Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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By that time Cecil had begun to trim his sails to a different breeze. He
was in secret communication with Elizabeth before Mary died, and from the
first the new queen relied on Cecil as she relied on no one else. Her
confidence was not misplaced; Cecil was exactly the kind of minister
England then required. Personal experience had ripened his rare natural
gift for avoiding dangers. It was no time for brilliant initiative or
adventurous politics; the need was to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, and a
_via media_ had to be found in church and state, at home and abroad. Cecil
was not a political genius; no great ideas emanated from his brain. But he
was eminently a safe man, not an original thinker, but a counsellor of
unrivalled wisdom. Caution was his supreme characteristic; he saw that
above all things England required time. Like Fabius, he restored the
fortunes of his country by deliberation. He averted open rupture until
England was strong enough to stand the shock. There was nothing heroic
about Cecil or his policy; it involved a callous attitude towards
struggling Protestants abroad. Huguenots and Dutch Were aided just enough
to keep them going in the struggles which warded danger off from England's
shores. But Cecil never developed that passionate aversion from decided
measures which became a second nature to his mistress. His intervention in
Scotland in 1559-1560 showed that he could strike on occasion; and his
action over the execution of Mary, queen of Scots, proved that he was
willing to take responsibility from which Elizabeth shrank. Generally he
was in favour of more decided intervention on behalf of continental
Protestants than Elizabeth would admit, but it is not always easy to
ascertain the advice he gave. He has left endless memoranda lucidly setting
forth the pros and cons of every course of action; but there are few
indications of the line which he actually recommended when it came to a
decision. How far he was personally responsible for the Anglican
Settlement, the Poor Laws, and the foreign policy of the reign, how far he
was [v.04 p.0817] thwarted by the baleful influence of Leicester and the
caprices of the queen, remains to a large extent a matter of conjecture.
His share in the settlement of 1559 was considerable, and it coincided
fairly with his own somewhat indeterminate religious views. Like the mass
of the nation, he grew more Protestant as time wore on; he was readier to
persecute Papists than Puritans; he had no love for ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, and he warmly remonstrated with Whitgift over his persecuting
Articles of 1583. The finest encomium was passed on him by the queen
herself, when she said, "This judgment I have of you, that you will not be
corrupted with any manner of gifts, and that you will be faithful to the
state."

From 1558 for forty years the biography of Cecil is almost
indistinguishable from that of Elizabeth and from the history of England.
Of personal incident, apart from his mission to Scotland in 1560, there is
little. He represented Lincolnshire in the parliament of 1559, and
Northamptonshire in that of 1563, and he took an active part in the
proceedings of the House of Commons until his elevation to the peerage; but
there seems no good evidence for the story that he was proposed as speaker
in 1563. In January 1561 he was given the lucrative office of master of the
court of wards in succession to Sir Thomas Parry, and he did something to
reform that instrument of tyranny and abuse. In February 1559 he was
elected chancellor of Cambridge University in succession to Cardinal Pole;
he was created M.A. of that university on the occasion of Elizabeth's visit
in 1564, and M.A. of Oxford on a similar occasion in 1566. On the 25th of
February 1571 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Burghley of Burghley[1]
(or Burleigh); the fact that he continued to act as secretary after his
elevation illustrates the growing importance of that office, which under
his son became a secretaryship of state. In 1572, however, the marquess of
Winchester, who had been lord high treasurer under Edward, Mary and
Elizabeth, died, and Burghley succeeded to his post. It was a signal
triumph over Leicester; and, although Burghley had still to reckon with
cabals in the council and at court, his hold over the queen strengthened
with the lapse of years. Before he died, Robert, his only surviving son by
his second wife, was ready to step into his shoes as the queen's principal
adviser. Having survived all his rivals, and all his children except Robert
and the worthless Thomas, Burghley died at his London house on the 4th of
August 1598, and was buried in St Martin's, Stamford.

Burghley's private life was singularly virtuous; he was a faithful husband,
a careful father and a considerate master. A book-lover and antiquary, he
made a special hobby of heraldry and genealogy. It was the conscious and
unconscious aim of the age to reconstruct a new landed aristocracy on the
ruins of the old, and Burghley was a great builder and planter. All the
arts of architecture and horticulture were lavished on Burghley House and
Theobalds, which his son exchanged for Hatfield. His public conduct does
not present itself in quite so amiable a light. As the marquess of
Winchester said of himself, he was sprung from the willow rather than the
oak, and he was not the man to suffer for convictions. The interest of the
state was the supreme consideration, and to it he had no hesitation in
sacrificing individual consciences. He frankly disbelieved in toleration;
"that state," he said, "could never be in safety where there was a
toleration of two religions. For there is no enmity so great as that for
religion; and therefore they that differ in the service of their God can
never agree in the service of their country." With a maxim such as this, it
was easy for him to maintain that Elizabeth's coercive measures were
political and not religious. To say that he was Machiavellian is
meaningless, for every statesman is so more or less; especially in the 16th
century men preferred efficiency to principle. On the other hand,
principles are valueless without law and order; and Burghley's craft and
subtlety prepared a security in which principles might find some scope.

