DEMPSTER, Thomas, one of the most learned men whom Scotland has produced, was born at Cliftbog in Aberdeenshire, on the 23d of August 1579, being the twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine children by the same mother. His father, who bore the same name with himself, he describes as proprietor of Muresk, Auchterless, and Killesmont, and prorex, or lieutenant, of the county of Banff and the district of Buchan. His mother was Jane, the sister of Lesley of Balquhain; and one grandmother was daughter to the last earl of Buehan, of the family of Stewart, and the other^[1. Laurus Leslaeana explicata, § Gl. Graecii, 1692, fol. ] was sister to Lord Forbes. He was born during the lifetime of his grandfather; at whose decease, the family, more distinguished by its gentility than its opulence, was left in very unprosperous circumstances.

According to his own account, his first step in learning was as wonderful as any part of his subsequent progress; for, at the age of three years, he completely mastered the alphabet in the space of a single hour. He was afterwards committed to the care of Andrew Ogston, a schoolmaster at Turreff, and was next removed to Aberdeen, where he was initiated in classical learning by Thomas Cargill, an excellent grammarian. In the mean time, the family was involved in ruin, chiefly by the misconduct of James, his eldest brother; of whom he has given an account which it would have been much wiser to suppress. This brother took the extraordinary step of marrying his father’s concubine, Isabella Gordon of Aehavach; and having consequently been disinherited, he attempted to revenge himself by collecting a band of Gordons, and making a violent assault upon his father when he was one morning proceeding on horseback, with the view of transacting some public business. Several attendants of the latter were slain in this encounter, and, amongst others, his brother-in-law Gilbert Lesley; he was himself dangerously wounded. Two of the Gordons were likewise left dead on the field, and several were wounded on both sides.^[2. L)empsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, p. G73 Tn the dedication of his Antiquitates Romance to King James, he alludes to the same atrocious attempt. Here his father is described as “Banfiae et Buchaniae praefectus atque irenarcha.” ] In order to cut off all hope of succession from such an heir, he sold to the earl of Errol his estate of Muresk, situated in the county of Aberdeen; but the bargain was never fulfilled by the other party, and he was unable to recover either his lands or their price. Thus, we are told, he only left to his son Thomas an empty title. But Thomas, who represents himself as the twenty-fourth child, does not venture to assert that, if the estate had still remained in the family, he was next in the order of succession; and when in various works he styled himself baron of Muresk, he must have been aware, even taking baron in the sense of laird, that his title was as empty as could well be imagined. After this act of atrocious violence, his brother James fled to the northern islands, and having there collected a band of ruffians, he lived in open defiance of the laws, till he at length set fire to the bishop of Orkney’s palace, and then returned to the country which he had been compelled to abandon. His wife, who had become the mother of seven children, was now discarded; and having made choice of another companion, he sought an asylum in the Netherlands, where [7:7:711]he served as a captain of horse. But the divine vengeance at last overtook him; for having been guilty of some gross act of violence towards his colonel, he was executed at Utrecht in the most appalling manner; he was torn limb from limb by four horses, and thus, according to his brother’s account, ended a career of more than common crime and infamy.

In the progress of these events, Thomas, by the advice of his uncle John Dempster, whom he describes as an eminent lawyer of Edinburgh, was induced to seek in another country that fortune from which he seemed to be precluded in his own. In the tenth year of his age, he repaired to Cambridge, where he for some time studied in Pembroke Hall. He afterwards directed his course to France; and having on his journey been robbed of his money and stript of his clothes, he with difficulty made his way to Paris. Here he was kindly treated by some of his countrymen, and was beginning to think of resuming his studies, when he was seized with a contagious disease, which deprived the schools of their auditors, and the city of its inhabitants. When he at length recovered from this dangerous malady, he hastened to the university of Louvain, which was then adorned by the erudition of Lipsius; but not long after his arrival he found that William Crichton, a Jesuit, principal of the Scotish College, had received instructions to send some of his young countrymen to Rome; and those whom he selected, besides Dempster himself, were Patrick Anderson, who was already a Jesuit, Robert Hill, who died professor of philosophy at Montpellier, and Thomas Lyon, who was blind from his infancy. He reached the papal city after a dangerous journey, for the plague was raging in Germany, and Italy was the scene of military operations. By the kindness of Cardinal Cajetano, protector of the Scotish nation, he was admitted as a student in the Roman seminary, and, under the tuition of Stephoni, began the study of poetry, that is, the art of Latin versification: but having again been attacked by a dangerous disease, the physicians recommended a change of climate; and, in company with Andrew Crichton, proceeding by way of Switzerland, he directed his wandering steps towards the Netherlands. At Tournay he experienced the kindness of his countryman James Cheyne, who sent him to the university of Douay, where he was maintained by a pension from the king of Spain and the archduke Albert. He now prosecuted the study of poetry with new vigour, but did not neglect the other branches of learning. In poetry he obtained the first, and in philosophy the second prize. Having taken the degree of A. Μ. he for a short time taught humanity at Tournay; but as his prospects were not there very encouraging, he again presented himself at Paris, and having taken the degree of doctor of the canon law, he succeeded David Sinclair as a regent in the College of Navarre. At that period, according to his own statement, he had not attained the age of seventeen; and he must therefore have obtained his preferment in the year 1596. In what university he afterwards took the degree of doctor of the civil law, he has omitted to mention; but in several of his works he describes himself as Juris utriusque Doctor, or doctor of both laws, civil and canon.

