Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/79

Acontius edendorum librorum ad Johannem Vuolfium Tigurinum.’ Dated Londini, 12 kal. Dec. 1562, first published in the Latin ‘Stratagemata’ 1565, and to be found in the subsequent editions, but in none of the translations; printed separately Chemnitz, Mauke, 1791, 8vo. 4. ‘Una essortazione al Timor di Dio, con alcune rime italiane, nuovamente messe in luce [da G. B. Castiglione],’ Londra, appresso Geo. Wolfio, s.a., 8vo. Dedicated to Elizabeth. Chaufepié is the only person who seems to have seen this very rare little piece. The printer learnt his art in Italy. He worked between 1579 and 1600, and brought out many Italian books. 5. ‘Epistola apologetica pro Hadr. Haemstadio et pro seipso.’ Written in 1562 or 1563, says Gerdes, who reprinted it (Scrinium Antiquarium, vii. part i. 123) from the archives of the Dutch church, now in the Guildhall library; contains much information respecting Hamstedius, the Dutch church, and the writer. 6. ‘Epistola. . . Londini 8 idus Junii, 1566.’ Reproduced from the archives of the Dutch church by Crussius (Crenii Animadv. ii. 131). It is not known to whom the letter was addressed. 7. ‘Ars muniendorun oppidorum.’ Acontius refers to this in his ‘Ep. ad Wolfium’ as having been first written in Italian and afterwards translated into Latin while in England. Mazzuchelli says, ‘Ital. et Lat. Genevæ, 1585,’ but no such book can be traced. 8. A manuscript on the use and study of history, written in Italian, and presented by Acontius to the Earl of Leicester in August 1564, is preserved at the Record Office. It is not spoken of by any of the authorities, although made use of in the following interesting little octavo volume, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester: ‘The true order and methode of wryting and reading hystories, according to the precepts of Francesco Patricio and Accontio Tridentino, by Thomas Blundevil,’ Lond. W. Seres, 1574. The compiler states that he ‘gathered his work partly out of a little written treatyse, which myne olde friende of good memorie, Accontio, did not many yeares since present to your Honour in the Italian tongue.’ 9. ‘Liber de Dialectica.’ An unfinished work with this title is referred to in the ‘Epistola ad Wolfium,’ with the remark that the world was soon to enter upon a much more enlightened era.

[Gerdes, Specimen Italiæ Reform.; ejusd. Orig. Eccles. in Belgio Ref.; Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia; Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. It. vii. 375, 474; Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique; Chaufepié, Nouveau Dict.; Guichard, Hist. du Socinianisme; Hallam's Lit. Hist.; Strype's Grindal; Cat. of Books &c. of Dutch Church at Guildhall; Burn's Hist. of French &c. Refugees; Dugdale's Hist, of Imbanking; Cal. of State Papers (Dom. 1547–80, 1601–3, and App.] 

ACTON, CHARLES JANUARIUS EDWARD (1803–1847), cardinal, was the second son of Sir John Francis Acton, the sixth baronet, of Aldenham Hall, near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, by his marriage (for which a papal dispensation had been obtained) with Mary Anne, daughter of his brother, Joseph Edward Acton, a lieutenant-general in the service of the Two Sicilies, and governor of Gaeta. The family had long been connected with Naples, and the father of the future cardinal became commander-in-chief of the land and sea forces of that kingdom, and a knight of St. Januarius, and he was also prime minister of Naples for several years. Charles Januarius Edward was born in the city of Naples 6 March 1803, and on the death of his father in 1811 he, with his elder brother Sir Richard, was sent to England for education. First he was placed at a school kept by the abbé Quégné at Parsons Green, near London, from which he was removed to a protestant school at Isleworth. Next he was sent to Westminster School, which he was soon obliged to quit on religious grounds. He subsequently resided with a protestant clergyman in Kent, the Rev. Mr. Jones, as a private pupil. After this, in 1819, he proceeded to the university of Cambridge, and became, under Dr. Neville, an inmate of Magdalen College, where he finished his secular education in 1823. This was indeed, as Cardinal Wiseman observes, a strange preparation for the Roman purple. However, young Acton, having a strong vocation to the ecclesiastical state, entered the college of the Accademia Ecclesiastica in Rome, which he left with the rank of prelate. Leo XII made him one of his chamberlains, and in 1828 appointed him secretary to Monsignor (afterwards Cardinal) Lambruschini, the nuncio at Paris. Shortly afterwards he was nominated vice-legate or governor of Bologna. He was removed, however, from this arduous situation before the revolution which, soon after the death of Pius VIII, broke out there and in the neighbouring provinces. On the accession of Gregory XVI he was made secretary to the congregation entitled the Disciplina Regolare, the duties of which are to prevent and correct all violations or relaxations of discipline in religious communities. Next he was nominated auditor of the apostolic chamber, or first judge of the Roman civil courts, and on 24 Jan. 1842 he was proclaimed cardinal-priest of the title of Santa Maria della Pace. He was also protector of  Rh