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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Walter of Merton

From volume 15 of the work.
Bishop of Rochester and founder of Merton College, Oxford, b. probably at Merton in Surrey or educated there; hence the surname; d. 27 Oct., 1277. He came of a land-owning family at Basingstoke; beyond that there is no definite information as to the date or place of birth. We know that his mother was Christina Fitz-Oliver and his father William, and that in 1237 both parents were dead, and Walter was a clerk in Holy orders. In 1241 Walter already held a number of livings in various parts of the country; in 1256 he was an agent for the Bishop of Durham in a law- suit; in 1259 prebendary of St. Paul's, London; and in 1262 prebendary of Exeter and canon of Wells. Walter was also prothonotary of the chancery in 1258; and in 1261 Henry III made him chancellor, in place of Nicholas of Ely. It was in this same year that Walter first set aside two manors in Surrey for the priory at Merton, for the support of "scholars residing at the schools". This was the beginning of Merton College. In 1264 Walter drew up statutes for a "house of the scholars of Merton", at Malden in Surrey; ten years later these scholars were transferred to Oxford, and a permanent house established.
Merton College, thus founded and endowed by Walter, is the earliest example of collegiate life at Oxford. Walter's statutes provided for a common corporate life under the rule of a warden, but as vows were to be taken and scholars entering a religious order forfeited their scholarship, the college was really a place of training for the secular clergy. While labouring for the establishment of Merton College, Walter was removed from the chancellorship when the barons triumphed in 1263, but was restored again on Henry III's death in 1272. He is mentioned as a justiciar in 1271, and three years later (21 October, 1274) he was consecrated Bishop of Rochester. While fording the Medway, Bishop Walter fell from his horse and died two days later from the effects of the accident. He was buried in Rochester cathedral, and is described in the "Annales monastici" as a man of liberality and great worldly learning, ever ready in his assistance to the religious orders.
Annales monastici in R.S.; Flores historiarum in R.S.; HOBHOUSE, Sketch of the Life of Walter de Merton (1859); BRODRICK, Memorial of Merton College, Oxf. Hist. Soc.; FOSS, Judges of England; KINGSFORD in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v. Merton, Walter de.
Joseph Clayton.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Walla-Walla Indians

From volume 15 of the work.
A Shahaptian tribe dwelling on the Walla-Walla (i.e. rushing water) River and the Columbia in Washington and Oregon, from Snake River to the Umatilla. Their language is akin to that of the Nez Percés but forms a distinct dialect. By the treaty of 1855 they were placed on the Umatilla reservation in Oregon, where they still remain. They number only 461, and are mixed with Nez Percés and Cayuse. Their family organization was loose, and the clan system not observed. The scantiness of their food supply, necessitating frequent migrations, prevented any continued development of the village system. Their food consisted mainly of roots, berries, and salmon. At present most of the tribe are farmers and stock breeders. The Walla-Walla were visited by Lewis and Clarke in 1804, and were evangelized by the Jesuit pioneers of the Northwest about forty years later.
A. A. MacErlean.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Walter Map

From volume 9 of the work.
(Sometimes wrongly written Maps)
Archdeacon of Oxford, b. at, or in the vicinity of, Hereford, c. 1140, d. between 1208 and 1210. Belonging by birth to the Welsh Marches, he was in all probability Welsh by extraction, though the two languages through which he has become known in literature are medieval church Latin, and the so-called Norman-French spoken at the Court of Henry II of England as well as in the law courts of that age and country. At the age of fourteen Walter went to the University of Paris where he studied until 1160 under Girard la Pucelle. In 1162 he was at the Court of England. Henry made him a clerk of his household, which implies that Map had received, or was was about to receive, Holy orders. After this the road to other preferments was open to him. He was the King's representative at the Third Lateran Council (1179), where he was appointed to dispute with the Waldensians. He held various benefices and at last, in 1197, he was made Archdeacon of Oxford. An unsuccessful effort to obtain the See of Hereford brought him into contact with St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln.
The place of Walter Map, however, is rather in the history of profane literature than in ecclesiastical history. As a churchman, though his life must have been respectable enough, his conversation can hardly have tended to edification, and he was the avowed enemy of the White Monks. Giraldus Cambrensis, his friend and admirer, states that in his oath as a king's justice, to do justice to all men Map made a distinct exception of Jews and Cistercians, "who were just to none". Only one literary work can be attributed to him with certainty: "De Nugis curialium" (Courtiers' Trifings), a book of gossip, anecdote, and observation, written, regardless of form, on the suggestion of one Geoffrey, to set down his (Map's) sayings and doings that had not been committed to writing. It is also implied by Map that he wrote at the wish of Heny II, at whose court the work was composed. Besides this work in Latin, there is good reason to believe that the earliest prose "Lancelot" was based on a French poem of Walter Map (see LEGENDS, Arthur). Lastly, much of the "Goliardic" Latin satire on the clergy of that period has without sufficient reason been ascribed to him, the most noted among that class of writing being the "Confessio Goliae" from which is taken the famous bacchanalian lyric beginning "Mihi est propositum in taberna mori".
The chief original sources are the De nugis curialium and GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, Opera. Modern authorities are: WRIGHT in Preface to his edition of De nugis curialium (London, 1850); IDEM in Preface to Latin Poems attributed to Walter Map (London, 1841); KINGSFORD in Dict. of Nat. Biogr., s.v.
E. Macpherson.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/University of Rostock

