ANNESLEY, ARTHUR, earl of Anglesey, and lord privy-seal in the reign of Charles II. was the son of sir Francis Annesley, bart. lord Mount-Norris and viscount Valentia in Ireland, and was born at Dublin in 1614. He was sent young to England for his education, and at sixteen entered of Magdalen college, Oxford, whence he removed to Lincoln's-inn, and engaged in the study of the law. After spending some time in that situation, he made the tour of Europe, and returning, in 1640, he was elected knight of the shire for Radnor, but lost his seat on a petition from another candidate. At the commencement of the dispute between king Charles I. and the parliament, he inclined to the royal cause, and sat in the parliament, holden at Oxford, in 1643. He thought proper afterwards, however, to reconcile himself with the other party, into the favour and confidence of which he was soon admitted. He was sent by the parliament, as one of their commissioners, into Ulster, in 1645, where he displayed his judgment and dexterity, in the management of difficult affairs, to the great advantage of his employers and the protestant cause in Ireland. He was afterwards at the head of the commission, sent in 1647 to treat with the marquis of Ormond, lord lieutenant of that country, which negotiation he brought to a happy issue. On his return to England, he seems to have steered a middle course through the confusions and changes of parties. He avoided all concern with the king's trial and death, and opposed several of the illegal acts of Cromwell, so as to be put among the number of the secluded members. After the death of Cromwell he appears to have lain quiet, waiting for the decision of events, and trusted by none of the parties. But when the secluded members began to resume their seats, and things evidently tended to the restoration of the old constitution, he took a decided part in promoting the recall of the king, and entered into a correspondence with him, which unfortunately occasioned the death of a younger brother, who was drowned in stepping into a packet-boat with letters for his majesty. Soon after the restoration, he was raised to the dignity of a baron and earl, as an express reward for his services in that event. Nor did he scruple to manifest his loyalty by sitting as one of the judges at the trial of the regicides. He soon came into offices of trust and profit under the new reign, and was particularly employed in commissions for settling the affairs of Ireland, with which he had a thorough acquaintance. In 1673 the post of lord privy-seal was conferred upon him, which he held several years with the favour of his master. At the time And so artfully did he conduct himself, that he recovered the favour of the duke of York, when James II. so much as to have been supposed to be destined for the high office of lord chancellor, had not the design been cut short by his death in April 1686, when in the seventy-third year of his age. He left a numerous posterity by his wife, one of the co-heiresses of sir James Altham. The earl of Anglesey was a person of great parts and learning; particularly conversant in the legal and constitutional history of his country, and well acquainted with divinity and church history. He wrote well, and was the author of several publications in political and religious controversy, and historical narrative. He was a ready but not a graceful speaker; was indefatigable in business, and of a grave deportment and sober manners. His political conduct has undergone much censure for its versatility, nor can it apparently be vindicated from this charge, though strong gleams of integrity occasionally shine through it. He certainly contrived to ingratiate himself with men and parties as oppo site as possible; and if it was true that James II. thought of him for chancellor, when he had a Jeffries at his command, nothing (as has been justly observed) could be a greater imputation on the earl's character. Biog. Brit.-A. ANNESLEY, SAMUEL, an English nonconformist minister, was born about the year 1620, at Harley in Warwickshire, and was educated in Queen's-college, Oxford. While a student, he was remarkable for temperance and industry. It appears from a certificate preserved by Calamy, that he was ordained after the presbyterian mode; yet Wood asserts that he received episcopal ordination. He was He was chaplain to the earl of Warwick, and afterwards rector of Cliffe in Kent, a valuable living, with peculiar civil jurisdiction. Through the interest of his friends he obtained the degree of doctor of laws in Oxford, by the command of the chancellor of the university, the earl of Pembroke. Annesley was zealously attached, during the civil wars, to the parliamentary interest, and, in 1648, preached a violent sermon before the parliament, in which he inveighed against the king, then a prisoner in the Isle of Wight. Under the protectorate he resigned his living in Kent, and was appointed lecturer at St. Paul's, and presented to the vicarage of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. In 1662 he was ejected for his nonconformity; but continued to preach till his death, which happened in 1696. Annesley, though celebrated for his piety, probity, and charity, was chiefly distinguished by his zeal for nonconformity. He published a few sermons, some of which may be seen in "The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate," printed in 1674. Wood's Athen. Oxon. Calamy's Abridgment of Baxter's Life, vol. iii. p. 65. Biogr. Brit.