Wheat, oats and barley are the principal cereals cultivated, other important crops being lucerne, sainfoin, clover, mangelwurzels and potatoes. Colza and hemp are grown to a limited extent. The district of Poitiers grows good red wine, and the white wine of Trois-Moutiers near Loudun is well known. The breeding of live stock in all its branches is fairly active. Poitou is famous for its mules, and the geese and turkeys of the department are highly esteemed. Oak, ash, alder and birch are the principal forest trees, and among the fruit trees are the chestnut, walnut and almond. Freestone is quarried. The most important industrial establishments are the national arms manufactory at Châtellerault and the cutlery works near that town. In other parts of the department are wool-spinning mills, hemp-spinning mills, manufactories of serges and coarse cloth, vinegar, candles, goose and goat skins, leather, tiles and pottery, paper-works, breweries, distilleries, lime-kilns and numerous flour-mills. Corn, wine, brandy, vegetables, fruit, chestnuts, fodder, cattle, stone, cutlery, arms and dressed hides are exported; butcher's beasts, colonial produce and coals are imported. The department is served by the Ouest-État and Orleans railways. Vienne forms part of the diocese of Poitiers, has its court of appeal and educational centre at Poitiers, and belongs to the region of the IX. army corps. The capital is Poitiers, and the department is divided for purposes of administration into 5 arrondissements (Poitiers, Châtellerault, Civray, Loudun, Montmorillon), 31 cantons and 300 communes. The more noteworthy towns are Poitiers, Châtellerault, Loudun, Montmorillon and Chauvigny, these being separately treated. Other places of interest are St Maurice, Civray and St Savin, which have Romanesque churches, the abbey church of St Savin being remarkable for its mural paintings; Lígugé, with an abbey church of the 15th and 16th centuries: Charroux, which has a Romanesque octagonal tower and other remains of a famous abbey; and Sanxay, near which there are ruins of a theatre and other Gallo-Roman remains. Vienne is rich in megalithic monuments.

VIENNE, the chief town of an arrondissement of the department of the Isère, France. Historically the first, it is by population (24,619 in 1901) the second city of the department of the Isère, after Grenoble; and the third, after Valence, of the Dauphiné. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhone just below the junction of the Gère with the Rhone, and about 20 m. by rail S. of Lyons. On the N., E. and S. the town is sheltered by low hills, the Rhone flowing along its western side. Its site is an immense mass of ancient débris, which is constantly yielding interesting antiquities. On the bank of the Gère are traces of the ramparts of the old Roman city, and on the Mont Pipet (E. of the town) are the remains of an amphitheatre, while the ruined castle there was built in the 13th century on Roman substructures. Several of the ancient aqueducts (one only is now actually in use) are still to be seen, while in the neighbourhood of the city some bits of the old Roman roads may still be found.

The streets of the town are narrow and tortuous, but it possesses two Roman monuments of the first class. One is the temple of Augusta and Livia, a rectangular building of the Corinthian order, erected by the emperor Claudius, and inferior only to the Maison Carrée at Nimes. From the 5th century to 1793 it was a church (Notre Dame de Vie), and the "festival of reason" was celebrated in it at the time of the Revolution. The other, in the more modern part of the town, is the Plan de l'Aiguille, a truncated quadrangular pyramid about 52 ft. in height and resting on a portico with four arches. Many theories have been advanced as to what this singular structure really was (some imagine that it was the tomb of Pontius Pilatus, who, according to the legend, died at Vienne), but it is now generally believed to have been part of the spina of a large circus, the outlines of which have been traced. The church of St Peter belonged to an ancient Benedictine abbey and was rebuilt in the 9th century. It is in the earliest Romanesque style, and forms a basilica, with tall square piers, reminding one of Lucca, while the two ranges of windows in the aisles, with their coupled marble columns, recall Ravenna from within and the Basse Euvre of Beauvais from without. The porch is in the earliest Romanesque style. This church has of late years been completely restored, and since 1895 shelters the magnificent Musée Lapidaire (formerly housed in the temple of Augusta and Livia). The former cathedral church (primatial as well as metropolitan) of St Maurice contains some of the best forms of the true N. Gothic, and was constructed at various periods between 1052 and 1533. It is a basilica, with three aisles, but no apse or transepts. It is 315 ft. in length, 118 ft. wide and 89 in height. The most striking portion is the W. front (1533), which rises majestically from a terrace overhanging the Rhone. But the statuary was much injured by the Protestants in 1562. The church of St André le Bas was the church of a second Benedictine monastery, and later the chapel of the earlier kings of Provence. It was rebuilt in 1152, in the later Romanesque style. The town library and art museum are now in the corn hall, which has been

