Dominici, John, Blessed

DOMINICI, John, Blessed. - Dominican cardinal, b. in Florence in 1357 and d. at Buda on 10 June 1419.

He is named after his father, Domenico Banchini (or Bacchini), who died before he was born. Received into the Order in 1374 (at S. Maria Novella) and not without many difficulties, on account of his scant education and his stammering, he made great strides in learning very quickly, and later was even cured of his speech defect, becoming for 25 years a celebrated orator in the principal pulpits of Italy.

Nevertheless, D.'s best energies were given to the reform of his Order and to the ending of the Western Schism, which was then tearing the Church apart.

At Venice (1387) he planted the seed of the reform. He was first vicar general of the convent of S. Domenico (19 May 1390); then of all the reformed convents (20 Nov. 1393). Having moved to Florence at the beginning of 1400, between the Cathedral and the pulpit he continued the delicate mission of reformer, founding for that purpose the convent of S. Domenico di Fiesole (1406). With the death of Innocent VII

(6 Nov. 1406), D. entered spontaneously into the political field, in order to cooperate in ending the Schism. For this purpose he was sent by the Florentine Republic to Rome, so that the election of a new pontiff might be avoided. The mission failed; but D. had the opportunity to win even greater esteem from the newly elected pope, Gregory XII, by whom he was created archbishop of Ragusa (26 March 1408) and then cardinal of S. Sisto in the following May. The acceptance of these promotions cost the Dominican no small amount of criticism; he, however, turned them to good account. In fact, although he acknowledged the Roman Pontiff as true and carried out his delicate commissions, he succeeded in the end in obtaining his abdication. Having presented it to the Council of Constance (4 July 1415), he expressed his intention of renouncing the purple. He was not permitted to do so; indeed the new pontiff, Martin V, entrusted to the able Dominican diplomat the difficult burden of a legation in Hungary and Bohemia against the Hussites (10 July 1418). There he could not complete his mission, also because of the death that overtook him almost immediately at Buda. His cult was confirmed by Gregory XVI in 1832. Feast on 10 June.

Many writings by D. survive, partly unpublished: letters, commentaries on Holy Scripture and treatises. Among these, special mention is due to the Latin one Lucula noctis, written around 1405, in which the problem of the use of the classics is resolved with a certain severity (edd. R. Coulon, Paris 1908; Moore, Notre-Dame 1940). Excellent, also as language texts, are the two Italian treatises: Regola del governo di cura familiare (Florence 1860) and Amore di carità, the latter composed probably between 1392-94 (Bologna 1889).

THE PEDAGOGICAL THOUGHT OF DOMINICI

D. sought to oppose the spread of Humanism. As can be seen in his works Regola del Governo di cura familiare and Lucula noctis, he inveighs against the claims of Humanism because the study of the classics compromised the salvation of the soul. While the whole of Humanism works, in certain respects, to reconcile the Christian world and the pagan world, D. firmly opposes the latter as a denier of the Christian faith because it is prior to and outside of revealed Truth. Philosophy, like every other natural science, "is not properly science but opinion." The whole of ancient doctrine is — including that of Plato and Aristotle — full of errors harmful to the purity of the faith. From this thought it is easy to infer how D. inveighs against the whole of humanistic culture, which had made itself the awakener of ancient Greek-Roman knowledge. But, since a man never entirely escapes the ideas and tendencies of his time, so it is easy to perceive in D. himself, even in his determined will to oppose the already flourishing Humanism, a new and modern sense of considering education, especially when he recognizes the rights of the body, or when he affirms the free nature of man. The body is no longer considered as the enemy of the soul; it is rather its "shield or veritable pavise," which, in defense of the soul, receives all the blows. The flesh is not the enemy of the spirit, but helps the spirit to triumph. The victory of the flesh lies in being and making itself the servant of the spirit.

Nino Sammartano