but with like ill-success; and Theodoric, | with the consent and by the direction of Avitus, marched into Spain, defeated the Suevian king Rechiarius, and having taken him prisoner, put an end to the Suevian kingdom (A.D. 456). Avitus himself had meanwhile to repel the attack of the Vandals, with whom he had vainly endeavoured to make a treaty, and who had sent to Corsica a fleet of sixty vessels, designed to attack either Gaul or Italy. There they were destroyed by Count Ricimer, whom Avitus had sent to secure Sicily, and who came from that island to Corsica in pursuit of the invaders. Avitus despatched an ambassador to his ally Theodoric, to convey this intelligence and some “sacred presents" and himself departed into Gaul, where he visited Arles. Adrien Valois supposes that he at this time visited Trèves, and there offered violence to the wife of Lucius, a Roman of rank, who in revenge gave up the city to the Franks: but there is reason to think that the incident is of much earlier date, and that Fredegarius Scholasticus, the writer on whose authority (Sancti Gregorii | Turonensis Epitomata, c. 7) it rests, has connected Avitus with it by mistake, naming him, instead of Jovinus, an usurper of an earlier period. Avitus is charged by Gregory of Tours with the desire of living luxuriously, and with having thereby incurred the enmity of the senate. It is difficult exactly to understand what Gregory's imputation amounts to; and the enmity of the senate may be sufficiently accounted for by the intrigues of Ricimer, who had resolved on the deposition of the emperor. Avitus, on hearing of his design, hastened back into Italy, but was defeated by Ricimer, and obliged to resign the empire. The Visigoths, who had promised to assist him, were too much occupied in their war with the Suevians to fulfil their engagement. The deposition of Avitus occurred A.D. 456, apparently about fourteen months after his accession. He was almost immediately appointed Bishop of Placentia, either desiring the appointment, in the hope that its sacred character would protect him from his enemies, or forced into it by his enemies, to prevent his reassuming any secular dignity. Apprehensive of the violence of the Roman senate, he left Placentia and set out for Brioude in his native country, where he hoped to find an asylum in the church of St. Julian; but dying on the road (A.D. 457), his remains were carried to Brioude, and buried in the church where he had hoped to find security.

Of the family of Avitus nothing certain seems to be known except that he had one daughter, Papianilla, married to Sidonius Apollinaris. Some assign to him two other daughters: one married to Ommatius, son of Ruricius, Bishop of Limoges; the other to

Tonantius rerreolus, prætorian præfect of Gaul. They also speak of two sons; Ecdicius, a count, and Isichius, a senator, afterwards Bishop of Vienne, and father of St. Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus; but these particulars are rejected by some of the most competent judges. Eckhel has noticed several medals of Avitus. (Sidonius Apollinaris, Panegyricus Avito Augusto Socero dictus; Gregorius Turonensis, Historia Francorum, ii. 11, 21; Idatius, Chronicon; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c., c. 36; Bollandus and others, Acta Sanctorum, 5 Feb. (De S. Avito). J. C. M.

AVITUS, SAINT, Bishop of Vienne. Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus was the son of Isichius, or Isicius, or Hesychius, a Roman senator of illustrious family, apparently a resident at Vienne, and successor of St. Mamertus in the bishopric of that city. Some writers have regarded Isichius as a son of the Emperor Avitus, but this is doubtful. The wife of Isichius was named Audentia, and by her he had four children: two sons, the elder of whom, St. Apollinaris, became bishop of Valence; the younger, St. Avitus, succeeded his father in the bishopric of Vienne. The younger daughter, Fuscina, was from her infancy devoted to a religious life. Avitus speaks of himself as related to Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, son of Sidonius Apollinaris, and grandson of the Emperor Avitus; which circumstance may be thought to corroborate the opinion that St. Avitus was also a descendant of that emperor. Of the year of Avitus's birth nothing certain is known, but as he was baptized by St. Mamertus, it must have been before his father's elevation to the bishopric, which was in 477, or thereabout: and circumstances tend to show that it was long before that time, and probably about the middle of the century. The circumstance of his baptism by St. Mamertus makes it likely that he was a native of Vienne or the neighbourhood. The place of his education is not known, but is conjectured to have been Vienne. He obtained great reputation for learning.

