FOOTNOTES:

[1] The MSS. are a psalterium, 9th century, Bibl. publique, Angers,

fol. 13a; Boulogne _Psalterium glossatum_ c. A.D. 1000, MS. No. 20,

Bibl. publique. For reproduction of musical instruments see _Annales

archéologiques_, tome iv. (1846), p. 38; Cotton MS., Tiberius C.

vi., 10th to 11th century, fol. 16b, British Museum, illustrated in

Strutt's _Horda Angel-cynnan_, vol. ii. pls. xx. and xxi.; MS.

psalter of St Emmeran, now in Munich Staatsbibliothek, clm. 14523,

fol. 51b, 10th century, illustrated by Gerbert, _De Cantu et Mus.

Sacra_, tome ii. pi. xxiii.; Paris, Bibl. Nat. Fonds Latin, 7211,

1Oth century, fol. 150 and 151a.

[2] Cotton MS., Nero D. ii. f. 15a, _Chronicon ab orbe condito ad

obitum Regis Edwardi I., 1307_.

[3] _Die musikalischen Instrumente in den Miniaturen des frühen

Mittelalters_, part i. "Die Blasinstrumente" (Leipzig, 1903), p. 7,

note 1.

[4] Op. cit. (1774), tome ii. pl. xxv. No. 13, pp. 130, 151, 152,

and pl. xxxi. No. 12.

[5] _Topographia Hiberniae_, cap. xi.

[6] _Scotichronicon_ (Fordun and Bower), xvi. 28; and Dalyell,

_Musical Memoirs of Scotland_, p. 47, pls. x. and xi.

CHOSE (Fr. for "thing"), a term used in English law in different senses.

_Chose local_ is a thing annexed to a place, as a mill. A _chose

transitory_ is that which is movable, and can be carried from place to

place. But the use of the word "chose" in these senses is practically

obsolete, and it is now used only in the phrases _chose in action_ and

_chose in possession_. A "chose in action," sometimes called a chose in

suspense, in its more limited meaning, denotes the right of enforcing by

legal proceedings the payment of a debt, or the obtaining money by way

of damages for breach of contract, or as a recompense for a wrong. Less

accurately, the money itself which could be recovered is frequently

termed a chose in action, as is also sometimes the document evidencing a

title to a chose in action, such as a bond or a policy of insurance,

though strictly it is only the right to recover the money which can be

so termed. Choses in action were, before the Judicature Acts, either

_legal_ or _equitable_. Where the chose could be recovered only by an

action at law, as a debt (whether arising from contract or tort), it was

termed a legal chose in action; where the chose was recoverable only by

a suit in equity, as a legacy or money held upon a trust, it was termed

an equitable chose in action. Before the Judicature Act, a legal chose

in action was not assignable, i.e. the assignee could not sue at law in

his own name. To this rule there were two exceptions:--(1) the crown has

always been able to assign choses in action that are certain, such as an

ascertained debt, but not those that are uncertain; (2) assignments

valid by operation of law, e.g. on marriage, death or bankruptcy. On the

other hand, however, by the law merchant, which is part of the law of

England, and which disregards the rules of common law, bills of exchange

were freely assignable. The consequence was that, with these and certain

statutory exceptions (e.g. actions on policies of insurance), an action

on an assigned chose in action must have been brought at law in the name

of the assignor, though the sum recovered belonged in equity to the

assignee. All choses in action being in equity assignable, except those

which are altogether incapable of being assigned, in equity the assignee

might have sued in his own name, making the assignor a party as

co-plaintiff or as defendant. The Judicature Acts made the distinction

between legal and equitable choses in action of no importance. The

Judicature Act of 1873, s. 25 (6), enacted that the legal right to a

debt or other legal chose in action could be passed by absolute

assignment in writing under the hand of the assignor.

"Chose in possession" is opposed to chose in action, and denotes not

only the right to enjoy or possess a thing, but also the actual or

constructive enjoyment of it. The possession may be absolute or

qualified. It is absolute when the person is fully and completely the

proprietor or owner of the thing; it is qualified when he "has not an

exclusive right, or not a permanent right, but a right which may

sometimes subsist and at other times not subsist," as in the case of

animals _ferae naturae_. A chose in possession is freely transferable by

delivery. Previously to the Married Women's Property Act 1882, a wife's

choses in possession vested in her husband immediately on her marriage,

while her choses in action did not belong to the husband until he had

reduced them into possession, but this difference is now practically

obsolete.

CHOSROES, in Middle and Modern Persian _Khosrau_ ("with a good name"), a

very common Persian name, borne by a famous king of the Iranian legend

(Kai Khosrau); by a Parthian king, commonly called by the Greeks Osroes

(q.v.); and by the following two Sassanid kings.

1. CHOSROES I., "the Blessed" (_Anushirvan_), 531-579, the favourite son

and successor of Kavadh I., and the most famous of the Sassanid kings.

At the beginning of his reign he concluded an "eternal" peace with the

emperor Justinian, who wanted to have his hands free for the conquest of

Africa and Sicily. But his successes against the Vandals and Goths

caused Chosroes to begin the war again in 540. He invaded Syria and

carried the inhabitants of Antioch to his residence, where he built for

them a new city near Ctesiphon under the name of Khosrau-Antioch or

Chosro-Antioch. During the next years he fought successfully in Lazica

or Lazistan (the ancient Colchis, q.v.), on the Black Sea, and in

Mesopotamia. The Romans, though led by Belisarius, could do little

against him. In 545 an armistice was concluded, but in Lazica the war

went on till 556. At last, in 562, a peace was concluded for 50 years,

in which the Persians left Lazistan to the Romans, and promised not to

persecute the Christians, if they did not attempt to make proselytes

among the Zarathustrians; on the other hand, the Romans had again to pay

subsidies to Persia. Meanwhile in the east the Hephthalites had been

attacked by the Turks, who now appear for the first time in history.

Chosroes united with them and conquered Bactria, while he left the

country north of the Oxus to the Turks. Many other rebellious tribes

were subjected. About 570 the dynasts of Yemen, who had been subdued by

the Ethiopians of Axum, applied to Chosroes for help. He sent a fleet

with a small army under Vahriz, who expelled the Ethiopians. From that

time till the conquests of Mahomet, Yemen was dependent on Persia, and a

Persian governor resided here. In 571 a new war with Rome broke out

about Armenia, in which Chosroes conquered the fortress Dara on the

Euphrates, invaded Syria and Cappadocia, and returned with large booty.

During the negotiations with the emperor Tiberius Chosroes died in 579,

and was succeeded by his son Hormizd IV.

Although Chosroes had in the last years of his father extirpated the

heretical and communistic Persian sect of the Mazdakites (see KAVADH)

and was a sincere adherent of Zoroastrian orthodoxy, he was not

fanatical or prone to persecution. He tolerated every Christian

confession. When one of his sons had rebelled about 550 and was taken

prisoner, he did not execute him; nor did he punish the Christians who

had supported him. He introduced a rational system of taxation, based

upon a survey of landed possessions, which his father had begun, and

tried in every way to increase the welfare and the revenues of his

empire. In Babylonia he built or restored the canals. His army was in

discipline decidedly superior to the Romans, and apparently was well

paid. He was also interested in literature and philosophical

discussions. Under his reign chess was introduced from India, and the

famous book of Kalilah and Dimnah was translated. He thus became

renowned as a wise prince. When Justinian in 529 closed the university

of Athens, the last seat of paganism in the Roman empire, the last seven

teachers of Neoplatonism emigrated to Persia. But they soon found out

that neither Chosroes nor his state corresponded to the Platonic ideal,

and Chosroes, in his treaty with Justinian, stipulated that they should

return unmolested.

2. CHOSROES II., "the Victorious" (_Parvez_), son of Hormizd IV.,

grandson of Chosroes I., 590-628. He was raised to the throne by the

magnates who had rebelled against Hormizd IV. in 590, and soon after his

father was blinded and killed. But at the same time the general Bahram

Chobin had proclaimed himself king, and Chosroes II. was not able to

maintain himself. The war with the Romans, which had begun in 571, had

not yet come to an end. Chosroes fled to Syria, and persuaded the

emperor Maurice (q.v.) to send help. Many leading men and part of the

troops acknowledged Chosroes, and in 591 he was brought back to

Ctesiphon. Bahram Chobin was beaten and fled to the Turks, among whom he

was murdered. Peace with Rome was then concluded. Maurice made no use of

his advantage; he merely restored the former frontier and abolished the

subsidies which had formerly been paid to the Persians. Chosroes II. was

much inferior to his grandfather. He was haughty and cruel, rapacious

and given to luxury; he was neither a general nor an administrator. At

the beginning of his reign he favoured the Christians; but when in 602

Maurice had been murdered by Phocas, he began war with Rome to avenge

his death. His armies plundered Syria and Asia Minor, and in 608

advanced to Chalcedon. In 613 and 614 Damascus and Jerusalem were taken

by the general Shahrbaraz, and the Holy Cross was carried away in

triumph. Soon after, even Egypt was conquered. The Romans could offer

but little resistance, as they were torn by internal dissensions, and

pressed by the Avars and Slavs. At last, in 622, the emperor Heraclius

(who had succeeded Phocas in 610) was able to take the field. In 624 he

advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple

of Gandzak (Gazaca); in 626 he fought in Lazistan (Colchis), while

Shahrbaraz advanced to Chalcedon, and tried in vain, united with the

Avars, to conquer Constantinople. In 627 Heraclius defeated the Persian

army at Nineveh and advanced towards Ctesiphon. Chosroes fled from his

favourite residence, Dastagerd (near Bagdad), without offering

resistance, and as his despotism and indolence had roused opposition

everywhere, his eldest son, Kavadh II., whom he had imprisoned, was set

free by some of the leading men and proclaimed king. Four days

afterwards, Chosroes was murdered in his palace (February 628).

Meanwhile, Heraclius returned in triumph to Constantinople, in 629 the

Cross was given back to him and Egypt evacuated, while the Persian

empire, from the apparent greatness which it had reached ten years ago,

sank into hopeless anarchy.

See PERSIA: _Ancient History_. For the Roman wars see authorities

quoted under MAURICE and HERACLIUS. (ED. M.)

