Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1069

CHA on which he was engaged brought such a multitude of authors so frequently to his house, that their meetings ultimately resulted in the establishment of the French Academy. He was admitted into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1663. He died in Paris in 1676. He worked very hard, but work was easy to him, for mind and hand were both fertile and facile.—W. T.  CHAUVEAU-LAGARDE,, a French advocate, born in 1756; died in 1841. His timidity kept him strictly to his profession. He defended General Miranda, Brissot, and Charlotte Corday. But his most illustrious client was Marie-Antoinette. After her condemnation, he was cited before the revolutionary committee to reveal the secrets she had confided to him. The advocate replied he had none of her secrets, and touchingly laid before them a lock of hair as the only recompense he had received from the noble victim.—R. M., A.  CHAUVELIN,, Marquis de, a French politician, born in 1766. In spite of his royalist connections, he was sent to London as the representative of France, to secure the English neutrality. Returning to his country, he was next sent to Florence, but Lord Hervey peremptorily demanded his dismissal. Napoleon named him councillor of state, and afterwards governor of Catalonia. He enjoyed the confidence of Louis XVIII. after the restoration, and died of cholera in 1832.  CHAUVIN,, a protestant divine, born at Nismes in 1640; died in 1725. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes he fled to Rotterdam, where in 1688 he occupied Bayle's chair during his illness. He became professor of philosophy at Berlin in 1695. Chauvin was a follower of Des Cartes. His chief work is entitled "Lexicon Nationale, sive thesaurus philosophicus, ordine alphabetico digestus:" Rotterdam, 1692.—R. M., A.  CHAVES, , Marquis de, a Portuguese officer of noble birth, who served with distinction in the peninsular war from 1809 to 1814, holding a command in the contingent furnished by his country against the French. Ten years later, when the revolutionists threatened the sovereignty of John VI., De Silveyra, then count d'Amarante, organized a military force against them, but after some successes he was compelled to retire into Spain. In the subsequent restoration of the royalist cause his services were rewarded with the marquisate, which he enjoyed only for a few years, his death taking place in 1830.—W. B.  CHAYUG, (in Arabic, Yahia Abu Zechariah), of Fez in Africa, flourished in the beginning of the eleventh century (1020-1040), as physician and grammarian. In the latter quality he received from Ibn Ezra the title of "Rosh Hammedakdekim" (Prince of Grammarians). He studied medicine at the school of Kairwan, and wrote a commentary on Ebn-Sina (Avicenna), now lost. His grammatical works on the Hebrew language were originally written in Arabic, and subsequently translated into Hebrew by Moses ben Gekatilia Hacohen, and by Abraham Ibn Ezra, under the respective titles of "Sepher Othioth Hannuach" (on the Quiescent Letters); "Sepher Hakkephel" (on the Geminate Verbs); "Sepher Hannikud" (on the Vowels and Accents). These three treatises have been published by Leopold Dukes, with valuable notes. The Bodleian library possesses also a "Sepher Harrikma" (on the Syntax) by Chayug, translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Gekatilia; his lexicon of the sacred tongue is mentioned by Jona ben Gannach among the older, and by Salomo Parchon among the more modern writers on Hebrew lexicography. Chayug, says the learned Dukes, was the first who investigated the properties of the quiescent letters and their permutations. He established the triliteral character of all Hebrew roots, previously unnoticed, and thus removed much confusion from the grammar and exegesis of the scriptural text.—T. T.  CHAYUN,, came from Zephath in the beginning of the eighteenth century, professedly to collect for the eastern synagogues among the Jews in Europe. His real object, however, was the propagation of Sabbatai Zebi's Messianic doctrines. Chayun seems to have had many of the resources of an adroit adventurer. A follower of Zebi at Smyrna having raised a report of the resurrection of their Messiah, Chayun at once availed himself of the excitement thereby produced among the Jews in Eastern Europe, on whose credulity he largely imposed. He elected for his apostle one Löbli of Prossnitz, skilled in jugglery of all kinds, and the two representatives of the Messiah sold talismans, wrought wonderful cures, and promised the immediate opening of the millennium. To gain the countenance of the ruling power, Chayun made some show of an endeavour to argue the Jews