The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 125

CHOLULA, an ancient city, 60 m. SE. of Mexico; the largest city of the Aztecs, with a pyramidal temple, now a Catholic church.

CHOPIN, a musical composer, born near Warsaw, of Polish origin; his genius for music early developed itself; distinguished himself as a pianist first at Vienna and then in Paris, where he introduced the mazurkas; became the idol of the _salons_; visited England twice, in 1837 and 1848, and performed to admiration in London and three of the princ.i.p.al cities; died of consumption in Paris; he suffered much from great depression of spirits (1809-1849).

CHORLEY (23), a manufacturing town in N. Lancas.h.i.+re, 25 m. NE. of Liverpool, with mines and quarries near it.

CHORUS, in the ancient drama a group of persons introduced on the stage representing witnesses of what is being acted, and giving expression to their thoughts and feelings regarding it; originally a band of singers and dancers on festive occasions, in connection particularly with the Bacchus wors.h.i.+p.

CHOSROeS I., surnamed the Great, king of Persia from 531 to 579, a wise and beneficent ruler; waged war with the Roman armies successfully for 20 years. CH. II., his grandson, king from 590 to 625; made extensive inroads on the Byzantine empire, but was defeated and driven back by Heraclius; was eventually deposed and put to death.

CHOUANS, insurrectionary royalists in France, in particular Brittany, during the French Revolution, and even for a time under the Empire, when their head-quarters were in London; so named from their muster by night at the sound of the _chat-huant_, the screech-owl, a nocturnal bird of prey which has a weird cry.

CHReTIEN, or CHRESTIEN, DE TROYES, a French poet or trouvere of the last half of the 12th century; author of a number of vigorously written romances connected with chivalry and the Round Table.

CHRIEMHILDE, a heroine in the "Niebelungen" and sister of Gunther, who on the treacherous murder of her husband is changed from a gentle woman into a relentless fury.

CHRISAOR, the sword of Sir Artegal in the "Faerie Queene"; it excelled every other.

CHRIST CHURCH, a college in Oxford, founded by Wolsey 1525; was Gladstone's college and John Ruskin's, as well as John Locke's.

CHRISTABEL, a fragmentary poem of Coleridge's; characterised by Stopford Brooke as, for "exquisite metrical movement and for imaginative phrasing," along with "Kubla Khan," without a rival in the language.

CHRISTADELPHIANS, an American sect, called also Thomasites, whose chief distinctive article of faith is conditional immortality, that is, immortality only to those who believe in Christ, and die believing in him.

CHRISTCHURCH (16), capital of the province of Canterbury, New Zealand, 5 m. from the sea; Littleton the port.

CHRISTIAN, the name of nine kings of Denmark, of whom the first began to reign in 1448 and the last in 1863, and the following deserve notice: CHRISTIAN II., conquered Sweden, but proving a tyrant, was driven from the throne by Gustavus Vasa in 1522, upon which his own subjects deposed him, an act which he resented by force of arms, in which he was defeated in 1531, his person seized, and imprisoned for life; characterised by Carlyle as a "rash, unwise, explosive man" (1481-1559).

CHRISTIAN IV., king from 1588 to 1648; took part on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War, and was defeated by Tilly; he was a good ruler, and was much beloved by his subjects; was rather unsteady in his habits, it is said (1577-1648). CHRISTIAN IX., king from 1863; son of Duke William of Sleswick-Holstein, father of the Princess of Wales, George I., king of Greece, and the dowager Empress of Russia; _b_. 1818.

CHRISTIAN CONNECTION, a sect in the United States which acknowledges the Bible alone as the rule of faith and manners.

CHRISTIAN KING, THE MOST, a t.i.tle of the king of France conferred by two different Popes.

CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING (S. P. C. K.), a religious a.s.sociation in connection with the Church of England, under the patronage of the Queen and the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, established 1698, the object of which is to disseminate a knowledge of Christian doctrine both at home and abroad by means of churches, schools, and libraries, and by the circulation of Bibles and Christian literature.

CHRISTIANIA (130), the capital of Norway, romantically situated at the head of Christiania Fiord; the residence of the king and the seat of government; a manufacturing and trading city, but it is blocked up against traffic for four months in the year.

