BESTS
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BESTIARIES
of Doctor Juris Utriusque, and on his return to Mainz
(1703) he was appointed vicar-general and supreme
judge of the whole archdiocese by his benefactor.
He was also employed on ^'arious diplomatic missions,
as, for instance, to the court of Brunswiek-Wolfen-
blittel in connexion with the conversion of Duke An-
ton Ulrich and his granddaughter, the Princess Elisa-
beth Christine, later the wife of Emperor Charles VI.
He made three journeys to Rome to settle differences
between the pope and the emperor concerning the
limits of the province of Coinacchio. On 7 February,
1714, he was elected Abbot of Gottweig, and from
that time forward was commissioned by the emperor
to conduct diplomatic negotiations, in addition to
being made imperial theologian and serving twice as
honorary rector of the University of Vienna.
Abbot Bessel was the second founder of Gottweig, which became, under his rule of thirty-five years, a centre of learning. He added to the rare Hebrew, Greek, and Roman coins and bracteates collections of copper-plate engrav-ings (over 20,000), minerals, shells, and paintings. By the expenditure of princely sums he enriched the library with thousands of volumes, chiefly on historical subjects, as well as in- cunabula and MS.S. Himself a thorough scholar, he encouraged among his religious all undertakings of a scientific or artistic nature. When the abbey was almost totally destroyed by fire, he gathered, by judicious management, means sufficient to rebuild it on a more splendid scale.
Personally, Abbot Bessel was a retiring religious, presenting to all a shining example of monastic piety and virtue. Besides several comparatively unim- portant works, such as "Margarita pretiosa", "Curiae Roraanse praxis", and "Austriae ritus", he pub- lished (Vienna, 1732) two letters of St. Augustine to Optatus, Bishop of Mileve, which had been until then unknown. He is erroneously credited with the authorship of "Quinquagmta Romano-catho- licam fidem omnibus aliis prseferendi motiva" (Mainz, 1708), a controversial work written originally in Latin, but translated into almost every European tongue. The work which brought him lasting re- nown and a place in the records of the science of history is entitled "Clironicon Gottwicense, tomus prodromus" (Tegernsee, 1732). Not, as might be thought, a history of the abbey, this single volume is a comprehensive work on German diplomatics, treating of manuscripts found in registers and ar- chives, original documentary evidence, diplomas of German emperors and kings, and inscriptions and seals, illustrated with maps and engravings on copper. The author also discusses medieval geography, as well as the royal palace-domains (Pjahen) and the vari- ous districts of Germany. Great learning and clear critical acumen distinguish this work, which marked an epoch in the history of German diplomatics, and has served as the basis of all later works on the same subject.
Albert, Gottfried Bessel und das Chronicon Gottwicense in Freiburger Diticesan-Archiv. (1899). XXVII, 217-250.
P.\TR1CIUS SCHLAGER.
Beste, Henry Digby, miscellaneous author, b. at Lincoln, England, 21 October, 1768; d. at Brighton, 28 May, 1836. He was the son of the Rev. Henry Beste, D.D., prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. His mother, Magdalen, daughter and heiress of Kenelm Digby, Esq., of North Luffenham in Rutland, claimed to be tiie representative of the extinct mule line of the historic Sir Everard and Sir Kenelm Digby. His father dying in 1782, Henry was .sent two years later by his mother to Oxford. He became a commoner of Magdalen College, where he took his B.A. degree in 17S8 and his M.A. in 1781. He was afterwards elected to a fellowship, which he resigned when the family estates came to him on the death of his mother. In September, 1791, he took deacon's
orders in the Anglican Church, and a little later re-
tired to Lincoln, displaying great activity there as a
preacher. Doubts about the spiritual authority of
the Established Church sprang up in his mind, which
were strengthened by intercourse with the Abh6
Beaumont, then in charge of the small Catholic
chapel at Lincoln. The result was that he was re-
ceived into the Catholic Church by Rev. Mr. Hodg-
son, Vicar-General of the London district, 26 May,
1798. In 1800, he married Sarah, daughter of Ed-
ward Sealy, Esq., and was the father of the well-
known author, John Richard Digby Beste. His first
works were a treatise entitled "The Christian Religion
briefly defended against the Philosophers and Re-
publicans of France" (octavo, 1793), and in the same
year a discourse on "Priestly Absolution" which was
republished in 1874. It is interesting that this latter
work anticipated some of the Tractarian arguments
and met with the warm commendation of the chief
members of the University of Oxford in 1794. After
his conversion Beste was an occasional contributor
to Catholic periodicals. He also travelled abroad
and spent several years in France and Italy. Car-
dinal Wiseman met him at Rome in the Jubilee
of 1825, and mentions him in his "Last Four Popes"
(Boston,^ 1858, p. 245). In 1826 Beste published
"Four Years in France, or Narrative of an English
Family's Residence there during that period, pre-
ceded by some account of the Conversion of the
Author to the Catholic Faith" (octavo). Two years
later he wrote a similar book on his stay in Italy.
Ten years after his death appeared his last work,
called "Poverty and the Baronet's Family, a Catholic
Story" (12mo, 1846).
GlLLow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath., s. v.; Kent in Diet. Nat. Biog., IV, tie.
Edward P. Spillane.
Bestiaries, medieval books on animals, in which the real or fabulous characteristics of actually existent or imaginary animals (such as the griffin, dragon, siren, unicorn, etc.) were figuratively treated as religious symbols of Christ, the devil, the virtues and vices. The origins of a symbolism of this character, taken from nature, are to be sought in antiquity and above all in the ancient East. Eastern literature, as well as the Greco-Roman literature dependent on it, ascribed to certain animals, whether fabulous or real (the lion, the tiger, the snake, the eagles), a cer- tain connexion with the life and actions of man and the gods, and made a corresponding religious use of them. This is exemplified in the Oriental and es- pecially Egyptian worship of animals. Many remi- niscences of this animal symbolism are encountered in the Old Testament. From the earliest period Christian fancy interpreted these animals according to the symbolism of the Old Testament, and so de- picted them in Christian art. Thus, for example, in the Catacombs some are symbolic of what is good, e. g. the lamb or sheep representing the soul or the believer, the dove the soul, the phoenix Christ or immortality, and the peacock immortality; others symbolic of what is bad, e. g. the serpent representing the devil; still others, especially in later times, are to be interpreted in various senses; thus the lion may symbolize either Christ or the devil. An early com- pilation of such allegorical interpretations of the nature of plants and animals, made up partly from antique materials, is still extant in the "Physio- logus", the much copied and much used "natural history" of the Middle Ages, and the basis of all later bestiaries. Similar compilations are the " Liber formularum" of Eucherius, some parts of the "Libri originum" of Isidore, parts of the writings of Bede and Rabanus, and the treatise long ascribed to the second-century Melito of Sardes, and known as "Clavis" or "The Key", which appeared in its present form towards the eleventh centtuy. Later
