former confuted the Peripatetics by his doctrines, and the latter by his writings, first ventured to abandon the thorny fields of the Aristotelians, and to follow more liberal principles of philosophizing. Among these there were some Jesuits, but a much larger number from among the Fathers of the Oratory and the disciples of Jansenius who distinguished themselves. Here will readily occur to many minds the names of Malebranche, Anthony Arnauld, Bernard Lami, Peter Nicole, and Blaise Pascal; who acquired lasting fame by illustrating, perfecting, and adapting to common use the principles of Des Cartes. For Gassendi, who professed to understand but few things, and who rather taught how to philosophize, than proposed a system of philosophy, did not have many followers among a people eager for knowledge, sanguine, ardent, and impatient of protracted labour. Toward the close of the century, some of the Italians as well as other nations, began to imitate the French; at first indeed timidly, but afterwards, more confidently, as the pontiffs appeared to relax a little of that jealousy which they had entertained against the new views of the naturalists, mathematicians, and metaphysicians.

§ 31. But it is proper to notice here, more distinctly, who were the persons entitled to the praise of having preserved and advanced both divine and human learning in the Romish church. During a large part of the century the Jesuits were nearly the only teachers of all branches of learning; and they alone, among the monks, were accounted learned men, And the man must either be ignorant, or uncandid, who can deny that many extraordinary and very learned men have been ornaments to that society. Lasting as literature itself, will be the merits of Denys Petau, (Dionysius Petarius'.) James Sirmond",

[in section 1. § 31. of this century, p. 49.

Ir.]

The reward which these men got for their labours, was, that they were charged with atheism, by the Peripateties; John Harduin, who was intoxicated with the Aristotelico-Scholastic philosophy, being the accuser : Atky Proti, in his Opera Porkuma, p. 1, &e and p. 259. Nor is the cause of this odiem very diffcu't to be discovered. For the Cartesian philosophy,

which avoids all darkness and obscurity, is much less efficacious for defending the Romish cause, than the vulgar scholastic philosophy which delights in darkness.

[Petau, born in 1583, died 1652; wrote largely on chronology, and the history of religious doctrines; and ably edited several of the fathers, particularly Epiphanius. Tr.]

[Sirmond, confesser to Louis XIII. died 1651, aged 92; wrote much on

Peter Possin', Philip Labbé', Nicholas Abrams', and even of John Harduin3, though in many things erratic, and not of a sound mind; as well as of many others. But as the century advanced, this literary glory of the Jesuits was greatly obscured by the Benedictines, especially by those belonging to the Congregation of St. Maur. For while the Jesuits immoderately vaunted of their merits and renown, and were unceasingly censuring the sloth and indolence of the Benedictines, in order to give plausibility to their designs of invading and appropriating to themselves the revenues and the goods of the Benedictines; the latter thought it necessary for them to wipe off this stain upon their character, which they could not deny, and to disarm their harpy enemies by becoming really meritorious. Hence they not only opened schools in their convents for instructing youth in all branches of learning, but also appointed select individuals of the best talents, to publish great and imperishable works, which might vindicate the ancient glory and reputation of the Benedictine family against its traducers. This task has been admirably fulfilled, and with a success which baffles description, for about a century past, by such superior men as John Mabillon, Luke D'Achery (Dacherius), René Massuet, Theodore Ruinart', Anthony

church history, and edited several of the fathers. His works were printed, Paris, 1696. 5 vols. fol. Tr.]

[Possin, born in 1590, and died at Rome near the end of the 17th century; was distinguished as a Hebrew and Greek scholar, and for his editions of the fathers. Tr.]

1 [Labbé of Bourges, died in 1667, aged 60. He was a man of great learning, particularly in church history; but proud and overbearing. Tr.]

[Abrams, born 1589, died 1655, was chiefly distinguished for polite learning, and for his comments on Cicero's Orations, and on Virgil. Tr.]

[Harduin, died at Paris in 1729, aged 83. He was a prodigy of learning; but maintained, that most of the Greek and Latin Classics were forgeries of the monks in the middle age. His best work is his Acts of the Councils, in 12 vols. fol. Tr.]

Mabillon was born in 1632, and

died at Paris in 1707. He travelled much for literary research, in France, Germany, and Italy; and besides published the works of St. Bernard, and the Lives of sainted Benedictines, (Acta Sanctorum ordinis Benedicti,) and his Analecta Veterum, he composed Diplomatics, Annals of the Benedictines, and some smaller works. Tr.]

5 [D'Achery, born 1608, died 1685; collected judiciously, and published numerous unprinted writings, pertaining to ecclesiastical history, in 13 vols. 4to. or (2nd ed.) in vols. fol. entitled Spicilegium, &c. Tr.]

