BEND-BENEDICITE.

BEND, one of the honourable ordinaries, or more important figures in Heraldry. It is formed by two parallel lines, which may be either straight, or indented, engrailed, &c. (q. v.), drawn from the dexter to the sinister base, and consequently passing athwart the shield. The B. occupies a fifth part of the shield in breadth, if plain; and a third part, if charged. The B. is supposed to represent a shoulder-belt, or scarf worn over the shoulder. When heralds speak of the B. simply, the B. dexter is understood, the B. sinister being always expressly mentioned.

Bend.

Bend Sinister is the bend dexter reversed, and passing from the left to the right side of the shield, as the dexter does from the right to the left. See BAR and BASTARD BAR.

There are four diminutives of the Bend-viz., the bendlet, the garter, the cost, and the ribbon.

Cost.

Ribbon.

The terms in bend, per bend, bendy, &c., are of frequent occurrence in heraldic works, and signify that the charge is placed, or the shield divided, diagonally in the direction of the bend.

BEND is the name for one among many kinds of knot by which ropes are fastened on shipboard. Seamen imply this meaning when they speak of bending the cable,' bending a sail,' the carrickB.,' the fishermen's B.,' the 'sheet-B.,' &c.

of Schadow's, and his protrait of her is one of his best works.

BENDER, a fortified town, with a citadel, in the province of Bessarabia, Russia. The town is situated on the right bank of the Dniester, 48 miles from its mouth, and has paper-mills, tanneries, forges, and saltpetre-works. Pop. 15,000, including many Armenians, Tatars, Moldavians, and Jews. In 1770, the Russians captured the place, and put the garrison and inhabitants, then amounting to about 30,000, to the sword. It was restored to the Turks in 1774, and again stormed by the Russians in 1809. The peace of Jassy gave it back to the Turks, from whom it was again taken by the Russians in 1811, who were confirmed in the possession of it by the treaty of Bucharest in the following year.-Charles XII. of Sweden lived for some time, 1709–1712, at Varnitza, a village near Bender.

BENDIGO, one of the most productive goldfields in the colony of Victoria, having, in 1857, yielded, according to the official returns, 525,018 ounces. It is about 25 miles to the north of Mount Alexander, which, again, is about 75 miles inland from Melbourne.

BE'NÉ, a town of about 6000 inhabitants in the province of Mondovi, Piedmont, 18 miles north-east of Coni. It occupies the site of the ancient Augusta Bagiennorum, destroyed by Alaric. Many interesting vestiges are found in the neighbourhood; and the ruins of an aqueduct, baths, and amphitheatre are still visible.

BENEDEK, LUDWIG VON, an Austrian general, born in 1804 at Odenburg, in Hungary, where his father was a physician of repute. He received his military education at the Neustädt Academy, and at its close entered the army as ensign in 1822. In 1843, he was promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant, and on the occasion of the insurrection in Galicia in 1846, had several opportunities of distinguishing himself. In August 1847, as commandant of Count Gyulai's infantry-regiment, he moved to Italy, where a still more brilliant career awaited him. On the occasion of the retreat from Milan, and especially after Curtalone, where he had led on the assault with great skill and gallantry, BENDEMANN, EDUARD, one of the most distin- his name was mentioned in the army reports by guished painters of the Düsseldorf school, was born Marshal Radetsky in the highest terms; and, in Berlin in 1811. Although he had received a very consequently, he received the cross of the Order of careful scientific education, he devoted himself to Maria Theresa. He afterwards distinguished himart, became a pupil of Schadow's, and soon proved self at the taking of Mortara, and in the battle of that he had not mistaken his vocation. As early as Novara. In April 1849 he was made major-general 1832, his great picture of the Captive Jews was and brigadier of the first body of reserve of the exhibited at Berlin, and at once acknowledged to army of the Danube. He commanded the avantbe a master-piece. His next important work, in garde at Raab and Oszony, and received a slight 1833, represented Two Girls at a Fountain. It was wound in the affair at Uj-Szegedin; which did not, followed, in 1837, by Jeremiah at the Ruins of however, prevent him from taking a most active Jerusalem, a very large picture, which excited uni-part in the subsequent engagements of Szörny and versal enthusiasm in Paris, where it was exhibited, and for which he obtained a prize-medal. In 1838, B. was summoned to Dresden as member of the Academical Council, and professor of the Academy of Art; and the execution of the larger frescoes in the palace was intrusted to his skill. An affection of the eyes, from which he suffered for several years, interrupted the work, which is now, however, completed, and embraces a wide range of historical and mythological subjects. B.'s artistic bias is characteristic of the Düsseldorf school, his pictures being rather lyrical than dramatic. But he is distinguished by a peculiar grace and charm of his own, arising from a most perfect symmetry in drawing and composition, an exquisite naïveté in conception, and a tender, harmonious, yet always truthful colouring. He married, in 1838, a daughter

