years, i.e. in 1431; with his usual punctuality, Martin V. duly convoked it for this date to the town of Basel, and selected to preside over it the cardinal Julian Cesarini, a man of the greatest worth, both intellectually and morally. Martin himself, however, died before the opening of the synod.

1528 to 1531), while the historical museum (in the old Franciscan | The next council was due to assemble at the expiry of seven church) contains many treasures, and among them the fragments of the famous Dance of Death, wrongly attributed to Holbein. The university (founded by Pius II. in 1460) is the oldest in Switzerland And of late years has been extended by the construction of detached buildings for the study of the natural sciences, e.g. the Vesalianum and the Bernoullianum. The university library is very rich, and contains the original MSS. of the acts of the great oecumenical council. There are a number of modern monuments in the city, the most important being that set up to the memory of the Swiss who fell in the battle of St Jakob (1444), won by the French. Basel is the seat of the chief missionary society in Switzerland, the training school for missionaries being at St Chrischona, 6 m. out of the city.

The town was founded in A.D. 374 by the emperor Valentinian, from whose residence there it takes its name. In the 5th century the bishop of Augusta Rauricorum (now called Kaiser Augst), 73 m. to the east, moved his see thither. Henceforth the history of the city is that of the growing power, spiritual and temporal, of the bishops, whose secular influence was gradually supplanted in the 14th century by the advance of the rival power of the burghers. In 1356 the city was nearly destroyed by a great earthquake. After long swaying between the neighbouring Rhine cities and the Swiss Confederation, it was admitted into the latter in 1501. It later became one of the chief centres of the Reformation movement in Switzerland, so that the bishop retired in 1525 to Porrentruy, where he resided till 1792, finally settling at Soleure in 1828, the bishopric having been wholly reorganized since 1814. As in other Swiss towns the trade gilds got all political power into their hands, especially by the 18th century. They naturally favoured the city at the expense of the rural districts, so that in 1832 the latter proclaimed their independence, and in 1833 were organized into the half canton of Basel Landschaft, the city forming that of Basel Stadt. See Basler Biographien (3 vols., 1900-1905); Basler Chroniken (original chronicles), (5 vols., Leipzig, 1872-1890); H. Boos, Geschichte von Basel, vol. i. (to 1501) alone published (1877); A. Burckhardt, Bilder aus d. Geschichte von Basel (3 vols., 1869-1882); Festschrift . 400ten Jahrestage d. ewig. Bundes zwisch. B. und den Eidgenossen (1901); T. Geering, Handel und Industrie d. Stadt Basel (1885); A. Heusler, Verfassungsgeschichte d. Stadt Basel im Mittelalter (1860), and Rechtsquellen von Basel (2 vols., 1856-1865); L. A. Stocker, Basler Stadtbilder (1890); L. Stouff, Pouvoir temporel des évêques de Bale (2 vols., Paris, 1891); R. Thommen, Gesch. d. Universität B., 1532-1632 (1889); Urkundenbuch d. Landschaft B. (pub. from 1881), and ditto for the city (pub. from 1890); W. Vischer, Gesch. d. Universität B., 1460-1529 (1860); R. Wackernagel, Gesch. d. Stadt Basel (3 vols., 1906 sqq.); K. Weber, Die Revolution im Kanton Basel, 1830-1833 (1907); G. Gautherot, La République rauracienne (1908). (W. A. B. C.)

From Italy, France and Germany the fathers were slow in appearing at Basel. Cesarini devoted all his energies to the war against the Hussites, until the disaster of Taus forced him hastily to evacuate Bohemia. The progress of heresy, the reported troubles in Germany, the war which had lately broken out between the dukes of Austria and Burgundy, and finally, the small number of fathers who had responded to the summons of Martin V., caused that pontiff's successor, Eugenius IV., tou think that the synod of Basel was doomed to certain failure. This opinion, added to the desire which he had of himself presiding over the council, induced him to recall the fathers from Germany, whither his health, impaired of late, probably owing to a cerebral congestion, rendered it all the more difficult for him to go. He commanded the fathers to disperse, and appointed Bologna as their meeting-place in eighteen months' time, his intention being to make the session of the council coincide with some conferences with representatives of the Greek church, which were to be held there with a view to union (18th December 1431). This order led to an outcry among the fathers of Basel and incurred the deep disapproval of the legate Cesarini. The Hussites, it was said, would think that the Church was afraid to face them; the laity would accuse the clergy of shirking reform; in short, this failure of the councils would produce disastrous effects. In vain did the pope explain his reasons and yield certain points; the fathers would listen to nothing, and, relying on the decrees of the council of Constance, which amid the troubles of the schism had proclaimed the superiority, in certain cases, of the council over the pope, they insisted upon their right of remaining assembled, hastily beat up the laggards, held sessions, promulgated decrees, interfered in the government of the papal countship of Venaissin, treated with the Hussites, and, as representatives of the universal Church, presumed to impose laws upon the sovereign pontiff himself. Eugenius IV. resolved to resist this supremacy, though he did not dare openly to repudiate a very widespread doctrine considered by many to be the actual foundation of the authority of the popes before the schism. However, he soon realized the impossibility of treating the fathers of Basel as ordinary rebels, and tried a compromise; but as time went on, the fathers became more and more intractable, and between him and them gradually arose an impassable barrier.

