the Holy Virgin." The eleventh is entitled "Ecclesiastical Institutions ;" an excellent work, containing his instructions, mandates, letters, &c. while he was bishop of Ancona, and afterwards archbishop of Bologna. The twelfth is a "Treatise on Diocesan Synods." All the above are in Latin. Caraccioli published his life at Paris, 1784, 12mo. It was begun in the life time of Benedict, and part. of it submitted to him by the author, to whom the pope said, "If you were a historian, instead of a panegyrist, I should thank you for the picture you have drawn, and with which I am perfectly satisfied."1

BENEDICT (RENE', or RENATUS), a famous doctor of the Sorbonne, and curate of St. Eustathius at Paris in the sixteenth century, was born at Sevenieres near Angers. He was a secret favourer of the protestant religion; and that his countrymen might be able to read the Bible in their own tongue, he published at Paris the French translation which had been made by the reformed ministers at Geneva. This translation was approved by several doctors of the Sorbonne before it went to the press; and king Charles IX. had granted a privilege for the printing of it, yet when published it was immediately condemned. In 1587 king Henry III. appointed Benedict to be reader and regius professor of divinity in the college of Navarre at Paris. He had been before that time confessor to the unhappy Mary queen of Scotland, during her stay in France, and attended her when she returned into Scotland. Some time before the death of Henry III. Benedict, or some of his friends with his assistance, published a book, entitled "Apologie Catholique," to prove that the protestant religion, which Henry king of Navarre professed, was not a sufficient reason to deprive him of his right of succeeding to the crown of France; first, because the Huguenots admitted the fundamental articles of the catholic faith, and that the ceremonies and practices which they exploded had been unknown to the primitive church. Secondly, because the council of Trent, in which they had been condemned, was neither general, nor lawful, nor acknowledged in France. After the murder of Henry III. a factious divine wrote an answer to that book, which obliged Benedict to publish a reply. When king Henry IV. was re

1 L'Avocat's Dict Hist.-Walch and Bower's Lives of the Popes.-Mosheim, vol. VI. edit. 1811.

solved to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, he wrote to Benedict, commanding him to meet him. The doctor on this consulted with the pope's legate, who was then at Paris, and advised him to answer the king, that he could not go to him without the pope's leave, which exasperated the people at Paris, because they understood by this advice, that he favoured the Spanish faction, and endeavoured only to protract the civil war. However, Benedict assisted some time after at the conference which was held at St. Dennis, and in which it was resolved, that the king, having given sufficient proofs of his faith and repentance, might be reconciled to the church, without waiting for the pope's consent. Benedict also assisted at that assembly, in which king Henry abjured the reformed religion, and having embraced the Roman Catholic faith, was absolved by the archbishop of Bourges. The king promoted him afterwards, about 1597, to the bishopric of Troyes in Champagne, but he could never obtain the pope's bulls to be installed, and only enjoyed the temporalities till 1604, when he resigned it with the king's leave to Renatus de Breslay, archdeacon of Angers. He died at Paris, March 7, 1608, and was buried near the great altar in his parish church of St. Eustathius. Dr. Victor Cayet made his funeral oration. Besides the books, which we have mentioned, he wrote three or four other pieces, the titles of which are mentioned by father le Long, but they are of little note, except perhaps his history of the coronation of king Henry III. "Le Sacre et Couronnement du roi Henry III. l'an 1575, par René Benoit, docteur en theologie," Reims, 1575, 8vo, and inserted in Godefrey's "Ceremonial de France," Paris, 1619, 4to.1

BENEDICTUS (ALEXANDER), or BENEDETTI, a very eminent physician and medical writer of the fifteenth century, was born at Legnano in the territory of Verona. When he had completed his studies, he went to Greece and the isle of Candy, as army surgeon, and on his return, he was made professor of medicine at Padua, where he remained until 1495, when he settled at Venice. The time of his death is not ascertained, but it appears that he was alive in 1511. Haller mentions him as at the head of the original medical writers, and says his style was far preferable to that of his predecessors. His works are, 1. "De

1 Gen. Dict.--Moreri.

observatione in Pestilentia," Venice, 1493, 4to, Bonon. 1516, fol. Basil, 1538, 8vo, &c. 2. "Collectiones medicinæ, sive, aphorismi de medici et ægri officio," Leyden, 1506. 3. "Anatomiæ, sive de historia corporis humani, lib. v." Venice, 1493, often reprinted. 4. "De omnium a capite ad calcem morborum causis, signis, differentiis, indicationibus, et remediis, lib. triginta," Venice, 1500, fol. also often reprinted. There are some remains of medical superstition in this work, but many excellent observations and useful cases. 5. 66 Opera omnia in unum collecta," Venice, 1533, fol. Basil, 1539, 4to, and 1549 and 1572, fol.1

BENEDICTUS (PETER), a celebrated Maronite, was born at Gusta in Phenicia, 1663, of a noble family, and sent to the Maronite college at Rome when but nine years old, where he made a great progress in the oriental languages, returned afterwards to the east, and applied himself to preaching the gospel there. The Maronites of Antioch sent him back to Rome, as a deputy from their church. Cosmo III. grand duke of Tuscany, invited Benedict to his court; heaped many honours and favours upon him, and made him professor of Hebrew at Pisa, and Clement XI. appointed him one of the correctors of the Greek press. He entered among the Jesuits at the age of forty his amiable temper, integrity, and profound skill in the oriental languages, procured him the esteem of all the learned. He died September 22, 1742, at Rome, aged 80. He published the first volumes of that excellent edition of St. Ephraim, which has been continued and finished by M. Assemani.2

