Catholic Univ. Bulletin, XIV, n. 3; IDEM, De Smet in the Oregon Country in Quarterly of O. Hist. Soc. (September, 1909); CHITTEN DEN AND RICHARDSON, De Smet's Life and Travels; DE BAETS, Mgr Seghers (Paris, 1896); BROUILLET, Authentic Account of the Murder of Dr. Whitman (2nd ed., Portland, 1869); SNOWDEN, Hist. of Washington, I-II (New York, 1909); SISTER OF THE HOLY NAMES, Gleanings of Fifty Years (Portland, 1909).

EDWIN V. O'HARA.

Oregon City, ARCHDIOCESE OF (OREGONOPOLITAN), includes that part of the State of Oregon west of the Cascade Mountains, being bounded on the east by the counties of Wasco, Crook, and Klamath. It comprises an area of 21,398 square miles. By an indult of the Holy See dated 28 Feb., 1836, the Oregon Country north of the American line was annexed to the vicariate Apostolic of Mgr Provencher of Red River. By letters of 17 April, 1838, Rev. F. N. Blanchet was appointed vicar-general to the Archbishop of Quebec and assigned to the Oregon mission. The vicar-general established his first mission at St. Paul on the Willamette, and on 6 Jan., 1839, dedicated at that place the first Catholic church in Oregon. The church had been constructed three years earlier by the Canadian settlers who had anticipated the coming of a missionary among them.

As the line of demarcation between British and American territory was still undecided, and missionary priests had been sent into the country both from Canada and from the United States (De Smet had come from St. Louis), Oregon became a joint mission depending upon the Bishops of Quebec and Baltimore. At the suggestion of these bishops, the mission was erected into a vicariate Apostolic by a brief of 1 Dec., 1843. On 24 July, 1846, the vicariate was transformed into a province comprising the Archdiocese of Oregon City and the Dioceses of Walla Walla and Vancouver's Island. With the transfer of the See of Walla Walla to Nesqually (1848), the northern boundary of the Archdiocese of Oregon City was fixed at the Columbia River and the 46° lat. This territory was diminished by the erection of the Vicariate of Idaho (1868) and finally received its present limits by the erection of the Diocese of Baker City (1903).

Bishops: (1) François Norbert Blanchet (q. v.), b. 3 Sept., 1795, consecrated 25 July, 1845. There were in the diocese in 1845 ten priests, thirteen Sisters of Notre-Dame, and two educational institutions. The first priest ordained in Oregon was Father Jayol, the ceremony being performed by Archbishop Blanchet at St. Paul, 19 Sept., 1847. On 30 Nov., the archbishop consecrated at St. Paul, Bishop Demers of Vancouver's Island. He convened the First Provincial Council of Oregon City, 28 Feb., 1848. On 21 Dec., Archbishop Blanchet left St. Paul and took up his residence at Oregon City. In 1852 the first church in the City of Portland was dedicated under the title of the Immaculate Conception. It became the pro-cathedral when Archbishop Blanchet moved to Portland in 1862. (2) Charles John Seghers, b. 26 Dec., 1839, at Ghent, successor to the pioneer Bishop Demers of Vancouver's Island, was transferred to Oregon City, 10 Dec., 1878, and became coadjutor to Archbishop Blanchet who at once retired from active life. Archbishop Seghers is remembered for his heroic devotion to the Indian missions of Alaska (q. v.), which led him to resign the See of Oregon City in 1884. (3) William H. Gross (consecrated Bishop of Savannah, 1873) was promoted to the archiepiscopal See of Oregon City, 1 Feb., 1885, and invested with the pallium in Portland by His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons 9 Oct. On his death 14 Nov., 1898, he was succeeded by the present archbishop. (4) Most Rev. Alexander Christie (consecrated Bishop of Vancouver's Island, 29 June, 1898) was promoted to the archiepiscopal See of Oregon City, 12 Feb., 1899. Statistics for 1909: diocesan priests, 50; priests of rel. orders, 40; colleges, 3; secondary schools, 12; elementary schools, 35; pupils, 5500.

BLANCHET, Historical Sketches (Portland, 1870); The Catholic Sentinel (Portland, 1870-1910), files; Catholic Directory; Diocesan Archives. EDWIN V. O'HARA.

