Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/381

 BASIL 361 and not by their appearance. All the species are easily cultivated from seed, and most of them are half hardy in the latitude of Boston. Sweet Basil (Ocymum basilicum). BASIL, a Bulgarian monk and physician, founder of a religious sect called Bogomiles (Slavic Bog, God, and milui, have mercy), burnt alive in Constantinople in 1118. His follow- ers believed that before the birth of Christ God had a son Satanael, who revolted, seduced the angels, created the visible universe, and gave the Mosaic law, and that Christ had the mission to destroy the power of Satanael by consigning him to hell under the name of Satan. Basil repudiated marriage, favoring a free intercourse of the sexes, rejected the doctrine of the resur- rection, the books of Moses, and the eucharist, abolished baptism, characterized churches as devilish, denounced priests and monks, and would not recognize any liturgy but the Lord's prayer. He condemned all cruelty to animals, and objected to the eating of meat and eggs. In 1111 the emperor Alexis Comnenns con- vened a synod for the condemnation of the Bogomiles ; and entrapping Basil, as their chief leader, into making a confession of his faith, he convened a second synod (1118), calling upon him to retract ; but he remained firm, expect- ing, even while the flames surrounded him, that angels would come to his rescue. See Engelhardt, Jfirchengeechichtliehe Abhandlun- gen (Erlangen, 1832). BASIL I., or Basiling, surnamed the Macedo- nian, emperor of the East, born in the prov- ince of Macedon about 825, died March 1, 886. At a very early age he was taken pris- oner by a party of Bulgarians, who carried him into their country and sold him as a slave. Having obtained his liberty, he proceeded to Constantinople, where a monk caused him to be presented to Theophilus the Little, a relative of the emperor. Accompanying his master to Greece, he won the favor of a rich widow, who made him her heir, and whose wealth enabled him to purchase large estates in his native coun- try. He continued in the service of Theophilus till 842, when he brought himself to the notice of the emperor Michael III. by vanquishing in single combat a gigantic Bulgarian. He grad- ually rose to the dignity of chief chamberlain, and repudiated his wife in order to marry one of the emperor's concubines. He formed a conspiracy against Bardas, on whom the dig- nity of Csesar had been conferred, caused him to be assassinated in the presence of Michael, and soon afterward was created Augustus and recognized as heir apparent. Henceforward, in consequence of the inebriety and incapacity of Michael, the whole administration of the government devolved upon him. The empe- ror, perceiving himself reduced to a cipher,- be- came jealous and resolved on Basil's ruin ; but the plot was revealed to Basil, and on Sept. 24, 867, Michael III. was murdered. Basil was now proclaimed emperor, and during a reign of over 18 years displayed a vigor and ability which few of his predecessors had equalled. He removed the patriarch Photius from the see of Constantinople, because of the religious feuds which he had excited there, and installed Igna- tius in his place ; reduced the revolted Pauli- cians to obedience; compelled the Arabs to raise the siege of Eagusa in 872, vanquished them in Syria and Mesopotamia in several en- gagements, and attempted to drive them out of Italy. His general Procopius was defeated and slain through the treachery of his lieutenant Leo, whom Basil accordingly caused to be mu- tilated and sent into exile. Basil meanwhile became jealous of his own son Leo, owing to the slanders of a courtier; but, convinced at the last moment of the young man's innocence, he restored him to his affections, and punished his calumniator. The emperor died in conse- quence of a wound received from a stag. He made a collection of some of the laws of the eastern empire, which was entitled the "Ba- silican Constitutions," and wrote a small work on the moral, religious, social, and political du- ties of sovereigns, which he dedicated to his son and successor Leo the Philosopher. This work is still extant ; the best edition of it is that published in Gottingen, 1674. Basil II., empe- ror of the East, eldest son of Romanus II., born in 958, died in 1025. Romanus had de- creed that his infant sons Basil and Constan- tino should reign together under the guardian- ship of their mother. Immediately after the death of Romanus, however, their mother married Nicephorus Phocas, and raised him to the throne ; and the brothers did not suc- ceed to their inheritance till 976. Constan- tine gave himself up to licentiousness, and the whole administration of the government de- volved on Basil. His reign was a series of do- mestic and foreign wars. He put down the formidable revolt of Sclerus, defeated the at- tempt of Otho II., emperor of Germany, to en- force his claim to Calabria and Apulia in Italy, in right of his wife Theophania, the sister of