Abandoned by a number of his cardinals, condemned by most of the powers, deprived of his dominions by condottieri who BASEL, CONFESSION OF, one of the many statements of shamelessly invoked the authority of the council, the pope made faith produced by the Reformation. It was put out in 1534 concession after concession, and ended on the 15th of December and must be distinguished from the First and Second Helvetic 1433 by a pitiable surrender of all the points at issue in a bull, Confessions, its author being Oswald Myconius, who based it the terms of which were dictated by the fathers of Basel, that on a shorter confession promulgated by Oecolampadius, his is, by declaring his bull of dissolution null and void, and recognizpredecessor in the church at Basel. Though it was an attempting that the synod had not ceased to be legitimately assembled. to bring into line with the reforming party both those who still It would be wrong, however, to believe that Eugenius IV. inclined to the old faith and the anabaptist section, its publica- ratified all the decrees coming from Basel, or that he made a tion provoked a good deal of controversy, especially on its definite submission to the supremacy of the council. No express statements concerning the Eucharist, and the people of Strass- pronouncement on this subject could be wrung from him, and burg even reproached those of Basel with celebrating a Christless his enforced silence concealed the secret design of safeguarding supper. Up to the year 1826 the Confession (sometimes also the principle of sovereignty. known as the Confession of Mühlhausen from its adoption by that town) was publicly read from the pulpits of Basel on the Wednesday of Passion week in each year. In 1872 a resolution of the great council of the city practically annulled it.

BASEL, COUNCIL OF. A decree of the council of Constance (9th of October 1417) sanctioned by Martin V. had obliged the papacy periodically to summon general councils. At the expiry of the first term fixed by this decree, Martin V. did, in fact, call together at Pavia a council, which it was necessary to transfer almost at once to Siena, owing to an epidemic, and which had to be dissolved owing to circumstances still imperfectly known, just as it was beginning to discuss the subject of reform (1424).

The fathers, who were filled with suspicion, would only allow the legates of the pope to preside over them on condition of their recognizing the superiority of the council; the legates ended by submitting to this humiliating formality, but in their own name only, thus reserving the judgment of the Holy See. Nay more, the difficulties of all kinds against which Eugenius had to contend, the insurrection at Rome, which forced him to escape by the Tiber, lying in the bottom of a boat, left him at first little chance of resisting the enterprises of the council. Emboldened by their success, the fathers approached the subject of reform, their principal object being to curtail the power and resources of the papacy. This is why, besides the disciplinary

