(Jno. W.)
DOMINIC, SAINT(1170-1221), founder of the Dominican Order of Preaching Friars, was born in 1170 at Calaroga in Old Castile. He spent ten or twelve years in study, chiefly theological, at Palencia, and then, about 1195, he was ordained and became a canon in the cathedral chapter of Osma, his native diocese. The bishop induced his canons to follow the Rule of St Augustine and thus make themselves Augustinian Canons (q.v.); and so Dominic became a canon regular and soon the prior or provost of the cathedral community. The years from 1195 to 1203 have been filled up with fabulous stories of missions to the Moors; but Dominic stayed at Osma, preaching much in the cathedral, until 1203, when he accompanied the bishop on an embassy in behalf of the king of Castile to “The Marches.†This has commonly been taken as Denmark, but more probably it was the French or Italian Marches. When the embassy was over, the bishop and Dominic repaired to Rome, and Innocent III. charged them to preach among the Albigensian heretics in Languedoc. For ten years (1205-1215) this mission in Languedoc was the work of Dominic’s life.
The Albigenses (q.v.) have received much sympathy, as being a kind of pre-Reformation Protestants; but it is now recognized that their tenets were an extreme form of Manichaeism. They believed in the existence of two gods, a good (whose son was Christ) and an evil (whose son was Satan); matter is the creation of the evil principle, and therefore essentially evil, and the greatest of all sins is sexual intercourse, even in marriage; sinful also is the possession of material goods, and the eating of flesh meat, and many other things. So great was the abhorrence of matter that some even thought it an act of religion to commit suicide by voluntary starvation, or to starve children to death (see article “Neu-Manichäer†by Otto Zöckler in ed. 3 of Herzog’sRealencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie(1903); or c. iii. of Paul Sabatier’sLife of St Francis). Such tenets were destructive not only of Catholicism but of Christianity of any kind and of civil society itself; and for this reason so unecclesiastical a person as the emperor Frederick II. tried to suppress the kindred sects in Italy. In 1208, after the murder of a papal legate, Innocent III. called on the Christian princes to suppress the Albigensian heresy by force of arms, and for seven years the south of France was devastated by one of the most bloodthirsty wars in history, the Albigenses being slaughtered by thousands and their property confiscated wholesale.
During this time, it is the judgment of the most recent Protestant writer on St Dominic that, though keeping on good terms with Simon de Montfort, the leader, and praying for the success of the crusaders’ arms during the battle of Muret, “yet, so far as can be seen from the sources, Dominic took no part in the crusade, but endeavoured to carry his spiritual activity on the same lines as before. The oldest trustworthy sources know nothing of his having exercised the office of Inquisitor during the Albigensian war†(Grützmacher). This verdict of a fair-minded and highly competent Protestant church historian on the most controverted point of Dominic’s career is of great value. His method was to travel over the country on foot and barefooted, in extreme poverty, simplicity and austerity, preaching and instructing in highways and villages and towns, and in the castles of the nobility, controverting and discussing with the heretics. He used often to organize formal disputations with Albigensian leaders, lasting a number of days. Many times plots were laid against his life. Though in his ten years of preaching a large number of converts were made, it has to be said that the results were not such as had been hoped for, and after it all, and after the crusade, the population still remained at heart Albigensian. A sense of failure appears in Dominic’s last sermon in Languedoc: “For many years I have exhorted you in vain, with gentleness, preaching, praying and weeping. But according to the proverb of my country, ‘where blessing can accomplish nothing, blows may avail.’ We shall rouse against you princes and prelates, who, alas, will arm nations and kingdoms against this land ... and thus blows will avail where blessings and gentleness have been powerless.†The threat that seems to be conveyed in these words, of trying to promote a new crusade, was never carried out; the remaining years of Dominic’s life were wholly given up to the founding of his order.
The Order of Dominicans grew out of the little band of volunteers that had joined Dominic in his mission among the Albigenses. He had become possessed with the idea of addressing wider circles and of forming an order whose vocation should be to preach and missionize throughout the whole world. By 1214 the nucleus of such an institute was formed round Dominic and was known as the “Holy Preaching.†In 1215 the bishop of Toulouse, Dominic’s great friend, established them in a church and house of the city, and Dominic went to Rome to obtain the permission of Innocent III. to found his order of preachers. The course of events is traced in the articleDominicans. After three years, in 1218, the full permission he desired was given by Honorius III. These last years of his life were spent in journeying backwards and forwards between Toulouse and Rome, where his abode was at the basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine, given to him by the pope; and then in extended journeys all over Italy, and to Paris, and into Spain, establishing friaries and organizing the order wherever he went. It propagated and spread with extraordinary rapidity, so that by Dominic’s death in 1221, only five or six years after the first practical steps towards the execution of the idea, there were over 500 friars and 60 friaries, divided into 8 provinces embracing the whole of western Europe. Thus Dominic was at his death able to contemplate his great creation solidly established, and well launched on its career to preach to the whole world.
