Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/416

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BAYMA
360
BAYONNE


that position 29 May, 1877. The archbishop tlien went abroad to seek for relief, but in vain. He re- turned to liis former home in Newark in August, 1877, and after lingering for two months, died in his old room, where he had laboured so long. At his own request he was buried beside his aunt, Motlier Seton, at the convent at Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was a noble model of a Christian bishop. He soeuied animated with the spirit of St. Francis de Sails, full of zeal in the episcopal ofBce and of kind- ness and charity to all mankind. In conversation he once told Bisliop Corrigan that before his conversion he thought of becoming a Jesuit, and before his conse- cration a Red.=>mptorist, but from both intentions his director dissuaded him. In addition to the volume on the Church in New York he wrote the " Memoirs of Simon Gabriel Brute, First Bishop of Vincennes" (New York, 1855).

Flynn, The Catholic Church in New Jersey (Morristown, 1904): Shea, History of the Cath. Ch. in the V. S. (New York, !S89-92); Cathedral Records (Baltimore, 190(i); Reuss, Biog. Cycl. of the Cath. Hierarchy of the U. S. (Milwaukee, 1898). Thomas F. Meehan.

Bayma, Joseph, a Jesuit mathematician and scientist, b. in Piedmont, Italy, 9 November, 1816; d. at Santa Clara, California, U. S. A., 7 February, 1892. He entered the Society of Jesus, 5 February, 1832, and distinguished himself in literature, mathematics, and physics. He was in charge of the episcopal seminary of Bertinoro when the troubles of 1860 forced him and many of his brethren to seek shelter in England. Hitherto he had given no special attention to philosophy, but at Stonyhurst he took it up and taught it for some seven years. His powerful and original mind soon produced three volumes of "Realis Philosophia", which were printed for private circulation. No sooner were they out than he introduced numerous corrections; thus the printed vohnncs cannot be relied upon as evidence of his mature opinions. In 1868 Father Bayma left for California, where he was Rector of Saint Ignatius' College, San Francisco, for three years, but afterwards resided at Santa Clara, teaching elementary mathematics there till his death. At his death he left behind, in manuscript, an elaborate new edition of the " Realis Philosophia " which never saw the light. His published works are "Molecular Mechanics" (Cambridge, 1866); "The Love of Religious Perfection", originally written in Italian, in flic style of "The Imitation of Christ" (published in English, Dublin, 1863); articles in "The Catholic World", XVII–XXI (1873–75), the best printed account of his philosophy; two articles in the "Am. Cath. Q. Rev.", II (1877); and "A Discussion with an Infidel", being a review of Biichner's "Force and Matter" (New York, London, and Leamington, 1901). His elementary works on mathematics, all published at San Francisco, are: "Algebra" (1890), "Geometry" (1895), "Analytical Geometry" (1887), "Plane and Spherical Trigonometry" (1886), "Infinitesimal Calculus" (1889).

Father Bayma took the Venerable Bede for his model, and loved to refer to the old Breviary Lesson, which used to be read in England on St. Bede's day. It ran: "Bede [and Bayma too] was handsome of stature, grave of gait, rich and sonorous of voice, eloquent of speech, noble of countenance, a blend of affability with severity. He was affable to the good and devout, formidable to the proud and negligent. He was always reading, always writing, always teaching, always praying." Only the young men who sat vmder him could know his fascination as a teacher. To posterity he must be known by his "Molecular Mechanics", a metaphysical and mathematical work treating of the constitution of matter. With Roger Bo.scovich, Bayma reduces all matter to unextended points, centres of force acting in the inverse square of the distance. Thus acting upon one another, but of course not touching, for Bayma abhorred continuous matter and upheld actio in distans, these points were bound up into molecules, and molecules into bodies. Boscovich made his points, or elements, attractive at molar distances, repulsive at molecular. Bayma divides elements into attractive and repulsive, the former always attracting, the latter always repelling; the attractive elements preponderating in the nucleus of the molecule, the repulsive in the envelope. The work drew attention at Cambridge, and at Trinity College, Dublin. The author was advised to test his theories by ten years of experiments in chemistry and electricity. Unhappily, this was never done. One of his proofs certainly lies open to grave objection, but Bayma's main theory does not stand or fall with that proposition. The gravest objection against the theory is its alleged failure to account for inertia. Father Bayma ever professed the utmost reverence for St. Thomas. His saying was: "the metaphysics of St. Thomas, with modern physics". Joseph Rickaby.

Bayonne (Lapurdum), Diocese of, comprises the Department of Basses-Pyrenees. Reorganized in 1802, it included, besides certain parishes of the Dioceses of Dax and Tarbes, the Dioceses of Oloron and Lescar. It was suffragan to the Archiepiscopal See of Toulouse from 1802 to 1822, thereafter to that of Auch.

Diocese of Bayonne.—Local tradition maintains that St. Leo, the martyr, with whose memory is associated a miraculous fountain, was the first Bishop of Bayonne. No bishop is historically known prior to the sixth century, although some think that Bayonne, designated as civitas in the Treaty of Andelot (587), must have had a bishop at that time, whilst others couple the foundation of the See of Bayonne with the establishment of the Kingdom of Aquitaine (778). Until 1566, the Diocese of Bayonne included much Spanish territory, i. e. the four Archpresbyteries of Bastan, L6rin, Cineo Villas in Navarre, and Font- arabia in Guipuzcoa, a remnant of Charlemagne's conquests beyond the Pyrenees. Christophe de Beaumont, afterwards Archbishop of Paris, occupied the See of Bayonne from 1741 to 1745 and Astros oc- cupied it from 1820 to 1830.

Sees of Lescar and Oloron—A local legend recorded in the great "Breviaire de Lescar" of 1541, and patterned after the Limousin legend of St. Mar- tial, holds that St. Julian, sent from Bordeaux by St. Leontius, was the first Bishop of Lescar; but according to history, St. Galactorius, martyred per- haps by the Visigoths after their defeat at VouilM. and St. Gratus, both mentioned in the Council of Agde (506), were respectively the first incumbents of the See of Lescar and the See of Oloron known to history. LTntil 1789 the Bishops of Lescar presided by right over the Assembly of the States of B^arn. Amongst those who occupied the See of Oloron was Roussel, the Dominican (1536-50), prot^g6 of Mar- garet of Navarre and a convert to Calvinism.

Sponde (Spondanus, 1568-1643), Bishop of Pa- miers, who carried on the work of Baronius; Duver- gier de Hauranne (1581-1643), Abb6 de St. Cyran, the second founder of Jansenism, and Cardinal Lavigerie were born in territory now included in the Diocese of Bayonne. B^tharram is celebrated as a place of pilgrimage as also are Notre Dame de Pi6tat, at Paradies, and Notre Dame de Sarrance, visited by King Louis XL In 1899 the following institutions were to be found in the diocese: 1 infant asylum, 38 in- fant schools, 2 orphanages where farming is taught, 10 girls' orphanages, 5 gratuitous industrial schools, 2 houses of refuge for young girls, 2 patronages, 1 tem- porary home for servants, 4 hospitals or hospices,