Here then we observe the first point of distinction in the first constitution of the two orders. The Dominicans were, in their earliest character, a society of itinerant preachers-this was the whole of their professionthey were not bound, as it would seem, by any vow of poverty. But after a short space, when their founder had possibly observed that the Franciscans prospered well under that vow-that without possessing any thing they abounded with many things *-he thought it desirable to imitate such profitable self-denial: accordingly, he also imposed upon his disciples the obligation of poverty.

Again: when the Franciscans discovered that no little influence accrued to their rivals from the office of public preaching, they also betook themselves to that practice; and, perhaps, with almost equal success. Thus it came to pass, that, after a very few years, two orders, essentially different in their original, were very nearly assimilated in character, and even in profession, and entered upon the same career with almost the same objects and the same principles.

Nevertheless, in the features of their policy and the character of their ecclesiastical influence, they continued to be distinguished by many important diversities. The whole course of their history is more or less strongly marked by these. And if many of them were occasioned (as is unquestionably true) by the passionate jealousy which they bore to each other, and which they displayed upon all occasions, to the great scandal and injury of the Church, it is equally certain, that the difference in their first constitution ever contributed to cause a difference in their destinies. The original vow and rule of St. Francis was at no time perfectly erased from the memory of his followers. Attempts were soon made to revive it in its native austerity; and thus, in addition to the general contention with the rival order, the most violent intestine dissensions were introduced into the family of that Saint, which terminated in permanent alienation and schism.

Again another evil was brought upon the Church by these disputessharpened as they also were by the scholastic subtleties which in those days perverted reason. The authority of the Pope interposed to set them at rest, but his interference produced the opposite effect †: it not only increased the animosity of both parties, but also raised up a powerful branch of the fraternity in avowed opposition to the pontifical supremacy. In the controversy in which these indocile' brethren engaged during the fourteenth age, against John XXII., they proceeded so far in rebellious audacity as formally to pass the sentence of heresy upon the Vicar of Christ, and to abet the efforts of Lewis of Bavaria to depose him! Such (as Fleury has observed) was the termination of their humility—the deposition of a pope! Owing to these internal contests, it has even been made a question with some, whether the institution of the Mendicants has not contributed, upon the whole, to the decline, rather than the advancement of the papal interests. But there is not sufficient reason for such a doubt. The wound which the Roman See may have received from the passionate insubordination of a faction of one of those orders, bears no comparison with the benefits which it has derived from the

* We read, in the 'Histoire des Ordres Monastiques,' of Franciscan monasteries of very early foundation-residences inconsistent with the perpetual practice of beggary. But those mansions were probably the first profits of the trade, the first-fruits of the

violation of the vow.

The good and simple pope, St. Celestine, sanctioned the division among the Fran ciscans by establishing the congregation of the Poor Hermits.'

faithful assiduity, the learning, the zeal, and the uncompromising devotedness of the other.

If the Dominicans surpassed the rival order in obedience to their common master, they also afforded a better example of internal harmony and discipline. Indeed, as they adhered very closely to the original object of their institution, the destruction of heresy, there was little reason why they should dispute with each other, and the strongest motive for concord with the Holy See. The destruction of heresy they were willing (as we have observed), in the first instance, to accomplish by the sword of the spirit; but, whether through the natural impatience of bigotry, or because the wisest among them began to suspect the weakness of their own cause, the futility of their sophistry, and the falsehood of their positions, after a very short attempt they abandoned that method of conversion, and betook themselves to the material weapon. The secular arm was summoned to their aid, and it became in process of time their favourite, if not their only, instrument.

Nevertheless those are in error who attribute the foundation of the Inquisition, as a fixed and permanent tribunal, to the hand of St. Dominic. It may seem indeed to have been the necessary consequence of his labours, the result to which his principles infallibly tended; and it is true that the administration of its offices was principally delegated to his order. But it was not anywhere formally established until ten or twelve years after his death *. In the mean time, the Dominicans, already trained to the chase, and heated by the scent of blood, eagerly executed the trust which was assigned to them. Over the whole surface of the western world they spread themselves in fierce and keen pursuit ; and the distant kingdoms of Spain and Poland were presently inflicted with the same deadly visitation. Rome was the centre of persecution; the heart, to which the circulating poison continually returned-and whence it derived, as it flowed onward, a fresh and perennial supply of virulence and malignity.

Dispute of the Dominicans with the University of Paris.