It appears that at the end of his life Dominic had the idea of going himself to preach to the heathen Kuman Tatars on the Dnieper and the Volga. But this was not to be; he was worn out by the incessant toils and fatigues and austerities of his laborious life, and he died at his monastery at Bologna, on the6th of August 1221. He was canonized in 1234 by Gregory IX., who, as Cardinal Ugolino, had been the great friend and supporter both of Dominic and of Francis of Assisi. As St Dominic’s character and work do not receive the same general recognition as do St Francis of Assisi’s, it will be worth while to quote from the appreciation by Prof. Grützmacher of Heidelberg:—“It is certain that Dominic was a noble personality of genuine and true piety.... Only by the preaching of pure doctrine would he overcome heretics.... He was by nature soft-hearted, so that he often shed tears through warm sympathy.... In the purity of his intention and the earnestness with which he strove to carry out his ideal, he was not inferior to Francis.â€
The chief sources for St Dominic’s life are the account by Jordan of Saxony, his successor as master-general of the order, and the evidence of the witnesses at the Process of Canonization,—all in the Bollandists’Acta sanctorum, Aug. 4. Probably the best modern Life is that by Jean Guiraud, in the seriesLes Saints(translated into English by Katharine de Mattos, 1901); the bibliography contains a useful list of the chief sources for the history of St Dominic and the order, and of the best modern works thereon. See also the article “Dominicus†in ed. 2 of Wetzer and Welte,Kirchenlexicon, and Grützmacher’s excellent article “Dominikus,†in ed. 3 of Herzog,Realencyklopadie für protestantische Theologie, already referred to.
The chief sources for St Dominic’s life are the account by Jordan of Saxony, his successor as master-general of the order, and the evidence of the witnesses at the Process of Canonization,—all in the Bollandists’Acta sanctorum, Aug. 4. Probably the best modern Life is that by Jean Guiraud, in the seriesLes Saints(translated into English by Katharine de Mattos, 1901); the bibliography contains a useful list of the chief sources for the history of St Dominic and the order, and of the best modern works thereon. See also the article “Dominicus†in ed. 2 of Wetzer and Welte,Kirchenlexicon, and Grützmacher’s excellent article “Dominikus,†in ed. 3 of Herzog,Realencyklopadie für protestantische Theologie, already referred to.
(E. C. B.)
DOMINICA,the largest of the five presidencies in the colony of the Leeward Islands, British West Indies. It lies in 15° 30′ N. and 61° 20′ W., between the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, at a distance of about 25 m. from each, is 29 m. long, has a maximum breadth of 16 m. and an area of 291 sq. m. A range of lofty rugged mountains traverses the island from N. to S., broken in the centre by a narrow plain drained by the rivers Layou and Pagoua, flowing W. and E. respectively. The highest point is Morne Diablotin (5314 ft.), situated in the northern half of the range. Signs of volcanic activity abound in the shape of solfataras, subterranean vapours and hot springs; while in the south is the greatest natural curiosity, the renowned Boiling Lake. It lies on the mountain side, 2300 ft. above the sea, its banks are steep and its depth unknown, being more than 300 ft. at a short distance from the margin. Its seething waters are often forced 3 ft. above the normal level by the pressure of the escaping gases; and the fumes rising from the lake are occasionally poisonous. The island is botanically remarkable for its great number of peculiar species, offering in this respect a marked contrast to the poverty of the adjacent islands. The hills are covered with valuable timber, while coffee, limes, oranges, india-rubber trees, spices and all tropical fruits grow luxuriantly in the rich brown mould of the lowlands. There are some thirty streams of considerable size, besides numerous mountain torrents, and this abundance of water renders the island very fertile. The fisheries are productive, and honey and wax are furnished by wild bees, originally introduced from Europe. The temperature varies from 78° to 86° F. in the hot season from August to October, and from 72° to 84° in the cooler months; the rainfall varies in different parts from 50 to 162 in. per annum, but the porous soil soon absorbs the rain, rendering the atmosphere dry and invigorating.
The manufactures include sugar, lime-juice and essential oils; the exports are coffee, cocoa, sugar, limes and lime-juice, essential oils and fruit of all kinds. The inhabitants in 1901 numbered 28,894. The majority are negroes; the whites are of French and British descent. There are also a few Caribs, the remnant of the aboriginal population. A Frenchpatoisis the language of the peasantry, but English is generally understood. The capital, Roseau (5764), is a fortified town and a port; Portsmouth, the only other town, possesses the better harbour in Prince Rupert’s Bay on the north-west. In religion the Roman Catholics predominate, and a bishop resides at Roseau, but there is no established church. Education is free and compulsory, and the Cambridge local examinations are held annually.
Dominica was so named on its discovery by Columbus in 1493, in commemoration of the date, Sunday (Dies Dominica) the 3rd of November. Dominica was included in the grant of various islands in the Caribbean Sea made in 1627 by Charles I. to the earl of Carlisle, but the first European settlers (1632) were French. They brought with them negro slaves and lived on terms of friendship with the Caribs, who were then a numerous body. In 1660 a treaty appears to have been made between the French, British and the natives assigning St Vincent and Dominica to the Caribs, but shortly afterwards attempts were made by the British to gain a foothold in the island. These attempts failed, and in 1748 it was once more agreed by France and Great Britain that Dominica should be left in the undisturbed possession of the natives. Nevertheless the French settlers increased, and the island came under the rule of a French governor. It was captured by the British in 1761 and formally ceded by France at the peace of Paris, 1763, French settlers being secured in their estates. In 1778 a French force from Martinique seized the island. Rodney’s victory over De Grasse in the neighbouring sea in 1782 was followed by the restoration of the island to Britain in 1783; in the interval the trade of Dominica had been ruined. In 1795 a force from Guadeloupe made an unsuccessful descent on the island, and in 1805 the French general La Grange, at the head of 4000 troops, took Roseau and pillaged the island—an event now remembered as the most memorable in its history. The French were, however, unable to make good their hold, and Dominica has remained since undisturbed in British possession. Its later history presents few features not common to the other British West Indian islands.
Since 1872 Dominica has formed part of the colony of the Leeward Islands, but local affairs are in the hands of an administrator, aided by an executive council of ten members. In 1898 the local legislature, in consideration of pecuniary assistance from Great Britain, passed an act abrogating the semi-elective constitution and providing for a legislative council of twelve nominated members, six of whom sitex officio.
