engaged in a conspiracy against him. The pope pardoned his fault, but the cardinal, not caring to trust to this, made his escape, and it could never be known exactly what became of him. He was one of the first that effectually reformed the Latin style. He studied Cicero with great success, and made many excellent observations on the Latin tongue, in his treatise De Sermone Latino. He had begun a Latin translation of the Old Testament. He wrote a treatise De Vera Philosophia, which was printed at Cologne in 1548.

NICHOLAS MALEŘMI, or MALERBI, a Venetian monk, who translated the Bible into the Italian language, which was printed at Venice, in 2 vols. folio, 1471, under the title of Biblia Volgare Istoriato. He also wrote La Legenda di Tutti Saneti.

LAURENTIA STROZZI, a learned Italian nun, who wrote a book of hymns and odes upon all the holy days, which was translated into French, and set to music by Mauduit.

THOMAS BECKINGTON, born in Somersetshire, distinguished himself as a man of letters in this century. Brought up at New College, Oxford, he afterwards became its benefactor, upon being made bishop of Bath and Wells. He is the author of a book in Latin, very much approved of in its time, but utterly forgotten at present, concerning the right of the kings of England to the dominion of France.

JOHN PFEFFERCORN, a learned Jew, who was converted to Christianity. He was the author of De Abolendis Judæorum Scriptis; and consistently with the title of that work, endeavoured to persuade the emperor Maximilian to burn all the Hebrew books, except the Bible. He wrote some other tracts, also in Latin.

ROBERT BALE, an English divine, was born in Norfolk, and entered among the Carmelites at Norwich, of which society he became prior. He died in 1503.

BRAUN, or BRAUNIUS, archbishop of Dortmund, and dean of Notre Dame, in Gradibus, at Cologne. He published a Latin oration against the priests guilty of fornication; he also wrote the life of Jesus Christ, that of the Holy Virgin, and a controversial treatise against the Protestants; but his chief work is the Theatrum Urbium in several volumes, folio.

PETER D'OSMA, an ecclesiastic at Salamanca. He preached and wrote against the doctrines and the infallibility of the church of Rome, so that the archbishop of Toledo ordered his writings to be burnt.

GEORGE CORESSIUS, a Greek priest of the island of Chios, who appears to have received his education in Italy, but upon his return to his native country, to have become a zealous and active champion in defence of the Greek

and of the Latin church. He wrote a variety of treatises in that controversy.

LEWIS ALMANDUS, in French Aleman, archbishop of Aives, and cardinal of St. Cecilia, was one of the greatest men of his time. The cardinal presided in the council of Basil, which deposed Eugenius IV., and elected the anti-pope, Felix V. He is much commended by Æneas Sylvius, as a man extremely well formed for presiding in such assemblies, firm and vigorous, illustrious by his virtue, learned, and of an admirable memory in recapitulating all that the orators and disputants had said. One day, when he harangued against the superiority of the pope over the council, he distinguished himself in such an eminent manner, that several persons went to kiss him, while others pressed even to kiss his robe. They extolled to the skies his abilities and genius, which had raised him, though a Frenchman, to a superiority over the Italians, notwithstanding all their natural subtlety and finesse. There is no need of sking, whether pope Eugenius thundered against the presiit of a council which deposed him. He deprived him of all his dignities, and treated him as a son of iniquity. However, notwithstanding this, Lewis Almandus died in the odour of sanctity, and performed so many miracles after his death, that at the request of the canons and Celestine monks of Avignon, and the solicitation of the cardinal of Clermont, legate a latere of Clement VII., he was beatified by that pope in the year 1527.

JEROME SAVONAROLA, a famous Italian monk, born at Ferrara in 1452, and descended of a noble family. At the age of 22, he assumed the habit of a Dominican friar, without the knowledge of his parents, and distinguished himself in that order by his piety and ability as a preacher. Florence was the theatre where he preached, confessed, and wrote. He placed himself at the head of the faction which opposed the family of the Medici. He explained the Apocalypse, and pointed out a prophecy which foretold the destruction of his opponents. He predicted a renovation of the church, and declaimed with much severity against the clergy and court of Rome. Alexander VI. excommunicated him, and prohibited him from preaching. He derided the anathemas of the pope; yet he forbore preaching for some time, and resumed the employment with more applause than ever. The pope and the Medici family then thought of attacki 8 b'm with his own weapons. Savonarola having posted up a thesis as a subject of disputation, a Franciscan, by their instigation, offered to prove it heretical. The Franciscan was seconded by his brother friars, and Savonarola by his brethren. To convince their antagonists of the superior sanctity of Savonarola, one of the Dominicans offered to walk through

a fire; and to prove his wickedness, a Franciscan agreed to the same experiment. The multitude, eager to witness so extraordinary a spectacle, urged them to come to a decision; and the magistrates were constrained to give their consent. Accordingly, Saturday the 7th of April, 1498, was fixed for the trial. On that day the champions appeared; but when they saw one another in cold blood, and beheld the wood in flames, they were anxious to escape the imminent danger into which they had rashly thrown themselves. The Dominican pretended he could not enter the flames without the host in his hand. This the magistrates refused to allow; and the Dominican's fortitude was not put to the test. The Franciscans incited the multitude against their opponents, who accordingly assaulted their monastery, broke open the gates, and entered by force. Upon this, the magistrates brought Savonarola to trial as an impostor. He was put to the torture, and examined; and in the answers which he gave fully evinced that he was a fanatic. He boasted of having frequent conversation with God, and 1; brother friars were credulous enough to believe him. Jin Francis Picus, earl of Mirandola, who wrote his life, assures us, that the devils which infested the convent of the Dominicans, trembled at the sight of friar Jerome. At length pope Alexander VI. sent the chief of the Dominicans, with bishop Romolino, to degrade him from holy orders, and to deliver him up to the secular judges, with his two fanatical associates. They were condemned to be hanged and burned on the 23rd of May, 1498. Savonarola submitted to the execution of the sentence with great firmness and devotion, and without uttering a word respecting his innocence or his guilt. He was in the 46th year of his age. Immediately after his death, his Confession was published in his name. It contained many extravagancies, but nothing to deserve so severe and infamous a punishment. His adherents did not fail to attribute to him the power of working miracles, and so strong a veneration had they for their chief, that they preserved with pious care any parts of his body which they could snatch from the flames. The earl of Mirandola, the author of his life, has described him as an eminent saint. He gravely informs us, that his heart was found in a river; and that he had a piece of it in his possession, which had been very useful in curing diseases, and ejecting demons. He remarks, that many of his persecutors came to a miserable end. Savonarola has also been defended by F. Quetif, Bzovius, Barona, and other religious Dominicans. He wrote several works.

