OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ranulf Higden

From volume 7 of the work.
(HYDON, HYGDEN, HIKEDEN.)
Benedictine chronicler; died 1364. He was a west-country man, and was professed a monk at the Abbey of St. Werburg, Chester, in 1299. Beyond this nothing is recorded of his personal life and he is known only by his great work, the "Polychronicon", a universal history down to his own times. As it was the most complete history available during the fourteenth century, it enjoyed great popularity during that and the following age; though even the contemporary portion, in which Higden wrote the history of his own times down to 1342, is of no remarkable value. It was translated into English by John of Trevisa in 1387, and this translation was printed by Caxton in 1482, and by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495. A later translation, made early in the fifteenth century, has been published in the Rolls Series, in nine volumes. The introductions by the editors contain all available information and describe in detail most of the extant manuscripts, of which more than one hundred are known to exist. It was long believed that Higden, in compiling the "Polychronicon", had used an earlier work, the "Polycratica tempora" of one Roger of Chester, ending in the year 1314, though with a supplement down to 1339, but the editors of the "Polychronicon" have almost conclusively proved that "Roger of Chester" was in reality Ranulf Higden himself, who was commonly quoted simply as "Cestrensis". The error of a scribe in substituting Roger for Ranulf easily gave rise to the mistake. The following are works written by or attributed to Higden, still remaining in manuscript: "Speculum curatorum", written in 1340 (Balliol); "Ars Componendi Sermones" (Bodleian); "Paedagogicon" (Sion College); "Distinctiones Theologicae" (Lambeth); "Abbreviationes Chronicorum", attributed to John Rochefort. Other treatises are assigned to Higden by Bale, some, like the "Expositio super Job", "In Cantica Canticorum", "Sermones per annum", "Determinationes super Compendio", and "In litteram calendarii", without much probability; others are merely extracts from the "Polychronicon".
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden monachi Cestrensis, with the English translations of John of Trevisa and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century in Rolls Series (London, 1865-86), vols. I-II, ed. BABINGTON, III-IX, ed. LUMBY; HARDY, Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1862-71); GAIRDNER, Early Chroniclers of England (London, 1879); KINGSFORD in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v. For a fuller bibliography see CHEVALIER, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age (Paris, 1905).
EDWIN BURTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Raoul Glaber

From volume 6 of the work.
Benedictine chronicler; b. in Burgundy before 1000; d. at Cluny about 1050. In early boyhood he was so wayward and mischievous that his uncle, a monk, to safeguard him, forced him to enter the monastery of St-Léger de Champeaux at the age of twenty. However, he adopted only the monastic habit. He tells us that through pride he resisted and disobeyed his superiors, and quarrelled with his brethren. Finally he was expelled. He then entered the monasteries of Notre-Dame du Moutier and St-Benignus at Dijon. Abbot William of Dijon, who appreciated Raoul's literary talents, became his warm friend and took him in 1028 as his companion on a journey to Suza in Italy. Yielding again to his roving disposition, Glaber quietly ran away and entered the monastery of St-Germain d'Auxerre. Thanks to his learning, he was sure of a refuge, as he tells us, wherever he chose to go. Judging, then, by the mediocre talent displayed in his writings, this fact alone shows us to what depths literary culture had sunk in his time. The monks at St-Germain got him to restore or compose the inscriptions on the numerous altars in their church, and on the tombs of the saints who were buried in it. When this was done his wanderings began again, and he tried the religious life at Beza, and at Cluny under St. Odilo. He seems at this time to have acquired with increasing years a disposition more in keeping with his profession, and he died at Cluny about 1050. His was a proud, indocile, restless spirit. From his writings we learn that he always had a lively faith, but was extraordinarily superstitious. Of his works there remain: "Wilhelmi abbatis gestorum liber", the life of his superior at Dijon, printed in Acta SS., 1 Jan., 57 sqq.; and his "Chronicle", for which he is chiefly remembered. This is a history of the world, as he knew it, from the year 900 till 1045. It was written in Latin, partly at Cluny and partly at St-Germain. Glaber is quite devoid of literary style; and critical spirit he has none, the most trivial events and tales being put on exactly the same plane as the most important facts. His chronology and geography are quite deficient; yet, despite all its faults, the work is interesting and useful, as it gives us an insight into the customs and morals of an age when Christianity on the continent had reached a very low ebb.
A. A. MacErlean.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ranulf de Glanville

