LAP
796
LAPLACE
Charcas. The eleventh bishop, Agusti'n Rodriguez
Delgado, was made Bishop of Panama in 1725 and be-
came bishop of La Paz in 1731, in which capacity, in
1738, he edited the constitutions of the Third Dioc-
esan Synod of La Paz. In 1743 he was appointed
Archbishop of Charcas and in 1746 Archbishop of
Lima, and died in the same year on his way to Lima.
Gregorio Francisco de Campos (1764-87) completed
the Franciscan monastery and dedicated it on 23
April, 1784. The twenty-sixth bishop, Juan de Dios
Bosque (1874-90), published 29 November, 1883,
the synodal constitutions still in force. The actual
Isishop (the twenty-eighth) Mgr. Nicolas Armentia,
O.P'.M., has rendered distinguished services in the
geographical exploration of Bolivia. He was born 5
December, 1845, at Bernedo in the Spanish province
of Alava, received his early education in Biscaglia and
in 1860 entered the French Franciscan province of
St^Louis. In 1865 he was sent to the Franciscan col-
lege at La Paz, whore he was ordained in 1869, after
which he laboured from 1871 till 1880 as a missionary
among the Indians in Tumupasa and Covendo. In
June, 1881, he went to the Araunas and Pacaguaras
on business for the Government. With a knapsack on
his back containing clothes, provisions, and a sextant,
a breviary in one hand and a compass in the other, he
traversed the broad territory between the Bern' and
Madre de Dios Rivers. He followed the Beni for its
entire length and examined the surrounding forests,
remaining until 1883. After his return to La Paz he
published, in 1884, the result of his explorations under
the title "Diario de sus viajes d las tribus compren-
didas entre el Beni y Madre de Dios y en ele arroyo de
Ivon en los dos afios de 1882 y 1883 ". In May, 1884,
Armentia navigated the Madre de Dios, pushing as
far as 10° S. lat., exploring the Orton River (Tahua-
manu), among others, and returning to La Paz in
August, 1886. Here, in 1887, he published his second
work: "Navegacion del Madre de Dios" (in "Biblio-
teca Boliviana de geografia € historia", I), translated
into Italian by Marcellino da Civezza in his "Storia
universale delle missioni Francescane" (VII, Flor-
ence, 1894, part IV, 503-663). In this Armentia de-
scribes, besides the fauna and flora of the countries he
traversed, the customs and tongues of the tribes he
visited, especially the Araunas, and laid before the
Government a plan showing how the work of civiliza-
tion begun by him among these savages could be most
efJectively carried on. On 22 October, 1901, Ar-
mentia was appointed Bishop of La Paz, and 24 Febru-
ary, 1902, was consecrated at Sucre. He published the
"Regla Consueta" of his order in 184 articles (8 Dec,
1903), and wrote a valuable history of the old Fran-
ciscan missions in Bolivia under the title " Relacion
historica de las misiones Franciscanas de Apolo-
bamba, por otro nombre Frontera de Caupolicdn"
(La Paz, 1903).
The diocese includes the entire Department of La Paz and the Province of Magdalena in the Department of Beni. It numbers 700,000 inhabitants in 72 par- ishes, served by about one hundred secular priests. The religious congregations represented in the diocese are the Franciscans, with the missionary college of San Jos^, opened at La Paz in 1837; the Franciscan Recollects with various mission schools; the Jesuits with a flourishing college (150 day scholars and 50 interns); the Mercedarians with free schools; the Lazarists with a college; Dom Bosco's Salesians with an institute opened in 1887 (a business and trade school). The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the Sisters of tin; Most Sacred Heart (Picpus Sisters), the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and the Daughters of St. Anne devote themselves to teaching and works of charity, while the SisI its of the Inimaeu- late Conception aiid the Carmelite luiiis follow the contemplative life. The calh(!ilral chapter has ten canons.
MiDDENDORF, Pcru. Ill (Berlin. 1859), 329^3; ScbOtz-
HuLZHAUsEN, Der Amazonas, 2nd ed. bv Klassert (Freiburg
im Br., 1895), 362 sq.; Spillmann, In der Neuen Welt, I (2nd
ed., Freiburg im Br., 1904), 132; Bolelin Eclesidstico de la
diiicesis de Nueslra Sei'iora de la Paz. monthly (La Paz, 1908 — ),
with a catalogue of bishops in nos. 1-4. Concerning the Fran-
ciscan missions of the diocese, cf. the above-quoted work of
Bishop Armentia and the bibliography of La Plata, Diocese
of; Bolivia; Acta Ordinis Minorum. XXIV (Rome, 1905),
359 sqq. ; Mariano Fern.\ndez, Conspectus omnium missionum
Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (Quaracchi, 1905), 175 sqq.; Hol-
zapfel, Handbuch der Geschichte des Franciskanerordens (Frei-
burg im Br., 1909), 515. Concerning the Salesian Institute see
Salesianische Nachrichten. Ill (Turin, 1S97), 160 sqq., 183 sqq.
On Bishop Armentia's explorations; Marcellino da Civezza,
op. cit., VII, pt. IV, introduction, p. xxx sqq.; ScHfTZ-HoLZ-
hausen, op. cit., 343 sqq.; Polakow.ski in Verkandl.d.Geaell-
schaft fur Erdkunde (Berlin, 1888), 475.
Gregob Reinhold. Lap Cloth. See Gremiale.
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, mathematical and phys- ical astronomer, b. in Beaumont^en-Auge, near Caen, Department of Calvados, France, in March (dates given 28, 25, 23, 22), 1749; d. in Paris, 5 March, 1827. The son of a small farmer, he became connected with the military school
muBimmiBssssr
of his town, first
as pupil, then as
teacher. At the
age of eighteen he
went to Paris, and,
after convincing
d'Alembert of his
talents by a letter
on the principles
of mechanics, ob-
tained a professor-
ship at the mili-
tary school of the
capital. Later he
became examiner
of the royal artil-
lery (1784) an<l
professor at the
Ecole Normale.
During the politi-
cal changes in
France he sought
favour with Revo-
lution, consul, em-
peror, and king. In 171)0 he accepted from the con-
sul the post of minister of the interior, but, after
six weeks, was removed for administrative inca-
pacity. He was a member and even chancellor
(1803) of the Senate, and great officer of the Legion of
Honour and of the new Order of Reunion. After the
downfall of Napoleon (1814) he was nominated Peer
of Franco, with the right of a seat in the Chamber, and
in 1817 was raised to the dignity of marquis. His last
years were spent in his villa of Arcueil, which became
a centre of learned visitors and studious young men
(Biot, Poisson, etc.). The SociiH6 d'Arcueil was
founded wit h his co-operation. Whereas he remained
in undisturbed friendship with his great scientific
rival Legrange, other scientists, like Young and Le-
gendre, complained of him for not acknowledging
their work. Laplace married at the age of thirty-nine,
and a son was born to him in 1789. His scientific
discoveries wore made between the twentieth and
fortieth years of his life. The succeeding thirty-eight
years were spent in composing the immortal works:
"The System of the World " (1796) and the "Mechan-
ics of the Heavens" (1799-1825).
Analysis owes to Laplace mainly the full develop- ment of the co-efficients, of the potential and of the theory of probabilities. In the line of celestial me- chanics his glory was made by the discovery (an- nounced in 1773) of the invariability of the planetary mean motions and the consequent stability of the solar system. The " Exposition du SystOme du
