Heidelberg, Dec. 20, 1704. Having very much studied the Talmudical writings, he was desirous to convince the Jews of their folly in preferring the oral to the written law, the traditions of men to the precepts of God, and the Talmud to the Holy Scriptures. With this view he took great pains to collect all the fables, allegories, and contradictions in the Talmud and other rabbinical works, and published this collection in 2 vols. 4to, at Francfort, under the title of "Judaism discovered," but the Jews had interest enough at the court of Vienna to interdict the sale of it. At length the king of Prussia ordered it to be reprinted at Konigsberg in 1711, at his sole expence, and with great liberality gave a part of the impression to the heirs of Eisenmenger, to recompense them for their loss. In 1743, an abridgement of this work was published in English by the rev. John Peter Stehelin, London, 2 vols. 8vo, under the title "The Traditions of the Jews, or the Doctrines and Expositions contained in the Talmud, and other Rabbinnical writings," &c. This is a work of great curiosity, and the first in which the English public was made acquainted with the traditions of the Jews.

1

EISENSCHMIDT (JOHN GASPAR), M. D. was born at Strasbourg Sept. 25, 1656. In a journey he made to Paris he formed an intimacy with several of the learned, and particularly with Du Verney and Tournefort. He was admitted of the academy of sciences on the re-establishment of that society, and died in 1712, at the age of fifty-six, at Strasbourg, where he settled on returning from his travels. He published, 1. "A treatise on the figure of the earth, entitled; Elliptico-Sphéroide," 1691, 4to. 2, "A treatise on the weights and measures of various nations, and on the value of the coins of the ancients," 1708, 8vo.*

ELEANOR of Guienne, queen of France and England, was married in 1137, at the age of fifteen, to Louis VII. king of France, by whom she had two daughters, but, when she had accompanied him to Palestine, her intrigues with the prince of Antioch, and with a young handsome Turk named Saladin, led to a divorce in 1152. In the following year she married Henry duke of Normandy, who succeeded to the throne of England, in 1154, under the title of Henry II. and by his wife's influence became a for

1 Moreri.-Saxii Onomast.-Works of the Learned for 1743. 2 Moreri. Saxii Onomast.

midable rival to the French king. Eleanor at length became jealous of Henry with the fair Rosamond; and this produced the rebellion of her sons against the king, whose unnatural conduct has been imputed wholly to her instigation. She was at length seized, and imprisoned, just as she was attempting to escape to France. In confinement she remained several years, but on the accession of Richard I. in 1189, she was set at liberty, and was when he went upon his crusade, made regent of the kingdom. The zeal which she manifested for this prince led her to considerable exertions on his behalf: she went to Navarre, to procure him, for a wife, Berengaria, daughter of the king of the country; and when Richard on his return from Palestine, was imprisoned in Germany, she proceeded thither with a ransom, accompanied by the chief justiciary, in 1194. After his death she supported the succession of John her son, in prejudice of her grandson Arthur. She died in 1202; though, according to some writers, she took the veil this year, at the abbey of Fontevrault, and there finished her busy and chequered life in 1204.1

ELEUTHERIUS, bishop of Rome, was a native of Nicopolis, and flourished in the second century. He was first a deacon of the church, and about the year 177 was elected bishop of Rome. Soon after his elevation, letters were addressed to him by the martyrs of Lyons, then shut up in prison, on the subject of the peculiar tenets of Montanus and his followers; the object of which was to recommend healing and temperate measures in the treatment of that sect. During the episcopate of Eleutherius, the church is said to have enjoyed much peace, notwithstanding the parties which rose up, and which zealously contended for the truth. Among these were persons headed by Florinus and Blastus, both presbyters, who maintained that God was the author of evil as well as good, for which they were degraded and excommunicated. Eleutherius died in the year 192, and deserves credit for some liberal additions which he made to the pontifical code; of these, one enacted that a man should not abstain from any sort of meat that was commonly eaten; and the other, that sentence should not be pronounced against any one accused of crimes, unless he were present to make his defence. According to Bede, but the circumstance appears doubtful,

Hist. of England.-Moreri.

it was at this period that an embassy was sent by Lucius, king of Britain, to Rome, to request the pope to send over proper persons to explain to him and his people the nature of the Christian faith.'

ELIAS (LEVITA), a rabbi of the sixteenth century, by birth a German, passed the greater part of his life at Rome and at Venice, where he taught the Hebrew tongue to many of the learned of these two cities, and even to some cardinals. Of all the critics that have arisen among the modern Jews, he has the reputation of being the most enlightened, and had the candour to reject as ridiculous fables, the greater part of their traditions. To him the learned are obliged for, 1. "Lexicon Chaldaicum," Isnæ, 1541, fol. 2. Traditio Doctrinæ," in Hebrew, Venice, 1538, 4to, with the version of Munster; Bâle, 1539, 8vo. 3. "Collectio locorum in quibus Chaldæus paraphrastes interjecit nomen Messiæ Christi; Lat. versa a Genebrardo,' Paris, 1572, 8vo. 4. Several Hebrew Grammars, 8vo, necessary for such as would penetrate into the difficulties of that language. 5. " Nomenclatura Hebraïca," Isnæ, 1542, 4to. The same in Hebrew and Latin, by Drusius; Franeker, 1681, 8vo. He rejected, among other ancient prejudices, the very high origin of the Hebrew points, which have been carried as far back as the time of Ezra, and referred them with more probability to the sixth century. Father Simon says of him, "Solus Elias Levita inter Judæos desiit nugari;" and adds, that he was so much hated by the other Jews for teaching the Christians the Hebrew tongue, as to be obliged to prove formally that a Jew might do this with a good conscience."