From volume 6 of the work.
Chief Justiciar of England; b. at Stratford, Suffolk, England, date unknown; d. before Acre, Palestine, 1190. He was of a baronial house which got its name from Glanville, in Normandy, and which in England held property in Norfolk and Suffolk. His father was William de Glanville, of whom he was a younger son, though eventually, on the death of an elder brother, he inherited the family estates and honours. Both before and after his appointments to the judicial bench, he held the shrievalty of various counties, which seems to betoken employment in the Exchequer; in particular he was Sheriff of the great County of York from 1163 till the death of King Henry II, save a short break, and in 1173 he became Sheriff of Lancashire. In the latter year, in concert with William the Lion, King of Scots, and the French king, there broke out the great rebellion of King Henry's sons against their father, and in the following year the Scottish king entered England with a mighty host, King Henry being then in Poitou. However, in July, Robert Stuteville, Sheriff of Yorkshire, and Glanville, the latter doubtless at the head of the men of Lancashire, encountered the invaders near Alnwick and utterly routed them, King William himself becoming Glanville's prisoner.
In 1176 we find Glanville a justice itinerant, and in 1180 he became Chief Justiciar of England. He had now reached the zenith of royal favour, which position he kept throughout the remainder of Henry's reign, being on occasion employed on various embassies, negotiations, and warlike expeditions, and in 1182 was appointed an executor of the king's will. In 1189 Henry II died. At the coronation of his successor, Richard I, the same year, Chief Justiciar Glanville was present, and when that prince took the cross, Glanville joined him, contributing a large sum towards the crusade. In the autumn of 1190 he died at the siege of Acre, a victim to the unwholesomeness of the climate. By his wife, Bertha, a daughter of a neighbouring Suffolk landowner, Theobald de Valognes, he left three daughters. Glanville is the reputed author of a celebrated work entitled "Tractatus de Legibus et de Consuetudinibus Regni Angliae", the oldest known treatise on English jurisprudence, more likely written by his illustrious nephew and secretary, Hubert Walter. Furthermore, he founded two abbeys, both in Suffolk, viz., Butley, for Black Canons, in 1171, and Leiston, for White Canons, in 1183; also a leper hospital at Somerton, in Norfolk.
C. T. Boothman.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Raphael Badius

From volume 2 of the work.
A Florentine Dominican of the seventeenth century. He was deeply versed in Tuscan and Florentine antiquities, and his researches made him particularly conversant with quaint and curious matters of history and hagiography. He rendered valuable assistance to the Jesuit Fathers, Henschen and Papebroch, in their labours on the "Acta Santorum", as they themselves acknowledge (T. II, Junii, ad diem X, de Joanne Dominici, p. 395, n. 6). As Chronicler of the Convent of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, he was also known to the historian and bibliographer Cinellus, who makes frequent and grateful mention of the learned Dominican's helpful knowledge of the literature and writers of Florence (Bibb. Volante, Scanzia VI, 88; XII, 106). In 1681, he was Dean of the University of Florence. Quétif-Echard, Scriptores Ord. Proed. (Paris, 1721), II, 741)
John R. Volz.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Raphael Semmes

