Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/779

 THULIS

711

THUN-HOHENSTEIN

ders and false calculations. Sprung from the lower classes Thugut was educated in the Oriental Academy and trained for the subordinate service of the State. Skilful and cunning he owed the good luck of his pohtical life to these qualities, which, aided by great talent for dissimulation and inchnation to intrigue, pass current only too easily for real talents" (Aus Metternichs nachgel. Papieren, I, 29 sq.). Count Franz Dietriclistein on the other hand was an en- thusiastic admirer of Thugut. He had Thugut bm-ied in the Dietrichstein ancestral vault, and in an obituary expressed the hope tliat history might finally do honour to Thugut's great qualities. This was the aim of Vivenot's biography of Thugut, on which the author spent many years.

Von Vivenot, Thugut. Clerfnyt u. Wurmser (Vienna, 1869); Idem. Thugut u. sein potUisches Si/stem in Arch, fur Usterr. Gcsch.-QueUen. XLII, XLIII (Vienna, 1870); Idem. VerrtaiUiche Briefe von Freiherm von Thugut (Vienna, 1872) ; Idem, QuMen zur Geschichte der deutschen KaiserpoUtik Oesterreich wShrend der framisischen RevoUlionskrieg imri-l srii ^ T (Vienna, 1873), cover- ing Jan., 1790; .■\pril, 179:: IT : 7; noring April. 1792, March, 179.'i; III, ed. von Zi covering Ma.v-Dec. 1793; IV (1885), covering .1. ': V (1890), covering Oct., 1794,-Sept., 1795; Bah ■n.uen aus den kon.. ■prcussischen Slaalsarchivcn. I ( l.'ipziK, ISSI), covering 1795- 1800; Hardenbebq, Denkunirdtgkntcn. cd. voN Ranke (5 vols., Leipzig, 1877).

CoLESTIN WOLFSGROBER.

Thulis, JoH>:, Venerable, English martyr, b. at Up Holland, Lancashire, probably about 1568; suffered at Lancaster, 18 March, 161.5 or 1616. He arrived at the Enghsh College, Reims, 2.5 May, 1,583, and re- ceived tonsure from Cardinal Guise on 23 Septem- ber following. He left for Rome, 27 March, 1.590, where he was ordained priest, and was sent on the mission in April, 1592. He seems to have been a prisoner at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, when he signed the letter of 8 November, 1598, in favour of the institu- tion of the archpriest, and the letter of 17 Novem- ber, 1600, against it. Later he laboured in Lancashire, where he was arrested by William, fifteenth earl of Derby, and was committed to Lancaster Castle, where his feUow-martyr Roger Wrenno, a weaver, was con- fined. They managed to escape one evening just be- fore the Lent assizes, but were recaptured the next day. After that he was imprisoned with thieves, four of whom he converted. These were executed with the martyrs. Thulis suffered after three thieves. His quarters were set up at Lancaster, Preston, Wi- gan, and Warrington. Wrenno was hanged next, and, the rope breaking, he was once more offered his life for conformity, but ran swiftly to the ladder and climbed it as fast as he coidd, saying to the sheriff, who remon- strated, "If you had seen that which I have just now seen, you would be as much in haste to die as I am now^". A curious metrical account of their martyr- dom, as well as portions of a poem composed by Thulis, arc printed by Father Pollen in his "Acts of the English Martyrs" (London, 1891), 194-207.

Challoner, MisHonary Priests. II, nog. 155 and 150; Knox, Do'iay Diaries (London, 1878), 196. 198, 229, 298; Pollen, Ena- lish Martyrs 1581,-1603 (London, 1908), 384; Law, JesuUs and Seculars (London, 1859), no. 93.

John B. Wainewright.

Thundering Legion (legio fidminntn, nr fulminea, not fiilminnlrii). — The storj- of the Thundering I.e- gion is in substance as follows: When the Emperor Marcus Aurelius lefl an expedit ion against the Qu;vdi in 174, his army, exhausted by thirst, was nn the point of falhng an easy prey to the enemy. It was then that the soldiers of the Twelfth Legion, which was com- posed of Christians, pniyed to their Ood for help. Forthwith a heavy thunderstorm arose, bringing the desire<l relief to the Romans, but terrifying and dis- pptBing the barbarians. Hereupon the emperor issued a decree forbidding the persecution of the Chrisliansand totheTwelflh Legion he g;ive the sur- name of fiihiiiiintn. or fiitminen. th:it is, "thunder- ing". The earliest reference to this occurrence from a

