hospitably entertained by Aaron, who resided on a little island not far distant from the present town of St. Malo. He shared with St. Malo the task of converting the heathens; and, surrounded by his converts, he was induced to erect a monastery, over which he presided till his death in 580.-Alban Butler.

ABBADIE, JAMES, was born at Hay, in Berne, in 1654, according to some accounts, and in 1658, according to another authority. After completing his theological studies, and taking his Doctor's degree at Sedan, he settled at Berlin, as minister to a French protestant congregation. In 1688 he accepted an invitation from Marshal Schomberg, to accompany him first to Holland, and then to England, with the Prince of Orange. He was for a time minister of the French congregation at the Savoy, but afterwards went to Ireland, and became Dean of Killaloo. He died in 1727. His works are, 1. Sermons sur divers Textes de l'Ecriture, 8vo. 1680. 2. Panegyrique de M. l'Electeur de Brandenbourg, 4to. 1684. 3. Traité de la Vérité de la Religion Chrêtienne. 8vo. This work, which has gone through many editions, has been translated into English, in 2 vols. 4. Reflexions sur la Presence réele du Corps de J. C. dans l'Euchariste, 12mo. 1685. 5. Traité de la Divinite de notre Seignieur Jesus Christ, 8vo. 1689. This also has been translated into English. 6. L'Art de se connoitre soi-meme, ou la Recherche des Sources de la Morale, 1692, 12mo. 7. Defence de la Nation Britannique, 1692, 8vo. This was an answer to a tract by Bayle on the English Revolution. 8. Panegyrique de Marie Reine d'Angletierre, 1695, 4to. 9. Histoire de la Conspiration derniére d'Angleterre, 1698, 8vo. This very scarce book was written by command of William III., and contains all the particulars of what was called' the Assassination Plot. 10. La Verité de la Religion Reformée, 2 vols. 8vo. 1718. 11. Le Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion, 4 vols. 12mo. 1723. This is a commentary on the Revelation. Besides these works,

he published some single sermons, and had a concern in the French translation of the English Liturgy.—Biog. Brit. Niceron.

ABBOT, GEORGE, was born at Guildford, in Surrey, 29th of October, 1562. He was the son of a clothworker. Having received his primary education at the Grammar School of his native town, he was removed in 1578 to Balliol College, Oxford. There he became distinguished for his industry and talent as well as for his calvinistic opinions, and for the zeal with which he entered into the views of the puritan or low church party. In 1593 he took his degree of B.D. and in 1597 that of D. D: he was in the same year elected Master of University College. In 1598 he published his first work, "Questiones sex, totidem Prælectionibus in scholâ Theologicâ Oxoniæ pro formâ habitis, discussæ et disceptatæ, anno 1597." In the following year, 1599, he was installed as Dean of Winchester, through the interest, as it is supposed, of Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, who must have been well acquainted with the learning and talent of Dr. Abbot. He now occupied two posts of great importance, the duties of one of which he was obliged to neglect. Bad as pluralities at all times are, the evil must have been greater when the facilities of locomotion were less. In 1600 he published his Exposition of the Prophet Jonah, in certain sermons preached at St. Mary's, in Oxford;" and being vice-chancellor that year, he, in that capacity, replied to an application to the University for advice from the citizens of London, whether or not the cross at Cheapside, which had been lately taken down, should be re-erected. Dr. Abbot was very strong on the negative side of the question, representing the emblem of our salvation as “a monument of superstition, a great inducement and ready way to idolatry." It is interesting to know that notwithstanding the vice-chancellor's opposition to the cross, the cross was nevertheless re-erected under the direction of the

Archbishop of Canterbury, Whitgift, and the Bishop of London, Bancroft. It appears that, at that time, the rulers of the Church and the heads of the Universities were not always found to agree, and yet it is not doubted that several heads of houses were distinguished for their learning, and some of them respectable for their theological acquirements.