reconstructed for that purpose. A suspension bridge leads from the city to the right bank of the Rhone, where the industrial quarter of Ste Colombe now occupies part of the ancient city. Here is a tower, built in 1349 by Philip of Valois to defend the French bank of the Rhone, as distinguished from the left bank, which, as part of the kingdom of Provence, was dependent on the Holy Roman Empire. This state of things is also recalled by the name of the village, St Romain en Gal, to the N.W. of Ste Colombe.

The Gère supplies the motive power to numerous factories. The most important are those which produce cloth (about 30 factories, turning out daily about 15,000 yds. of cloth). There are numerous other industrial establishments (paper mills, iron foundries, brick works, refining furnaces, &c.).

Vienne was originally the capital of the Allobroges, and became a Roman colony about 47 B.C. under Caesar, who embellished and fortified it. A little later these colonists were expelled by the Allobroges; the exiles then founded the colony of Lyons (Lugdunum). It was not till the days of Augustus and Tiberius that Vienne regained all its former privileges as a Roman colony. Later it became the capital of the Provincia Viennensis. In 257 Postumus was proclaimed emperor here, and for a few years from that day onwards Vienne was the capital of a short-lived provincial empire. It is said to have been converted to Christianity by Crescens, the disciple of St Paul. Certainly there were Christians here in 177, as in the Greek letter (preserved to us by Eusebius) addressed at that date by the churches of Vienne and Lyons to those of Asia and Phrygia mention is made of "the" deacon of Vienne. The first bishop certainly known is Verus, who was present at About 450 Vienne became an the Council of Arles in 314. archbishopric and continued one till 1790, when the see was suppressed. The archbishops disputed with those of Lyons the title of "Primate of All the Gauls." Vienne was conquered by the Burgundians in 438, and in 534 was taken by the Franks. Sacked in 558 by the Lombards and in 737 by the Saracens, the government of the district was given by Charles the Bald in 869 to a certain Count Boso, who in 879 was proclaimed king of Provence, and was buried on his death in 887 in the cathedral church of St Maurice. Vienne then continued to form part of the kingdom of Provence or Arles till in 1032 it reverted to the Holy Roman Empire. The sovereigns of that kingdom, as well as the emperors in the 12th century (in particular Frederick Barbarossa in 1153), recognized the rights of the archbishops as the rulers (in the name of the emperor) of Vienne. But the growing power of the counts of Albon, later Dauphins of the neighbouring county of the Viennois, was the cause of many disputes between them and the archbishops. In 1349 the reigning Dauphin sold his Dauphiné to France, but the town of Vienne was not included in this sale, and the archbishops did not give up their rights over it to France till 1449, when it first became French. In 1311-12 the fifteenth General Council was held at Vienne, when Clement V. abolished the order of the Knights Templar. Vienne was sacked in 1562 by the Protestants under the baron des Adrets, and was held for the Ligue 1500-95, when it was taken in the name of Henri IV. by Montmorency. The fortifications were demolished between 1589 and 1636. In 1790 the archbishopric was abolished, the title "Primate of All the Gauls" being attributed to the archbishops of Lyons. Among famous natives of Vienne may be mentioned St Julian (3rd century) and Nicholas Chorier (1612-1692), the historian of the Dauphiné, while Gui de Bourgogne, who was archbishop 1090-1119, became pope in 1119 as Calixtus II. (d. 1124).

