Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/721

LUNA LUNA, or Selene (Lat. and Gr., the moon), a goddess worshipped by the Greeks and Ro- mans. In Greek mythology she is said to be a daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios (the sun) and Eos (the morning), though some authorities ascribe a different parentage. As the sister of Phoebus she is sometimes called Phoebe. By Endymion she had 50 daughters, and by Zeus she was the mother of Ersa, Nemea, and Pandia. She was described as having long wings and a gold- en diadem, and being very beautiful. Her statue at Elis had two horns. She rode across the heavens in a chariot drawn by two white horses, cows, or mules. In art she is repre- sented with a long robe, her veil forming an arch over her head, and above that a crescent. Among the Romans her worship is said to have been introduced by T. Tatius, in the time of Romulus. She had a temple on the Aven- tine hill, built by Servius Tullius, another on the Capitoline, and a third on the Palatine. The last named was lighted up every night, and the goddess was there worshipped under the name of Noctiluca. Because of her greater influence on the Roman method of calculating time, she was held in higher reverence than Sol, the sun. LUNA, Pedro de, a Spanish ecclesiastic, anti- pope under the name of Benedict XIII., born in Aragon in 1334, died in Peniscola, Valencia, in 1424. He belonged to an old family of Span- ish grandees, and devoted himself at first to the study and teaching of jurisprudence. He was made a cardinal by Gregory XI., and the antipope Clement VII. appointed him legate to Paris in order to cause Charles VI. to resist the dictum of the Paris university that both popes of that time, Clement VII. of Avignon and Boniface IX. of Rome, should resign. Af- ter Clement's death in 1394 the cardinals of Avignon elected Luna as his successor, on the condition that he should labor to quell the schism, and should resign the papal dignity whenever the pope of Rome should do the same, or the college of cardinals demand it. Luna, however, once pope, only furthered the widening of the schism, and when called upon to lay down the tiara firmly refused, where- upon it was finally agreed in a council held at Paris in 1398 to refuse obedience to him. Charles VI. attempted to compel him to resign by keeping the town of Avignon for several years in a state of siege; but Luna escaped, and in 1403, popular sentiment being again in his favor, he was recognized as the legitimate pope by France, Castile, Portugal, and Sicily. It was discovered, however, that Luna himself would do nothing to restore the unity of the church, and hence in 1407 he was again re- fused obedience. Luna put the disobedient under ban ; but at length the council of Pisa in 1409 deposed both him and Gregory XII., and elected Alexander V. Aragon, Castile, and Scotland, however, continued to give him their support till, refusing to resign in obe- LUNAOY 715 dience to the council of Constance, he was deposed July 26, 1417", and forsaken by the powers that had hitherto supported him. He shut himself up in the fortress of Peniscola, where he held out obstinately till his death. LUNACY (from Lat. luna, the moon). "A lunatic," says Blackstone, "is one that hath had understanding, but by disease, grief, or other accident hath lost the use of his reason ; he is indeed properly one that hath lucid in- tervals, sometimes enjoying his senses and sometimes not, and that frequently depending upon the change of the moon." The common belief in a connection between the accessions of madness and the phases of .the moon was long ago exploded, and in medical science lunacy has been displaced by the better terms insanity and mental alienation. In the law, some text writers, following Sir Edward Coke, have pre- ferred non compos mentis as a generic phrase comprehensively descriptive of the various conditions of mental disease or fatuity. " Of unsound mind " has been also much employed in legal language to express certain forms of derangement. But lunacy, though absurd in itself, and in its proper acceptation referring to but a single phase of insanity, has yet gained a more conspicuous place in legal practice than any other term. Statutes, both English and American, have expressly declared that lunatic shall apply to all persons of unsound mind, and to those who are incapable of managing their affairs; and in England the name includes idiots also. Lunacy may then be fitly em- ployed as a title under which to present the legal relations of insanity. Its medical and scientific aspects are treated under other heads. (See INSANITY, and MEDICAL JUEISPRUDENOK.) Here we concern ourselves only with the set- tled rules of law, which determine the legal status of insane persons. In England the cus- tody of lunatics and idiots has until recently been vested in the court of chancery, not in its character of a court of equity, but as the dele- gate of the crown, the representative of the parens patrice ; for it is the duty of the sove- reign to take care of those of his subjects who cannot take care of themselves. In the United States the people have succeeded to the rights and prerogatives of the crown, and therefore it is that here the legislature exercises a pro- tective authority over idiots and lunatics. The statutes of the different states provide that such persons may be put under guardianship ; and if a competent judicature have in the prescribed mode decided that a person is a lunatic and appointed a guardian, the fact of lunacy is held to be conclusively proved. Until the contrary be shown, either upon an inquisition of luna- cy, or upon special testimony in a given case, every man is presumed to be of sane mind. But if it be proved or admitted that lunacy existed at a particular period, and that the derangement was of a habitual and not of a merely temporary or accidental nature, then it is presumed to continue, unless its continuance