Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/427

 PREACHERS

368c

PREACHERS

The order gave many of its members to the epis- copate, but endeavoured to prevent this. Sts. Dominic and Francis seem to have disapproved of the accession of their reUgious to ecclesiastical digni- ties ("Speculum perfectionis", ed. Sabatier, Paris, 1898, p. 75; Thomas of Celano, "Legenda secunda S. Francisci", III, booc\'i). Jordanus of Saxony, the immediate successor of St. Dominic, forbade all acceptance of election or postulation to the episcopate, under pain of excommunication, without special per- mission of the pope, the general chapter, and the master general ("Acta Cap. Gen.", ed. Reichert, 4). During his administration he resisted with all his strength and declared that he would rather see a friar buried than raised to the episcopate ("Vitae Fratrum", ed. Reichert, 141, 143, 209). Everyone knows the eloquent letter which Humbert of Romans wrote to Albertus Magnus to dissuade him from ac- cepting the nomination to the See of Ratisbon (1260; Peter of Prussia, "Vita B. Alberti Magni", Antwerp, 1621, p. 2.53). But all this opposition could not prevent the nomination of a great many to high ecclesiastical dignities. The worth of many rehgious made them so prominent that it was im- possible that they should not be suggested for the episcopate. Princes and nobles who had sons or kinsmen in the order often laboured for this result with interested motives, but the Holy See especially saw in the accession of Dominicans to the episcopate the means of infusing it with new blood. From the accession of Gregorj- IX the appointment of Domini- cans to dioceses and archdioceses became an ordinary thing. Hence until the end of the fifteenth century about fifteen hundred Preachers were either appointed or translated to dioceses or archdioceses, among them men remarkable for their learning, their com- petent administration, their zeal for souls, and the hoUness of their Uves. (Eubel, "Hierarchia cathoUca", I-II; "Bull Ord. Pra;d.", I-IV; "Script. Ord. Prted.", I, p. xxi; Cavalieri, "GaUeria de' sommi Pontefici, Patriarch!, Arcivesco\-i, e Vesco^^ dell' ordine de' Predicatori", Benevento, 1696; Vigna, "I vescoiT domenicani Liguri ovvero in Liguria", Genoa, 1887.)

(j) The Preachers and Civil Society. — During the Middle .Ages the Preachers influenced princes and communities. Princes found them to be prudent ad\'isers, expert ambassadors, and enlightened con- fessors. The French monarchy was much attached to them. As early as 1226 Jordanus of Saxony was able to write, in speaking of Blanche of Castile: "The queen tenderly loves the friars and she has spoken with me personally and famiUarly about her affairs" (Bayonne, "Lettres du B. Jourdain de Saxe", Paris-Lyons. 1865, p. 66). No prince was more devoted to the order than St. Louis, nor did any grant it more favours. The French monarchy sought most of its confessors during the Middle Ages from the Order of Preachers (Chapotin, "A travers I'histoire dominicaine: "Les princes fran^ais du Moyen .\ge et I'ordre de Saint Dominique", Paris, 1903^ p. 207; Idem, "Etudes historiques sur la pro\-ince domini- caine de France", Paris, 1890, p. 128). It was the entrance of Humbert II, Dauphin of Vienna, into the order, which gained Dauphiny for France (Guif- frey, "Hist, de la reunion du Dauphin^ a la France", Paris, 1878). The Dukes of Burgundy also sought their confessors from the order (Chapotin, op. cit., 190). The kings of England did likewise and fre- quently employed its members in their ser\'ice (Palmer, "The Kings' Confes,sors" in "The Anti- quary", London, 1890, p. 114; Tarett, "Friars Con- fessors of the English Kings" in "The Home Coun- ties Magazine", XII, 1910, p. 100). Several Ger- man emperors were much attached to the order, nevertheless the Preachers did not hesitate to enter into conflict with Frederick II and Louis of Bavaria

