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

From volume 15 of the work.
Byzantine historian of the fifth and sixth century; dates of birth and death unknown. Nothing further is known of the circumstances of the life of this writer, to whom we owe a history of the era of the Roman empire up to 410, than that he was a lawyer connected with the treasury at Constantinople and was an upholder of Paganism. The era in which he lived is also uncertain. Formerly he was assigned to the first half of the fifth century, but now it is generally assumed that he was a contemporary of the Emperor Anastasius I (491-518). There are two chief reasons for this opinion. The later chronographer, Eustathius of Epiphania, who made use of the work of Zosimus, carries his history up to 503; consequently it is inferred that Zosimus must have lived at this period. More weight is attached to another argument drawn from the history of Zosimus itself; this work refers (II, xxxviii) to the suppression of the oppressive tax laid by Chrysargyron in the Byzantine Empire, and this tax was abolished in 501. Therefore the historian was still at work on his history shortly after 501. Perhaps he is identical with the Sophist Zosimus of Gaza, or Ascalon, mentioned by Suidas in his lexicon; opposed to this view, however, is the fact that Suidas mentions no historical work written by this Sophist. Zosimus is the author of a history of the Roman emperors ("Historia romana" or "Historia novae") in six books. It begins with Augustus, and sketches briefly the period up to 270 (I, i-xxxvi); from this date the work is more copious and detailed. It closes with the negotiations which preceded the conquest of Rome in 4`10. It is evident that the author intended to continue the history, and was prevented from carrying out his purpose by some circumstance, perhaps his death. The work is one of the chief authorities for Roman history of the fourth century, and individual statements concerning the preceding period are also of importance. The work does not lack sensible criticism, and shows the philosophical acuteness of the author. He was a heathen and devoted to the worship of the old Roman gods. He describes, in particular, the gradual decay of the Roman Empire, and attributes this to the fact the Romans had ceased to worship the ancient gods (II, vii). He also adhered to heathen superstitions, i.e. as the influence of the stars on man's life and pagan sooth-sayings. The last editions of the history were edited by Immanuel Becker, in "Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae" (Bonn, 1837), and by Ludwig Mendelssohn (Leipzig, 1867).
CHRIST, Gesch. der griechisten Literatur (4th ed.) in Handbuch der klass. Alterumswiss. (Munich, 1905); HOFLER, Kritische Bemerkungen uber den Zosimus in Sitzungsbericht der Wiener Akademie, Phil.-histor. Klasse (1879), 521-65; JEEP, Die Lebenzeit des Zosimus in Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie (1882), 425 sqq.; MENDELSSOHN, Ueber die Zeit wann Zosimus lebte, loc.cit. (1887), 525 sqq. ; RUHL, loc. cit. (1891), 146 sqq.; RANKE, Weltgeschichte, IV, pt. II (Leipzig, 1884), 264 sqq.
J.P. KIRSCH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Zionites

From volume 15 of the work.
A sect of visionary fanatics which flourished in the eighteenth century at Ronsdorf in the Duchy of Berg, now part of the Prussian province of the rhine. The sect sprang from a Philadelphian society founded at Elberfeld in 1726 by Elias Eller and the pastor Daniel Schleiermacher. Eller was the foreman of a factory owned by a rich widow. He read eagerly the writings of ancient and modern visionaries, and then formed an apocalyptic, millenarian system of his own. He made such an impression on the widow, twenty years his senior, that she married him. Thus he obtained the means and influence to draw adherents around himself. The pastor Schleiermacher, grandfather of the celebrated theologian, was also duped by Eller. The prophetess of the society was the daughter of a baker, Anna van Bushel, who had dreams and visions and saw apparitions. After the death of his wife, Eller married her. She called herself mother of Zion, her husband father of Zion, and prophesied that she would bear the saviour of the world. The new order of things was to begin in 1730. Her first child was a daughter, but Eller was able to console the society with Scriptural texts. A son born in 1733 died two years later. Eller made himself the central point of theology. Christian morality was replaced by the craving for coarse and sensual pleasures. In 1737 the sect left Elberfeld and founded Ronsdorf which soon prospered, and, through Eller's influence, was raised by the State in 1745 to the rank of a city. Eller took the most important offices for himself, lived with his wife in great pomp, and governed tyrannically. When Eller's wife died suddenly in 1744 doubts arose in the mind of Schleiermacher, who was pastor at Ronsdorf. He confessed his mistake, and sought to open the eyes of the deceiving leader, but Eller managed to maintain himself until death. The sect was carried on by the pastors who took Schleiermacher's place, by Eller's stepson Bolckhaus, and continued to exist until 1768. The new pastor chosen in this year and his successors brought back the inhabitants of Ronsdorf to Protestantism. The after effects of the movement could be traced into the nineteenth century.
KRUG, Kritische Geschichte der protestantischen religiosen Schwarmerci im Herzogtum Berg (Elberfeld, 1851); GOBEL, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der rheinischen u. westfalischen evangelischen Kirche, III (Coblenz, 1860), 450- 598.
Klemens Löffler.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Zircz

