RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Boling-broke Bolzano
BOLSEC, JER6ME HERMES: French controversialist and physician; b. at Paris in the early part of the sixteenth century; d. probably at Lyons 1584. He entered the Carmelite order, but was driven from Paris for the boldness of his sermons and fled to Ferrara. In 1550 he was physician to M. de Falais, a nobleman residing near Geneva, who was a friend of Calvin. Bolsec was fond of dabbling in dogmatics, but was repeatedly admonished by the compagnie des pasteurs that his objections to the doctrine of predestination were contrary to the Bible. He seemed to submit, but on Oct. 16, 1551, he provoked a new discussion at Geneva on the same subject and was imprisoned, whereupon he charged Calvin with ignorance of the Bible and of teaching contrary to it, and the council, in their perplexity, accepted the proposition of the clergy to ask the advice of the Swiss churches. Their condemnation of Bolsec was mild, but the clergy of Basel declared that Bolsec was heretical in many respects, while the pastors of Neuchatel declared that he was an instrument of Satan. On Dec. 22 he was sentenced to perpetual banishment for publishing offensive doctrines, as well as for slandering the clergy and charging them with preaching false dogmas. He was expelled from Thonon (Chablais) by Calvin, and from Lausanne by Beza, after having again accused the former of " making God the author of sin." He then returned to France and abjured Protestantism. He was the author of three works: Le Miroir, envoye de V trite au Roi Charles neufierne (1562), addressed to the king to bring about a reformation; Histoire de la vie, mceurs, actes, doctrine, Constance et mort de Jean Calvin, jadis ministre de Geneve (Lyons, 1577), which made the author infamous; and Histoire de la vie, mceurs, doctrine et dcportemens de Th. de Beze, dit le Spectable, grand ministre de Geneve (Paris, 1582), written in a tone of moderation. The entire life of Bolsec shows him to have been a restless, vain spirit, not overscrupulous in getting revenge or in winning Patrons. Eugene Choisy.
Bolsec may easily be represented in a more favorable light as an honest opponent of Calvinistic dogma, and an advocate of liberty of conscience and freedom of speech. Persecution (defamation, repeated imprisonment, banishment from Geneva and from other places where he attempted to settle by the persistent efforts of Calvin, Beza, and others) embittered his spirit and no doubt led to exaggerated representations of the tyranny and cruelty of his opponents, and at last drove him back to the Roman Catholic Church. A. H. N.
Bibliography: CR, Opera Calvini, viii, 141; E. and E.
naag, La France protestante, ed. H. L. Bordier, vol. ii,
■Tans 1879; E. Choisy, La Theocratie a Geneve au temps
6 ,™m' Geneva, 1897; J. A. Gautier, Histoire de Geneve,
I", 4d2 sqq., ib. 1899.
BOLSENA, MIRACLE OF: A miracle which, according to an account strongly affirmed in local tradition, occurred in 1264 in the town of Bolsena jtne ancient Vulsinius; 7 m. s.w. of Orvieto) in umbna, Italy. The details of the story vary in uitterent accounts, but the substance of the occurrence is as follows: A priest, who had been long
troubled with doubts as to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, accidentally let fall upon the linen corporal, while saying mass, some drops from the consecrated chalice. While endeavoring to conceal this mishap, he was amazed to perceive that the stain was no longer as of wine but resembled fresh blood, and had not the irregular trace of a few spilled drops, but the form and contour of the consecrated host or wafer. The miracle produced a great sensation throughout the surrounding country. Pope Urban IV, at that time staying in Orvieto with the pontifical court, caused the stained corporal to be brought to the city, where it has ever since been carefully preserved. This miracle was the determining reason which caused Urban to make general the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi (q.v.). The composition of the liturgical office of the feast was entrusted to Thomas Aquinas, but in it there is no allusion to the miracle.
The miracle of Bolsena has been immortalized by the genius of Raffael, who made it the subject of one of his frescoes in the second sala of the Vatican. The painting idealizes the scene and introduces, not Urban IV but Julius II, under whose pontificate the fresco was executed, as present at the mass. The present cathedral church of Orvieto was built on the site of an earlier structure to commemorate the miracle, and much of the elaborate decoration refers to it. The corporal is preserved in a silver shrine enriched with many figures in relief and subjects in translucent colored enamels. The shrine was begun by Ugolino Veri of Sienna in 1338 and is one of the most important specimens of medieval silversmith work in Italy. The feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated with extraordinary solemnity each year in Orvieto and the corporal is carried in procession through the town together with the Blessed Sacrament.
James F Driscoll.
Bibliography: Dictionnaire des propheties et des miracles, vol. i, in Migne's Encyclopedie theologique, vol. xxiv, Paris, 1852.
BOLZANO, bel-tsa'no, BERNHARD : German Roman Catholic theologian, and noted mathematician; b. at Prague Oct. 5, 1781; d. there Dec. 18, 1848. He took orders and was made professor of the philosophy of religion in Prague 1805. He was soon suspected of heterodoxy, was accused at Rome by the Jesuits, and in 1820, on a charge of connection with certain student societies, was compelled to resign his professorship; he was also suspended from his priestly functions. Thenceforth he devoted himself to study and literary work. He sought to reconcile the teachings of the Church with reason and, it was said, considered the reasonableness of a doctrine of more importance than its traditional belief. In philosophy he was influenced by Leibnitz and Kant. His contributions to mathematical science were original and important. His works were numerous; the most noteworthy are Lehrbuch der Religionswissenschaft (4 vols., Sulzbach, 1834), a philosophic presentation of the dogmas of Roman Catholic theology; Wissenschaftslehre ; Versuch einer neuen Darstellung der Logik (4 vols., 1837).
Bomberger Boniface