LIVES OF EMINENT

AND

ILLUSTRIOUS ENGLISHMEN.

II.—ECCLESIASTICAL SERIES.

Bishop Bildesley.

BORN A. D. 1698.-DIED A. D. 1772.

THE subject of this article was the eldest surviving son of the reverend Mark Hildesley, rector of Houghton with Witton, All-Saints, in the county of Huntingdon. He was born on the 9th of December, 1698, at Murston, near Sittingbourne, in Kent. He was educated at the Charter-house; and at the age of nineteen was sent to Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took his degree of A. B. in 1720, and of A.M. in 1724, having been elected a fellow the year preceding. He was ordained deacon in 1722, and in 1723 was appointed domestic chaplain to Lord Cobham.

In 1725 he was nominated a preacher at Whitehall, by Dr Gibson, bishop of London; and from 1725 to 1729 held the curacy of Yelling in Huntingdonshire. In 1731 he was presented by his college to the vicarage of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. At Hitchin-the value of which would not admit the expense of a curate—he began that course of strict attention to the duties of his office which he exhibited throughout life; and having advanced a considerable sum to repair the vicarage-house, he was obliged to add to his labours by undertaking the education of a few pupils. In October, 1735, he was presented to the neighbouring rectory of Holwell, in the county of Bedford. He was selected by the duke of Athole as a proper person to succeed the excellent and venerable Bishop Wilson, who died in 1755; and was accordingly consecrated in Whitehall chapel, after being created D.D. by Archbishop Herring; and on the 6th of August, 1755, was installed in the cathedral of St German on Peel, in the Isle of Man.

His removal took place, as he terms it in one of his letters, at a critical juncture, when the double charge of pupils and a large parochial cure together began to be too heavy for his "weak shoulders." He added, that he had, "in his new province, as much care, but not quite so much labour." For some time after his promotion he had been obliged to retain by commendam the rectory of Holwell, on account of

the smallness of his episcopal income, which was too slender to support the dignity of his station. Indeed it appears that the expenses, fees, and other charges attendant, or consequent on, his acceptance of the bishopric, amounted to no less than £928,-a sum which must greatly have embarrassed him. As soon, however, as was possible, he resigned Holwell; and in the same year was presented by the bishop of Durham, Dr Trevor, to the mastership of Sherburn hospital; he had also a prebend of Lincoln given him, but at what time does not appear.

In his regulation of his diocese he made it the invariable rule of his conduct to tread as nearly as possible in the steps of his excellent predecessor, of whom, both in his letters and conversation, he always spoke with a kind of filial respect and veneration. He devoted himself to the various duties of his charge with a generous assiduity, and amongst the very chief of those duties, undertook to execute the arduous task of getting the Holy Scriptures translated into the Manks language, and printed for the use of the native inhabitants. This had been already begun by Bishop Wilson, who, at his own expense, proceeded so far as to print the gospel of St Matthew; and had also prepared for the press a manuscript version of the other evangelists, and the Acts of the Apostles, which afterwards underwent a very careful revision. At first, with the sanction and support of the society for promoting Christian knowledge, Dr Hildesley printed only the New Testament, the Book of Common Prayer, the Christian Monitor, Lewis's Exposition of the Catechism, and Bishop Wilson's Form of Prayer for the use of the Herring-fishery. But the bencfactions for this peculiar object came in so far beyond expectation, that, about the year 1766, the society was encouraged to set on foot a Manks version of the Old Testament, which had scarcely been accomplished when the good prelate's health, which was always delicate, showed alarming symptoms of approaching dissolution. He expired on the 7th of December, 1772, deeply regretted by the clergy and inhabitants of his diocese, to whom his amiable manners and active benevolence had endeared him. Bishop Hildesley is known as an author only by a small tract which he published without his name, entitled Plain Instructions for Young Persons in the principles of the Christian religion; in six conferences between a minister and his disciple; designed for the use of the Isle and Diocese of Man. By a resident Clergyman.' In two parts, 1762 and 1767.

Alban Butler.

BORN A. D. 1710.-DIED A. D. 1773.

THIS Roman Catholic divine was the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. of Appletree, in the county of Northampton. He was born in 1710, and commenced his education at a school in Lancashire, whence, in his eighth year, he was sent to the English college at Douay. Here his conduct was of the most exemplary kind, and he advanced rapidly in the studies prescribed at that seminary. "He was never reproved or punished but once; and then for a fault of which he was not guilty," is the honourable testimony borne to his general conduct by one who was his college-fellow. He generally allowed himself no

more than four hours' sleep, and often passed whole nights in study and prayer.

After completing the usual course of study, he was admitted an alumnus, and appointed professor of philosophy, from which chair he had the honour of introducing the Newtonian philosophy into the college. After teaching a course of philosophy, he was appointed professor of divinity; and soon after he published his 'Letters on the History of the Popes, published by Mr Archibald Bower.' These letters are written in an easy and engaging style, and display various and extensive learning. The object of their author was to point out various errors into which Bower, formerly a Jesuit but then a convert to the episcopalian faith, had fallen; and thus to throw general discredit on a work conceived in a spirit little grateful to a genuine son of the papal church.

In 1745, Mr Butler accompanied the earl of Shrewsbury and the honourable James and Thomas Talbot on their travels through France and Italy. His journal of this tour has been published. On his return he was sent on the English mission,-an employment which he coveted on account of the facilities which a residence in London would afford him for the completion of his great and favourite work, ‘The Lives of the Saints;' but to his great disappointment the vicar-apostolic ordered him to join the mission in Staffordshire. Here, however, he did not long remain; for, on the recommendation of Mr Challoner, he was appointed to superintend the education of Edward Howard, the nephew and presumptive heir of Edward duke of Norfolk, whom he accompanied to France for this purpose; but who died before completing his studies at Paris. It was during his residence at Paris, in the capacity of tutor to the young Howard, that Butler completed his 'Lives of the Saints.' His qualifications for this operose work were very considerable. To a perfect command of the Italian, Spanish, and French languages, he added a thorough acquaintance with the Latin and Greek, and some skill as an Orientalist. In exegetical and polemical reading his learning was extensive; he was also skilled in heraldry, and partially acquainted with the medical and cognate sciences. The curious reader will find in the 3d volume of Mr Charles Butler's works a full and valuable specification of the various works of a similar nature to which the author of 'The Lives of the Saints' might have had recourse for the materials of that work. But the extent and minuteness of the investigations pursued by the author in some instances, as in his account of the Manichæans in the life of St Augustine, and of the crusades in the life of St Lewis, prove that his researches were often of the most laborious and original kind. Gibbon has styled our author's Lives" a work of merit;"- -"the sense and learning," he adds, "belong to the author-his prejudices are those of his profession." In the first edition the whole notes were omitted at the suggestion of Dr Challoner, who' desired to see the work produced at the least possible expense, in order that it might achieve the greatest possible usefulness. The succeeding editions, however, were enriched with these valuable appendages.

Some years after the publication of the 'Lives of the Saints,' Mr Butler gave to the world the Life of Mary of the Cross,' a nun in the English convent at Rouen. Of this work Mr Charles Butler says: "It is rather a vehicle to convey instruction on various important dutics of a reli