CHOTA (or CHUTIA) NAGPUR, a division of British India in Bengal,

consisting of five British districts and two feudatory states. It is a

hilly, forest-clad plateau, inhabited mostly by aboriginal races,

between the basins of the Sone, the Ganges and the Mahanadi. The five

British districts are Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Palamau, Manbhum and

Singhbhum. The total area of the British districts is 27,101 sq. m. The

population in 1901 was 4,900,429. The tributary states are noticed

separately below. The Chota Nagpur plateau is an offshoot of the great

Vindhyan range, and its mean elevation is upwards of 2000 ft. above the

sea-level. In the W. it rises to 3600 ft., and to the E. and S. its

lower steppe, from 800 to 1000 ft. in elevation, comprises a great

portion of the Manbhum and Singhbhum districts. The whole is about

14,000 sq. m. in extent, and forms the source of the Barakhar, Damodar,

Kasai, Subanrekha, Baitarani, Brahmani, Ib and other rivers. _Sal_

forests abound. The principal jungle products are timber, various kinds

of medicinal fruits and herbs, lac, tussur silk and _mahuá_ flowers,

which are used as food by the wild tribes and also distilled into a

strong country liquor. Coal exists in large quantities, and is worked in

the Jherria, Hazaribagh, Giridih and Gobindpur districts. The chief

workings are at Jherria, which were started in 1893, and have developed

into one of the largest coal-fields in India. Formerly gold was washed

from the sands in the bed of the Subanrekha river, but the operations

are now almost wholly abandoned. Iron-ores abound, together with good

building stone. The indigenous inhabitants consist of non-Aryan tribes

who were driven from the plains by the Hindus and took refuge in the

mountain fastnesses of the Chota Nagpur plateau. The principal of them

are Kols, Santals, Oraons, Dhangars, Mundas and Bhumij. These tribes

were formerly turbulent, and a source of trouble to the Mahommedan

governors of Bengal and Behar; but the introduction of British rule has

secured peace and security, and the aboriginal races of Chota Nagpur are

now peaceful and orderly subjects. The principal agricultural products

are rice, Indian corn, pulses, oil-seeds and potatoes. A small quantity

of tea is grown in Hazaribagh and Ranchi districts. Lac and tussur

silk-cloth are largely manufactured. The climate of Chota Nagpur is dry

and healthy. The Jherria extension branch of the East India railway runs

to Katrasgarh, while the Bengal-Nagpur railway also serves the division.

The CHOTA NAGPUR STATES were formerly nine in number. But the five

states of Chang Bhakar, Korca, Sirguja, Udaipur and Jashpur were

transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces in October 1905, and

the two Uriya-speaking states of Gangpur and Bonai were attached to the

Orissa Tributary States. There now remain, therefore, only the two

states of Kharsawan and Saraikela. At the decline of the Mahratta power

in the early part of the 19th century, the Chota Nagpur states came

under British protection. Before the rise of the British power in India

their chiefs exercised almost absolute sovereignty in their respective

territories.

See F.B. Bradley-Birt, _Chota Nagpore_ (1903).

CHOUANS (a Bas-Breton word signifying screech-owls), the name applied to

smugglers and dealers in contraband salt, who rose in insurrection in

the west of France at the time of the Revolution and joined the

royalists of La Vendée. It has been suggested that the name arose from

the cry they used when approaching their nocturnal rendezvous; but it is

more probable that it was derived from a nickname applied to their

leader Jean Cottereau (1767-1794). Originally a contraband manufacturer

of salt, Cottereau along with his brothers had several times been

condemned and served sentence; but the Revolution, by destroying the

inland customs, ruined his trade. On the 15th of August 1792, he led a

band of peasants to prevent the departure of the volunteers of St Ouen,

near Laval, and retired to the wood of Misdon, where they lived in huts

and subterranean chambers. The Chouans then waged a guerrilla warfare

against the republicans and, sustained by the royalists and from abroad,

carried on their assassinations and brigandage with success. From Lower

Maine the insurrection soon spread to Brittany, and throughout the west

of France. In 1793 Cottereau came to Laval with some 500 men; the band

grew rapidly and swelled into a considerable army, which assumed the

name of La Petite Vendee. But after the decisive defeats at Le Mans and

Savenay, Cottereau retired again to his old haunts in the wood of

Misdon, and resumed his old course of guerrilla warfare. Misfortunes

here increased upon him, until he fell into an ambuscade and was

mortally wounded. He died among his followers in February 1794.

Cottereau's brothers also perished in the war, with the exception of

Rene, who lived until 1846. Royalist authors have made of Cottereau a

hero and martyr, titles to which his claim is not established. After the

death of Cottereau, the chief leaders of the Chouans were Georges

Cadoudal (q.v.) and a man who went by the name of Jambe d'Argent. For

several months the Chouans continued their petty warfare, which was

disgraced by many acts of ferocity and rapine; in August 1795 they

dispersed; but they were guilty of several conspiracies up to 1815. (See

also VENDÉE.)

See the articles in _La Révolution française_, vol. 29, _La

Chouannerie dans la Manche_; vol. 32, _La Chouannerie dans l'Eure_;

vol. 40, _La Chouannerie dans le Morbihan (1793-1794)_; Sarot, _Les

Tribunaux répressifs ordinaires de la Manche en matière politique

pendant la première Révolution_ (Paris, 1881), 4 vols.; Th. de

Closmadeux, _Quiberon (1795), Émigrés et Chouans, commissions

militaires, interrogations et jugements_ (Paris, 1898), the only

authority on the celebrated affair of Quiberon; E. Daudet, _La

Police et les Chouans dans le Consulat et I'Empire, 1800-1815_

(Paris, 1895). Also the works of Ch. L. Chessin mentioned under

VENDÉE.

CHRESMOGRAPHION (from Gr. [Greek: chrêsmos], oracle, and [Greek:

graphein], to write), an architectural term sometimes given to the

chamber between the pronaes and the cella in Greek temples where oracles

were delivered.

CHRESTIEN, FLORENT (1541-1596), French satirist and Latin poet, the son

of Guillaume Chrestien, an eminent French physician and writer on

physiology, was born at Orleans on the 26th of January 1541. A pupil of

Henri Estienne, the Hellenist, at an early age he was appointed tutor to

Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., who made him his librarian.

Brought up as a Calvinist, he became a convert to Catholicism. He was

the author of many good translations from the Greek into Latin

verse,--amongst others, of versions of the _Hero and Leander_ attributed

to Musaeus, and of many epigrams from the Anthology. In his translations

into French, among which are remarked those of Buchanan's _Jephthé_

(1567), and of Oppian _De Venatione_ (1575)> he is not so happy, being

rather to be praised for fidelity to his original than for excellence of

style. His principal claim to a place among memorable satirists is as

one of the authors of the _Satyre Ménippée_, the famous pasquinade in

the interest of his old pupil, Henry IV., in which the harangue put into

the mouth of cardinal de Pelvé is usually attributed to him. He died on

the 3rd of October 1596 at Vendôme.

CHRÉTIEN, or CRESTIEN, DE TROYES, a native of Champagne, and the most

famous of French medieval poets. Unfortunately we have few exact details

as to his life, and opinion differs as to the precise dates to be

assigned to his poems. We know that he wrote the _Chevalier de la

Charrette_ at the command of Marie, countess of Champagne (the daughter

of Louis VII. and Eleanor, who married the count of Champagne in 1164),

and _Le Conte del Graal_ or _Perceval_ for Philip, count of Flanders,

who died of the plague before Acre in 1191. This prince was guardian to

the young king, Philip Augustus, and held the regency from 1180 to 1182.

As Chrétien refers to the story of the Grail as the best tale told _au

cort roial_, it seems very probable that it was composed during the

period of the count's regency. It was left unfinished, and added to at

divers times by at least three writers, Wauchier de Denain, Gerbert de

Montreuil and Manessier. The second of these states definitely that

Chrétien died before he could finish his poem. Probably the period of

his literary activity lies between the dates 1150 and 1182, when his

patron, Count Philip, fell into disgrace at court. The extant poems of

Chrtien de Troyes, in their chronological order are, _Érec et Énide,

Cligés, Le Chevalier de la Charrette_ (or _Lancelot_), _Le Chevalier au

Lion_ (or _Yvain_), and _Le Conte del Graal_ (_Perceval_), all dealing

with Arthurian legend. Besides these he states in the opening lines of

_Cligés_ that he had composed a _Tristan_ (of which so far no trace has

been found), and had made certain translations from Ovid's _Ars

Amatoria_ and _Metamorphoses_. A portion of the last has been found by

Gaston Paris included in the translation of Ovid made by Chrétien

Legouais. There exists also a poem, _Guillaume d' Angleterre_,

purporting to be by Chrétien, but the authorship is a matter of debate.

Professor Foerster claims it as genuine, and includes it in his edition

of the poems, but Gaston Paris never accepted it.

Chrétien's poems enjoyed widespread favour, and of the three most

popular (_Érec_, _Yvain_ and _Perceval_) there exist old Norse

translations, while the two first were admirably rendered into German by

Hartmann von Aue. There is an English translation of the Yvain, _Ywain

and Gawain_, and there are Welsh versions of all three stories, though

their exact relation to the French has not been determined. Chrétien's

style is easy and graceful, such as might be expected from a court poet;

he is analytical, but not dramatic; in depth of thought and power of

characterization he is decidedly inferior to Wolfram von Eschenbach, and

as a poet he is probably to be ranked below Thomas, the author of the

_Tristan_, and the translator of Thomas, Gottfried von Strassburg. Much

that has been claimed as characteristic of his work has been shown by M.

Willmotte to be merely reproductions of literary conceits employed by

his predecessors; in the words of a recent writer, M. Bédier, "Chrétien

semble moins avoir été un créateur épique qu'un habile arrangeur." The

special interest of his pcems lies in the problems surrounding their

origin. So far as the MSS. are concerned they are the earliest Arthurian

romances we possess. Did Chrétien invent the _genre_, or did he simply

turn to account the work of earlier, and less favoured, poets? Round

this point the battle still rages hotly, and though the extensive claims

made by the enthusiastic editor of his works are gradually yielding to

the force of critical investigation, it cannot be said that the question

is in any way settled (see ARTHURIAN LEGEND).

Chrétien's poems, except the _Perceval_, have been critically edited

by Professor Foerster (4 vols.). There is no easily available edition

of the _Perceval_, which was printed from the Mons MS. by M. Potvin (6

vols., 1866-1871), but is difficult to procure. For _Ywain and Gawain_

see the edition by Schleich (1887). The German versions are in

_Deutsche Classiker des Mittelalters_, 1888 (_Iwein_), 1893 (_Erec_);

the Welsh, in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the _Mabinogion_

(Nutt, 1902); Scandinavian translations, ed. E. Kölbing (1872). For

general criticism see Willmotte, _L'Évolution du roman français aux

environs de 1150_ (1903); also _Legend of Sir Lancelot_ and _Legend of

Sir Percival_ (Grimm Library); and M. Borodine, _La Femme et l'amour

au XIIe siècle, d'après les poèmes de Chrétien de Troyes_ (1909).

CHRISM (through Lat. _chrisma_, from Gr. [Greek: chrisma], an anointing

substance, [Greek: chrieiu], to anoint; through a Romanic form _cresma_

comes the Fr. _crême_, and Eng. "cream"), a mixture of olive oil and

balm, used for anointing in the Roman Catholic church in baptism,

confirmation and ordination, and in the consecrating and blessing of

altars, chalices, baptismal water, &c. The consecration of the "chrism"

is performed by a bishop, and since the 5th century has taken place on

Maundy Thursday. In the Orthodox Church the chrism contains, besides

olive oil, many precious spices and perfumes, and is known as "muron" or

"myron." The word is sometimes used loosely for the unmixed olive oil

used in the sacrament of extreme unction. The "Chrisom" or "chrysom," a

variant of "chrism," lengthened through pronunciation, is a white cloth

with which the head of a newly baptized child was covered to prevent the

holy oil from being rubbed off. If the baby died within a month of its

baptism, it was shrouded in its chrisom; otherwise the cloth or its value

was given to the church as an offering by the mother at her churching.

