OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Diocese of Alba Pompeia

From volume 1 of the work.
​Alba Pompeia, Diocese of, comprises eighty towns in the province of Cuneo and two in the province of Alexandria, in Italy. Heading the list of the bishops of Alba is a St. Dionysius, of whom we are told that after serving there for some years he became Archbishop of Milan. He was the Dionysius who so energetically opposed the Arian heresy, and was exiled in the year 355, by the Emperor Constans. Papebroch (Acta SS., VI, 40) disputes the reliability of this tradition, since a bishop of that period was forbidden to leave his diocese for another. A list of nine early bishops of Alba, from another St. Dionysius (380) down to a Bishop Julius (553) was compiled from sepulchral inscriptions found in the cathedral of alba towards the end of the fifteenth century by Dalmazzo Berendenco, an antiquarian. De Rossi, however, on examination proved it a forgery (Boll. di Arch. Crist., 1868, 45–47). The first bishop of Alba of whose existence we are certain is Lampradius who was present at the synod held in Rome (499) under Pope Symmachus. (Mansi, VIII, 235, Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Antiq. XII, 400.) In the series of bishops, Benzo is notable as an adversary of Gregory VII and a partisan of the Empire in the struggle of the Investitures. (Orsi, "Un libellista del sec. XI", in "Rivista storica Italiana", 1884, p. 427.) The diocese contains 101 parishes; 276 secular priests; 11 regulars; 403 churches and chapels; 10 seminaries.
Ughelli, Italia sacra (Venice, 1722), IV, 281; Cappelletti, Le chiese d'Italia (Venice, 1866), XIV, 159; Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiæ catholicæ (Ratisbon, 1873), 809; Savio, Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia dalle origini al 1300, descritti per regioni (Turin, 1899), 49; Vernazza, Romanorum litterata monumenta Albæ Pompeiæ civitatem et agrum illustrantia (Turin, 1787); Cappelli, Notizie storiche della città d'Alba (Turin, 1788).
Ernesto Buonaiuti.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas d'Orbellis

From volume 11 of the work.
Franciscan theologian and philosopher, Scotist; born about 1400; died at Rome, 1475. He seems to have entered the monastery of the Observantines, founded in 1407, one of the first in France. He appears to have been professor of theology and philosophy in the University of Angers, where he enjoyed great reputation as an expounder of the teaching of John Duns Scotus. After 1465 he wrote his chief work, a commentary on the Four Books of Sentences. He was interred in the church of the Ara Coeli on the Capitoline. His chief works are:
MICHAEL BIHL
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas Talon

From volume 14 of the work.
French Jesuit, historian, and ascetical writer, b. at Moulins, 31 August, 1605; d. at Paris, 29 March, 1691. Entering the Society in 1621, he taught literature for several years, with remarkable success. After his ordination he gained some reputation as a preacher, was a devoted worker in the prisons and hospitals of Paris, and served as army-chaplain with the French troops in Flanders, winning the admiration and love of the men and the life-long friendship of the Prince de Conde. He assisted the notorious Aime du Poncet during his painfully protracted execution. Thanks to Talon's gentleness, the terrible outlaw died penitent and resigned. This striking conversion made a profound impression. As a writer, Talon had original, if not always correct, views, a lively imagination, a quaint and comparatively pure and elegant style. Besides his "Oraison funebre de Louis XIII" (Paris, 1644), a "Description de la pompe funebre du Prince de Conde" (Paris, 1646), and some books of minor importance, Talon wrote "La vie de St. Francois de Sales" (Paris, 1640), "La vie de St. Francois Borgia" (Paris, 1671), "Les peintures chretiennes" (Paris, 1667 according to Weiss, 1647 according to Sommervogel), and a Bible history, the first part of which, "Histoire sainte", was published at Paris in 1640. The author's purpose was to interest his readers in the Old Testament story. The book popular and was several times reprinted, notably in a fine Cramoisy edition (1665). The Marquis of Winchester gave an English translation in 1653. Talon's "Historie sainte" is deficient in taste and critical judgment; it is a romance, not a reliable exposition of facts. Its methods, if not as objectionable as Berruyer's in his "Histoire du peuple de Dieu", are unsound. The author published a sequel, "L'histoire sainte du Nouveau Testament" (Paris, 1669). It met with little success. Talon's portrait has been engraved by Heer. Sommervogel mentions 300 of his letters in the d'Aumale collection at Chantilly.
SOUTHWELL, Bibliotheca scriptorum soc. Jesu (Rome, 1676), 636; D'ARTIGNY, Nouveaux memoires, IV (Paris, 1749), 138-48; CAREYON, Une execution en place de Greve, au XVII siecle (piece inedite) (Poitiers, 1863); DE BACKER, Bibl. des ecrivains de la C. de J., 1st ed., V, 717; DE GUILHERMY, Menologe de la C. de J., Assistance de France (1st ed., Paris, 1892), 429; HURTER, Nomenclator, II, 457; SOMMERVOGEL, Bibl. de la C. de J., i, VII, 1821-3; LEMOINE-LICHTENBERGER, Trois familiers du Grand Conde, l'abbe Bourdelot, le pere Talon, le pere Tirier (Paris, 1909).
John C. Reville.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas Viel

