f Osmathe Church o f St Mary o f Proui l le and the adj acent
land , to the extent o f thirty feet ,”fo r the use of the
women who were already converted or should beconverted in the future .1 I n his Monumenta con
ventus Tolosani , Percin states that it was alsonecessary to obtain the consent o f a noble lady o f
Fa njeaux , Cava ers , who possessed rights over theterrito ry o f Proui l le .
H a ving taken these in itial steps, St Dominicset himself to work at the constitutio n o f the
convent . The beginn ings o f it were humble,the
bui ldings o nly co nsisting o f one modest house,
hasti ly erected at the s ide o f the church ; andthough the nuns were on ly n ine in number there
1 Percin, M onumenta conuentus Tolosani , p . 5 . We do no t
possess the o rigina l o f this dona tion,but Percin ha s transm i tted to
us a copy which he sta tes tha t he found in an old m anuscriptbelonging to the m onastery.
5 6 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
was some difficulty in finding room fo r themwithin the narrow limits of the mo nastery . They
consisted of Adalai s , Raymo nde Passarine , Beren
garia , Richa rde o f Barbaira, J o rdane , Wilhelmina
o f Belpech , Curto lane , Claretta a nd Gentiana ,their number being sho rtly completed by thearrival o f Manenta and o fWilhelmina of Fanj eaux,all belo nging to the neighbouring nobi l ity, accordingto Jordan , nobiles m a trona e Fanifovis . By the
l t of No vember they were assembled at Proui l le ,and in establi shing , on the 2 7th o f December,the monastic rule o f the cloi ster, St Dominic
definitely accompli shed their separation from theworld . Thenceforward their l ives were spent behindtheir gratings, under the direction o f their holy
founder, their days and the greater part o f their
nights being spent in manual labour, prayer andrel igious contemplation . So long as Dominic re
mained at hand they had no fixed rule ; but later
on, when the development o f the Order o f PreachingFriars demanded his presence in Rome , he gave thecloistered s isters of Prouil le and St Sixtus the con
st itut ions which became the Rule of the Domin icannuns o f the great Order.1
Born in poverty, the convent soon became therecipient o f gifts , and in 1207, Berenger, bishop o f
Narbonne , assigned to it the parochial church of St
Martin of Limoux.2 We shal l not fol low in detai l1 These will be studied in chap . v11.
2 Fo r the p robable rea sons fo r this, a s wel l as fo r the o therdona t ions m ade to St Dom inic fo r his convent a t Proui lle , see oura rt icle upon St Dom inic and the Founda t ion o f the Monasteryof Proui lle ,” Revue H istor ique, vol. lxiv. p . 2 2 5 .
THE MONASTERY OF PROU I LLE 5 7
the progress made by the convent in materialmatters during the l ifetime of the saint . I t issufficient to bear in m ind that Simon de Montfort
was its principal benefacto r and that , fo l lowing in
his steps , the knights of the crusade were a ll anxiousto testify their admiratio n for St Dominic by means
o f gifts to Proui lle . Thus , mostly out o f the spoi ls
o f the Fa idis , were fo rm ed the domains of Bram
and of Sa uzens , o f Fa njeaux , of Aga ssens and ofFenouillet . A ’
pra ct ica l m a n no less than a mystic ,Dominic a bly administered the l ittle patrimony o f
his nuns , and with the help of his friend William
Claret , the procurator o f the mo na s tery , contrivedby means of ski lful purchases to jo in togetherscattered possessions and thus to constitute homo
geneous and manageable estates .
His great object was to secure for his humblefounda tion the guarantees which were so necessaryin those troubled times and in a country ceaselesslydisturbed by war. He was not content with obtaining from Simon de Montfort the confirma tion o f
each‘
separate donation ; but demanded from himalso general privi leges , with the result that onDecem ber 13 , 12 17, some weeks before his death ,the leader o f the crusade directed his seneschals ofCarcassonne and o f Agen to take unde r their specialcharge the go o ds o f hi s clear brother Dom in ic ,
” asi f they had been hi s own.
1 Som e years later when,
aft er the death o f Simon de Montfort , it seemedlikely that the southe rn nobi lity would regain their
lost possessions , fears were entertained that the1 Ba lm e , op . cit . vol. 11. p . 5 5 .
B1 2
5 8 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
mona stery might be forced to make restitution ofthe property which had been assigned to it o ut o f
the spoils o f the va nquished . St Dom in ic a nd hi s
delega tes , however, fo und means o f o btaining fo r
the co nvent confirm atio n in its po sse ssio ns fromthe lo rds o f the soi l themselves , especially Raymo ndV I I Co unt o f Toulouse , and Raymond Roger ,Count o f Foix. 1
However powerful m ight be the suppo rt o f princes ,he did no t conside r it sufficient ; a nd ha ving re
course to the autho rity which a lo ne in the wo rld
appeared t o him paramount—tha t of the H o ly Seehe sol icited the Apo sto l ic safegua rd ; o btaining
it first from I nno cent 111 Octo be r 8 , 12 15 , a nd
secondly from Hono r ius I I I March These
two pont ifi ca l deeds regulated fo r the future the
conditio ns of existence o f the mo nastery, p la cingit first of all under the patro na ge o f St Peter.“ Now ,
” sa ys M . Paul Fa bre , “ the a im o f the
Apo stolic patrona ge i s to assure its integrity to the
object upo n which it i s exerci sed . Two kinds o f
da nger a re to be apprehended on behalf o f an
o rgani sa tio n—the attacks o f the o uter wo rld, andthe dim inutio n o f its vital ene rgy . Mo nasterie s
under the pa tro nage o f the Apostle are secured
a ga inst this do uble peri l . On the o ne ha nd a ll
hum a n powers a re fo rbidden to di sturb the mo nks
o r t o lay hands upon their goo ds ; on the o the r ,free powe r to choo se their head i s secured to the
mo nks—the po ssibi l ity o f an e scape , that i s to say,1 Ba lm e , op . cit . vol. 11. p . 56 .
2 B a lm e, op . cit . vo l. i i . pp . 2 and 3 .
THE MONASTERY OF PROU I LLE 5 9
from what might be termed secularisation from
within ” 1 Such were the a dvantages which , in theAposto l ic pa tro na ge , Dominic demanded fo r hi s
monastery . The nuns were placed under the rule
o f St Augustine , the prio ress being freely elected
by her si sters ; the co nvent was at liberty to receive
whoso ever should wish to make her profession there ;to carry on wo rship , even in time of interdict, andalso possessed the right o f sepulture . I t wa s safeguarded from any secular tyranny, fo r al l powerswere fo rbidden to claim from it dues or fines , and
who so ever sho uld atta ck its l iberties was threatenedwith excommunication and the divine wrath . I t
was even protected from any arbitrary exerci se ofepiscopal power, fo r no one save the Pope could
pronounce ecclesiastical sentences upon it ; and ifthe holy oi ls , the consecratio n o f altars o r o f
churches , had to be so l icited from the Ordinary,the convent , i n cases where his authority was
abused by its own bisho p for the purpo se of bring
ing it into subjection , was free to have recourse to
a no ther. I t must , however, be o bserved that , tho ugh
withdrawn from the arbitrary exerci se o f epi sco pal
autho rity , the co nvent was not exempted from the
no rmal j uri sdictio n of the bisho p ; H o norius I I I . , on
the contrary , expressly stipulating that the power
o f the Bishop of Toulo use , the Ordinary o f the
place , should be left intact! Final ly, by these two
1 P. Fabre , Etude snr le L iber censuum do l’
li‘
glise Rom a ine ,
P 73‘1 “ Sa lva Sedis a postolicae auctorita te e t diocesani episcop i
canonica just it ia .
”
60 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
bul ls , I nnocent I I I . and Honorius 111. guaranteed tothe convent free possess ion of all its goods, presentand future , threatening with the gravest penaltiesthose who should attempt to usurp them .
These two bul ls o btained , St Dominic might con
sider that one of the o bj ects he had had in view
when he had decl ined the episcopate had been
accompli shed . The convent was hencefo rth todevelop freely in the exerci se o f its pious practices,to reach the number, a century later, o f a hundred
and forty nuns , and to extend its possessions intothe plains of La uragua is and the hil ls of Razes .
62 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
men , anxio us to preach under the i r orders . Jordan o fSaxony relates how , when in 1206 , Dida cus returnedt o Spa in , he intrusted the companions left by himin La nguedo c to the spiritua l guida nce o f Dom in ic ;and where matters m ate rial were concerned , t othe care . o f William Cla re t. This a sso cia tio n o f
m i ssio naries was o f the humblest character , being
composed of few persons , “ pa uci and afte r thedeparture of Dida cus Domin ic rem ained almo st a lo ne ,“
qua si solus . His reso urces were so l imited that
when the Bishop o f Osma revisited Spain , it was
with the o bject o f co l lec t ing the alm s which were
growing every day mo re necessary .
1
Having become , by the death o f hi s bisho p , the
chie f o f the l ittle flo ck , Dom in ic set him self toincrea se and t o o rga nise it . I n th is undertaking the
sa int enjoyed the powerful assi stance o f Fo ulques ,Bisho p of To ulo use .
Born at Genoa , and a former monk o f the
Cistercian abbey o f To rone t , Fo ulques had taken the
pla ce of Peter o f Ra ba ste ins , depo sed from the Sec
o f To ulouse on acco unt o f the com pla i sance he had
disp layed towa rds here sy ; and from the beginfi ingo f hi s epi sco pate he had testified the mo st ardent
zeal on beha lf o f the Ca tho l ic fa ith . Hunted o ut
o f his cathedral and o f To ulo use by the he retics , hei s fo und in the a rmy o f the crusaders , a ssisting
Sim o n de Mo ntfo rt with hi s advice and experience ;i n the counci ls , 1nsp1r1ng m easure s a s seve re as they
were efficacious fo r the repre ssio n o f here sy ; i n the
various pa ri shes of hi s diocese , spending himself in
1 Jo rdan o f Sa xony (Echa rd, op . ci t . p .
THE ORDER OF PREACH I NG FRIARS 6 3
de fence o f the truth , preaching it personal ly , arguingwith the Waldensian ministe rs in public co nferences ,instituting reform s am o ngst hi s cle rgy, a nd multiply
ing the centres o f the pro paganda . Meeting St
Dominic a t seve ral o f the publ ic a ssem blies , the two
a po stles understo o d e a ch o ther and became united
by the tie of a ho ly friendship . St Dominic placed
a ll his zea l a t the service o f Fo ulque s , hi s bishop ;and Foulques used a ll hi s influence in support o f
Dominic ’s benevolent unde rtakings ; by the Church
and by history their memo ries wil l never be separa ted .
I n presenting the church o f our La dy o f Prouille to
the saint , Fo ulque s had made hi s contributio n to the
fo unda tio n of the women’ s convent ; in nominating
St Dominic t o the care o f Fanj ea ux he guaranteed
t o the men ’s Order their first provisio n . I t isdifficult t o give a preci se date t o thi s deed , but it
was certa in ly anterio r to May 2 5 , 12 14 , since on
that day Fo ulque s had ma de o ver certain revenues
to the nuns o f Pro uil le , “ with the consent o f
Bro ther Dom in ic , Cha plain o f Fa njeaux .
” 1 The
income o f thi s parish , being fa irly large , se rved for
the maintenance o f the saint and hi s companions.
Sa int Dom iniks se teno itLe b énéfi ce d ’une égliseQui au Fania t éta i t a ssisePor ses com pa ignons e t por Ii .
” 2
No less devo ted tha n Fo ulques t o the wo rk of St
1 Ga llia Chr istia na , vol. xii i . ; I nst . p . 2 47 :“ de a ssensu et
vo lunta te fra tris Dom inic i cappel/ani do Fa nojovis .
2 L i Rom ans Sa int Dom inik . Ba lm e , op . cit . vol. i . p . 45 1 .
64 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
Domin ic , Simon de Montfort , for his part , made animportant donation to “ the ho ly Prea ching ,
” about
the mo nth o f Septembe r 12 14 . Ever s ince J une2 8 the crusading fo rces had been besieging the
fortified ca stle of Casseneui l in Agenais , one o f the
strongholds o f heresy ; it was captured and wasalmost at Once presented by Simon de Montfort toSt Dominic . I t must have been an acquisition bywhich the income of the mission was sensibly augm ented, fo r in speaking of the beginnings o f his
Order Jordan o f Saxony makes mention , as o f the
first importance amongst its resources , o f the re
venues o f Casseneui l and o f Fanjea ux .
Strengthened by‘
the encouragement lavi shed upon
him by bisho ps and knights , fol lowing the example
of Foulques and of Simon de Mo ntfort , St Dominic ,l ittle by little , conce ived the proj ect o f giving greater
cohes ion to hi s work . I n th is he was assisted moreparticularly by the Bishop of Toulouse . By an
enactment o f J uly 12 15 , Foulques established the infant Order canonical ly in hi s dio cese , giving it as its
mission to struggle perpetually for the extensio n oforthodoxy , and o f go od mo rals , a nd fo r the ext irph
tion o f heresy and evi l customs . As the labourer i sworthy o f his hire , and the preacher o f the ,
Gospel
shal l l ive by the Gospel ,” he had assigned him at
the same time important revenues , a bandoning tohim in perpetuity the sixth pa rt o f all pa rochial dues .The concession was of such im po rtance that the
bi sho p took care to make mentio n of the approva lwhich had been bestowed upo n this deed by his
cha pter and clergy. I t is even possible that he
THE ORDER OF PREACHI NG FRIARS 65
himself had not accurately calculated the extent o fhis l iberality, since later on he negotiated theca ncel ling o f it with St Dominic .
Up to this time the Holy Preaching had had no
fixed quarters . Like the Saviour, Dominic sent hi sdisciple s , two and two , from vi llage to vi l lage , he himself, when a bsent from his presbytery, o nly lodging
a t inns , i f indeed it was not a t the edge o f a spring
o r in a wayside ditch .
1 But in 12 15 an event
o ccurred which fixed the destinie s , hitherto wander
ing , o f the Preaching . At Toulouse a yo ung m a n
named Pete r Se i la, belo nging to a rich citizen fami ly
and whose fa ther had fi lled the post of provost, hadattached himself to St Dominic . Sho rtly afterwards
thi s friend , pla cmg himself more strictly unde r his
direction , determ ined to enter the infant Order, and
sharing their h itherto undivided patrimo ny with hi s
brothers , he ga ve up the portion he received—somelanded property and certain other possessions—toSt Dominic !
St Dominic retained a house situated near Chateau
Na rbonna is as his own residence , and in the month
o f Apri l established hi s Brethren in it . I t was thus
that the first fixed convent of the Friars Preachers
1 Inquisi t ion o f Toulouse and o f Bo logna , pa ss. (A cta SS .
2 Ba lm e , op . cit . vol. i . p . 500. I t had long been known tha tthe Dom inican convent o f Toulouse , the first o f those o f the
Fria rs Preachers , had been founded about 1 2 1 6 . B ut Fa ther Ba lm eha s been enabled to give the exact da te o f th is deed , impo rtant asi t is to the histo ry o f the Order and its founder , having disco veredin the Na t iona l Archives the o r igina l instrum ent o f Pe ter Seila ’sdona t ion (cp . A r ch . Na t .j. 3 2 1 , No He has reproduced itinfa csim ile in his Ca rtula ir e.
66 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
wa s fo unded (Apri l 2 5 , They at once bega nt o l ive in com m unity,
” sa ys Jordan o f Sa xo ny, t o
increase more and m o re in humility a nd to co nfo rmt o the pra ctices o f the religio us l ife .
” I t was this
which gave occasion to Pete r Se i la , when later o nhe had becom e Prio r o f the co nvent at Limoge s , tosay
“ tha t he had had the hono ur o f rece iving the
Order in his ho use , befo re he himse lf had been re
ce ived into the Order.” The Fria rs Prea chers did
little mo re than pass thro ugh the ho use of ChateauNa rbonna is ; for the fo l lowing year, they were insta l led by Foulques in the church o f St Romanus .This , however, did not satisfy the saint . He had
a s yet no t more tha n a do zen missionar ies gro uped
around him , but he already fo und the l im its o f a
dio cese too narrow, a nd dream t o f fo unding an Order
which should extend its o pe ratio ns a nd its branche s
o ver the un iversa l Church . The o cca sio n seemed
fa voura ble . By a hull o f Apri l 19 , 12 13 , Po pe
I nno cent 111. had summo ned to the Lateran on
Novem ber 1st a n ecumenica l Co unci l , which sho uld
deliberate “o n the refo rm o f the unive rsa l Church
,
the im provement o f m o ra l s , the extinctio n o f herewa nd the strengthening o f the fa ith .
” 1 Did no t the
wo rk o f St Dominic correspo nd t o the questio ns
which the Co unci l was t o so lve ! Was no t its o bj ect
t o protect morals and fa ith a ga in st heresy ; a nd was
it not, on this acco unt , worthy o f pont ifi ca la pprova l !St Dominic therefo re prepared t o ma ke the jo urney
to Rome with hi s bisho p , intrusting the direction of
1 Po t thast , Regesta pontifi cum Romanorum ,No 4706 . Mansi
Concilia , xxii . 960.
THE ORDER OF PREACH I NG FRIARS 67
his new convent to the m o st austere o f his Brethren ,Be rtrand o f Ga r r igua ,
“a man o f great ho l ines s , o f
inexo rable seve rity in his dea l ings with him self, mo rti
fy ing hi s flesh with a usterity, a nd bea ring stampedupo n him the l ikeness o f the blessed father whose
la bo urs , vigi ls , penances , and numerous deeds of
virtue he had sha red .
” 1 He must have arrived at
Rom e befo re the o pening o f the Counci l , fo r the
first public sessio n was no t held ti l l November 11
and on Octo ber 8 , by a bul l which had evidently
be en granted to the so l ic ita t io ns o f the sa int ,I nno cent 111. had taken the mo nastery o f Proui l le
unde r hi s patro na ge .
From the beginning o f the Council I nnocent I I I .
appears to have participa ted in St Dom inic ’ s
ideas . Not co ntent with having accorded the
Aposto l ic patronage t o the convent of Proui lle , he
demonstra ted t o the La te ran assembly the need o f
giving special attentio n t o preaching and to con
t rove rsy directed a ga in st heresy : “ We sho uld be
the l ight o f the world ; if the light that i s in us be
changed into da rkness , how great i s tha t darkness IWhile , thro ugh the igno rance a nd co rruptio n of
the clergy , he showed the bishops “ religion debased,
j ustice trampled under fo o t , heresy triumphant a ndschism inso lent . The Co uncil , fo r its part , entirely
adopting the views o f the Po pe , enacted a very
im portant decree rela tive to preaching , and the
urgent necessity o f rendering it mo re a ctive , m o re
lea rned , and thus m o re efficacious . “ Amongst al l
the mean s o f promot ing the salvatio n o f Chri stian1 Thierry of Apoldia , Acta SS . Aug. 4 .
68 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
people , said the Fathers of the Council , “ it is we l lknown that the brea d of the DivineWord i s aboveall th ings necessary. Now by reason o f their
various o ccupatio ns , o f physical indi sposition, of
hosti le aggressio n , not to speak of lack of learningso grievo us
.
and indeed into lerable a defect in abishop—it o ften chances that prelates , especia l ly in
large dioceses , do no t suffice to pro claim the Wordof God . Fo r this reason , by thi s genera l enactment
we direct them to choose men apt to fi l l with fr uitfulness the office o f preachers ; who , powerful inwo rd and deed , shal l
‘ so l icito usly vi sit , in their steadand when they them selves are hindered from doing
so , the people confided to their care , and edify
them by word and by example . For the se men
a‘mp le provisio n shal l be made o f all they may
require , lest, left in need o f the indispensable , theymay be co nstrained to abandon their missio n whenit is scarcely begun .
” 1 One might imagine thi s
decree to have been directly inspired by the Bishop
o f Toulouse , since in making the companions o f StDominic m i ssio na ries in his dio cese he had done
befo rehand tha t which was ordered by the Council
i n its tenth canon .
The Preaching Order, as it was working in
To ulouse , corresponded so wel l with the views o f
Pope and Counci l , that it would seem that approvaland even encouragement should have been bestowed
upon it without difli culty . But whether it was thatGod desired to put H is servant to the proof, or thatthe Church would not depart in this case from her
1 Labbe , Concilia , vol. xi . pa r. 1. p. 1 3 1 .
70 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
decree a ga in st preachers possess ing no warrantbecause ,
” so it ran , “ under the guise of piety , butfo rswearing vi rtue , the re a re those who arrogate tothem selves the right t o preach a lthough it ha s been
written by the Apostle ,“ how shal l they preach
unless they be sent ! ” Any man t o whom this
functio n has been fo rbidden , or who has not receiveda m i ssio n from episco pal o r pont ifi ca te authority,exercising it in private o r in public , Shal l be visitedwith excommunication and o ther suita ble penaltiesif he do es not a t o nce amend .
” 1
St Dominic final ly met with ano ther obstacle .Since the time of Grego ry V I I . the regular clergy
had spread greatly in the Church , and many
co nvents had ari sen . I t wa s in that day that
there appea red success ively the Gilbert ins in England , the Carthus ian s in Da uphiny, the Cistercians ,the Premonstratensians and the Trinitarians inFrance ! This mo nastic efflo rescence had had the
drawba ck of destroying cohesion amongst the1 Labbe , Concilia , vol. xi . pa r . i . p . 1 3 3 , etc.
2 St John Gualbert founded the Order o f V a l lombrosa in 106 3 ,
St Stephen the Order o f Grandm ont in 1073 , St Bruno the
O rder o f the Ca rthusians in 1084 , Robert de Mo lesm e the Cister
cian Order in 1099, Robert o f A rbr isse l the Order o f Fontevraultin 1 106 ; Will iam o f Cham peaux established , a bout the sam e
t im e , the congrega t io n o f the regula r Canons o f St V icto r, StNo rbert the Order o f the Prem onstra tensians in 1 1 2 0
, St Gi lber ttha t o f Sem pringham in England in 1 140 ; V ia rd , m onk o f the
Ca rthusian m ona stery o f Lo a vigny, tha t o f the V a l des Choux in1 180 ; St John o f Ma tha and St Fe l ix o f V a lo is tha t o f the
Tr ini ty fo r the redempt ion o f cap t ives in 1 198. La stly, in 1 2 08,
Inno cent I I I . reo rganised the Order o f the Ho sp ita l lers of the Ho lyGho st, and confi rm ed in 1 2 09 the Rule given to Carmel ites byAlbert o f V erceill, Pa tria rch o f Jerusa lem .
THE ORDER OF PREACH ING FRIARS 71
regular clergy ; one religious after another dream
ing in hi s cel l o f fo rsa king his own Rule in order
to create a fre sh o ne , and a narchy and wa nt of
discip l ine within the m o na steries being the result .
