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MARCO ANTONIO DE DOMINIS (1560-1624)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 404 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARCO See also:

ANTONIO DE See also:DOMINIS (1560-1624)  , See also:Italian theologian and natural philosopher, was See also:born of a See also:noble Venetian See also:family in I 56o in the See also:island of Arbe, off the See also:coast of See also:Dalmatia . He was educated by the See also:Jesuits in their colleges at See also:Loreto and See also:Padua, and is supposed by some to have joined their See also:order; the more usual See also:opinion, however, is that he was dissuaded from doing so by See also:Cardinal Aldobrandini . For some See also:time he was employed as a teacher at See also:Verona, as See also:professor of See also:mathematics at Padua, and professor of See also:rhetoric and See also:philosophy at See also:Brescia . In 1596 he was appointed to the bishopric of Segnia (See also:Zengg) in Dalmatia, and two years later was raised to the archbishopric of See also:Spalato and primacy of Dalmatia and Croatia . His endeavours to reform the See also:Church soon brought him into conflict with his suffragans; and the interference of the papal See also:court with his rights as See also:metropolitan, an attitude intensified by the See also:quarrel between the papacy and See also:Venice, made his position intolerable . This, at any See also:rate, is the See also:account given in his own See also:apology—the Consilium profectionisin which he also states that it was these troubles that led him to those researches into ecclesiastical See also:law, church See also:history and dogmatic See also:theology, which, while confirming him in his love for the ideal of " the true See also:Catholic Church," revealed to him how far the papal See also:system was from approximating to it . After a visit to See also:Rome, when he in vain attempted to gain the See also:ear of See also:Pope See also:Paul V., he resigned his see in See also:September 1616, wrote at Venice his Consilium profectionis, and then went by way of See also:Switzerland, See also:Heidelberg and See also:Rotterdam to See also:England, where he arrived in See also:December . He was welcomed by the See also:king and the See also:Anglican See also:clergy with See also:great respect, was received into the Church of England in St Paul's See also:cathedral, and was appointed See also:master of the See also:Savoy (1618) and See also:dean of See also:Windsor (1619); he subsequently presented himself to the living of See also:West Ilsley, See also:Berkshire . Contemporary writers give no pleasant account of him, describing him as See also:fat, irascible, pretentious and very avaricious; but his ability was undoubted, and in the theological controversies of the time he soon took a foremost See also:place . His published attacks on the papacy succeeded each other in rapid See also:succession: the Papatus See also:Romanus, issued anonymously (See also:London, 1617; See also:Frankfort, 1618), the Scogli del naufragio Christiano, written in Switzerland (London, (?) 1618), of which See also:English, See also:French and See also:German See also:translations also appeared, and a See also:Sermon preached in Italian, &c., before the king . But his See also:principal See also:work was the De republica seclesiastica, of which the first See also: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 See also:main it is an elaborate See also:treatise on the historic organization of the church, its principal See also:note being its insistence on the divine prerogatives of the Catholic episcopate as against the encroachments of the papal See also:monarchy .

In 1619 See also:

Dominis published in London, with a See also:dedication to See also:James I., See also:Paolo See also:Sarpi's Historia del Concilio Tridentino, the MS. of which he had brought with him from Venice . It is characteristic of the See also:man that he refused to See also:hand over to Sarpi a See also:penny of the See also:money See also:present given to him by the king as a See also:reward for this work . Three years later the ex-See also:archbishop was back again in Rome, doing See also:penance for his heresies in St See also:Peter's with a See also:cord See also:round his See also:neck . The reasons for this sudden revolution in his opinions, which caused See also:grave See also:scandal in England, have been much debated; it is probably no See also:libel on his memory, however, to say that they were connected with the hopes raised by the See also:elevation of his kinsman, Alessandro Ludovisi,to the papal See also:throne as See also:Gregory XV . (1621) . It is said that he was enticed back to Rome by the promise of See also:pardon and See also:rich preferment . If so, he was doomed to See also:bitter disappointment . He had barely time to publish at Rome (1623) his Sui reditus ex Angliae consilium, an abject repudiation of his See also:anti-papal See also:works as written " non ex cordis sinceritate, non ex See also:bona conscientia, non ex fide," when Gregory died (See also:July 1623) . During the See also:interregnum that followed, the proceedings of the See also:Inquisition against the archbishop were revived, and they continued under See also:Urban VIII . Before they were concluded, however, Dominis died in See also:prison, on the 8th of September 1624 . Even this did not end his trial, and on the loth of December See also:judgment was pronounced over his See also:corpse in the church of See also:Santa Maria sopra See also:Minerva . By order of the Inquisition his See also:body was taken from the See also:coffin, dragged through the streets of Rome, and publicly burnt in the Campo di Fiore .

By a See also:

strange See also:irony of See also:fate the publication of his Reditus consilium was subsequently forbidden in Venice because of its uncompromising advocacy of the supremacy of the pope over the temporal See also:powers . As a theologian and an ecclesiastic Dominis was thoroughly discredited; as a man of See also:science he was more happy . He was the first to put forward a true theory of the See also:rainbow, in his De radiis visus et lucis in vitris perspectivis et iride (Venice, 1611) . See the See also:article by See also:Canon G . G . See also:Perry in the Dict . Nat . Biog., and that by Benrath in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie (ed . 1898), iv. p . 781, where a full bibliography is given . Also H . Newland, See also:Life and Contemporaneous Church History of See also:Antonio de Dominis (See also:Oxford, 1859) .

End of Article: MARCO ANTONIO DE DOMINIS (1560-1624)
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