Claude died in Paris in 1688, aged 75. His death is said to have been in consequence of dissecting a camel which had died of disease. His portrait was placed in the hall of the faculty of medicine, with an honourable inscription.

Claude had three brothers. Peter, the eldest, receiver-general of the finances of the generality of Paris, wrote a Treatise on Fountains, and a translation of the "Secchia rapita," of Tassoni. Some of his papers are contained in the "Oeuvres Physiques de Claude et de Pierre Perrault," Leyd. 1721.

Nicholas, the second brother, was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and published "Theologie Morale des Jesuites," 4to., 1667. The youngest is the subject of the following article. Moreri. D'Argenville Vies des Archit. Halleri Bibl. Anat.-A.

PERRAULT, CHARLES, younger brother of the preceding, a distinguished literary character, was born at Paris in 1633. He was placed at an early age in the college of Beauvais, where he soon attracted notice by his facility in making verses. He was still more addicted to scholastic disputation, but a quarrel with his master, which obliged him to quit the college, interrupted the ordinary course of his studies. He, however, by no means deserted literary pursuits; but, associating himself with a friend of the same age, they read good authors together, and discussed their merits; and this second education was, in his opinion, much more useful to him than the first. They also indulged themselves in burlesque, which was then much in vogue; and they joined in a travesty of the 6th book of the Eneid, which juvenile task might, perhaps, produce a more permanent effect upon the taste of Perrault than he was aware of. He was brought up to the profession of the law, and having been admitted an advocate, began to plead causes. He was, however, taken from this career by the minister Colbert, who chose him for secretary to a small society of men of letters, which assembled twice a-week at his house. Their business was to plan devices for medals, and other memorials, at the King's requisition, and commemorative of the glories of his reign; and this was the germ of the celebrated Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. Charles Perrault had a singular talent for inventions of this kind, and those which he proposed commonly obtained the preference. His influence with the minister was constantly employed in the service of science and literature. He procured, for the French Academy, apartments

VOL. VIII.

in the Louvre; and, with his brother Claude, shared in the establishment of the Academy of Sciences. When Colbert caused a sum to be set apart in the treasury, for pensioning, in the King's name, the most eminent men of letters, as well in foreign countries as in France, its distribution was principally confided to Perrault. This was an office likely to give him much consequence among the literati, and also to procure him much envy and ill will. He seems to have executed his trust very honourably, yet the list of pensions granted in France was far from being a scale of relative merit.

The esteem of Colbert' for Perrault was substantially proved by appointing him controulor-general of the royal buildings, of which he was himself superintendant. In this post he conducted himself with equal disinterestedness and intelligence; and he was of great use to his patron, by suggesting to him, in conversation, much information on points which he had had no time to study, and which he could afterwards display to advantage before the King, who was equally uninstructed with himself. During his possession of this office, he obtained the establishment of the Academies of Painting and Sculpture. The French Academy manifested its gratitude for his services, by admitting him as a member in 1671; and his discourse at reception gave so much satisfaction to that body, that it thenceforth became a custom to print the admission harangues. His connection with Colbert was interrupted by some mortifications to which the minister exposed him; possibly because he could not condescend to servility. Perrault retired, and resisted the advances soon after made for recalling him. He withdrew to a house in one of the suburbs of Paris, in the neighbourhood of the colleges, which he chose for the purpose of superintending the education of his two sons. Here he passed his time in literary leisure, and the enjoyment of domestic happiness. He exercised himself in writing, and composed several poems, which are said to be remarkable for the exactness of their descriptions.

