BASEVI BASHAN 359 the legate. The declaration of the superiority of a general council to the pope was renewed, however, after the reconciliation, though the legate refused to be present, or sanction the act in any way. A number of decrees of reforma- tion were framed, which are all the acts of the council ever recognized as truly synodical, and as such approved by the holy see. Great ef- forts were made to enter into negotiations with the Greek emperor, though without suc- cess. Finally, Engenius IV., finding Cardinal Julian, the principal sovereigns, and the Greek emperor, altogether disposed to enter into his views, on June 19, 1437, dissolved once more the council of Basel, and transferred the ses- sions to Ferrara. There had been from the outset at Basel but few prelates and bishops of high rank, and a great number of the inferior clergy, all of whom had been admitted to a vote in violation of the canons. The cardinals and the principal portion of the prelates of rank obeyed immediately the mandate of the holy see, and repaired to Ferrara. The patriarch of Aquileia, the archbishops of Aries and Pa- lermo, with a few other prelates, and several hundred priests, remained, and continued the sessions of their so-called council, from this time regarded as a conciliabulum or schismat- ical assembly. They declared several propo- sitions respecting the superiority of general councils to be articles of faith, excommunicated the council of Ferrara, deposed the pope, and in 1439 elected Amadous VIII., formerly duke of Savoy, who took the name of Felix V., and continued to bear it during 10 years, after which he abdicated it, and submitted himself to Nicholas V., who made him cardinal. The council of Basel continued its sessions during all this period, and finally the debris of the council, which had adjourned to Lausanne, put an end to itself by electing the reigning pon- tiff, Nicholas V., pope. BASEVI, George, an English architect, born at Brighton in 1794, died at Ely, Oct. 16, 1845. He was a pupil of Sir John Soane, and travel- led in Greece and Italy. In 1819 he com- menced practice in London on his own account with great success. Belgrave square was erected from his designs. He was joint archi- tect with Mr. Sidney Smirke of the conserva- tive club house, St. James's street, a beautiful building. His best and greatest work, the Fitz- william museum at Cambridge, was finished by Mr. Cockerell. While inspecting the west bell tower of Ely cathedral, then being restored under his direction, he fell through an aper- ture a distance of 40 feet, and was killed. II ISIIAX, in Biblical geography, the northern portion of trans-Jordanic Palestine, between Damascene Syria on the north and Gilead on the south. It is a high table land, and was anciently famous for the fertility of its soil, and for its oaks, which vied with the cedars of Lebanon. Remains of these forests are still seen in some of the mountainous districts. The deep, rich, black soil on the plains pro- duces the same luxuriant pasture as in ancient times, and the flocks and herds reared there may still be called the fallings of Bashan. It was conquered from the Amorites in the bloody battle of Edrei, where Og, the giant king of Bashan, fell. It was occupied by the nomadic half tribe of Manasseh. Later it was cap- tured from Israel, after the revolt of the ten tribes, by Hazael, king of Syria, and afterward recaptured by Jeroboam II. It was also the first province that fell before the Assyrian in- vaders. When the Israelites were taken cap- tive, the scattered remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants, who had settled among the rocky passes of Argob and Ilermon, and in the des- ert, returned. Henceforth it is not mentioned under its name of Bashan by any writer, but the provinces into which it was divided are often referred to. Gaulanitis was the territory of Golan, the ancient Hebrew city of refuge. Aurnnitis is the Greek name of the Hauran of Ezekiel. Batanaaa is the name given to the eastern mountain range, and occasionally used for Bashan in general; and Trachonitis, the rocky region of the north, is a Greek transla- tion of the ancient Argob, the rocky. During the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Christians living in that city retired to Pella, a town of Bashan ; and in the 4th century nearly all the inhabitants of the country were Chris- tians. Heathen temples were converted into churches, and churches were built in almost every town and village. When the Saracens overran Syria these churches were converted into mosques ; and when the country fell into the power of the Ottomans its desolation was completed. The mountains of Bashan, though not generally very steep, are rugged and rocky. The remains of terraces are still to be seen on the slopes, which give evidence of past indus- try, and oaks and other forest trees and shrubs abound here. The whole mountain range is of volcanic origin ; the peaks shoot up conically in deep serried lines, and the rocks are black. One or two craters of extinct volcanoes have been seen on the plain. The ancient province of Trachonitis, now Lejah, is a vast field of ba- salt in the midst of the plain of Bashan. In Argob, one of the provinces of Bashan, 30 m. long by 20 broad, Jair is said to have taken no fewer than 60 great and fenced cities. A late traveller, Cyril Graham, writes : " We find one after another great stone cities, walled and un- walled, with stone gates, and so crowded toge- ther that it becomes almost a matter of won- der how all the people could have lived in so small a place. When we see houses built of such huge and massive stones that no force which can be brought against them in that country could ever batter them down ; when we find rooms in these houses so large and lofty that many of them would be considered fine rooms in a palace in Europe ; and lastly, when we find some of these towns bearing the very names which cities in that country bore before the Israelites came out of Egypt, I think
