PREFACE.

A COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE of St. Dominic and of the history of his Order was published by the present writer about thirty-four years ago. This volume having long been out of print, it has been thought desirable to supply its place with a more complete history of the Saint than it was possible to attempt within the limits of the former publication. In doing so, passages from the earlier biography have been freely reprinted whenever this was found convenient; nevertheless, such extensive corrections and enlargements have been introduced into the present volume as render it a new and distinct work.

The reader who enters on the study of the Life of St. Dominic, needs to be reminded of the period of history to which it belongs. It includes the fifty years which succeeded the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, a time of much corruption and social disorder, during which we see the Church torn by schism and in deadly conflict with the secular power, but triumphant at last and asserting her supreme sway in the magnificent Pontificate of Innocent III. The men who left their stamp on the age were all characters of strong personality, whether for good or evil, and hence their lives present us with examples of heroic virtue mingled with others of appalling crime. The dominion of law was only beginning to be enforced on the turbulent society of modern Europe by powerful rulers, such as Henry II. of England, Philip Augustus of France, and the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, themselves often responsible for deeds of violence as ruthless as any which they repressed. It may help us to realize the condition of Europe during the period of which our history treats, if we bear in mind that the birth of St. Dominic took place one year before the martyrdom of St. Thomas; that his life in the peaceful cloisters of Osma was passed at the time when Richard Cœur de Lion was warring in the Holy Land against the hosts of Saladin; that his apostolate in Languedoc coincides with that most miserable period of English history, the reign of King John and the Six Years Interdict; and that the foundation of his Order took place in the same year that witnessed the signature of Magna Charta. It was emphatically a semi-barbarous age, replete indeed with great ideas, such as befitted the heroes of the Crusades, and the mail-clad champions of English liberty, but certainly not to be judged of by any modern standard, social or political.

When, therefore, in the early chapters of our history, we find ourselves in presence of a war which exhibits the combatants on both sides as often, practising cruelties most revolting to humanity, this need certainly cause no surprise. If, in the following pages, the details of these horrors have been but briefly alluded to, it has been from no sort of desire either to dissimulate their existence, or to defend their authors, for whom we plead only that they must be judged according to the ideas prevalent in their own time, not according to the maxims of a more civilized age. But in vindicating the saint himself from having had any share in these acts, we appeal, riot to any such indulgent judgment, but to the plain truth of history. The closest and most critical examination of contemporary writers fails to elicit a single fact that can affix the stain of cruelty to the character of St. Dominic, and in the following pages we hope to have established the truth of this assertion in the mind of every candid reader.

In saying this, however, we are far from intending to represent the Saint as an advocate of religious toleration, a modern doctrine of which, as now understood, no trace is to be found in any religious body before the Edict of Nantes, and which in our own country received but partial application up to the date of Catholic Emancipation. To look for it in the thirteenth century would be an anachronism as great as to look, during the same period, for Parliamentary Government. St. Dominic during his whole career was the champion of truth, and, as such, the determined enemy of heresy. To deny this would be to rob him of one of his chief glories; but to regard the assertion of this fact as equivalent to an admission of his want of humanity, argues a certain confusion of ideas, and the loss in some degree of the sense of what is meant by religious truth. This result has no doubt been produced in many minds by the spread among us of modern liberal ideas, and we need to be reminded that so far from the hatred of heresy being opposed to true charity, it is a necessary part of that love of souls which flows from the love of God. The Saint who “studied only in the book of charity,” who was “the lover of souls,” because he was “the friend of Jesus Christ,” who is invoked as “the most kind Father, Dominic,” distinguished even among the saints for his “matchless serenity,” and for the tender love that flowed from him as from “a well-spring of sweetness,” hated heresy out of the very fulness of his love for souls; and the word Veritas, which has become the motto of his Order, was in his eyes but another form of the yet sweeter word Charitas. This truth, dimmed though it may have become in our own age and country, is the real key to the character of St. Dominic, and of all other Saints in whom this enmity to that which opposes the truth is an integral portion of their love of God; a Divine instinct, marking their allegiance to His Supreme Sovereignty, and one which can alone explain both their heroic labours in defence of the faith, and the tears they wept over souls perishing in error.

Although the authorities which exist for reconstructing the history of St. Dominic are sufficiently abundant, they do not always supply us with satisfactory information as to the chronology of his life, or the right order of the events which they record. In these matters hardly two writers exactly agree, and a modern compiler can only do his best to harmonize their statements, and choose between probabilities. All these authorities, moreover, are not equally authentic, the more ancient being, as a rule, the most trustworthy; whilst those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often admit into their pages narratives which will not stand the test of criticism. We proceed to name those most frequently quoted in the following pages.

1. Life of the Blessed Dominic, first Father of the FF. Preachers. This Life, written by Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who succeeded St. Dominic in the government of the Order, is printed by Echard and Quetif in the first volume of their great work, entitled, Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum, together with copious and valuable annotations. It also appears in the collection of the Bollandists (August, tom. 1). It was written before the year 1233, and is supplemented by an Encyclical Letter, written after the translation of the Saint’s body, and giving an account of that ceremony.

2. The Acts of Bologna, consisting of the depositions of nine of the brethren who were most familiar with the Saint during his life, and whose evidence was taken at the time of his canonization. These depositions contain by far the most perfect portrait of the Saint that we possess, and the simplicity and sobriety of their language bespeak their truthfulness.

3. The Acts of Toulouse, drawn up before the canonization of the Saint, contain the testimonies of various persons, touching his virtues and miracles during his residence in Languedoc. All these persons were intimately acquainted with him, and gave evidence of what they had themselves witnessed. The letter of the Commissioners who received these depositions was signed by more than three hundred sworn witnesses.

4. Life of the Blessed Dominic. By Humbert de Romans, fifth General of the Order.

5. Chronicle of the Order of Preachers. By the same. Both written before 1254.

6. Narrative of Sister Cecilia. These five last authorities, all of great interest and value, are to be found printed in the Appendix to the first volume of the

7. Annalium Ordinis Prædicatorum. By Father Thomas Maria Mamachi, and others; a work of great research, in which are collected a vast number of original documents connected with the history of the Saint and of the Order.

8. Life of the Blessed Dominic. By Constantine de Medicis, bishop of Orvieto, 1242.

9. Life of St. Dominic. By Bartholomew of Trent, 1234. These are short biographies, but both of them contain some valuable matter elsewhere omitted. They are reprinted by the Bollandists.

10. Vita Fratrum Ord. Præd. This collection is sometimes attributed to Humbert de Romans, but was really compiled by Father Gerard de Frachet, to whom the work was committed by Humbert after the Chapter of 1256. It consists of a collection of anecdotes, illustrative of the early history of the Order, the second part being devoted entirely to incidents belonging to the life of St. Dominic. It is written in a style of devout simplicity, which possesses a great charm, and bears the impress of truth on every page.

11. Life of St. Dominic. By Father Theodoric of Apoldia. Father Theodoric was a German by birth, Apoldia being a town not far from Weimar. He wrote this Life by command of Munio de Zamora, seventh General of the Order, about the year 1288. His work is reprinted by the Bollandists, and though inferior in point of style to that of Blessed Jordan, it is by far the most full of all the ancient biographies.

Coming to a later date we have—

12. Vitæ...