The sources and authorities for Burghley's life are endless. The most
important collection of documents is at Hatfield, where there are some ten
thousand papers covering the period down to Burghley's death; these have
been calendared in 8 volumes by the Hist. MSS. Comm. At least as many
others are in the Record Office and British Museum, the Lansdowne MSS.
especially containing a vast mass of his correspondence; see the catalogues
of Cotton, Harleian, Royal, Sloane, Egerton and Additional MSS. in the
British Museum, and the Calendars of Domestic, Foreign, Spanish, Venetian,
Scottish and Irish State Papers.

Other official sources are the _Acts of the Privy Council_ (vols.
i.-xxix.); Lords' and Commons' Journals, D'Ewes' Journals, Off. Ret.
M.P.'s; Rymer's _Foedera_; Collins's _Sydney State Papers_; Nichols's
_Progresses of Elizabeth_. See also Strype's Works (26 vols.), Parker, Soc.
Publ. (56 vols.); Camden's _Annales_; Holinshed, Stow and Speed's _Chron._;
Hayward's _Annals_; Machyn's _Diary_, Leycester Corr., Egerton Papers
(Camden Soc.). For Burghley's early life, see Cooper's _Athenae Cantab._;
Baker's _St John's Coll., Camb._, ed. Mayor; _Letters and. Papers of Henry
VIII._; Tytler's _Edward VI._; Nichols's _Lit. Remains of Edward VI._;
Leadam's _Court of Requests, Chron. of Queen Jane_ (Camden Soc.) and
throughout Froude's _Hist_. No satisfactory life of Burghley has yet
appeared; some valuable anonymous notes, probably by Burghley's servant
Francis Alford, were printed in Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_ (1732), i.
1-66; other notes are in Naunton's _Fragmenta Regalia_. Lives by Collins
(1732), Charlton and Melvil (1738), were followed by Nares's biography in
three of the most ponderous volumes (1828-1831) in the language; this
provoked Macaulay's brilliant but misleading essay. M.A.S. Hume's _Great
Lord Burghley_ (1898) is largely a piecing together of the references to
Burghley in the same author's _Calendar of Simancas MSS._ The life by Dr
Jessopp (1904) is an expansion of his article in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._; it
is still only a sketch, though the volume contains a mass of genealogical
and other incidental information by other hands.

(A. F. P.)

[1] This was the form always used by Cecil himself.

BURGKMAIR, HANS or JOHN (1473-? 1531), German painter and engraver on wood,
believed to have been a pupil of Albrecht Duerer, was born at Augsburg.
Professor Christ ascribes to him about 700 woodcuts, most of them
distinguished by that spirit and freedom which we admire in the works of
his supposed master. His principal work is the series of 135 prints
representing the triumphs of the emperor Maximilian I. They are of large
size, executed in chiaroscuro, from two blocks, and convey a high idea of
his powers. Burgkmair was also an excellent painter in fresco and in
distemper, specimens of which are in the galleries of Munich and Vienna,
carefully and solidly finished in the style of the old German school.

BURGLARY (_burgi latrocinium_; in ancient English law, _hamesucken_[1]), at
common law, the offence of breaking and entering the dwelling-house of
another with intent to commit a felony. The offence and its punishment are
regulated in England by the Larceny Act 1861. The four important points to
be considered in connexion with the offence of burglary are (1) the time,
(2) the place, (3) the manner and (4) the intent. The _time_, which is now
the essence of the offence, was not considered originally to have been very
material, the gravity of the crime lying principally in the invasion of the
sanctity of a man's domicile. But at some period before the reign of Edward
VI. it had become settled that time was essential to the offence, and it
was not adjudged burglary unless committed by night. The day was then
accounted as beginning at sunrise, and ending immediately after sunset, but
it was afterwards decided that if there were left sufficient daylight or
twilight to discern the countenance of a person, it was no burglary. This,
again, was superseded by the Larceny Act 1861, for the purpose of which
night is deemed to commence at nine o'clock in the evening of each day, and
to conclude at six o'clock in the morning of the next succeeding day.

