St Dominic Biography. Saint Dominic Rosary, Life, Feast Day, Prayer and quotes.

St Dominic

BAPTISM OF ST. DOMINIC.

CHAPTER I.

CHILDHOOD AND UNIVERSITY LIFE. 1170 1195.

THE traveller who makes his way from the city of Osma to the neighbouring town of Aranda in Old Castile, after cross- ing a barren and undulating plain of vast extent, finds himself about half-way on his route at the entrance of a little village which clusters at the foot of the mountains, whilst somewhat higher up their slope may be seen a huge pile of buildings easily to be recognized as those of a convent. Among them, together with other more modern erections, there appears a massive square tower of ancient date, surrounded by a court- yard and a little flower garden. This is all which now remains of the castle of the Guzmans, lords in the twelfth century of the surrounding territory ; and the village is none





2 THE FAMILY OF GUZMAN.

Bother than " the fortunate ^Calaroga/^ destined to a happy immortality as the birthplace of the great Patriarch St. Dominic. In the large and handsome church attached to the convent, where a community of his religious daughters guard with their prayers what is now one of the holy places of Spain, is shown in front of the sanctuary a square space surrounded by a balustrade, on which a handsome monument has recently been erected. This, which is supposed to mark the exact site of his birth, is called the Ctma, and a crystal well has sprung up on the spot, the water of which is

.. devoutly drunk by pilgrims.

[ There, then, in the year 1170, during the Pontificate of

Alexander III., was born the most illustrious member of a family not the least noble among the grandees of Spain. There appears every probability that the ancestors of the Guzmans were oLjaorthern, not of Latin, extraction ; and whilst some adduce proofs of their being originally Visigoths, others are not wanting who claim for them an Anglo-Saxon descent. 1 To whatever nation we may trace their remote ancestry, it is certain that the house of Guzman amply justified its claims to nobility both of rank and character. The records of the family preserve the memory of a long line of warriors and statesmen, whose names fill an honourable place in the history of their country. One of these was the gallant knight, Nugno de Guzman, who took part in the siege of Toledo, when that city was recovered from the Moors by Alphonsus VI. Of his two grandsons, the youngest was Don Felix Guzman, father to our saint, from whose elder brother, Alvar Diaz, descended the main branch of a family allied to many a noble house, and even to the royal blood of Castile. These alliances, and the privileges granted to the Guzmans by successive sovereigns, are set forth at length in the pages of more than one historian, and need not be repeated here. But the immediate ancestors of St. Dominic have a claim to our notice, on other and far higher grounds than the nobility of their pedigree. He was born of a family of saints. Felix

1 See Annes Dominicaine, August, 1889.





PARENTS OF ST. DOMINIC. 3

Guzman took in marriage Joanna of Aza, 2 belonging, according to Castiglio, to a noble Castilian family, though Pere Jean de Rechac asserts her claim to be regarded as a daughter of the ducal house of Brittany. But, if authorities differ as to the genealogy of Joanna, they one and all agree in bearing testimony to her sanctity, and in our own time she has been formally enrolled among the Blessed of the Order. Don Felix was not unworthy to be her husband, and the household over which they ruled was so remarkable for its piety and good order, that it was commonly said rather to resemble that of a monastery than of a knightly castle. Of their three sons, Antonio, the eldest, became a secular priest, and, enamoured of holy poverty, distributed his patrimony to the poor, and retired to a hospital, supposed to have been that of St. Mary Magdalen, attached to the neighbouring monastery of Silos, where he spent the re- mainder of his days humbly ministering to the sick. Manes, the second son, also embraced the ecclesiastical state, and is said by the historians of Silos to have taken the Benedictine habit in the monastery of Gumiel d'Izan, a filiation from Silos, which afterwards passed into the hands of the Cister- cians. At a later period, as we shall see, he became one of the first members of the Order of Preachers.

By the dedication of both their sons to the service of the sanctuary, Don Felix and his wife were left without an heir to carry on the succession of their family, and desiring greatly to obtain from heaven the gift of yet another son, Donna Joanna resolved to present her petition to God through the intercession of St. Dominic of Silos, a saint at that time renowned throughout Spain by the fame of his miracles.

The monastery of Silos, which stands in the near vicinity of Calaroga, was, at the time of which we write, a majestic pile, the resort of pilgrims from every part of Spain ; and not only the shrine of the saint, but the very gates of the monastery, were thickly covered with votive offerings,





2 Aza is a small town not far from Aranda, on the southern bank of the Douro.





4 HIS BIRTH AND BAPTISM.

specially with the chains of captives who had recovered their liberty from slavery amongst the Moors by invoking the saint of Silos. Time has respected the ancient abbey, which, though shorn of much of its former magnificence, still contains his holy relics, preserved in a silver urn ; and together with them, are shown the chalice used by the saint when celebrating Mass, his abbatial staff, and the little cell where he breathed his last sigh. The rugged mountain road by which the abbey is approached is probably the same as that traversed by Joanna, and the pilgrim may still kneel on the spot where, seven centuries ago, she offered her fervent prayers. With the approbation of the abbot, Joanna began a novena, spending not her days only, but her nights also in the church, the hard pavement of which was her only bed. On the seventh day of the novena the saint appeared to her, and declared to her that her prayers were heard, and that she would become the mother of a son who should be the light of the Church and the terror of heretics. In gratitude she offered to the saint the child who was to be given her through his intercession, and promised that in memory of this favour he should bear the name of Dominic. And it is added that before his birth she beheld her son in a dream or vision, represented under the figure of a black and white dog, holding in his mouth a torch which kindled and illuminated the entire world.

The child thus obtained by prayer seemed marked even from his cradle as specially chosen for the service of God. The noble lady who held him at the font saw, as the water was poured on his head, a brilliant star shining on his fore- head, a circumstance which has been thought worthy of notice in the Breviary Office for his feast

Stella micans in fronte parvuli Novum jubar praemonstrat saeculi.

Nor can we resist connecting this well-attested tradition with the beautiful description of his appearance in after-life, given by his spiritual daughter the Blessed Cecilia of Rome, who tells us that " from his forehead, and between his brows,





HIS INFANCY. 5

there shone forth, as it were, a radiant light which filled men with respect and love."

We read also that whilst still an infant his father, Don Felix, with others of the household, beheld a swarm of bees settle on those lips, which were hereafter so eloquently to declare the Word of God ; and at the same tender age, he was one day found by his nurse lying on the bare ground, though by what means he had left the cradle remained un- explained. The fact was remembered in after-years, as a token of that love of poverty and mortification which was to mark his future career, and to which Pope Gregory IX. refers in the Bull of his canonization, when he declares him to have waged a life-long war against all the delights of the flesh. 3 These and other prodigies disposed his parents to regard him as called to no ordinary destiny ; and, as in the days of the Baptist, they said one to another, " W T hat manner of child is this, think you ? for the hand of the Lord is surely with him."

In fact, his conduct in those early years seemed to justify the presages which had been formed regarding him. It was^ his happiness to grow up in tfie atmosphere of a holy house- hold, and to receive his first impressions from the teaching and example of a saintly mother, from whom he received two lessons which in after-years bore precious and abundant fruit. He learnt from her the habit of prayer and the habit of charity. Even when her son was almost an infant, Joanna was in the habit of carrying him with her to daily Mass, at which he assisted with precocious intelligence, in that parish church which still stands, poor and unpretending in its exterior, in much the same condition which it exhibited seven hundred years ago. And among the scanty notices preserved of her life is one which reveals her tender love of the poor, whose wants she relieved with so generous a hand as to deserve a special token of Divine approval. For having distributed in alms all the wine contained in a certain barrel, it was found miraculously refilled.

a " Sagittante delicias carnis."





6 HIS EDUCATION.

These lessons were not thrown away on the heart of the little Dominic. Never was he seen to' take part in the trifles common to his years. His recreation was to be taken to the church, where he would repeat the little prayers he had been taught by his mother, and listen with delight to the sacred psalmody. At an age when reason had not yet fully dawned he displayed a certain instinctive love of penance. The action reported of him when yet in his cradle was again and again repeated during his childhood, and he would often rise from his little bed and pass the night on the bare ground. 4 In the words of Blessed Jordan, "he seemed at once both young and old, for whilst the fewness of his years proclaimed him to be still a child, the sagacity of his demeanour and the steadiness of his character seemed rather to belong to one who had reached maturity." 5

These dispositions filled the hearts of his parents with joy and thankfulness, and they considered how best to guard the treasure committed to their care, and to cultivate those seeds of Divine grace that had been so liberally sown in his soul. In those days it was the custom for the sons of noble families to receive their education, not in their own homes, but as pages in the household of some baron or ecclesiastic. This education generally began at the age of seven, and it was, therefore, quite in accordance with the manners of the times that at this age Dominic should leave his parents' roof and be placed under other care. The home which they chose for him, however, was no baronial castle, where he would have been trained in the hall and the tilt-yard, and taught the accomplishments of a perfect knight. Apparently by his mother's desire he was sent to the house of her brother, the Parchpriest of the church of Gumiel d'Izan, a town about ^Twenty miles north-west of Calaroga, and the place of sepulture of the family of Guzman. Under the care of his uncle, a man of great prudence and piety, Dominic began his first studies, and prosecuted them with characteristic ardour. His whole time was divided between reading, prayer, and the service of the altar. Closely attached to his 4 Theodoric, c. i. n. 14. 5 Jordan, c. i. n. 6.





HIS LIFE AT GUMIEL D IZAN. 7

uncle's company, he followed all the offices of the Church, and took great delight in the ecclesiastical chant, the study of which in those days formed almost as essential a branch of liberal education as that of the Latin tongue or grammar. It was also his duty to serve at Mass, and to attend to the care of the sanctuary, and these duties he discharged as a labour of love, bearing himself with wonderful reverence in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, sweeping the chapels, adorning the altars, and joyfully performing every humble office, whilst from time to time he recreated his soul by singing the hymns of the Church. 6 As he was endowed with an excellent understanding, he made rapid progress in his studies, but did not on that account relax in his exercises of piety. "If he prayed," says Rechac, " it was with ardour ; if he studied it was with attention ; if he sang he did so with fervour, and an angelic modesty ; if he conversed it was with humility." Specially was he observed to shun all that could tarnish the spotless purity of his soul, and in the words of Theodoric, " as a child of election, he guarded innocence, loved cleanness of heart, and preserved good discipline." Thus seven more happy years passed away, some portion of which, it appears probable, was spent in the neighbouring monastic school of La Vigne, of the Order of Premontre, governed at that time by another of his uncles, Don Dominic Garcia d'Aza, whose tomb is still shown, and bears an inscription declaring him to have had " the incom- parable honour of being the preceptor of St. Dominic, the founder of the Friars Preachers."

But at the age of fourteen it became necessary to consider what further steps should be taken to complete his education and fit him for his future career. That a youth of his dispositions should make choice of the ecclesiastical state could hardly be matter of surprise, nor, in spite of their desire to perpetuate their family, did his parents place any





6 The parish church of Gumiel still stands, and contains many memorials of the saint. The house occupied by his uncle is also shown, a few paces from the church.





8 HIS STUDIES AT PALENCIA.

obstacle in the way of his vocation. 7 Desiring on the contrary to further it by every means in their power, they / resolved on sending him to Palencia, the public schools of which city were at that time renowned throughout Spain for their excellence, though they did not obtain the privileges of a University till fifteen years later. 8 There he followed the usual course of rhetoric and philosophy, not omitting several branches of natural science ; but though he applied himself with diligence and success to the acquisition of humane letters, it was with yet greater eagerness that he entered on the study of theology and the Holy Scriptures. 11 Thirsting after these streams of living water," says Blessed Jordan, " they became sweeter than honey to his mouth." For the space of four years he gave himself up w r ith such indefatigable ardour to the pursuit of sacred science, that he deprived himself of sleep, and spent the greater part of the night as well as of the day in study ; and his memory was so retentive that it became a prodigious storehouse of heavenly maxims. Nor was he content without reducing them to practice. As Blessed Jordan beautifully remarks, " his was one of those blessed souls of whom the Gospels declare that they not only hear the Word of God, but keep it. And as there are two ways of keeping the Word of God and a double sanctuary, whereof one is the memory and the other the heart, so the Blessed Dominic was not satisfied with hearing and retaining the Divine Word, but let it penetrate deeply into his soul, until its fruits shone forth in works worthy of salvation." He was intimately con- vinced that a knowledge of Divine Truth can never be fully

7 There is some reason for supposing that Joanna had other children born after St. Dominic. Flaminius speaks of two of his nephews who entered the Order of Preachers, and of a third who, at the age of fifteen, went to Rome to attend the Jubilee of 1200, and lived to return thither at the next Jubilee of 1300, making oath before the reigning Pontiff Boniface VIII. as to the fact of his former visit. We also read of two other nephews who were present at the great battle against the Moors of Nava los Tolosas; but it is possible that by the name of nephews is to be understood a more distant kinsmanship.

8 This University was afterwards incorporated with that of Salamanca by King Ferdinand III.





HIS CHARACTER AS A STUDENT. g

acquired by those who neglect to subjugate the flesh to the spirit ; and with this view, for ten years, he never broke the rule he had imposed on himself, when entering the schools, of abstaining entirely from wine. We read also that he took no part in the amusements of his young companions, that he scrupulously avoided the company of women, and that, faithful to the habits of his childhood, he most often took his scanty slumbers on the ground, or even on the cold stones. 9 " It was a thing most marvellous and lovely to behold," says Theodoric of Apoldia, "this man, a boy in years, but a sage in wisdom ; superior to the pleasures of his age he thirsted only after justice ; and not to lose time, he preferred the bosom of his holy mother the Church, to the aimless and objectless life of the foolish world around him. The sacred repose of her tabernacles was his resting- place, his time was equally divided between prayer and study; and God rewarded the fervent love with which he kept His commandments, by bestowing on him such a spirit of wisdom and understanding, as made it easy for him to resolve the most deep and difficult questions." 10

But among the virtues which he practised, two shone forth with special lustre, his angelic modesty^and his tender ^j com passion for the_oor. He had early learnt that secret- of the saints, which teaches them to place their innocence under the protection of the Queen of Virgins. From his childhood upwards, Dominic had showed himself her faithful client and servant. Some writers assure us that the devotion of the Rosary had already been revealed to him, and that he was in the habit of using it daily. 11 If this statement be held as doubtful, we have more authentic assurance of the singular love which he bore for the Angelic Salutation and the Our Father, "which latter prayer," says Bartholomew of Trent, " he never wearied of repeating." Nor did his application to study in any degree interrupt his practices of

8 Theod. c. i. n. 18.

10 Ibid.

11 Rechac, who bases his assertion on the authority of Alan de la Roche.





10 HIS CHARITY DURING A FAMINE.

devotion, which he very early reduced to rule, having, according to Flaminius, fixed times for prayer and medita- tion. 12 >

He was just finishing his course of theology, when an opportunity occurred for manifesting that singular com- passion for every form of suffering with which his heart ( overflowed. In the year 1191 the whole of Spain was desolated by a terrible famine, felt with peculiar severity in the provinces of Leon and Old Castile. The city of Palencia shared in the general misery, which the citizens showed but little disposition to relieve.

But their languid charity was shamed by the example of our young student. Not content with giving away every- thing he possessed in alms, Dominic, when his money was exhausted, sold his clothes, his furniture, and more precious than all beside, his very books, which as one writer tells us, were commented by his own hand, manu sud glossatos, and distributed the price to the starving multitudes. To estimate the cost of such a sacrifice, we must remember the rarity and value of manuscripts in the twelfth century. Yet when his companions expressed astonishment that he should thus deprive himself of the means of carrying on his studies, he replied in words preserved by one of his own followers, and treasured by after-writers as the first from his lips that have come down to posterity. " Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men were dying of hunger ? " u

So noble an example seems to have kindled the flame of charity in the hearts of those who witnessed it. The professors and students contributed generous alms, the citizens threw open their granaries ; and their united efforts soon relieved the most urgent needs of the sufferers.

A yet more heroic act of charity is recorded by all his biographers, and appears to belong to about the same date. Finding a poor woman in great distress on account of her son who had been taken captive by the Moors, Dominic, whose funds had been entirely exhausted during the time of

12 " Orationes et contemplationes, quibus se totum statis horis dedebat." 13 Stephen of Spain. 14 Ibid.





DEATH OF HIS PARENTS. II

the famine, desired her to sell him and release her son with the price; but needless to say, the generous proposal was not accepted. >

The example of such a life could hardly fail to make itself felt among his fellow-students. As those who knew him best assure us Dominic possessed in a very high degree that gift by which certain souls communicate themselves to others. " No one ever spoke with him without being better." No wonder, therefore, that many of his companions were drawn to God through his influence, and among them we are told was a young German student, Conrad d'Urach, who, touched by the Spirit of God, entered the Cistercian Order, of which he eventually became Abbot General. He was afterwards created a Cardinal and proved himself, as we shall see, a staunch friend and protector of the Order of Preachers. 15

Dominic's course of studies at the University lasted ten years, of which six were devoted to the study of arts and four to theology. During this time he seems to have lost both his parents. The precise date of their death is not recorded, but we know that the bodies of both were interred in the church of the Cistercian monastery of Gumiel, whence in the year 1318 the remains of Blessed Joanna were trans- ported to Penafiel, where the Infant Don John Emmanuel had founded a convent of Friars Preachers attached to his own castle. A magnificent monument was erected over her place of burial with an inscription which bears witness to her reputed sanctity : Hie jacent ossa Sancta Joanna uxoris D.D. Felicis de Guzman Patris B. Patriarchs Dominici. Ejus pice memories dicatum a filiis.

15 Malvenda, 1222, cc. 18, 19; Rechac, p. 44.





CHAPTER II.

THE SUBPRIOR OF OSMA. 11941206.

THE city of Osma, which in our own day scarcely exceeds ^ the limits of a village, was in the twelfth century a place of no small importance, and was built upon the site of a yet more ancient Roman city, remains of which may still be seen occupying the summit of the hill on the sides of which the modern Osma stands. No picturesque beauty of any kind marks the neighbourhood ; but rather a desolate severity, fitter to nurture its inhabitants in habits of labour and austerity than to prove a home of luxury or the arts. At the time to which our history belongs however, Osma, besides its importance as a frontier city, was about to become the centre of a noteworthy ecclesiastical reform. In 1194 its see was filled by Don Martin de Bazan, a prelate of eminent holiness and most zealous for the restoration of Church discipline. Following the plan then adopted in ^most European countries, to which moreover he was strongly urged by the recommendation of Pope Alexander III., he had engaged in the difficult task of converting the canons of his cathedral into Canons Regular, an arrangement by which they became subject to stricter ecclesiastical discipline and community life. In this labour he was greatly assisted by one whose name will ever have a peculiar interest to the children of St. Dominic Don Diego de Azevedo, the first prior of the reformed chapter, who afterwards succeeded Don Martin in the episcopal see of Osma. Noble by birth, he was no less distinguished by the sanctity of his life. "Loving God above all things," says Theodoric, " he





HE BECOMES A CANON REGULAR. 13

counted himself as nothing, and thought only how to gain the greatest number of souls to Christ." The name of Dominic and the reputation no less of his holiness than of his learning were naturally well known both to the bishop and to Diego, who determined to secure him, if possible, as a member of the new community, not doubting that his influence and example would powerfully assist their efforts ' at reform. In his twenty-fifth year, therefore, 1 Dominic received the habit of the Canons Regular, the white tunic and linen rochet, over which in choir a black mantle was also worn ; and as he thus outwardly assumed the livery of religion, so did he clothe himself inwardly with the new man in Christ Jesus. Together with the Rule of St. Augustine he embraced all the observances of religious life ; and the influence of his character was so soon felt and appreciated by his brethren, that though the youngest among them, he was shortly afterwards elected Subprior, an office which included the duties of archdeacon. In this position Dominic applied himself without delay to acquire the virtues proper to his state, that he might himself follow the way of per- fection he was required to teach to others.

It was with this purpose, that choosing for his authority the pure wells of antiquity, he took for his text-book the Conferences of Cassian; not reading them alone, but entering into their very pith and savour, and learning from them the precious secrets of the spiritual life. The foundations of that life he placed in humility, omitting no means whereby





1 Echard supposes that St. Dominic did not take the Canon's habit till the year 1198, when he would have been twenty-eight years of age, and imagines him to have spent the intervening years teaching at Palencia. This supposition rests on the single fact that the letter of Pope Innocent III. approving the reform at Osma, bears that date ; whence it is argued, that he could not have received the habit at an earlier period. But though the reform then received its final approval, it is quite evident that it took several years fully to accomplish, St. Dominic probably bearing his part in the good work. Nor is there the smallest evidence of his having remained at Palencia after the expiration of his ten years of study. On the contrary, it is distinctly stated that, at the end of those ten years, by the command of Diego, he returned to the moderate use of wine. Diego therefore was at that time already his Superior.





14 HIS LIFE AS A RELIGIOUS.

Jie might ground himself in that queen of virtues. " In lowliness of heart he esteemed others better than himself: on the canons, his colleagues, he lavished every mark of veneration and respect, and regarding himself as the last of all, he showed himself ever ready to take the lowest place." J Blessed Jordan of Saxony has left us a beautiful picture of his manner of life at this period.

" Now it was," he says, " that he began to appear among his brethren like a bright burning torch, the first in holiness, the last in humility, spreading about him an odour of life which gave life and a perfume like the sweetness of summer days. Day and night he was in the church, praying as it were without ceasing. God gave him the grace to weep for sinners and for the afflicted ; he bore their sorrows in an inner sanctuary of holy compassion, and so this loving compassion which pressed on his heart, flowed out and escaped in tears. It was his custom to spend the night in prayer, and to speak to God with his door shut. But often there might be heard the voice of his groans and sighs, which burst from him against his will. His one constant petition to God was for the gift of a true charity ; for he was persuaded that he could not be truly a member of Christ unless he consecrated himself wholly to the work of gaining souls, following the example of Him, Who sacrificed Himself without reserve for our redemption." Theodoric tells us that these fervent prayers were accompanied by practices of penance so severe, that they had to be moderated by his superiors. " He macerated his body by fasts and prolonged abstinence, so as hardly to take what sufficed for the support of nature. He neither ate flesh-meat with the canons his brethren, nor refused it, but was accustomed to hide it in the food. In compassion for his weakness the venerable Bishop Diego obliged him to resume the use of wine from which he had abstained for ten years ; but though he obeyed, he took it only in small quantities and largely diluted with water." 3 The long lapse of centuries has not effaced the memory of the saint whose presence once cast the perfume 2 Theodoric, 23. 3 Ibid. 24.





HIS LIFE AS A RELIGIOUS. 15

of holiness over the cloisters of Osma. The stall he occupied in the choir is still religiously shown, and as a mark of vene- ration is never occupied by any of the canons ; and his cell is likewise preserved, wherein it is said, may yet be discerned traces of the blood shed in his nightly disciplines.

Some writers have attempted to prove that during the period of his life at Osma, Dominic was engaged in a variety of apostolic labours, and preached in many parts of Spain, and even of France. Of this, however, there is no sufficient evidence ; on the contrary, the testimony of his earliest biographers is express, that he was rarely seen outside the walls of his monastery. 4 Nevertheless as the words above quoted from Blessed Jordan abundantly testify, he was already consumed by that noble passion for souls which was to set its seal and impress on his after-career. " His zeal for perishing souls," says Theodoric, " was a continual and painful wound in his heart, for God had given to him the gift of a perfect charity." Even at this early period, we read that he had conceived the project of going one day to preach the faith to the Cuman Tartars, then ravaging the fold of Christ in Hungary and the neighbouring countries. Diego, to whom in the confidence of friendship he revealed his design, not only encouraged him, but even desired to take part in the glorious enterprise. In the silence of the cloister the Subprior of Osma was in fact being trained for his future apostolate. And in this, as in so many other respects, he resembled his great master and model, St. PatdJ who prepared in the deserts of Arabia to carry the Word of God before the Gentiles, 5 and whose writings and example, we know from certain evidence, he had early made his favourite study. 6 Theodoric tells us that he was profoundly versed in every part of the Sacred Scriptures, whether of the Old or New Testament, but that his favourite portions were the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistles of St. Paul,

4 "Extra septa monasterii vix unquam comparuit " (Theod. 23). 6 Galat. i. 17.

6 "Epistolas Pauli multum studebat et eas fere corde tenus retinere " (Theod. 195).





l6 EMBASSY TO THE MARCHES.

which he studied so constantly as to know them almost by heart. Not only the doctrine, but the character of the great Apostle touched a responsive chord within his soul : on that model he seems to have shaped his whole idea of an apostolic life ; and during those nine years of hidden communing with God it cannot be doubted that precious seeds were sown which needed but the Divine call to ripen into action. The immediate circumstances which led the way to his entering on a more active career did not seem of a kind from which any vast results might have been anticipated. In 1203, Don Diego, who had succeeded to the bishopric of Osma a few years previously, was selected by Alphonsus VIII., King of Castile, to negotiate a marriage for his eldest son, as it is commonly said, with a princess of Denmark. Consider- able doubt, however, hangs over the accuracy of this state- ment. As a fact, neither Blessed Jordan, nor Theodoric of Apoldia, make any mention whatever either of the princess or of Denmark. The former says that the King desired a marriage between his son Ferdinand and a certain noble lady of the Marches, quandam nobilem de M archils. Theodoric omits all reference to the marriage, and simply says that Diego was sent as ambassador to the Marches on the King's affairs. The precise locality indicated by these words is generally acknowledged to be obscure. Bernard Guidonis, who lived in the beginning of the fourteenth century, seems to have been the first to suggest Denmark as thus signified, and speaks of the travellers as in Marchias, sive in Dacia pro- fixiscens ; and this interpretation has been accepted by several later writers. A much simpler and more probable explanation, however, is offered by Pere Jean de Rechac, who suggests on the authority of a MS. history in the Convent of St. James, of Paris, that the Marches were those of Limousin ; in other words, the territory of the powerful Hugh de Lusignan, who at that time reigned as Count de la Marche, and whose alliance might suitably have been sought by the Castilian monarch. 7 Diego chose for his

7 The above explanation is accepted by Baillet, Fleury, and Touron. Echard and the Bollandists examine the question and leave it undecided.





STATE OF LANGUEDOC. IJ

associate in the embassy thus imposed on him, his Subprior Dominic, between whom and himself there had grown up that perfect friendship which is based on an intimate sympathy, the links of which are made fast by union in God. They burned with the same zeal for the house of God, and the same ardent desire for the salvation of souls. And the Holy Spirit having filled both with His grace, He chose them for a ministry in which they suspected nothing of the designs of Divine Providence. 8

They left Spain in the year 1203, and crossing the \ i/ 1 Pyrenees, entered Languedoc, then governed by the Counts of Toulouse, \vhose feudal sovereignty extended over the greater part of the Narbonnese provinces. It must be borne in mind how entirely the condition of the country differed, politically, from that existing in our own day. A large portion of the land we now call France, was then divided among a number of petty princedoms, independent in all save their /

feudal subjection to the crowns of France or Aragon.^ t^cft Toulouse, Foix, Beziers, and Cominges, were each governed by their own counts ; the kings of Aragon were feudal sovereigns over considerable dominions at the mouth of the Rhone, whilst an immense territory, stretching from Nor- mandy to the Western Pyrenees, was still subject to the English Crown. 9

At the particular period to which our history belongs, these southern provinces were, from various causes, in a

state of social disorder, which made a journey through the \

midst of them an undertaking of no little danger. Their rulers were generally engaged in petty wars one against -i another. " Armagnac, Cominges, Beziers, and Toulouse," says Michelet, "were never in agreement save when there was question of making war upon the Church." And he goes on to draw a frightful picture of the moral depravation both of princes and people. Moreover, these same provinces had been for many years wasted by the Manichean heretics,

s Theod.

y In 1204 the greater part of this territory was wrested from King John, who retained only the provinces of Gascony and Guienne.

c





i8 DOMINIC'S FIRST CONVERT.

known in these parts by the name of Albigenses, who aimed equally at the overthrow of Christian faith and morals, and of all social order. Of them and of their history, we shall have more to say in future chapters, but it was on the occasion of this memorable journey that the character and extent of this terrible heresy first came under the notice of Diego and his companion. With their own eyes they beheld the fair plains of Languedoc through which they journeyed, reduced to the condition of a desert and covered with the ruins of churches and abbeys. Nor was the material desola- tion of the country the worst of its afflictions. Throughout many districts the faith had all but disappeared, the sacra- ments of the Church were despised and rejected, and a horrible corruption of manners everywhere prevailed. The zeal for God which filled both their hearts, kindled at the spectacle, and though the business on which they were then engaged, did not permit them at that time to undertake any apostolic labours, yet they received an impression which was never effaced, and which was strengthened by an incident that occurred at Toulouse, where they stopped for a night on their journey. This city was in fact the stronghold of the heretics, and from its bosom the infection had spread through all the surrounding provinces. The house where the travellers lodged was kept by a man belonging to the 4 sect of the Albigenses ; and when Dominic became aware of the fact, he resolved to attempt the rescue of at least this one soul. The time was short, but their conference was prolonged through the hours of the night ; when morning dawned the winning eloquence of his unknown guest had conquered the obduracy of the heretic, and before they left his house he made his submission and was received back into the bosom of the Church. A troubadour of Picardy, who in the thirteenth century chose the history of St. Dominic as the subject of a poem, has not failed to seize on this incident as worthy of special record, and describes the conversion of the heretic in spirited words :

Tantost s'ala agenouiller Devant lui et cria mierci





DEATH OF THE PRINCESS. ig

Sire, je crois Dieu vous a chi Envoie por moi amender. For cou je vous vuel creanter Q'jamais en toute ma vie Ne porsivrai le compagnie De ceus ki sont centre le loy. An cois, vivrai en droite foy, Si com vous m'avez enseigne. 10

"This," says Theodoric, "was the first sheaf which our saint gathered in the field of the Lord," a precious foretaste of the glorious harvest that was to follow, and, according to the historian, Bernard Guidonis, the saint from that moment conceived in his heart the project of founding an Order which should have for its object the salvation of souls by the ministry of preaching.

On reaching the end of their journey the two envoys were able to bring the negotiations to a happy issue, and returning to Castile, made known to the King the success of their mission. On the receipt of this intelligence they were once more despatched to the Marches, accompanied this time with a numerous retinue, and charged with the mission of conducting the young bride back with them to Spain. But on reaching her father's court, they found their embassy brought to an unexpected conclusion by the death of the princess after a short illness. " Death, the enemy of all men," says the troubadour poet already quoted, " death, who spares no one, neither old nor young, had not spared the young maiden, so young, so rich, and so beautiful." Thus released from their charge, the two envoys resolved before returning to Spain to make the pilgrimage to Rome. The object of the bishop in undertaking this journey was two-fold. He hoped in the first place to obtain leave from the Pope to resign his bishopric ; and after that to carry out the plan long cherished by himself and his companion of preaching the faith to the heathen nations of the North.

Very few particulars have been preserved of this first visit of our saint to Rome, where the chair of St. Peter was then filled by Pope Innocent III. We only know that Diego's *~l

10 Li Romans Saint Dominike. Bibl. Nation. Fonds Franjais, 19531.





20 FIRST VISIT TO ROME.

earnest entreaty for release was not granted, the Pope being too well aware of his value to deprive the Church of so zealous a pastor. Nor did he show himself more favourable to the bishop's other request, that he might be sent as a missionary to the Cuman Tartars. Whilst applauding his generous intentions, Innocent required him to sacrifice the wish that lay so close to his heart, and once more bow his back to the burden of the episcopate. " In these events,"" says Theodoric, "the wisdom of God had so directed all things, that the pious desires of the bishop were granted, not, indeed, in the manner he had sought, but according to the good pleasure of the Lord ; and Diego, by directing his steps to return to Spain, carried with him the grace both of obedience and charity."

In the course of this visit Brother Dominic became for the first time known to the Pontiff and several of the Cardinals, who quickly discerned the great qualities which lay concealed under his modest exterior. In particular, it seems certain that the seeds were at this time laid of the friendship which afterwards so closely united him with the Cardinals Savelli and Ugolino, both of whom were destined, as we shall see, to lend their powerful support to the great work awaiting him in the future.

The two pilgrims made but a brief stay in Rome, but before returning to Spain, they agreed to turn out of their road to visit the great abbey of Citeaux, the mother-house of the Cistercian Order, which at that time held the first place in public esteem, and exercised a wide influence throughout the Church.

They arrived at Citeaux in the spring of the year 1205, and were received with the noble hospitality which formed part of the Cistercian Rule. Not to speak of the welcome which would naturally be afforded to guests who bore so plainly the character of servants of God, the apostolic spirit with which both of them were animated, was one which just then found a warm response at Citeaux. At this particular time the Cistercian Order had been chosen by the Sovereign Pontiff to bear the brunt of the struggle with the Albigenses ;





CITEAUX. 21

and Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux, had been associated with other ecclesiastics whom Innocent appointed as his Legates for the purpose of taking such measures as might be necessary for checking the further spread of that heresy.

Diego and Dominic, therefore, were received with open arms, not merely as holy religious, but as apostolic men thirsting for a yet wider field in which they might labour for the salvation of souls. Yet in spite of the strong attraction with which he felt drawn to missionary labours, the sweet odour of monastic discipline which still flourished in full vigour within the walls of Citeaux, powerfully captivated the heart of Diego ; and following the example which had been set some years previously by our own martyred prelate, St. Thomas of Canterbury, he begged and obtained per- mission to assume the Cistercian habit. Doubtless the failure of his deeply cherished plans had been no little pain to the Bishop of Osma, and his return to his diocese was a hard obedience. He was suffering under that thirst to strip himself of the world, which sometimes attacks the soul at the very time when it bows to the law that forces it back to the world's duties. Very willingly would he have remained at Citeaux, and begun his novitiate in that school of holy living ; but as this could not be, he contented himself with taking the habit of the Order, and soliciting that he might carry some of the religious back with him to Spain, to learn from them their rule and manner of life.

Some authors represent St. Dominic also as having taken the Cistercian habit by way of devotion, while others affirm that he visited the Grande Chartreuse, and applying to be received there as a monk, was refused admission by the General of the Order, who dismissed him with the words, " Go, for thou art called to greater things." Of this latter statement we find no trace in any authentic history, but it is certain that the saint always retained a very special tie with the Cistercian brethren, and that his friendship with the Order was continued by his immediate followers.

Their stay at Citeaux does not appear to have been of any long duration, and at its close they set forth once more





22 ARRIVAL AT MONTPELIER.

on their homeward journey, accompanied by some of the Cistercian brethren. Taking the route southwards, by the banks of the Rhone, they reached Montpelier some time in the summer of I2o6. n And there, as we shall frequently see,, they found the will of God awaiting them in unlooked-for circumstances, which were destined clearly to reveal to our saint his sublime and apostolic vocation.

11 It must be borne in mind that the years at this time were reckoned as beginning not in January, but in March. Their arrival at Montpelier, therefore, took place in the same year as that in which they visited Citeaux, although the latter event is given as happening in the year 1205, on account of its occurring before the technical beginning of the year. That their arrival at Montpelier was early in that summer is proved by their presence at Montreal the same year on the feast of St. John the Baptist.





CHAPTER III.

THE ALBIGENSES.

BEFORE proceeding further in our history it will be necessary to present the reader with some account of the celebrated heresy, whose followers, under the various titles of Bulgarians, Patarins, Cathari, or Albigenses, waged an unceasing con- flict with the Church, specially throughout the twelfth and """I thirteenth centuries. One and all, by whatever name they/ were known in popular parlance, were offshoots of that great sect of the Manicheans which from the earliest period of its existence had shown itself the most deadly enemy of the Church of Christ. Oriental in its origin, it had gradually worked its way from Bulgaria (where great numbers of a branch of the sect known as Paulicians had settled in the ninth century) up the valley of the Danube, into Swabia, whence its doctrines gradually spread into the north of Italy and the south of France.

As a fact, the Manicheans Jiad no claim to be regarded as """] Christians in any sense. Their doctrines, to use the words of Pere Danzas, " were the complete and radical negation of all Christian dogma." This assertion is fully in accordance with the judgment of certain Protestant historians, who, nevertheless, have undertaken to be their apologists. M. Schmidt, Lutheran Professor of the University of Strasburg, and the learned author of the History of the Cathari or A Ibi- genses, frankly confesses that their teaching undermined the very foundations of Christianity. In fact, he says, " Catharism cannot even be called a Christian heresy." To this testi- mony we may add that of the very latest writer on the subject, also a Protestant. Mr. Henry Charles Lea, in his





24 THE ALBIGENSES.

History of the Inquisition (1888) says of the Albigensian heresy that "it was based on a faith that can scarcely be called Christian," and that " it threatened the permanent existence of Christianity itself." The correctness of these statements will not be called in question by those who have any real acquaintance with the teaching of the sect. If its members, for the purposes of concealment, made use of formulas in which occur fragments of Catholic terminology, it was only to clothe with them ideas and doctrines utterly subversive of the Christian dogmas. They denied both the Unity and Trinity of God, both the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Christ ; they rejected the sacraments of the Church and her Divine authority. To the fundamental article of the Christian faith, which acknowledges one God, the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, they opposed their belief in two co- eternal principles, one, the good principle who was the Creator of spirits, the other the principle of evil, who was the Creator of matter, and whom they blasphemously identi- fied with the God of the Old Testament, the inspiration of which, it is needless to say, they rejected. If in words they professed to believe in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, these terms by no means implied any admission of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The Son and the Holy Ghost were, in the Albigensian creed, angelic spirits, of whom the first- named assumed only the appearance of mortal flesh. Their belief in the essential evil of matter caused them to shrink with abhorrence from the idea of the union of the Divine and Human Nature in one Person. It equally caused their rejec- tion of all the sacraments, in which the Church makes use of material elements as sensible and efficacious signs of invisible grace. These, in the eyes of the neo-Manicheans, were diabolic inventions, and in the ceremony of initiation the neophyte was required to renounce his Baptism, using terms of execration in speaking of the baptismal water, or holy chrism ; and at the same time utterly to abjure the faith of the Church of Rome. By a strictly logical consequence of their theory on the creation of matter, they regarded the Holy Eucharist with sentiments of peculiar horror, which





THEIR DOCTRINES. 25

they manifested by most shocking profanations. 1 But this was not all. Out of the dualism which may be regarded as the central doctrine of the sect, they proceeded to draw conclusions which struck at the root of all morality. Evil of all kind being inherent in matter created by the Evil Principle, the soul of man created by the Good Spirit was not to be held responsible for any deeds committed by the body in which it had become accidentally imprisoned. The freedom of the will to choose between good and evil was altogether denied ; those who claimed to inflict punishment for breaches of the laws of God and man, were denounced, therefore, as impostors and tyrants ; and thus all authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical, which aimed at the repression of crime, was systematically set at nought. Nor were these doctrines held in theory only; they were most rigorously reduced to practice. Whilst some, to deliver their souls from the evil dominion of matter, .held suicide to be not only lawful but even meritorious, the larger number applied the principle in a freer manner by permitting themselves every kind of licence. Their condemnation of the institution of marriage, which formed a prominent article of their code, struck at the root of all social morality; it destroyed the very existence of the family, while at the same time it imposed no restraint whatever upon the passions. Their theoretic contempt of authority issued in the practice of a lawlessness which made the existence of the sect no less dangerous to the State than it was hostile to the Church. And inasmuch as nothing material could contribute to the sanctification of the soul, it followed that churches, altars, and images should be swept away as unworthy of the votaries of a wholly spiritual worship. In this enumeration of the Albigensian doctrines we have purposely omitted many blasphemous tenets held by them regarding the Sacred

1 We learn from a letter by Conrad of Zahringen, who in 1219 was Cardinal Bishop of Porto, and Legate in Languedoc, that the Albigenses anticipated one of the worst excesses of the French Revolutionists, and six centuries before the Goddess of Reason had been enthroned on the altar of Notre Dame, a similar outrage had been committed in the Cathedral of Toulouse (Danzas, Etudes, torn. ii. p. 265).





26 THE CONSOLAMENTUM.

Humanity, as well as their shocking utterances concerning the Blessed Virgin and the saints. All the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Law were in their judgment lost souls, while they held St. John the Baptist in peculiar horror, and declared him to be one of the chief devils.

To what extent these principles were carried out, and with what success, we may have occasion to show hereafter ; suffice it here to say that the condition of those districts which fell under the power of the Albigenses differed little from that of countries that had been ravaged by heathen barbarians. None of the externals of Christian worship were left in existence. " I have seen," wrote Stephen, Abbot of St. Genevieve, who was sent to Toulouse as envoy from the King of France, " I have seen churches burnt and ruined to their foundations ; I have seen the dwellings of men changed into the dens of wild beasts."

But the Albigensian heresy was not merely subversive of existing institutions, it had its positive as well as its negative features. If all other rites were to be abolished, in their place was substituted the one pseudo-sacrament of the Con- solamentum, which seems to have consisted in the imposition of hands, and recital of the Pater noster by one of the perfect. The word requires explanation, and introduces us to an important feature of the sect, its division, namely, into two grades, those of the simple believers, and of the fully initiated or perfect. The first class comprised the great body of members who were subject to few or no obligations, and for whom it sufficed that in the article of death they should receive the Consolamentum, which secured to the recipient eternal life without the necessity either of repentance or satisfaction. The second and much smaller class was that of the perfect, or fully initiated. These formed a kind of religious order, made profession of a rigid asceticism, abjured marriage, 2 and the use, not only of meat, but of eggs, cheese, and anything which had life. Whilst the supposed austerity of their lives secured for them the adulation of the multitude, there is ample evidence that it was practically but a cloak 2 i Tim. iv. 3.





THEIR CODE OF MORALS. 27

for licentiousness which from its very turpitude must escape popular exposure. The rigorism of their professions did but precipitate them into a lower depth of infamy. Nor will this appear surprising to any who are acquainted with that fatal law which again and again reveals itself in the history of false mysticism, the doom which seems to attach to every system of asceticism not based on Catholic teaching, in virtue of which those who in the spirit of pride would fain be supposed to lead the lives of angels, too commonly fall below the level of brutes.

The influence exercised by the perfect over the rest of the sect was all but unlimited. It could not be otherwise, when we remember that in their hands was supposed to rest exclusively the power of consoling, or, in other words, of securing the eternal salvation of the believers. " These unhappy men," says Stephen of Bourbon, a contemporary writer of great accuracy, "following the example of their master, Manes, who gave himself out to be the Paraclete, claim also for themselves the title of consolers. They pretend to give the Holy Spirit to a crowd of persons stained with every crime, on the sole condition that these persons should prostrate and adore them, 3 and receive from them the imposition of hands, exacting from them no kind of reparation either in act or promise, nor any sort of satis- faction."

If the perfect who formally engaged themselves to a life of extravagant austerity did not thereby escape from the infection of the most shocking disorders, it will not be difficult to conjecture what must have been the result of the Manichean doctrines on the multitude who were bound by no engagements at all, and whose prominent articles of belief effaced the very notions of sin and of moral responsi- bility. Without staining our pages with repulsive details, it is sufficient to say that the facts of history fully justify a

3 This expression, which recurs continually in the documents of the time, is not supposed to imply religious worship properly so-called, but only certain marks of special veneration paid by the believers to the perfect. Its actual sense is, however, obscure.





28 DECAY OF MANNERS.

contemporary writer who was perfectly well informed in the matters of which he speaks, when he declares the actions perpetrated by the followers of the Albigensian heresy to have been too loathsome and horrible for description. 4 Nevertheless the utmost difficulty was found in convicting those accused of such crimes, for not only was it the custom of the heretics to make use of evasions and sophisms under examination, but there existed among them what we may call the discipline of the secret, in virtue of which those fully initiated, whether in the doctrine or practices of the sect, were bound even to perjure themselves rather than to reveal these secrets to the uninitiated.

The question naturally suggests itself how a sect, the tendency of whose doctrines was destructive of all social order, could successfully establish itself in a Christian country, and obtain the support, if not the actual adhesion, of many among its rulers. The chief reason will probably e found in the grievous decay of manners which prevailed in those provinces which were the principal seat of the heresy. The people of Languedoc and Provence, descended from Gallo-Roman ancestors, had nothing of the robustness either of Franks or Normans. They boasted, indeed, of their Roman refinement and superior culture, but it is needless to remind the reader what was the character of the later Imperial civilization. In its more modern form it found expression in the licentious literature of the troubadours, and in those famous tribunals presided over by noble ladies, themselves adepts in the gaie science, who did not blush to publish decrees in which the most ordinary laws of decency and morality were set at defiance. It is a significant fact that the Proven9al troubadours never found admittance in the Court of St. Louis, and that he permitted none of his family to hold intercourse with them. Nor was the chivalry of the Narbonnese provinces of better repute than their literature. There, courage in the field and fidelity

4 " Quae ipsi faciunt in abscondito non est modo necesse in medium proferre, qui sunt fcetida, et hornbilia" (Alberic Trium, Font. Gallic. Rer. Scrip. Collection by Dom Martin Bouquet, t. xxi. p. 524).





CORRUPTION OF THE CLERGY. 2Q

to his plighted word were by no means necessary charac- teristics of the belted knight, nor did the want of these qualities earn for him any special mark of contempt. If elsewhere an extravagant adherence to the point of honour led to many grievous excesses, among too many of the nobles of Southern France, the virtue of honour was rather con- spicuous by its absence. Worse than all and doubly fatal in its consequences, the prevailing vices of sloth and effeminacy had invaded the ranks of the clergy themselves. At a time when the northen dioceses of France were blest with a succession of saintly pastors whose vigilance was ever on the watch against false doctrine and evil customs, prelates like Raymund de Rabastens, Bishop of Toulouse, or Beranger, Archbishop oi Narbonne, were bringing dis- grace on their sacred dignity, and giving an example of every kind of disorder to the inferior clergy. Among these such laxity prevailed that the mime of cleric was held in contempt, and ecclesiastics were ashamed to exhibit the tonsure or other marks of their calling. Again and again do we find the Roman Pontiffs bitterly complaining of these scandals, which they strove by ail means to chastise and correct. Beranger, after repeated warnings, was finally deposed from his see by Pope Innocent III., whose tremendous denunciations of the luxury, the avarice, and the culpable negligence of the clergy may be read in his letters. Full fifty years previously St. Bernard had made the same complaints, and not only lamented that the faith should find among the clergy but few defenders (paucitas defendentium), but that certain priests and bishops should even be bought over to make disgraceful compacts with the heretics. The evil had not diminished with time, and at the beginning of the thirteenth century the faithful pastors in these infected provinces were largely outnumbered by those who betrayed their trust.

That a sect which avowedly defied the secular as well as the ecclesiastical authorities should find favour among the rulers of the country is a paradox to which, however, the political aspect of our own times would furnish a parallel.





