OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Pinianus, husband of Melania the younger

Pinianus (2), the husband of Melania the younger. Palladius speaks of him as son of a prefect (Vit. Patr. 119). He and his wife entertained Palladius of Helenopolis when be came to Rome on Chrysostom's affairs (Hist. Laus. 121). They left Rome in 408, when the siege by Alaric was impending. Melania the elder having died at Bethlehem, they inherited her vast estates. They were intent on doing good and are said to have liberated 8,000 slaves (ib. 119). After the sack of Rome in 410 they settled in Africa at Tagaste with bp. Alypius and desired to meet Augustine. He immediately wrote to welcome them (Ep. 124), but was unable to come to them, so they went with Alypius to Hippo. There the strange scene, so instructive as to the church life of the period, occurred, which is recounted by Augustine (Ep. 126). The clergy and people of Hippo, knowing their wealth, determined that they should, by the ordination of Pinianus, become attached to their church and city. A tumult was raised in the church, and though Augustine refused to ordain a man against his will, he was unable, or not firm enough, to resist the violence of the people, who extracted from Pinianus a promise that he would not leave Hippo nor be ordained in any other church. Next day, however, fearing further violence, he, with Melania and her mother Albina, returned to Tagaste. Some rather acrimonious correspondence ensued between them and Augustine (Ep. 125–128). Alypius considered that a promise extorted by violence was not valid, Augustine demanded that it should be fulfilled; and the controversy lasted until, by the rapacity of the rebel count Heraclian, Pinianus was robbed of his property, and the people of Hippo no longer cared to enforce the promise. Being now free, though poor, Pinianus, with his wife and mother-in-law, went to Egypt, saw the monasteries of the Thebaid, and thence to Palestine, settling at Bethlehem. On the appearance of the Pelagian controversy, their letters to Augustine induced him to write (a.d. 417) his book on grace and original sin. We only hear of Pinianus after this in a letter of Jerome in 419, in which he, Albina, and Melania, salute Augustine and Alypius. Hieron. Ep. cxliii. 2, ed. Vall.; Aug. de Grat. Christi, ii. and xxxii.
[W.H.F.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Philostorgius, a Cappadocian author

Philostorgius, a Cappadocian, born c. 368, and author of a church history extending from 300 to 425. The greater part has perished, but some fragments have been preserved by Photius. They were published by Godefrid at Geneva in 1642, and by Valesius, with a Latin trans. and notes, at Paris in 1673. An English trans. by Walford appeared in 1855. Photius regarded both author and book with worse than contempt. The style he allows to be sometimes elegant, though more frequently marked by stiffness, coldness, and obscurity. The contents he treats as unworthy of reliance, often beginning his extracts by denouncing the author as an "enemy of God," an "impious wretch," an "impudent liar." Even Gibbon, naturally inclined as he was to accept the statements of a heretic in preference to those of an orthodox theologian, is compelled to allow that "the credibility of Philostorgius is lessened, in the eyes of the orthodox, by his Arianism; and, in those of rational critics, by his passion, his prejudice, and his ignorance" (Hist. c. xxi.). Gibbon thinks that he appears to have obtained "some curious and authentic intelligence" (c. xxv.), yet was marked in making use of it by "cautious malice" (c. xxiii.). These unfavourable opinions are shared by Tillemont (Hist. vol. iv. p. 281), and, though with some just expressions as to what might have been the value of his history had it been preserved, by Jortin (Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 122) and Schröckh (vol. i. p. 148). All existing evidence leads to the belief that the history of Philostorgius was less a fair statement of what he had seen and known than a panegyric upon the heretics of his time.
[W.M.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Pionius, martyr at Smyrna

