Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/849

BENEDEN. lin. He was appointed director of the Museum of Natural History in Louvain in 1831, professor at the University of Ghent in 1835, and professor of zoölogy and paleontology at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1836. In 1842 he was made a member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, of which institution he was elected president in 1881. His principal works are: Zoölogie médicale (in collaboration with Gervais, 2 Vols., 1859); Osteographie des cétacés vivants et fossiles (in collaboration with Gervais, 1868-80); La vie animale et ses mystères (1863); Les commensaux et les parasites dans le règne animal (1875).

BENEDETTI, ba'ne-det'te. Count (1817-1900). A French diplomatist of Greek origin, born in Corsica. He was French consul at Cairo and Palermo, secretary of legation in Constantinople; held office in the French Department of Foreign Affairs, and was secretary during the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris in 1856. In 1860 he went to Turin to negotiate the cession of Nice and Savoy to France, and in 1864 he was Ambassador to Berlin. Benedetti was personally concerned in the affair of the protest of Napoleon III. against the candidacy of the Prince of Hohcnzollern for the throne of Spain, and forced himself upon King William in the public walk at Ems, July 13. 1870, in so offensive a manner that he was informed that the King had nothing further to communicate to him. It is a moot question how far he was really responsible for precipitating war with Prussia. Certainly Bismarck used Benedetti's blunder to the best advantage in carrying out his own plans and six days after the incident at Ems France declared war. Benedetti accused Bismarck of having in 1866 originated a Franco-Prussian treaty for the partition of Belgium and Luxemburg, but Bismarck showed that France herself had originated the scheme. Benedetti sought to justify his diplomatic activity in Ma mission en Prusse (Paris, 1871), and also published Essais diplomatiques (Paris, 1895).

BENEDETTO DA MAJANO, ba'na-det't6 da ma-yii'no (1442-97). A Florentine decorator and sculptor of the early Renaissance. He was a younger brother of Giuliano da Majano (q.v.), whom he at first assisted. He designed and executed some of the most perfect known pieces of church furniture; the pulpit at Santa Croce (Florence), the ciborium of San Domenico (Siena), the portal of the Sala de' Zigli in the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence), are, perhaps, the most beautiful in their class. He visited the Court of the King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus — that famous patron of Italian art — and after 1490 entered the service of King Alfonso of Naples.

BENEDICITE, ben'e-dis'i-te. A hymn or song of the 'Three Children' in the fiery furnace, which is given in the Old Testament Apocrypha, was sung in the Christian Church as early as the time of Saint Chrysostom, and is used in the Anglican morning-prayer when the Te Deum is not sung, from Septuagesima to Easter, and also during Advent, and in the office of lauds in the Roman Breviary. The name originated in the opening sentence, Benedicite omnia opera Dei (Praise ye all the works of God!).

BEN'EDICK. A cynical, witty lord of Padua, in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. He rails at marriage, but falls an easy prey to the plot to unite him and Beatrice. Hence the term, 'a Benedick,' for a newly married man.

BEN'EDICT. The name of 14 Popes. Pope 574-78, during the Lombard devastation of Italy, grief at which is said to have killed him. — Pope 683-85, canonized for his virtues. He decided the English controversy in favor of Wilfrid of York (q.v.), and labored in vain to reclaim Macarius, the Patriarch of Antioch, who was living in exile in Rome, from his monotheistic belief. — Pope 855-58. His election was opposed by the Emperor Lothair; but he was finally acknowledged, and did much during his short reign for the building and adornment of churches in Rome. — Pope 900-03, famous for his charity to the poor and other virtues only too rare in the unhappy Tenth Century. — Pope 964-65, elected against the will of the Emperor Otho I., who carried him off to Germany, where he died a prisoner in Hamburg. — Pope 972-74. He met with a similar fate, at the hands of the Consul Crescentius, son of the notorious Theodora. — Pope 974-83. He was a promoter of monasticism and ecclesiastical discipline, and summoned a synod for the supression of simony. His later years, like those of Benedict I., were saddened by the devastation of Roman territory, this time by the Emperor Otho II. — son of Count Gregory of Tusculum, was elected in 1012; but the Antipope Gregory, who had been elected at the same time, fled to the court of the Emperor Henry II. to get his assistance, but Henry decided in favor of Benedict, who a little later crowned him in Rome (1014). Benedict afterwards defeated the Saracens, and took from them, with the help of the Pisans and Genoese, the island of Sardinia; and also various places in Apulia from the Greeks, by the help of Henry. He distinguished himself as a reformer of the clergy, and interdicted, at the synod of Pavia, both clerical marriage and concubinage. He died in 1024. See his Life by P. G. Wappler (Leipzig, 1897). — a nephew of the preceding, named Theophylact, was elected Pope at the age of 10, in 1033; but a little later the Romans banished him. He was reinstated by Conrad II. (1038); again formally deposed by the Consul Ptolemæus, who set up Sylvester III. in his place (1044); and after three months was once more installed as Pope. By a new compact, John Gratianus was declared Pope under the name of Gregory VI. (1045). The Emperor Henry III. deposed all the three Popes — Benedict, Svlvester, and Gregory — and caused Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, to be elected as Clement II. (1046); but on his death, in 1047, the deposed Benedict IX. again regained the Papal See, and held it eight months, until 1048, when he was displaced, first by Damasus II., and afterwards by Leo IX. According to one report he died in the Convent of Grotta Ferrata in 1056. See his Life by Giovagnoli (Milan, 1900). — a disputed Pope, 1058-59. — Pope 1303-04. — Pope 1334-42, one of the Avignon Popes. — (born Pietro Francesco degli Orsini), Pope 1724-30, was a learned and well-disposed man, of simple habits and pure morals, though rather strict in his notions on the Papal prerog-