Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bent, James" to "Bibirine" by Various
2. (From the O. Eng. _beonet_, a coarse, rushy grass growing in wet
5276 words | Chapter 2
places; cf. the Ger. _Binse_, a reed), the name ("bent" or "bennet")
popularly applied to several kinds of grass and surviving in the form
"bent-grass."
BENTHAM, GEORGE (1800-1884), English botanist, was born at Stoke near
Portsmouth on the 22nd of September 1800. His father, Sir Samuel Bentham
(1757-1831), was the only brother of Jeremy Bentham, the publicist, and
of scarcely inferior ability though in a different direction. Devoting
himself in early life to the study of naval architecture, Sir Samuel
went to Russia to visit the naval establishments in the Baltic and Black
Seas. He was induced to enter the service of the empress Catherine II.,
built a flotilla of gunboats and defeated the Turkish fleet. For this he
was made, in addition to other honours, colonel of a cavalry regiment.
On the death of the empress he returned to England to be employed by the
admiralty, and was sent (1805-1807) again to Russia to superintend the
building of some ships for the British navy. He attained the rank, under
the admiralty, of inspector-general of naval works. He introduced a
multitude of improvements in naval organization, and it was largely
through his recommendation that M.I. Brunel's block-making machinery was
installed at Portsmouth.
George Bentham had neither a school nor a college education, but early
acquired the power of giving sustained and concentrated attention to any
subject that occupied him--one essential condition of the success he
attained as perhaps the greatest systematic botanist of the 19th
century. Another was his remarkable linguistic aptitude. At the age of
six to seven he could converse in French, German and Russian, and he
learnt Swedish during a short residence in Sweden when little older. At
the close of the war with France, the Benthams made a long tour through
that country, staying two years at Montauban, where Bentham studied
Hebrew and mathematics in the Protestant Theological School. They
eventually settled in the neighbourhood of Montpellier where Sir Samuel
purchased a large estate.
The mode in which George Bentham was attracted to the botanical studies
which became the occupation of his life is noteworthy; it was through
the applicability to them of the logical methods which he had imbibed
from his uncle's writings, and not from any special attraction to
natural history pursuits. While studying at Angouleme a copy of A.P. de
Candolle's _Flore francaise_ fell into his hands and he was struck with
the analytical tables for identifying plants. He immediately proceeded
to test their use on the first that presented itself. The result was
successful and he continued to apply it to every plant he came across. A
visit to London in 1823 brought him into contact with the brilliant
circle of English botanists. In 1826, at the pressing invitation of his
uncle, he agreed to act as his secretary, at the same time entering at
Lincoln's Inn and reading for the bar. He was called in due time and in
1832 held his first and last brief. The same year Jeremy Bentham died,
leaving his property to his nephew. His father's inheritance had fallen
to him the previous year. He was now in a position of modest
independence, and able to pursue undistractedly his favourite studies.
For a time these were divided between botany, jurisprudence and logic,
in addition to editing his father's professional papers. Bentham's first
publication was his _Catalogue des plantes indigenes des Pyrenees et du
Bas Languedoc_ (Paris, 1826), the result of a careful exploration of the
Pyrenees in company with G.A. Walker Arnott (1799-1868), afterwards
professor of botany in the university of Glasgow. It is interesting to
notice that in it Bentham adopted the principle from which he never
deviated, of citing nothing at second-hand. This was followed by
articles on various legal subjects: on codification, in which he
disagreed with his uncle, on the laws affecting larceny and on the law
of real property. But the most remarkable production of this period was
the _Outline of a New System of Logic, with a Critical Examination of Dr
Whately's Elements of Logic_ (1827). In this the principle of the
quantification of the predicate was first explicitly stated. This
Stanley Jevons declared to be "undoubtedly the most fruitful discovery
made in abstract logical science since the time of Aristotle." Before
sixty copies had been sold the publisher became bankrupt and the stock
went for wastepaper. The book passed into oblivion, and it was not till
1873 that Bentham's claims to priority were finally vindicated against
those of Sir William Hamilton by Herbert Spencer. In 1836 he published
his _Labiatarum genera et species_. In preparing this work he visited,
between 1830-1834, every European herbarium, several more than once. The
following winter was passed in Vienna, where he produced his
_Commentationes de Leguminosarum generibus_, published in the annals of
the Vienna Museum. In 1842 he removed to Pontrilas in Herefordshire. His
chief occupation for some succeeding years was his contributions to the
_Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis_, which was being
carried on by his friend, A.P. deCandolle. In all these dealt with some
4730 species.
