BEN 



249 



BEN 



Lutheran persuasion ; the Roman Catholics, who compose 

 five out of nineteen parishes, are included in the diocese of 

 Osnabriick. The counts of Bentheim were raised by the 

 Prussian monarch to the rank of princes in 1817, and have 

 at present a seat among the twenty- six members in the 

 upper house of the Hanoverian legislature. In 1 753 they 

 pawned their inheritance for thirty years to Hanover ; hut 

 having failed to redeem it, Napoleon cancelled the obliga- 

 tion on their paying to Hanover a sum of 32,0001. (800,000 

 francs) in 1804. Two years afterwards he placed Bentheim 

 under the sovereignty of the Grand-Duke of Berg, and in 1 8 1 

 annexed it to the French empire, as part of the department 

 of the Lippe. In 1813, however, Hanover, upon recovering 

 its independence, refused to ratify the above adjustment 

 of the debt due from Bentheim, and under the treaty of 

 Vienna, retained it in full sovereignty, allowing the counts 

 an annuity of 15,000 dollars <2475/.), until the year 

 1823, when the debt was paid off, and the original posses- 

 sors were re -instated in their patrimony. The earldom is 

 divided into the two districts of Bentheim or the Upper Earl- 

 dom, and Neuenhaus or the Lower Earldom. The little 

 town of Bentheim is built on the side of some rising ground, 

 at the summit of which stands the old, fortified, ancestral 

 castle ; it has a mineral spring and baths. 52 30' N. lat., 

 and 7 0' E. long. 



BENTHEIM-STEINFURT is an antient earldom in 

 Westphalia, immediately adjoining the preceding, and held 

 by the same family : it met with the same fate as their other 

 possessions in Napoleon's times ; but after the fall of Na- 

 poleon in 1816 it was placed under the sovereignty of the 

 king of Prussia, who conferred the rank of princes on its 

 possessors. It occupies an area of about thirty-one square 

 miles, has about 3800 inhabitants, contains one town, Stein- 

 furt on the Aa (the capital of the Prussian circle of that 

 name in the government of Miinster), with about 2400 in- 

 habitants, and three hamlets. The revenue of this earldom 

 is about 20501. Bentheim and Steinfurt, with some minor 

 estates in this part of Germany, form a territory of about 

 504 square miles, the annual revenue of which accruing to 

 the prince-counts of Bentheim-Bentheim, is estimated at 

 105.000 dollars (14.437/. 10*.). 



BENTFVI (zoology), or Bientiveo, the Brazilian name 

 for the Tyrannus sulphuratus of Vieillot. Swainson, who 

 has paid great attention to the tyrants ( Tyrannidce), con- 

 siders that it makes the nearest approach to Lanius (butcher- 

 bird) of any bird yet discovered ; ' not only,' says this close 

 observer, 'from its greatly compressed bill, but by feeding 

 upon reptiles, and thus becoming partly carnivorous. We 

 have more than once taken from the stomach of this species 

 lizards in an entire state, sufficiently large to excite surprise 

 how they could possibly have been swallowed by the bird." 

 Azara mentions its haunting the dead carcases which the 

 Caracaras (Polyborus Braziliensis) had left, for the sake of 

 the pickings; and Swainson observes, in confirmation of 

 this, that ' its claws, unlike those of all other tyrants, are 

 hut slightly curved ; thus enabling the bird, when so en- 

 gaged, to walk without difficulty upon the ground.' [See 

 TYRANT.] 



BENTIVO'GLIO, GIOVA'NNI, was son of Annibale 

 Bentivoglio, who, after being for some years at the head of 

 the commonwealth of Bologna, was murdered by a rival 

 faction in 1445. Giovanni was then a boy six years of age. 

 In 1462 he was made 'Principe del Senato' of Bologna, 

 and by degrees engrossed the sole authority of the republic. 

 The Melvezzi family conspired against him in 1488, but 

 were detected, and cruelly proscribed. About twenty indi- 

 viduals of that family, or its adherents, fell by the hand of 

 the executioner, and the rest were banished. Giovanni 

 showed himself stern and unforgiving, and he hired bravos 

 who executed his mandates in various parts of Italy. At 

 the same time, like his more illustrious contemporary Lo- 

 renzo de' Medici, he was the patron of the arts and of learn- 

 ing; he adorned Bologna with fine buildings, and made 

 collections of statues and paintings, and MSS. Pope Ju- 

 lius II., having determined to reduce Bologna under the 

 direct dominion of the papal see, marched an army against 

 that city in 1506, and Bentivoglio, after forty-four years' 

 dominion, was obliged to escape with his family into the 

 Milanese territory, where he died two years after at the age 

 of 70. His two sons were replaced by the French in 1511 

 at the head of the government of Bologna ; but in the next 

 year tho French bein^ nbli^i'd to leave Italy, Bologna sur- 

 rendered again to the Pope in June 1512, and the Benti- 



voglios emigrated to Ferrara, where they settled under the 

 protection of the Duke d'Este. 



