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V I G 
portant business to England, Holland, and France, and also 
to the court of Rome. For the services rendered in these 
missions he was offered a bishopric, which he declined ac¬ 
cepting, and requested only to be employed as a missionary 
among the savages in the forests of Maragnan. The king 
demurred against acceding to his proposal, but urged him to 
accept a bishopric, which he still refused; but with some 
other Jesuits, he embarked in a ship, in order to proceed to 
Maragnan. Soon after his arrival there, in 1653, he was 
sent to Portugal, in order to obtain an order from the king, 
that the Portuguese settled in the Brazils should treat the 
Indians with less cruelty. He succeeded in the object of his 
mission, but he was not allowed to return to America, though 
he went thither some time after; and in less than six years, 
in a district more than 600 miles in extent, he formed an 
establishment similar to that in Paraguay. There the In¬ 
dians were instructed, and availing themselves of their 
knowledge, began to live like men, and to practise the 
virtues which Christianity taught them. The Portuguese re¬ 
siding in Brazil were alarmed, and could not bear that the 
Indians, whom they treated as slaves, should enjoy the 
blessings of liberty ; they, therefore, seized Vieyra and his 
attendants, and transported them to Portugal, under a charge 
of their joining the Dutch in forming a plan for expelling 
all the Portuguese from Brazil. Vieyra and his associates 
were able to prove their innocence, and succeeded in obtain¬ 
ing the reinstatement of all their brethren in the colleges and 
other establishments of Maragnan. Vieyra remained in Por¬ 
tugal, and, at the desire of the queen and ministers of state, 
drew up a remonstrance, which was presented to king 
Alphonso, respecting the irregularities and abuses that pre¬ 
vailed in the kingdom. The king’s favourites were incensed, 
and, in 1663, those who were attached to the queen, and 
who wished to promote the welfare of the nation, were sent 
into banishment. Vieyra was first conveyed to Oporto, and 
soon after to Coimbra; and for the more certain and speedy 
decision of his fate, he was committed into the hands of the 
inquisition. Many charges were alleged against him; how¬ 
ever, in 1667, when the influence of the favourites termi¬ 
nated, he was freed from the inquisition, and sent to Lisbon. 
He was merely forbidden to preach; but this prohibition 
was revoked, when the queen, Maria Isabella of Savoy, and 
the infant Don Pedro, then regent of the kingdom, ex¬ 
pressed a wish to hear him. In 1669 he was called to Rome, 
and preached before queen Christina of Sweden, who was 
so much pleased, that she invited him to the conversaziones 
held in her palace, and requested him to become her con¬ 
fessor. But finding the air prejudicial to his health, he re¬ 
turned to Lisbon, after having obtained from Pope Clement X. 
a letter of exculpation, freeing him from the jurisdiction of the 
inquisition, and rendering him immediately amenable to the 
college of cardinals. Vieyra, upon the recovery ofhishealth, 
set sail for Brazil ; and being incapable, on account of his 
advanced age, of superintending the mission of Maragnan, 
of which he had been long superior general, he spent his 
time in revising his writings, and preparing for the termi¬ 
nation of his life, which happened at Bahia in 1697, when 
he had attained nearly the 90th year of his age. The Por¬ 
tuguese consider Vieyra as the best writer their country 
ever produced. His works were published at Lisbon be¬ 
tween 1679, and 1718, in fourteen quarto volumes. Gen. 
Biog. 
VIF, a town of France, department of the Isere, on the 
river Greze. Population 2300 ; 12 miles south of Grenoble. 
UIG, a parish of Scotland, in Ross-shire, situated in the 
south-west district of the island of Lewis. It is about 15 
miles in length, and 3 in breadth. Population 2500. 
V1GAN, a town of France, in the department of the 
Gard, situated on a hill called Mount Esperon; 28 miles 
north-north-west of Montpelier. 
