Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/291

This page needs to be proofread.

VALENS


253


VALENS


he archiepiscopal palace, a grain market in the time "the Moors, is simple in design, with an inside cloister nd a handsome chapel. In 1357 the arch which )nnect3 it with the cathedral was built. In the juncil chamber are preserved the portraits of all the relates of Valencia.

Among the parish churches those deserving special lention are: 8ta. John (Baptist and EvangeUst), ■built in 1368, whose dome, decorated by Palonino, )ntains some of the best frescoes in Spain; The emple (El Tcmplo), the ancient church of the !nights Templar, which passed into the hands of the rder of Montcsa and which was rebuilt in the reigns

■ Ferdinand VI and Charles III; the former convent

■ the Dominicans, at present the headquarters of the capitan general", the cloister of which has a beautiful othic wing and the chapter room, large colunms nitating palm trees; the Colegio del Corpus Christi, hich is devoted to the exclusive worship of the lessed Sacrament, and in which perpetual adoration

carried on; the Jesuit college, which was destroyed S(>8) bj' the revolutionary Committee, but rebuilt

I the same site; the Colegio de San Juan (also of the iciety), the former college of the nobles, now a •ovincial institute for secondary instruction.

The seminary was built in 1S31: from 1790 it was tuated at the former house of studies of the Jesuits, nee the Concordat (18.51) it ranks as a central semi- iry with the faculty of conferring academic degrees, here have been in Valencia, since very remote times, hooLs founded by the bishops and directed by eccle- astics. In 1412 a sludium generale with special atutes was established. Alexander VI raised it to le rank of a university on 23 January, 1500. Ferdi- ind the CathoUc confirmed this two years later. In i.'JO the building was reconstructed; a statue of Luis ives adorns the corridor. Among the ho.spitals and laritable institutions may be mentioned: the Casa > Misericordia; the Provincial hospital; the orphan iylum of San Vicente; and the Infant Asylum of the [arques de Campo. In Gandia there was a univer- ty, and the palace of St. Francis Borgia, now the >vitiate of the Society of Jesus, is preserved. Ballester. //is(. dfl S.Christo de S. Snhndor {Valencia. 1672). ntaining a list of the bishops of Valencia: Teixidor, Obserta- ynes criticas a las antiguedades de Valencia, consulted by Villa- revA for the catalogue of bishops of Valencia in his Viaje lit- irio a las IgU&ias de Espatla, I: Llorente. Valencia in Espafia; 13 man. y arirs (Barcelona, 18.S9) : Florez. Espafia sagrada, VIII rd ed., Madrid): DE la FtJENTE, Hist, de las Unirersidades,

II (Madrid. 1885).

Ram6n Ruiz Amado.

Universitt op Valencia. — At the request of lime I the Conqueror, Innocent IV in 1246, ilhorized by a Bull the establishment of estu- ns {imerales in Valencia. Although in virtue of lis Bull .some university courses were followed in ilencia, the university itself was not founded tmtil 111. Its foundation was due to the zeal of St. incent Ferrer and to the donation of a building by osen Pedro Vilaragut. Only very meagre accounts ive been preserved of the practical workings of the liversity. From the time of its foundation the lurses included Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, lilosophy, mathematics and physics, theology, canon w, and medicine. The closing years of the seven- enth, and the whole of the eighteenth centurj-, itne.ssed the most prosperous era of the university, reek, Latin, mathematics, and medicine being lecially cultivated. Among the names of its illus- ious students that of Tosca,Torricelli's friend, noted lysicist and author of important mathematical Drks, stands out prominently. Escolano says that was the leading university in mathematics, the imanities, philosophy, and medicine. Large ana- mical drawings were made by the students, ilencia was the first university of Spain to foimd a lurse for the study of herbs. Many of the Valencian


graduates of medicine became famous. Pedro Xi- meno discovered the third small bone of thf ear. He was professor at Alcald and had for a pupil the cele- brated Valles. Luia Collado, professor of botany, made some valuable discoveries and carried on exhaustive studies of the plants of the Levant: Vicente Alonzo Lorente WTote works on botany; and the famous botanist Cavanilles was also a student of this university. In the seventeenth century the university divided into two factions, the Thomists and the anti-Thomists. The discussions were heated and aroused partisan feehngs throughout the entire King- dom of Valencia. The university possessed a library of 27,000 volumes which was destroyed by the soldiers under the command of General Suchet. Among the most noted professors of the university was D. Francisco Perez Bayer, a man of wide culture and great influence in the reign of Charles III. Around the university several colleges for poor students sprang up: the first was founded by St. Thomas of Villanova in 1561 and then followed those founded bj- Dona .\ngela Alonsar, and Mosen Pedro Martin. The most famous, called Corpus Christi, was founded by Blessed Juan de Ribera; Philip II founded that of San Jorge; and Melchor de ViUena founded the last in 1643.

De la Fuente, Hisioria de las Vniversidades, Colegios y demds eMablicimienf OS de ensetlanza en Espafia (1887):Orti y Figuerol.\, ^ff■moril-lfi hi.^loriras de la fundacidn y progresos de la insigne J' ' ' '- Valencia (1730); Teixidoh, Estudios antiguos y

^'les de consejos de Valencia: Diago, Anales de i I \^o, Hisioria de Valencia: DE Ve^-iana, Crdnica

MMENO, Escritores del retno de Valencia (1747); t L K.-.1 i-K. bumoteca valenciana (1827); Morej6n, //is/orm de la medicina espaHota.

Tegdoro Rodriguez.

Valens, Flavius, Emperor of the East, b. in Pannonia (now Hungary) c. 328; d. near Adrianople, in Thrace, August, 378. Little is known of his origin, which, in spite of the Roman gentile name adopted bv him in common with his brother, Valentinian, the Emperor of the West, was most probably barbarian. His elevation to the throne in 364 was duo to Valen- tinian's favour. Valens, however, soon displayed some degree of warlike ability, as well as a barbarous cruelty, in dealing with Procopius, who, alleging as his title a bequest of the Emperor Julian, seized the throne. Having defeated and captured Procopius, Valens caused his rival's legs to be bound to two bent saplings, which were then released, so that the vic- tim's body was torn asunder. A pagan at the time of his elevation, this emperor was baptized, about the year 367, by Eudoxius, the Arian Patriarch of Con- stantinople. His necessary ignorance of the fimda- mentals of Christianity, while, in the circumstances, not blameworthy, does not excuse his persecution of the Eastern Cathohcs from about the year 369 until the end of his reign. The most infamous example of this was in the case of Sts. Urbanus, Theodorus, and other ecclesiastics, to the number of eighty, who.se martyrdom is commemorated on 5 September. This company of bishops and priests, having come to Con- stantinople, in 370, to plead for freedom of Catholic worship, were, by the emperor's orders, embarked on a vessel which then sailed for the coast of Bithy- nia; on nearing that coast, the crew, still acting upon the imperial instructions, set fire to the ship and abandoned it, leaving St. Urbanus and his companions to perish.

With this ferocity, Valens also evinced the crudely .■superstitious instincts of the savage. On a journey through Cappadocia, he visited, at Ca"sarea, St. Ba.sil the Great (q. v.), whom he intended to drive into exile as a conspicuous foe of Arianism; but, the emper- or's son falling sick, the bishop was called upon to restore him to health. This Basil agreed to attempt, on condition that the child should be baptized as a Catholic. In the event, an Arian performed the