Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/802

 DENIS

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DENMARK

tember, 1729; d. at Vienna 29 Sept., 1800. He re- ceived his early training in the gymnasium of Passau, conducted by the Jesuits, and became a member of the Society of Jesus at Vienna in 1747. For some years he taught Latin and rhetoric, first at Graz, then at Hagcnfurt. After four more years devoted to the study of tlieology at Graz he was ordained priest in 1757, and Ijegan preaching in Pressburg. In 1759 he was made professor of belles-lettres at the famous Theresian Academy in Vienna where he remained until 1773, when the Society of Jesus was suppressed. Denis now became assistant librarian of the Garelli Library, connected with the Theresianum, and when the academy ceased to exist in 1784, he was appointed assistant librarian of the imperial court library and in 1791 was advanced to be chief librarian, receiving at the same time the title of privy councillor. He is specially known as a poet, as he was one of the chief members of the group of so-called bards whose aim was to revive German patriotism by treating subjects connected with Germanic antiquity. Confusing Ger- manic and Celtic materials they conceived themselves as bards, in the belief that these were ancient German poets, and adopted fanciful bardic names. Thus Denis called himself "the bard Sined", the anagram of his name. They were all admirers of Klop- stock and of Ossian, whose poems had only a few years before been made known by the Scotchman Macpherson, and which had been translated into Ger- man in 1764. Ossian was really the inspiration of the bardic movement. Denis's first poems appeared in 1760 under the title "Poetische Bilder der meisten kriegerischen Vorgange in Europa seit dem Jahre 1756". They are poems celebrating the events of the Seven Years War, and, as the German poems of a Jesuit, created cjuite a stir. His German transla- tion of Ossian appeared in three volumes (1768- 1769). A second collection of poems, "Die Lieder Sineds des Barden", followed in 1772. A new edition, including his version of Ossian, was published at Vi- enna in five volumes under the title "Ossian und Sineds Lieder" (Vienna, 1784-85). Besides the purely bardic poems these collections contain many poems composed for special occasions, for Denis was held in high esteem by the C'ourt.. A number of religious poems had been published separately as "Geistliche Lieder" in 1774. The quality of these poetical efforts is not high, but Denis certainly deserves praise for his efforts to bring the literature of Aus- tria into contact with that of northern Germany. For both Klopstock and Gellert he felt great enthusi- asm, and largely helped to make them known in .Vustria.

As a bibliographer he compiled a number of im- portant works, notably: "Einleitung in die Bucher- kunde", part I, bibliography (1777); part II, "Lit- teraturgeschichte ", (1778); "Die Merkwiirdigkeiten der Garellischen Bibliothek" (Vienna, 1780); and "Wiens Buchdruckergeschichte bis MDLX" (Vienna, 1782-83). His posthumous works were published by his pupil J. F. de Retzer, "Nachlese zu Sineds Lie- dern" (Vioiinu, 1802).

HoFM\-.\ Willi ^^■ \' i, iu Kurschner, Deutsche Nntwnnl-I a ,,. \ : \ M I, I i'J .-ipl-

Arthuh F. J. Remy.

Denis, Joseph (baptized Jacques), b. 6 November, 1657, at Three Rivers, Canada; d. 25 January, 1736. He was the first Canadian to join the Recollects of the Friars Minor. His father, Pierre Denis de la Ronde and his mother Catherine Leneuf de la Poterie, were na- tives of Normandy. In 1669 he entered the seminary at Quebec and on 9 May, 1677, joined the Recollects in the same city, taking in religion the name of Joseph. When professed he went to France to study theology. After being ordained he rctu.rued to Canada in 1682,

where in 1685 he completed the installation of the Recollects at He Percee. He founded the house of the order at Plaisance in 1689 and that at Montreal in 1692. After holding the office of provincial commis- sary, superior of the convent of Quebec, and master of novices, he was named, in 1709, superior of the Recollects and parish priest of Three Rivers, where he rebuilt in stone the old church. In 1719 he car- ried to France, to be forwarded to Rome, the Acts of Brother Didace (Les actes du tres-religieux Frere Didace), a Canadian Recollect whose confessor he was for many years. He died shortly after his return to New France.

Odohic-M. Jouve.

Denman, William, publisher, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 17 March, 1784; d. in Brooklyn, New York, U. S. A., 12 September, 1870. His father was a Ger- man, his mother an Alsatian, and he claimed to have been in the English army before he emigrated to New York in 1824. He was an associate of William E. Andrews, the London publisher, and after settling down in New York, he began, in conjimction with George Pardow, on 2 April, 1825, the publication of "The Truth Teller", the first Catholic paper issued there. It was a weekly, and for a time enjoyed considerable local influence which gave Denman polit- ical prominence. Tainted, however, with the prevail- ing error of trusteeism, it lost the support of the local ecclesiastical authorities, rival publications were started and its prestige waned until he sold the paper 31 March, 1855, to the proprietors of " The Irish Amer- ican", who merged it in that journal a short time after. Three of his sons were in the United States ser\'ice: Adjutant Frederick J. Denman, of the Artil- lery, killed by accident in Texas in 1854; Ensign Joseph A. Denman, of the Navy, died 1862; Colonel Charles L. Denman, who served in the Mexican War and as consul in South America, died 17 March, 1893. The youngest son, William, was for some years editor of the New York "Tablet".

U. S. Cath. Hist. Soc, Hist. Records and Studies (New York, Jan., 1903), III, part I.

Thomas F. Meehan.

Denmark (Lat. Dania). — This kingdom had for- merly a much larger extent than at present. It once included the southern provinces of Sweden: Skane, Halland, Blekinge, Bohuslan (till 1658); the Duchies of Schleswig (Sonderjylland) and Holstein (till 1864) ; the Kingdom of Norway (from 1537 till 1814). The present kingdom comprises 16,000 square miles (be- tween lat. 54° 33' and 57° 45' N. ; long. 8° 4' and 15° 10' E.). It now includes the northern part of Jutland (anciently the Cimbric Chersonese) between the North Sea, Skager Rack, and Cattegat, whose southern part borders on the German Empire ; the islands which lie between the Baltic and Cattegat (partly also in the latter) — Zealand (Sjalland), Falster, Moen, Laaland, Fiinen (Fyan), Mvo, Samso, Anholt, Laeso — together with a few smaller isles (Amager, Saltholm, Seiero, etc.) and Bornholm, which lies far towards the east in the Baltic. To this must be added the group of the Faroe Islands (q. v.), situated in the Atlantic Ocean, 180 miles north-west of the Shetland Islands and 410 miles west from Bergen, and finally Iceland (q. v.), whose northern coast is washed by the Arctic Ocean, and which, though very extensi\-e (40,000 square miles), is but thinly inhabited (80.000 souls). Ice- land is verj^ loosely connected with Denmark, is inde- pendent in its laws and government, and since 1874 has its own constitution. Other Danish possessions are Greenland (q v.), which in size is almost a conti- nent, but is very sparsely settled (only 12,000 souls), and the three islands in the West Indies, St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas, with a total area of 120 squarQ miles and a population of 30,000.