OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Carlo Dolci

From volume 5 of the work.
Painter, born in Florence, Italy, 25 May, 1616; died 17 January, 1686. The grandson of a painter, he seems to have inherited a talent for art. He studied under J. Vignali, and when only eleven years old he attracted attention by the excellence of his work, notably a figure of St. John and a head of the Infant Jesus. The precocious youth made a carefully-finished picture of his mother, and thereafter was kept busy filling the numerous commissions he received in Florence, a city he seldom left during his long life, which he devoted to art. Dolci was one of the few masters whose pictures were eagerly sought for by his countrymen during his lifetime. He was very pious and painted religious works exclusively. It is recorded that in every Passion week he painted a picture of the Saviour. He limited his brush to heads -- usually of Christ and the Virgin -- and seldom undertook a large-sized canvas. He is celebrated for the soft, gentle, and tender expression of his faces, the transparency of his colour, the excellent management of chiaroscuro, and the careful and ivory-like finish of his pictures. The simplicity and tranquillity on the faces of his paintings of Christ and the Virgin seem little short of inspired. Hinds calls him mawkish and affected; but Dolci was the last of the Florentine School, the last real "master of the Renaissance"; and as decadent sweetness permeated all Italian art, his pictures but reflected the dominant character of the close of the seventeenth century. Patient and slow, he painted pictures that are perfectly finished in every detail. His masterpiece (1646) is "St. Andrew praying before his Crucifixion" (Pitti Gallery, Florence). It is one of the few works where his figures, always well drawn and standing out in beautiful relief, are life-size. Next in excellence to this is the "St. John writing his Gospel" (Berlin). His "Mater Dolorosa" called "Madonna del Dito" (of the thumb) is known throughout the civilized world because of its many reproductions. In 1662 Dolci saw with chagrin Giordano accomplish in a few hours what would have taken him weeks, and it is said he was thereupon seized with melancholy, which ultimately led to his death. Loma, Mancini, Mariani, and Agnese Dolci (his daughter) were a few of his pupils and imitators. Contemporary copyists have filled European collections with spurious Dolcis. Angese Dolci, who died the same year as her father, not only made marvellous copies of the master's pictures, but was herself an excellent painter. Her "Consecration of the Bread and Wine" is in the Louvre. Other works by him are: "Virgin and Child", National Gallery, London; "The Saviour seated with Saints", Florence; "Madonna and Child", Borghese Gallery, Rome.
LEIGH HUNT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Carl von Reisach

From volume 12 of the work.
Born at Roth, Bavaria, 7 July, 1800; died in the Redemptorist monastery of Contamine, France, 22 December, 1869. On the completion of his secular studies in Neuburg on the Danube, he studied philosophy at Munich (1816), and jurisprudence at Heidelberg, Göttingen, and Landshut, securing at the last (1821) the Degree of Doctor Juris Utriusque. Devoting himself a little later to the study of theology, he received minor orders at Innsbruck in 1824, was ordained in 1828 after philosophical and theological studies in the German College at Rome, and in the following year graduated Doctor of Theology. Pius VII soon appointed him rector of studies at the College of the Propaganda, an office which brought him into close relations with the succeeding pope, Gregory XVI. Urged by this pontiff to devote special attention to the affairs of the Catholic Church in Germany, he attacked the current anti-ecclesiastical views and tendencies, especially with regard to mixed marriages, in his work "Was haben wir von den Reformatoren und Stimmführen des katholischen Deutschland unserer Tage zu halten?", which appeared at Mainz in 1835 under the pseudonym Athanasius Sincerus Philalethes. In 1836 he became Bishop of Eichstatt (Bavaria) and, by the foundation of the boys' seminary (1838) and the erection of the lyceum (1843), rendered the greatest services to the ecclesiastical life of the diocese. As delegate of the pope and the Kings of Prussia and Bavaria, he mediated in the Prussian ecclesiastical dispute, and the rapid settlement of the "Cologne muddle" (Kölner Wirren) was due primarily to him. In recognition of his services, he was named in 1841 Coadjutor, and in 1847 Archbishop of Munich-Freising. His zeal on behalf of the Church having rendered him unpleasing to the Government, he was, at the request of King Maximilian II of Bavaria, summoned to Rome by Pius IX as cardinal-priest, with the title of St. Anastasia. He conducted the concordat negotiations with Würtemberg and Baden, took a prominent part in the preparations for the council, became in 1867 President of the Congregation of Ecclesiastico-political Affairs, in 1869 first legate of the council, was consultor of the Congregation for the Index, for the publication of the ecclesiastical canons of the Eastern Churches, for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, for the Examination of Bishop, member of the Congregation of the Propaganda and of Sacred Rites, Minister of Education for the Papal States, and in 1868 Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia.
Katholik, I (Mainz, 1870), 129 sqq.; MOLITOR, Cardinal Reisach (Wurzburg, 1874); Allgem. deutsche Biogr., XXVIII (Leipzig, 1889), 114.
PATRICIUS SCHLAGER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Carlo Fontana

