the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
JACQUES LEROY DE SAINT ARNAUD (1801-1854), marshal of France, was born at Paris on the 10th of August 1801. He entered the army in 1817, and after ten years of garrison service, which he varied by gambling and wild courses, he still held only the lowest commissioned grade. He then resigned, led a life of adventure in several lands and returned to the army at thirty as a sub-lieutenant. He took part in the suppression of the Vendee emeute,and was for a time on General(Marshal)Bugeaud's staff. But his debts and the scandals of his private life compelled him to go to Algeria as a captain in the Foreign Legion. There he distinguished himself on numerous occasions, and after twelve years had risen to the rank of marechal de camp. In 1848 he was placed at the head of a brigade during the revolution in Paris. On his return to Africa, it is said because Louis Napoleon considered him suitable to be the military head of a coup d'etat, an expedition was made into Little Kabylia, in which St Arnaud showed his prowess as a commander-in-chief and provided his superiors with the pretext for bringing him home as a general of division (July 1851). He succeeded Marshal Magnan as minister of war and superintended the military operations of the coup d'etat of the 2nd of December (1851) which placed Napoleon III. on the throne. A year later he was made marshal of France and a senator, remaining at the head of the war office till 18J4, when he set out to command the French in the Crimea, his British colleague being Lord Raglan. He died on board ship on the 29th of September 1854 shortly after commanding at the battle of the Alma. His body was conveyed to France and buried in the Invalides.
See Lettres du Mare'chal de Saint Arnaud (Paris, 1855; 2nd edition with memoir by Sainte-Beuve, 1858).
A town of Kara-Kara county, Victoria, Australia, 158 m. by rail N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901), 3656. It is a flourishing town with a fine town hall, a school of mines and the court house, in which sittings of the supreme court are held. There are tanneries, chaff and wood yards, and flourand bone-mills in the town, which lies in a gold-mining, pastoral and agricultural district, the mining being chiefly quartz. To the N.W. is some of the finest agricultural land in the colony.
A cathedral city and a contributory parliamentary borough of Flintshire, N. Wales, on the Rhyl-Denbigh branch of the London & North-Western railway, about 6 m. from each of these towns. Pop. (1901), 1788. Its Welsh name, Llanelwy, is derived from the Elwy, between which stream and the Clwyd it stands. Asaph, to whom the cathedral (one of the smallest in Great Britain) is dedicated, was bishop here after Kentigern's return hence to Glasgow, and died in 596. The small, irregularly built town has also a parish church (Anglican), remains of a Perpendicular chapel near Ffynnon Fair (St Mary's Well), a bishop's house, a grammar school (1882) and almshouses for eight poor widows, founded in 1678 by Bishop Barrow. The hill on which St Asaph stands is Bryn Paulin, supposed to have been the camping-ground of Suetonius Paulinus, on his way to Anglesey. The early cathedral, of wood, was burned by the English in 1247 and 1282, and that built by Bishop Anian in the 13th century (Decorated) was mostly destroyed during the war of Owen Glendower in 1402; Bishop Redman's building (c. 1480) was completed by the erection of the choir about 1770. During the Civil War the Parliamentarians did not spare the building. The choir and chancel were restored, from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, in 1867-1868, the nave in 1875. The church is plain, cruciform, and in style chiefly Decorated but partly Early English, with a square tower; it has a library of nearly 2000 volumes (some rare); memorials to Bishop Dafydd ab Owain (d. 1502), to Bishop Luxmore (d. 1830), to the poetess Felicia Hemans, a resident near St Asaph (d. 1835); and Perpendicular oak choir stalls. In the neighbourhood is the modern mansion of Bodelwyddan, of which the estate was bought by Sir W. Williams, speaker of the House of Commons in Charles II.'s time.
A city and the county-seat of St John's county, Florida, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, about 36 M. S.E. of Jacksonville. Pop. (1900) 4272, including 1735 negroes; (1910) 5494; many of the native whites are descendants of those Minorcans who were settled at New Smyrna, Florida, by Andrew Turnbull in 1769, and subsequently removed to St Augustine. St Augustine is served by the Florida East Coast railway and by the Florida East Coast Canal, an inland waterway from the St John's river to the Florida Keys.
