Perhaps it may be doubted whether it was the wish of Antonius de Dominis
to reunite the churches of Rome and England: however this may be, as
Dean of Windsor, he accused one of the canons, Richard Mountagu
(afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester and Norwich) of preaching
the Roman doctrine of the invocation of saints and angels. Mountagu
replied in a pamphlet, the title of which is, _Immediate Addresse unto
GOD Alone. First delivered in a Sermon before his Majestie at Windsore,
since reuised and inlarged to a just Treatise of Invocation of Saints.
Occasioned by a false imputation of M. Antonius de Dominis upon the
Authour, Richard Mountagu._ London, 1624.
Mountagu had evidently no high opinion of his accuser: for he writes in
his Epistle Dedicatory to John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and Visitor
of the collegiate church of Windsor: "There was present at my sermon
that infamous Ecebolius of these times, Religionis desultor, Archbishop
sometime of _Spalata_, then Deane of that church, Marcus Antonius de
Dominis;" and he goes on to abuse him in no measured terms. Collier
(_Ecc. Hist._, vol. ii. p. 726., ed. 1714) mentions that Antonius
assisted at the consecration of some English bishops in the chapel at
Lambeth Palace. He was afterwards reconciled to the Church of Rome, but
was soon imprisoned on suspicion of heresy. After he was dead, he passed
through the forms of the Inquisition, was pronounced a lapsed heretic,
and his corpse was publicly burnt.