the other hand Rudolph's successor, Ferdinand, in his own hereditary dominions of Styria (the crown of Bohemia was elective), had distinguished himself by a zealous persecution of the Protestants. Suspicion united the old Bohemians and the later foreign bodies against him, and a civil war followed, stained by the usual atrocities on both sides. It proved the commencement of the Thirty Years' War. The insurgents elected Frederick Count Palatine to be their king, but he was a rigid Calvinist, and commenced his reign with the destruction of altars, crucifixes, and monumental tombs in Prague, whereby he alienated the old Bohemian party, which had never (at least as a body) abandoned either Catholic ritual or Catholic doctrine. Moreover, he was not fitted by firmness of character to be the leader in any great movement, and his first defeat on the White Mountains near Prague, in November 1620, destroying his hopes, he fled from the kingdom; taking with him the crown jewels, but leaving his unfortunate Bohemian followers a prey to the vengeance of the merciless Ferdinand.

This was the last effort of the Bohemians to maintain their religious liberties by force of arms. Henceforth they submitted to the power of the house of Austria, to which they have ever since been attached. The Jesuits whom Frederick had banished were restored; Roman Catholicism was made the established religion of the country, and every effort was made to bring back the natives to the communion of Rome. To the legitimate means of conversion used by the Jesuits were added others of a more questionable character. The government put forth all its strength to crush those who were regarded as political opponents. Persecutions, the quartering of soldiers upon the disaffected, and the uprooting of families, did their work. Moreover, Protestantism pure and simple had never found great favour in the eyes of the people, and with the political decay of the national party, the peculiar religious fire of the nation was quenched. An immense majority of the people is now Roman Catholic. There are a few Lutherans and Calvinists among them, chiefly of German extraction; a remnant also of the Hussites still lingers on under the name of Bohemian Brethren [HUSSITES], but the national, Catholic, and antipapal party has long been extinct. [Palacky, Hist. Bohemia.]

BOLINGBROKE. A sceptical nobleman of the last century [A.D. 1672-1751] who promoted among the higher classes that flippant infidelity for which they were so conspicuous during the reigns of Queen Anne and the first two Hanoverian Kings, and which he himself had learned in Paris. Bolingbroke may be said to have originated in England that supercilious and superficial style of infidelity which looks upon religion as an useful institution for women, children, and the lower classes, and which is worth the support of a government as a means of preserving order and the rights of property. [SCEPTICS. DICT. of THEOL., art. DEISM.]

BONI HOMINES. [PERFECTI.]

A

BONI PUERI. [BEGHARDS.] BONI VALETI. [BEGHARDS.] BONOSIANS [BONOSIANI or BONOSIACI]. sect formed in Macedonia at the end of the fourth century by Bonosus, Bishop of Sardica. Bonosus held that Jesus Christ is the Son of God by adoption only [Pseud.-Hier. xlii.; Isid. Hisp. liii.]. This identifies his doctrine with that of Photinus; an identification made by the second Council of Arles, can. xvi. and xvii. Gennadius also states, that Audentius, a Spanish bishop, wrote against the Photinians, "who are now called Bonosiaci" [de Vir. Ill. cap. 14; quoted by Lardner, Cred. cap. lxxxix. q. v.]. How soon Bonosus and his followers reached this stage of complete Photinianism is not known. There appears to have been an intermediate stage, during which the party was gradually drifting into the open denial of the pre-existence of Christ. For in no other way can we reconcile the high authorities of the Council of Arles and Gregory the Great, which are seemingly in direct contradiction. The council [II. Arel. can. xvii.] says it is manifest that the Bonosians baptize in the name of the Trinity, and orders, therefore, converts from them to be received with chrism and imposition of hands. Gregory says as unhesitatingly that they do not baptize in that name [Decret. Collect. pars. iii. dist. iv. can. Hi vero hæretici]. It is easy to conclude (and it agrees with the natural course of heresy) that the council refers to the early practice of the sect, and Gregory to the later practice. In the year 389 or 390, Bonosus was condemned by Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, and Anysius, Bishop of Thessalonica, and others, as delegates of the Synod of Capua, for teaching that the Blessed Virgin, after our Lord's birth, bore children to Joseph. The two bishops wrote to Ambrose inquiring his opinion. Ambrose replied that the case was referred to them by the synod, and that it was not his place to give a judicial opinion,"Vicem enim Synodi recepistis," "Vos enim totius Synodi vice decernitis, nos quasi ex Synodi auctoritate judicare non convenit." But privately he approves their sentence. He names no other charge against Bonosus than that relating to the Blessed Virgin [Ambrose. Epist. i. v. ed. 1616]. It seems then that after his condemnation on this point Bonosus fell by degrees into Photinianism. [ANTIDICOMARIANITES.] The sentence. was of suspension from his episcopal functions, but Bonosus continued to ordain those who applied to him.