The city stands on a narrow, sandy peninsula, about 12 ft. above the sea, formed by the Matanzas and San Sebastian rivers, and is separated from the ocean by the northern end of Anastasia Island. St George, the chief street in St Augustine, is only 17 ft. wide, and Treasury Street is, at its east end, an alley across which two people may clasp hands. There are many old houses, some of which have balconies projecting above the streets. At its northern end is the old fort of San Marco (now renamed Fort Marion in honour of General Francis Marion), a well-preserved specimen of Spanish military architecture, begun, it is supposed, about 1656 and finished in 1756. The St Francis barracks (now the state arsenal) occupy the site of the old Franciscan convent, whose walls still remain as the first storey. In the military cemetery are buried a number of soldiers who were massacred by the Seminoles near the Great Wahoo Swamp on the 28th of August 1835. At the end of St George Street and near Fort Marion is the City Gate (two pillars, each 20 ft. high); from this gate a line of earthworks formerly stretched across the northern end of the peninsula. In the centre of the city is the Plaza de la Constitucion, in which are an obelisk erected in 1813 to commemorate the Spanish Liberal Constitution of 1812, and a monument (1872) to citizens who died in the Confederate Army. On this square are the market (built in 1840,partially burned in 1887, and afterwards rebuilt), often erroneously spoken of as "the slave market"; a Roman Catholic cathedral (built in 1791, burned in 1887, and rebuilt and enlarged in 1887-1888); Trinity church (Protestant Episcopal); and the post office (once the Spanish government building). In the western part of the city is the beautiful Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1889 as a memorial to his daughter, by Henry M. Flagler. Facing King Street (the Alameda) is the magnificent Hotel Ponce de Leon (Spanish Renaissance), of shell-concrete, also by Flagler. The Alcazar (with a large swimming pool fed by a sulphurous artesian well), in the Moorish style, and the Alcazar Annex (with a large sun parlour), formerly the Cordova Hotel, designed and built by Franklin W. Smith, in the Hispano-Moorish style, are also famous hostelries. In an old building (restored) is housed the Wilson Free Public Library. Another old building houses the collections of the St Augustine Institute of Science and Historical Society, organized in 1884. St Augustine is the seat of the state school for the deaf and blind (1885).
At St Augustine are car and machine shops of the Florida East Coast railway. Oyster canning and fishing are engaged in to some extent, and cigars are manufactured, but the city is important chiefly as a winter resort, the number of its visitors approximating 25,000 a year. The climate is delightful, the mean temperature for the winter months being about 58° F. and for the entire year about 70° F.
St Augustine is the oldest permanent settlement of Europeans in the United States. It was founded by Spanish colonists under the leadership of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, who sighted land here in 1565, on the 28th of August, St Augustine's day, whence the name. On the 6th of September he landed and began his fortifications. St Augustine's colonial history is almost identical with the history of Florida (q.v.) under Spanish dominion. In 1586 it was burned by Sir Francis Drake, who captured the fort, and in 1665 it was pillaged by Captain John Davis, an English freebooter. There were frequent conflicts with the English settlements in South Carolina and Georgia, beginning in 1681 with an attack by the Spanish on Port Royal, South Carolina. In 1702 Governor James Moore of South Carolina captured St Augustine, but not the fort; and there were subsequent expeditions under General James Edward Oglethorpe (see Georgia). When Florida was ceded to England in 1763, nearly all the Spanish inhabitants of St Augustine went to Cuba. Under English control the city prospered, but when in 1783 Florida was re-ceded to Spain, nearly all the English inhabitants left for the Carolinas, Georgia or the West Indies, and it became merely a military post. In 1821 St Augustine, with the rest of Florida, passed under American control. The Spanish inhabitants remained. On the 7th of January 1861, three days before Florida passed her Ordinance of Secession, the small United States garrison was compelled by a state force to evacuate; but on the 11th of March 1862 the fort was recaptured without bloodshed by a Federal force, and was held by the Federals until the close of the Civil War.
See George R. Fairbanks, The History and Antiquities of the City of St Augustine (New York, 1&58); Charles B. Reynolds, Old St Augustine (St Augustine, 1885); and D. Y. Thomas, "Report upon the Historic Buildings, Monuments and Local Archives of St Augustine," in vol. i. pp. 333-352 of the Annual Report (1905) of the American Historical Association.
A market town in the St Austell parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 14 m. N.E. of Truro, on the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3340. It is pleasantly situated on a steep slope 2 m. inland from St Austell bay on the south coast. To the north the high ground culminates at 1034 ft. above the sea in Hensbarrow Downs, so called from a barrow standing at the loftiest point. The church of the Holy Trinity is Perpendicular, with Decorated chancel, richly ornamented in a manner unusual in the county. The town is the centre of a district productive of china clay (kaolin), about 400,000 tons being annually exported by sea to the potteries of Staffordshire and to Lancashire, when it is used in the calicoworks for sizing. The deposits of clay became important about 1763, and Josiah Wedgwood acquired mines in the neighbourhood. Mines were previously worked for tin and copper, and in some cases after being exhausted of ore continued to be worked for clay. The Carclaze mine to the north-east is notably rich; it is a shallow excavation of great superficial extent, which appears to have been worked from very early times. Close to St Austell is a good example of an ancient baptistery, called Menacuddle Well, the little chapel being Early English.