DOMINICANS,otherwise called Friars Preachers, and in England Black Friars, from the black mantle worn over a white habit, an order of friars founded by St Dominic (q.v.). Their first house was in Toulouse, where the bishop established them at the church of St Romain, 1215. Dominic at once went to Rome to obtain permission to found an order of preachers whose sphere of activity should be the whole world, but Innocent III. said they must adopt one of the existing rules. Dominic returned to Toulouse and it was resolved to take the Rule of St Augustine, Dominic himself having been an Augustinian canon at Osma (seeAugustinian Canons). Dominic went again to Rome, and during the year 1216 he obtained from Honorius III. a series of confirmations of the community at Toulouse as a congregation of Canons Regular of St Augustine with a special mission to preach. Early in 1218 an encyclical bull was issued to the bishops of the whole Catholic world recommending to them the “Order of Friars Preachers,†followed in 1221 by another ordering them to give to the friars faculties to preach and hear confessions in their dioceses. Already in 1217 Dominic had scattered the little band of seventeen over the world—to Paris, into Spain, and one he took with himself to Rome. Within a few months there were forty friars in Rome, at Santa Sabina on the Aventine, and thirty in Paris; and before Dominic’s death in 1221 friaries had been established at Lyons, Limoges, Reims, Metz, Poitiers and Orleans; at Bologna, Milan, Florence, Verona, Piacenza and Venice; at Madrid, Palencia, Barcelona and Seville; at Friesach in Carinthia; at Cracow and Prague; and friars were on their way to Hungary and England.
The order took definite shape at the two general chapters held at Bologna in 1220 and 1221. At first it had been but a congregation of canons regular and had worn the canons’ black cassock with white linen rochet. But now a white woollen habit with a black cloak or mantle was assumed. The Rule of St Augustine was supplemented by a body of regulations, adopted mostly from those of the Premonstratensian canons. At the head of the order was the master-general, elected for life until recent times, when the term of office was limited to six and then to twelve years; he enjoys supreme power over the entire order, both houses and individuals, all of whom are directly subject to him. He dwells in Rome and is assisted by a council. The order is divided into provinces and over each is a provincial, elected for four years. Each friary has its prior, elected by the communityevery four years. The friars belong not to the house or province in which they make their profession, but to the order; and it rests with the master-general to assign to each his place of residence. The manner of life was very austere—midnight office, perpetual abstinence from meat, frequent disciplines, prolonged fasts and silence. At St Dominic’s suggestion, and under his strong pressure, but not without considerable opposition, the general chapter determined that the poverty practised in the order should be not merely individual, as in the monastic orders, but corporate, as among the Franciscans; so that the order should have no possessions, except the monastic buildings and churches, no property, no fixed income, but should live on charity and by begging. Thus, doubtless in imitation of the Franciscans, the Dominicans became a mendicant order.
The extraordinarily rapid propagation of the institute suffered no diminution through the founder’s death; this was mainly due to the fact that his four immediate successors in the generalate were men of conspicuous ability and high character. In a few years the Dominicans penetrated into Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Prussia and Poland, preaching and missionizing in the still pagan districts of these countries; and soon they made their way to Greece and Palestine and thence to central Asia. St Hyacinth, a Pole received by St Dominic, during missionary journeys extending over thirty-five years travelled over the north and east of Europe and into Tatary, Tibet and northern China. In 1252 the pope addressed a letter to the Dominicans who were preaching “among the Saracens, Greeks, Bulgarians, Kumans, Syrians, Goths, Jacobites, Armenians, Jews, Tatars, Hungarians.†From the 14th century until the middle of the 17th the Dominicans had numerous missions in Persia, India and China, and in the northern parts of Africa. They followed the Spanish and Portuguese explorers and conquerors both to the East and to the West, converting, protecting and civilizing the aborigines. On these missionary enterprises great numbers of Dominicans laid down their life for the Gospel.
Another conspicuous field of work of the Dominicans lay in the universities. It had been St Dominic’s policy to aim at founding houses first of all in the great university towns—at Paris, Bologna, Palencia, Oxford. This policy was adhered to, and the Dominicans soon became a power in the universities, occupying chairs in those just named and in Padua, Cologne, Vienna, Prague and Salamanca. The scholastic doctors Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas were the leaders in this side of Dominican activity, and the order’s influence on the course of medieval theological development was exercised mainly by these doctors and by the Dominican school of theology, which to this day has maintained the principles and methods elaborated by St Thomas.
The Dominican name is in an especial way associated with the Inquisition, the office of Inquisitor in all countries, including Spain, having usually been held by Dominicans. The vicissitudes of the order have been much like those of other orders—periods of relaxation being followed by periods of revival and reform; but there were not any reforms of the same historical importance as in most other orders, the policy having been to keep all such movements strictly within the organization of the order. In 1425 Martin V. relaxed for some houses the law of corporate poverty, allowing them to hold property, and to have fixed sources of income; and fifty years later Sixtus IV. extended this mitigation to the entire order, which thereby ceased to be mendicant. This change caused no troubles, as among the Franciscans, for it was felt that it did not touch St Dominic’s fundamental idea.
