Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BARD

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 396 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

BARD , a word of See also:

Celtic derivation (Gaelic bard, Cymric bardh, Irish bard) applied to the See also:ancient Celtic poets, though the name is sometimes loosely used as synonymous with poet in See also:general. So far as can be ascertained, the See also:title bards, and some of the privileges See also:peculiar to that class of poets, are to be found only among Celtic peoples. The name itself is not used by See also:Caesar in his See also:account of the See also:manners and customs of See also:Gaul and See also:Britain, but he appears to ascribe the functions of the bards to a See also:section of the See also:Druids, with which class they seem to have been closely connected. Later Latin authors, such as See also:Lucan (Thar. p. 447), See also:Festus (De Verb. Sign. s.v.), and See also:Ammianus See also:Marcellinus (bk. xv.), used the See also:term Bardi as the recognized title of the See also:national poets or minstrels among the peoples of Gaul and Britain. In Gaul, however, the institution soon disappeared; the purely Celtic peoples were swept back by the waves of Latin and See also:Teutonic See also:conquest, and finally settled in See also:Wales, See also:Ireland, See also:Brittany and the See also:north of See also:Scotland. There is clear See also:evidence of the existence of bards in all these places, though the known See also:relics belong almost entirely to Wales and Ireland, where the institution was more distinctively national. In Wales they formed an organized society, with hereditary rights and privileges. They were treated with the utmost respect and were exempt from taxes or military service. Their See also:special duties were to celebrate the victories of their See also:people and to sing See also:hymns of praise to See also:God. They thus gave poetic expression to the religious and national sentiments of the people, and therefore exercised a very powerful See also:influence.

The whole society of bards was regulated by See also:

laws, said to have been first distinctly formulated by Hywell Dha, and to have been afterwards revised by Gruffydd ap Conan. At stated intervals See also:great festivals were held, at which the most famous bards from the various districts met and contended in See also:song, the umpires being generally the princes and nobles. Even after the conquest of Wales, these congresses, or Eisteddfodau, as they were called (from the Welsh eistedd, to sit), continued to be summoned by royal See also:commission, but from the reign of See also:Elizabeth the See also:custom has been allowed to fall into See also:abeyance. They have not been since summoned by royal authority, but were revived about 1822, and are held regularly at the See also:present See also:time. In See also:modern Welsh, a bard is a poet whose vocation has been recognized at an See also:Eisteddfod. In Ireland also the bards were a distinct class with peculiar and hereditary privileges. They appear to have been divided into three great sections: the first celebrated victories and sang hymns of praise; the second chanted the laws of the nation; the third gave poetic genealogies and See also:family histories. The Irish bards were held in high repute, and frequently were brought over to Wales to give instruction to the singers of that See also:country. In consequence, perhaps, of Lucan's having spoken of carmina bardi, the word bard began to be used, See also:early in the 17th See also:century, to designate any See also:kind of a serious poet, whether lyric or epic, and is so employed by See also:Shakespeare, See also:Milton and See also:Pope. On the other See also:hand, in See also:Lowland Scots it See also:grew to be a term of contempt and reproach, as describing a class of frenzied vagabonds. See Ed. See also:Jones, Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784); See also:Walker, See also:Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786) ; See also:Owen Jones, Myvyrian See also:Archaeology of Wales (3 vols., 1801—1807); W.

