Baxter, Richard, the most eminent of the English nonconforming divines of the seventeenth century, born in Rowton, Shropshire, 1615; ordained in 1638; parish minister of Kidderminster in 1640. The imposition of the oath of universal approbation of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England (the et cætera oath) detached him from the Establishment. After the battle of Naseby he accepted the chaplaincy of Colonel Whalley's regiment. He can scarcely be said, however, to have separated as yet in spirit from the Establishment. He upheld the monarchy, condemned the execution of the king and the election of Cromwell, preached against the Covenant and against separatists and sectaries, but his piety won him the respect of all parties. At the Restoration he became king's chaplain, but declined the bishopric of Hereford, and on the passage of the Act of Uniformity threw in his lot entirely with the nonconformists. In 1685 he was arrested, refused a hearing by Jeffreys, and imprisoned. After his release he lived in retirement till his death in 1691. He left about 150 treatises, of which his Saints' Everlasting Rest, Call to the Unconverted, and Reformed Pastor have been the most popular.—Bibliography: William Orme, Life and Times of Richard Baxter; J. Stalker, Lecture on Baxter in The Evangelical Succession; M‘Adam Muir, Religious Writers of England; Currier, Nine Great Preachers.
Baxterians, followers of Baxter in respect of his attempted compromise between Calvinism and Arminianism. They reject the doctrine of reprobation, admit a universal potential salvation, becoming actual in the case of the elect, and assert the possibility of falling from grace. The Baxterians never formed a sect or even a school, but were men of independent minds, distinguishing between essentials and non-essentials: in things necessary, unity; in things doubtful, liberty; in all things, charity. The two most eminent Baxterians were Dr. Isaac Watts and Dr. Philip Doddridge.—Cf. M‘Adam Muir, Religious Writers of England.
Bay, the laurel tree, noble laurel, or sweet-bay (Laurus nobĭlis); but the term is loosely given to many trees and shrubs resembling this. A fatty or fixed oil (used in veterinary medicine) and also a volatile oil are obtained from the berries, but what is called 'bayberry oil' is also obtained from the genus Myrica or candleberry. In N. America the fragrant-flowered Magnolia glauca is called sweet-bay, the red-bay being Laurus carolinensis, the loblolly-bay Gordonia lasianthus. See Laurel.
Bay, in geography, an indentation of some size into the shore of a sea or lake, generally said to be one with a wider entrance than a gulf.
Bay, in architecture, a term applied to a recessed division or compartment of a building, as that marked off by buttresses or pillars.
Ba´ya, the weaver-bird (Plocĕus philippīnus), an interesting East Indian passerine bird, somewhat like the bullfinch. Its nest resembles a bottle, and is suspended from the branch of a tree. The entrance is from beneath, and there are two chambers, one for the male, the other for the female. The baya is easily tamed, and will fetch and carry at command.
Bayaderes (bā-a-dērz´), the general European name for the dancing and singing girls of India, some of whom are attached to the service of the Hindu temples, while others travel about and dance at entertainments for hire. Those in the service of the temples are generally devoted to this profession (including that of prostitution) from their childhood.
Bayamo (ba˙-yä´mō), or St. Salvador, a town in the east of Cuba, near the Cauto. Pop. 18,180.
Bayard (ba˙-yär), Pierre du Terrail, Seigneur de, the Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, born in 1476 in Castle Bayard, near Grenoble, in Southern France. At the age of eighteen he accompanied Charles VIII to Italy, and in the battle of Fornovo took a standard. At the beginning of the reign of Louis XII, in a battle near Milan, he entered the city at the heels of the fugitives, and was taken prisoner, but released by Ludovico Sforza without ransom. In Apulia he killed his calumniator, Sotomayor, and afterwards defended a bridge over the Garigliano singly against the Spaniards,