BENOIT (Renatus), a famous doctor of the Sor- Benoit, bonne, and curate of Euftathius at Paris in the 16th Benferade. century. He was a fecret favourer of the Proteftant religion; and that his countrymen might be able to read the bible in their own tongue, he published at Pariз the French translation, which had been made by the reformed minifters at Geneva. This tranflation was approved of by feveral doctors of the Sorbonne before it went to the prefs, and king Charles IX. had granted a privilege for the printing of it. Yet when it was published, it was immediately condemned. He had been before that time confeffor to the unhappy Mary queen of Scotland, during her flay in France, and attended her when the returned into Scotland. Some time before the death of Henry III. Dr Benoit, or fome of his friends with his affiftance, published a book, intitled, Apologie Catholique, i. e. The Catholic Apology; in which it was fhowed, that the Proteftant religion, which Henry king of Navarre profeffed, was not a fufficient reason to deprive him of his right of fucceeding to the crown of France. When Henry IV. was refolved to embrace the Catholic religion, he affifted at that affembly in which king Henry abjured the reformed religion. The king promoted him to the bishoprick of Troyes in Champagne 1597, but he could never obtain the pope's bulls to be inftalled. However, he enjoyed the temporalities of that bishopric till he refigned it. He died in 1608.

Bennet. tered himself as a volunteer for the royal cause, and did his majefty good fervice, especially at Andover in Hampshire, where he received feveral wounds. When the wars were ended, he left not the king when fuccefs did, but attended his intereft in foreign parts. He was made fecretary to the duke of York; received the honour of knighthood from Charles II. at Bruges, in - 1658 and was fent envoy to the court of Spain. His majefty, upon his return to England, called him home, made him keeper of his privy purfe, and principal fecretary of ftate. He had always a peculiar hatred to the lord chancellor Hyde; who on the other hand confidered him as a concealed Papift. In 1670 he was one of the council diftinguished by the title of the Cabal, and one of thofe who advised shutting up the exchequer. In 1672 he was made Earl of Arlington and Viscount Thetford, and foon after Knight of the Garter. In 1673, he was appointed one of the three plenipotentiaries from the court of Great Britain to Cologn, to mediate a peace between the emperor and the king of France. The Houfe of Commons, in 1673, drew up articles of impeachment against him. In 1674 he was made chamberlain of his majesty's houfehold, with this public reafon, that it was in recompenfe of his long and faithful fervice, and particularly for his having performed the office of principal fecretary of ftate for the space of 12 years, to his majesty's great fatisfaction. But afterward his intereft began to decline, while that of the earl of Danby increafed; for upon his return from his unfuccessful journey to Holland in 1675, his credit was fo much funk, that feveral perfons at court diverted the king with mimicking his perfon and behaviour; yet he held his lord chamberlain's place to the day of his death, in 1685. His efteemed letters to Sir William Temple were published after his

death.

BENNET (Chriftopher), an eminent phyfician in the 16th century, was the fon of John Bennet, of Raynton, in Somerfetfhire. He was educated at Lincoln college, Oxford; and gave the public a treatise on confumptions, intitled, Theatri Tabidorum Veftibulum, &c. alfo Exercitationes Diagroficæ, cum Hiftoriis demonftrativis, quibus Alimentorum et Sanguinis vitia deteguntur in plerifque morbis, &c.

BENNET (Dr Thomas), an eminent divine, born at Salisbury on the 7th of May 1673, and educated at St John's college, Cambridge. In 1700, he was made rector of St James's, in Colchefter; afterwards he was lecturer of St Olave's, Southwark, and morningpreacher at St Lawrence, Jewry; and at laft was prefented to the vicarage of St Giles's, Cripple-gate, worth 500l. a year. While he was in this ftation, he was engaged in feveral expenfive law-fuits in defence of the rights of the church, to which he recovered 1501. a-year. He wrote, 1. An Answer to the Diffenters Plea for Separation. 2. A Confutation of Popery. 3. A Difcourfe of Schifm. 4. An Answer to a book intitled Thomas againft Bennet. 5. A Confutation of Quackerifm. 6. A brief Hiftory of the joint Ufe of pre-conceived Forms of Prayer. 7. An Anfwer to Dr Clarke's Scripture-doctrine of the Trinity. 8. A Paraphrafe, with Annotations, on the Book of Common-Prayer. 7. An Hebrew Grammar; and other pieces. He died October 9th, 1728, in the 56th year of his age.

