RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bnessmann Brinckerinck
Life of Jesus (1904); Ethical Teachings of Jesus (1904); and Critical Commentary on the Psalms (1906)!
BRIGHT, WILLIAM: English church historian and patristic scholar; b. at Doncaster (30 m. s. of York), Yorkshire, England, Dec. 14, 1824; d. at Oxford Mar. 6, 1901. He studied at Rugby and University College, Oxford (B.A., 1846; M.A., 1849), and became fellow 1847; was theological tutor in Trinity College, Glenalmond, Perthshire, 1851-58; tutor of University College, Oxford, 1862; appointed regius professor of ecclesiastical history and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, 1868. His publications were very numerous and have gone through many editions; besides sermons and addresses, poems, and devotional works they include: Ancient Collects and Other Prayers selected from various rituals (London, 1857) ; A History of the Church from the Edict of Milan, A.D. 313, to the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. £51 (1860); Eighteen Sermons of St. Leo I, surnamed the Great, on the Incarnation, translation and notes (1862); Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, text and introduction (1872); Orations of St. Athanasius against the Arians, text, with life (1873); Socrates's Ecclesiastical History, text and introduction (1878); Chapters of Early English Church History (1878; 3d ed., 1897); Select Anti-Pelagian Treatises of St. Augustine (1880); St. Athanasius's Historical Writings (1881); Later Treatises of St. Athanasius, translation, notes, and an appendix of St. Cyril (vol. xlvi. of A Library of the Fathers, ed. E. B. Pusey and others, 1881); Notes on the Canons of the First Four General Councils (1882); Lessons from the Lives of Three Great Fathers (1890); Morality in Doctrine (1892); Waymarks in Church History (1894); The Roman See in the Early Church and Other Studies in Church History (1896); The Law of Faith (1898); Some Aspects of Primitive Church Life (1898). With P. G. Medd he edited a Latin translation of the English prayer-book (1865), and he contributed the section on the Litany to J. H. Blunt's Annotated Book of Common Prayer (1866). y
Bibliography: W. Bright, Selected Letters, ed. B. J. Kidd, with Memoir by P. G. Medd, London, 1903.
BRIGHTMAN, FRANK EDWARD: Church of England; b. at Bristol June 18, 1856. He was educated at University College, Oxford (B.A., 1879), and was ordered deacon in 1884 and ordained priest in the following year. He was chaplain of University College from 1884 to 1887 and assistant curate of St. John the Divine, Kennington, m 1887-88, while from 1884 to 1903 he was Pusey wbranan. He was also examiner in the Theology School in 1899-1901, and since 1902 has been iel ow and tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as prebendary of Carlton with Thurlby in wncoln Cathedral. He has written Liturgies jjMfent and Western (vol. i, Oxford, 1896) and What voiectwns have been made to English Orders? £ondon, 1896), and has also translated the Preces mvatce of Lancelot Andrewes (1903).
BRIGHTMAN, THOMAS: Puritan and Presbye"an; b. at Nottingham 1562; d. at Hawnes (5 m.
s. by e. of Bedford) Aug. 24, 1607- He studied at Queen's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1581; M.A., 1584; B.D., 1591), became a fellow there i'n 1584' and rector of Hawnes in 1592. He was one of the fathers of Presbyterianism in England- as Thomas Cartwright says, "The bright star in the Church of God." He subscribed the Presbyterian Books of Discipline. He was a famous expositor of Revelation (Apocalypsis Apocalypseos, Frankfort, 1609, Heidelberg, 1612, Eng. transl., A revelation of the Revelation, Amsterdam, 1615, Leyden, 1616) and of Daniel from xi. 36 to end of xii. (Basel, 1614, which edition has notes on Canticles; Eng. transl., London, 1644). He opened up a new path in the exposition of the Apocalypse by making two distinct millenniums: the first, from Constantine until 1300, in this corresponding with the common orthodox view; the second, from 1300 to 2300, which was a new departure, by which he was enabled to find a place for the future conversion of the Jews, and a more glorious condition of the Church on earth, which he gains by a symbolical interpretation of Rev xxi. and xxii. His views greatly modified the Puritan interpretation of the Apocalypse, and were expounded by different writers and reproduced in different forms long after his death. His collected works appeared London, 1644.
BRIGIDA, SAINT, BRIGITTINES. See Bridget,
Saint, of Sweden.
BRILL, JAKOB: Mystic; b. at Leyden Jan. 21, 1639; d. there Jan. 28, 1700. He was a follower of Pontiaan van Hattem; between 1685 and 1699 he published about forty works of a mysticaldevotional character, which were much read; but spiritualizing Christ to such a degree that the historical Christ almost disappeared, and the sacrifice on the cross became a mere symbol of the sacrifice which shall take place in us, he at last got lost in a mystical pantheism, far away from Christianity.
Bibliography: A eulogy of Brill is found in Poiret's Catalogue des ecrivains mystiques (Lat. transl., Amsterdam, 1708). Consult also Ypey en Dermont, De hervormde Kerk in Nederland, vol. iii., Breda, 1824.
BRINCKERINCK, JAN: A popular preacher and spiritual director in connection with the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life; b. near Ziitphen, Guelderland, 1359; d. at Deventer Mar. 26, 1419. Thomas a Kempis, who wrote his life, says that he came of a good family, but tells nothing further of his early life except that, living in the days of the great religious awakening under Groote's influence, he was profoundly impressed by it. He came into intimate personal relations with Groote and his disciples, and devoted himself to forwarding the " new devotion " and the education of the young. He was ordained priest in 1393, and not long afterward took charge as rector of the house for women founded at Deventer by Groote, " Meester Geertshuis " as it was commonly called (see Common Life, Brethren of the). He introduced a strict discipline into the life of the inmates, and was practically the founder of the sisters whose houses afterward became so
.British Church Brooks