Tuesday, 8/8/17
In 1140 Domenic was born In
northern Spain’s Castile where he was raised in the household of an archbishop.
Brought up as a cleric, at twenty-two he stepped out of line by selling his books
to feed the poor.
Ordained at twenty-six,
Dominic became a canon, with the duty of chanting the hours in the cathedral. A
break came when he was thirty-two. The son of the king of Castile, by his noble
birth could wed only another noble. So the king sent Dominic as part of a team to
bring back the daughter of the King of Denmark. But when Dominic and the others
reached Denmark, they found the princess dead.
In southern France, on their way
back, they fell in with the Cathars, followers of a Persian religion brought
back by the crusaders. The Cathars believed in an evil, as well as a good
creator. They felt that fighting, and consuming of animal products put them in an
allegiance to Ahriman, the evil creator.
The king of France, wanting the
lands of the Cathars, with the pope’s permission, waged a religious crusade
against them, slaying many who did not
believe in fighting back.
The pope, ashamed of his
complicity with the king of France, appointed Dominic as the Inquisitor of
southern France. Charging him with converting the Cathars. Dominic
attained considerable success at that. He and the team abstained from all
animal products, and they showed themselves to be as docile as the Cathars,
going beyond them by supporting themselves only with what they could beg. .
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