ELIAS (MATTHEW), an eminent painter, was born in the village of Peene, near Cassel, in 1658, of parents extremely poor, and seemed destined to rise in the world by slow degrees. His mother, who was a widow, lived in the country on what she earned by washing linen; her whole wealth consisted in a cow, which her little boy used to lead to pick up its pasture by the side of the ditches. One day Corbéen, a famous painter of landscapes and history, going to put up some pictures which he had made for Cassel, as he went along the road, took notice of this lad, who had made a fortification of mud, and little clay

1 Moreri.-Lardner's Works.-Bower's Hist. of the Popes. 2 Moreri.-Saxii Onomast.

His

figures that were attacking it. Corbéen was immediately struck with the regularity and taste that was evident in the work. He stopped his chaise, and put several questions to the lad, whose answers increased his astonishment. figure and countenance added to the impression; and the painter asked him whether he would go and live with him, and he would endeavour to put him in a way of getting his bread; the boy said he would willingly accept of his offer, if his mother would but agree to it. Elias failed not to be at the same place on the day appointed, accompanied by his mother; he ran before the chaise, and Corbéen told the woman to bring her son to him at Dunkirk, where he lived. The boy was received, and the master put him to school, where he was taught the languages, and he himself taught him to draw and to paint. The scholar surpassed his fellow-students: he acquired the esteem of the public, and gained the favour of his master to such a degree, that he sent him to Paris at the age of twenty; whence Elias transmitted his works to his master and benefactor. With great gentleness of character, he possessed the good quality of being always grateful; he thus repaid his master for his kindness to him, as Corbéen frequently confessed. Elias, after having been some while at Paris, married. He made a journey to Dunkirk for the purpose of visiting his master, and it was while there that he painted a picture for the altar of St. Barbara's chapel, in which he represented the martyrdom of that saint; a fine composition. On his return to Paris, he was appointed professor at St. Luke, and successively obtained several other posts. He was much employed, and composed several subjects taken from the life of St. John Baptist de la Barriere, author of the reform of the Feuillants. All these subjects were painted on glass, by Simpi and Michu, and are in the windows of the cloister. Elias, now become a widower, took a journey to Flanders, in hopes of dispelling his grief. Being arrived at Dunkirk, the brotherhood of St. Sebastian engaged him to paint their principal brethren in one piece; he executed this great picture, with a number of figures as large as life, and some in smaller dimensions. The company of taylors. having built a chapel in the principal church, Elias was employed to paint the picture for the altar, in which he represented the baptism of Christ; in the fore-ground is St. Lewis at prayers, for obtaining the cure of the sick. Being now on the point of returning to Paris, he was so

earnestly solicited to remain in his native country, that at length he yielded to the entreaties of his numerous friends. He now executed a grand picture for the high altar of the Carmelites; it was a votive piece of the city to the Virgin Mary. This picture is a fine composition, and of a style of colouring more true and warm than was usual with him ; the artist, as is often the practice, has introduced his own portrait. Elias was complimented on this alteration in hist colouring; by which he was encouraged to redouble his care. He executed for the parish church of Dunkirk an altar-piece of the chapel of St. Croix ; a Transfiguration for the altar of the parish church of Bailleul, and in that of the Jesuits at Cassel, a miracle of St. Francis Xavier, &c. The abbot of Bergues, St. Winox, employed our artist a long time in ornamenting the refectory of his house. Among his great works he made some portraits in a capital manner. In his greatest successes, Elias never made any change in his conduct, but always continued to lead the same regular life; he was seen no where but at church and in his work-room, into which he rarely admitted visitors. He was much esteemed for the mildness of his disposition. Detesting those malicious reports which are but too common among rival artists, he minded only his business. Not desirous of having pupils, he rather dissuaded young men from cultivating an art that was attended with so much trouble, than encouraged them to enter upon it; those that knew him best, always spoke of this artist as a model of good conduct. He continued working to the end of his days, which happened at Dunkirk the 22d of April 1741, in the eighty-second year of his age. He had but one son, who died at Paris, doctor of the Sorbonne. Neither had he more than one pupil, Carlier, who was living at Paris in 1760.

Elias, on his first coming to Paris, was very defective in colouring. A picture of his is still to be seen of his early time in the church of Notre-dame de Paris, on the left hand, on entering by the grand portico, in one of the low ailes. He afterwards acquired a good colouring: his draperies are likewise more ample, and approach nearer to nature his drawing is sufficiently correct; he composed well, but with a labour truly astonishing; he was long in producing a sketch, and it was in order to conceal this labour, that he could not endure to have any body near him when at work. Some of his portraits are well exe