The evi l had already become serio us unde r I nno cent
I I I . , who neverthe le ss co nfirmed the creatio n of two
new Orde rs , the Order o f the Trin itaria ns o f St John
o f Ma tha in 1198 , and the Ho spital lers of the H o lyGho st in 12 08 .
The Lateran ecumenical Counci l was desirous ofrem edying thi s a buse , and it ena cted a stro ng decree
directed against the excessive multiplication o f
religio us famil ies : “ Fo r fear lest an exa ggerateddive rsity of re ligio us Rules sho uld produce grievous
co nfusio n in the Church , we forbid that anyone whosoever sha l l henceforth introduce any fresh ones . Hewho desires to embrace the rel igious l ife m ay ado pt
one o f the Rules which have already been approved .
I n the sam e way, whoso ever sha l l wish to found a
new m o na stic house Shal l make use o f the Rulea nd the institutio ns of one o f the recognisedOrders .” 1
And whi le the Counci l was thus endeavo uring to
put a stop to the creation o f new Orders , St Dom in ic
was pro po sing one to the Pope and to the bi sho ps !No twithsta nding his repeated entreaties and tho se
o f Foulque s , his reque st wa s no t gra nted . Later on
p ious legends a rose in the Order, according to whichI nnocent 111. had been m oved to take a mo re
1Wise decree , in which the insp ira t ion o f the Ho ly Spiri t isappa rent and which m ight be found a s app l icable to o ur age a s to
the th irteenth century
72 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOMI N IC
favourable view by heavenly warn ings : One n ight ,says Constantine of Orvieto , the sovereign Pontiffsees in hi s sleep a divine vision in which the LateranChurch i s rent and shattered . Trem bl ing , a nd
saddened by thi s spectacle , I nnocent sees Dominic
hasten up and endeavour, by placing him self aga instit , to support the edifice and prevent it from falling .
The prudent and wise Pontiff i s at first ama zed by
thi s marvel ; but he quickly grasps its significa nceand without further delay pra i ses the schem e of the
man of God and gracio usly grants hi s request. He
exho rts him to go back to hi s Brethren , and after
deliberation to select a Rule already approved .
Upon thi s basis they wil l be able t o establish theOrder they wish to prom o te , and St Dominic , return
irig then to the Po pe , wil l certain ly o btain theconfirmation he desires 1 Half a century later, the
Dominican historian , Bernard Guidonis , was sti l lechoing thi s pio us traditio n !
Whatever may be thought of the story , the Lateran
Counci l came to an end during the last da ys of 12 15 ,and I nnocent I I I . died on J uly 17, 12 16 , befo re theOrder o f the Preaching Friars had received co nfi r !
mation , St Dominic com ing back from Rome at thebeginning o f 12 16 and bringing no thing with him but
the privi leges o f October 8 in favo ur o f Pro ui l le .Now this docum ent had only a secondary interest ;it was addressed neither to the Order as a whole ,
1 A cta SS . , August 4 th .
2 Berna rd Guidonis, op . ci t . , loco cit . The legend o f St Francisrela tes the sam e fa ct wi th rega rd to the establishment o f theOrder o f the M ino ri tes.
THE ORDER OF PREACH I NG FRIARS 73
no r to the Preaching Friars establ i shed as diocesan
m 1ss10na rie s a t To ulouse , but “ t o the Prior, the
Brethren and the nuns o f the mo nastery o f Proui l le ” ;it only
‘
rela ted t o thi s particula r convent and its
go o dsand could no t be interpreted as a recognitio nand sti l l less as a confirmatio n o f the new Order.
I t was during thi s seco nd sojo urn at Rome , at
the tim e o f the Lateran Counci l , that St Dominic
fo rmed his friendship with St Fra ncis . While the
Cano n o f Osm awa s so l iciting the apo sto l ica l a ppro val
fo r his Prea ching Friars , as learned as they werebold—for those “ hounds o f the Lord ,
”1 whom he
wished to send forth aga inst the wolves of heresy ,the seraphic of Assi s i was do ing the same thingon beha lf of his mystical com panions w tho se con
tem pla t ives who embraced the who le creation in asingle love and , by means o f their naive and touching
effusio ns , were to make so many converts amongsim ple peo ple . One night, when praying accordingto his custom in the basi l ica o f St Peter, St Dominic
had a vision which Gerard de Frachet relates i n these
wo rds : He seemed to perceive the Lord J esus in
the ai r, bra ndi shing three lances against the wo rld .
Immedia te ly the Virgin Mary throws herself at H i sFeet , co nj uring H im to show mercy upo n tho se whomHe ha s purcha sed , and thus t o temper j ustice with
p ity . Her So n repl ies , ‘ Seest tho u not the outrages
they lavish u pon Me ! My justice cannot lea veunpunished such great evi ls ! ’ And His mother
1 Thus they so on cam e to nam e the Prea ching Fr ia rs, p laying
upon the wo rds D om inica ni (Dom inicans) and D om ini ca nes
(hounds o f the Lo rd ) .
74 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
answe rs : ‘ Thou art no t ignorant , my Son—Tho uto Whom a ll i s known—tha t here i s a means o f
recalling them to Thyse lf. I ha ve a faithful servant ,send him t o pro cla im Thy Wo rd t o them , a nd they
wi l l be co nverted and wil l seek a fter Thee , theSavio ur o f all . Fo r hi s assistance I w i l l give him
another of my serva nts who w i l l wo rk in a l ike
way .
’ The Son sa ys t o His Mothe r : ‘ I ha ve
heard thy praye r. Show m e tho se whom tho u hast
destined to such an o ffi ce .
’ And she stra ightway
presents to him the Blessed Dominic .‘ He will
perform well ,’ says the Savio ur, ‘
a nd zea lously
that which tho u hast sa id .
’ Mary then offe rs t oHim the Ble ssed Francis , and the Savio ur com
mends him after the sam e manner. At thi s mom ent
Dominic looks with attentio n at hi s companio n , withwhom hitherto he was no t acqua inted ; a nd on the
morrow, finding in a church him whom he has
seen in the night , he hastens towards him and
pressing him in his arms : “ Thou shalt be m y
comrade ; thou shalt be with m e . Le t us remain
together and no enem y shall prevai l over us .”
Then he confides to him the vi sio n that he ha s
had ; and thencefo rth they were but o ne heart a nd
one sOul in Christ ; directing their chi ldren t o
o bserve the same fo r ever.” A touching story ,admirably symbo l ising the pa ral le l de stinies o f these
two great Orders and their comm o n devo tio n to
the Mo ther of God !“ The kiss o f St Dominic and St Fra ncis ha s
been transmitted from generation to gene ratio n by
the l ips o f their posterity,” says La co rda ire in o ne
THE ORDER OF PREACH I NG FRIARS 75
o f his beautiful passages .
“ The friendship o f youth
sti l l unites the Preaching Friars to the Minorites
they have go ne to God by the same paths ,as two precio us perfumes gently reach the samespo t in the heavens . Ea ch year, when the feast
of St Dominic comes ro und , carria ges leave the
monastery of Sa nta Maria - sulla -Minerva where
dwe l l s the genera l o f the Dom in ican Order, t o go
to the convent o f Ara-Coel i , the re to vi sit theFra ncisca n general . Accom panied by a grea t num
ber o f hi s brethren , he com es . Dominicans and
Fra nciscans , in parallel l ines, repair to the high
Altar o f the Minerva , and , after excha nging saluta
tio ns , the first turn to the cho ir , whi le the seco nd
rema in at the altar, there to celebrate the o ffice
o f their father’ s friend . Seated afterwards at the
same table , together they break the bread which
has never, for s ix centuries , been lacking to them ;a nd, the repa st at an end , the Mino rite precento rs ,with the precentors o f the Preaching Friars , sing
this a nthem in the middle o f the refecto ry : ‘The
se ra phic Franci s and the apo sto l ic Dom inic ha ve
taught us Thy law , 0 Lord .
’ The same ceremo nyi s repeated a t the co nvent o f Ara-Coel i on the feast
o f St Francis ; and some thing of the same kind ta kesplace all over the wo rld , whe rever a Dom in ican a nd
a Franciscan co nvent have been bui lt near eno ugh toallow of their inha bitants giving visible expressio n
to the pio us hereditary lo ve by which they are
united .
” 1
1 Laco rda ire , Vie de Sa int Dom inique, p . 1 3 3 . There w i l l , o f
course , b e found , in ecclesia stica l histo ry , instances where the
76 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
Returned to La nguedoc , St Dominic , far from
aba ndoning himself to despondency, se t to work
anew to solicit the appro batio n which had j ust
been refused him . Whether acting upo n advicegiven him by I nnocent I I I . himself, according toConstantine o f Orvieto ’s pio us tale , o r whether from
his own comprehension of the nece ssity o f removingthe chief obstacle which he had enco unte red , he
laboured to bring his projects into harmo ny with
the desire s o f the Co unci l . No soone r had hearrived at To ulo use than he cal led a meeting o f a ll
hi s asso ciates at Pro ui lle . Sixteen bro thers , acco rd
ing to H umbert , responded to th i s summons , of
whom Bernard Guidonis , more exp l icit , supplies.the names . They co nsi sted of Peter Se i la and
Thomas of To ulo use , Matthew o f France , the
Provencal Bertrand de Ga rr igua , Jo hn of Na varre ,Laurence of England , Stephen o f Metz , Ode rio o f
No rmandy, lay-brother William Cla ret o f Pamiers ;and lastly six Spa niards , M ichae l o f Fa bra , Manes ,
half-brother o f St Dom in ic, Dominic the less , Peter
o f Madrid , and Michael of Uz éro . To thi s l i st
Father Balme r ightly adds the names o f No'
iél,Prior of P roui lle , and o f William Raymond o f
Toulo use . Thus these first sessions o f the Orderincluded o nly seventeen religio us ; it was sti l l
no th ing b ut a l ittle flo ck , but , ful l o f confidence
in its m i ssio n and in its leader, it was thenceforth to develop a s ra pidly as widely .
em ula t ion o f these two grea t twin O rders reached the po int o fr iva lry ; but the ir histo ry, taken a s a who le, justifies the fi nedescrip t ion given by Laco rda ire o f their bro therly union.
78 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
required pecul iar statutes , dealing with study, preach
ing a nd poverty a nd unde r the Augustinia n Rule ,they were ea si ly added . Thus the a ffi l iatio n t o the
Order o f St Augustine wa s in rea l ity m e rely an in
direct mea ns o f fo unding a new Orde r , whi le con
fo rming a t the sam e time t o the precepts laid down
by the Counci l ; a nd in the a rrangement it i s easy
to recognise the eminently practical spirit of thesaint .The meeting at Proui l le over, pressure co uld again
be bro ught t o bea r upo n the Rom an co urt . I n
August 12 16 , Dominic fo r the third time repaired to
the Po pe : but as the bul l o f co nfirma tion was not
i ssued for several m o nths , it i s to be concluded that
the affair underwent further delays ; whether in o rder
that the Curia might examine into the co nstitutions
with its habitual prudence , o r that critici sms madeby it might be dealt with .
At last , in a bul l da ted from the Vatican , Dec . 2 2 ,12 16 , a nd a ddressed to “ Dominic , Prio r o f Saint
Romanus o f To ulo use and to his Brethren , o f the
present and of the future , having made professio no f the Regular l ife ,
” H o no rius I I I . took fo r ev.
er
under St Pe ter’s patro na ge the H o use o f St
Roma nus , with all its goods , co nfirming at the
sam e time the cho ice made by the Preaching
Friars of the Rule o f St Augustine . I ssued accord
ing t o the most so lemn fo rm ulas , and t o co ntinuevalid fo r ever, thi s l icense wa s signed by the Po pe ,togethe r with a ll the cardinals resident at Rome .
“ At the same tim e ,”o bserves with reason Fa ther
Balme , “ there i s no question in this important
THE ORDER OF PREACH ING FRIARS 79
document either of the obj ects o f St Domin ic info unding th is institutio n , nor of the name he desiresto give it a nd which w i l l express that which he
intends t o be its wo rk—a o Orde r o f PreachingFria rs . Hono rius I I I . gives h is explicit appro va l
o nly to the Cano nica l Order recently fo rmed , a ccord
ing t o the Rule o f St Augustine , in the church o f
St Romanus o f Toulouse .” 1 And in fa ct thi s instru
ment in no way differs from tho se that the Holy
See wa s accustomed to grant to the special
monasterie s which successively solicited its patronage . La co rda ire , in his l i fe of St Dom in ic , attributes
the lack o f exp l icitness belo nging to thi s do cument
to the opposition o f several members of the Curia“ I t seems to
'
us probable that there was some
o ppo sition at the papal court t o the establishment
o f an a po sto l ic Order, and tha t to this cause wasdue the total si lence of the principal bull as to the
a im of the new Order it authorised .
” 2
I t seems that the reaso n of this si lence shouldrather be sought elsewhere . I t was possibly thefirst tim e that the recognition , not o f a particula r
co nvent , but o f a n Order, had been sol icited . There
had doubtless existed before the time o f St Dominic ,a nd for centuries , the two grea t rules o f St Benedict
and of St Augustine ; but if there had been m onas
terles fo l lowing the Observances of the one o r o f
the other, there had never been , to spea k the truth ,a Benedictine o r a n Augustinia n Order, i f by the
term is meant col lectio ns o f m onasteries grouped
1 Ba lm e, op . cit . vol. 11 . p . 70, etc.
2 Lacorda ire , op . ci t . p . 1 58 .
80 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
together not only under o bedience t o the sam e
Rule , but above all under the a uthority o f a singlesupreme head. Even the Observances , alrea dysufficiently central i sed , of Cluny a nd o f C iteaux
appear fa r mo re l ike federations o f autonomous
Houses than like Orde r s . The H o ly See had been
asked to give co nfirma tio n to each separate convent ;to no one had it occurred t o demand a general l icensefo r a collection o f monasteries forming an indivi siblewhole .
St Domin ic , on the contra ry, had asked theconfirmation of the Holy See , not o nly fo r his
House o f St Roma nus , but a l so fo r the entire Order
o f which it was the head-quarters . This was a
great novelty , and it i s possible that the pa pal
clia ncery had fo und it embarrassing , lackin’
g amongst
its form ularies any terms suitable for so unprecedented
a document . I t therefo re ma de use o f the ancient
formula, applicable to a specia l convent , addressing
it to the convent of St Romanus ; but o n the morrow
itself, to do away with al l ambiguity, the Pope , ina personal deed drawn up without the help offormularies , assured the saint o f his pa tro nage fo r
‘
himself and hi s asso ciates , champions o f the faith ,and true lights of the Church ,
”fo r their goods , and
final ly for the whole Order . Far from co ntain ing
any contradictio n to the first , this second bull a ddedits exact definition , by showing that the Holy Se emeant to extend its patronage no t only to an i so latedconvent , but to an Order.1
Two papal docum ents soo n brought fresh en
1 We o ffer this explana t ion a s a simp le hypo thesis.
THE ORDER OF PREACH ING FRIARS 8 1
co uragem ent to St Dominic a nd his Brethren .
On Janua ry 2 1 , 12 17, Hono ri us I I I . congratula ted
tho se i nvincible athlete s o f Christ , arm ed with the
shield of fa ith and the helm et of salvation ,”on the
co urage with which they brandished aga inst the
enemy tha t wea po n sharper tha n any two -edged
swo rd , “ the Word o f God”; enjo in ing them to
persevere in works so sa l utary , and t o co ntinue ever“ to preach the Divine Wo rd in season and o ut of
seaso n , in spite o f al l h indra nces and o f every
tribula tion . On February 7th , call ing t o mind
a clause already contained in the great hull o f
December 12 16 , he fo rbade that any should leave
the Order witho ut the permissio n of the prior, un
less it were through the desi re to embrace aseverer Rule .1
Dominic spent the whole o f Lent , 12 17, at Rome ,
preaching in several churches , a nd, i f a tradition belo nging t o a sufficiently early perio d i s t o be be l ieved,before the Po pe h imse lf and the pa pal co urt . A
chronicler o f the fourteenth century ,Galvano Fiamma ,i s the first to relate it , in the fol lowing language
Sa int Dominic came to Rome , and that year in the
Aposto l ic pa la ce was the interpreter o f the Epistles
o f St Paul ; fo r which cause he was given the title
o f the Master o f the Sacred Palace , which passed
to hi s successo rs in tha t post ; fo r Dominic wa slearned in phi losophy a nd in theology. This tradi
tion has co ntinued in the Orde r ; but witho ut wi shingt o inval idate it , we must po int o ut that no traces
o f the fact are to be found in the most ancient1 Ba lme , op . ci t . vol. 11. p. 89.
82 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
monuments o f the Preaching Order, the writings o f
J o rdan of Sa xony and o f Humbert .1
An o lder traditio n , since it i s rela ted in 12 40 by
Hum bert and is found aga in , towards the m iddle
o f the thirteenth century, i n the writings o f Thierry
o f Apo ldia , Co nsta ntine o f Orvieto , and Stephen o f
Salagnac , places in thi s year o f 12 17 the symbo l ical
vi sion experienced by the sa int in the basi l ica o f the
Vatican : One night when St Dom in ic was praying
in the presence o f the Lo rd in St Peter’s Church ,fo r the preservatio n a nd extensio n o f the Order, the
ha nd o f the Most H igh was la id upo n him . All at
o nce , i n a visio n , there appea red to him the glorious princes o f the apostles , Peter a nd Paul , whoadvanced towards him . Peter gave him a staff and
P a ul a book , and they said to him : Go tho u and
preach , since God has cho sen thee fo r this ministry .
’
And at the same time he saw his discip les sprea dthemselves , two and two , over the wo rld, in ordert o evangeli se it .” 2
During thi s sojourn at Rome St Dominic l ived
in the greate st intimacy with Ugo l ino, Cardinal
1 In our own day the Ma ster o f the Sa cred Pa la ce is st i l l a lwdysa rel igious o f the Order o f the Fr ia rs Prea chers. He o ccup iesthe po si t ion o f the Pope’s the o logian. The serm ons, the yea rlyd iscourses, the funera l o ra t ions on Ca tho l ic princes, del ivered inthe papa l chape l a re subm i tted befo rehand to him . He ha s
spec ia l jurisdict ion o ver the p rint ing, the pro duct ion and the sa leo f bo oks and pr inted m a tter a t Rom e ; every bo ok pr inted a t
Rom e m ust rece ive his impr im a tur . He is by right counsel lo ro t the Congrega t ions o f the Inquisit ion,
the Index, the Ri tes, etc.
”
Mo roni , D iz ionam'
o di orua’
iz ione stor ico -ecclesia st ica , vol. xli .p . 2 00 .
2 Acta SS . August 4 .—Bo lognese Docum ents.
THE ORDER OF PREACH ING FRIARS 83
Bisho p o f Ostia , who , become one o f the great Popes
o f the Church under the name o f Gregory IX . , was
afterwa rds to ca no nise him .
“ Sixteen years ago ,
”
said Bro ther Wil liam o f Mo ntferrat in hi s deposition
during the ca nonisatio n inquiry of the present
Pope , then Bisho p o f Ostia, offered m e hi s hospitality .
I n those days Bro ther Dominic , who was at the
Curia , frequently vi sited the Lo rd Bishop . This
gave me the oppo rtunity o f becoming acquainted
with him ; hi s so ciety ga ve me p leasure , a nd I began
to love him . Very often'
we used to talk together
o f things co ncerning our salvation and that of o ur
neighbours .”
At the Cardinal ’s ho use Dominic met St Franci s ,and thus was strengthened the friendship by whichthe two sa ints were already united . A disciple of
St Fra ncis , Thoma s o f Celano , has given an account
o f one of the pious conversa tions which to o k placebetween them and Cardina l Ugo l ino : “ ‘One day,
”
he relates , “ the two great l ights o f the universe,
Dominic a nd Franci s , were with the Lord o f Ostia ,conversing together upon matters divine . All
o f a sudden , the bishop gives utterance to thi s
reflectio n : ‘ I n the prim itive Church , the pasto rs
were po o r, and devoted themselves t o the service
o f souls , not from cupidity but from love . Why
do we not make yo ur Brothers into prelates andpontiffs ! I n do ctrine and in example they wo uld
surpass the rest . ’ Thereupon a ve ritable struggleensues between the two saints . Each presses a ndexhorts the other to m ake reply ; for each wo uld put
1 Acta SS . August 4 .—Bo lognese Do cum ents.
84 THE LI FE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
the o the r first . At last hum i l ity tr i umphs in Francis ,
preventing him from ma king a beginning ; whi le ,equa l ly trium phant in Dominic , he obeys throughmode sty, sa ying to the bishop : Lord , i f they we l lunde rstand it, my Brethren must esteem themselveswel l p laced . Never, so far as in me l ies , will I
suffer them t o accept the lea st of ecclesia sticaldign ities. ’ I n h is turn the Blessed Francis , bowingbefo re the bisho p , sa ys to him : Lord , my B rethren
are cal led Mino rites in o rder tha t they may never
endeavour to becom e greate r (Majors) , fo r theirvocation instructs them to remain in pla no , and t ofol low in the steps o f Christ’s hum i l ity ; so that
a fterwards, in the assembly o f the saints , they may
’be exalted be fore all others . I f you desire thatthey should produce abundance o f fruit in the
Church o f God , keep them in the state t o which theyhave been called , and in case o f necessity recal l
them , in spite o f themselves , t o humility . Father, I
beseech yo u, lest thro ugh their poverty itself theyshould becom e proud , never permit that they should
be rai sed t o any prelacy .
’ These answers beingmade , the Lord o f Ostia, having received m uizh
edifi ca t ion by hearing them , rendered to God great
tha nks .” The acco unt o f this co nversa tio n has beengiven enti re , beca use in it i s di splayed the virtue ,the sim plicity and the zeal o f these thr ee greatChristians , St Dom inic , St Francis and Gregory IX
who , united by a ho ly friendship , laboured so well,
each in hi s own fashion , for the exaltation of God
and of the Church in the first half of the thi rteenth
century !
86 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOMI N I C
were in their hands , the Co unci l fo rbade the co nquesto f any others , pla cing in sequestration a po rtio n o f
the co unty o f To ulouse , i n order t o re store it later
on to the son o f Raym ond V I . should he renouncehis father’s errors .
I nspired as they were by a wise mo deratio n , the se
decisio ns had been interpreted by the Albigenses
e ither a s a disavowal by the Cathol ic Church o f the
crusade a nd o f Simo n de Mo ntfo rt , o r as an act o fweakne ss ; and a large part o f the south o f Francehad straightwa y ri sen in a rms .