-E. ANNIUS, of Viterbo, or John Nanni, a Dominican monk, who was born in the year 1437, is chiefly memorable as an ingenious but impudent impostor. Possessed of an extensive acquaintance with languages, Oriental as well as European, and well read in history, he employed his learned leisure in writing books from his own fertile invention, which he afterwards palmed upon the world as genuine remains of several ancient authors, in "Seventeen Books of Antiquities." This curious collection contained, "Archilochi de Temporibus, lib. i. Xenophontis de Equivocis, lib. i. Berosi Babylonici de Antiquitatibus Italiæ, ac totius Orbis, lib. v. Manethonis Egyptii Supplenenta ad Berosum, lib. i. Metasthenis [Megasthenis] Persæ de Judicio Temporum, et Annalibus Persarum, lib. i. Philonis Hebræi de Temporibus, lib. ii. Joannis Annii de primis Tem poribus et quatuor ac viginti Regibus Hispaniæ, Joseph Scaliger in the fifth book of his treatise De Emendatione Temporum," and Ludovicus Vives in his fifth book, " De tradendis Disciplinis," give the same judgment. Many other writers of the sixteenth century united with them; and it is now universally admitted, that the whole collection is spurious. The justice of this decision is confirmed by a fact related by Antonius Augustus, on the credit of Latinius, a native of Viterbo: Annius, in a vineyard near the city, hid a marble table, on which he had written an inscription, and afterwards, pretending to find it, brought it to the magistrates of Viterbo, as a proof that their city was built by Isis and Osiris, long before the city of Rome. In refutation of the charge of fraud with respect to the manuscripts, the only apology offered by the Dominicans, who, in l'esprit du corps, wish to save the credit of a brother, is, (Italian Journal of 1673, 1674, and 1678,) that the imposture does not rest with Annius, but with some other persons, who communicated them to him as genuine. One of his apologists, Apostolo Zeno, relates that father Quien, a Dominican, had found in the Colbertine library a large volume, in manu.. script, two hundred years anterior to the time of Annius, in which the pretended histories of Be. rosus, Manetho, and others were found. But if Annius copied this manuscript he ought to have produced it, and declared where it was found, or from whom he received it. As he did nothing of this kind, the fraud must lie at his own door, and his name must remain, in the annals of literature, eternally stigmatised with the disgrace of imposture. It will contribute little towards wiping off this blot upon his memory, to add, that he was a professor of divinity, and wrote sermons and commentaries upon the Scriptures. Annius of Viterbo died at Rome in the year 1502. Altamura in Bibl. Domin. Scotus in Bibl. Hisp. Bayle. Landi, Hist. Litt. d'Ital. lib. x. n. 3.-E. ANSCHARIUS, a Christian divine, bishop of Hamburgh and Bremen, was born in the year 801, in France, at Corbie, in the diocese of Amiens. Having from his youth been devoted to religion, he was recommended by the emperor Louis to Harold, king of Denmark, who had passed some time in France, and had become a convert to the Christian faith, as a proper person to accompany him into the north as an apostolic missionary. He preached the gospel to the Danes, and made many converts. Under the authority of Olave, king of Sweden, he also undertook the instruction of the Swedes in the Christian religion, but with less success.. By a council held at Aix-la-chapelle in 832, an episcopal see was instituted at Hamburgh, and Anscharius was ordained its first bishop. His church being burnt by the Normans in 845, the see of Bremen was united to that of Hamburgh, and this apostolic prelate removed to Bremen, where he resided till his death in 865. He wrote the life of Willihad, first bishop of Bremen. His life, written by Mabillon, is reprinted by Fabricius, in his "Memoires pour l'Histoire de Hambourgh." Dupin. Moreri. E. ANSELM, an Italian by birth, and, in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I. archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Aousta, in Piedmont, in the year 1033. Having visited. several monasteries in France, he fixed his residence in the abbey of Bec in Normandy, of which Lanfranc was prior, and here, at the age of twenty-seven, took the monastic habit in the order of St. Benedict. Upon the removal of Lanfranc from Bec to the see of Canterbury, Anselm was appointed prior, and afterwards abbot, of the monastery. Visiting England seve-. ral times during his abbacy, his talents and character were well known there; and, in 1092, while he was with Hugh, earl of Chester, who had solicited his attendance in his sickness, he was summoned, on the same spiritual office, to the king, William Rufus, then ill at Glocester. The see of Canterbury being at that time vacant, the king, whose conscience now reproached him for having injured the church by keeping its revenues in his own hands during long vacancies in its episcopal sees, determined to be-stow the metropolitan honours upon his ghostly monitor, Anselm. The abbot long refused with most ostentatious humility. When the bishops entreated him to forego his own ease and quiet for the service of religion at the head of the English church, he urged his want of health and spirits for so arduous a charge, and pleaded, as insuperable obstacles, the duty he owed to his monastery, his obedience to his archbishop, and his allegiance to his prince :: and even when the king importuned him, by a regard to his spiritual peace and safety, not to, let the burden of keeping the see vacant remain longer upon his conscience, the abbot still persisted in his refusal, kneeling, weeping, and entreating him to change his purpose. The pastoral staff, the ensign of spiritual dignity, was at last violently forced into his hand; and, when the king had by letter obtained a discharge from his foreign obligations, he suffered himself to be invested with his office; not, however, before he had obtained a promise of the restitution of all the lands which were in the possession of the see in the time of Lanfranc. The temporalities of the archbishop being secured, Anselm submitted to do homage to the king, and was consecrated, on the 4th of December, in the year 1093. ty ledge Anselm for his ghostly father; he wanted neither his prayers nor his benedictions, and he might go whither he pleased. Another and still more serious occasion of dissatisfaction be tween the king and the archbishop arose from the contest, at that time subsisting, between Urban and Clement for the papacy. The archbishop supported the interest of the former, the king favoured the latter. Anselm was above all things desirous of establishing Urban's authority in England, and was determined, if he could not obtain the king's consent, to accomplish his purpose without it. William was resolved that his subjects should acknowledge no pope whom he had not previously received; and, justly resenting the insolence which attempted to interfere with his prerogative, summoned an episcopal synod at Rockingham, with an intention of deposing Anselm. The prelates, whether from fear or conviction does not appear, so far complied with the will of their sovereign, as to withdraw their canonical obedience from their primate; but did not proceed to the last extremity of deposition; pleading in excuse, that this could not be done without papal authority. The affair, after some interval of suspense, was so far compromised, that the archbishop, though not permitted, as he had requested, to go to Rome to receive the pall from pope Urban II. was allowed to take it from the altar of the cathedral, on which it was laid by the pope's nuncio. The breach, however, was not healed. When William required from the archbishop his quota of men for an expedition against Wales, he sent them out so wretchedly equipped, that the king was much offended, and threatened him with a prosecution. Anselm, on his part, considered the demand as oppressive, treated the king's complaint with silent contempt, and, in his turn, demanded the restitution of all the revenues of his sees, and made his appeal to Rome. In opposition to the king's express prohibition, but not without repairing to the court to attempt his justification, he left England; and the king instantly confiscated the temporalities of the archbishopric. It was not to be expected that much cordialishould subsist between this foreign ecclesiastic and his new prince. William Rufus, in imitation of his father's firm assertion of his right to supreme ecclesiastical power in his own dominions, determined not to yield to any claims on the part of the pope or the clergy, which might interfere with his sovereignty. At the same time, he did not hesitate to exercise his power over his subjects, both ecclesiastics and laity, with that oppressive tyranny, of which, also, his father had set him the example. Anselm, on the contrary, though not unaccustomed in his monastic jurisdiction to the exercise of arbitrary power, had too high notions of clerical independence, to submit willingly to capricious demands even from royalty itself; and, in ecclesiastical affairs, regarded the support and extension of the papal power, as an object to which every secular interest, and every human obligation, was subordinate. Causes of alienation, and mutual hostility, soon arose. The king wanting a supply of money for carrying on his design against Normandy, the archbishop made him a voluntary gift of five hundred pounds, which, though at that time a large sum, the king thought too small, and refused to accept. "I entreat your highness," said Anselm, "to accept the present; it will be more honourable to receive a less sum with my consent, than to extort a greater by force. If your highness allow me the freedom and privilege of my station, my person and fortune shall be at your service; but if I am treated like a slave, I shall be obliged to stand aloof, and keep my fortune to myself." This manly tone was neither relished, nor probably understood, by the king: the offer was rejected, and when it was afterwards hinted to Anselm, that a repetition of the offer might conciliate the royal favour, he answered, "God forbid that I should suppose my sovereign's favour may he purchased with a small sum of money, like a horse at a fair! Persuade the king not to set a price upon his favour, but to treat me, on honourable terms, as his spiritual father, and I am ready to pay him the duty of a subject. As for the five hundred pounds, which he was pleased to refuse, they are given to the poor." The king, upon being informed of what had passed, was much displeased, and said, he would never acknow Upon his arrival in Rome, Anselm was received with great respect by Urban, as a zealous defender of the rights of the holy see, and a meritorious sufferer in the cause of religion. He accompanied the pope to a