See A. Allmer et A. de Terrebasse, Inscriptions antiques et du moyen âge de Vienne en Dauphiné (6 vols., Vienne, 1875-76); Cl. Charvet, Fastes de la ville de Vienne (Vienne, 1869); U. Chevalier, Collection des Cartulaires Dauphinois, in vol. i. (Vienne, 1869), is that of St André le Bas, and in vol. ii. (1891) a description of that of St Maurice: N. Chorier, Recherches sur les antiquités de la ville de Vienne (Vienne, 1658); E. A. Freeman, Article in the Saturday Review for Feb. 6, 1875; F. Raymond, Le Guide Viennois (Troyes, 1897). (W. A. B. C.)

VIENNE, COUNCIL OF, an ecclesiastical council, which in the Roman Catholic Church ranks as the fifteenth ecumenical synod. It met from October 16, 1311, to May 6, 1312, under

the presidency of Pope Clement V. The transference of the Curia from Rome to Avignon (1309) had brought the papacy under the influence of the French crown; and this position Philip the Fair of France now endeavoured to utilize by demanding from the pope the dissolution of the powerful and wealthy order of the Temple, together with the introduction of a trial for heresy against the late Pope Boniface VIII. To evade the second claim, Clement gave way on the first. Legal trials and acts of violence against the Templars had begun as early as the year 1307 (see TEMPLARS); and the principal object of the council was to secure a definite decision on the question of their continuance or abolition. In the committee appointed for preliminary consultation, one section was for the immediate condemnation of the order, and declined to allow it any opportunity of defence, on the ground that it was now superfluous and simply a source of strife. The majority of the members, however, regarded the case as non-proven, and demanded that the order should be heard on its own behalf; while at the same time they held that its dissolution was unjustifiable. Under pressure from the king, who was himself present in Vienne, the pope determined that, as the order gave occasion for scandal but could not be condemned as heretical by a judicial sentence (de jure), it should be abolished per modum provisionis seu ordinationis apostolicae; in other words, by an administrative ruling based on considerations of the general welfare. To this procedure the council agreed, and on the 22nd of March the order of the Temple was suppressed by the bull Vox clamantis; while further decisions as to the treatment of the order and its possessions followed later.

In addition to this the discussions announced in the opening speech, regarding measures for the reformation of the Church and the protection of her liberties, took place; and a part of the Constitutions found in the Clementinum, published in 1317 by John XXII., were probably enacted by the council. Still it is impossible to say with certainty what decrees were actually passed at Vienne. Additional decisions were necessitated by the violent disputes which raged within the Franciscan order as to the observance of the rules of St Francis of Assisi, and by the multitude of subordinate questions arising from this. Resolutions were also adopted on the Beguines and their mode of life (see BEGUINES), the control of the hospitals, the institution of instructors in Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldaic at the universities, and on numerous details of ecclesiastical discipline and law.

See Mansi, Collectio Conciliorum, vol. xxv.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. vi. pp. 532-54.

VIERGE, DANIEL (1851-1904), Spanish painter and draughtsman, was born in Madrid in 1851. He went to Paris in 1867 to seek his fortune, fired by the vivid energy of his national temperament. He became attached to the Monde illustré in 1870, just before the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and, like other artists in the paper, came under the powerful influence of Edmond Morin, the first newspaper draughtsman in France who sought to impart to drawings for journals the character of a work of art. Vierge's earlier drawings, therefore, partake greatly of Morin's style; such are, "The Shooting in the Rue de la Paix," "The Place d'Armes at Versailles," "The Loan," "The Great School-Fête of Lyons," "Anniversary of the Fight of Aydes " and "Souvenir of Coulmiers." Vierge lost no time in proving the extraordinary vigour and picturesqueness of his art. Apart from the contribution of his own original work, he was required by his paper to redraw upon the wood, for the engraver, the sketches sent in by artist-correspondents, such as Luc Ollivier Merson in Rome and Samuel Urrabieta (Vierge's brother) in Spain. From 1871 to 1878 his individuality became more and more pronounced, and he produced, among his best-known drawings, "Christmas in Spain," "The_Republican Meeting in Trafalgar Square," "Attack on a Train in Andalusia," "Feast of St Rosalia in Palermo," "In the Jardin d'Acclimatation," "The Burning of the Library of the Escurial, 1872," "Grasshoppers in Algiers," Brigandage in Sicily," "Night Fête in Constantinople,"

