means he made amends for all the offence he had given : "I have at length," fays he, " removed all the umbrages I Preface to Epiftolary "ever lay under; I have joined myself to the church of difcourfe "England, not only upon account of its being publicly &c. "impofed (which in things indifferent is no fmall confi"deration, as I learned from the Scottish transactions at "Perth) but because it is the leaft defining, and confe"quently the most comprehenfive and fitting to be na❝tional."

After a life of almost perpetual war and confli& in various ways, this extraordinary man came to an untimely end yet not from any contrivances or defigns of his enemies, although his impetuous and furious zeal hurried him to fay, that they often put him in fear of his life. Being at Bath in the fummer feason, he had a call from thence to a patient at Briftol; and whether because it was defired, or from the exceffive heat of the weather, he fet out in the evening, and went a by-way. Mr. Wood fays, that "his "head was then intoxicated with bibbing, but more with "talking, and snuffing of powder;" which however it was, he was drowned in paffing a river about two miles from Bath, on the 12th of July, 1676. His body was taken up next morning, and the day after buried in the great church at Bath; when his old antagonist Glanvill, who was the rector, preached his funeral fermon; but, as it is natural to imagine, without faying any great matters of him. Soon after a phyfician of that place made the following epitaph on him; which, though never put over him, deferves to be recorded, "Memoriæ facrum, Poft varios cafus eft

magna rerum difcrimina, tandem hic quiefcunt mortali❝ tatis exuviæ Henrici Stubbe, medici Warwicenfis, quon"dam ex æde Chrifti Oxonienfis, rei medicæ, hiftoricæ, ac mathematicæ peritiffimi, judicii vivi, & librorum heluonis: qui, quum multa fcripferat, & plures fanaverat, "aliorum faluti fedulo profpiciens, propriam neglexit, "Obiit aquis frigidis fuffocatus, 12 die Julii, A. D. 1676."

Mr. Wood was contemporary with mr. Stubbe at Oxford, and has given him this character: that " he was a perfon ❝ of most admirable parts, and had a most prodigious memory; was the most noted Latinift and Grecian of his

f age;

66

age; was a fingular mathematician, and thoroughly read "in all political matters, councils, ecclefiaftical and profane "hiftories; had a voluble tongue, and feldom hesitated "either in public difputes or common difcourfe; had a "voice big and magisterial, and a mind equal to it; was of "an high generous nature, fcorned money and riches, and "the adorers of them; was accounted a very good phyfi❝cian, and excellent in the things belonging to that pro"feffion, as botany, anatomy, and chymistry. Yet with "all these noble accomplishments, he was extremely rash "and imprudent, and even wanted common discretion. He was a very bold man, uttered any thing that came into "his mind, not only among his companions, but in public "coffee-houses, of which he was a great frequenter; and "would often speak freely of perfons, then prefent, for "which he used to be threatened with kicking and beating. "He had a hot and reftlefs head, his hair being carrot"coloured, and was ever ready to undergo any enterprise, "which was the chief reason that macerated his body al"most to a skeleton. He was also a person of no fixed "principles; and whether he believed those things which "every good Chriftian doth, is not for me to refolve. Had "he been endowed with common fobriety and difcretion,

and not have made himself and his learning mercenary and "cheap to every ordinary and ignorant fellow, he would "have been admired by all, and might have picked and "chufed his preferment: but all these things being want❝ing, he became a ridicule, and undervalued by fober and "knowing scholars, and others too."-Mr. Wood has not expreffed himself clearly enough to let us know, whether the carrot-coloured hair" of mr. Stubbe was the cause, or the confequence of his "hot and reftlefs head;" but if he meant the latter, then it is probable, that he confidered these red locks, as fo many rays of heat iffuing through the pores of the skull from a central fire, as it were, within.

Some other particulars, relating to mr. Stubbe, may be read in the account of the famous mr. Valentine Greatrakes, the Irish ftroker; which, having been omitted in its proper place, fhall be inserted in an appendix.

STURMIUS

Adam, in

vitis jurifconfult.Bayle, Dict.

STURMIUS (JAMES) a German of great learning Melchior and excellent qualities, was of a noble family of Strafburg, and born there in the year 1489. He made himfelf illuftri ous by the fervices he did his country; and difcharged the moft confiderable pofts with the greatest capacity and probity. He acquitted himself with the highest reputation of feveral deputations to the diets of the empire, the imperial court, and that of England. He contributed very much to the reformation of religion at Strafburg, to the erecting of a college, which was opened there ten years after, and to the Hiftory of the reformation in Germany by Sleidan. This Sleidan thus teftifies, in his preface to that excellent work: "Nothing becomes an hiftory more, than truth and "candour; and I am fure I have taken great pains, that no"thing might be wanting to me in that refpe&t: for I "have not advanced any thing upon flight grounds and "mere report, but have taken my materials from the re"cords, which I have carefully collected, and which are of " undoubted authority. I received likewife the affistance "of that noble and excellent perfon, James Sturmius, who, "having been above thirty years engaged in public and "important affairs with the highest reputation, and having "generously honoured me with his friendship, frequently "cleared up my doubts, and put me into the right way; "and, at my request before his laft illness, read over the "greatest part of the work, and made the neceffary, re"marks upon it." He died at Strafburg October the 30th, 1553, after languishing of a fever for two months. Sleidan, Hift. lib. who mentions this adds, that "he was a man of great pru"dence and integrity, and the glory of the German nobi"lity, on account of the excellent qualitics of his mind, ❝ and his distinguished learning."

