OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Christoph Brouwer

From volume 2 of the work.
(Browerius).
A historian, born 12 March, 1559, at Arnheim, Holland; died in 1617, at Trier, Germany. In 1580 he entered the Society of Jesus, and after a thorough humanistic training, devoted himself especially to the study of church history. His attainment in other branches of learning are shown by his appointment as professor of philosophy at Trier; later he was appointed rector first at Fulda, and then at Trier. His chief work was entitled: "Antiquitates et annales Trevirenses et episcoporum Treverensis ecclesiae suffragorum." The work extends to the year 1600 and was prepared at the request if two archbishops, Johann VII of Schoenenberg and Lothar of Mitternich, with the intent to disprove the partisan publication of Hermann (Kyriander), Syndic of Trier. Hermann's work was published in 1576 and was written to support the claims of the city against the rights of the archbishop. Brouwer devoted the greater part of his life to the preparation of his book and, according to the testimony of the historian, Hontheim, he is deserving of undying honor for his contribution to the history of the Archbishopric of Trier. Unfortunately, he did not live to complete his task. Brouwer's unflinching love of truth and his true historical method were not agreeable to the councillors of the archbishop; so, although the publication of his work had been sanctioned by the authorities of his order, it could not be issued. It was not until 1626 that the work of printing his manuscript at Cologne could be undertaken, and then only after important alterations had been made in the text. New difficulties arose when the eighteenth book was in press. The completion of the printing was forbidden and all the sheets already struck off were suppressed as much as possible, so that only a few copies have come down to us.
Brouwer's labors were continued from 1600 to 1652 by Father Jacob Masenius, S.J., who issued the whole work in revised form in 1670 in two folio volumes at Liege. Brouwer was unable to complete his other great work, which was entitled "Metropolis Ecclesiae Trevericae." It was intended to contain a description of all the cities, churches, and cloisters in the Archdiocese of Trier. This work did not appear until 1855-56 when it was issued at Coblenz in two volumes by Christian vom Stramberg. The edition does not meet fully the demands of our time, nevertheless it contains much that is useful. Brouwer's history of the Diocese of Fulda is also worthy of praise. It is entitled: "Fuldensium antiquitatum libri 4" (Antwerp, 1612). Of less importance is the work issued at Mainz in 1616, entitled: "Sidera illustrium et sanctorum virorum, qui Germaniam ornarunt." Among the results of his humanistic studies is the edition of the works of Bishop Venantius Fortunatus, which was issued at Mainz in 1603, together with a life of St. Martin. A second edition appeared in 1617 augmented by the annotated poems of Archbishop Rhabanus Maurus.
Reiffenberg, Historia Societatis Jesu (Cologne, 1764), 534; Metropolis Ecclesiae Trevericae, ed. von Stramberg.
PATRICIUS SCHLAGER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bl. John Nelson

From volume 8 of the work.
English Jesuit martyr, b. at Skelton, four miles from York, in 1534; d. at Tyburn, 3 February, 1577-78. He went to Douay in 1573, and two of his four brothers followed his example and became priests. He was ordained priest at Binche, in Hainault, by Mgr Louis de Berlaymont, Archbishop of Cambrai, 11 June, 1576. He was sent on the mission on 7 November following, and appears to have laboured in London. His apprehension took place 1 December, 1577, "late in the evening as he was saying the Nocturne of the Matins for the next day following", and he was committed to Newgate as a suspected Papist. His arrest and its issue had been foretold by a demon he had exercised a week before. The High Commissioners in a few days by cross-examination induced him to say that the queen was a schismatic. This constituted high treason under the legislation of 1571. He was providentially enabled to say Mass in Newgate, 30 January, 1577-8, and two days later he was brought to the bar and condemned. Thenceforward he was confined "in a most filthy underground dungeon", doubtless the Pit of the Tower, preparing by prayer and fasting for his end. He was cut down alive, and his last words, when the hangman plucked out his heart, are reported to have been: "I forgive the queen and all the authors of my death." The date and place of his admission to the Society of Jesus are unknown.
CAMM, Lives of the English Martyrs, II (London, 1004-5), 223; ALLEN, A Briefe Historie (POLLEN's edition London, 1908) 111; GILLOW, Bibliographical Dictionary of tie English Catholics, V (London and New York, 1885-1902), 160.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bl. John Beche

