Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/285

 VAGA

249

VALD^S

51, and it was not till 1384 that the abbey s blessed by the Bishop of Linkoping. The ionization of St. Bridget in 1391 and her trans- ion in 1394 added greatly to the fame and hes of lier abbey. In 1400 Eric of Pomerania was 'ested at Vatlstena by his aunt, Queen Margaret, Ih full ro>al rights over Denmark, Norway, and edeii. Vad.'itena now became the literary centre Sweden. The Brigittinc literature consisted mostly translations into Swedish of portions of the Bible of the legends of the saints. Such wi-itings as ' extant have been pubhshed for the most part bv - Old Swedish Texts Society {Svenska Fornskrifi- llxkiiii) of Sloekliolm. Of these authors the best i>wn l)i'l(iiiging to Vadstena are perhaps Margaret lusddtlcr, abbess (1473-1496), author of a work on ■ family of St. Bridget (printed in "Seri])tores rum Svecicarum", III, i, 207-16), and Nicholas gvaMi, monk and general confessor (1476-1514),

composed several works. When he tlied, the i of the abbey was near at hand. It was plundered (iuslavus Vasa in 1.523, and lost most of its lands )ul I.VJ?. In 1.540 the larger part of the books and uables were taken. The httle community strug- d on in spite of persecution. John III (1.569- )2) restored and enriched the abbey, and Possevin, papa) legate, reformed it in 1580. In 1594 it was zecl and destroyed by Charles, Duke of Suderman- d, afterwards Charles IX. The abbess, Catherine )fsdotter, and most of the nuns, fled to the Brigit- e nunnery at Danzig. Now only the chapter- ise atid a few cells of the convent of the sisters iiain, and form part of a lunatic asylum. A general ipital occupies the site of the convent of the )thers. The abbey church is still standing; it itains a few memorials of St. Bridget. (See Brig- 'iNEs; Catherine op Sweden, Saint.)

Iteele, Story of the Brigittines (London, 1910); Revelationes S. gittw, ed. Hormann (Munich. 1680); Rev. Extrav., xxiv- ii. 759-62; Vitus Katerinw in Scriptores Rerum Svecicarum, Pt. II (Stockholm, 1876). xx-xxii, 759-63; Diarium Waz- ensein Script. Rcr. Svecic. I (Stockholm, 1818), xxiv, 99-229; iTE. Farnsvcnsk Bibtiografi (Stockholm, 1903), B. 980-1001; rER, Stwtjer i Vadstena-Klosters og Birgittinordens historia isala, 1905), thesis; Martin, Gustave Vasa et la r^forme en lie (Paris. 1910); Theiner, La Suide el te Saint Sikge, tr.

!EN- (Paris. 1842). A. W. Taylor.

7aga, a titular see of Numidia, frequently men- aed by historians and ancient geographers. Be- G the Roman conquest it was an iinportiint com- rcial centre. Delivered to the Carthaginians by issinissa, it was incorporated with the Numidian gdom, and at a later date became part of Numidia iconsularis. Metellus destroyed it, but it soon e from its ruins, and under Septiraius Severus was iwn as Cnlonia Septimia Vaga. Justinian forti-

1 it, and in honour of his wife Theodora, named it eodorias. It is to-day the small city of Beja, itre of a civil district of about 100,000 inhabitants runisia, and a railroad .station in the heart of that 1 agricultural region. The halls of Justiniim still ■it, but are greatly moiiified ; the large tower of the sba was the donjon of the ancient citadel; oneof its es dates also from the sixth century and there are

remains of a large reservoir. Among the in- iptions of Beja several are Christian; from one learn that the walls were built by Count Paul; m another that the principal mosque is an ancient ristian b.asilica, restored under V.alentinian and lens. The bishops known to us are: Libosus, sent at the Council of Carthage, 256; Crescens at .t of 349; .\mpelius .and Primulus, both at the C first.

MiTH, Dirt, (if (7r. and Rom. Geog., s. v., Vacca: Mui.leh. PS on Ptolrmu, ed. Didot. I. 643; Toulotte. G^og. de VAfrique iienne. Proconsulaire (Paris. 1892). 3.30-33; Diehl, L'Afrinue inline (Pari.s, 1896), 157. 220, 416, 530, 583.

