642 PER 
ftiould reticle for fome time at Rome, fuperintending the 
interefts of France at the papal court; but the ill ftate of 
his health rendered it neceffary for him to be recalled 
home. After the execrable murder of Henry IV. he de¬ 
voted himfelf entirely to the interefts of the court of 
Rome ; and, by his fubferviency to its policy, excited the 
indignation and hatred of the friends to the independence 
and liberties of the Gallican church. He rendered ufe- 
lefs the arret of the parliament of Paris againft Bellar- 
min’s book, and the high notions of papal power main¬ 
tained in it. He fupported the notion of the infallibility 
of the pope, and his l'uperiority over a general council, 
in a thefts which he held in 1611 before the pope’s nun¬ 
cio. He convened an afl'embly of his fuffragans at Paris, 
in which he afl'umed an inquifitorial authority, and paffed 
a fentence of condemnation on Edmund Richer’s cele¬ 
brated treatife “ concerning eccleiiaftical and political 
Power.” At the meeting of the ftates-general in 1614, 
he oppofed, under the pretence of its comprehending 
points of faith with which afecular body had no bufinefs 
to interfere, a motion introduced by the third eftate, pur¬ 
porting, “ that the affaffinations of Henry III. and IV. 
called upon all good Frenchmen to condemn thedoftrine 
which permitted the murder of tyrants, and gave the 
pope power to depofe kings, and to abfolve fubjeCts from 
their oaths of allegiance.” He was one of the prefidents 
of the afl’embly of the clergy held at Rouen in 1615 ; and 
pronounced difcourfes before the king at the commence¬ 
ment and clofe of their feflions, which were much ap¬ 
plauded. From this time he lived chiefly in retirement 
at Bagnolet, employed in putting the laft hand to his 
works, which were printed in a prefs fet up in his own 
houfe, that he might be fatisfied of their corredtnefs, by 
carefully reviling every fheet before it was worked off. 
He died at Paris in 1618, in the tixty-third year of his 
age. 
Du Perron poffefled a lively penetrating genius, and a 
prodigious memory ; had ftudied much, and was well 
verfed in antiquity, facred and profane; and he well 
knew how to avail himfelf of his acquaintance with the 
fathers, the councils, and the eccieftaftical hiftorians, in 
refuting or puzzling his adverfaries. He delivered his 
fentiments with eafe and force, and wrote purely and elo- 
quently. From his obfequioufnefs, however, to the lordly 
pretentions of the court of Rome, he has not been un- 
juftly charaffterifed by fome of his Catholic critics as a bad 
Frenchman, a political prieft, and an ambitious prelate. 
His works, which were printed feparately in his life-time, 
were colle&ed together after his death, and publifhed in 
3 vols. folio, in 1622 and 1623. In the year laft men¬ 
tioned, his fecretary, Csefar de Ligni, added to them a 
fourth volume, comprifing his embaflies and negociations. 
Some years after his death, a volume was publifhed un¬ 
der the title of “ Perroniana,” confiding of thoughts, 
maxims, obfervations, &c. relating to literature, hiftory, 
&c. arranged in alphabetical order; which was compofed 
by Chriftopher de Puy, prior of the Carthufian monaf- 
tery at Rome; and has been repeatedly printed in a 
i2mo. volume. Some parts of this collection are ufeful 
in illuftrating the literary and ecciefiaftical hiftory of the 
age in which Perron lived ; but it alfo contains many 
puerile, imprudent, and abfurd, remarks, which it is ge¬ 
nerally fuppofed he never uttered, and many of which 
were proved by M. Chevreau to have been the interpola¬ 
tions of his friends. Some of his aflertions, as that Lu¬ 
ther denied the immortality of the foul, and that every 
Snglifh peafant drinks from a tilver goblet, are evidently 
falfe. Korean much reliance be placed on the judgment 
or tafte of an author, who hasellewhere declared, that a 
page of Quintus Curtins is worth thirty of Tacitus ; and 
that, next to Quintus Curtius, Fiorus is the greateft Ro¬ 
man hiltorian. The Thuana, or obfervations of the pre- 
tident De Thou, have ufunlly been publifhed along with 
the Perroniana. Dupin. Moreri. Enoj. Brit. Suppl. 
art. Ana. 
