OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Burnouf, Eugene

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​BURNOUF, EUGENE (1801–1852)
Born at Paris, Aug. 12, 1801: son of Jean Louis Burnouf, grammarian: a pupil of Chezy: studied at the College of Louis-le-Grand: scholar: gave up his profession, the law, and took to Oriental languages: gave instruction in Sanskrit, 1824: published in 1826, with Lassen of Bonn, the Essai sur le Pali: appointed Professor of General and Comparative Grammar in the Normal School at Paris, 1829–33: and of Indian Languages and Literature at the College de France, 1832: a founder of the Societe Asiatique in Paris: published, 1833, a commentary on the Yacna, dealing with the language, literature, and history of the Parsis: brought out his Etudes sur la langue et les textes Zendes, 1840–50: the earliest to study Zend MSS. at first hand, giving a great impulse to the study of that language, and assistance in the decipherment of the old Persian cuneiform inscriptions: wrote 3 vols, of his work on the text and translation of the Bhagavat Purana, 1840–4: and began an introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism, 1844: translated a Sanskrit work on Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi, 1852, and the Vendidad Sade, 1829: and wrote on the Buddhist inscriptions on pillars and rocks: left other Zend works and a Pali grammar and dictionary nearly complete: Permanent ​'Secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions : Member of the Institute of France since 1832 : a great European Orientalist : died May 28, 1852.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Butler, Thomas Adair

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​BUTLER, THOMAS ADAIR (1835–1901)
Major : son of Rev. Stephen Butler : educated privately : joined the 1st Bengal Fusiliers : in the mutiny, at the assault of Delhi, displayed great bravery : wounded : at the attack on Lucknow, March 9, 1858, twice swam the River Gumti and gained the V.C. : in the attack on Ruiya, April 15, 1858 : in the N.W. frontier campaign, 1863 : died May 17, 1901.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Bythesea, John

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​BYTHESEA, JOHN (1827–)
Born June 15, 1827 : son of Rev. G. Bythesea : educated at Grosvenor College, Bath : entered the Navy, 1841 : Rear-Admiral, 1877 : gained the V.C. in the Russian war, 1854–5 : saw service in China and elsewhere, in command of various vessels : Naval Attaché at Washington, 1865–7 : Consulting Naval Officer to the Government of India, 1874–80 : C.B. : C.I.E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duckett, James

​DUCKETT, JAMES (d. 1601), bookseller, was a younger son of Duckett of Gilthwaiterigg, in the parish of Skelsmergh in Westmoreland, and was brought up as a protestant. He had, however, for godfather James Leybourne of Skelsmergh, who was executed at Lancaster, 22 March 1583, for denial of the queen's supremacy. Duckett was apprenticed to a bookseller in London, became converted, and was imprisoned for not attending church. He bought out the remainder of his time, set up as a bookseller, was received into the Roman catholic church, and about 1589 married a widow. Nine out of the next twelve years of his life were passed in prison. His last apprehension was caused by Peter Bullock, a bookbinder, who gave information that Duckett had in stock a number of copies of Southwell's ‘Supplication to Queen Elizabeth.’ These were not found, but a quantity of other Roman catholic books were seized on the premises. Duckett was imprisoned in Newgate 4 March 1601, and brought to trial during the following sessions. Sentence of death was then pronounced against him and three priests, and he was hanged at Tyburn with Peter Bullock (the witness against him) 19 April 1601. Duckett's son was prior of the English Carthusians at Nieuport in Flanders.
[Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, 1741, i. 401–5; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 133–5.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dudgeon, William (1753?-1813)

​DUDGEON, WILLIAM (1753?–1813), poet, son of John Dudgeon, farmer, was born about 1753 at Tyninghame, East Lothian. His mother was an aunt of Robert Ainslie [q. v.], writer to the signet, a friend of Burns. Dudgeon was educated with Rennie the engineer at Dunbar. His father procured for him a thirty years' lease of an extensive tract of land near Dunse in Berwickshire. This farm, much of which was in the condition of a wilderness, he cultivated for many years with much success. He gave it the name of Primrose Hill, and there he wrote several songs, one of which, ‘The Maid that tends the Goats,’ was printed and became very popular. It may be read in Allan Cunningham's edition of Burns's ‘Works,’ p. 533. His other pieces remain in manuscript. He also occupied his leisure with painting and music. In May 1787 he was introduced to Burns, then on a visit to Mr. Ainslie of Berrywell, near Dunse, father of Robert Ainslie. Burns made the following entry in his journal: ‘Mr. Dudgeon, a poet at times, a worthy remarkable character, natural penetration, a great deal of information, some genius, and extraordinary modesty’ (Burns, Works, ed. Cunningham, p. 53). Dudgeon died on 28 Oct. 1813, and was buried in the churchyard of Prestonkirk.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Book of Scotsmen.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duckett, William

