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 PREACHERS

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PREACHERS

and the nature of each. Secondly, we shall give an historical survey of the three branches of the order.

I. Legislation and Nature. — In its formation and development, the Dominican legislation as a whole is closely bound up with historical facts rela- tive to the origin and progress of the order. Hence some reference to these is necessary, the more so as this matter has not been sufficiently studied. For each of the three groups, constituting the ensemble of the Order of St. Dominic, we shall examine: A. Formation of the Legislative Texts; B. Nature of the Order, resulting from legislation.

A. Formation of the Legislative Texts. — In regard to their legislation the first two orders are closely con- nected, and must be treated together. The preach- ing of St. Dominic and his first companions in Lan- guedoc led up to the pontifical letters of Innocent III, 17 Nov., 1205 (Potthast, "Reg., Pont., Rom.", 2912). They created for the first time in the Church of the Middle Ages the type of apostolic preachers, patterned upon the teaching of the Gospel. In the same year, Dominic founded the Monastery of Prouille, in the Diocese of Toulouse, for the women whom he had converted from heresy, and he made this establishment the centre of union of his mis- sions and of his apostolic works (Balme-Lelaidier, "Cartulaire ou Histoire Diplomatique de St. Dominic ", Paris, 1893, 1, 130sq.; Guiraud, "Cart.de Notre Dame de Prouille," Paris, 1907, 1, CCCXXsq). St. Dominic gave to the new monastery the Rule of St. Augustine, and also the special Institutions which regulated the life of the Sisters, and of the Brothers who lived near them, for the spiritual and temporal adminis- tration of the communitv. The Institutions are edited in Balme, "Cart." II, 42.5; "Bull. Ord. Pr»d.", VII, 410; Duellius, "Misc.", bk. I (Augs- burg, 1723), 169; " Urkundenbuch der Stadt.", I (Fribourg, Leipzig, 1883), 60.5. On 17 Dec, 1219, Honorius III, with a view to a general reform among the religious of the Eternal City, granted the mon- astery of the Sisters of St. Sixtus of Rome to St. Dominic, and the Institutions of Prouille were given to that monastery under the title of Institutions of the Sisters of St. Sixtus of Rome. With this designa- tion they were granted subsequently to other monas- teries and congregations of religious. It is also under this form that we possess the primitive Institutions of Prouille, in the editions already mentioned. St. Dominic and his companions, having received from Innocent III authorization to choose a rule, with a view to the approbation of their order, adopted in 1216, that of St. Augustine, and added thereto the "Consuetudines", which regulated the ascetic and canonical life of the religious. These were borrowed in great part from the Constitutions of Premontr^, but with some essential features, adapted to the purposes of the new Preachers, who also renounced private possession of property, but retained the reve- nues. The "Consuetudines" formed the first part (prima dislinctio) of the primitive Constitutions of the order (Qu^tif-Echard, "Scriptores Ord. Pra;d.", L 12-13; Denifle, "Archiv. fiir Literatur und Kirch- engeschichte", I, 194; Balme, "Cart.", II, 18). The order was solemnly approved, 22 Dec, 1216. A first letter, in the style of those granted for the foundation of regular canons, gave the order canonical existence; a second determined the special vocation of the Order of Preachers as vowed to teaching and defending the truths of faith. "Nos attendentes fratres Ordinis tui futures pugiles fidei et vera mundi lumina confirmamus Ordinera tuum " (Balme, "Cart." II, 71-88; Potthast, .5402-.5403). (E\-pecting the brethren of your order to be the champions of the Faith and true lights of the world, we confirm your order.)

On 15 Aug., 1217, St. Dominic sent out his com- panions from Prouille. They went through France,

Spain, and Italy, and established as principal centres, Toulouse, Paris, Madrid, Rome, and Bologna. Dominic, by constant journeyings, kept watch over these new establi.shments, and went to Rome to confer with the Sovereign Pontiff (Balme, "Cart." II, 131; "Annales Ord. Pra;d.", Rome, 1756, p. 411; Guiraud, "St. Dominic", Paris, 1899, p. 95). In May, 1220, St. Dominic held at Bologna the first general chapter of the order. This assembly drew up the Constitutions, which are complement arj' to the "Consuetudines" of 1216 and form the second part (secunda distindio). They regulated the or- ganization and hfe of the order, and are the essential and original basis of the Dominican legislation. In this chapter, the Preachers also gave up certain elements of the canonical life; they relinquished all possessions and revenues, and adopted the practice of strict poverty; they rejected the title of abbey for the convents, and substituted the rochet of canons for the monastic scapular. The regime of annual general chapters was established as the regulative power of the order, and the source of legislative au- thority. ("Script. Ord. Praed.", I, 20; Denifle, "Archiv.", I, 212; Balme, "Cart.", Ill, 575). Now that the legislation of the Friars Preachers was fully established, the Rule of the Sisters of St. SLxtus was found to be very incomplete. The order, however, supplied what was wanting by compiling a few years after, the Statuta, which borrowed from the Constitu- tions of the Friars, whatever might be useful in a monastery of Sisters. We owe the preservation of these Statuta, as well as the Rule of St. Sixtus, to the fact that this legislation was applied in 1232 to the Penitent Sisters of St. Mary Magdalen in Germany, who observed it without further modification. The Statuta are edited in Duellius, "Misc.", bk. I, 182. After the legislative work of the general chapters had been added to the Constitution of 1216-20, without changing the general ordinance of the primi- tive text, the necessity was felt, a quarter of a century later, of giving a more logical distribution to the legislation in its entirety. The great canonist, Raymond of Penaforte, on becoming master general of the order, devoted himself to tliis work. The general chapters, from 1239 to 1241, accepted the new text, and gave it the force of law. In this form it has remained to the present time as the official te.xt, with some modification, however, in the way of suppressions and especially of additions due to later enactments of the general chapters. It was edited in Denifle, "Archiv.", V, 553; "Acta Capitulorum Generalium", I (Rome, 1898), II, 13, 18, in ''Monum. Ord. Prffid. Hist.", bk. III.

The reorganization of the Constitutions of the Preachers called for a corresponding reform in the legislation of the Sisters. In his letter of 27 Aug., 1257, Alexander IV ordered Humbert of Romans, the fifth master general, to unify the Constitutions of the Sisters. Humbert remodelled them on the Con- stitutions of the Brothers, and put them into effect at the General Chapter of Valenciennes, 1259. The Sisters were henceforth characterized as Sorores Ordinis Prasdicatorum. The Constitutions are edited in "Analecta, Ord. Pra-d." (Rome, 1897), 338; Finke, "Ungedruckte Dominicanerbriefe des 13 Jahrhunderts" (Paderborn, 1891), p. .53; "Litter® EncvclicEe magistrorura generalium" (Rome, 1900), in " Mon. Ord. Pr»d. Hist.", V, p. 513. To this legi.sla- tion, the provincials of Germany, who had a large number of religious convents under tlieir care, added certain admonitiones by way of completing and def- initely settling the Constitutions of the Sisters. They seem to be the work of Herman of Minden, Provincial of Teutonia (1286-90). He drew up at first a concise admonition (Denifle, "Arcliiv.", II, 549); then other series of admonitions, more im- portant, which have not been edited (Rome,