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court, that he was afterwards denied a bishoprick by Clement VIII. After these difficulties were surmounted, Father Paul again retired to his solitude, where he appears, by some writings drawn up by him at that time, to have turned his attention more to improvements in piety than learning. Such was the care with which he read the Scriptures, that, it being his custom to draw a line under any passage which he intended more nicely to consider, there was not a single word in his New Testament but was underlined; the saine marks of attention appeared in his Old Testament, Psalter, and Breviary.

But the most active scene of his life began about the year 1615, when Pope Paul Vth, exasperated by some decrees of the Senate of Venice that interfered with the pretended rights of the church, laid the whole state under an interdict.

The senate, filled with indignation at this treatment, forbade the bishops to receive or publish the Pope's bull; and convening the rectors of the churches, commanded them to celebrate divine service in the accustomed manner, with which most of them readily complied; but the Jesuits and some others refusing, were by a solemn edict expelled the state.

Both parties, having proceeded to extremities, employed their ablest writers to defend their measures: on the Pope's side, among others, Cardinal Bellarmine entered the lists, and with his confederate authors defended the papal claims with great scurrility of expression, and very sophistical reasonings, which were confuted by the Venetian apologists in much more decent language, and with much greater solidity of argument.

On this occasion Father Paul was most eminently distinguished, by his "Defence of the Rights of the Supreme Magistrate," his "Treatise of Excommunications," translated from Gerson, with an" Apology," and other writings, for which he was cited before the Inquisition at Rome; but it may be easily imagined that he did not obey the summons.

The Venetian writers, whatever might be the abilities of their adversaries, were at least superior to them in the justice of their

The propositions maintained on the side of Rome were these that the Pope is invested with all the authority of heaven and earth. That all princes are his vassals, and that he may annul their laws at pleasure. That kings may appeal to him, as he is temporal monarch of the whole earth. That he can discharge subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and make it their duty to take up arms against their sovereign. That he may depose kings without any fault committed by them, if the good of the church. requires it that the clergy are exempt from all tribute to kings, and are not accountable to them even in cases of high treason. That the Pope cannot err: that his decisions are to be received

and obeyed on pain of sin, though all the world should judge them to be false; that the Pope is God upon earth; that his sentence and that of God are the same; and that to call his power in question, is to call in question the power of God: maxims equally shocking, weak, pernicious and absurd; which did not require the abilities or learning of Father Paul to demonstrate their falsehood, and destructive tendency.

It may be easily imagined that such principles were quickly overthrown, and that no court but that of Rome thought it for its interest to favour them. The Pope, therefore, finding his authors confuted, and his cause abandoned, was willing to conclude the affair by treaty, which, by the mediation of Henry IV. of France was accommodated upon terms very much to the honour of the Venitians.

But the defenders of the Venetian rights were, though comprehended in the treaty, excluded by the Romans from the benefit of it; some upon different pretences were imprisoned, some sent to the galleys, and all debarred from preferment. But their malice was chiefly aimed against Father Paul, who soon found the effects of it; for as he was going one night to his convent, about six months after the accommodation, he was attacked by five ruffians armed with stilettos, who gave him no less than fifteen stabs, three of which wounded him in such a manner that he was left for dead. The murderers filed for refuge to the nuncio, and were afterwards received into the Pope's dominions; but were pursued by divine justice, and all, except one man who died in prison, perished by violent deaths.

This and other attempts upon his life obliged him to confine himself to his convent, where he engaged in writing the history of the Council of Trent, a work unequalled for the judicious disposition of the matter, and artful texture of the narration; commended by Dr. Burnet as the completest model of historical writing, and celebrated by Mr. Wotton as equivalent to any production of antiquity; in which the reader finds "Liberty without licentiousness, piety without hypocrisy, freedom of speech without neglect of decency, severity without rigour, and extensive learning without ostentation."

In this, and other works of less consequence, he spent the remaining part of his life, to the beginning of the year 16:2, when he was seized with a cold and fever, which he neglected till it became incurable. He languished more than twelve months, which he spent almost wholly in a preparation for his passage into eternity; and among his prayers and aspirations was often heard to repeat, Lord! now let thy servant depart in peace.

On Sunday the eighth of January of the next year, he rose, weak as he was, to mass, and went to take his repast with the

rest; but on Monday was seized with a weakness that threatened immediate death; and on Thursday prepared for his change by receiving the Viaticum with such marks of devotion, as equally melted and edified the beholders.

Through the whole course of his illness to the last hour of his life, he was consulted by the senate in public affairs, and returned answers, in his greatest weakness, with such presence of mind as could only arise from the consciousness of innocence.

On Sunday, the day of his death, he had the passion of our blessed Saviour read to him out of St. John's Gospel, as on every other day of that week, and spoke of the mercy of his Redeemer and his confidence in his merits.

