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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Diocese of Beja

From volume 2 of the work.
Diocese in Portugal, suffragan of Evora. It was created 10 June, 1770, and numbers 175,000 Catholics, with 115 parishes, 120 priests, and 197 churches. It is the capital of the district of Baixo Alemtejo.
The city is supposed to be the Pax Julia, or Paca, of the Romans, and is still surrounded by remains of old Roman walls, which however, were partly restored during the Middle Ages. Beja was taken from the Moors in 1162 by Affonso Henriques. It stands on the summit of a high hill surrounded by beautiful and fertile valleys under cultivation, as the district is rich in agricultural products, mainly cereals, olive oil, and wine. The best example of medieval architecture still extant in Portugal is the castle built in Beja by King Dom Diniz. It is a square, massive structure 120 feet high, from the top of which the whole of the Alemtejo country and the Cintra mountains may be seen. The walls of the castle are covered with hieroglyphics. Beja was in its early days an episcopal city, but at the time of the invasion by the Moors lost its dignity. The Cathedral of Beja is an old temple, though so much modernized as to make it impossible to determine with any degree of certainty its original date. Other famous churches are those of Our Lady of the Conception, St. Iago, or Santiago, and Santa Maria de la Feira, said to have been an old Moorish mosque. The College of St. Sissenando, which belonged to the Jesuits, and was built principally at the expense of Donna Maria Sophia, in 1695, stands in the street where the saint was born. Part of this building is now occupied by the episcopal palace. The city has about 8,000 inhabitants, modern improvements, schools, banks, libraries, etc. It is said to be the richest in Roman remains of all the cities in Portugal, except Evora, which now possesses a large collection of Roman antiquities collected in Beja.
Gerarchia Cattolica (Rome, 1907); Florez, Espana Sagrada (1786), XIV, 230-276; Coll. de livres inedits sur l'hist. du Portugal (1824), V, 486-545.
Francisco J. Yanes.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Joseph's Society for Colored Missions

From volume 8 of the work.
This organization began its labours in 1871, when four young priests from Mill Hill were put in charge of St. Francis Xavier's church, with a large congregation of black Catholics, in Baltimore. Other black missions were soon begun at Louisville, Charleston, Washington, Richmond, Norfolk, and other places in the South. The society in the United States increased so rapidly and its missions were so successful that in 1892 it was made independent of Mill Hill and established its headquarters at Baltimore. It soon grew to almost 50 priests, who ran 35 missions throughout the South. The society opened numerous educational institutions, including: St. Joseph's Seminary in Baltimore, to train missionaries for the black missions; Epiphany Apostolic College, Walbrook, Baltimore, a preparatory school for St. Joseph's Seminary; St. Joseph's Catechetical College near Montgomery, Alabama, to train young black men as catechists and teachers; and St. Joseph's Industrial School at Clayton, Delaware, an agricultural and trade school for black youth.
MICHAEL OTT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. John the Silent

From volume 8 of the work.
(Hesychastes, Silentiarius).
Bishop of Colonia, in Armenia, b. at Nicopolis, Armenia, 8 Jan., 452; d. 558. His parents, Encratius and Euphemia, wealthy and honoured, belonged to families that had done great service in the State and had given to it renowned generals and governors, but they were also good Christians, and gave their son a holy education. After their death in 471, John distributed his inheritance among his relatives, retaining only a small share, with which he built a church and a monastery. Here, with ten congenial companions, he began a life of mortification and self-denial, wonderful traits of which are recorded by his biographer. The Bishop of Sebaste drew him out of his solitude and made him Bishop of Colonia (Taxara) in 481, against which promotion John vainly struggled. In his new dignity he preserved the monastic spirit entire, and the austerities and exercises as far as was compatible with duty. His brother-in-law Pasinius oppressed the Church to such an extent that John had to call upon the Emperor Zeno for assistance. As soon as matters had been properly arranged, John left his see, went to the Laura, near Jerusalem, and placed himself under the obedience of St. Sabas, without revealing his identity. In course of time Sabas, who had subjected John to all kinds of trials and had found him ready to perform even the most common and menial labours, thought him worthy of receiving priesthood, and for this purpose sent him to Elias, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. John now revealed all, and Elias informed Sabas that John had confided to him things which forbade his ordination. Sabas at first felt very sad, but was comforted by a vision in which the true state of affairs was made known to him. John with the permission of his superior entered a hut built against the face of a rock in the desert, and here passed the remainder of his days in seclusion and perpetual silence, whence his surname. A contemporary, Cyril of Scythopolis, wrote his life. His feast is on 13 May.
Butler, Lives of the Saints; Acta SS., May, III, 230; Streber in Kirchenlex, s.v. Johannes Hesychastes.
FRANCIS MERSHMAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich von Dissen

