when, in Jan. 1208, he was assassinated by a servant of Count Raymond of Toulouse, there were more to applaud the crime than to aid the avengers. The attempt to punish this crime was the signal for a bloody religious war. A new crusade was preached; Innocent urged the kings of France and England to forget their quarrels and combine against the Albigenses; and into the doomed region armies marched such as those which had fought in Syria against the Saracens. Raymond of Toulouse, protector of heretics, was stigmatized as a murderer, and his hereditary foe, Simon de Montfort, was allowed to ravage the province, to hale to death its tenants, and to ruin the heritage of this lukewarm son of the church. How far Dominic took part in these religious wars, is vehemently disputed. According to Sismondi, he directed these persecutions from the beginning. His latest biographers, on the contrary, offer documents to prove that Dominic had nothing to do with any acts of violence. The public opinion of several centuries has assigned to Dominic the fame of founding the inquisition, but his name is not mentioned in the decree of the inquisition which bears the date of 1215, and the special charge of the holy office was not intrusted to the Dominicans until 1233, 12 years after his death. This first crusade against the Albigenses lasted 7 years, from 1208 to 1215, when the surrender of Toulouse and the opening of its gates to the crusaders seemed for a time to close the war. A permanent memorial of Dominic in this period is the institution of the rosary, which has been of universal use among Catholics since his day. More than one before him had prescribed similar methods of prayer and meditation, but his method is the earliest of the kind that still remains in use. The great event of 1215 in the history of the church is the foundation of the order of preaching friars. When Dominic entered Toulouse with 4 associate priests, a rich citizen, Peter Cellani, offered his house for the use of the brethren, and with another citizen, Thomas by name, joined himself to their band; so that there were 7 in all, vowed to labor together for the conversion of souls. When the plan was submitted to the pope, he rather advised the reform of orders already existing. Finally, however, Dominic received permission to make rules for his desired order, although one of the canons of the 4th council of Lateran forbids the creation of any new religious order. The difficulty was evaded by the adoption for the new monastic body of the rules of St. Augustine, modified by the rule of the Premonstratensian convents, and on Dec. 26, 1216, two papal briefs formally established the order of preaching friars. The pope also now created the office of master of the sacred palace, to which he appointed Dominic. It is the duty of this functionary to take charge of all theological matters in the papal mansion, to nominate the preachers, to authorize the books, and to decide all minor questions of doctrine or discipline which may come up in the domestic eircle of the pontiff. The duties of this office

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did not keep Dominic in Rome. He made journeys into Languedoc, into Spain, and as far as Paris, attending everywhere to the consolidation of his new brotherhood. In 1219 he preached in Paris, and so charmed the rude king of Scotland, at that time sojourning in the French capital, that at the request of this monarch, that northern land was added to the field which the preaching friars might occupy. In the same year his most important acquisition was made in the gift of the church of St. Nicholas at Bologna, and the enrollment of a large number of professors and dignitaries as members of the order. Henceforth Bologna became the chief Dominican centre, as it has ever been the goal of pilgrimage to all of the fraternity. Here the alternate general chapters of the order were held. The second chapter (1221) was the last meeting of the order that Dominic attended. His health now began to fail, and after returning from a visit to Venice, he was seized with a dysentery and fever from which he died. His body was buried under the pavement of the church of St. Nicholas, and in 1233 the remains, which were found to be perfect, were transported into the new church and interred in the south transept. The decree of canonization was passed July 4, 1234, and his anniversary is celebrated on Aug. 4. Nicolo di Piso decorated the tomb with bass-reliefs representing the miracles of the saint. Alfonso the Lombard added to them in the 16th century another series, and Michel Angelo crowned the gorgeous monument with a statue of St. Petronius. The church which covers this tomb now bears the name of St. Dominic. In the sacristy is a statue of the saint, carved from the wood of a cypress, which, according to the legend, the hand of the saint himself had planted. The character of Dominic has been differently judged, according as it has been viewed from a Catholic or a Protestant standpoint. By the one party he is eulogized as a pattern of every virtue; by the other he is condemned as bigoted, cruel, and tyrannical. Commonly regarded as the founder of the inquisition, all the excesses of that tribunal have been imputed to him for guilt. There can be no doubt that he allowed bloodshed which he might have prevented, and that he loved orthodoxy more than peace. His consistency cannot be questioned. He was industrious, frugal, and temperate in his habits, and had a singular faculty of winning and holding the love of his brethren. Of his sermons and commentaries none are preserved, and all that now testifies to his literary or theological powers is the system of rules prescribed to the order, and a few epistles. Frequent allusions are made in the writings of the biographers to his notes upon the psalter, the epistles of Paul, and the Gospel of Matthew, but these are lost beyond recovery. -The life of St. Dominic has been written in Latin by D'Apolda, in Italian by Bottoni, in Spanish by Juan Lopez, in French by Father Touron (Paris, 1739), by the Bollandists, and by several others. See also. Vie de Saint Domi

