The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEncyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Camorra" to "Cape Colony"

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEncyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Camorra" to "Cape Colony"This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Camorra" to "Cape Colony"Author: VariousRelease date: July 3, 2010 [eBook #33052]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "CAMORRA" TO "CAPE COLONY" ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Camorra" to "Cape Colony"Author: VariousRelease date: July 3, 2010 [eBook #33052]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Camorra" to "Cape Colony"

Author: Various

Release date: July 3, 2010 [eBook #33052]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "CAMORRA" TO "CAPE COLONY" ***

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CAMORRA,a secret society of Naples associated with robbery, blackmail and murder. The origin of the name is doubtful. Probably both the word and the association were introduced into Naples by Spaniards. There is a Spanish wordcamorra(a quarrel), and similar societies seem to have existed in Spain long before the appearance of the Camorra in Naples. It was in 1820 that the society first became publicly known. It was primarily social, not political, and originated in the Neapolitan prisons then filled with the victims of Bourbon misrule and oppression, its first purpose being the protection of prisoners. In or about 1830 the Camorra was carried into the city by prisoners who had served their terms. The members worked the streets in gangs. They had special methods of communicating with each other. They mewed like cats at the approach of the patrol, and crowed like cocks when a likely victim approached. A long sigh gave warning that the latter was not alone, a sneeze meant he was not “worth powder and shot,” and so on. The society rapidly extended its power, and its operations included smuggling and blackmail of all kinds in addition to ordinary road-robberies. Its influence grew to be considerable. Princes were in league with and shared the profits of the smugglers: statesmen and dignitaries of the church, all classes in fact, were involved in the society’s misdeeds. From brothels the Camorra drew huge fees, and it maintained illegal lottery offices. The general disorder of Naples was so great and the police so badly organized that merchants were glad to engage the Camorra to superintend the loading and unloading of merchandise. Being non-political, the government did not interfere with the society; indeed its members were taken into the police service and the Camorra sometimes detected crimes which baffled the authorities. After 1848 the society became political. In 1860, when the constitution was granted by Francis II., thecamorristithen in gaol were liberated in great numbers. The association became all-powerful at elections, and general disorder reigned till 1862. Thereafter severe repressive measures were taken to curtail its power. In September 1877 there was a determined effort to exterminate it: fifty-seven of the most notorious camorristi being simultaneously arrested in the market-place. Though much of its power has gone, the Camorra has remained vigorous. It has grown upwards, and highly-placed and well-known camorristi have entered municipal administrations and political life. In 1900 revelations as to the Camorra’s power were made in the course of a libel suit, and these led to the dissolution of the Naples municipality and the appointment of a royal commissioner. A government inquiry also took place. As the result of this investigation the Honest Government League was formed, which succeeded in 1901 in entirely defeating the Camorra candidates at the municipal elections.

The Camorra was divided into classes. There were the “swell mobsmen,” the camorristi who dressed faultlessly and mixed with and levied fines on people of highest rank. Most of these were well connected. There were the lower order of blackmailers who preyed on shopkeepers, boatmen, &c.; and there were political and murdering camorristi. The ranks of the society were largely recruited from the prisons. A youth had to serve for one year an apprenticeship so to speak to a fully admitted camorrista when he was sometimes calledpicciotto d’ honore, and after giving proof of courage and zeal became apicciotto di sgarro, one, that is, of the lowest grade of members. In some localities he was then calledtamurro. The initiatory ceremony for full membership is now a mock duel in which the arm alone is wounded. In early times initiation was more severe. The camorristi stood round a coin laid on the ground, and at a signal all stooped to thrust at it with their knives while the novice had at the same time to pick the coin up, with the result that his hand was generally pierced through in several places. The noviciate aspicciotto di sgarrolasted three years, during which the lad had to work for the camorrista who had been assigned to him as master. After initiation there was a ceremony of reception. The camorristi stood round a table on which were a dagger, a loaded pistol, a glass of water or wine supposed to be poisoned and a lancet. Thepicciottowas brought in and one of his veins opened. Dipping his hand in his own blood, he held it out to the camorristi and swore to keep the society’s secrets and obey orders. Then he had to stick the dagger into the table, cock the pistol, and hold the glass to his mouth to show his readiness to die for the society. His master now bade him kneel before the dagger, placed his right hand on the lad’s head while with the left he fired off the pistol into the air and smashed the poison-glass. He then drew the dagger from the table and presented it to the new comrade and embraced him, as did all the others. The Camorra was divided into centres, each under a chief. There were twelve at Naples. The society seems at one time to have always had a supreme chief. The last known was Aniello Ansiello, who finally disappeared and was never arrested. The chief of every centre was elected by the members of it. All the earnings of the centre were paid to and then distributed by him. The camorristi employ a whole vocabulary of cant terms. Their chief ismastoorsi masto, “sir master.” When a member meets him he salutes with the phraseMasto, volite niente?(“Master, do you want anything?”). The members are addressed simply assi.

