' DOM'INIS, MARCpS ANTONIUS DE, an ecclesiastic whose career was both singular and checkered. He was b. in 1566 at Arba, on the coast of Dalmatia, and educated, first at Loretto, and subsequently at Padua, where he greatly distinguished himself both by his ability and the varied character of his studies. While at Padua, he taught mathematics, physics, and eloquence. Having completed his theological curriculum, be was, after some time, appointed bishop of Segni, and two years later, archbishop of Spalatro, in which capacity, however, he quarreled with the pope, and having, moreover, exhibited certain Protestant leanings, he found it expedient to resign his post. In 1616, he came to England, where he was hospitably received. King James appointed him dean of Windsor; and while holding this office, he wrote his Republica Ecclesiastica, a work in which he endeavored to show that the pope had no supremacy over other bishops, but was only primus inter pares. D. published one or two other productions between 1617 and 1618; but finding Anglicanism far from satisfactory, a revulsion of feeling occurred, and D, Once more looked and longed for the unity of the Catholic.
church. The motives that induced him to return to the Roman Catholic church are not known. Most writers consider that he was actuated by avarice and ambition, but a critical appreciation of his character would lead us to doubt. this harsh He was, it has been supposed, desirous of discovering a church broad enough toform the basis of a universal Christianity. Men holding such opinions are always misunder stood, and so D., even after his return to Rome, was still suspected of heresy. In con sequence, he was imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo, where he died, Sept., 1624. Being subsequently condemned as a heretic, his body was raised from its grave, and burned.
While at Padua, D. wrote his De Radiis Thus et Lucis in MI-is Perspectiris et Iricle (Venice, 1611). He was the first to point out that in the phenomenon of the rainbow, the light undergoes, in each rain-drop, two refractions and an intermediate reflection.