OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Martin Dobrizhoffer

From volume 5 of the work.
Missionary, b. in Graz, Styria, 7 Sept., 1717; d. in Vienna, 17 July 1791. He became a Jesuit in 1736, and twelve years later set out for the missions of South America, where he laboured among the Guaranis and the Abipones for eighteen years. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish possessions in 1767, he returned to his native land. The Empress Maria Theresa frequently sent for Dobrizhoffer that she might hear his adventures from his own lips; and she is said to have taken great pleasure in his cheerful and animated conversation. He is the author of a work in three volumes entitled "Historia de Abiponibus, equestri bellicosaque Paraguaina natione" etc. (Vienna, 1783-1784), a German translation of which, by Professor Keil of the University of Pesth, was published in Vienna the same year. This work is of great ethnological value. In the preface he says, "A seven years residence in the four colonies of the Abipones has afforded me opportunities of closely observing the manners, customs, superstitions, military discipline, slaughters inflicted and received, political and economical regulations, together with the vicissitudes of the colonies". He further declares that what he learned amongst the Paraguayans in the course of eighteen years, what he himself beheld in the colonies of the Indians and the Spaniards, in frequent and long journeys, through woods, mountains, plains and vast rivers, he sets forth, if not in an eloquent and brilliant narrative, certainly in a candid and an accurate one, which is at least deserving of credit. In the course of the work, Dobrizhoffer frequently takes occasion to refute and expose the erroneous statements of other writers respecting the Jesuits in Paraguay, and the malicious calumnies by which the ruin of their institutions in that country was unhappily effected. The English translation (An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, London. 1822), commonly ascribed to Southey, is the work of Sara Coleridge, daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who judged it a performance "unsurpassed for pure mother-English by anything I have read for a long time". Dobrizhoffer in 1733 was appointed preacher to the Court in Vienna, a post which he held till his death.
EDWARD P. SPILLANE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Martin Ignatius Joseph Griffin

From volume 16 of the work.
Journalist, historian, b. at Philadelphia, 23 Oct., 1842; d. there, 10 Nov., 1911. In early manhood he was associated as contributor and editor with various Catholic publications. Appointed in 1872 secretary of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union he founded and edited its organ from 1873 to 1894, first with the title the "I.C.B.U. Journal", and then as "Griffin's Journal". His articles on local Catholic history printed in this "Journal" led to the founding, 22 July, 1884, of the "American Catholic Historical Society" of Philadelphia, of which he was librarian at his death. In January, 1887, he began the publication of the "American Catholic Historical Researches", which he continued to edit till he died. An indefatigable delver into the byways of the past, he collected a large amount of original data that will be of much value and assistance to the historian of the development of the Church in the United States. His most important publications are the "History of Commodore John Barry" (Philadelphia, 1903), and "Catholics and the American Revolution" (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1907-1911). Monographs on the history of old St. Joseph's and several other Philadelphia churches (1881-1882), on Bishop Michael Egan, O.S.F. (1885), Thomas FitzSimons (1887), and "The trial of John Ury" (1899) preserve many details otherwise neglected. Mr. Griffin was also very active in the promotion of the cause of total abstinence, and of the building and loan associations that did so much good in the industrial community of his native city.
American Catholic Historical Researches (Philadelphia, April, 1912); American Catholic Who's Who (St. Louis, 1911); Catholic Standard and Times (Philadelphia), files.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Martin Ferdinand Morris