From the beginning to the end of his career he was a restless wanderer, and he soon quitted Paris with the intention of settling at Toulouse. On his route, he halted for some time at St Maixant in Poitou. At Toulouse he began to teach humanity; but his zeal in contending for the interests of the university excited the resentment of certain individuals of rank or influence, and he again thought it expedient to change his place of residence. His views were next directed to a professorship of philosophy at Montpellier, whither he appears to have been invited by his countrymen Adam Abernethy and Andrew Currie, the former of whom is still remembered as an author; but, in the mean time, he made his appearance at Nismes, where the professorship of eloquence was to be awarded to the most deserving competitor, and where only one of twenty-four judges decided against him. As this was a seminary appropriated to the Huguenots, Bayle conjectures that he must have suspended his zeal for the Romish faith.^[3. Bayle, Dictionaire Historique et Critique, tom ii. p. 986. ] One of the unsuccessful candidates, Jacob Grasser of Basel, sought to avenge himself by making a violent assault upon Dempster, by publishing a libel against him, and by applying for a legal interdict to prohibit him from discharging the duties of his office; but the professor, who possessed courage as well as strength, repelled the joint attack of Grasser and some of his associates, and found means to have him committed to prison, first at Nismes, and afterwards, when he had made his escape, at Montpellier, and again at Paris. After a tedious litigation of two years, the cause was at length decided in his favour by the parliament of Toulouse, and the libel published against him was ordered to be burnt at Nismes by the hands of the executioner.

Nor did he long retain his professorship of eloquence. After making a journey into Spain, he accepted the appointment of preceptor to Artus d’Espinay, subsequently bishop of Marseille, a son of the famous Sainte Luc, grandmaster of the artillery of France, who was killed at the siege of Amiens in the year 1597. But a quarrel in which he involved himself at Brissac with one of his pupil’s relations, hastened the termination of this engagement, and he now adopted the resolution of returning to his native country. With the view of recovering some portion of the family property, he brought an action in the court of session, and, according to his own impression, would ultimately have succeeded, if he had not found it expedient to withdraw before the decision was pronounced. His relations were either reduced to poverty, or were unwilling to assist him, on account of his adherence to the popish faith; and for the same reason he was exposed to persecution from the Scotish clergy, chiefly, as he conceives, at the instigation of William Cowper, afterwards bishop of Galloway. With this divine he was for three days engaged in a theological disputation at Perth, and he appears to have been extremely well satisfied with the manner in which he acquitted himself. To the resentment of Cowper in being foiled, not by a theologian, but by a lawyer, he imputes the injurious representations which were made to the king.^[4. Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, p. 195. 677∙ ] He again bad adieu to Scotland, and, returning to Paris, was for seven years employed, with honour as well as emolument, as a regent in four different colleges, those of Lisieux, Grassins, Du Plessis, and Beauvais.^[5. A. du Saussay, bishop of Tulle, in his continuation of Bellarmia, has mentioned Dempster in the following terms: “Docuit magno discipulorum concursu, nec minori omnium doctorum aestimatione et plausu: inter ejus auditores in mea juventute constiti. Caeterum tantus vir pugnaci animo et contentioso ac instabili fuit, quo genio ductus plerumque domicilia mutavit.” (De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, p. 82. edit. Colon. 1684, 4to.) ]

