BRIARD (BRIAERT), JEAN. - Theologian and philosopher, called Athensis, b. at Beloeil (Ath) in Belgium in the second half of the 15th century and d. on 8 Jan. 1520. He studied at the University of Louvain, where he later became professor, rector and vice-chancellor, succeeding in this office Adrian of Utrecht, later Pope Adrian VI. He was held in high esteem by all his contemporaries, particularly in the estimation of Erasmus and of Margaret of York, widow of Charles the Bold, who, as long as she lived, wanted him at Mechelen as her chaplain and counsellor. He was among the first to denounce and condemn the errors of Luther (17 Nov. 1519), just as, on other occasions, he did not fail to give the alarm over the errors of Erasmus. In the field of philosophy he is regarded as the initiator of the analytical method in the study of experimental psychology.
He wrote: De anima libri 3; De animalium sensatione; De vera methodo in vitalibus actibus persequenda; Quaestiones quodlibeticae, Louvain 1518 (published together with the Quodlibeta of Adrian of Utrecht); Quodlibetum de causa indulgentiarum, Leipzig 1519; De contracta sortit seu Loteria s. n. t.
Bibliography4 works
Vito ZolliniBRICARELLI, CARLO. - Jesuit, b. at Turin on 11 Oct. 1857, d. at Rome on 25 June 1931. Having earned his degree in higher mathematics at the University of Turin, he entered shortly afterwards the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Chieri (1879). For twenty years he taught the physical and mathematical sciences in the Colleges of Monaco and Turin and in the seminary of the Society at Chieri. In 1899 he was called to Rome to become a member of the college of writers of the Civiltà Cattolica. He dealt especially with subjects of science and sacred art. He was a professor at the Gregorian University and a consultor of the Pontifical Central Commission for Sacred Art. Of his writings published separately, we cite: Studi sull'arte bizantina (Rome 1903); Un pregiudizio storico intorno ai più insigni naturalisti (ibid. 1904); Ottica fisica e ottica artistica (ibid. 1914); Per l'estetica degli edifici a cupola (ibid. 1929); Galileo Galilei. Le opere, il metodo, le peripezie (ibid. 1931); and, among his numerous articles: Sull'origine della basilica cristiana, in La Civ. Catt., 1914, 1, 698-715.
B. was always an apostle of youth, and this earned him, at the time of the modernist struggles, the distinction of being personally the object of bitter attacks: the famous "Vercesi trial" ended with the full vindication of the exemplary priest (cf. Il segreto di confessione ai tribunali di Roma. Relazione documentata del processo di diffamazione del p. C. B. contro G. Vercesi, Rome 1912).