Dominici originally encountered difficulties becoming a friar due to a speech impairment that his superiors believed would rule him ineligible for both profession and the priesthood.

[5] He attempted to resign his cardinalate in 1415 during the Council of Constance after he succeeded in convincing the pope to abdicate in order to end the Western Schism.

[3] But he suffered from a severe speech impairment which – combined with a lack of formal education – made the friars doubt his vocation to their order.

[2] The friars were surprised to see that he had a sharp mind with a good grasp of the complexities of theological and philosophical subject so much so that he was sent to the college in Paris to further his studies.

On his return from Paris when he completed his theological studies his speech impairment became the problem which the authorities of the order had feared from the beginning.

The Master General Raymond of Capua authorized Dominici to establish priories of strict observance in Venice (1394) and Fiesole (1406).

[2] Dominici received into the order on 4 August 1405 four men which included the future Archbishop of Florence Antoninus after the latter heard him preach once.

On 26 March 1408 he was sent with Giacopo del Torso to negotiate with Antipope Benedict XIII in an attempt to secure the latter's abdication though this was unsuccessful.

Dominici had advised the pope to abdicate as the surest means of ending the Great Schism which had arisen to divide the Church.

Pope Martin V (who sometimes sought his counsel) appointed him as the papal legate to Bohemia on 19 July 1418 but he accomplished little with the followers of John Hus owing to the timid King Wenceslaus IV.

His Regola del governo di cura familiare, written between 1400 and 1405 is a pedagogical work which treats (in four books) of the faculties of the soul as well as the powers and senses of people.

His Lucula Noctis (which he addressed to the Chancellor of the Florentine Republic Coluccio Salutati) is the most important treatise of that time on the studies of the pagan authors.

Dominici did not condemn classical studies outright though did express strong criticism of some humanist tendencies such as the use of rhetoric in politics and the rise of the professional politician.