nique, by Lacordaire (Paris, 3d ed. 1844), and Saint Dominique et les Dominicains, by Elme Marie Caro (Paris, 1853).

DOMINICA, a British West India island, one of the Lesser Antilles, Leeward group, 29 m. S. of Guadeloupe, in lat. 15° 18' N. and long. 61° 32′ W.; length from N. to S. 29 m.; breadth 16 m.; area, 291 sq. m.; pop. 22,469 (according to the " American Almanac" for 1859), of whom only a small number are whites, the majority being emancipated slaves. It is of volcanic origin, and when viewed from the sea presents the appearance of a confused mass of mountains. The highest summit has an elevation of 5,300 feet. Dominica is well watered, having upward of 30 rivers and numerous rivulets. It has also sulphurous and thermal springs, and a deep lake on a high mountain 6 m. from Roseau. Interspersed among its mountains are many fertile valleys, with a black and rich soil well adapted for raising every tropical production. In 1850 the imports were valued at £57,656, and the exports at £58,265. The principal exports in 1853 were 65,788 cwt. of sugar, 35,794 gallons of rum, 81,016 of molasses, 67,594 lbs. of coffee, 69,296 of cacao, 3,525 of arrow root, 3,250 of cotton wool, 5,062 gallons of lime juice, and 1,354,020 oranges. The revenue amounted to £7,336 in 1855, and to £12,918 in 1856. The expenditures in the year ending Dec. 1, 1855, were £9,245, and in that ending Dec. 31, 1856, £10,487 (comprising £800 for educational purposes). There are about 10 free schools, but the bulk of the population being Roman Catholics, education is chiefly controlled by the clergy of that persuasion. The property annually created on the island has been estimated at £250,000, and the aggregate movable property at £1,500,000. The woods of Dominica swarm with bees, which produce great quantities of wax and honey. This is the European bee, much larger than the native bee of the West Indies, and must have been transported thither.-Dominica was discovered by Columbus in 1493; and being equally claimed by England, France, and Spain, it was considered a neutral island by those 3 powers till 1759, when it was captured by the English; and it was ceded to England by France in 1763. It was recaptured by the French in 1778, and again restored to England in 1783. Its government is administered by a lieutenantgovernor, a council of 12 members appointed by the crown, and an assembly of 19 representatives chosen by the people. Capital, Roseau, on the S. W. side of the island; pop. about 4,000. DOMINICAL LETTER, the letter denoting Sunday for a given year. The council of Nice, A. D. 325, established the rule that Easter Sunday should be the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21. For the purpose of determining when Easter falls, and for other similar problems concerning the day of the week and the day of the year, it was early found convenient to place the first 7 letters of the alphabet in succession against the days of the months, putting A to Jan. 1, and