Ozs Ivany, where he was wounded in the foot. At the close of the Hungarian campaign, he was ordered again, high in command, to Italy. In the Italian campaign of 1859, B. commanded the eighth corps of the Austrians. At Solferino, B. occupied the ground between Pozzolengo and San Marino, and drove back the Piedmontese, who were opposed to him, with great slaughter along his whole line; and he must have forced a great portion of the enemy to surrender, had it not been that he was ordered by the emperor to retreat, an order he obeyed with tears in his eyes.'

BENEDICITÉ, a hymn or song of the three children in the fiery furnace, sung in the Christian Church as early as the time of St Chrysostom, and used in the Anglican Church in the morning-services when the Te Deum is not sung.

BENEDICT.

BENEDICT, SAINT, the founder of monachism afterwards to many secular productions. It is

remarkable that the founder of the most learned of all the monastic orders was himself so little of a scholar, that St Gregory the Great described him as being scienter nesciens, et sapienter indoctus'— learnedly ignorant, and wisely unlearned. St B. died March 21, 543.

He was

in the west, was born of a rich and respected family at Nursia, in Umbria, Italy, 480 A.D. At an early age B. was sent to the schools of literature and jurisprudence at Rome, but soon grew dissatisfied with the sterile character of the instruction dispensed. The world was full of distractions, impurities, and ignorance; but the learned doctors, under BENEDICT is the name of fourteen popes. Of whom he studied, were, like their heathen predeces- these only the following are historically important sors, serenely unconscious of the colossal evils by enough to deserve special mention.-BENEDICT which men were environed; only, therefore, in the VIII., son of Count Gregory of Tuscoli, was elected devotions of religion, in the holy silence of solitary in 1012; but was driven from Rome by the antimeditation, did B. see a safe refuge from the sins of pope Gregory In 1014, he was restored to the the time, and the possibility of realising a spiritual papal chair by the Emperor Henry II., and afterstrength which would enable him to stem the tide wards defeated the Saracens, and took from them, of corruption that was setting in. He resolved to with the help of the Pisans and Genoese, the island leave the city, and betake himself to some deep of Sardinia; and also various places in Apulia from solitude in which the murmur of the world would be the Greeks, by the help of Henry. He distinguished inaudible, and alone in the rocky wilderness wrestle himself as a reformer of the clergy, and interdicted, with his own nature, until he had conquered it at the synod of Pavia, both clerical marriage and and laid it a sacrifice on the altar of God. In pur- concubinage. He died in 1024.-BENEDICT IX., a suance of this resolution, when he had only reached, nephew of the preceding, was elected pope during according to some, the age of 14, he departed from his boyhood, in 1033; but in 1038, the Romans Rome, accompanied for the first 24 miles by the rose in indignation, and banished him on account of nurse whom his parents had sent with him as an his almost unexampled licentiousness. attendant to the city. B. then left her, and retired reinstalled by Conrad II.; again formally deposed to a deserted country lying on a lake, hence called by the faction of Consul Ptolemæus, and the antiSublacum (now Subiaco). Here, in a cavern (which pope, Sylvester III.; and after three months, was afterwards received the name of the Holy Grotto), once more installed as pope by means of bribery. he dwelt for three years, until his fame spread He sold his papal dignity to John Gratianusover the country, and multitudes came to see Gregory VI.-but was still regarded as pope. The him. He was now appointed abbot of a neigh- Emperor Henry III., to remove such gross scandals bouring monastery; but soon left it, as the from the church, deposed all the three popes---B., morals of the half-wild monks were not severe Sylvester, and Gregory-at the synod of Sutri enough for his taste. This, however, only excited a in 1046; but after the death of Clement II., 1047 livelier interest in his character, and as he lived in-who was probably poisoned-the deposed B. IX. a period when the migration and interfusion of races and nations were being rapidly carried on, he could not fail to draw crowds of wanderers about him. Wealthy Romans also placed their sons under his care, anxious that they should be trained for a spiritual life. B. was thus enabled to found twelve cloisters, over each of which he placed a superior. The savage Goths even were attracted to him, and employed in the useful and civilising practice of agriculture, gardening, &c. He now sought another retreat, and, along with a few followers, founded a monastery on Monte Cassino, near Naples, afterwards one of the richest and most famous in Italy. Here he extirpated the lingering relics of paganism, and had his celebrated interview with Totila, king of the Goths, to whom he spoke frankly and sharply on his errors. In 515, he is said to have composed his Regula Monachorum, in which he aimed, among other things, at repressing the irregular and licentious life of the wandering monks, by introducing stricter discipline and order. It eventually became the common rule of all western monachism. The monasteries which B. founded were simply religious colleges, intended to develop a high spiritual character, which might beneficially influence the world. To the abbot was given supreme power, and he was told to acquit himself in all his relations with the wisdom of God, and of his Master. The discipline recommended by St B. is, nevertheless, milder than that of oriental monachism with regard to food, clothing, &c.; but enjoins continual residence in the monastery, and, in addition to the usual religious exercises, directs that the monks shall employ themselves in manual labours, imparting instruction to youth, copying manuscripts for the library, &c. By this last injunction, St B., though without intending so to do, preserved many of the literary remains of antiquity; for the injunction, which he gave only with regard to religious books, was extended

