BARONETS

From Agepedia

BARONETS ; a hereditary dignity in Great Britain and Ireland, next in rank to the peerage, originally instituted by James I, May 22,1611. It is said that lord chancellor Bacon suggested the idea, and the first baronet was sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave. Baronets are created by patent, under the great seal, and the honor is generally given to the grantee and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, though sometimes it is entailed on collaterals. From the preamble of the original patent, it appears that the order was created to get money for the support of soldiers in Ireland, each baronet, on his creation, being obliged to pay into the treasury a sum little less than £1100. In 1823, there were 661 baronets in England. Precedency is given to baronets before all knights, except those of the garter, bannerets created on the field, and privy counsellors. Baronets of Ireland; an order instituted by James I, for the same purpose, and with the same privileges, as the baronets of England. Since the union, in 1801, none have been created otherwise than as baronets of the United Kingdom. A hereditary dignity, somewhat similar to knighthood, appears to have been conferred, in this country, even in very ancient times. Baronets of Nova Scotia, and Baronets of Scotland, Charles I instituted this order in 1621, for the purpose of advancing the plantation of Nova Scotia, in which the king granted a certain portion of land to each member of the order. Since the union, the power of the king to create new baronets within Scotland is held to have ceased. BARONIUS, or BARONIO, Cassar; born at Sora, in the kingdom of Naples, Oct. 30 1538; received his early education in Naples ; in 1557, went to Rome; was one of the first pupils of St. Philip of Neri, and member of the congregation of priests of the oratorio founded by him; afterwards cardinal and librarian of the Vatican library. He owed these dignities to the services which he rendered the Catholic church by his Ecclesiastical Annals, on which he labored, with indefatigable assiduity, from the year 1580 until his death, June 30, 1607. They comprise a rich collection of genuine documents from the papal archives, and are, therefore, of great use to the student of ecclesiastical history, but contain many false statements and unauthentic documents; and the air of sincerity, which prevails throughout, is calculated to give very erroneous ideas of the papal administration of the church. They are principally written to confute the Centuries of Magdeburg, and to prove that the doctrine and the constitution of the church had remained the same from the beginning. These Annates Ecclesiastici a Christo nato ad A. 1198, a C. Baronio (Rome, 1588-1607, 12 vols., folio), were often reprinted, with the corrections of the author. At Mentz, an edition was commenced, in 1601, in 12 vols., folio. The Antwerp edition, however, begun in 1589, in 10 vols., folio, is handsomer, but does not contain the treatise Be Monarchia Sicilice, which contests the ecclesiastical privileges of the king of Sicily, known by the above name, and, therefore, was forbidden by the Spanish court. Many errors, particularly chronological, were corrected by the Franciscan Anthony Pagi, in his excellent criticism on the work (" Critica Historicochronologica in Ann. Baron. Antverp"; Geneva, 1705, 4 vols., folio). Other Catholic writers have also mentioned his errors, against which the censures of the Protestants have been more particularly directed. Among the continuations of the Annals, none of which is equal to the work of B., Raynaldi has furnished the most copious (ab a. 1198-1565, Rome, 1646, 8 vols., folio; continued until 1671 by Laderchi, Rome, 1728, 3 vols., folio).