O'Reilly, BERNARD, historian, b. 29 Sept., 1820, in County Mayo, Ireland; d. in New York, U. S. A., 26 April, 1907. In early life he emigrated to Canada, where in 1836 he entered Laval University. He was ordained priest in Quebec, 12 Sept., 1843, and ministered in several parishes of that diocese. He was one of the heroic priests who attended the plague-stricken Irish emigrants in the typhus-sheds along the St. Lawrence after the "black '47". Later he entered the Society of Jesus and was attached to St. John's College, Fordham, New York. When the Civil War broke out he went as a chaplain in the Irish Brigade and served with the Army of the Potomac during a large part of its campaigns. He then withdrew from the Jesuits and devoted himself to literature, becoming one of the editorial staff of the "New American Cyclopedia" to which he contributed articles on Catholic topics. At the conclusion of this work he travelled extensively in Europe, sending for several years an interesting series of letters to the New York "Sun". He lived for a long period in Rome where Pope Leo XIII, besides appointing him a prothonotary Apostolic in 1887, gave him the special materials for his "Life of Leo XIII" (New York, 1887). Among the many books he published these were notable: "Life of Pius IX" (1877); "Mirror of True Womanhood" (1876); "True Men" (1878); "Key of Heaven" (1878); "The Two Brides" (1879); "Life of John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam" (1890). On his return to New York from Europe he was made chaplain at the convent of Mount St. Vincent, where he spent the rest of his days. On the occasion of his sacerdotal jubilee he was given a signed testimonial of appreciation of his fellow priests and friends.

Catholic News (New York, May, 1907); Ave Maria (Notre Dame, Indiana), files; Nat. Cyclo. of Am. Biog., s. v. THOMAS F. MEEHAN. JOSEPH. See BAKER CITY,

O'Reilly, CHARLES DIOCESE OF.

O'Reilly, EDMUND, Archbishop of Armagh, b. at Dublin, 1616; d. at Saumur, France, 1669, was educated in Dublin and ordained there in 1629. After ordination he studied at Louvain, where he held the position of prefect of the college of Irish Secular Ecclesiastics. In 1640 he returned to Dublin and was appointed vicar-general. In 1642 the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Fleming, having been appointed on the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics, transferred his residence to Kilkenny and until 1648 O'Reilly administered the Archdiocese of Dublin. With the triumph of the Puritans he was imprisoned, and in 1653, ordered to quit the kingdom, he took refuge at the Irish College of Lisle where he was notified of his appointment to the See of Armagh, and shortly after consecrated at Brussels. Ireland was then a dangerous place for ecclesiastics, and not until 1658 did he attempt to visit his diocese; even then he could proceed no farther than London. Ordered to quit the kingdom, he returned to France, but in the following year went to Ireland, this time directly from France, and for the next two years exercised his ministry. Accused of favouring the Puritans and of being an enemy of the Stuarts, he was ordered by the pope to quit Ireland. At Rome he was able to vindicate himself, but he was not allowed to return to Ireland by the English authorities until 1665, and then only in the hope that he would favour the Remonstrance of Peter Walsh. O'Reilly, like the great majority of the Irish bishops and priests, rejected it, nor could the entreaties of Walsh or the threats of Ormond change him. In consequence he was imprisoned by Ormond, and when released, driven from the kingdom. He spent

to assist the famine-stricken peasants. In 1851 he was associated with Newman and Archbishop Leahy to report on the projected Catholic University, and, in 1854 he became captain of the Louth Rifles. He married Miss Ida Jerningham, 3 Aug., 1859. Some months later he offered his services to Pius IX, against Garibaldi. Having formed an Irish Brigade, he was appointed major, under General Pimodan, and fought gallantly in every engagement until the surrender of Spoleto, 18 Sept., 1860. From 1862 to 1876 he represented County Longford in the British Parliament, and was one of those who signed the requisition for the famous Home Rule Conference under Isaac Butt. He ably supported Catholic interests, and assisted in the movement to obtain Catholic chaplains for the army. He wrote "Sufferings for the Faith in Ireland" (London, 1868). He also contributed to the "Dublin Review" and other periodicals, writing especially in defence of the Holy See and of Catholic educational matters. After the death of his wife in 1876, he accepted the position of Assistant Commissioner of Intermediate Education for Ireland in April, 1879, which he filled until his death. He was interred at Philipstown, not far from his family residence in Co. Louth.

O'CLERY, The Making of Italy (London, 1898); Contemporary newspapers; CONRY, The Irish Brigade in Italy (Dublin, 1907); GOGARTY, MS. Memoir (1910). W. H. GRATTAN-FLOOD.

