The order of priests founded by Dominic Guzman in 1216. Originally known as the Order of Preachers (still recognizable by the letters OP after their names), the order was founded to provide spiritual nourishment for the common people and to combat the spread of heresy. Members of the order were dressed in black; hence their other moniker, Blackfriars.
Recognizing the importance of personal integrity and of learning, members of the order were enrolled in the new universities that were then being established across Europe so that they became some of the most learned and respected men in society. Their piety and fearsome intellect also made them ideal as the popes' inquisitors, a business in which they were both very proud and competent, earning them also the nickname "hounds of God" (by dividing their Latin name Dominicanes differently to yield Domini canes). Hunting heretics was, of course, not all that they did, and one of their most famous members, Thomas Aquinas, was to leave behind him a system of theology that was to stand as the standand for hundreds of years.
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