The _place_ must, according to Sir E. Coke's definition, be a
mansion-house, _i.e._ a man's dwelling-house or private residence. No
building, although within the same curtilage as the dwelling-house, is
deemed to be a part of the dwelling-house for the purposes of burglary,
unless there is a communication between such building and dwelling-house
either immediate or by means of a covered and enclosed passage leading from
the one to the other. Chambers in a college or in an inn of court are the
dwelling-house of the owner; so also are rooms or lodgings in a private
house, provided the owner dwells elsewhere, or enters by a different outer
door from his lodger, otherwise the lodger is merely an inmate and his
apartment a parcel of the one dwelling-house.

[v.04 p.0818] As to the _manner_, there must be both a breaking and an
entry. Both must be at night, but not necessarily on the same night,
provided that in the breaking and in the entry there is an intent to commit
a felony. The breaking may be either an actual breaking of any external
part of a building; or opening or lifting any closed door, window, shutter
or lock; or entry by means of a threat, artifice or collusion with persons
inside; or by means of such a necessary opening as a chimney. If an entry
is obtained through an open window, it will not be burglary, but if an
inner door is afterwards opened, it immediately becomes so. Entry includes
the insertion through an open door or window, or any aperture, of any part
of the body or of any instrument in the hand to draw out goods. The entry
may be before the breaking, for the Larceny Act 1861 has extended the
definition of burglary to cases in which a person enters another's dwelling
with intent to commit felony, or being in such house commits felony
therein, and in either case _breaks out_ of such dwelling-house by night.

Breaking and entry must be with the _intent_ to commit a felony, otherwise
it is only trespass. The felony need not be a larceny, it may be either
murder or rape. The punishment is penal servitude for life, or any term not
less than three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, with or
without hard labour.

_Housebreaking_ in English law is to be distinguished from burglary, in
that it is not essential that it should be committed at night, nor in a
dwelling-house. It may, according to the Larceny Act 1861, be committed in
a school-house, shop, warehouse or counting-house. Every burglary involves
housebreaking, but every housebreaking does not amount to burglary. The
punishment for housebreaking is penal servitude for any term not exceeding
fourteen years and not less than three years, or imprisonment for any term
not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.

In the United States the common-law definition of burglary has been
modified by statute in many states, so as to cover what is defined in
England as housebreaking; the maximum punishment nowhere exceeds
imprisonment for twenty years.

AUTHORITIES.--Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_; Stephen,
_History of Criminal Law_; Archbold, _Pleading and Evidence in Criminal
Cases_; Russell, _On Crimes and Misdemeanours_; Stephen, _Commentaries_.

[1] In Scots law, the word _hamesucken_ meant the feloniously beating or
assaulting a man in his own house.

BURGON, JOHN WILLIAM (1813-1888), English divine, was born at Smyrna on the
21st of August 1813, the son of a Turkey merchant, who was a skilled
numismatist and afterwards became an assistant in the antiquities
department of the British Museum. His mother was a Greek. After a few years
of business life, Burgon went to Worcester College, Oxford, in 1841, gained
the Newdigate prize, took his degree in 1845, and won an Oriel fellowship
in 1846. He was much influenced by his brother-in-law, the scholar and
theologian Henry John Rose (1800-1873), a churchman of the old conservative
type, with whom he used to spend his long vacations. Burgon made Oxford his
headquarters, while holding a living at some distance. In 1863 he was made
vicar of St Mary's, having attracted attention by his vehement sermons
against _Essays and Reviews_. In 1867 he was appointed Gresham professor of
divinity. In 1871 he published a defence of the genuineness of the twelve
last verses of St Mark's Gospel. He now began an attack on the proposal for
a new lectionary for the Church of England, based largely upon his
objections to the principles for determining the authority of MS. readings
adopted by Westcott and Hort, which he assailed in a memorable article in
the _Quarterly Review_ for 1881. This, with his other articles, was
reprinted in 1884 under the title of _The Revision Revised_. His
biographical essays on H.L. Mansel and others were also collected, and
published under the title of _Twelve Good Men_ (1888). Protests against the
inclusion of Dr Vance Smith among the revisers, against the nomination of
Dean Stanley to be select preacher in the university of Oxford, and against
the address in favour of toleration in the matter of ritual, followed in
succession. In 1876 Burgon was made dean of Chichester. He died on the 4th
of August 1888. His life was written by Dean E.M. Goulburn (1892). Vehement
and almost passionate in his convictions, Burgon nevertheless possessed a
warm and kindly heart. He may be described as a high churchman of the type
prevalent before the rise of the Tractarian school. His extensive
collection of transcripts from the Greek Fathers, illustrating the text of
the New Testament, was bequeathed to the British Museum.