From volume 10 of the work.
Lawyer and jurist, b. 3 December, 1834, at Washington, D.C.; d. 12 September, 1909, at Washington, D. C. Descended from an Irish Catholic family, he was educated at Georgetown University, from which he was graduated in 1854. On leaving Georgetown, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Frederick, Md., to prepare himself for the priesthood, from which high calling his inclinations from early youth had impelled him, and for which, by reason of his studious habits, scholarly taste, and moral standards, he was in every way fitted. His ambition, however, could not be realized, as the death of his father left him the sole support of his mother and sisters. In 1863, he began the practice of law in Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1867 removed to Washington to enter into partnership with the late Richard T. Merrick. He continued a member of the firm Merrick and Morris until the death of Mr. Merrick (1885), when he formed a partnership with George E. Hamilton, and continued actively to practice his profession, being connected with important litigation both in the local courts and in the Supreme Court, until appointed by President Cleveland an associate Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia upon the establishment of that Court in 1893. Modest, unassuming, almost diffident in manner, he was best adapted to office practice, and yet, when occasion required it, was forceful and successful in the trial of cases. A skilled lawyer, standing high in his profession, judicial labours did not prevent him from taking an active interest in civic and social conditions, or from broadening the scope of his researches into the fields of science, of literature, and of art. Actively interested in his Alma Mater, and in the growth and development of Catholic education, he was one of the founders of Georgetown Law School (1871), then under the direction of the late P. F. Healy, S.J., to-day one of the largest and most successively conducted law schools in the country. In 1877, he received from Georgetown, in recognition of his nobility of character, his broad scholarship, and achievements as a lawyer and judge, the degree of LL.D. He wrote "Lectures on the History of the Development of Constitutional and Civil Liberty" (1808); also numerous monographs and addresses.
GEORGE E. HAMILTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Spire

From volume 14 of the work.
(From the Anglo-Saxon word spir, meaning "a stalk" or "shoot"). A tapering construction — in plan conical, pyramidal, octagonal, or hexagonal — crowning a steeple or tower, or surmounting a building, and usually developed from the cornice; often pierced by ornamental openings and, where there were ribs, enriched with crockets. Sometimes an open lantern was interposed between the steeple, tower, or roof and the spire. On the continent the architects aimed to make the steeple and spire one, merging them into each other, while in England they openly confessed it was a separate structure by masking its point of origin behind a plain or pierced parapet, or ornamental battlements. A spire properly belongs to Pointed architecture and hence has never been fully developed except in Gothic buildings. As early as the twelfth century they took on different forms, and almost everywhere, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, became the terminating construction of every church steeple, tower, or lantern, and also those of secular buildings, more especially in Germany and France. Their decorative value was very great, more particularly in varying and enriching the sky-line of the buildings which they crowned, and by the numerous variations of forms and variety of types employed. These forms from such simple examples as that surmounting the south tower of Chartres Cathedral to that of Burgos, where the whole structure is an openwork of tracery. In England Norman churches were without spires, but with the coming in of Early English short ones were introduced; Decorated Gothic called for much higher ones, and the Perpendicular still higher. The earlier spires were generally built of timber, and they were always so when the building was roofed with wood.
These early timber spires were, as a rule, not very tall, but later they reached a greater elevation; that which crowned old St. Paul's in London is said to have been 527 feet in height. The most lofty spires now in existence — such as those of Salisbury, Coventry, and Norwich — are all of stone. In Central England there are many, and in fact wherever suitable stone was easily obtainable. In the north of England, however, in Scotland, and in Wales among the mountains the bell-gable takes the place of a spire, no doubt because the large area of the thinly populated parishes made it necessary to keep the bells uncovered, so that they might be more widely heard. The most beautiful examples of existing spires are to be seen at Chartres, Reims, Laon, Freiburg, Ratisbon, cologne, Antwerp, Vienna, Burgos, and Salisbury. On some of these buildings there are several spires, in many instances built at different periods: the south spire of Chartres, culminating in a pinnacle 350 feet above the ground, was erected in 1175, while the north spire, with its apex 380 feet above the ground, was not finished until 1513. The so-called spires of the Renaissance and those built by Sir Christopher Wren are not true spires, but merely steeples terminating in a point.
Above illustration: one spire of the Votivkirche, Vienna — Ferstel
CARYL COLEMAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ecclesiastical Emancipation

