The Dominicans: A Short History by Hinnebusch William O.P

Author:Hinnebusch, William, O.P. [Hinnebusch, William, O.P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Dominicans—History, Dominican
ISBN: 0818903015
Google: SXGSCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Alba House
Published: 1975-01-02T00:05:46.294000+00:00

Preaching

During the century the Order produced numerous outstanding preachers. St. Vincent Ferrer (d. 1419), Manfred of Vercelli ( d, ca. 1431) , and Savonarola ( d. 1498 ) were so-called penance preachers, a category in which the two Franciscans, Saints Bernardine of Siena and John of Capistrano, can also be placed. Natural calamities, wars, a growing deterioration of public and private morality called forth such evangelists.

In a vision Vincent Ferrer was commissioned by the Lord, who was accompanied by St. Dominic and St. Francis, “to go through the world preaching Christ.” In November, 1399, he set forth from Avignon on a twenty-year preaching career that occupied him until his death in 1419 at Vannes in Brittany. His exemplary and strict life gave his preaching an authority and power that won him a ready hearing from the people, even though he was unbending in regard to truth and his moral demands were severe. Vincent proclaimed the coming of an avenging God and used all the power of his eloquence and example to bring his congregations to conversion of life. Crowds of penitents followed him from place to place during his journeys as he visited and revisited towns and cities in Spain, southern France, upper Italy, Switzerland, northern France, and the Low Countries. Manfred of Vercelli, also a preacher of penance, imitated the style and manner of Vincent. The Italian provinces produced a number of other great preachers. They have also been beatified: John Dominici, Matthew Carreri, Andrew of Peschiera, Christopher of Milan, Mark of Modem, and Stephen Bandelli. The preaching of Savonarola in Florence dominated the closing decade of the century.

Rosary preaching was a new development, begun by Alan de la Roche when he revamped the old Marian confraternity in 1470. Renaming it the Rosary Confraternity, he prescribed recitation of the Rosary and meditation on its mysteries as the chief duty of its members. Alan saw in the devotion, with its meditations on the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary, an instrument of the spiritual rejuvenation needed in his day. He preached it widely, establishing the confraternity in a number of towns. Jacob Sprenger organized the mother confraternity at the Cologne priory on September 8, 1475, the very day Alan died. For a while it was necessary to be enrolled there to be a member. During a four-year period thousands of names were sent to Cologne from all over Europe; the parish of St. Mauritius in Vienna alone sent a list of 32,000 names. Alan and other members of the Congregation of Holland, one of the Order’s most successful reform groups, led the preaching of the Rosary. It soon spread from the Low Countries and Germany to Italy, Spain, and other parts of Europe. The Order accepted responsibility for the Confraternity from its inception. The masters general took control of it in 1478 and began to authorize preachers to establish units and to receive members. The general chapter in 1484 and Torriani in 1487 granted a share in the spiritual works of all Dominicans.

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