The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 80

BONAR, HORATIUS, a clergyman of the Free Church of Scotland, and a celebrated hymn writer, born at Edinburgh (1808-1889).

BONAVENTURA, ST., cardinal, surnamed the Seraphic Doctor, his real name John Fidenza, born in Tuscany; entered the Franciscan Order; was chosen general of the Order and papal legate at the Council of Lyons in 1274, during the session of which he died; was a mystic in theology; ascribed knowledge of the truth to union with G.o.d, such as existed between man and his Maker prior to the Fall, a state which could be recovered only by a life of purity and prayer; his writings were admired by Luther (1221-1274).

BONCHAMP, CHARLES, MARQUIS DE, French general, born in Anjou, served in the American war; became one of the chiefs of the Vendean army; fell at the battle of Cholet, and when dying, relented over the blood already shed; ordered the release of 5000 prisoners which his party, in their revenge, was about to ma.s.sacre; _d_. 1793.

BOND, WILLIAM, a distinguished American astronomer (1789-1815), who with his son, GEORGE PHILLIPS, discovered a satellite of Neptune and an eighth satellite of Saturn (1826-1865).

BONDU (30), a country of Senegambia, a dependency of France; yields maize, cotton, fruits.

BONE, HENRY, a celebrated enamel painter, especially in miniature on ivory; born at Truro (1755-1834).

b.o.n.e.r, ULRICH, a German fabulist and Dominican monk of the 14th century, author of "Der Edelstein" (The Jewel), a book of fables.

BONHEUR, ROSA, a celebrated French animal painter, born at Bordeaux; brought up in poverty from ill-fortune; taught by her father; exhibited when she was 19; her best-known works are the "Horse Fair" and the "Hay Harvest in Auvergne," "Ploughing with Oxen," considered her masterpiece; through the Empress Eugenie she received the Cross of the Legion of Honour; during the siege of Paris her studio was spared by order of the Crown Prince; _b_. 1822.

BONHOMME, JACQUES, a name of contempt given by the n.o.bility of France to the peasants in the 14th century.

BONIFACE, the name of nine popes. B. I., pope from 418 to 422, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of First Bishop of Christendom; B. II., pope from 530 to 532; B. III., pope for 10 months, from 607 to 608; B. IV., pope from 608 to 614; B. V., pope from 617 to 625; B. VI., pope in 896; B. VII., pope from 974 to 985; B. VIII., pope from 1294 to 1303, a strenuous a.s.sertor of the papal supremacy over all princes, and a cause of much turmoil in Europe, provoked a war with Philip the Fair of France, who arrested him at Anagni, and though liberated by the citizens died on his way to Rome; B.

IX., pope from 1389 to 1405, the first pope to wear the Triple Crown.

BONIFACE, ST., the Apostle of Germany, born in Devons.h.i.+re, his real name Winfried; consecrated Pepin le Bref; was made Primate of Germany; was, with 53 companions, ma.s.sacred by the barbarians of Friesland, whom he sought to convert (680-755).

BONIN', a group of rocky islands SE. of j.a.pan, and since 1878 subject to it.

BONINGTON, RICHARD, an eminent English landscape painter of exceptional precocity, born near Nottingham; painted the "Ducal Palace"

and "Grand Ca.n.a.l" at Venice, his masterpieces (1801-1828).

BONIVARD, FRANcOIS DE, a Genevese patriot and historian, twice imprisoned by Charles III., a Duke of Savoy, for his sympathy with the struggles of the Genevese against his tyranny, the second time for six years in the Castle of Chillon; immortalised by Lord Byron in his "Prisoner of Chillon"; he was released at the Reformation, and adopted Protestantism (1496-1571).

BONN (38), a Prussian town on the Rhine, SE. of Cologne, an old Roman station, with a famous university; the birthplace of Beethoven, with a monument to his memory; it is a stronghold of the old Catholics.

BONNAT, JOSEPH LEON, a French painter, born at Bayonne; imitated for a time the religious paintings of the old masters, but since 1862 has followed a style of his own; "Christ at the Cross" in the Palais de Justice, Paris, is his work; _b_. 1833.

BONNER, EDMUND, bishop of London, born at Worcester; was chaplain to Wolsey; sided with Henry VIII. against the Pope; fell into disgrace under Edward VI.; was restored by Mary, whom he served in her Anti-Protestant zeal; affected to welcome Elizabeth to the throne; was again deposed and imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth; died in the Marshalsea Prison: he does not deserve all the odium that has been heaped on his memory; he was faithful as a bishop, consistent in his conduct, and bore the indignities done him with manly fort.i.tude (1495-1569).

BONNET, CHARLES DE, Swiss naturalist and philosopher, born at Geneva; his studies as a naturalist gave a materialistic cast to his philosophy; though he did not deny the existence of mind, still less that of its sovereign Author, he gave to material impressions a dominant influence in determining its manifestations (1720-1793).

BONNET-PIECE, a gold coin of James V. of Scotland, so called from the king being represented on it as wearing a bonnet instead of a crown.

BONNEVAL, CLAUDE-ALEXANDRE, COMTE DE. See ACHMED PASHA.

BONNIE DUNDEE, Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee.

BONPLAND, AIMe, a French botanist and traveller, born at Roch.e.l.le; companion of Alexander von Humboldt in his S. American scientific explorations; brought home a large collection of plants, thousands of species of them new to Europe; went out again to America, arrested by Dr.

Francia in Paraguay as a spy, kept prisoner there for about nine years; released, settled in the prov. of Corrientes, where he died; wrote several works bearing on plants (1773-1858).

BONSTETTEN, CHARLES VICTOR DE, a Swiss publicist and judge, born at Berne; wrote on anthropology, psychology, &c. (1745-1832).

BONTEMPS, ROGER, a French personification of a state of leisure and freedom from care.

BONZE, a Buddhist priest in China, j.a.pan, Burmah, &c.

BOOLE, English mathematician, born at Lincoln; mathematical professor at Cork; author of "Laws of Thought," an original work, and "Differential Equations" (1815-1864).

BOOMERANG, a missile of hard curved wood used by the Australian aborigines of 2 ft. long; a deadly weapon, so constructed that, though thrown forward, it takes a whirling course upwards till it stops, when it returns with a swoop and falls in the rear of the thrower.

BOONE, DANIEL, a famous American backwoodsman; _d_. 1822, aged 84.

BOoTES (the ox-driver or waggoner), a son of Ceres; inventor of the plough in the Greek mythology; translated along with his ox to become a constellation in the northern sky, the brightest star in which is Arcturus.

BOOTH, BARTON, English actor, acted Shakespearean, characters and Hamlet's ghost (1681-1733).

BOOTH, JOHN WILKES, son of an actor, a.s.sa.s.sinated Lincoln, and was shot by his captors (1839-1865).

BOOTH, WILLIAM, founder and general of the Salvation Army, born in Nottingham; published "In Darkest England"; a man of singular self-devotion to the religious and social welfare of the race; _b_. 1839.

BOOTHIA, a peninsula of British N. America, W. of the Gulf of Boothia, and in which the N. magnetic pole of the earth is situated; discovered by Sir John Boss in 1830.