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To the above account we have only to add, from Ward's summary of his character, the following particulars. He was well acquainted both with the ancient and many modern languages; and that he was a liberal patron to learned men, as well natives as foreigners, may be inferred from various dedications, particularly those of John Fox the celebrated martyrologist, Hugh Goughe the historian of the Ottoman Turks, &c. He so constantly transacted Queen Elizabeth's affairs, that he was usually called The Royal Merchant.' And he had the singular honour, upon several occasions, to be appointed to receive foreign princes on their first arrival in England, and to entertain them at his house till they were presented at court. In fine, having no son to continue his name, he took the most effectual method to secure it's being preserved with affectionate regard, as long as the city of London shall retain it's corporate existence.

ously provided for himself and his family. The funeral charges amounted to 800%.

550

GEORGE BUCHANAN.*

[1506-1582.]

THIS celebrated historian and poet, one of the greatest masters of modern Latinity, was a native of Scotland. Of his family we have little account, except that, by the failure of his grandfather in trade, his children were reduced to extreme distress. He was born at Killairn in Dumbartonshire, in 1506; and his father dying while he was very young, the care of his education devolved upon his remaining parent, who with five sons and three daughters was left almost unprovided for. By the kind assistance of her brother Mr. James Heriot, however, she was enabled to place George at school; where his inclination for learning recommending him to the farther patronage of his uncle, he was sent by him to Paris, in 1518, to complete his education. But the death of his kind benefactor, in 1520, depriving him of the means of pursuing his studies, he was obliged to revisit Scotland. If this event, in

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* AUTHORITIES. Georgii Buchanani Vita, ab ipso scripta biennio ante mortem, et Poematibus præfixa, Melvil's Memoirs, Mackenzie's Lives and Characters of Scotch Writers, Lettice's Memoir, and Robertson's History of Scotland.

deed, had not taken place, his bad state of health alone would have compelled him to return.

About the year 1523, being anxious to acquire some knowledge of military affairs, he made a campaign as a common soldier with the French auxiliaries, who under the command of John Duke of Albany came over to Scotland, to assist in carrying on the war against Henry VIII. But the fatigues, which he underwent, were too much for his delicate constitution; and he was confined to his bed during the ensuing winter.

In the spring however, being somewhat re-established in health, he repaired to the University of St. Andrew's to learn logic, under the celebrated Mr. John Mair or Major* (the tutor, likewise, of Knox the

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* John Mair, better known by his Latin name Major,' was Professor of Philosophy and Theology at St. Andrew's, when Knox attended the University. The minds of young men, and their future train of thinking, often receive an important direction from the master under whom they are educated, especially if his reputation be high. Major was, at that time, deemed an oracle in the sciences which he taught, and was the preceptor of Knox, and of the celebrated scholar Buchanan. These two brother-pupils always name each other with high respect. "That notable man, Mr. George Buchanan (says Knox, in his ' History') remains alive to this day, in the year of God 1566 years; to the glory of God, to the great honour of this nation, and to the comfort of them that delight in letters and virtue. That singular work of David's Psalms in Latin metre and poesy, beside many other, can witness the rare graces of God given to that mãn.”

'Their tutor had received the greater part of his education in France, and acted for some time as a Professor for the University of Paris. In that situation, he acquired a more liberal habit of thinking and expressing himself on certain subjects, than was yet to be met with in his native country, and in other parts of Europe. He had imbibed the sentiments concerning ecclesiasti

Reformer) with whom he a second time visited Paris. Here he embraced the tenets of Luther,

cal polity maintained by John Gerson and Peter D'Ailly, who so ably defended the decrees of the Council of Constance, and the liberties of the Gallican church, against the advocates for the uncontrollable authority of the Sovereign Pontiff. He taught that a General Council was superior to the Pope, and might judge, rebuke, restrain, and even depose him from his dignity; denied the temporal supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, and his right to inaugurate or dethrone princes; maintained that ecclesiastical censures, and even papal excommunications, had no force, if pronounced on irrelevant or invalid grounds; held that tithes were not of divine right, but merely of human appointment; censured the avarice, ambition, and secular pomp of the court of Rome, and of the episcopal order; was no warm friend of the regular clergy; and advised the reduction of monasteries, and holidays.

His opinions respecting civil government were analogous to those, which he held as to ecclesiastical polity. He taught, that the authority of kings and princes was originally derived from the people; that the former are not superior to the latter collectively considered; that if rulers become tyrannical, or employ their power for the destruction of their subjects, they may lawfully be controlled by them, and proving incorrigible may be deposed by the community as the superior power; and that tyrants may be judicially proceeded against, even to capital punishment.

The affinity between these, and the political principles afterward avowed by Knox, and defended by the classic pen of Buchanan, is too striking to require illustration.

But though, in the above respects, the opinions of Major were more free and rational than those generally entertained at that time, it must be confessed that the portion of instruction which his scholars could derive from him was extremely small, if we allow his publications to be a fair specimen of his academical prelections. Many of the questions, which he discusses, are utterly useless and trifling; the rest are rendered disgusting by the most servile adherence to all the minutiae of the scholastic mode of reasoning. The reader of his works must be contented with painfully picking a grain of truth from the rubbish of many pages; nor will the drudgery be compensated by those discoveries

which about this time began to prevail in France. After struggling for nearly two years against the

of inventive genius and acute discrimination, for which the writings of Aquinas, and some others of that subtile school, may still deserve to be consulted. Major is entitled to praise, for exposing to his countrymen several of the more glaring errors and abuses of his time; but his mind was deeply tinctured with superstition, and he defended some of the absurdest tenets of popery by the most ridiculous and puerile arguments. And can Buchanan, then, be censured for having applied to him the -solo cognomine Major,

which with mock modesty he had previously, in a Dedicatory Epistle, applied to himself? His talents, indeed, were extremely moderate. With the writings of the ancients he appears to have been acquainted only through the medium of the collectors of the middle ages; nor does he ever hazard an opinion, or pursue a speculation, beyond the limits which had been marked out by some approved doctor of the church. Add to this, that his stile is to an uncommon degree harsh and forbidding; exile, aridum, conscissum, ac minutum.

• Knox and Buchanan soon became disgusted with such studies, and began to seek entertainment more gratifying to their ardent and inquisitive minds. Having set out in search of knowledge, they released themselves from the trammels, and overleaped the boundaries, prescribed to them by their timid conductor. Each following the native bent of his genius and inclination, they separated in the prosecution of their studies: Buchanan, indulging in a more excursive range, explored the extensive fields of literature, and wandered in the flowery mead of poesy; while Knox, passing through the avenues of secular learning, devoted himself to the study of divine truth, and the labours of the sacred ministry. Both, however, kept uniformly in view the advancement of true religion and liberty, with the love of which they were equally smitten; and as during their lives they suffered a long and painful exile, and were exposed to many dangers, for adherence to this kindred cause; so their memories have not been divided, in the profuse but honourable obloquy with which they have been aspersed by it's enemies, and in the deserved and grateful recollections of it's genuine friends.' (M'Crie's Life of Knox.)

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