when these princes broke with the Church (Opladen, "Die Stellung der deutschen Konige zu den Orden im dreizethnten Jahrhundert", Bonn, 1908; Paulus, "Thomas von Strassburg und Rudolph von Sachsen. Ihre Stellung zum Interdikt" in "Hist. Jahrbuch.", XIII, 1892, 1; "Neues Archiv. der Geschellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschictskunde", XXX, 1905, 447). The kings of Castile and Spain invariably chose their confessors from among the Preachers ("Catalogo de los reUgiosos dominicos qui han ser^-ido a los Seiiores de Castilla, de Aragon, y de Andalucia, en el empleo de sus Confessores de Estado", Madrid, 1700). The kings of Portugal likewise sought their directors from the same source (de Sousa, "Historia de S. Domingos particulor de Reino, e conquistas de Portugal", Lisbon, 1767; Gr^goire, "Hist, des confesseurs des empereurs, des rois et d'autres princes", Paris, 1824).

The first to be established in the centres of cities, the Dominicans exercised a profound influence on municipal hfe, especially in Italy. A witness at the canonization of St. Dominic in 1233 expresses the matter when he says that nearly all the cities of Lombardy and the Niarches placed their affairs and their statutes in the hands of the Preachers, that they might arrange and alter them to their taste and as seemed to them fitting. The same was true of the extirpation of wars, the restoration of peace, restitu- tion for usur\% hearing of confessions and a multi- tude of benefits which would be too long to enumerate (".\nnales Ord. Pr»d.", Rome, 1756, append., col. 128). About this time the celebrated John of Vi- cenza exercised powerful influence in the north of Italy and was himself podesta of Verona (Sutter, "Johann von Vicenza und die italienische Friedens- bewegung im Jahre 1233", Freiburg, 1891; Ital. tr., Vicenza, 1900; Vitali. "I Domenicani neUa vita italianadel secolo XIII", Milan, 1902; Hefele, "Die Bettelorden und das rehgiose Volksleben Ober-und Mittelitaliens im XIII. Jahrhundert", Leipzig-Berhn, 1910). An idea of the penetration of the order into all social cla,sses may be formed from the declaration of Pierre Dubois in 1300 that the Preachers and the Minors knew better than anyone else the condition of the world and of aU social classes ("De recupera^ tione Terre Sancte", ed. Langlois, Paris, 1891, pp. 51, 74, 84). The part played by Catherine of Siena in the pacification of the towns of Central Italy and the return of the papacy from A\-ignon to Rome is well kno\STi. "She was the greatest figure of the second half of the fourteenth centurj-, an Italian, not only a saint, a mystic, a miracle-worker, but a statesman, and a great statesman, who solved for the welfare of Italy and all Christendom the most difficult and tragic question of her time" (Gebhart, "Une sainte homme d'etat, Ste Catherine de Sienne" in "Revue Hebdomadaire", 16 March, 1907, 257). It was the Dominican Bishop of Geneva, .4demar de la Roche, who granted that town its Uberties and franchi.se in 1387 (Mallet, "Libertes, franchises, immunites, us et coutumes de la \-ille de Geneve promulg^s par I'eveque Ademar Fabri le 23 Mai, 1.387" in "M^moires et documents de la society d'histoire et d'archeologie de Geneve", Geneva. II, 1843, p. 270). Finally reference must be made to the profound influence exercised by Girolamo Savonarola (1498) on the poHtical hfe of Florence during the last years of the fifteenth century ('N'ilari. "La Storia di Girolamo .Savonarola e d6 suoi tempi". Florence, 1887; Luotto, "II vero Savonarola", Florence, 1897).

(k) The Preachers and the Faithful. — During the thirteenth century the faithful were almost without pastoral care and preaching. The coming of the Preachers was an innovation which won over the people eager for rehgious instruction. \Miat a chronicler relates of Thuringia was the case almost everywhere: "Before the arrival of the Friara