30 HERETICS SUPPORTED BY THE NOBLES.

Among men addicted to every licence the Manichean code of morals was acceptable enough, while there was every temptation to take part with the heretics when there was question of the spoliation of the Church. Whilst some, therefore, did not shrink from openly joining their ranks, a yet greater number contented themselves with secretly en- couraging them, in the seeming persuasion that they could turn the general state of disorder and revolution to their own advantage without absolutely committing themselves as the partisans of heresy. Hence there arose among them a disloyal system of double-dealing and hypocrisy. Many of these Narbonnese nobles made it their practice, to use a common phrase, to run with the hare and to hunt with the ''""hounds. Catholic Christianity was in those days too much the public law of Christendom for it to be altogether safe openly to disown the faith. When therefore Papal Legates or royal envoys expostulated with these men for their negli- gence in repressing the disorders of the heretics, their protestations of orthodoxy and their promises to see to the execution of the laws were officiously loud and prompt. Only when it came to the fulfilment of their pledges they had recourse to those shifts and evasions which exhibit them as masters in the art of equivocation. Thus princes like Raymund Roger, Count de Foix, were able to retain the name of Catholic while forming alliances of marriage with the heretics, and countenancing the heretication, as it was called, of their wives, sisters, and daughters. Yet their close connection with the sect did not prevent their withdrawing their protection, or even taking up arms against it whenever this suited their safety or their convenience. The double- sided bad faith thus displayed by the noble patrons of the Albigenses makes the task of the historian one of no small difficulty. The very men who appear at one time among their staunch supporters are to be found at another among the ranks of their opponents. In the case of Raymund V., Count of St. Gilles and Toulouse, for many years a pro- minent champion of the Albigenses, we may however infer that his change of policy was dictated by a sincere though





MEASURES TAKEN AGAINST THEM. 3!

tardy conviction of the dangerous tendency of the sect. In the year 1177 we find him writing to the Abbot and Chapter- General of Citeaux a letter in which he gives a picture of the condition of affairs which, coming from his pen, may safely be trusted as free from exaggeration. " This heresy," he writes, " has gained over even priests ; churches are ruined and abandoned ; the creation of man, the resurrection of the flesh, and every sacred mystery is rejected ; Baptism is refused, Penance despised, and the Holy Eucharist held in abomination. Yet no one dreams of opposing these wretches. For myself I am ready to employ against them the sword that God has given me, but the forces at my command are not sufficient, as many of my nobles are them- selves infected with these errors. I have recourse, therefore, to you for advice and your prayers. Spiritual arms are not enough ; the temporal sword is also needed, and for this purpose I am resolved to appeal to the King of France that his presence may put an end to these abuses."

In the following year the Kings of France and England did actually undertake to proceed in person, and drive out the heretics from Toulouse and the surrounding provinces ; but before unsheathing the temporal sword it was agreed at the urgent request of Pope Alexander III. to try the effect of gentler measures, and Papal Legates were appointed to visit the disturbed districts and to bring about, if possible, the return of the population into the bosom of the Church. The narrative of their labours, as given at length by Roger Hovedcn, is sufficiently interesting ; we will only briefly state that Peter Moran, the chief leader of the heretics, was received to penance, and sent to serve the sick at Jerusalem, while two false teachers, who after repeated tergiversations refused to confirm by oath their pretended recantation, were excommunicated and driven into exile; and these judicial sentences, not certainly extreme in their severity, were followed by the submission of great numbers of the heretics. Meanwhile the Count of Toulouse and the other feudal nobles solemnly swore in the presence of all the people to lend no support in future to the Albigenses, but to act in





32 THE POPE URGES MODERATION.

concert with the ecclesiastical authorities in firmly repressing their encroachments. How far these engagements were kept we shall have occasion to show hereafter. But it is important to notice that throughout the whole of these transactions, it is from secular princes, the Count of Toulouse, and the Kings of England and France, that the proposal comes to oppose the Albigenses with the power of the sword. They are / roused to the necessity of action by the danger which / threatens society, the very foundations of which are being LS-ipped. Family ties are being destroyed by the condem- nation of marriage. The moral law is set at nought, and the rights of property are abolished. To carry on their war of spoliation, the Albigensian leaders do not hesitate to employ the armed bands of infamous brigands known as Cottereaux 5 or Routiers, who lay waste churches, towns, and villages, and commit sacrileges and profanations of the most appalling kind. The secular rulers offer to use their armed authority for the preservation and defence of society from the attacks of these new barbarians, and themselves appeal to the Church for aid and sanction. The action of the Church is to suspend the uplifted sword, and to substitute for armed repression the labours of her legates and envoys, who succeed in reclaiming a great number of the heretics, whilst the severest punishment decreed against those who remain obstinate seems to have consisted of spiritual censures , and exile. Throughout this history it is abundantly manifest that the action of the Church was on the side of mercy and





5 The Cottereaux, known in history by a variety of other names, such as Routiers, Basques, Aragonese, &c., were in reality soldiers of adventure, the very off-scouring of society, made up of men of every rank, who for one cause or another had lost all character, and hired themselves to such princes as were not ashamed to employ their infamous services. It is reckoned among one of the special atrocities of King John of England that he took into his pay bands of these excommunicated ruffians, " abominable Routiers," as Matthew Paris calls them, and let them loose on England, after his compulsory signing of the Charter. They revenged themselves by their crimes on society which had cast them forth out of its bosom, and were close allies of the heretics. Raymund VI., Count of Toulouse, was one of their chief protectors, and mads use of them to pillage churches and destroy monasteries.





THIRD COUNCIL OF LATERAN. 33

moderation, and that the appeal to arms proceeded, in the first instance, from the secular rulers. The lawfulness of such an appeal was recognized by the rulers of the Church. The Third Council of Lateran, which was summoned by Pope Alexander III. in 1179, chiefly directed its canons against many abuses existing among the clergy ; but it did not fail to take notice of the dangers threatened to society by the spread of the heresy which had established its head- quarters in the Narbonnese provinces. The terms in which it does so are worthy of notice as recognizing the lawfulness and necessity of seeking aid from the temporal power for the repression of a sect dangerous to the safety of society. The Cathari are anathematized together with their abettors and protectors, and with them are associated their sworn allies the Cottereaux, or brigands, who exist under various names, and ravage the unhappy provinces over which they roam. A terrible picture is drawn of their crimes and excesses, and the faithful are called on for the remission of their sins valiantly to oppose these monsters, and defend society from their assaults. Indulgences are granted to those who respond to this appeal, and the Church extends to them her protection "as to those who have taken up arms for the defence of the Holy Sepulchre." In this concluding canon of the Council, which recognizes the principle of an appeal to the secular arm, we see the germ of later action on the part of the Holy See ; and the whole narrative throws important light on that great struggle between the Church and the Albigensian heresy which occupies so large a space in the history of the following century.

Admirably as the pacific measures hitherto adopted had _ been intended, they totally failed in their effects. The 1 apparent submission of the heretics to the Papal Legates lasted as long as they remained in the country, and no longer ; and the severer decrees of the Council found none to put them into execution. During the period from the death of Alexander III. in 1181 to the election of Innocent III. in 1198, no fewer than six Popes filled the chair of St. Peter, their deaths rapidly succeeding one another, and leaving no





34 ACCESSION OF INNOCENT III.

time for the prosecution of any vigorous measures of govern - y' ment. It was, moreover, a season of mourning for the whole Church, for Saladin was making head against the Christians \ in the Holy Land, and in 1187 came the fatal news which \ thrilled the heart of Christendom with anguish, of the defeat _of Tiberias and the capture of Jerusalem. Pope Urban III. died~oT grief ; his successor, Gregory VIII., survived his election but six weeks. In the universal consternation troubles with the Albigenses claimed less attention, and they took advantage of the truce thus obtained to strengthen their position. The accession of Innocent III. opened a brighter chapter in the history of the Church, and in that solicitude, which overlooked no portion of the flock confided to his care, the alarming progress of the heretics both in France and Italy did not escape his vigilant eye. By this time, Hurter assures us on the authority of Pope Innocent's letters, that the heresy had infected nearly a thousand cities ; it had been openly embraced by the majority of the nobles in the south of France, and even by some abbots and canons ; it was protected and connived at by man}'- great feudal lords, and was spreading rapidly in northern Italy. Innocent directed his first efforts to the reform of the Narbonnese clergy, whose culpable neglect he never dissimulated. His letters exhibit him striving by all means to rouse the Bishops of Languedoc and Provence from their fatal lethargy. His next thought was to provide for the refutation of heresy by the preaching of the truth. " Heresy," he delares, 6 " can only be destroyed by solid instruction ; it is by preaching the truth that we sap the foundations of error." In these words we recognize the lightning glance which detected the real remedy required. The population sunk in gross ignorance of the mysteries of faith, needed not merely envoys, but apostles, and it was these that Innocent desired to supply. His first appeal was to the Order of Citeaux, and in 1198 he confided to certain of their religious full powers for the reform of the clergy and the conversion and reconciliation of heretics by the ministry of preaching. Their success was 6 Serm. 2, In Die Ciner.





THE LEGATES DISCOURAGED.





small, and in 1204 they were replaced by Peter of Castelnau and the monk Rodolph, to whom was afterwards added Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux. A glance over the narrative of their labours reveals to us the melancholy fact that the chief obstacles which opposed their progress came from the culpable negligence and even the open hostility of prelates, such as the Bishops of Beziers, Toulouse, Auch, and others whom the chronicler hesitates not to designate as execrable and wicked men execvabiles et maligni. Not a few of these incurred the well-merited sentence of deposition, others resigned to escape similar censures. But the struggle with laxity and corruption in every form was a disheartening task, and it needed the strong words of Innocent to dissuade the Legates from retiring from the field. In the scandalous lives led by too many of the clergy, the heretics found a ready retort to the exhortations addressed to them. " Begin by reforming your own clerks," they would say, " and when that is done you may preach to us." Moreover, the secular rulers of the country showed themselves once more to be the firm friends and protectors of the heretics. Raymund V., whom we have seen ranging himself at the close of his life on the side of the Church, had been succeeded in his dominions by his son Raymund VI., the child of an Albi- gensian mother, and himself deeply infected with the doctrines as well as with the contaminating practices of the sect. All the weight of his authority was put forth to favour and protect it, and it found its chief seat in his capital of Toulouse. Baffled and confounded in all their efforts, the Legates at length met at Montpelier to deliberate on what course to pursue. We are assured that they were unanimously of opinion that after drawing up a faithful report of their mission, and despatching it to the Sovereign Pontiff, they should renew their petition to be released from labours so painful and fruitless. But there is a well-known proverb that the moments of man's despair are the moments of God's Providence. " In those days," writes William de Puylaurens in his chronicle, " God had laid up in His Divine quiver two choice arrows. They were the Spaniards, Diego77





36 CONFERENCE AT MONTPELIER.

Bishop of Osma, and a religious named Dominic, canon of the same Church, whose name was afterwards inscribed in the catalogue of the saints." The two Spanish pilgrims arrived at Montpelier at the very time when the Legates were assembled there in consultation. This unforeseen com- bination of events brought about in the decrees of God's Providence a change in the whole aspect of affairs ; in that moment Languedoc received her true Apostle, fresh courage was infused into the hearts of the Catholic leaders, and a new chapter opened in the religious history of the country, which for a full century previously had been overcast by so dark a cloud.





CHAPTER IV.

BEGINNING OF THE APOSTOLATE. 1206.

THE spot which had been chosen by the Legates for their conference was the village of Castelnau, which stood not from the gates of Montpelier, on the road leading thence to the Spanish frontier. Peter of Castelnau was himself a member of the family to whom the territory belonged, and of whose protection they were therefore secure, whilst close at hand, on a hill overlooking the river Lez, which separates Castelnau from Montpelier, was the residence of the Bishop of Magnelone, whose see was some centuries later transferred to the latter city. Here, then, the Legates and other ecclesiastics were assembled, and had already begun their deliberations, when the arrival of the Spanish travellers was announced to them ; and the news spread joy through- out the whole company present.

The reputation of the Bishop of Osma and of his Subprior, and the interest taken by both in the unhappy state of the country on the occasion of their previous visit, secured for them a hearty welcome from the Papal Legates, and an invitation to take part in their conference. Diego's episcopal character claimed for him special respect, and the Legates received him with every mark of honour, and asked his counsel, well knowing, says Blessed Jordan, " that he was a wise and holy man, and full of zeal for the faith." He began by inquiring into the customs of the Albigenses, and was informed that their teachers attracted disciples by their persuasive arts, and by a great exterior display of poverty and austerity. Moreover, as the Legates declared, one of





38 DIEGO'S ADVICE.

the greatest difficulties in dealing with the heretics was the impossibility of convincing them that the truth of the Christian faith rested not on the example of individuals, but on the sure and infallible Word of God, as made known by the teaching of the Church. Diego glanced around him, and was satisfied that one cause of the bad success of the Legates lay in the manner of life which they adopted. He took notice that they were attended by a numerous suite of followers, and were well equipped with horses and costly apparel. He did not, therefore, hesitate to declare to them that the neglect of Evangelical poverty had in all probability been at the root of their failure. " It is not thus, my brethren," he said, " that you must act. The heretics seduce simple souls by the pretence of poverty and morti- fication ; by presenting the contrary spectacle you will scarcely edify them. You will destroy their confidence, but you will never touch their hearts. Rather set one example against the other; oppose their feigned sanctity by true religion ; nothing but humility will ever triumph over falsehood."

" Most excellent Father," said the Legates, "what would you have us do?" " Do as I am about to do," replied Diego, and, filled with the Spirit of God, he called together his followers and commanded them to return to Spain with all his equipage. Then retaining Dominic as his sole com- panion, he declared his intention of remaining in the country and devoting himself to the preaching of the faith. Struck by the words and still more by the example of the Bishop, the Legates at once resolved to follow in the same track. They dismissed their attendants and their baggage, and reserving only the books necessary for the recital of the Divine Office and for controversy, they henceforth travelled on foot. More than this, feeling the power of Diego's character, they unanimously chose him to be their chief, and declared their resolution in future to carry on their labours under his direction. These proceedings were at once made known to the Pope, who, on hearing what had taken place, did not hesitate to confirm their choice,





FIRST SUCCESSES. 39

and to grant Diego the permission he had formerly refused him in the case of the Cumans ; authorizing him to remain for two years in the French provinces, and devote himself to the preaching of the faith.

A new impulse was thus given to the enterprise on which the Catholics of Languedoc had embarked ; with the apostolic life came a daily increase of the apostolic spirit. It was a very different thing to set about evangelizing a country encumbered with the pomp of a feudal retinue, and to traverse the same country on foot, with " neither purse nor scrip," as Diego was wont to send out his companions into the neighbouring towns and villages to preach the faith. Arnold of Citeaux had been obliged to return to his monas- tery, to attend the Chapter General of the Order, whence he promised to send fresh labourers to take part in the good work. There remained, therefore, together with Diego and Dominic, only the two other Legates, Rodolph and Peter of Castelnau. These, after the conference at Mont- pelier, all set out together towards Toulouse, stopping at different places on the road to preach and hold disputations with the heretics, as they were moved by the Spirit of God. We are assured that they made the journey barefoot, and trusted to God's Providence alone for their daily wants ; and the effect of this new way of proceeding was soon evident in the success which attended their labours. Servian, 1 near Beziers, was the scene of their first success. Here, on a steep rock rising in the midst of a fertile plain, stood the ancient castle of Stephen, feudal lord of Servian, a vassal of the Viscount of Beziers, and like him, a zealous partisan of

1 By most writers the name of this place is given as Carmain or Caraman, a town about five leagues from Toulouse. But Carmain is at least fifty leagues from Montpelier, whereas the locality in question was visited by the Legates on their road from Montpelier to Beziers. The text of Peter de Vaulx-Cernay as recently corrected by a writer in the Annee Dominicaine (May, 1890) from a MS. of the thirteenth century in the National Library of Paris, runs thus : Exeuntes autem a Montepessulano venerunt ad quoddam castrutn nomine Cervianum. Servian, here named, is only two leagues and a half from Beziers, and would naturally be visited by any one travelling to the latter city from Montpelier (See Histoire de Languedoc, t. vi. Edit. Privat.).





4O AT SERVIAN AND CARCASSONNE.

the heretics, two of whose principal leaders, Baldwin and Thierry, dwelt there under his protection, and in this secure refuge were able to propagate their pestilential doctrines throughout the surrounding country. Servian had, in conse- quence, become one of the citadels of the Albigenses, and in presenting themselves before its walls and challenging a disputation with two such renowned heresiarchs, the Catholic missioners were venturing on a step the very bold- ness of which was an augury of success. To refuse such a challenge would have been an acknowledgment of weakness that would have exposed the Albigensian teachers to contempt. A public conference was therefore agreed upon, and the discussion, which lasted eight days, resulted in so marked a success on the part of the Catholics, that the greater number of those who assisted at it declared them- selves on the side of the truth, and insisted on expelling

'''Baldwin and Thierry from their territory; nor' was the authority of the castellan, Stephen, strong enough to prevent them from carrying their purpose into effect. Moreover, when the Legates continued their journey, taking the road to Beziers, two thousand persons accompanied them out of the town, escorting them on their way with every mark of respect. Fours years later the Castle of Servian surren- dered to the arms of Simon de Montfort, and Stephen, abjuring his errors, solemnly engaged to hold no further communication with the Albigensian leaders who had so long enjoyed his protection.

At Beziers, where the Legates made their next station, they gained but little fruit, for this unhappy city was the head-quarters of the sect, whose leaders exercised great power over the Catholic inhabitants; but at Carcassonne they were more successful, preaching daily during a week, and reconciling great numbers to the Church. Hitherto, Dominic's part in these transactions has seemed to be a .secondary one: he has appeared before us rather as the

[ follower and companion of the Bishop of Osma, than as the man whose name was to be for ever remembered in future histories of the time as the chief champion of the







ST. DOMINIC DISPUTING WITH THE HERETICS. (from a fresco by Simon Memmi).





DOMINIC DISPUTES WITH THE HERETICS. 4!

faith. Few, probably, of those who witnessed these first openings of the campaign against the Albigenses, would have believed that the award of a deathless fame was to fall, not to the prelate whose prompt and commanding spirit had moved the Catholic missioners unanimously to choose him for their chief, but to one who followed in his train, known only as Brother Dominic, for he had laid aside even the title of Subprior, and took on him only an inferior part, as the subject and attendant of his bishop. As soon, however, as the disputes with the heretics of which we have spoken, began to be held, his power and value were felt. They were best evidenced by the bitter hatred which the heretics conceived against him. The same sentiments had been so unequivo- cally evinced towards the Legate, Peter de Castelnau, that the others had persuaded him to withdraw for a time from the enterprise, in order not to exasperate those whom it was their object to conciliate. The masterly eloquence and con- vincing arguments of Dominic, who time after time silenced his adversaries and conquered the obstinacy of vast numbers whom he won to the obedience of the Church, excited a no less vindictive feeling against him in the minds of those who might be confounded, but would never yield. They spoke of him as their most dangerous enemy, and did not even conceal their resolve to take his life, whenever chance should give them the opportunity. He treated such threats with abso- lute indifference. The service of God was the only thing that he saw before him ; and whilst his days were spent in public disputations, his nights were consumed in interviews with those who secretly sought his counsel; or more frequently in those prayers, and tears, and strong intercessions with God for the souls of the people, which were more powerful arms in fighting the battles of the faith than were even the wisdom and eloquence of his words.

In the course pursued by the missionaries they were not unmindful of the principle laid down by Pope Innocent, that ^/ error can only be driven out by solid instruction in the truth. /\ For this purpose, besides daily preaching in the churches, they held frequent conferences in private houses, to which





42 THE CHAMP DES EPIS.

they invited the heretics, and engaged them in disputation on the chief articles of the faith. One of these conferences was held at Verfeil, a place which then, as in the days of St. Bernard, was one of the chief strongholds of heresy, and the inhabitants of which turned a deaf ear to the exhortations of the Catholic preachers. Shaking the dust off their feet, there- fore, they proceeded to the territory of Arzens, not far from Montreal, where an incident took place which is related by William of Puy-Laurens, and the memory of which is still carefully cherished. It was the feast of St. John the Baptist, a day then observed in France as a feast of obligation. But, as will be remembered, the heretics were accustomed to regard the Precursor of our Lord with peculiar detestation, and by way of marking their sentiments regarding him, and their contempt of the laws of the Church, the villagers of Arzens were occupied in reaping their corn. When Dominic beheld them thus engaged, he quitted his companions, and approaching the reapers, called on them to desist, threat- ening them, if they refused compliance, with some token of the wrath of God. Far from heeding his words, they laughed him to scorn, and one man, more violent than the rest, attacked the saint, and would have driven him out of the field with violence. But as he let fall his sickle, he beheld fhe ears of corn, as it were, filled with blood. Supposing himself to be wounded, he cried aloud to his comrades, but they, too, beheld their sheaves and their own hands also stained with blood. Struck by so strange a prodigy, they fell at the feet of the saint, confessed their fault, and implored him to make their peace with God. And following him to his companions at Montreal, they there, in his hands, abjured their heresy and were reconciled to the Church. 2 j'

Montreal is a town about three leagues to the west of Carcassonne, and here the missioners found ample field for

2 This is reckoned as St. Dominic's first miracle in Languedoc. The spot known as the Champ des Rpis is still shown about a league from Montreal, and at the request of the Master General of the Order, Pere Larroca, a monument bearing a bas-relief of the event has recently been erected, which was blessed by the Bishop of Carcassonne on Rosary Sunday, 1888.





CONFERENCE AT MONTREAL. 43

their labours. So thoroughly had the heretics established their power in this place that the Catholic church was entirely deserted ; and several communities of the perfect, both men and women, lived there, having in their charge a number of young girls whom they were preparing for initiation. These communities were frequented indiscrimi- nately by men and women, who practised the mysterious rites of adoration, and among whom, we are assured by the testimony of many who had taken part therein, the worst disorders charged to the account of the heretics reigned checked, and were encouraged by the example of the astellan, Aymeric, and his too famous sister, Guirande. Many of the most distinguished members of the sect assembled on hearing of the arrival of the Legates, and among others was Guilabert de Castres, who held high rank among his fellows, and whose ordinary residence was at Fanjeaux. Unceasing disputes between the Catholics and heretics were held for the space of fifteen days, the con- troversy turning chiefly on the sanctity of the Church and the doctrine of the Mass, which the Albigenses denied to have been instituted by Jesus Christ. The disputations were held in the presence of four judges, two knights, and two citizens, who were accepted by the Albigenses, as being in no way biassed in favour of the Catholic cause. In fact, as Peter de Vaulx-Cernay observes, so deplorable was the condition to which religion had been reduced, that to vindicate the articles of the Catholic faith it became necessary to submit to the arbitration of judges, themselves laymen, who were too often weak in the faith, if not themselves suspected of heresy. The dispute was carried on at great length, but at its close the umpires, who perceived that the heretics would in all probability be convicted of error, refused to pass any judgment. Nevertheless, the conference resulted in the conversion of many who were present at it. Nor was this all. In the course of the disputation Dominic had written down various quotations from the New Testament in proof of his arguments, and giving the paper to one of the heretics, prayed him to consider its contents attentively, and





44 MIRACLE AT MONTREAL.

not to shut his eyes to the truth if its perusal should bring conviction. That same evening, as the man sat over the fire with his companions, discussing the subjects of the day's disputation, he produced the document, which was read and re-read by all present. They found themselves unable to call in question testimonies drawn from those Scriptures which they themselves owned to be canonical, while at the same time they felt no disposition to accept the conclusions of their opponent. In this perplexity, one of their number proposed a new kind of test. Let them cast the writing into the fire ; if the flames respected it, they would believe its contents ; if it were consumed, they would take this as a triumphant proof in favour of their own opinions. The experiment was tried, and to the amazement of those who had proposed and consented to such a trial, the manuscript was cast forth from the flames, and remained altogether uninjured. One might have expected such a result to have been followed by the conversion of those who witnessed it, but this was far from being the case. The heretics, we are told, beheld and wondered, but agreed to keep the matter secret, lest, if it reached the ears of the Catholics, they should claim it as a token of victory. One man only, more noble-minded than the rest, was converted by what he saw, and made it known publicly. The narrative is inserted by Peter de Vaulx-Cernay, in his History of the Albigenses, on no less an authority than that of St. Dominic himself. " This event," he says, " took place at Montreal, as I heard from the lips of the holy man who gave the writing into the hands of the heretics." 3

Montreal preserves many memorials of the presence of the blessed Dominic, who often returned thither to confirm its inhabitants in the faith ; the pulpit in which he preached being still preserved as a precious relic. Yet more closely associated with this period of his life is the spot which was next visited by the missioners, and which was the scene of an occurrence very similar in its character to the one just narrated, though the two events must not be confounded 3 Vallis Sern. De Her. Albig. c. 7, p. 78.





CONFERENCE AT FANJEAUX. 45

together. The town of Fanjeaux stands on the very summit of a high conical hill overlooking a plain which stretches to the foot of the Pyrenees. Its present appearance probably differs but little from that which it bore on the day when Dominic and his companions first entered within its walls, passing under that ancient gateway, above which is now to be seen a gilded statue of the Blessed Virgin. At the very summit of the street stands the venerable parish church of grand proportions, which so often echoed with the voice of the saint ; and near it may be seen the pool of water, the Fanum Jovis, which gives its name to the town, a temple of Jupiter having stood there in pagan times. Here then the missioners preached for some days with considerable fruit. The place was a stronghold of the heretics, whose leaders challenged the Catholics to another public disputa- tion. The challenge was accepted, and it was agreed that each party should commit to writing the chief arguments in support of their respective creeds. Among the writings of the Catholics, that drawn up by Brother Dominic was unanimously selected as the best ; and on the day appointed an unusual number of persons assembled to assist at the disputation and witness the result. In fact this conference appears to have been by far the most important and the most numerously attended of any that had yet taken place. We have the names of a considerable number, both men and women, who took part in it ; among whom were William de Durfort, the territorial lord of Fanjeaux, and many noble ladies. Indeed, it is said that of all the ladies of Montreal one only had escaped the infection of heresy, namely, the chatelaine Na-Cavaers, who shared with Durfort the seigneurship of Fanjeaux. Guilabert de Castres had also hastened his return to Fanjeaux, in order to assist his dis- ciples and partisans, who were all of them distinguished by their rank and influence. The judges were chosen equally from both parties ; and the conference was held in the house of Raymund de Durfort, brother to William, and himself an adherent of the Albigenses. The sectaries, finding them- selves unable to answer the arguments of their opponents,





46 THE TRIAL BY FIRE.





proposed to appeal to the judgment of God by the trial by fire. Some writers say that this was ordered by the arbiters. It does not appear whether or no they were aware of what had occurred at Montreal ; but the proposal, which was fully in harmony with the customs of an age wherein the trial by -ordeal had not yet become obsolete, was received with applause by .all present, and a large fire was accordingly kindled on the stone hearth of the hall where they were assembled. The writings of the heretics were first cast into the flames and entirely consumed. Then the book contain- ing Brother Dominic's defence of the Catholic faith was in like manner, thrown into the fire and was cast forth imme : - diately on touching the burning logs. *r",Not only did it remain uninjured," says Brother Jordan, "but before the eyes of all it was tossed out of the flames to a considerable distance. A second and third time it was thrown in, and each time sprang out as before, thus showing the truth of the orthodox faith and the sanctity of the writer." The ancient MS. Breviary of Prouille relates this event in words which are transcribed by Father Percin in his History of the Province of Toulouse. It is there stated that the book when tossed out of the fire " rested each time on a beam of wood, in which three deep holes may still be seen as a per- petual memorial of the miracle." This beam was formerly kept in the very hall where the incident took place, and where, in the following century, a church was erected by Charles le Bel, and attached to a convent of Friars Preachers. Pere Jean de Rechac speaks of seeing it in this chapel, and describes the three holes as distinctly visible. On the sup- pression of the convent the beam was removed to the parish church of Fanjeaux, where it is still carefully preserved. The hearth-stone on which the fire was kindled was also kept under the altar of the same chapel ; and here, on the .feast of St. Dominic, the custom prevailed of substituting ' at the First Vespers, instead of the Responsary, O spem miram, that for the third Lesson at Matins, in which allusion is made to the well-attested miracle : Verbum vita dum palam promitur,





DANGER OF THE YOUNG CATHOLICS. 47

surgunt Jwstes, liber conscribitur, fides extollitur. Ter in flammas libellus traditus, ter exivit illczsus penitus.*

The conference at Fanjeaux, and the wonderful event with which it closed, brought conviction to the minds of many of those who assisted at it ; but by far the greater number remained obstinate in their unbelief. Nevertheless, from this time Brother Dominic came to be regarded both by friends and enemies as foremost among the champions of the Catholic faith. Touron remarks that whereas the other missioners, whose number had now considerably increased, worked each one in the particular district assigned him either by the Legates or by the Bishop of Osma, Dominic seems to have had no such restriction, but to have been free to extend his labours wherever charity might guide him. In the course of these missionary journeys he made himself perfectly well acquainted with the condition of the country and of the evils which cried aloud for remedy. In particular he became aware of the special danger to which the daughters of the Catholics were exposed, through the artifices of the Albigenses and the culpable indifference of their own parents. Many of the Catholic gentry, reduced to ruin by the spolia- tion of their lands, did not hesitate for the bribe of a promised dowry to deliver their daughters into the hands of the sectaries to be by them nurtured and educated in heresy.

4 In 1209, the goods of William de Durfort having been confiscated f the miraculous beam was taken from his house and deposited in the Convent of Prouille, where it remained until the foundation of the Convent of Fanjeaux. In 1346, the family of Durfort having regained possession of the forfeited territory, were desirous of consecrating the site of this celebrated miracle as a chapel dedicated to St. Dominic. They, therefore, sold the house for this purpose to Father Raymund de Durfort, a member of the same family, then Provincial of Toulouse, declaring that they did so "in consideration of the notable miracle worked by fire in that house, to the honour of the blessed Dominic, when he preached against heresy in that country." The chapel was accordingly erected, and many Indulgences were granted by the Sovereign Pontiffs to those who should visit it. This chapel was afterwards attached to the Dominican convent erected at Fanjeaux in 1350, and here the beam was preserved for many years. It was the custom to bring into this chapel the young maidens able to take the veil in the Convent of Prouille, that they might hear Mass and kiss the sacred relic, the greater portion of which is now carefully kept in the parish church of Fanjeaux.





48 PROPOSED CONVENT.

The leaders of the Albigenses understood only too well what powerful instruments might then be fashioned for the propa- gation of their false doctrines. Indeed, it is remarkable how important a part was played by these proselytes. They found entrance into all families and exercised a powerful influence over many a Catholic household. From none indeed did the Albigenses receive more powerful support than from their female disciples, whom they were careful to recruit after the manner above described.

This abuse and its dangers, as insidious as they were alarming, did not escape the notice of the saint, and he rested not till he had provided a remedy. The plan suggested itself to him of founding a monastery for the express purpose of furnishing a retreat where young girls in danger of this kind of perversion might find a safe refuge, and where other women reclaimed from heresy might also be admitted and fully instructed in the faith. He conferred with Diego on this plan and received from him such warm encouragement, that both Blessed Jordan and Theodoric of Apoldia write as though the bishop had himself been the author of the scheme. This, however, is to be understood only as signifying that the proceedings of the missioners were naturally submitted to the approval of Diego as their recognized head, for the foundation of Prouille must be regarded as strictly the work of St. Dominic. Vim's convent was in fact to become the ; real nursery of his Order, and the narrative of a foundation

fso interesting from every point of view in the history of our saint claims a chapter to itself.







THE NUNS OF PROUILLE.





CHAPTER V.





I206.

IN the plain that stretches from the foot of the hills on which Fanjeaux is situated, lies the village of Prouille, where in the thirteenth century stood a church dedicated to St. Martin, together with an ancient chapel of our Lady, long the resort of pilgrims, which Brother Dominic often visited in his apostolic journeys, and wherein he loved to offer the Holy Sacrifice. On the night of the 22nd of July, 1206, the saint, according to his custom, had retired to a spot among the hills overlooking the plain, in order that, after spending the day in labouring for souls, he might devote the night hours to communing with God. No doubt his heart was full to overflowing with solicitude for the perishing souls among whom he laboured, and the design with which God had recently inspired him. The establishment of a monastery such as he had in contemplation was no easy task for one a stranger in the land, and wholly destitute of temporal means.





1 Prouille is between Montreal and Fanjeaux, about a league from the mer, and a quarter of a league from the latter place .





50 FOUNDATION OF PROUILLE.

In a country surrounded on all sides by those hostile to the faith, where should he find a site on which to erect his ark of refuge ? Looking down on the plain below, he suddenly beheld a spectacle which seemed to give the answer to his doubts. A globe of fire appeared in the air, and, after making several circuits, descended, and rested on the roof of bur Lady's chapel. The same prodigy was exhibited on the two following nights, and Dominic understood it to signify that the spot thus pointed out was the one chosen for his proposed foundation. The convent, which was to receive into its shelter souls rescued from the snares of the enemy, was then, to be placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Prouille. On inquiry he found that the land on which the chapel stood belonged to a noble dame whose family name was De Cavaers, the same who has been before mentioned as chatelaine of Fanjeaux, and enjoying the honourable dis- tinction of being the solitary lady of that neighbourhood who remained loyal to the Catholic faith. 2 To her the saint made known what he had seen, and invited her to consecrate her territory to the service of God by consenting to the foundation on it of a monastery for women. She yielded a joyful consent to the proposal, which received the hearty approval of Fulk, Bishop of Toulouse, to whom the co- patronage of the chapel belonged. He not only gave his sanction to the undertaking, but furnished the foundation with such liberal alms, that in a short time the requisite buildings were erected, and the monastery sufficiently endowed for the support of a certain number of subjects.

While the work was in progress, Dominic continued to reside at Fanjeaux in a house which is still religiously preserved, and is called in the patois of the country the Bourguet Sant Domenge. There may still be seen the chamber

2 Dame Na Cavaers, foundress of Prouille, left a daughter and name- sake who inherited the lands, but unfortunately not the faith of her noble mother. Na Cavaers the younger was for many years in intimate relations with all the leaders of the sect, and even seems to have been admitted as a member. But wonderful to say, after forty years spent in error, she not only made her peace with the Church, but asked and received the holy habit of religion in the monastery of Prouille.





DOMINIC AT FANJEAUX. 51

which gave him shelter, with its brick floor and ancient stone hearth. Near this house rises a high rock, in a cavity of which is a deep pool that is never stagnant, being fed from some secret source. It bears the title of the water-stoup of St. Dominic, and, according to the poetical tradition of the place, sprang up on the spot so often watered by the tears and sanctified by the prayers of the saint. Not far off a little monument, surmounted by a cross, marks the spot known as the Segnadou, or " the place where the saint saw the sign," 3 being that, whence as above related, he beheld the flame descend from heaven upon the roof of our Lady's chapel. This spot, as well as others which local tradition associates with his name, is still visited by pilgrims who love to pray on the scenes hallowed by his memory among these mountain solitudes. A steep cleft in the rocks shows the path he so often trod leading from Fanjeaux to Montreal, and here it is said he once narrowly escaped falling into the hands of assassins. The forest where he was wont to retire for prayer and penance, with the old oaks under which he loved to sit, are still pointed out; and half way between Fanjeaux and Carcassonne is to be seen a fountain now surmounted by his statue, where according to tradition he often rested and took his scanty meal of dry bread, dipping it in the waters of the fountain.

But perhaps the most interesting of the localities asso- ciated with his memory is the parish church of Fanjeaux which even claims to have been served for a time by the saint as parish priest. The pulpit in which he preached almost daily during the time that he made his home in the village is still reverently shown. Out of respect the floor of this pulpit is now covered with boards, but we are assured it is the same from which he so often announced the Word of God. On one such occasion, after he had eloquently defended the faith against the blasphemies of the Albigenses, an incident occurred which we will relate almost in the words of Blessed Humbert.

s This monument, erected in 1860, stands on the site of a much more ancient cross, which was placed there by the inhabitants of Fanjeaux in 1538, a: , and which bore an inscription commemorative of the above event,





52 A TERRIBLE VISION.

As the saint remained in the church to pray, according to his custom, he was accosted by nine women who threw them- selves at his feet, saying, " Servant of God, come to our help. If what you preached to-day be true, our souls have long been blinded with error ; for those whom you style heretics, but whom we call Bons Hommesf are the guides whom we have hitherto trusted with our whole hearts. But now we know not what to think. Have pity on us and pray to the Lord your God that He may make known to us in what faith we must live and die if we would be saved everlastingly. We cannot reply to your arguments, yet we dare not lightly condemn the teaching of our ministers. Resolve our doubts then, but we entreat you let it be in a way which may bring certain conviction to our souls."

Dominic recollected himself for a few moments in silent prayer, then he replied, " Have patience and fear nothing ; I believe that our Lord, Who wills not that any should perish, will show you manifestly who is the master whom you have hitherto served." Then he invited them to pray with him, and as they did so there appeared in the midst of them a monstrous and most hideous beast whose flaming eyes and frightful aspect filled them with terror. Springing into the air, it disappeared through the belfry of the church, leavirig behind it a horrible stench. " This is the master you have served," said Dominic, "and whose likeness God has per- mitted you to behold that you might see and understand in what manner of slavery you have engaged by joining yourselves to these heretics."

Moved by the appalling sight, and with hearts already touched by Divine grace, the nine women entreated Dominic not to abandon them, but to receive them to some safe shelter, and direct them in the way of truth. The saint gave up to them the house he himself occupied, and spent that night, as was his frequent habit, in prayer among the hills. After carefully testing the sincerity of his new disciples, he not only received their abjuration, but agreed to admit them among the first members of the new community. History 4 The title by which the " perfect " were commonly addressed.





FIRST RELIGIOUS OF PROUILLE.





53





has carefully preserved their names ; they were Alai'de, Berengaria, Barberienne Jordan, Curtslana, Raymundine, Paperin, Riccarda, Guillelmine de Beaupuys, Raymundine Clarette, and Gentiana. Twenty-seven years later, Beren- garia gave her testimony to the sanctity of St. Dominic, making oath before the commissioners of Toulouse as to the things she had seen and heard ; and in this attestation she affirms having with her own eyes beheld the terrible spectacle above described as seen in the church of Fanjeaux. Another " of the little company, whose name is not given, appears to have been possessed of considerable personal attractions, and in particular of a remarkably well-formed nose, which proved a source of temptation to her, and disposed her to return to the world. A grotesque accident, however, which befell the favourite feature and somewhat spoiled her beauty, seems to have cured her vanity and brought her to her senses. Confessing her f ault to Brother Dominic, he confirmed her in her vocation, so that she never afterwards showed any signs of instability. To these nine were soon afterwards added two others, Catholics by birth and by education, of whom Guillemette de Fanjeaux, though the last comer, was chosen by Dominic to be the Prioress, an office she continued to fill for the space of nineteen years. The modest habitation which had been begun in the month of August, and which, poor as it was, was yet carefully adapted to the requirements of religious life, was completed early in November ; and on the ^ 22nd of this month, being the feast of St. Cecilia, 1206, the nuns took possession of their new abode. They were formally enclosed on the following feast of St. John the Evangelist, and thus was completed the foundation of the first convent of the Order. The community soon received a fresh increase by the admission of fifteen young girls, all rescued from the hands of the heretics, to whose instruction and guidance the saint devoted no small portion of his time.

An exact description of the spot so dear and sacred to every child of St. Dominic will not be unacceptable. It shall be given in the words of one to whom the scenes described have long been a familiar home. " Prouille is





54 DESCRIPTION OF PROUILLE.

/"""situated in the department of Aude, between the Medi- j^ierranean and the Pyrenees. It lies in a vast and richly cultivated plain through which flow many crystal streams, their banks fringed with trees, specialty willows. On the south it is shut in by a range of hills, still covered with the remains of vast forests, which once clothed them to the summit. Dotted here and there on its expanse appear farms and villages, with many a church tower rising to heaven through the clear and azure sky. Towards the east and west this plain stretches to a great extent, but it is bounded on the north by what are called the Black Mountains, the slopes of which in the time of St. Dominic were covered with thick forests." A little village, the houses of which were poor enough, and were for the most part built of mud, then clustered round the Church of St. Martin, long the resort of pilgrims ; and the first abode of the nuns consisted of a few such mud cottages, which they continued to occupy until by gift or purchase they came into possession of larger territories. In this humble dwelling it was, then, that St. Dominic gathered his first religious, whom by the authority of the Bishop of Toulouse he clothed in the habit he had (chosen for them, namely, a white tunic with a black mantle I and veil. He gave them the Rule of St. Augustine, to which were added certain Constitutions drawn up by his own pen, in which was enjoined a strict observance of silence. Besides the hours devoted to prayer and the recital of the Divine Office, it was provided that a certain time should every day be given to manual work. The articles of a visitation of the convent held in 1340 by the Provincial of Toulouse show how much importance was attached by the saint to this salutary ordinance. " The procurators of the convent (we read) being asked how the sisters were provided with clothing, and if they had sufficient garments, and those of good and suitable materials, answered that every year there is delivered to them fifteen cwt. of clean, washed, and well-chosen wool, which wool they themselves spin and make up according to the ancient custom of the monastery, and the express command of our Father St. Dominic, who ordered that the nuns should





RULE OF THE NUNS. 55

spin and sew in those hours when they were not employed in the recitation of the Divine Office, in order the better to avoid idleness, the cause of so many evils." 6

Besides this manual work it was ordered that those who had the capacity, should carefully apply themselves to the study of psalmody, and a passage in the primitive Constitu- tion names also " the study of letters " as fitly occupying a certain portion of their time. An idea has very commonly prevailed that the Convent of Prouille was founded as a place of education for young girls, and considerable pains has been taken by several learned writers to disprove this error. The religious of Prouille, like all other communities of the Second Order established later, were strictly contem- plative and never undertook the work of education. Never- theless, it is evident that being founded to receive those rescued from heresy, means were provided for the careful instruction of the inmates in the truths of faith, and as amply appears from the annals of the monastery, the religious who took no part in that work of teaching which so manifestly belongs to the Order of Preachers, were trained to co-operate in the salvation of souls by their penances and their prayers. . So singular an interest attaches to this nursery of the Order of Preachers, and its foundation forms such an important epoch in the life of our saint, that we shall make no apology for tracing its history somewhat fully, the rather that the documents we have to quote throw considerable light on the actual position then held by St. Dominic, and the nature of his work in Languedoc. So much of his history has been presented to us in what is regarded by many as a purely legendary form, that it is a satisfaction to turn over the pages of formal documents indisputable in their authenticity, and gather from them evidence corro- borating many of the events above recorded.

First, then, as to the temporalities of Prouille. The church had been granted to the use of the nuns from their first foundation, but it was not until 1211 that they became its actual proprietors. In that year Fulk, Bishop of Toulouse, 6 Visits de Prouille par le Provincial de Toulouse en 1340 (inedited).





56 GRANTS TO THE CONVENT.

with the consent of his Chapter, and at the request of Master Dominic of Osma, gives and assigns the chapel of Our Lady of Prouille to the religious women who shall be converted by the preaching of those appointed to drive away heresy out of the country. He releases them from all pecuniary obligations that might be claimed by the Chapter, and grants them thirty paces of land surrounding the chapel.

Earlier than this is the document by which Beranger, Archbishop of Narbonne, endows the monastery with lands situated in his archdiocese. In the April of 1207, only four months after this foundation, he grants to the Prioress and other religious women who have been recently converted to the faith by the exhortations and example of Brother Dominic, Canon of Osma, and of his companions abiding at Fanjeaux in the Church, of Our Lady of Prouille, the Church of St. Martin of Limoux, 7 and the territory of Tax, contiguous to it, as a perpetual possession which is accepted in their name by the Brothers Dominic and William de Claret. In this document we have the first notice of the companions of St. Dominic, and of their establishment at Prouille as a residence. The William de Claret here mentioned was a native of Pamiers, and offered his services to the Bishop of Osma at the very commence- ment of the mission. Diego appointed him procurator to the little company, and St. Dominic chose him to discharge the same office for the community of Prouille, and to act as their chaplain, though their spiritual care was afterwards confided to Brother Noel of Prouille.

The "Brethren of Prouille" are also named in another act dated in the same year 1207, in which Ermingarde de Godeline and her husband, Sancho Gasc, dedicated not only their goods, but their persons also, to God, the Blessed Mary, and all the saints, to the holy work of preaching, to Master Dominic of Osma, and the brethren and sisters living at Prouille.^ How many of these brethren were established at Prouille in its early days

7 According to the author of Notre Dame de France, vol. iii. p. 320, the famous sanctuary of Notre Dame de Marceille, near Limoux, was also granted to Prouille.

8 Doat, t. 98, f. 3.





OTHER DOCUMENTS. 57

we do not know ; it is probable that their numbers at first were small, possibly not exceeding the two whose names have been already given. But as time went on their ranks increased, and at a later date we find the community of the brethren amounting to as many as twenty-five priests besides lay-brothers.

Meanwhile the records of the monastery bear witness to its steady growth. A few years pass by, years of tumult and of bloodshed, but Prouille remains unaffected by the storm that rages round her walls. The ark of refuge floats securely on the surface of the troubled waters. The con- struction and enlargement of the monastery are carried on without intermission, while all the surrounding country is plunged in civil war ; and in 1212, when armies are marching and counter-marching in the close neighbourhood, fresh acts of donation make mention of the "newly-erected abbey" and the "monastery recently constructed." 9 The antique forms of some of these documents help us to realize the age to which they belong. Thus in 1212 Bernard de Barna makes over to Our Lady of Prouille and to the brethren and sisters living there, not only his goods moveable and immoveable, but his own person and that of his son. Needless to say this is to be understood in the feudal sense. He holds his lands henceforth, not as an independent proprietor, but as " the man " of the monastery. " Kneeling before you, Dominic, Canon of Osma," he continues, " with my hands in yours and receiving the kiss of peace, I pledge you my homage." 10 Again, in another of these charters Peter, Castellan de Saissac, contracts a different kind of tie with the community. He disposes of his lands in favour of the brethren and sisters, adding, " and I, Peter de Saissac, make myself your brother, and if he so will, my heir shall do the same." The donation is accepted by the two brethren, Noel and William, in the name of the joint community. "We hereby receive you as a brother," they write at the foot of the contract, " and admit you to participation in all the prayers and good works that are here performed." That is to say, 9 Doat, t. 98, f. 8io. 10 Ibid p 7





58 FIRE AT PROUILLE.

that the donor becomes affiliated to the monastery not precisely as a religious, but as a kind of auxiliary, one of what were technically called the freres donas, whose numbers gradually increased with the increase of the lands and possessions of the monastery which were committed to their charge.

"^ It will be seen, then, that two distinct communities were settled at Prouille, one of religious women and the other of brethren. The latter had for their use the Church of St. Martin, which separated the two divisions of the monas- tery. Pere Rechac has given us an exact description of the building as it existed in the seventeenth century, and tells us of the quadrangle of the nuns with its central fountain, the stone cloisters with watch-towers at each of the four corners of the battlemented walls, with which, as time went on, the convent was surrounded, having fifteen other towers, their numbers corresponding to the mysteries of the holy Rosary. He describes how over the great gate of the monastery there stood an image of St. Dominic, stick in hand, while beneath it were engraved in antique Gothic characters the following lines :

Ennemis de ma religion Ne troublez ce lieu sanctifie, Car autrement de mon baton Tres asprement vous frapperai.

