BKLLEITDEH, SIR JOHN. 



BELLINI. 



BELLKXPEX, SIR JOHN, eldest con of Thomas Bellenden, Bal- 

 lenden. Ballantyn*. or Bannatyne (for by all these names is this family 

 known), of Auchinrole. a lord of cession, director of the chancery, 

 and justice clerk of Scotland He was come time secretary to Archi- 

 bald Douglas, earl of Angus, lord chancellor and prime minister of 

 Scotland, in the beginning of the 16th century. When Angus was, 

 in September 1528, indicted for high treason, of the many that had 

 previously waited on him Bellenden alone continued his friend, and, 

 though not a lawyer, drew up the defences for him. But all hit 

 plea* and defences were overruled, and he wai found guilty by the 

 parliament, and attainted; in March 1542-43 however, the attainder 

 was reversed. Crawford says, on the grounds taken in the defences, 

 and Angus restored to his estates and honours. 



Bellenden immediately after had the honour of knighthood con- 

 ferred upon him; and on his lather's death he was, in June 1547, 

 appointed to the vacant places of a lord of section, director of the 

 chancery, and palace-clerk. On the breaking out of the Reformation 

 he was named by the Queen Regent one of the commissioners between 

 her and the lords of the congregation : but he soon joined the reformers, 

 and, in August 1560, he and Wishart of Pittarrow are mentioned in 

 Randolph's dispatch to Cecil, as the two whom they had resolved to 

 join in a minion to France. On Mary's arrival in Scotland he was, 

 0th September 1561, appointed one of the privy council. In December 

 following be was one of those named to modify stipends to the 

 reformed clergy the mean allowance for whom roused the indigna- 

 tion of Knox. On the 23rd September 1563, he and Sir John Max- 

 well, the warden of the West Marches, met the English commissioners 

 at Dumfries, where they entered into a convention for redressing the 

 mutual trespstsse on the borders. (Nioolson, 'Border Laws.') On 

 the 31st May 1565, Sir John obtained a grant of the office of usher 

 of the exchequer an office which aeems to have remained in hit 

 family till 176, when, on the insolvency of the fifth lord Bellenden, 

 it was attached, and sold by the creditors. The came year Sir John 

 bad a grant of the office of justioiar and bailie of the baronies of 

 Canoogate and Broughton, and other lands belonging to Holyrood 

 House ; and the next year the commendator made him justiciar and 

 bailie of Oalder, belonging to the came abbey. 



Among toe numerous reports to which the murder of Kizzio gave 

 rice, one was, that the Bellendens were implicated in the crime; and 

 in the despatch from Randolph and the Earl of Bedford to the privy 

 council of England, 27th March 1566, it is said" There were in this 

 oompanie two that came in with the king, the one Andrewe Car of 

 Fawdonside, whom the Queen earth would have stroken her with a 

 dagger, and one Patrick Balentyne, brother to the justice-clerk, who 

 also, her grace caytb, offered a dag against her belly with the cock 

 down :" but it is added, " We have been earnestly in hand with the 

 Lord Ruthen to know the varitie, and he assureth us to the contrarie." 

 It would seem however that Sir John Uellenden fled from Edinburgh 

 on the 1 8th March 1566, on the arrival of Mary and Darnley with an 

 army, but he was coon restored to favour. He carried Mary's com- 

 mands to Mr. John Craig, the famous fellow-minister of John Knox, 

 to proclaim the banns between her and Bothwell. The marriage 

 wee solemnised on the 15th May 1567 by Adam, bishop of Orkney, 

 who afterwards joined the association against Mary and Bothwell ; 

 and in July following anointed and crowned the infant James. Sir 

 John Belleoden joined the association likewise ; and also became one 

 of the regent's privy-council In 1573 he was employed in framing 

 the peel flection of Perth, whereby all the queen's party, except Kirk- 

 celdy of Orange, Lethington, and those with them in Edinburgh 

 Cecils, wen brought to the king's obedience. The seine year he was, 

 it si SIM, employed in a still more difficult affair, namely, to persuade 

 the General Aasembly on the behalf of Morton, that the civil magis- 

 trate ought to be head of the church as well at of the state. The 

 itiemiestno was continued for twelve days and then adjourned. (Home, 

 History of the House of Douglas.') 



Sir John died come time before April 1S77, leaving by his first wife 

 two cone, on the eldest of whom, Lewis, be by his Utter will, dated in 

 1547, laid an injunction to serve the regent and the house of Angus, 

 nwtrr the king's majesty's obedience, " as I and my forbearis haf done, in 

 tymec bypast, befoir all the warld." Sir Lewis succeeded his father 

 to Us possessions, and in his place of justice-clerk. 



BELLENDEN. WILLIAM, an eminent writer, concerning whose 

 birth cad education we possess no certain information except that he 

 was of Scotch family, and became known at a writer in the commence- 

 ment of the 17th century. It is stated that ho filled the office of 

 IWsewr of Humanity in the University of Peris in 1602, and that he 

 wee enabled to reside at that university through the favour of 

 James V I. (James I. of England). It is certain that be resided a long 

 time in Pane, and that the various writings which have transmitted 

 hie name down to us were published during his residence there. In 

 1608 b. published In. 'Cic.ro.iu Prinoeps/ tc., "a singular work,' 

 js Dr. Beuett, bishop of Cloyne, " m which he extracted from 

 writings detached remarks and compressed them into i 



1 government, with the 

 to be encouraged 

 called ' De Statu 



,, at con of his roya 



patroo. In 1618 he published a wort of a similar character, which 



is called ' Cioeronis Consul, Senator, Sonatusque Rouianus,' that is, 

 De Statu Reipubliom,' in which the nature of the consular office, and 

 .he constitution of the Koman senate are perspicuously treated. 