again gained the papal see by force of bribery,
and held it eight months, until 1049, when he was
displaced, first by Damasus II., and afterwards by
Leo IX. He then sank into obscurity, and died in
some convent.-BENEDICT XIII., 1724-1730, was a
learned and well-disposed man, of simple habits and
pure morals, though rather strict in his notions of
the papal prerogative. He unfortunately yielded
himself to the guidance of Cardinal Coscia, a greedy,
unscrupulous personage, who greatly abused the
confidence reposed in him. B. always exhibited
great moderation in politics, and an honourable love
of peace, and was instrumental in bringing about the
Seville treaty of 1729. During this pontificate, a
remarkably large number of saints, chiefly from the
monastic orders, were added to the calendar.-
BENEDICT XIV. (PROSPERO LAMBERTINI), the most
worthy to be remembered of all the pontiffs so
named, was born at Bologna in 1675. Before his
elevation to the papal chair, he had distinguished
himself by extensive learning, and the faithful
discharge of his duties in the several offices of
Promotor Fidei, Bishop of Ancona (1727), cardinal
(1728), and Archbishop of Bologna (1732). Succeed-
ing Clement XII., he began his pontificate, in 1740,
with several wise and conciliatory measures; founded
chairs of physic, chemistry, and mathematics in
Rome; revived the academy of Bologna, and insti-
tuted others; dug out the obelisk in the Campus
Martius, constructed fountains, rebuilt churches;
caused the best English and French books to be
translated into Italian; and, in many other ways,
proved himself the zealous friend and munificent
patron of literature and science. His piety was
sincere, enlightened, and tolerant, and his doctrines
were well exemplified in his practice. He was
extremely anxious that the morals of the clergy
should be untainted; and, to that effect, established
a board of examiners for all candidates to vacant
sees. In proof of his toleration, he shewed the

BENEDICTINES-BENEDICTION.

