In 1300 the signs that the greatness of the thirteenth century had passed could not be read with the clarity now possible. As the century advanced and witnessed a succession of conflicts, wars, and disasters, the decline became clearer. World-shaking events, each a blow to the stability and vitality of Christendom, followed one another with the speed of lightning. The quarrels between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip the Fair of France, which had begun earlier, opened the century; the Western Schism, stretching from 1378 to 1418, during which rival popes contested the throne of Peter, closed it. In between lay the suppression of the Order of the Knights Templar, the struggle of the popes with Emperor Louis of Bavaria, and the opening of the Hundred Years War between England and France (1337). In the very middle of the century, the bubonic plague, called the Black Death, took the lives of one-third to one-half the population of Europe in two years’ time. Society, Church, clergy, and Orders suffered from these disasters.

The Dominican Order still stood forth in the fullness of its strength and influence in 1300. It could hope for a future full of life and fruitful activity. Pope John XXII had high praise for it in 1317: “Endowed above other Orders with a richer grace of service, the Order of Preachers radiates a greater clarity:” In 1325 John rejoiced over the “starlike splendor of this Order and the firmness of its organization for the service of God.” Two years earlier he had canonized Thomas Aquinas.

Despite this glory, signs of decay were evident. Religious discipline was declining, and mitigation of personal and corporate poverty had set in. In addition, the missions had suffered a blow in 1291, when the Saracens took Acre, the last Christian foothold in Palestine.

The Masters General

The first two masters of the fourteenth century had short terms of office. Albert Chiavari lived only three months after his election in 1300. Bernard of Jusix, elected in 1301, died two years later. During this period, Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull, Super cathedram, which regulated the conflict between the friars and the diocesan clergy. Its stipulation that the mendicant Orders should pay to the diocesan clergy a fourth of the income derived from their ministry, including legacies, worked great hardships and placed the strict poverty of the Order in danger. Though the successor of Boniface, the Dominican Benedict XI, repealed the bull, Clement V reissued it.

Two masters general governed the Order between 1304 and 1317. Elected in 1304, Aylmer of Piacenza resigned in 1311 because, it was rumored, he was not sympathetic to the suppression of the Knights Templar. Berengar of Landorra governed from 1312 to 1317. He was followed by Hervey of Nedellec, an outstanding theologian (1318-1323), Barnabas Cagnoli of Vercelli (1324-1332), and Hugh of Vaucemain (1333-1341). Hugh came into conflict with Benedict XII, who was planning to reform the Order as he had the Cistercians, Franciscans and Canons Regular. The pope began by calling the master general and about twenty prominent friars to Avignon to consult with them about the subject. For this reason he cancelled the general chapter, scheduled to meet in 1338. Benedict ran into the stone-wall resistance of the general, who withstood his plans until death. Contemporary sources are vague in reporting the reasons for his opposition, and no agreement exists among modern historians. Hugh did not object to the elimination of abuses; actually, he and chapters he convened enacted many ordinances to stop them. The conflict went much deeper. Contemporaries indicate that Benedict contemplated making fundamental changes in the Dominican Constitutions. Mortier and Mandonnet suggest that Benedict wanted the Order to change from its strict poverty without ownership to dependence on property-holding and fixed income, but this does not seem to have been the case. Not choosing to impose his ideas, Benedict sought to gain his objectives through the voluntary cooperation of the master and the leading men of the Order. Their refusal to accept his plans caused the clash. With the deaths of the two antagonists (Hugh of Vaucemain died in 1341; Benedict in 1342), the danger of an essential modification in the Constitutions had passed.

Hugh of Vaucemain began a series of French masters general who governed the Order until 1379, a year after the outbreak of the Western Schism. Hugh’s four immediate successors had short terms, owing to death or promotion. Gerard of Domaro de la Garde, elected on May 18, 1342, had governed but four months when Clement VI, his relative, appointed him cardinal on September 20. He enjoyed his new dignity not much longer than he had the generalate, dying fifty-three weeks after his appointment. Pierre of Baume-les-Dames held office from his election in 1343 until his death in 1345. His successor, Garin de Gyl’évêque (1346), fell victim to the plague in August, 1348. John of Moulins, elected the following Spring, became a cardinal in December, 1350. Such brief terms were unfortunate in a time when leadership was needed to check the worsening state of religious spirit and discipline. The intervals between generals and the shortness of their tenures impeded effective leadership and accentuated the drift toward decline.

Then followed two longer generalates. During his fourteen years of leadership, Simon of Langres (1352-1366) made a determined attempt to deal with the major problems and the havoc wrought in the Order, as in the Church itself, by the Black Death. This sternness apparently earned Simon the dubious distinction of being the only general turned out of office by the Order itself—invalidly. His inability to give full attention to the Order, owing to the frequent diplomatic missions the pope entrusted to him, probably added to the murmuring against him. The general chapter of 1360 removed him from office by the; narrow vote of eight to six. The minority diffinitors, joined by other friends, appealed to Innocent VI who invalidated the action. Six years later, Urban V terminated Simon’s services to the Order by appointing him Bishop of Nantes. His ability and the eighteen years he lived after his elevation—he was master in theology, an able diplomat, and had been provincial of France—indicate the loss the Order sustained when he was made a bishop.

Fortunately Simon’s place was taken by Elias Raymond, who also had a lengthy term. Elected in 1367, he governed the entire Order until the Western Schism divided it. As a Frenchman, Simon followed his country in 1379 in giving allegiance to Clement VII, the antipope who had taken up residence at Avignon. Elias continued as general until his death in 1389 in the Avignon Obedience of the Order.

The provinces that remained faithful to Urban VI, the first of the Roman line of papal claimants, elected Raymond of Capua, spiritual director and disciple of Catherine of Siena, in 1380. He lived until 1399. Meanwhile three masters general governed in the Avignon Obedience—Nicholas of Troia, a Neopolitan, Nicholas of Valladolid, a Spaniard, and John of Puinoix, a Frenchman, natives of the areas and provinces that followed Avignon. The last of the three held office from 1399 to the end of the Schism in 1418. Then he resigned and the Council of Constance rewarded him with an episcopate.

The Order did not escape the doubt and confusion that settled over Christendom when the Western Schism began. Since it was almost impossible for any but those closest to events to judge correctly the claims of the papal rivals, nations settled their allegiance to one or other claimant on the basis of national interest. Divided countries or border regions saw rival claimants to bishoprics and abbeys. Orders that were united under a central government, like the Dominicans, followed a similar pattern. The French, Spanish, and Neopolitan provinces, and the friars of Scotland gave allegiance to Avignon; the others adhered to Rome. After 1380 the Order had a double series of general chapters and masters general. The province of Germany, located in a politically divided country, had two provincials, but the larger number of priories followed Peter Eglin, who was loyal to Rome. The universal doubt is symbolized by the Dominican saints of the time. Closer to the facts, Catherine of Siena and Raymond of Capua served Urban VI of Rome. Vincent Ferrer used all his eloquence and learning to persuade the clergy, kings, and peoples of the Spanish Peninsula to unite behind Clement VII, the Avignon claimant.