He succeeded his father in the bishopric of Vienne during the reign of the Emperor Zeno, who died A.D. 491. Henschen, in the "Acta Sanctorum," places his elevation to the see in 490. In 494 he assisted in redeeming the captives whom the Burgundians had brought away in their incursions into the north of Italy, and for whose deliverance Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, had sent St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Ticinum (Pavia), into Gaul. Vienne was at this time included in the Burgundian dominions. When Clovis, King of the Franks, determined to embrace Christianity in what was deemed the orthodox form, he was anxious to cherish the favour of orthodox prelates beyond his own dominions, and expressed his respect for Avitus by send

ing him notice of his intended baptism, which was fixed for Christmas, A.D. 494. Avitus was unable to be present, but after the ceremony he sent to Clovis a congratulatory letter, still

extant.

The Burgundian kings Gundebadus or Gondebaud, and Godegisilus or Godegisil, professed the Arian faith: but Gondebaud paid much respect to Avitus, and had frequent conferences with him on points of theology and ethics. Several letters of Avitus to Gondebaud are extant, some of them of considerable length. Gregory of Tours affirms that Gondebaud secretly embraced orthodox opinions, and sought to be anointed by Avitus, but that prelate refused to comply with his wish, unless Gondebaud would openly renounce Arianism, which he refused to do. The refutation of Arianism was indeed the great object of Avitus, which he pursued in some works, of which we have only extracts made by Florus of Lyon. He wrote also against other opinions deemed heretical, such as those of the Eutychians, Nestorians, Photinians, and Bonosians; and against Faustus, Bishop of Riez, who was suspected of Pelagianism. The refutation of the Eutychians was undertaken (A.D. 512) at the desire of Gondebaud, and in order to preserve or deliver Anastasius I., Emperor of the East, and his subjects, from that system of belief.

In 499 Avitus took a leading part in a conference between several leading Arians and several orthodox bishops, held apparently at Lyon in the presence of Gondebaud. If we may trust an ancient but very partial account of this conference, apparently by an eye-witness (given in the "Spicilegium" of D'Achéry), Avitus completely silenced his opponents, and converted a number of Arians to the orthodox faith. Early in the sixth century Avitus engaged in the dispute concerning the validity of the election of Pope Symmachus, whom he supported against the anti-pope Laurentius or Laurence; and afterwards assisted Hormisdas, who succeeded Symmachus (and was pope from 514 to 523), in healing the breach between the Eastern and Western churches, owing to the condemnation of the patriarch Acacius by Symmachus.

The zealous exertions of Avitus against Arianism resulted in the conversion of Sigismund, son of Gondebaud, and his colleague and afterwards successor on the Burgundian throne. The conversion of Sigismund took place before the death of Gondebaud, but it is not clear at what time it was avowed. The conversion of Sigiric, son of Sigismund, by his first wife, daughter of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, and the conversion of a daughter of Sigismund by the same lady, are also ascribed to Avitus. The discourse or homily of Avitus on the occasion of Sigismund's profession of orthodoxy, is mentioned with high praise

323

by Agobard of Lyon, but is not extant. The discourse on the conversion of Sigiric is enumerated among some discourses of Avitus now lost. The conversion of Sigismund enabled Avitus to revive the assembling of provincial councils, the discontinuance or unfrequency of which he had lamented: and in 519, the year after the death of Gondebaud, he summoned his fellow-prelates of the Burgundian territory to a council at Epaon (Parochia Epaonensis), a locality not well ascertained. Ceillier places the council in 515. Avitus delivered a discourse at this council, which is lost. Some have supposed that he was one of the bishops who held a council at Lyon almost immediately after that of Epaon, to investigate a charge of incest against one of King Sigismund's officers and favourites: there is no proof, however, that Avitus was there, though his brother Apollinaris was. Avitus died on the 5th of February, 525, at the age, it is supposed, of seventy-three or four. Some authorities place his death several years earlier.