In 1854 he found the maintenance of a herbarium and library too great a
tax on his means. He therefore offered them to the government on the
understanding that they should form the foundation of such necessary
aids to research in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. At the same time
he contemplated the abandonment of botanical work. Fortunately, he
yielded to the persuasion of Sir William Hooker, John Lindley and other
scientific friends. In 1855 he took up his residence in London, and
worked at Kew for five days a week, with a brief summer holiday, from
this time onwards till the end of his life. As his friend Asa Gray
wrote: "With such methodical habits, with freedom from professional or
administrative functions, which consume the time of most botanists, with
steady devotion to his chosen work, and with nearly all authentic
material and needful appliances at hand or within reach, it is not so
surprising that he should have undertaken and have so well accomplished
such a vast amount of work, and he has the crowning merit and happy
fortune of having completed all that he undertook." The government, in
1857, sanctioned a scheme for the preparation of a series of Floras or
descriptions in the English language of the indigenous plants of British
colonies and possessions. Bentham began with the _Flora Hongkongensis_
in 1861, which was the first comprehensive work on any part of the
little-known flora of China. This was followed by the _Flora
Australiensis_, in seven volumes (1863-1878), the first flora of any
large continental area that had ever been finished. His greatest work
was the _Genera Plantarum_, begun in 1862, and concluded in 1883 in
collaboration with Sir Joseph Hooker, "the greater portion being," as
Sir Joseph Hooker tells us, "the product of Bentham's indefatigable
industry." As age gradually impaired his bodily powers, he seemed at
last only to live for the completion of this monumental work.
When the last revise of the last sheet was returned to the printer, the
stimulus was withdrawn, and his powers seemed suddenly to fail him. He
began a brief autobiography, but the pen with which he had written his
two greatest works broke in his hand in the middle of a page. He
accepted the omen, laid aside the unfinished manuscript and patiently
awaited the not distant end. He died on the both of September 1884,
within a fortnight of his 84th birthday.
The scientific world received the _Genera Plantarum_ with as unanimous
an assent as was accorded to the _Species Plantarum_ of Linnaeus.
Bentham possessed, as Professor Daniel Oliver remarked, "an insight of
so special a character as to deserve the name of genius, into the
relative value of characters for practical systematic work, and as a
consequence of this, a sure sifting of essentials from non-essentials in
each respective grade." His preparation for his crowning work had been
practically lifelong. There are few parts of the world upon the botany
of which he did not touch. In the sequence and arrangement of the great
families of flowering plants, different views from those of Bentham may
be adopted. But Bentham paved the way by an intimate and exact statement
of the structural facts and their accurate relationship, which is not
likely to be improved. In method and style, in descriptive work, Bentham
was a supreme master. This, to quote Professor Oliver again, is
"manifest not only in its terseness, aptness and precision, but
especially in the judicious selection of diagnostic marks, and in the
instinctive estimate of probable range in variation, which long
experience and innate genius for such work could alone inspire."
(W. T. T.-D.)
