Ethnology.
the name under which are included the various branches of the
indigenous "Libyan" race of North Africa. Since the dawn of history the
Berbers have occupied the tract between the Mediterranean and the Sahara
from Egypt to the Atlantic. The origin of the name is doubtful. Some
believe it to be derived from the word [Greek: barbaroi] (barbarians),
employed first by the Greeks and later by the Romans. Others attribute
the first use of the term to the Arab conquerors. However this may be,
tribal titles, _Barabara_ and _Beraberata_, appear in Egyptian
inscriptions of 1700 and 1300 B.C., and the Berbers were probably
intimately related with the Egyptians in very early times. Thus the true
ethnical name may have become confused with _Barbari_, the designation
naturally used by classical conquerors. To the Egyptians they were known
as "Lebu," "Mashuasha," "Tamahu," "Tehennu" and "Kahaka"; a long list of
names is found in Herodotus, and the Romans called them Numidae, Gaetuli
and Mauri, terms which have been derived respectively from the Greek
[Greek: nomades] (nomads), the name Gued'oula, of a great Berber tribe,
and the Hebrew _mahur_ (western). To speak of more modern times there
can be enumerated the Zouaoua and Jebalia (Tripoli and Tunisia); the
Chauwia, Kabyles and Beni-Mzab (Algeria); the Shluh (Chlouah), Amazigh
and Berbers (Morocco); the Tuareg, Arnoshagh, Sorgu, &c. (Sahara).
These tribes have many sub-tribes, each with a distinctive name. Among
the Azgar, an important division of the Tuareg, one of the noble or free
tribes, styled Aouraghen, is said to descend from a tribe named Avrigha.
The Avrigha, or Afrigha, in ancient times occupied the coast lands near
Carthage, and some scholars derive the word Africa from their name (see
AFRICA, ROMAN). In regard to the ethnic relations of the Berbers there
has been much dispute. The antiquity of their type is evidenced by the
monuments of Egypt, where their ancestors are pictured with the same
comparatively blond features which many of them still display. The
aborigines of the Canary Islands, the Guanches, would seem almost
certainly, from the remains of their language, to have been Berbers. But
the problem of the actual origin of the Berber race has not yet been
solved. Perhaps the most satisfactory theory is that of Sergi, who
includes the Berbers in the "Mediterranean Race." General L.L.C.
Faidherbe regards them as indigenous Libyans mingled with a fair-skinned
people of European origin. Dr Franz Pruner-Bey, Henri Duveyrier and
Prof. Flinders Petrie maintain that they are closely related to the
ancient Egyptians. Connexion has been traced between the early Libyan
race and the Cro-Magnon and other early European races and, later, the
Basque peoples, Iberians, Picts, Celts and Gauls. The megalithic
monuments of Iberia and Celtic Europe have their counterparts in
northern Africa, and it is suggested that these were all erected by the
same race, by whatever name they be known, Berbers and Libyans in
Africa, Iberians in Spain, Celts, Gauls and Picts in France and Britain.
Characteristics.
In spite of a history of foreign conquest--Phoenician, Greek, Roman,
Vandal, Arab and French--the Berber physical type and the Berber
temperament and nationality have persisted since the stone age. The
numerous invasions have naturally introduced a certain amount of foreign
blood among the tribes fringing the Mediterranean, but those farther
inland have preserved their racial purity to a surprising degree. Though
considerable individual differences of type may be found in every
village, the Berbers are distinctively a "white" race, and the majority
would, if clad in European costume, pass unchallenged as Europeans. Dark
hair and brown or hazel eyes are the rule; blue-eyed blonds are found,
but their frequency has been considerably overstated. The invaders who
have most affected the Berber race are the Arabs, but the two races,
with a common religion, often a common government, with the same tribal
groupings, have failed to amalgamate to any great extent. This fact has
been emphasized by Dr R.G. Latham, who writes: "All that is not Arabic
in the kingdom of Morocco, all that is not Arabic in the French
provinces of Algeria, and all that is not Arabic in Tunis, Tripoli and
Fezzan, is Berber." The explanation lies in a profound distinction of
character. The Arab is a herdsman and a nomad; the Berber is an
agriculturist and a townsman. The Arab has built his social structure on
the Koran, which inculcates absolutism, aristocracy, theocracy; the
Berber, despite his nominal Mahommedanism, is a democrat, with his
_Jemaa_ or "Witangemot" and his _Kanum_ or unwritten code, the Magna
Carta of the individual's liberty as opposed to the community's good.
The _Kanum_ forbids no sort of exercise of individual will, so long as
it is not inimical to the right or rights of other individuals. The
Arabizing of the Berbers is indeed limited to little beyond the
conversion of the latter to Islam. The Arab, transported to a soil which
does not always suit him, so far from thriving, tends to disappear,
whereas the Berber becomes more and more aggressive, and yearly
increases in numbers. At present he forms at least three-fifths of the
population in Algeria, and in Morocco the proportion is greater. The
difference between the Berber and the Arab of the Barbary States is
summed up by Dr Randall MacIver in the following words:--"The Berber
gives the impression of being, as he is, the descendant of men who have
lived in sturdy independence, self-governing and self-reliant. The Arab
is the degenerate offspring of a race which only from its history and
past records can claim any title to respect. Cringing, venal,
avaricious, dishonest, the Arab combines all the faults of a vicious
nature with those which a degraded religion inculcates or encourages.
