The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEncyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross"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, "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross"Author: VariousRelease date: August 6, 2010 [eBook #33365]Most recently updated: January 6, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "CERARGYRITE" TO "CHARING CROSS" ***
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, "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross"Author: VariousRelease date: August 6, 2010 [eBook #33365]Most recently updated: January 6, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross"
Author: Various
Author: Various
Release date: August 6, 2010 [eBook #33365]Most recently updated: January 6, 2021
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "CERARGYRITE" TO "CHARING CROSS" ***
Articles in This Slice
CERARGYRITE,a mineral species consisting of silver chloride; an important ore of silver. The name cerargyrite is a Greek form (fromκÎÏας, horn, andἄÏγυÏος, silver) of the older name hornsilver, which was used by K. Gesner as far back as 1565. The chloro-bromide and bromide of silver were also included under this term until they were distinguished chemically in 1841 and 1842, and described under the names embolite and bromargyrite (or bromyrite) respectively; the chloride then came to be distinguished as chlorargyrite, though the name cerargyrite is often now applied to this alone. Chloro-bromo-iodide of silver has also been recognized as a mineral and called iodembolite. All these are strikingly alike in appearance and general characters, differing essentially only in chemical composition, and it would seem better to reserve the name cerargyrite for the whole group, using the names chlorargyrite (AgCl), embolite (Ag(Cl, Bl)), bromargyrite (AgBr) and iodembolite (Ag(Cl, Br, I)) for the different isomorphous members of the group. They are cubic in crystallization, with the cube and the octahedron as prominent forms, but crystals are small and usually indistinct; there is no cleavage. They are soft (H = 2½) and sectile to a high degree, being readily cut with a knife like horn. With their resinous to adamantine lustre and their translucency they also present somewhat the appearance of horn; hence the name hornsilver. The colour varies somewhat with the chemical composition, being grey or colourless in chlorargyrite, greenish-grey in embolite and bromargyrite, and greenish-yellow to orange-yellow in iodembolite. On exposure to light the colour quickly darkens. The specific gravity also varies with the composition: for the pure chloride it is 5.55, and the highest recorded for an iodembolite is 6.3.
The hornsilvers all occur under similar conditions and are often associated together; they are found in metalliferous veins with native silver and ores of silver, and are usually confined to the upper oxidized parts of the lodes. They are important ores of silver (the pure chloride contains 75.3% of silver), and have been extensively mined at several places in Chile, also in Mexico, and at Broken Hill in New South Wales. The chloride and chloro-bromide have been found in several Cornish mines, but never in very large amounts.
(L. J. S.)
CERBERUS,in Greek mythology, the dog who guarded the entrance to the lower world. He allowed all to enter, but seized those who attempted to escape. According to Hesiod (Theog.311), he was a fifty-headed monster with a fearful bark, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. He was variously represented with one, two or (usually) three heads, often with the tail of a snake or with snakes growing from his head or twined round his body. One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles was to fetch Cerberus from below to the upper world, a favourite subject of ancient vase-paintings.
CERDIC(d. 534), founder of the West Saxon kingdom, is described as an ealdorman who in 495 landed with his son Cynric in Hampshire, where he was attacked at once by the Britons. Nothing more is heard of him until 508, when he defeated the Britons with great slaughter. Strengthened by fresh arrivals of Saxons, he gained another victory in 519 at Certicesford, a spot which has been identified with the modern Charford, and in this year took the title of king. Turning westward, Cerdic appears to have been defeated by the Britons in 520 at Badbury or Mount Badon, in Dorset, and in 527 yet another fight with the Britons is recorded. His last work was the conquest of the Isle of Wight, probably in the interest of some Jutish allies. All the sovereigns of England, except Canute, Hardicanute, the two Harolds and William the Conqueror, are said to be descended from Cerdic.
SeeAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899); Gildas,De excidio Britanniae, edited by Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1898); Nennius,Historia, Brittonum, edited by Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1898); Bede,Historiae ecclesiasticae gentis Anglorum libri v., ed. C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896); E. Guest,Origines Celticae(London, 1883); J.R. Green,The Making of England(London, 1897).
SeeAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899); Gildas,De excidio Britanniae, edited by Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1898); Nennius,Historia, Brittonum, edited by Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1898); Bede,Historiae ecclesiasticae gentis Anglorum libri v., ed. C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896); E. Guest,Origines Celticae(London, 1883); J.R. Green,The Making of England(London, 1897).
CERDONIANS,a Gnostic sect, founded by Cerdo, a Syrian, who came to Rome about 137, but concerning whose history little is known. They held that there are two first causes—the perfectly good and the perfectly evil. The latter is also the creator of the world, the god of the Jews, and the author of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is the son of the good deity; he was sent into the world to oppose the evil; but his incarnation, and therefore his sufferings, were a mere appearance. Regarding the body as the work of the evil deity, the Cerdonians formed a moral system of great severity, prohibiting marriage, wine and the eating of flesh, and advocating fasting and other austerities. Most of what the Fathers narrate of Cerdo’s tenets has probably been transferred to him from his famous pupil Marcion, like whom he is said to have rejected the Old Testament and the New, except part of Luke’s Gospel and of Paul’s Epistles. (SeeMarcion, andGnosticism.)
