From: St. Dominic and His Work, by Pierre Mandonnet, O.P.,
Translated by Sister Mary Benedicta Larkin, O.P., B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis/London, 1948.
III
The Sancta Praedicatio in Narbonne (1204-8)
Pierre Mandonnet, O.P.In dedicating, his Historia Albigensis to Pope Innocent III, Peter of Vaux-de-Cernai summarized his plan in the following words: "In the first part of the work I sketch briefly the subject of the heretical sects and review how the people of Provence were, in times past, infected with the leprosy of unbelief. Then I consider how as sinners these heretics were warned and often exhorted to repent by the preachers of the word of God, ministers of Your Holiness. Then follows the account of the crusades."(1)
It might be noted here that the story of the apostolic undertaking of Innocent III did not enter directly into the scope of a book devoted specifically to the war against the Albigensians. Yet Peter recognized that he would quite falsify the Pope's attitude unless, at the beginning of a book which would be filled with the noise of battle and of political intrigues, he first devoted at least a few pages to the recurring attempts of the Sovereign Pontiff to save and restore this people to the Church by preaching. The words of his prologue echo the many declarations of Innocent in his bulls, or his still more solemn utterances at the Lateran Council: "Nearly everyone the world over is mindful of how the Church has labored through her preachers and her crusaders to overthrow the heretics and the military force in the province of Narbonne."(2)
In his résumé, Peter merely touches on these efforts, but he treats what is of most interest to us, the apostolic campaign of 1206-8 in which Diego and Dominic collaborated for the development of an undertaking started only two years before. Through the pages of the Cistercian chronicler, through the letters of the Pope, through the study of some other sources, we are able to form some idea of the character of the pontifical organization of 1204-8, which was given the name Praedicatio,(3) Sancta Praedicatio.(4) We shall attempt to outline it.
THE PURPOSE Innocent's letter (January 24, 1204),(5) which constitutes the charter of foundation for the papal mission, clearly expressed the purpose of this enterprise.
Almost as soon as be entered upon his pontificate, the Pope dispatched envoys into the Albigensian territory. Toward the end of 1203 the two legates, Peter of Castelnau and Raoul, both Cistercian monks of Fontfroide, were occupied in official negotiations with the prelates and the civil authorities in Narbonne and Toulouse.(6) In conformity with the canons, they sought first to expel the promoters of heresy who corrupted the people. Soon, as a normal consequence, though official mandates were issued only against the heretics,(7) they launched a reform of the local clergy, hoping to effect a dismissal of the most scandalous leaders whose lives created a definite obstacle to their work.(8) Thus from the beginning they were engaged in a series of administrative and political affairs. During the following years they pursued the execution of these measures. At their request and in certain particular cases the Pope bestowed on them all the necessary powers.(9) Fully conscious of his duty, Innocent never neglected to make use of the armed forces which in that age the power of the state placed at the service of the faith. Not in view of such aid, however, had he first dispatched these legates, and it was in another direction that he aimed to orientate their labors. To be persuaded of this, even though we have not the bull of institution, we need merely to read the bull of January 29, 1204.
THE BREAD OF THE WORD Innocent was thoroughly aware that the crisis could not be met by political or business negotiations. The problem to be solved was not the suppression of the heretics, but the complete evangelization of the country. The essential evil was this: while the heretics had full liberty to ravage the flock of the Lord, those who had care of it did not trouble themselves to defend it; they no longer occupied themselves with their people. Not without emotion can these sad words of Innocent be read in the bull of January 29:
The pastors who feed themselves first do not provide nourishment for the flock of the Lord; they have no solicitude to strengthen what is weak, to nurse what is sick, to bind up what is bruised, to search for what has strayed, They keep their sword in the scabbard and negligently celebrate the opus Dei. There is a famine in this land, the little ones cry for bread; and there is almost no one to break it for them.(10)
In these words Innocent outlined in its fullness the preaching and teaching program of the prelates. Truly, it was designed not only to check the boldness of the heretics and rescue strayed believers, but more especially to minister to the faithful and to appease their hunger. In calling this program to the attention of Berenger, head of the Church of Languedoc, the Pope severely reproached him for his negligence. He also addressed a letter identical in form to all the bishops, abbots, priors, and other prelates of the province. And he did more.
To compensate for the lack of cooperation on the part of the prelates, a condition foreseen only too well, he reiterated the command to Berenger to assist in every way possible the two legates just sent in order "to extirpate the heretical perversion." In a few words be defined the essential character of the mission: verbo pariter et doctrinae insistere, "to engage in preaching and teaching."(11) At the same time he sent the bull to many groups of preachers, ad praedicationis officium idoneos. He designated two in particular, Raoul, canon of Narbonne, and Peter, abbot of Valmagne,(12) leaving the choice of the others to the Abbot of Citeaux, who was to appoint them. He placed these preachers under the direction of Peter and Raoul; at their summons the workers were to enter the harvest field of the Lord.(13) Thus was the papal mission constituted, and the letter of January 29 served as its fundamental charter.
