city of the province of Mondovi, in the kingdom of Sardinia. It stands on a hill between the rivers Sturo and Tanaro, 18 miles N.E. of Cuneo, and contains several churches and other religious houses. Pop. 6000.

Benedicite, among ecclesiastical writers, an appellation given to the song of the three children in the fiery furnace, on account of its beginning with the word benedicite. The use of this song in Christian worship is very ancient, having been sung in all the churches as early as the time of St Chrysostom.

Benedict, Sr., the founder of the order of the Benedictine monks, was born in Italy about A.D. 480. He received the first part of his education at Rome; and at fourteen years of age he removed to Sublaco (Subiaco), about thirty miles distant. Here he lived an ascetic life, shut up in a cavern, where nobody knew anything of him except St Romanus, who used to descend to him by a rope, and supply him with food. Being afterwards discovered by the monks of a neighbouring monastery, they chose him for their abbot; but as their manners were not in accordance with his own, he returned to his solitude. Many persons followed him and put themselves under his direction; so that in a short time he was enabled to build twelve monasteries. In the year 528 or 529 he retired to Monte Cassino, where idolatry was still prevalent, a temple of Apollo having been erected there. He instructed the people in the adjacent country, and, having converted them, broke in pieces the image of Apollo, and built two chapels on the mountain. Here he also founded a monastery, and instituted the order of his name, which in time became so famous, and extended itself all over Europe. In this place, too, he composed his Regula Monachorum, which Gregory the Great speaks of as the most sensible and best written piece of the kind ever published. The period of his death is uncertain. He was looked upon as the Elisha of his time, and is reported to have wrought a great number of miracles, which are recorded in the second book of the Dialogues of St Gregory the Great.

Benedict, abbot of Peterborough, an ancient English historian. He was educated at Oxford, became a monk in the monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury, and was some time afterwards chosen prior by the members of that society. Although a great admirer and the biographer of Thomas à Becket, he was so much esteemed by Henry II. that, by the influence of that prince, he was elected abbot of Peterborough A.D. 1177. He assisted at the coronation of Richard I. in 1189, and was appointed keeper of the great seal in 1191. He died on Michaelmas day 1193. He wrote, besides his life of à Becket, a history of Henry II. and Richard I., from 1170 to 1192, which was published at Oxford by Hearne in 1785, 2 vols. 8vo.

Benedict XIV., Pope (Prosper Lambertini), was born of an illustrious family, at Bologna, in 1675. He was celebrated for his learning, moderation, and exemplary life, which gained him the esteem even of Protestants. He greatly patronized learned men and celebrated artists, and was an elaborate writer on theological subjects. His works fill 16 vols. 4to. He succeeded Clement XII. in 1740, and died in 1758, at the age of eighty-three.