repeating the 7 letters as often as necessary until Dec. 31. The letter which falls against the first Sunday in January will fall against every Sunday in the year, and this is the dominical letter for that year, unless it be leap year; and then, as Feb. 29 as well as March 1 is marked D, the dominical letter for the last 10 months of the year will be the preceding letter of the alphabet. To find the dominical letter will manifestly enable you to find what day of the week a given date in the year is. But the dominical letter, being known for any one year, can be found for any other, by simply remembering that an ordinary year is 52 weeks and one day, a leap year 52 weeks and 2 days, so that the dominical letter will go backward from G toward A, one letter for a common year and 2 for a leap year. This gives rise to an arithmetical rule for finding the dominical letter, which may be thus expressed: To the number of the year add † of itself, neglecting fractions, and divide the sum by 7; then for the 19th century subtract the remainder from 8, or, if it is 0, from 1, and the new remainder will indicate the place of the dominical letter in the alphabet; for the 18th century subtract from 7; for the 17th century and back to 1582 subtract from 6, or if the remainder is more than 6, from 13; for dates previous to 1582 subtract from 3 or 10. (But it must be remembered that the dominical letter thus obtained for a leap year belongs to the time after Feb. 29, and that for the preceding 2 months the dominical letter was the succeeding letter in the alphabet.) This new remainder is also the date of the first Sunday in January for that year. The same date in February will fall on Wednesday; in March, on Wednesday; in April, on Saturday, &c.; as may easily be seen from the fact that the first days of the 12 months have annexed to them in the calendar the initials of the words: At Dover Dwell George Brown, Esquire, Good Christopher Finch, And David Friar. For example, the day of the week on which New York was incorporated, June 12, 1665, is thus found: (1665+416)+7=297, with a remainder of 2; and, it being the 17th century, 6-2-4, which shows the dominical letter for that year to have been D. Then, as June begins with E, it is plain that June 1, 1665, was Monday, and the 12th was Friday.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, the eastern portion of the island of Hayti, comprising nearly of the island. Its name is derived from the ancient Spanish appellation of the island, San Domingo. Its area is estimated at 17,500 sq. m. Its population is about 136,000, of whom onetenth claim to be whites; the rest are of African descent, or of mixed African and European. The boundary between it and the Haytian republic is an irregular line drawn from the mouth of the river Massacre on the north coast of the island to the river Anses-à-Pitre or Pedernales on the south coast. The interior of the republic consists of mountain ranges, rising to an elevation of 6,000 to 8,000 feet, and covered with magnificent tropical forests. From the

base of these mountains large plains, watered by numerous streams, stretch toward the coast. Of these plains the Vega Real (Royal plain), and those of the Jayua, the Azua, and the Neybo, are the most densely populated. Among the rivers, most of which bear the character of mountain torrents, the Great Yaqui, emptying into the bay of Monte Christo, the Yuma, whose embouchure is in the bay of Samana, the Higuey, the Gaboon, Soco, Socaris, Brujuelas, Ozoma, Jayna, Nisao, Bani, and Neybo deserve to be mentioned. The harbor of San Domingo city is one of the best; next to it the bay of Samana offers an excellent roadstead. Of the lesser islands on the coast belonging to the republic, Beata and Saona are the most considerable. The climate, though tropical, is less unwholesome than elsewhere in the West Indies. The soil is exceedingly fertile, but the industry of the inhabitants is not equal to the immense resources of the country. Gold, silver, and iron abound in the mountains, but no mines are worked. Cattle-raising in the level country, and ebony-cutting in the mountainous regions, are the principal occupations of the people, agriculture being mainly confined to the raising of the manioc root, which is used as a substitute for grain. Politically the republic is divided into 5 provinces, viz.: Azua de Compostella, San Domingo, Santa Cruz del Seybo, Concepcion de la Vega, Santiago de los Caballeros. These are also the names of the provincial capitals, of which Santiago de los Caballeros is, next to the city of San Domingo, the most important. The inhabitants are Roman Catholics; an archbishop resides at the city of San Domingo. The army is nominally about 20,000 strong. The navy consists of 2 corvettes, 1 brigantine, and 4 schooners. The seal of state represents a cross, supporting an open Bible, surrounded by arms and the motto: Dios, Patria, y Libertad. The language of the people is Spanish. The constitution, like that of most Spanish American republics, is modelled after that of the United States. It provides for a president, to be elected for the term of 4 years, a senate of 5, and a house of representatives of 15 members. The municipalities into which the provinces are subdivided are organized on the basis of self-government. The conditions upon which foreigners may be naturalized are very liberal, and no distinction is drawn in favor of colored persons. Free farms, farming utensils, and provisions for 6 months are offered to settlers. The commerce of the country is as yet limited, owing partly to the deranged state of the circulation and exchanges. The exports from this republic into the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1858, amounted to $109,370, and the imports from the United States to $112,427. The coins are gourdes (piastres, dollars), half gourdes, gourdins (quarters), escalins (eighths), and half escalins (sixteenths). The present Dominican republic was a Spanish colony until 1795, when, by the treaty of Basel, the