The Friars Preachers came to England and were established at Oxford in 1221, and by the end of the century fifty friaries were founded all over England, usually in the towns, and several in Ireland and Scotland. In London they were first on the site of Lincoln’s Inn, but in 1275 they migrated to that now occupied by Printing-house Square, and their name survives in Blackfriars Bridge. The only nunnery was at Dartford. At the Dissolution there were fifty-seven friaries (see lists in F. A. Gasquet’sEnglish Monastic Life,Catholic Dictionaryand C. F. Palmer’sLife of Cardinal Howard, where historical notes are added). In Mary’s reign some of the scattered friars were brought together and established in Smithfield, and the remnant of the nuns were restored to Dartford. In 1559 these houses were suppressed and the nuns and two friars expatriated, and for a hundred years there was no English Dominican community. But throughout the reigns of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts there were usually some Dominicans, either Englishmen professed in foreign monasteries or foreigners, labouring on the English mission or attached to the foreign embassies. In 1658 Friar Thomas Howard (afterwards Cardinal) succeeded in establishing at Bornhem near Antwerp a house for the English friars. From that time there has always been an organized body of English Dominicans, again and again reduced almost to extinction, but ever surviving; it now has half a dozen thriving friaries. The Irish province also survived the days of persecution and possesses a dozen friaries. In 1840 Lacordaire restored the French province. In 1900 there were 4350 Dominicans, including lay brothers, and 300 friaries, scattered all over the world. Missionary work still holds a prominent place in Dominican life; there are missions in Annam, Tongking and China, and in Mesopotamia, Mosul and Kurdistan. They have also a remarkable school for Biblical studies and research at Jerusalem, and the theological faculty in the Roman Catholic university at Fribourg in Switzerland is in their hands. There have been four Dominican popes: Innocent V. (†1276), Benedict XI. (†1304), Pius V. (†1572), Benedict XIII. (†1730).
The friars form the “First Orderâ€; the nuns, or Dominicanesses, the “Second Order.†The latter may claim to have chronological precedence over the friars, for the first nunnery was established by St Dominic in 1206 at Prouille in the diocese of Toulouse, as a refuge for women converted from the Albigensian heresy. The second convent was at San Sisto in Rome, also founded by Dominic himself. From that time the institute spread widely. The rule resembled that of the friars, except that the nuns were to be strictly enclosed and purely contemplative; in course of time, however, they undertook educational work. In 1909 there were nearly 100 nunneries of the Second Order, with some 1500 nuns. They have schools and orphanages in South Africa, especially in the Transvaal.
A considerable number of other convents for women follow the Rule of the “Third Order.†This rule was not written until the 15th century, and it is controverted whether, and in what sense, it can be held that the “Third Order†really goes back to St Dominic, or whether it grew up in imitation of the Franciscan Tertiaries. Besides the conventual Tertiaries, there are confraternities of lay men and women who strive to carry out this rule while living their family life in the world (seeTertiaries). St Catharine of Siena was a Dominican Tertiary.
See the authorities cited in the articleDominic, Saint; also Helyot,Hist. des ordres religieux(1714), iii. cc. 24-29, and Max Heimbucher,Orden u. Kongregationen(1896), §§ 86-91; and C. F. Palmer,Life of Cardinal Howard(1867), which gives a special account of the English Dominican province.
See the authorities cited in the articleDominic, Saint; also Helyot,Hist. des ordres religieux(1714), iii. cc. 24-29, and Max Heimbucher,Orden u. Kongregationen(1896), §§ 86-91; and C. F. Palmer,Life of Cardinal Howard(1867), which gives a special account of the English Dominican province.
(E. C. B.)
DOMINIS, MARCO ANTONIO DE(1560-1624), Italian theologian and natural philosopher, was born of a noble Venetian family in 1560 in the island of Arbe, off the coast of Dalmatia. He was educated by the Jesuits in their colleges at Loreto and Padua, and is supposed by some to have joined their order; the more usual opinion, however, is that he was dissuaded from doing so by Cardinal Aldobrandini. For some time he was employed as a teacher at Verona, as professor of mathematics at Padua, and professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Brescia. In 1596 he was appointed to the bishopric of Segnia (Zengg) in Dalmatia, and two years later was raised to the archbishopric of Spalato and primacy of Dalmatia and Croatia. His endeavours to reform the Church soon brought him into conflict with his suffragans; and the interference of the papal court with his rights as metropolitan, an attitude intensified by the quarrel between the papacy and Venice, made his position intolerable. This, at any rate, is the account given in his own apology—theConsilium profectionis—in which he also states that it was these troubles that led him to those researches into ecclesiastical law, church history and dogmatic theology, which, while confirming him in his love for the ideal of “the true Catholic Church,†revealed to him how far thepapal system was from approximating to it. After a visit to Rome, when he in vain attempted to gain the ear of Pope Paul V., he resigned his see in September 1616, wrote at Venice hisConsilium profectionis, and then went by way of Switzerland, Heidelberg and Rotterdam to England, where he arrived in December. He was welcomed by the king and the Anglican clergy with great respect, was received into the Church of England in St Paul’s cathedral, and was appointed master of the Savoy (1618) and dean of Windsor (1619); he subsequently presented himself to the living of West Ilsley, Berkshire. Contemporary writers give no pleasant account of him, describing him as fat, irascible, pretentious and very avaricious; but his ability was undoubted, and in the theological controversies of the time he soon took a foremost place. His published attacks on the papacy succeeded each other in rapid succession: thePapatus Romanus, issued anonymously (London, 1617; Frankfort, 1618), theScogli del naufragio Christiano, written in Switzerland (London, (?) 1618), of which English, French and German translations also appeared, and aSermon preached in Italian, &c., before the king. But his principal work was theDe republica ecclesiastica, of which the first part—after revision by Anglican theologians—was published under royal patronage in London (1617), in which he set forth with a great display of erudition his theory of the church. In the main it is an elaborate treatise on the historic organization of the church, its principal note being its insistence on the divine prerogatives of the Catholic episcopate as against the encroachments of the papal monarchy. In 1619 Dominis published in London, with a dedication to James I., Paolo Sarpi’sHistoria del Concilio Tridentino, the MS. of which he had brought with him from Venice. It is characteristic of the man that he refused to hand over to Sarpi a penny of the money present given to him by the king as a reward for this work.
