a close friendship that would last until Montfort’s death
at Toulouse in 1218. Montfort regarded his victory at
Muret as a miracle attributable to Domingo’s prayers.
Domingo’s reputation for sanctity, apostolic zeal, and
learning made him a much sought-after candidate for
various bishoprics, all of which he refused, preferring
to preach. The foundation of the Inquisition, and his ap-
pointment as the fi rst inquisitor, is ascribed to Domingo
during this period, although there is evidence to indicate
that the Inquisition was functioning as early as 1198.
By 1214 the infl uence of Domingo’s preaching and
his reputation for holiness had drawn a group of disciples
around him. The time was right for the realization of his
desire to found a religious order to propagate the faith
and combat heresy. With the approval of Bishop Foul-
que of Toulouse, who made him chaplain of Fanjeaux
in July 1215, he organized and canonically established
a community of followers as a religious congregation
whose mission was the propagation of true doctrine
and good morals, and the eradication of heresy. Pierre
Seilan, a wealthy citizen of Toulouse, placed himself
under Domingo’s direction and put his large house at
Domingo’s disposal. There the fi rst convent of the future
Order of Preachers (now known as the Dominicans) was
established on 25 April 1215.
In November 1215 an ecumenical council convened
in Rome to deliberate on the improvement of morals,
the extinction of heresy, and the strengthening of the
faith, an agenda identical to the mission of Domingo’s
new order. Along with the bishop of Toulouse, Domingo
went to Rome to petition that his new order carry out
the mandates of the council. His request, however, was
not granted. Returning to Languedoc in December 1215,
he informed his followers of the council’s mandate that
there be no new rules for religious orders. As a result the
community adopted the rule of St. Augustine, which,
because of its generality, easily lent itself to any form
they might wish. In August 1216 Domingo returned to
Rome and appeared before Pope Honorius III to solicit
confi rmation for his order. The bull of confi rmation was
issued on 22 December 1216.
In 1218, to facilitate the spread of the order, Pope
Honorius III addressed a bull to all archbishops, bish-
ops, abbots, and priors, requesting them to show favor
toward the Order of Preachers. Later Honorius bestowed
the Church of Saint Sixtus in Rome upon the order. In
February 1219 Domingo founded the fi rst monastery
of the order in Spain at Segovia, followed by a convent
for women at Madrid. It is probable that on this journey
he also presided over the establishment of a convent in
connection with the University of Palencia and, at the
invitation of the bishop of Barcelona, a house of the
order was founded in that city. Shortly before his death
on 6 August 1221, Domingo returned to Rome for the
last time and received many new, valuable concessions
for his order. He was canonized on 13 July 1234 by
Pope Gregory IX, who declared him to be as saintly as
Peter and Paul.
See also Innocent III, Pope; Simon de Montfort,
Earl of LeicesterFurther Reading
Galmés, L., and V.T. Gómez. (eds.) Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
Fuentes para su conocimiento. Madrid, 1987.
Vicaire, M.-H. Saint Dominic and His Times. Trans. Kathleen
Pond. New York, 1964.
E. Michael GerliGUZMÁN, NUÑO DE
(d. ca. 1467/90)
The youngest of the illegitimate children of Luis
González de Guzmán, master of the military order of
Calatrava (1406–1407 and 1414–1443), by Inés de Tor-
res, a wealthy heiress from Zamora, Nuño de Guzmán
was educated by private tutor in the maternal home in
Córdoba during a period of estrangement between his
parents (1416–1430). Under his mother’s guidance he
became deeply interested in literature, “so that a day
spent without reading seemed to me utterly wasted”
(Apologia Nunnii), but he did not learn Latin. In 1430 he
undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Sinai, return-
ing via Cairo, the Aegean islands, Venice, Rome, Siena,
Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Bohemia, Basle, Cologne,
Lyon, and Tours before arriving at the court of Duke
Philip the Good of Burgundy in Bruges (autumn 1432),
where by his own account he was given an important
offi ce (magistratus), probably in the household of the
duke’s wife, Isabel of Portugal. On his return to Spain
(ca. 1435) Guzmán found himself in the bad graces of
his father, despite the personal intervention of Juan II
and the support of his mother; consequently he set out
for Burgundy again in 1439, but decided to visit Flor-
ence fi rst, where the ecumenical council called by Pope
Eugenius IV for reunion with the Eastern Church was
just beginning. Guzmán was instantly dazzled by the
intellectual ferment he encountered in Florence and,
abandoning his Burgundian trip in favor of a vocation as
literary patron and book collector, he befriended the cel-
ebrated libralo Vespasiano da Bisticci, Leonardo Bruni,
Pier Candido Decembrio, and other humanists. He had
Bruni’s apologetic life of Cicero (Cicero Nouus) and
his humanist version of Aristotle’s Ethics translated into
Tuscan, and received the dedications of Decembrio’s
Italian translations of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis diui
Claudii and Quintus Curtius’s Life of Alexander, while
commissioning many superb lettera antica manuscripts
from Vespasiano’s bottega. In later years, Vespasiano
tells us, Guzmán continued to commission TuscanGUZMÁN, DOMINGO DE