The Chapters

The Order changed its Constitutions in 1374 to permit the summoning of general chapters every two or three years instead of annually, a move undoubtedly influenced by the unsettled conditions of the age—the papal conflicts, the Hundred Years War, the Black Plague, and the Schism. The new measure also worked a subtle change in Dominican government, increasing the power and influence of the general and decreasing that of the chapters. In line with the growing power of kings in the political field, this change may reflect a lessening of confidence in representative procedures within the Order. The following table illustrates the declining influence of the chapters.

Number of General Chapters 306

13th century 75

14th century 76 18 chapters were held during the 14-15 centuries in the Avignon Obedience

15th century 47

16th century 28

17th century 20

18th century 6

19th century 11

20th century 24 (including the 1974 chapter)

Though the general chapter has met less frequently since 1370, it continues to be a powerful bond of unity. It supplies the master general with advice, counsel, and information about the Order, implements his programs, acquaints the leading friars of the Order with one another, provides concerted action, and makes new laws. Dominican history seems to show that the general chapter acts as a barometer. When it meets regularly and does its work thoroughly, the Order’s discipline and ministry seem to flourish. Infrequent meetings appear to accompany periods of stagnation.

When the chapters became less frequent, more of the Order’s business fell into the hands of the master. Though we have no means of comparison, since the letters of Raymond of Capua are the first to survive, a look at his Register shows the multiplicity of cases that reached his desk. Many of his decisions, it would seem, should have been handled at the local level of government. Probably the troubled times of Schism and the low state of discipline partly account for this recourse to higher authority.

Though the general’s position was strengthened by the infrequency of chapters, he found his authority curbed by the appointment of a cardinal protector, a new feature in Dominican life. The Order’s strong government was exercised with so much corporate responsibility that, contrary to the practice of the Holy See with regard to other Orders, it did not appoint a protector for it until 1373, when Gregory XI named Cardinal William of Agrifolia. The protector’s duties were never clearly defined, but expanded as time went on. During the next two centuries, they widened to such an extent that the cardinal began to deal with the internal affairs of the Order in the same manner as the master. The conflict between reformed and unreformed friars during the fifteenth century, and the trend toward centralization that developed in the Church itself during the sixteenth, account for this growth. Since 1887, when Leo XIII assumed personal protection of the Order, recent popes have acted in this capacity.

The Provinces

When the provinces were first divided between 1284 and 1303, their number climbed to eighteen. Seventy-five years later the fission process began again. The chapter of 1378 made the island of Sicily a province and took the first step toward making Dalmatia one. Urban VI declared it a province later that year when the Schism began. The new provinces were smaller than their predecessors, permitting greater cohesion among the friars and closer contact between them and the provincials.

The Preaching Ministry

Despite the lower level of its religious life, the Order continued to develop noteworthy preachers. In the first half of the century, James Passavanti exercised a fruitful preaching ministry in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, where he was one of the leading friars for many years. He was also a spiritual writer whose works influenced the developing Italian vernacular. He composed his Mirror of True Penance from the elements of a Lenten course preached in 1354. The work strongly reflects the troubled times that followed on the plague. It emphasizes the fear of God, though Passavanti also mentions the joy that comes from a penitential life.

At the peak of a successful preaching career in 1335, Venturino of Bergamo sought to bring peace to the troubled cities of northern Italy through preaching and by leading a pilgrimage to the Eternal City. The progress of the pilgrims through Italy was marked by great enthusiasm and signs of penance wherever they passed. After the pilgrimage had been in Rome for some days and the problem of feeding and housing many thousands of pilgrims became acute, Venturino panicked in a moment of weakness and fled secretly. The irrepressible friar quickly regained his composure and traveled to Avignon, hoping to interest Benedict XII in a crusade. Instead, the irate pontiff scolded him for coming unannounced into the papal apartments, penanced him for imprudent remarks made during the pilgrimage, and for the disturbances it caused in Rome. Then he banished him to a remote priory. Clement VI, the next pope, rehabilitated him in 1343 and sent him off to preach a crusade in Lombardy. After a year of preaching, Venturino joined the crusading army and accompanied it to Smyrna. There he died in 1346 after an exhausting month preaching, encouraging the besieged crusaders, and nursing the sick.

Venturino also ranks as a writer of spiritual letters and treatises. He corresponded with the German Dominican mystics, and was friendly with John Tauler, also a great preacher. Venturino, Moister Eckhart, Henry Suso, and Tauler worked closely with nuns, preaching to them and guiding them. This was also true of John Dominici, an outstanding preacher toward the end of the century. Venice, Pisa, and Florence enjoyed his powerful lenten courses. He established the monastery of Corpus Christi in Venice and sent the nuns numerous letters dealing with the spiritual life.

The preachers of the Order also continued to publish sermon collections and other homiletic writings. Thomas of Wales produced an important book on the method of preaching. John Bromyard, another English Dominican, completed a homiletic encyclopedia, the Summa praedicantiurn, just before 1350. A vast alphabetical collection of theological lore and sermon materials, it was a valuable source book for preachers. Historians now find it important for studying the preaching and culture of the century.

In the late fourteenth century Archbishop Fitzralph of Dublin renewed the attacks the diocesan clergy had made on the ministry of the friars a century before. He carried his complaints to the papal court, but though he was an able orator and writer, Fitzralph was unable to gain any alteration in the basic relationship between the religious and diocesan clergy.

Studies and Theology

As the Order entered its second century, it could be proud of its academic record and the eminence of its theologians. It had appreciated Thomas Aquinas and valued his doctrine during his lifetime and defended both after his death. During the opening years of the fourteenth century the Order took a more determined stand in favor of his doctrine. The impetus was provided by Durandus of Saint Pourçain, one of its most talented members, during the academic year of 1307-1308. As a bachelor of the Sentences at Paris, he developed opinions notably different from Thomas. Obviously reacting to Durandus, the 1309 chapter required lectors and sub-lectors to teach according to the doctrine of Thomas and students to study his works diligently. Those who failed to comply were “to be punished gravely and quickly.” In 131`? Durandus took his licentiate; Clement V appointed him to teach at the papal university before Lent, 1313. The chapter of that year then spoke even more decidedly in favor of Thomism, commanding that no brother dare in his teaching “to assert anything contrary to what is commonly believed to be the opinion” of Thomas; lectors were ordered to expound some of his articles. The chapter required provincials to watch over the work of lectors and remove those who violated its commands. It revived a thirteenth-century measure calling for the censorship of books. The next chapter entrusted the immediate supervision of lectors and students to the student master.