From volume 15 of the work.
Died 1625, the first victim of apostolic zeal on the shores of the St. Lawrence. After persistently asking for three years, he at length obtained the favour of consecrating his life to the Canadian missions. He arrived at Quebec, 28 June, 1623, accompanied by Brother Sagard, the future historian. After a few days rest he set out for the Huron country, which he reached with great difficulty, taking up his residence in the village of St. Nicolas (Toanche), but did not remain long before joining Father Le Caron stationed at St. Joseph (Carhagouha). Here he began earnestly to study the language, collecting the first elements of a dictionary, and sowing the good seed of faith amidst great difficulties and tribulations. In the spring of 1624 he found himself completely isolated, Fr. Le Caron and Br. Sagard having left for Quebec. The following year he consented to accompany a band of Hurons going down to Quebec, with the intention of making a few days retreat and then returning to his missions. It is known that he never reached Quebec, but was drowned in the last chute of the Riviere des Praiiries, which from that time bears the name of Sault-au-Recollet. The neophyte Auhaitsique, whom he had instructed and baptized, met with the same fate. It was learned later that this was not an accident; but that a few Hurons, enemies of religion, drowned them in hatred of the Faith. If we can rely on the "Martyrologe des Recollets", Father Viel was buried in St. Charles's Chapel, 25 June, 1625.
SAGARD, Grand voyage: Histoire du Canada; LECLERCQ, Premier etablissement de la Foi; LE TAC, Histoire chronologique; JONES, Huronia; Jesuit Relations.
Art. Melancon.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas Ysambert

From volume 15 of the work.
Theologian, born at Orleans in 1565 of 1569; died at Paris, 14 May, 1642. He studied theology at the Sorbonne and was made a fellow (socius) of the college in 1598. Thenceforth he professed theology with such success as to attract public attention. In 1616 King Louis XIII founded at the Sorbonne a new chair of theology for the study of the controversial questions between Catholics and Protestants. The professor in charge had to give on every working day an hour's lecture followed by a half hour of familiar conference with his auditors. Ysambert was appointed to this chair by the king, who in this instance had reserved to himself the nomination. This appointment, which was an honour in itself, was still more enhanced by the eulogies bestowed on Ysambert in the letters patent which designated him, wherein the king praises his competence and station, his experiences in theology, controverted matters, and other sciences. From the time of his appointment as is evident from the manuscripts of his course, one of which is preserved at the library of Toulouse, which was begun in 1618, Ysambert took as the basis of his letters the of St. Thomas Aquinas which he seems to have commentated until the end of his career of teaching. His lessons won him a wide reputation, which he retained until his death. In the councils of the theological faculty he was chiefly distinguished for his share in the censure directed against Marc Antonio de Dominis, the apostate Archbishop of Spalatro, the author of the notorious treatise De republica christiana, which was intended to overthrow the whole ecclesiastical Hierarchy; he was the first to point out the heretical doctrine to the faculty and he brought about is condemnation. When Edmond Richer laboured to revive in the theological faculty a somewhat modified Gallicanism, Ysambert with the theologian Duval became the zealous defender of the rights of the Holy See. To learning Ysambert joined great strictness of life, remarkable solidity of judgment, and a precision and sense of justice much appreciated in the decision of cases of conscience. He began publishing his Disputationes, or commentaries on the Summa of St. Thomas, but it was not completed during his life (Paris, 1638-48). His commentary is generally esteemed.
FELIBIEN, Hist. De la ville de Paris (Paris, 1725), V; DUPLESSIS D'ARGENTRE, Collectio Judiciorum de novis erroribus II, (Paris, 1728), pt. II; FERET, La Faculte de theologie de Paris, epoque moderne, III (Paris, 1906).
Antoine Degert.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas de Bralion

