Guzmán, from Caleruega in Castile, became a cannon of the Cathedral of Osma in 1195.
| Passing through the Midi on his way back from Denmark in 1205 he started preaching against the Cathars of the Languedoc. He had planned, (with the help of God, he said) to convert Cathars to the Roman faith by preaching to them. Despite God's help his preaching proved a failure. Spurred by his lack of success he hit on the idea of using schools to teach people the Catholic faith - one of many ideas he was to copy from the Cathars. At this time the Catholic Church did not normally encourage education for the laity, and indeed normally discouraged it, especially for women. But the Languedoc was clearly a special case. Dominic founded a convent at Sainte Marie de Prouille (near to Fanjeaux), a Catholic version of a Cathar convent at Dun (between Pamiers and Mirapoix) founded by Philippa, wife of the Count of Foix. Dominic's establishment was in effect the first Dominican nunnery. |
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The Church also tried open debates as a way of winning converts. Debates were permitted because the Roman clergy thought that they could humiliate the opposition intellectually and so facilitate mass defections to the Roman Church. This did not happen.
The
Colloquy of Montréal in 1207 was the final debate in Pamiers
between the Catholics (represented by Dominic Guzmán)
and the Cathars (notably Benoît de Termes).
Once again the the Roman Church made no progress, and if
anything confirmed its role as a figure of fun and reservoir
of ignorance and bigotry. When a great noblewoman,
the Esclarmonde
of Foix (the Count's sister), a
Parfaite, tried to speak she was admonished by one of
Dominic Guzmán's acolytes (Etienne de Metz): "go
to your spinning madam. It is not proper for you to
speak in a debate of this sort". Such attitudes voiced
in front of a liberal educated audience succeeded only in
confirming the extent of the gulf between the Roman Church
and the general population of the Languedoc. In any
case, even with God's personal help, the Roman Church once
again failed to secure mass conversions, or indeed any conversions
at all among the Parfaits.
Guzmán was humiliated by his failure. More vigorous action was called for. The great Bernard of Clairvaux (St Bernard) had asserted that "The Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because Christ is thereby glorified". Were not heretics even worse than pagans, even more deserving of death. Speaking on behalf of Christ, Guzmán promised the Cathars slavery and death.
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Dominic Guzmán's promises were made good by Crusaders and the Inquisition. Dominic was a friend and companion of the famously brutal Simon de Montfort. We find him by de Montfort's side at the siege of Lavaur in 1211, and at the capture of La Penne d'Ajen in 1212. In the latter part of 1212 he was at Pamiers at the invitation of de Montfort. Before the battle of Muret on 12th September, 1213, Guzmán participated in the council of war that preceded the battle. Like most crusades, the one against the Cathars of the Languedoc was characterised by atrocities and unimaginable barbarity as at Beziers, Bram, Lavaur, and Marmande.
Foulques, the Bishop of Toulouse, made him chaplain of Fanjeaux and in July, 1215, where he established the community whose mission was the propagation of the Roman Catholic faith and the extermination of heretics. In this same year a wealthy citizen of Toulouse put a house at their disposal. In this way the first convent of the Order of Preachers was founded on 25th April 1215. A year later Foulques established them in the church of Saint Romanus. Dominic had dreamed of a world-wide Order. In November, 1215, a General Council (The Fourth Lateran) was to meet at Rome "to deliberate on the improvement of morals, the extinction of heresy, and the strengthening of the faith". Dominic was present at its deliberations hoping to win permission to establish his new Order. The council was opposed to the institution of any new religious orders, and legislated to that effect. Dominic's petition was refused. |
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This reversal did not stop Dominic. He simply found a way around what the Catholic Church holds to be an infallible ruling. Returning to Languedoc at the close of the Council in December, 1215, Dominic and his followers adopted the rule of Saint Augustine, which, because of its generality, could be adapted to any form Dominic might wish to give it. His new order a fait accompli, Dominic applied to the new pope Honorius III in August, 1216. On 22 December, 1216, a Bull of confirmation was issued. He became a favourite of the new pope. The following year he received the office and title of Master of the Sacred Palace, or as it is more commonly called, the Pope's Theologian, |
 
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In 1217 he formulated a plan to disperse his seventeen followers over all Europe. The following year, to facilitate the spread of the order, Honorius III, addressed a Bull to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors, requesting their favour on behalf of Dominic's new Order. By another Bull later in 1218 Honorius bestowed on the order the church of Saint Sixtus in Rome, which thus became the first monastery of the Order in Rome. Shortly after taking possession of this church, Dominic was given the apparently difficult task of cleaning up the activities of Catholic nuns in Rome. As the Catholic Encyclopedia gnomically puts it " Dominic began the somewhat difficult task of restoring the pristine observance of religious discipline among the various Roman communities of women".