O'Reilly, PETER J. See PEORIA, DIOCESE OF. Oremus, invitation to pray, said before collects and other short prayers and occuring continually in the Roman Rite. It is used as a single ejaculation in the East (e. g., Nestorian Rite, Brightman, "Eastern Liturgies", Oxford, 1896, 255, etc.; Jacobite, ib., 75, 80, etc.), or the imperative: "Pray" (Coptic, ib., 162), "Stand for prayer" (ib., 158); most commonly, however with a further determination, "Let us pray to the Lord" (TOû Kuplov deneŵuev, throughout the Byzantine Rite), and so on. Mgr Duchesne thinks that the Gallican collects were also introduced by the word Oremus ("Origines du Culte", Paris, 1898, 103). It is not so in the Mozarabic Rite, where the celebrant uses the word only twice, before the Agios (P. L., LXXXV, 113) and Pater Noster (ib., 118). Oremus is said (or sung) in the Roman Rite before all separate collects in the Mass, Office, or on other occasions (but several collects may be joined with one Oremus), before Post-Communions; in the same way, alone, with no prayer following, before the offertory; also before the introduction to the Pater noster and before other short prayers (e. g., Aufer a nobis) in the form of collects. It appears that the Oremus did not originally apply to the prayer (collect) that now follows it. It is thought that it was once an invitation to private prayer, very likely with further direction as to the object, as now on Good Friday (Oremus pro ecclesia sancta Dei, etc.). The deacon then said: Flectamus genua, and all knelt in silent prayer. After a time the people were told to stand up (Levate), and finally the celebrant collected all the petitions in one short sentence said aloud (see COLLECT). Of all this our Oremus followed at once by the collect would be a fragment. GIHR, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (St. Louis, 1908), 368, 416,

497.

ADRIAN FORTESCUE.

Orense, DIOCESE OF (AURIENSIS), suffragan of Compostela, includes nearly all of the civil Province of Orense, and part of those of Lugo and Zamora, being bounded on the north by Pontevedra, Lugo, and Leon; on the east by Leon and Zamora; on the south by Portugal; on the west by Portugal and Pontevedra. Its capital, Orense (pop., 14,168), is a very ancient city on the banks of the Miño (Minho), famous since classical antiquity for its hot springs. The See of Orense dates from a remote period, certainly before the

fifth century. The First Council of Braga (561) created four dioceses, the bishops of which afterwards signed the acts of the Second Council of Braga below the Bishop of Orense-an indication that they were of junior standing. Moreover, the signatures of the Bishops of Tuy and Astorga, two very ancient Churches, come after that of the Bishop of Orense. According to Idacius, two bishops, Pastor and Siagrius, were consecrated in the convent of Lugo in 433, and one of them (it is not known which) was a Bishop of Orense. In 464, the Suevians, who had invaded Galicia, embraced Arianism, and only in the time of King Chararic (560) were they reconciled to Catholicism. St. Gregory of Tours tells us that the Galicians embraced the Faith with remarkable fervour. The conversion and instruction of both king and people appear to have been completed by St. Martin of Dumium. The names of the bishops of Orense are unknown until 571, when the diocese was governed by Witimir, a man of noble Suevian lineage, who assisted at the Second Council of Braga. He was an intimate friend of St. Martin of Braga, who dedicated to him as his "most dear father in Christ", his treatise "De ira". In 716 Orense was destroyed by Abdelaziz, son of Muza. In 832 Alfonso II combined the two Dioceses of Orense and Lugo: Orense, nevertheless, appears to have retained its titular bishops, for a charter of Alfonso the Chaste is witnessed by Maydo, Bishop of Orense. When Alfonso III (866-910) had reconquered Orense, he gave it to Bishop Sebastian, who had been Bishop of Arcabica in Celtiberia and was succeeded by Censeric (844), Sumna (886), and Egila (899), who took part in the consecration of the church of Santiago and in the Council of Oviedo. In the episcopacy of Ansurius (915-22) the holy abbot Franquila (906) erected the Benedictine monastery of S. Esteban de Ribas del Sil (St. Stephen on the Sil), where Ansurius himself and eight of his successors died in the odour of sanctity.

