Elizabeth's Church, of modern erection; and St. Clara's in Little Basel. The town-hall was built in 1508 and restored in 1826. A post-office, a new bank, and an hospital are of recent erection. Besides the university, which was founded by Pope Pius II. in 1459, and reorganized in 1817, Basel

Happiness, with the Plan of an Elementary Treatise on Human | the Bare-footed Friars, which now serves as a store house; Knowledge, Hamburg, 1768. He proposed the reform of schools and of the common methods of instruction, and the establishment of an institute for qualifying teachers, soliciting subscriptions for the printing of his elementary work, where his principles were to be explained at length, and illustrated by plates. The subscriptions for this object amounted to 15,000 thalers (£2250), and in 1774 he published his Elementary Work, a complete system of primary education, intended to develop the intelligence of the pupils and to bring them, so far as possible, into contact with realities, not with mere words. The work was received with great favor, and Basedow obtained means to establish an institute for education at Dessau, and to apply his principles in training disciples, who might spread them over all Germany. Little calculated by nature or habit to succeed in an employment which requires the greatest regularity, patience, and attention, he, however, engaged in this new project with all his accustomed ardor. The name of Philanthropin appeared to him the most expressive of his views; and he published at Leipsic in 1774 a pamphlet entitled The Philanthropinon founded at Dessau, containing the details of his plan. He immediately set about carrying it into execution; but he had few scholars, and the success by no means answered his hopes. Nevertheless, so well had his ideas been received that similar institutions sprang up all over the land, and the most prominent writers and thinkers openly advocated the plan. Had Basedow been a man of ordinary tact, his success would have been complete. But his temper was intractable, and his management was one long quarrel with his colleagues. The institution was finally shut up in 1793. Basedow died at Magdeburg on the 25th July, 1790. Notices of his life and works have been published by Rathmann (1791) and Meyer (1791-2).

BASEL, BALE, or BASLE (the first being the German, the others the French and Old French forms of the name), a canton in the N.W. of Switzerland, with an area of 184 English square miles. It is bounded on the N.W. by Alsace, N. by the grand-duchy or Baden, E. by the canton of Aargau, and S. and S.W. by those of Solothurn and Berne. The canton is traversed by the Jura chain, the highest peaks of which rise to from 4000 to 5000 feet. With the exception of the Rhine and its tributaries,-the Birse and the Ergolz,-there are no streams of any magnitude. The soil is for the most part fertile and well cultivated, the mountain sides affording excellent pasturage. The principal pursuits of the people are agricultural and pastoral, though here and there, as at Liestal, Sissach, and Münchenstein, coal-mining is carried on. The chief manufactures are ribbons, woollen, linen, and cotton goods, and iron and steel wares. Politically the canton consists of two divisions, one urban and the other rural (Basel-stadt and Basel-landschaft), each with its own constitution and laws. The former sends two members to the National Council; its legislative power is in the hands of a Great Council which consists of 134 members, chosen for six years, and its executive power belongs to a Lesser Council of 15 members. In the rural division the legislative body (or Landrath) is chosen for three years, and has the ultimate authority over all departments; the executive council consists of five members elected for the same period; it sends three members to the National Council. The prevailing language is German. Population of Basel-stadt in 1870, 47,760, and of Basel-landschaft, 54,721.

BASEL, or BALE, the capital of the above canton, and, next to Geneva, the largest city in Switzerland, is situated on both sides of the Rhine, 43 miles N. of Berne, in lat. 47° 33′ N., and long. 7° 35' E. Great Basel, or the city proper, lies on the south side of the river, and is connected with Little Basel on the north side by a handsome bridge 800 feet long, which was originally erected in 1229. The city is generally well-built, but there are fewer remarkable edifices than in many other Continental cities of similar size. The fine old Gothic cathedral, founded 1010, still stands, and contains a number of interesting monuments, besides the tombs of Erasmus, Ecolampadius, and other eminent persons. A re-decoration was skilfully effected in 1852-1856. Among other ecclesiastical buildings of interest may be mentioned St. Martin's, restored in 1851; St. Alban's, formerly a monastery; the church of

A, Peter's Platz.
B, Market.