From volume 13 of the work.
Located in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, founded in the year 1419 through the united efforts of Dukes John IV and Albert V, and on 13 February of the same year granted a Bull of foundation by Pope Martin V. At first the university included only the three secular faculties; in 1432 a theological faculty was added with the approval of Eugenius IV. The Bishop of Schwerin was appointed chancellor of the university; his present successors are the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg. The majority of the professors came from Erfurt, among them the first rector, Petrus Stenbeke. The city of Rostock endowed the university most generously with lands, as did the Bishop of Schwerin, who presented his house at Rostock as a residence. At a later date it received contributions from Hamburg and Lubeck. In 1427 it obtained from Martin V a unique privilege, allowing the rector in conjunction with several doctors to bestow a degree if the chancellor refused without a valid reason to grant it. When Rostock was placed under the bann of the empire and the Church on account of outbreaks among the citizens, the university moved to Greifswald (Easter, 1437). In 1443 it returned to Rostock, but when the dukes wished to raise one of the churches of the city to a cathedral-church in order to give the professors the canonries as benefices, the town opposed the procedure and there developed what is known as the cathedral feud. The university migrated temporarily in the summer of 1487 to Wismar and then to Lubeck. It fell into complete decay after the beginning of the Reformation in (1523) when the university revenues were lost and matriculations ceased. When an effort was made later to reorganize the university a dispute arose between the city of Rostock and the dukes of Mecklenburg as to the administration and supervision of the school. In 1563 the agreement called the "Formula concordiae", was made between the contending parties, which granted nearly equal rights to both. The university now enjoyed an era of prosperity. In 1758 Duke Frederick desired the appointment of a rigidly orthodox professor, but the theological faculty opposed him; whereupon the duke obtained an imperial patent for the founding of a university at Butzow which was opened in 1760. The two universities proving too expensive for the country, the school at Butzow was closed and united with Rostock in 1789. In 1829 the town council renounced its right of co-patronage. During the second half of the nineteenth century the University began steadily to develop and gain, so that in 1911 it had about 800 students.
Krabbe, Die Universitdat Rostock im XV. und XVI. Jarhundrert (Rockstock, 1854); Hofmeister, Die Matrikel der Universitdat Rostock (1899).
KARL HOEBER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bernal Díaz del Castillo