The Berber, on the other hand, is straightforward, honest, by no means
averse to money-making, but not unscrupulous in the methods which he
employs to this end, intelligent in a degree to which the ordinary Arab
never approaches, and trustworthy as no Arab can be."
Government.
The Berber's village is his state, and the government is vested in an
assembly, the _Jemaa_, formed of all males old enough to observe the
fast of Ramadan. By them are determined all matters of peace or war,
legislation, taxation and justice. The executive officer is the _Amin_,
a kind of mayor, elected from some influential family in which the
dignity is often in practice hereditary. He owes his position to the
good-will of his fellows, receives no remuneration, and resigns as soon
as he loses the confidence of the people. By him are appointed certain
_Temman_ (sing. _Tamen_) who act as overseers, though without executive
powers, in the various quarters of the village. The poorest Berber has
as great a voice in affairs as the richest. The undue power of the
_Jemaa_ is checked by vendetta and a sort of lynch law, and by the
formation of parties (_sofs_), within or without the assembly, for
trade, political and other purposes. The Berbers are a warlike people
who have never been completely subjugated. Every boy as soon as he
reaches sixteen is brought into the _Jemaa_ and given weapons which he
carries till he is sixty. Though each village is absolutely independent
as far as its internal affairs are concerned, two or more are often
connected by administrative ties to form an _Arsh_ or tribe. A number of
these tribes form a _Thakebilt_ or confederation, which is an extremely
loose organization. An exception to this form of government is
constituted by the Tuareg, whose organization, owing to their peculiar
circumstances of life, is monarchical. Wars are declared by special
messengers; the exchange of sticks or guns renders an armistice
inviolable. In some tribes a tablet, on which is inscribed the name of
every man fit to bear arms, is placed in the mosque. The Berbers, though
Mahommedans, do not often observe the prescribed ablutions; they break
their fast at Ramadan; and eat wild boar's flesh and drink fig brandy.
On the other hand, saints, both male and female, are paid more reverence
by Berbers than by Arabs. Around their tombs their descendants settle,
and thus sacred villages, often of considerable size, spring up. Almost
every village, too, has its saint or prophet, and disputes as to their
relative sanctity and powers cause fierce feuds. The hereditary caste
known as Marabouts are frequently in open opposition to the absolute
authority of the _Jemaa_. They are possessed of certain privileges, such
as exemption from the chief taxes and the duty of bearing arms. They,
however, often take a foremost part in tribal administration, and are
frequently called upon to perform the office of arbitrators in questions
of disputed policy, &c. In the _Jemaa_, too, the Marabout at times takes
the place of honour and keeps order. The Berbers, if irreligious, are
very superstitious, never leaving their homes without exorcizing evil
spirits, and have a good and evil interpretation for every day of the
week. Many Berbers still retain certain Christian and Jewish usages,
relics of the pre-Islamitic days in North Africa, but of their primitive
religion there is no trace. They are seldom good scholars, but those
under French rule take all the advantage they can of the schools
instituted by the government. Their social tendencies are distinctly
communistic; property is often owned by the family in common, and a man
can call upon the services of his fellow villagers for certain purposes,
as the building of a house. Provision for the poor is often made by the
community.
Customs.
The dress of the Berbers was formerly made of home-woven cloth, and the
manufacture of woollen stuffs has always been one of the chief
occupations of their women. The men wear a tunic reaching to the knees,
the women a longer garment. For work the men use a leather apron, and in
the cold season and in travelling a burnous, usually a family heirloom,
old and ragged; the women, in winter, throw a coloured cloth over their
shoulders. The men's hair is cut short but their beards are allowed to
grow. In some districts there are peculiar customs, such as the wearing
of small silver nose-rings, seen in El-Jofra. The Berbers' weapons are
those of the Arab: the long straight sword, the slightly curved and
highly ornamented dagger, and the long gun. Berbers are not great
town-builders. Their villages, however, are often of substantial
appearance: with houses of untrimmed stones, occasionally with two
storeys, built on hills, and invariably defended by a bank, a stone wall
or a hedge. Sometimes their homes are mere huts of turf, or of clay
tiles, with mortar made from lime and clay or cow-dung. The sloping roof
is covered with reeds, straw or stones. The living room is on the right,
the cattle-stall on the left. The dwelling is surrounded by a garden or
small field of grain. The second storey is not added till a son marries.
