Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/625

 CALIXTUS CALLAO 619 CALIXTES, George (properly CAIXISEN), a Lutheran divine, born at Meelby in Holstein, Dec. 14, 1586, died in Helmstedt, March 19, 1 65 6. From 1609tol613he travelled through France, England, and Germany, and by this means became acquainted with many of the leading theologians of those countries. On his return the duke of Brunswick appointed him professor of theology in Helmstedt, where he remained for nearly half a century, writing and publishing a large number of theological works, and endeavoring to reconcile and unite the various Christian churches, on the basis of the Apostles' creed. At the conference of Thorn (1645) he showed himself so moderate in his Lutheran opinions as to favor and attempt the reconciliation of the Protestants and the Re- formed church, and thereby incurred the hatred of Oalovius and his adherents, who insisted on his excommunication from the Lutheran church as suspected of Calvinism. He had already been accused of Catholicism on account of one of his works, the Epitome Tkeologia Moralig. On the other hand, the Catholics regarded him as their most sagacious and insidious enemy. He considered a union of the sundered body of Christ feasible, if the conflicting parties could be induced to return to the oecumenical councils and laws of the first five centuries. This plan gave rise to what is known in eccle- siastical history as Syncretism, though the fol- lowers of Calixtus are sometimes called Oalix- tines. He had embraced the Aristotelian phi- losophy, and on that plan he produced scien- tific systems of ethics and theology. A full list of his writings is given in his Consultatio de Tolerantia Reformatory,, (Helmstedt, 1697). CALLA, a genus of plants, belonging to the arum family, marked by an open and spread- ing spathe, with a white upper surface, an ob- Calla ^Ethiopica. long spadix entirely covered with flowers, heart-shaped leaves, red berries, and thick creeping root stocks. The 0. palustrig is a native of marshy places in the north of Eu- rope, and is common in cold bogs in the north- ern United States. Its seeds are surrounded with jelly. In Sweden its root is dried, and furnishes a kind of meal from which bread is made. The 0. jSSthiopwa was introduced into England from the Cape of Good Hope in 1731. It is also found wild in St. Helena. Its large spathe is pure white, surrounding a spadix which is colored deeply yellow by its antherif- erous flowers. It is often cultivated, and is one of the most beautiful of aroideous plants. Being hardy, it will live in temperate regions, growing in great vigor in the ordinary apart- ments of a house, and may be made to blossom all the year round. CALLAHAN, a N. "W. county of Texas, partly drained by Hubbard's creek, the Middle fork of Pecan bayou, and an affluent of the Cedar fork of Brazos river ; area, 900 sq. m. ; yet un- settled. The surface is somewhat broken and rocky, and chiefly adapted to grazing. Timber is scarce, and the climate dry and salubrious. CALLAO, a fortified town of Peru, the princi- pal seaport of the republic, on the river Rimac, in the department and 6 m. W. of Lima, of which city it is the port ; lat. 12 6' 8., Ion. 77 14' W. ; pop. in 1871 estimated at 27,000, of whom 17,000 were natives, 5,000 Italians, 300 Germans, 2,000 British subjects, 500 French, 700 North Americans, and 1,500 Chilians and Ecuadorians. The harbor is defended by three forts with an armament of 200 guns, and is sheltered toward the south by the barren island of San Lorenzo, 9 m. in circumference, and whose highest point is 600 feet above the level of the sea. The present town is three quarters of a mile from the original site. The houses were formerly for the most part low and of miserable appearance, having until lately been rarely constructed of other materials than mud, with flat roofs and only one story, owing to the frequency of earthquakes. There is, however, parallel to the bay, a handsome street with a number of good edifices and private dwellings of two stories. The roofs are often of hardened mud, as it never rains here, the only moisture proceeding from an occasional thick drizzling mist. Ship loads of wheat are at times seen piled up on the mole for weeks together with- out any shelter. The heat at Callao is very great, and natives and foreigners suffer from severe attacks of ague. Miasmatic affections are also very common, the miasma probably proceeding from the outskirts of the town, which are covered with a coarse grass, with here and there a few very small pools of stag- nant water. The atmosphere is sometimes loaded with foul smells, especially that peculiar one which may be perceived in almost every town within the tropics. The old castle or fortress has been dismantled and converted into a custom house. The market is situated in a square occupying an acre and a half. The commerce at this port has been steadily grow- ing in importance since its foundation. The chief exports are guano, nitrate of soda, borate