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whole island was united under French rule. When, after terrible struggles, the colored population of the island had become independent of France, the tyranny of Dessalines drove the Dominicans back into the arms of Spain, which thus regained possession of its former colony in 1808. The next year the Dominicans declared their independence, abolished slavery, and remained in an unsettled state until 1822, when the whole island was united under a republican form of government, and Boyer, the president of Hayti, was chosen president for life. But in 1844, the negroes of Hayti having succeeded in elevating Gen. Rivière to the presidency, the Dominicans, encouraged by the friendly assurances of the French consul-general Moges, again formed a separate government (Feb. 27), under the auspices of the "liberator" Pedro Santana, who defeated Rivière near Santiago (April 9), thus securing the independence of his country. Recognized by France, a treaty of friendship and commerce with which power was concluded, Oct. 22, 1848, and by Great Britain (treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation concluded in May, 1850), the Dominican republic upheld her independence successfully against repeated efforts of Soulouque, the ruler of Hayti. The presidential term of Santana having ended in 1849, Jimenes was elected his successor. Though of Caucasian blood, the latter secretly conspired with Soulouque, who invaded the territory of the republic at the head of 20,000 men, and defeated the Dominicans in some skirmishes near Azua and Las Matas. In this extremity Santana was recalled by the people. He dispersed the Haytian army, April 22, near Savanna Numero, so completely that the war for the time being was at an end. Jimenes sought a refuge with Soulouque, who made him one of his dukes, while Santana resigned his dictatorship in favor of the newly elected constitutional president, Buenaventura Baez. In 1850 Soulouque once more invaded the country unsuccessfully. Baez, having during the latter part of his administration favored the policy of the clerical party, was rejected by the people in 1853, and Santana reelected president. He compelled the archbishop to swear allegiance to the constitution, and endeavored to free himself from French influence. His sympathies with the United States induced him to enter into negotiations with a secret diplomatic agent of President Pierce, Gen. Cazneau, and to negotiate with him a treaty (Oct. 5, 1854), the secret stipulations of which provided, it is believed, for the cession to the United States of the bay of Samana. But this treaty was never ratified, nor has the Dominican republic ever been recognized by the United States. It is probable that the failure of Santana to obtain this recognition facilitated the efforts of the French and British agents to render him unpopular and once more elevate Baez, now the recognized leader of the clerical party, to the presidency (Feb. 1857). But his triumph was short-lived. Dissatisfac

tion with his rule spread so rapidly that Santana was enabled to head a revolutionary movement (Sept. 1857), which eventually led to the expulsion of Baez (1858), and the restoration of the liberal rule. In consequence of the downfall of Soulouque in Hayti (Jan. 1859), Santana offered his hearty congratulations to President Geffrard, and it was generally expected that a close alliance would again be established between the two republics.

