OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Miro

Miro (Mirio, Mirus), king of the Suevi in Spain, 570–583.
Authorities.—Greg. Tur. Hist. Franc. v. 42, vi. 43; Joannes Bicl. ap. Esp. Sagr. v. 377, 380, 383; Isid. Hist. Suev. ib. 506; Acts of the second council of Braga; Tejada y Ramiro, Colecc. de Lan. de la Igl. Esp. ii. 620; Formula Honestae Vitae, by Martin of Braga; Pref. Esp. Sagr. xv. 383.
Miro represents a period in the history of the Suevian kingdom of Gallicia, when, having renounced the Arianism imposed upon them in the 5th cent. by their then existing relations to the Visigoths, the Suevi entered into alliance with the Franks on the one hand and probably the Eastern empire on the other, with the view of checking the power of the Arian West-Gothic king LEOVIGILD, which at the beginning of Miro's reign threatened the absorption of the Suevian state in the kingdom of Toledo, a result actually achieved two years after Miro's death. The known facts of his reign, which although few in number are often contradictorily given by the authorities, are as follows. In 572 the second council of Braga, a kind of supplementary council to the more important gathering of 561 [MARTINUS (2)] was held, and the king is specially mentioned as contributing to its assembly. In the same year Miro conducted an expedition against the Ruccones in Cantabria, one of the restless Basque tribes, with whom Suevi and Goths alike were perpetually at war. Four years later Miro's great West-Gothic contemporary Leovigild appeared on the borders of Gallicia. Miro sued for peace, and obtained it for a short time. In 580 the Catholic rebellion of HERMENIGILD against his father Leovigild broke out, and the rebellious son became the centre of Frankish, Suevian, and Byzantine policy in the peninsula. In 580 we hear of envoys sent by Miro to Guntchramn of Burgundy, Leovigild's worst enemy, and intercepted and detained on the way by Leovigild's ally, Chilperic of Soissons. In 583 Miro set out from Gallicia at the head of an army destined to raise the siege of Seville, then closely invested by Leovigild. He was met on the way by Leovigild, and, according to Gregory of Tours, who is evidently best informed on the matter, withdrew homewards, and died shortly after from the effects of the bad air and water of S. Spain. The two Spanish sources, Joannes Biclarensis and Isidore, say that he died before Seville, and describe him as assisting Leovigild in the siege of the town. On the reconciliation of these conflicting accounts, cf. Dahn, Könige der Germanen, vi. 571; and Görres, Kritische Untersuch. über den Aufstand und das Martyrium der Westgoth. Königssohnes Hermenigald, in Zeitschrift für Hist. Theol. 1873, I. Miro's relations to Martin of Braga, the Catholic leader and organizer of Gallicia during his reign and that of his father, seem to have been intimate and friendly. Martin's principal work, Formula Vitae Honestae, is dedicated to him, and the Exhortatio Humilitatis, printed among Martin's works, is also probably addressed to him (Esp. Sagr. xv. Appendix).
[M.A.W.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Monoimus

Monoimus (a form, possibly representing the Jewish name Menaham), an Arabian Gnostic of 2nd cent. His name had been only preserved by a brief notice in Theodoret (Haer. Fab. i. 18) until the recovery of the lost work of Hippolytus against heresies shewed that from this work Theodoret derived his knowledge. Hippolytus gives a short abstract of the doctrine of Monoimus and an extract from a letter of his to one Theophrastus. The system described might at first seem one of mere pantheism; but a closer examination shews Christian elements in it, so that it is rightly classed as a heresy, and not as a form of heathenism. There is an express quotation from Colossians and a probable reference to the prologue of St. John's Gospel. The starting-point of the speculation is the ascription in N.T. of the work of creation to the Son of Man, whence it was inferred that the first principle was properly called Man. It follows that it is a mistake to look for God in creation; we must seek Him in ourselves, and can best find him by the study of the involuntary operations of our own soul. The relation between the "Man" and "Son of Man" exists from beyond time. The latter is derived from the former, but, it would seem, by an immediate and eternal necessity of His nature, just as from fire is necessarily derived the light which renders it visible. Thus, concerning the first principle, the Scriptures speak both of a "being" and a "becoming" (ἤν καὶ ἐγένετο), the first word properly applying to the "Man," the second to the "Son of Man." The speculations of Monoimus, as reported to us, relate only to the creation; we are told of none as to redemption.
His use of the phrases "Man" and "Son of Man" reminds us of the system of the Naassenes (Hippol. Ref. § 7; see also our art. GNOSTICISM), and a closer examination shews that Monoimus is really to be referred to that sect, although Hippolytus has classed them separately; for Monoimus describes his first principle as bisexual, and applies to it the titles "Father, Mother, the two immortal names," words taken out of a Naassene hymn. But there is a common source of this language in the Ἀπόφασις μεγάλη of Simon, this passage also being clearly the original of the description given by Monoimus of the contradictory attributes of his first principle. Further traces of the obligations of Monoimus to Simon are found in the reference to the six powers instrumental in creation, which answer to Simon's six "roots," while a similar indebtedness to Simon on the part of the Naassene writer in Hippolytus is found on comparing the anatomical speculations connected with the name Eden (v. 9; vi. 14). It is more doubtful whether there is any relation of obligation between Monoimus and the Clementine Homilies; both contrast "the Son of Man" with those "born of women" (Hom. ii. 17). Monoimus has mysteries in connexion with the number 14, shewing that he attached importance to Paschal celebration.
[G.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Monothelitism

