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/434

 39* A V E N T I N. by the dukes of that name, who fettled a perifion upon him, and gave him hopes that they would defray the charges of the book. This work, which gained its author great reputation, was firft publiihed in 1554, by Jerome Zieglerus, profeflbr of poetry in the univerfuy of Ingolftadc ; but, as he acknow- ledges in the preface, he retrenched the inveclives againft the clergy, and feveral ftories which had no relation to the hii- toiy of Bavaria. The Proteftants, however, after long fearch, found an uncalirated manuflript of Aventin's An- nals, which was publilhed at Bafil in 1580, by Nicholas Cifner. An affront which Aventin received in 1529, ftuck by him all the reft of his life : he was forcibly taken out of his lifter's houie at Abenfperg, and hurried to a gaol ; the true caufe of Bajle. which violence was never known [A] : but it would proba- bly have been carried to a much greater length, had not the duke of Bavaria interpofed, and taken this learned man into his protection. Mr. Bayle remarks, that the incurable me- lancholy which from this time poiieffed Aventin, was fo far from determining him to lead a life of celibacy, as he had done till he was fixty-four, that it induced him perhaps to think of marrying. The violence of his new paflion was not however fo great, but that it fuffered him to advife with two of his friends, and confulc certain paflages of the Bible relative to marriage. The refult was, that it was belt for him to marry ; and, having already loft too much time, con- fidering his age, he took the firft woman he met with, who happened to be his own maid, ill-tempered, ugly, and ex- tremely poor. He died in 1534, aged fixty eight, leaving one daughter, who was then but two months old : he had a fon who died before. It was fuppofed, from the inquiries made by the Je- fuits, that he was a Lutheran in difguife ; and the adhe- rents to the church of Rome make ufe of this argument to weaken the force of his teftimony againft the conduct of the popes, and the vicious lives of the priefts ; for the " Annals of Aventin" have been often quoted by Proteftants to prove thediforders of the Romilh church. [A] Mr. Keyfler fays, that Aventin of legal proof of the charge he was re- vas thrown into prifon in 15*9, on a leafed. Travels, vol. 5v. p. zis, zi 4. iufpiaon of hetely j but that for want AVERROES,