Avigno n , Saint-Gil les , Beaucaire , Tarasco n had
driven o ut the invaders ; Marsei lles had been in
revo lt aga inst its bishop , and in the middle o f a
so lemn pro cession the inha bitants had tram p led the
crucifix and even the Blessed Sa crament under fo o t .From Provence the insurrectio n had rea ched the
Cevennes , and leaving behind him the city o f
To ulo use in a sta te o f the greatest excitement ,Sim o n had been compe l led to carry the war intothe neighbourho od o f Viviers .1 The H o ly See
having been moved by these tidings , H o no ri us 111
since the month o f January 12 17, had been taki ng
mea sure s t o revive faith in Languedo c , and it had
been thithe r that he had despatched t o the Friars
Preachers , in hi s hull o f J a nua ry 2 1 , 12 17, hi sexho rta tions a nd co ngra tulations . He was , beside s ,appe a l ing to fre sh m i ssio naries , and on Ja nua ry 19
he was inducing the University of Pari s t o send
severa l do cto rs into the p ro vince o f To ulouse , the re
to keep up contro ver sies wi th the heretics . Lastly ,1 For all these fa cts, qf. H istory of La nguedoc, vol. vi . , etc .
THE ORDER OF PREACH I NG FRIARS 87
oy a bull bearing the same date , he sent the Ca rdinalo f SS . Jo hn a nd Paul as legate to the provinces o f
Em brun , Aix , Arles , Vienne , Narbo nne , Auch , and to
the dioceses o f Mende , Clermont , Lim oges , Rodez ,Alby, Caho rs , Per igueux a nd Agen , charging him to
resto re peace to these countries , ravaged afresh bythe he retics .1
The lega te had hi s first interview with Simon de
Mo ntfo rt o n the ba nks o f the Rho ne , near Viviers ,the heretics pre ssing so clo se upon the crusadersthat , ha ving recogni sed the ca rdinal amo ngst Simon
’s
troo ps , they sent several Shafts from the cro ss-bow
in his direction , ki l ling one o f hi s men . While
Montfo rt was thus detained on the ba nks o f the
Rho ne , the peo ple o f To ulo use ro se in revolt , and onSeptember 1 , 12 17, Raymo nd VI . re -entered the
ca p ital of his state , Bisho p Fo ulques was compelled
to lea ve it a nd, on Octobe r 1 , the siege was begun bySimo n de Mo ntfo rt . I t was during thi s recrude scence
o f the he retical fo rces , and at the m oment that al lboded i l l for the crusaders , that Dom in ic presided
o ve r the second assembly a t Pro ui l le , which had
o pened August 13 , ba re ly a fortnight befo re the
re sto ra tio n o f Ra ymond VI .
I t i s no t difficult to understand how it wa s that
unde r these circumstances Dom in ic ga ve way to a
fee l ing o f despondency, de stined , fo r the rest , t o resultin the greate st glo ry of hi s Order. I t seemed to
h im that the wo rk of the preache rs had been a fai lurein Languedo c , since a fter ten years a fre sh triumph
o f Albigensia nism had taken place , a nd from the1 Po t tha st , op . ci t . No s. 54 2 4 and 54 3 7.
88 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN I C
time o f hi s arrival he had been able to ga ther a round
h im no mo re than seventeen men o f goo d wil l . Like
St Berna rd , he despaired o f thi s co untry and cursedit . Addressing a mo urnful di sco urse to those who
fi l led the church at Proui lle , he fini shed with these
severe words : “ Fo r ma ny years I have exhorted
you in vain , w1th gentlene ss , preaching , praying and
weeping . But , acco rding to the pro verb of my own
country , ‘where blessing ca n a ccompl ish nothing ,blows may avai l .’ We shall rouse against you
princes and prelates, who , alas , wi ll arm natio ns a ndkingdoms against thi s la nd , and many wil l peri sh by
t he swo rd , the country wil l be laid wa ste , the wa l l s
thrown down , and you—oh grief—you wi l l be re
.duced to servitude ; and thus blows wi l l avai l where
blessings a nd gentleness have been powerless.” 1
After thus taking leave o f Languedo c , he received
a new the vows of obedience o f the Brethren , making
known t o them the great schemes which he hadco nceived fo r the furtherance o f the Order. Since
they were rejected by To ulouse , the who le wo rld was
to be their field of action . Usm g the wo rds o f the
Saviour H imself : “ Go ,
” he bade them ,“ into the
whole world and pre a ch the Go spe l t o every crea ture .
Ye are sti l l but a l ittle flo ck ; but a lrea dy I have
fo rmed in my heart the proj ect o f dispersing you
a bro ad ; you wil l no longer l ive alto gether in this
house .
” “ He knew , a dds Humbert de Romans ,that al l seed sca ttered abro ad becomes fruitful
that hea ped together it grows co rrupt .”
Before disper sing hi s Fria rs , however, Dominic1 La co rda ire , op . ci t . p . 171 .
THE ORDER OF PREACHI NG FRIARS 89
desired to tighten the bo nds by which they wereunited . He requested them to select a head , andthey named Matthew of France , o ne of their number,abbot . The questio n m ay be asked why he had thi s
election m ade , since he himse lf remained the uncon ,
tested master o f the Order he had ‘ j ust founded.
Was it with the obj ect o f supplying him self with a
coadj utor and fa ci l itating , in case o f hi s death , that
transmissio n of authority which is so necessary to
the beginnings of any institution ! Co nstantine o f
Orvieto attributes the decisio n to another causeH is intention ,
” he says , “ was to secure , at a con
venient season , the real i satio n o f a scheme whichhe never ceased to nourish .
!
in his hea rt—theevangel isation o f in
'
fi del nations .” 1 Like St Francis ,when he had gone to preach to the EgyptianSultan , St Dominic had long been desirous o f
visiting barbarous peoples—he had said so toWilliam o f Montferrat , at the house o f CardinalUgolino,
2 and had bes ides , on leaving Osma, beenanxious to accompany his bi shop , Dida cus , to thecountry o f the Tartar-Cum ans . I n the meantim e ,however, he did not re sign the supreme power, sincehe reserved to himself the right o f reprimand , over
even the Abbo t General who had been j ust elected
by the Fria rs Preachers ; rem aining , in reali ty, the
true and only head o f the Order.
He proceeded, next , to disperse hi s monks . Theaccount o f the scene in the Dominican chroniclescannot be read witho ut emo tion . Around Dominic
are only seventeen comrades , laboriously recruited
1 Acta SS . , August 4 .
2 [bidem .—Bo lognese Docum ents
01 2
90 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
during ten years o f apostolic work ; any other manmight have despa i red when he compa red the great
ness o f the e ffo rt with the smallness o f the re sults ;the im m ensity o f the new a im which was to be
pursued with the feebleness o f the m ea ns o f pursu
ing it ; but Dom in ic never hesitates . So lem nly he
makes divi sio n o f the world amo ngst hi s a ssociate s .
Four of them , Peter o f Madrid , Michael o f Uz e'
ro ,
Dom in ic of Segovia, Suero of Gomez , are to go backto Spain ; a more im po rta nt gro up , co nsisting o f
Ma nés , the saint’s own brother, Michael of Fabra ,
Bertrand of Ga rr igua , Laurence of Engla nd , John
of Navarre and the lay bro ther Oderio , are t o go toParis, led by the abbot , Matthew o f France ; Peter
Seila and Thomas a re t o rema in at St Romanus o fToulouse ; No él and William Claret wi l l keep the
direction o f the Sisters o f Pro ui lle ; lastly, Dom in ic
himself choose s for hi s dwell ing-p la ce a nd fo r the
head-quarters o f the Order the centre o f Catho l ic
unity itself, Rome , taking there with him Stephen ofMetz .
The scheme , o nce elabo rated , had to be put intoexecution , and in this the saint wa s assi sted fi rSt o f
al l by the a rrival of several fresh recruits . Sho rtly
after the meeting o f Proui lle , in the autum n o f 12 17,four new pro fe ssio ns were ma de , including tho se o f
Arno ld o f To ulo use , Rom eo o f Llivia (who was t obecome a sa int) , Po ns of Sam atan , and la stly
Ra ym ond , o f the i l lustrious ho use of the Co untso f Miramo nt , who , thirteen yea rs later, was to suc
ceed Fo ulques in the episcopal See of To ulouse .
I t was poss ibly for the training o f these novices
THE ORDER OF PREACH I NG FRIARS 91
that Dominic sti l l remained some months in Lan
guedo c .
He pro fited by the time to ma ke his final arra nge
m ents . On December 13 , whi le Simo n de Mont
fo rt was sti l l ca r rying o h the siege o f To ulouse ,he o bta ined from him a fresh safegua rd fo r al l
Dominican prope rty within the j uri sdiction o f the
sene schals of Carcasso nne a nd o fAgen . He came t o
an amica ble arrangem ent with Fo ulques respecting
the diffe rence s which had ari sen between them with
rega rd t o the parochia l dues which the bisho pde sired t o withdraw from the Friars Preachers
(September 13 , and finally he so l icited from
the Holy See fresh to kens o f patro nage . I n spread
ing themselves o ver Spa in , France and I taly , the
mo nks wo uld find themselves much isolated ; in
crea ting their convents , they wo uld have to reckon
with Ordina rie s and eccle siastical dignitaries , a nd
po ssibly t o fear their i l l -will . St Dominic obtained
fo r them pa pa l letters o f recommendation . On
Februa ry 1 1 , Ho norius I I I . addressed to al la rchbishops , bishop s , abbo ts a nd priors , a bul l requesting the i r fa vo ur “ on behalf o f the Orde r o f
Fr ia rs Preachers , a nd begging them to assi st them
in their needs ,” and to fo rward in eve ry way
“ the
mo st use ful ministry unde rta ken by them . Lastly ,the Pope assured t o St Dominic and t o his Order a
perm anent habita tio n at Rome , by a ssigning to
them , o n the App ia n Way, the a ncient church o f
St Sixtus , togethe r with the convent a tta ched t o it.Thence fo rth the o rga nisatio n o f the Order, with
1 Ba lm e, op. cit. vol. 11 . p. 1 56 .
92 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
its centre at Rome and its provincial divisions, wasa ccomp l i shed ; it on ly remained for it to multiply itsmo na steries and to expand . I t was , in fact, ceasing
to be a specia l congregation belonging t o the dio ceseo f To ulo use and had becom e a universal Order.
Thus, i n the month of December 12 17, Dominicquitted these p lains o f La uragua is which had beenthe theatre of his apo stola te ; the hi l l o f Fanjeaux
where hi s ministry had so lo ng been exercised ; the
convent of Pro ui l le where he had gathered together
his first community ; the cloi ster o f St Romanus
which had been the cra dle o f his Order ; and went
to Rome to take the general direction of the Friarswho were spread over the world.
94 THE L IFE OF SA INT DOM IN I C
eve r to the work o f preaching . He exercised with
fervour, devotion a nd humility the o ffice for whichhe had been chosen by God and to which the Holy
See had appointed him , and this upon the chief
theatre o f aposto l ic authority. Divine grace wa s
on his l ips , and by hi s mouth the Lord spa ke .Peo ple were eager t o hear him .
” 1 Thie rry o fApo ldiam akes mentio n o f the sermons given by him in the
church o f St Mark at the foot o f the Capitol !
He pe rfo rmed at the same tim e the mo st la bo riousworks o f m ercy , a ttracted, a bove all , by priso ners ,as wa s la ter on St Vincent de Pa ul . “ Alm o st every
day he ma de the ro und of the town in o rder to visit
the captives ,3 lavi shing upo n them the wo rd o f salva
tion .
” I t was no t lo ng before the peo ple weretouched by hi s aposto l ic zea l and charity ; he was
venerated a s a saint and rel ics were made o ut o f hispo ssessio ns ; they cut o ff surreptitio usly p ieces
from his cloak , unti l it scarcely reached hi s knees .”4
Cardinals heaped upo n him signs o f respect, a nd
the Pope himself o n one occasio n desired t o bring to
the knowledge of all , by means o f a solemn le tte r,a miracle publicly attributed t o the saint .
5
Honorius I I I . was no t long in bestowing on St
Dominic and his order fresh signs of confidence and
1 Acta SS . , vo l. i . Aug. , p . 574 .
2 Acco rding to som e m anuscrip ts i t wa s ra ther a question o f
recluses . La corda ire ha s a dopted this reading, in his L ife of StD om inic, p . 19 1 .
4 Laco rda ire, op . ci t. p . 186 .
5 He gave up h is intent ion in cons equence o f St Dom inic shumble opposi t ion.
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 95
favo ur . The feudal wars by which Rome had be enwasted under Gregory VI I . , Ge lasius I I Lucius I I .a nd Alexander I I I . , in the tim e of Ro be rt Guiscard,
o f Fra ngipani a nd of Arno ld o f Bre scia , had brought
especial ruin upo n the quarters lying between the
Pala tine and the ga te o f St Sebastian , where the
solitary districts so chara cteri stic o f those parts o fRome , a lready stretched . The o ld titula r church
of St Sixtus sto od , m elancholy a nd forsaken , by
the side o f the tom bs which m arked the outline
o f the App ian W a y . I nno cent 111. had already
conside red the questio n o f re sto ring its ancient glory
to this sanctuary ; it had been made over by him to
the co ngrega tio n recently founded in England by StGi lbert , with the o bliga tion o f keeping four monks
there to serve the church and to undertake thespiritua l charge of the convent o f women which
he wished t o fo und . Now , six years later, in 12 18 ,the Gilbe rt ine s not having yet ta ken posse ssion o f
the church , Hono ri us I I I . revo ked the deed o f his
predecesso r and summoned St Dominic and his
a ssocia tes to St Sixtus .1
Som e delay occurred in their installation , the
church and the co nventua l house a dj oin ing it stand
ing in need o f restoration ; whilst it was alsonecessary to ta ke measures to oppose the a pplica
tio ns addressed t o the H o ly See by the monks o f St
Gi lbert that the gift which had been made to them
m ight be confirm ed . I n sp ite o f all these hindrances ,howeve r, a pa pal bull , dated December 3 , 12 18 ,definitely took the church o f St Sixtus away from
1 Ba lm e , op . cit . vol. 11. p . 1 59.
96 THE LIFE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
the English monks to bestow it upon the PreachingFriars ; 1 and St Dominic and hi s brethren imm edi
ately quitted thei r o rigina l lodging, to fo und uponthe Appian W a y , in the so l itude and retirement o f
the ruins, their first Roman mo nastery .
I ts beginnings were no less modest than those o f
Proui lle and o f St Romanus : “ When the Brethren
were at St Sixtus ,” re lates Constantine o f Orvieto ,
2
“ the Order being sti l l unknown in the town , they
often had to sufle r from hunger. On a certain day
it even chanced tha t the procura tor Giacomo del
Mielo had no bread wherewith to serve the com
mun ity. I n the morning several friars had b eensent o ut to beg, but after having knocked in vain atmany doors they had returned to 'the co nvent , almostempty-handed. The hour for the meal appro ach
ing , the procurator presents himself to the servant
o f God and unfolds to him the case . Dominic ,trembling with joy, blesses the Lord with transport ,and as if penetrated by a co nfidence which camefrom on high , commands that the little brea d which
has been bro ught shal l be shared amongst the fria r.
s .
Now there were in the convent about fo rty persons .
The signal being given , the friars come to the
refecto ry and in joyous accents recite the prayers
o f the grace . Whilst each one , sea ted in o rder,breaks with gladness the mouthful o f bread whichhas been placed before him , two young men o f
s imi lar aspect enter the refectory ; from their necks
1 Ba lm e , op . cit .2 Th is transla tion is borrowed from Ba lm e
,op . cit. vol. 11.
p . 163 .
98 THE L IFE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
sho uld be added to their number ; and tha t thism odel co nvent sho uld be unde r the directio n , in
spiritua l a nd temporal matte rs , o f St Dominic a nd
hi s fria rs . La ter on, it wa s intended t o send nuns
from St Sixtus into the va rious co nvents at Rom e ,i n o rder tha t monastic refo rm might win a dm i ratio na nd accepta tio n .
To accomp l ish this work , as impo rta nt as it wa sde l icate , St Dominic requested the co ncurrence o f
pe rso ns carrying autho rity by reaso n o f their virtueand o f their high po sitio n a t the pont ifi ca l co urt ;H o norius I I I . giving him as asso cia tes Stephen
Orsini , ca rdina l o f Fo ssanova , o f the titula r church
o f the HolyApo stles , the cardinal bi sho p of Tusculum ,
and lastly Ugo l ino , ca rdina l o f'Ostia , a ll devo ted
friends o f St Dominic . “ Provided with the apo sto l ic
commission , re la tes one o f the first nuns o f St
Sixtus,1 “ Dominic in the first place addresse s him
se lf with confidence t o al l the nuns o f Rome ; but
they re fuse to o bey the o rders of the sa int and
o f the Po pe . At the convent o f Sa nta Maria
del Trasteve re , however, 2 co nta in ing the grea te st
number o f a ll, the saint i s bette r rece ived . At
the head o f th is house i s the venera ble Sister
Eugenia : the abbess and her daughters allow
1 Na rra t ive o f S ister Ceci l ia , one o f the nuns transferred fromSanta Ma ria delTra stevere to St Sixtus.
2 This church and convent m ust no t be confounded Wlth the
ancient t itula r church o f Santa Ma r ia del Tra stevere and the fi ne
ba si lica o f tha t nam e . I t is a quest ion here o f a church ca l ledSanta Ma ria in To rre in Tra stevere , which is st il l in existence,no t fa r from the shore o f the Tiber and nea r the titula r church ofSt Ceci l ia .
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 99
them selve s to be won o ver by the p ious exho rta
tio ns o f the sa int , and a ll, with one exception ,promise to enter St Sixtus , on the so le co ndition
that their ima ge of the Virgin sha l l go with them ;and that if she returns to her own church beyond
the Tiber , as had once happened , they may be by
tha t fact relea sed from their enga gement.1 The
sa int wil lingly accepts that co nditio n ; the s i stersmake the i r professio n anew in hi s hands ; and
the blessed fa ther tell s them tha t it i s no t hi s
wi l l that hencefo rth they shall leave the co nvent
to visit their kin . H earing this , the latte r hasten
to the mo nastery , addressing l ively reproaches tothe abbess a nd. her associates fo r working the des
t ruct ion of an i ll ustrio us house and placing them
selves in the ha nds o f a ribald person . Dominic
i s supernaturally a cquainted with thi s hindrance ;one m o rning he comes to the co nvent o f Santa
Maria , celebrates Ma ss , a nd preaching to the
siste rs , says : My daughters, yo u are alre a dy
regretting yo ur determina tio n , and a re thinking of
withdrawing your feet from the Lo rd ’s path . I
desire therefore tha t those who, of their free wi l l ,have decided to enter, should make their profession
1 I t wa s one o f tho se o ld Byz ant ine Ma donna s, a scribed bylegend to St Luke , which a re st i l l in the p resent day so highlyvenera ted by the Rom ans. I t wa s transferred in pro ce
'
ssion to
St Sixtus, b ut by night , fo r fea r o f the dwe l lers in the Tra stevere,who would no t ha ve a l lowed the transla t ion to take pla ce . I trem a ined a t St Sixtus unt i l , under th e pontifi ca te o f P ius V . i twa s transferred with the nuns o f the convent to the church o f
SS. Dom inic and Sixtus, nea r the Trajan co lumn, where it is stil l,a t th is very t im e, venera ted .
100 THE L IFE OF SAI NT DOMIN IC
anew in my hands . ’ Some amongst them had intruth repented o f thei r sacrifice , but , coming to a
better mind , they renew all their vows . When
this ha s been done the saint takes the keys o f the
convent , and a ssumes ful l authority over everything ;he e stabli shes there lay brothers who wil l ha ve
charge o f it day and night, and wi l l furnish the
si sters in the i r clo i ster with al l tha t they need ;while he fo rbids the la tter to speak without witnesses
either to the i r own relations or to any otherperson .
” 1
The example o f the Si sters of the Trasteverespread , and there was soo n in every Romanmonastery a refo rming party determined to fo l lowto the end the advice of the ‘Friars Preachers .
When the bui ldings at St Sixtus 2 were ready fo rhabitation the nuns from the Trastevere , many fro mSanta Bibiana, and also from other convents , andsome high - bo rn ladies to ok possession , to the
number of fo rty-four, on the first Sunda y in Lent
12 20. St Dominic placed them under the direction
o f one o f his brothers , and for prioress gave thema sister from Proui lle . The refo rms desired by
I nnocent I I I . and Hono ri us I I I . were now aecom
plished, and the Dominican Order owned a second
convent .
The sanctity of Dominic produced meanwhi le moreand more rel igio us vo ca tio ns . Yo ung people of everysort and condition wished to enter the new Order
1 Ba lm e , op . ci t. 4 10 ; Laco‘
rda ire, op. cit . p . 190 .
2 I t was during this wo rk tha t St Dom inic resto red to lifeNapo leon Orsini , the nephew of the Ca rdina l o f Fossanova .
102 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
ing smaller ; by the time the women’ s convent was
e stablished there it was too small to hold them .
I t became necessary to find another refuge for theFriars Preachers, and it was o nce a gain Pope
H o norius 111. who pre sented them with it .
On the summit o f the Aventine , whose steep s lopesdominate the Tiber a nd the utmo st l im its of theEterna l City , there stands to this day the titular
church o f Santa Sabina. Fo unded at the beginning
o f the fifth century under the pont ifi ca te of Celest inusI . , it even now pre serves a character o f venerable
antiquity , with its rows o f pi llars , its o pen roof,mosa ics , and the beautiful carved wo o den doo rs ,fine as well as authentic examp les o f Roman
art .1 I n the thirteenth century thi s basi l ica with
its presbytery were under the protection o f the i l lus
t r io us fam ily o f the Savell i , o f whom Ho no ri us I I I .
wa s a member. The Pope himself enjoyed thefeudal palace as a pla ce o f residence . After having
been in the tenth century the abode of the imperial
dynasty of Otho , it had become the property 2 o f
this fami ly . Many o f the pa pal bulls , and pa r
t icula rly those enco uraging the order of the Friar’s
Preache rs , were dated from the pa la ce of Santa
Sa bina . When a fresh abode fo r St Dom in ic and
his fria rs had to be found , the Po pe natura l lythought o f the basil ica. He ga ve it to them in
12 19 , and so lemnly confirmed them in its possession1 A rm ellini , Lo chiese di Rom a
, p . 582 and by the Rev. Fa therBerthier , La Por te de Sa inte Sa bine 2 Rom e.
2 In 1 2 16 Honor ius I I I . resto red the o ld imperia l pa lace and
fo rt ified it by surrounding i t w i th high towers and strong wa l lswho se ruins m ay sti ll be seen on the Avent ine .
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 103
on J une 5 , 12 2 2 .
“ We have thought well , he
said t o them ,
“ in the interest o f many, and with
the co nsent o f our brother cardinals , and especial ly
o f the titula r cardinal o f Sa nta Sabina , to give you
the church o f Santa Sabina for the celebration o f
masses , and the neighbo uring ho uses , ti l l now in
habited by clerics , fo r yo ur abode ; reserving , how
ever, the place where the ba pti stry is, with theneighbo uring garden a nd a lodging fo r two priests
who shal l ha ve charge o f the parish and the pro perty
o f the Church .