Children dying within the month were called "chrisom-children" or

"chrisoms," and up to 1726 such entries occur in bills of mortality. The

word was also used generally for a very young and innocent child, thus

Shakespeare, _Henry V._, ii. 3, says of Falstaff: "A' made a finer end

and went away an it had been any Chrisom Child."

CHRIST (Gr. [Greek: Christos], Anointed), the official title given in

the New Testament to Jesus of Nazareth, equivalent to the Hebrew

_Messiah_. See JESUS CHRIST; MESSIAH; CHRISTIANITY.

CHRIST, WILHELM VON (1831-1906), German classical scholar, was born in

Geisenheim in Hesse-Nassau on the 2nd of August 1831. From 1854 till

1860 he taught in the Maximiliansgymnasium at Munich, and in 1861 was

appointed professor of classical philology in the university. His most

important works are his _Geschichte der griechischen Literatur_ (5th

ed., 1908 f.), a history of Greek literature down to the time of

Justinian, one of the best works on the subject; _Metrik der Griechen

und Römer_ (1879); editions of Pindar (1887); of the _Poëtica_ (1878)

and _Metaphysica_ (1895) of Aristotle; _Iliad_ (1884). His contributions

to the _Sitzungsberichte_ and _Abhandlungen_ of the Bavarian Academy of

Sciences are particularly valuable.

See O. Crusius, _Gedächtnisrede_ (Munich, 1907).

CHRISTADELPHIANS ([Greek: Christou adelphoi], "brothers of Christ"),

sometimes also called Thomasites, a community founded in 1848 by John

Thomas (1805-1871), who, after studying medicine in London, migrated to

Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A. There he at first joined the "Campbellites," but

afterwards struck out independently, preaching largely upon the

application of Hebrew prophecy and of the Book of Revelation to current

and future events. Both in America and in Great Britain he gathered a

number of adherents, and formed a community which has extended to

several English-speaking countries. It consists of exclusive

"ecclesias," with neither ministry nor organization. The members meet on

Sundays to "break bread" and discuss the Bible. Their theology is

strongly millenarian, centering in the hope of a world-wide theocracy

with its seat at Jerusalem. Holding a doctrine of "conditional

immortality," they believe that they alone have the true exegesis of

Scripture, and that the "faith of Christendom" is "compounded of the

fables predicted by Paul." No statistics of the community are published.

It probably numbers from two to three thousand members. A monthly

magazine, _The Christadelphian_, is published in Birmingham.

See R. Roberts, _Dr Thomas, his Life and Work_ (1884).

CHRISTCHURCH, a municipal and parliamentary borough of Hampshire,

England, at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Stour, 1½ m. from the

sea, and 104 m. S.W. by W. from London by the London & South Western

railway. Pop. (1901) 4204. It is famous for its magnificent priory

church of the Holy Trinity. The church is cruciform, lacking a central

tower, but having a Perpendicular tower at the west end. The nave and

transepts are principally Norman, and very fine; the choir is

Perpendicular. Early English additions appear in the nave, clerestory

and elsewhere, and the rood-screen is of ornate Decorated workmanship.

Other noteworthy features are the Norman turret at the north-east angle

of the north transept, covered with arcading and other ornament, the

beautiful reredos, similar to that in Winchester cathedral, and several

interesting monuments, among which is one to the poet Shelley. Only

fragments remain of the old castle, but an interesting ruin adjoins it

known as the Norman House, apparently dating from the later part of the

12th century. Hosiery, and chains for clocks and watches are

manufactured, and the salmon fishery is valuable. There is a small

harbour, but it is dry at low water. The parliamentary borough,

returning one member, includes the town of Bournemouth. The municipal

borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 832

acres.

Christchurch is mentioned in Saxon documents under the name of Tweotneam

or Tweonaeteam, which long survived in the form Christchurch Twineham.

In 901 it was seized by Aethelwald, but was recaptured by Edward the

Elder. In the Domesday Survey, under the name of Thuinam, it appears as

a royal manor, comprising a mill and part of the king's forest; its

value since the time of Edward the Confessor had decreased by almost

one-half. Henry I. granted Christchurch to Richard de Redvers, who

erected the castle. The first charter was granted by Baldwin earl of

Exeter in the 12th century; it exempted the burgesses from certain tolls

and customs, including the tolls on salt within the borough, and the

custody of thieves. The 2nd Earl Baldwin granted to the burgesses the

tolls of the fair at St Faith and common of pasture in certain meads.

The above charters were confirmed by Edward II., Henry VII. and

Elizabeth. The Holy Trinity fair is mentioned in 1226. Christchurch was

governed by a bailiff in the 13th century, and was not incorporated till

1670, when the government was vested in a mayor and 24 capital

burgesses, but this charter was shortly abandoned. The borough was

summoned to send representatives to parliament in 1307 and 1308, but no

returns are registered until 1572, from which date it was represented by

two members until the Reform Act of 1832 reduced the number to one. The

secular canons of the church of Holy Trinity held valuable possessions

in Hampshire at the time of Edward the Confessor, including a portion of

Christchurch, and in 1150 the establishment was constituted a priory of

regular canons of St Augustine. Baldwin de Redvers confirmed the canons

in their right to the first salmon caught every year and the tolls of

Trinity fair. The priory, which attained to such fame that its name of

Christchurch finally replaced the older name of Twineham, was dissolved

in 1539.

See _Victoria County History--Hampshire_; Benjamin Ferrey,

_Antiquities of the Priory of Christchurch_, 2nd edition, revised by

J. Britton (London, 1841).

CHRISTCHURCH, a city near the east coast of South Island, New Zealand,

to the north of Banks Peninsula, in Selwyn county, the capital of the

provincial district of Canterbury and the seat of a bishop. Pop. (1906)

49,928; including suburbs, 67,878. It stands upon the great Canterbury

plain, which here is a dead level, though the monotony of the site has

been much relieved by extensive plantations of English and Australian

trees. A background is supplied by the distant mountains to the west,

and by the nearer hills to the south. The small river Avon winds through

the city, pleasantly bordered by terraces and gardens. The wide streets

cross one another for the most part at right angles. The predominance of

stone and brick as building materials, the dominating cathedral spire,

and the well-planted parks, avenues and private gardens, recall the

aspect of an English residential town. Christchurch is mainly dependent

on the rich agricultural district which surrounds it, the plain being

mainly devoted to cereals and grazing. Wool is extensively worked, and

meat is frozen for export. Railways connect with Culverden to the north

and with Dunedin and the south coast, with many branches through the

agricultural districts; also with Lyttelton, the port of Christchurch, 8

m. S.E. There are tramways in the city, and to New Brighton, a seaside

suburb, and other residential quarters. The principal public buildings

are the government buildings and the museum, with its fine collection of

remains of the extinct bird, moa. The cathedral is the best in New

Zealand, built from designs of Sir G. Gilbert Scott in Early English

style, with a tower and spire 240 ft. high. Among educational

foundations are Canterbury College (for classics, science, engineering,

&c), Christ's College (mainly theological) and grammar school, and a

school of art. There is a Roman Catholic pro-cathedral attached to a

convent of the Sacred Heart. A large extent of open ground, to the west

of the town, finely planted, and traversed by the river, comprises

Hagley Park, recreation grounds, the Government Domain and the grounds

of the Acclimatization Society, with fish-ponds and a small zoological

garden. The foundation of Christchurch is connected with the so-called

"Canterbury Pilgrims," who settled in this district in 1850. Lyttelton

was the original settlement, but Christchurch came into existence in

1851, and is thus the latest of the settlements of the colony. It became

a municipality in 1862. In 1903 several populous suburban boroughs were

amalgamated with the city.

CHRISTIAN II. (1481-1559), king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, son of

John (Hans) and Christina of Saxony, was born at Nyborg castle in 1481,

and succeeded his father as king of Denmark and Norway in 1513. As

viceroy of Norway (1506-1512) he had already displayed a singular

capacity for ruling under exceptionally difficult circumstances.

Patriotism, insight, courage, statesmanship, energy,--these great

qualities were indisputably his; but unfortunately they were vitiated by

obstinacy, suspicion and a sulky craftiness, beneath which simmered a

very volcano of revengeful cruelty. Another peculiarity, more fatal to

him in that aristocratic age than any other, was his fondness for the

common people, which was increased by his passion for a pretty Dutch

girl, named Dyveke, who became his mistress in 1507 or 1509.

Christian's succession to the throne was confirmed at the _Herredag_, or

assembly of notables from the three northern kingdoms, which met at

Copenhagen in 1513. The nobles and clergy of all three kingdoms regarded

with grave misgivings a ruler who had already shown in Norway that he

was not afraid of enforcing his authority to the uttermost. The

_Rigsraads_ of Denmark and Norway insisted, in the _haandfaestning_ or

charter extorted from the king, that the crowns of both kingdoms were

elective and not hereditary, providing explicitly against any

transgression of the charter by the king, and expressly reserving to

themselves a free choice of Christian's successor after his death. But

the Swedish delegates could not be prevailed upon to accept Christian as

king at all. "We have," they said, "the choice between peace at home and

strife here, or peace here and civil war at home, and we prefer the

former." A decision as to the Swedish succession was therefore

postponed. On the 12th of August 1515 Christian married Isabella of

Burgundy, the grand-daughter of the emperor Maximilian. But he would not

give up his liaison with Dyveke, and it was only the death of the

unfortunate girl in 1517, under suspicious circumstances, that prevented

serious complications with the emperor Charles V. Christian revenged

himself by executing the magnate Torben Oxe, who, on very creditable

evidence, was supposed to have been Dyveke's murderer, despite the

strenuous opposition of Oxe's fellow-peers; and henceforth the king lost

no opportunity of depressing the nobility and raising plebeians to

power. His chief counsellor was Dyveke's mother Sigbrit, a born

administrator and a commercial genius of the first order. Christian

first appointed her controller of the Sound tolls, and ultimately

committed to her the whole charge of the finances. A _bourgeoise_

herself, it was Sigbrit's constant policy to elevate and extend the

influence of the middle classes. She soon became the soul of a

middle-class inner council, which competed with _Rigsraad_ itself. The

patricians naturally resented their supersession and nearly every

unpopular measure was attributed to the influence of "the foul-mouthed

Dutch sorceress who hath bewitched the king."