See Monnier,La Camorra(Florence, 1863); Umilta,Camorra et Mafia(Neuchâtel, 1878); Alongi,La Camorra(1890); C.W. HeckethornSecret Societies of All Ages(London, 1897); Blasio,Usi e costumi dei Camorriste(Naples, 1897).

CAMP(from Lat.campus, field), a term used more particularly in a military sense, but also generally for a temporarily organized place of food and shelter in open country, as opposed to ordinary housing (seeCamping-out). The shelter of troops in the field has always been of the greatest importance to their well-being, and from the earliest times tents and other temporary shelters have been employed as much as possible when it is not feasible or advisable to quarter the troops in barracks or in houses. The applied sense of the word “camp” as a military post of any kind comes from the practice which prevailed in the Roman army of fortifying every encampment. In modern warfare the word is used in two ways. In the wider sense, “camp” is opposed to “billets,” “cantonments” or “quarters,” in which the troops are scattered amongst the houses of towns or villages for food and shelter. In a purely military camp the soldiers live and sleep in an area of open ground allotted for their sole use. They are thus kept in a state of concentration and readiness for immediate action, and are under better disciplinary control than when in quarters, but they suffer more from the weather and from the want of comfort and warmth. In the restricted sense “camp” implies tents for all ranks, and is thus opposed to “bivouac,” in which the only shelter is that afforded by improvised screens, &c., or at most smalltentes d’abricarried in sections by the men themselves. The weight of large regulation tents and the consequent increase in the number of horses and vehicles in the transport service are, however, disadvantages so grave that the employment of canvas camps in European warfare is almost a thing of the past. If the military situation permits, all troops are put into quarters, only the outpost troops bivouacking. This course was pursued by the German field armies in 1870-1871, even during the winter campaign.

Circumstances may of course require occasionally a whole army to bivouac, but in theatres of war in which quarters are not to be depended upon, tents must be provided, for no troops can endure many successive nights in bivouac, except in summer, without serious detriment to their efficiency. In a war on the Russo-German frontier, for instance, especially if operations were carried out in the autumn and winter, tents would be absolutely essential at whatever cost of transport. In this connexion it may be said that a good railway system obviates many of the disadvantages attending the use of tents. For training purposes in peace time,standing campsare formed. These may be considered simply as temporary barracks. Anentrenched campis an area of ground occupied by, or suitable for, the camps of large bodies of troops, and protected by fortifications.

Ancient Camps.—English writers use “camp” as a generic term for any remains of ancient military posts, irrespective oftheir special age, size, purpose, &c. Thus they include under it various dissimilar things. We may distinguish (1) Roman “camps” (castra) of three kinds, large permanent fortresses, small permanent forts (both usually built of stone) and temporary earthen encampments (seeRoman Army); (2) Pre-Roman; and (3) Post-Roman camps, such as occur on many English hilltops. We know far too little to be able to assign these to their special periods. Often we can say no more than that the “camp” is not Roman. But we know that enclosures fortified with earthen walls were thrown up as early as the Bronze Age and probably earlier still, and that they continued to be built down to Norman times. These consisted of hilltops or cliff-promontories or other suitable positions fortified with one or more lines of earthen ramparts with ditches, often attaining huge size. But the idea of an artificial elevation seems to have come in first with the Normans. Theirmottesor earthen mounds crowned with wooden palisades or stone towers and surrounded by an enclosure on the flat constituted a new element in fortification and greatly aided the conquest of England. (SeeCastle.)

