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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Metrophanes of Smyrna

From volume 10 of the work.
A leader of the faithful Ignatian bishops at the time of the Photian schism (867). Baronius (Ann. Ecci., ad an. 843, I) says that his mother was the woman who was bribed to bring a false accusation of rape against the Patriarch Methodius I (842-846) during the Iconoclast troubles. If this be true he was a native of Constantinople. In 857, when Ignatius was deposed, Metrophanes was already Metropolitan of Smyrna. He was strongly opposed to Photius. For a thort time he wavered, as Photius promised not to attack Ignatius' rights, but, as soon as he found how little the intruder kept his word, he went back to his former attitude, from which nothing could make him waver again. Metrophanes was the leader of the bishops who excommunicated Photius in 858; they declared themselves excommunicate if ever they recognized him. This somewhat rash pledge explains his attitude later. He was chained and imprisoned, then sent into exile by the Government. After Photius' first fall (867) Metrophanes came back to his see. He was present at the eighth general council (Constantinople, IV, 869), opened the sixth session with a speech and was one of the judges who condemned Photius. When Ignatius died in 877 and Photius succeeded lawfully with the consent of John VIII, Metrophanes still refused to recognise him, for which conduct he was again banished. At the Photian Synod of 879 a certain Nicetas appears as Metropolitan of Smyrna; meanwhile Metrophanes lay sick at Constantinople. In 880 as he still refused to have anything to do with Photius he was excommunicated by the papal legates. After that he disappears. It is uncertain whether he returned to his see at Photius' second fall or whether he died in exile. A letter of his to a patrician, Manuel, is extant, written in 870, in which he gives his reasons for his opposition to Photius (in Mansi, XIV, 414). Other works attributed to him but strongly Photian in tone ("Against the new Manicheans", i. e., the Latins, and "On the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father alone") are certainly spurious. See Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Græca (Hamburg, 1790-1809), XI, 700.
Hergenröther, Photius (Regensburg, 1867), vols. I and II, passim.
ADRIAN FORTESCUE.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Metropolitan

From volume 10 of the work.
In ecclesiastical language, refers to whatever relates to the metropolis, the principal city, or see, of an ecclesiastical province; thus we speak of a metropolitan church, a metropolitan chapter, a metropolitan official, etc. The word metropolitan, used without any qualificative, means the bishop of the metropolitan see, now usually styled archbishop. The term metropolite (Metropolites, Metropolita) is also employed, especially in the Eastern Churches (see ARCHBISHOP). The entire body of rights and duties which canon law attributes to the metropolitan, or archbishop as such, i.e., not for his own diocese, but for those suffragan to him and forming his ecclesiastical province, is called the metropoliticum.
The effective authority of metropolitans over their provinces has gradually diminished in the course of centuries, and they do not now exercise even so much as was accorded them by the Council of Trent; every bishop being more strongly and more directly bound to Rome is so much the less bound to his province and its metropolitan. The jurisdiction of the latter over his suffragan dioceses is in a sense ordinary, being established by law; but it is mediate and restricted to the objects provided for by the canons. Since the Council of Trent the rights of the metropolitan have been reduced to the following:
FERRARIS, Prompta Bibliotheca, s. v. Archiepiscopus; SAGMULLER Lehrbuck des kathol. Kirchenrechts (Freiburg, 1909), 391; BOUIX, De Episcopo, I (Paris, 1859), 441.
A. BOUDINHON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean Allemand

From volume 1 of the work.
​Allemand, Jean, a French priest and Orientalist, b. 19 November, 1799; d. 9 August, 1833. After his ordination he was made professor of Sacred Scripture in the Roman Seminary, Consultor of the Congregation of the Index, Censor of the Academy of the Catholic Religion, and editor of the "Annales des sciences religieuses". He wrote on Purgatory against Dudley, and a warning against the hieroglyphic discoveries of Champollion (Rome, 1834).
A. J. Maas.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean Astruc

From volume 2 of the work.
Born at Sauves, 19 March, 1684; died at Paris, 5 May, 1766. He was the son of a converted Protestant minister. After he had taught medicine at Montpellier, he became a member of the Medical Faculty at Paris. His medical writings, however numerous, are now forgotten, but a work published by him anonymously has secured for him a permanent reputation. This book was entitled: "Conjectures sure les memories originauz dont il paroit que Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Génèse. Avec des remarques qui appuient ou qui éclairscissent ses conjectures" (Brussels). Astruc himself did not inted to deny the Mosaic authorship of Genesis; but his work created an era in Biblical inquiry, occasioning the modern critical theories.
A. J. Maas
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean Baptiste Abbeloos