From volume 6 of the work.
An architect and writer; b. at Bruciato, near Como, 1634; d. at Rome, 1714. There seems to be no proof that he belonged to the family of famous architects of the same name. Fontana went to Rome and studied architecture under Bernini. His principal works in Rome are the Ginetti chapel at Sant' Andrea della Valle; the Cibo chapel in Madonna del Popolo; the cupola, great altar, and ornaments of the Madonna de' Miracoli, the church of the monks of Santa Marta; the facades of the church of Beata Rita and of San Marcolo in the Corso, the sepulchre of Queen Christina of Sweden in St. Peter's; the palaces Grimani and Bolognetti; the fountain of Santa Maria in Trastevere, and that in the piazza of St. Peter's which is towards Porta Cavallegieri; reparation of the church of Spirito Santo de' Napolitani, and the theatre of Tordinona. By desire of Innocent XI, his patron, he erected the inmmense building of San Michele at Ripa; the chapel of Baptism at St. Peter's; and finished Monte Citorio. By request of Clement XI he built the granaries at Termini, the portico of Santa Maria in Trastevere, and the basin of the fountain of San Pietro Montorio. He restored the Library of Minerva, the cupola of Montefiascone and the casino in the Vatican, and collected all the models of the building. He sent a model for the cathedral of Fulda, and others to Vienna for the royal stables. By order of Innocent XI he wrote a diffuse description of the Templum Vaticanum (1694). In this work Fontana advised the demolition of that nest of houses which formed a sort of island from Ponte Sant' Angelo to the piazza of St. Peter's. Fontana made a calculation of the whole expense of St. Peter's from the beginning to 1694, which amounted to 46,800,052 crowns, without including models. He published also works on the Flavian Amphitheatre; the Aqueducts; the inundation of the Tiber, etc. He was assisted by his nephews Girolamo and Francesco Fontana. Fontana seems to have been considered an able artist and a good designer and more successful as an architect than as a writer.
THOMAS H. POOLE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Sir Thomas Dingley

From volume 4 of the work.
Martyr, prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, found guilty of high treason 28 April, 1539, and beheaded on Tower Hill, 9 July, together with the Blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue. He was accused, together with Robert Granceter, merchant, of "going to several foreign princes and persuading them to make war with the King". He had no trial, and no proof of treasonable practices was ever brought against him. In the same bill of attainder were included many other innocent victims of Henry's tyranny, including the Blessed Margaret Pole, Countes of Salisbury. There is a discrepancy among the chroniclers as to the date of the martyrdom. Stow gives 10 July, the Gray Friars' "Chronicle" and Wriothesley, 9 July. For the story of the suppression of the Knights of St. John in England, see Stow, "Chronicle", pp. 579, 580. The gateway tower and the crypt of the church of their great priory at Clerkenwell are still standing.
Bede Camm.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Thomas Belson