BENTHAM, JEREMY (1748-1832), English philosopher and jurist, was born on
the 15th of February 1748 in Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, London, in
which neighbourhood his grandfather and father successively carried on
business as attorneys. His father, who was a wealthy man and possessed
at any rate a smattering of Greek, Latin and French, was thought to have
demeaned himself by marrying the daughter of an Andover tradesman, who
afterwards retired to a country house near Reading, where young Jeremy
spent many happy days. The boy's talents justified the ambitious hopes
which his parents entertained of his future. When three years old he
read eagerly such works as Rapin's _History_ and began the study of
Latin. A year or two later he learnt to play the violin and to speak
French. At Westminster school he obtained a reputation for Greek and
Latin verse writing; and he was only thirteen when he was matriculated
at Queen's College, Oxford, where his most important acquisition seems
to have been a thorough acquaintance with Sanderson's logic. He became a
B.A. in 1763, and in the same year entered at Lincoln's Inn, and took
his seat as a student in the queen's bench, where he listened with
rapture to the judgments of Lord Mansfield. He managed also to hear
Blackstone's lectures at Oxford, but says that he immediately detected
the fallacies which underlay the rounded periods of the future judge.
Bentham's family connexions would naturally have given him a fair start
at the bar, but this was not the career for which he was preparing
himself. He spent his time in making chemical experiments and in
speculating upon legal abuses, rather than in reading Coke upon
Littleton and the Reports. On being called to the bar he "found a cause
or two at nurse for him, which he did his best to put to death," to the
bitter disappointment of his father, who had confidently looked forward
to seeing him upon the woolsack. The first fruits of Bentham's studies,
the _Fragment on Government_, appeared in 1776. This masterly attack
upon Blackstone's praises of the English constitution was variously
attributed to Lord Mansfield, Lord Camden and Lord Ashburton. One
important result of its publication was that, in 1781, Lord Shelburne
(afterwards first marquess of Lansdowne) called upon its author in his
chambers at Lincoln's Inn. Henceforth Bentham was a frequent guest at
Bowood, where he saw the best society and where he met Miss Caroline Fox
(daughter of the second Lord Holland), to whom he afterwards made a
proposal of marriage. In 1785 Bentham started, by way of Italy and
Constantinople, on a visit to his brother, Samuel Bentham, a naval
engineer, holding the rank of colonel in the Russian service; and it was
in Russia that he wrote his _Defence of Usury_. Disappointed after his
return to England in 1788 in the hope which he had entertained, through
a misapprehension of something said by Lord Lansdowne, of taking a
personal part in the legislation of his country, he settled down to the
yet higher task of discovering and teaching the principles upon which
all sound legislation must proceed. The great work, upon which he had
been engaged for many years, the _Principles of Morals and
Legislation_, was published in 1789. His fame spread widely and rapidly.
He was made a French citizen in 1792; and his advice was respectfully
received in most of the states of Europe and America, with many of the
leading men of which he maintained an active correspondence. In 1817 he
became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. His ambition was to be allowed to
prepare a code of laws for his own or some foreign country. During
nearly a quarter of a century he was engaged in negotiations with the
government for the erection of a "Panopticon," for the central
inspection of convicts; a plan suggested to him by a building designed
by his brother Samuel, for the better supervision of his Russian
shipwrights. This scheme, which it was alleged would render
transportation unnecessary, was eventually abandoned, and Bentham
received in 1813, in pursuance of an act of parliament, L23,000 by way
of compensation. It was at a later period of his life that he propounded
schemes for cutting canals through the isthmus of Suez and the isthmus
of Panama. In 1823 he established the _Westminster Review_. Emboldened
perhaps by the windfall of 1813, Bentham in the following year took a
lease of Ford Abbey, a fine mansion with a deer-park, in Dorsetshire;
but in 1818 returned to the house in Queen's Square Place which he had
occupied since the death of his father in 1792. It was there that he
died on the 6th of June 1832 in his eighty-fifth year. In accordance
with his directions, his body was dissected in the presence of his
friends, and the skeleton is still preserved in University College,
London.
