A Fit Conjucture of Religion and Learning, Book 3 · Chapter 11
CHAP. XI.
CEnturiae Ecclesiasticae.1555. Magdeburgenses ministri, quorum antesignanus. est Matthias Flaccus, Illyricus, Centurias divulgarunt errorum, mendaciorumque plenissimas. Geneb. Chron. l. 4. Opus, nisi apud iniquos alienarum vigillarum aestimatores, …si haud plane inculpatum, laudabile tamen cum ptimis utiléque. Gotofied. Epist. Dedicat. ad Philost. Histor. Eccles.
Four Saxons gathered together in the City of Magdeburge, viz. Flaccus Illyricus, Ioannes Vigandus, Matthaeus Iudex, and Basilius Faber, in religion rigid Luther anes took upon them to write the whole Ecclesiastical History from Christ to their times by centuries or ages, allowing a hundred year to every age, whence they are called Centuriatores. Pars. threefold Convers. of Engl. part. 1. l. 2. c. 5.
Lucas Osiander hath epitomized the eight first Centuries of the Magdeburgenses, so that he hath scarce omitted any thing necessary to be known.
All godly learned men, and truly fearing God (saith Melchior Adam in vita Wigandi)Opus certè per quam laudabile, Ecclesi…que nostris praefertim temporibus (quibus tot ac tantae circa fidem ac disciplinam moveantur controversiae) si cautè interdum & circumspectè legatur, apprimè utile. Whear. Method. leg. Hist. parte prima. Sect. 42. Magnam nominis famam Illyricus. consequutus Catalogo suo Testium Vetitatis, & Historia Ecclesiastic…. Iac. Verheiden. Fuerunt quidem aliquot Zoili inter Pontificios laborem illum arrodentes: sed unicum Io…uui… Sturmii testimonium omnes malè feriatorum hominum calumnias & sinistra judicia facilè refutare potest. Sic autem Sturmius sua manu in primam Centuriam, rogatus hoc nomine à Secretario Reipub. Magdeburgensis Henrico Merckelio scripsit. Magdeburgensium labor in conficienda historia Ecclesiastica & …ecessarius suit, & nostrae aetati utilissi… …. Quatuor in ea ego virtutes esse sentio, veritatem, diligentiam, ordinem, persp icuitatem, qu…s cum historicus assecutus, nihil video quid illi deesse possit, fi acc…dat sermonis Latini puritas & conveni…ns historiae ratio. Melch. Ad. in vita Wigandi. have with Sturmius approved that Ecclesiastical History, and to this day approve it, because they see an Idea as it were of the Church of Christ in its several Centuries contained in it, according to its propagation, persecution, tranquillity, doctrine, heresie, Ceremonies, Government, schismes, Synods, persons, miracles, Martyrdoms, the Religion out of the Church and Politick State of the Empire.
Iacobus Ceratinus.Horna genui… Iacobum Cer… t…tum, id est, Hornanum, Graeco vocabulo, non quod illum natalis soli puderet, quo nomine reprehenditur ab Hadriano Iunio: sed quod inter illorum temporum eruditos consuetudo ita ferret. Utriusque singuae peritissimus fuit. Graecae Professorem egit Lovanii. Beneficio ejus & incredibili industria primum Lexicon Graecum concinnatum est, magno studiorum bono. Boxhorn. Theat. Holland.
He died at Lovain in the flower of his Age, Anno 1530.
Ludovicus de la Cerda, a learned and industrious man.Ludovicus de la Cerda in Adversariis Sacris, multijugae lectionis opere. Vossius De vitiis Sermonis, lib. 3. cap. 30.
He hath put out these Works,
Adversaria sacra.
Psalterii Salomonis, &c. Gr. MS. Codice Latina versio.
De excellentia Coelestium Spirituum, imprimis de Angeli custodis Ministerio.
Annotationes in Tertullianum.
Com. in Lib. Virgilii, and other Works.
Antonius Rodolphus Cevallerius, a Norman, a great Hebrician.Hoc puer a… …diveram ex Antonio Rodolpho Cevallerio viro doctissimo, qui me in his literis …rudiebar. D…us. Respons. ad Minerv. Scrar. l. 1. c. 9. Mercerus additamentis ad Thesaurum Pagnini, adsentiente Cevallerio. … Cevallerium nomino, intelligo non Petrum qui Genevensis erat: sed A…to…ium Rodolphum Natione Norma…, alterius praeceptorem. Drus. Terragram. c. 16. Vide Thu…. Hist. Tom. 3. l. 54.
There are Rudimenta Hebraicae linguae recognita, & aucta ab eodem, cum Pet. Cevallerii Annot. & Joh. Tremellii Epistola.
Petrus Cevallorius, a French man, and very expert in the Hebrew.
