Albert the Great, the Albert Legend, and the Legitimation of the Dominicans

By the time of his death in 1280 Albert the Great was respected not only as a theologian and philosopher, but also as one of the greatest authorities on astrology in the West. Such expertise rarely gains plaudits today, but in late medieval Europe knowledge of esoteric pursuits was held in high regard. This is why Dominicans not only did nothing to challenge the growth of the “Albert Legend,” that Albert had mastered all magical and esoteric topics, but also promoted this myth. By promoting this legend, they bolstered and legitimized the reputation of the Order of Preachers.

A Joyful Spectrum of Service

In 1853 a small group of nuns arrived on the waterfront of New York City commencing the service of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) to New York City and its environs. In time the Dominicans served in health care, education, parish work, and a myriad of social services. The evolution of the Order of Preachers in New York eventually included friars, nuns, sisters, and lay members—a singular distinction. The Dominican roots in New York spread to other parts of the United States and to various foreign missions.

«Ad consolationem legentium»

This book is the result of a fruitful exchange between the textual studies about Marco Polo’s Devisement dou Monde and the socio-historical research regarding Mendicant Orders. The Order of Preachers, in particular, includes the figure of the Venetian merchant as an auctoritas in the area of anthropological knowledge of Eastern traditions, through a Latin translation process contributing to evangelization in Asia. The aim of this book is to analyze the Dominican reception hybridizing philological and linguistical with historical and archival methods. The crossing of these research trajectories led to the finding of a parchment that testifies definitively the trusting relationship between Marco and the preachers of SS. Giovanni e Paolo convent. This convent is a key cultural center in the humanistic environment of Veneto, within which the Latin version Z is elaborated. This research has shed light on several fundamental moments of the P Latin version’s textual history, exploring the material aspects of manuscript witnesses as well as the textual relation with the vernacular source and Francesco Pipino’s Chronicon. Finally, an investigation is dedicated to the edifying adaptation of Marco Polo’s tales in Nicoluccio d’Ascoli’s sermons. The Dominican reception of Devisement dou Monde has relevant consequences for the text and its circulation, hopefully this book suggests a new perspective on Marco Polo and Dominican studies, stimulating further research.

Introduction: Dominicans and Jesuits, through the Centuries

This article interprets data from five key points in the relationship between the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) and the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to develop guidelines about how this relationship can help or hinder the work of these two religious orders within the Roman Catholic Church. It concludes that conflictual relationships between the groups tend to hinder their work while collaborative relationships tend to amplify their work. The particular historical events studied are: early Dominican criticism of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola; the different ways that Dominicans and Jesuits employed Mary in their dealings with Muslims in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the de auxiliis controversy about the relationship between grace and free will; the founding of rival Dominican and Jesuit biblical schools at the beginning of the twentieth century; and the positive collaboration between Dominican Yves Congar and Jesuit Karl Rahner at the Second Vatican Council.

Don Juan Manuel and his connection with the Order of Preachers

Cet article tente de démontrer comment les intérêts sociaux de l'Ordre domi­nicain ont spectaculairement changé pendant la première moitié du quatorzième siècle. Après avoir été un Ordre engagé dans la pauvreté et prêchant avant tout pour le peuple, les Dominicains s'attacheront plus tard à la noblesse et à leur sour­ce de pouvoir et de richesse. L'exemple de Don Juan Manuel, un noble puissant, et ses attaches avec les Dominicains aide à illustrer le fait. Les Prédicateurs fournis­sent à Don Juan les sources intellectuelles, les conseils politiques, la guidance reli­gieuse qui l'aideront à maintenir son statut social. En retour, les moines jouirent de splendides donations et de la haute estime de Don Juan Manuel. L'engagement de Don Juan envers l'Ordre des Prêcheurs n'est pas seulement visible dans la fon­dation d'un couvent dominicain dans son village de Peñafiel mais apparaît aussi dans ses écrits. L’influence dominicaine fait souvent jour dans les histoires et les exemples employés par Don Juan. La vision que les moines Prédicateurs possé­daient du monde l'induisent à concevoir la société comme un ordre traditionnel divisé en trois états et dominé par les nobles et le clergé. Toutefois cette idée de la société était difficile à imposer car le quatorzième siècle était un siècle de défit et de bouleversement pour ceux qui traditionnellement dominaient la société. En conséquence, les Dominicains et Don Juan Manuel se considéraient mutuellement comme des alliés dan leurs intérêts réciproques et s’aidaient à maintenir la société dans un statu quo.

Ecce novus: Saint Thomas Aquinas and Dominican Identity at the End of the Fourteenth Century

Thomas Aquinas (1224/25-1274) joined the Order of Preachers around the year 1244 and became one of the most famous friars of this own time. He died in 1274 at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanova where his remains were venerated for almost a hundred years. The Dominicans, who had desired the return of the body of their beloved brother, finally received it by the order of Pope V in 1368. The Pope also ordered that the relics should have been transported (translatio) to Toulouse, where they arrived on 28 January 1369. In this article, I argue that his joining the Order was considered Thomas's first coming, and the transportation of his relics to Toulouse was his second coming to the Order. I will analyse the Office of Translatio (ca.1371) in the historical contexts of the beginning of the Observant reform of the Dominican Order in a period which was extremely unstable regarding both the papacy itself and politics between France and Italy. I will propose that the Office of Translatio inaugurated Thomas as the leader of a new era and the saviour of good Christians in a Christ-like manner. The liturgy of Translatio appears to offer a new interpretation of new apostles, the Dominicans, and the construction of eschatological self-understanding for the Dominican identity. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Battling Demons to Propagate Reform

The chapter traces Sébastien Michaëlis’s efforts to reform the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in the south of France and shows the close connection between these efforts and his participation in a notorious case of demonic possession. Michaëlis is usually viewed as a determined witch-hunter, whose pursuit of Louis Gaufridy resulted in the latter’s condemnation and execution for sorcery. This chapter contends, by contrast, that Michaëlis was not the mastermind behind the Gaufridy affair but rather was inadvertently caught up in it at a moment when both his reformed Dominicans and the two other reformed congregations involved in the affair—the Ursulines and Jean-Baptiste Romillion’s Priests of Christian Doctrine—were in crisis. Michaëlis wrote the Histoire admirable that recounted the alleged possession and exorcisms of the young Ursuline Madeleine de Demandols to reaffirm and publicize his vision of religious reform and in the hope of spreading his Dominican reform to Paris.