DOMINICANS (preaching friars, fratres pra-. dicatores), a monastic order of the Roman Catholic church, founded in 1215 by Dominic de Guzman, on the rule of St. Augustine and a part of the statutes of the Premonstratenses. Its main object was to labor by preaching for the advancement of the Catholic church and the extermination of heresies, especially of that of the Albigenses. The order received the papal ratification in 1216. At its first general chapter in Bologna in 1220, it renounced the possession of all property, and decreed that none of its convents should receive lay brothers. The constitution which it adopted is strictly monarchical, like that of all the other mendicant orders. The convent is governed by a prior; a combination of several convents, called a province, by a provincial; the whole order by a general, the last to be elected by the general chapter, which is to meet once every year. The extension of the order was very rapid. At the 2d chapter in 1221, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and England were represented. In 1278 the number of convents amounted to 417. The influence and the reputation of the order increased greatly, when in 1233 the pope placed them at the head of the inquisition, which, in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, became gradually their exclusive domain. Though endowed in 1272 with all the privileges of the mendicant orders, they acquired in 1425 the right of receiving donations, and many of their convents became very rich. A new period in the history of the order commences with the establishment of a Dominican professorship of theology at Paris in 1228, which in 1230 was followed by a second. As the Franciscans soon succeeded in securing theological chairs for their order also, that grand theological emulation sprang up between these 2 orders, the history of which is almost equivalent to that of theological literature in general during the latter part of the middle ages, and in which the Dominicans distinguished themselves as Nominalists, Augustinians, Thomists, and opponents of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. Their missionary activity commenced as early as the 13th century in Asia, and, especially in Armenia, many schismatics were converted by them to the Catholic church. In America they protected the natives from being enslaved, and here as well as in the East Indies they exceeded all other orders in power, number, and wealth. They had a controlling influence over the literature of the Catholic church through their prescriptive possession of the office of master of the sacred palace at Rome,

and the supreme censorship of books, which is connected with that office. But great losses were inflicted on them by the reformation. In the countries where Protestantism became predominant they lost more than 400 convents, and at many Catholic courts and universities their influence was supplanted by that of the Jesuits. But they still counted in the 18th century more than 1,000 convents of monks and nuns in 45 provinces, 11 of which were out of Europe. By the French revolution they lost all their convents in France and Belgium, nearly all in Germany, and many in Italy. They have since also been suppressed in Spain, Portugal, and Sardinia, but maintained their ground in Sicily, and to a great extent in Hungary and Switzerland. In France they reappeared during the reign of Louis Philippe. The order early relaxed the strictness of its ancient rule. Several attempts to restore it were made in the 15th and 16th centuries, but with only partial and transitory results. On the other hand, there was never a permanent schism in the Dominican order as in that of the Franciscans. When Pius IX. declared the reformation of the religious orders to be one of the principal cares of his pontificate, the Dominicans were among the first with regard to whom the purpose of the pope was put in execution. The efforts of the pope were effectively seconded by the small number of convents which Father Lacordaire, by far the most distinguished member of the order in the present century, had founded in France. The pope suspended temporarily the right of the general chapter to elect a general, and appointed one of the French disciples of Lacordaire, Father Jeandel, vicargeneral of the order. Since then the reformation has been carried through in many convents, in some cases not without a violent opposition. In Austria it was commenced in 1857, with the cooperation of the bishops and the government, in the convent of Vienna. The order has also made preparations to enlarge its missionary territory in Asia Minor. There are at present convents in Italy, Austria, France, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Asia Minor, India, China, North and South America. In South America the order is on the decline, but it makes progress in North America, and, though slowly, in France. It has given to the church a large number of bishops and archbishops, 66 cardinals, and 4 popes, Innocent V., Benedict XI., Pius V., and Benedict XIII. Among its most illustrious members were Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Master Eckard, John Tauler, Henry Suso, Savonarola, Las Casas, Vincent Ferrier, Vincent of Beauvais, and, at the present day, Lacordaire. The habit of the order consists of a white gown, scapular and calotte, and black cloak and pointed hood.-An order of Dominican nuns was established by St. Dominic, in 1206, at Prouille, near Toulouse. The first members were mostly converts from the Albigenses. This order counted at the time of its greatest prosperity about 400 convents in Europe and America, and abandoned the strictness

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of the original discipline even sooner than the monks. They took part in the various reforms of the latter, and split into a number of similar congregations. At present they have convents in Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, Poland, North and South America. East Tonquin, in Further India, had, at the beginning of the present century, 25 convents of native nans, following the rule of St. Dominic, with about 600 inmates; but a great number of them have been dispersed by a cruel persecution. There was also a third order (tertiarians) of St. Dominic, which was called the militia of Jesus Christ, but it is doubtful if they owe their origin to St. Dominic himself. Later, they appear in history under the name of brothers and sisters of penitence of St. Dominic. St. Catharine of Sienna and St. Rosa of Lima were members of this order.

