GREGORY. 



GuEGORY, Grorge Florente, commonly known by 

 tlie name of Gregory of Tours, was born about the year 

 544. He was educated for the eccleliallical profcffion, was 

 a proficient in the learning of the times, and acquired confi- 

 derable reputation by his talents as a preacher. Being at- 

 tacked by a dangerous lllnefs, he paid a religious vifit to the 

 tomb of St Mafrtm at Tours, which proved thcoccafion of 

 his introduftion to the nobility, clergy, and other inhabit- 

 ants of that city, whofe good opinion he corsciliated by his 

 behaviour among them. So ilrong was the impreffion made 

 in his favour, that on the death of Euphrcmius, hiiliop of 

 Toiu-s, in 573, he was unanimouily elctled liis fucccffor. 

 In the year 594 he took a journey to Rome, to vifit the 

 tombs of the Apoftles, and to pay his refpecls to pope Gre- 

 gory the Great, who received him with extraordinary marks 

 of efleem. He died foon after his return to his diocefe, in 

 595, when he was in the fifty-fecond year of his age. He 

 was author of " The Hillory of France ;" " The Lives 

 of the Saints ;" " Fragments of a Commentary on the 

 Pfalms," and other pieces. The ftyle and language of the 

 liiftory are harfli and inelegant, but it fupplies the hiilorian 

 with facls which ferve to fill up the chafms in the annals of 

 the dark ages, and which carry with them ftrong internal 

 marks of authenticity. The bell edition of Gregory's 

 works is that publidied at Paris in 1699. Moreri. Du- 

 pin. 



Gregory of Rimini, oHe of the moft fubtile fchoolmen 

 •in the 14th century, was born in tho city whence he took 

 his furname. He became a monk of the order of the Her- 

 mits of St. Auguftine, and taught with great applaufe in 

 the univerfity of Paris. He was made general ot his order 

 at Montpellier in 1357, and died in the following year at 

 Vienna. As an author, he is known by " Commentai"ies 

 on the Four Books of Sentences ;" " Commentaries on 

 the Epiftles of St Paul ;" and '< On the Epiltle of St. 

 James ;" by " A Treatife on Ufury ;" " Sermons," &c. 

 Moreri. Bayle. 



Gregory St. Vixcekt, a Flemlfli geometrician, was 

 born at Bruges in the year 1584. He iludied mathematics 

 under Clavius, and became, a member of the fociety of Je- 

 fuits at Rome. He acquired a very high reputation in the 

 fciences, was chofen to fome high offices, and was feleclcd 

 by Philip II., king of Spain, to be mathematical tutor to 

 his fon, prince John of Aullria. He died at Ghent in 1667, 

 at the age of eighty-three. He is known as author of three 

 learned mathematical works, of which the principal is enti- 

 tled" Opus Gcometricum Quadraturx Circuli, ct Secjio- 

 luim Coni, decern Libris comprchenfiun,'' 1647, '" t^*'° 

 vols, folio. In this work he (hews, that if one afymptote of 

 an hyperbola be divided into parts, in geometrical pro- 

 grefllon, and from the points of divifion ordinates be drawn 

 parallel to the other afymptote, they will divide the fpace 

 between the afymptote and curve into equal portions. Mo- 

 reri. 



Gregory, Joux, a learned Engliih divine, was born at 

 Agmondefliam, Bucks, in the year 1607. He received a 

 good education, and was placed in the quality of fervitor to 

 Chriil -church college, Oxford, in 1624, where he was under 

 the tuition of Dr. George Morley, afterwards biiliop of 

 Wincheiler. In this college he took his degrees, and was 

 appointed one of the chaplains. In the year 1634 he pub- 

 lilhed a fecond edition in quarto, of fir Thomas Ridley's 

 " View of the Civil and Ecclefiaftical Law,"' with notes : 

