Foundation of the Order

The Dominican Order, properly the Order of (Friars) Preachers, was founded by the Spanish priest Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221) in 1216. The order came into being at a time of crisis in the church. The church was confident and strong in the late 12th and early 13th century, under the two great Popes, Innocent III (1198-1216) and Honorius III (1216-1227), but this confidence and strength were beginning to wane and weaken; the church was facing problems, difficulties and challenges, from within and without. Criticisms were made of the material wealth of the church, which was seen as quite contrary to the poverty and simplicity advocated in the Gospel. The problem, or crisis, which led directly to the founding of the Order of Preachers, was heresy, teachings contrary to Catholic orthodoxy. These teachings were held and taught by groups of powerful and learned preachers, and were practised in various parts of Western Europe. The structures of the church were inadequate to meet the challenges posed by these heterodox teachings. The bishops were the official, recognised preachers in the church, but they were either bound to their dioceses, or, more usually, engaged in royal service. The other great institution, monasticism, was by its very nature unable to undertake a preaching ministry, as the monastic vow of stability kept the monks in the monastery. Attempts to employ the monks in a preaching crusade were unsuccessful. Both bishops and monks lacked the mobility, and often the learning, necessary for an effective preaching ministry.

Dominic, as the result of chance encounters with members of the heretical Albigensian sect in the south of France, saw the need and value of a group of mobile preachers who could move rapidly to meet and counter these teachings. The value of this was recognised by Pope Honorius, who, in 1216, approved the foundation of the new Order, and its name, the Order of Friars Preachers. Two new important factors appeared here. The friars were empowered to preach, an office hitherto reserved to bishops; this caused some friction and tension. The friars also had mobility. This, too, occasioned controversy. The friars lived in community, resembled monks, but were not bound by stability. They were free to go wherever they were needed. But, in Dominic's famous saying, 'the world was their cloister'.