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English Dominican Sanctity (I)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2024

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The English Dominican Province has given to the Church five cardinals, seventy-two archbishops and bishops, several papal legates and nuncios, and to the state some ministers of prominence such as Archbishop William Hotham, the favourite minister of Edward I, and Bishop John Gilbert of Hereford, twice Lord High Treasurer. In theology, philosophy, Sacred Scripture and other branches of ecclesiastical science English Dominican writers of repute number more than a hundred, and it is easy to show that during the first three centuries of their existence they were by far the most prominent theological body in England, whilst extant MSS. of sermons and state documents testify to their ability and popularity as preachers. In contemplating this long list of eminent men the question has sometimes been asked why there are no English Dominicans officially enrolled in the Calendar of Saints either as canonized or beatified. The difficulty, which applies equally to the Irish Province with its lengthy list of martyrs, is not really hard to answer. At the time of the Henrican schism the feasts of six Dominicans only were kept in the Order, now the number is three hundred and four, of whom two hundred and ninety-four have been raised to the altars since 1600. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the English Dominicans, persecuted and generally working in secret, and frequently in prison, had little leisure for gathering the information necessary to obtain the beatification or canonization of the many members of the Province noted for their sanctity or heroism as martyrs. It has been left to us in more propitious times to undertake this task, and surely we can hope that such a work will be blessed with success.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1937 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 In obedience to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and other Roman Pontiffs we declare that all the graces, miracles, and other supernatural facts mentioned in this paper rest on human authority alone, and in regard to these we submit unreservedly to the judgment of the Holy and Apostolic See.

2 Lives of the Brethren, trans. P. Conway, O.P., 192.

3 Ibid., 45.

4 Ibid., 132.

5 Ibid., 176.

6 Ibid., 237.

7 Ibid., 248, 249.

8 Ibid., 247.

9 Ibid., 242, 249.

10 Ibid., 237.

11 Bullarium, O.P., II, 216; Palmer. Introd. to the Life of Card. Howard, p. 23.

12 Bull, O.P., Appendix, Vol. VII, 513; Gumbley, O.P., Flints. Hist. Soc. Journal. 1915.

13 Palmer, Guildford Obits. Reliquary Magazine, January, 1887, pp. 7–20.

14 Letters and Papers, Foreagn and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vols. VII, IX, X, XI passim; Année Dominicaine, Vol. VI, under June 18, ed. Lyons, 1894.

15 Gillow, Biog. Dict. of Catholics, S.V. Pickering.

16 Archaologia Cantiana. vii, 13, 14.

17 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. VII, 259, 260, 923.

18 Gillow, S.V. Hopton and Griffiths (or Griffin).

19 Reg. of the Master-General, Vincent Justiniani, fol. 79, 94. Fr. Bede Jarrett, English Dominicans, C.T.S. Pamphlet no. 8.

20 Cooper, Athenae Cantab., ed. 1858, I, 419; English Hist. Review, 1918, p. 248.