Oxford and the Dominicans

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 42, 26 October 1922, Page 13

Oxford and the Dominicans

(By Cardinal Gasquet, 0.5.8., Librarian of the Holy Roman Church and Prefect of the Vatican Archives.) St. Dominic, the 1 holy founder of the Black Friars, as we English used to call them in Catholic days, was born in 1170 in Spain, in the year in which the Martyr, St. Thomas of Canterbury, was done to death in England. St. Dominic was of a high Spanish family, and early in life, determining to embrace the ecclesiastical career, he devoted himself for 10 years to theological study, after which he became a Canon of the Cathedral of Osma. Together with the Bishop of that See, Don Diego, he was sent upon a political mission, and they found their way to Rome in 1204. It was whilst carrying out their mission, probably about the year 1209, that St. Dominic first came into contact with the great Englishman, Simon de Montfort, and formed with him a warm friendship, which only cam© to an : end when this brave English Crusader met his death in 1218 under the walls of Toulouse. . The influence of Dominic’s preaching and the holiness of his life drew round him a band of zealous disciples, devoted to him and to the work of preaching religion. And so in 1215 there was canonically erected at Toulouse a society which became the nucleus of the great Order of Friars Preachers. ■ The year 1215 is a date to be remembered. It was not only the date of the first beginnings of the Dominican Order, but to the English it was the year of the signing of the Magna Carta that foundation of our liberties, which was won chiefly by the determined attitude of the great churchman, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. The same year was also"the date of the Fourth Council of the <Lateran, which gave to Dominic the highest approval for his religious projects. Hitherto the small society at Toulouse was merely what would now be known as a diocesan congregation, but now, even in the first year of its existence, God’s Providence was to make it into ; a world-wide Order — majestic tree whose branches were to* spread literally over the whole earth. ' St. Dominic at the, Lateran. . Together with the Bishop of Toulouse, St. Dominic was : present at the Council of the Lateran when it met in "the November of 1215. For Dominic the meeting was fortunate, and indeed, providential. The stated object of the assembly in Rome was “to deliberate on the improvement of morals, the extinction of heresy, and the strength, ening of the Faith.” These ends were precisely those of the Saint in forming his societyhis very programme. A great change was made in the constitution of the Order. Hitherto- the friars had possessed corporate property, but the- apostolic spirit they desired to (possess in its plenitude -prompted them to abandon this element which they had derived from the life of the Canons of St.'Augustine, and to adopt the principle of absolute poverty, which the followers of St. Francis were just • beginning to manifest to -the: world,* as the new power-capable .of attracting men to their ranks, and of recalling Christians to their .duty. It Was a great venture, but the results were patent from-.the first. The Gospel -teaching ’ was made manifest, “having nothing they possessed all £ things,” and God’s blessing upon their work was manifest' from ' that • hour.' ! ‘ ’ It -happened that whilst the Chapter was in session at Bologna,. +here passed through the city the Bishop of Winchester. .As the. Chapter had determined to send a colony of friars to England, at St. Dominic’s request, the Bishop promised to let them travel in : his suite and to be; their guide. There were 13 Dominicans chosen, and under their English Prior,- (Gilbert de Presnoys, travelling , thus ‘in' Bishop de Rupibus,’ company, they reached Dover on August 8, 1221. Their saintly Founder had gonectd: his reward four days before, although they were, of course, as yet unaware of .their loss. ,

Settlement at Oxford. VV . For what had : they come, and what' did they accomplish? The subsequent history of the University of Ox-

ford, during the - succeeding;3oo years, is -the best reply ■to such questions; for the story of the Friars Preachers in Oxford is so bound up with that home of learning that it would be difficult, even if 'it would serve any useful ''purpose, to separate the two. '.‘““■'.wA word, however, may .be said about the position and state of Oxford when the Dominicans arrived there. ; God’s Providence ever provided, when and how He saw fit, for the wants of His Church; and England, at that time if ever in its history, stood in need of .new teachers and new methods, whilst Oxford, as the chief centre .of the intellectual lifp of the kingdom, was no exception;Twelve years before the coming of these sons. of St, Dominic,, is, in the year I^o9, ‘ during a quarrel between the students and the townsmen,-three of the former were seized and put into prison. This strong, measure did not, however, put an end to the disorders, and King John coming in' person to the city, promptly.hanged the three students. Upon this the professors and, their students, according .to the example set by the University of Paris in similar circumstances, quitted Oxford; in a body. Some betook themselves to Cambridge, some to Paris, others to Reading and elsewhere, so that the university life at Oxford ceased for a time, as more than 3000 students in all - are said to have quitted , the city. Moreover, in this same year, 1209, King John was excommunicated by the Pope, and the celebrated Papal Interdict was pronounced upon the whole of England, It is difficult to exaggerate the misery and anarchy of the eight years which followed, during which the -religious services ceased throughout the land. Naturally studies suffered greatly, and, although; students evinced a great desire to take up their work, again in spite of all difficulties, and even gathered together again at Oxford, it was really not till John was dead and Henry 111. came to the throne in 1216 that we find anything . like the establishment of a corporate body to direct the studies of the University. Even then/’ it was not until the middle of the 13th century that Walter de Merton conceived the idea of establishing a hostel to enable the students to live together. Up to that time they were mere scattered units, living where and as they liked,* and they were only kept together by their desire to profit by the teaching* they found at the University. __ , ’ Into this only partially cultivated field of work the Dominicans ' entered in 1221. . They were eminently fitted by their vocation and training- to cope with the need of the hour, and as teachers and preachers they threw themselves into the labor, full of zeal and enthusiasm. It was their special call to wage war against ignorance, and to afford sound teaching, and their mot d’ordre was ever “Preach the word in season and but of season reprove, rebuke, exhort.” , From the first they were assured of success. .. By one manand that man the most important of his time the coming of these friars was welcomed as a manifest providence of God to the University of Oxford. This was that great genius and scholar, that great moral force, and that saintly man, Bishop Grosseteste, whose interest in the improvement of the studies and teaching of the University was allowed by all at the time. He at once cordially welcomed the sons of St.'Dominic into, 1 this field, and,' though his name, is perhaps better known in connection with the Franciscans, who arrived shortly after their Dominican brethern, Grosseteste from the first proved himself the I friend and adviser of the Friars Preachers, and encouraged them on their coming. He was ever ready to lecture to them himself on subjects .'where they needed his ; help. , We/ learn'' from the historian of the early Franciscan 1 friars that this great Bishop of Lincoln was particularly struck by the cheerfulness of the . early Black Friars at Oxford, and used to say that they understood the' secret of success in work, since they believed that “three things were necessary for temporal health— eat, to sleep, and to be gay.”, r y •/// .