The annals of the monastery record many instances of its singular preservation from perils of all kinds, due as was believed to his fatherly protection. Then, in 1309, fire broke out in the dormitory of the religious, who having invoked the aid of their holy patriarch, beheld a number of young children dressed in white, who extinguished the flames with their hands. This happened on the feast of St. Michael, and the grace was so generally attributed to angelic assist- ance that Pere Adaubert, Provincial of Toulouse, ordained a daily commemoration of the Holy Angels to be made henceforth at Lauds and Vespers by way of perpetual thanksgiving. Needless to say that a very special devotion was always cherished by the religious of Prouille to their





DESTRUCTION OF PROUILLE.





59





holy founder himself, whose chasuble, mantle, and scapular they preserved as precious relics, as well as a crucifix carved by his direction, which was kept in the chapel of the Rosary and w r as regarded as miraculous. This chapel was a place of great devotion. It was here that the novices used to assemble to recite our Lady's Office, and here it was said two of the sisters who were wont to resort hither to pray, were accustomed to see and converse with their guardian angels.

The community seems specially to have excelled in their admirable discharge of the duties of the choir. They recited it, says Pere Rechac, in a manner suitable to the majesty of the place, without haste or precipitation, without the omission of a note or a syllable, the pauses carefully observed, and the chant kept up with perfect regularity. " Of this," he says, " I have myself been both an eye and ear witness, nor is it to be doubted that this perfect fidelity in the duties of the choir has been one of the special benedic- tions left by St. Dominic on these his eldest daughters." We will only add that to fervour in prayer they added an unbounded charity, as was shown by their daily distribution at the gate of the monastery of food, clothes, and medicine.

But it is time to close this subject, over which we have lingered out of loving reverence to the memory of a place sanctified by the labours and tears of our great saint, and so dear to his fatherly heart. * The Prouille of St. Domini exists no longer. The ancient monastery was entirely burnt down in 1715, and in 1790 the new convent raised upon its ruins was seized by the Revolutionary Government, the religious dispersed, and the convent itself sold to a speculator who levelled it to the ground and sold its stones as building materials. For more than fifty years nothing remained to mark the site but a few feet of crumbling wall, a portion of the ancient cloister. -f But in our own days a new Prouille has arisen out of the ashes of the old, and on this very site a monastery of magnificent dimensions, raised through the munificence of a noble lady, has received within its walls a colony of Dominican nuns who can trace their religious





6O PROUILLE RESTORED.

descent from the parent stock of the Prouille of St. Dominic. Thus the lily garden of the Order has been planted afresh. Pndia, or Pruralilia, as some old writers love to call it, still lives to lift up holy hands for her unhappy country. May her prayers be abundantly heard as expressed in those words which so often in old times resounded within her walls :

O Salutaris hostia,

Spes unica fidelium, In te confidit Francia,

Da pacem, serva lilium.n

11 An adaptation of the Salutaris, used anciently in France in times of public necessity.





CHAPTER VI.

THE MURDER OF THE LEGATE. 1207 1208.

As soon as the community was happily settled at Prouille, Dominic left Fanjeaux, and rejoined Diego and the Legates at Pamiers, where Arnold of Citeaux soon after arrived, bringing with him twelve other abbots of his Order. Thus powerfully reinforced, the missioners prosecuted their labours with fresh vigour. At Montreal five hundred heretics abjured their errors, and the same success attended the preaching of the Catholics in other towns. Diego, therefore, thought the time a suitable one for revisiting his own diocese, from which he had now been absent for nearly three years. Before doing so, however, he agreed to return with the other missioners to Pamiers, where considerable numbers, both of Catholics and Albigenses, had assembled to assist at a great con- ference, which was to be held between their respective leaders. As Diego and his party approached the town, they were met and joyfully greeted by the Bishops of Toulouse and Conzerans, together with many of the clergy. The umpire chosen on this occasion was Arnold of Cam- pranham, a secular priest of some learning, but who was known to favour the doctrines of the Albigenses. The conference took place in the house of Raymund Roger, Count de Foix, his wife, who had openly joined the heretics, being present at the discussions, as well as his two sisters, who belonged to the kindred sect of the Vaudois. These ladies were strongly inclined to take an active part in the proceedings, but received a salutary hint from Stephen, one of the Cistercian abbots assisting at the conference, who bade them listen in silence as more suitable to their sex.





62 CONFERENCE AT PAMIERS.

11 Go, madam," he said to the countess, " and attend to your spinning ; it does not become you to take part in this debate." The conference resulted in the triumph of the Catholics, and not only did Arnold give judgment in their favour, but he himself renounced his errors in the hands of the Bishop of Osma, and thenceforward acted as a strenuous defender of the Catholic faith. His example was followed by many others, especially of the poorer classes, who made their submission with every sign of sincerity. This conference took place, according to Touron, in the July of 1207; and immediately on its close, Diego prepared to set out for Spain, his purpose being, after settling the affairs of the diocese, and collecting alms for the support of the missioners and the convent of Prouille, to return to Languedoc, and there resume his apostolic labours. A Before leaving, he appointed Brother Dominic to be the head of the body of missioners, and named him Prior of Prouille, by which title we find him henceforth designated.

Dominic and his companions accompanied the bishop to the confines of the province, all journeying on foot, and preaching as they went. There the two friends who had been bound together by a tie so close, and of such long duration, parted in the confident hope of a speedy reunion. But the designs of God had otherwise ordained. Before the close of the year Diego departed to a better life, and was buried in his cathedral church of Osma, where his tomb is said to have been honoured by miracles. He was the first of a long line of great men with whom the founder of the Friars Preachers was united in bonds of no common friend- ship, nor was he the least worthy of the number. So holy and so stainless was his character that, as Blessed Jordan tells us, it won the admiration of the heretics themselves, who were wont to say that " it was impossible not to believe such a man predestined to eternal life, and that doubtless he had been sent among them that he might learn from them the way of salvation." It was his influence that had con- solidated the scattered elements of the Catholic party into a firm and united body, and it seemed as though his death in





DOMINIC LEFT ALONE. 63

a moment dissolved the tie that had bound them together. Many circumstances in fact, combined to break up the company which had hitherto acted in concert. Arnold of Citeaux was elected the General of his Order, and was necessarily obliged to return to the seat of its government. He was followed by the other Cistercian abbots, all of whom were recalled to their own convents. Peter of Castelnau had established himself in Provence, where Rodolph, the other Legate, prepared to join him, but died before reaching his destination ; so that a few weeks after hearing of the death of Diego, Dominic found himself left to sustain the conflict for the faith almost single-handed.

There comes a crisis in the history of some souls, and especially of those chosen by God for special works, which seems designed to test and prove the strength that is in them. As the archer tries the firmness of his bow-string before delivering his shaft, so such souls are permitted in the darkness of desolation or the anguish of bereavement, to gather their strength to its true centre, and lean more utterly upon God. Not till then is manifested their full nobility, or the power of the grace which moves them. So, as we may conjecture, it was in the life-history of the Blessed Dominic. His hour of proof was that in which he stood alone, with the work to which God had called him still incomplete, while his fellow-labourers were all withdrawn, and he among the number in whose company for fourteen years he had enjoyed the rare happiness of a perfect friendship. He watched them depart one after another, the Spanish ecclesiastics to Spain, the Cistercians to their abbeys, but he remained firm and tranquil in the post where God had placed him. The sweet- ness of human consolation had been taken from him, but the Divine will, the law of his life, remained ; and if men had hitherto regarded him only as following in the track marked out by another, they were now about to behold him revealed to the world in his true character as the founder of that great Religious Order which was to bear his name. " It was not to be," writes William de Puylaurens, " that the work of preaching, which had been begun so happily, should be





64 FULK OF TOULOUSE.

suffered to perish. By Divine inspiration it was to be carried on by preachers who should for ever bear that title as their own. For the Order of Preachers was about to arise under the protection of the holy Bishop Fulk, of Toulouse."

We have already more than once had occasion to mention the name of this remarkable man, who had been appointed to the bishopric of Toulouse in 1200, after the deposition of Raymund de Rabastens. His history, like his character, was altogether extraordinary, exhibiting the energy of human passion not laid aside, but transformed and sanctified by Divine grace. He had passed many years at the Courts of \ Richard of England and Count Raymund V. of Toulouse, where he w r as known, not merely as a man of the world, but as a skilful troubadour. His poetry, which still exists, is praised by critics for the elegance of its conception, but if we are to credit historians who gave currency to the popular judgment regarding him, his life did not wholly escape from the influence of the profligate society that surrounded him. A sudden stroke of grace came to open his eyes to the nothingness of the world, and to arouse him to nobler aspira- tions. " Were I condemned," he one day thought to himself, " to lie for ever on the softest bed, how intolerable would such a destiny be ! Yet if so, what will it be to endure the everlasting torments?" The shaft struck him to the heart, and when once that fervent nature awoke to the conscious- ness of the eternal truths, it could rest in no half turning to God. With the consent of his wife, he left the world and entered the monastery of Toronet, in Provence, where in due time he became abbot. So entirely did he give himself up to the service of God, and so remarkably did he display his powers of government, that when he was chosen for the difficult task of raising the Church of Toulouse from the miserable condition into which it had been brought by the misconduct of his predecessor, the appointment was received with universal joy, and Peter of Castelnau, then lying on a bed of sickness, lifted his hands in thanksgiving that so great a happiness should be bestowed on that afflicted diocese.





FULK OF TOULOUSE. 65

-*">.

The career ofJFulkJaas been traced by the pen of William de Puylaurens, who knew him well, and who, though the chaplain of Raymund VII. of Toulouse, was not deterred by any partiality for the princes whom he served from doing justice to the prelate who showed himself so firm in resisting their encroachments. He calls Fulk the venerable Father chosen by God to repair the ruins of His Church laid waste by heresy. He tells us that at the moment of his accession, as he himself had often heard from the lips of the bishop, the revenues of the see, once so rich and flourishing, did not exceed ninety-six sous. He entered the diocese with no greater equipage than four mules, which he brought from his abbey. But he showed himself a vigilant pastor and an eloquent preacher, and from the day of his installation the Catholic cause in Toulouse showed signs of revival.

As we have seen, Fulk had very early recognized the merits of Brother Dominic, and had given him his powerful support in the foundation of Prouille. He equally proved himself a firm friend in the present juncture, and throughout the difficult time that was opening. Dark clouds, indeed, just then hung over the horizon. Whatever success had attended the labours of the missioners in the conversion of individuals, and even of considerable numbers of the better disposed among the heretics, it was far from being universal. Encouraged by the example of their princes, the greats^ mass of the people showed themselves wholly indifferent \l to the pacific measures hitherto exclusively employed to X reclaim them. To use the expression of the poet of the I \ Crusade, 1 "they cared no more for preaching than for a 1 rotten apple." On occasions indeed when the Legates hinted at the possibility of interference on the part of the temporal

1 William of Tudela was the author of the first part of the Song of the Crusade, a poem in the Prover^al language which is regarded as reliable authority for the history of the war. The Song was continued by an anonymous troubadour to whose statements the same Credit does not attach. The other contemporary authors on whom we chiefly depend are Peter de Vaulx-Cernay and William de Puy-Lamens ; the first a Cistercian monk, the latter chaplain to Count Raymund VII., and a singularly impartial writer. F





66 PETER OF CASTELNAU.

power, as at Toulouse in 1204, a wonderful alacrity was shown in expelling the Albigenses and meeting every demand. But as soon as the danger was over all things went on as before ; until after ten years of these successive and all but fruitless legations it became clearly apparent that the evil was one which called for a severer remedy. By none was the unsatisfactory result of these negotiations more keenly felt than by Peter of Castelnau, who was accustomed to say that religion would never again raise its head in Languedoc till the soil had been watered by the blood of a martyr, and it was his constant prayer that he himself might be the victim. The special enmity of which he was the object on the part of the Albigenses has been sometimes attributed to the uncompromising severity of his character. But it must be borne in mind that in his office as Legate he was charged with the onerous duty, not merely of preaching to the heretics, but of rebuking and pronouncing censure on those who were the real authors of the existing troubles. We have seen with what courage he had enforced the authority of the Holy See against the slothful and unfaithful pastors of the Church ; and he showed no less firmness in dealing with those who held and misused the temporal power. Of these the one most conspicuous, both by his rank and by the long tissue of his crimes and treacheries, was^Count Raymund VI. of Toulouse. He showed no sympathy with the better dispositions evinced by his father towards the close of his life ; but from the day of his accession acted as the avowed protector of the rx. Albigenses. Nor was this by any means his sole offence. Through him the whole of the south of France was plunged in petty wars, which he promoted for his own aggrandize- ment, taking into his pay large bands of the excommunicated Cotteraux or Routitrs, with whose aid he ravaged towns, churches, and monasteries. It is necessary to remind ourselves of the real condition of society in these lawless centuries, left as it too often was at the mercy of ferocious (""tyrants. Doubtless among the feudal rulers of the land many \Vtre to be found who exhibited the true virtues of chivalry,





\





THE TRUCE OF GOD. 67

men who were the protectors of the Church, the champions of the oppressed, the friends of the fatherless and the widow. But others, and it may be feared the larger number, hardly rose above the level of brigand chiefs. Their sole occupation consisted in raids one ypon anoflier which do not deserve the name of wars, and which were made the excuse for every species of violence and rapine. In these intestine and bloody quarrels the petty rulers of southern France were incessantly^ engaged, and the Cotteraux found constant employment under the banners of the rival chieftains.

No one even superficially acquainted with the history of European Christendom can be ignorant how unceasing were the efforts of the Popes to repress these evils. From the gigantic wars between France and England down to the ignoble strife that armed baron against baron, the voice of the Sovereign Pontiff was always heard above the din of battle pleading for peace. If the Church failed in putting an end to war, she did her best to mitigate its atrocities. By the Truce of God she did actually set limits to the violence of the age. Under this title was understood the law by which her councils forbade all men under the severest spiritual censures to carry on any hostilities public or private during certain specified seasons. These were, generally speaking, in every week from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, from the beginning of Advent to the octave of the Epiphany, from the first day of Lent to the octave of Easter, and from the Rogation Days to the octave of Pentecost. A number of holy days differing in different parts were likewise included in the Truce, and during all these times it was forbidden not only to fight, but to lay waste lands and carry off cattle. Churches and cemeteries were also placed under perpetual protection, and it was declared to be a violation of the Truce to kill or wound peasants engaged in agriculture, or helpless women, or to destroy or injure the implements of husbandry. Special officers with an armed force at their command were appointed to guard the observance of this sacred law, the infraction of which was regarded as an offence of the deepest dye, and those found bold enough to violate its prescriptions





68 COUNT RAYMUND'S CRIMES.

were held in universal reprobation. Nothing, perhaps, is more extraordinary or more admirable in history than the fact that such a law should not only be promulgated through- ut Christendom, but that on the whole it should have been observed, and it speaks volumes as to the beneficent influence exercised by religion in those wild and troublous times. 2

The Church then, and especially the Holy See, acted as the universal peacemaker. The Legation sent into Lan- guedoc by Innocent III. was far from being exclusively directed against the heretical doctrines of the Albigenses. One of its main objects was the pacification of the country by the extinction of these miserable wars and the expulsion of the Rentiers. As we have said, Raymund VI. was one of their chief protectors. " He had," says a contemporary writer, " a wonderful liking for these men." His partiality for them may perhaps be explained in the words of Michelet, who after drawing a frightful picture of the excesses perpetrated by the Routiers, particularly in the south of France, observes that nevertheless "they were dear to the princes of the country precisely on account of their impiety, which made them indifferent to the censures of the Church."

It was then not merely as an abettor of heresy, but as the promoter of bloody and unjust wars, and the protector of excommunicated ruffians who lived only by crime and violence, that Innocent III. addressed to the Count that celebrated letter in which he enumerates his offences against God and man, and calls on him to make reparation. " Would





2 It is remarkable that at first the ecclesiastical authorities endeavoured to abolish the custom of making war altogether and to establish what was called " the peace of God." Needless to say the measure failed of success by attempting too much, and about the middle of the eleventh century, the truce of God was substituted for the peace, and men to whom fighting was a kind of second nature were only required to restrict their hostilities within certain limits. Henry II. of England, when resolved on establish- ing the reign of social order throughout his dominions, found no better means of doing so than by copying this institution of the Church. He proclaimed what he called "the King's peace," and the officers he appointed to enforce it were known as "justices of the peace," phrases still in use in our own day. For a full treatment of this interesting subject, see Rohrbacher, Histoire de I'Eglise, vol. xiii. pp. 466 474.





HE IS EXCOMMUNICATED. 69

that we could open your heart," he says, " and make you see the enormities you have committed ! What pride has seized possession of you, that you will not keep peace with your neighbours, and that you break the laws of God by allying yourself with the enemies of the faith ! ... If you do not stand in fear of eternal punishment, at least fear that which is temporal : fear, lest by the hostilities you wage against your neighbour and the offence you offer to God by protecting heresy, you draw on yourself a double punishment. . . . Who are you, that you alone should refuse to make peace, in order that you may profit by these miserable divisions, whilst the King of Aragon and all the other most powerful lords of the country have at the entreaties of our Legates solemnly sworn to do so ? Do you not blush to remember how often you have broken your oaths to drive the heretics out of your dominions ? And was it not you who, laying waste the province of Aries with your hired bands, were entreated by our venerable brother the Bishop of Orange, to spare the monasteries and to suspend your ravages, if it were but during the holy season 3 and on feast-days. Then you took the bishop by the right hand, and swore on that hand, that you would have regard neither to the holy time nor to Sundays, and that you would spare neither consecrated places nor persons. And this oath, if we ought not rather to call it this profanation, you have observed better than your other oaths, taken in a lawful cause." 4

This accumulation of outrages at last met with its well- merited punishment, and after repeated warnings and remonstrances the Legate pronounced against the Count sentence of excommunication. For the spiritual censure, Raymund cared little enough ; but in the thirteenth century excommunication, by the common law of the Church, bore with it certain temporal penalties. At any moment the decree might go forth which would deprive him of his territories, and already a league was formed against him among certain of his barons who would joyfully have put such a sentence into execution. It was necessary therefore 3 i.e. of the Truce. 4 Epist. Innoc. III. t. x.





70 MURDER OF THE LEGATE.

to temporize. He invited the Legate to meet him at St. Gilles, near the mouth of the Rhone, under the pretence of seeking a sincere reconciliation with the Church. Peter de Castelnau accepted the invitation, and repaired to the place appointed in company with one of his brother Legates. But it soon became apparent that nothing was further from Raymund's intention than any kind of submission. He desired indeed to be relieved from his sentence, and threatened the Legates with death if they attempted to leave the town without giving him absolution. But as to giving any pledges that would bind his future conduct, he utterly refused to do so. He would neither make peace with his neighbours, dismiss the Routievs from his employment, or withdraw his protection from the Albigenses. These were the three heads to which the Legates reduced their demands, requiring not only his acceptance of them, but some security that the conditions would be observed. As to oaths, too well did they know what was their value in his eyes. " A renegade to his faith," says Peter de Vaulx-Cernay, "worse than an infidel, and incapable of observing his oaths, he had already sworn, and foresworn himself many times." All negotiations therefore failing, Peter de Castelnau boldly confronted the tyrant, and reproached him with his crimes and perjuries. Then, despising his threats, the two Legates left the town accompanied by an escort given them by the civic magistrates. That night they slept in a little inn by the shore of the Rhone, and next morning, having said Mass and dismissed their escort, they prepared to cross the river. At that moment two men approached them, one of whom, squire to the Count of Toulouse, plunged a lance into the side of Peter de Castelnau. He fell to the ground mortally wounded, exclaiming, " May God pardon you ; as for me, I pardon you ! " These words he repeated several times, adding as he addressed his companions, " Keep the faith and serve God's Church without fear and without negligence." They carried him into the poor wayside inn, where he lay raising his hands and eyes to heaven, and from time to time praying God to pardon his murderer. " Towards cock-crow," says





ITS CONSEQUENCES. 71

the author of the Song of the Crusade, " he died after receiving Holy Communion. His soul departed to God, and his body was carried back to St. Gilles, and buried with lighted candles and the chant of the Kyrie eleison sung by many clerks."

The slaughter of an ambassador has in all times, and among all peoples, been reckoned among the most heinous of crimes. But as Rohrbacher observes, Peter of Castelnau was the ambassador from the Head of the Church, despatched to restore peace to a distracted country by exclusively peaceful means. His murder was therefore an outrage on the whole Christian world, and, according to what was then the universally acknowledged law of Christendom, the author of such a crime, as well as his accomplices and protectors, forfeited all social rights, and was to be regarded as an outlaw.

Nor could the death of the Legate be separated from the cause in the defence of which he fell. Although the Count of Toulouse had contrived to incur the censures of the Church on many grounds, yet it was mainly by his protection of the Albigenses and his connivance at their crimes, that he, the Christian knight and noble, stood charged before the chief tribunal of the Christian world. In judging the question, we must regard it as it was then regarded by the whole of Christendom, when the interests of the faith took precedence of every other interest, and the abettor of heresy stood convicted of the crime of lese-majeste against God Himself. The policy of the Holy See in dealing with the Albigenses had hitherto been marked with nothing but patience and moderation. As we have seen, it was by the intervention of the Pope that the temporal sword had been held for ten years from falling on the guilty provinces. During that time, while apostolic missioners had sought the conversion of the heretics by no other means than by preach- ing and disputation, the Legates of the Holy See had with unwearied patience endeavoured to recall Count Raymund to the obligations binding on him as sovereign of a Catholic people. It was not until the murder of the Legate had





72 APPEAL TO ARMS.

rendered all further compromise impossible that Pope Innocent consented to an appeal to arms. In the letter which he addressed to the knights and barons, the arch- bishops and bishops of Narbonne and the adjacent provinces, after enumerating the crimes of the Count of Toulouse, he declares that the time of endurance has passed, and that the censures long withheld must now fall on the author of so many offences. In other letters he called on the kings of France and England to forget their private quarrels and, girding on their swords, to march against the enemies of the faith. " Suffer not the Church to perish in this unhappy country," he writes, " but come to her assistance, and combat valiantly against these heretics, who are worse than the Saracens themselves." 5

This appeal found a response in the hearts of those to whom it was addressed, a vast number of princes and nobles took up arms, and thus there opens before us the history of that bloody war which, while strictly speaking it forms no part of the life of St. Dominic, yet from its association with the cause to which he had devoted himself must first be briefly traced, before we can take up the thread of our narrative and follow him in his apostolic career.

5 Innocent, Epist. 26 32.







WEST DOOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. GILLES.





CHAPTER VII.

THE CRUSADE.

THE death of Peter de Castelnau took place in the February of 1208, and its effect, as we have seen, was to put an end to all hopes of temporizing. The crime of the Count of Toulouse was declared to be one which freed his subjects P from their allegiance until such time as he should have made due reparation : and a new commission of bishops and abbots was appointed to preach the Crusade, and undertake the ecclesiastical government of the country. At its head was placed the Cardinal Legate, James Galba, commonly known as the Cardinal Milon, who lost no time in seeking an inter- view with Philip Augustus, King of France, and urging him to lead his forces TnTperson against the Albigenses. The King excused himself on the plea that his own territories were endangered by the hostile attitude both of the Emperor and the King of England ; nevertheless he gave permission





74 RAYMUND SUBMITS.

to all his vassals and subjects to take the Cross, engaging that both he and his son would do the same as soon as the safety of the kingdom was secured. Active preparations were accordingly set on foot, and Raymund, fairly alarmed, himself had recourse to the King for counsel and protection. But Philip gave him clearly to understand that his only course lay in unconditional submission to the Holy See. The Count therefore repaired to Rome for the purpose of protesting his innocence of the murder of the Legate, and obtaining for himself the best terms in his power. He was not unfavourably received, though as it happened, an embassy of bishops from the Narbonnese provinces had preceded him to Rome to make known to the Pope the miserable state to which the country had been reduced by the heretics and their supporters, and to implore his inter- ference.

As regarded the Albigenses, it was felt that no further indulgence was possible, but the Pope showed himself willing to admit the Count to reconciliation with the Church on certain conditions. He was required, after making ample reparation for his crimes, to deliver up seven strong places in his dominions to persons appointed by the Holy See, as a security for the fulfilment of his promises ; and to submit in every respect to the orders of the Legate. These con- ditions he solemnly swore to observe, and returning to France, he repaired to St. Gilles, 1 where the Legate, in company with three archbishops and nineteen bishops were to meet and receive him to absolution.

The proceedings which followed are singularly charac- teristic of the age, and make us clearly understand the grounds on which Count Raymund stood charged as a public criminal. On the i8th of June, 1208, an altar was prepared outside the western door of the Church of St. Gilles, whither, in sight of an immense multitude, the Count was conducted ; and standing there barefoot, and with shoulders bare to the waist, he swore on the Blessed Sacrament and holy relics,

1 St. Gilles was the real capital of his hereditary dominions, and gave its name to the family of the Counts of Toulouse.





HIS CONFESSION. 75

henceforth to show himself a true son of Holy Church, and to obey the Legate in all things that should be commanded him. This oath, which was in substance a public confession of his crimes, ran as follows :

"I, Raymund, Count of Toulouse, do hereby swear to obey the Pope and his Legate, in all the articles for which I have been excommunicated, namely, that I: have refused to make peace ; that I have not kept my oaths to expel the heretics, but have always favoured them, and incurred suspicion of heresy ; that I have kept in my pay bands of Routiers ; that I have given public offices to the Jews; r that I have turned churches into fortresses ; that I have driven " ' the Bishop of Carpentras from his see, have imprisoned the Bishop of Vaison, and ill-treated his clergy and religious ; that I am suspected of the murder of Peter de Castelnau of happy memory ; that I have broken the holy Truce, and disturbed the public peace on Sundays, and during the time of Lent ; that I have denied free passage by land and water through my dominions to travellers, and have forced them out of the beaten track; 2 that I have imposed oppressive tolls on my subjects ; that I have done violence to churches and monasteries, and have troubled the peace of elections. On all these articles I now swear obedience ; and I more- over promise to enter into no alliance with the heretics, but to bring them to justice ; and if I violate these present oaths, I consent that my seven strong castles shall all be forfeited ; that an interdict be pronounced on my dominions ; and that all my vassals be released from their oaths of fealty and allegiance to me.' 5

Sixteen of the Count's chief vassals stood by his side as he gave these pledges, which they likewise bound themselves to observe, adding some others on their own account. They promised, as became true knights, to guard the public roads,

2 This was an offence of which the lawless tyrants of these times frequently stand charged ; and to understand its heinousness we must bear in mind that the protection of unoffending travellers was one of the duties demanded by the laws of chivalry from every belted knight ; and that the object aimed at was to force them into dangerous paths where they could be more conveniently pillaged.





76 HIS PENANCE.

and not to ally themselves with brigands ; whilst, should the Count prove faithless to his engagements, they swore to lend him no support, but to remain loyal to their oaths as became true sons of Holy Church.

After these formalities the Cardinal Legate threw a stole over the Count's neck, and taking the ends of it in his hands, led him into the church, striking him with a rod on his bare shoulders as they proceeded up to the high altar, where he was absolved from all the censures he had incurred. The crowds that had gathered in the church to witness the ceremony were so great that Raymund, in returning, had to make his way through the crypt, and in so doing, was obliged to pass by the tomb of his murdered victim, Peter de Castelnau. A few days later Cardinal Milon concluded peace between the Count and a number of barons, with whom he had persisted in waging war, and established a tribunal for the just arbitration of their differences ; and finally both Raymund and his fast ally, the Count de Foix, swore on the holy Gospels to aid and protect the forces of the Crusaders, as long as they should remain in their territories.

The Catholic army had by this time assembled at Lyons, and was now in full march for Languedoc. According to some writers, it amounted to five hundred thousand men, but this is probably an exaggeration. That the Crusaders were very numerous is certain. " One would have thought," says William of Tudela, " that all Provence was there." At their head were many illustrious princes, prelates, and nobles ; such as the Duke of Burgundy, the Count de St. Pol, Simon, Count de Montfort, the Archbishops of Rheims, Sens, and Rouen, and many others of equal rank. But the historian goes on to tell us, that the army itself was composed of very heterogeneous materials. There were full twenty thousand well armed knights, of whom fifteen thousand were despatched by the King of France, and more than two hundred thousand peasants ; but these latter were but indifferently equipped, and came partly as soldiers, to give their forty days of military service, and partly to gain the Indulgence promised to all those who should take the Cross. As they marched





THE ARMY ADVANCES. 77

they bore in their hands the pilgrim's staff, as a token that they were devoted to a sacred cause. But besides these there was, what the same historian calls " a ribald crowd," such as hangs on the skirts of every army : men whose sole object was pillage, and who were as ready to turn their hands against the Crusaders and the clergy themselves as against the enemy.

Among the Narbonnese nobles who had especially dis- tinguished themselves as abettors of the Albigenses none was more conspicuous than the Viscount de Beziers, a near relative of the King of Aragon. He had done his utmost to dissuade Raymund from seeking reconciliation with the Church. Afterwards, constrained by the threatening aspect of affairs, he had himself reluctantly opened negotiations with the Legates ; but finding their conditions too hard, he gathered all his vassals together, and, entrenching himself and his troops in the strong fortifications of Beziers and Carcassonne, resolved to hold out against the Crusaders until the King of Aragon should come to his assistance. The Crusaders therefore directed their first course towards Beziers. The Count of Toulouse was the feudal suzerain of the country, and the entrance of so vast an army into his dominions filled him with uneasiness. He therefore advanced to meet them ; and, protesting that he was no longer to be regarded as an enemy to the Catholic cause, went so far as to receive the Cross from the hands of the Legate, and even offered to lead the army to the attack of Beziers. The inhabitants of that unhappy city, whether Catholics or Albigenses, had earned for themselves an infamous reputation by a long tissue of crimes. They had quite recently slaughtered one of their viscounts, before the high altar of St. Mary Magdalen's Church ; and when Bernard the bishop bravely interfered to save the life of his sovereign, he was seized and cruelly beaten, after which his teeth were torn out by the brutal murderers. For the rest it is sufficient to say that the Albigensian code of morals largely prevailed amongst the citizens, and that besides being a stronghold of heresy, Beziers was regarded throughout the country as a real den of brigands. On





78 MASSACRE AT BEZIERS.

arriving before the walls, the chiefs of the Crusading army despatched Reginald de Montpellier, bishop of Beziers, to offer terms to the Catholic inhabitants, whom he invited to separate from the company of the heretics and to leave the city, so as not to be involved in the common ruin. But they not only refused to do so, but confident in the strength of their defences, mounted to the walls, and thence hurled defiance at the besiegers. The heretics who accompanied them at the same time discharged a shower of arrows, adding blasphemies and outrageous acts, too shocking for transcription. It was the 22nd of July, the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, whose church had so shortly before been sacrilegiously profaned by the murder of the viscount. The Crusading chiefs were still holding counsel what means could be taken for the protection of the Catholic inhabitants during the coming assault, when the footmen of the army, enraged by these insults, rushed to the attack without waiting for the orders of their commanders. They were followed by the " ribald crowd," who were thirsting for blood and plunder, and, scaling the walls, they poured into the town, and commenced an indiscriminate massacre. " No one was spared," says the poet of the Crusade, " neither priests, women, nor children, the ribalds slaughtering them before the very altars where they had taken refuge. Then their leaders called out ' Fire ! ' and, bringing lighted torches, they set fire to the town from one end to the other." The numbers slain in this horrible carnage is stated differently by different writers. The Legate Arnold, in writing to the Pope, sets it down as little under twenty thousand ; but Peter de Vaulx-Cernay estimates it at seven thousand, a more probable calculation. It is asserted by one historian that St. Dominic had joined the Crusaders after they passed the Rhone, and that accompanying them to Beziers, he was present at the sack 6f the town. According to the same authority, he appeared in the streets with the crucifix in his hand, inter- ceding for the lives of women and children, of the aged and the infirm, who crowded to him for protection ; whilst Arnold of Citeaux, on the other hand, is represented as encouraging the soldiers to indiscriminate slaughter, in memorable words





SIMON DE MONTFORT. 79

which, whether truly or falsely reported, have found an unhappy notoriety. 3

The fact of St. Dominic's presence on this occasion is, however, more than doubtful. Mamachi quotes the author in question, and gives the reference, 4 but without passing any opinion as to the correctness of the narrative, which is held of very questionable authenticity. We notice it here, however, as being among the rare passages in which the name of the saint occurs associated with any incident of the war ; and the part thus attributed to him, even if we were to accept it as truly reported, is manifestly not unworthy the character of a man of God.

From Beziers the Crusaders marched to Carcassonne. The Viscount de Beziers, after making his escape with a considerable number of the inhabitants, had thrown himself into that strongly fortified town, where he made a resolute defence for fifteen days. At the end of that time the garrison surrendered, and the Crusaders formed themselves in posses- sion of the whole country subject to the Viscount. A council was held for the purpose of electing a generalissimo of the army, who should also be invested with the sovereignty of the conquered territory. ^The person chosen was Simon, Earl of Leicester and Count de Montfort, a man no less illustrious by birth than by character. " Tall in stature, and powerfully made," says Peter de Vaulx-Cernay, " he had a countenance of singular beauty, and when armed cap-a-pie, he inspired courage by the very majesty of his appearance. Courteous and affable in his manners as he was resolute in action, he showed himself a true father to his followers : and at the siege of Carcassonne had saved the life of a wounded soldier at the risk of his own ; bearing him out of the combat on his own shoulders to a place of safety." He had earned his great reputation as a warrior in the Holy Land, and shone amongst the nobles of the time as the very ideal of a

3 " Cedite, cedite, novit Dominus qui sunt ejus."

4 D'Andoque, in Hist. Gallic Occitan. The passage is likewise quoted by Father Percin in his history of the war, but Touron rejects the whole narrative as apocryphal, and denies St. Dominic's presence at Beziers at all.





N





80 HE IS ELECTED CHIEF.

Christian knight, chaste, valiant, loyal, and devout. " When once he had determined on an energetic course of action," says Hurter, " he was deterred by no fear of danger, for the habit of assisting daily at Mass and the Offices of the Church even in time of war inspired him with a calm and unshaken courage, the fruit of sincere confidence in God." 5 Far from seeking any personal aggrandizement in entering on this campaign, he had joined the army of the Crusaders as a simple act of religion, with no other purpose than that of fulfilling his forty days of service, and gaining the Indulgence as a pilgrim : nor was it until charged by the Legate under obedience to assume the burden of command that he yielded a reluctant consent. " The cause of God," he said, " must not be lost for want of a champion."

The news of his election to the chief command struck terror into the hearts of the enemy ; a great number of towns and castles surrendered at once without striking a blow ; and could an available force have been kept in the field, there seems no doubt that the first successes of the Crusaders would have been speedily followed by the submission of the entire country. Unfortunately, on the expiration of the forty days of feudal service, the immense armament which had encamped before Carcassonne melted away like snow. Jealousies, moreover, broke out among the commanders. The Duke of Burgundy and the Counts of Nevers and St. Pol considered it beneath their dignity to serve under the command of the Count de Montfort, who in the space of a few days found himself alone and all but abandoned, having with him no more than thirty knights and their followers. But the inflexible constancy of the champion of God never gave way. With the small force at his command he succeeded in reducing many strong places ; but the successes of to-day were often enough lost on the morrow. Fresh pilgrims, it is true, came to take the place of those who departed, but as a general rule, they gave no more than "" their forty days of service. Thus the number of the Crusaders was always fluctuating and their leader would find himself 5 Hurter, Hist. Innocent III. 1. 13.





PROGRESS OF THE CRUSAIM.. 8l

one day at the head of twenty thousand men, and unable on the day following to gather more than a few hundreds to his standard. Among all his allies, none rendered him truer service than his heroic wife, Adela de Montmorency, who on one occasion accompanied by the Bishop of Carcassonne, brought him a reinforcement of fifteen thousand men. Their road lay through a wild and hostile country, and some of the soldiers becoming exhausted with fatigue, the Countess and the bishop dismounted from their horses, which they gave up to the service of their followers, themselves continuing the march on foot. In spite of every difficulty they succeeded in joining the Count who, with the timely aid thus afforded, was able to capture the strongly fortified town of Termes, within the walls of which Mass had not been said for thirty years.

Thus for five years the war rolled on with ever-changing fortunes. Its records supply us with few notices of any events in which St. Dominic took part, though Touron conjectures that he was often engaged in restoring Catholic worship in the towns captured by the Crusaders. In 1211, when the Count de Montfort visited Cahors, and there received the homage of William de Cardaillac, Bishop and Count of Cahors, we find among the signatures of the wit- nesses that of " Brother Dominic, canon of Osma and humble preacher." Father Percin informs us that after leaving Cahors the Count paid a visit to the neighbouring sanctuary of Roc Amadour. whither he was accompanied by the saint, to whom that place of pilgrimage was specially dear. This fact is given on the authority of the History of the Church of Tulle, which had some rights of patronage over Roc Amadour, and the historian adds that the blessed Father visited that sanctuary not once only, but many times during his life.

The act of homage above-mentioned is preserved in the archives of Carcassonne, and proves the presence of the saint among the forces of the Crusaders at least on that occasion. According to Touron, it was often enough needed for the repression of disorders prevalent among their ranks ; for his apostolic zeal found matter for its exercise no less in restraining the excesses of the Christian soldiers than in con- G





82 TREACHERY OF RAYMOND.

verting the heretics. That he was bound in ties of close friendship with the Count de Montfort is certain ; and this circumstance had its weight in determining the Count's choice of Fanjeaux as the residence of his family during the war. In that town, as we know, the saint fixed his principal abode for several years, during which time a constant tradition declares him to have exercised the office of parish priest. And a strong fortress which stood near the church, long remained, bearing the title of the Chateau de Montfort, where the Count frequently withdrew during the intervals of the war.

Meanwhile the part taken by Raymund of Toulouse was one so involved in treachery and double-dealing as to render it no easy task to unravel the narrative. Still wearing the white cross on his breast, he confined his military operations to supplying secret assistance to the heretics, with whom he dared not openly take part. When, in 1211, five thousand Catholic inhabitants of Toulouse, at the invitation of their bishop, prepared to march to Lavaur, then besieged by the forces of De Montfort, Count Raymund, after contriving to throw into the town strong reinforcements, attempted by all means in his power to prevent the men of Toulouse from joining the Crusaders, or even supplying them with pro- visions. In like manner, while still openly professing adhesion to the Catholic cause, he sent troops to act under the orders of the Count de Foix, who treacherously surprised and massacred a body of German pilgrims, who were march- ing to join the army of De Montfort. Meantime the pledges given at St. Gilles remained unfulfilled. Neither the heretics nor the Routiers were expelled from his territories ; the oppres- sive tolls continued to be exacted, and the assassin of Peter de Castelnau was retained in the service and favour of the count, who often declared he was his only real friend.

Passing over many details in the confused history of this memorable war, we shall briefly summarize those events

6 Fulk of Toulouse, in a Brief dated 1214, gives him the title of chaplain, or rector of Fanjeaux: " Assensu Fratri Dominici Capellani de Fano Jovis."





THE KING OF ARAGON INTERFERES. 83

which bring us to the date at which it joins issue with that of St. Dominic. The treacheries of the Count of Toulouse became at length too apparent for further dissimulation ; and a council of prelates assembled at Avignon in 1209, threatened him with fresh excommunication. Raymund, as before, appealed to the King of France and to the Pope, demanding to be allowed to clear himself from the charges brought against him. Innocent 1 1 1. treated him with marked indulgence, and instructed the Legates to observe the utmost moderation in their proceedings. Indeed, the terms offered by them would have secured the Count in the possession of his territories on the condition of his observing the oaths which he had so solemnly and so repeatedly sworn ; but as he persisted in refusing to do this, sentence of excommunica- tion was once more pronounced against him in the April of the year 1211, and confirmed by the Pope's authority. Raymund at length threw off all disguise, and prepared for open hostilities. He repelled De Montfort from the walls of Toulouse, but sustained a bloody defeat at Castelnaudary. This victory of the Crusaders was followed by other suc- cesses ; until at last Raymund found himself so hardly pressed as to be forced to take refuge with his brother-in- ~\

law. Peter. T^jpff n ^ Arflmn \

This prince, allied by marriage with more than one of the nobles of Languedoc, was naturally displeased by the presence of a hostile army in provinces many of which were fiefs of his own crown. He particularly resented the investi- ture of the Count de Montfort with the dominions of his nephew, the Viscount de Beziers. In 1212, therefore, he addressed to the Pope an appeal on behalf of the Count of Toulouse and his allies, whom he represented as having been unfairly treated. A fresh council was in consequence assembled at Lavaur in 1213, and its members were com- missioned to examine into the statements of the King of Aragon, and report the result to the Pope. Their decision was that no terms could be granted to the Count of Toulouse, on account of his constant infidelity to every engagement ; but that the other nobles in alliance with him might be





r





84 HE ENTERS LANGUEDOC.

received to reconciliation, on condition of their making due satisfaction. This decision was taken by the King of Aragon as implying a fixed purpose of crushing the Count of Toulouse, of whom he at once declared himself the protector. His representations appear to have produced some impression on the mind of the Pope, until deputies despatched from the Council of Lavaur made known to him the whole truth, and declared that the cause of Catholic Christianity would be lost in the Narbonnese provinces if the Count of Toulouse were left in possession of his dominions. Thus informed, Innocent commanded the King to 'desist from hostilities, and to conclude a truce with the Count De Montfort, pending the arrival of a Cardinal Legate, who should be empowered to bring the whole matter to a final settlement. But the command came too late. The King had already passed the Pyrenees, and having united his forces to those of the Counts of Toulouse, Foix, and Comminges, was entering Languedoc for the purpose of reinstating Raymund in his dominions by force of arms.

Here we will pause for the moment, for the events that followed are more directly associated with the history of St. Dominic, the thread of which must first be disentangled from that of the Crusade. In following the narrative of the war, it is most difficult to form any satisfactory judgment regarding its real character. In its chronicles are displayed by turns all the vices and all the virtues of the age. If at one time we are filled with admiration at examples of heroism and self-devotion on the part of the Crusading chief worthy of the best days of chivalry, at another we are simply appalled by the tales of blood and cruelty through which we have to wade. Even if some of these are to be rejected, as resting on insufficient authority, there seems no reasonable doubt that the war was in some sense one of extermination, and that whilst life and liberty were freely offered to such of the heretics as were willing to renounce their errors, those who refused to do so and who were taken in arms, were very commonly either burnt or put to the sword. It seems certain, indeed, that the capital sentence was reserved for





CHARACTER OF THE WAR. 85

the " perfect," whose numbers bore a very small proportion to those of the " believers." Rainier Sacconi, a contem- porary writer, and who, after his conversion from heresy, became a Friar Preacher, declares that throughout the whole world they did not amount to four thousand. And this statement is supported by the exact accounts which have been preserved of the numbers of the "perfect" found in the different towns which surrendered to the Crusaders ; as, at Minerva 140, at Montsegur 200, at Les Cassers 6o. 7 To these pardon was always offered on the condition of abjura- tion, whilst the simple believers were far more leniently dealt with only to the relapsed was no quarter given. But even with these limitations, we shudder at the thought of all which is involved in such statements. Nevertheless, in order to form any just judgment of the case, we are bound to remember two things. First, that we are reading a page in the history of the thirteenth, and not of the nineteenth century, and that the ferocity which characterized such a method of warfare was not then condemned by public opinion, as it would be in our own day. It would be unjust to take any portion of history out of its proper framework, and judge of it by the standard of humanity accepted in a more civilized age. Death by burning, for example, so repulsive to our modern sense, was a common punishment, not reserved for obstinate heretics, but inflicted for a vast number of other crimes. Nor was it by any means the most terrible method of execution of which we find notice in con- temporary history. Most readers will remember how the archer who shot the fatal arrow which caused the death of Richard Coeur de Lion, was flayed alive, a torturing mode of death, of which, horrible to say, other examples are not wanting. In fact, the cruelties with which the Crusaders stand charged were only too much in accordance with the manners of the times, and were equalled, if not surpassed, by the proceedings of the heretics.

Secondly, it must be remembered who those were against whom this war of extermination was directed. A vast sect 7 Danzas, St. Raymond de Pennafort, torn. i. p. 444.





86 CHARACTER OF THE WAR.

who for more than a century had been at work for the destruction, not of faith alone, but of the very foundations of society, and whose members, not content with propagating false doctrine, stand convicted of crimes so atrocious, that in any age and any country, they would be adjudged as capital. For upwards of a century, the authorities, whether secular or ecclesiastical, had exhibited a patient abstention from severity in dealing with these malefactors, which is the only fault chargeable against them, inasmuch as it permitted the pestilence to spread its poison unchecked. Thus, when at last the sword of justice was unsheathed, it had to deal its blows in no sparing measure. It is presumed that in any age a state of things may exist, the evil of which is so great and has attained such a head as to justify the extremest severity. If this be so, then most certainly the case of the Albigenses was one of this nature, and the severities of the Crusaders must be regarded less in the light of brutal massacres than of wholesale executions. That this was their actual character is apparent from the fact, which Rohrbacher states on the authority of a contemporary writer, that at the very outset of the war, this method of dealing with the enemy had been deliberately decreed by the chiefs of the Crusade. In some cases, and notably at Beziers, terrible excesses were com- mitted in the heat of combat, but in general the proceedings which followed the capture of a town or fortress were carried out as judicial acts. And even in our own soft-mannered dlays, we have witnessed examples of such executions on a scale not greatly inferior to those of the thirteenth century . Public opinion did not shrink from sanctioning the slaughter of prisoners of war, whether belonging to the French Com- munists or the rebels of our Indian Empire. A stern necessity was in each instance held to justify such acts. Without presuming to decide on the correctness of such a judgment, we may yet plead that the same principle should be applied to the case under consideration, and that as much extenuation as was claimed by the authorities at Versailles or Calcutta, shall not be refused to De Montfort and his Crusaders.







CARCASSONNE.





CHAPTER VIII.

ST. DOMIMC, THE APOSTLE OF LANGUEDOC. 1207 1215.

" AFTER the return of the Bishop Diego to his diocese," says Blessed Humbert, " St. Dominic left almost alone with a few companions who were bound to him by no vow, during ten years 1 upheld the Catholic faith in different parts of Narbonne, specially at Carcassonne and Fanjeaux. He devoted himself entirely to the salvation of souls by the ministry of preaching, and he bore with a great heart a multitude of affronts, ignominies, and sufferings for the name of Jesus Christ."

This abridgment of the history of ten years is repeated

1 This expression is not strictly correct, as the ten years can only be reckoned from the first arrival of Diego and St. Dominic in the country, and the saint's solitary labours in Languedoc did not begin till two years later.