From volume 5 of the work.
Emancipation, Ecclesiastical.—In ancient Rome emancipation was a process of law by which a slave released from the control of his master, or a son liberated from the authority of his father (patria potestas), was declared legally independent. The earliest ecclesiastical employment of this process was in the freeing of slaves. The Church, unable to change at once the sad condition of the slave, was able, however, to gradually substitute for slavery the milder institution of serfdom, and to introduce in place of the elaborate formalities of the emancipatio the simpler form of the manumissio in ecclesiae (Cod., De his, qui in ecclesia manumittuntur, i, 13), in which a simple statement to that effect by the master before the bishop and the congregation sufficed. The emancipation of a slave was especially necessary as a preliminary to his ordination [c. i (Synod of Poitiers, 1078, can. viii), X, De filiis presbyterorum ordinandis vel non, I, xvii; c. iii (Fourth Synod of Toledo, 633, can. lxxiv), X, De servis non ordinandis et eorum manumissione, I, xviii]. Similarly, the entrance of a son into a religious order, i.e. the taking of solemn vows, or the professio religiose, carries with it in canon law his emancipation from the legal authority (patria potestas) of the father. No positive law, however, can be quoted on this point, nor does modern civil legislation recognize this consequence of religious profession. The canon law recognizes another, purely imitative form of emancipation. This was the release of a pupil of a cathedral school, a domicellaris, from subjection to the authority of the scholasticus, or head of the school. This emancipation took place with certain well-defined ceremonies, known in the old German cathedral schools as Kappengang.
The term emancipation is also applied to the release of a secular ecclesiastic from his diocese, or of a regular from obedience and submission to his former superior, because of election to the episcopate. The petition requesting release from the former condition of service or submission, which the collegiate electoral body, or the newly elected person, must present to the former superior, is called postulatio simplex, in contradistinction to the postulatio sollemnis, or petition to be laid before the pope, in case some canonical impediment prevents the elected person from assuming the episcopal office. The document granting the dismissal from the former relations is called litteroe dimissorioe or emancipatorioe. It is not customary to use the term emancipation for that form of dismissal by which a church is released from parochial jurisdiction, a bishop from subordination to his metropolitan, a monastery or order from the jurisdiction of the bishop, for the purpose of placing such person or body under the ecclesiastical authority next higher in rank, or under the pope himself. This act is universally known as Exemption (q.v.).
JOHANNES BAPTIST SIGMULLER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

From volume 4 of the work.
A French agriculturist, b. at Caen, France, 1731; d. at Sarcelles, near Paris, 1813. At the age of sixteen he went to England, whence in 1754 he emigrated to America, and for many years resided on a farm. In 1780 he was obliged to return to France to settle some of his affairs, and when he went to New York to take passage he was arrested by the English on suspicion of being a spy. After being in confinement for several months he was released and permitted to proceed on his journey unmolested. During his stay in his native land he succeeded in interesting the farmers of Normandy in the cultivation of the potato, and its culture was taken up by them. After a stay of about three years he once more came to America. It was largely due to his description of the wonderful productiveness of the land that several hundred of his countrymen emigrated to America. They established a colony in Pennsylvania, which for a time flourished. It was at last destroyed by the savages and its inhabitants massacred. The American Revolution having come to a close, Crèvecoeur was appointed consul at New York by the French Government, in which capacity he served for a long term. It was while occupying this post that he assisted in the founding of St. Peter's, the first Catholic church in the city, and served as one of its first trustees. He is the author of the following works: "Lettres d'un cultivateur américain" (1784); "Voyage dans la haute Pennsylvanie et dans l'état de New York" (1801). These works have been translated into English and German, and are admired for the beauty of their style. They were very popular throughout France.
DE COURCY AND SHEA, Hist. of Cath. Ch. in U. S. (New York, 1856); FINOTTI, Bib. Cath. Am. (New York, 1872); Cyclop. Am. Biog., II, 8.
THOMAS GAFFNEY TAAFFE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heiligenkreuz

