His success at the first was but small. Preachers with
the divine fervour, with the gift of utterance, with the power to
drive truth home--are rare. They are not to be had for the asking;
they are not to be trained in a day. Years passed, but little was
achieved.
Dominic was patient He had, indeed, founded a small religious
community of sixteen brethren at St. Ronain, near Toulouse--one of
these, we are told, was an Englishman--whose aim and object were to
produce an effect through the agency of the pulpit, to confute the
heretics and instruct the unlearned. The Order, if it deserved the
name, was established on the old lines. A monastery was founded, a
local habitation secured. The maintenance of the brotherhood was
provided for by a sufficient endowment; the petty cares and anxieties
of life were in the main guarded against; but when Innocent the Third
gave his formal sanction to the new community, it was given to
Dominic and his associates, on the 8th of October, 1215, as to a
house of _Augustinian Canons_, who received permission to enjoy
in their corporate capacity the endowments which had been bestowed
upon them. [Footnote: So "La Cordaire, vie de S. Dominique" (1872),
p. 120. It was, however, a very curious community, as appears from
"Ripolli Bullarium Praedicat:" I.i.]
In the following July Innocent died, and was at once succeeded by
Honorius the Third.
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