BROKINGS, CHRISTIAN. 



BRUNSWICK, HOUSE OF. 



imO.MNOS, CHRISTIAN, VM bom in 1786 t Neokenu in the 

 He early applied himself to Uie study of hydraulics, mod 

 became ooe of the ftnt hydraulic engineers of hi. Urn*. 



The BUWogensnl of Holland having appointed him in 1769 Inspector- 

 fstMfal of the riven and canals, he effected many useful works, drained 

 several tracts of land, repaired the dyke* of the Haarlem MOST, 

 ' the bod of the Oberwasser, and altered the course of the 

 Canal, which communicates between the Waal and the 

 In the ooune of these operation* ha invented an instrument 

 to measure the rapidity of streams, and to determine the same at any 

 deuth. He explained tho principles and the use of this invention, 

 which goes by the name of the ' Bruningsche Strommesser,' in a 

 trssJU* whieh was translated from the Dutch into German under the 

 title of ' Abbandlunz uber die Geschwindigkeit des fliessendes wasters, 

 und von den mitteln dieselbe auf alien Uefen xu bettimmen, 1 4to, 

 Frankfurt, 1798, with plates, and an introduction by Wiebeking. in 

 which UM great service* rendered by Briinings to Holland are enlarged 

 upon, llrimings died in 1805. Several scientific 01017* by Briinings 

 are inserted in the Memoirs of the Haerlem Society of the Sciences.' 



Then is another CHRISTIAN BKININOS, a native also of the pala- 

 tinate and a professor, who wrote a book on the 'Antiquities of 

 Greece,' Frankfurt, 1784, which was published again some year* after 

 with an appendix on the Roman Triumphs ; and a ' Compendium of 

 Hebrew Antiquities,' published in 1763. lie was born in 1702, and 

 died in 1763. 



BRUNO, SAINT, born at Cologne in 1051, studied at Paris, and 

 afterwards became a canon of Rheims, and director of the school or 

 of that diocese ; but being dicgusted with the vexations and 

 [net of the Archbishop Msnssmm, be took the resolution of 

 waving UM world and retiring to a solitude. He repaired first to 

 Bsisse Fontaine, in the diocese of Langres, and afterwards to a moun- 

 tain near Grenoble, in 1084, where being joined by several other 

 ascetics, be built an oratory and seven cells, separate from each other, 

 in imitation of the early hermits of Palestine and Egypt. Bruno ami 

 his monks cultivated the ground in the neighbourhood of their cells, 

 and lived upon the produce, and upon what the charity of pious 

 persona supplied them with. This was the origin of the order of the 

 Carthusians, and of the splendid convent afterwards built on the spot, 

 which is called La Grande Chartreuse. Bruno adopted the rules of 

 St. Benedict, but afterward* Gui, the fifth general of the order, wrote 

 distinct regulations for it Pope Urban II., who had studied under 

 Bruno at Kheims, insisted upon his going to Rome, where he stood in 

 need of hi* advice. Bruno after a time becoming weary of the papal 

 court, retired to a solitude in Calabria, where he founded another 

 convent of bis order, in which he died in 1101. He was canonized in 

 1514. Several commentaries and treatises have been attributed to 

 him, which were written however by another St. Brnno Signy of Asti, 

 contemporary of the former, and abbot of the Benedictines of Monte 

 Casino. Of St. Bruno the Carthusian there are two letters written 

 from Calabria, one of which is addressed to hi* brethren of the Grande 

 Chartreuse, near Grenoble. (Bollaudi, Ada Sanctorum; and Diet. 

 I'mtt. Hutorique.) 



BRU'NO, GIORDA'NO, was born at NoU in the kingdom of Naples, 

 about the middle of the 16th century. He entered the order of the 

 Dominicans, but being of an inquisitive turn of mind, he began to 

 doubts on some of the dogmas of the Roman Church, the 

 of which was that he was obliged to run away from bis 

 Upon this hs went to Geneva, where he spent two yean, 

 but soon incurring the dislike of the CalvinisU, on account of his 

 gssiiiisj scepticism on religious matters, he removed to Paris, where 

 he published in 1582 a satirical comedy, ' II Candelajo,' in ridicule of 

 several chuees and professions in society ; this comedy was afterwards 

 imitated in the French anonymous play, 'Boniface et le Pedant,' Paris. 