From volume 2 of the work.
Beche, John, (alias Thomas Marshall), Blessed, English Benedictine abbot and martyr; date of birth unknown; d. at Colchester, England, l December, 1539. Educated at Oxford (probably at Gloucester Hall now Worcester College) he took his degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1515, and within the next fifteen years ruled the Abbey of St. Werburgh, Chester, his name appearing as twenty-sixth on the roll of abbots of that foundation. He was elected Abbot of St. John's, Colchester, 10 June, 1530, and, with sixteen of his monks, took Henry VIII's Oath of Supremacy, 7 July, 1534. The year 1535 brought the martyrdoms of the three Carthusian priors (4 May), of BI. John Fisher (22 June), and of St. Thomas More (6 July), all five for the Divine right of the Roman Church to universal supremacy in spirituals. Beche was so deeply affected by these examples that his unguarded expressions of reverence and veneration for the martyrs, reported by spies, drew down upon him the resentment of the schismatical king. In November, 1538, the Abbot of St. John's further exasperated Henry and his ministers by denying the legal right of a royal commission to confiscate his abbey. Within a year of this he was committed to the Tower on a charge of treason, was discharged from custody, and rearrested some time before the 1st of November, 1539. Witnesses were found to testify how the abbot had said that God would "take vengeance for the putting down of these houses of religion", that Fisher and More "died like good men and it was pity of their deaths", and that the reason for the king's revolt from Catholic unity was the king's desire to marry Anne Boleyn. In his own examination the abbot yielded to human weakness and tried to explain away his former assertions of Catholic truth. In spite of these lapses he eventually received the crown of martyrdom. Tried at Colchester, by a special commission, in November, 1539, he no longer pleaded against the charge of contumacy to the newly established order of things. He was convicted and executed. An anonymous contemporary partisan of Henry's schism, quoted by Dom Bede Camm in "Engl. Martyrs", I, 400, says of Abbot Beche and others who died at that time for the same offences, "It is not to be as these trusty traitors have so valiantly jeopardized a joint for the Bishop of Rome's sake. . .his Holiness will look upon their pains as upon Thomas Becket's, seeing it is for like matter". The decree of Pope Leo XIII by which Abbot John Beche received beatification bears date 13 May, 1895.
Camm, Lives Of the Eng. Martyrs (London, 1904), I; GASQUET, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (London, 1899), I, 398 and II, 373; GAIRDNER, Preface to Calendar of Papers and Donestic (London, 1895 : MOORE ed. Cartularium Monasterii S. Joannis de Coleceatria (London, 1897); Record Office: Crumwell Correspondence, VI, 145.
E. Macpherson.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bl. John Felton

From volume 8 of the work.
Martyr, date and place of birth unknown, was executed in St. Paul's Churchyard, London, 8 August, 1570, for having, about eleven o'clock at night on the previous 24 May, affixed a copy of the Bull of St. Pius V excommunicating the queen to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace near St. Paul's. His daughter, Frances Salisbury, says that this exploit actually took place between two and three on the morning of the next day, on which that year the feast of Corpus Christi happened to fall. The MS. which preserves- her narrative contains a blank where the age of her father should be recorded, but she gives us other particulars fully. He was a wealthy gentleman of Norfolk extraction, and lived at Bermondsey Abbey near Southwark. He had married a lady who had been maid of honour to Queen Mary and playmate of Queen Elizabeth, and who was the widow of an auditor of the former queen. He himself "was a man of stature little and of complexion black". Of the copies of the Bull which he had received at Calais he had given one to William Mellowes of Lincoln's Inn, a special friend of his. This copy was discovered on 25 May, and Mellowes on the rack confessed to having received it from him. On 26 May he was arrested and taken to the Tower, where he was thrice racked, though he from the first confessed and gloried in his deed. He was condemned on 4 August and executed four days later. He was cut down alive, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand.
POLLEN, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891), 209; CAMM, Lives Of English Martyrs, II (London, 1904-5), 1, and xix, n. 2; COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bl. John Larke

