Chapter VII: Front Matter (7)

DONATION OF CONSTANTINE (_Donatio Constantini_), the supposed grant by the emperor Constantine, in gratitude for his conversion by Pope Silvester, to that pope and his successors for ever, not only of spiritual supremacy over the other great patriarchates and over all matters of faith and worship, but also of temporal dominion over Rome, Italy and "the provinces, places and _civitates_ of the western regions." The famous document, known as the _Constitutum Constantini_ and compounded of various elements (notably the apocryphal _Vita S. Silvestri_), was forged at Rome some time between the middle and end of the 8th century, was included in the 9th century in the collection known as the False Decretals, two centuries later was incorporated in the _Decretum_ by a pupil of Gratian, and in Gibbon's day was still "enrolled among the decrees of the canon law," though already rejected "by the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Roman church." It is now universally admitted to be a gross forgery.[1] In spite, however, of Gibbon's characteristic scepticism on this point, it is certain that the _Constitutum_ was regarded as genuine both by the friends and the enemies of the papal pretensions throughout the middle ages.[2] Though no use of it was made by the popes during the 9th and 10th centuries, it was quoted as authoritative by eminent ecclesiastics of the Frankish empire (e.g. by Ado of Vienne and Hincmar of Reims), and it was employed by two Frankish popes, Gregory V. and Silvester II., in urging certain territorial claims. But not till 1050 was it made the basis of the larger papal claims, when another Frankish pope, Leo IX., used it in his controversy with the Byzantines. From this time forward it was increasingly used by popes and canonists in support of the papal pretensions, and from the 12th century onwards became a powerful weapon of the spiritual against the temporal powers. It is, however, as Cardinal Hergenrother points out, possible to exaggerate its importance in this respect; a charter purporting to be a grant by an emperor to a pope of spiritual as well as temporal jurisdiction was at best a double-edged weapon; and the popes generally preferred to base their claim to universal sovereignty on their direct commission as vicars of God. By the partisans of the Empire, on the other hand, the Donation was looked upon as the _fons et origo malorum_, and Constantine was regarded as having, in his new-born zeal, betrayed his imperial trust. The expression of this opinion is not uncommon in medieval literature (e.g. Walther von der Vogelweide, Pfeiffer's edition, 1880, Nos. 85 and 164), the most famous instance being in the _Inferno_ of Dante (xix. 115):

"Ahi, Costantin, di questo mal fu matre
Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote
Che da te prese il primo ricco patre!"

The genuineness of the _Constitutum_ was first critically assailed by Laurentius Valla in 1440, whose _De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio_ opened a controversy that lasted until, at the close of the 18th century, the defence was silenced. In modern times the controversy as to the genuineness of the document has been succeeded by a debate scarcely less lively as to its date, its authorship and place of origin. The efforts of Roman Catholic scholars have been directed (since Baronius ascribed the forgery to the Greeks) to proving that the fraud was not committed at Rome. Thus Cardinal Hergenrother holds that it was written by a Frank in the 9th century, in order to prove that the Greeks had been rightfully expelled from Italy and that Charlemagne was legitimate emperor. This view, with variations, was maintained by the writer of an article in the _Civilta cattolica_ in 1864 (_Serie_ v. vol. x. pp. 303, &c.) and supported by Grauert, who maintains that the document was concocted at the abbey of St Denis, after 840. The evidence now available, however, confirms those who ascribe an earlier date to the forgery and place it at Rome. The view held by Gibbon and Dollinger among others,[3] that the _Constitutum_ is referred to in the letter of Pope Adrian I. to Charlemagne (778), is now indeed largely rejected; there is nothing in the letter to make such an assumption safe, and the same must be said of Friedrich's attempt to find such reference in the letter addressed in 785 by the same pope to Constantine VI., emperor of the East, and his mother Irene. Still less safe is it to ascribe the authorship of the forgery to any particular pope on the ground of its style; for papal letters were drawn up in the papal chancery and the style employed there was apt to persist through several pontificates. Friedrich's theory that the _Constitutum_ is a composite document, part written in the 7th century, part added by Paul I. when a deacon under Stephen II., though supported by a wealth of learning, has been torn to tatters by more than one critic (G. Kruger, L. Loening).