The Decretal Epistles of Innocent I. make mention of Bonosus more than once. The larger number of the epistles are no doubt forgeries; it is doubtful whether any are genuine. Still they were early forgeries, for Dionysius Exiguus accepted them, and they may be taken as evidence of facts where the object of the forger did not call for misrepresentation. In the present case his object would be not to misrepresent the facts, but to ascribe the conduct held towards Bonosus to the principle of obedience to the Seo of Rome. The letter to Laurentius, Bishop of

Senia in Dalmatia, directs that the Defensors of the Church drive away the Bonosians, who deny Christ to have been born of the Substance of the Father before the world. That to Martianus, bishop of Naissus in Dacia, directs that they who were ordained by Bonosus before his condemnation be continued in the clergy. That to the bishops and deacons of Macedonia warns that the reception of some ordained by Bonosus which has been already allowed is not to be made a precedent, and states that many who despaired of obtaining orders in the Church procured ordination from Bonosus with the view of returning to the Church, and the hope of being received as of the clergy. [Johnson, Vade Mecum, ii. 301.] How long the sect existed is not known.

BONS HOMMES. [PERFECTI.]
BORBELITES. [BARBELIOTES.
BORBORIANS. BARBELIOTES.]

BORRELISTS. A sect of the Mennonites or Dutch Baptists which originated with Adam Borrel, a man of good station and learning, in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Their distinction from the Mennonite body at large was that they professed an austere life and rejected all external ordinances of Divine worship, being thus analogous to the English Quakers. [Stoupp, Traité de la Religion des Hollandais.]

BOUGRES. [BULGARIANS.]

BOURIGNONISTS. A sect of French Quietists of the seventeenth century, followers of Antoinette Bourignon de la Porte, a lady of Flanders, who was born at Lisle in the year 1616, and died at Franeker in Friesland in the year 1680. Madame Bourignon imagined that she had received a direct inspiration from God to restore the Christian religion, which she alleged to have been lost in the midst of the controversies which it had raised. Setting her face against all churches and sects, she devoted herself to the task of forming a new community of which she should be the living instructress; her qualification for that office being based on a claim that the true spiritual meaning of Holy Scripture had been specially revealed to her. Full of enthusiasm, she also possessed great conversational powers, and these qualities gained her many converts even among persons of high education. She was also a most industrious author, her collected writings filling nineteen volumes; but these, and probably her conversation also, were largely borrowed from the mystical theology of an earlier date. The leading point of her system was that common to the Pietistic mystics, that religion consists in emotion and conscious feeling, not in knowledge and practice.

The most distinguished of the Bourignonists were a Jansenist priest of the Oratory of Mechlin, named Bartholomew de Cordt, and Peter Poiret, a Calvinistic minister of considerable learning. The latter was an energetic coadjutor of Madame Bourignon, and after her death became the leader of her sect, his exposition of its principles being printed in 1713, in six volumes, entitled The Divine Economy, or an universal system of the works and purposes of God, written originally in French.

The Bourignonists spread from Holland to Germany, France, Switzerland and England, and at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century held a position not unlike to that of the Swedenborgians in later times. Some still kept up their connection with the churches or sects to which they had previously belonged; others separated themselves from all Christian societies and followed a life of private contemplation, studying the works of the Quietists and Pietists in general, but looking to those of their founder as the great source of spiritual knowledge.

BOURNEANS.

This name has been given to the disciples of a Birmingham preacher named Bourne, who maintained the most extreme form of the doctrine of annihilation, which places the final punishment of impenitent sinners not in suffering but in the total extinction of their existence.

