stowed upon men who ought to be despisers of the world, might well be spared; that the clergy, who had accumulated immense revenues, lived in idleness and luxury, and contributed little to the public benefit, while the laity were hazarding both their persons and fortunes in the service of their country, and that, therefore, in a moment of public necessity, it was reasonable to have recourse to this plentiful fund. Arundel, who was present, to avert the blow which threatened the church, pleaded, that the clergy had always contributed more to the public service than the laity; and that they were at least as serviceable to the king by their prayers as the laity by their arms. Sir John Cheney, the speaker, replied, that he thought the prayers of the church a very slender supply, and was of opinion, that their lands would do the nation more good. The archbishop angrily retorted, that the kingdom could not expect to prosper, as long as the prayers of the church were despised. At the same time he importuned the king to protect the church from depredation; and these spirited exertions put a stop, for the present, to the prosecution of this violent measure. (Wal(Walsingham, Hist. Angl. p. 371.)

While Arundel zealously defended the temporalities of the church, he discovered equal zeal for the preservation of its internal constitution. The Lollards, or Wickliffites, who were attempting large innovations both in doctrine and worship, excited the ardour of the metropolitan; and he adopted violent and unjustifiable measures for the suppression of this rising sect. Finding that the university of Oxford was beginning to be infected with these new opinions, he determined to pay an official visit to that seat of learning, on the ground of an ancient claim of his predecessors, which had been confirmed to him as metropolitan by the late king. The university at first refused to receive him as a visitor, but afterwards acquiesced on the king's decision in his favour. Supported by the body of the clergy, assembled in convocation at St. Paul's in London, who complained of the strange degeneracy and contumacy of the students in an university hitherto exemplary for its adherence to the catholic faith, and for orderly and obedient behaviour; the archbishop sent delegates to the university to enquire into the state of opinions among the students. A committee of twelve persons was appointed by the university to sit in inquisition, under the authority of the visitor's delegates, upon heretical books, particularly those of Wickliffe, and to examine such persons as were suspected of favouring this new heresy, and compel them to a

declaration of their opinions. The report of these inquisitors was transmitted to the primate, who confirmed their censures : and the persecution was carried by this bigot to an absurd and cruel extremity. (Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, p. 205.) Arundel solicited from the pope a bull for digging up Wickliff's bones, which, however, was wisely refused him. Upon the authority of the horrid act for burning here tics, passed in the reign of Henry IV. a Lollard, in the year 1410, was consigned to the stake; and, at the commencement of the reign of Henry V. Sir John Oldcastle, lord Cobham, one of the principal patrons of the sect, was indicted by the primate, convicted of heresy, and sentenced to the flames. Soon after the archbishop had pronounced the sentence of excommunication on lord Cobham, he was seized with an inflammation in his throat, which speedily terminated his life: he died on the 20th of February in the year 1413. The Lollards, who partook of the superstitious character of the times, imputed this sudden illness and death to the just judgment of God. A more enlightened age may condemn, in every sect alike, such preSumptuous attempts to point the thunderbolts of heaven; but it will not fail to pronounce all endeavours to restrain, by violent means, the freedom of enquiry, as at once impolitic and criminal. This prelate might possess strong talents and a courageous spirit, fit for the station which he occupied as guardian of the church; but he was too zealously attached to the papal power, to set a just value on the civil rights of his country; and the severities which he exercised towards the Lollards, together with the synodic precept which he issued, forbidding the translation of the scriptures into the vulgar tongue, will leave upon his memory the perpetual stain of bigotry and intolerance. Godwin de Præsul. Biog. Brit.-E.

ARZACHEL, or ARZCHAEL, a Spanish mathematician, lived in the tenth or eleventh century. He wrote an astronomical work entitled, "Observationes de Obliquitate Zodiaca." Blancan. in Chron. Math. Vossius. Moreri.-E.

ASA, king of Judah, the son of Abijam, began his reign about 955 years before Christ. He showed great zeal for religion, demolishing the altars erected to idols, and restoring the worship of Jehovah. He obtained a victory over the Midianites, commanded by Zerah an Ethiopian. In a war with Baasha, king of Israel, he called in the assistance of Benhadad, king of Syria. The prophet Hanani reproved him for calling in foreign aid, and was severely punish

ed. He held the sceptre of Judah forty-one years. 1 Kings, xv. 8-24. 2 Chron, xiv, xv, xvi. Joseph. Ant. lib. viii. c. 6.-E.

