n.
Member of the Order of Friars Preachers, a Roman Catholic preaching and teaching order founded by St. Dominic .
It dates officially from 1216, when Pope Honorius III gave it his approval, though Dominic had begun to build it at least a decade earlier. In contrast with earlier orders, the Dominicans were not organized in autonomous monastic houses, but joined the order at large and could be sent to any house or province on the order's business. The early teaching centers were at Bologna, Paris, Cologne, and Oxford. Dominican preachers spoke out against the Cathari , the Moors , and the Jews and were among the first missionaries under the Spanish and Portuguese explorers. Dominicans were put in charge of the Inquisition when it was founded. Perhaps their most famous member was St. Thomas Aquinas .