[Massuet, born 1665, died 1716; published the best edition of Irenæus. Tr.]

7 [Ruinart, born 1657, died 1709; was associated with Mabillon, and published Acts of the ancient Martyrs, the works of Gregory Turonensis, and of Victor Vitensis; and some other works. Tr.]

Beaugendre, Julian Garnier, Charles de la Rue', Edmund Martene', Bernard Montfaucon3, and many others; some of whom have published excellent editions of the Greek and Latin fathers; others have drawn from the obscure shelves of libraries those ancient papers which serve to elucidate the history and antiquities of the church; others have explained the ancient events in church and state, the customs and rites of former times, the chronology of the world, and other parts of polite learning; and others have executed other works worthy to be handed down to posterity. I know not how it happened; but from the time these new stars appeared above the literary horizon, the splendour of Jesuit erudition began gradually to decline. For there is no one disposed to deny that, for a long time past, the Jesuits in vain look around among their order to find an individual that may be compared with the Benedictines; who are constantly pursuing strenuously every branch of literature, and publishing almost every year distinguished monuments of their genius and erudition; nor have the Jesuits for many years published a single work that can compete with the labours of the Benedictines; unless it be the Acta Sanctorum, now issuing from their press at Antwerp. The rivals of the Benedictines were the French Fathers of the Oratory: many of whom are acknowledged to have laboured successfully in advancing several branches of both human and divine knowledge which, if there were no other examples, would be mani

8 [Beaugendre is noted only for the lives of some French bishops, and an edition of the works of Hildebert. Tr.]

[Garnier, died 1723, aged 53; noted as editor of the works of St. Basil. 3 vols. fol. Tr.]

[De la Rue, born 1685, died 1739, an associate of Montfaucon, and editor of the works of Origen, 3 vols. fol. He must not be confounded with the Jesuit of the same name, who was a poet, and editor of Virgil, in Usum Delphini. Tr.]

2 Martene died 1739, aged 85; he travelled much to explore monasteries and libraries, and published a Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict; on the ancient monastic rites; a Thesaurus of unpublished works, in 3 vols.

fol. and with Durand, a new Thesaurus of the same kind, in 10 vols. fol. and he and Durand were the Benedictine travellers, authors of Voyage Littéraire de Deux Religieux de la Congrégation de S. Maur. Tr.]

3 [Montfaucon, born 1655, died 1741, aged 87; a very learned antiquarian, known by his Analecta Græca, 4to. Paleographia Graca, fol, the works of Athanasius, 3 vols. fol. Origen's Her apla, vols. fol. Chrysostom's works, 13 vols. fol. Antiquité expliquée a representée en figures, 15 vols. fol. Monumens de la Monarchie Françoise, 5 vols. fol a Collection of the Greek fathers, 2 vols. fol. Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum, 2 vols, fol, and some other works. Tr.]

fest from the works of Charles le Cointe, author of the imperishable Ecclesiastical Annals of France, and of John Morin, Lewis Thomassin, and Richard Simon'. Lastly, the Jansenists, or at least those who favoured the sentiments of Augustine, published various works, some erudite, and others neatly and methodically composed, very useful both to adults and to the young. Who is such a stranger to the literature of that age as not to have heard of the works of the Messieurs de Port Royal'; and of the very elegant and useful productions of Tillemont', Arnauld, Nicole', Pascal, Lancelot, and others? The other religious orders, as well as the bishops and inferior clergy, in the Romish church, had also their great

[Le Cointe, born 1611, died 1681. His Annales Ecclesiast. Francorum, in 8 vols. fol. extends from A. D. 235 to A. D. 835. Tr.]

5 [Morin, born 1591, educated a protestant, became a catholic, and died at Paris, 1659. He wrote on the origin of Patriarchs and Primates; on the Samaritan Pentateuch; and published an edition of the Septuagint, 2 vols. fol. and the Samaritan Pentateuch. There were several distinguished men named Morin. Tr.]

[Thomassin, born 1619, died 1695; published a history of religious doctrines, a feeble imitation of Denys Petau's work, in 3 vols. fol. Paris, 1680. Voltaire says he was 66 of profound erudition and first composed Dialogues on the fathers, on Councils, and on History." Tr.]

a man

7 [Simon, born 1638, died 1712; a great critic wrote Critical History of the Old Test., History of Ecclesiastical Revenues, 2 vols. 12mo. Critical Diss. on Du Pin's Bibliothèque des Auteurs Ecclesiast. Crit. Hist. of the New Test., and various other works. Tr.]

By this title are designated all the Jansenist writers: but especially, and in a stricter sense, those who spent their lives in literary and devotional pursuits, in the retired situation of Port-Royal, not far from Paris. Among these, it is generally known, there were great men, who possessed first rate talents, and were very finished writers.

