OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Motu Proprio

From volume 10 of the work.
The name given to certain papal rescripts on account of the clause motu proprio (of his own accord) used in the document. The words signify that the provisions of the rescript were decided on by the pope personally, that is, not on the advice of the cardinals or others, but for reasons which he himself deemed sufficient. The document has generally the form of a decree: in style it resembles a Brief rather than a Bull, but differs from both especially in not being sealed or countersigned. It issues from the Dataria Apostolica, and is usually written in Italian or Latin. It begins by stating the reason inducing the sovereign pontiff to act, after which is stated the law or regulation made, or the favour granted, It is signed, personally by the pope, his name and the date being always in Latin. A Motu Proprio was first issued by Innocent VIII in 1484. It was always unpopular in France, where it was regarded as an infringement of Gallican liberties, for it implied that the sovereign pontiff had an immediate jurisdiction in the affairs of the French Church. The best-known recent example of a Motu Proprio is the instructions issued by Pius X on 22 November, 1903, for the reform of church music.
The phrase motu proprio is frequently employed in papal documents. One characteristic result of its use is that a rescript containing it is valid and produces its effect even in cases where fraud would ordinarily have vitiated the document, for the words signify that the pope in granting the favour does not rely on the reasons alleged. When the clause is used in dispensations, the latter are given a broad interpretation; a favour granted motu proprio is valid even when counter to ecclesiastical law, or the decisions of the pope himself. Consequently, canonists call the clause the "mother of repose": "sicut papaver gignit somnum et quietem, ita et hæc clausula habenti eam." (See RESCRIPTS.)
REBUF, Tract. concordatorum: De forma mandati apostol. (Paris, 1538), s.v.; RIGANTI, Comment, in regul. cancellariæ apost. (Rome, 1744), , s.v. Gratia moto proprio; GIRAUD, Bibl. sacra (Milan, 1535).
A. A. MacErlean.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Mount Nebo

From volume 10 of the work.
(Septuagint: Nabau).
A mountain of the Abarim (q. v.) range east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, from which Moses surveyed the Promised Land (Deut., xxxii, 49), and where he died (ibid., xxxiv, 1, 5). The same is probably mentioned in the wanderings in Num., xxxiii, 47: "And departing from Helmondeblathaim, they came to the mountains of Abarim over against Nabo" (Heb. Nebo), though here the reference may be to the town (see NABO). The location of Mount Nebo is doubtful. A comparison of Deut., iii, 27 (cf. Num., xxvii, 12) with Deut., xxxii, 49 indicates that the "top of Phasga" and Nebo were variant names referring to the same spot. Difficulty arises in that from no point of the Abarim range does it seem possible to behold all the territory mentioned in Deut., xxxiv, 1-3, especially if the "furthermost sea" means the Mediterranean, as in Deut., xi, 24. By some Nebo is identified with the modern Jebel Neba, an oblong ridge on an elevated plateau five miles south-west of Hesebon, 2700 feet above sea level.
HUMMELAUER, Comment. in Deut. (Paris, 1901), 211, 533, 560 sqq.; GEIKIE, Hours with the Bible, VI (New York, 1899); 150; DRIVER in Internat. Crit. Comment. (New York, 1895), Deuteronomy, Chap. xxxiv.
James F. Driscoll.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Epiphanius Scholasticus

From volume 5 of the work.
Epiphanius, surnamed Scholasticus, or in modern terms, the Philologist, a translator of various Greek works in the middle of the sixth century of the Christian Era. He prepared for Cassiodorus the text of the "Historia Tripartita", a compilation of the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. We also have his translation of the commentary of Didymus on the Seven Catholic Epistles and that of the "Codex encyclicus", a list of the adhesions of the bishops of the East to the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, a list drawn up in 458 by order of the Emperor Leo I. Epiphanius made several additions to it. He also translated the commentary of Didymus on the Book of Proverbs and that of Epiphanius of Salamina on the Canticle of Canticles. These works are either lost or as yet undiscovered. "He belongs", says Julicher, "to the group who, like Dionysius Exiguus, Mutianus, and many unknown others, satisfied the needs of the Latins for translations of Greek theologians."
PAUL LEJAY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Episcopal œconomus

