BISCAY, or Vizcaya. one of the three Basque provinces of Spain, with the title of Seignory. It is bounded on the N. by the bay to which it gives its name, E. by Guipuzcoa, S. by Alava, and W. by Santander. Its area is 845 square miles, and its population in 1867 was 183,098. The coast line, which extends from Ondarroa to a short distance to the east of Castro, is bold and rugged, and in some places is deeply indented. The only river of any size is the Nervion or Ibaizabal, on which Bilbao is situated ; the others, which are numerous, are merely large mountain streams. The surface of the country is for the most part very mountainous, but at the same time is diversified with numerous narrow valleys and small plains. Some of the mountains are almost entirely composed of naked calcareous rock, but most of them are covered to their summits with forests of oaks, chestnuts, or pine trees. Holly and arbutus are also common, and furze and heath abound in the poorer parts. The province produces wheat, maize, barley, rye, flax, grapes, peaches, apples, and other fruits. The" farms are generally small, and are for the most part tilled by manual labour. The wild boar, lynx, fox, and other wild animals, are f oind in the forests ; and deer, rabbits, partridges, woodcocks, and other kinds of game are plentiful. Sheep and goats are the principal domestic animals. In minerals Biscay is very rich. Iron of the finest quality is found in almost every part, and forms a main article of export. The best mines are those of Somorostro, near the coast. The amount obtained in 1866 was about 80,000 tons. Lead, zinc, alum, and sulphur, are also present in smaller quantities ; and marble, lime, and sandstone are abundant. The manufacture of the iron ore is the chief branch of industry ; but porcelain, linens, copper and brass wares, ropes, and leather, are also produced. The fisheries are actively prosecuted along the coast by a hardy race of fishers, who were the first of their craft in Europe to pursue the whale, formerly abundant in the Bay of Biscay. Cod, bream, tunny, and anchovy are the principal fish taken. Bilbao is the capital of the province, with a population of 17,649; the other towns, Portugalete, Miravalles, Durango, and Orozco, are all very small. The principal ports, besides Portugalete, are Plencia, Bermeo, and Hea. After the fall of the Romans this Cantabrian province came successively into the hands of the Snevi, Franks, and Goths, and formed for some time an independent lordship. The legislative authority was exercised by the lord and a junta of popular representatives. The latter regularly assembled every two years, and on any emergency held an extra ordinary meeting under an old tree at Guernica. Although incorporated with Spain, the Biscayans still maintain a republican form of administration, nominating their own governors and magistrates, regulating the amount of the taxes, and exercising various other privileges. They are a brave and active people, and their history is largely composed of exploits in defence of their liberties. For their linguistic and ethnographic affinities, see the article Basque Provinces. The name Biscay is not unfrequently employed as geographically equivalent to Basque, in that case including the three provinces of Biscay proper, Guipuzcoa, and Alava.
BISCAY, Bay of, in French the Golfe de Gascogne, and the Roman Sinus Aquitanicus, an extensive gulf or bay of the Atlantic, enclosed by the northern coast of Spain and the western coast of France. It extends from the island of Ushant, on the coast of Finistere, to Cape Ortegal on the north of Galicia. In the Spanish portion of the bay the water is about 200 fathoms deep, while in the French portion it is only 20 fathoms. Navigation is impeded by strong westerly winds, and by Rennel s Current, which sets in from the west and sweeps along the southern and eastern shores sometimes at a rate of 27 miles a day. The Loire, Charcttfc, Giroiule, end Adour, besides numerous smaller streams from the Spanish mountains, fall into the bay.
BISCEGLIA, perhaps the ancient Natiolum, a fortified seaport of Italy, in the province of Terra di Bari, situated on a rocky promontory on the Adriatic, 21 miles "VV.N.W. of Bari. It is the seat of a bishopric, and has a cathedral, numerous churches and convents, and a theatre. Some ruins still exist of a hospital, founded by Bohemund for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Its harbour is only accessible to small vessels, and it has little trade. Being destitute of springs, it has numerous reservoirs for the collection of rain-water. Population, 21,371.
BISCHWEILER, a town of Alsace, 14 miles N. of Strasburg, on the railway from Hagenau. It has manu factures of woollen and linen stuffs, oil, soap, earthen ware, &c., and some trade in hops, hemp, leather, and tobacco. Population in 1871, 9220, including that of Hanhoffen, which numbered 689.
BISHOP, the title of an ecclesiastical dignitary set over the presbyters and deacons at a very early period in the Christian church. The word is derived from the Saxon bisceop, which is a corruption of the Greek word fpiscopos, which signifies an "overlooker" or "overseer," and the churches in which the order of bishops is recognized as distinct from and superior to the order of presbyters are styled " Episcopal churches." The early history of the Episcopal order is obscure, but it would appear that the first bishops were established in the chief cities of Christendom, and each bishop had a certain territorial district placed under his superintendence, whence the city was termed the see (sedes) of the bishop, and the district his parish (TrapotKta), and subsequently his diocese (Siouojcris). In course of time the districts assigned to the first bishops became too populous, whereupon the clergy of each diocese, as the case might be, appear to have assembled and to have subdivided the diocese, and to have selected a second bishop, and so bishops and dioceses were multiplied, according to the wants of the churches, until it was thought expedient to reserve the right of erecting new bishoprics to provincial councils, and this reservation was made a rule of the church by a decree of the Council of Sardica. Meanwhile the bishops of the new sees had grouped themselves round the bishops of the more ancient sees, who exercised over them a certain spiritual authority as primates, and presided in their councils; and as some of the great cities in which the sees of the first bishops had been established were distinguished by the title of " metropolis," or mother-city, and were in fact the chief cities of civil provinces of the Roman empire, the bishops of those sees came to be distinguished by the title of metropolitan bishops, and exercised a superior authority in the councils of the church in proportion to the greater im portance of their respective sees. This superior dignity of the metropolitan bishops over the others was formally recognized at the Council of Nicsea as being in accordance with custom. Upon the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Roman empire a coercive jurisdiction was engrafted on the spiritual superiority of the metropoli tan, and the district over which the metropolitan exercised this jurisdiction was termed his province, the earliest ecclesiastical provinces being for the most part conterminous with the civil provinces of the empire. From the circum stance that there was no metropolitan city in Western Africa, the term metropolitan was never adopted in the Carthaginian Church, the senior bishop of that church being termed the primate, and having precedence and authority as such over the other bishops.