” As so o n a s the alteratio ns were
completed, towards the end o f January 12 20, “ the
utensi l s , bo oks , and other o bjects necessary for theuse o f the friars were brought in ,
” and presently StDominic , leaving at St Sixtus o nly those rel igious
devo ted to the spiritual and temporal care o f the
sisters , e stabli shed himself with his companio ns atSa nta Sabina. Thus was fo unded the first authorised
Novit ia te o f the Order, which remained ti l l 12 73 1 the
residence o f the Master General , and in o ur own
days witnessed the reconstitutio n o f the Domin icanProvince o f France through the generosi ty o f
La co rda ire .
To establi sh hi s Order in the very centre o f
Ca tholici sm was not enough fo r St Dominic . Henever fo rgot that the work of preaching nocessitates pro fo und study in those who practise it ; he
had himself studied for long at Palencia , and had
1 At this tim e the residence o f the Ma ster Genera l o f the Orderwas transferred to the centre o f the town
,to Santa Ma r ia de l la
M inerva , whose convent rem a ined the Genera l House o f the
Order ti l l the spo l ia tion o f the rel igious Orders by Yo ung I ta ly.
104 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
written a B iblical Commentary before engaging inlearned controversy with the heretics . He had no
do ubt abso lute confidence in the spirit o f God, whichenlightens the minds even o f the igno rant ; he felt
certain that witho ut the aid o f divine gra ce no
human eloquence can bear fruit , but he was far from
thinking that men should idly expect from Heaven
the means of action . The Friar Preacher must ,l ike himself, unite knowledge to p iety , a nd conquer
heretical obstinacy by a rgument as wel l as by good
example . Study was to be o ne o f the pr incipal
occupatio ns of the novice ; knowledge o ne of the
most redoubtable weapo ns of the Dominica n . With
th i s end in view the new Order was to seek such
places o f learning as Bologna and Paris , for theirintel lectual influence extended o ver the whole
Chri stian world and attracted t o their midst , and
about their professo rial chairs , students o f every
tongue and nation . Esta bli shed in such centres, theDominican convents wo uld be at o nce home s ofstudy and of prayer. When their hearts and mindshad been tra ined and prepared , the Religious might
spread themselves abroad over the whole civi l i sed
wo rld , thanks t o the international relatio ns fo rmed
a t the Universities and the prestige they had won by
their studies . When St Dom in ic fo unded the houses
o f Paris and Bo logna he had a clear co nceptio n
o f thi s plan , for he gave them as heads Ma sterMa tthew, a lea rned man ready to meet every po int
o f doctrine ,” and the Blessed Reginald, Doctor of
Law , and form erly a Professor of Law.
When,after the General Assem bly of Pro ui lle , the
106 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN I C
ent ia ted—French , Picards , No rmans and English .
But besides these the Unive rsity contained studentsof al l countries which invested it with an ecumenicalcharacter. Does no t Arnold Lubeck , a Danishchron icler o f that da y, mentio n that hi s countrymen , l ike the Germ ans , sent their best students toPari s to follow the curriculum including theology ,the l ibe ral a rts, a nd civi l and canonical law ! It
was the same in Spain , I taly, Scotland, Hungary ,Bohemia , Poland , and even in the Scandinavia n
pen insula.1
I n the midst of these thousands o f students theseven disciples of St Dominic passed at first unnoticed , but their a ssiduity so on a ttracted the atten
tion o f the Univers ity to their mo de st demeano ur.
They gained the favour o f o ne o f the mo st
ce lebrated masters o f the University , who presentedthem wi th a house in Paris. Jean de Barastre , Dea n
o f St Quentin , the i l lustrious professor o f theology,had in 1209 bui lt a small ho spice which he dedi
ca ted to St Jacques . I t was p ppo site the church
o f St Etienne des Grés , not far from the Porte
d’
Orléans . On August 6 he gave it t o Ma tthew
of France a nd hi s six friends , who thus acquired
a fixed abode . “ The Friars ,” says John o f Navarre
some time later, established themselves there andfounded a convent , where they ga thered togethermany good clerics who afterwards entered the Order
1 Fo r the histo ry o f the Pa ris Universi ty a t the beginning o f thethirteenth century, cf . B onifi e O . P. , Les Un io orsi/e
’
s an m oy en
dgo vol. 1. pp . 67 and fo l lowing pages ; 84 and fo l lowing
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 107
o f Friars Preachers . Much property and revenues
were then given to them and everything succeeded
as St Dominic had predicted .
” 1
Thi s growing pro sperity gave offence to the
chapter o f No tre Dame . The church o f St J a cques
was bu i lt on the gro und be lo nging to the pari sh o f
St Beno it , which itself depended‘
on the cha pter!
Fearing that the services in the monks ’ cha pe l woulddama ge the pa rochial rights of St Beno it , the
canons fo rbade the Dominicans to celebra te publicworship at St Jacques . On his arriva l in Pa ri s thematter was put into the ha nds o f St Dominic by
Matthew of France , and he referred it to the
Holy See . He gained his case : on December 1 ,12 19 , Ho norius I I I . wrote to the convent o f St
Jacques that , touched by thei r appeal he gave themleave to celebra te the Divine Office in the churchin Pari s given them by the monks o f the Universi tyand on December 1 1 he charged the Priors o f St
Denis , o f St Germain des Pres , as wel l as thechancellor o f the church in Mila n , then in Paris ,to see that the privi lege was respected .
8 The
1 A cts of B ologna .
2 “ The church o f St Beno i t le B estoui né, once known a s St
Bacche o r B acque , wa s given to the Canons of the Ca thedra l byHenry I . a lso the churches o f St Et ienne , St Jul ien andSt Séverin.
I t IS ca lled a m ember o f the church o f N . D . in an a ct o f the yea r1 171 pa ssed between i t and the Ho sp i ta l lers o f St John o f
Jerusa lem fo r the set tlem ent o f the ir respective rights. I t hadcanons a ppo inted by the chap ter of No tre Dam e to which theyswore fea lty. ” Guera rd, Ca r tula i re do fl
’
c‘gliso Notre D am e de
Pa r is, p . 1 3 0.
2 These two bul ls a re published in the Ca r tula i re de Sa int
Dom inique, vol. i i . p . 3 87 and 3 88.
108 THE L IFE OF SA INT DOM IN IC
chancel lor o f No tre Dame , Philippe de Greve , neverfo rga ve the Preachers their victory ; ti l l h is dea th ,which occurred in 12 3 7, “ he snarled at them o n
every o ccasio n and in every sermo n .
” But St
Dominic ca re ful ly watched o ver his Paris convent .
At hi s request H o no ri us I I I . com p l im ented them a ste rs o f the University on the fa vours they
showered on it , a nd enco uraged them t o co ntinue :“ That yo u m ay sti l l further understa nd the profo und regard in which we ho ld these Fria rs we
do by these presents a dvise and enj o in on yo u t o
pursue the wo rk yo u ha ve so we l l begun . Fo r the
sake o f the apostolic See a nd o ur own, lo o k on them
a s being peculiarly commended to you , and lend
them a help ing hand . I n so do ing God will pro sper
yo u, and yo u wil l mo re and more de serve o ur go od
wil l and favo ur .
” 1
Before long , in Pa ri s a s in Rome , nume ro us
re l igio us vo ca tio ns bega n to peo ple the Dominica n
house . When they had come from Proui lle i n
Octo be r 12 17 they were o nly seven fria rs ; there
were thirty fifteen mo nths la ter , when St Dominic
vi sited them at the beginning o f 12 19 . The hew
recruits were mo stly yo ung students attracted to St
J a cques by the ho l ine ss o f the i r Dom in ican co
discip le s , such a s Fa the r Gue rr ic o f Metz , who secall to the re l igio us life i s thus cha rmingly de scribed
by Etienne de Bourbo n . I n Pari s in 12 18 , on a quiet
evening in autum n , “ a clerk wa s gazing from his
study window, when suddenly in the street he heardsomeo ne singing in French the fo l lowing so ng
1 Ca r tula ire do Sa int D om inique, vol. i i i . (in the press) .
110 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
church o f St Chri sto phe with a vineyard and the
p la ce and la nd a ttached to it . The Bisho p o f
Orlea ns, M a nasses , a n o ld friend of St Dominic , for
his part , i nvited them t o hi s episcopal See andal lotted to them the church of Saint Germain
near the fo rt ifications . The House o f St Jacques
became in th is way the Dominican Novit ia te fo r the
who le o f France .
The convent in Bologna played the same part inI taly .
The University of that town was as celebrated asthe one in Pa ri s ; the reputation of its j uri sts andca no nists was wide spread . I n the time o f St
Dom in ic , Odo fredo of Benevento and Albert of Pavia
lectured o n civi l law with much bri l lia nce ; the arch
deacon Tancred , Jo hn o f Spa in , Gilbert of England ,Chiaro di Sexto , Jo hn the Teuton and Ra ymond 01Penna fo rt e o n ca nonical law ; and Roland of
Cremo na and Moneta on the liberal arts . These
masters , who came from every Chri stian co untry ,were soo n surrounded by thousa nds of students o f
every na tionality. By reason o f its pro found learning and its Euro pea n renown the University o f
Bologna was , as in the case of the one i n Paris ,destined to a ttract St Dominic ’ s attention .
I t was afte r the feast o f Easter 12 18 that he
decided to send there from Rome three of his friars .H o norius I I I . , a lways ful l of indulgence fo r the
Order, gave them letters o f introduction ,1 and at the
end o f Apr i l they se t fo rth . They went to a mo dest
hostelry in the suburbs , establi shed for the benefit
1 Ca r tula iro do Sa int Dom inique, vo l. i i . p. 183 .
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 111
of pilgrims and travellers and kept by the CanonsRegu lar o f the Abbey of Roncevalles .
“ Thatyear, 12 18 , says a Bolognese chronicler,1 “ three
friars o f the Order of Friars Preachers came
to Bologna fo r the first time , saying they hadbeen sent by a certain Maste r Dominic, a Span iard .
As they seemed to be holy men , the church o f
Santa Maria della Ma sca rella was given them .
”
The early da ys of the foundation were difficult .The friars ,
” says Jordan o f Saxony, “ suffered a ll
the misery o f extreme poverty.” 2 But on the arrival
o f the Ble ssed Regina ld al l was changed .
As a Doctor o f Law Reginald 3 had from 12 06
taught canonical law with great bri l l ia nce in the
Univers ity o f Paris ; in 12 12 he was ma de Dean ofthe important co llegia te church of St Aigna n o f
Orleans . Now in 12 18 he went to Rome to prayat the apostles’ tomb, meaning to proceed to theHoly Land .
“ But already,” says Humbert de
Roman s,4 “ God had inspired him with the wish tofo rsake al l to preach the gospel . He was preparing
himself fo r the work , hardly knowing how to pro ceed ,for he was no t aware that an Order o f Friars
Preachers had been establ ished . Now it happened
that in conversation with a cardinal he opened hi s
heart on the subject by saying how he hoped togive up everything t o preach Christ everywherein voluntary poverty . The cardinal repl ied : I t
1 Bibl . Univ. de Bo logna .—Chron. o f Bo rsell i .
2 Jo rdan o f Sa xony, Scr ip t . 0rd. Prcea’
ic. vol. i . p . 18.
3 See no t ice on h im by Echa rd,Scr ip t. 0rd. Freedie. vol. i . p . 89.
Humbert de Rom anis,ap. Bo l l . Acta SS . , 4 th August .
112 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
happens that an Order has j ust now come into
existence who se o bject it i s t o un ite poverty withthe o ffi ce of preach ing , and the ma ster who him
self preaches God ’s Wo rd i s in thi s very town .
”
Hearing thi s Ma ster Reginald set o ff in ha ste t o
find the Blessed Dominic and to ma ke known t o himthe secret o f his so ul . He was fascinated by the
appearance of the saint and the elo quence o f his
di scourse , and he there and then resolved to ente rthe Orde r.” 1 He made hi s pro fessio n in the ha nds
of St Dominic , continue s the Blessed Jo rda n , “a nd
at the request of hi s bi sho p , and with the pe rm i ssio nof the saint , he cro ssed the sea and on hi s return
went to Bologna.” 2
-H is legal studies and his reputatio n as a professo r o f cano n law made him the pro per pe rso n
to direct the hum ble convent tha t had j ust been
founded in the town o f Law. He arrived there on
December 2 1 , 12 18 , and at o nce bega n to prea ch .
His words burn ,” says J o rda n , “ hi s elo quence
like a flaming torch sets the hearts o f hi s hearers
on fire . Bologna i s in flames . I t is as thougha second Elias had ar i sen .
” 3 His reputatio n ad1 The o ldest chroniclers o f the Order repo r t tha t so on a fterwa rds
in one o f his i llnesses Regina ld saw in a vision our Lady and tha tshe showed him the habi t the m onks were to adopt instea d o f thedress o f the Canons Regula r which they had ti l l then wo rn (cf .
Jo rdan o f Sa xony, No . 3 4 ; Constantine d’
Orvieto , No .
2 Jo rdan o f Sa xony, No . 3 5 .
2 Jo rdan o f Sa xony Coep it autem praedica tioni to tus insistereet ignitum era t ejus eloquium vehem enter , serm oque ipsius, qua sifacula a rdens, co rda cuncto rum audient ium infi amm aba t .
To ta tune ferveb a t Bononia , quia no vus insurrexisse videb a tur
El ia s.
”
114 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
orator was at that instant exclaiming : ‘ I see
Hea ven o pen ! yea, o pen for those who wish to se e ,
who long to enter. The do o r s are open to tho se whowo uld fain press in . Do no t shut yo ur heart , yo ur
mo uth , your hands , lest Heaven also clOse on yo u.
Why do you pause ! Hea ven o pens fo r yo u !’ As
soon as Regina ld had left the pulpit , Mo neta , touched
by God , so ught the pre a cher to m a ke known his
state o f mind and hi s difficulties , a nd then made
his vows of obedience in his ha nds . As hi s
numerous dutie s interfered with his freedom ofactio n he co ntinued to wear hi s ordinary dress for
a year, though he worked with al l hi s m ight to
bring fre sh hearers a nd new disciples . Sometimes
it would be one person , sometimes ano ther, and
whenever he made a co nquest it seemed to him
each time as tho ugh he were himself taking t hehabit .
Many of these Bo lognese who e nte red the Order
through the m in i strations o f the Blessed Reginald
are known to us . Am ongst them may be mentio ned
Chiaro di Sesto , who taught the l ibera l arts and
cano n law at the University , and who later becam.
e
provincia l o f Rome and fi l led the o ffice o f papal
penitentiary ; Paul o f Ven ice who , by hi s ownacco unt , “ made his professio n in the hands o f
Master Reginald and received the habit of theOrder on the Sunday o f the Go spel o f the Canaanite
woman (March Friar Guala , the mo st
celebra ted o f the masters of art in the University ;and Roland o f Cremo na , who made his profe ssio n
under peculiar c ircumstances .
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 1 15
The Bologna convent had been growing discouraged. Two o f the monks were about to dese rt it ,and Reginald was attempting t o resto re co nfidenceto the friars assembled in Cha pter. “ He had
scarcely finished speaking when ,” says Gera rd de
Frachet , “ Roland of Crem o na was seen to enter .
He was a wel l-known pro fessor a t the University,an em inent phi lo so pher and the first of the Order
who had publicly taught theology in Paris . Drivenby the Ho ly Spirit he had come alone and“
o f his
own i n itiative to the door o f the convent . They
brought him into the Chapter House , and there ,as tho ugh drunk with the Holy Ghost , he , without
further preamble , begged to be received. Formerly
on feast days , clad in rich scarlet , he had made merrywith hi s friends , i n feasting , games , and al l kinds o f
pleasures . When at night he came to himself, in
wa rdly touched by grace , he would ask :‘Where
i s now the feast j ust celebrated, where the mad
gaiety P and reflecting how quickly pleasure passesaway and changes to grief he entered the Order,where he served the Lord fo r many years in wisdomand holiness .”
Fo l lowing on these many pro fessions the community soon found the humble house o f the Mascarella
i
too small , and after 12 19 Reginald began tolook out for another dwell ing . This was the church
of San N icola delle Vigne . With the ' consent o fthe bishop it w a s given up by its rector Rudolfo ,Do cto r o f Law, who to ok the Preacher
’s ha bit ; and
soon afterwa rds Peter Lovello and his wife Otta , a t
the request o f their daughter Diana, bestowed on
116 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
the friars the land and houses near the church .
From this time dates the definite foundatio n o f the
great mo nastery o f Bologna, destined to possess andt o preserve to o ur own day the precious relics of StDominic ,Scarce a yea r after its establi shment it had
so prospered that monastic colonies co uld be sentout t o Lombardy, - Tuscany and the environs o f
Rome .
St Dominic came on a four months’ vi sit to San
N ico la del le Vigne from July t ill November, and
him self undertook to train as novices the monks he
intended to send o ut . To teach them how to love
and cheri sh the spirit o f poverty he to re up beforetheir eyes a deed assuring impo rta nt revenues to them onastery . To set them an exam ple o f regularity,“ he shared their common l ife and rigorously practi sedfasting and other Observances . I f be perceived anyinfractio n o f the rule he punished the delinquent
with mi ldness , and however severe might be thepenance it was infl icted with so much gentlenessand kindness that no one could be angry . He
will ingly gave dispensations to others , never to himself. He kept str ict si lence during the hours pre
scr ibed by the Order and a t other times spoke rarely
and then only t o or of God . On the subject o f
si lence some of h i s most pressing exhortations t ohi s friars were m ade . I f in the Refectory (whichhe regularly attended) the friars had two dishes ontheir table he ate but one , and though exhausted by
severe vigi ls he took little food o r drink. He wa s
a ssiduous at the choir office , and wa s at times so
118 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
Seta ra , Cimeliarch , vi car o f the archbishop , the
maj o rity o f the Chapter were quite won over
to the new comers as soon as they had heardthem pr each and had witne ssed the wo nderful
results o f their apostolic zeal . The Cardinal
o f Ostia set in motion every poss ible meansfo r keeping the Dominicans in Mi la n and finding
them a perma nent a bode . He chose fo r thi s pur
po se the church o f St Eusto rgio . The priests
who served it resigned their o ffices , and taking
with them their sacred vessels , ornaments , andrevenues , they retired to the church o f San
Lorenzo . Ugo l ino replaced them by the Friars
Preachers , who found St Eustorgio in greatpoverty . The Sixty pounds o f revenue which
remained to it scarce sufficed fo r the most
needful repa irs , and poverty o nce again pres ided
at the establ i shment o f the Preachers . On March
15 , 12 2 0, the Order received from the Pope’ s
representatives and the Archbi shop o f Milan the
church o f St Eustorgio .
1
The town o f Viterbo at the same time received the
di sciples o f St Dominic . I t was on the way tobecome o ne of the principal residences o f the Holy
See . Severa l po pes o f the twelfth century had
stayed in it ; I nno cent 111. had passed part o f the
years o f 1207 and 1209 there ; a nd finally H o no ri us
I I I . had j ust esta blished himse lf there in Octo ber
12 19, when St Dom in ic left Bo logna for the Roman
Curia. I t was thi s that decided him t o found a
convent o f his Order in that city . He confided the1Quétif and Echa rd .
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 119
ta sk to five Religio us whom he brought with him
from Bo logna in November 12 19 , B onviso , Paul
o f Venice , William of Montferrat , Fo uger io a nd
Tancred .
The new convent found the best po ssible supportin the person o f the ce lebra ted Rain iero Ca po cci ,cardinal o f Sa nta Ma ria in Co sm edin. Fil led with a
specia l devotio n fo r the virgin , Ca po cci saw in a
vision a no ble lady o f incom parable bea uty holding
in he r hand a l ighted taper ; she to ok the Cardinal
by the ha nd and led him to a neighbouring fo rest , to
a large portion o f which she set fire with her ta per.Awakening with a start, Capo cci wa s eager to
di scover the meaning o f thi s curio us vi sion . He
consulted Albus , a venerable saint who l ived in solitude not fa r . from Viterbo and who se wise advice hehad already fo l lowed on more than one occa sion .
Now it happened that on the same n ight Albus hadhimse lf seen the Mother o f God seated on her
royal throne , and that she had revea led to him herde signs with rega rd to Cardinal Ca pocci . She
wished him to bui ld her a church in the forest whereshe had led him in hi s dream . I nform ed o f thi s by
Albus , Ca po cci o beyed the command o f the BlessedVirgin , and no t fa r from San Martino di Monti , in
the midst o f the wood, he unde rto ok the const ruc
t ion o f a magnificent church . I t wa s hardly begun
when he became friends with St Dominic andoffered it t o him for his Re l igio us with the co nvent
he had bui lt . Suc h was the marve l lo us origin o f the
mo nastery o f Santa Maria a Gra di , which wa s soon
famous owing to its splendid l ibrary, due to the
120 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
liberality of Ca pocci , and the arti stic treasures o f
its churchAs though a nxious to show his pre ference forSpa in , his own co untry , St Dom in ic paid particular
attentio n to the diffusion o f the Order thro ugh the
kingdoms o f Ara go n , Ca sti l le a nd Portuga l . After
the Assembly of Pro ui lle , August 12 17, he sent over
the Pyrenees in one directio n Suero Gomez andPeter of Ma drid , and in a no ther Michae l o f Uz éro ,
and Dominic o f Segovia. The two fir st preached
with success in Po rtugal ; the others were le ss
fortuna te , a nd “ because they did no t obtain the
expected fruit o f their la bo urs they , after a few
month s o f painful and useless wo rk , rejo ined theblessed father in I taly.
” St Dominic felt it was
necessa ry to strengthen with his own hands the
uncertain work o f his di scip les . Ta king with him
Dominic o f Segovia he set o ut for Spa in towa rds
the end of the year 12 18 ; he crossed the Pyreneesby the pa ss o f Ronceva lle s , passed through Pampe
luna a nd do ubtless visited Burgos to lay before the
king o f Casti l le the pont ifi ca lbull s putting the Order
under aposto l ic patro nage . He preached in each
o f these halting p la ces , and then passed on t o
Segovia whe re he fo unded the first Spani sh convent
o f the Order (February After having p la ced
Friar Co rbo lan at the head of the infant monastery
he continued hi s way so uthwa rds , and a t Ma drid
rejoined Peter o f Medina. The latter had been
m o re tha n a year in the exerci se of his apo sto l ic
1 W e bo rrow this na rra t ive from Cia conius, H istor ia Pont ificumRom a norum ot S . R . E . Ca rdina lium , vol. i i . p . 3 4 .
12 2 THE LI FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
to him necessary to ensure yo ur holy and religiousl i fe . We give him autho rity t o visit in the co nvent ,and to correct where he sees fit, a nd even if needful
t o cha nge the prio ress , with the consent o f the
m a jo rity in the house .”
