BLOOD. See Anatomy and Physiology, Animal. Religious rises of Blood. Amongst the ancients blood was used for the sealing and ratifying of covenants and alliances, which was done by the contracting parties drinking a little of each other’s blood; and also for appeasing [7:4:710]the manes of the dead, in order to which blood was offered on their tombs as part of the funeral ceremony.

The blood of victims was anciently the portion of the gods; and accordingly it was poured or sprinkled on the altars in oblation to them. But the priests made another use of blood, namely, for divination; the streaming of blood being held a prodigy or omen of evil.

The Roman priests were not unacquainted with the use of blood in miracles; and they had their fluxes of blood from images, ready to serve a turn, as, for instance, that said to have streamed from the statue of Minerva at Modena before the battle at that place. But we know not whether, in this species of legerdemain, their successors have not gone beyond them. How many are the relations, in ecclesiastical writers, of madonnas, crucifixes, and wafers, bleeding? The liquefaction of the blood of St Januarius at Naples, repeated annually for so many ages, seems to transcend all the frauds of the Grecian or Roman priesthood. But the chemists at last got into the secret; and Μ. Neumann of Berlin performed the miracle of the liquefaction of dried blood, with all the circumstances of the Neapolitan experiment.

Amongst the schoolmen we find a famous dispute, under Pope Pius II. whether the blood of Christ, which fell from him in the three days passion, retained or lost the hypostatic union; and consequently whether it was the proper object of adoration. The Dominicans maintained the former, the Franciscans the latter. But the Dominican doctrine gained the ascendency, as being fitted to favour the profits of the monks, who becoming somehow possessed, as they said, of a few drops of this precious liquor, were certain of receiving ample offerings from the deluded laity, who flocked to pay their homage to the sacred relic. Joseph of Arimathea is said to have first brought into Britain two silver vessels filled with the blood of Christ, which by his order was buried in his tomb. King Henry III. had a crystal, containing a portion of the same blood, sent him by the master of the temple of Jerusalem, attested with the seals of the patriarch; which treasure the king committed to the church of St Peter’s, Westminster, and obtained from the bishops an indulgence of six years and a hundred and sixteen days to all who should visit it. And Matthew Paris assures us, that the object of the king in summoning his nobles and prelates to celebrate the feast of St Edward in St Peter’s Church was chiefly pro veneratione sancti sanguinis Christi nuper adepti, in veneration of the holy blood of Christ lately acquired. Divers others of our monasteries were possessed of this profitable relic; as the college of Bons-Hommes at Ashridge, and the abbey of Hales, to which it was given by Henry, son of Richard, duke of Cornwall and king of the Romans. This supposititious blood was resorted to by a great concourse of people for devotion and adoration; till, in 1383, when the Reformation commenced, it was perceived to be only honey clarified and coloured with saffron, as was shown at St Paul’s cross by the bishop of Rochester. The like discovery was made of the blood of Christ found among the relics in theabbey of Feschamp in Normandy, pretended to have been preserved by Nicoemus when he took the body from the cross, and given to that abbey by William duke of Normandy. It was buried by his son Richard, and again discovered in 1171, and attended with different miracles; but the cheat, which had long been winked at, was at length exposed, and a relation of it is given by Speed.

Avenger of Blood, among the Jews, was the next of kin to the person murdered, who was authorized to pursue the murderer, and, unless he found shelter in one of the cities of refuge or sanctuaries, to take life for life.

Ecclesiastical judges retire when judgment is to be given in case⅛,of blood, by reason of the maxim, Ecclesia non novit sanguinem. The church condemns no person to death; and its members become disabled from their functions by the effusion of blood.

Field of Blood, in Syriac Aceldama, was a field purchased by the Jews with the thirty pieces of silver which had been given to Judas for betraying his master, and which he had restored. It still serves for a burial-ground, in which all pilgrims who die in their pilgrimage at Jerusalem are interred.

BLQQD-Hound, in Zoology, the canis sagax of Linnaeus, le chien courant of Buffon, the sleuthounde of the Scots, a hound or dog, with long, smooth, and pendulous ears. It was a dog of great use, and in .high esteem with our ancestors, being employed to recover any game that had escaped wounded from the hunter, or been killed and stolen out of the forest. It was remarkable for the acuteness of its smell, tracing the lost beast by the blood it had spilt, from which the name is derived. This species could, with the utmost certainty, discover the thief by following his footsteps, let his flight be ever so rapid, and through the most secret and thickest coverts; nor would it cease its pursuit till it had taken the felon. They were likewise used by Wallace and Bruce during the civil wars. The poetical historians of the two heroes frequently relate very curious passages on this subject, of the service which these dogs rendered to their masters, and the escapes they had from those of the enemy. The blood-hound was in great request on the confines of England and Scotland, where the borderers were continually preying on the flocks and herds of their neighbours. The true blood-hound was large, strong, muscular, broad breasted, of a stern countenance, of a deep tan colour, and generally marked with a black spot above each eye. Animals of this species have been used in our own time in the West Indies, for hunting down the Caribbs, and other equally humane purposes.