The legates and their preachers, therefore, received their apostolic appointment from the prelates. They were sent into the field of the ordinary pastors who had neglected their work. As the following letters will show, (14) it was this provisional substitution, independent of the administrative and political matters attended to by the prelates as the occasion arose, which characterized the preaching program in Narbonne as projected by the Pope early in 1204.(15) The events attending its origin and the circumstances of its institution reveal it essentially as an enterprise directed against heresy: "preachers were delegated to preach against heretics and to stamp out pestiferous heresy."(16) But, in fact, in a country where everyone was drawn toward apostasy and where Catholic views were almost no longer heard, it was not only a question of disputing against the miscreants but of spreading the word of the gospel among the people at large. The ordinary prelates had failed in this duty; consequently the papal preachers had to assume the full burden of Catholic instruction; the admirable pastoral program contained in the bull which instituted them was written as it were for them alone.(17)
It was this program that Foulques assigned to Dominic and his companions in 1215 when, as will be seen later, he revived in his diocese the Sancta Praedicatio of 1204-8, "to extirpate the heretical errors, to hunt out vices, to teach the Regula fidei, and to lead men to the practice of sound morals."(18)
THE METHOD When be appointed the preachers to the field of their apostolic labor, Innocent III at the same time designated their method. Already in a letter on Berenger, the Pope stigmatized the counter-preaching which had found fuel in the scandalous life of the Archbishop: "a dumb dog," "a pastor who prefers to gorge himself," "a servant of avarice and not of doctrine," his vices and those of his colleagues gave the heretics their best weapons against the truth. "If indeed everywhere and publicly the heretics propagate their doctrine and seduce defenseless men, they attract them the more easily as they point to the life of the Archbishop and other prelates of the Church as a most pernicious argument against her, and they blame the whole Church for the crimes of a few."(19)
Thus it was under the device of preaching by word and by example that the Pope desired to promote his mission. That fact explains why he sought his preachers first among the Cistercians, religious whose austerity and holiness were at that time most celebrated. He selected his two legates from their ranks. He sent to the Abbot of Cîteaux the bull which instituted the mission (January 29); he looked to him for additional preachers. On May 31, three days after he had reproved the attitude of Berenger, be again confided to the same Abbot of Cîteaux the direction of the preaching enterprise and appointed him a legate; he then opened his whole mind:
We rejoice and we give thanks to the Giver of all good gifts, considering that in your Order there are a great number of men filled with an enlightened zeal for God, powerful in work and word, and ready to give to whoever asks it a reason for the faith and the hope in which we abide;(20) men in whom, we believe, charity grows strong to prepare them to give their lives for their brethren, if the needs of the Church demand it; who are so much more fitted to confound the fabricators of false doctrines as they are above the least reproach from a jealous adversary; they enjoy a good reputation even among people at large, because in them the holiness of their lives is in harmony with sound thought, and their life vivifies their teaching so that their word is living, efficacious, and more piercing than a two-edged sword; their teaching penetrates their life so that men can read in their manners what their sermons explain.(21)Each word of this text with its wealth of Scriptural allusion might be commented upon. The picture of the preacher is the direct antithesis of that inscribed in another bull three days before on Berenger. Nor is the Pope yet satisfied with the description. He has so much at heart the apologetic method that he takes his pen again to append a last sentence at the close of the letter: "Therefore we will and advise you to proceed so that 'Your modesty' may be known to all, that you 'may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men "(22) and that in word or deed there may appear nothing in your conduct to which even a heretic might take exception."(23)
The motto of the preaching designed by Innocent is in some way expressed by the last sentence and by other terse formulas equivalent to it: "Let men read in their manners what their sermons explain," or "through the good example of works and the teaching of words." (24) In the charter of the foundation of Prouille, mention is made of the conversion of the future nuns "by the exhortation and example of Brother Dominic";(25) the same expression was used again in 1215 in the charter of preaching of Toulouse,(26) as in the tenth canon of the Lateran Council concerning the Preachers.(27)
Furthermore, late in 1204 the Pope, when appealed to by the legates, forbade them to engage in the general correction of scandals, however much they might be tempted to do so, lest occupation with secondary problems should binder their consecrating themselves with full ardor to their principal mission.(28)
THE APOSTOLIC LIFE In 1206 the method was given remarkable precision. It seems that the legates did not willingly accede to the recommendation not to pursue the correction of the clergy; in May, 1206, the Pope had to repudiate their action in the case of Berenger.(29) Again it seems that in spite of their Cistercian austerity the papal missioners failed to give in all its vigor the apostolic example which was to support their doctrine. If it behooved them to break radically with the conduct of the gluttonous and avaricious pastors, they could do it only through the poverty of monks. If they had need to avoid the least cause for reproach from the heretics, how could they do so except by practicing poverty according to the very counsels of the Gospel which seemed to prevail in the lives of their enemies? Now, though they may not have had the sumptuous train on which Dominican hagiography has been pleased to lay stress, the legates went about on horseback, paid for their daily fare, and showed no sign of the austere poverty habitual with the heretical preachers.
Then it was that Bishop Diego of Osma, on his way from Rome, intervened on a certain occasion at Montpellier. Had he been counseled by Innocent? Had he come with a command from the Pope? Later on we shall speak of what gives us a quasi-certitude regarding this. In any event, it is beyond question that Diego then made them understand in their precise terms the two chief features of the apostolic method proposed by the Sovereign Pontiff with a consideration of their logical consequences. According to Peter of Vaux-de-Cernai, he then exhorted the legates: first, "to forget every other work, and to devote themselves more ardently than ever to preaching; secondly, in order to close the mouth of the wicked, to go about with humility, acting and preaching according to the example of their holy Master, journeying on foot without gold or silver, imitating in all things the custom of the apostles."(30)
The second prescription, taken from the Gospel texts, had a background with a depth we can hardly conceive today; it imposed on the ministers of the Pope the role of the evangelical preacher with imitation of the apostles in the total poverty and severe austerity which, at that epoch in Christian Europe and particularly in Languedoc and Lombardy, conferred on the preachers of the Cathari and the Waldenses their redoubtable power.(31) The counsel relayed from Rome by the Bishop of Osma carried in full the apologetic thought of the Pope. It clothed Catholic preachers in that robe of poverty which the heretics made the glory of their preachers. Shortly after, on November 17, 1206, a letter arrived to prove the authentic character of Diego's declaration. In this letter the Pope confirmed the evangelical method with his own authority, and recognized it as the official line of action for all who were engaged or would be engaged in the Praedicatio.(32)
The apologetic method was thereafter determined for the mission in Narbonne. The explicit allusion to the Gospel texts placed it beyond all discussion; the contemporary need determined its meaning. There was to be preaching without interruption; two by two they would travel about; no one would carry money; each would be content with the food given him, and in case of need he might beg his bread from door to door. The practice was adopted at once by the papal preachers; later it was carried on by the Toulouse Praedicatio as reorganized by St. Dominic.(33) Here we touch the origins of the mendicant character of the future Order of Preachers.
THE COMPANIES From the beginning the program of Innocent III had provided for the placing of a great number of apostolic workers under the direction of his representatives. Through the bulls of January 29, he invited the Abbot of Valmagne and Master Raoul of Narbonne, when called for, to report to the legates. He also requested the Abbot of Cîteaux to place at their disposal a certain number of religious capable of preaching.
Did Arnold Amaury supply men at that time? It scarcely seems so. On the following May 31 the Abbot received another bull. Innocent lamented the "greatness of the harvest" and "the fewness of the laborers"; he praised the great number of apostolic men in the Order at Cîteaux and conferred on its head the responsibility for the mission.(34) The invitation to provide numerous missioners was again unmistakable, but the Pope did not wish to impose on the religious from whom he was asking much, a burden particularly disagreeable to them,(35) and desired still to appeal to the good will of the Order. At that juncture it seems that the number of preachers had not yet increased.
Late in May, 1206, Diego and his companion, Dominic, on their return journey from Rome, came to enlarge the band. From the outset they were associated in the papal Praedicatio.(36) It is almost certain that the Pope was responsible for this change; otherwise there is no explanation for the fact that the Bishop became at once the head of the enterprise. For, as he had long hoped, the Pope had now found men of good will who voluntarily offered themselves.