From volume 8 of the work.
English martyr; died at Tyburn, 7 March, 1543-4. He was rector of St. Ethelburga's Bishopsgate, London, from 30 January, 1504-5, till his resignation in 1542; rector of Woodford, Essex, 18 January, 1526-7, till his resignation in the following April; and rector of Chelsea (on the presentation of Bl. Thomas More, [Tr. note: Thomas More was subsequently canonized] then lord chancellor, whose parish priest and personal friend he became) from 29 March, 1530, till his attainder. Cresacre More styles him doctor, but it is not known in what faculty he obtained this degree. He was indicted 15 February, 1543-44, with another priest and two laymen. The priest was Ven. John Ireland, of whom nothing is known, save that, having been chaplain of the Roper chantry annexed to St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, for a year (1535-36), he became vicar of Eltham, Kent, and, as such, parish priest to Bl. Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper of Well Hall. Of the laymen the more prominent is Bl. German Gardiner, a kinsman (probably either cousin or nephew) to Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, whose secretary he was. Educated at Cambridge, probably at Trinity Hall, he wrote against John Frith in 1534, and gave evidence against Cranmer in 1543. He resided at Southwark. The other layman wa John Heywood, or Hayward, of London. All were condemned, but Heywood recanted on the hurdle, and made his recantation public at Paul's Cross on 6 July following. The other three suffered together, in the company of Robert Singleton, a priest, the cause of whose execution is uncertain, and their heads and quarters were buried under the gallows.
CAMM, Lives of the English Martyrs, I (London, 1904-5), 541-7; HENNESSY, Novum Repertorium (London, 1898), 120, 153; NEWCOURT, Repertorium, II (London, 1708-10), 680; GILLOW, Bibl. Dic. Eng. Cath. s. vv.; IV, 134; NICHOLS, Grey Friars' Chronicle (London, 1852), 46; STOW, Annales (London, 1615), 386; Archaeologia Cantiana, XVI (London, 1886), 289.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Bl. John Payne

From volume 8 of the work.
Born in the Diocese of Peterborough; died at Chelmsford, 2 April, 1582. He went to Douai in 1574, was ordained priest by the Archbishop of Cambrai on 7 April, 1576, and left for England with Blessed Cuthbert Mayne on 24 April. He resided for the most part with Anne, widow of Sir William Petre, and daughter of Sir William Browne, sometime Lord Mayor of London, at Ingatestone, Essex, but also in London. Shortly after his arrival he reconciled George Godsalve, B.A. Oxon., a Marian deacon, of Bath diocese, whom he sent to Douai to be prepared for the priesthood, which he received at Cambrai on 20 December, 1576. John was arrested and imprisoned early in 1577, but, being not long afterwards discharged, came back to Douai in November. He probably returned to Ingatestone before Christmas, 1579. Early in July, 1581, he and Godsalve, who had come to England in June, 1577, were arrested in Warwickshire through the instrumentality of "Judas" Eliot, and, after being examined by Walsingham at Greenwich, were committed to the Tower on 14 July. There Blessed John was racked on 14 August, and again on 31 October. Eliot had accused him of plotting to kill the queen and her three most trusted statesmen. On this charge he was indicted at Chelmsford on 23 March, and, though no attempt was made to corroborate Eliot's story, the jury gave the verdict expected of them. At his execution the crowd interfered to prevent the infliction of the last barbarities until he was dead.
Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs (London, 1904-5), II, 424; Allen, A Briefe Historie, ed. Pollen (London, 1908).
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Harrowing of Hell

From volume 7 of the work.
This is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell (or Hades) between the time of His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, when, according to Christian belief, He brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. According to the "New English Dictionary" the word Harrowing in the above connection first occurs in Aelfric's homilies, about A.D. 1000; but, long before this, the descent into hell had been related in the Old English poems connected with the name of Caedmon and Cynewulf. Writers of Old English prose homilies and lives of saints continually employ the subject, but it is in medieval English literature that it is most fully found, both in prose and verse, and particularly in the drama. Art and literature all through Europe had from early times embodied in many forms the Descent into Hell, and specimens plays upon this theme in various European literatures still exist, but it is in Middle English dramatic literature that we find the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject. The earliest specimen extant of the English religious drama is upon the Harrowing of Hell, and the four great cycles of English mystery plays each devote to it a separate scene. It is found also in the ancient Cornish plays. These medieval versions of the story, while ultimately based upon the New Testament and the Fathers, have yet, in their details, been found to proceed from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the literary form of a part of which is said to date back to the second of third century. In its Latin form this "gospel" was known in England from a very early time; Bede and other Old English writers are said to show intimate acquaintance with it. English translations were made of it in the Middle Ages, and in the long Middle English poem known as "Cursor Mundi" a paraphrase of it is found.
EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, The Middle English Harrowing of Hell and Gospel of Nicodemus, ed. HULME (London, 1908), in which will be found a full bibliography of the whole subject.
K. M. Warren.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hartmann Schedel

