Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/211

 DOMINICANS 203 silence in the interior of the monastery is dis- pensed with when strangers apply for spiritual instruction or comfort ; and no unnecessary time must be given to the recitation of the di- vine office in the church, or the performance of church ceremonies, when the duty of preach- ing and careful preparation for it are more ur- gent. 2. Each convent is governed by a "con- ventual prior;" each province, composed of a certain number of convents within a definite ter- ritory, by a " provincial prior;" and the whole order by a " master general " (magister genera- lis), called simply " general." Every charge, ' from the highest to the lowest, is elective. The conventual prior is chosen for three years by the priests in each convent who are six years professed ; the provincial prior is chosen for four years by the conventual priors, former pro- vincial priors residing in the province, function- aries called fellows (socii) of the provincial, chosen one by the members of each convent, and the priests appointed to the office of "preachers general;" the master general is elected every six years by the provincial priors, diffinitores chosen one by each province, who accompany the provincial to the general chap- ter, fathers enjoying the dignity of masters in theology, and former masters general. On the other hand, the general confirms the election of the provincials, and the provincials that of the conventual priors. General chapters, held at short intervals, control the administration of the general ; provincial chapters serve as a check upon the provincial prior ; while in each convent a council assists the prior in his gov- ernment of the house. This economy, equally removed from oppression and from license, is favorable to manly independence and natural freedom of action, and has preserved the order of preachers from the divisions which have rent asunder the Franciscans. It was the aim of their founder that strict poverty should be the corner stone of the edifice he was rearing ; hence the order was to accept no property that needed to be managed, but only the income derived from it. To this rule the Dominicans remained faithful until the multiplication of their houses, the apparent necessities of the times, the solicitations of princes and bishops, the authority and even the command of popes, gradually led them to modify and relax the stringency of the original legislation on the holding of property. In the first years of their existence their extreme poverty contributed not a little to their wonderful growth in num- bers, efficiency, and influence. They had early taken possession of Rome and Bologna, where their masters in theology, philosophy, and can- on law became the controlling intellectual power; and from these great centres they spread through all the chief towns of Italy. In Paris they, as well as the Franciscans, met from the very commencement with nothing but disfavor and opposition on the part of the uni- versity. In 1228 they obtained one professor- ship, and in 1230 a second. The popularity which their lectures enjoyed, and the superior- ity attributed to them by the public, excited even at that early period fierce denunciations against the "begging preachers and friars." But, besides the two public chairs in the uni- versity thus filled by the Dominicans, there were a considerable number of others teaching in the schools of Paris ; for it was the rule that no one should receive a degree of " master of arts " who had not taught for three years under the direction of the Parisian faculties. The Franciscans, too, were at that time neither less ambitious of intellectual preeminence, nor less successful, nor less numerous in the schools of Paris. So, besides the vehement emulation which existed between the two new mendicant orders, there arose a bitter hatred against both among the secular professors of the university. After many bickerings, this feeling broke out into a scandalous quarrel in 1252, on the occa- sion of a refusal by the friars to suspend their courses in conformity with the university rules. The friars and their disciples by public decree were for ever excluded from all university hon- ors, and the faculty went so far as to bind both professors and students by oath to maintain this exclusion. King and pope had to inter- fere ; and it was only in 1260 that a com- promise was effected which was most oppres- sive to the Dominicans. Still the two great orders persisted in sending to Paris their most renowned doctors and most promising scholars; and then began the intellectual contest between the two rival schools of philosophy and the- ology, represented by Dominicans and Francis- cans, which is the history of the European mind during the middle ages. Just as the quarrel with the university broke out Albertus Magnus had come to teach in Paris, bringing with him his disciple Thomas Aquinas, and to these two greatest names among the Domini- cans was soon added Vincent of Beauvais. On the side of the Franciscans were found Roger Bacon, Alexander of Hales, John Duns Scotus, and St. Bonaventura. The theological suprem- acy which the teaching of Thomas Aquinas soon gave to the friars preachers, together with the undisputed control exercised by them in the schools of Bologna, and the official posi- tion as supreme theological and literary cen- sors held in Rome by the "masters of the sa- cred palace," continued down to the time of the Jesuits to exercise decided influence over the intellectual life of Europe. Their mission- ary activity meanwhile kept pace with their mental culture. When the second general chapter of the order was held in Bologna in 1221, under St. Dominic himself, 60 conven- tual establishments were already in existence. The field over which their labors actually o^ prospectively extended was mapped out intc eight provinces, among which were England and Hungary ; and before the assembly dis- persed, Dominic despatched missionaries to take possession of these two kingdoms. Gil- bert de Frassinet with 12 companions soon pre-