BELSHAM, THOMAS (1750-1829), English Unitarian minister, was born at
Bedford on the 26th of April 1750. He was educated at the dissenting
academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor.
After three years spent in a charge at Worcester, he returned as head of
the Daventry academy, a post which he continued to hold till 1789, when,
having adopted Unitarian principles, he resigned. With Joseph Priestly
for colleague, he superintended during its brief existence a new college
at Hackney, and was, on Priestly's departure in 1794, also called to the
charge of the Gravel Pit congregation. In 1805 he accepted a call to the
Essex Street chapel, where in gradually failing health he remained till
his death in 1829. Belsham's first work of importance, _Review of Mr
Wilberforce's Treatise entitled Practical View_ (1798), was written
after his conversion to Unitarianism. His most popular work was the
_Evidences of Christianity;_ the most important was his translation and
exposition of the Epistles of St Paul (1822). He was also the author of
a work on philosophy, _Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind_
(1801), which is entirely based on Hartley's psychology. Belsham is one
of the most vigorous and able writers of his church, and the _Quarterly
Review_ and _Gentleman's Magazine_ of the early years of the 19th
century abound in evidences that his abilities were recognized by his
opponents.
BELSHAZZAR (6th century B.C.), Babylonian general. Until the
decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, he was known only from the
book of Daniel (v. 2, 11, 13, 18) and its reproduction in Josephus,
where he is represented as the son of Nebuchadrezzar and the last king
of Babylon. As his name did not appear in the list of the successors of
Nebuchadrezzar handed down by the Greek writers, various suggestions
were put forward as to his identity. Niebuhr identified him with
Evil-Merodach, Ewald with Nabonidos, others again with Neriglissor. The
identification with Nabonidos, the last Babylonian king according to the
native historian Berossus, goes back to Josephus. The decipherment of
the cuneiform texts put an end to all such speculations. In 1854 Sir
H.C. Rawlinson discovered the name of Bel-sarra-uzur--"O Bel, defend the
king"--in an inscription belonging to the first year of Nabonidos which
had been discovered in the ruins of the temple of the Moon-god at
Muqayyar or Ur. Here Nabonidos calls him his "first-born son," and prays
that "he may not give way to sin," but that "the fear of the great
divinity" of the Moon-god may "dwell in his heart." In the contracts and
similar documents there are frequent references to Belshazzar, who is
sometimes entitled simply "the son of the king."
He was never king himself, nor was he son of Nebuchadrezzar. Indeed his
father Nabonidos (Nabunaid), the son of Nabu-baladsu-iqbi, was not
related to the family of Nebuchadrezzar and owed his accession to the
throne to a palace revolution. Belshazzar, however, seems to have had
more political and military energy than his father, whose tastes were
antiquarian and religious; he took command of the army, living with it
in the camp near Sippara, and whatever measures of defence were
organized against the invasion of Cyrus appear to have been due to him.
Hence Jewish tradition substituted him for his less-known father, and
rightly concluded that his death marked the fall of the Babylonian
monarchy. We learn from the Babylonian Chronicle that from the 7th year
of Nabonidos (548 B.C.) onwards "the son of the king" was with the army
in Akkad, that is in the close neighbourhood of Sippara. This, as Dr Th.
G. Pinches has pointed out, doubtless accounts for the numerous gifts
bestowed by him on the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara. So late as the
5th of Ab in the 17th year of Nabonidos--that is to say, about three
weeks after the forces of Cyrus had entered Babylonia and only three
months before his death--we find him paying 47 shekels of silver to the
temple on behalf of his sister, this being the amount of "tithe" due
from her at the time. At an earlier period there is frequent mention of
his trading transactions which were carried out through his
house-steward or agent. Thus in 545 B.C. he lent 20 manehs of silver to
a private individual, a Persian by race, on the security of the property
of the latter, and a year later his house-steward negotiated a loan of
16 shekels, taking as security the produce of a field of corn.
The legends of Belshazzar's feast and of the siege and capture of
Babylon by Cyrus which have come down to us from the book of Daniel and
the _Cyropaedia_ of Xenophon have been shown by the contemporaneous
inscriptions to have been a projection backwards of the re-conquest of
the city by Darius Hystaspis. The actual facts were very different.
Cyrus had invaded Babylonia from two directions, he himself marching
towards the confluence of the Tigris and Diyaleh, while Gobryas, the
satrap of Kurdistan, led another body of troops along the course of the
Adhem. The portion of the Babylonian army to which the protection of the
eastern frontier had been entrusted was defeated at Opis on the banks of
the Nizallat, and the invaders poured across the Tigris into Babylonia.
On the 14th of Tammuz (June), 538 B.C., Nabonidos fled from Sippara,
where he had taken his son's place in the camp, and the city surrendered
at once to the enemy. Meanwhile Gobryas had been despatched to Babylon,
which opened its gates to the invader on the 16th of the month "without
combat or battle," and a few days later Nabonidos was dragged from his
hiding-place and made a prisoner. According to Berossus he was
subsequently appointed governor of Karmania by his conqueror.
Belshazzar, however, still held out, and it was probably on this account
that Cyrus himself did not arrive at Babylon until nearly four months
later, on the 3rd of Marchesvan. On the 11th of that month Gobryas was
despatched to put an end to the last semblance of resistance in the
country "and the son (?) of the king died." In accordance with the
conciliatory policy of Cyrus, a general mourning was proclaimed on
account of his death, and this lasted for six days, from the 27th of
Adar to the 3rd of Nisan. Unfortunately the character representing the
word "son" is indistinct on the tablet which contains the annals of
Nabonidos, so that the reading is not absolutely certain. The only other
reading possible, however, is "and the king died," and this reading is
excluded partly by the fact that Nabonidos afterwards became a Persian
satrap, partly by the silence which would otherwise be maintained by the
"Annals" in regard to the fate of Belshazzar. Considering how important
Belshazzar was politically, and what a prominent place he occupied in
the history of the period, such a silence would be hard to explain. His
death subsequently to the surrender of Babylon and the capture of
Nabonidos, and with it the last native effort to resist the invader,
would account for the position he assumed in later tradition and the
substitution of his name for that of the actual king.
See Th. G. Pinches, _P.S.B.A._, May 1884; H. Winckler, _Zetischrift
fur Assyriologie_, ii. 2, 3 (1887); _Records of the Past_, new series,
i. pp. 22-31 (1888); A.H. Sayce, _The Higher Criticism_, pp. 497-537
(1893). (A. H. S.)
BELT, THOMAS (1832-1878), English geologist and naturalist, was born at
Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1832, and educated in that city. As a youth he
became actively interested in natural history through the Tyneside
Naturalists' Field Club. In 1852 he went to Australia and for about
eight years worked at the gold-diggings, where he acquired a practical
knowledge of ore-deposits. In 1860 he proceeded to Nova Scotia to take
charge of some gold-mines, and there met with a serious injury, which
led to his return to England. In 1861 he issued a separate work entitled
_Mineral Veins: an Enquiry into their Origin, founded on a Study of the
Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia_. Later on he was engaged for about
three years at Dolgelly, another though small gold-mining region, and
here he carefully investigated the rocks and fossils of the Lingula
Flags, his observations being published in an important and now classic
memoir in the _Geological Magazine_ for 1867. In the following year he
was appointed to take charge of some mines in Nicaragua, where he passed
four active and adventurous years--the results being given in his
_Naturalist in Nicaragua_ (1874), a work of high merit. In this volume
the author expressed his views on the former presence of glaciers in
that country. In subsequent papers he dealt boldly and suggestively with
the phenomena of the Glacial period in Britain and in various parts of
the world. After many further expeditions to Russia, Siberia and
Colorado, he died at Denver on the 21st of September 1878.
BELT (a word common to Teutonic languages, the Old Ger. form being
_balz_, from which the Lat. _balteus_ probably derived), a flat strap of
leather or other material used as a girdle (q.v.), especially the
_cinctura gladii_ or sword-belt, the chief "ornament of investiture" of
an earl or knight; in machinery, a flexible strap passing round from one
drum, pulley or wheel to another, for the purpose of power-transmission
(q.v.). The word is applied to any broad stripe, to the belts of the
planet Jupiter, to the armour-belt at the water-line of a warship, or to
a tract of country, narrow in proportion to its length, with special
distinguishing characteristics, such as the earthquake-belt across a
continent.
