Beneath

[A. S. beneoth, benythan- be, and nythan, downwards, lower.] Below; under; lower in place. "Some lie beneath the churchyard stone, And some before the speaker."-Praed. -Under; not equal to, as overborne by pre ure, power, weight, or authority. (Used in a figurative sense.) "And oft on rocks their tender wings they tear, And sink beneath the burdens which they bear."-Dryden. -Lower in rank, excellence, dignity, .; unbecoming; unworthy of; as, that man is beneath one's notice. "He will do nothing that is beneath his high station."- Atterbury . Beneath', adv . In a lower place; under. "The earth which you take from beneath will be barren and unfruitful." - Mortimer. -Below; as opposed to heaven or any superior region. "Trembling I view the dread aby beneath, Hell's horrid mansions, and the realms of death." Yalden. Ben'edek, LUDWIG, a distinguished general in the Austrian service, B. in 1804, at Odenburg. Hungary. After undergoing the usual course of training at the Military Academy of Neustadt, he entered the Austrian army as a cornet in 1822, and attained the rank of colonel in 1843. Two years later he exhibited his great military talents during the insurrection in Galicia, which he succeeded in completely quelling in the west, and thereby enabling Gen. Cullin to carry Podgorze by a ault. Ordered, in 1847. at the head of the regiment Gyulai, to join the army in Italy, he took part in the memorable campaign of 1848 under Radetzky, distinguishing himself in the retreat from Milan, at Osone, and especially at the battle of Curt at one, for which he received the order of Maria The res a. In 1849 he contributed to the reduction of Mortar a, and to the victory of Novara. After this he was transferred to Hungary, and was wounded at Raab and Szegeden. Ten years later, in the war of Italian independence, Gen. B. was one of the few Austrian generals who exhibited any very great military capacity, and distinguished himself at Solferino, his division being the last to leave the field. He was Governor of Hungary for a few months in 1860; and, in the critical state of affairs in Italy. was soon after appointed to the chief command of the Austrian army in that country. Summoned by the emperor to command the Austrian army in the war with Pru ia, General B. sustained a defeat at Sadowa July 3, 1866, and was soon after superseded by the Archduke Albert. D. 1881. Benedicite, ( ben -e-dis'i-te.) n. [Lat.] ( Eccl . Hist .) The hymn or song of the Three Children in the Fiery Furnace, from the Latin version, beginning, Benedicite omnia opera Dominum . The singing of the B. has been in universal use as early as the time of Chrysostom. It is sung in both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. Ben'edict, St., the founder of the order of the Benedictine monks, was born at Nursia, in the dukedom of Spoleto, in Italy, in the year 480 A. D. He was sent to Rome when very young, and there received the first part of his education; when 14 years of age, he removed to Subiaco, a desert place about 40 miles distant, where he was concealed in a cavern; his place of retirement, for a considerable time, being known only to his friend St. Roman us, who is said to have descended to him by a rope, and supplied him daily with provisions. The monks of a neighboring monastery subsequently chose bim for their abbot; their manners, however, not agreeing with those of Benedict, he returned to his solitude, whither many persons followed him and put themselves under his direction, and in a short time he was enabled to build no fewer than 12 monasteries. About the year $28 he retired to Monte Ca ino, where idolatry was still prevalent, and where a temple to Apollo yet existed. Having converted the people of the adjacent country to the true faith, he broke the statue of Apollo, overthrew the altar, and built two oratories on the mountain, one dedicated to St. Martin, the other to St. John. Here St. Benedict also founded a monastery, and instituted the order of his name, which in time became so famous and extended all over Europe. It was here, too, that he composed his Regula Monachorum , which does not, however, seem to have been confirmed till fifty-two years after his death, when Pope Gregory the Great gave his sanction to it. Authors are not agreed upon the place where St. Benedict died: some say at Monte Ca ino; others affirm it to have been at Rome, whither he had been sent by Pope Boniface. Stevens, in the Continua tion of Dugdale's Monastic on , places his death about the year 543, others in 547; the day, however, stands in the calendar fixed to March 21. Gregory the Great, in the second Book of his Dialogues, has written a Life of St. Benedict, and given a long detail of his supposed miracles. Ben'edict I., POPE, succeeded John III., 575; D. 578, and was himself succeeded by Pelagius II. BENEDICT II., Succeeded Leo II., 684; D. 685, and was succeeded by John V. BENEDICT III., succeeded Leo IV., 855. During his pontificate, the Saracens were ravaging Apulia and Camp an i a. D. 858, and was succeeded by Nicholas I. BENEDICT IV., succeeded John IX., about 900. He crowned Louis, son of Boson, emperor and king of Italy. D. 903, and was succeeded by Leo V. BENEDICT V., succeeded John XII. in 964, and was appointed by the Romans in opposition to Leo VIII. The Emperor Otho, supporter of Leo, appeared before Rome with an army, reduced the city by famine, and a new a embly of the clergy declared to be null the election of B. , who was exiled. D. 965. BENEDICT VI., succeeded John XIII, 972. After the death of the Emperor Otho I., the Romans imprisoned B. , who was strangled in the castle of St. Angelo, 974. We know nothing of Donus II., mentioned as the next pope, except that he D. after a few months, and was succeeded by BENEDICT VII., of the family of Conti, elected 975. During his pontificate, the Emperor Otho II. came repeatedly to Rome, where he D., 984. B. died about the same time, and was succeeded by John XIV. BENEDICT VIII., of the same family, succeeded Sergius IV., 1012. In 1016, the Saracens from Sardinia having landed on the coast of Tuscany, B. attacked and defeated them. He crowned the Emperor Henry II., and his wife, in the church of St. Peter. D. 1024, and was succeeded by his brother, John XIX. BENEDICT IX., a relative of the two preceding popes, succeeded John XIX., 1034. He was then very young, some say only ten years old. He was distinguished by his