From volume 11 of the work.
(Gr. oikonomos from oikos, a house, and nemein, to distribute, to administer)
An Episcopal Œconomous is one who is charged with the care of a house, an administrator. In canon law this term designates the individual who is appointed to take charge of the temporal goods of the Church in a diocese; it is used also of the person in charge of the property of a monastery. This office originated in the Eastern Church and dates back to the fourth century: a law of Honorius and Arcadius in 398 speaks of it as if it were then widespread (Cod. Theodos., IX, tit. 45, lex. 3). The Council of Chalcedon (451) ordered an œconomus to be appointed in every diocese; to take charge of ecclesiastical property under episcopal authority (canon xxvi in Mansi, VII, 367). They were established in the Eastern Church and have continued down to the present day in the schismatical Greek Church (Silbernagi, "Verfassung und gegenwärtiger Bestand sämtlicher Kirchen des Orients", 2nd ed., Ratisbon, 1904, 37). The increase of church property after the Edict of Milan (313) and the multiplication of episcopal duties rendered this office very useful. In the West, we meet with the œconomus in Spain (Council of Seville, 619, can. ix), in Sardinia, and perhaps in Sicily, at the end of the sixth century (Jaffé-Wattenbach, "Regesta Pontificum Romanorum", Leipzig, 1881, I, nn. 1282, 1915). But as a general rule the Western bishops contented themselves with the aid of a confidential assistant, a vicedominus, who looked after the temporalities and ranked next to the bishop. The establishment of a domain in connexion with each church made the task of administering the ecclesiastical property much lighter. The office of vicedominus was modified by the influence of the feudal system, and by the fact that the bishops became temporal sovereigns. The Council of Trent ordered the chapters of cathedral churches to establish, in addition to a capitulary vicar, one or more œconomi to administer the temporal property of the diocese during an episcopal vacancy (Sess. XXIV, De Reformatione, c. xvi). At the present time, the bishop is not obliged to appoint an œconomus, though he is not hindered from so doing. The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (c. lxxv) advises bishops to select one from among the ecclesiastics or even the laity, who is skilled in the civil law of the country.
LOENING, Gesch. des deutdchen Kirchenrechts (Strasburg, 1878), I, 235; II, 342; STUTZ, Gesch. des kirchl. Benefizialwesens, I (Berlin, 1895), 9 sq.; SENN, L'institution des Vidamies en France (Paris, 1907); LESNE, Hist. de la propriété ecclés. en France, I. Epoque Romaine et Mérovingienne (Paris, 1910).
A. VAN HOVE.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Antoniano

From volume 1 of the work.
Patrologist, b. at Nimeguen, in Holland, early in the sixteenth century; d. same place, in 1588. From his very entrance into the Dominican Order, in his city, his patience, industry, and inclination for patristic studies, singled him out as a capable editor of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, then urgently called for by the learned. As Prior of Nimeguen in 1566, and again in 1587, he distinguished himself for his learned and erudite sermons against the fundamental principles of Protestantism. He was associated in his literary labours with Henry Gravius, whose pupil he was, and whom he succeeded as editor of the works of the Fathers. Antoniano published (Cologne, 1537), with the critical apparatus of his day, the work of St. Gregory of Nyssa on the creation of man and the "Hexameron" of St. Basil the Great, both in the Latin translation of Dionysius Exiguus. He also published (Cologne, 1560) the writings of St. Paulinus of Nola, and (Antwerp, 1568) the letters of St. Jerome.
QUETIF AND ECHARD, SS. Orrd. Praed., II, 283; MEIJER, Dommikaner Klooster en Statie te Nejemegem (1892), 84 sqq.
THOS. M. SCHWERTNER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Aurispa

From volume 2 of the work.
A famous ltalian humanist and collector of Greek manuscripts, born about 1369 at Noto, in Sicily; died at Ferrara in 1459. It is not known where he first studied. In 1418 he went to Constantinople to learn Greek and to collect codices. So industrious was he that he was accused to the Greek emperor of despoiling the city of books. He returned to Venice in 1423 with 238 volumes of classical authors, purchased at Constantinople. Among his treasures were the celebrated "Codex Laurentianus" (seven plays of Sophocles, six of Æschylus, Apollonius's "Argonautica") of the tenth century, the Iliad, Demosthenes, Plato, Xenophon, etc. The next year Aurispa went to Bologna, where he became professor of Greek at the university. As a teacher he was not very successful. Thence he was invited to Florence, where he also held the chair of Greek. Later he went to Ferrara. In 1441 he was appointed secretary to Pope Eugene IV. Six years later Pope Nicholas V reappointed him to the same post. Besides being a tireless collector of manuscripts, Aurispa was a poet of some merit. His published works include letters, epigrams, and an elegy.
EDMUND BURKE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Animuccia