BELTANE, BELTENE, BELTINE, or BEAL-TENE (Scottish Gaelic, _bealltain_),
the Celtic name for May-day, on which also was held a festival called by
the same name, originally common to all the Celtic peoples, of which
traces still linger in Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland and Brittany.
This festival, the most important ceremony of which in later centuries
was the lighting of the bonfires known as "beltane fires," is believed
to represent the Druidical worship of the sun-god. The fuel was piled on
a hill-top, and at the fire the beltane cake was cooked. This was
divided into pieces corresponding to the number of those present, and
one piece was blackened with charcoal. For these pieces lots were drawn,
and he who had the misfortune to get the black bit became _cailleach
bealtine_ (the beltane carline)--a term of great reproach. He was pelted
with egg-shells, and afterwards for some weeks was spoken of as dead. In
the north-east of Scotland beltane fires were still kindled in the
latter half of the 18th century. There were many superstitions
connecting them with the belief in witchcraft. According to Cormac,
archbishop of Cashel about the year 908, who furnishes in his glossary
the earliest notice of beltane, it was customary to light two fires
close together, and between these both men and cattle were driven, under
the belief that health was thereby promoted and disease warded off. (See
_Transactions of the Irish Academy_, xiv. pp. 100, 122, 123.) The
Highlanders have a proverb, "he is between two beltane fires." The
Strathspey Highlanders used to make a hoop of rowan wood through which
on beltane day they drove the sheep and lambs both at dawn and sunset.
As to the derivation of the word beltane there is considerable
obscurity. Following Cormac, it has been usual to regard it as
representing a combination of the name of the god Bel or Baal or Bil
with the Celtic _teine_, fire. And on this etymology theories have been
erected of the connexion of the Semitic Baal with Celtic mythology, and
the identification of the beltane fires with the worship of this deity.
This etymology is now repudiated by scientific philologists, and the New
_English Dictionary_ accepts Dr Whitley Stokes's view that beltane in
its Gaelic form can have no connexion with _teine_, fire. Beltane, as
the 1st of May, was in ancient Scotland one of the four quarter days,
the others being Hallowmas, Candlemas, and Lammas.
For a full description of the beltane celebration in the Highlands of
Scotland during the 18th century, see John Ramsay, _Scotland and
Scotsmen in the 18th Century_, from MSS. edited by A. Allardyce
(1888); and see further J. Robertson in Sinclair's _Statistical
Account of Scotland_, xi. 620; Thomas Pennant, _Tour in Scotland_
(1769-1770); W. Gregor, "Notes on Beltane Cakes," _Folklore_, vi.
(1895), p. 2; and "Notes on the Folklore of the North-East of
Scotland," p. 167 (_Folklore Soc_. vii. 1881); A. Bertrand, _La
Religion des Gaulois_ (1897); Jamieson, _Scottish Dictionary_ (1808).
Cormac's _Glossary_ has been edited by O'Donovan and Stokes (1862).
BELUGA (_Delphinapterus leucas_), also called the "white whale," a
cetacean of the family _Delphinidae_, characterized by its rounded head
and uniformly light colour. A native of the Arctic seas, it extends in
the western Atlantic as far south as the river St Lawrence, which it
ascends for a considerable distance. In colour it is almost pure white;
the maximum length is about twelve feet; and the back-fin is replaced by
a low ridge. Examples have been taken on the British coasts; and
individuals have been kept for some time in captivity in America and in
London. See CETACEA.
BELVEDERE, or BELVIDERE (Ital. for "fair-view"), an architectural
structure built in the upper part of a building or in any elevated
position so as to command a fine view. The belvedere assumes various
forms, such as an angle turret, a cupola, a loggia or open gallery. The
name is also applied to the whole building, as the Belvedere gallery in
the Vatican at Rome. For Apollo Belvidere see GREEK ART, Plate II. fig.
55.
BELVIDERE, a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Illinois, U.S.A.,
in the N. part of the state, on the Kishwaukee river, about 78 m. N.W.
of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 3867; (1900) 6937 (1018 foreign-born); (1910)
7253. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western railway, and by an
extensive inter-urban electric system. Among its manufactures are sewing
machines, boilers, automobiles, bicycles, roller-skates, pianos, gloves
and mittens, corsets, flour and dairy products, Borden's condensed milk
factory being located there. Belvidere was settled in 1836, was
incorporated in 1852 and was re-incorporated in 1881.
BELZONI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1778-1823), Italian explorer of Egyptian
antiquities, was born at Padua in 1778. His family was from Rome, and in
that city he spent his youth. He intended taking monastic orders, but in
1798 the occupation of the city by the French troops drove him from Rome
and changed his proposed career. He went back to Padua, where he studied
hydraulics, removed in 1800 to Holland, and in 1803 went to England,
where he married an Englishwoman. He was 6 ft. 7 in. in height, broad in
proportion, and his wife was of equally generous build. They were for
some time compelled to find subsistence by exhibitions of feats of
strength and agility at fairs and on the streets of London. Through the
kindness of Henry Salt, the traveller and antiquarian, who was ever
afterwards his patron, he was engaged at Astley's amphitheatre, and his
circumstances soon began to improve. In 1812 he left England, and after
travelling in Spain and Portugal reached Egypt in 1815, where Salt was
then British consul-general. Belzoni was desirous of laying before
Mehemet Ali a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the
waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was
successful, the design was abandoned by the pasha, and Belzoni resolved
to continue his travels. On the recommendation of the orientalist, J.L.
Burckhardt, he was sent at Salt's charges to Thebes, whence he removed
with great skill the colossal bust of Rameses II., commonly called Young
Memnon, which he shipped for England, where it is in the British Museum.
He also pushed his investigations into the great temple of Edfu, visited
Elephantine and Philae, cleared the great temple at Abu Simbel of sand
(1817), made excavations at Karnak, and opened up the sepulchre of Seti
I. ("Belzoni's Tomb"). He was the first to penetrate into the second
pyramid of Giza, and the first European in modern times to visit the
oasis of Baharia, which he supposed to be that of Siwa. He also
identified the ruins of Berenice on the Red Sea. In 1819 he returned to
England, and published in the following year an account of his travels
and discoveries entitled _Narrative of the Operations and Recent
Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt
and Nubia, &c._ He also exhibited during 1820-1821 facsimiles of the
tomb of Seti I. The exhibition was held at the Egyptian Hall,
Piccadilly, London. In 1822 Belzoni showed his model in Paris. In 1823
he set out for West Africa, intending to penetrate to Timbuktu. Having
been refused permission to pass through Morocco, he chose the Guinea
Coast route. He reached Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a
village called Gwato, and died there on the 3rd of December 1823. In
1829 his widow published his drawings of the royal tombs at Thebes.
BEM, JOSEF (1795-1850), Polish soldier, was born at Tarnow in Galicia,
and was educated at the military school at Warsaw, where he especially
distinguished himself in mathematics. Joining a Polish artillery
regiment in the French service, he took part in the Russian campaign of
1812, and subsequently so brilliantly distinguished himself in the
defence of Danzig (January-November 1813) that he won the cross of the
Legion of Honour. On returning to Poland he was for a time in the
Russian service, but lost his post, and his liberty as well for some
time, for his outspokenness. In 1825 he migrated to Lemberg, where he
taught the physical sciences. He was about to write a treatise on the
steam-engine, when the Polish War of Independence summoned him back to
Warsaw in November 1830. It was his skill as an artillery officer which
won for the Polish general Skrynecki the battle of Igany (March 8,
1831), and he distinguished himself at the indecisive battle of
Ostrolenka (May 26). He took part in the desperate defence of Warsaw
against Prince Paskievich (September 6-7, 1831). Then Bem escaped to
Paris, where he supported himself by teaching mathematics. In 1833 he
went to Portugal to assist the liberal Dom Pedro against the reactionary
Dom Miguel, but abandoned the idea when it was found that a Polish
legion could not be formed. A wider field for his activity presented
itself in 1848. First he attempted to hold Vienna against the imperial
troops, and, after the capitulation, hastened to Pressburg to offer his
services to Kossuth, first defending himself, in a long memorial, from
the accusations of treachery to the Polish cause and of aristocratic
tendencies which the more fanatical section of the Polish emigrant
Radicals repeatedly brought against him. He was entrusted with the
defence of Transylvania at the end of 1848, and in 1849, as the general
of the Szeklers (q.v.), he performed miracles with his little army,
notably at the bridge of Piski (February 9), where, after fighting all
day, he drove back an immense force of pursuers. After recovering
Transylvania he was sent to drive the Austrian general Puchner out of
the Banat of Temesvar. Bem defeated him at Orsova (May 16), but the
Russian invasion recalled him to Transylvania. From the 12th to 22nd of
July he was fighting continually, but finally, on the 31st of July, his
army was annihilated by overwhelming numbers near Segesvar (Schassburg),
Bem only escaping by feigning death. Yet he fought a fresh action at
Gross-Scheueren on the 6th of August, and contrived to bring off the
fragments of his host to Temesvar, to aid the hardly-pressed Dembinski.
