Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/428

 PREACHERS

368 D

PREACHERS

Preachers the word of God was rare and precious and very rarely preached to the people. The Friars Preachers preached alone in every section of Thurin- gia and in the town of Erfurt and no one hindered them" (Koch, "Graf Elger von Holmstein", Gotha, 1865, pp. 70, 72). About 1267 the Bishop of Amiens, Guillaume de Flavacourt, in the war against heresy already mentioned, declared that the people refused to hear the word of God from any save the Preachers and Minors (Bibl. de Grenoble," MS. 639, fol. 119). The Preachers exercised a special influence over the piously inclined of both sexes among the masses, so numerous in the Middle Ages, and they induced to penance and continence a great many people living in the world, who were commonly called Beguins, and who lived either alone or in more or less populous communities. Despite the order's attraction for this devout, half-lay, half-religious world, the Preach- ers refused to take it under their jurisdiction in order not to hamper their chief activity nor distort their ecclesiastical ideal by too close contact with lay piety. The General Chapters of 1228 and 1229 forbade the religious to give the habit to any woman or to re- ceive her profession, or to give spiritual direction to any community of women not strictly subject to some "authority other than that of the order (" Archiv. f. Litt. a Kirchengesch.", I, 27; Baj-onne, "Lettres du B. Jourdain de Saxe", 110). But the force of cir- cumstances prevailed, and, despite everj'thing, these clients furnished the chief elements of the Peniten- tial Order of St. Dominic, who received their own rule in 1285, and of whom more has been said above (Mosheim, "De Beghardis et Beguiniabus", Leipzig, 1720; Le Grand, "Les Bcguines de Paris", 1893; Nimal, "Les Bcguinagcs", Nivelles, 1908). The Order especially encouraged congregations of the Blessed Virgin" and the saints, which developed greatly, especially in Italy. Many of them had tlieir headquarters in "convents of the Preachers, who ad- ministered them spiritually. After the Penitential movement of 1260 confraternities were formed com- monly called DisdpUnati, Bailuii, etc. Many of them originated in Dominican churches (there is no general historical work on this subject). In 1274, during the Council of Lyons, Gregory X confided to the Dominicans the preaching of the Holy Name of Jesus, whence arose confraternities of that name (Bull. Ord. Pra?d., VIII, 524). Finally the second half of the fifteenth century saw the rapid develop- ment of confraternities of the Holy Rosary under the influence of the Preachers ("Acta Sanctae Sedis nee non magistrorum et capitulorum generalium sacri ordinis Prtedicatorum pro Societate SS. Rosarii", Lyons, 1890). With the object of developing the piety of the faithful the Preachers allowed them to be buried in the habit of the order (Cantimpratanus, "De bono universal! apum", lib. II, viii, n. 8). From the time of ,lnrdan\is of Saxony they issued let- ters of participation in the spiritual goods of the order. The same general established at Paris the custom of the evening sermon (coUnlio) for the students of the University, in order to turn them aside from dissipa- tion, which custom passed to all the other universi- ties ("Vita fratrum", ed. Reichert, .327).

(1) The Preachers and the Foreign Missions. — During the Middle Ages the Order of Preachers ex- ercised considerable activity within the boundaries of Christendom and far beyond. The evangelization of heathen countries was confided to the nearest Dominican provinces. At the beginning of the four- teenth century the missions of .Asia became a special group, the congregation of Friars Pilgrims for Christ. Some of the remote provinces, especially those of Greece and the Holy Land, were recruited from volunteers throughout the order. Besides the work of evangelization the religious frequently assumed the mission of ambassador or agent to schismatic or

pagan princes, and Friars Preachers frequently occupied sees in pariibus infidelium. A number of them, faithful to the order's doctrinal vocation, com- posed works of all kinds to assist their apostolate, to defend the Christian Faith, to inform the Roman Church or Latin princes concerning the condition of the East, and to indicate measures to be taken against the dangers threatening Christianity. Finally they frequently shed their blood in these inhospitable and unfruitful countries. The pro\-ince of Spain laboured for the conversion of the Arabs of the Peninsula, and in 1256 Humbert of Romans described the satisfactory results (H. de Romanis, "Opera", ed. Berthier, II, 502). In 1225 the first Spanish Domini- cans evangelized Morocco and the head of the mission. Brother Dominic, was consecrated in that year first Bishop of Morocco (Analecta Ord. Pra>d., Ill, 374 sqq.). Someyearslatertheywerealrcady established at Tunis ["Mon. Ord. Pra;d.:"Hist.", IV (Harniusidiana), fasc. II, 29]. In 1256 and the ensuing years Alexan- der IV, at the instance of St. Raymond of Pennafort, gave a vigorous impulse to this mission (Potthast, 16,4.38; 17,187; 17,929).

In the north of Europe the province of England or that of Dacia carried its establishments as far as Greenland (Teli^, " L'evangelization de l'Am6rique avant Christophe Colomb" in "Compte rendu du congres sclent, intern, des Catholiques", 1891, sect, hist., 1721). As early as 1233 the province of Ger- many promoted the crusade against the Pnissians and the heretical Stedingers, and brought them to the Faith (Schomberg, "Die Dominikaner im Erzbistum Bremen", Brunswick, 1910, 14; "Bull. Ord. Pra-d.", I, 61; H. de Romanis, "Opera", II, 502). The pro^^nce of Poland, founded by St. Hyacinth (1221), extended its apostolate by means of this saint as far as Kieff and Dantizig. In 1246 Brother Ale.xis re- sided at the Court of the Duke of Russia, and in 1258 the Preachers evangelized the Ruthenians (Abraham, "Powstanie organizacyi KoScio lacins- kiego na Rusi", Lemberg, 1904; Rainaldi, "Annal. eccl.", ad ann. 1246, n. 30; Potthast, 17,186; Baracz, "Rys dziej6w Zakonn Kaznodzie jskiego w Polsce", Lemberg, 1861; Comtesse de Flavigny, "Saint Hyacinthe et ses compagnons", Paris, 1899). The province of Hungary, founded in 1221 by Bl. Paul of Hungary, evangeUzed the Cumans and the people of the Balkans. As early as 1235-37 Brother Richard and his companions set out in quest of Greater Hungary — the Hungarian pagans still dweUing on the Volga ("Vita Fratrum", ed. Reichert, 305; "De inventa Hungaria Magna tempore Gre- gorii IX", ed. Endlicher, in "Rerum Hungaricarum Monumenta", 248; Ferrarius, "De rebus Hungaricaj Provincia; S. Ord. Prsed.", Vienna, 1637).

The pro\ance of Greece, founded in 1228, occupied those territories of the empire of the East which had been conquered by the Latins, its chief centre of activity being Constantinople. Here also the Preachers laboured for the return of the schismatics to ecclesiastical unity ("Script. Ord. Prxd.", I, pp. i, xii. 102, 136, 1.56, 911; Potthast, 3198; "Vita; fratrum", 1218). The province of the Holy Land, established in 1228, occupied all the Latin conquest of the Holy Land besides Nicosia and Tripoli. Its houses on the Continent were destroyed one after the other with the defeat of the Christians, and at the beginning of the fourteenth century the province was reduced to the three convents on the Island of Cyprus ("Script. Ord. Prsd.", I, pp. i, xii; Balm__e, "La Province dominicaine de Terre-Sainte de 1277 k 1280" in "Archives de I'Orient Latin"; Idem, " Les franciscains et les dominicains a Jerusalem au treizieme et au quatorzieme siecle", 1890, p. 324). The province of the Holy Land was the starting point for the evangelization of Asia during the thirteenth century. As early as 1237 the provincial, Philip,