OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Valens, emperor

Valens (5), emperor, a.d. 364–378, the brother of Valentinian I. and born c. 328. By his wife, Albia Dominica, he had a son, Galates, and two daughters, Anastasia and Carosa. Made emperor of the East in Mar. 364, he immediately displayed sympathy with Arian doctrines, and was actively hostile to the Athanasian party. For his secular history see D. of G. and R. Biogr. He was baptized in 368 by the Arian Eudoxius, patriarch of Constantinople. In 370 he is credited by all the historians (Socr. iv. 16; Soz. vi. 14; Theod. iv. 24) with an act of atrocious cruelty. Eighty ecclesiastics, led by Urbanus, Theodorus, and Mendemus, were sent by the orthodox party of Constantinople to protest against the conduct of the Arians there. Valens is said to have sent them all to sea, ordering the sailors to set fire to the ship and then to abandon it. They all perished off the coast of Bithynia, and are celebrated as martyrs on Sept. 5 (Mart. Rom.). In 371 he made a tour through his Asiatic province. At Caesarea in Cappadocia he came into conflict with St. Basil, whose letters (Migne, Patr. Gk. t. xxxii.) afford a very lively picture of the persecution of Valens. He proposed to send St. Basil into exile. Just then his only son fell sick. Valens had recourse to the saint, who promised to heal him if he received orthodox baptism. The Arians were, however, allowed to baptize the young prince, who thereupon died. Basil and the orthodox attributed his death to the judgment of heaven on the imperial obstinacy. In 374 Valens raised a persecution against the neo-Platonic philosophers, and put to death several of their leaders, among them Maximus (25) of Ephesus, the tutor and friend of the emperor Julian, Hilarius, Simonides, and Andronicus. His anger was excited at this period against magical practices by a conspiracy at Antioch (Socr. H. E. iv. 19; Soz. vi. 35) for securing the succession of Theodorus, one of the principal court officials. Numerous acts of persecution at Edessa, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople are attributed to Valens, in all of which Modestus, the pretorian prefect, was his most active agent, save in Egypt, where Lucius, the Arian successor of Athanasius, endeavoured in vain to terrify the monks into conformity. The last year of Valens's life was marked by a striking manifestation of monkish courage. In 378 he was leaving Constantinople for his fatal struggle with the Goths at Adrianople. As he rode out of the city an anchorite, Isaac, who lived there, met the emperor and boldly predicted his death. The emperor ordered his imprisonment till his return, when he would punish him—a threat at which the monk laughed. See Clinton's Fasti, i. 476, ii. 119, for the chronology of Valens. Tillemont's Emp. (t. v.) and De Broglie's L’Eglise et l’Empire Romain (t. v.) give good accounts of the career and violence of Valens.
[G.T.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Valerius

Valerius (6), bp. of Hippo Regius, predecessor of Augustine, whom he had admitted to the priesthood at the earnest desire of the people, against Augustine's wish, expressed in a letter to Valerius, but in answer, as Valerius thought, to his own prayers (Aug. Ep. 21; Possidius, Vit. Aug. 4, 5). Contrary to African, but in accordance with Eastern, usage, Valerius caused Augustine to preach in his presence when he himself became unable to do so. When Valerius felt his own infirmities increase, he obtained the consent of the other bishops, but at first not that of Megalius of Calama, primate of Numidia, to ordain Augustine as coadjutor to himself, contrary to the usual practice of the church and to the express wish of Augustine, who refused on this ground to accept the office, though, as he said afterwards, he was not then aware of the canon of the council of Nicaea, forbidding two bishops in the same place. (Conc. Nic. can. 8, Bruns, Conc. p. 16; Aug. c. Petil. iii. 16, § 19, c. Cresc. iv. 64, § 79; Brevic. Coll. iii. 7; § 9). His objection was overruled by the earnest desire of all concerned, and by similar instances in Africa and elsewhere (Aug. Epp. 31, 4; 213, 4). Valerius, better acquainted with Greek than with Latin, was rejoiced to have one so able as Augustine to teach and preach in the Latin language. He is spoken of in the highest terms by Augustine, Possidius, and Paulinus of Nola (Aug. Epp. 31, 4; 32; Possid. Vit. Aug. 5; Paulinus, Ep. 5). After Augustine's appointment, Valerius gave him a piece of land for his monastery (Aug. Serm. 355, 1, 2). He died a.d. 396 (Aug. Ep. 33, 4). Proculeianus was bp. of the Donatists at Hippo during his lifetime (Aug. Ep. 33).
[H.W.P.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Veronica

