reformer's doctrines from this country. But he was more known for his history of the foundation of Winchcombe monastery; a list of its abbots; and its charters and privileges; manuscripts which have been partly lost.'

KYNASTON (FRANCIS), an English poet, son of sir Edward Kynaston, knt. was of an ancient family, whose seat was at Otely in Shropshire, where, probably, he was born in 1587. In 1601 he entered as a gentleman-commoner of Oriel college, Oxford, which he left after taking his bachelor's degree, being then, as Wood says, "more addicted to the superficial parts of learning, poetry and oratory (wherein he excelled), than logic and philosophy." He afterwards, however, went to Cambridge, and after taking his master's degree, returned in 1611 to Oxford, and was admitted ad eundem. He then became a courtier, admired for his talents, and had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him, and was afterwards made esquire of the body to Charles I. He was the first regent of a literary institution called the Museum Minerva, of which he drew up and published "The Constitutions," Lond. 4to, 1636. It was an academy instituted in the eleventh year of the reign of Charles I. and established at a house in Coventgarden, purchased by Sir Francis, and furnished by him with books, MSS. paintings, statues, musical and mathematical instruments, &c. and every requisite for polite and liberal education: but the nobility and gentry only were admissible. Sir Francis was chosen regent, and professors were appointed to teach the various arts and sciences. It probably, owing to the rebellion, did not survive its founder, who died about 1642. He translated Chaucer's "Troilus and Cresseide" into Latin, published at Oxford, 1635, 4to; but is better known to the lovers of our early poetry by his "Leoline and Sydanis," with "Cinthiades, 1641, of which Mr. Ellis has given some beautiful speci mens, and the story is analized by Mr. Gilchrist, with additional extracts, in the " Censura." 2

KYNASTON (JOHN), son of Humphry Kynaston, citizen of Chester (descended from a younger branch of the Kynastons of Bronguin, in the county of Montgomery), was born at Chester, Dec. 5, 1728; admitted a commoner in Brazen-nose college, Oxford, March 20, 1746; elected

1 Ath. Ox. vol. I. edition by Bliss.-Dodd's Ch. Hist. vol. I.-Wood's Annals. Ath. Ox. vol. II.-Faulkner's Hist. of Chelsea.-Ellis's Specimens.-Censura Literaria, vol. II.

scholar, on the foundation of Sarah dutchess dowager of Somerset, in the said college, Aug. 1 of the same year; took the degree of B. A. Oct. 16, 1749; was elected fellow June 14, 1751; and took the degree of M. A. June 4, 1752. He obtained no small reputation by an Oratiuncula, entitled, "De Impietate C. Cornelio Tacito falsò objectatâ; Oratio ex Instituto Viri cl. Francisci Bridgman *, militis, habita in Sacello Collegii Ænei Nasi Oxon. Festo Sancti Thomæ, Decembris 21, A. D. 1761, à J. K. A. M. Coll. ejusdem Socio;" in which he endeavoured to disprove the false allegations (for such he really thought them) of Famianus Strada (the excellent critic, and most elegant writer) against Tacitus, on his impiety and sovereign contempt of the Supreme. On the apprehension of the notorious miss Blandy, Mr. Kynaston took an active part, from the time of her conviction till her body was secured from indecent treatment. In this business he barely steered free from censure. His method was, to be with her as much as postible when the ordinary (the learned, well-known, but credulous Mr. Swinton, whom she gained to countenance her hypocrisy) was absent; and was suspected to have given hopes of pardon, in concert with another person, also of Brazen-nose College, to the morning of her execution, when she appeared in that studied genteel dress and attitude which she could not possibly have put on had she been watchfully attended by a firmer-minded instructor. In 1764, he published "A collection of papers relative to the prosecution now carrying on in the Chancellor's Court in Oxford, against Mr. Kynaston, by Matthew Maddock, clerk, rector of Cotworth and Holywell, in the county of Huntingdon, and chaplain to his grace of Manchester, for the charge of adultery alleged against the said Matthew Maddock," 8vo. From the date of this publication (the cause of which operated too severely on his high sense of honour) he resided, in not the best state of health, at

*The founder of this oration, sir Francis Bridgman, bequeathed twenty pounds a year for ever for a panegyric to be spoken annually (in BrazenNose College, by a Fellow) on king James-the Second!!! By an application to the Court of Chancery, about the year 1711, I think, the college was (I doubt not) well pleased to have the subject changed; and was left at liberty to harangue on any of

the liberal sciences, or any other literary topic. We happily secured the possession of the founder's gratuity; and the oration is spoken regularly in rotation, upon whatever suits the turn and taste of the speaker. It is a pretty addition to the income of one year's fellowship; to prevent one from suffering one's Latin to grow rusty."

Mr. Kynaston, MS.

Wigan principally, loved and respected by a few select. friends. On the 27th of March, 1783, Mr. Kynaston had the misfortune to break his left arm, near the shoulder; but, the bones having been properly replaced, he was thought out of danger. It brought on his death, however, in the June following.'.

L.

