junction of the roads is near Breifond, 13 m. above Naes at the mouth of the river, on the west shore of Lake Roldal, which is fed by the snowfield to the west, north and east, and is drained by the Bratland river.
BRATTISHING, or Brandishing (from the Fr. bretèche), in architecture, a sort of crest or ridge on a parapet, or species of embattlement. The term, however, is generally employed to describe the ranges of flowers which form the crests of so many parapets in the Tudor period.
BRATTLEBORO, a village of Windham county, Vermont, U.S.A., in a township (pop. 1910, 7541) of the same name, in the south-east part of the state, 60 m. N. of Springfield, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut river. Pop. (1890) 5467; (1900) 5297 (686 foreign-born); (1910) 6517. It is served by the Central Vermont and the Boston & Maine railways. Situated in a hilly, heavily wooded country, it is an attractive place, with a few houses dating from the 18th century. Among the manufactures are toys, furniture, overalls and organs, the Estey and the Carpenter organs being made there. First settled about 1753, Brattleboro took its name from one of the original patentees, William Brattle (1702–1776), a Massachusetts loyalist. It was incorporated ten years later.
See H. Burnham, Brattleboro (Brattleboro, 1880), and H. M. Burt, The Attractions of Brattleboro, Glimpses of Past and Present (Brattleboro, 1866).
BRAUNAU (Czech Broumov), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 139 m. E.N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 7622, chiefly German. The town is built on a rocky eminence on the right bank of the Steine. It has an imposing Benedictine abbey, once a castle, but converted into a religious house in 1322, when Ottakar I. gave the district to the Benedictines. Noteworthy also is the great church of Saints Wenceslaus and Adalbert, built between 1683 and 1733. This stands on the site where, in 1618, the Protestants attempted to build a church, the forcible prevention of which by Abbot Wolfgang Solander was the immediate cause of the protest of the Bohemian estates and the “defenestration” of the ministers Martinic and Slavata, which opened the Thirty Years’ War. After the battle of the White Hill, near Prague (1620), the town was deprived of all its privileges, which were, however, in great part restored nine years later. It is now a manufacturing centre (cloth, woollen and cotton stuffs, &c.) and has a considerable trade.
BRAUNSBERG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, 38 m. by rail S.W. of Königsberg, on the Passarge, 4 m. from its mouth in the Frisches Haff. Pop. (1900) 12,497. It possesses numerous Roman Catholic institutions, of which the most important is the Lyceum Hosianum (enjoying university rank), founded in 1564 by the cardinal bishop Stanislaus Hosius. Brewing, tanning, and the manufactures of soap, yeast, carriages and bricks are the most important industries of the town, which also carries on a certain amount of trade in corn, ship timber and yarn. The river is navigable for small vessels. The castle of Braunsberg was built by the Teutonic knights in 1241, and the town was founded ten years later. Destroyed by the Prussians in 1262, it was restored in 1279. The town, which was the seat of the bishops of Ermeland from 1255 to 1298, was granted the “law of Lübeck” by its bishop in 1284, and admitted to the Hanseatic League. After numerous vicissitudes it fell into the hands of the Poles in 1520, and in 1626 it was captured by Gustavus Adolphus. The Swedes kept possession till 1635. It fell to Prussia by the first partition of Poland in 1772.
BRAVO (Ital. for “brave”), the name for hired assassins such as were formerly common in Italy. The word had at first no evil meaning, but was applied to the retainers of the great noble houses, or to the cavalier-type of swashbucklers familiar in fiction. In later Italian history, especially in that of Venice, the bravi were desperate ruffians who for payment were ready to commit any crime, however foul.
BRAWLING (probably connected with Ger. brallen, to roar, shout), in law, the offence of quarrelling, or creating a disturbance in a church or churchyard. During the early stages of the Reformation in England religious controversy too often became converted into actual disturbance, and the ritual lawlessness of the parochial clergy very frequently provoked popular violence. To repress these disturbances an act was passed in 1551, by which it was enacted “that if any person shall, by words only, quarrel, chide or brawl in any church or churchyard, it shall be lawful for the ordinary of the place where the same shall be done and proved by two lawful witnesses, to suspend any person so offending, if he be a layman, from the entrance of the church, and if he be a clerk, from the ministration of his office, for so long as the said ordinary shall think meet, according to the fault.” An act of 1553 added the punishment of imprisonment until the party should repent. The act of 1551 was partly repealed in 1828 and wholly repealed as regards laymen by the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860. Under that act, which applies to Ireland as well as to England, persons guilty of riotous, violent or indecent behaviour, in churches and chapels of the Church of England or Ireland, or in any chapel of any religious denomination, or in England in any place of religious worship duly certified, or in churchyards or burial-grounds, are liable on conviction before two justices to a penalty of not more than £5, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two months. This enactment applies to clergy as well as to laity, and a clergyman of the Church of England convicted under it may also be dealt with under the Clergy Discipline Act of 1892 (Girt v. Fillingham, 1901, L.R. Prob. 176). When Mr J. Kensit during an ordination service in St Paul’s cathedral “objected” to one of the candidates for ordination, on grounds which did not constitute an impediment or notable crime within the meaning of the ordination service, he was held to have unlawfully disturbed the bishop of London in the conduct of the service, and to be liable to conviction under the act of 1860 (Kensit v. Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s, 1905, L.R. 2 K.B. 249). The public worship of Protestant Dissenters, Roman Catholics and Jews in England had before 1860 been protected by a series of statutes beginning with the Toleration Act of 1689, and ending with the Liberty of Religious Worship Act 1855. These enactments, though not repealed, are for practical purposes superseded by the summary remedy given by the act of 1860. In Scotland disturbance of public worship is punishable as a breach of the peace (Dougall v. Dykes, 1861, 4 Irvine 101).
In British possessions abroad interference with religious worship is usually dealt with by legislation, and not as a common-law offence. In India it is an offence voluntarily to cause disturbance to any assembly lawfully engaged in the performance of religious worship or religious ceremonies (Penal Code, s. 296). Under the Queensland Criminal Code of 1899 (s. 207) penalties are imposed on persons who wilfully and without lawful justification or excuse (the proof of which lies on them) disquiet or disturb any meeting of persons lawfully assembled for religious worship, or assault any forces lawfully officiating at such meeting, or any of the persons there assembled.
In the United States disturbance of religious worship is treated as an offence under the common law, which is in many states supplemented by legislation (see Bishop, Amer. Crim. Law, 8th ed. 1892, vol. i. s. 542, vol. ii. ss. 303-305; California Penal Code, s. 302; Revised Laws of Massachusetts, 1902, chap. 212, s. 30.).
BRAY, SIR REGINALD (d. 1503), British statesman and architect, was the second son of Sir Richard Bray, one of the privy council of Henry VI. Reginald was born in the parish of St John Bedwardine, near Worcester, but the date of his birth is uncertain. He was receiver-general and steward of the household to Sir Henry Stafford, second husband of Margaret, countess of Richmond, whose son afterwards became King Henry VII. The accession of the king Henry VII. favoured the fortunes of Reginald Bray, who was created a knight of the Bath at the coronation and afterwards a knight of the Garter. In the first year of Henry VII.’s reign he was given a grant of the constableship of Oakham Castle in Rutland, and was appointed joint chief justice with Lord Fitz Walter of all the forest south of Trent and chosen of the privy council. Subsequently he was made high treasurer and chancellor of the duchy of