Vir linguae sanctae dum viveret, peritissimus, mihique ob singularem pietatem & morum probitatem charissimus. Casaub. Animadvers. in Athen. l. 3. c. 28.
Demetrius Chalcondylas, a diligent Grammarian, who being himself a GrecianGraecae linguae post Argyro. polum Florentiae professor fuit? sed Politiani ambitione inde ejectus mediolanum se contulit. Voss. De Arte Grammat. l. 1. c. 4. Cui Graecae literae aetate nostra ab interitu quodammodo vindica…ae, quòd nunc vigeant, debere fateantur, quot aerumnarum eventibus oppressus miserabilem semper vitam egit. Pier. Valer. De Litteratorum infoelicitate, lib. 2. Vide plura ibid. by Nation, was Professour of the Greek in Italy.
Daniel Chamierus a Frenchman, who in his Panstratiae Catholicae hath so learnedlyVir doctrinâ orthodoxia, scriptis celeberrimus. Garissol. De Imputatione primi peccati. c. 27. refuted the Papists, that none of them hath made any answer to it.
His Epistolae Iesuiticae, and Corpus Theologiae also shew his great abilities.
There is also a Work of his in French, entituled, La Confusion Des Disputes Papistes Par Daniel Chamier. And another in answer to some Questions of Coton the Jesuite, which I cannot purchase.
He was killed at Mountaban with a Canon▪ bullet (which had a C. on it) on the Lords-day. Being asked by one before, Whether he preached on that day? He said, it was his day of repose or rest, and so it proved, though he meant it in another sense.
Peter Charon a French Papist.Charron en sa Sagosse n'a estè que comme le Secretaire de Monsieur du Vair, & de M. de Montagne, soubz lequels il semble qu'il ait escit ce qu'ils luy dictoient, tant il a fait peu de scrupule de se seruit de leur inventions, & de leurs propres paroles. Apologie Pour M. De Balzac.
He hath written a fine Treatise De La Sagesse, if he be not beholding to others for it.
Galfridus Chaucerus, Ieffery Chaucer, he was born in Oxfordshire.Vixit Anno Domini 1402.
He first of all so illustrated the English Poetry, that he may be esteemed our English Homer. He is our best English Poet, and Spencer the next.Propter docendi gratiam & libertatem quasi alter Dantes aut Petrarcha quos ille etiam in linguam nostram transtulit, in quibus Romana Ecclesia tanquam sedes Antichristi describitur, & ad vivum exprimitur. Humphr. Praefat. ad lib. de Jesuitismo. Fuere & in Britannorum idiomate & eorum vernaculo sermone aliqui poetae ab eis summo pretio habiti inter quos Galfredus Chaucerus vetustior qui multa scripsit, & Thomas Viatus, ambo insignes equites. Lil. Gyrald. De Poet. nost. Temp. Dial. 2.
Praedicat Algerum meritò Florentia Dantem,
Italia & numeros tota Petrarcha tuos.
Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra Poeta
Cui Veneres debet patria lingua suas. Lel. lib. Epig.
He seems in his Works to be a right Wiclevian, as that of the Pellican and Griffin shews.
He was an acute Logician, a sweet Rhetorician, a facetious Poet, a grave Philosopher, and a holy Divine.
His Monument is in Westminster▪ Abbey.
Chaucerus linguam patriam magna ingenii solertia ac cultura plurimùm ornavit, itemque alia, cum Joannis Mone poema de arte amandi Gallicè tantùm legeretur, Anglico illud metro feliciter reddidit. Voss. De Histor▪ Lat. l. 3. c. 2.
Antoine de Chandieu, a learned French Divine.De la tresrare erudition, pietè entiere, diligence incroyable & dexteritè admirable. Beze Epistre au Roy deuant Son Traicte Des Marques De L' Eglise Catholique.
Beza highly commends his Book of the Marks of the true Church.
There are other Works also of his,
De l' unique Sacrifice.
Contre les Traditions.
Sir Iohn Cheek. He was Schoolmaster to King Edward the 6th, and most skilfullComprehensus fuit Io. Checus, ac à ministris regiis in ipsa via quae Antuerpia Bruxellas ducit equo deturbatus, & funibus ad plaustrum religatus donec ob voluto capite in navem conjectus est, & ad turrem, Londinensem (ignarus quo▪ veher…tur) abductus est. Ibi minis ac terroribus ad Palinodiam adactus est, cum à Pontificiis erroribus toto animo abhorreret. Cujus rei poenitenti… ductus, maero…e paulo post contabescens mortuus est. Godw. Rer. Anglic. Annal. l. 3. in Greek and Latine.
