THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Brothers of the Free Spirit, sharing their disbelief in the meritoriousness of prayer and asceticism; those who are " enlightened by God," laymen as well as priests, may preach the Gospel and change bread and wine into the divine substance. The strange and shocking views attributed to him on the passion of Christ can scarcely be reconciled with his other teachings, and have probably come down in a distorted form. (Herman Haupt.)
Bibliography: A. Jundt, Histoire du pantheisme populaire dv moyen 6ge, p. 105, Paris, 1875; H. Haupt, Die religiosen Sekfcn in Franken, p. 8, Wiirzburg, 1882.
BERTHOLD THE CARMELITE. See Carmelites.
BERTHOLDT, LEONHARD: Professor at Erlangen; b. at Emskirchen (14 m. w.n.w. of Nuremberg), Bavaria, May 8, 1774; d. at Erlangen Mar 22, 1S22. He studied at Erlangen and became professor extraordinary on the philosophical faculty 1S05; full professor of theology 1810, in recognition of his work upon Daniel (2 vols., Erlangen, 1806-08). His principal work was the Historischkritische Einleitung in die sammtlichen kanonischen und apokryphischen Schriften des Alien und Neuen Testaments (6 vols., 1812). Of less interest is his Einleitung in die theologischen Wissenschaften (2 vols., 1821-22); and of still less, his Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte (2 vols., 1822-23). As a teacher, however, and as editor of the Kritisches Journal der neuesten theologischen Litteratur, one of the principal organs of the rationalistic party, his activity was stimulating in many ways.
BERTHOLET, bar"to"le', ALFRED: Swiss
Protestant; b. at Basel Nov. 9, 1868. He was educated at the universities of his native city, Strasburg, and Berlin, and, after being Franco- German pastor at Leghorn, in 1892-93, became privat-docent for Old Testament exegesis in the university of his native city in 1896. In 1899 he was appointed associate professor of the same subject, and in 1905 was promoted to his present position of full professor. He was general secretary of the Second International Congress for the History of Religion held at Basel in 1904, and has prepared the commentaries on Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ezekiel in K. Marti's Kurzer Handkommentar zum Alten Testament (5 vols., Freiburg and Tubingen, 1897- 1902), and has written Der Verfassungsgesetzentwurf des Hesekiel in seiner religionsgeschichtlichen Bedeutung (Freiburg, 1896); Die Stellung der Israeliten und der Juden zu den Fremden (1896); Zu Jesaja 53 (1899); Die israelitischen V orstellungen vom Zustand nach dem Tode (Tubingen, 1899); Buddhismus und Christentum (1902); Die Gefilde der Seligen (1903); Seelenwanderung (Halle, 1904); Der Buddhismus und seine Bedeutung fur unser Geistesleben (Tubingen, 1904); and the section on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in K. Budde's Geschichte der althebraischen Literatur (Leipsic, 1906).
BERTRAM: The name by which Ratramnus (q.v.) was formerly sometimes quoted.
BERTRAM, ROBERT AITKIN: English Congregationalist; b. at Hanley (147 m. n.w. of Lon-
don), Staffordshire, Nov. 8, 1836; d. in London Nov. 14, 1886. He ended his studies at Owens College (Victoria University), Manchester, 1858; was pastor at Lymm, Cheshire, at Openshaw (Manchester), and at Barnstaple, Devonshire; edited The Christian Age, 1880-83. He compiled The Cavendish Hymnal (Manchester, 1864), and published Parable or Divine Poesy, Illustrations in Theology and Morals Selected from Great Divines and Systematically Arranged (London, 1866); A Dictionary of Poetical Illustrations (1877); A Homiletical Encyclopedia of Illustrations in Theology and Morals, a Handbook of Practical Divinity and a Commentary on Holy Scripture (1878); A Homiletical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah (i, 1884; ii, jointly, with Alfred Tucker, 1888).
BERULLE, PIERRE DE. See Neri, Philip. BERYLLUS OF BOSTRA. See Monarchi-
ANISM.
BESANT, bes'ant, ANNIE (WOOD): Theosophist; b. at London Oct. 1, 1847. She was educated byprivate tutors at Clearmouth, Dorsetshire, London, Bonn, and Paris, and later passed B.Sc. and M.B. at London University. Originally a member of the Church of England, she married Rev. Frank Besant, vicar of Sibsey, Lincolnshire, in 1867, but was divorced from him six years later and renounced Christianity altogether. She then joined the National Secular Society, and as a scientific materialist worked with Charles Bradlaugh, with whom she edited the National Reformer. She was also prominent in socialistic and labor movements, and was a member of the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation. In 1887-90 she was a member of the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, but declined reelection. Meanwhile, her views had undergone further change as a result of psychological study, and in 1889 she joined the Theosophical Society, of which she has since been a distinguished member, and its president in 1907. She has made extensive journeys to all parts of the world in the interests of theosophy, but has of late years resided chiefly in India. In 1898 she founded the Central Hindu College, Benares, and is still the president of its council, while in 1904 she established the Central Hindu Girls' School in the same city. In addition to a large number of briefer articles and pamphlets, she has written Natural Religion Versus Revealed Religion (London, 1S74); History of the Great French Revolution (1876); The Law of Population : Its Consequences and its Bearing upon Human Conduct and Morals (1S77); The Gospel of Christianity and the Gospel of Free Thought (1877); Heat, Light, and Sound (1SS1); Legends and Tales (1885); The Sins of the Church (lSSii); Reincarnation (1892); Seven Principles of Man (1892); Autobiography (1893); Death and After (1893); Building of the Cosmos (1894); In the Outer Court (1895); Karma (1895); The Self and its Sheaths (1895); The Path of Discipleship (1896); Man and his Bodies (1896); Four Great Religions (1897); The Ancient Wisdom (1S97); Evolution of Life and Form (1899); Dharma (1899); Story of the Great War : Lessons from the Mahabharata (1899); Avataras (1900); Ancient Ideals in Modem