Dominic, A Man of his Time and for his Time

Spiritual Conference to Lay Dominicans
November 7, 1990

Introduction

I would like to show you today Dominic as a man of his time and for his time. He saw the need to defend the Catholic truth that was being subverted by heretics like the Albigenses - we have already seen that. He also saw the need to evangelize the new social class that was developing in Europe, the bourgeois class that was in the process of replacing the declining feudal society. He founded the Order of Preachers adapted to both these needs. An Order that was at the cutting edge of the apostolate of the Church in the 13th century.

A New Social Order is Born: the Bourgeoisie

At the turn of the 12th century, a new social class was being born in Europe: the BOURGEOISIE. A society in fermentation, full of life and exuberance.

New elements are born in a society filled with new vitality that the older social structures, the feudal system, are unable to assimilate. For a new wine you need new wineskins. Both the secular order and Christendom were undergoing a crisis of growth.

Apparition of the Mendicant Orders on the Scene

When you look at the apparition of the Mendicant Orders in the Church and you see in Dominic and Francis only two extraordinary saints who pioneered original forms of apostolate, you are simplifying a phenomenon much more complex.

St. Dominic and St. Francis were more than founders of new religious Orders. They were the Church at a critical and exciting moment of its history, at the time of the birth of a great century of faith.

The vital energy and enthusiasm of the time gave us the artistic masterpiece which reflected that religious fervor: the gothic cathedral. And just as you will never understand a thing about the medieval cathedral if you do not first understand the faith and hope of the people who built it, likewise you shall never understand the profound significance of the Mendicant Orders unless you perceive the effervescence of the Christian life that gave them birth.

Great men who most influence their time are men who are of their time, who understand the needs and aspirations of their time and respond to them. Men who are in some real sense the product of their time, the children of their society.

The Mendicant Orders renewed the Church in the 13th century because they gave expression and body to the faith and deepest aspirations of that Church. The Mendicant Orders were truly THE CHURCH, the dynamic manifestations of the Church in labor, about to give birth to a NEW CHURCH, a renewed Church, that would produce a multitude of Saints, Theologians, Preachers, and other great Churchmen.

The 13th century is one of the brightest moments in the history of the Church. If we can with some justification speak of the Middle Ages as "the dark ages", this can only apply to the early Middle Ages, surely not to the 13th century. The latter was, on the contrary, a most glorious time in the history of the Church. It has been rightly called THE GREAT CENTURY OF FAITH. And this extraordinary explosion of faith and religious vitality is very largely attributable to the influence of the Mendicant Orders: Dominicans and Franciscans.

One thing needs to be stated clearly here: the Mendicant Orders were not engaged in a struggle against the Church, against a Church unwilling to accept radical changes. On the contrary, they fulfilled the deepest aspirations of that Church and aspirations of the laity, the people of God, and aspirations of clear-sighted Popes like Innocent III (1198-1216).

The 13th century was a century of faith. That is why it produced so many Saints and Religious Orders like the Dominicans and the Franciscans.

Among Dominican Saints, let us mention: St. Dominic, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Hyacinth, St. Raymond of Pennafort, and St. Peter of Verona, martyr, a victim of the Albigenses. And, of course, we have in the 13th century alone innumerable blesseds like: Bl. Mannes, brother of St. Dominic; Bl. Ceslas, brother of St. Hyacinths; Bl. Jordan of Saxony, who succeeded St. Dominic as the head of the Order; Bl. Humbert of Romans, second successor of St. Dominic; Bl. Diane, Cecile and Amata, received into the Order by St. Dominic; Bl. Margaret of Hungary; Bl. John of Verceil, another Master General of the Order, etc.

Among the Franciscan Saints, I will just mention four outstanding personalities: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Claire of Assisi, St. Bonaventure and St. Anthony of Padua. All saints of the 13th century. The Franciscans have also countless blesseds.

All that to illustrate how the 13th century was indeed a century of faith. And there was a hunger and thirst among the laity for what they called an "evangelical life," that is a life inspired by and lived in accordance with the Gospel principles and ideals.

Some lay movements, seeking holiness, drifted into error, as we know, like the Albigenses, for lack of timely guidance. But the faith was there and a widespread aspiration for holiness.

This is the religious soil that produced the Mendicant Orders who, in turn, sparked the Church into an era of unparalleled fervor and evangelization.

The Social Background: The Feudal Society Rise and Decline

To appreciate the significance of the Order of Preachers, we also need to know something of the social order and the needs of the Church at the beginning of the 13th century. We must speak of the feudal society, its rise and decline, and the birth of a new social order centered no longer in rural areas, but in the cities. It is not without reason that Dominic established his Preachers in the heart of the cities. That's where the action was.

The feudal civilization had its roots in the remote Middle Ages. After the invasion of the Barbarians and the social upheaval that witnessed the fall of the Roman Empire (c.76 A.D.), the feudal system appeared as the only institution robust enough to restore some peace and security to a ravaged Europe.

