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, a learned popish divine of conciliatory principles, was born in 1515, in the isle of Cadsand, near Bruges, whence he took his name. He was deeply skilled in the languages, polite literature, civil law, and divinity; and taught the belles lettres at Ghent, Bruges, and other places with great reputation. He afterwards directed almost his sole attention to theological studies, and retiring to Cologne, prosecuted his favourite idea of forming an union and reconciliation between the Roman catholics and protestants. With this view he published without his name in 1562, a small work, entitled “De Officio Viri pii, &c.” which favouring the Roman catholic church, on the general ground of authority, engaged him in a controversy with Calvin, who thought that it was written by Baudouin, a celebrated lawyer; and although the true author was discovered, the controversy went on. The sentiments of Cassander, however, appeared in so favourable a light to the German princes, that they fixed upon him as a mediator in the religious disputes. Under this character he composed his famous piece entitled “Consultatio Cassandri,” in which he discusses the several articles of the Augsburg confession, stating their difference from the doctrines of the catholic church, and the concessions that might be safely made with respect to them. This work, which was written with great liberality, was much applauded by those who were desirous of a coalition, but who were soon convinced that every attempt of this kind was nugatory. Cassander died in 1566. M. De Thou represents him as modest, void of arrogance and acrimony; and he was as ardent in his wishes for a religious union, and made as many concessions for the accomplishment of this object, as could be expected from a person who continued in the catholic communion. Others, his contemporaries, speak highly of him, but many of his works were censured or condemned by the council of Trent. His works were first printed separately, and afterwards collected in a folio volume, Paris, 1616. Dupin bestows a prolix, but interesting article on Cassander.

, was born in 1515, in Dauphmy, according to some authors, but according to others in Savoy. Spon and Leti mention Chatillon as the place of his birth; of his early life we have little information. We are told that Calvin conceived such an esteem and friendship for him, during the stay he made at Strasbourg in 154-0 and 1541, that he lodged him for some days at his house, and procured him a regent’s place in the college of Geneva. Castalio, after continuing in this office near three years, was forced to quit it in 1544, on account of some peculiar opinions which he held concerning Solomon’s song and Christ’s descent into hell. He retired to Basil, where he was made Greek professor, and died in that place, Dec. 29, 1563, in extreme poverty. He incurred the displeasure of Calvin and Theodore Beza, from whom he differed concerning predestination and the punishment of heretics, and they called him a papist, which appears to have been an unreasonable accusation, although it is certain he did not embrace the opinions of the reformers on many points. Beza is accused of having said that he had translated the Bible into Latin at the instigation of the devil. Another story is his stealing wood, which is thus related: when rivers overflow, they frequently carry down several pieces of wood, which any body may lawfully get and keep for his own use. Castalio, who was very poor, and had a wife and eight children, got with a harping-iron some wood floating upon the Rhine. When Calvin and Beza heard of it, they proclaimed every where that he had stolen some wood belonging to his neighbour.

, a French lawyer, was born in 1515, and was a counsellor of the parliament of Bourdeaux. He was an elegant writer in Latin, an imitator of the style of Terence, admired by Scaliger, and honoured by him with the name of Atticus. --He continued the history of France in Latin (which Paulus Æmilius, a writer of Verona, had given from the reign of Pharamond to 1488) as far as the end of the reign of Francis I. This work was published at Paris, by Vascosan, in 1554, fol. and 1555, 8vo. It is copious, but not too long, and abounds with curious anecdotes and very exact details. He wrote also “Observations sur la Coutume de Bourdeaux,” Lyons, 1565, fol. He had considerable employments. His death happened in 1563, when he was no more than forty-eight.

, an excellent English poet, was descended from a Roman catholic family. His greatgrandfather was Richard Habington or Abington of Brockhampton, in Herefordshire. His grandfather, John, second son of this Richard Habington, and cofferer to queen Elizabeth, was born in 1515, and died in 1581. He bought the manor of Hindlip, in Worcestershire, and rebuilt the mansion about 1572. His father, Thomas Habington, was born at Thorpe, in Surrey, 1560, studied at Oxford, and afterwards travelled to Rheims and Paris. On his return he involved himself with the party who laboured to release Mary queen of Scots, and was afterwards imprisoned on a suspicion of being concerned in Babington’s conspiracy. During this imprisonment, which lasted six years, he employed his time in study. Having been at length released, and his life saved, as is supposed on account of his being queen Elizabeth’s godson, he retired to Hindlip, and married Mary, eldest daughter of Edward Parker lord Morley, by Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of sir William Stanley, lord Monteagle.

