cians who were discouraged by their failure to win the
heretical Cathars back to orthodoxy. Diego and Dominic
decided to undertake the challenge of answering error by
preaching the truth. So as not to look like worldly prel-
ates, they abandoned all their property and went about
unattended by pomp. Here, too, legend would provide
miracles befi tting the zeal of the saint and his mentor.
According to one such legend, there was an ordeal by
fi re, in which orthodox and Cathar alike committed
their writings to the fl ames; the heretical texts were
consumed, but those of the orthodox were spared. The
initial results of this apostolate were less spectacular; but
when Diego returned to his diocese, Dominic remained
to carry on with a few brothers. A house for devout
women also was founded at Prouille.
Dominic’s young family of preachers continued their
work despite the upheavals of the Albigensian crusade.
On the invitation of Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, Dominic
made that city the seat of his operation. In 1215, he went
with Folk to Pope Innocent III’s Fourth Lateran Coun-
cil in Rome. (Another established Dominican legend,
often depicted in art, was that at this council Dominic
met Saint Francis of Assisi. Still another is that saints
Peter and Paul appeared to Dominic and presented him,
respectively, with a staff and a gospel book.) While
Dominic was in Rome, he sought the pope’s approval
of his order, but since the council had forbidden the
establishment of new orders, the pope required him to
adopt the rule of an existing community. Dominic and
his followers chose the Augustinian rule, which was by
far the most fl exible of the models available. Innocent’s
successor, Honorius III, was quick to extend his approval
to Dominic’s family once their choice had been made.
In 1217, Honorius also approved the name Order of
Preachers, which supposedly had fi rst been suggested
by Innocent III.
On returning to Toulouse in 1217, Dominic an-
nounced a decision to scatter his brothers throughout
western Europe. He was helped in this effort by some-
one he had recruited in Rome, Reginald of Orléans.
Reginald, a trained canonist, was in turn able to recruit
university-trained clerics. This facilitated not just the
work of preaching but the establishment of Dominican
convents in Paris and Bologna, Europe’s greatest seats
of learning. One of Reginald’s important recruits was
Moneta of Cremona, a master of the arts. Moneta, with
the theologian Roland of Cremona, later founded the
friars’ house in Cremona; he also wrote Summa against
the Cathars and Waldensians, one of the earliest Do-
minican polemical works.
Dominic now decided that he needed a base in Rome
itself. As in France, he founded houses of both men and
women. In Rome, he took over an abandoned Gilbertine
house for the friary he founded at San Sisto; later, he
entrusted this site to a community of nuns, and the friars,
except for a few chaplains, eventually went to Santa
Sabina. The Dominicans would also establish a friary
at Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. In Bologna,
Dominic made an enthusiastic convert, Diana d’Andalò;
but her noble kin refused to allow her to become a nun.
Dominic continued to encourage her through his re-
maining years; but it was left to his successor, Jordan of
Saxony, to house Diana and her sister in the monastery
of Sant’ Agnese.
There was a good reason why Dominic wanted a
presence for his friars near the papal court. The diocesan
clergy raised considerable objections to having religious
do pastoral tasks like hearing confessions, and tradition
reserved preaching for bishops. Dominic did discourage
his friars from meddling in the affairs of parishes; but
he also sought commendations from the papacy for the
work of preaching, and Honorius III gave him warm
letters of commendation. Honorius’s successors would
go even farther, granting the friars privileges and often
exempting them from episcopal authority. Dominic also
made a friend of the papal vice-chancellor, William
of Piedmont, whose clerks drafted these papal letters;
he himself reciprocated by traveling from Viterbo to
Rome to represent the pope in dealings with the Ro-
man populace.
Though he was frequently in Italy, Dominic contin-
ued traveling to visit the outposts of his young order.
A tour in 1218–1219 included parts of Italy, France,
and Spain. One of Dominic’s principal efforts was to
encourage mendicancy; thus he required the houses
in southern France to abandon such fi xed revenues as
they had obtained. Poverty was fused with preaching,
and preaching became tied to a network of houses of
study. This allowed the Friars Preachers to avoid, for the
most part, a drift into radical opinions that could have
threatened the survival of the order. Dominic’s emphasis
on education can be discerned as early as 1215–1216,
when he encouraged theologians to settle in Toulouse.
By 1217, friars were being sent to study in Paris. In
1218, Dominic took the fi rst steps toward founding a
house of study in Bologna. The Dominicans’ educa-
tional program focused at fi rst on the Bible, but other
subjects were added to the curriculum later. Moreover,
instruction of nuns in the rudiments of sound doctrine
was encouraged.
This emphasis on education helped make the uni-
versity cities of Paris and Bologna the two poles of the
order. For a time, Dominic concentrated on Italy, while
Reginald, until his death, worked from Paris. The fi rst
general chapter of the Dominicans was held in Bologna
in 1220. At this meeting, it was decided to alternate
chapters annually between Bologna and Paris, beginning
in Bologna in 1221. Provinces were established to group
the friars’ convents. It is a mark of the order’s youth
that Jordan of Saxony, who had been a member of theDOMINIC, SAINT