Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/818

 L^TUS

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LA FAYETTE

mitted on this day, intended to encourage the faithful in their course through the season of penance, were transferred to the Sunday following. They consist (like those of Gaudete Sunday in Advent) in the use of flowers on the altar, and of the organ at Mass and Ves- pers; rose-coloured vestments are also allowed instead of purple, and the deacon and subdeacon wear dal- matics, instead of folded chasubles as on the other Sundays of Lent. The contrast between Lsetare and the other Sundays is thus emphasized, and is em- blematical of the joys of this Ufe, restrained re- joicing mingled with a certain amount of sadness. The station at Rome was on this day made at the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the seven cliief basihcas; the Golden Rose, sent by the popes to Cath- oUc sovereigns, used to be blessed at this time, and for this reason the daj'was sometimes called "Domin- ica de Rosa". Other names applied to it were Re- freshment Sunday, or the Sunday of the Five Loaves, from the miracle recorded in the Gospel; Mid-Lent, mi-carCme, or mediana; and Mothering Sunday, in al- lusion to the Epistle, which indicates our right to be called the sons of God as the source of all our joy, and also because formerly the faithful used to make their offerings in the cathedral or mother-church on this day. This latter name is still kept up in some remote parts of England, though the reason for it has ceased to exist.

DuKAND, Rationale Dimni Officii (Venice, 1568); Mahtene, De Am. Man. Rit. (Lyons, 1790); Gueranger, VAnnee Litur- gique, tr. Shepherd (Dublin, 1867); Leroset, Hist, et Symbo- Ksme de la Lit. (Paris, 1889).

G. Cyprian Alston.

Lsetus, PoMPONius, humanist, b. in Calabria in 1425, d. at Rome in 1497. He was a bastard of the House of the Sanseverino of Naples, Princes of Salerno, but owing to liis great admiration for antiquity and the Roman Repuljlic he would not recognize them as connexions. When very young he went to Rome and became a pupil of Valla. His brilliant capacities won him admiration and success. He ^^^shed to live the life of the ancients. His vineyard on the Quirinal was cultivated in accordance with the precepts of Varro and of Columella, and he was himself regarded as a second Cato. On holidays he went fishing or caught birds in his lime-twigs; sometimes he would simply spend the day in the open air, refreshing himself at a spring or by the banks of the Tiber. One of the most important and first known complete MSS. of Plautus, that of Cardinal Orsini (now Vaticanus 3870), had been brought to Rome in the year 1428 or 1429. It was suggested that the plays it contained should be per- formed in the palaces of the prelates. Lsetus became stage director of the performances. Finally, he and a few kindred souls, Platina, the future hbrarian of the Vatican, Sabellicus, afterwards prefect of the Library of San Marco of Venice, founded a semi-pagan acad- emy. Its members assumed Latin names and cele- brated every year the festival of the Palilia — anniver- sary of the' foundation of Rome. They also met to commemorate a deceased member. A prelate cele- brated Mass, Laitus delivered the eulogy. Latin reci- tations followed and a banquet closed every meeting. At other times, the memliers gave Latin farces much like the Atellana;. But Paul 1 1, a pope who did not fa- vour the Humanists, occupied the Cliair of Peter. Lsetus was looked upon as a seorncr of Christianity and con- spirator. Venice delivered him into the hands of the Eope. Confined in the Castle of Sant' Angelo in 1468, e with Platina and others was tortured. However, he defended himself and reminded them that he had maintained the immortality of the soul, a belief often discussed by the Humanists. On the accession of Sixtus IV (1471) La;tus was released and the academy allowed to continue its meetings. He lectured in the Roman University. He was often seen at daybreak, descending, with lantern in hand, from his hom(> on

the EsquUine, on his way to his lectures where many eager hearers awaited him. He was a very conscien- tious professor, especially learned in Roman antiqui- ties but exclusively a Latinist. He had declined to study Greek for fear of spoiling his Latin style. He went so far as to read the most classical authors only and disdained the Bible and the Fathers. Until the last year of his life he had desired to be buried in an ancient sarcophagus on the Appian Way, but he died a Christian death. Alexander VI wished his obsequies at the church of Aracoeli to be magnificent. More than forty bishops attended. He was buried at San Salvatore in Lauro.