BRACHITÆ. A sect of the Manichæans, which Prateolus assigns to the end of the third century, but of which nothing is known. [Prateol. Hæres. xxxiii.]

BRAHMINS. The religion of Brahminism is professed by about 150,000,000 people in the peninsula of India. It derives its name from the title of the chief caste of its votaries, from which alone the priests are taken; but it is also known as Hindooism, or the Hindoo religion. Brahminism is the oldest of the religions that have sprung from the Aryan family of mankind. The religion of Zoroaster, or Magianism, is an offshoot from it. Buddhism was a schism and an antagonism. It is derived from and professes to be based on sacred writings in the Sanscrit language, the oldest of which are of extreme antiquity. In its present form it differs widely from the primitive religion, owing to successive corruptions, arising partly from the development of religious thought, partly, as it appears, from unknown foreign accretions, partly from impositions devised for the purpose of maintaining and extending the power of the Brahmins or priestly caste.

I. The primitive form of the Hindoo religion is known to us only from the sacred books, or Vedas, written in the Sanscrit language. These are four in number-the Rig-Veda, the YagurVeda, the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. Collectively, they are known as the Veda, from the same root as olda, meaning originally knowledge. Of these the Rig-Veda, or Veda of Praise, is by far the most ancient and important, and alone deserves the name of Veda, being the basis of the other three, which are liturgical books for the use of the different orders of priests and ministers who take part in the sacrifices. Each Veda consists of two portions, the Sanhita or Mantras, which are hymns to the gods, and the Brahmanas and Sutras, commentaries in prose. There is a further class of works called Aranakas and Upanishads, which may be regarded as an appendix to the Brahmanas. These commentaries are all of much later date than the hymns, the Brahmanas with their appendix preceding the Sutras, as is evident from their style and contents. The Rig-Veda Sanhita-which is alone the true

record of the primitive faith-consists of ten books, containing 1028 (or excluding 11 generally held to be spurious 1017) hymns by many different authors, addressed to various deities. The latest of these hymns date from at least B.C. 1200; the earliest are placed by some authorities as high as B.C. 2000, by others at about B.C. 1500. Though all our MSS. are modern, yet the evidence, internal and external, for an extremely early date is incontrovertible. [For a brief summary see Max-Müller's Chips from a German Workshop, i. 10-17; also the same writer's History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature.] The Veda is held to be absolutely the work of the Deity, no mortal having composed a single line of it, and to have been revealed to mankind through the agency of "Rishis "-persons raised above the level of ordinary humanity, who were therefore preserved from error in the reception and tradition of truth. The Rishis, who were in fact the authors, are said by the Brahmins to have "seen" the respective portions they transmitted. There is nothing, however, in the Veda itself to countenance this theory, which is found in some other religions [MAHOMETANISM], and may be regarded simply as an expression of dependence on the Divine Being.

The religion of the Rig-Veda is apparently a gross polytheism-derived from the deification so natural to the childhood of the human race of the powers and aspects of nature. Some of the deities mentioned are plainly of this character. Agni, the fire; Surya, the sun; the Maruts, storms. Others appear as proper names, having so far lost the natural aspect which was once theirs.

Varuna [Oupavos], the heavens; Mitra, the sun-light; Indra, the firmament. The most prominent deities are Indra and Agni, to whom nearly half the hymns are addressed. There is no recognition of the Hindoo Triad of later times-Brahma, Vishnu, Siva,-and no mention at all is made of other deities which are now most popular. But this polytheism is of a very peculiar character. There is an entire absence of any consciousness of that limitation of the powers of the respective gods which seems the necessary consequence of a plurality of deities. By the worshipper for the time being each god is looked on as absolute and supreme; while the others, for the moment, pass out of sight. To almost all in different hymns are these attributes assigned; no one god being ever regarded as superior or inferior to any other. In a few passages the different gods are regarded as but different names and powers of one supreme deity. While the hymns contain much that is literally childishthe product of the infancy of religion,-mean, tedious, commonplace, there is little that is positively bad. Degrading passions and acts are ascribed to the gods; the conception of them is in many respects low and unworthy. A low level is also assigned on the whole to human nature; the wants expressed are mostly of an earthly, material nature. But there is also much that is true and sublime. The gods are generally spoken of as immortal, and of expressions that seem to imply the contrary, as in speaking of the birth of