C, Barfusser Platz.
D, Zoological Gardens.

Plan of Basel.

Swiss Central R

E, Botanical Gardens.
F, University.
G, Town-Hall.

H. Armory.

possesses a public library of 95,000 vols., with a valuable collection of MSS., a picture-gallery, a museum, a theological seminary for missionaries (established in 1816), a gymnasium, an industrial school, a botanical garden, an orphanasylum, an institution for deaf-mutes, and various learned societies. Of these may be mentioned the Society for the Propagation of Useful Knowledge, founded in 1777 by Iselin, the Society of Natural History, the Society of National Antiquities, and the Bible Society, which dates from 1804 and was the first of the kind on the Continent. Basel is the seat of an active transit-trade between France, Germany, and Switzerland, and possesses important manufactures of silk, linen, and cotton, as well as dyeworks, bleachfields, and iron-works, the most valuable of all being the ribbon-trade. It has railway communication with both south and north. The Baden line has a station in Little Basel; and the central station for the Swiss and Alsace railways lies to the south-east of the city proper. Basel was the birthplace of Euler, Bernouilli, Iselin, and perhaps of Holbein; and the names of Erasmus, Ecolampadius, Grynæus, Merian, De Wette, Hagenbach, and Wecknernagel, are associated with the university. Population in 1870, 44,834.

Basel (Basilia) first appears in the 4th century as a Roman military post. On the decay of the neighboring city of Augusta Rauracorum, the site of which is still marked by the village of Augst, it began to rise into importance, and, after numerous vicissitudes, became a free city of the empire about the middle of the 10th century, and obtained a variety of privileges and rights. In 1356 the most of its buildings were destroyed by an earthquake. In 1392 the town of Little Basel was acquired from the bishop by purchase. From 1431 to 1443 the meetings of a General Council were held in the city (see next article). After the battle of St. Jacob in 1444, in the immediate neighborhood, Basel was visited by the plague, and its population considerably diminished. In 1501 it became a member of the Swiss Confederacy; and it was one of the chief seats of the Reformation movement. The position of the city exposed it to many dangers during the Thirty Years' War and the subsequent disturbances of the neighboring states; but in spite of all it continued to flourish. A peril of a more critical kind arose from within. The quasi-aristocratic Government of the city appropriated all political rights, and left the inhabitants of the rural dis tricts unrepresented,-which gradually led to much discontent on the part of the latter, and ultimately to actual

rebellion. It was not till 1833 that peace was firmly restored by the complete separation of the canton into the two divisions of Basel-stadt and Basel-landschaft, the former being allowed to include not only the city proper, but also the communes of Reihen, Bettingen, and Klein-Hüningen. The capital of the rural division is Liesthal, with (in 1870) a population of 3873.

and when the council decided against him, he resolved to assemble another council, which met first at Ferrara and afterwards at Florence.

Eugenius that he resolved either to bring the council within the reach of his influence or to dissolve it. The occasion for interference arose out of a debate which the subject of reunion with the Greek Church gave rise to. The emperor John Palæologus, induced principally by fear of the Turks, had written both to the Pope and to the council on the subject of the reunion of Christendom, and both had enterBASEL, THE COUNCIL OF (1431-1443), was the last of tained his proposals. The majority, however, of the bishops the three great reforming councils of the 15th century, in the council maintained that this subject could not propcoming after the councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance erly be discussed in Italy, and that the deliberations must (1414-18). In these three councils the aim of the majority take place in France, Savoy, or Basel, far from the influwas to reform the church by destroying the absolute supre-ence of the Pope. To this Eugenius would not agree; macy of the Pope, and by curbing the rule of the Roman curia; and the acts of these councils were all designed to re-establish the power of the episcopate by asserting the supremacy of ecumenical councils. At Pisa these aims were only indicated; at Constance they were so far successful that schismatic popes were deposed, and the council practically showed its superiority to the Pope by bestowing the papal chair on Martin V.; and although the fathers of Constance were compelled to separate before they could do much else in the way of reform, they practically laid the foundation by insisting that councils should be held frequently, and by ordering a new council to be called at the end of five years. The council summoned in obedience to this command was the Council of Basel, but the results of its meeting were simply to show the helplessness of the episcopate and the power of the Roman curia. At Basel the labors of Pisa and Constance were undone, and after this council thoughtful men began to see that the church could not be reformed without destroying the Papacy.