ASAPH, the son of Berachius, of the tribe of Levi, was a celebrated Hebrew musician in the time of David. Twelve of the Hebrew psalms are inscribed with his name, and are supposed to have been written by him but this cannot be true concerning several, which relate to the Babylonish captivity. 1 Chron. vi. 39. 2 Chron. xxix. 25. xxxv. 15. Nehem. xii. 46. Psalms, 50. 73-83.-E.

ASAPH, a monk, who flourished about the year 500, under Carentius, king of the Britons, obtained the appellation of Saint, and gave name to the episcopal see of St. Asaph in Wales. He wrote the "Ordinances of his Church," and the "Life of Kentigern," a Scotch bishop, who presided in the convent of Llan Elvy, which afterwards came under the care of St. Asaph, and took his name. Baleus de Script. Brit. Godwin de Præsul. Biog. Brit.-E.

ASAR-HADDON, son of Sennacherib king of Assyria, succeeded his father about 712 years before Christ. He reigned thirty-two years in Niniveh, when he became also king of Babylon. He sent a colony of Babylonians and Cutheans into the kingdom of Israel or Samaria. His reign terminated 667 years before Christ. Esdra, lib. i.-E.

ASCELIN, a monk of the eleventh century, a native of Poitou, and a pupil of Lanfranc, was a zealous defender of the catholic faith against Berenger. In a public disputation at Brione with that divine, he is said to have put him to silence. Berenger afterwards wrote to Ascelin on the subject of the conference, and Ascelin replied in a letter, which maintains the catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. The letter may be found in D'Acheri's notes on the Life of Lanfranc prefixed to his works, printed at Paris in 1648. Moreri.-E.

ASCHAM, ROGER, a learned Englishman, of high reputation in the sixteenth century, was born at Kirby Wiske, a village near Northallerton in Yorkshire. His father, John Ascham, was house-steward in the family of Scroop; his mother, Margaret, was allied to several considerable families. They are said to have lived together in perfect harmony and affection sixty-seven years, (Dr. Johnson's Life of Ascham) and to have at last died almost on the same hour of the same day.

Roger, the third son of this worthy pair, a short time before his father's death, was received into the family of Sir Anthony Winfield, and enjoyed, with that gentleman's sons, the be

nefit of private education under a domestic tutor. He discovered an early fondness for reading, and made a rapid progress in classical learning. His friend and patron, pleased with the proofs which the young scholar gave of genius and docility, determined to afford him the advantage of an university education, and, in 1530, sent him to St. John's College, Cambridge.

With the peculiar talents for the study of languages which Ascham possessed, it was fortunate for him that he entered upon life at a period when the attention of the whole educated world was turned towards the revival and advancement of learning, and Greek and Roman authors were edited with diligence, and read and studied with avidity. The college in which he was to study had caught the classical spirit of the age. Metcalf the master was, as Ascham himself informs us, " though meanly learned himself, no mean encourager of learning in others." Fitzherbert his tutor was a good scholar, and possessed a happy facility of teaching; and his friend Pember, who was ready on all occasions to assist him in his studies, was a great proficient in Greek learning. Ascham, from his entrance upon academic life, felt the inspiration of an ardent desire to excel in learning, and devoted himself with uncommon industry to his studies. According to the maxim,

Qui docet, discit," he thought a language might be best learned by teaching it; and, when he had made some progress in Greek, he undertook to instruct boys in the rudiments of this language. His friend Pember approved his plan, and said, that he would gain more knowledge by reading with a boy a single fable in Æsop, than by hearing another read Latin lectures on the whole Iliad. Under the direction of the same valuable friend he became intimately acquainted with the best Greek and Roman authors. In his reading he observed a rule well worth the attention of students, to "lose no time in the perusal of mean or unprofitable books." Cicero and Cæsar, in particular, he diligently studied, as his best guides in writing the Latin language, and he formed his style upon these excellent models.

