pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BREH AR, one of the Scilly Islands, lying almost, directly west of the Land’s End in Cornwall, about the distance of thirty miles. It is situated between the isles of Micarol, Guel, Trescaw, and Samson, and is the roughest and most mountainous of them all. Not long ago there were only two families on it, but now the number has considerably increased. There are a few miserable houses, called the town of Brehar; and also several barrows edged with stone, in which considerable persons were burned in ancient times; besides many monuments of the Druids. Some are of opinion that this, with the rest, originally made but one island; which is probably the reason why so many antiquities are now found in most of them.
BREHONS, the provincial judges among the ancient Irish, by whom justice was administered and controversies decided. These sages were a distinct tribe or family, to whom competent lands were allowed in inheritance. In criminal cases the brehon had the eleventh part of all the fines; which could not but be considerable at a time when murders, rapes, robberies, and the like offences, were only subject to pecuniary commutations.

ERDiiON-Laws, or Leges Brehonicae, denote the. general maxims or rules observed by the Brehons, and which had the force of laws throughout all the provinces of Ireland.
BREISACH, a bailiwick in the circle of Treisam, of the duchy of Baden, on the Rhine, containing two cities, twelve villages, and six hamlets, with 13,215 inhabitants. The chief city, of the same name, celebrated for its former strong castle, stands on the Rhine, and has a population of 2711 persons. Long. 7. 28. 30. E. Lat. 48. 1. 48. N. ţ
BREMEN State. See Germany. Bremen, a province of the kingdom of Hanover, which, together with Verden, was secularized at the treaty of Westphalia in favour of Sweden. In a war between Denmark and Sweden in 1712, it was conquered by the former kingdom, who sold it to the house of Hanover, to whom it was, after much negotiation, confirmed by imperial edict in 1732. It is bounded on the north-east by the Elbe, on the north by the German Ocean, on the east by Luneburg, on the south by the province of Hoya and a part of Brunswick, on the south-west by the republic of Bremen, and on the west by Oldenburg. It extends over about 2696 square miles, or 1,665,440 acres.· On the borders of the sea and of the Elbe there is a narrow strip of good marsh and corn land, though the greater part of the interior of the province is a most sterile sandy district;.but by the attention which the Duke of Cambridge has devoted to the roads, the interior has been vastly improved within the last twelve years, and the cultivation much extended.
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The population has also rapidly increased in the same period. In 1816 it amounted to 207,212, and at the end of 1826 to 230,235 individuals. It contains four cities, twenty-three market-towns, 125 parishes, and 924 hamlets. The inhabitants are Lutherans, with the exception of seven churches, which are served by pastors of the reformed confession.
BRENNAGE, Brexnagium, in the writers of the middle ages, a kind of tribute paid in lieu of bran, or bran itself, which the tenants were obliged to furnish for the support of the lord’s hounds. The word is also written brenage, brenagium, and brenaige, brenagium, brenaticum, and brennaticum.
BRENNUS, a celebrated captain among the Gauls, who, about 388 years before the Christian era, entered Italy with a powerful army, made great conquests there, defeated the Romans, and sacked Rome. The Capitol alone was defended; and Camillus coming to its relief, drove the Gauls not only out of Rome, but also out of Italy.
BRENTFORD, a town, being a hamlet in part of the parish of Hamwell and hundred of Ossulton, in the county of Middlesex, seven miles from London, on the banks of the Thames. It consists of a single long street, and comprehends two parishes, with their respective churches. It is remarkable as the place where elections for the county are held, and as the greatest thoroughfare for carriages of any in England, though the street is narrow, and impediments often present themselves to obstruct the road. Near it is the magnificent palace of the Duke of Northumberland, Sion-House; and on the opposite bank of the Thames the royal palace of Kew, with its magnificent botanical garden. There is a well-supplied market on the Tuesdays.
BREREWOOD, Edward, an English mathematician and antiquary, was the son of Robert Brerewood, a tradesman, who was thrice mayor of Chester, and born in that city in the year 1565. He received the rudiments of his education at the free school in Chester; and was afterwards admitted, in 1581, of Brazen-nose College in Oxford. In the year 1596 he became the first professor of astronomy in Gresham College, London; and there led the same private and retired course of life as he had before done in Oxford. He died of a fever upon the 4th of November 1613. He was a great searcher into antiquity and curious knowledge, but never published any thing during his lifetime. After his death came out the following works: —1. De Ponderibus et Pretiis veterum Nummorum corumque cum recentioribus Collatione, 1664, 4to; 2. Inquiries touching the Diversities of Languages and Religion through the chief parts of the world, London, 1614, 4to; 3. Elementa Logicae in gratiam studiosae juventutis in Academia Oxon. London, 1614, 8vo, and Oxford, 1628, 8vo; 4. Tractatus quidam Logici de proedicabilibus et praedicamentis, 1628, 8vo; 5. Two Treatises on the Sabbath, 1630 and 1632; 6. Tractatus duo, quorum primus est de iiletcoris, secundus de Oculo, 1631; 7. Commentarii in Ethicam Aristotelis, Oxford, 1640, 4to; and, 8. The Patriarchal Government of the Ancient Church, Oxford, 1641, 4to.
