OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paul Anglicus

Paulus Anglicus in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. It identifies Petrus Wysz as the most likely author.
​PAUL Anglicus (fl. 1404), canonist, was one of the earliest writers to treat of the errors of the Roman catholic church. His ‘Aureum Speculum Papæ, ejus Curiæ, Prælatorum et aliorum spiritualium,’ written in 1404, is divided into three parts, and is in the form of a dialogue between Peter and Paul. The interlocutors represent two imaginary persons, who are made to reason in plain language, to quote scripture and the canons of the church, and to appeal to natural law and justice. The first and second parts affirm the existence of the gravest errors and abuses within the church: the sale of benefices, indulgences, and other privileges, which is condemned as simony. In the third part the writer resumes, and reasserts that the church of Rome is fundamentally wrong: ‘fore erroneam in statu damnationis laborantem, cum omnibus qui exorbitantes gratias a jure communi et beneficia ecclesiastica sunt adepti.’ He further affirms it to be impossible to exempt the cardinals from the charge of simony, and questions the power of the pope. The writer states that he wrote the book in the fifteenth year of the pontificate of Boniface IX, i.e. 1404.
The ‘Aureum Speculum’ was well known in Germany prior to the Reformation. John Huss referred to it. Manuscript copies of it, without the author's name, were at that time to be found in many continental libraries; a manuscript now in the University Library at Basle seems to present the text followed in the earlier printed editions. It was first published at Basle in 1555, in the ‘Antilogia Papæ, hoc est de corrupto ecclesiæ statu,’ by Wolfgang Wisseburg, theologian, a work which has been reproduced in the ‘Appendix ad Fasciculum Rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum,’ edited by Edward Brown, 2 vols. fol. London, 1690 (pp. 584–607). Wisseburg says, in his preface, that he was ignorant of the name of the author, but, after commending the work to the reader, adds: ‘Mirandum sane esset tam liberam fuisse linguam in tam captivo seculo.’ Edward Brown, in his preface to the later reprint, states further: ‘Aureum Speculum est a Paulo quodam conterraneo nostro.’ A short summary of it is to be found in the ‘Catalogus Testium Veritatis qui ante nostram ætatem Pontifici Romano ejusque erroribus reclamaverunt,’ by Mathew Flacius, Strasburg, 1562, and in later editions of the same work, Lyons, 1597; Geneva, 1608. It is also noticed in ‘Lectionum Memorabilium et Reconditarum Centenarii XVI,’ by John Wolf (Wolfius), Lavingæ, 1600. It is given complete, with the author's name, in Goldast's ‘Monarchiæ Romani Imperii, sive Tractatus de Jurisdictione Imperiali,’ Frankfort, 1621, t. iii. pp. 1527–58, under the title, ‘Pauli Decretorum Doctoris Angli, Aureum Speculum Papæ, ejus curiæ, prælatorum et aliorum spiritualium super plenitudine potestatis Papalis, scriptum ante ducentos annos.’
J. G. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paul (d.573)

​PAUL or POL (d. 573), saint, also called Aurelian, bishop of Léon in Brittany, was the son of Perphius, Porfius, or Porfus, who in a late legend is called Aurelianus—namely, of Orleans—but this name probably did not belong to his family, and was first applied to the saint when his relics were moved to Orleans. He is said to have been born at Pen-hoen in Cornwall or Wales, and to have been a pupil of St. Illtyd [q. v.], with Samson (fl. 550) [q. v.] and Gildas [q. v.]; but legend has perhaps confused him with Paulinus (fl. 500?) [q. v.], founder of a school at Whitland, who is mentioned in the Welsh ‘life’ of St. Illtyd. Several stories of Paul's student life under Illtyd are identical with those which the Welsh hagiographers narrate of Samson. Leaving Illtyd, Paul retired to a desert place with a few companions, and taught a chieftain Marcus, called also Quonomonus, who had been despoiled by the Anglo-Saxons. Fearing to be made a bishop, Paul went to an island off the coast of Brittany, probably Saintes, whence he passed to the mainland. He visited Withur, an Armorican chief, and led the life of a missionary. Withur, pretending that he needed a safe messenger, charged him with a letter directed to Judwal, another Armorican chief, then at the court of Childebert, son of Clovis I, and this letter contained a request that Paul should be made a bishop. In ignorance of its contents he presented it, and, when his reluctance had been overcome, he accepted the episcopate of the tribe of the Osismii, with Léon as his see. He was consecrated in the king's court, probably in 512 (Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 74). He continued to make converts and to build monasteries in Brittany, where many places still bear the prefix Lampaul.
After twenty-four years he retired to an island to lead a hermit's life, but a fatality pursued his successors in his old see of Léon, and he returned to its care. At an advanced age he again retired, and died in the island of Batz on 12 March 573. His relics were removed in the tenth century to Fleury, near Orleans. Like other Celtic saints, he is said to have had a miraculous bell, preserved at Léon in 876, according to Plaine.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sims, John

