332 



BUTLER BYL AND. 





works. " Succinct History of the geographical 

 mid political Revolutions of the Empire of Ger- 

 many, or the principal states which composed the 

 Kinpire of Charlemagne, from his coronation in 

 800 to its dissolution in IBOti ; with some account 

 of the imperial house of Uapsburgh, and of the 

 six secular electors of Germay ; and of Roman, 

 German, French, and English nobility," 1806. Of 

 this work there were three editions. " Essay on Con- 

 tingent Keiuainders and Executory Devises ;" with 

 notes, 1809. Mr Butler was a constant advocate 

 of his own religious community ; although he was 

 in some respecU so opposed to the more rigid por- 

 tion of it, that hishop Milner, on one occasion, 

 angrily spoke of him as " a decided enemy to the 

 hierarchy of his church." His earliest writings 

 connected with his religious party were in the three 

 blue books privately circulated among the Roman 

 Catholics in 1790-1792, and which were jointly 

 written by Mr Joseph Wilkes, abenedictine monk, 

 and Mr Butler. " An Historical account of the 

 Laws respecting Roman Catholics " was published 

 by Mr Butler in 1795. " A Letter to an Irish 

 Nobleman on a proposed Repeal of the Penal 

 Laws against the Irish Catholics ;" and " A Letter 

 to a Nobleman on the Coronation Oath," both in 

 1801. " A Letter to a Catholic Gentleman on 

 Bonaparte's projected Invasion," 1803 ; and " A 

 Letter to an Irish Gentleman on the fifth Resolu- 

 tion of the English Catholics, at their meeting, 

 January 31, 1810." In 1813, when a vigorous ef- 

 fort was made for the removal of the restrictive 

 laws, Mr Butler published an " Appeal to the Pro- 

 testants of Great Britain and Ireland ;" several 

 thousands of which were sold or circulated. In 

 1815 Mr Butler delivered an " Inaugural Oration, 

 on occasion of the ceremony of laying the first 

 stone of the London Institution:" it was published 

 at the request of the managers, and he had the 

 honour of being appointed standing counsel to the 

 establishment. He subsequently drew up the act 

 of parliament which secured its prosperity. He 

 soon after published his " Historical Memoirs of 

 the church of France, in the reigns of Lewis 

 XIV., Lewis XV., Lewis XVI., and the French 

 Revolution," in one volume, octavo. The same 

 studies led him to several biographical works, 

 which were published in the following order : 

 " The Life of Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray ; to 

 which are added, the Lives of St Vincent of Paul, 

 and Henri-Marie de Boudon ; a Letter on Ancient 

 and Modern Music; and Historical Minutes of the 

 society of Jesus," 1810, 8vo. " The Life and 

 Writings of J. B. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux," 1812. 

 " The Lives of Dom. Armand-Jean le Bonthillier 

 de Ranee, of the Monastery of La Trappe ; and of 

 Thomas a Kempis. With some account of the prin- 

 cipal religious and military orders of the Roman 

 Catholic church," 1814, 8vo. " Biographical ac- 

 count of the chancellor VHopital and of the chan- 

 cellor d'Aguesseau, with a short historical notice of j 

 the Mississippi Scheme," 1814. Mr Butler's sub- ' 

 sequent works were, " An historical and Literary 

 account of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, 

 or Symbolic books of the Roman Catholic, Greek, 

 and principal Protestant churches," 1816, 8vo. 

 " Historical Memorials respecting the English, Irish, 

 and Scottish Catholics, from the Reformation to 

 the present Time," 1819, 2 vols. 8vo. "Disserta- 

 tion on Mystical Devotion ;" published in the Re- 

 trospective Review, 1820. " An Inquiry, whether 

 the declaration against Transubstantiation, contain- 



ed in act 30 Charles II., could be conscientiously 

 taken by a sincere Protest, mt," KS22. " Reminis- 

 cences of Charles Butler, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn," 

 (chiefly consisting of the history of his literary 

 labours, and additional reflections on the same sub- 

 jects,) 1822; second volume. 1827. "A continu- 

 ation of the Rev. Alban Butler's Lives of the 

 Saints to the present time, with some Biograpliic.il 

 accounts of the holy family, Pope Pius VI., 

 cardinal Ximenes, cardinal Hellimiiiiie, Bartholo- 

 mew de Martyribus, and St Vincent of Paul : with 

 a republication of his Historical Memoirs of the 

 society of Jesus," 1823. " The book of the Ro- 

 man Catholic church ; in a series of Letters ail- 

 dressed to Robert Southey, Esq., on his Book of 

 the Church,' " 1825, 8vo. " The Life of Erasmus ; 

 with Historical Remarks on the state of Literature 

 between the tenth and sixteenth centuries," 1825. 

 " The Life of Hugo Grotius ; with brief minutes 

 of the civil, ecclesiastical, and literary history of 

 the Netherlands," 1826. " Reply to the Quarterly 

 Review, on the Revelations of La Sceur Nativitf," 

 1826. " A Letter on the Coronation Oath ; 1827, 

 8vo. " A short reply to Dr Phillpotts' Answer 

 (in his Letters to a Layman') to Mr Butler's 

 Letters on the Coronation Oath," 1828, 8vo. " A 

 Memoir of the Catholic Relief Bill, passed in 1829, 

 being a sequel and conclusion of the ' Historical 

 Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish Ca- 

 tholics,' " 1829, 8vo. " Memoir of the Life of 

 Henry-Francis d'Aguesseau : with an account of the 

 Roman and canon law," 1830. Two works which 

 Mr Butler commenced and left unfinished, were a 

 " Life of Christ, or Paraphrastic Harmony of the 

 Gospels;" and a " History of the Binomial Theo- 

 rem." He mentions in his " Reminiscences " that 

 some of his happiest hours of study were those 

 devoted to mathematics; but that he divorced him- 

 self from them because he found that they inter- 

 fered with his professional duties. 



Mr Butler's habits of life were remarkably tem- 

 perate and regular ; and his application to intellec- 

 tual pursuits was unremitting. He married a lady 

 of the name of Eyston, and left two surviving 

 daughters ; the elder married to Colonel Stoner, 

 the younger to Andrew H. Lynch, Esq., a chancery 

 barrister. He preserved to the last the faculties 

 of his mind ; although his bodily health had 

 much declined. His last illness, however, was of 

 short duration. He died at his house in Great 

 Ormond Street, on the 2d of June, 1832, aged 

 nearly eighty-two. 



BYLAND ABBEY, in the north riding of 

 Yorkshire. Byland Abbey appears to have been 

 founded in the twelfth century, by Roger de 

 Mowbray, at the instance of his mother. The 

 abbot and twelve monks of Furness abbey, in 

 Lancashire, having been disturbed by the incur- 

 sions of the Scots, fled to York, where they were 

 for some time entertained by the archbishop, by 

 whom they were recommended to the protection of 

 De Mowbray. Being a minor, however, his 

 mother received them at her castle, and she after- 

 wards sent them to a near relation of her own, 

 who had been a monk at Whitby, but who then 

 led an eremetical life at Hode. Here she supplied 

 them with necessaries until her son attained his 

 majority, when he granted them a sufficient portion 

 of land for their support. The monks soon after- 

 wards procured, at a general chapter of their order, 

 held in France, an exemption from their former 

 subjection to Furness. They remained at Hode 