F. See also:

Skene, Four Ancient Books of Wales (2 vols., 1868). BARDAI$AN, an early teacher of See also:Christianity in See also:Mesopotamia, the writer of numerous See also:Syriac See also:works which have entirely perished' (with one possible exception, the Hymn of the Soul in the Acts of See also:Thomas), and the founder of a school which was soon branded as heretical. According to the trustworthy See also:Chronicle of See also:Edessa, he was See also:born in that See also:city on the 11th Tammuz (See also:July), A.D. 154, i The See also:Book of the Laws of the Countries, referred to below, is the See also:work of a See also:disciple of Bardaisan. His parents were of See also:rank and probably See also:pagan; according to Barhebraeus, he was in youth a See also:priest in a See also:heathen See also:temple at MabbOg. Another probable tradition asserts that he shared the See also:education of a royal See also:prince who afterwards became See also:king of Edessa—perhaps See also:Abgar See also:bar Manu, who reigned 202-217. He is said to have converted the prince to Christianity, and may have had an important See also:share in christianizing the city. See also:Epiphanius and Barhebraeus assert that he was first an orthodox See also:Christian and afterwards an adherent of See also:Valentinus; but See also:Eusebius and the Armenian See also:Moses of Chorene See also:reverse the See also:order, stating that in his later days he largely, but not completely, purged himself of his earlier errors. The earliest works attributed to him (by Eusebius and others) are polemical dialogues against Marcionism and other heresies; these were afterwards translated into See also:Greek. He also wrote, probably under See also:Caracalla, an See also:apology for the Christian See also:religion in a time of persecution. But his greatest title to fame was furnished by his hymns, which, according to St Ephrem, numbered 150 and were composed in See also:imitation of the Davidic psalter.

He thus became the See also:

father of Syriac hymnology, and from the favour enjoyed by his poems during the century and a See also:half that intervened between him and St Ephrem we may conclude that he possessed See also:original poetic See also:genius. This would be clearly proved if (as is not unlikely) the beautiful Hymn of the Soul incorporated in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas could be regarded as proceeding from his See also:pen; it is practically the only piece of real See also:poetry in Syriac that has come down to us. Perhaps owing to the persecution under Caracalla mentioned above, Bardaisan for a time retreated into See also:Armenia, and is said to have there preached Christianity with indifferent success, and also to have composed a See also:history of the Armenian See also:kings. See also:Porphyry states that on one occasion at Edessa he interviewed an See also:Indian deputation who had been sent to the See also:Roman See also:emperor, and questioned them as to the nature of Indian religion. He was undoubtedly a See also:man of wide culture. He died (according to the See also:patriarch See also:Michael) in 222. For our knowledge of Bardaisan's See also:doctrine we are mainly dependent on the hostile See also:witness of St Ephrem, and on statements by Greek writers who had no acquaintance with his works in their original See also:form. His teaching had certain See also:affinities with See also:gnosticism. Thus he certainly denied the resurrection of the See also:body; and so far as we can See also:judge by the obscure quotations from his hymns furnished by St Ephrem he explained the origin of the See also:world by a See also:process of See also:emanation from the supreme God whom he called " the Father of the living." On the other hand the See also:dialogue known as the Book of the Laws of the Countries, which was written by a disciple and is quoted by Eusebius as a genuine exposition of the See also:master's teaching—while it recognizes the influence of the See also:celestial bodies over the body of man and throughout the material See also:sphere and attributes to them a certain delegated authority 1—upholds the freedom of the human will and can in the See also:main be reconciled with orthodox Christian teaching. On this M. Nau has based his effort (see Une Biographie inedite de Bardesane l'astrologue, See also:Paris, 1897; Le Livre See also:des leis des pays, Paris, 1899) to clear Bardaisan of the reproach of gnosticism, maintaining that the See also:charge of See also:heresy arises from a misunderstanding of certain astrological speculations. It must be admitted that it is impossible to reconstruct Bardaigan's See also:system from the few fragments remaining of his own work and therefore a certain See also:verdict cannot be given.

But the ancient testimony to the connexion of Bardaisan with Valentinianism is strong, and the dialogue probably represents a modification of Bardesanist teaching in the direction of orthodoxy. The later adherents of the school appear to have moved towards a Manichean See also:

dualism. The subject is exhaustively discussed in See also:Hort's See also:article " Bardaisan ' in See also:Diet. See also:Christ. Biog., and a full collection of the ancient testimonies will be found in See also:Harnack's Altchristliche Litteratur, vol. i. pp. 184 if. (N.

End of Article: BARD

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BARCOCHEBAS 		[next]
BARDILI, CHRISTOPH GOTTFRIED (2761-1808)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries