§ 72. ST. DOMINIC AND THE DOMINICANS. 423
General Chapter, 1220.1 The example of St. Francis was followed, and the order, as well as the individual monk, renounced all right to possess property. The mendicant feature was, however, never emphasized as among the Fran ciscans. It was not a matter of conscience with the Domini cans, and the order was never involved in divisions over the question of holding property. The obligation of corporate poverty was wholly removed by Sixtus IV., 1477. Dominic's last exhortation to his followers was that " they should have love, do humble service, and live in voluntary poverty."2 But the precept never seems to have been taken much to heart by them.
'Unlike the man of Assisi, Dominic did not combine manual labor with the other employments of his monks. For work with their hands he substituted study and preach ing. The Dominicans were the first monastics to adopt definite rules of study. When Dominic founded St. Jacques in Paris, and sent seventeen of his order to man that convent, he instructed them to " study and preach." Cells were constructed at Toulouse for study. 3 A theological course of four years in philosophy and theology was required be fore a license was given to preach, 4 and three years more of theological study followed it.
Preaching and the saving of souls were defined as the chief aim of the order.5 Humbert de Romanis, its fifth
1Denifle, pp. 181 sqq., states that the idea of poverty was in Dominic's mind before Honorius sanctioned the order, and that it was thoroughly as original with him as it was with Francis. This view seems to be contradicted by the bull of Honorius, 1216, which confirms Dominic and his followers in the possession of goods. Jordanus, c. 27, states that the principle of poverty was adopted that the preachers might be freed from the care of earthly goods, ne predicationis impediretur officium soUicitudine terrenorum. Francis adopted this principle as a means of personal sanctification ; Dominic, in order that he and his followers might give themselves up unreservedly to the work of saving souls.
2 Caritatem habete, humilitatem servite, pauperitatem voluntariam possidete. 3 Denifle, pp. 185 sqq.
4 Nullus fiat publicus doctor, nisi per 4 annos ad minus theologiam audierit. Const., 1228, II. 30.
6 Ordo noster specialiter ob prcedicationem et animarum salutem ab initio institutus. Prol. to Constitution of 1228.
424 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
general, declared that the end of the order was not study, but that study was most necessary for preaching and the salvation of souls. Study, said another, is ordained for preaching, and preaching for the salvation of men, arid this is the final end. J No one was permitted to preach outside the cloister until he was twenty-five. 2 And for preaching they were not to receive money or other gifts, except food. As Vincent Ferrer and Savonarola were the most renowned of the Dominican preachers of the Middle Ages, so Lacordaire was their most renowned orator in the nineteenth century. The mission of the Dominicans was predominantly with the upper classes. They represented the patrician element among the orders.
The annals of the Inquisition give to the Dominican order large space. The Dominicans were the most prominent and zealous "inquisitors of heretical depravity." Dante had this in mind when he characterized Dominic as " Good to his friends, dreadful to his enemies,'' "Benigno ai suoi ed ai nimici crudo. ' 3
In 1232 the conduct of the Inquisition was largely com mitted to their care. Northern France, Spain, and Ger many fell to their lot.4 The stern Torquemada was a Do minican, and the atrocious measures which were afterwards employed to spy out and punish ecclesiastical dissent, have left an indelible blot upon the name of the order. The stu dent of history must regard those efforts to maintain the orthodox faith as heartless, even though it may not have oc curred to the participants to so consider them. The order's device, given by Honorius, was a dog bearing a lighted torch in his mouth, the dog to watch, the torch to illuminate the world. The picture in their convent S. Maria Novella, at Florence, represents the place the order came to occupy as hunters of heretics. It portrays dogs dressed in the Domini can colors, black and white, chasing away foxes, which stand for
1 Quoted by Denifle, p. 190. 2 Const. II. 31-33. 3 Paradixo, XII.
4 See Potthast, II. 9386, 9388 (Gregory IX., 1234), etc. The Franciscans were made inquisitors in Italy and Southern France. See chapter on the Inquisition.