Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/212

 DOMINICANS sented himself to the archbishop of Canterbury, who sent them to labor in Oxford, where they l.uilt a chapel in honor of Our Lady, and' founded schools called "St. Edward's schools," from the parish in which they were situated. IJohert Grosseteste, bishop of Lin- coln, was so pleased with the new comers that he asked the general of the order to send him a Dominican as a coadjutor. Not only bishops, jealmis for the salvation of their flock, but princes such as Louis IX. of France, careful of tin- welfare of their subjects, eagerly sought to have near them men who could enlighten the multitude by their doctrinal expositions and edify them by a blameless life. This was the need of the age, pressed on the attention of bishops by the last council of the Lateran. They therefore spread rapidly, and, as Neander remarks, their advent was hailed everywhere as a benefit, among the poorer classes especially, to Avhose wants they ministered, and whose poverty and privations they willingly shared. Carrying out the oft expressed wish of their founder, they also crossed over into Asia, when- they did much both among the Moham- medans and eastern schismatics. In 1233 they were appointed conjointly with the Francis- cans to carry out the new rules of the inquisi- tion in France. Though this tribunal never exercised permanent authority outside of Lan- guedoc, the connection of the mendicant orders with it became a principal cause of unpopulari- ty in the rest of France. The use which the court of Rome made of the friars in collecting moneys added much to these commencements of di-tavor; while the ministrations for which they were called into the houses of the great made their enemies say they were afraid to reprove princes and prelates for their misdeeds. In 1245 occurred their first official departure from the rigorous poverty which had hitherto attracted many to the order of Dominic ; they were authorized by the holy see to accept do- nations and legacies. In 1277 the order had 35 convents for men in Spain, 52 in France, 32 in Tuscany, 46 in Lombardy, 53 in Germany, 36 in Poland, 28 in Denmark, and 40 in Eng- land, besides some in yther countries, and a large number of nunneries. In 1278 the con- vents amounted to 417; and the number went on increasing until the reformation, when they lost upward of 400 establishments in the Prot- estant countries. In the 15th century the Do- minicans were chosen to preside over the Spanish inquisition, when that tribunal became a state establishment. Under Philip II. and his successors, although ecclesiastics had but little to do with the working of that institution, the odium created by such men as Torquemada attached to the Dominicans in public estima- tion. With the rise of Jesuits about ir>.4:; came a iii-w er;i of rivalry and intellectual activity for the old monastic orders. In every centre of civili/ation in the old world, and on every tirld ,,f mi-sionary duty in the Kast and West, Jesuits and Dominicans vied with each other in learning and zeal. The latter had followed Albuquerque and his Portuguese to the East Indies, where they had founded everywhere flourishing missions; and there Francis Xavier found them at work when he began his career some 40 years later. The Dominicans follow- ed in like manner the Spaniards and Portu- guese to America. From 1503 to 1(51(5 no fewer than 16 "expeditions" were sent by the Dominicans to the Antilles and all parts of North and South America, each expedition made up of a large number of religious; be- sides which small bands of missionaries were. continually crossing the ocean to fill up the voids caused by death, &c. After the example of Las Casus, the friars preachers were every- where the benefactors of the native races, and their protectors against European brutality. In the middle of the last century the order possessed upward of 1,000 convents, distribu- ted into 45 provinces, 11 of the latter being out of Europe. By the French revolution they lost all their establishments in France and Belgium, and during the reign of Napoleon I. nearly all their convents in Germany, and very many in Italy. Three convents are allowed at this time (August, 1873) to remain open in Rome. Elsewhere throughout the Italian pen- insula they are suppressed by law. In Bologna, the cradle of the order, three priests and two lay brothers are permitted to live in a private house ; the grand old convent of St. Nicholas is shut up, the splendid church with all its trea- sures of art is ignored as a place of worship, and a few religious who still cling to the mem- ories of the place are allowed to visit it daily, and see that no harm befall its monuments. In the German empire the recent law suppress- ing the Jesuits makes no mention of the friars preachers. In France the order was restored by Lacordaire under Louis Philippe. Several houses were established by him, among them a flourishing college at Soreze, and another at Arcueil, near Paris, some of whose professors and pupils were massacred by the communists, May 19, 1870. There are at present two prov- inces of the order in France and one in Bel- gium. In England there are five Dominican convents, and in Ireland 12 with about 50 priests. In Spain, Portugal, and Russian Po- land they have ceased to exist. In the Aus- trian empire they are still tolerated. In the United States there are eight houses of the or- der, six east of the Rocky mountains and two in the Pacific states, -numbering in all TO priests. In Spanish and Portuguese America the Do- minicans lead a precarious existence, constant- ly exposed to the political caprices of the par- ties in power. In 187 - 2 they were expelled from Guatemala. In spite of these adverse circumstances, the Dominicans still maintain their missionary establishments in European Turkey, Asia Minor, Armenia, India, China, and Anam. Eastern Anam had at the begin- ning of this century 25 convents of native nuns, numbering some GOO inmates. In spite of the