88 APOSTOLATE IN LAN CUE DOC.

in almost the same words by Theodoric of Apoldia, who (adds : " During this time an intimatefriendshipsprang up between the illustrious Count de^ontlort who fought against the heretics with the temporal sword, and Dominic the servant of God, who combated them with the sword of the Word of God." The same expression is used by the English historian Nicholas Trivet, who says that both these great men combated heresy, but in different ways : " one with the material sword, the other with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God."

^ The career, then, of the servant of God during these troublous years was exclusively that of an apostle. The few details preserved of his life at this period will disappoint any who look for stirring pictures of the Crusade. The powers entrusted to him by the Legates were, as we have seen, strictly limited to preaching and reconciling heretics ; and the too scanty records which we are able to gather together from contemporary writers, present him to us at this time as wholly engaged in apostolic labours. Some trait of humility and patience exhibited amid the insults of his enemies, a few words redolent of the spirit of prayer and trust in God, which have come down in the tradition of ages, or the record of miracles worked like those of the Master Whose steps he """followed as he went up and down the hills of Narbonne, and among the towns and villages, preaching the'laith and seeking for the sheep that were lost, this is all we find. There is an evangelical sweetness of simplicity about these broken notices of his life which, coming in the midst of the troubled and bloody history of^the period, sound like the rich notes of a thrush's song falling on the ear between the intervals of a thunderstorm, lost every now and then, and hushed by the angry roll of the elements, then sounding sweetly again in the stillness when the storm is over. Alone or attended by a single companion, he traversed every part of the, country barefoot, going from village to village, and from town to town, preaching the faith 'and winning back souls to the flock of Christ. The records exist of official inquiries made some years after his death, as to the state of





DOMINIC AT CARCASSONNE. 89

religion in the provinces he had found overrun by heresy : rind from these we gather the most authentic testimony as to the wide extent of country which he thus visited, as well as of the success which attended his ministry. This success did not indeed often appear under the form which secures popular applause or makes much noise in the world. One by one individual souls were sought out and reconciled, and the examples of such conversions of which proofs have been preserved may be taken as furnishing indications of a far wider apostolate of which no trace now remains. To the power of the Word of God the saint added the yet more efficacious means of prayer and example. " With all the strength that was in him," says Theodoric, " he devoted himself day and night, by his prayers, his tears, his watching, fasting and labours, by his preaching in season and out of season, to spend himself for the salvation of souls, and to consummate his sacrifice by the glory of martyrdom. . . . Moreover, he crucified his flesh and mortified his members by excessive austerities, and his soul by continual sorrow and compassion for perishing sinners."

-PAs we learn from Blessed Humbert, his ordinary resi- dence at this time was at Carcassonne. Girt about with its battlements and towers, some of which owe their origin to the Visigoths and date as far back as the fifth century, Carcassonne still stands almost unchanged in aspect from the days when St. Dominic dwelt within its walls. Over that ancient bridge his feet must have passed times out of mind as he went forth on his errands of charity. Those narrow streets are the same he traversed daily, followed by scoffing bands who would show their hatred and contempt by throwing dirt on him, or spitting in his face, tying straws to his garments or pursuing him with shouts of derisive laughter. But he would pass through the midst of them with a tranquil and joyous aspect, giving thanks to God that he should be counted worthy to suffer affronts for the name of Christ. " Why do you not live at Toulouse, rather than at Carcassonne ? " he was asked by one who was aware of the treatment he received in the latter city, and who





90 HIS HEROIC COURAGE.

marvelled at his patient endurance. " I know many people at Toulouse," was his reply, "and they show me respect, but at Carcassonne every one is against me."

This enmity he earned not only by his defence of the faith against the attacks of the heretics, but by his fearless denunciation of their vices. " His words burnt like flaming torches," says Theodoric, " so that the heretics foamed against him in their rage, and often threatened him with death." " I am not worthy of martyrdom," was the only reply they could at such times draw from him.

Once he was warned of a party of heretics who lay in ambush in a certain place to assassinate him. He treated the information with his usual indifference, and passed b\ the place singing hymns with a joyful aspect. The heretics, amazed at his unshaken constancy, accosted him on their next meeting in their usual style. " And so thou dost not fear death ? Tell us, what wouldst thou have done if thou hadst fallen into our hands?" Then the great and courageous spirit of Dominic spoke in a memorable reply : " I would have prayed you," he said, " not to have taken my life at a single blow, but little by little, cutting off each member of my body, one by one ; and when you had done that, you should have plucked out my eyes, and then have left me so, to prolong my torments, and gain me a richer crown." It is said that this reply so confounded his enemies, that for some time afterwards they left him unmolested, being convinced that to persecute such a man was to give him the only con- solation he desired. The place of the intended attempt on his life is still shown, half-way between Prouille and Fan- jeaux, and its name " Al Sicari," in the dialect of the country, commemorates the event, and is marked by a cross called the " Croix de Sicari."

The zeal of the servant of God was, however, as far as possible removed from all bitterness. It welled up from a fountain of chaxity. To use the words of Blessed Jordan, " he strove^ with all his might to gain souls for Christ, and as

I many as he could ; for there was in his heart a wonderful and almost incredible thirst for the salvation of all men.





HIS PATIENCE. gi

Nor was he wanting in that love than which no man hath greater, that a man should lay down his life for his friends." And he proceeds to give as an example of this heroic charity, how on one occasion, having earnestly invited a heretic to return to the bosom of the Church, the man owned himself convinced, but added that, owing to his poverty, he was compelled to frequent the company of the heretics, on whom he depended for support. Then Dominic, having no alms at his command, offered to sell himself, and with the price to relieve the needs of this perishing soul, so that his temporal necessities should not stand in the way of his eternal salva- tion ; and he would actually have done what he proposed if Providence had not supplied the requisite means in another way. 2

The same lesson he enforced at a great conference ap- pointed to be held with the heretics, to which one of the neighbouring bishops came, attended by a pompous retinue. This displeased the servant of God, and he hesitated not to offer his remonstrance. "My Father," he said, "it is not thus that we must act against this generation of pride. The enemies of the truth must be convinced by the example of humility and patience rather than by the pomp and grandeur of worldly show. Let us arm ourselves with prayer and humility, and so let us go barefooted against these Goliaths." The bishop complied with his wishes, and they all took off their shoes, and went to meet the heretics, singing psalms upon the way. 3 As they were not sure of their road, they applied to a man whom they met and believed to be a Catholic, but who was in truth a concealed and bitter heretic ; and who offered to be their guide to the place of meeting, with no other design than that of embarrassing and annoying them. He led them, therefore, through a thorny wood, where the rough stones and briers tore their naked feet, and caused them to dye the ground with their blood. The bishop and his suite were a little disconcerted at this, but Dominic

- Jordan, 75.

:! This event is not to be confused \\ith the somewhat similar narrative recorded in chapter iv.





92 HIS WAY OF WINNING SOULS.

encouraged them to persevere. Joyous and patient as ever, he exhorted his comrades to give thanks for their sufferings, saying, " Trust in God, my beloved ; the victory is surely ours, since our sins are expiated in blood ; is it not written, ' How beautiful are the feet of them who bring the gospel of peace! '" Then, as was his custom, he entoned a joyful hymn, and his fervour so moved the hearts of his companions, that joining with him, they praised God for permitting them to drink of these few drops from the chalice of suffering. Touched by the example of such admirable patience, the treacherous guide fell at the feet of the man of God, and confessing the malice of his conduct, abjured his heresy.

Nor was this the only instance in which we find him winning souls less by word than by example. Preaching, even when accompanied by the display of miraculous power, is not the only means, scarcely the most powerful, by which the saints of God extend the kingdom of their Master. The silent eloquence of a holy life has a larger apostolate than the gifts of tongues or of healing ; and we find some inter- esting records of the harvest of souls which were gathered to the faith solely by the example of the servant of God. A There were living, near Toulouse, some noble ladies who had been led to join the heretics, being seduced into this error by the show of pretended austerity which their preachers affected. Dominic, who had their conversion greatly at heart, determined to preach there that Lent ; and, going thither with one companion, who is believed to have been Bertrand of Garrigua, it chanced, by the providence of God, that they were received to lodge in the house occupied by these ladies. He remained there during the whole time of his stay, and they saw with wonder the reality of that life of penance which differed so widely from the empty professions of the heretics. The soft beds which had been prepared for them were never used, for Dominic and his companion slept upon the ground. Their food was scarcely touched ; until Easter time they took only bread and water, and that in scanty measure, whilst their nights were spent in prayer and austerities, and their days in labours for God. Blessed





HIS CHARITY. 93

Humbert adds, that the saint and his companion begged these noble ladies to supply them with some garments of which they stood in need, which proved to be nothing else than coarse hair-shirts, charging them, however, to keep the matter secret.

So new and wonderful did this life seem to those who beheld it, that it opened their eyes to the truth of the faith by which it was inspired; and the whole household made their recantation in the hands of the saint before the time of his stay was ended. In after-days he was often accustomed to exhort his brethren to this, as the best method of preaching, reminding them that it was by good works, and by the outward habit, even more than by holy words, that we must let our light shine before men to the glory of God.

Often enough he conquered the hatred of his deadliest enemies by the very patience with which he bore their inju- ries. They might writhe under the terrific eloquence with which he denounced their vices, but in the end they could not resist the yet greater power of his charity. " Into the wide embrace of that charity," says Jordan, " he received all men, and as he loved all, so was he beloved by all." Indeed, if there was one feature in his character more marked than another, it was its singular loveableness. " He made it his business," says the same writer, "to rejoice with those that rejoiced, and to weep with those who wept, and wholly to pour himself out in pity for the afflicted, and love of his neighbour. All were, moreover, attracted by the fact that he never showed the least duplicity or pretence, whether in word or work, but always walked in the ways of simplicity." Something of this attractiveness was visible even in his exterior. " Unshaken in his firmness, he never betrayed any trouble save when touched by the sins or afflictions of others : and because a joyful heart makes the face cheerful, he dis- played the placid peacefulness of his interior by a countenance that was always kind and joyous, for he was never known. to yield to anger. Nor was the sweetness of his exterior thrown away on those with whom he conversed, for by it he easily I won the love of all as soon as they looked on him."





94 HIS LOVE OF CHILDREN.

Percin, in his History of the Convent of Toulouse, takes notice of one feature in the character of the saint, which seems to have escaped other writers, his fondness, namely, for children. Quoting from MSS. preserved in that convent, he tells us that the saint did not confine his ministrations to those of mature years ; but that he loved to instruct in the faith the children of the peasantry, teaching them how to make the sign of the Cross, and to recite the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, and the Creed ; and exhorting them to obey their parents, and show respect to all men ; and this practice he likewise recommended to his followers. Peter Ranzi relates the same of St. Vincent Ferrer, and says that in this he did but follow the example of his holy Father, St. Dominic.

This singular holiness of life not only endeared him to all those among whom he was thrown, but led them earnestly to desire his promotion to the highest offices of the Church. Three times the episcopal dignity was offered to him, but he refused it with a kind of horror. 4 He was used to say he would rather go away by night with nothing but his staff than accept the burden of the episcopate. He could not however succeed in avoiding a temporary appointment as Grand Vicar to Guy, Bishop of Carcassonne, during the time that the latter was absent from his diocese preaching the Crusade, and gathering together fresh forces to join the army of the Count de Montfort. He held this charge during the Lent of the year 1213, during which time he resided in the episcopal palace, and discharged all the duties of the office, without however suffering them to interfere with his customary occupation of preaching. During this Lent we again find him spoken of as fasting on bread and water, and sleeping on the ground. " When Easter came," says his historian, " he seemed stronger and more vigorous than before, and of a better aspect."

Rechac says that he accepted the office of Grand Vicar at the prayers of the Chapter, and out of gratitude to the

4 The three sees offered him, according to Theodoric, were those of Beziers, Conserans, and Cominges.





THE ENGLISH PILGRIMS.





95





canons of the Cathedral of St. Nazaire among whom he ordinarily resided, and whose successors boast that he was once their dean. Traces of his residence were long preserved in various parts of the diocese, as at the monastery of Canons Regular at Ville Longue, about four leagues from Carcassonne, where he was wont to retire from time to time, rejoicing to find himself once more among his own religious brethren. Here for several centuries was kept as a precious relic one of his surplices, and so greatly was it prized that the canons refused all entreaties to surrender it to convents of the Friars Preachers. The custom prevailed at the vintage-time of steeping this surplice in the vine vats, in the belief that the wine so treated would never turn sour. Most of the anecdotes of this period which have been preserved by ancient writers are given without any attempt to fix either the precise date or the order in which they occurred. One event may, however, be assigned with certainty to the year 1211, as it took place just after open hostilities had broken out between Count Raymund and the Crusaders. It happened that the course of St. Dominic's apostolic wanderings had brought him to the banks of the river Garonne, not far from the spot where the Catholic army lay encamped under the walls of Toulouse. Whilst he was there, a band of English pilgrims also arrived in the neighbourhood. They were about forty in number, bound to the shrine of St. James of Compostella. In order to avoid the town, which lay under the Papal interdict, they took a boat to cross the river ; but the boat, being small and overladen, was upset, and all those who were in it sank to the bottom. Dominic was praying in the church of St. Antony which stood near the scene of the accident, but the cries of the sufferers and of the soldiers who saw their danger roused him from his devotions. He came to the river's bank, but not one of the pilgrims was to be seen.

Prostrating on the ground with his arms in the form of a cross, and weeping bitterly, the saint prayed aloud, conjuring, and, as it were, bidding God in holy confidence to save His own pilgrims from death. Then rising, full of a lively faith, he drew near to the river's bank. " I command you," he





96 THEY ARE SAVED FROM DROWNING.

cried, " in the name of Jesus Christ, to come to the shore alive and unhurt." Instantly the bodies rose to the surface, and with the help of the soldiers, who flung them their shields and lances, they all safely reached the bank, praising God and His servant Dominic.

Gerard de Frachet relates this story on the authority of an eye-witness, Peter de Salvaniaco, who was a soldier in the army of the Count de Montfort, whom he calls " an old and honourable man," and the manner in which, according to him, the bodies of the pilgrims reappeared, sufficiently proved that the event was not due to any natural cause. " They rose above the waves," he says, "and sat on the water as though it had been dry land, each one in the place where the stream had carried him."

Among the pilgrims thus rescued was an Englishman named Lawrence, who from that time joined himself to the company of the blessed Dominic and became one of the first brethren of his Order. Several other anecdotes are related by the same writer and, unconnected as they are, we treasure them as footprints left by the saint in his apostolic journeys. In the same neighbourhood of Toulouse, it chanced one day that he had several times to ford the river Ariege," 1 and as he did so his books fell into the water. Nothing disturbed by the accident, but praising God as was his custom when suffering any mischance, the saint came to the house of a good woman who was used to offer him hospitality, and who held him in the greatest veneration on account of his sanctity. When he told her of the loss of his books, she began to lament over it, but he checked her sweetly, saying, " Grieve not about it, good mother, for it behoves us to bear patiently whatever God is pleased to ordain." On the third day after- wards, a fisherman going to fish at the spot where the books had fallen, cast his hook into the water, and thought by the weight that he had caught a large fish. Drawing out his line, he found it fastened to the books, which were as uninjured as if they had been carefully kept in a cupboard.

5 Some say that it was the river Tarn near Toulouse, and others point to a particular ford on the Fron, between Gaillac and Alby.





THE BOATMAN PAID.





97





What rendered this the more wonderful was that the books were not wrapped in cloth or leather, or any covering that could have preserved them. He took them to the good woman, whose house was hard by, and who, full of joy, sent them to Toulouse, where the saint was then staying. On another occasion he was crossing the same river in a little boat, and being landed on the opposite shore, found he had no money to pay the boatman. The boatman insisted on his fare. " I am," said Dominic, "a follower of Jesus Christ. I carry neither gold nor silver. God will pay you the price of my passage." But the boatman, being angry, laid hold of his cloak, saying, " You will either leave your cloak with me, or pay me my money." Dominic, raising his eyes to heaven, recollected himself for a moment in prayer ; then, looking on the ground, he showed the man a piece of silver which lay there, which Providence had sent, and said to him, " My brother, there is what you ask : take it, and suffer me to go my way."

Cardinal Ranieri Cappocci, who lived during the time of St. Dominic and was his intimate friend, preaching on his feast soon after his canonization, in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, related the following fact which had come to his own knowledge. A certain religious chanced to be the companion of the saint on a journey of some days, but being of another country, and neither of them understanding the language of the other, they were unable to hold any conversation together. Desiring very much, however, to profit by the time he should spend in his society, this religious secretly prayed to God that for the three days they should be together, they might be intelligible to one another, each speaking in his own tongue, and this favour was granted until they reached their journey's end.

fin some of these narratives we begin to find notice of the companions who attended the blessed Dominic in his journeys and took part in his holy labours. Among these, the first place must be assigned to him on whom the biographers of the blessed patriarch confer the title, par excellence, of his





98 BERTRAND OF GARRIGUA.

companion. " Bertrand of Garrigua," says Jordan, " was the companion of the blessed Dominic, one of the very first whom he met with in the country of the Albigenses." In fact Bertrand had been before him in that field of labour, having joined the company of Arnold of Citeaux and the other Legates before the arrival of the Bishop of Osma. Garrigua, from which place he derives his name, appears to have been a fief or farm, attached to the Cistercian abbey of Notre Dame de Bosquet, and to have formed part of the township of Bouchet, in the province of Comtat. From his youth Bertrand had become familiar with the terrible condition to which the country was reduced by the ravages of the heretics. It was at the head of an army of Albigenses that Raymund VI. in the year 1200, had overrun the country, directing his principal attack against monasteries and churches. The nuns of Bosquet had sought safety in flight, leaving the defence of their convent to their vassals. These however would have offered but a feeble resistance to the swarm of ruffians who surrounded the abbey and attempted to scale the walls, had not one of their number bethought him of overturning some beehives which stood on the battlements, and the exasperated bees issuing forth, fell on the besiegers, and did such execution on men and horses as speedily caused them to retire in confusion. Bertrand therefore had personal knowledge of the miseries which the Albigenses and their protectors had brought on the country. Brought up by the good nuns of Bosquet, he received an education which fitted him for Holy Orders ; and he was no sooner ordained priest than he volunteered to join the mission conducted by the Cistercians. " He was," says Jordan, " a man of great sanctity and wonderful penance," and it would seem as though he had been chosen by Divine Providence to fill that place in the confidence of the blessed Dominic which was left vacant by the death of Diego. From the first day that they met a common sympathy in divine things knit their hearts together. Thus the ancient authors speak of Bertrand as "the beloved companion of Dominic," " the dearest associate in all his labours," " the' sharer in his devotions





BERTRAND OF GARRIGUA.





99





and the imitator of his sanctity," and " the inseparable companion of his journeys."

Bertrand appears to have resided with Dominic at Carcassonne, and to have accompanied him wherever he went. " He followed him step by step," says Bernard Guidonis, "continually mortifying his flesh to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. By his watchings, his fasts, and his other penances he succeeded so perfectly in imprinting on his own person the likeness of his beloved Father, that one might have said, seeing him pass by, ' Truly the disciple is like the master : there goes the very portrait of St. Dominic ! '"

His presence at Toulouse during the Lent which Dominic spent in that city has already been indicated. Another incident of their missionary life together is thus related by Jordan : " I have it from the lips of blessed Bertrand himself," he says, " that as he was one day journeying in the company of the blessed Father, a furious tempest broke over their heads and the country all around was deluged with rain. But Master Dominic made the sign of the Cross, 6 and the deluge of water retired before him. He and his companion were able to walk on in safety, beholding the thick clouds of rain falling to the ground before them at about the distance of three cubits, but without wetting so much as the hem of their garments."

/The place where this prodigy took place is still pointed out between Montreal and Carcassonne, and is called " the field of the Oratory of St. Dominic." It derives this name from a little chapel which was erected in his honour on the spot, and which was held in great veneration by the country people, who believed that no rain ever fell within six paces of its walls, so that if a storm broke out they would betake themselves thither for shelter. This chapel having been destroyed in the time of the Revolution, the inhabitants of Montreal in 1868 erected on its ruins a monument bearing a figure of St. Dominic, with the following inscription engraved on the pedestal :

6 Hence the allusion in the Office of St. Dominic, Signo Crucis imber cedit.





IOO PRESERVATION FROM TEMPEST.

Hen in the thirteenth century were miraculously preserved from a furious storm of rain, the glorious St. Dominic and his companion St. Bertrand of Garrigua.

St. Dominic and St. Bertrand of Garrigua, pray for us, and deliver us from tempests.

A somewhat similar prodigy is related as happening on another occasion. Dominic and his companions being over- taken by a storm, their garments were completely soaked with rain. On reaching their destination, the others sat round the fire to dry their clothes, but he, according to his custom, repaired to the church to spend the night there in prayer. In the morning the clothes of his companions which had hung by the fire were still damp, whilst his were perfectly dry.

All writers agree in representing the blessed Bertrand as a man of rare sanctity, as tender in his charity towards others as he was pitiless to himself. " You might as well have tried to soften brass or marble," says one writer," as to persuade him to spare himself." Gifted with angelic purity of heart, he regarded himself as the last of sinners, and was wont to weep day and night over the sins by which he feared to have offended God. The holy Father Dominic, to whom the innermost secrets of his heart were well known, judged that there was some excess in this, and enjoined him no longer to weep over his own sins, but over those of others. So powerful were the words of the saint, and so perfect the obedience of the humble disciple, that from that day he could no longer weep for his own miseries, even if he would have done so, whilst he shed abundant tears over those of others. Almost every day he celebrated Mass for the conversion of sinners, after whose salvation he sighed with the ardour that became a true son of St. Dominic. One of his brethren, Brother Benedict by name, questioned him in the intimacy of private friendship why he did not more often offer Mass for the souls in Purgatory. "Because," he replied, "the faithful departed are certain of eternal life, whilst the living are tossed about in continual danger of perishing." " But,"





MASS FOR THE DEPARTED. IOI

continued Benedict, " supposing there were two beggars, one of whom had lost the use of all his members, whilst the other was in full possession of them, which of the two would you prefer to help ? " " The one of them who was least able to help himself," replied Bertrand. " Well then," said Benedict, " that is the case of the departed. They have neither mouth with which to confess, nor hands to work, nor feet to go on pilgrimage; and they depend on us alone to assist them. Whereas sinners, so long as they live, have all these ways of helping themselves."

Bertrand, however, did not at once yield to the force of his friend's argument. But the night following there appeared to him the terrible figure of a departed soul who, with a great load of wood, seemed to press and torment him, waking him more than ten times that same night. When morning dawned, he called Benedict to him, and told him what had passed ; thence religiously and with many tears going to the altar, he offered the Holy Sacrifice for the departed, and from that time forward did so very frequently.

It was, then, in company with this chosen associate and others of a kindred spirit who gradually gathered around him, that the blessed Dominic pursued his apostolic labours. Most of the anecdotes belonging to this time which have been above quoted, seem to have been selected by his biographers as exhibiting examples of his miraculous powers. But, as is truly remarked by Blessed Jordan, far more resplendent than his miracles themselves were the beauty of his soul and its spotless purity. These are what we would fain set before us in all their lovely reality when we meditate on his life, desiring, if it were possible, to summon before us that noble presence and to behold him as he lived and walked on earth and shed abroad the perfume of his sanctity. We desire to know him not merely as the great apostle and the wonder-worker of his age, but as he was known by the common people and in the intercourse of daily life. And in the depositions taken after his death, we gather some notices of his ordinary habits of life during the period of his residence in Languedoc, which, if less wonderful than the





102 DAILY LIFE OF ST. DOMINIC.

narratives given above, are certainly not less interesting, and have the value of an exceptional authenticity. They come from the lips of those who had borne him company on his journeys, or who had sat with him at table, or given him hospitality under their roofs.

Thus Raymund Gerald declares that he had often travelled with him through the woods, and noticed how he used to remain the last, and that when sought for he was often found on his knees in prayer, notwithstanding the danger from ravenous wolves, which had attacked many in those parts. Several women who had entertained him in their houses bore their united testimony to the wonderful abstemiousness which he practised. Wilhelmina Martina affirmed that she had eaten with him more than two hundred times, but though several kinds of food were prepared for him, they never saw him take more than the quarter of a fish, or the yolk of two eggs, with a single slice of bread. If he drank wine it was never more than one cup mingled with three parts of water. Even when ill he never slept in a bed, and if others laid him there, he would presently leave it, and prostrate on the ground. Beceda, who afterwards became a nun of Holy Cross, said that he had frequently stayed in her house, and that she was very intimate with him, and had never heard him speak an idle word. She had often found him lying thus on the ground as described above, even when suffering from sickness ; sometimes, out of compassion, she would throw a covering over him, for she took great care of him, but on her return she was sure to find him as before, absorbed in prayer. These good women supplied him with some of his instruments of penance ; and Beceda adds the curious particular that she collected cows tails, out of which to spin hair-shirts for him and Don Fulk of Toulouse.

But perhaps the most perfect picture is presented in the deposition of William Peter, abbot of St. Paul's. " The blessed Dominic," he says, "was a true lover of souls, and thirsted for their conversion. He was so fervent in preaching, that by day and by night, in church, in houses,





HIS PRAYERS FOR SINNERS. IO3

in the fields, and by the wayside, everywhere in short, he preached, and exhorted the brethren to preach, the Word of God. He was very sparing of himself in the matter of food, but always wished others to be supplied abundantly as far as their means allowed. Of all the men I ever knew, never have I seen one so humble, or who held the world in greater contempt. He received abuse, curses, and reproaches, not only with patience, but with joy, as though they were most precious gifts. No persecution troubled him : he went about secure and intrepid in the midst of danger, and never turned out of his way on account of fear. If on his journeys he was overcome with weariness, he would lie down by the roadside and take a scanty rest. Never did I know a man so given to prayer, or who so abounded in tears. Sometimes when in prayer he would cry out so loud as to be heard by others, and at such times would exclaim : ' O Lord, have mercy on this people ! What will beome of sinners ! ' And so he would spend his nights without sleep, weeping and wailing over the sins of others, for as the Abbot of Bolbonne expressed it, ' The sins of others were a torment to him.' Often when he prayed the place where he knelt was found wet with his tears.

" Liberal and hospitable, he loved to share whatever he had with the poor, though none were poorer than he. He never wore but one tunic, and that was a patched one, and so far as the witness knew he never slept in a bed, but in the church, or if no church were at hand, he would lie on the floor or on some hard bench." To these testimonies were added those of many of the inhabitants of Fanjeaux with whom he so often dwelt, some of whom had been cured of fever by the touch of his hands, whilst all declared with one voice that never had they seen so holy or honourable a man, or one more wholly given tc the salvation of souls. 7

7 The above testimonies and others similar were sworn to before the Commissioners of Toulouse by more than three hundred witnesses. The letter of the commissioners is given by Echard, vol. i. p. 56, whence it has been copied by the Bollandists.





104 LOCAL TRADITIONS.

Here, then, is the portrait of the Apostle of Languedoc, as we can gather it from the lips of those who knew him in the intimacy of ordinary life ; we see him, not bound by the ties of cloistered rule, but leading a wandering life, going about from town to town and from village to village on his Master's business, often with no better roof to shelter his head than the wild forest, the resort of wolves, and no softer bed than the roadside on which to sleep. Wherever he appears it is still as the lover of souls, embracing all men in the arms of his immense charity, becoming all things to all men, if by any means he might save some. No wonder that the memory of such a life should have struck its roots deep into the hearts of the people, and have left its stamp upon the traditions of the country. Accordingly, besides the records of that life which are to be found in the pages of historians, we find others preserved in the localities among which he dwelt, and from which six centuries, with all their changes, have not been able to efface them. In the chain of hills which extends from Toulouse to Carcas- sonne, may be seen the opening of a vast cavern, surrounded by huge rocks tossed about in wild confusion. The first shepherd whom you meet will tell you that this cavern is " the Grotto of St. Dominic," and that, according to unbroken tradition, it was here that in the midst of his gigantic labours he loved from time to time to take refuge. But it was with him as with his Divine Master, when He too retired into the wilderness to rest awhile. Thither also the multitudes followed him, and he could not refuse to break to them the bread of life. Climb down to the mouth of the cavern with your guide, and he will show you a projecting platform of rock which still bears the title of " St. Dominic's Pulpit," for it was thence that he was accustomed to preach the Word of God to the villagers who gathered round him in these new catacombs. Here it was, perhaps, that he first explained to them the mysteries of the Holy Rosary; no doubt these rocky vaults have resounded often enough to the tones of his voice, as in their company he recited the Angelic Salutation ; and





LOCAL TRADITIONS. IO5

here among the tortuous windings of the caverns which extend far into the heart of the mountains, the simple peasants who surrounded him are said more than once to have escaped from the hands of the heretics who endeavoured to surprise them.

We have now to follow him in the exercise of other duties which appertained to his apostolic office no less than the preaching of the Word. He had not only to instruct, but to reconcile heretics, and in doing this, to blend the ministry of justice with that of mercy. In what spirit and in what manner did he discharge this ministry ? To this question we shall endeavour to reply in the following chapter, and whilst doing so we will keep before our eyes the portrait which has been sketched by the eye-witnesses of his life in the foregoing pages.













CHAPTER IX.

ST. DOMINIC, THE INQUISITOR.

IT is the constant tradition of the Order that St. Dominic was the first Inquisitor, a tradition confirmed by the words used by Pope Sixtus V. in his Bull for the canonization of St. Peter Martyr. 1 Accepting the tradition as authentic, its precise signification remains open to inquiry. The question is involved in great obscurity in the absence of all docu- ments showing when, or in what terms the office was conferred, or in what its duties precisely consisted.

These points form the matter of a lengthy controversy between the Dominican author, Echard, on the one hand, and the Bollandists on the other, in which the former seeks to establish the fact that prior to the Council of Lateran, in 1215, the office of Inquisitor did not even exist, and that whatever office was held by St. Dominic previous to that date, it did not bear the title of Inquisitor, was limited to the reconciliation of heretics, and had nothing whatever to do with their punishment. The Bollandists admit the fact that the title of Inquisitor was of later date, but maintain that the office was in existence, and that it included the punish- ment as well as the reconciliation of heretics.

To state the case as briefly as we can, it appears admitted by both parties that prior to the Council of Lateran St. Dominic held and received certain powers in virtue of a commission given him by the Papal Legates ; that this commission empowered him to reconcile heretics and to

1 "Is enim praeclarus Ordinis Praedicatorum alumnus imitatione accensus Beati Patris Dominici, ut ille perpetuis et concionibus et dis- putationum congressibus officisque Inquisitionis quod ei primum prsede- cessores nostri Innocentius Tertius et Honorius Tertius commiserant contra hereticos mirabiliter se gessit."





POWERS GRANTED TO ST. DOMINIC. IO7

impose on them canonical penances ; but that he did not then bear the title of Inquisitor. And the question at issue seems to be, was this office identical in fact though not in name with that of Inquisitor ; did its powers include the capital punishment of heretics, and were these latter powers ever exercised by the saint ?

Echard not only affirms that it was not, but declares furthermore as an indisputable fact that up to the year 1209, when the Crusade may be said to have begun, there is no record of any Albigensian heretic being taken or condemned to death. After that date executions took place frequently enough, but these executions were, as he maintains, carried out exclusively by the leaders of the Crusading army, who neither asked nor required the consent of the saint to any of their judicial proceedings. The question therefore narrows itself to the part taken by St. Dominic between the years 1209 an d 1215, at which latter date his apostolic labours in Languedoc may be said to have terminated. The silence of Blessed Jordan must not be taken as absolutely conclu- sive evidence on any subject, as he undoubtedly omits from his history many things which one would naturally have expected to have found noticed. Still it has its weight in our argument, the more so as we find one expression in it in which he sums up the character of the saint's labours during this precise period, as exclusively apostolic. " During the time that the Crusaders were in the country," he says, " the blessed Dominic continued there, diligently preaching the Word of God until the death of the Count de Montfort." Limiting ourselves to certain facts, and carefully excluding inferences and suppositions, it may confidently be affirmed that no scrap of evidence can be produced to show that the saint either took part in the condemnation of heretics, or possessed any power to do so. No document giving him such powers can be quoted ; no single example of his exercising them can be adduced. The Bollandists " infer " and they " gather," but not one historic fact are they able to bring in support of a theory which the universal silence of historians would in itself be powerful to disprove. More





108 i-NO POWER TO INFLICT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

than this, such inferences to carry any weight must hold together. Now, if we ask from whom did St. Dominic receive these powers, the reply is, that they were probably included in the commission granted to him by the Legates in 1206. Clearly, however, the Legates could not delegate to another larger powers than they themselves possessed, and in the Brief of Innocent III., which defines these powers, no mention of the capital punishment of heretics occurs. Neither, as we have seen, were any capital punish- ments inflicted until 1209, that is, for fully five years after the Legates entered on their mission ; and when this was done, it was the act, not of any ecclesiastical tribunal, but of the chiefs of the Crusaders. From the fact of no executions taking place during the five years during which the ecclesiastical authorities alone were engaged against the heretics, the natural inference is that they possessed no powers to inflict these punishments, and if so, they certainly could not delegate such powers to others. Moreover, to be rigorously exact, we may remark that Pope Sixtus V. speaks of St. Dominic as appointed Inquisitor not by any Legate, but by the two Popes, Innocent III. and Honorius III., the latter of whom did not begin to reign till the year 1216.

This expression seems to confirm the opinion of many writers, including Echard himself, that St. Dominic's appoint- ment as Inquisitor cannot be dated earlier than the Council of Lateran, 2 in which case it is needless to say that the whole superstructure of his supposed acts as Inquisitor prior to that date falls to the ground.

In point of fact, however, a confusion has very generally been made between two things wholly distinct, and belong- ing to different orders of jurisdiction ; the judicial powers for

2 We may add that it is in one of the decrees of that Council that we find the first creation of such an office ; that, namely, wherein every bishop is required to appoint three men of good character who shall assist him in visiting those parts of his diocese infested by the heretics, that they may seek them out and bring them to justice. In this we see the germ of the office of Inquisitor, though the title is not used. But, be it remembered, the date of this Council is 1215, the very date when St. Dominic's active labours in Languedoc came to an end (See Rohr- bacher, vol. xvii. p. 422).





HE ASSIGNED CANONICAL PENANCES. IOg

judging and condemning impenitent heretics and those found guilty of capital crimes, and the assignment of canonical penances to those who were reconciled to the Church. The former powers belonged to the secular arm, and were exer- cised by the chiefs and leaders of the Crusade; the latter were a portion of the penitentiary discipline of the Church, and belonged of right to the bishop, or to persons expressly delegated by him, or by the Legates of the Holy See. The assignment of these canonical penances formed a portion of the ministry of reconciliation, not of condemnation, and the fact that the saint was invested with the power so to assign them cannot be accepted as any kind of proof that he possessed or exercised other powers of a totally different character. Yet it is remarkable that all the writers, whether friendly or adverse, who are most solicitous to establish the fact of his being an Inquisitor, alike rest their arguments on certain documents which prove nothing more than that he absolved heretics and admitted them to such penances. These docu- ments we will proceed to quote, and then give the conclusions which historians of very opposite shades of opinion have drawn from them.

The first is without date, but is believed to belong to the year 1207 or 1208. It runs as follows :

" To all the faithful in Christ to whom these presents may come, Brother Dominic, canon of Osma, wishes health in the Lord. By the authority of the Lord Abbot of Citeaux, who has committed to us this office, we have reconciled to the Church the bearer of these presents, Ponce Roger, con- verted by the grace of God from heresy to the faith ; and we order, in virtue of the oath which he has taken to us, that during three Sundays or feast-days he shall go to the entrance of the village, bare to the waist, and be struck with rods by the priest. We also order him to abstain for ever from flesh, eggs, cheese, and all which comes from flesh, except at Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, when he shall eat some to protest against his former errors. He shall keep three Lents each year, fasting and abstaining from fish, and three days in each week he shall fast, and abstain from fish,





110 PENANCE OF PONCE ROGER.

oil, and wine, unless from bodily infirmity or the heat of the weather he shall be dispensed. He shall dress in religious habit, as well in the form as in the colour, to the ends of which shall be hung two little crosses. Every day, if possible, he shall hear Mass, and he shall go to Vespers on festival-days. Seven times a day he shall recite ten Pater nosters, and he shall say twenty in the middle of the night. He shall observe chastity, and once a month he shall, in the morning, present this paper to the chaplain of the village of Cere. We desire this chaplain to have great care that his penitent lead a holy life, and observe all we have said until the Lord Legate shall otherwise ordain. If he neglect to do so through contempt, we will that he be excommunicated as perjured and heretic, and be separated from the society of the faithful."

To this document is appended the waxen seal of St. Dominic, representing the Lamb of God, bearing the Cross, surrounded by the words, Jhesu Christi, et pvcedicatioms. The severity of the penalties here assigned must be measured by the ideas and practice of the thirteenth, and not of the nine- teenth century. Public flagellation was a penance then very commonlv enjoined on those whose crimes had caused public scandal. The penance performed by Henry II. of England, after the murder of St. Thomas, is commonly regarded as something strange and exceptional, whereas those who are at all familiar with original authorities are aware that other examples of the same punishment as adjudged to public misdoers, and those often of the highest rank, are common enough both in English and foreign history. We have seen the Count of Toulouse himself obliged to perform this humiliating amende honorable before he could be absolved from the guilt incurred by the murder of the Legate. So also the fasts and abstinences enjoined on Ponce Roger were by no means so much out of proportion to those generally observed by the faithful, as they would be in our own day; and they certainly did not overpass the ordinary rule of many religious orders. In any case it must be borne in mind that the penance was not one of





ANOTHER DOCUMENT. Ill

private selection, but adjudged according to the existing penitential discipline then in force.

The second document is also without date, but the mention of the " Lord Cardinal" shows that it must have been issued after the arrival in the country of Cardinal Milon.

" To all the faithful in Christ to whom these presents may come, Brother Dominic, canon of Osma, the humble minister of preaching, wishes health and charity in the Lord. We make known to your discretion that we have permitted Raymund William de Hauterive Pelaganira to receive into his house of Toulouse, to live there after the ordinary life, William Huguecion, w T hom he has declared to us to have hitherto worn the habit of the heretics. We permit this until such time as it shall be otherwise ordered either to him or to me by the Lord Cardinal ; and this shall not in any way turn to his dishonour or prejudice."

Of Ponce Roger, who is named in the first of these documents, nothing is positively known, save that he belonged to Treville, a town a few leagues distant from Prouille, and that he had been admitted among the ranks of the perfect. The severity of the penances imposed on him leads us to infer that there were particular and aggravating circumstances connected with his case, for, as we shall presently see, other examples are recorded in which far milder sentences are given. But the point to which for the moment we would draw attention is the fact that these docu- ments are the sole evidence, produced both by friends and enemies in proof that St. Dominic exercised the office of Inquisitor. We will listen first to Malvenda, the historian of the Order, and one zealous for all that redounds to the honour of its holy founder. After distinctly claiming for him the title of the first Inquisitor, he says : 3 "As regards the time when this office of Inquisitor begun to be exercised by St. Dominic, our own authors and others differ ; but all agree that it was before the confirmation of the Order, 4 at the time when St. Dominic was preaching against the Albigensian heretics in the province of Toulouse, which 3 P. 122. * Echard, as we have seen, does not admit this.





I





112 USE MADE OF THESE DOCUMENTS.

seems to be clear from the old forms for the reconciliation of heretics of which St. Dominic made use. . . . These forms are those which he was accustomed to use either in reconciling heretics to the Church, or imposing on them salutary penances, or performing other duties which belonged to the office of Inquisitor. Out of many such documents these two only have escaped the ravages of time," and he proceeds to give those above quoted. In the opinion of Malvenda, then, these diplomas are to be taken as sufficient proof that St. Dominic at that time held the office of Inquisitor. But if so that office as then exercised had for its only object the reconciling of heretics, and the receiving them to penance, for no word appears in them bearing reference to any severer kind of punishment. That they should be adduced as evidence that the saint took part in the execution of heretics, whether by burning or otherwise, is simply incomprehen- sible ; the parties named in them appear, not as condemned criminals, but as absolved penitents ; their object is entirely one of reconciliation.

Yet the use made of these documents by the Calvinist historian of the Inquisition, Philip de Lymborch, is to attempt to prove not only that St. Dominic was an Inquisitor, but the founder of the Inquisition ; in order to bring home to his account all the supposed cruelties with which that tribunal stands charged. For this purpose he quotes a certain Louis de Param, who wrote a treatise on the subject, about the end of the sixteenth century, and who affirms that St. Dominic proposed the institution of the Inquisition in France to the Legates, and that he was appointed to the office of Inquisitor after the Council of Later an, by letters pontifical, " which letters some authors declare to have seen." It may just be remarked that if St. Dominic was only appointed Inquisitor in France after the Council of Lateran in 1215, he had a very short time in which to exercise that office against the Albigenses, as shortly after the close of the Council he left Languedoc and established himself in Rome. During the ten previous years, which cover the whole period of his active apostolate among the Albigenses, he would, according to this theory,





ITS INJUSTICE. ii 3

have held no such office at all, and his Inquisitorial cruelties therefore could have had no existence. This is but one of many instances in which the evidence of the witnesses does not agree. Lymborch himself appears aware of the unsatis- factory nature of the testimony, for after quoting the state- ment of Louis de Param, he adds: " However that may be, it is well known that Dominic was a bloody and cruel man,'* and in proof of this assertion he cites the canonical penance assigned by him to the heretic Ponce Roger.

Evidently, therefore, this was the severest act which it was in the power of this writer to bring forward as having been exercised by the saint in his character of Inquisitor. Had there been a single word in any authentic history by which it could even have been implied that he was connected with more sanguinary proceedings, we may take it for granted that the passage would not have been overlooked. Could it we will not say have been proved but only made the ground of specious surmise, that St. Dominic had ever delivered one heretic to the flames, who can doubt that the authority would have been produced and made the most of by those whose object it is to exhibit him in the character of a " bloody and cruel man " ? As it is, the fact that the two diplomas above quoted are claimed both by friends and enemies, as furnishing the only proofs that St. Dominic was an Inquisitor at all, justifies us in using these same docu- ments to show in what that office as exercised by him really consisted. No one can fail to be struck by the fact that in the history of our saint every single action recorded of him in connection with the heretics partakes of the nature of mercy. The inference from such a fact is that no proceed- ings of a different character are to be imputed to him, and that whatever was the title of the office he held, its duties were strictly limited to the ministry of reconciliation, under which head the assignment of canonical penances must of course be included.

These penances varied in severity according to the requirements of each case. It is a principle in logic that we must not judge of the whole by a part, nor must a single i







114 CANONICAL PENANCES.

example be taken as a fair evidence of a whole body of administrative acts. Nevertheless the penance assigned to Ponce Roger has in all probability been often enough so used. It reappears in every Life of St. Dominic, and standing alone, has doubtless conveyed to the minds of many a reader the impression that this was the ordinary treatment which the penitents of the saint had to expect at his hands. But such a supposition would go far to disprove itself. No doubt many things were possible in the thirteenth century which would be impossible in our own, but we can imagine no state of society in which hundreds, or it may be thousands of persons could be living under the same con- ditions as the luckless Ponce Roger. Happily no such conclusion is forced upon us. In the first place, a broad distinction was always drawn between the two classes of heretics, namely, the perfect, and the believers, to the former of whom much severer penalties were adjudged than to the latter. Even in the wholesale proceedings of the Crusaders it appears certain that the capital punishment was inflicted only on the impenitent members of the first class, whose numbers were comparatively insignificant. Another dis- tinction reserved severer measures for the relapsed. Nor must the important fact be forgotten that it was not solely as heretics, that is, as the holders of false doctrine, that the Albigenses were proceeded against, but as the enemies of the public peace, and the perpetrators of enormous crimes. 5 Whilst the execution of such criminals when impenitent was clearly justifiable as a judicial act, it is equally clear that the penances assigned to the more heinous offenders on their submission and reconciliation would be in propor-

5 Echard takes note of this (p. 9, note 5), where, speaking of the execution of heretics which took place after the taking of towns by the Crusaders, he says that " they caused to be burnt many obstinate heretics, or those guilty of more grievous crimes," but that " this was done by the leaders of the Crusade, and in these things Dominic does not appear." The particular here related is an important one, and is entirely overlooked by those who would simply represent the Albigenses as innocent persons suffering persecution for conscience' sake. Such executions belonged manifestly to the administration of the secular law, which cculd in no way fall under the saint's jurisdiction.





EXAMPLES OF THEM. 115

tion to their guilt. This will explain the seventy of the penance assigned to Ponce Roger, who was of the number of the perfect. For there is abundant evidence from authorities hitherto inedited that the ordinary penances imposed on the simple believers who were reconciled were of a far milder character. Certain depositions made in Languedoc before the Dominican Inquisitor, Bernard de Caux, and others, in the years 1243 1246, are preserved in MS. in the Public Library of Toulouse, and throw valuable lights on this subject. Thus at Le Mas les Saintes Puelles, Na Segura, wife of William Vitalis, a witness on oath, says that when she was a girl of ten years old she was clothed as a heretic and lived as such for five years, and then she gave it up. . . . The Blessed Dominic reconciled the witness from heresy. The Bishop of Toulouse gave her two crosses to wear, and many days she did not wear the crosses, and sometimes she wore them covered. In this case we see St. Dominic absolving the penitent and the canonical penance assigned by the bishop.

In other cases, however, we find the penance assigned by the saint. Thus at Fanjeaux, Arnalda of Tremac makes oath that in 1206 she was reconciled by Brother Dominic, who gave her as a penance to wear two crosses in front until she married ; and the witness adds that she wore them for a year and then took a husband. Wilhelmina Martina, also of Fanjeaux, went to confession to Brother Dominic, and had as a penance from him to wear two crosses in front for two years, and during that time to abstain from flesh-meat except on Christmas Day, Easter, and Pentecost, which penance she fulfilled, and had letters from Brother Dominic con- cerning the said penance.

Other examples are given both of men and women in which the precise penance assigned is not named, but in several of these cases we note the expression that the witness " did not adore," i.e., did not take part in any acts of heretical worship, whence it may be concluded that a lighter description of penance would be imposed. One man, Ponce Marcelli, deposed to having lived with the heretics as





Il6 SUMMARY.

a boy at Fanjeaux, at which time he "adored" several times. What penance was assigned him on his reconciliation does not appear, but his treatment at the hands of Brother Dominic cannot have been very severe, as by his own choice he joined himself to the saint, and lived in his company for twelve years afterwards.

From these extracts we gather several important facts. All heretics on their reconciliation were not assigned penances on the same scale as that of Ponce Roger. The penances were in proportion to the degree of guilt incurred. There was a distinction drawn between those who were made heretics by others as children, and those who embraced heresy of their own accord; between those who returned to the bosom of Holy Church and persevered, and those who relapsed after reconciliation ; between those who merely frequented the company of heretics, and those who wore their dress and took part in their rites. The penances imposed by Dominic were similar in kind to those assigned by the Bishop and by the Abbots of St.Papoul and Ville Longue, whence we gather that whether severe or lenient they were given in accordance with the existing Penitentiary Code, which was simply administered by the confessors, who had no power of arbitrary punishment. To the large number no severer penalty was assigned will it be believed ? than the wearing of two crosses for a certain period, and the Inquisitorial surveillance cannot have been so formidable in its strictness, as the penitents were evidently able to evade or neglect the fulfil- ment of their penance, without, as it would seem, thereby incurring much risk.

