the vicarage of St. Sepulchre's, London, and in 1665 was promoted to a prebendal stall in St. Paul's, by Dr. Henchman, bishop of London. In 1667 he was farther promoted to the archdeaconry of St. Alban's by the same patron, and appointed one of his Majesty's chaplains in ordinary. In 1668 he proceeded D. D. and for his learning and oratory was preferred to be one of the lecturers of the Temple. In his parish he was highly popular, and his death, which took place July 19, 1683, was deeply regretted by his flock. His only publications were a few occasional sermons enumerated by Anth. Wood.'

BELLA (STEFANO DE LA), an eminent engraver, was born at Florence in 1610. His father was a goldsmith, and instructed his son in the same business; but while, for the purposes of his trade, he was learning to draw, some of Callot's prints, which he had accidentally seen, gave a turn to his disposition, and he prevailed on his father to allow him to learn engraving. His first master, Canta Gallina, had also been the master of Callot, and our young pupil, after contenting himself for some time with an imitation of Callot, struck out a manner of his own, equally, if not more remarkable for freedom and spirit. In 1642 he went to Paris, where he formed an acquaintance with Israel Sylvestre, then newly returned from Rome, and was much employed by the uncle of that artist. Some time after, cardinal Richelieu engaged him to go to Arras, to make drawings of the siege, &c. of that town by the royal army, which he engraved at his return. From a considerable residence at Paris he returned to Florence, where the grand duke gave him a pension, and appointed him to instruct his son, the prince Cosmo, in the art of design; but his progress in his profession had been for some time much impeded by continual head-aches, which at last terminated his life in 1664. Without entering into the dispute so frequently agitated, respecting the comparative merits of De la Bella and Callot, it may be affirmed that De la Bella drew very correctly, and with great taste. His works manifest much genius and fertility of invention. The fire and animation which appears in them compensates for their slightness; and some degree of slightness seems pardonable in an artist who is said to have engraved no less than fourteen hundred plates. 2

1 Ath. Ox. vol. II, p. 735.

Strutt's Dict.-Dict. Hist.

BELLAMY (THOMAS), an English miscellaneous writer, was born in 1745, at Kingston in Surrey, and educated for trade. After serving an apprenticeship to a hosier in Newgate-street, London, he established a considerable business for himself, which he carried on successfully, until he began to pay rather too much attention to literary pursuits, and after keeping shop for twenty years, was obliged finally to relinquish his trade. He became afterwards the projector of the "Monthly Mirror," a periodical publication principally devoted to the business of the stage, and which was carried on by him for some years with spirit and success. He published also Sadaski, or the wandering penitent," 2 vols. 12mo, a novel in Dr. Hawkesworth's manner, and possessing considerable merit. For the stage he wrote, "The Friends, or the benevolent Planters," 1789, a musical interlude; and for young people, "Lessons from Life, or Home scenes." On the death of his mother he became possessed of some property, and was in the quiet pursuit of his literary schemes, when a short but severe illness carried him off, August 29, 1800. '

BELLARMIN (ROBERT), an Italian Jesuit, and one of the most celebrated controversial writers of his time, was born in Tuscany, 1542, and admitted amongst the Jesuits in 1560. In 1569 he was ordained priest, at Ghent, by Cornelius Jansenius, and the year following taught divinity at Louvain. After having lived seven years in the Low Countries, he returned to Italy, and in 1576 began to read lectures at Rome on points of controversy. This he did with so much applause, that Sixtus V. appointed him to accompany his legate into France, in 1590, as a person who might be of great service, in case of any dispute concerning religion. He returned to Rome about ten months after, where he had several offices conferred on him by his own society as well as by the pope, and in 1599 was created cardinal. Three years after, he had the archbishopric of Capua given him, which he resigned in 1605, when pope Paul V. desired to have him near himself. He was now employed in the affairs of the court of Rome, till 1621, when, finding himself declining in health, he left the Vatican, and retired to the house belonging to the Jesuits, where he died the 17th of Sept. 1621. It appeared on the day of his funeral that he was regarded as a saint, and

Biog. Dramatica,

the Swiss guards belonging to the pope were obliged to be placed round his coffin, in order to keep off the crowd, which pressed to touch and kiss the body; but they could not prevent every thing he made use of from being carried away a venerable relic.