Bentham's life was a happy one of its kind. His constitution, weakly in
childhood, strengthened with advancing years so as to allow him to get
through an incredible amount of sedentary labour, while he retained to
the last the fresh and cheerful temperament of a boy. An ample inherited
fortune permitted him to pursue his studies undistracted by the
necessity for earning a livelihood, and to maximize the results of his
time and labour by the employment of amanuenses and secretaries. He was
able to gather around him a group of congenial friends and pupils, such
as the Mills, the Austins and Bowring, with whom he could discuss the
problems upon which he was engaged, and by whom several of his books
were practically rewritten from the mass of rough though orderly
memoranda which the master had himself prepared. Thus, for instance, was
the _Rationale of Judicial Evidence_ written out by J.S. Mill and the
_Book of Fallacies_ by Bingham. The services which Dumont rendered in
recasting as well as translating the works of Bentham were still more
important.
The popular notion that Bentham was a morose visionary is far removed
from fact. It is true that he looked upon general society as a waste of
time and that he disliked poetry as "misrepresentation"; but he
intensely enjoyed conversation, gave good dinners and delighted in
music, in country sights and in making others happy. These features of
Bentham's character are illustrated in the graphic account given by the
American minister, Richard Rush, of an evening spent at his London house
in the summer of the year 1818. "If Mr Bentham's character is peculiar,"
he says, "so is his place of residence. It was a kind of blind-alley,
the end of which widened into a small, neat courtyard. There by itself
stands Mr Bentham's house. Shrubbery graced its area and flowers its
window-sills. It was like an oasis in the desert. Its name is the
Hermitage. Mr Bentham received me with the simplicity of a philosopher.
I should have taken him for seventy or upwards. Everything inside the
house was orderly. The furniture seemed to have been unmoved since the
days of his fathers, for I learned that it was a patrimony. A parlour,
library and dining-room made up the suite of apartments. In each was a
piano, the eccentric master of the whole being fond of music as the
recreation of his literary hours. It is a unique, romantic-like
homestead. Walking with him into the garden, I found it dark with the
shade of ancient trees. They formed a barrier against all intrusion. The
company was small but choice. Mr Brougham; Sir Samuel Romilly; Mr Mill,
author of the well-known work on India; M. Dumont, the learned Genevan,
once the associate of Mirabeau, were all who sat down to table. Mr
Bentham did not talk much. He had a benevolence of manner suited to the
philanthropy of his mind. He seemed to be thinking only of the
convenience and pleasure of his guests, not as a rule of artificial
breeding as from Chesterfield or Madame Genlis, but from innate feeling.
Bold as are his opinions in his works, here he was wholly unobtrusive of
theories that might not have commended the assent of all present. When
he did converse it was in simple language, a contrast to his later
writings, where an involved style and the use of new or universal words
are drawbacks upon the speculations of a genius original and profound,
but with the faults of solitude. Yet some of his earlier productions are
distinguished by classical terseness."--(_Residence at the Court of
London_, p. 286.) Bentham's love of flowers and music, of green foliage
and shaded walks, comes clearly out in this pleasant picture of his home
life and social surroundings.
