BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY; CONTAINING An Hiftorical and Critical AcCOUNT OF THE LIVES and WRITINGS OF THE Most Eminent Perfons In every NATION; Particularly the BRITISH and IRISH; From the Earliest Accounts of Time to the present Period. WHEREIN Their remarkable ACTIONS or SUFFERINGS, V O L. II. LONDON: Printed for T. OSBORNE, J. WHISTON and B. WHITE, MDCCLXI. 2101.e. 25: AN Universal, Historical, and Literary DICTIONARY. B B. ABINGTON (GERVASE) was born in Notting- Biog. Brita hamshire, educated at Trinity college in Cambridge. (of which he became fellow), and, July 15, 1578, incorporated mafter of arts at Oxford. He took his doctor's degree in divinity, and was appointed domeftic chaplain to Henry earl of Pembroke prefident of the council in the Marches of Wales; by whofe interest he became treasurer of the church of Landaff, prebendary of Wellington in the cathedral of Hereford, and, in 1591, was advanced to the bishoprick of Landaff, which he used to call in joke Affe, the Land thereof having been alienated by his predeceffor Kitchin, in the days of king Henry VIII. and queen Elizabeth. In February 1594, he was tranflated to the fee of Exeter; and, in 1597, to that of Worcester: he was likewife made one of the queen's council for the marches of Wales. To the library of his cathedral at Worcefter he was a very great Ibid. benefactor, not only repairing the edifice, but also bequeathing to it all his books, a gift of confiderable value. He died of the jaundice, May 17, 1610(4). Prayer; with a Conference betwixt 'Man's Frailtie and Faith. And ⚫ three Sermons. With alphabetical Tables of the principal matters of ⚫ each feverall Worke.' Biogr. Brit, BACON (ROGER) a learned monk of the Franciscan order, was defcended of an ancient family, and born near IlBiog. Brit. chefter in Somersetshire, in the year 1214. He received the first tincture of learning at Oxford, from whence he went to the university of Paris, at that time much frequented by the English, of whom the most distinguished for their learning and abilities highly careffed him. Having been admitted to the degree of doctor, he came back to England, and took the habit of the Franciscan order in 1240, when he was about twenty-fix years of age; but according to others he became a monk before he left France. After his return he was confidered as a most able and an indefatigable enquirer after knowledge by the greatest men of that univerfity, who generously contributed to defray the expences of advancing fcience by experiments, the method which he had determined to follow. His difcoveries were little understood by the generality of mankind; and because by the help of mathematical knowledge he performed things above common understandings, he was fufpected of magic. He was perfecuted particularly by his own fraternity, fo that they would not receive his works into their library, and at last had interest enough (fays Dr. Freind) with the general of their order to get him imprifoned; fo that, as he confeffes himself, he had reason to rep. of his having taken such pains in the arts and sciences. Bacon was poffeffed with the notion of judiciary aftrology. He imagined that the ftars had a great influence upon human affairs; and by their means, he thought, future things might be foretold. This, according to Dr. Jebb, making the friers of his order to confider him as a person engaged in unlawful arts, occafioned his imprisonment (a). At the particular defire of pope Clement IV. Bacon collected together and enlarged his feveral pieces, and fent them to him Hift. of Phyfic, .243. (A) The ingenious author of the Biogr. Brit. obferves that there is great reafon to believe, that though his application to the occult fciences was pretended, yet the true caufe of his ill ufage was the freedom with which he had treated the clergy,in his writings, in which he fpared neither their ignorance per their want of in morals (Epift. ad Clement. IV.) be fides, his intimacy with bishop Grouthead, who had gone fo far as to reprove pope Innocent IV. by letter, and was faid to have made no fcruple of declaring to thofe with whom he was intimate, that in his judgment the pope was Anti-Christ (Mat. Paris Hift. Angl. p. 875.) must na turally in 1267. This collection, which is the fame that himself Biog. Brit intituled Opus majus, or his Great Work, is ftill extant (B). Dr. Jebb, the learned editor thereof, tells us, that Bacon feems to have propofed two things principally in it, either by laying down a good fcheme of philofophy to excite the pope to reform the errors that had crept into the church; or if he could not effect this, to propofe fuch expedients as would break the power of Antichrift, and retard his progrefs. For he appears to have been firmly perfuaded that the church would foon be reformed, either by means of the pope himself, who was a man of integrity, or because the exorbitant dominion of Antichrift would become obnoxious to mankind, and so fall to deftruction. When Bacon had been ten years in prifon, Jerom d'Afcoli, general of his order, who had condemned his doctrine, was chofen pope, and affumed the name of Nicholas IV. As he was reputed a person of great abilities, and one who had turned his thoughts to philofophical ftudies, Bacon refolved to apply to him for his discharge; and in order to fhew both the innocence and the usefulness of his ftudies, addreffed to him a treatise On the means of avoiding the infirmities of old age (c). What effect this treatise had on the pope does not appear. But, towards the latter end of his reign, Bacon, by Dr. Jebb the interpofition of fome noblemen, obtained his release, and gives us this returned to Oxford, where he spent the remainder of his days date in his in peace, and died in the college of his order on the 11th of preface. Biog. Brit. June 1294. He was (fays Dr. Peter Shaw, a very able Boerhaave's judge of his merit) beyond all comparison, the greatest Chemistry, man of his time; and might perhaps stand in competition vol. i. p. 28. turally bring upon him the hatred of a great part of the clergy; more especially fince his zeal led him to follow the practice, as well as the opinion, of his patron, by writing freely to the pope about the neceffity of a reformation. (Mf. Cotton. Tiber. C. 5. fol. 3.) (B) In a beautiful folio, neatly and accurately printed by William Bowyer, at London, A. D. 1733, under the title of Fratris Rogeri Bacon ordinis minorum Opus majus ad Clementem quartum pontificem Romanum: ex Mf. codice Dublinienfi, cum aliis quibufdam collato. (c) Dr. Richard Browne, who ef teemed it one of the best perform- in the note |