From volume 5 of the work.
Born 18 Oct., 1415, at Osnabrück, in Westphalia; died at Cologne, 26 Nov., 1484. After studying philosophy and theology at Cologne under Heinrich von Gorinchem (Gorkum), a celebrated divine of that time and vice-chancellor of the university, he became a monk in the Carthusian monastery of the same place, and took his solemn vows 14 Jan., 1437. He remained there all his life, which was a very laborious one, for he read much, copied many books for the library of the monastery, and composed a good many works. He was appointed subprior 23 March, 1457, and continued in that office until his death. His literary productions, all in Latin, comprise commentaries on the Psalms, on the Apocalypse, on the Gospels of Sundays and Festivals, on the Creed of St. Athanasius, on the Lord's Prayer. and a great number of sermons and homilies, treatises, and devotional writings, such as "De Sacerdotii dignitate", "De multiplici bonorum verecundia", "Quo pacto hæreticorum fraudes deprehendi queant", "Expositio in totum Missale", "Expositio Antiphonarii", "Consolationes in Cantica Canticorum", "De XIII mansionibus", etc. It does not appear that any of these works have ever been printed.
Le Vasseur, Ephemerides Ord. Cartus (Montreuil, 1892), IV, 434; Petreius, Bibliotheca Cartus. (Cologne, 1609); Hurter, Nomenclator (Innsbruck, 1899), IV, 911.
Edmund Gurdon.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich von Meissen

From volume 7 of the work.
Usually called "Frauenlob" (Woman's praise), a Middle High German lyric poet; b. at Meissen about 1250; d. at Mainz, 1318. He received a learned education, probably at the cathedral school of his native town. He led a wandering life, roving over the greater part of Germany. Poems in praise of different princes enable us to trace his travels after 1278 as far as Bohemis and Carinthia in the south and Denmark in the north. In 1311 he settled down at Mainz, where he is said to have founded the first school of Mastersingers. Tradition relates that he was borne to his grave by women. His tomb in the cathedral of Mainz was renovated in 1842 and is still to be seen. The surname "Frauenlob" is said to have been given to him because in a poetic contest with the poet Barthel Regenbogen he maintained that the term Frau (in the sense of "lady", "mistress") was superior to Weib (woman, as the opposite of man). But it has been shown that he had the surname when quite young and before the poetic contest took place.
Heinrich von Meissen marks the transition from Minnesong to Mastersong; certain it is that the later Mastersingers looked to him as their model. He has written a great many lyric poems on a wide range of subjects, theological, ethical, erotic, and didactic or gnomic. Many of these poems sing the praises of women, matrimony especially being exalted. As a poet he lacks inspiration and spontaneity; his lyrics are the product of learning and reflection, and excel chiefly on the formal side. The artificiality of their form renders most of them unpalatable to modern readers, while the excessive use of far-fetched metaphors and the frequent occurrence of learned allusions tend to obscurity that at times verges on the unintelligible, as, for instance, in his poem in honour of the Blessed Virgin. He is at best in the Spruch or gnomic poem. His poems were edited by Ettmüller, "Heinrichs von Meissen des Frauenlobes Leiche, Sprüche, Streigedichte und Lieder" (Quedlinburg-Leipzig, 1843). Selections were edited by Pfaff in Kürschner's, "Deutsche National Litteratur", VIII, pt. I, pp. 234-239.
See the introduction and notes to the editions mentioned above: Also Boerckel, Frauenlob. Sein Leben und Dichten (Mainz, 2nd ed., 1881). For comments on particular poems and passages, see Bech in Germania, XXVI, 257 sq., 379 sq.; XXIX, 1 sq.
ARTHUR F.J. REMY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich von Melk

