OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Victor Vitensis

From volume 15 of the work.
An African bishop of the Province of Byzacena (called VITENSIS from his See of Vita), b. probably about 430. His importance rests on his "Historia pesecutionis Africanae Provinciae, temporibus Geiserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum". This is mainly a contemporary narrative of the cruelties practised against the orthodox Christians of Northern Africa by the Arian Vandals. Formerly divided into five books, this work is now usually edited in three, of which the first, dealing with the reign of Geiseric (427-77), is derived from the accounts of others, while the second and third, covering the reign of Huneric, are a strictly contemporary account of events, of which the author was in the main an eyewitness. No exception can be taken to the accuracy of Victor's narratives, except that at all times he exaggerates, but when allowance is made for the stress of feeling under which the work was written, it can be seen that he records little that did not happen. Victor throws much light on social and religious conditions in Carthage and on the African liturgy of the period. His history contains many valuable documents not otherwise accessible, e.g. the Confession of Faith drawn up for the orthodox bishops by Eugenius of Carthage and presented to Huneric at the conference of Catholic and Arian bishops in 484. Two documents: a "Passio beatissimorum martyrum qui apud Carthaginem passi sunt sub impio rege Hunerico (die VI. Non. Julias 484)" and a "Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae", formerly appended to all the MSS. and now incorporated in the printed editions, are probably not Victor's. The former may be the work of one of his contemporaries; the latter is a list of the Catholic bishops summoned to the conference of 484, arranged according to provinces, with an exact indication of the ecclesiastical geography of that portion of Africa.
The early editions of Victor are found in MIGNE, LVIII, 179-276. Newer and more critical editions by HALM (Berlin, 1879) in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Antiq., III, 1; and PETSCHENIG (Vienna, 1881); Corpus Scrip. Eccles. Lat., VII; FERRERE, De Victoris Vitensis libro qui inscribitur historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae (Paris, 1898).
PATRICK HEALY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Victor de Laprade

* related authors: Victor de Laprade.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item.
From volume 9 of the work.
Laprade, Victor de, French poet and critic, b. at Montbrison in 1812; d. at Lyons in 1883. He first studied medicine, then law, and was admitted to the bar, but soon left it to become professor of French literature at the "Faculté des lettres" of Lyons. He lost this position in 1863 for having published "Les Muses d'Etat", a satire aimed at the men of the Second Empire, and from that time on he devoted all his time to poetry. In 1858 he had taken the seat of Musset in the French Academy. Laprade is probably the most idealistic French poet of the nineteenth century. His talon somewhat resembles that of Lamartine, whom he gladly acknowledge as his master. His inspiration is always lofty, his verses are harmonious and at times graceful. God, nature, the fatherland, mankind, friendship, the family are his favourite topics. To form a correct opinion of his work, one should discriminate between the two phases of his literary career. During the first, which extends down to his admission into the French Academy, he takes pains to connect the ancient with the modern world, mythology with Christianity. This is what might be termed the impersonal phase of his thought. "Psyché" (1842), "Les Odes et Poèmes" (1844), "Les Poèmes évangéliques (1852). "Les Symphonies" (1844), belong to this first period. Another collection of poems "Les Idylles héroiques" (1858), marks the transition from the first to the second phase. Laprade's poetical pantheism has now given place to a more Christian and more humane inspiration. The "poet of the summits", as he was sometimes called, had become a man of his times; filial and parental love, the country life of his dear native province (Forez), are now his topics. To this period belong "Pernette" (1878), "Harmodius" (1870), "Les Poèmes civiques" (1873). It was then that, in some measure, he became popular. He was also a remarkable educational and aesthetical writer, as is shown by the following works: "Questions d'art et de morale: (1867), "Le Sentiment de la nature avant le christianisme" (1867), "L'éducation homicide" (1867), "L'éducation libérale" (1873).
Biré, V. de Laprade, Sa vie et ses œuvres (Paris, s. d.)
Pierre Marique.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Victor of Capua

