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V E R 



mont, ill Addifon county, on Otter creek, about fix miles 

 from its mouth in lake Clumplain. It contains a congre- 

 gational church and a gaol, and 835 inhabitants. In its 

 vicinity are feveral mills ; 1 15 miles N. of Bennington, and 

 ^19 from Wafhinpton. 



VERGENTUM, in /Indent Geography, a town of Spain, 

 in Bcetica. 



VERGER DE Haurane, John du, abbot of St. Cyran, 

 in Biography, was the defcendant of a noble family, and born 

 at Bayonne in 158 1. After having enjoyed fome inferior 

 preferments he removed to Paris, and in 1 620 became abbot 

 of St. Cvran. He was diftinguifhed as a zealous defender 

 and propagator of Janfenifm ; and under this charafter 

 gained a great number of partifans. But being fufpefted 

 of holding feveral erroneous doftrines, and of contemning 

 the authority of the church, he was denounced as a dan- 

 gerous perfon to cardinal Richelieu, who caufed him to be 

 imprifoned at Vincennes in 1638, in which ftate of confine- 

 ment he remained till the death of the cardinal ; and foon 

 after his liberation, he died at Paris in i64'5, aged fixty-two. 

 As a champion in the caufe of the Janfenifts againft the 

 Jefuits, the abbot wrote feveral works, which were evidences 

 of his zeal and diligence rather than of his judgment and 

 ability. Although thefe works were held at the time of 

 their publication in high eftimation, they are now forgotten, 

 as well as the controverfy that occafioned mod of them ; 

 and it is therefore needlefs to enumerate them. Moreri. 



VERGE RIO, Piek-Paolo, the elder, a reviver of 

 literature, was born about the year 1349 at Jiiftinopolis, 

 now Capo d'Klria. Having ftudied at Padua and Florence, 

 he paffed fome years in different towns of Italy, particularly 

 at Padua, where he ofBciated as profeflbr of dialectics ; and 

 lie ftudied Greek at Venice, under the celebrated Emanuel 

 Chryfoloras. At Padua he took the degree of doftor of 

 laws in 1404, till which mature period of his life his condi- 

 tion bordered on that of indigence. From Padua, where 

 he was attached to the interefts of the princes of Carrara, 

 he removed to Venice, and afterwards accompanied his 

 friend Zabarella, when he became cardinal, to the council 

 of Conftance. Having loft this patron in 1417, he is faid 

 to have funk into a ftate of mental derangement, and to have 

 died in Hungary, about the time of the council of Bafil, 

 which commenced in 1431. His works caufed him to be 

 ranked among the moft fuccefsful cultivators of literature 

 at that period. His " Hiftory of the Princes of the Houfe 

 of Carrara, from its Origin to the Year 1355," compofed 

 in Latin that was deemed elegant in that age, has been pub- 

 liflied in Muratori's Colledtion of Italian Hiftorians. His 

 trcatile " De ingeiiu s Moribus et liberalibus Adolefcentix 

 ftudiis," addrelTed to one of the princes of Carrara, was 

 very popular at the time of its publication. He alfo wrote 

 " A Life of P-trarch," publithed in the « Petrarcha Re- 

 divivus" of Tommafini, and an eulogy of St. Jerom ; and 

 lie left feveral manufcripts. Moreri. 



Vergerio, Pier-Paolo, the younger, one of the few 

 prelates couvrrted from popery, belonging to the fame 

 family with th' fub|cCl of the preceding article, was born 

 about the beginning of the l6th century at Capo d'Iftria; 

 and having ftudied th^ law at Padua, and graduated, he be- 

 came, in 1522, profeftor of the notary's art in that univerfity. 

 At Padua and at Venice he maintained the character of an 

 able orator, as well as that of a man of good morals. The 

 charge: brought againft him by an enemy, and particularly 

 that of poifoiiing his wife, have been fufficiently refuted. 

