Obsequens, Jumus, an ancient sage who flourish- ed some time in the early Christian period, is principally known as the author of a work entitled Be Prodigiis, or Prodigiorum libellus. The work affords no biographical data, and there is not accessible from any other source anything which may reveal a knowledge of him person- ally, not even as to the place of his birth nor the time when he lived. Vossius thinks him anterior to Paul Orosius, and Scaliger claims that St. .Jerome made some use of this work ; but these are mere suppositions. Ob- sequens was not a historian, but a compiler. His work, of which a fragment only remains, is a collection of such phenomena as the Romans called Prodigia, or Ostenta, and which they looked upon as miraculous manifestations of the divine power, and as solemn fore- bodings of future events. It is chronologically divided, and the fragment we possess extends from the consulate of Scipio and La?lius, in B.C. 190, to that of Fabius and iElius, in B.C. 1 1 . The materials are generally taken from Livy, whom he sometimes copies literally. There is no MS. copy of his work known at present; that which served for the first edition belonged to Jodocus of Ve- rona, and has long been lost. Towards the middle of the 16th centur\' Conrad Woolf hard, a professor at Basle — better known by the name of Conradus Lycosthenes — published Obsequens's work, with a supplement. Judg- ing from his introduction, he had a high aim in so do- ing. He says, "The Romans evinced their religions sentiments by the great attention they paid to marvel- lous phenomena and to omens, while their blindness was manifested bj' their worshipping false gods. Had they known the true religion, they would have surpass- ed in their pious zeal their descendants, who are Chris- tians more in name than in fact, and take no account of the events which Christ predicted should occur as the end of the world approached." Among the recent omens, Lycosthenes mentions three or four eclipses oc- curring in one year, comets, earthquakes in Italy, etc., which have made no impression upon the minds of the people. Their neglect of the divine warnings and their impious conduct have brought down upon them the wrath of God, who has given them up to civil war, dis- eases, and fiimine. Lycosthenes thinks the publica- tion of Obsequens's work usefid, as showing the im- portance of the omens which people were neglecting. His supplement contains the phenomena observed since the foundation of Rome to the time when commences Obseciuens's fragment, taken from Livy, Orosius, etc. The first edition of Julius Obsecpiens was published by Aide (Venice, 1508, 8vo; reprinted in 1518), in a volume containing also the letters of the younger Pliny. The second edition is that of Beatus Rhenanus (Strasburg, 1514, 8vo), in a volume containing also the letters of Pliny, the I)e riris iUiistribiis of Aurelius Victor, and the De Claris grnmmaticis et rlietoribus of Suetonius. Rob- ert Estienne published the third (Paris, 1.529, 8vo), to- gether with the letters of Pliny. The first edition, to- gether with the supiilement of Lycosthenes. was pub- lished at Basle (^1558. iSvo). Among subsequent editions, the best are those of Scheffer (Amst. 1679, 8vo) ; Ouden- dorp (Leyden, 1720, 8vo); Hase, in Lemaire's collection of Latin classics (Paris, 1823). It was translated into
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French by Georges dc la Bouthiere (Lyons, 1558, Svo), and by Victor Verger (Paris, 1825, Timo) ; and into Italian by Daniiano ftlaraffi (Lione, 1554, Svo). See the introductions of Kapp, Lycosthenes, Scheffer, and Oudendorp, in Ilase's edition. See Hoefer, A'ouv. Biag. Genet-ale, xxxviii, 414; Smith, Diet, of Greek and Ro- viati Bio(j. and Mythol. iii, 1-2. (J. N. P.) Obsequies. See Obsp:quium.
Obsequium (Lat. obedience') is the unconditional surrender of one's will to another's authority-, as de- manded of monks and nuns by their monastic vows. See Obkdiexck. Also the name of the prison in which those who overstep their vows are ])ut ; also the office for the departed, and sometimes also the solemn funeral service. See Buiual.
Observantists (or Obskuvant Franciscans) are a class of monastics much noted for the extreme conservatism which marks their adherence to Francis- can rule as established by the founder of that order. In the article on Fkanciscans has been detailed the ear- lier history of the controversy in that order as to the interpretation of the original rule and practice estab- lished by St. Francis for the brethren, and the sepa- rate organization of the two parties at the time of Leo X. The advocates of the primitive rigor were called Ohgerrantes, or Stricliorig Ohservantiw ; but both bodies, although each free to practice its own rule in its own separate houses, were still reputed subject to the general administrator of the order, who, as the rigorists were by far the more numerous, was a member of that school. By degrees a second reform arose among a party in the order, whose zeal the rigor of the Observantists was in- sufhcient to satisfy, and Clement VII permitted two Spanish friars, Stephen Molena and Martin Guzman, to carry out in Spain these views in a distinct branch of the order, who take the name of Reformafi, or Reformed. This body has in later times been incorporated with the Observantists under one head. Before the French Rev- olution they are said to have numbered above 70,000, distributed over more than 3000 convents. Since that time their number has, of course, been much dimin- ished; but they are still a very powerful and wide- spread body, as well in Europe as in the New World, and in the missionary districts of the East. In Ireland and England, and for a considerable time in Scotland, the}'' maintained themselves throughout all the rigor of the penal times. Several communities are still found in the tirst-named kingdom. See Chambers^s Cyclopcedia, 8. v., and the references to literature in art. Francis- cans ; also Mrs. Jameson, 3fonast. Lerj. (see Index) ; Burnet, Hist, of the Reformation (see Index).