CAT HA 



CATHARINE DE' MEDICI 



t<> putrefaction, and the consequent development 

 <>f ofl'rnsivu odours, it is customary to subject the 

 catgut to i In- fiimi's of burning sulphur i.e. sul- 

 phurous iiciil, which acts as an Antiseptic (q.v.), 

 an. I arrests decomposition. The best strings come 

 from Italy, and are used for musical instruments. 

 These arc known as Roman strings, but they are 

 ma.lr in several Italian towns, the most valuable 

 coming from Naples. About 10 per cent, of the 

 violin strings manufactured are false i.e. they 

 produce two sounds. Gut strings for musical 

 instruments become useless after being kept a few 

 years. Cord for clockmakers is made from the 

 smallest of the intestines, and occasionally from 

 larger ones, which have been split longitudinally 

 into several lengths. The catgut obtained from 

 tin- intestines or horses, asses, and mules is prin- 

 cipally made in France, and is employed in the 

 same way as leather belts for driving lathes and 

 other small machines. 



< at ha. a genus of Celastracetfi, often reckoned 

 under Celastrus. C. edulis, Arabian Tea, the Khat 

 of the Arabs, is a shrub highly valued by them on 

 account of its leaves, which are chewed or infused 

 like coffee or tea, to which its properties seem 

 essentially similar. It is cultivated along with 

 coffee. 



Cathari (Gr., 'pure'), or CATHARISTS, a name 

 assumed by a widely diffused Gnostic sect of the 

 middle ages, which took its rise most probably 

 among the Slavs in Southern Macedonia, and spread 

 over trie whole of Southern and Western Europe. 

 In Thrace it found a kindred sect in the Paulicians 

 (q.v. ), who had been transported thither about 

 970, and they were there known as Bogomili 

 (q.v.). In the second half of the 12th century 

 they were in great strength in Bulgaria, Albania, 

 and Slavonia, and divided into two branches, 

 distinguished as the Albanensians (the more ex- 

 treme section), and the Concorezensians (named 

 from Goriza in Albania). It is remarkable that 

 the name Bulgari, by which they were known to 

 the returning French crusaders, is the origin of the 

 low French word Bougre, just as the German word 

 for ' heretic ' ( Ketzer ) is derived from Gazzari, 

 the Lombard form of Cathari. In Italy the heresy 

 first appeared at Turin about 1035, and existed 

 down to the 14th century. Its adherents were called 

 Patarini, from Pataria, a street in Milan frequented 

 by rag-gatherers, where they held their secret 

 meetings in 1058. The Cathari reached their 

 greatest numbers in Southern France, where they 

 were commonly called Albigenses (q.v.) or Pobli- 

 cants, the latter term being a corruption of Pauli- 

 cians, with whom they were confounded. After 

 the great Albigensian wars, they were gradually 

 rooted out by the Inquisition, and after the first 

 half of the 14th century they disappear from 

 history. The Cathari based their teaching on the 

 New Testament and an apocryphal ' Vision of 

 Isaiah' and 'Gospel of John.' The only extant 

 Catharist writing is a short ritual in the Romance 

 language of the 13th-century troubadours (printed 

 at Jena in 1852 by Professor Cunitz from the MS. 

 at Lyons). All the Cathari held more or less 

 Manich.ean views, and practised a rigid asceticism. 

 Deliverance from evil was only to be attained by 

 renunciation of the (material) world, including 

 marriage, property, and the use of animal food. 

 They distinguished between the great mass of their 

 Credentes or ' Believers,' and the Perfecti, who hail 

 received the Baptism of the Spirit by the laying on 

 of hands, calico Consolamentum, because in it the 

 Comforter was imparted. These ' pure ' ones, esti- 

 mated at only 4000 in all Europe about the year 

 1240, formed the Catharist Church the ' only true 

 and pure church on earth.' Their worsliip was 



extremely simple, and tln-ir dnin-li government wax 

 by bishops (each with two atwiMtanto, the Filiut 

 Major and the Filiu* Minor) and deacon*. 



SeeC. Schmidt, La SectcdetCatharet (IMS); Lombard, 

 J'aulicierw et Bont-homme ( 1879) ; Lea, Hittvry of the In- 

 quisition (1888); and Dollinger, titkteivjachicku (1889). 



Catharine* the name of several Christian 

 saints : ( 1 ) St Cat/utrine proper, a virgin of 

 royal descent in Alexandria, who publicly con- 

 fessed the gospel at a sacrificial 

 feast appointed by the Emperor 

 Maximinus, and was therefore put 

 to death, after they had vainly 

 attempted to torture her on toothed 

 wheels, 307 A.M. Hence the name 

 of ' Catharine wheel. ' No less than 

 fifty heathen philosophers sent by the em- 

 peror to convert her in prison were themselves 

 converted by her winning eloquence ; whence she is 

 the patroness of philosophers and learned schools. 

 Having steadily rejected all offers of earthly mar- 

 riage, she was taken in vision to heaven, when 

 the Virgin presented her to her son, and Christ 



E lighted his troth to her with a ring. This subject 

 as been a favourite one with many artists (as 

 signifying the union of the redeemed soul with 

 Christ ) ; the Christ being usually represented as an 

 infant. It has been suggested that the attributes 

 of the unhistorical St Catharine seem to have been 

 derived from those of the actual Hypatia (q.v.), 

 a heathen who suffered death at the hands of 

 Christian fanatics. St Catharine's festival falls on 

 25th November. ( 2 ) St Catharine of Sienna, one of 

 the most famous saints of Italy, was the daughter 

 of a dyer in Sienna, and was born there in 1347. 

 While yet a child she practised extraordinary 

 mortifications, and devoteu herself to perpetual 

 virginity. She became a Dominican, and therefore 

 afterwards a patron saint of the Dominicans. Her 

 enthusiasm converted the most hardened sinners, 

 and she was able to prevail upon Pope Gregory XI. 

 for the sake of the church to return from Avignon 

 to Rome. She was favoured, it was said, with 

 extraordinary tokens of favour by Christ, whose 

 Stigmata (see STIGMATISATION) were imprinted 

 upon her body. She wrote devotional pieces, let- 

 ters, and poems, an edition of which is Tomasseo's 

 (Florence, 1860). Her festival falls on 30th April. 

 See Drane's History of St Catharine of Sienna ( 3d 

 ed. 2 vols. 1899). St Catharine of Bologna (1413- 

 63 ; festival 9th March) and St Catharine of Sweden 

 (died 1381, festival 22d March) are of less note. 



Catharine de' Medici, the wife of one king of 

 France, and the mother of three, was the daughter 

 of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and was 

 born at Florence in 1519. In her fourteenth year 

 she was brought to France, and married to Henry, 

 the second son of Francis I. The marriage was a 

 part of the political schemes of her uncle, Pope 

 Clement VII., but as he died soon after, she found 

 herself friendless and neglected at the French court. 

 In these circumstances she conducted herself with 

 a submission which seemed even to indicate a want 

 of proper spirit, but which gained her the favour 

 of the old king, and in some measure also of her 

 husband. The accession of the latter to the throne 

 of France, however, made very little difference in 

 her situation. It was not till the accession of her 

 eldest son, Francis II., in 1559, that she found 

 some scope for her ambition. The Guises at this 

 time possessed a power which seemed dangerous to 

 that of the throne, and Catharine entered into 

 a secret alliance with the Huguenots to oppose 

 them. On the death of Francis II. in 1560, and 

 accession of her second son, Charles IX., the govern- 

 ment fell entirely into her hands. Caring little for 

 religion in itself, although she was very prone to 



