RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Breithaupt Brendan
harbor-cities of Vegesack and Bremerhaven and about ninety-nine square miles of contiguous territory. The total population in 1900 was 224,- 697, of whom 163,292 belonged to the city of Bremen. Ninety-four per cent, are reported as Evangelical Protestants, 4.9 per cent, as Roman Catholics; the number of Jews is about 1,000. Of the Protestants nearly one-third are Reformed. The Protestants have no ecclesiastical organization, the government standing at the head of the Church and managing its affairs through a commission, which is also the school board. The various congregations are independent one of the other, but, individually, take a warm interest in missionary and benevolent work.
Bibliography: W. von Bippen, Geschichte der Stadt Bremen, 2 vols., Bremen, 1892-98; Jahrbuch filr bremische Statistic ib. 1905.
BREMEN, BISHOPRIC OF: A former diocese of Germany, whose foundation belongs to the period of the missionary activity of Willehad (q.v.) on the lower Weser. He was consecrated July 15, 787, at Worms, on Charlemagne's initiative, his jurisdiction being assigned to cover the Saxon territory on both sides of the Weser from the mouth of the Aller, northward to the Elbe and westward to the Hunte, and the Frisian territory for a certain distance from the mouth of the Weser. Willehad fixed his headquarters at Bremen, though the formal constitution of the bishopric took place only after the subjugation of the Saxons in 804 or 805, when Willehad's disciple, Willerich, was consecrated bishop of Bremen, with the same territory. The diocese was probably at that time ecclesiastically subject to Cologne. When, after the death of Bishop Leuderich (838-845), it was given to Ansgar, it lost its independence (see Ansgae), and from that time was permanently united with Hamburg. The new combined see was regarded as the headquarters for missionary work in the north, and new sees to be erected were to be subject to its jurisdiction. Ansgar's successor, Rimbert, the " second apostle of the north," was troubled by onslaughts first of the Normans and then of the Wends, and by renewed claims on the part of Cologne. The see of Bremen attained its greatest prosperity and later had its deepest troubles under Adalbert (see Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen). The next two archbishops, Liemar and Humbert, were determined opponents of Gregory VII. Under the latter the archbishopric of Lund (q.v.) was erected, and Bremen had suffragan sees only in name, the Wendish bishoprics having been destroyed. Schisms in Church and State marked the next two centuries, and in spite of the labors of the Windesheim and Bursfelde congregations (qq.v.), the way was prepared for the Reformation, which made rapid headway, partly owing to the fact that the last Roman Catholic archbishop, Christopher of Brunswick, was also bishop of Verden and resided there. By the time he died (1558), nothing was left of the old religion outside of a few monasteries and the districts served by them. The title of archbishop, with the secular jurisdiction, was borne for a time by Protestant princes. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) secularized it and made
it (with Verden) a duchy and an appanage of the crown of Sweden. In 1712 it passed into the possession of Denmark, and three years later was sold to Hanover, to which it was restored in 1813after the Napoleonic disturbances. Its former territory was distributed ecclesiastically at this time among the neighboring dioceses of Hildesheim, Osnabruck, and Munster, the imperial city of Bremen and the surrounding district being administered by the vicar-apostolic of the northern missions.
BRENDAN, SAINT, OF CLONFERT (called "the Navigator"): Irish saint; b. at Tralee (on Tralee Bay, west coast of Ireland, County Kerry) 484; d. at the monastery of his sister, Brigh, at Annadown (on the east shore of Lough Corrib, County Galway), 577- After studying with the most distinguished Irish masters, he was ordained presbyter, and then undertook the expedition or expeditions which form the basis of " The Navigation of St. Brendan," one of the most popular legends of the Middle Ages. In 552 or 553 (according to others in 556 or 557) he founded the monastery of Clonfert (in the barony of Longford, County Longford) and ruled it for twenty years, during; which time it was the most famous school in West Ireland. He is said also to have founded a monastery in Brittany. A visit to Columba on Hinba Island, near Iona, is recorded, which must have been after 563, and he is last heard of in 570, when he acted as bard at the inauguration of the first Christian king of Cashel.
According to an Irish life of St. Brendan, when he was ordained he pondered on the words in Luke xviii, 29-30, and determined to forsake country and brethren and seek a mysterious unknown land which he saw in visions. Under angelic guidance he set forth in a coracle of wicker work and hides, but after seven years was directed to return, as work was waiting for him at home. Some years later the impulse to travel again sent him forth, this time in a fine ship, fully equipped, and with a crew of sixty. " The whole story of the saint's adventures bears neither repetition nor criticism: but in the midst of much crude fiction we find occasional touches which have evidently been derived from the reports of genuine voyagers. In the course of their seven years' adventures they visit the Isle of Sheep, a full fair island full of green pasture: another fair island, full of flowers, herbs, and trees, where they thank God of his good grace: a little island wherein were many vines full of grapes: they meet with great tempests, in which they are greatly troubled long time and sore forlaboured; at other times calm airs and water so clear that they might see all the fishes that were about them, whereof they are full sore aghast: again they behold an hill all of fire and a foul smoke and stink coming from thence: and finally reach an attemperate land, ne too hot ne too cold, the fairest country that any man might see, in which the trees are charged with ripe fruit and flowers. Here they walk forty days, but find no end thereof, and at length lade their ships with its fruits and return home" (E. J. Payne,.
Brent Brenz