Three years later the ex-archbishop was back again in Rome, doing penance for his heresies in St Peter’s with a cord round his neck. The reasons for this sudden revolution in his opinions, which caused grave scandal in England, have been much debated; it is probably no libel on his memory, however, to say that they were connected with the hopes raised by the elevation of his kinsman, Alessandro Ludovisi, to the papal throne as Gregory XV. (1621). It is said that he was enticed back to Rome by the promise of pardon and rich preferment. If so, he was doomed to bitter disappointment. He had barely time to publish at Rome (1623) hisSui reditus ex Angliae consilium, an abject repudiation of his anti-papal works as written “non ex cordis sinceritate, non ex bona conscientia, non ex fide,†when Gregory died (July 1623). During the interregnum that followed, the proceedings of the Inquisition against the archbishop were revived, and they continued under Urban VIII. Before they were concluded, however, Dominis died in prison, on the 8th of September 1624. Even this did not end his trial, and on the 20th of December judgment was pronounced over his corpse in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. By order of the Inquisition his body was taken from the coffin, dragged through the streets of Rome, and publicly burnt in the Campo di Fiore. By a strange irony of fate the publication of hisReditus consiliumwas subsequently forbidden in Venice because of its uncompromising advocacy of the supremacy of the pope over the temporal powers. As a theologian and an ecclesiastic Dominis was thoroughly discredited; as a man of science he was more happy. He was the first to put forward a true theory of the rainbow, in hisDe radiis visus et lucis in vitris perspectivis et iride(Venice, 1611).
See the article by Canon G. G. Perry in the Dict.Nat. Biog., and that by Benrath in Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie(ed. 1898), iv. p. 781, where a full bibliography is given. Also H. Newland,Life and Contemporaneous Church History of Antonio de Dominis(Oxford, 1859).
See the article by Canon G. G. Perry in the Dict.Nat. Biog., and that by Benrath in Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie(ed. 1898), iv. p. 781, where a full bibliography is given. Also H. Newland,Life and Contemporaneous Church History of Antonio de Dominis(Oxford, 1859).
DOMINOES,a game unknown until the 18th century, and probably invented in Italy, played with twenty-eight oblong pieces, or dominoes, known also ascardsorstones, having ivory faces backed with ebony; from this ebony backing, as resembling the cloak (usually black) called a domino (seeMask), the name is said to be derived. Cardboard dominoes to be held in the hand are also in use. The face of each card is divided into two squares by a black line, and in each square half the value of the card is indicated by its being either a blank or marked with one or more black pips, generally up to six, but some sets run as high as double-nine. There are various ways of playing dominoes described below.
The Block and Draw Games.—The dominoes are shuffled face downwards on the table. The lead is usually decided by drawing for the highest card, but it is sometimes held that any doublet takes precedence. The cards are then reshuffled, and each player draws at random the number of cards required for the particular form of the game, usually seven. The cards left behind are called thestock. To play a card is known technically as topose. The leader poses first, generally playing his highest domino, since at the end the player loses according to the number of pips in the cards he has left in his hand. By some rules, a player after playing a double may play another card which matches it:e.g.if he plays double-six he may play another card which has a six at one end. The second player has to match the leader’s pose by putting one of his cards in juxtaposition at one end,i.e.if the leader plays four-five, the second player has to play a card which contains either a four or a five, the five being applied to the five, or the four to the four. Doublets are placedà cheval(crosswise). If a player cannot match, he says “go,†and his opponent plays, unless the Draw game—the usual game—is being played, in which case the player who cannot match draws from the stock (two cards must always be left in the stock) till he takes a card that matches. If a player succeeds in posing all his cards, he calls “Domino!†and wins the hand, scoring as many points as there are pips on the cards still held by his opponent. If neither player can match, that player wins who has the fewest pips left in his hand, and he scores as many points as are left in the two hands combined (sometimes only the excess held by his opponent); but when a player has called “Go!†his adversary must match if he can, in which case the other player may be able to match in turn. A game is generally 100 points.All Fives(orMuggins).—Each player takes five cards. If the leader poses either double-five, six-four, five-blank, or three-two, he scores the number of pips that are on the card. If in the course of play a player can play such a card as makes the sum of the end pips, 5, 10, 15 or 20, he scores that number;e.g.if to two-four he can play double-four (à cheval) he scores 10; if to six-one he plays six-four he scores 5. He must pose if he can match; if he cannot, he draws till he can. Scores are called and taken immediately. At the point of domino, the winner scores in points the multiple of five which is nearest to the number of pips in his adversary’s hand:e.g.he scores 25 if his adversary has 27 pips, 30 if he has 28. If neither hand can match, the lowest number of pips wins, and the score is taken as before, without addition or subtraction, according to the adversary’s pips.All Threesis played in the same manner as Muggins, save that three or some multiple of three are aimed at.Threes-and-Fivesis similar, but only one point is scored for each five or three made at the two ends, though they can be scored in combination. Thus A plays six-five; B six-one; B scores 2 points for 5-1 (two threes). A plays one-five; B double five; B now scores 8 more, 5 for five threes and 3 for three fives.Domino-Whistis played by four players. Partners are drawn for as at Whist, the player drawing the highest card leading. Each player takes seven cards. There are no tricks, trumps or honours. The cards are played as in ordinary dominoes, a hand being finished when one of the players plays his last card, or when both ends are blocked. Pips are then counted, and the holder or holders of the highest number score to their debit the aggregate number of points. The side that is first debited with 100 points loses the game. Strength in asuitis indicated by the lead;i.e.a lead of double-blank or double-six implies strength in blanks or sixes respectively.Matador(from the Spanish word meaning “killer,â€i.e.of the bull in a bull-fight). This is a favourite and perhaps the most scientific form of the game. It is played on a different principle from the preceding variations, the object being not to match the end number, but to pose such a number, as, added to the end, will make seven;e.g.to a five a two must be played, to a three a four, &c. Seven dominoes are drawn and the highest double begins. When a player cannot make a seven on either end he must draw from the stock until he secures a card that will enable him to make seven, two cards remaining in the stock. As Matador is played with dominoes no higher than six, a blank means the blocking of that end. In this case no further play can take place at that end excepting by posing amatador, which may be played at any time. There are four matadors, the 6-1, 5-2, 4-3 and double-blank. It is often better to draw one or more fresh cards than to play one’s last matador, as it may save the game at a critical juncture. In posing a double counts as a single number only, but in scoring the full number of pips is counted. When the game has been definitely blocked the player whose pips aggregate the lower number scores the number of the combined hands (sometimes only the excess in his opponent’s hand), the game being usually 100. Matador can be played by three persons, in which case the two having the lowest scores usually combine against the threatening winner; and also by four, either each for himself or two on a side.Other varieties of the game not often played are the Bergen game, Sevastopol and Domino Loo.SeeCard and Table Gamesby Hoffmann (London, G. Routledge & Sons).