The Council of Basel was summoned by Martin V. (1431). He first appointed it to meet at Pavia, then at Siena, but Basel was at last fixed upon. At the very beginning Martin died, but his successor, Eugenius IV., sanctioned all his decrees; and the council accordingly met at Basel on the 23d of July, 1431, under the presidency of Cardinal Julian Cesarini. At first all went well. The bishops took care so to arrange the organization of the council and its method of procedure as to make it a true and fair representative of the whole Catholic Church. The members of the council were divided into four equal classes, each consisting of about the same number of cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, &c., and each completely organized, with its president, secretaries, and other officers. This was done to neutralize the votes and prevent the intrigues of the Italian bishops, who were very numerous, and for the most part under the power of the Roman curia. To each of the four was assigned the investigation of a special class of subjects. Each section met separately in

its own hall thrice a week. Each section elected three of its number to form a committee of business. One-third of this committee was changed every month. All the business had to pass through this committee, and it sent down special subjects to be discussed in each of the sections. When the section had discussed the matter it sent its decision with the reasons of it to each of the other sections, who then discussed the matter and gave their opinion upon it. If three sections were agreed upon it, the subject was brought before the whole council for general discussion and a final decision.

The three subjects which were specially assigned to this council were the reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches, the reconciliation of the Bohemians, and the reform of the church according to the resolutions come to at Constance. Soon after the beginning of the council the Roman curia took alarm at the zeal and determination of the assembled bishops, and by intrigues compelled the Pope, who was really anxious for reform, to do all he could to hinder the work of the fathers at Basel. Eugenius twice tried to dissolve the council; but it resisted, maintaining that a council being superior to the Pope could not be dissolved, and the Pope yielded. The bishops refused to admit the Pope's legates until they admitted the supremacy of the council and promised to obey its decrees.

The first business to which the members addressed themselves was to curb the power of the Pope and of the Roman curia. They tried to do this by attempting to stop the flow of money from all parts of Europe to Rome. They abolished the annates; they declared it illegal in a bishop to send the sum of money commonly presented on his investiture, &c.; and they passed many laws to restrain the luxury and vice of the clergy. These proceedings so alarmed VOL. III.-119

The rest of the proceedings of the council of Basel is simply a record of struggles with the Pope. In 1437 the council ordered the Pope to appear before them at Basel. The Pope replied by dissolving the council; the bishops, backed by the emperor and the king of France, continued their deliberations, and pronounced the Pope contumacious for not obeying them. When Eugenius tried to take away the authority of the council by summoning the opposition Council of Florence, the bishops at Basel deposed him. Eugenius replied by a severe bull, in which he excommunicated the bishops, and they answered by electing a new Pope, Amadeus, duke of Savoy, who assumed the name of Felix V. The greater part of the church adhered to Eugenius, but most of the universities acknowledged the authority of Felix and the Council of Basel. Notwithstanding the opposition of Eugenius and his adherents, the Council of Basel continued to pass laws and decrees until the year 1443; and when the bishops separated they declared publicly that they would reassemble at Basel, Lyons, or Lausanne. In 1447 Eugenius died and was succeeded by Nicholas V., who tried to bring about a reconciliation between the parties in the church. A compromise was effected, by which Felix resigned the pontificate, and the fathers of Basel having assembled at Lausanne, ratified the abdication of Felix, and directed the church to obey Nicholas, while Nicholas confirmed by his sanction the acts and decrees of the Council of Basel.

