French theatre; and his "Port a l'Anglois" was the first piece in which the actors of the former spoke French. Another of his works, the "Amans Ignorans," was many times performed on that theatre. He composed some tragedies and serious pieces for the French theatre, and also wrote lyric compositions for the opera. The plots of his pieces are simple and inartificial; but the dialogue is easy and natural; and some of his scenes contain genuine comedy. Those which did not succeed on the stage, may yet be read with pleasure. This poor man, notwithstanding all his exertions, died in extreme poverty at the Incurables in Paris in 1745, aged eighty-nine. His works were published together in four volumes 12mo. in 1749, with an excellent preface by Pesselier. Moreri.-A.

AUVIGNY, N. CASTRES DE, a French historian, was born at Hainault in the year 1712, and was in his youth for some time resident with la Fontaine. Engaging in the profession of arms, he entered into a company of light-horse guards, and was killed in the battle of Dettingen in 1743, at the age of thirty-one years. He was a man of genius, and fond of letters, and has left several works which entitle him to distinction among authors. His principal performance is, "The Lives of illustrious Men of France, from the Commencement of the Monarchy to the present Time." Eight volumes of this work appeared, in 12mo. in the author's life-time; two posthumous volumes were published by his brother; and the publication has been since continued by the abbé Pereau and M. Turpin. Auvigny's part of these biographical sketches is written with animation and elegance, but approaches too near the borders of fiction to be implicitly relied upon for historical truth. A small historical work was drawn up by Auvigny, and published in two volumes 12mo. which may be useful to young people, entitled "An Abridgement of the History of France, and of the Roman History, in Question and Answer." In 1735 this writer published, in five volumes 12mo. "An History of the City of Paris," of which part of the fourth, and the whole fifth volume, were written by M. de la Barre. Of his works of imagination the principal is, "Memoirs of Madame de Barneveldt." Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-E.

AUXENTIUS, a Christian divine of the Arian sect, a native of Cappadocia, flourished in the third century. In the contest between the Arians and Catholics, he was advanced by the emperor Constantius to the see of Milan.

He was accused to the emperor Valentinian, by the intolerant Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, as an enemy of Christ and a blasphemer; and to silence his enemies, made a declaration of his faith, which satisfied the emperor. The zealous catholics, however, were not satisfied; and Auxentius, in a council held at Rome in 368 by pope Damascus, was excommunicated. He was at the same time condemned by Athanasius and the prelates of Gaul. Nevertheless, he retained possession of the see of Milan till his death in 374, when he was succeeded by Ambrose. Hilar. contra Auxent. Moreri.-E.

AUXENTIUS, the younger, an Arian divine of the fourth century, a native of Scythia, was employed by the Arian party to oppose Ambrose bishop of Milan. Having exchanged his original name Mercurinus for that of the late bishop, he challenged Ambrose to a public disputation, which that prelate declined. This happened about the year 386. Ambros. Orat. in Auxent. See art. AMBROSE.-E.

AUZOUT, ADRIAN, a French mathematician of the seventeenth century, was a native of Rouen, and a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. He has been commonly said to have been the inventor of the telescopic instrument for measuring small angles, called the micrometer; on which subject he published a treatise, in the transactions of the academy for 1693. (Divers Ouvrages de Mathematique et de Physique par Messieurs de l'Academie Royal des Sciences, 1793.) But the honour of this invention has been claimed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of England in favour of Mr. Gascoigne, who, many years before, had invented and made use of an instrument, in which, by the approach of two pieces of metal ground to a very fine edge, the 40,000th part of a foot might be measured. The invention was, probably, as has happened in many other cases, original in both the claimants. The instrument has since received much improvement. Auzout first suggested the idea of applying the telescope to the quadrant, which was afterwards pursued by Picard. This ingenious astronomer died in 1691. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Hutton's Math. Dict. art. Micrometer.-E.

AXIOTHEA, a female philosopher of Greece, lived in the time of Plato. Her thirst after knowledge was so ardent, that she disguised herself in man's clothes, in order to attend the lectures of that philosopher. Menag. in Diog. Laert. lib. iii. c. 48.-E.

AYESHA, the favourite wife of Mahomet, was the daughter of Abubeker, who obtained on her account the name by which he is known,

signifying the Father of the Virgin. Ayesha was the only one of Mahomet's numerous wives who came a virgin to his bed; and so great was the prophet's caution in this respect, that he espoused her at seven years of age, and cohabited with her at nine. She had no children by him; but his love for her continued to his death; and when he was seised with his last illness, he caused himself to be conveyed to her house, and expired in her arms. She had not, however, passed though the nuptial state entirely without suspicion; for once accompanying Mahomet on a march, and having occasion to alight from her camel, she was unaccountably left behind, and next morning rejoined the army in company with one of the general officers. Her enemies on this occasion brought against her a direct charge of adultery; and the prophet himself was staggered; but perceiving, on reflection, that the dignity of his own character might suffer from the belief of such an aspersion, he produced a timely revelation from heaven to attest her innocence, and punished her accusers as calumniators.