 1633. Bruno gave lectures on philosophy, in which he openly attacked 

 the doctrines of the Aristotelians, which had already been combated 

 in France by Ramos and Postel. Having nude himself many enemies 

 moos; UM professors of the Paris university, as well as among the 

 clergy, he went to England in 1683, where he enjoyed the protection 

 of JVsrtslnsn tho French ambassador, and gained the protection of Sir 

 Puilip Sidney, to whom he dedicated his ' Spaccio della bestia trion- 

 fanto,' an allegorical work against the court of Home, with tho ' Cena 

 dslls Conor!,' or Evening Conversation* on Ash- Wednesday,' a dia- 

 logue between four interlocutors. H* also wrote ' Delhi causa, prin- 

 oipio et uoo,' and 'Dell' infinite universe e mondi,' in which he 

 developed his ides* both on natural philosophy and metaphysics. 

 His system is a kind of pantheism : he assorted that the universe is 

 infinite, and that each of the worlds contained in it is animated by 

 the universal soul, 4c. Spinosa borrowed some of his theories from 

 Bruno. Buhls, in the ' History of Modern Philosophy,' gives an expo- 

 sition at Bruno's system ; see also ' Jaoubi's Prsfaco to the Letten on 

 the Doetritw of Spinosa.' In his next work, ' Cabala del caval Psgaseo 

 coo I'agwiunta dell' asino Cilleuico,' he contends that ignorance is the 

 mother of happiness, and that " h* who promotes science increases 

 the sources of grief." Bruno'* language is symbolic and obscure ; he 

 talks much about the constellations, and his style is harsh and 



r remaining about two yean in England, during which hs visited 

 Oxford, and held disputations with some of the doctors of that 



university, Bruno returned to Paris in 1585. In the following year ha 

 went to the university of Marburg in Germany, where he wa* 

 matriculated, without however obtaining leave to give lecture*. 

 Having quarrelled with the rector on thi* account, he proceeded to 

 Wittonburg, where he wa* received profosior, and published in 1587, 

 a treatise, ' De Lampade oombinatoria Lulliana.' At Wittonburg 

 Bruno wa* invited to become a member of the Lutheran communion, 

 which he seems to have declined ; upon which he proceeded to 

 Brunswick, where he was well received by the Duke Julius, who 

 placed him at Helmstadt a* teacher. On the duke's death in 1589, 

 Bruno repaired to Frankfurt, where be wrote several Latin treatises 

 explanatory of hi* metaphysics. At Frankfurt on a sudden he 

 resolved, from what motive is unknown, to return to Italy, a step 

 which wa* greatly censured by hi* friend*. He weut first to Padua 

 in 1592, where he remained two yean, snd then to Venice, where be 

 wa* arrested by the ecclesiastical inquisition, and transferred to Koine 

 in 1598. He remained two yean in the prisons of the holy office. 

 when the inquisitors having in vain attempted to bring him to recant 

 his opinions, at length on the 9th February, 1600, sentence wa* passed 

 upon him a* a continued heretic, and he was burnt alive on the 1 7th 

 February. Bruno's works were collected and published together by 

 Dr. Wagner, with a life of tho author : ' Opere di Giordano 

 Nolano ora per la prima volta raccolte o pubblicate,' 2 vc K 8vo. 

 Leipxig, 1830; the Latin writings of Bruno were publisl. 

 M. Gnefer at Paris in 1831, ' Jordaui Bruni Nolani script* qua) latiiie 

 redegit omnut,' 1 vol. 8vo. 



