Editing Dominican Order (section)

====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}}