BENSERADE (Ifaac de), an ingenious French poet of the 17th century, was born at Lyons. He made himself known at court by his verfes and his wit, and had the good fortune to please the cardinals de Richelieu and Mazarin. After the death of Richelieu, he got into favour with the Duke de Breze, whom he accompanied in moft of his expeditions; and when this nobleman died, he returned to court, where his poetry became highly efteemed. He wrote, 1. A Paraphrafe upon Job. 2. Verfes for Interludes. 3. Rondeaux. upon Ovid.

4. Several Tragedies. A fonnet which he fent to a young lady with his Paraphrase on Job being put in competition with the Urania of Voiture, caufed him to be much spoken of; for what an honour was it to be head of a party against this celebrated author? Thofe who gave the preference to Benferade's performance were ftyled the Jobifts, and their antago nifts the Uranifts; and the difpute long divided the whole court and the wits. Some years before his death, he applied himself to works of piety, and translated almoft all the Pfalms.

M. L'Abbé Olivet fays, that Benferade, towards the latter end of his life, withdrew from court, and made Gentilly the place of his retirement. When he was a youth, he says it was the cuftom to vifit the remains of the ornaments with which Benferade had embellished his house and gardens, where every thing favoured of his poetical genius. The bark of the trees were full of infcriptions: and, amongst others, he remembers the first which presented itself was as follows:

Adieu fortune, honneurs adieu, vous et les votres,,
Je viens ici vous oublier;

Adieu toi-meme amour, bien plus que les autres
Difficile a congedier.

Fortune and honours, all adieu,

And whatsoe'er belongs to you.

1.

All your
Thou too adieu, O powerful love;
From thee 'tis hardest to remove.

Mr Voltaire is of opinion that thefe infcriptions were the best of his productions, and he regrets that they have not been collected.

lio.

of the epiftles, by a view of the hiflory of the times, Bentham the occafion of the several epiftles, and the state of the Bentivog churches to whom they were addressed, he established the truth of the Chriftian religion on a number of facts, the moft public, important, and inconteftable. He alfo wrote, The reasonablenefs of the Christian Religion; The Hiftory of the Life of Jefus Chrift; A Paraphrafe and Notes on the seven Catholic Epistles; and several other works which procured him great reputation. One of the univerfities in Scotland fent him a diploma with a doctor's degree; and many of high rank in the church of England, as Herring, Hoadley, Butler, Benfon, Coneybeare, &c. fhowed him great marks of favour and regard. He pursued the fame ftudies with great application and fuccefs till the time of his death, which happened in the year 1763, in the 64th year of his age.

Benferade fuffered at last so much from the ftone, that, notwithstanding his great age, he refolved to fubmit to the operation of cutting. But his conftancy was not put to this laft proof; for a furgeon letting him blood, by way of precaution, pricked an artery, and, inftead of endeavouring to ftop the effufion of blood, ran away. There was but juft time to call F. Commire, his friend and confeffor, who came foon enough to fee him die. This happened the 19th of October 1691, in the S2d year of his age.

BENSHEIM, a town of Germany in the Palatine of the Rhine, seated in E. Long. 8. 45. N. Lat. 52. 23. BENSON (Dr George), a learned diffenting minifter, born at Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, in 1699. His love of learning was fo fuccessful, that, at 11 years of age, he was able to read the Greek Teftament. He afterwards ftudied at Dr Dixon's academy at Whitehaven, from whence he removed to the univerfity of Glasgow. In 1721, he was chofen paftor of a congregation of Diffenters at Abingdon in Berkshire; in 1729, he received a call from a fociety of diffenters in Southwark, with whom he continued 11 years; and in 1740, was chosen by the congregation of Crutched Friars, colleague to the learned and judicious Dr Lardner. From the time of his engaging in the miniftry he propofed to himself the critical fudy of the Scriptures, particularly of the New Teftament, as a principal part of his bufiness. The first fruits of thefe ftudies which he prefented to the public was, A Defence of the reafonableness of Prayer, with a Tranflation of a Dif courfe of Maximus Tyrius containing fome popular Objections against Prayer, and an Anfwer to thefe. The light which Mr Locke had thrown on the obscureft parts of St Paul's epiftles, by making him his own expofitor, encouraged and determined Mr Benson to aftempt to illustrate the remaining epiftles in the fame manner. In 1731, he publifhed A Paraphrafe and Notes on the Epiftle to Philemon, as a fpecimen. This was well received, and the author encouraged to proceed in his defign. With the epiftle to Philemon was published "A fhoit differtation, to prove from the fpirit and fentiments the apoftle difcovered in his epiftles, that he was neither an enthufiaft nor impoftor; and confequently that the religion which he afferted he received immediately from heaven, and confirmed by a variety of miracles, is indeed divine." This argument hath fince been improved and illuftrated, with great delicacy and ftrength, in a review of the apostle's entire conduct and character by Lord Littleton. Mr Benfon proceeded with great diligence and reputation to publifh Para phrafes and Notes on the two Epiftles to the Theffalonians, the first and fecond to Timothy, and the Epistle to Titus; adding, Differtations on feveral important Subjects, particularly on Infpiration. In the year 1735, our author publifhed his Hiltory of the firft Planting of Chriftianity, taken from the Acts of the Apoftles, and their Epiftles, in 2 vols 4to. In this work, befides illuftrating throughout the history of the A&ts and moft

