Dominican Order

Dominican Order or Order of Preachers, known in English also as Black Friars. The Dominicans are officially dedicated to preaching and the good of souls, and study has always occupied a central position. Founded by St Dominic, the Order took definite shape at the General Chapter at Bologna in 1220. It adopted not only individual but corporate poverty, owning only its houses and churches; communities were to be supported by alms not revenue. The Order spread throughout Europe and into Asia, and Dominicans followed the Portuguese and Spanish explorers in both the E. and W. hemispheres. During the Reformation and later during successive political upheavals they lost houses and even provinces, but since the revival of the Order during the 19th cent. it has again spread throughout the world.

The intellectual side of the Order's work expanded during the 13th cent., and a complex educational system was established culminating in ‘Studia Generalia’, usually associated with universities. The adaptation of Aristotle to Christian philosophy was largely the work of Dominicans, chiefly St Albertus Magnus and St Thomas Aquinas. Indiscriminate recruitment after the Black Death and other factors led to a weakening of community life and laxness of observance. In the 14th cent. there were attempts to reform the Order, leading to the establishment of reformed houses and later of reformed congregations and provinces. The prohibition against holding revenue-producing properties was found to be unworkable and was finally abolished by Sixtus IV in 1475. Dominicans were widely used by the Papacy in the Middle Ages for preaching Crusades and in some places for staffing the Inquisition.

There are also cloistered nuns (the Second Order) and fraternities of lay Dominicans (see THIRD ORDER) under the jurisdiction of the Master of the Order; together with autonomous congregations of Dominican sisters engaged in active works, and Secular Institutes, these form the non-juridical ‘Dominican Family’.