Veronica (Haemorrhoissa, ἡ αἱμοῤῥοοῦσα), the woman cured of a bloody issue (Matt. ix. 20). Eusebius (H. E. vii. 18) relates that she was a native of Caesarea Philippi, and adds that "at the gates of her house, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen image of a woman on a bended knee, with her hands stretched out before her, like one entreating. Opposite to this there is another image of a man erect, of the same materials, decently clad in a mantle, and stretching out his hand to the woman. Before her feet, and on the same pedestal, there is a strange plant growing which, rising as high as the hem of the brazen garment, is a kind of antidote to all kinds of diseases. This statue, they say, is a statue of Jesus Christ, and it has remained even until our times, so that we ourselves saw it whilst tarrying in that city. Nor is it to be wondered at that those of the Gentiles who were anciently benefited by our Saviour should have done these things. Since we have also seen representations of the apostles Peter and Paul and of Christ Himself still preserved in paintings, it is probable that, according to a practice among the Gentiles, the ancients were accustomed to pay this kind of honour indiscriminately to those who were as saviours or deliverers to them. Legendary tradition about Veronica flourished during and after 4th cent. Macarius Magnesius says she was princess of Edessa, and that her name was Veronica or Berenice (Macarii Magnet. ed. Blondel, Paris, 1876; Tillem. Mém. i. 20; Hist. des emp. iv. 308), following whom Baronius (Annal. xxxi. 75) makes her rich and noble. A late tradition represents her as a niece of king Herod and as offering her veil, or a napkin, as a sudarium to the suffering Christ on the Way of the Cross, Whose pictured features were thus impressed upon the linen. This tradition has found no acceptance since the 11th cent.; the "veronicas" often shewn, and accredited with miraculous powers of healing, are face-cloths from the catacombs on which Christian reverence and affection have painted the features of the Saviour (see Wyke Bayliss, Rex Regum, 1905), and the legend has arisen from the finding of these; the name of the saint being clearly formed from the description of such a face-cloth as a vera icon. The Gospel of Nicodemus introduces her as one of the witnesses on behalf of Christ at His trial by Pilate; (Thilo, Cod. Apocryph. N. T. p. 560; Acta SS. Bol. Jul. iii. 273–279).
[G.T.S. AND ED.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brandon, John (fl.1687)

​BRANDON, JOHN (fl. 1687), divine, son of Charles Brandon, a doctor of Maidenhead, was apparently born at Bray, near that town, about 1644. He entered Oriel College, Oxford, as a commoner on 15 Feb. 1661-2, and proceeded B.A. on 11 Nov. 1665. Wood says that 'he entertained for some time certain heterodox opinions, but afterwards being orthodox,' took holy orders. He became rector of Finchamstead, and for some years preached a weekly lecture on Tuesdays at Reading. He was the author of 'Τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον, or Everlasting Fire no Fancy; being an answer to a late Pamphlet entit. "The Foundations of Hell-Torments shaken and removed,"' London, 1678. The book was dedicated to Henry, earl of Starlin, from 'Wargrave (Berks), 20 July 1676.' The pamphlet to which Brandon replied here was 'The Torments of Hell' (London, 1658), by an anabaptist, named Samuel Richardson. Nicholas Chewney had anticipated Brandon in answering the work in 1660. Brandon also published, besides a number of sermons, 'Happiness at Hand, or a plain and practical discourse of the Joy of just men's souls in the State of Separation from the Body,' London, 1687. This was dedicated to Dr. Robert Woodward, chancellor of the bishop of Salisbury's court.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 505; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brandon, Richard

