CHAPTER I

THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER

Dominic the Founder

St. Dominic was a spirit-filled man raised up by God to answer the pressing need of the Church for a continuous body of trained preachers. Guided by the Holy Spirit he founded the first apostolic Order, combining the contemplative consecration and apostolic ministry of the twelve apostles and the primitive Church. When Honorius III entrusted to the Order the mission to preach the Word of God, a duty that is primarily episcopal, the Church saw for the first time a religious Order with a mandate as coextensive as herself. By obtaining this universal mission, Dominic threw open the door of preaching to the members of his own Order and eventually to all Orders and priests.

Dominic took traditional elements in the Church-the apostolic life, priests living in community, regular discipline of the monastic Orders, liturgical prayer sung in community, preaching pursued in poverty-and fused them into a balanced unity that enabled his Order to meet the needs of his age and of many centuries to come.

Dominic did all his work as Founder with the full approval of the Holy See, "departing not from the teaching and the authority of the Church militant," to use the words of Pope Gregory IX. This submission to the guidance of the Church rescued his Order from suspicion and saved his sons from the errors that had nullified the good intentions of some heretical groups. Canonizing him in Ice, Gregory IX summarized Dominic's whole life when he likened him to the apostles: "I knew him as a man who followed completely the apostolic way of life. There is no doubt at all that in heaven, too, he is united with the Apostles in glory."

Though Dominic owed much to the centuries-old wisdom of monasticism, he also drew upon the experimentation and renewal that had been in progress for 150 years. From 1150 onward, a great period of reform, called the Gregorian Reform after Pope Gregory VII, had developed in the Church. It returned to the Scriptures and apostolic times as the sources of its inspiration and for the answers to great abuses, particularly among a clergy who were often ignorant, incontinent, without zeal, and who seldom preached.

Seeking to solve this problem, zealous clergy and laity endeavored to return to the simplicity and poverty of the primitive church; the apostolic life lived by the apostles became their great ideal. The clerical reformers implemented their ideas by creating the kind of religious life led by chapters of Canons Regular. They aimed to imitate the prayerful life and ministry of the apostles within a monastic framework. Chapters of Canons Regular multiplied, and several Orders developed from their ranks such as the Premonstratensians (or Norbertines), the Canons of St. Victor, and the Gilbertines. The Dominican Order, a clerical Order from the beginning, sprang from canon-regular roots.

Laymen interested in reform formed penitential brotherhoods that concentrated on poverty, penance, and preaching. In their zeal some of them fell into error, making the extreme claim that apostolic poverty is an indispensable condition for preaching and the valid administration of the sacraments. From the lay brotherhoods emerged a widespread, loose organization known as the Order of Penance, a forerunner of the later Third Order of the friars. In its earliest beginnings, the Franciscan Order shared the characteristics of these penitential brotherhoods.

The century in which Dominic was born witnessed other signs of new vigor and life besides the religious developments just described. Western Christendom enjoyed a new papal leadership, saw an expanding trade and commerce, the foundation of cities, developing vernacular languages, growing motional states, and an intellectual revival. None of these movements came to maturity then, but the seeds had been planted and bore fruit during the thirteenth century, especially in Scholasticism and the infant University of Paris.

The Canons Regular filled a need in the twelfth century when they took care of the pastoral needs of the villages and rural areas where they settled. They were not equal to the task of coping with the new cities and towns of the thirteenth century. The Dominicans and Franciscans, unhampered by an existing apostolate, enjoying great flexibility, and possessing a sound theological training, settled in the cities and towns to take care of the spiritual needs of their inhabitants. In some of the thriving centers of southern France and Tuscany heresy was common. In other wealthy cities, many townsmen and the higher clergy in their love of ease and comfort posed a threat to Christian living. This love for things of the world alerted St. Dominic to the value of apostolic poverty and one of the heresies introduced him to the need Christianity faced.

Dominic was born about 1170 in the town of Caleruega in north-central Spain of Don Felix Guzman and Joan of Aza, both members of the lower nobility. From his earliest youth Dominic was trained to become a priest. Such a decision had to be made early since the choice of vocation determined the kind of training a child was given, either for knighthood or priesthood. After he had learned the rudiments, Dominic was initiated into clerical studies by his mother's brother, a priest. When he was about fourteen, he went to the cathedral school of Palencia to study philosophy and theology. He studied theology for four years, an unusually thorough formation for the average priest in those days. While in Palencia Dominic manifested his great generosity during a famine, using his slender resources to help the poor and gaining additional funds by selling his books. Completing his studies when he was about twenty-four, he joined the chapter of Canons Regular of the cathedral of Osma, and soon afterwards was ordained a priest. Later he became subprior of the chapter.

