Dominicans

I

Introduction

Dominicans or Friars Preachers, members of the Order of Preachers, a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1214 by Saint Dominic. With 16 disciples he founded the order at Toulouse, France, for the purpose of counteracting, by means of preaching, teaching, and the example of austerity, the heresies prevalent at the time. The order was formally recognized in 1216, when Pope Honorius III granted the Dominicans the necessary papal confirmation. He also granted them a number of special privileges, including the right to preach and hear confessions anywhere without obtaining local authorization. The necessity for such an order had become apparent to Dominic during his early attempts, about 1205, to convert the Albigenses; it was at that time that he resolved to devote his life to the evangelization of the heretical and the uneducated.

II

Preachers and Upholders of Orthodoxy

The Dominicans insisted on absolute poverty, rejecting the possession of community property and becoming, like the Franciscans, a mendicant order. It was not until 1425 that permission to hold property was granted to certain houses by Pope Martin V; it was extended to the entire order by Pope Sixtus IV in 1477. The first Dominican house was founded at the Church of Saint Romain in Toulouse, from which, in 1217, Dominic sent some of his disciples to spread the movement elsewhere in France as well as to Spain. Within six years the order was also introduced into England, with the founding of a house in Oxford. In England the Dominicans acquired the name of Black Friars from the habit they wore outside the friary when preaching and hearing confessions, a black coat and hood over a white woolen tunic. By the end of the century 50 friaries were functioning in England, and the order had houses in Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Bohemia, Russia, Greece, and Greenland.

In accordance with the declared purpose of their foundation, the Dominicans have always been known as dedicated preachers and as combatants against any departure from the teaching of the Roman Catholic church. In the latter capacity they were entrusted with the supervision of the Inquisition as an ecclesiastical enterprise, and even in Spain, after the Inquisition became virtually a department of civil government, a Dominican was usually at its head. The office of master of the sacred palace, the pope's personal theologian, created for St. Dominic in 1218 and subsequently endowed with great privileges by Pope Leo X, has always been held by a member of the order. After 1620, one of the duties of the position was to allow or forbid the printing of all religious books.

III

Contributions to the Church and the Arts

Dominicans have held many high church offices; four popes—Innocent V, Benedict XI, Pius V, and Benedict XIII—and more than 60 cardinals have belonged to the order. Apart from their specific work, the Dominicans have done much to aid and foster the development of art. Their cloisters have produced such distinguished painters as Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo. Their contributions to literature have been chiefly in theology and philosophy, and they have produced outstanding writers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albertus Magnus. The important medieval encyclopedia Speculum Majus was the work of a Dominican, Vincent of Beauvais (died before 1264). Also Dominicans were the German mystics Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Heinrich Suso, as well as the Italian preacher and religious reformer Savonarola. In the later Middle Ages the order was equaled in influence only by the Franciscans, the two orders sharing much power in the church and often in the Roman Catholic states and arousing frequent hostility on the part of the parochial clergy, whose rights often seemed to be invaded by the friars. The Dominicans played the leading part in the evangelization of South America; the first American saint, Rose of Lima, was a nun of the Third Order of Dominicans. In 1805 the Dominicans introduced their order into the United States. Missionary work still remains one of the important Dominican functions.

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IV

Auxiliary Orders

An order of Dominican nuns was founded by Dominic in 1205, before the male branch of the order was established. They nevertheless called themselves the Second Order of St. Dominic. In 1220, to provide a constant supply of lay defenders of the church against the assaults of the Albigenses and other militant innovators, Dominic established the Militia of Jesus Christ and pledged its members to defend the church with arms and their possessions. In the late 13th century it joined with the Brothers and Sisters of the Penance of St. Dominic, another lay group vowed to piety, which was under the direction of the First Order. The new body was called the Third Order of St. Dominic.

Today the head of the entire order is the master general, whose term of office is 12 years; his residence is at Santa Sabina, in Rome. The order is organized into geographic provinces, each with a provincial at its head. The chief apostolate of the order is educational. The Dominicans therefore retain their original characteristics as teachers and upholders of orthodoxy.

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