TAURUS (“the Bull”), in astronomy, the second sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the symbol ♉︎. It is also a constellation of very great antiquity, the Pleiades and Hyades, two star clusters, being possibly referred to in the Old Testament; Aldebaran, a star, is mentioned by Hesiod and Homer. Ptolemy catalogued 44 stars, Tycho Brahe 43, Hevelius 51. The Greeks fabled this constellation to be the bull which bore Europa across the seas to Crete, and was afterwards raised to the heavens by Jupiter. α Tauri, or Aldebaran, is a brilliant star of a reddish colour and magnitude 1.2; this star is the principal object of the group named the Hyades, named after the seven daughters of Atlas and Aethra—Ambrosia, Coronis, Eudora, Pasithoë, Plexaris, Pytho and Tycho—fabled by the Greeks to have been transformed into stars by Jupiter for bewailing the death of their brother Hyas. Another star group in this constellation is the Pleiades. λ Tauri is an “Algol” variable, varying in magnitude from 3.4 to 4.2. Nebula M.1 Tauri is a famous “crab” nebula, so named by Lord Rosse from its clawlike protuberances; it is the first of the series of nebula on the enumeration of Messier.
TAUSEN, HANS (1494–1561), the protagonist of the Danish
Reformation, was born at Birkende in Funen in 1494. The
quick-witted peasant lad ran away from the plough at an early
age, finally settling down as a friar in the Johannite cloister of
Antvorskov near Slagelse. After studying at Rostock and
teaching there for a time and also at Copenhagen, he was again
sent abroad by his prior, visiting, among other places, the
newly founded university of Leyden and making the acquaintance
of the Dutch humanists. He was already a good linguist,
understanding both Latin and Hebrew. Subsequently he
translated the books of Moses from the original. In May 1523
Tausen went to Wittenberg, where he studied for a year and a
half, when he was recalled to Antvorskov. In consequence of
his professed attachment to the doctrines of Luther he was
first imprisoned in the dungeons of Antvorskov and thence
transferred, in the spring of 1525, to the Grey Friars' cloister
at Viborg in Jutland, where he preached from his prison to the
people assembled outside, till his prior, whom he won over to
his views, permitted him to use the pulpit of the priory church.
At Viborg the seed sown by Tausen fell upon good soil. Several
young men in the town had studied at Wittenberg, and the
burghers, in their Lutheran zeal, had already expelled their
youthful Bishop Jörgen Friis. Tausen's preaching was so
revolutionary that he no longer felt safe among the Franciscans,
so he boldly discarded his monastic habit and placed himself
under the protection of the burgesses of Viborg. At first he
preached in the parish church of St John, but this soon growing
too small for him he addressed the people in the market-place
from the church tower. When the Franciscans refused to
allow him to preach in their large church, the mob broke in by
force. A compromise was at last arranged, whereby the friars
were to preach in the forenoon and Tausen in the afternoon.
The bishop, very naturally averse to these high-handed
proceedings, sent armed men to the church to arrest Tausen, but
the burghers, who had brought their weapons with them, drove
back “the bishop's swains.” In October 1526 King Frederick I.,
during his visit to Aalborg, took Hans Tausen under his
protection, appointed him one of his chaplains, and charged him to
continue for a time “to preach the holy Gospel” to the citizens of Viborg, who were to be responsible for his safety, thus identifying himself with the new doctrines in direct contravention of
the plain letter of his coronation oath. Tausen found a diligent
fellow-worker in Jörgen Viberg, better known as Sadolin, whose
sister, Dorothea, he married, to the great scandal of the Catholics.
He was indeed the first Danish priest who took unto himself a
wife. He was also the first of the reformers who used Danish
instead of Latin in the church services, the “Even song” he
introduced at Viborg being of great beauty. Tausen was
certainly the most practically gifted of all the new native teachers.
