Bethlehemites. 1. An order of knights, estab- lished by Pope Pius II. on Jan. 18, 1459. The chief mission of this order was to fight against the Turks, and to oppose their farther advance in Europe. Their chief seat was to lie at Lemnos. They were to have an elective grand master, and to embrace knights and priests. Their costume was to be white, with a red cross, and for their support the pope assigned to them the property of several military orders which he sup- pressed. As the Turks soon after retook Lemnos, the order of the knights of Bethlehem was suppressed. , See Bictiunnaire des Ordres Reliyieux, i, 472.
BETIILEIIEMITES
784
BETH-MARCABOTH
2. An order of English monks. Our information of this order is very meagre. According to Matthew Paris {Hist. Anglic. p. G3D), they obtained in 1257 a residence at Cambridge, England, and had a costume similar to that of the Dominicans, with the only ex- ception that they wore on the breast a red star with live rays and a small disc of blue color, in memory of that star which, according to the Scriptures, guided the Eastern magi to Bethlehem at the Lirth of the Saviour. The time of the foundation of the order, its subsequent development, and its specific object are not kimwn. All the authors which speak of it confine themselves to a description of the costume, and even with regard to this there is a discrepancy in their statements, as Sehoonebeck (Ilistoire des Ordres Reli- ffieux) reports that it was black. One author (Hadri- an Dammand) speaks of star-wearing knights, and it has therefore been doubted whether the "star-wear- ing knights" and the Bethlehemites were the same or- der (with different costumes), cr two different orders. — Wetzer und Welte, i, 687.
after some opposition on the part of the Franciscans, was approved by the bishop. The main object of this order is to look after and attend to the sick in hos- pitals. Pope Innocent XI approved of the order in 1687, and commanded the Hospitallers, or brethren of the order, to follow the rule of Augustine. They wear round the neck a medal representing the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem; and as to their drers, they follow the Capuchins, but wear shoes, and have a leathern girdle round the waist. A female Branch of the order was founded at the same time by Mary Ann del Galdo. The parent-house is at Guatemala, and there are about forty houses in Central and South America. — Helyot, Ord. Religieux, i, 477; Wetzer und Welte, i, G88.
Betlilehemite Monk in Ing'and.
3. An order of monks and nuns in Central America, founded at Guatemala about 1660. rJ he founder of the order was Pierre de Betencourt, born in 1G19 at Teneriflfe, one of the Canary Islands. He showed from boyhood a great predilection for an ascetic life. In 1650 he made a voyage to Guatemala, and while there resolved to enter the priesthood, and to become a missionary in Japan. To that end he studied for three years in the college of the Jesuits; but, making no satisfactory progress in bis studies, be became a tailor, and subsequently a sexton. In 1655 he distrib- uted his savings, twenty piastres, among the poor, entered the third order of the Franciscans, and estab- lished a free-school for poor children. Soon after he established a hospital and several more schools, and began to receive associates, whom he organized into a "< ongregation of Bethlehem." He died April 25, omc time bi fore bis death he had sent Broth- er Anthony of the Cross to Spain for the purpose of obtaining the royal sanction of Ids hospital. The patent did no) arrive at Guatemala until eight days after bis death. It commanded the Spanish authori- ties not only to protect the new congregation, but to seek t > enlarge it. The bishop of the diocese received similar orders, and be accordingly granted to them the- right of publicly celebrating in their church the mass. After the death of Betencourt, Brother An- thony became his successor as chief of the congrega- tion, and gave tn it. in accordance with the wish of the founder, a regular monastic constitution, which,
Iiethleliemltj Me.nk,
I'llileliendte Nun.
Beth'-lehem-Ju'dah (Heb. BeytkLe'chem Ycku- dah, rn^irr Dr& rV3, Sept. B?/3X«/i 'Ioi'cYi), a more distinctive "title (Judg. xvii, 7, 8, 9; xix, 1, 18; Ruth i, 1 ; 1 Sam. xvii, 12) for the place usually called simply Bethlehem (q. v.), in the tribe of Judah.
Beth-leptepha (Reland, Palcest. p. 648), the cap- ital of Bethlepthephene (Pliny, v, 15), a district oppo- site Pella, on the west of the Jordan (Josephus, ll'«r, iv, 8, 1) ; perhaps identical with the ruined site Beit- I/fa, at the north base of Mt. Gilboa (Van de Velde, Narrative, ii, S66). See Bethdlia.
Bethlo'mon (Bai3v\w//£i), an incorrect form (1 Esdr. v, 17) of the name Bethlehem in Judah (comp. Ezra ii, 21).
Beth-ma'achah (Heb. Beyth Maakah' [or ham- MaMalS], [or SWart] •"!=""? T'Z, house of [the] Maachah ; always with the prefix A bel or A belah ; Sept. Brt(,37i<(\rt, or BaiSruaaxd v.r. Baftaa\a, etc.), a place named in 2 Sam. xx, 14, 15, and there occurring more as a definition of the position of Abet, than for itself; more fully called Abel-beth-maachah (q. v.) in 2 Kings xv, 29. In the absence of more information, we can only conclude that it is identical with Maa- chah, or Akam-maachah, one of the petty Syrian kingdoms in the north of Palestine. Sec Aram.