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ire could not trace in it the be^iuniugH at all Northern painting:, from the MaUre dt la FlfmoUe to Jean Fou- quet— it would still be, with ita extraordinary variety of scenes and it^ perfect style, one of the most precious monumenta of the art of painting.

Rehah. Zturoura lur TAiU dfi arlt en Franee ou XIV' witch (Fsria, 1843); MANTt, La Pei-lun en Frmct du JX- oit XVI- allcU (Paris, ■. d.); C'odrajoh. Lttont pnfutta h I'HoU du Louvrr, U (IflOU: Dr.ii nitHse, HiHaire dt V AH dam laFIandrr.l'ArUiitriltHaiHaiaavclt.,*:, Lille. 1886);!>■ Chauveaux AHii OAUdiEiir, Lra rnnBHi (Tori (B-f'mUf pour l« due dt Bnrv (Poria, 1S94); Gui[.i.eb«iit de Uetx. DneripUm dfPariiiKnaCharlaVI,p}ih]akvdbyl,tBxtai.xmi Lihct and T18BBHAKD in Pant ti trt MHantnt aux XH- tt XV' liitltt: Dblisi^. LfM LiTOL d'Heura du due de Btm, (Psria, l»84)i Dvorak, Dot Haiti] dtr Bmdtr lun Eurk (VienDs. 19M): Ddh- BiED. Ltt Hnrttde Turin IPario. IBOf); Lii Trri Iticha Beura duducdtBernKF^™, lOW); Ltt BtlUi H runt du due dt Brrrj/ in Oaiitlr dtt Braui'Am [19061; Ln DibuU dti I'an Ei/ct in Qiu. da Biaia-A. (lOlM).

, Louis Gillbt.

Limbnrg, Diocese or (LiMBirnaENsis), in the KinRdom of Prussia, miffragan of Freiburg.

I. History. — This diocese dates from the end of the eighteenth century. The city of Limburg then be- longed to the Elector of Trier, but the north-eastern part of the present ilioceae lay outside of any diocesan territory, having been under Protestant rulers since the Peace of Westphalia. It was administered in Bpiritu.il matters from Trier, through the ecclesiastical authorities at Coljlenz. When the latter city fell into tiie hands of the French (1794), the administrator. Archdeacon Joseph Ludwig Beck, was given ecclesias- tical jurisdiction overthat part of the Diocese of Trier which lav on the right bank of the Rhine, the setit of his administration lieing Limburg. When, in 1801, the left bank of the Rhine came into the possession of the Frencli, the three rural deaneries of the Arch- diocese of Trier on the right bank still continued to exist, but in 1S03 passed to the princes of Nassau- Weilburg, who allowed the vicariate-generai at Lim- burg to continue, but diverted various ecclesiastical revenues and, in the city of I,.imburg, suppresscil the collegiate chapter which had existed since the truth centurv. In 1802 the last Archbixhon of Trier, Kle- niens Wenceslaus, appointed Beck sole vicar-general for what remained of the archdiocese, and after the death of the archbishop (1812) Reck was conlirmed in this position by the pope (181^1). His ecclesiastical admmistration was earned on under the most difficult circumstances, in spite of which he did not fail to pro- vide for a wcli-traincd priesthood, and to encourage learning and virtue among hisclergy. Upon his death (3 February, 1816), the primate, Dalbcrg, in his ca- pacity as metropolitan and nearest bishop, appointed Hubert Anton Corden, pastor of Limburg, to be a<l- ministrator and director of the vicariate (15 Decem- ber, 1816). Pius VII appointed him, 8 July, 1818, vicar Apostolic for the Archdiocese of Trier. Prussia di^ not recognize the new vicariate, and forbade Cor- den to administ«r the parishes which were under Prussian rule. A separate Diocese of Limburg was the only possible solution of the difficulty. Long negotia- tions, begun in 1S18 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, were carried on lietwoen Rome and the tkivemments inter- ested, with the result that the ecclesiastical I'rovince of the Upper Rhine was establislied in 18*21, and, as a part ot it, the Diocese of Limburg. The Bull "Pro- vida Bolers<)ue", establishing the new diocese, was issued 16 AngiLsl, IS21. but, on account of a dispute between the pope and the Governments concerned, the bee of Limburg was not filled for five yeara. The first bishop waa Jacob Brand, parish priest of Wies- kirchen (b. 29 January, 1776, at Mespellbninn in Franconia), proposed by the Government, confirmed by the pope, and consecrated 21 October, 1827.

The new diCese consisted of the fifty-seven par- iahes of the Ducliy of Nassau that had formerly been inder the Archbishop of Mainz and in 1S21 bad been placed under the vicar Apostolic Corden, the free

imperial city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, fifty-one parishes of the fonner Archdiocese of Trier, and twenty-five pariahes in which no episcopal jurisdiction had been exercised since the Peace of Westphalia, In 1828 the diocese was divided into fifteen deaneries. The former collegiate and parish church of St. George, at Limburg, which since the French Revolution )^ been in a dilapidated condition, became the cathedral. The endowment was, as Pius VIII himself expressed it, a "deplorable" one, and amounted only to 21,606 gulden for both the bishop and the entire cathedral chapter. This endowment was administered by the secular Government, as was also the Catholic central fund (Zentrolkirehenjond') for the diocese, over which the bishop had no control whatever. The position of the first bishop, little worthy of his rank, suffered from the ecclesiastical laws of Nassau in which he had tooeasilyacquiesced before his appointment. In truth

he was only ap^d official dependent upon the nod of the Government, put in charge of the purely religious affairs of the Catholics of this territory. He issued a number of excellent ordinances during bis brief term of office. Having himself been a teacher, he devoted special and enlignletied care to the founding of an ecclesiastical seTninary, which was opened in 1829 in a former Franciscan monastery granted for the purpose by the (iovemment. He prepared the way for a special theological seminary, hut did not live to see it established, dving in 1835. The second biahop, Johann Wilhelm 'Bausch (18:;o-40), was likewise un-

tral diocesan fund brought upon him and the cathe- dral chapter a sharp rebuke.

In the appointment of the third biahop, Peter Joseph Blum (1842-84), the diocese gained a man who, aided by the change<l conditions of the times, was able to curri' on a siiccejsfuj contest for greater liberty in the administration of his see. He cared for the religious quickening of his diocese by the intro- duction and zealous tostf ring of Keneral confession, of relipjious brotherhoods, and a Christian press, the dis- semination of good books, and the practice ot spirit- which he succeeded in eit«UiihIttg afMr