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 BARLOW BARNABAS 317 for a national academy under the patronage of government, and the next year his " Colum- biad," the fruit of the labor of half his life, ap- peared in a style which made it the most costly publication that had yet been attempted in America, being illustrated by engravings exe- cuted by the best artists of London. A more elaborate and declamatory poem than his " Vis- ion of Columbus," it yet never attained to the popularity of the latter. In its design it was simply a historical view of events from the time of Columbus to the scenes of the revolution, the great discoverer being represented as seeing them from his prison in Spain. In his latter years he was collecting materials for a history of the United States, and in 1811 was appointed by President Madison minister to France. His diplomatic skill was there in request, and Na- poleon, perplexed by negotiations at the time of his Russian campaign, sent for him to meet him at Wilna. Barlow set off immediately, but died at a cottage in Poland before accom- plishing his mission. His last poem, dictated from his deathbed, was a powerful expression of resentment against Napoleon for the hopes which he had disappointed. BARLOW, or Bartowe, William, an English theologian, died Dec. 10, 1569. Before the reformation he belonged to the order of St. Augustine, was elected prior of the house at Bisham in Berks, and in 1535 was sent by Hen- ry VIII. on an embassy to Scotland. Securing the favor of the king, he was successively ap- pointed to the bishoprics of St. Asaph, of St. Davids, and of Bath and Wells. He formally left the Roman Catholic church, and married, and during the reign of Edward VI. he was distinguished for his Protestant zeal. Under Mary he lost his bishopric, and for a time his liberty, and retired to Germany till the acces- sion of Elizabeth. In 1559 he was made bishop of Chichester, and continued in this see till his death. He left a work entitled "Cosmo- graphy," and several slight controversial trea- tises. He had a numerous family, and his five daughters all became the wives of bishops. BARMECIDES (descendants of Barmek), a powerful family of Khorasan, attached to the Abbasside caliphs. One of them, Khaled ben Barmek', was tutor of Haroun al-Rashid. His son Yahya became the vizier of Haroun about 786, and contributed greatly to the renown of his master's reign. Of his sons, Fadhl was distinguished as a soldier and as minister of justice, and Jaffar figures in the "Arabian Nights" as the friend and confidant of Haroun. At the same time some 25 members of the family held important civil and military dig- nities. The downfall of the Barmecides took place about 803. Haroun, becoming jealous of the popularity and power of the family, and incensed, it is said, on account of the birth of a son of his sister Abassa, whom he had mar- ried to Jaffar on condition that the union hould be merely platonic, caused Jaffar to be eheaded at Anbar, on the Euphrates; Yahya and Fadhl were thrown into prison at Racca, where they died in chains, while nearly all their relatives were arrested and deprived of their property. Ibn Khaldun disputes the truth of this story, which in modern times has afforded a theme to poets and dramatists. To one of the Barmecides is attributed the fa- mous feast in the "Arabian Nights," where the guest was served with only imaginary viands ; whence the phrase "Barmecide feast." BARMEN, an industrial town in Rhenish Prussia, closely adjoining Elberfeld, and 24 m. N. N. E. of Cologne. It is situated in the val- ley of the Wupper, and stretches along the Bergisch-Miirkische railway over a distance of about 9 m. to the frontier of Westphalia. It is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower Barmen, each of which consists of a number of small towns or villages which were formerly in- dependent, and which even now, though all absorbed into the town of Barmen, retain their old names. In 1706 the population of the valley was only 2,500; in 1861 it was 49,740; and in 1871 it had risen to 74,496. The ribbon manufacture is the most important in Europe ; and cottons, velvets, silks, chemical products, plated ware, &c., are produced. There is a gymnasium ; also a seminary of foreign mis- sions belonging to the Rhenish Westphalian missionary society. BARNABAS, Epistle of, a work purporting to be written by St. Barnabas. It was known early in the Christian church, for it is cited several times by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome. For several centuries it was lost sight of, until Sirmond in the 17th century discovered it at the end of a manuscript of one of the epistles of Polycarp. About the same time Hugo Me- nardus discovered a Latin version of it in the abbey of Corvey. This was printed at Paris in 1645. The year before Archbishop Usher had received a copy of the MS., which he annexed to the Ignatian epistles ; but a fire at Oxford destroyed all but a few pages. The work, both in Greek and in the Latin version, has been several times reprinted; among others, by Vossius in his "Ignatian Epistles" (1646); Russell, "Apostolic Fathers" (1746); Hefele, Patrum Apostolicorum Opera (1842). It has been translated into English by Wake, and sev- eral times into German. All these editions are from Sirmond's Greek text, in which were wanting the first four chapters and a part of the fifth, and from the Corvey Latin version, where the last five chapters were lacking. But in 1859 Tischendorf brought from Mt. Sinai a Greek MS. of the entire epistle, divided into 21 chapters, which was published in his No- tsum Tettamentum Sinaiticum (2d ed., Leipsic, 1863). The best separate edition of the epistle is that of Hilgenfeld, with the ancient Latin version, notes, and a commentary (Leipsic, 1865). An English version, from the Codex Sinaiticus, appeared in the "Journal of Sacred Literature," October, 1863; reprinted in the