From volume 2 of the work.
French Oratorian and ecclesiastical writer, born at Chars-en-Vexin, France, c. 1600; died at Paris, 11 May 1672. He joined the Paris Oratory in 1619, and, in 1625, went to Rome, where he remained fifteen years at San Luigi dei Francesi, then an Oratorian establishment, devoting his time to research and literary work. There he published an Italian translation of Cardinal de Bérulle's "Elévation" (1640) and of a portion of Ribadeniera's "Saintly Lives". He returned to Paris about 1640 and spent the rest of his life at the Church of St Honoré. Among other works he published "Vie de St. Nicholas, archeveque de Myre" (1646); "Pallium Archiepisopale" (1648 — the first serious study published in France on the significance, tradition, and use of that vestment); "Histoire chretienne" (1656); "La curiosité de l'une et l'autre Rome" (1655- 59); "Caeremoniale Canoncorum" (1657 — a practical guide on Roman lines); "Histoire de la sainte chapelle de Lorette" (1665).
John B. Peterson.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas Gédoyn

From volume 6 of the work.
A French translator and literary critic; b. at Orleans, 17 June, 1667; d. 10 August, 1744, at Port-Pertuis, near Beaugency. After studying in the College of the Jesuits, he entered their novitiate in 1684, becoming later professor of rhetoric at Blois. Ill-health, afterwards, obliged him to resign this position, and leave the Society of Jesus, for which, however, he always retained his affection. A canonicate at the Sainte-Chapelle (Paris) and two abbeys gave him the means of devoting himself to educational works. In 1711, he was elected to membership in the Académie de Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and in 1718 his free translation and adaptation of Quintilian, containing many allusions to contemporaries, was the occasion of his election to the French Academy. He also translated Pausanias (1731), and wrote "Réflexions sur le goût", published by d'Olivet in "Recueil d'opuscules littéraires" (Amsterdam, 1767). Several other memoirs and essays were collected by d'Olivet and published under the title of "Oeuvres diverses de M. Pabbé Gédoyn". They contain a life of Epaminondas, an apology for translations, essays on the education of children, Roman urbanity, the ancients and the moderns, etc. In education, Gédoyn is an advocate of progress, and deplores the routine and the tradition which make parents and educators conform blindly to received methods and usages without realizing that circumstances change and that methods of education should be adapted and modified in consequence. Three things are necessary to a complete education: knowledge, virtue and good manners; the constant endeavour of the master should be to develop these in his pupils. Since money spent by parents for the education of their children is an invested capital of the greatest importance, great care should be taken in the selection of tutors.
Nouvelle Biographie Générale (Paris, 1858), XIX, 802; d'Olivet, Vie de Gédoyn (1752); Maire in Buisson's Dictionnaire de pédagogie (Paris, , 1887), I, i, 1149.
C.A. DUBRAY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nicolas Pavillon

From volume 11 of the work.
Bishop of Alet, b. at Paris 1597; d. at Alet, 1677. He joined the community of St-Lazare, founded by St. Vincent de Paul, and, for a time, devoted himself to charities and preaching. His zeal and eloquence caused Richelieu to appoint him to the See of Alet. The thirty-seven years of his episcopate were filled with ceaseless labours for the religious and moral improvement of his diocese; visitation of parishes, holding of synods, foundation of schools, etc. An exaggerated idea of his episcopal responsibilities caused him to oppose pope and king. He was one of the four bishops who refused to sign the formulary imposed by Alexander VII, on the plea that the pope cannot pronounce on facts but only on rights. When Louis XIV commanded submission to the papal order, Pavillon in "Lettre au roi" (1664) declined to recognize his interference. The royal attempt at extending to all the provinces of France the so-called droit de regale found in Pavillon a sturdy opponent. He spurned royal threats and ecclesiastical censures and appealed to the pope against both the King of France and the Metropolitan of Narbonne.
His attitude against Alexander VII won him the admiration of Port-Royal. Alet became the Mecca of the Jansenists and the bishop imbibed the errors of Jansenism. From the data of a contemporary pamphlet ("Factum de Messire Vincent Ragot", Paris, 1766) Toreilles shows the strange effects of Jansenist principles on every branch of Pavillon's otherwise zealous administration and on his relations with the nobility, the clergy, the regulars, and the peasantry. He wrote "Rituel d'Alet" (Paris, 1666), condemned by Clement IX, and "Ordonnances et status synodaux" (Paris, 1675).
Paris, Vie de M. Pavillon (Paris, 1738); Ste-Beuve, Port-Royal (Paris, 1900), index, s. v.; Marion, Histoire de l'Eglise, III (Paris, 1908), 369; Toreilles, Nicolas Pavillon in Revue du Clerge francais (Oct., 1902).
J.F. SOLLIER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope John IV