On one point, however, a fair amount of agreement seems now to have been reached, a result due to the labour in collating documents of Scheffer-Boichorst, namely, that the style of the _Constitutum_ is generally that of the papal chancery in the latter half of the 8th century. This being granted, there is room for plentiful speculation as to where and why it was concocted. We may still hold the opinion of Dollinger that it was intended to impress the barbarian Pippin and justify in his eyes the Frank intervention in favour of the pope in Italy; or we may share the view of Loening (rejected by Brunner, _Rechtsgeschichte_) that the forgery was a pious fraud on the part of a cleric of the Curia, committed under Adrian I.,[4] with the idea of giving a legal basis to territorial dominion which that pope had succeeded in establishing in Italy. The donations of Pippin and Charlemagne established him as sovereign _de facto_; the donation of Constantine was to proclaim him as sovereign _de jure_. It is significant in this connexion that it was under Adrian (c. 774) that the papal chancery ceased to date by the regnal years of the Eastern emperor and substituted that of the pontificate. Dollinger's view is supported and carried a step further by H. Bohmer, who by an ingenious argument endeavours to prove that the _Constitutum_ was forged in 753, probably by the notary Christophorus, and was carried with him by Pope Stephen II. to the court of Pippin, in 754, with an eye to the acquisition of the Exarchate. In support of this argument it is to be noted that the forged document first appears at the abbey of St Denis, where Stephen spent the winter months of 754. E. Mayer, on the other hand, denies that the _Constitutum_ can have been forged before the news of the iconoclastic decrees of the council of Constantinople of 754 had reached Rome. He lays stress on the relation of the supposed confession of faith of Constantine, embodied in the forgery, to that issued by the emperor Constantine V., pointing out the efforts made by the Byzantines between 756 and the synod of Gentilly in 767 to detach Pippin from the cause of Rome and the holy images. The forgery thus had a double object: as a weapon against Byzantine heresy and as a defence of the papal patrimony. As the result of an exhaustive analysis of the text and of the political and religious events of the time, Mayer comes to the conclusion that the document was forged about 775, i.e. at the time when Charlemagne was beginning to reverse the policy by which in 774 he had confirmed the possession of the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento to the pope.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See Dollinger, _Papstfabeln des Mittelalters_ (Munich,
1863; Eng. trans. A. Plummer, 1871); "Janus," _Der Pabst und das
Konzil_ (Munich, 1869; Eng. trans. 1869); Hergenrother, _Catholic
Church and Christian State_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1872; Eng. trans. 2
vols. 1876); W. Martens, _Die romische Frage unter Pippin u. Karl d.
Grossen_ (Stuttgart, 1881), with text; H. Grauert, "Die
Konstantinische Schenkung" in _Hist. Jahrb. der Gorres-Gesellsch._
iii. (1882), iv. (1883); Langen, "Entstehung u. Tendenz der Konst.
Schenkungsurkunde" in Sybel's _Hist. Zeitschr. l._ (1883); L. Weiland,
"Die Konst. Schenkung" in _Zeitschr. f. Kirchenrecht_, xxii.
(1887-1888), maintains that the _Constitutum_ was forged at Rome
between 813 and 875, in connexion with the papal claim to crown the
emperors; H. Brunner and K. Zeumer, _Die Konstantinische
Schenkungsurkunde_ (Berlin, 1888; Festgaben fur R. v. Gneist), with
text; Friedrich, _Die Konst. Schenkung_ (Nordlingen, 1889), with text;
W. Martens, _Die falsche Generalkonzession Konstantins des Grossen_
(Munich, 1889); P. Scheffer-Boichorst, "Neue Forschungen uber die
Konst. Schenkung," i. ii. _Mitteilungen des Instituts fur osterr.
Geschichtsforschung_, x. (1889), xi. (1890); G. Kruger, "Die Frage der
Entstehungszeit der Konst. Schenkung," in _Theologische
Literaturzeitung_, xiv. (1889); J. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_,
vol. vii. p. 135 (Oxford, 1899); article "Konstantinische Schenkung,"
G. H. Bohmer, in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencykl._ (1902); E. Mayer, "Die
Schenkungen Konstantins und Pipins" in _Deutsche Zeitschr. fur
Kirchenrecht_ (Tubingen, 1904). Laurentius Valla's treatise was issued
in a new edition, with French translation and historical introduction,
by A. Bonneau, _La Donation de Constantin_ (Lisieux, 1879).
(W. A. P.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Dr Hodgkin's suggestion (_Italy and her Invaders_, vii. p. 153)
that the _Constitutum_ may have been originally a mere pious romance,
recognized as such by its author and his contemporaries, and laid up
in the papal archives until its origin was forgotten, is wholly
inconsistent with the unquestioned results of the critical analysis
of the text.

[2] Leo of Vercelli, the emperor Otto III.'s chancellor, protested
that the _Constitutum_ was a forgery, but without effect. The attacks
upon it by the heretical followers of Arnold of Brescia (1152)
convinced neither the partisans of the pope nor those of the emperor.

[3] So Langen (1883) and E. Mayer (1904).

[4] This is also W. Mayer's view in his later work. In his _Die
romische Frage_ (1881) he had placed the forgery in 805 or 806.

DONATISTS, a powerful sect which arose in the Christian church of northern Africa at the beginning of the 4th century.[1] In its doctrine it sprang from the same roots, and in its history it had in many things the same character, as the earlier Novatians. The predisposing causes of the Donatist schism were the belief, early introduced into the African church, that the validity of all sacerdotal acts depended upon the personal character of the agent, and the question, arising out of that belief, as to the eligibility for sacerdotal office of the _traditores_, or those who had delivered up their copies of the Scriptures under the compulsion of the Diocletian persecution; the exciting cause was the election of a successor to Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, who died in 311. Mensurius had held moderate views as to the treatment of the _traditores_, and accordingly a strong fanatical party had formed itself in Carthage in opposition to him, headed by a wealthy and influential widow named Lucilla, and countenanced by Secundus of Tigisis, _episcopus primae sedis_ in Numidia. There were thus two parties, each anxious to secure the succession to the vacant see. The friends of the late bishop fixed their choice on Caecilian, the archdeacon, and secured his election and his consecration by Felix, the bishop of Aptunga, before the other party were ready for action. It had been customary for the Numidian bishops to be present at the election and consecration of the bishop of Carthage, who as metropolitan of proconsular Africa occupied a position of primacy towards all the African provinces. Caecilian's party, however, had not waited for them, knowing them to be in sympathy with their opponents. Soon after Caecilian's consecration, Secundus sent a commission to Carthage, which appointed an interventor temporarily to administer the bishopric which they regarded as vacant. Then Secundus himself with seventy of the Numidian bishops arrived at Carthage. A synod of Africa was formed, before which Caecilian was summoned; his consecration was declared invalid, on the ground that Felix had been a traditor; and finally, having refused to obey the summons to appear, he was excommunicated, and the lector Majorinus, a dependant of Lucilla's, consecrated in his stead. This synod forbade the African churches to hold communion with Caecilian, the schism became overt, and in a very short time there were rival bishops and rival churches throughout the whole province.

It was soon clear, by the exclusion of the "Pars Majorini" from certain privileges conferred on the African church, that the sympathies of Constantine were with the other party (Eusebius, _Hist. eccl._ x. 6, 7). To investigate the dispute an imperial commission was issued to five Gallic bishops, under the presidency of Melchiades, bishop of Rome. The number of referees was afterwards increased to twenty, and the case was tried at Rome in 313.[2] Ten bishops appeared on each side, the leading representative of the Donatists being Donatus of Casae Nigrae. The decision was entirely in favour of Caecilian, and Donatus was found guilty of various ecclesiastical offences. An appeal was taken and allowed; but the decision of the synod of Arles in 314 not only confirmed the position of Caecilian, but greatly strengthened it by passing a canon that ordination was not invalid because performed by a traditor, if otherwise regular. Felix had previously been declared innocent after an examination of records and witnesses at Carthage. A further appeal to the emperor in person was heard at Milan in 316, when all points were finally decided in favour of Caecilian, probably on the advice of Hosius, bishop of Cordova. Henceforward the power of the state was directed to the suppression of the defeated party. Persistent Donatists were no longer merely heretics; they were rebels and incurred the confiscation of their church property and the forfeiture of their civil rights.

