OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Stephan Wiest

From volume 15 of the work.
Member of the Order of Cistercians, b. at Teisbach in Lower Bavaria, 7 March, 1748; d. at Aldersbad, 10 April, 1797. He attended the gymnasium at Landshut, and in 1767 entered the Cistercian monastery of Aldersbach in lower Bavaria, where he studied philosophy and theology, took the vows, 28 October, 1768, and was ordained priest, 1772. He continued his studies at the University of Ingolstadt. From 1774-80 he taught philosophy and mathematics, and from 1780-81 theology, at Aldersbach. In 1781 he was made professor of dogmatic theology at Ingolstadt, where he also taught patrology and the history of theological literature. He was rector of the university, 1787-88, resigned his professorship in 1794, and returned to his monastery. Wiest has an honourable place in the history of Catholic theology of the eighteen century as a positive dogmatist, well versed in theological literature. His chief work, "Institutiones theologicae" (6 vols., Eichstätt, 1782-86; Ingolstadt, 1788-89; 2nd ed., Ingolstadt, 1788-1801), is valuable for its abundance of positive and historical materials, though the treatment of the speculative side is scanty. "Institutiones theologiae dogmaticae in usum academicum" (2 vols., Ingolstadt, 1791) is a compendium, of which two posthumous editions appeared at Landshut (1817; 1825). The most important of his other works are: "Introductio in historiam litterariam theologiae revelatae potissimum catholicae" (Ingolstadt, 1794); "Institutiones Patrologiae in usum academicum" (Ingolstadt, 1795); and four dissertations in the university year- book: "De Wolfango Mario Abbate Alderspacensi Ord. Cist." (I-IV, Ingolstadt, 1788-92).
WERNER, Gesch. der katholischen Theologie (Munich, 1866), 243-48; LAUCHERT, Briefe von Stephan Wiest, O. Cist., an Gerhoh Steigenberger in Studien u. Mittheilungen aus dem Benedictiner-und-Cistercienser-Orden, XXI (1900), 127-5, 285-306, 535-53.
FRIEDRICH LAUCHERT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Stedingers

From volume 14 of the work.
(a word meaning those living along a shore)
A tribe of Frisian peasants in Northern Germany who revolted against their lord, the Archbishop of Bremen, and had to be subdued by arms. The Stedingers refused to pay tithes and to perform forced labour as serfs. These duties were demanded of them with considerable severity, and Archbishop Gerhard II of Bremen (1219-58) sent troops against them. His army, however, was defeated in 1229, whereupon the Stedingers destroyed churches and monasteries, and ill-treated and killed priests. A synod held at Bremen, 17 March, 1230, accused them, in addition to the acts of violence above-mentioned, of contempt for the authority of the Church and for the sacraments, as well as of superstitious practices; it also excommunicated them. The Stedingers refused to submit, and Gregory IX commissioned the Bishop of Lübeck and the Dominicans to labour among them for the extirpation of unbelief. The Emperor Frederick II placed the rebels under the ban of the empire, and on 9 Oct., 1232, Gregory IX issued a Bull commanding the Bishops of Lübeck, Minden, and Ratzeburg to preach a crusade against them. An army was collected and advanced against the Stedingers, but it was defeated in the winter of 1232-33. A new crusading army defeated a part of the tribe, but the other part was once more victorious. The pope now issued another Bull, addressed to several bishops of Northern Germany, commanding a fresh crusade, and on 27 May, 1234, the Stedingers were completely defeated near Bremen. The majority of them now submitted; on 24 August, 1236, Gregory IX commanded that they should be relieved from excommunication after performing penance and satisfaction, and should be received again in the Church. The Stedingers were not heretics, but rebels against lawful ecclesiastical and secular authority.
HAHN, Geschichte der Ketzer im Mittelalter, III (Stuttgart, 1845); SCHUMACHER, Die Stedinger; Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wesermarschen (Bremen, 1865); FELTEN, Papst Gregor IX (Freiburg im Br., 1886), 220 sq.
J. P. KIRSCH.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Stefano Infessura

