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 BACHIARIUS

190

BACKX

TiLLEMONT, Memoires (Venice, 1732'), III, 106-107. 633; Harnack, Geschichte der altchrisl. Lit. (Leipzig, 1S93), I, 261; Venables in DicU Christ. Biog., I, 236.

John B. Peterson.

Bachiarius, an early fifth-century writer, knowTi only through two treatises which warrant the con- jecture that he was a monk, possibly an abbot, and a Spaniard. The first of these writings, entitled by Gennadius "Liber de Fide'' is an apologetical letter to the pope in which Baohiarius, like many another monk coming to Home from Spain at the time, vin- dicates his faith against the suspicions of a hetero- doxy akin to Priscillianism which were based on his residence in heretical lands. He points out that he left his country because of its errors (whence some conclude that he was exiled) and makes a profession of faith that \\atnesses to his thorough orthodoxy. The second, entitled "Ad Januariam liber de repara- tione lapsi". is an appeal to an abbot, Januarius, to mitigate his severity towards an incontinent monk who though repentant was excluded from the monas- terj'. The letter breathes a beautiful spirit of pru- dently tempered charity and like the first is replete with scriptural texts and allusions. The theory of Bachiarius's identity with the Spanish bishop Pere- grinus seems untenable.

Texts of letters with Gallard's introduction and Genn.\- Dius's references in P. L., XX, 1015-62; Muratori. Opere <Arez2o. 1770), XI, 248-275; Tillemont, Memoires (Venice, 1732), XVI, 473-476; Venables in Diet. Christ. Biog., I, 236; Mangenot in Diet, de thiol, cath., II. 6.

John B. Peterson.

Bachmann (AnrNicoL.\), P.\ul, Catholic theologi- cal controversialist, b. at Chemnitz, Saxony, about 1466. His biographical data are very meagre. Nothing is known of his youth, and very Uttle of his life, before his appearance as an opponent of the Lutheran movement. He entered the Order of Citeaux at the convent of Altenzelle on the Mulde. He seems to have been emploj'ed as professor in the 'Cistercian house of studies newly founded at Leipzig. Here he won the degree of Master of Arts. He was made procurator and finally, in 1522. Abbot of Alten- zelle, in succession to Abbot Martin (1493-1522). At the outbreak of Lutheranism, Bachmann sprang into prominence as one of its most energetic oppo- jients. He was one of that distinguished group of sc'iolars composed of Cochla?us, Emser, Peter Forst, i\nd .August in von Alveldt, who, under the direction of John of Schlcinitz, Bishop of Meissen, fought the movement in Saxony. Bachmann gave special at- tention to the reformation of monastic fife and to a defence of the veneration of the Saints. While he was not wholly successful in preventing defection from the ranks of his own order, he at least hindered the secularization of his own monaster}- of Alten- zelle during his lifetime. His vigorous defence of orthodoxy engaged him in a war of pamphlets with the reformers, in which his own contributions yield little in bitterness of tone and coarseness of language to those of his antagonists. In a contemporaneous satire entitled "Mors et sepultura doctrinse Lu- therans" (Strobel, Opuscula qujedam satirica et ludicra tempore Reform, scripta, Fasc. 1, 1784, 49 sqq.) written in the style of the "Epistolae ob- scurorum viroruni ", Bachmann is very severely handled. A letter is there ascribed to him over the signature " Humilis frater Paulus Hamnicolus, in- dignus Abatissa Monstri Cellensis in Misnia". Be- sides his controversial pamphlets Bachmann's writ- ings comprise hymns and devotional works in prose and verse.

Streber in Kirchenlericon, I, 1829.

M.\TTHI.4.S LeIMKUHLER.

Backer, Augustin de. bibliographer, b. at Ant- werp, Belgium, IS July, 1809; d. at Liege. 1 Dec, 1873. He was educated at the Jesuit Colleges of Saint-Nicholas, Beauregard, Saint-Acheul, and Fri-

bourg. In 1835 he was received into the Society of Jesus by the General, Father Roothaan, who sent liim to Nivelles, in Belgium, for liis no\itiate. He taught three years in the College of Namur, and in 1840 began in Louvain his studies for the priesthood. At an early age his vocation as a bibliographer began to manifest itself. While yet a student he made a collection of Elzevirs and planned a work that would give the history of the early printing presses in Europe. In order to acquire the necessary informa- tion for this compilation, he visited from 1831 to 1834 the principal libraries in Belgium and twice those of Paris, thus unwittingly preparing himself for his future labours. While at Louvain he came across the incomplete "Bibliotheca Scriptorura Societatis Jesu" published in 1676 by Father Nathaniel South- well (Bacon), and he resolved to undertake the work that will ever remain the monument of liis laborious life, '■ La bibliotheque des dcrivains de la compagnie de Jesus". This colossal work Father de Backer, with the assistance of his brother Aloysius, pub- lished in a series of seven quarto volumes in the years 1853-61, and followed this up in 1869-76 with a new edition in three large folios containing the names of 11,000 Jesuit authors. The changes and improvements of this edition are so marked as to make it practically a new work. Besides an in- troductory sketch of the author, there are recordetl under each title the editions, translations, and critiques as well as the works which were published in refutation. Father de Backer died while engaged on the third volume of the new edition, but the work was completed by his brother. Another collaborator in the second edition was Charles Sommervogel, whose own magnificent " Bibliography of the Society of Jesus" in eleven folio volumes was made possible by the gigantic labours of the two de Backers.

Van Tricht, La Bibliothdque des eerivains de la c. de J. el le P. Augustin de Backer (Louvain, 1S7G); Sommervogel. I; Hughes. Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits (New York, 1892).

Edward P. Spillane.

Backx, Peter Hubert Evermode, b. 10 Decem- ber, 1805, at Tilburg, Holland; d. 28 October, 1868. Ordained priest 17 March, 18.32, he may be con- sidered the second founder of the Norbertine Abbey of Tongerloo (Province of Antwerp, Belgium), which was established in 1128, or eight years after the foundation of the Premonstratensian Order by St. Nor- bert. It had to suffer much from the Protestants dur- ing the second half of the sixteenth century, but the fatal blow was struck by the French Republic, which, on 6 December, 1796, expelled the religious, confis- cated the abbey, and sold it to the highest bidder. At that time Tongerloo was at the heighth of its prosperity. After the suppression of the Jesuits, the abbot and community of Tongerloo had made all arrangements for the continuation of the "Acta Sanctorum" and the "Analecta Belgica" of the BoUandists, and four of its canons were co-operating ■n-ith two of the former BoUandists in this gigantic publication. The catalogue of the Abbey of Ton- gerloo, made in 1796, gives the names of one hundred and nineteen priests and professed scholastics and of six novices. A large number of these lived in the abbey, others were attached to parishes belonging to it. Some were completing their theological studies in Rome or at the University of Louvain, one was President of St. Norbert's College in Rome, another was president of the college of the same name at Louvain. Lender the French Republic and again, after the battle of Waterloo, during the reign of William I, King of the Netherlands, the expelled and dispersed religious were not allowed to form a new community, but better times came with the creation of Belgium as a separate kingdom, in 1830. Only sixteen of the one hundred and twenty-five religious