Hefele's Conciliengeschichte, vol. v.; Mansi, Concilia, vol. xxix.; Eneas Sylvius, De Concilio Basiliense. The Acts of the Council are preserved in MS. in Paris and in Basel. (T. M. L.)

BASHAN, a country lying on the east side of the Jordan valley, towards its northern extremity, often mentioned in Jewish history. The Hebrew form of the name is or, represented in Greek by Bacáv and Baravitis (LXX. and Epiphanius), or more frequently, by Baravaia (Josephus, Ptolemy, Eusebius, &c.). The name is understood to be derived from a root signifying fertile, or, according to some, basaltic; and in some of the ancient versions of the Old Testament it is occasionally rendered by a word indicating fertility; thus, in Ps. xxii. 13, the LXX. gives for Bashan Tíoves, Aquila gives napoi, Symmachus, OITOTO. When we first hear of this region in the days of Abraham it is occupied by the Rephaim, whose chief city is Ashteroth Karnaim (Gen. xiv. 5). These Rephaim, with kindred tribes spread over the trans-Jordanic region, were in great part subdued and supplanted by the children of Lot (Deut. ii. 10, 11, 19–21), who in their turn were invaded and displaced by the Amorites (Num. xx. 26-30). By this people, at the time of the Exodus, the whole region north of the Arnon was occupied; and they formed two kingdoms, the more northerly embracing all Bashan and a part of Gilead (Deut. iii. 8, 13; Josh. xii. 4, 5). Og, who is described as a man of gigantic stature, belonging to the race of the Rephaim, was, at the time referred to, the ruler of this kingdom; and having come out against the Israelites, he was overthrown in battle at Edrei, one of his own cities. Subsequently, his country became the allotment of the half tribe of Manasseh (Josh. xiii. 29–31).

The information given in connection with the Israelitish conquest enables us to define with considerable exactness the limits of the ancient Bashan. Towards the west it included Golan (Deut. iv. 43; Josh. xx. 8, xxi. 27), a name which to the present day has continued attached to the district, the Jaulân, lying on the east of the Jordan, in its upper course; while towards the east, it reached to

Salchah (Deut. iii. 10, &c.), the modern Salkhat, situated | Alsalamus mons of Ptolemy, and, perhaps, the Salmon of on the south-eastern slope of the Haurân mountains. On the south it is represented as immediately adjoining the country of Gilead, whose northern boundary is known to have been the river Jarmuk, and on the north, it is expressly said to have extended to Mount Hermon (Deut. iv. 48, xxxiii. 22; Josh. xii. 5, xiii. 11, 12). Within the limits thus indicated, may be pointed out the towns and other localities mentioned as belonging to Bashan. Ashtaroth, Og's metropolis, doubtless the Ashteroth Karnaim of Gen. xiv. 5, called also Beeshterah (cf. Josh. xxi. 27, and 1 Chron. vi. 71), has been sought in various places, especially in Tel Ashtereh (see Newbold, Jour. Geo. Soc., vol. xvi.), but has now, with much probability, been identified (by Wetzstein, Reisebericht über Haurán, p. 110) with the well-known Busrâh, the Bostra of the Latins, whose position admirably adapts it for a capital city, and whose ruins attest its ancient splendor. Edrei, already mentioned, is to be identified with Derât, on the west of Busrah (Wetzstein, op. cit., p. 47, 77). The position of Golan and Salchah has been indicated, while Kenath (Num. xxxii. 42) is recovered in the modern Kunawât (Porter, Five Years in Damascus, vol. ii. p. 111). The region of Argob will be referred to immediately.

a much later date, and must be regarded as at least unproved. (See Wetzstein, op. cit., p. 103; Fergusson, in Athenaeum, July, 1870, p. 148; Burton, op. cit., vol. i. p. 192.) Many inscriptions have been found in this region, -most of them composed in Greek, a considerable number in two forms of Shemitic writing (the Palmyrenian or Aramæan, and the Sinaitic or Nabathæan), and some in an unknown character, resembling the Himyaritic. Arabic inscriptions are numerous on buildings of more recent date. The oldest recognizable Greek record bears the name of Herod the Great; and the Nabathæan kings, of the dynasty of Aretas, who reigned from about 100 в.c. at Bozrah have also left memorials.