certain gods, it may be seen that a physical phenomenon is the foundation, the rising of the sun, the beginning of the day or year. The gods, as a rule, dwell in heaven, but some of them at times are present with men, draw near to the sacrifices, and listen to the praises of their worshippers. It is often said that the heavens and earth were created by certain gods, but occasionally ignorance is confessed of the beginning of the universe. A consciousness, somewhat vague indeed, of sin and moral evil is expressed, and there are frequent prayers for forgiveness. The gods are represented as rewarding good and punishing evil, and yet as forgiving, as just yet merciful. But their anger is chiefly represented as excited by some failure of service or offering to themselves, rather than by moral evil. There is no sign of a belief in metempsychosis, but in its place a belief in actual personal immortality, with, seemingly, rewards and punishments for the good and evil. There is no mention of either idols or temples; but there is in the later hymns a manifest tendency to the worship of symbols, even of the objects of sacrifice, as the horse, the symbol of and offering to the sun, the soma plant, of the moon, and the post to which the sacrificial victim was tied. There is no trace of the existence of caste, nor of suttee or widow-burning, which was a later introduction supported by corrupting a text of the Rig-Veda. The worship was offered only in each man's house, in a chamber set apart for the purpose. It was of a very simple character, consisting of prayers, chiefly for material benefits, riches, prosperity, good crops, success over enemies and in the chase, and great spoils, and the like; of praises, and of offerings. In the earlier hymns these consist only of clarified butter poured on the fire, of cakes, parched grain, and other simple viands, and of the intoxicating juice of the soma plant. In the later period we read of animal sacrifices, especially of the horse. [See for further details, Max-Müller, History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature, and Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. ; Mrs. Manning, Ancient and Medieval India ; Elphinstone, Hist. of India, 5th ed., edited by E. B. Cowell, bk. i. chap. iv. and app. i. and vii.; J. T. Wheeler, Hist. of India, vol. i. pt. i.; H. H. Wilson. Essays and Lectures; Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays.]

II. The transitional form of Brahminism from this simple elemental religion to the later system is especially seen in the works called Brahmanas and Upanishads. The former are a development on the ceremonial side. They contain legends and allegories which have their germ in the Veda, derived in many cases from divine epithets personified, sometimes from absolute misunderstanding of expressions. On these legends is based a most complex and artificial ceremonial. The Upanishads, on the other hand, contain a development from the philosophical and theosophical side, explaining the nature of the Supreme Being, his relation to the human soul, the process of creation, &c. The Upanishads are the basis of the enlightened and philosophical faith, and of

the different systems of Hindoo philosophy, and are the only portions of the sacred literature that are much read and studied at the present day. This transition period is often called the epic period, its chief illustration being derived from the great Sanscrit epics,-the Maha Bharata and the Ramayana. The ritual and ceremonial is systematized in the so-called Institutes of Manu, still the great text-book of Brahminism, and held to be of supreme authority, though not a revelation in the same sense as the Veda. This work contains materials of various dates, but was compiled at latest three or four centuries B.C. While professing to be based on the Veda, it contains elements entirely alien to that religion, which have been plausibly supposed to come from a foreign source [see Wheeler, History of India, vol. ii.].

The religion taught in the Institutes of Manu is mainly the worship of Brahmà, an emanation from and the creative energy of Brahma, the supreme spirit of the universe. Other inferior deities are mentioned, mostly identical with those of the Veda. The germs of the doctrine of the Triad are found, and their development may be seen in the epic poems. But the main point is the ritual and ceremonial, which are of the most complicated, precise, and burdensome character, embracing almost every act and moment of life. The caste system is found in all its rigour. The danger of offending the gods by imperfect service is set forth very vividly, and hence the necessity of constantly consulting the Brahmins, who were alone held to be acquainted with the details. The doctrine of metempsychosis is also set forth in its most developed form.

