BAS 
fifty years "before Chrid, built the ancient city of Augufta 
Rauracorum; an univerfity, founded by pope Pius II. in 
H59; a gymnafrum ; a (lately palace, belonging to the 
margrave of Baden-Durlach; befides a chamber of curio- 
fi'ties, feveral hofpitals, &c. In the arfenal is fiiewn the 
armour in which Charles the Bald loft .his life, with the 
furniture of his horfe, and the kettle-drums and trumpets 
of his army. Gppofite the French church, on a long co¬ 
vered wall, is painted the dance of death ; where the king 
of terrors is represented as mixing with all ranks and ages, 
and complimenting them, in German verfes, on their arri¬ 
val at the grave. Holbein, and the two BuxtorfFs, were 
natives of dais city ; and the celebrated Erafmus died here 
in 1536, and was buried in the great church. The clocks 
■of the city are always kept an hour fader than elfewhere ; 
a circuinfiance which fome afcribe to the following anec¬ 
dote : About 400 years ago, the city was threatened with 
an a flan 1 1 by furprife. The enemy was to begin the at¬ 
tack when the large clock of the tower fhould ftrike one 
after midnight. The artift who had the care of the clock, 
being informed that this was the fignal, caufed the clock 
to be altered, and it {truck two inftead of one ; fo the ene¬ 
my, thinking they were an hour too late, gave up the at¬ 
tempt : and, in commemoration of this deliverance, all the 
clocks in Bafil have ever fince been kept an hour too faft. 
Led this account fhould not be fatisfa6lory,they drew, by 
way of confirmation, a head, which is placed near the 
clock, with the face turned to the road by which the ene¬ 
my was to have entered. This head lolls out its tongue 
every minute, in the mod infulting manner ; and was ori¬ 
ginally a piece of mechanifm added by the clockmaker, 
who framed it in derifion of the enemy, whom he had fo 
dexteroufly deceived. It has been repaired, renewed, and 
enabled to thrud out its tongue every minute for thefe 400 
years, by the care of the magidrates, who are fedulous in 
commemorating this event. Three melancholy epochas 
are marked in the annals of Bafil; an earthquake in the 
year 1356, which defiroyed a great number of houfes; and 
two malignant fevers; one in 1314, which carried off 11,000 
perfons, and another in 1364, when 7000 died. The prin¬ 
cipal manufactures of this place are ribbons, filk dud's, 
painted linens, gloves, and eutlery. The bidiop has had 
no power in Bafil fince the time of the reformation in 1519, 
when the bidiop and chapter were compelled to quit the 
town, and have from that time refided at Porentrui. Ba¬ 
fil is fifteen pods and a half i'outh of Strafburg, and fifty- 
nine and a quarter ead-fouth-ead of Paris. Lat. 47.40. N. 
Ion. 25. 15. E. Ferro. 
Ba'sil,/ The angle to which the edge of a joiner’s 
tool is ground away... 
Basil,/. The fkin of a dieep tanned. This fhould 
more properly be written bafcn. 
Basil,/, in botany. See Clinopodium. 
To Basil, v. a. To grind the edge of a tool to an angle. 
.—Thefe duffels are not ground to fuch a bafil as the join¬ 
er’s chiilels, on one of the fides, but are bafiled away on 
both the flat fides; fo that the edge lies between both the 
fides in the middle of the tool. Moxon. 
BASILAN', one of the Philippine iflands: twelve 
leagues .in circumference, very fertile, efpecialiy in fruit 
■and rice, fix leaguesfouth-wed of Mindanao. Lat. 5.50. 
N. Ion. j 21. o. E. Greenwich. 
B ASILE'iUS,/ a title a (Fumed by the emperors of Con- 
ffantinople, exclulive of all other princes, to whom they 
give the title rex, ‘king.’. The fame quality was afterwards 
given by them to the kings of Bulgaria, and to Charle¬ 
magne, from the fuccefFors of which lad they endeavour¬ 
ed to wred it back again. The title bafileus has been fince 
affumed by other kings, particularly the kings of Eng¬ 
land, Ego Edgar totius Anglia bafileus corifrmavi. Hence 
alfo the queen of England was titled bajilea and baflijfa. 
B A'SILI, a river of European Turkey, which runs in¬ 
fo the gulf of Colokitia, four miles north-north.eafl of 
Coipkitia. 