The Dominicans, soon after their institution, seem to have appropriated most of the learning, then so sparingly distributed among the monastic orders. They applied themselves chiefly to the science of controversy, and soon became very formidable in that field-the more so, since they employed the resources of scholastic ingenuity in the defence of the papal government. The means and the end harmonized well; the prejudices of the age were to a great extent favourable to both; the exertions of reviving reason were perpetually baffled, and her friends discomfited and overthrown... We shall briefly notice one signal campaign of the Dominicans -that which they carried on for above thirty years against the University of Paris... That body, which was already the most eminent in Europe, thought it expedient, in the year 1228, to confine the Dominicans, in common with all other religious orders, to the possesssion of one of its theological classes, while those Mendicants warmly asserted their claim to two. Many violent contentions arose from this difference, and con tinued till the year 1255, with no decisive result: the matter was then referred to the wisdom of Pope Alexander IV. It is not difficult to anticipate the response of the Vatican. The University received an unqualified injunction to throw open to the Dominicans, not two classes

The origin of the Inquisition will be described in chapter xxi.

only, but as many chairs and dignities as it might seem good to them to occupy. For four years the refractory doctors resisted the execution of the sentence with a boldness worthy of a better age and a happier result. At length, terrified by the repeated menaces of the pontiff, they submitted... Nevertheless, the struggle had not been without its benefit. During the course of a protracted controversy, subjects had been handled of higher and more general importance, than the right of lecturing in the schools of Paris. While the discipline and principles of the Mendicants were examined and assailed, the power which upheld them did not escape from public reprehension. The possibility of error even in the Church itself was openly maintained; and the spirit of learning, which had hitherto ministered to ecclesiastical oppression, was at length aroused against it. The first efforts of the best principles are generally baffled and disappointed; but the example which they leave does not perish; but only waits till the concurrence of happier circumstances may bring the season for more successful imitation.

In the conduct of this dispute, as both parties became equally heated, the limits of reason were exceeded, with almost equal temerity, by both. Among many laborious productions, perhaps the most celebrated was that published by Guilliaume de St. Amour, a doctor of Sorbon, and a powerful champion of the University, Concerning the Perils of the Latter Times.' The peculiarity which has recommended it to our notice is this. It was founded on the belief that the passage of St. Paul relating to the perilous times which were to come in the last days,' was fulfilled by the establishment of the Mendicants! Every age has affixed its own interpretation to that text, and all have been successively deceived; and this might teach us some caution in wresting the mysterious oracles of God from their eternal destination to serve the partial views-to aid the transient, and perhaps passionate, purposes of the moment. Yet is there an undue value almost indissolubly attached, even by the calmest minds, to passing occurrences: however trivial and fugitive their character, they are magnified by close inspection, so as to exceed the mightiest events farther removed in time; and it is this, our almost insuperable inability to reduce present occurrences to their real dimensions-to place them at a distance, and examine them side by side along with the transactions of former days-to consider them, in short, disinterestedly and historically it is this cause which has begotten, and which still begets, many foolish opinions in minds not destitute of reason; and which, among other fruits, has so frequently reproduced, and in so many shapes, the pitiable enthusiasm of the Millenarians.

Though both Dominicans and Franciscans professed to be at the same time mendicants and preachers, yet, in some sort of Dissensions among conformity with their original rules, the former conthe Franciscans. tinued to retain more of the predicatory, the latter more of the mendicant, character. These last were conse quently less distinguished by their literary contests, than by those which they waged against each other, respecting the just interpretation of the rule of their founder. In all other monastic institutions, the possession of property was forbidden to individuals, but permitted to the community; whereas the more rigid injunction of St. Francis denied every description of fixed revenues, even to the Societies of his followers. There were many among those who wished for a relaxation of this rule; and they obtained it without difficulty, both from Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. another party, who called themselves the Spirituals, insisted on a strict

But

adhesion to the original institution; they even refused to share the glorious title of Franciscan with those who had abandoned it. This feeling displayed itself with particular vehemence in the year 1247, when John of Parma, a rigid spiritualist, was chosen general of the order. But the more worldly brethren still adhered to their mitigated discipline; and their perseverance, which was favoured, perhaps, by the secret wishes of many of the opposite party, received the steady and zealous concurrence of the Holy See. For whatsoever value the popes might attach to the voluntary poverty of their myrmidons,-to the respect which it excited, and the spontaneous generosity which so abundantly relieved it,-they no doubt considered, that it was more important to the permanent interests of the Church to encourage the increase of her fixed and solid and perpetual possessions.

The success of the Dominicans and Franciscans encouraged the profession of beggary; and the face of Christendom was suddenly darkened by a swarm of holy mendicants, in such manner that, about the year 1272, Gregory X. endeavoured to arrest the overgrowing evil. To this end he suppressed a great multitude of those authorized vagrants, and distributed the remainder, still very numerous, into four societies,-the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits of St. Augustine.