From volume 8 of the work.
(640-642).
A native of Dalmatia, and the son of the scholasticus (advocate) Venantius. The date of his birth is uncertain; d. 12 October, 642. At the time of his election he was archdeacon of the Roman Church. As John's consecration followed very soon after his election, it is supposed that the papal elections were now confirmed by the exarchs resident at Ravenna. Troubles in his native land, caused by invasions of Slavs, directed John's attention there. To alleviate the distress of the inhabitants, John sent the abbot Martin into Dalmatia and Istria with large sums of money for the redemption of captives. As the ruined churches could not be rebuilt, the relics of some of the more important Dalmatian saints were brought to Rome. John erected an oratory in their honour which still stands. It was adorned by the pope with mosaics depicting John himself holding in his hands a model of his oratory. John apparently did not content himself with palliating the evils wrought by the Slavs. He endeavoured to convert these barbarians. Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus says that Porga, a prince of the Croats who had been invited into Dalmatia by Heraclius I, sent to an Emperor Heraclius for Christian teachers. It is supposed that the emperor to whom this message was sent was Heraclius I himself, and that the pope to whom he sent was John IV.
While still only pope-elect, John, with the other rulers of the Roman Church, wrote to the clergy of the North of Ireland to tell them of the mistakes they were making with regard to the time of keeping Easter, and exhorting them to be on their guard against the Pelagian heresy. About the same time he condemned Monothelism. Emperor Heraclius immediately disowned the Monothelite document known as the "Ecthesis". To his son, Constantine III, John addressed his apology for Pope Honorius, in which he deprecated the attempt to connect the name of Honorius with Monothelism. Honorius, he declared, in speaking of one will in Jesus Christ, only meant to assert that there were not two contrary wills in Him. John was buried in St. Peter's.
Horace K. Mann.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope John XI

From volume 8 of the work.
Date of birth unknown, became pope in 931; d. 936. He was the son of Marozia by her first marriage with Alberic; some, taking Liutprand and the "Liber Pontificalis" as their authority, assert that he was the natural son of Sergius III ("Johannes, natione Romanus ex patre Sergio papa", "Liber Pont." ed. Duchesne, II, 243). Through the intrigues of his mother, who ruled at that time in Rome, he was raised to the Chair of Peter, and was completely under the influence of the Senatrix et Patricia of Rome. To strengthen her own power Marozia married her brother-in-law Hugh, King of Provence and Italy, whose reign in Rome was so tyrannical that a strong opposition party sprang up among the nobles under the leadership of Alberic II, the younger son of Marozia. This party succeeded in overthrowing the rule of Marozia and Hugh; Marozia was cast into prison, but her husband escaped from the city. In this way Alberic became ruler of Rome, and the pope, who suffered by his mother's fall, now became almost entirely subject to his brother, being only free in the exercise of his purely spiritual duties. All other jurisdiction was exercised through Alberic. This was not only the case in secular, but also in ecclesiastical affairs. It was at the instance of Alberic that the pallium was given to Theophylactus, Patriarch of Constantinople (935), and also to Artold, Archbishop of Reims (933). It was this pope who sat in the Chair of Peter during its deepest humiliation, but it was also he who granted many privileges to the Congregation of Cluny, which was later on so powerful an agent of Church reform.
Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, II, 243; JAFFŠ, Regesta (2nd ed.), I, 454 sq.; LANGEN, Gesch. der r-m. Kirche, II, 329-31; REUMONT, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, II, 231 sqq.
J.P. KIRSCH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope John IX