​SIMS, JOHN (1749–1831), botanist and physician, was the son of R. C. Sims, M.D., a member of the Society of Friends, who for sixty years practised at Dunmow, Essex, and was the author of ‘An Essay on the Nature and Constitution of Man,’ London, 1793, 8vo, and of ‘The Constitution and Economy of Man's Nature,’ 1807, 12mo (cf. Smith, Friends' Books, ii. 576). John Sims was born at Canterbury in 1749, and was educated partly at Burford, Oxfordshire, and partly under his father, who was a good classical scholar. In 1770 he proceeded to the university of Edinburgh, and, after passing the session of 1773–4 at Leyden, graduated M.D. ​at Edinburgh in 1774, his inaugural dissertation being ‘De usu aquæ frigidæ interno.’ In 1776 he settled in London; in 1779 he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and he afterwards became physician to the Surrey Dispensary and to the Princess Charlotte (Memoirs of the late Princess Charlotte, London, 1818, p. 579). He at first declared himself sceptical as to the efficacy of vaccine, but afterwards admitted its utility. He edited Curtis's ‘Botanical Magazine’ from 1801 to 1826 (vols. xiv–xlii.) and from 1805 to 1806, in conjunction with Charles Konig, ‘Annals of Botany.’ Sims was a fellow of the Royal Society and one of the original fellows of the Linnean Society. He died at Dorking, Surrey, on 26 Feb. 1831. An engraved medallion portrait of him forms the frontispiece to the first volume of the ‘Annals of Botany,’ and his name was commemorated by Robert Brown in the Mexican genus of Compositæ, Simsia. His herbarium was purchased by George Bentham, and is now at Kew. He contributed an account of the expansion of Mesembryanthemum under the influence of moisture to the ‘Medical and Physical Journal’ (vol. ii. 1799), and a ‘Description of Amomum exscapum’ to the ‘Annals of Botany’ (vol. i.).
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simpson, Robert

​SIMPSON, ROBERT (1795–1867), divine and author, was born in Edinburgh in 1795, but was sent in early childhood to reside with his grandfather in the parish of Stobo, Peeblesshire, where he attended the parish school. He afterwards attended the arts classes in the university of Edinburgh with ​a view to the ministry of the church of Scotland. Having changed his views on the subject of church establishments, he joined the secession church and proceeded to the Theological Hall at Selkirk, then under the charge of Dr. George Lawson (1749–1820) [q. v.] After completing his course and receiving license, he was called to Sanquhar. He was ordained there on 16 May 1820, and continued to minister in the same place for forty-seven years. He was a successful preacher, but is mainly known as author of many interesting volumes bearing on the covenanting struggle in Scotland and on the character and sufferings of the persecuted covenanters. His books, which have passed through several editions, describe attractively the chief events of a stirring and influential period of Scottish history. He received the degree of D.D. from Princetown University, United States, in 1853. He died at Sanquhar on 8 July 1867.
His publications were: 1. ‘Life of James Renwick, the last of the Scottish Martyrs,’ Edinburgh, 1843. 2. ‘Traditions of the Covenanters; or Gleanings among the Mountains,’ 3 vols. 1843, 1846, and 1888. 3. ‘The Times of Claverhouse; or Sketches of the Persecution,’ Edinburgh, 1844, 12mo. 4. ‘The Banner of the Covenant; or Lives of the Martyrs,’ 1847. 5. ‘Memorials of Pious Persons lately deceased.’ 6. ‘The History of Sanquhar,’ Edinburgh, 1853, 2 edits.; Glasgow, 1865. 7. ‘A Voice from the Desert; or the Church of the Wilderness,’ 1856. 8. ‘Martyrland; or the Perils of the Persecution,’ Glasgow, 1861. 9. ‘The Cottars of the Glen; or Glimpses of the Rural Life of the Scottish Peasantry a Hundred Years ago,’ Glasgow, 1866.
T. B. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simpson, Thomas (fl.1620)

