Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/428

 W[ell]s. Being a Vindication of the Dissenters,’ London, 1715, 8vo. 

HILL, THOMAS (fl. 1590), miscellaneous writer, of London, was dead by April 1599. In addition to compiling and translating for the booksellers he practised astrology, and was on that account castigated in W. Fulke's ‘Anti-prognosticon,’ 1560. He translated from the Latin of B. Cocles ‘A brief Epitomye of the whole Art of Phisiognomie gathered out of Aristotle, Rasis … and others many moe,’ 8vo, London [1550?], and from the Italian of L. Fioravanti ‘A Joyful Jewell. Contayning … orders, preservatives … for the Plague,’ 4to, London [1579], which was edited by his friend John Hester [q. v.] Hill also wrote: 1. ‘A most briefe and pleasaunt Treatyse, teachynge howe to Dress, Sowe, and Set a Garden,’ 8vo, London, 1563. 2. ‘The proffitable Arte of Gardening, now the third tyme set fourth. … To this annexed two Treatises, the one entituled the marveilous Government of the Bees … and the other the Yerely Conjectures, meete for Husbandmẽ to knowe: Englished by T. H.,’ 2 pts., 8vo, London, 1568. To another edition, also styled the third, is ‘newly added a Treatise of the Arte of Graffing and Planting of Trees,’ 2 pts., 4to, London, 1574. Other editions appeared in 1579, 1586, 1593, and 1608. 3. ‘The moste pleasaunte Arte of the Interpretacion of Dreames, whereunto is annexed sundry Problemes with apte Aunsweares, … and rare examples. Gathered by the former Auctour of T. H. … and now newly Imprinted,’ 8vo, London, 1576. 4. ‘A Briefe and pleasaunt Treatise, Intituled Naturall and Artificiall Conclusions; Written firste by sundry Schollers of the Universitie of Padua at the request of one Bartholomew, a Tuscane; and now Englished by T. Hyll,’ 8vo, London, 1586. 5. ‘A Contemplation of Mysteries: contayning the rare effectes and significations of certayne Comets. … Gathered and Englished by T. Hyll,’ 8vo, London [1590?]. 6. ‘The Schoole of Skil: containing two bookes: the first, of the Sphere, of Heaven, of the Starres, of their Orbes, and of the Earth, &c. The second, of the Sphericall Elements, of the Celestiall Circles, &c. With apt figures’ [edited by W. I.], 4to, London, 1599. 7. ‘The Arte of Vulgar Arithmeticke … devided into two Bookes. … Whereunto is added a third Booke. Newly collected, digested, and in some parts devised by a welwiller to the Mathematicals,’ 4to, London, 1600. 8. ‘A Pleasant History: declaring the whole Art of Phisiognomy, Orderly—utterly all the speciall parts of Man, from the Head to the Foot,’ 8vo [London], 1613.

Hill's portrait has been engraved. 

HILL, alias, THOMAS D.D. (1564–1644), Benedictine monk, born in Somerset in 1564, is said to have been originally a clergyman of the church of England. On becoming a Roman catholic he withdrew to the continent, and entered the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, on 21 Aug. 1590. He left for Rome on 16 Feb. 1592–3, continued his studies in the English College there, and was ordained priest in 1594. He took part with Anthony Champney [q. v.] and others in objecting to the administration of the English College at Rome by the jesuits. On 16 Sept. 1597 he was sent to the English mission (, Records, vi. 192). When he published his ‘Quartron of Reasons’ in 1600, he was, according to Wood, ‘living at Phalempyne, beyond the sea,’ being then a doctor of divinity. Two years later he was again labouring on the mission, and being apprehended, was committed to Newgate. He was again in prison in 1612, when he was condemned to death for being a priest, but he was reprieved and banished in the following year. While in prison he received the Benedictine habit by commission from Dom Leander of St. Martin (John Jones), and after his release he was professed on 8 Oct. 1613 under the religious name of Thomas of St. Gregory. Weldon states that he first detected the error of the Illuminati, who expected the incarnation of the Holy Ghost from a certain young virgin, but does not say how he made his exposure public. In 1633 Hill was appointed titular cathedral prior of Gloucester. On leaving the English mission he retired to St. Gregory's monastery at Douay, where he died on 7 Aug. 1644.

His works are: 1. ‘A Quartron of Reasons of Catholike Religion, with as many briefe reasons of refusall,’ Antwerp, 1600, 8vo. This work elicited replies from George Abbot [q. v.], dean of Winchester, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, and from Francis Dillingham, B.D., of Cambridge [q. v.] 2. ‘A Plaine Path-Way to Heaven. Meditations, or Spirituall Discourses vpon the Ghospells of all the Sondayes in the yeare, for euery day in the weeke one,’ with ‘a little Treatise how to find out the True Fayth … by Thomas