From volume 13 of the work.
Naval officer, b. in Charles County, Maryland, U.S.A., 27 September, 1809; d. at Point Clear, Alabama, 26 August, 1877. His family were descendants from one of the original Catholic colonists of Maryland, from which state he was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy 1 April, 1826. He served until 1832, when he was given leave of absence extending until July, 1835, during which time he studied law and was admitted to practice. Rejoining the navy, he served with distinction, attaining the rank of commander, until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he resigned and cast his lot with the seceding state of Alabama, of which he became a citizen in 1841. He was appointed commander in the Confederate States Navy, 25 March 1861; Captain, 21 August, 1862; Rear-Admiral, 10 February, 1865; and retired to civil life after the surrender of the forces under General J. E. Johnston at Greensboro, North Carolina, 26 April, 1865. As commander of the Confederate privateer Sumter he destroyed, during six months in 1861, eighteen ships, and the next year, taking command of the Alabama, he began the famous cruise during which he captured sixty-nine vessels and inflicted a blow on the sea-carrying trade of the United States from which it has not yet recovered. After the Alabama was sunk off the French coast by the Kearsarge, 19 June, 1864, he escaped to England, whence he later returned to Virginia and was engaged in the defenses about Richmond. At the end of the war he went to his home in Mobile, Alabama, and opened a law office. He also edited a paper, and for a time was a professor in the Louisiana Military Institute. His destruction of the mercantile marine during his cruise in the privateer Alabama so embittered northern public opinion against him that, although he was pardoned with other prominent Confederate leaders under the amnesty proclamation of President Johnson, his political disabilities were never removed. He was the author of "Service Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War" (1851); "The Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico" (1852); "The Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter" (1864); and "Memoirs of Services Afloat during the War between the States" (1869).
[Note: It is inaccurate to call the Sumter and Alabama "privateers", as they were warships commissioned by the Confederate States of America.]
FUREY in U. S. Hist. Soc. Records and Studies (New York, 1911); Morning Star (New Orleans), files; Nat. Cyclo. Am. Biog., s. v.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Rodríguez Sanchez de Arévalo

From volume 1 of the work.
A learned Spanish bishop. b. 1404, in the diocese of Segovia; d. 4 October, 1470. After studying law at Salamanca for ten years and there graduating as Doctor, he became secretary to John II and Henry IV, Kings of Castile. They employed him as envoy on various missions, notably to the Holy See apropos of the Council of Basle, whose parliamentary theories he opposed. After the elevation of Calixtus III, he remained at Rome, became Bishop of Oviedo in Spain, and later commander of the papal fortress, the Castle of St. Angelo, under Paul II, who transferred him successively to the Spanish sees of Zamora, Calahorra, and Palencia. His writings, mostly unedited, are in the Vatican and at Padua, and deal with ecclesiastical and political matters. The following have been printed: "Speculum Vitae Humanae" (Rome, 1468), a popular work, frequently reprinted in the next two centuries; it treats of the lights and shadows of the various estates of life; "Historia Hispanica," from the earliest times to 1469 (Rome, 1470), reprinted in the first volume of A. Schott's "Hispania Illustrata"; "De Monarchia Orbis et de origine et differentiâ principatus imperialis et regalis" (Rome, 1521), in which he asserts for the Pope the sole right to punish kings. His bold reproofs of certain ecclesiastical dignitaries caused Matthaeus Flaccus to put him down as a forerunner of Luther, but quite unjustly, as Niccolo Antonio has shown in his "Bibliotheca Hispanica Vetus" (II, 397, 608, 614).
STANONICK in Kirchenlex., I, 1272; PASTOR, Gesch. d. Paepste, I, 392, and II, 333, 342.
THOMAS J. SHAHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Robert of Jumièges

From volume 13 of the work.
Archbishop of Canterbury (1051-2). Robert Champart was a Norman monk of St. Ouen at Rouen and was prior of that house in 1037 he was elected Abbot of Jumièges. As abbot he began to build the fine Norman abbey-church, and at this time he was able to be of service to St. Edward the Confessor, then an exile. When Edward returned to England as king in 1043 Robert accompanied him and was made Bishop of London in 1044. In this capacity he became the head of the Norman party in opposition to the Saxon party under Godwin, and exerted supreme influence over the king. In 1051 Robert was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and went to Rome for his pall, but the appointment was very unpopular among the English clergy who resented the intrusion of a foreigner into the metropolitan see. For a time he was successful in opposing Godwin even to the extent of instigating his exile, but when Godwin returned in 1052 Robert fled to Rome and was outlawed by the Wirenagemot. The pope reinstated him in his see, but he could not regain possession of it, and William of Normandy made his continued exclusion one of his pretexts for invading England. The last years of his life were spent at Jumièges, but the precise date of his death has not been ascertained, though Robert de Torigni states it as 26 May, 1055. The valuable liturgical MS. Of the "Missal of Robert of Jumièges", now at Rouen, was given by him, when Bishop of London to the abbey at Jumièges.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. THORPE, r.s., (London, 1861); Vita Eadwardi in LUARD, Lives of Edward the Confessor, R. S. (London, 1858); HOOK, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (London, 1865-75); HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biog.; SEARLE, Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Nobles, and Kings (Cambridge, 1899); Obituary of the Abbey of Jumièges in Receuil de Historiens, XXIII (Rouen, 1872), 419.
EDWIN BURTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Robert of Luzarches