After his death, she was regarded with great veneration by the mussulmans, as being filled with an extraordinary portion of his spirit. They gave her the title of Mother of the Faithful, and consulted her on important occasions. Her own father, when caliph, took her advice concerning his appointment of Saed to be general, which was opposed by Omar; and Ayesha joined in opinion with Omar, in consequence of which Saed was displaced for Amru. For some reason with which we are not acquainted, she entertained a great aversion for the caliph Othman; and she made use of her growing authority to form a plot for his dethronement, with the intention of placing in his stead her favourite Telha. She had gained over a considerable party, when Othman was assassinated in a sedition by another enemy. The succession of Ali was strongly opposed by Ayesha, who had never forgiven his declaration against her at the time she incurred the suspicion of infidelity. Joined by Telha and Zobeir at Mecca, she raised a revolt, under pretence of avenging the murder of Othman, in which the whole house of Ommijah concurred. An army was levied, which marched towards Bassora, with Ayesha at their head, in a litter borne upon a camel of great strength. On arriving at a village called Jowab, she was saluted with the loud barking of the dogs of the place, which, reminding her of a prediction of the prophet, in which the dogs of Jowab were mentioned, so intimidated her, that she declared her resolution

not to advance a step; and it was not till a number of persons had been suborned to swear that the village had been wrongly named to her, and till the artifice had been employed of terrifying her with a report of Ali's being in the rear, that she was prevailed on to proceed. When the revolters reached Bassora, they were met by a party of the inhabitants, whom they defeated. A deputation then came from the city to know their intentions, which Ayesha harangued in a long speech, with a loud and shrill voice, but scarcely intelligible, through passion. One of the Arabs wisely replied to her, "O mother of the faithful, the murdering of Othman was a thing of less moment than thy leaving home on this cursed camel. God has bestowed on thee a veil and a protection; but thou hast rent the veil and set the protection at nought." She met with other reproaches for her conduct, and Bassora refused to admit her. In the end, however, her troops gained possession of it. In the mean time Ali had assembled an army, with which he marched against the revolters. On his approach Zobeir had a conference with him, which tended to an accommodation. But Ayesha violently opposed all pacific counsels, and resolved to proceed to the utmost extremity. Her army was the most numerous, though that of Ali was superior in military skill. A fierce battle ensued, at a place called Horaiba, in which both Telha and Zobeir were slain. The combat still raged about Ayesha's camel, and an Arabian writer says, that the hands of 70 men, who successively held its bridle, were cut off, and that her litter was stuck full of darts, so as to resemble a porcupine. The camel (from which this day's fight takes its name) was at length hamstrung, and Ayesha became a prisoner. Ali had a conference with her, which commenced with mutual reproaches; at length he dismissed her with great civility, and sent her to Medina under the protection of his two sons, only requiring her to live peaceably at home, and never more intermeddle with state affairs-a prohibition which one of her character would probably consider as a great severity. Her resentment afterwards appeared in her refusal to suffer Hassan, the unfortunate son of Ali, to be buried near the tomb of the prophet, which was in her property. She seems to have regained her influence in the reign of the caliph Moawiyah, who had a long conference with her concerning the succession of his son Yezid. She died soon after, in the 58th year of the Hegira, A. D. 677, aged sixty-seven; having constantly experienced a high degree of respect

from the followers of Mahomet, except at the time of her imprudent expedition against Ali. Mod. Univers. Hist. Marigny, Hist. des Arabes.-A.

AYLIN, JOHN, an Italian historian of the fourteenth century, was the author of an history of Friuli from the year 1366 to the year 1388. His work, which is a curious and useful collection of facts, may be seen in the third volume of Muratori's "Antiquitates Italicæ medii Evi," printed in folio at Milan, in 1740. Moreri.-E.

AYLMER, or ELMER, JOHN, an English divine, bishop of London, the younger son of parents of distinction, resident at Aylmer hall in Norfolk, was born in the year 1521. Under the patronage of Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset, afterwards duke of Suffolk, he was educated at Cambridge. Having finished his studies, the marquis engaged him to become private tutor to his children, and among the rest to Lady Jane Grey. This lady became, under his instruction, so great a proficient in both the Greek and Latin languages, as not only to be able to read them with facility, but to write them with elegance. In an interview which Roger Ascham had with her, she expressed great respect for her preceptor. "Mr. Elmer," says she, "teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing while I am with him."