Of the decision and ferocity of his character he exhibited a notable instance in the last of these colleges. Gran-gier, the principal, having occasion to absent himself from Paris, appointed Dempster to act as his substitute, being no doubt persuaded that he had sufficient energy to maintain the most rigid discipline. A student challenged one [7:7:712]of his companions to fight a duel: the vice-principal was moved with indignation at such a proceeding; and having seized the offender and untrussed his points, he placed him on the back of a sturdy knave, and, in the presence of the whole college, gave him a sound flogging. The young gentleman, burning with resentment, brought one day to the college three of his kinsmen who served in the guards; but Dempster, undismayed at this military invasion, put arms into the hands of the servants, and having ordered them to kill the horses which were left at the gate, made so formidable an attack on the soldiers, that they were speedily reduced to the necessity of begging for mercy. Their lives were spared by the victor, who however detained them for a short time as prisoners in the college belfry. When they had thus ascertained that he was a match for them at their own weapons, they endeavoured to find a more competent remedy; and as he was not persuaded that a legal enquiry into his proceedings would tend to his advantage, he quitted his station in the College of Beauvais, and sailed for England.^[6. Erythraci Pinacotheca Imaginum illustrium Doctrinae vel Ingenii Laude Virorum, tom. i. p. 24. Colon. Agrip. 1645-8, 3 torn. 8vo.—This account seems to receive some confirmation from Dempster’s more brief statement: “A Joanne 1lobillardo Normano Cadomensi periculum vitae adiit, qui frequenti stationario milite comitante sub noctem irrumpens, armis cum suis exutus ac in custodiam datus, iter conceptum Thomae acceleravit.” (Historia Ecclesiastica, p. 677·) ] According to one of his Irish antagonists, the cause of his flight was of a much more foul description;^[7. Hiberniae, sive Antiquioris Scotiae, Vindiciae, p. 52-8. Antverp. 1621, 8vo. ] but the work which contains this statement displays such a fierce spirit of detraction, as must deprive it of all historical credit. He had been invited to England by King James, who bestowed upon him the title of historiographer royal, and made him a present of two hundred pounds, which at that period was no inconsiderable sum. This gift he received in the thirteenth year of the king’s reign, namely, in 1615 or 1616.^[8. Nichols’s Progresses of King James the First, vol. ii. p. 136. ] At London he married Susannah Waller, a woman of great beauty and elegance, who afterwards proved a very precarious acquisition. His hopes of obtaining preferment were defeated by the remonstrances of the clergy, particularly Dr Montague, bishop of Bath and Wells: they endeavoured to impress the king with a sense of the impropriety of thus taking under his protection, and into his favour, a known and zealous catholic. He therefore took his leave of the learned monarch, and again directed his course towards Italy. When he arrived at Rome, he was suspected of being a spy, and for a single night was detained in custody; but his character and pretensions were easily ascertained, and from the pope and several cardinals he obtained letters of recommendation to the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosmo II. Being likewise befriended by Guicciardini, the duke’s ambassador at the court of Rome, he proceeded to Florence, and in the year 1616 was appointed professor of the Pandects in the university of Pisa.^[9. Fabronii Historia Academiae Pisanae, tom. ii. p. 234. Pisis, 1791-5, 3 tom. 4to. ] He had previously distinguished himself by the publication of various works in prose and verse, and had earned the reputation of extensive erudition. At an early period of his life he had betaken himself to the study of the law; and by his edition of the Antiquitates Romance of Rosinus, printed in the year 1613, he had evinced his proficiency as a civilian. The study of the Roman law is so closely blended with the study of Roman history and antiquities, that the one cannot be safely disjoined from the other.

