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 PREACHERS

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PREACHERS

(3) Forma of its Activity. — The forms of life or activity of the Order of Preachers are many, but they are all duly subordinated. The order a-ssimilated the ancient forms of the reUgious life, the monastic and the canonical, but it made them subse^^•ient to the clerical and the apostohc life which are its peculiar and essentia] aims. The Preachers adopted from the monastic hfe the three traditional vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty; to them they added the ascetic element known as monastic obser^'ances ; perpetual abstinence, fasting from 14 Sept. until Easter and on all the Fridays throughout the year, the exclusive use of wool for clothing and for the bed, a hard bed, and a common dormiton,-, silence almost perpetual in their houses, pubhc acknowledgment of faults in the chapter, a graded list of penitential practices, etc. The Preachers, however, did not take these observances directly from the monastic orders but from the regular canons, especially the reformed canons, who had already adopted monastic rules. The Preachers received from the regular canons the choral Office for morning and evening, but chanted quickly. They added, on certain days, the Office of the Holy Virgin, and once a week the Office of the Dead. The habit of the Preachers, as of the regular canons, is a white tunic and a black cloak. The rochet, distinctive of the regular canons, was aban- doned by the Preachers at the General Chapter of 1220, and replaced by the scapular. At the same time they gave up various canonical customs, which they had retained up to that period. They sup- pressed in their order the title of abbot for the head of the convent, and rejected all property, revenues, the carrj-ing of money on their travels, and the use of horses. The title even of canon which they had borne from the beginning tended to disappear about the middle of the thirteenth centuri,-, and the General Chapters of 1240-1251 substituted the word clericus for canonicus in the article of the Constitutions relating to the admission of no%"ices; nevertheless, the designation, "canon" still occurs in some parts of the Constitutions. The Preachers, in fact, are pri- marily and essentially clerics. The pontifical let- ter of foimdation said: "These are to be the champions of the Faith and the true lights of the world." Tliis could apply only to clerics. The Preachers consequently made study their chief oc- cupation, which was the essential means, with preach- ing and teaching as the end. The apostohc character of the order was the complement of its clerical character. The Friars had to vow themselves to the salvation of souls through the ministn,- of preach- ing and confession, under the conditions set down by the Gospel and by the example of the Apostles: ardent zeal, absolute poverty, and sanctity of life.

The ideal Dominican life was rich in the multi- pUcity and choice of its elements, and was thoroughly unified by its well-considered principles and enact- ments; but it was none the less complex, and its full realization was difficult. The monastic-canonical element tended to dull and paralyze the inten.se activity demanded by a clerical-apostolic life. The legislators warded off the difficulty by a system of dispensations, quite peculiar to the order. .\t the head of the Constitutions the principle of dispensa- tion appears jointly with the ver\- definition of the order's purpose, and is placed before the text of the laws to show that it controls and tempers their ap- plication. "The superior in each convent shall have authority to grant dispensations whenever he may deem it expedient, especially in regard to what may hinder study, or preaching, or the profit of souls, since our order was originally established for the work of preaching and the salvation of souls", etc. The system of dispensation thus broadly understood, while it favoured the most active element of the order, displaced, but did not wholly eliminate, the

difficulty. It created a sort of dualism in the in- terior hfe, and permitted an arbitrariness that might easily disquiet the conscience of the religious and of the superiors. The order warded off this new dif- ficulty by declaring in the generalissimo chapter of 1236, that the Constitutions did not obhge tmder pain of sin, but under pain of doing penance (Acta Cap. Gen. I, 8.) This measiu'e, however, was not heartily welcomed by everj-one in the order (TTiitti- berti de Romanis, Op., II, 46), nevertheless it stood. This dualism produced on one side, remarkable apostles and doctors, on the other, stem ascetics and great mystics. At all events the interior troubles of the order grew out of the difficulty of maintaining the nice equilibrium which the first legislators es- tablished, and which was preser\-ed to a remarkable degree during the first centurj- of the order's existence. The logic of things and historical circumstances fre- quently disturbed this equilibrium. The learned and active members tended to exempt themselves from monastic obseri'ance, or to moderate its strict- ness; the ascetic members insisted on the monastic life, and in pursuance of their aim, suppressed at different times the practice of dispensation, sanc- tioned as it was by the letter and the spirit of the Constitutions ["Const. Ord. Praed.", passim; Denifie, "Die Const, des Predigerordens " in "Ar- chiv. f. Litt. u. Kirchengesch", I, 16.5; Mandonnet, "Les Chanoines - Precheurs de Bologne d'apres Jacques de Vitr>-" in ".\rchives do la societe d'histoire du canton de Fribourg", bk. VIII, 1.5; Lacordaire, "Memoire pour la restauration des Freres Precheurs dans la Chretiente", Paris, 18.52; P. Jacob, "Memoires sur la canonicite de I'institut de St. Dominic", Beziers, 17.50, tr. into Italian under the title; "Difesa del canonicatodei FF. Predicatori", Venice, 1758; Laberthoni, "Expose de I'etat, du re- gime, de la legislation et des obligations des Freres Precheurs", Versailles, 1767 (new ed., 1872) ].

(4) Nature of the Order of the Dominican Sisters. — We have indicated above the various steps by which the legislation of the Dominican Sisters was brought into conformity with the Constitutions of Humbert of Romans (1259). The primitive type of religious established at Prouille in 1205 by St. Dominic was not affected by successive legislation. The Dominican Sisters are strictly cloistered in their monasteries; they take the three religious vows, recite the canonical Hours in choir and engage in manual labor. The eruditio litterarum inscribed in the Institutions of St. Sixtus disappeared from the Constitutions drawn up by Himabert of Romans. The ascetic life of the Sisters is the same as that of the Friars. Each house is governed by a prioress, elected canonically, and assisted by a sub-prioress, a mistress of no^■ices, and various other officers. The monasteries have the right to hold property in common; they must be provided with an income sufficient for the existence of the comnnmity; they are independent and are under the jurisdiction of the provincial prior, the master general, and of the gen- eral chapter. A subsequent paragraph will deal with the various phases of the question as to the re- lation existing between the Sisters and the Order of Preachers. AMiilst the Institutions of St. Sixtus provided a group of brothers, priests, and lay ser\'ant3 for the spiritual and temporal administration of the monaster^-, the Constitutions of Humbert of Romans were silent on these points. (See the legislative texts relating to the Sisters mentioned above.)

(5) The Third Order. — St. Dominic did not write a rule for the Tertiaries, for reasons which are given further on in the historical sketch of the Third Order. However, a large body of the laity, vowed to piety, grouped themselves about the rising Order of Preach- ers, and constituted, to all intents and purposes, a Third Order. In view of this fact and of some cir-