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/268

 232 ANDREAS. he had been a profeflbr five- and- forty years, and was buried in the church of the Dominicans. Many eulogiums have been beftowed upon him : he was called archidodtor decre- torum : in his epitaph he has the title of " Rabbi dodtorum, tors, the light, cenfor, and rule of manners : and it is faid, that pope Boniface called him " lumen mundi," the light of the world. Mr. Bayle fays it was pity Andreas followed the method of the Pyrrhonifts fo much ; that he proved his own opinion very folidly when he had a mind to it, but that he fcldom did this, chufing rather to relate the fentiments of others, and to leave his readers in the midft of the difpute. ANDREAS (Jons), was born a Mahometan, at Xativa in the kingdom of Valencia, and fucceeded his father in the dignity of alfaqui of that city. He was enlightened with the knowledge of the Chriftian religion, by being prefent at a fermon in the great church of Valencia on the day of the AiTumption of the blefied Virgin, in 1487. Upon this he deiired to be baptiled, and in memory of the calling of St. John and St. Andrew, *he took the name John Andreas, See his pre- 44 Having received holy orders," fays he, " and from an Confufionde" a ^ ac l ui ancl a ^ ave of Lucifer become a prieft and'minifter " of Chrift, I began, liice St. Paul, to preach and publifh 4 t h e contrary ot" what I had erroneoufly believed and ' converted at rlrft a great many fouls of the Moors, who and conducted them into the way of falvation. After this, ' and queen Ifabella, in order to preach in Grenada to the " Moors of that kingdom, which their majefties had con- '* quered: and by God's bleffing on my preaching, an in- t; finite number of Moors were brought to abjure Mahumed, and to turn to Chrift. A little after this, 1 was made a ca- " non by their graces ; and fent for again by the moft Chrif- 44 ftill perfifted in their errors, to the great contempt and &t and danger of all chriftian princes. But this excellent and " death." At the defire of Martin Garcia, bifhopof Barce- lona, he undertook to tranflat* from the Arabic, into the language
 * ' lux, cenfor, normaque morum ; ? ' that is, rabbi of the doc-
 * aflerted ; and, with the aiiiftance of Almighty God, I
 * were in danger of hell, and under the dominion of Lucifer,
 * ' I was fent for by the muft catholic princes king Ferdinand
 * c tian queen Ifihella to Arra^on, that I might be employed
 * c in the ccnverfion of the Moors of thofe kingdoms, who
 * ' difnonour of our crucified Saviour, and the prodigious lofs
 * ' pious defign of her majefty was rendered ineffectual by her