The First Steps toward Foundation

In 1203, after Dominic had spent almost ten years as a Canon Regular, the Holy Spirit began to call him to a new vocation as founder. It seemed to happen by accident. Diego d'Acabes, his bishop, chose him as companion on an embassy to Denmark to arrange a marriage for the son of King Alfonso VIII of Castile. In passing through southern France, the travelers came to know the Albigensian heretics; in fact, the innkeeper where they stayed on their first night was a member of the sect. Dominic's zeal for souls, which had ripened during his years of contemplative life at Osma, burst into flame. He stayed up all night arguing with his host. With the rising of the sun, the man gave up his heresy and returned to the Catholic faith.

Though the bishop successfully negotiated a marriage for the King's son, the purpose of the trip was defeated when the princess died, or, as some say, entered a monastery. The bishop and Dominic discovered this two years later when they returned to her country to escort her to Spain. In Denmark the two men observed the intense missionary activity that the Danish clergy were engaged in among the pagans of the Baltic regions. Apparently aiming to join them, they went to Rome, where the bishop tendered the resignation of his diocese. Though this was not allowed and the two never again returned to the North, Dominic's missionary zeal had burst into flame and never again burned low. It became an important part of his legacy to the Order.

Pope Innocent III refused the bishop's resignation and sent him instead to work among the Albigenses. For a long time the Church had been hoping for their conversion. St. Bernard had preached to them, and Innocent had sent legates and preachers to work among them.

The bishop and Dominic obediently turned their steps westward toward France. Arriving at Montpellier, they found the papal legates, among whom was Abbot Arnauld of Citeaux, who were heartily discouraged. Despite all their efforts they had made no headway. After listening attentively, the bishop sized up the situation and gave solid advice. You must meet fire with fire. The heretic leaders live an austere life, keep long fasts, travel on foot, and preach in apostolic simplicity. "Send home your retinues then," advised the bishop, "go about on foot two by two, in imitation of the apostles, and then the Lord will bless your efforts." The bishop's zeal and arguments convinced the legates. They dismissed their retinues after Diego had set the example. They kept only "books and other necessities," as Jordan of Saxony reports. Areas for evangelization were assigned to the new groups of apostolic preachers and they set out to preach. During the following weeks and months they crisscrossed the countryside, preaching and debating with the Albigenses. After each debate, each side presented a written summary of its arguments to its opponents. The Albigenses subjected one of Dominic's summaries to a trial by fire. Three times they threw it into the fire but each time the flames cast it forth untouched.

One of the successes of Diego and Dominic was the conversion of a number of women from Albigensianism. They established a monastery for them at Prouille, near Fanjeaux, their own headquarters. This became the first monastery of the Dominican Second Order. Dominic became its father, spiritual guide, and lawgiver, a position entrusted to him by Bishop Diego when he returned to his diocese late in 1207 to recruit preachers, raise funds for the apostolate, and to regulate his diocese. He died in December soon after his return to Spain. Legate Raoul had died the previous July.

A further calamity befell the missions in January, 1208, when the Albigenses assassinated Legate Peter of Castelnau, a fiery, impatient man, who constantly antagonized them. At the end of his patience, Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against the heretics. When hostilities broke out, a peaceful apostolate became extremely difficult, but Dominic and a handful of companions persevered with their preaching despite every discouragement.

Gradually Dominic came to realize that only a religious Order could give the Church the continuous supply of trained preachers it needed. Experience had shown that volunteer preachers did not come in sufficient numbers and did not always persevere. The character of the Cathar heresy taught Dominic another lesson. Their leaders were austere, educated men, well versed in the Scriptures, who preached convincingly. These facts influenced the kind of Order Dominic founded. Its members would not only assume the usual obligations of religious but would systematically study the Scriptures.

Dominic remained true to his training and experience. Within the month that he founded the Order, he enrolled six disciples in the lecture course of Alexander Stavensby at the cathedral school of Toulouse. He himself had an excellent education and a deep love of God's word. He always carried Matthew's Gospel and Paul's Epistles. Constantly he urged the friars "by word and letter" to study the books of the Old and New Testaments. Studying the Scriptures was the medieval way of studying theology. The Bible was the chief textbook of the schools and universities. All other studies prepared the students to enter the classes of the master of theology, who unfolded the deepest meanings of the Sacred Text. Against this background, Dominic's sending seven friars to Paris in August, 1217, takes on new meaning. By preference he founded houses in university cities, at Bologna, Palencia, Montpellier, and Oxford. By design he sought to enroll university students in the Order.