From volume 1 of the work.
​Abbeloos, Jean Baptiste, orientalist, b. 15 January, 1836, at Goyck, Belgium; d. 25 February, 1906. He was educated in the seminary of Malines, 1849–60. After his ordination to the priesthood, 22 September, 1860, he studied at Louvain and Rome, devoting himself especially to Syriac language and literature. He received the degree of Doctor in Theology from the University of Louvain, 15 July, 1867, spent the following winter in London, and on his return to Belgium was appointed Professor of Holy Scripture in the seminary of Malines. Failing health obliged him to abandon the work of teaching, and he became, in 1876, pastor at Duffel. He was appointed in 1883 vicar-general under Cardinal Dechamps and held that position until 10 February, 1887, when he was appointed Rector of the University of Louvain. During his administration the University grew rapidly in equipment and organization. Abbeloos, although in the midst of his official duties, was always the scholar and the man of high ideals, whose word and example stimulated younger men to earnest work. Modest and unassuming, he realized none the less the significance of his position as rector of a great Catholic university, and he exerted his influence in behalf of Church and country so effectually that his retirement in 1900 occasioned regret both in the University and in the whole kingdom. His published works are: "De vita et scriptis S. Jacobi Sarugensis" (Louvain, 1867); "Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum" (Paris and Louvain, 1872-77); "Acta Sancti Maris" (Brussels and Leipzig, 1885); "Acta Mar Kardaghi Martyris" (Brussels, 1900).
Colinet, in Le Muréon, VII. 159 (1906); Caeymaex, in Revue bibliographique Belge, 30 April, 1906.
E. A. Pace.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean Bagot

From volume 2 of the work.
Theologian, born at Rennes, in France, 9 July, 1591, died at Paris, 23 August, 1664. He entered the Society of Jesus, 1 July, 1611, taught belles-lettres for many years at various colleges of France, philosophy for five years, theology for thirteen years, and became theologian to the General of the Society. In 1647 he published the first part of his work "Apologeticus Fidei" entitled "Institutio Theologica de vera Religione". In 1645 the second part, "Demonstratio dogmatum Christianorum", appeared, and in 1646 "Dissertationes theologicae" on the Sacrament of Penance. In his "Avis aux Catholiques", Bagot attacked the new doctrine the new doctrine on grace, directing against it also his "Lettre sur la conformite de S. Augustin". In 1653 his "Libertatis et gratiae defensio" was published.
In 1655 Rousse, Curé of Saint Roch (or Masure, the Curé of St. Paul's), published a little work entitled "De l'obligation des fidèles de se confesser a leur cure, suivant le chapitre 21 du concile general de Latran". Père Bagot answered this in his "Défense du droit éppiscopal et de la liberté des fidèles", which he afterwards translated into Latin. A controversy arose, in which various ecclesiastics, including Mgr. de Marca, Archbishop of Toulouse, took sides against Bagot. The work was referred to the faculty of theology at Paris, which censured some of the propositions. Bagot, however, defended his doctrine before this assembly with the result that the censure was removed. he answered his opponents in the "Réponse du P. Bagot". On his return from Rome he devoted the remaining years of his life to the congregation of the Blessed Virgin, and died superior of the professed house at Paris.
Hurter, Nomenclator, II, 67; de Backer, Bibl. des escriv. de la c. de J., I, 32; Sommervogel, Bibl. de la c. de J., I, 774; Idem in Dict. de theol. cath.
G. E. Kelly.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean Baptiste Gonet