The extant works of Avitus are given in various collections of the Fathers of the Church and of the ancient Latin poets. The most complete collection is in the tenth volume of the "Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum” of Gallandi. The collection comprehends1. A collection of letters, ninety-three in number, written by Avitus or by others to him, including a letter from Pope Symmachus and four others first published by Baluze. Some of these, especially those to King Gondebaud, are of considerable length, and are in fact dissertations on various points, chiefly of theology. 2. A homily or discourse "De Rogationibus." 3. Fragments of eight discourses or homilies. 4. Fragments of other minor works. 5. Poems on subjects from the Pentateuch. 6. A poem addressed to his sister Fuscina, "De Consolatoria Laude Castitatis" (" In praise of Celibacy"). 7. Fragments of a work “De Divinitate Spiritus Sancti" ("On the divinity of the Holy Spirit'). 8. A discourse on the third Rogation week, first published in the "Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum" of Martene and Durand. The poetry of Avitus is considered good for the age in which it is written. The poems on subjects from the Pentateuch are in five books, the titles of which are as follows:-1. "De initio mundi" ("Of the beginning of the world"). 2. "De originali peccato" ("Of the original sin"). 3. "De sententia Dei" ("Of the judgment of God"). 4. "De diluvio mundi" the drowning of the world"). 5. "De transitu Maris Rubri" ("Of the passage of the Red Sea"). The measure is hexameter. These poems have been published separately and in several collections, among others in that of Maittaire, 2 vols. fol. 1713. (Bollandus and others, Acta Sanctorum, 5 Feb.; Histoire Littéraire de la France, iii. 115, &c.;

Y 2

("Of

Ceillier, Auteurs Sacrés, xv. 389, &c.; Du- | pin, Nouvelle Bibliothèque des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques, 6me Siècle; Gallandius (Gallandi), Prolegomena to the tenth vol. of his Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum.) J. C. M. AVITUS, SAINT, Abbot of Mici, in or near Orléans, in the fifth and sixth centuries. Mabillon and others have supposed that there were two saints of this name, contemporaries, but Henschen considers that there was only one. He was born in Auvergne, probably near or at Aurillac. His education was intrusted to a priest eminent for his humility; and as he grew up he determined to embrace a monastic life, and entered the monastery of Menat in Auvergne, near Aurillac. After some time he left this monastery, in company with St. Carilephus, or St. Calais, another of the monks, and joining the lately established abbey of Mici, or St. Mesmin, near Orléans, was, on the decease of its first abbot, Maximin, chosen to succeed him. The desire of Avitus was, however, for a more secluded life; and twice he left the abbey of Mici, once before and once after his appointment to the abbacy, and took up his abode, with St. Carilephus, in solitary places. In their second retirement they acquired such reputation as to attract the notice of Childebert, King of the Franks, who built a church and a monastery in the place of their retreat. Of this monastery, which followed the rule of St. Antony and St. Paul, Avitus was superior; while St. Carilephus removed, and fixed his abode at a place which afterwards took its name (St. Calais) from him. Avitus died, as Henschen thinks, about A.D. 527, and was buried at Orléans. The 17th of June is most commonly observed as his anniversary, but there is (or was) some difference of usage in this matter. Many miracles are ascribed to him. Gregory of Tours has recorded an incident in the life of this saint. When Clodomire, or Chlodomir, son of Clovis, was about to put to death the captive Burgundian king Sigismund, or Sigimund, with his wife and family (A.D. 524), he was warned by Avitus, that if he killed them, he would himself fall into the hands of his enemies, and that his own wife and children would suffer the same fate as he was about to inflict on the wife and children of his captive. Chlodomir very soon after fell in battle, and two of his children were subsequently murdered by their uncles, Childebert and Clotaire. ("Life of Avitus," by a writer nearly coeval, in the Acta Sanctorum, by Bollandus and others, 17th June, with Henschen's notes; Gregorius Turonensis, Historia Francorum, iii. 6.) J. C. M. AVITUS, SAINT, distinguished from the other saints of the same name as "the Hermit," was born in what was afterwards known as the district of Perigord, of a noble family. He lived in the sixth century, a little later than the St. Avitus just mentioned. He re