BENTIVO'GLIO, E'RCOLE, was grandson of Gio- 

 vanni. He was born at Bologna in 1506. He accom- 

 panied his father in his emigration to Ferrara, where Duke 

 Alfonso had married his aunt. He was employed by the 

 House of Este in several important missions, during one of 

 which he died at Venice in 1 5 73. Ercole wrote some Satire, 

 which are considered next in merit to those of Ariosto, 

 and also several Commedie, which were much applauded at 

 the time : he was also a lyric poet of some celebrity. 



BENTIVO'GLIO, GUIDO, born at Ferrara in 1579, 

 was a descendant of the Bentivoglios, who had been rulers 

 of Bologna in the preceding century. He studied at Padua, 

 and returned to Ferrara in 1597, when the Court of Rome 

 took possession of that duchy, in disregard of the claims of 

 Cesare d'Este, the collateral heir of Alfonso II., the last 

 duke. -Ippolito Bentivoglio, Guide's elder brother, had 

 shown himself attached to the Duke Cesare, to whom he 

 was related, and had thereby incurred the displeasure of 

 Cardinal Aldobrandino, the papal legate. Guido, who was 

 naturally of a supple, insinuating character, contrived to 

 effect a reconciliation between them, and also between Ce- 

 sare himself, who took the title of Duke of Modena, and 

 Pope Clement VIII. When the pope soon after came to 

 Ferrara, he took particular notice of young Guido, and when 

 Guido, in 1601, proceeded to Rome, he was made a prelate 

 of the papal court. After the death of Clement in 1605, 

 his successor Paul V. sent him as nupcio to Flanders, 

 although he was only twenty-six years of'age. His mission 

 was to endeavour to re-establish concord between the various 

 parties in that country long distracted by political and reli- 

 gious dissensions, and to bring them again into submission 

 to the papal spiritual authority. It was during his residence 

 in Flanders that he wrote his historical work on the insur- 

 rection of that country against the Spaniards, in 1566, and 

 the subsequent wars between the Duke of Alba, and the 

 other generals of Philip II. and the Hollanders (Delia 

 Guerra di Fiandra, in three parts, 3 vols. 4to., Cologne, 

 1632-9). He brings his narrative down to the year 1607. 

 The work is of course written in the spirit of an advocate of 

 the church of Rome and of the Spanish authority, hut as such 

 it displays considerable fairness, being superior in this respect 

 to the work of his contemporary the Jesuit Strada, on the 

 same subject, whose partiality for the Spaniards Bentivoglio 

 himself censures. The language, like that of all Bentivoglio's 

 works, is pure, and the style is grave and dignified. 



In 1616 Bentivoglio was sent nuncio to France, where 

 he won the favour of Louis XIII. and his court, by the 

 mildness and courteousness of his manners, and his pru- 

 dence and tact in diplomatic affairs. In 1621 he was made 

 a cardinal, and he became afterwards the friend and con- 

 fidant of Pope Urban VIII., whom he often assisted with 

 his counsels. Urban, however, was very imperious and ob- 

 stinate, and in his old age was swayed by his nephews the 

 Barberini and their party. Bentivoglio was one of the few 

 men at his court who could and would speak at times the 

 truth without flattery. In 1641 Bentivoglio was made 

 bishop of Terracina. When Urban VIII. died in 1644 it 

 was the general opinion that Bentivoglio would be his 

 successor in the papal chair, which probably he expected 

 himself. But he fell ill and died, at the age of sixty-five, 

 before the cardinals in conclave assembled had time to 

 make their choice. Bentivoglio was regular in his conduet 

 and morals, but he was fond of pomp and grandeur in his 

 establishment, a taste then very prevalent at the court of 

 Rome. The other works of Bentivoglio are, Relazioni 

 falte in tempo delle Nunziature di Fiandra e di Francia, 

 4to., Cologne, 1630. In this work, which may also be called 

 historical, he describes the manners and character of the 

 nations among whom he lived, and the remarkable incidents 

 of his time. It was translated into English by Henry Earl 

 of Monmouth, fol. London, 1652. Afemorie con le quail de- 

 scrive la lua Vita, 8vo., Amsterdam, 1648 : this is a sort of 

 diary of his life, published after his death. Of this and the 

 two preceding historical works, Gravina the Italian critic 

 observes, that Bentivoglio is an elegant but not deep writer, 

 that he was shy in manifesting his real sentiments and the 

 secret councils of courts and statesmen, of which ' he is 

 often silent, not through ignorance or carelessness, but 

 through prudential caution.' Lcttere, 8vo., Roma, 1654. 

 This last work is held in much estimation for the correct 

 ness of the language, and fluency and case of the style, 



NO. 236. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-2 K 