Soon after he had been admitted to this office, he was furnished with letters and money by the grand duke, and returned to England for the purpose of conveying his wife to Italy. They proceeded by way of Paris; and when they were one day walking in the street, his lady attracted a crowd of gazers, not merely by the beauty of her person, but chiefly by exhibiting a more ample portion of her bosom and shoulders than suited the established usages of the country. So great was the concourse of people, that they were obliged to fly for shelter to an adjoining house.^[10. Erythraci Pinacotheca, tom. i. p. 25. ] In due time he returned to Pisa, and read his inaugural lecture on the second of November. His salary was augmented to four hundred ducats, and he now appeared to have a fair prospect of honour and emolument. He recommended himself to the duke by undertaking his great work De Etruria Regali, which he must have completed with wonderful energy and dispatch. In the year 1617, he paid another visit to Britain, with the view of arranging some private affairs. But his restless and turbulent disposition did not long permit him to enjoy tranquillity. He involved himself in an angry and pertinacious dispute with an Englishman, whose name he has not thought proper to mention, nor is the origin or progress of this dispute rendered in any degree intelligible by his abrupt narrative. It however appears that his antagonist, who was probably an ecclesiastic, succeeded in producing a favourable impression on the grand duke, who only left Dempster the alternative of making an apology or quitting the Tuscan dominions. The learned civilian was of too stubborn a nature to be readily convinced that he was in the wrong, and too proud to stoop to what he considered as an unworthy compliance: he accordingly accepted the latter part of this alternative, and took his departure from Pisa on the 21st of July 1619.

Disgusted with Italy, he now reverted to the plan of settling in his native country; but on arriving at Bologna, he paid his respects to Cardinal Capponi, legate of that papal city, who prevailed upon him to abandon his intention, and within the short space of twelve days procured him the appointment of professor of humanity. This was an honourable and a lucrative office, which had been held by men of high reputation, by P. Manutius, Sigonius, and Robortellus. A new office naturally involved such a person in new contentions: the professor of humanity was entitled to take precedence of other professors; and as this place of honour was fiercely contested, he maintained his own rights with his usual pertinacity, and with more than his usual success.

More serious evils awaited him. The Englishman who had interrupted his tranquillity at Pisa, still infested him at Bologna: he accused the professor of being a catholic of dubious faith, and of being guilty of the crime of having heretical books in his library. Dempster addressed to his adversary a letter, which appears to have been so intemperate as to incur the censure of some of the cardinals; but he proceeded to Rome in person, and after obtaining more than one audience of the pope, was enabled to remove any aspersions which had been aimed at his character. A formal reconciliation was at length effected between these pertinacious antagonists, but the spirit of reconciliation was probably wanting in both parties. The professor mentions that he had prepared a full statement of his case, and that if his adversary recurred to his former practices, it should be transmitted to posterity. In the mean time, he discharged his duty in the university [7:7:713]with diligence and ability. His reputation attracted pupils of a higher rank, and his salary was augmented to eight hundred crowns. His love of wandering seems at length to have abated; for he declined an offer of a thousand crowns a year as professor of the civil law in the university of Padua. Pope Urban VIII. who was himself a Latin poet, treated him with more than usual distinction, by conferring upon him the honour of knighthood, and accompanying this honour with an annual pension of one hundred pieces of money, but of what denomination, is not sufficiently apparent. Dempster likewise became a member of the Accademia della Notte, in which, according to the Italian fashion, he assumed the name of Evantius, and in the proceedings of which he is said to have taken a great interest. He now appeared to have reached a place of rest, when he was overtaken by the severest of all his calamities. After his arrival in Italy, his wife had born a daughter, who did not survive many days, and this was fortunately the only offspring of such a mother. On returning from one of his lectures, he discovered that she had made an elopement, in which one or more of his own pupils were either concerned as principals or accessories. He immediately commenced a pursuit of the fugitives, who seem to have added robbery to their other crime; but when he had proceeded as far as Vicenza, a city of Lombardy, he found that they must already have passed the Alps. This painful journey had been performed during the heat of the dog-days. Oppressed with fatigue of body and anguish of mind, he sought repose and tranquillity at Bu-tri, in the neighbourhood of Bologna; but having been suddenly attacked with a fever, he was removed to his own residence, and there died on the 6th of September 1625, soon after he had completed the forty-sixth year of his age. His remains were interred in the church of St Dominic, where his brethren of the Accademia della Notte erected a monumental stone to his memory, and added a Latin inscription written in a very quaint style. One of their number, Ovidio Montalbani, pronounced his funeral oration, which was published in the course of the following year.^[11. Ragionamento funebre havuto publicamente nelľ Accademia della Notte, per la Morte dell’ eccellentissimo Tomaso Demstero. Bologna, 1626 This publication, which we have never seen, is mentioned by Bayle, and likewise by Niceron, Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire des Hommes illustres dans la République des Lettres, tom. xxviii. p. 314. ]