From volume 7 of the work.
German satirist of the twelfth century; of knightly birth and probably a lay brother in the convent of Melk, in Styria. His chief work is a poem "Von des todes gehugede" (the remembrance of death), a discourse on the theme memento mori. It is a bitter invective against the vices and sins of all classes, especially of knighthood. After an introduction wherein the poet explains how the depravity of his age has incited him to his task, he turns to his real subject, the contemplation of death, the horrors of which are portrayed in glaring contrast with the vanity of earthly life. Concrete examples are summoned up. A wife is brought to the bier of her deceased spouse, and the ugliness of death is depicted with hideous realism. A son sees his dead father in a vision, and hears from him a gruesome description of the torments which await the sinner after death. The poet does not shrink from the disgusting and revolting in order to impress hardened souls. While this poem is mainly directed against the vices of the laity, particularly those of knighthood, the clergy are made the subject of scathing satire in the poem known as "Priesterleben", which is also attributed to Heinrich von Melk, though his authorship is not certain. It is to be noted, however, that, while the clergy are severely arraigned, their sacred office is scrupulously respected. Both poems date from about 1160. Heinrich von Melk is one of the most notable exponents of the spirit of asceticism that followed in the wake of the reform movement emanating from the monastery of Cluny. In his writings the conflict between asceticism and secularism, so characteristic of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, has found its most impassioned expression. The two poems were edited by Heinzel, "Heinrich von Melk", (Berlin, 1867).
See the introduction to Heinzel; also Kelle, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von der ültesten Zeit bis zum 13. Jahrhundert (2 vols., Berlin, 1892-96), I, 88 sq.; Kochendörffer in Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, XXXV, 187 and 281 sq.; Wilmanns in Beitrüge zur Geschichte der ülteren deutschen Literatur, I, (Bonn, 1885), has tried to prove that the first of the poems dates from the fourteenth century.
ARTHUR F.J. REMY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich Wangnereck

From volume 15 of the work.
(WAGNERECK).
Theologian, preacher, author, born at Munich in July, 1595; died at Dillingen, 11 November, 1664. The extant sketches of his life give no uniform information respecting the dates of events; it is, however, unanimously stated that when sixteen years old he entered the novitiate of the upper German province of the Society of Jesus, at Landsberg, took the usual course of instruction, and in addition was for a time teacher of the lowest class at the gymnasium. His chief occupation was that of a professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Dillingen, where he was chancellor, according to one statement, for twenty-four years. In addition to teaching, he was also a noted preacher. In 1655 he was sent to Lindau as superior and missioner, but after five years returned to Dillingen where he was chancellor until his death, which followed a sudden stroke of apoplexy at table. It is said that his reputation for learning and ability was so widespread that many secular and spiritual princes, bishops, and prelates of Germany asked his advice in the most important matters. His works, of which twenty are known, are chiefly on theological subjects. He also took part in the political controversies of the period, but not always to the satisfaction of authority, as there is record of a punishment inflicted upon him by the general of the Society because he had spoken disrespectfully of the Duke of Bavaria. His first small work, "Notae in confessiones S. Augustini", published in 1630, has retained its popularity up to the present time; in 1907 a fourth edition of it appeared.
SOMMERVOGEL, Bibl. de la Comp. de Jesus, 979-86; THOLEN, Menologiumoder Lebensbilder aus der Geschichte der deutschen Ordensprovinz (Roermond, 1901), printed for private circulation. A brief sketch of Wangnereck's life is given in the fourth edition of his first treatise on the "Confessions" of St. Augustine, pp. xv-xvi: see also STEINBERGER, Die Jesuiten und die Frieden frage in der Zeil vom Prager Frieden bis zum Nurnberger Friedensexekutionshauptrexess, 1635-1650 in Studien und Darstellungen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte, ed. GRAUERT, V (1906), 2, 3, which gives a sketch of Wangnereck's political activity.
N. SCHEID
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich der Glïchezäre

