B R O 



the fame well ; *;.»;, in Gitck, figiiifylng w^//, and J{*t|.», 

 , ccnpanv of people, who have a right to draw water out 

 of the fame well.— The word, it is fa.d, came o"K'"'a'.'>' 

 from the citv Argos, where there were oidy a fevv wells dil- 

 tributed in certain quarters of the city, to which thole ot 

 the fame iicishbouihood alone repaired. 



By the civil law, brothers and fillers Hand in the fecond 

 degree of conlaiiguinity ; by the canon law, they are lu the 

 firit degree. By the Mofaic law, the brother of a man who 

 died without ilTue, was obliged to marry the widow of the 

 deceafed. Deuter. xxv. 7. See Lkvirate. 



The ancients applied the term brother indifferently to al- 

 moll all who Hood related in the collateral line, as uncles 

 and nephews, coulin-germans, &c.— This we learn not only 

 from a great many palTages in the Old Tellamcnt, but alio 

 from profane authors : Cicero, in his Philippic?, fays, " An- 

 tonina was both wife and tiller of Mark Antony ; becaule 

 fhe was daughter of his brother C. Antoniils." And as 

 to coulins, TuUius Hollihus, in Dionyfuis HalicarnafTus, 

 calls the Horatii and Curatii, brothers ; becaufe they were 

 filitrs' children. 



The language of the Je'vs, bidiop Pearfon obferves, in- 

 cluded in the name of brethren not only the ftria relation 

 of fraternity, but alfo the larger of conl'anguinity. We are 

 brethren, fays Abraham to Lot, Gen. xiii. 8. whereas Lot 

 vras only his nephew. — So Jacob told Rachel that he was 

 her father's brother, Gen. xxix. 12. whereas he was only 

 her father's nephew. — This confideration has been urged 

 with good advantage againft the Anlidicomarianites, who, 

 fromthe mention made of the "brethren of Jefus,"( John ii. 12. 

 Matth. xii. 46.) have impugned the perpetual virginity of 

 the mother of Chrill, for which, however, there feeras to be 

 no fufficient foundation. 



Among us, it is cullomary for kings to give the title 

 ♦' brother" to each other ; the unftion in coronation being 

 efteemed to create a kind of " brotherhood." Nor is the 

 cullom modern : Menander mentions a letter of Cofroes, 

 king of Perfia, to the emperor Jullinian, beginning thus : 

 Cofroes, king of kings, &c. to the emperor Jullinian " my 

 brother." 



Kings now alfo give the fame appellation to the eleftore 

 of the empire ; and the hke was given, by the king of 

 France, to the king of Sardinia, while only duke of Sa- 

 voy. 



In the civil law, brothers, fralres, in the plural, fome- 

 times comprehend lifters : zs Lucius and Titia, fralres ; tres 

 fralres, Titius, Msvius, is" Seta. 



Brothers, fojler, thofe which fucked the fame nurfe. 

 The French call them " fratres du lait," or brothers by 

 milk ; which is moft properly ufed in refpeft of a perfon 

 who fucked a nurfe at the fame time with the nurfe's own 

 child. 



Brothers, German, Fratres Germanl. See German- 



Brother was alfo ufed, in MUUk ylge IVriters, for a 

 comes, or governor of a province. 



Brother is applied, in a lefs proper fenfe, to denote a 

 perfon of the fame profeffion. In which fenfe, judges, bi- 

 ihops, priells, &c. call each other brothers. 



Brother in Chr'ijl, frater in Chrtflo, the fame with fpi- 

 rilucil Ir-jibcr, a perfon admitted into a monallic fociety or 

 fi-atcrnily. 



Broth E,E. is more particularly ufed to denote the relation 

 between monks of the fame convent: as brother Zachary, 

 brother Bonaventure, &c. In Cnglifh, we moreufually fay, 

 friar Zachary, &c. from the French woid//vrf, brother. 