​SIMPSON, THOMAS (fl. 1620), musician, was one of two prominent English musicians who settled in Germany during the early seventeenth century. William Brade [q. v.] was the other. About 1610 Simpson was living at Rinteln, acting as a court musician to the Count of Schaumburg. In 1618 both Simpson and Brade are mentioned among the royal musicians at Copenhagen, but they apparently made only a short visit to Denmark.
Simpson published two collections of music, now very rare: 1. ‘Opus neuer Paduanen, Galliarden, Intraden, Canzonen, Ricercare, Fantasien, Balletten, Allemanden, Couranten, Volten, und Pasamezen lieblich zu gebrauchen mit 5 Stimmen gesetzt durch Thomas Simpson, Englændern,’ Frankfurt, 1611; reprinted at Hamburg 1617. A copy of the latter edition is included in Carl Israel's catalogue of the Landesbibliothek at Cassel, where English musicians were much in favour during Simpson's lifetime. It begins with a Latin poem ‘Ad musicum eximium Thomam Simsin,’ written by Michael Prætorius, and dated Dresden, 1614. Two pieces from this collection were reprinted in ‘Reigen und Tänze aus Kaiser Matthias Zeit,’ Leipzig, 1897. 2. ‘Tafel-Consort allerhand lustige Lieder von 4 Instrumenten und einem G. B.’ (figured-bass) ‘theils seiner eigenen, theils anderer,’ Hamburg, 1621. In this collection Simpson included works by J. Dowland, Peter Philipps, R. and E. Johnson, and several others. The British Museum possesses one part-book of the ‘Tafel​Consort;’ all the others and the Hamburg reprint of i. are in the ducal library of Wolfenbüttel (Vogel, Katalog, pp. 234, 277).
A third collection, with the date 1609 or 1610, is mentioned in Fétis's ‘Biographie Universelle des Musiciens’ and Grove's ‘Dictionary of Music and Musicians,’ but is apparently identical with the first of the above.
H. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simpson, William

​SIMPSON or SYMPSON, WILLIAM (1627?–1671), quaker, a native of Lancashire, joined the Society of Friends about 1656. In that year he received money from the common fund to go to Scotland (Swarthmoor MSS.) He was at first one of the denunciatory section of Fox's followers, and accepted biblical interpretation in the most literal manner. In accordance with a prophetic call which he supposed himself to have received, he went about in the streets and to people's houses exhorting them to repentance. On 1 April 1657 he was arrested at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, as a wandering person and sent to Lancaster with a pass. In the same year he was expelled from Evesham by the mayor. Two years later he returned thither, and passed naked through the streets as a sign of the spiritual denudation of the people. He also appeared in sackcloth in Cambridge, Colchester, Waltham, and London, sometimes with his face blackened as a type of the moral darkness that prevailed. Such eccentricities he practised for about three years, often at great danger to his life, for he was stoned and whipped, as well as put in the stocks, and imprisoned. Simpson describes his state of mind thus: ‘The thing was as death to me, and I had rather, if it had been the Lord's will, have died than have gone on in this service.’
After the Restoration, the fanatical spirit seems to have entirely left him. He became a vivacious preacher, and one with whom more temperate quakers cordially agreed. He was frequently interrupted in his meetings. On 10 May 1670, while preaching at Westminster, he was pulled down by soldiers and fined. On the 29th he was driven by ​ soldiers from Devonshire House, and on 19 June, while preaching in the street at Ratcliffe because the meeting-house was barricaded against the quakers, he was arrested and carried before Justice Rycroft, who fined him 20l. On 8 July following Simpson set sail with John Burneyeat [q. v.] from Gravesend on a visit to Barbados. He died there of fever on 8 Feb. 1761, and was buried in a garden at Bridgetown, belonging to Richard Forstal, a quaker. Simpson was married, and a son survived him.
He published: 1. ‘A Declaration unto all, both Priests and People,’ 1655, 4to. 2. ‘A Declaration to all Rulers and People.’ 3. ‘From one who was moved … to go a Signe among the Priests and Professors of Christ's Words … naked from Salvation and Immortality, and as black as spiritual Ægyptians and Æthiopians,’ London, 1659, 4to. 4. ‘A Discovery of the Priests and Professors,’ 1660, 4to. 5. ‘Going naked a Signe,’ 1660, 4to, 1666, 4to, 1671.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sims, James

​SIMS, JAMES (1741–1820), physician, son of a dissenting minister, was born in co. Down in 1741, and, after a good preliminary education, was sent to Leyden, where he proceeded M.D. in 1764, presenting as his inaugural thesis ‘De Temperie Fœminea et Morbis inde oriundis,’ Leyden, 4to. He then returned to Ireland, and, after practising for a time in Tyrone, he removed to London, where he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1778. He was much helped by John Coakley Lettsom [q. v.], and soon acquired lucrative practice. He served as a physician to the General Dispensary in Aldersgate Street and to the Surrey Dispensary, and he was the first chairman and vice-president of the Philanthropic Society. The Humane Society, too, owed much of its early success to his energy. He served for twenty-two years as president of the Medical Society of London, and was displaced only by the strenuous exertions of the younger fellows. He had a valuable collection of books, which he made over to the Medical Society in 1802, in consideration of an annuity of 30l. a year to be paid to himself and his wife, and of 45l. annually to the survivor. He made a sufficient fortune to allow of his retiring to Bath in 1810. He died there in 1820.
Dr. Wadd says of him that ‘he was a good-humoured pleasant man, full of anecdote, an ample reservoir of good things, and for figures and facts a perfect chronicle of other times. He had a most retentive memory; but when that failed, he referred to a book of knowledge, from which he quoted with oracular authority.’
There is a good portrait of Sims painted by Samuel Medley (1769–1857) [q. v.] It was engraved by Nathan Branwhite [q. v.], and issued as a folding plate in the third volume of Dr. Lettsom's ‘Hints designed to promote Beneficence, Temperance, and Medical Science.’ The same volume contains a small silhouette of Dr. Sims. In Medley's picture of the Medical Society of London (at present in the society's rooms in Chandos Street, Cavendish Square), Dr. Sims is again pictured to the life, sitting in the presidential chair with a cocked hat upon his head. The picture was engraved by Branwhite.
Sims's works are: 1. ‘Observations on Epidemic Disorders, with Remarks on Nervous and Malignant Fevers,’ London, 8vo, 1773; 2nd edit. 1776; translated into German (Hamburg, 1775), and into French (Avignon, 12mo, 1778). 2. ‘A Discourse on the best methods of prosecuting Medical Enquiries,’ London, 8vo, 1774; 2nd edit. 1774; translated into French (Avignon, 12mo, 1778), and into Italian (Venice, 1786). 3. ‘Observations on the Scarlatina Anginosa, commonly called the Ulcerated Sore Throat,’ London, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1803; an American edition was published at Boston in 1796. Sims also completed and corrected Edward Foster's ‘Principles and Practice of Midwifery,’ 2 vols., London, 8vo, 1781.
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simson

​SIMSON. [See also Simpson.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macqueen, John Fraser

​MACQUEEN, JOHN FRASER (1803–1881), lawyer, born in 1803, was eighth, but eldest surviving, son of Donald Macqueen of Corrybrough, Inverness-shire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Fraser of Bnghtmony in the same county. He eventually succeeded his father in the chiefship of the clan Revan, the tribal designation adopted by the Macqueens. At first he practised as a writer to the signet at Edinburgh, but subsequently became a member of Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar on 8 June 1838, and commenced to practise in the court of chancery. He was at one time frequently engaged in Scottish appeals, and in proceedings for divorce under the old system. For a short time after the passing of the Divorce Act in 1857 he also practised in the divorce court. In 1860 he was appointed by Lord Campbell official reporter of Scottish and divorce appeals in the House of Lords, and he compiled four volumes of appellate reports (1861-5), now very scarce. He continued his reports for several years after the formation of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting in 1866, but failing health obliged him to nominate a deputy, and in 1879 he resigned the post. He took silk in 1861, and during the same year was made bencher of his inn. Macqueen, who was D.L. and J.P. for Inverness-shire, where he had a seat at Aird, died at 4 Upper Westbourne Terrace, Hyde Park, London, on 6 Dec. 1881. He married in 1840 Georgiana, daughter of George Dealtry, rector of Outwell, Norfolk. Macqueen was a man of genial and kindly disposition, and of considerable literary acquirements.
He published:
* 'A Practical Treatise on the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords and Privy Council, together with the Practice on Parliamentary Divorce,' 8vo, London, 1842.
* 'The Rights and Liabilities of Husband and Wife at Law and in Equity, as affected by Modern Statutes and Decisions,' 8vo, London, 1848 [-49]; 2nd edit, by S. Hastings and J. D. Davenport, 1872; 3rd edit, by J.C. and R. B. Russell, 1885.
* 'Reports of Scotch Appeals and Writs of Error, together with Peerage, Divorce, and Practice Cases in the House of Lords,' vol. i. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1856. No more was published.
* 'Reports of the Debates on the Life Peerage Question,' 8vo, London, 1856, &c.
* 'A Practical Treatise on Divorce and Matrimonial Jurisdiction under the Act of 1857,' 8vo. London, 1858; 2nd edit. 1860.
* 'Chief Points in the Laws of War and Neutrality, Search and Blockade,' 8vo, London, 1862. He wrote also some legal pamphlets, including an interesting 'Lecture on the Early History and Academic Discipline of the Inns of Court and Chancery,' 1851.
[Times, 8 Dec. 1881, p. 9, col. 6; Law Times, ec. 1881, p. 106; Solicitors' Journal, 24 Dec 1881, p. 129; Law Mag. 4th ser. vii. 215-16; Law Lists.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macquin, Ange Denis

