Provincial's seal
early 16th Century
Government of the Order
Dominic laid down very carefully the structures within which his new Order would live and work. He adopted the Rule of St Augustine, which was essentially a letter to help and guide people living in community. He drew up a constitution which would govern and direct the Order. This constitution, although changed and amended over the centuries, is still that which governs the Order. Dominic had been a canon of the cathedral in the Spanish city of Osma, and was familiar with the regularity of the life of a canon, including the daily recitation of the divine office. The early friars recited the Divine office in choir, as they still do today, but much less elaborately than the older monastic Orders, to leave more time for study, preaching and teaching.
The Order was divided into territorial areas called provinces, usually coinciding with national boundaries, though there could be more than one province in a large country. The province was governed by a provincial, elected by the province. In the early days of the Order a province could be further subdivided into smaller units called visitations, for convenience of administration. Even a comparatively small country like England was so divided; poor roads and communications made direction from the centre of the province difficult; these visitations made administration more manageable. For a time Scotland was a visitation of the English province. There would be several priories in each province. The head of a priory was the prior, elected by the community. Important for the teaching and preaching work of the community were those appointed to supervise the studies; there was usually a doctor, and lectors, teachers of philosophy, theology and scripture. The work of the priory in this area was supervised from the studium generale, the central study house of the province, where the friars received their training. The teaching staff was provided by the province, but often drawn from other provinces. Studia generalia differed in importance, depending on the particular circumstances in the countries where the order was present. Where there were universities, (for example Paris, Oxford), studia generalia were very important, being very closely associated with the teaching in the university.
Dominic saw it as his mission to equip and train a special body of public evangelists, preachers, who by their preaching would educate the masses. There was, therefore, from the very beginning, a strong emphasis on study and learning, necessary for teaching and preaching. The friars also engaged in other apostolic work, but there was an emphasis on preaching and teaching, which were seen as central to the work of a priory, and this is still an essential feature of the life of the friars preachers.