Auriont Egyptian Balls— 1. Leather; 1. Painted r.anhemrare.
Among the Egyptians the balls were made of leather or skin, sewed with string, crosswise, in the same man- ner as our own, and stuffed with bran or husks of corn ; and those which have been found at Thebes are about three inches in diameter. Others were made of string, or of the stalks of rushes platted together so as to form a circular mass, and covered, like the for- mer, with leather. They appear also to have a smaller kind of ball, probably of the same materials, and cov- ered, like many of our own, with slips of leather of an elliptical shape, sewed together longitudinally, and meeting in a common point at both ends, each alter- nate slip being of a different color; but these have only been met with in pottery (Wilkinson, i, 200).
Ball, John, a Roman priest, who seems to have imbibed Wickliffe's doctrines, and who was (previous- ly to 1366) excommunicated repeatedly for preaching "errors, and schisms, and scandals against the pope, archbishops, bishops, and clergy." He preached in favor of the rebellion of Wat Tyler, and was executed at Coventry in 1381. See Collier, Eccl. Hist, iii, 148 sq.
Ball, John, a Puritan divine, was born in 1585, at Cassington, in Oxfordshire. He studied at Brazen- nose College, Oxford, and was admitted to holy orders, and passed his life in poverty on a small cure at Whit- more, Staffordshire, to which was united the care of a school. He died in 1640. His Catechism had gone through fourteen editions before the year 1632, and has had the singular lot of being translated into Turk- ish. His Treatise on Faith (Lond. 1632, 4to) also passed through many editions. He published also Th? Power of Godliness and other treatises (Lond. 1657, fol.) See Rose, Biog. Diet. s. v. ; Allibone, i, 108.
Balle, Nikolai Edinger, a distinguished Luther- an theologian of Denmark, was born in 1744 in Zealand, became in 1772 Professor of Theology at Copenhagen, and in 1783 bishop of Zealand. He died in 1816. He wrote, Theses theologicce (Copenh. 1776), and A Manual of Religious Doctrines (Copenh. 1781); he was also the editor of a magazine for modern church history of Den- mark {Magazin for den nyere danske Kir Ice historic, Co- penh. 1792-94, 2 vols.).
Ballerini, Peter and Jerome, brothers, priests of Verona, distinguished for their learning. Peter was born in 1698, Jerome in 1702. They lived and studied together, and published, in conjunction and separately, many important worlds on jurisprudence and theology. Among these were, The Works of < 'ar- dinal Norris, containing, among other matters, a Life of the Writer; a History of the various Congregations hehl for the Reform of the Calendar, at which the car- dinal presided ; a History of the Donatists, in 2 parts, Supplements, and an Appendix (Verona, 1732, 1 vols. fol.); Suncti Antonini Archiep. Florentini Siimma The- ologice, etc. (Verona, 1740-41, 2 vols, fol.); 8. Pai- mundi de Pennaforte Summa Theologicalis, etc. (Verona, 1744). Among the works edited by them may be mentioned the Sermons of Zeno, bishop of Verona, 1739; the works, of John Mathew Gibert, bishop of Verona, 1736 ; the works of Pope St. Leo, in 3 vols, folio, containing works of that pope which are not to be found in Qnesnel's edition. Peter wrote several treatises in behalf of the papacy, especially De Pntes- tafe 8. Pontif. etc. (1765), and De Vi ac ratione prima- tes Pontif. (1766). — Biog. Universelle.
Ballimathise {wanton dances, from fia\\iZfu\ is generally understood to refer to those wanton dances which were practised at marriage festivals, but some- times indicates the practice of playing on cymbals and other musical instruments. The word flaWiZfiv means to throw the legs and feet about rapidly ; hence to dance a certain lively dance peculiar to Magna Greecia and Sicily. The words ballet and ball are from this root. The Council of Laodicea, and the third Council of Toledo, forbade the promiscuous and lasciv-
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ious dancing of men and women together under this name, which is generally interpreted wanton dances associated with lascivious songs. Ambrose, Chrysos- tom, and others of the fathers, are faithful in condemn- ing the practices which were adopted in their day at marriage ceremonies, many of which were highly dis- graceful. See Bingham, Oriff, Eccles. bk. xvi, ch. xi, §16.
Ballou, Hosea, a Universalist minister, was born April 30th, 1771, at Richmond, N. II. At an early age he joined the Baptist Church, of which his father was a minister, but was soon after expelled on account of his embracing Universalist and Unitarian opinions. At the age of twenty-one he became an itinerant preacher of the then new doctrines he had adopted. His ability and eloquence attracting attention, he was invited in 1791 to a permanent charge at Dana, Mass., which he accepted. In 1802 he removed to Barnard, Vt. ; in 1807, to Portsmouth, N. H. ; and in 1815, to Salem, Mass. Two years later he accepted the charge of the. Second Universalist Society at Boston, which he held till his death, June 7th,'l852. Mr. Ballou was an industrious writer. In 1819 he commenced the Universalist Magazine, and in 1831 the Universalist Expositor (now the Universalist Quarterly). He pub- lished The Doctrine of future Retribution (1834), and numerous other controversial works, besides Notes on the Parables ; A Treatise on the A tonement ; and several volumes of Sc rmons. See Whittemore, Life of the Rev. H. Ballou.