The attempt to destroy the sect by force had the result of intensifying its fanaticism. Majorinus, the Donatist bishop of Carthage, died in 315, and was succeeded by Donatus, surnamed Magnus, a man of great force of character, under whose influence the schism gained fresh strength from the opposition it encountered. Force was met with force; the Circumcelliones, bands of fugitive slaves and vagrant (_circum cellas_) peasants, attached themselves to the Donatists, and their violence reached such a height as to threaten civil war. In 321 Constantine, seeing probably that he had been wrong in abandoning his usual policy of toleration, sought to retrace his steps by granting the Donatists liberty to act according to their consciences, and declaring that the points in dispute between them and the orthodox should be left to the judgment of God. This wise policy, to which he consistently adhered to the close of his reign, was not followed by his son and successor Constans, who, after repeated attempts to win over the sect by bribes, resorted to persecution. The renewed excesses of the Circumcelliones, among whom were ranged fugitive slaves, debtors and political malcontents of all kinds, had given to the Donatist schism a revolutionary aspect; and its forcible suppression may therefore have seemed to Constans even more necessary for the preservation of the empire than for the vindication of orthodoxy. The power which they had been the first to invoke having thus declared so emphatically and persistently against them, the Donatists revived the old world-alien Christianity of the days of persecution, and repeated Tertullian's question, "What has the emperor to do with the church?" (_Quid est imperatori cum ecclesia?_) Such an attitude aggravated the lawlessness of the Circumcellion adherents of the sect, and their outrages were in turn made the justification for the most rigorous measures against the whole Donatist party indiscriminately. Many of their bishops fell victims to the persecution, and Donatus (Magnus) and several others were banished from their sees.

With the accession of Julian (361) an entire change took place in the treatment of the Donatists. Their churches were restored and their bishops reinstated (Parmenianus succeeding the deceased Donatus at Carthage), with the natural result of greatly increasing both the numbers and the enthusiasm of the party. A return to the earlier policy of repression was made under Valentinian I. and Gratian, by whom the Donatist churches were again closed, and all their assemblies forbidden. It was not, however, until the commencement of the 5th century that the sect began to decline, owing largely to the rise among them of a group of moderate and scholarly men like the grammarian Tychonius, who vainly strove to overcome the more fanatical section. Against the house thus divided against itself both state and church directed not unsuccessful assaults. In 405 an edict was issued by the emperor Honorius commanding the Donatists, under the severest penalties, to return to the Catholic church. On the other hand, Augustine, bishop of Hippo, after several years' negotiation, arranged a great conference between the Donatists and the orthodox, which was held under the authority of the emperor at Carthage in 411. There were present 286 Catholics and 279 Donatist bishops. Before entering on the proceedings the Catholics pledged themselves, if defeated, to give up their sees, while in the other event they promised to recognize the Donatists as bishops on their simply declaring their adherence to the Catholic church. The latter proposal, though it was received with scorn at the time, had perhaps ultimately as much influence as the logic of Augustine in breaking the strength of the schism. The discussion, which lasted for three days, Augustine and Aurelius of Carthage being the chief speakers on the one side, and Primian and Petilian on the other, turned exclusively upon the two questions that had given rise to the schism--first, the question of fact, whether Felix of Aptunga who consecrated Caecilian had been a traditor; and secondly, the question of doctrine, whether a church by tolerance of unworthy members within its pale lost the essential attributes of purity and catholicity. The Donatist position, like that of the Novatians, was that the mark of the true church is to guard the essential predicate of holiness by excluding all who have committed mortal sin; the Catholic standpoint was that such holiness is not destroyed by the presence of unworthy members in the church but rests upon the divine foundation of the church and upon the gift of the Holy Spirit and the communication of grace through the priesthood. In the words of Optatus of Milevi, _sanctitas de sacramentis colligitur, non de superbia personarum pondera_. And the much wider diffusion of the orthodox church was also taken as practical confirmation that it alone possessed what was regarded as the equally essential predicate of catholicity.

The decision of Marcellinus, the imperial commissioner, was in favour of the Catholic party on both questions, and it was at once confirmed on an appeal to the emperor. The severest penal measures were enforced against the schismatics; in 414 they were denied all civil rights, in 415 the holding of assemblies was forbidden on pain of death. But they lived on, suffering with their orthodox brethren in the Vandal invasions of the 5th century, and like them finally disappearing before the Saracen onslaught two centuries later.

AUTHORITIES.--1. Contemporary sources: Optatus Milevitanus _De
Schismate Donatistarum adversus Parmenianum_, written c. 368 (Dupin's
ed., Paris, 1700), and several of the works of Augustine. 2. Modern:
C. W. F. Walch, _Entwurf einer vollstandigen Historie der Ketzereien_
(Leipzig, 1768); Hauck-Herzog, _Realencyk. fur prot. Theol._, art.
"Donatismus" by N. Bonwetsch, who cites the literature very fully; W.
Moller, _History of the Christian Church_ (vol. i. pp. 331 ff., 445
ff.); D. Volter, _Der Ursprung des Donatismus_ (Freiburg, 1883).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] There were three prominent men named Donatus connected with the
movement--Donatus of Casae Nigrae; Donatus surnamed Magnus, who
succeeded Majorinus as the Donatist bishop of Carthage; and Donatus
of Bagoi, a leader of the _circumcelliones_, who was captured and
executed c. 350. The name of the sect was derived from the second of
these. The Donatists themselves repudiated the designation, which was
applied to them by their opponents as a reproach. They called
themselves "Pars Majorini" or "Pars Donati."