Pionius, martyr at Smyrna, in the Decian persecution, Mar. 12, 250. It was probably this Pionius who revived the cultus of POLYCARP in Smyrna, by recovering an ancient MS. martyrdom of that saint and fixing the day of commemoration in accordance with it.
When taken to prison, Pionius and his companions, Asclepiades and Sabina, found there already another Catholic presbyter, named Lemnus, and a Montanist woman named Macedonia. The divisions of the Christian community were now well known to their persecutors for in the examinations of the martyrs those who owned themselves Christians were always further interrogated as to what church or sect they belonged. The Acts give a long report of exhortations delivered by Pionius to his fellow-prisoners. With Pionius suffered a Marcionite presbyter Metrodorus, the stakes of both being turned to the east, Pionius on the right, Metrodorus on the left. The Acts are important on account of their undoubted antiquity. We only know them by a Latin translation, of which two types are extant—one which seems more faithfully to represent the original, published by Surius and reprinted by the Bollandists (Feb. 1); the other by Ruinart (Acta Sincera, p. 137). The common original was certainly read by Eusebius, who (H. E. iv. 15) gives a description of the Acts of Pionius which agrees too often with those extant for different Acts to be intended. Eusebius, however, represents Pionius as suffering at the same time as Polycarp, while the extant Acts place him a century later, a date attested by the Paschal Chronicle, which makes Pionius suffer in the Decian persecution, and confirmed by internal evidence. On the Life of Polycarp ascribed to Pionius, see POLYCARP. Cf. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. der N.T. Kanons, iv. 271.
[G.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Philogonius, bp. of Antioch

Philogonius, bp. of Antioch, 22nd in succession, following Vitalis c. 319. He affords an example of a layman, a husband, and a father being raised at once, like Ambrose at Milan, to the episcopate of his city. He had been an advocate in the law courts, and gained universal esteem by his powerful advocacy of the poor and oppressed, "making the wronged stronger than the wronger." The few facts known of his history are gathered from a homily delivered at Antioch by Chrysostom on his Natalitia (Chrys. Orat. 71, t. v. p. 507, ed. Savile). Chrysostom comments upon the great difficulties (δυσκολίαι) Philogonius met with at the commencement of his episcopate from the persecution which had so recently ceased, and says that his highest eulogy is the pure and flourishing condition in which he left the church. The earliest ecclesiastical building in Antioch, "the mother of all the churches in the city," traditionally ascribed to apostolic times, the rebuilding of which had been begun by Vitalis, was finished by him (Theod. H. E. i. 3). He was denounced by Arius as one of his most determined opponents (ib. 5). He was succeeded by Paulinus, the Arianizing bp. of Tyre, c. 323. He is called Philonicus by Eutychius (p. 431), who assigns him 5 years of office (Tillem. Mém. eccl. t. vi. p. 194; Neale, Patr. of Ant. p. 84).
[E.V.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Phocas, of Sinope

Phocas, of Sinope, a celebrated martyr, of whom very little is actually known and whose real date is uncertain. Combefis places his martyrdom in the last years of Trajan, but Tillemont considers a later persecution, either that of Decius or that of Diocletian, more probable. Our sole knowledge of Phocas is from an oration in his honour by Asterius of Amasea. He states that Phocas was an honest and industrious gardener at Sinope, a convert to Christianity, and exceedingly hospitable to strangers. Being denounced as a Christian and sentenced to death, a party of soldiers was despatched to Sinope to carry the sentence into execution. Phocas hospitably entertained them, and on discovering their mission forbore to escape, as he might easily have done, and, on their asking him where they could find Phocas, made himself known to them and was at once decapitated. His trunk was buried in a grave he had dug for himself, over which a church was subsequently built. His relics were so fruitful in miracles that he obtained the name of Thaumaturgus. His body was transferred to
Constantinople with great magnificence in the time of Chrysostom, who delivered a homily on the occasion (Hom. 71, t. i. p. 775). A monastery was subsequently built on the spot, in which his relics were deposited, the abbats of which are often mentioned in early times (Du Cange, Constant. Christ. lib. iv. p. 133). Gregory Nazianzen mentions Phocas as a celebrated disciple of Christ (Carm. 52, t. ii. p. 122). That he was bp. of Sinope is a late invention. Some of his relics were said to be translated to the Apostles' Church at Vienne. He was the favourite saint of the Greek sailors, who were in the habit of making him a sharer at their meals, the portion set apart for him daily being purchased by some one, and the money put aside and distributed to the poor on their arrival at port. He is commemorated by the modern Greeks on two days, July 22 and Sept. 22. The former day may be that of his translation (Tillem. Mém. eccl. v. 581).
[E.V.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beaumont, Robert (fl.1639)