The Order was not only concerned with Thomism when it took these steps. It felt that the opinions of Durandus endangered the teaching of the Church. The 1313 ordinance stipulated that lectors were not to “dare to assert anything contrary to the common judgment of the doctors” in matters pertaining to faith or morals, except to refute it. Under attack Durandus did modify some of his extreme views.

A number of able scholars, who ranked with the disciples of Thomas in their solidity and depth of doctrine and loyalty to their master, matched the learning of Durandus. The foremost was Hervey of Nedellec, who became master general in 1318, and waged a theological war with Durandus that lasted for almost two decades. The others were John of Naples, Peter de la Palu, John of Lausanne, James of Viterbo, William Peter Godin, and Armand of Belvezer. Almost all of them were drawn into the literary controversy with Durandus.

The Order also took steps to keep its studies at the peak of efficiency. The 1305 chapter devoted attention to the Order’s academic organization, issuing directions for the houses of studies. The chapters of 1313 to 1315 promulgated detailed instructions for students and professors. They adjusted the number of students to be sent to each house and regulated the appointment and teaching of professors. To ensure efficient academic performance, they set up norms for attendance at lectures, protected the rights and privileges of students, curbed any extraneous activities on their part, and provided for their books and clothing. They called on priories to stock or establish their libraries.

The Durandus affair was not the only theological concern of Dominicans during these years. Master General Barnabas Cagnoli of Vercelli and other theologians took a determined stand against an erroneous opinion that Pope John XXII held as a private theologian. John maintained that those who died in grace would not enjoy the Beatific Vision until judgment day. The courageous opposition of Thomas of Wales, who preached against the opinion at Avignon, John’s residence, cost him many years in the papal prison.

Controversy with the disciples of Duns Scotus also began at this time. Scotus was a Franciscan contemporary of Durandus who also worked out an original system of theology. His most notable contribution was to lay down the principle which enabled theologians to develop the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. With few exceptions, Dominican theologians challenged this and other points in the teaching of Scotus. They kept up resistance to the Immaculate Conception for centuries because they thought Thomas had opposed it, waging a losing battle against its increasing acceptance by theologians and the faithful. Even the Spanish Dominican provinces endorsed it. Nevertheless, the Dominican stand was very important for the development of the doctrine and illustrates how doctrines are clarified. They forced its defenders to re-examine their position constantly. The last serious problems raised by the Immaculate Conception were not adequately solved for several centuries and were not completely removed until its definition in 1854.

The posture adopted by the Order and its theologians during the Durandus, Beatific Vision, and Immaculate Conception controversies indicate that its awareness of its doctrinal mission in the Church had already evolved.

Despite this doctrinal activity, the Order’s intellectual life began to suffer as scholasticism declined and religious discipline decayed. Dominican schools and scholars were hurt by the Black Death. Later in the century, academic efforts were again hampered by the Western Schism. Perhaps these facts explain the failure of Thomists, who had reacted vigorously to Durandus and other opponents, to recognize the dangers inherent in Nominalism, a new school of thought headed by William of Ocham. The Church itself pronounced no formal condemnation. By the end of the century, Nominalism had made the University of Paris its chief stronghold and, in the fifteenth century, gained a strong position at German universities. Thomas Holcot, an English Dominican, did not escape its influence, and Thomas Crathorn, another member of the English province, completely accepted it. The first Thomistic challenge to Nominalism came from John Capreolus early in the next century.

The German Dominican Mystics

During the fourteenth century, as in other periods of trouble and trial, men looked to the spiritual leaders for hope and guidance. The divisions, strife, and war that accompanied the lengthy controversy between the popes and the Emperor turned the minds of good people toward prayer and penance as the answer to the vexing problems of the time. Mysticism flowered up and down the Rhine Valley. Jan van Ruysbroeck led the movement in the Netherlands, the Dominicans in Germany.

The Order’s own contemplative apostolic life, aiming at intimate union with God, bears within itself the seeds of mysticism. Historically, the Dominican preaching and teaching ministry forged links between the friars and people who thirsted for a life of union with God-priests, nuns, laymen, and beguines (celibate women who lived a spiritual life without vows, either singly or in community). Dominic and Jordan of Saxony established the ties that existed between Dominican friars and nuns. Henry of Cologne, Siger of Lille, and Walter of Strassburg worked among devout women in Ghent, Lille, and Germany. St. Juliana of Liege derived support largely from Dominicans when she struggled to introduce the feast of Corpus Christi. Henry of Halle and other friars were closely associated with St. Gertrude and the two Saint Mechtildas at the Cistercian monastery of Helfta, within whose walls devotion to the Sacred Heart flourished.

The German mystics of the fourteenth century were the heirs of this tradition of cooperation with religious people. Though others were drawn within the radius of the German mystical movement, Dominicans were predominant. It traces its origins to Albert the Great and his disciples. Meister Eckhart (d. 1327), was its theoretician, John Tauler (d. 1361) its preacher, and Henry .Suso (d. 1366) its poet. A wide circle of religious and lay people, called Friends of God, who worked and prayed for spiritual renewal, gathered around these leaders. The mysticism of the school is called speculative, because it sought to probe and record the depths of man’s sanctification and union with God. This is especially true of the writings of Eckhart. His writings and those of Tauler and Suso are the monuments of German mysticism. Suso’s Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, one of the best-loved works of the Middle Ages, is a perennial classic. A remarkable series of biographies and chronicles, written in seven of the monasteries, bears witness to the intense mystical life that flowered among the Dominican nuns during this time.

In 1309, about a year after Meister Eckhart’s death, John XXII condemned as heretical seventeen propositions extracted from his writings and eleven others as rash and suspect of heresy. Convinced of his good intentions and innocence, Eckhart spent too much time during his defense emphasizing his orthodoxy and failed to challenge the propositions. This poorly conceived defense, together with the unscientific method of judging propositions outside their context, explains why theologians could place under a cloud the teaching and memory of a theologian who was never a willing heretic.

Dealing with profound and difficult concepts, often in the vernacular, Eckhart tried to convey the fruits of his own deep experiences and reflection. Using a vigorous style in tune with the spirit of the German language, he produced a prose that was unmatched at the time and exercised a lasting influence on the German tongue. As a developing language, it was inadequate for conveying the profound ideas about God and the soul that are difficult to express in any language. Eckhart often coined words or adapted Latin idioms to serve his purpose and occasionally used paradox and hyperbole. In addition, his hearers sometimes took down his words inaccurately. At times he himself was not sufficiently precise. It is not surprising then that some of his comments lend themselves to a pantheistic or a quietistic interpretation. A discerning reader or one using a text accompanied by explanatory notes, might read his works with profit.

