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At the end of our last chapter
you were asked to remember the name of the Bishop of Osma, Diego
D'Azevedo. It was he who was responsible for catapulting Dominic
into a whole new sphere, radically different from the peace and
quiet of the cloister of Osma where he had intended to spend the
rest of his days. In 1203, the king of Castile sent Bishop Diego to
arrange a marriage of his son, Ferdinand, with "a noble lady of
the Marches." Scholars agree that the "Marches" were
what is now known as Denmark. The identity of the noble lady is not
certain, but it seems probable that she was the niece of King
Vademar II of Denmark, the daughter of his sister, Sophie, and Count
Siegfried of Orlamünde, Since Prince Ferdinand was only 15 years
old she probably was at least as young. The bishop asked Dominic to
go with him. After they had crossed the Pyrenees, or, what is more
likely, gone around them, they had to cross the district of Toulouse
in Southern France. The first night they spent in an inn whose owner
had rejected his Catholic faith and joined a a great heresy that was
raging in the Toulouse and had practically taken over the entire
area. It was called the Albigensian heresy. It was based on the very
ancient idea that matter was evil and spirit was good. It has been
around for a long time and is still with us in the form of
theosophy, Christian Science and those who go in for Buddhism and
other Eastern religions. It appeals to people who have vague and
hazy minds and do not want to do any serious thinking. Albigenianism
had the additional twist in that it did develop a logical and clear
theological system. Marriage was evil, sex was sinful, flesh meat
was forbidden, austerities were the in thing, and suicide was the
preferred way of death. This would not, of course, appeal to many
people, but Albigenianism had an answer for this. Only a few, the
perfect, were obliged to this form of life. The rest were free to
live as normal human beings. They were required only to renounce the
Catholic faith and the Sacraments. The lords, of course, were all in
favor of this approach for it meant that they could have the lands
and income of the Church, which was the same tactic Luther used in
Germany and Henry VIII used in England. The result was that it was a
deep-seated heresy and difficult to eradicate. Dominic was appalled
that anyone could fall for this nonsense. He and the innkeeper got
into an argument that lasted the whole night, but in the morning the
innkeeper fell on his knees and asked to be reconciled to the
Church. This experience changed Dominic's life forever. He could
never go back to the cloister at Osma. He did, however, have to
continue on the journey to the Marches, return to the court of the
king of Castile with the result of their successful negotiations,
and then go back to the Marches to escort the young princess back to
Castile. But on they were on this last leg of their mission, word
came to them the bride-to-be had died, or, as some think, entered a
monastery. In either case, she was dead to the world and marriage
was out of the question. The retinue of courtiers broke up to return
home in any way they wanted. Diego and Dominic decided to go by way
of Rome. Diego shared with Pope Innocent III some ideas close to his
heart. One was the situation in southern France, another was a
desire to resign his see so he could go and convert the Tartars or
Tatars, a warlike Mongolian people who had invaded what is now
Russia and were threatening to move further westward. St. Dominic
would adopt the same dream and grow a beard so he could be ready to
leave at a moment's notice. Monks and friars were usually
clean-shaven so this made the saint distinctive. The Pope, however,
refused Diego's requests and told him to go home for there was
greater work to be done there. In obedience, the bishop and his
prior started back home but the Albigensian heresy was always in the
back of their minds. On their trip they stopped at Citeaux, the
great monastery founded by St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the mother
abbey of inumerable others of the Cisterian Order throughout Europe.
The Pope had entrusted the mission of preaching to win back the
heretics to the Church to the monks of Citeaux. Diego was so
impressed with the Cisterians that he received their habit and
persuaded a group of monks to return to Spain with him. On their
journey, they met at Montpellier the Abbot of Citeaux and two other
monks, Pierre of Castelnau and Raoul of Fontefroide who had been
preaching in Southern France with no success. The monks were
discouraged and frustrated, for the heretics proved to be unmoved by
their efforts. Bishop Diego quickly pointed out the reasons for
their failure. They had gone there as papal legates surrounded by
all the pomp and circumstance that attended papal legates, fine
horses, splendid regalia, impressive robes, comfortable living
quarters and good food. The Cisterians actually lived very austere
lives, but they felt they had to take on all the trappings of papal
legates. As Diego made clear, this was no way to impress people
whose leaders led lives of extreme austerity. Actually, the
Cisterians would have been more successful if they had gone there as
simple Cisterians, living their own austere lives.They took Diego's
words to heart as did Dominic. In fact, he went them one better. He
was even more austere than the most austere of the leaders and he
let it be known how much he denied himself. He would not sleep on a
bed, but on the floor; one Lent he lived only on bread and water; he
had the discipline given to him --- in other words, he was whipped.
In all of these he made sure that everyone knew the extent of his
penances. They may have been done for show, but the hard floor was
real, the emptiness of his stomach was real, the lashes he received
were real. They impressed even the heresy's leaders who wondered at
his physical endurance that they could not equal. At the same time
he engaged in public debates with the heretical leaders and won one
after another. One common way of deciding the winners was to throw
the resume of their arguments into the fire. In every case, the
resumes of the heretics were burned but Dominic's were thrown back
out of the fire intact. In one case, the charred beam of the
fireplace that his document hit as it flew out of the fire can still
be seen. In other words, it was so hot that it could char a wooden
beam but miraculously it was not consumed by the heat as great as it
was.