BRESCIA, one of the delegations into which the Austrian kingdom of Venetian Lombardy is divided. It is bounded on the north-west by Bergamo, on the north-east by the Tyrol, on the east by the Lake of Guarda, on the south-east by Mantua, on the south by Cremona, and on the south-west by Lodi. Its extent is 1115 square miles, or 713,600 acres. It is divided into twelve districts, and these into 238 communes or parishes; and it comprehends one city, thirty-two market-towns, and 202 villages, containing 50,840 houses. The inhabitants, in 1816, amounted to 311,596, of whom 157,572 were males, and 154,024, females; but since that period they have rapidly increased; The northern part, or one third of the delegation, consists of a chain of mountains, which belong to the Rhaetian Alps; the remainder is part of the great plain of Lombardy. The latter division is highly productive in corn and in mulberry trees, as well as in flax, hemp, and oil. The wine is considered as good, but not sufficient for the domestic consumption. The mountainous parts afford iron, lead, copper, marble, granite, and charcoal. The manufactures consist principally of silk, but are considerable in woollen, linen, and cotton goods, and in iron, steel, glass, and paper wares. The capital, of the same name, is situated on the river Garza, at the foot of a hill, on the summit of which is a picturesque ancient castle. It contains, besides the cathedral, twelve parish and several conventual churches, six hospitals, six orphan-houses, and some other public buildings. The inhabitants amounted in 1817 to 34,168, but are stated to have increased to upwards of 40,000 in 1824. It is the chief seat of those fabrics the raw materials of which are so amply furnished by the province. Long. 10. 8. 4. E. Lat. 45. 32. 30. N.
BRESLAU, one of the governments into which the kingdom of Prussia is divided. It extends over the northwest part of the province of Silesia, or what was formerly Lower Silesia. It is bounded on the north and northeast by Posen, on the east by Poland, on the south-east by Oppeln, on the south-west by Reichenbach, and on the west by Liegnitz. Its extent is 5269 square miles, or 3,373,160 acres. The population amounted in 1817 to 792,071, at the end of 1819 to 833,253, and at the end of 1826 to 914,607. It is divided into twenty-two circles, which, in 1826, contained 121,080 houses, in thirty-five cities, seven market-towns, and 1283 villages. About two thirds of the inhabitants are of the Protestant profession, about one third Catholics, and betwixt 7000 and 8000 Jews. The live stock of the whole district consisted of 72,657 horses, 293,203 cows, and 894,460 sheep of all ages and both sexes. It forms the most important part of the province of Silesia, the greatest manufacturing country of the east of Europe. The city of Breslau is the capital as well of the government of that name as of the whole province of Silesia, and is the third of the royal residences. It is situated at the confluence of the Ohlau and the Oder, about 500 feet above the level of the Baltic Sea. It is the seat of the civil and military government of Silesia. A university, re-established in 1811, has a valuable library of 100,000 volumes, and in 1826 had 850 students, consisting of both Catholics and Protestants. It is an ancient city, exhibiting many specimens of the oldest German architecture. Many manufactures, particularly of linen and cloth, have long flourished there, though said to be now somewhat on the decline. At the great fair extensive transactions are carried on in fine wool. It contained, in 1826, 78,600 inhabitants, of whom 4600 were Jews. Long. 16. 56. 47. E. Lat. 51. 6. 50. N.
BRESSUIRE, an arrondissement in the department of the Two Sevres, in France, extending over 650 square miles, and comprehending six cantons and ninty-one communes, with 68,400 inhabitants. The chief place is a market-town of the same name on the river Argenton. It was totally destroyed during the wars in La Vendée, but is beginning to recover from the losses of that period.
BREST, an arrondissement in the department of Finisterre, in France, extending over 127 square miles, comprehending twelve cantons and eighty-five communes, with 136,149 inhabitants. It takes its denomination from the city of Brest, the most perfect and strongest naval station in the kingdom. The harbour consists of the road of Brest, with two deep indentations forming bays, into one of which the river Landeneau, and into the other the river Aulne, pour their streams. There is but one narrow entrance[7:5:228], defended by strong forts on both sides, and the interior is also protected by formidable batteries. The water is sufficiently deep for the largest ships, and there is space enough for 500 sail to ride securely. The docks, store-houses, and other appendages to the arsenal, are well adapted for the purpose intended. Brest was but a fishing village till 1631, since which it has risen to be an extensive and populous city, and contains at present 2600 houses, with 25,865 inhabitants. It is furnished with a medical school for the navy, an academy for the study of navigation, an observatory, a botanical garden, and a good library. Long. 4. 13. 20. W. Lat. 48. 22. 42. N.
BRET, a name which the people on the coast of Lincolnshire give to the common turbot, a fish extremely plentiful there, and taken in vast abundance. The way of catching them is in a net trailed on the ground by two horses, the one going up to the middle of his body in water, the other on shore.
BRETHREN and Sisters of the Free Spirit, in Ecclesiastical History, an appellation assumed by a sect which sprung up towards the close of the thirteenth century, and gained many adherents in Italy, France, and Germany. They took their denomination from the words of St Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, chap, viii. ver. 2, 14, and maintained that the true children of God were invested with the privilege of a full and perfect freedom from the jurisdiction of the law. Some of their professed principles resembled those of the Pantheists, and they held that all things flowed by emanation from God; that rational souls were portions of the Deity; that the universe was God; that, by the power of contemplation, they were united to the Deity, and thereby acquired a glorious and sublime liberty, both from the sinful lusts and the common instincts of nature; and that the person who was thus absorbed in the abyss of the Deity, became a part of the Godhead, and was the son of God in the same sense and manner as Christ was, being freed from the obligation of all laws human and divine. Many edicts were published against this sect; but, notwithstanding the severities which they suffered, they continued till about the middle of the fifteenth century. They were called by several other names, such as Schwestriones, Picards, Adamites, and Turlupins.