From volume 8 of the work.
Born at Rome about 1435; died about 1500. He devoted himself to the study of law, took the degree of Doctor of Laws, and acquired a solid legal knowledge. He was for a while judge in Orte, whence he came to the Roman University as professor of Roman law. Under Sixtus IV (1471-84) his office was affected by the financial measures of that pope, who frequently withheld the income of the Roman University, applied it to other uses, and reduced the salaries of the professors. Infessura was also for a long time secretary of the Roman Senate. He was entangled in the conspiracy of Stefano Porcaro against Nicholas V (1453), which aimed at overturning the papal Government and making Rome a republic (Pastor, Gesch. der Päpste, 4th ed., I, 550 sq.) Infessura also belonged to the antipapal faction, formed among the paganizing Humanists of the Roman Academy under Pomponio Leto (op. cit., II, 322 sqq.) He is particularly well known as the author of a work, partly Latin and partly Italian, the Diarium urbis Romae (Diario della Città di Roma), a chronicle of the city from 1294 to 1494. The historical information is not of special value until the time of Martin V and Eugene IV, or rather until the pontificates of Paul II (1484-1492), Sixtus IV (1471-84), Innnocent VIII (1484-1492), and the first part of the reign of Alexander VI. The antipapal and republican temper of the author, also his partisan devotion to the Colonna, and his personal animosity, led him to indulge in very severe charges and violent acusations of the popes, especially Sixtus IV. He put down in his chronicle every fragment of the most preposterous and malevent gossip current in Roman society; even obvious falsehoods attributed to him. He is therefore not considered a reliable chronicler. It is only with the greatest caution and after very careful criticism that his work can be used for the papal history of his time. The Diarium was first edited by Eccard (Corpus historicum medii aevi, II, 1863-2016); afterwards, with omission of the most scandalous parts by Muratori (Scriptores rerum Italicarum, III, ii, 1111-1252); a critical edition of the text is owing to Tommasini, Diario della Città di Roma di Stefano Infessura scribasenato (Fonti per la storia d'Italia, VI, Rome, 1890).
TOMMASINI, Il diario do Stefano Infessuar in Archivia della Societa romana di storia patria, XI (Rome, 1888), 481-640; IDEM, Nuovi documenti illustrativi del Diario di Stef. Infessura, XII (Rome, 1889), 5-36; PASTOR, Geschichte der papste, 4th ed., II, passim, especially 646-649.
J.P. KIRSCH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope Damasus II

From volume 4 of the work.
(Previously called POPPO)
A native of Bavaria and the third German to be elevated to the See of Peter. On the death of Clement II, July, 1047, the Tusculan faction reasserted its power in Rome, and, with the secret aid of Boniface, Margrave of Tuscany, restored its wretched creature Benedict IX, who continued in his wonted manner to disgrace the papacy for a further period of eight months before disappearing entirely from history. On Christmas Day, 1047, an embassy sent by the Roman people brought the tidings of Clement's death to Henry III, at Pölthe in Saxony, and besought the emperor as Patricius of the Romans to appoint a worthy successor. The envoys, according to their instructions, suggested as a suitable candidate, Halinard, Archbishop of Lyons, who had a perfect command of the Italian tongue and was popular in Rome. Henry, however, in January, 1048, appointed Poppo, Bishop of Brixen, in Tyrol, and at once directed the Margrave Boniface to conduct the pope-designate to Rome. Boniface at first refused, alleging the installation of Benedict, but Henry's decisive threat soon reduced him to obedience. After Benedict's removal, the Bishop of Brixen at length entered the city and was enthroned at the Lateran as Damasus II, 17 July, 1048. His pontificate, however, was of short duration. After the brief space of twenty-three days, he died - a victim of malaria - at Palestrina, whither he had gone shortly after the installation to escape the summer heat of Rome. The pope was buried in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura.
Liber Pontif., ed DUCHESNE, II, 274; JAFFÉ, Regesta RR. PP., 2nd ed., I, 528 sq.; Höfler, Die deutschen Päpste (Regensburg, 1839), I, 269 sqq.
Thomas Oestreich.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope Felix II

