Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/195

 ALEXANDER. himfelf fo, that he was nppointc-1 t' teach philofophy the; which he did for twelve years. This liou lo much engage his attemi."i as to ;. "... ! ' s _ ing, which is the chief bufiud., of th- onlor 'he ; ,|. His fermons were elegant and (olid : hut ns cafe and fluency offpcech rcquih'e in a preacher, he . fook the pulpit; and his fuprri'T, Iving <>l c. pinion t. fhould apply himfelf wholly to the fludy of the Scriptun eccleilaftical hiftory, he followed their advice, and w. . I a doclor of the Sorbonnr, in 1675. Mr. Colbert flu wed him many marks of his cilcem ; an.' t, t omit nothing to p; du< ;ui archhifhop of Roan, he formed an aliembly of the molt learned per fens, whnfe conferences upon ecclctir.flica! hiftory might beof aiiv:i itage :<> him. Father Alexander was invi . to this aflemhly, where he exerted himfelf with fo mudi genius and ability, that he gained the particular fries, Jhip of young Colbert, who (hewed him the utmoft regard a* long as he lived. Thefe conferences gave rife to Alcx;u,u. i ' , defign of writing an ecclefiaftical hiftory ; for, being deiircd reduce what was material in thefe conferences to writing, did it with lo much accuracy, that the learned men who c poled this afiembly, advifed him to undertake a complete body of church-hiftory. This he executed with great affiduity, collecting and digefting the materials himfelf, and writing even the tables with his own hand. His firtt work is t: wherein he endeavours to prove, againft M. de Launoi, that St. Thomas Aquinas is the real author of the Sum, afcribcd to him : it was printed in Paris 1675, in 8vo. The year following he publiflied the firft volume of a large work in La- tin, upon the principal points of ecclefiaftical hiaoiy : thia contains twenty-fix volumes in 8vo. The hrft volume tieats of the hiftory of the firft a:-csnf the church, and relates tl perfections which it fuftered, the fuccefiion of popes, the he- refies which arofe, the councils which condemned them, t Writers in favour of Chriitianity, and tile kings and ejiipet who reiened during; the firft century: to this are fubioincd ; i-n- r i u i. . -. -i diiiertatjons upon fuch points, as nave been the occaivon difpute in hiftory, chronology, criticifm, or dodlrine. Thci hiftcry of the fecond ctntury, with fomc diflertatior/;. l ' publifned in two volume--, in the year ) 677. The thir-1 cui- tury came out in 1678; in this he treats largely 'ic penance, and examines into the origin and progrtf- of tl mous difpute between pope Stephen and St. Cyprian, concern- ing the rebapiizmg of thofe who had bctn bapuz'.d by ties ;