LABADIE

ABADIE (JOHN), a French enthusiast, was born at Bourg, in Guienne, Feb. 13, 1610; and, being sent to the Jesuits college at Bourdeaux at seven years of age, he made so quick a progress in his studies, that his masters. resolved to take into their society a youth, who gave such promising hopes of being an honour to it. The spirit of piety, with which he was animated, brought him easily into their views; but, being opposed in this by his father, who was gentleman of the bedchamber to Lewis XIII. he could not then carry his design into execution. On his father's death, however, he entered into the order; and, having finished his course of rhetoric and philosophy in three years, he took upon himself the office of a preacher before he was ordained priest. He continued among the Jesuits till 1639; when his frequent infirmities, and the desire he had of attaining to greater perfection, engaged him to quit that society, as he asserts, while others aver, that he was expelled for some singular notions, and for his hypocrisy. Whatever was the cause, he went immediately to Paris, where he preached with great zeal, and procured the friendship of father Gondren, general of the oratory; and Coumartin, bishop of Amiens, being present at one of his sermons,

'Nichols's Poems, vol. VII.-Gent. Mag. vol. LX.

was so much pleased, that he engaged him to settle in his diocese, and gave him a canonry in his cathedral-church.

He was no sooner fixed at Amiens, than he endeavoured to become a director of consciences, and presently saw himself at the head of a vast number of devotees; but it is said that his enthusiasm led him to practices more of a carnal than a spiritual nature; and that the discovery of some love-intrigues, in a nunnery, obliged him to seek a retreat elsewhere. For that purpose he chose first PortRoyal; but, as his doctrines or practices were not acceptable, his stay there was short. He therefore removed to Bazas, and afterwards to Toulouse, where M. de Montchal, archbishop of the city, gave him the direction of a convent of nuns; but here, likewise, the indecency of his familiarities with his pupils, under pretence of restoring the notions of primitive purity, and unsuspicious innocence, obliged the bishop, apprehending the consequences of such a converse, to disperse those who had been seduced into different convents, to be better instructed. Labadie endeavoured to inculcate the same practices elsewhere, but, despairing at length to make disciples any longer among the catholics, by whom he was by this time suspected and watched, he betook himself to the reformed, and resolved to try if he could not introduce among them the doctrine and practice of spirituality and mental prayer; with which view, he published three manuals, composed chiefly to set forth the excellence and necessity of that method. But an attempt which he is said to have made upon the chastity of mademoiselle Calonges lost him the esteem and protection of those very persons for whose use his books were particularly written.

Some time afterwards, an accusation was preferred at court against him, for raising a sedition respecting the corpse of a woman which the curate of Montauban thought proper to inter in the church-yard of the catholics, because she had changed her religion. Labadie denied the priest's right to the corpse, and his party appeared in arms to dispute it. But the cause being brought before the court, it was there decided in favour of the catholics, and Labadie condemned to quit the church of Montauban as a seditious person. His banishment however caused a dangerous division. D'Arbussy, his colleague, was charged with promoting his condemnation, out of a spirit of jealousy. Two parties were formed in the town, almost wholly consisting

of the reformed. They proceeded to the last extremities, though the chieftains of each party bore so bad a character as to be equally detested by all who had followed them. Labadie, thus driven out of Montauban, went to seek an asylum at Orange; but, not finding himself so safe there as he imagined, he withdrew privately to Geneva, in June 1659. In the mean time, his departure was much regretted at Orange, where he had imposed upon the people by his devout manner, and by his preaching; and he was not long at Geneva before he excited great commotions. Those that joined him built a large mansion, in which proper cells were provided for his most zealous followers; while the rest of the citizens, consulting how to get rid of him, contrived to procure him an invitation to Middleburg, which was accepted; and accordingly he repaired thither in 1666, and presently began to declare his opinions more explicitly than he had ever done before.

His peculiar tenets were these: 1. He believed that God could and would deceive, and that he had sometimes actually done it. 2. He held the holy scriptures not to be absolutely necessary to salvation, since the Holy Spirit acted immediately upon the soul, and gave it new degrees of revelation; and, when once struck with that divine light, it was able to draw such consequences as would lead to a perfect knowledge of the truth. 3. Though he did not deny the lawfulness of infant-baptism, yet he maintained that it ought to be deferred to riper years. 4. He put this difference between the old and new covenant: The first he said was carnal, loaded with ceremonies, attended with temporal blessings, and open to the wicked as well as the good, provided they were descendants of Abraham; whereas the new covenant admitted only spiritual persons, who were freed thereby from the law, from its curse, and from its ceremonies, and put into a state of perfect liberty. 5. He held the observation of the sabbath to be an indifferent thing; maintaining, that in God's account all days were alike. 6. He distinguished the church into the degenerate and regenerate; and held, that Christ would come and reign a thousand years upon earth, and actually convert both Jews, Gentiles, and Christians, to the truth. 7. He maintained the eucharist to be nothing more than a bare commemoration of Christ's death; and that, though the signs were nothing in themselves, yet Christ was received therein spiritually by the worthy communicant. 8. He