He was Publique Oratour, and Greek Reader in Cambridge. In the discharge of the later he went over Sophocles twice, all Homer, all Euripides, and part of Her…dotus.
Roger Ascham in the first Book of his Epistles, speaking of him and Sir Thomas Smith, saith, Qui si adscribendum se dedissent, nec in Sadoleto Italia, nec in Longolio Gallia, justius, quam in istis duobus Anglia gloriata fuisset.
He was the first Regius Professour of the Greek Tongue in Cambridge, as Sir Thomas Smith was of Law. They were both Fellows of the same Colledge, both Professours in the same University, both Officers of State in the same Court, both wrote De pronunciatione linguae Graecae. They two especially by their advice and example brought the study of Tongues, and other politer Learning first into request in Cambridge.
Under God Sir Iohn Cheek was a special instrument of the propagation of the Gospel, and that religion which we now professe in this Kingdom. For he notDr L. in the life of Sir John Cheek. only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince Edward, which afterward grew up iuto a general Reformation, when he came to be King, but by his means the same saving truth was gently instilled into the Lady Elizabeth, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger studies.
In Henry the eighths time his friends and familiars were most of those worthy men which proved Reformers in King Edwards dayes, and either Martyrs or exiles in Queen Maries. His forreign acquaintance were Sleidan, Melancthon, Sturmius, Bucer, Camerarius, Celius, Peter Martyr, and others, great Scholars, and good Protestants.
He went into Low-Germany, Ut uxorem educeret, saith Sleiden, to fetch his wife from thence. These words were corrupted into Uxorem duceret by Thuanus and others, for he was married before.
In his return from Bruxwels to Antwerp he was apprehended by a Provost-Martial from King Philip, and so conveighed speedily away to the Tower of London. He was there by threatnings, and other wayes brought to a recantation, for which he was after much troubled, and so died.
Sir Iohn Cheeks Works were,
Introductio Grammatices, l. 1.
De Ludi magistrorum officio, l. 1.
De Pronunciatione linguae Graecae.
Correctiones Herodoti, Thucididis, Platonis, Demosthenis, & Xenophontis, lib. plurimis.
Epitaphia. l. 1.
Panegyricus in nativitatem Edvardi Principis.
Elegia de aegrotatione & obitu Edvardi 6ti.
In obitum Antonii Dennei. l. 1.
De obitu Buceri.
Commentarii in Psalmum 139. & alios.
An liceat nubere post Divortium, lib. 1.
De Fide justificante, lib. 1.
De aqua lustrali, cineribus & palmis, ad Wintoniensem, l. 1.
De Eucharistiae Sacramento, l. 1.
Collegit in Parliamento argumenta & rationes ex utraque parte super negotio Eucharistiae.
Libellus de damno ex seditione.
He translated also other things out of Greek into Latine, and out of English into Latine.Natus est Anno 1522. Inter labores ejus primas facilè obtinet ille, quem dogmatibus, decretis, & Canonibus Concilii Tridentini examinandis & re…tandis im pendit, utilem sanè omnibus veritatem amantibus. Ipse etiam inter primos exst…it, qui Naturam artes & doctrinam Iesuitarum Germanis, quantum illis temporibus paruit detegere coepit. Melchior. Adam. in ejus vita. Vir eximius atque acerrimus Pontificiarum partium oppugnator. Gul. Rivet. Vind. Evang. part. 3. c. 6. Vide Thuan. Hist. Tom. 4. l. 84. D. Chemnitius non postremus est in catalogo haereticorum: quia examen Tridentini Conciliabuli non leviter ipsis dolet. Haseunul. Historia Jesuit. ord. c. 7.
Martinus Ch…mnitius.
A most famous and learned Doctor of Divinity, in the Church of Brunswick.
His Harmony and other Theological writings are most profitable, especially that excellent Work, or rather most rich Theological Bibliotheque, which contains both a Refutation of the Councel of Trent, and also an Explication of the whole Doctrine of the Church: to be read daily by all to whom the knowledge of the truth is welcome, saith Neander.
Andreas du Chesne, the King of France his Geographer. He hath put out divers French Books.
Renatus *Summus nostrae aetatis jurisconsultus. Geueb. Chron. 1. 4.Chopinus.
There are several Books of his.
Monasticon.
De Sacra Politia.
De Civil. Paris moribus.
De domanio Franciae & Privilegiis Rusticorum.
Panegyricus Henrici quarti, and other Works.
Emanuel Chrysoloras of Constantinople.
He first brought back again the Greek Language after seven hundred years andEmanuel Chrysoloras Byzan▪ tius, Graecas literas in Italiam quasi postliminio reduxit, quae per 700 annos ferè exulaverant. Geueb. Chronol. l. 4. Primus Graecas literas variis Barbarorum irruptionibus expulsas, post septingentos annos in Italiam reportavit. Paul. Iov. Elog. Doctorum virorum. Learning into Italy, writing a Grammar, and he stirred up the Europeans against Bajazet. Pezel. Mellif. Histor. part. 3.