From volume 7 of the work.
(i.e. the hypocrite, in the sense of one who adopts a strange name or pseudonym).
A Middle High German poet, author of a narrative poem "Reinhart Fuchs" (Reynard the Fox), the oldest German beast-epic that we possess. The date of its composition is about 1180. It is based on a French poem, part of an extensive "Roman de Renart", but older than any of the branches of this romance that have come down to us. Of the German poem in its original form entitled "Isengrïnes nöt" (Isengrin's trouble), only a few fragments are preserved in a mutilated manuscript discovered in 1839 in the Hessian town of Melsungen. We possess, however, a complete version made by an unknown hand in the thirteenth century and preserved in two manuscripts, one at Heidelberg and one belonging to the archiepiscopal library of Kalocsa. This version is very faithful the changes made therein pertaining apparently only to form and versification. Its title is "Reinhart Fuchs". In the beginning of this poem the fox is anything but a successful impostor, being generally outwitted by far weaker animals. But later on this changes. Reynard plays outrageous pranks on most of the animals, especially on Isengrin, the wolf, but escapes punishment by healing the sick lion. This the fox accomplishes at the expense of his adversaries. In the end he poisons the lion, his benefactor, and the poem closes with a reflection on the success attending craft and falsehood while honesty goes unrewarded. The story is told in a plain, straightforward manner; compared with the French model the german poem shows abbreviations as well as additions, so that it is not a mere translation. The order in which the different incidents are related has also been changed, and occasional touches of satire are not wanting. The poem of der Glichezare is the only beast-epic of Middle High German literature. The famous later versions of this material are Low German. It is on one of these latter that Goethe based his well-known "Reineke Fuchs". The complete poem (from the Heidelberg MS.) was edited by J. Grimm under the title "Reinhart Fuchs" (Berlin,1834), and together with the older fragments by K. Reissenberger in "Paul's Altdeutsche Textbibliothek", VII (Halle, 1886). The Kalocsa MS. was published by Mailáth and Köffinger (Budapest, 1817). Selections are found in P. Piper's "Die Spielmannsdichtung" (in Kurschner, "Deutsche National literatur", II), pt. I, 287-315.
Consult the introduction to the above-mentioned editions and BUTTER, Der Reinhart Fuchs und seine franzosische Quelle (Strasburg, 1891).
ARTHUR F.J. REMY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich von Ahaus

From volume 7 of the work.
(Hendrik van Ahuis)
Founder of the Brethren of the Common Life in Germany, b. in 1371, the natural son of Ludolf, Lord of the principality of Ahaus, and Hadwigis of Schöppingen; d. at Münster, 1439. About 1396 he joined the Brethren of the Common Life at Deventer, where personal intercourse with the companions of the founder, especially Florentius Radewyns, thoroughly acquainted him with the spirit and methods of the congregation, then in its first fervour. It is probable that during the plague of 1398 he left Deventer for Amersfort with Florentius on whose death he returned to his native Münster to establish a community there. In any case the records at Münster point to 1400 as the date of foundation. The benefactions of his family enabled Heinrich to provide generously for the new community, and in 1429 to establish it on his family estate of Springbrunnen (Ad fontem salientem), where he and his companions, besides continuing their missionary work in the diocese, applied themselves to the copying of MS. Heinrich also founded houses of the congregation at Cologne (1416), Weswl (1435), and Osnabrück, and the communities of sisters at Borcken, Kösfeld, Lippstadt, Wesel, and Bodeken, labouring all the while in the face of continuous opposition from both priests and laymen. He accompanied Johann Vos of Huesden, rector of Windesheim, to the Council of Constance, to refute the charges lodged against the Brethren by the Dominican, Mathüus Grabow, and of which they were triumphantly cleared. In 1428 he inaugurated the union of the Münster and Cologne houses, which was sanctioned by papal decree, a few months after his death, and joined in 1441 by the house at Wesel. Heinrich's influence was incalculable, in connection with the training and reform of the clergy, the cause of education, the spread of religious literature, and the advancement of the spiritual life among the masses of the German people.
Schulze, Heinrich von Ahaus in Luthardts Zeitschrift (1882), I, ii; Idem in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. für prot. Theol.; Chronicon Windesheimense, ed. Grube (Halle, 1886).
F.M. RUDGE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich von Laufenberg