"Episode of the Civil War in Spain," Marriage of the King of Spain" and "The Bull Fight." About this time he illustrated with remarkable dash and skill Victor Hugo's Année terrible (Michel Lévy, 1874, and Hugues, 1879), " 1813" (Hugues, 1877) and Les Misérables (1882). His masterpiece of illustration is Michelet's History of France (1876), consisting of 26 volumes containing 1000 drawings. In 1879 he was drawing for La Vie moderne, and then proceeded to illustrate Pablo de Segovia. While engaged upon this work he was attacked by paralysis in the right arm, but with characteristic energy and courage he set himself to acquire the necessary skill in drawing with the left, and calmly proceeded with the illustrations to the book. In 1891 he illustrated L'Espagnole, by Bergerat, and in 1895 Le Cabaret des trois vertus. In 1898 he held, at the Pelletan Gallery in Paris, an exhibition of his drawings for Chateaubriand's Le Dernier Abencérage ("The Last of the Abencerrages "), and in the following year a comprehensive exhibition of his work (including the illustrations to Don Quixote) at the Art Nouveau Gallery, also in Paris. In 1898 Vierge contributed to L'Image, a magazine devoted to the encouragement of engraving upon wood; and two years later, at the International Exhibition at Paris, he was awarded a grand prix. In 1902 he exhibited at the New Salon a scene from the Franco-Prussian War. He died at Boulogne-surSeine in May 1904.

See Roger Marx, L'Image (1898); Béraldi, La Gravure au 19 siècle.

VIERSEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, 11 m. by rail S.W. from Crefeld, and at the junction of lines to München-Gladbach, Venlo, &c. Pop. (1905) 27,577. It has an evangelical and four Roman Catholic churches, among the latter the handsome parish church dating from the 15th century, and various educational establishments. Viersen is one of the chief seats in the lower Rhine country for the manufacture of velvets, silks (especially umbrella covers) and plush. VIERZON, a town of central France, in the department of Cher, 20 m. N.W. of Bourges by rail. The Cher and the Yèvre unite at the foot of the hill on which lie Vierzon-Ville (pop. (1906) town, 11,812) and Vierzon-Village (pop. town, 2026; commune, 9710); Vierzon-Bourgneuf (pop. town, 1482) is on the left bank of the Cher. The town has a port on the canal of Berry and is an important junction on the Orléans railway;' there are several large manufactories for the production of agricultural machines, also foundries, porcelain, brick and tile works and glass works. A technical school of mechanics and a branch of the Bank of France are among the institutions of the town.

VIETA (or VIÈTE), FRANÇOIS, Seigneur de la BIGOTIÈRE (1540-1603), more generally known as FRANCISCUS VIETA, French mathematician, was born in 1540 at Fontenay-le-Comte, in Poitou. According to F. Ritter,' Vieta was brought up as a Catholic, and died in the same creed; but there can be no doubt that he belonged to the Huguenots for several years. On the completion of his studies in law at Poitiers Vieta began his career as an advocate in his native town. This he left about 1567, and somewhat later we find him at Rennes as a councillor of the parlement of Brittany. The religious troubles drove him thence, and Rohan, the well-known chief of the Huguenots, took him under his special protection. He recommended him in 1580 as a "maître des requêtes" (master of requests); and Henry of Navarre, at the instance of Rohan, addressed two letters to Henry III. of France on the 3rd of March and the 26th of April 1585, to obtain Vieta's restoration to his former office, but without result. After the accession of Henry of Navarre to the throne of France, Vieta filled in 1589 the position of councillor of the parlement at Tours. He afterwards became a royal privy councillor, and remained so till his death, which took place suddenly at Paris in February 1603, but in what manner we do not know; Anderson, the editor of his scientific writings, speaks only of a praeceps et immaturum autoris fatum."

