B L 



B L O 



power foon terminated ; for, upon the baniHiincnt of the 

 arclibifliop, A. D. 1168, he left the court of Sicily, and re- 

 turned into France. From France he was invited into Eng- 

 land, by Hcnr)'II. who employed him as his private fecre- 

 tar\', made him archdeacon of Bath, and gave him fome other 

 benefices. After havinsr fpent a few years at court, he con- 

 ceived a dif Juft at that mode of life, and retired into the fa- 

 mily of Ricliard, archbifhop of Canterbury, who made him 

 his chancellor, about A.D. 1176. After the death of this 

 prelate, A. D. 1 1R3, he afted as fccretary and chancellor to 

 archbiihop Baldwin, his fuccelTor ; and was deputed by him 

 on an emhafly to Rome, A.D. 11S7, in order to plead his 

 caufe before pope Urban III. in the famous controverfy be- 

 tween him and the rror;ks of Canterbury, about the church of 

 Hsckington. When Baldwin departed into the Holy Land, 

 A.D. 1 190, he was involved in various troubles in his old 

 age, the caufes of whxh are not diftinflly known, and died 

 about the end of the 12th century. From his works, which 

 may be juftly reckoned among the moll valuable monuments 

 of the age in which he flourilhed, and fome of which may even 

 now be read with profit, he appears to have been a man of 

 approved integrity and piety, as well as of a lively inventive 

 genius, and uncommon erudition. He is faid to have diftated 

 letters in Latin to three different fcribes, on different fub- 

 jefts, and to have written a letter in the fame language him- 

 fclf, at the fame tim-. His printed works confift of 183 

 letters, which he coUedled together at the defireof Henr)' II.; 

 of 65 fermons, delivered on various occafions ; and of 17 

 trails on different fubjedls ; " Opera P. Blefenf. Paris, edit. 

 A.D. 1667," fol.; and aftervvards printed in the Bibliotheca 

 Patrum, torn. 24. Cave Hill. Lit. vol. ii. p. 333. Henry's 

 Hill. vol. vi. p. 147, &c. 



BLOKZYL, in Geography, a town and fort of Overyflel, 

 fituated at the mouth of the Steenwyk, or Old Aa, where it 

 enters the Zuyder fea, with a harbour capable of containing 

 200 vefTcls ; defended by fix baflions, and erefted by the 

 Dutch, at the commencement of their republic, to defend 

 them from the invafions of the Spaniards. N. lat. 52° 45'. 

 E.long. J°45', 



BLOMARY, or Bloomarv, the firft forge in an iron- 

 work, through which the metal pafles after it is melted 

 out of the ore. (See Iron.) They are alfo called blomary- 

 h earths. 



BLOMBERG, in Geography, a town of Germany, in the 

 circle of Weftphalia, and county of Lippe, which obtained 

 its firfl privileges, in the beginning of the 14th century, from 

 count Simon I. ; 8 miles S.E. of Lcmgow. 



BLOMESHOLM, a manor of Sweden, in the diftrift 

 of Bohus, about 3 Swcdifh miles from Stromftadt, in 

 which is a very ancient monument, confilling of large 

 ftones, fct up perpendicularly, and arranged in the form of 

 a (hip. 



BLONAI, a barony and caflle of Swiflerland, near Vevay, 

 and about 1-5 mile from the lake of GeT^eva. 



BLOND, Le, Christopher, in Biography, a painter, 

 •was born in 1670, but little noticed in the more early part of 

 his life. He became known at Rome in 17 16, and efta- 

 blifhtd his reputation in Italy, as a good painter of portrait in 

 miniature. At Amfterdam he diflinguifhed himfelt by paint- 

 ing fmall portraits, for bracelets, rings, ard fnuff-bn.tes, tirft 

 in water colours, with a very lively and natinal colouring, and 

 afterwards in oil. From the Low countries he came over to 

 England, and projefted a new manufaflory forimprefTing co- 

 lours on paper with copper-plates, which promiitd to be ad- 

 vantageous, but in the end proved detrimental to himfelf and 

 his aflociates, to which his own diifolute life and manners 

 -very much contributed. His fcheme was to copy the mod 



capital piiflures in England, of the greateft mafters, To as to 

 give his prints the appearance of paintings irvoil. Many of 

 his prints were well executed, are ftiil extant, and are held in 

 eftimation. It is faid, however, that he was not the original 

 inventor of this method of managing colours ; but that he 

 took it from Lallm.an, and others, who, with equal capacities 

 and more difcreet conduft, had undertaken it before him, but 

 failed of fuccefs. Pilkington. 