At the end of the tenth century the diocese was laid waste, first by the Northmen (970) and then by Almanzor, after which it was committed to the care of the Bishop of Lugo until 1071, when, after a vacancy of seventy years, Sancho II appointed Ederonio to the see. Ederonio rebuilt the old cathedral called S. Maria la Madre (1084-89). The most famous bishop of this period was Diego Velasco, whom his epitaph calls 'light of the Church and glory of his country". He assisted at a council of Palencia and three councils of Santiago, and, with the assent of Doña Urraca and her son Alfonso, granted privileges (fueros) to Orense. He ruled for thirty years and was succeeded by Martin (1132-56) and Pedro Seguín. The latter was confesOrense. Bishop Lorenzo was the jurist whom Tusor to Ferdinand II, who granted him the lordship of dense called the "pattern of the law" (regla del derecho); he rebuilt the cathedral and the bishop's palace, and constructed the famous bridge of Orense, with its principal arch spanning more than 130 feet. He assisted at the Council of Lyons in 1245. Vañez de Novoa quarrelled with the Franciscans, while he was precentor, and burned their convent, which had sheltered one of his enemies, but, having become bishop, he rebuilt it magnificently. Vasco Perez Mariño (1333-43) was distinguished for his devotion to the "Holy Christ of Orense", which he caused to be transferred from Finisterre to Orense and built for it a beautiful chapel, modified in subsequent periods. Other distinguished occupants of this see were Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, a Dominican, who assisted at the Councils of Constance and Basle; Diego de Fonseca (1471-84), who repaired the cathedral; Cardinals Antoniotto Pallavicino and Pedro de Isvalles, and the inquisitor general Fernando Valdés. Francisco Blanco founded the Hospital of S. Roque, assisted at the Council of Trent, founded the Jesuit colleges at Malaga and Compostela, and endowed that at Monterey. The

O'Reilly, EDMUND, theologian, b. in London, 30 April, 1811; d. at Dublin, 10 November, 1878. Educated at Clongowes and Maynooth, he made his theological studies at Rome, where after seven years in the Roman College he gained the decree of Doctor of Divinity by a "public act" de universa theologia. After his ordination in 1838 he taught theology for thirteen years at Maynooth into which he was mainly instrumental in introducing the Roman spirit and tradition, after which he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Naples. He taught theology for some years at St. Beuno's College in North Wales till he was appointed Professor of Theology under Newman in the Catholic University of Ireland. During the remainder of his life he resided at Milltown Park near Dublin as rector of a House of Spiritual Exercises; and he was Provincial of Ireland 1863-70. Constantly consulted on theological questions by the bishops and priests of Ireland, Cardinal Newman in his famous Letter to the Duke of Norfolk" calls him "a great authority" and "one of the first theologians of the day". Dr. W. G. Ward, editor of "The Dublin Review", said: "It is a great loss to the Church that so distinguished a theologian as Father O'Reilly has published so little". Dr. Ward wrote of his chief work, “The Relations of the Church to Society", "Whatever is written by so able and so solidly learned a theologian, one so docile to the Church and so fixed in the ancient theological paths, cannot but be of signal benefit to the Catholic reader in these anxious and perilous times."

Freeman's Journal (Dublin, November, 1878); Irish Monthly, VI, 695.

MATTHEW RUSSELL.

O'Reilly, HUGH, Archbishop of Armagh, head of the Confederates of Kilkenny, b. 1580; d. on Trinity Island in Lough Erne. He first conceived the idea of forming this national movement into a regular organization. He convened a provincial synod at Kells early in March, 1642, in which the bishops declared the war undertaken by the Irish people for their king, religion, and country to be just and lawful. The following May (1642) he convened a national synod, consisting of prelates and civil lords, at Kilkenny. After having ratified their former declaration, they framed an oath of association to be taken by all their adherents, binding them to maintain the fundamental laws of Ireland, the free exercise of religion, and true allegiance to Charles I. Orders were issued to levy men and raise money; to establish a mint and an official printing press; to take the duty off such foreign imports as wheat and corn, lead, iron, arms and ammunition; the bishops and clergy should pay a certain sum for national purposes out of the ecclesiastical revenues that had come back into their possession; and agents should be sent to Catholic courts to solicit aid. They gave letters of credit and chartered some light vessels that were to fly the Confederate colours and protect the coast, and they drafted a remonstrance to the king declaring their loyalty and protesting against the acts of tyranny, injustice, and intolerance of the Puritan lord justices and Parliament of Dublin in confiscating Catholic lands and putting a ban on Catholic school-teachers. The assembly lasted until 9 January, agreeing to meet 20 May following. The seal of the Confederation bore in its centre a large cross rising out of a flaming heart, above were the wings of a dove, on the left a harp, and on the right a crown; the legend read: PRO DEO, REGE, ET PATRIA,

HIBERNI UNANIMES.