Whole and Half Blood. A kinsman of the whole blood is he who is derived from the same pair of ancestors; but a person of half blood descends from either of them singly by a second marriage.

Blood of Christ, the name of a military order instituted at Mantua in 1608. The number of knights was restricted to twenty, besides the grand-master. Their device was, Domine, probasti me; or, Nihil hoc triste recepto. Precious Blood, a denomination given to a reformed congregation of Bernardine nuns at Paris, first established under that name in 1661.

BLOOD-Whyte, or Blood-wyte, in ancient law writers, signifies a customary amercement paid as a composition for the shedding or drawing of blood. The word is also written blodwhite, blodwita, blodwyta, bloodwit, blodwit, bloudwit, and bluidwcit. It is formed from the ancient Saxon blud, blood, and r⅛e or wite, a fine or penalty. The word also denotes an exemption from this penalty, granted by the king to certain persons and communities as a special favour. King Henry II. granted to all tenants within the honour of Wallingford, Ut quieti sint de hidagio et blodwite et bredwite. Blood, Thomas, generally known by the appellation of Colonel Blood, was a disbanded officer of Oliver Cromwell’s, famous for his daring crimes and his good fortune. He was first distinguished by engaging in a conspiracy to surprise the castle of Dublin; which was defeated by the vigilance of the duke of Ormond, and some of his accomplices were executed. Escaping to England, he meditated revenge against Ormond, and actually seized him one night in his coach in St James’s Street, where he might have finished his purpose if he had not studied refinements in his vengeance. He bound his captive on horseback behind one of his associates, resolving to hang him at Tyburn, with a paper pinned to his breast; but when they had got [7:4:711]into the fields, the duke, in his efforts for liberty, threw himself and the assassin to whom he was fastened to the ground; and, while they were struggling in the mire, his grace was rescued by his servants. But the authors of this attempt were not then discovered. A little after, in 1671, Blood formed a design of carrying off the crown and regalia from the Tower; a design to which he was prompted, as well by the desperate nature of the enterprise, as by views of profit. And he was very near succeeding. He had bound and wounded Edwards, the keeper of the jeweloffice, and had got out of the Tower with his prey; but he was overtaken and seized, together with some of his associates. One of these was known to have been concerned in the attempt upon Ormond, and Blood was immediately concluded to be the ringleader. When questioned, he frankly avowed the enterprise, but refused to discover his accomplices. The fear of death, he said, should never engage him either to deny a crime or betray a friend. All these extraordinary circumstances made him the general subject of conversation; and the king was moved with an idle curiosity to see and speak with a person so noted for his courage and his crimes. Blood might now esteem himself secure of pardon; and he wanted not address to improve the opportunity. He told Charles that he had been engaged, with others, in a design to kill him with a carabine above Battersea, where his majesty often went to bathe; that the cause of this resolution was the severity exercised over the consciences of the godly, in restraining the liberty of their religious assemblies; that when he had taken his stand among the reeds, full of these bloody resolutions, he found his heart checked with an awe of majesty; that he not only relented himself, but diverted his associates from their purpose; that he had long ago brought himself to an entire indifference about life, which he now gave up for lost, yet could he not forbear warning the king of the danger which might attend his execution; that his associates had bound themselves by the strictest oaths to revenge the death of any of their confederacy; and that no precaution or power could secure any one from the effect of their desperate resolutions. Whether these considerations excited fear or admiration in the king, they confirmed his resolution of granting a pardon to Blood; but he thought it a requisite point of decency first to obtain the duke of Ormond’s consent. Arlington came to Ormond in the king’s name, and desired that he would not prosecute Blood, for reasons which he was commanded to give him. The duke replied, that his majesty’s commands were the only reason that could be given; and these being sufficient, he might therefore spare the rest. Charles carried his kindness to Blood still further, granting him an estate of L.500 a year in Ireland, encouraging his attendance about his person, and showing him great countenance; in consequence of which many applied to him for promoting their pretensions at court. Whilst old Edwards, who had bravely ventured his life, and had been wounded, in defending the crown and regalia, was forgotten and neglected, this man, who deserved only to be stared at and detested as a monster, became a kind of royal favourite. Blood enjoyed his pension about ten years, till being charged with fixing an imputation of a scandalous nature on the duke of Buckingham, he was thrown into prison, where he died on the 24th of August 1680.