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ULTRAMARINE—ULTRAMONTANISM

state refuses or neglects to reply to an offer of arbitration or, “after accepting the offer, renders the settlement of the compromis impossible, or, after the arbitration, fails to comply with the award.”

Under this convention, in the cases to which it relates, the alternative of the ultimatum is ipso facto arbitration, and it is only when the conditions of the convention have been set at naught that other measures may be employed.


ULTRAMARINE, a blue pigment, consisting essentially of a double silicate of aluminium and sodium with some sulphides or sulphates, and occurring in nature as a proximate component of lapis lazuli (q.v.). As early at least as the 11th century the art of extracting a blue pigment from lapis lazuli was practised, and from the beginning of the 16th century this pigment began to be imported into Europe from “over the sea,” as azurrum ultramarinum. As the mineral only yields from 2 to 3% of the pigment, it is not surprising to learn that the pigment used to be weighed up with gold. It was valued chiefly on account of its brilliancy of tone and its inertness in opposition to sunlight, oil, and slaked lime (in fresco-painting). In 1814 Tassaert observed the spontaneous formation of a blue compound, very similar to ultramarine, if not identical with it, in a soda-furnace at St Gobain, which caused the Société pour l’Encouragement d’Industrie to offer, in 1824, a prize for the artificial production of the precious colour. Processes were devised by Guimet (1826) and by Christian Gmelin (1828), then professor of chemistry in Tübingen; but while Guimet kept his process a secret Gmelin published his, and thus became the originator of the “artificial ultramarine” industry.

The details of the commercial processes are trade secrets. The raw materials used in the manufacture are: (1) iron-free kaolin, or some other kind of pure clay, which should contain its silica and alumina as nearly as possible in the proportion of 2SiO2 : Al2O3 demanded by the formula assigned to ideal kaolin (a deficit of silica, however, it appears can be made up for by addition of the calculated weight of finely divided silica); (2) anhydrous sulphate of soda; (3) anhydrous carbonate of soda; (4) sulphur (in the state of powder); and (5) powdered charcoal or relatively ash-free coal, or colophony in lumps. “Ultramarine poor in silica” is obtained by fusing a mixture of soft clay, sodium sulphate, charcoal, soda and sulphur. The product is at first white, but soon turns green (“green ultramarine”) when it is mixed with sulphur and heated. The sulphur fires, and a fine blue pigment is obtained. “Ultramarine rich in silica” is generally obtained by heating a mixture of pure clay, very fine white sand, sulphur and charcoal in a muffle-furnace. A blue product is obtained at once, but a red tinge often results. The different ultramarines—green, blue, red and violet—are finely ground and washed with water.

Artificial, like natural, ultramarine has a magnificent blue colour, which is not affected by light nor by contact with oil or lime as used in painting. Hydrochloric acid at once bleaches it with liberation of sulphuretted hydrogen and milk of sulphur. It is remarkable that even a small addition of zinc-white (oxide of zinc) to the reddish varieties especially causes a considerable diminution in the intensity of the colour, while dilution with artificial precipitated sulphate of lime (“annalin”) or sulphate of baryta (“blanc fix”) acts pretty much as one would expect. Ultramarine being very cheap, it is largely used for wall painting, the printing of paperhangings and calico, &c., and also as a corrective for the yellowish tinge often present in things meant to be white, such as linen, paper, &c. Large quantities are used in the manufacture of paper, and especially for producing that kind of pale blue writing paper which is so popular in Great Britain. The composition of the pigment is quite similar to that of lapis lazuli; but the constitution of both is uncertain.

By treating blue ultramarine with silver nitrate solution, “silver-ultramarine” is obtained as a yellow powder. This compound gives a blue potassium- and lithium-ultramarine when treated with the corresponding chloride, and an ethyl-ultramarine when treated with ethyl iodide Selenium- and tellurium-ultramarine, in which these elements replace the sulphur, have also been prepared. It has been suggested that ultramarine is a compound of a sodium aluminium silicate and sodium sulphide. Another view is that the colour is due to some comparatively simple substance suspended in a colourless medium.


ULTRAMONTANISM (Lat. ultra, beyond, montes, the mountains), the name given to a certain school of opinion in the Roman Catholic Church. The expression ultramontane was originally no more than a term of locality, characterizing the persons so described as living—or derived from—“beyond the mountains.” The “mountains” in this case are the Alps, so that, from the Italian standpoint, Germans and French for instance were “ultramontane.” In this sense the word was applied in the later middle ages to the Germans studying at Italian universities and—to take a particular example—to the French cardinals at the election of Clement V. (1305). North of the Alps, however, the term seems never to have been restricted to the sense implying locality; for from the very beginning we find it used as a party appellation to describe those who looked “beyond the mountains” in order to obtain a lead from Rome, who represented the papal point of view and supported the papal policy. Thus, as early as the 11th century, the partisans of Gregory VII. were styled ultramontanes, and from the 15th century onwards the same name was given to the opponents of the Gallican movement in France.

It was not until the 19th century that “ultramontane” and “ultramontanism” came into general use as broad designations covering the characteristics of particular personalities, measures and phenomena within the Roman Catholic Church. At the present time they are applied to a tendency representing a definite form of Catholicism within that Church; and this tendency, in spite of the individual forms it has assumed in different countries, everywhere displays the same essential features and pursues the same ends. It follows, to be sure, from the very nature of Ultramontanism, and from the important position to which it has attained, that the official organs of the Church and all the people interested in the continuance of the actual state of affairs deny that it exists at all as an independent tendency, and seek to identify it with any proper interpretation of Roman Catholicism. Numerous Catholics, on the other hand, well qualified to form a judgment, themselves protest against this obliteration of the dividing line. It is indisputably legitimate to speak of Ultramontanism as a distinct policy, but it is very difficult to define its essential character. For, true to its nature, it has itself drawn up no complete programme of its objects, and, in addition to its avowed aims, its subsidiary effects claim attention. There is something chameleon-like in its appearances; its genuine views are kept in the background from tactical considerations, and first one aspect, then another, comes into prominence. It is evident, therefore, that the request for a definition of Ultramontanism cannot be answered with a concise formula, but that the varied character of its manifestations necessitates a more detailed examination of its peculiar objects.

The indications given by the late Franz Xaver Kraus—himself a Catholic—may well serve for a guide (Spectator, ep. 2). He classes as Ultramontane: (1) Whoever places the idea of the Church above that of religion; (2) whoever confounds the pope with the Church; (3) whoever believes that the kingdom of Heaven is of this world, and maintains, with medieval Catholicism, that the power of the keys, conferred on Peter, includes secular jurisdiction over princes and nations; (4) whoever holds that religious conviction can be imposed by material force, or may legitimately be crushed by it; (5) whoever is always ready to sacrifice a clear injunction of his own conscience to the claims of an alien authority.

The first and fundamental characteristic of Ultramontanism is its championship of a logical carrying out of the so-called “papalistic system,” the concentration, that is, of all ecclesiastical power in the person of the Roman bishop. This tendency among occupants of the Roman see to exalt themselves above other bishops, and to usurp the part of a superior authority as compared with them, may be traced even in antiquity. No later than the end of the 2nd century Bishop Victor made an attempt to establish this position during the discussions regarding the date of the Easter festival. But he met with a sharp rebuff, and Bishop Stephen fared no better when, in the middle of the 3rd century, he came into collision with Cyprian of Carthage and Firmilian of Caesarea in the dispute concerning heretical baptism. How the Roman bishopric rose in status till it became the papacy, how the individual popes—in spite of these and similar repulses—advanced steadily on their path, how they succeeded in founding