CARUS, MARCUS AURELIUS, Roman emperor a.d. 282-283, was born probably at Narbona (more correctly, Narona) in Illyria, but was educated at Rome. He was a senator, and had filled various civil and military posts before he was appointed prefect of the praetorian guards by the emperor Probus, after whose murder at Sirmium he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Although Carus severely avenged the death of Probus, he was himself suspected of having been an accessory to the deed. He does not seem to have returned to Rome after his accession, but contented himself with an announcement of the fact to the senate. Bestowing the title of Caesar upon his sons Carinus and Numerianus, he left Carinus in charge of the western portion of the empire, and took Numerianus with him on the expedition against the Persians which had been contemplated by Probus. Having defeated the Quadi and Sarmatians on the Danube, Carus proceeded through Thrace and Asia Minor, conquered Mesopotamia, pressed on to Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and carried his arms beyond the Tigris. But his hopes of further conquest were cut short by his death. One day, after a violent storm, it was announced that he was dead. His death was variously attributed to disease, the effects of lightning, or a wound received in a campaign against the Huns; but it seems more probable that he was murdered by the soldiers, who were averse from further campaigns against Persia, at the instigation of Arrius Aper, prefect of the praetorian guard. Carus seems to have belied the hopes entertained of him on his accession, and to have developed into a morose and suspicious tyrant.
CARVACROL, or CYMOPHENOL, C10H13OH, or
a constituent of the ethereal oil of Origanum hirtum, oil of thyme, oil obtained from pepperwort, and wild bergamot. It may be synthetically prepared by the fusion of cymol sulphonic acid with caustic potash; by the action of nitrous acid on 1-methyl-2-amino-4-propyl benzene; by prolonged heating of 5 parts of camphor with 1 part of iodine; or by heating carvol with glacial phosphoric acid. It is extracted from Origanum oil by means of a 10% potash solution. It is a thick oil which sets at -20°C. to a mass of crystals of melting point 0°C, and boiling point 236-237°C. Oxidation with ferric chloride converts it into dicarvacrol, whilst phosphorus pentachloride transforms it into chlorcymol.
CARVAJAL, ANTONIO FERNANDEZ (d. 1659), a Portuguese Marano (q.v.) or Crypto-Jew, who came to England in the reign of Charles I. He was the first “endenizened” Jew in England, and by his extensive trade with the West Indies rendered considerable services to the Commonwealth. Besides his commercial value to Cromwell, Carvajal was politically useful also, for he acted as “intelligencer.” When Manasseh ben Israel in 1655 petitioned for the return of the Jews who had been expelled by Edward I., Carvajal took part in the agitation and boldly avowed his Judaism. Carvajal may be termed the founder of the Anglo-Jewish community. He died in 1659.
See Lucien Wolf, “The First English Jew,” Trans. Jewish Historical Society, ii. 14.
CARVAJAL, LUISA DE (1568-1614), Spanish missionary in England, was born at Jaraicejo in Estremadura on the 2nd of January 1568. Her father, Don Francisco de Carvajal, was the head of an old and wealthy family which produced many men of note. Her mother, Doña Maria, belonged to the powerful house of Mendoza. Both were people of pious character. The mother died in 1572 from a fever contracted while visiting the poor, and the father took the disease from his wife, and died of it. Luisa and a brother were left to the care of their grand-aunt Maria Chacon, governess of the young children of Philip II. On her death they passed to the care of their maternal uncle, Francisco Hurtado de Mendoza, count of Almazan. The count, who was named viceroy of Navarre by Philip II., was an able public servant in whom religious zeal was carried to the point of inhuman asceticism. His niece attracted his favour by her manifest disposition to the religious life; she sent her own share of dinner to the poor, ate broken meats, wore a chain next her skin, and invited humiliation; and at the age of seventeen she was instructed by the count to make a surrender of her will to two female servants whom he set over her, and by whom she was repeatedly scourged while naked, trampled upon and otherwise ill-treated. But when Luisa came of age she refused to enter a religious house, and decided to devote herself to the conversion of England. The execution of the Jesuit emissary priest, Henry Walpole, in 1596 had moved her deeply, and she prepared herself by learning English and by the study of divinity. A lawsuit with her brother caused temporary delay, but she secured her share of the family fortune, which she devoted to founding a college for English Jesuits at Louvain; it was transferred to Watten near Saint Omer in 1612, and lasted till the suppression of the Order. In 1605 she was allowed to go to England. She established herself under the protection of the Spanish ambassador, whose house was in the Barbican. From this place of safety she carried on an active and successful propaganda. She made herself conspicuous by her attentions to the Gunpowder Plot prisoners, and won converts, partly by persuasion, partly by helping women of the very poorest class in childbirth, and taking charge of the children. Her activity attracted the attention of the authorities, and she was arrested in 1608. But the protection of the Spanish ambassador Zuñiga, and the desire of King James I. to stand well with Spain, secured her release. In 1613, while staying at a house in Spitalfields, where she had in fact set up a disguised nunnery, she was arrested with all the inmates by the pursuivants of Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, who had been on the watch for some time. Her release was again secured by the new Spanish ambassador Gondomar, who played with effect on the weakness of King James. By this time, however, the Spanish authorities had begun to discover that she was a political danger to them, and recalled her. Luisa, who had hoped for the crown of martyrdom, was bitterly disappointed, and resisted the order. Before she could be forced to obey she died in the Spanish ambassador’s house on her birthday, the 2nd of January 1614. Her body remained as an object of admiration for months till it was carried back to Spain.