​DUCKETT, WILLIAM (1768–1841), United Irishman, born at Killarney in 1768, was sent to the Irish College at Paris, and gained a scholarship at Sainte-Barbe, then conducted by the Abbé Badnel. Returning to Ireland, he contributed to the revolutionary ‘Northern Star,’ under the signature of ‘Junius Redivivus.’ These letters, according to his own account, made it prudent for him to quit Ireland, and in 1796 he was in Paris. Tone, who was also in Paris, regarded him as a spy, and complained that he forestalled him by submitting to the French government several memorandums on the state of Ireland, that he constantly crossed his path in the ministerial antechamber, tried to force his conversation on him, and by addressing him in English betrayed his incognito. When, moreover, Tone arrived with Hoche at Brest, Duckett was there, intending to accompany them, but was not allowed to embark. In 1798 he was reported to Castlereagh as having been sent to Hamburg with money destined for a mutiny in the British fleet and for burning the dockyards. This, coupled with his outlawry by the Irish parliament, ought to have vouched for his sincerity, but he was suspected of betraying Tandy and Blackwell at Hamburg. The existence of traitors in the camp was so notorious that suspicion often fell on the innocent. He married a Danish lady attached to the Augustenburg family, returned to Paris about 1803, and became a professor at the resuscitated college Sainte-Barbe. Durozoir, one of his pupils, and himself a literary man, speaks in high terms of his classical attainments, his wonderful memory, and the interest which he imparted to lessons on Shakespeare and Milton by felicitous comparisons with the ancients. Duckett seems to have shunned, or been shunned by, Irish exiles in Paris, yet Durozoir testifies to his anti-English feeling and to his admiration of the French revolution. In 1819, no longer apparently connected with Sainte-Barbe, he conducted English literature classes, as also girls' classes on the Lancastrian system. Between 1816 and 1821 he published odes on Princess Charlotte's death, Greek and South American independence, &c., productions evidently confined to a small circle in Paris. In 1828 he issued a ‘Nouvelle Grammaire Anglaise.’ He died in 1841 in Paris after a long illness, quoting his favourite Horace on his deathbed, and receiving extreme unction. He left two sons, Alexander, a physician, accessit at the Val-de-Grace examination, 1828, and William (1803–1873), a French journalist, translator of German works, and editor or compiler of the ‘Dictionnaire de la Conversation,’ 52 vols., completed in 1843, to a large extent a translation of Brockhaus. This William had a son, William Alexander (1831–1863), who contributed to the new edition of the ‘Dictionnaire,’ and published an illustrated work on French monuments, also a daughter, Mathilde (1842–1884?), who studied under Rosa Bonheur, exhibited at the Paris Salon, 1861–8, and taught drawing in Paris.
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duckworth, Richard

​DUCKWORTH, RICHARD (fl. 1695), campanologist, a native of Leicestershire, is probably identical with the Richard Duckworth mentioned, under date 4 May 1648, in the ‘Register of Visitors of Oxford University appointed by the Long parliament in 1647’ as one of the ‘submitting’ undergraduates of New Inn Hall (p. 38), and with the Richard Ducker who, according to the same authority, was a member and perhaps scholar of Brasenose College about the same time (ib. p. 483). He matriculated at New Inn Hall in 1649, graduated B.A. in 1651, and proceeded M.A. in 1653. He is said to have been ‘afterwards of University College’ (ib. p. 569). Wood tells us that he was ‘put in fellow of Brazen-nose college from New Inn Hall by the visitors, took the degrees in arts and holy orders, and preached for some time near Oxon.,’ and that afterwards ‘he was created B.D., and on the death of Dan. Greenwood became rector of Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire in 1679.’ He adds that, ‘the parishioners and he disagreeing, he left that place, and in 1692 or thereabouts became principal of St. Alban's Hall,’ and that he published the following works: 1. ‘Tintinnalogie, or the Art of Ringing,’ &c., London, 1671, 8vo. 2. ‘Instructions for Hanging of Bells, with all things belonging thereunto.’
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duckett, John