From volume 15 of the work.
ZIRCENSIS or BOCCON.
Cistercian abbey, situated in the Diocese of Veszprem, Hungary. The early history of the monastery is enveloped in much obscurity, as regards both names and dates, on account of its being so often referred to under both these titles. Whether Zircz and De Boccon were separate abbeys cannot now be definitely determined. It seems most probable that the foundation was made by Bela III, King of Hungary (1182), as the monastic domain was formerly a royal farm. Besides this grant, on which now stands the city of Zircz, many other donations were made to the nascent abbey, which soon became one of the most celebrated in the country. It was rich not only in temporal possessions but also in the spirit of fervour and religious regularity. This happy state continued for three centuries, but decadence set in before the end of the fifteenth century, and by 1526 the ravages of heresy had depopulated the monastery, not one religious remaining at the end of the year; the buildings and possessions passed into the hands of laymen. In the seventeenth century (1609) it was acquired by Canon Michael Monoszloy; thenceforth it remained the property of ecclesiastics, and in 1659 it was given to Holweis, Abbot of the Cistercian abbey at Lilienfeld, who appointed Martin Ujfalusy (1660) its abbot. From the jurisdiction of Lilienfeld it was transferred successively to that of Borsmonostor (1678) and Heinrichau (1700). From this latter abbey came a number of religious who gradually restored first the monastic buildings and church (consecrated 1745) and then regular observance in its primitive vigour. In 1810 the community, in common with many others, was expelled, but was restored in 1814 under Abbot Antonius Dreta, from which time the abbey prospered more than ever before. Under his administration the abbeys at Pilis and Pasto were united to Zircz; as was likewise, in 1878, the abbey at Szentgotthard. Zircz is now governed by Dom Edmund Paul Vajda, elected 9 May, 1891, and is one of the most flourishing abbeys in Hungary. It contains 105 priests, 35 clerics, and 11 novices; in all 151 choir members.
MANRIQUE, Annales Cisterciensis (Lyons, 1642); JONGELINUS, Notitia abbatiarum O. Cisterciensis (Cologne, 1640); FUXHOFFER, Monasteriologiaeregni Hungariae, libri, II (Budapest, 1858); ROSENTHAL, Acta S. Ord. Cisterciensis (Vienna, 1649); CHIFFLET, Chron. Claraval in S. Bernardi illustre genus assertum (Dijon, 1660); SATORIUS, Cistercium bis-tertium (Prague, 1700); HEIMB, Not. Historica de ortu et progressu Abbat. B. M. an S. Gotthardum, S.O.C. (Vienna, 1784); KOVACS, A Morsmonostori apatsag Tarrenete (Odenbur, 1910); WINTER, Die Cisterciensis des Nordoeslichen Deutschlands (Gotha, 1868); Catalogus personarum religiosarum S. Ord. Cisterciensis (Rome, 1906); JANAUSCHEK, Originum Cisterciensum, I (Vienna, 1877).
EDMOND M. OBRECHT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas Vane