Meanwhile Christian was preparing for the inevitable war with Sweden,

where the patriotic party, headed by the freely elected governor Sten

Sture the younger, stood face to face with the philo-Danish party under

Archbishop Gustavus Trolle. Christian, who had already taken measures to

isolate Sweden politically, hastened to the relief of the archbishop,

who was beleagured in his fortress of Stäke, but was defeated by Sture

and his peasant levies at Vedla and forced to return to Denmark. A

second attempt to subdue Sweden in 1518 was also frustrated by Sture's

victory at Bränkyrka. A third attempt made in 1520 with a large army of

French, German and Scottish mercenaries proved successful. Sture was

mortally wounded at the battle of Börgerund, on the 19th of January, and

the Danish army, unopposed, was approaching Upsala, where the members of

the Swedish _Riksråd_ had already assembled. The senators consented to

render homage to Christian on condition that he gave a full indemnity

for the past and a guarantee that Sweden should be ruled according to

Swedish laws and custom; and a convention to this effect was confirmed

by the king and the Danish _Rigsraad_ on the 31st of March. But Sture's

widow, Dame Christina Gyllenstjerna, still held out stoutly at

Stockholm, and the peasantry of central Sweden, stimulated by her

patriotism, flew to arms, defeated the Danish invaders at Balundsäs

(March 19th), and were only with the utmost difficulty finally defeated

at the bloody battle of Upsala (Good Friday, April 6th). In May the

Danish fleet arrived, and Stockholm was invested by land and sea; but

Dame Christina resisted valiantly for four months longer, and took care,

when she surrendered on the 7th of September, to exact beforehand an

amnesty of the most explicit and absolute character. On the 1st of

November the representatives of the nation swore fealty to Christian as

hereditary king of Sweden, though the law of the land distinctly

provided that the Swedish crown should be elective. On the 4th of

November he was anointed by Gustavus Trolle in Stockholm cathedral, and

took the usual oath to rule the realm through native-born Swedes alone,

according to prescription. The next three days were given up to

banqueting, but on the 7th of November "an entertainment of another sort

began." On the evening of that day Christian summoned his captains to a

private conference at the palace, the result of which was quickly

apparent, for at dusk a band of Danish soldiers, with lanterns and

torches, broke into the great hall and carried off several carefully

selected persons. By 10 o'clock the same evening the remainder of the

king's guests were safely under lock and key. All these persons had

previously been marked down on Archbishop Trolle's proscription list. On

the following day a council, presided over by Trolle, solemnly

pronounced judgment of death on the proscribed, as manifest heretics. At

12 o'clock that night the patriotic bishops of Skara and Strängnäs were

led out into the great square and beheaded. Fourteen noblemen, three

burgomasters, fourteen town-councillors and about twenty common citizens

of Stockholm were then drowned or decapitated. The executions continued

throughout the following day; in all, about eighty-two people are said

to have been thus murdered. Moreover, Christian revenged himself upon

the dead as well as upon the living, for Sten Sture's body was dug up

and burnt, as well as the body of his little child. Dame Christina and

many other noble Swedish ladies were sent prisoners to Denmark. It has

well been said that the manner of this atrocious deed (the "Stockholm

Massacre" as it is generally called) was even more detestable than the

deed itself. Christian suppressed his political opponents under the

pretence of defending an ecclesiastical system which in his heart he

despised. Even when it became necessary to make excuses for his crime,

we see the same double-mindedness. Thus, while in a proclamation to the

Swedish people he represented the massacre as a measure necessary to

avoid a papal interdict, in his apology to the pope for the decapitation

of the innocent bishops he described it as an unauthorized act of

vengeance on the part of his own people.

It was with his brain teeming with great designs that Christian II.

returned to his native kingdom. That the welfare of his dominions was

dear to him there can be no doubt. Inhuman as he could be in his wrath,

in principle he was as much a humanist as any of his most enlightened

contemporaries. But he would do things his own way; and deeply

distrusting the Danish nobles with whom he shared his powers, he sought

helpers from among the wealthy and practical middle classes of Flanders.

In June 1521 he paid a sudden visit to the Low Countries, and remained

there for some months. He visited most of the large cities, took into

his service many Flemish artisans, and made the personal acquaintance of

Quentin Matsys and Albrecht Dürer, the latter of whom painted his

portrait. Christian also entertained Erasmus, with whom he discussed the

Reformation, and let fall the characteristic expression: "Mild measures

are of no use; the remedies that give the whole body a good shaking are

the best and surest."

Never had King Christian seemed so powerful as on his return to Denmark

on the 5th of September 1521, and with the confidence of strength he at

once proceeded recklessly to inaugurate the most sweeping reforms. Soon

after his return he issued his great _Landelove_, or Code of Laws. For

the most part this is founded on Dutch models, and testifies in a high

degree to the king's progressive aims. Provision was made for the better

education of the lower, and the restriction of the political influence

of the higher clergy; there were stern prohibitions against wreckers

and "the evil and unchristian practice of selling peasants as if they

were brute beasts"; the old trade gilds were retained, but the rules of

admittance thereto made easier, and trade combinations of the richer

burghers, to the detriment of the smaller tradesmen, were sternly

forbidden. Unfortunately these reforms, excellent in themselves,

suggested the standpoint not of an elected ruler, but of a monarch by

right divine. Some of them were even in direct contravention of the

charter; and the old Scandinavian spirit of independence was deeply

wounded by the preference given to the Dutch. Sweden too was now in open

revolt; and both Norway and Denmark were taxed to the uttermost to raise

an army for the subjection of the sister kingdom. Foreign complications

were now superadded to these domestic troubles. With the laudable object

of releasing Danish trade from the grinding yoke of the Hansa, and

making Copenhagen the great emporium of the north, Christian had

arbitrarily raised the Sound tolls and seized a number of Dutch ships

which presumed to evade the tax. Thus his relations with the Netherlands

were strained, while with Lübeck and her allies he was openly at war.

Finally Jutland rose against him, renounced its allegiance and offered

the Danish crown to Duke Frederick of Holstein (January 20th, 1523). So

overwhelming did Christian's difficulties appear that he took ship to

seek help abroad, and on May 1st landed at Veere in Zealand. Eight years

later (October 24th, 1531) he attempted to recover his kingdoms, but a

tempest scattered his fleet off the Norwegian coast, and on the 1st of

July 1532, by the convention of Oslo, he surrendered to his rival, King

Frederick, and for the next 27 years was kept in solitary confinement,

first in the Blue Tower at Copenhagen and afterwards at the castle of

Kabendborg. He died in January 1559.

See K.P. Arnoldson, _Nordens enhet och Kristian II._ (Stockholm,

1899); Paul Frederik Barfod, _Danmarks Historie fra 1319 til 1536_

(Copenhagen, 1885); _Danmarks Riges Historie_, vol. 3 (Copenhagen,

1897-1905); Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_, chap 2 (Cambridge,

1905). (R. N. B.)

CHRISTIAN III. (1503-1559), king of Denmark and Norway, was the son of

Frederick I. of Denmark and his first consort, Anne of Brandenburg. His

earliest teacher, Wolfgang von Utenhof, who came straight from

Wittenberg, and the Lutheran Holsteiner Johann Rantzau, who became his

tutor, were both able and zealous reformers. In 1521 Christian travelled

in Germany, and was present at the diet of Worms, where Luther's

behaviour profoundly impressed him. On his return he found that his

father had been elected king of Denmark in the place of Christian II.,

and the young prince's first public service was the reduction of

Copenhagen, which stood firm for the fugitive Christian II. He made no

secret of his Lutheran views, and his outspokenness brought him into

collision, not only with the Catholic _Rigsraad_, but also with his

cautious and temporizing father. At his own court at Schleswig he did

his best to introduce the Reformation, despite the opposition of the

bishops. Both as stadtholder of the Duchies in 1526, and as viceroy of

Norway in 1529, he displayed considerable administrative ability, though

here too his religious intolerance greatly provoked the Catholic party.

There was even some talk of passing him over in the succession to the

throne, in favour of his half-brother Hans, who had been brought up in

the old religion. On his father's death Christian was proclaimed king at

the local diet of Viborg, and took an active part in the "Grevens Fejde"

or "Count's War."

The triumph of so fanatical a reformer as Christian brought about the

fall of Catholicism, but the Catholics were still so strong in the

council of state that Christian was forced to have recourse to a _coup

d'état_, which he successfully accomplished by means of his German

mercenaries (12th of August 1536), an absolutely inexcusable act of

violence loudly blamed by Luther himself, and accompanied by the

wholesale spoliation of the church. Christian's finances were certainly

readjusted thereby, but the ultimate gainers by the confiscation were

the nobles, and both education and morality suffered grievously in

consequence. The circumstances under which Christian III. ascended the

throne naturally exposed Denmark to the danger of foreign domination. It

was with the help of the gentry of the duchies that Christian had

conquered Denmark. German and Holstein noblemen had led his armies and

directed his diplomacy. Naturally, a mutual confidence between a king

who had conquered his kingdom and a people who had stood in arms against

him was not attainable immediately, and the first six years of Christian

III.'s reign were marked by a contest between the Danish _Rigsraad_ and

the German counsellors, both of whom sought to rule "the pious king"

exclusively. Though the Danish party won a signal victory at the outset,

by obtaining the insertion in the charter of provisions stipulating that

only native-born Danes should fill the highest dignities of the state,

the king's German counsellors continued paramount during the earlier

years of his reign. The ultimate triumph of the Danish party dates from

1539, the dangers threatening Christian III. from the emperor Charles V.

and other kinsmen of the imprisoned Christian II. convincing him of the

absolute necessity of removing the last trace of discontent in the land

by leaning exclusively on Danish magnates and soldiers. The complete

identification of the Danish king with the Danish people was

accomplished at the _Herredag_ of Copenhagen, 1542, when the nobility of

Denmark voted Christian a twentieth part of all their property to pay

off his heavy debt to the Holsteiners and Germans.

The pivot of the foreign policy of Christian III. was his alliance with

the German Evangelical princes, as a counterpoise to the persistent

hostility of Charles V., who was determined to support the hereditary

claims of his nieces, the daughters of Christian II., to the

Scandinavian kingdoms. War was actually declared against Charles V. in

1542, and, though the German Protestant princes proved faithless allies,

the closing of the Sound against Dutch shipping proved such an effective

weapon in King Christian's hand that the Netherlands compelled Charles

V. to make peace with Denmark at the diet of Spires, the 23rd of May

1544. The foreign policy of Christian's later days was regulated by the

peace of Spires. He carefully avoided all foreign complications; refused

to participate in the Schmalkaldic war of 1546; mediated between the

emperor and Saxony after the fall of Maurice of Saxony at the battle of

Sievershausen in 1553, and contributed essentially to the conclusion of

peace. King Christian III. died on New Year's Day 1559. Though not

perhaps a great, he was, in the fullest sense of the word, a good ruler.

A strong sense of duty, genuine piety, and a cautious but by no means

pusillanimous common-sense coloured every action of his patient,

laborious and eventful life. But the work he left behind him is the best

proof of his statesmanship. He found Denmark in ruins; he left her

stronger and wealthier than she had ever been before.

See _Danmarks Riges Historie_, vol. 3 (Copenhagen, 1897-1901);

Huitfeld, _King Christian III.'s Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1595); Bain,

_Scandinavia_, cap. iv. v. (Cambridge, 1905). (R. N. B.)

CHRISTIAN IV. (1577-1648), king of Denmark and Norway, the son of

Frederick II., king of Denmark, and Sophia of Mecklenburg, was born at

Fredriksborg castle in 1577, and succeeded to the throne on the death of

his father (4th of April 1588), attaining his majority on the 17th of

August 1596. On the 27th of November 1597 he married Anne Catherine, a

daughter of Joachim Frederick, margrave of Brandenburg. The queen died

fourteen years later, after bearing Christian six children. Four years

after her death the king privately wedded a handsome young gentlewoman,

Christina Munk, by whom he had twelve children,--a connexion which was

to be disastrous to Denmark.

