i: i. 





r, i: T. 



the head of tlit* society stood our pool. It wa at Utrecht 

 lso, in the year 178i! when his country was involved in 

 war. that our poet published his I'tutfrlanduJu Geaangm 

 (patriotic poems), which bear high testimony to his fi.-r> 

 imagination, luperior Uste. and facility in poetical compo- 

 sition. Previous to the year 1785 he had already pub- 

 1 several pieces of merit, sufficient to induce the Society 

 of Arts at the Hague to insert them in their collections. 

 He also wrote a series of amatory poems, entitled Gezangen 

 myner Jeupd (gongs of my youth). Although Bellamy died 

 before his genius hod reached its maturity, lie still must be 

 ranked among the first poet* of his nation, and the restorers 

 of modern Dutch poetry. A presentiment, which he had of 

 his approaching death, seems to account for a morbid senti- 

 mentality which his latter works betray. He died in 1786, 

 at the age of twenty-eight. A short account of his life, 

 together with two of his speeches, has been published by 

 G. Kniper. 



BELLARMIN, ROBERT, CARDINAL, 'who had, 

 ays Bayle, the best pen for controversy of any man of his 

 ge,' was born at Monto Pulciano in Tuscany, in the year 

 15-12. He entered the order of Jesuits in 15f>0; was or- 

 dained priest at Ghent by the celebrated Jansenius in 15C9 ; 

 ami elected Professor of Theology at the University of 

 Louvain in the year after. Having filled this chair for seven 

 years with increasing celebrity, he returned to Rome in 

 1 5 76, where he gave lectures on controversial theology. The 

 Jesuits wore at the time tho great defenders of the church 

 of Rome against the doctrines of Luther and the Pro- 

 testants : and to their learning, ability, zeal, and worldly 

 wisdom that church was mainly indebted for its vigorous 

 stand against the assaults of the divines of the Reforma- 

 tion. In 1590 Bcllarmin accompanied the (rape's legate 

 into France, for the purpose of affording the papal c.uise 

 the aid of a master of the controversial points of divinity. 

 In 1599 he was made a cardinal, but so little covetous was 

 he of the honour that it is stated he was compelled to accept 

 it only through threats of being anathematized for contu- 

 macy. 1'hrce years afterwards lie was created archbishop of 

 Capua, which see he quitted in 1005 for Rome, where he 

 resided till his death in 16-21, an active member of the court 

 of the Vatican. 



The controversial works of Bellarmin are very numerous, 

 filling three large folio volumes. Of their merits, and of 

 the merits, intellectual and moral, of their author, we have 

 the following favourable opinion from the learned and 

 candid Mosheim : 



' The disputants which the order of Jesuits sent forth in 

 great numbers against the adversaries of the Church of 

 Rome, surpassed all the rest in subtlety, impudence, and 

 invective. But the chief leader and champion of the pole- 

 mic tribe was Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit, and one of the 

 College of Cardinals, who treated, in several bulky volumes, 

 of all the controversies that subsisted between the Protestants 

 and the Church of Rome, and 'whose merits as a writer 

 consisted principally in clearness of style, and a certain co- 

 piousness of argument which showed a rich and fertile 

 imagination. This eminent defender of the Church of 

 Rome arose about the conclusion of this century (sixteenth), 

 and on his first appearance all the force and attacks of the 

 most illustrious Protestant doctors were turned against him 

 alone. His candour and plain dealing, however, exposed 

 him to the censures of several divines of his own commu- 

 nion ; for he collected with diligence the reasons and objec- 

 tions of his adversaries, and proposed them for the most 

 part, in their full force, with integrity and exactness. II id 

 he been less remarkable on account of his fidelity and in- 

 dustry; had he taken care to select the weakest arguments 

 of his antagonist*, and to render them still weaker by pro- 

 posing them in an imperfect and unfaithful light, his fame 

 would have been much greater among the friends of Rome 

 than it actually is.' (Mosheim, Ecdesiast. Hist., vol. iii. 

 p. 155, Maclane's Trantlalimi.) 



A much less favourable opinion was expressed by Scaliger 

 in a criticism which has called down the just animadver- 

 sions of Bayle (note L. art. ' Bellarmin '), who cannot well 

 be suspected of any bias in favour of the Jesuit. Scaliger 

 has ventured to assert that Bcllarmin did not believe a word 

 of what ho wrote, and that he was at heart an atheist : 

 but. besides the strong testimony of his life and death-lied 

 to the contrary'. *"ch judgments are, as Bayle well remarks. 

 a usurpation of the rights of Him whn alone is the judge 

 of hearts, and before whom there U no dissembling. 