From volume 15 of the work.
The place and time of his birth and death are not known; but he was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and took the degree of Doctor of Divinity in that university. Having taken Anglican orders, he was made chaplain extraordinary to King Charles I and rector of Crayford. On becoming a Catholic, he resigned these preferments, and went with his wife to Paris, where he practised as a physician, taking the degree of M.D. there or at some other foreign university. At Parish he wrote an account of his conversion, the preface being dated 4 August, 1642, which was published in 1643 under the title, "A Lost Sheep returned Home: or the Motives of the Conversion of Thomas Vane." This book ran through several editions and was answered by the Anglican writer Edward Chisenhall (1653). He also wrote "An answer to a libell written by D. Cosens against the great Generall Councell of Laterane under Pope Innocent III" (Paris, 1646), and "Wisdome and Innocence or Prudence and Simplicity in the examples of the Serpent and the Dove, propounded by our Lord" (s.l. 1652).
VANE, A Lost Sheep returned Home (Paris, 1643); DODD, Church Hist., III (Brussels vere Wolverhampton, 1742); GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.; COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.
Edwin Burton.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas Tamburini

From volume 14 of the work.
Moral theologian, born at Caltanisetta in Sicily, 6 March, 1591; died at Palermo 10 October, 1675. He entered the Society of Jesus when fifteen years old; there he became distinguished for extraordinary virtue and a rare talent for teaching. Alter a successful course of studies he held the professorship of philosophy four years, of dogmatic theology seven years, of moral theology seventeen years, and during thirteen years was rector of various colleges. His writings are: "Methodus expeditæ confessionis" (5 vols., Rome, 1647); "De communione" (Palermo, 1649); "Explicatio decalogi" (Venice, 1654, 1707; Milan, 1655; Munich, 1659); "De saorificio missæ" (3 vols Antwerp, 1656); "De bulla cruciata" with other works (Palermo, 1663); "Juris divini, naturalis et eccles. exposito" (3 vols., Palermo, 1659-60). All these works exhibited solidity of doctrine and elegance of style and went through several editions. Though severe towards himself, Tamburini, when deciding cases of conscience for others, was inclined to follow the milder views which he found reputable authors declaring probable. This is the basis of the accusation of laxity frequently brought against him, and led to his controversy with Vincent Baron. Tamburini published a refutation of the attacks of his adversary under the title, "Germana doctrina R. P. Th. Tamburini, S. J." In determining the value of Tamburini's works, it is well to recall the criticism of St. Alphonsus Liguori in his "Theologia Moralis": "Let us add a word about this author [Tamburini], who is not estimated by many at his full value. It cannot be denied that he was apt to consider some opinions probable which do not deserve that note; hence he must be used with caution. But when Tamburini establishes his own opinions, he shows that he is a thorough theologian and solves the questions by reducing them to their last principles. Competent judges will find that the opinions which he then sets down as the more tenable are in the majority of cases the more correct".
DE FELLER, Dict. Hist., VIII, 353; HURTER, Nomenclator, II, 270; SOMMERVOGEL, Bibliothèque, VII, 1830.
John M. Fox.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas Walsh

From volume 15 of the work.
Born in London, October, 1777; d. there, 18 February, 1849. His father, an Irish merchant, having died during his infancy, Thomas was sent by his Protestant mother to the grammar school at St. Albans. Through his uncle, a priest of the London District, who obtained his admission to the college of St. Omer, his faith was saved. He shared in the imprisonment at Dourlens, and then continued his studies at Old Hall Green, where he was confirmed on 19 December, 1795. When Dr. Stapleton was made Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, he took Walsh, then deacon, as secretary (1801). Walsh continued with Bishop Milner as chaplain and missioner at Longbirch until October, 1804, when he was sent to Sedgley Park School as spiritual father. In 1808 he went to Oscott as vice-president and spiritual father and later he became president (1818-26). On 1 May, 1825, he was consecrated titular Bishop of Cambysopolis, as coadjutor to Bishop Milner, whom he succeeded as vicar Apostolic on 19 April, 1826. His rule of the district was marked by great progress, both spiritual and material. The College of St. Mary, Oscott, the two cathedrals of Birmingham and Nottingham, besides numerous churches and religious foundations, bear witness to the greatness of his ideals and his unwavering faith. From July, 1840, his jurisdiction was over the newly-constituted Central District; and on 28 July, 1848, he was translated to the London District, against his own desire. But he was too old and infirm to take any active part in its affairs, and he left its administration in the hands of his coadjutor, Bishop Wiseman. Cardinal Barnabo reported the resolve of Propaganda that Walsh should be the first metropolitan of the new hierarchy, in the words "Whether living or dying he shall be the first Archbishop", but death prevented the fulfilment. He is buried in St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham.
WEEDALL, Funeral Discourse (London, 1849); BRADY, Episcopal Succession (Rome, 1876-77); WARD, History of St. Edmund's College (London, 1893); HUSENBETH, Life of Milner (Dublin, 1862); IDEM, Life of Weedall (London, 1860).
J. L. Whitfield.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas Ward

