The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

DOMINICANS

The Dominicans also called the predicants, or preaching friars (prcedicatores), derived their name from their founder, St Dominic. At their origin in 1216, at Toulouse they were governed by the rule of St Augustine, perpetual silence, poverty, and fasting being enjoined upon them; and the principal object of their institution was to preach against heretics. Their distinctive dress consists of a white habit and scapular with a large black mantle, and hence they have been commonly known as Black Friars. They were almost from the first a mendicant order. They spread rapidly not only in Europe, but in Asia, Africa, and America. In England there were fifty-eight Dominican houses at the dissolution of the monasteries, and the Blackfriars locality in London took its name from one of their establishments. They produced some famous scholars, such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and became formidable as managers of the Inquisition, which was committed exclusively to them in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

In 1425 they obtained permission to receive donations, and ceased to belong to the mendicant orders, paying more attention to politics and theological science. With the Franciscans, their great rivals, they divided the honour of ruling in church and state until the 16th century, when the Jesuits gradually superseded them in the schools and courts. They obtained new importance in 1620 by being appointed to the censorship of books for the church. Amongst notable Dominicans we may mention Savonarola, Las Casas, and Lacordaire. There are still establishments of the Dominicans both in England and Ireland.
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