WILLIAM CAREY. - Protestant missionary, b. at Paulerspury in England in the county of Northampton in 1761, d. at Serampore in India in 1834. Of an Anglican family, at the age of 18 he became a Baptist and was ordained a pastor in 1787. The reading of Captain Cook’s travels led him to reflect on the vast number of those who did not know Jesus Christ and he resolved to consecrate himself to the conversion of the heathen.
He published a memoir: *An enquiry into the obligations of christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen* (1792). But his sect, like the others, was then unwilling to undertake such an enterprise. Nevertheless, in 1792 he formed a missionary society with some friends and offered himself as the first missionary, sailing from England on a Danish ship and arriving in Calcutta in 1793.
The greatest obstacle to his undertaking was the opposition of the East India Company, under whose authority all the English possessions in India lay, which did not wish the Gospel to be preached lest it sow religious discord among the Indians, believing that this would hinder its trade. Since Carey could not therefore remain in the Company’s territories as a missionary, and also in order to earn a living, he accepted the supervision of an indigo factory a few miles from Calcutta and meanwhile devoted himself to studying Indian languages, especially Bengali and Sanskrit.
In 1799 a group of Baptist missionaries arrived in Calcutta, among whom were Joshua Marshman and William Ward, whose names have remained inseparably linked with Carey’s and with the principles of the Indian Baptist mission. Their landing, however, was forbidden. Then, together with Carey, who had by now been freed from his employment at the indigo factory, they gathered in the small Danish colony of Serampore, very near Calcutta, where they were warmly welcomed by the Danish governor. The method of life they adopted is noteworthy because it shows that Protestant missionaries, when they truly wish to dedicate themselves to missionary work, seek to imitate Catholic methods. They determined, in fact, to form a single community with a common fund into which everything they acquired was to be placed; the table was common and so was the house. Each was given a small sum for personal expenses, and whatever remained, after deducting common expenses, was to be devoted to the poor and to the propagation of the Gospel.
Under Carey’s impetus the mission made great progress: a printing press was set up, grammars and dictionaries of the indigenous languages were printed, the New Testament was published in about ten languages and the whole Bible in Bengali and Sanskrit; the Serampore College was founded, from which missionaries set out for various parts of India, and in which, in 1812, Adoniram Judson, the missionary sent by the American Board (v. CONGREGATIONALISTS) to India, was hosted; he became a Baptist and founded the mission in Burma. It was here too that Carey contracted his second and third marriages, which proved happier than the first. From this centre he worked effectively to secure government prohibition of the burning of widows with their husbands’ corpses and to obtain freedom for missionaries to preach in any part of the English possessions.
Carey is regarded by the Baptists as the great pioneer of their missions. Protestants, moreover, who hold that making the Bible known (for them the sole rule of faith) to all men is the most important point of missionary work, esteem Carey for his translations as one of the greatest missionaries.
CARIANI, Giovanni, *de’ Busi*. - Probably b. in Venice to a Bergamasque father, he studied in that city, where he was living in 1509 and where he is found again in 1547. In his paintings, mixed with elements derived from Giorgione, Palma, and Lotto, there is always a faint echo of Lombard chromatic taste.
Among his best works are the *Way to Calvary* in the Ambrosiana, notable for the superimposition of new elements upon old, and for the convulsive composition in movement, and the *Madonna and Child with Saints* in the Brera Gallery in Milan. Other paintings of his are in the Carrara Academy and in private houses in Bergamo (*Madonna with Donor, Christ Carrying the Cross, and the Albani Group*); in the Venice Academy (*Gentleman in Fur*); and in London, Berlin, and Strasbourg. A *Sacra Conversazione with the Madonna Sewing* set against a fine landscape is in the Corsiniana Library in Rome.