1025 



BURIGNY, JEAN LEVESQUE DE. 



BURKE, EDMUND. 



1036 



old inhabitants of the country more tolerable, and of softening the 

 barbarism of his Burguudians. 



In the year 500 Gundobald was attacked by Clovis king of the 

 Franks, whose ambition and military talents were raising the Franks 

 to the supremacy of Gaul. Gundobald applied to his brother for aid 

 against an enemy whom both had cause to fear. Godegisilus conse- 

 quently joined him ; but this treacherous brother was in secret 

 alliance with the Franks, and in the battle which was fought near 

 Dijon, be went over to them. Gundobald was in consequence defeated 

 and fled to Avignon, where he fortified himself. Clovis pursued him 

 to that city, and besieged him there; but meeting with a stouter 

 resistance than he expected, he concluded a peace with Guudobald, 

 on condition of a tribute, which the latter afterwards refused to pay. 



In this treaty Clovis neglected to secure the interests of Godegisilus, 

 who had by this time overrun his brother's dominions and entered 

 Vienne in triumph. Here Gundobald came upon him by surprise, 

 besieged the city, and having taken it, caused Godegisilus, who had 

 taken refuge in the church of the Arians, to be put to death. From 

 this time Gundobald reigned over the whole kiugdom of the Bur- 

 gundians. In the latter part of his reign he gave the Catholics reason 

 to believe that he had embraced their views ; but it is very question- 

 able if ever he renounced Arianism ; and it may be doubted whether 

 he designed anything more than to cajole the Catholic prelates, and to 

 avert by their mediation the hostility of Clovis, who was a Catholic. 

 Gundobald died A.D. 516. 



Sigismund, the son and successor of Gundobald, had become a 

 Catholic during his father's reign. Soon after his accession a council 

 of bishops was held ; and from the prelates who attended it, the 

 extent of the Burgundian kingdom is inferred. Sigismund published, 

 about .v.D. 517, a collection of the Burgundian laws, which is still 

 extant. These laws contain for the most part the original customs 

 of the Germans, such as are found in the records of other German 

 nations. Sigismund was twice married, and had children by each 

 wife : by his first wife, who was daughter of Theodoric, king of the 

 Ostrogoths of Italy, he had a son, Sigeric, and a daughter who was 

 married to Theuderic, or Thierri, the Frankish king of Austrasia and 

 son of Clovis. This son, upon an unjust suspicion instilled into him 

 by the children of his second wife, he put to death in 522. This act 

 was the ruin of Sigismund. He lost his peace of mind, which he 

 tried in vain to recover by a temporary retirement to the monastery 

 of St. Maurice on the Rhone (which he bad founded or re-established), 

 and by other observances which the religion of the times dictated. 

 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, his surest support against the 

 power and ambition of the Franks, was enraged at the murder of his 

 grandson ; the affections of Sigismund's own subjects were alienated ; 

 and the calamities which overtook him were regarded as judgments 

 of heaven. In 523 Chlodomir, Clotaire, and Childebert, three of the 

 sons of Clovis now dead, instigated by their mother Clotilda, attacked 

 the Burgundian kingdom, to which they pretended to derive a claim 

 by their mother. Sigismund was defeated and delivered up by his 

 own subjects into the hands of Chlodomir, by whom he was carried to 

 Orl<5ans. Godomar, his brother, assumed the management of affairs, 

 and recovered those cities which the Franks had taken. Chlodomir 

 upon this ordered Sigismund, with his wife and some other persons, 

 to be put to death. Godomar succeeded to the crown. 



Chlodomir, having perpetrated this cruel deed, set out against the 

 Burgnndians, assisted by some troops sent to him by his brother 

 Thierri, king of Austrasia, who had married the daughter of Sigis- 

 mund, as already noticed ; but he fell in battle near Vienue in 524. 

