Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/555

BER blindly following the old writers, like his predecessors, and most of his contemporaries, he investigated the structure of the body for himself, and boasts of having dissected upwards of a hundred human subjects, an enormous number at that period. He was the first to prove that the human uterus has a single cavity, and that the network of arteries at the base of the brain in certain quadrupeds, does not occur in man; and he was also the first to mention the vermiform appendage of the cæcum, the seminal vesicles, and the arytenoid cartilages. His observations also threw considerable light upon numerous other branches of human anatomy, especially the structure of the larynx, the kidneys, and the spinal marrow; and to him we are indebted for the first introduction of anatomical figures. It has also been asserted by Tiraboschi and others, that Berengario was the first to employ mercury in the treatment of syphilis, and that he was the inventor of mercurial ointment, but these statements are incorrect. The works of Berengario are written in an inelegant and incorrect style. The earliest and most important, entitled "Isagogæ breves perlucidæ et uberrimæ in Anatomiam Corporis humani," &c., was published at Bologna in 1514, and frequently reprinted both at that place and elsewhere, up to the year 1530. His "De cranii fractura Tractatus," Bologna, 1518, is but an indifferent treatise, in which he follows the Arabian physicians; it nevertheless passed through numerous editions, of which one was as late as 1715. He also published a "Commentaria, &c., super anatomia Mundini," &c., Bologna, 1521, of which a translation appeared at London in 1664.—W. S. D.  BERENGARIUS, a reformer of the eleventh century, a native of France, principal of the academy at Tours, and archbishop of Angiers, in the province of Anjou. He denied the doctrine of the real presence, opposed popish celibacy, and the baptism of infants. A letter he wrote to his friend, Lanfranc (then head of the convent of St. Stephen's, Caen, and afterwards made by William the Conqueror archbishop of Canterbury), being opened in Lanfranc's absence, was sent by the convent to Leo, the pope; and that pontiff, shocked at its heretical contents, summoned a council at Vercelli, and cited Berenger to appear. By the advice of his friends he disregarded the citation, and sent two friends to answer on his behalf. Lanfranc also pleaded for him; but in the end his opinions were condemned. The same year the council of Paris, summoned by Henry I., gave a similar decision, and Berenger was in consequence deprived of all his revenues, and he and his adherents threatened with imprisonment and death if they did not recant. In the meantime his sentiments had spread widely in the south of Europe, and are said to have "corrupted the French, Italian, and English nations." At length, after thrice renouncing his alleged errors on the real presence, and again avowing them, he retired from all worldly concerns, and passed the rest of his days in retirement, and in the unostentatious practice of piety. He bitterly regretted his dissimulation, and in 1088 was withdrawn from what had proved to him a world of incessant struggle, leaving behind him a deep and wide-spread impression of his sanctity. A considerable sect was called from his name Berengarians. They seemed to have been attached to him as much by his sufferings and piety as by his doctrines, and were reckoned by Roman catholics among the most dangerous heretics.—See Mosheim, ii. 379; Du Pin. ix. 6; Jones' Ecclesiastical History.—J. A., L.  BERENGER I., marquis of Friuli, and great-grandson of Charlemagne, through Louis le Debonnaire, was elected to the throne of Italy in the close of the ninth century. His reign was filled with constant struggles against rival princes, and was terminated by his assassination at Verona in 924.—W. B.  BERENGER II., marquis of Ivry, and grandson of the preceding, obtained the throne by the aid of Otho the Great, about the middle of the tenth century, but was afterwards deposed by that monarch, and died in prison at Bamberg in 966.—W. B.  BERENGER,, a poet of the sixteenth century, born at Aubenas. His compositions are of so light a character, that it is with some surprise it is learned that he filled the grave office of magistrate. But at that time places in the magistracy were hereditary in families by right of purchase. On the other hand, levity in composition was much in vogue, and regarded as an allowable relaxation from severe studies, so that the poet's integrity in office ought not to suffer by compositions allowed by the prevailing taste of his time. He died in 1560.—J. F. C.  