LIVES OF THE BRETHREN
of the
ORDER OF PREACHERS
1206-1259

Translated by PLACID CONWAY, O.P.
Edited with Notes and Introduction
by BEDE JARRETT, O.P.

1955  BLACKFRIARS PUBLICATIONS   LONDON
Posted on Dominican Central with permission.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION By Bede Jarrett, O.P.

PART I

THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS

  PROLOGUE.
I. The Order was the Fruit of the Blessed Virgin's Prayers.
II. How the Order was Foreseen and Foretold by Many
III. Visions Preceding some First Foundations
IV. Providential Care of the Brethren.
V. Our Blessed Lady's Love of the Order.
VI. Origin of the Salve Regina, Sung After Compline


PART II

THE LEGEND OF ST DOMINIC

I. The Holiness of His Family.
II. Conversion of a Heretic by His Joyful Patience.
III. He Raises the Drowned to Life.
IV. How His Books were Found Uninjured in the Water.
V. Miraculous Increase of Wine.
VI. Rain Foretold and Obtained.
VII. He Foretells the Death of a Brawler.
VIII. He Obtains Bread from Heaven.
IX. How His Tunic Warded off Fire.
X. His Gift of Tongues.
XI. He Compels a Runaway to Return.
XII. He Raises a Dead Child, and Heals its Mother.
XIII. He Passes Through Closed Doors.
XIV. How the Devil Hurled a Great Stone at Him.
XV. How the Devil Tried to Make Him Break the Silence.
XVI. How He Met the Devil Prowling Round the Convent.
XVII. He Snatches a Paper from the Devil.
XVIII. His Manner and Fervour in Prayer.
XIX. His Power in Word and Work.
XX. He Multiplies Bread.
XXI. He Beholds Angels Guarding his Brethren.
XXII. He Delivers a Glutton Possessed by the Devil.
XXIII. His Compassion for Sinners.
XXIV. His Spirit of Detachment.
XXV. His Studies in the Book of Charity.
XXVI. Lust Quelled by the Fragrance of His Hand.
XXVII. He Foretells His Own Death.
XXVIII. He Summons His Companion After Death.
XXIX. How He was seen in Glory.
XXX. How the Possessed were Delivered at His Grave.
XXXI. How the Sick were Healed by Invoking.Him.
XXXII. Miraculous Preservation of the Letters of His Canonisation.
XXXIII. He Helps the Tempest-Tossed.
XXXIV. How He Healed a Nun.
XXXV. He Heals a Dropsical.
XXXVI. How Wine was Increased by Invoking Him.
XXXVII. He Cures a Boy of the King's Evil.
XXXVIII. People Cured by the Touch of His Relics.
XXXIX. A Quartan Ague Cured by Invoking Him.


PART III

THE LEGEND OF ST DOMINIC
By Blessed Cecilia Cesarine, O.S.B.

INTRODUCTION
I. First of all how St Dominic Raised to Life a Widow's Son from the Dead.
II. How St Dominic Raised from the Dead the Nephew of the Lord Cardinal Stephen.
III. How Bread and Wine were Supplied and Multiplied from Heaven at His Prayer.
IV. How the Devil Appeared to St Dominic in the Shape of an Ape.
V. How He Rid a Woman of Seven Devils.
VI. How the Wine was Increased, and an Angel Became His Guide, and how He Freed a Novice from Temptation.
VII. How the Blessed Virgin Appeared to Him While at Prayer, and Showed Him the Care She takes of the Order.
VIII. How the Devil Appeared Under the Shape of a Lizard, and Tried to Hinder His Preaching.
IX. How St Dominic Healed Three Nuns of Fever.
X. How the Devil Upset the Lamp Without Spilling it, During His Sermon.
XI. How He Cured a Solitary of a Loathsome Disease by His Merits
XII. How the Lord Healed Another Solitary's Arm by St Dominic's Merits
XIII. How He Founded the Convent at St Sixtus, and Carried Thither the Picture of the Blessed Virgin.
XIV. St Dominic's Personal Appearance.
EPILOGUE


PART IV

THE LEGEND OF BLESSED JORDAN OF SAXONY
Second Master General of the Order of Preachers

