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 DOMINICANS persecutions which have repeatedly dispersed and sometimes decimated them, these estab- lishments, protected by France, are beginning to flourish anew. Various attempts have been made to restore the order to the rigor of its pristine observance ; among them one in the be- ginning of the 17th century, by Fere Michaelis, provincial of Toulouse, which so far succeeded that in 1608 Pope Paul V. erected the reformed convents into an independent congregation, governed by a vicar general. In 1650 Pre Le Quien endeavored to push this reformatory movement still further ; he established six con- vents in Provence and the comtat Venaissin, which embraced the primitive rule in all its rigor. When Pius IX. announced (June 19, 1847) his intention of reforming the monastic orders, Lacordaire and his French Dominicans were among the first to encourage him and to accept the proposed change ; it was a French- man, Pere Jeandel, who was appointed vicar general by the pope when he suspended for a time the authority of the general chapter. Since then the work of reform has been carried on incessantly, the calamities which have befallen the order making it easier for the true-hearted among its members to embrace, as their assur- ed pledge of future usefulness, the high abnega- tion of their founder. The influence exercised by the order of preachers on the schools of the middle ages and on the whole of European so- ciety for several centuries cannot be exagger- ated. It has given to the whole world such men as Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Vin- cent of Beauvais, Master Eckard, John Tauler, Henry Suso, Savonarola, Las Casas, Vincent Ferrer, and a host of other distinguished names ; and in our own day the friars preach- ers have seen their ancient glory revive in Lacordaire, and in Monsabre, who now fills his place in Notre Dame de Paris ; as well as in Father Thomas Burke, who in 1872-'3 traversed the United States, thrilling everywhere by his eloquence vast assemblages of his countrymen. It has given to the church a host of bishops arid archbishops, 66 cardinals, and four popes, In- nocent V., Benedict XL, Pius V., and Bene- dict XIII. The influence of the order on the fine arts has exceeded that of all others. " The Dominicans," says Mrs. Jameson, " have pro- duced two of the most excellent painters who have drawn their inspirations from religious influences, Angelico da Fiesole and Bartolom- meo della Porta," called II Frate in the schools. Among countless monuments of painting and sculpture executed for their former monaste- ries and churches, is the famous " Last Supper " by Da Vinci, in Sta. Maria delle Grazie in Milan. As to the Dominican nuns, the house founded in Prouille by St. Dominic, and which after- ward adopted his rule and habit, became the parent of many similar institutions throughout France. In Rome the Dominican nuns, and the "third order" established by Dominic, spread through Italy. The nuns however did not long maintain the original severity of their DOMINOS 205 rule. They shared also, in France, in the va- rious attempts at reform made by the monks. At present they have convents in France, IJi'lgiuin, Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, in the British empire and some of its colonies, as well as in North and South America. See Al- tamura's Biblwiheca Dominicana (fol., Rome, 1677) ; Castillo's Historia general de Santo Do- mingo y de su orden de predicadores (2 vols. fol., Madrid, 1584-'94 ; 2d ed., 5 vols. fol., Val- ladolid, 1612-'21) ; Touron, Histoire des hom- mes illustres de Vordre de Saint Dominique (6 vols. fol., Paris, 1743); and Riboll, Bulla- rium Ordinis FF. Prcedicatorum (8 vols. fol., Rome, 1729-'40). DOMINIS, Marc' Antonio de, a theologian and natural philosopher, born in Arbe, an island of Dalmatia, in 1566, died in Rome in Septem- ber, 1624. He was a relative of Pope Gregory X., studied at Loretto under the direction of the Jesuits, and became a member of their order. He taught mathematics and philos- ophy with great success in several cities of Italy. In 1602 he left the Jesuits, and was appointed archbishop of Spalato and primate of Dalmatia and Croatia. He now began to oppose some of the measures of the court of Rome, and his writings were condemned by the inquisition. This gained him the sympathies of Protestants, by whom he was induced in 1616 to pass into England, where he embraced Protestantism, and was made dean of Windsor. Though his avowed aim was to effect a reunion of the two great divisions of Christendom, he wrote and preached against the papacy. In his work De Republica Ecclesiastica, he main- tained that the pope is only primus inter pares ; it was censured by the theological faculty of Pa- ris, and burned by order of the inquisition. Not long after its publication he reverted to his for- mer theological views, publicly retracted all that he had ever written against the Roman Cath- olic church, and repairing to Rome abjured his apostasy. His inconstant humor did not long leave him in repose, and it was suspected that he had repented his last conversion, and was meditating a return to Protestantism. He was imprisoned by Pope Urban VIII., and his sud- den death soon after caused the report that he was poisoned. His trial for heresy was con- tinued after his death ; he was convicted, and his body was disinterred and burned along with his writings. His chief philosophical work is entitled De Badiis Visus et Lucis I (Venice, 1611), to which Newton ascribes the I first true explanation of the rainbow. DOMIOS, a game which has been traced by some authors to the Greeks, Hebrews, and Chinese. Its first appearance in western Eu- rope is not ancient, it having been introduced into France from Italy about the middle of the last century. The domino is a small flat oblong of wood, ivory, or bone, divided on one side by a line into two compartments. Each of these is marked with a certain number of dots, I from 1 to 6, or is left a blank, so that upon