O S N 
religion of this country is partly Roman-catholic, and 
partly Lutheran. No Jews are tolerated. 
The greatelt and molt beneficial occupation of the in¬ 
habitants of this country confifts in the fpinning of yarn, 
and the manufacturing a coarl’e kind of linen, which is 
conveyed by the Dutch, Englifh, and Spaniards, to Guinea 
and America, and annually brings into this country 
1,000,000 of rix-dollars 
The bifhopric of Ofnaburg is the firft and oldeft in all 
Weftphaiia, being founded by the emperor Charlemagne. 
In x6^8, it was Lettied that this bifhopric fliould alter¬ 
nately have a Roman-catholic and a Lutheran bifliop, 
and that the chapter might choofe and feleCt the former, 
either from among themfelves or elfewhere; but that they 
fhould always fele£L the latter out of the houfe of Brunf- 
wick-Luneburg, and therein out of the pofterity of duke 
George, and, on the full extinction of thefe, out of the 
pofterity of duke Auguftus. At the fettling of the in¬ 
demnities in 1802 at Ratifbon, it was agreed, that the 
bifhopric fhould devolve to the houfe of Brunfwick in 
perpetuity, on condition that the king of England, as 
eleftor of Hanover, fhould refign all pretenfions to Hil- 
defheim, Corvey, andHoxter; and abandon his rights 
in the cities of Hamburgh and Bremen ; that he fhould 
cede the bailiwick of Wildhaufen to the duke of Olden¬ 
burg, and his right of fuccefiion in the county of Sayn 
Altenkirchen to the prince of Naffau Ufingen. By the 
peace of Tilfit, the new kingdom of Weftphaiia was an¬ 
nounced, and Ofnaburg annexed to it, and formed part 
of the department of the Wefer. That fhort-lived king¬ 
dom being now’ defunCt, the territory of Ofnaburg has re¬ 
turned to the houfe of Brunfwick. 
OS'NABURG, the chief city of the above-mentioned 
principality, has its name from a bridge over the river 
Hafe, or Ofe, which divides it into the Old and New 
Town; and ftands feventy-five miles weft of Hanover, and 
thirty north-eaft of Munfter; being furrounded with 
walls and ditches, but commanded by a mountain within 
cannon-fhot. It ftands in afine plain, and is adorned with 
feveral good buildings; and on the mountain there is an 
abbey. The magiftracy of this city, which is re-chofen 
yearly on the 2d of January, is "Lutheran; and the 
churches'belong, fome to the Lutherans, and forne to the 
Papifts. Both parties have the full and free exercife of 
their religion, whether the biftiop be proteftant or papift. 
The bilhop’s palace, called Peterjburg/i, was built by bi¬ 
fliop Erneft Auguftus, brother to king George I. It is 
well fortified, and feparated from the town by a bridge. It 
is a hexagon, with a court in the middle, and at each 
corner a turret. In the town-houfe m - e ftill preferved the 
pictures of the plenipotentiaries that afiifted at the con¬ 
ferences there for the famous treaty of Weftphaiia. In 
the treafury of the cathedral are ftill to be feen fome orna¬ 
ments given by Charlemagne; as alfo his crown, which 
is only of filver gilt, and his comb and batoon, fix feet in 
length, both of ivory; together with other curiofities. 
They have the belt bread and beer that is to be met with 
in all Weftphaiia ; and have a pretty good trade in bacon 
and linen, as alfo by brewing a palatable thick fort of 
beer called bufe. This city is noted fora treaty between 
the emperor and the king of Sweden in 1648, wherein the 
affairs of the Proteftants were regulated, which was a 
branch of the treaty of Weftphaiia. The town, with the 
reft of the principality, is fubjeCt to its bilhop, who is a 
count of the empire, and by the treaty of Weftphaiia muft 
be alternately a proteftant and papift. The popifti biftiop 
is fuffragan to the archbifhop of Cologne; but the pro¬ 
teftant bifnop is indeed a temporal prince, and always 
of the houfe of Brunfwick. Frederic duke of York, bro¬ 
ther to his majefty George IV. is the prefent bifliop. The 
cathedral is in the hands of the Roman-catholics, with 
the church and monaftery of the Dominicans in the old 
city, and the collegiate church of St. John in the new. 
