preme Magiftrate, his Treatife of Excommunication tranflated from Gerfon, with an Apology, and other writings, for which he was cited before the inquifition at Rome; but it may be easily imagined that he did not obey the fummons.

The Venetian writers, whatever might be the abilities of their adverfaries, were at least fuperior to them in the justice of their cause. The propositions maintained on the fide of Rome were thefe: That the Pope is invested with all the authority of heaven and earth. That all princes are his vassals, and that he may annul their laws at pleasure. That kings may appeal to him, as he is temporal monarch of the whole earth. That he can discharge fubjects from their oaths of allegiance, and make it their duty to take up arms against their fovereign. That he may depose kings without any fault committed by them, if the good of the church requires it: that the clergy are exempt from all tribute to kings, and are not accountable to them even in cafes of high treason. That the Pope cannot err: that his decifions are to be received and obeyed on pain of fin, though all the world fhould judge them to be falfe: that the Pope is God upon earth; that his fentence and that of God are the fame; and that to call his power in queftion, is to call in question the power of God: maxims/ equally fhocking, weak, pernicious, and abfurd ; which did not require the abilities or learning of Father Paul, to demonftrate their falfehood, and deftructive tendency.

It may be easily imagined that fuch principles were quickly overthrown, and that no court but that of Rome thought it for its intereft to favour them.

The Pope, therefore, finding his authors confuted, and his cause abandoned, was willing to conclude the affair by treaty, which, by the mediation of Henry IV. of France, was accommodated upon terms very much to the honour of the Venetians.

But the defenders of the Venetian rights were, though comprehended in the treaty, excluded by the Romans from the benefit of it; fome upon different pretences were imprisoned, fome fent to the galleys, and all debarred from preferment. But their malice was chiefly aimed against Father Paul, who foon found the effects of it; for as he was going one night to his convent, about fix months after the accommo dation, he was attacked by five ruffians armed with ftilettoes, who gave him no less than fifteen stabs, three of which wounded him in fuch a manner, that he was left for dead. The murderers fled for refuge to the nuncio, and were afterwards received into the Pope's dominions, but were pursued by divine justice, and all, except one man who died in prison, perished by violent deaths.

This and other attempts upon his life obliged him to confine himself to his convent, where he engaged in writing the hiftory of the Council of Trent, a work unequalled for the judicious disposition of the matter, and artful texture of the narration, commended by Dr. Burnet as the completeft model of hiftorical writing, and celebrated by Mr. Wotton as equivalent to any production of antiquity; in which the reader finds "Liberty without licentiousness, piety without "hypocrify, freedom of fpeech without neglect of decency, feverity without rigour, and extenfive learning without oftentation."

In this, and other works of lefs confequence, he spent the remaining part of his life, to the beginning of the year 1622, when he was seized with a cold and fever, which he neglected till it became incurable. He languished more than twelve months, which he spent almost wholly in a preparation for his paffage into eternity; and among his prayers and aspirations was often heard to repeat, Lord! now let thy fervant depart in peace.

On Sunday the eighth of January of the next year, he rofe, weak as he was, to mafs, and went to take his repaft with the reft, but on Monday was feized with a weakness that threatened immediate death; and on Thursday prepared for his change by receiving the Viaticum with fuch marks of devotion, as equally melted and edified the beholders.

Through the whole course of his illness to the last hour of his life, he was confulted by the fenate in publick affairs, and returned answers, in his greatest weakness, with fuch prefence of mind as could only arife from the consciousness of innocence.

On Sunday, the day of his death, he had the pasfion of our bleffed Saviour read to him out of St. John's gospel, as on every other day of that week, and spoke of the mercy of his Redeemer, and his

confidence in his merits.

As his end evidently approached, the brethren of the convent came to pronounce the laft prayers, with which he could only join in his thoughts, being able to pronounce no more than these words, Efto perpetua, Mayft thou last for ever; which was understood to be a prayer for the profperity of his country.

Thus

Thus died Father Paul, in the 71st year of his age hated by the Romans as their most formidable. enemy, and honoured by all the learned for his abilities, and by the good for his integrity. His detestation of the corruption of the Roman church appears in all his writings, but particularly in this memorable paffage of one of his letters: "There is nothing

more effential than to ruin the reputation of the "Jesuits by the ruin of the Jefuits, Rome will be "ruined; and if Rome is ruined, religion will re"form of itself.”

He appears by many paffages of his life to have had a high esteem of the church of England; and his friend, Father Fulgentio, who had adopted all his notions, made no fcruple of administering to Dr. Duncomb, an English gentleman that fell fick at Venice, the communion in both kinds, according to the Common Prayer which he had with him in Italian.

He was buried with great pomp at the publick charge, and a magnificent monument was erected to his memory,

BOERHAAVE.

THE

HE following account of the late Dr. BOERHAAVE, fo loudly celebrated, and fo univerfally lamented through the whole learned world, will, we hope, be not unacceptable to our readers: We could have made it much larger, by adopting flying reports, and inferting unattefted facts; a clofe adherence to certainty has contracted our narrative, and hindered it from fwelling to that bulk, at which modern hiftories generally arrive.

Dr. Herman Boerhaave was born on the last day of December, 1668, about one in-the-morning, at Voorhout, a village two miles diftant from Leyden : his father, James Boerhaave, was minifter of Voorhout, of whom his fon *, in a small account of his own life, has given a very amiable character, for the fimplicity and openness of his behaviour, for his exact

• "Erat Hermanni Genitor Latine, Græce, Hebraice fciens: peritus valde hiftoriarum & gentium. Vir apertus, candidus, fimplex paterfamilias optimus amore, cura, diligentia, frugalitate, prudentia. Qui non magna in re, fed plenus virtutis, novem liberis educandis exemplum præbuit fingulare, quid exacta parfimonia polleat, & frugalitas." Orig. Edit.