The Dom in ica ns required a place o f study in
Spain as m uch as in France and I ta ly. For this
reaso n a convent was in 12 19 founded clo se to the
University of Palencia. There i s no fo rm a l pro o f
t o Show that St Dominic presided at its creation ,but reco l lecting that he himself studied in the scho o l s
o f that town , and com pa ring thi s fo undation with
tho se o f Bologna a nd Pari s , it i s im po ssible not
t o recognise in it the work of the blessed saint .“ I f,
” remarks Father Ba lme , not without some
show of reaso n , Saint Dominic was not the actua lfo under o f th i s convent , one may assume that duringhi s j ourney in his own co untry some months earlier
he had been the inspirer and adviser of the project
a t such time as the Lord Should see fit to make
its execution po ssible .
On his return to Rome St Dominic continued
t o labo ur a t the propagation o f the Orde r in Spain .
He wa s he lped in the wo rk by a celebra ted tea che r
o f Canon Law at the University of Bo logna , theCata lo nia n Raymo nd o f Penna fo rt e , who was de stined
t o wea r som ewha t later the habit o f the Prea chers ,t o govern the Orde r as Ma ster Genera l , and t o
becom e o ne o f its greatest sa ints .At Bo lo gna , Raym o nd had been a witness of the
ma rvels do ne by Regina ld , a nd he , l ike the o the r
Professors o f Law, hi s co lleagues , had felt that
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 12 3
hi s influence and his sympathie s went with the
Dominicans . When in 12 19 the bishop o f Barcelo na ,
B e renga r ius o f Palo u , passed through Bo logna on
hi s way to the Po ntifical Co urt , Raymo nd spoke
to him i n praise of the new Order, and inspired him
with the wish to esta bli sh it in his epi scopal See .
At Vite rbo , B e renga r ius obta ined from St Dominic
a prom i se o f some o f his own fria rs of Bo logna fo rthe foundatio n he had in view, and taking them
and Ra ymond o f Penna fo rt e with him be insta l ledthem at Barcelo na in 12 19 . One of the ch ief
citizens o f that town ,1
Peter Grunio , received
them at his own house and kept them there fo rthree years, ti l l the convent was definitely settledin 12 2 2 .
While St Dominic was occupied in thus extendingthe Order in France , I taly and Spain , his attention
was attracted to mo re rem o te and less known
Euro pean regio ns . I t had been always hi s wish
t o devo te himself to the eva ngeli satio n of pagansand barbaro us peo p les, a nd Providence seemed now
a bout t o supply him with the means o f devoting t othis wo rk a po rtio n o f the ene rgy o f hi s spiritual sons .I va n Odrowa nt z , bishop o f Cracow, transferred by
t he Ho ly See to the archbisho pric o f Gnesen ,arrived at the Papal Co urt in the ea rly days o f 12 20o n ce rta in business co nnected with hi s promo tio n .
He wa s accompanied by hi s two nephews , Hya cinth
and Ce sla s , cano ns o f Cracow, also by two gentlem en, H e rmann the Teuto nic , a nd H enry o f Mo ravia .
After taking leave o f the Po pe at Vite rbo he with
his companions went to Rome to perform his
124 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM INI C
p i lgrimage to the apostles’ tomb . He then made
the acquainta nce of St Dominic and his Order
whi lst the refo rm amo ngst the Roman nuns was
proceeding , and the co nvents of St Sixtus andSanta Sabina were being fo unded .
Now Ivan Odrowant z co uld, better than anyo ne
else , understand the usefulness o f the Preachers .
Po land , o f which the Bishop o f Cracow was abo ut
to become Metro politan , was alrea dy a s it we re
the bulwark o f Catholicism against pagans andschismatics . The vast pla ins o f Russia were con
stantly menaced by idolatrous Turks ; and the Finns ,sti l l an almost barbarous peo ple , inhabited the sho reso f the Bal t ic . The Teutonic knights and the Brothersof the Swo rd fought against them , but to sendthem Catho l ic missionaries becam e every day mo re
necessary . I van had already a ppealed to the zeal
o f the Premo nstratensia n Fa thers ; he had been at
Rome a witness of the sanctity o f St Dominic and hi s
friends , and he was also anxio us to secure the a ssist
ance o f the Friars Preache rs . He sought the blessed
sain t a nd begged him to give him som e o f his fri‘a rs
fo r Po la nd , hi s own co untry . But fo r the pa st two
years the fo unding o f one convent a fte r ano ther
had com e so rapidly that the grea t centres o f the
Order were impoveri shed . The rel igio us, tho ugh
numerous , scarce sufficed for the ho uses a lrea dy
establi shed . St Dominic was o bliged to co nfess
thi s t o the Po l i sh bishop . Neve rthe less, he added,if you have a few wi ll ing men a greeable t o God ,and fit t o be admitted into the Order, I wi l l receive
them . I van offered him three of h is own house
12 6 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
At length at the second meeting of the Cha pter
General (which he held some months before h isdeath on May 3 0, 12 2 1) St Dom inic sent o ut severalo f his friars to Hunga ry and Great Britain . I n
the steppes of the Danube and the Dnieper l ived
the pagan Cum a ns he had lo nged to convert when
he accompa nied Dida cus , his bi shop , to Rome . At
Bologna he discovered the very m a n exactly fitted by
birth fo r such a work . Amongst the University
masters was a Hungarian named Paul . His famewas already well establi shed when , touched by St
Dominic ’s preaching , he left the world and beggedfor the Preacher’s habit. He wa s at once sent to
Hungary with Brother Sado c and three other mo nks .
His preaching bro ught forth fruit , a nd he was befo re
lo ng enabled to bui ld two monasteries, one at V e spr imfo r nuns who followed the Rule o f Proui lle and St
Sixtus , the other at Alba Royal fo r the friars . I n
a short time the number o f professio ns had so
increased that the convent at Alba becam e amissio nary centre and played fo r the pagans o r
schismatics o f the south -east o f Europe the same
part a s Cracow fo r the north -east . From thence
afte r the year 12 2 2 missionaries set o ut to preach
the gospel in Tra nsylva nia, Serv1a , Walla chia , and
even where the Ta rtar Cum ans led a nomadic existence o n the banks o f the Dnieper.
We have fewer detai l s as to the esta bli shment of
the Order in England . At the seco nd meeting o f
the Chapter at Bo logna St Dominic decided to send
twelve o f his rel igious to Canterbury under thecharge of Gi lbert de Prassinet. The archbishop of
MASTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER 12 7
tha t town received them kindly, a nd by his advice
they establ ished them selve s at Oxfo rd , where they
fo unded the King Edward scho ols . Traditio n ha s
a ttempted to go further than histo ry ; acco rding t oi t Fr ia r Laurence o f Engla nd , o ne of St Dominic
’
s
first com ra de s , had in 12 20 bro ught o ve r to Great
Britain severa l o f the friars from St Jacques i n
Pa ri s ; but we know from another and a more
ce rtain so urce tha t La urence spent that year inRom e . Ano the r legend has it tha t , during hi s stayin Pa ri s in 12 19 , St Dominic a nd the King o f
Sco tla nd , Alexa nde r m e t , and that the latte r
asked for some religio us fo r hi s kingdom . Un
fo rtunate ly this i s no t m entioned by any contem po r
a ry writer, whi le o n the other hand an ancient
chro nicle speaks o nly in 12 3 0 of the establ ishmento f the Order in Sco tland .
These two missio ns in England and Hungary
had, says La co rda ire , “ given Dominic possess ion o fEurope . He could now contempla te hi s work with
sa t i sfaction , believing it t o be blessed by God. The
birth had been a painful one , a nd at first it a p
pea red l ikely to be a fai lure , but suddenly the
Ho ly Preaching develo ped mo re pro sperously. The
fo rty re l igio us dispersed o ver the world after the
a ssem bly o f Pro ui lle had in less than four years
fo unded more than sixty convents . St Dominic wasin 12 17 the hea d o f a smal l flo ck ; in 12 2 1 he became
Ma ster Genera l o f an Order com prising mo re than
fi ve hundred re l igio us a nd a t lea st a hundred nuns ,whose influence extended from the up la nds of Spa i n
t o the Russian steppes , under the fogs o f Great
12 8 THE L I FE OF SA INT DOM IN IC
Britain and beneath the radiance o f an oriental sky .
I t was truly the grain o f musta rd seed which hadsprouted in the district of Toulo use and had givenbirth to a tree whose branches were already a shelter
for the whole Catholic Church !
13 0 THE LI FE OF SAINT DOMIN IC
princes, St Domin ic trave l led with the utm o st s im
plic ity , never changing the mode st ha bits he had
learned from Dida cus hi s bisho p .
“ Outside the
towns , sa ys Thierry o f Apo ldia ,
“ it was hi s customt o wa lk barefo o t som etimes am o ng sto nes and sha rppebbles , o ften thro ugh tho rns and br iars , so that
with feet a ll torn and bleeding he wo uld exclaim in
ho ly joy : This i s part o f o ur penance ! Tho ugha lways ready t o bear a brother’ s burden he neve r
a l lowed anyo ne else to carry his own clo ak o r books .
Floo ds and inundations could no t bar hi s way . He
preferred to lodge at the co nvents a nd subm itted
himself to the Rule o f the ho use , even when it was
not of his own Order. I f he fo und no ne , he chose
the most modest o f inns and wa s care ful t o let no
one know his real positio n . One o f his fr ia rs
always a ccompanied him and was edifi ed by hisausterity and pio us example . He rejo iced in
tribulations ,” sa ys William of Mo ntfe rra t , a nd
wo uld under the ir influence bless God and sing theAve M a r is S tella o r the V oni Crea tor .
” Another
companio n , Paul o f Venice , declares that he never
saw him r uffled by disa ppo intm ent , a nnoyances , o r
co ntradiction he wo uld som etim es ,”he a dds ,
“ beg fo r alms in humility o f spir it and from ho use
t o house l ike a begga r. When he wa s begging a t
Dulio lum he was given a who le lo af, which hereceived kneeling ; he fasted every day, yet was
careful tha t his fria rs sho uld eat we l l because of
the fa tigues o f travel .” He frequently passed the
n ight in pra yer,” depo sed Bro ther Fo uge rio during
the process o f canonisation , and his petitions were
JOURNEYS AND PREACH ING 13 1
broken by sighs and groans ! “ His communion
with God was so stro ng and so c lo se ,” quo tes
La co rda ire from the Acts of B ologna , that he
scarcely ra i sed hi s eyes from the ground . He never
entered any house where ho spita l ity was given
him without first saying a praye r in the church ,i f there was one in the place . When the meal was
ended he retired to a chamber where he read theGospel o f St Ma tthew o r the Epi stle of St Pa ul ,which he a lwa ys carried about with him . He wo uld
s it down , o pen his book , cross himself and thenbegin t o read attentively. But presently he becamecarried away by the Divine Wo rd . From his gesturesit seem ed a s tho ugh he were speaking with someone
he a ppeared to l i sten , to di spute , to argue ; a t timeshe smiled or wept ; he gazed straight before him , thenlowered his eyes , muttered to himself and beat uponhi s breast . He‘ passed incessantly from reading topra yer and from meditation to co ntem platio n . From
time to time he would press his l ips lovingly to hi sbook as though thanking it fo r his happ iness , o r
bury hi s face in hi s hands or his hood and sink sti l ldeeper into his holy ecsta sy.”
He preached to the peo ple in most of the townshe passed through , in the churches , streets , or atthe cro ss ro ads , with such pathetic eloquence as todraw tears from his hearers . He inspected the
houses of hi s Order with a watchful eye , and hadlengthy co nversatio ns with the prio rs o f each one
o f them so as to ascertain the exact state of al l .
1 All these instances a re bo rrowed from the B ologneseDocuments
publ ished by the Bo l landists.
13 2 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOMIN IC
He preached to hi s religious by his example , of thelove and strict o bservance o f the Rule , a nd ex
pla ined its meaning in friendly talk . On his
arriva l a t a mo na stery ,” says Fria r Ventura, “ he ,
unlike mo st men , did no t retire to rest , but a ssem b
l ing the rel igio us he spo ke t o them o f God a nd
sought to encourage them .
” He loved voluntary
poverty a nd desired that it sho uld be loved by
hi s friars , but he never neglected tempo ra l things .
He wa s interested in every materia l que stio n thatco uld promo te the spiritua l welfa re of a convent
o r o f the who le Order. He to ok advantage o f hisso jo urn in any house o f the Orde r to a ppease strife ,settle difficultie s ; or confirm transactio ns and co n
tracts that might be in nego tiatio n with pre lates ,
princes , or even with priva te persons . Having
thus fulfi lled hi s duty a s a religio us a nd as Ma ster
o f the Order , he wo uld retire to hi s cel l toreceive the discip l ine .
“ He had it administered
with a triple iron c hain , says Friar Ventura ; “ 1
know this from re l igio us from whom he asked thisservice .”
Scarcely eight mo nths after his installation inRome St Dom in ic fe lt tha t it was his duty to visitthe convents he had j ust fo unded . He set o ff from
St Sixtus towards the end of October 12 18 , to spend
the feast o f All Saints with hi s brothe rs o f Bologna.This co nvent had been o nly in existence a fewmonths , and was in need o f the advice and teaching
o f the Master. Dur ing hi s sho rt stay there St
Dominic was lavi sh o f both . He left with Friar
Dominic of Segovia and soon reached Proui l le,
13 4 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
St Dominic soon afterwards set o ff for Spain .
He wa s once more , after an a bsence of nearly fifteenyears , to revi sit hi s own country . I n every town he
pa ssed thro ugh he preached , and his word was often
confirmed by mira cle s . At Segovia ,1 where he wa stowards the Chri stma s of 12 18 , he , by his pra yers ,caused a much needed rain to descend on the thirsty
la nd . On ano ther occasio n hi s tunic was the meanso f saving his ho stess’ few po ssess io ns from fire .As there was no convent of the Order in the town ,
”
writes Gérard de Frachet , the servant o f the Lord
had fo r some time lo dged at the ho use o f a poo rwoma n . The saint , having one day discovered anextrem ely rough hair shirt much to hi s ta ste , ato nce cast aside the coarse tunic he had been
tem po rari ly using . His hostess gathered it upreverently, and p la ced it in a coffer with her most
precio us o bjects and kept it with as much care astho ugh it had been a piece o f the imperial purple .
Now it happened one day that , when she was o ut ,
the fi re she had fo rgo tten to extinguish set light tothe ro om , and burned al l the furniture , with the e
.
x
cept ion o f the wo oden co ffer conta in ing the sa int’s
tunic . No t only was the co ffer unburned , but it wa sno t even bla ckened by the smoke . The woman ,astounded o n her return by the great m i racle , gave
tha nks to God and then t o the blessed Dom in ic ,who se tunic had pre served from the flames the
whole o f he r small treasures which were in the
1 I t wa s during this visi t tha t he founded the convents o f
Madr id and Sego via and prepa red the way fo r the one a t
Pa lencia .
JOURNEYS AND PREACH ING 13 5
box . Before leaving hi s country fo r ever Dominicvisited the p la ces where he had passed the early
yea rs o f hi s l ife : Gumiel o f I zan where he had
been bro ught up by his uncle the arch -priest , a nd
Osma where he had been canon , and where , a cco rd
ing t o a traditio n , he is said to have founded a
m o nastery fo r wom en .
1
He recro ssed the Pyrenees towards the end o f
March 12 19, fo r a bout the feast o f Easter he was
at To ulo use , whe re he once more fo und his faithful
friend Bisho p Fo ulques , one o f the first patrons o f his
wo rk . He passed some time with the mo nks of St
Romanus and preached in their church . But such
crowds o f peo ple flo cked to it that it soon became
too smal l to hold them , and the preaching had t obe co ntinued in the Cathedra l of St Etienne , the
large st bui lding in the town . I t seems pro bable that
from To ulo use the saint went to pay one more vi sitt o the Elder Daughters o f the Order,
” the Sisters
o f Prou i l le , fo r hi s return to the co unty o f To ulo use
co incides with the settlement o f the matter concerning St Ma rtin . Bernard o f Ro chefort , bishop o f
Ca rca sso nne , gave j udgment in the name o f hism etro po l ita n , the archbi sho p o f N a rbo nne, and re
s t itut ion of the church o f Limo ux was made to thesiste rs on Apr i l 13 ,
1 In spi te o f the dryness o f deve lop ing a subject o f this kind,
we were anxious to draw up the it inera ry fo l lowed by St Dom inicfrom 1 2 1 8 to 1 2 2 1 , fo r no bet ter m eans o f giving an idea o f the
energy shown by him during the la test yea rs o f h is l ife could becho sen. We ha ve derived i t espec ia l ly from the docum entspubl ished by Ba lm e in his Ca r tula ir e do Sa int Dom inique.
2 B a lm e,op. ci t . vol. i i . p . 2 75 .
13 6 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
The saint was eager to visit the House of StJ acques in Pa ri s . I t was deve lo ping rapidly , and
be co unted on it as a m e a ns of extending the Order.He too k with him as a trave l l ing com panion
Bertra nd of Ga rr igua , hi s friendly rival in devo tio n
a nd ho l ine ss , a nd set fo rth afte r the feast o f Easter.During hi s jo urneys ,
” says Etienne de Sa lagnac ,1
the ble ssed fathe r frequently and with gladnessvisited haunts of prayer and rel ics o f sa ints ; and hedid not pa ss them by like a clo ud witho ut rain , but
o ften , to lengthen hi s petitio ns , he added night t o day.
On the way from Toulouse to Paris he cam e upon a
p la ce o f pi lgrimage then universa l ly frequented
Our Lady of Rocama do ur—where he sto pped andpassed the night in pra yer. Next day he set o ff
a gain with his companion , reciting by the way the
p sa lms a nd l itanie s . Sti l l on fo o t he passed
on to Or leans a ccompa nied by Ge rman pilgrims a l so
returning from Rocama dour. “ At one place ,” 2
Gérard de Frachet narrates , “ these strangers
genero usly invited them to partake of their pro !
visions , a nd continued to do so for the next fqur
days . On the way the blessed saint said t o his
companion :‘ Brothe r Be rtra nd , I ha ve it on my
co nscience tha t we m a ke a tempo ral harvest o ut o f
the se p i lgrim s without sowing in them sp iritual seed .
Le t us therefo re knee l down and ask Go d’s gra ce to
understand a nd speak the i r tongue , tha t we m ay
p reach to them Je sus Christ .’ They immediate ly
1 Ba lm e , op . cit . vol. 11. p . 2 86 .
2 Géra rd de Fra chet , Vita f r a trum (ed. by Co rm ier) , p. 59,quo ted by Fa ther Ba lm e and La co rda ire .
13 8 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOMIN IC
novices , and students were admitted to them in theaft ernoons and evenings . At o ne o f these hedescribed the entrance into the Order of their o ld
Master the Blessed Regina ld. Amongst tho se
yo uths who followed the co urse m ay be m entio ned
Jordan of Saxo ny, Master of Ai'ts , Bachelor o f
Theo logy, a nd Sub-deaco n , who pursued his studiesat the University. I t wa s not lo ng before he felt theinfluence o f St Dominic and placed himself underhi s spiritual direction . He wished , he says la ter, t omake his confession to him , and by his advice hereceived the diaco nate . The following Lent (Ma rch
12 20) he to o k the habit of the Friars Preachers ,and soon a fter succeeded the blessed sa int as
Master General .
I t was during St Dominic ’s stay in Paris , and no
do ubt by his orders , that the m o nks of St Jacque s
set fo rth t o found fresh co nvents at Limoges ,Rheims , Metz , Po itie rs and Orleans . Peter Sei la
received from h im fo rm al directions t o continue
the propa ga nda o f the Order at Limoges : “ He
urges hi s ignorance , his scanty supp ly of bo oks , posse ssing only a copy of the Homilies o f St Grego ry.
’
‘ Go , my son , go with al l confidence ,’ repl ies the
Master, twice a day yo u will be pre sent with m e in
my prayers . Do not fa lter, you w i l l ga in many so uls
t o the Lord and produce m uch fruit .” Two yearsbefo re at Pro uil le the saint had , with the sameconfidence , proceeded to disperse hi s religious .After a so jo urn o f severa l weeks in Pa ri s, he too k
fo r travel l ing companio ns William o f Montferra t
and the lay brother Friar Jo hn , and set o ut again
JOURNEYS AND PREACH I NG 13 9
fo r I taly . To fo l low with exactness the itinerary of
tho se who travel on fo o t i s not easy. According tosome traditio ns they seem to ha ve sto pped a t
Chati llon -sur-Seine and at Avignon , thus skirting
the va l leys of the Seine , Saone , and the Rhine ,reaching the Po valley by way o f Mo nt Genévre .
An acco unt by Gérard de Frachet mentio ns on the
co ntrary the cro ssing o f the Lomba rdy Alps , pre
supposing a jo urney thro ugh Geneva , pa st the abbey
o f S a n Mo ritz , the Simp lo n and the va l ley of the
Ticino . Lo cal traditio ns spea k o f the fo unda tio n
by the sa int on thi s jo urney o f many Piedmo nt and
Lom ba rdy co nvents , i n particular tho se of Asti and
Bergamo s . What i s certain i s the fa ct o f his havingpassed several days at Milan , whe re he once more
accepted the ho spitality o f the canons o f San
Nazario . He took advantage , as hi s habit was , o fthis short visit to preach , and he gained for hi s
Order three j uri sco nsults o f reputatio n , Am iz o di
So le ro , Guido di Sexto , and Roger di Mera to .
From Milan St Dominic went to Bologna, wherehe arrived in J uly eight mo nths after leaving
it fo r France and Spain . He remained there long
enough to train the religious he destined fo r new
ho uses , and after having dispe rsed them o ve r
Lombardy , Mila n , Bergamo , Asti , Verona , Florenceand Pla cenz a he went t o Vite rbo to the Pontifical
Court . After a short stay in Flo rence , where he1 This abso lute ly certa in fact pro ves the fa lseness o f the tradit ion repo rted by Wadding (Anna les Fr a trum m inor um an,
a cco rding to which St Dom inic is sa id to ha ve once m o re m e t
St Francis a t the Franciscan Chapte r o f Na ttes held a t Po rt iuncula nea r Assisi during the fea st o f Penteco st
,1 2 19.
