The Dominicans were founded in the 13th century as a mendicant religious order, with a universal mission of preaching, a centralized organization and government, and a great emphasis on scholarship. The order’s founder, St. Dominic, had a great clarity of vision, even regarding the geographical distribution of his forces and precise details of legislation. He placed his two principal religious houses near the Universities of Paris and Bologna and decided that each of his houses should form a school of theology. This led to the order’s significant role in university studies. In setting up his houses in the larger cities, especially in those that were teaching centers, Dominic involved his order in the destiny of the medieval urban movement.