MARCUS MUSURUS, a native of Candria, who went to Italy, and became professor of Greek at Padua. He published an edition of Plato; to which he prefixed some Greek verses, for which Leo X. made him bishop of Malvasia. He

died in 1517. He also superintended the first editions of Aristophanes and Athenæus.

EDMUND AUDLEY, the son of Lord Audley, bishop of Rochester and Hereford, under Henry VII., was a man of great learning and generosity. In 1471 he obtained the prebend of Farendon, in the church of Lincoln, and in 1475, a similar preferment in the church of Wells; and soon afterwards, he was made archdeacon of the east riding of Yorkshire. He had several other considerable preferments, but quitted them on being made bishop of Rochester, in 1480. In 1492, he was translated to Hereford; in 1502, he was raised to the bishopric of Salisbury, and about that time was made chancellor of the most noble order of the garter. He gave 400l. to Lincoln college, to purchase lands, and was also a benefactor to St. Mary's church, Oxford. He died August 23, 1524, at Ramsbury, in the county of Wilts, and was buried in a chapel which he erected in the cathedral of Salisbury.

DE CASTELLO ADRIAN, a native of Cosmetto, in Tuscany, of obscure parentage, was employed by the popes as legate in Scotland and England. By the friendship of Morton the primate, and the patronage of Henry VII., he was raised to the bishopric of Hereford, and afterwards of Bath and Wells. He chiefly resided at Rome, where he conspired against pope Leo X., in expectation of being raised to the pontificate. He was fined 12,500 ducats, and forbidden to leave Rome; but afterwards fled from the city. The time of his death is unknown. Polydore Virgil, who shared his friendship, has bestowed the highest encomiums upon his character.

ARSENIUS, archbishop of Monembasia, or Malvasia, in the Morea, was a learned philologist. He was the particular friend of pope Paul III., and wrote to him some very elegant letters. He submitted also to the Romish church, which gave such of fence to the heads of the Greek church, that they excommunicated him. The time of his death is uncertain, but he was alive in 1535. He published at Rome a "Collection of Greek Apophthegms;" and at Venice, in 8vo. in 1534, "A Collection Scholia on seven of the Tragedies of Euripides."

JOHN FISHER, bishop of Rochester, and an eminent patronizer of learning, was born at Beverley, in Yorkshire, in 1459. His father was a merchant, who died when his son was very young; but, by the care of his mother, he was educated in classical literature, at Beverley, and afterwards admitted in Cambridge, of Michael house, since incorporated into Trinity college. He took the degrees in arts, in 1488 and 1491; and being elected fellow of his house, was a proctor of the univer sity in 1495. The same year, he was elected master of Michael house; and having for some time applied himself to divinity,

he took orders, and rose to celebrity. The fame of his learning arrested the attention of Margaret countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., she appointed him her chaplain and confessor, in which high office he conducted himself with so much wisdom and goodness, that she submitted herself wholly to his guidance and discretion. It was at his suggestion, that she undertook those magnificent foundations of St. John's and Christ's colleges at Cambridge; established the divinity professorships in both universities, and performed many other generous acts for the furtherance of learning and piety.

In 1501, he took the degree of D. D., and the same year was elected to the chancellorship. In this situation he exerted himself in the promotion of learning and morals, and is said by some to have had prince Henry under his tuition in that university. In 1502, he was appointed by charter the lady Margaret's first divinity professor in Cambridge. In 1504, he was raised to the bishopric of Rochester, and was afterwards frequently offered more valuable sees, which he refused, observing, that " though others have larger revenues, I have fewer souls under my care, so that when I shall have to give an account of both, which must be very soon, I would not desire my condition to have been better than it is." Fisher was now chosen chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and was much engaged in superintending the building of Christ's and St. John's college, being the most active agent and executor of the late countess of Richmond. When St. John's college was finished, Fisher went to Cambridge, and opened it with due solemnity, and was commissioned to draw up a body of statutes for its government. The bishop afterwards proved a valuable benefactor to the college, and was the means of the appointment of that illustrious man, Erasmus, to lady Margaret's professorship of divinity, and afterwards to the Greek professor's chair. To the innovation proposed by Luther, bishop Fisher was decidedly hostile; he not only endeavoured to prevent the propagation of Lutheranism in his own diocese, and in the university of Cambridge, but wrote and preached with the utmost zeal against it. He is generally thought to have had a principal share in the composition of the work ascribed to Henry VIII., and published with his name, in defence of the "seven sacraments," against Luther, though Burnet and others are not disposed to give it to the bishop.

Fisher, at this period, was very high in favour with the king, and so zealous in his opposition to the tenets of Luther, that he formed a design of going to Rome, to concert measures with the pope, for opposing their progress; but he was deterred from his design by cardinal Wolsey's convocation of a synod of the whole clergy of England for the same purpose. In this