Wherever the primate's partisans commanded, the Protestant bishops, ministers, and people were safe, and were even protected in the exercise of their own religious worship. Archbishop O'Reilly was, throughout the war and the terrible years that followed it, the soul and guide of the national party; he did his utmost to restrain the violence of the people, who would have wreaked vengeance on their persecutors had they been left to their own instincts at that crisis. He urged Sir Phelim O'Neile and Lord Iveagh to keep the armed multitudes in check and prevent the massacre and pillage of Protestants. Such salutary restraint produced the most happy results, for even the rudest of the northern chieftains respected him too much to violate his lessons of forbearance and charity. When the great chieftain, Owen Roe, was dying, he had himself taken to Ballinacorgy Castle, the residence of his brother-in-law Philip O'Reilly, where he was attended by Archbishop O'Reilly. Local tradition gives the ruined Abbey of the Holy Trinity, on an island a few miles from Ballinacorgy Castle, as his last restingplace. In the same locality Archbishop O'Reilly was buried. The primate's signature is still to be seen in most of the manifestoes of the Confederation of Kilkenny as "Hugo Armacanus".

D'ALTON, History of Ireland, III (Dublin, 1910); GILBERT, Hist. of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland, 1640-41 SISTER M. STANISLAUS AUSTIN.

(7 vols., Dublin, 1882-91).

O'Reilly, JOHN. See ADELAIDE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. O'Reilly, JOHN BOYLE, poet, novelist, and editor, b. at Douth Castle, Drogheda, Ireland, 24 June, 1844; d. at Hull, Massachusetts, 10 August, 1890; second son of William David O'Reilly and Eliza Boyle. He attended the National School, conducted by his father, and was employed successively as printer on the "Drogheda Argus", and on the staff of "The Guardian", Preston, England; he afterwards became a trooper in the Tenth Hussars. Entering actively into the Fenian movement, believing in his inexperience that Ireland's grievances could be redressed only by physical force, he was betrayed to the authorities and duly court-martialled. On account of his extreme youth, his life sentence was commuted to twenty years' penal servitude in Australia. Later study of his country's cause made him before long an earnest advocate of constitutional agitation as the only way to Irish Home Rule. In 1869, O'Reilly escaped from Australia, with the assistance of the captain of a whaling barque from New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1870, he became editor of "The Pilot", Boston, and from 1876 until his death in 1890 he was also part proprietor, being associated with Archbishop Williams of Boston. His books include four volumes of poems: "Songs of the Southern Seas", "Songs, Legends, and Ballads", "The Statues in the Block", and "In Bohemia"; a novel, "Moondyne", based on his Australian experiences; his collaboration in another novel, "The King's Men", and "Athletics and Manly Sport". A sincere Catholic, his great influence, used lavishly in forwarding the interests of younger Catholics destined to special careers, and in lifting up the lowly without regard to any claim but their need, was for twenty years a valuable factor in Catholic progress in America. He was married in 1872 to Mary Murphy, in Boston, who died in 1897. Their four daughters survive them. ROCHE, Life of John Boyle O'Reilly (New York, 1891); CONWAY, Watchwords from John Boyle O'Reilly (Boston, 1891).

KATHERINE E. CONWAY.

O'Reilly, MYLES WILLIAM PATRICK, soldier, publicist, littérateur, b. near Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, Ireland, 13 March, 1825; d. at Dublin, 6 Feb., 1880. In 1841 he entered Ushaw College (England), and graduated a B.A. of London University. From 1845 to 1847 he studied in Rome, and then returned to Ireland

zealous Juan Muñoz de la Cueva, a Trinitarian, wrote "Historical Notes on the Cathedral Church of Orense' (Madrid, 1727). Pedro Quevedo y Quintana (d. 1818), having been president of the Regency in 1810, was exiled by the Cortes of Cadiz; he founded the conciliar seminary of Orense in 1802.