The Founding of the Order

Dominic and his companions first discussed the founding of an Order seriously during 1213 and 1214 at Fanjeaux. In the spring of 1215 they were ready, and Bishop Fulk of Toulouse established them as a preaching brotherhood for his diocese. Dominic gave vows to Thomas and Peter Seila, citizens of Toulouse. Seila deeded some houses he owned to the Order. The larger became the Order's first priory when Dominic and the brethren took up their residence there. Soon afterwards the bishop gave the church of St. Romanus for their community prayers. Thus the Order of Preachers began on a small scale with episcopal approval.

The next step was to obtain papal confirmation of the foundation. The opportunity came when Bishop Fulk set out for Rome in 1215, with Dominic in his company, to attend the Fourth Lateran Council.

Jordan describes their project: "They petitioned the Lord Pope Innocent to confirm for Brother Dominic and his disciples an Order that would be an Order of Preachers; likewise that he would confirm the revenues that had been assigned to the brothers by the count and by the bishop." A hurdle to confirmation had to be faced. On the agenda for the Council was a proposal to prohibit the founding of new religious Orders. To surmount it, Innocent advised Dominic to choose one of the existing religious Rules. He promised that when this had been done, he would confirm the Order.

In the spring of 1216, Dominic and the friars chose the Rule of St. Augustine and framed statutes to supplement it. These became the first half of the permanent Constitutions of the Order. Adapted from the Constitutions of Premontre, they regulated the religious life of the friars. Nothing was legislated until four years later to govern the Order's apostolate. Dominic wisely waited to learn from experience what laws and organization would best suit a preaching Order. In October, the friars added to the property of St. Romanus' church and began to build "a cloister with cells above it suitable for study and sleeping." Returning to Rome, Dominic "obtained to the fullest extent both the confirmation of his Order as he conceived it as well as the other things he desired." On December 22, Honorius III (Innocent had died in July) granted a bull of confirmation, approving the Order as a body of Canons Regular. A second bull, issued on January 21, 1217, recognized the newness of Dominic's ideas and approved his foundation as "an Order that would be called and would be an Order of Preachers." Honorius addressed its members as "Christ's unconquered athletes, armed with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. Fearing not those who can kill the body, you valiantly thrust the word of God which is keener than any two-edged sword, against the foes of the faith."

The Order's Charism

The Order of Preachers was an entirely new kind of religious Order. For the first time an Order incorporated as an integral part of its religious life a ministry that shared the bishop's fundamental duty to preach the word of God, a mission conferred by the Holy Father, the universal bishop of the Church. The Order seeks to place at the service of the bishops a body of educated and trained preachers prepared to assist them in the laborious duty of preaching. The Lateran Council called on bishops to appoint just such cooperators with themselves to remedy the long-standing need of the Church for regular and competent preaching, especially in the towns and cities. Eventually the preaching ministry was opened to other Orders, but it has remained the vocation of the Order of Preachers to be concerned that the preaching needs of the Church be met. Preaching remains its special mission and duty.

Shortly before or after the bull of January 21, which granted this mission, Dominic had a vision of the apostles Peter and Paul while he was praying in the old church of St. Peter that was prophetic. Peter handed him a preacher's staff and Paul the book of Gospels, saying to him, "Go and preach; for this you have been sent." Then he saw his sons going two by two through the world preaching.

The vision of Dominic was authentic and captured the genius, spirit, and purpose of the Dominican Order. It repeated in a dramatic way the ideas Pope Honorius expressed in one of the very earliest bulls he issued to the Order:

God Who continually makes His Church fruitful in new children, wishing to bring our times into conformity with earlier days and .spread the Catholic faith has inspired you to embrace a life of poverty and regular discipline and to devote yourselves to preaching the word of God and proclaiming the name of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world.

The bull of January 21, the vision of Peter and Paul, and perhaps the discouraging conditions in southern France determined Dominic to scatter his friars to the four winds. Both they and his friends tried to dissuade him. "It seemed to their worldly prudence," Jordan of Saxony wrote, "that he was tearing down rather than raising up the building that he had started." Dominic's

answer was: "Seed when scattered fruc