Around the castle of the Lord a peasant population clustered. They were happy to serve the interests of their suzerain (overlord) in return for the protection he assured them. It is these wealthy landlords who, little by little, brought the Barbarians into submission and organized the social and economic life on their vast estates. We might note, in passing, that the whole feudal system was based on land ownership. Landlords of the time represented the political and even military (police) power of the time, and their land holdings were like little states, on which more and more so-called "serfs" lived and cultivated land allotted to them by the landlord. These peasants were not slaves, but they were not freemen either. They were called "serfs". Their lives were very much controlled by the landlord. They had bound themselves by oath to serve him, in return for favors and protection.

There was furthermore a hierarchy in the feudal system. Lesser landlords sought the protection of more powerful ones. In return, they became their vassals and paid tribute to them. So you had a hierarchy of underlords and overlords, with the king as the highest Lord.

Toward the end of the 12th century and owing to the increase of the population and the perfecting of the techniques of exploitation, there came to be an over production of goods. This economic factor encouraged merchants and tradesmen to cast off the yoke of the feudal Lords so as to be fully free to engage in commercial ventures. This was a rather normal evolution of the feudal system.

As well could be expected, this change in the feudal structures did not please the wealthy Lords. Their hereditary rights were being eroded. A tug of war ensued. Bit by bit, however, the rebellious serfs wrested their freedom, obtaining from kings charters and letters of franchise.

The New Society of the 13th Century

Freed from their previous servitude on the feudal domains, united by common interests, these new men, merchants and tradesmen for the most part, banded together without delay to oppose the authority of the feudal Lords, now their enemy, in order to protect their persons and their possessions.

They clustered outside the feudal estates. There they organized into corporations and soon acquired a keen consciousness of possessing a personality of their own. They were the new "bourgeois class," so-called because they formed communities called "communes" at the outer edge of the feudal domains known as "bourgs." (The English coined the word "burough.")

The "bourg" was the nucleus of the future "city." Cities will grow fast and become centers of the social activities of the time. A new kind of aristocracy was born: the "bourgeoisie." It typified the new civilization that was dawning: youthful, exuberant, audacious, enterprising, curious, avid of freedom and of spiritual fulfillment.

These last words reveal, in a few strokes, the original character of these generations at the onset of the 13th century. "These bourgeois and the little people of the cities represented a class intensely alive, quite different from the rural population, inert and passive, of the preceding age. Shrewd in their business dealings as well as in the administration of municipal affairs, they constituted a mobile population. At the same time, these people remained very religious, even pietist in some quarters. Outside their business preoccupations, these city people were totally illiterate. Their mind was awake only to matters of religion. Everywhere you sense welling up a need for religious knowledge and spiritual emotions." (Mandonnet, Saint Dominique, 1'Idee, l'Homme et l'Ouevre 1921, p. 22)

The Mendicant Orders will respond to this moving cry of an adolescent world. St. Dominic and St. Francis symbolize the ever youthful and innovative spirit of the Church at a critical moment of its evolution.

The "Sin" of the Feudal Church

A stark contrast with the declining image of the feudal Church. Feudal Europe had its days of glory. The whole of society had been profoundly influenced by Christianity. The Church had civilized the European society. The saints were the great men and women of the times.

But at the dawn of the 13th century little remained of the ancient splendor of the feudal Church. The churchmen loved pomp, luxury and displayed scandalous habits of "laisser-aller" (i.e. carelessness, slovenliness). Scandals disgraced the Church. Ecclesiastical prelatures (offices) were sold at auction. In the 12th century, St: Bernard exclaimed with bitter irony: "They promote children and adolescents to ecclesiastical offices because of their noble birth." We have the spectacle of an ignorant and unzealous clergy, all absorbed in the management of their temporal affairs.

In the face of those failings and abuses, the good people who were hungering for spiritual nourishment welcomed with joy some new lay preachers unfortunately tainted by heresy, like the Albigenses.

This is the time when Dominic appeared on the scene and conceived an ardent desire to feed these hungry people who were falling for the seductive preachings of the Albigenses because the Church was not giving them good example or instruction in the truths of the Gospel.

The Dream of a Pope

In the midst of all the woes that afflicted the Christian world, Rome entertained a clear vision of its duties and mission. For over a quarter of a century the Church never ceased, through the voice of Councils and magnanimous popes, to goad the zeal of a sluggish clergy.

Pope Innocent III, from the beginning of his pontificate in 1198, decided that it was hopeless to rouse the clergy. He made bold moves. For example, in 1201 he created, with a group of reconciled heretics in northern Italy, the "Order of the Humiliati," lay people to whom he entrusted the defense of the Faith, much to the dismay of the Bishops. Later, he will call on the Cistercian Abbots to organize a Crusade in southern France against the Albigenses. That's where Dominic comes in.

