BISHOPRIC
590
BLACKFOOT
referred to, Rome recognized their jurisdiction. On
the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850, when dioo-
esan chapters were erected, the "Old Chapter" did
not dissolve, but changed its name, and as the "Old
Brotherhood of the Secular Clergj' " it exists to-day,
a lasting memorial to the work of the first vicar
Apostolic. An oil painting of Bishop hangs at
Archbishop's House, Westminster, London, a print
of which appeared in the "Cathohc Directory" for
1810. The works of Bishop are: " A Reformation of a
Catholicke Deformed, in answer to W. Perkins"
<1604; Part II, 1607); "Answer to Mr. Perkins's
Advertisement" (1607); "Reproof of Dr. Abbot's
Defence of a Cathohcke Deformed" (1608); "Dis-
proof of Dr. Abbot's Counterproofs" (1614); "De-
fence of King's Title"; "Pitts, de lUustribus AngUte
Scriptoribus " (1619); "Protestation of Loyalty" (see
above); pamphlets on archpriest controversy, etc.
DoDD, Ch. H23L of Eng., ed. Tierney; Douay Diaries; GiLLOw, Bibl. Diet, of Eng. Catholics; Butler, Hist. Memoirs (1819); Berington, Memoirs of Panzani (1794); Catholic Directory, ISIO; Brady, Annals of Calk. Hierarchy (1877); Law, Jesuits and Seculars in Reign of Elizabel}i (1889); MS. Life in Westminster Archives, London.
Bernakd W.\hd.
Bishopric. See Diocese.
Bishop's Crook. See Crosier.
Bisignano, Diocese of. See San Marco, Diocese
OF.
Bisomus, a tomb large enough to contain two bodies. The ordinary tombs (loci) in the galleries of the Roman catacombs contained one body. It sometimes happened, however, that a space large enough to contain two bodies was excavated. Such a double grave is referred to in inscriptions as locus biso?nus. An inscription from the catacomb of St. Calixtus. for instance, informs us that a certain Boniface, who died at the age of twenty-three years and two months, was interred in a double grave which had been prepared for himself and for his father (Bonifacius, qui vixit annis XXIII et II (mens) es, positus in bisomum in pace, sibi et patr. suo). A fourth-century inscription tells of two ladies who had purcha,sed, for their future interment, a bisomus in a "new crypt" which contained the body of a Saint :^
IN CRYPTA NOBA RETRO SAN CTUS EMEBVM VIVAS BALER RA ET SABINA MERUM LOC V BISOM AB APRONE ET A BIATORE
Like so many pious but rather superstitious persons of that age "Balerra" and "Sabina" wished to be buried in the closest proximity to a martyr, retro sanctos, a privilege which, as we learn from another inscription, "many desire but few receive" ((juod multi cupiunt et rari accipiunt).
Nesbitt in Diet. Christ. Ant., s. v.; Northcote .and Brownlow; Roma Sott. (London, iSTS); Marucchi, Elements d'arch. chret.: TWiinns gen. (Paris, 1899).
Maurice M. Hassett.
Bitonto, Diocese ok. See Ruvo.
Bkerke. See CIibail and Batrun, Diocese of.
Blackbume, Robert, an English Catholic who suffered imprisonment in the closing years of the seventeenth, and during the earlier half of the eighteenth, centuries, d. 174S; was a son of Richard Blackbume, of Thistleton, Lancaster. The Black- bume family is one of the most ancient and respected Catholic families in Lancashire. Robert Blackbume was arrested in 1695 on suspicion of being connected with what was known as the Lancashire Plot. He was never brought to trial, although kept in prison for fifty-three years. The case was more tlian once
brought to the attention of ParUament, but nothing
was done for his relief. He was never tried or re-
leased, and finally died in prison.
GlI.LOW, Bihl. Diet. Eng. Cath.. I, 223.
Thom.\s Gaffnet T.\affe.
Black Past, The. — This form of fasting, the most rigorous in the history of church legislation, was marked by austerity regarding the quantity and quahty of food permitted on fasting days as well as the time wherein such food might be legitimately taken.
In the first place more than one meal was strictly prohibited. At tliis meal flesh meat, eggs, butter, cheese, and milk were interdicted (Gregory I, Decre- tals IV, cap. vi; TruUan Synod, Canon Ivi). Besides these restrictions abstinence from wine, especially during Lent, was enjoined (Thomassin, Traits des jei'mes de I'Eglise, II, vii). Furthermore, during Holy Week the fare consisted of bread, salt, herbs, and water (Laymann, Theologia Moralis, Tr. VIII; De observatione jejuniorum, i). Finally, this meal was not allowed imtil simset. St. Ainbrose (De EUa et jejunio, sermo viii, in Psahn CXVIII), St. Chrysostom (Komil. iv in Genesim), St. Basil (Oratio i, De jejmiio) famish unequivocal testimony concern- ing the three characteristics of the black fast. The keynote of their teaching is sounded by St. Bernard (Sermo. iii, No. 1, De Quadragesima), when he says "hitherto we have fasted only until none" (3 p. m.) " whereas, now " (during Lent) " kings and princes, clergy and laity, rich and poor will fast until evening". It is quite certain that the days of Lent (Muller, Theologia Moralis, II, Lib. II, Tr. ii, § 165, no. 11) as well as those preceding ordination were marked by the black fast. This regime continued until the tenth century when the custom of taking the only meai of the day at three o'clock was introduced (Thomassin, loc. cit.). In the fourteenth century the hour of taking this meal was changed to noon-day (Muller, loc. cit.). Shortly afterwards the practice of taking a collation in the evening began to gain ground (Thomassin, op. cit., II, xi). Finally, the custom of taking a crust of bread and some coffee in the morn- ing was introduced in the early part of the nineteentii century. During the past fifty years, owing to ever changing circumstances of time and place, the Church has gradually relaxed the severity of penitential requirements, so that now little more than a vestige of former rigour obtains.
St. Thomas, Summa Theol.. II, Q. ii, 2-147; Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church (London, 1844); Gi'nning, The Paschal or Lent Fast (Oxford, 1845).
J. D. O'Neill.
Blackfoot Indians, an important tribe of the Northern Plains, constituting the westernmost ex- tension of the great Algonquian stock. Instead of being a compact people with a head chief and central government, they are properly a confederacy of three sul>tribes speaking the same language, namely: Slksika or Blackfoot proper; Kaina (Kaena), or Blood; Pikiini, or Piegan, each of which sub-tribes is again subdivided into bands, to the number of some fifty in all. In close alliance with them are the Atsina, or Grosventres, a branch of the more southern Arapahoe, and the Sassi, a detached band of the Beaver Indians farther to the north. As is usually the case with Indian etymologies, the origin of the name is disputed. One tradition ascribes it to the blackening of their moccasins from the ashes ol prairie fires on their first arrival in their present country. It may have come, however, from the former wearing of a black moccasin, such as dis- tinguished certain southern tribes. The name is also that of a prominent war-society among tribes of the Plains.
As indicated by linguistic affinity, the Blaekfeet