 This event retarded for a time the ruin of the Burgundian kingdom, 

 which stood for about ten years longer. In 534 Childebert and 

 Clotaire, sons of Clovis, and Theodebert, son and successor of Thierri 

 king of Austrasia, made an entire conquest of it. Godomar was taken 

 prisoner, and passed the rest of his days in captivity; and from this 

 time the Burgundians disappear from history as an independent 

 nation. They have indeed transmitted their name to later times, for 

 one of the divisions of the Frankish monarchy was called from them 

 Burgundy or Bourgogne, and the appellation has been inherited by 

 one of the finest provinces of modern France. [BounaocNE, in 

 GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISION.] 



The Burgundians, like the other Germans, enjoyed a considerable 

 share of political freedom. Their laws were enacted by the advice of 

 the whole nation ; and when those laws were promulgated by Sigis- 

 mund, they retained their Germanic features : murder was however 

 punished by death. They borrowed some things from the Roman 

 laws, and the provincials who had been accustomed to those laws were 

 allowed, at least in many instances, to retain them. When a Roman 

 and a Burgundian happened to be at variance, a judge was appointed 

 from each nation. The Burgundians are in their own laws distinguished 

 by the designation Barljari, 



The Burgundians retained their constitution under the dominion of 

 the Franks ; but they were obliged to pay tribute, and to serve them 

 in their wars; and in the Frankish laws their subjection was made 

 apparent by the inferior valuation of their lives. The death of a 

 Kurgundian might be atoned for by a payment of 160 solidi, or shil- 

 lings : that of a Frank for not less than 200. 



(Mascou, History of Ike Ancient Germans, translated by Lediard.) 



BUKIGNY, JEAN LE'VESQUE DE, was born at Rheims in 1692. 



BIOO. DIV. VOL. L 



He went to Paris in 1713, and there applied himself strenuously to 

 philological and historical studies. After several years he went to 

 Holland, where he engaged with De St. Hyacinthe in the compilation 

 of a literary journal called ' L'Europe savante,' which began to appear 

 at La Hague in January 1718, and was continued till 1720. It is one 

 of the best journals of that period, and contains many interesting 

 articles on the literature and political history of the times. The col- 

 lection of ' L'Europe savante' forms 12 vols. 12mo. About one-half 

 of the papers were written by Burigny. He published alao ' Trait<5 de 

 I'autoritd du Pape, dans lequel ses droits sont (Stablis, et reduits a 

 leurs justes bornes,' 4 vols. 12mo, 1720, a work of close reasoning on 

 an intricate subject, and one which has caused much controversy 

 among Roman Catholics. The author professes the principles of the 

 Gallican Church, and carries them to a very great length. The ques- 

 tions of the subordination of the pope to the councils of the fallibility 

 of the pope and of the Roman Church itself, and of the consequent 

 right of the Catholic world, in such a contingency, to choose another 

 pastor of the independence of the bishops, especially in matters of 

 discipline, &c., are all discussed at length. The ' Histoire de la Philo- 

 sophic Payenne,' 172-i, was afterwards republished at Paris under the 

 title of ' The"ologie Payenne; ou, sentimens des philosopher et des 

 peuples payens les plus celebres, sur Dieu, sur Fame, et sur les devoirs 

 de 1'homme,' 2 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1754. This second edition is much 

 superior to the first, and is considered by some as Burigny's beat work. 