From volume 6 of the work.
Pope (more properly Antipope), 355-358; d. 22 Nov., 365.
In 355 Pope Liberius was banished to Beraea in Thrace by the Emperor Constantius because he upheld tenaciously the Nicene definition of faith and refused to condemn St. Athanasius of Alexandria. The Roman clergy pledged itself in solemn conclave not to acknowledge any other Bishop of Rome while Liberius was alive. ("Marcellini et Fausti Libellus precum", no.1 : "Quae gesta sunt inter Liberium et Felicem episcopos" in "Collectio Avellana", ed. Gunter; Hieronymus, "Chronicon", ad an. Abr. 2365). The emperor, however, who was supplanting the exiled Catholic bishops with the bishops of Arian tendencies, exerted himself to install a new Bishop of Rome in place of the banished Liberius. He invited to Milan Felix, archdeacon of the Roman Church; on the latter's arrival, Acacius of Caesarea succeeded in inducing him to accept the office from which Liberius had been forcibly expelled, and to be consecrated by Acacius and two other Arian bishops. The majority of the Roman clergy acknowledged the validity of his consecration but the laity would have nothing to do with him and remained true to the banished but lawful pope.
When Constantius visited Rome in May, 357, the people demanded the recall of their rightful bishop Liberius who, in fact, returned soon after signing the third formula of Sirmium. The bishops, assembled in that city of Lower Pannonia, wrote to Felix and the Roman clergy advising there to receive Liberius in all charity and to put aside their dissensions; it was added that L.iberius and Felix should together govern the Church of Rome. The people received their legitimate pope with great enthusiasm, but a great commotion rose against Felix, who was finally driven from the city. Soon after, he attempted, with the help of his adherents to occupy the Basilica Julii (Santa Maria in Trastevere), but was finally banished in perpetuity by unanimous vote of the Senate and the people. He retired to the neighbouring Porto, where he lived quietly till his death. Liberius permitted the members of the Roman clergy, including the adherents of Felix, to retain their positions. Later legend confound the relative positions of Felix and Liberius. In the apocryphal "Acta Felicis" and "Acta Liberii", as well as in the "Liber pontificalis", Felix was portrayed as a saint and confessor of the true Faith. This distortion of the true facts originated most probably through confusion of this Felix with another Felix, a Roman martyr of an earler date.
According to the "Liber Pontificalis", which may be registering here a reliable tradition, Felix built a church on the via Aurelia. It is well known that on this road was buried a Roman martyr, Felix; hence it seems not improbable that apropos of both there arose a confusion (see FELIX I) through which the real story of the antipope was lost and he obtained in local Roman history the status of a saint and a confessor. As such he appears in the Roman Martyrology on 29 July.
J.P. KIRSCH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope Conon

From volume 4 of the work.
Date of birth unknown; d., after a long illness, 21 September, 687. The son, seemingly, of an officer in the Thracesian troop, he was educated in Sicily and ordained priest at Rome. His age, venerable appearance, and simple character caused the clergy and soldiery of Rome, who were in disagreement, to put aside their respective candidates and to elect him as pope. He was consecrated (21 October, 686) after notice of his election had been sent to the Exarch of Ravenna, or after it had been confirmed by him (see BENEDICT I-X, POPES, under BENEDICT II). He received the Irish missionaries, St. Kilian and his companions, consecrated Kilian bishop, and commissioned him and the others to preach the Faith in Franconia. (Vita S. Kiliani, in Canisius, Lect. Antiquæ, III, 175-180.) He was in favour with the savage Emperor Justinian II who informed him that he had recovered the Acts of the Sixth General Council, by which, he wrote, it was his intention to abide. Justinian also remitted certain taxes and dues owing to the imperial exchequer from several papal patrimonies.
Acta SS., 8 July, II, 612 sq.; DUCHESNE ed., Liber Pontificalis, I, 368 sq.; MANN, Lives of the Popes, I, pt. II, 72 sq.
Horace K. Mann.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope Donus

From volume 5 of the work.
(Or DOMNUS).
Son of a Roman called Mauricius; he was consecrated Bishop of Rome 2 Nov., 676, to succeed Adeodatus II, after an interval of four months and seventeen days; d. 11 April, 678. Of his life and acts but little is known. The "Liber Pontificalis" informs us that he paved the atrium or quadrangle in front of St. Peter's with great blocks of white marble. He also restored the church of St. Euphemia on the Appian Way, and repaired the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, or, according to Duchesne's conjecture, the little church on the road to St. Paul's, which marks the spot where Sts. Peter and Paul are said to have parted on their way to martyrdom. During the pontificate of Donus, Reparatus, the Archbishop of Ravenna, returned to the obedience of the Holy See, thus ending the schism created by Archbishop Maurus who had aimed at making Ravenna autocephalous. In the time of this pope a colony of Nestorian monks was discovered in a Syrian monastery at Rome - the Monasterium Boetianum. The pope is said to have dispersed them through the various religious houses of the city, and to have given over their monastery to Roman monks. After a brief reign of one year, five months, and ten days, Donus died and was buried in St. Peter's. His portrait in mosaic was at one time to be seen in the church of St. Martina in the Forum.
THOMAS OESTREICH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Arca

