RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Dominic
is chosen for life by the general chapter, and selects his own socii, or counselors. Each province is governed by a prior-provincial chosen for four years by the provincial chapter, which also names four definitors to assist him, as representatives of the whole body. Each house chooses its own head, called prior. The decisions of the general chapter have the force of law when they have been passed at two successive chapters. After the chapter of 1221 Dominic undertook one more journey through northern Italy, got as far as Venice, and returned to Bologna to die on Aug. 6, 1221. At this time the order numbered sixty houses, divided into eight provinces — Toulouse, Provence, France, Rome, Lombardy, Spain, England, and Germany. Dominic was buried in the church of St. Nicholas at Bologna, in the presence of Cardinal Hugo of Ostia, who afterward, as Pope Gregory IX., canonized him (1234). His tomb was afterward beautified by Niccolo Pisano and Michelangelo.
It is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory characterization of the man. He has left no written works, and his biographies, while very full on his miracles, make no attempt to reproduce the distinctive features of his personality. He was undoubtedly a noble character. Sincere piety and equally sincere belief in the truth of the Church's teaching and claims, gentle sympathy for all, heretics as well as orthodox, strictness in self-discipline, and wonderful energy are traits which stand out clearly in his life.
After Dominic's death his order spread with remarkable rapidity. At the general chapter of 1228 four new provinces arose — Greece, Poland, Denmark, and Palestine. The four earliest successors of the founder were skilful organizers who knew how to develop and adapt to new con-
4. Its De- ditions the principles given to them.
velopment. Jordanus, a Saxon (1222-37), codified the constitutions for the first time in 1228; he traveled widely through all the provinces of the order, and met his death by shipwreck after a visit to Palestine. The third general was the distinguished canonist Raymond of Penaforte, of a noble Spanish familj^; he resigned his office in 1240, after revising and completing the constitutions. The fourth was a North German, John of Wildeshausen (1241-52), and the fifth a Frenchman, Humbert of Romans (1254-64), who rendered great services to the educational system of the order. The purpose of its very existence being the combating of heresy and strengthening of faith by means of preaching, study was insisted on as a primary requisite. The Dominican order was the first which required study as an essential means to the attainment of its special end, and regulated it minutely by rule. This, of course, was confined to the priests, who found it possible to devote themselves wholly to their ministry since the lay brothers relieved them of household tasks. Eight years were spent in this study after the completion of the novitiate; its system followed that of the University of Paris. After 1248 each province had its own studium generale, or university. Theology had natui-ally the first place, but the liberal arts III.— 31
soon began to be taught; Raymond of Penaforte paid special attention to the teaching of Greek, and erected schools in the Spanish and North African houses for the study of Hebrew and Arabic. Theology was first taught from the " Sentences " of Peter Lombard, but by the end of the thirteenth century the Summa of Thomas Aquinas was taking their place, and the general chapter of 1315, by requiring his works to be found in every monastery, marked his final triumph.
The rapid growth of the order was due not alone to its qualities, but also to the protection of powerful friends among the kings and nobles, and to the lavish privileges which the popes conferred upon both them and the Franciscans. The Dominicans had the advantage, however, in being preferred, if not exclusively chosen, as inquisitors haereticce pravitatis. When Gregory IX. began, in 1232, to replace the episcopal inquisition by officials appointed directly by the pope, he usually chose the Preaching Friars, on account of their theological learning. When the secular arm was placed at the disposition of the Church, Frederick II. offered his protection in 1239 to the Dominicans as inquisitors, and in 1255, at the request of Louis IX., Alexander IV. named the Dominican provincial and the Franciscan guardian as inquisitors-general for France. (See Inquisition.)
The growth and privileges of the order aroused enmity in more than one quarter. From the end of the thirteenth century many of the cities in which the mendicants, unlike the older orders, built their houses, began to show hostility. Some of the older orders, especially the Cistercians and Carthusians, displayed a spirit that was anything but brotherly toward them, and the higher secular clergy resented their intrusion into 5. Achieve- the organized cure of souls, so that ments and Innocent IV. was obliged in 1254 to Contro- limit their privileges, allowing them versies. to preach and hear confessions only with the assent of the parish priest. The universities were at first unfriendly, and tried to bar out the Preaching Friars. The famous contest in Paris was terminated in favor of the Dominicans in 1259, and it was not long before they occupied the theological chairs in Bologna, Padua, Vienna, Cologne, Prague, Oxford, and Salamanca. The greatest of the scholastics, Thomas Aquinas, and his many-sided teacher, Albertus Magnus, are but two out of many distinguished theologians produced by the order in the later Middle Ages. It did not confine itself to the cultivation of learning, but did much for the religious training of the common people. One of the most popular preachers of a little later day was the Spanish Dominican Vincent Ferrer (q.v.). They were active in the missionary field, appearing at the court of Kubla Khanin 1272, and accompfishing much in the still heathen parts of Europe; the conversion of the Lithuanians, completed in 1386, was their work. Their services to art were very considerable. Two of them designed the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the purest and most beautiful example of Tuscan Gothic. Here, at San Marco, and at Santa Caterina in Pisa pamting was cultivated
Dominic Dominis