ceived a learned and religious education; and while yet young, served in the army of Alaric II. King of the Visigoths, in the battle of Vouillé, or Vouglé, near Poitiers, which was fought against Clovis (A.D. 507), in which battle Avitus was taken prisoner. Reduced by this calamity to a state of slavery, he won by his good conduct the confidence and favour of his master. He afterwards obtained his release, and having conceived himself called by a vision to preach the gospel, he assumed the monastic habit at Bonneval in the diocese of Poitiers. He did not, however, reside in the monastery, but withdrew to a solitary place near it, where he practised the strictest mortification, and, according to the legend from which these particulars are taken, became eminent by the miracles which he wrought. From Bonneval, after a time, he removed to his native district of Perigord, and constructed, in a desolate situation, a chapel and a cell, where he lived forty years in great reputation for his sanctity, and, according to the legend, for his miracles. He died about A.D. 570, as Papebroch calculates, at the age probably of above eighty. In the second volume of "Gallia Christiana," pp. 1451-2 (second edit. 1715, seq.), a brief account of this saint is given, in which he is described as fighting on the side of Clovis in the battle of Vouglé, and as quitting the palace of Clovis for the monastic life; but we have followed in preference the account in the "Acta Sanctorum." The anniversary of St. Avitus the Hermit is kept on the 17th of June, the same day as that of St. Avitus of Mici. ("Life of Avitus," in the Acta Sanctorum of Bollandus and others, June 17, with the introduction and notes of Papebroch.) J. C. M.

AVITY, PIERRE D', or DAVITY, PIERRE, a French writer, was born A.D. 1573, at Tournon in the Vivarais, on the river Rhône. He was of a respectable family, and allied to several of the nobility of the province. His father was of the same name with himself. He received his early education in the Jesuits' college in his native town, and acquired there a good knowledge of Latin and Greek, to which he afterwards added a perfect acquaintance with the Italian and Spanish languages. After leaving the college he went to Toulouse to study law; but having in self-defence taken the life of a fellow-student who had quarrelled with him and sought to kill him, he quitted Toulouse and went to Paris. Why this circumstance should have led to his quitting Toulouse is not clear; it was not through apprehension of any judicial sentence, as his innocence was solemnly recognised after an examination. At Paris he acquired considerable reputation in the circle of his acquaintance, by a jeu d'esprit on some incident which had occurred at court. It was entitled "La Lettre de la belle Erocalie au grand roy Porus," and was origi

nally written by him in Spanish, and translated by him into French. It exhibited such a familiarity with the Spanish tongue, that many Spaniards asserted it to be the production of some one of their countrymen. It is not said whether it was printed or circulated in manuscript. His Italian and French verses were also much esteemed; the latter were published, and placed him (according to his biographer) among the first poets of his day. He wrote also with great facility in prose, and the works which he composed or translated amounted to several volumes. As, however, they were published anonymously, they were claimed by others who wished to have the credit of their authorship. This was the case with his great work "Estats et Empires."

66

Considerable part of his life was passed in military service, in which he rose to the rank of captain of infantry. He was in the army of the Statholder Maurice of Nassau, at the siege of Rheinberg in 1606, and afterwards served in the army of the Duke of Lesdiguières, Constable of France, on the Italian frontier. In 1630 he was engaged in the relief of Casale, on the Po, besieged by the Marquis Spinola with the Spanish army. During the war or part of the war with the Hugonots, under the administration of Richelieu, in the reign of Louis XIII., he maintained at his own charge some companies of infantry. He passed some of the intervals of military service in travelling; he spent eight months of the year 1620 in Italy; and in 1626 visited several considerable cities of Germany. His purpose in these travels was to accumulate materials for his " Estats et Empires," a work on which he was engaged, but left incomplete; part of the work had been published during his lifetime, and part was in the press at the time of his death. He died at Paris, March, 1635, of a disorder aggravated by the infirmities of age, and the effects of his bodily and mental exertions, aged sixtytwo years. He is styled in the title-page of those of his works which were not anonymous, M. Mont-martin or Seigneur de Montmartin, and gentleman in ordinary of the King's bedchamber. He left one son, a minor, Claude d'Avity, who wrote the dedication to the second edition of his "Estats et Empires." His biographer speaks of him as eminent for his piety, and mentions an incident illustrative of his strict moral principles. He had, at the request of a person of distinction, made "an elegant prose translation" of the "Amores" of Ovid; but a friend, to whose revision he submitted the manuscript, having told him that he would corrupt the world by this translation, more than the poet had by the original, he threw the translation into the fire, "judging that a Christian could not without guilt publish a work which had been the cause or the pretext of the banishment of a heathen."

