Volume 5

General biography, or, lives, critical and historical of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions / chiefly composed by John Aikin and the late Rev. William Enfield.

  • Aikin, John, 1747-1822.
Date:
[1799-1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General biography, or, lives, critical and historical of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions / chiefly composed by John Aikin and the late Rev. William Enfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    prlr.oner by the Tartars, during one of their predatory incursions into Poland, and sold by tliem to the. Turks, who educated him in their religion in the seraglio. He had a happy facility in acquiring the knowledge of languages, being able to converse in eighteen different tongues, and understanding the French, English, and German, nearly as well as the natives of those countries. At the request of Dr. Thomas Smith, chaplain to the English embassy at the Porte, he wrote a curious treatise “ concerning the Liturgy of the Turks, their Pilgrimage to Mecca, their Circumcision, visiting of the Sick, &c.” which that gentleman presented to Ur. Hyde, who published a Latin version of it in the appendix to Abraham Peritsol’s “ Itinera Mundi,” printed at Oxford, in 1691. At Mr. Basire’s request he translated into Turkish the catechism of the church of England, about the year 1653 j and some time afterwards he trans- lated the whole Bible into the same language, which was sent to Leyden to be printed there, but remains still inedited among the MSS. be- longing to the library of that university. He was also the author of a grammar and dictionary of the Turkish language. Sir Paul Rycaut ac- knowledges that he was greatly indebted to Haly-Beigh for much of the information in his “ Present State of the Ottoman Empire and Messrs, de Nointel and Galland were furnished by him with “A Treatise on the Seraglio,” writ- ten in Italian, and various other MSS. among which was a considerable part of the book of Psalms, translated into Turkish verse, accom- panied with musical notes. In the fourth vo- lume of Dr. Isaac Barrow’s works, the reader may meet with an English relation of a con- spiracy that was formed in the seraglio against Mahomet IV. by his grandmother, which was written by our author. It was his intention to have returned to the profession of Christianity, in which he had been first nurtured; but he died before he had the opportunity of carrying it into execution. Bayle. AJoreri.—M. HALL, Joseph, a learned and ingeniousEng- lish prelate, was born in 1574,. in the parish of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. His father held an office under Henry earl of Huntingdon, whose principal seat was in that place. The youth was early devoted to the ministry; and after a school education at Ashby, was sent to Emanuel college, Cambridge, of which he was chosen a scholar. He obtained a fellowship of the same college, took the degree of M.A. and during two years read the rhetoric lecture in the schools. In clue time he took orders, and be- gan to preach. After an abode of six or seven VOL. V. years at Cambridge, he was presented by lady Drury to the rectory of Halsted, in Suffolk. He rebuilt the parsonage-house and married ; and such was his professional diligence, that he always preachccl thrice in the week, fie made himself known by various publications, of which one of the first, in 1597, was a col- lection of satires in verse, entitled “ Virgide- miarum,” In 1605 he accompanied sir Ed- mund Bacon to the Spa, in which journey he took a close view of the Romish religion, and held a conference with a Jesuit, at Brussels. Some time after his return, he was nominated by prince Henry, one of his chaplains. In 1612 lord Denny, afterwards earl of Norwich, presented him to the donative of Waltham-Holy- Cross, in Essex, whither he removed; and about the same time he took the degree of D.D. In 1616 he attended upon Hay viscount Don- caster, in his embassy to France; and during his absence was promoted by the king to the deanery of Worcester. When the king, in the next year, visited Scotland, he waited upon him as his chaplain. His learning and theolo- gical knowledge caused him to be appointed, in 1618, one of the English divines who were sent to the synod of Dort. After a short stay there, however, bad health obliged him to re- turn, but not till he had preached a Latin sermon before the synod, which testified its respect for him, by the present of a valuable gold medal. It appears from a treatise he soon after composed, entitled “ Via Media,” that he was desirous of steering a middle course in the disputes upon account of which that synod was convoked; and that he neither approved the opposition of Arminius to the received doctrines, nor the violence of the Gomarists in compelling uni- formity. Strongly impressed with the import- ance of a separation from the church of Rome, he thought that those who agreed in that main point, ought not to differ among one another on points of less consequence; and he was one of those divines who wished, for the sake of peace and union, to set limits to free enquiry. After refusing the bishopric of Gloucester, he accepted, in 1627, that of Exeter. The warmth and seriousness of his piety induced him, in his diocese, to be a favourer of those ministers who, by their diligence and frequent lecturings, underwent the charge of puritanism; and he complains, that, through the accusations brought against him by spies placed to watch his conduct, he was thrice upon his knees be- fore the king, to justify himself. Such was the vexation he incurred through tlie inquisition established by the bigotry_of Laud, that he D