measures which regulated the elections, the celebration of divine hardly any adherents outside of his own hereditary states, those service, the periodical holding of diocesan syhods and provincial of Alphonso of Aragon, of the Swiss confederation and certain councils, are found also decrees aimed at some of the rights" universities. Germany remained neutral; Charles VII. of France by which the popes had extended their power, and helped out confined himself to securing to his kingdom by the Pragmatic their finances at the expense of the local churches. Thus annates Sanction of Bourges, which became law on the 13th of July 1438, (q.0.) were abolished, the abuse of “reservation of the patron- the benefit of a great number of the reforms decreed at Basel; age of benefices by the pope was much limited, and the right England and Italy remained faithful to Eugenius IV. Finally, claimed by the pope of " next presentation " to benefices not yet in 1447 Frederick III., king of the Romans, after negotiations vacant (known as gratiae expectativae) was done away with with Eugenius, commanded the burgomaster of Basel not to altogether. By other decrees the jurisdiction of the court of allow the presence of the council any longer in the imperial city. Rome was much limited, and rules were even made for the In June 1448 the rump of the council migrated to Lausanne. election of popes and the constitution of the Sacred College. The antipope, at the instance of France, ended by abdicating The fathers continued to devote themselves to the subjugation (7th April 1449). Eugenius IV. died on the 23rd of February of the Hussites; they also intervened, in rivalry with the pope, 1447, and the fathers of Lausanne, to save appearances, gave in the negotiations between France and England which led only their support to his successor, Nicholas V., who had already to the treaty of Arras, concluded by Charles VII. with the duke been governing the Church for two years. Trustworthy evidence, of Burgundy; finally, they investigated and judged numbers of they said, proved to them that this pontiff accepted the dogma private cases, lawsuits between prelates, members of religious of the superiority of the council as it had been defined at Conorders and holders of benefices, thus themselves falling into one stance and at Basel. In reality, the struggle which they had of the serious abuses for which they had most blamed the court carried on in defence of this principle for seventeen years, with of Rome.

a good faith which it is impossible to ignore, ended in a defeat. The democratic character of the assembly of Basel was the The papacy, which had been so fundamentally shaken by the result both of its composition and of its organization; not only great schism of the West, came through this trial victorious. The was the number of prelates in it always small in comparison era of the great councils of the 15th century was closed; the with that of the doctors, masters, representatives of chapters, constitution of the Church remained monarchical. monks or clerks of inferior orders, but the influence of the

AUTHORITIES.—Mansi, vol. xxix.-xxxi.; Aeneas Sylvius, De superior clergy had all the less weight because, instead of being rebus Basilece gestis (Fermo, 1803); Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. separated into “nations,” as at Constance, the fathers divided vii. (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1874): O. Richter, Die Organisation und themselves according to their 'tastes or aptitudes into four large Geschäftsordnung des Baseler Konsils (Leipzig, 1877); Monumenta committees or " deputations” (deputationes), one concerned (Vienna, 1857-1895): J. Haller," Concilium Basiliense, vol. 1-v. with questions of faith (fidei), another with negotiations for (Basel, 1896-1904): G. Perouse, Le Cardinal Louis Aleman, président peace (pacis), the third with reform (reformatorit), the fourth du concile de Bale (Paris, 1904). Much useful material will also be with what they called "common concerns ” (pro communibus). found in J. C. L. Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 312, &c.,

(N. V.) Every decision made by three of these “ deputations "-and in notes (Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1853). each of them the lower clergy formed the majority-was ratified BASEMENT, the term applied to the lowest storey of any for the sake of form in general congregation, and if necessary building placed wholly or partly below the level of the ground. led to decrees promulgated in session. It was on this account It is incorrectly applied to the ground storey of any building, that the council could sometimes be called, not without exaggera- even when, as for instance in the case of Somerset House, London, tion, "an assembly of copyists” or even " a set of grooms and the ground floor is of plain or rusticated masonry; and the upper scullions.”