[2] The Donatist movement affords a valuable illustration of the new
importance which the changed position of the church under Constantine
gave to the synodal system of ecclesiastical legislation.

DONATUS, AELIUS, Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric, flourished in the middle of the 4th century A.D. The only fact known regarding his life is that he was the tutor of St Jerome. He was the author of a number of professional works, of which there are still extant:--_Ars grammatica_; the larger portion of his commentary on Terence (a compilation from other commentaries), but probably not in its original form; and a few fragments of his notes on Virgil, preserved and severely criticized by Servius, together with the preface and introduction, and life of Virgil. The first of these works, and especially the section on the eight parts of speech, though possessing little claim to originality, and in fact evidently based on the same authorities which were used by the grammarians Charisius and Diomedes, attained such popularity as a school-book that in the middle ages the writer's name, like the French Calepin, became a common metonymy (in the form _donet_) for a rudimentary treatise of any sort. On the introduction of printing editions of the little book were multiplied to an enormous extent. It is extant in the form of an _Ars Minor_, which only treats of the parts of speech, and an _Ars Major_, which deals with grammar in general at greater length.

Aelius Donatus is to be distinguished from Tiberius Claudius Donatus, the author of a commentary (_Interpretationes_) on the Aeneid (of far less value than that of Servius), who lived about fifty years later.

The best text of the _Ars_ and the commentaries upon it by Servius and
others is in H. Keil, _Grammatici Latini_, iv.; of the commentary on
Terence there is an edition by P. Wessner (1902, Teubner series), with
bibliography and full account of MSS. See generally E. A. Grafenhan,
_Geschichte der klassischen Philologie im Altertum_, iv. (1850); P.
Rosenstock, _De Donato, Terenti ... explicatore_ (1886); H. T.
Karsten, _De comm. Don. ad Terenti fabulas origine et compositione_
(Leiden, 1907). For the commentary of Tiberius Donatus see O. Ribbeck,
Prolegomena to Virgil, Grafenhan (as above), and V. Burkas, _De
Tiberii Claudii Donati in Aeneidem commentario_ (1889). The text will
be found in G. Fabricius's edition of Virgil (1561), ed. by H. George,
i. (1905 foll.).

DONAUWORTH, a town of Germany in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the left bank of the Danube, at the confluence of the Wornitz, 25 m. N. of Augsburg by rail and at the junction of lines to Ulm and Ingolstadt. Pop. 5000. It is an ancient town and has several medieval buildings of interest. Notable among its seven churches (six Roman Catholic) are the Kloster-Kirche (monasterial), a beautiful Gothic edifice with the sarcophagus of Maria of Brabant, and that of the former Benedictine abbey, Heilig-Kreuz, with a lofty tower. Remarkable among secular buildings are the Gothic town hall, and the so-called Tanz-haus, which now includes both a theatre and a school. The industries embrace machinery, brewing and saw-milling; the place is of some importance as a river port, and the centre of a considerable agricultural trade.

Donauworth grew up in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries under the protection of the castle of Mangoldstein, became in the 13th a seat of the duke of Upper Bavaria, who, however, soon withdrew to Munich to escape from the _manes_ of his wife Maria of Brabant, whom he had there beheaded on an unfounded suspicion of infidelity. The town received the freedom of the Empire in 1308, and maintained its position in spite of the encroachments of Bavaria till 1607, when the interference of the Protestant inhabitants with the abbot of the Heilig-Kreuz called forth an imperial law authorizing the duke of Bavaria to inflict chastisement for the offence. In the Thirty Years' War it was stormed by Gustavus Adolphus (1632), and captured by King Ferdinand (1634). In the vicinity, on the Schellenberg, the Bavarians and French were defeated by Marlborough and Prince Louis of Baden on the 2nd of July 1704. The imperial freedom restored to the town by Joseph I. in 1705 was again lost by reincorporation with Bavaria in 1714. In the neighbourhood the Austrians under Mack were, on the 6th of October 1805, decisively defeated by the French under Soult.

See _Konigsdorfer, Geschichte des Klosters zum Heiligen Kreuz in
Donauworth_ (1819-20).

DON BENITO, a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz; near the left bank of the river Guadiana, on the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. Pop. (1900) 16,565. Don Benito is a thriving and comparatively modern town; for it dates only from the 15th century, when it was founded by refugees from Don Llorente, who deserted their own town owing to the danger of floods from the Guadiana. Besides manufactures of brandy, flour, oil, soap, linen and cloth, it has an active trade in wheat, wine and fruit, especially melons.

DONCASTER, a market-town and municipal borough in the Doncaster parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 156 m. N. by W. from London. Pop. (1901) 28,932. It lies in a flat plain on the river Don, with slight hills rising westward. It is an important station on the Great Northern railway, whose principal locomotive and carriage works are here, and it is also served by the North Eastern, Great Eastern, Great Central, Lancashire & Yorkshire, and Midland railways. The Don affords intercommunication with Goole and the Humber. The parish church of St George, occupying the site of an older structure of the same name, destroyed by fire in 1853, was finished in 1858 under the direction of Sir G. G. Scott. It is a fine cruciform structure of Decorated character, with a central tower 170 ft. high, and contains a particularly fine organ. St James's church was erected, under the same architect and Lord Grimthorpe, by the Great Northern railway company. Other important buildings are the town hall, mansion house, free library and art school, corn exchange and markets. The grammar school was founded in 1553 and reorganized in 1862. Doncaster race-meetings are widely famous. The racecourse lies 1 m. S.E. of the town. The old course is 1 m. 7 fur. 70 yds. in length, and the Sandall course of 1 m. was added in 1892. The grand stand was erected in 1777, but there are several additional stands. Races have long been held at Doncaster, and there was a stand on the course before the year 1615. The St Leger takes its name from Lieut.-General St Leger, who originated the race in 1776; but it was not so named till 1778. The meetings are held in the second week of September. A system of electric tramways connects the town with its principal suburbs. The agricultural trade is extensive, and there are iron, brass and agricultural machine works. Doncaster lies on the outskirts of a populous district extending up the valley of the Don. Two miles S.W. is the urban district of Balby-with-Hexthorpe (pop. 6781); and 7 m. S. is that of Tickhill, where there are remains of a Norman castle. Wheatley (3579) lies 2 m. N.E. The borough of Doncaster is under a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. Area, 1695 acres.

