BIBLICAL
10
BISMARCK
legate, Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear, with regard to
the Norwegian Church. Their object was the estab-
lishment of the hierarchy by the following means:
(1) the establishment on a firm basis of the Ai-ch-
bishopric of Trondhjem; (2) the foundation of cathe-
dral chapters; (3) the assertion of the right of tlie
Church to inherit property by will; (4) the enforce-
ment of clerical ceUbacy . The council of 1 190 decreed
the excommunication of all guilty of sacrilege, violence
towards clerks, rape, or of unlawfully bearing arms in
church and at public assemblies. King Sverre's Chris-
tian Law (Chrislenrcl) was pubUshed at this council.
The council held in 1273 decided that parish churches
in Iceland should belong to the bishop of the diocese
and not to the landowners. A number of articles were
also framed with a view to a reconciliation between
Church and State, but they were never accepted eit lier
by pope or king. In 1280 many rules with regard to
excommunication were made but not carried into
effect, as the quarrel between Church and State broke
out with renewed violence. At the council of 1320
a large number of regulations were made with regard
to discipline. In 1327 the canons adopted at the pro-
vincial synod dealt with the relations between Church
and State. The last provincial synod at Bergen was
held in 1435. It dealt with the collection of money
for the maintenance of the Council of Basle, the
superstitious observance of Saturday, which was for-
bidden, and unauthorized begging on the part of re-
ligious.
Among the religious institutions in the Diocese of Bergen before the Reformation, were the following: The cathedral with a chapter of 3 prelates and 12 canons, the Collegiate Church of the Apostles (Chapel Royal), 12 canons and a dean; priories of Dominicans (from at least 1240) and Franciscans (dating from the same period). There were also at St. Mary's, Bergen, Cistercian nuns from 1150-1507 and Canons Regu- lar of St. Anthony of Vienne from 1507-28. At St. John's, Bergen, there were Canons Regular of St. Augustine from about 1180 to 1489. The Hospitals of St. Catharine (for women) and of All Saints (for men) provided for the sick. Finally, the great Abbey of St. Michael's, MunkaUf (Benedictine monks, 1108- 1426; Brigittines, 1426-70 and 1479-1531; Cister- cian nuns, 1470-79), lay close to Bergen. The city and its suburbs contained in all no less than 26 churches. Elsewhere there were the Cistercian Ab- bey of Lyse, colonized from Fountains Abbey, York- shire, in 1146, and the Hospital of the Holy Spirit at Halsno (about 1200-1539).
Penrose, The Legend of St. Sunnef a in The Antiquary, V (Lon- don, i882), 18-23; Diplomatarium norpeflicitm (Christiania, 1849- 1903): Norges gavile Love (Christiania, 1846-1895); Keyser, Den norske Kirkes Historie under Katholicismen (Christiania, 1856-8) ; Nielsen, Bergen (Christiania, 1877); Lange, De norske Ktoslrea Historie i Middelalderen (Christiania, 1856) ; Munch, Registrum prtrdiorum et redituum ad ecclesiaa diocesis bergensis sasculo p. C XIV"' perlinmlium, Bjdrgynjar Kdlfskinn (Christiania. 1843); Codex diploTiialarius monasterii St, Michaelis Bergensis (MuJi- kalif) (Christiania. 1845).
A. W. Taylor.
Biblical Commission. See Acts of the Apos- tles; Luke, Gospel of Saint; Matthew, Gospel
OF Saint.
Bickell, Oustav, Orientalist, b. at Cassel, 7 July, 1S3S; (1. :il Vicima, 15 Jan., 1906. His father, Johaiin WilhcliM Birkcli, was professor of canon law at the University of Marburg, and died (1848) as minister of justice of Hcsse-Cassel. In 1862 Gustave became PrivaUlozenl of Semitic and Indo-Germanic languages at Marburg, but the following year he went in the same capacity to the University of Giessen. The finding of a clear testimony in favour of t he Immaculat e Conception in the hymns of St. Ephraem, which he was transcribing in London, led him to enter the Catholic Church, 5 Nov., 1865. After his conversion he entered the seminary of Fulda, where he was
GUSTAV BiCSELL
onlained priest, 22 Sept., 1865. He then taught
Oriental languagrs :if (hr \(:iilcniy of Minister, and
in 1871 was aiipniiiicd i \i i,i.,r.|iiiary professor. At
this period he Ijnanic wi.li l\ Kihaih by his vigorous
defence of papal infallihiUty. in 1874 lie went to
the L'niversity of Innsbruck as professor of Christian
archaeology and
Semitic languages,
which position he
held till 1891,
when he was called
to the chair of
Semitic languages
at the University
of Vienna.
He was an en- thusiastic student and one of the foremost Semitic scholars of modern times. Besides numerous contri- butions to different reviews he pub- Ushed the follow- ing works: "De indole ac ratione versionis Alexan- drinae in interpro- tando libro Jobi" (Marburg, 1862); "S.EphraemiSyri Carmina Nisibena", with prolegomena fixing the laws of Syriac metre (Leipzig, 1866); "Grundriss der he- braischen Grammatik" (ib., 1869-70), translated into Enghsh by Sam. I. Curtiss under the title "Outlines of Hebrew Grammar" (ib., 1877); "Griinde ftir die Unfehlbarkeit des Kirchenoberhauptes" (Miinster, 1870); " Conspectus reiSyrorumhtterariae" (ib., 1871); ||Messe und Pascha" (Mainz, 1872), tr. \V. F. Skene, "The Lord's Supper and the Passover" (Edinburgh, 1891); "Schriften und Gedichte svTischer Kirchen- viiter" (vols. 71 and 72 of the "Sammlung der Kirehenvater " of Kempten); "S. Isaaci Antiocheni opera omnia" (2 vols., Giessen, 1873-77); "Kalilag und Damnag" (Leipzig, 1876); "Metrices bihlicae regulae exemphs illustrata; " (Innsbruck, 1879); "Synodi brixinenses siec. quindecimi" (ib., 1880); "Carmina V. T. metrice" (ib., 1882); "Dichtungen der Hebraer" (3 vols., ib., 1882-84); "Der Prediger (Koheleth) fiber den Wert des Dasiens" (ib., 1886); "Das Buch Job" (Vienna, 1894).
F. Bechtel.
Bismarck (Bismarckiensis), Diocese of, in Nortli Dakota. — Tliis diocese was erected on 31 Deccinlx'i', l'.t09, and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minnesota. It comprises the counties of Adams, Billings, Bowman, Burke, Burleigh, Divide, Dunn, Emmons, Hettinger, !McKenzie. McLean, Mercer, Morton, Mountrail, Ohver, Renville, Stark, Ward, and Williams, — an area of 42,316 square miles. Mgr. Vincent Wehrle was elected its first bishop on 9 April, and was consecrated at St. Paul, 19 May, 1910. Born at Berg, Switzerland, 20 December, 1855, Bishop Wehrle made his profession at the Benedictine Monastery of Einsiedeln, 3 Decem- ber, 1876, and was ordained priest on 23 April, 1882. Appointed to the American apostolate shortly after- wards, he founded nimierous missions and parishes in North Dakota. In 1884 he erected the Priory of St. Gall, and in 1901 St. Mary's Abbey at Ricliardton, of which he wsis elected abbot in 1903. The diocese re- ceives its name from the city of Bismarck (5443 in- habitants), the capital of thestate. The early Cath- olic history of the territory has been treated in the article Xourn Dakota. According to the latest statistics the diocese contains: 1 bishop; 25 secular and 28 regular (Benedictine) priests; 34 churches with