One of these, entitled, "Le Siecle de Louis XIV.," published in 1687, made the commencement of a controversy, which is one of the most remarkable circumstances of his life, and for a time divided all the wits in France. In enumerating the glories of the reign, he had enhanced them by a depreciation of the ancients in every point of comparison; and, as this was regarded by the votaries of antiquity in the light of a profanation, he supported his opinion by an elaborate prose work,

I

The

entitled, "Parallele des Anciens et des Modernes," 4 vols. 12mo. Among other antagonists, he had to encounter the formidable satirist Boileau, who attacked him not only with all the powers of argument of which he was master, but with ridicule and invective. He, indeed, treated Perrault as a personal enemy; and, as he was of a much less forgiving temper than his adversary, he seems never, even after an apparent reconciliation, to have regarded him without a degree of malignity. breach had been widened by a poem of Perrault's, called "Apologie des Femmes," intended as a kind of reply to Boileau's virulent satire on the sex. With respect to the controversy relative to the ancients, moderate men judged that each party ran into extremes. Perrault's ignorance of the Greek language, and of the manners of antiquity, led him to false and partial judgments, whilst pedantry and learned prejudices often dictated the language and opinions of his opponents. During the progress of the contest, which, in some form or other, was continued to a late period, several distinguished French writers declared themselves of the party of Perrault, (see Fontenelle and La Motte,) and a lower estimate of the ancients seems, in general, to have prevailed in the French school of literature, than in that of other countries.

After Perrault had withdrawn himself personally from the controversy, he occupied himself in drawing up his "Eloge Historique d'une Partie des Grands Hommes qui ont paru dans le xvii Siecle." Of this work he published two vols. folio, 1697, 1700, with the portraits of the subjects of his eulogy. The style of the work is simple and pleasing, and a tone of moderation reigns through the whole. Among the illustrious persons commemorated, he had not omitted Arnauld and Pascal; but the odious intrigues of the Jesuits excluded them from the collection, till after the death of Lewis XIV. This estimable writer, who invariably maintained the character of a man of worth, died in 1703, at the age of 70. His poetry is less valued than his prose, which last is a model of elegant simplicity. Sixty years after his death appeared his "Memoirs," written by himself, valuable for their character of frankness, and curious for the anecdotes they contain. Moreri. D'Alembert Eloges Academ. -A.

PERRENOT, ANTONY, usually known by the name of Cardinal Granvelle, a distinguished statesman, was the son of Nicholas Perrenot, Lord of Granvelle, chancellor to the Emperor Charles V. He was born in 1517 at Besançon,

and after studying in the Universities of Louvain and Padua with great reputation, entered into holy orders. He was brought to court by his father, and was employed by Charles V. in various embassies, in which he acquitted himself so well, that he gained the confidence of his master. He was made bishop of Arras at the age of 25; and upon the resignation of Charles was recommended so strongly by that sovereign to his son Philip II., that he became his most confidential minister. From the see of Arras he was translated to the archbishopric of Mechlin, and in 1561 was created a cardinal by Pius IV. Granvelle possessed great talents for business; and is said to have occupied five secretaries at once, dictating to them in different languages, of which he thoroughly possessed seven. He was a master of crafty politics; and in the reign of Charles endeavoured to lull the Protestants into a state of security, with respect to the preparations that were making against them. When Margaret of Austria was placed by Philip at the head of the government in the Low-Countries, Granvelle was her principal counsellor, and in reality exercised the whole authority. His character is by Grotius represented as a compound of industry, vigilance, ambition, luxury, and avarice, and as equally surpassing the common measure both in good and bad qualities. A zealous servant to the crown, his sole principle of government was the extension of the royal prerogative, whilst at the same time he was animated with professional hatred against the Protestants. His rule at length grew so odious to the nobles and people, that in 1566 public complaints against him were transmitted to Philip, who thought it prudent to recall him. His conduct, however, by no means lost him his master's favour and confidence. After having retired for some time to Besançon, of which city he was made archbishop, Philip again employed him in public affairs. He was sent to Rome at the election of Pius V., and was commissioned to negotiate a league against the Turks. After having resided some time at Naples in quality of viceroy, the King called him into Spain, and left him in charge of the affairs of that kingdom while he went to take possession of the crown of Portugal. He was finally nominated ambassador to conclude the marriage of the Infanta Catharine with the Duke of Savoy. The fatigue of this journey threw him into an illness on his return, which carried him off at Madrid in 1586, in the 70th year of his age. Moreri. Grotii Annal. Belg. Robertson's Charles V.-A.

