Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/557

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BERLANGA


493


Berlanga, Fray Toiias de, Bishop of Panama, b. at Berlanga in Spain, date uncertain; d. there 8 August. 1551. He was professed at the convent of San Esteban of Salamanca, 10 March, 1608, in the Dommican Order, and in time was elected prior of the convent on the Island of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo). The Dominicans of Hispaniola then depended on the pro^•ince of Andalusia, but Berlanga obtained at Rome, in 152S, the establishment of a separate province under the name of Santa Cruz, of which he was made pro\nncial in 1530. From Santo Domingo he claimed the newly founded proWnce of Santiago de Mexico as being under his jurisdiction, but was successfully opposed by Fray Domingo de Betanzos. About the same time he was proposed for the Bishopric of Panama, and went thither. His vast and indefinite diocese em- braced everj-thing discovered, and to be discovered, on the South-American west coast, from which but a few years pre\-ious had come the news of the dis- covery of Peru by Pizarro. When, therefore, the Spanish crown began to notice signs of trouble be- tween Pizarro and Alniagro, about their respective territorial limits, it sent Bishop Berlanga to Peru with power to arbitrate between the two on any question at issue. At the same time the Spanish monarch, the Emperor Charles V, by a decree {ccdula) dated 19 July, 1534, ordered Berlanga to make a report on the condition and prospects of Peru, its geographical and ethnographic peculiarities. The arbitration failed. Pizarro had (perhaps be- cause he had been secretly informed of the bishop's mission) settled for the time being with Almagro and sent him off to Chile, so that no communication from Berlanga reached him. The latter's office as arbitrator was thereby practically vacated, and he returned to his see. refusing all advances made to him by Pizarro. The latter displayed considerable feeling, complaining that, as long as the conquest was in doubt, he had been left alone, but that now that it had been achieved "a st^p-father had been sent to him". Berlanga sent to the crown a description of what he saw, a brief and unvarnished report from the standpoint of a cool-headed observer. His mis- .sion was well intended, but practically impo,ssible. Pizarro had artfully removed the other party to the proposed arbitration, and Berlanga was too honest to yield to insinuations of a one-sided investigation. Of the gifts tendered he accepted for himself a dozen .silver spoons valued at twelve ducats, 600 pesos for the hospital of Panama, and 400 for the ho.^pital of Nicaragua. After promoting the construction of the convent of Santo Domingo at Lima, Berlanga returned, in 1537, to Spain where he died in his native town.

OviEDO. Hittorm general, etc. (Madrid. 1850, etc.); Cieza, CrOnica del Peru; Vedia. Historiadores jirimitivoa de Indios. II, and especially the third part; Guerra de las Salinas, MSS. unpublished; Documentos ineditoa de Indias (important letters by Berlanga); Davila Padilla, Historia^ de la iundacii'm y discurso de la provincia de Santiago de Mexico (2d ed., Brussels, 1625); Herrera, Historia general, (2d ed.. Antwerp. _ 1729. etc.); Anon.. Conquisti y poblacinn del Peru m HiMoriadores primitivos de Chile; Mendiburu. Dicriormrio (Lima. 1S76), II; Relaciones geogrdficas de Indias (1.885). I. Introduction. Jim£:nE£ de la Espada, in the same introduction, mentions a report by Berlanga. Relacu/n de la calitlad de la tierra, puertos y poblaciiin del Peru (dated February 3. 1338. printed on page 41 of the Introduction); Lihro primero de Cabildos de Lima (Lima. 1888).

Ad. F. Bandelier.

Berlin, capital of the German Empire and of the Kingdom of PriLssia, and residence of the German Emperor and Prussian. King. It is situated in the heart of the Mark of Brandenburg, on both sides of the Spree above it.s entrance into the Havel. The city covers an area of 24^ sq. miles and had, 1 December, 1905, 2,040,148 inhabitants, not including the popu- lation of the suburbs which are virtually |)arts of the city. Of the inhabitants of Beriin 223,948 are Catho-


lics; 1,695,251 are Protestants; 98,893 Jews, and 22,056 belong to other denominations.

History. — The present city of Berlin has grown out of two settlements of the Wends: KoUn, lying on an island in the Spree, and Berlin, opposite, on the right laank of the Spree. Kolln is mentioned for the first time in an official document dated 1237; Berlin, in 1244. Even at this date both places possessed the rights of Brandenburgian cities, but were not equal in importance to other cities of the Mark. A number of old churches, which are still among the most im- portant ones of the city, testify to the active religious life prevalent at this early date, as: the church of St. Mary, erected at the end of the thirteenth century; the church of St. Nicholas; the church of the Grey Monastery (Kirche des graucn Klosters), a Gothic edifice built at the end of the thirteenth century. Altogether there were about eighteen church-build- ings in Berlin before the Reformation. It was not until the two towns were united into one community, in 1307, that the place grew to be of some importance. In the tumultuous times which prevailed in the Mark of Brandenburg during the fourteenth century, Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Oder became the leaders of the confederation of the cities against the nobles, and joined the Hanseatic League. When the Emperor Charles IV obtained the Mark from the house of Wittelsbach, Berlin rose against him, but was de- feated and compelled to open its gates to the em- peror. Berlin paid an unwilling obedience to Freder- ick I of HohenzoUem who made his entry into the city in 1415. When the Elector Frederick II again sepa- rated the two cities and erected a fortified castle be- tween Berlin and Kolln, on the site of the present royal residence, the inhabitants, under the leadership of Bernd Ryke, revolted, stormed the house in which the elector was accustomed to live when in Berlin, and destroyed the public records. Frederick conquered the rebels .and took from the city its jurisdiction and other privileges. In 1451 the castle was completed; Elector John Cicero chose it for his usual residence, which greatly increased the importance of Berlin. The Reformation found ready acceptance in Berlin, and after the death of the Elector Joachim I (see BRANDENBtTRo) it triumphed over the old Faith. The nobility living in the neighbourhood of Berlin ac- cepted the new doctrine at Teltow, April. 1539, and the Elector Joachim II, in the same year, followed their example. On the 2d of November the first celebration of the Lord's Supper according to the Lutheran Rite took place at Berlin in the Dominican church, which was later transformed into a Protestant cathedral. In 1540 the new church ritual for the Mark was set- tled and printed at Berlin. The Reformation in a short time gained a complete ascendancy, the mon- asteries were suppressed, and the Franciscan Father Petrus (d. 1571) was the last Catholic priest in Berlin until the coming of the Dominicans about one him- dred and fifty years later.

The city sviffered greatly during the Thirty Years War, its population sinking to 4,000 in consequence of a plague. It slowly recovered from the injuries in- flicted by this war during the reign of Frederick William, the Great Elector, grew in size, and was surrounded by new fortifications. Immigrants from the Low Countries and French Huguenots, who brovight many branches of industry with them, raised the number of inhabitants to 20,000. Freder- ick 1 made Berlin the royal residence and adorned it with many fine buildings, the most famous architect and sculptor of the time being Schluter. In 1709 Frederick introduced a common govenmient for the five divisions of the city wOiich had gnidually grown up. In 1096 he founded the Academy of F"ine Arts, and in 1 700 t he .\cademy of Sciences, of which Leibnitz was the first president. Berlin sutTered greatly dur- ing the Seven Years War, in the course of which it was