Whether or no he can be said to have founded a school, his doctrines
have become so far part of the common thought of the time, that there is
hardly an educated man who does not accept as too clear for argument
truths which were invisible till Bentham pointed them out. His
sensitively honourable nature, which in early life had caused him to
shrink from asserting his belief in Thirty-nine articles of faith which
he had not examined, was shocked by the enormous abuses which confronted
him on commencing the study of the law. He rebelled at hearing the
system under which they flourished described as the perfection of human
reason. But he was no merely destructive critic. He was determined to
find a solid foundation for both morality and law, and to raise upon it
an edifice, no stone of which should be laid except in accordance with
the deductions of the severest logic. This foundation is "the greatest
happiness of the greatest number," a formula adopted from Priestly or
perhaps first from Beccaria. The phrase may, however, be found in
writers of an earlier date than these, e.g. in Hutcheson's _Enquiry_,
published in 1725. The pursuit of such happiness is taught by the
"utilitarian" philosophy, an expression used by Bentham himself in 1802,
and therefore not invented by J.S. Mill, as he supposed, in 1823. In
order to ascertain what modes of action are most conducive to the end in
view, and what motives are best fitted to produce them, Bentham was led
to construct marvellously exhaustive, though somewhat mechanical, tables
of motives. With all their elaboration, these tables are, however,
defective, as omitting some of the highest and most influential springs
of action. But most of Bentham's conclusions may be accepted without any
formal profession of the utilitarian theory of morals. They are, indeed,
merely the application of a rigorous common sense to the facts of
society. That the proximate ends at which Bentham aimed are desirable
hardly any one would deny, though the feasibility of the means by which
he proposes to attain them may often be questioned, and much of the new
nomenclature in which he thought fit to clothe his doctrines may be
rejected as unnecessary. To be judged fairly, Bentham must be judged as
a teacher of the principles of legislation. With the principles of
private morals he really deals only so far as is necessary to enable the
reader to appreciate the impulses which have to be controlled by law.
As a teacher of legislation he inquires of all institutions whether
their utility justifies their existence. If not, he is prepared to
suggest a new form of institution by which the needful service may be
rendered. While thus engaged no topic is too large for his mental grasp,
none too small for his notice; and, what is still rarer, every topic is
seen in its due relation to the rest. English institutions had never
before been thus comprehensively and dispassionately surveyed. Such
improvements as had been necessitated were mere makeshifts, often made
by stealth. The rude symmetry of the feudal system had been long ago
destroyed by partial and unskilful adaptations to modern commercial
life, effected at various dates and in accordance with various theories.
The time had come for deliberate reconstruction, for inquiring whether
the existence of many admitted evils was, as it was said to be,
unavoidable; for proving that the needs of society may be classified and
provided for by contrivances which shall not clash with one another
because all shall be parts of a consistent whole. This task Bentham
undertook, and he brought to it a mind absolutely free from professional
or class feeling, or any other species of prejudice. He mapped out the
whole subject, dividing and subdividing it in accordance with the
principle of "dichotomy." Having reached his ultimate subdivisions he
subjects each to the most thorough and ingenious discussion. His earlier
writings exhibit a lively and easy style, which gives place in his later
treatises to sentences which are awkward from their effort after
unattainable accuracy, and from the newly-invented technical
nomenclature in which they are expressed. Many of Bentham's phrases,
such as "international," "utilitarian," "codification," are valuable
additions to our language; but the majority of them, especially those of
Greek derivation, have taken no root in it. His neology is one among
many instances of his contempt for the past and his wish to be clear of
all association with it. His was, indeed, a typically logical, as
opposed to a historical, mind. For the history of institutions which,
thanks largely to the writings of Sir Henry Maine, has become a new and
interesting branch of science, Bentham cared nothing. Had he possessed
such a knowledge of Roman law as is now not uncommon in England, he must
doubtless have taken a different view of many subjects. The logical and
historical methods can, however, seldom be combined without confusion;
and it is perhaps fortunate that Bentham devoted his long life to
showing how much may be done by pursuing the former method exclusively.
His writings have been and remain a storehouse of instruction for
statesmen, an armoury for legal reformers. "Pille par tout le monde," as
Talleyrand said of him, "il est toujours riche." To trace the results of
his teaching in England alone would be to write a history of the
legislation of half a century. Upon the whole administrative machinery
of government, upon criminal law and upon procedure, both criminal and
civil, his influence has been most salutary; and the great legal
revolution which in 1873 purported to accomplish the fusion of law and
equity is not obscurely traceable to the same source. Those of Bentham's
suggestions which have hitherto been carried out have affected the
matter or contents of the law. The hopes which have been from time to
time entertained, that his suggestions for the improvement of its form
and expression were about to receive the attention which they deserved,
have hitherto been disappointed. The services rendered by Bentham to the
world would not, however, be exhausted even by the practical adoption of
every one of his recommendations. There are no limits to the good
results of his introduction of a true method of reasoning into the moral
and political sciences.