Monothelitism. [MONOPHYSITISM.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Modestus

Modestus (3), prefect of the Praetorium, persecutor of the Catholics under the emperor Valens (Socr. iv. 16; Soz. vi. 18; Theod. H. E. iv. 18; Tillem. vi. 510, 555, 562, 574), who commissioned him to offer Basil the choice between deposition and communion with the Arians. A severe sickness having supervened, which he regarded as a judgment for his insolent behaviour, he entreated Basil to visit his sick-bed, humbly asked pardon, and commended himself to his prayers. Attributing his recovery to St. Basil's intercessions, he regarded him with the greatest reverence (Greg. Naz. pp. 352, 353). From this time Basil's influence with Modestus was so great that persons came from a great distance to request letters from him to the prefect. Six of these remain (Basil. Epp. 104 [279], 110 [277], 111 [276], 279 [274], 280 [275], 281 [278]), in which Basil claims immunity from taxes for all ministers of the church, begs for a lessening of the taxes for the impoverished inhabitants of the Taurus range, commends to him a friend. summoned to the capital by legal
charges, etc. Basil addresses Modestus with the respect due to his high official position, and expresses much gratitude for his readiness to listen to his requests.
[E.V.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brewster, Thomas

​BREWSTER, THOMAS, M.D. (b. 1705), translator, was the son of Benjamin Brewster of Eardisland, Herefordshire, and was born on 18 Sept. 1705. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and thence elected to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1724. He graduated B.A. in 1727, M.A. in 1732, B.M. and D.M. in 1738. He was also elected a fellow of his college. While at Oxford he published a translation of the 'Second Satire of Persius,' in English verse by itself, to see, as he says in the preface, how the public would appreciate his work. This was in 1733. The third and fourth 'Satires' were published together in 1742, the fifth in the same year, and the six satires in one volume in 1784. Brewster, after leaving the university, practised medicine at Bath.
[Robinson's Merchant Taylors' School Register, ii. 56; Graduates of Oxford; Prefaces to different editions of the Satires; Brit. Museum Catalogue.]
A. G-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Briant

​BRIANT. [See Bryan]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brewster, John