See Antoine du Verdier his Preface to his Bibliotheque.
He came to Italy under Boniface the 9th, and first taught at Venice, then at Florence, afterward he went to the Councel of Constance, there he was put to death, and was praised at his Funeral by Poggius his Scholar.
Petrus Chrysologns aIta dictus quemadmodum Chrysostomus ob auream dicendi vim arque eloquentiam. Possev. Apparat. Soc. Floruit Petrus Chrysologus Ravennae Archiepiscopus, vergente quinto laeculo, prope annum Domini 500. Forbes. Instruct. Histor. Theol. l. 13. c. 8., the golden spoken man.
He was Archbishop of Ravenna 450 years after Christ.
His Works are in one Volume.
Iohn Chrysostome, Anno Dom. 400. 398. saith Calvisius.Disertissimus Patrum & in Scripturis enarrandis Graecorum princeps. Montacut. Appar. 2. Vide …asaub. l. 2. Ep. 84. & 93. Basilii quemadmodum in literis, sic etiam in professione syncerioris virae socius, atque ut ita loquar, Achates, quicquid ser̄e scripsit, ad populatem captum accemmodavit, eôque fusior est ac simplicior, & in locis communibus spaciari maluit, quam in difficilimis versari quaestionibus. Hos triumviros Gregorium Nazianzenum, Basilium, Chrysostomum una tulit aetas apud Graecos, pietare pares, nec dispares eruditione, sed dictionis charactere dissimiles: quos si cum nostris conferre velis, Chrysostomus non dissimilis est Augustino, Gregorius Ambrosio, qui si Graecè scripsisset, plutimum negotii fuisset exhibiturus interpreti. Quem Basilio conferam nondum invenio, nisi fi quis scripturarum cognitionem quam habuit Hieronymus, cum Lactantii soelici facilitate copulet. Eras. l. 26. Epist. Epist. 33. Ego studiosissimus illius Patris sum, tum quia nullus melior Novi Testamenti interpres, tum & propter miram dulcedinem, & amaenitatem dictionis, quam post illum nullus Ecclesiasticus scriptor consequi potuit. Ios. Scalig Epist. l. 4. Epist. 389. Cum Aristophanis Comici Atheniensis Comoedias assiduè legeret, adeò ut etiam duo de t…igin…a ejus Comoedias Graecas sub pulvino abderet dormiturus, eloquentiam hinc & severitatem quibus est mirabilis didicisse existimatur. Neand. Geog part. 1.
A Greek and Ecclesiastical writer, a writer no lesse profitable then copious, no lesse copious then sweet, Quo nemo ex antiquis aut majore dexteritate scripturas tractavit, aut populum docuit salubrius aut haereticos oppugnavit acrius, quo nemo aut ad virtut is studia inflammavit vehementius, aut vitia sui temporis insectatus est liberius. Bois in the Preface to his Notes upon Chrysostomes third Tome. Post sacra Biblia & Paulinas imprimis Epistolas nullum novi scriptum, in quo, qui concionatores sunt, & Graece non nesciunt, majore cum fructu versentur, quam in beata Chrysostomi homiliis, quas it a numeros as reliquit, ut nemo plures, it a bonas ut nemo meliores, it a disertas & dilucidas, ut nihil ne excogitari quidem possit disertum aut dilucidum magis. Bois ibid.
The soundest Interpreter I think of all the Greek and Latine Fathers. Dr Hackw. Apol. l. 5. The Christian Demosthenes.
Although he very well answeres his name, yet he sometimes redounds with words, and seems immoderate in digressions. Eras. Epist. l. 28. Epist. 7.
He doth excellently on the New Testament.
There is Opus imperfectum on Matthew in Latine, of which there is nothing to be found in the Greek books of Chrysostomes, Opus sine dubio ab aliqno ex Latinis Patribus confectum, nec minùs erudito, nec minus fortasse antiquo nostro Johanne. Sir Henry Savill in his Notes on Chrysost.
Quando Chrysostomi cognomen Johanni nostro tribui coeptum, non est facilè statuere.
See of this at the beginning of the Notes at the end of Chrysostomes eighth Tome put out by Sir Henry Savill.
David Chytraeus. He was a good Mathematician, as his Master also Philip M…lancthon De re Historica optimè metitus. Whear.was.
Petrus Ciaconius, a very learned man, and a great Restorer of ancient Writers.
His Opuscula and his Notes upon Caesar and Hirtius, and De Triclinio Rom & De vita scriptisque ejus, are published.