Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/674

 BLOOD

604

BLTTH

For the last twelve years, therefore, a new policy has been adopted which has proved to be the right one. In pursuance of this later policy, the Indians have been set to ranching and cattle-raising — a con- genial occupation. Many of them now have herds of their o'n-n, and are self-supporting. Noteworthy progress has also been achieved in their dress, housing, preparation of food, treatment of wives, and, gen- erally, in their ideas of social relations; so much so that" the Blood Indian of to-day may be considered an entirely different being from his predecessor of twenty-five years ago. Emile J. LEGAL.

Blood of St. Januarius. See J.\nu.\jiius, St. Blood Relationship. See Cons.vnguinity. Bloody Sweat. See Agony of Christ. Blosius (or DE Blois). FR.\NfOis-Louis, a Bene- dictine abbot and spiritual ^\Titer, b. at Donstienne, near Liege, Flanders, 1506; d. at Liessies, 1566. His parents were nobles of Hainault, his father being S ■ T - He became page to the Archduke

Charles (a f t e r- wards Emperor Charles V) but entered the Ab- bey of Liessies when only four- teen. Whilst still a no^•ice he was sent to study at the University of Louvain, whence he was recalled in 1527 to become coadjutor to the Abbot, Gilles Gippus, his nomi- nation as such being confirmed bv a Bull of Pope Paul III. Three years later, in 1530, he succeeded Gippus as thirty-fourth Abbot of Liessies, and received ordination and the abbatial blessing in the same year. His first care was the cultivation in his abbey of a true monastic spirit and strict discipline, which had somewhat declined under liis predecessors. He had hardly settled dowii to the work of reform before Flanders was immersed in war owing to its invasion by Francis I of France, which occurred in 1537. Liessies, being on the frontier, became in consequence an unsafe habitation and Blosius proposed a move to the priory of Ath, in the interior, but most of his monks, being opposed to his reform, either elected to remain at Liessies or else went to other laxer monasteries. The abbot, however, with three monks, retired to .\th and there he at once restored the primi- tive observance of the rule. In spite of opposition the reform gained ground and numbers increased rapidly. When a return to Liessies became possible, in 154.5, the reform was accepted by those that had remained there and was confirmed by a Bull of Pope Paul III. Blosius next began a restoration and enlargement of the abbey buildings, which were only completed after his death. In 1556 Charles V offered him the Archbishopric of Cambrai and the abbacy of Tournai, both of which he refused in order that he might remain at Liessies. In personal character he was distinguished for his gentleness, his generosity to the poor, his love of chastity, and his devotion to the Mother of God. He was a diligent student, especially of the Scriptures, the works of the Fathers, and the mystical wxiters of the fourteenth century. His own ^Tilings were numerous, the chief being "Speculum Monachorum", written in Latin, trans- lated into French 1726, and into Englisli 1872

FRANfois-Locis Blosius

(Mirror for Monks, by Sir John Coleridge), "Entre- tiens spirituels", and "Instructions spirituelles et pens^es consolantes". His complete works were first published at Louvain in 156S and have been many times reprinted and translated. Of English editions, besides the "Mirror for Monks", there are "A Book of Spiritual Instruction" (London, 1900) and "Comfort for the Faint-hearted" (London, 1902), both translated by Father Bertrand Wilber- force, O.P.

Acta SS.. I, 430; ZlEGELBArEH, Hisl. Lit. O. S. B. (-\ugs- burg, 1754), I, 100-482; Hurter, Nomenclator (Innsbruck, 1892). I, 43; Dc Blois. A Benedictine of the Sixteenth Century, tr. LovAT (London, 1878).

G. Cyprian Alston.

Blyssen, Heinrich, b. at Cologne or Bonn, Ger- many, in 1520; d. at Graz, 24 April, 1586. He entered the Society of Jesus, and St. Ignatius, appreciating his logic and his knowledge of theology, sent him with eleven other Jesuits to Bohemia to combat heresy there, and to sustain a public disputation with the disciples of Luther and Hus. Though only twenty- five years of age, he acquitted himself with honour, and in 1556 he became professor of theology and Hebrew at the Jesuit college at Prague. Still main- taining his controversies with the heretics of Bohemia, he published a collection of theses: "De cibormn delectu atque jejunio" (Prague, 1559). To continue the work of public lectures which he had begun, he gave a Sunday course of polemics to the clergj' and laity. Appointed rector of the college at Prague in 1561, he was transferred in 1570 to the college at Graz where he vigorously continued his lectures on theology. Attacked by Jacob Heerbrand on his doctrine concerning the Church, he published a de- fence of liis thesis: "Defensio assertionum theo- logicarum de vera et sacrosancta Cliristi, quam habet in terris, Ecclesia militante" (Ingolstadt, 1577). His last and principal work "De uno geminoque sacrce eucharistiae sjTiaxeos salubriter percipiendje ritu ac usu" was published (Ingolstadt, 1585) when he was provincial of Austria.

Orlandini, Hist. Soc. Jesu (Rome, 1614), XII, 283; XVI, 396; SocHER, Historia prov, Au^tr. Soc. Jesu (Vienna), VIII, 320: Schmidt, Historia Soc. Jesu prov. Bohemia: (Prague, 1747), I, 536; SoMMERVOGEL, Bibl. de la c. de J. (1550), I.

M. DE Moreira.

Blyth, Francis, English Carmelite, reviser of the Douay Bible, bom c. 1705; d. in London, 11 Decem- ber, 1772. Though born of Protestant parents, he joined the Catholic Church while yet a youth, and entered the Carmelite novitiate at Modena in 1723, taking the name Simon Stock of the Blessed Trinity. Having obtained a dispensation from irregularity on account of a defect in vision, he proceeded to Malta for a course of studies, and after ordination returned to England, in November, 1730, where he first served a mission in Wiltshire. In 1741 he became assistant chaplain, and in 1756 chaplain- major to the Portuguese embassy in London, where he remained until his death. From 1742 till 1755, he also was Vicar Provincial of the English Carmelites. While in London, he assumed the name of Courtney. The chapels of the various embassies being recog- nized as places of worship for Catholics, the chap- lains held a position not unlike that of parish priests, and Father Blj-th distinguished himself by his elo- quent and zealous preaching. The first ambassador under whom Father Blj-th served was Dom Sebastiao- Jos6 de Carvalho e Mello. afterwards Marquez de Pombal (1739-45), whom he was, at a later period, accused of having aided in high-handed proceed- ings against the Jesuits. He indignantly protested against the calumny. Bljiih was buried in the cemetery of St, Pancras, London, and, being a man of great literary attainments and author of many works, a memorial was raised there in his honour. His chief labour was the revision, in conjunction