From volume 15 of the work.
A sixteenth-century bishop about whose life nothing is known except what is found in his epitaph (C.I.L., 4503), which has been preserved, though the tomb itself has disappeared. This inscription simply states that his episcopate of thirteen years ended in April, 554. The authenticity of the inscription and its chronological data admit of no doubt. Victor is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 17 Oct., as "eruditione et sanctitate conspicus". His original writings, preserved only in fragments, show him to have been a devoted student and a man of wide and varied learning. His best known work is the "Codex fuldensis", one of the most ancient MSS. of the Vulgate, prepared under his direction, and which he himself revised and corrected. In this codex the place of the Four Gospels is taken by a harmony of the Gospels, or as he himself terms it in the preface, a single Gospel composed from the four. Victor was not certain that the harmony he used was identical with the "Diatesseron" of Tatian. The discovery of the text of the latter work and recent investigation have made it clear that this Latin harmony used by Victor was drawn up about A.D. 500. The anonymous author of this work simply substituted the Latin of St. Jerome's Vulgate for the Greek of Tatian, and at times changed the order or inserted additional passages. Many of the discrepancies may be due however to subsequent changes. Other works by Victor were: "De cyclo paschali" written about 550 in refutation of the "Cursus paschalis" of Victorius. Only a few fragments of this work have survived (P.L., LXVIII, 1097-98; Pitra, "Spic. Solesm.", I, 296); commentaries on the Old and New Testament, for the most part catenae of quotations from the Greek exegetes; "Libelius reticulus seu de arca Noe" (Pitra, "Spic. Solesm.", I, 287), containing an ingenious allegorical computation showing that the dimensions of the ark typified the years of Christ's earthly life; "Capitula de resurrectione Domini" dealt with some of the chief difficulties regarding Christ's genealogy and the hour of the Crucifixion as recorded in the Evangelists.
UGHELLI, Italia sacra, VI, 306; PITRA, Spicileg. Solesm, I (Paris, 1852), p. 1 sq., 265 sq., 287, 296; ZAHN, Gesch. d. neutestam. Kanons, II, 535; BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology, p. 628.
PATRICK HEALY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Vigilius, Bishop of Tapsus

From volume 15 of the work.
Bishop of Tapsus, in the African Province of Byzacena. Mentioned in the "Notitia" appended to the History of Victor Vitensis, among the bishops who were present at the conference of Catholic and Arian bishops in Carthage summoned by the Vandal King Huneric in 484. With the exception of this fact nothing certain is known regarding the previous or subsequent career of Vigilius. It is conjectured that he fled to Constantinople at the time the Catholic bishops were exiled from Africa by the Vandals. His writings show that he took an active part in the controversies which were then agitating the Eastern Church. A dialog, "Contra Arianos, Sabellianos, et Photinianos; Athanasio, Ario, Sabellio, Photino et Probo judice, interlocutoribus", is undoubtedly the work of his hands. He also wrote a treatise, "Contra Eutychetem", in five books, which contains a valuable summary of the arguments against Eutychianism. He refers to this book to two or three works he had composed against the deacon Maribadus, and against the Arian bishop Palladius. A large number of other works have been attributed to Vigilius, but without sufficient evidence. Among these are: "Contra Maribadum Arianum"; "Contra Palladium Arianum"; a dialogue "Contra Arianos"; twelve books "De Trinitate"; "Contra Felicianum Arianum"; "Solutiones objectionum Arianorum", and a "Collatio cum Pascentio Ariano". Many of these works are preserved among the writings of other authors. The hypothesis that Vigilius was the author of Quicumque has been shown to have no foundation (Kunstle, "Antipriscilliana", Freiburg, 1905, 109).
A complete edition of the works of Vigilius was prepared by CHIFFLET (Dijon, 1664), reprinted in P.L., LXII; FICKER, Studien zu Vigilius von Tapsus (Leipzig, 1897); BARDENHEWERSHAHAN, Patrology, 615.
PATRICK J. HEALY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Victor IV