From volume 1 of the work.
An Italian composer, born at Florence about 1500; died 1571. He was a pupil of Claude Goudimel. He was made choir-master at the Vatican and retained this position until his death. He was the real predecessor of Palestrina not only in office, but also in his earnest endeavours to attain harmonic clearness in the midst of all the devices of counterpoint then so much in vogue. He aimed at perfecting the style of the old flemish school by harmonic fullness, by a more natural melodic progression of the voices, and a closer correspondence of the melody with the text. His friendship with St. Philip Neri resulted in his appointment as music-master to the new society founded by the Saint. He composed the first laudi for its use. These laudi were songs of praise for several voices, and were always performed after the sermon. For the sake of variety, Animuccia composed single stanzas and later on single lines in the shape of solos, concluding with a powerful and effective chorus. A first volume of them appeared in 1566, a second in 1570. These laudi proved to be the germs of the later oratorio, for from their dramatic tone and tendency the oratorio seems to have been developed. In this sense St. Philip Neri has been called the "Father of the Oratorio". In addition, Animuccia composed many masses, motets, psalms, and madrigals of which some were published in Venice and Rome, 1548-68. But his compositions which were never printed are far more numerous, and the Manuscripts of them to-day are, for the most part, in the Sistine Chapel - ANIMUCCIA, PAOLO, brother of Giovanni, died at Rome, 1563. He was choir-master at the Lateran for two years (1550-52). He left little printed music. There is a motet of his in a collection published at Venice (1568), and madrigals of his composition are found in many of the miscellaneous collections published between 1551 and 1611.
GROVE, Dict. of Music and Musicians; RIEMANN, Dict. of Music; KORNMÜLLER, Lexikon der kirchi. Tonkunst.
J.A. VÖLKER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Barbieri

From volume 2 of the work.
Giovanni, called from his squinting, "Il Guercino"; a famous painter of religious subjects, b. at Cento, near Bologna, 2 February, 1591; d. at Bologna, 22 December, 1666. His parents were in very humble circumstances. It is related that he gave such early indication of his great talents that before he reached the age of ten he had painted on the front wall of his home a figure of the Virgin. His first instructor was Bartolommeo Bertozzi, and when sixteen he entered the school of Benedetto Gennari, the elder, at Cento. As a youth he had studied with great admiration a famous painting of Ludovico Carracci at the convent of the Capuchins at Cento, which had much influence on his work. Father Mirandola, head of the convent, took Barbieri under his protection, had him taught, and secured him commissions.
After spending some time in Bologna, where he studied with Cremonini and Gennari, the young painter went to Venice, where he received the counsels of Palma. At Ferrara he painted the portrait of the legate, Cardinal Jacopo Serra, who made him a chevalier. On the invitation of Cardinal Ludovisi, later Pope Gregory XV, he went to Rome. There he did the "Aurora" at the Villa Ludovisi, and his celebrated painting of St. Petronilla in the Capitol. After the death of his papal patron, Barbieri, refusing the invitations of James I to go to England and of Louis XIII to visit France, returned to Cento and established there an academy which was much frequented by foreign as well as native painters. He painted the portraits of the Duke of Modena, and after the death of Guido, whose style he imitated, he settled at Bologna, where he died, leaving much wealth.
Calvi, Life of Giovanni Barbieri (Bologna, 1808); Bryan, Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (London and New York, 1903-05).
AUGUSTUS VAN CLEEF
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Antonio Bianchi

