DSMZA
736
DENZINGER
famous Franciscan preacher John Brugman. These
and others which he wrote of a similar import, in-
veighing against the vices and abuses of the time, in-
sisting on the need of a general reform, and showing
how it was to be effected, give a curious insight into
the customs, the state of society, and ecclesiastical life
of that period. To refute Mohammedanism he wrote
two treatises: "Contra perfidiam Mahometi", at the
request of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. The latter,
named papal legate by Nicholas V to reform the
Church in Germany and to preach a crusade against
the Turks, took Denys with him during a part, if not
the whole, of his progress (Jan., 1451-March, 1452),
and received from his tongue and his pen valuable as-
sistance, especially in the work of reforming monas-
teries and of rooting out magical and superstitious
practices. This mission was not the only charge
which drew Denys from his much-loved cell. He
was for some time (about 1459) procurator of his mon-
astery, and in July, 1466, was appointed to superin-
tend the building of a monastery at Bois-le-Duc. A
three-years' struggle against the inextricable diffi-
culties of the new foundation broke down his health,
already impaired by a long life of ceaseless work
and privations, and he was obliged to return to
Roermond in 1469. His treatise "De Meditatione"
bears the date of the same year and was the last he
wrote.
The immense literary activity of Denys had never been detrimental to his spirit of prayer. On the con- trary he always found in study a powerful help to con- templation; the more he knew, the more he loved. While still a novice he had ecstasies which lasted two or three hours, and later on they lasted sometimes seven hours and more. Indeed, towards the end of his life he could not hear the singing of " Veni Sancte Spiritus" or some verses of the Psalms, nor converse on certain devotional subjects without being lifted off the ground in a rapture of Divine love. Hence pos- terity has surnamed him "Doctor ecstaticus". Dur- ing his ecstasies many things were revealed to him which he made known only when it could profit others, and the same may be said of what he learnt from the souls in purgatory, who appeared to him very fre- quently, seeking relief through his powerful interces- sion. Loving souls as he did, it is no wonder that he should have become odious to the great hater of souls. His humility responded to his learning, and his morti- fication, especially with regard to food and sleep, far excelled what the generality of men can attain to. It is true that in point of physical austerities, virtue was assisted by a strong constitution, for he was a man of athletic build and had, as he said, " an iron head and a brazen stomach".
During the last two years of his life he suffered in- tensely and with heroic patience from paralysis, stone, and other infirmities. He had been a monk for forty- eight years when he died at the age of sixty-nine. Upon his remains being disinterred one hundred and thirty-seven years after, ilay for day ( 12 March, 1608), his skull emitted a sweet perfiune and the fingers he had most used in writing, i. e. the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, were found in a perfect state of pres- ervation. Although the cause of his beatification has never yet been introduced, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and other writers of note style him "Blessed"; his life is in the "Acta Sanctorum" of the Bollandists (12 March), and his name is to be found in many martyrologies. An accurate edition of all his works still extant, which will comprise forty-one quarto volumes, is now being issued by the Carthusian Press at Tournai, Belgium.
LoER, Vila Dionysii Cartus. (Tournai, 1904); Mougel, Dt-nus le Chartrrux (Montreuil-sur-mer. 1896); Welters. Denys Ic Chartrrux (Uoermond. 1882); Albers. Dyonysius de Kar- luizer (Utrecht. 1897); Krogh-Tonning, Der letztc Sdiolastiker (Freiburg im Br., 1904); Keiser, Dionys des KartaiixtTs Lebcn und plidaaouincke Sdiriflm (Freiburg im Br.. 1904); Sieofrieii,
Dicmysiua the Carthusian in Am. Ecd. Review (Philadelphia,
1899). 512-27; Stiglmayr, Neuplatonisches bei Dionysius dem
Karthiiuscr in Hist. Jahrbnch (1899), XX. 367-88.
Ed.mund Gurdon.
Denza, France.sco, Italian meteorologist and astronomer, b. at Naples, 7 June, 1834; d. at Rome, 14 December, 1894. He joined the Barnabites at the age of rixteen, and during his theological course at Rome studied at the same time meteorologj- and astronomy under Father Secchi. From 1856 until 1890 he was attached to the Barnabite college at Moncalieri where he became widely known for his work in meteorology, a science which he greatly ad- vanced not merely by his personal observations and studies but also by the interest which he roused in it throughout Italy. In 1859 Denza founded the " Bul- lettino mensile di Meteorologia", which was continued until 1894, and established a meteorological observa- tory at Moncalieri; it was largely through his influ- ence that similar observatories, more than 200 in number, were gradually built in various parts of Italy. The success which attended his efforts gave him a national reputation, and in 1866 Senator Matteucci and Signor Berti, minister of public instruction, urged him to take charge of the department of meteorology at Florence. Denza did not accept the post, but in the following year, at Berti's invitation, he read a paper on meteors at the "Instituto Superiore" in Florence. In 1872 he began a series of researches on terrestrial magnetism with special reference to mag- netic declination, which illness, however, prevented him from eompleting. In 1881 he founded the Italian Meteorological Society of which he was president for many years. In 1883 the Dukeof Aosta invited him to take charge of the scientific education of his three sons. In the same year he was director of the literary and scientific section of the National Exposition at Turin and chairman of its jury of awards. He repre- sented Leo XIII in 1884 at the Congress of Scientific Societies of France, presiding over the meteorological section. He visited England and Holland on this occasion, where he was received with much honour. He likewise represented the pope at the Paris Astro- nomical Congress of 1887, when the plan was formu- lated of making a photographic map of all the stars in the heavens down to the fourteenth magnitude; through his influence the Vatican observatory was one of the eighteen chosen to carry out this important project. Denza was appointed director of the Vati- can Observatory in September, 1890, and thenceforth lived at the Vatican. Here he inaugurated the work of this observatory in stellar photography. At the time of his death, which was due to apoplexy, he was President of the Accademia dei Nuo\t Lincei. In character Denza was a man of simple piety and humil- ity.
Among his published works may be mentioned: "Meteore cosmiche" in "Scienza di populo" (Milan, 1869); "Stelle cadente del periodo di Agosto 1868" (ibid.); " Le am-ore pol. d. 1869 ed i fenom. cosmiche che accompagnarono " (1869); " Distribuzione di pioggia in Italia" (1871-72); " Valeurs de I'^lectricit^ et 1 'ozone i Moncalieri a I'^poque du cholera" in "Comptes Rendus"(1868) LXVI ; " Le armonie dei cieli, Nozioni di astron." (1881); "Amplitudes d'os- cillations diurn. magnet, k Moncalieri 1880-81"; "OsServ. di declin. magnet, ad Aosta, Moncalieri e Firenze in occas. d'eclisse sol 26/5 1873" in "Proc. Ace. dei Nuov. Lincei".
CiMlii catlolica, Ser. 16 (1895), I, 93, 94; Kneller, Daa Christenthum u. die Veiireter der neueren Naturwissenschaft (Freiburg. 1904).
Henry M. Brock.
Denzinger, Heinrich Joseph Dominicus, one ot the leading theologians of the modern Catholic Ger- man school and author of the "Enchiridion"' uni- versally used, b. 10 Oct., 1819, at Li^ge; d. 19 June,