Bem was in command and was seriously wounded in the last pitched battle
of the war, fought there on the 9th of August. On the collapse of the
rebellion he fled to Turkey, adopted Mahommedanism, and under the name
of Murad Pasha served as governor of Aleppo, at which place, at the risk
of his life, he saved the Christian population from being massacred by
the Moslems. Here he died on the 16th of September 1850. The tiny,
withered, sickly body of Bem was animated by an heroic temper. Few men
have been so courageous, and his influence was magnetic. Even the rough
Szeklers, though they did not understand the language of their "little
father," regarded him with superstitious reverence. A statue to his
honour has been erected at Maros-Vasarhely, but he lives still more
enduringly in the immortal verses of the patriot poet Sandor Petofi, who
fell in the fatal action of the 31st of July at Segesvar. As a soldier
Bem was remarkable for his excellent handling of artillery and the
rapidity of his marches.
See Johann Czetz, _Memoiren uber Bems Feldzug_ (Hamburg, 1850); Kalman
Deresenyi, _General Bem's Winter Campaign in Transylvania, 1848-1849_
(Hung.), (Budapest, 1896). (R. N. B.)
BEMA ([Greek: baema]), in ecclesiastical architecture, the semicircular
recess or exedra, in the basilica, where the judges sat, and where in
after times the altar was placed. It generally is roofed with a half
dome. The seats, [Greek: thronoi], of the priests were against the wall,
looking into the body of the church, that of the bishop being in the
centre. The bema is generally ascended by steps, and railed off. In
Greece the bema was the general name of any raised platform. Thus the
word was applied to the tribunal from which orators addressed assemblies
of the citizens at Athens. That in the Pnyx, where the Ecclesia often
met, was a stone platform from 10 to 11 ft. in height. Again in the
Athenian law court counsel addressed the court from such a platform: it
is not known whether each had a separate bema or whether there was only
one to which each counsel (? and the witnesses) in turn ascended (cf. W.
Wyse in his edition of Isaeus, p. 440). Another bema was the platform on
which stood the urns for the reception of the bronze disks ([Greek:
psiaephoi]) by means of which at the end of the 4th century the judges
recorded their decisions.
BEMBERG, HERMAN (1861- ), French musical composer, was born of French
parents at Buenos Aires, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire, under
Massenet, whose influence, with that of Gounod, is strongly marked in
his music. As a composer he is known by numerous songs and pieces for
the piano, as well as by his cantata _La Mort de Jeanne d'Arc_ (1886),
comic opera _Le Baiser de Suzon_ (1888) and grand opera _Elaine_
(produced at Covent Garden in 1892). Among his songs the dramatic
recitative _Ballade du Desespere_ is well known.
BEMBO, PIETRO (1470-1547), Italian cardinal and scholar, was born at
Venice on the 20th of May 1470. While still a boy he accompanied his
father to Florence, and there acquired a love for that Tuscan form of
speech which he afterwards cultivated in preference to the dialect of
his native city. Having completed his studies, which included two years'
devotion to Greek under Lascaris at Messina, he chose the ecclesiastical
profession. After a considerable time spent in various cities and courts
of Italy, where his learning already made him welcome, he accompanied
Giulio de' Medici to Rome, where he was soon after appointed secretary
to Leo X. On the pontiff's death he retired, with impaired health, to
Padua, and there lived for a number of years engaged in literary labours
and amusements. In 1529 he accepted the office of historiographer to his
native city, and shortly afterwards was appointed librarian of St
Mark's. The offer of a cardinal's hat by Pope Paul III. took him in 1539
again to Rome, where he renounced the study of classical literature and
devoted himself to theology and classical history, receiving before long
the reward of his conversion in the shape of the bishoprics of Gubbio
and Bergamo. He died on the 18th of January 1547. Bembo, as a writer, is
the _beau ideal_ of a purist. The exact imitation of the style of the
genuine classics was the highest perfection at which he aimed. This at
once prevented the graces of spontaneity and secured the beauties of
artistic elaboration. One cannot fail to be struck with the Ciceronian
cadence that guides the movement even of his Italian writings.
His works (collected edition, Venice, 1729) include a _History of
Venice_ (1551) from 1487 to 1513, dialogues, poems, and what we would
now call essays. Perhaps the most famous are a little treatise on
Italian prose, and a dialogue entitled _Gli Asolani_, in which
Platonic affection is explained and recommended in a rather
long-winded fashion, to the amusement of the reader who remembers the
relations of the beautiful Morosina with the author. The edition of
Petrarch's _Italian Poems_, published by Aldus in 1501, and the
_Terzerime_, which issued from the same press in 1502, were edited by
Bembo, who was on intimate terms with the great typographer. See
_Opere de P. Bembo_ (Venice, 1729); Casa, _Vita di Bembo_, in 2nd vol.
of his works.
BEMBRIDGE BEDS, in geology, strata forming part of the fluvio-marine
series of deposits of Oligocene age, in the Isle of Wight and Hampshire,
England. They lie between the Hamstead beds above and the Osborne beds
below. The Bembridge marls, freshwater, estuarine and marine clays and
marls (70-120 ft.) rest upon the Bembridge limestone, a freshwater pool
deposit (15-25 ft.), with large land snails (_Amphidromus_ and
_Helices_), freshwater snails (_Planorbis, Limnaea_), and the fruits of
_Chara_. The marls contain, besides the freshwater _Limnaea_ and _Unio_,
such forms as _Meretrix, Ostrea_ and _Melanopsis_. A thin calcareous
sandy layer in this division has yielded the remains of many insects and
fossil leaves.
See "Geology of the Isle of Wight," _Mem. Geol. Survey_, 2nd ed. 1889.
BEMIS, EDWARD WEBSTER (1860- ), American economist, was born at
Springfield, Massachusetts, on the 7th of April 1860. He was educated at
Amherst and Johns Hopkins University. He held the professorship of
history and political economy in Vanderbilt University from 1887 to
1892, was associate professor of political economy in the university of
Chicago from 1892 to 1895, and assistant statistician to the Illinois
bureau of labour statistics, 1896. In 1901 he became superintendent of
the Cleveland water works. He wrote much on municipal government, his
more important works being some chapters in _History of Co-operation in
the United States_ (1888); _Municipal Ownership of Gas in the U.S._
(1891); _Municipal Monopolies_ (1899).
BEMONT, CHARLES (1848- ), French scholar, was born at Paris on the
16th of November 1848. In 1884 he graduated with two theses, _Simon de
Montfort_ and _La Condamnation de Jean Sansterre_ (_Revue historique_,
1886). His _Les Chartes des libertes anglaises_ (1892) has an
introduction upon the history of Magna Carta, &c., and his _History of
Europe from 395 to 1270_, in collaboration with G. Monod, was translated
into English. He was also responsible for the continuation of the
_Gascon Rolls_, the publication of which had been begun by Francisque
Michel in 1885 (supplement to vol. i., 1896; vol. ii., for the years
1273-1290, 1900; vol. iii., for the years 1290-1307, 1906). He received
the honorary degree of Litt. Doc. at Oxford in 1909.
BEN (from Old Eng. _bennan_, within), in the Scottish phrase "a but and
a ben," the inner room of a house in which there is only one outer door,
so that the entrance to the inner room is through the outer, the but
(Old Eng. _butan_, without). Hence "a but and a ben" meant originally a
living room and sleeping room, and so a dwelling or a cottage.