From volume 2 of the work.
Martyr, b. at Brill in Oxfordshire, England, dated uncertain; d. 5 July 1589. He was at the college in Reims in 1584, and in 1589 was arrested at the Catherine Wheel Inn, near Balliol College, Oxford, with his confessor George Nicols, Richard Yaxley, a priest, and Prichard, a servant. They were sent to London, whence, after examination before Walsingham and repeated tortures in Bridewell and the Tower, they were sent back to Oxford to be tried. Belson was found guilty of felony for assisting the priests, and was executed with his companions at Oxford. He suffered after the priests and, kissing the dead bodies of his pastors, begged the intercession of their happy souls that he might have the grace to imitate their courage and constancy.
YEPES, Historia Particular de la persecucion de Inglaterra (Madrid, 1599); CHALLONER, Memoirs; KNOX, Douay Diaries; STAPLETON, Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxfordshire (London, 1906).
Bede Camm.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Roger Ashton

From volume 1 of the work.
Martyr, third son of Richard Ashton of Croston, in Lancashire. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, 23 June, 1592. His indictment is not preserved. Challoner says it was for procuring a dispensation from Rome to marry his second cousin. Later evidence, while confirming this, shows that it was not the only cause. In 1585 he had gone to serve in the Low Countries under the Earl of Leicester against the Spaniards. Sir William Stanley having been placed on guard over the town of Deventer, which had revolted from the Spaniards, he, with the assistance of Ashton, gave the town back to Spain and went offer to their side (29 January, 1587). Cardinal Allen published a "Defence" of this act in the form of a letter addressed to one "R.A.", whose letter to the Cardinal prefixed and under these initials it seems natural to recognize our martyr. Stanley next entrusted to Ashton the difficult task of bringing over his wife from Ireland, but she was already under arrest, and he is said to have been sent Ashton to Rome. At the close of the year 1587 he returned to England and was apprended in Kent with the marriage dispensation already mentioned. In January, 1588, he was in the Tower, where he lay ill towards the close of the year, when he was transferred to easier confine ment in the Mashalsea. From this he managed to escape and fled to his brothers in Lancashire. He was seized later, at Shields near Newcastle, while trying to escape over the seas. Transferred thence to Durham and York, he was tried and sentenced at Canterbury, and died "very resolute", making profession of his faith and ". . . . pitied of the people", though the infamous Topcliffe tried to stir up ill-feeling against him by enlarging on his services to Spain.
PATRICK RYAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Roger Cadwallador

From volume 13 of the work.
English martyr, b. at Stretton Sugwas, near Hereford, in 1568; executed at Leominster, 27 Aug., 1610. He was ordained subdeacon at Reims, 21 Sept., 1591, and deacon the following February, and in Aug., 1592, was sent to the English College at Valladolid, where he was ordained priest. Returning to England in 1594, he laboured in Herefordshire with good success especially among the poor for about sixteen years. Search was made for him in June, 1605, but it was not till Easter, 1610, that he was arrested at the house of Mrs. Winefride Scroope, widow, within eight miles of Hereford. He was then brought before the Bishop, Dr. Robert Bennet, who committed him to Hereford gaol where he was loaded with irons night and day. On being transferred to Leominster gaol he was obliged to walk all the way in shackles, though a boy was permitted to go by his side and bear up by a string the weight of some iron links which were wired to the shackles. On his arrival, he was treated with the greatest inhumanity by his gaoler. He was condemned, merely for being a priest, some months before he suffered. A very full account of his sufferings in prison and of his martyrdom is given by Challoner. He hung very long, suffering great pain, owing to the unskilfulness of the hangman, and was eventually cut down and butchered alive. Pits praises his great knowledge of Greek, from which he translated Theodoret's "Philotheus, or the lives of the Father of the Syrian deserts"; but it does not appear when or where this translation was published.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Swithin Wells