​BRANDON, RICHARD (d. 1649), executioner of Charles I, was the son of Gregory Brandon, common hangman of London in the early part of the seventeenth century, and the successor of Derrick. Anstis tells the story that Sir William Segar, Garter king of arms, ignorant of the elder Brandon's occupation, was led by Ralph Brooke, York herald, to grant him a coat of arms in December 1616 (Register of the Garter, ii. 399). Both father and son were notorious characters in London, the former being commonly called 'Gregory,' and the latter 'Young Gregory,' on account of the elder Brandon's long tenure of office. From an early age 'Young Gregory' is said to have prepared himself for his calling by decapitating cats and dogs. He succeeded his father shortly before 1640 (Old Newes Newly Revived, 1640). In 1641 he was a prisoner in Newgate on a charge of bigamy, from which he seems to have cleared himself (The Organ's Eccho, 1641). He was the executioner of Strafford (12 May 1641) and of Laud (10 Jan. 1644-5) (cf. Canterbury's Will, 1641). Brandon asserted, after judgment had been passed on Charles I (27 Jan. 1648-9), that he would not carry out the sentence. On 30 Jan., however, he was 'fetched out of bed by a troop of horse,' and decapitated the king. He 'received 30 pounds for his pains, all paid in half-crowns, within an hour after the blow was given,' and obtained an orange 'stuck full of cloves' and a handkerchief out of the king's pocket; he ultimately sold the orange for 10s. in Rosemary Lane, where he lived. He executed the Earl of Holland, the Duke of Hamilton, and Lord Capel in the following March, with the same axe as he had used on the king, suffered much from remorse, died on 20 June 1649, and was buried the next day in Whitechapel churchyard. On 15 Oct. 1660 William Hulett, or Hewlett, was condemned to death for having been Charles's executioner; but three witnesses asserted positively that Brandon was the guilty person, and their statement is corroborated by three tracts, published at the time of Brandon's death—'The Last Will and Testament of Richard Brandon, Esquire, headsman and hangman to the Pretended Parliament,' 1649; ​'The Confession of Richard Brandon, the Hangman,' 1649; 'A Dialogue, or a Dispute between the Late Hangman and Death,' 1649. Other persons who have been credited with executing Charles I are the Earl of Stair (Hone, Sixty Curious Narratives, pp. 138-140), Lieutenant-colonel Joyce (Lilly, Life and Times), and Henry Porter (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 29 April 1663; Lords' Journal, xi. 104), but all the evidence points to Brandon as the real culprit. Very many references to Brandon and his father are met with in contemporary dramatic and popular literature.
[Cat. of Satirical Prints in Brit. Mus., Div. I; Ellis's Orig. Letters, 2nd ser. iii. 340-41; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. v. vi., 2nd ser. ix. xi., 3rd ser. vii. s 4th ser. iii., oth ser. v.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brandon, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​BRANDON, Sir THOMAS (d. 1509), diplomatist, was the son of William Brandon and Elizabeth Wynfyld, and uncle to the celebrated Charles Brandon [q.v.], duke of Suffolk. His family were staunch supporters of the Lancastrian cause. His brother, William, was slain at the battle of Bosworth gallantly defending the standard of Henry VII. A contemporary manuscript speaks of Sir Thomas as having 'greatly favoured and followed the party of Henry, earl of Richmond.' He married Anne, daughter of John Fiennes, Lord Dacre, and widow of the Marquis of Berkeley. She died in 1497 without issue. He was appointed to the embassy charged with concluding peace with France in 1492, and again in 1500 he formed one of the suite which accompanied Henry VII to Calais to meet the Archduke Philip of Austria. In 1503, together with Nicholas West, subsequently bishop of Ely, he was entrusted with the important mission of concluding a treaty with the Emperor Maximilian at Antwerp. The principal object of this treaty was to induce Maximilian to withdraw his support from Edmund de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and banish him and the other English rebels from his dominions. Other points touched upon were the treatment of Milan and the question of Maximilian receiving the garter. Maximilian, according to his custom, behaved with much indecision, and, after solemnly ratifying the treaty, allowed the English ambassadors to leave, 'marvailing of this soden defection seyng divers matters as undetermyned.' On his return to England, Brandon was treated with much consideration by Henry VII, and we find him holding such offices as those of master of the king's horse, keeper of Freemantill Park, and marshal of the King's Bench. He was noted for his prowess as a knight and skill in military affairs. In the records of a tournament held in 1494 to celebrate the creation of the king's second son as knight of the Bath and Duke of York, Thomas Brandon is mentioned as having distinguished himself. For his prowess in arms he was made a knight of the Garter. In October 1507 he was sent to meet Sir Balthasar de Castiglione, ambassador to the Duke of Urbino, who came to England to receive the order of the Garter in his master's name. Brandon died in 1509.
[Add. MS. 6298; The Order of the Garter (Ashmole), 1672; Anstis's Order of the Garter, 1724; Rymer's Fœdera, xiii. 35; Gairdner's Letters and Papers illustrative of the reigns of Rich. III and Henry VII; Collins's Peerage of England, 1812; Brewer's Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII.]
N. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.35 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 224 | i | 8 f.e. | Brandon, Sir Thomas: for 1509 read 1510 |
| | ii | 16 f.e. | for in 1509 read on 29 Jan. 1509-10 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brandard, Robert

