Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/666

 BLASPHEMY

596

BLEMMIDA

cording to the law herein laid down, the layman found guilty of blasphemy was fined. The fine was increased upon his second offence, and upon his third he was sent into exile. If unable to pay the fine, he was upon the first conviction condemned to stand before the door of the church, his hands tied behind him. For the second offence he was flogged, and for the third his tongue was pierced, and he was sentenced to the galleys. The blasphemous cleric, if possessed of a benefice, lost upon his first offence a year's income: upon his second he was deprived of his benefice and exiled. If enjoying no benefice, he was first subjected to a fine and bodily punishment; on repeating the offence he was imprisoned, and still persisting, he was degraded and condemned to the galleys.

BLA.sPHE.My IN CiviIj L-\w. — Blasphemy cogniz- able by common law is defined by Blackstone to be "denying the being or providence of God, contume- lious reproaches of our Saviour Jesus Christ, profane scoffing at the Holy Scripture, or exposing it to con- tempt or ridicule". In the United States we fuid many penal statutes against blasphemy, which have been declared constitutional as not subversive of the freedom of speech or liberty of the press (Am. and Eng. Ency. of Law, Vol. IV, 582). In the American Decisions (Vol. V, 335) we read that "Christianity being recognized by law therefore blasphemy against God and profane ridicule of Christ or the Holy Scriptures are punishable at common law". Accord- ingly where one uttered tlie following words "Jesus Christ was a bastard and his mother was a whore", it was held to be a public offence, punishable by the common law. The defendant found guilty by the court of conunon pleas of the blasphemy above quoted was sentenced to imprisonment for three months and to pay a fine of five hundred dollars.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Sujti. ThroL. II-II, Q. xiii, a. 3; Q. cv. a. 2"«1, Sini; Q. Ixxx, a. 3; I-II, Q. x. a. 2; St. Liguori. Theol. moral., lib. IV, tract, ii, c. i; Bali.erini, Opu^. theot. moral., II, 366 sqq.; Noldin', Theol. moral., II, 195; Disney, A View of Ancient Laws against Immorality and Profaneness; Oblet in Diet, de theol, cath., s. v. Blaspheme,

John Webstek Melody.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. See Holy Ghost.

Blastares, M.^tthew, a monk of the Order of St. Basil, living in the fourteenth century, who applied himself to the study of theology and canon law. Through the labom-s of John the Scholastic, Photius, Zonaras, Balsamon, and others the Greek Church possessed some collections of laws and commentaries. There was, however, need of a more comprehensive work, and one better adapted to the needs of the time. It appeared about 1335, in the "Syntagma" of Blastares, a collection of ecclesiastical constitutions in alphabetical order, WTitten in Greek. The full title might be trans- lated into Latin thus: "Sjoitagma alphabeticmn rerum omnium, quae in sacria divinisque canonibus comprehenduntur, elaboratum pariter et compo- situm per minimum ex liieromonachis Matthaeum Blastarem". The collection, which contains a long preface, is arranged alphabetically by means of the initial letters of the words which indicate the subject-matter of each chapter; several chap- ters are thus found vmder one letter. For example imder the Greek F: Thoughts concerning the degrees of relationship in reference to matrimony, concern- ing marriages permitted and prohibited. Under A: Thoughts on last testaments, deacons, justice, ecclesiastical trials, etc.

In each chapter the author first gives the law of the Church on the subject and then, if there be any, the civil law also, setting forth the sense rather than the exact wording of either, and contenting himself with noting where the constitutions re- ferred to may be found. The "Syntagma", com- monly called "Nomocanon" or, by metaphor.

TrriSdXiov (rudder), soon became extensively employed, and is still used in the Greek Church, as is evidenced by the fact that an edition of the work in six volumes was published in Athens from 1852 to 1860. un- der the auspices of the Holy Synod. This edition bears the title: ^iJi'TayiM tOiv Qelui' Ka.1 ifpup Kavbvuiv. This work is also found in tlie Svnodicon of Bev- eridge (P. G., CXLIV, CXLV) published at Oxford in 1672. There are also attributed to Blastares a tract on matrimonial cases, and two poems pub- lished by Goar in Greek and Latin, one on the offices of the Church of Constantinople, the other on the court. His "Syntagma", like other medieval law-books of the Greeks, breathes a spirit inimical to the Roman Church.

MoHLER in Kirchenlex.; Vering, Lehrbuch des Kirchenr., 17; Walter, Lehrbuch des Kirchenr., xiv, 79, 80; Beveridge, Prolcgom. in Pandecta Canonum. I, 21 sqq.; Krumbacher. Gesch. der byzant. Litt. (.Munich, 1897), 607.

A. B. Meeh.\n.

Blathmac, Saint, a distinguished Irish monk, b. in Ireland about 750. He suffered martyrdom in lona, about 835. He is fortunate in ha\-ing had his biography wTitten by Strabo, Benedictine Abbot of Reichenau (824-8-19), and thus the story of his mar- tyrdom has been handed down through the ages. Strabo's life of this saint is in Latin hexameters, and is to be found in Messinghani's "Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum" (Paris, 1624). A scion of a noble family he early showed a religious turn of mind, and longed to be enrolled in the noble army of martyrs, a wish which was afterwards fulfilled. His name was latin- ized Florentius (from the fact of the Irish word Blath meaning a flower), and as a religious, he was most ex- emplary, finally becoming abbot. In 824 he joined the community of Columban monks at lona, and not long afterwards the Danes ravaged the island. One morning, as he was celebrating Mass, the Scandina- vian rovers entered the monastic church and put the monks to death. St. Blathmac refused to point out the shrine of St. Columba, which was really the object of plunder, and he was hacked to pieces on the altar step. His body was afterwards reverently interred where the scene of martyrdom took place, and numerous miracles are claimed to have been wrought through his intercession. The date of his death is given by the "Annals of Ulster" as 825, although Mabillon places it thirty-six years earlier.

Reeves, .-idamman (Dublin, 1857); O'Donovan, Four Masters (DubKn, 1856); Messingham. Florilegium InsultB Sanctorum (Paris, 1624); M.vbillon, Annates Ordinis S. Bene- dieti. III; P. C, CXIII; Annals of Ulster (Rolls Series); He.aly, Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum (Dublin, 1902), 4th ed.; Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Callan. 1903).

W. H. Grattan Flood.

Bleminida (Blemmydes) Nicephorus, a learned monk and WTiter of the Greek Church, b. about 1198, at Constantinople; d. 1272. After the establishment of the Latin Empire (1204) his family emigrated to Asia Minor. Blemmida there received a careful training and was soon reputed one of the most learned men of his time. About 1223 he became one of the Byzantine clergy, at that time established in Nicaea. But owing to difficulties and jealousies he renounced all worldly prospects, became a monk, and built a monastery near Ephesus, over wliieh he presided untU his death. In this condition he felt free from all entanglements and on various occasions exhibited independence and courage. At one time he dismissed from the church of his monastery the Princess Marcesina, a mistress of the Emperor John Ducas Batatzes (1222-54), and in justification of his conduct WTote an encyc- lical letter. Again, when the Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople (1268-75) sought to obtain rec- ognition against the former Patriarch Arsenius (1255-66), he met with a straight refusal from Blemmida. Nevertheless Blemmida was held in