​BREWSTER, JOHN (1753–1842), author, the son of the Rev. Richard Brewster, M.A., vicar of Heighington in the county palatine of Durham, was born in 1753, and received his education at the grammar school of Newcastle-upon-Tyne under the Rev. Hugh Moises, and at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1775, and M.A. in 1778. He was appointed curate of Stockton-on-Tees in 1776, and lecturer there in 1777. In 1791 he was presented to the vicarage of Greatham, which benefice he held until 1799, when he became vicar of Stockton through the patronage of Bishop Barrington. The same prelate afterwards successively preferred him to the rectories of Redmarshall in 1805, Boldon in 1809, and Egglescliffe in 1814, in which charges, according to the testimony of Surtees (Hist, of Durham, iii. 139), he was 'long and justly respected for the exemplary discharge of his parochial duties.' He died at Egglescliffe 28 Nov. 1842, aged 89.
His chief work was his
* 'Parochial History and Antiquities of Stockton-on-Tees,' published in quarto at Stockton in 1796. A second and enlarged edition was printed in 1829, octavo. His other works were:
* 'Sermons for Prisons,' &c., 1790, 8vo.
* 'On the Prevention of Crimes and the Advantages of Solitary Confinement,' 1790, 8vo.
* 'Meditations of a Recluse, chiefly on Religious Subjects,' 1800, 12mo.
* 'A Thanksgiving Sermon for the Peace,' 1802.
* 'A Secular Essay, containing a View of Events connected with the Ecclesiastical History of England during the 18th Century.' 1802, 8vo.
* 'The Restoration of Family Worship recommended, in Discourses selected, with alterations, from Dr. Doddridge.' 1804, 8vo.
* 'Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles.' 1806, 2 vols. 8vo.
* 'Of the Religious Improvement of Prisons, an Assize Sermon,' 1808.
* 'Meditations for the Aged, adapted to the Progress of Human Life,' 1810, 8vo; four editions.
* 'Meditations for Penitents.' 1813.
* 'Reflections adapted to the Holy Seasons of the Christian and Ecclesiastical Year,' 12mo.
* 'Reflections upon the Ordination Service.' 12mo.
* 'Contemplations on the Last Discourses of our Blessed Saviour with His Disciples as recorded in the Gospel of St. John,' 1822, 8vo.
* 'A Sketch of the History of Churches in England, applied to the purposes of the Society for Promoting the Building and Enlargement of Churches and Chapels,' 1818. ​to the purposes of the Society for Promoting the Building and Enlargement of Churches and Chapels,' 1818.
* 'An Abridgment of Cave's Primitive Christianity.'
* 'Memoir of the Rev. Hugh Moises, A.M.;' privately printed in 1823, and reprinted in Nichols's 'Illustrations of Literature,' vol. v.
[Gent. Mag., May 1843, p. 538; Adamson's Newcastle School, 1846, p. 27; Nichols's Illustrations, v. 92; Nichols's Topographer and Genealogist, vol. ii. 1853; Allibone's Dict. of Lit.; Heavisides's Annals of Stockton, p. 14, who gives two curious anecdotes of Brewster's simplicity in being deceived by supposititious relics of antiquity.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brewster, Patrick

​BREWSTER, PATRICK (1788–1859), Scotch divine, born on 20 Dec. 1788, was the youngest of the four sons of Mr. James Brewster, and younger brother of Sir David Brewster [q. v.] In accordance with the wishes of his father, who had destined all his sons to the ministry of the Scottish church, Patrick devoted himself to theology, and received license as a probationer from the presbytery of Fordoun on 26 March 1817. In August following he was presented by the Marquis of Abercorn to the second charge of the Abbey Church of Paisley, to which he was ordained on 10 April 1818. He continued to occupy this preferment for nearly forty-one years, and died at his residence at Craigie Linn, near Paisley, on 26 March 1859. Brewster was a favourite of the working classes, and received a public funeral (4 April 1859). In 1863 a monument to his memory was erected by public subscription in Paisley cemetery.
As a preacher Brewster enjoyed an almost unrivalled local fame. His political views were extreme; he was a 'moral-force chartist,' and took an active share in the plans for carrying out the chartist programme. His whole life was one continuous succession of exciting disputes upon public questions, or with the heritors, the parish authorities, or the presbytery. This polemical spirit may be traced in the volume of his sermons entitled 'The Seven Chartist and Military Discourses libelled by the Marquis of Abercorn and other Heritors of the Abbey Parish. To which are added four other Discourses formerly published, with one or two more as a Specimen of the Author's mode of treating other Scripture Topics. With an Appendix,' 8vo, Paisley, &c., 1843. Brewster advocated the abolition of the slave trade, the repeal of the corn laws, temperance, and a national system of education. He published three single 'Sermons,' 8vo, and a vindication, in two parts, of the rights of the poor of Scotland 'against the misrepresentations of the editor of the "Glasgow Post and Reformer."' He was also a contributor to the 'Edinburgh Cyclopædia,' and furnished a 'Description of a Fossil Tree found in a Quarry at Nitshill' to the ninth volume of the 'Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.' He incurred some odium for not, like his brothers, leaving the established church of Scotland at the time of the disruption in 1843, when he was one of 'the Forty.'
[Glasgow Herald, 28 and 31 March and 5 April 1859; Christian News (Glasgow), 2 April 1859; Teviotdale Record, 2 April 1859; Renfrewshire Independent, 2 and 9 April 1859; Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, 1868; Mrs. Gordon's Home Life of Sir David Brewster, 1881; Irving's Book of Scotsmen, 1881.]
A. H. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Briant, Alexander