Being vice-chancellor in 1603, Dr. Abbot waited upon King James I. at Woodstock, to congratulate him upon his accession to the throne; and on this occasion he was attended by the celebrated William Laud, at that time one of the proctors of the University. To William Laud, destined to be his successor, and in some measure the victim of his misrule, Dr. Abbot took an early and inveterate prejudice; Laud being as firm and consistent in maintaining the catholic principles of the Church of England as Dr. Abbot was decided in opposing them. In the year 1604, his indignation was roused against Laud for maintaining, in his exercise for his B. D. degree, the necessity of the holy Sacrament of Baptism, which being instituted by our Blessed Lord as the laver of regeneration, is pronounced by our Church to be "generally necessary to salvation;" and for maintaining also that for the constitution of a true Church, a diocesan episcopate is necessary. This, Dr. Abbot and his party argued, would go to " 'unchurch" all protestant communities, as if the fact were altered by our believing it or not. It is a matter of fact, that unepiscopal denominations of Christians are portions of the catholic Church, or that they are not: our believing this fact does not alter the fact one way or the other; though if we do believe the fact to be that they are not true Churches, we are bound in our desire to advance the spiritual welfare of our fellow creatures, and to promote the glory of God and the propagation of his truth, to say so. If we are, on the contrary, erroneous in our opinion, then it will be found in the last day that the sects are not unchurched by their separation, and no harm is done.

It was, of course, impossible for a vice-chancellor to refuse his degree to a young man of learning, merely because, in an orthodox exercise, he had given offence to an heretical professor; but we are informed that the vicechancellor and the low church party in the University, determined to watch their opportunity for involving the young bachelor of divinity in trouble, although we are not informed how this was reconciled to their profession of Christianity. It does not appear that they found an opportunity till the year 1606, when Dr. Airey was vicechancellor. We then find Dr. Abbot zealously supporting the vice-chancellor, who had the temerity to censure a sermon preached by Laud on the 26th of October, for containing "sundry scandalous popish passages;" "the good man, says Dr Heylin, "taking all things to be matter of popery which were not held forth unto him in Calvin's Institutes; conceiving that there was as much idolatry in bowing at the name of JESUS as in worshipping the brazen serpent, and as undoubtedly believing that Anti-christ was begotten on the whore of Babylon, as that Pharez and Zarah were begotten on the body of Tamar. Which advantage being taken by Dr. Abbot, he so violently persecuted the poor man, Laud, and so openly branded him as a papist, or at least very popishly inclined, that it was almost made a heresy, (as I have heard from his own mouth) for any one to be seen in his company, and a misprision of heresy to give him a civil salutation as he I walked the streets."

In the mean time Dr. Abbot had published in 1604 a tract, entitled, "The reasons which Dr. Hall hath brought for upholding papistry unmasked," and the same year he was appointed to be one of the translators of the New Testament, the present authorised version of the Bible being commenced in 1607, and completed in 1611.

In 1608 Abbot lost his patron, the earl of Dorset, but soon after successfully paid his court to the earl of Dunbar, the ruling favourite at court, to whom he was appointed chaplain. It is indeed a curious fact that in

the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, the worldly and the profligate were frequently found to be the most zealous among the patrons of puritanism; either from a desire to see the Church overthrown, under the hope of profiting by its spoliation, or from a mistaken notion that because puritans preach against good works, they must be prepared to defend bad works, in order to increase the merit of faith. It is very true that puritanism, by its perversion of Scripture, especially by teaching in fact the doctrine of Justification by the feelings, (while still retaining in words, the formula of Justification by faith,) has a tendency to demoralize the people, and to encourage bad men, whose devotional emotions are lively, to regard themselves as saints; but still against open profligacy it has been severe. It seems indeed that worldliness, ambition, and the indulgence of the malignant passions, under certain circumstances, were scarcely accounted offences in the puritan code of morals; and that zeal, not charity, was supposed to cover the multitude of sins: and this must have been a comfortable doctrine to the profligate among the nobility, who must also have looked upon puritanism with complacency, on account of the little regard it has to repentance; faith or religious impressions, even on the death-bed, being considered sufficient.

As chaplain to the earl of Dunbar, Dr. Abbot relinquished, for a season, his duties as Master of University College and Dean of Winchester, and attended the king into Scotland. As it was the desire of the king to reestablish Catholicism in Scotland, for this object lord Dunbar laboured, and the ultra-protestant principles of Dr. Abbot, his chaplain, did not at this time interfere with his interests. He succeeded in obtaining certain concessions to church principles from the presbyterians, which, although they were afterwards evaded, seemed to conciliate for Abbot the goodwill of the king; into whose favour he further ingratiated himself, by a work he published when George Sprot, a notary of Aymouth, was executed for having been concerned in the Gowrie Conspiracy.