Crucius, James

, or, as he signs in his French letters, La Croix, a learned Dutchman, was born at Delft, about the end of the sixteenth century, and was first educated under the elder Trelcatius at Leyden, and afterwards at Franeker, where he studied divinity, Hebrew, and Greek, under Drusius, &c. He also read history, philosophy, and poetry, and occasionally amused himself with writing Latin poetry. He became pastor at Delft, the only situation he appears to have held in the church. When he died is not mentioned by Foppen or Moreri; and the little we know of him is gleaned from his curious volume of miscellanies and epistolary correspondence, the best edition of which was published at Amsterdam, 1661, 12mo, under the title of “Jacobi Crucii Mercurius Batavus, sive epistolarum opus, monitis theologicis, ethicis, politicis, ceconomicis, refer turn, editio aucta et recognita.” This work is replete with judicious remarks, and literary anecdote, and contains many letters from Rivet, Colvius, | Lanoy, Salmasius, Vossius, and other learned contemporaries. The freedom of some of Crucius’s observations procured it a place in the Index Expurgatorius, Jan. 25, 1684. He published also “Suada Delphica, sive orationes LXIX. varii argurnenti, ad usury studiosae juventutis,” Amst. 1675, 12mo, and often reprinted. ¹