From volume 7 of the work.
(SANCTA CRUX).
An existing Cistercian monastery in the Wienerwald, eight miles north-west of Baden in Lower Austria. It was founded in 1135 by Margrave St. Leopold at the request of his son Otto, Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Morimund in Burgundy and afterwards Bishop of Freising. Its first monks with their abbot, Gottschalk, came from Morimund. Heiligenkreuz was richly endowed by the dukes of Babenberg. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was often imperilled by epidemics, floods, and fires, and suffered severely during the Turkish wars of 1529 and 1683. Nearly all its abbots were noted for both piety and learning. In 1734 the Abbey of St. Gotthard in Hungary was ceded to Heiligenkreuz by Emperor Charles VI, but was taken away and united with the Hungarian Abbey of Zirez in 1778. In its place the monastery of Neukloster at Wiener-Neustadt was joined to Heiligenkreuz in 1880. The church of Heiligenkreuz combines two styles of architecture. The naves and the transept (dedicated 1187) are Romanesque, while the choir (13th century), which is an extension of the original church, is Gothic. The thirteenth-century window paintings of the choir are some of the most beautiful remnants of medieval art. The following Cistercian monasteries received their first monks from Heiligenkreuz: Zwettl in Lower Austria in 1138 (still existing); Czikador in Hungary in 1142 (ceased in 1526); Baumgartenberg in Upper Austria in 1142 (ceased in 1784); Marienberg in Hungary in 1194 (ceased in 1526); Lilienfeld in Lower Austria in 1206 (still existing); Goldenkron in Bohemia in 1263 (ceased in 1785); Neuberg in Styria in 1327 (ceased in 1785). Heiligenkreuz has a library of 50,000 volumes, and its own theological seminary and college. Its 52 priests are engaged in teaching and administering the affairs of the 22 parishes that belong to the monastery.
GSELL in BRUNNER, Ein Cisterzienserbuch (Wurzburg, 1881), 52-116; WATZL, Die Cisterziser von Heiligenkreuz (Graz, 1898); HALUSA in Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Benediktiner und dem Cistercienser-Orden (Brunn, 1902), XXIII, 373-386 and 605-662; LANZ, ibid. (1895), XVI, 40-53.
MICHAEL OTT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Heilsbronn

From volume 7 of the work.
(FONS SALUTIS).
Formerly a Cistercian monastery in the Diocese of Eichstatt in Middle Franconia. It was founded in 1133 by St. Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, and received its first monks with their Abbot Rapatho from the Cistercian monastery of Ebrach in Upper Franconia. It was richly endowed by the dukes of Abenberg and their heirs, the burgraves of Nuremberg. The abbey church contains the sepulchral monuments of most of the burgraves of Nuremberg and the electors of Brandenburg. Heilsbronn was a flourishing monastery until the time of the Reformation. In 1530 Abbot John Schopper founded a monastic school at Heilsbronn, which later became a Protestant school for princes. Under Abbot Schopper (1529-1540) the doctrines of Luther found favour in the monastery. His successor, Sebastian Wagner, openly supported Protestantism. He married and resigned in 1543. In 1549 the Catholic religion was restored at Heilsbronn, but only ostensibly. The last abbot who made any pretense to Catholicity was Melchior Wunderer (1562-1578). The five succeeding abbots were Protestants, and in 1631 Heilsbronn ceased to be an abbey. Its valuable library is at present at Erlangen.
STILLFRIED, Kloster Heilsbroun (Berlin, 1877); MUCK, Geschichte von Kloster Heilsbroun von der Urzeit bis zur Neuzeit (Nordlingen, 1879-80).
MICHAEL OTT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hector Boece