From volume 15 of the work.
English martyr, born at Brambridge, Hampshire, about 1536; hanged at Gray's Inn Lane, London, opposite his own house, 10 December, 1591. He was the youngest of the five or six sons of Thomas Wells of Brambridge, by Mary, daughter of John Mompesson. It is not known when or whom he married. For many years he conformed, and received the Protestant communion, and for six years (probably 1576-82) kept a school for young gentlemen at Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire. On 25 May, 1582, the Privy Council ordered a search to be made for him, and in that year or 1583 he was reconciled to the Church. In 1585 he came to London where he took a house in Gray's Inn Lane. On 4 July, 1586, he was discharged from Newgate on bail given by his nephew, Francis Parkins of "Weton", Berkshire. On 9 August, 1586, he was examined for supposed complicity in the Babington plot, and on 30 November, 1586, he was discharged from the Fleet prison. He was again examined 5 March, 1587, and on this occasion speaks of the well known recusant, George Cotton of Warblington, Hampshire, as his cousin. On 1 Nov., 1591, Edmund Gennings was taken saying Mass at Wells's house in his absence, but in the presence of Mrs. Wells and the venerable martyrs Polydore Plasden, Brian Lacy, Sydney Hodson, and John Mason. According to one account Ven. Eustace White was also taken at this Mass. When Wells returned to his house he also was arrested. All the above-mentioned martyrs, included Mrs. Wells (but with the possible exception of Brian Lacy), were indicted at Westminster, 4 Dec., 1591, and were condemned, 5 Dec., under 27 Eliz. C. 2. According to another account they were arraigned, 6 December. Mrs. Wells was reprieved, and died in prison in 1602. All the rest suffered on the same day, Gennings and Wells at Gray's Inn Lane, and the other five at Tyburn. Of his brother-in-law Gerard Morin, to whom the letter printed by Bishop Challoner is addressed, no information is to hand. Swithin's eldest brother Gilbert, alive in 1598, suffered much in purse and person for the Faith. Another brother, Henry, of Purbeck, who entered Winchester College in 1541, aged twelve, and was a fellow of New College, Oxford, 1549-50, was also a Catholic. Our martyr was a follower of Blessed Thomas More and jested both at his apprehension and at his execution; but his last words were of pardon to his persecutor, Topcliffe: "God pardon you and make you of a Saul a Paul. . .I heartily forgive you."
Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (London, 1905 — ), II, 261, 267; V, 131-3, 206-8, 292; CHALLONER, Missionary Priests, I, n. 91; POLLEN, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891), 100-1, 107-8; BERRY, Hampshire Genealogies (London, 1833), 110-1; MORRIS, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, III (London, 1872-7), 48, 49; FOLEY Records English Province S. J. (London, 1875-83), III, 295; V, 791; VI, passim.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Thomas Alfield

From volume 14 of the work.
(AUFIELD, ALPHILDE, HAWFIELD, OFFELDUS; alias BADGER).
Priest, born at Gloucestershire; martyred at Tyburn, 6 July, 1585. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge (1568). He was afterwards converted and came to Douai College in 1576, but the troubles there compelled him to intermit his studies for four years, and he was eventually ordained and sent forth from Reims in 1581. Here he was associated with the celebrated mission of Blessed Edmund Campion and Father Persons, and he persuaded the latter to take as his servant his brother Robert Alfield, then recently converted, but who afterwards became a traitor of note. Thomas seems to have laboured chiefly in the north, where after a time he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, 2 May, 1582. Here he at first made a "glorious" confession, and even endured torture; but being afterwards sent back to the north, he fell, and went to the Protestant Church. Upon regaining liberty he was deeply penitent for his fall, and returned to Dr. Allen at Reims to gather new resolution. Returning again to England he was induced by the famous seaman John Davis (about March, 1584) to make for him offers — presumably insincere on Davis's part — of services to Spain. In August of the same year Dr. Allen's celebrated "True and modest Defence" appeared in answer to Burghley's "Execution of Justice". To circulate such books as Allen's was of the greatest service to the Faith. Alfield undertook the dangerous task with the help of a dyer by the name of Thomas Webley, and of one Crabbe. After some months he was again arrested, and again sent to the Tower, whence he was removed to Newgate and tried. Crabbe renounced the pope and thereby saved his life; the other two were hanged. A reprieve had, for some unknown reason, been granted for Alfield, but it arrived too late.
CHALLONER, Missionary Priests (Edinburgh, 1877); GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v. Alfield, Thomas; KNOX, Letters of Cardinal Allen (London, 1882); there are also several references to Alfield in the Record Office, London, many of which are given by SIMPSON in The Rambler, new ser., VII, 420-431.
PATRICK RYAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Thomas Belchiam