To the works on this region above referred to the following may be added:-Seetzen, Reisen durch Syrien; Buckingham, Travels among the Arab Tribes; Graham, Jour. Geog. Soc., vol. xxviii.; De Vogué, Syrie Centrale; Waddington, Inscriptions Grecques de la Syrie; Freshfield, Travels in the Central Caucasus and Bashan. (W. TU.)

race.

in Mém. de l'Acad. de St. Petersburg, 1822; and Florinsky, in Westnik Evropi, 1874.

BASIL THE GREAT, an eminent ecclesiastic in the 4th century. He was a leader in the Arian controversy, a distinguished theologian, a liturgical reformer; and his letters to his friends, especially those to Gregory of Nazianzus, give a great amount of information about the stirring period in which he lived. Basil came of a somewhat famous family, which gave a number of distinguished supporters to the church of the 4th century. His eldest sister, Macrina, was celebrated for her saintly life; his second brother was the famous Gregory of Nyssa; his youngest was Peter, bishop of Sebaste; and his eldest has been observed that there was in the whole family a brother was the famous Christian jurist Naucratius. It tendency to ecstatic emotion and enthusiastic piety. Basik was born about 330, at Cæsarea in Cappadocia. While he was still a child, the family removed to Pontus; but he soon returned to Cappadocia to live with his mother's rela tions, and seems to have been brought up by his grandmother Macrina. It was at Cæsarea that he became acquainted with his life-long friend Gregory of Nazianzus and it was there that he began that interesting correspondence to which reference has been made. Basil did not from