PERRIN, CHARLES JOSEPH, a French Jesuit, and admired preacher in the 18th century, was born at Paris in the year 1690. He exercised his pulpit talents with great success and applause in several of the principal cities in the kingdom, and particularly in the metropolis. Upon the disgrace of his society in France, the Archbishop of Paris, who was favourable to the order, gave him a temporary asylum in his palace. His deportment as an ecclesiastic was regular and edifying, and his manners agreeable and conciliating; but, having rendered himself peculiarly obnoxious by the ardour of his zeal on behalf of his society, the ruin of which was irrevocably determined, he was under the necessity of retiring to Liege. In this city he died in 1767, when about 77 years of age. He published a Latin "Poem on the Death of Lewis XIV. ;" and from his manuscripts were printed, at Liege, in 1768, 4 vols. of "Sermons," I 2mo. They are said to be recommended by an easy and pleasing style, though not always correct; solid and forcible reasoning; and a happy mixture of lively and striking images with genuine pathos. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Ladvocat's Dict. Hist. et Bibl. portatif.-M.

PERRON, JAMES DAVY DU, a learned and celebrated cardinal, was descended from two ancient and noble families of Lower Normandy, which, on account of their adherence to the Protestant faith, had found it necessary to seek an asylum in Switzerland, and settled in the canton of Berne, where the subject of this article was born, in the year 1556. Till he was ten years of age, his father, who possessed his father, who possessed considerable learning and abilities, undertook the office of his tutor, and initiated him in the mathematics and the Latin language. At this period of his life his parents returned with their family into Normandy; but were for some years afterwards driven from place to place by persecution and the civil wars, till the Protestants obtained peace from Charles IX. During this time young Du Perron applied diligently to his studies, and with such success, that he taught himself the Greek language, and philosophy, commencing the science last mentioned with the logic of Aristotle. He then employed himself in studying the orators and poets; and afterwards cultivated an acquaintance with the Hebrew language, and became such a proficient in it, that he could read it with facility, without the points, and was able to deliver lectures upon it before the Protestant ministers. In the year 1576, M. de Lancosme carried him to the court of Henry III., which

was then at Blois, where the states were assembled, and introduced him to the King, as a young man of extraordinary abilities and acquirements. Here he afforded evidence of his talents and learning in public lectures upon the mathematics and philosophy, and obtained such celebrity as a disputant, that he was soon left without an opponent who would venture to enter the lists with him. Upon the breaking up of the states he went to Paris, where he mounted the rostrum in the great hall of the Augustines, in the habit of a cavalier, and held public conferences upon the sciences. He now seems to have entertained a disposition towards a change in his religious sentiments. This was strengthened by his perusal of the "Summa" of Aquinas, and by the intimate friendship which he cultivated with Philip Desportes, Abbot of Tiron, who made him his substitute in the office of reader to King Henry III. With that monarch he became a favourite, though he is said to have incurred his temporary displeasure, by an unseasonable display of his vanity, at least, if it does not, as his adversaries have maintained, offer strong presumption of his irreligion. Having one day, while the King was at dinner, delivered an excellent defence of the existence of a God, His Majesty was highiy pleased with it, and complimented him on the solidity of his arguments. Perron, however, fond of displaying his talents, had the boldness to reply, that "if His Majesty would give him the hearing, he could refute what he had advanced by arguments equally solid." Upon which the King was so displeased, that he ordered him out of his presence. It is but justice to observe, that the truth of this anecdote is denied by the Catholics, who maintain it to have been a fiction. of the Protestants, out of revenge for his abandoning their communion.