Or ST Barthelemy, an island in the French West Indies. It lies in 17° 55' N. and 63° 60' W., about 130 m. N.W. of Guadeloupe, of which it is a dependency. It is shaped like an irregular crescent, the horns, enclosing the bay of St Jean, pointing to the N.; its surface is hilly, culminating near the centre in a limestone hill 1003 ft. high. It is 8 sq. m. in area, and devoid of forests, and water has often to be imported from the neighbouring island of St Kitts. The surrounding rocks and shallows make the island difficult of access. Despite the lack of water, sugar, cotton, cocoa, manioc and tobacco are grown. The capital, Gustavia, on the S.W. coast, possesses a small but safe harbour. Lorient is the only other town. The inhabitants, mainly of French and negro descent, are Englishspeaking, and number about 3000. St Bartholomew was occupied by France in 1648 and ceded to Sweden in 1784. In 1877 it was again acquired by France at the cost of £11,000.
The name given to the massacre of the Huguenots, which began in Paris on St Bartholomew's day, the 24th of August 1572. The initiative for the crime rests with Catherine de' Medici. Irritated and disquieted by the growing influence of Admiral Coligny, who against her wishes was endeavouring to draw Charles IX. into a war with Spain, she resolved at first to have him assassinated. The blow failed, and the admiral was only wounded. The attempt, however, infuriated the Huguenots, who had flocked to Paris for the wedding of Henry of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois. Charles IX. declared that the assassin should receive condign punishment. Catherine then conceived the idea of killing at a blow all the Huguenot leaders, and of definitely ruining the Protestant party. After holding a council with the Catholic leaders, including the duke of Anjou, Henry of Guise, the marshal de Tavannes, the duke of Nevers, and Rene de Birague, the keeper of the seals, she persuaded the king that the massacre was a measure of public safety, and on the evening of the 23rd of August succeeded in wringing his authorization from him. The king himself arranged the manner of its execution, but it is scarcely probable that he fired upon the Huguenots from a window of the Louvre. The massacre began on Sunday at daybreak, and continued in Paris till the 17th of September. Once let loose, it was impossible to restrain the Catholic populace. From Paris the massacre spread to the provinces till the 3rd of October. The duc de Longueville in Picardy, Chabot-Charny (son of Admiral Chabot) at Dijon, the comte de Matignon (1525-1597) in Normandy, and other provincial governors, refused to authorize the massacres.
Francois Hotman estimates the number killed in the whole of France at 50,000. There were many illustrious victims, among them being Admiral Coligny, his son-in-law Charles de Teligny and the logician Peter Ramus. Catherine de' Medici received the congratulations of all the Catholic powers, and Pope Gregory XIII. commanded bonfires to be lighted and a medal to be struck.
See H. Bordier, La St Barthelemy et la critique moderne (Paris, 1879); H. Baumgarten, Vor der Bartholomc usnacht (Strassburg, 1882); and H. Mariejol, "La Reforme et la Ligue" (Paris, 1904), in vol. vi. of the Histoire de France, by E. Lavisse, which contains a more complete bibliography of the subject.
A village of north-central France, in the department of Loiret, on the right bank of the Loire, 22 m. E.S.E. of Orleans by road. St Benoit (Lat. Floriacum) possesses a huge basilica, the only survival of a famous monastery founded in the 7th century to which the relics of St Benedict were brought from Monte Cassino. Of great importance during the middle ages, owing partly to its school, the establishment began to decline in the 16th century. In 1562 it was pillaged by the Protestants and, though the buildings were restored by Richelieu, the abbey did not recover its former position. The basilica was built between c. 1025 and 1218. Its narthex has a second storey supported on columns with remarkable carved capitals; there are two sets of transepts, above which rises a square central tower. In the interior are the tomb of Philip I., stalls of the 15th century, and, in the crypt, a modern shrine containing the remains of St Benedict, which still attract many pilgrims.