III. Modern Brahminism. Against this system of priestly domination Buddhism was an uprising, and for a time it obtained the supremacy. But a reaction came in favour of Brahminism, which succeeded in expelling Buddhism from India altogether, and entered upon a fresh development, especially in regard to the objects of worship. This forms the third and last period of Brahminism. The sources of this development are the works called Puranas and, in a less degree, the Tantras. The Puranas are eighteen in number, of various dates, from the eighth to the sixteenth century A.D., but incorporating older materials. They all begin with a cosmogony, and contain also theogonies, philosophical speculations, instructions in ritual, fragments of history, and countless legends. Their religion may be described as sectarian in character, supporting the doctrines of various sects, and so they do not form a consistent whole, though they are all accepted as incontrovertible authority. Hence arise various inconsistencies, anomalies, and contradictions.

The existence of a supreme being is indeed still set forth, from whom all other beings-the deities, men, the world-derive their existence; from whose substance they are, and whom, in fact, they in some sense constitute. But this monotheism or pantheism is practically obscured by the direction of devotion to a multitude of deities, said to be 330,000,000 in number. This number, however, includes spirits and demons of

various kinds. The gods universally acknowledged are seventeen in number, the great Triad (Trimurti) Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, the creating, preserving, and destroying principles, with the corresponding female divinities, being the most important. The other deities are mostly powers of nature, including many of those mentioned in the Veda,-Indra, Varuna, Agni, &c. Besides these, veneration is paid to the planets, to many sacred rivers, to a host of local gods. Of the three great gods, Brahma, though once supreme, is but little worshipped now, having only one temple in all India. Vishnu and Siva have attracted almost all the veneration. Vishnu is mainly worshipped under the form of avatars, or incarnations-manifestations on earth in various forms, animal and human-ten in number, of which one is yet to come. The most reverenced of these are Krishna and Rama. Siva, the principle of destruction, is also looked on as the principle of renewal, and hence is worshipped under the form of the lingam, identical with the ancient phallus [see Herod. ii. 48, 49]. In his honour frequent and bloody sacrifices are offered, and his votaries inflict horrible and protracted tortures on themselves. His consort Devi is also much worshipped, especially with great sacrifices. It is said that 100 goats per month, besides other animals, are offered at her temple near Calcutta. Most of the other deities have no separate temples, but have their especial images, votaries, and festivals. Each god is regarded as having a separate heaven, to which its most assiduous worshippers are borne after death, where they are attended by good spirits; and also a separate hell for the wicked. Besides the deities whose worship is spread more or less over the country, each village has its own local gods, which are sometimes the spirits of men who have in any way distinguished themselves while living, sometimes incarnations or avatars of the more famous gods. There is a universal belief in the existence of good and evil spirits pervading the universe, with power to bless or to harm. The legends respecting the gods are of the most extravagant character. The three gods of the Triad are supposed to be equal in power, and yet quarrel and fight, and wound each other. There is no regular system of subordination of the gods, either to these three or to one another. The images have in most cases a monstrous character, with many heads, arms, or bodies. In the legends extraordinary power is ascribed to asceticism; even the deities are sometimes represented as subdued by it, and this although the ascetic may be a wicked man. The popular religion extols the efficacy of faith, i.e. reliance and entire dependence on and submission to some one deity. While morality and purity of life are inculcated, it is taught that neither they nor any religious forms avail without this faith, which also compensates for all deficiencies in them.

The religious sects which devote themselves exclusively to the cultus of one deity are exceedingly numerous. They may be divided into three chief classes-Vaishnavas, worshippers of Vishnu;

Saivas, of Siva; Saktas, of one of the female associates of the gods of the Triad. Each of these classes contains numerous subordinate sects. There are also small sects worshipping some one of the inferior gods. The members of the different sects are distinguished by painted marks on their foreheads. Many of them have monastic orders attached to them, both for males and females, in which distinctions of caste are comparatively disregarded. The sects also have appointed heads, who have very great influence and power; and there are mystic ceremonies of admission, differing in each case.

Such is the form which Brahminism assumes at this day among the masses. But such vulgar polytheism could not commend itself to the keen intellect and philosophizing spirit of the educated Hindoos.