CAMPAGNA DI ROMA,the low country surrounding the city of Rome, bounded on the N.W. by the hills surrounding the lake of Bracciano, on the N.E. by the Sabine mountains, on the S.E. by the Alban hills, and on the S.W. by the sea. (SeeLatium, andRome(province).)

CAMPAIGN,a military term for the continuous operations of an army during a war or part of a war. The name refers to the time when armies went into quarters during the winter and literally “took the field” at the opening of summer. The word is also used figuratively, especially in politics, of any continuous operations aimed at a definite object, as the “Plan of Campaign” in Ireland during 1886-1887. The word is derived from the LatinCampania, the plain lying south-west of the Tiber, c.f. Italian,la Campagna di Roma, from which came two French forms: (1)Champagne, the name given to the level province of that name, and hence the English “champaign,” a level tract of country free from woods and hills; and (2)Campagne, and the English “campaign” with the restricted military meaning.

CAMPAN, JEANNE LOUISE HENRIETTE(1752-1822), French educator, the companion of Marie Antoinette, was born at Paris in 1752. Her father, whose name was Genest, was first clerk in the foreign office, and, although without fortune, placed her in the most cultivated society. At the age of fifteen she could speak English and Italian, and had gained so high a reputation for her accomplishments as to be appointed reader to the three daughters of Louis XV. At court she was a general favourite, and when she bestowed her hand upon M. Campan, son of the Secretary of the royal cabinet, the king gave her an annuity of 5000livresas dowry. She was soon afterwards appointed first lady of the bedchamber by Marie Antoinette; and she continued to be her faithful attendant till she was forcibly separated from her at the sacking of the Tuileries on the 20th of June 1792. Madame Campan survived the dangers of the Terror, but after the 9th Thermidor finding herself almost penniless, and being thrown on her own resources by the illness of her husband, she bravely determined to support herself by establishing a school at St Germain. The institution prospered, and was patronized by Hortense de Beauharnais, whose influence led to the appointment of Madame Campan as superintendent of the academy founded by Napoleon at Écouen for the education of the daughters and sisters of members of the Legion of Honour. This post she held till it was abolished at the restoration of the Bourbons, when she retired to Mantes, where she spent the rest of her life amid the kind attentions of affectionate friends, but saddened by the loss of her only son, and by the calumnies circulated on account of her connexion with the Bonapartes. She died in 1822, leaving valuableMémoires sur la vie privée de Marie Antoinette, suivis de souvenirs et anecdotes historiques sur les règnes de Louis XIV.-XV.(Paris, 1823); a treatiseDe l’Éducation des Femmes; and one or two small didactic works, written in a clear and natural style. The most noteworthy thing in her educational system, and that which especially recommended it to Napoleon, was the place given to domestic economy in the education of girls. At Écouen the pupils underwent a complete training in all branches of housework.

See Jules Flammermont,Les Mémoires de Madame de Campan(Paris, 1886), and histories of the time.