country-seat near Capua, and received from him numerous proofs of friendship. Attending Urban in the council of Bari, he appeared as an able advocate for the catholic doctrine, against the tenets of the Greek church, concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost. In the same council he supported the claims of the clergy to the exclusive right of election to church preferment, without doing homage to laymen; and he generously interposed to prevent the sentence of excommunication, which the assembly was inclined to pronounce against the king of England. Upon their return to Rome, the pope's friendship for Anselm was put to a severe trial. In consequence of a letter sent from Urban II. to Wilham soon after Anselm's arrival at Rome, demanding his reinstatement in all the emoluments and privileges of his see, an ambassador from England was arrived, to vindicate the conduct of the king. The ambassador was at first received with haughtiness, and was commanded by the pope to return and inform his master, that, unless he would hazard the highest censure of the church, he must instantly reinstate Anselm in his archiepiscopal rights. He soon, however, found means to prevail upon his holiness to relax his demands. Anselm's own biographer, Eadmer, who was one of his retinue, modestly intimates, and Malmsbury honestly, and not without expressions of indignation, declares, that, after some struggle between duty and interest, the pope accepted a large present, and abandoned the cause of his friend. Finding himself deserted by the court of Rome, even in a public council, in which his case was mentioned and dismissed, Anselm could not be imposed upon by the personal attentions which the pope still continued to pay him with increasing assiduity: he left Rome in disgust, and went to Lyons, where he remained with Hugo, the archbishop, till the death of William Rufus, in the year 1100. Henry I. who, on his accession to the throne, employed every popular expedient to support the authority which he had usurped, being well acquainted with the interest which Anselm's zeal and piety had obtained in the affections of the people, immediately after his coronation, sent repeated messages to the prelate at Lyons soliciting him to return into England; and, having prevailed, appointed a messenger to meet him on the way, with a letter, in which he apologises for having suffered himself to be crowned by another prelate, and entreats him again to take possession of the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. Upon his arrival, Anselm was received both by the king and the people with every mark of respect. An important occasion of dispute, however, soon arose between the king and the archbishop. Henry required from Anselm the renewal of that homage which he had done his brother, and which the rights of the crown demanded. Anselm, equally jea lous for the rights of the church, and the supremacy of the papal see in all ecclesiastical affails, peremptorily refused; and, pleading the authority of the council of Bari, declared that he would not communicate with any eccclesiastic who accepted investiture from a layman. The king, to avoid an immediate quarrel with the archbishop, from whose popularity he expected great advantage, referred the matter to the pope, and sent a messenger to Rome. During this interval, Anselm showed himself well disposed, as far as was consistent with the superior claims of the church, to comply with the wishes, and serve the interests, of the prince who had reinstated him in his dignities. In a synod which he summoned at Lambeth, he obtained a decision in favour of the king's intended marriage with Matilda, although in the nunnery in which she was educated she had, without taking the vows, worn the veil. When the duke of Normandy invaded England, he served the king, not only by supplying him with a large body of men, but by employing all his interest and authority with the barons in his favour, and even by riding through the ranks of the army, to invigorate the loyalty of the soldiers. In return, the king professed great reverence for the wisdom and sanctity of Anselm, and promised a strict regard to the rights and privileges of the church. But when the danger from the invasion was over, and the messenger from pope Paschal II. returned with a peremptory negative upon lay-investiture, the contest between the king and the archbishop was renewed. Henry, determined not to relinquish the important prerogative of granting church preferment within his own dominions, yet desirous if possible to avoid a rupture with the pope and Anselm, sent three bishops to Rome, while the archbishop on his part dispatched two messengers, to submit the affair to the reconsideration of the pontiff. The pope's letter, under his hand and seal, confirmed, in arrogant terms, his former resolution; but this formal declaration was contradicted by the oral testimony of the king's bishops, who asserted that Paschal had privately expressed to them his acquiescence in their master's claim, but had not given it under his hand, lest other princes should insist upon the same privilege. Anselm and his messengers regarded this story as a designed prevarication, prompted by the king: the quarrel daily grew more violent, and Anselm was threatened with banishment. At length the king granted him permission to make a journey to Rome in order to learn the pope's final pleasure; and he was attended to the sea-coast by crowds of peo |