One evening in 1206, outside the north gates of the village of
Fanjeaux, St. Dominic sat reading about St. Mary Magdalen whose
feast day it was. As he reflected on the life of the saint he was
moved to ask God for guidance in what he should do. He also asked
for a sign from the Blessed Virgin to help him. Just then a globe of
fire came out of the heavens, hovered a bit and then in a blaze of
glory settled over the forlorn and desolate church of Prouille which
was nearby. The saint could not believe his eyes. He came back to
the same spot the next evening and the sign was repeated. He
returned again on the third evening and sure enough the vision
appeared again. He took this as the sign he had prayed for and
determined that the church at Prouille was the place God wanted him
to begin his work. This vision is known as the Seignadou, "the
sign of God" in the language of the place and time. The way he
began his work was to collect a group of women at Prouille and form
them into nuns. This was not just a gathering of a group of pious
women. Rather it was a daring tactic to counteract a strategy of the
Albigensians who used similar groups of women who had attained the
rank of "perfect" to teach the children of impoverished
Catholic nobles and raise them in the heresy. These convents also
served as apostolic centers where people could go for instruction
and help. This is exactly what St. Dominic intended to do, but only
for Catholic women, specifically, those who had been heretics but
had returned to the Church. The initial group was nine in number. He
gave them a simple white habit with a black veil. They were
cloistered but not in the strict sense that our present day
cloistered nuns are. Rather they were more like the Religious of the
Sacred Heart or as the Ursulines used to be. They could not go out
of the cloister but people could freely come to them for
instruction, encouragment and assistance. Bishop Diego highly
approved of this move as did the bishop of Toulouse who in addition
gave the sisters title to the church and land as well as the tithes
and first fruits due to it. Thus, the financial security of the new
foundation was assured. In addition, St. Dominic moved the little
band of men who were working with him on to the property so it
became a kind of "double monastery" which was not uncommon
at the time. The following year, 1207, Bishop Diego decided it was
high time for him to return to his diocese of Osma with the
intention of returning as soon as possible. But this was never
possible for he died the following year. Upon his departure, Dominic
was left in charge of the mission. He became a close friend of the
Bishop of Toulouse, Foulques, a most apostolic pastor who saw in
Dominic a kindred spirit who could be of great help to him in
fulfilling his pastoral duties. The situation would be greatly
complicated the following year, 1208, when the papal legate in
charge of the preaching mission to the Albigensians, was killed by
the heretics. This brought on a bloody crusade led by Simon de
Montfort, an English nobleman. Dominic was highly respected by Simon
but he never expected the saint to participate in the battles that
went on nor did he serve as an inquisitor. In fact, he saw that war
was no way to overcome a well-established heresy so he wanted
nothing to do with the so-called crusade.
In February of 1213, the bishop of Carcassonne went to France to see
if he could get more troops to help in the Crusade. He appointed
Dominic as his vicar general during his absence which lasted several
months. This gave him an insight into the working of a diocese and
administrative experience. It was in this position that he realized
that the parochial system alone was inadequate to handle situations
such as those of Southern France. Something more was needed. All
during this time Dominic continued to preach, engage in debates with
the heretics and give lectures. His cheerfulness and joyousness of
spirit never deserted him even in the face of threats against his
life. He was fearless.
Once, he walked alone through a village that he knew was bitterly
against him singing at the top of his voice so that if they wanted
to harm him they had their chance. Another time a group of heretics
asked him, "Have you no fear of death? What would you do if we
siezed you now?" Dominic laughed and said, "Oh I would
just ask you not put me to death all at once; but gradually limb by
limb to make my martyrdom a slow one, so that hardly human in form,
blinded and a mass of blood, I should have a really much finer place
in heaven." What can you do with a man who wants to be a
martyr? Bodily harm or even a cruel death would play right into his
hands. The result was that they left him alone. In 1215, a wealthy
merchant of Toulouse, Peter de Seila, gave St Dominic and his
companions some houses in the city. Later on he was to join the
Order as a brother and took care of finances. He used to say that it
was not the Order that received him but it was he who received the Order. This was his
little joke that he used repeatedly. As soon as the brethren had
moved into the house Dominic took them to the lectures of Alexander
of Stavensby, a distinguished theologian who was teaching in
Toulouse at the time. It was during this period that Dominic began
to realize that that something more that was needed over and above
the parochial system was a world-wide Order that would be devoted to
preaching divine Truth. Its members would have to be learned, live a
life of austerity and be contemplative. He saw that the problems of
the Church were not confined to Southern France but were universal.
In that same year, 1215, he attended the Third Lateran Council in
Rome as canon theologian for Bishop Foulques. There he had a chance
to talk with Pope Innocent III about his ideas for a preaching
Order. His basic problem was that the idea of a world-wide Order
under one head was radical. It had never been done and Dominic had
no models to build on. Another difficulty was that Rome and the
bishops were wary of a group of preachers because they had had bad
experiences with other groups such as the Humiliati. The major
obstacle was that the Lateran Council had forbidden the founding of
new Orders. New religious rules were out. There were to be no more
of them. The upshot was that Pope Innocent III told St. Dominic to
go back to his little community of six brothers and select which one
of the approved rules they would follow. He hurried back only to
find that his group of six were now sixteen. There was really no
problem in the selection. The Rule of St. Augustine, which St. Dominic and most of his other brethren had
lived by for years was the obvious choice. It was a rule writen by a
cleric for clerics. They also adopted some customs in regard to
eating, fasting, sleeping and wearing wool. These were the beginning
of what would develop into the Dominican Constitutions. One other
obstacle remained. Despite the houses of Peter de Seila they had no
real religious house. It so happened that a priory was vacant in
Toulouse, dedicated to St. Romain, with a hospital attached. Bishop
Foulques and his canons gave it to St. Dominic and his companions.
Although it was small it was remodeled ( a practice which Dominicans
are still used to) and was made into a serviceable house.
In 1216, Dominic set out for Rome with everything in proper order
for papal approval. When he got there he found out that Pope
Innocent III had died and a new Pope, Honorius III, was the man to
deal with. How that turned out we must leave to the next section.
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