The German Dominicans did not have a monopoly on spiritual writings or mysticism. A number of authors also flourished in Italy. James Passavanti and Venturino of Bergamo have already appeared in another part of this chapter. Catherine of Siena, a member of the Third Order, was the greatest of them all. As far as can be judged here below, she surpassed the German mystics in personal holiness and outstripped her own countrymen in the excellence of her writing-the Dialogue of Divine Providence, her prayers, and her letters. They are all rich in doctrine.

A true Dominican, Catherine undertook works of mercy, especially the care of the sick, guided an ever-growing family of disciples, and sought to bring peace to the warring families of the Tuscan countryside. Deeply concerned for the welfare and reform of the Church, she worked for the reconciliation of Florence and Gregory XI, contributed to the definitive return of the popes from Avignon to Rome, and did all she could to heal the Western Schism, which broke out two years before her death. In her anguish over the suffering Church, she offered herself as a victim for it. Surrounded by disciples, she died in Rome on April 29, 1380. The Life o f Catherine, written by Raymond of Capua, her confessor, and various minor pieces, record her apostolic works and mystical experiences. Pius II, a fellow Sienese, canonized her. Pius XII named her and Francis of Assisi the chief patron saints of Italy, and Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church.

The Decline of Spirit and Discipline

Late in its first century, the Order entered a decline-decay crisis that reached a climax in widespread collapse of spirit and religious discipline. The crisis originated in the multiplicity of problems that characterized the times and plagued the Church and all the Orders. Besides, at the middle of the century (13421352) four masters general had such short terms of office that the Order lacked firm leadership at a critical time. The Order’s own ideals now began to work against it. Its strict discipline, poverty and the incessant study required for the preaching ministry demand a constant renewal of zeal. What the early generations of friars had been able to do because of their dedication and spirit, their brothers of the fourteenth century failed to achieve. The tensions inherent in the contemplative apostolic life became destructive when they were not solved by men of strong motivation and zeal.

The signs of decline began to appear about 1290. They became notably worse about 1325 and reached their peak after the Black Death, 1348-1349. The general confusion that descended on the Church thirty years later, when the Western Schism began, made it more difficult to deal with these problems. The Order made a valiant attempt to solve them. The encyclicals of the masters general and the ordinances and admonitions of general chapters lashed out at prevailing abuses. The number of ordinances and admonitions increase in scope and number after 1325. By mid-century they have become very long, covering complete pages of printed text, regulating points of religious life, study, and ministry.

The progress in decline can be seen by comparing the encyclicals of Munio of Zamora with those of Hervey Nedellec. In his 1285 encyclical Munio demanded a more serious practice of poverty, more attention to silence, and greater love of the cell. In another letter ~ he spoke against idleness and required greater devotion to study. Forty years later (1323) , while extolling the virtues of the common life-love, peace, humility, voluntary poverty, and purity of life-and calling for dedication to study and the preaching ministry, Hervey of Nedellec demanded that superiors punish the unruly and insolent who were not living up to their obligations. He himself intended to deal with friars who presumed to throw off the religious yoke and, with the aid of outsiders, ambitiously sought to improve their position. Hervey’s tone and the points he deals with indicate a change for the worse since the days of Munio.

The accelerating decline that was evident when Hervey wrote turned to decay twenty-five years later after the bubonic plague had done its work. Statistics speak louder than words. In Florence, 80 Dominicans died, in Pisa, 40, in Lucca, 20, in Basel, 11. The Florentine monastery of St. James at Ripoli lost 100 nuns. The province of Provence lost 378 members. After burying all the Franciscans of Carcassonne and his own brethren, William of Carrie also sank into the grave. Imitating townspeople who tried to avoid infection by fleeing to the countryside, frightened friars deserted their infected priories. The epidemic recurred, especially in 1401 when theAvignon Obedience lost 1,100 Dominicans.

The Black Death left behind it empty priories and devastated provinces. Herculean efforts and wise policies were needed for the rebuilding of community life. All the Orders made two important mistakes. They tried to man all their empty priories, spreading their personnel too thin, and they recruited young and poorly educated boys who were so immature that they had to be given wholesale dispensations from religious discipline. When they grew older, these boy-religious were so accustomed to a soft life that no one could call them to anything stricter.

The difficulty of implementing the poverty of the Order, which forbade holding possessions and fixed revenues, was one of the chief causes of decline. Suited to a small band of dedicated, mature, and trained preachers, strict poverty posed great problems as soon as the Order’s membership climbed into the thousands. In the fourteenth century, priories began to hold properties, rents, annuities, and fixed incomes. They acquired mills, granges, houses, and endowments. The practice began innocently enough in the thirteenth century, when the generosity of the faithful could no longer keep pace with the Order’s growing numbers and expanding curriculum of studies. Larger buildings, more books, and increased income were needed to care for larger numbers of young untrained men. In some places the friars gave silent witness to their declining spirit when they built large and costly churches, cloisters, and buildings with the help of rich benefactors.

The acquisition of properties in the cities caused external difficulties as well. Municipal governments and townspeople often resented the loss of property that could be taxed and inherited. They imposed sanctions on the friars; in some places boycotted and blocked their priories. Strassburg and Cologne exiled the community until a compromise was reached. Political conflicts also made the practice of poverty burdensome. When Dominicans remained loyal to the pope and preached the ecclesiastical penalties against Louis of Bavaria, cities loyal to the Emperor forbade their citizens to give alms to the friars or exiled them, as at Constance and Strassburg, the communities of Suso and Tauler.

As the Order found it increasingly difficult to care for them, friars developed independent resources. They appealed to their families and friends for books, habits, and necessities. Abuse set in when friars sought comfort and security by acquiring legacies, gifts, and annuities. Vanity in clothing appeared; habits were made of better cloth, or ampler cut, and were often decorated with rows of buttons, wide cuffs, pleats, and sometimes trains. Friars with incomes preempted space in the dormitories, turned cells into rooms, or built apartments with private entrances through which servants, friends, and women could enter. Cells were lavishly decorated and became the place for frivolous and lengthy recreations. Talented friars vied to become preachers general and to graduate as masters for the sake of the honor, privileges, and perquisites. Softness of life, accompanied by laxity of discipline and neglect of learning, entered Dominican priories. After 1350 the choir, refectory, and classrooms were deserted as often as they were frequented. Only poor friars who could not provide well for themselves came to the refectory. When the bottom was reached, tradesmen wheeled their carts into the refectory and peddled their wares to friars who could pay for them. Fast and abstinence became a memory and dispensations the rule. Community life had broken down and the private life had replaced it. This was the state of affairs in many of the houses of the Order soon after 1350, but the entering wedges had been driven earlier.