From volume 4 of the work.
(Corruption of Bernardo), Spanish historian, one of the chief chroniclers of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, b. at Medina del Campo, Spain, c. 1498; d. after 1568. Born of poor parents, he began his military career as a common soldier. In 1514, he went to America with Pedrarias Dávila who had shortly before been appointed governor of Darien. Thence he betook himself to Cuba and enlisted in the expedition to Yucatan under Francisco de Córdoba in 1517. He proceeded to Mexico with Grijalva in 1518 and returning to Cuba, set out a third time for Mexico under the banner of Hernando Cortés. He took part, he tells us, in 119 battles, and was present at the surrender of the city of Mexico im 1521. As a reward for distinguished services he received a commission as regidor or governor of Santiago de los Caballeros in Guatemala, where he made his home. In 1552, Gómara, secretary and chaplain to Cortés, published at Saragossa his "Crónica de la Conquista de Nueva España", in which Díaz thought he gave undue credit to Cortés. Díaz, therefore, in 1568 undertook to write his "Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva España", and though despairing of his ability to equal Gómara's literary polish, he determined to write a faithful narrative of the stirring events in which he had taken part, in order to correct the gross inaccuracies of Gómara, who had never even been in America, and to vindicate the valour of himself and others who had been completely overshadowed by the exaggerated reputation of Cortés. The work lay neglected and unpublished until, in 1632, Father Alonso Remón of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, found it in a private library and had it published at Madrid. The work is crude and devoid of style, and shows the ignorance and vanity of the author, but it will always be read with interest as being the work of an eyewitness and participant in the events described.
In 1689, Francisco de Fuentes, in his history of Guatemala, set forth his claim to be a descendant of Díaz, and gave certain facts concerning him and his work that had been until then unknown. It would seem that, although poor, the family of Díaz was noble and distinguished, for his father was regidor of the important town of Medina del Campo. Fuentes also declared that the work was not published as written by Díaz, as it was not printed from the original manuscript but from an unauthorized copy in the library of one Ramírez del Prado which fell into the hands of Father Remón. The original manuscript, he claims, was in his own possession. "La Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles" (1848-86) of Rivadeneira contains the entire works of Díaz. A German translation by P.J. de Rehfues-Bonn-Marcas was published in 1838.
KEATINGE, Verdadera Historia de ta Conquista de Nueva España (tr. London, 1800); DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva España (Madrid, 1796); LOCKHART, Memoirs of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, written by himself (London, 1844).
VENTURA FUENTES
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bernard John McQuaid

From volume 9 of the work.
The first Bishop of Rochester, U. S. A.; born in New York City, 15 December, 1823; died at Rochester, 18 January, 1909. His father, Bernard McQuaid, from Tyrone, Ireland, settled in Powel's Hook (now Jersey City), New Jersey. It was in the McQuaid home that Mass was first said in Powel's Hook, by Father John Conron, on the first Sunday in Advent, November, 1829. After his college course at Chambly, Quebec, young McQuaid entered St. John's Seminary, at Fordham, and was ordained in old St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, 16 January, 1848. Most of the State of New Jersey was at that time included in the Diocese of New York, so Father McQuaid was sent as assistant to the pastor at Madison. When the Diocese of Newark was created in 1853, Bishop Bayley made Father McQuaid rector of his cathedral church, and later, in 1866, his vicar-general. With the bishop he founded Seton Hall College, and, without giving up his parochial charge or his diocesan office, was its president for ten years. He helped to establish the Madison, New Jersey, foundation of the Seton Sisters of Charity. When the Civil War broke out he was the first clergyman at Newark to espouse publicly the cause of the Union; he also volunteered as a chaplain and accompanied the New Jersey Brigade to the seat of war, during which service he was captured by the Confederates. On the creation of the Diocese of Rochester in 1868, Father McQuaid was appointed its first bishop and was consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, 12 July, 1868. He was installed in Rochester, on July 16. A man of strong character and untiring as a worker, he especially devoted himself to the cause of Catholic education. In Rochester within ten years he completely organized a splendid parochial school system, taught by nuns, and affiliated it with the State university. Two years after he took charge of the diocese he opened St. Andrew's Preparatory Seminary, the promising students of which he sent to the Roman and other famous European seminaries. Meantime he was constantly extending the parishes throughout the diocese; founding new works of charity, or strengthening those already established; securing freedom of worship and their constitutional rights for the inmates of the state institutions, of which there are four in the diocese. The crowning event of his career was the opening, in 1893, of St. Bernard's Seminary, which he lived to see expanded to an institution patronized by students from twenty-six other dioceses, regarded by the whole country as a model of its kind. Bishop McQuaid attended the Vatican Council in 1870. In 1905 he asked for a coadjutor, and Bishop Thomas F. Hickey was consecrated, 24 May, 1905. (See ROCHESTER, DIOCESE OF.)
The Republic (Boston, 23 January, 1909); Catholic Sun (Syracuse, 22 January, 1909); Catholic News (New York, 23 January, 1909); FLYNN, Catholic Church in New Jersey (Morristown, 1904); REUSS, Biog. Cyclo. Cath. Hierarchy of U. S. (Milwaukee, 1879); Catholic Directory (1849-1909).
THOMAS F. MEEHAN.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Berenger Fredoli