The Cistercian Legates sent by Innocent III realized that they were getting nowhere and. became discouraged. Meanwhile, at the end of 1204, Diego, Bishop of Osma in Spain, and his companion Dominic arrived at Rome to request from Pope Innocent III the permission to go and evangelize the Cumans. Realizing the good fortune that knocked at his door, the Pope sent the two valiant missionaries not to the Cumans, but to the "communes," to win Christians back who had fallen into the clutches of the heretics.

The Birth of the Order of Preachers

When Bishop Diego and Dominic arrived in the Languedoc (area of Toulouse) and joined the Cistercian Abbots, they immediately told the Papal Legates they should abandon their sumptuous train and go to the people in simplicity and evangelical poverty, preaching by example as much as by word, begging day by day for food and lodging.

The initiative was audacious, without precedent since the early apostolic times. Success was slow coming and the Legates, discouraged, went back home. Meantime, Bishop Diego returned to Spain to fetch extra missionaries and died the following year. Dominic remained alone with a few companions. By this time his style of evangelizing, in spite of difficulties, had proven its worth.

Pope Innocent III did not want to lose these new missionaries. At his behest, Bishop Foulques of Toulouse appointed Dominic and his companions as preachers in his diocese. Dominic became the head of the first college of missionaries ever in Europe.

The Fourth Lateran Council, convoked by Innocent III in 1213, concerned itself primarily with the evangelization of the Christian people and the education of the clergy. This was to be the purpose of Dominic, also, in founding his Order of Preachers. It is well stated in the old Constitutions: "Our Order, we know, was especially founded from the beginning for preaching and for the salvation of souls." When in January of 1217 Pope Honorious III confirmed the Order of Preachers, he predicted that the sons of Dominic would be "the champions of the Faith and the true lights of the world."

The new Order of Preachers immediately attracted an incredible number of young men into its ranks. They came "en masse" from among the young generations who had just affranchised the communes and organized the corporations. These brought with them a spirit of freedom and initiative which the old institutions lacked. An avid desire for knowledge and culture is generalized. The Universities are born, where Dominicans and Franciscans occupy the first places with Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure.

In the Heart of the Cities

From the beginning, Dominic established the houses of his Order in the heart of the cities. This contrasted with the old Monastic Orders that sought the peace and quiet of the country. It has been a constant tradition of our Order to this day to locate our houses in the cities.

Why did Dominic settle in the cities? That's where the action was. A new civilization came into being in the "communes." The new social class, the bourgeoisie, needed to be evangelized. Dominic wanted his Preachers to be at the cutting edge of the new social order that was emerging. And that is where he recruited, in the cities, especially among the University students, at Paris in France, and at Bologna in Italy.

The new generation of the city folk had a profound kinship with the Mendicant Orders. They were enterprising and enthusiastic, eager to build a new world. The Friars had their roots in this new generation. And in turn they contributed immensely to its development, lead it with the spirit and ideals of the Christian Gospel.

An Order for our Time

Like Dominic, we are called to be at the cutting edge of Evangelization in the Church. With the spirit of Dominic, we must address the problems of the world today. As Dominic was profoundly a man of his time and for his time, so must we be today.

We need to recapture the spirit of enthusiasm of Dominic and his Preachers. Like Dominic, we must not look wistfully to a past, whether in the Church or in the world, which is no more, but to the present and the future. We need to understand the aspirations of the present generation and build on what is good in them.

Among the aspirations of the world today is an ardent quest for freedom. Social and political freedoms, such as are enshrined in the Constitution of the United States. Religious freedom, as proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council in its "Declaration On Religious Freedom." A most remarkable document and in line with the deep aspirations of our world.

In our developed countries, we have a Catholic Laity that is well educated, even highly educated. What an opportunity to give them a proportionately superior education in the Catholic faith! They need it to defend their faith in the face of modern errors. They need it if their faith is going to seem credible to them. And with an enlightened laity, we can entrust them with increased responsibilities in the Church. Prepare them to evangelize, win people to Jesus Christ. People are hungry for God today as ever. Perhaps more than in the ages of faith, because they are spiritually empty! Share the Good News with them!

Dominic struggled with the heretics of his time. We are confronted by other errors. The errors against the Catholic faith and moral principles are many, but the moral aberrations of our time come from one common source: Secular Humanism. This erroneous philosophy is so serious and so pervasive that we shall devote a special conference to explain what it is and how it infiltrates the minds of many without their even realizing it. I believe we must know our enemy if we are to defeat him.

Like Dominic, we must be at the cutting edge of the apostolate of the Church in our time. And the great need of our time is evangelization: to spread the Truth of Jesus Christ, to bring salvation to the world, our world. The Order of St. Dominic is just as timely today as it was in the context of the 13th century. Like St. Dominic, let us be where the action is.

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