Brethren and Clerks of the Common Life, a denomination assumed by a religious fraternity towards the latter end of the fifteenth century. They lived under the rule of St Augustin, and were eminently useful in promoting the cause of religion and learning. Their society was formed in the preceding century, by Gerard de Groot, a native of Deventer; but it did not flourish till about the period above mentioned, when it obtained the approbation of the council of Constance, and became very respectable in Holland, Lower Germany, and the adjacent provinces. It was divided into two classes; the lettered brethren or clerks, and the illiterate. They lived in separate habitations, but maintained the closest fraternal union. The former applied to the study of polite literature, and the education of youth; whilst the latter were employed in manual labour and the mechanic arts. They were frequently called Beghards and Lollards, byway of reproach.

White Brethren, Fratres Albati, were the followers of a leader about the beginning of the fifteenth century, who arrayed himself in a white garment; and as they also clothed themselves in white linen, they were distinguished by this title. Their leader was a priest from the Alps, who carried about a cross, like a standard, and whose apparent sanctity and devotion drew together a number of followers. This deluded enthusiast practised many acts of mortification and penance; endeavouring to persuade the European nations to renew the holy war, and pretending that he was favoured with divine visions. Boniface IX. ordered him to be apprehended and committed to the flames, upon which his followers dispersed.
BREVET, in the French customs, denotes the grant of some favour or donation from the king.