From volume 13 of the work.
(LUS).
Born at Luzarches near Pontoise towards the end of the twelfth century; is said to have been summoned to Paris by Philip Augustus who employed him in beautifying the city, and to have had a share in the work on Notre Dame. The real fame of this master is, however, connected with the cathedral of Notre Dame in Amiens. The old cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1218 and Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy had it rebuilt in Gothic style. An inscription made in 1288 in the "labyrinth" of the floor (now removed) testified that the building had begun in 1220, and names "Robert, called of Luzarches", as the architect, and as his successors, Thomas de Cormont and the latter's son. The work was completed in later centuries. Viollet-le-Duc sees a fact of great significance in the employment of the layman, Robert; but it is not accurate that in Romanesque times the architects were always bishops, priests, or monks; or, on the other hand, that since the Gothic period the Church relinquished the direction of church-building so entirely as is now believed. Robert was not long employed on the cathedral. Under the successor of Bishop Evrard, who apparently died in 1222, Cormont appears as the architect. Before 1240 Bishop Bernard put a choir window in the provisionally completed cathedral. An intended alteration of the original plan was not used in the finished building, so that the whole remains a splendid moment to Robert. In his day it was already called the "Gothic Parthenon". Gracefully built and better lighted than several of the large churches of France, there is yet, especially about the façade, a majestic severity. It is more spacious than Notre Dame in Paris and considerably larger than the cathedral of Reims. The former is effective through its quiet simplicity, which amounts to austerity; the latter is less rich in the modelling of choir, windows, and triforium. But Robert's creation became a standard far and near, through France and beyond, on account of the successful manner in which weight and strength are counterbalanced and of the consistently Gothic style. The design presents a middle aisle and two side aisles, though the choir has five aisles and the transept has the width of seven aisles. The choir is flanked by seven chapels; that in the centre (the Lady chapel) projecting beyond the others in French style. The majestic and harmonious interior is surpassed in beauty by few cathedrals. The nave is about 470 ft. in length, 164 ft. in breadth (213 ft. in the transept), and 141 ft. in height. A poet writes aptly, "Fabrica nil demi patitur nec susinet addi" (It is not possible to add anything to or to take anything from it).
G. GIETMANN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Robert of Melun

From volume 13 of the work.
(DE MELDUNO; MELIDENSIS; MEIDUNUS).
An English philosopher and theologian, b. in England abut 1100; d. at Hereford, 1167. He gets his surname from Melun, near Paris, where after having studied under Hugh of St. Victor and probably Abelard, he taught philosophy and theology. Among his pupils were John of Salisbury and Thomas à Beckett. Through the influence of the latter he was made Bishop of Hereford in 1163. Judging from the tributes paid him by John of Salisbury in the "Metalogicus" (P.L. CXCIX), Robert must have enjoyed great renown as a teacher. On the question of Universals, which agitated the schools in those days, he opposed the nominalism of Roscelin and seemed to favour a doctrine of moderate realism. His principal work, "Summa Theologiæ" or "Summa Sententiarum" is still in MS,. Except portions which have been published by Du Boulay in his "Historia Univ. Paris", ii, 585 sqq. He also wrote "Queæstiones de Epistolis Pauli", both of which are kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Those who have examined the "Summa" pronounce it to be of great value in tracing the history of scholastic doctrines.
Materials for the History of Thomas Beckett in Rer. Britt, SS. contains valuable data; DE WULF, Hist. of Medieval Phil., tr. COFFEY (New York, 1909), 210; HAURÉAU, Hist. de la phil. Scol. (Paris, 1872), 490 sqq.
G. GIETMANN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Roger

