3

BELLAY (JOHN DU), cardinal, was born in 1492, and made early proficiency in learning. Francis I. who highly esteemed him, bestowed many preferments on him. He owed this favour to an accidental circumstance: The night before the pope made his public entrance into Marseilles, to meet the French king, it was discovered that the president of the parliament, who had been appointed to receive him with a Latin oration, had unluckily chosen a subject which would certainly give the pontiff offence; and yet there was no time for a new composition. In this extremity, when the whole business of the ceremonial was deranged, Bellay offered his services to speak extempore, and did it with such uncommon propriety and elegance, that he was marked, from that time, as a man of the first genius in France. He was first bishop of Bayonne, and afterwards of Paris in 1532. The year following, Henry VIII. of England having raised just apprehensions of a schism on account of a quarrel with his queen, du Bellay, who had been sent to him in 1527, in quality of ambassador, and who is said to have managed his boisterous temper with great address, was dispatched to him a second time. He obtained of that prince that he would not yet break with Rome, provided time was granted him to make his defence by proxy. Du Bellay set out immediately, to ask a respite of pope Clement VII. which he obtained, and sent a courier to the king of England for his procuration, but the courier not returning, Clement VII. fulminated the bull of excommunication against Henry VIII. and laid an interdict on his dominions. It was this bull that furnished Henry with an opportunity, fortunately for England, of withdrawing that nation from the church of Rome, and a great source of revenue from the coffers of the pope. Du Bellay continued to be entrusted with the affairs of France under the pontificate of Paul III. who made him cardinal in 1535. The year afterwards, Charles V. having entered Provence with a numerous army, Francis I. in order to oppose so formidable an enemy, quitted Paris, whither du Bellay was just returned, and the king appointed him his lieutenant-general, that he might have a watchful eye over Picardy and Champagne. The cardinal, no less intelligent in matters of war than in the intrigues of the cabinet, undertook to defend Paris, which was then in confusion, and fortified it accordingly with a rampart and boulevards, which are still to be seen. He provided with equal prompti

tude for the security of the other towns, which important services procured him new benefices, and the friendship and confidence of Francis I. After the death of that prince, the cardinal de Lorraine became the channel of favour at the court of Henry II., but du Bellay, too little of a philosopher, and too much affected by the loss of his influence, could no longer endure to remain at Paris. He chose rather to retire to Rome, where the quality of bishop of Ostia procured him, under Paul IV. the title of dean of the sacred college, and where his riches enabled him to build a sumptuous palace; but by some means he took care to keep the bishopric of Paris in his family, obtaining that see for Eustache du Bellay, his cousin, who was already provided with several benefices, and president of the parliament. The cardinal lived nine years after his demission; and, whether from patriotism or from the habit of business, he continued to make himself necessary to the king. He died at Rome, Feb. 16, 1560, at the age of 68, with the reputation of a dexterous courtier, an able negociator, and a great wit. Literature owed much to him. He concurred with his friend Budæus in engaging Francis I. to institute the college royal. Rabelais had been his physician. Of his writing are Several harangues, An apology for Francis I. Elegies, epigrams, and odes, collected in 8vo, and printed by Robert Stephens in 1546.1

BELLAY (MARTIN DU), brother of the foregoing, was, like him and his other brother William, a' great general, an able negociator, and a patron of letters, and was also employed by Francis I. His historical memoirs, from 1513 to 1543, are still remaining; and are to be found with those of his brother William. Whatever pleasure the curious find in perusing these memoirs, the generality of readers complain of the length of his descriptions of the battles and sieges in which he was present; but he cannot be denied the praise of a wise and able man. He died at Perche in 1559. He was prince of Yvetot, by his marriage with Elizabeth Chénu, proprietor of that principality.*

BELLAY (WILLIAM DU), another brother of the preceding, lord of Langey, a French general, who signalized himself in the service of Francis I. was also an able negociator, so that the emperor Charles V. used to say, " that

1 Gen. Dict.-Moreri.-Gilpin's Life of Cranmer, p. 32. 2 Gen. Dict.-Moreri.

Langey's pen had fought more against him than all the lances of France." He was sent to Piedmont in quality of viceroy, where he took several towns from the Imperialists. His address in penetrating into an enemy's designs was one of those talents in the exercise of which he spared no expence, and thereby had intelligence of the most secret councils of the emperor and his generals. He was extremely active in influencing some of the universities of France, to give their judgment agreeably to the desires of Henry VIII. king of England, when this prince wanted to divorce his queen, in order to marry Anne Boleyn. It was then the interest of France to favour the king of England in this particular, it being an affront to the emperor, and a gratification to Henry, which might serve for the basis of an alliance between him and Francis I. He was sent several times into Germany to the princes of the protestant league, and was made a knight of the order of St. Michael.

He was also a man of learning, and gave proofs of his abilities and genius as a writer. The most remarkable of his works was the "History of his own times,” in Latin : of this, however, nothing remains except a few fragments, and three or four books, which Martin du Bellay, William's brother, has inserted in his memoirs.