BLONDEL, David, a French proteAant minifter, emi- 

 nent for his acquaintance with ecclefiaftical and civil hiftor)-, 

 was a native of Chalons in Champagne, admitted miniiler in 

 1614, and fettled at Houdau near Paris. His firfl work in 

 favour of the Proteftants was printed at Sedan in 1615, ""der 

 the title of " Modefle Declaration, &c." or, " A Mo'deft 

 Declaration of the fincerity and truth of the reformed 

 churches in France ;" and intended as a reply to the in- 

 veftives of the party of the bifhop of Lu^on, afterwards car- 

 dinal Richelitu. This work eftablifhed his reputation among 

 the Protellants, and occafioned his being much employed in 

 their fynods. He was rot diflinguifhed as a preacher j and 

 his ftyle, as a writer, was perplexed, and encumbered with 

 parenthefes ; but his judgment was penetrating, his memory 

 tenacious, and his erudition extenfive. As an honorar\- pro- 

 fefTor, with a penfion, to which office he was appointed by the 

 fynod of Charentcn in 1645, he had opportunity to devote 

 his time to literature ; but though he undertook to refute 

 Baronius's annals, it dots not appear that he did much be- 

 fides writing a few notes in his own copy of the work. His 

 works were " Explications on the Eucharill ;" a treatife 

 concerning " The Primacy of the church ;" " Pfeudo- 

 Ifidorus et Turrianus vapulantes," againft the Decretal 

 epiflles ; a " Treatife on the Sibyls," difproving the truth 

 of their oracles, and refuting the ancient praftice of praying 

 for the dead ; and a treatife " De Epifcopis et Prefbyteris." 

 By his treatife againfl the ilory of pope Joan, which he re- 

 jected as fabulous, he offended feme Proteftants, who did not 

 wifh to be deprived of this topic of fatire againft the Romifh 

 church. Among Blondel's works on civil hiftory, we may 

 reckon his " Genealogy of the kings of France againfl 

 ChifBet," written in Latin, and printed at Amfterdam in 

 1654, 2 vols. fol. which is faid to have been undertaken at the 

 defire of chancellor Seguier ; and his piece " De formula 

 regnante Chrifto." On the death of Gerard Voffius, he 

 was chofen to fucceed himasprofefforof hiftorv in the fchola 

 iliuftris of Amfterdam, and took poffeflion of his office in 

 1650 ; but his affiduity in the profecution of his fludies, and 

 chantje of air, occafioned the lofs of his fight, after which, it 

 is faid, that he didlated his work intitled '' Genealosry, Sic." 

 At Amfterdam his fituation was rendered uneafy by a 

 charge of Arminianifm ; and he died in 165c. Gen. 

 Dift. 



Blondel, Francis, an eminent mathematician and mili- 

 tary engineer, was born in 1617, at Ribemont in Picardy. 

 In 1652, he was tvavelling governor to the young count of 

 Briemie, and after a tour of three years he pubiifhed an ac- 

 count of it in Latin. After his return he was advanced to 

 confiderable polls both in the army and navy, and he was em- 

 ployed in various negotiations with foreign princes. In 

 1659, being deputed by Louis XIV. as his envoy-extraor- 

 dinary to Coiiftantinople, he vifited Egypt ; and at the ter- 

 mination of his embaffy, he was appointed counfellor of ftate, 

 tutor in mathematics and brllcslettres to the dauphin, and 

 one of the mathematical pr- fcffiyrs at the royal college. In 

 1665, he began to difplav his talents for arctate£lure, 

 when the court employed him to conilruft a bridge over the 

 Charente at the town of Saintes. In 1669, he became 

 member of the Academy of Sciences ; and in 1670 he was 



honoured 