But before concluding this subject we must notice one event in the life of our saint, in itself of considerable interest, and to which the Bollandists appeal as affording evidence that he did possess the power of inflicting capital punish- ment. It is thus related by Theodoric of Apoldia : " Some heretics having been taken and convicted in the country of Toulouse, were given over to secular judgment because they refused to return to the faith, and were condemned to the flames. Dominic looked at one of them with a heart to





RAYMUND DE GROSSI.





117





which were revealed the secrets of God, and said to the officers of the court, * Put that man aside, and beware lest he suffer harm.' Then turning to the heretic, he said with great sweetness, * My son, I know you must have time, but at length the day will come when you will be good and holy.' Wonderful to relate this man remained for twenty years longer in the blindness of heresy, till at length touched by the grace of God he renounced his errors, and died in the habit of the Friar Preachers with the reputation of sanctity." Theodoric does not give the date of this event, but we learn from Vincent of Beauvais that it took place after the siege of Lavaur in 1261, and that the name of the released heretic was Raymund de Grossi. It is the one solitary occasion in which we find the name of Dominic in any way associated with an act of judicial severity, and as will be noticed, his part therein is not to condemn, but to release. But the Bollandists argue that his power to release implies that he possessed, and had been exercising, the power to condemn, and that he appears in this anecdote in the character of the judge by whom the sentence of death had been pronounced. To this conclusion we demur, first, because it is distinctly said that these heretics had been condemned by the secular judgment, and secondly, because if St. Dominic were really acting as judge on this occasion, his release of Raymund de Grossi would have been an unwarrantable act. The prisoner was not a penitent ; on the contrary, he was obstinate in his errors ; and for a judge, administering the law, to have released such a criminal in such a manner would have been a manifest breach of justice. We can only regard the saint as acting on this occasion by a supernatural inspiration and in the spirit of prophecy, the credit which he enjoyed among the Catholic leaders dis- posing them to defer to his wishes as to a command.

But it may be added, how is Dominic's presence on this occasion to be explained, if we are correct in asserting that he took no part in the capital punishment of heretics ? This brings us to the last point connected with this subject which calls for explanation, and the explanation is a very





Il8 THE CONVINCING OF HERETICS.

simple one. Besides the reconciliation of those who sub- mitted, he had, as the minister of mercy, to discharge another duty in what was called the convincing 6 of those who did not submit. No heretic, however guilty, or however obstinate, was ever condemned without every effort being made to win him from his errors and to gain his repentance. This office was frequently discharged by the saint, as we gather from Blessed Jordan, who tells us both that his labours were often crowned with wonderful success, and that he resolutely insisted on no sentence being carried out until all means had been tried by which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected. That this office of " convincing " the heretics was entirely distinct from that of " convicting " them must be apparent to all ; nor can the one be supposed to imply the other, unless we confuse the action of a gaol chaplain, when he strives to move a condemned murderer to contrition with that of a judge who has passed his sentence. It was in this capacity that St. Dominic seems to have been present at the execution of. Lavaur, wherein he appears attending the unhappy criminals even in their last moments, and exercising on behalf of one of their number an extra- ordinary act of clemency.

This was certainly not the only occasion on which he discharged such duties, though no precise record exists of other examples. Rechac appears to think that an incident which occurred in the neighbourhood of Toulouse took place while the saint was engaged in " convincing " an obstinate heretic, though the narrative, as related by Castiglio, makes mention only of his holding a disputation with this man, and says nothing to imply that he was a condemned prisoner. Having spent the greater part of the night in these labours,. he withdrew at length and went to the nearest church in company with a certain Cistercian lay-brother, desiring to perform his accustomed devotions. They found the doors closed, and not being willing to give up their purpose, they knelt outside and there began their prayers. But they had not remained there many minutes before they found 6 Not convicting.





CONCLUSION. Iig

themselves transported within the church and kneeling before the high altar, the doors remaining closed as before. When day dawned, the people gathering together found the man of God in the church, and brought a number of sick and possessed persons for him to cure. The sick he healed, invoking over them the Holy Name ; then taking a stole, he threw it first over his shoulders, as though vesting for Mass, and then placing it on the neck of those possessed, he bade the devil go forth in the name of God, and the sufferers were immediately relieved.

The conclusion then to be drawn from the whole matter is that the labours of the holy patriarch among the heretics of Languedoc were exclusively those of an apostle. It matters little if the office which he held were or were not identical with that which afterwards bore the name of Inquisitor. The fact, if it be a fact, in no way contradicts the other fact established by all historic evidence, that his mission, and that of his immediate followers, was entirely one of mercy and reconciliation, and bore on every part of it the broad seal of a supernatural charity. 7 He wept, he prayed, he did penance for the sins of the people. To convert these he would have shed his blood, or sold himself into slavery. No single act is recorded of his ten years' life among them which was not an act of love and self-devotion ; for their curses he returned blessings, rejoicing to suffer contumely for the Name of Jesus. The two poles of his spiritual life were charity and humility. They appear again and again in every anecdote of his apostolic career. " A certain cleric," says Theodoric, " listening to his admirable preaching and the wonderful power with which he explained the Holy





7 This assertion is supported by an authority which cannot certainly ^^ be suspected of any undue favour towards Inquisitors or the Inquisition. / In the report on the character of that tribunal, which was presented to the //> Spanish Cortes in 1812, and which was followed by its suppression, there occur these remarkable words : " The early Inquisitors encountered heresy with no other arms than those of prayer, patience, and instruction ; and this remark applies more particularly to St. Dominic." Such a testimony could only have been rendered by such witnesses on the strength of incontro- vertible evidence.





120 THE BOOK OF CHARIT .

Scriptures, could not refrain from asking him in what book he had studied to find matter so sublime. My son,' replied the saint, * I have studied chiefly in the book of charity, it is there that we learn all things.' Filled with that sacred fire he went about towns and cities and villages, preaching everywhere the Word of God, visiting the poor, consoling the afflicted, and healing the sick. . . . The tenderness with \vhich his heart overflowed made him all charity to his neighbour, all compassion for the unfortunate. Everything had the power of touching his heart, but it was, above all, the sins of men which consumed him with grief and pity. So that when he approached any town or village and beheld it from afar, he would melt with tears as he thought of the misery of its inhabitants ! "

Such was the spirit and such were the ministrations of the first Inquisitor ; nor in his discharge of that office shall we discover a single trait that is out of harmony with his character as the Apostle of Languedoc.











CHAPTER X.

ST. DOMINIC AND THE HOLY ROSARY.

BEFORE proceeding further in the history of St. Dominic, we must speak of him in connection with that great and precious devotion which, according to the universal Catholic tradition, he was the first to institute and propagate, thus bestowing on the faithful to the end of time a special claim to their veneration and gratitude.

For that it was through his hands that the Blessed Virgin delivered to us her children the devotion of the Holy Rosary, is the firm and constant tradition of the Church, supported by a weight of authority which can hardly be called in question without temerity. Nevertheless it cannot be presented with those precise details of time and circumstance which are demanded in a narrative of historic facts. To use the words of one who has devoted extraordinary care and diligence to the critical examination of the whole subject, 1 " The Rosary has no history, and will probably never have one." Like so many other of the more exquisite of God's gifts to men, like the life of her by whose virginal hands it was bestowed, the early history of this devotion is shrouded in silence and reserve.

When nature tries her finest touch, Wearing her vernal wreath, Mark ye how close she veils her round, Not to be traced by sight or sound, Nor soiled by ruder breath ?

1 R. Pere Antoine Danzas, in the exhaustive chapter on the Rosary which is to be found in the fourth volume of his Etudes sur les temps primitijs de I'Ordre de St. Dominique.





122 THE LEGEND.

Who ever saw the earliest rose

First open her sweet breast ;

Or when the summer's sun goes down,

The first soft star in evening's crown

Light up her gleaming crest ? 2

So was it with the " earliest rose" in our Lady's beautiful garland. We have no historic notice of that sublime moment when the servant of God received, as we believe from our Blessed Lady herself, the command to preach her Psalter, and to make known to the world that form of prayer which thenceforth was to become, alike among rich and poor, the badge of Catholic devotion. Hence critics are not wanting who have called in question the fact itself, and have thus endeavoured to rob the holy patriarch St. Dominic of one of his chief glories. Our limits necessarily forbid us to do more than acknowledge the existence of this hostile criticism, and then briefly state the arguments by which the ablest writers on the subject have agreed in repelling it.

First, then, as to the tradition itself. The form in which it has come down to us will best be stated in the words of P. Cornelius de Snecka, a disciple of Blessed Alan de la Roche, who in one of his sermons on the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, speaks as follows: " We read that at the time when he was preaching to the Albigenses, St. Dominic at first obtained but scanty success : and that one day, complaining of this in pious prayer to our Blessed Lady, she deigned to reply to him, saying : ' Wonder not that until now you have obtained so little fruit by your labours ; you have spent them on a barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter, composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest.' The servant of God in consequence began to preach this devotion and make it known to the people, and from that time he

~ Christian Year. Fourth Sunday in Lent.





SILENCE OF HISTORIANS. 123

won an immense harvest of souls." 3 In this narrative it will be observed that there is no mention either as to the time or place of the revelation. Muret, Roc Amadour, the sanctuary of Notre Dame de Puy, and that of Prouille, are respectively named by various authors, the claims of the latter place being those most strongly supported by the tradition of the Order. But beyond tradition we have nothing to guide us. Nothing is to be found in the writings of the saint's earliest biographers bearing reference to the origin of the Rosary, a fact which would tell very strongly against the authenticity of the legend, did we not know how incomplete on matters of equal interest and importance are the histories which they have left. None of these writers appear even to have aimed at producing anything approach- ing to an exact history of the holy patriarch. They con- tent themselves with gathering together certain incidents in his life, without much regard to chronology, omitting all allusion to many historical events of undoubted authenticity which we should have supposed must have found a place in any carefully compiled biography. Their silence, there- fore, on the subject of the institution by him of the Holy Rosary cannot be taken as evidence against its truth, however gladly we should have welcomed their testimony in its favour. The doubt that has been cast over the real origin of the Rosary has arisen less from this silence of the early historians than from the circumstances which followed its first propagation by St. Dominic and his immediate followers. However powerfully it was preached by them, and however widely it was disseminated during the early days of the Dominican Order, it shared the fate of all pious institutions during that period of general religious declension under which the whole Church groaned in the fifteenth century, and for a considerable time fell, at least partially, into oblivion and neglect. It was revived towards the end of that century through the exertions of the celebrated Dominican, Blessed Alan de la Roche, a Breton by birth,

3 Mag. Corn, de Sneckis, Sermones xxi. super Conf. de Serto Rosaceo, Serm. x. fol. 29.





124 ALAN DE LA ROCHE.

who preached from the years 1473 to I475, 4 since whose time its use has never been discontinued, every succeeding century witnessing some fresh increase both in its popularity with the faithful and the favour with which it has been regarded by the Sovereign Pontiffs. But the fact of its temporary neglect, and its subsequent revival by Blessed Alan, has been made the ground on which is based a theory, upheld by certain critics, that Alan was himself the author of the devotion. And the Bollandist writer, Father Cuyper, in a dissertation attached by him to the Life of St. Dominic, offers for our choice one of two suppositions either that the Rosary existed as a devotion long before the time of St. Dominic, or that it never existed at all until the time of Blessed Alan. And in either of these cases St. Dominic is equally denied to be its author.

The reply to this dilemma, therefore, has to be reduced to two heads. We have to show first that the Rosary had no existence in the centuries preceding that in which it was preached by St. Dominic ; and secondly, that we have such incontestable proofs of its existence and very general propa- gation in the years immediately succeeding, as will entirely dispose of the theory which would represent Blessed Alan as the originator, rather than the restorer of the devotion. Now with regard to the supposed antiquity of the Holy Rosary, when we examine the evidence brought in proof of this view, we find it to consist in the fact, that from very early times the faithful were in the habit of repeating a certain number of Pater nosters which they counted on knotted cords or strings of beads, whence these beads themselves were commonly called Pater nosters. In no country was this custom more general than in England. In 1040 we have the example of the Countess Godiva of Coventry, who bequeathed to the monastery which she there founded a chain of pearls and precious stones, whereon she was accustomed to count her prayers ; and two centuries earlier we find an English Council

4 The very short time during which Alan's public ministry lasted renders it still more improbable that he should have been able in that time to spread the new devotion throughout Christendom (See Pere Danzas, vol. iv. p. 341, and note).





USE OF PATER NOSTERS. 125

directing that " seven belts of Pater nosters " should be recited for a person deceased. In England, too, as in other countries, these instruments of popular devotion were sold in great numbers, so as to give a name to the locality where the vendors of these goods congregated. Hence the title of Paternoster Row, which still survives in London. In Paris there were no fewer than three corporations of artisans ex- clusively employed in the manufacture of such objects, and the same industry was carried on in Rome and other capitals. These facts, which can be illustrated by many examples, are undisputed, but they prove nothing whatever to the purpose, for it must be evident to every reader that the recital of any number of Pater nosters, even if counted upon beads, is not the devotion of the Rosary. The utmost that can be said is, that in this method of reciting prayers we see what Pere Danzas calls a certain prelude to the use of the Rosary, a method, that is, which having already obtained currency among the faithful, was the more easily adapted to the new devotion. Two things are absent from these ancient practices of piety which are essential to the Holy Rosary, the recital of a fixed number of Hail Marys, and the accompanying meditations upon the Life of our Lord. Now laying aside a multitude of other arguments and illustrations which bear upon the subject, we may content ourselves with one state- ment, the accuracy of which will stand the closest investiga- tion. Prior to the century from which the devotion to the Holy Rosary, properly so-called, dates its origin, the Angelic Salutation was not in general use as a popular devotions* Isolated

5 According to Mabillon (Praef. Acta Sanct. sxc. v. n. 120), one of the earliest notices of the use of the Hail Mary occurs in the works of St. Peter Damian, who speaks of a certain cleric who was used to recite it as far as the words in mulieribus. The Cistercian lay-brethren were also enjoined to recite the Ave Maria, together with the Pater and the Creed (Inst. Dist. 14, c. 2), but this rule does not appear to have been made until early in the thirteenth century. Father Bridgett however, in his Dowry of Mary, has collected a number of examples showing that though nowhere enjoined by episcopal authority before 1196, the prayer was certainly used by many pious persons during the previous century. The solitary place in which it was introduced into the Liturgy before the thirteenth century was in the Offertory of the Mass of the Fourth Sunday in Advent (See Dr. Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. pp. 315319)-





126 USE OF THE HAIL MARY.

examples, and those by no means rare ones, are no doubt to be cited, but it cannot be said to have been universally on the lips of the faithful as a familiar prayer. Yet more remarkable is the fact that it was precisely in the lifetime of St. Dominic, that we find the recital of the Angelic Saluta- tion first becoming popular, and its use by the faithful encouraged and enjoined by the pastors of the Church. In 1196, only a few years before St. Dominic quitted the cloisters of Osma to enter on his apostolic career, Eudes, bishop of Paris, published a decree, wherein he desires that the clergy should frequently exhort the faithful to join the recitation of the A ve Maria to that of the Pater nosier and the Creed in their daily prayers. And in 1246, we find an ordonnance made by the Dean of the church of Rouen, couched in similar terms. This decree was confirmed in the Synod of Sens, held in the same year. The fifty years between these two dates covers the missionary portion of St. Dominic's life, and the first propagation of the Rosary by himself and his first disciples, and forms the precise period in which the Hail Mary came into general and popular use. " After that date," says Mabillon, 6 "the use of the Angelic Salutation became universal," and he adds many proofs from authentic documents showing that anterior to that period the Pater and Credo alone formed the ordinary devotion of the faithful. We may content ourselves with the establishment of this fact as sufficient to disprove the theory of the antiquity of the devotion, for manifestly where there was no Hail Mary there could be no Rosary. But before passing to consider the second head of the indictment, it may be well to point out the peculiar fitness and suitability of the choice made by St. Dominic of this particular prayer in the devotion which he used as his great weapon of defence against the heretics. The Pater noster, that divinest of all prayers, and to which he himself had so great and peculiar a devotion that, as Castiglio says, " he never wearied of repeating it," had been put by the Albigenses to profane and superstitious use, and had been made the exterior form for bestowing their 6 Praef. Act. Sanct. Ord. Ben. saec. v. n. 121.





SPECIAL REASONS FOR ITS ADOPTION. 127

pseudo-sacrament, the Consolamentum. Foremost among their pernicious errors was a denial of the Incarnation, nor did the heretics shrink from propagating doctrines concerning the Blessed Virgin and her Divine Maternity, to which, out of reverence for her sacred name, we can do no more than allude. The introduction of the Hail Mary, therefore, as a popular devotion, not substituted for the Pater, but rather linked thereto, a devotion in which she is invoked as the " Mother of God," and which thereby roots in the heart the doctrine of the Incarnation, and the association with this vocal prayer of meditations on the Life of our Divine Lord which present to the minds of the faithful a compendium of the Gospel, was a method of restoring the orthodox faith through the instrumentality of daily prayer, the admirable fitness of which will commend itself to every thoughtful reader. We do not pause to inquire whether the preaching of the Rosary spread the more universal use of the Hail Mary, or whether it was the increasing love and popularity of that prayer which moved the holy patriarch to adopt it. The fact remains, and is sufficient for the present purpose, that the period assigned by tradition as that of the origin of the Holy Rosary exactly synchronizes with the date before which the Hail Mary as a popular devotion was not in general use.

We have now to consider the second theory advanced by the critics, who would have us consider Blessed Alan, and not St. Dominic, as the first institutor of the Rosary. We have already spoken of the temporary neglect into which the devotion fell during the fourteenth century. If this neglect had been total, a certain degree of plausibility would have attached to the representation that its revival at the beginning of the fifteenth century was not a revival, but an institution. But this is far from being the case, in proof of which we have first, the positive assertions both of Blessed Alan and the Sovereign Pontiff at that time reigning, and secondly, the stubborn evidence of facts. In producing this evidence, we must press on our readers that though at the distance of five centuries it may be difficult for us to satisfy





128 REVIVAL OF THE ROSARY.

ourselves how far the Holy Rosary had, or had not, fallen into oblivion, the question could have been involved in no obscurity at all to those living at the time. Not only do we possess in the authentic writings of Blessed Alan repeated assurances that the devotion of the Rosary first instituted by St. Dominic was by him only revived, but we have the testimony of not a few weighty and contemporary authorities to the same effect. The first formal revival of the Rosary may be accredited to the University of Cologne, where, in the year 1475, the very year of Alan's death, James Sprenger r prior of the Dominican Convent of that city, established anew the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. A notice of this event has been left by the pen of no less a personage than Thomas a Kempis, who in his Chronicle of the Monastery of St. Agnes has these words: "In 1475. the University of Cologne witnessed the foundation of a Confraternity of the Rosary by doctors in sacred letters belonging to the Order of St. Dominic, or rather this Confraternity was only renewed, for we read that it was preached by the holy Father St. Dominic \ although for a time it had fallen, into neglect." 7 In the year following, Alexander, bishop of Forli, and Legate of the Holy See, granted to this Confraternity certain Indulgences, and declares almost in the same terms, that the Confraternity was rather renewed than instituted, inasmuch as we read in various histories that the devotion had been originally preached by St. Dominic, and since his time had been partially neglected, fere neglecta. Precisely similar statements are made by the contemporary Sovereign Pontiffs. Thus, in 1479, Sixtus IV. speaks of the Rosary as a devotion " formerly in use among the faithful of various countries." In 1491, Innocent VIII. reproduces the terms used in the Bull of Sixtus IV., and applies to the devotion the name of the Rosary; and in 1494, Alexander VI. granting fresh Indulgences to the devotion, declares that by the merits of

7 Chron. S. Agnet. p. 96. This passage is quoted both by Benedict XIV. in his work on The Canonization of the Saints, and by Mabillon, Prsef. Act. Sanct. Or A. Ben. saec. v. n. 128. Trithemius, also, expresses himself in the same terms as Thomas a Kempis.





THE BEGUINES OF GHENT. 129

St. Dominic who preached the Rosary in former years, " the whole world was preserved from imminent ruin."

These Pontiffs did not issue their decrees at a time when the facts of the case had fallen into oblivion. The subject was one of which, as contemporaries, they were perfectly well able to judge ; and, moreover, they had at their command documents and histories, many of which there can be little doubt have since perished. Writers must certainly be regarded as worthy of credit who speak on their own knowledge as to the existence or decay of any practice in the period imme- diately antecedent to their own, nor can such testimony be considered as merely vague or traditionary.

But conjoined to their evidence, we possess abundance of historical facts which corroborate their statement. Our limits forbid the citation of more than a few of those which belong to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and are therefore anterior to the time of Blessed Alan. Thus the great Beguinage of Ghent, which was from the first placed under the direction of the Friars Preachers, possessed statutes not later in date than 1234, in which each Beguine is required to recite daily " three coronas forming what is called the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin : " and this recitation was to be accompanied by meditation on the Mysteries of the Life of our Lord. 8 The rule of the Beguines was still observed in full vigour in the year 1471, at which date Blessed Alan, then lector in the Dominican convent of Ghent, was able to cite the example of these religious women, who for nearly two hundred years had recited our Lady's Psalter in lieu of the Canonical Office.

In 1243, Brother John de Mailly drew up a collection of saints' lives in which he tells us, that at that date, it was





8 The Bollandists have attempted to escape from the powerful evidence furnished by these statutes by declaring that the ancient rule was re- touched in more modern times. Mamachi admits the fact, but proves in reply (i) that the alterations referred to were made in the year 1354, more than a century before the birth of Blessed Alan, and (2) that they in no way regarded the recitation of our Lady's Psalter (Mamachi, Annales Ord. Prad. pp. 327353)- J





130 EARLY EXAMPLES.

the custom with many holy women to recite the Angelic Salutation one hundred and fifty times, and that this devotion was called the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, the number of Hail Marys corresponding to the number of the Psalms of David. Bartholomew of Trent, a contemporary of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, also speaks of the same devotion, and relates an anecdote of one religious named Sister Eulalia, who, being very devout to the Blessed Virgin, recited every day one hundred and fifty Angelic Salutations in her honour, to whom our Lady deigned to appear and declare how acceptable this practice was to her, specially when the words Dominus tecum were pronounced slowly and devoutly. In consequence of this instruction, Eulalia from this time reduced the number of her prayers from one hundred and fifty to fifty, but w r as more careful in her manner of reciting them. Again at Lille, in the collegiate church of St. Peter, is still preserved an ancient volume in parchment, bearing the date 1231, which is the register of a confraternity called the Treille. In it are inscribed the names of several pious ladies, who contributed, instead of offerings of money or lights, spiritual donations consisting of so many Psalters of our Lady. If this phrase is not judged sufficiently precise 5 let us compare it with what we are told of the devotion in practice among the Dominican nuns at Toes, in Switzerland, who recited " three times fifty Ave Marias under the title of the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, counting their prayers on the beads of a chaplet which they held in their hands, and meditating at the same time on the Mysteries of the Life and Death of our Lord."

This most exact description of the Rosary is taken from a MS. of great interest and undoubted authenticity belonging to the collection of the late Mgr. Greith, Bishop of St. Gall. It is considered to belong to the year 1454, and though this date is later than the examples already cited, it is certainly anterior to the time when Blessed Alan began to preach. 9

It clearly appears, therefore, that however much the devotion of the Holy Rosary may have fallen into partial 9 Greith, Die detitsche Mystik en Pvedigev Orden, p. 402.





THE ROSARY IN ENGLAND. 13!

neglect, its disuse between the time of St. Dominic and that of Blessed Alan was by no means universal. In England, indeed, we are able to affirm with the utmost certainty that the use of this devotion was never laid aside, but existed with undi- minished popularity all through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In the wills of various personages belonging to that period, we find bequests of richly ornamented beads or Pater nosters. The learned author of the Pietas Mariana Britannica gives the inventory of a jeweller's shop in 1381, which includes " four sets of Pater nosters of coral, six sets of Aves of geet, with Pater nosters of silver-gilt ; thirty-eight sets of Aves of geet, with gawdees or beads of silver-gilt," &c. And this notice is the more significant, as the title of Avt bestowed on some of these devout objects shows that the prayers said on them included not merely the Pater but the Hail Mary. But the most indubitable proofs that the real Rosary of our Lady, as we now recite it, was generally used in England before Blessed Alan's revival of the devotion in other countries, are to be drawn from the statutes of many hospitals, colleges, and other pious foundations of the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, in which the founders enjoin on the members of their several fraternities the recitation of our Lady's Psalter. Chief among these are the statutes of Eton College, founded by Henry VI. in the year 1440, in which he requires his scholars to say daily " the complete Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, containing a ! Credo, fifteen Paters, and one hundred and fifty Ave Marias." To evidence so conclusive as this, it would appear unneces- sary to add other examples ; we will therefore do no more than allude to the two famous monuments which existed in the church of St. James in Paris prior to the French Revolution, one of which was the tombstone of the lord of Villepierre, whose effigy was sculptured between that of his wife and his mother, the latter of whom was represented holding in her joined hands a rosary composed of fifteen decades, each separated by a larger bead representing the Pater noster. This tomb was of the fourteenth century. In the same church was to be seen a magnificent monument





132 TOMBSTONES IN CHURCH OF ST. JAMES.

of brass, bearing the date 1355, and erected over the remains of Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, who resigned his sovereignty to enter the Order of Friars Preachers. He was afterwards raised to the patriarchate of Alexandria, and was represented in his religious habit, over which appeared the pallium. Around his effigy were smaller figures of Dominican friars, holding in their hands rosaries or chaplets, composed of fifty beads, without reckoning the Paters. Both *y-this brass and the above-named tombstone were destroyed / by the Vandals of the eighteenth century, but fortunately an /~ exact representation of both is engraved by Mamachi. Thus to the facts of history we may add the testimony of sacred art, and we may say also that of sacred poetry, for as poetry we may rank the words of Albert the Great, who, in his work De laudibus B. Maries, compares the Blessed Virgin to " the Rose of Jericho blossoming with one hundred and fifty petals," in which we cannot avoid recognizing an allusion to her as Queen of the Holy Rosary.

It is not without a particular interest that we come on facts connecting the revived devotion of the Rosary with that reform of the Dominican Order which took place in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It would seem as if the fortunes of the Order were so indissolubly linked with those of the Rosary, that, as they declined together, so it was together that they flourished anew. Such indeed is the opinion expressed by P. Monroy, Master-General of the Order, who, in a circular dated 1671, declares that " the Rosary is the most beautiful flower of the Order. When that flower begins to fade, the charm and splendour of our Institute likewise disappears, . . . but when it revives it draws down upon us the plenteous dew of heaven." And this opinion seems borne out by facts. The Reform which \ was inaugurated in Lombardy at the end of the fourteenth \^ century by Blessed John Dominic, was promoted at the same time in Germany by Father Conrad Gross, who died in 1426, and P. Jonchheere attributes to this great man the restoration of the Rosary simultaneously with that of regular observance.





WILL OF ANTHONY SERS.





'33





Three of the Blessed of the Order, all of whom are more or less associated with the history of the Reform, are specially named as clients of the Holy Rosary. Of Blessed Clara of Gambacorta, whose community was the very focus of the Reform in Italy, we read that when a child of twelve years old she was accustomed to gather together girls of her own age, and kneeling down with them, devoutly to recite the Rosary. Blessed Clara died in 1419, when Alan must have been still a child, and could not clearly have derived her knowledge of the devotion from him. Again, Blessed John of Licci, who was born in the year 1446, and was one of the pillars of the Reform, placed in the convent which he founded in Sicily a beautiful marble image of Our Lady of the Rosary. And lastly, of the Blessed Anthony Neyrot, who was martyred at Tunis in the year 1460, and who was a member of the Reformed Convent of St. Mark at Florence, it is said that he died grasping in his hands the Rosary and the Crucifix.

The facts hitherto quoted may be taken as sufficient to prove the two points which at starting we undertook to establish, namely, that the real Rosary did not exist before the time of St. Dominic, and that it was widely known and practised before its revival by Blessed Alan. But have we no historic fact to present to the reader which associate it absolutely with St. Dominic himself? Not to speak of the Bull of Pope Clement VIII., published in 1602, in which he restores to the Order of Preachers the Church of St. Sixtus, and declares that it was in that church that the Confraternity of the Rosary was first erected in Rome by St. Dominic himself; not to speak of the frequent and positive assertions made both by Flaminius and Malvenda, as to the fact of the saint having preached the devotion in Rome and else- where, and thereby effected many wonderful conversions, there exists one document of undoubted authenticity, which we have reserved as the last link in our chain of evidence, and which proves beyond dispute that at least one Confra- ternity of the Holy Rosary was established by St. Dominic. The document referred to is the will and testament of a certain Anthony Sers, who in the year 1221 makes various





134 TRADITION OF THE CHURCH.

dispositions in favour of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, founded at Palencia by the good Dominic Guzman, " of which Confraternity," says the testator, " I am a member." He desires that the brethren of the Confraternity should be gathered together at certain times to pray for his soul, and that in return for this act of charity, and to discharge the expenses of the candles borne by them, thirty-eight maravedis and three measures of wheat should be distributed amongst them. The foundation of this Confraternity must have taken place at the time that the holy patriarch visited Spain in 1218 or 1219, which will be noted in its proper place.

Having spoken thus far of the evidence of facts, we have now to say a word on the evidence of tradition, a tradition which claims from us no ordinary degree of respect, being that of the Church herself, resting on the supreme authority of the Holy See. This authority can be adduced, not merely in support of the belief that the devotion of the Rosary took its origin in the time of St. Dominic, and was first propagated by him and his immediate followers, but it declares him in no vague terms to have been the first to institute the devo- tion, and to have received it from the hands of the Blessed Virgin herself. If we are justified in recognizing St. Dominic to have been the first Inquisitor, less from any historic proofs of the fact than from the tradition of the Order, confirmed by the words of Pope Sixtus V., much more are we bound to accept this other tradition concerning the origin of the Rosary, which is world- wide in its extent, and has been sanctioned by the authority of no less than thirteen Sovereign Pontiffs. Such a tradition can hardly be assailed without temerity, for it would imply the most culpable disrespect to these illustrious Pastors of the Church to suppose that they would commit themselves to a precise affirmation of the fact without such examination of the evidence in support of it as would be satisfactory to the most stubborn of critics. It would be safe for us to take this as granted, but, as it happens, we have irrefragable proofs of the careful investi- gation bestowed by them upon the matter. In 1724, Benedict XIII. being then seated in the Chair of St. Peter,





POPE BENEDICT XIV. 135

petitions were addressed to him on the part of the secular clergy, praying that in the Office of the feast of the Holy Rosary, which had been inserted in the Roman Breviary in 1716 by authority of Pope Clement XL, the Lessons for the second nocturn, narrating the history of the devotion, should be substituted for those hitherto in use. Now the Lessons thus petitioned for contained an explicit statement that the Rosary was instituted by St. Dominic inspired by the Blessed Virgin, and before granting the request the Pope directed that the matter should be submitted to the Congre- gation of Rites, and that the Lessons in question should be carefully examined. The Promoter of the Faith was at that time no less a personage than Prospero Lambertini, after- wards Pope Benedict XIV., a man whose learning and authority on such matters have never been surpassed. In our own days his votum on the subject has been brought to light, 10 and in it he appears as the warm advocate of the tradition in question, the truth of which he carefully inves- tigates, and demonstrates by irresistible arguments. In consequence his conclusions were adopted, and the Lessons asserting the tradition were accepted and inserted in the Breviary. Yet, wonderful to say, Father Cuyper, the author of the dissertation which appears in the Bollandists, declares himself not satisfied with the evidence afforded by these Lessons and their approval by the Holy See. In his opinion they are not based on any ancient testimony, and have no sufficient authority. It is charitable to believe that he wrote in ignorance of the illustrious authority by whom they had been examined. His remarks, however, did not escape the notice of Lambertini, who being then Archbishop of Bologna, in his great work on the Canonization of Saints, and again in his treatise De Festo Rosario, reaffirms his vindication of St. Dominic as the author of the Rosary, and declares the tradition which had been examined by him to rest upon the most solid basis, Validissimo fundamento. After stating that the learned collections published by the Bollandists had been

10 It was published in the Analecta Juris Pontif. Fourth Series, liv. 31, in 1860.





136 POPE LEO XIII.

carefully consulted by him, he concludes one of his disserta- tions with the following words : " You ask if St. Dominic was really the institutor of the Rosary, you declare yourselves perplexed and full of doubt upon the subject. But what account do you make of the decisions of so many Sovereign Pontiffs of Leo X., of Pius V., of Gregory XIII. , of Sixtus V., of Clement VIII. , of Alexander VII., of Inno- cent XL, of Clement XL, of Innocent XIII., of Bene- dict XII I., and of many others, who are all unanimous in declaring the Rosary to have been instituted by St. Dominic himself?" To this list we can now add the names of Pius IX. and Leo XIII. Our limits will not allow us to do more than acknowledge the testimony that they have borne to the fact in question, but we cannot conclude without at least quoting the words of him who has perhaps done more than all his predecessors to extend the use of the Holy Rosary, and to multiply its privileges. When, in 1883, Pope Leo XIII., addressing himself to the Bishops of the Universal Church, commanded for the first time the observance of the Month of the Rosary, he made use of the following memorable words, in which he sums up the history of the devotion : " None of you, venerable brethren, are ignorant what woes and afflic- tions were caused to the Church of Christ towards the end of the twelfth century by the Albigensian heretics, who, born of the sect of the later Manichaeans, filled the south of France and other parts of Europe with most pernicious errors. Carrying everywhere the terror of their arms, they sought to extend their power by fire and sword. Then, as you know, God in His mercy raised up against His enemies a man of eminent sanctity, the Father and Founder of the Dominican Order. This man, great by the integrity of his doctrine, by the example of his virtues, and by his apostolic labours, undertook the magnificent task of defending the Catholic Church, not by force, nor by arms, but by the sole power of that prayer which he was the fivst to make known undev the title of the Holy Rosary, and which was propagated far and wide by him and by his disciples. Enlightened from on high, he understood that this prayer would be the most powerful





CONCLUSION.





137





weapon for overcoming the enemies of the Church and defeating their impiety. And the event proved that he was right. For, in fact, the use of this prayer having been spread and practised according to the instruction and institution of St. Dominic, piety, faith, and concord once more flourished. The enterprizes of the heretics failed, and their power gradually decayed ; a vast number of souls returned to the true faith, and the fury of the impious was vanquished by the arms of the Catholics, who repelled force by force."

Comment on these words is as needless as it would be unbecoming. Rome has spoken, the cause is decided, and in presence of the authoritative decisions of so long a line of august Pontiffs, all captious criticism must henceforth be put to silence.







ST. DOMINIC AT MURET.





CHAPTER XI.

MURET. 1213.

WE once more return to the public history of the time, and resume our narrative at a moment when the fortunes of the Catholic cause seemed gravely imperilled by the decision that had been taken by the King of Aragon on behalf of Count Raymund and his allies. He had entered Languedoc at the head of a powerful army, and speedily made himself master of many strong places. He was now directing his march towards Toulouse, where, at the head of all the confederates who espoused the cause of the Count, he reckoned on being in a position to dictate his own terms to the Catholic chieftains. At this critical moment, De Montfort found himself deprived of the support of the French King, on which he had confidently reckoned. The league lately formed between the Emperor of Germany and the King of England obliged Philip Augustus to defend himself against their joint attack, and for the moment rendered it impossible for him to give any assistance to the Crusaders.





ST. DOMINIC S PROPHECY. 139

Their position indeed seemed but gloomy, for their forces were far outnumbered by those of the King of Aragon. A lay-brother of the Cistercians, who watched the progress of the war with painful interest, went in company with Stephen de Metz, another religious of the same Order, to consult Dominic at this juncture, well knowing that God often revealed to him the secrets of coming events. " Will these evils ever have an end, Master Dominic ? " asked the afflicted Brother. He repeated his question many times, but Dominic remained silent. At length he replied : " There will be a time when the malice of the men of Toulouse will have its end, but it is far away; and there will be much blood shed first, and a king will die in battle." Brother Stephen and the Cistercian interpreted this prediction to allude to Prince Louis of France, the son of Philip Augustus, who had joined the army of the Crusaders in the previous February. " No," replied Dominic, " it will not touch the King of France : it is another king whose thread of life will be cut in the course of this war." This prophecy was very shortly to be accomplished, and Dominic himself was destined to be present on the spot where the decisive struggle took place which witnessed its fulfilment.

Very shortly after uttering the prediction, he left Car- cassonne on the return of the bishop, intending to join the Congress of the Catholic prelates, which was to be held at Muret. On the road thither he passed through the city of Castres, where the body of the Spanish Martyr, St. Vincent, was preserved for the veneration of the faithful. It was the custom of Brother Dominic during his journeys to visit the holy shrines and places of pilgrimage that lay in his way, and the local traditions of many such spots, such as the great sanctuary of Our Lady at Puy and Notre Dame de Dreche near Albi, bear witness to his frequent presence there. But none was dearer to him than Castres, where he loved to pray by the tomb of his illustrious countryman, the martyr-deacon of Valencia. The town of Castres was one of those with the lordship of which the Count de Montfort had early been invested. The ancient chapel, wherein were





140 ST. DOMINIC AT CASTRES.

preserved the relics of the martyr, had in former years been very irregularly served ; but De Montfort, at the instance of St. Dominic, founded prebends for twelve secular canons, to whom was committed the charge of the chapel. He appointed as dean or prior of these canons one Matthew, a native of his own territory of Montfort L'Amaury, under whose government Castres recovered its former prosperity ; and pilgrims resorting thither in great numbers, Dominic frequently came there, not only to satisfy his own devotion, but to break to the multitude the Bread of Life. It is said that a crucifix preserved in this chapel once spoke to him, and encouraged him to bear with constancy the contumelies to which he was exposed. On the present occasion, after having said Mass, he withdrew to a retired part of the church to make his thanksgiving, and meditating on the words: "The Lord shall feed him with the Bread of Life and immortality, and give him the Water of Wisdom to drink," he was wrapt in extasy and remained so for a good space. Meantime the prior, Father Matthew, and the other canons, were expecting him to join them in the refectory: and after waiting some time, the prior despatched a messenger to call him and warn him that the hour was late. The messenger, whose name was Sicard Sabbatier, found him raised from the ground in extasy and wholly absorbed in the things of God. Full of wonder and admi- ration, he hastened back to the prior to relate what he had seen, and Matthew accompanying him to the church beheld the same spectacle, and dared not disturb the sublime contem- plation of the saint. Reverently kneeling near him therefore, they waited for awhile until he gently descended to the ground, when they saw him prostrate before the altar, as though to give thanks for the Divine favours which had been granted to him in prayer. The two canons were profoundly moved by this spectacle : but when the holy Father became aware of their presence and knew how long he had kept them waiting for their dinner, he was covered with con- fusion ; and in return for their charitable patience, promised to Matthew, and to all those who should receive him with





VOCATION OF PRIOR MATTHEW. 14!

similar kindness, that God would not fail to give them the Bread of Life and the Water of Wisdom. This event decided Matthew's vocation. Shortly afterwards he resigned his office of prior, and entreated permission to follow Brother Dominic and to share his labours. The saint joyfully accepted this new disciple, repeating as he did so the words which from that time became his customary form of blessing to those who offered to join his company or who bestowed any charity upon him : Det vobis Dominus panem vita et aquam cceli. This story is related both by Stephen of Salagnac and Bernard Guidonis, the latter of whom was Prior of Castres, and tells us that Sicard Sabbatier joined the Order of Preachers, and became later on founder of the convent of Castres. After this incident Dominic returned to Fanjeaux, and there joined the Count de Mont- fort for the purpose of proceeding with him to Muret.

This fortress was one of great strategical value, both from its near neighbourhood to Toulouse, and from the fact of its commanding a bridge over the Garonne. In the year 1212, this bridge had been partially burnt by the forces of the Count of Toulouse, on which occasion De Montfort displayed a singular example of chivalrous heroism. Arriving on the banks of the river, he and his horsemen swam across the stream and reached the castle in safety. A few foot- soldiers who were left behind attempted to cross the bridge, but finding it too much injured to bear their weight, they were obliged to encamp on the further bank, where they were assailed by a furious tempest and in imminent danger of being attacked by the enemy. When De Montfort per- ceived this, he declared his intention of returning to bear them company. In vain was it represented to him that the larger portion of his troops were now secure, that only a few foot-soldiers remained on the other side of the river, now so frightfully swollen by the torrent of rain that it could not be crossed without danger. " What ! " was his reply, " would you have me abandon the pilgrims of Christ left there unprotected while I remain safe within these walls ! God may do with me as He may see fit, but I shall rejoin





142 MURET IS BESIEGED.

them and share their danger." And recrossing the river at the peril of his life, he remained with the soldiers, until having repaired the bridge, he was able to lead them all safely into the castle.

It was at Fanjeaux, about eight leagues distant, that he now received the intelligence of the King of Aragon's appear- ance under the walls of Muret at the head of a hundred thousand, or as others more probably state, of forty thousand men. The Catholic chieftain was taken by surprise, for only a few weeks previously he had been invited by the King to a friendly conference, and owing to the negotiations then pending with Rome, he was so little prepared for active hostilities that he had with him no more than eight hundred horse and a thousand foot-soldiers with whom to march to the relief of the besieged. But Muret was far too important a stronghold to abandon to its fate. By several bold and successful sorties the garrison had inflicted considerable loss on the forces of Count Raymund, and it was at his suggestion that the King had directed all his strength to the reduction of the place. On hearing of his approach, De Montfort at once prepared to hasten to the rescue, regardless of the entreaties of his wife and the remonstrances of some of his followers, who represented that to oppose the army of the King with so contemptible a force was little short of madness. But his resolution remained unchanged. " A good army," he said, " consists not in the number, but in the valour of its soldiers." He set forth therefore without delay, stopping on his road at the Cistercian monastery of Bolbonne in order to recommend himself and his under- taking to the prayers of the monks. Entering the church he laid his sword on the altar, and remained there for some time in prayer: then taking back the weapon, as now no longer his, but God's, he proceeded to Saverdun and there spent the night in confession and preparation for death. His pious example was followed by his companions, and on the following morning they all heard Mass and communi- cated, as men who were about to offer their lives in sacrifice for the cause of God.





NEGOTIATIONS FOR A TRUCE. 143

De Montfort had been joined at Bolbonne by the Legate and a number of bishops and abbots, among whom was Fulk of Toulouse, who, together with St. Dominic, accompanied him to Muret, in the hope of being able even yet to negotiate terms of peace. The army reached Muret and crossed the bridge leading to the town without opposition from the enemy, who were well content to see their opponents caught, as they supposed, in a trap, whence they could not issue without falling into their hands. A messenger despatched to the King by the Bishop of Toulouse demanding a safe conduct for the prelates who wished to propose an accom- modation, brought back for answer that no safe conduct would be granted to those who came in company of an armed force. Nothing discouraged by this repulse, the bishop made a second attempt to obtain at least a truce to hostilities. The answer sent by the King was couched in terms of contempt. " For the sake of four or five rascals whom the bishops had brought with them it was not worth while to grant a conference." But they determined on yet another effort, and very early in the morning sent word that they would wait on the King barefoot, and lay before him proposals for peace. They were preparing to execute this design when a body of troops attacked the gates, for the King had ordered an advance without even deigning a reply to the last message.

This attack was repulsed, but was followed by a storm of stones and arrows directed on the quarters which were occupied by the prelates. " You see," said the Count, " that your efforts avail nothing : the time for negotiation is past, and nothing is left but to combat even unto death." He therefore descended into the town, and mustering his scanty forces made the necessary dispositions for a sally. The infantry were left to strengthen the garrison, and at the head of his eight hundred cavaliers the Count prepared to face the enemy. " Have you reckoned the number of the King's troops? " asked one of his followers. " It is not my custom," was his reply, " to count either my own soldiers or those of the enemy : if God be with us we shall be strong





144 CHARGE OF THE CRUSADERS.

enough." But before the little band of devoted men left the walls of Muret, there was witnessed one of those scenes so characteristic of the ages of faith. Mass was celebrated in the church of St. James by the Bishop of Uzes, and when he turned to give the blessing, De Montfort knelt before him, clad in armour, saying : " I offer my life and my blood for God and His Church." Then the swords and shields of the combatants were solemnly blessed, and when this ceremony was over, and the horsemen were gathered together waiting for the word of command, Fulk, clad in pontifical vestments, appeared, bearing in his hands a relic of the true Cross, with which to bless the soldiers. Immediately every man flung himself from his horse and presented himself on his knees to kiss the sacred relic. But the Bishop of Comminges fearing to delay the march of the troops, took the relic from the hands of Fulk, and mounting a little eminence, blessed with it the whole army, bidding them go forth in God's name to victory or to martyrdom. "The Crusaders had already confessed," says the historian, " they now embraced and asked pardon one of another, and this done they re- mounted their horses, and rode out of the gates." Whilst the ecclesiastics returned to the church to pray, De-Montfort marshalled his men on a level space of ground outside the walls and divided them into three companies. On perceiving this, the King of Aragon left his entrenchments, and at the head of his magnificent cavalry reckoned on easily crushing the contemptible force opposed to him. Obeying the orders of their commander, the Crusaders made a feigned move- ment of retreat, which deceived the enemy, and drew from them insulting cries of joy : when suddenly, De Montfort gave the word of command, and his horsemen, turning rein, dashed right on the ranks of their opponents with the im- petuosity of a mountain torrent. Swift as lightning they broke through the troops who opposed their onward course, scattering them before their horses' hoofs with amazing energy, nor did they draw bridle till they reached the centre of the army where the King himself was stationed surrounded by the flower of his nobles. The shock was so violent that





DEATH OF THE KING. 145

in the words of the younger Raymund, who beheld the battle from the neighbouring hill, " the sound of the clash of arms resembled that which is heard when a troop of woodcutters cut down with their axes the oaks of the forest." 1 The King was one of the first to fall, and his fate decided the fortune of the day. Terrified by the shock of that tremendous charge, the main body fell into confusion ; and De Montfort, following up his first advantage, directed a few soldiers whom he held in reserve, to attack the enemy's flank. This completed the rout of the army. The Counts of Foix Comminges, and Toulouse, had been the first to seek safety in flight, and their example was speedily followed by the Spaniards. The voice and example of their chieftain might yet have rallied them, but that was wanting : Peter of Aragon lay dead on the field, and Dominic's prophecy had lound its fulfilment.

