BIRDWOOD

birdwood, sir george christopher molesworth (1832- ), anglo-indian official and writer, son of general christopher birdwood, was born at belgaum, in the bombay presidency, on the 8th of december 1832. he was educated at plymouth grammar-school and edinburgh university, where he took his m.d. degree. entering the bombay medical service in 1854, he served in the persian war of 1856-57, and subsequently became professor at the grant medical college, registrar of the university, curator of the museum, and sheriff at bombay, besides acting as secretary of the asiatic and horticultural societies. his work on the _economic vegetable products of the bombay presidency_ reached its twelfth edition in 1868. he interested himself prominently also in the municipal life of the city, where he acquired great influence and popularity. he was obliged by ill-health in 1868 to return to england, where he entered the revenue and statistics department of the india office (1871-1902). whilst engaged there he published important volumes on the industrial arts of india, the ancient records of the india office, and the first letter-book of the east india company. he devoted much time and energy to the encouragement of indian art, on various aspects of which he wrote valuable monographs, and his name was identified with the representation of india at all the principal international exhibitions from 1857 to 1901. (see _journal of indian art_, vol. viii. "the life and work of sir george birdwood.") his researches on the subject of incense (_trans. linn. soc._ xxvii., 1871; _ency. brit._ 9th ed., "incense," 1881; revised for the present edition by him), a good example of his mastery of detail, have made his historical and botanical account of this subject a classic. nor can his lifelong association with journalism of the best sort be overlooked. from boyhood he was a diligent contributor of special information to magazines and newspapers; in india he helped to convert the _standard_ into the _times of india_, and edited the bombay _saturday review_; and after his return to london he wrote for the _pall mall, athenaeum, academy_, and _times_; and with chenery, the editor of _the times_, and others he took the initiative (1882) in celebrating the anniversary of lord beaconsfield's death as "primrose day" (april 19). he kept up his connexion with india by constant contributions to the indian press; and his long friendships with indian princes and the leading educated native indians made his intimate knowledge of the country of peculiar value in the handling of the problems of the indian empire. in 1887 he was created a k.c.i.e.; and, besides being given his ll.d. degree by cambridge, he was also made an officer of the legion of honour and a laureate of the french academy. birejik (arab. _bir_; classical, _apamea-zeugma_), a town of north-west mesopotamia, in the aleppo vilayet, altitude 1170 ft., built on a limestone cliff 400 ft. high on the left bank of the euphrates. pop. about 10,000, three-quarters moslem. it is situated at one of the most important crossings of the euphrates, where there was, in ancient times, a bridge of boats, and is now a ferry on the road from aleppo to urfa, diarbekr and mosul. birejik corresponds actually to apamea, which lay opposite zeugma, and commanded the bridge with its strong castle (kala beda) now much ruined. the place seems to have had a pre-seleucid existence as _birtha_, a name which revived under roman rule (we hear of the emperor julian resting there on his march into mesopotamia, a.d. 363), and is preserved to this day. the ferry over an unusually deep and narrow part of the euphrates has been used from time immemorial in the passage from north syria to haran (charrae), edessa and north mesopotamia, and was second in importance only to that at thapsacus, by which crossed the route to babylon and south mesopotamia. birejik was the scene of an unusually cruel massacre and persecution of armenians in 1895. biren (or buehren), ernst johann (1690-1772), duke of courland, was the grandson of a groom in the service of duke jacob iii. of courland, who bestowed upon him a small estate, which biren's father inherited and where biren himself was born. he received what little education he had at the academy of koenigsberg, from which he was expelled for riotous conduct. in 1714 he set out to seek his fortune in russia, and unsuccessfully solicited a place at the shabby court of the princess sophia charlotte, the consort of the tsarevich alexius. returning to mittau, he succeeded in gaining a footing at court there through one of his sisters, who was the fancy of the ruling minister, peter bestuzhev, whose established mistress was no less a person than the young duchess anne ivanovna. during his patron's absence, biren, a handsome, insinuating fellow, succeeded in supplanting him in the favour of anne, and procuring the disgrace and banishment of bestuzhev and his family. from henceforth to the end of her life biren's influence over the duchess was paramount. on the elevation of anne to the russian throne in 1740, biren, who had in the meantime married a fraeulein von treiden, came to moscow, and honours and riches were heaped upon him. at the coronation (19th may) he was made grand-chamberlain, a count of the empire, on which occasion he is said to have adopted the arms of the french ducal house of biron, and was presented with an estate at wenden with 50,000 crowns a year. he soon made himself cordially detested by russians of every class. he was not indeed the monster of iniquity he is popularly supposed to have been. his vices were rather of the sordid than of the satanic order. he had insinuating manners and could make himself very agreeable if he chose; but he was