The Block and Draw Games.—The dominoes are shuffled face downwards on the table. The lead is usually decided by drawing for the highest card, but it is sometimes held that any doublet takes precedence. The cards are then reshuffled, and each player draws at random the number of cards required for the particular form of the game, usually seven. The cards left behind are called thestock. To play a card is known technically as topose. The leader poses first, generally playing his highest domino, since at the end the player loses according to the number of pips in the cards he has left in his hand. By some rules, a player after playing a double may play another card which matches it:e.g.if he plays double-six he may play another card which has a six at one end. The second player has to match the leader’s pose by putting one of his cards in juxtaposition at one end,i.e.if the leader plays four-five, the second player has to play a card which contains either a four or a five, the five being applied to the five, or the four to the four. Doublets are placedà cheval(crosswise). If a player cannot match, he says “go,†and his opponent plays, unless the Draw game—the usual game—is being played, in which case the player who cannot match draws from the stock (two cards must always be left in the stock) till he takes a card that matches. If a player succeeds in posing all his cards, he calls “Domino!†and wins the hand, scoring as many points as there are pips on the cards still held by his opponent. If neither player can match, that player wins who has the fewest pips left in his hand, and he scores as many points as are left in the two hands combined (sometimes only the excess held by his opponent); but when a player has called “Go!†his adversary must match if he can, in which case the other player may be able to match in turn. A game is generally 100 points.
All Fives(orMuggins).—Each player takes five cards. If the leader poses either double-five, six-four, five-blank, or three-two, he scores the number of pips that are on the card. If in the course of play a player can play such a card as makes the sum of the end pips, 5, 10, 15 or 20, he scores that number;e.g.if to two-four he can play double-four (à cheval) he scores 10; if to six-one he plays six-four he scores 5. He must pose if he can match; if he cannot, he draws till he can. Scores are called and taken immediately. At the point of domino, the winner scores in points the multiple of five which is nearest to the number of pips in his adversary’s hand:e.g.he scores 25 if his adversary has 27 pips, 30 if he has 28. If neither hand can match, the lowest number of pips wins, and the score is taken as before, without addition or subtraction, according to the adversary’s pips.
All Threesis played in the same manner as Muggins, save that three or some multiple of three are aimed at.
Threes-and-Fivesis similar, but only one point is scored for each five or three made at the two ends, though they can be scored in combination. Thus A plays six-five; B six-one; B scores 2 points for 5-1 (two threes). A plays one-five; B double five; B now scores 8 more, 5 for five threes and 3 for three fives.
Domino-Whistis played by four players. Partners are drawn for as at Whist, the player drawing the highest card leading. Each player takes seven cards. There are no tricks, trumps or honours. The cards are played as in ordinary dominoes, a hand being finished when one of the players plays his last card, or when both ends are blocked. Pips are then counted, and the holder or holders of the highest number score to their debit the aggregate number of points. The side that is first debited with 100 points loses the game. Strength in asuitis indicated by the lead;i.e.a lead of double-blank or double-six implies strength in blanks or sixes respectively.
Matador(from the Spanish word meaning “killer,â€i.e.of the bull in a bull-fight). This is a favourite and perhaps the most scientific form of the game. It is played on a different principle from the preceding variations, the object being not to match the end number, but to pose such a number, as, added to the end, will make seven;e.g.to a five a two must be played, to a three a four, &c. Seven dominoes are drawn and the highest double begins. When a player cannot make a seven on either end he must draw from the stock until he secures a card that will enable him to make seven, two cards remaining in the stock. As Matador is played with dominoes no higher than six, a blank means the blocking of that end. In this case no further play can take place at that end excepting by posing amatador, which may be played at any time. There are four matadors, the 6-1, 5-2, 4-3 and double-blank. It is often better to draw one or more fresh cards than to play one’s last matador, as it may save the game at a critical juncture. In posing a double counts as a single number only, but in scoring the full number of pips is counted. When the game has been definitely blocked the player whose pips aggregate the lower number scores the number of the combined hands (sometimes only the excess in his opponent’s hand), the game being usually 100. Matador can be played by three persons, in which case the two having the lowest scores usually combine against the threatening winner; and also by four, either each for himself or two on a side.
Other varieties of the game not often played are the Bergen game, Sevastopol and Domino Loo.