[Sebastian le Nain de Tillemont, born at Paris, 1637, died 1698, refused

a bishopric, and wrote Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire Ecclésiast. de six premiers siècles, Paris, 1693, &c. 16 vols. 4to. and Histoire des Empereurs et auteurs Princes, jusqu'à l'Empereur Honorius. Tr.]

1 [Anthony Arnauld, or Arnaud, was born at Paris, 1612, and died at Liege, 1694. He wrote on grammar, logic, and geometry; and polemic pieces against the Jesuits and the Calvinists on moral subjects; and is supposed to have contributed No. 3. 9. 12, 13, 14, and 15. to the Provincial Letters. Tr.]

2 [Peter Nicole, born 1625, died at Paris, 1695. Besides controversial pieces against the Jesuits, and aiding Arnaud in some works, he wrote Essais de Moral, 13 vols. 12mo. On the Perpetuity of the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, 3 vols. Préjugés légitimes contre les Calvinistes; and translated the Provincial Letters into Latin, with large notes, under the fictitious name of William Wendrock. Tr.]

3 [Blaise Pascal, born at Clermont, 1623, died 1662. Besides his Pensées, and some treatises on Mathematics and Nat. Philosophy, he composed the famous Lettres à un Provincial. His works were printed in 5 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1799. Tr.]

4

[Claude Lancelot, born 1616, died 1695; taught Greek and the mathematics at Port-Royal; and had a hand in the school books there published. Tr.]

men. For it would be strange, if, in such a multitude of men enjoying much leisure and all advantages for study, there should not be some successful scholars. Yet all who acquired fame and merited distinction as learned men and authors, out of those four orders just mentioned, would collectively scarcely form so large a body as any one of those orders alone can exhibit.

§ 32. Hence a copious list might be drawn up of learned men in the Romish church, whose works, composed with great care and diligence, live since they are dead. Of the monastic families and the priests that were bound to regular rules of living, the most distinguished were Caesar Baronius and Bellarmine, both cardinals, and both extremely useful to their church, the first by his elaborate Annals, and the latter by his controversial writings; also Nicholas Serrarius, Francis Feuardentius, Anthony Possevin', James Gretser, Francis Combefis, Natalis Alexander (Alexander Noel3), Martin Becan, James Sirmond, Dionysius Petavius, Peter Possin, Lewis Cellot, Nicholas Caussin, John Morin, Theophilus

5 [Baronius, born at Sora, in Naples, 1538, second general of the Italian order of Fathers of the Oratory, confessor to pope Clement VIII. cardinal, and librarian of the Vatican; wrote Annales Ecclesiastici, 12 vols. fol. Rome, 1588-1607; was candidate for the papal chair in 1605; and died in 1607. Tr.]

6 [Bellarmine, a Florentine, born in 1542, cardinal in 1599, died in 1621. He wrote Opus Controversiarum, 3 vols. fol. De Potestate summi Pontificis, a Commentary on the Psalms, and an account of the ecclesiastical writers. He was learned, and a giant reasoner, though in a bad cause. Tr.]

7 [Serrarius, of Lorrain, a Jesuit, died at Mayence in 1610, aged 65; a voluminous commentator on the Bible. His works fill 16 vols. fol. Tr.]

8 [Feuardent, of Normandy, a Franciscan, born 1541, died 1641; edited Irenæus; wrote and preached, furiously, against the protestants. Tr.]

9 [Possevin was a Jesuit of Mantua, born 1533, died 1611. He was papal legate to Poland, Sweden, Germany, &c. He wrote Bibliotheca selecta de Ratione Studiorum, 2 vols. fol. Appara

tus Sacer, 2 vols. fol. and some other things. Tr.]

1 [Gretser, a German Jesuit, born 1561, professor of theology at Ingolstadt; died 1636. He wrote much against the protestants. His works fill 17 vols. fol. Tr.]

2 [Combefis, a Dominican of Guienne, died 1679. A fine Greek scholar, and editor of several Greek fathers, and of five Greek historians. Tr.]

3 [Natalis Alexander, a Dominican of Rouen, died in 1724, aged 86. He wrote Historia Eccles. Vet. et Novi Test. selecta Capita, in 30 vols. 8vo. 8 vols. fol. and 18 vols. 4to. also a System of Theology, 2 vols. fol. His Eccles. History is candid and learned, but written in a dry and argumentative manner. Tr.]

4 [Becan, a Jesuit of Brabant, confessor to Ferdinand II., died at Vienna, in 1624. He wrote much against the protestants, and a Sum of Theology, in French. Tr.]

5 [Cellot, a Jesuit of Paris, died 1658. He wrote the History of Gottschalk, and published the Opuscula of Hincmar of Rheims. Tr.]

6

[Caussinus, a French Jesuit, died