Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/109

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BURLEIGH


81


BURLINGTON


the Jesuit church, Dublin, in aid of the starving

children of Donegal. A few days afterwards he breathed forth his soul to God, in Whose service he had laboured so valiantly. Father Burke pos- sessed all the qualities of a great orator: a rich, flexible, harmonious voice, great dramatic power, and a vivid imagination. He is buried in the church of Tallaght, now a memorial to him. Many of his lectures and sermons were collected and published in various editions in New York, as were also the four lectures in reply to Froude (1872) the latter with the title "The Case of Ireland Stated".

Fitzpatrick, Life nf Fr. Tom Burke (London, INS",); Inner Life ,,f Fr. Burke, bv a Friar Preacher, an.l. Father Burke, in the Publications of the English anil Irish Catholic Truth Societies.

Stanislaus Hooan.

Burleigh, or Burley (Burl.eus), Walter, Friar Minor and medieval philosopher, b. in 1275 and d. in 1337. It is impossible to determine with cer- tainty that Burleigh was a Franciscan, as some say that he was an Augustinian; and Franciscans "can do no less than lay a claim to him", as Parkinson remarks, "leaving the matter to be disputed by such as are disposed to contend". He was preceptor to Edward, Prince of Wales, who afterwards ascended the throne as Edward III in 1327. At Oxford he was the school-fellow of William of Occam, both being disciples of Duns Scotus. He taught at Paris for some time and was known as the Plain and Perspicuous Doctor {Doctor planus et perspicuus). Burleigh figured prominently in the dispute concern- ing the nature of universals. Following the doctrine of Scotus in this regard, he became, on the one hand, the adversary of William of Occam, the father of nominalism — that is, the doctrine which holds that universals are empty words, or nomina, having no real existence whatever; and on the other, the oppo- nent of the extreme realists who taught that the universal, as such, has actual or formal existence outside of the mind. In this connexion it should be remembered that, as in the question of universals, so in others of greater importance in philosophy, Scotus can be understood and interpreted only by one who has mastered by diligent and well-directed study the peculiar terminology of the Subtle Doctor and grasped his sometimes abstruse concepts of metaphysical principles.

Scotus was undoubtedly a moderate realist, that is, he taught that the universale in actu, to use his own words, non est nisi in intellectu, though having a foundation in extra-mental reality; and Burleigh followed his master. But when the disciples of Sco- tus endeavoured to construct on his principles a doctrine of exaggerated realism, Burleigh's opposi- tion to this mistaken interpretation of Scotus doc- trine was vigorous and uncompromising. He then, at least in this point, was the adversary of the Scotists rather than of Scotus himself. Burleigh's only work on theology is a commentary "in Magistrum Senten- tiarum". His philosophical writings include (1) "De intentione et remissione formarum"; (2) "Ex- positio in libros Ethicorum Aristotelis"; (3) "De vitis et moribus philosophorum"; (4) "De potentiis animae"; (5) "Summa totius logics"; (6) "Com- mentaria in libros Posteriorum Aristotelis"; (7) "Tractatus de materia et forma et relativis"; (8) "De fluxu et refluxu maris anglicani".

Parkinson, Collect ' noriHea, ad. an. 1337

(London, 1726). 161; Hchtkr. Xomenclator (Innsbruck, I-',-,; Jeii.er in Kirchmlex., II. 1542.

Stephen M. Donovan.

Burlington, Diocese of (Burlingtonensis), es- tablished 1 t July, 1 853, comprises the whole State of Vermont, 1 '. S. A., an area of 9135 square miles. The territory now making up the State of Vermont was not only discovered but first settled by Catholics. Champlain bestowed on the State in 1609 the name Vol. Ill— 6


Louis De Goesbriand


it tears and the first Mass said within its boundaries was offered up in 1666 by a Sulpician priest from Montreal, in the chapel of the little fort of St. Anne on Isle Lamothe — now the site of a shrine of pilgrim- age — where a few soldiers upheld the authority of the King of France. In 1608 Bishop Laval of Quebec went there and thus gave to Vermont the honour of the first episcopal visitation and ministration in New England and probably in the United States. Dur- ing the years that followed, Jesuit and other missionaries traversed the State and left the evi- dences of their zeal in the converted In- dians and the Catho- lic settlers in many villages. In 1734 there were fourteen Catholic families grouped about a chapel at Alburgh. After Canada had been ceded to the English in 1760 many New England emigrants went to Vermont, but the Bishops of Quebec still con- tinued to look after the Catholics there. When the Diocese of Boston was created in 1810 the State of Vermont was included within its jurisdiction, and the venerable Father Matignon of Boston visited Burling- ton in 1S15 and found about one hundred Catholic Canadians there without a priest or church. Father Migneault of Chambly, Canada, was a frequent visitor for a number of years, ministering to the scat- tered families along the border. Father James Fitton of Boston was another pioneer priest. The first resident priest in Vermont was the Rev. Jeremiah O'Callaghan, a native of Cork, Ireland, whose eccen- tric notions on the question of usury got him into difficulties with the bishop of his native diocese; he was sent to Burlington in 1S30 by Bishop Fenwick and remained there until 1854, his influence and pastoral zeal radiating far and wide. He built St. Peter's church, Burlington, in 1832. He died at Holyoke, Massachusetts, 23 February, 1861. In 1837 the Rev. John D. Daly, another eccentric but learned man, commenced to care for the missions in the southern part of the State and laboured until 1854, when he retired to New York where he died in 1S70. Notable also among the priests ministering in the State during this early period were Fathers William I vers, (leorge Hamilton, Edward McGowan, James Walsh, M. Petithomme, P. Drolet, and M. Chevalier. In 1843 the Catholics of the State numbered 4940, but the building of railroads and the establishment of numerous public works soon brought a steady increase.

In 1853 on the petition of the bishops of the Prov- ince of New York, the pope erected Vermont into a diocese with Burlington as the titular city. The Very Rev. Louis De (iocshriand, then Vicar-Ocneral of the Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio, was named the first bishop and consecrated in New York by Arch- bishop Bedini, 30 October, 1853. He was born 4 Au- gust, 1816, at Saint-L T rbain, Finistere, France. He studied at Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and was ordained priest at St. Louis, U. S. A., 30 July, L840, lb- found on his arrival in Vermont five priests, ten churches, and about 20,000 Catholics. In January, 1855, he went to Europe to secure priests in Ireland and France and with the aid of those who answered his appeal for volunteers, new parishes were organ- ized, churches built, schools opened, and the work of