storey which it supports is divided up and decorated with Eugenius IV., however much he may have wished to keep on columns or pilasters. good terms with the fathers of Basel, was neither able nor willing BASHAHR, or BISAHIR, a Rajput hill state, within the Punjab, to accept or observe all their decrees. The question of the union amid the Himalayan mountains, with an area of 3820 sq. m. and with the Greek church, especially, gave rise to a misunder-a population in 1901 of 80,582. In 1898, the raja being of weak standing between them which soon led to a rupture. The intellect and without heir, the administration was undertaken by emperor John Palaeologus, pressed hard by the Turks, showed a British official. In 1906 there were some local troubles owing a great desire to unite himself with the Catholics; he consented to the refusal of the people to pay taxes. The revenue is obtained to come with the principal representatives of the Greek church chiefly from land and forests, the latter being leased to the to some place in the west where the union could be concluded in British government, the presence of the pope and of the Latin council. Hence arose BASHAN, a region lying E. of the Jordan, and towards its a double negotiation between him and Eugenius IV. on the one source. Its boundaries are not very well defined, but it may be hand and the fathers of Basel on the other. The chief object of said in general to have been north of the territory of Gilead. the latter was to fix the meeting-place at a place remote from The name first appears in Hebrew history in connexion with the the influence of the pope, and they persisted in suggesting Baselwanderings of the Israelites. According to Numbers xxi. 33, or Avignon or Savoy, which neither Eugenius nor the Greeks the tribes after the rout of Sihon, king of the Amorites, turned would on any account accept. The result was that Palaeologus to go by the land of Bashan; and its king, Og, met them at accepted the offers of the pope, who, by a bull dated the 18th of Edrei, and was there defeated and slain. The value of this September 1437, again pronounced the dissolution of the council narrative is a matter of much dispute. The gigantic stature of of Basel, and summoned the fathers to Ferrara, where on the the king, and the curious details about his “ bedstead ” (Deut. 8th of January 1438 he opened a new synod which he later iü. 11) are regarded as suggestive of legend; to say nothing of transferred to Florence. - In this latter town took place the the lateness of all the documents relating to the wars of Og, and momentary union, which was more apparent than real, between the remoteness of Bashan from the regions of the Israelites' the Latin and the Greek church (6th July 1439). During this wandering. The story, however, had so firm a hold on Hebrew time the council of Basel, though abandoned by Cesarini and tradition that it can hardly fail to have some basis in fact; and most of its members, persisted none the less, under the presidency an invasion by Israel of Bashan before coming to Jordan is by of Cardinal Aleman, in affirming its oecumenical character. On no means an improbability.' the 24th of January 1438 it suspended Eugenius IV., and went The great stature of Og is explained in the passage of Deuteron in spite of the intervention of most of the powers to pronounce onomy mentioned by the statement that he was of the remnant his deposition (25th June 1439), finally giving rise to a new of the aboriginal Rephaim. . This was a race distinguished by schism by electing on the 4th of November Amadeus VIII., lofty stature; and in Genesis xiv. 5 we find them established duke of Savoy, as pope, who took the name of Felix V. in Ashteroth-Karnaim (probably the same as A shtaroth, which,

This schism lasted fully ten years, although the antipope found as we shall see, was an important city of Bashan). The territory

done. The bazaar is small, although a thriving trade is done | little daughter left Russia to spend the winters at Nice or in with the mountain districts. Owing to the great elevation the winter is extremely severe, and the summer of short duration. Wheat, barley, millet and sesame are cultivated on the plain, but fruit and vegetables have mostly to be imported from Persia. Roads lead to Van, Urmia in Persia and Mosul through the Nestorian country. The Kurd and Nestorian tribes in the wilder parts of the Hakkiari Mountains are under slight government control, and are permitted to pay tribute and given selfgovernment in a large degree. (F. R. M.) BASHKIRS, a people inhabiting the Russian governments of Ufa, Orenburg, Perm and Samara, and parts of Vyatka, especially on the slopes and confines of the Ural, and in the neighbouring plains. They speak a Tatar language, but some authorities think that they are ethnically a Finnish tribe transformed by Tatar influence. The name Bashkir or Bash-kûrt appears for the first time in the beginning of the 10th century in the writings of Ibn-Foslan, who, describing his travels among the VolgaBulgarians, mentions the Bashkirs as a warlike and idolatrous The name was not used by the people themselves in the 10th century, but is a mere nickname.

race.

Italy, and the summers at German watering-places. Marie acquired an education superior to that given to most girls of her rank. She could read Plato and Virgil in the original, and write four languages with almost equal facility. A gifted musician, she at first hoped to be a singer, and studied seriously in Italy to that end; her voice, however, was not strong enough to stand hard work and failed her. Meanwhile she was also learning to draw. When she lost her voice she devoted herself to painting, and in 1877 settled in Paris, where she worked steadily in Tony Robert-Fleury's studio. In 1880 she exhibited in the salon a portrait of a woman; in 1881 she exhibited the "Atelier Julian,"; in 1882 "Jean et Jacques"; in 1884 the "Meeting." and a portrait in pastel of a lady-her cousin-now in the Luxembourg gallery, for which she was awarded a mention honorable. Her health, always delicate, could not endure the labour she imposed on herself in addition to the life of fashion in which she became involved as a result of her success as an artist, and she died of consumption on the 31st of October 1884, leaving a small series of works of remarkable promise. From her childhood Marie Bashkirtseff kept an autobiographical journal, but the editors of these brilliant confessions (Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff, 1890), aiming apparently at captivating the reader's interest by the girl's precocious gifts and by the names of the various distinguished persons with whom she came in contact, so treated certain portions as to draw down vehement protest. This, to some extent, has brought into question the stamp of truthfulness which constitutes the chief merit of this extraordinarily interesting book. A further instalment of Marie Bashkirtseff literature was published in the shape of letters between her and Guy de Maupassant, with whom she started a correspondence under a feigned name and without revealing her identity.

