430 



BKLLK ALL1 A NCK BELLES-LKTTHKS. 



recalled him to Home, ou which ho resigned his 

 KTChbishopriC without retaining any pension on it, as 

 ne might tiave dune. In II.-.M. h> let'i his wpart- 

 ments in the Vatican, and rcturn <! to :i house of his 

 order, where he died the same year, at the 

 seventy-one. So impressed wen- the people with the 

 idea of his sanctity, that it was necessary to place 

 guards to keep oil" tin- r;-o\\d, which pressed round 

 to touch his body, or procure MUHC relic- of his gar- 

 ments. H. had the double merit, with the court of 

 Kome. of supporting her temporal power and spiritual 

 supreinncy to tlie utmost, ami of strenuously opposing 

 the Reformers. The talent he displayed in the 

 latter controversy called forth all the similar ability 

 out he Protestant >ide : and, lor a number of years, 

 no eminent divine among the Reformers failed to 

 make his arguments a particular subject of refuta- 

 tion. The great work which he composed in this 

 warfare is entitled A Hotly of Controversy, written 

 in Iwuin. the style of which is perspicuous and pre- 

 wiihout any pretension to purity or elegance, 

 lie displays a vast amount of Scriptural learning. ;nnl 

 is deeply \tr-eil in the, doctrine and practice of the 

 church in all ages, as becomes one who determines 

 every |>oint by authority. To his credit, he exhibits 

 none of the lax morality of his order, and, in respect 

 to the doctrines of predestination and efficacious 

 . is more a follower of St Augustine than a 

 Jesuit. His maxims on the right of pontiffs to de- 

 pose princes, caused his work on the temporal power 

 of the popes to be condemned at Paris. On the 

 other hand, it did not satisfy the court of Rome, be- 

 cause it asserted, not a direct, but an indirect, power 

 in the popes in temporal matters ; which reservation 

 so offended Sixtus V., that he placed it among the 

 list of prohibited books. These differences among 

 i lie Catholics necessarily gave strength to the Pro- 

 testant side, and produced a work from Mayer in 

 exposition of them. In the rancour of controversy, 

 some malignant calumnies were uttesed against the 

 morals of B. ; but it is evident, that he inclined to 

 superstition in faith, and scrupulosity in practice. At 

 his death, he bequeathed one half of his soul to the 

 Virgin, and the other to Jesus Christ. His society 

 thought so highly of his sanctity, that proofs were 

 collected to entitle him to canonization ; but the fear 

 of giving offence to the sovereigns, whose rights he 

 oppugned, has always prevented a compliance with 

 the ardent wishes of the Jesuits. The best edition 

 of his controversial works is that of Prague, 1721, 

 4 vols., folio. 



BELLE ALLIANCE. See Waterloo. 



BELLE-ISLE, or BELLE-!SLE-KN-MER (anciently 

 1'inilUiii) ; an island in the bay of Biscay, 115 miles 

 from the west coast of France, about nine miles long, 

 and from two to four broad, surrounded by sharp 

 rocks, which leave only three fortified passages to 

 the island. The soil is diverse, consisting of rock, 

 salt marsh, and fertile grounds. Palais is the 

 capital. It contains three other small towns, and 

 many villages. Lon. 3" & W. ; lat. 47 l& N. 

 Population, 5,569. 



BELLE-ISLE, or BELLISLE ; an island N. E. of the 

 gulf of St Lawrence, about twenty-one miles in cir- 

 cuit ; on the north-west side has a small harbour, fit 

 for small craft, called Lark harbour, within a little 

 island which lies close to the shore. At the east 

 point, it has another small harbour or cove, that will 

 only admit fishing shallops ; from whence it is about 

 sixteen miles to the coast of Labrador. The narrow 

 channel between Newfoundland and the coast of 

 Labrador is called the straits of Bellisle ; fifteea 

 miles N. Newfoundland. Lon, 55 \V W.; lat. 