_History._--There was a Roman station here, and numerous remains of the Roman period have been found. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Doncaster, as a _berewic_ of the manor of Hexthorp, belonged to Earl Tostig; but before 1086 it had been granted to Robert, earl of Mortain, whose successor William was attainted for treason in the time of Henry I. The overlordship then fell to the crown, and the families of Frossard, Mauley and Salvin successively held the manor as underlords. Doncaster was evidently a borough held of the crown for a fee farm rent before 1194, when Richard I. granted and confirmed to the burgesses their soke and town to hold by the ancient rent and by twenty-five marks yearly. The town was incorporated in 1467 by Edward IV., who granted a gild merchant and appointed that the town should be governed by a mayor and two serjeants-at-mace elected every year by the burgesses. Henry VII., while confirming this charter in 1505, granted further that the burgesses should hold their town and soke with all the manors in the soke on payment of a fee farm. He also by another charter in 1508 confirmed letters patent granted by Peter de Mauley in 1341, by which the latter renounced to the inhabitants of Doncaster all the manorial claims which he had upon them, with the "pernicious customs" which his ancestors claimed from bakers, brewers, butchers, fishers and wind-fallen trees. In 1623 Ralph Salvin tried to regain the manor of Doncaster from the mayor and burgesses, who, fearing that the case would go against them, agreed to pay about L3000, in return for which he gave up his claim to all the manors in the soke. Charles II. in 1664 gave the town a new charter, granting that it should be governed by a mayor, twelve aldermen and twenty-four capital burgesses, but since this was not enrolled and was therefore of no effect the burgesses obtained another charter from James II. in 1684 by which the town was governed until the Municipal Corporation Act. In 1200 a fair at Doncaster on the vigil and day of St James the Apostle was confirmed to Robert de Turnham, who held the manor in right of his wife, with the addition of an extra day, for which he had to give the king two palfreys worth 100 s. each. By the charter of 1194 the burgesses received licence to hold a fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of the Annunciation, and this with the fair on St James's day was confirmed to them by Henry VII. in 1505. The fairs and markets are still held under these charters.

See _Victoria County History, Yorkshire_; Edward Miller, _The History
and Antiquities of Doncaster_ (1828-1831); _Calendar to the Records of
the Borough of Doncaster_, published by the Corporation.

DON COSSACKS, TERRITORY OF THE (Russ. _Donskaya Oblast_), a government of S.E. Russia, bounded W. by the governments of Voronezh, Kharkov and Ekaterinoslav, S.W. by the Sea of Azov, S. by the governments of Kuban and Stavropol, and E. by those of Astrakhan and Saratov. Area, 63,532 sq. m. Pop. 1,010,135 in 1867, 2,585,920 in 1897 and 3,125,400 (estimate) in 1906. It belongs almost entirely to the region of the South Russian steppes, but in the N., W. and S.W. presents more the aspects of elevated plains gapped with ravine-like river-courses, while in the S.E., towards the Manych depression, it passes over into the arid Aral-Caspian steppes (e.g. Zadonsk Steppe), dotted over with salt lakes. Geologically the region is made up of Carboniferous limestones, clay slates and sandstones, containing anthracite and coal; of Cretaceous marls, chalk, sandstone and greensands--chalk cliffs, in fact, accompany the Don for 200 m.; and of Miocene limestones and clays. The surface, especially W. of the Don, is the fertile black earth, intermingled here and there, especially in the Zadonsk Steppe, with clay impregnated with salt. The government is drained by the Don and its tributaries, of which the Donets, Chir and Mius enter from the right and the Khoper and Medvyeditsa from the left. The Don is navigable throughout the government, and at Kalach is connected by a railway, 45 m. long, with Tsaritsyn on the Volga, routes by which an enormous amount of heavy merchandise is transported. The climate is continental and dry, the average temperatures being--year 43 deg. Fahr., January 13 deg., July 72 deg. at Uryupina (in 50 deg. 48' N.; alt. 92 ft.); and year 48 deg., January 21 deg., July 73 deg. at Taganrog. The annual rainfall at the same two places is 13.4 and 17.4 in. respectively. Forests cover only 2% of the area.

Nearly one-half of the population are Cossacks, the other ethnological groups being (1897) 27,234 Armenians, 2255 Greeks, 1267 Albanians, 16,000 Jews and some 30,000 Kalmuck Tatars, who are Lamaists in religion. Nearly all the rest of the people, except the Jews and about 3000 Mahommedans, belong to the Orthodox Eastern Church. The Cossacks own nearly 30,000,000 acres of land. The government is well provided with schools, especially on the Cossack territory. Agriculture is the principal occupation, but the crops vary very greatly from year to year, owing to deficiency of rain. Vines are cultivated on a large scale, and tobacco is grown in the south. Cattle-breeding is important, and there are fine breeds of horses and large flocks of sheep. Productive fisheries are carried on at the mouth of the Don. Nearly 13,000 persons are engaged in coal-mining; the coalfields form part of the vast Donets coal basin (10,420 sq. m., with a total output of nearly 13,000,000 tons annually). Some iron ore, gypsum, salt and limestone are also produced. The principal branches of manufacturing industry are flour-milling, potteries, ironworks and tobacco factories. The exports consist chiefly of cereals, cattle, horses, sheep, wine, fish and hides. The government is under the administration of the ministry of war, and is divided into nine districts--Donets (chief town, Kamenskaya with 23,576 inhabitants in 1897), First Don district (Konstantinovskaya, 8800), Second Don district (Nizhne-Chirskaya, 15,196), Rostov (Rostov-on-Don, 119,889), Salsky (Velikoknyazheskaya), Taganrog (Taganrog, 58,928 in 1900), Ust-medvyeditsa (Ust-medvyeditsa, 16,000), Khoper (Uryupina, 9600), Cherkasky (Novo-cherkassk, 52,005). The capital of the government is Novo-cherkassk. Many of the Cossack _stanitsas_ (villages) are very populous. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)

