the other children, of the person dying seised and intestate. Descent to the youngest brother to the exclusion of all other collaterals, where there is no issue, is sometimes included in the general definition, but this is really a special custom to be proved from the court-rolls of the manor and from local reputation—a custom which is sometimes extended to the youngest sister, uncle, aunt. Generally, however, Borough English, apart from specialties, may be said to differ from gavelkind in not including collaterals. It is often found in connexion with the distinct custom that the widow shall take as dower the whole and not merely one-third of her husband’s lands.
The origin of the custom of Borough English has been much disputed. Though frequently claimed to be of Saxon origin, there is no direct evidence of such being the case. The first mention of the custom in England occurs in Glanvil, without, however, any explanation as to its origin. Littleton’s explanation, which is the more usually accepted, is that custom casts the inheritance upon the youngest, because after the death of his parents he is least able to support himself, and more likely to be left destitute of any other support. Blackstone derived Borough English from the usages of pastoral life, the elder sons migrating and the youngest remaining to look after the household. C. I. Elton claims it to be a survival of pre-Aryan times. It was referred to by the Normans as “the custom of the English towns.” In the Yearbook of 22 Edward IV. fol. 32b it is described as the custom of Nottingham, which is made clear by the report of a trial in the first year of Edward III. where it was found that in Nottingham there were two districts, the one the Burgh-Fraunçoyes, the other the Burgh-Engloyes, where descent was to the youngest son, from which circumstance the custom has derived its name. On the European continent the custom of junior-rights is not unknown, more particularly in Germany, and it has by some been ascribed to the jus primae noctis (q.v.). It is also said to exist amongst the Mongols.
See also Gavelkind; Inheritance; Primogeniture; Tenure; Blackstone’s Commentaries; Coke’s Institutes; Comyn’s Digest of the Law; Elton’s Origin of English History; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law.
BORROMEAN ISLANDS, a group of four islands on the W. side
of Lago Maggiore off Baveno and Stresa. The southernmost,
the Isola Bella, is famous for its château and terraced
gardens, constructed by Count Vitaliano Borromeo (d. 1690).
To the N.W. is the Isola dei Pescatori, containing a fishing
village; and to the N.E. of this the Isola Madre, the largest of
the group, with a château and garden; and to the N. again,
off Pallanza, is the little Isola S. Giovanni.
BORROMEO, CARLO (1538–1584), saint and cardinal of the
Roman Catholic Church, son of Ghiberto Borromeo, count of
Arona, and Margarita de’ Medici, was born at the castle of Arona
on Lago Maggiore on the 2nd of October 1538. When he was
about twelve years old, Giulio Cesare Borromeo resigned to him
an abbacy, the revenue of which he applied wholly in charity to
the poor. He studied the civil and canon law at Pavia. In
1554 his father died, and, although he had an elder brother,
Count Federigo, he was requested by the family to take the
management of their domestic affairs. After a time, however,
he resumed his studies, and in 1559 he took his doctor’s degree.
In 1560 his uncle, Cardinal Angelo de’ Medici, was raised to the
pontificate as Pius IV. Borromeo was made prothonotary,
entrusted with both the public and the privy seal of the
ecclesiastical state, and created cardinal with the administration
of Romagna and the March of Ancona, and the supervision of the
Franciscans, the Carmelites and the knights of Malta. He was
thus at the age of twenty-two practically the leading statesman
of the papal court. Soon after he was raised to the archbishopric
of Milan. In compliance with the pope’s desire, he lived in great
splendour; yet his own temperance and humility were never
brought into question. He established an academy of learned
persons, and published their memoirs as the Noctes Vaticanae.
About the same time he also founded and endowed a college at
Pavia, which he dedicated to Justina, virgin and martyr. On
the death of his elder brother Federigo, he was advised to quit
the church and marry, that his family might not become extinct.
He declined the proposal, however, and became henceforward
still more fervent in exercises of piety, and more zealous for the
welfare of the church. Owing to his influence over Pius IV.,
he was able to facilitate the final deliberations of the council of
Trent, and he took a large share in the drawing up of the Tridentine catechism (Catechismus Romanus).
On the death of Pius IV. (1566), the skill and diligence of Borromeo contributed materially to suppressing the cabals of the conclave. Subsequently he devoted himself wholly to the reformation of his diocese, which had fallen into a most unsatisfactory condition owing to the prolonged absences of its previous archbishops. He made a series of pastoral visits, and restored decency and dignity to divine service. In conformity with the decrees of the council of Trent, he cleared the cathedral of its gorgeous tombs, rich ornaments, banners, arms, sparing not even the monuments of his own relatives. He divided the nave of the church into two compartments for the separation of the sexes. He extended his reforms to the collegiate churches (even to the fraternities of penitents and particularly that of St John the Baptist), and to the monasteries. The great abuses which had overrun the church at this time arose principally from the ignorance of the clergy. Borromeo, therefore, established seminaries, colleges and communities for the education of candidates for holy orders. The most remarkable, perhaps, of his foundations was the fraternity of the Oblates, a society whose members were pledged to give aid to the church when and where it might be required. He further paved the way for the “Golden” or “Borromean” league formed in 1586 by the Swiss Catholic cantons of Switzerland to expel heretics if necessary by armed force.
In 1576, when Milan was visited by the plague, he went about giving directions for accommodating the sick and burying the dead, avoiding no danger and sparing no expense. He visited all the neighbouring parishes where the contagion raged, distributing money, providing accommodation for the sick, and punishing those, especially the clergy, who were remiss in discharging their duties. He met with much opposition to his reforms. The governor of the province, and many of the senators, apprehensive that the cardinal’s ordinances and proceedings would encroach upon the civil jurisdiction, addressed remonstrances and complaints to the courts of Rome and Madrid. But Borromeo had more formidable difficulties to struggle with, in the inveterate opposition of several religious orders, particularly that of the Humiliati (Brothers of Humility). Some members of that society formed a conspiracy against his life, and a shot was fired at him in the archiepiscopal chapel under circumstances which led to the belief that his escape was miraculous. The number of his enemies was increased by his successful attack on his Jesuit confessor Ribera, who with other members of the college of Milan was found to be guilty of unnatural offences. His manifold labours and austerities appear to have shortened his life. He was seized with an intermittent fever, and died at Milan on the 4th of November 1584. He was canonized in 1610, and his feast is celebrated on the 4th of November.
Besides the Nodes Vaticanae, to which he appears to have contributed, the only literary relics of this intrepid and zealous reformer are some homilies, discourses and sermons, with a collection of letters. His sermons, which have little literary merit, were published by J.A. Sax (5 vols., Milan, 1747–1748), and have been translated into many languages. The record of his episcopate is to be found in the two volumes of the Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis (Milan, 1599). Contrary to his last wishes a memorial was erected to him in Milan cathedral, as well as a statue 70 ft. high on the hill above Arona, by his admirers who regarded him as the leader of a Counter-Reformation.
His nephew, Federigo Borromeo (1564–1631), was archbishop of Milan from 1595, and in 1609 founded the Ambrosian library in that city.
See G. P. Giussano, Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo (1610, Eng. ed. by H. E. Manning, London, 1884); A. Sala, Documenti circa la vita e la gesta di Borromeo (4 vols., Milan, 1857–1859); Chanoine Silvain,
