DALALLE
604
DALGAIRNS
rived. Their institute has carried on the work ever
since. The French Government, in 1864, obtained in
behalf of the missionaries a large territorial concesjion
at Porto Novo, where a flourishing station was soon
established. The mission of Agwe, now one of the
most flourishing in the vicariate, began its existence in
1874.
The first erection of a Vicariate Apostolic of Daho- mey was in 1860, when its jurisdiction was defined to include all the country between the Rivers Niger and Volta. In 1870, however, the title of this vicariate was changed to "The Benin Coasts"; and in 1882 it was divided, the region west of the River Ocpara being then erected into the Prefecture Apostolic of Daho- mey, from which, again, the German territory of Togo was ecclesiastically .separated in 1892, and the adja- cent British possessions in 1894. By decree dated 22 April, 1901, this Prefecture of Dahomey was erected into the present Vicariate Apostolic of that name, which is thus seen to differ territorially from that erected in 1860.
The residence of the vicar Apostolic is at the coast town of Whydah, formerly the native capital and a notorious centre of Dahomeyan Fetishism. "Mis- siones Catholics" (1907), the official triennial hand- book of the Propaganila, gives the following statistics of Dahomey: Total Catholic population, 8900; mis- sionary stations, 6; churches with resident pastor, 4; chapels, 11; total number of priests, -32; catechists, 1.5; houses of religious women (Sisters of the Queen of the Apostles), 4, with an aggregate of 20 religious; schools for boys, 1.3, with 1330 pupils; schools for girls, 4, with 480 pupils.
Planque in Piolet, Les Missions calholiques francaises (Paris, 1902). V, vi; The Statesman's Year-Book. 1908 (London, annual); Burton, Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome (London, 1S64); Chandouin, Trois mois de captivite au Dahomey (Paris); Poi- RiER, Campagne da Dahomey^ 1S92-9U (Paris, 1S95).
E. Macpherson.
Dalalle, Henry. See Natal.
Dalberg, Adolphus von, Prince-Abbot of Fulda and founder of the university in the same city, b. 29 May, 1678; d. 3 November, 1737, at Ilammelburg on the river Saale in Lower Franconia. After holding the office of provost at Zelle in Hanover for some years he was elected Prince-Abbot of the Benedictine monas- tery of Fulda in 1724. Though he was not a bishop, Dalberg had qua.si-episcopal jurisdiction over the ter- ritory belonging to the abbey and held a diocesan synod in 1729. This privilege of quasi-episcopal jurisdiction was granted to the abbots of Fulda by Pope Zachary in 751. Dalberg spared no pains to improve the Cath- olic educational facilities of Fulda. Its once famous school, which had suffered severely during the relig- ious upheaval of the sLxteenth century, had regained some of its ancient prestige by the united efforts of the Jesuits and Benedictines. Dalberg hoped to restore in all its splendour the ancient seat of learning which had made Fulda world-renowned during the Middle Ages. With this end in view he founded a university at Fulda which came to be known after his own name as the Abiia Adolphina. The faculties of philosophy and theology he formed by uniting the two existing schools of the Jesuits and the Benedictines; for the new faculties of jurisprudence and medicine he en- gaged other professors. Pope Clement XII granted the charter of foundation on 1 July, 1732, and Em- peror Cliarles VI, the charter of confirmation on 12 March, 17.33. The solemn inauguration of the uni- versity took place on 19 September, 1733. The Adolphina was, however, not destined to be of long duration. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 the university came entirely into the hands of the Benedictines, wlio were finally obliged to discontinue it in ISO.'J, in conse- quence of the .secularization of the Benedictine monas- tery in 1802.
RiCHTER, Quelten und Abhandlungcn zur Geschichip der Abtei
und Diozese Fulda (Fulda, 1904). I. For a history of the Uni-
versity, Gegenb.\ur, Ein Jahrhundert aus der Geschichle der
huheren Gelehrten-Schulcn Fuldas, nSk-lSS5 (Fulda, 1885); for
its early history, Komp, Die zweite Schule Fuldas und das
pdpstliche Seminar, 1571-1773 (Fulda. 1877). 70 sqq,
Michael Ott.
D'Albornoz. See Gil d'Albornoz.
D' Alembert, Jean Le Rond. See Encyclopedists.
Dalgairns, John Dobree (in religion Father Bernard), b. in the island of Guernsey, 21 Oct., 1818; d. 6 April, 1876, at St. George's Retreat, Burgess Hill, near Brighton, England. He matric- ulated at Exeter college, Oxford, 1836, and took a second class in Uteris humanioribvs, 18.39. Already an ardent follower of Newman, he had written (18.38) to the Paris "Univers" a letter signed "jcune membre de I'Universite", on the Catholic movement then spreading in the English Church, which elicited a cor- respondence with Father Dominic the Passionist. In 1842 he joined Newman at Littlemore; while there he contributed several articles to the "British Critic" and wrote the Lives of St. Stephen Harding, St. Gil- bert, St. Helier, St. Aelred, and others for the series of early English saints then being edited by Newman. The grasp of medieval history displayed in these lives, and their picturesque setting evoked high praise even from such a strong Protestant as Dean Milman. Dalgairns's life, work, and studies had drawn him ever closer to the Church, and in Septem- ber, 184.5, he was received into it by his fonner corre- spondent. Father Dominic. He then repaired to the Abbe Jovain, canon of Langres, whose acquaintance he had made in 1841 when the abbe was on a visit to Oxford; in December, 1846, he was ordained priest at Langres. A worthless French translation of New- man's "Essay on Development" was described by Dalgairns in the "LTnivers", 10 Jan., 1847, as "un amas inintelligible de paroles sans idees, et dans lequel en plusieurs endroits le traducteur avait donn^ une apparence d'heresie aux phrases de I'au- teur", words strangely prophetic of the use made by certain "Modernist" writers of the same work.
At Easter, 1847, he joined Newman in Rome and entered the new English Oratorian novitiate at Santa Croce. As an Oratorian he was successively at Marj-- vale, St. Wilfrid's, Staffordshire, King William Street, London (1849), Birmingham (1853), and South Ken- sington. London (1856), where he was elected superior on Father Faber's death, September, 1863. As a preacher he was second only to Faber and as a con- fessor his knowledge of languages attracted a large circle of penitents, among whom was Queen Marie- Amelie, wife of Louis Philippe. In 1869 he became a member of the Metaphysical Society which was then being formed. With Manning and A\ard. Dalgairns had to defend Catholicism against scientific agnostics like Huxley and Tyndall, literary agnostics such as Morley and Leslie Stephen, Thompson the Anglican Archbishop of York, the Unitarian James Martineau, and others of everj' shade of creed or of no creed. Speaking of these debates Thompson says, "he was more struck by the metaphysical ability of Father Dalgairns and Mr. James Alartineau than any of the other debaters". Hutton. then editor of "The Spec- tator," .says of Dalgairns and his coreligionists, " there was in their coiuitenance a Ijlending of genuine humil- ity and genuine thankfulnr.ss fur the authority on which they had anchored thcinsclve.s and a sen.se of the redimdance of tlirir provisions for the spiritual life, of which almost all the other members seemed to feel they had but a bare and scanty ]>asturage". His knowledge of Christian pliilosohpy, aiul his acquaint- ance with the writings of German .scientists enabled
him to meet Huxley sik .ssfully on his own grounds.
But the attendance at the meetings of the Society broke down Dalgairns's health. He was struck with