In the eighteenth year of his age, Ascham took his first degree of bachelor of arts, and was, about a month afterwards, chosen fellow of the college. Notwithstanding his uncommon merit, his election to the fellowship was attended with some difficulty, on account of the favourable disposition which he had discovered towards the reformed religion: so powerful was the influence of religious bigotry at this period, even in the schools of the learned. At the age

of twenty-one, in the year 1537, he was inaugurated master of arts, and from this time, and perhaps sooner, publicly took upon him the of fice of tutor.

The high reputation which he had acquired in Greek learning, brought the young tutor many pupils; and they were so ably instructed, and so happily incited to industry by emulation, that several of the scholars of Ascham afterwards rose to great eminence. Among the rest William Grindall was so much distinguished, that, on the recommendation of Sir John Cheke, he was appointed master of languages to the lady Elizabeth. Whence it happened that Ascham himself was not nominated to this honourable post is not certain; but from one of his letters it seems probable that he was at that time too fond of an academical life to exchange it for a station at court. Though no regular lectureship in Greek had then been established, Ascham was appointed to read public lectures on that language in the schools, and received an honorary stipend from the university. At this time a controversy arose in the university concerning the pronunciation of the Greek language, in which Ascham at first opposed the method introduced by Sir John Cheke and Sir Thomas Smith, but afterwards, upon giving the matter a fuller examination, he came over to their opinion and practice; and it is probable that it is part owing to the ingenuity with which he defended it, that this mode of pronunciation was generally adopted, and has since prevailed in the schools of England. This excellent scholar was so generally admired for the purity and elegance of his Latinity, that he was constantly employed to write the public letters of the university; and it was a circumstance, which contributed not a little to recommend him to this honourable office, that he was master of an uncommon neatness of hand-writing.

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Among the amusements with which Ascham enlivened his hours of leisure, was that of instrumental music; and for the relief and entertainment which this elegant art afforded him he was indebted to his friend Pember, by whose advice he turned his attention this way. He also amused himself in his study by embellishing the pages of his manuscripts, according to the custom of the age, with elegant draughts and illuminations. In the open air he frequently exercised his body, and relieved his mind from fatigue, by the liberal diversion of archery. At a time when the use of fire arms was in its infancy, the skilful management of the bow was still of more value than as a mere amusement, and the learned Ascham might be justified in

writing his Toxophilus. This ingenious treatise, though, as a book of precepts, perhaps of little value, might, at the time when it was written, materially contribute to the improvement of the English language; for it was well adapted to answer the author's intention, expressed in a letter to bishop Gardiner, of introducing in English prose a more natural, easy, and truly English diction than was then in common use. This work, besides the purity and perspicuity of its style, has also the recommendation of abounding with learned allusions, and with curious fragments of English history. Ascham has the honesty to confess, that another more selfish motive had a considerable share in producing this treatise. He wished to make a tour into Italy, at this time the capital of the republic of letters, and particularly the chief seat of Greek learning; and he hoped, by dedicating his book to the king, to obtain a pension which might enable him to accomplish this favourite design. It may reflect a small ray of honour on the name of Henry VIII. that this modest wish of the learned Ascham was not altogether frustrated. The king, in the year 1544, settled upon him an annual pension of ten pounds: a pension which Dr. Johnson, reckoning together the wants which this sum would enable Ascham to supply, and the wants from which, by the general habits of the times and the peculiar habits of a student's life, he was exempt, estimates at more than one hundred pounds at the present day. This pension was for some time discontinued after the king's death; but was restored by Edward VI. and doubled by queen Mary. Ascham, also, the same year received the pecuniary benefit as well as the honour of an appointment to the office of orator to the university; an office which, while he remained in the university, he occupied with great credit.