Bolletino Boncompagni (Rome, 1868), vol. i. p. 227. n. I.

We know of one important service rendered by Vieta as a royal officer. While at Tours he discovered the key to a Spanish cipher, consisting of more than 500 characters, and thenceforward all the despatches in that language which fell into the hands of the French could be easily read. His fame now rests, however, entirely upon his achievements in mathematics. Being a man of wealth, he printed at his own expense the numerous papers which he wrote on various branches of this science, and communicated them to scholars in almost every country of Europe. An evidence of the good use he made of his means, as well as of the kindliness of his character, is furnished by the fact that he entertained as a guest for a whole month a scientific adversary, Adriaan van Roomen, and then paid the expenses of his journey home. Vieta's writings thus became very quickly known; but, when Franciscus van Schooten issued a general edition of his works in 1646, he failed to make a complete collection, although probably nothing of very great value has perished.

The form of Vieta's writings is their weak side. He indulged freely in flourishes; and in devising technical terms derived from the Greek he seems to have aimed at making them as unintelligible as possible. None of them, in point of fact, has held its ground, and even his proposal to denote unknown quantities by the vowels A, E, I, O, U, Y-the consonants B, C, &c., being reserved for general known quantities-has not been taken up. In this denotation he followed, perhaps, some older contemporaries, as Ramus, who designated the points in geometrical figures by vowels, making use of consonants, R, S, T, &c., only when these were exhausted. Vieta is wont to be called the father of modern algebra. This does not mean, what is often alleged, that nobody before him had ever thought of choosing symbols different from numerals, such as the letters of the alphabet, to denote the quantities of arithmetic, but that he made a general custom of what until his time had been only an exceptional attempt. All that is wanting in his writings, especially in his Isagoge in artem analyticam (1591), in order to make them look like a modern school algebra, is merely the sign of equality-a want which is the more striking because Robert Recorde had made use of our present symbol for this purpose since 1557, and Xylander had employed vertical parallel lines since 1575. On the other hand, Vieta was well skilled in most modern artifices, aiming at a simplification of equations by the substitution of new quantities having a certain connexion with the primitive unknown quantities. Another of his works, Recensio canonica effectionum geometricarum, bears a stamp not less modern, being what we now call an algebraic geometry-in other words, a collection of precepts how to construct algebraic expressions with the use of rule and compass only. While these writings were generally intelligible, and therefore of the greatest didactic importance, the principle of homogeneity, first enunciated by Vieta, was so far in advance of his times that most readers seem to have passed it over without adverting to its value. That principle had been made use of by the Greek authors of the classic age; but of later mathematicians only Hero, Diophantus, &c., ventured to regard lines and surfaces as mere numbers that could be joined to give a new number, their sum. It may be that the study of such sums, which he found in the works of Diophantus, prompted him to lay it down as a principle that quantities occurring in an equation ought to be homogeneous, all of them lines, or surfaces, or solids, or supersolidsan equation between mere numbers being inadmissible. During the three centuries that have elapsed between Vieta's day and our own several changes of opinion have taken place on this subject, till the principle has at last proved so far victorious that modern mathematicians like to make homogeneous such equations as are not so from the beginning, in order to get values of a symmetrical shape. Vieta himself, of course, did not see so far as that; nevertheless the merit cannot be denied him of having indirectly suggested the thought. Nor are his writings lacking in actual inventions. He conceived methods for the general resolution of equations of the second, third and fourth degrees different from those of Ferro and Ferrari, with which, however, it is difficult to believe him to have been unacquainted. He devised an approximate numerical solution of equations of the second and third degrees, wherein Leonardo of Pisa must have preceded him, but by a method every vestige of which is completely lost. He knew the connexion existing between the positive roots of an equation (which, by the way, were alone thought of as roots) and the coefficients of the different powers of the unknown quantity. He found out the formula for deriving the sine of a multiple angle, knowing that of the simple angle with due regard to the periodicity of sines. This formula must have been known to Vieta in 1593. In that year Adriaan van Roomen gave out as a problem to all mathematicians an equation of the 45th degree, which, being recognized by Vieta as depending on the equation between sin and sin 6/45, was resolved by him at once, all the twenty-three positive roots of which the said equation