mean, treacherous, rapacious, suspicious and horribly vindictive. during the latter years of anne's reign, biren increased enormously in power and riches. his apartments in the palace adjoined those of the empress, and his liveries, furnitures and equipages were scarcely less costly than hers. half the bribes intended for the russian court passed through his coffers. he had landed estates everywhere. a special department of state looked after his brood mares and stallions. the magnificence of his plate astonished the french ambassador, and the diamonds of his duchess were the envy of princes. the climax of this wondrous elevation was reached when, on the extinction of the line of kettler, the estates of courland, in june 1737, elected him their reigning duke. he was almost as much loathed in courland as in russia; but the will of the empress was the law of the land, and large sums of money, smuggled into courland in the shape of bills payable in amsterdam to bearer, speedily convinced the electors. on her death-bed anne, very unwillingly and only at his urgent entreaty, appointed him regent during the minority of the baby emperor, ivan vi. her common-sense told her that the only way she could save the man she loved from the vengeance of his enemies after her death was to facilitate in time his descent from his untenable position. finally, on the 26th of october 1740, a so-called "positive declaration" signed by 194 dignitaries, in the name of the russian nation, conferred the regency on biren. biren's regency lasted exactly three weeks. at midnight of the 19th of november 1740 he was seized in his bedroom by his ancient rival, field marshal muennich. the commission appointed to try his case condemned him (11th of april 1741) to death by quartering, but this sentence was commuted by the clemency of the new regent, anna leopoldovna, the mother of ivan vi., to banishment for life at pelin in siberia. all biren's vast property was confiscated, including his diamonds, worth l600,000. for twenty-two years the ex-regent disappeared from the high places of history. he re-emerges for a brief moment in 1762, when the philo-german peter iii. summoned him to court. he was now too old to be in any one's way, and that, no doubt, was the reason why catherine ii. re-established him (1763) in his duchy, which he bequeathed to his son peter. misfortune had chastened him, and the last years of his rule were just and even benevolent, if somewhat autocratic. he died at mittau, his capital, on the 28th of december 1772. see robert nisbet bain, _the pupils of peter the great_ (london, 1897); christoph hermann von manstein, _memoirs_ (eng. ed., london, 1856); claudius rondeau, _diplomatic dispatches from russia_ (st petersburg, 1889-1892). (r. n. b.) biretta (ital. _berretta_, med. lat. _biretum, birettum_, dim. of _birrus_, "a hooded cloak"; from the fr. form _barrette_ is derived the eng. "barret-cap"), a cap worn by the catholic clergy. it is square and stiff, being made of a framework of cardboard covered with cloth or silk; on the top, along the sutures of the stuff, are three or four raised, board-like, arched ridges, at the junction of which in the centre is a knob or tassel (_floccus_). its colour varies with the rank of the wearer, that of the pope being white, of the cardinals red, of bishops purple, and of the lower clergy black. it is not in the strictest sense a liturgical head-dress, its use not being confined to liturgical functions. in these functions, moreover, its use is strictly limited; e.g. it is worn at low masses by the priest only when he goes to and from the altar, at high masses also when the celebrant sits during the singing of the _kyrie, gloria_ and creed, and at processions when these take place outside the church and are not sacramental, and so on. though the form of the biretta, devised in the 17th century, is peculiar to the roman church, it is but a variant of the original _biretum_, which developed in various countries into head-coverings of different shapes and significance. at the outset there was little to distinguish the _biretum_ from the _pileus_ or _pileolus_ (skull-cap), a non-liturgical cap worn by dignitaries of the church under the mitre and even under the biretta. when the word _biretum_ first appears in the 13th century, it practically means no more than "cap," and is used as a synonym of _pileus_. as an ecclesiastical vestment the cap can be traced, under the name of _pileus_, to the 12th century; under that of _infula_, to the end of the 10th. it would seem to have been worn by the cantors as a protection against cold. the same utilitarian reason led to its introduction among the clergy generally. thus in 1243 pope innocent iv. granted leave to the benedictines of st augustine's at canterbury, and to those of winchester, to wear the _pileus_ in choir. with the extension of its use, too, the custom grew up (c. 1300) of investing clerks with the _biretum_ as the symbol of the transfer of a benefice, a custom which survives, in roman catholic countries, in the solemn delivery of the red biretta by the head of the state to newly created cardinals, who afterwards go to rome to receive the red hat. this red biretta is called the _zucchetto_. this use of the _biretum_ as a symbol of office or dignity was not confined to the clergy. with various modifications of form it was worn by all persons of standing, e.g. barons, judges, and doctors and masters of the universities. the _biretum_ was also used in the investiture of laymen with office, e.g. a duke or the prefect of the city of rome (du cange, _gloss._ s.v. _birretum_). the "cap of maintenance" or "cap of estate," still borne before the british sovereign on state occasions, is a barret-cap of the type of the 14th and 15th