BENARES, the Holy City of the Hindus, which gives its name to a district
and division in the United Provinces of India. It is one of the most
ancient cities in the world. The derivation of its ancient name
_Varanasi_ is not known, nor is that of its alternative name _Kasi_,
which is still in common use among Hindus, and is popularly explained to
mean "bright." The original site of the city is supposed to have been at
Sarnath, 3-1/2 m. north of the present city, where ruins of brick and
stone buildings, with three lofty _stupas_ still standing, cover an area
about half a mile long by a quarter broad. Sakya Muni, the Buddha, came
here from Gaya in the 6th century B.C. (from which time some of the
remains may date), in order to establish his religion, which shows that
the place was even then a great centre. Hsuan Tsang, the celebrated
Chinese pilgrim, visited Benares in the 7th century A.D. and described
it as containing 30 Buddhist monasteries, with about 3000 monks, and
about 100 temples of Hindu gods. Hinduism has now supplanted Buddhism,
and the Brahman fills the place of the monk. The modern temples number
upwards of 1500. Even after the lapse of so great a time the city is
still in its glory, and as seen from the river it presents a scene of
great picturesqueness and grandeur. The Ganges here forms a fine sweep
of about 4 m. in length, the city being situated on the outside of the
curve, on the northern bank of the river, which is higher than the
other. Being thus elevated, and extending along the river for some 4 m.,
the city forms a magnificent panorama of buildings in many varieties of
oriental architecture. The minarets of the mosque of Aurangzeb rise
above all. The bank of the river is entirely lined with stone, and there
are many very fine ghats or landing-places built by pious devotees, and
highly ornamented. These are generally crowded with bathers and
worshippers, who come to wash away their sins in the sacred river
Ganges. Near the Manikarnika ghat is the well held to have been dug by
Vishnu and filled with his sweat; great numbers of pilgrims bathe in its
venerated water. Shrines and temples line the bank of the river. But in
spite of its fine appearance from the river, the architecture of Benares
is not distinguished, nor are its buildings of high antiquity. Among the
most conspicuous of these are the mosque of Aurangzeb, built as an
intentional insult in the middle of the Hindu quarter; the Bisheshwar or
Golden Temple, important less through architectural beauty than through
its rank as the holiest spot in the holy city; and the Durga temple,
which, like most of the other principal temples, is a Mahratta building
of the 17th century. The temples are mostly small and are placed in the
angles of the streets, under the shadow of the lofty houses. Their forms
are not ungraceful, and many of them are covered over with beautiful and
elaborate carvings of flowers, animals and palm branches. The
observatory of Raja Jai Singh is a notable building of the year 1693.
The internal streets of the town are so winding and narrow that there is
not room for a carriage to pass, and it is difficult to penetrate them
even on horseback. The level of the roadway is considerably lower than
the ground-floors of the houses, which have generally arched rooms in
front, with little shops behind them; and above these they are richly
embellished with verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and
very broad overhanging eaves supported by carved brackets. The houses
are built of _chanar_ stone, and are lofty, none being less than two
storeys high, most of them three, and several of five or six storeys.
The Hindus are fond of painting the outside of their houses a deep red
colour, and of covering the most conspicuous parts with pictures of
flowers, men, women, bulls, elephants and gods and goddesses in all the
many forms known in Hindu mythology.
Benares is bounded by a road which, though 50 m. in circuit, is never
distant from the city more than five kos (7-1/2 m.); hence its name,
Panch-kos road. All who die within this boundary, be they Brahman or low
caste, Moslem or Christian, are sure of admittance into Siva's heaven.
To tread the Panch-kos road is one of the great ambitions of a Hindu's
life. Even if he be an inhabitant of the sacred city he must traverse it
once in the year to free himself from the impurities and sins contracted
within the holy precincts. Thousands from all parts of India make the
pilgrimage every year. Benares, having from time immemorial been a holy
city, contains a vast number of Brahmans, who either subsist by
charitable contributions, or are supported by endowments in the numerous
religious institutions of the city. Hindu religious mendicants, with
every conceivable bodily deformity, line the principal streets on both
sides. Some have their legs or arms distorted by long continuance in one
position; others have kept their hands clenched until the finger nails
have pierced entirely through their hands. But besides an immense resort
to Benares of poor pilgrims from every part of India, as well as from
Tibet and Burma, numbers of rich Hindus in the decline of life go there
for religious salvation. These devotees lavish large sums in
indiscriminate charity, and it is the hope of sharing in such pious
distributions that brings together the concourse of religious mendicants
from all quarters of the country.
The city of Benares had a population in 1901 of 209,331. The European
quarter lies to the west of the native town, on both sides of the river
Barna. Here is the cantonment of Sikraul, no longer of much military
importance, and the suburb of Sigra, the seat of the chief missionary
institutions. The principal modern buildings are the Mint, the Prince of
Wales' hospital (commemorating the visit of King Edward VII. to the city
in 1876) and the town hall. The Benares college, including a first-grade
and a Sanskrit college, was opened in 1791, but its fine buildings date
from 1852. The Central Hindu College was opened in 1898. Benares
conducts a flourishing trade by rail and river with the surrounding
country. It is the junction between the Oudh & Rohilkhand and East
Indian railways, the Ganges being crossed by a steel girder bridge of
seven spans, each 350 ft. long. The chief manufactures are silk
brocades, gold and silver thread, gold filigree work, German-silver
work, embossed brass vessels and lacquered toys; but the brasswork for
which Benares used to be famous has greatly degenerated.
The Hindu kingdom of Benares is said to have been founded by one Kas
Raja about 1200 B.C. Subsequently it became part of the kingdom of
Kanauj, which in A.D. 1193 was conquered by Mahommed of Ghor. On the
downfall of the Pathan dynasty of Delhi, about A.D. 1599, it was
incorporated with the Mogul empire. On the dismemberment of the Delhi
empire, it was seized by Safdar Jang, the nawab wazir of Oudh, by whose
grandson it was ceded to the East India Company by the treaty of 1775.
The subsequent history of Benares contains two important events, the
rebellion of Chait Singh in 1781, occasioned by the demands of Warren
Hastings for money and troops to carry on the Mahratta War, and the
Mutiny of 1857, when the energy and coolness of the European officials,
chiefly of General Neill, carried the district successfully through the
storm.
The DISTRICT OF BENARES extends over both sides of the Ganges and has an
area of 1008 sq. m. The surface of the country is remarkably level, with
numerous deep ravines in the calcareous conglomerate. The soil is a
clayey or a sandy loam, and very fertile except in the Usar tracts,
where there is a saline efflorescence. The principal rivers are the
Ganges, Karamnasa, Gumti and Barna. The principal crops are barley,
rice, wheat, other food-grains, pulse, sugar-cane and opium. The main
line of the East Indian railway runs through the southern portion of the
district, with a branch to Benares city; the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway
through the northern portion, starting from the city; and a branch of
the Bengal & North-Western railway also terminates at Benares. The
climate of Benares is cool in winter but very warm in the hot season.
The population in 1901 was 882,084, showing a decrease of 4% in the
decade due to the effects of famine.
The DIVISION OF BENARES has an area of 10,431 sq. m., and comprises the
districts of Benares, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Ballia. In 1901
the population was 5,069,020, showing a decrease of 6% in the decade.
See E.B. Havell, _Benares_ (1906); M.A. Sherring, _The Sacred City of
the Hindus_ (1868).