The original cathedral was dedicated to the Mother of God, and is still known as Santa Maria la Madre. The Suevian king Chararic (see above) built (550) another, more sumptuous, church in honour of St. Martin of Tours and made it the cathedral, as it is to this day. Both churches, having suffered severely from time and the invasions of Arabs and Northmen, have been repeatedly restored. The later cathedral is Romanesque, with features of Gothic transition: its oldest portions date from the thirteenth century, and its latest from the early sixteenth; the façade has been rebuilt in modern times. The high altar has a silver tabernacle, given by Bishop Miguel Ares, and statues of Our Lady and St. Martin. In two side altars are the relics of St. Euphemia and her companions in martyrdom, Sts. Facundus and Primitivus. The plan of the church is a Latin cross, with three naves, the tower standing apart. The choir stalls are the work of Diego de Solis and Juan de Anges (late sixteenth century). Of the cloisters only a small portion remains, a perfect gem of ogival work. The church of St. Francis and the Trinity should also be mentioned; it was founded probably about the middle of the twelfth century as a hospice for pilgrims.

The famous men of the diocese include Padre Feijóo, a polygrapher who exploded many superstitions; Antonio de Remesar, the historian of Chiapa and Guatemala; Gregorio Hernandez, the sculptor; Castellar Ferrer, the historian of Galicia; St. Francis Blanco, a martyr of Japan.

PELAYO, Heterodoxos españoles, I (Madrid, 1879); MADOz, Dicc. geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España (Madrid, 1848); FLOREZ, (Barcelona, 1855)

Esp. Sagrada (Madrid, 1789); DE LA FUENTE, Hist. ecl. de Esp.

RAMÓN RUIZ AMADO.

Oresme, NICOLE, philosopher, economist, mathematician, and physicist, one of the principal founders of modern science; b. in Normandy, in the Diocese of Bayeux; d. at Lisieux, 11 July, 1382. In 1348 he was a student of theology in Paris; in 1356 grand master of the Collège de Navarre; in 1362, already master of theology, canon of Rouen; dean of the chapter, 28 March, 1364. On 3 August, 1377, he became Bishop of Lisieux. There is a tradition that he was tutor to the dauphin, afterwards Charles V, but this is irreconcilable with the dates of Oresme's life. Charles seems to have had the highest esteem for his character and talents, often followed his counsel, and made him write many works in French for the purpose of developing a taste for learning in the kingdom. At Charles's instance, too, Oresme pronounced a discourse before the papal Court at Avignon, denouncing the ecclesiastical disorders of the time. Several of the French and Latin works attributed to him are apocryphal or doubtful. Of his authentic writings, a Christological treatise, "De communicatione idiomatum in Christo", was commonly used as early as the fifteenth century by the theological Faculty of Paris.

But Oresme is best known as an economist, mathematician, and physicist. His economic views are contained in a Commentary on the Ethics of Aristotle, of which the French version is dated 1370; a commentary on the Politics and the Economics of Aristotle, French edition, 1371; and a "Treatise on Coins". These three works were written in both Latin and French; all three, especially the last, stamp their author as the precursor of the science of political economy, and reveal his mastery of the French language. The French Commentary on the Ethics of Aristotle was printed in Paris in 1488; that on the Politics and the Economics, in 1489. The treatise on coins, "De

origine, natura, jure et mutationibus monetarum", was printed in Paris early in the sixteenth century, also at Lyons in 1675, as an appendix to the "De re monetaria" of Marquardus Freherus, and is included in the "Sacra bibliotheca sanctorum Patrum" of Margaronus de la Bigne IX, (Paris, 1859), p. 159, and in the "Acta publica monetaria" of David Thomas de Hagelstein (Augsburg, 1642). The "Traictié de la première invention des monnoies", in French, was printed at Bruges in 1477.

His most important contributions to mathematics are contained in "Tractatus de figuratione potentiarum et mensurarum difformitatum", still in manuscript. An abridgment of this work printed as "Tractatus de latitudinibus formarum” (Î482, 1486, 1505, 1515), has heretofore been the only source for the study of his mathematical ideas. In a quality, or accidental form, such as heat, the Scholastics distinguished the intensio (the degree of heat at each point) and the extensio (e. g., the length of the heated rod): these two terms were often replaced by latitudo and longitudo, and from the time of St. Thomas until far on in the fourteenth century, there was lively debate on the latitudo forma. For the sake of lucidity, Oresme conceived the idea of employing what we should now call rectangular co-ordinates: in modern terminology, a length proportionate to the longitudo was the abscissa at a given point, and a perpendicular at that point, proportionate to the latitudo, was the ordinate. He shows that a geometrical property of such a figure could be regarded as corresponding to a property of the form itself only when this property remains constant while the units measuring the longitudo and latitudo vary. Hence he defines latitudo uniformis as that which is represented by a line parallel to the longitude, and any other latitudo is difformis; the latitudo uniformiter difformis is represented by a right line inclined to the axis of the longitude. He proves that this definition is equivalent to an algebraical relation in which the longitudes and latitudes of any three points would figure: i. e., he gives the equation of the right line, and thus forestalls Descartes in the invention of analytical geometry. This doctrine he extends to figures of three dimensions.