In the villages of the western Atlas the greater part of the upper
storey consists of a sort of rough verandah. In this mountain district
the natives spend the winter in vaults beneath the houses, and, for the
sake of warmth, the tenements are built very close. Agriculture, which
is carried on even in the mountain districts by means of laboriously
constructed terraces, is antiquated in its methods. The plough, often
replaced on the steeper slopes by the hoe, is similar to that depicted
in ancient Egyptian drawings, and hand irrigation is usual. A sickle,
toothed like a saw, is used for reaping. Corn is trodden by oxen, and
kept in osier baskets narrowing to the top, or clay granaries. The
staple crop is barley, but wheat, lentils, vetches, flax and gourds are
also cultivated. Tobacco, maize and potatoes have been introduced; and
the aloe and prickly pear, called in Morocco the Christian fig, are also
found. The Kabyles understand grafting, have fine orchards and grow
vines. The Beni-Abbas tribe in the Algerian Atlas is famed for its
walnuts, and many tribes keep bees, chiefly for the commercial value of
the wax. The Berber diet largely consists of cucumbers, gourds,
water-melons and onions, and a small artichoke (_Cynara humilis_) which
grows wild. At the beginning and end of their meal they drink a strongly
sweetened liquid made from green tea and mint. Tea-drinking probably
became a habit in Morocco about the beginning of the 19th century;
coffee came by way of Algiers. At feasts the food is served on large
earthenware dishes with high basket-work covers, like bee-skeps but
twice as high.
Industries.
The Berbers have many industries. They mine and work iron, lead and
copper. They have olive presses and flour mills, and their own millstone
quarries, even travelling into Arab districts to build mills for the
Arabs. They make lime, tiles, woodwork for the houses, domestic utensils
and agricultural implements. They weave and dye several kinds of cloth,
tan and dress leather and manufacture oil and soap. Without the
assistance of the wheel the women produce a variety of pottery utensils,
often of very graceful design, and decorated with patterns in red and
black. Whole tribes, such as the Beni-Sliman, are occupied in the iron
trade; the Beni-Abbas made firearms before the French conquest, and even
cannon are said to have been made by boring. Before it was proscribed by
the French, the manufacture of gunpowder was general. The native
jewellers make excellent ornaments in silver, coral and enamel. In some
places wood-carving has been brought to considerable perfection; and
native artists know how to engrave on metal both by etching and the
burin. In its collective industry the Berber race is far superior to the
Arab. The Berbers are keen traders too, and, after the harvest, hawk
small goods, travelling great distances.
Women.
A Berber woman has in many ways a better position than her Arab sister.
True, her birth is regarded as an event of no moment, while that of a
boy is celebrated by great rejoicings, and his mother acquires the right
to wear on her forehead the _tafzint_, a mark which only the women who
have borne an heir can assume. Her husband buys and can dismiss her at
will. She has most of the hard work to do, and is little better than a
servant. When she is old and past work, especially if she has not been
the mother of a male child, she is often abandoned. But she has a voice
in public affairs; she has laws to protect her, manages the household
and goes unveiled; she has a right to the money she earns; she can
inherit under wills, and bequeath property, though to avoid the
alienation of real property, succession to it is denied her. But most
characteristic of her social position is the Berber woman's right to
enter into a sacred bond or agreement, represented by the giving of the
_anaya_. This is some symbolic object, stick or what not, which passes
between the parties to a contract, the obligations under which, if not
fulfilled by the contracting parties during their lives, become
hereditary. Female saints, too, are held in high honour; and the Berber
pays his wife the compliment of monogamy. The Kabyle women have stood
side by side with their husbands in battle. Among many Berber tribes the
law of inheritance is such that the eldest daughter's son succeeds.
South of Morocco proper, Gerhard Rohlfs, who travelled extensively in
the region (c. 1861-1867), states that a Berber religious corporation,
the _Savia Kartas_, was ruled over by a woman, the chief's wife. The
Berbers consult their women in many matters, and only one woman is
really held in low esteem. She, curiously, is the _kuata_ or
"go-between," even though her services are only employed in the
respectable task of arranging marriages. Berber women are intelligent
and hard-working, and, when young, very pretty and graceful. The
Berbers, unlike the Arabs, do not admire fat women. Among the Kabyles
the adulteress is put to death, as are those women who have illegitimate
children, the latter suffering with their mothers.
Language.
Though Arabic has to a considerable extent displaced the Berber
language, the latter is still spoken by millions of people from Egypt to
the Atlantic and from the Mediterranean to the Sudan. It is spoken
nowhere else, though, as has been said, place-names in the Canary
Islands and other remains of the aboriginal language there prove it to
have been the native tongue. Although the Berber tongue shows a certain
affinity with Semitic in the construction both of its words and
sentences Berber is quite distinct from the Semitic languages; and a
remarkable fact is that in spite of the enormous space over which the
dialects are spread and the thousands of years that some of the Berber
peoples have been isolated from the rest, these dialects show but slight
differences from the long-extinct Hamitic speech from which all are
derived. Whatever these dialects be called, the Kabyle, the Shilha, the
Zenati, the Tuareg or Tamashek, the Berber language is still essentially
one, and the similarity between the forms current in Morocco, Algeria,
the Sahara and the far-distant oasis of Siwa is much more marked than
between the Norse and English in the sub-Aryan Teutonic group. The
Berbers have, moreover, a writing of their own, peculiar and little used
or known, the antiquity of which is proved by monuments and inscriptions
ranging over the whole of North Africa.