BENBOW, JOHN (1653-1702), English admiral, the son of a tanner in
Shrewsbury, was born in 1653. He went to sea when very young, and served
in the navy as master's mate and master, from 1678 to 1681. When trading
to the Mediterranean in 1686 in a ship of his own he beat off a Salli
pirate. On the accession of William III. he re-entered the navy as a
lieutenant and was rapidly promoted. It is probable that he enjoyed the
protection of Arthur Herbert, earl of Torrington, under whom he had
already served in the Mediterranean. After taking part in the
bombardment of St Malo (1693), and superintending the blockade of
Dunkirk (1696), he sailed in 1698 for the West Indies, where he
compelled the Spaniards to restore two vessels belonging to the Scottish
colonists at Darien (see PATERSON, WILLIAM) which they had seized. On
his return he was appointed vice-admiral, and was frequently consulted
by the king. In 1701 he was sent again to the West Indies as
commander-in-chief. On the 19th of August 1702, when cruising with a
squadron of seven ships, he sighted, and chased, four French vessels
commanded by M. du Casse near Santa Marta. The engagement is the most
disgraceful episode in English naval history. Benbow's captains were
mutinous, and he was left unsupported in his flagship the "Breda." His
right leg was shattered by a chain-shot, despite which he remained on
the quarter-deck till morning, when the flagrant disobedience of the
captains under him, and the disabled condition of his ship, forced him
reluctantly to abandon the chase. After his return to Jamaica, where his
subordinates were tried by court-martial, he died of his wounds on the
4th of November 1702. A great deal of legendary matter has collected
round his name, and his life is really obscure.
See Yonge's _Hist. of the British Navy_, vol. i.; Campbell's _British
Admirals_, vol. iii.; also Owen and Blakeway's _History of
Shrewsbury._
BENCE-JONES, HENRY (1814-1873), English physician and chemist, was born
at Thorington Hall, Suffolk, in 1814, the son of an officer in the
dragoon guards. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College,
Cambridge. Subsequently he studied medicine at St George's hospital, and
chemistry at University College, London. In 1841 he went to Giessen in
Germany to work at chemistry with Liebig. Besides becoming a fellow, and
afterwards senior censor, of the Royal College of Physicians, and a
fellow of the Royal Society, he held the post of secretary to the Royal
Institution for many years. In 1846 he was elected physician to St
George's hospital. He died in London on the 20th of April 1873. Dr
Bence-Jones was a recognized authority on diseases of the stomach and
kidneys. He wrote, in addition to several scientific books and a number
of papers in scientific periodicals, _The Life and Letters of Faraday_
(1870).
BENCH (an O.E. and Eng. form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf.
Ger. _Bank_, Dan. _baenk_ and the Eng. doublet "bank"), a long narrow
wooden seat for several persons, with or without a back. While the chair
was yet a seat of state or dignity the bench was ordinarily used by the
commonalty. It is still extensively employed for other than domestic
purposes, as in schools, churches and places of amusement. Bench or
Banc, in law, originally was the seat occupied by judges in court; hence
the term is used of a tribunal of justice itself, as the King's Bench,
the Common Bench, and is now applied to judges or magistrates
collectively as the "judicial bench," "bench of magistrates." The word
is also applied to any seat where a number of people sit in an official
capacity, or as equivalent to the dignity itself, as "the civic bench,"
the "bench of aldermen," the "episcopal bench," the "front bench," i.e.
that reserved for the leaders of either party in the British House of
Commons. King's Bench (q.v.) was one of the three superior courts of
common law at Westminster, the others being the common pleas and the
exchequer. Under the Judicature Act 1873, the court of king's bench
became the king's bench division of the High Court of Justice. The court
of common pleas was sometimes called the common bench.
Sittings in bane were formerly the sittings of one of the superior
courts of Westminster for the hearing of motions, special cases, &c., as
opposed to the _nisi prius_ sittings for trial of facts, where usually
only a single judge presided. By the Judicature Act 1873 the business of
courts sitting in bane was transferred to divisional courts.
BENCH-MARK, a surveyor's mark cut in stone or some durable material, to
indicate a point in a line of levels for the determination of altitudes
over a given district. The name is taken from the "angle-iron" which is
inserted in the horizontal incision as a "bench" or support for the
levelling staff. The mark of the "broad-arrow" is generally incised with
the bench-mark so that the horizontal bar passes through its apex.
BENCH TABLE (Fr. _banc_; Ital. _sedile_; Ger. _Bank_), the stone seat
which runs round the walls of large churches, and sometimes round the
piers; it very generally is placed in the porches.
BEND, (1) (From Old Eng. _bendan_), a bending or curvature, as in "the
bend of a river," or technically the ribs or "wales" of a ship. (2)
(From Old Eng. _bindan_, to bind), a nautical term for a knot, the
"cable bend," the "fisherman's bend." (3) (From the Old Fr. _bende_, a
ribbon), a term of heraldry, signifying a diagonal band or stripe across
a shield from the dexter chief to the sinister base; also in tanning,
the half of a hide from which the thinner parts have been trimmed away,
"bend-leather" being the thickest and best sole-leather.
BENDA, the name of a family of German musicians, of whom the most
important is Georg (d. 1795), who was a pupil of his elder brother Franz
(1709-1786), _Concertmeister_ in Berlin. Georg Benda was a famous
clavier player and oboist, but his chief interest for modern musical
history lies in his melodramas. Being a far more solid musician than
Rousseau he earns the title of the musical pioneer of that art-form
(i.e. the accompaniment of spoken words by illustrative music) in a
sense which cannot be claimed for Rousseau's earlier _Pygmalion_.
Benda's first melodrama, _Ariadne auf Naxos_, was written in 1774 after
his return from a visit to Italy. He was a voluminous composer, whose
works (instrumental and dramatic) were enthusiastically taken up by the
aristocracy in the time of Mozart. Mozart's imagination was much fired
by Benda's new vehicle for dramatic expression, and in 1778 he wrote to
his father with the greatest enthusiasm about a project for composing a
duodrama on the model of Benda's _Ariadne auf Naxos_ and _Medea_, both
of which he considered excellent and always carried about with him. He
concluded at the time that that was the way the problems of operatic
recitative should be solved, or rather shelved, but the only specimen he
has himself produced is the wonderful melodrama in his unfinished
operetta, _Zaide_, written in 1780.
BENDER (more correctly BENDERY), a town of Russia, in the government of
Bessarabia, on the right bank of the Dniester, 37 m. by rail S.E. of
Kishinev. It possesses a tobacco factory, candle-works and brick-kilns,
and is an important river port, vessels discharging here their cargoes
of corn, wine, wool, cattle, flour and tallow, to be conveyed by land to
Odessa and to Yassy in Rumania. Timber also is floated down the
Dniester. The citadel was dismantled in 1897. The town had in 1867 a
population of 24,443, and in 1900 of 33,741, the greater proportion
being Jews. As early as the 12th century the Genoese had a settlement on
the site of Bender. In 1709 Charles XII., after the defeat of Poltava,
collected his forces here in a camp which they called New Stockholm, and
continued there till 1713. Bender was taken by the Russians in 1770, in
1789 and in 1806, but it was not held permanently by Russia till 1812.
BENDIGO (formerly SANDHURST), a city of Bendigo county, Victoria,
Australia, 101 m. by rail N.N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 31,020. It is
the centre of a large gold-field consisting of quartz ranges, with some
alluvial deposits, and many of the mines are deep-level workings. The
discovery of alluvial gold in 1851 brought many immigrants to the
district; but the opening up of the quartz reefs in 1872 was the
principal factor in the importance of Bendigo. It became a municipality
in 1855 and a city in 1871. It is the seat of Anglican and Roman
Catholic bishops. Besides mining, the local industries are the
manufacture of Epsom pottery, bricks and tiles, iron-founding,
stone-cutting, brewing, tanning and coach-building. The surrounding
district produces quantities of wheat and fruits for export, and much
excellent wine is made.
BENDL, KAREL or KARL (1838-1897), Bohemian composer, was born on the
16th of April 1838 at Prague. He studied at the organ school, and in
1858 had already composed a number of small choral works. In 1861 his
_Poletuje holubice_ won a prize and at once became a favourite with the
local choral societies. In 1864 Bendl went to Brussels, where for a
short time he held the post of second conductor of the opera. After
visiting Amsterdam and Paris he returned to Prague. Here in 1865 he was
appointed conductor of the choral society known as _Hlahoe_, and he held
the post until 1879, when Baron Dervies engaged his services for his
private band. Bendl's first opera _Lejla_ was successfully produced in
1868. It was followed by _Bretislav a Jitka_ (1870), _Stary Zenich_, a
comic opera (1883), _Karel Skreta_ (1883), _Dite Tabera_, a prize opera
(1892), and _Matki Mila_ (1891). Other operas by Bendl are _Indicka
princezna, Cernohorci_, a prize opera, and the two operas _Carovny Kvet_
and _Gina_. His ballad _Svanda dudak_ acquired much popularity; he
published a mass in D minor for male voices and another mass for a mixed
choir; two songs to _Ave Maria_; a violin sonata and a string quartet in
F; and a quantity of songs and choruses, many of which have come to be
regarded as national possessions of Bohemia. Bendl died on the 20th of
September 1897 at Prague.