This appellation is borrowed from the primitive Chrif- 

 tians, who all called each other " brothers :" but it is prin- 



B R O 



clpally ufed for fuch of the religious as are not priefia ; 

 thole in orders are generally honoured with the title of 

 fathers, f aires, peres ; whereas the reft are only fimply bro- 

 thers. 



The monks of St. Dominic are particularly called /ir^afA- 

 ing brothers, or friars predicants : thofe of St. Francis, minor 

 brothers ; thofe of charity, ignorant brothers, &c. Confcript 

 brothers, fratres confcripli, denote laymen and others entered 

 iu the catalogue of the brothers of a monallery, or rather 

 poffeffed of the fraternity thereof. Outer brother, frater 

 exterior, fometimes denotes a lay-brother. Strange brother, 

 frater adveniens, a hod or guell belonging to another monaf- 

 tery. Foreign brother, frater externus, either a monk, prieft, 

 or canon of fome other monallery, to whom the prayers of 

 the fociety are granted. Mature brother, frater maturus, 

 one diftinguidied by his age, gravity, or probity, above the 

 reft. 



Brothers, fpiritua!, denote laymen admitted into a mo- 

 naftic fraternity. The name was alfo given to thofe other, 

 wife called mature brothers, and fometimes alfo to a fort of 

 adopted brothers, or perfons who commenced a kind of bro- 

 therhood, with the ceremony of breaking bread together, in 

 the church before the prieft. 



Brother, lay, frater laicus, or converfus. See Lay 

 Brother. 



Brother, given, frater donatus, among the Carthufians, 

 denotes a young perfon drefted in minim cloth, and wearing 

 a hat, vvhofe office is to ferve in the houfe, anfwering to 

 what in other orders is called an offered brother, frater ob- 

 lalus. 



Brother is alfo an appellation more peculiarly given to 

 certain orders of religious : thus the 



Brothers of St. /Ilexis, in the Low Countries, were an 

 order of perfons who attended on thofe who lay dying, and 

 took care of the burial of the dead. 



Brothers of Ave Maria. See Servites. 

 Brothers of Charity, a fort of religious Hofpitallers, 

 founded about the year 1297, fince denominated A7/f/;nj. 

 They took the third order of St. Francis, and the fcapulary, 

 making three ufual vows, but without begging. 



Brothers of Charity, alfo denote an order of Hofpital- 

 lers ftiU fubfifting in Romifli countries, whofe bufinefs is to 

 attend the fick poor, and minifter to them both fpiritual and 

 temporal fuccour. They are all laymen, except a few 

 priefts, for adminiftering the facrament to the fick in their 

 hofpitals. The Brothers of Charity ufually cultivate botany, 

 pharmacy, furgery, and chemiftry, which they praftife with 

 fuccefs. 



They were firft founded at Granada, by St. John de Dieu ; 

 and a fecond eftablifhment was made at Madrid, in the year 

 1553 : tlie order was confirmed by Gregory XIIL in 1572. 

 Gregory XIV. forbad them to take holy orders : but by 

 leave of Paul V. in 1609 a fevT of the brothers might be ad- 

 mitted to orders. In 1619 they were exempted from the 

 jurifdidion of the bilhop. Thofe of Spain are feparated 

 from the reft, and they, as w^U as the brothers -of .France, 

 Germany, Poland, and Italy, have their diftinft generals, 

 who reiide at Rome. They were firft introduced into 

 France by Mary of Medicis, in 1601, and have ilnce built a 

 fine hofpital in the Fauxbourg St. Germain. 



Brothers of Charity of St. Hippolytus, a religious congre- 

 gation 6rft fet on foot by Alvarez, a citizen of Mexico, in 

 1585, who aiTociated with him feveral other pious perfons to 

 attend on the fick, and foanded an hofpital without the 

 walls of that city ; which being approved of by the pope, 

 and the number of hke hofpitals incieaiing, a congregation 

 v/as formed under the title of " The Charity of St. Hippo. 

 4 lytus," 