Brevet more particularly denotes that species of military commission by which an officer is promoted to a rank in the army above that which he holds in his regiment. Brevet rank, therefore, is a rank in the army higher than that for which pay is received, and, when corps are brigaded, it gives precedence according to the date of the brevet commission. The term brevet is also sometimes used to express general promotion, by which a given number of officers are raised from the rank of captain upwauls, without any additional pay.
BREUGHEL, John, was born about the year 1575. He first applied himself to painting flowers and fruit, in which he excelled; and he afterwards obtained much success in drawing landscapes and views of the sea. He lived long at Cologne, where he acquired considerable reputation, and then travelled into Italy, where his fame went before him, and where his landscapes, adorned with small figures, gave very great satisfaction. If a judgment may be formed from the number of pictures he left behind him, he must have been exceedingly industrious; nor was he satisfied with embellishing his own works, but rendered himself useful in this respect to his friends. Even Rubens made use of Breughel’s hand in the landscape part of several of his small pictures; such as his Vertumnus and Pomona, the satyr viewing the sleeping nymph, and the terrestrial paradise, which is looked upon as the masterpiece of that great artist. Breughel died in 1642.
BREVIARY, a daily office or book of divine service in the Roman church. It is composed of matins, lauds, vespers, and the compline or post communio.

The breviary of Rome is general, and may be used in [7:5:230]all places; but on the model of this various others have been formed, appropriated to each diocese, and each order of religious persons.

The breviary of the Greeks is the same in almost all churches and monasteries which follow the Greek rites; and they divide the psalter into twenty parts. In general, the Greek breviary consists of two parts; the one containing the office for the evening; the other that of the morning, divided into matins, lauds, first, third, sixth, and ninth vespers, and the compline, that is, of seven different hours, on account of the saying of David, Septies in die laudem dixi tibi.

The institution of the breviary is not very ancient, and there have been inserted in it the lives of the saints, full of stories more remarkable for their strangeness than their authenticity. This gave occasion to several reformations by different councils, especially those of Trent and Cologne; by several popes, particularly Pius V. Clement VIII. and Urban VIII.; and also by several cardinals and bishops, each lopping off some extravagance, and bringing it nearer to the simplicity of the primitive offices. Originally, all were obliged to recite the breviary every day; but by degrees the obligation was restricted to the clergy only, who are enjoined, under penalty of mortal sin and ecclesiastical censures, to recite it at home when they cannot attend in public. In the fourteenth century a particular reservation was granted in favour of bishops, who were allowed, on extraordinary occasions, to pass three days without rehearsing the breviary.

This office was originally called cursus, and afterwards breviarium, which imports that the old office was abridged, or rather, that this collection is a kind of abridgment of all the prayers. The breviaries now in use are innumerable; the difference between them consists principally in the number and order of the psalms, hymns, paternosters, ave-Marias, creeds, magnificates, canternuses, benedictuses, canticamuses, nunc dimittises, misereres, hallelujahs, gloria-patris, and so on.

Breviary, in Roman Antiquity, a book first introduced by Augustus, containing an account of the application of the public money.
BRE λ r IATOR, an officer under the eastern empire, whose business it was to write and translate briefs. At Rome those are styled breviators, or abbreviators, who dictate and draw up the pope’s briefs.
BREWER, Anthony, a dramatic poet, who flourished in the reign of King Charles I., and appears to have been held in considerable estimation by the wits of that time, as may be gathered from a compliment paid to him in a poem called Steps to Parnassus, in which he is supposed to have a magic power to call the muses to his assistance, and is even set on an equality with Shakspeare himself. There are, however, great disputes among the several writers as to the number of his works. Those which have been ascribed to him with any certainty are, 1. The Country Girl, a comedy; 2. The Love-sick King, a comedy; and, 3. Lingua. When this play was performed at Cambridge, it is said by Winstanley that Oliver Cromwell, then a youth, acted a part in it. The substance of the piece is a contention among the Senses for a crown, which Lingua had laid for them to find. The part allotted to young Cromwell was that of Tactus or Touch.