​BRANDARD, ROBERT (1805–1862), engraver, was born at Birmingham. He came to London at the age of nineteen, and after studying for a short time with Edward Goodall, the eminent landscape-engraver, practised with much ability in the same branch of the art. His earliest efforts were plates for Brockedon's 'Scenery of the Alps,' Captain Batty's 'Saxony,' and Turner's 'England' and 'Rivers of England.' He also engraved after Stanfield, Herring, Callcott, and others for the 'Art Journal,' and produced some etchings from his own designs, one series of which was published by the Art Union in 1864. Amongst his best works were two plates after Turner entitled 'Crossing the Brook' and 'The Snow-storm,' which were exhibited after his death at the International Exhibition of 1862. Brandard also practised painting both in oils and water-colours, and exhibited frequently at the British Institution, the Royal Academy, and Suffolk Street, between 1831 and 1858. He died at his residence, Campden Hill, Kensington, on 7 Jan. 1862. One of his oil-paintings, entitled 'The Forge,' was purchased by the second Earl of Ellesmere, and three others, views of Hastings, are in the South Kensington Museum, forming part of the Sheepshanks Collection.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School, London, 1878, 8vo.]
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brandon, Samuel

​BRANDON, SAMUEL (16th cent.), is the author of 'The Tragi-comœdi of the Virtuous Octavia,' 1598, 12mo. Concerning his life no particulars whatever are preserved. His solitary play is a work of some merit and of considerable value and rarity. The plot, taken from the life of Augustus by Suetonius, and that of Mark Antony by Plutarch, follows to some extent classical models. Its scene is Rome, and its catastrophe the death of Mark Antony. The fact that at the close the heroine, who oscillates between love for her husband and jealousy of Cleopatra, is still alive, is the excuse for calling it a tragi-comedy. Weak in structure and deficient in interest, the 'Virtuous Octavia' has claims to attention as poetry. It is written in decasyllabic verse with rhymes to alternate lines, and includes choruses lyrical in form and fairly spirited. Two epistles between Octavia and Mark Antony, 'in imitation of Ovid's style, but writ in long Alexandrins' (Langbaine, p. 30, ed. 1691), are added. These epistles 'are dedicated to the honourable, virtuous, and excellent Mrs. Mary Thin' (ib.) The play itself is dedicated to Lady Lucia Audelay. At the close of the work are the Italian words: 'L'acqua non temo dell' eterno oblio.'
[Langbaine's Dramatic Poets; Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica; Collier's History of English Dramatic Poetry, 1879; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brander, Gustavus