, or La Ramme'E, a celebrated French mathematician and philosopher, was born in 1515, in a village of Vermandois, in Picardy, of a family so greatly reduced by the ravages of war, that his grandfather, having lost all his possessions, was obliged to turn collier for a livelihood. His father followed husbandry, but appears to have been unable to give any education to this son, whose 4 arly years were spent in mean occupations. At length he obtained the place of servant in the college of Navarre, at Paris, where he picked up the rudiments of learning, and became acquainted with the logic of Aristotle. All his leisure time he devoted to study, so that what is related in the first Scaligerana of his living to nineteen without learning to read, and of his being very dull and stupid, is totally inconsistent with the truth. On the contrary, his talents and perseverance at last procured him to be regularly educated in the college, and having finished classical learning and rhetoric, he went through a course of philosophy, which took him up three years and a half. The thesis which he made for his master’s degree denied the authority of Aristotle, and this he maintained with great ability, and very ingeniously replied to the objections of the professors. This success inclined him to examine the doctrine of Aristotle more closely, and to combat it vigorously: but he confined himself principally to his logic. All this, however, was little less than heresy; and the two first books he published, the one entitled “Institutiones Dialecticae,” the other “Aristotelicse Animadversiones,” so irritated the professors of the university of Paris, that, besides many effusions of spleen and calumny, they prosecuted this anti- peripatetic before the civil magistrate, as a man who was at war with religion and learning. The cause was then carried before the parliament of Paris, but his enemies dreading either the delay or the fairness of a trial there, brought it before the king, Francis I. who ordered that Ramus, and Antony Govea, who was his principal adversary, should chuse two judges each, to pronounce on the controversy after they should have ended their disputation; while he himself appointed an umpire. Ramus, in obedience to the king’s orders, appeared before the five judges, though three of them were his declared enemies. The dispute lasted two days; and Govea had all the advantage he could desire, Ramus’s books being prohibited in all parts of the kingdom, and their author sentenced not to write or teach philosophy any longer. This sentence, which elated his enemies beyond all bounds of moderation, was published in Latin and French in all the streets of Paris, and in all parts of Europe, whither it could be sent. Plays were acted with great pomp, in which Ramus was ridiculed in various ways amidst the applauses and acclamations of the Aristotelians. This happened in 1543. The year after, the plague made great havoc in Paris, and forced most of the students to quit the university, and cut off several of the professors. On their return, Ramus, being prevailed upon to teach in it, soon drew together a great number of auditors, and through the patronage and protection of the cardinal of Lorrain he obtained in 1547 from Henry II. the liberty of speaking and writing, and the royal professorship of philosophy aad eloquence in 1551. The parliament of Paris had, before this, maintained him in the liberty of joining philosophical lectures to those of eloquence; and this arret or decree had put an end to several prosecutions, which Ramus and his pupils had suffered. As soon as he was made regius professor, he was fired with new zeal for improving the sciences; and was extremely laborious and active on this occasion, notwithstanding the machinations of his enemies. He bore at that time a part in a very singular aflair, which deserves to be mentioned. About 1550 the royal professors corrected, among other abuses, that which had crept into the pronunciation of the Latin tongue. Some of the clergy followed this regulation; but the Sorbonnists were much offended at it as an innovation, and defended the old pronunciation with great zeal. Things at length were carried so far, that a clergyman who had a good living was ejected from his benefice for having pronounced qm’squis, quanquaw, according to the new way, instead of kiskis, kankam, according to the old. The clergyman applied to the parliament; and the royal professors, with Ramus among them, fearing he would fall a victim to the credit and authority of the faculty of divines, for presuming to pronounce the Latin tongue according to their regulations, thought it incumbent on them to assist him. Accordingly they went to the court of justice, and represented in such strong terms the indignity of the prosecution, that the person accused was acquitted, and the pronunciation of Latin recovered its liberty.

, an able physician, called in Latin Wierus, and sometimes Piscinarius, was born in 1515, at Grave, on the Meuse, in the duchy of Brabant, of a noble family. He studied philosophy under the famous Henry Cornelius Agrippa; made several voyages even to Africa, but returned again into Europe, and was physician to the duke of Cleves during thirty years. Wier had so strong a constitution, that he frequently passed three or four days without eating gr drinking, and found not the least inconvenience from it. He died suddenly Feb. 4, 1588, at Tecklenbourg, a German town in the circle of Westphalia, in the seventy-third year of his age. His works were printed at Amsterdam, 1660, one volume, quarto, which includes his treatise “De Prestigiis et Incantationibus,” translated into French, by James Grevin 1577, 8vo. He maintains in this work, that those accused of witchcraft were persons whose brain was disordered by melancholy, whence they imagined falsely, and without any reason, that they had dealings with the devil, and were therefore deserving of pity rather than of punishment. It seems strange that, with this opinion, Wier should in other instances give the readiest credit to fabulous stories. The above mentioned book made much noise.