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 626 BIDDLE of the Holy Trinity." The Presbyterians passed a measure through parliament, by which every one who denied the doctrine of the Trinity should be punished with death. This was aimed at Biddle, and he was about to suffer, when a sudden opposition arose to it among the Independents and the army. "When the Independents gained the upper hand (1649), the penal laws against heretics were mitigated or repealed. Biddle was released, and retired into Staffordshire, where he was warmly wel- comed by a magistrate, who procured him a congregation, made him a private chaplain, and left him a legacy. Bradshaw, president of the council, however, remanded him to prison. He had now lost not only his fortune and his liberty, but his friends. Dr. Gunning, afterward bishop .of Ely, was the only theolo- gian who visited him in prison. He suffered great privations, but his accurate knowledge of the Greek Scriptures induced Roger Daniel, a London printer, to give him for correction the proof-sheets of a Greek Septuagint, and this relieved his wants. In 1651 an act of in- demnity and oblivion for all heretical offences was passed by parliament, and Biddle was again released, and collected around him those whom his writings had brought to his way of thinking; Their fundamental law was that " the unity of God is a unity of person as well as nature." The members of this new sect were called Biddel'ians, and, when their har- mony with the doctrines of Socinus was per- ceived, Socinians. A translation of Biddle's "Twofold Scripture Catechisms" (London, 1654), for the use of foreigners, brought him again to the bar of the house of commons ; and on his refusal to criminate himself, he was committed for contempt, and the death penalty ordinance was revived against him. When Cromwell dissolved the parliament, Biddle once more regained his liberty after 10 months' con- finement. A whole Baptist congregation be- came converted to Biddle's views, and this was so displeasing to the Baptist minister, Mr. Griffin, that he challenged Biddle to a public controversy. The latter accepted the challenge, and spoke in a derogatory manner of Christ's divine nature. He was thrown into the Poul- try Compter, July 3, 1655, and thence removed to Newgate, and tried for his life under the long parliament ordinance against blasphemy and heresy. As the case was evidently going against him, Cromwell interposed, the trial was stopped, and Biddle was remanded to jail. In order to shelter him yet more securely from his persecutors, Cromwell banished him to Star castle, in St. Mary's, one of the Scilly islands, with an annual subsistence of 100 crowns (October, 1655). Here he continued to devote himself to the study of theology. After three years he was released on a writ of habeas corpu*, and returning to London, became pas- tor of an Independent congregation ; but fearing the Presbyterians, who came again into power after the death of Cromwell, he retired into the country. Upon the final dissolution of the rump parliament, he again went to London and renewed his ministrations. The restoration of Charles II. once more caused him to retire from publicity ; but he suddenly rejoined his congregation in 1662, while meeting in a private house. Biddle was fined 100, and each of the audience 20, with confinement in default of payment. The prison was kept in such a manner that five weeks' residence in it was enough to cause his death. Among his writings are a "History of the Unitarians" and several pieces translated from the works of the Polish Unitarians. He denied the doc- trines of original sin and the atonement. The Rev. Joshua Toulmin, an English Unitarian minister, wrote a " Review of the Life, Char- acter, and Writings of John Biddle " (1789). BIDDLE, Nicholas, an American naval com- ' mander, born in Philadelphia, Sept. 10, 1750, killed at sea March 7, 1778. In 1765, on a voyage to the West Indies, he was left with two others on an uninhabited island, and lived there two months. In 1770 he entered the British navy. When Capt. Phipps, afterward Lord Mulgrave, was about to start on his ex- ploring expedition, young Biddle, though a midshipman, deserted his own vessel and shipped as a seaman on the Carcass, serving through the cruise with Nelson, who was a mate of Phipps's vessel. On the commence- ment of the American revolution he returned to America, joined the colonists, and was made captain of the Andrew Doria, a brig of 14 guns and 130 men, in which he participated in Commodore Hopkins's attack on New Provi- dence. After refitting in New London he was ordered on a cruise to the hanks of New- foundland, and in 1776 took among other prizes two transport ships with valuable cargoes and with a battalion of Highlanders. He was appointed to the command of the Randolph, a 32-gun frigate, in February, 1777, and speed- ily carried into Charleston four prizes. He was now made commander of a small fleet for a cruise in West Indian waters. In March, 1778, he was wounded in an action with the Yarmouth, an English ship. While under the hands of a surgeon, he was blown up with the explosion of the magazine, the 315 men on board the Randolph all perishing except four. BIDDLE, Mi hula-, an American banker, born in Philadelphia, Jan. 8, 1786, died there, Feb. 27, 1844. He was a son of Charles Biddle, vice president of Pennsylvania when Benja- min Franklin was the president, and nephew of Commodore Nicholas Biddle. He was a graduate of Princeton college, and became sec- retary of legation in Paris under Gen. Arm- strong, and in London under Monroe. In 1807 he returned to Philadelphia, and commenced the practice of the law. He edited the "Port Folio " for a time in conjunction with Joseph Dennie, compiled a " Commercial Digest," and prepared the narrative of Lewis and Clarke's expedition. He was in the house of repre-