From volume 6 of the work.
Theologian, b. about 1616 at Beziers, in the province of Languedoc; d. there 24 Jan., 1681. From his early boyhood he was devout and fond of study. He received his primary education in his native place, and there at the age of seventeen entered the Order of St. Dominic. After his religious profession he was sent to the University of Bordeaux, where with unusual ability he devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology, winning all honours in the customary examinations before advancement. Having received the doctorate he was appointed to the chair of scholastic theology in the university, in which capacity he proved himself a brilliant theologian and an exceptionally gifted teacher. In 1671 he was elected provincial of his province; on the expiration of his term of office, he resumed the professorship of theology, holding it till 1678, when ill-health obliged him to return to his native place. As a theologian and academic disputant Gonet ranks among the most prominent figures of his time. An ardent defender and exponent of the teaching of St. Thomas and an illustrious representative of Neo-Thomism, he set forth the traditional teaching of his school with astonishing clearness and skill, with some bitterness against the representatives of different views. He lived at a time when theological discussion was rife, when men, weary of treading beaten paths, had set themselves to constructing systems of their own. His zeal, however, for the integrity of Thomistic teaching, and his bitter aversion from doctrinal novelty sometimes carried him beyond the teaching of his master, and led him to adopt opinions on certain questions of theology especially those dealing with predestination and reprobation which were rejected by many learned theologians of his own school. In 1669 he published a work on the morality of human acts, the purpose of which was to defend the Thomistic doctrine at once against what he calls the laxities of the modern casuists, and the rigorism of the Jansenists. In this treatise he defends the probabiliorism of his school, and in the heat of the controversy is unsparing in his denunciations of the doctrine of probabilism. His principal work is the "Clypeus theologiae thomisticae contra novos ejus impugnatores" (16 vols, Bordeaux, 1659-69). From 1669 to 1681 no less than nine editions of this work appeared, the latest is that of Paris 1875. Shortly before his death he published his "Manuale thomistarum", which is an abridgment of his larger work.
JOSEPH SCHROEDER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean-Pierre Minkelers

From volume 10 of the work.
Inventor of illuminating gas; b. at Maastricht, Holland, 1748; d. there 4 July, 1824. At the age of sixteen, in 1764, he went to Louvain, where he studied theology and philosophy at the Collège du Faucon, in which he became professor of natural philosophy in 1772. At this time the question of aerostats and Montgolfiers was occupying the mind of scientists, and the Duc d'Arenberg, a Mæcenas of science and art, engaged a committee to examine into the question of the best gas for balloon purposes. Minkelers was on this committee, and published in 1784, after many experiments, a work entitled "Mémoire sur l'air inflammable tiré de différentes substances, rédigé par M. Minkelers, professeur de philosophie au collège du Faucon, université de Louvain" (Louvain, 1784). As an appendix to this memoir there was a "Table de gravités spécifiques des différentes espèces d'air", by T.F. Thysbaert, a member of the committee. In his memoir Minkelers tells us how he made his precious discovery: from the very beginning of his experiments he had had the idea of enclosing oil in the barrel of a gun and heating it in a forge. Under action of the heat the oil dissolved and gave place to a remarkably light gas, having other advantageous qualities. Having proved that oil gas was the best for balloons, Minkelers used it for many balloons which rose rapidly and travelled great distances in the neighbourhood of Louvain. As we learn from his pupil von Hulstein, who was in his class in 1785, Minkelers at times used this same gas to light his workshop. Moreover, the drift of his memoir proves clearly that in its inventor's eyes the great combustibility of the gas was one of its leading qualities. When Joseph II, in 1788, transferred the University of Louvain to Brussels, Minkelers continued as professor, but when it was removed back to Louvain he refused to return. He resigned in 1794 and was appointed professor of physics and chemistry at the Central School of Maastricht, 4 July, 1824.
MINKELERS, Mémoire sur l'air inflammable tiré de différentes substances (Louvain, 1784); DE RAS, Historisch Verslag over J. P. Minkelers (Maastricht, 1897); VERHAEGEN, Les cinquante dernières années de l'université de Louvain (Liège, 1894); DE BOCKE, De vervaardiging van lichtgas uit steenkolen (Alkmaar, 1882).
D. NYS
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean-Pierre Nicéron

