DOMINICA. 878 DOMINICANS. Dominica ^-as discovered by Columbus, Novem- ber 3, H'.lo. and was so uamed on account of bcinj: first sighted on Sunday. It was owned by En^'land and France, alternately, until 1814, wlu-n it fell into the hands of the English. See ISritish kst Indiks. DOMINICALE, di.nitn'i-ka'l. (ML., from doiiiitiiriis. relntinu' to the Lord, from dominus, lord). A rare term, probably denoting n white linen cloth in which, at communion, during the early ages of the Western Church, women re- ceived the sacred host ("the body of the Lord,' hence the derivation), which as late as the eighth or ninth century was ])laced in the hand of the communicant, not in the mouth as in modern Homan Catholic iisagc. Ducange and others, however, apply the word to a veil worn by women in churoh. DOMINICAX LETTER, or SfXD.w Letter. One of the seven letters A. ]i. C. D, E. F. G, used in calendars to nurk the Sundays throughout the year. The first seven days of the year being marked in their order by the above letters in their order, then the following seven, and all consecutive sets of seven days to the end of the year, are similarly marked; so that the 1st, 8th, l.ith, 22d, etc., days of the year are all marked by A; and the 2d, 'Jth, ICth, 2.3d, etc., by B; anil so on. The days being thus marked, it is evident that on whatever day the first Sun- day of the year falls, the letter which marks it will mark all the other Sundays in the year, as the number of the letters and of the days in the week is the same. As the common year consists of fifty-two weeks and one day over, the dominical letters go back- ward one day every common year. If the do- minical letter of a common year be G. F will be the dominical letter for the ne.xt year. As a leap-year consists of fifty-two weeks and two days, the letters go backward two days every leap-year. If in the beginning of a leap-year the dominical letter be G, K will be the dominical letter for the next year. This extraordinary re- trocession, however, is made to take ]>laee at the intercalary day (the 29th of February) by the artifice of m.arking it by the same letter as the day preceding it, and thus the next Sunday is marked by the letter preceding that which marked the ."Sundays before the intercalary day. Suppose the 2Sth of February in a leap-year to be a Sunday, and marked by J", it is evident that the dominical letter for the rest of the year will be E. .s every fourth year is a leap-year, and the letters arc seven in number, it is clear that the same order of letters mu.st return in four times seven, or twenty-eight years, which would, but for the leap-years, recur in seven years, and hence the solar cycle. (See Period.) The do- minical letters were first introduced into the calendar by the early Christians, to displace the nundinal letters in the Uoman calendar. They are of use as a means of discovering on what ilay of the week any day of the month falls in a piven year. (See Easter.) Rules ami tables for findine them are given in praver books, breviaries, etc.. a*; well as in works on dates. DOMINICANS. .
Order of preaching
friars (the Latin name is Ordn Prirdirnlnnim) in the IJoinan Catholic Church. It was founded by Saint Dominic (q.v.) in 12l,'>, for the mirpose aif counteracting, by means of preaching, the tendency of the times to break away from the Church. When in Home .s«>eking eonlirmntion for his (Jrder, which was delayed on account of the opposition of the Fourth l.jiteran Council, just concluded, to the multiplication of new religious organizations, the founder met Saint Francis of Assisi, who was engaged in a similar work. A cordial friendship sprang u|) between the two men, dillerent as, they were in tem|K'rament ; to this day its memory is jjreserved in the custom of the priests of each Order celebrating the fea.st of the founder of the other in his own church. Both Orders ditlered from the older ones in emphasizing more strictly the spirit of poverty and rejecting the possession of even connnunity property. Hence they are callcil mendicant Orders, as they originally depended for their subsistence entirely on the daily charity of their neighbors. The name of monks is often incor- rectly applied to them: the proper desigiuition of both Franciscans and Dominicans is friars (Lat. fratrcs, brothers). The requisite Papal con- firmation was obtained from the new Pope, lionorius III., at the end of 1210; with it went special privileges. esiHi'lally the right to preach and hear confessions everywhere, without local authorization. The first hou.se of the Order was at Toulouse, from which in the summer of 1217 Dominic sent some of his sixteen associates to spread the movement in Spain and France. From the name of their first convent of Saint Jacques in Paris, they were popularly known in the latter country as Jacobins — a name which was to acquire a new and sinister significance in the Revolution. They were introduced into England within six years, and founded a house at Oxford. Here they were known as 'Black Friars,' from the habit which they wear outside the convent, in preaching and in hearing confes- sions — a black cloak and hood over a white woolen undergarment. "The monks," writes Matthew Pari*, liim.self a Benedictine, "did not in three or four hundred years ascend to such a height of greatness as the friars minor and preachers, within twenty-four years after they began to build their first house in England." ( See Jes- sopp. The Coming of the Frinrs. London, ISSS.) Their progress was scarcely less rapid in Scot- land, where they found a munificent patron in King Alexander IL. who is said to have met Saint Dominic in Paris. They soon spread as far as Russia and Greece, and in 12S0 even to Greenland. In accordance with the declared purpose of their foundation, the Dominicans have always been known as diligent preachers and strenuous combatant'* against any departure from the teaching of their Church. In this capacity they were intrusted with the conduct of the Inquisi- tion as an ecclesiastical institution: and even in Spain, after it became practically a department of civil government, a Dominican was usually at its head. The office of master of the sacred palace, endowed with great privileges by Leo X.. has always lieen held by a member of the Order; and since 1(120 the censorship of books has been one of its functions. In 1125 the per- mission to hold property was granted by tho Pope to certain houses, and extended to the en- fire Order in 1477. since which time thoy have been less exclusively a mendicant Order. They have furnished four po(M's (Innoei-nt V.. Benedict XL. Pius '.. and Benedict XII I.), and more
