Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/110

96 for piety, virtue, and learning, and that she was skilled in the Greek, Latin, and Italian languages. Before she married Sir Nicholas Bacon, she heid given to the world a specimen of her literary industry, in translating, out of Italian into English, twenty-five sermons, written by Bernardine Ochine, a celebrated divine of that age, concerning the predestination and election of God, published about 1550. Not long after her marriage, she again exerted herself, much to her own honour, and to the advantage of her country. The masterly pen of Bishop Jewel had been employed in drawing up in the Latin tongue, an Apology for the Church of England, As the book made a great noise in the world, and excited no small degree of alarm among the advocates of the Popish communion, the common people of England were earnestly desirous of becoming acquainted with its contents. And lady Bacon determined to gratify the curiosity, and promote the edification of her countrymen, by translating the work; which she is said to have done, not only in a faithful, but in an elegant manner, considering the time. When finished, she sent the copy to archbishop Parker, for his perusal, as a person to whom the care of the church of England and of its doctrines chiefly belonged. Another copy was sent by her to bishop Jewel, to be overlooked by him, lest she should, in any point, have mistaken his meaning. The translation was accompanied by an epistle in Greek, which he answered in the same language. Both the bishop and the archbishop, after reading over the version, found it to be so correct as not to require the alteration of a single word, and returned it to her in print, to prevent the delay which her modesty might occasion in the publication, which took place in 1564, 4to. and