BURGONET, or BURGANET (from Fr. _bourguignote_, Burgundian helmet), a form
of light helmet or head-piece, which was in vogue in the 16th and 17th
centuries. In its normal form the burgonet was a large roomy cap with a
brim shading the eyes, cheek-pieces or flaps, a comb, and a guard for the
back of the neck. In many cases a vizor, or other face protection, and a
chin-piece are found in addition, so that this piece of armour is sometimes
mistaken for an armet (_q.v._), but it can always be distinguished by the
projecting brim in front. The morion and cabasset have no face, cheek or
neck protection. The typical head-piece of the 17th-century soldier in
England and elsewhere is a burgonet skull-cap with a straight brim,
neck-guard and often, in addition, a fixed vizor of three thin iron bars
which are screwed into, and hang down from, the brim in front of the eyes.

BURGOS, a province of northern Spain; bounded on the N.E. by Biscay and
Alava, E. by Logrono, S.E. by Soria, S. by Segovia, S.W. by Valladolid, W.
by Palencia, and N.W. by Santander. Pop. (1900) 338,828; area, 5480 sq. m.
Burgos includes the isolated county of Trevino, which is shut in on all
sides by territory belonging to Alava. The northern and north-eastern
districts of the province are mountainous, and the central and southern
form part of the vast and elevated plateau of Old Castile. The extreme
northern region is traversed by part of the great Cantabrian chain.
Eastwards are the highest peaks of the province in the Sierra de la Demanda
(with the Cerro de San Millan, 6995 ft. high) and in the Sierra de Neila.
On the eastern frontier, midway between these highlands and the Cantabrian
chain, two comparatively low ranges, running east and west of Pancorbo,
kave a gap through which run the railway and roads connecting Castile with
the valley of the Ebro. This Pancorbo Pass has often been called the "Iron
Gates of Castile," as a handful of men could hold it against an army. South
and west of this spot begins the plateau, generally covered with snow in
winter, and swept by such cold winds that Burgos is considered, with Soria
and Segovia, one of the coldest regions of the peninsula. The Ebro runs
eastwards through the northern half of the province, but is not navigable.
The Douro, or Duero, crosses the southern half, running west-north-west; it
also is unnavigable in its upper valley. The other important streams are
the Pisuerga, flowing south towards Palencia and Valladolid, and the
Arlanzon, which flows through Burgos for over 75m.

The variations of temperature are great, as from 9 deg. to 20 deg. of frost have
frequently been recorded in winter, while the mean summer temperature is
64 deg. (Fahr.). As but little rain falls in summer, and the soil is poor,
agriculture thrives only in the valleys, especially that of the Ebro. In
live-stock, however, Burgos is one of the richest of Spanish provinces.
Horses, mules, asses, goats, cattle and pigs are bred in considerable
numbers, but the mainstay of the peasantry is sheep-farming. Vast ranges of
almost uninhabited upland are reserved as pasture for the flocks, which at
the beginning of the 20th century contained more than 500,000 head of
sheep. Coal, china-clay and salt are obtained in small quantities, but, out
of more than 150 mines registered, only 4 were worked in 1903. The other
industries of the province are likewise undeveloped, although there are
many small potteries, stone quarries, tanneries and factories for the
manufacture of linen and cotton of the coarsest description. The ancient
cloth and woollen industries, for which Burgos was famous in the past, have
almost disappeared. Trade is greatly hindered by the lack of adequate
railway communication, and even of good roads. The Northern railways from
Madrid to the French frontier cross the province in the central districts;
the Valladolid-Bilbao line traverses the Cantabrian mountains, in the
north; and the Valladolid-Saragossa line skirts the Douro valley, in the
south. The only [v.04 p.0819] important town in the province is Burgos, the
capital (pop. 30,167). Few parts of Spain are poorer; education makes
little progress, and least of all in the thinly peopled rural districts,
with their widely scattered hamlets. The peasantry have thus every
inducement to migrate to the Basque Provinces, Catalonia and other
relatively prosperous regions; and consequently the population does not
increase, despite the excess of births over deaths.