Though he had a zeal for religion, yet he had been some years without receiving the communion; being fcandalized, as well he might, at the difputes which prevailed among the divines concerning these words, "This is my body."

STURMIUS (JOHN) the Cicero of Germany, if we may use the terms of Melchior Adam, was born at Sleida in Eifel, near Cologne, October the 1ft, 1507. He was initiVOL. XI.

B

ated

xxv. ad ann.

1553

In vitis phi

lofoph.-

Bayle, Dict

ated in letters in his native country, with the fons of count de Manderfcheid, whofe receiver his father was, and afterwards ftudied at Liege in the college of St. Jerome. In 1524, he went to Louvain, where he spent five years, three in learning, and two in teaching; and had for his fellowftudents John Sleidan, Andrew Vefalius, and fome others, who afterwards became very eminent men, and had a great efteem for him. He fet up a printing-prefs with Rudger Refcius, profeffor of the Greek tongue, and printed several Greek authors. He began with Homer, and foon after carried those editions to Paris in 1529, where he made himself highly efteemed, and read public lectures upon the Greek and Latin writers, and upon logic. He married also there, and kept a great number of boarders; but as he liked what were called the new opinions in religion, he was more than once in danger; which, undoubtedly, was the reason why he removed to Strasburg in 1537, in order to take possession of the place offered him by the magiftrates. The year following he opened a fchool, which became famous, and by his means obtained of the emperor Maximilian II. the title of an univerfity in the year 1566. He was very well skilled in polite literature, wrote Latin with great purity, and underftood the method of teaching; and it was owing to him, that the college of Strafburg, of which he was rector, became the most flourishing in all Germany. His talents were not confined to the fchool; he was frequently intrufted with feveral deputations in Germany and foreign countries, and difcharged thefe employments with great honour and diligence. He fhewed extreme charity to the refugees on account of religion he was not fatisfied with labouring to affift them by his advice and recommendations, but he alfo run in debt, and impoverished himself by his great hofpitality towards them. His life was expofed to many troubles, and especially to the perfecutions of the Lutheran ministers. He found at Strafburg a moderate Lutheranifin, which he fubmitted to without reluctance, though he was of Zuinglius's opinion. The Lutheran minifters by degrees grew angry with those who denied the real prefence: their violent fermons difpleafed him; and it is faid, that he spent many years without being prefent at the public exercifcs of reli

gion. He found himself preffed very hard, and at length declared himself for Calvinifm, of which he was fufpected fo early as the year 1561. He was deprived of his rectorfhip of the univerfity, and the Calvinifts were all turned out of their places.

He died the 3d of March 1589, aged eighty-one years and upwards. He had been thrice married, but left no children. Though he loft his fight fome time before his , death, yet he did not discontinue his labours for the public good. He published a great number of books.

Life prefixed to hisworks.

Langbaine's

account of

poets.

SUCKLING (fir JOHN) an English poet and dramatic writer, was fon of fir John Suckling, comptroller of the houfhold to king Charles I. and was born at Witham in Effex, in the year 1613. It is recorded as a remark- dramatic able thing, that his mother went till the eleventh month of him; however, the flowness of his birth was fufficiently made up in the quicknefs, ftrength, and pregnancy of his parts. He first discovered a strange propenfity to languages, infomuch that he is faid to have spoken Latin at five years. of age, and to have writ it at nine. From this early foundation in language, he proceeded in the course of his study, and became accomplished in polite literature. He cultivated mufic and poetry, and excelled in both: for though he had a vivacity and sprightliness in his nature, which would not fuffer his attention to be long confined to any thing, yet he was made ample amends for this by ftrength of genius and quickness of apprehenfion. When he was grown up, he travelled into foreign countries, where he made a collection of their virtues and accomplishments, without any tincture of their vices and follies; only fome thought he had a little too much of the French air, which, however, was perhaps rather natural, than acquired in him; the eafinefs of his carriage and addrefs being fuitable to the openness of his heart, and to that gaiety, wit, and gallantry, which were the characteristics of his nature. In the mean time he seems to have affected nothing more, than the character of a courtier and a fine gentlemen; which he fo far attained, that he was allowed to have the peculiar happiness of making every thing he did become him.

B 2

Yet