 r'in'ling these works deservedly successful, he set about a third work, 

 De Statu prisci Orbis,' which was to contain a history of the pro- 

 rress of religion, government, and philosophy, from the times before 

 ;he Flood, to their various degrees of improvement under the 

 Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. He hod proceeded so far as to print 

 a few copies of this work in 1615, when be resolved to unite them 

 into one work, by republishing the two former, and entitling the 

 whole ' Bellendenus de Statu.' With thia view he recalled the few 

 copies of his last work that were abroad, and, after a short delay, pub- 

 lished the three treatises under their new title in 1610. A copy of 

 the original edition of the 'De Statu prisci Orbis,' dated 1615, i< in 

 the British Museum. Unfortunately the vessel in which the whole 

 impression of his great work was embarked was overtaken by a storm 

 before she could reach the English coast, and foundered with all h.-r 

 cargo. A few copies only, which Bellenden had kept for his own use, 

 or made presents of, were saved ; and accordingly the work, from its 

 scarcity, was hardly known to even the most curiom of book 

 collectors. 



Bellenden, though naturally much concerned, wai not, it seems, 

 discouraged at his loss; but immediately set about arranging his 

 materials in a new form. His studies had made him familiar with the 

 works of the great Latin writers, particularly Cicero ; and he designed 

 a work with the title ' De Tribus Luminibu* Komanorum,' in which 

 he proposed to explain the character, literary merits, and philosophical 

 opinions of Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny the elder according to some, the 

 younger according to other critics. The first of these he finished, 

 and was proceeding with the others when he died. The republication 

 of the three original works above-named of 'Bellendenus de Statu' 

 in 1787, with a preface remarkable for its Latinity, and still more, 

 perhaps, as being the vehicle of much fierce political invective from 

 the pen of Dr. Parr, has made Belleuden's name more familiar to the 

 English reader than it otherwise might have been. In his preface, 

 Parr affirms that Middleton, in his Life of Cic<*ro,' borrowed largely 

 from Belleuden, without makiug any mention of his name. 



KKLIJ'XI is the name of a family of painters, a father and two sons. 



JACOTO BELI.I'.XI, the father, was born in Venice. He was one of 

 the earliest practitioners in oil-painting, and an artist of considerable 

 merit. He adorned the public edifices of Venice with a great number 

 of pictures, the principal of which were a series of subjects from the 

 New Testament in the church of St. John the Evangelist He was 

 distinguished in portrait-painting, and among many other eminent 

 persons who sate to him were Lusignano, king of Cyprus, and the 

 Doge Cornaro. He died about 1470. 



GENTILE BELLINI was the eldest son of the preceding, and born at 

 Venice in 1421. He studied under his father, and subsequently 

 gained such reputation by his original works that he was employed, in 

 conjunction with his brother, Giovanni, to decorate the great council- 

 chamber of the Venetian senate-house. His other principal works are 

 the Histories of the Holy Cross at San Giovanni, and the Preaching 

 of St. Mark, painted for the college of that saint, and now in the 

 Pinacoteca at Milan. This latter work ranks in colouring and effect 

 among the finest of its time. But it is deficient in refinement, and 

 disfigured by extravagant anachronisms in character and costume. 

 His Presentation of the Infant Jesus at the Temple, in the Palazzo 

 Barberigo, is a highly-esteemed performance. Some of Bellini's pictures 

 were taken by commercial speculators to Constantinople, where, having 

 been seen by the sultan, Mohammed II., that monarch sent an invita- 

 tion to the artist to make a visit to his court. This proposal was 

 accepted by Bellini ; he was courteously received by the sultan, who 

 sat to him for hit portrait, and commissioned him to paint various 

 historical works. A strange story is told by his biographers that one 

 of his pictures, the Decollation of St. John, was greatly admired by 

 Mohammed, but having discovered some inaccuracy in the marking of 

 the dissevered neck, in order to prove the justice of his criticism, 

 ordered the head of a slave to be struck off in the presence of the 

 astonished artist From this moment it it added Bellini never enjoyed 

 an hour's tranquillity until he had obtained leave to return to Venice. 

 Mohammed dismissed him with many marks of favour, placing a gold 

 chain round his neck, and giving him letters to the Venetian senate 

 expressive of his satisfaction. During his residence iu Constantinople 

 he struck a medallion of the sultan. He was engaged iu various 

 public works after his return to Venice, for which ho wai requited by 

 the republic with an honourable pension for life, and the order of 

 St Mark. He died iu 1501, aged 80. 



GIOVANNI BELLINI, the son of Jscopo, and the brother of Gentile 

 Bellini, was born at Venice in 1422. He was the belt artist of his 

 family, anil contributed more than any painter of hit time to prepare 

 the way for the grander ttyle of art arrived at by Titian and Giorgione. 

 Giovanni Bellini painted in the first instance in distemper, but on 

 seeing the oil-paintings of Antonrllo da Messina, who settled at Venice 

 in liTD, he recognised the superiority of the new vehicle, which he at 

 once acquired the knowledge of, and thenceforward continued to 

 employ. His first pul.lic works were those in the Venetian senate- 

 house, in the decoration of which he waa associated with bis brother, 

 Gentile : these were destroyed by fire in 1577. Giovanni ornamented 



