heretics without taking part in the war.[523:1] Whatever the fact may have been however, so far as the historical sources go, for the next eight years his life is a blank. No doubt he was wisely planning for the future. In 1206 the Bishop of Toulouse presented "to Dominic of Osma the church of St. Mary's of Prouille and the adjacent land to the extent of thirty feet" for the use of his women converts, who at first were nine noble ladies for whom he drew up a monastic rule. The convent soon became wealthy and influential. At the close of the war in 1214 Dominic, now forty-four years old, had made but little progress. His converts were few, his influence small, but the seeds were being sowed which would return a rich harvest. His character at this time reveals a man of earnest, resolute purpose; of deep, unalterable conviction; full of burning faith; kind of heart and ever cheerful; of winning manner and charitable beyond reason; yet given to scourgings and vigils till nature was nearly exhausted.[523:2]
Through the gift of Peter Cella, a rich man of Toulouse, Dominic founded in 1214 the monastery of St. Rouen near Toulouse which was the home of the Inquisition for over a hundred years. There he gathered some devout souls about him and they began to live like monks. The Bishop of Toulouse gave them one sixth of the tithes for their work. This was the beginning of the great Dominican order. The next step was to get papal sanction for the new organisation and for this purpose Dominic went with the Bishop of Toulouse to Rome. Innocent III., won through a
dream,[524:1] consented to sanction the order provided some known rule should be adopted. Consequently Dominic organised his monks according to the canons regular of St. Augustine, which was Dominic's own order. That rule, however, was almost immediately modified to meet the boundless plans and scope of the work which held Dominic captive. A grand master was put at the head of the order as absolute ruler and under him were provincial priors, elected during good behaviour. The friars were held to implicit obedience, as soldiers of Christ, but poverty was not at first a part of the rule. It was adopted only after the Franciscans had made it so attractive (1220). At stated times general and provincial assemblies were to be held to further the prosperity of the order.
Dominic now wisely took up his residence at Rome, where he was made court preacher, lived in the papal palace, and guided the activities of his new order. Honorius III. in 1216 sanctioned the needed changes in the rule, authorised the monks to preach and hear confessions everywhere, and took the order under his special protection.[524:2] Dominic's little band of sixteen followers—among whom were an Englishman, a German, and some Spaniards—were sent out into the world to begin the strenuous life of service. Laymen and ecclesiastics of all ranks hastened to join the order. When the second general assembly was held at Bologna in 1221 there were present representatives from sixty convents and eight provinces, representing Spain, France, England, Hungary, Poland, and Italy. This same year a secular organisation for both men and
women called "The Soldiers of Jesus Christ" was organised to convert the laymen, to fight heretics, and to win unbelievers. The members had a distinct dress and special rites and services.[525:1] Dominic died in a monastery at Bologna in 1221 and twelve years later was canonised.
A new constitution was adopted by the Dominicans in 1228 and revised and completed in 1241 and 1252. Members of the order devoted themselves exclusively to preaching, soul saving, fighting heresy, and in educating the people in the true faith. From the schools founded by the order came most of their recruits. They were the model preachers of the Middle Ages and the keenest theologians of the day, producing such men as Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. Among their numbers were found popes, cardinals, and famous doctors. The first Dominican to wear the papal tiara was Innocent V. in 1276, and he was succeeded by three others. The first cardinal to be chosen from their ranks was Hugh of Vienne in 1243, and he was followed by fifty-nine more. Among the famous doctors of the order were Albertus Magnus, Meister Echart, Johan Tauler, Henry Suso, Savonarola, Las Casas, and Vincent Ferrier. The Dominicans could boast of more than eight hundred bishops, one hundred and fifty archbishops, and the number of martyrs belonging to their order between 1234 and 1334 was thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy. So influential did they become and so dangerous to the prerogatives of the clergy[525:2] that Innocent IV. (1254), Boniface VIII.
(1300), and Clement VIII. (1311) were forced to curtail their privileges. In 1228 the first Dominican monk occupied a chair in the University of Paris and in 1230 another was added and from this time on they attempted to monopolise learning in the University. Scholasticism was largely the product of their minds. They were very active in missionary work and in 1245 they were sent to the Tartars by Innocent IV.; in 1249 to Persia by Louis IX.; in 1272 to China by Gregory X.; and they laboured among the Jews and Saracens in Spain, and in Poland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. They built monasteries and churches; and art and architecture are deeply indebted to them for many of the finest specimens produced in Europe.[526:1] The history of theology, philosophy, and science until the Renaissance and Reformation is little more than a petty controversial rivalry between them and the Franciscans.
The founder of the Franciscans, or Minorites, or Grey Friars, was Francis of Assisi. He was born in 1182 at Assisi of a rich mercantile family. He received a little learning from the parish priest, but manifested no love for school instruction. He knew Latin and learned some French while with his father on business in France. It was early determined that he should be educated for business. Reports concerning his early character show that he was cheerful and kind-hearted, careless and indifferent to work, vain and fond of fine clothes, prone to join comrades in dissipating carousals, and too fond of squandering his father's money in banquets for his friends.[526:2]
At the age of twenty Francis joined a war party against Perugia. He was taken captive and held for a year in prison and this seemed to sober him somewhat. Two serious illnesses led him to change his life and a series of visions determined his conduct (1208). He boldly and suddenly deserted his worldly companions and started out passionately on the path of self-denial. He was now twenty-six years of age. He declared that poverty should be his bride, and resolved to go to Rome to throw all his possessions on the altar of St. Peter. Upon his return journey he joined a gang of beggars and exchanged his clothes for the filthiest rags among them. Next he appropriated a quantity of his father's goods and sold them, together with the horse, to restore the church of St. Damiani. Then he hid a month in a cave and when he returned looking wild and haggard he was hooted and stoned in the streets. His father, alarmed and angered at his acts called him before the Bishop to force him to give up his patrimony. Francis stripped off all his clothing but his hair shirt and the Bishop covered him with an old cloak. Surrendering his inheritance and even his very clothing to his father he exclaimed: "Peter Bernardone was my father; I now have but one father, He that is in heaven." This was the keynote of his whole life.[527:1] From now henceforth he was consecrated to mendicancy, wandered about in a hermit's attire, devoted himself to the lepers, helped restore with his own hands four ruined churches, and resolved to work out his own salvation in loving service for the weak and needy—an evidence of his genuine conversion and a thing radically different from the Christianity of that period. One day in
February, 1209, the text rang in his ears: "Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither scrip for your journey, neither two coats nor shoes nor staff, for the labourer is worthy of his hire."[528:1] These strong words, coming from the priest who was celebrating mass in one of the little churches which Francis had helped to rebuild, pierced him like a revelation. "This is what I want," he cried; "this is what I was seeking; from this day forth I shall set myself with all my strength to put it in practice." Accordingly he threw away his wallet, staff, and shoes, and put on a rough grey tunic of coarse woollen cloth, girt by a hempen cord, and went barefooted through the land preaching repentance.[528:2] He lived now as a follower of the living Jesus,—"like the birds of the air,"—and his childish simplicity and radiating face made him beloved by the poor and a comfort to the troubled and sick.[528:3]