The time had come to augment the number of the workers in the Praedicatio. Thereupon the Abbot of Cîteaux took his leave of the company in order to hold the next chapter at his abbey, and, according to Peter of Cernai, to assemble a certain number of abbots selected as his auxiliaries in the preaching office imposed upon him. Thus began the mission of the twelve abbots who entered Languedoc in the train of Arnold Amaury early in April, 1207.(37) Writers of the time agree in attributing to Innocent the call for this supplementary force, alluding either to a formal order brought from Rome by the Bishop of Osma or, more probably, interpreting the move of Arnold as the tardy execution of the desires expressed by the Pope on January 29 and May 31, 1204.(38) Let us add that the letter of November 17, 1206, granting to certain religious the right to preach, seemed to concern the new missioners. In the September chapter the abbots would have anticipated that a papal letter might come, explicitly conferring the officium praedicationis.(39) It reached them two months later, having been forwarded by Raoul, chief of the Cistercian preachers in Languedoc, to their respective abbeys whither they had gone to settle their business affairs and prepare for the great rendezvous at Cîteaux in March, 1207. It was from Cîteaux that the mission set forth. With the twelve abbots and their leader, Arnold Amaury, went other monks as preachers; in all they numbered about thirty.(40)
From April to July, 1207, the papal Praedicatio was carried on by a much larger number than during the first three years. It was only then that it fulfilled the designs proposed by Innocent as early as January 29, 1204.
NAMES OF THE PREACHERS Of these preachers, only some of the names are known. Diego, the Bishop of Osma, had but one companion, St. Dominic.(41) There were the three Cistercian legates: Arnold Amaury (abbot of Cîteaux), Raoul, and Peter of Castelnau, monks of Fontfroide. Among the twelve abbots, Guy of Vaux-de-Cernai (near Paris) did not yet have with him his secretary, Peter;(42) listed also was Henry, abbot of Mont-Sainte-Marie (Besançon diocese).(43) By way of conjecture, we may add that there might also have been the Abbot of Bonnevaux (near Vienne)(44) and the Abbot of Preuilly (of the Meaux diocese).(45) The Abbot of Valmagne (Diocese of Agde) had perhaps joined the preachers in 1204 as the Pope appointed. We know nothing of Canon Raoul of Narbonne. But there was the Cistercian Abbot of Villelongue (near Limoux), who worked with Dominic in several conversions.(46)
The recruiting of this company was remarkable. All were religious (the Bishop of Osma was no exception); they were almost exclusively Cistercians, except Dominic and perhaps Raoul of Narbonne, who were canons regular. This is significant. Innocent III himself explained it in his letter of May 31, 1204: the religious life of the members of the papal mission was indissolubly linked with their preaching; both were identified in the apostolic method verbo et exemplo.
Here it should be recalled that this union of regular life and apostolic activity had evolved after a long historical preparation from the days of Peter Damian, whose preaching inspired the canonical movement; in that light it will be comprehensible that, by a kind of natural sequence, the Praedicatio of Toulouse, which grew out of the papal Praedicatio, was transformed into the Order of Preachers.
THE ORGANIZATION The Praedicatio of Narbonne was not a chance association, nor was it purely a good-will foundation. The letters of the Pope had brought it into being (first with Peter, Raoul, Arnold, Master Raoul, and Peter III of Valmagne; later, with the dozen abbots). The position of the Castilians was unusual, yet it was from Rome that they too would receive the final command to associate themselves in the mission. The letter of November 17, 1206, shows that the legates did not believe they had the right to confer the officium praedicationis without previously receiving the authorization of the Pope.(47)
It appears that the duration of the Praedicatio had been determined in advance as in the case of a military crusade.(48) After the assassination of Peter of Castelnau, Peter of Vaux-de-Cernai declared that in fact, "the Praedicatio had already run nearly the full length of its course."(49) Nevertheless, the abbots did not go on to the end of the time before abandoning the work.
In his bulls of institution and in his later letters, the Pope had even assigned to his legates their districts in the three provinces of Arles, Aix, and Narbonne, their program against the heresies, and their occasional powers.(50) All these acts promulgated by Rome conferred on the mission a solid juridical constitution, which assured its cohesion and order. The Praedicatio was aware of this unity. In the course of his account, Cernai continually repeats: "our preachers," one of us," and such expressions.
All the members of the group worked together at first in harmony and without difficulty. After the arrival of the two Castilians, the preachers still moved about from town to town as one apostolic company from which had dropped out Peter of Castelnau,(51) who was little disposed for this apologetic work. There were great disputes between the Catholic and the heretical groups. Early in 1207, when the whole field had been somewhat furrowed, the little band became more stationary and tarried longer in the neighborhood of Fanjeaux and Montreal.
THE LOCAL STATIONS After the arrival of the thirty new preachers in April, 1207, the company became too numerous, uselessly numerous for a concentrated field, and Arnold at once divided the territory among the abbots, assigning to each abbot one or two auxiliary preachers, who could generously devote themselves to the disputes and sermons.(52) Then it was that Guy of Cernai made his headquarters in Carcassonne where he later became bishop; Henry of Mont-Sainte-Marie at Pamiers; Dominic and William Claret at Prouille. More enduring than the others, the last named center is better known, and thus it is possible to conjecture what went on at these stations. At Prouille with its temporary quarters, serving at once as a rest house and a rallying point, there was a rudimentary court where the papal preachers delivered letters of reconciliation.(53) Being an official personage, the missionary apostolic had the privilege of the seal and could thus affix an authentic stamp on the letters patent which be gave to the converts to certify their return to the faith and to state their penance.(54) Something will be said later about the economic life of the little center.
The name Praedicatio, by which the general mission force was known, was extended to the auxiliary bands. The seal used by St. Dominic bore the inscription, Jesu Christi et Predicationis, or perhaps Predicationis Jesu Christi.(55) That was the title which the people of the time gave it. On August 8, 1207, Sans Gasc and Ermengarde Godoline, his wife, "offered" themselves with all their property "to the Sancta Praedicatio and to the Lord Dominic of Osma."(56) Since the Praedicatio had, almost from the first, a group of women converts round whom grew the celebrated convent of St. Mary at Prouille, some have thought that the title Sancta Praedicatio was the first name of the house of the sisters, such as it was; there is no foundation for such a belief. Sancta Praedicatio was the name of Dominic's mission band, a name which was dropped, moreover, in the year 1207 when the Praedicatio in Narbonne dissolved.(57)
But it reappeared after 1215 with the Praedicatio of Toulouse. From then on Dominic was known as the "humble minister of preaching."(58) In 1221, reviewing the beginnings of the Order of Preachers, Foulques, by anachronism, still called its head, "Master of the Praedicatio." (59) For a long time it was customary to apply the term to the Dominican convents of the Midi: "the Praedicatio of Toulouse, of Limoges,"(60) and in the first years the Order itself was at times known as the "Ordo Praedicationis."(61)
THE AUTHORITIES No organization can function without authority: the papal Praedicatio had its leaders.