BENEDEK, LUDWIG, RITTER VON (1804-1881), Austrian general, was born at
Odenburg in Hungary on the 14th of July 1804, his father being a doctor.
He received his commission in the Austrian army as ensign in 1822,
becoming lieutenant in 1825, first lieutenant in 1831 and captain in
1835. He was employed for a considerable time in the general staff, and
had risen to the rank of colonel, when he won his first laurels in the
suppression of the rising of 1846 in Galicia (see AUSTRIA: _History_).
In this campaign his bold leadership in the field and his capacity for
organization were so far conspicuous that he was made a _Ritter_
(knight) of the Leopold order by his sovereign, and a freeman
(_Ehrenburger_) by the city of Lemberg. In 1847 he commanded a regiment
in Italy, and on the outbreak of war with Sardinia he was placed in
command of a mixed brigade, at the head of which he displayed against
regular troops the same qualities of unhesitating bravery and resolution
which had given him the victory in many actions with the Galician
rebels. His conduct at Curtatone won for him the commandership of the
Leopold order, and shortly afterwards the knighthood of the Maria
Theresa order. At the action of Mortara his tactical skill and bravery
were again conspicuous, and Radetzky particularly distinguished him in
despatches. The archduke Albert, with whom he served, is said to have
given him the sword of his father, the great archduke Charles. He was
promoted major-general soon afterwards over the heads of several
colonels senior to him, and was sent as a brigade commander to Hungary.
Again he was distinguished as a fighting general at Raab, Komorn,
Szegedin and many other actions, and was three times wounded. Benedek
then received the cross for military merit, and soon afterwards was
posted to the staff of the army in Italy. In 1852 he was made lieutenant
field marshal, and in 1857 commander successively of the II., the IV.
and the VIII. corps, and also a _Geheimrath_. In the political crisis of
1854 he had command of a corps in the army of observation under Hess on
the Turkish frontier. In the war of 1859 in Italy, Benedek commanded the
VIII. corps, and at the battle of Solferino was in command of the right
of the Austrian position. That portion of the struggle which was fought
out between Benedek and the Piedmontese army is sometimes called the
battle of San Martino. Benedek, with magnificent gallantry, held his own
all day, and in the end covered the retreat of the rest of the Austrian
army to the Mincio. His reward was the commandership of the order of
Maria Theresa, and Vienna and many other cities followed the example of
Lemberg in 1846. His reputation was now at its highest, and his great
popularity was enhanced, in the prevailing discontent with the
reactionary and clerical government of previous years, by the fact that
he was a Protestant and not of noble birth. He was promoted
_Feldzeugmeister_ and in 1860 appointed quartermaster-general to the
army, and soon afterwards governor-general and commander-in-chief in
Hungary, in succession to the archduke Albert. In 1861 he was made
commander-in-chief in Venetia and the adjoining provinces of the empire,
and in the following year he received the grand cross of the Leopold
order. In 1864 he resigned the quartermaster-generalship and devoted
himself exclusively to the command of the army in Italy. In 1861 he had
been made a life-member of the house of peers. In 1866 war with Prussia
and with Italy became imminent. Benedek was appointed to command the
Army of the North against the Prussians, the control of affairs in Italy
being taken over by the archduke Albert. For the story of the campaign
of Koniggratz, in which the Austrians under Benedek's command were
decisively defeated, see SEVEN WEEKS' WAR. Benedek took over his new
command as a stranger to the country and to the troops. Only the
personal command of the emperor and the requests of the archduke Albert
prevailed upon him to "sacrifice his honour," as he himself said, in a
task for which he felt himself ill prepared. When he took the field his
despondency was increased by the passive obstruction which he met with
amongst his own officers, many of whom resented being placed under a man
of the middle class instead of the archduke Albert, and by the general
state of unpreparedness which he found existing at the front. Further,
his own staff was self-willed to the verge of disloyalty, and his
assistants, Lieutenant Field Marshal von Henikstein, and Major-General
Krismanic in particular, endeavoured to control Benedek's operations in
the spirit of the 18th-century strategists. Under these circumstances,
and against the superior numbers, _moral_ and armament of the Prussians,
the Austrians were foredoomed to defeat. A series of partial actions
convinced Benedek that success was unattainable, and he telegraphed to
the emperor advising him to make peace; the emperor refused on the
ground that no decisive battle had been fought; Benedek, thereupon,
instead of retreating across the Elbe, determined to bring on a decisive
engagement, and took up a position with the whole of his forces near
Koniggratz with the Elbe in his rear. Here he was completely defeated by
the Prussians on the 3rd of July, but they could not prevent him from
making good his retreat over the river in magnificent order on the
evening of the battle. He conducted the operations of his army in
retreat up to the great concentration at Vienna under the archduke
Albert, and was then suspended from his command and a court-martial
ordered; the emperor, however, in December determined that the inquiry
should be stopped. Benedek from this time lived in absolute retirement,
and having given his word of honour to the archduke Albert that he would
not attempt to rehabilitate himself before the world, he published no
defence of his conduct, and even destroyed his papers relating to the
campaign of 1866. This attitude of self-sacrificing loyalty he
maintained even when on the 8th of November 1866 the official _Wiener
Zeitung_ published an article in which he was made responsible for all
the disasters of the war. The history of the campaign from the Austrian
point of view as at present known leaves much unexplained, and the
published material is primarily of a controversial character. The
official _Osterreichs Kampfe_ speaks of the unfortunate general in the
following terms: "A career full of achievements, distinction and fame
deserved a less tragic close. A dispassionate judgment will not forget
the ever fortunate and successful deeds which he accomplished earlier in
the service of the emperor, and will ensure for him, in spite of his
last heavy misfortune (_Last_), an honourable memory." Praise of his
earlier career could not well be denied, and the official history is
careful not to extend its eulogy to cover the events of 1866; the
recognition in these words cannot therefore be set against the general
opinion of subsequent critics that Benedek was the victim of political
necessities, perhaps of court intrigues. For the rest of his life
Benedek lived at Graz, where he died on the 27th of April 1881.
See H. Friedjung, _Benedeks nachgelassene Papiere_ (Leipzig, 1901, 3rd
and enlarged ed., 1904), and _Der Kampf um die Vorherrschaft in
Deutschland 1859-1866_ (Stuttgart, 1897, 6th ed., 1904); v.
Schlichtling, _Moltke und Benedek_ (Berlin, 1900), also therewith A.
Krauss, _Moltke, Benedek und Napoleon_ (Vienna, 1901); and a _roman a
cle_ by Grafin Salburg, entitled _Konigsglaube_ (Dresden, 1906). The
brief memoir in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ represents the court
view of Benedek's case.
BENEDETTI, VINCENT, COUNT (1817-1900), French diplomatist, was born at
Bastia, in the island of Corsica, on the 29th of April 1817. In the year
1840 he entered the service of the French foreign office, and was
appointed to a post under the marquis de la Valette, who was
consul-general at Cairo. He spent eight years in Egypt, being appointed
consul in 1845; in 1848 he was made consul at Palermo, and in 1851 he
accompanied the marquis, who had been appointed ambassador at
Constantinople, as first secretary. For fifteen months during the
progress of the Crimean War he acted as charge d'affaires. In the second
volume of his essays he gives some recollections of his experiences in
the East, including an account of Mehemet Ali, and a (not very friendly)
sketch of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. In 1855, after refusing the post
of minister at Teheran, he was employed in the foreign office at Paris,
and acted as secretary to the congress at Paris (1855-1856). During the
next few years he was chiefly occupied with Italian affairs, in which he
was much interested, and Cavour said of him he was an Italian at heart.
He was chosen in 1861 to be the first envoy of France to the king of
Italy, but he resigned his post next year on the retirement of E.A.
Thouvenel, who had been his patron, when the anti-Italian party began to
gain the ascendancy at Paris. In 1864 he was appointed ambassador at the
court of Prussia.
