more of the heresy after this date until the crusade of 1360.[192] The Ragusan Church suffered in consequence of the heterodoxy of so many of the Slave princes, and no longer received rich gifts from them. On the other hand, both on account of its convenient situation and because it was a stronghold of Catholicism, the town became the centre of all this missionary activity. In 1225 the Dominican Order was established at Ragusa, and occupied a small house attached to the church of S. Giacomo in Peline. When the Order became more numerous it removed to the Ploce quarter, where a large new church was erected for it in 1306, and a monastery about 1345. The Franciscans first came to Ragusa in 1235, twenty-eight years after the foundation of the Order by St. Francis of Assisi, who is said to have visited the city himself on his return from the Holy Land, although there is no foundation for the legend. In 1250 a monastery was built for them outside the Porta Pile; it was destroyed by the Serbs during the raid of 1319.[193] A concession of land was granted to them within the walls in the Menze quarter, and by the middle of the fourteenth century they were established in the large, handsome monastery which still exists, built partly at Government expense and partly by the munificence of private citizens, including the guild of Ghent merchants established there.[194] The two Orders gave battle to the heretics, and helped to organise crusades against them, which are among the most barbarous examples of religious persecution which history records. On the other hand, if we are to believe the Ragusan legend, the Bogomils themselves persecuted the Catholics in the Cattaro districts, and the bodies of three martyrs who were murdered by them were brought to Ragusa, where a church was built in their honour.[195] It is somewhat difficult to unravel the tangle of contradictory accounts on this subject, especially as Ragusan writers often confuse the Bogomils with the followers of the Oriental Church. CHAPTER V THE TRADE OF RAGUSA