Such was the turbulent life, and such the premature death, of Thomas Dempster, a man distinguished by some eminent endowments of body as well as mind. In his person, he was above the ordinary size, and was possessed of proportional strength. He had an ample head, with black hair, and a dark complexion, so that in Italy he might easily have been mistaken for an Italian. He was a man of a noble aspect, and was possessed of undaunted courage. The irritability of his temperament involved him in many quarrels, nor was his sword less formidable than his pen. He never acquired the habit of restraining the natural impetuosity of his mind, and was equally decided and undisguised in his friendships and in his resentments. To his friends he was very pleasant, and equally odious to his enemies. Little inclined to forgive injuries, he pursued his enemies with the most violent animosity, and expressed his tumultuous feelings without any scrupulous regard to decency.^[12. “Moribus ferox fuit, apertus omnino, et simulandi nescius, sive enim amore, sive odio aliquem prosequeretur, utrumque palam; consuetudine jucundissimus, amicis obsequentissimus, ita inimicis maxime infensus, acceptaeque injuriae tenax, eam aperte agnoscens ac repetens.” These are the expressions of Matthaeus Peregrinus, who has completed the account of Dempster which occurs at the end of his Historia Ecclesiastica. ] In several of his works, we find sufficient evidence of his being somewhat loose in his assertions; J and indeed men of a violent and perverse disposition seem ' frequently to be incapable of distinguishing falsehood from truth: they are much inclined to embrace as true whatever is best suited to the state of their mind during its morbid excitement.

Dempster’s intellectual endowments were likewise of a mixed character. He was endowed with such extraordinary powers of memory, and read with such indefatigable diligence, that he was regarded as a speaking library. It was customary with him to devote fourteen hours a day to study. He was allowed to possess an equal knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages; and his knowledge of both was so familiar, that in either language he undertook to dictate verses as. rapidly as the pen of a ready writer could commit them to paper. He was a poet and philologer, as well as a civilian and historian. He evinces no mean portion of poetical fancy, and his verse is more elegant than his prose. His Musea is one of the few Latin poems, written by natives of Scotland, which the learned Wasse has recommended for republication.^[13. Wasse’s Memorial concerning the Desiderata of Learning: Bibliotheca Literaria, No. iii. p. 11.—See likewise Borrichii Dissertationes Academicae de Poetis, p. lõl. A selection from Dempster’s poems may be found in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, tom. i. p. 306. ] In his more elaborate works, he displays very extensive and diversified erudition, but in many instances his learning appears superior to his judgment. The life which he led was subject to many vicissitudes, and his writings partake of the same desultory character. His style is unequal, and frequently unpolished, nor is he sufficiently scrupulous in selecting words of the purer ages of Latinity.

His principal work, De Etruria Regali, was completed in the space of about three years; and when we consider its great extent, and its ample stores of recondite knowledge, we cannot but regard it as a wonderful performance. Errors and defects may naturally be expected to occur in a work relating to such a subject, and executed with so much rapidity; but sufficient room is still left for our admiration of the author’s vivacity of mind, and resources of learning. His edition of Rosinus likewise displays the copiousness of his reading, and it has supplied materials to all those who have subsequently laboured in the department of Roman antiquities. His juridical works entitle him to a respectable place among civilians. Ludewig, who is himself an able writer, has expressed a wish that his notes on the Institutes of Justinian should be reprinted.^[14. J. P. de Ludewig Vita Justiniani, p. 45. Halae Salicae, 1731, 4to. ] As a classical critic, his character is chiefly to be ascertained from his editions of Claudian and Corippus, two poets who belong to the declining ages of Roman literature, and one of them indeed belongs to the latter part of the sixth century.^[15. Leyseri Historia Poetarum Medii Aevi, p. 172. Halae Magdeb. 1721, 8vo. ] The editor might easily have selected purer models of language and taste; but on various occasions he chose to travel in a by-path of his own, and his annotations on Corippus, as well as on Claudian, have contributed to his reputation as a man of miscellaneous erudition. Among his own works he enumerates notes on Statius and a commentary on Aelian, but there seems no reason to believe that they were ever printed.

