Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/386

370 BARCLAY,, LL.D., a writer on civil law, was born in Aberdeenshire in the year 1541. He spent the early part of his life, and much of his fortune, at the court of Mary queen of Scots, from whose favour he had reason to expect preferment. In 1573 he went over to Prance, and at Bourgcs began to study civil law under the famous Cujas. He continued some years in that semi nary, where he took his doctor s degree ; and was soon after appointed professor of civil law in the university of Pont- a-Moussou, recently founded by the duke of Lorraine. The prince afterwards made him counsellor of state and master of requests. In the year 1581 Barclay married Anne de Malleville, a French lady. Their son was the celebrated John Barclay, author of the Aryenis. This youth the Jesuits would gladly have received into their society ; but his father refused his consent, and thereby incurred their bitter enmity. He was compelled to leave France, and re turned to Britain, where King James offered him a consider able preferment, provided he would become a member of the Church of England. He would not accept the post on this condition, and went back again to France in 1604. Soon after his arrival he was appointed first professor of the civil law in the University of Angers, where he died the year following, and was buried in the Franciscan church. Barclay was a man of considerable ability, and his legal writings are still valued. In his political opinions he was directly opposed to his illustrious countryman Buchanan, and was a strenuous defender of the rights of kings ; his own speculations on the principles of government r.re best known to some from an incidental confutation by Locke, in his Treatises on Government. His most important writings were:—

1em  BARCLAY DE TOLLY,, a Russian prince and general, highly distinguished in the wars with Napoleon, was born in Livonia in 1759. He was a descendant of the old Scotch family of Barclay, a branch of whom had settled in Russia in the 17th century. He was adopted by General Vermoulen, and entered a Russian cuirassier regiment when very young. In 1788 and 1789 he served against the Turks, and in the following years against the Swedes and Poles, In 1806, when Russia took up arms against Xapoleon, he commanded the advanced guard at the battle of Pultusk. At Eylau he lost an arm, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. In 1808 he commanded against the Swedes, and in 1809 by a rapid and daring march for two days over the ice he surprised and seized Umeo. In 1810 he was made minister of war, and retained the post till 1813. There was very keen opposition to the appointment of a foreigner as commander-in-chief, and after the defeat of Smolensk, the outcry was so great that he resigned his office and took a subordinate place under the veteran Kutusoff. On the death of the latter he was reappointed to the supreme command, and fought at the battles of Bautzen, Dresden, and Leipsic. He was unable to bring up his forces in time for the battle of Waterloo, but marched into France and took part in the occupation of Paris. He was rewarded for his services by being made prince and field-marshal. He died in 1818 at Insterburg, in Prussia, while on his way to the Bohemian baths.  BAR-COCHEBAS, or (Son of a Star), a celebrated Jewish leader in the insurrection against Hadrian, 131-135 A.D., whose real name was Simeon. The events of his life belong to the history of the Jews.  BARD, from the Welsh lardd, is the name applied to the ancient Celtic poets, though the word is sometimes loosely used as synonymous with poet in general. So far as can be ascertained, the title bards, and some of the privileges peculiar to that class of poets, are to be found only among Celtic peoples. The name itself is not used by Caesar in his account of the manners and customs of Gaul and Britain, but he appears to ascribe the functions of the bards to a section of the Druids, with which class they seem to have been closely connected. Later Latin authors, such as Lucan (Phar., p. 447), Festus (De Verb. Sign. s. v.), and Ammianus Marcellinus (bk. xv.), used the term Bardi as the recognized title of the national poets or singers among the peoples of Gaul and Britain. In Gaul, however, the institution soon disappeared ; the purely Celtic peoples were swept back by the waves of Latin and Teutonic conquest, and finally settled in Wales, Ireland, Brittany, and the north of Scotland. There is clear evidence of the existence of bards in all these places, though the known relics belong almost entirely to Wales and Ireland, where the institution was more distinctively national. In Wales they formed an organized society, with hereditary rights and privileges. They were treated with the utmost respect, and were exempt from taxes or military service. Their special duties were to celebrate the victories of their people, and to sing hymns of praise to God. They thus gave poetic expression to the religious and national sentiments of the people, and therefore ex ercised a very powerful influence. The whole society of bards was regulated by laws, said to have been first dis tinctly formulated by Hy well Dha, and to have been after wards revised by Gruffydd ap Conan. At stated intervals great festivals were held, at which the most famous bards from the various districts met and contended in song, the umpires being generally the princes and nobles. Even after the conquest of Wales, these festivals, or Ei$t;ddfodau, as they were called, continued to be summoned by the English sovereigns, but from the reign of Elizabeth the custom has been allowed to fall into abeyance. They have not since been summoned by royal authority, but have been revived, and are held regularly at the present time. In Ireland also the bards were a distinct class with peculiar and hereditary privileges. They appear to have been divided into three great sections : the first celebrated victories and sang hymns of praise ; the second chanted the laws of the nation ; the third gave poetic genealogies and family histories. The Irish bards were held in high repute, and frequently were brought over to Wales to give instruction to the singers of that country.

1em  BARDESANES, or, a celebrated Gnostic, was a native of Edessa in Mesopotamia, and appears to have flourished during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Very little is known of his life. He is said to have held a dis putation with Apollonius, a philosopher in the train of Lucius Verus, and he is known to have written against the Marcionite and other heresies. There is considerable doubt whether he was ever a disciple of Valentinus, but it is acknowledged that he never ceased to belong to the Christian church. However seriously his principles, if rigidly interpreted, might conflict with the doctrines of Christianity, he did not regard himself as opposed to that-iaith, and he was generally considered one of its best defenders. He was especially famed for his hymns, fragments of which are still extant. Of his other works 