CHRISTIANITY, BELIEF (q. v.) that there is in Christ, as in no other, from first to last a living incarnation, a flesh and blood embodiment, for salvation of the ever-living spirit of the ever-living G.o.d and Father of man, and except that by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, that is, except by partic.i.p.ating in His divine-human life, or except in His spirit, there is no a.s.surance of life everlasting to any man; but perhaps it has never been defined all round with greater brevity and precision than it is by Ruskin in his "Praeterita," under the impression that the time is come when one should say a firm word concerning it: "The total meaning of it," he says, "was, and is, that the G.o.d who made earth and its creatures, took, at a certain time upon the earth, the flesh and form of man; in that flesh sustained the pain and died the death of the creature He had made; rose again after death into glorious human life, and when the date of the human race is ended, will return in visible human form, and render to every mail according to his work. _Christianity is the belief in, and love of, G.o.d thus manifested_.

Anything _less_ than this," he adds, "the mere acceptance of the sayings of Christ, or a.s.sertion of any less than divine power in His Being, may be, for aught I know, enough for virtue, peace, and safety; but they do not make people Christians, or enable them to understand the heart of the simplest believer in the old doctrine."

CHRISTIANSAND (12), a town and seaport in the extreme S. of Norway, with a considerable trade.

CHRISTIE, WILLIAM HENRY MAHONEY, astronomer-royal, born at Woolwich, of Trinity College, Cambridge; author of "Manual of Elementary Astronomy"; _b_. 1845.

CHRISTINA, queen of Sweden, daughter and only child of Gustavus Adolphus; received a masculine education, and was trained in manly exercises; governed the country well, and filled her court with learned men, but by-and-by her royal duties becoming irksome to her, she declared her cousin as her successor, resigned the throne, and turned Catholic; her cousin dying, she claimed back her crown, but her subjects would not now have her; she stayed for a time in France, but was obliged to leave; retired to Rome, where she spent 20 years of her life engaged in scientific and artistic studies, and died (1628-1689).

CHRISTINA, MARIA, daughter of Francis I. of Naples, and wife of Ferdinand VII. of Spain, on whose death she acted for four years as regent, during the infancy of her daughter Isabella (1806-1878).

CHRISTISON, SIR ROBERT, toxicologist, born at Edinburgh, and professor, first of Medical Jurisprudence and then of Materia Medica, in his native city; wrote a "Treatise on Poison," a standard work (1797-1882).

CHRISTMAS, the festival in celebration of the birth of Christ now celebrated all over Christendom on 25th December, as coinciding with an old heathen festival celebrated at the winter solstice, the day of the return of the sun northward, and in jubilation of the prospect of the renewal of life in the spring.

CHRISTOLOGY, the department of theology which treats of the person of Christ.

CHRISTOPHE, HENRI, a negro, born in Grenada; one of the leaders of the insurgent slaves in Hayti, who, proving successful in arms against the French, became king under the t.i.tle of Henry I., but ruling despotically provoked revolt, and shot himself through the heart; he was a man of powerful physique; _b_. 1820.

CHRISTOPHER, ST., (the Christ-Bearer), according to Christian legend a giant of great stature and strength, who, after serving the devil for a time, gave himself up to the service of Christ by carrying pilgrims across a bridgeless river, when one day a little child, who happened to be none else than Christ Himself, appeared to be carried over, but, strange to say, as he bore Him across, the child grew heavier and heavier, till he was nearly baffled in landing Him on the opposite sh.o.r.e.

The giant represented the Church, and the increasing weight of the child the increasing sin and misery which the Church has from age to age to bear in carrying its Christ across the Time-river; the giant is represented in art as carrying the infant on his shoulder, and as having for staff the stem of a large tree.

CHRISTOPHER NORTH, the name a.s.sumed by JOHN WILSON (q. v.) in _Blackwood's Magazine_.

CHRISTOPHER'S, ST., (30), popularly called _St. Kitts_, one of the Leeward Islands, discovered by Columbus (1493), who named it after himself; belongs to England; has sugar plantations.

CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, the Blue-Coat School, London, was founded in 1547, a large inst.i.tution, on the foundation of which there are now 2170 pupils instead of 1200 as formerly; entrance to it is gained partly by presentation and partly by compet.i.tion, and attached are numerous exhibitions and prizes; among the _alumni_ have been several noted men, such as Bishop Stillingfleet, Coleridge, Leigh Hunt, and Charles Lamb.

CHROMATICS, that department of optics which treats of colours, and resolves the primary colours into three--red, yellow, and blue.