John Bromyard’s preaching encyclopedia puts words in the mouth of a lazy friar that show how the declining spirit of the Order was hampering the ministry: “I wish to live peacefully in the cloister, reading and chanting. I do not care to hasten about the world, since this brings with it much fatigue, the great responsibility of hearing confessions and of the apostolic ministry, and the shame and labor of begging for alms.” Writing about the worst state of affairs, and perhaps exaggerating for effect, John Dominici, the leader of reform in Italy, raised the veil on the abuses and pointed to their remedy: “Let them first refrain from unnecessary buildings, reintroduce the common life, give up social superfluities, spend no money at the papal court in their private interest, and then, after the example of Dominic, let them go two by two to preach and collect alms.”

First Attempts at Reform

Tuscan friars made the first attempt to bolster discipline shortly after 1300. Nicknamed “spirituals,” because they bore some resemblance to a Franciscan group that advocated strict adherence to the letter of the Rule and Testament of Francis, they received attention at the general chapter of 1312 and the provincial chapters of the Roman province then and subsequently. Though they did not emphasize poverty excessively, they apparently drifted into unacceptable positions which destroyed their movement. An official attempt at reform began in 1369, promoted by Stephen Lacombe, provincial of the Roman province and vicar of the master general in Italy. His adherence to the Avignon Obedience in 1378 nullified his efforts.

The influence of Catherine of Siena and her disciples led to the first permanent and successful reform movement. Their opportunity came when Raymond of Capua became master general in the Roman Obedience in 1380. During his tours of visitation Raymond found friars everywhere who were truly given to the service of God and wished to serve Him in regular discipline according to the Constitutions. In Germany, Conrad of Prussia had achieved an informal leadership over these men. When Raymond came on visitation in 1388, he gave Conrad the priory of Colmar to begin a reform there.

Raymond’s next step was to universalize what he had done in Germany. With the approval of the 1388 general chapter, he sent out an encyclical calling on all the provinces to found a priory of strict observance and mendicant poverty. Once friars were formed in these houses, Raymond intended to send them to other priories, hoping in this way to reform the whole Order. The next June he appointed Conrad of Prussia vicar general over Colmar and two monasteries of nuns. By that time Conrad had thirty friars under his jurisdiction and the reform was well launched. It reached a conclusion in the German province in 1475 when most of the friars had accepted reform and were strong enough to control the provincial chapter and elect the provincial. It was the first province to reform itself. A handful of its unreformed priories were placed under a vicar general of their own. John Dominici began the reform in Italy. He introduced observance into the priories at Venice, Chioggia, and Città di Castello. He founded the Venetian monastery of Corpus Christi and encouraged Clara of Gambacorta and Maria Mancini in the monastery of Pisa.

The reformed priories and their vicars remained under the control of their provinces, but in many matters Raymond exempted them from the provincial’s authority and reserved decisions to himself. These steps led later to the grouping of reformed priories into congregations, a feature of the reform not in Raymond’s original plans but made necessary by unreformed friars who hampered and opposed the reform movement. Despite all resistance, it continued to gain strength. Half a century after Raymond’s death, John Uytenhove estimated that there were 200 reformed priories and monasteries in the province of Rome, Lombardy, Spain, Aragon, Germany, and Saxony.

Raymond’s plan of reform was superior to the earlier approaches toward renewal. They had always dealt with disciplinary problems by means of penances and legislation, multiplying them as decline accelerated. The friars could not have taken very seriously the multiplicity of prohibitions, threats, and penalties that clutter the acts of the general chapters. If they had, these would not have been repeated and increased year after year. Hugh of Vaucemain, early in the century, and John of Moulins at its middle, were groping toward Raymond’s plan. Hugh planned to provide better training for novices by gathering them into novitiate houses; John sought to make Paris both a training center of studies and religious observance. Returning to their priories on the completion of their training, friars so prepared could become a good leaven. Neither proposal was carried through. Excellent in themselves, they placed too much burden on the young alone and could not have succeeded against the kind of opposition the reformers later endured. Raymond’s plan was also utopian to some degree. Premised on the cooperation of all, it did not work as smoothly or well as he had hoped. But with true insight he had grasped that renewal and reform cannot be legislated but come about only when persons are strongly motivated to live voluntarily according to the Rule and Constitutions. He sought to reaffirm the religious life and reestablish the contemplative base of the Order’s ministry.

The Order’s fourteenth century was a very human one, reflecting both worthwhile achievement and shocking weaknesses. The zeal, sometimes sanctity, of men who sought to check decline and renew Dominican life compensated for the defects. The prayer of the mystics, the writings of scholars, the collected sermons of preachers, and the initiation of reform point to the strength inherent in the Order’s timeless mission and lofty ideal. The rise of the German mystics, the holiness of women like Catherine of Siena, Clara Gambacorta, Maria Mancini, and the nuns of the German monasteries, and of men like Henry Suso, Raymond of Capua, and John Dominici highlight the Order’s vitality and the reservoir of spiritual strength it could draw upon even during a time of confusion and decline.

Dominican missions sprang naturally from the Order’s soil and drew nourishment from the Founder’s spirit. Though frustrated in his own burning ambition to evangelize unbelievers, he had hungered for the conversion of the Cumans in the East, the Moors in his homeland, and the pagans of the North-Dominic passed the torch to his sons.

The Missionaries

Missionaries came from all over the Order. As a rule, only volunteers were sent and appear to have been well qualified and educated. Often chroniclers remark that a missionary was “trained in letters,” “sufficiently instructed in theology.” Franco of Perugia, for example, had been bachelor of the Sentences before going to the East as a missionary.

Though the Lives o f the Brethren was written to console the brethren, help them advance in the spiritual life, and show them “how carefully Providence has befriended our Order,” it contains valuable illustrations of the spirit of the early generation of friars. It reports several incidents that show the missionary zeal of the early Dominicans. It notes that when Jordan of Saxony asked the brethren who were present for the general chapter, probably at Paris in 1230, for volunteers for the Holy Land, there was scarcely a person who did not beg with tear-filled eyes “to be sent to that land which the Lord’s Blood had hallowed:” Jordan’s concern for the missions carried him on an inspection tour of the province of the Holy Land. He died on his return journey when his ship foundered off the coast of Palestine.

