DOMINION and Switzerland, p. 31. or Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 294, 8vo. They were indeed perpetually employed in stigmatizing with the opprobrious name of heresy numbers of learned and pious men; in encroaching upon the rights and properties of others, to augment their possessions; and in laying the most iniquitous snares and stratagems for the destruction of their adversaries. They were the principal counsellors, by whose instigation and advice Leo X. was determined to the public condemnation of Luther. The papal fee never had more active and useful abettors than this order, and that of the Jesuits.
The dogmata of the Dominicans are usually opposite to those of the Franciscans.
There are also nuns or sisters of this order, called in some places Preaching Sisters. These are even more ancient than the friars; St Dominic having founded a society of religious maids at Prouilles some years before the institution of his order of men; viz. in 1206.
There is also a third order of Dominicans, both for men and women.