The young king's court was one of the most joyous and magnificent in

Europe; yet he found time for work of the most various description,

including a series of domestic reforms (see DENMARK: _History_). He also

did very much for the national armaments. New fortresses were

constructed under the direction of Dutch engineers. The Danish navy,

which in 1596 consisted of but twenty-two vessels, in 1610 rose to

sixty, some of them being built after Christian's own designs. The

formation of a national army was more difficult. Christian had to depend

mainly upon hired troops, supported by native levies recruited for the

most part from the peasantry on the crown domains. His first experiment

with his newly organized army was successful. In the war with Sweden,

generally known as the "Kalmar War," because its chief operation was the

capture by the Danes of Kalmar, the eastern fortress of Sweden,

Christian compelled Gustavus Adolphus to give way on all essential

points (treaty of Knäred, 20th of January 1613). He now turned his

attention to Germany. His object was twofold: first, to obtain the

control of the great German rivers the Elbe and the Weser, as a means of

securing his dominion of the northern seas; and secondly, to acquire the

secularized German bishoprics of Bremen and Werden as appanages for his

younger sons. He skilfully took advantage of the alarm of the German

Protestants after the battle of White Hill in 1620, to secure the

coadjutorship to the see of Bremen for his son Frederick (September

1621), a step followed in November by a similar arrangement as to

Werden; while Hamburg by the compact of Steinburg (July 1621) was

induced to acknowledge the Danish overlordship of Holstein. The growing

ascendancy of the Catholics in North Germany in and after 1623 almost

induced Christian, for purely political reasons, to intervene directly

in the Thirty Years' War. For a time, however, he stayed his hand, but

the urgent solicitations of the western powers, and, above all, his fear

lest Gustavus Adolphus should supplant him as the champion of the

Protestant cause, finally led him to plunge into war against the

combined forces of the emperor and the League, without any adequate

guarantees of co-operation from abroad. On the 9th of May 1625 Christian

quitted Denmark for the front. He had at his disposal from 19,000 to

25,000 men, and at first gained some successes; but on the 27th of

August 1626 he was utterly routed by Tilly at Lutter-am-Barenberge, and

in the summer of 1627 both Tilly and Wallenstein, ravaging and burning,

occupied the duchies and the whole peninsula of Jutland. In his

extremity Christian now formed an alliance with Sweden (1st of January

1628), whereby Gustavus Adolphus pledged himself to assist Denmark with

a fleet in case of need, and shortly afterwards a Swedo-Danish army and

fleet compelled Wallenstein to raise the siege of Stralsund. Thus the

possession of a superior sea-power enabled Denmark to tide over her

worst difficulties, and in May 1629 Christian was able to conclude peace

with the emperor at Lübeck, without any diminution of territory.

Christian IV. was now a broken man. His energy was temporarily paralysed

by accumulated misfortunes. Not only his political hopes, but his

domestic happiness had suffered shipwreck. In the course of 1628 he

discovered a scandalous intrigue of his wife, Christina Munk, with one

of his German officers; and when he put her away she endeavoured to

cover up her own disgrace by conniving at an intrigue between Vibeke

Kruse, one of her discharged maids, and the king. In January 1630 the

rupture became final, and Christina retired to her estates in Jutland.

Meanwhile Christian openly acknowledged Vibeke as his mistress, and she

bore him a numerous family. Vibeke's children were of course the natural

enemies of the children of Christina Munk, and the hatred of the two

families was not without influence on the future history of Denmark.

Between 1629 and 1643, however, Christian gained both in popularity and

influence. During that period he obtained once more the control of the

foreign policy of Denmark as well as of the Sound tolls, and towards the

end of it he hoped to increase his power still further with the

assistance of his sons-in-law, Korfits Ulfeld and Hannibal Sehested, who

now came prominently forward.

Even at the lowest ebb of his fortunes Christian had never lost hope of

retrieving them, and between 1629 and 1643 the European situation

presented infinite possibilities to politicians with a taste for

adventure. Unfortunately, with all his gifts, Christian was no

statesman, and was incapable of a consistent policy. He would neither

conciliate Sweden, henceforth his most dangerous enemy, nor guard

himself against her by a definite system of counter-alliances. By

mediating in favour of the emperor, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus

in 1632, he tried to minimize the influence of Sweden in Germany, and

did glean some minor advantages. But his whole Scandinavian policy was

so irritating and vexatious that Swedish statesmen made up their minds

that a war with Denmark was only a question of time; and in the spring

of 1643 it seemed to them that the time had come. They were now able,

thanks to their conquests in the Thirty Years' War, to attack Denmark

from the south as well as the east; the Dutch alliance promised to

secure them at sea, and an attack upon Denmark would prevent her from

utilizing the impending peace negotiations to the prejudice of Sweden.

In May the Swedish _Riksråd_ decided upon war; on the 12th of December

the Swedish marshal Lennart Torstensson, advancing from Bohemia, crossed

the northern frontier of Denmark; by the end of January 1644 the whole

peninsula of Jutland was in his possession. This totally unexpected

attack, conducted from first to last with consummate ability and

lightning-like rapidity, had a paralysing effect upon Denmark.

Fortunately, in the midst of almost universal helplessness and

confusion, Christian IV. knew his duty and had the courage to do it. In

his sixty-sixth year he once more displayed something of the magnificent

energy of his triumphant youth. Night and day he laboured to levy armies

and equip fleets. Fortunately too for him, the Swedish government

delayed hostilities in Scania till February 1644, so that the Danes were

able to make adequate defensive preparations and save the important

fortress of Malmö. Torstensson, too, was unable to cross from Jutland to

Fünen for want of a fleet, and the Dutch auxiliary fleet which came to

his assistance was defeated between the islands of Sylt and Rönnö on the

west coast of Schleswig by the Danish admirals. Another attempt to

transport Torstensson and his army to the Danish islands by a large

Swedish fleet was frustrated by Christian IV. in person on the 1st of

July 1644. On that day the two fleets encountered off Kolberge Heath,

S.E. of Kiel Bay, and Christian displayed a heroism which endeared him

ever after to the Danish nation and made his name famous in song and

story. As he stood on the quarter-deck of the "Trinity" a cannon close

by was exploded by a Swedish bullet, and splinters of wood and metal

wounded the king in thirteen places, blinding one eye and flinging him

to the deck. But he was instantly on his feet again, cried with a loud

voice that it was well with him, and set every one an example of duty by

remaining on deck till the fight was over. Darkness at last separated

the contending fleets; and though the battle was a drawn one, the Danish

fleet showed its superiority by blockading the Swedish ships in Kiel

Bay. But the Swedish fleet escaped, and the annihilation of the Danish

fleet by the combined navies of Sweden and Holland, after an obstinate

fight between Fehmarn and Laaland at the end of September, exhausted the

military resources of Denmark and compelled Christian to accept the

mediation of France and the United Provinces; and peace was finally

signed at Brömsebro on the 8th of February 1645.

The last years of the king were still further embittered by sordid

differences with his sons-in-law, especially with the most ambitious of

them, Korfits Ulfeld. On the 21st of February 1648, at his earnest

request, he was carried in a litter from Fredriksborg to his beloved

Copenhagen, where he died a week later. Christian IV. was a good

linguist, speaking, besides his native tongue, German, Latin, French and

Italian. Naturally cheerful and hospitable, he delighted in lively

society; but he was also passionate, irritable and sensual. He had

courage, a vivid sense of duty, an indefatigable love of work, and all

the inquisitive zeal and inventive energy of a born reformer. Yet,

though of the stuff of which great princes are made, he never attained

to greatness. His own pleasure, whether it took the form of love or

ambition, was always his first consideration. In the heyday of his youth

his high spirits and passion for adventure enabled him to surmount every

obstacle with _élan_. But in the decline of life he reaped the bitter

fruits of his lack of self-control, and sank into the grave a weary and

broken-hearted old man.

See _Life_ (Dan.), by H.C. Bering Lüsberg and A.L. Larsen (Copenhagen,

1890-1891); _Letters_ (Dan.), ed. Carl Frederik Bricka and Julius

Albert Fridericia (Copenhagen, 1878); _Danmarks Riges Historie_, vol.

4 (Copenhagen, 1897-1905); Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_, cap.

vii. (Cambridge, 1905). (R. N. B.)

CHRISTIAN V. (1646-1699), king of Denmark and Norway, the son of

Frederick III. of Denmark and Sophia Amelia of Brunswick-Lüneburg, was

born on the 15th of April 1646 at Flensberg, and ascended the throne on

the 9th of February 1670. He was a weak despot with an exaggerated

opinion of his dignity and his prerogatives. Almost his first act on

ascending the throne was publicly to insult his consort, the amiable

Charlotte Amelia of Hesse-Cassel, by introducing into court, as his

officially recognized mistress, Amelia Moth, a girl of sixteen, the

daughter of his former tutor, whom he made countess of Samsö. His

personal courage and extreme affability made him highly popular among

the lower orders, but he showed himself quite incapable of taking

advantage permanently of the revival of the national energy, and the

extraordinary overflow of native middle-class talent, which were the

immediate consequences of the revolution of 1660. Under the guidance of

his great chancellor Griffenfeldt, Denmark seemed for a brief period to

have a chance of regaining her former position as a great power. But in

sacrificing Griffenfeldt to the clamour of his adversaries, Christian

did serious injury to the monarchy. He frittered away the resources of

the kingdom in the unremunerative Swedish war of 1675-79, and did

nothing for internal progress in the twenty years of peace which

followed. He died in a hunting accident on the 25th of August 1699.

See Peter Edvard Holm, _Danmarks indre Historie under Enevaelden_

(Copenhagen, 1881-1886); Adolf Ditleva Jörgensen, _Peter Griffenfeldt_

(Copenhagen, 1893); Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_ cap. x., xi.

(Cambridge, 1905).

CHRISTIAN VII. (1749-1808), king of Denmark and Norway, was the son of

Frederick V., king of Denmark, and his first consort Louisa, daughter of

George II. of Great Britain. He became king on his father's death on the

14th of January 1766. All the earlier accounts agree that he had a

winning personality and considerable talent, but he was badly educated,

systematically terrorized by a brutal governor and hopelessly debauched

by corrupt pages, and grew up a semi-idiot. After his marriage in 1766

with Caroline Matilda (1751-1775), daughter of Frederick, prince of

Wales, he abandoned himself to the worst excesses. He ultimately sank

into a condition of mental stupor, and became the obedient slave of the

upstart Struensee (q.v.). After the fall of Struensee (the warrant for

whose arrest he signed with indifference), for the last six-and-twenty

years of his reign, he was only nominally king. He died on the 13th of

March 1808. In 1772 the king's marriage with Caroline Matilda, who had

been seized and had confessed to criminal familiarity with Struensee,

was dissolved, and the queen, retaining her title, passed her remaining

days at Celle, where she died on the 11th of May 1775.

See E.S.F. Reverdil, _Struensee et la cour de Copenhague, 1760-1772_

(Paris, 1858); _Danmarks Riges Historie_, vol. v. (Copenhagen,

1897-1905); and for Caroline Matilda, Sir F.C.L. Wraxall, _Life and

Times of Queen Caroline Matilda_ (1864), and W.H. Wilkins, _A Queen of

Tears_ (1904).

