Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/37

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CAN—CAN
27

1 755, at the time of the great earthquake at Lisbon, part of the town-house subsided 3 feet. Population in 1871,

11,804.

CANSTEIN, Karl Hildebrand, Count of (1667- 1719), was born at Lindenberg, in 1667. He studied law at Frankfort, travelled in Italy and England, and served in one campaign ; but his health failing, he was obliged to retire into private life. At Berlin he became acquainted with Spener and Francke, whose influence determined him to devote his energies and time to further the circulation of the Bible. For this he obtained a large amount of money by subscription, and established at Halle the Bible Society which is named after him. In 1712, with the aid of Francke, he issued a stereotype edition of the New Testament at about fourpence a copy, and next year a similar edition of the whole Bible. In 1722 editions in Polish and Bohemian appeared. Canstein is . the author of a Life of Spener, a Harmony of the Gospels, and several theological works. He is, besides, one of those to whom the introduction of stereotype printing has been ascribed.

CANTABRIA, a district of Hispania Tarraconensis, lying on the south coast of the Bay of Biscay. By the more ancient geographers the name was applied to the entire country now occupied by the provinces of Asturias, Santander, Biscay, and Guipuzcoa. After the conquest of Spain by the Romans, the name of Cantabria was restricted to what is now the province of Santander and the eastern portion of Asturias.

The Cantabri were not improbably the remains of an ancient Iberian population, and were, according to some, the ancestors of the modern Basques. They were the most warlike of all the native Spanish tribes that the Romans had to encounter, and were never completely subdued. Together with the Astures, they offered for many ages a successful resistance to the Roman arms, and were only at last compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome by Augustus. They revolted a few years after, but were defeated with great slaughter by Agrippa, 19 B.C. When, however, their losses had been somewhat repaired, they again declared war ; and they were only kept in check by the most vigorous exertions of the Emperor Tiberias. Their indomitable spirit is frequently alluded to in the ancient classics; among others Horace alludes to the " Cantabrum indoctum juga ferre nostra." Cantabria under the Roman empire comprehended five principal tribes, the Pleutauri, the Varduli, the Autrigones, the Conisci or Concaui (who fed on the blood of their horses, " Icetum equino sangiiine Concanntn "), and the Tuisi. There were numerous towns and villages distributed throughout the country, of which the most important was Juliobriga.

CANTACUZENUS, Johannes, emperor of the East, celebrated as a statesman, general, and historian, was born at Constantinople, of an ancient and opulent family, and under the reign of the elder Andronicus held the high office of Great Domestic. In the disputes that ensued between that emperor and his grandson, Cantacuzenus espoused the cause of the latter; and when Andronicus II., on the abdication of his grandfather, ascended the throne (1328) he was entrusted with the supreme administration of affairs, in which capacity he displayed considerable vigour and ability. On the death of the emperor in 1341, Cantacuzenus was left regent, and guardian of his son John Palæologus, who was but nine years of age. Whether he would have continued faithful to his trust is uncertain; but being suspected by the empress, and the object of the hostility of a powerful party at court, he rebelled, and got himself crowned emperor in one of the provincial towns, while his opponents, with the young emperor John, maintained themselves at Constantinople. The civil war which ensued lasted six years; and as the rival parties were obliged to call in the aid of the Servians and Turks, and to engage mercenaries of every description, the empire was reduced to a state of incredible confusion, and nearly ruined. At the outset Cantacuzenus was so hard pressed that he was obliged to flee into Servia. An alliance with Servia enabled him to make head against his enemies for some time; but his inconstant allies soon left him to join the other side, or to pursue their own private ends. It was with the help of the Turks that he brought the war to a termination. He formed an alliance with Orchan, the Ottoman Sultan of Broussa, on the disgraceful conditions of sending his daughter to the harem of the Turk, and of allowing his army to make slaves of the Greek subjects. In 1346 he entered Constantinople in triumph, and forced his opponents to an arrangement by which he became joint emperor with John Palæologus, retaining the administrative power in his own hands during the minority of his colleague. It is impossible to give a connected view of the government of Cantacuzenus. The empire, already broken up into disconnected fragments, and reduced to the narrowest limits, was assailed on every side by open enemies or treacherous friends. There were wars with the Genoese, who had a colony at Galata and had money transactions with the court, and with the Servians, who were at that time establishing an extensive empire on the north-western frontiers, carried on in every case without energy and without happy result; and there was a hazardous alliance with the Turks, who made their first permanent settlement in Europe, at Callipolis, in Thrace, towards the end of the reign of Cantacuzenus (1354). It would be wrong to blame him, however, for introducing those enemies of Christendom into Europe, as they had been in the habit of interposing in the unhappy struggles of the Greek empire. No individual energy could have saved a moribund state from destruction at the hands of its more vigorous neighbours. Yet Cantacuzenus was far too ready to employ them in his European quarrels; and as he had not money to pay them, this gave them a ready pretext for seizing upon a European town. The financial burdens imposed by Cantacuzenus had long been displeasing to his subjects, and there had always been a strong faction in favour of John Palæologus. Hence, when the latter entered Constantinople in the end of 1354, his success was easy. Cantacuzenus retired to a monastery, where he occupied himself in literary labours. He wrote a history of his own life and times, which has been incorporated in the series of Byzantine historians. Cantacuzenus was not without ability, and had some literary merit and even eloquence, but with a considerable share of the Byzantine vices,—timidity, duplicity, and falsity.

CANTAGALLO, a town of Brazil, in the province of Rio de Janeiro, about 80 miles N.E. of the city of that name, on a small tributary of the Parahyba, with a station on the railway from Rio de Janeiro to Campos. It was formerly the seat of important gold mines; but, since these were worked out, it has depended almost wholly on agriculture. Population about 4200.

CANTAL, a department in central France, lying between

44 37 and 45 26 N. lat., and between 2 3 and 3 18 E. long., bounded N. by the department of Puy-de-Dôme, and E. by Haute-Loire and Lozere, S. by Aveyron and Lozere, and W. by Correze and Lot. Its area is 2208 square miles; and its population in 1872 was 231,867. It is formed of the ancient province of Upper Auvergne, and received its name from the Plomb-du-Cantal, the central peak of a bare and rugged chain which traverses the whole department, Near the Plomb, which attains a height of above 6090 feet, are the Col-de-Cabre and

other peaks belonging to the same system, evidently of