From volume 13 of the work.
Died at Tours, 9 August, 1179. A younger son of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, he was educated with the future king, Henry II, afterwards ordained priest, and consecrated Bishop of Worcester by St. Thomas of Canterbury, 23 Aug., 1163. He adhered loyally to St. Thomas, and though one of the bishops sent to the pope to carry the king's appeal against the archbishop, he took no active part in the embassy, nor did he join the appeal made by the bishops against the archbishop in 1166, thus arousing the enmity of the king. When St. Thomas desired Roger to join him in his exile, Roger went without leave (1167), Henry having refused him permission. He boldly reproached the king when they met at Falaise in 1170, and a reconciliation followed. After the martyrdom of St. Thomas, England was threatened with an interdict, but Roger interceded with the pope and was thereafter highly esteemed in England and at Rome. Alexander III, who frequently employed him as delegate in ecclesiastical causes, spoke of him and Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter, as "the two great lights of the English Church".
Materials for the History of Archbishop Becket in R. S. (London, 1875-85); GERVASE OF CANTERBUBY, Hist. Works in R. S. (London, 1879-80); DE DICETO, Opera Hist. in R. S. (London, 1876); P. L., CXCIX 365, gives one of his letters to Alexander III; GILES, Life and Letters of Becket (London, 1846); HOPE, Life of St. Thomas d Becket (London, 1868); MORRIS, Life of St. Thomas Becket (London, 1885); NORGATE in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.
EDWIN BURTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Roch-Amboise-Auguste Bébian

From volume 2 of the work.
Born 4 August, 1789 at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe; died there 24 February, 1839. His father sent him to France, where he was committed to the care of his godfather, the Abbé Sicard, the well-known educator of the deaf and dumb. The latter put him under the direction of Abbé Jauffret then exhibiting a great interest in the education of deaf-mutes. After a brilliant course at the Lycée Charlemagne in Paris, Bébian devoted himself to the study of the system of education of the deaf and dumb. He followed the courses of instruction given by Abbé Sicard and gave special attention to Laurent Clerc, a deaf-mute who afterwards became president of an institution for the deaf and dumb at Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. As prefect of studies in the institution for the deaf and dumb at Paris, he directed all his efforts to finding the signs best adapted, in precision and extension of meaning, to the expression of the ideas of the deaf and dumb.
Bébian published the result of his studies in his first book, "Essai sur les sourds-muets et sur le langage naturel" (1817). His principal works, under the titles "Mimographie" (1822) and "Manuel d'enseignement pratique des sourds-muets" (1822), laid down the principles used in the institution for the deaf and dumb in Paris. After leaving this school, he published several other works, the most important being "L'éducation des sourds-muets mise a la portée des instituteurs primaires et de tous les parents". Having refused the direction of the schools for the deaf and dumb of St. Petersburg and New York, he founded a similar institution at Paris on the boulevard Montparnasse; later he became director of the school of Rouen and finally went back to Guadeloupe, where he founded a school for the negroes. He had already written, in 1819, "Eloge historique de l'abbé de l'Epée", which was awarded the prize offered by the Academy of Sciences.
G.M. SAUVAGE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William Benedict Fytch

* related portals: Benedict Canfield.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item.
From volume 6 of the work.
An English Franciscan friar ot the Capuchin Reform, whose family name was Filch; b. at Canfield, Essex, in 1563; d. 1610. His parents were of the Puritan party, and he himself professed Calvinism until he was sent to study in London where he embraced the Catholic faith. He went over to Paris and entered the Capuchin order. In 1599 he was at his own request sent to England; he had hardly landed when he was seized and cast into prison. Here he remained for three years, and whilst there held conferences with the heretics concerning true Faith. He was at length released through the intercession of French Ambassador and sent back to France, where he was appointed master of novices. He was held in great reverence at the French Court; and amongst the people on account of his gift of miracles and spirit of prophecy. He wrote several ascetical works, the most famous being his treatise "The Will of God", which was written in English, but speedily translated into various languages. In 1625 this treatise was translated into Latin by order of the Minister General of the Order.
Father Cuthbert.