From the perusal of Aquinas's "Summa," M. du Perron was led to the study of the fathers, particularly of the works of St. Augustine; and, finding the principles taught by them to be widely different from those in which he had been educated, he determined to renounce the latter, and to embrace the Catholic creed. Having taken this resolution, his ingenuity soon discovered weak reasonings and false conclusions in the writings of the ablest defenders of Protestantism, and he persuaded himself that the weight of argument, as well as authority, preponderated in favour of the tenets of that church into which he was entering. He, therefore, instructed himself minutely in all the controverted points

at issue between the two communions, and then formally made his abjuration. No sooner had he thus become a convert to the Catholic church, than, with a zeal not unusual in new proselytes, he laboured assiduously for the conversion of others; and this even before he had embraced the ecclesiastical profession, in a conference with the chaplain of the English ambassador, and on several other occasions. In the year 1586, he was selected to pronounce the funeral oration for the celebrated poet Ronsard; and in the following year, the King appointed him to pay a similar tribute of respect to the memory of Mary Queen of Scotland. Afterwards he wrote, by His Majesty's command," A Comparison of moral and theological Virtues ;" and two "Discourses," one concerning the soul, and the other upon selfknowledge, which he pronounced before that Prince. He was in attendance upon the King when His Majesty afterwards assembled the states of the kingdom at Blois; and after the murder of Henry III. he went to reside with the Cardinal de Bourbon. He now laboured more assiduously than ever in making converts from the reformed, and is said to have been the means of restoring great numbers of them to the Catholic fold. Among others, he converted Henry Sponde, afterwards bishop of Pamiez, as that prelate acknowledged, in a dedicatory letter prefixed to his "Abridgment of Baronius's Annals." His Catholic biographers also claim for him the honour of having had a principal share in the conversion of King Henry IV. Of that event we have sufficiently expressed our opinion in our life of that monarch. It is certain, that when the King had come to a determination to avow himself a Catholic, and expressed his willingness to receive instruction on the subject of religion, M. du Perron waited on him while he was engaged in the siege of Rouen, and followed him to Mante, where he maintained a famous dispute with four Protestant divines. Afterwards, when the King was resolved to hold a conference about religion with the principal prelates of the kingdom, he sent for Du Perron to assist in it; and as he was then only a layman, the King nominated him to the vacant see of Evreux, that he might be qualified to take his place among them. This conference was held at St. Dennis, and was followed by the King's abjuration of the Protestant faith.

After this sacrifice of his religion to views of state policy, Henry sent M. du Perron, together with M. d'Ossat, to Rome, for the purpose of negociating his reconciliation with that

see; in which object they succeeded, when Pope Clement VIII. found that the King was firmly fixed upon his throne, and might be tempted to follow the example of Henry VIII. of England, were His Holiness to prove much longer implacable. While M. du Perron continued at Rome, in the year 1595, he was consecrated bishop of Evreux. After his return to France, he laboured ineffectually to convert some of the leading Protestants to the Romish faith, and frequently preached and wrote upon the points in controversy between them and the Catholics. Having read M. du Plessis-Mornay's treatise "On the Eucharist," he pretended that he had discovered in it more than five hundred errors and false quotations; which proved the occasion of a conference between our prelate and that gentleman at Fontainbleau, in the presence of the King, when the honours of victory were awarded to each of the op ponents by their respective parties. Afterwards the King made M. du Perron grand almoner of France, and in 1604 translated him from the see of Evreux to the archbishopric of Sens. In the same year, in consequence of a letter written by the King to Pope Clement VIII., that Pontiff conferred on the Archbishop the dignity of cardinal, with singular marks of esteem. The indisposition of Clement soon afterwards having determined the King to send the French cardinals to Rome, that they might be on the spot when the next conclave should be assembled, Cardinal du Perron on his arrival was immediately employed by the Pope in the most important councils and congregations. He supported the elections of Leo XI. and Paul V., and assisted at the congregation de auxiliis ; and it was said to be chiefly owing to his advice, that the Pope last mentioned dismissed the controversy between the Jesuits and Dominicans concerning grace, in such a manner as we have seen under his article. Upon his return to France, at the request of the King, he wrote a Reply to King James of England's letter concerning differences in religion, which that Prince sent to Henry; and he was also employed by His Majesty in various other affairs. Some time afterwards he was sent a third time to Rome, together with Cardinal de Joyeuse, for the purpose of bringing the differences between Pope Paul V. and the republic of Venice to an amicable termination; and their endeavours were not ineffectual. Such weight had his advice with that Pontiff, that he once said to those about him, "We ought to pray to God that he would inspire Cardinal du

Perron, for he will persuade us to do whatever he pleases."

