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On Fri, 8 Aug 1997, Monastery Library wrote: > > >This dog became a symbol of the Dominican Order and in > >later ages gave rise to the pun *Domini canes*, the watch-dogs of the > >Lord. > Not quite: they became watchdogs, perhaps, but the original image was > drawn from their travelling about SW France and NE Spain converting > heretics (or maybe just the ignorant), in groups like a pack of > hounds. The first to do this were Cistercians: not really a monastic > way of doing things, so Dominicans were invented instead. Later they invented > things like Thomism and the Inquisition (well, up to a point) >>>> There is a passage in the *Cronica Majora* of Matthew Paris in which the Dominicans are described as hanging about the deathbeds of the rich and famous, like dogs waiting to tear the bodies to pieces and rush off to bury the bits in their churches. Matthew makes the expected pun on "Domini canes" in this context. John Parsons %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%