420 Epilogue
convent in 1221.^2 Dominicans arrived at about the same time. Jacques of
Vitry penned his famous description of the new ‘‘canons of Bologna’’ after
his visit in 1222.^3 The Dominicans preached, practiced poverty, and attracted
vocations from the university. Other mendicants, Augustinians and Carmel-
ites, followed soon after. Bologna chronicles noted the arrival of even minor
offshoots of the begging tradition, like the Brothers of the Sack, who settled
outside Porta San Mamolo in 1256.^4 Individual communes gave birth to
mendicant groups peculiarly their own. Some, like Florentine Servites,
flourished; others, like the Apostolici at Parma, descended into heresy and
incurred the wrath of inquisitors. The communes themselves were less dis-
criminating than the Church. In 1250 , Parma recognized the Apostolici and,
by 1262 , enrolled them on the city alms list, along with more respectable
orders—much to the disgust of Fra Salimbene, who called them a fraudulent
imitation of his own Franciscans.^5 The mendicant vogue touched smaller
cities, which lured foundations by promises of alms and real estate. In 1230 ,
Treviso appropriated £ 50 for constructing a convent to attract the Domini-
cans. But Franciscans always seemed the better catch. In 1231 , Treviso or-
dered its new podesta, Don Caccianimici of Bologna, to expend £ 1 , 000 to
build a house for the poor brothers of Saint Francis.^6 In 1233 , the people of
Reggio Emilia, perhaps inspired by the Alleluia devotion of that year, gath-
ered and carried stones for the Dominican’s new church. At Reggio, both
young and old carried bricks; the weaker escorted them with lighted candles
and banners. Bishop Nicola and his archpriest, Giacomo, came to bless the
work and lay the friary cornerstone.^7
The mendicants quickly placed their mark on the cities. At Bologna, the
Dominicans took over the church of San Nicolo`delle Vigne in 1221. Almost
immediately, they began new construction and expansion that would last
into the 1300 s.^8 Franciscan building at Bologna began in Porta Stiera during
1236 , and their great Gothic church was finished in 1263.^9 Pope Innocent IV
recognized the prestige of both foundations by visits during his journey back
from the Council of Lyons. On 14 and 15 October 1250 respectively, he
- Matteo Griffoni, 7 – 8 ; on Mass:CCB:Vill. ( 1221 ), 83. For mendicant impact on the contado, see
Charles M. De La Ronciere, ‘‘L’influence des Franciscains dans la campagne de Florence auxivesiecle
( 1280 – 1360 ),’’Me ́langes de l’E ́cole franc ̧aise de Rome: Moyen Aˆge–temps modernes 87 ( 1975 ): 27 – 103. - Jacques of Vitry,Historia Occidentalis, 27 ,p. 143 ; on this passage, see Hinnebusch’s remarks, in ibid.,
pp. 6 , 19 – 20.
4 .CCB:B( 1256 ), 139. - Parma Stat.i, 115 – 16 ; Salimbene,Cronica, 580 , Baird trans., 404 ; see Orioli,Venit Perfidus Heresiarcha,
65 – 67. - Treviso Stat. ( 1230 ), 686 , 2 : 268 ;( 1231 ), 690 , 2 : 269 – 70.
- Alberto Milioli,Liber, 509.
- See I. B. Supino,L’architettura sacra in Bologna nei secolixiiiexiv(Bologna: Zanichelli, 1909 ), 3 – 41 ,
esp. the plan on 25 ; for the implantation of the Dominicans in Bologna, see Tommaso Alfonsi, ‘‘Le chiesa
di s. Nicolo`delle Vigne in Bologna dal 1221 al 1251 ,’’Il rosario: Memorie domenicane, 3 d ser., 2 ( 1915 ): 317 – 320 ,
372 – 84. For French comparisons, see Jacques Le Goff, ‘‘Ordres mendiants e urbanisation dans la France
me ́die ́vale: E ́tat de l’enqueˆte,’’Annales: E ́conomies—socie ́te ́s—civilisations 25 ( 1970 ): 924 – 46. - Supino,Architettura, 43 – 48.