 From Venice, where he refided in 1530, he went to Rome, 

 and being introduced to pope Clement VII., was fent by 

 tim as nuncio to Ferdinand, king of the Romans, pro- 



bably about the clofe of the year 1532* On tliis occafion 

 he ufed all his efforts in fupport of the papal fee, and for 

 the purpofe of reftraining the progrefs of Lutheranifrr. 

 Paul III. recalled him from this embaffy, but afterwards 

 deputed him on the fame miffion, which gave him an oppor- 

 tunity of holding feveral conferences with Proteftant princes, 

 and of an interview with Luther himfelf at Wittemberg. 

 In 1536 he was fent by the fame pope to Charles V. in Na- 

 ples, and for his fervices to the church he was made a 

 bifhop of his native city. From thence he returned to 

 Germany, and was one of the commiffioners who drew up 

 the indiftion of the council. At the clofe of the year 1540 

 he attended the conference at Worms, as a deputy from 

 the king of France. However, before this time he was 

 fufpefted by the court at Rome of a fecret attachment to 

 Lutheranifm, but he ftill contrived to keep up appearances. 

 Upon his fubfequent retirement to his diocefe, whilft, as it 

 is faid, he was preparing a confutation of the German Se- 

 paratifts, he became convinced that they were right ; and 

 having communicated his fentiments to his brother, biftiop 

 of Pola, he adopted the fame opinions ; and they both re- 

 folved to propagate them in their refpeftive diocefes. The 

 monks were alarmed, and reported them to the inquifition. 

 Vergerio, after having in vain fought an afylum, determined 

 in 1546 to juftify himfelf before the council of Trent. The 

 council referred his caufe to the nuncio and patriarch of 

 Venice. But the confideration of it being protrafted to 

 the year 1548, he was ordered not to return to his church ; 

 and he foon after withdrew to the country of the Grifons, 

 where, as well as in the Valteline, he for fome years exer- 

 cifed his miniftry. His brother died before he left Italy. 

 The younger Vergerio, having received an invitation to 

 Tubingen from the duke of Wirtemberg, died there in 1565. 

 His works, written in the Itahan language, were numerous; 

 and their principal objeft was to expofe the impoftures and 

 abfurdities of popery. Its advocates were of courfe much 

 incenfcd, and circulated againft the author many malignant, 

 and probably unfounded, reports. Some Proteftant writers 

 have reprefented him as unfteady, and httle acquainted with 

 theological fubjefts. Bayle. 



VERGERS, ViRGATORES, Servientes, are officers who 

 carry white wands before the juftices of cither bench ; called 

 alfo, porters of the verge. 



Vergers of cathedral or collegiate Churches, are inferior 

 officers, who go before the bifhop, dean, Sec. with a verge, 

 or rod tipped with filver. 



VERGES, in Geography, a town of Spain, in Catalonia ; 

 10 miles E. of Gerona. 



VERGIER, James, in Biography, a French poet, was 

 born at Lyons in 1657, and educated at Paris with a view 

 to the ecclefiaftical profelfion ; but he foon laid afide the 

 clerical habit and became a man of the world. He recom- 

 mended himfelf to thofe whofe fociety he frequented by his 

 gaiety and polifhed manner, and in 1690 he obtained the 

 poft of fecretary of marine, and afterwards that of prcfident 

 of the council of commerce at Dunkirk. But his love of 

 pleafure, combined with indolence, prevented his acquiring 

 the character of a man of bufinefs. His career of pleafure 

 was terminated at Paris in 1720, by the piftol of a robber, 

 at the age of 63. Rouffeau charafterifes him as a philo- 

 fopher, formed for fociety, without any mixture of gall or 

 mifanthropy, and extols the noble and elegant iimplicity of 

 his convivial fonjfs, which entitles him to the appellation of 

 the French Anacreon. In his other productions, fuch as 

 odes, madrigals, fonnets, epigrams, tales, fables, cpiftlcs, &c. 

 it is acknowledged that his ftylc is negligent, and occa- 

 fionally profaic. " Vergier," fays Voltaire, '• is wiih rc- 



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