The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 115

CE'BES, a Greek philosopher, disciple and friend of Socrates, reputed author of the "Pinax" or Tablet, a once popular book on the secret of life, being an allegorical representation of the temptations that beset it.

CECIL, ROBERT, EARL OF SALISBURY, succeeded his father, Lord Burleigh, as first Minister under Elizabeth, and continued in office under James I., whose friendship he sedulously cultivated before his accession, and who created him earl (1565-1612). See BURLEIGH, LORD.

CECILIA, ST., a Roman virgin and martyr, A.D. 230, patron saint of music, especially church music, and reputed inventor of the organ; sometimes represented as holding a small organ, with her head turned heavenwards as if listening to the music of the spheres, and sometimes as playing on an organ and with a heavenly expression of face. Festival, Nov. 22.

CECROPS, the mythical first king and civiliser of Attica and founder of Athens with its citadel, dedicated by him to Athena, whence the name of the city.

CEDAR RAPIDS (25), a manufacturing town in Iowa, U.S.; a great railway centre.

CELADON, poetical name for a languid swain, all sighs and longings.

CELaeNO, name of one of the HARPIES (q. v.).

CELEBES (1,000), an island in the centre of the Eastern Archipelago, third in size, in the shape of a body with four long limbs, traversed by mountain chains, and the greater part of it a Dutch possession, though it contains a number of small native states; it yields among its mineral products gold, copper, tin, &c.; and among its vegetable, tea, coffee, rice, sugar, pepper, &c.; capital. Maca.s.sar.

CeLESTE, MME., a dancer, born in Paris; made her _debut_ in New York; in great repute in England, and particularly in the States, where she in her second visit realised 40,000 (1814-1882).

CELESTIAL EMPIRE, China, as ruled over by a dynasty appointed by Heaven.

CELESTINE, the name of five Popes: C. I., Pope from 422 to 432; C.

II., Pope from 1143 to 1144; C. III., Pope from 1191 to 1198; C. IV., Pope for 18 days in 1241; C. V., Pope in 1294, a hermit for 60 years; nearly 80 when elected against his wish; abdicated in five months; imprisoned by order of Boniface VIII.; _d_. 1296; canonised 1313.

CELESTINES, an order of monks founded by Celestine V. before he was elected Pope in 1354; they followed the rule of the Benedictine Order, and led a contemplative life.

CELLINI, BENVENUTO, a celebrated engraver, sculptor, and goldsmith, a most versatile and erratic genius, born at Florence; had to leave Florence for a b.l.o.o.d.y fray he was involved in, and went to Rome; wrought as a goldsmith there for 20 years, patronised by the n.o.bles; killed the Constable de Bourbon at the sack of the city, and for this received plenary indulgence from the Pope; Francis I. attracted him to his court and kept him in his service five years, after which he returned to Florence and executed his famous bronze "Perseus with the Head of Medusa," which occupied him four years; was a man of a quarrelsome temper, which involved him in no end of sc.r.a.pes with sword as well as tongue; left an autobiography, from its self-dissection of the deepest interest to all students of human nature (1500-1571).

CELSIUS, a distinguished Swedish astronomer, born at Upsala, and professor of Astronomy there; inventor of the Centigrade thermometer (1701-1744).

CELSUS, a celebrated Roman physician of the age of Augustus, and perhaps later; famed as the author of "De Medicina," a work often referred to, and valuable as one of the sources of our knowledge of the medicine of the ancients.

CELSUS, a philosopher of the 2nd century, and notable as the first a.s.sailant on philosophic grounds of the Christian religion, particularly as regards the power it claims to deliver from the evil that is inherent in human nature, inseparable from it, and implanted in it not by G.o.d, but some inferior being remote from Him; the book in which he attacked Christianity is no longer extant, only quotations from it scattered over the pages of the defence of Origen in reply.

CELTIBE'RI, an ancient Spanish race occupying the centre of the peninsula, sprung from a blending of the aborigines and the Celts, who invaded the country; a brave race, divided into four tribes; distinguished in war both as cavalry and infantry, and whom the Romans had much trouble in subduing.