RON. 
PERRON (Abraham Hyacinth Anquetil du), a very 
eminent literary character, was born at Paris, on the 7th 
of December, 1731. Having diftinguifhed himfelf as a 
ftudent at the univerfity of that city, and acquired a con- 
fiderable knowledge of the Hebrew language, he was in¬ 
vited to Auxerre by M. de Caylus, then the bifhop of 
that diocefe. This prelate made him ftudy theology, 
firft at the academy of his diocefe, afterwards at that of 
Amersfort, near Utrecht; but Anquetil had no defire to 
embrace the ecciefiaftical vocation, and devoted himfelf 
with ardour to the ftudy of the different diale&s of the 
Hebrew, and of the Arabic and Perfian. Neither the fo- 
licitations of M. de Caylus, nor the hopes of rapid pre¬ 
ferment, had the power to detain him at Amersfort, 
after he thought he had acquired every thing that was to 
be learnt there. He returned to Paris, where his diligent 
attendance at the Royal Library, and his ardour in the 
profecution of his favourite ftudies, attracted the atten¬ 
tion of the Abbe Sallier, keeper of the manuferipts, who 
introduced him to the acquaintance of his affociates and 
friends, whofe united exertions procured for him a fmall 
falary, as ftudent of the oriental languages. He had 
fcarcely received this appointment, when, having acci¬ 
dentally laid his hands on fome manuferipts in the Zend, 
he formed the projeCt of a voyage to India, with the view 
of difeovering the works of Zoroafter. At this period, 
an expedition was preparing at Port l’Orient, which was 
deftined for India. M. du Perron, however, applied in 
vain, through his proteCtors, for a paffage; and, feeing 
no other means of accomplilhing his plan, he enlifted as a 
common foldier, and fet out from Paris, with a knapfack 
on his back, on the 7th of November, 1754. His friends 
procured his difeharge; and the minifter, affeCted by this 
romantic zeal for fcience, granted him a free paffage, a 
feat at the captain’s table, and a falary, the amount of 
which was to be fixed by the governor of the French fet- 
tlements in India. After a paffage of nine months, An¬ 
quetil landed, on the 10th of Auguft, 1755, at Pondi¬ 
cherry. Here he remained no longer than was neceffary 
to make himfelf mafter of the modern Perfian; and then 
haftened to Chandernagore, where he thought to acquire 
the Sanfcrit. But in this he was deceived; and he was 
on the point of returning, when a ferious complaint 
threatened his life. He had fcarcely efcaped from this 
danger, when war was declared between France and 
England ; Chandanagore was taken, and Anquetil re- 
folved to return to Pondicherry by land. After a jour¬ 
ney of a hundred days, in the courfe of which he en¬ 
countered many adventures and fuft’ered many hardlhips, 
he arrived at Pondicherry. Here he found one of his bro¬ 
thers who had arrived from France, and embarked with 
him for Surat; but, with the view of exploring the coun¬ 
try, he landed at Mahe, and proceeded on foot. It was at 
Surat that he fucceeded, by perfeverance and addrefs in 
his intercourfe with the native prielts, in acquiring a fuf- 
ficient knowledge of the languages to enable him to 
tranflate the Dictionary called the Vcdidad-Sade, and 
fome other works. From thence lie propofed going to 
Benares, to ftudy the languages, antiquities, and facred 
law's, of the Hindoos; but the capture of Pondicherry 
obliged him to return to France. He accordingly em¬ 
barked on-board an Englilh veflel, and landed at Portf- 
mouth in the month of November, 1761. After fpend- 
ing fonie time in London, and villting Oxford, he let 
out for Paris, where he arrived on the 4th of May, 1762, 
without fortune, or the defire of acquiring any ; but el- 
teeming himfelf rich in the poffeftion of a hundred and 
eighty oriental manuferipts, belides other curiofities. 
The Abbe Barthelemy, and his other friends, procured 
for him a penfion, with the title and emoluments of In¬ 
terpreter for the Oriental Languages at the royal library. 
In 1763, the Academy of the Belles Lettres received him 
among the number of its affociates; and from that period 
he devoted himfelf to the arrangement and publication of 
the materials he had collected during his eaftern travels. 
3 In 