From volume 11 of the work.
A French lexicographer, born in Paris, 11 March, 1685, died there, 8 July, 1738. After his studies at the Collège Mazarin, he joined the Barnabites (August, 1702). He taught rhetoric in the college of Loches, and soon after at Montargis, where he remained ten years. While engaged in teaching, he made a thorough study of modern languages. In 1716 he went to Paris and devoted his time to literary work. His aim was to put together, in a logically arranged compendium, a series of biographical and bibliographical articles on the men who had distinguished themselves in literature and sciences since the time of the Renaissance. It required long research as well as great industry. After eleven years he published the first volume of his monumental work under the title of "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des hommes illustres de la république des lettres avec le catalogue raisonné de leurs ouvrages" (Paris, 1727). Thirty-eight volumes followed from 1728 to 1738. The last volume from his pen was published two years after the author's death (Paris, 1740). Father Oudin, J.-B. Michauld, and Abbé Goujet later contributed three volumes to the collection. A German translation of it was published in 1747-1777. It has been often repeated that this work lacks method, ana that the length of many articles is out of proportion to the value of the men to whom they are devoted. This criticism, however true it may be, does not impair the genuine qualities and importance of the whole work. Even now, these "Mémoires" contain a great amount of information that could hardly be obtained elsewhere. Moreover, they refer to sources which, but for our author, would be easily overlooked or ignored. Besides this original composition, he translated various books from English, among which should be mentioned: "Le voyage de Jean Ovington à Surate et en divers autres lieux de l'Asie et de l'Afrique, avec l'histoire de la révolution arrivée dans le royaume de Golconde" (Paris, 1725); "La Conversion de l'Angleterre au Christianisme comparée avec sa prétendue réformation" (Paris, 1729).
D'ARTIGNY, Mémoires d'histoire et de littérature, I (Paris, 1749); GOUJET, Eloge de J. P. Nicéron in vol. XL of Mémoires (Paris, 1840); CHAUFFEPLÉ, Dict. historique et critique (Amsterdam, 1850-56).
LOUIS N. DELAMARRE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Jean Balue

From volume 2 of the work.
A French cardinal, b. probably c. 1421, in Poitou; d. 5 October, 1491, at Ripatransone (March of Ancona). He has been frequently, but erroneously, called "de la Balue". He was graduated as licentiate in law about 1457, and at an early date entered the ecclesiastical state. He became so intimate with Jacques Juvénal des Ursins, Bishop of Poitiers (1449-57), that the latter named him executor of his will. The charge that in this capacity he misappropriated funds destined for the poor must be received with reserve. After the death of Des Ursins, Balue entered the service of John de Beauvau, Bishop of Angers (1451-67), who made him vicar-general (1461). In 1462, he accompanied his bishop to Rome, and thenceforth his career was marked by clever and unscrupulous intrigue. On his return, he was introduced by Charles de Melun to King Louis XI (1461-83), and, owing to the royal favour, his rise both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs was rapid. In 1464, Louis XI made him his almoner; the same year, Balue received the Abbeys of Fécamp and Saint-Thierri (Reims) and in 1465, that of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, two priories, and the Bishopric of Evreux. Having obtained the deposition of his benefactor, Beauvau, from the See of Angers, he secured the see for himself (1467). His intrigues in the affair of the Pragmatic Sanction procured him, at the request of Louis XI, the cardinalate, to which Paul II (1464-71) reluctantly raised him (1467). Guilty of high treason, he was arrested two years later (1469) with his accomplice William d'Haraucourt, Bishop of Verdun (1456-1500). As a cardinal, he could not be judged by a civil tribunal, but the negotiations between the pope and the king, regarding his trial, remaining fruitless, he was held captive by Louis XI for eleven years (1469-80). The baseless story of his detention in an iron cage originated in Italy in the sixteenth century. After many fruitless attempts, the pope in 1480 obtained Balue's freedom through Cardinal Julian de la Rovere, later Pope Julius II (1503-13). Balue went to Rome with the cardinal, was restored to all his rights and dignities (1482) and was named Bishop of Albano (1483). At the death of Louis XI (1483) he came, at the request of Charles VIII, as papal legate to France and left it as French ambassador to Rome (1485). Balue succeeded, moreover, in securing, besides several benefices, the nomination as Protector of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and Guardian to Prince Djem, brother of the Sultan of Turkey. But his end was near; he died in 1491 and was buried at Rome. He had attained numerous dignities and amassed wealth, but dishonoured the Church.
Forgeot, Jean Balue (Paris, 1895); Pastor, Gesch. Der Papste (Freiburg, 1904), 4th ed., II, 372-375; tr. IV, 102-105 (London, 1894).
N.A. WEBER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Commissariat of the Holy Land