140 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
visited the new convent (and where several freshprofessions were made) he reached the Pa pa l Courtin the mo nth of November 12 19 . H o no rius I I I .
showed him hi s usua l kindness, and on November
15 gave h im fresh Bulls for the extensio n o f
the Order in Spain , settl ing the dispute which hadari sen i n Pari s between the Cha pter o f Notre -Damea nd the convent o f St Jacques to the a dva ntageo f the Friars Preachers (l st to 1 1th December
confirming them in the possession of thechurch o f St Sixtus in Rome (December and
a ddressing warmly compl imentary letters to al ltho se who had in Bologna , Paris, or in Spain , assi sted the Domin ican fo undatio ns (Februa ry , Ma rch
From Viterbo St Dominic went t o Rome
towards the Chri stmas of 12 19 , to prepare fo r thetransference o f the re l igious to Santa Sabina ; at thebeginning o f May 12 20 he returned to Viterbo , where
the Pope gave him letters o f recommenda tio n to thea rchbishop o f Tarragona, and abo ut May 12 he
Set o ut for Bo logna, where he was to preside ata meeting o f the General Chapter convoked for
the feast o f Pentecost .This im portant assembly deta ined the saint inthe town during the end o f May and the first days
o f J une , and left h im more than ever po ssessed by
the preaching fever. Lombardy now o ffered him
a s vast a field o f actio n as Languedo c had in thepast . Passing thro ugh it on hi s return to France ,the spread of heresy and the progress o f religio us
indifference alarmed him . The wea lth o f its towns ,by deve loping the taste for luxury , wa s an encourage
142 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
o btain good fruit by employing to yo ur neighbours’
pro fit the gift o f preaching bestowed on you by
Providence , we command and o rde r yo u to go with
this same Dom in ic and pro claim the Wo rd o f God to
whom he m ay think fit , t o the end that by the l ight
of the truth preached by yo u to them , the lo st m a y
aga in find the right wa y. We give yo u t o the
sa id friar that you may , in the habit pro pe r to yo ur
Order, be hi s fellow-workers in the ministry o f the
Divine Word .
Ho norius I I I . wished to create in I taly, under St
Dominic’s direction , an im porta nt mission sim i larto the one o rganised by the Cistercian a bbots in
Languedo c in 1204 . Unfortunately, the scheme
remained a m ere pro j ect . The Master General o fthe Order o f Friars Preachers at least tr ied to putit into executio n with no other aid than that o f
his fria rs . After the meeting of the Chapter at
Bo logna he set out for Lom bardy, taking with hima number o f his re l igious , and devo ted the energies
o f his last years to the eva ngeli sation o f tha t
part o f the co untry . We find him at Milan on
J une 1 1 , the feast o f St Ba rna bas , detained by an
att ack o f fever. He had hardly recovered when he
successively passed through the countries o f Pa rmaand Modena, where he received into the Order
Albert Boschetti ; Ma ntua, Verona and Padua, where
he gave the habit to J o hn of Vicenza ; and Crem o na ,where he met his friend and rival in sanctity , St
Francis .At his co nvent in Bo logna he spent the fea st o fthe Assumptio n and made it an opportunity for
JOURNEYS AND PREACH ING 143
giving his religious a fresh lesson o n the sp irit o f
poverty. During his absence Bro ther Raoul , theprocurator, had enlarged the cells , fo r he found them—no t without rea so n - inconvenient and inadequate ,and had ra i sed them by a cubit . When on hi s
return St Dominic saw the changes that had taken
p lace he was scanda l i sed , severely reprim anded
the procurator and the o ther mo nks , and , weep ing ,said to them :
“ Alas ! a re you in such haste to giveup poverty, and to rear magnificent pa la ce s l
” By
his o rder the work was sto pped and remained un
finished ti l l hi s death !
Towards the end of August he again began to
preach in Romagna and in Lombardy , visiting inturn Forl i , Faenza , Brescia and Bergamos anda gain staying in Flo rence , where hi s sermo ns in thechurch o f San Ga llo produced much fruit . We
have few authentic detai l s about these missions .The co nfe ssor of St Catherine of Siena , Ra ymond
o f Ca pua , wrote at the end of the fourteenth century ,that more than a hundred thousand heretics were
converted by the teaching and the miracles o f thesaint , and that this was proved in the process o f
ca no nisation . This testimony o f a later age i s the
o nly one that tel ls o f such wo nderful results .
From Flo rence Dominic returned to Rome .
He arrived there at the beginning o f Decembe r
12 20 and remained ti l l the end o f 12 2 1. As hi s
habit was , he made use o f the pa pa l favo ur fo r
the further consolidation o f the Order o f Friars
Preachers by obtaining fresh privi leges and secur
1 Acts of B ologna .
144 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
ing the perma nence of the Roman convents . Threeco nsecutive bul ls da ted Janua ry 18 , Februa ry 4 ,and March 2 9 a ga in commended the Dominicansto the Prelates o f the Universa l Church . The last
deserves specia l mentio n , beca use it proves the grow
ing favo ur: in which the peo p le he ld the Preachers .The Po pe was o bliged to deno unce persons who ,
to ga in the co nfidence o f the fa ithful , pretended
to belo ng t o the Order ; “ beca use vice at tim es
wears the clo ak o f virtue , and the a ngel o f darkness
may assume the appearance o f a n angel o f l ight ,we warn a nd com m and you by these presents , that
i f unknown perso ns , fa l sely call ing themselves Fria rs
Preachers , under pre text o f a nnouncing the Wo rd
o f God , attem pt to collect money to the dishono ur
and prej udice o f the true apo stles of poverty, yo u
may take care to have such persons arrested andseverely punished as im po sto rs .” 1
At Rome St Dom in ic met the friend o f hi s youth ,Foulques , bishop o f To ulo use . How de l ightful must
have been the communion o f these two m en ! sa ys
La co rda ire , writing on the subj ect. “ The holy
hopes they had togethe r enterta ined God hadcrowned with unheard of success ; they had seen
the office o f Prea cher exa lted in the Church by
an Order of religio us alrea dy dispersed from one
end o f Europe to ano ther , they who had so o ftentalked o f the necessity for re -establi shing theapostolate ! The part they had played in this
grea t work did not tempt them to pride , but the i r
joy in the Church ’ s glo ry wa s i n proport ion to their1 Ca r tula iro de Sa int D om in ique, vo l. i i i .
CHAPTER VI I
ORGANI SATION OF THE DOM INICAN ORDER
BUS I ER tim e than the fo ur last years o f thel ife o f St Dominic , from 12 18 - 12 2 1 , canno t be
easi ly imagined . Jo urneys , foundatio ns , visits t o
mo na sterie s , preaching , nego tiatio ns with the Po pe ,with prelates and princes , and sending o ut missio na ries t o dista nt p la ces occup ied by turns , a nd some
times at once , his untiring energy. How , o ne i s
tem pted t o ask , co uld a single person make head
a gainst so ma ny and such va ried respo nsibi l it ies !And yet t o the se numero us dutie s o thers must be
a dded . The chie f event o f the last two years was
the holding o f the general Cha pters o f 12 20 and
12 2 1 .
When they separated after the assembly o f
Pro ui l le the fria rs had no rule but that o f StAugustine , t o which were added some particula r
laws framed by St Dom in ic a cco rding to circum
stances . But a s the Order grew it wa s deemed
nece ssary to give it a general co nstitutio n by co
o rdinating the separate rules . Serio us differences
o f o pin ion on various points had a ri sen between
the friars ; to avo id di sputes and settle difficultiesby a general assembly seem ed urgent. I n sp ite
of the ful l powers he had received from the H o ly1 46
ORGAN I SATION OF DOM I N ICAN ORDER 147
See , the ble ssed saint refused to ma ke laws witho ut co nsulting his fr iars ; and it was to ta ke co unselwith them that , on the Fea st o f Penteco st 12 20, he
convoked a general assembly at Bo logna. There
is no document to Show which Fa the rs too k pa rtin this first grea t meeting o f the Orde r, but it i s
pro bable that each co nvent sent its Prior, assistedby one o f hi s re l igio us . Jo rda n o f Sa xo ny, who had
o nly recently ta ken the Dominica n habit , and with
h im Matthew o f Fra nce , no doubt represented thePari s ho use .
The first sitting was marked by a moving scene .The fria rs ,
” says Thierry o f Apoldia ,1 “ were o nly
j ust a ssembled when Dom in ic , that servant of Chri st ,sa id t o them :
‘ I am an unwo rthy and useless friar,I de serve to be depo sed .
’ And thus he , who surpassed
them a ll in ho l iness a nd influence , humbled himself
befo re them al l .” As they refused to a ccept hi s
abdication he , w ith their co nsent , decided that
hencefo rth de fi nito rs sho uld be cho sen who sho uld
have ful l autho rity over the Order during the
Cha pter. As so o n as they were appo inted the
Master Gene ra l com p lete ly e ffaced him self. “ As
lo ng a s the m eeting la sted he wa s mere ly one of
the fria rs . I f he to o k the first place it was o nly in
abstinence , vigils , fasting and m aceratio n , setting
himself above no ne , except in holiness a nd humility.
Little i s known as to the delibe ratio ns o f this
Cha pter. We do not even po ssess the constitutio nswhich were agreed on. The oldest we ha ve a re tho se
promulgated in 12 2 8 by Jordan of Saxo ny and revised1 Bo l landists, Acta SS . , 4th August.
148 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
later by St Raymond o f Penna fo rt e . I f we may ,however, believe the Dominican histo rian BernardGuidonis , most of the rules o f the Order were laiddown in 12 20.
1
They were no t entirely new. Besides beingsuggested by the Rule of St Augustine , they alsorecal led tho se of many o ther great religio us Orderswith which circ umstances had made St Dominic
a cquainted . Humbert de Romanis had about 12 40a lready pointed out where the Friars Preachers had
borrowed from the constitutio ns of the Prem onstra
tensian Fathers : “ Nothing could be sounder o r mo re
o pportune than such a preference ,” he adds , “ fo r the
Premonstratensian s refo rmed and perfected the Ruleo f St Augustine as the Cistercians did the rule of StBenedict . The austerity of their li fe , the beauty oftheir Rule and Observances, and the governm ent o f amultitude o f friar s by means o f general Chapters
and canonical vi sitations set them in the first rank
o f thi s Order . For th is reason the blessed FatherDominic and his friars , no t having been able to
o btain from the Sovereign Pontiff the full rigouro f the new Rule which they had in their ardour
desired , decided to borrow from St No rbert every
thing they could find that wa s austere , beautiful andprudent , everything which they in fact bel ieved to
be suitable to the end in view.
” 2 L es Us et Cou
1 Mul ta e tiam fuerunt sta tuta ibidem , quae usque hod ie inOrdine observantur.
”(Ma rténe , Amplissima collectio, vo l. vi .
p2 Cf . In the Ca r tula ire do Sa int Dom inique, vol. 11. p . 2 3 , the
interesting compa rison given by Ba lm e between the constitutionso f the Prem onstra tensians and o f the Dom inicans.
150 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
friars shal l together recite the m atins o f the
Blessed Virgin acco rding t o the Seaso n , a nd thenrepair t o the cho i r.” I n the cho ir, t o o , the
diffe rent ca nonica l ho urs had t o be repeated , from
matins , which were sung in the n ight , to com
p l ine , which was immedia tely fo l lowed by the b ed
ho ur ; in the choir, to o , the co nventual ma ss was
t o be celebrated as distinguished from the pr ivatem asses said by each priest rel igio us . The pra yers
sa id in commo n did no t , however, dispense them from“ holy meditatio n and private prayer, which are t o be
enco ura ged and never to be omitted , fo r such de
vo tio ns are a sure proo f o f hol iness .” “ To further
enco urage them ,
” sa ys Galvano Fiamma ,1 “ there wasin each cell an image o f the Blessed Virgin and acru cifix , so that at prayer, at study, o r a t rest, the
religious m ight co ntem p late them and be in turn
co ntemplated by the Al l -Merciful Eye : fo r the image
o f the C ruc ifi ed One i s the bo o k o f l ife o pened , towhich we m ust often rai se o ur eyes and from whencecomes succo ur from on high .
”
The Fria rs Prea chers were monks by reason oftheir three vows , o f cha stity, obedience , and poverfy.
St Dominic a tta ched great im po rtance to the first .He was severe with the religio us who se purity co uldbe a ssa i led by the sha dow of a tem ptatio n . With
stro ng di scipl ine he tri umphantly dro ve forth from
them the demo n o f impurity . With the same zea l
he Strove t o m a inta in the habit of o bedience in the
Order, and he easily succeeded , thanks to the ir re
sist ible influence o f his dispo sitio n a nd hi s holiness1 Ba lm e , op . cit. vol. 11. p. 2 3 and fo llowing.
ORGAN I SATION OF DOM IN ICAN ORDER 15 1
But he a bo ve all things upheld the spirit of poverty ,thus re sem bling the great fo unde rs o f Orde rs who
had pro ceeded h im . To St Benedict the unpa rdo n
able sin in a mo nk was the crime o f pro perty, and hisdisciple , St Grego ry the Great , shows in hi s D ia
lagues by terrible exam ples how the vio latio n of the
rule o f monastic poverty i s detested by God St
Dominic a l so attacked “ the vice o f pro perty with
peculiar ha tred. The friars who a ccepted a perso na lgift , howeve r small , were subject t o the severest
pena ltie s .“ A fria r o f Bo logna , write s Gérard
de Fra chet ,1 “ had without leave accepted a piece
o f stuff o f no value . Regina ld as so o n as he heard o fit o rdered him the discipline in Cha pte r and directed
that the stuff should be burned in the cloi ster in the
presence o f the who le community . As the culprit,far from a cknowledging his sin and humbling him self,rebe l led , the man o f God o rdered the rel igious t oprepare him forcibly fo r the di scipline . Then
raising hi s tearful eyes to heaven he sa id : ‘ Lo rd
Jesus , W ho gavest Thy servant Benedict powe r t ocast out by discipl ine the devi l from the heart o f oneo f hi s m o nks , grant by the virtue o f this discip l ine
tha t the so ul o f th i s bro ther may be delive red from
a devi l i sh tempta tio n .
’ He then a dministe red so
trem endous a discip l ine that the other re l igio uscould no t restrain their tears . But the monk ,him self weeping , a nswe red , Thanks , Father, fo r thou
hast in truth ca st the devi l o ut o f my body I After
thi s he becam e an excellent and humble friar.”
St Dominic did not seek to impo se the vow o f
1 Vim Fr a trum (ed. p . 1 5 2 .
15 2 THE L IFE OF SA INT DOM I N IC
po'
verty on individuals o nly, but on the convents also .Whatever may ha ve been said on this subject , thefo under o f the Order
‘
o f Fria rs Prea chers shared
the views o f St Francis . Like him , he wished tofo und a Begging Order which sho uld , at the most ,po ssess humble shelters for its religious , o bliging
them to throw themselves for everything else onProvidence and the charity o f man.
B ut o f al l the mo na stic vows the one hardest tokeep i s the vow o f pove rty . Rare indeed are the
Orders who have throughout their h isto ry preservedtheir o riginal poverty and who practi se it individu
a l ly and collectively. Many are tho se for whom
on the contrary riches have proved an irremediable
cause o f decay and death . Even the Franciscansthemselves have no t entirely escaped the contagion
o f gold , in spite of the mystical marriage o f their
fa ther with Po verty. Therefo re , it i s not surprising that St Dominic should have , even in the bosom
o f hi s Order, met with keen o ppo sitio n . According
to a Bolognese chronicler of the fifteenth century,the Dominican Bo rsel li ,1 it was preci sely to overcome these o bjections that he co nvoked the Chapter
1 I t m ay be objected tha t the test im ony o f Bo rsel l i is m o re thantwo hundred yea rs la ter than the incidents i t re la tes. I t is va luable ,however , because i t agrees while giving m o re deta ils, wi th certa ino lder testim ony such a s tha t o f Géra rd de Frachet, Berna rdGuidonis, the Acts of B ologna , which a ll m ention the pecul ia rlo ve o f po ver ty which distinguished St Dom inic, and m ake i tea sy to guess a t the o ppo sit ion he m ust have m et wi th in his ownhouseho ld aga inst the rea l isa t ion o f this ideal. Besides, i t m ustno t be fo rgo t ten tha t Bo rsel l i wa s a rel igious a t the convent o fBo logna and tha t he ca reful ly info rm s the reader tha t he quo tesfrom ancient docum ents taken from the a rchives o f the m onastery .
15 4 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
sio ns , a nd lest the o ffice o f prea ching sho uld be
im peded by the ca re o f e a rth ly go ods they we re
in the future to have o nly income .” Their co n
ventua l ho uses and the ir churches we re a ll they
kept . A citizen o f Bo logna , Ode r ic Ga llit ia ni , had
presented the convent o f the town with a n esta te :
i t was returned t o him and the deed o f dona tio n
was to rn up by the Ma ster in the sight o f the
Chapter.
St Dom in ic , according to Bo rsel li , wished to do
even mo re . When he found it im po ssible t o in
duce the rel igio us to l ive , no t o n fixed revenues ,but m erely o n a lms col lected day by day, he wanted
a t lea st t o fo rbid the prie sts to ta ke pa rt in the tem
po ral adm in istra tion of the mo naste r ies , tha t they
m ight be entire ly devoted to study, m editatio n and
prea ching . He m ade a fo rm al pro posal to give upt o lay brothers the charge o f the m o ney belo nging
t o the co nvents . The rest of the fr iars Oppo sed this ;a l leging , not without reaso n , that afte r having so
a cted the profe ssed members o f the Orde r o f Gram
m o nt had been oppressed by the lay bro the rs , whowo uld give no sta tement o f the ir rece ipts o r
‘
ex
penses , would bear no reprim ands , and even to o k
upo n them selve s to teach and reprove them . I t was
decided that the fria rs should have a utho rity eve n
on tem poral questions , and tha t if they intrusted the
admini stratio n t o lay bro thers , the latter should
be fo rced t o produce a cco unts .1 Again on th is
point St Dom in ic was o bliged to ma ke concessio ns
1 “ Ordina tum est ut conve rsi singulis suis m ajo ribus ra t ionemreddant ct ago ura r potz
'
us guam agant ."
ORGAN I SATION OF DOM I N ICAN ORDER 15 5
to the Chapter a nd to sa crifice a part of hi s ideal
o f a bso lute po ve rty .
All that he co uld o btain was that rules for a fruga l
and mode st co nventua l l ife sho uld be ma de . “ I t
wa s decided ,” sa ys Bo rsell i , “ that the fria r s were
to have houses o f a po or a ppea rance , comm o n
clothing , and na rrow cells witho ut wo oden do o rs .”
Our brothers ,” say the origina l Co nstitutio ns , sha l l
have humble and modest dwellings , thei r wa l ls no t
to exceed twelve feet in height or twenty , including
the upper floo r." 1
The chapel was also to have the same aspect o fpoverty, and in this matter St Dom in ic revived forh is Order the austere Rule St Bernard had la id on
the Cistercians . The church was t o be o f mo derate
height , never exceeding thirty feet , the ro of no t t obe suppo rted by stone vaulting but by plain ra fters ,and marbles and mo saics were to be severe ly ex
cluded .
“ He was most ca reful ,” declares Friar
Am iz o , that no purp le o r si lken stuffs sho uld be
p laced there , not even o n the a lta r ; no r , excepting
the chal ices , go ld o r si lver vessels .”
Outside the co nvent the poverty o f the friars was
to be even more r igo ro us . They were fo rbidden to
r ide , they were t o set o ff without m o ney , and to l ive
on alms . When the prio r re ceived a novice he was
to give him specia l instructio ns in thi s a usterecustom .
“ St Dom in ic never fai led to rem ind hi s
1 We bo rrow these quo ta t ions from the chronicle o f Bo rse l l i , thegrea ter pa rt o f i t unpublished , preserved in the Universi ty l ibra rya t Bo logna ; and the Ana /rota Or a
’
z'
m'
s Pr e dz’
oa tom m , published bythe Rev. Fa ther Monthon, volf i i i . p . 608 .
15 6 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM IN IC
fria rs tha t they be lo nged to a begging o rde r, tha t
public cha rity sho uld supply no t their genera l
reso urces only, but their daily bread .
The rule o f si lence i s essentia l ly mo nastic . To
the nuns at Ma drid S t Dominic had special ly re
commended it . He impressed it on al l the convent s
o f the Order ; except during certain fixed ho urs the
fria rs were to preserve it unbroken .
Abstinence and fa sting united to prayer andsi lence had been from the time of Pope Pelagius
the essence o f the monastic l ife . St Dom inic
o bliged the Chapter General o f Bo logna to m a ke
severe rules o n the subj ect . Fa sting was ordered
from the feast o f the Exa ltatio n o f the H o ly Cro ss
(September 14) ti l l Easter, and on every Frida y .
1
The vow of abstinence was perpetual . “ Never,says Friar Ventura, did the saint , even on his
j ourneys , eat meat nor any dish contain ing anima lsubsta nce , and he made his friars do likewise . The
o nly exceptio n was in favour o f the sick and aged ,who might in the infi rm a ry eat meat , o r break the ir
fast.” The friars who waited on them were t o be exa ct
in this ru le , as the following story told by Gera rddeFrachet proves .
“ There was at Bo logna, he sa ys ,an infi rm a ry brother, who without leave sometime s
ate what rema ined o f the invalids’ meat. Now o ne
day the Devi l got ho ld of him and he began t o
shriek fearful ly. The blessed father hastened t o
him and fi l led with compassion for one so a ffi icted’
to o k the Devi l t o task fo r having entered the body1 Borse l l i I tem jejunium a festo S . C ruc is usque adPa scham
e t jejunium fer ia sexta tenendum sta tuerunt .”
15 8 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
the refectory he himself demanded , ‘W ho does not
eat more o r le ss than he ought ! ’ When they
reached the parlour, he said laughing : This i s mydoma in ; this i s the place of la ughter, o f empty
no i se , o f vain words .’ But when they reached the
chapte r-ho use he ran away saying , This i s for me
an accursed spo t : here I lose al l I gain elsewhere ;here the friars are warned o f their s in s ; he re theyconfess , do penance, and receive abso lutio n .
’
The Dom in icans were canons regular a nd begg ing
friars , but above all things preachers, and , by theirprea ching , apostles . Our Order has been special ly
fo unded for preaching and for the salvatio n of o ur
neighbours ,” says Humbert de Romanis in hi s com
mentary on the Rule . “ Our studies should tend
principal ly, ardently, and above everything to make
us useful to souls . This i s why dispensations a repermitted to m odify canonical or mo nastic proh ib i
tio ns where they might hinder the supreme end theOrder should pursue . “ In his convent ,
”say the
Co nstitutions , “ the superior shall have power togive hi s friars dispensa tions when he thinks it
expedient , especial ly where to o great stringency
might prevent study , preach ing , o r the good o f so uls ,for,
” adds Humb ert , “o f all the wo rks a ccomp l i shed
in the Order the best and most fruitful i s thework of preaching . I f some a re saved by prayer
and the other practices o f the Order , how many
are they compared to those who owe the i r salvation
to prea ching ! I t is in fact through preaching thatthe whole un iverse is brought under the yo ke of
Chri st.”