S. P^TRIDfes.

Vaillant de Gueslis, Fran50is, Jesuit missionary, b. at Orleans, 20 July, 1646; d. at Moulins, 24 Sept., 1718. He entered the Society of Jesus, 10 Nov., 1665; came to Canada in 1670; and was ordained priest at CJuebec, 1 Dec, 1675. He first evangelized the Mo- hawks (1679-84). In the beginning of 1688 he was chosen by the Canadian authorities as amba.ssador to Thomas Dongan, Governor of New York. He was also the first missionary to work among the Indians at Detroit ; but he remained only a few months, not enter- ing into the plans of Sicur de Lamothe Cadillac. After the conclusion of peace between the French and the Iroquois he evangelized the .Senecas (1702-07). There he contributed not a little to defeat the efforts of Colonel Schuyler at Onondaga who w:is trying to induce the Five Nations to drive out the French missionaries. The two principal scenes of his zeal in Canada were Quebec and Montreal. At Quebec (1685-91; 1697-1702), he filled the important posts of minister, procurator of the mission, and preacher, and at Montreal (1692-96; 1709-15), he was the first su- perior of the residence established by the Jesuits in 1692. He founded the Men's Congregation of Ville- marie which exists to the present day. He returned to France in 1715.

O'Callaghan. Documents relating to the Colonial Hist, of New York (Albany, 1849-51); Charlevoix, Ilistoire et descrip- tion generate de la Nouvelle-France (Paris. 1744. tr., London, 1761); Lindsay, Notre-Dame de Loreltc (Montreal, 1900).

Arthur Melanqon.

Valdes, .\lfon80 de, Spanish Humanist and chan- cellor of the Emperor Charles V, b. at Cuenca in Castile about 1.500; d. at Vienna in October, 1.532. His talents gave him early advancement and he ac- companied Charles V in 1520 on the journey from Spain to the coronation at Aachen, and in 1521 to the Diet of Worms. From 1522 he was a secretary of the imperial chancellery and as secretary wrote a number of important state papers: in 1525, he drew up the report of the battle of Pavia; in 1526 the energetic, graphic, and at times deliberately sarcastic state paper addressed to Pope Clement Vll, in which the faithlessness of the pope is stigni.il izi<l, and an appeal is made for the convoking of an (Ecumenical Coun- cil. After the capture and pillage of Rome in 1527, Valdes wrote the dialogue "Lactantius" in which he violently attacked the pope as a disturber of the pub- lic peace, an instigator of war, and a perfidious de- ceiver, declared the fate of Rome the judgment of God, and called the States of the Church the worst governed dominion in the world. The dialogue was printed in 1529 and was widely read. The papal nuncio at Madrid, Baldassare Castiglione, brought an accusation before the Inquisition, but the trial amounted to nothing because Charles V took his serv- ant under his protection, while the grand inquisitor al.so declared that it was not heretical to speak against the morals of the pope and the prie-sts. Conse- quently it was decided that the dialogue was not calumnious. Valdes was full of enthusiasm for the ide.as of Erasmus of Rotterdam and sought to gain currency for them in Spain. In 1,529 he accompanied the emperor to Italy. (Jerinany, ;in<l the Netherlands. .\t the Diet held at Augsburg in 1.5;J0 he was an influ- ential negotiator with Melanehthon and the Protes- tants, and met them in a pacific and conciliatory spirit; yet it cannot be said that he shared their views or showed that he understood Luther's motives; his point of view was solely t hat of a statesman . 1 n Octo- ber, 1531, he wrote from Brussels the letter of con- gratulation to the Catholics of Switzerland after the victory over Zwingli. He was the brother of Juan Valdes, the leader of the heretical movement in Naples, many of whose followers became apos- tates.

Caballero, Alfonso y Juan deVaWH (Madrid. 1875); Wiffen, Life and Writings of Juan de Valdis (London, 1869); Cabrasco,