​DUCKETT, JOHN (1613–1644), catholic priest, descended from an ancient family settled at Skelsmergh, Westmoreland, was born at Underwinder, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1613, being the third son of James Duckett, by his wife Frances (Girlington). He received his education in the English College, Douay, and was ordained priest in September 1639. Afterwards he resided for three years in the college of Arras at Paris, and was then sent to serve on the mission in the county of Durham. After labouring there for about a year he was captured by some soldiers of the parliamentary army on 2 July 1644, and sent to London in company with Father Ralph Corbie [q. v.], a jesuit, who was taken in his vestments as he was going to the altar to celebrate mass. They were examined by a committee of parliament, and confessed themselves to be priests. Being committed to Newgate, they were condemned to death on account of their sacerdotal character, and suffered at Tyburn on 7 Sept. 1644. It is a remarkable circumstance that they appeared in ecclesiastical attire on being brought out of prison, to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution. ​Duckett had put on a long cassock, such as is usually worn by the secular clergy in catholic countries, while Corbie was in the usual religious habit of the Society of Jesus. Both the priests had their heads shaven in the form of a crown.
Duckett left in manuscript an account of his apprehension and imprisonment; and a ‘Relation concerning Mr. Duckett,’ by John Horsley, Father Corbie's cousin, and fellow-prisoner of the two priests in Newgate, is printed in Foley's ‘Records,’ iii. 87–90, from a manuscript preserved at Stonyhurst.
T. C.
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Collyridians

​Collyridians. Under this name Epiphanius (Haer. 79) assails certain women who had brought from Thrace into Arabia the practice of performing on certain days rites in honour of the Blessed Virgin, the chief being the offering of a cake (κολλυρίς), and the partaking of it by the worshippers. Epiphanius condemns their conduct because (a) women ought not to offer sacrifice, and (b) Mary is to be honoured, God only to be worshipped. The name Collyris (or kindred forms) is to be found in the LXX translation of Lev. vii. 12, viii. 26; 2 Sam. vi. 19, xiii. 68; and the word passed thence into the Latin versions.
[G.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Constantius I. Flavius Valerius, surnamed Chlorus

​Constantius I. Flavius Valerius, surnamed Chlorus (ὁ Χλωρός, "the pale"), Roman emperor, A.D. 305, 306, father of Constantine the Great, son of Eutropius, of a noble Dardanian family, by Claudia, daughter of Crispus, brother of the emperors Claudius II. and Quintilius. Born c. A.D. 250. Distinguished by ability, valour, and virtue, Constantius became governor of Dalmatia under the emperor Carus, who was prevented by death from making him his successor. Diocletian (emperor, A.D. 284‒305), to lighten the cares of empire, associated Maximian with himself; and arranged that each emperor should appoint a co-regent caesar. Constantius was thus adopted by Maximian, and Galerius by Diocletian, (Mar. 1, A.D. 292). Each being obliged to repudiate his wife and marry the daughter of his adopted father, Constantius separated from Helena, the daughter of an innkeeper, who was not his legal wife but was mother of Constantine the Great, and married Theodora, stepdaughter of Maximian, by whom he had six children. As his share of the empire, Constantius received the provinces Gaul, Spain, and Britain. In A.D. 296 he reunited Britain to the empire, after the rebellion of Carausius, and an independence of ten years. In A.D. 305, after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, Galerius and Constantius became Augusti, and ruled together. As the health of Constantius began to fail, he sent for his son Constantine, who was already exceedingly popular, and who was jealously kept by Galerius at his own court. ​Constantine escaped, and arrived at his father's camp at Gessoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) before embarking on another expedition to Britain. In A.D. 306 Constantius died in the imperial palace at Eboracum (York). He is described as one of the most excellent characters among the later Romans. He took the keenest interest in the welfare of his people, and limited his personal expenses to the verge of affectation, declaring that "his most valued treasure was in the hearts of his people." The Gauls delighted to contrast his gentleness and moderation with the haughty sternness of Galerius. His internal administration was as honourable as his success in war. The Christians always praised his tolerance and impartiality. Theophanes calls him Χριστιανόφρων, a man of Christian principles. He had Christians at his court. Although a pagan, he disapproved of the persecution of Diocletian, and contented himself by closing a few churches and overthrowing some dilapidated buildings, respecting (as the author of the de Morte Persecutorum says) the true temple of God. Christianity spread in Gaul under his peaceful rule, and at the end of the 4th cent. that province had more than 20 bishops. Eutrop. ix.; Aurel. Vict. Caes. 39, etc.; Theoph. pp. 4‒8, ed. Paris; Eus. Vit. Const. i. 13‒21; Lactantius, de Morte Persecutorum, 15; Smith, D. of G. and R. Biog.; Ceillier, iii. 48, 140, 579.
[W.M.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Comgall

