THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
pope (1521), the sixteen books of Latin letters of Leo X are practically, as to their form, of Bembo's composition. Returning to Padua, Bembo made his house the meeting-place of humanist circles. In 1530 he was commissioned by the Venetian senate to complete the history of the republic begun by Marcantonio Sabellico. His part of the work, covering the years 14S7-1513, has been justly criticized as to historic accuracy by Justus Lipsius {Politico, i, Leyden, 15S9, 9, note). On the other hand, not only in the Rime, but also in his letters, there is a regrettable tendency to a loose frivolity strongly bordering on pagan morals. This tendency, shown also in his manner of life — he was the father of several illegitimate children — was no obstacle to his being made a cardinal (1539). From that time on (he was now sixty-nine), he is said to have changed his life. He held two bishoprics, Gubbio and Bergamo, but he lived in Rome till his death. His Opera were published in three vols, at Basel, 1567; Strasburg, 1611-52; four vols., Venice, 1729. His Rime (Venice, 1530) have often been reprinted; as has his Gli Asolani (1505), a dialogue on the nature of love. K. Benrath.
Bibliography: The first Vita was issued by Giovanni della Ca.-a at Florence, 1567, a second is found in the Venice edition of his works, ut sup., while a third was published by L. Beccadelli in Monumenti di varia letteratura, vol. i, Bologna, 1799, and also by W. P. Greswell, Memoirs of . . Petrus Bembus, Manchester, 1801. Consult also V Cian, Un Decennio della vita di M. P. Bembo, 1521-31, Turin, 1885; J. P. Niceron, Memoires, xi, 358, xx, 32, 43 vols., Paris, 1729-45; W. W. Westcott, Tabula Bembina; The Isiac Tablet of Cardinal Bembo, its History and Significance, Bath, 1887.
BENAIAH (" whom Yahweh built ") : The name of several Israelites. The most important of them is the valorous son of Jehoiada of Kabzeel, a city in the south of Judah (Josh, xv, 21). He is honorably mentioned (II Sam. xxiii, 20 ff.; cf.IChron.xi,22ff .) among the mighty men of David, to whom he always faithfully adhered. Three heroic exploits of his are mentioned in justification of his rank: he slew the two sons of Ariel (according to the LXX), either a distinguished Moabite (so Josephus, Ant., VII, xii, 4) or the king of Moab. in the war with that people <II Sam. viii, 2); he killed a lion which had fallen into a pit in time of snow; and, finally, he overcame an Egyptian giant, who carried a spear so large that it seemed like a tree thrown across a ravine (according to an addition of the LXX), or like a weaver's beam (according to I Chron. xi, 23); Benaiah disarmed his opponent and killed him with his own weapon. Being prominent among David's " thirty heroes," Benaiah was set over the Cherethites and Pelethites, David's bodyguard (II Sam. viii, 18; xx, 23). In the beginning of Solomon's reign, to whom he became devoted at once (I Kings i, 8), Benaiah still held this office and executed the judgment of the king upon Adonijah and Joab (I Kings ii, 25, 30, 34), and became Joab's successor as commander-in-chief (I Kings ii, 35). When, under David, the army was organized, besides his regular office he had command over one of the twelve divisions of 24,000 men (I Chron. xxvii, 5, 6, where his father, Jehoiada, strange to say, is called " the priest," which is no
doubt a mistaken gloss founded upon I Chron. xii, 27). C. von Ohelli.
BENDER, WILHELM (FRIEDRICH): German Protestant; b. at Miinzenberg (10 m.s.e.of Giessen), Hesse, Jan. 15, 1845; d. at Bonn Apr. 8, 1901. He studied at Gottingen and Giessen, 1863-66, and at the theological seminary at Friedberg, 1866-67; became teacher of religion and assistant preacher at Worms, 1868; ordinary professor of theology at Bonn, 1876; was transferred to the philosophical faculty, 1888. He belonged to the extreme Ritschlian school, and published Der Wunderbegriff des Neuen Testaments (Frankfort, 1871); Schleiermachers Theologie mit ihren philosophischen Grundlagen (2 vols., Nordlingen, 1876-78); Friedrich Schleiermacher und die Frage nach dem Wesen der Religion (Bonn, 1877); Johann Konrad Dippel. Der Freigeist aus dem. Pietismus (1882); Reformation und Kirchenthum, eine akademische Festrede zur Feier des vierhundertjdhrigen Geburtstags Martin Luthers (1883), which caused a great stir and many protests against Bender; Das Wesen der Religion und die Grundgesetze der Kirchenbildung (1886); Der Kampf um die Seligkeit (1888); Mythologie und Metaphysik, Grundlinien einer Geschichte der Weltanschauungen (Stuttgart, 1899).
BENEDICITE: The name given, from its first word in the Latin, to the canticle which stands in the Anglican Prayer-book as an alternative to the Te Deum, commonly used in Advent and Lent, and in the Roman breviary as a part of the priest's thanksgiving after celebrating mass. It is taken from the apocryphal fragment of the Song of the Three Holy Children (verses 35-65), which supplements the narrative of Dan. hi, and seems to have been used in public worship in the postexilic Jewish Church, and in the Christian at least fiom the fourth century.
BENEDICT: The name of fourteen popes and one antipope.
Benedict I : Pope 574-578. He was a Roman by birth, the son of Boniface, and succeeded John III, who died July 13, 573, but was unable to be consecrated before June 3, 574, because the Lombards had cut off communication with Constantinople and the imperial confirmation could not be obtained. Owing to the troubles of the barbarian invasion and a great famine, which occupied his mind, the Liber pontificalis (ed. Duchesne, i, Paris, 1886, 308) finds scarcely anything to say of his acts. He died July 30 or 31, 578, during the siege of Rome by the first Lombard Duke of Spoleto. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, ii, 10, iii, 11, in MGH, Script, rer. Langob., pp. 12-187, ed. Waitz, Hanover, 1878; JafTe\ Regesta, i, 137; Bower, Popes, i, 380-382; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadl Rom, ii, 19-20, Stuttgart, 1876, Eng. transl., London, 1895; L. M. Hartmann, Geschichte Ilaliens, ii, 4S, 165, Gotha, 1903.
Benedict II: Pope 683-685. He was elected after the death of Leo II, which took place on July 3, 683, though the imperial confirmation was delayed for almost a year. The Liber pontificalis (ed.