From volume 13 of the work.
German Humanist and historian, b. at Nuremberg, 13 February, 1440; d. there on 28 November, 1514. He matriculated at Leipzig in 1456, received the degree of baccalaureus in 1457, and of magister in 1460. He then chose jurisprudence as his professional study, but at the same time zealously pursued humanistic learning under Pieter Luder, whom he followed to Padua in 1463. He there took up the study of medicine in which he obtained a doctorate in 1466. In 1472 he became a physician at Nordlingen; in 1477, at Amberg; in 1481, at Nuremberg where he lived until his death. He was closely connected with scholars and artists and his large and varied learning exerted a stimulating influence upon other students. His chief work is a chronicle of the world, "Liber chronicarum", which contributed much to the spread of historical knowledge. It was first published in 1493 at Nuremberg, a German translation by Georg Alt appearing in the same year. The division of the work into six ages and the point of view are entirely medieval. The work is a compilation following earlier chronicles closely and generally, even verbally; it depends particularly on the "Supplementum chronicarum" issued at Venice in 1483 by Brother Jacobus Philippus Foresta of Bergamo. The thoughtful, conservative, and rigidly orthodox Schedel does not often express his own opinion. The book owes its popularity in part to the great number of fine wood-cuts executed by the two artists, Michael Wolgemuth and William Pleydenwurff. Schedel's activity in tracing out, collecting, and copying MSS. produced results of much value even to-day. Many an important monument has been preserved only in his copy. Special mention should be made of his collection of inscriptions, the "Liber antiquitatum", completed in 1504. His large and valuable library containing over three hundred MSS. and several hundred printed books came into the possession of John Jacob Fugger in 1552, and was afterwards obtained by Duke Albert V of Bavaria (1550-1579) for the ducal, now royal, library at Munich, where it now is.
WILL, Nurnbergisches Gelehrtenlexikon, III (Nuremberg, 1757), 499-501; POTTHAST, Bibl. hist. med. aevi, II (2nd ed., Berlin, 1896), 1001; HAITZ, Schedels Weltchronik (dissertation, Munich, 1899); SPRENGLER, Schedels Weltchronik (dissertation, Munich, 1905); STAUBER, Die Schedelsche Bibliothek (Munich, 1908).
Klemens Löffler.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hans Niessenberger

From volume 11 of the work.
An architect of the latter part of the Middle Ages, whose name is mentioned with comparative frequency in contemporaneous literature. But information about his personality and his works is somewhat more difficult to find. It seems however, that he was born in Gratz, Styria ("Seckauer Kirchenschmuck", 1880, p. 56). He worked on the choir of the Freiburg cathedral from 1471 to 1480; in the latter year he was compelled to leave the task of building and to swear that he would not try to revenge himself for this. In 1480 he worked on the church of St. Leonhard at Basle; in 1482, on the cathedral at Strasburg; and in the following year he probably was engaged on the great cathedral of Milan with a yearly salary of 180 guilders - at least there is a "Johannes of Graz" mentioned as architect in Ricci, "Storia dell' archit. italiana", II, 388. The choir at Freiburg was turned over to him in 1471; the contract is interesting and instructive showing as it does the manner in which buildings of this kind were erected during the latter part of the Middle Ages, and how the working hours, wages, etc., were determined upon (Schreiber, "Münster zu Freiburg", Appendix, 15 sq.). The choir possesses great beauty, but it also manifests the peculiarities of Late Gothic. It is long, like the main church, with the nave higher, the side aisles lower and somewhat narrower than in the front, and surrounded by twelve chapels, enclosed on two sides by fluted columns. The arched roof, supported by beautifully carved columns, forms a network. The windows are characteristically Late Gothic, and the arches are wonderfully delicate. The whole is the work of a master.
SCHREIBER, op. cit.; KUBLER, Gesch. der Baukunst, II (1859); OTTE, Kunst-Archaologie (5th ed., 1884); KEMPF, Das Munster zu Freiburg im Breisgau (Freiburg, 1898).
G. GIETMANN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Harpasa