CHRISTIAN VIII. (1786-1848), king of Denmark and Norway, the eldest son of

the crown prince Frederick and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,

was born on the 18th of September 1786 at Christiansborg castle. He

inherited the talents of his highly gifted mother, and his amiability and

handsome features made him very popular in Copenhagen. His unfortunate

first marriage with his cousin Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

was dissolved in 1810. In May 1813 he was sent as stadtholder to Norway to

promote the loyalty of the Northmen to the dynasty, which had been very

rudely shaken by the disastrous results of Frederick VI.'s adhesion to the

falling fortunes of Napoleon. He did all he could personally to strengthen

the bonds between the Norwegians and the royal house of Denmark, and

though his endeavours were opposed by the so-called Swedish party, which

desired a dynastic union with Sweden, he placed himself at the head of the

Norwegian party of independence, and was elected regent of Norway by an

assembly of notables on the 16th of February 1814. This election was

confirmed by a _Storthing_ held at Eidsvold on the 10th of April, and on

the 17th of May Christian was elected king of Norway, despite the protests

of the Swedish party. Christian next attempted to interest the great

powers in his cause, but without success. On being summoned by the

commissioners of the allied powers at Copenhagen to bring about a union

between Norway and Sweden in accordance with the terms of the treaty of

Kiel, and then return to Denmark, he replied that, as a constitutional

king, he could do nothing without the consent of the _Storthing_, to the

convocation of which a suspension of hostilities on the part of Sweden was

the condition precedent. Sweden refusing Christian's conditions, a short

campaign ensued, in which Christian was easily worsted by the superior

skill and forces of the Swedish crown prince (Bernadotte). The brief war

was finally concluded by the convention of Moss on the 14th of August 1814

(see NORWAY: _History_). Henceforth Christian's suspected democratic

principles made him _persona ingratissima_ at all the reactionary European

courts, his own court included, and he and his second wife, Caroline

Amelia of Augustenburg, whom he married in 1815, lived in comparative

retirement as the leaders of the literary and scientific society of

Copenhagen. It was not till 1831 that old King Frederick gave him a seat

in the council of state. On the 13th of December 1839 he ascended the

Danish throne as Christian VIII. The Liberal party had high hopes of "the

giver of constitutions," but he disappointed his admirers by steadily

rejecting every Liberal project. Administrative reform was the only reform

he would promise. He died of blood-poisoning on the 20th of January 1848.

See Just Matthias Thiele, _Christian den Ottende_ (Copenhagen, 1848);

Yngvar Nielsen, _Bidrag til Norges Historie_ (Christiania, 1882-1886).

CHRISTIAN IX. (1818-1906), king of Denmark, was a younger son of

William, duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d. 1831), a

direct descendant of the Danish king Christian III. by his wife Louise,

a daughter of Charles, prince of Hesse-Cassel (d. 1836), and

grand-daughter of King Frederick V. Born at Gottorp on the 8th of April

1818, Christian entered the army, and alone among the members of his

family served with the Danish troops in Schleswig during the

insurrection of 1848; but he was a personage of little importance until

about 1852, ten years after his marriage with Louise (1817-1898),

daughter of William, prince of Hesse-Cassel (d. 1867), and cousin of

King Frederick VII. At this time it became imperative that satisfactory

provision should be made for the succession to the Danish throne. The

reigning king, Frederick VII., was childless, and the representatives of

the great powers met in London and settled the crown on Prince Christian

and his wife (May 1852), an arrangement which became part of the law of

Denmark in 1853. The "protocol king," as Christian was sometimes called,

ascended the throne on Frederick's death in November 1863, and was at

once faced by formidable difficulties. Reluctantly he assented to the

policy which led to war with the combined power of Austria and Prussia,

and to the separation of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and

Lauenburg from Denmark (see SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION). Within the

narrowed limits of his kingdom Christian's difficulties were more

protracted and hardly less serious. During almost the whole of his reign

the Danes were engaged in a political struggle between the "Right" and

the "Left," the party of order and the party of progress, the former

being supported in general by the _Landsting_, and the latter by the

_Folketing_. The king's sympathies lay with the more conservative

section of his subjects, and for many years he was successful in

preventing the Radicals from coming into office. The march of events,

however, was too strong for him, and in 1901 he assented in a dignified

manner to the formation of a "cabinet of the Left" (see DENMARK:

_History_). In spite of these political disturbances Christian's

popularity with his people grew steadily, and was enhanced by the

patriarchal and unique position which in his later years he occupied in

Europe. With his wife, often called "the aunt of all Europe," he was

related to nearly all the European sovereigns. His eldest son Frederick

had married a daughter of Charles XV. of Sweden; his second son George

had been king of the Hellenes since 1863; and his youngest son Waldemar

(b. 1858) was married to Marie d'Orléans, daughter of Robert, duc de

Chartres. Of his three daughters, Alexandra married Edward VII. of Great

Britain; Dagmar (Marie), the tsar Alexander III.; and Thyra, Ernest

Augustus, duke of Cumberland. One of his grandsons, Charles, became king

of Norway as Haakon VII. in 1905, and another, Constantine, crown prince

of Greece, married a sister of the German emperor William II. Christian

was also the ruler of Iceland, where he was received with great

enthusiasm when he visited the island in 1874. He died at Copenhagen on

the 29th of January 1906, and was buried at Roskilde.

See Barfod, _Kong Kristian IX.'s Regerings-Dagbog_ (Copenhagen, 1876);

and _Hans Majestet Kong Kristian IX._ (Copenhagen, 1888).

CHRISTIAN, WILLIAM (1608-1663), Manx politician, a son of Ewan

Christian, one of the Manx deemsters, was born on the 14th of April

1608, and was known as _Illiam Dhone_, or Brown William. In 1648 the

lord of the Isle of Man, James Stanley, 7th earl of Derby, appointed

Christian his receiver-general; and when in 1651 the earl crossed to

England to fight for Charles II. he left him in command of the island

militia. Derby was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, and his

famous countess, Charlotte de la Tremouille, who was residing in Man,

sought to obtain her husband's release by negotiating with the

victorious parliamentarians for the surrender of the island. At once a

revolt headed by Christian broke out, partly as a consequence of this

step, partly owing to the discontent caused by some agrarian

arrangements recently introduced by the earl. The rebels seized many of

the forts; then Christian in his turn entered into negotiations with the

parliamentarians; and probably owing to his connivance the island was

soon in the power of Colonel Robert Duckenfield, who had brought the

parliamentary fleet to Man in October 1651. The countess of Derby was

compelled to surrender her two fortresses, Castle Rushen and Peel

castle, while Christian remained receiver-general, becoming governor of

the island in 1656. Two years later, however, he was accused of

misappropriating some money; he fled to England, and in 1660 was

arrested in London. Having undergone a year's imprisonment he returned

to Man, hoping that his offence against the earl of Derby would be

condoned under the Act of Indemnity of 1661; but, anxious to punish his

conduct, Charles, the new earl of Derby, ordered his seizure; he refused

to plead, and a packed House of Keys declared that in this case his life

and property were at the mercy of the lord of the island. The deemsters

then passed sentence, and in accordance therewith Christian was executed

by shooting on the 2nd of January 1663. This arbitrary act angered

Charles II. and his advisers; the deemsters and others were punished,

and some reparation was made to Christian's family. Christian is chiefly

celebrated through the Manx ballad _Baase Illiam Dhone_, which has been

translated into English by George Borrow, and through the references to

him in Sir Walter Scott's _Peveril of the Peak_.

See A.W. Moore, _History of the Isle of Man_ (1900).

CHRISTIAN OF BRUNSWICK (1590-1626), bishop of Halberstadt and a general

during the earlier part of the Thirty Years' War, a younger son of Henry

Julius, duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was born at Gröningen on the

20th of September 1599. Having succeeded his father as "bishop" of

Halberstadt in 1616, he obtained some experience of warfare under

Maurice, prince of Orange, in the Netherlands. Raising an army he

entered the service of Frederick V., elector palatine of the Rhine, just

after that prince had been driven from Bohemia; glorying in his

chivalrous devotion to Frederick's wife Elizabeth, he attacked the lands

of the elector of Mainz and the bishoprics of Westphalia. After some

successes he was defeated by Tilly at Höchst in June 1622; then,

dismissed from Frederick's service, he entered that of the United

Provinces, losing an arm at the battle of Fleurus, a victory he did much

to win. In 1623 he gathered an army and broke into lower Saxony, but was

beaten by Tilly at Stadtlohn and driven back to the Netherlands. When in

1625 Christian IV., king of Denmark, entered the arena of the war, he

took the field again in the Protestant interest, but after some

successes he died at Wolfenbüttel on the 16th of June 1626. Christian,

who loved to figure as "the friend of God, the enemy of the priests," is

sometimes called "the mad bishop," and was a merciless, coarse, and

blasphemous man.

CHRISTIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, the name assumed by a religious organization

founded at Zion City near Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., in 1896, by John

Alexander Dowie (q.v.). Its members added to the usual tenets of

Christianity a special belief in faith-healing, and laid much stress on

united consecration services and the threefold immersion of believers.

To assist Dowie, assistant overseers were appointed, and the operations

of the community included religious, educational and commercial

departments. Small branches sprang up in other parts of the United

States, Mexico, Canada, Europe and Australasia. At the end of 1901 there

were nearly 12,000 baptized believers. After 1903 considerable

dissension arose among Dowie's followers: he was deposed in 1906; and

after his death (1907) the city gradually became a community of normal

type.

CHRISTIAN CONNECTION, a denomination of Christians in North America

formed by secession, under James O'Kelly (1735-1826), of members of the

Methodist Episcopal Church in North Carolina in 1793. The movement

resembled those under the Campbells and Stone in Kentucky in 1801-1804,

and in Lyndon, Vermont, among the Baptists in 1800. The predisposing

cause in each case was the desire to be free from the "bondage of

creed." Some of O'Kelly's followers joined the Disciples of Christ

(q.v.). Their form of church government is Congregational; they take the

Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice, and while adopting

immersion as the proper mode of baptism, freely welcome Christians of

every sect to their communion. They number about 100,000 members, mainly

in the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The original seceders in

Virginia and North Carolina bore for a time the name "Republican

Methodists," and then called themselves simply "Christians," a

designation which with the pronunciation "Christ-yans" is still often

applied to them. Their position is curiously akin to that outlined by

William Chillingworth (q.v.) in his famous work _The Religion of

Protestants_ (1637-1638).

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR SOCIETIES, organizations formed for the purpose of

promoting spiritual life among young people. They date from 1881, in

which year Dr Francis E. Clark (q.v.) formed a Young People's Society of

Christian Endeavour in his (Congregational) church at Portland, Maine,

U.S.A. The idea was taken up elsewhere in America and spread to other

countries, till, under the presidency of Dr Clark, a huge number of

affiliated societies came into operation throughout the world. They take

as their motto "For Christ and the Church," and have done much,

especially in the non-episcopal churches, to prepare young men and women

for active services in the Church. The organization is international and

interdenominational, a World's Christian Endeavour Union being formed in

1895. The members do not form a separate denomination, but remain

attached to their respective churches, being grouped in voluntary

district federations.

CHRISTIANIA (officially KRISTIANIA), the capital of Norway, forming a

separate county (_amt_), and the seat of a bishopric (_stift_). Pop.

