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BALDERIC

nica; while the oldest actual specimen is that in the church of St. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna (e. 810). The use of the baldachinum was general up to the twelfth century, when it yielded to the growing importance of the rehquarj- as an adjunct to the altar, sometimes disappearing altogether, sometimes

taking the form of a canopy over tlie relic-ca-sket. With the placing of the altar against the wall, the baldachinum toot the form of a projecting dais can- opy (v. Altar-Canopy under Altar: In Liturgy) or became the ciborium-like superstructure of the taber- nacle or central tower of the altar. Italy was less affected by this evolution than were the centres of Gothic art, and the use of the older form is common there to-day. The most magnificent baldachinum in the world is that in St. Peter's in Rome designed by Bernini for Pope Urban VIII.

Bishop. History of the Christian Altar (Downside. 1906); Id. in Downside Review (July. 1905); Nesbitt in Diet. Christ. Antiq. s. v. Altar; Rock-Weale, Hierurgia (London, 1900), II, 316-320. For descriptions of many early baldachina, see Index of Liber Pontificalia, ed. Duchesne (Paris, 1892), s. vv. Cyburia, Fastidium, Tiburium. See also bibliography to article Altar, History op the Christian.

John B. Peterson.

Balde, Jacob, a German poet, b. 4 January, 1604, in the Imperial free town of Ensisheira in Upper Alsace; d. at Neuburg, 9 August, 1668. He studied the classics and rhetoric in the Jesuit college of his native town, philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt, where on 1 July, 1624, he was admitted into the Society of Jesus. Having undergone the usual ascetical and literary training he taught classics and rhetoric in the colleges of Munich and Innsbruck, and in his leisure hours composed the Latin mock- heroic poem " Batrachomyomachia" (Tiie Battle of the Frogs and the Mice). After completing his the- ological studies at Ingolstadt, where he was ordained priest in 1633, he was appointed professor of elo- quence in the university. Called to Munich a few years later to educate the sons of Duke Albert, he soon after received the office of court preacher to the elector Maximilian. Owing to failing health he

was, in 1654, sent to Neuburg on the Danube, where he became the intimate friend and adviser of the Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm. Here he died. The poetical works of Balde are marked by a bril- liant imagination, noble thoughts, wit and humour, strength and tenderness of feeling, great learning, love of nature, and knowledge of the human heart. His mastery of classical Latin was such that he wielded it with astonishing power and originality, and he used the ancient metres and poetical forms with consummate ease and skill. His poetical themes are the world and religion, friendship and fatherland, art and letters. His patriotic accents, says Herder, have made him a German poet for all time. He witnessed the horrors of the Thirty Yeai-s War, and the devastation and disruption of his country, and while lamenting the fate of Germany, sought to re-awaken in the hearts of the people the old national spirit.

Balde was above all a lyric poet, many of his odes to the Virgin Mother of God being of surpassing beauty, but he has also written epic and pastoral poems, satires, elegies, and dramas. During his life- time he was acclaimed "the German Horace", but soon after his death he fell into neglect, until Herder, towards the end of the eighteenth century, by his translation of many of Balde's lyrics, published in the periodical "Terpsichore", revived the poet's memory and the fame of his genius among scholars. Balde, however, could never have become a popular poet in the wider sense of the word, as nearly all his works were wTitten in Latin, which was in his time the international language of the cultured classes, whereas German was too unwieldy and crude a vc- liicle of poetical expression. Balde's poetry is not faultless; he occasionally offends against good taste, burdens his verses with mj-thological lore, and does not always keep his luxuriant imagination under control. The only complete edition of his works was published in eight volumes at Munich in 1729.

SoMMERVOGEL, Bibliothique de la c. de J., a. v.; Westek- MEYER, Jacobus Boldc, sein Leben und seine Werke (Munich. 1808); Baumgartner. Geschichte der Weltlitteratur, IV, U44- 656; MuRY-SoMMERVOGEL, Jacques Balde, notice et bibtioyrapfiic (Strasburg, Roux, 1901).

B. Gdldner.

Balderic (Baudry), a monk of Liege, a writer ami teacher of the twelfth century, b. date unknown, at Florermes in Belgium; d. about 1157. He was proctor at the court of Pope Eugene III, antl ac- companied him to France when the macliinations of Arnold of Brescia compelled the pontiff to leave Rome. At a synod held in Paris in 1147, Balderic became acquainted with Albero, the Archbishop of Trier, who induced Mm to become head of the cathedral school in Trier. As long as Albero Uved. Balderic remained his friend and ad\-iser, and, after his death, wrote his biography, which is remarkable for its classical Latin. It is published in Mon. Germ: Script., VIII, 243 sqq., and in P. L., CLIV, 1307 sqq.

Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquetten (BerUn, 1894), II, 3; Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1903), IV, 476.

Michael Ott.

Balderic, or Baudry, Bishop of Dol, in France, chronicler, b, about 1050; d. 7 January, 1130. After a brilliant course of studies at the famous school at Angers, he entered the Abbey of Bourgueil in Anjou, where he became abbot in 1079. In 1107 he re- ceived from Pascal II the palUum of Bishop of Dol. He assisted at all the councils held in his day, went several times to Rome, and left an account of a journey to England. He exercised considerable activity in reforming monastic disciphne. The last years of his life were spent in retirement. He is remembered as the author of important or interest- ing contributions to history, poetry, and hagiography.