Bason. See Basin.
Bass, Edward, D.D., Protestant Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, was born at Dorchester, Nov. 23, 1726. He graduated at Harvard, 1744, and, after sev- eral years of teaching, was licensed as a Congrega- tional minister. In 1752 he joined the Church of Eng- land, was ordained in England, and became pastor at Newburyport, Mass. In 1796 he was elected bishop, ami consecrated in 17!»7. His episcopal duties, with those of his parish at Newburyport, were diligently discharged until he became enfeebled by disease. He died Sept. 10, 1803.— Sprague, Annals, v, 114.
Bas'sa (Bo-o-<t« v. r. Baoaat), one of the Israelitish family-heads whose "sons"' (to the number of 323) re- turned from the captivity (1 Esdr. v, 16); evidently the Bezai (q. v.) of the genuine texts (Ezra ii, 17; Neh. vii, 23).
Bassus, the name of several Romans mentioned by Josephus.
1. < .ii n.its, a knight, and probably quaestor in B.C. 59 (Cicero, ad Alt. ii, 0). He espoused Pompey's cause in the civil war, and, after the battle of Pharsa- lia (B.C. 48), fled to Tyre, of which he at length gain- ed possession. He defended it successfully against Sextus Cassar, the governor of Syria, whom he treach- erously caused to be slain (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 11 ; I War, i, 10, 10). He afterward established himelf as
BASTAI
G91
BASTINADO
pnetor in Apamea (B.C. 46), which he defended against Antistius Vetus, but was finally brought to submis- sion by Cassius, B.C. 43. — Smith's Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v.
2. Lucilius, commander of the fleet of Vitellius B.C. 70, which he betrayed to Vespasian, by whom he was sent to quell some disturbances in Campania (Tacitus, Hist, ii, 100; iii, 12, 36, 40; iv, 3). He was the successor of Ccrealis Vitellianus as Roman legate in Judaea, where he reduced the fortresses of Herodium and Maclnerus (Joseph. Ant. vii, 6, 1 and 4).
3. See Ventidius.
Bas'tai (BavSai), one of the family-heads of the temple-servants whose "sons" are said to have re- turned from the exile (1 Esdr. v, 31) ; evidently the Besai (q. v.) of the genuine texts (Ezra ii, 49; Neh. vii, 52).
Bastard (nothus, one born out of wedlock), (i.) the rendering in the Auth. Vers, of the Heb. ITriE (mam zer', polluted), which occurs only in Deut. xxiii. 2 and Zech. ix, 6. But Michaelis (Mos. Recht, ii, § 139) reads the word with a different pointing, so as to make it a compound of two words, "IT 3"1"2, meaning stain, de- fect of a stranger; implying the stain that would be cast upon the nation by granting to such a stranger the citizen-right. Some understand by it the offspring of prostitutes ; but they forget that prostitutes were ex- pressly forbidden to be tolerated by the law of Moses (Lev. xix, 29; Deut. xxiii, 17). The most probable conjecture is that which applies the term to the off- spring of heathen prostitutes in the neighborhood of Palestine, since no provision was made by Moses against their toleration (Potter, Archceol. i, 354), and who were a sort of priestesses to the Syrian goddess Astarte (comp. Num. xxv, 1 sq. ; Gesenius, Comment, ub Jsaias, ii, 339 ; Hos. iv, 14 ; 1 Kings xiv, 24 ; xv, 12; xxii, 47; 2 Kings xxiii, 7 ; Herodot. i, 199). That there existed such bastard offspring among the Jews is proved by the history of Jephthah (Judg. xi, 1-7), who on this account was expelled and deprived of his patrimony (Kitto). It seems (Heb. xii, 8) that natural children (voSoi) among the Jews received little atten- tion from the father. In the former of the above pas- sages (Deut. xxiii, 2), illegitimate offspring in the or- dinary sense (Sept. ik ttoovijc, Vulg. de scorto natits, and so the Oriental interpreters, as also the rabbins); but so severe a curse could hardly with justice rest upon such, and there is no countenance for such a view in the Jewish custom of concubinage. See Concu- bine. In the latter passage (Zech. ix, 6 ; Sept. «AAo- ytvfig) it is doubtless used in the sense of foreigner, predicting the conquest of Ashdod by the Jews in the time of the Maccabees, or perhaps more appropriately by subsequent heathen invaders.
(ii.) Persons of illegitimate birth are incapable, by the •canon law, of receiving any of the minor orders with- out a dispensation from the bishop; nor can they, in the Latin Church, be admitted to holy orders, or to benefices with cure of souls, except by a dispensation from the pope. However, the taking of the monastic vows enables such a one to receive holy orders with- out dispensation ; but persons so ordained cannot be advanced to any ecclesiastical dignity without dispen- sation. According to the laws of the Church of Eng- land, a bastard cannot be admitted to orders without a dispensation from the queen or archbishop ; and if he take a benefice, he may be deprived of it till such dis- pensation be obtained.— Landon, Eccl. Diet, ii, 81.
Bastholm, Christopher, a Danish theologian, born at Copenhagen 1740, was a man of great influence in ecclesiastical affairs in Denmark. He wrote several works (in a rationalistic vein) of great learning, e. g. De Natvrliche Relgion (Copcnh. 1784): — Mdiscke Ge- schichte (Copenh. 1777-82, 3 parts) -.—Hist.-phi'os. Un-
tersuchungen iib. die. relig. u.philos. Meinungen d. altestcn Volker (Copenh. 1802).— Herzog, Real-Ennjklop. i, 718.