CEREALIS(Cerialis),PETILLIUS(1st centuryA.D.), Roman general, a near relative of the emperor Vespasian. He is first heard of during the reign of Nero in Britain, where he was completely defeated (A.D.61) by Boadicea. Eight years later he played an important part in the capture of Rome by the supporters of Vespasian. In 70 he put down the revolt of Civilis (q.v.). In 71, as governor of Britain, where he had as a subordinate the famous Agricola, he inflicted severe defeats upon the Brigantes, the most powerful of the tribes of Britain. Tacitus says that he was a bold soldier rather than a careful general, and preferred to stake everything on the issue of a single engagement. He possessed natural eloquence of a kind that readily appealed to his soldiers. His loyalty towards his superiors was unshakable.
Tacitus,Annals, xiv. 32;Histories, iii. 59, 78, iv. 71, 75, 86, v. 21;Agricola, 8, 17.
Tacitus,Annals, xiv. 32;Histories, iii. 59, 78, iv. 71, 75, 86, v. 21;Agricola, 8, 17.
CERES,an old Italian goddess of agriculture. The name probably means the “creator†or “created,†connected withcrescereandcreare. But when Greek deities were introduced into Rome on the advice of the Sibylline books (in 495B.C., on the occasion of a severe drought), Demeter, the Greek goddess of seed and harvest, whose worship was already common in Sicily and Lower Italy, usurped the place of Ceres in Rome, or rather, to Ceres were added the religious rites which the Greeks paid to Demeter, and the mythological incidents which originated with her. At the same time the cult of Dionysus and Persephone (seeLiber and Libera) was introduced. The rites of Ceres were Greek in language and form. Her priestesses were Italian Greeks and her temple was Greek in its architecture and built by Greek artists. She was worshipped almost exclusively by plebeians, and her temple near the Circus Maximus was under the care of the plebeian aediles, one of whose duties was the superintendenceof the corn-market. Her chief festivals were theludi CererisorCerealia(more correctly,Cerialia), games held annually from April 12-19 (Ovid,Fasti, iv. 392 ff.); a second festival, in August, to celebrate the reunion of Ceres and Proserpine, in which women, dressed in white, after a fast of nine days offered the goddess the first-fruits of the harvest (Livy xxii. 56); and theJejunium Cereris, a fast also introduced (191B.C.) by command of the Sibylline books (Livy xxvi. 37), at first held only every four years, then annually on the 4th of October. In later times Ceres was confused with Tellus. (See alsoDemeter.)
CERIGNOLA,a town of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, 26 m. S.E. by rail from the town of Foggia. Pop. (1901) 34,195. It was rebuilt after a great earthquake in 1731, and has a considerable agricultural trade. In 1503 the Spaniards under Gonzalo de Cordoba defeated the French under the duc de Nemours below the town—a victory which made the kingdom of Naples into a Spanish province in Italy. Cerignola occupies the site of Furfane, a station on the Via Traiana between Canusium and Herdoniae.
CERIGOTTO,called locallyLius(anc.AegiliaorOgylos; mod. Gr. officiallyAntikythera), an island of Greece, belonging to the Ionian group, and situated between Cythera (Cerigo) and Crete, about 20 m. from each. Some raised beaches testify to an upheaval in comparatively recent times. With an area of about 10 sq. m. it supports a population of about 300, who are mainly Cretan refugees, and in favourable seasons exports a quantity of good wheat. It was long a favourite resort of Greek pirates. It is famous for the discovery in 1900, close to its coast, of the wreck of an ancient ship with a cargo of bronze and marble statues.
CERINTHUS(c.A.D.100), an early Christian heretic, contemporary with the closing years of the apostle John, who, according to the well-known story of Polycarp, reported by Irenaeus (iii. 3) and twice recorded in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl.iii. 28, iv. 14), made a hasty exit from a bath in Ephesus on learning that Cerinthus was within. Other early accounts agree in making the province of Asia the scene of his activity, and Hippolytus (Haer. vii. 33) credits him with an Egyptian training. There can be no truth in the notice given by Epiphanius (Haer. xxviii. 4) that Cerinthus had in earlier days at Jerusalem led the judaizing opposition against Paul.
The difficulty of defining Cerinthus’s theological position is due not only to the paucity of our sources but to the fact that the witness of the two principal authorities, Irenaeus (1. 26, iii. 11) and Hippolytus (Syntagma), does not agree. Further, Irenaeus himself in one passage fails to distinguish between Cerinthian and Valentinian doctrines. It would appear, however, that Cerinthus laid stress on the rite of circumcision and on the observance of the Sabbath. He taught that the world had been made by angels, from one of whom, the god of the Jews, the people of Israel had received their Law, which was not perfect. The only New Testament writing which he accepted was a mutilated Gospel of Matthew. Jesus was the offspring of Joseph and Mary, and on him at the baptism descended the Christ,1revealing the hitherto unknown Father, and endowing him with miraculous power. This Christ left Jesus again before the Passion, and the resurrection of Jesus was still in the future. Together with these somewhat gnostic ideas, Cerinthus, if we may trust the notices of Gaius the Roman presbyter (c. 290) and Dionysius of Alexandria (c. 340), held a violent and crude form of chiliasm. But the chief significance of the man is his “combination of zeal for legal observances with bold criticism of the Law itself as a whole and of its origin,†which reminds us of the ClementineRecognitions. Cerinthus is a blend of judaizing christian and gnostic.