First and foremost, there was Innocent III. The different letters we have cited trace the stages of his governing action with all desirable precision. It was he who conceived and established the Praedicatio. He appointed its directors.(62) He determined its purpose and method. He recruited the forces, late in 1203, in January and May, 1204, in the spring and in November of 1206. He conferred upon his preachers powers as extensive as needful,(63) and, more remarkable still, he knew how to withstand their appeals and hold them more strictly to the line he had laid down. He kept watch over the little society, requiring of the directors that they render him a careful account of all their difficulties and seek counsel of him: "If any difficulty presents itself which requires the consideration of the Apostolic See, seek counsel on the matter by means of letters."(64)
He gave minute replies and satisfied the requests of his legates.(65) He encouraged them by his praise(66) and when, in discouragement, someone wished to abandon the mission, he retained him by exhortations which were in reality a command.(67)
Originally it was intended that Arnold should only supply the recruits ; (68) but soon the Pope thought it well to give him a more active role. On May 31, 1204, with the advice of the cardinals, the Pope made him responsible for the whole enterprise, placing him at the head not only of the recruiting but even of the whole work of the Praedicatio and associating him with the other legates.(69) The reason for this appointment was quite apparent: Arnold was the head of the Order of Cîteaux. After the conference of Montpellier, it was he who set out in search of new helpers;(70) he assigned the districts to the different preachers;(71) he delegated Dominic to the work of reconciling the heretics.(72)
But Arnold's high office made it impossible for him to be always on the ground.(73) There was need of a local authority. On January 29, 1204, Peter and Raoul were appointed to this office: preachers summoned to the service by the bulls were to report to them at their call.(74)
Peter of Castelnau seemed not to realize the true role of a preacher. This impetuous Cistercian who, before his appointment as a legate, had been involved in lively administrative quarrels in the Church of Maguelonne,(75) would have achieved greater success (or at least he thought himself more adept in that line) in political and legal arguments than in preaching. His provocative attitude constrained the other preachers to act apart from him much of the time.(76) He was interested particularly in the political affairs of his legation. Moreover, worn out perhaps by his own violence, he was subject to profound discouragement, and twice at least he wished to give up his post.(77)
When Diego of Osma arrived, he replaced Peter of Castelnau as the head of the mission, in conjunction with Raoul of Fontfroide.(78) The part played by the Bishop was considerable; not only did he introduce the new apostolic method, but he imparted the spiritual enthusiasm which caused it to be accepted and practiced; be animated and renewed the vigor of the Praedicatio. He developed its rudimentary organization, directed it, and, as will soon be seen, even supported it from his own revenues. He bore the burden of the undertaking, and it was in the hope of reviving it in an hour of supreme crisis that he undertook the journey to Osma in the course of which he died, not long after Raoul.
Then, after the disappearance "of these two lights," Guy of Cernai was appointed in their place(79) late in the year 1207.
Interest attaches to the titles of these leaders; several times Cernai mentions the "chiefs and masters of the Praedicatio," "the first among the preachers and the master."(80) The word magister ("master") was, in fact, traditional, having become current early in the twelfth century to designate the head of a company of itinerant preachers appointed by the Church; Robert of Arbrissel, St. Norbert, and Bernard of Thiron had claimed it.(81) Evidently the title grew out of the doctoral character (praedicator et doctor) of the instructions of the preacher who had received an official mission (officium praedicationis, insistens doctrinae). It was this type of preaching that Dominic renewed in 1215 in Toulouse, and from the time the Praedicatio of St. Romanus was inaugurated, be was known as "Brother Dominic, Prior and Master of the Preachers." (82) In 1221 Foulques still spoke of the head of the Preachers as "Master of the Praedicatio,"(83) the title by which he had known him, although at that time it had been replaced by the more definitive title, "Master of the Order of the Friars Preachers."
ECONOMY During the first years, the Praedicatio in Narbonne was supported according to the plan in use for ordinary legations; the expenses incurred in the apostolic work of Peter and Raoul of Fontfroide were to be met by "subsidies" paid by the heads of the dioceses in which they worked. Rome watched carefully that this economic system was not made a pretext for the extortion of money or for "policy" gifts.(84) The subsidy was estimated daily according to the actual expenses incurred for food and shelter and within the sumptuary limits set by the Third Lateran Council for ecclesiastical dignitaries.(85) After the solemn injunctions of Innocent to his legates, when he confided to them the mission among the Albigensians, it may well be believed that the Cistercian monks would strive earnestly to avoid any excess that could give scandal to the heretics. But even had they not wished it, they would have been forced to it once they set foot in the Province of Narbonne. As religious they had no personal resources at their disposal and had to be content with what Archbishop Berenger was willing to give them. But he was a miser whom the Pope finally had to depose for his scandalous attitude.(86) Before the legates were in charge a month they found it necessary to complain to Rome about the conduct of the Archbishop in their regard. Berenger did not even give them what was necessary. He had even refused the Pope's representatives a horse for the journey to Toulouse and had relented only when confronted with indignant reproof.(87)
After the stern protestations from the Sovereign Pontiff, Berenger probably had to be more generous. But soon, deprived by the Pope of the revenues of the Abbey of Montaragon(88) "which gave him a greater income than his archbishopric,"(89) Berenger found a new excuse for tightening his purse strings. Fortunately at that time Arnold of Cîteaux, who could count on revenue from his abbatial income, joined the legates and provided for the needs of the Praedicatio. There was nothing very prosperous about the economic situation of the missioners, therefore, and, even had they been so disposed, though it would be truly surprising, they would have been in no position to display the gorgeous train which the biographers of St. Dominic have been pleased to picture. Moreover, the heretics could find nothing to criticize on that score.(90) Indeed, the cortege of Diego of Osma, intended by his king to escort "in grand style"(91) a young princess for a marriage with his son, might have been the one to excite the anticlerical criticism by the heretics, and indeed on no grounds at all. The Provençal Preachers in the thirteenth century used to recall the story of trouble experienced by the Bishop of St. Dominic when he had decided to preach to the miscreants in the course of one of his trips through Languedoc.
After the conference at Montpellier, the problem of supporting the preachers was in every way simplified. The evangelical method adopted by Diego provided for travel on foot, and begging from door to door. This meant no baggage and no unnecessary servants. Not the least relieved was Berenger. Henceforth all the missioners pursued the life of "journeymen of Christ."