ORGAN I SATION OF DOMIN ICAN ORDER 15 9
Study i s indi spensable to the pre a cher :“ Of
co urse , says Humbe rt , “ it i s no t the chie f end o f
the Order, but it i s eminently necessa ry fo r prea ch
ing a nd redeeming so uls ; without it, we co uld do
neither the one nor the o ther.” The Co nstitutio ns
o f the Order foresaw cases where to fo rwa rd the
end in view, canonical and mo na stic Observa ncesmust be m itigated : The ho urs are to be recited
briefly a nd fluently that they m ay no t curta i l the
friars ’ hours o f study. Tho se suited to the o ffice
o f preaching (the most im po rta nt in the Order o rra the r in the Church of God) shal l be employed in
no other wo rk . They are to be devoted to rea ding
a nd study rather than to the singing of respon ses
a nd anthems .” 1
St Dom inic recommended the study o f the sciencesand letters , and especially of theology and the HolyScriptures : “ I can affirm it ,
” declares John of
Navarre in the pro cess o f canonisatio n , “ for I have
often heard him say so .
” z He himself gave the
example : he consta ntly to o k with him the Gospel of
St Matthew a nd the Epistle s o f St Paul , and theywere so much his own that he knew them by
he a rt .3 Early traditio ns indeed attribute to him
mo re than one trea ti se on the Scriptures . B e
side s hi s commenta ry on the Epistles of St Paul ,on which he lectured at Rome in the apostolic
pala ce , he wo uld seem to have conducted confer
ences on the psalms and cano nical epi stles fo r the
Friars of Bologna, and even to have written a com1 Bo rse ll i , Ana locta 0. P . vol. i i i . p . 609.
2 Act: of B ologna .
3 Ibz’
a’om .
160 THE LI FE OF SA INT DOMI N IC
mentary on certain passages of the Gospel of St
Matthew.
The convents were themselves real houses o f
study. The most im porta nt were established in thegreat University centres o f the period, at Pari s ,Bo logna, Palencia and Oxford , and the religio us
belonging to them soon mixed with the yo uth o f the
schoo l s . Even within the monasterie s them selves ,regular mo rning courses o f theo logy o r H o ly Scripture were instituted , which the who le househo ld , even
to the prior, were obliged to attend . The patro n
o f the convent o f St Jacques , Jean de Barastre , dean
o f St Q uentin , not content with providing a ho usefor the friars , gave lectures to them at the i r own
convent. I n 12 20 Roland o f Cremo na ta ught there .
The Cha pter o f Bo logna released him from his duties
and replaced him by Jordan of Saxo ny, “ who
expla ined the Go spe l with great charm of manner,” 2
and from that time the Cha pters General and
Provincia l s adopted the custom o f cho osing the
lecturers who were to direct the studies in eachconvent .
I t was because , in their idea, the Dominicans
should be above all things a learned Order, that St
Domin ic and hi s first companions sought recruitsin the pro fesso rial and scholastic world . We have
already seen how Matthew o f France , i n Paris , andRegina ld, a t Bo logna, cast their nets into University1 Echa rd , op . cit . i . p . 88.
2 Bo rse l l i : In isto capi tulo , ab so lutus fui t a lectura Pa risi isfra te r Ro landus C rem onensis et substitutus est e i fra ter Jo rdanisTheutonicus, qui legi t Evangel ium gra tio se. (Ana looz
‘
a 0. P. vo l.
i i i . p.
162 THE L I FE OF SAINT DOM I N IC
prea ch they sha l l , if possible , begin by visiting the
bisho p , they sha l l fo l low hi s a dvice in the i r‘
m in i s
t ra t ions am o ngst hi s peop le , a nd so lo ng a s they
a re on hi s territo ry sha l l piously obey him in
a ll things no t co ntra ry to the rules of theOrder .” 1
Tho ugh there i s no do cum enta ry evidence t o proveit , it seems pro ba ble tha t the Cha pte r Gene ra l o f
12 20 a l so busied itself a bo ut the women ’s co nvents .
I t has been seen that m any o f these were succe ssive ly
esta blished at Pro ui l le , Rome , Ma drid a nd Bo logna ,a nd tha t St Dom inic had , some m o nths ea rl ier,a lrea dy felt it necessa ry t o draw up definite rule s fo r
them . These were ce rtainly meant for the Sisters
o f St Sixtus , but were to be a do pted by the
Dom in ica n nuns o f o ther mo nasteries . I f we m ay
be l ieve the te stimo ny o f St Antoni us o f Flo rence ,“a fte r having devo ted the da y to winning souls to
God, by preaching , the office o f confe ssio n , o r
wo rks o f me rcy, St Dominic went to St Sixtus
every evening , and the re , in the p resence o f the
fria rs , held a co nfe rence , o r preached a sermo n
to instruct the sisters in the practices of the Orde r,fo r they had no other m aster to help them but
himself.
The Co nstitutions fo r the nuns were a lmo st the
same as fo r the fr ia rs , for St Dominic’s idea was
that the m en ’s and women ’s convents sho uld forma single Order. The rule o f St Augustine , the vows
of o bedience , poverty and cha stity, fa sting and
abstinence , the cho i r offices , the spir itual exercises ,1 Ba lme, op . cit . vol. i i i .
ORGAN I SATION OF DOMI N ICAN ORDER 16 3
the rule o f si lence , the chapters o f the Coulpo we re
imposed on all . But since , in the case o f the
women , the end aimed a t differed greatly from tha t
assigned by the saint to hi s preachers , their Const itut ions na turally underwent , on m o re than one
point, im po rtant m odifications . The friars com
b ined the co ntem plative with the active l ife , giving
more importa nce to the latter ; the si sters , on the
contrary, gave them selves up to co ntemplatio n alone .
While the friars were to go into the highways and
byways carrying the Word o f God, the s i sters wereto remain perpetually clo i stered . An act of 142 5 ,preserved in the archives of Aude in the departm ent
of Proui l le, cal ls them recluse and a s tho ugh im
priso ned (mum tce , inceercem tw) i n their convents ;they never pass beyond the clo i ster, the refectory,the dormitory , the church and the i r co nvent walls,nor wi l l they ever, ti l l on the day o f j udgment the
divine comma nd shal l be heard , Com e , ye blessed
o f my Fa ther a nd receive the crown prepared fo r
yo u from the foundation o f the wo rld ! ” “ No
si ster,"
say the Consti tutio ns ,“ sha l l leave the
house where she has made her profession , unlessshe i s fo r some necessary purpose transferred from
it to ano ther convent of the same Order.” The
cloi ster was inviolable , and could only be broken inthe case of ca rdinals , papa l legates , o r the dignitaries of the Order when proceeding to the canon icalvisitation s o f the mo nastery. The sisters were notto hold communication with strangers , even their
confesso rs , except behind the grating . Behind these
bars they l istened to the serm ons addressed to them .
164 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
The Carmelite i s the only other rule that gives anyidea of so severe a seclusio n .
1
The s i sters , as perpetual recluses , might not bega s the friars did ; they could o nly receive what
alms came to them , and as th is resource was nucertain their convents necessari ly acquired landedproperty. But St Dominic , tho ugh he allowed thesi sters to possess pro perty, did no t permit them to
administe r it lest by tempo ral cares they might bedrawn from the contemplation o f divine things .This respo nsibi l ity was intrusted to friars . Nea r
every convent o f nuns he establi shed a men ’s
monastery. They were intrusted with the spiritual
and temporal care of the Sisters : some were tos ay mass , to receive confessions , and give piousexhortatio ns ; others—and they were genera l ly laybrothers—had cha rge of the property and managedthe material side of l ife .
The sisters being vowed to the co ntemplative l ife ,co uld no t hope to lead the same active existence a s
the friars . St Dominic was, however, anxio us topreserve them from idleness , “ because it is,
” said
he,the mo rtal enemy o f the so ul , and the mother
and nurse o f every vice . No si ste r sha l l re
main idle i n the cloi ster ; she must if possible bealways at wo rk , fo r tempta tion does no t ea si ly
master those use ful ly occupied . The Lord decreed
that’
i n the sweat o f his brow sho uld man eat
1 A t Rom e , the re l igious o f the Dom inic and Sixtus,nea r the Quirina l , st i l l po ssess the gra ting which St Dom inichad had placed in the convent o f St S ix tus close to the App ianWays
166 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
higher dignita rie s o f the Orde r. The two grea t
branches o f the Dom in ica n family were thus united .
Did St Dom inic him self crea te a third branch by
instituting a th i rd Order ! This im po rtant questio n
a fte r ha ving been exam ined by the Bo l landists withthe i r usual acumen sti l l provides the learned with
po ints for research .1 The question to be decided
i s , how fa r the fo under o f the Order o f Fr iars
Preachers meant t o a sso ciate the la ity with hi s
wo rk . I t seem s m o re and m ore likely tha t the
m erit o f thi s fo unda tio n sho uld be attributed to
the saint , but to fix the exact date i s not easy .
Towards 13 80, Raym o nd o f Capua writes that
Dom in ic had fo unded the Third Order in Lom ba rdy
during the preachings he held there in the last years
o f hi s l ife . “ I n these co untries ,” he says, “ heresy had
so corrupted so uls with its poiso nous teachings that
in a number of places the laity had seized o n Church
pro perty, and had transmitted it to their he i rs as
though it were priva te estate . Reduced t o begga ry,the bishops could neither combat erro r, nor a ssure
t he subsistence of their priests . The blessed fatherco uld no t bea r the spectacle of their misfo rtunes ,and though he had chosen poverty for hi s disciple s ,he fought to p reserve its riche s to the Church . He
summo ned t o him self som e o f the God-fea ring laity
with whom he was acquainted , and a rra nged with
them that they sho uld stir up a holy militia to
1 W e do no t pre tend to settle a quest ion so de l ica te and com plexa s th is, fo r in i tse lf i t deserves deep study. We m ust b e contentto supp ly two elem ents o f the p roblem ,
without a ttem pting toso lve it .
ORGAN I SATION OF DOM I N ICAN ORDER 167
wo rk fo r the re sto ratio n a nd de fence o f the rights
o f the Church and va l ia ntly re si st he resy. Afte r
having o bta ined a n o ath from tho se whom he re
cruit ed fo r th is object , he bega n t o be a fra id tha t
the ir wives m ight prevent them from wo rking at so
holy a n ente rpr i se ; he therefo re exa cted from them a
promise tha t , far from influencing the i r husbands
a gainst such a n undertaking , they would help them .
To tho se who so bound them selves the sa int
prom ised eternal l ife , and named them Brothers
o f the Mil itia o f Jesus Christ .” 1
I t i s certa in that thi s so ciety spread mo re e s
pec ia lly in Lombardy, and particularly when , som e
years later, the preaching o f Peter the Ma rtyr in tha t
co untry had given it a fresh impetus ; but m ay we
no t believe that its creatio n dated further ba ck , a ndthat St Dom inic , having a llhis life fo ught the heretics ,i s l ikely to have thought o f it befo re his latest years
Thi s i s al l the mo re pro bable as a writer, a contem
po ra ry o f the sa ints , Will iam o f Puylaurens , speaks
o f the existence at Toulouse o f a similar so ciety
from the beginning o f the crusade a gainst the Albi
gense s .
2 With true episco pal zeal ,” he says
,
Fo ulques wished the o rtho dox people o f the
To ulo usa in to participate in the indulgence granted
to the foreign crusaders by binding them stil l
mo re clo se ly to the Church and launching them
to the assault o f heresy . To th is end, by the gra ceo f God and with the help o f the legate , he instituted
at To ulo use a great confra tern ity who se m em bers
1 Raym ond o f Capua , m ent ioned by the Bo l landists.
2 Wil liam o f Puylaurens, quo ted by the Bo l landists.
168 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
were marked by a cro ss . Everyo ne in the city, witho nly a few exceptio ns , joined , a nd adhesio ns alsocame from the suburbs . He united them al l in the
se rvice o f the Church by a commo n o ath , a nd gavethem as su reties Aym e r ic de Castelna u , surnam ed
Co fa, and hi s bro the r Arno ld , bo th knights , Pete r o f
St Romanus and Arnold Berna rd , says Endura, a ll
men o f energy , di scretio n and power.” The name of
St Dom in ic i s certa in ly not mentio ned in this pa ssa ge , but if we rem ember that in al l aposto l ic wo rk
Dominic and Fo ulques were alwa ys so much united
that historians ha ve frequently attributed to the one
the creatio ns o f the o ther ; 1 if we a lso remembertha t the Dominica ns , o nly a few years la ter, spread
o ver Lombardy a nd the Universa l Church an inst itutio n in al l respects similar, we may co nclude that
the fo under o f the Friars Preachers was no stranger
t o the creation o f the co nfra ternity of Toulouse .
The Milit ia developed rapidly, adding to the Order
tho usands o f persons of both sexes , o f eve ry age and
condition , making the action o f St Dominic sti l l vaster
a nd deeper in its consequences . The laity werehencefo rth his co -wo rkers , and the wo rd o f commandgiven t o them wa s so on passed on into the bo som o f
fam i ly life and e l sewhere . The Tertia ry indeed wo re
the ba dge o f the Orde r, submitted to peculia r
re l igious pra ctices , a nd ado pted a m o re austere wayo f l ife , yet remained in the world : the husband kept
his wife , the wife her husba nd , the a rti san h is
tra de , the pro fessor his chair, the officia l hi s o ffice .
Sove re igns and ca rdina l s m ight disguise the ha bit1 The fo unda t ion o f Pro ui l le ha s been a t tributed to Foulques.
170 THE L IFE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
wa s a l l ied with pra ctical commo n sense , where peop lewo rked a t o nce a nd with the same zeal fo r the ir
own, and the ir ne ighbo ur’s salva tio n . I t was in fa ct
a perfect repro ductio n , in the l ives of tho usands , o f a
unique examp le—the fo under o f the Orde r, —StDom in ic himself.To make the wo rk lasting , it was nece ssa ry to
pro vide for the regularity o f its functions . Unfo re
seen circumstances might cal l fo r fre sh rule s , tem
po ra ry o r permanent ; fo r nego tia tio ns o r exceptio na l
mea sures . The fathers who gathe red in Bo logna in12 2 0 under the presidency of the i r Master decided
that to settle impo rta nt questions o f genera l intere st,a Chapter of the whole Orde r sho uld be hence fo rth
held annua l ly in one o f the two great Dominican
centres , Pa ri s and Bologna.
1 Tha t the institution
co uld not a lwa ys prese rve intact the austerity and
rigour o f its early days , that abuses would surely
creep into the general structure of the wo rk , and intoeach o f its parts , had to be remembered . The
Master General , with the visitors he was to send tothe provinces and the convents , were to watch overthi s . Lastly, a s the number of monasteri es in
creased every year, they were t o be welded together
in the close bands o f a firm hierarchy by the intro
duction of intermediari es between them and theMaster. To thi s ta sk the second Chapter, again
held in Bologna in May 12 2 1 , under the direction o f
St Dominic , was especial ly devo ted . The documents
connected with this assembly have no t come down
to us any more than tho se o f the first Cha pter.
1 La ter, o ther towns m ight be chosen fo r the ho ld ing o f Chap ters.
ORGAN I SATION OF DOM IN ICAN ORDER 171
We know, however, that the Dominican mo nasterie s
were grouped into eight provinces having each a
provincia l at its head , an intermediary betwee n themo na steries under his j uri sdictio n and the Ma ste r
General . They were Spain , Provence , France ,Lomba rdy , Rome , Ge rmany, Hungary and Engla nd ;and they had as pro vincials Suero Gom ez , Bertrandof Ga rr igua , Ma tthew o f France , Jordan o f Saxony,Jo hn of Pla cenz a , Co nrad the Teutonic , Paul o f
Hungary, and Gi lbert de Fra ss ine t .1
The Orde r was now definitely o rga nised , and
without fear o f compromising its prosperity St
Dominic might have left it to itse lf as he had
wished to do in 12 20, to seek the barbarous Cuman
Tartars whose apo stle it had be en the dream o f hi s
l ife to become . But Pro vidence did not allow it .St Dominic had finished the earthly task al lotted
to him . Nothing rema ined for him but to receive
from Heaven the reward of his merits .
1 Echa rd , vo l. i . p . 2 0 ; B. Gui. B ra /is k istor ia, O. P ; (Ampl.
Co l l . vol. vi . p .
CHAPTER VI I I
THE DEATH AND CANONI SATION OF ST DOM INIC
HEN from Venice St Dominic returned to the
Bologna mo na stery towa rds the middle of
J uly 12 2 1, he was already a ttacked by the disea se
destined to carry him o ff.1 He suffered fromextreme la ssitude and frequent a ttacks o f feve r.
His exhaustion was fo rgo tten on hi s a rrival , in
conversation with the prio r, Friar Ventura , and
the procurator, Fria r Rudolfo , on the affairs of the
co nvent, ti l l the n ight was far spent . I n spite o f
their entreatie s he attended m atins , and prayed a ll
night as was his custom . Then vio lent pa ins in hi s
head o bliged him to fl ing himself on the sa ck o f
wool which served him for a bed . He was fated not
to ri se from it . The fever increased upo n him
ra pidly, consuming his strength , and dysentery s'
o o n
completed,
its wo rk . Docto rs were called in , but
they declared there was no hope . He had himselfno i l lusions , and he several times said he shouldnot see the com ing fea st of the Assum ptio n .
1 We ha ve m ade use in describing St Dom inic’s la st hours o f
the depo si t ions, m ade in 1 2 3 2 in the inquiry fo r the process o f
canonisa tion by the Fr ia rs o f Bo logna , who had been wi th theMa ster dur ing his la st i l lness. Fo l lowing La corda ire ’s examp le weha ve been content with giving their own true a s we ll a s touching
174 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
then particularly insi sted on the vow o f poverty,explaining to hi s fr iars its importa nce in the
rel igious l i fe , and the prosperity of the Order.Becoming more and more eager, “ he called down
his curse , and that o f the Almighty on any who
should bestow wo rldly go ods on the Fria rs Preacher s ,and so dim with earthly dro ss an Order destined to
shine fo r ever by its poverty.
”
Tho ugh he suffered greatly he retained hi s
customary serenity and p layfulness . He never
compla ined , no groan escaped him . To so othe his
pain they took him away from the town to the
heights o f Santa Maria ai Monti where the air wa s
purer and fresher. He was anxious t o have sometalk with the prio r, who , at his summons , attended
him accompanied by twenty monks anxious to l i sten
o nce more to the i r fa ther’s counsel s . In beautiful
and touching wo rds he spoke to them . When the
parish priest o f Sa nta Ma ria anno unced hi s intention o f presiding at the saint’ s funera l and laying
him in hi s church , St Dominic meekly begged that
his tomb should be made under the feet o f‘his
brethren ; and to ensure the executio n o f hi s wish ,and that it might not give ri se to a ny di scuss ion , hehad him se lf remo ved to the co nvent.
He wa s placed in Brother Mo neta’s cell . FriarRudo lfo the pro curator never left him a gain , sup
port ing hi s head, and constantly wiping away the
drops of sweat that gathered on hi s brow . Aroundh im sto o d the mo nks watching hi s holy agony with
tea rful eyes . St Dom in ic saw, and wished to comfo rt
them :“ Do not weep , my be loved sons, do not
THE DEATH AND CANON I SAT ION 175
grieve because my body must disappear from yo u.
I am go ing where I can serve you better than I
could here . One o f the friars asked him wherehe wished to be buried , and he o nce more replied ,“ Benea th the feet of my Brothers .”
The supreme moment drew nigh : fo r the last timethe sa int asked for the pr ior and the monks .
Father, the prio r said to him , you know in what
desola tion and sadness yo u leave us . Remember usbefore the Lord in pra yer. And Dominic , already
absorbed in God , raised his hands to heaven and
said, “ O Holy Father, I have accompli shed Thy
wo rk with j oy. I have carefully kept those whom
Thou hast given me . Now to Thee I commend
them , protect Tho u them . Behold I come to Thee ,O Heavenly Fa ther. Then addressing the friars hesaid , “ Begin .
” The religious at once began torecite the Prayer fo r the Recommendation o f the
Soul , bro ken by sobs and tears , whi lst the saint ,abso rbed in contem plation , repeated them with a
feeble motion of his l ips . When at the end of theprayer they reached the words Come to his ass istance , ye saints of God ; come forth to meet him ,
.ye
angels o f the Lo rd , receiving hi s soul , o ffering it in
the sight of the Mo st H igh ,” he raised hi s ha nds to
Heaven and died . I t was on Friday, August 6 ,12 2 1 , and he had scarcely completed hi s fi fty-fi rst
year !
1 Berna rd Guidonis rem a rks tha t the dea th o f St Dom inic wa s
a last lesson in po ver ty. He died, he says, in Bro ther Moneta ’sb edbecause he hadnone o fhis own andhe died in Bro ther Moneta ’
s
tunic because he hadno t ano ther w i th which to rep la ce the one he
had long been wea ring.
”(M a rtene , op . cit . l iv . vi . p .
176 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
Tha t same day Friar Ra o ul was saying m ass
during a journey. At the moment when he was about
to pray for St Dominic ’ s recovery he fel l into a
trance and saw him shining in splendour, and crowned
with go ld , at the very time when the saint wa s dying
a t Bologna. Friar Rudo lfo was proceeding with
the burial rites while the monks droned out thecanticles ; but suddenly , says La co rda ire ,1 “ a song
o f tri umph succeeded to the funeral lamentatio ns ,an immense joy fell on them from heaven .
” The
cult of the saint had begun before hi s burial !
When Cardinal Ugolino heard the news he
hurried to Bologna, wishing to preside himself at
the burial of one who had been his friend . After
having been viewed by the peo ple , the body o f
the sa int was laid in a woo den coffin , carefullyclo sed , a nd in the presence o f the cardinal , o f thePa triarch o f Aquila , o f bi sho ps , abbés , and numbers o f spectators , it was buried in the church o f
S an-Nico la . The tom b was wel l sealed and they
covered it with a heavy stone “ t o prevent a sacri
legio us theft which a false devotio n might inspire.
”
Th i s ho ly sepulchre became , befo re long , the sceneo f miracles .
Twelve years after, in 12 3 8 , the Apostolic See wa so ccup ied by Grego ry IX . , the great centenarian Pope ,formerly Cardina l Ugo l ino . The increasing wonders
which took p lace at San -N ico la attracted crowds o f
pi lgrims to Bologna. The church could no lo nge r
hold the religious who flocked to it , and it had t o berebui lt . Jordan o f Sa xo ny, the Master Gene ra l ,
1 Vie do St D om inique, p . 3 0 1 .
178 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
precious relics . Gregory IX . decided to begin at once
the process of canonisation of this servant o f God .
