Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/790

Rh 760 M O N M N reale ones as those over the nave columns in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. They are alike, not only in design and treatment, but also in the curious mixture of Latin and Greek in the inscriptions (see De Vogue, figlises de la Terre Sainte, 1860). This similarity is easily accounted for by the fact that these two sets of mosaics, though so far apart, were executed about the same date and under the same conditions, viz., by the hands of Byzantine artists, working for Norman-French kings. In the central apse at Monreale, behind the high altar, is a fine marble throne for the archbishop. This position of the throne is a survival of the early basilican arrange ment, when the apse and altar were at the west end. In that case the celebrant stood behind the altar at mass, and looked over it eastwards towards the people. This posi tion of the throne was frequent./ reproduced in churches which, like this, have the apse at the east. On the north side, in front of the high altar, is another somewhat similar throne for the use of the king. The tomb of William I., the founder s father a magnificent porphyry sarcophagus contemporary with the church, under a marble pillared canopy and the founder William II. s tomb, erected in 1575, were both shattered by a fire, which in 1811 broke out in the choir, injuring some of the mosaics, and destroying all the fine walnut choir-fittings, the organs, and most of the choir roof. The tombs were rebuilt, and the whole of the injured part of the church restored, mostly very clumsily, a few years after the fire. On the north of the choir are the tombs of Margaret, wife of William L, and her two sons Roger and Henry, together with an urn containing the viscera of St Louis of France, who died in 1270. The pavement of the triple choir, though much restored, is a very magnificent specimen of marble and porphyry mosaic in &quot;opus Alexandrinum,&quot; with signs of Arab influence in its main lines. Two bronze doors, those on the north and west of the church, are of great interest in the history of art. They are both divided into a number of square panels with sub jects and single figures, chiefly from Bible history, cast in relief. That on the north is by Barisanos of Trani in southern Italy, an artist probably of Greek origin. It is inscribed BARISANUS TRAN. ME FECIT. The cathedrals at Trani and Ravello also have bronze doors by the same sculptor. The western door at Monreale, inferior to the northern one both in richness of design and in workmanship, is by Bonannus of Pisa, for the cathedral of which place he cast the still existing bronze door on the south, opposite the leaning tower. The one at Monreale is inscribed A.D. MCLXXXVI IND. III. BONANNUS CIVIS PISANVS ME FECIT. It is superior in execution to the Pisan one. The door by Barisanos is probably of about the same time, as other examples of his work with inscribed dates show that he was a contemporary of Bonannus. (See METAL- WORK.) The monastic library contains some valuable MSS., especi ally a number of bilingual documents in Greek and Arabic, the earliest being dated 1144. The archbishop now occu pies the eastern part of the monastic buildings, the original palace being destroyed. See Serradifako, Duomo di Monreale, &c., 1838 ; Graviiia,.Dtt0mo di Monreale, the best work on the subject, 1859 sq. ; Testa, Vita del Re Guglielmo II., 1765 ; Tarallo, / Beali Sepolcri di Mon reale, 1826 ; Hittorf et Zanth, Architecture de la Sidle, 1835 ; Gaily Knight, Saracenic and Norman Remains in Sicily, London, 1840 ; W. Surges, Notes on Mcdiseval Mosaic, 1863 ; M. D. &quot;VVyatt, Mosaics of Middle Ages, London, 1849 ; Hessemer, Arabische und Alt-Italicnische Bau-Verzicrungcn, 1853; Garrucci. Artc Cristiana, 1882. (J . H . M.) MONROE, JAMES (1758-1831), fifth president of the United States, was born 28th April 1758, in the county of Westmoreland, Virginia. According to the family tradition, their ancestors are traced back to a family of Scottish cavaliers descended from Hector Monroe, an officer of Charles I. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, James Monroe was a student at the College of William and Mary, but left his studies in 1776 to join the continental army. He took part as lieutenant in the New Jersey campaign of that year, and was wounded at the battle of Trenton. The next year he served with the rank of captain on the staff of General William Alexander (&quot;Lord Stirling&quot;), but, thus being out of the line of promotion, he soon found himself without military employment. In 1780 he began the study of the law under the direction of Jefferson, then governor of Virginia. His intimacy with Jefferson at this time had probably a controlling influence upon his subse quent political career. He continued through all vicissitudes to possess the friendship and support of both Jefferson and Madison. In 1782 Monroe was in the State legislature, and from 1783 to 1786 was a member of Congress. On retiring from Congress he entered upon the practice of the law at Fredericksburg, and was again elected to the legislature. In the Virginia convention of 1788 for the ratification of the constitution, he was among the opponents of that instrument ; but his course was approved by the legisla ture of his State, who elected him United States senator in 1790 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Grayson. As senator he was a decided opponent of the Federalist administration. Nevertheless he was selected by Washington in 1794 as minister to France in place of Gouverneur Morris, a Federalist, recalled upon the request of the French Government. Being of the party who sym pathized with the revolutionary struggle in France, it was expected that his appointment would be flattering to the Government of that country, and would also conciliate the French party at home. The Government of the National Con vention received Monroe with open signs of favour, and on his part he expressed his own and his country s sympathy with the French Republic with so much enthusiasm that Washington deemed his language not in keeping with the neutral policy which the administration had recently pro claimed. At about the same time John Jay had negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce with England which gave great umbrage to France. It was alleged that the earlier treaty of 1778 with France was violated by the stipulations of the Jay treaty ; and the Directory seemed disposed to make of this a casus belli. In this emergency it was believed by Washington and his advisers that Monroe failed to represent properly the policy of the Government, and he was therefore recalled in 1796. In justification of his diplomatic conduct, he published the next year his View, a pamphlet of 500 pages. In 1799 he became governor of Virginia, and was twice re-elected. In the meantime the Republican party had come into power, with Jefferson as president, and Monroe was again called upon to fill an important diplomatic station. He was com missioned on 10th January 1803 to act with Livingston, resident minister at Paris, in negotiating the purchase of New Orleans and the territory embracing the mouth of the Mississippi, which formed a part of the province of Louisiana, recently ceded by Spain to France. In view of the anticipated renewal of hostilities between England and France in 1803, Napoleon was anxious, for a consideration, to part with his new acquisition, which in the event of a war with England he would probably lose by conquest. The American commissioners met therefore with little difficulty in the accomplishment of their object. But, in the absence of instructions, they assumed the responsibility of negotiating the purchase not only of New Orleans but of the entire territory of Louisiana an event that is hardly second in importance to any in the history of the country. Monroe was next commissioned as minister to England,