Benedetti remained in Berlin till the outbreak of war in 1870, and
during these years he played an important part in the diplomatic history
of Europe. His position was a difficult one, for Napoleon did not keep
him fully informed as to the course of French policy. In 1866, during
the critical weeks which followed the attempt of Napoleon to intervene
between Prussia and Austria, he accompanied the Prussian headquarters in
the advance on Vienna, and during a visit to Vienna he helped to arrange
the preliminaries of the armistice signed at Nikolsburg. It was after
this that he was instructed to present to Bismarck French demands for
"compensation," and in August, after his return to Berlin, as a result
of his discussions with Bismarck a draft treaty was drawn up, in which
Prussia promised France her support in the annexation of Belgium. This
treaty was never concluded, but the draft, which was in Benedetti's
handwriting, was kept by Bismarck and, in 1870, a few days after the
outbreak of the war, was published by him in _The Times_. During 1867
Benedetti was much occupied with the affair of Luxemburg. In July 1870,
when the candidature of the prince of Hohenzollern for the throne of
Spain became known, Benedetti was instructed by the duc de Gramont to
present to the king of Prussia, who was then at Ems, the French demands,
that the king should order the prince to withdraw, and afterwards that
the king should promise that the candidature would never be renewed.
This last demand Benedetti submitted to the king in an informal meeting
on the promenade at Ems, and the misleading reports of the conversation
which were circulated were the immediate cause of the war which
followed, for the Germans were led to believe that Benedetti had
insulted the king, and the French that the king had insulted the
ambassador. Benedetti was severely attacked in his own country for his
conduct as ambassador, and the duc de Gramont attempted to throw upon
him the blame for the failures of French diplomacy. He answered the
charges brought against him in a book, _Ma Mission en Prusse_ (Paris,
1871), which still remains one of the most valuable authorities for the
study of Bismarck's diplomacy. In this Benedetti successfully defends
himself, and shows that he had kept his government well informed; he had
even warned them a year before as to the proposed Hohenzollern
candidature. Even if he had been outwitted by Bismarck in the matter of
the treaty of 1866, the policy of the treaty was not his, but was that
of E. Drouyn de Lluys. The idea of the annexation of part of Belgium to
France had been suggested to him first by Bismarck; and the use to which
Bismarck put the draft was not one which he could be expected to
anticipate, for he had carried on the negotiations in good faith. After
the fall of the Empire he retired to Corsica. He lived to see his
defence confirmed by later publications, which threw more light on the
secret history of the times. He published in 1895 a volume of _Essais
diplomatiques_, containing a full account of his mission to Ems, written
in 1873; and in 1897 a second series dealing with the Eastern question.
He died on the 28th of March 1900, while on a visit to Paris. He
received the title of count from Napoleon.
See Rothan, _La Politique Francaise en 1866_ (Paris, 1879); and
_L'Affaire de Luxemburg_ (Paris, 1881); Sorel, _Histoire diplomatique_
(Paris, 1875); Sybel, Die Begrundung des deutschen Reiches (Munich,
1889), &c. (J. W. He.)
BENEDICT (BENEDICTUS), the name taken by fourteen of the popes.
BENEDICT I. was pope from 573 to 578. He succeeded John III., and
occupied the papal chair during the incursions of the Lombards, and
during the series of plagues and famines which followed these invasions.
BENEDICT II. was pope from 684 to 685. He succeeded Leo II., but
although chosen in 683 he was not ordained till 684, because the leave
of the emperor Constantine was not obtained until some months after the
election.
BENEDICT III. was pope from 855 to 858. He was chosen by the clergy and
people of Rome, but the election was not confirmed by the emperor, Louis
II., who appointed an anti-pope, Anastasius (the librarian). But the
candidature of this person, who had been deposed from the presbyterate
under Leo IV., was indefensible. The imperial government at length
recognized Benedict and discontinued its opposition, with the result
that he was at last successful. The mythical pope Joan is usually placed
between Benedict and his predecessor, Leo IV.
BENEDICT IV. was pope from 900 to 903.
BENEDICT V. was pope from 964 to 965. He was elected by the Romans on
the death of John XII. The emperor Otto I. did not approve of the
choice, and carried off the pope to Hamburg, where he died.
BENEDICT VI. was pope from 972 to 974. He was chosen with great ceremony
and installed pope under the protection of the emperor, Otto the Great.
On the death of the emperor the turbulent citizens of Rome renewed their
outrages, and the pope himself was strangled by order of Crescentius,
the son of the notorious Theodora, who replaced him by a deacon called
Franco. This Franco took the name of Boniface VII.
BENEDICT VII. was pope from 974 to 983. He was elected through the
intervention of a representative of the emperor, Count Sicco, who drove
out the intruded Franco (afterwards Pope Boniface VII.). Benedict
governed Rome quietly for nearly nine years, a somewhat rare thing in
those days.
BENEDICT VIII., pope from 1012 to 1024, was called originally
Theophylactus. He was a member of the family of the count of Tusculum,
and was opposed by an anti-pope, Gregory, but defeated him with the aid
of King Henry II. of Saxony, whom he crowned emperor in 1014. In his
pontificate the Saracens began to attack the southern coasts of Europe,
and effected a settlement in Sardinia. The Normans also then began to
settle in Italy. In Italy Benedict supported the policy of the emperor,
Henry II., and at the council of Pavia (1022) exerted himself in favour
of ecclesiastical discipline, then in a state of great decadence.
BENEDICT IX., pope from 1033 to 1056, son of Alberic, count of Tusculum,
and nephew of Benedict VIII., was also called Theophylactus. He was
installed pope at the age of twelve through the influence of his father.
The disorders of his conduct, though tolerated by the emperors, Conrad
II. and Henry III., who were then morally responsible for the
pontificate, at length disgusted the Romans, who drove him out in 1044
and appointed Silvester III. his successor. Silvester remained in the
papal chair but a few weeks, as the people of Tusculum quickly recovered
their influence and reinstated their pope. Benedict, however, was
obliged to bow before the execration of the Romans. He sold his rights
to his godfather, the priest Johannes Gratianus, who was installed under
the name of Gregory VI. (1045). The following year Henry III. obtained
at the council of Sutri the deposition of the three competing popes, and
replaced them by Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who took the name of
Clement II. But before the close of 1047 Clement II. died, probably from
poison administered by Benedict, who was reinstalled for the third time.
At last, on the 17th of July 1048, the marquis of Tuscany drove him from
Rome, where he was never seen again. He lived several years after his
expulsion and appears to have died impenitent.
BENEDICT X. (Johannes "Mincius," i.e. the lout or dolt, bishop of
Velletri) was pope from 1058 to 1059. He was elected on the death of
Stephen IX. through the influence of the Roman barons, who, however, had
pledged themselves to take no action without Hildebrand, who was then
absent from Rome. Hildebrand did not recognize him, and put forward an
opposition pope in the person of Gerard, bishop of Florence (pope as
Nicholas II.), whom he supported against the Roman aristocracy. With the
help of the Normans, Hildebrand seized the castle of Galeria, where
Benedict had taken refuge, and degraded him to the rank of a simple
priest. (L. D.*)
BENEDICT XI. (Niccolo Boccasini), pope from 1303 to 1304, the son of a
notary, was born in 1240 at Treviso. Entering the Dominican order in
1254, he became lector, prior of the convent, provincial of his order in
Lombardy, and in 1296 its general. In 1298 he was created cardinal
priest of Santa Sabina, and in 1300 cardinal bishop of Ostia and
Velletri. In 1302 he was papal legate in Hungary. On the 22nd of October
1303 he was unanimously elected pope. He did much to conciliate the
enemies made by his predecessor Boniface VIII., notably France, the
Colonnas and King Frederick II. of Sicily; nevertheless on the 7th of
June 1304 he excommunicated William of Nogaret and all the Italians who
had captured Boniface in Anagni. Benedict died at Perugia on the 7th of
July 1304; if he was really poisoned, as report had it, suspicion would
fall primarily on Nogaret. His successor Clement V. transferred the
papal residence to Avignon. Among Benedict's works are commentaries on
part of the Psalms and on the Gospel of Matthew. His beatification took
place in 1733.
