BURNS
84
BURSFELD
The Ave Maria (Notre Dame, 1-29 Oct., 1S9S); Catholit
News, files (New York, 5 June, 1890); The Pilot, files (Boston,
I June. 1895); Brownson's Review (New York, April, 1863).
Edward P. Spillane.
Burns, James, publisher and author, b. near Montrose, Forfarshire, Scotland, 1808; d. in London,
II April, 1S71. During the last half of the nineteenth century his work in the cause of Catholic literature and Catholic church music contributed much to the rapid advancement of the Church in Great Britain and to the many conversions that were made throughout that period. His father was a Presby- terian minister and sent him to a college in Glasgow with the idea that he should follow the same calling. But feeling no inclination for it, he left the school in 1832 and went to London where he found employ- ment with a publishing firm. He acquired a thor- ough knowledge of this trade and then set up for himself in a modest way. He soon won success, and the ministers of the Established Church adopted him as an active auxiliary in their literary campaign of tracts and polemic publications. He then be- came a "Puseyite", or high-churchman. From his press were issued many interesting and instructive books of a high literary tone in the series he called "The Englishman's Library" and "The Fireside Library". The Oxford Movement under Newman of course drew him within its range, with the result that, in spite of the great worldly sacrifice it meant, he followed the example of many of his friends and became a convert in 1847.
The change was one of the sensations of the time and involved for him the making of a new business life and fortune. The Anglican publications of the old house were sold off and he set to work, and suc- ceeded, in a comparatively brief time, in building up an equally enviable reputation as an enterprising and proline publisher of good and wholesome Catholic literature. To his "Popular Library" Cardinal Wiseman contributed "Fabiola" and Cardinal New- man, "Callista". Other volumes from a host of well-known writers, prayer books, and books of devotion soon made the name of the firm of Burns & Oates a household word throughout the English- speaking world. Mr. Burns also wrote constantly on church music and edited and republished many compositions of the best masters. He continued his busy life in spite of a painful internal malady which ended in cancer, from which he died. His widow, who was also a convert, survived him twenty- two years, dying a member of the Ursuline com- munity at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., Jan- uary, 1893. Of his five daughters, four entered the Ursuline Order and the other became a Sister of Charity. His only son was ordained a priest, serving for a long time as chaplain at Nazareth House, Hammersmith, London.
Catholic Family Annual (New York. 1SS4); London Tablet ■m.l Weekly Register, tiles (15 April. 1871).
Thomas F. Meehan.
Burnt Offering. See Sacrifice.
Burse (fiipoa, "hide", "skin"; whence "bag" or "purse"), a receptacle in which, for reasons of con- venience and reverence, the folded corporal is carried to and from the altar. In Roman form the burse is ordinarily made of two juxtaposed pieces of card- board about twenty-five centimetres (or ten inches) square, bound together at three edges, leaving the fourth open to receive the corporal. One outer side of die burse is of the same material and colour as the vestments with which it is used; the rest is lined with linen or silk. The use of t lie burse is relatively recent. When tli" corpora) reached its present small dimen- sions, it was carried to the altar, sometimes in the missal, sometimes in a special receptacle, a box or bag, which finally took the present form of burse. Just when this custom began cannot be determined. The
"Chronicon vetus rerum Moguntinarum " (1140-
1251) mentions a precious corporal-case; this may
have been, however, only a box for the continual
safe-keeping of the corporal. St. Charles Borromeo
describes a sacculus corporalis distinct from the case
in which corporals were preserved (Acta Mediolan.,
1683, I, 524). From the fourteenth to the seven-
teenth centuries the use of the burse spread, and in
1692 it was universally illicit to celebrate Mass with-
out one (Decreta S. R. O, 1866, ad 2 m ).
Gihr, The Sacrifice of the Mass (St. Louis. 1902), 2C4. 265; Gavantus-Mer.vti, Thesaurus sac. rituum (Venice, 1762), I, 90.
John B. Peterson.
Bursfeld, The Abbey of. — In the Middle Ages one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries in Germany was the Abbey of Bursfeld, situated di- rectly west of Gottingen, on the River Weser, in what is now the Prussian Province of Hanover. It was founded in 1093 by Duke Henry of Nordheim and his wife Gertrude, who richly endowed it. Henry IV of Germany granted it numerous privileges and im- munities. Its first abbot, Almericus, came from the neighbouring Abbey of Corvey, bringing thence a band of monks. Following the Benedictine tradition, Almericus opened a school in connexion with the abbey, which soon became famous, and under the next four abbots its fame continued to increase. But in 1331, under the worthless Abbot Henry Lasar, monastic discipline began to relax; the school was neglected, and the rich possessions were dissipated. From 1331 to 1424 no records of the abbey were kept. When, in 1424. the aged Albert of Bodenstein became Abbot of Bursfeld, church ami school had fallen almost into ruins, the monastery itself was in a dilapidated condition, and but one old monk remained there. Albert would gladly have restored Bursfeld to its former splendour, but was too old to undertake the gigantic task. He resigned the abbacy in 1430.
During the fifteenth century a strong desire for monastic and other ecclesiastical reforms made itself felt throughout the Catholic world. One of the first Benedictine reformers was the pious and zealous John Dederoth, of Munden or Nordheim. Having effected notable reforms at Cms, where he had been abbot since 1430, Dederoth was induced by Duke Otto of Brunswick, in 1433. to undertake the reform of Bursfeld. Obtaining four exemplary religious from the monastery of St. Matthias, he assigned two of them to the monastery of Clus, to maintain his reformed discipline there, while the other two went with him to Bursfeld. Being still Abbot of Clus, he was able to recruit from that community for Bursfeld. Dederoth succeeded beyond expecta- tion in the restoration of Bursfeld anil began the reform of Reinhausen, near Gottingen, but died 6 February, 1439, before his efforts in that quarter had borne fruit.
The Bursfeld Union. — Although the monas- teries reformed by him never united into a con- gregation, still Dederoth's reforms may be looked upon as the foundation of the renowned Bursfeld Union, or Congregation. Dederoth, indeed, intended to unite the reformed Benedictine monasteries of Northern Germany by a stricter uniformity of dis- cipline, but the execution of his plan was left to his successor, the celebrated John of Hagen (not to be confounded with the Carthusian John of Hagen. otherwise called Johannes de Indagine). In 1445 John of Hagan obtained permission from the Council of Basle to restore the Divine Ofliee to the original form of the old Benedictine Breviary and to introduce liturgical and disciplinary uni- formity in t lie monasteries that followed the re- form of Bursfeld. A year later (11 March, 1446) Louis d'AUemand, as Cardinal Legate authorised by the Council of Basle, a) 'proved the Bursfeld