Whilst the cavalry of the two armies were thus engaged, the infantry of the allies had made a fierce attack on the defences of the town. But De Montfort, returning from his pursuit of the fugitives, fell on the rear of the assailants, who offered but a faint resistance. Great numbers were cut to pieces, or surrendered as prisoners; others fled to their boats, and escaping to Toulouse, carried with them the tidings of their disastrous defeat. The whole conflict had not lasted more than three hours, but the victory of the Crusaders was complete. More than twenty thousand of the enemy are said to have perished, whilst we are assured by all authorities that of the Catholic army only one knight and eight soldiers were slain.

When De Montfort and his knights rode forth to battle, , the prelates and other ecclesiastics returned into the church, and gathered before the altar to pray for the success of their arms. Prostrate on the ground, which they watered with their tears, they poured out their souls in prayer to God. Bernard Guidonis, who wrote in the following century, when the memory of these events was fresh in the memory of the people, does not forget to notice what part was taken by the

1 William de Puy Laurens, c. 22. K





146 ST. DOMINIC'S CRUCIFIX.

ecclesiastics in the deeds of that memorable day. " Going into the church," he says, " they prayed, raising their hearts to heaven and beseeching God for His servants who were exposed to death for His sake, with such great groans and cries, that it seemed not as if they prayed, but rather howled." But from this agonizing suspense they were roused by the shouts of the populace. The cry of victory sounded in their ears; they hastened to the walls, and beheld the plain covered with the flying companies of the heretics. Some plunged into the waters of the Garonne, and perished in their armour : others trampled their own comrades to death in the confusion of their flight. Of all the immense multitude which a few hours before had been encamped before the walls of Muret, not a single man remained.

Where, meanwhile, was St. Dominic himself, during the memorable battle whose issue was to exercise so marked an influence on his future career ? Some authors represent him as remaining in the church of St. James with the prelates ; but many historians of the Order declare that he appeared on the castle walls, or (as others say) on the battlefield itself, holding aloft the crucifix and animating the courage of the soldiers. A shower of arrows was discharged by the enemy at the sacred emblem which he displayed, some of which pierced the wood of the cross, without, however, touching the figure of our Lord. This crucifix is still preserved in the church of St. Sernin, at Toulouse, whither it was removed from the house of the Inquisition in 1791. Its appearance is most ancient, exhibiting three or four holes made by the arrows, the shafts of some of them still sticking in the wood. 2

2 Fastened at the foot of the crucifix is a silver plate bearing the following inscription :

Soux le coduc del brave Conte de Montfort, general de la guerra, marcschales evan Guy de Levis, Lambe Turi, Pey Voicin, e Oto Niort, e fray Domeng ab la Sancta Crou.

Hac ex originali Chartularis seculi 13, quo nobilitas harum familiarum probata, fuit Montpelii per Dominum Nicolaum Tamisier, regium pro nobilitate commis- sarium, 8. Oct. 2647 (Monumenta Conv. Tola. Ord. Prad., Sac. i. p. 10. F.M.T. pos. zfys).







ST. DOMINIC S CRUCIFIX.





\Tfac* p.





THE VICTORY ASCRIBED TO THE ROSARY. 147

As the Count de Montfort rode over the victorious field, he checked his horse at the trampled and bleeding body of the King of Aragon. De Montfort had some of the failings, but all the virtues of his order : he was cast in the heroic type of Christian chivalry. Descending from his horse, he kissed the body with tears, and gave orders for its honourable interment as became a gallant enemy : then, returning bare- foot to Muret, he went first to the church to return thanks to God, and gave the horse and armour with which he had fought to the poor. It was a true picture of the ages of faith.

We need scarcely be surprised that so wonderful a victory was looked on as miraculous and accounted to be the fruit of prayer. De Montfort himself ever so regarded it, and attributing his success, under God, to the intercession of St. Dominic, lost no opportunity of testifying his love and gratitude. The chapel of our Lady in the church of St. James at Muret, was built by him as a memorial of the victory in the course of the same year. It is supposed to have been the first chapel ever dedicated to the Holy Rosary, and in it was placed a picture representing the Blessed Virgin giving the rosary to St. Dominic, who holds in his right hand the crucifix pierced by three arrows, whilst on the other side of our Lady kneel Simon de Montfort and Fulk of Toulouse. Tradition has always claimed the victory of Muret as one of the first triumphs of the Holy Rosary, and we are led to infer that the devotion was first generally propagated about this time.

The battle of Muret was fought on the i3th of September, laifc^and proved a fatal blow to the cause of the Count of Toulouse. De Montfort followed up his victory by making himself master of Limousin, Perigord, and the adjacent pro- vinces : and in the December of the year following, a Council assembled at Montpelier invested him with the sovereignty of .the conquered territories. This act of the Council was submitted to the approval of the Pope, who in that spirit of justice and moderation which is observable in all his dealings with the Count of Toulouse, decreed that De Montfort should '





148 TOULOUSE SURRENDERS.

indeed be invested for the present with the conquered terri- plories, but that Raymund should be allowed a right of appeal before the GeneraT Council about to be assembled at Rome.

Twice again does Dominic's name occur associated with the busy scenes of De Montfort's history. He was called on to baptize his daughter, afterwards a nun in the convent of St. Anthony at Paris, and to celebrate the marriage of his son Almeric with the daughter of the Dauphin of Vienne. But a new chapter in the life of the saint was about to open, carrying him far from the distractions of courts and camps. The shifting chances of the war, guided by the hand of Providence, were opening to him, after long waiting, a way to that design long secretly cherished in his heart. The clouds which until now had hung over the horizon, had risen at last ; and when Toulouse at length opened her gates, and the storm of combat for a time was lulled, Dominic, in his forty-sixth year, prepared to lay the founda- tion of that Order which was to bear his name to future generations as long as the world and the Church should last.





CHAPTER XII.

FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER. 1214, 1215.

POLITICAL events did not permit St. Dominic to enter Toulouse immediately after the victory of the Crusaders recorded in the last chapter. Withdrawing from the army at the very moment of its triumph, he returned to Carcassonne, where he spent several months entirely engaged in apostolic labours. His preaching won many conversions among some of those very citizens who had formerly hooted him through their streets and pelted him with mud, but who now came to ask his forgiveness, and seek reconciliation with the Church. The troubadour of Picardy, in his metrical Life of St. Dominic, has not failed to notice this incident, which he relates in graphic style, as an example of the singular patience and humility of the saint in dealing with the heretics. One man (he says) was deeply touched with repentance, and coming to the saint, " Sir," he said, " I well remember that I once cast filth in your face out of scorn and malice, and I also fastened an old dish-clout to your dress, to make game of you." When the holy man heard this he began to sigh. " Ah ! Lord God ! " he said, " I have not done deeds good enough to deserve martyrdom." He is also said to have had the happiness at this time of reconciling an apostate bishop who had pursued him with the most inveterate malice, and had been wont contemptuously to scoff at the devotion of the Holy Rosary. His eyes were opened to see his error by a terrible vision, in which he seemed to find himself plunged into thick mire from which there was no way of escape. Raising his eyes, he saw above him the forms of our Lady





150 PETER CELLANI.

and the blessed Dominic, who let down to him a chain made of a hundred and fifty links, fifteen of which were of gold ; and laying hold of this he found himself safely drawn to dry land. Touched to the heart, he not only sought the saint and recanted his pernicious errors, but for the remainder of his life continued faithful in the daily recitation of the Rosary. 1

It was not until the summer of the year 1214 that Dominic found himself free to return to Toulouse, where it was his purpose, in company with the disciples who had gathered round him in his apostolic journeys, to lay the foundations of his religious community. He was joyfully received both by Fulk and the Count de Montfort, but neither of these distinguished persons were destined to be the immediate co-operators with him in the foundation of the Order. Peter Cellani, an opulent citizen of Toulouse, and another of the same rank, known to us only under the name of Thomas (but whom some suppose to have been his brother), presented themselves to him shortly after his arrival at Toulouse, and placed themselves and all they had at his disposal. Peter Cellani offered his own house, a large and commodious building near the gate of Narbonne, for the use of the saint and his companions. They were but six in all, and in after-years Peter was accustomed to boast that he had not been received into the Order, but that it might rather be said that he had received the Order into his own house. With these six followers, whom he clothed in the habit of the Canons Regular which he himself always wore, the saint accordingly began a life of poverty and prayer under the rules of religious discipline. " From the time when they first took up their residence in Toulouse," says Malvenda, " the blessed Dominic, and all those who had joined his company, began to conform themselves to religious rules, and to perfect themselves more and more in the practice of humility." Great indeed was the change which thus passed over his life. Eleven years had rolled away since the Sub- prior of Osma had exchanged the calm life of religious 1 Flaminius, quoted by Malvenda, c. 29.





REGULAR LIFE BEGUN AT TOULOUSE. 151

retirement which he had led up to his thirty-third year, for one of apostolic labour : and during this period he had been wholly separated from all which, to the heart of the true religious, makes up the nameless sweetness of the cloister. The monastic silence, the choral office, the charm of regular and community life, all these he had sacrificed at the call of God, in order to wage a hand to hand conflict with vice and unbelief on a foreign soil, and among an ungrateful people. Too often he had been thrown in contact with scenes of violence and bloodshed revolting to humanity, and had suffered "the contradiction of sinners" against himself with an unalterable virtue which won for him the title of the " Rose of Patience." Few can estimate the costliness of such a sacrifice to a soul attuned, as his was, to the sublimest secrets of contemplation. And now the time seemed come when all that he had renounced was to be given back to him even to the hundred-fold.

What a joy to be once more within the walls of a religious house ; to see around him devoted souls, disciples, and children with whom he might resume all those exercises of regular life from which he had so long been exiled ! The narrow cell which he occupied in that house was for cen- turies jealously preserved, a- sacred spot indeed which had been sanctified by his prayers and watered by his blood. Pere Rechac, who visited it in the seventeenth century, when it had been turned into a chapel, describes the altar above which was to be seen a picture of the saint, engaged in his nightly exercises of prayer and penance, and beside it a little niche painted in antique style with the instruments of the Passion, which was held to have been the actual oratory of the saint. 2 Here was preserved the crucifix he was said to have held at the battle of Muret, with other precious memorials of his presence; and the whole chamber, says





2 The house of Peter Cellani was afterwards made over to the Fathers of the Inquisition. It still stands, being now used as a college, and the chamber of St. Dominic continued to be shown within it so late as the year 1772.





152 HE TAKES HIS BRETHREN TO THE SCHOOLS.

the same writer, was so redolent of devotion, that no one could kneel there with his heart unmoved.

But sweet as must have been this brief interval of devout repose, the heart of the saint was not satisfied. He had long conceived in his mind the idea of a religious Order which should be trained to labour for the salvation of souls by means of a ministration of the Divine Word, based on a profound knowledge of sacred science. The whole future scope of the Friars Preachers was in the mind of Dominic at the moment of its first foundation. That it was so, is evinced by the first step taken by him after assembling these six brethren in the house of Peter Cellani. He explained to them the extent and nature of his design ; and showed them that, in order to carry it out, and fit themselves to become teachers of the truth, they must first be learners. There was then in Toulouse a celebrated doctor of theology named Alexander, whose lectures were greatly admired and frequented. To him Dominic resolved to entrust his little company. One morning Alexander had risen very early, and was in his room engaged in study when he was over- come by an unusual and irresistible inclination to sleep. His book dropped from his hand, and he sank into a pro- found slumber. As he slept he seemed to see before him seven stars, at first small and scarcely visible, but which increased in size and brightness, till they enlightened the whole world. As day broke, he started from his dream, and hastened to the school where he was to deliver his usual lecture. Scarcely had he entered the room, when Dominic and his six companions presented themselves before him. Malvenda remarks on the singular humility with which, in order to encourage his companions, the blessed Father offered himself as a disciple, although he was well known to be profoundly versed in sacred science, as had been repeatedly proved in his controversies with the heretics. All were clad alike in the white habit and surplice of the Augustinian Canons, and they announced themselves as poor Brothers who were about to preach the Gospel of Christ to the faithful and the heretics of Toulouse, and who desired first





FULK GRANTS THEM REVENUES.





'53





of all to profit by his instructions. Alexander understood that he saw before him the seven stars of his morning dream ; and many years after, when the Order had indeed fulfilled the destiny predicted, and had covered Europe with the fame of its learning, he himself being then at the English Court, related the whole circumstance to Brother Arnulf de Bethune, and boasted with pardonable pride of having been the first Master of the Friars Preachers.

These first steps of the brethren were marked by the Bishop Fulk of Toulouse with unmixed satisfaction. The piety and fervour displayed by them, and their exact following in the footprints of Brother Dominic, for whom he had ever entertained a peculiar reverence, determined him to give the infant Order the support of his powerful protection. With the consent of his chapter he assigned the sixth part of the tithes of his diocese for their support and the purchase of the books necessary for their studies. The document in which he makes this grant will not be without its interest : " In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We make known to all present and to come, that we Fulk, by the grace of God the humble minister of the see of Toulouse, desiring to extirpate heresy, to expel vice, to teach the rule of faith, and recall men to a holy life, appoint as preachers through- out our diocese Brother Dominic and his companions, who propose to go on foot, as becomes religious, according to evangelical poverty, and to preach the word of evangelical truth. And because the workman is worthy of his hire, and we are bound not to muzzle the mouth of the ox who treadeth out the corn, and because those who preach the Gospel shall live by the Gospel, we desire that, whilst preaching through the diocese, the necessary means of support be administered to them from the revenues of the diocese. Wherefore, with the consent of the chapter of the church of St. Stephen, and of all the clergy of our diocese, we assign in perpetuity to the aforesaid preachers, and to others who, being moved by zeal for God and love for the salvation of souls, shall employ themselves in the like work of preaching, the sixth part of the tenths destined for the building and





154 ST - DOMINIC GOES TO ROME.

ornamenting all the parochial churches subject to our government, in order that they may provide themselves with habits, and whatsoever may be necessary to them when they shall be sick, or be in need of rest. If anything remain over at the year's end, let them give it back, that it may be applied to the adornment of the said parish churches, or the relief of the poor, according as the bishop shall see fit. For inasmuch as it is established by law, that a certain part of the tithes shall always be assigned to the poor, it cannot be doubted that we are entitled to assign a certain portion thereof to those who voluntarily follow evangelical poverty for the love of Christ, labouring to enrich the world by their example and heavenly doctrine ; and thus we shall satisfy our duty of freely scattering and dividing, both by ourselves and by means of others, spiritual things to those from whom we receive temporal things. Given in the year of the Word Incarnate, 1215, in the reign nfJPbJli'p, "King -of Franrp, thp principality of Toulouse being held by the Count de Mont- fort."

Neither was De Montfort wanting in liberality towards the young Order. He had already made many grants to the house of Prouille, and in this year we find him making over the castle and lands of Casseignoul to the use of Dominic and his companions. He moreover, addressed a letter to the seneschals of Carcassonne and other cities in his domi- nions, commanding them ''to defend the houses and goods of our most dear Brother Dominic, as though they were our own."

In the September of the same year, Bishop Fulk of Toulouse set out for Rome to attend the approaching Council of the Lateran, and Dominic accompanied him, leaving Bertrand of Garrigua at the head of the little community of Toulouse?. Long years had passed since his last visit to the capital of Christendom in company with Diego of Azevedo ; and the work, the plan of which had even then dawned on his mind, was only now developing into actual existence. A higher strength than that derived from any human enthusiasm must have been in his soul, or he





COUNCIL OF LATERAN.





155





might well have been daunted as coming for the second time within sight of the Eternal City, he looked back on the forty- five years of his life, so full of patient labour, but which to human seeming had been blessed with so little fruit. Yet it was with no failing courage that he now prepared himself for his gigantic task ; whilst all the materials he had as yet gathered for the struggle were the six unknown and unlettered companions whom he had left at Toulouse.

Innocent III. still filled the Papal Chair, and the Couric.il

of Lateran formed almost the closing scene of a pontificate I

which must be held as one of the greatest ever given to the Church. On the nth of November, 1215, five hundred bishops, and above eight hundred abbots and priors, with the ambassadors of every European sovereign, met in that ancient and magnificent church, the mother-church of Rome and of the world. Few Councils, save that of Trent, have a greater claim on our veneration, for in it were defined some of the sublimest articles of the Christian faith. In the first canon were set forth in precise and lucid terms all those doctrines assailed by the Manichean heretics ; such as the Unity of God, Who was declared to be the Creator of all things whether spiritual or corporal ; the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity ; and the nature of the Church and of the Sacraments, specially of the Holy Eucharist. Among the canons of discipline was one laying upon all the faithful the obligation of yearly Confession and Communion, which has remained in force until our own time, and which, while it attests the lamentable decay from primitive fervour which could have rendered such a decree necessary, placed a secure barrier against further relaxation. Very stringent regulations were also made for the visitation of dioceses, the reform of the clergy, and the extirpation of heresy, the bishops being charged to appoint certain officers who should assist them in seeking out heretics and bringing them to canonical punishment. In fact, the singular energy dis- played by this celebrated Council, and the very nature of its decrees, are a sufficient proof of the state in which the world and the Church were then found. There was everywhere





156 FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER PROPOSED.

a decay and a falling off. Old institutions were waxing effete, and had lost their power ; whilst indications were everywhere visible of an extraordinary activity and





of mind, which was constantly breaking out into





disorder for want of channels into which it might be safely guided. Europe had taken some centuries to struggle through the barbarism which had fallen on her after the breaking up of the Roman Empire. As the waters of that great deluge subsided, life came back by degrees to the submerged world, and just at this period was quickening into r a~ vitality which, in the succeeding century, was manifested \ in a luxuriance of growth. It was one of those junctures in the world's history, when God is wont to raise up great men who lay their hands on the human elements of confusion, and fashion them into shape. And among these is to be reckoned the founder of the Friars Preachers.

His reception by the Fathers of the Council, and by the Pope himself, was cordial and flattering. Met as they were, in a great measure, to discuss the questions which had arisen out of the state of the French provinces, Dominic's name, and the part he had taken during the last ten years, were not unknown and unappreciated by them. Before the formal opening of the Council, Pope Innocent granted him an Apostolic Brief, by which he received the convent of Prouille under the protection of the Pontifical See, and confirmed the grants made to it. But when the plan for the foundation of the new Order was laid before him, its novelty and the vast- ness of its design startled him. As yet the Church'possessed only the more ancient forms of monasticism, with some institutes of later creation, which had, however, but a limited object, or a merely local influence; for the Friars Minor, though they preceded the Preachers by several years, could not as yet be said to have been formally established as a religious Order. Dominic's idea included a much wider field than had been as yet attempted by any of the more modern founders. As has been already said, he had conceived the design of an Order devoted to the work of preaching and teaching, and which for that purpose should apply itself to





THE POPE DOES NOT FAVOUR IT. 157

the study of sacred letters, with the express object of the salvation of souls. But preaching and teaching had hitherto been considered the peculiar functions of the episcopate, and one of the decrees of this very Council of Lateran, after enumerating the evils flowing from the neglect or inability of the bishops in respect to those offices, empowers them to choose fit and proper persons in each diocese to discharge the "holy exercise of preaching" in their stead. This decree, however, in nowise contemplated the establishment of any body of persons exercising the office in any other way than as deputies to the bishop, and the plan was, therefore, one full of novelty. It seemed to encroach on the privileges of the episcopate, and its boldness appeared dangerous at a moment when men's minds were so powerfully agitated. The troubles of the v Waldejos&s were fresh in the mind of the Pontiff; for that sect had grown out of the simple abuse of the office of preaching, usurped by men without learning or authority. The Church, in short, was jealous of innova- tion, and had just ruled in the Council then sitting, that no more new Orders should be introduced or allowed. In the face of this fresh regulation, it required no small degree of boldness and confidence to present the scheme of a new foundation for approbation, and to persevere in the request, for in spite of the warm recommendations of the Bishop of Toulouse, who bore witness to the great need of apostolic men to preach the Word of God in the afflicted provinces of France, and of the extraordinary merits of Brother Dominic, the \Pope showed no disposition to favour the design laid before him. A second application proved equally unsuc- cessful, but the saint did not lose heart. He looked not to man but to God for an answer to his petition, and spent his days visiting the relics of the saints and his nights in prayer and penance.

It pleased God to make known His will to Innocent in a vision of the night, wherein he seemed to see the Lateran Basilica about to fall, but supported on the shoulders of St. Dominic. Four years before a similar vision had been granted to him, when St. Francis of AssjsiJaad visited Rome







158 THE PETITION IS GRANTED.

to solicit the Pope's approbation of his infant Order ; and by this coincidence the Pontiff understood that in the designs of God these two men had been raised up to repair the ruin caused in the Church by vice and heresy, and to support her by their doctrine and example. ^The cause was gained, and sending for the bishop and for Brother Dominic, he made known to them the joyful news that their petition was granted.

Nevertheless the language of the Council was too strong to be entirely evaded ; it was as follows : "pin order that the too great diversity of religious Orders be not a cause of confusion in the Church of God, we strictly prohibit that any one do for the future form any new Order ; whoever desires to become a religious, let him do so in one of those already approved. In like manner, if any one desire to found a new religious house, let him be careful that it observe the rule and constitutions of one of the approved Orders." Not, therefore, to act in positive contradiction to a principle so recently and distinctly laid down, Innocent, whilst commending the zeal of the servant of God, and assuring him of his approval of the design, desired him to return to France, that, in concert with his companions, he might choose one out of the ancient rules which should seem to them the best fitted for their purpose. When the selection was made he was to return to Rome, in order to receive from the Apostolic See the necessary confirmation.

Besides this encouragement and promise of future pro- tection, Innocent was the first who bestowed on the Order the name which it has ever since borne. The circumstances under which he did so were a little singular, and have been preserved with unusual exactness. Shortly after granting the above favourable answer to the prayer of Dominic, he had occasion to write to him on some matters connected with the subject, and desired one of his secretaries to despatch the necessary orders. When the note was finished, the secretary asked to whom it should be addressed. "To Brother Dominic and his companions," he replied; then, after a moment's pause, he added, " No, do not write that;





THE " BROTHERS PREACHERS.





159





let it be, * To Brother Dominic and those who preach with him in the country of Toulouse ; ' " then, stopping him yet a third time, he said, 'MjWrite thus, To Master Dominic and the Brothers Preachers.'" This title, though not at first formally given by his successor Honorius in the Bulls of confirmation, was, as we shall see, afterwards adopted, and has always continued to be used.

The object of his visit to Rome was now fully accom- plished; yet Dominic did not return to Languedoc until the spring of the following year. The Council still sat, and it is probable that he was present at the deliberations held at its conclusion concerning the future government of the Narbonnese provinces. After hearing the whole cause pleaded at great length, Innocent gave sentence that Ray- mund VI. should be adjudged to have forfeited his dominions but was to be allowed a suitable revenue ; whilst his wife, sister to the late King of Aragon, should be secured in the peaceable possession of her dowry. The provinces which had been wrested from the Count by the arms of the Crusaders were to remain in the possession of the Count de Montfort. who had already been conditionally invested with their sovereignty : but those not yet conquered were erected into the marquisate of Provence, and placed under the guardianship of persons appointed by the Holy See, who should hold them in trust for the younger Raymund, and make them over tc him when he came of age, if by that time he should have shown himself worthy. This decision was far from being satisfactory to the two Raymunds, who before leaving Rome did not conceal their intention of attempting to re-possess themselves of the conquered provinces by force of arms, a design they were not slow in carrying into practice, and thus the fair fields of Languedoc were once more plunged in the horrors of civil war. 3





3 Much confusion has arisen from the fact that the anonymous con- tinuator of the Chanson de la Croisade has turned the history of the Council into a veritable romance, placing on the lips of the chief actors, and notably of Pope Innocent, speeches wholly imaginary, and attributing to the latter words and sentiments inconsistent with his actual conduct. A





l6o MEETING OF ST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS.





St. Dominic's connection with this portion of the civil history of his time was now nearly concluded ; hence- forth he was to belong not to Languedoc or to France alone, but to the world. He remained in Rome until the conclusion of the Council, and during this time made his first acquaint- ance with the holy patriarch St. Francis, under the following circumstances. -\One night being in prayer in the Basilica of St. Peter he saw the figure of our Lord in the air above his head, holding three arrows in His hand, with which He seemed about to strike the world in punishment of its enormous wickedness. Then the Blessed Virgin prostrated herself before Him, and presented to Him two men whose zeal should convert sinners and appease His irritated justice. One of these men he recognized as himself ; the other was wholly unknown to him. The next day, entering a church to pray, he saw the stranger of his vision, dressed in the rough habit of a poor beggar ; it was Francis of Assisi, and recognizing him as his companion and brother in the work to which both were called by God, he ran to him, and, embrac- ing him with tears, exclaimed, "You are my comrade, you will go with me; let us keep together, and nothing shall prevail against us." This was the beginning of a friendship which lasted during the remainder of their lives. From that time they had but one heart and one soul in God ; and though their Orders remained separate and distinct, each fulfilling the work assigned to it by Divine Providence, yet a link of fraternal charity ever bound them together: " brought forth together," in the words of Blessed Humbert, " by our holy mother the Church," they felt that " God had destined them from all eternity to the same work, even the salvation of souls."

We read, in the Life of St. Francis, that St. Angelus, the Carmelite, who was shortly afterwards martyred in the island





translation of the song written in Provencal prose more than a century later has been accepted by many modern writers as an authentic chronicle ; and thus the fancies of the poet have been gravely quoted as sober history.





ST. ANGELUS THE CARMELITE. l6l

of Sicily, was also in Rome at this time, having come thither on his way from Jerusalem.

Being one day in the church of St. John Lateran, he there met the two holy patriarchs, Dominic and Francis, and the latter, filled with the spirit of prophecy, said aloud to his companion: A Behold Angelus of Jerusalem, a man angelic in very truth, who is soon to become a martyr of Jesus Christ ! " and prostrating on the ground with deep humility he devoutly kissed the feet of the blessed Angelus. Then they all mutually embraced one another, and going forth together out of the church they met a leper of noble rank, who recommending himself to their prayers w r as presently cured. It is added that the three saints spent the remainder of that day and the following night in each other's company, spending the whole time in prayer and Divine discourses. St. Angelus is likewise said to have preached in the Lateran in the presence of the two founders, predicting their future greatness and the extension of their Orders. 4





4 The authenticity of this narrative is questioned by the Bollandists, and though related with many additional particulars in the Life of St. Angelus, it is assigned by the Carmelite authorities to a later date. Some Franciscan \vriters also place the meeting of Dominic and Francis in the following year, when both were again present in Rome for the con- firmation of their respective Orders, but the Dominican authorities are generally agreed in giving it as occurring during this visit.







MSIO.r OF THE HOLY APOSTLES.





CHAPTER XIII.

CONFIRMATION OF THE ORDER. 1216, 1217.

THE Council of Lateran broke up at the end of November, 1215, and soon afterwards Dominic, in company with the Bishop of Toulouse, set out to return to France. On their road thither they stopped at several cities of northern Italy, specially Siena, where they were received with great honour, and according to the Chronicle of Nanno Donati, overtures were made to the saint by the magistrates of the city, who desired that he should establish some of his disciples among them. This was at the time impossible, and the holy Father was anxious to lose no time in rejoining his brethren at Toulouse. During his absence their numbers had increased from six to sixteen, and the mutual joy of their meeting can be well imagined. The saint explained to them the result of his petition to the Holy See, and the necessity which now











THE RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 163

lay on them to make choice of a Rule. For this purpose he appointed a meeting of all the brethren, to be held at Prouille, where the brothers William de Claret and Noel, who took care of the nuns, were already awaiting them. / Thither, in the month of April, they all repaired, and assembling in the little chapel of our Lady, after earnest prayer and invocation of the Holy Spirit, they agreed to choose theJJRule of St. Augustine, under which the holy founder himself had lived ever since he had worn the habit of a Canon Regular, and which they had all observed during their residence at Toulouse. It was the better fitted for their purpose by its very simplicity, which rendered it capable of nearly any development which the peculiar objects of their Institute might require. In choosing it, Dominic fulfilled the obligation imposed on him by the Pope, while at the same time he was left free to add Constitutions of his own to the general principles of religious life laid down by St. Augustine. y

He was not the first who had made a similar use of this Rule. If we compare the plan of St. Dominic with that of St. Norbert, who had preceded him by nearly a century, we shall find a very striking similarity between them. St. Norbert's Rule was a reformation of that of the Regular Canons. In its design he departed from the ordinary line of the more ancient forms of monasticism, and set before him as his object active missionary labours for the salvation of souls. His work was preaching. He himself preached over all the provinces of France and Flanders, and obtained faculties from Pope Gelasius II. authorizing him to preach ! wherever he might think proper. But whatever similarity was to be found existing between the two Institutes, they were called to fill a different place in the Church of God. Religious Orders, we must never forget, are the result of Divine vocation, not the mere creations of human intelli- gence ; and those vocations they accomplish in an infinite variety of ways, which human intelligence could never have planned or executed ; they are like the varieties of plants and animals in nature, whose mingled similarities and





164





CHARACTER OF THE ORDER.





distinctions, multiplied in a thousand forms, attest the authorship of an infinite Creator.

The founder of the Friars Preachers was well acquainted with both the Premonstratensian and the Cistercian Rules, and freely borrowed from them both whatever he found suitable for his purpose ; but the idea which had existed in his mind from the very first was distinct from either. His plan was three-fold. The first and primary object of the Order was labour for the salvation of souls ; but in setting this before him as his principal aim, he was unwilling to abandon anything of the religious character which attached to the elder Institutes of the Church. The whole of his design is expressed in that passage of the Constitutions where it is said that "the Order of Preachers was princi- pally and essentially designed for preaching and teaching, in order thereby to communicate to others the fruits oi contemplation, and to procure the salvation of souls." Dominic well knew that to sanctify others, the teachei should first be sanctified themselves, and he was content to follow the guidance of antiquity in choosing the means of that sanctification the fruits of which were to be imparted to the world.

He therefore included in his Rule all the essenti; characteristics of monastic life ; the abstinence from meat, and the long fast from Holy Cross until Easter ; the observance of silence at the times and in the places appointed; the daily chapter; the strict law of poverty, and the rigorous practice of penance. At the same time a certain freedom and expansiveness were mingled with the strictness of its discipline, which enabled it to bend and mould itself so as to meet its great and primary purpose, the salvation of souls. In the Constitutions of the Order, accordingly, we find, mixed with the usual enact- ments of regular discipline, certain powers of dispensation, to be used when a literal and unbending adherence to the letter of the Rule would embarrass and impede the brethren in their more active duties. There are also express Con- stitutions, both for the ordering of their own studies, and





THE FIRST BRETHREN. 165

the regulation of such schools as they might open for the teaching of others ; so that all their active and apostolic undertakings, instead of being departures from the Rule, should be provided for in it, and partake of its own spirit and discipline. We may therefore consider contem- plation, apostolic labour for souls, and the especial cultivation of theological science, as the three objects which Dominic sought to unite and to provide for in the Constitutions of his Order.

We must now proceed to give a brief account of the brethren who joined with the saint in the deliberations held at Prouille, and who must be regarded as the founda- tion-stones of the Order. Of Bertrand of Garrigua, the saint's beloved companion, and Matthew of France, the former prior of Castres, something has been said already; both enjoyed the peculiar confidence of the holy founder, and were afterwards charged by him with important under- takings. The two brethren, William de Claret, of Pamiers, and Noel, a native of Prouille, have also been named as residing at the latter place, where they had the direction of the nuns. The first of these had been a missioner among the Albigenses in the time of Diego of Azevedo, by whom he was employed to superintend the temporal affairs of the little company. After wearing the habit of the Friars Preachers for twenty years, he left the Order and joined the Cistercians, being, it is said, dissatisfied with the law of absolute poverty, which by that time had been enjoined. Not content with this, he even tried to use his influence with the nuns to induce them to follow his example, an attempt which proved altogether without success. Of Brother Noel we know but little, except that he was one of the saint's first companions, and that he was unhappily drowned in the river Blan, when on a journey to Limoux.

Suero Gomez was a Portuguese of noble birth, who left the royal Court to join the army of De Montfort against the Albigenses. He was one of those who witnessed the deli- verance of the fourteen English pilgrims, and who, having assisted in bringing them to shore, shortly afterwards passed





l66 THE FIRST BRETHREN.

to the company of Dominic ; he is said to have been distin- guished for many virtues, and was the founder of the Order in Portugal. Michael de Fabra, a Spaniard of noble blood, was the first lecturer on theology in the Order, and held that office in the convent of St. James, at Paris. He was also a celebrated preacher, and accompanied King James of Aragon in his expedition against Majorca. "So great was the esteem had of him," says Michael Pio, " that during the fifteen months that the siege lasted nothing was done in the camp, either by soldiers or captains, save what was by him ordered." Such was the reverence in which he was held, that after the conquest of the island he was looked on as its father and ruler, and his name was always invoked next after God and the Blessed Virgin. Divers stories of his apparitions and supernatural assistance to the Christian soldiers are to be found ; and the Moors were themselves accustomed to say, that it was the Blessed Virgin and Brother Michael, not the Spaniards, who conquered the island.

Another Michael, called De Uzero, was afterwards sent by Dominic to establish the Order in Spain. Brother Dominic, called sometimes the little, on account of his stature, or by others, Dominic the second (and confused by some writers with Dominic of Segovia, 1 or the third), had also been one of the holy patriarch's first companions in the missions of Toulouse. " He was," says his historian, " little of body, but powerful of soul, and of great sanctity." He, too, was a wonderful preacher, and cleared the Court of King Ferdinand, " as it were, in a moment," of all buffoons, flatterers, and other evil company.

Next comes Lawrence, the Englishman. He was one of the pilgrims whom Dominic saved from drowning, as before related, and by many is called the Blessed Lawrence, a title

1 Many authors tell us, that "Dominic the little" was the first Provincial of Lombardy, and afterwards of Spain; and that he was likewise called "Dominic of Segovia." It is clear, however, from the account of Michael Pio, that the two Dominies were distinct persons, and that Dominic of Segovia, the Provincial of Lombardy, was not the same as the early companion of the holy patriarch of his Order.





THE FIRST BRETHREN. 167

he seems to have deserved by his sanctity and his gifts of prophecy and miracles. Then there was Stephen of Metz, a Belgian, " a man of rare abstinence, the frequent mace- rator of his own body, and of burning zeal for the eternal salvation of his neighbour;" and John of Navarre, whom St. Dominic had brought with him from Rome to Toulouse, and there given the habit. He it was to whom St. Dominic gave the celebrated lesson on holy poverty, which we shall notice in its proper place. " He was then imperfect," says his biographer, " but he afterwards made many journeys with St. Dominic, and by familiar conversation with him learnt how to be a saint, which indeed he became." He was one of those who gave his evidence on the canonization of the holy Father. Peter of Madrid accompanied Suero Gomez into Portugal, but afterwards, journeying into Castile, became the founder of several convents in that kingdom. The two citizens of Toulouse, Peter Cellani and Thomas, have already been mentioned. Oderic of Normandy had been a Crusader, and becoming a lay-brother, accompanied Matthew of France to Paris, where he. was known and reverenced for his " perfection of sanctity." Lastly, there was Manes Guzman, St. Dominic's own brother, " a man of great contemplation, zealous for souls, and illustrious for sanctity." He had a great gift of preaching, although his attraction was wholly to contemplation. Michael Pio gives us his character in a few expressive words : " Above all things he loved quiet and solitude, taking most delight in a contemplative life, in which he made marvellous profit ; and in living alone with God and himself, rather than with others. He had the government of the nuns who were established at Madrid. Sincerity and simplicity shone in him above all things ; and many miracles declared to the world how dear he was to heaven." Of those named above, Bertrand of Garrigua and Manes Guzman are numbered among the Blessed of the Order.

\ As soon as the little Council of Prouille had concluded its deliberations, Dominic returned to Toulouse. There fresh demonstrations of the friendship of Fulk awaited him.





l68 CONVENT OF ST. ROMAIN.

With the consent of his Chapter he made him the grant of three churches: St. Remain, at Toulouse, and two others; one at Pamiers, and another, dedicated to our Lady, near Puy-Laurens. These in time had each a convent attached to them ; but that of St. Remain was begun immediately, for Peter Cellani's house was no longer adapted to their increased numbers. A very humble cloister was therefore built contiguous to the church, and over it were placed the cells of the brethren, " which were arranged," says Blessed Jordan, " for the purposes of study and religious retirement." -f This was the first regular house of the Order ; it was poor enough, and soon completed, and the little community removed into it in the summer of 1216.

As soon as the brethren were established in their new convent, Dominic prepared to return to Rome, to report to the Sovereign Pontiff the decision which had been taken, and to obtain from him a formal confirmation of the Order and its Rule. But before doing this he gave a proof of his disinterestedness, and of that love of poverty which he so greatly prized, by making over to the nuns of Prouille all the lands which had been granted by various benefactors to himself and his brethren. It was even with reluctance that he retained the revenues recently given for the support of the community by Fulk of Toulouse; but the prudence of doing so was pressed on him by the bishop; and the obligation of absolute poverty, which was afterwards made a law of the Order, had not as yet been introduced into the Constitutions. Before taking leave of the brethren he made them an earnest and touching address, in which, says Flaminius, he charged them to keep to the old paths and- the traditions of the holy Fathers, by adhering to which they would be preserved from the danger of falling into heresy, or any kind of error. Then appointing Bertrand of Garrigua, as before, to govern the community in his absence, he once more set out for Rome, about the feast of St. John, Baptist, 1216.

It was in the course of his journey to Rome that Dominic received the intelligence of the death of Pope





VISION OF THE HOLY APOSTLES. l6g

which took place at Perugia on the i6th of July, 1216, and of the election as his successor of Cardinal Savelli, who took the title of Honorius III. The news exceedingly afflicted the saint, not only because the deceased Pontiff had shown himself a sure and faithful friend, but because of the loss sustained by the Church which he had so wisely and power- fully governed. It was, moreover, no small anxiety to have to treat for the confirmation of an unknown and untried Institute with a new Pontiff, of whose sentiments Dominic was wholly ignorant. Nevertheless he continued his journey, and arriving at the Roman capital in the month of September, found the Pope still absent at Perugia, which caused some further delay. During the interval the saint lived a poor and obscure life, begging his bread from door to door during the day, and at night having no other lodging than the churches. Many difficulties seemed to oppose the success of his undertaking, for the Pontiff was engaged in various important and troublesome negotiations, and his Court was full of dissensions. Dominic, however, took refuge in prayer and patience, and in his long night watches commended the cause he had at heart before many a holy shrine. But the spot that was dearest to him above all was the ancient Vatican Basilica. There night after night he invoked the aid of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and of the glorious St. Paul, his own especial patron ; and whilst thus praying he was granted a vision well fitted to strengthen and encourage him during this time of suspense. For the two great Apostles appearing to him as he prayed, St. Peter bestowed on him a staff, and St. Paul a book, addressing him in these memorable words : " Go and preach, for to this ministry thou art called ; " and as they disappeared from his sight, he seemed to behold his brethren going forth two and two throughout the whole world, preaching the Word of God to all nations.

Great, indeed, was the joy which filled his heart at such an assurance of the Divine approval. He knew full well that if God were with him no human opposition would avail against him, and felt that the sublime vocation of himself





r





170 CONFIRMATION OF THE ORDER.

and his brethren had now received a seal from heaven. Some writers add that the Holy Spirit was at the same time seen to rest on his head in the form of a fiery tongue, and others that he was thenceforth specially confirmed in grace, and freed from many temptations. It is certain that he regarded what had passed as a most precious token of favour, and in memory of it, he ever afterwards carried with him, says Flaminius, whether at home or abroad, a staff, together with the Book of the Gospels and St. Paul's Epistles, the study of which he constantly urged on his brethren. 2 ^ The confidence of the saint at length obtained its merited reward. Towards the end of the year Pope Honorius returned to Rome, and two Bulls confirming the new Order- were issued by him on the 23rd of December, 1216.

The first of these Bulls is of considerable length ; it grants a variety of privileges and immunities to the brethren, and confirms the Order in the possession of all the lands, churches, and revenues with which it had been endowed by Fulk and other benefactors. The second Bull is much shorter, and appears to have been intended that the brethren might carry a copy of it with them in their apostolic journeys to present to the bishops through whose dioceses they might pass, thus furnishing them with testimonials of due authority. 3

" Honorius, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our dear son, Dominic, prior of St. Remain, of Toulouse, and to your brethren who have made, or shall make, pro- fession of regular life, health and the apostolic benediction. We, considering that the brethren of your Order will be the champions of the faith and true light of the world, do confirm the Order in all its lands and possessions present





2 The staff he was accustomed to use was still preserved at the convent of Bologna when Pere Rechac wrote his history.

3 In the Chapter of Strasburg, 1296, it was ordained that this second Bull should be carried by all religious sent on a journey as an authentic proof of their apostolic mission.





CONFIRMATION OF THE ORDER.





171





and to come ; and we take the Order itself, with all its goods and rights, under our protection and government.

" Given at Sta. Sabina, at Rome, on the nth of the kalends of January, this first year of our Pontificate.

" HONORIUS."







CONFIRMATION OF THE RULE.





The church of Sta. Sabina, whence these Bulls were issued, adjoined what was then the palace of the Savelli family and the residence of the reigning Pontiff. Both of them were granted on the same day, but in neither of them did the new Order receive the title of Preachers, which had been bestowed on it by Innocent III. The manner in which this omission was rectified is thus related by Thomas of Cantimpre, the disciple of Albert the Great. " Pope Honorius, when publishing the two Bulls, in which he granted the confirmation of the Order, did not make use of the title of Brothers Preachers, but desired that the inscription should be written on the back of. the folded





172 THE FRIARS PREACHERS.

patent, 'To Master Dominic and the Preaching Brothers.' But instead of this the notary wrote, 'To the Brothers Preachers.' The Pope, reading over the document before signing it, asked of the notary why he had altered the words. * Because,' replied the notary, ' the word Preacher, signifies both the act and the office, whereas that of Preaching implies indeed the act, but does not denote the office, and your Holiness has thought fit to commit to them both the act and the office.' VThe Pope approved this explanation and desired that the title should stand so amended, and thenceforth the Order, thus solemnly confirmed, became universally known under the title of the Order of Friars Preachers."

Meanwhile, the saint's daily life during the period of his stay in Rome, was anything but an idle one. Not only did he preach almost daily in one or other of the churches, but he took part in many works of charity, both spiritual and corporal. Outside the walls of the city there resided at that time certain recluses, commonly called Muvate, from their habitation. They lived a sort of eremitical life, each in a poor little cell, separate one from the other, in which they were enclosed, never leaving them ; being moved to this singular life by a particular spirit of mortification and soli- tude. Almost every morning, after celebrating Mass and reciting the Divine Office, Dominic went to visit them, conversing with them on holy subjects, and exhorting them to perseverance. He was also accustomed to administer to them the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and was, in short, what would be now called their director.

During this visit he also formed ties of close intimacy with several distinguished persons then residing at the Roman capital, who afterwards became, in various ways, associated with the history of the Order. He had, indeed, that aptitude for friendship, which is to be found in those who, possessing large and deep sympathies, have also the special power of communicating themselves to others. Hence the history of his life is embellished with the records of many dear and noble friendships, which, once formed, lasted even until death.





WILLIAM DE MONTFERRAT. 173

Among those whose acquaintance he at this time made, was Ugolini Conti, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, and afterwards successor to Honorius, under the title of Gregory IX. He was already the friend and protector of St. Francis and the Friars Minors, and now for the first time made acquaintance with the founder of the Friars Preachers. He was advanced in age, but a man of warm and enthusiastic feelings, who ever accounted the close personal ties which united him to these two great men, as among the greatest privileges of his life. At his house, Dominic also met another younger friend, William de Montferrat, who was spending Easter with the Cardinal. The charm of the saint's intercourse, which we are assured was of a very peculiar and winning kind, so captivated him that he resolved to take the habit of the new Order. He has left the account of the whole matter in his own words. " It is now about sixteen years," he says, " since I went to Rome to spend Lent there ; and the present Pope, who was then Bishop of Ostia, received me into his house. At that time Brother Dominic, the founder and first Master General of the Order of Preachers, was at the Roman Court, and often visited my lord of Ostia. This gave me an opportunity of knowing him ; his conversation pleased me, and I began to love him. Many a time did we speak together of the eternal salvation of our own souls, and those of all men. I never spoke to a man of equal perfection, or one so wholly taken up with the salvation of mankind, although indeed I have had intercourse with many very holy religious. I therefore determined to join him, as one of his disciples, after I had studied theology at the university of Paris for two years, and it was so agreed between us ; and also, that after he had established the future discipline of his brethren, we should go together to convert, first, the pagans of Persia or of Greece, and then those who live in the southern countries." 4

We gather from these words how entirely the saint had opened his whole heart to the writer, to whom he not only made known the burning zeal for the salvation of souls with 4 Acts of Bologna.





174 ST - DOMINIC S MISSIONARY ARDOUR.

which he was consumed, but confided that cherished desire which had been shared long ago with Diego of Azevedo, and never laid aside, that he might one day be suffered to labour for the conversion of heathen nations. His great heart was inflamed with an ardour which knew no limits so long as there were souls to save. Rechac enumerates four distinct occasions on which this desire of his was formally expressed, and gives us to understand that the idea of offering himself to preach to the Saracens and unbelievers of the East, had been inspired at this time by the preparations then actually going on at Rome for the promotion of a fresh Crusade. For Innocent III. had before his death equipped a fleet to proceed to the Holy Land, the prosecution of this under- taking having been urgently pressed by the late Council, and the whole matter had engaged the serious attention of Honorius from the first moment of his accession. Very probably, therefore, the plans discussed between the two friends were connected with the memory of that land towards which all Christians still turned with love unspeakable, and which they would have given their heart's best blood to redeem from the hands of the infidel. Doubtless the soul of St. Dominic took fire with the hope that he and his children should one day take part in the glorious enterprize, and we can imagine the charm which such vast and glowing thoughts, clothed in the eloquence which was all his own, must have exerted over the minds of those who listened to him. He endeavoured also to persuade Bartholomew of Clusa, archdeacon of Mascon and canon of Chartres, one of his own penitents, to enter the new Order, for he clearly discerned that such was God's vocation to his soul. Bartho- lomew, however, turned a deaf ear to all he said, and Dominic predicted that many things would befall him in consequence of his resistance to grace, which things, he himself assures us, did really afterwards happen to him ; but what they were does not appear.

On the reception of the Bulls of Confirmation, the saint at once prepared to return to St. Remain, but before doing so he took one step of great importance and significance.





HIS PROFESSION. 175

He had, of course, made the religious vows many years before, when he was professed as a Canon Regular at Osma ; but he was now about to establish among his brethren a rule of life which added far stricter monastic obligations to those embraced by the Canons. But whilst about to impose these on others, he desired first to bind himself to their obser- vance, afed before leaving Rome, therefore, with the consent of Honorius, he made his solemn profession as the first Friar Preacher, in the hands of the Sovereign Pontiff.







DISPERSION OF THE BRETHREN.





CHAPTER XIV.

DISPERSION OF THE BRETHREN. J2iy, I2lS.

