bulwark, and sure defence, against all the assaults of whatsoever enemics. He died in Anno 1611, and was buried at Heidelberg. He married Louisa Juliana, daughter of William Prince of Orange, who liveth still, and had by her these children: Louisa-Juliana, married to John, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Zuneiburgh, and Administrator to Catharina Sophia. Frederick the Fifth, King of Bohemia, Prince Elector Palatine Elisabeth-Charlotta, married unto George, Elector of Anna-Leonora, dead in her infancy. Lewis-William, dead within a few days after he was born. Lewis-Philip, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, who hath FREDERICK THE FIFTH. FREDERICK the Fifth, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, elector and arch-sewer of the sacred Roman empire, and, in vacancy of the same, vicar thereof, and one of the most noble order of the garter, born the sixteenth of August, 1596. After his father's decease, having lived for some little space, under the rule and government of his cousin, John, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Zuneiburgh, and administrator, took upon him the government of the Palatinaje: A prince (for his age) surpassing far his predecessors, as being adorned with all singular and rare virtues, which are requisite in a true and perfect prince. He beautified the castle of Heidelberg with an huge and strong tower, and divers other reparations; together with most pleasant, sumptuous, and admirable gardens, walks, waterworks, and other princely ornaments, for the most part cut out of the side of the mountain, where the castle standeth. He continued, with exceeding great cost, the building and fortification of the invincible fort of the town and castle of Manheim, founded by Frederick the Fourth, his father. He pacified the civil dissension of Worms, having sent four-thousand men of war into the city, for that purpose. Being assisted by the other princes of the union, he demolished and razed the new fortifications of the town of Udenheim, standing on the Rhine, which the Bishop of Spires had caused to be built, contrary to the privileges of the country. He was, for the great multitude of his heroical and princely virtues, by the general consent of the Bohemian states, elected King of Boheinia, and was crowned in Prague, the five-and-twentieth of October; and the Lady Elisabeth, his spouse, sole daughter of James, King of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland, &c. the twenty-eighth of that same month, Anno 1619. He was likewise received and acknowledged for Marquis of Moravia, Duke of Silesia, and Marquis of Lusatia, by all the states of those countries. About a year after, having lost a great battle, which the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria won, not far from Prague, he was forced to leave Bohemia, and the neighbour-countries that belonged unto him, to his victorious enemy, which, within a few months after the same time, took possession of them all. Not long after these things were past, in the end he lost the Palatinate, with his whole inheritance, which the Emperor Ferdinand took from him unjustly, and gave the same to the Duke of Bavaria, that had helped him in all the wars of Bohemia, and the Palatinate. He lived to the year 1632 in Holland, and from thence went up unto the King of Sweden, hoping, through God's assistance, for to recover his country again; since the which he is departed this life. The names of his children are these: Prince Frederick-Henry, chosen King of Bohemia, born at year Elisabeth, born at Heidelberg, the twenty-sixth of December, Rupert, born at Prague, December the seventeenth, 1619. Lewis, born at the Hague, the twenty-first of August, 1623; Edward, born at the Hague, the sixth of October, 1624. God, of his unspeakable mercy, bless, protect, and defend this noble Queen, with her royal progeny *, to the enlarging of his church, to the further ruin of Antichrist, to the comfort of all the godly dispersed through the world. • God has so far blessed her Royal Progeny, that they now sit upon the throne of Great. Britain; King George the Second being great grandson to Elisabeth, Queen of Bohemia, AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND TRYAL OF NICHOLAS ANTHOINE, Burnt for Judaism at Geneva, in the Year 1632. Quarto, containing fifteen pages. ICHOLAS ANTHOINE was born of Popish parents, at Brieu, in Lorrain. His father took a particular care of his education, and sent him to the college of Luxemburg, where he studied five years. From thence he was removed to Pont-à-Mousson, Triers, and Cologne; where he went on with his studies under the direction of the Jesuits, till he was about twenty years of age. Being returned to his father's, and disliking the church of Rome, he repaired to Metz, and applied himself to M. Ferry, an eminent divine of that city, who instructed him in the Protestant religion, which he heartily embraced. From that time he professed himself a Protestant, and endeavoured to convert his relations to the reformed religion. From Metz, he was sent to Sedan, in order to study divinity; and from thence to Geneva, where he continued his theological studies. He applied himself particularly to the reading of the Old Testament; and finding several difficulties in the New, which seemed to him unanswerable, he inwardly embraced the Jewish religion, about five or six years before his tryal. His first doubts were occasioned by his comparing the two genealogies of Jesus Christ, as they are related by St. Matthew and St. Luke; but when he came to examine the passages of the Old Testament, that are applied to the Messias in the New, he proved so weak as to renounce his Christianity. And, as new notions of religion frequently make a greater impression, than those wherein men have been bred up from their younger years, he grew so zealous for Judaism, that he resolved to make an open profes sion of it. Accordingly he left Geneva, and returned to Metz, and immediately discovered his opinions to the Jews of that city, and desired to be admitted into their synagogue: But they refused him, for fear of bringing themselves into trouble; and advised him to go to the Jews of Amsterdam, or Venice. Whereupon he resolved to take a journey to Venice, and earnestly intreated the Jews of that town to circumcise him. But he was again disappointed; for those Jews refused to comply with his desire, and told him the Senate had forbid them to circumcise any body that was not born a Jew. Anthoine, longing to receive the seal of the Jewish covenant, went quickly to Padua, in hopes that the Jews of