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 VEGLIA

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VEIL

to their fellow-men, and themselves, of the several virtues, good manners, the use of time, etc. It is his most important work, and was for a long time at- tributed to Filelfo. It has the distinction of being the most Christian in spirit of all the humanistic educa- tional treatises. It approves the study of pagan lit- erature only in conjunction with sacred learning, the study of the Scriptures and the Fathers, makes pro- vision for the education of girls, and considers the formation of a sound moral and Christian character to be the supreme end of education. Many editions of the work have appeared, the latest at Tournai, 1854 (Fr. tr., 1513; Ger. tr., 1856).

Kopp. Maffeus Vegius Erziehungslekre in Bib. kat. Pad., II (Freiburg, 1889) : Kohler, Padagogik des Mapheus Vegiits (Gmand, 1856) ; Tiraboschi, Slaria delta lelteralura italiana, VI; Ve9P.\8Iano da Bisticci, Vile. . . (Bologna, 1893).

Patrick J. McCormick.

Veglia, Diocese op (Vbgiensis et Arbensis), in Austria, suffragan of Gorz-Gradisca. Parallel to the Dinaric .\lps are a number of rocky island.'^, .separated from the mainland by a deep, though narrow, .strait. The largest of them is Veglia, which in the year 1000 had a bishop, Vitalis, who was present at a synod in Spoleto. Eugene III made it a suffragan of Zara, but since 1828 it has been under Gorz. Bartholomaus Bozarich was present at the assembly of bishops in 1849 and his successor was a member of the Vatican Council. Still more ancient is the See of Ossero (Lusin, Absor, Auxerensis), to whose bishop Pope John VIII wrote in 870. The fifty-fifth bishop, Racoamarich, was transferred to Cattiiro in 1818, and Ossero and Veglia were united. The See of Arbe (Scardona) is even more ancient. Its first known bishop attended a council at Salona in 530. The fifty-eighth bishop, Galzigna (d. in 1823), was also the last, as his diocese was merged in that of Veglia. Although Veglia is a triple see, it contains only 809,000 Catholics, 95 secular priests, 64 regulars, and 68 nuns.

Farlati, IllyricisacH, V (Venice, 1775): Veglia, 294-316.639- 47; Ossero, 182-223; .4 ric, 223-294; Theiner, Afonumen(a Sla- vorum meridionalium, hisl. illustr. (Rome, 1863), 46, 79 sq., 107 sq.. 112, 122, 163, 323, 422 sq., 432 sq., 519 sq., 575, 581, 613 sq.; Man. Hung. Rom., I (1859): Veglia, 425, 110, 112, 195, 220 sq., 323. 539 sq.. Absor. 573, Arbe, 247, 281 sq.

COLESTIN WOLFSGBUBER.

Vehe, Michael, b. at Bieberach near Wimpfen; d. at Halle, April, 1559. He joined the Dominicans at Wimpfen, and was sent to Heidelberg in 1.500, where he taught in 1512 and received the doctorate in theology in 1513. In 1515 he was appointed regent of the Dominican house of studies at Heidelberg; later Cardinal Albert of Mainz cho.se him as theolo-

§ian and put him in charge of the Church of Halle, axony. He was summoned to Aug.sburg (1.530) to refute the Lutheran Confession of Faith and took a prominent part in a debate against the Lutherans in 1.534, at Leipzig. He wrote: "Von dem Gcsatz der Niessung des h. hochw. Sacraments" (Leipzig, 1531), and "P^rrettung der beschuldigten kclchdieb" (Leipzig, 1.535) on Communion under one species; "Wie unterschieldHcher wiess Gott und seine heili- gen sollen geehrct werden" (Leipzig, 1532), a treatise on the veneration of the saints; "Assertio sacronim quorumdam axiomatum" (Leipzig, 1537), on the points controverted by the Reformers; these writings are the best apologetical treatises that appeared in Germany during the sixteenth century. Vehe also published "Ein neue Gesangbuchlein" (Leipzig, 1537; Hanover, 1853), a collection of hymns. He was called to the bishopric of Halberstadt; 21 Feb., 1.559.