ECONOMIC STABILITY With the arrival of the twelve abbots, however, their way of life required some organization. The interior spirit of a Diego and a Dominic was equal to a program of unreserved heroism; but it could hardly be proposed for a group of forty religious as a whole. Between their rounds of preaching, they must have time to breathe and refresh themselves at some hospice, instead of being always at the mercy of the charity that was so straightened in a hostile atmosphere. The more orderly distribution of the work, as effected by the plans of April, 1207, permitted the beginning of an economic organization. Among the preachers, the Abbot of Cîteaux and the Bishop of Osma were the only ones who enjoyed personal revenues. The latter, who could easily draw on his resources, made use of them to support the missioners.
According to Robert of Auxerre, out of his revenue, he had consignments of food sent to the different centers where the preachers could receive them. He was the provider for all the local centers. In August, 1207, when Diego returned to Spain, it was to settle certain domestic affairs and to allocate a part of his fortune for the maintenance of the Praedicatio of Narbonne.(92) Evidently Prouille was the first beneficiary of this generosity.
In the meantime Dominic obtained assistance much more unexpected. Probably to ward off the threatening anger of the Pope, Berenger, who should have been the normal financier of the enterprise, had decided to make a striking gesture of generosity: be endowed the women converts whom the canon of Osma had established at Prouille. On April 17, 1207, he gave them a very handsome gift, the initial grant of the patrimony of the future convent. The temporal welfare of St. Dominic's preaching center was thus assured for the future. Thereafter the friars and sisters of Prouille possessed common revenues.
The system organized in 1207 for the papal Praedicatio, to support a mendicant apostolate through established centers, was restored in 1215 when the Praedicatio was founded in Toulouse. Dominic and his companions traveled about on foot, preaching in evangelical poverty. But between missions they returned to their house in Toulouse, where their wants were provided for by Foulques their bishop, who assigned them as revenue a certain share in the tithes of the diocese.(93) Grants of revenue and of possessions(94) assured to the Praedicatio that would soon grow into a great Order, an economy in which could be recognized the principles advocated for the Praedicatio of 1207. But its stability made it resemble a religious foundation in a way that showed it was no longer meant to be simply a temporary venture.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE It was to a thankless work that the Pope had appointed his legates. William of Auxerre at that time recalled the memory of Master Prévostin, "who had lived among the Manichaeans for a long time but had never been able to lead more than a few back to the way of truth."(95) All the Catholic workers had the same experience. In the beginning Peter and Raoul had no more difficulty than their predecessors; in May, 1204, the Pope was pleased even to remark that already "their labor had not been in vain."(96) But the results were not commensurate with the toil, and the legates, one after the other, yielded to discouragement. In May, 1206, they wished to resign their post "because their preaching had accomplished almost nothing for the heretics."(97) The arrival of the Castilians reanimated all their hopes. The first disputation, at Servian, was a notable success;(98) others were less fortunate. Soon the ardor of the heretical preachers, stirred by the opposition, became more intense. The arrival of the twelve abbots made little impression. It was not so much a question of number as of disproportion between the spiritual force of the Catholic preachers and the heretical preachers. After three months of fatiguing hardships, during which they traversed hamlets, villages, and towns, what the Cistercians accomplished could be told in a few words: "They reclaimed a small number; they instructed and confirmed in the faith the few Catholics whom they encountered." Others, in vast numbers, imitated the asp in the psalm, closing their ears in order not to hear.(99) Dismayed, the abbots began their retreat from the battleground. In the summer of 1207 their report struck the same note of melancholy as that of the preceding year.(100) The word of the preachers did not touch hearts; it was answered by mockery:
"The truth must be told," cried William of Tudela, "(God forgive me!), these men care no more for sermons than for rotten apples. For five years they have carried on this way. This erring people has no will to be converted."(101)The abbots returned to their monasteries. Then came the death of Raoul (July 9, 1207); the departure and death of Diego (December 30, 1207); finally, the assassination of Peter of Castelnau (January 14, 1208) and the tidal wave in the crusade of the barons. The Praedicatio in Narbonne was practically ruined.
Not entirely, however. Guy of Cernai, who was named Master of the Praedicatio,(102) went on preaching. Still, if Cernai's account is reliable, his manner of exhorting the heretics under threat of fire was more calculated to precipitate them into it than to hasten their acceptance of the Catholic faith.(103) When the noise of battle was stilled enough, and Arnold and Bishop Foulques found occasion to address their flocks, they used similar tactics. "There goes the roaming bee," said the Cathari in derision.(104) Finally, a certain number of "preachers of the faith" still worked on for the Church among the Albigenses. In 1213, Master Robert de Courson, the papal legate, in need of preachers for the Holy Land, judged it expedient even to draw upon their numbers and to give them back to the Albigensian cause only a whole year later;(105) most of them were occupied in France, preaching the crusade.
The little center at Prouille still carried on. The Praedicatio of Innocent III gave promise of surviving without loss of vigor in the Sancta Praedicatio at Prouille. About the middle of the year 1207, when Diego saw the Cistercian organization crumbling, be decided to go to Osma in the hope of returning with subsidies and perhaps also with men.(106) If Jordan is to be relied on, Diego even intended, with the consent of the Pope, to reconstruct the whole preaching enterprise and erect a permanent institution. (107) His death caused his project to fall through. But in Languedoc he had left his companion and disciple, the best heir of his spirit. At Montreal, at Fanjeaux, at Prouille, Dominic had from the outset reaped more abundant fruit than any of the collaborators in the papal mission. He continued his labor. A charter of 1211 bears this humble signature: "Brother Dominic, Preacher.(108) Though the accounts are sketchy, some authentic documents indicate how vain was the toil of this evangelical preacher in the period of battles and revolts.(109) But would not the foundation and growth of the Monastery at Prouille be enough to prove the efficacy of his work?(110)
Vanquished after its last revolt, in 1215 Toulouse opened its gates to the Church. In this capital and stronghold of the Albigenses there then began a renaissance of the Praedicatio. Dominic led the way, rich in his experience of nine years. A year later, he founded the Order of Preachers.
THE PERPETUAL PRAEDICATIO It is unnecessary to review what has been insistently shown: that the Praedicatio of Toulouse in its purpose and method, its legal status and economic program, in its organization and even in its title, ran in a line of continuity with the papal Praedicatio of 1207. Let the testimony of one contemporary among many others suffice. William of Puylaurens (no. 10) says:
Having pursued this arduous toil for two years and more, the champions of the good God, powerless to extinguish the fire which continued to burn, saw that the matter required deeper consideration and were constrained to appeal to the Holy See; and in order that the preaching might not be suspended, under the inspiration of the Lord they sought to institute a body of perpetual preachers, and it was for this purpose and for this end that the Order of Preachers was founded under the holy Bishop, the Lord Foulques.(111)The Praedicatio in Toulouse and the Order of Preachers developed directly out of the Praedicatio first inaugurated and regulated by Pope Innocent as early as 1204. Naturally, differences and new features evolved, but the single word "perpetual" in William's account epitomizes them all: "De praedicatoribus perpetuis instituendis."