The various spoken dialects, though apparently very unlike each other,
are not more dissimilar than are Portuguese, Spanish, French and
Italian, and their differences are doubtless attributable to the lack of
a literary standard. Even where different words are used, there is
evidence of a common stem from which the various branches have sprung.
The great difficulty of satisfactory comparison arises from the fact
that few of the Beber dialects possess any writings. The _Tawahhid_ (The
Unity of God), said to have been written in Moroccan Berber and believed
to be the oldest African work in existence, except Egyptian and
Ethiopic, was the work of the Muwahhadi leader, Ibn Tumart the Mahdi, at
a time when the officials of the Kairawan mosque were dismissed because
they could not speak Berber. Most of the writings found, however, have
been in the form of inscriptions, chiefly on ornaments. A collection of
the various signs of the alphabet has shown thirty-two letters, four
more than Arabic. De Slane, in his notes on the Berber historian Ibn
Khaldun, shows the following points of similarity to the Semitic
class:--its tri-literal roots, the inflections of the verb, the
formation of derived verbs, the genders of the second and third
persons, the pronominal affixes, the aoristic style of tense, the whole
and broken plurals and the construction of the phrase. Among the
peculiar grammatical features of Berber may be mentioned two numbers (no
dual), two genders and six cases, and verbs with one, two, three and
four radicals, and imperative and aorist tense only. As might be
expected the Berber tongue is most common in Morocco and the western
Sahara--the regions where Arab dominion was least exercised. When Arabic
is mentioned as the language of Morocco it is seldom realized how small
a proportion of its inhabitants use it as their mother tongue. Berber is
the real language of Morocco, Arabic that of its creed and government.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--General A. Hanoteau and A. Letourneux, _La Kabylie et
les coutumes kabyles_ (3 vols., Paris, 1872-1873); D. Randall-MacIver
and Antony Wilkin, _Libyan Notes_ (London, 1901); Antony Wilkin,
_Among the Berbers of Algeria_ (London, 1900); G. Sergi, _The
Mediterranean Race_ (London, 1901), and _Africa, Antropologia della
Stirpe Comitica_ (Turin, 1897); Henri Duveyrier, _Exploration du
Sahara_ (1864), _Les Progres de la geographie en Algerie_ (1867-1871),
_Bull. de la Soc. Khediviale de Geog_. (1876); E. Renan, "La Societe
Berbere," _Revue des deux mondes_, vol. for 1873; M.G. Olivier,
"Recherches sur l'origine des Berberes," _Bull. de l'Acad. d'Hippone_
(1867-1868); F.G. Rohlfs, _Reise durch Marokko_ (1869); _Quer durch
Afrika_ (1874-1875); General Faidherbe, _Collection complete des
inscriptions numidiques (lybiques)_ (1870), and _Les Dolmens
d'Afrique_ (1873); H.M. Flinders Petrie in _The Academy_, 20th of
April 1895; Jules Lionel, _Races berberes_ (1894); Sir H.H. Johnston,
"A Journey through the Tunisian Sahara," _Geog. Journal_, vol. xi.,
1898; De Slane's translation of Ibn Khaldun, _Hist, des Berberes_
(Algiers, 1852); W.Z. Ripley, _Races of Europe_ (London, 1900); Dr
Malbot, "Les Chaouias" in _L'Anthropologie_, 1897 (p. 14); General
Faidherbe and Dr Paul Topinard, _Instructions sur l'anthropologie de
l'Algerie_ (Paris, 1874); E.T. Hamy, _La Necropole berbere d'Henchir
el-'Assel_ (Paris, 1896), and _Cites et necropoles berberes de
l'Enfida (Tunisie moyenne) (ib._ 1904).
Berber dictionaries:--_Venture de Paradis_ (Paris, 1844); Brosselard
(_ib._ 1844); Delaporte (_ib._ 1844, by order of minister of war);
J.B. Creusat, _Essai de dictionnaire francais-kabyle_ (Algiers, 1873);
A. Hanoteau, _Essai de grammaire de la langue tamachek, &c._ (Paris,
1860); Minutoli, _Siwah Dialect_ (Berlin, 1827).
Folklore, &c.:--J. Riviere, _Recueil de contes populaires de la
Kabylie_ (1882); R. Basset, _Contes populaires berberes_ (1887); P. le
Blanc de Prebois, _Essai de contes kabyles, avec traduction en
francais_ (Batna, 1897); H. Stumine, _Marchen der Berbern van
Tamazratt in Sudtunisien_ (Leipzig, 1900).
BERCEUSE (Fr. for a "lullaby," from _berceau_, a cradle), a cradle-song,
the German _Wiegenlied_, a musical composition with a quiet rocking
accompaniment.
BERCHEM (or BERGHEM), NICOLAAS (1620-1683), Dutch painter, was born at
Haarlem. He received instruction from his father (Pieter Claasz van
Haarlem) and from the painters Van Goyen, Jan Wils and Weenix. It is not
known why he called himself Berchem (or Berighem, and other variants).