Besides the controversial works to which we hare alluded. 

 the Cologne edition. 1617, of Bcllannm's wrks contains 

 three folio volume* of other works in addition to a volume of 

 sermons and letters. 



BELLA'TRIX, the name of the smaller <-f the two bright 

 upper stars in Orion. The three stars of the licit rather 

 incline towards it ; it is of the second magnitude, and n 

 marked y by Bayer, and _' 1 by Flanistccd. The name 

 (warrior) is indicative of the supposed astrological proper- 

 ties of the star: the old Arabic name is Al Mirzam al 

 Najid, tlii- rulidiil lion. [See ORION.] 



BELLE DE NUIT, a name given by the French to 

 various kinds of hind-weeds. In tropical couin; 

 plants occur in great abundance, expanding their 1 

 fragrant, and delicate (lowers of while, or blue, or lih: 

 such magnificence, that they may well he called the . 

 of the night.' The species to which the name is more par- 

 ticularly applied, is what botanists call Ipoma-a, or Calo- 

 nyction Bona Nox, whose white (lowers have a diameter of 

 five or six inches, and open at sunset in the woods of the 

 East and West Indies, drooping at daylight. 



BKLLE-ILE-EN-MKR, an island on the west const of 

 France, a little to the north-west of the mouth of the I 

 in the department of Morbihan. It was known to the 

 Romans by the name of Vindilis; and appears in a d'-cd 

 of the middle ages under the name of Guedel, a name 

 which has some affinity with Yindilis. (D'Anville, Notice 

 de FAncienne Gaule.) It was also, according to some 

 writers, known to the aniients under the G reel; n.n 

 Calonesus, of which its modern designation of Belle-lie 

 (fair or beautiful island) is a translation. ( Piganiol de la 

 Force, Nonvelle Description <l-> hi France.) 



It is said to have belonged in early times to the Count of 

 Cornouailles, a small district in Bretagne, and to have been 

 seized by Geoffroi, Count of Rennes, who bestowed the 

 island upon the abbey of Redon. It was withdrawn from 

 the possession of the abbey by Alain, son of Geoffroi, and 

 restored by him to the Count of Cornouailles, who gave it to 

 the abbey of Quiniperlc. Possession was contested by tin- 

 heads of the two ecclesiastical establishments, into whose, 

 disposal it had thus successively come ; by repeated 

 sions it was confirmed to the monks of Quiinperlc, but under 

 tlicin it remained almost a desert. 



In 1572 the monks represented to the King of France, 

 Charles IX., the inutility of their possession ; they pointed 

 out that in time of war it was occupied by the enemy, and 

 in time of peace by pirates : and finally tiiey prayed that he 

 would take the island to himself, giving them in exchange 

 some lands more suited to them, or allow them to effect an 

 exchange with some private individual. By the king's au- 

 thority, this last mode of exchange was effected, and Bellc- 

 Ile came into the possession of the Count dc Retz or Raiz, 

 then governor of Bretagne, and favourite of the king. It 

 was erected into a marquisate, in favour of this count or his 

 son, in 1573. Tho Count de Raiz, when he obtained the 

 island, colonized it with settlers, who were in a stale of ab- 

 ject vassalage to him ; yet, notwithstanding this, the island 

 so improved as to become a desirable acquisition for th 

 government to make: and both Henry IV. and Cardinal 

 Richelieu attempted to bring about its union with the do- 

 mains of the crown, hut in vain. The island, with the title 

 of Marquis de Belle-He, afterwards came into possession of 

 the family of Fuuqnet. In the reign of Louis XIV. the 

 crown made some considerable encroachments on the right* 

 of the lords of the island ; and, in the year 1718, under the 

 regency of the Duke of Orleans, while Louis XV. was a 

 minor, the whole island came to the crown, in exchange for 

 some lordships which were ceiled t > the marquis. (Expilly, 

 Dictionnaire des Gaules et de la. France. ) 



The island is of an oblong form : its greatest length runs 

 N.YV. and S.K., and is aliout eleven or twelve miles. The 

 greatest breadth is about six miles. The longer dimension 

 is in a direction parallel to the line of the coast of Brctamic, 

 from which Belle-He is distant about sixteen or eighteen 

 miles; but the peninsula of (juihcron, which stretches out 

 into the passage between the island and the mainland, ap- 

 proaches to within six or eight miles of Belle-lie. Close to 

 tin: N.AV. point of the island are some small islands or 

 . '-ailed the Conigues ; the S.E. point is called Pointe 

 ria : and lictvvcen this and the Conigufis, on the S.W. 

 .side of the island towards the ocean, an: the headlands 

 1'iiintc ilu Vieu\ ( 'haic-iu Hi- lYulains, Poiute du Grand 

 Guct, Puinte du Talus, and Poiute du Canon or Echelle. 