It was the King's wish that the Cardinalarchbishop should reside for some time at Rome, superintending the interests of France at the papal court; but the ill state of his health rendered it necessary for him to be recalled home. After the execrable murder of Henry IV. he devoted himself entirely to the interests of the court of Rome, and by his subserviency to its policy, excited the indignation and hatred of the friends to the independence and liberties of the Gallican church. He rendered useless the arret of the parliament of Paris against Bellarmin's book, and the high notions of papal power maintained in it. He supported the notion of the infallibility of the Pope, and his superiority over a general council, in a thesis which he held in 1611, before the Pope's nuncio. He convened an assembly of his suffragans at Paris, in which he assumed an inquisitorial authority, and passed a sentence of condemnation on Edmund Richer's celebrated treatise "concerning ecclesiastical and political Power." At the meeting of the states-general in 1614, he opposed, under the pretence of its comprehending points of faith with which a secular body had no business to interfere, a motion introduced by the third estate, purporting, "that the assassinations of Henry III. and IV. called upon all good Frenchmen to condemn the doctrine which permitted the murder of tyrants, and gave the Pope power to depose Kings, and to absolve subjects from their oaths of allegiance." He was one of the presidents of the assembly of the clergy, held at Rouen in 1615, and pronounced discourses before the King, at the commencement and close of their sessions, which were much applauded. From this time he lived chiefly in retirement at Bagnolet, employed in putting the last hand to his works, which were printed in a press set up in his own house, that he might be satisfied of their correctness, by carefully revising every sheet before it was worked off. He died at Paris in 1618, in the sixty-third year of his age. He possessed a lively penetrating genius, and a prodigious memory, had studied much, and was well versed in antiquity, sacred and profane; and he well knew how to avail himself of his acquaintance with the fathers, the councils, and the ecclesiastical historians, in refuting or puzzling his adversaries. He delivered his sentiments with ease and force, and wrote purely and eloquently. From his obsequiousness, however, to the lordly pretensions of the court of Rome,

he has not been unjustly characterized by some of his Catholic critics as a bad Frenchman, a political priest, and an ambitious prelate. His works, which were printed separately in his lifetime, were collected together after his death, and published in 3 vols. folio, in 1622 and 1623. In the year last mentioned, his secretary, Cæsar de Ligni, added to them a fourth volume, comprizing his embassies and negotiations, which are said to reflect greater credit on his eloquence than his capacity for diplomatic agencies. Some years after his death, a volume was published under the title of PERRONIANA, consisting of thoughts, maxims, observations, &c. relating to literature, history, &c. arranged in alphabetical order; which was composed by Christopher du Puy, prior of the Carthusian monastery at Rome, and among some good things worth preserving, presents the reader with many trifles and puerilities. It has been repeatedly printed, however, in a 12mo. volume. Life prefixed to the Author's miscellaneous Pieces. Dupin. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

PERROT D'ABLANCOURT, NICHOLAS, a distinguished French writer, descended from a considerable family in the law, was born in 1606, at Chalons-sur-Marne. His father, who was a convert to Protestantism, sent him for education to the college of that religion at Sedan. He afterwards studied philosophy at home under a private tutor, and then went to Paris, where, at the age of 18, he was admitted an advocate. Through the persuasion of an uncle, who was a counsellor in parliament, he solemnly abjured Calvinism at the age of 20, but he refused to enter into the ecclesiastical state. He had passed five or six years in the dissipation common to youth, when serious thoughts respecting the religion in which he had been bred occupied his mind, and he studied controversial points with a Lutheran divine for three years. The conclusion was, that he renounced his new faith, and retiring to Holland and England, again declared himself a Protestant. After a time, he returned to Paris, where he frequented the polite and literary world, and was generally well received. His acquisitions were, indeed, extraordinary. He was well versed both in the sciences and belles lettres, understood the ancient and several modern languages, and displayed quick parts and a penetrating judgment. He was keen in debate, but mild and easy in the commerce of life. The French Academy admitted him among its members in 1637. He had set himself to work on a translation of Tacitus, when he was