With the support of the pope Dominic next started a campaign of rapid expansion of his Order, attracting large numbers of followers keen to be associated with a movement sponsored by the papacy. A foundation near the University of Paris was followed by another at the University of Bologna where the church of Santa Maria della Mascarella was placed at the disposal of the Dominicans. In Rome the basilica of Santa Sabina was handed over to them. Next a convent was established at Lyons and then a monastery in Spain. Next came a convent for women at Madrid, similar to the one at Prouille. Then a convent at the University of Palencia, and a house in Barcelona, followed by houses at Limoges, Metz, Reims, Poitiers, and Orléans, then Bergamo, Asti, Verona, Florence, Brescia, and Faenza.. In March 1219 Honorius bestowed upon the Order the church of San Eustorgio in Milan. At the same time a foundation at Viterbo was authorised.
In Lombardy large numbers of people were abandoning the Roman Catholic Church for the Cathar Church, as they had done a few years earlier in the Languedoc. Honorius III addressed letters to the abbeys and priories of San Vittorio, Sillia, Mansu, Floria, Vallombrosa, and Aquila, ordering that members be deputed to begin a preaching crusade under the leadership of Saint Dominic. As it turned out no support was forthcoming, and despite propaganda to the contrary involving a series of wondrous miracles, Dominic's mission failed. As in the Languedoc, those who committed the crime of choosing a religion for themselves would eventually be extirpated by Dominican Inquisitors.
Towards the end of 1220 Dominic returned to Rome. Here he received more concessions for his order. In January, February, and March of 1221 three consecutive Bulls were issued commending the order to all the prelates of the Church.
In 1234 at Bologna he contracted an illness and died three weeks later. In a Bull dated 13 July, 1234, Gregory IX declared him a saint and made his cult obligatory throughout the Church.
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Many churchmen had been keen participants in the extirpation of a rival faith, but none exceeded the zeal of Dominic Guzmán. His faithful Dominicans spawned the Medieval Inquisition, with all its horrors, pioneering new methods of torture and creating new crimes. Ordinances were passed which imposed new penalties for heresy. In 1233 Pope, Gregory IX charged the Dominican Inquisition with the final solution: the absolute extirpation of the Cathars. It was the beginning of the first modern police state in the world. The role of Dominic himself is debated. When the Catholic Church was less sensitive about the record of the Inquisition, Dominic was hailed as its founder and his role as an Inquisitor was undoubted.