SeeCard and Table Gamesby Hoffmann (London, G. Routledge & Sons).
DOMINUS(from an Indo-European rootdam-, cf. Gr.δαμᾶν, to subdue, and Eng. “tameâ€), the Latin word for master or owner. As a title of sovereignty the term under the republic at Rome had all the associations of the GreekÏ„ÏÏαννος; refused during the early principate, it finally became an official title of the Roman emperors under Diocletian.Dominus, the French equivalent beingsieur, was the Latin title of the feudal (superior and mesne) lords, and also an ecclesiastical and academical title. The ecclesiastical title was rendered in English “sir,†which was a common prefix before the Reformation for parsons, as in “Sir Hugh Evans†in Shakespeare’sMerry Wives of Windsor. The academical use was for a bachelor of arts, and so is still used at Cambridge and other universities. The shortened form “dom†is used as a prefix of honour for ecclesiastics of the Roman Church, and especially for members of the Benedictine and other religious orders. The same form is also a title of honour in Portugal, as formerly in Brazil, used by members of the blood royal and others on whom it has been conferred by the sovereign. The Spanish form “don†is also a title, formerly applicable only to the nobility, and now one of courtesy and respect applied to any member of the better classes. The feminine form “donna†is similarly applied to a lady. The English colloquial use of “don†for a fellow or tutor of a college at a university is derived either from an application of the Spanish title to one having authority or position, or from the academical use ofdominus. The earliest use of the word in this sense appears, according to theNew English Dictionary, in South’sSermons(1660). An English corruption “dan†was in early use as a title of respect, equivalent to “master.†The particular literary application to poets is due to Spenser’s use of “Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled†(Faëry Queen, IV. ii. 32).
DOMITIAN(Titus Flavius Domitianus), Roman emperora.d.81-96, the second son of Titus Flavius Vespasianus and Flavia Domitilla, twelfth of the Caesars, and third of the Flavian dynasty, was born at Rome on the 24th of Octobera.d.51. When Vespasian was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria, Domitian escaped with difficulty from the temple of the Capitol, which had been set on fire by the Vitellians, and remained in hiding till his father’s party proved victorious. After the fall of Vitellius he was saluted as Caesar, or prince imperial, by the troops, obtained the city praetorship, and was entrusted with the administration of Italy till his father’s return from the East. But although in his father’s lifetime he several times filled the office of consul, and after his death was nominally the partner in the empire with his brother Titus, he never took any part in public business, but lived in great retirement, devoting himself to a life of pleasure and of literary pursuits till he succeeded to the throne. The death of Titus, if not hastened by foul means, was at least eagerly welcomed by his brother. Domitian’s succession (on the 13th of September 81) was unquestioned, and it would seem that he had intended, so far as his weak volition and mean abilities would allow, to govern well. Like Augustus, he attempted a reformation of morals and religion. As chief pontiff he inquired rigorously into the character of the vestal virgins, three of whom were buried alive; he enforced the laws against adultery, mutilation, and the grosser forms of immorality, and forbade the public acting of mimes. He erected many temples and public buildings (amongst them the Odeum, a kind of theatre for musical performances) and restored the temple of the Capitol. He passed many sumptuary laws, and issued an edict forbidding the over-cultivation of vines to the neglect of corn-growing. Finally, he took a personal share in the administration of justice at Rome, checked the activity of the informers (delatores), and exercised a jealous supervision over the governors of provinces. Such public virtues at first counterbalanced his private vices in the eyes of the people. Domitian was the first emperor who arrogated divine honours in his lifetime, and caused himself to be styledOur Lord and Godin public documents. Doubtless in the poems of writers like Martial this deification was nothing but fulsome flattery, but in the case of the provincials it was a sincere tribute to the impersonation of the Roman Empire, as the administrator of good government and the peacemaker of the world. Even when Rome and Italy smarted beneath his proscriptions and extortions, the provinces were undisturbed.
Though he took the title of imperator more than twenty times, and enjoyed at least one triumph, Domitian’s military achievements were insignificant. He defeated the Chatti, annexed the district of the Taunus, and established theLimesas a line of defence; but he suffered defeats at the hands of the Quadi, Sarmatae and Marcomanni; in Dacia he received a severe check, and was obliged to purchase peace (90) from Decebalus by the payment of a large sum of money and by guaranteeing a yearly tribute—the first instance in Roman history. His jealousy was provoked by the successes of Agricola in Britain, who was recalled to Rome (85) in the midst of his conquests, condemned to retirement, and perhaps removed by poison. The revolt of Antonius Saturninus, the commander of the Roman forces in Upper Germany (88 or 89), marks the turning-point in his reign (on the date see H. Schiller,Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, i. pt. 2, p. 524, note 2). It was speedily crushed; but from that moment Domitian’s character changed. He got rid of all whom he disliked on the charge of having taken part in the conspiracy, and no man of eminence was safe against him. He was in constant fear of assassination and distrusted all around him. During the last three years of his life his behaviour was that of a madman. He sentenced to death his own cousin and nephew by marriage, Flavius Clemens, whose wife he banished for her supposed leaning towards Judaism (Christianity). A conspiracy among his own freedmen—set on foot, it is said, by his wife Domitia Longina, who knew her own life to be threatened—cut short his career. He was stabbed in his bedroom by a freedman of Clemens named Stephanus on the 18th of September 96.
