indeed; I like not when a oman has a great peard ; I spy a greatpeard under her muffler." The detestation with which a bearded woman and a red-haired man were visited in France is almost savagely illustrated in the following old lines:—
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Homme roux ct femruc barbue, De trente pas loin le salue, Avecque trois pierres an poing, Pour t en aider h ton besoing."
BÉARN, formerly a small frontier province in the south of France, now included within the department of Basses-Pyrcne es, was bounded on the W. by Soule and Lower Navarre, on the N. by Chalosse, Tursan, and Astarac, E. by Bigorre, and S. by the Pyrenees. Its name can be traced back to the town of Beneharnum, which first appears in the Antonine Itinerary. The popu lation is mainly of Basque origin, with possibly a certain mixture of Greek blood from the ancient colonies of that people. The Basque language, in spite of the diffusion of French, is still maintained in the district ; and it is asserted that traces of old Hellenic names are not infrequent. Be arn begins first to take rank as a separate viscounty under Louis the Pious. From its first viscounts, who were descended from the dukes of Gascony, it passed about 1134, by failure of the male line, to the Catalonian family of Moncado ; and after the people, who were hostile to all connection with Spain, had several times chosen their own leaders, it passed to the family of Foix, from whom it was transmitted through the houses of Grailly and D Albret to the Bourbons, who, in the person of Henry, IV., made it an apanage of the crown of France. It was not till 1620, however, that it was formally incorporated ; and even till 1790 it continued to be governed by its own constitution or system of Fors, which only exists in the form in which it was drawn up in 1288, though mention is made of it as early as 1080. The parliament of Be arn consisted of two sections, the first composed of the clergy and the nobles, and the second of mayors and councillors (or jurats] from forty-two towns or communities. It met every year, and was always presided over by the bishop of Lescar. A body of commissioners, called the dbrege des etats, or epitome of parliament, [was selected from the members twelve fron the nobles and twelve from the third estate for the purpose of deciding any business that might demand attention during the time between the regular sessions. The administration of justice devolved in the last resort on a cour majour, or greater court, which was changed by Henry d Albret into a sovereign council under the presidency of the chancellor of Navarre and Be arn, and afterwards, by] Louis XIII., into a parlement of the ordinary type. Histories of Be arn have been written by Belloy (1608), Marca (1640), D Olhagaray (1609), Faget de Baure (1818), Mazure (1839).
BEATON, David, archbishop of St Andrews and cardinal, was a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour in the county of Fife, and is said to have been born in the year 1494. He was educated at the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow,""and afterwards studied at Paris. His first preferment was the parsonage of Carnpsie and the chancellorship of the church of Glasgow, to which he was presented in the year 1519 by his uncle James Beaton, then archbishop of Glasgow. When James Beaton was translated to St Andrews he resigned the rich abbacy of Arbroath in his nephew s favour, under reservation of one half of the revenues to himself during his lifetime. The great ability of Beaton and the patronage of his uncle ensured his rapid promotion to high offices in the church and kingdom. He was sent by King James V. on various missions to France, and in 1528 was appointed keeper of the privy seal. He took a leading part in the negotiations connected with the king s marriages, first with Magdalen of France and afterwards with Mary of Lorraine. At the French court he was held in high estimation by King Francis I., and was presented to the bishopric of Mirepoix in Languedoc, to which he is said to have been consecrated on 5th December 1537. On the 20th of December 1538 he was appointed a cardinal priest by Pope Paul III., under the title of St Stephen in the Ccelian Hill. He was the only Scotsman who had been named to that high office by an undisputed right, Cardinal Wardlaw, bishop of Glasgow, having received his appointment from the Anti- pope Clement VII. On the death of Archbishop James Beaton in 1539, the cardinal was raised to the primatial see of Scotland. He showed his sense of the additional responsibility he had now undertaken by requesting the Pope to relieve him, to some extent, by the nomination of a suffragan or coadjutor in the diocese of St Andrews ; and this was effected by the appointment to that office of William Gibson, dean of Restalrig, who received consecra tion as titular bishop of Libaria.
Beaton was one of King James s most trusted advisers, and is said to have taken a part in dissuading him from his proposed interview with Henry VIII. at York. On the death of James in December 1542 he attempted to assume office as one of the regents for the infant sovereign Mary, founding his pretensions on an alleged will of the late king ; but his claims were disregarded, and the Earl of Arran, head of the great house of Hamilton, and next heir to the throne, was raised to the regency. The cardinal was imprisoned by order of the regent, but after some time was set at liberty. He was subsequently reconciled to Arran, and in September 1543 crowned the young queen at Stirling. Soon afterwards he was raised to the highest office under the regent, that of Chancellor of Scotland, and was appointed legate a latere by the Pope. The cardinal, in virtue of the latter dignity and of his primatial authority, claimed precedence over Archbishop Dunbar of Glasgow, even within the precincts of the cathedral of St Kentigern. This led to an unseemly brawl between the attendants of the two archbishops, as set forth in a formal complaint made by the cardinal to the Pope, and related at more length and with characteristic glee by Knox. The attention, however, of the cardinal was directed to matters of more importance than disputes with a brother metropolitan.
were the struggle for ascendency between the supporters of English and French influence, and that between the friends of the hierarchy and the teachers of the Reformed opinions, questions which frequently became complicated in conse quence of the assistance given by France to the bishops, and the encouragement which, for political reasons, the king of England secretly gave to the adherents of the Reformation. In this contest the cardinal supported the interests of France, resolutely opposing the selfish intrigues of King Henry and his party, which had for their object the extinction of the ancient independence of the Scottish kingdom and its subjection to the supremacy of England. Had he been content with this he would have won for himself the gratitude of his countrymen ; but his evil deeds as an ecclesiastic made them overlook his patriotic exertions as a statesman. During the lifetime of his uncle he had taken his share in the persecuting policy of the hierarchy, and the same line of conduct was still more systematically adopted after his elevation to the primacy. Having won over the regent to his opinions he became more open and severe in his proceedings. The popular accounts of the persecution are no doubt exaggerated, and it sometimes ceased for considerable periods so far as capital punishments
were concerned. When the sufferers were of humble rank