, grandson of sir Anthony, and a very ingenious and learned man, was born in the county of Stafford,
, grandson of sir Anthony, and a very ingenious and learned man, was born in the county of Stafford, in 1552; and sent to either Exeter or Lincoln-college, in Oxford, in 1568. But having been bred a catholic, the college was uneasy to him; and though he would now and then hear a sermon, which was permitted him by an old Roman priest, who lived privately in Oxford, and to whom he recurred for instruction in matters of religion, yet he would seldom go to prayers, for which he was often admonished by the sub -rector of the house. At length, seeming to be wearied with the heresy of the times, as he called it, he receded without a degree to his patrimony: where also refusing to go to his parish church, he was imprisoned about 1572; but being soon set at liberty, he became still more zealous in his religion, maintaining publicly, that catholics ought not to go to protestant churches; for which, being like to suffer, he withdrew, and lived obscurely with his wife and family. In 1580, when the Jesuits Campian and Parsons came into England, he went to London, found them out, was exceedingly attached to them, and supplied them liberally: by which, bringing himself into dangers and difficulties, he went a voluntary exile into France, in 1582, where he solicited the cause of Mary queen of Scots, but in yam. After the death of that princess, and of his own wife, he left France, and went to Madrid, in order to implore the protection of Philip II.; but, upon the defeat of the armada, in 1588, he left Spain, and accompanied the duke of Feria to Milan. This duke had formerly been in England with king Philip, had married an English lady, and was justly esteemed a great patron of the English in Spain. Fitzherbert continued at Milan some time, and thence went to Rome; where, taking a lodging near the English college, he attended prayers as regularly as the residents there, and spent the rest of his time in writing books. He entered into the society of Jesus in 1614, and received priest’s orders much about the same time; after which he speedily removed into Flanders, to preside over the mission there, and continued at Brussels about two years. His great parts, extensive and polite learning, together with the high esteem that he had gained by his prudent behaviour at Brussels, procured him the government, with the title of rector, of the P^nglish college at Rome. This office he exercised for twenty-two years, vrith unblemished credit, during which time he is said to have been often named for a cardinal’s hat. He died there, Aug. 27, 1G40, in his eighty-eighth year, and was interred in the chapel belonging to the English college.
, a very ingenious and learned man, was the son of a physician,
, a very ingenious and learned man, was the son of a physician, and born
at Paris in 1577. He was brought up among the Jesuits,
and afterwards admitted advocate; but, not being able to
conquer the disgust he had conceived to the profession of
the law, he devoted himself entirely to the pursuit of polite
literature The public received the first fruits of his labours in his “Funus Parasiticum,
” printed in Minutius Foelix,
” “Phaedrus,
”
“Martial,
” “Rei accipitrarii scriptores,
” “Rei agrarige
scriptores,
” the works of “Cyprian
” and “Tertullian,
”
&c. His notes upon these last two are learned and critical; but the matter of some of them shews him to have been
not a rigid catholic. He takes occasion to observe, from a
passage in Tertullian’s “Exhortation to Chastity,
” that
Jaymen have a right and power to consecrate the eucharist,
when there is no opportunity of recurring to the regular
ministers; and this, with other opinions of a similar kind,
not only gave offence to those of his own communion, but
even to some- of“ours.
” Rigaltius,“says Mr. Dodwell,
” though an ingenious and learned critic, is by no means
exact upon the subjects he treats of: for, though of the
Roman communion, he is often fou/)d on the side of the
Calvinists; and, when he meets with anything in the authors he publishes that appears contrary to the customs,
not oflly of his own, but of the universal church, he remarks it with great care; perhaps to render his notes more
agreeable to the reader, by presenting him with something
new and unexpected." It is probable, that many persons
may not think the worse of Rigakius, as an editor, for the
censure here passed on him by Mr. Dodtvell. Rigaltius
was also concerned in the edition of Thuanus, published at
Geneva in 1620.