BKJARNO
394
BELFRY
from the top of which the whole of the Alemtejo
country and the Cintra mountains may be seen.
The walls of the castle are covered with hieroglyphics.
Beia was in its early days an episcopal city, but at
the time of the invasion by the Moors lost its dignity.
The Cathedral of Beja is an old temple, though so
much modernized as to make it impossible to deter-
mine with any degree of certainty its original date.
Other famous churches are those of Our Lady of the
Conception, St. lago, or Santiago, and Santa Maria
de la Feira, said to have been an old Moorish mosque.
The College of St. Sissenando, which belonged to the
Jesuits, and was built principally at the expense of
Donna Maria Sophia, in 1695, stands in the street
where the saint was born. Part of this building is
now occupied by the episcopal palace. The city has
about 8,000 inhabitants, modern improvement's,
schools, banks, libraries, etc. It is said to be the
richest in Roman remains of all the cities in Portugal,
except Evora, which now possesses a large collection
of Roman antiquities collected in Beja.
Gerarchia Caltolica (Rome. 1907); Florez. Espaila Sagrada (1786), XIV. 230-276; Coll. de livres mi-dils sur I hust. du Portugal (1S24), V. 486-545. FRANCISCO J. Y.\NES.
Bejarano, Fernando. See Mijes. Belasyse, John, B.iron Bel.vsyse, b. about 1614- d. 1689, a loyal Catholic English nobleman, second son of Thomas first Lord Fauconberg. His mother was Barbara, daughter of Sir Henry Chol- mondeley of Roxby, Yorkshire. John Belasyse, who represented Thirsk in both the Short and Long Parliaments, but was "disabled" as a Royahst to sit played a conspicuous part in the civil war, commanding a "Tertia" on the Royahst side. He raised six regiments of horse and foot at his own expense, took part in the battles of Edgehill, Newbury, and Naseby, as well as the sieges of Read- ing and' Bristol, and was subsequently made Lieu- tenant-General of the King's forces in the North of England and Governor of York. He was wounded several times and in January, 1645, was raised to the peerage by the King at Oxford under the title of Baron Belasyse of Worlaby, Lincolnshire. Dur- ing the Commonwealth Lord Belasyse acted as a sort of Royalist agent in England and was in frequent communication with Charles II and his supporters in the Netherlands. After the Restora- tion he was made Lord-Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire (1661-73) and Governor of Hull, while from 1664 to 1666 he held the post of Captain-General of the forces in Africa and Gover- nor of Tangier. Somewhat later, however, upon the passing of the Test Act (1673) he found him- self as a Catholic unable to take the necessary oath and resigned all his appointments. At the time of the Oates plot, Belasyse, along with four other Catholic peers, the Lords Arundell of Wardour, Stafford, Powj's, and Petre, was denounced as a conspirator and formally impeached in Parliament. Belasyse in particular was said to have been desig- nated Commander-in-Chief of the Popish army, but Charles II, according to Von Ranke, ridiculed the idea on the ground that the man could then hardly stand on his feet with gout. Nevertheless, Lord Belasyse lived on for another ten years. The impeached Catholic peers, though they endured a long imprisonment in the Tower, were never brought to trial, and at the accession of James II Belasyse was again received into high favour. His appointment in 1687 as First Lord Commis- sioner of the Treasury was a step which roused strong religious feeling' against James's government. Lord Belasvse died in 1689, the year of the ac- cession of William of Orange. He was three times married, and left five children, but the title became extinct upon the death of his grandson Henry, third Baron Bcla.syse of Worlaby.
DoDD, Church History of England (Brussels. 1742). Ill;
GiLLOW, Bibl. Diet, of Eng. Cath., I; Keaby taDict. Nat.
Biog.. IV, 142; Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion, and
the Clarendon State Papers in the Bodleian Library.
Herbert Ihurston.
Belchiam, Thom.^s, Venerable, a Franciscan martjT in the reign of Henry VIII, date of birth un- certain; d. 3 August, 1537. He boldly opposed the king's first divorce, and denounced the tjTant as a heretic. He wTOte a book addressed to his brethren, beginning with the text: "They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses", in which he rebuked the faithless bishops, who were afraid to tell the king the truth. The book seems to be lost, but one copy got into Henry's hands, and he is said to have been moved to tears by reading it, though he soon repented of this weakness. Belchiam and some tliirty of the Observant Franciscans were thrown into prison, where they perished of hunger.
DoDD, Church History (Brussels, 1739); Bocrchier. His- toria Ecclesiastica de Martyrio Fratrum Ord. D. tram-isn (Paris 1581); Wadding, .innales Minorum (-•Vncona. 173b), torn XVI; Stone, Faithful unto Death (London, 1892).
Bede Camm. Belem do Para', Archdiocese op, in South America, formerlv (after 4 March, 1719) a suffragan diocese of Bahia (San Salvador), but raised to metro- politan rank 3 May, 1906. The city of Belem is the capital of the Brazilian State of Pard, and is situated on the Bay of Guajara, in the richest rubber and coffee section of the Republic. Santa Maria de Nazareth do Para, to give the city its full name, was founded in 1615, but has reached its present import- ance as one of the largest shipping ports of northern Brazil only during the last twenty years. Not only is it the niost northerly port of any importance in South America, and as such the nearest to the great shipping centres of North America and Europe, but it is also the great outlet for the natural products of the State of Pari. It has a population of 100,000, an export trade of about 825,000,000, and an import trade of about $12,000,000 annually. The mean temperature is about 80° Fahrenheit.
Among the churches of this cathedral city is that of Santa Maria de Nazareth in the pretty suburb of Nazareth. The old convent and chapel of the Car- melite Order have been converted into a seminary, while the old Jesuit College is now occupied by the episcopal palace and another seminary. The city has all modern improvements, and what are considered the best museum and botanical gardens in Brazil. The Amparo Orphan Asylum is ranked among the leading charitable institutions of the State and the
In 1903 the Prcrlatura Nullius of Santarem was made from the Diocese of Belem; and again, in 1904, a new delimitation of the same quasi-episcopal terri- tory took place. The Catholic population of the Archdiocese of Belem is now about 480,000. There are about .500 Protestants. In this vast territory, which before the above-mentioned division included 1 176,100 square miles, the parishes are 77 in num- ber, with 29 filial churches. There are 47 secular, and 13 religious, priests, and 21 Brothers.
Gerarchia Cattolica (Rome, 1907); Werner. Orb>^ Terr. Cath. (Freiburg, 1890); Sodre Tfe State of Para (London 1893)- Bureau of American Republics, Handbook of Brazil (Washington. 1901); Grossi, Storia delta Colomzainone Au- Topea al Brasile (Rome, 1905).
Francisco J. Yanes.
Belfast. See Down -uto Connor.
Belfry.— The upper part of the tower or steeple of a church, for the reception of the bells; or a de- tached tower containing bells, as the campanile of the Italians. The term is sometimes applied to the timber frame by which the bells are supported; also to the room or" loft in the tower of a church, from which the bells .are rung. Originally it denoted a tower in which sentinels were placed to ring bells.