​BEAUMONT, ROBERT (fl. 1639), essayist, was a man of a retired life and solitary disposition, if his testimony of his own character, which he gives in the preface to his book, is to be believed. He is chiefly remarkable for his 'Missives,' which are, in plain speech, letters, and seem, from one part of Beaumont's epistle to the reader, to be his own composition, and from another part to be the composition of others. But the former intimation has the stronger support. It is evident they were written upon supposititious occasions. Letters, he says, should be like a well-furnished table, where every guest may eat of what dish he pleases. This reminds us of Bickerstaff's once-popular opera, ' Love in a Village : '
    The world is a well-furnished table,
       Where guests are promiscuously set.
The essays are fifteen in number, and are on the various parts of the body–the head, eye, nose, ear, tongue, and so forth. They are full of trope and figure, frequently with much force of application, quaint and sententious. The precise title of his work is as follows: 'Love's Missives to Virtue; with Essaies, Lond. printed by William Godbid, and are to be sold at the signe of the Star, in Little Britain, 1660.' Small 8vo, pp. 120.
J. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beavor, Edmond

​BEAVOR, EDMOND (d. 1745), captain in the royal navy, was made a lieutenant on 2 March 1733-4, and whilst serving in the West Indies was promoted by Sir Chaloner Ogle to command the Stromboli fireship in the summer of 1743, and, in company with the Lion, 60 guns, was sent home with a convoy of thirty merchant-ships. Very bad weather scattered the fleet; several of the convoy were lost, and the Stromboli, dismasted and in an almost sinking condition, just managed to get into Kinsale harbour. There she was refitted, and arrived in the Downs on 21 Dec. Towards the end of the next year he was appointed to the Fox frigate, and during the spring and summer of 1745 was employed cruising, with some success, against the Dunkirk privateers in the North Sea In September he was in Leith roads, engaged in assisting the transport of the army, and in stopping, so far as possible, the communications of the rebels. On the evening of the 21st, after the defeat of Sir John Cope's army in the morning, the Fox became a place of refuge for numbers of the soldiers who could not get into the castle, the town gates being held by the enemy. Beavor's position was not an easy one for a young officer; for he had no instructions, and did not know how far his authority extended. The rebels were in possession of Leith, and would not allow him to communicate with the shore, even to get fresh provisions. On 6 Oct. he wrote that there were 1,200 rebels quartered in Leith; and though he thought that a few shot might dislodge them, he was not certain that it would meet with their lordships' approval. A few weeks later he put to sea on a cruise, and in a violent storm the Fox went down with all hands, 14 Nov. 1745.
[Chamock's Biog. Nav. v. 279; Official Letters in the Public Record Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beaumont, Thomas Wentworth