I n a letter dated J uly 1 1, 12 3 3 , he named as Commissioners of Enquiry, Tancred , archdeaco n o f
Bologna, and Thomas , prior o f Santa Maria del
Reno, also Pa lm ir i , canon o f the Trinity . During
upwards o f twenty days , from the 6 th to the 3 0th o f
August, they received depo sitions on the l ife and
miracles of the sa int from religious who had been his
compan ions, especial ly Friar Ventura , who had beenpresent at hi s last hours, Will iam of Montferrat ,John o f Navarre , Rudolfo o f Faenza , Stephen o f
Spain , Paul o f Venice , a nd m any others who had
accompan ied him in his travels , o r had l ived in
intimacy with him . A second Commission o f
Enquiry worked at Toulo use under the direction of
the abbé of St Sernin and St Etienne . A number
o f witnesses spo ke befo re the Commission of the l ife
led by the saint in Languedoc , during hi s ten years
o f preaching aga inst heresy . When the process wasconcluded Grego ry IX . procla imed the sanctity of
Dominic , and in a solem n bul l dated from Spoleto
on J uly 13 , he made his cult obligatory inthe Universa l Church , and fixed hi s feast fo r the
5 th of August .2
After having evo ked in mystical language the
1 Po t thast , Reg. pont . Rom , No . 9489, where the num erous
edit ions o f this hull o f canonisa t ion a re indica ted.2 The 6 th o f August , anniversa ry o f the sa int
’
s dea th , could no tbe fixed because o f the feast o f the Transfigura t ion. La ter, togive so lemnity to the fea st o f Ste . Ma rie Aux Neiges (the dedica tee o f Ste . Ma rie Majeure ), C lem ent V I I I. defini te ly settledSt Dom inic ’s a day ea r l ier—the 4 th August .
THE DEATH AND CANON I SATION 179
memo ry o f the great founders o f Orders , the Po pe ,in a few words , traced the l ife o f St Dominic and
paid a magnificent tribute to hi s holiness . Whilst
he was sti l l young in years , he said , “ he bo re in
his chi ldi sh breast the heart o f an o ld man ; cho o s inga life of co ntinua l m o rt ifi ca t ion he sought the Creato ro f a ll l i fe ; dedicated to God and vowed a Nazarene
under the rule of St Augustine , emulating the zea l
o f Samuel fo r holy things , he recalled the holiness o f
Daniel by the zeal with which he chastened his desires .Strong as an athlete in the way of right and j ustice
and the path o f saints , never depart ing from the
teachings and service of the Church mi litant , sub
ject ing the body to the soul , the senses to reaso n , i nSpirit uniting himself to God , he strove t o appro achH im while he remained attached to hi s neighbour by
the cords of a wise compassio n . I n the presence
of this man , who trod under foot all carnal pleasures
and pierced the stony hearts o f sinners, the who leheretical sect trembled with fear, and the bo dy o f
the saints with j oy. He grew at o nce in age and
in grace ; experiencing an ine ffable delight in the
salva tion of souls , he devoted hi s who le so ul toGo d’s Wo rd a ndby it awoke thousands to l ife .Raised to the dign ity o f pastor and guide among
God’s peo p le , he , by his own e fforts , establi shed anew Orde r of Preachers , and he never ceased t o
strengthen it by sure a nd certain miracles . For
besides the works o f ho l iness and miracles o f vi rtue
which ga ve so much écla t to hi s earth ly career,
aft e r hi s death he resto red hea lth to the afflicted,speech to the dum b, sight t o the blind , hearing
180 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N I C
to the deaf and power to the pa ralysed , thereby
showing what kind of soul had dwelt in hisbody .
“ Bound to us by ties o f clo se friendship,when
we were in a humble r state , he ga ve us by the
testimony of his l ife certain proo fs o f holiness ,afterwards co nfirmed by the truth o f his m i racles ,repo rted to us by faithful witnesses . For this
reaso n , and sharing with the peo p le who are
intrusted t o us the certainty that by his aid
God ’ s mercy may be moved , and that we sha l l
rej o ice to have in hea ven the favour o f o ne who
has been o ur friend o n earth , by the a dvice o f
o ur brothers and of al l the prelates present in
the Apo stol ic See , we have dete rmined to add
him to the numbe r o f the saints , summ o ning and
o rdering yo u1 that at the nones of August , the
eve o f the day when , laying down his earthly bo dy ,and rich in grace , he ente red into heavenly glo ry
and became a s o ther saints, you shal l celebrate hisfeast a nd cause it to be celebrated with so lem nity ,so tha t God , to uched by the prayers of him who
l iving served H im , shal l give us grace in this l ife
and glo ry in the next . Desir ing to do hono ur to
the sepulchre of thi s great confesso r, who glo r ifi esthe Church Universa l by the wo nder o f hi s m iracles ,a nd t o a tt ra ct to it a concourse o f pious Christians ,we grant to all those who , having repented and con
fessed , shall ea ch year vi sit it on h is feast day with
respect and devo tio n , by Go d’s mercy and the
1 He addresses him se lf to the a rchbisho ps, abbo ts, and prela teso f the Universa l Church.
182 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM I N IC
and e specia l ly in the fro ntal reliefs , the master
(Nicolas Pisa no) has surpassed him self in theproportion o f the figures , the l ife and movement ,the amount of style and the elegance of the executio n .
” 1 Fra Guglielmo , a less powe rful a rtist , while
working for the fo under o f hi s Order also showed
himself at hi s best .
Fine tho ugh it was, even thi s tomb did no t quite
sa ti sfy the veneratio n in which the Bolognese heldSt Dom inic . I n 1469 the commune voted 700 gold
crowns fo r the work of pro ducing a covering for the
tom b. The wo rk was intrusted to a pupil o f
Giacomo della Q uercia , Nicolas di Barri , after
wa rds known as Nicola dell ’ Arca. He devoted tothe work fo ur years , from 1469 to 1473 , and thenleft it unfinished . Vasari tho ught it divine . A
succession of statues adorn the pyramidal roof o f
the tomb, repre senting an angel in prayer, St
Francis o f Assisi and St Dominic (two saints whomthe people delighted to unite in a common wo rship) ,St Florian , St Agricola, St Vital i s , a descent from
the cross between two angels , and the four
evangel ists ; at the apex of the pyramid , presidingover this assemblage of saints , ri ses the severe andmaj estic statue o f the Eternal Father. Nicola del l ’
Arca was succeeded in the wo rk by M ichael Angelohimse lf. The brother o f a Dominican , the friend o fthe celebrated monk of San Marco, Savonarola
the great Florentine sculptor laid at the feet of StDominic the homage o f his genius . In 1492 , he
executed for his tomb a kneel ing angel , a statuette1 Burkha rd t Le Cice’rone, A r t M oderne (trad. p . 3 19.
THE DEATH AND CANON I SATION 183
o f St Proclus , a nd ano ther o f St Petro nius , thepa tro n sa int o f Bo logna . Fina l ly the friend a nd
fe l low-wo rke r of Michae l Angelo , Alfo nso Lomba rdi ,finished thi s wo nderful piece o f work by carving the
ba se on which the sarcopha gus rested . I n 15 3 2 he
represented on it in basso re l ievo the birth o f St
Dominic , the adoratio n o f the Magi , and the triumph
o f St Dominic . 1
The primitive painters a l so devoted to the fo under
o f the Order o f Preachers some a dmirable fresco es onthe walls of the Domin ican cloi sters , and som e pictures
ful l o f grace and pio us sentiment . At Santa Cate rina
o f Pisa , Tra in i painted in the fo urteenth century on
a panel o n a field o f go ld , a St Dominic standing ,surro unded by eight scenes from his life . At Santa
Maria No vel la o f Florence , Simone Memm i executed
in the Spa nish chapel the beautiful fresco represent
ing the fierce struggle be tween Dominican theologyand error, the dogs of the Lord (Dom ini Canes)a gainst the wolves o f here sy . But it was the great
Dominican painter Fra Angel ico who offered to hismaster the most Christian homage . St Dominicimpo sing the rule o f s i lence , as he painted it over
the do or of the convent of San Ma rco , is a strikingim age o f monkish austerity. And no one can forget
the gracio us scenes from the sa int’s l ife dep icted by
him a t Co rto na on the predella of the gesualtar, and1 As to the tomb o f St Dom inic consul t : Da via , M em or ia in
torno a ll’A rca di S . Dom enico ; R. P. Berthier , Le tomoeo u de
St Dom inique ; la Revue de l’an
‘
Chretien,
“ Le tomoea u de St
Dom inique d B ologne,”1895 , p . 4 5 6 ; Burkha rdt , Le Cicerone
A r t M oderne, p . 3 19, 3 2 0, 404 , 4 3 8, and fo llowing, and the
general histo r ies o f I ta l ian a rt.
184 THE LI FE OF SAI NT DOMI N IC
the crucifixio n of San Marco where St Dominic with
the o ther founders o f Orders i s ma de to assi st a t the
mystery o f Calvary . Pisano , Lombardi , Michael
Ange lo , Memm i, Fra Angelico , these are bright ra ys
in the glo ry o f St Dominic !
Litera ture l ike art ha s glo rified the m emory of thefo under o f the Order of Friars Prea che rs . Co untless
pa negyrics ha ve pro claimed his sa nctity , from the
pa pal bull o f Gregory IX . up to our own da y.
We must above a ll th ings remember what Da ntewro te in h is P a radiso . After St Thoma s Aquina s
has sung before the Assembly of the Sa ints o f the
poverty o f St Francis, the great Franc1scan do ctor,St Bonaventura , praises the lea rning a nd the
a po stol ic zea l o f St Dominic . I n that regio n where
swee t ! ephyrus ari ses to open the new leaves ,wherewith Europe i s seen t o reclothe herself, not
very far from the beating o f the waves behind whichthe sun for hi s long heat h ide s himself from all men ,stands the fo rtuna te Ca la roga . There in was
born the amorous fere o f the Chri stia n fa ith , theholy athlete , benign to hi s friends a nd stern to his
foes ; and from its crea tio n hi s mind was so fulfi l ledof l iving virtue , that in his mo ther it made her
prophetic .
After that the espousals were completed at theholy font between him a nd the fa ith , where they
dowered ea ch o ther with m utua l sa lvatio n , the la dy
who gave her assent fo r him saw in her sleep thewo nderful fruit which was to i ssue from h im and
hi s heirs ; a spirit set fo rth to name him with the
possess ive of H im whose he was who l ly. Dominic
186 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
St Dominic than that o f the apostles Peter andPaul , and many generations o f Christians haveagreed with him . I t is indeed im possible to imaginegreater self-abnega tio n , or a l ife more entirely devoted
to God’s service . From the day when , as a youngstudent at Palencia, he sold hi s books to help theneedy, ti l l the day when , as he lay dying , he addressedhis last exhortations to his religious, St Dominic
had but one obj ect—God’s glory—and it i s thi swhich gives his life its wonde rful unity . I n th is
he resembles many other saints, but his charactergrows clearer and mo re individual when one considersthe metho ds he employed . There are , amongst the
e lect , those who devo te themselves to the contemplation of divine things , who , the better to practiseascetici sm , plunge into sol itude o r shut themselvesup in cloi sters lest any noise from without shoulddisturb their ecstasy. Others fl ing themselves intoaction ; it may be to work miracles of charity, or tospread further the reign of the Gospel . Somearrive at sa intsh ip by means repugnant to delicacyo f feel ing and astonishing to inte l l igent minds.Those are rare who harmoniously unite mysticismand action , pushing both to the verge o f the sublime.St Dominic was o f these . I f one co nsiders theausterity o f his l ife , a nd remembers the hair clothworn next his skin , the bloody discip l ines , the i ro nchain about his lo ins, the abstinence he al l his l i fe
practised , the whole nights passed in prayer ; i f onecalls to mind the Order o f cloi stered nuns founded
by him , who behind thei r grating were vowed to
penance and contemplatio n , he appears as a mystic
THE DEATH AND CANON ISATION 187
fit to figure on the a lta r beside St Bruno , St
Teresa, and St Pa ul o f the Cross . But it was th issame saint who wa ndered a foot thro ugh western
Europe preaching the Word , who se voice was heard
in thousands o f towns and ham lets , who fo unded anOrder where everything tends to a postolic actio n ,who him self o rgan ised most of hi s convents and
directed the delibera tio ns o f the friars in Cha pter.Wise in heavenly things , but with a wonderful
comprehensio n of earthly affairs , he exce l led in con
ducting a nego tia tion o r a controversy , in lo okingafter material co ncerns , in buying , exchanging and
attending t o agricultural returns to provide for the
existence o f his beloved daughters o f Proui lle . The
friend o f Sim on de Montfort , the adviser o f the
Po pes , he took part in the most important politicalque stions o f his time ; he j udged the heretics ;crucifix in hand he appeared on the battle-fi eld ; and
at scarce ly fi fty-one years of age he died , worn o ut by
hi s cease less activity as much as by hi s ascetici sm .
I t is al l this that has made his influence so deepand so lasting . This it i s that enables us to discoverin his l ife teachings that have a wonderful applica
tion to the necessities o f the pre sent day . No
longer in Languedoc o r i n Lombardy o nly is theChurch discredited , and so ciety a gita ted by disastrous doctrines . No longer in iso lated placesonly do governments uphold erroneous teachers, andhinder the apo stles of the truth . The great m ethods
emp loyed by St Dominic with so much success aresti l l needed . Preachers are more than ever wanted,scientific training i s more than ever required in the
N1 2 *
188 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOMI N IC
Church , and its defenders, while stimulating thedivine life in the i r so uls by pra ye r and sp i ritua l aid ,must draw from the unive r sity a nd the study a
know ledge o f things hum a n a nd divine . The life o f
St Dominic i s sti l l a scho ol o f pa tience a nd coura ge .
After ten years o f preaching in Languedo c he had
o nly fifteen companio ns , a nd the heretics seemed to
be trium phing . But h is fa ith rema ined unsha ken ,and five yea rs later mo re than a tho usa nd friars
were disseminated over the who le Chri stia n world ,testifying by their zeal how fruitful had become the
work which had at o ne t im e seem ed destined to
fa i lure . His trust in God was no t the result of
success : as a labo ure r in the Lo rd’ s Vineyard he
from the first tasted the assurance that the Heaven lyFather would make his wo rk fruitful .
190 THE LIFE OF SAI NT DOMIN IC
have made use of it to describe particular featuresin the li fe and cha racter o f St Dominic . Edited by
the Bo l la ndists .
B a r tholom ew of Trent.—Life of S t Dom inic.
Written from 12 3 4 to 12 5 1 by a Dom inican m o nk
pe rso na l ly a cqua inted with St Dom inic . Edited
by the Bo l la ndists .
Hum ber t de Rom a ns .—Chronique de l
’
Ordre des
P récheurs de 1202 a 12 5 4 . Wr itten by Humbert deRomans , Master Genera l o f the Order, it deserves
the utmost co nfidence because o f the integrity and
o fficial positio n o f i ts a uthor. Publ ished by Mam a chi,
Anna les Ordinis P rcedica torum , and re -edited by the
Rev. Father Berthie r in hi s comp lete editio n o f the
works of H umbert—V ie da B ienheureux Dom inique.
Written before 12 5 4 , be fo re Hum bert became Master
General , publi shed by Mam a chi op. ci t . , and the Rev.
Fathe r Berthie r ; a co l lectio n o f the mo st authentic
traditio ns on St Dom in ic ’ s life .
Constantine D’
Orvieto , 0.P .—V ie de Sa int Dom i
nique. Written between 12 42 and 12 47 to com plete
what Jordan o f Saxony had a lready written ; editedby Echa rd in hi s Scr iptores Ordinis P r cedica torum ,
Pari s, 1719. Co nsta ntine was bishop o f Orvieto
and wro te a t the request o f the Master General ,John the Teuto n .
S ister Cecilia .—N a rra tive of the life of S t Dom inic.
Si ster Ceci lia had been one of the nuns transferred
by St Dom inic from the Tra stevere t o Sa int Sixtus ;she became la ter prio re ss o f the mo na ste ry o f St
Agnese at Bo logna. I n her o ld age , towards the
year 12 80, she dictated thi s narrative to Sister
B I BL IOGRAPHY 191
Angelica. Written nea rly sixty years after theevents this docum ent , though it comes from aneye-witne ss , require s some modifying ; there i s a
t endency towards exaggeration and the marvellous .
Publi shed by Mam a chi in his Anna les Ordinis
P rcedica torurn.
Gera rd de Fra chet , O.P . V ie des Fréres de l’
Ordre
des P re’
cheurs . Written by Bro ther Gera rd, a native
o f Frachet in the diocese of Limoges , pro vincial of
Provence ; he underto ok it in 12 5 6 by command of
the Cha pter Genera l o f Pari s and of the Master
Gene ra l , Hum be rt de Romans, from authentic do cu
ments . W e have bo rrowed from it ma ny fa cts on
the sa int’s l ife . Publi shed at Do uai in 16 19 , thi s
wo rk has be en reprinted in o ur day by the Rev .
Father Reichert , O .P . , i n the Monum enta Ordinis
P rcedica torum abo ut to be publi shed .
Rodr iguez de Cerra to .—L ife of the B lessed S t
Dom inic. Wr itten by a Spanish m onk befo re 12 66 ; a
com pi lation o f no great value . Edited byMam a chi,
op . ci t.
Thierry or Theodor ic of Apoldia .—H istory of the
life a nd the m ira cles of S t Dom inic a nd the Order
founded by him . Comp lete and detai led l i fe o f the
sa int written about 12 88 by a German Dominican
by the o rder o f Mui‘
i o de ! amo ra, Master General
o f the Order, from all the earl ier writings. Editedby the Bollandists .
Fo r the war with the Albigenses co nsult thechronicles o f Peter o f Vaux Cerna y (Migne P a tr .
la t. t om . ccxi i i .) and o f Will iam o f Puylaurens
(B ouquet, H istor iens des Ga ules, tom . The
192 THE L I FE OF SAI NT DOM IN IC
Pontifical Bul ls concerning St Dominic and theearly da ys o f the Order fi l l the first numbers ofB ulla r ium Ordinis P rcedica torum .
FOURTEENTH CENTURY
B erna rd Guidonis .—Thi s ce lebrated Dominican
hi sto rian ha s , from the traditions o f the Orde r and
former do cuments used by him with much ski l l and
tact , written severa l books that may be usefullyconsulted , especial ly a H isto ry of the Dom inican
Founda tions , a Ca ta logue of the M a sters Genera l of the
Order , a nd a Ca ta logue of the P r iors of Prouille, whichhave been printed by Ma rtene and Durand in their
V eterum Scr iptorum et Monumentorum amplissim a
collectio , vol . vi .Pierr e Ca lm—V ie de S tDom inique. Written a bo ut
13 14 by a Dominican monk ; a compilatio n based
o n a somewhat earlier wo rk by ano ther Dominica n ,Etienne de S a lanha c , Des qua tre choses en quoi Dieu
a honoré l’
Ordre des P récheurs (unpubli shed) .
THE F1ETEENT11 TO THE N INETEENTH CENTURY
Ala in de la Roche.—V ie de S t Dom inique. This
Bre ton Domin ican , who wrote in the middle o f the
fifteenth century, attempted t o write the l ife of thesaint from his own revelatio ns . Pro ceeding in this
singular manner he wro te a narrative a lmo st entirely
fa bulo us which has had unfortuna tely t o o muchcredit with pious souls. A great part o f the legend
o f the Rosary comes from the narrative by Alain .Freybourg, 16 19, in 4to .
yean deRécha c, O.P . V iede StDom inique. Pari s,
‘ 194 THE L I FE OF SA I NT DOM I N IC
B a lme et Lela idier , O.P .—Ca r tula ire ou H isto ire
diplom a tique de Sa int Dom inique. A complete colleetion o f all the documents co ncerning St Dominic
,
publ ished and annotated by the Rev. Father Balm e .
We owe much to this wo rk , as it enables us to bemore precise and to free the l ife o f the saint from
many legends .
H isto ire da Mona stére de N o tre Dame de Prouille.
By a nun belonging to this monastery . This work i s
especial ly interesting in what concerns the historyof the new monastery. I n 8vo , at the monastery of
Pro uil le .
Ana lecta Sa cr i Ordinis Prcedica torum . A review
published at the wish of the Master General of theOrder, and giving , besides co ntemporary documents
concern ing the Order, important ones on the early
histo ry Of the Preache rs . Rome , 3 vols . in fol io .
TURN B ULL AND SPEA RS , PRINTERS , ED IN B URGH
T H E S A I N T SA New Ser i es of LI VES OF THE SA IN TS in sepa ra te volum es
Under the General Editorship o f M . HENRI JOLYFo rm erly Pro fesso r a t the So rbonne , and a t the Co l lege de France ,
autho r o f numerous wo rks upon Psycho logy
Sma ll crown 8va, Sca rlet A r t Vellum , Gilt lettered, gold top3 s. ea ch volum e
THE PSYCHO LOGY OF THE SA INTSB y HENR I JOLY
5 . AUGU 8 T I N EB y Prof. AD . HAT! FELD . Translated by E. HOLT
S. V INCENT DE PAUL
B y Prince EMMANUEL DE B ROGL IE. Translatedby M ILDRED PARTRIDGE
S . CLOT I LDAB y Prof. G . KURTH. Translated by V IRGIN IA
M . CRAWFORD . 2 nd Edition
S . IGNAT IUS OF LOYO LA
B y HENR I JOLY. Translated by M ILDRED PARTR IDGEand Edition
S. L O U I SB y MARIUS SEPET
S . AM B R O SEB y the DUC DE B ROGL IE . Translated by
MARGARET MA ITLAND
S. FRANC IS OF SALESB y A . D . MARGER IE . Tra nslated by
MARGARET MA ITLAND
S . JEROMEB y the Rev. Father LARGENT. Translated by
HESTER DAV ENPORT. 2 nd Edition
S. N I CHO LAS I .
JULES ROY. Translated by MARGARET MAITLAND
J OAN OF ARC
B y L. PET IT DE JULLEV ILLE . Translated byHESTER DAV ENPORT . and Edit ion
S. DOM IN ICB y JEAN GU IRAUD . Transla ted byKATHERINE DE MATTOS. 2 nd Editio n
S . CHRYSOSTOMB y A I ME PUECH . Transla ted by M 1LDRED PARTRIDGE
S . ANTONY OF PADUA
B y the Abbé ALB ERT LEPITRE . Transla ted byED ITH GUEST
S . CAJ E TANB y R . DE MAULDE LA CLAV IERE . Translated by G. H .ELY
S . TERESAB y HENR I JOLY, autho r o f
“ The Psychology Of the Sa ints
S . PETER FOUR IERB y L . PINGAUD . Translated by C . W .
THOMAS M OREB y HENR I B REMOND . Tra nsla ted by HAROLD CH ILD
S . MARY THE V IRG INB y RENE MARIE DE LA B RO ISE. Transla ted by
HAROLD GIDNEY
J OHN V IANNEY : Curé d’
Ars
B y JOSEPH V IANNEY. 2 nd Edi t io n
THOMAS A B ECKE TB y Mgr. DEM IMUID
Fur ther Volumes will be a nnounced in due course