LATAKIA LATIMER. 



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child, on account of his fine voice. Peril. Gonsaga. 

 viceroy of Sicily, took him to Italy and had him 

 instructed in music. Having lost his voice in his eigh- 

 teenth year, he was occupied three years in Naples as 

 a teacher of music. He then became chapel-master in 

 the Lateran church in Rome. Here he remained two 

 years, and then returned to his native country to see 

 his parents, whom, however, he did not find living. 

 He then travelled, with Julius Caesar Brancaccio, to 

 England and France, and again lived, for some years, 

 in Antwerp, whence he went to Munich as chapel- 

 master to Albert duke of Bavaria. Charles IX. of 

 France invited him to Paris ; but Lasso learned, on 

 his way to that city, the death of the king, and was 

 immediately re-established in his place by duke 

 William. He remained in this office till his death. Or- 

 lando was equally celebrated for his sacred and his 

 secular music. He was the improver of figured 

 counterpoint. His productions were numerous, but 

 are, at present, rarely to be met with. His sons 

 published a collection of his motets under the name 

 Magnum Opus Musicum (Munich, 1604, 17 volumes, 

 folio). In the royal library at Munich, is the richest 

 collection of his works. 



LATAKIA (anciently Laodicea); a seaport in Syria, 

 fifty miles south Antioch, seventy south-west Aleppo, 

 Ion. 35 44' E.; lat. 35 32' N.; population, in 1810, 

 about 10,000 ; since reduced to 4000. It is a Greek 

 bishop's see. It is situated at the base, and on the 

 south side of a small peninsula, which projects half a 

 league into the sea. Its port, like all the others on 

 this coast, is a sort of basin, environed by a mole, the 

 entrance of which is very narrow. It might contain 

 twenty-five or thirty vessels, but the Turks have suf- 

 fered it to be so choked up as scarcely to admit four. 

 Ships of above 400 tons cannot ride there, and hardly 

 a year passes, that one is not stranded in the entrance. 

 Notwithstanding this, Latakia carries on a great com- 

 merce, consisting chiefly of tobacco, of which upwards 

 of twenty cargoes are annually sent to Damietta. 

 The returns from thence are rice, which is bartered, 

 in Upper Syria, for oil and cottons. This place is 

 subject to violent earthquakes. One, in 1796, 

 destroyed a great part of the city, and 2000 of the 

 inhabitants ; another, in 1822, overthrew a third of 

 the buildings. 



LATERAN ; a square in Rome, so called from an 

 ancient Roman family of the same name. Nero put 

 to death the last possessor, Plautius Lateranus, and 

 seized his estates. Thus the Lateran palace became 

 the property of the emperor. Constantine the Great 

 gave it to the popes, who occupied it for 1000 years, 

 until the removal of their residence from Rome to 

 Avignon. The church of St John of Lateran, con- 

 nected with this palace, was built by Constantine. It 

 is the episcopal church of the pope, and the principal 

 church of. Rome ; hence the inscription over the prin- 

 cipal door " Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum 

 mater et caput (the mother and head of ail the 

 churches of the city and the world). It is also called 

 the Lateran. Its great antiquity, the recollection of 

 eleven councils which have been held in it, the rare 

 relics which are preserved in it, and its splendid archi- 

 tecture, render this church particularly worthy of 

 observation. At the portal is the balcony, from 

 which the pope bestows his blessing upon the people. 

 At the chief altar of this church, none but the pope 

 can read mass ; for within it is a wooden one of great 

 antiquity, upon which the apostle Peter is said to 

 have read mass. In this church, also, are to be seen 

 the two stools of red marble, which have an opening 

 in the middle of the seat, and which are said to have 

 been used for the investigation of the sex of the newly 

 elected pope ; but, in the baths of Caracalla, where 

 they were found, they were probably put to an entirely 



different use. At the present time, every newly 

 elected pope takes solemn possession of this church, 

 accompanied by a cavalcade. Upon the Lateran 

 Place stands a chapel, to which belongs the Scala 

 santa (a staircase of twenty-eight steps, which is said 

 to have come from the house of Pilate, and which 

 believers ascend on their knees), and the chapel 

 of San Giovanni in Fonte, built by the emperor 

 Constantine, the cupola of which consists of eight 

 porphyry pillars, considered the most beautiful in 

 Rome. 



LATE WAKE ; a ceremony formerly used at 

 funerals, in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland. 

 The evening after the death of any person, the rela- 

 tions and friends of the deceased met at the house, 

 attended by a bagpipe or fiddle. The nearest of kin, 

 wife, son or daughter, opened a melancholy .ball, 

 dancing and greeting (i. e. crying violently) at the 

 same time, and this continued till daylight ; but with 

 gambols and frolics, among the younger part of the 

 company. If the corpse remained unburied for two 

 nights, the same rites were renewed. An anecdote 

 is told of a disconsolate widow, who, on the opening 

 of the ball, being asked by the piper what tune he 

 should play, said, " Oh, mak it a light spring (lively 

 tune), for my heart is heavy." 



LATIMER, HUGH, an eminent English prelate 

 and reformer in the sixteenth century, was the son 

 of a respectable yeoman at Thurcaston, in Leicester- 

 shire, where he was born about the year 1470. He 

 received his early education at a country school, 

 whence he was removed to Cambridge in his 

 fourteenth year. He first became openly obnoxious 

 to the enemies of innovation, by a series of dis- 

 courses, in which he dwelt upon the uncertainty of 

 tradition, the vanity of works of supererogatii/n, and 

 the pride and usurpation of the Roman hierarchy. At 

 length, the bishop of Ely interdicted his preaching 

 within the jurisdiction of the university ; but doctor 

 Barnes, prior of the Augustins, being friendly to the 

 reformation, licensed Latimer to preach in his chapel, 

 which was exempt from episcopal interference. The 

 progress of the new opinions was represented to car- 

 dinal Wolsey, who, at the importunity of archbishop 

 Warham, created a court of bishops and deacons to 

 put the laws in execution against heretics. Before 

 this court, Bilney, and Latimer were summoned, and 

 the former, who was deemed the principal, being 

 induced to recant, the whole were set at liberty ; and 

 Latimer was licensed, by the bishop of London, to 

 preach throughout England. Bilney afterwards dis- 

 claimed his abjuration, and suffered martyrdom at 

 Norwich. The fate of his friend by no means inti- 

 midated Latimer, who had the courage to write a 

 letter of remonstrance to Henry VIII., on the evil of 

 prohibiting the use of the Bible in English. Although 

 this epistle produced no effect, Henry presented the 

 writer to the living of West Kinton, in Wiltshire. 

 The ascendancy of Anne Boleyn, and rise of Thomas 

 Cromwell, proved favourable to Latimer, and he 

 was, in 1535, appointed bishop of Worcester. It 

 was then the custom for bishops to make presents, 

 on new-year's day, to the king, and, among the rest, 

 Latimer waited at court with his gift, which, 

 instead of a purse of gold, was a New Testament, 

 having the leaf turned down to this passage 

 " Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.' 1 

 Henry was not, however, offended ; and, when the 

 sturdy prelate was, some time after, called before 

 him to answer for some passages in a sermon which 

 he had preached at court, he defended himself so 

 honestly, that he was dismissed with a smile. The 

 fall of Anne Boleyn and Cromwell prepared the way 

 for reverses, and the six articles being carried in 

 parliament, Latimer resigned his bishopric, rather 