When Langey was in Piedmont in 1542, he had some remarkable intelligence, which he was desirous himself to communicate to the king; and, being extremely infirm, he ordered a litter for his conveyance; but, after having passed the mountain of Tarara, betwixt Lyons and Roan, he found himself so much indisposed at St. Saphorin, that he was obliged to stop and there he died Jan. 9, 1543. He was buried in the church of Mans, and a noble monnment was erected to his memory. His friends gave him the following epitaph :

Cy git Langey, qui de plume et d'epée

A surmonté Ciceron et Pompée.

His cousin Joachim Bellay made also the two following lines in his praise :

Hic situs est Langeius, nil ultra quære, viator;

nil melius dici, nil potuit brevius.

Here lies Langey; ask nothing further, traveller; nothing better can be said, and nothing shorter.

1 Gen, Dict.-Moreri.

BELLEAU (REMI), a French poet, born in 1528, at Nogent le Rotrou, lived in the family of Renatus of Lorraine, marquis of Elbeuf, general of the French gallies, and attended him in his expedition to Italy in 1557. This prince highly esteemed Belleau for his courage; and having also a high opinion of his genius and abilities, entrusted him with the education of his son Charles of Lorraine. Belleau was one of the seven poets of his time, who were denominated the French Pleiades. He wrote several pieces, and translated the odes of Anacreon into the French language; but in this he is thought not to have preserved all the natural beauties of the original. His pastoral pieces are in greatest esteem, and were so successful, that Ronsard styled him the painter of nature. He wrote also an excellent poem on the nature and difference of precious stones, which by some has been reputed his best performance; and hence it was said of him, that he had erected for himself a monument of precious stones. leau died at Paris, March 6, 1577. His poems were collected and published at Rouen, 1604, 2 vols. 12mo, with the exception, we believe, of a macaronic poem he wrote and published (without date) entitled "Dictamen metrificum de bello Huguenotico." 1

Bel

BELLEFOREST (FRANCIS DE), a French historical compiler, was born in 1530, at Sarzan, near Samatan, a little village of Comminges in Guienne. He was only seven years of age when he lost his father; but his mother, although left in poor circumstances, contributed all in her power to his education, and he had the good fortune to be supported some years by the queen of Navarre, sister to Francis I. Some time after he went to study at Bourdeaux, and thence removed to Toulouse, where, instead of applying to the study of the law as he intended, he amused himself with poetry. He went next to Paris, where he got acquainted with several men of learning, and was honoured with the friendship of many persons of quality. Here he became an author by profession, and published above fifty compilations, mostly historical, among which are, his History of the nine Charles's of France; Annotations on the books of St. Augustin; his Universal History of the World; the Chronicles of Nicholas Gillet, augmented; A Universal Cosmography; and the Annals, or

1 Moreri, Diet. Hist.-Gen. Dict.

General History of France, all written with little judgment or accuracy, but deemed useful at a time when these qualities were not in much request. He died at Paris in 1583.1

· BELLEGARDE (JEAN BAPTiste Morvan de), born in 1648 at Pihyriac in the diocese of Nantes, became a Jesuit, and continued of that society for sixteen or seventeen years. It is pretended that his attachment to Cartesianism, at a time when it was no longer in fashion, obliged him to quit it, and he applied vigorously to his pen for a subsistence, sharing what he got very liberally with the poor. He died in the community of the priests of St. Francis de Sales, the 26th of April 1734, at the age of 86. He wrote French translations of several works of the fathers, of St. John Chrysostome, of St. Basil, of St. Gregory Nazianzen, of St. Ambrose, &c. of the works of Thomas à Kempis; of the Apparatus Biblicus, in 8vo, which for the most part are very unfaithful; nor are his versions of the classics, of Ovid's epistles, and others, in greater estimation. There is also by him a version of Las Casas, on the destruction of the Indies, 1697, and several moral productions: 1. Reflections on what may please and displease in the world. 2. Reflections on ridicule. 3. Models of conversation, and other moral writings, forming together 14 small volumes, all which bear strong marks of the precipitation in which the author composed them. The abbé de Bellegarde had an easy and sometimes an elegant style; but his reflections are little more than trivial moralities, without depth or ingenuity. A very indifferent translation of his " Models of conversation" was published at London in 1765, 8vo, enough to shew the absurdity of many of his sentiments, and the improbabilities of his historical facts.

2

BELLENDEN, or BALLENDEN (SIR or Dr. John), an elegant Scottish writer of the sixteenth century, was descended from an ancient and very honourable family in that kingdom, where his father, Mr. Thomas Bellenden of Auchinoul, was director to the chancery in 1540, and clerk of accounts in 1541. It does not appear when our author was born, or where educated; but from his writings (frequently intermixed with words of Gallic derivation) it was probably in France. In his youth he served in the court,

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist.-Gen Dict.-Saxii Onomasticon. 2 Moreri. Dict. Hist.