His pictures, of which he produced an immense number, were in great
demand, as were also his etchings and drawings. His landscapes are
highly esteemed; and many of them have been finely engraved by John
Visscher. His finest pictures are at the Amsterdam Museum and at the
Hermitage, St Petersburg.
BERCHTA (English Bertha), a fairy in South German mythology. She was at
first a benevolent spirit, the counterpart of Hulda in North German
myth. Later her character changed and she came to be regarded as a
witch. In Pagan times Berchta had the rank of a minor deity.
BERCHTESGADEN, a town of Germany, beautifully situated on the
south-eastern confines of the kingdom of Bavaria, 1700 ft. above the sea
on the southern declivity of the Untersberg, 6 m. S.S.E. from
Reichenhall by rail. Pop. (1900) 10,046. It is celebrated for its
extensive mines of rock-salt, which were worked as early as 1174. The
town contains three old churches, of which the early Gothic abbey church
with its Romanesque cloister is most notable, and some good houses.
Apart from the salt-mines, its industries include toys and other small
articles of wood, horn and ivory, for which the place has long been
famous. The district of Berchtesgaden was formerly an independent
spiritual principality, founded in 1100 and secularized in 1803. The
abbey is now a royal castle, and in the neighbourhood a hunting-lodge
was built by King Maximilian II. in 1852.
BERCK, a bathing resort of northern France, in the department of
Pas-de-Calais, 25 m. S. of Boulogne by rail. Pop. (1906) 7638. It
comprises two parts--Berck-Ville, 1-1/2 m. from the shore, and
Berck-Plage, the latter with a fine sandy beach. There are two
children's hospitals, the climate proving peculiarly beneficial in the
treatment of scrofulous affections. About 150 boats are employed in the
fisheries, and herrings form the staple of an active trade.
Boat-building and fish-curing are carried on.
BERDICHEV, a town of W. Russia, in the government of Kiev, 116 m. S.W.
of Kiev by rail and not far from the borders of Volhynia. The cathedral
of the Assumption, finished in 1832, is the principal place of worship.
The fortified Carmelite monastery, founded in 1627, was captured and
plundered by Chmielnicki, chief of the Zaporogian Cossacks, in 1647, and
disestablished in 1864. An extensive trade is carried on in peltry, silk
goods, iron and wooden wares, salt fish, grain, cattle and horses. Four
fairs are held yearly, the most important being on the 12th of June and
the 15th of August. The numerous minor industries include the
manufacture of tobacco, soap, candles, oil, bricks and leather. Pop.
(1867) 52,563; (1897) 53,728, Jews forming about 80%. In the treaty of
demarcation between the Lithuanians and the Poles in 1546 Berdichev was
assigned to the former. In 1768 Pulaski, leader of the confederacy of
Bar, fled, after the capture of that city, to Berdichev, and there
maintained himself during a siege of twenty-five days. The town belongs
to the Radziwill family.
BERDYANSK, a seaport town of Russia, in the government of Taurida, on
the north coast of the Sea of Azov, in 46 deg. 45' N. lat. and 36 deg.
40' E. long. The principal industries are in bricks and tiles, tallow
and macaroni. The roads are protected from every wind except the south,
which occasions a heavy surf; but against this a mole was constructed in
1863. The chief articles of export are cereals, flour, wool, hemp, skins
and fish; and the imports include hardwares, fruits, oil and petroleum.
In the immediate neighbourhood are salt-lagoons. Pop. (1867) 12,223;
(1900) 29,168.
BEREA, a town of Madison county, Kentucky, U.S.A., 131 m. by rail S. of
Cincinnati. Pop. (1900) 762. Berea is served by the Louisville &
Nashville railway. It is pleasantly situated on the border between the
Blue Grass and the Mountain regions. The town is widely known as the
seat of Berea College, which has done an important work among the
mountaineers of Kentucky and of Tennessee. The college has about 70
acres of ground (and about 4000 acres of mountain land for forestry
study), with a large recitation hall, a library, a chapel (seating 1400
persons), a science hall, an industrial hall, a brick-making plant, a
woodwork building, a printing building, a tabernacle for commencement
exercises and other buildings. In 1908 Berea had 65 instructors and 1150
students; and it paid the tuition of 141 negro students in Fisk
University (Nashville, Tennessee) and in other institutions. The school
out of which Berea College has developed was founded in the anti-slavery
interests in 1855. An attempt was made to procure for it a college
charter in 1859, but the slavery interests caused it to be closed before
the end of that year and it was not reopened until 1865, the charter
having then been obtained, as Berea College. Negroes as well as whites
were admitted until 1904, when education of the two races at the same
institution was prohibited by an act of the state legislature (upheld by
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908). This act did not, however, prohibit an
institution from maintaining separate schools for the two races,
provided these schools were at least 25 m. apart, and a separate school
for the negroes was at once projected by Berea.
