where rose the priory of St-Denis-de-l’Estrée, which existed until the 18th century. In the 5th century the clergy of the diocese of Paris built a basilica over the tomb. About 625 Dagobert, son of Lothair II., founded in honour of St Denis, at some distance from the basilica, the monastery where the greater number of the kings of France have been buried. The festival of St Denis is celebrated on the 9th of October. With his name are already associated in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius. Other traditions—of no value—are connected with the name of St Denis. A false interpretation of Gregory of Tours, apparently dating from 724, represented St Denis as having received his mission from Pope Clement, and as having suffered martyrdom under Domitian (81–96). Hilduin, abbot of St-Denis in the first half of the 9th century, identified Denis of Paris with Denis (Dionysius) the Areopagite (mentioned in Acts xviii. 34), bishop of Athens (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. iii. 4. 10, iv. 23. 3), and naturally attributed to him the celebrated writings of the pseudo-Areopagite. St Denis is generally represented carrying his head in his hands.
See Acta Sanctorum, Octobris, iv. 696-987; Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca, p. 37 (Brussels, 1895); Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, No. 2171-2203 (Brussels, 1899); J. Havet, Les Origines de Saint-Denis, in his collected works, i. 191-246 (Paris, 1896); Cahier, Caractéristiques des saints, p. 761 (Paris, 1867). (H. De.)
DENIS, JOHANN NEPOMUK COSMAS MICHAEL (1729–1800), Austrian poet, was born at Schärding on the Inn, on the 27th of September 1729. He was brought up by the Jesuits, entered their order, and in 1759 was appointed professor in the Theresianum in Vienna, a Jesuit college. In 1784, after the suppression of the college, he was made second custodian of the court library, and seven years later became chief librarian. He died on the 29th of September 1800. A warm admirer of Klopstock, he was one of the leading members of the group of so-called “bards”; and his original poetry, published under the title Die Lieder Sineds des Barden (1772), shows all the extravagances of the “bardic” movement. He is best remembered as the translator of Ossian (1768–1769; also published together with his own poems in 5 vols. as Ossians und Sineds Lieder, 1784). More important than either his original poetry or his translations were his efforts to familiarize the Austrians with the literature of North Germany; his Sammlung kürzerer Gedichte aus den neuern Dichtern Deutschlands, 3 vols. (1762–1766), was in this respect invaluable. He has also left a number of bibliographical compilations, Grundriss der Bibliographie und Bücherkunde (1774), Grundriss der Literaturgeschichte (1776), Einleitung in die Bücherkunde (1777) and Wiens Buchdruckergeschichte bis 1560 (1782).
Ossians und Sineds Lieder have not been reprinted since 1791; but a selection of his poetry edited by R. Hamel will be found in vol. 48 (1884) of Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur. His Literarischer Nachlass was published by J. F. von Retzer in 1802 (2 vols.). See P. von Hofmann-Wellenhof, Michael Denis (1881).
DENISON, GEORGE ANTHONY (1805–1896), English churchman, brother of John Evelyn Denison (1800–1873; speaker of the House of Commons 1857–1872; Viscount Ossington), was born at Ossington, Notts, on the 11th of December 1805, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1828 he was elected fellow of Oriel; and after a few years there as a tutor, during which he was ordained and acted as curate at Cuddesdon, he became rector of Broadwindsor, Dorset (1838). He became a prebendary of Sarum in 1841 and of Wells in 1849. In 1851 he was preferred to the valuable living of East Brent, Somerset, and in the same year was made archdeacon of Taunton. For many years Archdeacon Denison represented the extreme High Tory party not only in politics but in the Church, regarding all “progressive” movements in education or theology as abomination, and vehemently repudiating the “higher criticism” from the days of Essays and Reviews (1860) to those of Lux Mundi (1890). In 1853 he resigned his position as examining chaplain to the bishop of Bath and Wells owing to his pronounced eucharistic views. A suit on the complaint of a neighbouring clergyman ensued and after various complications Denison was condemned by the archbishops’ court at Bath (1856); but on appeal the court of Arches and the privy council quashed this judgment on a technical plea. The result was to make Denison a keen champion of the ritualistic school. He edited The Church and State Review (1862–1865). Secular state education and the “conscience clause” were anathema to him. Until the end of his life he remained a protagonist in theological controversy and a keen fighter against latitudinarianism and liberalism; but the sharpest religious or political differences never broke his personal friendships and his Christian charity. Among other things for which he will be remembered was his origination of harvest festivals. He died on the 21st of March 1896.
DENISON, GEORGE TAYLOR (1839–), Canadian soldier and publicist, was born in Toronto on the 31st of August 1839. In 1861 he was called to the bar, and was from 1865–1867 a member of the city council. From the first he took a prominent part in the organization of the military forces of Canada, becoming a lieutenant-colonel in the active militia in 1866. He saw active service during the Fenian raid of 1866, and during the rebellion of 1885. Owing to his dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Conservative ministry during the Red River Rebellion in 1869–70, he abandoned that party, and in 1872 unsuccessfully contested Algoma in the Liberal interest. Thereafter he remained free from party ties. In 1877 he was appointed police magistrate of Toronto. Colonel Denison was one of the founders of the “Canada First” party, which did much to shape the national aspirations from 1870 to 1878, and was a consistent supporter of imperial federation and of preferential trade between Great Britain and her colonies. He became a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and was president of the section dealing with English history and literature. The best known of his military works is his History of Modern Cavalry (London, 1877), which was awarded first prize by the Russian government in an open competition and has been translated into German, Russian and Japanese. In 1900 he published his reminiscences under the title of Soldiering in Canada.
DENISON, a city of Grayson county, Texas, U.S.A., about 212 m. from the S. bank of the Red river, about 70 m. N. of Dallas. Pop. (1890) 10,958; (1900) 11,807, of whom 2251 were negroes; (1910 census) 13,632. It is served by the Houston & Texas Central, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Texas & Pacific, and the St Louis & San Francisco (’Frisco System) railways, and is connected with Sherman, Texas, by an electric line. Denison is the seat of the Gate City business college (generally known as Harshaw Academy), and of St Xavier’s academy (Roman Catholic). It is chiefly important as a railway centre, as a collecting and distributing point for the fruit, vegetables, hogs and poultry, and general farming products of the surrounding region, and as a wholesale and jobbing market for the upper Red river valley. It has railway repair shops, and among its manufactures are cotton-seed oil, cotton, machinery and foundry products, flour, wooden-ware, and dairy products. In 1905 its factory products were valued at $1,234,956, 47.0% more than in 1900. Denison was settled by Northerners at the time of the construction of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway to this point in 1872, and was named in honour of George Denison (1822–1876), a director of the railway; it became a city in 1891, and in 1907 adopted the commission form of government.
DENIZEN (derived through the Fr. from Lat. de intus, “from within,” i.e. as opposed to “foreign”), an alien who obtains by letters patent (ex donatione regis) certain of the privileges of a British subject. He cannot be a member of the privy council or of parliament, or hold any civil or military office of trust, or take a grant of land from the crown. The Naturalization Act 1870 provides that nothing therein contained shall affect the grant of any letters of denization by the sovereign.
DENIZLI (anc. Laodicea (q.v.) ad Lycum), chief town of a sanjak of the Aidin vilayet of Asia Minor, altitude 1167 ft. Pop. about 17,000. It is beautifully situated at the foot of Baba Dagh (Mt. Salbacus), on a tributary of the Churuk Su (Lycus), and is connected by a branch line with the station of Gonjeli on the Smyrna-Dineir railway. It took the place of Laodicea when that town was deserted during the wars between the
