Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/434

 PREACHING

370

PREADAMITES

remaining unfavourable to the institution. Never- theless, the Third Order continued to exist; one of its fraternities, that of Siena, was especially flourishing, a list of its members from 1311 being extant. The sisters numbered 100 in 1352, among them she who was to become St. Catherine of Siena. They num- bered 92 in 137S. The reforming movement of Raymund of Capua, confessor and historian of St. Catherine, aimed at the spread of the Thti-d Order; in this Thomas Caffarini of Siena was especially active. The Dominican Third Order received new approbation from Boniface IX, IS January, 1401, and on 27 April of the following year the pope pub- lished its rule in a Bull, whereupon its development received a fresh impetus. It never became very widespread, the Preachers having sought quality rather than number of tertiaries. St. Catherine of Siena, canonized in 1461, is the patroness of the Third Order, and, following the example of her who has been called the Joan of Arc of the papacy, the Dominican tertiaries have always manifested special devotion to the Roman Church. Also in imitation of their patroness, who WTote splendid mystical works, they endeavoured to acquire a special knowl- edge of their religion, as befits Christians in- corporated with a great doctrinal order. The Third Order has given several blessed to the Church, be- sides St. Catherine of Siena and St. Rose of Lima. For several centuries there have been regular con- vents and congregations belonging to the Third Order. The nineteenth century witnessed the es- tablishment of a large number of regular congrega- tions of tertiaries devoted to works of charity or education. In 1S95 there were about 53 congrega- tions, with about 800 establishments and 20,000 members. In the United States there are flourishing convents at Sinsinawa (Wisconsin), Jersey City, Traverse (Michigan), Columbus (Ohio), Albany (New York), and San Francisco (California).

In 1852 Pere Lacordaire founded in France a congregation of priests for the education of youth called the Third Teaching Order of St. Dominic. It is now regarded as a special province of the Order of Preachers, and had flourishing and select colleges in France at OuUins (18.53), Soreze (1854), Arceuil (1863), Arcachon (1875), Paris (Ecole Lacordaire, 1890). These houses have ceased to be directed by Dominicans since the persecution of 1903. The teaching Dominicans now have the College Lacor- daire at Buenos Aires, Champittet at Lausanne (Switzerland), and San Sebastian (Spain). During the Paris Commune four martjTS of the teaching order died in company with a priest of the First Order, 25 May, 1871. One of them, Pere Louis- Raphael Captier, was an eminent educator (Man- donnet, "Les regies et le gouvernement de I'ordo de Pcenitentia au Xllle siecle" in "Opuscules de cri- tique historique", IV, Paris, 1902; Federici, "Istoria de' Cavalieri Gaudenti", Venice, 1787).

P. M.\.VDOXNET.

Preaching. See Ho.mil^tics.

Preadamites, the supposed inhabitants of the earth prior to Adam. Strictly speaking, the ex- pression ought to be limited to denote men who had perished before the creation of Adam; but commonly even Coadamites are called Preadamites, pro\'ided they spring from a stock older than Adam. The question whether we can admit the existence of Preadamites in the strict sense of the word, i. e. the existence of a human race (or human races) ex- tinct before the time of Adam or before the Divine action described in Gen., i, 2 sqq., is as little con- nected with the truth of our revealed dogmas as the question whether one or more of the stars are in- habited by rational beings resembling man. Palmieri

("De Creatione", Prato, 1910, p. 281, thes. xxx) does not place any theological censure on the opinion

maintaining the past existence of such Preadamites, and Fabre d'Envieu C'Les Origines de la terre et de I'homme", Paris, 1873, lib. XI, prop. 1) defends the theory as probable. But the case is quite dif- ferent with regard to the %aew upholding the existence of Preadamites taken in the common acceptation of the term. It maintains that the men existing before Adam continued to coexist with Adam and his progeny, thus destroj-ing the unity of the himaan race. Palmieri (loc. cit.) brands it as heretical, and Father Pesch ("DeDeo creante et elevante", Frei- burg, 1909, n. 154) endorses this censure; Esser (Kirchenlex., s. v. Praadamiten) considers it as only theologically certain that there were no Coadamites who were not the progeny of Adam and Eve. Ac- cording to the nature of the arguments advanced in favour of the heretical Preadamite theory, we may di\'ide it into scientific and Scriptural Preadamism.

I. Scientific Pre.vd.\mism. — There are no scien- tific arguments which prove directly that the progeny of a Preadamite race coexisted with the descendants of Adam. The direct conclusion from scientific premises is either the great antiquity of the human race or its multiplicity. In either case, or even in the combination of both, the existence of Preadamites depends on a new non-scientific premise, which is at best onl}- an assumption. From the great number of men, from their racial varieties, from the difference of languages, we cannot even infer that all men can- not spring from a common stock, while the ancient national traditions of the Oriental nations, and the pala-ontological finds do not even show that the human race existed before our Biblical times; much less do these premises furnish any solid basis for the Pre- adamite theory. (For the unity of the human race and its antiquity see R-\CE, Hu.m.^x.)

II. ScRiPTUR.\L Pre.vd.^mism. — Pesch (loc. cit.) considers it doubtful whether Origen adhered to the Preadamite theory, but leaves no room for doubt as to Julian the Apostate. But these opinions are only a matter of historical interest. In 1555, how- ever. Isaac de La Peyrere, a Cah-inist of a noble family of Bordeaux and a follower of the Prince of Condc, published in close succession two works: ''Praeadamitie, seu Exercitationes super versibus 12, 13, et 14 ep. Pauh ad Romanes", and "Systema theologicum ex Praeadamitarum h^-pothesi. Pars prima". He maintained that Adam is not the father of the whole human race, but only of the Chosen People. The Jews spring from Adam and Eve, while the Gentiles are the descendants of ancestors created before Adam. The creation of these latter took place on the si.xth day, and is related in Gen., i, 26 sqq., while Adam was formed after the rest on the seventh day as narrated in Gen., ii, 7. Adam and his progeny were to live and develop in Paradise, but they were to observe the law of Paradise. The sin of Adam was more grievous than the sins of the Gen- tiles: for he sinned against the law, while the Gen- tiles sinned only against nature. This distinction the writer bases on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, V, 12-14: "Until the law [given to Adam]", so La PejTere explains the passage, "sin [committed by the Gentiles) was in the world; but sin [of the Gentiles] was not imputed, when the law was not [given to Adam]", .\gain, those "who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam" are the Preadamite Gentiles. La PejTcre confirmed hia h^'pothesis by an appeal to other Scriptural passages: Cain's fear of being killed (Gen., iv, 14), his flight, his marriage, his building of a city (Gen., iv, 15, 16), are pointed out !i,s so many indications of the exist- ence of other men than Adam and Eve. The author also claims that ancient Jewish and Mohammedan tradition favours his Preadamite theory.