BERENGER,, a French troubadour, whose birth is not recorded, but whose death took place in 1194. He was a poor knight of Roussillon, who, by the grace of his manners and his poetical genius, attracted the favour of Raymond, count of Toulouse, when that court was the centre of not unrefined pleasures. The fair object of his songs was named Ermesine. There was another poet of the same name at the court of Jeanne, queen of Naples, who wrote five tragedies illustrative of the different periods of life from childhood to old age, and which appear in former times to have been admired.—J. F. C.  BERENGER,, a Genevese miscellaneous writer, born in 1740; author of a "History of Geneva," 1775; an abridged edition of Busching's Geography, 1776; a Collection of all the Voyages round the World, 1788-90; and a "History of Cook's Voyages," 1795. He died in 1807.  BERENGER,, Count, a French statesman, was son of a protestant minister near Grenoble. He became a member of the states-general and of the council of Five Hundred, took a prominent part in the revolutionary movements in the close of the last century, and held high offices, not only under the republic, but after the restoration.—W. B. <section end="555H" /> <section begin="555I" />BERENGER,, French writer, born at Riez, November, 1749. By some poems he gave offence to the brethren of the Oratoire, by whose influence he was deprived of the professorship of rhetoric at the college of Orleans. He was subsequently appointed royal censor, which office he held until the outbreak of the Revolution. His later writings in prose are chiefly on moral subjects, as indicated by their titles, such as "Practical Morality," the "People instructed by their own Virtues," &c. He died in 1822.—J. F. C. <section end="555I" /> <section begin="555J" />BERENGER,, a French theologian of the twelfth century, born at Poitiers. He was the pupil and apologist, and afterwards the persecutor, of Abelard. Three of his letters are preserved in Duchesne's edition of the works of Abelard. <section end="555J" /> <section begin="555K" />BERENGER, IV., count of Provence in the first half of the thirteenth century, was distinguished by his literary tastes, and had three daughters married, severally, to the kings of France, Naples, and England. <section end="555K" /> <section begin="555L" />BERENGER,, of Dauphine, became grand-master of the knights of St. John at Rhodes in 1365. His administration was signalized by the reforms which he introduced into the order, and by his vigorous suppression of the Egyptian pirates, in the course of which he stormed Alexandria and the Syrian Tripoli.—W. B. <section end="555L" /> <section begin="555M" />BERENGUER,, prior of the chartreuse of the Scala Dei in Catalonia about 1630, painted a series of small frescos for his cloisters, St. Bruno being the hero. They were partly borrowed from Carducho.—W. T. <section end="555M" /> <section begin="555N" />BERENHORST,, a distinguished German military writer, was a natural son of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau. He entered the Prussian army, and for several years was adjutant to Frederick the Great. Afterwards he travelled in France, England, and Italy, and held several high posts at Dessau, where he died in 1814. His "Betrachtungen über die Kriegskunst," Leipzig, 1797-99, 3 vols., mark a great progress in military science.—K. E. <section end="555N" /> <section begin="555O" />BERENICE, eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I., and sister to the younger Agrippa (Acts xxv. 13), was married to her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis, and after his death to Polemon, king of Cilicia. The latter she espoused in order to avoid the merited suspicion of incestuous intercourse with her brother. Both Vespasian and Titus are represented to have intrigued with this beautiful but licentious princess. Titus carried her to Rome, and was only prevented from making her his wife by the murmurs of the populace. Her notoriety in the Roman world brought her under the lash of Juvenal (Sat. vi.)—J. S., G. <section end="555O" /> <section begin="555P" />BEREREDS,, a literary lady, born in 1804, in Hungary; died 1837. She was married to one of the most remarkable members of the opposition party in Hungary before 1848. Author of novels and tales, Pesth, 1840. <section end="555P" /> <section begin="555Zcontin" />BERESFORD,, archbishop of Armagh, son of the first marquis of Waterford, and second earl of Tyrone, was born in the year 1773. In 1805 he was consecrated bishop of Cork; in 1807 he was translated to Raphoe; in 1809 to Clogher; and in the same year he was promoted to the archbishopric of Dublin, in which see he continued till the year 1822, when he was raised to the primacy of Ireland, being the first Irishman who occupied that place within a space of one hundred and twenty years. In the year 1829 he was appointed vice-chancellor of the university of Dublin; and upon the death <section end="555Zcontin" />