|
MARCO ANTONIO DE 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 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 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 professor of See also: mathematics at Padua, and professor of rhetoric and philosophy at See also: 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 See also: Church soon brought him into conflict with his suffragans; and the interference of the papal
See also: court with his rights as metropolitan, an attitude intensified by the See also: quarrel between the papacy and Venice, made his position intolerable
.
This, at any See also: rate, is the account given in his own 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 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 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 master of the See also: Savoy (1618) and dean of Windsor (1619); he subsequently presented himself to the living of West Ilsley, See also: 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: 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, 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 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 note being its insistence on the divine prerogatives of the Catholic episcopate as against the encroachments of the papal See also: monarchy
.
In 1619 Dominis published in London, with a dedication toSee also: James I., 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-archbishop was back again in Rome, doing penance for his heresies in St See also: Peter's with a cord round his 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 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 interregnum that followed, the proceedings of the Inquisition against the archbishop were revived, and they continued under See also: 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 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 coffin, dragged through the streets of Rome, and publicly burnt in the Campo di Fiore
.
By a See also: strange 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 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 article by See also: Canon G
.
G
.
See also: Perry in the Dict
.
Nat
.
Biog., and that by Benrath in 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 Antonio de Dominis (See also: Oxford, 1859)
.
|
|
|
[back] DOMINICANS |
[next] DOMINOES |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.