INTRODUCTION
I. His Compassion for the Poor.
II. He Bestows His Girdle in Alms and Finds it on the Crucifix.
III. He Enters the Order of Preachers.
IV. His Love of the Poor and of His Brethren.
V. He Delivers the Tempted by His Prayers.
VI. His Manner of Prayer and Meditation.
VII. He Multiplies Bread for the Poor.
VIII. Bleeding Stopped by His Prayer.
IX. He Heals a Priest of Fever.
X. His Gift of Heavenly Speech.
XI. The Vast Number of Students He Drew to the Order.
XII. He Obtains the Virtue of Continency for a Penitent.
XIII. How a Wild Animal Became Tame at His Bidding.
XIV. The Conversion of a Nobleman who Sought to Kill Him.
XV. How He Comforted the Sorrowing.
XVI. His Humility and Patience.
XVII. He Loses an Eye.
XVIII. His Spirit of Retirement.
XIX. His Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
XX. Appearances of the Blessed Virgin.
XXI. Envy and Assaults of the Devil.
XXII. His Joyful Poverty.
XXIII. Wine Improved by His Merits.
XXIV. He Saves a Woman from Sin and Death.
XXV. Visions and Miracles at His Death.
XXVI. He Appears and Comforts a Nun.
XXVII. He Keeps a Carmelite in His Order.
XXVIII. A Prioress Healed by Invoking Him.
XXIX. He Restores a Dead Child to its Mother.
XXX. He Heals a Friar whom God Punished for Murmuring.
XXXI. His Prudent and Witty Replies.


PART V

PROGRESS OF THE ORDER

I. Fervour of Our First Brethren.
II. The Rigorous Discipline and Perfection in all Virtues.
III. Their Heroic Humility.
IV. Their Virtue of Chastity.
V. Their Fervent Prayer.
VI. Their Practice of Confession.
VII. The Thought of Emptiness of Human Pleasures.
VIII. The Piety of the Brethren.
IX. The Word of God.
X. The Thought of Death.
XI. The Thought of Present and Future Pains
XII. Special Revelations.
XIII. Their Devotion to the Mother of God.
XIV. How They Were Harassed by the Devil.
XV. Chastisements Inflicted by the Devil.
XVI. Temptations of Novices..
XVII. Gluttony.
XVIII. Temptations of Cupidity.
XIX. Temptations of Self-will.
XX. Philosophical Curiosity.
XXI. Thoughts of Ambition.
XXII. Impatience and Phantasms.
XXIII. Revelations and Other Comforts Bestowed on Them.
XXIV. Miracles Wrought by the Brethren.


PART VI



DEPARTURE OF THE BRETHREN FROM OUT THIS WORLD

I. Of Such as Suffered Death for the Faith
II. Happy Deaths of the Brethren.
III. Visions at the Hour of Death
IV. Revelations of Their Departure.
V. Punishments for Undue Affections.
VI. Deceits Practised by the Devil.
VII. Suffrages for the Departed.
VIII. Miracles After Death.


INTRODUCTION

THE origin of this book is given by Humbert de Romans (d. 1277) in his preface to it. This collection of legends, he says, was the result of an ordination of the General Chapter of the Friars Preachers held in Paris in 1256; it will be best to give this actual decree: `Let every Prior who has heard or known of any miracle or edifying occurrence happening in the Order, or concerning it, write diligently to the Master so that the memory of it may be preserved.'(1) In consequence a large number of stories were sent in, and these were by direction of the Master General, Humbert de Romans, handed over to Gerard de Frachet to be edited by him. The stories must have come in almost at once, at least the bulk of them, for within four years the work had been completed, the details verified and corrected, and the volume was ready for publication. Again, another decree of a following General Chapter-that of Strasbourg in 1260 -- tells us of the official approval given to the book by the Order of Friars Preachers.(2)

Repeatedly the book was corrected and re-edited, details being subsequently added to bring the book up to date. Thus Fulk, Bishop of Puy, who figures in a legend on p. 38 sq. of this version, appears in the manuscript of 1260 merely as Bishop of Puy, but for each step in his promotion we have a separate redaction made by Gerard himself: in 1259 when he was promoted to the Archbishopric of Narbonne, in 1261 when he was created Cardinal of St Sabina, in 1265 when he was elected Pope under the title of Clement IV, and after 1268 when he died. It seems that the book was completed in 1260, but that from 1265 to 1271 Gerard continued to work on the volume. Of Gerard himself we know that he was born in Chalons (Haute Vienne) in Aquitaine, that he joined the Order in Paris in 1225, receiving the habit of the Friars Preachers from Matthew, the first prior of the Paris foundation and one of the earliest of the companions of St Dominic. St Dominic had then been dead four years. The other dates shall be set down chronologically:

1225.November 11, the feast of St Martin, receives the Dominican habit.
1226.March 25, professed by Blessed Jordan of Saxony, successor of St Dominic as Master General.
1233.Elected to be prior (the second) of the convent of Limoges; at this date he is described as a preacher " facundus et foecundus."
1241.Built the second priory of Lisbon and completed it so that the brethren moved into it this year.
1251.Elected from being prior of Marseilles into prior provincial (the eighth) of Provence.
1254.Accompanies the Master General (Humbert de Romans) to the papal court at Naples, to defend the privileges of preaching and confessing granted by the Popes to the mendicant Orders and now denounced as mischievous by certain bishops.
1259.Absolved from his Provincialate by the General Chapter of Valenciennes; elected prior of Montpellier.
1264.Elected at the Provincial Chapter of Toulouse to go to the General Chapter as an elector of the Master General.
1266.At the Provincial Chapter of Limoges elected Definitor of Provence; again elected Definitor in the Provincial Chapter of Perigueux.
1281.Dies at Limoges.