From volume 2 of the work.
Friar Minor and theologian, b. at Lucca, 2 October, 1686; d. at Rome, 18 January, 1768. At the age of seventeen he entered the Franciscan Order. He was once elected to the office of Provincial of the Roman Province, and for a number of years was professor of philosophy and theology. During these years of professorship, he no doubt acquired much of the extensive and accurate acquaintance with ecclesiastical subjects displayed in the productions of his later life. He possessed a memory of such range and tenacity that he was considered a prodigy by the many students and scholars who came to visit him in his convent cell. Bianchi was held in high esteem by the Roman Curia and by Clement XII, whose successor, Benedict XIV, appointed him consultor of the Holy Office.
It was perhaps at the instance of Clement XII that Bianchi composed his scholarly and exhaustive defence of the rights and privileges of the Roman Pontiff, which had been attacked by the Neapolitan lawyer, Pietro Giannone, in the latter's "Storia civile del regno di Napoli". Bianchi's work which was entitled "Della podesta e della polizia della chiesa, trattati due contro le nuove opinioni di Pietro Giannone" appeared in Rome in six volumes between the years 1745 and 1751. In the first treatise (2 vols.) Bianchi defends the indirect power of the Roman Pontiff over temporal sovereigns; while he lucidly and forcibly defends the rights of the pope as regards the external laws and government of the Church, in the second treatise, which comprises the remaining four volumes. Amid the storm of controversial literature provoked by the treatise of the Dominican theologian, Daniele Concina, "De Spectaculis theatralibus", Bianchi's "Sui vizii e sui difetti del moderno teatro e sul modo di corregerli ed emendarli" appeared at Rome in 1753. In this he contends with Scipio Maffei against Concina for the lawfulness, within certain limits, of modern theatrical displays. Notwithstanding these graver preoccupations, Bianchi found time to indulge his predilection for poetry and tragic writing, and his compositions in this field, though of minor importance, show him to be an accomplished master of his own native Tuscan.
Hurter, Nomenclator, II, 1530-32; D'Alencon in Dict. de theol. cath. (Paris, 1900), II, 812; Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und Litteratur des Canonischen Rechts, (Stuttgart, 1880), III, 512; Feller, Biographie universelle (Paris, 1848), II, 2.
STEPHEN M. DONOVAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi

From volume 3 of the work.
Of Montecucolo, a Capuchin friar of the province of Bologna, date of birth uncertain; died at Genoa, 1692. In 1654 a band of friars was sent to the Congo to supply the place of those who had died or were incapacitated by sickness, and amongst the newcomers was Cavazzi. He suffered much on the long sea-voyage, yet his zeal was unabated when he landed in the Congo, where he laboured for many years with much spiritual fruit. Being invalided home, he was summoned by the Propaganda to give an account of the mission, and from this he got the idea of setting down in writing his observations and experiences. He produced a voluminous work, but had hardly finished it when he was again sent on the mission. The manuscript was entrusted by the superiors of the order to Fortunato da Bologna, who rewrote the book in more elegant style, and published it at Bologna in 1687 under the title "Istorica Descrizione de' Tre Regni Congo, Matamba et Angola". The work is profusely illustrated. In the "Bibliotheca Scriptorum Ordinis" Fortunato da Bologna is stated to have rewritten an already published work of Cavazzi, but the "Bibliotheca" seems in error on this point, as may be gathered from Fortunato's prefatory remarks.
Father Cuthbert.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Benedictine Abbey of Kilwinning

