DOMINIC, SAINT. Domingo de Guzman, founder of the Order of Dominicans, was born in 1170 at Calahorra, in Castilla la Vieja, Spain. lie completed his education at the University of Palontin; inn 1193 was made canon of the cathedral of Gana; and in 1198 s priest and archdeacon. He subsequently hos-sone known as an eloquent and eartie.t preacher, and was sent on missions to various parts of Spain, d into France. ]laving had his seal inflamed by the progress of the Albigenses, he bent all his energies to their conversion. Finding his own efforts 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 13th century ho began to carry his purpose into effect. Ho soon found numerous volunteers to his new order, and, to disarm opposition, he and his followers adopted the rule of St. Augustine. As is distinct order they did not however receive the formal verbal approval of the pope, Innocent III., till 1215. This order was confirmed in the following year by a bull of lIonorius III., under the name of the Predicants, or Preaching Friars : they were afterwards called Domini cans, from their founder. In England they were known as Black-Friara, from the colour of their habits ; in France as Jacobins, from their first house in that country being situated in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. Dominic was the first general of the order. Ile was also about the same time created by the pope Master of the Sacred Palace nt Rome, an office since always held by a Dominican. The order rapidly iocrensed in numbers, and spread all over Europe: at the dissolution of the monasteries in the reigu of Henry VIII. the Dominicans bad fifty-eight houses in England and Wales.
Dominic did not however trust fur the uprooting of heresy simply to his own preaching and that of his followers. Finding that his eloquence failed to convert the Albigenses, he, with the papal legates, Peter of Castelnau and Rainier of Raoul, obtained permission of Innocent III. to hold courts, before which they might summon by authority of the pope, and without reference to the local bishops, any individuals suspected of heresy, and inflict upon them if obstinate capital punishment, or otherwise any lesser penalty. Peter of Castelnau,
who had made himself especially obnoxious by his severity, was killed at Toulouse in 1203 ; and then was proclaimed by the pope, at the instigation of Dominic, that fearful crusade,' as it was designated by Innocent, to which all the barons of Franco were summoned, and which, under the captaincy of Do Montfort, led to the slaughter of so many thousands of these so-called heretics. Dominic himself, it has been said, was not personally cruel; but towards heretics ho had no compassion, and it is certain that, so far from attempting to lessen the horrible slaughter, ho did what ho could atio stimulate it. Dominic 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 punish the Albigenses were commonly called 'Inquisitors,' but their commission was merely local and temporary. The Holy Office' was not formally established till 1233, when Gregory IX. laid down the rules and defined 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 da Verona; and thnt the governance of the Inquisitiou was placed pretty much in the hands of the Dominicans.
According to the biographers of Dominic, he was permitted to exhibit the diviuo sanction to his missious by raising the dead to life, ns In the case of a young nobleman named Napoleon at Rome, on the Ash-Wednesday of 1218, and by other miracles. Dominic died at Bologna in 1221. He was canonised by Popo Gregory IX. on the 3rd of July 1234 : the Church of Roma keeps his festival on the 4th of August. Dominic is said to have written some commentaries upon St. Matthew, St. Paul, and the Canonical Epistles, but they have nut come down to us.