frankest kindness to all strangers visiting his capital, of Dunfermline, Coldingham, Kelso, Arbroath, whatever the nature of their religious opinions. The Paisley, Melrose, Newbottle, Dundrennan, and only accusation brought against him by his Roman others. In Germany, several Benedictine monks subjects was, 'that he wrote and studied too much, distinguished themselves as promoters of education but ruled too little,' or left affairs of business too in the 10th c.; while in the latter half of the much in the hands of the Cardinal Valentine. After 11th c., the B. Lanfranc and Anselm, archbishops a painful illness, B. XIV. died May 3, 1758.-His of Canterbury, laid the foundation of medieval most important work is that on Synods. A complete scholasticism. In Italy, also, the B. gained disedition of his writings was published under the care tinction as literati, jurists, and physicians; but of the Jesuit de Azevedo (12 vols., Rome, 1747- almost everywhere corruption of manners appears 1751), and in 16 vols., Venice, 1777. to have accompanied increasing wealth, until gradually it became the practice to receive, almost exclusively, the sons of noble and wealthy persons as novices among the 'Black Monks.' Several of the popes attempted a reformation of the order, and at the general Council of Constance, 1416, a plan of reform was laid down, but failed in being carried into practice. In the 15th c., the B. had 15,107 monasteries, of which only 5000 were left after the Reformation, and now not more than about 800 can be counted. As early as 1354, this order could boast of having numbered among its followers 24 popes, 200 cardinals, 7000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, 1560 canonised saints, and 5000 holy persons judged worthy of canonisation, and 37,000 monasteries, besides 20 emperors, 10 empresses, 47 kings, above 50 queens, 20 sons of emperors, 48 sons of kings, 100 princesses, and an immense number of the nobility. Tanner (Notit. Monast.) enumerates 113 abbeys and other institutions of B. in England, and 73 houses of Benedictine nuns. From their dress-a long black gown, with a cowl or hood of the same, and a scapulary-the B. were commonly styled 'Black Monks.' The institution of convents for nuns of this order cannot be traced back beyond the 7th c.

BENEDICTINES, the general name of all the monks following the rule of St Benedict. The first Benedictine monastery was that founded at Monte Cassino, in the kingdom of Naples, about 529, by St Benedict himself. The order increased so rapidly, after the 6th c., that the B. must be regarded as the main agents in the spread of Christianity, civilisation, and learning in the west. They are said at one time to have had as many as 37,000 monasteries, and counted among their branches the great order of Clugny, founded about 910; the still greater order of the Cistercians, founded in the following century; the congregations of Monte Cassino in 1408, of St Vanne in 1600, and of St Maur on the Loire, in 1627. To this last congregation all the Benedictine houses in France were affiliated. It had afterwards its chief seat at St Maur, near Vincennes, and more lately at St Germain-des-Prés, near Paris. Its fine conventual buildings at St Maur on the Loire, were destroyed during the revolutionary troubles. Numbering among its monks such scholars as Mabillon, Montfaucon, Sainte-Marthe, D'Achery, Martene, Durand, Rivet, Clemencet, Carpentier, Toustain, and Tassin, it has rendered services to literature which it would be difficult to overestimate. Besides admirable editions of many of The rule of St Benedict was less severe than that the fathers, the world of letters owes to the B. of St which the eastern ascetics followed. Besides implicit Maur, the Art de Vérifier les Dates (1783-1787, in 3 obedience to their superior, the B. were to shun vols. fol.); a much enlarged edition of Ducange's laughter, to hold no private property, to live sparely, Glossarium Media et Infimæ Latinitatis (1733- to exercise hospitality, and, above all, to be industri1736, in 6 vols. fol.), with a Supplement (1766, in 4 ous. Compared with the ascetic orders, the B., both vols. fol.); the De Re Diplomatica (1681 and 1709, in dress and manners, may be styled the gentlemanly fol.); the Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique (1750- order of monks; and whatever may be said of their 1765, in 6 vols. 4to); L'Antiquité Expliquée (1719-religion, they deserve a high tribute of respect for 1724, in 15 vols. fol.); the Monuments de la Monarchie their artistic diligence and literary undertakings. Française (1729-1733, in 5 vols. fol.); the Acta Speaking of the great productions of the B. above Sanctorum S. Benedicti (1688-1702, in 9 vols. fol.); noticed, Sir Walter Scott characterises them as the Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti (1713-1739, in 6 works of general and permanent advantage to vols. fol.); a new and much improved edition of the the world at large; shewing that the revenues Gallia Christiana (1715-1856, in 14 vols. fol.); the of the B. were not always spent in self-indulVeterum Scriptorum Spicilegium (1653–1677, in 13 gence, and that the members of that order did vols. 4to); the De Antiquis Monachorum Ritibus not uniformly slumber in sloth and indolence.' (1690, in 2 vols. 4to); the De Antiquis Ecclesia Among the chief works on the history of the Ritibus (1700-1702, in 3 vols. 4to); the Thesaurus B., are the Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti, and the Novus Anecdotorum (1717, in 5 vols. fol.); the Acta Sanctorum S. Benedicti, already referred to; Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum Amplissima Reyner's Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia Collectio (1724-1733, in 9 vols. fol.); the Histoire (Douai, 1626, fol.); the Bullarium Cassinense Litteraire de la France (1733-1749, in 9 vols. 4to). (Venice, 1650, 2 vols. fol.); Tassin's Histoire de The B. were suppressed in France, along with the la Congregation de Saint Maur (Paris, 1770); other monastic orders, at the Revolution in 1792; Chronica de la Order de San Benito (Salamanca, and their splendid conventual buildings at St Maur 1609-1615, 7 vols. fol.); Regula S. Benedicti et on the Loire were destroyed. They have lately been Constitutiones Congregationis S. Mauri (Paris, 1770, revived; and the B. of Solesme, established in 1837, Svo). aspiring to follow in the footsteps of the B. of St Maur, have resumed some of the works which that body left unfinished, and entered on literary enterprises of their own, such as the Spicilegium Solesmense, in 10 vols. 4to, of which three have already appeared. The chief B. houses in Germany were those of Prüm, Ratisbon, Fulda, Ellwang, and Saltzburg; in Spain, they had Valladolid, Burgos, and Montserrat; in Italy, Monte Cassino, Padua, and Capua. In England, most of the richest abbeys and all the cathedral priories (excepting Carlisle) belonged to this order. In Scotland the B. had the monasteries