As the record of the Inquisition becomes more ever more out of step with modern sensibilities, there has been a tendency on the part of the Catholic Church to dissociate Dominic from his role as father of the Inquisition - sometimes pointing out that earlier Inquisitions had existed (suggesting that he could not therefore be the founder of "The Inquisition"), sometimes that the Medieval Inquisition was not given formal papal sanction until after his death (suggesting that "The Inquisition" did not exist in his lifetime, so he could not have been any part of it). A third option for exculpation is employed by the Catholic Encyclopedia under the entry on Saint Dominic "If he was for a certain time identified with the operations of the Inquisition, it was only in the capacity of a theologian passing judgement upon the orthodoxy of the accused. Whatever influence he may have had with the judges of that much maligned institution was always employed on the side of mercy and forbearance, as witness the classic case of Ponce Roger [sic]." This does not square easily on several counts with Dominic's own letter concerning Pons Roger, which shows Dominic acting as a Papal Inquisitor, (commissioned by Arnaud Amaury on behalf of the Pope). Nor does the letter show him as as being paticularly merciful, forebearing or lenient - (see box to the right). To resolve any possible doubt the Dominican master-Inquisitor Bernard Gui (I26I-I33I) in his Life of St. Dominic explicitly claims for Saint Dominic the title of First Inquisitor. Dominic is now venerated as St Dominic, and is regarded by many Christians as one of the most holy men ever to have lived. Dominic's legacy has certainly been spectacular. As well as running various Inquisitions, Dominicans monopolised medieval philosophy leading it into the barren desert of scholasticism where it languished until revived by Enlightenment thinkers, not a single significant advance having been made for centuries (except, arguably, by heretical Franciscans). Dominic's canonisation in 1234 was marked by a revealing incident at Toulouse. The bishop, Raimon de Fauga, and a number of Dominican friars had just solemnly celebrated the admission of their new Saint into heaven. As they were leaving the church for a celebratory feast, news arrived that a dying woman in the city had just received the Cathar Consolamentum. The bishop, the Dominican prior and his Dominican retinue promptly set off to deal with this crime. They found the woman at home in bed, gravely ill. |
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The men of God entered the house where she lay dying. In her delirium she mistook the Catholic bishop for a Cathar bishop and confessed to him her wish to die a good death. At this, and without any sort of trial, the bishop had her removed from the house. Lying on her deathbed, she was carried to a nearby field and there burned alive still in her bed. Their holy mission complete the bishop, prior and friars retired to enjoy their celebratory banquet, having first given thanks "to God and the Blessed Dominic". The Inquisitor Guillaume de Pélhisson recorded the event, pointing out that " God performed these works ... to the glory and praise of His name ... to the exaltation of the Faith and to the discomfiture of the heretics". As both Catholics and non-Catholics have observed at different times, it was a most suitable way to mark Dominic Guzman's accession into heaven. |
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| Dominc Guzman's own record is recognised in the special language of the Catholic Encyclopedia, which often appears carefully crafted to carry a subtly different message to the devout reader than it does to those familiar with history: "While his charity was boundless he never permitted it to interfere with the stern sense of duty that guided every action of his life. If he abominated heresy and laboured untiringly for its extirpation it was because he loved truth and loved the souls of those among whom he laboured". From a secular point of view there was no harm at all in the Cathars, and no reason for them to be even mildly persecuted, let alone burned alive. Yet it is not difficult to find Roman Catholic authorities who seek to justify the Church's genocide and make out that it acted for the best. This is as close as the Catholic Encyclopaedia comes to admitting fault: Ecclesiastical authority, after persuasion had failed, adopted a course of severe repression, which led at times to regrettable excess. A Handbook of Heresies, approved by a Roman Catholic Censor and bearing the Imprimatur of the Vicar General at Westminster, refers to Guzmán's "heroic exercise of fraternal charity". His failure as a preacher is not mentioned, nor the fact that even using trickery and torture almost no Parfaits could be induced to abandon their faith. The thousands of Cathar deaths are not referred to except in the most oblique terms: |
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And the opportunity is taken to condemn Cathar beliefs once again:
This anti-human heresy, by destroying the sanctity of the family, would reduce mankind to a horde of unclean beasts....
There is not a hint of remorse or regret for the holocaust, and one can only assume that, if it could, the Roman Church would act in the same way again if similar circumstances arose in the future, lead perhaps by another charismatic leader like Saint Dominic.
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