Bentham's _Works_, together with an Introduction by J. Hill Burton,
selections from his correspondence and a biography, were published by
Dr Bowring, in eleven closely printed volumes (1838-1843). This
edition does not include the _Deontology_, which, much rewritten, had
been published by Bowring in 1834. Translations of the _Works_ or of
separate treatises have appeared in most European languages. Large
masses of Bentham's MSS., mostly unpublished, are preserved at
University College, London (see T. Whittaker's _Report_, 1892, on
these MSS., as newly catalogued and reclassified by him in 155
parcels); also in the British Museum (see E. Nys, _Etudes de droit
international et de droit politique_, 1901, pp. 291-333). See farther
on the life and writings of Bentham: J.H. Burton, _Benthamiana_
(1843); R. von Mohl, _Geschichte und Literatur der
Staatswissenschaften_, bk. iii. (1858), pp. 595-635; R.K. Wilson,
_History of Modern English Law_ (1875), pp. 133-170; J.S. Mill,
_Dissertations_ (1859), vol. i. pp. 330-392; L. Stephen, _The English
Utilitarians_ (1900), vol. i.; _A Fragment on Government_, edited by
F.C. Montague (1891); _The Law Quarterly Review_ (1895), two articles
on Bentham's influence in Spain; A.V. Dicey, _Law and Opinion in
England_ (1905), pp. 125-209; C.M. Atkinson, _Jeremy Bentham_ (1905).
(T. E. H.)
BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM (1774-1839), governor-general of India, was the
second son of the 3rd duke of Portland and was born on the 14th of
September 1774. He entered the army, rose to the rank of
lieutenant-colonel and was present at Marengo. In 1803 he was nominated
governor of Madras, where he quarrelled with the chief justice, Sir
Henry Gwillim, and several members of his council. The sepoy mutiny at
Vellore in 1807 led to his recall. His name was considered at this time
for the post of governor-general, but Lord Minto was selected instead;
and it was not until twenty years later that he succeeded Lord Amherst
in that office. His governor-generalship (1827-1835) was notable for
many reforms, chief among which were the suppression of the Thugs
(q.v.), the abolition of suttee, and the making of the English language
the basis of education in India. It was on this last subject that Lord
Macaulay's famous minute was written. Lord William's administration was
essentially peaceful, but progressive and successful. He died at Paris
on the 17th of June 1839.
See Demetrius C. Boulger, _Lord William Bentinck_, in the "Rulers of
India" series (1892).
BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM GEORGE FREDERICK CAVENDISH, better known as LORD
GEORGE BENTINCK (1802-1848), British politician, was the second
surviving son of the fourth duke of Portland, by Henrietta, sister of
Viscountess Canning, and was born on the 27th of February 1802. He was
educated at home until he obtained his commission as cornet in the 10th
hussars at the age of seventeen. He practically retired from the army in
1822 and acted for some time as private secretary to his uncle George
Canning. In 1828 he succeeded his uncle Lord William Bentinck as member
for Lynn-Regis, and continued to represent that constituency during the
remaining twenty years of his life. His failures as a speaker in
parliament seem to have discouraged him from the attempt to acquire
reputation as a politician, and till within three years of his death he
was little known out of the sporting world. As one of the leaders on
"the turf," however, he was distinguished by that integrity, judgment
and indomitable determination which, when brought to bear upon weightier
matters, quickly gave him a position of first-rate importance in the
political world. On his first entrance into parliament he belonged to
the moderate Whig party, and voted in favour of Catholic emancipation,
as also for the Reform Bill, though he opposed some of its principal
details. Soon after, however, he joined the ranks of the opposition,
with whom he sided up to the important era of 1846. When, in that year,
Sir Robert Peel openly declared in favour of free trade, the advocates
of the corn-laws, then without a leader, after several ineffectual
attempts at organization, discovered that Lord George Bentinck was the
only man of position and family (for Disraeli's time was not yet come)
around whom the several sections of the opposition could be brought to
rally. His sudden elevation took the public by surprise; but he soon
gave convincing evidence of powers so formidable that the Protectionist
party under his leadership was at once stiffened into real importance.