HtTRTEB, Nomenrlator, II. 1249 sqq.; Srript. ord. prad., II, 95; Bull. ord. prad., IV, 678; Veeaenmeyer. KUine Beitrdge zur Oetch. des Reichttagu in Augsburg, 16S0 (Xflrnberg. 1830). 115; BIuuKER, Da> kath. deulache Kirchentieil, I (Freiburg, 1886), 124 sqq.

Ignatius Smith. XV.— 21

Veil, In the Liturgy. See Baptism; Chalice; Ciborium; Humeral Veil.

Veil, Religious. — In ancient Rome a red veil, or a veil with red stripes, distinguished newly- married women from the unmarried. From the ear- liest times Christ was represented to the Christian virgin as a husband, the only One, according to St. Paul (I Cor., vii, 34), she had to please. It was natural that the bride of Christ should, as the vestal virgins had done, adopt that veil, which thus sym- bolized not so much the purity as the inviolable fidelity to Christ which was to be reverenced in her. "There is here", said St. Optatus, "a sort of spiritual marriage" ("De schismate Donatistarum", VI; P. L., XI, 1074).

The taking of the veil then suggested an obligation of constancy, which forbade, first, illicit sexual inter- course, and afterwards marriage itself. Virgins took this veil themselves, or received it from the hands of their parents. It was worn also by widows, who made a profession of continence, and was called velum, velamen, maforte, flammeus (flamnieum), flammeus virginalis, flammeus Chrisli (Wilpert, "Die gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in den ersten Jahrhunder- t en der Kirche", p. 17). In addition to this private taking of the veil, there was early instituted another solemn clothing, which was performed by the bishop on feast days during the Holy Sacrifice (see St. Jerome, "Ad Demetriadem", ii; P. L., XXII, 1108; and St. Ambrose, "De lapsu virginis conse- crata;", v; P. L., XVI, 3726). Sometimes the bishop deputed a priest for this purpose (Ful- gentius Ferrandus, "Breviarum canonum", can. xci; P. L., LXVII, 957). After a short time, the solemn consecration of virgins was reserved to the bishop, while priests gave the veil to widows. These virgins and widows were not all cloistered; those who entered a monastery received from the abbess a veil which symbolized their religious profession, and the virgins at twenty-five years of age received sol- emnly from the bishop the veil, which was the mark of a special consecration.

The veil thus became in convents of women the distinctive sign of the different conditions. Suarez (De religione, tr. VI, t. I, col. 11, n. 5) mentions the following as in use, or as having been in use: the veil of probation, generally white, given to novices; the veil of profession; the veil of virginal consecration, given only to virgins at the age of twenty-five years; the veil of ordination, which the nun received at the age of forty years, on becoming a deaconess, with the privilege of intoning the office and reading the homilies in choir (cap. Diaconissam, 23, c. xxvii, q. 1); the veil of prelature, which abbesses obtained as a reward at the age of sixty years (cap. luvenculas, 12, c. XX, q. 1); the veil of continence, which with widows took the place of the veil of the virgins (cap. Vidua, 34, c. xxvii, q. 1). Taniburinus (De iure abbatis- sarum, d. 27, q. 2) mentions also a veil of penitence, given to penitent sisters. Several of these veils fell into disuse; at present, we know only the veil which forms i)art of the religious habit. Even that has disappeared in some newly founded congregations, e. g. the Little Sisters of the Poor. Where it still exists it is customary that the veil of novices should be white. The nuns of the mendicant orders did not receive the veil of the virgins, the imposition of which was still customary in the fifteenth century and did not disappear till the end of the sixteenth century. In the eighth and ninth centuries it w.as found neces- sary to i.ssue ecclesiastical decrees to restrain abbes.se3 from usurping the function of the bi.shop and solcnmly conferring the veil themselves. See the (■:ipitul:iriea of Aachen of 789, c. Ixxvi (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Capit. Reg. Franc, t. I, n. 22, can. Ixxvi, p. 00); Charlcm.agne, can. xiv, promulgated at the Sixth Council of Paris (829), 1. 1, c. xUii (Hardouin, "Cone",