From volume 6 of the work.
Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati; b. at Vérune, France, c. 1250; d. at Avignon, 11 June, 1323. He was canon and precentor of Béziers, secular Abbot of Saint-Aphrodise in the same city, canon and archdeacon of Corbières, and canon of Aix. He later held the chair of canon law at Bologna, and was appointed chaplain to Celestine V, who in 1294 consecrated him Bishop of Béziers. Fredoli was one of those entrusted by Boniface VIII with the compilation of the text of the Decretals, and afterwards known as the "Liber Sextus". He took a prominent part in the negotiations then in progress between the pope and Philip the Fair, and attended the council held in Rome in 1302. In 1305 Clement V created him cardinal, with the title of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, appointed him major penitentiary, and in 1309 raised him the Cardinal-Bishopric of Frascati. The same pontiff employed him in investigating the charges made against the Knights Templars, and also in the enquiry into the peculiar tenets entertained at that time by a section of the Franciscan Order. On the death of Clement V, Fredoli was proposed by the French cardinals for the vacant chair, but without success. He continued in favour with the new pope, John XXII, by whose order he deposed the Abbot of Gerald and Hugo, Bishop of Cahors, for conspiring against the pope's life. The works of Fredoli are chiefly concerned with canon law, and include "Oculus", a commentary on the "Summa" of the Cardinal of Ostia (Basle, 1573), "Inventarium juris canonici", and "Inventarium speculi judicialis", abridged from a work of Durand, Bishop of Mendes.
A namesake and nephew of the preceding was Bishop of Béziers in 1309, and Cardinal-Bishop of Porto in 1317. He died in 1323.
H.G. WINTERSGILL
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bernard Guidonis

From volume 2 of the work.
Inquisitor of Toulouse against the Albigenses and Bishop of Lodève, b. at Royères (Limousin) in 1261, d. at Lauroux (Hérault), 30 December, 1331. He was one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages. He entered the Dominican Convent at Limoges, and made his profession in 1280. Ten Years later he was made Prior of Albi, and subsequently at Carcassonne, at Castres, and at Limoges. In recompense for his services as Inquisitor he was made Bishop of Tuy in Galicia, by Pope John XXII, and a year later Bishop of Lodève. In spite of his manifold occupations he wrote numerous works of great importance such as: "Fleurs des chroniques", which is a universal chronicle from the time of Our Lord to 1331; "Chronique abrégée des empereurs", "Chronique des rois de France", "Catalogue des Évêques de Limoges", "Traité sur les saints du Limousin", "Traité sur l'histoire de l'abbaye de St. Augustin de Limoges", "Chronique des Prieurs de Grandmont" (as far as 1318), "Chronique des Prieurs d'Artize" (as far as 1313), "Chronique des évêques de Tolouse" (as far as 1327), "Sanctoral ou Miroir des saints", "Vie des saints", "Traité sur les soixante-douze disciples et sur les apôtres", "Traité sur 1'époque de la eélébration des conciles", "Compilation historique sur l'ordre des Dominicains", "Pratique de l'inquisition". This last is practically his most important work. It is an exposé of the prerogatives and duties of the inquisitor: its citations, its forms of condemnation, its instructions for examinations, constitute a unique document for the study of the Inquisition during the first period of its existence. This work, lost for a time, was published later in extenso by l'abbé Douais, "Practice Inquisitionis hæreticae pravitatis, auctore Bernardo Guldonis (Toulouse, 1886). Bernard is also the author of a number of theological treatises; "Abrégé de la doctrine chrétienne", "Traité de la messe", "Traité sur la conception de la Vierge" and also of different sermons.
DESLISLE, Notices sur les manuscrits de Bernard-Guy in Coll. (Paris, 1879), XXVII; MOLINIER L'inquisition dans le midi de la France au XIII et au XIV siècle (Paris, 1880).
M. DE MOREIRA
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Berissa