But he was stronger as a preacher and an agitator than as a
writer, the pamphlets which he now issued from the press of
his colleague the ex-priest Hans Vingaard, who settled down
at Viborg as a printer, being little more than adaptations of
Luther's opuscula. He continued to preach in the Grey Friars'
church, while Sadolin, whom he had “consecrated” a priest,
officiated at the church of the Dominicans, who had already
fled from the town. The stouter-hearted Franciscans only
yielded to violence persistently applied by the soldiers whom
their opponents quartered upon them. In 1529 Tausen's
“mission” at Viborg came to an end. King Frederick now
recommended him to Copenhagen to preach heresy at the
church of St Nicholas, but here he found an able and intrepid
opponent in Bishop Rönne. Serious disturbances thereupon
ensued; and the Protestants, getting the worst of the
argument, silenced their gainsayers by insulting the bishops and
priests in the streets and profaning and devastating the
Catholic churches. A Herredag, or Assembly of Nobles, was
held at Copenhagen on the 2nd of July 1530, ostensibly to
mediate between the two conflicting confessions, but the king,
from policy, and the nobility, from covetousness of the estates
of the prelates, made no attempt to prevent the excesses of
the Protestant rabble, openly encouraged by Tausen. On the
other hand, the preachers failed to obtain the repeal of the
Odense recess of 1527 which had subjected them to the spiritual
jurisdiction of the prelates. On the death of King Frederick,
Tausen, at the instance of Rönne, was, at the Herredag of 1533,
convicted of blasphemy and condemned to expulsion from the
diocese of Sjaelland, whereupon the mob rose in arms against
the bishop, who would have been murdered but for the
courageous intervention of Tausen, who conducted him home
in safety. The noble-minded Rönne thereupon, from gratitude,
permitted Tausen to preach in all his churches on condition
that he moderated his tone. On the final triumph of the
Reformation Tausen was appointed bishop of Ribe (1542), an office
he held with great zeal and fidelity for twenty years.
See Suhr, Tausens Levnet (Ribe, 1836); Danmarks Riges Historie, vol. iii. (Copenhagen, 1897–1905). (R. N. B.)
TAUSSIG, FRANK WILLIAM (1859–), American economist,
was born at St Louis, Missouri, on the 28th of December
1859. He was educated in his native city and at Harvard
University, where he became professor of political economy
in 1892. He has made a particular study of finance, and has
written Tariff History of the United States (1888); The Silver
Situation in the United States (1892); Wages and Capital (1896). He was for some time editor of the American Quarterly Journal of Economics.
TAUTPHOEUS, JEMIMA, Baroness von (1807–1893), British novelist, was born at Seaview, Co. Donegal, on the 23rd of October 1807, her maiden name being Montgomery. In 1838 she married the Baron von Tautphoeus of Marquartstein (1805–1885), chamberlain to the king of Bavaria, and in Bavaria she passed most of the rest of her life. She was the author of several novels, written in English, describing South German life, manners and history. The Initials (1850), Quits (1857), and At Odds (1863) are the best known of these. She died on the 12th of November 1893.
TAVASTEHUS, a province of Finland, bounded by the provinces of Nyland, Viborg, Vasa and St Michel. Pop. (1904) 317,326. The province is largely unproductive, much of the surface being composed of hills and lakes, but in favourable districts agriculture is successfully pursued, and there is a school of agriculture and an institute of forestry.
TAVERN, the old name for an inn, a public house where liquor is sold and food is supplied to travellers. It is, however, now usually applied to a small ale-house where liquor only is supplied. The word comes through Fr. from Lat. taberna, a booth, shop, inn. It is usually connected with the root seen in “tabula,” board, whence Eng. “table;” and thus meant originally a hut or booth made of planks or boards of wood.
TAVERNIER, JEAN BAPTISTE (1605–1689), French traveller and pioneer of trade with India, was born in 1605 at Paris, where his father Gabriel and uncle Melchior, Protestants from Antwerp, pursued the profession of geographers and engravers. The conversations he heard in his father's