It is generally allowed that Bellarmin did great honour to his order, and that no man ever defended the church of Rome and the pope with more success. The Protestants have so far acknowledged his abilities, that during the space of forty or fifty years, there was scarce any considerable divine amongst them, who did not think it necessary to write against Bellarmin, and some of his antagonists accused him without much foundation, in their publications, a circumstance from which his party derived great advantage. Bellarmin, however, though a strenuous advocate for the Romish religion, did not agree with the doctrine of the Jesuits in some points, particularly that of predestination, nor did he approve of many expressions in the Romish litanies; and notwithstanding he allowed many passages in his writings to be altered by his superiors, yet in several particulars he followed the opinions of St. Augustin. He wrote most of his works in Latin, the principal of which is his body of controversy, consisting of four volumes in folio; the best edition that of Cologne, 1615. He there handles the questions in divinity with great method and precision, stating the objections to the doctrines of the Romish church with strength and perspicuity, and answering them in the most concise manner. Some of the Roman Catholics have been of opinion, that their religion has been hurt by his controversial writings, the arguments of the heretics not being confuted with that superiority and triumph, which, they imagined, the goodness of the cause merited. Father Theophilus Raynaud acknowledges some persons to have been of opinion, that Bellarmin's writings ought to be suppressed, because the Protestants might make an ill use of them, by taking what they found in them for their purpose, and the Catholics might be deluded by not understanding the answers to the objections. Hence it was that our countryman, sir Edward Sandys, not being able to meet with Bellarmin's works in any bookseller's shop in Italy, concluded that they were prohibited, 'lest they should spread the opinions which the author confutes. Besides his body of controversy, he wrote also several other books. He has left us a "Commentary on the

Psalms;" "A biography of Ecclesiastical Writers;" "A discourse on Indulgences, and the Worship of Images ;" Two treatises in answer to a work of James I. of England; "A dissertation on the Power of the Pope in temporal matters," against William Barclay; and several treatises on devotion, the best of which is that on the duties of bishops, addressed to the bishops of France.

Notwithstanding the zeal which Bellarmin had shewed in maintaining the power of the pope over the temporalities of kings, yet his book "De Romano Pontifice" was condemned by Sixtus V. who thought he had done great prejudice to the dignity of the pope, by not insisting that the power which Jesus Christ gave to his vicegerent, was direct, but only indirect. What he wrote against William Barclay upon the same subject, was treated with great indignity in France, as being contrary to the ancient doctrine, and the rights of the Gallican church.

Bellarmin is said to have been a man of great chastity and temperance, and remarkable for his patience. His stature was low, and his mien very indifferent, but his talents and acuteness might be discovered from the traces of his countenance. He always expressed himself with great perspicuity, and the words he first made use of to explain his thoughts were generally so proper, or at least so satisfactory to himself, that there appeared no rasure in his writings. He has been attacked and defended by so many writers, that a catalogue has been drawn up of both parties, and a list of his defenders was composed by Beraldus, an Italian. His life has been written by James Fuligati, and many particulars relating to him may likewise be found in Alegambus, Possevinus, Sponde, &c.1

BELLAY (JOACHIM DU), a celebrated French poet, cousin to the Bellays to be noticed afterwards, was born about 1524 at Liré, a town about eight leagues from Angers. Being left an orphan at a very early age, he was committed to the guardianship of his elder brother, who neglected to cultivate the talents he evidently possessed, and although he soon discovered an equal turn for literature and for arms, he was kept in a sort of captivity, which prevented him from exerting himself with effect; and the death of his brother, while it freed him from this restraint, threw him into other embarrassments. No sooner was he

1 Gen. Dict.-Dupin,-Moreri.—Saxii Qnomasticon. VOL. IV.

Сс

out of the care of a guardian himself, than he was charged with the tuition of one of his nephews, and the misfortunes of his family, which had brought it to the brink of ruin, and certain law-suits in which he was forced to engage, occasioned solicitudes and vexations but little suited to the studies he wished to pursue, while a sickness no less dangerous than painful confined him two years to his bed. Nevertheless he courted the muses; he studied the works of the poets, Latin, Greek, and French; and the fire of their genius enkindled his own. He produced several pieces that procured him access to the court, where Francis I. Henry II. and Margaret of Navarre, admired the sweetness, the ease, and the fertility of his vein. He was unanimously called the Ovid of France. The cardinal John du Bellay, his near relation, being retired to Rome, in 1547, after the death of Francis I. our poet followed him thither within two years afterwards, where he enjoyed both the charms of society and those of study. The cardinal was a man of letters, and the hours they passed together were real parties of pleasure. His stay in Italy lasted but three years, as his illustrious kinsman wanted him in France, where he gave him the management of his affairs; but his zeal, hist fidelity, and attachment to his interests, were but poorly repaid; some secret enemies having misrepresented him to his patron. His most innocent actions were turned to his reproach; sinister meanings were given to his verses; and at length he was accused of irreligion; and these mortifications brought on him again his old complaints. Eustache du Bellay, bishop of Paris, moved at his misfortunes, and sensible of his merit, procured him, in 1555, a canonry of his church, which, however, he enjoyed not long; a stroke. of apoplexy carried him off in the night of the 1st of Jan. 1560, at the age of thirty-seven. Several epitaphs were made on him, in which he is styled "Pater elegantiarum,. Pater omnium lepôrum." His French poems, printed at Paris in 1561, 4to, and 1597, 12mo, established his reputation, and are certainly very ingenious; but the author was as certainly neglectful of decorum and the proprieties of his station, and imitated the ancients, not so much in what deserves imitation, as in the liberties they sometimes take. His Latin poems published at Paris, 1569, in two parts, 4to, though far inferior to his French verses, are not destitute of merit. !

Dict. Hist.-Moreri,