The Proteftants are mafters of the great parochial church 
of St. Mary in the old city; and both religions have a 
O S O 7 
voice in the election of the magiftrates. The bifhop’s pa¬ 
lace is fortified like a cattle; here it was that George T 
was born, on the 28th of May, 1660, his father Ernett- 
Auguftus being then biftiop and prince of the place; and 
here alio he died, in the night of'the loth of June, 1727 ; 
and, as fome fay, in the very room in which he was born. 
Not far from this city are to be feen the ruins of an old 
church and cattle called Beelem, which fome lay was built 
by king Witekind, upon his converfion ; and about two 
miles from it lies the monaftery of Rulle, on the. bank of 
a lake, fo deep, that report fays if could never yet be fa¬ 
thomed. This was the firft town in Weftphaiia which re¬ 
ceived the Lutheran doCtrine. Ofnaburg is twenty-four 
miles north-north-eall of Munfter. Lat. 52. 17. N. ion. 
7.4. F„ 
OS'NABURG, a townfhip of North America, in the 
ftate of Ohio, and in Stark-county ; containing 300 in¬ 
habitants. 
OSNABURG HOU'SE, a fettlement or ftation of the 
Hudfon’s Bay Company in North America, fituated at the 
north-eaft corner of lake St. Jofepii, 100 miles weft-by- 
fouth of Gloucefter-houfe. Lat. 51.0. N. Ion. 90. 15. W. 
OSNABURG I'SLAND, a fmall ifland in the South 
Pacific Ocean, fuppofed to have been firft difcovered by 
Quiros, in 1606, who called it Dezana ; Bougainville 
called it Boudoir; Capt. Wallis, who vilited it in 1769, 
called it Ofnaburg ; the natives name it Maitea. The form 
is nearly circular, and the land elevated, but no anchoring- 
place was found. In fome parts it appeared covered with 
cocoa-nut and other trees, and in others nothing but a 
naked rock; the inhabitants were well clothed, and 
feemed to be of a humane difpofition : they made ufe of 
canoes to vilit the neighbouring iftands : fome hogs were 
feen. Captain Cook vifited this ifland in the year 1769. 
Lat. 17. 51. S. Ion. 147. 30. V/. 
OSNABURG I'SLAND, an ifland in the South Pacific 
Ocean, difcovered by Capt. Carteret in the year 1767. It 
is a fmall flat ifland, covered with trees. Lat. 22. S. Ion. 
141. 34. W. 
OS'NABURGS, f. White and brown coarfe linens im¬ 
ported from Ofnaburg in Germany. A cloth refembling 
them is manufactured in Angus in Scotland. 
OS'NEY. See the article Oxford. 
OSOKOL'SKO, a town of Rufiia, in the government 
of Archangel, on the river Mezen : 104 miles eaft-north- 
eaft of Archangel. 
OSO'LA, a town of the ifland of Sardinia: fourteen 
miles north-north-eaft of Saffari. 
OSONA'LA, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Ultra: ten 
miles eaft-fouth-eaff of Aquila. 
OSO'PO, a fortrefs of Italy, in Friuli : five miles weft 
of Gemona, and fifteen north-weft of Udina. 
OSO'RIO (Jerome),a learned Portuguefe prelate, who 
flouriftied in the fixteenth century. Flattery and fable 
deduce the family of the Oforios from no lefs a perfon 
than Oliris, who figures in the fabulous hiltory of Portu¬ 
gal. Without going back to the demigods, Jerome was 
defcended by both his parents from iiluftrious families, 
and born at Lifbon in the year 1506. From early child¬ 
hood he difcovered a ftrong inclination for learning, and 
aftoniflied his mafters by the rapidity with which he be¬ 
came fuch a proficient in the Latin language as to be able 
to converfe in it. At the age of thirteen he was lent to 
the univerfity of Salamanca, where he perfected liimfelf 
in Latin and Greek, and afterwards, by the command of 
his parents, applied for fome time to the ftudy of the 
civil law, carefully reading the beft writers in that fa¬ 
culty. When he was nineteen years old he removed to 
Paris, where he ftudied dialectics and natural philofophy 
under the celebrated profeffors in that city. From Paris 
Oforio went to Bologna, where he devoted himfeif en¬ 
tirely to the ftudy of divinity, the facred fcriptures, and 
the Hebrew language. The character which he here ac¬ 
quired for profound Ikill in theological and biblical know¬ 
ledge, induced king John, upon Oforio’s return to his 
2 native 
