ne worthy of special mention.

BENEDICT XIV., a native of Bologna, a man of marked scholarship and
ability; a patron of science and literature, who did much to purify the
morals and elevate the character of the clergy, and reform abuses in the
Church.

BENEDICT, BISCOP, an Anglo-Saxon monk, born in Northumbria; made two
pilgrimages to Rome; assumed the tonsure as a Benedictine monk in
Provence; returned to England and founded two monasteries on the Tyne,
one at Wearmouth and another at Jarrow, making them seats of learning;
_b_. 628.

BENEDICT, ST., the founder of Western monachism, born near Spoleto;
left home at 14; passed three years as a hermit, in a cavern near
Subiaco, to prepare himself for God's service; attracted many to his
retreat; appointed to an abbey, but left it; founded 12 monasteries of
his own; though possessed of no scholarship, composed his "Regula
Monachorum," which formed the rule of his order; represented in art as
accompanied by a raven with sometimes a loaf in his bill, or surrounded
by thorns or by howling demons (480-543). See BENEDICTINES.

BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS, musician and composer, native of Stuttgart;
removed to London in 1835; author of, among other pieces, the "Gipsy's
Warning," the "Brides of Venice," and the "Crusaders"; conducted the
performance of "Elijah" in which Jenny Lind made her first appearance
before a London audience, and accompanied her as pianist to America in
1850 (1806-1885).

BENEDICTINES, the order of monks founded by St. Benedict and
following his rule, the cradle of which was the celebrated monastery of
Monte Casino, near Naples, an institution which reckoned among its
members a large body of eminent men, who in their day rendered immense
service to both literature and science, and were, in fact, the only
learned class of the Middle Ages; spent their time in diligently
transcribing manuscripts, and thus preserving for posterity the classic
literature of Greece and Rome.

BENEDICTUS, part of the musical service at Mass in the Roman
Catholic Church; has been introduced into the morning service of the
English Church.

BENEFIT OF CLERGY, exemption of the persons of clergymen from
criminal process before a secular judge.

BE`NEKE, FRIEDRICH EDUARD, a German philosopher and professor in
Berlin of the so-called empirical school, that is, the Baconian; an
opponent of the methods and systems of Kant and Hegel; confined his
studies to psychology and