'( , The time of the coming of the Black Friars to Oxford ■ was indeed providential. , It ~' was '.';a. '". period T of .; great - importance for .the, Church in England- and the need of , teachers and preachers was .- imperative; xi Langton and ' Grosseteste, in giying the"; friars such a -hearty .welcome, recognised fully the necessity of I securing their co-operation' in effecting the ecclesiastical re-organisation then con-

temptation, and which nine months after their coming namely, on April 3, 1922, was Initiated at the Synod of Oxford. . In this national Synod great stress was laid upon the necessity of popular instruction in the Faith, and upon the strict observance of the laws of clerical life. . Dominican Progress. .. . So rapidly did the Dominicans justify their existence in the University that, when in "1244, Oxford received its Charter from Henry MIL, the deed acknowledging it was signed by the Prior of the Dominicans and the Minister of the Franciscans. Alone, moreover, of all the other bodies the Friars Preachers held two public schools in the University, and the fame of their teaching gained a European reputation for Oxford, hardly second to that of Paris. In 1248 the Oxford house was named by the Order one of the four Stadia Generalia^- other three being Cologne, Montpellier, and Bologna, to which Dominican students might be sent from any, part of the world. In Ireland, too, in the 13th and succeeding centuries, Dominicans were called -to rule the Church as archbishops /and bishops to the number of more than. <O. The Greei Isle, indeed, became tho most fruitful soil for the Order, - and from the year 1224, when the first convent ™ established in Dublin, till the close of the century, 24 flourishing houses had been set up in the country. ’ First among those English Dominicans, worthy sons of the great University of Oxford, I will name Robert Bacon, a Dominican, not to be confused with the illustrious ' Franciscan, Roger Bacon, who, possibly a relation, came much later to Oxford. Robert, the Dominican, was the first scholar to join the Friars on their arrival in Oxford, and he became the first English Dominican writer. Bacon had studied , at Paris as well as Oxford and his learning / and scholarship were much appreciated by Bishop Grosseteste. ■ At Oxford he was the fellow-lecturer and the firm friend of St. Edmund Rich, the saintly Archbishop of Canterbury. Friar Robert was a prolific writer, and was a glory to the Order. He died in 1248. Next there is the Dominican Archbishop of Canterbury, £ who has already been mentioned. - „ r Kilwardby taught both in the schools of Pans and of ■ Oxford, in which latter place he was the Master of St. Thomas of Hereford. In 1261 Friar- Kilwardby was made a Provincial of the Order in England, , and 10 years later was appointed Archbishop by Pope Gregory X Six years $ later in 1278, he was called to Rome by Nicholas 111. and §1 created Cardinal, being the fourth Dominican to receive that honor in the 50 years during which the Order had • been in existence. Cardinal Kilwardby did not live long to enjoy his well-merited distinction; he, died in Ui J, • , and was buried at Viterbo. . ~ ,q + i, Another English Dominican of renown in the 13th • century was Friar John Giles. He was the medical doctor of Philip 11. of France, before he entered religion. Another : Oxford Dominican in the early days of the Order was " Richard Fitzacre. Fitzacre was the firm friend of St. Edmund of Canterbury. -It. is-said that the great St. 1 Thomas Aquinas had the greatest esteem for the theological i ; writings of Friar Fitzacre, and desired to possess all ot them. . . . r, ~ , The Dominicans Expelled. In. the September of 1538 the Friars were cast out of the University when the destruction of the . religious houses ( &was decreed by the tyrant, King. Henry VIII., on his : ■ breach with the Roman Pontiff. The royal claim to dictate the religious principles of his subjects—his famous dictum / “Cujus regio ejus relight could never be accepted by those who were true to the ancient faith and the teaching of St. Dominic, and so, with others, the Dominicans were J expelled from their old homes, chiefly because of their / . loyalty to the Holy See. And this was ’.the course of that honorable existence of more than* three centuries of the Dominican Friars of ■ Oxford. Cast out of their heritage the Black Friars in England were scattered to the four winds of heaven. The : ;ins of their halls and cloisters, and the smoking walls ■•■•W of : their desecrated church it was hoped might serve as S .Unimmir evidence of the passing of the Friars from ■- UVUi nwv***—-D ■■ l , ;■ ... ■■ • Oxford for ever. ■ , ' ' ’’ _ ... ~ 1 -■ But the tree, planted 700 years ago on English soil, " cut down even to the ground by evil men for evil ends, ’ Anottr than three centuries and a half ago, grows green ■ - again, and puts forth new* : shoots and new buds, which

is proof to us that the ! ancient life is not extinguished even in these centuries, and which encourages us and fills us with hopes for the future of the Order in the University of Oxford. ' ■ ' ■; " **