(1901) 229,101. It lies on the south-eastern coast, at the head of

Christiania Fjord, about 80 m. from the open waters of the Skagerrack,

is 59° 54' N. (about the latitude of the southern extremity of the

Shetland Islands) and 10° 45' E., mainly on the west bank of the small

Aker river. The situation is very beautiful, pine-wooded hills rising

sharply behind the city, while several islands stud the fjord. The town

is mainly modern, having increased rapidly in and since the second half

of the 19th century, when brick and stone largely superseded wood as the

building material. It is the seat of government, of the supreme courts,

of the parliament (_Storthing_), and of a university. The harbour is of

two parts, the Björvik, where the larger steamers lie, and the Pipervik,

west of this. On the promontory intervening between these two inlets

stands the old fortress of Akershus, occupied as an arsenal and prison,

and having a pleasant promenade upon its ramparts. Until 1719 it was a

royal palace. At the head of the Björvik the principal railway station

(_Hovedbanegaard_) stands in the Jernbanetorv (railway square), and

north-west from this runs the principal street, Karl-Johans-gade. In

this street, passing the Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church of our Saviour), the

Storthings-Bygning (parliament-house, 1866) is seen, facing a handsome

square planted with trees. Beyond this is the National theatre (1899),

with colossal statues of the dramatists Ibsen and Björnsen. It faces the

Fridericiana University, housed in three buildings dating from 1853, but

founded by Frederick VI. of Denmark in 1811, embracing the five

faculties of theology, law, medicine, history and philology, mathematics

and natural sciences. The equipment of the university is very complete:

it has attached to it a large and valuable library, natural history,

ethnological and numismatic collections, with one of Scandinavian

antiquities; also botanical gardens and an observatory. The

Karl-Johans-gade gives upon the beautiful Slotspark, a wooded elevation

crowned with the royal palace (_slot_), a plain building completed in

1848. North of the university is the museum of art, containing a

noteworthy collection of sculpture and paintings of ancient and modern

foreign masters, and of native works. The historical museum adjoining

this contains northern antiquities, including two viking's ships,

excavated, in 1867 and 1880 respectively, from the burial-places of the

viking chiefs who owned and, according to custom, were buried in them.

Another noteworthy collection is that of industrial art. The Bank of

Norway, the exchange, and the courts of law lie between the harbours.

Other institutions are the Freemasons' Lodge, housed in one of the

handsomest buildings in the city (1844), a conservatory of music, naval,

military and art schools, Athenaeum, and the great Dampkjökken or

kitchen (1858), where dinners are provided for the poor.

The suburbs of Christiania are attractive and rapidly growing. On the

east side of the river Aker is that of Oslo, with the existing episcopal

palace, and an old bishop's palace, in which James VI. of Scotland (I.

of England) was betrothed to Princess Anne of Denmark (1589). In the

environs of the city are the royal pleasure castle of Oscarshal

(1847-1852), on the peninsula Bygdö (Ladugaard) to the west of the city,

and the Norwegian national museum (1881), containing industrial and

domestic exhibits from the various provinces. Close at hand is an

interesting collection of old Norwegian buildings, brought here from all

parts, and re-erected, including an example of the timber church of the

12th century (_Stavekirke_). A collection of ancient agricultural

implements is also shown. On Hovedö (Head Island) in the fjord,

immediately opposite to the Akershus, are the ruins of a Cistercian

monastery, founded in 1147 by monks from Kirkstead in Lincolnshire,

England, and burnt down in 1532. There are sanatoria and inns among the

surrounding hills, on which beautiful gardens are laid out, such as Hans

Haugen, Frognersaeter, Holmenkollen, where the famous _ski_ (snow-shoe)

races are held in February, and Voksenkollen. Electric tramways connect

the city and suburbs, and local steamers run from the Pipervik to the

neighbouring islands and fjord-side towns and villages.

Christiania has two railway stations, the Hovedbanegaard by the Björvik,

and the Vestbanegaard by the Pipervik. From the first trains run south

to Fredrikshald and Gothenburg, east to Charlottenberg and Stockholm,

north to Hamar and Trondhjem, and Otta in Gudbrandsdal, and to Gjövik

and the Valdres district. From the west station start the lines to

Drammen, Laurvik, Skien and Kongsberg (for the Telemark district). The

eastward extension of the railway between Bergen and Vossevangen,

undertaken in 1896, had as its ultimate object the connexion of

Christiania and Bergen by rail. With these extensive land communications

Christiania is at once the principal emporium of southern Norway, and a

favourite centre of the extensive tourist traffic. Regular passenger

steamers serve the port from Hull, Newcastle, Grangemouth and London,

from Trondhjem, Bergen and the Norwegian coast towns, from Hamburg,

Amsterdam, Antwerp, &c. Except for two large shipbuilding yards, one

with a floating dock, the other with a dry dock, most of the

manufactories are concentrated in the suburb of Sagene, on the north

side of the city, deriving their motive power from the numerous falls of

the river Aker. They embrace factories for cotton and woollen spinning

and weaving, paper, flour, soap and oil, bricks and tiles, matches,

nails (especially horse-shoe nails), margarine, foundries and

engineering shops, wood-pulp, tobacco, matches, linen, glass,

sail-cloth, hardware, gunpowder, chemicals, with sawmills, breweries and

distilleries. There is also a busy trade in the preparation of granite

paving-stones, and in the storing and packing of ice. Imports greatly

exceed exports, the annual values being about 7½ and 1½ millions

sterling respectively. The former consist principally of grain and

flour, cottons and woollens, coffee, iron (raw and manufactured), coal,

bacon and salt meat, oils, sugar, machinery, flax, jute and hemp,

paper-hangings, paints, colours, &c., wines and spirits, raw tobacco,

copper, zinc, lead and tin, silk, molasses and other commodities. The

principal exports are wood-pulp, timber, nails, paper, butter and

margarine, matches, condensed milk, fish, leather and hides, ice,

sealskins, &c. Of the imports, Great Britain supplies the greater part

of the cotton and woollen yarn, the machinery (including ships), and the

raw metals; the United States about one-half of the oils and fats, and a

large proportion of the food-stuffs, and skins, feathers, &c. Of the

exports, almost the whole of the timber goes to Great Britain, together

with the larger portion of the paper and food-stuffs (butter, &c.). The

harbour is ice-bound for three or four months in the winter, when ships

lie at Dröbak, lower down the fjord; but ice-breakers are also used.

Early in 1899 the municipality voted £47,000 for the construction of a

pier, a harbour for fishing-boats, protected by a mole, and a quay, 345

ft. long, on the shore underneath the Akershus. These works signalized a

great scheme of improvement, involving a general rearrangement of the

entire harbour.

The present suburb of Oslo represents the original city, which was

founded on this site under that name (or Opslo) by Harald Sigurdsson in

1048. By the close of the 14th century it was established as the chief

city of Norway. Trade was long dominated by the powerful Hanseatic

League, at least until the beginning of the 16th century. The town,

built mainly of wood, was no less subject to fires than all Norwegian

towns have always been, and after one of these King Christian IV.

refounded the capital on the new site it now occupies, and gave his name

to it in 1624. By the close of the century it was fortified, but this

did not prevent Charles XII. from gaining possession of it in 1716.

See L. Daae, _Det gamle Christiania, 1624-1824_ (Christiania, 1890);

Y. Nielsen, _Christiania und Umgegend_ (Christiania, 1894); G. Amnéus,

_La Ville de Christiania ... Résumé historique, &c._ (Christiania,

1900).

CHRISTIANITY, the religion which accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and

Saviour, embracing all who profess and call themselves Christians, the

term derived from his formal title ([Greek: Christos], i.e. the

anointed). Within this broad characterization are found many varieties

of cult, organization and creed (see CHURCH HISTORY). Christianity is

classed by the students of the science of religion as a universal

religion; it proclaims itself as intended for all men without

distinction of race or caste, and as in possession of absolute truth. In

fact, Christianity has been widely accepted by varied races in very

different stages of culture, and it has maintained itself through a long

succession of centuries in lands where the transformations in political

structure, the revolutions in social conditions, and the changes in

science and philosophy, have been numerous and extreme.

Beginning in Asia, Christianity extended itself rapidly throughout the

Roman empire and beyond its borders among the barbarians. When the

Empire in the 4th century adopted it, its cult, organization and

teaching were carried throughout the western world. The influences and

motives and processes which led to the result were many and varied, but

ultimately in one way or another it became the religion of Europe and of

the nations founded by the European races beyond the seas and in the

northern part of Asia called Siberia. Beyond these bounds it has not

greatly prospered. The explanation of the apparent bounding of

Christianity by Europe and its offspring is not, however, to be found in

any psychological peculiarity separating the European races from those

of other continents, nor in any special characteristic of Christianity

which fits it for European soil. For not only were its founder and his

disciples Asiatics, and the original authoritative writings Semitic, but

Asiatic tribes and nations coming into Europe have been readily

converted. Missions in Asia too have achieved sufficient success to

prove that there exists no inherent obstacle either in the gospel or in

the Asiatic mind. Moreover, Christianity was once represented in Asia by

a powerful organization extending throughout Persia and central Asia

into India (see PERSIA). _Mutatis mutandis_, the same applies to Africa

also, and Christianity still survives in both continents in the Coptic,

Abyssinian and Armenian Churches. The explanation is rather to be sought

in the political condition of the early centuries of the Christian era,

especially in the rise of Mahommedanism. This may be regarded indeed as

a form of Christianity, for it is not more foreign perhaps to the

prevailing type than are some sects which claim the name. It exerted a

strong influence upon Europe, but its followers have been peculiarly

unsusceptible to missionary labours, and even in Europe have retained

the faith of the Prophet. In the limitations of the Roman empire and in

the separation of East and West consequent upon its decline,

Christianity, as a dominant religion, was confined for a thousand years

to Europe, and even portions of this continent for centuries were in the

hands of its great foe. The East appeared as the Mahommedan dominions,

and beyond these the continents of Asia and Africa were so dimly

discerned that little reciprocal influence was felt. Thus the

development of the two great civilized portions of the race in Europe

and Asia followed independent lines in religion as in all else; and

Africa, excepting its northern border, was left untouched by the

progress of enlightenment.

Not only is Christianity thus the religion of a wide variety of races

but across the divisions there cut other lines. In its organization

Christianity exists in three great divisions, Roman, Greek and

Protestant, and in various ancient sects in the Orient. The Roman

Catholic and Greek divisions of the Christian Church are homogeneous in

organization, but in Protestantism certain denominations are national,

established by differing governments, and others are independent of

governmental aid, making a large number of differing denominations. Some

of these divisions are mutually antagonistic, denying to each other the

name of Christian and even the hope of salvation.