On the ecclesiastical and literary history of Scotland, some of his publications are very slight and unsatisfactory. His Menologium and Scotia Illustrior are so much occupied[7:7:714] with fierce contentions “de lana caprina,” that they can now excite little interest or curiosity. His Nomenclatura is a mere catalogue of names, which were to be illustrated in a subsequent work. In his native country, he is most generally known as the author of a book on which he has bestowed the title of Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, a title which is by no means descriptive of its contents. It contains a long enumeration of Scotish saints, writers, and other worthies, who lived, or are supposed to have lived, at periods very remote from each other. Of many of his saints and writers, the very existence is considered as more than doubtful, and many of the rest belong, not to Scotland, but to other countries. It is not always easy to distinguish the early Scotish from the early Irish writers. The name of Scotia or Scotland has not been traced in any author who flourished before the third century.^[16. Usserit Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, p. 728. Dublin. 1639, 4to. ] At first it was exclusively applied to the country now called Ireland; but after the descendants of the Irish' had established themselves in the north of Britain, they still retained the appellation of Scots; although it was not before the eleventh century that the name of Scotland was transferred from the one country to the other.^[17. Pinkerton’s Enquiry into the History of Scotland, vol. ii. p∙ 228. ] After that period, the green island gradually lost its ancient designation. Some degree of confusion may therefore be supposed to be connected with this identity of names, nor has it always been avoided by writers more accurate than Dempster. His notices of persons who lived in earlier times are necessarily very scanty, and are often very erroneous. Nor are his catalogues of books less remarkable than his list of writers: he ascribes various works to various individuals who flourished long before the art of writing was introduced into Scotland; and nothing can be more ludicrous than his formal enumeration of the productions of such imaginary authors. The principal value of his book consists in its notices of those writers who belonged to his own time, and particularly of those who passed the better part of their lives on the continent.^[18. “Post hos, rem literariam aggressus Dempsterus, omnia ad criticam severitatem minime exegit, sed multa futilia undique corrasit; et quo fidem suam sacrificulis Romanis probaret, non potuit non religionis et libertatis vindices identidem latrare. Nec tamen sua laude fraudandus est. De meliore nota multa congessit, de iis praesertim scriptoribus qui, exules patriae, interiores et reconditas literas in academiis Gallorum, Italorumque et Germanorum, non sine gloria docuerunt. Alii literas humaniores, mathematicas disciplinas alii jurisprudentiamve colentes, laudem haud mediocrem adepti sunt; professores vel etiam gymnasiorum praesides sunt facti, nomeuque Scoticum late per orbem terrarum propagarunt. Viderat ipse Dempsterus multos, quorum meminit, sacerdotes, professores, milites, et interdum mores hominum notat.” (Praef in Hist. Ecclesiast. editionem alteram, p. xii.) ] Relative to these, he presents us with many curious gleanings of information, which is nowhere else to be found; and on many occasions his information is more authentic than his readers may be inclined to suppose. According to Bishop Lloyd, he “was as well inclined to believe a lye as any man in his time ;”^[19. Lloyd’s Historical Account of Church-Government as it was in Great Britain and Ireland, when they first received the Christian Religion, p. 153. sec. edit. Lond. 1684, 8vo. ] and to Dr Towers he “seems to have thought it highly meritorious to advance the grossest falsehoods, if those falsehoods would, in any degree, contribute to the honour of his country.”^[20. Biographia Britannica, vol. v. p. 94. ] A person convicted of many errors is naturally suspected of many more. Thus, when Dempster speaks of Kidd, or Ca-danus, as being an eminent professor of law in the university of Toulouse, and the author of several works in prose and verse, he has perhaps by some readers been suspected of introducing an imaginary character; and yet: the same individual, utterly forgotten in his native country, is mentioned by Baluze as a professor of great ability and reputation.^[21. “Deinde per tres continuos annos in academia Tolosana, quae tum injure docendo ceteras Europae facillime anteibat, jus civile et canonicum audivit, usus magnis doctoribus, Gulielmo Marano, Gulielmo Cadano Scoto, Vincentio Chabotio, et Jano a Costa, qui tum publice jus utrumque in ea civitate profitebantur. Sed in primis secutus est Cadanum, tunc interpretantem Novellam Constitutionem cxxiii. Imperatoris Justiniani, virum, ut ipse aiebat, in utroque jure consultissimum, sed qui canonicum calleret ad miracu-lum, bonasque literas legum ac canonum cognitioni addidisset; eorumque tarditatem deplorabat, qui obscuritatem in Cadano deprehenderent.” (Baluzii Epistola de Vita Petri de Marea, Archiepiscopi Parisiensis, p. 1Ò. Paris. 1663, 8vo.) Dempster calls him James, instead of William. ] On the continent there were many Latin poems and tracts published by natives of Scotland, during the age of Dempster and a short period immediately preceding; and such of them as were written by individuals who did not acquire any considerable celebrity, have in various instances left but few traces behind them.