In his clerical capacity, Aylmer showed himself a steady and zealous friend to the reformation. In his preaching he strenuously inculcated the doctrines of the reformers; and when, in consequence of his preferment to the archdeaconry of Stow, he obtained a seat in the convocation held soon after the accession of Mary, he courageously opposed the design of returning to popery, and with five others disputed against its fundamental tenets. This rendered him so obnoxious to the new government, that he thought it adviseable to relinquish his archdeaconry, and withdraw into a foreign country. On his passage, he fortunately escaped discovery from his pursuers, though they came in search of him into the ship on which he was embarked. While his enemies were drinking wine out of one end of a large wine cask with a partition in the middle, he sat concealed in the other. He resided, first at Strasburg, and afterwards in Zurich in Switzerland, and visited most of the universities of Italy and Germany. Towards the end of his exile he seasonably employed himself in writing an answer to John Knox's book "against

the government of women." This work was written with vivacity and learning, and was on the whole well calculated to gain the favour of Elizabeth, who now ascended the throne; yet it contained some passages savouring of puritanism, particularly one exhorting the bishops to be content with moderate incomes, and a portion "priest-like not prince-like." When afterwards urged with this passage, he fairly replied, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, and thought as a child," &c.

Aylmer returned to his own country soon after Elizabeth's accession, and was one of the eight divines who disputed at Westminster with as many popish bishops. In 1562 he was made archdeacon of Lincoln through the favour of Secretary Cecil, and sat in the synod holden that year for the settling of the reformed church. He seems, however, to have been averse at this time from interfering much in ecclesiastical disputes, aware of the suspicions under which he laboured from both parties; and he attended more to his duties as a justice of the peace, and an ecclesiastical commissioner. In 1573 he was made a doctor of divinity at Oxford; and in 1576 his long-expected promotion to a mitre took place, on the removal of Dr. Sandys from London to York. Dr. Aylmer succeeded his old friend and fellow-exile Sandys in his see of London, and incurred some censure on account of a suit against him for dilapidations, which he immediately commenced, and prosecuted for some years. Indeed, a prudent regard to his wordly interest was a conspicuous part of this bishop's character; and in consequence he accumulated a large property for the times, though he lived with a good deal of magnificence. It seems unnecessary to enter into many particulars concerning his episcopal life, which was rather that of a man of business than a deep theologian. He, indeed, made use of the plea of business to the treasurer Burleigh, in order to excuse himself from undertaking the task of answering the Jesuit Campion. He seems to have been active in the discharge of his duty, and to have exerted great vigilance in preserving the church from the attacks of papists and puritans; whom, especially the latter, he treated with sufficient rigour, so much so, as not only to acquire their hatred, but occasionally to incur admonition from the ruling powers. He was involved in a variety of disputes with respect both to the temporalities of his see, and his exercise of its spiritual jurisdiction; so that his life was not a very tranquil one, though his spirit carried him through its difficulties. His natural courage was great; of which two sin

gular instances are related; one, that of his sitting down to have a tooth drawn, in order to encourage queen Elizabeth to submit to the same operation; the other, that of sending for his son-in-law, with whom he had a difference, to his closet, and there giving him a sound cudgelling. Bishop Aylmer died at Fulham in 1594, at the age of seventy-three, and was buried in St. Paul's cathedral. His character perhaps stands higher in point of learning and ability, than of moral merit. He appears to have been sincerely zealous in religion, but a lover of power and of money, and possessed with a haughty persecuting spirit. A remarkable passage from his book against Knox has been quoted to prove the liberal ideas entertained at that time of the limited nature of the English monarchy, contrary to the representations of Hume. It is, indeed, a strong and decisive one; but it was written when he was an exile among republicans, and when, as he said," he thought as a child." Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer. Biogr. Britan.-A.

AYMAR, JAMES, an impostor, born at St. Veran in Dauphiné, attracted much attention, in France, towards the close of the 17th century, by his delusions. He boasted, that he was possessed of a divining rod, by means of which he could discover hidden treasures, find metallic mines, detect thieves, adulterers, &c. The ignorant vulgar, of all ranks, suffered themselves to be deceived by these pretensions: but being invited from Lyons to Paris, the frauds which he practised were laid open, and he was obliged to confess, that he had only used his rod, to draw money from the pockets of the credulous. The fraud being detected, the deceiver returned to his native obscurity and the only wonder was, that, after the detection, a man of letters could be found, who would attempt an apology for the diviner. De Vallemont, a man of more science than discernment, published a treatise "On the hidden physical Powers of the Divining Rod." Nouv. Dist. Hist.-E.

