The population, which is densest along the coast, was
604,540 in 1871.
Bari, the ancient Barium, capital of the above province and seat of an archbishop, is situated on a tongue of laud projecting into the Adriatic, in lat. 41 7 N., and long. 16 53 E. It is defended by various fortifications, among which the most important is the citadel, which is about a mile in circumference, and dates from the Norman posses sion. The general character of the older part of the town is gloomy and irregular, but the newer portion has spacious streets, with handsome buildings. The priory of St Nicolo, built by Robert Guiscard in 1087 to hold the relics of the saint, which, had been brought from Myra in Lycia, is interesting for its beautiful crypt and the tombs of Robert of Bari and Bona Sforza of Poland. The festival of St Nicholas, on the 8th of May, is still attended by thousands ; and his body is believed by the superstitious to supply the Manna di Bari. The cathedral of St Sabino, a fine Gothic structure, was barbarously bestuccoed and transformed by Archbishop Gaeta in 1745. Among the other buildings of importance are the palace of the " Intendente," the theatre (a large modern erection), the Lyceum, a college for the education of the nobility, and an " Athenaeum." The commercial importance of Bari has been for some time on the increase ; and its harbour, aug mented by the building of two moles in 1855, has more recently received a still greater extension, while excellent anchorage is also afforded by its roads. The inhabitants are skilful seamen, and carry on a large traffic in their own ships with different parts of the Adriatic. The exports, which consist chiefly of olive oil, wine, mustard seed, cream of tartar, grain, and almonds and other fruits, were valued in 1872 at 642,818, while the imports of the same year amounted to 249,081. The railway to Brindisi was opened in 1865, and another line has since been extended to Taranto. Barium, according to the evidence of its coins, was a place of importance in the 3d century B.C., and had a decided Greek element in its culture ; but it never acquired anygreat influence in the old Roman world, and all allusions to it in the classical authors are of an incidental description. After the fall of the Western empire it was subject in turn to the Greek emperors, to the dukes of Benevento, and to the Saracen invaders. From the last it was delivered in 971 by Louis II., and again in 1002 by the Venetians, who left their Lion of St Mark as an emblem to the city. Not long after it was raised to the rank of capital of Apulia by the Greek emperors, who were soon (1040) compelled to acknowledge it as a free princi pality under Argyrus. After a four years siege it was taken in 1070 by the Normans, who lost it in 1137 to Lothaire, but recovered it a few years later. In 1156 it was razed by William the Bad, and has several times suffered a similar fate. In the 14th century Bari became a duchy, which continued to exist till 1558, when it was bequeathed by Bona Sforza to Philip II. of Spain.
See Beatillo, Historia de Sari, Napoli, 1637 ; Lombardi, Com pendia cronologico delle vite degli arcivescovi Baresi, Xapoli, 1697.
BARKING, a town of England, county of Essex, 7 miles E.N.E. of London, on the River Roding, not far from the Thames. It was celebrated for its nunnery, one of the oldest and richest in England, founded about 670 by Erkenwald, bishop of London, and restored in 970 by King Edgar, about a hundred years after its destruction by the Danes. The abbess was a baroness ex offido, and the revenue at the dissolution of the monasteries was 1084. The church of St Margaret is an ancient edifice of con siderable beauty, with some curious monuments ; and the ancient market-house, no longer used, and an embattled gateway, are also worthy of mention. The various dissenting denominations have places of worship in the town. Population in 1871, 5766, principally engaged in the river traffic and in the cultivation of vegetables for the London market. There is no longer much attention paid to the fishery, but various industries have been introduced.
BARLAAM and JOSAPHAT, Saints. These two saints appear in both the Greek and the Roman Martyrology, in the former under 26th August, in the latter under 27th November. Their story is in the highest degree worthy of note, because it is, in fact, a Christianized version of the Indian legendary history of the Buddha, Sakya Muni.
The remarkable parallel between Buddhistic ritual, costume, and discipline, and those which especially claim the title of Catholic in the Christian church, has often been recognized, even by the most faithful sons of Rome;[1] and though the parallel has perhaps never been elaborated as it might be, some of its more salient points are familiar. Still, many readers may be unaware that Sakya Muni himself, or, as he was by birth, Siddharta, the son of Suddodhana, prince of Kapilavastu (in the north of modern Oudh), has found his way into the Roman calendar as a saint of the church.
The Christian story first appears in Greek among the works of St John of Damascus, an eminent divine, and an opponent of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian in the Iconoclastic movement, who flourished in the early part of the 8th century, and who, before he adopted the monastic life and devoted himself to theology, had held high office at the court of the caliph Abu Jafar Almansur, as his father Sergius is said to have done before him.[2]
The outline of the Greek story is as follows : St Thomas had converted the people of India, and after the eremitic life originated in Egypt, many Indians adopted it. But a powerful pagan king arose who hated and persecuted the Christians, especially the ascetics. After this king, Abenner by name, had long been child less, a boy greatly desired, and matchless in beauty, was born to him, and received the name of Josaphat. The king, in his joy, summons astrologers to predict the child s destiny. They foretell glory and prosperity beyond those of all his predecessors. One sage, most learned of all, assents, but intimates that the scene of this glory will be, not the paternal kingdom, but another infinitely more exalted, and that the child will adopt the faith which his father persecutes.
The boy shows a thoughtful and devout turn. King Abenner, troubled by this and by the remembrance of the prediction, selects a secluded city, in which he causes a splendid palace to be built, where his son should abide, attended only by tutors and servants in the flower of youth and health. No stranger was to have access, and the boy was to be cognizant of none of the sorrows of humanity, such as poverty, disease, old age, or death, but only of what was pleasant, so that he should have no inducement to think of the future life ; nor was he ever to hear a word of Christ and his religion.
Prince Josaphat grows up in this seclusion, acquires all kinds of knowledge, and exhibits singular endowments. At length, on his urgent prayer, the king reluctantly permits him to pass the limits of the palace, after having taken all precautions to keep painful objects out of sight. But through some neglect of orders, the prince one day encounters a leper and a blind man, and asks of his attendants with pain and astonishment what such a spectacle should mean. These, they tell him, are ills to which man is liable. Shall all men have such ills ? he asks. And in the end he returns home in deep depression. Another day he falls in with a decrepit old man, and, stricken with dismay at the sight, renews his questions, and hears for the first time of death. And in how many years, continues the prince, does this fate befall man ? and must he expect death as inevitable ? Is there no way of escape ? N~o means of eschewing this wretched state of decay ? The attendants reply as may be imagined ; and Josaphat goes home more pensive than ever, dwelling on the certainty of death, and on what shall be thereafter.
At this time Barlaam, an eremite of great sanctity and know ledge, dwelling in the wilderness of Seunaritis, divinely warned,
- ↑ It has been alleged that Pure Hue, on returning to Europe, was astonished to find his celebrated journey to Lhasa in the Index, on the ground of such recognition. But this seems to be untrue.
- ↑ St John s authorship Of the story has been disputed.^ Prof. Max Miiller, in the paper quoted below, seems to dispose sufficiently of the objections. None of the old editions of St John s works contain the Greek of the story. Tins, Prof. Miiller states, was first published in 1832 by Boissonade, in his Analecta Grceca, vol. iv.