BEREKHIAH NAQDAN, Jewish fabulist, author of a collection of _Fox
Fables_, written in Hebrew. As his title implies (Naqdan=punctuator of
the Biblical text), Berekhiah was also a grammarian. He further wrote an
ethical treatise and was the author of various translations. His date is
disputed. Most authorities place him in the 13th century, but J. Jacobs
has identified him with Benedictus le Puncteur, an English Jew of the
12th century.
BERENGARIUS [BERENGAR] (d. 1088), medieval theologian, was born at Tours
early in the 11th century; he was educated in the famous school of
Fulbert of Chartres, but even in early life seems to have exhibited
great independence of judgment. Appointed superintendent of the
cathedral school of his native city, he taught with such success as to
attract pupils from all parts of France, and powerfully contributed to
diffuse an interest in the study of logic and metaphysics, and to
introduce that dialectic development of theology which is designated the
scholastic. The earliest of his writings of which we have any record is
an _Exhortatory Discourse_ to the hermits of his district, written at
their own request and for their spiritual edification. It shows a clear
discernment of the dangers of the ascetic life, and a deep insight into
the significance of the Augustinian doctrine of grace. Sometime before
1040 Berengar was made archdeacon of Angers. It was shortly after this
that rumours began to spread of his holding heretical views regarding
the sacrament of the eucharist. He had submitted the doctrine of
transubstantiation (already generally received both by priests and
people, although in the west it had been first unequivocally taught and
reduced to a regular theory by Paschasius Radbert in 831) to an
independent examination, and had come to the conclusion that it was
contrary to reason, unwarranted by Scripture, and inconsistent with the
teaching of men like Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine. He did not conceal
this conviction from his scholars and friends, and through them the
report spread widely that he denied the common doctrine respecting the
eucharist. His early friend and school companion, Adelmann, archdeacon
of Liege, wrote to him letters of expostulation on the subject of this
report in 1046 and 1048; and a bishop, Hugo of Langres, wrote (about
1049) a refutation of the views which he had himself heard Berengar
express in conversation. Berengar's belief was not shaken by their
arguments and exhortations, and hearing that Lanfranc, the most
celebrated theologian of that age, strongly approved the doctrine of
Paschasius and condemned that of "Scotus" (really Ratramnus), he wrote
to him a letter expressing his surprise and urging him to reconsider the
question. The letter, arriving at Bec when Lanfranc was absent at Rome
(1050), was sent after him, but was opened before it reached him, and
Lanfranc, fearing the scandal, brought it under the notice of Pope Leo
IX. Because of it Berengar was condemned as a heretic without being
heard, by a synod at Rome and another at Vercelli, both held in 1050.
His enemies in France cast him into prison; but the bishop of Angers and
other powerful friends, of whom he had a considerable number, had
sufficient influence to procure his release. At the council of Tours
(1054) he found a protector in the papal legate, the famous Hildebrand,
who, satisfied himself with the fact that Berengar did not deny the real
presence of Christ in the sacramental elements, succeeded in persuading
the assembly to be content with a general confession from him that the
bread and wine, after consecration, were the body and blood of the Lord,
without requiring him to define how. Trusting in Hildebrand's support,
and in the justice of his own cause, he presented himself at the synod
of Rome in 1059, but found himself surrounded by zealots, who forced him
by the fear of death to signify his acceptance of the doctrine "that the
bread and wine, after consecration, are not merely a sacrament, but the
true body and the true blood of Christ, and that this body is touched
and broken by the hands of the priests, and ground by the teeth of the
faithful, not merely in a sacramental but in a real manner." He had no
sooner done so than he bitterly repented his weakness; and acting, as he
himself says, on the principle that "to take an oath which never ought
to have been taken is to estrange one's self from God, but to retract
what one has wrongfully sworn to, is to return back to God," when he got
safe again into France he attacked the transubstantiation theory more
vehemently than ever. He continued for about sixteen years to
disseminate his views by writing and teaching, without being directly
interfered with by either his civil or ecclesiastical superiors, greatly
to the scandal of the multitude and of the zealots, in whose eyes
Berengar was "ille apostolus Satanae," and the academy of Tours the
"Babylon nostri temporis." An attempt was made at the council of
Poitiers in 1076 to allay the agitation caused by the controversy, but
it failed, and Berengar narrowly escaped death in a tumult. Hildebrand,
now pope as Gregory VII., next summoned him to Rome, and, in a synod
held there in 1078, tried once more to obtain a declaration of his
orthodoxy by means of a confession of faith drawn up in general terms;
but even this strong-minded and strong-willed pontiff was at length
forced to yield to the demands of the multitude and its leaders; and in
another synod at Rome (1079), finding that he was only endangering his
own position and reputation, he turned unexpectedly upon Berengar and
commanded him to confess that he had erred in not teaching a change _as
to substantial reality_ of the sacramental bread and wine into the body
and blood of Christ. "Then," says Berengar, "confounded by the sudden
madness of the pope, and because God in punishment for my sins did not
give me a steadfast heart, I threw myself on the ground, and confessed
with impious voice that I had erred, fearing the pope would instantly
pronounce against me the sentence of condemnation, and, as a necessary
consequence, that the populace would hurry me to the worst of deaths."