As his end evidently approached, the brethern of the convent came to pronounce the last prayers, with which he could only join in his thoughts, being able to pronounce no more than these, Esto perpetua, mayest thou last for ever; which was understood to be a prayer for the prosperity of his country.

Thus died Father Paul, in the 71st year of his age, hated by the Romans as their most formidable enemy, and honoured by all the learned for his abilities, and by the good for his integrity. His detestation of the corruption of the Roman church appears in all his writings, but particularly in this memorable passage of one of his letters; "There is nothing more essential than to ruin the reputation of the Jesuits: by the ruin of the Jesuits, Rome will be ruined: and if Rome is ruined, Religion will reform of itself."

He appears by many passages of his life to have had a high esteem of the Church of England; and his friend Father Fulgentio, who had adopted all his notions, made no scruple of administering to Dr. Duncomb, an English gentleman that fell sick at Venice, the communion in both kinds, according to the common Prayer which he had with him in Italian.

He was buried with great pomp at the public charge, and a magnificent monument was erected to his memory.

BOERHAAVE.

THE following account of Dr. BOERHAAVE, so loudly celebrated, and so universally lamented through the whole learned world, will, we hope, be not unacceptable to our readers: We could have made it much larger, by adopting flying reports, and inserting unattested facts; a close adherence to certainty has contracted our narrative, and hindered it from swelling to that bulk at which modern histories generally arrive.

Dr. Herman Boerhaave was born on the last day of December, 1668, about one in the morning, at Voorhout, a village two miles distant from Leyden: his father, James Boerhaave, was minister of Voorhout, of whom his son,* in a small account of his own life, has given a very amiable character, for the simplicity and openness of his behaviour, for his exact frugality in the management of a narrow fortune, and the prudence, tenderness, and diligence, with which he educated a numerous family of nine children. He was eminently skilled in history and genealogy, and versed in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages.

His mother was Hagar Daelder, a tradesman's daughter of Amsterdam, from whom he might, perhaps, derive an heredi tary inclination to the study of physic, in which she was very inquisitive, and had obtained a knowledge of it not common in female students.

This knowledge, however, she did not live to communicate to her son; for she died in 1673, ten years after her marriage. His father finding himself encumbered with the care of seven children, thought it necessary to take a second wife and in July 1674, was married to Eve du Bois, daughter of a minister

"Erat Hermanni Genitor Latinè, Græcè Hebraicè sciens: peritus valdè historiarum et gentium. Vir apertus, candidus, simplex: paterfamilias optimus amore, curâ diligentiâ, frugalitate, prudentiâ. Qui non magnâ in re, sed plenus virtutis, novem liberis educandis exemplum prabut singulare, quid exacta parsimonia polleat, et frugalitas."-Orig. Edit.

of Leyden, who by her prudent and impartial conduct, so endeared herself to her husband's children, that they all regarded her as their own mother.

Herman Boerhaave was always designed by his father for the ministry, and with that view instructed by him in grammatical learning, and the first elements of languages; in which he made such proficiency, that he was, at the age of eleven years, not only master of the rules of grammar, but capable of translating with tolerable accuracy, and not wholly ignorant of critical niceties.

At intervals to recreate his mind, and strengthen his constitution, it was his father's custom to send him into the fields, and employ him in agriculture and such kind of rural occupations, which he continued through all his life to love and practise; and by this vicissitude of study and exercise preserved himself, in a great measure, from those distempers and depressions which are frequently the consequence of indiscreet diligence, and uninterrupted application; and from which students, not well aequainted with the constitution of the human body, sometimes fly for relief to wine instead of exercise, and purchase temporary ease by the hazard of the most dreadful consequences.

The studies of young Boerhaave were about this time interrupted by an accident, which deserves a particular mention as it first inclined him to that science to which he was by nature so well adapted, and which he afterwards carried to so great perfection.

In the twelfth year of his age, a stubborn, painful, and malignant ulcer, broke out upon his left thigh; which, for near five years, defeated all the art of the surgeons and physicians, and not only afflicted him with the most excruciating pains, but exposed him to such sharp and tormenting applications, that the disease and remedies were equally insufferable. Then it was that his own pain taught him to compassionate others, and his experience of the inefficacy of the methods then in use incited him to attempt the discovery of others more certain.

He began to practise at least honestly, for he began upon himself; and his first essay was a prelude to his future success: for, having laid aside all the prescriptions of his physicians, and all the applications of his surgeons, he, at last, by tormenting the part with salt and urine, effected a cure.

That he might, on this occasion, obtain the assistance of surgeons with less inconvenience and expense, he was brought, by his father, at fourteen, to Leyden, and placed in the fourth class of the public school, after being examined by the master: here his application and abilities were equally conspicuous. In six months, by gaining the first prize in the fourth class, he was raised

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