Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/716

 CHATEAUNEUF

642

CHAUCER

■which others go farther than they, but where they still retain the merit of having boldly taken the first steps.

Sainte-Bedve, Chateaubriand el son groupe litleraire sous V Empire (Paris, newed., 1S89); for all works on Chateaubriand appeariiiK prior to 1890 one may generally consult Kerviller. ',n,' b'bUoarupiiie de Chateaubriand (Vaunes, IsOiii; Bfhtrin La sineerile retigicuse de Chateaubriand (Paris. 1900); Id Sainte-Beuvi el Chateaubriand (Paris, 1906); Bedier, ,-ritiques (Paris, 1904); Giraud, Chateaubriand (Pans, 1904). Bire, Mi moires d'oulre-tombe (Paris, new ed., 6 vols, in 12mo, not dated).

Georges Bertrix.

Chateauneuf, Pierre de. See Pierre de cas-

telnau, Blessed.

Chatham, Diocese op (Chathajiensis), comprises the northern half of the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, i. e., the counties of Gloucester, Madawaska, Northumberland, Restigouche, Victoria, and the part of Kent north of the Richibueto River. This terri- tory formerly belonged to the Diocese of St. John, itself originally a portion of the Diocese of Quebec. On 8 May, 1860, the Diocese of St. John was divided, and the present Diocese of Chatham created. The Rev. James Rogers was appointed the first bishop and consecrated 15 August in the same year. On his ar- rival at Chatham, Bishop Rogers found only seven priests to attend an immense stretch of country. During his episcopate of forty-two years a wonderful improvement was witnessed, and when he resigned, 7 August, 1902, he left a diocese of 47 parishes and 51 priests. He died 22 March, 1903. On the resigna- tion of Bishop Rogers, the Rev. Thomas Francis Barry, consecrated titular Bishop of Thugga and Coadjutor of Chatham, on 7 August, 1902, succeeded to the See of Chatham. The steady march of de- velopment, facility of communication, and immigra- tion, require the formation of new parishes each year; there are now in the diocese 57 churches with resident priests and 25 missions with churches. The Catholic population is about 66,000; a large percentage of which is French Acadian by descent and language. The secular clergy number 65 priests, with 5 theologi- cal students, and the regular 31 priests and 7 brothers. Sisters, numbering about 200, of several religious con- gregations, are in charge of various institutions. There are 8 parochial schools with about 1000 pupils, one classical college (at Caraquet) for boys, directed by the Eudist Fathers, with 1 30 pupils, and 3 schools taught by Sisters under the Government School Law, with about 400 pupils. Two orphan asylums support 100 orphans, and 4 hospitals are directed by the Hos- pital Sisters of St. Joseph, among them the govern- ment hospital for lepers at Tracadie. The Trappist Fathers and the Trappistine Sisters, expelled from France, have opened monasteries in the parish of Rogers ville.

Louis O'Leary.

Chatillon, Cardinal de. See Huguenots.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, English poet, b. in London between 1340 and 1345; d. there, 25 October, 1400. John Chaucer, a vintner ami citizen of London, mar- ried Agnes, heiress of one Bamo de Copton, the city moneyer, and owned the house in Upper Thames Street, Dowgate Hill (a site covered now by the arrival platform of Cannon Street Station), where his son Geoffrey was born. That Ins birth was not in 1328, hitherto the accepted date, is fully proved JFurnivall in The Academy, 8 Dec, 1888, 12 Dec, 1887). John Chaucer was connected with the Court, and once saw Flanders in the royal train. Geoffrey waa educated well, but whether he was entered at either university remains unknown. lie figures by ■ from the year 1357, presumably in the capacity of a page, in the household books of the Lady Eliza- beth de Burgh, wife of Prince Lionel, third son of King Edward III (Bond in Fortnightly Review,

VI, 28 Aug., 1873). The lad followed this prince to France, serving through the final and futile Edwardian invasion, which ended in the Peace of Bretigny (1360), and was taken prisoner at "Retters", identified by unwary biographers as Retiers near Rennes, but by Skeat as Rethel near Reims, a place mentioned by Froissart in his account of this very campaign. Thence Chaucer was ransomed by the king, who, when the Lady Elizabeth died, took over her page, and later (1367) pensioned him for life. Chaucer was married before 1374; probably the Philippa Chaucer named in the queen's grant of 1366 was then Geoffrey Chaucer's wife (Lounsbury,

Geoffrey Chaucer. (From a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London)

Studies in Chaucer, I, 95-7). It seems clear that he could not have been happy in his marriage (Hales in Diet. Nat. Biog., X, 157). He had two sons and a daughter, if not other children. Gascoigne tells us that his contemporary, Thomas Chaucer, was the poet's son. This statement, long discredited, is now fully endorsed by the best authorities (Hales in Athenanim, 31 March, 1888; Skeat. ibid., 27 Jan.. 1900). Thomas Chaucer's mother was Philippa Roet, daughter of Sir Paon or Payne de Roet, Guienne king at arms. Roet had another daughti r, Catherine, widow of Sir Hugh Swynford, who was for long John of Gaunt's mistress and eventually his third wife. Thus Chaucer became the brother-in- law of the great duke, who from 1368 onwards had been his most powerful patron. Thomas Chaucer (b. about 1367; d. 1434), later of Woodstock and Kwelme, became chief butler to four sovereigns, as well as Speaker of the House of Commons (in 1414). His sister Elizabeth (b. 1365) at sixteen entered Barking Abbey as a novice. John of Gaunt providing lift v pounds as her religious dowry. Lewis Chaucer, the" "litel sonne Lowys", for whom the •• Astrolabe" was written, is supposed to have died in childhood.

From about his twenty-sixth year Chaucer was frequently employed on important diplomatic