Of European writers, the first to mention the Bashkirs are Joannes de Plano Carpini (c. 1200-1260) and William of Rubruquis (1220-1293). These travellers, who fell in with them in the upper parts of the river Ural, call them Pascatir, and assert that they spoke at that time the same language as the Hungarians. Till the arrival of the Mongolians, about the middle of the 13th century, the Bashkirs were a strong and independent people and troublesome to their neighbours, the Bulgarians and Petchenegs. At the time of the downfall of the Kazan kingdom they were in a weak state. In 1556 they voluntarily recognized the supremacy of Russia, and, in consequence, the city of Ufa was founded to defend them from the Kirghiz, and they were subjected to a fur-tax. In 1676 they rebelled under a leader named Seit, and were with difficulty reduced; and again in 1707, under Aldar and Kûsyom, on account of ill-treatment by the Russian officials. Their third and last insurrection was in 1735, at the time of the foundation of Orenburg, and it lasted for six years. In 1786 they were freed from taxes; and in 1798 an irregular army was formed from among them. They are now divided into cantons and give little trouble, though some differences have arisen between them and the government about land questions. By mode of life the Bashkirs are divided into settled and nomadic. The former are engaged in agriculture, cattle-saintly life; his second brother was the famous Gregory of rearing and bee-keeping, and live without want. The nomadic portion is subdivided, according to the districts in which they wander, into those of the mountains and those of the steppes.

Almost their sole occupation is the rearing of cattle; and they attend to that in a very negligent manner, not collecting a sufficient store of winter fodder for all their herds, but allowing part of them to perish. The Bashkirs are usually very poor, and in winter live partly on a kind of gruel called yuryu, and badly prepared cheese named skûrt. They are hospitable but suspicious, apt to plunder and to the last degree lazy. They have large heads, black hair, eyes narrow and flat, small foreheads, ears always sticking out and a swarthy skin. In general, they are strong and muscular, and able to endure all kinds of labour and privation. They profess Mahommedanism, but know littie of its doctrines. Their intellectual development is low.

See J. P. Carpini, Liber Tartarorum, edited under the title Relations des Mongols où Tartares, by d'Avezac (Paris, 1838); Gulielmus de Rubruquis, The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, translated by W. W. Rockhill (London, 1900); Semenoff, Slovar Ross. Imp., s.v.; Frähn," De Baskiris," in Mém. de l'Acad. de St-Pétersbourg (1822); Florinsky, in Westnik Evropi (1874); and Katarinskij, Dictionnaire Bashkir-Russe (1900).

See Mathilde Blind, A Study of Marie Bashkirtseff (T. Fisher Unwin, 1892); The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff: an Exposure and a Defence, by "S." (showing that there is throughout a mistake of four years in the date of the diary); Black and White, 6th Feb. and 11th April 1891, pp. 17, 304: The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff, translated, with an Introduction, by Mathilde Blind (2 vols., London, 1890); The Letters of Marie Bashkirtseff (1 vol.). (B. K.)

BASIL, known as BASIL THE GREAT (c. 330-379), bishop of Caesarea, a leading churchman in the 4th century, came of a famous family, which gave a number of distinguished supporters to the Church. His eldest sister, Macrina, was celebrated for her

Nyssa; his youngest was Peter, bishop of Sebaste; and his eldest brother was the famous Christian jurist Naucratius. and enthusiastic piety, and it is worth noting that Cappadocia There was in the whole family a tendency to ecstatic emotion had already given to the Church men like Firmilian and Gregory Thaumaturgus. Basil was born about 330 at Caesarea in Cappadocia. While he was still a child, the family removed to Pontus; but he soon returned to Cappadocia to live with his mother's relations, and seems to have been brought up by his grandmother Macrina. Eager to learn, he went to Constantinhe had Gregory (q.v.) of Nazianzus for a fellow-student. Both ople and spent four or five years there and at Athens, where men were deeply influenced by Origen, and compiled the wellknown anthology of his writings, known as Philocalia (edited by J. A. Robinson, Cambridge, 1893). It was at Athens that he seriously began to think of religion, and resolved to seek out the most famous hermit saints in Syria and Arabia, in order to learn from them how to attain to that enthusiastic piety in

The name Basil also belongs to several other distinguished churchmen. (1) Basil, bishop of Ancyra from 336 to 360, a semiArian, highly favoured by the emperor Constantine, and a great polemical writer; none of his works are extant. (2) Basil of Seleucia controversy, and who wrote extensively; his works were published in Paris in 1622. (3) Basil of Ancyra, f. 787; he opposed imageworship at the second council of Nicaea, but afterwards retracted. (4) Basil of Achrida, archbishop of Thessalonica about 1155; he was a stanch upholder of the claims of the Eastern Church against the widening supremacy of the papacy.

BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIA CONSTANTINOVA [MARIE] (1860-(f. 448-458), a bishop who shifted sides continually in the Eutychian 1884), Russian artist and writer, was born at Gavrontsi in the government of Pultowa in Russia on the 23rd of November 1860. When Marie was seven years old, as her father (marshal of the nobility at Pultowa) and her mother were unable through incompatibility to live together, Madame Bashkirtseff with her

which he delighted, and how to keep his body under by maceration and other ascetic devices. After this we find him at the head of a convent near Arnesi in Pontus, in which his mother Emilia, now a widow, his sister Macrina and several other ladies, gave themselves to a pious life of prayer and charitable works. He was not ordained presbyter until 365, and his ordination was probably the result of the entreaties of his ecclesiastical superiors, who wished to use his talents against the Arians, who were numerous in that part of the country and were favoured by the Arian emperor, Valens, who then reigned in Constantinople. In 370 Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, died, and Basil was chosen to succeed him. It was then that his great powers were called into action. Caesarea was an important diocese, and its bishop was, ex officio, exarch of the great diocese of Pontus. Hot-blooded and somewhat imperious, Basil was also generous and sympathetic. "His zeal for orthodoxy did not blind him to what was good in an opponent; and for the sake of peace and charity he was content to waive the use of orthodox terminology when it could be surrendered without a sacrifice of truth." He died in 379.

during which the empire was the strongest power in Europe. The great legislative work which Basil undertook and his successor completed, and which may be described as a revival of Justinianean law, entitles him to the designation of a second Justinian (the Basilica, a collection of laws in sixty books; and the manuals known as the Prochiron and Epanagoge. For this legislation see BASILICA and ROMAN EMPIRE, LATER). His financial administration was prudent. His ecclesiastical policy was marked by a wish to keep on good terms with Rome. One of his first acts was to exile the patriarch Photius and restore his rival Ignatius, whose claims were supported by the pope. Yet he had no intention of yielding to Rome's pretensions beyond a certain point. The decision of the Bulgarian tsar Michael to submit the new Bulgarian Church to the jurisdiction of Constantinople was a great blow to Rome, who had hoped to secure it for herself. In 877 Photius became patriarch again, and there was a virtual though not a formal breach with Rome. Thus the independence of the Greek Church may be said to date from the time of Basil. His reign was marked by a troublesome war with the Paulician heretics, an inheritance from his predecessor; the death of their able chief Chrysochir led to the definite subTephrice on the upper Euphrates, and which the Saracens had helped to bid a long defiance to the government of Constantinople. There was the usual frontier warfare with the Saracens in Asia Minor. Cyprus was recovered, but only retained for seven years, Syracuse was lost, but Bari was won back and those parts of Calabria which had been occupied by the Saracens. The last successes opened a new period of Byzantine domination in southern Italy. Above all, New Rome was again mistress of the sea, and especially of the gates of the Adriatic. Basil reigned nineteen years as sole sovereign. His death (29th of August 886) was due to a fever contracted in consequence of a serious accident in hunting. A stag dragged him from his horse by fixing its antlers in his belt. He was saved by an attendant who cut him loose with a knife. His last act was to cause his saviour to be beheaded, suspecting him of the intention to kill and not to Basil is one of the most remarkable examples of a man, without education and exposed to the most demoralizing influences, manifesting extraordinary talents in the government of a great state, when he had climbed to the throne by acts of unscrupulous bloodshed.