AZARIAH, or UZZIAH, one of the kings of Judah, succeeded Amaziah about 810 years before Christ. He was in the early part of his reign pious, and victorious over his enemies; but at last he became an idolater, and died of a leprosy. Several persons in the Jewish history bear the name of Azariah. 2 Kings, c. xv. -E.

AZARIAS, a learned Italian rabbi, an historical writer, lived in the 16th century. He published at Mantua, in the year 1574, a Hebrew work entitled "Meor en Ajim," [the Light

VOL. L.

of the Eyes] which treats of many particulars in history and criticism. It discovers more erudition, and more knowledge of Christian books, than is commonly found among the Jews. The author examines many facts respecting chronology. The work also contains a Hebrew translation of the book of Aristeas on the Septuagint. Buxtorf. Biblioth. Moreri.-E.

AZEVEDO, IGNATIUS, a Portuguese Jesuit, was born at Porto, in 1527. He was of an illustrious family, and as eldest son heir to a large fortune, which he resigned in favour of the second son, and devoted himself to religion in the society of the Jesuits at Coimbra. After studying in several schools, and fulfilling for many years the ordinary duties of the profession with great reputation, Azevedo became a missionary. He was deputed from Rome on a mission to the Indies and Brazil, under the title of procurer-general for those countries. After one successful expedition, of which he returned to give an account to the general at Rome, he set out upon a second voyage with a larger number of missionaries. As his ship was sailing, in 1570, towards the island of Palma, it was attacked and taken by corsairs, who put the whole company of missionaries to death. Azevedo and his thirty-nine associates have been honoured as martyrs in the church of Rome; and the history of their mission and martyrdom was published by Beauvais, a Jesuit, in 1744. Moreri.-E.

AZPILCUETA, MARTIN, surnamed NAVARRE, a Spanish lawyer, was born in 1494 at Verasoa near Pampeluna. He was esteemed one of the most learned lawyers of his time. He was, successively, professor of jurisprudence at Toulouse, Salamanca, and Coimbra, and was consulted from all parts as an oracle of law. His friend Bartholomew Caranza, archbishop of Toledo, being summoned to the inquisition at Rome on a charge of heresy, Azpilcueta went to Rome at eighty years of age, to plead for him. At this advanced age, he retained the full vigour of his faculties, and his house at Rome was the resort of learned men. Pope Gregory XIII. was frequently in the number of his visitors. He was so charitable to the poor, that he seldom passed a beggar without giving him an alms. It is said, that the mule, on which he commonly rode, would stop of his own accord, when he saw a beggar. This celebrated lawyer died at Rome, in 1586, at the great age of ninety-two years. A collection of the works of doctor Navarre was printed at Lyons in six volumes folio in 1597, and at Venice in 1602. Nicol. Antonio Biblioth. Hispan. Moreri.— E.

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AZZO, PORTIUS, an eminent Italian lawyer, was a Bolognese, and held the professorship of jurisprudence in that city from 1190 to his death, which probably happened not long after 1220. He was the disciple of Bassiano, but far surpassed the fame of his master. It is said that the great number of his scholars obliged him to lecture in the square of San Stephano; and that in his time Bologna possessed 10,000 students. He was extremely assiduous in attendance on his school, and so fond of his employment, that he said he was never ill but in the vacations. He was prone to passion, and did not exercise moderation in confuting his opponents. A story has been current, that once in the heat of debate he threw a candle stick at the head of his antagonist, and chanced to kill him, and that he was capitally punished in consequence of this rash action; but this circumstance is not mentioned by the writers

AZZ Ꭺ Ꮓ Ꮓ

nearest his time, and seems to be an idle tale. Neither does there appear to be any foundation for the opinion that he for a time left Bologna, and was professor at Montpellier. Azzo was the author of a "Summary of the Code and the Institutes," of which there have been many editions. This work was so much valued near his time, that no one could obtain the degree of jurisconsult who had it not in his possession; and at a later period, the learned Gravina says of it, "The Summary of Azzo is a work so ingenious and profound, that, although written in a barbarous age, we cannot, even with all our present erudition, be safely without it." (De Orig. Jur. vol. I. p. 93.) There has besides been printed the "Introduction to the Code," collected by one of his scholars; and several of his writings remain in manuscript. P. Sarti de Profess. Bonon. Tiraboschi.-A.