Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/429

 PREACHERS

368E

PREACHERS

reported to Gregory IX extraordinary results ob- tained by the religious; the evangelization reached Jacobites and Nestorians, Maronites and Saracens (Script. Ord. Pra;d., I, 104). About the same titne the Friars established themselves in Armenia and in Georgia ("Bull. Ord. Pried.", I, lOS, "Script. O. P.", I, 122; H. de Romanis, "Opera", II, 502; Vine. Bellovacensis, "Speculum historiale", 1. b. XXI, 42; Tamarati, "L'Eglise Gi5orgienne des ori- gines jusqu'4 nos jours", Rome, 1910, 430).

The missions of Asia continued to develop through- out the thirteenth century and part of the fourteenth and missionaries went as far as Bagdad and India (Mandonnet, "Fra Ricoldo de Monte Croce" in "Revue bib.", I, 1S93; Balme, " Jourdain Cathala de S6verac, EvSque de Coulain" (Quilon), Lyons, 1S86]. In 1312 the master general, Beranger de Landore, or- ganized the missions of Asia into a special congrega- tion of "Friars Pilgrims", with Franco of Perugia as vicar general. As a base of evangelization they had the convent of Pera (Constantinople), Capha, Treb- izond, and Negropont. Thence they branched out into Armenia and Persia. In 1318 John XXII appointed Franco of Perugia Archbishop of Sultanieh, with six other Dominicans as suffragans. During the first half of the fourteenth century the Preachers oc- cupied many sees in the East. When the missions of Persia were destroyed in 1349, the Preachers pos- sessed fifteen monasteries there, and the United Brethren (see below) eleven monasteries. In 1358 the Congregation of Pilgrims still had two convents and eight residences. This movement brought about the foundation, in 1330, of the United Brethren of St. Gregory the Illuminator. It was the work of Bl. Bartolommeo Petit of Bologna, Bishop of Maragha, assisted by John of Kerni. It was formed by Armenian religious who adopted the Constitution of the Dominicans and were incorporated with the order after 1356. Thirty years after their foundation the United Brethren had in Armenia alone 50 monas- teries with 700 religious. This province still existed in the eighteenth century [Eubel, "Die wahrend des 14. Jahrhunderts im Missionsgebiet der Dominikaner und Franziskaner errichteten Bistlimer" in "Ferst- chrift des deutschen Campo Santo in Rom", Frei- burg i. Br., 1897, 170; Heyd, "Die Kolonien der romischen KLrche, welche die Dominikaner und Franziskaner im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert in dem von der Tataren beherrschten Landern Asiens und Europas gregriindet haben" in "Zeitschrift fiir die historische Theologie", 1858; Tournebize, "Hist. politique et religieuse de I'Armenie", Paris, s. d. (1910), 320; Andre-Marie, "Mi-ssions dominicaines dans I'Extreme Orient", Lyons and Paris, 1865; Mortier, "Hist, des maitres gcn^raux de I'ordre des Freres Precheurs", I, IV].

(m) The Preachers and Sanctity. — It is characteris- tic of Dominican sanctity that its saints attained holiness in the apostolate, in the pursuit or promotion of learning, administration, foreign missions, the papacy, the cardinalate, and the episcopate. Until the end of the fifteenth century the order in its three branches gave to the Church nine canonized saints and at least seventy-three blessed. Of the first order (the Preachers) are St. Dominic, St. Peter of Verona, martyr, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Raymond of Pcnnafort, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Antoninus of Florence. Among the Dominican saints in general there is a predominance of the intellectual over the emotional qualities; their mystical life is more sub- jective than objective; and asceticism plays a strong part in theii- holiness. Meditation on the sufferings of Christ and His love was common among them. Mystic states, with the phenomena which accompany them, were ordinary, especially in convents of women in German countries. Many received the stigmata in various forms. St. Thomas Aquinas and Meister

Eckhart were, from different standpoints, the greatest medieval theorists concerning the mystical state (Giffre de Rechac, "Les vies et actions m^morables des saints canonises de I'ordre des Freres Precheurs et de plusieurs bienheureux et illustres personnages du meme ordre", Paris, 1647; Marchese, "Sagro diario domenicano", Naples, 1668, 6 vols, in fol.; Manoel de Lima, "Agiologio dominico", Lisbon, 1709-54, 4 vols, in fol.; "Annee dominicaine", Lyons, 1883- 1909, 12 vols, in 4; Imbert-Gourbeyre, "La Stigma- tisatiou", Clermont-Ferrand, 1894; Thomas de Vallgormera, "Mystica theologia D. Thomae", Barcelona, 1662; Turin, 1911, re-ed. Berthier).

(2) Modern Period. — The modern period consists of the three centuries between the religious revolu- tion at the beginning of the sixteenth century (Prot- estantism) and the French Revolution with its con- sequences. The Order of Preachers, like the Church itself, felt the shock of these destructive revolutions, but its vitality enabled it to withstand them success- fully. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the order was on the way to a genuine renaissance when the Revolutionary upheavals occurred. The progress of heresy cost it six or seven provinces and several hundreds of convents, but the discovery of the New World opened up a fresh field of activity. Its gains in America and those which arose as a con- sequence of the Portuguese conquests in Africa and the Indies far exceeded the losses of the order in Europe, and the seventeenth century saw its highest numerical development. The sixteenth century was a great doctrinal century, and the movement lasted beyond the middle of the eighteenth. In modern times the order lost much of its influence on the polit- ical powers, which had universally fallen into ab- solutism and had little sympathy for the democratic constitution of the Preachers. The Bourbon Courts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were particularly unfavourable to them until the suppres- sion of the Society of Jesus. In the eighteenth century there were numerous attempts at reform which created, especially in France, geographical con- fusion in the administration. During the eighteenth century the tyrannical spirit of the European Powers and, still more, the spirit of the age lessened the num- ber of recruits and the fervour of religious life. The French Revolution ruined the order in France, and the crises which more or less rapidly followed consider- ably lessened or wholly destroyed numerous provinces.

(a) Geographical Distribution and Statistics. — The modern period saw a great change in the geo- graphical distribution of provinces and the number of religious in the order. The establishment of Protes- tantism in Anglo-Saxon countries brought about, during the sixteenth century, the total or partial disappearance of certain provinces. The jirovinces of Saxony, Dacia, England, and Scotland com- pletely disappeared; that of Teutonia was mutilated; that of Ireland sought refuge in various houses on the Continent. The discovery and evangelization of America opened up vast territories, where the first Dominican missionaries established themselves as early as 1510. The first province, with San Domingo and the neighbouring islands for its territory, was erected, under the name of the Holy Cross, in 1530. Others followed quickly — among them St. James of Mexico (1.532), St. John Baptist of Peru (1539), St. Vincent of Chiapa (1551), St. Antoninus of New Granada (1551), St. Catherine of Quito (1580), St. Lawrence of Chile (1502). In Europe the order developed constantly from the middle of the sixteenth century till the middle of the eighteenth. New provinces or congregations were formed. Under the government of Serafino Cavalli (1571-78) the order had thirty-one provinces and five congregations. In 1720 it had forty-nine provinces and four con- gregations. At the former date there were about