From volume 7 of the work.
A German poet of the fifteenth century, d. at Strasburg in 1460; he was a priest in Freiburg (Breisgau), and later dean of the cathedral. In 1445 he entered the cloister of the Knights of St. John. He was a fertile writer in prose and verse. Among his works there is a collection of sermons, also rhymed German versions of two lengthy Latin works, a "Speculum humanæ salvationis", and the "Opus figurarum" of Konrad von Alzei. The former version dates from 1437 and gives an account of the Fall and Redemption, with a number of Biblical and profane stories interspersed and symbolically interepreted. The other work is devoted to the glorification of the Blessed Virgin, stories of the Old Testament being explained allegorically and mystically with reference to Mary. All these works, however, have not come down to us, the manuscripts having been destroyed during the siege of Strasburg (1870). A metrical German version of a Latin hygienic treatise called "Regimen Sanitatis" is still extant. It dates from 1429. But the chief significance of Laufenberg is as a writer of religious lyrics. Some of these are renderings of Latin hymns, while others are original poems expressive of his love for Jesus and Our Lady. Most notworthy are his recasts of worldly lyrics and folksongs in religious form (so-called Contrafacta). In these he adhered as closely as possible to the form and diction of the folksong,retaining the popular melodies but infusing into them a religious spirit. While most of these poems are simple and effective, many of his original poems are marred by a laboured artificiality, acrostics and other metrical devices being quite common. His translations show occasional latinisms; sometimes, too, Latin and German verses are intermingled. A number of his hymns (97) are found in Wackernagel, "Das deutsche Kirchenlied", II (Leipzig, 1864-77), 528-612.
See Müller, Heinrich Laufenberg (Berlin, 1889).
ARTHUR F.J. REMY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heinrich Roth

From volume 13 of the work.
Missionary in India and Sanskrit scholar, b. of illustrious parentage at Augsburg, 18 December, 1620; d. at Agra, 20 June, 1668. He became a Jesuit in 1639; was assigned to the Ethiopian mission (Piccolomini, "Instruction pro P. Hen. Roth, Ingolstadio, ad missionem Aethiopicam profecturo", in Huonder, "Deutsche jesuitenmissionare im 17. und 18. Jahr.", Freiburg, 1899, 213), and arrived at Goa by the land route, via Ispahan. He laboured first on the Island of Salsette off Goa, where from time to time he acted as Portuguese interpreter. He was sent on an embassy to one of the native princes, and finally reached the empire of the Great Mogul, where, as rector of the residence at Agra, he was involved in the persecution under Shah Jahán. Here the French explorer, Francis Bernier, learned to know and appreciate him as one eminently versed in expert knowledge of the philosophy of religions in India ("Travels in Hindustan", new ed., Calcutta, 1904, p. 109 sqq.). In 1662 Roth revisited Europe by the land route via Kabul to obtain new recruits for the mission, and returned to Agra in 1664. Roth shares with the Jesuit, Hanxleden, the fame of being among Europeans the pioneer Sanskrit scholar, and of having compiled the first Sanskrit grammar (Wiener, Zeitschr. für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, XV, 1901, pp. 303-320). "During his stay in Agra, he succeeded in persuading some Brahmins to teach him Sanskrit and, after six years of diligent study, he obtained complete mastery of this difficult tongue. He was the author of the interesting description of the Sanskrit alphabet, published by Athanasius Kircher in his "China illustrata" (Max Müller, "Lectures on the Science of Language", London, 1866, p. 277. Roth's works, most of which were published by his learned friend, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., are: "Relatio rerum notabilium Regni Mogor in Asia", which contains the first information concerning Kabul which had reached Europe (Straubing, 1665, Aschaffenburg, 1668); "Iter ex Agra Mogorum in Europam ex relatione PP. Joh. Gruberi et H. Roth" in Kircher, "China illustrata" (Amsterdam, 1667), pp. 91 sqq.; "Itinerarium St. Thomae Apost. ex Judaea in Indiam", and "Dogmata varia fabulossissima Brachmanorum", ib., 156-162; "Exactissimum opus totius grammaticae Brachmanicae cujus et rudimenta is [Roth] primus Europae communicavit" in "Romani Collegii S.J. musaeum" (Amsterdam, 1678), p. 65; a letter (Rome, 1664) in "Welt-Bott", I (Augsburg, 1726), 35 manuscript-letters and relations in Royal Library, Brussels, Nos. 6828-29, fol. 415.
HOSTEN, Jesuit Missionaries in Northern India, 1580-1803 (Calcutta, 1906), 30 sqq.; BALFOUR, Encycl. of India (London, 1885), s. v.; BENFEY, Gesch. der Sprachwissenschaft (Munich, 1869), 335; V. SCHLEGEL, Sprache u. Weisheit der Indier (Heidelberg, 1808), p. xi.
ANTHONY HUONDER