Editing Dominican Order (section)

===Middle Ages===
In July 1215, with the approbation of [[Folquet de Marselha|Bishop Foulques of Toulouse]], Dominic ordered his followers into an institutional life. Its purpose was revolutionary in the pastoral ministry of the Catholic Church. These priests were organized and well trained in religious studies. Dominic needed a framework—a rule—to organize these components. The Rule of Saint Augustine was an obvious choice for the Dominican Order, according to Dominic's successor Jordan of Saxony, in the [[Libellus de principiis]], because it lent itself to the "salvation of souls through preaching".{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=44}} By this choice, however, the Dominican brothers designated themselves not monks, but [[canons regular]]. They could practice ministry and common life while existing in individual poverty.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=44}}{{sfn|Tugwell|1982|p=55}}

[[File:La chambre de Saint Dominique (maison Seilhan) - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|Dominic's room at Maison Seilhan, in [[Toulouse]], is considered the place where the order was born.]]

The Order of Preachers was approved in December 1216 and January 1217 by [[Pope Honorius III]] in the [[papal bull]]s {{Lang|la|[[Religiosam vitam]]}} and {{lang|la|[[Nos attendentes]]}}. On January 21, 1217, Honorius issued the bull {{lang|la|Gratiarum omnium}}{{sfn|Duggan|Greatrex|Bolton|Boyle|2005|p=202}} recognizing Dominic's followers as an order dedicated to study and universally authorized to preach, a power formerly reserved to local episcopal authorization.{{sfn|Renard|1977|p=}}

Along with charity, the other concept that most defines the work and spirituality of the order is study, the method most used by the Dominicans in working to defend the church against the perils it faced. In Dominic's thinking, it was impossible for men to preach what they did not or could not understand. On August 15, 1217, Dominic dispatched seven of his followers to the great university center of Paris to establish a [[priory]] focused on study and preaching. The Convent of St. Jacques would eventually become the order's first {{lang|la|[[studium generale]]}}. Dominic was to establish similar foundations at other university towns of the day, [[Bologna]] in 1218, [[Palencia]] and [[Montpellier]] in 1220, and [[Oxford]] just before his death in 1221.{{sfn|Weisheipl|1960}} The women of the order also established schools for the children of the local gentry.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

[[File:The epitaph of the preacher Berthold de Wyrbna in Szprotawa Poland.jpg|thumb|right|Dominican epitaph of Berthold de Wyrbna from 1316 on the tower of the parish church in [[Szprotawa]], Poland]]

In 1219, Pope Honorius III invited Dominic and his companions to take up residence at the ancient Roman [[basilica]] of [[Santa Sabina]], which they did by early 1220. Before that time the friars had only a temporary residence in Rome at the convent of [[San Sisto Vecchio]] which Honorius III had given to Dominic circa 1218 intending it to become a convent for a reformation of nuns at Rome under Dominic's guidance. In May 1220 at Bologna the order's first [[Chapter (religion)#General chapter|General Chapter]] mandated that each new priory of the order maintain its own {{lang|la|studium conventuale}}, thus laying the foundation of the Dominican tradition of sponsoring widespread institutions of learning.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|loc=Ch 1}}{{sfn|Hastings|Selbie|Gray|1919|p=701}} The official foundation of the Dominican convent at Santa Sabina with its {{lang|la|studium conventuale}} occurred with the legal transfer of property from Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on June 5, 1222.{{sfn|Mandonnet|1944|loc=Ch. III, note 50}} This {{lang|la|studium}} was transformed into the order's first {{lang|la|studium provinciale}} by [[Thomas Aquinas]] in 1265. Part of the curriculum of this {{lang|la|studium}} was relocated in 1288 at the {{lang|la|studium}} of [[Santa Maria sopra Minerva]] which in the 16th century world be transformed into the College of Saint Thomas ({{langx|la|Collegium Divi Thomæ}}). In the 20th century the college would be relocated to the convent of [[Santi Domenico e Sisto|Saints Dominic and Sixtus]] and would be transformed into the [[Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas|Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'']].{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

The Dominican friars quickly spread, including to England, where they appeared in [[Oxford]] in 1221.{{sfn|Morgan|2010|p=748}} In the 13th century the order reached all classes of Christian society, fought [[Christian heresy|heresy]], [[Schism (religion)|schism]], and [[paganism]] by word and book, and by its missions to the north of Europe, to Africa, and Asia passed beyond the frontiers of [[Christendom]]. Its schools spread throughout the entire church; its doctors wrote monumental works in all branches of knowledge, including the extremely important [[Albertus Magnus]] and [[Thomas Aquinas]]. Its members included popes, cardinals, bishops, legates, inquisitors, confessors of princes, ambassadors, and {{lang|la|paciarii}} (enforcers of the peace decreed by popes or councils).{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}}

[[File:Saint Thomas Aquinas Diego Velázquez.jpg|left|thumb|Doctor Angelicus, [[Thomas Aquinas]] (1225–1274), considered by many Catholics to be the greatest Catholic theologian, is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his [[Chastity|proof of chastity]].]]