He was kindly dismissed by the pope not long after, with a letter
recommending him to the protection of the bishops of Tours and Angers,
and another pronouncing anathema on all who should do him any injury or
call him a heretic. He returned home overwhelmed with shame and bowed
down with sorrow for having a second time been guilty of a great
impiety. He immediately recalled his forced confession, and besought all
Christian men "to pray for him, so that his tears might secure the pity
of the Almighty." He now saw, however, that the spirit of the age was
against him, and hopelessly given over to the belief of what he had
combated as a delusion. He withdrew, therefore, into solitude, and
passed the rest of his life in retirement and prayer on the island of St
Come near Tours. He died there in 1088.
Berengar left behind him a considerable number of followers. All those
who in the middle ages denied the substantial presence of the body and
blood of Christ in the eucharist were commonly designated Berengarians.
They differed, of course, in many respects, even in regard to the nature
of the supper. Berengar's own views on the subject may be thus summed
up:--1. That bread and wine should become flesh and blood and yet not
lose the properties of bread and wine was, he held, contradictory to
reason, and therefore irreconcilable with the truthfulness of God. 2. He
admitted a change (_conversio_) of the bread and wine into the body of
Christ, in the sense that to those who receive them they are transformed
by grace into higher powers and influences--into the true, the
intellectual or spiritual body of Christ. The unbelieving receive the
external sign or _sacramentum_; but the believing receive in addition,
although invisibly, the reality represented by the sign, the _res
sacramenti_. 3. He rejected the notion that the sacrament of the altar
was a constantly renewed sacrifice, and held it to be merely a
commemoration of the one sacrifice of Christ. 4. He dwelt strongly on
the importance of men looking away from the externals of the sacrament
to the spirit of love and piety. The transubstantiation doctrine seemed
to him full of evil, from its tendency to lead men to overvalue what was
sensuous and transitory. 5. He rejected with indignation the miraculous
stories told to confirm the doctrine of transubstantiation. 6. Reason
and Scripture seemed to him the only grounds on which a true doctrine of
the Lord's supper could be rested. He attached little importance to mere
ecclesiastical tradition or authority, and none to the voice of
majorities, even when sanctioned by the decree of a pope. In this, as in
other respects, he was a precursor of Protestantism.
The opinions of Berengar are to be ascertained from the works written
in refutation of them by Adelmann, Lanfranc, Guitmund, &c.; from the
fragments of the _De sacr. coena adv. Lanfr. liber_, edited by
Staudlin (1820-1829); and from the _Liber posterior_, edited by A.F.
and F.T. Vischer (1834). See the collection of texts by Sudendorf
(1850); the _Church Histories_ of Gieseler, ii. 396-411 (Eng. trans.),
and Neander, vi. 221-260 (Eng. trans.); A. Harnack's _History of
Dogma_, Haureau's _Histoire de la philosophie scolastique_, i.
225-238; Hermann Reuter, _Geschichte der religiosen Aufklarung des
Mittelalters_, vol. i. (Berlin, 1875); L. Schwabe, _Studien zur
Geschichte des Zweilen Abendmahlstreits_ (1887); and W. Broecking,
"Bruno von Angers und Berengar von Tours," in _Deutsche Zeitichrift
fur Geschichtewissenschaft_ (vol. xii., 1895).
BERENGER, ALPHONSE MARIE MARCELLIN THOMAS (1785-1866), known as Berenger
de la Drome, French lawyer and politician, son of a deputy of the third
estate of Dauphine to the Constituent Assembly, was born at Valence on
the 31st of May 1785. He entered the magistracy and became _procureur
general_ at Grenoble, but resigned this office on the restoration of the
Bourbons. He now devoted himself mainly to the study of criminal law,
and in 1818 published _La Justice criminelle en France_, in which with
great courage he attacked the special tribunals, provosts' courts or
military commissions which were the main instruments of the Reaction,
and advocated a return to the old common law and trial by jury. The book
had a considerable effect in discrediting the reactionary policy of the
government; but it was not until 1828, when Berenger was elected to the
chamber, that he had an opportunity of exercising a personal influence
on affairs as a member of the group known as that of constitutional
opposition. His courage, as well as his moderation, was again displayed
during the revolution of 1830, when, as president of the parliamentary
commission for the trial of the ministers of Charles X., he braved the
fury of the mob and secured a sentence of imprisonment in place of the
death penalty for which they clamoured.
His position in the chamber was now one of much influence, and he had a
large share in the modelling of the new constitution, though his effort
to secure a hereditary peerage failed. Above all he was instrumental in
framing the new criminal code, based on more humanitarian principles,
which was issued in 1835. It was due to him that, in 1832, the right, so
important in actual French practice, was given to juries to find
"extenuating circumstances" in cases when guilt involved the death
penalty. In 1831 he had been made a member of the court of appeal (_cour
de cassation_), and the same year was nominated a member of the academy
of moral and political sciences. He was raised to the peerage in 1839.