​Comgall, one of the most prominent leaders of monasticism in Ireland, said to have had as many as 3,000 monks under him at one ​time in Bangor and affiliated houses. He was a native of Mourne, now Magheramorne, in the co. of Antrim, and on the shore of Lough Larne. He was probably born A.D. 517 (Reeves). After teaching for some years he founded in 558 his great monastery at Bangor, in the Ards of Ulster and co. of Down. Hither multitudes flocked from all quarters, and for it and kindred institutions he drew up a Rule which was considered one of the chief ones of Ireland. His most noted disciples at Bangor were Cormac, son of Diarmaid and king of South Leinster, who in his old age abdicated and became a monk, as is related in the Life of St. Fintan; and St. Columbanus, abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio. [ Columbanus.] After ruling the monastery of Bangor and its dependencies for "10 days, 3 months and 50 years," as the calendars say, but about 44 years according to computation, St. Comgall died at Bangor on May 10, A.D. 602, aged 85, having received his viaticum from St. Fiachra (Feb. 8) of Congbail. He is justly reckoned among the Fathers of the Irish church. He was buried at Bangor. See further Lanigan, Eccl. Hist. Ir. ii. c. 10; Reeves, Adamnan, pass. and Eccl. Ant. pass.; Ussher, Eccl. Ant. cc. 13‒17, wks. v. vi., Ind. Chr. A.D. 456, 516; Bp. Forbes, Kal. Scott. Saints, 108‒110. His dedications in Scotland were at Durris, Kincardineshire, and possibly Dercongal, or Drumcongal, now Holywood, in Galloway (Forbes, u.s.).
[J.G.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Commodianus

​Commodianus, the author of two Latin poems, Instructiones adversus Gentium Deos pro Christiana Disciplina, and Carmen Apologeticum adversus Judaeos et Gentes. His Instructions are included "inter apocrypha" in a synodal decree of Gelasius (Concil. tom. iv.), probably because of certain heterodox statements respecting Antichrist, the Millennium, and the First Resurrection. In what age he lived has been much disputed. Internal evidence in the poem shews that the author lived in days of persecution. The style of the Instructions points to the age of Cyprian, with whose works they have more than once been edited. There is an allusion to the Novatian Schism (§ xlvii. ad fin.), and the language of § lii. seems to be aimed against the "Thurificati" and "Libellatici" of the 3rd cent. In § lxvi. 12 a "subdola pax" is mentioned, which Cave refers to the temporary quiet enjoyed by the Christians under Gallienus, after the Decian and before the Aurelian persecution. Other expressions (e.g. agonia propinqua, § liii. 10) clearly point to the expectation of fresh suffering. But the most important passage as affecting the date of the poem is one in which the author upbraids the Gentiles for perseverance in unbelief, though Christianity has prevailed for 200 years (§ vi. 2), and this, which, singularly enough, seems to have escaped the notice of the earlier critics, must be held to fix the date of Commodian as approximately A.D. 250. The barbarity of his style, and the peculiarity of certain words (e.g. Zabulo, Zacones), led Rigault to infer that he was of African extraction. He applies to himself the epithet "Gazaeus," but this probably refers to his dependence upon the treasury of the church (gazophylacium) for support, and not to any connexion with Gaza. Originally a heathen (Instruct. Praef. 5, § xxvi. 24), he was converted by the perusal of the Scriptures (Praef. 6), and if the words "Explicit tractatus sancti Episcopi . . ." discovered on the MS. of the Carmen Apologeticum by Pitra, may be taken to refer to the author of the poem, who, from internal evidence, is conclusively proved to have been Commodian, it would seem that he ultimately became a bishop.
His works (a trans. of which is given in the Ante-Nicene Lib.), though utterly valueless as literature, are of considerable interest in the history of the Latin language as showing that the change had already commenced which resulted in the formation of the Romance languages.
The Instructions are in Migne's Patr. Lat. vol. v.; the Apology in Pitra's Spicilegium Solismense, vol. i.
[E.M.Y.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Commodus