The order's origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its later development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate; many years after Dominic reacted to the Cathars, the first [[Spanish Inquisition|Grand Inquistor of Spain]], [[Tomás de Torquemada]], would be drawn from the Dominican Order. The order was appointed by [[Pope Gregory IX]] the duty to carry out the [[Inquisition]].{{sfn|Van Helden|1995}} Torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but as a means of eliciting the truth. In his papal bull {{lang|la|[[Ad extirpanda]]}} of 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorised the Dominicans' use of torture under prescribed circumstances.{{sfn|Blötzer|1910}}

The expansion of the order produced changes. A smaller emphasis on doctrinal activity favoured the development here and there of the [[ascetic]] and [[contemplative]] life and there sprang up, especially in Germany and Italy, the mystical movement with which the names of [[Meister Eckhart]], [[Heinrich Suso]], [[Johannes Tauler]], and [[Catherine of Siena]] are associated. (See [[German mysticism]], which has also been called "Dominican mysticism".) This movement was the prelude to the reforms undertaken, at the end of the century, by [[Raimondo delle Vigne|Raymond of Capua]], and continued in the following century.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

[[File:Miguel Cabrera - Allegory of the Virgin Patroness of the Dominicans - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|''Allegory of the Virgin Patroness of the Dominicans'' by [[Miguel Cabrera (painter)|Miguel Cabrera]]]]

At the same time, the order found itself face to face with the [[Renaissance]]. It struggled against pagan tendencies in [[Renaissance humanism]], in Italy through Dominici and Savonarola, in Germany through the theologians of [[Cologne]] but it also furnished humanism with such advanced writers as [[Francesco Colonna (writer)|Francesco Colonna]] (probably the writer of the {{lang|la|[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]}}) and [[Matteo Bandello]]. Many Dominicans took part in the artistic activity of the age, the most prominent being [[Fra Angelico]] and [[Fra Bartolomeo]].{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}}{{Better source|date=April 2025}}

====Women====
Although Dominic and the early brethren had instituted female Dominican houses at Prouille and other places by 1227, houses of women attached to the Order became so popular that some of the friars had misgivings about the increasing demands of female religious establishments on their time and resources. Nonetheless, women's houses dotted the countryside throughout Europe. There were 74 Dominican female houses in Germany, 42 in Italy, 9 in France, 8 in Spain, 6 in Bohemia, 3 in Hungary, and 3 in Poland.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=13}} Many of the German religious houses that lodged women had been home to communities of women, such as [[Beguines]], that became Dominican once they were taught by the traveling preachers and put under the jurisdiction of the Dominican authoritative structure. A number of these houses became centers of study and mystical spirituality in the 14th century, as expressed in works such as the [[sister-books]]. There were 157 nunneries in the order by 1358. After that year, the number lessened considerably due to the Black Death.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=14}}

In places besides Germany, convents were founded as retreats from the world for women of the upper classes. These were original projects funded by wealthy patrons. Among these was Countess Margaret of Flanders who established the monastery of Lille, while [[Château of Val-Duchesse#History|Val-Duchesse]] at Oudergem near Brussels was built with the wealth of Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant (1262).{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=337}}

[[File:Figur Alte Uni Marburg.jpg|thumb|left|A figure depicting the term {{lang|la|domini canes}} ('[[hound]]s of the [[Jesus|lord]]') since the [[Medieval Inquisition|Inquisition]] in the 13th century,{{efn| name="DC"}}{{sfn|Van Helden|1995}}{{clarify|date=March 2025}} on a corner of a former Dominican monastery (before the Reformation), Old University, [[Marburg]], Germany]]

Female houses differed from male Dominican houses in that they were enclosed. The sisters chanted the [[Liturgy of the Hours|Divine Office]] and kept all the monastic observances.{{sfn|Lee|2001|pp=70–73}} The nuns lived under the authority of the general and provincial chapters of the order. They shared in all the applicable privileges of the order. The friars served as their confessors, priests, teachers and spiritual mentors.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=382}}

