Editing Dominican Order (section)

====Women====
Although Dominic and the early brethren had instituted female Dominican houses at Prouille and other places by 1227, houses of women attached to the Order became so popular that some of the friars had misgivings about the increasing demands of female religious establishments on their time and resources. Nonetheless, women's houses dotted the countryside throughout Europe. There were 74 Dominican female houses in Germany, 42 in Italy, 9 in France, 8 in Spain, 6 in Bohemia, 3 in Hungary, and 3 in Poland.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=13}} Many of the German religious houses that lodged women had been home to communities of women, such as [[Beguines]], that became Dominican once they were taught by the traveling preachers and put under the jurisdiction of the Dominican authoritative structure. A number of these houses became centers of study and mystical spirituality in the 14th century, as expressed in works such as the [[sister-books]]. There were 157 nunneries in the order by 1358. After that year, the number lessened considerably due to the Black Death.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=14}}

In places besides Germany, convents were founded as retreats from the world for women of the upper classes. These were original projects funded by wealthy patrons. Among these was Countess Margaret of Flanders who established the monastery of Lille, while [[Château of Val-Duchesse#History|Val-Duchesse]] at Oudergem near Brussels was built with the wealth of Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant (1262).{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=337}}

[[File:Figur Alte Uni Marburg.jpg|thumb|left|A figure depicting the term {{lang|la|domini canes}} ('[[hound]]s of the [[Jesus|lord]]') since the [[Medieval Inquisition|Inquisition]] in the 13th century,{{efn| name="DC"}}{{sfn|Van Helden|1995}}{{clarify|date=March 2025}} on a corner of a former Dominican monastery (before the Reformation), Old University, [[Marburg]], Germany]]

Female houses differed from male Dominican houses in that they were enclosed. The sisters chanted the [[Liturgy of the Hours|Divine Office]] and kept all the monastic observances.{{sfn|Lee|2001|pp=70–73}} The nuns lived under the authority of the general and provincial chapters of the order. They shared in all the applicable privileges of the order. The friars served as their confessors, priests, teachers and spiritual mentors.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=382}}

Women could be professed to the Dominican religious life at the age of 13. The formula for profession contained in the Constitutions of Montargis Priory (1250) requires that nuns pledge obedience to God, the Blessed Virgin, their prioress and her successors according to the Rule of Saint Augustine and the institute of the order, until death. The clothing of the sisters consisted of a white tunic and scapular, a leather belt, a black mantle, and a black veil. Candidates to profession were questioned to reveal whether they were actually married women who had merely separated from their husbands. Their intellectual abilities were also tested. Nuns were to be silent in places of prayer, the cloister, the dormitory, and refectory. Silence was maintained unless the prioress granted an exception for a specific cause. Speaking was allowed in the common parlor, but it was subordinate to strict rules, and the prioress, subprioress or other senior nun had to be present.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=30}}

As well as sewing, embroidery and other genteel pursuits, the nuns participated in a number of intellectual activities, including reading and discussing pious literature.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=31}} In the Strassburg monastery of Saint Margaret, some of the nuns could converse fluently in Latin. Learning still had an elevated place in the lives of these religious. In fact, Margarette Reglerin, a daughter of a wealthy Nuremberg family, was dismissed from a convent because she did not have the ability or will to learn.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=384}}