BAS 
B ASI'LTA, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of Vol- 
hynia, thirty-two miles wed-north-wed of Condantinow, 
BASI'LIAN MONKS. Religious of the order of St. 
BaFil. That faint, having retired into a defert, in the 
province of Pontus, founded a monadery for the conve¬ 
nience of his numerous followers: and, for the better re¬ 
gulation of this new fociety, he drew up in writing the 
orders and rules lie would have them follow. This new 
order foon fpread all over the ead ; nor was it long before 
it paffed into the wed. The rule of St. Bafil was appro¬ 
ved by pope Liberius, the fame year in which it was writ¬ 
ten ; and afterwards by feveral other popes; and, in thefe 
lad ages, by pope Gregory XIII. who approved the abridg¬ 
ment made of it by cardinal Beffarion, in the pontificate of 
EugeniuslV. Some authors pretend, that St. @afil, be¬ 
fore he died, favv himfelf the fpiritual father of more than 
90,000 monks, in the ead only. But this order, which 
flourifhed fo greatly for more than three centuries, was af¬ 
terwards confiderably diminidied by herefy, fchifm, and a 
change of empire. The greated dorm it felt, was in the 
reign of Condantine Copronymus ; who perfecuted the 
monks of St. Bafil, imprifoning fome, and banifiiing others; 
infomuch that the monaderies were abandoned, and fpoiled 
of all their property. The hidorians of this order boad, 
that it has produced 1805 bifhops ; and beatified, or ac¬ 
knowledged as faints, 3010 abbots, 11,805 martyrs, and 
an infinite number of confeffors and virgins. They lika- 
wife place among the religious of the order of St. Bafil 
fourteen popes, fome cardinals, and a great number of pa¬ 
triarchs, archbifhops, and bidiops. They likewife boad 
of feveral emperors and emprelfes, kings and queens, prin¬ 
ces and princedes, who have embraced this rule. This- 
order was introduced in the wed in 1057; and was reform¬ 
ed in 1569, by pope Gregory XIII. who united the reli¬ 
gious of this order in Italy, Spain, and Sicily, into one con¬ 
gregation; of which the monadery of St. Saviour at Mef- 
fina is the chief, and enjoys pre-eminence over the red. 
Each community has its particular rule, befides the rule 
of St. Bafil, which is very general, and prefcribes little 
more than the common duties of a Chridian life. 
BA'SILIC, or Basilica,/ \_Eu.c-iXwn, royal.] In the 
ancient architecture, denotes a public hall op court of ju¬ 
dicature, where the princes or magidrates fat to adminif- 
terjudice. The bafilics confided of a great hall, with 
ailes, porticos, tribunes, and tribunals. The bankers alfo 
had one part of the bafilica allotted for their relidence. 
The fird bafilica was built at Rome by Cato the elder, 
whence it was called Portia ; the fecond was called Opimia ; 
the third was that of Paulus, built at a great expence, and 
with much magnificence, whence it was called by fome re - 
gia Pauli-, another was built by Julius Ciefar, called bafu 
lica Julia ; of which Vitruvius tells us he had the direc¬ 
tion. The bafilica Julia not only ferved for the hearing 
of caufes, but for the reception and audience of foreign 
ambadadors. It was fupported by a hundred marble pil¬ 
lars in four rows, and enriched with decorations of gold 
and precious ftones. In it were thirteen tribunals or judg¬ 
ment-feats, where the praetors fat to adminider judice. 
Basilic is ufed, in ecclefiadical writers, for a church. 
In which fenfe, this name frequently occurs in St. Am- 
brofe, St. Audin, St. Jerom, Sidonius, Apollinaris, and 
other writers, of the fourth and fifth centuries. It is 
thought that the name was thus applied, from many of the 
ancient churches having been formed of the Roman halls 
mentioned above. In reality, on the converfion of Con- 
ftantine, many of the ancient bafilicae were given to the 
church, and turned to another life, viz. for Chridian af- 
femblies to meet in, as may be colleGed from that paffage 
in Aufonius, where, fpeaking to the emperor Gratian, he 
tells him, the bafilicse, which heretofore were wont to be 
filled with men of bufinefs, were now thronged with vo¬ 
taries praying for his fafety. By which he mud mean, 
that the Roman halls or courts were turned into Chridian 
churches ; and hence, we conceive, the name bafilicie came 
• to 