66

His works are as follows:-1. "Les Travaux sans Travail," a collection of tales and miscellaneous pieces, which went through three editions in the author's lifetime, 12mo. Paris, 1599 and 1602, and Rouen, 1609. 2. "Panegyricà Mr. Desdiguières (Lesdiguières) Maréchal de France," 8vo. Lyon, 1611. 3. "Le Banissement des Folles Amours," a moral treatise designed to repress licentiousness, 12mo. Lyon, 1618. 4. Arrêt de mort exécuté en la personne de Jean Guillot, Lyonnois, architecte, duement convaincu de l'horrible calomnie par lui imposée à ceux de La Rochelle," 8vo. Paris, 1624. 5. A work in German, professedly translated from part of a letter from M. Montmartin (D'Avity) to M. Maisonneuve Montournois, having the title of "Discovery of a fearful enterprise falsely charged on the townsmen of La Rochelle," 8vo. 1624. 6. "Etat certain de ceux de la Religion en France," 8vo. Paris, 1625. These works relate to the religious struggles of the reign of Louis XIII. 7. The work on which he was engaged at the time of his death, currently referred to by the abridged title of "Estats et Empires;" but of which the full title is "Estats et Empires du Monde, par D. T. U. Y." This at least was the title of the first volume, published in fol. 1626. The portions which were published after the author's death appear to have borne other titles. In the second edition, which was revised by François Ranchin, an advocate of Montpellier, and published in 1643, the title of the first volume, which may be regarded as the general title of the work, is "Le Monde, ou la Description Générale de ses Quatre Parties, avec tous ses Empires, Royaumes, Estats, et Républiques." This edition is in seven folio volumes. The first volume contains a preliminary treatise entitled Discours Universel, comprehending the natural history and philosophy of the heavens and the earth, the natural history of man, an account of customs, languages, the various forms of religion and government, the monastic and military orders, and ancient and modern heresies, with a brief historical sketch of the successive ages of the world. The subsequent volumes have different titles indicative of their contents: as "Description Générale de l'Asie, première partie du monde, avec tous ses Empires, Royaumes, Estats, et Républiques." A volume each is assigned to Asia, Africa, and America; Europe has three volumes. The work, which came to a third edition in 1660, revised and augmented by J. B. de Rocoles, Historiographer to the King, manifests extensive reading; and the successive editions of it, notwithstanding its size, show the credit it obtained. It was translated into Latin by Louis Godefroi, under the title of "Archontologia Cosmica," 3 vols. fol. Frankfort, 1649. The work is described in the "Biographie Universelle" as "a very ordinary compi

lation, but which, nevertheless, contained some pieces which had not before appeared in the French language, as the abridged history of the kings of Persia after Mirkhond, which Davity translated from Texeira." Some accounts make the volume published in 1626 to have been a first edition of the whole work; we believe we have described it more correctly as the first volume only; apparently the second was in the press at the time of the author's death. 8. " Origines de tous les Ordres Militaires et de Chevalerie de toute la Chrétienté, par le Sieur T. V. Y. A." fol. Paris, 1635. We believe this to have formed part of his great work just mentioned, and, from the date, it was probably the part that was in the press at the time of his death. It was included, says Fevret de Fontette, in some of the subsequent editions of that work. (La Vie de Pierre Davity, in the first vol. of Rocoles' edition of D'Avity's great work Le Monde, ou La Description Générale, &c. 1660; Le Long, Bibliothèque Historique de la France, ed. Fevret de Fontelle; Catalogue des Livres Imprimés de la Bibliothèque du Roy (Belles Lettres), Paris, 1750; Biographie Universelle, "Davity, Pierre;" D'Avity, Works.) J. C. M. AVOGA'DRÓ, ALBERTO, a native of Vercelli, lived in the first half of the fifteenth century, and was a dependant of the Florentine chief, Cosmo de' Medici. He celebrated the churches and other edifices erected by his patron, in a rude and inelegant Latin poem of two books, in elegiac verse, which was not printed till it appeared in the twelfth volume of Lami's" Delicia Eruditorum," 17361744. (Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia.) W. S. AVÒGA'DRO, CAMILLO, a Milanese of noble birth, published a small volume of Latin poems on the canonization of San Carlo Borromeo, Milan, 1611, 4to., and an Oration, "De Studio Literario, præcipuè in artibus liberalibus, restaurando," Milan, undated. Some of his Latin poems are in the sixth book of the Epigrams of Ignazio Albani. Avogadro died in 1617.

