O spisu Markantuna de Dominisa Hridi kršćanskoga brodoloma, tiskanom u Londonu 1618. godine
On Markantun de Dominis’ script The Rockes of Christian Shipwracke, published in London in 1618

Author(s): Robert Holjevac
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History of Church(es), 17th Century
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: papacy; Roman Church; Marcus Antonius de Dominis; Martin Luther; Thomas Minze; Tertullian; Saint Ambrose; Aurelius Augustine; Saint Cyprian; Charles Borromeo;
Summary/Abstract: In this theological and ecclesiological work Marcus Antonius de Dominis widely discusses about the things that went wrong throughout the centuries of the history of the Church. Therefore, he elaborates the sins of the Church comparing all these sins to the underwater rocks in the river, threatening to wreckage the ships that sailing along. Thus, de Dominis divided all these sins in various groups, such as papacy which is heavily criticized by him. Furthermore, he writes about the sins of the Roman Church, such are vanity and greed which are the source of all the evil, sin and of all abuse even from the very beginning of the Christianity. To confirm it, de Dominis gives some examples from the Gospel. He also criticizes widely spread way of worshipping holy icons, statues and saints, as well as the holy mother of Jesus, St. Mary, who is often more worshipped by uneducated and common people than the God and Jesus Christ themselves. In de Dominis’ opinion this is the way how the contemporary Roman Church misused and abused its power, showing it to common people, trying to control them at the same time, but not to educate them properly as it should be done. Also, de Dominis very much criticizes the tradition of fasting. Instead of this, in his opinion, a Christian should be merciful to the poor and to those who really need their help and compassion. According to his point of view, the universal church is a fleet led by its captain, Jesus Christ himself. Each of the ships in this fleet represents a denomination. So, according to this de Dominis’ view the Roman Church and the pope cannot be the representatives of the universal Catholic Church, but only the representatives of the Roman Church that is equal to the other ones. This de Dominis’ work has been written during his stay in England when he was still influenced by the protestant religious views under the protection of the king James I of England, though de Dominis considered himself to be Catholic. However, when the political constellation changed together with his position and security, de Dominis’ religious point of view has also changed towards the catholic one and to Rome, although this can be oversimplifying view of his change. From today’s point of view, it can be considered that de Dominis was first ecumenist and that he worked in favor of the unity of the churches. It can be said that Marcus Antonius de Dominis was the first one who tried to define the relations between the Church and the state in the modern way in the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, and his work influenced this relations in the 20th and 21st century as well.

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