Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/516

 PROCOPIUS

450

PROCTER

Ephesus, 431. He does not mention a Saint Timothy, who must have Uved in the sixth century and who ia venerated as the patron of the island.

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman geogr., a. v.; Gedeon, Pracon- nesus, in Greek (Constantinople, 1895). S. P^TRID^S.

Procopius. See Hus and Hussites.

Procopius of CsBsarea, Byzantine historian, b. in the latter years of the fifth century at Caesarea in Palestine, d. not earlier than A. D. 562. We have no account of his parentage or education, except that by a legal and hterary training he quaUfied himself for the ci^dl service. As early as a. d. 527, before Justin's death, he became counsellor, assessor, and secretary to Belisarius, whose fortunes and campaigns he followed for the next twelve or fifteen years. He was raised to the dignity of an illustrius. He is reckoned the great- est of the later Greek historians. We owe to him an eyewitness's description of Belisarius's wars, in eight books. Of these, two deal with the Persian War, two with the Vandalic, three with the Gothic; Book VIII concludes with a general survey of events down to A. D. 554. The scope of the work is more than mili- tary; he is the best authority for the history of Justinian's reign, and Gibbon eloquently expresses his regret at reaching a date where he must exchange Procopius for less intelligent guides. In style he imitates Thucydides chiefly; perhaps also in casting his work into eight books. His range of reading in- cluded all the greatest of the Greek historians and geographers, and he was well schooled in the poets and the orators. But his unique value Ues in his personal as well as official familiarity with the people, the places, and the events of which he \\Tites. His tone in this work is critical and independent. His account of "Justinian's Buildings" (irtpi KTi<r^LdTw^/) was com- pleted in A. D. 558 or 559. It is composed in the man- ner of the courtly panegyrics for which Pfiny's en- comium of Trajan had cast the model; and he is thought to have written it either by imperial command or at least in order to vindicate himself from suspi- cions of disaffection. But the very extravagance which prompts him to credit Justirtian with all the public works executed in the entire Eastern Empire during his reign gives the work an exhaustive scope and a peculiar value for the archaeologist. The third of his books has gained a scandalous celebrity and aroused much question both as to its authenticity and motives. This is the " Anecdota", which Suidas char- acterizes as "a satirical attack on Justinian", but which is most commonly known by the title of "Arcana historia" (the. secret history). It is a supplement to the other historj', carrying the narra- tive down to the year 558-9, where it breaks off. Into it, as into the pages of a private journal, Procopius pours his detestation of Justinian and Theodora; even Belisarius and his wife are not spared. It is a bitter, maUgnant, and often obscene invective against all the powers of the Byzantine Church and State, ap- parently the t.ardy revenge of an ill-conditioned man of letters for a lifetime of obsequiousness. The indis- criminate violence of the pamphlet betrays the writer's passionate indignation, but spoils his case. The authenticity is now generally allowed, after a great deal of not unbiased discussion in the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries. (The "Anecdota" was first published in 1623.)

Dahn, Prohopius von Casarea (Berlin, 1865). A succinct ac- count with a bibliography ia to be found in Krcmbacher, Ge- schichte der Byzantiniacnen Lilleratur vom Justinian bis zum Ende dea ostrHmischen Reiches in MtJLLER, HandbUcher der klass. Alter- thumswiasenachafl (Munich, 1890). See also Bursian. Jahresbe- richt, XXXVIII, 255 (Schenkl), and LVIII, 62. and prefaces to the edition bv CoMPAREm (Rome. 1895) and Hacry: Byznn- tinische Zeitachrifl (1893). II, 107-109; Mnemosyne N. S., IX (1881). 109-112. 149-54, 160-4.

J. S. Phillimore.

Procter, Adelaide Anne, poetess and philanthro- pist, b. in London, England, 30 October, 1825; d. in

London, 2 February, 1864. She was the eldest daugh- ter of the poet Bryan Waller Procter ("Barry Corn- wall") and Anne Benson Skepper. As a child Adelaide showed precocious intelligence. She at- tained considerable proficiency in French, German, and Italian, as well as in music and drawing, and she was a great reader. Brought up in surroundings favourable to the development of literary leanings, she began to write verses at an early age, and at eighteen contributed to the "Book of Beauty". In 1851 she and two of her sisters became Catholics without, apparently, any disturbance of the harmoni- ous relations of the domestic cir- cle. In 1853, under the pseu- donym of "Mary Berwick", she sent to ' ' House- hold Words" a short poem, which so pleased the edi- tor, Charles Dick- ens, that he not only accepted it but also invited further contribu- tions. It was not till late in the fol- lowing year that Dickens learned that his unknown correspondent was the daughter of his old friend, Barry Cornwall. To

"Household Words" and "All the Year Round" nearly all her poetry was in the first instance con- tributed. In 1858-60 her poems were collected and pubUshed in two series under the title of "Legends and Lyrics". They had a great success, reaching the tenth edition in 18(56. In that year a new issue, with introduction by Dickens, was printed, and there have been several reprints since.

Miss Procter was of a charitable disposition: she visited the sick, befriended the destitute and home- less, taught the ignorant, and endeavoured to raise up the fallen ones of her own sex. She was generous yet practical with the income derived from her works. In 1859 she ser\'ed on a committee to consider fresh ways and means of providing employment for women; in 1861 she edited a miscellany, entitled "Victoria Regia", which had some of the leading htterateurs of the time as contributors and which was set up in tj-pe by women compositors; and in 1862 she published a slender volume of her own poems, "A Chaplet of Verses", mostly of a religious turn, for the benefit of the Providence Row night refuge for homeless women and children, which, as the first CathoUc Refuge in the United Kingdom, had been opened on 7 October, 1860, and placed under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. In her charitable zeal she appears to have unduly taxed her strength, and her health, never ro- bust, gave way under the strain. The cure at Malvern was tried in vain; and, after an illness of fifteen months, she died calmly, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemeterj'.

Dickens has given a characteristic testimony to her worth. "She was", he says, "a friend who inspired the strongest attachments; she was a finely sym- pathetic woman with a great accordant heart and a sterling noble nature." Modest and cheerful, un- constrained and unaffected, and quick in repartee, she had the gift of humour herself and of appreciating humour in others. Her works were very popular; they were published in .\merica and also translated into German. In 1877 her poems were in greater