VIGEANS, St., a parish of Scotland, in Forfarshire, 
lying on the sea-coast, to the east and north of Arbroath, 
and comprehending a great part of that town. It is 7 miles 
long, and from 3 to 4 broad. Population 4771, of which 
number 3000 may be said to belong to Arbroath. 
V I G 
VIGESIMA'TION, s. [vigesitniis , Latin.] The act of 
putting to death every twentieth man. Bailey. 
V1GEVANO, a considerable town of Italy, the capital of 
a district of the same name. Population nearly 12,000; 
15 miles north-west of Pavia, and 16 west-south-west of 
Milan. 
VIGGIANO, a town of Italy, in Naples, in the Terra di 
Lavoro. Population 5500. 
VIGHIZOLE, a large village of Austrian Italy. Popula¬ 
tion 1300; 16 miles south of Padua. 
VIGIA, a small river of Brazil, in the province of Para, 
which runs north-north-west and enters the arm of the river 
Amazons, which forms the island of Marajo, between the 
rivers Arreta and Tuma. 
VI'GIL, s. [yigilia, Lat.j Watch; devotions performed 
in the customary hours of rest.—So they in heaven their 
odes and vigils tun'd. Milton.—A. fast kept before a 
holiday. 
He that outlives this day, and sees old age. 
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours. 
And say to-morrow is St. Crispian. Shakspeare. 
Service used on the night before a holiday. 
The rivals call my muse another way. 
To sing their vigils for the ensuing day. Dryden. 
Watch; forbearance of sleep.—Nothing wears out a fine 
face like the vigils of the card-table, and those cutting pas¬ 
sions which attend them. Addison. 
VI'GILANCE, or Virilancy, s. [Fr.; vigilantia. Lat.] 
Forbearance of sleep.—Ulysses yielded unseasonably to sleep, 
and the strong passion for his country should have given him 
vigilance. Broome. —Watchfulness; circumspection; in¬ 
cessant care. 
Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford’s vigilance. 
Your deeds of war, and all our counsel die ? Shakspeare. 
Guard; watch. 
No post is free, no place, 
That guard and most unusual vigilance. 
Does not attend my taking. - Shakspeare. 
VPGILANT, adj. [yigilans, Lat.] Watchful; circum¬ 
spect; diligent; attentive. 
Take your places, and be vigilant: 
If any noise or soldier you perceive. 
Let us have knowledge. Shakspeare . 
VPGILANTLY, adv. Watchfully; attentively; circum¬ 
spectly.—Thus in peace, either of the kings so vigilantly 
observed every motion of the others, as if they had lived 
upon the alarm. Hayward. 
VIGNANO, a small town in the north-west of Italy ; 5 
miles east of Genoa. 
VIGNE (Pierre delle), a celebrated minister of the emperor 
Frederic II., was born of mean parentage in Capua, at the 
end of the twelfth century; and having pursued his studies to 
good effect as a mendicant scholar at Bologna, he was intro¬ 
duced to Frederic II., and ingratiated himself with this prince 
to such a degree, that he gave him a lodging in his court, 
and the opportunity of further improvement. He became a 
proficient in civil and canon law, and acquired an elegant 
style of writing, so that he was advanced by the emperor to 
the posts of prothonotary of bis court, judge and chancellor; 
and he became the confidant of all his designs. His ability 
and learning raised him to the highest reputation, and his in¬ 
fluence in the court of Frederic was long boundless. The 
emperor afforded him opportunity of amassing immense trea¬ 
sures; but before the close of his life, he lost the emperor’i? 
attachment and confidence. He was deprived of sight, and 
shut up in prison ; and sinking into despair, he put an end 
to his life. The time of his death is not known. The 
chronicle of Placentia dates his being blinded in 1248. Six 
books of letters remain, which Tiraboschi regards as one of 
the most valuable monuments of the 13th century. The last 
edition of them is that of Basil, in 1740. He also collected 
and arranged the laws of the kingdom of Sicily; and to him 
are 
