Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/697

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THIERRY


635


THIERS


nobles against Blanche of Castile, but he soon sepa- rated from them, and being attacked by them, he was defended by the queen. In 1234, his uncle Sancho VII having died childless, he succeeded him as King of Navarri\ He w:is iho leador of the crusade organized ill rJ I 1>\ (inL;oiv I\, anil landed at Acre on the first of September, fought several un- successful battles, and after his troops were decisively de- feated at Gaza, he left Svria on 1 September, 1240. In order to arouse the zeal of the no- bility for the de- fence of the Holy Land, he composed four songs, known as Crusade songs, which rank among his best; their lit- erary value is equal to their Christian inspiration. Very little is known of his life after he retiu-ned from his


Thibaut, Comte de Cha .After a Paintiog by


campaign in Palestine. There is some uncertainty concerning the place where he died, at Provins, Troves, or in Navarre. He is regarded as one of the greatest hrical poets of the thirteenth century. His rhythms ore most harmonious, his combinations of metres show a real skill, while his expressions are full of refinement and true sentiment. His verses have been published, under the title of "Po6sies du Roi de Na- varre", by L(5vesque de la Ravalliere (Paris, 1742). They consist of sixty-six poems, divided as follows: thirty-nine love sings, twelve jeux-partis, or debating songs, four Crusade songs, and eight serventois. Dante and Petrarch had the greatest regard for this poet and spoke of him in most laudatory terms.

D'Arbois de Jubainville, Hist, des cojntes de Champagne (Paris. 1S66); Petit de Jclleville, Hist, de la tangue et de la lUtirature fran<:aise, II (Paris, 1894); Bedier, Chansons de croi- sade (Paris, 1909).

Louis N. Delamarre.

Thierry of Freiburg (ov. of Saxony) , a philosopher antl physician of the Middle Ages, and a member of the Order of Saint Dominic. We cannot with any de- gree of certainty identify him with Frater Theodori- cus, who in 1283, was named prior of the convent of Wurzburg, but there is abundant evidence that at the Chapter Cieneral held at Strasburg (1293) he was made superior general of the province of Germany, holding this post until 1296. In 1297 we find him at Paris, teaching the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard; in 1303, at Coblenz; and in 1304, at Toulouse, tak- ing part in the Chapt er General of his order. In 1310, the Chapter General of Plaisance appointed him Vi- carius Provinrur Tciitonicre, while awaiting the nomi- nation of a new provincial. Nothing is known of his after life.

Thieny was a ver>' active writer. A list of the works of Dominican authors, compiled in 1330, as- cribes to him thirt y-()iH' different treatises, twenty-one of which arc si ill in cxisliMice, on the most diverse sub- jects of theologj', metaphysics, and cosmologj'. But the one which especially redounds to the glory of Thierrj- is that comirosed in 1304 "DeFride" for the Chapter General of Toulouse, at the request of Amf ric de Plaisance. superior-general of the order. Therein with wonderful clearness Thierrj' describes the differ- ent reflect ions an<l refract ions of ever}' ray which forms either the first or secon<l rainbow. This experiment was made with a spherical drop of water. Further-


more, with the help of spherical glass vases filled with water, he verified experimentally the phenomena which he planned. This work, which made its author a precursor of Descartes, is a model of the art of logi- cally combining experiments.

Ventori-Reoiano, Commentari sopra la storia e le leorie dell' nttica. I (Bologna, 1814), pt. Ill: DeW Fride. etc., 149-246. Krebs, Meister Dietrich (Theodoricus TeiUonicas de VTiberg) seir, Leben, seine Werke. seine Wissenschafi in Beitrdge zur Geschichte det Philosophie des .Mittelalters Texte u. Untersuchungen, V (Munster, 1906), 5-6.

Pierre Duhem.

Thiers, Louis-Adolphe, French statesman and historian, first president of the Third French Repub- lic, b. at Marseilles, 16 April, 1797; d. at Paris, 3 Sept., 1877. Established at Paris in 1S21 he at once took an important place in the Liberal Opposition Press as editor of the "Constitutionnel", and in the literary world through his "Histoire de la revolution frangaise" (10 vols., 1S2.3-27). The foundation in 1829 of "Le National" by Thiers, Mignet, and .^r- mand Carrel provided the Liberals with a powerful weapon against the Polignac ministry, and furthered the movement which resulted in 1830 in the fall of the Bourbons. A proclamation drawn up by Thiers 29 July, 1830, directed the attention of the people to the Due d'Orleans who became King Louis-Philippe. Thiers became a member of the French Academy in 1834 and between 1830 and 1840 wius several times minister under the July Monarchy. When the long Guizot ministry freed him from political occupations he undertook the "Histoire du consulat et de I'em- pire" (20 vols., 1845-62). It was he who caused the adoption by the Chamber of Deputies, 3 May, 1845, of .an order of the day aimed at the Jesuits and stipu- lating that the Chamber should rely on the Govern- ment to enforce the laws of the State. The result of this vote was the negotiation undertaken at Rome by the ambassador Rossi in behalf of the Govern- ment of Louis-Philippe to secure the suppression of the Jesuits in France. In 1846 Thiers accused the Gui- zot ministry of making concessions to the Catholic party at the expense of the university. But after the advent of the Second Rejiublic, having taken fright at the rise of certain Revolutionary ideas, he served the interests of the Church, and as early as March, 1848, he acknowledged in a letter to Madier de Mont- jan that his ideas had changed with regard to liberty of instruction. In the committee which preparei the vote for thf loi Fnlloux Thiers was influenced by Dupanloup a n < declared to Cousin : "The abbe is right. In fighting against the congregations we have fought against justice and virtue and we owe them repar.ation." He voted also for the Roman expedi- tion.

Under the Sec- ond Knipire Thiers w.as elected (1X63) deputy of the Op- position, but on several occasions


ADoi,pnE Thiers From the Portrait by Bonnat


he criticised in the Chamber theltali.an revolution and besought the Government of X.apoleon not to permit the downfall of the temporal power. After having eloquently opiiosed the policy of the .Second Empire with regard to Prussia he was .sent to various Euro- pean courts by the Bureau of National Defence, which