THE DOMINICANS A Short History William A. Hinnebusch, O.P., D.Ph. (Oxon.) This work is an overview rather than a detailed account of events which make up more than seven and a half centuries of Dominican history. Its originality lies in the marshalling of the content of Dominican history. Presenting the course of development briefly, it gores but a nod to many issues which would demand extensive treatment in a larger work. It concentrates on showing the Order's growth from the small beginnings of the thirteenth century to a world-wide presence in the twentieth. A bibliography at the end of this study, lists important works; and monographs dealing in more detail with Dominican history. Father Hinnebusch received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford where he studied prior to his assignment as professor of history at Providence College. He subsequently spent three years doing research at the Historical Institute of the Dominican Order in Rome where he published The English Friars Preachers. For many years he has been teaching Church History at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. A contributor to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Catholic Youth Encylopedia and the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Fr. Hinnebusch is also the author of Dominican Spirituality, 1965, and Renewal in the Spirit of St. Dominic, 1968. FOREWORD I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER II. THE GROWTH OF THE ORDER, 1221-1303 III. THE MISSIONS TO 1500 IV. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY V. FIFTEENTH CENTURY --THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF THE ORDER VI. RENEWAL AND REFORM IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY VII. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY VIII. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, AN AGE OF ABSOLUTISM IX. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL 1789 X. THE ORDER FROM 1789 TO 1872 XI. THE LAST 100 YEARS, 1872 TO 1974 EPILOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY Foreword The stream of Dominican history is like all rivers. At times it has flowed strong and full; at times its waters have slowed to a trickle. Never has it ceased to flow. Through more than seven and a half centuries the basic ideas and fundamental inspiration of St. Dominic have vitalized the Order. In all epochs they have produced outstanding men, in some centuries an army of such men, in others only a handful. Few or many, they witnessed to the authenticity of Dominic's insights by their life and works. What the Dominican Order has given to the Church in past centuries, and what it can offer her in the future is vital and necessary, because its mission, entrusted by her -- the mission to proclaim the Gospel -- touches her own origins and inner being. Preaching the word of God and proclaiming the name of the Lord Jesus throughout the world will always be needed by the people of God. It is the Order's high duty to preach, to be concerned with preaching, to wish it to be done in the best way possible, to be distressed when it is not being done, sad when it is not being done well, disappointed when another message is announced in place of God's word. The Dominican task is to study, explore, and discover better, more effective, and newer ways of disseminating the Gospel message. It will ever be the Order's duty to prepare the way for the coming or deepening of faith in those who hear the message. Everything the Dominican does, he must link to spreading the Word of God. Even when doing work that seems only distantly related to preaching, he must motivate it toward the proclamation of the word. He must therefore remain in close touch with the Scriptures, study them, pray them, guide his own life by them, and spread the good news they contain. The reader of Dominican history who loves the Order will lament when he reads of times when the Order's river has not flown in full course. He will rejoice when its banks are filled to overflowing, when Dominican men and women in all its branches are implementing the Order's mission to the fullest of their ability. This work is an overview rather than a detailed account of events. Its originality lies in the marshalling of the contents of Dominican history. Presenting the course of development briefly, it gives but a nod to many issues which would demand extensive treatment in a larger work. It concentrates on showing the Order's growth from the small beginnings of the thirteenth century to a world-wide presence in the twentieth. The interest of my brethren, and the support of the provincials and councils of the three American provinces of the Order gave me the courage to undertake this work. The hospitality of my Dominican Sisters at Sparkill, New York, and at Springfield, Illinois, whose guest I was when I dictated it, the assistance of Elsie Fillio, my faithful typist, and the help of Fr. Matthew Donahue, have made an enjoyable task doubly pleasant. To all of them my thanks. 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.