From volume 2 of the work.
(Berisa or Verissa)
A titular see of Pontus Polemoniacus, in Asia Minor which Kiepert and Ramsay have rightly identified with the modern village of Baulus or Bolus, south-west of Tokat. In the time of St. Basil it was included in the Diocese of Ibora, as appears from letters LXXXVI and LXXXVII of the great bishop, but soon after became an independent bishopric in Armenia Prima, with Sebasteia as metropolis. This important change took place before 458, when its bishop, Maxentius (written wrongly Ausentius), subscribed with his colleagues of Armenia Prima the synodal letter to the Emperor Leo (Mansi, XII, 587-589). Hierocles, at the beginning of the sixth century, does not treat it as an independent city; but it is mentioned as such by Justinian in a Novella of 536, among the cities of Armenia Secunda. It must be remembered that this emperor, when creating the province of Armenia Quarta in 536, gave to Armenia Prima the name of Armenia Secunda, without altering, however, the established ecclesiastical organization, so that Berissa remained a suffragan see of Sebasteia. Among its bishops may be mentioned Thomas, who was present at the fifth oecumenical council, in 553 (Mansi, IX, 175), and another at the sixth in 680 (ibid., XI, 66). It appears still later in the "Notitiae Episcopatuum" as suffragan to Sebasteia, and its name is written sometimes Berisse, sometimes Berisse; Merisse and Kerisse are merely palaeographical mistakes. Berissa was a Latin bishopric as late as the fifteenth century, when Paul II appointed the Franciscan Libertus de Broehun to succeed the deceased bishop, John (Wadding, Annales Minorum, VI, 708).
Lequien, Oriens Christ., I, 433; III, 1071; Gams, Series episcop., 440; Ramsay, Hist. Geogr. of Asia Minor, 329.
L. Petit.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bernard Dornin

From volume 5 of the work.
First publisher in the United States of distinctively Catholic books, b. in Ireland, 1761; d. in Ohio, 1836. He was forced to leave his native land, in 1803, because of political troubles and, arriving in New York soon after, began a book-selling and publishing concern. He got out a New Testament, printed for him in Brooklyn, in 1805, and an edition of Pastorini's "History of the Church", in 1807. He moved to Baltimore, in 1809, and from there to Philadelphia in 1817. During many years he was the leading Catholic publisher of the country, and as such enjoyed the friendship of Archbishop Carroll and of other members of the hierarchy, who esteemed him as a vigorous and gifted writer and editor. In the early thirties he disposed of his business in Philadelphia, where he had published a number of Catholic books, and went to Ohio to reside near his daughter.
Thomas Aloysius Dornin
Son of Bernard, b. in Ireland, 1800; d. at Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A., 22 April, 1874. He entered the United States Navy, 2 May, 1815, as a midshipman, from Maryland. Commissioned a lieutenant in 1825, he made a five-years' cruise around the world. In 1841 he was promoted commander and helped to successfully carry out an expedition to prevent the invasion of Mexican territory by the filibusterer William Walker. After being commissioned captain, in 1855, he engaged in destroying the slave-trade. During the Civil War he attained the rank of commodore on the retired list, 16 July, 1862, and at its close was put in charge of the fifth lighthouse district.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Berenice

From volume 2 of the work.
A titular see of Egypt which was situated at the end of Major Syrtis where Bengazi stands to-day. Its old name was Euhesperides, or Hesperides, for which Ptolemy III Evergetes substituted Berenice in honour of his wife (Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus, III, 2, 331). Like the other cities of Cyrenaica, it had received a Jewish colony, so it became early an important Christian centre. Dionysius of Alexandria (264-282) wrote a letter to its bishop, Ammonas (Eusebius, H. E. VII, 26), who is also spoken of in the "Apophthegmata Patrum" (Cotelier, Monum. Eccles. Graec. I, 385; Migne, P.G., LXV, 119). Daces was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325 (H. Gelzer, Patrum Nicaen. Nomina, 219). In 394, Probatius followed to Constantinople the Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus (Mansi, III, 852). The city was restored by Justinian (Procopius, De Aedif. VI, 2). It is mentioned with the wrong spelling "Beronice", by Hierocles (733, 3) and by Georgius Cyprius (n. 794) among the bishoprics of the Lybian Pentapolis, but is omitted by the later "Notitiae". It must have disappeared, like so many other sees, at the time of the Arab invasion in the seventh century.
Lequien, Oriens Christ., II, 623-626; Gams, Series episcoporum, 462.
L. Petit.