Besides the longitude and latitude of a form, he considers the mensura, or quantitas, of the form, proportional to the area of the figure representing it. He proves this theorem: A form uniformiter difformis has the same quantity as a form uniformis of the same longitude and having as latitude the mean between the two extreme limits of the first. He then shows that his method of figuring the latitude of forms is applicable to the movement of a point, on condition that the time is taken as longitude and the speed as latitude; quantity is, then, the space covered in a given time. In virtue of this transposition, the theorem of the latitude uniformiter difformis became the law of the space traversed in case of uniformly varied motion: Oresme's demonstration is exactly the same as that which Galileo was to render celebrated in the seventeenth century. Moreover, this law was never forgotten during the interval between Oresme and Galileo: it was taught at Oxford by William Heytesbury and his followers, then, at Paris and in Italy, by all the followers of that school. In the middle of the sixteenth century, long before Galileo, the Dominican Dominic Soto applied the law to the uniformly acclerated falling of heavy bodies and to the uniformly decreasing ascension of projectiles.

Oresme's physical teachings are set forth in two French works, the "Traité de la sphère", twice printed in Paris (first edition without date; second, 1508), and the "Traité du ciel et du monde", written in 1377 at the request of King Charles V, but never printed. In most of the essential problems of statics and dynamics, Oresme follows the opinions advocated in Paris by his predecessor, Jean Buridan de Béthune, and his

contemporary, Albert de Saxe (see SAXE, ALBERT DE). In opposition to the Aristotelean theory of weight, according to which the natural location of heavy bodies is the centre of the world, and that of light bodies the concavity of the moon's orb, he proposes the following: The elements tend to dispose themselves in such manner that, from the centre to the periphery their specific weight diminishes by degrees. He thinks that a similar rule may exist in worlds other than this. This is the doctrine later substituted for the Aristotelean by Copernicus and his followers, such as Giordano Bruno. The latter argued in a manner so similar to Oresme's that it would seem he had read the "Traité du ciel et du monde". But Oresme had a much stronger claim to be regarded as the precursor of Copernicus when one considers what he says of the diurnal motion of the earth, to which he devotes the gloss following chapters xxiv and xxv of the "Traité du ciel et du monde". He begins by establishing that no experiment can decide whether the heavens move from east to west or the earth from west to east; for sensible experience can never establish more than relative motion. He then shows that the reasons proposed by the physics of Aristotle against the movement of the earth are not valid; he points out, in particular, the principle of the solution of the difficulty drawn from the movement of projectiles. Next he solves the objections based on texts of Holy Scripture; in interpreting these passages he lays down rules universally followed by Catholic exegetists of the present day. Finally, he adduces the argument of simplicity for the theory that the earth moves, and not the heavens, and the whole of his argument in favour of the earth's motion is both more explicit and much clearer than that given by Copernicus.

MEUNIER, Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages de Nicole Oresme (Paris, 1857); WOLOWSKI ed., Traictié de la première invention des monnoies de Nicole Oresme, textes français et latin d'après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale, et Traité de la monnoie de Copernic, texte latin et traduction française (Paris, 1864); JOURDAIN, Mémoire sur les commencements de l'Economie politique dans les écoles du Moyen-Age in Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XXVIII, pt. II (1874); CURTZE, Der Algorismus proportionum des Nicolaus Oresme in Zeitschr. für Mathematik u. Physik, XIII, Supplementary (Leipzig, 1868), 65-79; IDEM, Der Tractatus de Latitudinibus Formarum des Nicolaus Oresme (Ibid., 1868), 92-97; IDEM, Die mathematischen Schriften des Nicole Oresme (Berlin, 1870); SUTER, Eine bis jetzt unbekannte Schrift des Nic. Oresme in Zeitschr. für Mathematik und Physik, XXVII, Hist.-litter. Abtheilung (Leipzig, 1882), 121-25; CANTOR, Vorlesungen über die Gesch. der Mathematik, II (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1900), 128-36; DUHEM, Un précurseur français de Copernic: Nicole Oresme (1377) in Revue générale des Sciences (Paris, 15 Nov., 1909); IDEM, Dominique Soto et la Scolastique parisienne in Bulletin hispanique (Bordeaux, 1910-11). PIERRE DUHEM.