DONEGAL, a county in the extreme north-west of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic Ocean, E. by Lough Foyle and the counties Londonderry and Tyrone, and S. by Donegal Bay and the counties Fermanagh and Leitrim. The area is 1,197,153 acres, or about 1871 sq. m., the county being the largest in Ireland after Cork and Mayo. This portion of the country possesses little natural wealth; its physical characteristics are against easy communications, and although its northern coast affords one or two good natural harbours, there is no commercial inducement to take advantage of them. The fine scenery and other natural attractions of Donegal thus remained practically unknown until late in the 19th century, but an effort was then made by Lord George Hill to introduce wealth from without into the county, and to develop its resources in this, almost the only possible direction. The county possesses a large extent of sea-coast indented by numerous inlets. Ballyshannon harbour, the most southern of these, is small, and has a bar at its mouth, as has Donegal harbour farther north. Killybegs harbour is well sheltered, and capable of receiving large vessels. These, with Bruckles or M'Swiney's Bay, and Teelin harbour, suitable for small vessels, are arms of the fine inlet of Donegal Bay. The western shore is beautified by the indentations of Loughros Beg, Gweebarra, Trawenagh and Inishfree Bays. On the north is Sheephaven, within which is Dunfanaghy Bay, where the largest ships may lie in safety, as they may also in Mulroy Bay and Lough Swilly farther east. Lough Foyle, which divides Donegal from Londonderry, is a noble sheet of water, but is shallow and in part dry at ebb tide, contracted at its entrance, and encumbered with shoals. A few miles west of Malin Head, the most northerly point of the mainland of Ireland, the varied and extensive Lough Swilly runs far into the interior. From these two loughs much land has been reclaimed. Numerous islands and rocks stud the coast. The largest island is North Aran, about 15 m. in circumference, with a lofty hill in its centre, and a gradual declivity down to the sea. On the northern coast are Tory Island, and, farther east, Inishtrahull, the _ultima Thule_ of Ireland. The inhabitants of these islands obtain a precarious livelihood by fishing, kelp-burning and rude husbandry, but are often reduced to extreme destitution.

Mountains and irregular groups of highlands occupy the whole interior of the county, and a considerable portion is bog and moorland. Errigal mountain in the north-west attains an elevation of 2466 ft. and commands from its summit a fine view over a considerable portion of the country. In its vicinity, the Derryveagh mountains reach 2240 ft. in Slieve Snaght; Muckish is 2197 ft.; in the south Bluestack reaches 2219 ft.; and in the Innishowen peninsula between Loughs Swilly and Foyle, another Slieve Snaght is 2019 ft. in elevation. At the western extremity of the north coast of Donegal Bay stands Slieve League, whose western flank consists of a mighty cliff, descending almost sheer to the Atlantic, exhibiting beautiful variegated colouring, and reaching an extreme height of 1972 ft. From these details it will appear that the scenery of the highlands and the sea-coast often attain a character of savage and romantic grandeur; whereas the eastern and southern portions are generally less elevated and more fertile, but still possess considerable beauty. A considerable portion of the surface, however, is occupied by bogs, and entirely destitute of timber.

With the exception of the tidal river Foyle, which forms the boundary between this county and Tyrone and Londonderry, the rivers, though numerous, are of small size. The branches of the Foyle which rise in Donegal are the Derg, issuing from Lough Derg, and the Finn, rising in the beautiful little lake of the same name in the highlands, and passing through some of the best cultivated land in the county. The Foyle, augmented by their contributions, and by those of several other branches from the counties Tyrone and Londonderry, proceeds northward, discharging its waters into the southern extremity of Lough Foyle, at the city of Londonderry. It is navigable for vessels of large burden to this place, and thence by lighters of fifty tons as far as Lifford. Boats of fourteen tons can proceed up the Finn river as far as Castlefinn. The fine river Erne flows from Lough Erne through the southern extremity of the county into the southern extremity of Donegal Bay. Its navigation is prevented by a fall of 12 ft., generally called the Salmon Leap, in the neighbourhood of Ballyshannon, and by rapids between Ballyshannon and Belleek, on the confines of Co. Fermanagh. The Gweebarra, the Owenea, and the Eask are the only other streams of any note. Lakes are very numerous in Donegal. The most remarkable, and also the largest, is Lough Derg, comprising within its waters several islets, on one of which, Station Island, is the cave named St Patrick's Purgatory, a celebrated place of resort for pilgrims and devotees. The circumference of the lake is about 9 m., and the extent of the island to which the pilgrims are ferried over is less than 1 acre. The landscape round Lough Derg is desolate and sombre in the extreme, barren moors and heathy hills surrounding it on all sides. Salmon, sea-trout and brown trout afford sport in most of the rivers and loughs, and Glenties for the Owenea river, and Gweedore for the Clady, in the west; Killybegs for the Eanymore and Eask, in the south; and Rathmelton and Rosapenna for the Owencarrow and Leannan, in the north, may be mentioned as centres. Ballyshannon and Bundoran, in the extreme south, are centres for the Erne and other waters outside the county.

