Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/286

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251


ULLE


8erv« special mention because of the full approval of Lilius's calendar bv the famous astronomer Cornelius Gemma, while Zeelstius (1581) sided with the Univer- sity of Vienna. The answers from Padua were pe- culiar. Biaciffni, in a letter to Sirleto (1580), accepted the idea of tiio Spanish Franciscan Salon and pro- posed that durine general jubilees a number of mathe- maticians be calTed to Rome by the pope to decide upon the date of the eauinox. Apparently the first to aavocate an immovable Easter Sunday was Spcronc Speroni, who calls himself a layman in mathematics. According to him Easter shoukl be fixed on the Sun- day nearest to the 25 March; or, as the Spaniard Franciscus Flussas Candalla proposed, on the Sunday nearest the er^uinox.

Thus, every imaginable proposition was made; only one idea was never mentione<l, viz. the al>andonment of the seven-day week. The answers delayed the publication of the papal Bull from 1581 to 1582, and some arrived even later. The consent of the Catholic princes on the one side and the variety of scientific opinions on the other left to the papal commission no alternative, but forced it to follow its own judgment. The final framing of the reform seems to have been in great part the work of Clavius; for ho alone after- wards took up its defence and furnished full explana- tions (" Apologia", 1588; "Explicatio", lCO:i; see Clavius). Sirleto writes of him that he was among the foremost workers in the reform (cum jn-itnis egrc- gie laboravil), and Clement VIII savs, in his Bull "Quacunque" (17 March, 1603), that Clavius did signal services for the calendar. The papal com- mission decided, 17 ^larch, 1580, that out of reverence for ecclesiastical tradition, the equinox should be re- stored to the decree of the Council of Niciea. The majority, under the leadership of the Bishop of Mon- dovl, declared itself against astronomical lunations and for the cycle of Epacts. Lilius's ccntur\' rule for the omission of leap days was adopted, hut his lunar cvcle was modified. The Prutenic Tables were made tne basis, and the epacta were all diminished by unity, in other words, Luna XIV was put one day later, to remove all danger of Easter ever Ix'ing ccle- Ixated on the day of the astronomical full moon, as was forbidden by the old canons. It is known that the month of October, 1582, was to have twenty-one d;iys (not twenty, as Montucla says) and the ten days should be expunged by passing from 4 October to 15 October. The reform, as recornmeniliMl by the com- mission on 14 Septemlxir, 1580, rcc(^ive<l papal siinc- tion by the Bull *' Inter Gmvisssinias", datorl 24 IVI> ruaty, 1581. and published on 1 March, 15S2. The decrees of the Council of Nicaja wtTe in this manner mi on a cvclical basis that secured their correctness or nearly four thousand years, a space of time more than long enough for any human institution. The original task of the papal commission seems to have exceeded its strength and time. The dates of Eai^tcr were actually computed for the next three thousand years; the Liber Xov» Rationis Kestituendi Cal- endarii", which was to accompany the reform, was never written, and the Martyrolog>' did not appt^ar unta 1586 under Sixtus V. In Um, Clavius was the only surviving member of the impal commis.sion. It was by command of Clement VIII that he composed his "Explanation of the new Calendar".

For the technical part of the CIregorian reform see Calendar,^ Reform of the; Chronology.

Clavius, Novi Calendarii Romani Apologia (Uoino, 1.S8S); Idem. Romani CaUiuIarii a Oreoorio XI/I P. M. rrntUuti Kxpli- eatio (Rome, 1603); Libri, HiMoire <Un .SViWirr.x Math/mutiquea tn ludie, Iv (HaOc, 1865): Kaltrnrrinner. Die Vorae- Khichie diT OrwgorianUchen KaUndrrrrfnrm in Siizungfberirhte der Akademie pAilM. kiMor, Klanse, LXXXII (Vicnnii. 1876). 280; KALTBiiBBUmoEil, Die Polnrn'k uft*-r die GrrgorianiHche KaUnderrtfbrm, ibidem, LXXXVII (1»<77). 48'); Kaltem- BB intW E R. BmtiQ9 *^f Oetchiehte drr (irraoriani/vhe Kahn- dtmjtorm, ibidem, XCVII (lASO) T.7: RriTMin. Zur Gfuchirhu der Urfgorianieehtn Kaltndfm form in (i rrf-'umtU-'choU, Jlis-


I


iorieche* Jahrfnich 188$ and 1884: Marzi, La queelume deOa Ri/orma del Calendario nel Quinto Concilio Lateranenee 16 IM^ 16 i7 (Florence. 1896j; DtpREZ, Ecole Franeaiae de Rome: Milangea d" Archiologie et d'Hiatoire XIX (1S99) 131.

