In the middle ages

religious communities themselves. Hence theii

name of "mendicant" orders; and Francis, called

II poverino, spoke of poverty as his bride. It was

because they wished to preach to the multitudes

and to mingle more intimately in public and social

life that the Franciscans and the Dominicans estab-

lished themselves in the town, whilst the Benedic-

tines and the Carthusians had settled in the country.

At the same time the Dominicans and the Fran-

ciscans were not slow in forming an intellectual

elite. For both orders, each in its own way, fos-

tered learning in their members; and so they be-

came, almost on the day of their inception, nurseries

of philosophers and theologians. It is really very

wonderful to follow the intense intellectual life

which is developed in the midst of these vast corpo-

rations of workers. Hardly are they founded be-

fore they establish themselves at Paris, in 1217 and

1219 respectively; they create in the young Uni-

versity centre separate establishments of advanced

studies, "studia generaliaf' for their own members.

But at the same time, they are engaged in incorpo-

rating themselves in the intellectual life of the Uni-

versity, by obtaining chairs in the faculty of The-

ology. Fortune favoured the rapid rise of the or-

ders in the University faculty. In 1229 a strike of

the secular professors, at the schools of Notre

Dame, gave them their initial opportunity. The

voice of Parisian learning had become silent, as the

documents put it, — in omni facultate silet Parisien-

> PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

sis VOX doctiinae. At this juncture the Dominicans

and the Franciscans offered their services to the

chancellor, and they were accepted. When later

the strike was concluded, the orders succeeded in

maintaining themselves in the faculty of Theology,

in spite of the opposition from the other members

of the faculty. The Dominicans had obtained two

chairs (one in 1229 and one in 1231), and at the

same time the Franciscans had secured a chair, of

which Alexander of Hales was the first incumbent.

The burning fever for work and the need of re-

considering doctrine, in the Hght of the new philoso-

phies brought from Arabia and Spain and Byzan-

tium, created among the Franciscans and the

Dominicans a unique spirit of emulation and served

as a spur to zealous discussion. In every branch of

their activities and in every country the rivalry be-

tween the two great orders breaks out. In religious

matters, they discuss the merits of their respective

ideals; in matters of art, their best artists glorify

the remarkable men of their own orders, — thus, fol-

lowing a capricious impulse intelligible in artists,

the Dominican Fra Angelico shows in his pictures

of the Last Judgment certain Franciscans tumb-

ling toward hell, while the Dominicans are received

into heaven! But nowhere are they more eager to

surpass each other than in the reahiis of philosophy

and theology. Those who woidd hold back are

shaken from their torpor; thus, in the vigorous

though rude style of the day, Albert the Great