1904 Errata appended.
​BEAUMONT, THOMAS WENTWORTH (1792–1848), politician, was the eldest son of Colonel Thomas Richard Beaumont, of Bretton Hall, Yorkshire, and Diana, daughter of Sir S. W. Blackett, baronet, of Hexham Abbey, and was born 15 Nov. 1792. He was educated at Eton, and in 1809 became a fellow commoner of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1813. In 1818 he succeeded his father in the representation of Northumberland, but in 1826 he lost the election, under circumstances which led to a duel on Bamburgh sands with Mr. Lambton, afterwards Earl of Durham. After representing the borough of Stafford for a short time he was in 1830 returned for Northumberland, and from the passing of the Reform Bill he continued to represent the southern division of the county until 1837. In early life he was a member of the Pitt Club, but from 1820 an advanced liberal and among the most energetic of politicians in the cause of reform. Acquiring, on the death of his mother in 1831, a large accession of property, he took also an active interest in the advancement of the fine arts, and by his munificent generosity won the attachment of many friends. He was one of the chief originators of the 'Westminster Review,' to which he is said to have contributed some articles. Some of his verses are contained in the 'Musæ Etonenses.' He died at Bournemouth 10 Dec. 1848.
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.20 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 69 | i | 8-7 f.e. | Beaumont, Thomas W.: for After representing read A few months later, in Dec. 1826, he was returned for |
| | | 7-6 f.e. | for for a short . . . 1830 read and sat till 1830, when he was |
| | ii | 11 | for 10 read 20 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beazley, Samuel

​BEAZLEY, SAMUEL (1786–1851), architect and playwright, was born in 1786 in Parliament Street, Westminster, where his father carried on the business of an architect and surveyor, and died at his residence, Tunbridge Castle, Kent, on 12 Oct. 1851. When at school at Acton, a boy of twelve years old, he wrote a farce and constructed the stage upon which he and his comrades performed it. As a youth he volunteered for service in the Peninsula, and experienced many romantic adventures, which he was fond of relating in after-life to his friends. As an architect he enjoyed a considerable practice, especially in the construction of theatres, of which he certainly designed more than any other architect of his day. The Lyceum, St. James's, City of London, the Strand front of the Adelphi, and the colonnade of Drury Lane were among those erected by him in London, and he prepared drawing for two theatres in Dublin, two in Belgium, one in Brazil, and two in different parts of India. Without presenting much artistic attraction, his theatres possessed the merit of being well adapted to their purposes. He designed one or two country houses and some new buildings for the university of Bonn. His last most important works were erected for the South-Eastern Railway Company, and include their terminus at London Bridge, most of their stations on the North Kent line, and the Lord Warden Hotel and Pilot House at Dover. Like his theatres, they were always well suited to their purposes. He was a most prolific writer of dramatic pieces, of which upwards of one hundred are ascribed to his pen. They are chiefly farces and short comedies, showing considerable mechanical dexterity. Among the best known are: 'Five Hours at Brighton,' the first of the author's plays performed, 'The Boarding House,' 'Is he Jealous?' an operetta in one act composed for Mr. Wrench, and first performed at the Theatre Royal English Opera House on 2 July 1816, 'Gretna Green,' 'The Steward,' 'Old Customs,' 'The Lottery Ticket,' 'My Uncle,' 'Bachelors' Wives,' 'Hints to Husbands,' 'Fire and Water,' and ​'The Bull's Head,' He also wrote English versions of the operas of 'Robert the Devil,' 'The Queen of Cyprus,' and 'La Sonnambula,' which last is said to have been adapted by him to the pronunciation of Malibran, by being written in morning interviews with her at her bedside. He also wrote two novels, 'The Roué,' 1828, and 'The Oxonians,' 1830. These are cleverly constructed, but to modern taste they seem tedious and formal.
In private life Beazley was a pleasant companion, a good and witty causeur, some of his bonsmots being remembered and repeated to this day, such as his reply to a lady's inquiry why the rooks near her house made so much noise, that they had caws for conversation. He died suddenly of an apoplectic seizure in the sixty-sixth year of his age.
G. W. B.
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Joshua (1) Stylites, a Syrian monk

