Benedict XVI orig. Joseph Alois Ratzinger (b. April 16,
1927, Marktl am Inn, Ger.) Pope from 2005. He was ordained in 1951 and received a doctorate in theology at the University of Munich in 1953.
Thereafter he pursued a career as a theologian and teacher at various universities. During the Second Vat¬ ican Council (1962-65) he served as an expert adviser and an advocate of reform. In 1977 he was appointed archbishop of Munich; three months later he was made a cardinal. As pre¬ fect of the Congregation for the Doc¬ trine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005, he enforced doctrinal uniformity in the church and served as a close adviser of Pope John Paul II. He was faced with numerous challenges when he became pope, including a decline in church attendance and in the number of new priests, deep divi¬ sions over the direction of the church, and the lingering effects of a sexual-abuse scandal involving priests in various parts of the world.
Benedictine Member of the Order of St. Benedict, the confederated autonomous congregations of monks and lay brothers who follow the Benedictine Rule, created by St. Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century. The Rule spread slowly in Italy and Gaul. By the 9th century it was nearly universal in northern and western Europe, where Benedictine monaster¬ ies became repositories of learning, literature, and wealth. The order declined during the 12th—15th century, when it was revived with reforms that limited abbots to fixed terms and required monks to make their vows to the congregation rather than a particular house. The Reformation vir¬ tually eliminated Benedictines from northern Europe, and they declined elsewhere. In the 19th century another revival strengthened the order in Europe, especially in France and Germany, and led to the establishment of new congregations worldwide.
benefice Vbe-ns-fasV System of land tenure first used by the Franks during the 8th century. A Frankish lord leased an estate to a freeman in beneficium (Latin: “for the benefit (of the tenant)”), normally until the death of the lord or tenant, though tenants often succeeded in turning ben¬ efices into hereditary holdings. By the 12th century benefice was dying out as a term for land tenure; instead it referred to a church office that carried with it the right of receiving income. A lord or bishop chose a priest, who was granted the benefice in return for the performance of spiritual duties.
beneficiary \ 1 be-n9-'fi-she- l er-e, .be-no-'fi-sho-reV Person or entity (e.g., a charity or estate) that receives a benefit from something (e.g., a trust, life-insurance policy, or contract). A primary beneficiary receives proceeds from a trust or insurance policy before any other. A contingent beneficiary receives proceeds upon the occurrence of a specified event, such as the death of the primary beneficiary. A direct beneficiary is a third party whom contracting individuals intend to benefit from a contract; an incidental beneficiary benefits without that being the contracting indi¬ viduals’ intention.
beneficiation V.be-no-.fi-she-'a-shonX Treatment of raw material (such as pulverized ore) to improve physical or chemical properties in prepa¬ ration for further processing. Beneficiation techniques include washing, sizing of particulates, and concentration (which involves the separation of valuable minerals from the other raw materials received from a grinding mill). In large-scale operations, various distinguishing properties of the minerals to be separated (e.g., magnetism, wettability, density) are exploited to concentrate the desirable components. Beneficiation also is used in the ceramics and clay industries. See also flotation; mining; min¬ eral PROCESSING.
Benelux Economic Union Vbe-no-.taksV Economic union of Bel¬ gium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The three countries formed a customs union in 1948, and in 1958 they signed the Treaty of the Benelux Economic Union, which became operative in 1960. Benelux became the first completely free international labor market and contributed to the establishment of the European Economic Community.
Benes Vbe-.neshN, Edvard (b. May 28, 1884, Kozlany, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary—d. Sept. 3, 1948, Sezimovo Usti, Czech.) Czechoslo¬ vakian statesman. A disciple of Tomas Masaryk, Benes was a founder of modern Czechoslovakia. He served as its first foreign minister (1918-35) and its president (1935-38). Forced to capitulate to Adolf Hitler’s demands over the Sudetenland, he resigned. He headed the Czech government-in¬ exile in England (1940-45), then reestablished a government on his native soil in 1945. Recognizing the need to cooperate with the Soviet Union, he nevertheless refused to sign a new communist constitution and resigned in 1948 shortly before his death.
Benet \bo-'na\, Stephen Vincent (b. July 22, 1898, Bethlehem, Pa., U.S.—d. March 13, 1943, New York, N.Y.) U.S. poet, novelist, and short- story writer. Benet is best known for John Brown’s Body (1928, Pulitzer Prize), a long narrative poem on the American Civil War. A Book of Americans (1933), poems written with his wife, the former Rosemary Carr, brought many historical characters to life for American schoolchil¬ dren. His story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1937) was the basis for a play by Archibald MacLeish, an opera by Douglas Moore (first performed 1939), and two films (1941, 2001).
Bengal \ben-'gol\ Former province, northeastern British India. Gener¬ ally corresponding to the area inhabited by speakers of the Bengali lan¬ guage, it is now divided between eastern India and Bangladesh. Bengal formed part of most of the early empires that controlled northern India. From the 8th to the 12th century it was under a Buddhist dynasty, and from 1576 it belonged to the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century it was dominated by the nawabs of Bengal; they came into conflict with the British, who had established themselves at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1690. By 1764 the British had taken possession, and Bengal became the base for British expansion in India. Bengal was partitioned in 1905, and with the end of British rule in 1947, the western portion formed the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. East Bengal went to Pakistan; in 1971 it became Bangladesh. Jharkhand state was created from south¬ ern Bihar in 2000.
Bengal, Bay of Part of the Indian Ocean. Occupying about 839,000 sq mi (2,172,000 sq km), it is bordered by Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and the northern Malay Peninsula. It is about 1,000 mi (1,600
Benedict XVI, 2005.
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© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Bengal ► Benjamin I 199
km) wide, with an average depth of more than 8,500 ft (2,600 m). Many large rivers, including the Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Ganges, and Brah¬ maputra, flow into it. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the bay’s only islands, separate it from the Andaman Sea. It has long been crossed by Indian and Malaysian traders; Chinese maritime trading dates from the 12th century. Vasco da Gama led the first European voyage into the bay in 1498.
Bengal, Partition of (1905) Division of Bengal carried out by Lord Curzon, the British viceroy in India. The British province of Bengal, which also included Bihar and Orissa, had by the beginning of the 20th century grown too large to handle under a single administration. Curzon chose to unite eastern Bengal with Assam, leaving western Bengal with Bihar and Orissa. The partition went through despite widespread protests, unrest, and boycotts, but in 1911 eastern and western Bengal were reunited. Assam resumed its old status, and Bihar and Orissa were separated to form a new province.
Bengali \ben-'ga-le\ language Indo-Aryan language spoken princi¬ pally in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Bengali has more speakers—some 190 million—than all but a handful of other languages of the world. Like other Modern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali has dras¬ tically reduced the complex inflectional system of Old Indo-Aryan (see Sanskrit language). It has virtually dropped grammatical gender and fixed stress on the initial syllable of a word or phrase. Bengali was the first of the Indian languages to adopt Western secular literary styles, such as fic¬ tion and drama.