Authorities.Ancient.—Tacitus,Histories, iii. iv.; Suetonius,Domitian; Dio Cassius lxvi., lxvii.; Tacitus,Agricola, 18-22. Modern accounts by A. Imhof,T. Flavius Domitianus(Halle, 1857), which, while not claiming any special originality, is based on a conscientious study of authorities; A. Halberstadt,De imperatoris Domitiani moribus et rebus(Amsterdam, 1877), an attempt to rehabilitate Domitian; S. Gsell,Essai sur le règne de l’empereur Domitien(1894), very complete in every respect; H. Schiller (as above), pp. 520-538; C. Merivale,Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, ch. 61, 62. For Domitian’s attitude towards Christianity see V. Schultze in Herzog-Hauck’sRealencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie, iv. (1898); Sir W. M. Ramsay,The Church in the Roman Empire(1903); E. G. Hardy,Christianity and the Roman Government(1894); J. B. Bury, Appendix 8 to vol. ii. of his edition of Gibbon.
Authorities.Ancient.—Tacitus,Histories, iii. iv.; Suetonius,Domitian; Dio Cassius lxvi., lxvii.; Tacitus,Agricola, 18-22. Modern accounts by A. Imhof,T. Flavius Domitianus(Halle, 1857), which, while not claiming any special originality, is based on a conscientious study of authorities; A. Halberstadt,De imperatoris Domitiani moribus et rebus(Amsterdam, 1877), an attempt to rehabilitate Domitian; S. Gsell,Essai sur le règne de l’empereur Domitien(1894), very complete in every respect; H. Schiller (as above), pp. 520-538; C. Merivale,Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, ch. 61, 62. For Domitian’s attitude towards Christianity see V. Schultze in Herzog-Hauck’sRealencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie, iv. (1898); Sir W. M. Ramsay,The Church in the Roman Empire(1903); E. G. Hardy,Christianity and the Roman Government(1894); J. B. Bury, Appendix 8 to vol. ii. of his edition of Gibbon.
DOMRÉMY-LA-PUCELLE,a village of eastern France, in the department of Vosges, on the left bank of the Meuse, 7 m. N. of Neufchâteau by road. Pop. (1906) 233. Domrémy was the birthplace of Joan of Arc, and the cottage in which she was born still stands. Above the door are the arms of France and of Joan of Arc and an inscription of 1481 reading “Vive labeur; vive le roi Louys.†There are several monuments to the heroine, and a modern basilica has been erected in her honour on a neighbouring hill, where she is said to have heard the voices in obedience to which she took up the sword. The story of the heroine is annually celebrated by a play in which the villagers take part.
DON(anc.Tanais), a river of European Russia, calledTunaorDunaby the Tatars, rising in Lake Ivan (580 ft. above sea-level) in the government of Tula, where it has communication with the Volga by means of the Yepifan Canal, which links it with the Upa, a tributary of the Oka, which itself enters the Volga. The Don, after curving east through the government of Ryazan, flows generally south through the governments of Tambov, Orel, Voronezh and the Don Cossacks territory, describing in the last-named a sweeping loop to the east, in the course of which it approaches within 48 m. of the Volga in 49° N. In the middle of the Don Cossacks territory it turns definitely south-west, and finally enters the north-east extremity of the Sea of Azov, forming a delta 130 sq. m. in extent. Its total length is 1325 m., and its drainage area is calculated at 166,000 sq. m. The average fallof the river is about 5¼ in. to the mile. In its upper course, which may be regarded as extending to the confluence of the Voronezh in 51° 40′, the Don flows for the most part through a low-lying, fertile country, though in the government of Ryazan its banks are rocky and steep, and in some places even precipitous. In the middle division, or from the mouth of the Voronezh to the point where it makes its nearest approach to the Volga, the stream cuts its way for the most part through Cretaceous rocks, which in many places rise on either side in steep and elevated banks, and at intervals encroach on the river-bed. A short distance below the town of Rostov it breaks up into several channels, of which the largest and most southern retains the name of the river. Before it receives the Voronezh the Don has a breadth of 500 to 700, or even in a few places 1000 ft., while its depth varies from 4 to 20 ft.; by the time it reaches its most eastern point the depth has increased to 8-50 ft., and the ordinary breadth to 700-1000 ft., with an occasional maximum of 1400 ft.; in the lowest division the depth is frequently 70 ft., and the breadth in many places 1870 ft. Generally speaking, the right bank is high and the left flat and low. Shallow reaches are not uncommon, and there are at least seven considerable shoals in the south-western part of the course; partly owing to this cause, and partly to the scarcity of ship-timber in the Voronezh government, the Don, although navigable as far up as Voronezh, does not attain any great importance as a means of communication till it reaches Kachalinskaya in the vicinity of the Volga. From that point, or rather from Kalach, where the railway (built in 1862) from the Volga has its western terminus, the traffic is very extensive. Of the tributaries of the river, the Voronezh, the Khoper, the Medvyeditsa and the Donets are navigable—the Donets having a course of 680 m., and during high water affording access to the government of Kharkov. The Manych, another large affluent on the left, marks the ancient line of water connexion between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea. The lower section of the Don is subject to two annual floods, of which the earlier, known as the “cold water,†is caused by the melting of the snow in the country of the Don Cossacks, and the later, or the “warm water,†is due to the same process taking place in the region drained by the upper parts of the stream. About the beginning of June the river begins to subside with great rapidity; in August the water is very low and navigation almost ceases; but occasionally after the September rains the traffic with small craft is again practicable. Since the middle of the 18th century there have been five floods of extraordinary magnitude,—namely, in 1748, 1786, 1805, 1820 and 1845. The river is usually closed by ice from November or December to March or April, and at rare intervals it freezes in October. At Aksai, in the delta, it remains open on the average for 250 days in the year, at the mouth of the Medvyeditsa for 239, and at Novo-Cherkask, on another arm of the delta, for 246. This river supports a considerable fishing population, who despatch salt fish and caviare all over Russia. Salmon and herrings are taken in large numbers.