Joshua (1) Stylites, a Syrian monk; a native of Edessa, entered the monastery of Zuenin near Amida in Mesopotamia. After some years he determined to imitate St. Simeon and live the rest of his days on a column, from which he derives his distinguishing name. Before this he had written in 507 the history of his times from 495, entitled, History of the Calamities which befel Edessa, Amida, and all Mesopotamia. A full description, with quotations from the original Syriac, is given by Assemani (Bibl. Or. i. 260). It was published at Leipzig in 1878, in the Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, in the original Syriac, with a French trans. by Abbé Paulin Martin. The translator describes it as the most ancient history extant in Syriac, and specially valuable because of Joshua's personal share in the events. His text corrects many omissions and mistakes in Assemani's abstract. He fixes its composition between 510–515, and classes Joshua as a Monophysite, while Assemani regarded him as orthodox.
[I.G.S. AND G.T.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Julianus, missionary priest to the Nubians

Julianus (73), missionary priest to the Nubians in the reign of Justinian. John of Ephesus (R. Payne Smith's trans. pp. 251 seq.) and Bar-hebraeus (in Asseman. Bibl. Or. ii. 330) give an account of him. He was an old man of great worth, and one of the clergy in attendance on Theodosius, the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, then residing at Constantinople. Julian had long desired to Christianize the Nobadae or Nubians, a wandering people E. of the Thebais and beyond the limits of the empire, which they greatly harassed. The empress Theodora warmly encouraged the undertaking and consulted Justinian about it, who became interested but objected to Julian as a Monophysite, and named another instead, whilst Theodora persisted in favouring Julian. John of Ephesus describes fully the rival missions and the triumph of the empress's schemes. Julian reached the Nubian court first, won over the king and secured the rejection of the emperor's envoy when he arrived. Thus the Nubians were gained to the Monophysite creed and to the jurisdiction of Theodosius. After labouring there two years Julian placed Theodore, a Thebaid bishop, in charge and returned to Constantinople, where he soon afterwards died. For the subsequent history of the mission see LONGINUS.
[T.W.D.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Juliana, mother of the virgin Demetrias

Juliana (8), mother of the virgin DEMETRIAS, to whom we have letters from Jerome, Augustine, pope Innocent, and Pelagius. She was of noble birth, being connected through her mother Proba and her husband Olybrius with some of the greatest families of Rome, and was possessed of great wealth. When her daughter proposed to take vows of virginity, she refrained from influencing her; but when Demetrias appeared in the church clad in the dress of a virgin she shewed her great delight at this step. She supported the cause of Chrysostom at Rome and entertained his messengers. His thanks were conveyed in a letter from his place of exile (A.D. 406), exhorting her to hold fast and aid in allaying the waves of controversy (Chrys. Ep. 169). She fled with her daughter to Africa from Rome when it was sacked by Alaric, but fell into the rapacious hands of count Heraclion, who robbed her of half her property. She was commended to the African churches by pope Innocent in a laudatory letter (Ep. 25), which takes the rank of a decree in the collection of papal rescripts by Dion. Exig. (Coll. Dec. 39; Hieron. Ep. 130, ed. Vall.). She became acquainted with Augustine while in Africa, and she and her daughter had relations with Pelagius, who wrote a long letter to Demetrias (given among the Supposititia of Jerome; ed. Vall. vol. xi.) vindicating free will by her example. Augustine, with Alypius, wrote to Juliana (Aug. Ep. 188, A.D. 418), arguing that all the virtues of Demetrias were from the grace of God.
[W.H.F.]
# Curran v. Arkansas/Dissent Catron

* Court Documents
* Case Syllabus
* Opinion of the Court
* Dissenting Opinions Catron Daniel
[p321] . . .
Mr. Justice CATRON.
As this case comes up from a State court under the 25th section of the judiciary act, the first question presented is, whether we have jurisdiction to decide the merits; and I am of opinion, that no violation of any contract rendered, which the complainant sets up a right to recover, has occurred within the sense of the Constitution, by the laws passed by the State of Arkansas, and which laws are complained of in the bill.
On the merits, I have formed no opinion, not having authority to inquire into them, as I apprehend.