Medieval Christianity: The Dominicans

The foundation of the Order of Preacher was confirmed by Pope Preachers was confirmed by Pope Honorius III on December 22,1216.During the succeeding centuries its members played a unique and significant role in the life of the Church.Yet-apart from detailed studies of varied aspects of the Order or its work- a full-scale history remained to be written.This work by a distinguished historian fills that need.-Flap cover.

This volume contains a selection of thirteenth-century texts illustrating the life and spirituality of the early Dominicans.It is natural that the central text should be about preaching and what it means to be a preacher,since the Dominicans were founded specifically to be an Order of Preachers.The tratise "On the Formation of Peachers" by Humbert of Romans,the fifth Master of the Dominican Order,is the most authoritative document from the period on the spirituality and attitudes that are appropriate to those whose vocation it is to be preachers.-Foreword

This work is an overview rather than a detailed account of events.Its originality lies in the marshalling of the contents of Dominican history.Presenting the course of developments briefly ,it gives but a nod to many issues which would demand extensive treatment in a larger work.It concentrates on showing the Order's growth from the small beginnings of the thirteenth century to a world-wide presence in the twentieth.-Foreword.

This volume examines depictions of Christ in the writings and art of the medieval Dominicans. The multidisciplinary essays provide perspectives on the life and thought of the Order of the Preachers, focusing on the role of Christ within the devotion and imagination of the Order.

Examines papal teaching authority from Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century to the Dominican School of Salamanca in sixteenth-century Spain. This work describes the debates between the Dominicans and other orders over papal teaching authority, especially whether there should be limits placed on papal authority and, if so, what they might be.

"Righteous Persecution examines the long-controversial involvement of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans, with inquisitions into heresy in medieval Europe. From their origin in the thirteenth century, the Dominicans were devoted to a ministry of preaching, teaching, and pastoral care, to "save souls" particularly tempted by the Christian heresies popular in western Europe. Many persons then, and scholars in our own time, have asked how members of a pastoral order modeled on Christ and the apostles could engage themselves so enthusiastically in the repressive persecution that constituted heresy inquisitions: the arrest, interrogation, torture, punishment, and sometimes execution of those who deviated in belief from Roman Christianity." "Drawing on wide base of ecclesiastical documents, Christine Caldwell Ames recounts how Dominican inquisitors and their supporters crafted and promoted explicitly Christian meanings for their inquisitorial persecution. Inquisitors' conviction that the sin of heresy constituted the graver danger to the Christian soul and to the church at large led to the belief that bringing the individual to repentance-even through the harshest means-was indeed a pious way to carry out their pastoral task. However, the resistance and criticism that inquisition generated in medieval communities also prompted Dominicans to consider further how this new marriage of persecution and holiness was compatible with authoritative Christian texts, exemplars, and traditions. Dominican inquisitors persecuted not despite their faith but rather because of it, as they formed a medieval Christianity that permitted-or demanded-persecution."--Jacket.

"St. Dominic's Family" is a monumental work of unparalleled scope, for here are contained some 335 short biographies of the most famous people of the Dominican Order - priests, nuns, and Third Order members from St. Dominic himself (1170-1221) to Gerald Vann (1906-1963). Arranged century by century, this book is nothing short of the history of an entire order - and one of the greatest orders of the Church.