Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/813

Rh O L B O L D 753 part of each night (he never slept more than four hours) was meantime devoted to astronomy, the upper portion of his house being fitted up as an observatory. He paid special attention to comets, and that of 1815 (period seventy-four years) bears his name in commemoration of its detection by him. He also took a leading part in the discovery of the minor planets, re-identified Ceres on the anniversary of its discovery by Piazzi, 1st January 1802, and detected Pallas on the 28th of March following. His bold hypothesis of their origin by the disruption of a primitive large planet (Jfonatlicke Correspondent, vol. vi. p. 88), although now discarded, received strong confirmation from the finding of Juno by Harding, 2d September 1804, and of Vesta by himself, 29th March 1807, in the precise regions of Cetus and Virgo where the nodes of such sup posed planetary fragments should be situated. Olbers was deputed by his fellows-citizens to assist at the baptism of the king of Rome, 9th June 1811, and he was a member of the corps legislatif in Paris 1812-13. After some years of suffering from asthma, he died 2d March 1840, at the age of eighty-one. He was twice married, and one son survived him. Notices of his life and works will be found in Biographische Skizzcn verstorbcner Bremisclicr Aerzte, by Dr G. Barklmsen( Bremen, 1814); Allgcmcine gcographische Ephemcridcn, vol. iv. p. 283, 1799 ; Xouvelle Biographic Generale; Abstracts Phil. Trans., vol. iv. p. 268, 1843 ; Astronomische Nachrichten, vol. xxii. p. 265, also appended to A. Erman s Briefivcchscl zivischen Olbers und Bcsscl (2 vols. Leipsic, 1852). A list of Olbers s extremely interesting contribu tions to scientific periodicals is given at p. xxxv. of the 3d ed. of his Leichteste Mcthode, and his unique collection of works relating to comets now forms part of the Pulkowa library. OLBIA, OLBIOPOLIS, or BORYSTHENIS, in the south of Russia, on the right bank of the Borysthenes, near its mouth, was a colony of Miletus, 655 B.C. It was the great station for the trade with the interior, and a wealthy city from a very early time. Inscriptions, published in the Corpus Inscr. Graze., vol. ii., especially the famous decree in honour of Protogenes, throw much light on its internal history in the few centuries before and after the Christian era. They show it as a Greek city, maintaining its inde pendence with difficulty against the barbarians who con tinually threatened it ; but the Greek life and the Greek names gradually gave place to Scythian, the city was finally merged in the surrounding tribes, and its civilization and importance disappeared. It is a commonplace among archaeologists to speak of the trade-route which led across country to the northern sea from Olbia, and a find of archaic Greek coins in Prussia is appealed to as a proof ; but it has recently been proved that this find of coins was an imposture. Though it is probable that such trade- routes did exist at an early time, it is highly improbable that Greek traders used them. The natives brought down their goods to the Greek colonies, and the trade was there conducted, not by money, but rather by barter. The most interesting point about the religion of Olbia is the cult of Achilles Pontarches, the Ruler of the Sea, a deity who was extensively worshipped along the northern coast of the Black Sea. He was evidently a god of the native races, in whom some analogy of name or character made the Greeks recognize their hero Achilles. Hence arose the legend, known already to Pindar, that Achilles lived on in the White Isle in the Black Sea, a god surrounded by the other heroes. Olbia was destroyed by the Getaa about 70-60 B.C., but revived, and was a flourishing city when Dio Chrysostom visited it about 100 A.D. OLDBURY, a township of Worcestershire, England, comprising the two parishes of Oldbury and Langley, is situated on the Birmingham Canal and on the London and North -Western and Great -Western Raihvays, 5 miles west of Birmingham and 3 east of Dudley. Coal, iron, and limestone abound in the neighbourhood, and the town possesses chemical works, railway -carriage works, iron, edgetool, nail, and steel works, maltings, corn-mills, brick and tile kilns, and a manufactory of glass shades. There are no public buildings of importance. The population of the urban sanitary district (1678 acres) in 1871 was 16410 and in 1881 it was 18,841. OLDCASTLE, SIR JOHN (d. 1417), who had married Johanna, heiress of the noble family of Cobham, and in her right sat in the House of Lords as Lord Cobham, was a nobleman who at once enjoyed the personal friendship of Henry IV. and was a professed follower of Wickliffe and an adherent of Lollardy. His reputation both as soldier and as statesman stood so high that he was selected by the king to command the English auxiliaries sent by Henry to assist the duke of Burgundy in 1411 ; and his known friendship for the poor preachers and his maintenance of the popular religious cause gained him the title of &quot; the good Lord Cobham.&quot; On the death of the earl of Salisbury in one of the revolts against the house of Lancaster, Old- castle became the recognized leader of the Lollards ; his castle of Cowling became their headquarters ; he sheltered their preachers, and openly defied the prohibitions and pro clamations of the bishops. He publicly professed his faith in the principal Lollard doctrines and refused to believe what the church taught on the eucharist, penance, the power of the keys, image-worship, and pilgrimages. The house of Lancaster had secured the throne by making promises to the people and to the nobles, and had won the support of the church by promising to put clown heresy. This had set the Lollards in opposition to the new dynasty, and their discontent was increased by the ecclesiastical measures of the king. See LOLLAEDS. In consequence Lollardy remained a constant source of danger during the reign of Henry IV., giving strength to more than one re bellion, and Henry V., on his accession in 1413, determined to extirpate the heresy. While Henry IV. lived Oldcastle was protected, but in the year of the king s death he was accused in convocation of heresy and of harbouring the poor preachers. Henry V. did all in his power to protect him, laboured to make him give up his opinions, but, finding him inflexible, forbade him to appear at court, and permitted the bishops to proceed against him. A citation was served on him. He refused to receive it. It was accordingly posted on the doors of Rochester Castle. He refused to obey it, was excommunicated, seized, and examined, when he boldly confessed his opinions, and was imprisoned in the Tower, forty days being given him to recant. He made his escape, and his freedom was the signal for a Lollard revolt. The preachers and their followers met in St Giles s fields, and only the vigilance of the king prevented a rising. The enactments against Lollardy became even more severe than formerly. Magis trates were directed to seize suspected heretics and to hand them over to the bishops for trial ; and a conviction was punished by death and forfeiture of goods. Oldcastle for some years eluded the vigilance of his enemies, but in 1417 he was seized while in hiding in Wales, taken to London, and burned. His execution was peculiarly barbarous. He was suspended from a gallows by an iron chain, a fire was kindled beneath him, and he was slowly burned to death. In Mr Wright s collection of political songs there are one or two ballads on Sir John Oldcastle, alluding in no very complimentary terms to his Lollardism. Henry s victories had raised the war-spirit of being whom professed to believe that all wars were sinful. This popular contempt has perhaps led to the idea ably advocated by Mr Gairdner that Shakespeare s character of Sir John Falstaff was meant to represent Sir John Oldcastle. Compare Lechler s Joliann Wniif, vol. ii. ch. iii.; Gairdner and Spedding, Studied in English History, ch. iii. XVII. 95