Edward Cuthbert Butler

“ This verdict of a fair-minded and highly competent Protestant church historian on the most controverted point of Dominic’s career is of great value. His method was to travel over the country on foot and barefooted, in extreme poverty, simplicity and austerity, preaching and instructing in highways and villages and towns, and in the castles of the nobility, controverting and discussing with the heretics. He used often to organize formal disputations with Albigensian leaders, lasting a number of days. Many times plots were laid against his life. ”

“ The chief sources for St Dominic’s life are the account by Jordan of Saxony, his successor as master-general of the order, and the evidence of the witnesses at the Process of Canonization,—all in the Bollandists’ Acta sanctorum, Aug. 4. Probably the best modern Life is that by Jean Guiraud, in the series Les Saints (translated into English by Katharine de Mattos, 1901) ; the bibliography contains a useful list of the chief sources for the history of St Dominic and the order, and of the best modern works thereon. ”

“ So great was the abhorrence of matter that some even thought it an act of religion to commit suicide by voluntary starvation, or to starve children to death (see article “Neu-Manichäer” by Otto Zöckler in ed. 3 of Herzog’s Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie (1903) ”