The 1255 and 1256 encyclicals of Humbert of Romans testify to the continuance of enthusiasm for the missions and to Humbert’s own zeal. His request for volunteers got such a response that all who came forward could not be accepted. He had to write in 1256 urging those whose services could not be used at once to be patient. Of course, such zeal did not remain at fever pitch. Humbert shrewdly observed that two things keep men from volunteering for the missions, “love of one’s own country and ignorance of languages.”

To encourage missionaries, the Order made concessions to the mission provinces of Greece and the Holy Land, and to the Congregation of Pilgrim Friars, founded in 1360 for work in eastern Europe and Asia. Not taxed for common endeavors, they might recruit missionaries anywhere and were not subject to levies on their own manpower. However, they were obliged to respect the membership of each other.

In his book on the officers of the Order, Humbert reminds the master general of his duty to promote the missions. As general, Humbert had exemplified what he had written. Not only did he seek volunteers, but, to encourage them, reported their successes to the Order. His 1256 encyclical gives a glowing account of their work in the Near East.

Raymond of Penyafort showed zeal for the missions both before and after his term as general. While still penitentiary at the papal court, he replied in detail to a series of questions the Dominican and Franciscan missionaries in Tunis had sent to him. After he had retired to Spain, following his resignation from the generalate, Raymond lifted the veil which usually hides the day-by-day work of the missionaries when John of Wildeshausen asked him for a report on the Spanish and African missions. Dominicans were working among the many Christian soldiers in the pay of the Arabs, reconciling apostates from the faith and instructing Christian slaves who were descendants of the pre-Arab population of northern Africa and ignorant of any language but Arabic. Others who were on the verge of apostasy because of poverty or the blandishments of the Moors, they strengthened. They confirmed in the faith, and sometimes liberated, Christian prisoners. Especially in Murcia, many Arabs, even some prominent men, had accepted Christianity. The friars were also answering Moors and apostates who charged that Christians were idolators because they venerated statues and images. It was Raymond’s opinion that the field was ripe for more conversions, provided missionaries would come.

The Study of Native Languages

In Spain, Raymond became the foremost promoter of the missions. With his encouragement, his province opened a school of Arabic studies at Tunis in 1250. For varying periods it maintained other schools for Oriental languages at Barcelona, Valencia, Xativa, and Murcia. Well into the next century, the general chapters encouraged study of eastern languages, as did the general council of Vienne in 1312. The 1333 general chapter required the vicar of the Pilgrim Friars to appoint language teachers at Kaffa and Pera in Constantinople to prepare for an influx of new missionaries who were expected in response to John XXII’s appeal for fifty volunteers.

That Raymond intended something more than linguistic study at these schools is demonstrated by his request to Thomas Aquinas, asking him to write something on the doctrines of faith to help prepare missionaries for their work among unbelievers. Though Thomas had additional purposes in mind when he wrote it, he produced his Summa contra Gentiles in reply.

Probably most missionaries learned the native tongues in the field. Writing to Gregory IX in 1236, Provincial Philip noted how zealously the members of the province of the Holy Land were studying the Oriental languages. Three years earlier, when two Dominicans and two Franciscans came as papal emissaries to the Greek Emperor at Nicea, Dominicans of Constantinople provided an interpreter who spoke Greek fluently and had studied the Greek fathers. With pardonable pride, Franca of Perugia, first vicar of the Pilgrim Friars, boasted of his own linguistic prowess: “I preached within a year after I began to study the barbarian tongue. By the grace of God I preach to the people, hear confessions, and also translate writings from the Latin.” Louis of Tabriz was appointed director of St. Anthony parish at Pera in 1403 because he was able to preach to the inhabitants, merchants, pilgrims, and travelers who passed through the city in Greek, Latin, Persian, Tartar, and Armenian.

Missionary Authors

The Order made an effort to provide books for the missionaries. The Master General had a duty, Humbert of Romans reminded him, to provide “treatises exposing the errors of these people, so that the friars can drill themselves in them.” Like the preachers, the missionaries wrote books to help their fellows. They were of two kinds. The first were polemical works that prepared men for discussion with Dissidents, Jews, Moors, and pagans. Other books, originating mostly in the East, described the experiences of the missionaries or recorded the beliefs and practices of Moslems. A few examples will illustrate this activity.

Raymond Martin, a pioneer orientalist in Spain, restricted his Halter of the Jews (Capistrum Judaeorum) to Jewish controversy, but directed his Dagger of the Faith (Pugio Fidei) toward both Jews and Moslems. He also compiled an Arabic dictionary. Ricoldo of Montecroce, who worked in Mesopotamia and Syria, in his Itinerary enriched Western thought with a wealth of ethnological and religious details about Tartars, Curds, Sabei, Jacobites, Nestorians, and Moslems. He also wrote a Refutation of the Koran. His five letters sent after the fall of Acre in 1291 are a beautiful and unforgettable tribute to Dominican mission idealism. The tolerance and conciliation William of Tripoli exhibits in his study of Islam explains why he could boast that he had baptized more than 1,000 Moslems. Burchard of Monte Zion’s description of the Holy Land, a mine of information, was for three centuries the classical manual of Palestinian and Near-Eastern topography. The Itineraries of Felix Fabri, who went as a pilgrim twice to the Near East in the late fifteenth century, describe the Holy Land for “stay-at-homes” rather than missionaries. The crusading treatises of William Adam and Raymond Stephen were not missionary books but aimed to further “the business of the Cross.”

The Mission Fields

The friars preferred some mission fields over others. French and Italian Dominicans sought the Near East and Asia; French friars were in the majority in thirteenth-century Palestine; Italians were in the forefront in fourteenth-century Mesopotamia and Persia. An occasional English, German, or Spanish friar found his way to the East. After 1300, wanderlust or thirst for adventure rather than zeal induced some friars to join the Pilgrim Friars. The frontier provinces-Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Greece, and Palestine had a first duty to mission territory inside their limits. But from these springboards their friars and volunteers from other provinces jumped into mission lands.

The efforts of the Spanish, Scandinavian, and Hungarian provinces reflect the zeal of Dominic. He had sent the first men to Spain and Scandinavia; during his last days, friars assigned by the second general chapter were traveling to Poland and Hungary. In 1225 contingents were en route to Greece and the Holy Land, areas the 1221 chapter had designated as future provinces.

Spanish Dominicans labored among Jews and Moors at home, across their southern borders in the Peninsula, and in Africa. They entered Morocco before 1225 and Tunis before 1230.