See C. Grandjean, "Registres de Benoit XI." (Paris, 1883 ff.),
_Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome._
BENEDICT XII. (Jacques Fournier), pope from 1334 to 1342, the son of a
miller, was born at Saverdun on the Arriege. Entering the Cistercian
cloister Bolbonne, and graduating doctor of theology at Paris, he became
in 1311 abbot of Fontfroide, in 1317 bishop of Pamiers and in 1326 of
Mirepoix. Created cardinal priest of Santa Prisca in 1327 by his uncle
John XXII. he was elected his successor on the 20th of December 1334.
Benedict made appointments carefully, reformed monastic orders and
consistently opposed nepotism. Unable to remove his capital to Rome or
to Bologna, he began to erect a great palace at Avignon. In 1336 he
decided against a pet notion of John XXII. by saying that souls of
saints may attain the fulness of the beatific vision _before_ the last
judgment. In 1339 he entered upon fruitless negotiations looking toward
the reunion of the Greek and Roman churches. French influence made
futile his attempt to come to an understanding with the emperor Louis
the Bavarian. He died on the 25th of April 1342.
See the source publications of G. Daumet (_Lettres closes, patentes et
curiales_, ... Paris, 1899 ff.), and J.-M. Vidal (_Lettres communes_,
... Paris, 1903 ff.). (W. W. R.*)
BENEDICT XIII. (Pedro de Luna), (c. 1328-1422 or 1423), anti-pope,
belonged to one of the most noble families in Aragon. His high birth,
his legal learning--he was for a long time professor of canon law at
Montpellier--and the irreproachable purity of his life, recommended him
to Pope Gregory XI, who created him cardinal in 1375. He was almost the
only one who succeeded in making a firm stand in the tumultuous
conclave of 1378; but the deliberation with which he made up his mind as
to the validity of the election of Urban VI. was equalled, when he took
the side of Clement VII., by the ardour and resourcefulness which he
displayed in defending the cause of the pope of Avignon; it was mainly
to him that the latter owed his recognition by Castile, Aragon and
Navarre. When elected pope, or rather anti-pope, by the cardinals of
Avignon, on the 28th of September 1394, it was he who by his astuteness,
his resolution, and, it may be added, by his unswerving faith in the
justice of his cause, was to succeed in prolonging the lamentable schism
of the West for thirty years. The hopes he had aroused that, by a
voluntary abdication, he would restore unity to the church, were vain;
though called upon by the princes of France to carry out his plan,
abandoned by his cardinals, besieged and finally kept under close
observation in the palace of the popes (1398-1403), he stood firm, and
tired out the fury of his opponents. Escaping from Avignon, he again won
obedience in France, and his one thought was how to triumph over his
Italian rival, if necessary, by force. He yielded, however, to the
instances of the government of Charles VI., and pretending that he
wished to have an interview with Gregory XII., with a view to their
simultaneous abdication, he advanced to Savona, and then to Porto
Venere. The failure of these negotiations, for which he was only in part
responsible, led to the universal movement of indignation and
impatience, which ended, in France, in the declaration of neutrality
(1408), and at Pisa, in the decree of deposition against the two
pontiffs (1409). Benedict XIII., who had on his part tried to call
together a council at Perpignan, was by this time recognized hardly
anywhere but in his native land, in Scotland, and in the estates of the
countship of Armagnac. He remained none the less full of energy and of
illusions, repulsed the overtures of Sigismund, king of the Romans, who
had come to Perpignan to persuade him to abdicate, and, abandoned by
nearly all his adherents, he took refuge in the impregnable castle of
Peniscola, on a rock dominating the Mediterranean (1415). The council of
Constance then deposed him, as a perjurer, an incurable schismatic and a
heretic (26th July 1417). After struggling with the popes of Rome, Urban
VI., Boniface IX., Innocent VII. and Gregory XII., and against the popes
of Pisa, Alexander V. and John XXIII., Pedro de Luna, clinging more than
ever to that apostolic seat which he still professed not to desire,
again took up the struggle against Martin V., although the latter was
recognized throughout almost all Christendom, and, before his death
(29th November 1422, or 23rd May 1423), he nominated four new cardinals
in order to carry the schism on even after him.
See Fr. Ehrle, _Archiv fur Lit. und Kirchengesch._ vols. v., vi.,
vii.; N. Valois, _La France et le grand schisme d'occident_ (4 vols.,
Paris, 1896-1902); Fr. Ehrle, "Martin de Alpartils chronica
actitatorum temporibus domini Benedicti XIII." (_Quellen und
Forschungen aus dem Geb. der Gesch._, Gorres-Gesellschaft, Paderborn,
1906). (N. V.)
BENEDICT XIII. (Piero Francesco Orsini), pope from 1724 to 1730, at
first styled Benedict XIV., was born on the 2nd of February 1649, of the
ducal family of Orsini-Gravina. In 1667 he became a Dominican (as
Vincentius Maria), studied theology and philosophy, was made a cardinal
in 1672 and archbishop of Benevento in 1686. Elected pope on the 29th of
May 1724, he attempted to reform clerical morals; but neither the
decrees of the Latin council (1725) nor his personal precepts had much
effect. He confirmed the bull _Unigenitus_; but, despite the Jesuits,
allowed the Dominicans to preach the Augustinian doctrine of grace.
State affairs he left entirely to the unpopular Cardinal Nicolo Coscia.
He died on the 21st of February 1730. His works, were published in 3
vols. at Ravenna in 1728.
BENEDICT XIV. (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), pope from 1740 to 1758, was
born at Bologna on the 31st of March 1675. At the age of thirteen he
entered the Collegium Clementinum at Rome. He served the Curia in many
and important capacities, yet devoted his leisure time to theological
and canonistic study. Benedict XIII. made him archbishop of Theodosia
_in partibus_, then of Ancona (1727), and the next year created him
cardinal priest. In 1731 Clement XII. translated him to his native city
of Bologna, where as archbishop he was both efficient and popular. He
published valuable works, notably _De servorum Dei beatificatione et
canonizatione, De sacrificio missae_, as well as a treatise on the
feasts of Christ and the Virgin and of some saints honoured in Bologna.
In a conclave which had lasted for months he was elected on the 17th of
August 1740 the successor of Clement XII. Benedict XIV. was not merely
earnest and conscientious, but of incisive intellect, and unfailingly
cheerful and witty. In several respects he bettered the economic
conditions of the papal states, but was disinclined to undertake the
needed thorough-going reform of its administration. In foreign politics
he made important concessions to Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, Spain, and
was the first pope expressly to recognize the king of Prussia as such.
In 1741 he issued the bull _Immensa pastorum principis_, demanding more
humane treatment for the Indians of Brazil and Paraguay, and in the
bulls _Ex quo singulari_ (1742) and _Omnium sollicitudinum_ (1744) he
rebuked the missionary methods of the Jesuits in accommodating their
message to the heathen usages of the Chinese and of the natives of
Malabar. In accord with the spirit of the age he reduced the number of
holy days in several Catholic countries. To the end of his life he kept
up his studies and his intercourse with other scholars, and founded
several learned societies. His masterpiece, _Libri octo de synoda
diocesana_, begun in Bologna, appeared during his pontificate. He died
on the 3rd of May 1758.
His works, published in twelve quarto volumes at Rome (1747-1751),
appeared in more nearly complete editions at Venice in 1767 and at
Prato, 1839-1846; also _Briefe Benedicts XIV._, ed. F.X. Kraus (2nd
ed., Freiburg, 1888); _Benedicti XIV. Papae opera inedita_, ed. F.
Heiner (Freiburg, 1904). See Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_, ii. 572
ff.; Wetzer and Welter, _Kirchenlexikon_, ii. 317 ff. (W. W. R.*)
BENEDICT OF ALIGNAN (d. 1268), Benedictine abbot of Notre Dame de la
Grasse (1224) and bishop of Marseilles (1229), twice visited the Holy
Land (1239 and 1260), where he helped the Templars build the great
castle of Safet. He founded a short-lived order, the Brothers of the
Virgin, suppressed by the council of Lyons (1274), and died a
Franciscan. His writings include a letter to Innocent IV. and _De
constructione Castri Saphet_ (Baluze, _Miscellanea_, ii.).