​BRANDER, GUSTAVUS (1720–1787), merchant and antiquary, descended from a Swedish family, was born in London in 1720, and brought up to trade, which he carried on with great success in the City. For many years he was a director of the Bank of England. Having inherited the fortune of his uncle, Mr. Spicker, he employed much of his wealth in forming collections of literary interest. Among his principal curiosities was the magnificent chair in which the first emperor of Germany was said to have been crowned. Engraved upon it in polished iron were scenes from Roman history, from the earliest times to the foundation of the empire. Brander was a fellow of the Royal Society, a curator of the British Museum, and one of the first supporters of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. While he lived in London in partnership with Mr. Spalding, his library and pictures narrowly escaped the flames which destroyed their house in White Lion Court, Cornhill, on 7 Nov. 1766. Thence he removed to Westminster, and at length into Hampshire, where he purchased the site of the old priory at Christchurch. Having completed his villa and gardens in this beautiful spot, he married, in 1780, Elizabeth, widow of John Lloyd, vice-admiral of the blue, daughter of Mr. Gulston of Widdial, Hertfordshire. In the winter of 1786 he had just completed the purchase of a house in St. Alban's Street, London, when he was seized with an illness which carried him off on 21 Jan. 1787.
To him the British Museum is indebted for a collection of fossils found in the cliffs about Christchurch and the coast of Hampshire. Copper-plate engravings of them, executed by Green, and accompanied by a scientific Latin description by Dr. Solander, were published in a volume entitled 'Fossilia Hantoniensia collecta, et in Museo Britannico deposita, à Gustavo Brander,' 1766. Brander communicated an account of the effect of lightning on the Danish church in Wellclose Square to the 'Philosophical Transactions' (xliv. 298); and from a manuscript in his possession Dr. Pegge printed in 1780, for private circulation, 'The Forme of Cury. A Roll of antient English Cookery, compiled about the year 1390.'
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vi. 260 and index; Addit. MS. 29533, f. 55; Ayscough's Cat. of the Sloane and Birch MSS. 743, 908.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brandon, Henry

​BRANDON, HENRY (1535–1551) and CHARLES (1537?–1551), Dukes of Suffolk, were the sons of Charles, duke of Suffolk [q. v.], by his last wife, Katharine Willoughby. Henry was born on 18 Sept. 1535, and Charles, the younger, probably two years later. The date in the former case is fixed by the inquisitio post mortem held after the father's death (1545). Henry succeeded to the dukedom, and held it for nearly six years. Their mother seems to have been very careful of their education, and appointed Thomas Wilson, afterwards the celebrated Sir Thomas, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, their tutor. The elder, Henry, was then sent to be educated with Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward VI, by Sir John Cheke. In 1550 we find Henry named as a hostage on the peace with France (Rymer, xv. 214); but he does not seem to have been required to go thither. By this time he and his brother were pursuing their studies at St. John's College, Cambridge, from which place, after the sweating sickness broke out in July 1551, they were hastily removed to the bishop of Lincoln's palace at Buckden in Huntingdonshire; but there they both caught the infection and died in one day, 16 July. As the younger survived the elder for about half an hour, they were both considered to have been dukes of Suffolk; and their fate made a remarkable impression on the world at the time. They seem to have attained to a wonderful proficiency in learning, and a brief memoir of the two—a work now of extreme rarity—published the same year by their old tutor, Wilson, contains epistles, epitaphs, and other tributes to their praise from Walter Haddon and other learned men both of Cambridge and of Oxford. Of the elder it was said by Peter Martyr that he was the most promising youth of his day, except King Edward. Their portraits by Holbein were engraved by Bartolozzi.
[Vita et obitus duorum fratrum Suffolcensium, 1551; Machyn's Diary, 8, 318; Dugdale's Baronage; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, i. 105, 541; Original Letters (Parker Soc.), ii. 496.]
J. G.