From volume 15 of the work.
Two antipopes of this name.
I. Cardinal Gregory Conti, elected in opposition to Innocent II in the middle of March, 1138, by the partisans of the Pierleoni family, as successor to Anacletus II. At the end of two months, however, Gregory submitted on 29 May to Innocent and renounced his office.
II. Octavius, Cardinal of St. Cecilia, d. at Lucca, 20 April, 1164. He was elected 7 Sept., 1159, by a small minority of the cardinals (four or five), the clergy of St. Peter's, and the Roman populace, while at the same time the majority of the college of cardinals elected the chancellor Rolando who assumed the title of Alexander III. Octavian belonged to one of the most powerful Roman families (Counts of Tusculum), had been cardinal since 1138, and was very popular on account of his liberality, accessibility, and splendour of living. He was considered a great friend of the Germans, and rested his hopes on the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Yet it is not to be assumed that the emperor had desired his election; Rolando was certainly not agreeable to him, yet neither was it to his interest to have an antipope. As a matter of fact the emperor was at first neutral and called upon the bishops not to take sides; the decision, the emperor said, should be reserved for the action of the Church. As the chief protector of the Church, therefore, he convoked a synod at Pavia (February, 1160). It decided, as was to be expected, for Victor, and pronounced an anathema upon Alexander, while Alexander on his side excommunicated the emperor. The attempt to secure Victor's recognition was never completely successful in Germany, where Bishop Eberhard of Salzburg was his principal opponent. France and England sided with Alexander; Spain, Hungary, Ireland, and Norway followed their example. King Louis VII of France wavered, indeed, once more in 1162, but the disastrous meeting with the emperor at Saint-Jean-de- Losne had as its result that the king held firmly to the obedience of Alexander. During the years 1162-65 Alexander lived in France, and from 1163 the pope exerted himself to gain more of Germany for his cause. All uncertainty came to and end at the death of Victor IV. His successor was Paschal III.
JAFFE, Regesta pontificum Romanorum (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1885-1886), I, 919; II, 418-26; LANGEN, Geschichte der römischen Kirche von Gregor VII. bis Innocenz III. (Bonn, 1893), 439-76; HAUCK, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, IV (Leipzig, 1902), 156, 225-58; HERGENROTHER, Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte, ed. KIRSCH, II (4th ed., Freiburg, 1904), 454-57.
Klemens Löffler.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Byrd

From volume 3 of the work.
English composer, born in London in 1542 or 1543; died 4 July, 1623. He was the son of a musician, and studied music principally under Thomas Tallis. He became organist at Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, chorister in the Chapel Royal in 1570, and in 1575 received the title of Organist of the Chapel Royal without being obliged to perform the functions of that office. Byrd was the most distinguished contrapuntist and the most prolific composer of his time in England. Fétis calls him the English Palestrina. He was the first Englishman to write madrigals, a form which originated in Italy in the thirteenth century, and received its highest development in the sixteenth century at the hands of Arcadelt and other masters. An organist and performer of the first order upon the virginals, Byrd wrote for the latter instrument an enormous number of compositions, many of which are played today. His chief significance lies, however, in his compositions for the Church, of which he produced a great many. In 1607 he published a collection of gradualia for the whole ecclesiastical year, among which is to be found a three-part setting of the words of the multitude in the Passion according to St. John. A modern edition of this setting was published in 1899. In 1611 "Psalms, Songs and Sonnets, Some Solemn, Others Joyful, Framed to the Life of the Words, Fit for Voyces or Viols, etc." appeared. Probably in the same year was issued "Parthenia", a collection of virginal music, in which Byrd collaborated with J. Bull and Orlando Gibbons. Three masses — for three, four, and five voices, respectively — belong to the composer's best period. The one for five voices was reprinted by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1841, and in 1899 the same work was issued by Breitkopf and Hartel. Two of his motets, "Domine, ne irascaris" and "Civitas sancti tui", with English texts, are in the repertoire of most Anglican cathedrals. In spite of the harrowing religious conditions under which he lived, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I, Byrd remained faithful to his principles and duties as a Catholic, as is shown in his life and by his works. In his last will and testament he prays "that he may live and dye a true and perfect member of the Holy Catholike Churche withoute which I beleeve there is noe salvacon for me".
The Music Story Series: English Music, 1604 to 1904 (London and New York, 1906); RITTER, Music in England (New York, 1833); GROVE, Dictionary of Music.
JOSEPH OTTEN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Clark