The name of Ascham had now, by means of his pupils and writings, acquired considerable celebrity. He had for some years past received an annual gratuity, to what amount does not appear, from Lee, archbishop of York. Among his patrons and his pupils either in languages or the art of hand-writing, for which he was famous, were several illustrious persons. At length, in 1548, upon the death of his pupil Grindal, preceptor to the lady Elizabeth, that princess, to whom he had already given lessons in writing, called him from his college to direct her studies. He accepted the honourable charge, and instructed his pupil in the learned languages with great diligence and success. After two years, some unknown cause of dissatisfaction arose, which led Ascham to take an abrupt leave of

the princess, and return to the university. This circumstance did not, however, alienate her regard for her preceptor: for, in the same year, 1550, after visiting his native place and his old acquaintance in Yorkshire, he was recalled to the court, and appointed secretary to Sir Richard Morisine, who was then going as ambassador to the emperor Charles V. In his return to London he paid a visit to lady Jane Grey, to whom he acknowledges himself exceedingly beholden, and of whom he relates that he found her, while the duke and duchess with the rest of the household were hunting in the park, reading in her chamber Plato's Phædo in Greek, and that (says he) with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Boccace." (Schoolmaster, p. 34. ed. Upton, 1711).

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During his foreign expedition, which lasted three years, he travelled through a great part of Germany, and visited many learned men. When he was with the ambassador he was useful to him, both in his private studies and in the management of public concerns. For four days in the week he read with him in the morning some pages of Herodotus or Demosthenes, and in the afternoon a portion of Sophocles or Euripides. On the other days he wrote the letters of public business, and at night continued his diary or remarks, and wrote private letters. One of the fruits of this tour was a curious tract entitled, "A Report and Discourse of the Affairs and State of Germany," &c. which contains valuable information and judicious reflections. It bears no date, but was probably written in 1532. Ascham made a short excursion into Italy, and was much disgusted with the manners of the inhabitants, particularly of the Venetians.

On the death of Edward VI. in 1553, Morisine was recalled, and Ascham returned to his college with no other support than his fellowship and salary as orator to the university, and the liberality of his friends. The tide of his fortune, which was now at its ebb, soon turned. Through the interest of bishop Gardiner, who, though he well knew that Ascham was a protestant, had the generosity not to desert him, he was appointed to the office of Latin secretary to the queen, with a salary of ten pounds a year, and permission to keep his college preferment. If it be thought surprising that he met with such good fortune under the intolerant reign of Mary, let it not be imputed to any servile compliance on his part. Ascham was prudent but not dishonest. He maintained his interest with Elizabeth in the most perilous times; and to the fidelity of his

VOL. I.

friendship with Cecil he in part owed his properity under the next reign. The fact probably was, that, besides the respect paid by all parties to Ascham for his learning, the facility and elegance of his Latin pen rendered him, in some sort, necessary at court. It is a striking instance of uncommon readiness and assiduity, that, in his capacity of Latin secretary, he wrote in three days forty-seven letters to persons of such high rank, that the lowest in dignity was a cardinal:

The transmission of the crown from a popish to a protestant princess made little change in the situation of Ascham. He had been protected and favoured by Mary; and upon the accession of Elizabeth he was continued in his former employments with the same stipend. He was indeed daily admitted to the presence of the queen, and read with her in the learned languages some hours every day; and of her proficiency under so excellent a master many proofs remain. We shall select one testimony from Ascham himself. "Point forth six of the best given gentlemen of this court, and all they together show not so much good will, spend not so much time, bestow not so many hours daily, orderly, and constantly for the increase of learning and knowledge as doth the queen's majesty herself. Yea, I believe that beside her perfect readiness in Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish, she readeth here more Greek every day than some prebendary of this church doth read Latin in a whole week. And that which is most praise-worthy of all, within the walls of her privy chamber she hath obtained that excellency of learning to understand, speak and write both wittily with head and fair with hand, as scarcely one or two wits in both universities have in many years reached unto." (Schoolmaster, p. 62.) To the master who taught his sovereign with so much success, and who was sometimes permitted to play with her at draughts and chess, a recompense might have been expected more worthy of royal munificence than a pension of twenty pounds a year, and the prebend of Westwang in the church of York. (Wood's Fasti Oxon. vol. i. col. 65.) Yet, through the queen's parsimony, Ascham remained thus pitifully provided for till his death. It has been suggested that the queen kept him poor because she knew him to be extravagant; and he is accused, (Compare Camden's Annal. an. 1568, Clarke's Mirror, c. 62, and Nicholson's Engl. Library, p. 247. as it seems not unjustly, of a propensity disgraceful to a man of letters and humanity, a fondness for cock-fighting: (In his "Schoolmaster," Ascham intimates an inten31

tion of writing a book "Of the Cockpit," which he reckons among "the kinds of pastimes fit for a gentleman.") But if these defects in his character did not render him worthy of her patronage, they ought to have been overlooked in the remuneration of his services.