centuries; it is of crimson velvet, turned up with ermine. by the 16th century the barret-cap had become the common head-gear of all people of substance, men and women. it was flat, square or round, sometimes with edges that could be turned up or down according to convenience, and was often elaborately decorated. by the 17th century it had given place in ordinary civil life to the brimmed hat; but in various shapes it still survives as official head-gear in many european countries: the _barett_, worn in church by the lutheran clergy, in the courts by german lawyers, and by the deans and rectors of the universities, the _barrette_ of french judges and barristers, the "black cap" of the english judge, and the "college cap" familiar in english and american universities, and vulgarly known as the "mortar-board." meanwhile the ecclesiastical developments of the _biretum_ are not without interest and significance. originally this had been a round cap, low or moderately high, slightly bulging out at the top, and ornamented with a round knob. by the 16th century, both in england and on the continent, a tendency had begun to emphasize the ridges of the sutures and thus produce a square shape. henceforth the evolution followed different lines. in england, in the 17th century, the square flat top began to be enlarged, forming a rim of thick stuff projecting beyond the close-fitting cap. this was the "square cap" so virulently denounced by the puritans as a symbol of high church erastianism. with the triumph of high church principles at the restoration it was natural that a loyal clergy should desire to emphasize this squareness, and the consequent exaggeration of the square top of the cap necessitated a further stiffening. in the 18th century, accordingly, the top began to be made of a board of wood or card covered with cloth, the close-fitting cap proper retired farther from the edges, the knob developed into a long tassel, and the evolution of the modern "college cap" was complete (see fig. 1). [illustration: fig. 1. a, _pileus_ of archbishop warham (d. 1532). b, square cap of archbishop cranmer (d. 1556). c, square cap of archbishop parker (d. 1575). d, square cap of archbishop whitgift (d. 1583). e, square cap of archbishop laud (d. 1645). all these are from portraits at lambeth. f, square cap of george morley, bishop of winchester (d. 1684). g, modern college cap.] on the continent, meanwhile, in the roman catholic church, the _biretum_ had also developed into its present characteristic form, and by a very similar process. by the end of the 16th century the square shape was everywhere prevalent; at the beginning of the 17th century cardboard was introduced to stiffen the sides and emphasize the squareness, and the actual form of the biretta, as described above, had become fixed (see fig. 2). only in spain has the biretta continued to be worn without the raised ridges. [illustration: fig. 2.--illustrations of the _biretum_ from monuments in the cathedrals of-- a, brandenburg (1281). e, wuerzburg (1521). b, augsburg (1342). f, regensburg (1564). c, bamberg (1483). g, ib. (1605 ?). d, regensburg (1550). h, bamberg (1626). (redrawn from braun's _liturgische gewandung_.)] the use of the roman biretta has been introduced by a certain number of the clergy into the anglican church. it is clear that there is no historical justification for this; for though both college cap and biretta are developed from the same "square cap," the biretta in its actual shape is strictly associated with the post-reformation roman church, and its actual ceremonial use is of late growth. braun (_liturgische gewandung_, p. 513) thinks that the symbolism of the cross may have had some influence in fixing and propagating the square shape, and he quotes a decree of the synod of aix (1585) ordering the clergy to wear a biretta sewn in the form of a cross (_biretum in modum crucis consutum, ut ecclesiasticos homines decet_). so far as the legality of the use of the biretta in the church of england is concerned, this was pronounced by sir r. phillimore in the court of arches (_elphinstone_ v. _purchas_, 1870) to be legal "as a protection to the head when needed," but this decision was reversed on appeal by the judicial committee of the privy council (_hebbert_ v. _purchas_, 1871). of late years the old square cap of soft padded cloth or velvet has been revived in the anglican church by some dignitaries. see j. braun, s.j., _die liturgische gewandung_ (freiburg-i-b., 1907); _hierurgica anglicana_, part ii. (london, 1903); h. druitt, _costume on brasses_ (london, 1906). (w. a. p.) birger (?-1266), swedish statesman, nephew of birger brosa, and the most famous member of the ancient noble family of the folkungeaetten, which had so much to say for itself in early swedish history, was created jarl of bjaelbo by king erik eriksson in 1248 and married the king's sister. on erik's death (1250) birger's son valdemar was elected king while his father acted as regent. during the sixteen years of his sway sweden advanced greatly in fame and prosperity. in 1249 he led an expedition to finland, built the fortress of tavastehus, and thus laid the foundations of sweden's oversea empire. he also built stockholm, and enriched it by making it the chief mart for the trade of luebeck, with which city he concluded a commercial treaty. as a lawgiver also birger laboured strenuously in the interests of civilization. in his old age he married the daughter of king abel. there is a fine statue of the great jarl in the riddarholm church at stockholm, erected by fogelberg at the expense of the stockholm magistracy in 1884. he is also the central figure of fr. hedberg's drama _brollopet pa ulfasa_ (1865). see _sveriges historia_, vol. i. (stockholm, 1879-1883).