From volume 2 of the work.
(Also BOYCE and BOETHIUS)
Chronicler and one of the founders of the University of Aberdeen, b. at Dundee c. 1465; d. 1536. At Paris he was a student, then Bachelor of Divinity, and finally a professor at the College of Montaigu, whose course had been reorganized on the principles of monastic poverty and server routine by James Standone of Brabant, at one time rector of the university. At the college, Boece formed a lasting friendship with Erasmus. From about 1495, Boece was zealously aiding Wm. Elphinstone, the learned Bishop of Aberdeen, to carry out the provisions of a Bull of Alexander VI, obtained at the request of James IV, chartering a university with all faculties in the city of Aberdeen. Finally, in 1505, having received help from various sources, they founded the collegiate church of St. Mary of the Nativity, later known as King's College, and regular teaching took the place of the occasional lectures of the canons. The organization was modelled upon that of the Universities of Paris and Orléans. The foundation was to support, on meagre stipends, four doctors in the respective faculties, two teaching masters, five student masters, thirteen poor scholars, eight chaplains, and four choristers. Boece was principal and read lectures on divinity and on medicine. History was not regularly taught, but both Elphinstone and Boece made collections of materials. In 1527, Boece received a pension of £50 Scots, and, from 1529 to 1534, a like amount, to be paid annually until he should obtain a benefice of 100 marks Scots. Besides his principalship, he held the offices of Canon of Aberdeen, and Rector of Tyrie.
Boece published at Paris, 1522, "Lives of the Bishops of Murthlack and Aberdeen", about a third of which is devoted to Elphinstone (d. 1514). In 1527 appeared, also at Paris, his "Scotorum Historiæ" in seventeen books. Boece was preceded in the field of published Scottish history only by the learned work of Mair. The Scottish translation of this work by Bellenden, in 1536, was later used by Holinshed and thus indirectly by Shakespeare. As a historian, Boece has been praised for elegance, patriotism, and love of freedom; and most severely arraigned, even by contemporaries, for his credulity in the matter of historic origins. His literary honesty attacked in his own day, has more recently been defended. The impetus which he gave to historical studies at Aberdeen has been of lasting effect.
MACKAY in Dict. Nat. Biog.; HENDERSON, Scottish Vernacular Literature (London, 1898); MORLEY, English Writers, VII; Episcoporum Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium per Hectorem Boetium Vitæ (reprinted by Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1825, and by New Spalding Club, 1895, with tr.); The History and Chronicle of Scotland, tr. BELLENDEN (1821).
AUGUSTUS VAN CLEEF
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. John Cantius

From volume 8 of the work.
Born at Kenty, near Oswiecim, Diocese of Krakow, Poland, 1412 (or 1403); died at Krakow, 1473, and was buried there under the church of St. Anne; his feast is on 20 October. He was the son of Stanislaus and Anne who were pious country people; he received his primary education at his native town, and then being sent by his parents to the Academy of Krakow, he soon impressed his professors and colleagues with his pleasant and amiable disposition; always happy, but serious, humble, and godly, he won the hearts of all who came in contact with him,. Having made excellent progress in the study of philosophical and theological sciences, he was graduated first as bachelor, then as master and doctor, was ordained priest and then appointed professor of theology at the Academy of Krakow, from where he was sent, after a short time, by his superiors to olkusz, Diocese of Krakow, to be parish priest. Being afraid of the great responsiblity of parish work, he very soon left the parish, and was again appointed professor of Sacres Scripture at the Academy of Krakow, which position he held without interruption until his death. As testified by Michael Miechowita, the medieval Polish historian and the saint's first biographer, extreme humility and charity were conspicuous in his life; he took as his motto:
   Conturbare cave: non est placare suave,
   Infamare cave; nam revocare grave.
He distributed to the poor all the money and clothes he had, retaining only what was absolutely necessary to support himself. He slept but little, and on the floor, ate very sparingly, and was a total abstainer from meat after he became a doctor. He made one pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the desire of becoming a martyr among the Turks, and four pilgrimages to Rome on foot. Durng his life he performed various miracles, which were multiplied after his death at his tomb. He was canonized by Clement XIII in 1767. The Roman Breviary distinguishes him with three hymns; he is the only confessor not a bishop who is thus honoured. J. Godrycz.