From volume 15 of the work.
Born at Danby Castle near Guisborough, Yorkshire, 13 April, 1652; d. at St-Germain, France, 1708. He was the son of a farmer and was educated as a Presbyterian at Pickering School. Henry Wharton asserted that he had been a Cambridge scholar but this is not certain. Having acted for a time as private tutor he was led by his theological studies to become a Catholic. He travelled in France and Italy, and for five or six years held a commission in the papal guard, seeing service against the Turks. On the accession of James II (1688) he returned to England and employed his learning in controversy. His most popular work, "England's Reformation", is a poem in four cantos in the metre of "Hundibras". It first appeared posthumously in 1710, and since then in several editions. His "Errata to the Protestant Bible", based on Gregory Martin's work on the same subject, has been frequently republished since its appearance in 1688, once with a preface by Lingard (1810). Bishop Milner wrote a pamphlet to defend it from one of the Protestant attacks which its republication early in the nineteenth century provoked. His other works were: "Speculum Ecclesiasticum" (London, 1686?); "Some Queries to the Protestants" (London, 1687); "Monomachia" (London, 1678), written about Archbishop Tenison, as also was "The Roman Catholic Soldier's Letter" (London, 1688). He also published in 1688 in two broadsheets an epitome of church history, under the title "The Tree of Life". "The Controversy of Ordination truly stated" (London, 1719) and "Controversy with Mr. Ritschel" (1819) were posthumous works. He left two unpublished MSS. on the Divine Office now in the British Museum, one on the pope's supremacy in the possession of Mr. Gillow, one of the history of England, and others.
Life of Thomas Ward, prefixed to the Controversy with Mr. Ritschel (Manchester, 1819); DODD, Church History, III (Brussels and Wolverhampton, 1742); Catholicon, IV, 195; COTTON, Rhemes and Douay (Oxford, 1855); COOPER, in Dict. Nat. Biog., s. v.; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.
EDWIN BURTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas White

From volume 15 of the work.
(Alias BLACKLOW, BLACLOE, ALBIUS, ANGLUS).
Born in Essex, 1593; died in London, 6 July, 1676. Through his mother, Mary Plowden who married Richard White of Hutton, Essex, he was grandson of the lawyer, Edmund Plowden. Educated at St. Omer, Valladolid, and Douai, he was ordained priest on 25 March, 1617; he studied at the Sorbonne, became bachelor of divinity, and returned to Douai to teach theology, which he did, with intervals, till 1630, when he became president of the English College, Lisbon. In 1633 he resigned and returned to England, where he devoted himself to the writing of about forty works, which caused a bitter theological controversy. Not only was he accused of employing new expressions and manners of speech not usual in Scholastic theology, but his views on purgatory, hell, and the infallibility of the pope, were unsound. Exception was also taken to his politico-religious views, especially his teaching in favour of passive obedience to any established government. Several of White's opinions were censured by the Inquisition in decrees dated 14 May, 1655, and 7 Sept., 1657, and many of his friends and former students publicity disclaimed his principles. Finally, he withdrew the censured opinions and submitted himself and his writings to the Holy See. He was chiefly opposed by George Leyburn, the president of Douai, and Robert Pugh, the latter of whom wrote a life of him, not known now to exist, also a work called "Blacklo's Cabal", in which he accuses him of opposition to the regulars and to episcopal authority, and disloyalty to the pope. White, however, counted amongst his friends some of the leading secular clergy, who defended the solidity of his fundamental doctrine and maintained his loyalty to the Church, while disclaiming the doctrines to which exception was taken and which he had retracted.
HOLDEN, Letter to a Friend upon Mr. Blacklow's submitting his writings to the See of Rome (Paris, 1657), INDEM, Epistola Brevis in qua de 22 propositionibus ex libris Thomae Angli ex Albiis excerptis. . .sententiam suam dicit (Paris, 1661); IDEM, A letter to Mr. Graunt concerning Mr. White's treatise "de medio animarum statu" (Paris, 1661); PUGH, Blacklo's Cabal (s. l., 1680); LEYBURN, Letter written by G. L. to Mr. And. Knigh[tley] and Mr. Tho. Med [calfe] (Douai, 1656); IDEM, An Epistle Delaratorie (Douai, 1657); IDEM, The summe of Dr. Leyburn's Answere to a Letter printed against him by Mr. Blackloe (Douai, 1657); LEYBURN (or WARNER), Vindiciae Censurae Duacenae (Douoai, 1661); Blackloanoe Haeresis Historia et Confuttio (Ghent, 1675); DODD, Church History, III (Brussels vere Wolverhampton 1737-42); PANZANI, Memoirs (Birmingham, 1793); PLOWDEN, Remarks on Panzani (Birmingham, 1793); KIRK, History of Lisbon College, ed. CROFT (London, 1902); GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., svv. White, Holden, Pugh; COOPER, in Dict. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Third Douay Diary, C. R. S., x (London, 1911), especially vol. II, 532 sqq. For Leyburne's catalogue of priests, in which he distinguishes by pungent comments all White's supporters.
Edwin Burton.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas Vavasour