From volume 2 of the work.
A Franciscan martyr in the reign of Henry VIII, date of birth uncertain; d. 3 August 1537. He boldly opposed the king's first divorces and denounced the tyrant as a heretic. He wrote a book addressed to his brethren, beginning with the text: "They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses," in which he rebuked the faithless bishops, who were afraid to tell the king the truth. The book seems to be lost, but one copy got into Henry's hands, and he is said to have been moved to tears by reading it, though he soon repented of this weakness. Belchiam and some thirty of the Observant Franciscans were thrown into prison where they perished of hunger.
DODD, Church History (Brussels, 1739); BOURCHIER, Historia Ecclesiastica de Martyrio Fratrum Ord. D. Francisci (Paris, 1581); WADDING, Annales Minorum (Ancona, 1736), tom. XVI; STONE, Faithful unto Death (London, 1892).
Bede Camm.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Thomas Atkinson

From volume 2 of the work.
Martyred at York, 11 March, 1616. He was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was ordained priest at Reims, and returned to his native country in 1588. We are told that he was unwearied in visiting his flock especially the poor, and became so well known that he could not safely travel by day. He always went afoot until, having broken his leg, he had to ride a horse. At the age of seventy he was betrayed, and carried to York with his host, Mr. Vavasour of Willitoft, and some members of the family. A pair of beads, and the form of an indulgence were found upon him, and he was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He suffered "with wonderful patience, courage, and constancy, and signs of great comfort".
PATRICK RYAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Thomas Bullaker

From volume 3 of the work.
(Also John Baptist).
A Friar Minor and English martyr, born at Chichester about the year 1604; died at Tyburn, 12 October,1642. He was the only son ot a pious as well-to-do physician of Chichester. His parents were both fervent Catholics, and, following their example, Bullaker grew up in the ways of innocence and piety. At an early age he was sent to the English College at St-Omer, and from there he went to Valladolid in Spain to complete his studies. Convinced of his vocation to the Franciscan Order, after much anxious deliberation, he received the habit at Abrojo, and a few years later, in 1628, was ordained priest. Having left Spain to labour on the English mission, he landed at Plymouth, but was immediately seized and cast into prison. Liberated after two weeks from the loathsome dungeon where he had suffered the most untoward hardships, Bullaker by order of Father Thomas of St. Francis, then Provincial in England, laboured for nearly twelve years with much zeal and devotedness among the poor Catholics of London. On the 11th of September, 1642, Bullaker was seized while celebrating the Holy Sacrifice in the house of the pious benefactress. He has left a partial and but touching account of his apprehension and trial. He was condemned to be drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn and there hanged, cut down alive, quartered and beheaded. It is related that as he was going out of prison he met Ven. Arthur Bell, a religious of his own order, who said to him: "Brother, I was professed before you. Why do you take precedence of me?" Bullaker answered: "It is the will of God. But you will follow me." Bell remembered the prophetic words of the pious Bullaker when his own day of martydom was at hand. The cause of the beautification of Bullaker was introduced in Rome in 1900.
THADDEUS, The Franciscans in England (London, 1898), ix, 62, 63, 67,; xv, 205, 206; STONE, Faithful unto Death (London, 1892), vii, 132-150; MASON (ANGELUS A S. FRANCISCO), Certamen Seraphicum (2d ed., Quaracchi, 1885), 35-68; ORTOLANI, De causis beatorum et servorum Dei ord. min. (Quaracchi, 1905), 14.
STEPHEN M. DONOVAN