The very break-up of the papal institution had demonstrated the necessity of an organization with permanence. The military overthrow of heresy opened the way for a positive spread of the gospel message among the reconquered people, and it seemed more urgent than ever that the bishops should have a regular corps of helpers to assist or substitute for them in the work of preaching. Only a Praedicatio formed on the lines of a religious order could adequately undertake this permanent office of teaching.
A mission, a spirit, a common life: from the beginning these forces, three in number yet profoundly one, constituted the idea of the Order of Preachers. The "mission" was both an end and a law; it was the officium praedicationis et doctrinae, the "office of preaching and of teaching," which gave the Order of Preachers, alongside the bishops, its raison d'être in the Church and its fundamental legal status. The "spirit" called for "imitators of the apostles," for an ardent zeal for souls, and for preaching by the example of lives so detached from the world that mendicancy was voluntarily assumed. The "common life" ensured the traditional asceticism of the regular life which had formed the canons regular. As early as 1206, Dominic had discovered or conceived these three forces in the organism designed and directed by Pope Innocent. In his earnest meditations on the Gospel, he had long aspired to imitate the apostles, and this he did with all his energies for proselytism in opposing the teachers of the Cathari,(112) during the preaching mission in Narbonne. Never would he himself withdraw from the mission he had received from the Church, and he would transmit it without interruption to his sons, in the pontifical institution. The "common life" of the clerics regular, which he had embraced from his youth in the chapter of Osma, he recognized as the pressing need of the Praedicatio of 1207, if ministers of the word were to be trained, strengthened, and sustained, and if their message was to be unfailingly perpetuated through the ages. While he stood possessed of this threefold spirit, he acquired from the Praedicatio in Narbonne an experience and a feeling for humble little details, which be would carry into the work at Toulouse and through it into the Order of Preachers. In its legal form, its place in the Church, its purpose, its mission, and its spirit, even in its title as the Order of Friars Preachers, it is possible to retrace, profoundly modified but recognizable, the essential features of Sancta Praedicatio in Narbonne, founded and fostered with so much solicitude by Innocent III.
This conclusion involves a corollary. If the Praedicatio in Toulouse and the Order of St. Dominic appeared as a renewal of the enterprise inaugurated by the Pope, is it conceivable that they would ever have been instituted if Innocent had not in some way intervened? It is indeed evident that they would not. But that is a matter for consideration elsewhere.
NOTES
3 Cernai, no. 67; Puylaurens, no. 10.
5 Potthast, no. 2103; PL, CCXV, 273; Villemagne, pp. 73 ff. Villemagne (pp. 49 ff.) is wrong in casting doubt on the instruction accompanying the letter to Berenger in its various editions and in Potthast. These precious notes dispatched with the bull are certainly authentic, because they are taken directly from the Register of Innocent III.
It is not surprising that this letter to Berenger should have served to bring about the inauguration of Cistercian preaching, the precise purpose of which was to remedy the negligence of the religious leader of Languedoc; the two legates are spoken of as those "who are to engage in preaching and teaching." It matters little that there is no mention of other preachers with the two legates before 1206; that the Abbot of Cîteaux was a long time providing them does not prove that the Pope had not asked for them.7 Whence the protestations of Berenger of Narbonne: "Since the legation was enjoined upon you first only for the overthrow of heresy, in extending the scope of your powers so that the excesses of the clergy were interpreted as heresy, you have gone beyond the import of the apostolic mandate and have done harm to the Church of Narbonne" (Vaissète, VIII, 509; November 26, 1204).
8 Note this complaint of the legates in 1206: "Whenever they wished to preach to the heretics, the heretics objected to the wicked life of the clergy" (Cernai, no. 20). Therein is echoed the word of Innocent III (December 6, 1204): "since the infamy of their lives is both a scandal to the faithful and the strongest argument used by the derisive heretics" (Potthast, no. 2337; Villemagne, p. 63). What follows in the text of the Pope is most remarkable; in spite of this situation, the Pope forbids the legates to attempt any correction of the clergy, an undertaking which would hinder them from fulfilling their apostolic labors.
9 Villemagne, pp. 60, 78, 103, 115, 127, 144, 225, 230; Potthast, nos. 2224, 2337, 2441, 2814, 2991, 3163.
10 PL, CCXV, 274; Villemagne, p. 75.
12 Peter III, abbot of Valmagne, often labored as assistant to Peter of Castelnau; August 6, 1202; May 25, 1205; October 27, 1206 (Villemagne, pp. 31, 194, 131).
13 Potthast, no. 2103; PL, CCXV, 274 f.
14 May 28 and 31, 1204; November 17, 1206 (Potthast, nos. 2224, 2229, 2912; Villemagne, pp. 52, 68; PL, CCXV, 355, 358, 1024).
15 In fact, it was only after the arrival of Diego and Dominic in 1206 that the program was fully carried out. There is nothing to show that before this date the two legates appealed for the apostolic workers placed at their disposal by the Pope, except perhaps the Abbot of Valmagne.
It must not be thought, however, that they waited for this occasion to carry out the preaching mission confided to them. Their preaching could not have left the same documentary evidence as their occasional activity of a reforming or diplomatic nature, yet preaching was their essential business. Cernai proves this when be pictures the position of the legates at the beginning of 1206: "The legates of the Apostolic See were ready to renounce the embassy for the very weariness involved in it, considering that they could do little or no good in preaching to the heretics (Cernai, no. 20). The legates were aware of the opposition between the work of reform and the work of preaching, and they did not feel authorized to sacrifice the latter for the former. "Therefore, if they should attempt to reform the life of the clergy, they would have to desist from preaching" (ibid.). Indeed, judging from the trouble involved in the correction of the Archbishop of Narbonne, they would have found the reformation of the rest of the clergy an overwhelming task.17 Indeed, we see them undertake the instruction of all the people: "They reclaim a few heretics, they instruct and confirm a few of the faithful lost to the faith." Robert of Auxerre in Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, XXVI, 271. "Disputing and preaching, they strengthened in the faith the few there who were Catholics; they confounded the heretics." Cernai, no. 24.
19 Potthast, no. 2224; Villemagne, pp. 79 f.; PL, CCXV, 355.
21 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 54; PL, CCXV, 359.
23 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 57; PL, CCXV, 360.