From volume 8 of the work.
(898-900).
Not only is the date of John's birth unknown, but the date of his election as pope, and that of his death are alike uncertain. He became pope in the early part of 898, and died in the beginning of the year 900. He was a native of Tivoli, and the son of Rampoald. Becoming a Benedictine, he was ordained priest by Pope Formosus. At this period factions filled the city of Rome, and one of them tried to force their candidate, Sergius, afterwards Sergius III, on the papal throne in opposition to John. Perhaps because he was favoured by the ducal House of Spoleto, John was able to maintain his position, and Sergius was driven from the city and excommunicated. With a view to diminish the violence of faction in Rome, John, who is acknowledged to have been both intelligent and moderate, held several synods in Rome and elsewhere (898). In them the ghastly synod of Stephen (VI) VII was condemned, and its Acts were burnt. Re-ordinations were forbidden, and those of the clergy who had been degraded by Stephen were restored to the ranks from which he had deposed them. The barbarous custom of plundering the palaces of bishops or popes on their death was ordered to be put down both by the spiritual and temporal authorities. The Synod of Rome also declared itself for Emperor Lambert and against his rival Berenger, and at the same time decided that the pope-elect was not to be consecrated except in the presence of the imperial envoys. This canon was decreed in the hope that it might lessen the evils caused by the Roman factions. A synod which John held at Ravenna decreed that steps should be taken to put an end to the deeds of violence which were being perpetrated everywhere. To keep their independence, which was threatened by the Germans, the Slavs of Moravia appealed to John to let them have a hierarchy of their own. Not heeding the hectoring letters with which some of the German bishops endeavoured to dissuade him from hearkening to the Moravians, John sanctioned the consecration of a metropolitan and three bishops for the Church of the Moravians. On John's coins the name of the emperor (Lambert) figures along with his own. He was buried just outside St. Peter's.
Flodoard, De triumph. Christi, XII, 7, in P.L., CXXXV; Auxilius And Vulgarius in Dðmmler, Auxilius and Vulgarius (Leipzig, 1866); Mansi, Concilia, XVIII, 222 sqq.; Letters of John IX in P.L., CXXXI; Duchesne, The Beginnings of the Temporal Power (London, 1908), 202 sqq.; Mann, Lives of the Popes, IV (London, 1910), 91 sqq.
Horace K. Mann.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope John VII

From volume 8 of the work.
(705-707).
The year of his birth is unknown; d. 18 October, 707. Few particulars of his life remain. Like many other popes during the period of Byzantine influence in Rome, John was a Greek. Sprung from a distinguished family, he was the son of Blatta and Plato. The latter carried out various restorations in the imperial palace on the Palatine hill in Rome, and, for the sake, perhaps, of living where once his parents had lived, John after he had become pope (March 1, 705) constructed a palace (episcopium) near the church of Sancta Maria Antiqua. Before his elevation, John was the rector of the papal patrimony on the Appian way. It was in that capacity that he erected a memorial "with a broken heart to a most loving and incomparable mother, and to the kindest of fathers" (687). One of the churches which John beautified or restored during his pontificate was the afore-mentioned church of Sancta Maria Antiqua. "He adorned with frescoes the basilica of the Holy Mother of God which is known as the Old", and gave it a new ambo. When the remains of this church were brought to light in 1900, among the many figures found upon its walls, one with a square nimbus is supposed to represent John himself. There was also then discovered the base of his ambo. It bore upon it inscriptions which proclaimed him to be "the servant of Mary". John also erected a chapel to Our Lady in St. Peter's. When this oratory was destroyed, some of his mosaics were preserved, and may be seen in the Roman Church of Sancta Maria in Cosmedin and in other places. Though John was a man of learning and eloquence, and though he was remarkable for his filial affection and piety, he was of a timorous disposition. Hence, when the fierce Emperor Justinian II sent him the decrees of the Quinisext Council, "in which were many articles against the See of Rome", with a request that he would set forth what he approved in them, John simply returned them, as though there were nothing to condemn in them. He received back from the Lombard King Aripert II the papal patrimonies in the Cottian Alps, which the Lombards had confiscated. John is credited with having prevailed upon the Anglo-Saxon clergy resident in Rome to renounce their secular style of dress, and with having written to those in England bidding them follow this example. John died in the palace he had built near the Palatine, and was buried in the oratory he had erected in St. Peter's.
Liber Pontificalis, I, 385 sqq.; Nicephorus And Theophanes, Chron., 696-8; Bede, De sex Êtat., ad an. 708; Paul The Deacon, Hist. Lang., VI, 23 (28); Rushworth in Papers of the British School at Rome, I (London, 1902); Federici in Archivio Rom. di stor. pat., XXIII (Borne, 1900), 517 sqq.; Marucchi, Le Forum Romain (Paris, 1902), 230 sqq.; Mann, Lives of the Popes in the early Middle Ages, vol. I, pt. 1 (London and St. Louis, 1902), 109 sqq.
Horace K. Mann.