BRIARD (BRIAERT), JEAN. – Theologian and philosopher, called Athensis, born at Beloeil (Ath) in Belgium in the second half of the 15th century and died on 8 January 1520. He studied at the University of Louvain, where he later became professor, rector, and vice-chancellor, succeeding Adrian of Utrecht in the latter office, later Pope Adrian VI. He was held in high esteem by all his contemporaries, particularly by Erasmus and Margaret of York, widow of Charles the Bold, who, as long as she lived, kept him in Mechelen as her chaplain and counsellor. He was among the first to denounce and condemn Luther’s errors (17 November 1519), just as, on other occasions, he did not fail to sound the alarm concerning Erasmus’s errors. In the philosophical field, 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.
Vito Zollini
BRICARELLI, CARLO. – Jesuit, born in Turin on 11 October 1857 and died in Rome on 25 June 1931. After graduating in higher mathematics at the University of Turin, he shortly thereafter entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Chieri (1879). For twenty years he taught the physical and mathematical sciences at the Colleges of Munich and Turin and at the Society’s seminary in Chieri. In 1899 he was called to Rome to join the staff of writers at La Civiltà Cattolica. He dealt especially with subjects relating to science and sacred art. He was a professor at the Gregorian University and a consultant to the Pontifical Central Commission for Sacred Art. Among his writings published separately, we mention: 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 led, during the period of the modernist struggles, to his being personally subjected to fierce attacks: the famous “Vercesi trial” ended with the complete 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).