24 Potthast, no. 2912; Villemagne, p. 70; PL, CCXV, 1025.
27 Hefele-Leclereq, V, 1340; Schroeder, Councils, p. 251.
28 "Moreover, concerning those matters about which you lately sought our counsel, namely, against those who . . . since the infamy of their lives is both a scandal to the faithful and the strongest argument used by the derisive heretics, we advise and direct that, pursuing more fervently the business enjoined upon you, you should not investigate other matters that might hinder the work committed to you, lest a work of inevitable necessity meet an impediment through your concern over what is tolerable" (December 6, 1204; Potthast, no. 2337; Villemagne, p. 63; PL, CCXV, 472).
29 Berenger went to Rome, after making an appeal from the censures of the legates. On May 9, 1206, the Pope wrote to Raoul and Peter of Castelnau that they should interfere no further with the Archbishop of Narbonne (Potthast, no. 2774; Villemagne, p. 96; PL, CCXV, 883).
31 It was what Jesus prescribed for the twelve apostles (and the seventy-two disciples): "Do not possess gold nor silver nor money in your purses; nor scrip for your journey nor two coats, nor shoes nor a staff; for the workman is worthy of his meat." "He began to send them two and two." "And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they have; for the laborer is worthy of his hire" (Matt. 10:9 f.; Mark 6:7 f.; Luke 10:7).
32 This letter is not a direct approval of the method of preaching in evangelical poverty; it is much more than that. The Pope writes directly to confer the mission on these preachers of good will. Then he describes the type of preaching which the missioners will practice: "Imitating the poverty of the poor Christ, with modest bearing and an ardent spirit, let them not fear to approach outcasts . . . through the example of their lives and the import of their teaching" (Potthast, no. 2912; Villemagne, p. 70; Laurent, no. 3). Here it is evident that the Pope considers this the official type of mission character; he wishes to see it exemplified in the members of the Praedicatio.
33 "We have instituted as preachers in our diocese Brother Dominic and his companions, who in evangelical poverty have proposed to journey religiously on foot and to preach the word of truth according to the Gospel" (Laurent, no. 60).
34 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 55; PL, CCXV, 359.
35 St. Bernard had forbidden them to preach. Peter of Castelnau complained bitterly that he was obliged to leave contemplation for a work for which he was not suited (Potthast, no. 2391; Villemagne, p. 64). Now the Pope did not cease to appeal to the Cistercians. The following entry in the statutes o the general chapter of 1213 depicts their attitude: "The matter of the monastic preachers of Tuscany about whom the Lord Pope has written is entrusted to the Abbot of Morimond, who will so conduct the enterprise that it may both satisfy the Supreme Pontiff and yet may not weaken the rigor of our Order" (Canivez, Statuta Cap. Gen. O.C., I, [1933], 414).
36 William of Tudela, an eyewitness, even thought that Diego was also a legate. Chanson, stanza II, verses 17 f.
37 Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, XXVI, 271.
38 Robert of Auxerre (loc. cit.) writes: "Wherefore on the advice of the Lord Pope, some abbots, about thirteen from the Cistercian abbeys, were assigned, all men of the same rank, well instructed in wisdom and eloquence, prepared to give to all who asked it a reason for the faith, fearing not to lay down their lives also for the faith." The very wording of the letter of May 31, 1204, will be recognized.
39 Potthast, no. 2912; Villemagne, pp. 68 ff.; PL, CCXV, 1024.
40 Cf. Robert of Auxerre, loc. cit.
42 Guy was one of the twelve abbots (Cernai, no. 51). Later in 1212 as bishop of Carcassonne, he summoned from France his ne hew Peter, monk of Vaux-de-Cernai, who served as his secretary and assistant (solatium) (ibid., no. 300).
44 In fact, this Abbot continued to preach in 1212 among the Albigenses, far from his abbey (Cernai, no. 298). A monk of Bonnevaux later recounted an incident which happened to one of the abbots at this time (Frachet, p. 8). Evidently it would not prove that this was his own abbot, since the missioners going down the Rhone had to pass by Bonnevaux. But it is a coincidence.
45 In 1212, the acts of the general chapter of Cîteaux had this entry: "Concerning a monk of Preuilly, called Peter the Hermit, it is commanded that he be recalled at once from the preaching among the Albigenses, nor should he, or any other without license from Chapter, dare to assume the office of preaching" (Canivez, Statuta, I [1933], 400). This hermit must have been a lay brother; his presence in the Albigensian country at such a distance from his abbey (Preuilly, Meaux) could be explained if he had been brought by his abbot, like the other Cistercian lay brothers who at this time accompanied St. Dominic in his preaching (Frachet, p. 76; Constantine, no. 55).
47 Potthast, no. 2912; Laurent, no. 3.
48 The crusaders bound themselves for a period of forty days only; this limited service rose out of a feudal custom. It is certain, too, that the preaching was conceived by the Holy See as a kind of spiritual crusade comparable to a military crusade. It is remarkable that the members received the indulgence for it in the classic formula: in remissionem vestrorum injungens peccatorum. Potthast, nos. 2230, 2912; Villemagne, pp. 55, 70; Laurent, no. 77.
50 Cf. Villemagne, pp. 40, 56, 60.
52 "The abbots were at once dispersed far and wide by the Cistercian leader, and they were assigned their own field in which they might pursue the work of preaching and engage in arguments" (Cernai, no. 47).
54 Two of these official letters of St. Dominic are extant. Cf. Balme, I, 186 ff., 484. Others, noted by the process of inquisition, have been lost. Ibid., I, 173, 471.
55 Balme, I, 188 (cf. 484) published a reconstitution figurée of this seal which he had not seen but of which he had read descriptions in ancient manuscripts. Even in the time of Bernard Guidonis the inscription was hardly legible. A manuscript in Barcelona furnished Balme with the reading which he gives: "Jesu Christi et Predicationis." Perhaps the et is superfluous. The seal was not a personal seal of Dominic, but the seal of the Praedicatio which Dominic had the right to use. Dominic made it known that he acted in the name of the legate who had given him charge of it.
57 The Sancta Praedicatio is not mentioned in charters issued after the dissolution of the Praedicatio in Narbonne.
62 Potthast, nos. 2103, 2229; Villemagne, p. 55; PL, CCXV, 275, 359.
63 Potthast, nos. 2229 f.; Villemagne, p. 56; PL, CCXV, 360.
64 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 57; PL, CCXV, 360.
65 Potthast, nos. 2103, 2337, 2391, 2404, 2912; Villemagne, pp. 60, 64, 178; PL, CCXV, 274, 525, 1025, 1361.
66 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 54; PL, CCXV, 359.
67 Potthast, no. 2391; Villemagne, p. 64; PL, CCXV, 525.
68 Potthast, no. 2103; PL, CCXV, 275.
69 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 55: "Nevertheless because the harvest is great and the laborers few, with the advice of our brothers, we confer upon you, our son and Abbot, the burden of this enterprise unto the remission of your sins.