Brewer, a person who professes the art of brewing. There are companies of brewers in most capital cities; that of London was incorporated in 1427 by Henry VI.
BRIANCON, an arrondissement of the department of the Upper Alps, in France, 658 square miles in extent, and containing five cantons, twenty-seven communes, and 82,370 inhabitants. The chief place, a city of the same name, stands in an alpine situation on the river Durance, and is strongly fortified, having been considered as the key of the gate between France and Italy. It contains only 2976 civil inhabitants. Long. 6. 39. E. Lat. 44. 64. N.
BRIANSK, a circle in the Russian government of Orel, with a population of 68,540 persons. The chief place is the city of the same name, on the river Desna. It trades in iron, corn, hemp, flax, and oak-bark, and contains about 6000 inhabitants. Long. 34. 14. E. Lat. 53. 21. N.
BRIAREUS, in fabulous history, a giant, the son of Aether, Titan, or Coelus, and Terra. This was his name in heaven; but on the earth he was called Aegeon. He was of singular service to Jupiter, when Juno, Pallas, Neptune, and the rest of the gods, endeavoured to bind him in chains and dethrone him; but he afterwards conspired with the rest of his gigantic brethren to dethrone the father of the gods. In adverting to this legend, Virgil describes him as having a hundred hands and fifty heads, and breathing out fire. The fable says that Jupiter, to punish him, thrust him under Aetna, and that, as often as he moves, the mountain belches out fire.
BRIBE, a reward given to pervert the judgment. The word is French, bribe, which originally denotes a bit, fragment, or relic of meat taken off the table; so that bribe imports as much as panis mendicatus, and still keeps up the idea of the matter of which bribes anciently consisted. Hence also the Spaniards use bribar and brivar for begging; and brivia, brivoneria, and brivonismo, for beggary. In the writers of the middle ages, a bribe given to a judge is called qιιato litis, and the receiver campi particeps, or cambi particeps; because the spoils of the field, or the profits of the cause, were thus shared with the giver.
BRIBERY, in Law, is a high offence, where a person in a judicial station takes any fee, gift, reward, or brockage for doing his office, except of the king. But, taken largely, it signifies the receiving or offering any undue reward to or by any person concerned in the administration of public justice, whether judge, officer, or other, to act contrary to his duty; and sometimes it signifies the taking or giving of a reward for public office.

In the East it is the custom never to petition any superior for justice, not excepting their kings, without a present. This is calculated for the genius of despotic countries, where the true principles of government are not understood, and it is imagined that there is no obligation due from the superior to the inferior, no relative duty owing from the governor to the governed. The Roman law, though it contained many severe injunctions against bribery, as well for selling a man’s vote in the senate or other public assembly, as for the bartering of common justice, yet, by a strange indulgence in one instance, it tacitly encouraged this practice, by allowing the magistrate to receive small presents, provided they did not on the whole exceed a hundred crowns a year; not considering the insinuating nature and gigantic progress of this vice, when once admitted. Plato, therefore, in his ideal republic, orders those who take presents for doing their duty to be punished in the severest manner; and by the laws of Athens, he who offered a bribe was prosecuted, as well as he who received it. In England this offence of taking bribes is punished, in inferior officers, with fine and imprisonment; and in those who offer a bribe, though it be not taken, the same. But in judges, especially the superior ones, it has always been looked upon as so heinous an offence, that Chief Justice Thorpe was hanged for it in the reign of Edward III. By a statute 11 Henry IV. it was enacted that all judges and officers of the king convicted of bribery should forfeit triple the bribe, be punished at the king’s will, and be discharged from his service for ever.
BRICIANI, those of the order of that name. This was a military order, instituted by St Bridget, queen of Sweden, who gave them the rules and constitutions of the orders of Malta and St Augustin. This order was approved of by Pope Urban V.