 by this work he acquired a high degree of reputation, on 

 account of his deep and extenfive learning, and the ikiil 

 which he (hewed in ancient and modern languages. Oriental 

 as well as European. He obtained fome coiiliderable pre- 



VoL. XVL 



ferment m the church, particularly a prebcndar)- in the fee 

 of Sah(bury. Tliis he did not long enjoy, owing to the civil 

 wars, in which our author was an adive partifan of the 

 royahfts. Being now much reduced in his means, he took 

 up his abode at an obfcure ale-houfe near Oxford, where he 

 remained in great privacy, devoting all his time to literarr 

 purl.uts. He died before he had arrived at his fortieth rear • 

 he had, however, attained to the favour and correfpondencc 

 of many of thegreated men of his age. In 1646 he pub- 

 lilhcd" Notes ar.d Obfervationson fome Paflagcs of Scrip- 

 ture;" which were afterwards ir.ferted in the " Crilici Sa- 

 «i.'' In the year 1650 a colledion of his learned trafts 

 was publi(hed in quarto, under the title of " Grcgorii Poft. 

 huma :•' he left behind him three tranfiaMons from the 

 Greek into Latin, which were pubh(l;ed in i66j, bv Ed- 



^'"'t^'^i,^/""^' '■'^^' '" '"^ °"'" "^'"^- They are entitled 

 " 1 aKadicus de Gentibus Imlix et Brachmannibus :" " S. 

 Ambrofiiis de moribus Brach.mannorum :" and " Anony- 

 nius de Brachmannibus." Biog. Brit, 



Gregory, J.i.me.s, one of the moil eminent m.atheraa- 

 ticians of Jiis age, was born at Aberdeen in the year 1648 

 He was educated at the grammar fchool of his native town', 

 and went through the ufual courfe of academical Itudies in 

 the Manfchal college, with credit and reputation. He 

 loon diicovered a great turn for mathematical purfuits, and 

 began, at an eariy age, to make improvements in the fcience 

 of optics. He publi(hed, in 1663, a work entitled " Optica 

 Promota, feuabdita Radiorum Reflexorum et Refracterura 

 Mylleria, Geometrice enucleata," &c. quarto. This work, 

 which gave an account of the invention of the reflectine 

 telefcope, which wiU be defcribed in the article Tei^- 

 scoPE, immediately attraCfed the notice of mathematiciani 

 in all parts. About the yeai- 1664 or i66j, Mr. Grctrory 

 came to London in order to get his indrument executed by 

 fome able hand ; but being difappointed in his objeft, he laid 

 afide his teleicope, and went to Italy, where he rellded fome 

 years. In 1667 he publilhed at Padua « Vera Circuli ct 

 Hyperbolas Quadratura," &c. quarto, in wliich he an- 

 nounced another of his difcoveries, that of an infinitely con- 

 verging ferics for the areas of the circle and.hvperbola, by 

 which they may be computed to anv degree of exaclnefs. 

 He fent home a copy of this work to Kir. John Collins, whi 

 communicated it to the Royal Society, where it met witfc 

 much commendation. Another work, which he pnbli(hed 

 in the following year, was entitled " Geometrix Pars Uni- 

 Terfalis, inferviens Quantitatum Curvarum Tranfmutationi 

 ct Menfurx," in which he (hewed a method of the traiif- 

 mutation of curves. Thefe works procured the author th<- 

 correfpondencc of Newton, Huygens, Hallev, Wallis 

 and other molt eminent mathematicians. Mr. Gregory was 

 now chofen a member of the Royal Society, and upon his 

 return from his travels he communicated to that learned body 

 an account of the controverfy carri4.-d on in Italy concerning 

 the motion of the earth. About the year 1 668 he was ap- 

 pointed profelTor of mathematics in the univerfity of St. 

 Andrew 's, an office which he held for fix years ; and in 1674 

 he was called to Edinburgh, to (ill the mathem.atical chair in 

 that univerfity ; tliis fituation he held but little more than a 

 year, when, in the month of ©(Sober 1675, being employed 

 in (liewing tlie fatellites of Jupiter through a telefcope,' he 

 was (truck with a fudden and total blindnefs, and died in the 

 conrfe of a few days at the early age of thirtv-feven. Mr. 

 Gregory poffeffed an acute and penetrating genius ; he was 

 unambitious, and contented with the advantagesof his fitua- 

 tion as profeffor, which conftituted the only pecuniary re- 

 ward of his eminent talents. Befides the difcoveries already 

 noticed, he invented and dcmonilrated geometrically, bv thij ■ 

 5 E ' 'help 