The Vitae Fratrum was probably written at Limoges between 1256 and 1259; the version here given is that translated by the Very Rev. F. Placid Conway and published by Mawson and Swan in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1896. The manuscript used by Father Conway was not always the best, in fact, it very often gives later and much more detailed versions of the legends, less sober, even at times exaggerated, and almost untheological. Moreover, certain passages, no doubt considered disedifying, have been omitted. It is, however, impossible to do more than refer the interested reader to the admirable and complete Latin version, published in Louvain in 1896, and edited by Benedict Maria Reichert among the Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum Historica.

Unfortunately, the book in its form and period cannot but challenge in the reader's mind the charming Little Flowers of St Francis, though it evidently was not composed to rival that exquisite chronicle. Measured by such a. standard it must fail, chiefly we think because it is far too long. Had Gerard been more severe, more trenchant, used more nicely the editorial powers given him, the result would have been happier. Repetition, prolixity, irrelevance, are all to be found, and so is an almost fantastic love of the marvellous. These spoil the book for those who go to it for pious devotion and for those who would hope to find in it the fragrance of thirteenth-century romance. It is too dreary for them, too downright, with so few touches of poetry, so few tears.

To the historian it is invaluable. Prolixity, names, dates, clearness, repetition, irrelevance, are his hope and desire. They furnish him with an intimate knowledge otherwise lacking to him; they explain each other, eke each other out. He finds here the differing tendencies amongst the early friars, the party that put learning amongst the temptations, the party that exalted learning into prayer. Every detail helps him to piece out his information, and without the Vitae Fratrum our knowledge of early Dominican history, early difficulties, early divisions and reconciliations, would be meagre indeed. To many perhaps the appearance of the devils and of demoniacs will make the tales fantastic. But then to every reader of the Gospel, the existence of demoniacs presents the same problem and the same answer. The Gospels even contain an apparition of the devil himself. Is it true that there are ages when the spirit forces engaged in battle around us become more evident, when the walls that shut material life off from the immaterial are more diaphanous, when the eager eyes of daring men pierce through appearance more readily and arrive more clearly at realities behind? Are there psychic periods as well as psychic people? Is a generation of artists more sure in its intuitions than an age of industrialists in its statistics? Who knows? But the industrialists only understand their statistics, and the artists their intuitions, and the mediaevalists their dainty yet virile faith. Here then is a document collected, edited, repeatedly published. It was only meant for Dominicans; it was to challenge no comparisons, to ape no predecessors. The compilers thought of it as a chronicle, the writer of the prologue as sober history, the editor as an endless reminder of God's mercy and man's gratitude.

At least the historian will justify it. Perhaps even a soul here and there will be stirred by it. Certainly the faithful hands that wrote it will endear it to the children of the blessed father whose name it treats with so much tenderness, and the story of whose successor, Jordan of Saxony, is its chiefest charm.

It is a document of contemporary value. It will never grow too old. In an austere way it is a classic. Alas, that it should also lack romance!

BEDE JARRETT, O.P.

NOTES

1 Acta Gen. Cap. Ord. Praed., i, p. 83, Rome, 1898.

2 Quetif., Scriptores Ord. Praed., i, p. 260.

This translation first published by Mawson Swan & Morgan, 1896. Reprinted with the addition of the Prologue and the omission of Part III by Burns Oates & Washbourne in 1924. This edition first published 1955
Noviter typis editae de licentia Ordinis Praedicatorum.
Imprimi Potest : Fr Hilarius Carpenter, O.P.
Prior Provincialis
die 4a mensis Martii 1955
Nihil Obstat : Joannes M. T. Barton, S.T.D., L.S.S.
Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur. : E. Morrogh Bernard
Vic. Gen.
Westmonasterii, die 10a Martii 1955

In obedience to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and other sovereign Pontiffs, the writer declares that the graces and other supernatural facts related in this volume as witnessing to the sanctity of Servants of God other than those canonized or beatified by the Church, rest on human authority alone ; and in regard thereto, as in all things else, the writer submits himself without reserve to the infallible judgment of the Apostolic See, which alone has power and authority to pronounce as to whom rightly belong the Character and Title of Saint or Blessed.

Printed in Great Britain
at the BURLEIGH PRESS, Lewins Mead, BRISTOL

Posted on Dominican Central with permission.

TRADITION     PART ONE     PART TWO     PART THREE     PART FOUR     PART FIVE     PART SIX