From volume 4 of the work.
English priest, date of birth unknown, executed at Winchester, 29 Nov., 1603. He was educated at Douai College, which he entered 6 August, 1587. Passing to the English College at Rome in 1589, He was ordained priest and returned to Engla nd in April, 1592. Active in the disputes between the seculars and the Jesuits on the appointment of Blackwell as archpriest, he was one of thirty-three priests who signed the appeal against Blackwell dated from Wisbeach Castle, 17 November, 1600. Conse quently he was included in the attack which Father Persons made against the characters of his opponents. When Clement VIII declared in favour of the appellant clergy (5 October,1602) and restored to them their faculties, an attempt was made, but in vain, to exclude Clark from participation in the privilege. At this time he was in the Clink prison. On Low Sunday he was discovered preparing to say Mass in the prison and was placed in still closer confinement. Shortly after this he became connected with the mysterious conspiracy known as the "Bye Plot". He was committed to the Gatehouse, Westminister, thence to the Tower, and finally to the Castle at Winchester. Nothing was proved against him in relation to the plot save various practices in favour of Catholic interests; nevertheless he was condemned to death 15 November, and executed a fortnight later. He protested that his death was a kind of martyrdom. He is the author of "A Replie unto a certain Libell latelie set foorth by Fa. Parsons", ect. (16 03, s.l.).
G.E. HIND
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Clifford

From volume 4 of the work.
(Alias Mansell), divine, d. 30 April, 1670; he was the son of Henry Clifford, by his wife Elizabeth Thimelby, who as a widow joined the English Augustinian nuns at Louvain, and died, aged about seventy-seven, 3 September, 1642. Through humility Clifford never asserted his right to the Barony of Cumberland. After education and ordination at Douai, he came on the English mission. As vice-president, he helped the English College at Lisbon through difficult times, and became superior of Tournay College (Paris), assigned by Cardinal Richelieu to the English clergy. He evaded being made bishop in 1660, declined in 1670 the presidency of Douai, and closed his life in the Hopital des Incurables in Paris. Clifford's works are: "Christian Rules proposed to a vertuous Soule" (Paris, 1615), dedicated to Mrs Ursula Clifford; "The Spirituall Combat", translated by R.R. (Paris, 1656), dedicated to Abbot Montague; "Little Manual of Poore Man's Dayly Devotion" (2nd edition, Paris, 1670), often reprinted; "Observations upon Kings' Reigns since the Conquest" (MS.); "Collections concerning Chief Points of Controversy" (MS.)
Little Manual, 5th ed., preface; Dodd, Church History, III, 297; Gillow, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Catholics, I, 514, s.v.; Idem, Lisbon College, 9 and 189; Cooper in Dict. Of Nat. Biog., s.v.; Chronicle of St. Monica's, Louvain (Edinburgh, 1904), I, 127; Kirk, Biographies (London, 1908), s.v.
PATRICK RYAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Crolly

