Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/812

 LACEDONIA

732

LA CHAISE

d'Angleterre are mentioned in the inventories of Paris churches from 1740.

At the same time that France began to rival Italian lace King Charles II of England revived a previous edict against foreign laces. But while the French successfully rivalled Venetian laces, the fine bobbin laces of Flanders called point de Flandre and point d'Angleterre were never approached by English workers. Hollie, or holy, point (Fig. 6) is the only English dis- tinctive needle- point lace; this was principally used for infants' caps and other garments at baptism, and the Holy Dove, a pot with flowers remi- niscent of the An- nunciation, etc., were devices often used. Bobbin lace has been made in England since early in the sixteenth

Fig. 8. Linen Lace Alb of Boni- face \'III XIII Century, Trea-sury of the Sistine Chapel

century. Devonshire lace was and is the most im- portant. Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire follow closely, and nearly every county in England at the present time has taken up the industry with praise- worthy results.

The needlepoint lace of Youghal, Ireland, was started by the nuns of the Presentation Convent, at the time of the terrible famine of 1847. It is celebrated for excel- lence both of design and execution and received a gold medal from the Vatican for the piece illustrated in Fig. 3. Lace has been made at Youghal for empresses and queens. In 1905 the sum of $17,500 was paid to workers, and the quantity of lace made is always in- creasing. Needlepoint lace is also the specialty of the Poor Clares at Kenmare; the industry was founded in 1862, and beautiful lace was made for the Arch- bishop of New York and other prelates. The Institute for Deaf and Dumb Girls, St. Mary's, Cabra, Dublin, is most successful with Ijimerick darned lace. Much is made for church use, and it has received honours both at home and at Chicago in 1893. The Convent of Mercy has made Limerick and crochet laces ever since the Famine year in the beautiful old town of Kin- sale. Large quantities of lace were sold at Chicago; about a hundred and fifty workers are employed. The Co-operative Lace Society established at the convent at New Ross makes every kind of crochet lace, and because of its durability this lace is much used for church purposes. Many other con- vents and institutions im- possible to enumerate en- courage this b e a u ti f u 1 industry with success. In the report presented to Parliament in 1909, the value of lace exported was estimated at $475,000. But as many convents sell privately, this is a very low figure. II. MAfHiNR Lack. — The beautiful laces made by macliincry are the most widely known and used at the present time. England originated lace machines, and

France may claim to have perfected them. The stock- ing machine was no doubt the parent of lace-making machinery. The machines were started at Nottingham in England, early in the nineteenth century, and were called bobbin-net, or point-net, or warp-net, machines, and the lace first made was often finished and enriched by hand. Owing to the destruction of more than a thousand stocking frames and lace machines by riot- ers, it was made a capital offence in 1812 to destroy machines. Imitation lace was shown at the Exhibition of 1851, and Nottingham now employs designers for lace of all kinds, and produces machinery for making the heaviest, as well as the finest, of modern laces. Calais in France, St. Gall in Switzerland, and Plauen in Saxony are centres of activity and enterprise in the production of lace fabrics, and the value of lace manu- factured in England, France, Sivitzerland and Ger- many exceeds a billion dollars annually.

Braun, Die liturgiscke Gewajidunp (Freiburg, 1907); Charles AND Pages, Broderies et Dentetles (FsLTia, 1906); Cole, Ancient Needlepoint: Dreter, Entwicklung und Geschichte (Vienna, 1901); Felkin, Machine Lace (London, 1867); Petrie, Qumeh (London, 1909); Palliser, History of Lace (London, 1902); Pollen, Seven Centuries of Lace (London, 1908); Verhaegen, Dentelle (Brussels, 1902); Rock, Textiles (London, 1870). M.^KiA M. Pollen.

Lacedonia, Diocese of (Laquedoniensis), in the province of ,'Vvellino, Southern Italy. Lacedonia is famous in history for the "conspiracy of the barons" of the Kingdom of Naples against King Ferdinand I, which took shape in the cathedral of Lacedonia (1484). The episcopal see dates from the eleventh century. The first known bishop is Desiderius, mentioned in 1082, but he is known to have had predecessors. Among the other noteworthy bishops were Fra Guglielmo Neritono (1.392); Antonio Dura (1506); Gianfrancesco Car- ducci(1564); the distinguished mathematician Marco Pedacca (1584); the learned and virtuous Giacomo Candido (1606); Giacomo Giordano (1651), who built the episcopal palace and planned a new cathedral; Benedetto Bartolo, who was seized by the brigands and later redeemed by the Marquess of Carpi; Morea (1684), who suppressed certain festivities of pagan origin celebrated on the vigil of Epiphany, and laid the corner-stone of the new cathedral; Francesco Ubaldo Romanzi (1798), under whom the Diocese of Lace- donia was increased by union with Trevico, a neigh- bouring diocese subject to the Metropolitan of Benevento, and which dates at least from the tenth century, when a Bishop Benedetto is mentioned (964). Lacedonia has suffered much from earthquakes, espe- cially in 1694 and 1702. The diocese is a suffragan of Conza and Campagna, and has 11 parishes with 28,000 souls, 1 Capuchin monastery, and 1 house of the Daughters of St. Anne.

Cappelletti, Le chiese d' Italia, XX (Venice, 1857).

U. Benigni.

La Chaise (Chaize), FRANfois d'Ajx de, confessor of King Louis XIV, b. at the mansion of Aix, in Forez, Department of Loire, 25 August, 1624; d. at Paris, 20 January, 1709. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Roanne in 1649; after teaching the humanities and philosophy for some time at the College de la Sainte Trinity at Lyons, he became rector of the same college and, somewhat later, provincial of his order. In 1675 he succeeded the deceased Father Ferrier as confessor to King Louis XIV, and filled this influential but ex- tremely delicate position conscientiously for thirty- four years. He is often accused of having connived at the king's liaison with Madame de Montcsjian. and of liaving advised the revocation of the lulict of Nantes and the violent suppression of Pnitcstaiitism. The facts are that La Chaise used all his iullucncp to put nn end to the king's illicit relations with Montes- pan anil finally succeeded, with the help of Madame de MaintoiiDM, in Iji-ciiking the liaison. After the death of (Jueen Maria Theresa in 16815, he advised the king's marriage to Madame de Maintenon, through whose