It happened in the year 1563, at the castle of Windsor, that a conversation arose in the apartment of the secretary, sir William Cecil, on the subject of education. Some Eton scholars having that morning run away from the school for fear of chastisement, the discourse turned upon the severity of the correction used in the public schools. Contrary opinions were maintained upon the subject. Sir Richard Sackville, one of the company, was silent, but was so struck with the arguments of Ascham in favour of a mild treatment of boys, that he afterwards entreated his advice and assistance in the education of his grandson, and at the same time requested that he would compose a treatise on the general subject of education. These circumstances gave birth to an excellent performance, entitled," "The Schoolmaster." The work is strongly expressive of the author's humanity and good sense, and abounds with proofs of extensive and accurate erudition. It contains excellent practical advice, particularly on the method of teaching classical learning. It is surprising that Ascham's observations on the utility of the method of double translation has not led to the universal adoption of this method in schools. This treatise was published after the author's death by his widow in 1571; and was reprinted with notes, in 8vo. at London, by Upton, in 1711. His last illness was occasioned by too close application to the composition of a poem, which he meant to present to the queen on the New Year's Day of 1569. He died in his fifty-third year, on the 23d of December, 1568. His death was generally lamented; and the queen oddly, but emphatically, expressed her regret by saying, "She would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham." His epistles, which are written in the most perfect style of classical elegance, and contain valuable historical matter, were published after his death in 1577 by Grant, and dedicated to Elizabeth; and his miscellaneous pieces have since been collected by Bennet into one volume.

From the writings and other memorials of Roger Ascham, it appears that he was of an amiable temper; of great kindness to his friends, and exemplary gratitude to his benefactors; disposed to freedom of inquiry in religion, but too intent on other pursuits to exercise much zeal upon this object; respectable as a man, but

chiefly to be honoured as a scholar, who deserved from his contemporaries more liberal rewards than he received, and who rendered essential service to posterity, by promoting correct taste and sound learning. Ed. Grant. Orat. de Vit. R. Aschami. Epist. Aschami. Biog. Brit. Dr. Johnson's Life of Ascham.-E.

ASCHARI, a celebrated musulman doctor, the head of the Ascharians, a sect which opposed the Hanbalites. This sect taught, that God acts always from particular volition for the individual good of every creature; while Aschari taught that God governs the world by general laws. Aschari died at Bagdat about the year of the Hegira 329, or of Christ 940, and was secretly interred, lest the Hanbalites, in their zeal to punish his impieties, should tear up his remains from the grave. D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-E.

ASCLEPIADES, a Greek philosopher, of the Eliac school, native of Phlia in Peloponnesus, flourished about 350 years before Christ. He was a disciple of Stilpo, in whose school he formed friendship with Menedemus, which, Diogenes Laërtius says, was not at all inferior to that of Pylades and Orestes. They were obliged through poverty to submit to manual employment, and, attending the school of Phædo at Élis, they worked together as masons. Leaving their native country to attend the school of Plato at Athens, they supported themselves by grinding in the night, in one of the public prisons, till they had earned enough to enable them to spend the next day in the academy. When the magistrates of Athens, on making the customary inquiry concerning the manner in which these strangers subsisted, were informed of the extraordinary proof which these young men had given of an ardent thirst after knowledge, they applauded their zeal, and presented them with two hundred drachmas. (Athen. lib. iv. c. 19.) Asclepiades lived to a great age, and lost his sight, but bore the loss with chearfulness. (Cic. Tusc. Disp. lib. v. c. 39.) Diog. Laërt. ap. Vit. Mened. Bayle. Brucker. Stanley.-E.

ASCLEPIADES, an eminent physician of antiquity, born at Prusa in Bithynia, was originally a rhetorician, and turning his studies to medicine, became the author of a new sect. In physiology he followed Epicurus and the corpuscularian philosophers. He paid little regard to the authority of the older physicians, and rejecting all medicines of strong operation, he chiefly depended on diet, frictions, baths, &c. He allowed wine to his patients, and in general indulged their inclinations; whence he arrived at