CLISSON, OLIVIER DE (1336-1407), French soldier, was the son of the Olivier de Clisson who was put to death in 1343 on the suspicion of having wished to give up Nantes to the English. He was brought up in England, where his mother, Jeanne de Belleville, had married her second husband. On his return to Brittany he took arms on the side of de Montfort, distinguishing himself at the battle of Auray (1364), but in consequence of differences with Duke John IV. went over to the side of Blois. In 1370 he joined Bertrand du Guesclin, who had lately become constable of France, and followed him in all his campaigns against the English. On the death of du Guesclin Clisson received the constable’s sword (1380). He fought with the citizens of Ghent, defeating them at Roosebek (1382), later on commanded the army in Poitou and Flanders (1389), and made an unsuccessful attempt to invade England. On his return to Paris, in 1392, an attempt was made to assassinate him by Pierre de Craon, at the instigation of John IV. of Brittany. In order to punish the latter, Charles VI., accompanied by the constable, marched on Brittany, but it was on this expedition that the king was seized with madness. The uncles of Charles VI. took proceedings against Clisson, so that he had to take refuge in Brittany. He was reconciled with John IV., and after the duke’s death, in 1399, he became protector of the duchy, and guardian of the young princes. He had gathered vast wealth before his death on the 23rd of April 1407.
CLISSON, a town of western France, in the department of Loire-Inférieure, prettily situated at the confluence of the Sèvre Nantaise and the Moine 17 m. S.E. of Nantes by rail. Pop. (1906) 2244. The town gave its name to the celebrated family of Clisson, of which the most famous member was Olivier de Clisson. It has the imposing ruins of their stronghold, parts of which date from the 13th century. The town and castle were destroyed in 1792 and 1793 during the Vendean wars. The sculptor F. F. Lemont afterwards bought the castle, and the town was rebuilt in the early part of the 19th century according to his plans. There are picturesque parks on the banks of the rivers. The Moine is crossed by an old Gothic bridge and by a fine modern viaduct.
CLITHEROE, a market town and municipal borough in the Clitheroe parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 220 m. N.N.W. from London and 35 m. N. by W. from Manchester, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1901) 11,414. It is finely situated in the valley of the Ribble, at the foot of Pendle Hill, a steep plateau-like mass rising to 1831 ft. The church of St Mary Magdalene, though occupying an ancient site, is wholly modernized. There are a grammar school, founded in 1554, and a technical school. On a rocky elevation commanding the valley stands the keep and other fragments of a Norman castle, but part of the site is occupied by a modern mansion. The industrial establishments comprise cotton-mills, print-works, paper-mills, foundries, and brick and lime works. The corporation consists of a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 2385 acres.
Stonyhurst College, 5 m. S.W. of Clitheroe, is the principal establishment in England for Roman Catholic students. The Jesuits of St Omer, after emigrating to Bruges and Liége, were disorganized by the revolutionary troubles at the close of the 18th century, and a large body came to England, when Thomas Weld, in 1795, conferred his property of Stonyhurst upon them. The fine and extensive buildings, of which the nucleus is a mansion of the 17th century, contain a public school for boys and a house of studies for Jesuit ecclesiastics, while there is a preparatory school at a short distance. Every branch of study is prosecuted, the college including such institutions as an observatory, laboratories and farm buildings.
The Honour of Clitheroe, the name of which is also written Clyderhow and Cletherwoode, was first held by Roger de Poictou, who was almost certainly the builder of the castle, which was dismantled in 1649. He granted it to Robert de Lacy, in whose family it remained with two short intervals until it passed by marriage to Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1310. It formed part of the duchy of Lancaster till Charles II. at the Restoration bestowed it on General Monk, from whose family it descended through the house of Montague to that of Buccleuch. The Clitheroe Estate Company are the present lords of the Honour. The first charter was granted about 1283 to the burgesses by Henry de Lacy, second earl of Lincoln, confirming the liberties granted by the first Henry de Lacy, who is therefore sometimes said, although probably erroneously, to have granted a charter about 1147. The 1283 charter was confirmed by Edward III. in 1346, Henry V. in 1413-1414, Henry VIII. in 1542, and James I. in 1604. Of the fairs, those on December 7th to 9th and March 24th to 26th are held under a charter of Henry IV. in 1409. A weekly market has been held on Saturday since the Conqueror’s days. In 1558 the borough was granted two members of parliament, and continued to return them till 1832, when the number was reduced to one. Under the Redistribution Act of 1885 the borough was disfranchised. The municipal government was formerly vested in an in-bailiff and an out-bailiff elected annually from the in and out burgesses. A court-leet and court-baron used to be held half-yearly, but both are now obsolete. The present corporation governs under the Municipal Corporation Act (1837). There was a church or chapel here in early times, and a chaplain is mentioned in Henry II.’s reign.
CLITOMACHUS, Greek philosopher, was a Carthaginian originally named Hasdrubal, who came to Athens about the middle of the 2nd century B.C. at the age of twenty-four. He made himself well acquainted with Stoic and Peripatetic philosophy; but he studied principally under Carneades, whose views he adopted, and whom he succeeded as chief of the New Academy in 129 B.C. He made it his business to spread the knowledge of the doctrines of Carneades, who left nothing in writing himself. Clitomachus’ works were some four hundred in number; but we possess scarcely anything but a few titles, among which are De sustinendis assensionibus (Περὶ ἐποχῆς, “on suspension of judgment”) and Περὶ αἱρέσεων (an account of various philosophical sects). In 146 he wrote a treatise to console his countrymen after the ruin of their city, in which he insisted that a wise man ought not to feel grieved at the destruction of his country. Cicero highly commends his works and admits his own debt in the Academics to the treatise Περὶ ἐποχῆς. Parts of Cicero’s De Natura and De Divinatione, and the treatise De Fato are also in the main based upon Clitomachus.