Towards Peel, in particular, his hostility was uncompromising.
Believing, as he himself expressed it, that that statesman and his
colleagues had "hounded to the death his illustrious relative" Canning,
he combined with his political opposition a degree of personal animosity
that gave additional force to his invective. On entering on his new
position, he at once abandoned his connexion with the turf, disposed of
his magnificent stud and devoted his whole energies to the laborious
duties of a parliamentary leader. Apart from the question of the
corn-laws, however, his politics were decidedly independent. In
opposition to the rest of his party, he supported the bill for removing
the Jewish disabilities, and was favourable to the scheme for the
payment of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland by the landowners. The
result was that on December 23rd, 1847, he wrote a letter resigning the
Protectionist leadership, though he still remained active in politics.
But his positive abilities as a constructive statesman were not to be
tested, for he died suddenly at Welbeck on the 21st of September 1848.
It was to be left to Disraeli to bring the Conservative party into
power, with Protection outside its programme.
See _Lord George Bentinck: a Political Biography_ (1851), by B.
Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield).
BENTIVOGLIO, GIOVANNI (1443-1508), tyrant of Bologna, descended from a
powerful family which exercised great influence in Bologna during the
15th century, was born after the murder of his father, then chief
magistrate of the commune. In 1462 Giovanni contrived to make himself
master of the city, although it was nominally a fief of the church under
a papal legate. He ruled with a stern sway for nearly half a century,
but the brilliance of his court, his encouragement of the fine arts and
his decoration of the city with sumptuous edifices, to some extent
compensated the Bolognese for the loss of their liberty. Cesare Borgia
(q.v.) contemplated the subjugation of Bologna in 1500, when he was
crushing the various despots of Romagna, but Bentivoglio was saved for
the moment by French intervention. In 1502 he took part in the
conspiracy against Cesare, but, when the latter obtained French
assistance, he abandoned his fellow-conspirators and helped Borgia to
overcome them. During the brief pontificate of Pius III., who succeeded
Alexander VI. in 1503, Bentivoglio enjoyed a respite, but the new pope,
Julius II., was determined to reduce all the former papal states to
obedience. Having won Louis XII. of France to his side, he led an army
against Bologna, excommunicated Bentivoglio and forced him to abandon
the city (November 1506). The deposed tyrant took refuge with the
French, whom he trusted more than the pope, and died at Milan in 1508.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--P. Litta, _Le Famiglie celebri Italiane_, vol, iii.
(Milan, 1834); P. Villari, _Machiavelli_ (Eng. trans., London, 1892);
M. Creighton, _History of the Papacy_ (London, 1897); A. von Reumont,
_Geschichte der Stadt Rom_, vol. iii. (Berlin, 1868). (L. V.*)
BENTIVOGLIO, GUIDO (1579-1644), Italian cardinal, statesman and
historian, was born at Ferrara in 1579. After studying at Padua, he went
to reside at Rome, and was received with great favour by Pope Clement
VIII., who made him his private chamberlain. The next pope, Paul V.,
created him archbishop of Rhodes in 1607, and appointed him as nuncio to
Flanders and afterwards to France; on his return to Rome in 1621 he was
created cardinal and entrusted by Louis XIII. with the management of
French affairs at the papal court. He became the intimate friend of Pope
Urban VIII., who appointed him to the suburban see of Palestrina in
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