BEL 



414 



BEL 



Belhirmin. by Pope Gregory XV., his veneration for whom, as 

 ~" Christ's vicegerent upon earth, he expressed in the 

 words of the centurion, ' Lord, I am not worthy 

 that thou shouldest come under my roof." On the 

 day of his funeral, the populace, who revered him 

 as a saint, crowded in such numbers about his body, 

 in order to touch and kiss it, that it was necessary to 

 keep them off by a military guard. His garments, 

 and every thing which he had been accustomed to 

 use, were distributed as most venerable relics. It 

 was pretended, too, that he had been endowed with 

 the spirit of prophecy, and possessed the power of 

 working miracles. All these appeared natural pre- 

 ludes to his canonization ; and nothing prevented the 

 popes from admitting him into the calendar of saints, 

 but the fear of giving offence to those princes whose 

 temporal rights he had denied. 



The character of Bellarmin has been very variously 

 represented ; but to his talents as a controversial writer, 

 the acrimony of his adversaries may be regarded as 

 even a less equivocal testimony, than the extravagant 

 admiration of his friends. No champion of the church 

 of Rome ever defended her cause with more zeal or 

 ability. His works were regarded by the Protestants 

 as so many bulwarks planted around the papal throne, 

 which could not be assailed with any hope of success, 

 till these bulwarks were first battered down. Every 

 divine, therefore, who waged war against papacy 

 singled out Bellarmin as the principal object of his 

 attacks, and it is said that a new lecture was institu- 

 ted in both the English universities, for the express 

 purpose of confuting his arguments. The modes of 

 Hostility practised against this arch enemy of the re- 

 formation, varied with the temper and abilities of his 

 assailants. He himself set them an example of fair 

 and honourable warfare, which they would have done 

 well to imitate. He disdained the low artifices of 

 concealment and misrepresentation ; and confident in 

 his own power of reply, stated the arguments of his 

 opponents so fully and forcibly, that it has been al- 

 leged that his writings contain the best defence of 

 those doctrines which he meant to refute. It is cer- 

 tain that his candour in this respect gave so much 

 offence and alarm to many zealous Catholics, that 

 they wished his writings to be suppressed ; lest the 

 heretics should make use of them to their own ad- 

 vantage, and the Catholics should be imposed upon 

 by not understanding the answers so well as the ob- 

 jections. His most celebrated work is entitled A 

 Body of Controversy, the arrangement of which is 

 clear and methodical, the reasoning ingenious and 

 profound, and the style, if not elegant, at least ner* 

 vous and plain. That a controversial work of four 

 folio volumes, particularly if written in a bad cause, 

 should contain inconsistencies, is almost unavoidable ; 

 and the adversaries of Bellarmin have exposed his 

 contradictions with as much triumph as if they com- 

 pletely invalidated his ablest arguments. This is 

 more excusable, however, than the calumnies which 

 they have forged again3t his character. A libel was 

 published against hiin, while he was yet alive, stating 

 some circumstances which occasioned, attended, and 

 followed his death. Among other accusations it was 

 pretended, that he had caused many children to be 

 murdered in order to conceal his incontinence ; that, 



touched with remorse, he repaired to Loretto to ex- ; - 

 piate his crimes by confession, but that the priest to btllc ' jd< ' r - 

 whom he made the avowal, was struck with such *' m> 



horror, that he abruptly ordered him to depart, and 

 that Bellarmin died in despair. Bellarmin read and 

 laughed at the charge, which was the most impro- 

 bable that the blindness of malice could devise ; for 

 so exemplary was his purity, that on an inscription 

 placed under his picture, it could be recorded that 

 he preserved his chastity and his baptismal innocence, 

 and that he never told a lie. His temper was so 

 mild that he could bear the greatest injuries without 

 resentment, and rather than molest the meanest insect 

 would allow them to incommode him extremely, 

 since to fly and stop where they please is their only 

 heaven, of which it Would be cruel to deprive them. 

 At his death he bequeathed one half of his soul tu 

 Jesus Christ, and the other half to the Virgin Marv ; 

 and with his latest breath enjoined a friend to declare 

 to the public, that he died in the same faith which 

 he had always professed and maintained. Besides A 

 Body (if Controversy, he wrote A Treatise on Eccle- 

 siastical History; A Treatise on the Temporal Au- 

 thority of' the Pope ; The Groans of the Dove; On 

 the Obligations of Bishops ; A Commentary on the 

 Psalms ; A Hebrew Grammar; and Sermons. See 

 General Biography ; Ancillon's Melange Critique de 

 Literature, torn. i. ; and Mosheim's Ecc/esiast. Hi*:. 

 vol. iv. p. 221, &c. (/.-) 



BELLEISLE, an island of France, in the depart- 

 ment of Morbihan, situated in the Bay of Biscay, 

 about six leagues from the coast of France. It is 

 about six leagues long, and two broad, and is so sur- 

 rounded with sharp pointed rocks, that there are on- 

 ly three places, well fortified, by which the island 

 can be attacked. The soil of this island, naturally 

 fertile, is manured by means of a weed called goc?- 

 mon, or vareck, which is constantly thrown upon 

 their shores. Corn of different kinds is there pro- 

 duced in abundance, and form the articles of their 

 commerce. The principal commerce of Belleisle^ 

 however, consists of sardines, which are fished on the 

 coast to the extent of 3000 barrels a year, each bar- 

 rel containing about nine or ten millions of sardine?. 

 No fewer than 150 chaloupes, of two or three tons 

 each, are employed in this fishery, which is carried 

 on from June to October. A barrel of oil flows from 

 about thirty or forty barrels of sardines, by means of 

 small holes pierced in the bottom of each barrel. 

 The sardines are exported to Bilboa, St Sebasti. 

 Bayonne, and all the places along the Garonne ; and 

 the oil is partly consumed in the island, and partly 

 exported to Bourdeaux and Nantes. The whole 

 commerce of the island is said to produce annually 

 between 110 and 160 thousand francs. There ate 

 also salt marshes in this island. Belleisle once be- 

 longed to the family of Fouquet, and was exchanged 

 for the county of Gisors. Palais and Bungor are 

 the chief places of the island, which contains like- 

 wise about twenty villages. Chantreaux, in one 

 place of his Science de I'JJistoire, makes the popula- 

 tion of Belleisle '21-36, and in another between five 

 and six thousand. West Long. 3 G' 30", North 

 Lat. 4-7 17' 30". (q) 



BELLENDEN, John, archdeacon of Murray, 