The

Organ (Greek pyavov, "an instrument"), a musical instrument which consists of one or several sets of pipes, each pipe giving only one tone, and which is blown and played by mechanical means. I. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.-As far as the sounding material is concerned, the organ has its prototype in the syrinx, or Pan's pipe, a little instrument consisting of several pipes of differing length tied together in a row. application of the mechanism is credited to Ctesibius, a mechanician who lived in Alexandria about 300 B. C. According to descriptions by Vitruvius (who is now generally believed to have written about A. D. 60) and Heron (somewhat later than Vitruvius), the organ of Ctesibius was an instrument of such perfection as was not attained again until the eighteenth century. The blowing apparatus designed by Ctesibius consisted of two parts, just as in the modern organ; the first serving to compress the air (the "feeders"); the second, to store the compressed air, the "wind", and keep it at a uniform pressure (the "reservoir"). For the first purpose Ctesibius used air-pumps fitted with handles for convenient working. The second, the most interesting part of his invention, was constructed as follows: a bell-shaped vessel was placed in a bronze basin, mouth downwards, supported a couple of inches above the bottom of the basin by a few blocks. Into

the basin water was then poured until it rose some distance above the mouth of the bell. Tubes connecting with the air-pumps, as well as others connecting with the pipes of the organ, were fitted into the top of the bell. When, therefore, the air-pumps were worked, the air inside the bell was compressed and pushed out some of the water below. The level of the water consequently rose and kept the air inside compressed. Any wind taken from the bell to supply the pipes would naturally have a tendency to raise the level of the water in the bell and to lower that outside. But if the supply from the air-pumps was kept slightly in excess of the demand by the pipes, so that some of the air would always escape through the water in bubbles, a very even pressure would be maintained. This is what was actually done, and the bubbling of the water, sometimes described as "boiling", was always prominent in the accounts given of the instrument.

Over the basin there was placed a flat box containing a number of channels corresponding to the number of rows of pipes. Vitruvius speaks of organs having four, six, or eight rows of pipes, with as many channels. Each channel was supplied with wind from the bell by a connecting tube, a cock being inserted in each tube to cut off the wind at will. Over the box containing the channels an upper-board was placed, on the lower side of which small grooves were cut transversely to the channels. In the grooves close-fitting "sliders" were inserted, which could be moved in and out. At the intersections of channels and grooves, holes were cut vertically through the upper board and, correspondingly, through the top covering of the channels. The pipes, then, stood over the holes of the upper-board, each row, representing a scale-like progression, standing over its own channel, and all the pipes belonging to the same key, standing over the same groove. The sliders also were perforated, their holes corresponding to those in the upper board and the roof of the channels. When, therefore, the slider was so placed that its holes were in line with the lower and upper holes, the wind could pass through the three holes into the pipe above; but if the slider was drawn out a little, its solid portions would cut off the connexion between the holes in the roof of the channels and those in the upper-board, and no wind could pass. There was thus a double control of the pipes. By means of the cocks, wind could be admitted to any one of the channels, and thus supply all the pipes standing over that channel, but only those pipes would get the wind whose slide was in the proper position. Again, by means of the slide, wind could be admitted to all the pipes standing in a transverse row, but only those pipes would be blown to whose channels wind had been admitted by the cocks. This double control is still a leading principle in modern organbuilding, and a row of pipes, differing in pitch, but having the same quality of tone, is called a stop, because its wind supply can be stopped by one action. It is not quite certain what the stops in the ancient organ meant. It is very unlikely that different stops produced different qualities of tone, as in the modern organ. Most probably they represented different "modes". For the convenient management of the slides each was provided with an angular lever, so that on pressing down one arm of the lever, the slide was pushed in; the lever being released, the slide was pulled out again by a spring.

This organ, called hydraulus, or organum hydraulicum, from the water used in the blowing apparatus, enjoyed great popularity. Writers like Cicero are loud in its praise. Even emperors took pride in playing it. It was used to heighten the pleasures of banquets and was associated particularly with the theatre and the circus. Numerous representations, particularly on coins called contorniates, also testify to its general repute. At an early period we meet organs in which