The order of the Carmelites was, in its origin, Oriental and Eremitical. John Phocas, a monk of Patmos, who visited the

Holy Places in 1185, thus concludes the narrative of The Carmelites. his pilgrimage:- On Mount Carmel is the cavern

of Elias, where a large monastery once stood, as the remains of buildings attest; but it has been ruined by time and hostile incursions. Some years ago a hoary-headed monk, who was also a priest, came from Calabria, and established himself in this place, by the revelation of the Prophet Elias. He made a little inclosure in the ruins of the monastery, and constructed there a tower and a small church, and assembled about ten brothers, with whom he still inhabits that holy place*. Such appears to be the earliest authentic record of the foundation of the Carmelites. About the year 1209, Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them a rule. It consisted of sixteen articles, which contain nothing original, and are merely sufficient to prove the ignorance, the abstinence, and the poverty of the original brothers. The institution was not, however, legitimately introduced into the grand monastic family till the year 1226, when it received the sanction of Honorius III. Twelve years afterwards it was raised from among the regular orders to the more valuable privileges and profits of mendicity; and we observe that the severe rule of its infancy was interpreted and mitigated soon afterwards by Innocent IV. Accordingly it became venerable and popular, and was embraced with the accustomed eagerness in every country in Europe.

A great number of individuals were still found scattered throughout the western Church, who cherished the name,

though they might dispense with the severer Hermits of St. Augustine. duties, of hermits; and they professed a

variety of rules by which their several independent societies were governed. Innocent IV. expressed his desire to unite them into one order; and it was executed by his successor. Alexander IV., the better to withdraw them from their seclusion, and engage them in the functions of the ecclesiastical hierarchy †, formed them into a single congregation, under one

*We cite the passage from Fleury, lib. lxxvi., sec. 55.
+ Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. xix., cap. v., sec. 5.

rule and one general, and associated them by the same title of Hermits of St. Augustine.' We may observe, however, that as they were the most modern, so they were the least considerable of the mendicant institutions.

To these four orders the pontiffs granted the exclusive indulgence of travelling through all countries, of conversing with persons of all ranks, and instructing, wheresoever they sojourned, the young and the ignorant. This commission was presently extended to preaching in the churches, and administering the holy sacraments. And so great veneration did they excite by the sanctity of their appearance, the austerity of their life, and the authoritative humility of their manners, that the people rushed in multitudes to listen to their eloquence, and to crave their benediction. And thus the spirit of sacerdotal despotism, which had been chilled through the indecency or negligence of the secular clergy, and the luxurious languor of the regular establishments, was for a season revived and restored to an authority, in its extent more ample, and in its exercise far more unsparing, than it had possessed at any preceding period.

Early merits and degeneracy of the Mendicants.

In their early years, the two great nurseries of the Dominicans were Paris and Bologna. In those cities, Jourdain, the General of the order, and successor of its founder, alternately passed the season of Lent; and thence he sent forth his emissaries through the south and the west. Among the first converts to the discipline of St. Dominic were many distinguished by rank and dignity, many eminent ecclesiastics, many learned doctors, both in law and theology, and many young students of noble parentage. Nor is it hard to believe those accounts, which praise the rigour of their moral excellence, and the general subjection of their carnal appetites to the control of the spirit. The very enthusiasm, which at first inflamed them for the purity and beauty of their institution, was inconsistent with hypocritical pretensions to piety; it tended, too, somewhat to prolong the exercise of those virtues whence it drew its origin. And thus, if their literary exertions were really stimulated by the highest motives-the glory of God, and the salvation of the faithful-they may well have surpassed the languid labours of the old ecclesiastics, which were so commonly directed to mere vulgar and temporal objects. Accordingly, as the Mendicants rose, the ancient orders and the secular clergy fell into disrepute and contempt; and the chairs and the pulpits, which they had so long filled, were, in a great measure, usurped by more zealous, more - laborious, and more popular competitors.

But these conquests were not obtained or preserved without many violent and obstinate contests *. Both regulars and seculars defended their ancient privileges with an ardour which seemed to supply the want of

*The grand dispute in England between the Clergy and the Mendicants, in which the Archbishop of Armagh was so prominent, took place about 1357. The great complaint at that time was, that the latter had seduced all the young men at the University to confess to them, to enter their order, and to remain there. And the prelate mentions the remarkable fact, that, through the suspicions thus infused into families, the number of students at Oxford had been reduced during his time from thirty thousand to six thousand. It was made another matter of reproach on the mendicants, that they had bought up all the books, and collected in every convent a large and fine library. The field of contest was transferred to the pontifical court (then at Avignon); the mendicants were triumphant, and the Archbishop's mission appears to have had no result. And about the same time two considerable princes, Peter, Infant of Aragon, and Charles, Count of Alençon, became members respectively of the Franciscan and Dominican orders.