BRUNSWICK, HOUSE OF. The house of Brunswick, one of the 

 oldest families in Germany, a branch of which is now seated on the 

 British throne, derive their descent from Albert Azo I., margrave of 

 Esto in Italy, who died in 964. His great grandson, Albert Azo II. of 

 Este, who held the sovereignty of Milan, Genoa, and other demesnes 

 in Lombardy, had for his first wife Kuniguuda, daughter of Guelph II., 

 who died in 1030, and wag of the blood of the Altorfs, count* of 

 Swabia, His son by this marriage, Quelph the First (more properly 

 the Fourth), became possessed of the dukedom of Bavaria, and fouml< <l 

 the junior house of Guelph, to which the house of Brunswick trace* 

 its origin. This prince, who inherited the whole of the possessions 

 of the Guelph family from hi* maternal uncle, died in 1101. Guelpu II. 

 (or V.), hia eldest son, married iu 109 the celebrated Countess 

 Matilda, but was divorced from her some years afterwards, and died 

 childless in 1119. His inheritance devolved to his brother, Henry the 

 Black, whoae union with the daughter and heiress of the last duke of 

 Saxony brought him a considerable accession of territory in Lower 

 Saxony. This prince was succeeded in 1125 by Henry the Proud (or 

 Magnanimous), his son, who, by intermarriage with the only daughter 

 of Lotharius II., heiress of the vast possessions of the Billings, added 

 to the dukedoms of Bavaria and Austria, Brunswick, and the duchy 

 of Saxony, by which acquisitions he became the most powerful sove- 

 reign in Germany, and extended his dominion from Italy to the 

 shores of the Baltic. He died iu 1139, after the ban of the empire 

 had been fulminated against him for laying violent hands on the 

 imperial insignia, and endeavouring to usurp the imperial dignity. 

 He was followed by his son, Henry the Lion, who, having seized 

 upon Holstein and Mecklenburg, was stripped by tho ban ofl 1 79 of 

 Bavaria, Saxony, Austria, and other possession* in the south, and 

 allowed to retain only bis domains in Lower Saxony, consisting of 

 Luneburg, Kalenberg, Gbttini;en, Grubenhagen, and the duchy of 

 Brunswick- WolfenbiitteL This wss the death-blow to the supremacy 

 of the Quelph*. As Henry's eldest son wa* become, by marriage, 

 count palatinate, and hit second son, Otho, had died on the imperial 

 throne in 1218. William, a younger sou, succeeded on Henry's death 

 to the Brunswick inheritance ; and Otho, a son of this prince, became 

 the founder of the present dynasty, by virtue of hi* solemn investiture 

 with the territory of Brunswick as a fief of the empire in 1235, on 

 which occasion he was recognised a* the first Duke of Brunswick. 

 His son Albert succeeded him; and John, another son, who dic<l in 

 1277, founded the elder branch of the Luneburg house, which became 

 extinct in the person of William of Luneburg in 1369. In this way, 

 Magnu* ' of the Chain,' a great grandson of Albert, who died in 1373, 

 united the possessions of each dynasty, and became the joint ancestor 

 of what are termed the ' intermediate line* ' of Brunswick and Lune- 

 burg. Of these two lines that of Brunswick, which in 1503 hod .-i.lit 

 into the Kalenberg and WoUtobtttUl branches, became extinct 

 with Duke Frederic Ulrich in 1034. 



Ernest the Piou>, or the Confessor, who died in 1546, inheriting 

 the principalities of Brunswick and Liinuburg as surviving represen- 

 tative of the intermediate line, wa* the founder of both branches of 

 the existing dynasty; but the inheritance wa* again divided at his 

 decease, by which partition llunry, hi* eldest son, established the 

 line of llrunswick-Wolf.'nbuttel in 1569, and William, his younger 

 son, established the line of Hrunawick-Luneburg. A descendant of 

 the hut-mentioned prince. Duke Krnent Augustus, was raised to the 

 dignity of ninth elector of the empire in 16U2 ; and George Lewis, a 

 son of Ernest Augustus, succeeded to the crown of Great Britain in 

 1714, by virtue of his descent on the female side from James I. 



Augustus, who acquired sonio celebrity a* a writer under the desig- 

 nation of (iustavus belenus, removed his residence from Hitgaker to 

 Wolfeubuttel, where he founded tho great library in that town. At 