From volume 1 of the work.
A box in which the Eucharist was kept by the primitive Christians in their homes. St. Cyprian (De lapsis, 26) tells of a woman "who with unworthy hands" attempted "to open her box in which was the Holy (Body) of the Lord," but was unable to do so because of fire which issued therefrom the moment she touched it. (Cum quaedam arcam suam in quo Domini sanctum fuit manibus immundis temptasset aperire, etc.) A representation of the Eucharistic Arca is believed by Wilpert to exist in a fresco of the catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus. The scene depicts Christ seated, reading from an open roll; on His right are three amphorae, and on the left a square box filled with loaves, symbols of the Eucharist. It also signified a receptacle for the offerings of Christians for the Church or the poor (Tertullian, Apol. 39; Liber Pontif., I, 154).
KRAUS, Realencyclop., I, 73; HENRY in Dict. d'arch. chret., I, 2709.
MAURICE M. HASSETT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Archange de Lyon

From volume 1 of the work.
A preacher of the Capuchin order whose name was Michael Desgranges, b. at Lyons, 2 March, 1736; d. at Lyons, 13 October, 1822. He joined the Capuchins 4 March, 1751, and held the post of lector in theology about the end of the eighteenth century. In 1789, having preached against the States General he was obliged to leave France. He returned in disguise to Lyons about 1796 and became curé of the parish of the Carthusians and on the re-establishment of his order at Chambéry he resumed his monastic habit there in 1818. He devoted himself to preaching missions and stations in Savoy and France until, in 1821, he was able to re-open the former convent of his order at Crest in Valence. He died at Lyons 13 October, 1822. He is regarded as the restorer of the Capuchin order in France. His works comprise: "Discours adressé aux juifs et utile aux chrétiens pour les confirmer dans leur foi" (Lyons, 1788); "Aperçu nouveau d'un plan d'éducation catholique" (Lyons, 1814); "Réflexions intéressantes sur le 'Génie du christianisme'" (Turin, 1815); "Précis abrégé des vérités, qui distinguent le culte catholique de toutes les sectes chrétiennes et avouées par l'église de France," (Lyons, 1817); "Explication de la lettre encyclique du pape Benoît XIV sur les usures" (Lyons, 1822); "Dissertations philosophiques historiques et théologiques sur la religion catholique" (Lyons, 1836). De Manne, "Nouveau dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes," attributes to him an "Essai sur le jeu considéré sous le rapport de la morale et du droit naturel" (Paris, 1835).
D'ALENÇON in Dict. de théol. cath.
THOMAS WALSH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Arcadiopolis

From volume 1 of the work.
A titular see of Asia Minor. Its episcopal list (431-879) is given in Gams (p. 444); there is also in Gams (p. 427) the episcopal list of another see of the same name (431-879).
LEQUIEN, Oriens Christ. (1740), I, 1711-12.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Arcae

From volume 1 of the work.
Also ARCA, now TEL-ARKA.
A titular see on the coast of Phoenicia, between Tripolis and Antaradus, suffragan of Tyre. Its episcopal list is given in Gams (p. 434) from 364 to 451. It was a Latin see during the Crusades, and now gives a title to a Greek and a Maronite bishop. In antiquity it was famous for the worship of Aphrodite and for a temple of the Roman Emperor, Alexander Severus, who was born there in a temple during a visit of his parents. It stood long sieges by the Arab conquerors of Syria, in the seventh century, and in the eleventh (1099) by the Crusaders into whose hands it eventually fell. Later it was destroyed by the Mamelukes after they had expelled the Christian population. There was another Arcae in Cappadocia, suffragan of Melitene. Its episcopal list (431-680) is given in Gams (p. 441).
LE QUIEN, Oriens Christ. (1740), II, 825, 826; III, 956; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geogr., I, 189; BURKHARDT, Syria, 162.
THOMAS J. SHAHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. George Napper

