RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Dominic Dominis
the first seven days of the year by the letters A-G and repeated them for every succeeding week. The same letter thus designated Sunday throughout the year except in leap-years, when the dominical letter changed from A to G, B to A, etc., after Feb. 28 (in some calendars after Feb. 24). It is used in finding the date of Easter of any given year. See Calendar, The Christian, § 4; Easter, I., 3.
DOMINIS, MARCO ANTONIO DE: Archbishop of Spalato (on the coast of Dalmatia, 160 m. s.e. of Triest); b. of a noble Venetian family on the island of Arbe (80 m. s.e. of Triest), off the Dalmatian coast, 1560; d. at Rome Sept. 8, 1624. He was professor of mathematics at Verona, Padua, and Brescia, and was appointed bishop of Zengg (on the coast of Croatia, 10 m. n. of his native island) in 1596, and two years later archbishop of Spalato and primate of Dalmatia and Croatia. His position was a difficult one owing to the conflict between the curia and the republic of Venice; and the complications in which he was involved led him to thorough canonical, historical, and dogmatic studies which later bore fruit in the publication of the De republica ecclesiastica. The incompatibility between a strong tendency toward an episcopal system and the autocratic rule of the pope induced him to resign his office, to withdraw from the Roman Church, and to separate himself from his friends and country. In the Consilium profectionis, which he published (London, 1616; also in part i. of the De republica ecclesiastica) to explain his conduct, he expresses his dissatisfaction with the position of the bishops under the pope, declares that the Roman Church in doctrine and polity has fallen from the purity of Christian antiquity, professes to be actuated by the love of Christ and the truth, and says that he hopes to promote the reunion of Christendom (chaps, xii., xiii., xx.). By way of Venice, Switzerland, and Heidelberg he went to England, arriving Dec. 16, 1616. At St. Paul's in London he joined the Anglican Church, and in 1618 was made master of the Savoy and dean of Windsor. The same year he published in London The Rocks of Christian Shipwreck, a book of popular character, previously pubhshed at Heidelberg in Italian (Scogli del naufragio christiano). It was a polemic intended to warn and admonish his countrymen, and at the same time a keen Biblical and patristic critique of the chief Roman doctrines and institutions. Meanwhile he had completed his chief work, the De republica ecclesiastica libri (3 parts, i., London, 1617; ii., 1620; iii., Frankfort, 1658; books viii. and xx. were never printed). With much learning he treats of the hierarchical order, the power of the Church, the rights of the laity, the decision of questions of faith, jurisdiction, church property and liberties; the difference between priests and bishops he makes not one of ecclesiastical functions, but of jurisdiction and relation to the Church in general, from which, rather than from the pope, the episcopal power is derived and by which it is conferred through the election by the Christian congregation. To the early part of his stay in England belongs also the Papatus Romanus seu de origine, progressu
atque extinctione ejus (London, 1617), which was inspired, according to the preface, by King James I. He carried on correspondence with such men as Hugo Grotius and Paolo Sarpi, and published the latter's Historia del concilia Tridentino (the manuscript of which he had brought with him from Venice), with additions, in 1619, dedicated to James I.
After the good reception accorded to De Dominis in England and the polemical activity he had displayed, great surprise was occasioned in [Jan.] 1622, by the news that he intended to return to Italy. The reasons he gave in a letter to the king —advancing age, the raw air of England, etc.— were evidently only pretexts. He was warned of danger to himself in his purpose; but nevertheless he went back, trusting to the protection of his former friend. Pope Gregory XV He received absolution only after a threefold recantation, including an appearance in public in St. Peter's with a rope about his neck and in penitential garb. His literary activity naturally took a new direction. As an offset to the Consilium profectionis he published Reditus ex Anglia consilium (Rome, 1623; Eng. transl., Lifege, 1623; London, 1827), in which he explains his apostasy as due to a twofold disorder, brought on by his own conceit and vindictiveness toward his superiors, and condemns all his polemical writings of the earlier period. His retractation made no impression, however, and the book scarcely attempts to refute the material brought together previously in so great abundance. Gregory XV died July, 1623, and the case of De Dominis was reopened. Before it was decided, however, he died in prison. On Dec. 20, 1624, his body was carried to the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, his picture and a sack containing his books were placed beside it, and a conclave deprived him of all ecclesiastical honors, confiscated his property, and handed him over to the civil authorities for execution of sentence; his body was publicly burned on the next day. His books were naturally already on the Index. It has been asserted that he was sent to England by Paul V to convert the king and bishops and was ill treated when he returned to Rome because he did not succeed (cf. J. W Jaeger, Historia ecclesiastica scccuK decimi septimi, 1, Hamburg, 1709, p. 382, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xv.). His works not already mentioned include A Sermon Preached in the Mercers' Chapel, London (London, 1617) and a Tractatus de radiis visus et lucis in perspectivis et iride (Venice, 1611), in which he came near giving the true scientific explanation of the rainbow. Opinions concerning De Dominis differ. His ability and learning are unquestioned; but his honesty has been seriously impugned by Protestants as well as Roman Catholics. It is said that he obtained the copy of Sarpi's Concilio Tridentino surreptitiously, published it without the author's consent, and made unjustifiable alterations and additions. His conduct in England is said to have been shamelessly avaricious. K. Benrath.
Bibliography: Trajano Boccalini lettera al Sgr. Mutio, in La bilancia poUtica di tutte le opere di Trajano Boccahni iii. 7-40, Castellana, 1678; R. Neile, Marco Ankinio de
Dominus
Donation of Constantine