OMINICK

BY ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA

In the beginning of the thirteenth century two men living in different
countries of Europe were struck simultaneously with the same idea.
They were St. Dominick, the Spaniard, and St. Francis, the Italian,
and each determined to found a new religious order.[33] Hitherto the
members of religious orders had shut themselves up in the solitude of
monasteries and convents. In the new plan they were to mingle freely
with the people, calling themselves brothers, or friars.

The first object of the Dominicans was to be preachers, and they were
called Frati Predicatori. The Franciscans took the humbler name of the
Frati Minori, or lesser brothers. The members of both orders were
bound by a vow of poverty to possess nothing of their own. Like the
disciples whom Jesus sent out, they were to carry neither purse nor
scrip, but beg their food and raiment on their way. It is for this
that they are called mendicant orders.

The affairs of their orders brought both St. Dominick and St. Francis
to Rome at the same time. The two men met and embraced, each seeing in
the other a kindred spirit. It was proposed to unite the two bodies in
one, and St. Dominick favored this plan. He had won but a few
followers, and St. Francis already had many. The Brother Minor however
was sure that such union would be impossible. The two men were indeed
of widely contrasting characters. St. Dominick was a scholar, a man of
fiery and energetic temperament. St. Francis was unlettered, but his
mind was poetic and imaginative, his nature gentle and humble. St.
Dominick was known as the "Hammer of the Heretics," St. Francis as the
"Father of the Poor."

A bas-relief by Andrea della Robbia represents the meeting of St.
Dominick with St. Francis.[34] It is apparently the artist's
intention to emphasize the kinship rather than the contrast between
the two men. Both have the thin faces and sharp features of the
ascetic. Their shaven faces and tonsured heads heighten the
resemblance between them. Both have the same type of hand, with the
long fingers which are characteristic of a sensitive nature.[35] A
disc over the head of each symbolizes his saintliness.

[Illustration: MEETING OF ST. FRANCIS AND ST. DOMINICK (ANDREA DELLA
ROBBIA) _Loggia of San Paolo, Florence_]

Naturally the characters of the founders were impressed upon their
respective orders. The Dominicans were more aggressive in their
methods and zealous in persec