​BRIANT, ALEXANDER (1553–1581), Jesuit, was born in Somersetshire in 1553, and in 1574 became a member of Hart Hall, Oxford. Having been converted to the catholic religion, he passed over to the English college of Douay, which shortly afterwards removed to Rheims; was ordained priest in 1578, and was sent back to the English mission in 1579. He laboured in his native county, where he reconciled the father of Robert Parsons, the Jesuit, to the catholic church. His career was very brief. He was seized by a party of pursuivants who were really in search of Father Parsons, on 28 April 1581, and carried off to the Compter prison in London, whence he was transferred to the Tower. Cardinal Allen says 'he was tormented with needles thrust under his nails, racked also otherwise in cruel sort, and specially by two whole days and nights with famine, which they did attribute to obstinacy, but indeed (sustained in Christ's quarrel) it was most honourable constancy' (Modest Defence of English Catholicks, 11). Briant was also subjected to the horrible torture of the instrument nicknamed 'the scavenger's daughter.' Norton, the rack-master, who boasted that he would stretch Briant a foot longer than God had made him, was afterwards called to account by his employers for his excessive cruelty. From his cell Briant addressed a letter to the Jesuit fathers in England begging the favour of admission to the society, and his request was acceded to. On 16 Nov. 1581 he was tried in the queen's bench at Westminster, with six other priests, and condemned to death for high treason under the 27th of Elizabeth. He suffered at Tyburn with Father Edmund Campion and the Rev. Ralph Sherwin, on 1 Dec. 1581. He was a young man of singular beauty, and behaved with great intrepidity at the execution. 'His quarters were hanged up for a time in public places' (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 480). There is an engraved portrait of him. His letter to the English Jesuits is printed in Foley's 'Records,' iv. 355-358.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brewster, Francis

1904 Errata appended.
​BREWSTER, Sir FRANCIS (fl. 1674–1702), writer on trade, was a citizen and alderman of Dublin, and lord mayor of that city in 1674. In February 1692-3 he gave evidence before the House of Commons on certain public abuses in Ireland, and in 1698 was appointed one of seven commissioners to inquire into the forfeited estates in Ireland. The commissioners disagreed among themselves, and when the report was delivered in the following year it was signed by only four of the members of the commission; the other three, the Earl of Drogheda, Sir Richard Levinge, and Sir F. Brewster, having refused to sign it because they thought it false and ill-grounded in several particulars. The dispute was brought before parliament, and Sir R. Levinge was committed to the Tower for spreading scandalous aspersions against some of his colleagues.
Brewster was the author of 'Essays in Trade and Navigation. In Five Parts,' Lond. 1695, 12mo. The first part only was published; but in 1702 he issued 'New Essays on Trade, wherein the present state of our Trade, its great decay in the chief branches of it, and the fatal consequences thereof to the Nation (unless timely remedy'd), is considered under the most important heads of Trade and Navigation,' Lond. 12mo. The following anonymous book is also ascribed to him: 'A Discourse concerning Ireland and the different Interests thereof; in answer to the Exon and Barnstaple Petitions; shewing that if a Law were enacted to prevent the exportation of Woollen Manufactures from Ireland to Foreign Parts, what the consequences thereof would be both to England and Ireland,' Lond. 1698, 4to.
[Ware's Ireland (Harris), 1764, ii. 262; Burnet's State Tracts, 1706, ii. 709 seq.; Tindal's Continuation of Rapin's England, 1740, iii. 234, 398.]
C. W. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.36 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 303 | i | 26-27 | Brewster, Sir Francis: for (fl. 1674-1702) read (d. 1704) |
| | | 29 | after 1674 insert He was M.P. in the Irish house of commons for Tuam 1692-1703, and for Doneraile 1703-4 |
| | | 17 f.e. | after colleagues insert Brewster died in 1704 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bancroft, John (d.1696)