From volume 4 of the work.
Archbishop of Armagh, b. at Ballykilbeg, near Downpatrick, 8 June, 1780; d. 6 April, 1849. At fourteen he was sent to a classical school in Downpatrick, conducted by Rev. Mr. Nelson, a Unitarian minister, as there were no Catholic schools in the north of Ireland. In November, 1801, he went to Maynooth, and obtained first place in dogmatic theology in 1806. At Pentecost of the same year he was ordained priest by Dr. Troy, Archbishop of Dublin, and for six years lectured in logic, metaphysics, and ethics. In 1812 he took charge of the parish of Belfast, which comprised not only the entire town but also a district more than thirty miles in extent. On being appointed Bishop of Down and Connor in 1825, he induced the Holy See to change the episcopal parish from Downpatrick to Belfast, the real centre of the diocese. During the ten years he spent as bishop of this see he built a large church in almost every parish, and founded St. Malachy's Seminary. Owing to the dearth of Catholic schools, Dr. Crolly was obliged to allow Catholic children to attend Protestant schools, a course of action which caused a fierce controversy after his death. In 1835 he was appointed to the archdiocese of Armagh. Up to his time no primate had been allowed to reside in that town, but he lived alternately there and in Drogheda, where most of the primates had dwelt in penal times. His first care was to found St. Patrick's Seminary in Armagh, which was opened in 1838. His great work however, was the foundation of the cathedral, which was not completed till twenty-four years after his death. Having with great difficulty acquired a site on an historic hill by the side of the town, he laid the foundation stone on St. Patrick's Day, 1840, amid a vast assemblage of clergy and laity. The work of construction went steadily on until the famine years, and the primate visited several cities in Ireland, making an appeal in person. The famine, however, stopped the progress of the work. When the question of the Queen's colleges arose, the primate was one of those bishops who looked favourably on the project. It is certain, however, that if he had lived till the Synod of Thurles, in which these colleges were formally condemned as pernicious to the Faith, he would have laid aside his own private opinions on this subject, and submitted to the decision of the Holy See. He died in Drogheda of the cholera, on Good Friday (6 April), 1849, and was buried on Easter Sunday in the centre of the choir of the still unfinished cathedral of Armagh. A collection of the "Select Sermons" of the primate was published shortly after his death.
A. COLEMAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Callyhan Robinson

From volume 13 of the work.
Jurist and educator, b. 26 July, 1834, at Norwich, Conn.; d. 6 Nov., 1911, at Washington, D.C. After preparatory studies at Norwich Academy, Williston Seminary, and Wesleyan University, he entered Dartmouth College from which he was graduated in 1854. He then entered the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was graduated in 1857, and ordained to the Episcopalian Ministry, in which he served first at Pittston, Pa. (1857-8), and then at Scranton, Pa. (1859-62). He was received into the Catholic Church in 1863, was admitted to the Bar in 1864, and was lecturer and professor in law at Yale University (1869-95). For two years (1869-71) he was judge of the City Court and later (1874-6) judge of the Court of Common Pleas at New Haven, Conn. In 1874 also he served as member of the Legislature. From Dartmouth College he received (1879) the degree LL.D., and from Yale University the degree M.A. (1881). He married 2 July, 1857, Anna Elizabeth Haviland and, 31 March, 1891, Ultima Marie Smith. His thorough knowledge of law made him eminent as a teacher and enabled him to render important service to the Church. In 1895 he was appointed professor in the Catholic University of America, where he organized the School of Social Sciences and remained as Dean of the School of Law until his death. Besides articles contributed to various periodicals, he wrote: "Life of E. B. Kelly" (1855); "Notes of Elementary Law" (1876); "Elementary Law" (Boston, 1876); "Clavis Rerum" (1883); "Law of Patents" (3 vols., Boston, 1890); "Forensic Oratory" (Boston, 1893); "Elements of American Jurisprudence" (Boston, 1900).
Catholic University Bulletin (Dec., 1911); Catholic Educational Review (Dec., 1911).
E.A. PACE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Cassidy

From volume 3 of the work.
Journalist, essayist, critic, b. at Albany, New York, U.S.A., 12 Aug., 1815; d. there 23 Jan., 1873. One of the most accomplished and brilliant journalists of his time, he was educated at the Albany Academy and Union College, graduating in 1833. He studied law with John Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, was appointed State Librarian 1843, and became editor of the Albany "Atlas". On consolidation of the "Atlas" with the "Argus", he assumed the editorship of the new paper and retained it to his death. As a writer he was terse, incisive, vigorous, and scholarly, and was a conversationalist of rare power. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1871, and in 1872 was appointed by Governor Hoffman on the commission to revise the Constitution. His influence was that of a pen wielded by a master of thought, and his achievements those of the exponent of party and the leader of political councils. At his funeral held from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Albany, Bishop McNeirny pontificated. Both houses of the State Legislature then in session adjourned out of respect to the deceased.
J. T. Driscoll.