According to a second classification, Christianity may be placed among

the "individual" religions, since it traces its origin, like Islam and

Buddhism, to an individual as its founder. This beginning is not in the

dimness of antiquity nor in a multitude of customs, beliefs, traditions,

rites and personalities, as is the case with the so-called "natural"

religions. It is not implied that in the formation of the "natural"

religions individuals were not of great importance, nor, on the other

hand, that in individual religions the founder formed his faith

independently of the community of which he was a part; but only that as

undoubted historic facts certain religions, in tracing their lines to

individuals, thereby acquired a distinctive character, and retain the

impress of their founder. Such religions begin as a reform or a protest

or revolt. They proclaim either a new revelation, or the return to an

ancient truth which has been forgotten or distorted. They demand

repentance and change of heart, i.e. the renouncing of the ordinary

faith of the community and the acceptance of a new gospel. Thus

demanding an act of will on the part of individuals, they are classed

once more as "ethical" religions. To be sure, the new is built upon the

old--in part unconsciously--and the rejection of the faith of the past,

however violent, is never thoroughgoing. In consequence the old affects

the new in various ways. Thus in Buddhism the presuppositions which

Buddha uncritically took over work out their logical results in the

Mah[=a]y[=a]na, so that great sects calling themselves "Buddhist" affirm

what the Master denied and deny what he taught. Christianity takes

Judaism (see HEBREW RELIGION) for granted--rejects it in part as a

merely preparatory stage, in part reinterprets it, and does not submit

what it accepts to rigorous scrutiny. As a result the Old Testament (see

BIBLE) remains not only as the larger part of the Christian canon, but,

sometimes, in some churches, as obscuring its distinctive truth.

Moreover, in the transference of Christianity from the Jewish to the

Greek-Roman world again various elements were taken into it. More

properly perhaps we might consider the Greek and Roman civilization as

the permanent element--so that the relationship to it was not different

from the relationship to Judaism--in part it was denied, in part it was

of purpose accepted, in still larger part unconsciously the Greek-Roman

converts took over with them the presuppositions of their older world

view--and thus formed the moulds into which the Christian truth was run.

Here again, in some instances the pre-Christian elements so asserted

themselves as to obscure the new and distinctive teaching.

Relation with Judaism.

Christianity, regarded objectively as one of the great religions of the

world, owes its rise to Jesus of Nazareth, in ancient Galilee. (See

JESUS CHRIST.) By reverent disciples his ancestry was traced to the

royal family of David, and his birth is ascribed by the church to the

miraculous act of God. His life was spent, until the beginning of his

public ministry, in humble circumstances as the son of a carpenter and

his wife, Joseph and Mary. Of Joseph we hear nothing after the boyhood

of Jesus, who followed the same trade, supporting himself and perhaps

his mother and younger brothers and sisters. Of this period we have only

a few fragmentary anecdotes and a stray reference or two. At thirty

years of age he appeared in public, and after a short period (we cannot

determine how long, but possibly eighteen months) he was crucified, upon

the accusation of his countrymen, by the Roman authorities. He was

without technical education, but he had been carefully trained in the

sacred books, as was usual with his people. Belonging neither to the

aristocracy nor to the learned class, he was one of the common people

yet separate from them--a separation not of race or caste or education,

but of unique personality.

His career is understood only in the light of his relations to Judaism

(see HEBREW RELIGION). This faith, in a peculiarly vivid fashion,

illustrates the growth and development of religion, for its great

teachers in the highest degree possessed what the Germans call

God-consciousness. The Hebrew national literature centres in the thought

of God. It is Yahweh who is all and in all, the father, the leader, the

hope, the hero of his people. No other national literature is so

continuously and so highly religious. Another factor gives it still

greater interest for the student of religion,--in it the progress of

religious thought can be traced, and the varying elements of the

religious life seen in harmony and in conflict.

In the early period the Hebrew religion was of the ordinary Semitic

type. In its ancient stories were remnants of primitive religion, of

tabu, of anthropomorphic gods, of native forms of worship, of magic and

divination, of local and tribal cults. Out of these developed, by the

labours of the prophets, a religion of high spirituality and exalted

ethical ideals. According to it God demands not ritual nor sacrifice nor

offerings. He does not delight in prayers and praise, but he demands

truth in the soul and bids man to walk humbly and deal righteously and

mercifully with his brother (Micah vi. 6-8; Isa. i. 2-20). He requires

kindness, forgiveness and loving sacrifice from all to all (Isa. lviii.

3-12). This conception of God revealed itself as so essential to the

prophets that their intense national feeling was modified. God would not

deliver Israel because it was his people, descended from Abraham, his

chosen, but he would punish it even more severely than the other nations

because it denied him by its sins (Amos iii. 1-2). Yet Israel would not

be destroyed, for a spiritual remnant, loving and obeying God, would be

saved and purified (Ezek. xxxvi.-xxxvii.). Thus Israel survived its

misfortunes. When the national independence was destroyed, the prophetic

teaching held the people together in the hope of a re-establishment of

the Kingdom when all nations should be subject to it and blessed in its

everlasting reign of righteousness and peace (Isa. xlix., lx.).

Some of the prophets associated the restoration of the Kingdom with the

coming of the Messiah, the anointed one, who should re-establish the

line of David (Isa. ix. 6 f., xi. 1 f.; Micah v. 2; Ezek. xxxiv. 23,

xxxvii. 24; Zech. ix. 9; Ps. ii. 72). Others said nothing of such a one,

but seemed to expect the regeneration of Israel through the labours,

sufferings and triumphs of the righteous remnant (Isa. liii., Ezek.

xxxvi.-xxxvii.). By the strong emphasis upon righteousness, the tribal

Lord of Israel was revealed as the universal God, of one relationship to

all men. This monotheism was not primarily cosmological nor

metaphysical, but ethical. The Jews showed little capacity for abstract

reasoning and never pursued their inquiries to the discovery of ultimate

principles. Thus they did not develop a systematic cosmology, nor

formulate a system of metaphysics. Their religion was pre-eminently

"theocratic"; God was thought of as King, enthroned in heaven and

supreme. In the beginning as a tribal deity his powers were limited and

he was involved in the fortunes of his people. But as the conception of

Yahweh was deepened and broadened, and, especially after the development

of ethical monotheism, not only was he believed to possess power

sufficient to ensure the triumph of his chosen people, but to be the

creator and ruler of all things in heaven and on earth, the God whom all

peoples should worship and obey.

But the prophetic teaching was obscured in part by the nationalism of

the prophets themselves, who exalted Israel as at once God's instrument

and the peculiar object of his love; and in part by the triumph of a

legal-ritualistic sacrificial system. In the downfall of Jerusalem, the

experiences of the exile in Babylon, and the return to Judaea, the

nation was transformed into a church. Apart from the brief Maccabaean

period, the intense patriotism of the people centred in the

ecclesiastical organization. As a result, cult and organization and code

hardened, forming a shell which proved strong enough to resist all

disintegrating tendencies. Inevitably the freedom, spirituality and

universality of the prophetic teaching were obscured. In the 1st century

A.D. the national and priestly elements controlled; doubtless many

individuals still were faithful to the purer prophetic message, though

also zealous for the system of ritual and sacrifice, but for the ruling

majority ritualistic service was the chief thing, justice, purity and

mercy being subordinate. Hence in their view all who did not participate

in the national worship and conform to the national usages were

outcasts. The triumph of Israel was to be accomplished by the miraculous

power of a Messiah who should descend out of heaven. His coming was

delayed, in part by the opposition of demons, in part by the failure of

the people to obey the law. This law embraced both moral and ceremonial

elements derived from varied sources, but in the apprehension of the

people it was all alike regarded as of divine origin. It was to be

obeyed without question and without inquiry as to its meaning, because

established by God. It was contained in the Sacred Scriptures (see

BIBLE: _Old Testament_), which had been revealed by God supernaturally,

and its meaning was set forth by schools of learned men whose

interpretations were authoritative. The conception of salvation was

mingled with ideas derived from the East during and after the period of

captivity. The priesthood held still the ancient ideas. Salvation was

for the nation, and the individual was not necessarily participant in

it. Life after death was disbelieved or held as the existence of shades.

There could be no resurrection of the body and no immortality (in the

Greek sense). With these beliefs were associated a certain worldliness

and want of fervour. The more actively and aggressively religious party,

on the other hand, adopted the belief in the resurrection of the body,

and in the individual's participation in the Messiah's kingdom; all the

pious would have their share in it, while the wicked would be outcast.

But these doctrines were variously conceived. By some the Messianic

kingdom was thought of as permanent, by others as intermediary, the

external kingdom being transcendent. So too some thought of a literal

resurrection of the body of flesh and blood, while others thought that

it would be transformed. The rudiments of some of these ideas can be

found in the prophets, but their development took place after the exile,

and indeed for the most part after the conclusion of the writings

accounted canonical. Thus too the belief in a kingdom of demons held a

large place in the mind of the people, though the references to such

evil beings are almost absent from the sacred writings of the Old

Testament. Again it is to the East that we must look for the origin of

these ideas.

The teaching of Jesus.

Jesus completed the prophetic teachings. He employed the old phraseology

and imagery, but he was conscious that he used them in a new sense, and

that he preached a new gospel of great joy. Jesus was not a historian, a

critic or a theologian. He used the words of common men in the sense in

which common men understood them. He did not employ the Old Testament as

now reconstructed by scholarship or judged by criticism, but in its

simple and obvious and traditional sense. And his background is the

intellectual and religious thinking of his time. The ideas of demons and

of the future, of the Bible and many other traditional conceptions, are

taken over without criticism. So the idea of God which he sets forth is

not that of a theologian or a metaphysician, but that of the unlearned

man which even the child could understand. Yet though thus speaking in

untechnical language, he revolutionized his terms and filled them with

new meaning. His emphasis is his own, and the traditional material

affords merely the setting for his thought. He was not concerned with

speculative questions about God, nor with abstract theories of his

relationship to the soul and to the world. God's continual presence, his

fatherly love, his transcendent righteousness, his mercy, his goodness,

were the facts of immediate experience. Not in proofs by formal logic

but in the reality of consciousness was the certainty of God. Thus

religion was freed from all particular and national elements in the

simplest way. For Jesus did not denounce these elements, nor argue

against them, nor did he seek converts outside of Israel, but he set

forth communion with God as the most certain fact of man's experience

and as simple reality made it accessible to every one. Thus his teaching

contains the note of universality--not in terms and proclamations but as

plain matter of fact. His way for others to this reality is likewise

plain and level to the comprehension of the unlearned and of children.

For him repentance is put first, for how vastly changed is the

conception of the religious life! The intricacies of ritual and theology

are ignored, and ancient laws which contradict the fundamental beliefs

are unhesitatingly abrogated or denied. He seizes upon the most

spiritual passages of the prophets, and revives and deepens them. He

sums up his teaching in supreme love to God and a love for fellow-man

like that we hold for ourselves (Mark xii. 29-31). This supreme love to

God is a complete oneness with him in will, a will which is expressed in

service to our fellow-men in the simplest and most natural relationship

(Luke x. 25-37). Thus religion is ethical through and through, as God's

inner nature, expressed in forgiveness, mercy, righteousness and truth,

is not something transcendental, but belongs to the realm of daily life.

We become children of God and he our Father in virtue of a moral

likeness (Matt. v. 43-48), while of any metaphysical, or (so to speak)

physical relationship to God Jesus says nothing. With this clearly

understood, man is to live in implicit trust in the divine love, power,

knowledge and forgiveness. Hence he attains salvation, being delivered

from sin and fear and death, for the divine attributes are not

ontological entities to be discussed and defined in the schools, but

they are realities, entering into the practical daily life. Indeed they

are to be repeated in us also, so that we are to forgive our brethren as

we ask to be forgiven (Matt. vi. 12; Luke xi. 4).