J. G. Hagen.

Lille, the ancient capital of Flanders, now the chief town of the D^'partement du Nord in France. A very important religious centre ever since the eleventh century, Lille Ix^came in the nineteenth a great centre of industrv- \N'ith a population of 12,818 in 1789, of 24.;5(X) in 1821, of 140,(X)0 in 18C0, and of 21 1, OCX) in 1905, it is to-day the fourth city of France in population. (For the early history of Christianity at Lille, see Cambkai, Auchdiockse of.) The le- gend according to which the giant Finard was killed m the seventh century, by Lideric, whose mother, Enncngarde, he held prisoner, and according to which Lideric founded the dynasty of the counts of Flanders, was invented in the thirteenth ccnturj'. The first Count of Flanders, as a matter of fact, was Baldwin of the Iron Arm. in the ninth century (see Flanders), and nothing certain is known of Lille Ix^forc the middle of the eleventh centur\'. The citv seems to have been founded alx)ut that time by Count Baldwin V, and in lOoi it was already so well fortified that Henry III, Emperor of Germany, did not dare to lx?siegc it. In 1055 Baldwin V laid the foundation stone of the colle- giate church of St. Peter, which was detlicated in 1CK>6.

One of the oldest chronicles of Flanders says that the foundation of this collegiate church was the be- ginning of the prosperity of the town. St. Peter's was served by forty canons and had verj- prosperous schools as early as the end of the eleventh centur>\ About the same time Raiml>erts a Nominalist, who tiiught philoso])hy in St. Peter's school, was in conflict with Odo, a Realist, aftenvards Bishop of Cambrai, but at that time profeKsor at the convent of Notre- Dame de Touniai. llaimlx»rt's Nominalism, how- ever, was never carried to the extremes which caused Roscelin's condemnation in 1092. Another teacher in St. Peter's school was the celebrate')» the author of the " Alex- andreis", a I/atin epic on Alexander the (.ireat. which was used as a substitute for Virgil's work in some of the meilieval schools. Connected with the same school al>out the same time were Alain de Lille, sur- named the Cniversal Dm-tor (see Alaix de l'Ihlk); Adam de la Bas«6e, a canon of the collegiate church, who composed l>eautiful liturgical chants; Lietlxirt, Abbot of Saint-Ruf, author of a great eommentary on the Psalms, "Flores Psalmorum". St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Bernard of Clairvaux visit*^ the collegiate church of Lille, and in it Philip the ( Jood, Duke of I^urpundy, held, in 1431, the first chanter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by liim in 1430 for the defence of Christendom against the Turks. In a neighbouring palace was held the fa- mous " Feast of the Pheasant " (1453). in the nii<l.st of which Religion, mounted on an elephant which was led by a giant Saracen, entered the bancjuet hall to b(»g aid from the Knights of the Golden Fleece. .lean Mielot. a canon of St. Peter's at Lille, wrote for Philip the (lood twenty-two works, including translations, ascctical works, and biographies. The most iniixir- tant of these* works. " La Vie de sainte Catherine d'A16- xandrie", was printed later. Miniatures of that period often represent this canon offering Philip a 1)ook. It was he who, after the " Vani du Faisan", translate*! a work of the Dominican Father Brochart.. "Advis directif pour fain» le passage d'oultrtvmer", and a de- scription of the Holy I^incl.

About this time the preacher Jean d'Eeckhout, another canon of Lille, author of two celebrated as- eetical tn^atises. on the espousals of God the Father and the Virgin, and on the espousals of God the S<m and the sinful soul, yielded to the pn»valent ini^julw. towards pilgrimage* to t\w. WcA"^* Va.\v\, ^xA ^\sA. ^V^s^