IT was not until the May of 1217 that Dominic was able to return to Toulouse, where he found his brethren estab- lished in their new convent of St. Remain, to which they had removed in the October of the previous year. The joy of reunion was somewhat qualified on the part of the brethren when they learned that it was the resolution of the saint very speedily to disperse the little community which was but just gathered together. He made known this intention to his followers almost immediately on his arrival at Toulouse, where, after addressing them a fervent exhortation on the rule of life to which they were about by their profession to pledge themselves, he plainly declared his





THE SEED MUST BE SCATTERED. 177

\ intention of sending them forth in companies of twos and threes, in order that they might plant the foundations of their Order in other parts. The plan seemed the height of imprudence ; all joined in blaming it and endeavouring to dissuade him from it. But Dominic was inexorable; the vision which he had seen beside the Tomb of the Apostles was fresh in his eye ; their voices yet sounded in his ear. Fulk of Toulouse, De Montfort, the Archbishop of Narbonne, and even his own companions, urged him to pause, but nothing would stir him from his purpose. " My lords and fathers," he said, " do not oppose me, for I know very well what I am about." He felt that the vocation of his children was not to one place, but for all nations; not for themselves alone, but for the Church and the world. " The seed," he said, " will fructify if it is sown ; it will but moulder if you hoard it up." Some little time he gave them to consider if they would submit to his determina- tion, with the alternative of withdrawing from the Order. But his followers had too profound a veneration for his person and character to oppose their judgments to his, and soon yielded the point. The event showed how entirely his resolution had been guided by the Spirit of God.

Meanwhile in the preparation which he made for this dispersion of his children, he showed how great was his anxiety for the preservation among them of the observance and spirit of their Rule.yThe convent of Toulouse he designed to be the model which was to be followed in all later founda- tions, and he therefore made several regulations to render it more perfect in its arrangements. He thought it well that the brethren should from time to time meet together for mutual counsel and encouragement. For this purpose he caused two large additional rooms to be built, one for containing the habits of the community, the other for the brethren to assemble in ; for until now, like the Cistercians, they had no rooms but their cells and the refectory. These two additions to their little convent added materially to the comfort of those who were to be left to inhabit it, and were welcome proofs of the watchful thoughtfulness of their Father.

M





178 HE INSTRUCTS THE BRETHREN.

He was very earnest in enjoining the strict observance of that part of St. Austin's Rule which forbids all private appropri- ation of the smallest article, and prohibited the use of the words "mine" and "thine," as contrary to holy poverty. Even in the church itself he desired that the spirit of poverty should never be forgotten ; and though he constantly insisted on its being kept a mirror of cleanliness, yet he forbade all elegancies and curiosities, and even ordered that the sacred vestments should not be made of silk. As to the cells of the brethren, the poverty he enjoined was absolute : a little cane bedstead and a miserable bench were the only furniture he allowed. They had no doors, in order that the Superior might always be able to see the brethren as he passed along ; the dormitory resembled, as closely as possible, that of a hospital.

But besides these regulations for the exterior of commu- nity life, he at the same time applied himself to such interior training of his disciples as should best fit them for the apostolic duties of their sublime vocation. He failed not to impress on his followers the necessity that the members of an Order of Preachers should apply with ardour to sacred letters, and exhorted them above all to steep themselves in the study both of the Old and New Testament. At the same time, well knowing that learning alone does but foster the pride that puffeth up, he was no less earnest in bidding them unite prayer and meditation to the pursuit of science, that digesting in prayer what they had learnt from study, they might be the better able to communicate its fruit to others. And to this end he willed that wherever any convent of the Order should be founded in time to come, special attention should be given to the choral recitation of the Divine Office, the celebration of which he would have always accompanied by the chant and sacred ceremonies.

Flaminius, in the very interesting account which he gives of these early beginnings of the Order at Toulouse, adds that the holy Father, whilst devoting himself to the spiritual training of his children, failed not to impose on himself an altogether new rule of life, to which he faithfully adhered





HIS OWN RULE OF LIFE. 179

even until death. He would not be merely the teacher, but the exemplar of those into whose hands he was about to entrust the foundation of his Order in distant countries ; and whilst seeking to form them to that ideal of religious life which should henceforth mark the true Friar Preacher, he desired himself to be the first to lead the way. And to this he was the more urged by the words of Pope Honorius, in a patent addressed to the prior and community of St. Romain, which the saint had brought with him from Rome, together with the Bull of Confirmation. In this document the Pontiff, after giving thanks to God, the Author of all grace, for inspiring the brethren with their generous design, welcomes them as labourers in the field of the Lord, and champions of the faith, who shall hereafter win glorious victories for the salvation of souls by the apostolic ministry of preaching. But he reminds them that this can only be done by those who, burning with the fire of charity, spread abroad the good odour of holiness, that so, commending themselves as true and faithful servants of God, they may freely distribute to others the talents which they have received. 1

The manner in which the saint began from this time to order his life was rigorous indeed. Whether in or out of the convent, he never broke the rule of abstinence from meat, and kept an almost continual fast. He chose for himself the worst accommodation and the poorest habit in the house, and never allowed himself the luxury of a bed. After Compline it was his custom to watch in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament until Matins, at w r hich he assisted with extraordinary devotion, often going from one side of the choir to the other and animating the brethren to chant with fervour. When the Office was ended, he remained alone in the church for a considerable time longer, praying and offering to God the sacrifice of bloody disciplines ; and when at last he gave his body a little repose, it was taken either on the bare ground, at the foot of the altar, or on a plank, or something equally austere and incommodious. Even then he slept but little, and the brethren who occupied the 1 Rechac, p. 302.





l8o HIS OWN RULE OF LIFE.

cells nearest to the place of his repose, were often awakened by his sighs and tears, and the strong crying with which he poured out his soul to God in prayer for the salvation of souls. At home or abroad he strictly kept the rule of silence which he would have observed by others, and even when he spoke, he was never known to utter an idle word, observing the law which he never wearied to impress on his brethren, that the tongue of the religious should never be used save to speak either to God or of God. And yet to all this austerity of life he united a tranquil cheerfulness which won the hearts of all men, for his countenance was always serene and gay, as that of one to whom the practice of penance brings no bitterness, but rather sweetness unspeakable. Under the guidance of a master who presented in his own life a model of the perfection which he taught with his lips, it is no wonder that the novices of St. Romain made rapid progress, and that in these days of early fervour the example of their holy Father was closely followed by many of those who were formed under his personal direction.

\ It was whilst thus engaged in the training of his disciples, that the saint had a vision which foretold to him the approaching death of the Count de Montfort. He seemed to see an immense tree, in whose branches a great quantity of birds had taken refuge ; the tree was luxuriant and beautiful, and spread out its arms over the earth : suddenly it fell, and the birds all took flight, and Dominic was given to understand that this represented the fall of him who had been known in a special manner as the protector* and " father of the poor." This was accomplished in the following year, when the two Raymunds having regained possession of Toulouse, the Count de Montfort fell at the siege of that city. It is probable that his knowledge of the approaching return of war hastened Dominic in the execution of his designs. He accordingly fixed the approaching feast of the Assump- tion for the assembling of all the brethren at Notre Dame de Prouille that they might there pronounce their solemn vows before leaving for their respective missions. 2

2 John of Navarre in his deposition, which forms part of the Acts of





MEETING AT PROUILLE. l8l

On the appointed day, the little company all met to keep the festival with an unusual solemnity in the church of their mother-house of Prouille. It was a deeply touching spectacle to all present, and to Dominic himself one of profound and singular emotion. Great numbers of persons from the surrounding country, who knew the circumstances which had gathered the brethren together, came to witness the ceremony of the day ; among them was De Montfort himself, and several prelates, all anxious to ascertain the final determination of St. Dominic as to the destination of his little flock. It was he himself who offered the Holy Sacrifice, and who, still habited in the sacred vestments, preached to the assembled audience in language some of which is still preserved to us. Its severity compels us to draw conclusions little favourable to the people of Languedoc. " Now for many years past," he said, " have I sounded the truths of the Gospel in your ears, by my preaching, my entreaties, and my prayers, and with tears in my eyes. But, as they are wont to say in my country, the stick must be used when blessings are of no avail. Lo ! princes and rulers will raise all the kingdoms of this world against you ; and woe be unto you ! they will kill many by the sword, and lay the lands desolate, and overthrow the walls of your cities, and all of you will be reduced to slavery ; and so you will come to see, that where blessings avail not, the stick will avail." These dismal announcements were too truly fulfilled ; and they indicate that the evils under which the unhappy country had so long laboured had produced an effect which not even the ten years' labour of an apostle had been able to counteract : it was a solemn farewell which framed itself into words of prophetic warning. He then

Bologna, declares that he himself received the habit from the hands of Brother Dominic on the feast of St. Augustine, 1215, and made his vows on the same feast at the convent of St. Remain, as we may suppose, a year later. This declaration is in no way inconsistent with the fact as narrated above, that the subsequent profession of all the brethren took place at the convent of Prouille on the feast of the Assumption, 1217, a fact which rests on the authority of the MS. of Prouille, and is accepted by Echard. Percin, and other writers as a statement of undoubted accuracy.





J







l82 PROFESSION OF THE BRETHREN.

turned to his own brethren, and reminded them of the first origin of their Order, the end for which it was instituted, and the duties to which they stood pledged. Above all, he exhorted them to confidence in God, and a great and un- flinching courage, always to prepare for wider fields of labour, and to be ready to serve the Church, in whatever way the}'' might be called ' to work for the conversion of sinners, heretics, or infidels. His words had an extra- ordinary effect on those who listened ; any lingering feelings of dissatisfaction they might have felt were dispelled by this appeal to the heroism of their nature. Like soldiers harangued by a favourite leader on the battlefield, they all seemed kindled with a spark of his own chivalrous ardour, and were impatient to be led on to the enterprize which awaited them.

When Dominic had concluded his address, the brethren knelt before him, and made their solemn vows in his hands, for until then they had been bound to him by no other tie than their own will. The nuns of Prouille, in like manner, all made their profession on the same da} 7 , adding the fourth vow of enclosure. 3 When this ceremony was over, he declared to each of them the quarter to which they were destined. The two Fathers, who had until then had the direction of the convent of Prouille, were to remain there as fore, whilst Peter Cellani and Thomas of Toulouse were to continue at St. Romain. _ A large section of his little company were appointed for the establishment of the Order in Paris, where flourished the most famous university then existing ; and from the first it entered into the designs of the holy founder to plant colonies of his brethren in the chief seats of learning throughout Christendom. No fewer than seven brethren were therefore set apart for the foundation at Paris ; Manes, the saint's own brother, Michael de Fabra, and the lay-brother Oderic, were the first despatched, and they were followed a few weeks later by Bertrand of Garrigua, Matthew of France, John of Navarre, and Lawrence of England. Matthew of France was appointed to be the head

3 Percin.





THEIR DISPERSION. 183

of this little company, but associated with him in the responsible task of founding the convent was Brother Bertrand, " in whom," says Mamachi, " Dominic had perfect confidence on account of his rare virtue." Indeed, according to this writer, Bertrand alone was charged with the founda- tion, but it is evident from the words of Blessed Jordan that he only acted conjointly with Matthew, and on his withdrawal from Paris the following year the latter remained Superior of the little company. 4 The four Spaniards, Michael Uzero, Dominic of Segovia, Suero Gomez, and Peter of Machid, were to be sent to Spain, the saint reserving Stephen of^Metz for his own companion to return with him to Romey

^ Before they separated to their several destinations, Dominic determined to provide for the future government of the Order in case of his death or removal, for as we have seen, he still cherished the secret design of himself departing for the countries of the infidels, and finding perhaps a martyr's crown among them. He therefore desired them to make a canonical election among themselves of some one who should govern the Order in his absence, or in case of his death. Their choice fell on Matthew of France, who received the title of Abbot, a designation never continued in the Order ; after his death the brethren were content with the title of Master for him who held the chief authority, whilst the other Superiors were called priors and subpriors, names chosen as best befitting the humility of their state. This election being finished, Dominic committed the Bull of Confirmation to the keeping of the new abbot, that it might be solemnly published in the capital of France, and gave them a parting exhortation to keep their vows, and be diligent in founding convents, preaching God's Word, and following their studies ; and so dismissed them with his blessing.

One of them, and one only, showed signs of reluctance to

obey. It was John of Navarre, who had strongly shared in

the sentiments of those ecclesiastics who condemned the holy

patriarch for imprudence. He ventured, before departing,

4 Jordan, apud Echard, t. i. p. 16 ; Mamachi, Ann. lib. 2, 366, 367.





184 JOHN OF NAVARRE.

to ask for a little money for his expenses on the way. The request seemed reasonable ; but Dominic clearly discerned the secret feelings of distrust and discontent which prompted it. He sharply reproved him, and set before him the example of the disciples whom their Lord sent forth, " having neither scrip nor purse ; " then, quickly exchanging severity for the paternal tenderness which was more natural to him, he threw himself at the feet of the Brother, and with tears in his eyes besought him to lay aside his cowardly fears, and to arm himself with a generous trust in God's Providence. " Go in confidence, my son," he said, " for nothing is wanting to those who trust in God." But John still continuing stubborn in his view, and unconvinced of the practicability of travelling two hundred miles without funds, Dominic desired them to give him twelve pence, and then dismissed him.

We are told that some Cistercians who were present expressed their surprise in no measured terms, that he should send out these ignorant, unlettered boys to preach and teach. Dominic bore the officious remarks with the equanimity which he never failed to exhibit on such occasions. " What is it you say, my Brothers," he replied with his accustomed sweetness ; " are you not a little like the Pharisees ? I know, nay I am certain, that these ' boys ' of mine will go and return in safety, and that they will bring back with them great fruit of souls."

Thomas of Cantimpre, relating this anecdote on the authority of Flaminius, remarks that it was indeed a matter worthy of all admiration that in the beginning of the Order, such great things should have been wrought by a few inexperienced youths, many of them delicately nurtured in the world, who going forth as sheep among wolves, escaped the perils which beset their innocence and did the work of apostolic men. He attributes the success which attended their labours and their own preservation in the midst of a perverse and evil generation to the singular devotion cherished by them towards the Blessed Virgin, the peculiar Patroness of the Order, under whose maternal protection





ST. DOMINIC S DISINTERESTEDNE







18,





they were defended from the assaults of temptation. And he goes on to quote the authority of one who, having heard the confessions of more than a hundred brethren in the early days of the Order, declared that out of that number no less than seventy had kept their baptismal innocence unstained.

One by one then the little companies departed, and by the middle of September the saint found himself left with only three companions at the convent of St. Romain. But the numbers of the community were soon increased by the reception of fresh members, among whom were Poncio Samatan, afterwards founder of the convent of Bayonne, Raymund Fulgaria, or De Felgar, a Narbonnese noble who became successor to Fulk in the bishopric of Toulouse, Arnold of Toulouse, first prior of Lyons, and the Blessed Romeo of Livia, afterwards fifth provincial of Provence. The saint himself was preparing to depart on his return to Rome when a dispute which arose between the brethren of the convent and the procurators of the bishop's court, and which bore reference to the portion of tithes which had been granted to the community by the bishop, gave occasion for him to give another token of his magnificent disinterested- ness. He speedily settled the difficulty by executing a deed in accordance with the views of the procurators, regarding it as a thing hateful to God and man that charity should be wounded for filthy lucre's sake. This document is dated September n, 1217, only two days before Raymund of Toulouse, by stratagem, regained possession of his ancient capital.

From this time there will be but few occasions for return- ing to the history of those provinces which had been the scenes of the saint's earliest labours, and had witnessed the foundation of his Order. The future course of his life will lead us forward into other countries ; rthe bright star which had risen in Spain, and spent its long meridian in France, was to shed its setting splendour on the fields of Italy. For a time indeed, events seemed to threaten the overthrow of the Catholic cause in Languedoc, and the ultimate triumph of the heretics and their supporters. On the resumption of





l86 DEATH OF DE MONTFORT.

hostilities, victory declared itself for the two Raymunds, father and son, who succeeded in stripping the Count de Montfort of the greater part of the provinces with which he had been invested; and in 1218, urged to a last effort for their recovery, he laid siege to Toulouse with a force wholly unequal to the enterprize. It was sunrise on the 25th of June, when word was brought him of an ambuscade of the enemy. He received the message with tranquillity ; and arming himself with his usual composure, he went to hear Mass before going to the field. Another despatch arrived in the middle of the cere- mony ; they had attacked his machines of war, would he not hasten to their defence ? " Leave me ! " was his reply, " I stir not till I have seen the Sacrament of my redemption ! " Yet once again another messenger rushed into the church ; the troops could hold out no longer ; he would surely come to their aid. He turned to the speaker with a stern and melancholy air: " I will not go," he said, "till I have seen my Saviour." He knew his last hour was at hand ; the sadness of deep disappointment was in his heart, but he surely made that day a solemn offering and resignation to God of the life whose human hopes had failed. When the priest elevated the Sacred Host, De Montfort knelt and uttered the words, Nunc dimittis. Then he went out to the scene of combat. His presence had its wonted effect on his followers, as well as on his enemies. The men of Toulouse fled back to the city, pursued by the victorious Crusaders ; but a stone from the wall struck their gallant leader to the ground ; and smiting his breast with his hand, he expired, recommending his soul to God, and with the name of Mary on his lips.

His remains were honourably laid to rest in the cathedral of Carcassonne, whence they were afterwards removed to his own territory of Montfort d'Amaury, [near Paris; but his original tombstone may still be seen at Carcassonne, recalling the memory of one whose character presents us with as fair an example of Christian chivalry as we shall find portrayed on the page of history. Even Raymund VII. himself was forced to bear witness to his merits. " Often,'*





HIS FAMILY.





i8 7





writes his chaplain, William de Puy- Laurens, " have I heard the last Count of Toulouse, although his deadly ene- my, speak in praise of the courage, the fidelity, and the magnanimity of the Count de Montfort, and declare him to have possessed every quality that belonged to a great prince. 1 '

His friendship towards the Order of Friars Preachers survived in his family. One of his daughters, Amice, or, as the Italians sweetly name her, Amicitia, the wife of the Seigneur de Joigny, bore so peculiar a love to the children of Dominic that she used all her endeavours to induce her only son to take the habit. He, however, fol- lowed the army of St. Louis to the Holy Land ; but whilst detained in the island of Cyprus, he was taken with a mortal sickness, and on his death-bed, remembering his mother's prayers, he sent for the friars, and received the habit from their hands. When the tidings were brought her, she gave thanks to God, and on the death of her husband resolved to enter the Order herself. She was constantly repeating the words, " If I cannot be a Friar Preacher, I will at least be one of their sisters; " and she succeeded, after much opposition, in founding the convent of Montargis, where she herself took the habit, and died in the odour of sanctity about the year







TOMBSTONE OF SIMON DE MONTFORT.





The warlike struggle continued to rage under varying fortunes for ten years after the death of De Montfort, whose son, Amaury, 5 unable to resist the arms of Raymund VII., resigned his rights over the county of Toulouse to King Louis VIII. For a time the triumph of the house of St. Gilles

5 De Montfort left four sons, the youngest of whom was Simon, Earl of Leicester, so well known in English history.





l88 END OF THE STRUGGLE.

seemed complete, and under its restored rule the Friars Preachers of St. Remain had much to suffer. Count Ray- mund VII. followed close in the footsteps of his father, and far from repressing the violence of the heretics, showed himself their constant protector. But a term was put to his tyranny in 1226, when all the nobles of the disputed provinces, as by a common impulse, made their voluntary submission to the French crown. fs ~i Two years later the authority of the young-Kin^ St.Louis

C _JX. was firmly established by the treaty of Pans, and

Raymund, finding all further resistance useless, sought reconciliation with the Church, and repaired to Paris to fulfil the required conditions. There standing in the porch of Notre Dame, barefoot and bareheaded, and in the humili- ating garb of a penitent, he swore to observe the terms of the treaty, one clause of which required him to give his only daughter in marriage to the King's brother, Alphonsus, who, on receiving the hand of the bride, was to be declared the heir to her father's territories. Then being absolved from excommunication, he was dubbed knight by the young King, a dignity which up till then he had, as an excommuni- cated rebel, been deemed unworthy to receive. At the same time Toulouse was relieved from interdict, and the heretics being driven out of the city, the Catholic worship became once more established within its walls. In compliance with one of the articles of the treaty of peace, a university: was established at Toulouse, and Count Raymund had to con- tribute a large annual sum towards the maintenance of its professors of theology, canon law, and arts. The foundation of this university was decreed for the express purpose of supplying sound Catholic teaching at the very head- quarters of heresy. From this time the power of the Albigenses and their supporters was broken, and though the entire extinction of the heresy was only gradually obtained, yet the restoration of religion throughout the country so long laid waste by their sacrilegious hands, may be said to date from its submission to the crown of France.





CHAPTER XV.

RETURN TO ROME. 1217.

IN the October of 1217, Dominic bade farewell to St. Remain,, and set out on his return to Rome, accompanied by Stephen of Metz. None of his early biographers have preserved any particulars of this journey, over which there hangs a certain obscurity. Nevertheless, a careful study of local tradition enables us to follow his course with tolerable certainty, and makes it apparent that on leaving Toulouse he bent his steps northwards. We find him first at Pamiers, where the Count de Montfort and the newly-appointed Cardinal Legate had met to confer on the altered aspect of affairs caused by the recent successes of the two Raymunds. After urging on them the necessity of adopting vigorous measures for the recovery of Toulouse, and recommending to their joint protection the two communities of Prouille and St. Romain, the saint continued his course towards Paris. According to the archives of the cathedral of Puy, he visited that famous sanctuary on his road, and prepared the way for a foundation afterwards made there in the year 1221. It is probable that he more than once paid his devotions at Puy, and some writers suppose that it was there that our Lady revealed to him the devotion of the Holy Rosary. From Puy he continued his journey to Clermont, and there so touched the hearts of the people by his preaching that they conjured him to stay with them, offering him more than one site for a convent. The saint promised to send them brethren as soon as he should be able to do so, and a founda- tion was accordingly made there about three years later.





THE BRETHREN AT PARIS.

Clermont preserved the memory of this visit with the utmost jealousy, and an ancient inscription over the door of the chapter-room claimed for this house the honour of being the fourth in the whole Order, though this was certainly inaccurate. V Reaching Paris, the saint found the seven brethren recently despatched thither suffering great discour- agement. Both during their journey, and on their first arrival in the capital, they had met with difficulties and obstacles of all kinds. It was Laurence the Englishman who cheered his companions, and animated them to persevere at a moment when they were half-tempted to abandon their enterprize. We read in his Life that as they drew near the city full of doubt and anxiety, God, willing to encourage them, revealed to his servant Laurence, all that should afterwards befall them there ; the abundant favours He would bestow on the convent which they should found, and the many stars of learning and sanctity which should arise within its walls. Making known this revelation to his brethren, they received it in faith, out of the great opinion they had of his sanctity, and joyfully entered the city, where in due time all his predictions were fulfilled. Nevertheless, their first experiences were hard and difficult. They were all strangers in Paris with the exception of Matthew of France, who had formerly studied at the university ; and being entirely without means, they had to beg their bread for daily support. At first they occupied a little house situated between the bishop's palace and the Hotel Dieu, a locality which enabled them the more easily to frequent the schools, and to render the bishop such assistance in the ministry of preaching as he might require of them. At the end of ten months passed in extreme distress, John de Barastre, dean of &t. Quentin, an Englishman by birth, and one of the King's chaplains, being struck by their piety, the eloquence of their preaching, and their patient endurance of so much poverty, was moved. to befriend them. He had some years previously founded a hospital for pilgrims which stood on Mount St. Genevieve, to which was attached a chapel dedicated to St. James. This chapel was often visited by the brethren, and their modest and devout





ST. DOMINIC AT METZ. igi

aspect attracting the notice of the dean, an acquaintance began which soon ripened into friendship ; and he ended by making over to them, with the consent of his colleagues, the church and hospital which was thenceforth to be known as the/pominican convent of St. James.

//If St. Dominic really visited Paris in 1217, it must have been for the purpose of consoling and encouraging his brethren in their early days of depression ; the visit must have been of very short duration, and no particulars regarding it have been preserved. The first place where we find any certain evidence of his presence after leaving Pamiers is Metz, the registers of which city declare him to have arrived there in company with Stephen of Metz in the : latter part of 1217. He was warmly received by the citizens, who flocked to hear his preaching, several asking ancf / J receiving from his hands the habit of the Order. &,*&%/ of our Blessed Lady in one of the churches, before which he was accustomed to pray, was long held by them in great veneration ; it obtained the title of " The Virgin of St. Dominic," and on the foundation in the city of a convent of the Order, it was transported thither and placed in the dormitory of the religious. Yielding to the pressing solicita- tions of the citizens, Dominic consented to leave Stephen of Metz among them for the purpose of founding this convent ; a design which the latter was prevented from executing by his early death, though it was afterwards carried out by his fellow-citizen, Guerric of Metz. "[The saint himself con- tinued his journey, passing through Germany and Switzer- land. Having crossed the Alps, he directed his steps towards Venice, visiting Milan, Padua, and finally Brescia, on his way. At Milan h%was hospitably entertained by the canons of St. Nazzaro, who received him as one of them- selves, he and his companion still wearing the habit of the Canons Regular. At Padua his preaching attracted crowds of the citizens, who earnestly besought him to give them a colony of his brethren. Unable at that time to comply with their request, he promised to satisfy them as soon as he could, and passed on to Venice, which he entered together





IQ2 ST. DOMINIC AT VENICE.

with four companions, Gregory, Henry, Albert, and Otho, 1 whose names indicate them to have joined him either in Metz or in Germany. The fact that the first visit of the saint to Venice took place in 1217, is proved by ancient records, preserved in the convent of SS. John and Paul, and sent to Rome by the Fathers of that convent. " In the year 1217," they say, "the holy Father Dominic came to Venice with a few other brethren, and received from the Republic the oratory then dedicated to St. Daniel, but which after his canonization was called the chapel of St. Dominic." The circumstances which led to his obtaining the grant of this chapel are related by Castiglio, who, however, assigns them the date of 1221, to which date undoubtedly belongs the real foundation of the convent. " There was," he says, " at that time in Venice, a little church or hermitage, dedicated to St. Daniel, which the Doge Giacomo Tiepolo, beheld in a dream adorned with a multitude of most lovely flowers, blossoming there as in a garden. As he stood and gazed with wonder at their beaut}', he saw a company of angels descend, carrying thuribles in their hands, and passing in and out among the flowers, they swung their censers to and fro, thus adding to the exquisite perfume. Presently there came into the garden a flight of snow-white doves, having on their heads crosses of gold, and as he was still beholding these things with great delight, he heard a voice which declared to him that it was God's will to be served in that place by a community of white-robed preachers. Awaking from his dream the Doge assembled the Signoria, and made known to them what he had seen, and all with common consent agreed to bestow the church with grounds adjoining on Brother Dominic, that a convent of hfs Order might there be founded." Here then arose a few years later the great convent of SS. John and Paul, remains of the ancient fabric being preserved in a portion of the building called the novitiate. So great was the love which the Doge bore to this foundation that he chose it for the place of his sepulture, and before his death gave orders that in memory of the 1 Prog. p. 309.





HIS MANNER OF TRAVELLING.





193





above event, there might be painted on his tomb the representation of a flower-garden, wherein should appear the angels with their thuribles and the doves with their golden crosses. 2 Malvenda considers it probable that it was at this time also that the saint sent brethren to Spalatro in Dalmatio, the convent in which place was certainty founded not later than 1218, by a religious whose name was Gregory, and who is supposed to have been the same already mentioned as having accompanied St. Dominic to Venice.

-[During this journey Dominic followed the same rule which he observed in the course of all his apostolic wanderings. They were always made on foot, he and his companions depending on charity for their support, and preaching in all the places through which they passed./ Malvenda remarks on the wonderful recollection which was exhibited in his exterior as he travelled along, stick in hand, with his bundle on his shoulders, and absorbed in God. As soon as he was out of the towns or villages he would stop and take off his shoes, performing the rest of his journey barefoot, however rough and bad the roads might be. If a sharp stone or thorn entered his feet, he would turn to his companions with that cheerful and joyous air which was so peculiar to him, and say, " This is penance," and such kind of sufferings were a peculiar pleasure to him. Coming once to a place covered with sharp flints, he said to his companion, " Ah ! miserable wretch that I was, I was once obliged to put on my shoes in passing this spot." "Why so?" said the Brother. " Because it had rained so much," replied Dominic. He would never let his companions carry his bundle or his shoes, though they often begged him to suffer them to do so. When he looked down from the heights which they were descending, over any country or city which

2 Prog, p 307. In notices of the foundations of convents in Italy, we frequently find a discrepancy of dates similar to that which appears above. The fact is easily explained. The ancient conventual records from which Father Michael Pio has collected so many interesting particulars, often assign as the date of their foundation that of the first visit paid by the saint to their city, this being in general only a prelude to an actual founda- tion made some time later.





194 HIS MANNER OF TRAVELLING.

they were about to enter, he would pause, and look earnestly at it, often weeping as he thought of the miseries men suffered there, and of the offences they committed against God. Then, as he pursued his journey and drew nearer, he would put on his shoes, and, kneeling down, would pray that his sins might not draw down on them the chastise- ment of heaven. The prayer that he was accustomed to use at such time is preserved in the MS. of Prouille, and runs as follows: " O Lord, in Thy goodness regard not my sins, but withhold Thine anger from these people among whom I come; punish them not, neither destroy them for my iniquities." 3

There was in his character a singular mixture of that

(joyous cheerfulness so invariably to be found in a high and chivalrous mind, with a tender melancholy which had in it nothing morose, but rather flowed from profound reverence for the purity of God, the outrages against Whom, as they hourly came before him, were felt with an exquisite sensi- bility. He seldom looked about him, and never when in towns or other places where he was not alone. His eyes were generally cast down, and he never seemed to notice anything curious or remarkable on the way. If he had to pass a river he would make the sign of the Cross, and then enter it without hesitation, and was always the first to ford it. If it rained, or any other discomfort disturbed him on the road, he praised and blessed God, singing in a loud voice his favourite hymn, the Ave Mavis Stella, or the Veni Creator. More than once at his word the rain ceased, and the swollen rivers were passed without difficulty.

He constantly kept the fasts and abstinences of his Rule, and the silence prescribed by the Constitutions until after Prime ; and this silence he insisted on being also observed by the others ; though, as regarded the fasts and abstinences, he was indulgent in dispensing with them for the brethren whilst they were travelling ; requiring them to eat twice a day, an indulgence he never extended to himself. Then, as they went along, he would beguile the way with talking of 3 Percin, Man. Con. Tot. p. 5.





HIS MANNER OF TRAVELLING. 195

the things of God, or he instructed his companions in points of spiritual doctrine, or read to them ; and this kind of teaching he enjoined on the other brethren when travelling with younger companions. Sometimes, however, he would say, " Go on before, and let us think a little of our Divine Lord." This was the signal that he wished to be left to silent meditation. Then remaining behind to escape observa- tion, he would very soon begin to pray aloud, with tears and sighs, losing all thought of the road he was following or the possible presence of others. Sometimes they had to turn back and search for him, and would find him kneeling in some thicket or lonely place without seeming to fear wolves or other dangers. The dread of personal danger indeed formed no part of Dominic's character. His courage, though always passive, was essentially heroic. Over and over again he had been exposed to the assaults of his enemies, and warned of their intentions against his life ; but such things never so much as made him change his road and alter the plan of his journey in any particular. He always treated the subject with silent indifference. When his prayers were ended, his brethren, who often watched him on such occasions, would see him take out his favourite book of the Gospels, and, first making the sign of the Cross, pursue his road, reading and meditating to himself. However long and fatiguing was the day's journey, it never prevented him from saying Mass every morning whenever there was a church to be found, and most frequently he would not merely say, but sing it, for he was one who never spared his voice or strength in the Divine Offices. We are constantly reminded of the heartiness of the royal psalmist, in the character left us of Dominic's devotion. " I will sing to the Lord with all my strength," was the language of David; "I will sing to the Lord as long as I have any being." And Dominic had no indulgence for any indolence or self-sparing in the praises of God. He always rendered Him the sacrifice, not of his heart only, but of his lips ; and called on all his companions to do the same, for he felt it a good and joyful thing to praise the Lord.





196 HIS VISITS TO CONVENTS.

In this matter his wonderful bodily constitution was no little assistance to the fervour of his soul. He never felt that fatigue, or indisposition, or other little ailments and difficulties could be an excuse for doing less for God. There- fore when he stopped for the night at some religious house, which he always preferred doing when it was possible, he never failed to join them in the singing of Matins, and he gave it as his reason for choosing to stop at a convent, in preference to other lodgings which he might have accepted, saying, " We shall be able to sing Matins to-night." At such times he generally chose the office of waking the others.

y-'His invariable custom of making his first visit to the church has been religiously preserved in the Order. Blessed Humbert, commenting on the text, Et inimvit Jesus in templum Dei, observes, "Hence has arisen the custom for the religious on arriving at any convent always first to visit the oratory,, and many do the same thing in towns or villages through which they pass." 4

His passing visits to the convents, whether of his own or of other Orders, were always full of profit to their inmates. They made the most of the few hours of his stay, and Dominic never thought of pleading for the privilege of a weary traveller. If the convent were under his own govern- ment, his first act was to call together the religious, and make them a discourse on spiritual things for "a good space," and then if any were suffering from temptations, melancholy, or any kind of trouble, he was never tired of comforting and advising them till he had restored to them the joy of their souls. Very often these little visits were so delightful to the religious who entertained him, that on his leaving them in the morning, they would accompany him on his way to enjoy a little more of his discourse; for the fascination of his conversation was universally felt to be irresistible. But if there were no such houses to receive him, he left the choice of the night's lodging to his comrades, and was all the better pleased if it chanced to be incom- 4 Hum. in cap. i. in Const. Ord. Praed.





HIS CONVERSATION. 197

modious, only making it a rule, before entering, to spend some time in the nearest church. When people of high rank entertained him, he would first quench his thirst at some fountain, lest he should be tempted to exceed religious modesty at table, and so give occasion of scandal, a prudence which, in a man of such austerity of life, gives us a singular idea of his humility. Even when ill, he would eat roots and fruit rather than touch the delicacies of their tables, and adhering to the rule he had observed when canon of Osma, he never touched meat.

Thus journeying, he would stop and preach at all the towns and villages in his way ; what kind of preaching this was we can easily guess. " With all his strength," says Blessed Jordan, " and with the most fervent zeal, he sought to gain souls to Christ without any exception, and as many as he could, and this zeal was marvellously, in a way not to be believed, rooted in his very heart." His favourite way of recommending to man the truths of God, was the sweetness of persuasion, and yet, as his parting address to the people of Languedoc shows us, he knew (according to his own expression) " how to use the stick." Finally, to cite once more the words of the writer just quoted, "Wherever he was, whether on the road with his companions, or in the house with the guests or the family of his host, or among great men, princes or prelates, he always spoke to edification, and was wont to give examples and stories whereby the souls of those who heard him were excited to the love of Jesus Christ, and to contempt of the world. Everywhere, both in word and deed, he made himself known as a truly evangelical man." The same testimony was borne by those who were examined on his canonization : " Wherever he was," they said, ' whether at home or on a journey, he ever spoke of God or to God, and it was his desire that this practice should be introduced into the Constitutions of his Order." 5

5 " (Praedicatores) qui accepta benedictione exeuntes ubique . . . sicut viri Evangelic! sui sequentes vestigia Salvatoris, cum Deo, vel de Deo t secum vel cum proximis utiliter loquendo, vitabunt suspiciosi comitatis familiar- itam" (Cons. FF. Praed. Dist. ii. c. xii. De Praedicatores).





igS HE RETURNS TO ROME.

Such is the picture left us by his brethren and companions of the habits observed by the servant of God in the course ot those apostolic journeys in which the remaining years of his life were for the most part spent. We must now resume the thread of his story, which at the close of the year 1217 finds him once more within the walls of Rome.







CHAPTER HOUSE, ST. SIXTUS.





CHAPTER XVI.

ST. SIXTUS. I2l8.

\ DOMINIC was received at Rome with renewed evidences of affection and favour from Pope Honorius, who showed every disposition to forward the design with which he had returned thither, 'namely, the foundation at Rome of a convent of his Order. The church granted to him by the Pontiff for this purpose was chosen by himself; it was one already full of ancient and traditionary interest, which its connection with the rise of the Dominican Order has certainly not lessened. There is a long road that stretches out of Rome, following the course of the ancient Via Appia, which, deserted as it now is by human habitation, you may trace by its abandoned churches and its ruined tombs. In the old days of Rome, it was the patrician quarter of the city ; the palace of the





200 ST. SIXTUS.

Caesars looks down upon it, and by its side stand the vast ruins of Caracalla's baths, with the green meadows covering the site of the Circus Maximus. This circumstance of its being formerly the place of popular and favourite resort, accounts for the abundance of Christian remains which mingle with the relics of a pagan age, and share their interest and their decay. For here were formerly the houses of many of noble and some of royal birth ; and when their owners confessed the faith, and died martyrs for Christ, the veneration of the early Church consecrated those dwellings as churches, to be perpetual monuments of names which had else been forgotten. But in time the population of Rome gathered more and more to the northern side of the Caelian Hill, and the Via Appia has long been left to a solitude which harmonizes well enough with its original destination, for it was the Roman street of tombs. There, mixed with the ruined towers and melancholy pagan memorials of death, where the wild plants festoon themselves in such rich luxuri- ance, and the green lizards enjoy an unmolested home, stand these deserted Christian churches, never open now, save on the one or two days when the Stations are kept there, and crowds flock thither to pray at shrines and altars which at other times are left in the uninterrupted silence of neglect. Among these is one dedicated to St. Sixtus, Pope and Martyr, and the tomb of five others, Popes and Martyrs. Attached to this church were certain buildings erected by Innocent III., with the intention of gathering together within their walls a number of religious women then living in Rome under no regular discipline. It had been part of his plan to confide the care of these religious to the English Canons of Sempringham, known as Gilbertines, whose Rule was drawn up with a view to their undertaking the direction of commu- nities of nuns. Difficulties, however, had stood in the way of realizing the plan, and the Gilbertines had not shown much promptitude in answering the Holy Father's appeal. Neither had their care of the church of St. Sixtus been at all satisfactory, so that Honorius III., early in the year 1218, addressed them a letter requiring them at once to send a





ST. SIXTUS. 201

sufficient number of brethren to undertake the proposed work, and serve the church in a becoming manner, or in case of their failing to do so, to be prepared to resign it into the hands of other religious. As the canons still \ delayed, the affair ended by the Pope relieving them altogether of the care of the church, which he made over to St. Dominic, with the design of entrusting to him and to his brethren the work originally intended for the Gilbertines. 1

His first care was to reduce the house to a conventual form, and to enlarge it so as to be capable of receiving a considerable number of brethren. To do this he was obliged to solicit the alms of the faithful, which were indeed abundantly supplied ; the Pope himself liberally contributing to a work in which he felt no common interest. Meanwhile, Dominic laboured at his usual office of preaching. We have the authority of Pope Clement VIII. 2 for asserting that the first Confraternity of the Rosary ever erected in Rome was that established by St. Dominic himself, in the church of St. Sixtus, where for many years was preserved the pulpit from which he preached the devotion, and thereby, according to Flaminius and Malvenda, obtained a number of striking conversions. We are assured that many of the Cardinals were enrolled in the Confraternity, and that the reputation of the saint spread far and wide, attracting many to become his disciples. Various influences paved the way for the success and rapid development of the Orders founded by St. Dominic and St. Francis. They, indeed, and the work which they set on foot were wanted by their age : the world was restlessly heaving with the excitement of new feelings, which stirred men with emotions they neither understood nor knew how to use. We need not therefore wonder at the





1 From the date of the letters of Honorius, it is evident that the church of St. Sixtus was not formally withdrawn from the Gilbertines till the end of the year 1219 so that up to that time, it can only have been held conditionally by St. Dominic and his brethren (See Reg. Hon. III. ann. ii. and iv.).

8 In a Bull given by Rechac, p. 344, and by Nanni, p. 207.

















2O2 A POPULAR MOVEMENT.

enthusiasm with which they flung themselves into the ranks of the two leaders whom God had sent them. For, after all, great men are not merely the exponents of their own views or sentiments. Be they saints, or heroes, or poets, their greatness consists in this, that they have incarnated some principle which lies hidden in the hearts of their fellow-men. All have felt it ; they alone have expressed and given it life : and so when the word is spoken which brings it forth to the world, all men recognize it as their own ; they need no further teaching and training in this thought, for uncon- sciously to themselves they have been growing into it all their lives ; and the devotion with which they follow the call of him who guides them is, perhaps, the strongest sentiment of which human nature is susceptible ; made up not merely of admiration, or loyalty, or enthusiasm, but in addition to all these, of that gratitude which a soul feels towards that greater and stronger soul whose sympathy has set its own prisoned thoughts at liberty, and given them the power and the freedom to act. Then, like some pent-up and angry waters, that have long vexed and chafed themselves into foam, and beaten aimlessly against the wall that kept them in, when the free passage is made, how impetuously they rush forth ! At first agitated and confused, but gather- ing majesty as they flow, till the torrent becomes a river, and the river swells into a broad sea, the dash of whose long united waves no barrier can resist. This is what we call a popular movement. Europe has seen such things often enough, as well for good as for evil ; but she never saw one more universal or more extraordinary than the first burst into existence of the mendicant Orders. That of St. Francis was earliest in point of time, and the first Chapter of his Order saw him in the midst of five thousand of his brethren. But the fields were white with the harvest, and the Friars Minor were not to be the only gatherers of it. In three months Dominic had assembled round him at Rome more than a hundred religious with whom to begin his new foundation. His convent of St. Sixtus had to be even yet more enlarged; and here he began to carry out





FOUNDATION AT BOLOGNA. 2O3

the entire observance of that rule of life which was first established at St. Remain.

Faithful, however, to the principle he had laid down at Prouille, that the " grain must be scattered and not hoarded up," Dominic, as he witnessed the rapid increase of the brethren, rejoiced at the thought of yet further extending their labours. Nor was he long in choosing the site of his next foundation. After the Universities of Paris and Oxford, that of Bologna was most highly in esteem, and the eagle eye of the great patriarch had from the first discerned the importance of planting convents of the brethren in all these \ seats of learning. The wisdom which guided him in this decision was fully justified by the result, for in a very few years after the death of St. Dominic, the Friars Preachers had become a great teaching power in all the universities of Europe, whose most illustrious members daily recruited the ranks of the new Order.

-\- Bologna, therefore, was selected as the site of the next foundation, the city which boasted to be at once the home of liberty and learning. "The two grand features of the Bolognese character," says Eustace, " are the love of liberty and the love of knowledge, and they are expressed on their standard, in the centre of which blazes in golden letters the word * Libertas,' while ' Bononia docet ' waves in embroidery down the sides."

As usual, when the work to be accomplished was one of unusual importance, Dominic called to his aid his faithful companion, Bertrand of Garrigua, who by reason of the very confidence that was placed in him, found himself constantly called on to change his place of residence and face the difficulties of some new undertaking. He was accordingly summoned from Paris, and after a brief stay at Prouille, reached Rome, in company with John of Navarre and Lawrence of England, in the month of January, 1218. Retaining Lawrence at St. Sixtus, the saint despatched the two brethren, Bertrand and John, to Bologna, where they were soon after joined by Michael of Uzero and Dominic of Segovia, who had returned from Spain, where





204 THE BRETHREN AT BOLOGNA.

their efforts to establish themselves had proved unsuccessful. These were shortly followed by two others, Richard and Christian, together with a lay-brother named Peter, all of whom had recently entered the Order, Richard being appointed prior of the new community. The preaching of the friars soon attracted attention : they are said to have been the first religious who had ever been heard to preach publicly in Bologna, and the admiration inspired by their eloquence was increased when it was understood that they were disciples of that Brother Dominic whose fame had by this time spread through every city in Italy. Two houses were soon given to them, together with a neighbouring church called Santa Maria della Mascarella. Their first care was to arrange their dwelling in a conventual form, for in the early foundation of the Order this was regarded as an indispensable condition for carrying out their Rule, even when the community numbered no more than four or five persons. As well as they could therefore, considering the confined space which was at their disposal, they made a dormitory and refectory, with other necessary offices ; their cells were so small that they were not more than seven feet long, and four feet two inches wide, so that they could scarce contain a hard and narrow bed and a few other of necessary furniture; but they were more content with this poor habitation than if they had possessed the largest and most magnificent palace. Here they led " a life of angels ; " and " so wonderful was their regular observance, and their continual and fervent prayer ; so extraordinary their poverty in eating, in their beds and clothes, and all such things, that never had the like been seen before in that city." 3

The example of such a life attracted some to join them, among whom was Tancred, afterwards prior of St. Sixtus, who was called to the Order in a singular manner. He was a German, and a courtier of the Emperor Frederick II. Being at Bologna when the first brethren arrived there, he was one day made sensible of a singular and powerful impression on his soul, urging him to reflect on the great 3 Prog. p. 75.





TANCRED OF GERMANY. 205

question of eternity in a manner wholly new to him. Dis- turbed and agitated, he prayed to the Blessed Virgin for direction; and in the night she appeared to him, saying these words : " Go to my household." He awoke in doubt as to their meaning, but in a second dream there appeared to him two men dressed in the habit of the Order, the elder of whom addressed him, saying, " Thou hast asked of Mary to be directed in the way of salvation : come with us, and thou shalt find it." In the morning he begged his host to direct him to the nearest church, that he might hear Mass. As he entered, the first figure he met was that of the old man he had seen in his vision ; the church was, in fact, Santa Maria in Mascarella, and the friar was none other than the prior Richard. Tancred's mind was soon made up as to his future course ; and, abruptly severing his engagements with the Court, he proceeded to Rome, where he took the habit. 4

But in spite of the adhesion of a few disciples and the favourable reception at first given to them by the citizens, the brethren did not make much progress, and suffered many affronts and discouragements till the end of the year, when, as we shall see, a fresh impulse was given to their enterprize by the arrival among them of Reginald of Orleans.

In Spain, Brother Peter, of Medina, had succeeded in founding a convent at Madrid, concerning which no parti- culars have been preserved. Two of his companions, as we have seen, rejoined Dominic at Rome, but the thirdfjf Suero Gomez, went on to his native country of Portugal, where he became known to the Infanta Donna Sancha, who gave him a little oratory on Monte Sagro, about six miles from Alanquez, dedicated to Santa Maria ad Nives. Here he built a miserably poor convent, or rather hermitage, formed of stones and straw cemented together with mud, " according to the manner of those first days of fervour in the Order."

* Tancred of Germany is not to be confused with Tancred Tancredi, of Siena, who received the habit in 1220 from the hands of St. Dominic. Marchese, in his Dtario Domenicano, and some other writers, suppose that there was but one religious of the name, and attempt to blend together in one biography the incidents related of two distinct persons.





