Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/572

 488 Outlines of European History hovel for his home ; and a great cliest was set up in the church to receive the offerings of those who desired to give. St. Dominic (b. 1 170), the Spanish founder of the other great mendicant order, was not a simple layman like Francis. He was a churchman and took a regular course of instruction in theology for ten years in a Spanish university. He then (1208) accompanied his bishop to southern France on the eve of the Albigensian crusade and was deeply shocked to see the preva- lence of heresy. His host at Toulouse happened to be an Albi- gensian, and Dominic spent the night in converting him. He then and there determined to devote his life to fighting heresy. By 1 2 14 a few sympathetic spirits from various parts of Europe had joined Dominic, and they asked Innocent HI to sanction their new order. The Pope again hesitated, but is said to have dreamed a dream in which he saw the great Roman Church of the Lateran tottering and ready to fall had not Dominic supported it on his shoulders. He interpreted this as meaning that the new organization might sometime become a great aid to the papacy, and gave it his approval. As soon as possible Dominic sent forth his followers, of whom there were but sixteen, to evangelize the world, just as the Franciscans were undertaking their first missionary journeys. By 122 1 the Dominican order was thoroughly organized and had sixty monasteries scattered over western Europe. " Wandering on foot over the face of Europe, under burning suns or chilling blasts, rejecting alms in money but receiving thankfully whatever coarse food might be set before the way- farer, enduring hunger in silent resignation, taking no thought for the morrow, but busied eternally in the work of snatching souls from Satan and lifting men up from the sordid cares of daily life" — in this way did the early Franciscans and Dominicans win the love and veneration of the people. • The Dominicans were called the " Preaching Friars " and were carefully trained in theology in order the better to refute the arguments of the heretics. The Pope delegated to them