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CONSALVI CONSCIENCE 265 man history and jurisprudence, and on scientific and theological subjects. Queen Christina of Sweden in vain sought to attach him perma- nently to her service. The duke of Bruns- wick and the kings of Sweden and Denmark conferred titles on him, and Louis XIV. grant- ed him a pension. He encouraged the study of chemistry and pharmacy, and was one of the first to teach Harvey's doctrine of the circula- tion of the blood. A complete edition of his writings, with a biography, was published by Gobel (6 vols., Brunswick, 1730). His daugh- ter ELISA SOPHIE, baroness von Reichenbach, was distinguished as a poet; she died April 11, 1718. CONSALVI, Ercole, a Roman cardinal, born in Rome, June 8, 1757, died there, Jan. 24, 1824. His father was the marchese Giuseppe Con- salvi, and his mother Maria Carandini, sister of the cardinal of that name. Educated in the college of Frascati, he won the regard of Car- dinal York, who remained through life his friend and protector. He entered very young the ranks of the Roman prelacy, and was soon appointed auditor of the rota, the highest civil court in Rome, at the solicitation, it is thought, of the exiled aunts of Louis XVI. He became minister of war to Pius VI., after whose death he was chosen secretary of the conclave which elected Pius VII. This election was in a great measure due to Consalvi's tact, and his reputa- tion for ability caused the new pope to appoint him his pro-secretary of state, then cardinal, and finally titular secretary of state. In that capacity he proceeded to Paris in 1801, to ne- gotiate a concordat for the restoration of reli- gion. While the pope was in France on the occasion of the coronation of Napoleon, Con- salvi remained at the head of the government in Rome. In 1806, when Napoleon quarrelled with the pope, he insisted on Consalvi's re- moval from office. The secretary besought Pius VII. not to hesitate in accepting his resig- nation as a peace offering, and the pope yield- ed, appointing Casoni his successor. In 1810 he was compelled by Napoleon to go to Paris, and for refusing to be present at the marriage of Napoleon with Maria Louisa was banished to Rheims. In 1813 he was permitted to join the pope in Fontainebleau, and advised him to recall the concordat which he had been forced to sign. On the first restoration Pius VII. sent him to Paris to compliment Louis XVIII. ; and after the final downfall of Na- poleon he continued to be the representative of the holy see in the congress of Vienna. He obtained the consent of the congress that the Papal States should be restored to their in- tegrity, and successfully resisted the partition of France. He continued at the head of the Roman government until the death of Pius VII. in August, 1823. During his administra- tion he did much to improve the Papal States ; he advised and framed the motu proprio of 1816, suppressing all feudal rights, monopolies, and oppressive taxes; abolished torture, and the punishment of the corda or estrapade ; and to him also is due the abolishment of the death penalty for heresy. A new civil code, a com- mercial code, and a penal code were drawn up in harmony with the spirit of the age*; he improved the registry of mortgages, intro- duced a better system of police, established workhouses in the principal towns, extirpated the banditti from the Campagna, planned the embellishment and sanitary improvement of Rome, and encouraged the liberal arts in the persons of Canova and Thorwaldsen. He left a large sum for a monument to Pius VII. Consalvi's memoirs have been published by Cretineau-Joly (2 vols., Paris, 1864). CONSCIENCE, Hendrik, a Flemish novelist, born in Antwerp, Dec. 3, 1812. His father, a French marine speculator at Antwerp, allowed him to educate himself by eager but .irregular reading. In 1829 he became a private teach- er, and upon the Belgian revolution of 1830 he volunteered in the army and served six years, reaching the grade of sergeant major. During his service he wrote a number of spirited French songs, and became the popular poet of the army. Being discharged in 1836, he quar- relled with his family, and maintained himself by turns as a working gardener, an employee in the archives of Antwerp, and clerk of the academy of art. At this time a national party was trying to establish a Flemish literature in opposition to the French spirit and the philo- sophical ideas of the 18th century. Conscience joined this movement, and in 1837 brought out his In het Wonderjaer 1566 (" In the Year of Miracles 1566 "), containing a series of bril- liant dramatic pictures of the Spanish rule in Flanders. This was received with great pop- ular favor, but his success enraged his father, who renounced him entirely. Through the painter Wappers, however, he obtained a small pension from Leopold I., and was able to con- tinue his literary career. His Leeuw van Vlaen- deren ("Lion of Flanders ") appeared in 1838, and gave him a national reputation. In 1845 he was appointed assistant professor in the uni- versity of Ghent, and subsequently became in- structor of the royal children in the Flemish language and literature. In 1847 he was made professor, and in 1857 commissary of the admin- istrative department of Courtrai. In 1870 he gained the prize of literature given every fifth year, by his Bavo en Lievelcen, which is con- sidered by some one of his best romances. Conscience has held consistently his purpose of restoring the Flemish idiom, and has dis- couraged the use of French by his countrymen, although able to use it himself with ease and power. He stands in the front rank of Flem- ish writers. His historical romances fail in ideal characterization, but are fresh and inter- esting. He is most successful in his quiet pic- tures of home life. His works have all been translated into German, and many of them into English, Danish, Italian, and French. Be- sides the works mentioned above, he has pub-