Part 3 (2/2)

”Only one,” he replied; ”but you are too weak to dictate.” ”No,” said Bede, ”take your pen and write quickly.” After some time the scribe said, ”Master, it is finished;” to which Bede replied, ”Thou hast said truly, _consummatum est_,” and shortly after expired.

_Lippincott._

BEECHER (Henry Ward, distinguished American clergyman, for many years pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.), 1813-1887.

”_Now comes the mystery._”

BEETHOVEN (Ludwig van), 1770-1827. ”_I shall hear in heaven._”

When about thirty-five years old, while at work upon his opera of ”Leonora,” known in English as ”Fidelio,” he was attacked with deafness.

The malady began gradually, but after a year made more rapid progress, and soon his hearing was entirely destroyed.

Some authorities give his last words thus: ”Is it not true, dear Hammel, that I have some talent after all?” Hammel was an old friend with whom he had once quarrelled, and who, after being separated from him for a long time, came to him when he was upon his death bed.

Beethoven received the sacraments of the Roman church, and at about one in the afternoon of the same day he sank into apparent unconsciousness, and a distressing conflict with death began which lasted the rest of that day, the whole of the next day, and until a quarter of six on the evening of the day following. As the evening closed in, there came a sudden storm of hail and snow, covering the ground and roofs of the Schwarzspanierplatz, and followed by a flash of lightning, and an instant clap of thunder. So great was the crash as to arouse even the dying man. He opened his eyes, clinched his fist, and shook it in the air above him. This lasted a few seconds while the hail rushed down outside, and then the hand fell, and the great composer was no more.

_Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians._

BELLARMINO (Cardinal Roberto), 1542-1621. ”_It is safest to trust in Jesus_,” to one who enquired whether it is safer to trust in the Virgin Mary than in Jesus.

BENTHAM (Jeremy, English philosopher and jurist, author of ”Defence of Usury,” ”Theory of Penalties and Rewards,” ”The Rationale of Judicial Evidence,” ”Panopticon,” and many other works of interest and value. He devoted much of his time and ability to the development of the theory that ”Utility is the test and measure of virtue”), 1748-1832. ”_I feel now that I am dying._”

BeRENGER (de Tours, celebrated French ecclesiastic), 998-1088. ”_I shall not long hesitate between conscience and the Pope, for I shall soon appear in the presence of G.o.d, to be acquitted, I hope; to be condemned, I fear._”

”No more 'twixt conscience staggering and the Pope, Soon shall I now before my G.o.d appear: By him to be acquitted, as I hope; By him to be condemned, as I fear.”--_Coleridge._

Berenger opposed the dogmas of Transubstantiation and the Real-Presence.

His teachings were condemned by Pope Leo IX. in 1050.

BERGERUS (councillor to the Emperor Maximilian), ”_Farewell, O farewell all earthly things, and welcome heaven._”

BERKELEY (George, Bishop of Cloyne, metaphysical philosopher and author), 1684-1753.

The last words of Berkeley are not recorded, but the peacefulness and suddenness of his death are interesting. One evening he and his family were sitting and drinking tea together; he on one side of the fire, and his wife on the other, and his daughter making the tea at a little round table just behind him. She had given him one dish which he had drunk.

She had poured out another which he left standing some time. ”Sir,” said she, ”will you not take your tea?” Upon his making no kind of an answer, she stooped forward and looked at him, and found that he was dead.

_Life of Bishop Berkeley._

Berkeley directed in his will that his body should be kept above ground more than five days, and until it became ”offensive by the cadaverous smell, and that during the said time it lye unwashed, undisturbed and covered by the same bedclothes, in the same bed, the head raised upon pillows.”

BERNARD (”Saint,” Abbot of Clairvaux and active promoter of the crusade of 1146. He is the author of many beautiful hymns), 1091-1153. ”_May G.o.d's will be done_,” said when he was told that his last hour was at hand.

BERRY or BERRI (Caroline Ferdinande Louise, Madame de), 1798-1870. ”_Is not this dying with courage and true greatness?_”

BIRON (Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, French general-in-chief of the army of the Rhine), 1747-1793. ”_I have been false to my G.o.d, to my order, and to my king: I die full of faith and of repentance._”

The executioner's messenger surprised him at a breakfast of oysters and white wine, and said he was at the duke's orders; to which the latter rejoined, ”_No morbleu_, 'tis just the other way: I am at yours!” He then asked that he might be permitted to finish his breakfast, after which he answered the summons of the executioner.

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