​MACQUIN, ANGE DENIS (1756–1823), abbé and miscellaneous writer, of Scottish extraction, was born at Meaux in 1756. Educated at the college of that town, he became a good classical scholar, was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres, and held a rich ecclesiastical benefice in the neighbourhood. In 1783 he published anonymously a pamphlet entitled 'Je ne sais quoi, par je ne sais qui, se vend je ne sais où,' and in 1789 some verses on memory. At the commencement of the revolution he edited or contributed to a royalist paper, which openly welcomed the Prussian invaders as deliverers. Quitting Meaux just in time to escape the massacre of 4 Sept. 1792, he embarked at St. Valery for England. At Hastings he began learning English, and supported himself by sketching local scenery; but in 1793 an introduction to Edmund Lodge led to his appointment as heraldic draughtsman to the College of Arms, and on 22 May 1794 he was elected honorary fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries (Gough, List, 1798). He designed Nelson's funeral- ​car and a new throne for the House of Lords. Devoting his leisure to literature and art, he wrote on heraldry and other subjects in the 'Encyclopædia Londinensis,' besides literary and antiquarian articles for the 'Sporting Magazine.' He likewise edited Bellinger's 'Dictionary of French and English Idioms,' and published a humorous Latin poem, 'Tabella Cibaria,' a history of three hundred animals (London, 1812), and a 'Description of West's picture of Christ rejected by the Jews' (1814). On the fall of Napoleon he revisited France, and recovered part of his property, but feeling himself out of his element there he returned to London. He was latterly engaged on a work entitled 'Etymological Gleanings,' some portions of which appeared in Jordan's 'Literary Gazette,' He died in Bermondsey Street, Southwark, 17 July 1823, and was buried in the catholic church at Horselydown.
[Gent. Mag. 1823, ii. 1801 W. Jerdan's Autobiography, iii. 103, London, 1852; Quérard's France Littéraire, Paris, 1833; Carro'e Histoire de Meaux, 1865.]
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mactaggart, John

​MACTAGGART, JOHN (1791–1830), encyclopaedist and versifier, was born in the parish of Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire, 26 June 1791. At Kirkcudbright academy he displayed mathematical faculty, and entering Edinburgh University in 1817 he specially studied mathematics and physics, but withdrew at the end of two sessions, as he 'never received any good from attending the university.' After a few years at home as an agriculturist he was appointed in 1826, by Rennie the engineer, clerk of works to the Rideau Canal, Canada, where his special knowledge and strong character were very serviceable. In 1828 he returned in weak health, bringing with him a work in two volumes on his experiences in Canada. He died 8 Jan. 1830.
Mactaggart's 'Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia,' published in 1824, and reprinted in 1876, is a clever and eccentric medley of local history, quaint etymologies, stray verses, biographical notices, &c. Alphabetically arranged, the work gives, in its proper place, an autobiography of Mactaggart himself. 'Three Years in Canada,' a vigorous, characteristic narrative, appeared in 1829. Mactaggart also wrote a pamphlet entitled 'Osborne and Symington on the Weigh-Beam.'
[Autobiog. in the Encycl.; Murray's Lit. Hist. of Galloway; Harper's Bards of Galloway.]
T. B.