BURGOS, the capital formerly of Old Castile, and since 1833 of the Spanish
province of Burgos, on the river Arlanzon, and on the Northern railways
from Madrid to the French frontier. Pop. (1900) 30,167. Burgos, in the form
of an amphitheatre, occupies the lower slopes of a hill crowned by the
ruins of an ancient citadel. It faces the Arlanzon, a broad and swift
stream, with several islands in mid-channel. Three stone bridges lead to
the suburb of La Vega, on the opposite bank. On all sides, except up the
castle hill, fine avenues and public gardens are laid out, notably the
Paseo de la Isla, extending along the river to the west. Burgos itself was
originally surrounded by a wall, of which few fragments remain; but
although its streets and broad squares, such as the central Plaza Mayor, or
Plaza de la Constitucion, have often quite a modern appearance, the city
retains much of its picturesque character, owing to the number and beauty
of its churches, convents and palaces. Unaffected by the industrial
activity of the neighbouring Basque Provinces, it has little trade apart
from the sale of agricultural produce and the manufacture of paper and
leathern goods.

But it is rich in architectural and antiquarian interest. The citadel was
founded in 884 by Diego Rodriguez Porcelos, count of Castile; in the 10th
century it was held against the kings of Leon by Count Fernan Gonzalez, a
mighty warrior; and even in 1812 it was successfully defended by a French
garrison against Lord Wellington and his British troops. Within its walls
the Spanish national hero, the Cid Campeador, was wedded to Ximena of
Oviedo in 1074; and Prince Edward of England (afterwards King Edward I.) to
Eleanor of Castile in 1254. Statues of Porcelos, Gonzalez and the Cid, of
Nuno Rasura and Lain Calvo, the first elected magistrates of Burgos, during
its brief period of republican rule in the 10th century, and of the emperor
Charles V., adorn the massive Arco de Santa Maria, which was erected
between 1536 and 1562, and commemorates the return of the citizens to their
allegiance, after the rebellion against Charles V. had been crushed in
1522. The interior of this arch serves as a museum. Tradition still points
to the site of the Cid's birthplace; and a reliquary preserved in the town
hall contains his bones, and those of Ximena, brought hither after many
changes, including a partial transference to Sigmaringen in Germany.

Other noteworthy buildings in Burgos are the late 15th century Casa del
Cordon, occupied by the captain-general of Old Castile; the Casa de
Miranda, which worthily represents the best domestic architecture of Spain
in the 16th century; and the barracks, hospitals and schools. Burgos is the
see of an archbishop, whose province comprises the diocese of Palencia,
Pamplona, Santander and Tudela. The cathedral, founded in 1221 by Ferdinand
III. of Castile and the English bishop Maurice of Burgos, is a fine example
of florid Gothic, built of white limestone (see ARCHITECTURE, Plate II.
fig. 65). It was not completed until 1567, and the architects principally
responsible for its construction were a Frenchman in the 13th century and a
German in the 15th. Its cruciform design is almost hidden by the fifteen
chapels added at all angles to the aisles and transepts, by the beautiful
14th-century cloister on the north-west and the archiepiscopal palace on
the south-west. Over the three central doorways of the main or western
facade rise two lofty and graceful towers. Many of the monuments within the
cathedral are of considerable artistic and historical interest. The chapel
of Corpus Christi contains the chest which the Cid is said to have filled
with sand and subsequently pawned for a large sum to the credulous Jews of
Burgos. The legend adds that he redeemed his pledge. In the aisleless
Gothic church of Santa Agueda, or Santa Gadea, tradition relates that the
Cid compelled Alphonso VI. of Leon, before his accession to the throne of
Castile in 1072, to swear that he was innocent of the murder of Sancho his
brother and predecessor on the throne. San Esteban, completed between 1280
and 1350, and San Nicolas, dating from 1505, are small Gothic churches,
each with a fine sculptured doorway. Many of the convents of Burgos have
been destroyed, and those which survive lie chiefly outside the city. At
the end of the Paseo de la Isla stands the nunnery of Santa Maria la Real
de las Huelgas, originally a summer palace (_huelga_, "pleasure-ground") of
the kings of Castile. In 1187 it was transformed into a Cistercian convent
by Alphonso VIII., who invested the abbess with almost royal prerogatives,
including the power of life and death, and absolute rule over more than
fifty villages. Alphonso and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Henry II. of
England, are buried here. The Cartuja de Miraflores, a Carthusian convent,
founded by John II. of Castile (1406-1454), lies 2 m. south-east of Burgos.
Its church contains a monument of exceptional beauty, carved by Gil de
Siloe in the 15th century, for the tomb of John and his second wife,
Isabella of Portugal. The convent of San Pedro de Cardena, 7 m. south-east
of Burgos, was the original burial-place of the Cid, in 1099, and of
Ximena, in 1104. About 50 m. from the city is the abbey of Silos, which
appears to have been founded under the Visigothic kings, as early as the
6th century. It was restored in 919 by Fernan Gonzalez, and in the 11th
century became celebrated throughout Europe, under the rule of St Dominic
or Domingo. It was reoccupied in 1880 by French Benedictine monks.

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