There was an earlier Camillo Avogadro, or "Camillus Advocatus," who was a native of Brescia. To him, and to his father Matteo Avogadro, Marius Nizolius acknowledges himself to have been much indebted in the preparation of his "Lexicon Ciceronianum," which was first published in 1535. (Argellati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium, i. 4, ii. 1931; Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia.) W. S. AVOGADRO, FAUSTINO. [AVOGADRO, LUCIA.]

AVOGA'DRO, GIRO'LAMO, a native of Brescia, was the son of Ambrogio Avogadro, who distinguished himself both as a jurist and as a patriotic citizen in the first half of the fifteenth century. Girolamo is known only for an early edition of Vitruvius, which is ascribed to him, under his Latinized name

of "Hieronymus Advocatus," by Cardinal Quirini. The assertion is made on the strength of some complimentary expressions contained in a letter addressed to Avogadro, in 1486, by the philologer Joannes or Angelus Britannicus, whom he patronized. No one has ever seen this edition; and it is now quite certain that it does not exist. The utmost possible extent of Avogadro's services to Vitruvius is, that he may in some way have assisted in the preparation of the Editio Princeps, edited by Joannes Sulpicius, and published at Rome in or soon after 1480: but even this is merely matter of conjecture. Britannicus, throughout the whole letter, exaggerates so grossly the merits of his rich and liberal patron, that he is likely enough to have derived from something very trifling his vague assertion, that it was owing to Avogadro that a complete and accurate text of Vitruvius was now in the hands of every one. (Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia; Fabricius, Bibliotheca Latina, ed. Ernesti, i. 484.) W. S.

AVOGA'DRO, GIUSEPPE, Count of Casanova, was born at Vercelli in 1731, of an ancient family. He lived the life of a country gentleman, and published several treatises on topics of rural economy, of which the most recent appeared in 1810. The principal of them are, a treatise on the cultivation and irrigation of meadows, Vercelli, 1783, 8vo.; and another on the cultivation of flax, Vercelli, 1786, 8vo. Count Avogadro was made chamberlain of the king of Sardinia: he was governor of the department of Vercelli during the occupation of Piedmont by the French; and he received further honours under the empire. He died at Vercelli in 1813. (Biographie Universelle, Supplement.) W. S.

AVOGADRO, LUCIA, an Italian poetess of the sixteenth century, was born at Bergamo. She was a daughter of the Cavalier Giovanni Girolamo Albano, who afterwards became a cardinal. She married the Cavalier Faustino Avogadro of Brescia, a gentleman whose name has found its way into the list of modern Latin poets through this whimsical mistake, that he has been said to be the author of a poem celebrating his own memory. The poem, addressed to his widow, and entitled "Epicedium Faustini Advocati Equitis ad Luciam Albanam conjugem," is in Gruter's "Delicia Italorum Poetarum," part i. pp. 1-4. It was really written by Giannantonio Taglietti. Lucia's husband died at Ferrara, in 1568; and she herself is supposed not to have survived the end of that year. She is praised by the obscure poet Arnigio, and by a more illustrious friend, Torquato Tasso. Her only poetical remains are a few verses, in two collections of her own times; Ruscelli's "Rime di diversi eccellenti Autori Bresciani," Venice, 1553, 1554, 8vo. ; and the "Rime in morte d' Irene da Spilimbergo," 1561. From the latter of