CELTS. The W. of Europe was in prehistoric times subjected to two invasions of Aryan tribes, all of whom are now referred to as Celts. The earlier invaders were Goidels or Gaels; they conquered the Ivernian and Iberian peoples of ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland; their successors, the Brythons or Britons pouring from the E., drove them to the westernmost borders of these countries, and there compelled them to make common cause with the surviving Iberians in resistance; in the eastern parts of the conquered territories they formed the bulk of the population, in the W. they were in a dominant minority; study of languages in the British Isles leads to the conclusion that the Irish, Manx, and Scottish Celts belonged chiefly to the earlier immigration, while the Welsh and Cornish represent the latter; the true Celtic type is tall, red or fair, and blue-eyed, while the short, swarthy type, so long considered Celtic, is now held to represent the original Iberian races.

CENCI, THE, a Roman family celebrated for their crimes and misfortunes as well as their wealth. FRANCESCO CENCI was twice married, had had twelve children by his first wife, whom he treated cruelly; after his second marriage cruelly treated the children of his first wife, but conceived a criminal pa.s.sion for the youngest of them, a beautiful girl named BEATRICE, whom he outraged, upon which, being unable to bring him to justice, she, along with her stepmother and a brother, hired two a.s.sa.s.sins to murder him; the crime was found out, and all three were beheaded (1599); this is the story on which Sh.e.l.ley founded his tragedy, but it is now discredited.

CENIS, MONT, one of the Cottian Alps, over which Napoleon constructed a pa.s.s 6884 ft. high in 1802-10, through which a tunnel 7 m.

long pa.s.ses from Modane to Bardonneche, connecting France with Italy; the construction of this tunnel cost 3,000,000, and Napoleon's pa.s.s a tenth of the sum.

CENSORS, two magistrates of ancient Rome, who held office at first for five years and then eighteen months, whose duty it was to keep a register of the citizens, guard the public morals, collect the public revenue, and superintend the public property.

CEN'TAURS, a savage race living between Pelion and Ossa, in Thessaly, and conceived of at length by Pindar as half men and half horses, treated as embodying the relation between the spiritual and the animal in man and nature, in all of whom the animal prevails over the spiritual except in Chiron, who therefore figures as the trainer of the heroes of Greece; in the mythology they figure as the progeny of Centaurus, son of IXION (q. v.) and the cloud, their mothers being mares.

CENTRAL AMERICA (3,000), territory of fertile tableland sloping gradually to both oceans, occupied chiefly by a number of small republics, lying between Tehuantepec and Panama in N. America; it includes the republics of Guatemala, Honduras, St. Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and a few adjoining fractions of territory.

CENTRAL INDIA (10,000), includes a group of feudatory States lying between Rajputana in the N. and Central Provinces in the S.

CENTRAL PROVINCES (12,944), States partly British and partly native, occupying the N. of the Deccan, and lying between the Nerbudda and the G.o.davary.

CEOS, one of the Cyclades, a small island 13 m. by 8 m., yields fruits; was the birthplace of Simonides and Bacchylides.

CEPHALONIA (80), the largest of the Ionian Islands, 30 m. long, the ancient Samos; yields grapes and olive oil.

CEPHALUS, king of Thessaly, who having involuntarily killed his wife Procris, in despair put himself to death with the same weapon.

CERAM' (195), the largest of S. Moluccas; yields sago, which is chiefly cultivated and largely exported.

CERBERUS, the three-headed or three-throated monster that guarded the entrance to the nether world of Pluto, could be soothed by music, and tempted by honey, only Hercules overcame him by sheer strength, dragging him by neck and crop to the upper world.

CERES, the Latin name for DEMETER (q. v.); also the name of one of the asteroids, the first discovered, by Piazzi, in 1801.

CERI'GO (14), an Ionian island, the southernmost, the ancient Cythera; yields wine and fruits.

CERINTHUS, a heresiarch of the first century, whom, according to tradition, St. John held in special detestation, presumably as denying the Father and the Son.