From volume 15 of the work.
English Catholic physician, pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, b. about 1536-7; d. at Hull, 2 May, 1585. On 25 June, 1549, at the disputations held before the king's commissioners at Cambridge, Vavasour was one of the disputants in favour of Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass. He subsequently went to Venice where he took the degree of M.D., and on 20 Nov., 1556, he received a licence from the College of Physicians of London to practise for two years. His house was "by the common school house" in the city of York; there Mass was said in 1570. In 1572 he was accused of having entertained Blessed Edmund Campion. In Nov., 1574, after he had been confined to his own house in the city of York for nearly nine months, he was sent into solitary confinement in the Hull Castle. Grindal describes him as "sophistical, disdainful, and illuding arguments with irrision, when he was not able to solute the same by learning", and adds that "his great anchor-hold was in urging the literal sense of hoc est corpus meum, thereby to prove transubstantiation". By June, 1579, he was back again in his house, where Mass was again said. Later on he was in the Gatehouse, Westminster, from which he was released on submitting to acknowledge the royal supremacy in religious matter; but he was again imprisoned as a recusant in Hull Castle, York where he died. His wife, Dorothy, died in the New Counter, Ousebridge, York, 26 Oct., 1587.
STRYPE, Crammer, I (Oxford, 1840), 290; IDEM, Parker, II (Oxford, 1821), 167; IDEM, Grindal (Oxford, 1821), 273, 535; Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (London, 1905), II, 219; V, 193; FOLEY, Rec. Eng. Prov. S. J., III (London, 1877), 245-9, 809; DASENT, Acts of the Privy Council, XII (London, 1890-1907), 108; Calendar S. P. Dom. 1581-90 (London, 1865), 145; Calendar S. P. Dom. Add. 1566-79 (London, 1871), 224, 369; MUNK, Royal College of Physicians, I (London, 1878), 56.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thomas Vincent Faustus Sadler

From volume 13 of the work.
Born 1604; died at Dieulward, Flanders, 19 Jan., 1680-1. He was received into the Church at the age of seventeen by his uncle, Dom Walter Sadler, and joined the Benedictines at Dieulward, being professed in 1622. Little is known of his missionary labors, but probably he was chaplain to the Sheldons of Weston and the Tichbornes in Hampshire before going to London, where he worked many years. He edited several spiritual books, often collaborating with Dom Anselm Crowther, and signing himself T.V. His chief publications are "The Christian Pilgrim in his Spiritual Conflict and Conquest" (1652); "Jesus, Maria, Joseph" (1657); "The Daily Exercise of the Devout Rosarists" (1657), which was afterwards developed into a well-known prayer book, "The Daily Exercise of the Devout Christian"; "A Guide to Heaven", translated from Bona's "Manuductio" (1672); "The Holy Desires of Death", translated from Lallemant (1678). Wood attributes to him "The Childe's Catechism" (1678).
WELLDON, Chronological Notes on the English Benedictine Congregation (London, 1881; SNOW, Necrology of the English Congregation O. S. B. (London, 1883); WOOD, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. BLISS (London, 1813-20); OLIVER, Collections (London, 1857); GILLOW in Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath.; COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog.
EDWIN BURTON