CAMPANELLA, TOMMASO(1568-1639), Italian Renaissance philosopher, was born at Stilo in Calabria. Before he was thirteen years of age he had mastered nearly all the Latin authors presented to him. In his fifteenth year he entered the order of the Dominicans, attracted partly by reading the lives of Albertus Magnus and Aquinas, partly by his love of learning. He took a course in philosophy in the convent at Morgentia in Abruzzo, and in theology at Cosenza. Discontented with this narrow course of study, he happened to read theDe Rerum Naturaof Bernardino Telesio, and was delighted with its freedom of speech and its appeal to nature rather than to authority. His first work in philosophy (he was already the author of numerous poems) was a defence of Telesio,Philosophia sensibus demonstrata(1591). His attacks upon established authority having brought him into disfavour with the clergy, he left Naples, where he had been residing, and proceeded to Rome. For seven years he led an unsettled life, attracting attention everywhere by his talents and the boldness of his teaching. Yet he was strictly orthodox, and was an uncompromising advocate of the pope’s temporal power. He returned to Stilo in 1598. In the following year he was committed to prison because he had joined those who desired to free Naples from Spanish tyranny. His friend Naudée, however, declares that the expressions used by Campanella were wrongly interpreted as revolutionary. He remained for twenty-seven years in prison. Yet his spirit was unbroken; he composed sonnets, and prepared a series of works, forming a complete system of philosophy. During the latter years of his confinement he was kept in the castle of Sant’ Elmo, and allowed considerable liberty. Though, even then, his guilt seems to have been regarded as doubtful, he was looked upon as dangerous, and it was thought better to restrain him. At last, in 1626, he was nominally set at liberty; for some three years he was detained in the chambers of the Inquisition, but in 1629 he was free. He was well treated at Rome by the pope, but on the outbreak of a new conspiracy headed by his pupil, Tommaso Pignatelli, he was persuaded to go to Paris (1634), where he was received with marked favour by Cardinal Richelieu. The last few years of his life he spent in preparing a complete edition of his works; but only the first volume appears to have been published. He died on the 21st of May 1639.

In philosophy, Campanella was, like Giordano Bruno (q.v.), a follower of Nicolas of Cusa and Telesio. He stands, therefore, in the uncertain half-light which preceded the dawn of modern philosophy. The sterility of scholastic Aristotelianism, as he understood it, drove him to the study of man and nature, though he was never entirely free from the medieval spirit. Devoutly accepting the authority of Faith in the region of theology, he considered philosophy as based on perception. The prime fact in philosophy was to him, as to Augustine and Descartes, the certainty of individual consciousness. To this consciousness he assigned a threefold content, power, will and knowledge. It is of the present only, of things not as they are, but merely as they seem. The fact that it contains the idea of God is the one, and a sufficient, proof of the divine existence, since the idea of the Infinite must be derived from the Infinite. God is therefore a unity, possessing, in the perfect degree, those attributes of power, will and knowledge which humanity possesses only in part. Furthermore, since community of action presupposes homogeneity, it follows that the world and all its parts have a spiritual nature. The emotions of love and hate are in everything. The more remote from God, the greater the degree of imperfection (i.e.Not-being) in things. Of imperfect things, the highest are angels and human beings, who by virtue of the possession of reason are akin to the Divine and superior to the lower creation. Next comes the mathematical world of space, then the corporeal world, and finally the empirical world with its limitations of space and time. The impulse ofself-preservation in nature is the lowest form of religion; above this comes animal religion; and finally rational religion, the perfection of which consists in perfect knowledge, pure volition and love, and is union with God. Religion is, therefore, not political in origin; it is an inherent part of existence. The church is superior to the state, and, therefore, all temporal government should be in subjection to the pope as the representative of God.

In natural philosophy Campanella, closely following Telesio, advocates the experimental method and lays down heat and cold as the fundamental principles by the strife of which all life is explained. In political philosophy (theCivitas Solis) he sketches an ideal communism, obviously derived from the Platonic, based on community of wives and property with state-control of population and universal military training. In every detail of life the citizen is to be under authority, and the authority of the administrators is to be based on the degree of knowledge possessed by each. The state is, therefore, an artificial organism for the promotion of individual and collective good. In contrast to More’sUtopia, the work is cold and abstract, and lacking in practical detail. On the view taken as to his alleged complicity in the conspiracy of 1599 depends the vexed question as to whether this system was a philosophic dream, or a serious attempt to sketch a constitution for Naples in the event of her becoming a free city. TheDe Monarchia Hispanicacontains an able account of contemporary politics especially Spanish.

Thus Campanella, though neither an original nor a systematic thinker, is among the precursors, on the one hand, of modern empirical science, and on the other of Descartes and Spinoza. Yet his fondness for the antithesis of Being and Not-being (EnsandNon-ens) shows that he had not shaken off the spirit of scholastic thought.