The principal theological writings of Basil are his De Spiritu Sancto, a lucid and edifying appeal to Scripture and early Chris-jection of this little state, of which the chief stronghold was tian tradition, and his three books against Eunomius, the chief exponent of Anomoian Arianism. He was a famous preacher, and many of his homilies, including a series of lenten lectures on the Hexaêmeron, and an exposition of the psalter, have been preserved. His ascetic tendencies are exhibited in the Moralia and Regulae, ethical manuals for use in the world and the cloister respectively. His three hundred letters reveal a rich and observant nature, which, despite the troubles of ill-health and ecclesiastical unrest, remained optimistic, tender and even playful. His principal efforts as a reformer were directed towards the improvement of the liturgy, and the reformation of the monastic orders of the East. (See BASILIAN MONKS.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Editions of his works appeared at Basel (1532); Paris, by J. Garnier and P. Maranus (1721-1739), and by L. de Sinner (1839). Migne's Patrol, ser. grace. 29-32; De Spiritu Sancto, ed. C. F. H. Johnston (Oxford, 1892); Liturgia, ed. A. Robertson (London, 1894). See also the patrologies, eg. that of O. Bardenhewer, and the histories of dogma, e.g. those of A. Harnack and F. Loofs.

BASIL I. (d. 886), known as the "MACEDONIAN ", Roman emperor in the East, was born of a family of Armenian (not Slavonic) descent, settled in Macedonia. He spent a part of his boyhood in captivity in Bulgaria, whither his family was carried by the Bulgarian prince Krum in 813. He succeeded in escaping and was ultimately lucky enough to enter the service of Theophilitzes, a relative of the Caesar Bardas (uncle of Michael III.), as groom. It seems that while serving in this capacity he visited Patrac with his master, and gained the favour of Danielis, a very wealthy lady of that place, who received him into her household, and endowed him with a fortune. He earned the notice of Michael III. by winning a victory in a wrestling match, and soon became the emperor's boon companion and was appointed chamberlain (parakoemõmenos). A man of his stamp, advancing unscrupulously on the road of fortune, had no hesitation in divorcing his wife and marrying a mistress of Michael, Eudocia Ingerina, to please his master. It was commonly believed that Leo VI., Basil's successor and reputed son, was really the son of Michael. The next step was to murder the powerful Caesar Bardas, who, as the emperor was devoted to amusement, virtually ruled the empire; this was done with the emperor's consent by Basil's own hand (April 866), and a few weeks later Basil was raised to the imperial dignity. Hitherto few perhaps had divined in the unprincipled adventurer, who shared in the debauches of the imperial drunkard, the talents of a born ruler. On the throne he soon displayed the serious side of his nature and his exceptional capacities for administration. In September 867 he caused his worthless benefactor to be assassinated, and reigned alone. He inaugurated a new age in the history of the empire, associated with the dynasty which he founded," the Macedunian dynasty" it is usually called; it would be more instructive to call it "Armenian." It was a period of territorial expansion,

rescue.

SOURCES.-Vita Basilii, by his grandson Constantine VII. (bk v. of the Continuation of Theophanes, ed. Bonn); Genesius (ed Bonn); Vita Euthymii, ed. De Boor (Berlin, 1888). Of the Arabic sources Tabari is the most important.

MODERN WORKS.-Finlay, History of Greece, vol. ii. (Oxford, 1877); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vols. v. and vi. (ed. Bury, London," 1898); Hergenröther. Photius, Patriarch von Constantinopel, vol. ii. (Regensburg, 1867). (J. B. B.)

BASIL II. (c. 958-1025), known as BULGAROKTONOS (slayer of Bulgarians), Roman emperor in the East, son of Romanus II. and Theophano, great-great-grandson of Basil I., was born about 958 and crowned on the 22nd of April 960. After their father's death (963) he and his younger brother Constantine were nominal emperors during the actual reigns of Nicephorus Phocas, their stepfather, and John Tzimisces. On the death of the latter (10th of January 976) they assumed the sovereignty without a colleague, but throughout their joint reign Constantine exercised no power and devoted himself chiefly to pleasure. This was in accordance with the Byzantine principle that in the case of two or more co-regnant busileis only one governed. Basil was a brave soldier and a superb horseman; he was to approve himself a strong ruler and an able general. He did not at first display the full extent of his energy. The administration remained in the hands of the eunuch Basileios (an illegitimate son of Romanus I.), president of the senate, a wily and gifted man, who hoped that the young emperors would be his puppets. Basil waited and watched without interfering, and devoted himself to learning the details of administrative business and instructing himself in military science. During this time the throne was seriously endangered by the rebellion of an ambitious general who aspired to play the part of Nicephorus Phocas or Tzimisces. This was Bardas