BENEFIELD (SEBASTIAN), an eminent divine of the seventeenth century, was born August 12, 1559, at Prestonbury in Gloucestershire. He was admitted, at seventeen years of age, a scholar of Corpus Christi college, Oxford, and probationer-fellow of the same house, April 16, 1590. After he had taken the degree of master of arts, he went into holy orders, and distinguished himself as a preacher. In 1599, he was appointed rhetoric-reader of his college, and the year following was admitted to the reading of the sentences. In 1608, he took the degree of doctor in divinity, and five years after was chosen Margaret professor

1 Diet. Hist.-Haller.-Manget.

2 Fabroni Vitæ Italorum, vol. XI.-Dict. Hist.

in that university. He filled the divinity chair with great reputation, and after fourteen years resigned it. He had been presented, several years before, to the rectory of Meysey-Hampton, near Fairford in Gloucestershire, upon the ejection of his predecessor for simony; and now he retired to that benefice, and spent there the short remainder of his life (about four years) in a pious and devout retreat from the world. Dr. Benefield was so eminent a scholar, disputant, and divine, and particularly so well versed in the fathers and schoolmen, that he had not his equal in the university. He was strongly attached to the opinions of Calvin, especially that of predestination; insomuch that Humphrey Leach calls him a downright and doctrinal Calvinist. He has been branded likewise with the character of a schismatic: but Dr. Ravis, bishop of London, acquitted him of this imputation, and declared him to be free from schism, and much abounding in science." He was remarkable for strictness of life and sincerity; of a retired and sedentary disposition, and consequently less easy and affable in conversation. This worthy divine died in the parsonage house of Meysey-Hampton, August 24, 1630, and was buried in the chancel of his parish church, the 29th of the same month. His works are, 1. "Doctrinæ Christianæ sex Capita totidem prælectionibus in schola theologica Oxoniensi pro forma habitis discussa et disceptata," Oxon. 1610, 4to. 2. " Appendix ad Caput secundum de consiliis Evangelicis, &c. adversus Humphredum Leach." This is printed with the foregoing treatise. 3. "Eight sermons publicly preached in the university of Oxford, the second at St. Peter's in the East, the rest at St. Mary's church, Began Dec. 14, 1595," Oxford, 1614, 4to. 4. "The sin against the Holy Ghost discovered, and other Christian doctrines delivered, in twelve Sermons upon part of the tenth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews," Oxford, 1615, 4to. 5. 66 A commentary or exposition upon the first chapter of Amos, delivered in twenty-one sermons in the parish-church of Meysey-Hampton in the diocese of Gloucester," Oxford, 1613, 4to. This work was translated into Latin by Henry Jackson of Corpus Christi college, and printed at Oppenheim in 1615, 8vo. "Several Sermons, on occasional subjects." 7. "A commentary, or exposition upon the second chapter of Amos, delivered in twenty-one sermons, in the parish-church of Meysey-Hampton, &c." London,

6.

1620, 4to. 8. " Prælectiones de perseverantia Sanctorum," Francfort, 1618, 8vo. 9. "A commentary, or exposition on the third chapter of Amos, &c." London, 1629, 4to. 10. There is extant likewise a Latin sermon of Dr. Benefield's on Revelations v. 10. printed in 1616, 4to. '

BENEVOLI (ANTHONY), an Italian surgeon, was born in 1685 in the dutchy of Spoletta, and at the age of nine, was sent to Florence, where after going through a classical course, he studied philosophy, anatomy, and surgery, and acquired great reputation for his skill in disorders of the eyes and in ruptures. In 1755, he was appointed principal surgeon of the hospital of St. Mary in Florence, and died in that city, May 7, 1756. He wrote, 1." Lettera sopra cataratta gleucomatosa," Florence, 1722, 8vo. 2. "Nuova propozitione intorno alla caruncula dell' uretra della carnosita, &c." ibid. 1724, 12mo. 3. "Manifesto sopra alcune accuse contenute in uno certo parere del signor P. P. Lupi,' ibid. 1734, 4to. 4. "Giustificatione delle replicati accuse del signor P. P. Lupi," ibid. 1734, 4to. 5. "Dissertazioni sopra l'origine dell' ernia intestinale, &c." ibid. 1747, 4to. 2

BENEZET (ANTHONY), an American philanthropist, in early life was put apprentice to a merchant; but finding commerce opened temptations to a worldly spirit, he left his master, and bound himself apprentice to a cooper. Finding this business too laborious for his constitution, he declined it, and devoted himself to school-keeping; in which useful employment he continued during the greatest part of his life. He was author of "A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved negroes in the British dominions," 1767, 8vo; "Some historical account of Guinea, with an enquiry into the rise and progress of the Slave Trade, its nature, and lamentable effects," 1772, 8vo, and some other tracts on the same subject. He possessed uncommon activity and industry in every thing he undertook. He declared he did every thing as if the words of his Saviour were perpetually sounding in his ears, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ?" He used to say, "the highest act of charity in the world was to bear with the unreasonableness of mankind." He generally wore plush clothes; and gave as a reason for it, that after

Ath. Ox. vol. I.-Biog. Brit.

2 Dict. Hist.