With them religion is based upon philosophy, a monotheism derived from pantheism. The learned Brahmins earnestly disclaim polytheism-such as that, for instance, of the ancient Greeks or Romans. They teach that there is but one God, manifesting himself primarily in his several functions as creator, preserver, and destroyer, under the several forms of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; they profess also that they look on images simply as aids to the mind in meditation on and prayer to the one supreme deity. The system of religious philosophy that is regarded as most orthodox teaches that the only truly existing being is the deity; all other forms are, as to their material properties, mere illusions as to their spiritual attributes; transient sparks, scintillations, emanations of his glory. The deity, existing in unapproachable, solitary supremacy, longed for offspring; from this desire has sprung every existing thing, by a series of emanations-first Brahmà the creator, and from him gods, men, demons, beasts, the earth. All these comprising the whole universe, in so far as they have true existence, are consubstantial with the deity, who is the basis underlying all the forms which they assume. In fact, the deity is the world undeveloped; the world is the deity in his development. The supreme deity, also The supreme deity, also called Brahma, is yet a pure abstraction, selfcentred, and absorbed in self-contemplation, the end and cause of all things. Beings and matter owe their existence simply to the impulse of his will. The various forms that matter assumes are all pure illusions, possessing but a semblance of reality. This semblance of reality is due to Máyá, which, originally a personification of the longing for offspring felt by the deity, became a synonym for delusion and unreality. The world and all that is in it passes through three stages, growth, perfection, and decay: this latter was deified as Siva, who is opposed to Brahmà, the creative power of the supreme Brahma; while Vishnu is the power that, by preserving all things, limits the dominion of Siva. A remarkable feature of Brahminism is that of "cycles of existence," a feature which is almost peculiar to it. It is held that at the end of a cycle of prodigious length, the universe ceases to exist, the Triad and all the inferior gods pass out of being, and the

ness.

First Cause alone exists in his primeval singleBut, after a long course of ages, he again puts forth his power, through which the whole creation, divine and human, comes into existence again. This process is being continually repeated. The soul of man is regarded as part of the divine spirit, taken out of his substance and of his nature, but, whereas he is unlimited, the soul is limited. This limitation was one result of the wish of the supreme for offspring. Souls were originally possessed of freedom and happiness; but through envy and ambition they fell, and thereby separated themselves still further from the divine essence. Then this world came into being as a place of trial, and souls were attached to bodies. Souls may animate all species of organic life, from the highest to the lowest, and rise by a succession of births through different bodies up to the human. Then their trial begins, which is to determine their future existence. Almost all acts are regarded as either merits or demerits, and the individual soul is rewarded or punished according to the balance of them. The rewards consist either of a superior lot in future existences, or of a removal to one of the heavens of bliss belonging to one or other of the deities, where the soul remains till it has been sufficiently rewarded. The punishments consist either of misery or degradation in future existences, or of suffering in one of the hells of the deities, till the balance of evil is expiated. In each case, after ages of enjoyment or misery, the stages of existence begin anew. Even the worst of men, after a purification by intense sufferings, may rise through the scale of being again and attain to bliss. The supreme point of bliss is to escape from the evil of a limited and separate existence by being absorbed or incorporated into the essence of the deity, or supreme soul from which the soul sprung, and of which it is a part. This is to be obtained either by works, by faith, or by knowledge. Works consist of devotion to the deities, sacrifices and offerings, prayers and praises, and a careful performance of the prescribed ceremonial of life and action. Knowledge is attained through one of the various systems of philosophy. The ceremonial is that prescribed in the laws of Manu, being most precise and exact. Five "sacraments" are prescribed for the daily use of the "twice-born man"-the superior castes: [1] The reading of the Vedas; [2] the offering of cakes to departed ancestors; [3] the pouring of clarified butter on the fire as a sacrifice to the fire, or to the powers of nature generally; [4] the offering of rice to the spirits; [5] the exercise of hospitality. All these, especially the first, are surrounded by many complicated ceremonies. There are also other observances, such as the three suppressions of the breath in honour of Brahma, the use of the mystic word "aum," and of the Gayatri, a text of the Veda used as a prayer. Besides these distinctly religious acts, the law prescribes how to eat, drink, clothe one's self, bathe, cut hair and nails, and even how to relieve nature, and assigns special rights and duties to each caste, and each subdivision of a