BASHKIRS, a people who inhabit the Russian governments of Orenburg, Perm, and Samar, and parts of Viatka, especially on the slopes and confines of the Ural, and in the neighboring plains. The Bashkirs are a Tatarized Finnish race, and are called Eestyak by the Kirghiz, in allusion to their origin from a mixture of Ostyaks and Tatars. the first devote himself to the church. He went to ConThe name Bashkir or Bash-kurt appears for the first time stantinople in pursuit of learning, and spent four or fiveyears there and at Athens. It was while at Athens that in the beginning of the 10th century in the writings of Ibn-he seriously began to think of the church, and resolved to Foslan, who, describing his travels among the Volga-Bul- seek out the most famous hermit saints in Syria and garians, mentions the Bashkirs as a warlike and idolatrous The name was not used by the people themselves in Arabia, in order to learn from them how to attain to that the 10th century, but is a mere nickname. It probably his body under by maceration and other ascetic devices enthusiastic piety in which he delighted, and how to keep points to the fact that the Bashkirs, then as now, were dis- After this we find him at the head of a convent near Arnesă tinguished by their large, round, short, and, possibly, close-in Pontus, in which his mother Emmilia, now a widow, cropped heads. Of European writers the first to mention his sister Macrina, and several other ladies, gave themthe Bashkirs are Plano-Carpini and Rubruquis. These selves to a pious life of prayer and charitable works travellers, who fell in with them in the upper parts of the He was not ordained presbyter until 365, and his ordinaRiver Ural, call them Pascatir, and assert that they spoke tion was probably the result of the entreaties of his ecclesiat that time the same language as the Hungarians. Till astical superiors, who wished to use his talents against the the arrival of the Mongolians, about the middle of the Arians, who were numerous in that part of the country 13th century, the Bashkirs were a strong and independent and were favored by the Arian emperor, who then reigned people, and troublesome to their neighbors, the Bulgarians in Constantinople. In 370 Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and Pechenegs. At the time of the downfall of the Kazan died, and Basil was chosen to succeed him. It was them kingdom they were in a weak state. In 1556 they volun- that his great powers were called into action. Cæsarea tarily recognized the supremacy of Russia, and, in consewas an important diocese, and its bishop was, ex officio, quence, the city of Upha was founded to defend them from exarch of the great diocese of Pontus. Basil was threatthe Kirghiz, and they were subjected to a fur-tax. In ened with confiscation of property, banishment, and ever 1676 they rebelled under a leader named Seit, and were with difficulty reduced; and again in 1707, under Aldar death, if he did not relax his regulations against the and Kusyom, on account of ill-treatment by the Russian Arians; but he refused to yield, and in the end triumphed.. officials. Their third and last insurrection was in 1735, Basil are his De Spiritu Sancto and his three books against: He died in 379. The principal theological writings of at the time of the foundation of Orenburg, and it lasted Eunomius. He was a famous preacher, and we possess for six years. In 1786 they were freed from taxes; and in 1798 an irregular army was formed from among them. at least seventeen homilies by him on the Psalms and on: They are now divided into thirteen cantons, and each towards the improvement of the Liturgy (the Liturgy of Isaiah. His principal efforts as a reformer were directed! canton into yûrts or districts, the whole being under the the Holy Basil), and the reformation of the monastic orders jurisdiction of the Orenburg governor-general. In military of the East. (Cf. the Benedictine editions of the works of. matters they are subject to an Ataman, chosen from the Basil the Great.) generals of the army; but in civil affairs the yûrts and cantons are administered by Bashkir officials. They main-churchmen besides Basil the Great. tain a military cordon, escort caravans through the Kirghiz steppes, and are employed in various other services. By mode of life the Bashkirs are divided into settled and nomadic. The former, who are not distinguishable from the inhabitants of the Tatar villages, are engaged in agriculture, cattle-rearing, and bee-keeping, and live without want. The nomadic portion is subdivided, according to the districts in which they wander, into those of the mountains and those of the steppes. Almost their sole occupation is the rearing of cattle; and they attend to that in a very negligent manner, not collecting a sufficient store of winter fodder for all their herds, but allowing part of them to perish. The Bashkirs are usually very poor, and in winter live partly on a kind of gruel called yûryn, and badly prepared cheese named skûrt. They are hospitable but suspicious, apt to plunder, and to the last degree lazy. They have large heads, black hair, eyes narrow and flat, small foreheads, ears always sticking out, and a swarthy skin. In general, they are strong and muscular, and capable of enduring all kinds of labor and privation. They profess Mahometanism, but are little acquainted with its doctrines. In intellectual development they do not stand high.

See Semenoff, Slovar Ross. Imp. s.v.; Frähn, "De Baskiris,"

The name BASIL also belongs to several distinguished? (1.) Basil, bishop of Ancyra (336-360), a semi-Arian, highly favored by the Emperor Constantine, and a great polemical writer none of his works are extant. (2.) Basil of Seleucias (fl. 448-458), a bishop who shifted sides continually in the Eutychian controversy, and who wrote extensively his works were published in Paris in 1622. (3.) Basil of Ancyra, fl. 787; he opposed image worship at the second council of Nicæa, but afterwards retracted. (4) Basil, the founder of a sect of mystics who appeared in the Greek Church in the 12th century (cf. Anna Comnera, Alexiad,

bk. 15).

BASILICA, a term denoting (1) in civil architecture,, a court of law, or merchants' exchange, and (2) in ecclesiastical architecture, a church of similar form and arrange

ment.

The name basilica, βασιλική (sc. στοά or αυλή), * a royal portico," or "hall," is evidence of a Greek origin. The: portico at Athens in which the second archon, app Basik. Eus, sat to adjudicate on matters touching religion, and in which the council of Areopagus sometimes met, was known as the στοά βασίλειος or βασιλική (Pausan., i. 3, 8 15 Demosth., Aristogit., p. 776; Plato, Charmid., ad init. ; Anstoph., Ecclesiaz., 685). From this circumstance the tera