From volume 7 of the work.
A titular see of Caria, suffragan of Stauropolis. Nothing is known of the history of this town, situated on the bank of the Harpasus, a tributary of the Mæander. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (V, ii, xix), by Stephanus Byzantius, by Hierocles (Syneed., 688), and by Pliny (V, xxix). According to Pliny, there was in the neighbourhood a rocking-stone which could be set in motion by a finger-touch, whereas the force of the whole body could not move it. Aarpas Kalehsi, in the vilayet of Smyrna, preserves the old name. Harpasa appears in the lists of the "Notitiæ Episcopatuum" until the twelfth or thirteenth century. Lequien (Or. Christ., I, 907) mentions only four bishops: Phinias, who took part in the Council of Ephesus, 431; Zoticus, represented at Chalcedon by the prespyter Philotheos, 451; Irenæus, an opponent of the Council of Chalcedon; Leo, in Constantinople at the Photian Council of 879.
Fellows, Discoveries in Lycia, 51; Leake, Asia Minor, 249.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Harney

From volume 7 of the work.
(1) William Selby Harney
Soldier, convert; b. near Haysboro, Tennessee, U.S.A., 27 August, 1800; d. at St. Louis, Missouri, 9 May, 1889. Appointed to U.S. army, 13 Feb., 1818, he served in the Black Hawk and Florida Indian wars, and with gallantry in the conflict with Mexico, after which he was made a brigardier-general. He then had command in the far west during the Sioux troubles of 1855 and there became the friend and admirer of the famous missionary, Father J.B. DeSmet, S.J., who was of great assistance to him in making peace. Having seized San Juan Island near Vancouver in 1858, a dispute with England over the Oregon boundary line followed his action. When the Civil War broke out he was in charge of the Department of the West at St. Louis, and while en route to Washington was captured and held prisoner for a short time by the Confederates. A brevet promotion as major-general for long and faithful services followed his retirement 1 August, 1863.
(2) John Milton Harney
Brother of foregoing, b. in Delaware, 9 March, 1789; d. at Somerset, Kentucky, 15 January, 1825. Their father, Thomas Harney, was an officer in the Revolutionary war. John Harney studied medicine and settled in Kentucky. After a visit to Europe he accepted an appointment in the navy and spent several years in South America. On his return he edited a paper, became a Catholic, joined the Dominicans, then beginning their mission in Kentucky, and died in their ranks. He was the author of a number of poems printed in various magazines.
REAVIS, The Life and Military Service of Gen. W.S. Harney (St. Louis, 1887); Encycl. of Am. Biog., s.v.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Diocese of Barquisimeto

From volume 2 of the work.
(De Barquisimeto)
Diocese in Venezuela, South America. The city is the capital of the State of Lara, is about 161 miles south-west of Caracas, and contains about 30,000 inhabitants, though some authorities give a lower figure. Founded in 1552 by the Spaniards, under the name of Nueva Segovia, Barquisimeto is one of the oldest Spanish possessions in South America. In 1812 it was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake. The Diocese of Barquisimeto was erected in 1847, comprising the three States of Lara, Carabobo, and Falcon. By a decree of the Congregation of the Consistory, 12 February, 1907, the episcopal residence was transferred to Valencia (38,654), in the State of Carabobo, and the boundaries of the diocese rearranged. It is now bounded on the north and west by the Caribbean Sea, on the south by the diocese of Merida (or the State of Trujillo) on the east by the State of Calabozo and the two dioceses of Zamora, and Guiana. The diocese contains 528,215 Catholics, 68 priests, and 110 churches and chapels.
Battandier, Ann. Pont. Cath. (Paris, 1906), 198; Missiones Catholicae (Propaganda, Rome, 1907).
U. BENIGNI