was capable being given at the same time (see TRIGONOMETRY). Such was the first encounter of the two scholars. A second took place when Vieta pointed to Apollonius's problem of taction as not yet being mastered, and Adriaan van Roomen gave a solution by the hyperbola. Vieta, however, did not accept it, as there existed a solution by means of the rule and the compass only, which he published himself in his Apollonius Gallus (1600). In this paper Vieta made use of the centre of similitude of two circles. Lastly he gave an infinite product for the number (see CIRCLE, SQUARING OF). Vieta's collected works were issued under the title of Opera Mathematica by F van Schooten at Leiden in 1646. (M. CA.)

VIEUXTEMPS, HENRI (1820-1881), Belgian violinist and composer, was born at Verviers, on the 20th of February 1820. Until his seventh year he was a pupil of Lecloux, but when De Bériot heard him he adopted him as his pupil, taking him to appear in Paris in 1828. From 1833 onwards he spent the greater part of his life in concert tours, visiting all parts of the world with uniform success. He first appeared in London at a Philharmonic concert on the 2nd of June 1834, and in the following year studied composition with Reicha in Paris, and began to produce a long series of works, full of formidably difficult passages, though also of pleasing themes and fine musical ideas, which are consequently highly appreciated by violinists. From 1846 to 1852 he was solo violinist to the tsar, and professor in the conservatorium in St Petersburg. From 1871 to 1873 he was teacher of the violin class in the Brussels Conservatoire, but was disabled by an attack of paralysis in the latter year, and from that time could only superintend the studies of favourite pupils. He died at Mustapha, in Algiers, on the 6th of June 1881. He had a perfect command of technique, faultless intonation and a marvellous command of the bow. His staccato was famous all over the world, and his tone was exceptionally rich and full.

VIGAN, a town and the capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, Luzon, Philippine Islands, at the mouth of the Abra river, about 200 m. N. by W. of Manila. Pop. of the municipality (1903) 14,945; after the census of 1903 was taken there were united to Vigan the municipalities of Bantay (pop. 7020), San Vicente (pop. 5060), Santa Catalina (pop. 5625) and Coayan (pop. 6201), making the total population of the municipality 38,851. Vigan is the residence of the bishop of Nueva Segovia and has a fine cathedral, a substantial court-house, other durable public buildings and a monument to Juan de Salcedo, its founder. It is engaged in farming, fishing, the manufacture of brick, tile, cotton fabrics and furniture, and the building of boats. The language is Ilocano.

VIGÉE-LEBRUN, MARIE-ANNE ELISABETH (1755-1842), French painter, was born in Paris, the daughter of a painter, from whom she received her first instruction, though she benefited more by the advice of Doyen, Greuze, Joseph Vernet and other masters of the period. When only about twenty years of age she had already risen to fame with her portraits of Count Orloff and the duchess of Orleans, her personal charm making her at the same time a favourite in society. In 1776 she married the painter and art-critic J. B. P. Lebrun, and in 1783 her picture of "Peace bringing back Abundance" (now at the Louvre) gained her the membership of the Academy. When the Revolution broke out in 1789 she escaped first to Italy, where she worked at Rome and Naples. At Rome she painted the portraits of Princesses Adelaide and Victoria, and now in the at Naples the "Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante collection of Mr Tankerville Chamberlayne; and then journeyed to Vienna, Berlin and St Petersburg. She returned to Paris in 1781, but went in the following year to London, where she painted the portraits of Lord Byron and the prince of Wales, and in 1808 to Switzerland. Her numerous journeys, and the vogue she enjoyed wherever she went, account for the the great collections of many countries. Having returned to numerous portraits from her brush that are to be found in France from Switzerland, she lived first at her country house near Marly and then in Paris, where she died at the age of eighty-seven, in 1842, having been widowed for twenty-nine years. She published her own memoirs under the title of Souvenirs (Paris, 1835-37). Among her many sitters was