DOMINIS, MARO' ANTONIO DE, a theologian and natural philosopher, born in Arbe, on the coast of Dalmatia, in 1566, died in Rome in Sept. 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 philosophy with great success in several of the large cities of Italy. After being for 20 years a member of the society of Jesus, he left it in order to become a bishop, and was appointed in 1602 to the archbishopric of Spalato, and to the primacy of Dalmatia and Croatia. He now began to oppose some of the measures of the court of Rome, and his writings were condemned by sentence of the inquisition. This gained for him the sympathies of Protestants, by whom he was induced in 1616 to pass into England, where he became useful to James I. He embraced Protestantism, was made dean of Windsor, and though his avowed aim was to effect a reunion of the 2 great divisions of Christendom, he wrote and preached with vehemence against Roman Catholicism. In his work De Republica Ecclesiastica, which he published in England, he maintained that the papacy was a human institution, a temporal monarchy, and was not the divinely appointed Christian church. This book was immediately censured by the theological faculty of Paris, and burned by order of the inquisition. Loaded with tokens of friendship and esteem by the king and clergy of England, he suddenly reverted to his former theological views; and wishing to signalize his return to Catholicism by a brilliant action, he ascended a pulpit in London, and retracted all that he had ever written against the Roman Catholic church. He was immediately banished from England, and repairing to Rome abjured his apostasy before a public consistory. His inconstant humor did not long leave him in repose, and it was soon discovered that he had repented his last conversion, and was meditating a return to Protestantism. He was imprisoned by Pope Urban VIII., and his sudden death soon after caused the report that he was poisoned; being convicted of heresy, his body was disinterred and burned along

with his writings. His chief philosophical work is entitled De Radiis Visus et Lucis. Newton ascribes the first suggestion of the true explanation of the rainbow to this work.

DOMINO (It.), a hood and cloak enveloping the entire person, and worn at masked balls as a disguise. It originally designated the camail, which was the ordinary robe of ecclesiastics in the winter, and the name was borrowed by the maskers from the resemblance of their disguises to the clerical attire.

DOMINOS. This game has been traced by some authors to the Greeks, Hebrews, and Chinese. Its first appearance in western Europe, however, is not ancient, it having been introduced into France from Italy about the middle of the last century. It is now played in all the cafes of France, and less commonly in the taverns of England and America, and is a favorite pastime of small social circles. The domino is a small flat oblong of ivory or bone, divided on one side by a line into 2 compartments. Each of these is marked with a certain number of dots, from 1 to 6, or is left a blank, so that upon each domino there is a different combination of numbers. The game is played with 28 dominos, the reverse sides of which are unmarked and all alike. This side being up, each player takes an equal number of the dominos. The person who has drawn the one which has the highest number of points puts it down; the next domino played has to be one with a number the same as one of the 2 numbers presented by the first, and the 2 similar ends are joined. The third player may match the remaining number of either the first or the second domino, and thus the game continues till one of the players has put down all his pieces. The combinations of this game are neither very varied nor intricate, and yet it requires, tl ugh in a less degree than many other games, memory and calculation.

DOMINUS (Lat. lord, master), an ancient title of honor prefixed to the name of the person who bore it, who was usually either a knight or a clergyman. It was, however, sometimes given to gentlemen who were not knights, especially if they were manor lords. The title is applied at the present time in Holland to ministers of the Reformed church.

DOMITIAN, TITUS FLAVIUS AUGUSTUS, a Roman emperor, born Oct. 24, A. D. 51, murdered Sept. 18, 96. He was the younger son of Vespasian, and narrowly escaped death at Rome by concealing himself when his father was proclaimed emperor by the legions of the East. On the fall of Vitellius he ruled the capital as Cæsar till the return of his father. Having exhibited in that short period a sanguinary and licentious temper, he was excluded both by Vespasian (69-79) and Titus (79-81) from all share in public affairs, and spent his time on an estate near Rome, in effeminate pleasures, as well as in writing and reciting poetical compositions. On the death of Titus, which was ascribed to him by the people, he was hailed emperor by the sol