_Geology._--The dominant feature in the geology of this county is the
north-east and south-west strike forced upon the older rocks during
earth-movements that set in at the close of Silurian times. The
granite that forms characteristically the core of the folds is
probably of the same age as that of Leinster, or may possibly
represent older igneous masses, brought into a general parallelism
during the main epoch of stress. The oldest recognizable series of
rocks is the Dalradian, and its quartzites form the white summits of
Muckish, Errigal and Aghla. The intruding granite, which predominates
in the north-west, has frequently united with the metamorphic series
to form composite gneiss. In the southern mass near Pettigo, once
regarded as Archaean and fundamental, residual "eyes" of the
hornblendic rocks that are associated with the Dalradian series remain
floating, as it were, in the gneiss. North of this, the country is
wilder, consisting largely of mica-schist, through which a grand mass
of unfoliated granite rises at Barnesmore. The course of the
Gweebarra, or Glen Beagh, of the Glendowan mountains, and the Aghla
ridge, have all been determined by the general strike imparted to the
country. At Donegal Bay the Lower Carboniferous sandstone and
limestone come in as a synclinal, and the limestone extends to
Bundoran. Small Carboniferous outliers on the summits of the great
cliff of Slieve League show the former extension of these strata. Bog
iron-ore is raised as a gas-purifier; and talc-schist has been worked
for steatite at Crohy Head. In most parts of the west the patches of
glacial drift form the only agricultural land. The fine-grained
sandstone of Mount Charles near Donegal is a well-known building
stone, and the granites of the north-west have attracted much
attention.

_Industries._--The modes of agriculture present little that is peculiar to the county, and the spade still supplies the place of the plough where the rocky nature of the surface prevents the application of the latter implement. The soil of the greater portion of the county, i.e. the granite, quartz and mica slate districts, is thin and cold, while that on the carboniferous limestone is warm and friable. Owing to the boggy nature of the soil, agriculture has not made much progress, although in certain districts (Gweedore, for instance) much land has been brought under cultivation through the enterprise of the proprietors. Roughly speaking, however, about 45% of the land is waste, 35% pasture and 15% tillage. Wheat and barley are quite an inconsiderable crop, and in this as well as in other respects Donegal is much behind the rest of Ulster in the extent of its crops. It bears, however, a more favourable comparison as regards its live stock, as cattle, sheep and poultry are extensively kept.

In Donegal, as in other counties of Ulster, the linen manufacture affords employment to a number of inhabitants, especially at Raphoe, while the manufacture of excellent homespun, woollen stockings and worked muslin is carried on pretty extensively. The trade in these manufactures and in the domestic produce of the county finds its principal outlets through the port of Londonderry and the inland town of Strabane, Co. Tyrone. The deep-sea fisheries are important, and are centred at Killybegs, Gweedore and Rathmullen. The salmon fishery is also prosecuted to a considerable extent, the principal seats of the trade being at Ballyshannon and Letterkenny.

The railway system includes the County Donegal railway from Londonderry south-west to Donegal town and Killybegs, with branches to Glenties, a village near the west coast, and to Ballyshannon; and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly, serving Letterkenny, and continuing to Burtonport with a branch north to Buncrana, a watering-place on Lough Swilly, and Cardonagh in the Innishowen peninsula. From Letterkenny the line continues to Dunfanaghy on the north coast, thence to Gweedore and Burtonport.

_Population and Administration._--The population (185,635 in 1891; 173,722 in 1901) decreases less seriously than in most Irish counties, though the proportion of emigrants is large. About 78% of the population is Roman Catholic, and almost the whole is rural. The native Erse naturally dies out slowly in this remote county, and the Donegal dialect is said to be the purest in the Irish language. The towns are small in extent and importance. Lifford (pop. 446), the county town, is practically a suburb of Strabane, in the neighbouring Co. Tyrone. Ballyshannon (2359) on the river Erne, Letterkenny (2370) at the head of Lough Swilly, and Donegal (1214) at the head of the bay of that name, are the other principal towns. The principal watering-places are Moville on Lough Foyle, Buncrana and Rathmelton on Lough Swilly; while, following the coast from north to south, Rosapenna, Dunfanaghy, Gweedore, Dungloe and Ardara, with Bundoran in the extreme south, are seaside villages frequently visited. Resorts deserving mention for the attractive scenery for which they are centres, are--Ardara, on the Owenea river, where the cliffs of the neighbouring coast are particularly fine; Carrick, Malin Head, the beautiful land-locked bay of Mulroy, Narin on Boylagh Bay, Portsalon on Lough Swilly, and Stranorlar, a small market town near the fine mountain pass of Barnesmore.

Donegal contains seven baronies and fifty parishes. Assizes are held at Lifford, and quarter sessions at Ballyshannon, Buncrana, Donegal, Cardonagh, Glenties, Letterkenny and Lifford. The county is in the Protestant dioceses of Clogher and Derry, and the Roman Catholic dioceses of Raphoe, Clogher and Derry. The county returned twelve members to the Irish parliament; after the Union it returned two; but it is now divided into north, east, south and west divisions, each returning one member.

_History and Antiquities._--The greater part of Donegal was anciently called Tyrconnell (q.v.) or the country of Conall; and it was sometimes called O'Donnell's country, after the head chieftains of the district. This district was formed into the county of Donegal in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in 1585, by the lord-deputy Sir John Perrott. The most noteworthy architectural remains of antiquity in the county are to be found at the head of Lough Swilly, where, situated on the summit of a hill 802 ft. high, some remarkable remains exist of a fortress or palace of the northern Irish kings. These are known as the Grianan of Aileach, and evidently date from a period prior to the 12th century. On Tory Island there are one of the best specimens of a round tower and some other interesting remains. Numerous ruins of ancient castles along the coast prove that much attention was formerly paid to the defence of the country from invasion. The principal are--Kilbarron Castle, an ancient stronghold of the O'Clerys, near Ballyshannon; Donegal Castle, built by the O'Donnells, anciently their chief residence, and now a fine ruin standing close to the water's edge; Burt Castle, built in the reign of Henry VIII. on the shores of Lough Swilly by Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, to whom is also attributed the erection of Green Castle, one of the strongholds of the clan on Lough Foyle. Near the Castle of Doe, or M'Swiney's Castle, at Horn Head, is a natural perforation in the roof of a cave, called M'Swiney's Gun, formed by the workings of the ocean into the overhanging cliff. When the wind blows due north, and the tide is at half flood, the gun is seen to spout up jets of water to a height of 100 ft., attended with explosions heard occasionally in favourable weather at an immense distance. Gulmore Fort, on the coast of Lough Swilly, supposed to have been erected by the O'Doghertys, having come into the possession of the crown, was granted in 1609 to the corporation of London. It was afterwards enlarged or rebuilt, and acted a prominent part in the celebrated siege of Derry. Traces of religious houses, some existing only in traditionary or documental records, are also numerous. The ruins of that of Donegal, founded in 1474, afford proofs of its ancient grandeur. At Raphoe, 5 m. N.W. of Lifford, is the cathedral of a former diocese united to that of Derry in 1835.

