Dominio, a saint of the Bomish calendar, founder he order of ** Dominicans." His name was '* Do-
mingo de Guzman, and he was bom in 1170 at Cala- horra, Spain. He completed his education at the Uni- versity of Palentia, in 1198 was made canon of the cathedral of Osma, and in 1198 a priest and archdea- con. He subsequently became known as an eloquent preacher, and was sent on missions to various parts of Spain, and into France. Having had his zeal in- flamed by the progress of the Albigenses, he bent all his energies to their conversion. Finding his own ef- forts insufficient, he appears to have conceived the Idea of founding an order of preaching friars, whose special duty should be the conversion of heretics ; and about the commencement of the 18th century he began to carry his purpose into effect. He soon found numer- ous volunteers to his new order, and, to disarm oppo- sition, he and his followers adopted the rule of St. Au- gustine. As a distinct order, they did not, however, receive the formal verbal approval of the pope. Inno- cent III, till 1215. See Dominicans. Dominic did not, however, trust for the uprooting of heresy simply to his own preaching and that of his followers. Find- ing that his eloquence failed to convert the Albigenses, he, with the papal legates, Peter of Castelnau and Rai- nier of Raoul, obtained permiBsion of Innocent III to hold courts, before which they might summon by au- thority of the pope, and without reference to the local bishops, any individuals suspected of heresy, and in- flict upon them, if obstinate, capital punishment, or otherwise any lesser penalty. Peter of Castelnau, who had made himself especially obnoxious by his se- verity, was killed at Toulouse in 1208 ; and then waa prochiimed by the pope, at the instigation of Dominic, that fearful * crusade,' as it was designated by Inno- cent, to which all the barons of France were sum- moned, and which, under the captaincy of De Mont- fort, led to the slaughter of so many thousands of these so-called heretics. See Albigenses. Dominic him- self, it has been said, was not personally crael ; but towards heretics he had no compassion, and it is cer- tain that, so far firom attempting to lessen the horrible slaughter, he did what he could to stimulate it. Dom- inic is very frequently said to have been the founder of the Inquisition, but this is an error. He and his companions in the commission to examine and punbh the Albigenses were commonly called ^ Inqubitors,' but their commission was merely local and temporary. The *Holy Office' was not formally established till 1238, when Gregory IX laid down tiie rules and de- fined the jurisdiction of the courts, which he appointed for various countries under the name of ' Inquisitorial Missions.' It is, however, worthy of notice that the chief inquisitor was a Dominican monk, Pietro de Ve- rona, and that the govemance of the Inquisition was placed pretty much in the hands of the Dominicans. The Romish accounts make Dominic a miracle-work- er even to the extent of raising the dead to life, as in the case of a young nobleman named Napoleon, • at Rome, on the Ash-Wednesday of 1218, and by otiier miracles. Dominic died at Bolog^ in 1221. He was canonized by pope Gregory IX on July 8, 1284 : the Church of Rome keeps his festival on Aug. 4. Domi- nic is said to have written some commentaries upon St. Matthew, St. Paul, and the canonical episties, but they have not come down to us." — EngliA Cychpadia; Butier, Lives of Saints, Aug. 4 ; Acta Sanctorum, Aug. i, 645 sq. ; La^rdaire, VtedeS, Domimgne (Bmxellea, 1848), and (Euvres (Paris, 1864), vol. L
Dominica in Albia {the Sunday of tMe gar^ ments\ a titie anciently given to the Sunday after Easter, because on this day those persons who had been baptized at Easter appeared for the last time in the chrysomes, or white robes, which they received at baptism. These were laid up in the church as evi- dences of their baptismal profession. — Bingham, Orig, Eccks, bk. XX, ch. V, § 12.
Dominica Palmflmm. See Palm-Surdat.
DOMINICALE
858
DOMlNICAirS^
Dominloale, a white yeil anciently worn by women at the time of receiving the Eucharist. It has been disputed whether the dandmcaU was not a linen doth which women, in the sixth century, were in some churches required to take to the Encharist, and with which they covered the hand before the bread was laid upon it. Augustine may refer to this in one of the sermons usually ascribed to him, De Tempore, in which he says that it was customary for men to wash their hands when they communicate, and for women to bring their little linen cloths to receive the body of Christ. In the Council of Auxerre, A.D. 590, a rule was enacted that no woman should receive the Eucharist in her bare hand, but nothing further is pre- scribed. The best authorities, however, are of opin- ion that the dommicale was a veil for the head. — Far- rar, EcoUm. Didkmary, s. v. ; Bingham, Oriff. Eodee, bk. XV, ch. V, § 7.
Dominioal Letter, the letter in our almanacs which marks the Lord's Day (Dies Donum), usually, printed in a capital form. In the calendar, the first seven letters of the alphabet are applied to the days of the week, the letter A being always given to the 1st of January, whatsoever that day may be, and the oth- ers in succession to the following days. If the year consisted of three hundred and sixty-four days, mak- ing an exact number of weeks, no change would ever take place in these letters. Thus, supposing the Ist of January in any given year to be Sunday, all the Sundays would be represented by A ; not only in that year, but in all succeeding. There being, however, three hundred and sixty-five da3rs in the year, the first letter is again repeated on the 31st of December, and, consequently, the Dominical, or Sunday letter for the following year will be G. The retrocession of the let- ters will, for the same reason, continue evexy year, so as to make F the Dominical letter of the third, etc. If every year were common, the process would con- tinue regularly, and a cycle of seven years would be sufficient to restore the same letters to the same days as before. But the intercalation of a day every bis- sextile or leap year causes a variation. The leap- year, containing three hundred and sixty-six days, will throw the Dominical letter of the following year back two letters ; so that, if the Dominical letter at the beginning of the year be C, the Dominical letter of the next year will be A. This alteration is not ef- fected by dropping a letter altogether, but by changing the Dominical letter at the end of February, where the intercalation takes place. In consequence of this change every fourth year, twenty-eight years must elapse before a complete revolution of the Dominical letter can take place ; and it is on this fact that the period of the solar cycle is founded. The rules for finding the Dominical letter for any year are given in the Book of Common Prayer. — Hook, C%. Diet, s. v. See Cycle.