206 SUERO GOMEZ.

He lived in this singular dwelling alone for some time, but very soon numbers of all ranks flocked to him to receive the habit from his hands ; and " though they were so many, and of such character and nobility as might have done honour to any Order in the Church, yet did he not abate one iota in the rigours which he had learnt from his holy master, and which were established as laws in the Constitutions." Every day he preached in the city, which soon became renowned for its sanctity of manners. He was a true son of Dominic, " thinking only how to sow the Divine Word, and caring nothing for his own body;" and so, little by little, the mud hermitage was frequented as a place of pilgrimage, and the crowds who thronged there to see and hear one whom they reckoned to be rather an angel or apostle than a common man, compelled him to enlarge his dwelling in order to receive them, so that in the following year, when Dominic himself visited the spot, he found a spacious and well-ordered convent, the mother-house of the Order in Portugal. Suero was in every way a remarkable man : his adherence to the Rule, even in the minutest particular, was almost a proverb. In 1220, when he went to Bologna to attend the first General Chapter, he performed the whole journey on foot, carrying only a stick and his breviary, and so begged his way the entire distance. He became after- wards the first Provincial of Spain.

During the early struggles of these distant foundations, and whilst the walls of the convent of St. Sixtus were rising above the ground, St. Dominic was busy at Rome, forming a spiritual edifice out of the hearts of those whom he won by the power of his eloquence. And as though to make him and his exalted mission better known to men, God was pleased at this time to confirm his teaching and authority by many and notable miracles. The first of these was on the occasion of an accident which happened during the erection of the convent. A mason whilst excavating under part of the building was buried under a mass of falling earth. The brethren ran to the spot, too late to save him, but Dominic commanded them to dig him out, whilst he





THE WIDOW S SON. 2OJ

betook himself to prayer. When the earth was removed the man arose alive and unhurt. This miracle, however much it confirmed the faith of his own followers, was little known or talked of beyond the walls of his convent ; but it was followed by another of more public notoriety. Dominic was accustomed at this time to preach in the church of St. Mark, where he was listened to with enthusiasm by crowds of all ranks who flocked to hear him.S' Among them one of his most constant auditors was a certain Roman widow, Gutadona, or Tuta di Buvalischi ; and one day, rather than miss the preaching, she came to St. Mark's, having left her only son at home dangerously ill. She returned to her house to find him dead. When the first anguish of her grief was over, she felt an extraordinary hope rise within her that by the mercy of God, and the prayers of His servant Dominic, her child might yet be restored to her. She therefore determined to go at once to St. Sixtus ; and firm in her faith she set out on foot, whilst her women servants carried the cold and lifeless body of the boy behind her. St. Sixtus was not yet enclosed, on account of the unfinished state of the convent, and she therefore entered the gates without difficulty, and found Dominic at the door of the chapter-house, a small building standing separate from the church and convent. Kneeling at his feet, she silently laid the dead body before him, whilst her tears and sobs of anguish told the rest. Dominic, touched with com- passion, turned aside for a few moments, and prayed ; then, coming back, he made the sign of the Cross over the child, and taking him by the hand, raised him, and gave him back to his mother, alive and well.

This miracle was witnessed by the brethren, Tancred, Sisto, Gregory, Otho, Albert, and Henry, who after- wards gave their evidence in the process of canonization. Dominic strictly charged the mother to keep the fact a secret, but she disobeyed him, as the woman of Judea had before disobeyed One greater than him. Her joy was too abundant, and out of its abundance her heart and lips were busy, and so the whole story was quickly spread through





208 DEVOTION OF THE PEOPLE.

Rome, and reached the ears of Honorius, who ordered it to be publicly announced in the pulpits of the city. Dominic's sensitive humility was deeply hurt : he hastened to the Pontiff, and implored him to countermand his order. " Other- wise, Holy Father," he said, " I shall be compelled to fly from hence, and cross the sea to preach to the Saracens ; for I cannot stay longer here." The Pope, however, forbade him to depart : he was obliged to remain and receive what is ever the most painful portion of the saints, the public honour and veneration of the populace.

Great and little, old and young, nobles and beggars, " they followed him about " (to use the words of contem- poraneous authors) "wherever he went, as though he were an angel, reputing those happy who could come near enough to touch him, and cutting off pieces of his habit to keep as relics." This cutting of his habit went on at such a pace as to give the good Father the appearance of a beggar, for the jagged and ragged skirt scarcely reached below his knee. His brethren on one occasion endeavoured somewhat harshly to check some of those who crowded round him, but Dominic's kind heart was hurt when he saw the sorrowful and disap- pointed looks of the poor people. " Let them alone," he said; "we have no right to hinder their devotion." A memorial of these circumstances may still be seen in that same church of St. Mark spoken of above. Once a year, on the festival of its patron saint, there is an exhibition in that church of saintly treasures, which few sanctuaries can rival and none surpass. There, amid the relics of apostles and martyrs in jewelled and crystal shrines and elaborate carvings, you may see, enclosed in a golden reliquary, a little piece of torn and faded serge. Priests are there holding up these precious objects one by one for the veneration of the kneeling crowd, and they hold this also for you to look at and to kiss, whilst they proclaim aloud, " This is part of the habit of the glorious patriarch St. Dominic, who, in the first year of his coming to Rome, was wont to preach in this church." And fancy is quick to suggest that this precious morsel may be one of those so unceremoniously torn from





THE MURATE. 2OQ

him by the crowds who flocked about him on that very spot.

Other miracles are related as having occurred about the same time, though the precise date of each is not recorded.

Among the " Murate," mentioned in a former page, and whom he still continued to visit and direct, there were some who lived a life of extraordinary mortification, and were entirely enclosed in little cells built in the walls, so as that none could enter or communicate with their inhabitants ; food and other necessaries being given to them through a window. One of these recluses was a woman named Buona, who lived in a tower near the gate of St. John Lateran; another, Lucy, in a little cell behind the church of St. Anastasia. Both of them suffered from incurable and most terrible diseases, brought on by the severity of their mode of life. One day, after Dominic had administered the Sacrament of Penance and the Holy Eucharist to Buona through her little window, and exhorted her to patience under her dreadful sufferings, he blessed her with the sign of the Cross, and went away ; but at the same instant she found herself perfectly cured. Lucy was likewise restored in a similar manner, as Brother Bertrand, who was present on the occasion, attested. /

L But among all these miraculous events none are more / interesting than the two visits of the angels to the refectory / of St. Sixtus, the latter of which is still daily commemorated/ in every Dominican convent. The first of these events isl related by Vincent of Beauvais, who tells us that one day the brethren sent out into the city to beg having returned empty-handed, Giacomo del Miele, who filled the office of procurator, came to the holy Father to represent the case, saying that there was absolutely nothing to set before thi brethren, then forty in number, save a few dry crusts. Dominic, full of joy and holy confidence, commanded him to assemble the religious in the refectory and distribute to them what he had. In those days the most sumptuous fare ever partaken of by the brethren consisted of a little bread, with some vegetables, and occasionally a few fishes ; but on





210 FIRST VISIT OF THE ANGELS.

this occasion even these scanty provisions were wanting. Nevertheless the brethren sat down to table, and were preparing to content themselves with their crusts, when two beautiful youths entered the refectory, carrying in the folds of their garments fresh loaves, which they distributed in silence, beginning at the upper table, where St. Dominic was seated. The brethren at first imagined that they must have been the servants of some rich noble of the city who had sent them this timely alms, but the two youths suddenly disappearing, they concluded that they were angels in a human form, sent by their Heavenly Father to provide for them in their need. 5

The second occurrence of a like nature shall be related in the words of an eye-witness : " When the friars were still living near the church of St. Sixtus, and were about one hundred in number, on a certain day the blessed Dominic commanded Brother John of Calabria and Brother Albert of Rome to go into the city to beg alms. They did so without success from the morning even till the third hour of the day. Therefore they returned to the convent, and they were already hard by the church of St. Anastasia, when they were met by a certain woman who had a great devotion to the Order ; and seeing that they had nothing with them, she gave them a loaf, ' For I would not,' she said, * that you should go back quite empty-handed.' As they went on a little further they met a man who asked them very importu- nately for charity. They excused themselves, saying they had nothing themselves ; but the man only begged the more earnestly. Then they said one to another, 'What can we do with only one loaf ? Let us give it to him for the love of God.' So they gave him the loaf, and immediately they lost sight of him. Now, when they were come to the convent, the blessed Father, to whom the Holy Spirit had meanwhile revealed all that had passed, came out to meet them, saying to them with a joyful air : * Children, have you nothing ? ' They replied, ' No, Father ; ' and they told him all that had happened, and how they had given the loaf 5 Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. lib. 30. cap. 72.





SECOND VISIT OF THE ANGELS. 211

to the poor man. Then said he, ' It was an angel of the Lord : the Lord will know how to provide for His own : let us go and pray.' Thereupon he entered the church, and, having come out again after a little space, he bade the brethren call the community to the refectory. They replied to him, saying : But, holy Father, how is it you would have us call them, seeing that there is nothing to give them to eat ? ' And they purposely delayed obeying the order which they had received. Therefore the blessed Father caused Brother Roger, the cellarer, to be summoned, and commanded him to assemble the brethren to dinner, for the Lord would provide for their wants. Then they prepared the tables, and placed the cups, and at a given signal all the community entered the refectory. The blessed Father gave the benediction, and every one being seated, Brother Henry, the Roman, began to read. Meanwhile the blessed Dominic was praying, his hands being joined together on the table ; and, lo ! suddenly, even as he had promised them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, two beautiful young men, ministers of the Divine Providence, appeared in the midst of the refectory, carrying loaves in two white cloths, which hung from their shoulders before and behind. They began to distribute the bread., beginning at the lower rows, one at the right hand, and the other at the left, placing before each Brother one whole loaf of admirable beauty. Then, when they were come to the blessed Dominic, and had in like manner placed an entire loaf before him, they bowed their heads, and disappeared, without any one knowing, even to this day, whence they came or whither they went.

"And the blessed Dominic said to his brethren: 'My brethren, eat the bread which the Lord has sent you. 1 Then he told the servers to pour out some wine. But they replied, Holy Father, there is none.' Then the blessed Dominic, full of the spirit of prophecy, said to them : * Go to the vessel, and pour out to the brethren the wine which the Lord has sent them.' They went there, and found, indeed, that the vessel was filled up to the brim with an excellent wine, which they hastened to bring. And Dominic





212 GREGORY AND ALBERT.

said, Drink, my brethren, of the wine which the Lord has

sent you.' They ate, therefore, and drank as much as they

desired, both that day, and the next, and the day after that.

But after the meal of the third day, he caused them to give

what remained of the bread and wine to the poor, and would

not allow that any more of it should be kept in the house.

During these three days no one went to seek alms, because

God had sent them bread and wine in abundance. Then

the blessed Father made a beautiful discourse to his brethren,,

warning them never to distrust the Divine goodness, even

n time of greatest want. Brother Tancred, the prior of

he convent, Brother Odo of Rome, and Brother Henry,

)f the same place, Brother Lawrence of England, Brother

ohn of Rome, and many others, were present at this

niracle, which they related to Sister Cecilia, and to the

)ther Sisters, who were then still living at the monastery of

Santa Maria on the other side of the Tiber ; and they even

wrought to them some of the bread and wine, which they

^reserved for a long time as relics." 6

The name of Brother Albert, who is mentioned in the above narrative as one of those sent out to beg, occurs in another story belonging to this time, together with that of a certain Brother Gregory, "a man of great beauty and of perfect grace."

One day, Dominic being full of the Holy Spirit, was holding Chapter, and was observed by all present to be very sad. According to Gerard de Frachet, he had spent the previous night watching in prayer in the Catacombs, where he seems to have received a revelation of coming events. "Children," he said, "know that within three days, two of you now present will lose the life of your bodies, and two others that of their souls." Within the time described, the two brothers, Albert and Gregory, died. Gregory was the first to return to our Lord, having devoutly received all the sacraments. On the third day after, Brother Albert, having also received the sacraments, departed from this darksome prison to the palace of heaven. And at the same 6 Narrative of Sister Cecilia.





GIACOMO DEL MIELE.





2I 3





time, two others, whose names are not given, returned to the world.

Of the other brethren named above as present when the angels appeared, Tancred and Lawrence are already known to the reader. Blessed Henry was a Roman by birth, and had entered the Order against the earnest remonstrances of his family. As they expressed their determination to carry him back by force if he would not return of his own will, Dominic sent him out of Rome with some companions by the Via Nomentana. His relations followed the party as far as the banks of the Anio. Seeing there was no way of escape, Henry raised his heart to God and invoked His help through the merits of His servant Dominic, and the waters of the stream suddenly swelled into a torrent so deep and rapid that the horses of the pursuers were unable to pass. After this he was suffered to return undisturbed to St. Sixtus. 7

We said that the circumstances of the angels' visit to the refectory of St. Sixtus, is still daily commemorated in the houses of the Order. And it is so ; for from this time the custom was adopted of beginning to serve the lowest tables first, and so going up to the table of the prior ; a custom which was afterwards made a law of the Order, being introduced into the Constitutions.

It will be observed that in the narrative as given above Brother Roger is named as discharging the office of pro- curator. This is explained by the fact that Giacomo del Miele, who usually filled that office, was at this time attacked by a sickness, which increased so rapidly that he received Extreme Unction and was warned by the physician to pre- pare for death. The brethren were greatly afflicted, for he was a man of singular ability for his office, and much beloved. Dominic was overcome by the tears of his children ; desiring them all to leave the cell, he shut the door, and like Elias when he raised the Sunamite's son, extended himself on the almost lifeless body of the dying man, and earnestly invoked the Divine mercy and assistance. Then, taking him by the hand, Giacomo arose entirely recovered, and Dominic, 7 Narrative of Sister Cecilia.





214 OTHER MIRACLES.

opening the door of the cell, delivered him to his companions who awaited the result outside, and who knew not how to contain and express their joy. Giacomo was able at once to resume the duties of his office, and himself narrated the circumstances of his cure to Vincent of Beauvais, by whom it is recorded.

St. Antoninus mentions a third occasion when the brethren, having little or nothing to eat, St. Dominic, as he sat at table, commanded the small portion of bread that was in the house to be brought to him, and having given his blessing, it multiplied so as to satisfy them all, leaving sufficient also for another day. Nor do these appear to be by any means the only instances in which the saint miraculously supplied the wants of his children, to all of which allusions are made in the words of the Office :

Panis oblatus ccelitus Fratrum supplet inopiam.

The great opinion which Pope Honorius had conceived both of the sanctity and wisdom of St. Dominic, increased as it was by the fame of these events, led him to place in his hands a matter as important in character as it was difficult in execution.

Some mention has already been made of the design entertained by Pope Innocent III. of appropriating the church of St. Sixtus to a number of religious women then living in Rome without enclosure, some even in the private houses of their relations. The plan of collecting them together under regular discipline had been found fraught with difficulty, and had failed; even the Papal authority, aided by the power and genius of such a man as Innocent, had been unable to overcome the wilfulness and prejudice which opposed so wise a project. Honorius, who no less than his predecessors ardently desired to see it carried out, resolved to commit the management of the whole affair to Dominic. He could not refuse to accept the charge, but aware of the complicated obstacles which lay in the way, he made it a condition that three other persons of high authority





A DIFFICULT NEGOTIATION.





215





might be united with him in a business which, he probably felt, was far harder than -the foundation of many convents, namely, the reform of relaxation, and the union under one head and into one body of a number of individuals who owned no common interest or authority.

These religious had for a considerable time been badly governed ; perhaps, we should rather say, they had not been governed at all. They claimed exemption from the ordinary rules, were members of powerful families, and their relatives, among whom many of them lived, urged them on to resist every encroachment on their liberty as an act of tyranny. And indeed, in the then existing state of things, they coulo^ not be said to be absolutely compelled to obedience ; the matter was one rather demanding address than authority. But if ever man possessed the art of persuasion it was the blessed Dominic, of whom it is said, " None could ever resist him," or rather persuasion with him was not an art, but nature. It was the effect of that admirable union of patience, prudence, and firmness, tempered with the charm of a sweet and tranquil gaiety, which gave so wonderful a magic to his intercourse ; and his powers were never more severely tested than on this occasion. The coadjutors given him by the Pope were the Cardinals Ugolino, bishop of Ostia, the venerable friend of St. Francis ; Stephen of Fossa Nuova ; and Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum. The very first steps which the cautious commissioners took raised a storm of obloquy. The Cardinals had enough to do to quiet the nuns, and bring them to listen to the Pope's proposals. But those who held out had a strong party in their favour. The gossip of Rome was on their side; and there was a tempest of busy angry tongues all declaiming against tyranny and aggression, and talking great things about innovation on an ancient custom. " And truly," says Castiglio, with a touch of Spanish humour, "the custom was so very ancient, that it could scarce keep its legs. Moreover," he adds, "we know well, that for relaxation and liberty there will always be ten thousand persons ready to do great things, but for virtue not one willing to stir a step." However, as we





2l6 THE MADONNA OF ST. LUKE.

have said, the nuns had the popular clamour on their side, and they used their advantage with considerable address. They had but to receive visitors all day long, and keep up the excitement of their friends by perpetual talking, and the Pope and Cardinals would be held at bay.

The most refractory of these religious were some who were living at that time in the monastery of Santa Maria in Trastevere, in which was kept a celebrated picture of our Blessed Lady, said to have been painted by St. Luke. This picture was a particular favourite with the Roman people. According to the current tradition it had been brought to Rome, many centuries before, from Constantinople, and was the same that had been borne processionally by St. Gregory in the time of the plague, on that Easter Day when the words of the Regina Cceli were first heard, sung in the air by the voices of the angelic choirs. This picture had for several centuries been kept in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, then belonging to a community of Benedictine nuns, whence an attempt had been made by Pope Sergius III. to transfer it to the palace of the Lateran. He himself is said to have carried it thither, placing it near the celebrated picture of our Divine Lord now preserved in the Sancfa Sanctorum, but which was at that time kept in the Lateran. This removal of the venerable picture from Santa Maria was not made without strong protest on the part of the nuns. "But," says the ancient legend, "the following night by a stupendous and incomprehensible prodigy, the picture was by Divine power carried back to the spot whence it had been taken the evening before." The Pope, hearing what had happened, came himself to the convent to inquire into the fact, and satisfying himself by ocular demonstration that the holy image had indeed been restored to its original resting-place, he did not venture again to remove it. 8

This wonderful event added much to the fame of the picture and the veneration with which it was regarded, and its possession contributed not a little to increase the power

8 La Vierge Acheropita, del SS. Domenico e Sisto a Roma, FT. G. Berthier, PP- 53. 54-





THE NUNS OF THE TRASTEVERE. 217

and popularity of the nuns of Santa Maria. Without it they determined never to stir, and there seemed great difficulties in the way of again removing it. Dominic's plan was simply to carry out that previously conceived by Pope Innocent, and collect all the nuns of the different convents that had no regular discipline, as well as the others living out of enclosure, into one community, to whom he proposed giving up his own convent of St. Sixtus, which had been originally intended for the purpose. Pope Honorius, to whom he submitted the proposal, not only approved of it, but to render it more easy of execution, offered to assign to him and his brethren one half of his own family palace adjoining the church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. This offer was gratefully accepted, and by order of the Pope the ancient church was itself divided by a wall into two parts, one of which he reserved for the Papal functions, whilst the other was given up to the use of the religious. 9

The necessary alterations were at once set on foot, and the saint was careful to give the buildings assigned to the use of his community the same arrangements which had been adopted at St. Sixtus and St. Remain. These being com- pleted, the brethren removed thither with their scanty possessions, including the books necessary for their studies, andyst. Sixtus was left vacant for the occupation of the nuns. But much had yet to be done before Dominic could obtain their consent to remove thither. His first proposal resulted in failure ; the very mention of enclosure and community life was received by a very intelligible declaration that they would be controlled neither by him, the Cardinals, nor the Pope. But Dominic was not so easily daunted. He used all the skill and address of manner with which God had endowed him, and on his second visit found means to win over the abbess Eugenia del Gora, and after her all the community with one solitary exception. There were, how- ever, conditions proposed and accepted. These were that they must be suffered to carry their picture with them to

9 This division continued until the time of Sixtus V., who took down the intermediate wall, and gave the whole church to the friars.





2l8 FRESH DIFFICULTIES.

St. Sixtus, and should it come back to the Trastevere of itself, as in the days of Pope Sergius, that they should be held free to come back after it. Dominic consented; but, saving this clause, he induced them to profess obedience in all else to himself; and they having done so, he gave them as their first trial a prohibition to leave their convent in order to visit any of their friends or relatives, assuring them that in a very short time St. Sixtus should be ready to receive them.

After this it seemed as though the affair were pretty well settled ; " but,' 1 to use the words of Polidori, " the instability of human nature, and especially of the female sex, easy to be moved by whatsoever wind may blow, very soon made the contrary to appear." The wise regulation which Dominic had made was evaded, and the vituperating tongues of friends and relations were busier than ever. There were no terms too strong to use in denouncing the proposed migration to St. Sixtus. It would be the destruction of an ancient and honourable monastery ; they were about blindly to put them- selves under an intolerable yoke of obedience, and to whom ? to a new man, a "frate," whose Order nobody had ever heard of before a scoundrel (ribaldo), as some were pleased to term him ; they must certainly have been bewitched.

The nuns began to think so too, and many repented of their too hasty promise. Whilst this new disturbance was going on, Dominic was relating the success of his mission to the Cardinals. But the fresh disorders which had arisen were revealed to him by the Holy Spirit even at the moment that they occurred. He resolved to let the excitement exhaust itself a little before taking any new measure ; and a day or two afterwards proceeded to the convent, where, having said Mass, he assembled all the religious in Chapter, and addressed them at considerable length. He concluded with these words : "I well know, my daughters, that you have repented of the promise you gave me, and now desire to withdraw your feet from the ways of God. Therefore, let those among you who are truly and spontaneously willing to go to St. Sixtus make their profession over again in my





DEATH OF NAPOLEON ORSINI. 2IQ

hands." The eloquence of his address, heightened by that strange and wonderful charm of manner to which all who knew him bear witness, whilst none can describe it, was victorious. The abbess, Eugenia del Gora, instantly renewed her profession (with the same condition respecting the picture), and her example was followed by the whole com- munity. Dominic was well satisfied with their sincerity; / nevertheless he thought it well to add one precaution against further relapse. It was a simple one, and consisted of taking the keys of the gate into his own custody, and appointing some of his own lay-brothers to be porters, with orders to provide the nuns with all necessaries, but to prevent their seeing or speaking with relatives or any other person what- soever.

On Ash Wednesday, which fell that year on the 28th of February, the Cardinals assembled at St. Sixtus, whither the abbess and her nuns also proceeded in solemn procession. They met in the little chapter-house before mentioned, where Dominic raised to life the widow's child. The abbess solemnly surrendered all office and authority into the hands of Dominic and his brethren ; whilst they, on their part, with the Cardinals, proceeded to treat concerning the rights, government, and revenues of the new convent. Whilst thus engaged, the business of the assembly was suddenly inter- rupted by an incident which is best told in the language of Sister Cecilia, an eye-witness : " Whilst the blessed Dominic was seated with the Cardinals, the abbess and her nuns being present, behold ! a man entered, tearing his hair and uttering loud cries. Being asked the cause, he replied, The nephew of my lord Stephen has just fallen from his horse, and is killed ! ' Now the young man was called Napoleon. 10 His uncle, hearing him named, sank fainting on the breast of the blessed Dominic. They supported him ; the blessed Dominic rose, and threw holy water on him ; then, leaving him in the arms of the others, he ran to the spot where

10 Napoleon Orsini. Since this time, says Abbe Cure, in his annotated translation of Theodoric of Apoldia, it has been the custom for the princes of the house of Orsini to name their eldest sons, Dominic Napoleon.





220 HE IS RAISED TO LIFE.

the body of the young man was lying, bruised and horribly mangled. He ordered them immediately to remove it to another room, and keep it there. Then he desired Brother Tancred and the other brethren to prepare everything for Mass. The blessed Dominic, the Cardinals, friars, the abbess, and all the nuns, then went to the place where the altar was, and the blessed Dominic celebrated the Holy Sacrifice with an abundance of tears.

" But when he came to the Elevation of our Lord's Body, and held It on high between his hands, as is the custom, he himself was raised a palm above the ground, all beholding the same, and being filled with great wonder at the sight. Mass being finished, he returned to the body of the dead man ; he and the Cardinals, the abbess, the nuns, and all the people who were present ; and when he was come, he arranged the limbs one after another with his holy hand, then prostrated himself on the ground, praying and weeping. Thrice he touched the face and limbs of the deceased, to put them in their place, and thrice he prostrated himself. When he was risen for the third time, standing on the side where the head was, he made the sign of the Cross ; then, with his hands extended towards heaven, and his body raised more than a palm above the ground, he cried with a loud voice, saying, O young man, Napoleon, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I say unto thee, Arise.' Immediately, in the sight of all those who had been drawn together by so marvellous a spectacle, the young man arose alive and unhurt, and said to the blessed Dominic, Father, give me to eat ; ' and the blessed Dominic gave him to eat and to drink, and committed him, joyful and without sign of hurt, to the Cardinal, his uncle." 11 There is a wonderful grandeur in this simple narrative. We realize at once the alarm and emotion of the bystanders, and the supernatural calm and tranquillity of the saint, who was acting under the Spirit of God. Never, perhaps, was any miracle better attested, or more accurately described ; and, as we shall hereafter see, it bore abundant fruits.

11 Narrative of Sister Cecilia.





SISTER CECILIA CESARINI. 221

The Cardinal testified his gratitude by making over to the convent of St. Sixtus the revenues of a certain benefice which he enjoyed in England, to which Malvenda, quoting from a MS. in the Vatican library, gives the name of Bara- burgh, and says the donation was worth the annual sum of three hundred gold florins.* 2

Needless to say, any hesitation which may have remained in the minds of the nuns, disappeared after witnessing with their own eyes so marvellous a proof of the power and sanctity of him to whom they had given their obedience.

Four days later, on the first Sunday in Lent, they took possession of their convent. They were forty-four in all, including a few seculars, and some religious of other con- vents. The first who spontaneously threw herself at Dominic's feet, and begged the habit of his Order, was the same Sister Cecilia whose narrative has just been quoted. She was then but seventeen, of the house of Cesarini, and distinguished for the great qualities of her soul even more than for the nobility of her birth. Meagre as is the account left us concerning her, her character is sufficiently evidenced in the little which is preserved. She had a soul large enough to appreciate that of Dominic. Child as she was, she had been quick to realize, and value at their true worth, the qualities of that mind which had brought into order the tempestuous and disorganized elements of the community of the Trastevere. Then she became an eye-witness of that great miracle which we have just related in her own beautiful language, and the admiration which she had already felt for him was raised to a devotion as fervent as it was lasting. Dominic communicated to her the most hidden secrets of his heart ; and the narrative which she has left, so noble and touching in its biblical simplicity, shows that she was not

12 The chapter-house which was the scene of this celebrated event stands as in the days of St. Dominic, and a few years since was adorned by paintings representing the chief incidents in the life of the saint, by Pere Hyacinth Besson, then prior of Santa Sabina. The three largest of the paintings depict the raising to life of the mason, the widow's son, and the young Napoleon, which all took place within, or closely adjacent to, its walls.





222 DELIVERANCE OF A POSSESSED WOMAN.

unworthy of such a confidence. Her example was followed by the other nuns ; all received the habit of the new Order, and took the vow of enclosure.

Dominic waited until nightfall before he ventured to remove the picture so often named ; he feared lest some excitement and disturbance might be caused by this being done in broad day, for the people of the city felt a jealous unwillingness to suffer it to depart. However, at midnight, accompanied by the two Cardinals, Nicholas and Stephen, and many other persons, all barefoot and carrying torches, he conducted it in solemn procession to St. Sixtus, where the nuns awaited its approach with similar marks of respect. It did not return ; and its quiet domestication in the new house completed the settlement of the nuns.

The success with which the saint had brought to a close this difficult and important business did not fail to excite the rage of the great enemy of souls. On the Sunday following that which had witnessed the profession of the nuns, Dominic was preaching in their church to a crowded audience, when a possessed woman who was present began to create a dis- turbance with her cries. " Ah, wretch ! " exclaimed the evil spirit, speaking by her tongue, " I had four of these women in my power, and thou hast wrested them all from me ! " Dominic imposed silence on the evil one, threatening if he did not obey to cast him out of the unfortunate woman whom he possessed. " That thou shalt not and canst not do," was the reply, " for we are seven who have taken up our abode here, and we will never come forth." But the saint, making the sign of the Cross, commanded them in the name of Jesus Christ to leave their victim, and never more to molest her. Immediately she was seen to bring up a quantity of blood, which flowed from her mouth and nose ; whilst at the same time she cast forth what seemed like burning coals ; after which the demons left her lying half dead. But Dominic desired that she should be carried to a neighbouring house, where she presently revived; and as soon as his preaching was ended the saint visited her, and gave her salutary instructions, bidding her return thanks to God





SISTER AMY. 223

for her merciful deliverance. Full of gratitude, she implored to be admitted into the community of St. Sixtus, and Dominic granting her request, gave her the habit of the Order four days later, and bestowed on her the name of Amata or Amy. The community was soon afterwards joined by twenty-one nuns from various other houses, including Sister Blanche and seven companions whom Dominic summoned from Prouille, to assist in training the new religious in regular discipline. Four of these afterwards returned to Prouille ; but Sister Blanche and two others remained at Rome ; and thus was formed the second house of religious women living under the Rule of St. Dominic. 13

13 In process of time the neighbourhood of St. Sixtus becoming infected with malaria, the nuns were forced to abandon the convent, and St. Pius V. granted them a site within the walls, on the hill called Magnanopoli, where they built a sumptuous church and convent, now known by the title of SS. Domenico e Sisto. It is still occupied by a community descended from that of St. Sixtus, and within its walls is preserved with the utmost venera- tion the miraculous picture of our Lady.







SANTA SABINA FROM THE RIVER.





CHAPTER XVII.

SANTA SABINA.

IT is said that all lives have their chapter of poetry ; if so, the poem of Dominic's life is now opening before us. No period of his history is at once so rich in legendary beauty, and so full of ample and delightful details, as that of his residence at Santa\5abina the church which, as we have already said, had been granted to him and his brethren by Pope Honorius when they abandoned St. Sixtus to the nuns of the Trastevere. It was attached to the palace of the Savelli, of which family Honorius was a member ; and we are told that the change of residence was particularly welcome to the friars, inasmuch as the neighbourhood was at that time more thickly populated than that of St. Sixtus, and the church was one of popular resort. This character has long since departed from it ; and the tide of population, retreating every year further and further to the west, has left the Aventine Hill once more to its silent and solitary beauty. Built on the brow of that hill, as it rises abruptly above the





THE AVENTINE.





225





Tiber, the convent of Santa Sabina stands between the ancient and modern city. On one side it looks over a long vista of churches and palaces, until the golden glow of the horizon above Monte Mario is cut by the clear sharp outline of that wonderful dome which rises over the tomb of the Apostles. Turn but your head, and you gaze over a different world. Heaped all about in fantastic confusion, may be seen gigantic arches with the ruins of walls and watch-towers standing among the vineyards ; and beyond them is the wide Campagna stretching like a sea into the dim horizon, spanned by the long lines of the aqueducts, that seem as though they reached the very base of those distant mountains which stand round the Eternal City as " the hills stand about Jerusalem." The Aventine is said on the authority of Virgil 1 to derive its name from the birds of prey who resorted there in days of old, and built their nests in the ample forests with which it was then clothed. It was now to become the home, not of eagles or vultures, but of a white-robed multitude, successive generations of whom should be nurtured here, as in a nest of holy living. It has its Christian as well as its classic associations. The church of Santa Sabina which crowns its summit stands on the site of a house once occupied by the holy martyr whose name it bears. It was a favourite sanctuary of St. Gregory the Great, who often preached within its walls, and is said there to have first instituted the singing of the litanies. 2 The church is regarded as one of the holy places of Rome; and here on Ash Wednesday is held the first Station of Lent, when the barefooted brethren of the Sacconi, all of noble birth, in company with the devout of both sexes, may be seen toiling up the sandy road to keep the Caput Jejunii in this time-honoured sanctuary. Two paths lead down from Santa Sabina to the

1 Lustrat Aventini Montem . . . Dirarum nidis domus opportuna volucrum.

(Mn. lib. viii. 231, 235.)

* The practice of singing the Litany of the Saints on St. Mark's day is said to have been instituted by St. Gregory. Seven processions, starting from seven of the Roman churches singing litanies as they went, met in the church of St. Mary Major. P





226 THE AVENTINE.

valley below. One descends abruptly to the Tiber, the other winds down a gentler declivity, planted thick with almond- trees, till it reaches the valley separating the Aventine and the Palatine Hills. This was the road so often trodden by the blessed Dominic as he passed to and fro in his daily visits from Santa Sabina to St. Sixtus. " No pathway exists," says Pere Lacordaire, " which so faithfully preserves the traces of his footsteps." Day after day for more than six months he climbed down these slopes, and took his road through this valley, passing on his way that other ancient church of St. Anastasia, near to which, it will be re- membered, dwelt those pious recluses to whom his visits of charity brought such timely consolation.

To those then who are familiar with the history of the holy patriarch, every footstep of the Aventine is fragrant with his memory. But above all do the church and convent of Santa Sabina preserve that memory in all its freshness. The aspect of both, as now existing, differs much from that which they presented in the days of St. Dominic ; neverthe- less many portions of the building belong to his time. Among these is the refectory, where, out of reverence to his memory, the place in which he formerly sat has never been occupied by another. A part of the dormitory is also certainly identical with that which he arranged for the reception of his brethren, and in it one cell, now turned into a chapel, is preserved with the utmost veneration as formerly occupied by the saint. The proportions of this cell are exactly the same as those of St. Remain, and here is preserved the so-called portrait of St. Dominic painted by Bozzani, which however has no claim to be regarded as a vera effigies, though it very probably reproduced his traditionary likeness. In the antechamber is to be seen a picture of the three saints, Dominic, Francis, and Angelus, who are believed to have met here and to have spent one entire night conferring together on the things of God, a fact commemorated by an inscription. 3 Possibly also the severe

8 Attende, advena, hie olim sanctissimi viri, Dominictts, Franciscus, Angclus Carmelita in divinis colloquiis, vigilas pernoctavernnt.





CHURCH OF SANTA SABINA. 227

and devout cloisters, surrounding the quadrangle with its ancient well, are the same which once re-echoed with the footsteps of the saint, and not far from the entrance stands the orange-tree planted by his hands, the leaves and fruit of which are distributed to devout pilgrims. Pere Rechac also mentions a peach-tree in the convent garden, which was held by constant tradition to have been planted by the saint, and which after the lapse of four centuries still flourished in spite of the custom which prevailed of cutting branches from it to distribute among the crowds who flocked thither every Ash Wednesday.

The church itself underwent a process of restoration and adornment during the Pontificate of Sixtus V., which has effaced many of its ancient features. Nevertheless, within these same walls took place more than one event of memorable interest, of which we shall presently have to speak. Here, according to Malvenda, St. Dominic con- stantly preached the devotion of the Holy Rosary, the Confraternity having been transferred hither from St. Sixtus after the removal of the brethren. 4

Here, too, lying on the stone pavement, he passed the hours of his night-watches, and offered to God his " inex- pressible penances." We look at the roof of the ancient apse, where appears a representation of the Lamb of God, surrounded by twelve sheep, and standing on a little green hill whence flow streams of living water, and wonder whether that mystic picture ever met the eyes of the blessed Dominic, reminding him of the green pastures and running waters of eternal life. Here, at any rate, he prayed, he preached, and shed around the sweet perfume of sanctity ; so we will leave to archaeologists the task of distinguishing with exactitude the changes which have passed over this holy sanctuary since the days of our saint, and content ourselves with the memories which no such changes can ever banish from the spot.

One of the most interesting of these is connected with the vocation to the Order of two brothers, destined to 4 Malvenda, cap. xxviii. p. 221.





228 VOCATION OF ST. HYACINTH.

be numbered among its brightest ornaments. They were Hyacinth and Ceslaus, nephews to Ivo Odrowatz, the Polish bishop of Cracow, both of them canons of his cathedral and men of singular virtue. They had come to Rome in company with the bishop on a pilgrimage of devotion, and all three had been present at St. Sixtus and had witnessed the raising to life of the young Napoleon. When by means of Cardinal Ugolino they afterwards became personally acquainted with the blessed Dominic, the deep impression made on their minds by that event was increased by his saintly conversa- tion. Ivo urged him to send some of his brethren to the northern countries, but the difficulty of the language seemed to offer obstacles to this plan; and Dominic therefore suggested that the best way of carrying out his wishes would be if some of his own followers would take the habit.

A few days after this Hyacinth and Ceslaus, with two- others, Henry of Moravia, and Herman, a noble German,, presented themselves at Santa Sabina, and, throwing them- selves at the feet of the saint, begged to be allowed to enter the Order. Their offer was joyfully accepted, and they received the habit in the chapter-room, over the door of which still appears an inscription commemorating the event.. Their progress was as rapid as it was extraordinary. Doubtless, in that time of early fervour, the growth of souls planted in a very atmosphere of sanctity was quicker and more vigorous than now ; and we are led to exclaim, " There were giants in those days," when we find these novices, within six months after their first admission, ready to return to their own country to be the founders and propagators of the Order. They travelled back with the Bishop of Cracow, preaching as they went. Separation, that law of the Dominican Institute, was the lot that awaited them also. Hyacinth and Ceslaus pursued their way to the north, where they divided the land between them. Ceslaus planted the Order in Bohemia, whilst the apostolate of Hyacinth extended over Russia, Sweden, Norway, Prussia, and the northern nations of Asia. It is considered as probable that he also visited Scotland. Dominic's old dream of a mission to the





HENRY OF MORAVIA. 22Q

Cumans became realized in the labours of this the greatest of his sons, and in him the Order of Friars Preachers took possession of half the known world.

Both brothers have been raised to the altars of the Church and are known in the Order as St. Hyacinth and the Blessed Ceslaus. Henry proceeded to Styria and Austria, and founded many convents, especially that of Vienna. An account of singular beauty is left of his death. He fell sick in the convent of Wratislavia ; and finding his last hour draw near, he fixed his eyes on a crucifix before him, and sang sweetly while he had strength. After a little space he was silent, yet smiled, and put his hands together, and showed in his eyes and his whole face a great and inexplicable joy. Then, after a brief time, he spake, and said, "The demons are come, and would fain disturb and trouble my faith, but I believe in God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; " and with these words on his lips lie gently expired. Herman, the fourth of this society, was left at Friesach to govern a convent founded in that place. He was a man of extraordinary devotion, though of small learning. In consequence of his simplicity and ignorance he was often despised and ridiculed by his companions ; and, seeking comfort from God in prayer, he obtained the gift of so much understanding of the Holy Scriptures that, without study of any kind, he was enabled to preach not only in German, but also in Latin, with extraordinary eloquence and success.

The residence of the saint at Santa Sabina at a time when the quarters assigned to the use of himself and his brethren formed a portion of the Pontifical palace, gave occasion for his being charged by Honorius with an office of considerable importance. He was, it is said, much dis- tressed at seeing the servants of the Cardinals and others who frequented the palace, idling about the antechambers, playing games of chance, whilst their masters were engaged in the business of the Church ; and he suggested to the Pope whether some means could not be devised for the better employment of their time, by the appointment of some one





230 THE MASTER OF THE SACRED PALACE.

who might explain to them the Holy Scriptures or give them other useful instructions. The Pope, agreeing with his views, instituted the office of Master of the Sacred Palace, and bade him enter on it by delivering explanations of the Epistles of St. Paul, not only to the humble audience whose spiritual wants he had sought to supply, but to the Court and Cardinals. The saint obeyed, and his wonderful eloquence and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures attracted crowds of disciples. John of Colonna, who was almost a contemporary of the saint, in his book De Viris Illustribus, tells us of the vast numbers who gathered to hear the Word of God from his lips. He says that he explained the Epistles of St. Paul in the public schools, and that his pulpit was surrounded both by scholars and prelates, all of whom gave him the name of " Master." He discharged, in fact, two offices, distinct in themselves though often afterwards held by the same person ; he taught the family of the Pontiff, as Master of the Sacred Palace, and lectured on theology as Lector of the Palace, and out of this latter office it is supposed by some that the university of Rome took its rise. The Mastership of the Sacred Palace continues to our own day, being always held by a member of the Dominican Order. Its duties are considerable, and include among other things the censorship of books published in Rome. 5

Besides delivering these lectures, the saint preached almost daily in one or other of the churches of the city, and often in the basilica of St. Peter's, neither his bodily powers nor the marvellous richness of his mental resources ever seeming capable of exhaustion.

But the object which occupied the chief attention of Dominic from the moment of his first establishment at Santa Sabina, was the training of those disciples who flocked into the Order in ever increasing numbers. Before all other works he held in importance the religious formation of the brethren.

5 The institution of this office is sometimes referred to an earlier visit of the saint to Rome ; but if the circumstances of the saint's residence at this time within the Pope's own palace are taken into consideration, the probability of its belonging to this period will become apparent.





TRAINING OF THE BRETHREN. 23!

Nor while applying himself to their interior training did he neglect those exterior means so powerful in religious educa- tion. The Friars Preachers were to sacrifice all comfort and all human ties for the work of God : they were to endure poverty, humiliation, and detachment of heart in their most painful forms ; but one thing they were not to sacrifice, and that was the character of religious and the habits of regular observance. Whilst they begged their bread, and lived on alms, the first thing on which those alms were expended was the rude and imperfect conversion of their poor dwellings into a religious shape. In their deep and living humility they acknowledged that they were powerless to retain the religious spirit, made up as it is of prayer and recollection, and continual self-restraint, without certain external helps and hindrances. Every part of the Dominican Rule and Constitutions breathes of this principle ; whilst the salvation of souls is ever placed before us as the end and object of the Order, the formation of the religious man himself is provided for by regulations of the most astonishing minuteness ; and as a part, and an essential part, of these, is included the beautiful ordering of the religious house.

This necessary connection between the outward form and the inward spirit is nowhere stated in express terms, for there was not much talk about theories and general principles among men in the middle ages ; yet, unconsciously to themselves, they ever acted under a deep prevailing sense of this sacramental character of our being. They believed that not in soul alone, but also in body, the whole nature was to be made subject to Christ ; and with the simplicity of antique wisdom, they condescended to provide for this by making laws, not only for their work and their prayer, but even for their houses and their dress. The religious man was ever to be surrounded by an atmosphere redolent of sanctity ; he was to reflect a light of holiness cast on him by the very walls of his dwelling. Nothing, therefore, was neglected by which they could be invested with this peculiar character. They were the mould in which souls were insensibly to receive a shape that separated them from the





232 THE RELIGIOUS HOUSE.

world. The amateurs of ecclesiastical architecture tell us that, in its purest form, no ornament will ever be found introduced for ornament's sake ; there was always a use and significance in the most fanciful and grotesque of those elaborate designs. And so in the conventual house, common

.and necessary things were not exchanged for what was fanciful or extraordinary ; but a religious form and colouring was given to the whole. Thus the man who was being trained to the life of religion was placed where he saw pothing that did not harmonize with that one idea. His refectory was as unlike as possible to a dining-room ; it was as much a room to pray in, as to eat in. There, ranged in a single row behind the simple wooden tables that stood on either hand, sat the same white-robed figures beside whom he stood in the choir, and with an air scarcely less modest and devout. At the top was the prior's seat ; there were neither pictures nor ornaments on the wall, only a large crucifix above that seat, to which all were to bow on entering ; for even in hours of relaxation the religious man

Was to be mindful of the sufferings of his Lord. There was }no talking or jesting as in the feasting of the world, for the refectory was a place of inviolable silence ; but from a little pulpit one of the brethren read aloud (as we have seen Brother Henry represented doing in the scene at St. Sixtus), that, to use the words of the Rule of St. Austin, " whilst the jbody was refreshed, the soul also might have its proper food." The house was to be poor and simple, having " no curiosities or notable superfluities, such as sculpture, pave- ments, and the like, save in the church," where some degree of ornament was allowed to do reverence to the Presence of God. The dormitory too had its own character : the cells were all alike in size and arrangement, for here all were equal. They were separate, that every one might be silent and alone with God ; yet partly open, that the watchful eye of the Superior might never be shut out. Even the dormitory passage itself had something holy ; for it was ordained, that

\ " to promote piety and devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the especial Patroness of the Order, an altar with her image





THE RELIGIOUS HOUSE. 233

should be erected in the dormitory of every convent," and here the lamp was kept burning through the night. Each of these places had its own sweet tradition. Angels, as we have seen, have before now served in the Dominican / refectories ; and the dormitories have been blessed no less than the choir with the sweet presence of our Lady, who through those open doors has given her benediction to the sleeping brethren, and sprinkled them with her maternal hand. Such houses were as the gate of heaven. All about them were holy sentences, preaching from the walls ; poverty reigned everywhere, but clad in the beauty and majesty of that spirit of order, which has been fitly termed ' the music of the eye." All things were in common, and common things were made to speak of God ; yet there was neither gloom nor melancholy, but rather a glad and cheerful aspect, tempered by the pervading tone of silence and recollection ; so that the beholder might well exclaim, " How good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! "

The life of a saint like St. Dominic is not made up alone of journeys and foundations and the dates of his birth and death ; his living soul is to be found in the Rule, the most striking features of which were the impression of his own hand : and it is not a little remarkable that, together with that free and pliable spirit which is one of its distinguishing characters, there should be this invariable adhesion to the externals of monastic and community life. The same rule was observed in all the foundations of the Order, and this of course by the particular direction of its founder; a tact which reveals more of his mind and feeling than whole volumes of commentary. It exhibits him to us in that mixed character of contemplation and action, the union of which is the basis of the Dominican life : we see him at once, " the Jacob of preaching and the Israel of contemplation ; " and we see also what in his eyes constituted the essentials of such a life, and the indispensable means for attaining it.

" The Christian perfection which he taught," to use the admirable words of Castiglio, " consisted primarily indeed in the love of God and of our neighbour ; but secondarily and





234 RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

accidentally in that silence and solitude, and in those fasts, mortifications, disciplines, and ceremonies, which are the instruments whereby we reach that high and most excellent end." It would seem indeed as if these " ceremonies " he speaks of formed no insignificant part of Dominic's great idea of spiritual training. We read of his " diligent training of the nuns in the rules and ceremonies ; " and again, St. Hyacinth is said to have become a perfect master in " all the ordinances and ceremonies of the Order during his short novitiate."

From the beginning of the Order both the Mass and the Divine Office were daily chanted to note. G The Office was to be sung sweetly and devoutly, but in order not too greatly to impede the active duties of the brethren the recitation was also to be brief and succinct. It was to be accompanied by certain inclinations and prostrations carefully prescribed in the Rule. These prescriptions may be traced partly to that deep sagacity on the part of the holy founder which perceived how large an influence is exerted over the inner man by the subjugation of his external nature, and partly to his own characteristic love of order. Whilst wholly free from the narrowness of mere formalism, his soul yet delighted in that harmony which is a chief element of perfection : it was as though his eagle eye had gazed on the ordering of the heavenly courts, and, drawin