BENEDICTION (from the Lat. benedicere, to speak well), signifies a solemn invocation of the Divine blessing upon men or things. The ceremony in its simplest form may be considered almost coeval with the earliest expressions of religious feeling. We know from Holy Writ that the Jewish patriarchs before they died invoked the blessing of God upon their children, and at a later period the priests were commanded to implore the Divine blessing upon the people. Christ sanctioned the custom, which was consequently carried forward into the primitive church, where it gradually developed itself in

BENEDICTUS-BENEFIT SOCIETIES.

BENEFIT SOCIETIES-BENEFIT OF CLERGY.

c. 56, and the 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 40, are extended to these benefit building societies. These two acts, however, are both wholly repealed by the 18 and 19 Vict. c. 63, which consolidates and amends the law relating to friendly societies; and in the latter we do not find any corresponding enactment giving the benefit of its provisions to building societies expressly and by name, nor does it contain any allusion to or recital of the above act of the 6 and 7 Will. IV. But by its 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th sections, it saves the rights and privileges of societies existing at its date (1855) under former acts; and by section 11, on the preamble that many provident, benevolent, and charitable institutions and societies are formed, and may be formed, for the purpose of relieving the physical wants and necessities of persons in poor circumstances, or for improving the dwellings of the labouring classes, or for granting pensions, or for providing habitations for the members or other persons elected by them; and it is expedient to afford protection to the funds thereof,' it is enacted that, if the registrar shall certify that the rules of such institution or society are not repugnant to law, thereupon the following sections of the act shall extend and apply to such institution and society-that is to say, the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22d sections, which relate to the appointment, duties, and responsibilities of the societies' trustees, and to the duty and responsibility of the treasurer. The other sections define the mode of determining disputes according to the rules of the society, either by arbitrators, or by application to the county court of the district in England, the court of the assistant-barrister in Ireland, and the Sheriff's Court in Scotland-the Lord Chancellor being empowered to make such rules and orders, and the judges of the Court of Session in Scotland such acts of Sederunt as may be necessary for regulating the procedure. By an apparent oversight, a similar control over the court of the assistant-barrister in Ireland is not given to the Irish Chancellor, or to any other Irish judicial authority.

