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But all through the dreadful years of the Albigensian war, Dominic simply went on preaching, as best he could in the circumstances. Although he became friendly with Simon de Montfort, and made contacts which were to prove useful to his Order in later years, he never associated himself directly with the military campaign, as so many of the clergy did. He remained a poor, politically unimportant, preacher. 

In 1215 he was invited to move into Toulouse, and there he was given a house by a rich burgher, Peter Selhan. And, even more significantly, Peter and another man, called Thomas, bound themselves to Dominic by religious profession. Others had already attached themselves to Dominic and his work, but these were the first to formalize the attachment by religious profession. This was the institutional beginning of the religious community which became the Order of Preachers. 

The bishop of Toulouse, the converted troubadour, Fulk of Marseille, welcomed Dominic and his companions and gave them official status in his diocese as preachers. They were charged, not only with the mission against heresy, but with the responsibility to assist the bishop in all the different facets of his doctrinal ministry. 

This was the situation, then, when Dominic went with Fulk to the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. But Dominic wanted more. He went to Rome with the intention of asking the Pope to give his blessing to the new community and to recognize it as an ‘Order of Preachers’-- a remarkable bid to appropriate a title which had traditionally belonged mainly to the bishops. 

The Council decreed that no new religious houses could be founded, unless they adopted one of the existing religious Rules, so Dominic had to return to Toulouse to consult his brethren, before the desired confirmation could be given. But in 1216, after they had agreed to adopt the Rule of St Augustine, Honorius III, who had succeeded Innocent III in the meantime, granted Dominic everything that he asked for. The Order of Preachers now existed formally as an institution in the Church, and it was not long before the Holy See was freely using its controversial title, even though others continued to dispute it for decades. 

The Order began as a diocesan institute, but as early as 1216 Dominic began to envisage something larger. We are told that he had a vision in Rome of his brethren going out, two by two, into all the world to preach the gospel. And so, in 1217, he sent some of them to Paris to make a foundation there, and others were sent to Spain. Within the next few years we find houses being established in several places in France, Spain and Italy, and missions being sent further afield in the hope of greater expansion. 

Between 1216 and 1220, Dominic’s own vision became clearer and he tried to persuade the brethren of its validity. One thing he particularly wanted to ensure was that his houses should be poor. He urged the brethren not just to travel as mendicants, but to live by alms even in their own communities, unsupported by revenues and properties. This was eventually agreed to in 1220. 

He also emphasized the importance of study. In Toulouse during 1215 he took his first brethren to some theology lectures being given by an English master, Alexander Stavensby. Then, as we have seen, he sent some of them to Paris, and part of their mandate was to attend the University there. And every Dominican house was envisaged as a place of study. One of the early laws of the Order was that no house was to be founded without a lecturer in theology. From the outset Dominic had his eyes on the great university centers of Europe. When the Dominicans first came to England in 1220, they went straight to Oxford.

But, though study was important, Dominic never intended his friars simply to become academics. Their task was to preach. To do this, they needed to be well-informed and well-trained, but, above all, they needed a deep and vivid faith in God to give them the right words to speak. 

And Dominic himself never forgot that he was above all a preacher. Although he devoted a great deal of time and energy to his newly founded Order, he also continued to travel far and wide preaching. And, when necessary, he tried to recruit other people who were not Dominicans, but whom he believed to possess a ‘grace of preaching’, to join him in his missions. 

In addition to all of this, Dominic also became interested in a scheme which Honorius III was working on, to provide a new and more rigorous monastery for nuns in Rome. There was evidently a need for something like this, as many of the existing monasteries had lost their fervour, leaving women who wanted a more serious religious life unprovided for. The church of San Sisto had been set aside for this purpose, but the Gilbertines, the Order which was supposed to be taking charge of the project, had still done nothing about it. So in 1218 Dominic seems to have offered to take responsibility for it. In February 1220 a community of nuns effectively took possession of San Sisto, under Dominic’s authority. In the meantime, he also established a monastery of nuns in Madrid, as well as taking the first steps towards the founding of a nunnery in Bologna. 

In 1220 he summoned representatives from all his communities to a General Chapter in Bologna. There he tried to resign his position as head of the Order, though the brethren would not hear of it. But he insisted that it was they, not he, who must decide about the essential constitutional structure of the Order. On at least one point they disagreed with him, and he made no attempt to force his will on them. He wanted the lay brothers to have full responsibility for looking after the material side of things in the Order, so that the clerical brethren could devote themselves entirely to study and preaching. This suggestion was turned down.

When the Chapter had finished its work, the Order was now in all essentials formed, leaving only a few administrative details to be added in 1221. The salient characteristic of Dominican legislation was its flexibility. St Dominic created no ‘Holy Rule’ to remain fixed for ever. Everything was, in principle, open to subsequent modification, and no rules were to be allowed to stand in the way of the Order’s work of preaching. Superiors were to have complete freedom to dispense the brethren from any obligation or observance which was likely to impede their work. And a great deal was left to the initiative of individuals or particular communities. Once again, we see how far Dominic was prepared to trust to his brethren to make decisions as they went along. He did not want to pre-empt issues before they arose. 

After the Chapter, Dominic set off on this travels again, but by now he was near the end of his strength. In 1220 he presided at the second General Chapter, and then set off yet again on his travels. But by the end of July he was back in Bologna, clearly a very sick man. He died on August 6.

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