​BANCROFT, JOHN (d. 1696), dramatist, was by profession a surgeon. He is said to have had a good practice among the 'young wits and frequenters of the theatres,' and to have been thus led to write for the stage. One tragedy, the materials for which are drawn from Plutarch, is unquestionedly his. This is 'Sertorius,' a dull and ignorant work, which was licensed for performance 10 March 1678-79, and was printed in 4to in 1679. It was played in the same year at the Theatre Royal, subsequently known as Drury Lane. 'Henry the Second, King of England, with the Death of Rosamond,' produced in 1692 at the Theatre Royal, is also assigned to Bancroft, though the dedication is signed 'Will. Mountfort, 1693,' a date subsequent to Mountfort's murder. 'Henry the Second,' a decidedly superior production to the previous, was printed in 1693. It is included in 'Six Plays written by Mr. Mountfort in two volumes,' London, 1720. Coxeter, by whom the materials were collected for the compilation known as 'Cibber's Lives of the Poets,' attributes to Bancroft 'King Edward the Third with the Fall of Mortimer, Earl of March,' published in 4to 1691, and also included in the collection of Mountfort. He states that Bancroft made a present to Mountfort, both of the reputation and profits of the piece. In the bookseller's preface to Mountfort's collected works it is said of these two dramas that 'tho' not wholly composed by him, it is presum'd he had, at least, a share in fitting them for the stage.' Bancroft was buried in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden.
[Biographica Dramatica; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Giles Jacob's Poetical Register; Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bancroft, Thomas (fl.1633-1658)

​BANCROFT, THOMAS (fl. 1633–1658), poet, was a native of Swarston, a village on the Trent, in Derbyshire. This we learn from one of his own epigrams, and from Sir Aston Cokaine's commendatory lines. He has also an epigram in celebration of his father and mother, ‘buried in Swarston Church.’ He was a contemporary of James Shirley at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, to whom he addresses an epigram. He seems to have lived for some time in his native Derbyshire. Sir Aston Cokaine, as a neighbour and fellow-poet, appears to have visited and been visited by him. He had apparently only a younger son's fortune, his elder brother, ‘deceased in 1639,’ having broken up the little family-property.
Bancroft's first publication was ‘The Glutton's Feauer,’ 1633. This is a narrative, in verse of seven-line stanzas, of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Thomas Corser, in his ‘Collectanea Anglo-Poetica’ (pt. i.), writes of it: ‘There is a smoothness and grace, as well as force and propriety, in Bancroft's poetical language, which have not, as we think, been sufficiently noticed.’ Bancroft's next and better-known book was his ‘Two Bookes of Epigrammes and Epitaphs. Dedicated to two top-branches of Gentry: Sir Charles Shirley, Baronet, and William Davenport, Esquire, 1639.’ The interest of these epigrams lies in the number of the men of letters whom they celebrate, including Sidney, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Donne, Overbury, John Ford, Quarles, Randolph, Shirley, the Beaumonts, &c. In 1649 Bancroft contributed to Brome's ‘Lachrymæ Musarum, or the Teares of the Muses,’ a poem ‘To the never-dying memory of the noble Lord Hastings.’ Finally he published, in 1658, ‘The Heroical Lover, or Antheon and Fidelta’—a work smooth rather than strong, in spite of Cokaine's laudation. In 1658 Bancroft was living in retirement at Bradley, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It is probable that he continued there until his death, of the date of which we have no knowledge. Incidental notices inform us that ​Bancroft was ‘small of stature,’ and that he was talked of as ‘the small poet,’ partly in reference to his littleness, and partly in allusion to his ‘small’ poems and epigrams.
[Corser's Collectanea (Chetham Society); Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum; Lysons's Derbyshire; Glutton's Feaver, reprinted for the Roxburghe Club; Bancroft's Works.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bandinel, James

​BANDINEL, JAMES (1783–1849), writer on slavery, born in 1783, was son of James Bandinel, a doctor of St. Peter's, Oxford. Bulkeley Bandinel [q. v.], keeper of the Bodleian Library, was his elder brother. James Bandinel was a clerk in the Foreign Office for some fifty years, from which he retired shortly before his death on a full pension. In 1842 he published ‘Some Account of the Trade in Slaves from Africa, as connected with Europe and America,’ and dedicated the book to Lord Aberdeen, the then foreign secretary. It describes, first, ‘the introduction of the African slave trade into Europe, and progress of it among European nations;’ secondly, ‘the abandonment of the slave trade by England;’ and thirdly, ‘the efforts of the British government with other governments to effect the entire extinction of the trade.’
James Bandinel died on 29 July 1849 at his residence in Berkeley Square, at the age of 66.
P. B. A.