From volume 4 of the work.
In the Order of Friars Minor the territory or district assigned to a commissary, whose duty it is to collect alms for the maintenance of the Holy Places in Palestine committed to the care of the Friars Minor; also, in a more restricted sense, the convent where the aforesaid commissary resides. The commissary, who is always a member of the order, receives his appointment by letters patent from the minister general, to whom he is bound to transmit every year a detailed account of the alms received. These aims may not, under any circumstances, without express permission of the Holy See, be applied to other purposes, however pious and meritorious, under grave ecclesiastical penalties. The alms taken up by the bishops at the annual collections for the Holy Land are conveyed to the custos in Jerusalem through the commissary in whose district the dioceses of the bishops are situated. There are at present forty commissariats throughout the Christian world. The most ancient is that of Naples, founded in 1333, when Robert of Anjou redeemed the Holy Places from the Sultan of Egypt. In English-speaking countries there are seven - three in the united States, one in Canada, one in Great Britain, one in Ireland, and one in Australia. The Commissariat of the United States was founded in 1882, and the commissary resides in the new convent of Mount St. Sepulchre, Washington, D. C. In 1902, commissariats were erected in California and at St. Louis.
Conspectus Omnium Missionum Ord. FF. Minorum exhibitus Capitulo Gererali Romœ habito die 30 Maii, 1903 (Rome, 1903); Regula et Constitutiones Generales Fratr. Minorum (Rome, 1897); several Bulls and Briefs issued at different periods by the Holy See, of which the following are the principal SIXTUS V, Nostri pastoralis (13 Dec., 1589); PAUL V. Cœlestis Regis (22 Jan., 1618); URBAN VIII, Alias a felicis (18 June, 1634) in Bull. Rom., XV, 320 sqq.; BENEDICT XIV, Emanarunt nuper (20 Aug., 1743) in Bullar. Benedict. XIV (Prato, 1845), I, 313; Pius VI, Inter cætera (31 July, 1778) in Bull. Rom. Cont. (Turin), VI, pt. I 505; LEO XIII, Salvatoris (26 Dec., 1887). See also S. C. S. Officii (28 June, 1876); S. C. Prop. Fide (20 Feb., 1891) in Collectanea S. C. Prop., n. 1632, 1638.
GREGORY CLEARY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Comana

From volume 4 of the work.
A titular see of Asia Minor. According to ancient geographers, Comana was situated in Cappadocia (Cataonia). Eustathius (Comment. ad Dionys., 694) surnames it Chryse, "Golden". Another surname in epigraphy is Hieropolis, owing to a famous temple of the Syrian goddess Enyo or Ma. Strabo and Caesar visited it; the former (XI, 521; XII, 535, 537) enters into long details about its position on the Sarus (Seihoun), the temple and its hieroduli. St. Basiliscus was put to death at Comana and was buried there; according to Palladius, the historian of St. Chrysostom, he was bishop of the city, but this is very doubtful. Its bishop, Elpidius, was present at the Council of Nicaea, in 325. Leontius, a Semi-Arian, held the see in the time of the Emperor Jovian. Heraclius appeared at Chalcedon in 451: Comana was then a suffragan of Militene, the metropolis of Armenia Secunda; since then it figures as such in most of the "Notitiae episcopatuum" to the twelfth century. Two other bishops are known: Hormizes, or Mormisdas, about 458 (letter to the Emperor Leo; see also Photius, Biblioth., Cod. 51) and Theodorus at the Fifth Ecumenical Council, in 553. The ruins of Comana are visible ten miles north-west of Guksun (Cocussus), in the vilayet of Adana (Lequien, I, 447; Ramsay, Hist. Geogr. of Asia Minor, passim). Another Comana, suffragan of Neocaesarea, was situated in Pontus Polemiacus; it had also a temple of Ma and was surnamed Hierocaesarea. It was captured by Sulla, 83 B.C. Six bishops are mentioned by Lequien (I, 517); the first is St. Alexander the Charcoal-Seller, consecrated by St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker. This town is to-day Gomenek, or Gomanak, a village south-west of Neocaesarea (Niksar), in the vilayet of Sivas. Lequien (I, 1009) gives another Comana in Pamphylia Prima, suffragan of Side; the true name is Conana. Zoticus, who lived at the time of Montanus, was Bishop of Conana, or of Comama, not of Comana in Cappadocia. Cosmas of Conana appeared at Constantinople in 680. Conana is to-day Gunen, in the vilayet of Adana.
S. Pétridès.