In the last period of his life, Pomponius Laetus wrote short antiquarian treatises (" De magistratibus, sacer- dotiis et legibus Romanorum"; "De romanje urbis antiquitate " ; "Compendium historian romanse ab interitu Gordiani usque ad Justinum III"). He pro- duced an edition and commentary on the whole of Vir- gil, under the name of Julius Sabinus or Pomponius Sabinus (Rome, 14S7-1490). He owned one of the most precious manuscripts of the poet, the "Mediccus". Besides this, he edited the first edition of Quintus Cur- tius (about 1470), of Varro's " De lingua latina" (Rome, 1471), of Nonius Marcellus (Rome, about 1470). A little later he published the letters of the younger Pliny (Rome, 1490). We also owe to him the preservation of a part of the work of Festus. His MSS., which were first in the hbrary of Fulvio Orsino and later at the Vatican, show the extent of his learn- ing, his conscientious collation of authors, his art in re- viving classical antiquity in the very land of the pagan past. He had collected in his home on the Esquiline sculptures and inscriptions. He stands as one of the best representatives of Italian Humanism, uniting great nobihty of character and a sincere and artless en- thusiasm to a purity of morals rare in such surround- ings.

De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, I (Rome, 1864), I, 7 (bibliog- raphy); DE NoLHAC, La bibliothigue de Fulvio Orsini (Paris, 1SS7), 198. 2i:S, 373, 450; Sabelucds, Opera, Epist., XI (Ven- ice, 1560), 56. and Vita Pomponii Lwti (8trasburg, 1510), con- temporary biography; Bcrckhardt, Die CuUur der Renais- sance in Italien, tr.. 279; Jordan, Topographie der Sladt Rom imAUertum. I (Berlin, 1878). 79; Chatelain, PaitoffrapAlc des classiques latins, XI (Paris. 1896), pi. xi (autoeraphe, m. d'Agritola) ; Keil, Pliny's Letters, XIX (Leipzig, 1870) ; Muller, Nonius, II (Leipzig, 1888), 277; Spengel, Varro, De lingua lot. (Berlin, 1885), p. xiv; Sandys, A History o} Classical Scholarship, II. 92.

Paul Lejay.

La Fayette, Makie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de, author of memoirs and novels, b. at Paris, 1634; d. there, 1693 (al., 1696). She re- ceived a very good education and acquired, among other accomphshments, a remarkable knowledge of Latin and Itahan ; one of her instructors was the gram- marian Menage. Her wit and literary talents soon gave her a leading position in the social hfe of Paris. She was, with her friend, the Marquise de SfivignC', the best representative of that set of distinguished ladies known as " Les Pr^cieuses ", whose influence was so great on the manners and language of the young Court of Louis XIV. She numbered among her friends most of the t;reat men of the time: Conde, Huet, La Roche- fouc;iuld, Bossuet, La Fontaine; she was also for many years the confidante of Princess Henrietta of England, the sister-in-law of Louis XIV. Her first venture in literature was a novel pubUshed without the au- thor's name, " La Princesre de Montpensier" (1662). "Zayde", which was pulilishod in 1670 under the name of Segrais, is a .sort of alistract of "Cyrus", the voluminous novel of Mile de Scudt'ry. "La Princesse de Cl(>ves ", her masterpiece, appcaretl in 1678. It is a picture of French social life at the time of the Fronde, although the scenes are laid in the sixteenth century. The moral lieauty of the characters reminds the reader of tlic tngcclics (if ('(irneille. It may be considered as the first French " p.sychological" novel. The style