BENTHAM (Thomas), bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, was born at Shirburn in Yorkshire in the year 1513, and educated in Magdalen college Oxford. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1543, and in 1546 was admitted perpetual fellow, and proceeded matter of arts the year following, which was that of Edward VI.'s acceflion to the crown. He now threw off the mafk of Popery, which during the equivocal reign of Henry VIII. he had worn with reluctance. When Mary came to the crown, being deprived of his fellowship by her visitors, he prudently retired to Bafil in Switzerland, where for fome time he expounded the Scriptures to the English exiles in that city; but, being folicited by fome Proteftants in London, he returned to London before the death of the Queen, and was appointed fuperintendant of a private congregation in the city. Immediately on the acceffion of Elizabeth, Bentham was preferred in the church, and in the fecond year of her reign was confecrated bishop of Litchfield and Coventry. He died at Eccleshal in Staffordfhire in 1578, aged 65. He was buried in the chancel of the church there; and a monument was erected, with the effigy of himself, his wife, and four children, with the following infcription:

Hac jacet in tumba Benthamus, epifcopus ille
Doctus, divinus, largus, pafcens, pius, almus.
Ob. 19. Feb. 1578.

Bishop Bentham had the character of a pious and zealous reformer, and was particularly celebrated for his knowledge of the Hebrew language. His works are, 1. Expofition of the Acts of the Apoftles; manufcript. 2. A Sermon on Chrift's Temptation; Lond. 8vo. 3. Epiftle to M. Parker; manufcript. 4. The Pfalms, Ezekiel, and Daniel, tranflated into English in Queen Elizabeth's Bible.

BENTIVOGLIO (Guy), cardinal, born at Ferrara, in the year 1579. He went to study at Padua, where he made a confiderable proficiency in polite literature. Upon his leaving the univerfity, he went to refide at Rome, where he became univerfally efteemed. He was fent nuncio to Flanders, and then to France; in both which employments his behaviour was fuch as gave great fatisfaction to Paul V. who made him a cardinal, which was the laft promotion he made, a little before his death, which happened on the 28th of January 1621. Bentivoglio was at this time in France, where Louis XIII. and all the French court congratulated