 62N. 



BKLLEGARDE, Gabriel du Pac de; bcrn at the 



palace of Bellegarde, in the year 1717; one of the 

 most indefatigable compilers of history, who has 

 thrown much light on the historical events of the 

 17th century. 



BELLKISLK (Charles Louis Angusle Fou<(uel), count 

 de, marshal of France, born at Villefranchc, Sept. ^, 

 1684, distinguished himself during the famous sie^e 

 of Lille, and became brigadier in the royal forces. 

 After the conclusion of the war of the Spanish suc- 

 cession, he went, with marshal Villars, to Kastadl, 

 where he displayed diplomatic talents. Tin- cession 

 of Lorraine to France, in 1736, was principally his 

 work. Cardinal Fleury reposed confidence in him ; 

 Louis XV. made him governor of Met/, and the three 

 bishoprics of Lorraine, which office he held until his 

 death. Before the breaking out of the war, in 1711, 

 he visited the principal courts of Germany, with th 

 design of disposing them, after the death of Charles 

 VI., to choose the elector of Bavaria emperor <>, 

 Germany ; and he displayed so much address, on this 

 occasion, as to excite the admiration of Frederic 1 1 . 

 After his return, he placed himself, together \\iih 

 Broglio, at the head of the French forces, to oppose. 

 those of Maria Theresa. He took Prague by as- 

 sault ; but, the king of Pnissia having made a 

 separate peace, he was compelled to a retreat, which 

 he performed with admirable skill. In Dec., 1711, 

 when on a diplomatic journey to Berlin, he was 

 arrested at Elbingerode, a Hanoverian post, and sent 

 to England, where he was exclianged, however, in 

 1746. In the following year, he forced general 

 Browne, who had entered the south of France from 

 Italy, to raise the siege of Antilles, and to retreat 

 over the Var. In 1748, the king made him a duke 

 and peer of France, and the department of war was 

 committed to his charge. He reformed the army by 

 abolishing many abuses, enlarged the military aca- 

 demy, and caused an order of merit to be established. 

 The city of Metz is indebted to him for an academy. 

 He died in 1761. 



BELLENDEN, John. See Ballentyne. 



BELLENDEX, William ; a Scottish writer of the 

 17th century, distinguished for the elegance of his 

 Latin style. He was educated at Paris, where he 

 was professor of belles-lettres in 1602, and, though 

 he was made master of requests by James I., he still 

 continued to reside in the French metropolis. In 

 1608, he published a work entitled Cicero Princeps, 

 containing a selection from the works of Cicero, con- 

 sisting of passages relating to the duties of a prince, 

 &c. He afterwards republished this work, with some 

 other treatises, in his Bellendenus de Statu, libri (res. 

 This work was published again, in 1787, by an 

 anonymous editor, since known to have been Dr 

 Samuel Parr, who added a Latin preface on the 

 politics of that time. From Bellenden's work, 

 Conyers Middleton's Life of Cicero was almost 

 entirely compiled without acknowledgment a 

 plagiarism denounced by Warton and Dr Parr. 



BELLEROPHON. See Hipponoils. 



BELLES-LETTRES (French) signifies the same with 

 polite literature. It Is impossible to give a satisfac- 

 tory explanation of what is or has been called bclli.'s- 

 lettres : in fact, the vaguest definition would be the 

 best, as almost every branch of knowledge has, at 

 one time, been included in, at another, excluded 

 from, this denomination. The most correct defini- 

 tion, therefore, would be, perhaps, such as em- 

 braced all knowledge and every science, not merely 

 abstract, nor simply useful. Jn the division of 

 the departments at the lyceum of arts, establish- 

 ed at Paris in 1792, the belles-lettres compre- 

 hended general grammar, languages, rhetoric, geo- 

 graphy, history, antiquities, and numismatics ; whilst 

 philosophy, mathematics, &c.. were called, in contra- 