Alexander IV spurred renewed interest in the Tunisian mission, when he called for Dominican and Franciscan volunteers in 1254 and 1258. On his deathbed King Louis IX singled out Andrew Longjumeau, who had preached in Tunis, as best fitted to head the Tunisian preaching apostolate. The crusade of Louis temporarily halted missionary work, but the subsequent treaty and commercial agreements of Italian cities with Tunis created more favorable conditions for evangelization. However, it was still greatly restricted. Apparently on the advice of Raymond of Penyafort, in 1242, James I of Aragon prescribed Jewish and Moorish attendance at sermons preached by bishops and friars. A similar policy was resumed in 1263 at the urging of Pablo Christiani, a Dominican convert Jew.

In southern Italy the Order was entrusted with preaching to the Saracen soldiers in the armies of Frederick II in 1233.

The Scandinavian Dominicans not only worked to complete the Christianization of their own lands but pushed eastward to the pagans surrounding the Baltic Sea. They entered Finland in the wake of the Swedish conquests there in 1239. Ten years later they placed a priory in Abo. It was still the only religious house in Finland more than 150 years later. The pope appointed Dominicans to preach in central Europe, enlist recruits, and gather funds for the Finnish crusade of the Teutonic Knights. The treaty with the Finns provided for their conversion. The laborious work of really converting the natives involved the cooperation of bishops, parish priests, and friars. Dominicans were appointed to three of the four bishoprics established. The Order was so influential that Finnish dioceses adopted its liturgy.

Polish friars toiled among the Russian Orthodox in Kiev. There Hyacinth, who had introduced the Order to Poland, had founded a priory in 1222. Unfortunately, the history of the priories founded in Russia in the 1250’s is unknown. Hyacinth established a strategic point for the evangelization of Prussians, Lithuanians, and Latvians when he opened a house at Gdansk (Danzig) . The Polish and German provinces played a predominant role in organizing the church of Lithuania, following the conversion of King Mindowe. His untimely death (and perhaps apostasy in 1235) terminated this missionary attempt for a century.

Following an initial setback, Hungarian friars made so much progress in converting the Cumans that Friar Theodore was named their bishop in 1227, the first Dominican to enter the hierarchy. The Tartar invasions of 1241 overwhelmed the Cuman areas and Hungary, killing ninety friars and burning down two priories. The Cumans were scattered, but drifted back after the invasions. Mission work began again. In 1256 Humbert of Romans spoke of “a great multitude of Cumans” that had been converted, but, for the most part, work among them was discouraging. In 1339, nearly 100 years later, most of the Cumans were still pagan.

The Hungarian provincial, John of Wildeshausen, took part in unsuccessful attempts to reunite the Bulgarians to Rome. His versatility is illustrated by his ability to speak five languages and by the offices he held. In turn he became bishop of Bosnia ( resigning later), provincial of Lombardy, and master general.

The most romantic and difficult exploit of the Hungarian Dominicans was their search for the remnants of their people who had remained in the primitive homeland on the middle Volga River, called Greater Hungary. The friars read in chronicles how part of the clan had migrated and part stayed behind, “sunk in the error of infidelity.” They knew Greater Hungary was in the East, but none could say where. From 1232 to 1237 four contingents set out to search for it. After great hardship, only Friar Julian reached Greater Hungary. Its people received him royally; when he returned a second time in 1237, he found that the Tartars had submerged them and mission work was impossible. Julian’s reports describing the search are epic in the sheer heroism they record and valuable for the fresh knowledge of Russia and the Tartars they preserve.

The Order also worked in Albania, where it founded some priories. Thirteenth-century efforts in southern Russia are shrouded in darkness. A foundation was made at Tiflis, Georgia, before 1238. Continuing work in the Near East is illustrated by the preaching and debating of Ricoldo of Montecroce among the Jacobites, Nestorians, Jews, and Arabs in Mosul and Bagdad during a twelve-year stay in Mesopotamia. He met other Dominicans in Bagdad, where the Order had no house, in 1289.

The Order founded provinces in Greece and the Holy Land in 1228. Both were always small provinces with six or seven priories at the most and both saw their effectiveness as missionary enterprises destroyed through enemy action early in their existence. The Dominicans of the Grecian province worked among the western Christians in the Latin Empire of Constantinople, in the colonies of Venice, and among the Dissident Christians in Greece and its islands. It lost its chief priory in Constantinople when the Byzantine Empire was reestablished there in 1261, and its remaining priories, except Candia, to the onrushing Turks, who took Constantinople in 1453. The province continued in Crete until that island also fell to the Turks in 1669.

The Dominicans of the Holy Land evangelized western and Dissident Christians, Moslems, and Jews, inside their territory and eastward. After the fall of Acre in 1291, the province continued in three priories on Cyprus until the Turks captured the island in 1571. Its friars reunited several prelates of the separated churches and Rome during the generalate of Jordan of Saxony and converted many Saracens.

Probably the most lasting contribution of the friars to the union of the Greek and Latin Churches lies in the field of writing. A number of them who had personal contact with .Easterners, or scholars with other sources of information, produced writings dealing with Eastern problems during the medieval centuries. At the request of Urban IV, Thomas Aquinas interrupted his composition of the Summa contra Gentiles to write the Contra errores Graecorum. In the book he examined the procession of the Holy Spirit and statements of the Greek Fathers about it.

Nicholas of Vicenza and William of Tripoli, who had done excellent work in Palestine, lost a chance for undying fame when Pope Gregory X gave them letters for the Grand Khan in central Asia and sent them in the company of the Polo brothers. After spending long years in China, Marco Polo, their nephew, returned to a fame that has never been tarnished. However, the friars turned back soon after setting out when the campaign of Sultan Bibars of Egypt frightened them.

The Asiatic Tartars and the Dominicans

Dominican contact with the Tartars was extended by a design of Innocent IV. Thinking he could contain the Moslems and perhaps facilitate their acceptance of Christianity, the Pope inaugurated a plan for an alliance with the Tartars in Asia and their conversion. In 1245, he sent four embassies, two of Dominicans and two of Franciscans, to the Tartars in southern and central Asia. Franciscans, headed by John of Plano Carpini, reached the Grand Khan in Karakorum. John’s colorful account of their travels is well known. The Dominican groups contacted Tartar generals in Mesopotamia. Simon of St. Quentin described the experiences of one of the Dominican bands. It is incorporated into the Speculum maius of Vincent of Beauvais but does not rival the Franciscan report. Andrew of Longjumeau, who had headed one of the groups, had hardly returned when Louis IX sent him back to the Tartars. He reached the court at Karakorum.

Innocent’s grand plan came to nothing. Though doing credit to his missionary zeal, it presumed that the political situation and aims of Asia matched those of Europe. Even had the objectives of the Tartars and Innocent been in harmony, the practical obstacles to carrying them out were insurmountable. The report of St. Quentin shows that at least one of Innocent’s embassies lacked diplomatic finesse when it made demands on the Tartar general as though he were a papal subject. The Dominican ambassadors were lucky to escape with their lives. However, the anger of the Tartars died down and the lengthy stay of the friars among them ended on a happier note.

