LIFE AND DEATH. 343 



Christians and philosophers came to visit him as a living 

 image, from which they parted not without some adoration. 

 St. Athanasius exceeded the term of eighty years ; a man 

 of an invincible constancy, commanding fame, and not 

 yielding to fortune. He was free towards the great ones, 

 with the people gracious and acceptable, beaten and prac 

 tised to oppositions, and in delivering himself from them, 

 stout and wise. St. Hierom, by the consent of most writers, 

 exceeded ninety years of age ; a man powerful in his pen, 

 and of a manly eloquence, variously learned both in the 

 tongues and sciences ; also a traveller, and that lived strictly 

 towards his old age, in an estate private, and not dignified ; 

 he bore high spirits, and shined far out of obscurity. 



18. The popes of Rome are in number, to this day, two 

 hundred, forty, and one. Of so great a number, five only 

 have attained to the age of fourscore years, or upwards. 

 But in many of the first popes, their full age was intercepted 

 by the prerogative and crown of martyrdom. John, the 

 twenty-third pope of Rome, fulfilled the ninetieth year of 

 his age ; a man of an unquiet disposition, and one that stu 

 died novelty ; he altered many things, some to the better, 

 others only to the new, a great accumulator of riches and 

 treasures. Gregory, called the twelfth, created in schism, 

 and not fully acknowledged pope, died at ninety years. Of 

 him, in respect of his short papacy, we find nothing to 

 make a judgment upon. Paul the third lived eighty years 

 and one ; a temperate man, and of a profound wisdom ; he 

 was learned, an astrologer, and one that tended his health 

 carefully, but, after the example of old Eli the priest, over 

 indulgent to his family. Paul the fourth attained to the 

 age of eighty-three years ; a man of a harsh nature, and 

 severe, of a haughty mind, and imperious, prone to anger, 

 his speech was eloquent and ready. Gregory the thirteenth 

 fulfilled the like age of eighty-three years; an absolute 

 good man, sound in mind and body, politic, temperate, full 

 of good works, and an almsgiver. 



19. Those that follow are to be more promiscuous in their 

 order, more doubtful in their faith, and more barren of ob 

 servation. King Arganthenius, who reigned at Cadiz in 

 Spain, lived a hundred and thirty, or (as some would have 

 it) a hundred and forty years, of which he reigned eighty. 

 Concerning his manners, institution of his life, and the time 

 wherein he reigned, there is a general silence. Cynirus, 

 king of Cyprus, living in the island then termed the happy 

 and pleasant island, is affirmed to have attained to a hun- 



