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/283

 ANNA T. 247 JigeJ to folicit his difmiffion, his great a^c having much im- paired his hearing. Father Sotueil, from whom thcfe parti- culars are taken, gives him the character of a perfon of s^reat virtues, perfect difintereltcdnefs, modelty, and humility ; exact in pra&ifing the obfervances and difcipline of his or- der; extremely cautious in ufmg his interclt, for his own ad- Blblioth. vantage, or that of his family ; and of uncommon zi-al for s religion. " He was the hammer of herefies, lays he, and he " attacked particularly, with incredible zeal, the new herefy '* of the Janfenifts. He Hrenuoufly endeavoured to get it " his mo(t Chriltian majffty. Befidcs which, he confuted " it with furh ftrength of argument, that his aJverfaries had " nothing folid to reply to him " There are many (fays Mr Bayle) whom rather Sotueil Will never convince in this Jail point ; but lie feems to agree with him in the character of difintereftednefs which he gives to Annat, who itirred fo little for the advancement of his family, that the king is re- ported to have faid. he knew not whether father Annat had any relations : contrary to the practice, fays Mr. Bayle, of many other dignified clergymen, who endeavour to heap every thing they can procure on their own relations. Father Annat wrote feveral books, fome in Latin, and others in French [A]. What he wrote in anfwer to the Provincial Letters has been much commended. '" But with ' regard to the Jefuits (fays the author of a Dialogue be- Cleandreet " twixt Oleander and Eudoxus, writt-en alfo by way of reply " e> " to thefe letters) who ventured to write againft Mr. Pafchal, Holland " what do you think of Mr. Annat, to whom the feventeentruJ't. anfwers Cleander, " was, in my opinion, a man of great ge- " lifhed upon the points then m difpute. This good man " (for I knew him to be fuch, and he was even modefty itfelf) " ftrokes fo fine, and lively, and agreeable, that 1 have feen " nothing equal to them any where." " I am of your opi- " nion," replied Eudoxus; " and without mentioning his " virtue, which 1 h.ive heard commended even by thofeof the " contrary party ; I find in him, as you do, a great exactnefs [A] His Latin tra<fs, publi^ed at His French freatifes are mofllv upon divers times, were collected in three vo- the difputes brtv.'ixt the Jcfuits and Jan- lumcs quarto, and prined at Paris, 1666. Icniitc. R 4.
 * ' conde'i ned by the pope, and retrained by the authority of
 * and eighteenth letters are addreiTcd r" "Father Annat,"
 * ' nius ; the Jefuits wroie nothing fupenor to whit he pub-
 * ' had an excellent talent at writing. He has very often
 * ' of judgement, and fometimes fuch a delicacy of expreflion