DONEGAL, a small seaport and market town of Co. Donegal, Ireland (not, as its name would suggest, the county town, which is Lifford), in the south parliamentary division, at the head of Donegal Bay, and the mouth of the river Eask, on the Donegal railway. Pop. (1901) 1214. Its trade in agricultural produce is hampered by the unsatisfactory condition of its harbour, the approach to which is beset with shoals. Here are the ruins of a fine Jacobean castle, occupying the site of a fortress of the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell, but built by Sir Basil Brooke in 1610. There are also considerable remains of a Franciscan monastery, founded in 1474 by one of the O'Donnells, and here were compiled the famous "Annals of the Four Masters," a record of Irish history completed in 1636 by one Michael O'Clery and his coadjutors. There is a chalybeate well near the town, and 7-1/2 m. S., at Ballintra, a small stream forms a series of limestone caverns known as the Pullins. Donegal received a charter from James I., and returned two members to the Irish parliament. The name is said to signify the "fortress of the foreigners," and to allude to a settlement by the Northmen.

DONELSON, FORT, an entrenched camp at Dover, Tennessee, U.S.A., erected by the Confederates in the Civil War to guard the lower Cumberland river, and taken by the Federals on the 16th of February 1862. It consisted of two continuous lines of entrenchments on the land side, and water batteries commanding the river. After the capture (Feb. 6) of Fort Henry on the lower Tennessee the Union army (three divisions) under Brigadier-General U. S. Grant marched overland to invest Donelson, and the gunboat flotilla (Commodore A. H. Foote) descended the Tennessee and ascended the Cumberland to meet him. Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate commander in Kentucky, had thrown a large garrison under General Floyd into Donelson, and Grant was at first outnumbered; though continually reinforced, the latter had at no time more than three men to the Confederates' two. The troops of both sides were untrained but eager.

On the 12th and 13th of February 1862 the Union divisions, skirmishing heavily, took up their positions investing the fort, and on the 14th Foote's gunboats attacked the water batteries. The latter received a severe repulse, Foote himself being amongst the wounded, and soon afterwards the Confederates determined to cut their way through Grant's lines. On the 15th General Pillow attacked the Federal division of McClernand and drove it off the Nashville road; having done this, however, he halted, and even retired. Grant ordered General C. F. Smith's division to assault a part of the lines which had been denuded of its defenders in order to reinforce Pillow. Smith personally led his young volunteers in the charge and carried all before him. The Confederates returning from the sortie were quite unable to shake his hold on the captured works, and, Grant having reinforced McClernand with Lew Wallace's division, these two generals reoccupied the lost position on the Nashville road. On the 16th, the two senior Confederate generals Floyd and Pillow having escaped by steamer, the infantry left in the fort under General S. B. Buckner surrendered unconditionally. The Confederate cavalry under Colonel Forrest made its escape by road. The prisoners numbered about 15,000 out of an original total of 18,000.

DONGA, a Bantu word for a ravine, narrow watercourse or gully formed by the action of water. Adopted by the European residents of South Africa from the Kaffirs, the use of the word has been extended by English writers to ravines or watercourses of the nature indicated in various other parts of the world. It is almost equivalent to the Arabic _khor_, which, however, also means the dry bed of a stream, or a stream flowing through a ravine. The Indian word _nullah_ (properly a watercourse) has also the same significance. The three words are often used interchangeably by English writers.

DONGOLA, a _mudiria_ (province) of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It lies wholly within the region known as Nubia and extends along both banks of the Nile from about 18 deg. N. to 20 deg. N. The rainfall is very slight, and the area of fertility is mainly confined to the lands watered by the Nile. Beyond stretches eastward the Nubian desert, westward the Libyan desert. The Wadi el Kab (Gab), west of and parallel to the Nile, contains, however, a good deal of arable land. This wadi, which is some 63 m. long, obtains water by percolation from the Nile. Farther west is the extensive plateau of Jebel Abiad, and beyond, some 250 m. due west of Debba, is Bir Natron, or Bir Sultan, a valley whence natron is obtained. In this desert region is found the addax, the rarest of Sudan antelopes. The chief grain crops are durra and barley, and date palms are extensively cultivated. The province is also noted for a breed of strong, hardy horses. The largest town is Dongola, but the administrative headquarters of the mudiria are at New Merawi (Merowe, Meroe), on the left bank of the Nile, below the 4th cataract. Other towns, also on the Nile, are Debba and Korti, whence start caravan routes to Kordofan and Omdurman. At Jebel Barkal, in the neighbourhood of Merawi, and elsewhere in the mudiria, are ancient ruins (see SUDAN: _Anglo-Egyptian_). Old Merawi, on the right bank of the Nile, and Sanam Abu Dom, on the left bank, indicate the site of the Ethiopian city of Napata. From Kareima, on the right or northern bank of the Nile, 6 m. above New Merawi, a railway (opened in March 1906) runs to Abu Hamed, whence there is railway connexion with the Red Sea, Khartum and Egypt. From Kareima downstream the Nile is navigable to Kerma, just above the 3rd cataract. Between 1896 and 1904 a railway ran between Kerma and Wadi Halfa. In the last-named year this railway was closed. It had been built for purely military purposes and was unremunerative as a commerical undertaking.