struggle with heretics. The cities of Flanders, in particular, knew their share of heterodox
believers. But it was learning, and especially theological learning, that distinguished the
history of the Dominican order in northern France.
The order established studia generalia to serve as the apex of its educational structure.
Each studium generale was administered by a regent master assisted by two bachelors;
the subject of instruction was theology. Saint-Jacques at Paris housed the first and
greatest studium generale of the order. In 1229 and again in 1231, it was granted a chair
in the theological faculty of the University of Paris. In 1248, Provence received its own
studium in the convent at Montpellier. In 1303, the newly established province of
Toulouse received its own studium generale in its convent in Toulouse. After 1260, other
types of schools were organized. Studia naturalium provided Dominicans an internal
organ for the study of philosophy; other special schools were established for the study of
logic and still others for the study of foreign languages, such as Greek, Hebrew, and
Arabic.
Saint-Jacques’s close association with the University of Paris created a fertile field in
which to recruit novices for the order. Despite the inclusion of Dominican regent masters
within the theology faculty of the University of Paris, the Dominican studium generale
was imperfectly integrated with the rest of the university. This was particularly clear in
the period 1229–31 and again in the 1250s, when the secular masters of the university
called strikes that the Dominican masters refused to join. Their lack of solidarity
provoked a far-ranging controversy with the secular masters, which came to be fought
over mendicant (and by implication papal) claims to a pastoral apostolate and the office
of doctor within the church. The controversy lasted intermittently for a century, heating
up in the 1250s, again in the 1270s and 1280s, and then again in the years before the
Council of Vienne (1311–12). Dominicans and their mendicant allies proved successful
in defending themselves and their religious privileges, though their secular opponents
created arguments that were more difficult to dispute than is sometimes realized. What is
remarkable is the degree to which the French episcopacy either remained neutral in this
protracted dispute or supported the Dominicans and their mendicant allies. In general, the
French episcopacy looked upon the order with high favor throughout the 13th century.
The list of Dominican masters at Saint-Jacques includes some of the greatest thinkers
of the Middle Ages: Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Meister Eckhart. Moreover,
the Dominicans of Saint-Jacques were also responsible for impressive products of
communal effort, including a concordance to the Bible and a complete set of postillae for
every biblical book (under the direction of Hugues de Saint-Cher). Some even argue that
the pecia system of manuscript production was developed by and for the needs of the
studium generale at Saint-Jacques.
In France, as everywhere, the 13th century was a golden age for the Dominican order.
The 14th century was less kind, although the order’s numbers did not decline until the
Black Death (1348). In 1337, in fact, membership in the order achieved its medieval
high-water mark (12,000), in a census taken for Pope Benedict XII (r. 1334–42).
Nevertheless, the economy of Europe began to stagnate in the late 13th century, and it
became more difficult for the order to beg the resources that it needed to remain viable.
The depradations of the Black Death only worsened the situation. Entrance standards
loosened and study and the choral office were relatively neglected, as friars assiduously
traveled their convent’s begging routes.
The Encyclopedia 575