that place would be more favourable to him; but they gave him the same answer. The Jews of that city, and those of Venice, told him, that he might be saved, without making an outward profession of Judaism, provided he remained faithful to God in his heart. This made him resolve to return to Geneva, where he had more acquaintances than any where else. M. Diodati, minister and professor of that city, took him into his house, to be tutor to his children. He pretended to go on with his theological studies, and was for some time teacher of the first class. Afterwards he disputed for the chair of Philosophy, but without any success. All that time he lived outwardly like a true Christian; for he confessed at his tryal, that he had constantly received the communion; but, in private he lived, and performed his devotions, like a Jew. At last, being poor, and weary of the condition he was in, and wanting a settlement, he desired a testimonial of the church of Geneva, which was granted him, and went to the Synod of Burgundy, held at Gex, in order to be admitted into the ministry. He was admitted according to custom, promising to follow the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, the discipline and confes. sion of faith of the reformed churches of France, &c. and was appointed minister of the church of Divonne, in the country of Gex. He had not been long there, when the lord of that place perceived he never mentioned Jesus Christ in his prayers and sermons; that he took his text only out of the Old Testament, and applied to some other persons all the passages of the Old Testament, which the Christians understand of Jesus Christ. This raised great suspicions against him. When he came to hear of it, he was very much perplexed; and, being naturally of a melancholy temper, he fell into a fit of madness, in the month of February, 1632, which was looked upon as a manifest judgment of God, because it happened the very next day after he had expounded the second Psalm, without applying it to our Saviour. He grew so distracted, that he moved upon his hands and feet in his chamber, publickly exclaimed against the Christian religion, and particularly in the presence of some ministers of Geneva, who went to see him. He horribly inveighed against the person of Christ, calling him an idol, &c. and saying that the New Testament was a mere fable. He called for a chafing-dish full of burning coals, and told the divines, who were in his chamber, that he would put his hand into the fire to maintain his doctrine, bidding them do the like for their Christ. His madness increased to such a degree, that he ran away in the night from those under whose custody he was, as far as the gates of Geneva, where he was found the next morning half naked, and lying in the dirt; and, having pulled off his shoes in the name of the true God of Israel, he worshipped him barefooted, prostrated upon the ground, and blaspheming against Christ. The magistrates of Geneva ordered him to be carried into an hospital, where the physicians took care of him, and he was visited by some divines. His mind was composed by degrees, and then he left off speaking injuriously of Christ, and the Christian religion, but stoutly maintained Judaism. Being thus recovered from his madness, he was committed to jail, where he remained a considerable time before the magis trates took cognisance of that affair; being only visited by several divines, who used their utmost endeavours to make him sensible of the falsity of his doctrine, and the enormity of his conduct, and to bring him over to the Christian religion; but he persisted in his opinions. M. Ferry, a minister of Metz, who, as I have said before, had con verted Anthoine to the Protestant religion, hearing of the sad condition, and the great danger he was in, writ a letter about him, the 30th of March, to the ministers and professors of the church and academy of Geneva. It contains several particulars relating to the history of that unhappy man; and therefore, I think it necessary to insert it in this place, and I hope no curious reader will blame me for it. The letter runs thus: Gentlemen, and most honoured Brethren, 'I beg your pardon for the fault I am going to commit, if you take it to be such: And indeed, I do not pretend to represent any thing to you, but in order to submit it to your censure. I have heard, with an unspeakable grief, what has happened to that poor wretch, who is amongst you; and I beseech you to forgive my freedom in writing to you about it. I do not do it altogether without the request of others. Besides, one must not expect a call to preserve an unfortunate man, who runs himself into destruction; since God and nature, and our ancient acquaintance and friendship, may be a sufficient motive for me to do it, To which I add, that, having been instrumental in bringing him to salvation, I think I have great reason to desire that he may not undo himself, and to endeavour, with your leave, to prevent it. I thank God, since he has thought fit to make him a new example of human frailty, that he has brought him amongst you, that you might prevent his doing mischief, and endeavour to reclaim him. I think, gentlemen, that mildness and patience will be the most proper means to succeed in it. I make no doubt that his illness proceeds from a black and deep melancholy, to which I always perceived he was very much inclined; especially after he had seduced a young man, whom he brought hither from Sedan, in hopes to get something by teaching him philosophy, and then he privately carried him farther, though I had earnestly desired him to send him back, and exhorted the young man to return to Sedan, which was M. Du Moulin's desire, to whom he had been recommended. From that time he could not bear the light in any room of a gentleman's house, where I had placed him, being always uneasy, restless, and silent. Nay, he had much ado to express himself, and it was a hard matter to make him speak, though I earnestly desired him to be more free, and sent for him, and made him dine with me now and then, and took all possible care of him. Which we ascribed to the ill success he had in a Synod of the Isle of France, whither he had been sent with a testimonial, and recommendation of the church and academy of Sedan, notwithstanding which, he did not appear sufficiently qualified for the ministry. After he had enticed away that young man, he writ several letters to me, wherein expressed a great grief for it; and in all of them • A large account of that eminent divine may be seen in the Historical and Critical Diction ary, lately published in English. |