This dignity he lost owing to the revolution of 1848; and as a
politician his career now ended. As a judge, however, his activity
continued. He was president of the high courts of Bourges and Versailles
in 1840. Having been appointed president of one of the chambers of the
court of cassation, he devoted himself entirely to judicial work until
his retirement, under the age limit, on the 31st of May 1860. He now
withdrew to his native town, and occupied himself with his favourite
work of reform of criminal law. In 1833 he had shared in the foundation
of a society for the reclamation of young criminals, in which he
continued to be actively interested to the end. In 1851 and 1852, on the
commission of the academy of moral sciences, he had travelled in France
and England for the purpose of examining and comparing the penal systems
in the two countries. The result was published in 1855 under the title
_La Repression penale, comparaison du systeme penitentiaire en France et
en Angleterre._ He died on the 15th of May 1866.
His son, RENE BERENGER (1830- ), continued the work of his father, and
at the outbreak of the revolution of 1870 was _avocat general_ of Lyons.
He served as a volunteer in the Franco-German War, being wounded at
Nuits on the 28th of December. Returned to the National Assembly by the
department of Drome, he was for a few days in 1873 minister of public
works under Thiers. He then entered the senate, of which he was
vice-president from 1894 to 1897. He founded in 1871 a society for the
reclamation of discharged prisoners, and presided over various bodies
formed to secure improvement of the public morals. He succeeded Charles
Lucas in 1890 at the Academy of Moral and Political Science.
BERENICE, or BERNICE, the Macedonian forms of the Greek Pherenice, the
name of (A) five Egyptian and (B) two Jewish princesses.
(A) 1. BERENICE, daughter of Lagus, wife of an obscure Macedonian
soldier and subsequently of Ptolemy Soter, with whose bride Eurydice she
came to Egypt as a lady-in-waiting. Her son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, was
recognized as heir over the heads of Eurydice's children. So great was
her ability and her influence that Pyrrhus of Epirus gave the name
Berenicis to a new city. Her son Philadelphus decreed divine honours to
her on her death. (See Theocritus, _Idylls_ xv. and xvii.)
2. BERENICE, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, wife of Antiochus Theos
of Syria, who, according to agreement with Ptolemy (249), had divorced
his wife Laodice and transferred the succession to Berenice's children.
On Ptolemy's death, Antiochus repudiated Berenice and took back Laodice,
who, however, at once poisoned him and murdered Berenice and her son.
The prophecy in Daniel xi. 6 seq. refers to these events.
3. BERENICE, the daughter of Magas, king of Cyrene, and the wife of
Ptolemy III. Euergetes. During her husband's absence on an expedition to
Syria, she dedicated her hair to Venus for his safe return, and placed
it in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium. The hair having by some
unknown means disappeared, Conon of Samos, the mathematician and
astronomer, explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that
it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars. The name
_Coma Berenices_, applied to a constellation, commemorates this
incident. Callimachus celebrated the transformation in a poem, of which
only a few lines remain, but there is a fine translation of it by
Catullus. Soon after her husband's death (221 B.C.) she was murdered at
the instigation of her son Ptolemy IV., with whom she was probably
associated in the government.
4. BERENICE, also called CLEOPATRA, daughter of Ptolemy X., married as
her second husband Alexander II., grandson of Ptolemy VII. He murdered
her three weeks afterwards.
5. BERENICE, daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, eldest sister of the great
Cleopatra. The Alexandrines placed her on the throne in succession to
her father (58 B.C.). She married Seleucus Cybiosactes, but soon caused
him to be slain, and married Archelaus, who had been made king of Comana
in Pontus (or in Cappadocia) by Pompey. Auletes was restored and put
both Berenice and Archelaus to death in 55 B.C.
(B) 1. BERENICE, daughter of Salome, sister of Herod I., and wife of her
cousin Aristobulus, who was assassinated in 6 B.C. Their relations had
been unhappy and she was accused of complicity in his murder. By
Aristobulus she was the mother of Herod Agrippa I. Her second husband,
Theudion, uncle on the mother's side of Antipater, son of Herod I.,
having been put to death for conspiring against Herod, she married
Archelaus. Subsequently she went to Rome and enjoyed the favour of the
imperial household.
2. BERENICE, daughter of Agrippa I., king of Judaea, and born probably
about A.D. 28. She was first married to Marcus, son of the alabarch[1]
Alexander of Alexandria. On his early death she was married to her
father's brother, Herod of Chalcis, after whose death (A.D. 48) she
lived for some years with her brother, Agrippa II. Her third husband was
Polemon, king of Cilicia, but she soon deserted him, and returned to
Agrippa, with whom she was living in 60 when Paul appeared before him at
Caesarea (Acts xxvi.). During the devastation of Judaea by the Romans,
she fascinated Titus, whom along with Agrippa she followed to Rome as
his promised wife (A.D. 75). When he became emperor (A.D. 79) he
dismissed her finally, though reluctantly, to her own country. Her
influence had been exercised vainly on behalf of the Jews in A.D. 66,
but the burning of her palace alienated her sympathies. For her
influence see Juvenal, _Satires_, vi., and Tacitus, _Hist._ ii. 2.