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DIOCESE DIOGENES. 



s, & small canoe. In the ancient language 

 of the Massachusetts Indians, which is a dialect of 

 the Delaware stock, diminutives were formed (ac- 

 cording to Eliot's Grammar) by adding or ernes, 

 with an euphonic vowel or syllable ; as, nunkomp, a 

 youth, nunkompaes, or nuncompaemes, a little youth; 

 hassun, a stone, hassunemes, a little stone ; and, of 

 these two affixes, ernes denotes the smallest size, 

 &c. 



DIOCESE, or DIOCESS (5/;*ir;f); 1. a prefecture. 

 According to Strabo, the division of the Roman 

 empire into dioceses, at least in Asia, was customary 

 as early as the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. 

 The whole empire was afterwards divided into dio- 

 ceses by Constantino and his successors ; at first into 

 four, and afterwards into thirteen: these compre- 

 hended 120 provinces, and were governed by twelve 

 vicars or sub-prefects. Home and its neighbourhood 

 luid one of these officers to itself, exclusive of the one 

 appropriated to Italy at large. 



2. An ecclesiastical division hi the Christian 

 church; in the Catholic church, a territory over 

 which the jurisdiction of an archbishop or bishop 

 extends. With the Protestants in Germany, a dio- 

 cese signifies all the parishes which are under the in- 

 spection of one superintendent. This arrangement 

 is derived from the times of the emperor Constantino 

 (4th cent., A. D.), who made Christianity the reli- 

 gion of the state. In the Episcopal Protestant coun- 

 tries, diocese signifies the jurisdiction of a bishop. 

 Thus, in England, the province of Canterbury con- 

 tains twenty-one dioceses, and the province of York, 

 three: each diocese is divided into archdeaconries, 

 each archdeaconry into rural deaneries, and each 

 deanery into parishes. 



DIOCLETIAN, C. VALERIUS, surnamed Jovius, 

 was a man of mean birth a native of Dalmatia. He 

 was proclaimed emperor by the army, 284 A.D. He 

 was successful against his enemies, defeated Carinus 

 in Moesia (286), conquered the Allemanni, and was 

 generally beloved for the goodness of his disposition. 

 But new troubles and attacks disturbed the Roman 

 empire, and compelled him to share the burden of 

 government with colleagues ; at first, with M. Aurel. 

 Valerius Maximian (286), an ambitious, rude, and 

 cruel soldier, who defeated the Gauls. Diocletian, 

 at the same time, was successful against the Persians 

 in the East, and afterwards penetrated to the sources 

 of the Danube, in Germany. He subsequently, in 

 292, named C. Galerius, Caesar, and Maximian 

 raised Constantius Chlorus to the same dignity. 

 Thus the empire was divided into four parts. Dio- 

 cletian recovered Egypt, and, as long as he preserved 

 his influence, the unanimity continued ; but he re- 

 signed the imperial dignity at Nicomedia (305), as 

 did Maximian at Milan, at the same time. Diocle- 

 tian retired to Salona in Dalmatia, where he found 

 happiness in the cultivation of his garden, and lived 

 in tranquillity until the year 313. He founded the 

 absolute power, which was more firmly established 

 by the family of Constantine. 



DIODATI, JOHN, an eminent divine, was born at 

 Lucca, about the year 1589, of a noble Catholic 

 family ; but, embracing the Protestant faith early in 

 We, he removed to Geneva, where he made such 

 progress in his studies, that, at the age of 19, he was 

 appointed professor of Hebrew in that city. Some 

 tune afterwards, he was made professor of theology, 

 and, in 1619, was deputed with his colleague, Theo- 

 dore Tronchin, to represent the Genevan clergy at the 

 synod of Dort ; and his abilities were so much re- 

 spected by that synod, that he was one of the six 

 ministers appointed to draw up the Belgic confession 

 of faith, which was intended to secure the professors 

 of the reformed religion in Holland within the pale 



of pure and unadulterated Calvinism. Diodati is 

 most celebrated for a translation of the Bible into 

 Italian, faithful and elegant, but perhaps too para- 

 plirastical ; and father Simon maintains that his 

 notes are rather the serious meditations of a divine, 

 than the judicious reflections of a critic. He also 

 translated the Bible into French, but is not thought 

 to have succeeded so well in this as in the Italian. 

 He was the first translator into French of father 

 Paul's History of the Council of Trent, which is 

 faithful, but not very elegant. Diodati died in 

 1649, at Geneva. 



DIODORUS of Argyrium, in Sicily, and therefore 

 called Siculus ; a celebrated historian in the time of 

 Julius Caesar and Augustus. In order to render his 

 history as complete and exact as possible, he travel- 

 led through a great part of Europe and Asia. It is 

 very much to be regretted, that the greater part of 

 this history, which the author called the Historical 

 Library, in the composition of which he combined 

 the ornaments of rhetoric with the detail of facts, 

 after the example of Theopompus and Ephorus, and 

 on which he had bestowed the labour of thirty years, 

 has not reached our times. It consisted of forty 

 books, was written with the greatest fidelity, and 

 comprised the history of almost all nations. Only 

 the books 1 5 and 16 20 are now extant. Among 

 the best editions are those of Wesseling and Eich- 

 stadt, with Heyne's commentary (Bipont and Stras- 

 burg, 17931807, 11 vols.) 



DIOGENES of Sinope (a city of Pontus) flourished 

 in the fourth century B.C., and was the most famous 

 of the Cynic philosophers. (See Cynics.) Having 

 been banished from his native place with his father, 

 who had been accused of coining false money, he went 

 to Athens, and requested Antisthenes to admit him 

 among his disciples. That philosopher in vain at- 

 tempted to repel the importunate supplicant, even by 

 blows, and finally granted his request. Diogenes de- 

 voted himself, with the greatest diligence, to the les- 

 sons of his master, whose doctrines he extended still 

 further. He not only, like Antisthenes, despised all 

 philosophical speculations, and opposed the corrupt 

 morals of his tune, but also carried the application of 

 his doctrines, in his own person, to the extreme. The 

 stern austerity of Antisthenes was repulsive ; but Dio- 

 genes exposed the follies of his contemporaries with 

 wit and good humour, and was, therefore, better 

 adapted to be the censor and instructor of the people, 

 though he really accomplished little in the way of 

 reforming them. At the same tune, he applied, hi 

 its fullest extent, his principle of divesting himself of 

 all superfluities. He taught that a wise man, in or- 

 der to be happy, must endeavour to preserve himself 

 independent of fortune, of men, and of himself : in 

 order to do tliis, he must despise riches, power, hon- 

 our, arts, and sciences, and all the enjoyments of life. 

 He endeavoured to exhibit, in his own person, a mo- 

 del of Cynic virtue. For this purpose, he subjected 

 himself to the severest trials, and disregarded all the 

 forms of polite society. He often struggled to over- 

 come his appetite, or satisfied it with the coarsest 

 food ; practised the most rigid temperance, even at 

 feasts, in the midst of the greatest abundance, and 

 did not even consider it beneath his dignity to ask 

 alms. By day, he walked through the streets of 

 Athens barefoot, without any coat, with a long beard, 

 a stick in his hand, and a wallet on his shoulders ; 

 by night, he slept in a tub, though this has been 

 doubted. He defied the inclemency of the weather, 

 and bore the scoffs and insults of the people with the 

 reatest equanimity. Seeing a boy draw water with 

 is hand, he threw away his wooden goblet as an un- 

 necessary utensil. He never spared the follies of 

 men, but openly and loudly inveighed against vice 