Women could be professed to the Dominican religious life at the age of 13. The formula for profession contained in the Constitutions of Montargis Priory (1250) requires that nuns pledge obedience to God, the Blessed Virgin, their prioress and her successors according to the Rule of Saint Augustine and the institute of the order, until death. The clothing of the sisters consisted of a white tunic and scapular, a leather belt, a black mantle, and a black veil. Candidates to profession were questioned to reveal whether they were actually married women who had merely separated from their husbands. Their intellectual abilities were also tested. Nuns were to be silent in places of prayer, the cloister, the dormitory, and refectory. Silence was maintained unless the prioress granted an exception for a specific cause. Speaking was allowed in the common parlor, but it was subordinate to strict rules, and the prioress, subprioress or other senior nun had to be present.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=30}}

As well as sewing, embroidery and other genteel pursuits, the nuns participated in a number of intellectual activities, including reading and discussing pious literature.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=31}} In the Strassburg monastery of Saint Margaret, some of the nuns could converse fluently in Latin. Learning still had an elevated place in the lives of these religious. In fact, Margarette Reglerin, a daughter of a wealthy Nuremberg family, was dismissed from a convent because she did not have the ability or will to learn.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=384}}

====English Province====
The English [[Ecclesiastical province#Religious institutes|Province]] and the Hungarian Province both date back to the second general chapter of the Dominican Order, held in Bologna during the spring of 1221.<ref>Lew, L., [https://dominicanfriars.org/blessed-paul-founder-hungarian-province/ Blessed Paul, Founder of the Hungarian Province] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807161243/https://dominicanfriars.org/blessed-paul-founder-hungarian-province/ |date=2022-08-07 }}, ''Dominican Friars Foundation'', accessed 1 July 2022</ref>

Dominic dispatched 12 friars to England under the guidance of their English prior, Gilbert of Fresney, and they landed in [[Dover]] on August 5, 1221. The province officially came into being at its first provincial chapter in 1230.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p=1}}

The English Province was a component of the international order from which it obtained its laws, direction, and instructions. It was also, however, a group of Englishmen. Its direct supervisors were from England, and the members of the English Province dwelt and labored in English cities, towns, villages, and roadways. English and European ingredients constantly came in contact. The international side of the province's existence influenced the national, and the national responded to, adapted, and sometimes constrained the international.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p=2}}

The first Dominican site in England was at Oxford, in the parishes of St. Edward and St. Adelaide.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p=4}} The friars built an oratory to the Blessed Virgin Mary{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p= 6|ps=: There was a dispute over this oratory in 1228.}} and by 1265, the brethren, in keeping with their devotion to study, began erecting a school. The Dominican brothers likely began a school immediately after their arrival, as priories were legally schools.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|pp=8–9}} Information about the schools of the English Province is limited, but a few facts are known. Much of the information available is taken from visitation records.{{sfn|O'Carroll|1980|p=32}} The "visitation" was an inspection of the province by which visitors to each priory could describe the state of its religious life and its studies at the next chapter. There were four such visits in England and Wales—Oxford, London, Cambridge and York.{{sfn|O'Carroll|1980|p=33}} All Dominican students were required to learn grammar, old and new logic, natural philosophy and theology. Of all of the curricular areas, however, theology was the most important.{{sfn|O'Carroll|1980|p=57}}

[[Dartford Priory]] was established long after the primary period of monastic foundation in England had ended. It emulated, then, the monasteries found in Europe—mainly France and Germany-as well as the monastic traditions of their English Dominican brothers. The first nuns to inhabit Dartford were sent from the {{ill|priory of Poissy|fr|Prieuré Saint-Louis de Poissy}} in France.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=13}} Even on the eve of the [[Dissolution of the monasteries|Dissolution]], Prioress Jane Vane wrote to Cromwell on behalf of a postulant, saying that though she had not actually been professed, she was professed in her heart and in the eyes of God. Profession in Dartford Priory seems, then, to have been made based on personal commitment, and one's personal association with God.<ref>Lee, ''Monastic and Secular Learning'', 61.</ref>

As heirs of the Dominican priory of Poissy in France, the nuns of Dartford Priory in England were also heirs to a tradition of profound learning and piety. Strict discipline and plain living were characteristic of the monastery throughout its existence.{{sfn|Page|1926|pp= 181–190}}