him

Bentley. and their being great friends, he makes Mr Wotton and Dr Bentley, ftanding fide by fide, in each other's defence, to be both transfixed to the ground by one Atroke of the javelin of Mr Boyle, and this he heightens by the fimile of a cook's fpitting a brace of woodcocks. Nay, fo ftrong is the influence of literary prejudice and fashion, that many even of Dr Bentley's friends confidered Boyle's Examination as unanfwer able. Nor could they be convinced of the contrary, till the Doctor, firft afking them where it was fo impregnable, and confuting one article after another upon the fpot, as faft as they inftanced, affured them it was all of the fame kind. This he effectually showed in his answer. It now, however, feems to be the fettled opinion of the literary world, that the Doctor has not only the evident advantage in refpect of learning and argument, but that he is little, if at all, inferior to his antagonist in point of wit and smartness. It may not, however, be amifs to recite a few teftimonies on the fubject. Mr Walpole, fpeaking of Mr Boyle's tranflation of the Epiftles of Phalaris, fays, "This work occafioned the famous controverfy with Dr Bentley ;-who alone, and unworfted, fuftained the attacks of the brightest genius's in the learned world, and whofe fame has not fuffered by the wit to which it gave occafion." Mr Towers, in his British Biography, expreffes himself in the following terms: "In the controverfy between him and Mr Boyle, the popular clamour, indeed, was in favour of the latter; but Bentley's is unquestionably a much more valuable performance than that of Boyle. The latter, confidered as a mere English compofition, has the advantage in point of style; and pleafed the generality, by the perfonal fatire which it contained against Dr Bentley, who had many enemies. But Bentley had greatly the fuperiority with refpect to just reafoning, critical fagacity, and extent of learning; and his vindication of himself alfo contained many threwd and farcaftical ftrokes against Mr Boyle and his performance. Much has been faid in favour of Mr Boyle, as a genteel and polite writer; and it must be confeffed, that Dr Bentley's manner was often too affuming, and that he was deficient in point of civility. But notwithftanding this, But notwithstanding this, there was, perhaps, a much greater want of real candour and politeneis, whatever affectation of them there might be, in the very contemptuous and unfair manner in which Dr Bentley was treated throughout Mr Boyle's book, than in any thing which Bentley had faid against Boyle. Bentley, with all his foibles, was too reipectable a character to be a proper fubject of fuch treatment; though Swift, Garth, and Pope, have joined in countenancing the popular prejudices against him." Mr Dodwell, who refided at Oxford during the controversy, who made himself in fome fort a party in it, and who had a very particular court paid to him by the Chrift-Church men, 'declared to them that he never learned fo much from any book of the fize in his life, as he had done from Dr Bentley's Anfwer to Boyle.

1000l. per annum. Upon this promotion he refigned Bentley. his prebend of Worcester; and, in 1701, was collated to the archdeaconry of Ely. Being thus placed in a itate of eafe and affluence, he entered into matrimony, and indulged his inclination in critical purfuits; and the fruits of his labours, which he occasionally published, all displayed fuch erudition and fagacity, that, by degrees, he obtained the character of being the greateft critic of the age. In the mean while, however, he carried matters with so high a hand in the government. of his college, that, in 1709, a complaint was brought before the bishop of Ely, as vifitor, againft him, by several of the fellows, who charged him with embezzling the college money, and other misdemeanors. In anfwer to this, he prefented his defence to the bifhop, which he published in 1710, under the title of The prefent State of Trinity College, 8vo; and thus be gan a quarrel, which was carried on with the most virulent animofity on each fide, for above 20 years, when it at laft ended in the Doctor's favour. In 1716, upon the death of Dr James, he was appointed regius profeffor of divinity in the former univerfity; annexed to which was a good benefice in the bishopric of Ely. His Majefty King George I. on a vifit to the university in 1717, having, as ufual, nominated by mandate several perfons for a doctor's degree in divinity, our profeffor, to whofe office it belonged to perform the ceremony called creation, demanded four guineas from each perfon, befides a broad piece of gold, and absolutely refufed to create any doctor without these fees: hence there arofe a long and warm difpute, during which, the doctor was firft fufpended, and then degraded ; but on a petition to his Majefty for relief from that fentence, the affair was referred to the Court of King's Bench, where the proceedings against him being reverfed, a mandamus was iffued, charging the university to reftore him. With regard to Dr Bentley's long difpute with his college, Mr Whifton represents his having been induced, in a fingle inftance, after four years of unexceptionable conduct, to recede from the excellent rule of detur digniori, in the election to a fellowfhip, as the firft falfe ftep which led to others, and was very prejudicial to his own happiness. A concife and accurate account of his controverfies with his college and the univerfity, and of the publications which appeared on thefe occafions, may be seen in Mr Gough's anecdotes of topography. There are likewife, in the Harleian collection of manufcripts in the British Mufeum, N° 7523, fome authentic papers, relative to the proceedings of the univerfity againft Dr Bentley.-Dr Bentley was endowed with a natural hardiness of temper, which enabled him to ride out both these storms without any extraordinary difturbance, or interruption to his literary pursuits. to his literary purfuits. In his private character, tho' he is generally allowed to have been too fond of money, he was hearty, fincere, and warm in his friendship, an affectionate hufband, and a moit indulgent father. He loved hofpitality and refpect; maintained the dignity and munificence of the ancient abbots in houfe-keeping at his lodge, which he beautified; and, in converfation, tempered the feverity of the critic with fuch a peculiar ftrain of vivacity and pleafantry, as was very entertaining. He died at his lodge in Trinity college, on the 14th of July 1742, at 80 years of age. To his lateft hour, he could read the fmalleft Greek Te

ftament