​Commodus, A.D. 180‒193. The monstrous vices of this degenerate son of Marcus Aurelius brought at least one counterbalancing advantage. The persecutions of his father's reign ceased for a time in his. The popular feeling against the Christians, though it still continued, was no longer heightened and directed by the action of the Imperial government, and the result was a marked increase of numbers. Many rich and noble, with their households and kindred, professed themselves Christians (Eus. H. E. v. 21), even in the emperor's palace, but it is uncertain whether they were officers, freedmen, or slaves (Iren. adv. Haer. iv. 30). Marcia, the favourite mistress of the emperor, is said by Dio Cassius (Ixxii. 4) or Xiphilinus writing in his name, to have used her influence with Commodus in their favour and to have done them much good service. The strange history of Callistus in the Refutation of all Heresies attributed to Hippolytus (ix. 6) throws fresh light on Marcia's connexion with the Christian church at Rome. The epithet by which he describes her as a "God-loving woman" may be, as Dr. Wordsworth suggested, ironical; but it is clear that she was in frequent communication with the officers of the church. Callistus had been brought before Fuscianus, the city prefect, charged with disturbing a synagogue of the Jews, and was sentenced to hard labour in the mines of Sardinia. Marcia sent for Victor, a bishop of the church, asked what Christians were suffering for their faith in Sardinia, and obtained from Commodus an order of release. The order was given to an eunuch, Hyacinthus, who carried it to Sardinia, and obtained the liberation of Callistus and others, alleging his own influence with Marcia as his warrant, though the name of Callistus had not been included in the list. The narrative clearly implies that Hyacinthus was a Christian.
Thus some Christians had, as such, been condemned to exile; and persecutions, though less frequent, had not altogether ceased. One sufferer of the time takes his place in the list of martyrs. Apollonius, a Roman citizen of distinction, perhaps a senator, of high repute for philosophical culture, was accused before Perennius, the prefect of the city, by one of his own slaves. In accordance with an imperial edict sentencing informers, in such cases, to death even when the accused was found guilty, the slave had his legs broken. ​Apollonius delivered before the senate an elaborate Apologia for his faith. By what Eusebius speaks of as an ancient law (possibly the edict of Trajan) he was beheaded (H. E. v. 21).
[E.H.P.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Constans I.

​Constans I., the youngest of the three sons of Constantine the Great, was born c. 320 and made Caesar in 333; he reigned as Augustus 337‒350 when he was killed by the conspiracy of Magnentius. [ Constantinus II.] De Broglie (iii. pp. 58, 59) in his character of him remarks: "As far as we can discriminate between the contradictory estimates of different historians, Constans was of a simple, somewhat coarse, nature, and one without high aims though without malice. As regards the inheritance of his father's qualities, while Constantius seemed to have taken for his share his political knowledge, his military skill, and his eloquence (though reproducing a very faint image of them), Constans had only received great personal courage and a straightforwardness that did him honour. He was, besides, a lover of pleasure: he was suspected of the gravest moral irregularities. . . . He had firm, though certainly unenlightened, faith, and frequently gave proofs of it by distributing largesses to the churches and favours to the Christians" (cf. Eutrop. Brev. x. 9, Vict. Caes. 41, Epit. 41). Zosimus (ii. 42) gives him a worse character than do the others. Libanius in 348 delivered a panegyric on Constans and Constantius, called βασιλικὸς λόγος, vol. iii. ed. Reiske, pp. 272‒332. St. Chrysostom in the difficult and probably corrupt passage of his 15th Homily on the Philippians, p. 363, ed. Gaume, speaks of him as having children and as committing suicide, statements elsewhere unsupported. The most favourable evidence for Constans is the praise of St. Athanasius (Apol. ad Constantium, 4 sqq.; cf. the letter of Hosius in Hist. Arian. ad Monachos, 44). His conduct with respect to the Arian and Donatist controversies gained him the esteem of Catholics. He was a baptized Christian; his baptism is referred to in Ap. ad C. 7.
[J.W.]