74 Potthast, no. 2103; PL, CCXV, 275.
76 Cernai, nos. 24, 27. His life came to an end by assassination.
77 In January, 1205, and May, 1206. Cf. Potthast, no. 2391; Villemagne, p. 64; PL, CCXV, 523; Cernai, no. 20.
81 For Robert of Arbrissel, see Vita by Baudry (PL, CLXII, 1052). For St. Norbert, see Herimannus in Mon. Germ. hist., Scriptores, XII, 651, 656; and Guibert de Nogent, Tropologiae in prophetas, PL, CLVI, 337, 487. For Bernard of Thiron, see Vita by Geoffrey le Gros, PL, CLXXII, 1405 f.
84 For example, note this regulation of the Council of Montpellier ( 1213): "The [bishop and archbishop] may not receive money for the work of their administration when they do not visit these [churches]." Mansi, XXII, 943.
85 See canon 4 of the Third Lateran Council and canons 33 and 34 of the Fourth. Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1091, 1360 f.; Schroeder, Councils, pp. 218, 270 f.
86 Potthast, no. 2224; Villemagne, pp. 78 ff.; PL, CCXV, 355.
87 Potthast, no. 2103; Villemagne, p. 76; PL, CCXV, 274.
88 Potthast, no. 2226; Villemagne, p. 86; PL, CCXV, 360.
89 Potthast, no. 2774; Villemagne, p. 97.
90 "Whenever they wished to preach to the heretics, the heretics objected to the wicked life of the clergy" (Cernai, no. 20). That was the only argument advanced by the heretics in reply to the teaching of the legates, and it must be granted that it was enough. In the case of the legates, it was not that they disedified the heretics, but that they did not edify them sufficiently by a more heroic poverty.
93 The propositum of the Preachers of Toulouse is defined thus: "who in evangelical poverty have proposed to go about religiously on foot" (Laurent, no. 60). Through the revenue assigned to them from the tithes of the diocese, Foulques agreed to provide "their food and other necessaries"; and particular stipulation was made "for clothing and other necessaries in time of illness or whenever they wished to rest" (ibid.).
According to canon law, the tithes or revenues of the diocese had to be divided into four parts: for the bishops, clerics or canons, vestry needs, and the poor. These, last two together could be considered as forming only a single part; the portion for the poor was therefore, only half of this third part of the tithes. It was that part which Foulques assigned to the Preachers. The bishop was free to dispose of the tithes as he thought best. It was taken for granted that religious might be counted among these poor: "Since whatever clerics have belongs to the poor . . . it should be their special care to distribute out of their tithes and donations whatever they wish and can for the support of cenobites and hospices. For it is permissible to give tithes and offerings and every kind of help to monks and spiritual men who fear and love God . . . having regard not so much to poverty as to religion in the poor."
We here note two examples of donations of tithes to religious. From the year 1090, the canons of Pistoia gave part of their tithes to a hospital (Jaffé, no. 5427; PL, CLI, 318). In 1157, Adrian IV granted to the monastery of Cosmas and Damian, "in witness of your piety, to you and to your successors, as to the poor of Christ, in the churches named, a fourth part of the tithes, which are due to the poor according to canon law" (Jaffé, no. 10299; Pfluck-Harttung, Acta Pont. Rom. inedita, II [1880], 860). The structure of this text runs parallel to that in the deed of Foulques. It would be idle, therefore, to urge the unusual character of the latter. The economic status of the Praedicatio of Toulouse had its legal warrant in Gratian's Decretum.95 Summa Aurea, Bk. II, tr. VII, chap. 1. These texts concern the Cathari of Lombardy. Cf. G. Lacombe, La vie et les ceuvres de Prévostin (1927), pp. 11-13.
96 Potthast, no. 2229; Villemagne, p. 55; PL, CCXV, 359.
98 Ibid., no. 23. Another success was scored in the dispute at Montréal, where one hundred and fifty were converted (Puylaurens, no. 9), and at Pamiers (ibid., no. 6).
99 Robert of Auxerre, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, XXVI 271.
100 "But since the heretics were obstinate in malice and unwilling to be converted, and since little or nothing could be gained by preaching or disputing, when some length of time had elapsed, the preachers dispersed to various places in Gaul" (Cernai, no. 51).
101 Stanza II, verses 24 ff.; cf. III, 12. The five years are probably 1203-8.
104 Tudela, stanza XLVI, verse 9 (in 1210 at Toulouse).
105 Cernai, nos. 439, 494. On the mission of Courson, cf. Dickson, "Le card. Robert de Courson," in Arch. Hist. litt. et doct. M. A., IX (1934), 90, 99.
106 "The Bishop of Osma, moreover, wished to return to his own see, that he might set his own affairs in order and from his own revenues provide necessaries for the preachers of the word of God in the Province of Narbonne" (Cernai, no. 48)
107 "Bishop Diego devoted himself for two years to this kind of preaching.. Then, fearing lest if he were to delay any longer he might be guilty of negligence in what concerned his own See at Osma, he decided to return to Spain. After he had visited his diocese be intended to raise money and return with it for support of the aforesaid monastery of women; and then, at length, with the consent of the Lord Pope he would ordain certain men suitable for preaching in those districts, whose duty it would be to work always to stamp out the errors of heretics and never to desist in their labor to guard the truth of faith." (Jordan, no. 28).
109 Balme, I, 171-73, 271 f., 468, 470 f., has published a certain number of extracts from the manuscript of the inquisition of Carcassonne which certify to the reconciliations brought about by St. Dominic, e.g., the letter of reconciliation of Pons Roger (ibid., p. 187). See other accounts of conversion in Jordan, nos. 34f.; Processus (Toulouse), no. 23; Ferrand, no. 22; Constantine, no. 51.
110 For the religious of Prouille converted by St. Dominic, see Laurent, no. 7.
111 Following Jordan of Saxony, Dominican hagiographers in general have noted the continuity of the Praedicatio of St. Dominic with that of the Cistercian mission, and have traced the first idea of the Order to the Conference at Montpellier.
112 "Imitation of the apostles" was the ideal of the teachers of the Cathari and the Waldenses and of the itinerant Catholic preachers of the twelfth century. Cf. Grundmann, p. 28. If contact with heretics brought the psychological jolt which decided Diego and Dominic to adopt this manner of life, the example would have come from the Cathari rather than the Waldenses. The Waldenses were few in number in Languedoc, where they appeared at a later date (Guiraud, L'Inquisition, p. 259) and almost as hostile to the Cathari as to the Catholics. At Fanjeaux and Montréal particularly, Diego and Dominic met only the Cathari. The dispute at Pamiers was an exception.
INDEX