spoke of their great value in implanting habits of economy and feelings of self-respect. The first payment is productive, and every succeeding one improves the investor's position, while the determination to save is strengthened by every month's deposit. A payment of 108. per month is worth in one year £6, 38. 3d.; in five years, £35, 28. 9d.; in seven years, £50, 78. 5d.; in ten years, £77, 198. 3d.; in fourteen years, £121, 168.—£37, 16s. of which is interest. The total sum which has been deposited in four societies in Bradford, is £1,179,790, of which £222,522 was received last year (1858). The average annual receipts are about £150,000. The total of the advances on mortgage is £632,457. In London, Birmingham, and other parts of England, there are now numerous benefit building societies, of which these are an example; and the good they have done, and are doing, could scarcely be exaggerated. In Scotland, associations of this kind are less numerous, besides being chiefly composed of persons in the middle ranks of society, who wish to buy and occupy a superior class of houses. While freehold property in England, to the value of 40s. per annum, imparts a qualification to vote for a member of parliament for the county connected with the town in which the property is situated, no such qualification exists in Scotland, where land is held from the crown, or in feudal tenure, not freehold; and perhaps this accounts in some measure for the want, in Scotland, of that general enthusiasm for supporting building societies, which forms a striking feature in the humbler department of urban society in England. See FREEHOLD.

BENEFIT OF CLERGY. This expression relates to happily a former state of the law of England, which at once shews the power of the clergy and the ignorance of the people. It was otherwise called privilegium clericale, and in the days of its real meaning and force, the benefit or privilege meant little short of the total exemption of the clerical order, in respect of crimes and offences, from the jurisdiction and authority of the secular magistrate-an exemption pretended to be Building societies are of two kinds: those which founded upon the text of Scripture, Touch not are to terminate at the end of a specified period-mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.' The usually twelve or fourteen years and those of a only exception to this was the priest being held in permanent nature. As attended with numerous custody by the king himself; but even in that case, inconveniences, the terminating are giving way to he could only remain in such regal custody with the permanent associations, and these latter alone the pleasure and consent of the bishop, who had need be described. The object which a member has entire control over his person, and over the inquiry distinctly in view is to be the proprietor of a dwell- into his offence. If a priest or 'clerk' happened to be ing-house. Instead of paying rent to a landlord, imprisoned by the secular arm, on a criminal charge he proposes to set aside so much of his earnings or capital felony, he was, on the bishop's demand, to monthly towards the purchase-money of a property. be instantly delivered up without any further inquiThe advantage of this plan is twofold. Instead of sition; not, indeed, to be let loose upon the country, continually paying rents, and never becoming any but to be detained by the ordinary, till he had richer, he finds that his instalments, which are only either purged himself from the offence, or, having a little more than what a rent would be, make him failed to do so, had been degraded; and this state his own landlord, and give him an improved social of things continued till the reign of Henry VI., position. In the best arranged societies, members when it was settled that the prisoner should first are allowed to pay much or little as instalments, be arraigned, and might either then claim his according to their ability; and in cases of sickness or B. of C. by plea declining the jurisdiction, or, as want of work, the payments may be for a time sus- was most usually practised, after conviction, by way pended. The method of acquiring a property is as of arresting judgment. The test of admission to follows: A member fixes on a house which he wishes this singular privilege was the clerical dress and to buy, and proposes to the society that he wishes tonsure; and a story is told of one William de to borrow the price of it. The society appoints a Bussy, a serjeant-at-law, 1259 A.D. (the practising surveyor to report as to the value of the building, lawyers then were all priests), who, being called and if satisfied on that point, makes the purchase in to account for his great knavery and malpractices, name of the applicant, who, under proper guarantees, claimed the benefit of his orders or clergy, which enters on possession immediately. A usual period till then remained an entire secret, and to this of payment is about thirteen years, a sum equal end wished to untie his coif, that he might shew to 5 per cent. of the principal, and 5 per cent. that he had the clerical tonsure; but this was not interest, being paid every year. Mr J. A. Binns, permitted, and the bystanders seizing him, not by in describing these societies, in a paper read the coif, but by the throat, dragged him to prison. at the Social Science Congress at Bradford, 1859, See 1, Stephen, p. 17. But in course of time