Garden-variety missionaries also worked in Asia. Returning from China in 1254, the Franciscan, William Rubruk, met two contingents of Dominicans who were seeking to enter the Tartar dominions. In 1274 two Dominicans made their appearance, perhaps as interpreters, in the company of a Tartar embassy to the Council of Lyons. In the fifteenth century, the Dominican Archbishop in eastern Armenia, John of Sultania, knew Tamerlane, the Khan of the Tartars, and led an embassy to Europe for him.

The Congregation of Pilgrim Friars

The missions of the Order lagged for a time after the Saracens took Acre in 1291 and closed the trade routes originating in Palestine. The friars could not travel eastward and were forced off the mainland to footholds on Cyprus. However, a new organization rallied the Order’s eastern missionaries. Founded between 1300 and 1304, the Society of Friars Travelling for the Sake of Christ among the Gentiles, later called the Congregation of Pilgrim Friars, began to work from outposts on the shifting frontiers between Christendom, Islam, and paganism. Governed by a vicar general under statutes given by Master General Berengar of Landorra, the Pilgrims were more flexible than a province. They had no fixed territory and recruited their men from the rest of the Order. The Congregation reached the peak of its activities about 1330, when it had missions at Trebizond and Chins, at two points in Turkey, in Georgia, Turkestan, Persia, and India. The Pilgrims tried in vain to enter China. Before they were founded, Nicholas of Pistoia started to China with the Franciscan, John of Montecorvino, but died while preaching in India. Montecorvino reached Pekin, where he established a successful mission. One of the Pilgrims, Jordan of Catalani, founded a mission at Quilon in India, becoming its first bishop.

After Poland conquered Red Russia in 1349, Polish friars founded priories in that area, but a quarter of a century later turned them over to the Pilgrim Friars.

The Black Death destroyed all but three of the missions of the Pilgrims, Pera, Kaffa, and Trebrizond. It forced the 1363 general chapter to incorporate these houses into the province; of Greece. Restored in 1373, the Pilgrims evangelized in Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and the Danubian principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Ruthenia. The Congregation was suppressed a second time (1456-1464 ) following the fall of Constantinople. Then restored to life, it endured until 1857 ( from 1603 under the name Congregation of the Orient and of Constantinople). At that time the remaining houses were incorporated into the province of Piedmont. At the house in the Pera-Galata, suburb of Istanbul, the Piedmontese Dominicans are presently engaged in Islamic studies.

Greater Armenia ( on the Black Sea in Iran) was one of the areas evangelized by the Pilgrim Friars. They supplied the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Sultania in western Persia, erected by John XXII in 1318. Their most striking success was the conversion of the eastern monks of Qrna in 1330. Under Abbot John Qrna adopted the Dominican liturgy, Constitutions (minus their perpetual abstinence and absolute poverty), and the habit of the cooperator brothers ( white tunic with blank scapular and hood). Other monasteries soon joined Qrna. With Dominican guidance, Abbot John then formedthe Unifying Friars of St. Gregory the Illuminator. Their aim was to work for the union of the Armenian and Latin Churches by preaching, teaching, and writing. Aided by Dominican translators, especially James Targman ( the Translator), the Armenian friars translated the Dominican Constitutions and liturgical texts and many Western theological works, notably those of Thomas Aquinas. When Innocent VI approved the Unifiers in 1356, he placed them under the care and jurisdiction of the Dominican master general. Their monasteries stood in Armenia, Georgia, and Crimea.

During the last twenty-five years of the century, the Unifiers are said to have enrolled 700 members, living in fifty monasteries. If these figures are realistic, they soon dropped after 1381 when zealous nationalists opposedthe Unifiers, and the new Tartar incursions began. When the Dominicans mitigated their perpetual abstinence and strict poverty in the second half of the fifteenth century, the distinction between them and the Unifiers began to melt away. It became customary to regard and speak of the Unifiers as Dominicans. Finally, the Order incorporated them as the province of Naxivan in 1583. Its friars continued to work in Armenia until the wars, beginning in 1750, drove them out. The last of them died at Smyrna in 1813.

The Unifying Friars of St. Gregory made an interesting attempt to serve as a bridge between the Roman and Armenian Churches and provide a well-trained native clergy. It was no fault of theirs that wars, persecution, and the ill feeling of their separated brethren stultified their effort.

Evaluation of the Missions

Dominican missionaries of the Middle Ages suffered all the handicaps and exhibit most of the flaws found in the methods of their day. Some of these were a matter of mistaken policy, such as mass or forced conversions, exemplified in Prussia where the Teutonic Knights required reception of Baptism in their treaties with the natives, employing friars to administer the Sacrament. Kings in Spain obliged Jews and Moors to attend sermons. There was also little continuity or follow-up. Ricoldo of Montecroce, during his long apostolate in Mesopotamia, established sound principles for work among Dissidents, but, after making conversions, even he hurried on to new conquests.The missionaries were plagued by distance and the hardships of travel, and a disaster could cripple an organized effort. Thus the Black Death in 1348 decimated the Pilgrim Friars. Political conditions sometimes interrupted or destroyed promising beginnings. In this way, the Tartar invasions in 1241 halted and almost put an end to the work of the Hungarian Dominicans among the Cumans. The fifteenth-century incursions of Tamerlane destroyed churches and buildings in Georgia. When he returned to Asia, the friars had to begin again. Likewise, Western missionaries misunderstood the oriental mind and failed in their appeal to the people and clergy. In Saracen lands political law and social convention made conversion difficult. Evangelization was done secretly and little recordof it remains.

Dominicans gave their lives for the faith. Tartars killed ninety-four friars, among them Bl. Sadoc, their leader, and destroyed five priories in Poland and two in Hungary. Another group of Dominican martyrs suffered at Sandomir, Poland, but the time and circumstances of their death are unknown. When Acre fell in 1291, the last Dominican priory in Palestine offered thirty of its members as a holocaust. Ricoldo of Montecroce found Dominican vestments, books, breviaries, and blood-stained habits pierced by swords among the booty brought into Bagdad from Acre. A Dominican nun, the lone survivor, gave him details of the slaughter.

Bl. Anthony of Neyrot presents an interesting case. Captured by the Moors and taken to Tunis, he first apostatized, but then repented and preached Christ. The Bey had him stoned to death in 1460.

Even though the historian can point to few lasting results of the heroic self-sacrifices of the medieval Dominican missionaries, he must admit they added luster to the Church, testified to the vitality of the Order, and excited later missionaries to similar efforts. They illustrate the need to search constantly for enlightened methods of evangelization.