into an adoption of the dogma of the trinity, on the basis of the cabbalistical books then in high authority among them. It is said that in an audience which he obtained from the emperor of Germany, Chayun boldly promised the conversion of all the Jews in the empire. The works which he published in defence of his doctrines did not fail to excite the antagonism of the leading men in the Jewish communities in the west of Europe. The rabbis at Amsterdam, London, and several German cities laid a cherem (ban of excommunication) on the author and his books, in which they were joined even by heads of eastern congregations, so that the signatures of one hundred and thirty rabbis appeared on the document. The deception, however, was not as easily put down as brought to light. Multitudes joined these fanatics, and the mysticism under whose garb they disguised their profound immorality has left deep roots in the Jewish population of some parts of Poland and Russia. Chayun himself led for many years the life of an adventurer, and died blind and destitute at Amsterdam, universally detested for his principles, but as generally admired for his extensive learning. The numerous works published by Chayun in the midst of his wanderings refer to the Kabbala, and are most of them controversial. From the account given by R. David Nuñes Torres, in the Bibliothèque Raisonnée, of the spirit of Chayun's writings. Wolf infers that his metaphysical system was Spinozism.—(Bibl. Heb. part iv. page 928.)—T. T.  CHECKLEY,, was one of the earliest episcopal ministers in New England. He was born in Boston, of English parents, in 1680, but was early sent to England for his education, where he studied at the university of Oxford. After his return to Boston he published, in 1715, a tract against the calvinistic views of the puritans, and in 1723, "A modest view of the Government settled by Christ and his Apostles in the Church." For the publication of a "Discourse concerning Episcopacy," &c., he was prosecuted, and fined fifty pounds by the supreme court of Massachusetts. In 1727, having conceived the idea of becoming a clergyman, he went to England for episcopal ordination, which he obtained only after twelve years' solicitation. He returned to America in 1739, and was settled as rector of St. John's church in Providence, Rhode Island. He was regarded as a man of wit and of some classical acquirements, but of great eccentricities of character, and extremely fond of controversy. He died in 1753.—F. B. <section end="1069H" /> <section begin="1069Zcontin" />* CHEEVER,, an eminent American clergyman and man of letters, was born on the 17th of April, 1807, at Hallowell, Maine; graduated at Bowdoin college in that state in 1825; and studied theology at the Andover seminary in Massachusetts. He was first settled at Salem, Mass., in 1832. His early contributions to the Biblical Repository, North American Review, and other periodicals, were remarkably popular. In 1828-30 he published three compilations of American prose and verse, selected with excellent taste, and illustrated with biographical and critical notices. Being an earnest advocate of the cause of temperance, he wrote a striking allegory or dream, called "Deacon Giles's Distillery," in which the spirits are represented as demons, and the whole scene as an inferno, one of the facts mentioned being, that the owner had a little counting-room in one corner of the distillery, where he sold bibles, and that he went to church on the sabbath, where he heard unitarian or universalist doctrines preached. The publication of it brought upon the author a suit for libel; all the circumstances described pointing out with sufficient distinctness the real owner of the distillery, though his name was not Giles. Mr. Cheever was convicted and suffered a month's imprisonment, beside receiving a severe beating in the street from the foreman of the distillery. In 1836 he visited Europe for a year, and in 1839 removed to the city of New York, where he is the pastor of a large and flourishing congregation. His numerous publications, his excellence as a pulpit orator, and his vehement and unsparing manner as a controversialist have kept him almost constantly before the public. His doctrine is that of orthodox congregationalism; and he has had frequent discussions with Romanists, episcopalians, unitarians, and presbyterians, all of whom he has attacked with considerable asperity. But he has made himself respected by his literary talents, and by the evident sincerity and earnestness with which he inculcates what he considers to be the truth. Of late years he has been especially conspicuous as an uncompromising opponent of slavery. <section end="1069Zcontin" />