Bibliography.—For his works see Quétif-Echard, appendix to E.S. Cypriano,Vita Campanellae(Amsterdam, 1705 and 1722); Al. d’Ancona’s edition, with introduction (Turin, 1854). The most important areDe sensu rerum(1620);Realis philosophiae epilogisticae partes IV.(withCivitas Solis) (1623);Atheismus triumphatus(1631);Philos. rationalis(1637);Philos. universalis seu metaph.(1637);De Monarchia Hispanica(1640). For his life, see Cypriano (above); M. Baldachini,Vita e filos. di Tommaso Campanella(Naples, 1840-1853, 1847-1857); Dom. Berti,Lettere inedite di T. Campanella e catalogo dei suoi scritti(1878); andNuovi documenti di T.C.(1881); and especially L. Amabile,Fra T. Campanella(3 vols., Naples, 1882). For his philosophy H. Ritter,History of Philos.; M. Carrière,Philos. Weltanschauung d. Reformationszeit, pp. 542-608; C. Dareste,Th. Morus et Campanella(Paris, 1843); Chr. Sigwart,Kleine Schriften, i. 125 seq.; and histories of philosophy. For his political philosophy, A. Calenda,Fra Tommaso Campanella e la sua dottrina sociale e politica di fronte al socialismo moderno(Nocera Inferiore, 1895). His poems, first published by Tobias Adami (1622), were rediscovered and printed again (1834) by J.G. Orelli; the sonnets were rendered into English verse by J.A. Symonds (1878). For a full bibliography seeDict. de théol. cath., col. 1446 (1904).

CAMPANIA,a territorial division of Italy. The modern district (II. below) is of much greater extent than that known by the name in ancient times.

I.Campaniwas the name used by the Romans to denote the inhabitants first of the town of Capua and the district subject to it, and then after its destruction in the Hannibalic war (211b.c.), to describe the inhabitants of the Campanian plain generally. The name, however, is pre-Roman and appears with Oscan terminations on coins of the early 4th (or late 5th) centuryb.c.(R.S. Conway,Italic Dialects, p. 143), which were certainly struck for or by the Samnite conquerors of Campania, whom the name properly denotes, a branch of the great Sabelline stock (seeSabini); but in what precise spot the coins were minted is uncertain. We know from Strabo (v. 4. 8.) and others that the Samnites deprived the Etruscans of the mastery of Campania in the last quarter of the 5th century; their earliest recorded appearance being at the conquest of their chief town Capua, probably in 438b.c.(or 445, according to the method adopted in interpreting Diodorus xii. 31; on this see underCumae), or 424 according to Livy (iv. 37). Cumae was taken by them in 428 or 421, Nola about the same time, and the Samnite language they spoke, henceforward known as Oscan, spread over all Campania except the Greek cities, though small communities of Etruscans remained here and there for at least another century (Conway, op. cit. p. 94). The hardy warriors from the mountains took over not merely the wealth of the Etruscans, but many of their customs; the haughtiness and luxury of the men of Capua was proverbial at Rome. This town became the ally of Rome in 338b.c.(Livy viii. 14) and received thecivitas sine suffragio, the highest status that could be granted to a community which did not speak Latin. By the end of the 4th century Campania was completely Roman politically. Certain towns with their territories (Neapolis, Nola, Abella, Nuceria) were nominally independent in alliance with Rome. These towns were faithful to Rome throughout the Hannibalic war. But Capua and the towns dependent on it revolted (Livy xxiii.-xxvi.); after its capture in 211 Capua was utterly destroyed, and the jealousy and dread with which Rome had long regarded it were both finally appeased (cf. Cicero.Leg. Agrar.ii. 88). We have between thirty and forty Oscan inscriptions (besides some coins) dating, probably, from both the 4th and the 3rd centuries (Conway,Italic Dialects, pp. 100-137 and 148), of which most belong to the curious cult described underJovilae, while two or three are curses written on lead; seeOsca Lingua.

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