From volume 8 of the work.
Located in Ayrshire, Scotland, in the town of the same name, where a church was said to have been founded early in the eighth century by St. Winning. Winning has been identified by some scholars with St. Finnan of Moville, an Irish saint of much earlier date; other authorities say he was a Welshman, called Vynnyn, while the Aberdeen Breviary (published 1507) gives Scotland as his birthplace. What is certain is that there was a Christian church at Kilwinning, and also a monastery of Culdees, several centuries before the foundation of the Benedictine house by Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and a great territorial magnate of the district, somewhere between 1140 and 1162. Timothy Pont, who had seen the cartulary of the abbey, now lost, and who wrote in 1608, gives 1171 as the date, and Richard de Morville (one of the murderers of St. Thomas of Canterbury) as the founder; but the weight of evidence is in favour of Hugh and the earlier date. "The structure of this monastery," says Pont, "was solid and grate, all of freestone cutte, the church fair and staitly after ye modell of yat of Glasgow, with a fair steiple of 7 score foote of height, yet standing quhen I myselve did see it." The length of the church was 225 feet, breadth of the nave sixty-five feet; and the monastic buildings covered several acres.
A community of Tyronensian Benedictines was brought from Kelso; the abbey was soon richly endowed by royal and noble benefactors, possessing granges, large estates, and the tithes of twenty parish churches, and a revenue equivalent to some 20,000 pounds sterling a year. For nearly four centuries Kilwinning remained one of the most opulent and flourishing Scottish monasteries. The last abbot was Gavin Hamilton, who whilst favouring the Reformation doctrines, was a strong partisan of Queen Mary. He was killed in a fight outside Edinburgh in June, 1571. The suppression and destruction of the abbey soon followed and its possessions, held for a time by the families of Glencairn and Raith, were erected in 1603 into a temporal lordship in favour of Hugh, Earl of Eglinton, whose successors still own them. The Earls of Eglinton have taken some pains to preserve the remains of the buildings, which include the great west doorway with window above, the lower part of the south wall of nave, and the tall gable of south transept with its three lancet windows. The "fair steiple" was struck by lightning in 1809, and fell down five years later.
Collections towards a History of the Abbey of Kilwinning in Arch. and Histor. Collect. of Ayr and Wigton, I (Edinburgh, 1878), 115- 222; PONT, Cunninghame, ed. DOBIE (Glasgow, 1876), 254 etc.; HAY, Scotia Sacra in MS. Advoc. Library, Edinburgh, 505; KER, Kilwinning Abbey (Ardrossan, s.d.); WYLIE, Hist. of Mother Lodge, Kilwinning, with Notes on the Abbey, (Glasgow, 1878); GORDON, Monasticon (Glasgow, 1868), 494.
D.O. HUNTER-BLAIR
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Benedict of Peterborough

From volume 2 of the work.
Abbot and writer, place and date of birth unknown; d. 1193. He was educated at Oxford, and was appointed in 1174 chancellor to Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1175 became Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury. As Abbot of Peterborough from 1177 to his death in 1193, he was a learned and able executive. He restored the abbey finances to a sound basis, and was active till his death in completing and beautifying the buildings. Through his personal favour with Richard I he secured for his abbey various rights and privileges. He has been sometimes confused with Benedict of Sansetun, later Bishop of Rochester, vice-chancellor during the absence of King Richard. He had the library enriched by transcriptions of standard works in theology, exegesis, law, science, and poetry. He wrote a history of Becket's "Passion", preserved in part in the work on Becket known as "Quadrilogus", and also, a first-hand account of Becket's "Miracles" (Robertson, "Materials for the History of Thomas Becket", Rolls Series, 1876). He was formerly regarded as the author of "Gesta Henrici II", which Stubbs would identify with the lost "Tricolumnis" of Richard Fitz-Neal, author of the "Dialogus de Scaccario".
Gardiner and Mullinger, Introduction to the Study of Eng. Hist. (London, 1894); Giles, Life and Miracles of St. Thomas of Canterbury, by Benedict, etc. (Caxton Society, 1850).
J. V. Crowne.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Benedict Pereira

From volume 11 of the work.
(PEREYRA, PERERA, PERERIUS)
Benedict Pereira, philosopher, theologian, and exegete, born about 1535, at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain; died 6 March, 1610, at Rome. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and Sacred Scripture in Rome. He published eight works, and left a vast deal of manuscript. (Sommervogel, infra, mentions twelve sets.) The main difficulties of Genesis are met in "Commentariorum et disputationum in Genesim tomi quattuor" (Rome, 1591-99). This is a mine of information in regard to the Deluge, ark of Noe, tower of Babel, etc. and is highly esteemed by Biblical scholars, even men of the critical bias of Richard Simon (Histoire critique du Vieux Testament, III, xii). The "Commentariorum in Danielem prophetam libri sexdecim" (Rome, 1587) are much less diffuse, and evidence the critical acumen, untiring energy, and historical research of the author. Other writings of importance published by Pereira were five volumes of exegetical dissertations on: "Exodus", 137 dissertations (Ingolstadt, 1601); "The Epistle to the Romans", 188 dissertations (Ingolstadt, 1603); "The Apocalypse", 183 dissertations (Lyons, 1606); "The Gospel of St. John", 214 dissertations on the first nine chapters (Lyons, 1608); 144 dissertations on five following chapters (Lyons, 1610). To the fourth volume of the dissertations is appended a curious work of twenty-three dissertations to show that Mohammed was not the Antichrist of the Apocalypse and of Daniel.
SOMMERVOGEL, Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jesus, VI, 499-507; IX, 764; HURTER, Nomenclator, I (Innsbruck, 1892), 182.
WALTER DRUM.