Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/695

 BOISIL

625

BOEENHAM

eur la constitution du clerg6" (1791); "Le Psalmiste, traduction des Psaumes en vers" (1799); "Traduc- tion des Hdroides d'Ovide" (1784). His complete works appeared in Paris, 1818.

De Bausset. Notice historique sur BoisgeHn in Biofjraphie unii-erselle (Paris, 1812); Rohhbacher, Hisloire universelle de Veglise calholique (Paris, 1874); Sicard. L'ancien dergf de France, arantet pendant la Revolution (.PsLria, 1902); De Feller, Biographie universelle (Paris, 1847); Guerin, Dictionnaire des dictionnaires (Paris, 1892).

L. F. M. DuMONT.

Boisil, Saint, superior of Melrose Abbey, d. 664. Almost all that is kno^-n of St. Boisil is learnt from Bade (Eccles. Hist., IV, xxvii, and Vita Cuthberti). He derived his information from Sigfrid, a monk of Jarrow, who had previously been trained by Boisil at Melrose. St. Boisil's fame is mainly due to his con- ne-xion with his great pupil, St. Cuthbert, but it is plain that the master was worthy of the disciple. Contemporaries were deeply impressed with Boisil's supernatural intuitions. When Cuthbert presented himself at Melrose, Boisil exclaimed "Behold a serv- ant of the Lord", and he obtained leave from Abbot Eata to receive him into the community at once. When in the great pestilence of 664 Cuthbert w-as stricken down, Boisil declared he would certainly recover. Somewhat later Boisil himself, as he had foretold three years before, fell a victim to this terrible epidemic, but before the end came he predicted that Cuthbert would become a bishop and would effect great things for the Church. After his death Boisil appeared twice in a vision to his former disciple. Bishop Ecgberht. He is believed, on somewhat dubious authority, to have WTitten certain theological works, but they have not been preserved. St. Bos- well's, Roxburghshire, commemorates his name. His relics, like those of St. Bede, were carried off to Durham in the eleventh century by the priest Alfred. In the early Calendars his day is assigned to 23 Feb- ruary, but the BoUandists treat of him on 9 Septem- ber.

Acta SS., January, II and March, III; Acta SS. Ben., Site. II, p. 850; Stdbb.s in Diet. Christ. Biog.; Hcnt in Diet. Nat. Biog.; PLn.MMER in Bede's Eccles. Hist. (Oxford, 1896); Stanton, Menology (London, 1892), 318.

Herbert Thurston.

Bois-le-Duc,THE Diocese of (Buscoducensis) lies within the Dutch province of Brabant, and is suf- fragan of Utrecht. The city of Bois-le-Duc (s'Her- togenbosch, or Hertzogenbusch — Si/lva Diicis) was founded in 1184, but, with the surrounding territory, was included in the Diocese of Liege until 12 March, 1561 . .\t that time, and in order to check the spread of Protestantism, Pius IV raised it to the digraty of a see, and made it suffragan to Mechlin. The first bishop was the illustrious theologian Francis Sonnius (1562-69), afterwards transferred to the See of Antwerp. His successors suffered not a little amid the political disorders and the disastrous wars of the last quarter of the sixteenth century. When after a long siege the city was captured by Prince Frederic Henry (14 Sept., 1629) and held in the name of the States-General, the sixth bishop, Michael Ophorius, was obhged to abandon his see, which he did in a solemn procession, surrounded by his clergy, and bearing with him a famous miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin which he placed in safety at Brus- sels.

Joseph de Bergaigne (1638—47) was really little more than bishop in name. He was unable to assert his right to the office, and lived an exile from the see to which he was deeply attached, but which he be- held in the power of Dutch Calvinists. By the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) the entire territory of Bois-le-Duc was recognized as a permanent conquest of the seventeen united provinces, anil made directly subject to their jurisdiction, i. e. to the States- General. The exercise of the Catholic religion was forbidden by law, and the pertinent decrees were

applied with all possible rigour in the hope of ex- tirpating the ancient Faith. Catholic priests, how- ever, continued secretly their ministry of preaching and their administration of the sacraments, while their flocks met with invincible patience the storm of persecution. The diocese became a simple mission, governed by a vicar-ApostoUc, nearly always, how- ever, a titular bishop.

Bois-le-Duc was administered in this fashion until 1853. Napoleon had tried (1810) to create another diocese under that name, inclusive of the territory known as Bouches du Rhin. and had even obtained a titular for the new see in the person of the imperial courtier, Monsignor Van Camp, but the latter was despised by all good Catholics, and the arbitrary act of the emperor was doomed to failure. A similar failure awaited the attempt, authorized by the Concordat of 27 August, 1827, to divide all Holland into two large dioceses, Amsterdam and Bois-le-Duc. The ancient see was finally revived by Pius IX on the occasion of the restoration of the hierarchy in Hol- land, where, since 1848, the revised constitution has assured to Catholics full political and religious liberty. Together with three other Dutch sees, Bois-le-Duc was re-established by the pontifical Brief of 4 March, 1853, and with its former hmits; all four sees were made suffragan to Utrecht. Tlie Right Rev. Jan Zwysen, a native of the diocese and its most illustri- ous son, hitherto vicar-Apostolic, was the first bishop of the re-established see, though temporarily he was known as administrator-.\postolic, since he was already Archbishop of Utrecht, with which office he was to unite the government of Bois-le-Duc.

In 1865 the first provincial synod was held there, the decrees of which form the actual ecclesiastical discipline in all the dioceses of Holland, and exhibit Archbishop Zwysen as the true organizer of the ecclesiastical order in that country. In 1868 he was allowed to resign the archiepiscopal See of LTtrecht. Thenceforth, until his death in 1877, he devoted himself to the administration of his beloved See of Bois-le-Duc. He was succeeded by the Right Rev. Adrian Godschalk, who died in 1892, leaving the see to be filled by Bishop William van den Ven. The cathedral of Bois-le-Duc, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, is the finest monument of medieval Gothic in the possession of the Catholics of Holland. Though it was almost entirely rebuilt after the con- flagration of 1419, it had again suffered notable decay in succeeding centuries. A thorough restora- tion of the edifice, however, was later begun. Bois- le-Duc had a collegiate chapter as early as 1360, which was made a cathedral chapter in 1561. The above-mentioned miraculous statue of the Blessed \'irgin has been restored to the cathedral and is once more the object of general devotion. There are two diocesan seminaries, one at St. Michiels-Gestel for preparatory studies and the other at Haaren for philosophy and theology. The diocese includes 451,670 CathoUcs, 260 parishes, 625 priests, 143 charitable institutions, and 476 free (Cathohc) schools.

FoppENS, Historia epiacopatua Sylvceducensis (Brussels, 1721); COPPENS, Nieuwe beachryving van het biadom s'HertO' genbosch (Bois-le-Duc, 1840-44), i-iv; Hezenmans, De St, Janskerk te a' H ertogenboach en hare geschiedenia (Bois-le-Duc, 1866); Albers, Geschiedenis van het heratel der hierarchie in de Nederlanden (Nymegen, 1903-1904), i-ii; Neerlandia catholica (Utrecht, 1888).

GiSBERT BrOM.

Boismenu, .\lan de. See New Guinea, Vicariate

APIl.STOl.ir OF.

Bokenham (or Bokenam), Osbern, English Au- gustinian friar and poet, b. 1393 (the year in which the most famous of English Augustinians, John Cap- grave, was also born); d. probably, in 1447. The assertion of Horstmann, his German editor, that Bokenham was born at Bookham, Surrey, appears