Two of the best-known passes across the main chain of the Alps, both traversed by carriage roads. The Great St Bernard (8111 ft.) leads (53 m.) from Martigny (anc. Octodurus ) in the Rhone valley (Switzerland) to Aosta (anc. Augusta Praetoria ) in Italy. It was known in Roman times. The hospice on the pass was founded (or perhaps refounded) by St Bernard of Menthon (d. about 1081), and since the 12th or early 13th century has been in charge of a community of Austin canons, the mother-house being at Martigny. Annually the servants of the canons, and the famous dogs, save many lives, especially of Italian workmen crossing the pass. In May 1800 Napoleon led his army ever the pass, which was then traversed by a bridle road only. The Little St Bernard (7179 ft.) also was known in Roman times, and the hospice refounded by St Bernard of Menthon, though it is now in charge of the military and religious order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus. The pass leads (39 m.) from Bourg St Maurice in the Isere valley (French department of Savoie) to Aosta, but is much less frequented by travellers than its neighbour opposite. (W. A. B. C.) There is no certain mention of the road over the pass of the Great St Bernard (Alpis Poenina, Poeninus Mons ) before 57 B.C. when Julius Caesar sent Servius Galba over it, "because he wished that the pass, by which traders had been accustomed to go at great risk and with very high transport charges, should be opened." But even in Strabo's time it was impassable for wheeled traffic; and we find that Augusta Praetoria originally had but two gates, one opening on the road towards the Little St Bernard (Alpis Graia ), the other towards Eporedia (Ivrea), but none towards the Alpis Poenina. But the military arrangement of the German provinces rendered the construction of the road necessary, and it is mentioned as existing in A.D. 69. Remains of it cut in the rock, some 122 ft. in width, still exist near the lake at the top of the pass. On the plain at the top of the pass is the temple of Jupiter Poeninus (Penninus), remains of which were excavated in 1890-1893, though objects connected with it had long ago been found. The oldest of the votive-tablets which can be dated belongs to the time of Tiberius, and the temple may be attributed to the beginning of the empire; objects, however, of the first Iron age (4th or 5th century B.e.) were also found' and many Gaulish coins. Other buildings, probably belonging to the post station at the top of the pass, were also discovered. Many of the objects found then and in previous years, including 1 So Not. degli scam: (1891), 81; but the statement is contradicted, ibid. (1894), 44.
many votive-tablets, are in the museum at the hospice of the Great St Bernard.
See Notizie degli scavi, passim, especially E. Ferrero (1890), 294 C. Promis, Antichitd di Aosta (Turin, 1862).
The Little St Bernard was known to the Romans as Alpis Graia. It derived its name from the legend that Hercules, returning from Spain with the oxen of Geryon, crossed the Alps by this route, though the legend rather suits the route through:the Maritime Alps. According to many modern scholars, Hannibal passed this way over the Alps, though the question has been much discussed (see art. Hannibal, and Partsch in PaulyWissowa, Realencyklopddie i., 1604). In any case it was the principal pass over the Alps into Gallia Comata until the pass of the Alpis Cottia (Mont Genevre) was opened by Cn. Pompeius in 75 B.C., and became the principal route, though the road was only completed under Augustus by Cottius in 3 B.C. Various remains of the road are visible, and those of a building (possibly a temple of Jupiter) have been found on the summit of the pass. See Notizie degli scavi (1883), 7 (1894), 46; and C. Promis, Antichitd di Aosta (Turin, 1862), 115 sqq. (T. As.) ST Bertrand-De-Comminges, a village of south-western France at the foot of the Pyrenees in the department of HauteGaronne, about 70 m. S.W. of Toulouse by rail and road. St Bertrand stands about r m. from the left bank of the Garonne on the slopes of an isolated hill crowned by its celebrated cathedral of Notre Dame. The façade of the church with its square tower and the first bay with its aisles are Romanesque, and belong to a church begun about the end of the r 1 th century by Bishop Bertrand (1075-1123), afterwards canonized. The nave with its side chapels and the choir, in the Gothic style, date from the first half of the 14th century and were chiefly the work of Bertrand de Goth, bishop from 1295 to 1299 and afterwards Pope Clement V. The choir screen, rood-loft and altar, which form an enclosure within the church, are masterpieces of Renaissance wood-carving, as are also the choir stalls. The church contains several tombs, the most interesting of which are the fine white marble tomb of Bishop Hugh of Chatillon (d. 1352), and the mausoleum of St Bertrand (both of the 15th century), whose relics are preserved in the treasury. On the south side of the church there is a ruined cloister of Romanesque architecture.
St Bertrand-de-Comminges (Lugdunum Convenarum)was founded in 72 B.C., and before the end of the 5th century became the seat of a bishopric suppressed at the Revolution. The town was destroyed towards the end of the 6th century by Guntrum, king of Burgundy, after it had served as a refuge to Gondowald, pretender to the crown of Aquitaine.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​j/jacques-leroy-de-saint-arnaud.html. 1910.