 Brucker wrote some critical observations on the first edition, in his 

 'Otium Vindelicum,' Augsburg, 1731. Burigny having returned to 

 Paris, was made a member of the Academy des Belles-Lettres. His 

 other works are 'Histoire Ge'ne'rale de Sicile,' 2 vols. 4to. 1745, a 

 work of great research, and one of the best on the subject. ' Traitd 

 de Porphyre touchant 1'abstinence des viaudes,' translated from the 

 Greek of Porphyrius, with the life of Plotinus, 12mo, 1747. 'Histoire 

 des Revolutions de 1'Empire de Constantinopla depuis la fondation de 

 cette Ville jusqu'a 1'an 1453,' 3 vols. Svo, 1750. The last book con- 

 tains a retrospect of the various controversies, ruptures, and attempts 

 at a reconciliation between the Greek Church and that of Rome. ' La 

 Vie de Grotius, avec 1'Histoire de scs ouvrages et des negotiations 

 auxquelles il fut employe',' 2 vols. 12mo, 1752. ' La Vie d'Erasme do 

 Rotterdam,' 2 vols. 12mo, 1757, with many interesting particulars 

 concerning the age of Erasmus. This work was translated into 

 German by Reiche, with additions, 2 vols. Svo, Halle, 17S2. 'Vie de 

 Bossuet,' 12mo, 1761. 'Vie du Cardinal du Perron,' 1768. These 

 two last biographies are considered much inferior to the two preceding. 

 ' Lettre sur les Ddmele's de Voltaire avec M. de St. Hyacintbe,' 8vo, 

 London, 1780. Burigny wrote also a number of dissertations, which 

 are inserted in the ' Recueil des Mdraoires de 1'Acade'rnie des Belles- 

 Lettres.' His learning was very extensive, and his memory excellent, 

 but his style is cold and rather diffuse. Burigny was amiable and 

 unpretending ; he lived entirely for study, and he was much surprised 

 when, in his old age, he learned that Louis XVI. had bestowed ou him 

 a pension of 2000 francs. He died at Paris, October 8, 1785, in his 

 ninety-fourth year, having preserved his mental faculties to the last. 

 Dacier wrote his eulogy for the Academy, of which he was a member. 



BURKE, EDMUND, was bora in Dublin on the 1st of January 

 1730, o.s. according to Prior, but in 1728 (or as we should now write, 

 January 12, 1729), according to other authorities. His father, Richard 

 Burke, or Bourke, a Protestant, and the sou of a gentleman of lauded 

 property in the county of Cork, was an attorney in largo practice. 

 His mother was a Miss Nagle, a Catholic lady. She was, it seems, 

 great niece of Miss Ellen Nugle, who married Sylvauus Spenser, the. 

 eldest son of the poet. Edmund, whose Christian name may possibly 

 have descended to him from the author of the ' Fairy Queen,' was the 

 second of three sons, who, with a daughter, were all that grew up of 

 a family of fourteen or fifteen children. 



Mr. Prior, in his 'Life of Burke' (2nd edit. vol. i. p. 7), in refufcg 

 the common calumny that Burke entered political life almost a penniless 

 adventurer, has stated that he " received from his family at various 

 times a sum little short of 20,OOOZ.," a fact of whieli he was assured 

 from unquestionable authority, and which was frequently mentioned 

 by the late Dr. Lawrence to Burke's friends. But this statement lias 

 been keenly controverted (see the ' Athemeum ' of 1 853 and -55), and Mr. 

 Prior has not repeated it in the last edition of the ' Life ' published in 

 1854. He however gives a passage from a letter written by Edmund 

 Burke to his friend Shackleton in 1766, in which, after mentioning 

 that his father was "for many years not only in the first rank, but the 

 very first man of his profession in point of practice and credit," he 

 adds that notwithstanding pretty expensive habits of living, and 

 laying out something on Dick's [Richard Burke's] establishment and 

 on my education in the Temple (a thousand pounds or thereabout for 

 me), he died very near worth six thousand pounds." We may add 

 that the proper authority for the assertion of his having received tlio 

 moans of supporting his independent course from his family is a docu- 

 ment which appears to have been overlooked by his biographers. Wo 

 refer to the preface or introduction, extending to nearly seventy pages, 

 prefixed by his executors to the celebrated 'Observations on the 

 Conduct of the Minority in the Session of 1793,' when that pamphlet 

 was first published in an authentic form immediately after his death. 

 This interesting statement, which reviews the whole of Burke's history, 

 and is full of curious and valuable matter, is not found in any of the 



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