BENEDICT XIV., a native of Bologna, a man of marked scholarship and ability; a patron of science and literature, who did much to purify the morals and elevate the character of the clergy, and reform abuses in the Church.

BENEDICT, BISCOP, an Anglo-Saxon monk, born in Northumbria; made two pilgrimages to Rome; assumed the tonsure as a Benedictine monk in Provence; returned to England and founded two monasteries on the Tyne, one at Wearmouth and another at Jarrow, making them seats of learning; b. 628.

BENEDICT, ST., the founder of Western monachism, born near Spoleto; left home at 14; passed three years as a hermit, in a cavern near Subiaco, to prepare himself for God’s service; attracted many to his retreat; appointed to an abbey, but left it; founded 12 monasteries of his own; though possessed of no scholarship, composed his “Regula Monachorum,” which formed the rule of his order; represented in art as accompanied by a raven with sometimes a loaf in his bill, or surrounded by thorns or by howling demons (480-543).  See BENEDICTINES.

BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS, musician and composer, native of Stuttgart; removed to London in 1835; author of, among other pieces, the “Gipsy’s Warning,” the “Brides of Venice,” and the “Crusaders”; conducted the performance of “Elijah” in which Jenny Lind made her first appearance before a London audience, and accompanied her as pianist to America in 1850 (1806-1885).

BENEDICTINES, the order of monks founded by St. Benedict and following his rule, the cradle of which was the celebrated monastery of Monte Casino, near Naples, an institution which reckoned among its members a large body of eminent men, who in their day rendered immense service to both literature and science, and were, in fact, the only learned class of the Middle Ages; spent their time in diligently transcribing manuscripts, and thus preserving for posterity the classic literature of Greece and Rome.

BENEDICTUS, part of the musical service at Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; has been introduced into the morning service of the English Church.

BENEFIT OF CLERGY, exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge.

BE`NEKE, FRIEDRICH EDUARD, a German philosopher and professor in Berlin of the so-called empirical school, that is, the Baconian; an opponent of the methods and systems of Kant and Hegel; confined his studies to psychology and the phenomena of consciousness; was more a British thinker than a German (1798-1854).

BENENGE`LI, an imaginary Moorish author, whom Cervantes credits with the story of “Don Quixote.”

BENETIER, the vessel for holding the holy water in Roman Catholic churches.

BENEVENTO (20), a town 33 m.  NE. of Naples, built out of and amid the ruins of an ancient one; also the province, of which Talleyrand was made prince by Napoleon.

BENEVOLENCE, the name of a forced tax exacted from the people by certain kings of England, and which, under Charles I., became so obnoxious as to occasion the demand of the PETITION OF RIGHTS (q. v.), that no tax should be levied without consent of Parliament; first enforced in 1473, declared illegal in 1689.