BEARN

bearn, formerly a small frontier province in the south of france, now included within the department of basses-pyrenees. it was bounded on the w. by soule and lower navarre, on the n. by chalosse, tursan and astarac, e. by bigorre and s. by the pyrenees. its name can be traced back to the town of beneharnum (lescar). the _civitas beneharnensium_ was included in the _novempopulania_. it was conquered by the vascones in the 6th century, and in 819 became a viscounty dependent on the dukes of aquitaine--a feudal link which was broken in the 11th century, when the viscounts ceased to acknowledge any suzerain. they then reigned over the two dioceses of lescar and oloron; but their capital was morlaas, where they had a mint which was famous throughout the middle ages. in the 13th century gaston vii., of the catalonian house of moncade, made orthez his seat of government. his long reign (1229-1290) was a perpetual struggle with the kings of france and england, each anxious to assert his suzerainty over bearn. as gaston left only daughters, the viscounty passed at his death to the family of foix, from whom it was transmitted through the houses of grailly and albret to the bourbons, and they, in the person of henry iv., king of navarre, made it an apanage of the crown of france. it was not formally incorporated in the royal domains, however, until 1620. none of these political changes weakened the independent spirit of the bearnais. from the 11th century onward, they were governed by their own special customs or _fors_. these were drawn up in the language of the country, a romance dialect (1288 being the date of the most ancient written code), and are remarkable for the manner in which they define the rights of the sovereign, determining the reciprocal obligations of the viscount and his subjects or vassals. moreover, from the 12th century bearn enjoyed a kind of representative government, with _cours plenieres_ composed of deputies from the three estates. from 1220 onward, the judiciary powers of these assemblies were exercised by a _cour majour_ of twelve barons _jurats_ charged with the duty of maintaining the integrity of the _fors_. when gaston-phoebus wished to establish a regular annual hearth-tax (_fouage_) in the viscounty, he convoked the deputies of the three estates in assemblies called _etats_. these soon acquired extensive political and financial powers, which continued in operation till 1789. although, when bearn was annexed to the domains of the crown, it was granted a _conseil d'etat_ and a parlement, which sat at pau, the province also retained its _fors_ until the revolution. see also olhagaray, _histoire de foix, bearn et navarre_ (1609); pierre de marca, _histoire de bearn_ (1640). this work does not go beyond the end of the 13th century; it contains a large number of documents. faget de baure, _essais historiques sur le bearn_ (1818); _les fors de bearn_, by mazure and hatoulet (1839), completed by j. brissaud and p. roge in _textes additionnels aux anciens fors de bearn_ (1905); leon cadier, _les etats de bearn depuis leur origine jusqu'au commencement du xvi^e siecle_ (1888). (c. b.*) beas or bias, a river of india. the beas, which was the hyphasis of the greeks, is one of the five rivers of the punjab. it issues in the snowy mountains of kulu at an altitude of 13,326 ft. above sea-level, flows through the kangra valley and the plains of the punjab, and finally joins the sutlej after a course of 290 m. it is crossed by a railway bridge near jullundur. beat (a word common in various forms to the teutonic languages; it is connected with the similar romanic words derived from the late lat. _battere_), a blow or stroke; from the many applications of the verb "to beat" come various meanings of the substantive, in some of which the primary sense has become obscure. it is applied to the throbbing of the pulse or heart, to the beating of a drum, either for retreat, or charge, or to quarters; in music to the alternating sound produced by the striking together of two notes not exactly of the same pitch (see sound), and also to the movement of the baton by which a conductor of an orchestra or chorus indicates the time, and to the divisions of a bar. as a nautical term, a "beat" is the zigzag course taken by a ship in sailing against the wind. the application of the word to a policeman's or sentry's round comes either from beating a covert for game and hence the term means an exhaustive search of a district, or from the repeated strokes of the foot in constantly walking up and down. in this sense the word is used in america, particularly in alabama and mississippi, of a voting precinct. beatification (from the lat. _beatus_, happy, blessed, and _facere_, to make), the act of making blessed; in the roman catholic church, a stage in the process of canonization (q.v.). beaton (or bethune), david, (c. 1494-1546), scottish cardinal and archbishop of st andrews, was a younger son of john beaton of balfour in the county of fife, and is said to have been born in the year 1494. he was educated at the universities of st andrews and glasgow, and in his sixteenth year was sent to paris, where he studied civil and canon law. about this time he was presented to the rectory of campsie by his uncle james beaton, then archbishop of glasgow. when james beaton was translated to st andrews in 1522 he resigned the rich abbacy of arbroath in his nephew's favour, under reservation of one half of the revenues to himself during his lifetime. the great ability of beaton and the patronage of his uncle ensured his rapid promotion to high offices in the church and kingdom. he was sent by king james v. on various missions to france, and in 1528 was appointed keeper of the privy seal. he took a leading part in the negotiations connected with the king's marriages, first with madeleine of france, and afterwards with mary of guise. at the french court he was held in high estimation by king francis i., and was consecrated bishop of mirepoix in languedoc in december 1537. on the 20th of december 1538 he was appointed a cardinal priest by pope paul