licentiousne and profligacy, and by the state of anarchy in which Rome was plunged during his pontificate. He was deposed in 1048, and D. in a convent, 1054, being succeeded by Leo IX. BENEDICT X., was elected by a faction after the death of Stephen IX., 1058; but the council of Siena nominated Nicholas II. B. did not submit till the following year, when Nicholas made his entrance into Rome. D. 1059. BENEDICT XI., a Dominican, succeeded Boniface VIII., 1303. Contemporary historians speak highly of his character and virtues. D. 1304, and was succeeded by Clement V. BENEDICT XII., JACQUES FOURNIER, a native of France, succeeded John XXII., 1334, the popes residing then at Avignon. His strictne in enforcing discipline among the monastic orders excited many enemies against him, who endeavored to cast aspersions upon his character. D. 1342, and was succeeded by Clement VI. BENEDICT XIII., Cardinal Orsini, succeeded Innocent XIII., 1724, but it was with difficulty that he could be made to accept of the pontificate. Benedict lived with the greatest frugality, and has been called more a monk than a pope. His great fault was his implicit confidence in Cardinal Coscia, to whom he left the entire management of his government, and who much abused it. He died February, 1731. His works were published in 1728, in three volumes folio. He was succeeded by Clement XII. BENEDICT XIV., was born at Bologna in 1675, of the noble family of Lambert in i. In 1728 he received a cardinal's hat; and in 1731 was nominated archbishop of Bologna. On the death of Clement XII. (1740), the cardinals were a long time deliberating on the choice of a succe or. Lambert in i, by way of quickening them, said, "Why do you waste your time in discu ions? If you wish for a saint, elect Gotti; a politician, choose Aldrovandus; a good companion, take me." This sally pleased them so much, that they elected him at once. He reformed abuses, introduced good regulations, cultivated letters, encouraged men of learning, and was a patron of the fine arts. His tolerance is well known, and it exposed him to the censure of the rigorists among the College of Cardinals. Without exhibiting anything like indifference to the doctrines of the Church of which he was the head, he showed urbanity and friendline towards all Christians, of whatever denomination, whether kings or ordinary travellers, who visited his capital. His correspondence with Frederick the Great, concerning the ecclesiastical affairs of the province of Silesia, which that sovereign had conquered from Austria, was carried on by him in the most conciliatory and liberal spirit. The Protestants of Germany revered B. With regard to France, he carefully avoided everything that could in the least encourage the fanatical party in that country in reviving the persecution against the Protestants of Langue doc. Seeing France distracted by quarrels between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, the court and the parliament, the priests and the philosophers, and lamenting amidst all this the licentiousne of Louis XV. and his courtiers, and the weakne and incapacity of the ministers, he used to exclaim that "France ought indeed to be the best governed country in the world, for its government seemed to be left entirely to the care of Providence." (Botta, Storia d'Italia , lib. 46.) - B. was learned, not only in theology, but in history and literature, and had also a taste for the fine arts. His works were published at Rome, in 12 vols. 4to. D. 1758, and was succeeded by Clement XIII. Benedict, JULIUS,an eminent musician and composer, в. at Stuttgart, in 1804. Heat an early age showed so much musical talent, that, having commenced his studies under Hummel, at Weimar, he was introduced to the notice of Weber, who, though he had always refused to take pupils, was induced to alter his resolution in B.'s favor. At the age of 19, he was, on Weber's recommendation, engaged to conduct the German operas at Vienna, and was afterwards employed in a similar capacity at the San Carlo and the Fondo, at Naples. In 1827, his first dramatic work, an opera in two acts, called Giacinta ed Ernes to, was produced at the Fondo, but, being e entially of German style and color, it did not please the Neapolitaz public; nor was he more succe ful with a grand opera afterwards performed at the San Carlo. In 1830, he returned to Stuttgart, where his opera I Portoghesi in Goa, which had been coldly received at Naples, found a more congenial audience. After a visit to Paris, and a second residence of several years at Naples, B. came to London, in 1835, chiefly at the instance of his friend Madame Malibran. In 1836, he undertook the direction of th Opera Buffa at the Lyceum. Here, his operetta Un An no ed un Giorno , originally produced at Naples, was well received, and after this, B. turned his attention to the English musical stage. His first English opera, The Gipsy's Warning , was produced in 1838 with remarkable succe . The German version of this opera has been received with much favor at several of the principal theatres of his native country. His subsequent operas, The Brides of Venice, and The Crusaders , had a long run at Drury Lane. He has composed music for the pianoforte, of which instrument he is a great master, and, also, many orchestral and vocal pieces of considerable excellence. As a composer, B.'s reputation will rest on his English operas, which, in addition to their dramatic power and beauty, have the merit of being truly English in style and character. In 1850, he accompanied Jenny Lind as conductor and pianist to the U. States and Havana, and shared in her unexampled succe in a series of 122 concerts. After his return to England, he formed a choral society, "The Vocal A ociation," and conducted the Italian operas at Drury Lane, and Her Majesty's Theatre during the seasons of 1859 and 1860, when he brought out an Italian version of Weber's Oberon, with recitatives and additions chiefly from his master's works, which was very favorably received. In 1862, his opera, The Lily of Killarney , was produced at Covent Garden, and has since been performed at several of the principal theatres in Germany. Of late years, B. has produced two cantatas only, Kichard Cœur de Lion, 1863; and St. Cecilia, 1866. Knighted by Queen Victoria, 1871. D. 1885. Ben'edict, in Maryland , a village of Charles co, on the W. bank of Patuxent River, about 38 m. S.S.W. of Anna polis.