Christian source was made by TertuUian ("Apologeti- cum", v, and "Ad Scapulam", iv). He is quoted by Eusebius (Hist, eccl., V, v), who also cites Apollinaris of Hier.apolis, a contemporary of Aurelius, as an authority for the alleged miracle. Later Christian authorities are Orosius (Hist. .adv. p.aganos, VH, xv), Gregory of Nyssa (Or.atio II in XL niartjTcs), Jerome (Eusebii Chron., adn. 174), and Xiphilinus (Dionis Nica'i rer. Rom. epitome, LXXI, ix, x). Pagan writers also testify to the miraculous thunderstorm, but they ascribe it either to the prayers of the em- peror (Julius Capitolinus, "Vita Marci Antonini phil- osophi" xxiv; Themistius, "Oratio XV", ed. Har- duin, 191; Claudianus, "In VI consulatum Honorii", carmen 28; "Oracula Sibyllina", ed. Alexandre, XII, 194-200) or to the incantations of the Egyptian magician Arnuphis who accompanied the Roman army (Dion Cassius, "Hist, rom.", LXXI, viii-x; Suidas, s. v. lovKiavbt). On a coin, struck by the emperor (Eckhel, "Doctrina nummorum vet.". Ill, 64), and on the Antonine Column in Rome, the " mir- acle of the thunderstorm" is represented as wrought by Jupiter.

The mass of historical evidence, as seen above, leaves no room for doubting the occurrence of the thunderstorm, but there has been a long controversy concerning various circumstances which early Chris- tian writers mention as connected with it. The re- searches of Moyle, Mosheim, and especially the more recent ones of Lightfoot, Harnack, and others (see bibliography) have led to the following almost uni- versally accepted results: A detachment of the Twelfth Legion, which was rcgidarly stationed at Melitene in Armenia and comprised many Christians, took part in the exi)edi1ion against the Quadi, and it is prob- able, though not certain, that the "miraculous thun- derstorm" was an answer to their prayers. The name fulminatrix was not given to the legion on this occasion, but there existed since the time of Augustus (Dion Cassius, LV, xxiii) a Icgio ful- niinatfi or jnbninea. probably called thus from the representation of lightning on their armour. The letter (generally appended to the "Apologj'" of Jus- tin), which Marcus .Vurelius is said to have written to the Senate, concerning the miraculous thunderstorm, and in which he is said to have forbidden the further persecution of the Christians, is either a forgerj' or it was interpolated to suit the Christians. It is an es- tablished fact that the persecution of the Christians became even more cruel shortly after this incident.

Lightfoot. .'<(. / ' ^r Polycarp. I (London. 1889),

487-192; MoYiK. II li I n I.. n, 1726). 79-398; Latin tr. by

Mosheim (I.iip?,!;, 17 11 . ^rK. Die Quelle der BericUe aber

das Regc7iuun<icr un F'I'l-,,:- Mure Aurels gegen die Quaden in .filzungsberichte der Akad. der n;ssensch. (Berlin, 1894), 83.5-82; Weijsacker. Akademisehe Rede (TObingen, 1894); Domaszewski in Rhein. Museum far Philologie (Frankfort, 1S94), 612 sq.; Petersen, ib. (1895), 453-474; Mommsen in Hermes (Berlin, 1895), 90-106; Geffken in Neues Jahrb. Jiir das kUiss. Alterlum, III (Leipzig. 1899), 253 sq.; Allard, Hist, des perslcutiom, I (Paris, 1903), 394-6.

Michael Ott.

Thun-Hohenstein, Count Leo, Austrian states- man, b. at the f.amily castle of Tetschen in Bohemia, 7 April, 1811; d. at Vienna, )7 December, 1S.SS. He received his early education under the direction of the distinguished teacher, .lohn Rohrwerk, and later studied law and philosophy at the University of Prague, .\fter graduation he travellelitic:d system of England. In Piiris he studie<l the prison system and the various benevolent institutions for working-men. .As soon as he reached home he bcg:in to ncike use of the knowledge he had acquired and issued his first publication: "Die Not- wendigkeit cler mondischcn Reform der Gefiingnisse mit Hinweisung auf die zur Einfiihrung derselben in einigen Landem getroffenen Massregeln beleuchtet".