Voyages, ii, 240 ; Robinson, ii, 291), but even by Jo- sephus (War, iv, 8, 3). We must admit, however, that the Hebrew name tseri seems to imply rather a resin trickling from some plant than a pressed oil, and that the arguments of Rosenmuller in favor of his statement, that the Mecca balsam is a mere perfume and not a medicine, have not much weight (see Ge- senius, Thes. iii, 1185). Our physicians make, indeed, no medicinal use of it ; but we can never obtain the genuine Mecca balsam. The ancients certainly as- cribed medicinal powers to the balsam (see Dioscor. ut sup.), and it is considered even at present as a med- icine of well-attested quality, especially if applied ex- ternally (Prosp. Alpin. Rer. sEg. iii, 15, p. 192 ; Has- selquist, p. 565, "rescivi quod vulnerarium Turcis sit excellentissimum et palmarium, dum in vulnera recens inflieta guttas aliquot infundunt quo continuato brevis- simo tempore vulnera maximi momenti persanant"). The tseri, therefore, might have been the balsam, and if so, the shrub, which originally grew in Gilead, may have been transplanted and cultivated as a gar- den-plant on the plains of Jericho, and preserved only there. We greatly doubt, however, -whether the bal- sam shrub ever grew wild anywhere but in Arabia, and it seems to us more probable that it was brought from Arabia to Palestine, though, perhaps, not by the Queen of Sheba (Josephus, Ant. viii, 6, 6). Besides the tseri (^X), another word, nataph (~-3), mentioned in Exod. xxx, 34, as an ingredient of the holy incense, is taken by Hebrew commentators for opobalsamum ; this, however, is perhaps rather Stacte (q. v.). See Mastick ; Aromatics.
Balsamon, Theodore, an eminent canonist of the Greek Church, was born at Constantinople in the twelfth century; was made chancellor and librarian of the church of St. Sophia, and about 1186 became patriarch of Antioch, without, however, being able to go there to discharge the functions of the office, since the city was occupied by the Latins, who had intruded a bishop of their own. He died about 1200. His first work (which he undertook at the wish of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus and the patriarch Michael Anchia- lius) was Photii Nomocanon Canones SS. Apostolorum, etc. (with a Commentary on the Canons of the Apostles and the general and particular Councils, and on the Canonical Epistles of the Fathers), printed at Paris, 1615, fol. ; also a Commentary on the Syntagma of Photius, given in Beveridge, Synodicon, sire, Pandeclce Canonum (Oxon. 1672-82, 2 vols. fol.). For an ac- : count of Balsamon and his works, see Beveridge's : Synodicon, Prolegomena to vol. i. — Cave, Hist. Lit- i anno 1180 ; Hoefer, Bi«g. Generate, iv, 311.
Baltha'sar (Ba\-d<7an), a Grascized form (Baruch ; i, 11, 12) of the name of the Babylonian king Bel- j SHAZZAR (q. v.).
| Balthasar, the name given in the Romish legends, without any foundation, to one of the magi who came j to adore our Lord Jesus Christ. See Magi.
Baltus, John Francis, a Jesuit, born at Metz, ! June 8th, 1667. He became a Jesuit in 1682, and in 1717 was called to Rome to examine the bocks writ- I ten by the members of his company. Returning to I France, he was, in succession, rector of several col- j leges of his order, and died at Rheims, librarian of the college, March 19th, 1743. He wrote, Reponse a THis- j toire des Oracles de M. Fnntenel/e (Strasb. 1707 and 1 1709, 8vo) :—Dty nse des Saints Peres accuses de Platan. isme (Paris, 1711, 4to); now ed. under the title Purete da Chrltiairismei P;iri-, 2 vols. 8vu, 1838): — Defense drs ProphJties de la Rel'giin Chritienne (1737, 3 vols. 12mo), j with other works.. — h'iog. Universelle. j Baluze, Stephen, an eminent canonist and his- torian, was born at Tulle, in Limousin, December 24th, i 1630. He studied first among the Jesuits at Tulle, I and in 1646 was sent to the college of the company at
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Toulouse, where ho remained for eight years. He soon acquired a higb reputation in ecclesiastical his- tory and the canon law. Not wishing to serve as a priest, bul desirous of opportunity to pursue his studies quietly, he received the tonsure, and put himself under the patronage of Peter de Marca, who brought him to Paris in 1656, and made him the associate of his la- bors. Upon the death of He Marca in 1602, the chancellor of France, Le Tellier, took Baluze under his pro! sction ; but in 1GG7 he attached himself to Col- bert, who made him his librarian, and it was by his care that the library of that eminent man acquired its richest treasures, and attained to such great celebrity among the learned. He left the family of Colbert in 1670, and afterward Louis XIV mad' him director of the royal college, with a pension. This situation he held until his eightieth year, when he was banished for having published the " Genealogical History of the House of Auvergne," in 2 vols. fol. (170>), by order of the Cardinal de Bouillon, who had fallen into disgrace at court. He obtained a recall in 1713, after the peace of Utrecht, without, however, recovering his appoint- ments, and died July 28th, 1718. His library, when it was sold after his death, contained 1500 MSS., which were purchased for the Bibliotheque Royale. Baluze left as many as forty-five published works, of which the most important are — Regnum Francorum Capitularia (1677, 2 vols. fol. ; also, edited by Chiniac in 1780, 2 vols. fol. a superb edition) -.—Epistolce Innocentii Papce III (1682, 2 vols. fol. This collection is incomplete, owin_c to the unwillingness of the Romans at the time to give him free access to the pieces in the Vatican li- brary. Brequiny and De la Porte du Theil, in their Diplomat^ Charta, etc., 1701, have given the letters which Baluze could not obtain): — Condl'orwn Nova Col- lect to (1683, vol. i, fol. This work was intended to em- brace all the known councils which Labbe has omitted in his collection, and would have filled many volumes ; but Baluze abandoned his first design, and limited him- self to one volume): — Vita Paparum Avinioncnsium (■' Vies des Papes d' Avignon," 1693, 2 vols. 4to, an ad- mirable refutation of the ultramontane pretensions. Hi- maintains that the holy see is not necessarily fixed at Home) : — Miscellanea (7 vols. 8vo. A new edition, considerably enlarged and improved, was published by Mansi at Lucca in 1761, in 4 vols. fol.). A complete list of his works may be found at p. 06 of the Capitu- laria. See Dupin, Eccl. Writers, 17th cent. ; ViedeBa- luze, written by himself, and continued by Martin.