RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
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tantisme frangais, vol. x, p. 42; xiii, pp. 41-48; E. and E. Haag, La France protestante, 2d ed. by M. Bordier, 5 vols. , Paris, 1877-86; F. Puaux, Les Precurseurs frangais de la tolerance, ib. 1881; J. Bianquis, La Revocation de Vedit de Nantes, Rouen, 1885.
BASSERMANN, HEINRICH GUSTAV: German Lutheran; b. at Frankfort-on-the-Main July 12, 1849. He was educated at the universities of Jena, Zurich, and Heidelberg in 1868-73, but served in the campaign of 1870-71 in the First Baden Dragoons. He was assistant pastor at Arolsen, Waldeck, from 1873 to 1876, when he became privatdocent of New Testament exegesis at the University of Jena. In the same year he was appointed associate professor of practical theology at Heidelberg, and full professor and university preacher in 1880. He wrote: Dreissig christliche Predigten (Leipsic, 1875); De loco Matthasi v, 17-20 (Jena, 1876); Handbuch der geistlichen Beredsamkeit (Stuttgart, 1885); Akademische Predigten (1886); System der Liturgik (1888); Geschichte der badischen Gottesdienstordnung (1891); Sine ira et studio (Tubingen, 1894); Der badische Katechismus erkldrt (1896-97); Richard Rothe als praklischer Theolog (1899); Zur Frage des Unionskatechismus (1901); Ueber Reform des Abendmahls (1904); Wie studiert man evangelische Theologie? (Stuttgart, 1905) ; and Gott: Funf Predigten (Gottingen, 1905). From 1879 he edited the Zeitschri/t fur praktische Theologie in collaboration with Rudolf Ehlers. Died in Samaden (70 m. s.s.e. of St. Gall), Switzerland, Aug. 30, 1909.
BASTHOLM, CHRISTIAN: Danish court preacher, and an influential representative of the prevalent rationalism of his time; b. at Copenhagen Nov. 2, 1740; d. there Jan. 25, 1819. He had a varied education, and was specially attracted to philosophy and natural science, but was persuaded by his father to embrace a clerical career without any real love for Christian doctrine or the Church. He was preacher to the German congregation at Smyrna from 1768 to 1771. His renown as a great orator won him in 1778 the position of court preacher, to which other court offices were subsequently added. Full of the ideas of the " Enlightenment," he felt called upon to be a missionary in their cause to his countrymen, and published a number of works in popular religious philosophy and history which have long since fallen into oblivion. His greatest success was his text-book of sacred oratory (1775), which so impressed Joseph II that he introduced it into all the higher educational institutions of the empire, though its recommendations seem laughable to-day. He published a history of the Jews (1777-82), attempting to " rationalize " it after Michaelis, and a translation of the New Testament with notes (1780). A small treatise on improvements in the liturgy (1785) aroused a storm of controversy; his idea was to make the service " interesting and diversified," after the model of balls and concerts; to exclude from hymnody not only everything dogmatic but all that was not joyous; and to eliminate from the sacramental rites whatever was contrary to sound reason. In the days of the French Revolution, he offered so many concessions to the antireligious spirit that he made himself ridiculous even in the
eyes of freethinkers; and his book on " Wisdom and Happiness " (1794) taught a Stoicism only colored by Christianity. In 1795 he lost his library by fire, and with the new century withdrew from public life and authorship to live quietly with his son, a pastor at Slagelse, absorbed in the study of philosophy and science. (F. Nielsen.)
BATES, WILLIAM: English Presbyterian; b. at London Nov., 1625; d. at Hackney July 14, 1699. He was graduated at Cambridge 1647, and was vicar of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, until 1662, when he lost the benefice for non-conformity; he was one of the commissioners to the Savoy Conference (q.v.) in 1661 and represented the nonconformists on other occasions in negotiationswith the Churchmen; was chaplain to Charles II and had influence in high places both under Charles and his successors. He is said to have been a polished preacher and a sound scholar. Perhaps; the best known of his works is The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption (2d ed., London,. 1675). A collected edition of his works, with memoir by W Farmer, was published in four volumes at London in 1815.
BATHING: The bath in the East, because of the heat and the dust, is constantly necessary for the preservation of health, and to prevent skindiseases. The bathing of the newly born is mentioned in Ezek. xvi, 4; bathing as part of the toilet in Ruth iii, 3; II Sam. xii, 20; Ezek. xxiii, 40, and elsewhere. As the Law attached great religious value to the purity of the body, it prescribed bathing and ablutions for cases in which it was apparently impaired (see Defilement and- Purification, Ceremonial). Ablution was required when one approached the deity (cf. Gen.. xxxv, 2; Exod. xix, 10; Lev. xvi, 4, for the highi priest on the Day of Atonement). Bathing in: " living" (i.e., running) water was regarded as most effective in every respect (Exod. ii, 5; II Kings v,, 10; Lev. xv, 13). More accessible and convenient were the baths arranged in the houses. To a wellfurnished house belonged a courtyard, in which was: a bath — according to II Sam. xi, 2, an open basin. Susannah (verses 15 sqq.) bathes in a hedged garden and uses oil and some kind of soap; the Hebrew women used bran in the bath, or to dry themselves (Mishnah Pesahim ii, 7). The feet, being protected by sandals only, were exposed to dust and dirt, and no attentive host omitted to give to his guests water for their feet before he entertained them (Gen. xviii, 4; xix, 2; I Sam. xxv, 41; cf. Luke vii, 44; John xiii, 1-10). The washing of hands before meals was customary for obvious reasons; but it is not expressly attested before New Testament time, and then as a religious enactment which the Pharisees rigidly observed (Matt. xv, 2; Luke xi, 38); so in general with reference to washings and bathings the punctilious were at that time more exacting. The efficacy of warm springs was recognized at a very early period (cf. Gen. xxxvi, 24, R. V., and the name Hammath, Josh, xix, 35; xxi, 32). They were found near Tiberias (Josephus, War, II, xxi, 6; Ant.,,
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