From volume 10 of the work.
(Or Napier).
English martyr, born at Holywell manor, Oxford, 1550; executed at Oxford 9 November, 1610. He was a son of Edward Napper (d. in 1558), sometime Fellow of All Souls College, by Anne, his second wife, daughter of John Peto, of Chesterton, Warwickshire, and niece of William, Cardinal Peto. He entered Corpus Christi College 5 January, 1565-6, but was ejected in 1568 as a recusant. On 24 August, 1579, he paid a visit to the English College at Reims, and by December, 1580, he had been imprisoned. He was still in the Wood Street Counter, London, on 30 September, 1588; but was liberated in June, 1589, on acknowledging the royal supremacy. He entered the English College, Douai, in 1596, and was sent on the mission in 1603. He appears to have lived with his brother William at Holywell. He was arrested at Kirtlington, four miles from Woodstock, very early in the morning of 19 July, 1610, when he on him a pyx containing two consecrated Hosts as well as a small reliquary. Brought before Sir Francis Eure at Upper Heyford (Wood says before a justice named Chamberlain), he was strictly searched; but the constable found nothing but his breviary, his holy oils, and a needle case with thread and thimble. The next day he was sent to Oxford Castle, and indicted at the session soon after under 27 Eliz., c. 2 for being a priest. The possession of the oils was held to be conclusive and he was condemned, but reprieved. I gaol he reconciled a condemned felon named Falkner, and this was held to aggravate his crime, but as late as 2 November it was believed that he would have his sentence commuted to one of banishment. As he refused the oath of allegiance, which described the papal deposing power as a "false, damnable, and heretical" doctrine, it was decided to execute him. He suffered between one and two in the afternoon, having said Mass that morning. His head according to Wood was set up on Tom Gateway; according to Challoner's less probable statement on Christ Church steeple. His quarters were placed on the four city gates, but at least some were secretly removed, and buried in the chapel (now a barn) of Sanford manor, formerly a preceptory of Knights Templar.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Edward Osbaldeston

From volume 11 of the work.
English martyr, b. about 1560; hanged, drawn, and quartered at York, 16 November, 1594. Son of Thomas Osbaldeston, and nephew of Edward Osbaldeston, of Osbaldeston Hall, Blackburn, Lancashire, he went to the English College of Douai, then at Reims, where he was ordained deacon in December, 1583, and priest 21 September, 1585. He was sent on the mission 27 April, 1589, and was apprehended at night through the instrumentality of an apostate priest named Thomas Clark at an inn at Tollerton, Yorkshire, upon St. Jerome's day, 30 September, 1594. He had said his first Mass on the feast day of St. Jerome, and in consequence had a great devotion to the saint. The day following his arrest he was taken to York, where he was tried at the next assizes and attainted of high treason for being a priest. Bishop Challoner prints the greater part of a letter addressed by the martyr to his fellow-prisoners in York Castle, the full text of which is still extant, and which reveals the great humility and serene trust in God with which he anticipated his death.
Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, I no. 106; Knox, First and Second Douay Diaries (London, 1878); Catholic Record Society's Publications, IV (London, 1907); Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., V.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Edward Waterson

From volume 15 of the work.
Born at London; martyred at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 7 January 1594 (1593 old style). A romantic episode marks this martyr's early career, for as a young man he travelled to Turkey with some English merchants, and attracted the attention of a wealthy Turk, who offered him his daughter in marriage if he would embrace Moslemism. Rejecting the offer with horror, Edward Waterson returned westward through Italy and, coming to Rome, was there reconciled to the Catholic Church by Richard Smith, afterwards Bishop of Chalcedon. The Pilgrim-book of the English College records his stay there, 29 November-11 December, 1588. He then went to Reims to study for the priesthood, arriving there 24 January, 1589. He received the tonsure and minor orders on 18 August, 1590, subdiaconate on 21 September, 1591, diaconate on 24 February, 1592, and the priesthood 11 March following. On 24 June he returned to England, with such zeal for the missions that he declared to his companions that if he might have the Kingdom of France to stay there till the next midsummer he would rather choose to go to England. Though he was not learned, his humility, sprit of penance, and other virtues caused him to be reagarded as a patern. Captured at midsummer, 1593, he was cruelly treated in prison till his execution. Incidents occurred at the martyrdom of a miraculous nature. The horses were unable to drag the hurdle to the scaffold and the ladder was mysteriously agitated by invisible means, till the martyr signed it with the cross.
CHALLONER, Missionary Priests (London, 1781-2); POLLEN, English Martyrs 1584-1603 in C.R.S., V (London, 1908); FOLEY, Diary and Pilgrim Book of English College, Rome (London, 1880); Douay Diaries (London, 1878); HOLTBY, Account of Three Martyrs in MORRIS, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, series III (London, 1877).
Edwin Burton.