The works of Dempster are very numerous and very miscellaneous. We subjoin a list, which is as complete as we have been able to render it; but he has himself enumerated various others, which do not appear to have been published. All the articles from No. 29 to No. 47 inclusive, are copied from his own list; and it is to be regretted that he has not described them in a more satisfactory manner.

1. Cl. Claudiani quae extant, cum notis Thomae Demp-

steri Scoti. Flexiae, 1607, 16to. >

2. In Claudianum Commentarius lib. i. Lugduni, et alibi.—This commentary we have never seen, and it escaped the researches of the younger Burman.^[22. P. Burmanni Secundi praef. in Claudianum, p, xi. ]

3. Epithalamion in Nuptiis generosissimorum Jacobi Comitis Perthani, Domini Drommondi, Baronis Stobhalliae, &c. et Isabellae, unicae Roberti Comitis Wintonii, Domini Setonii, &c. filiae. Edinburgi, 1608, 4to.

4. In desideratissimum Rectoratum clariss. viri D. D. Jacobi Vassorii, SS. Theologiae Baccalaurei primae Licen tiae, Noviodunensis Ecclesiae Episcopalis Archidiaconi meritissimi, &c. Panegyris extemporanea. Parisiis, 1609, 4to.

5. Eucharistico, dictum post Telemachum cl. v. D.D. Petri Valentis in Aula Montana Cal. Septemb. Paris. 1609, 8vo.

6. Corippi Africani Grammatici de Laudibus Justini Minoris Augusti libri quatuor: Thomas Dempsterus a Muresk, J. C. recensuit, lacunas supplevit, mendis expurgavit, commentarium adjecit, quo historia et antiquarii ritus elucidantur, variique scriptores explicantur, restituuntur; item loca variorum reduxit, qui Corippum citarunt, illustrarunt: cum indice pene omnium dictionum. .His accessit pro corollario Constantini Manassis Gr. Carmen politicum in Justinum Minorem Imp. quod nunc primum prodit, cum versione metrica Fed. Morelli Interpr. Reg. Paris. 1610, 8vo.

7. Musea; sive Strena Kal. Jan. ad illustrem nobilissi-mumque virum D. Petrum Huraldum Hospitalium Fayum, Dominum de Bel-ebate, Magni Consilii Senatorem Regium, &c. Ejusdem Museae Partes, ab excellentissimis ingeniis. Paris. 1610, 4to.—There are other two editions.

8. Epinicion; seu Victrix Academia. Natalium splendore, [7:7:715]nec minus eruditionis gloria insigni viro ac domino, D. Richardo de Pichon, causarum in summo Senatu Galliarum patrono eloquentissimo. Paris. 1612, 4to.

9. Tragoedia Decemviratus abrogatus. Ad illustriss. D. Jacobum Augustum Thuanum, &c. Paris. 1613, 8vo.

10. ‘Antiquitatum Romanarum Corpus absolutissimum, in quo praeter ea quae Joannes Rosinus delincaverat, infinita supplentur, mutantur, adduntur; ex criticis et omnibus utriusque linguae auctoribus collectum, poetis, oratoribus, historicis, jurisconsultis, qui laudati, explicati, cor-rectique; Thoma Dempstero a Muresk, J. C. Scoto, auctore. Ad potentissimum augustissimumque Principem Jacobum I. Monarcham Magnae Britanniae, &c. Lutetiae Parisiorum, 1613, fol.—Of this work there are many subsequent editions. One of these was published by Pitiscus, and another, which bears the following title, by J. F. Reitz: “Johannis Rosini Antiquitatum Romanarum Corpus absolutissimum, cum notis doctissimis ac locupletissimis Thomae Dempsteri.” Amst. 1743, 4to. The edition is correct and elegant. Under the title of “Thomae Dempsteri Kalendarium Romanum,” an extract from this work is inserted in Graevius’s Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romana-rum, tom. viii. col. 115.

11. Panegyricus augustiss. potentiss. q. Principi Jacobo

I. Britanniar. Franciae, et Hiberniae Regi, &c. Domino suo clementiss. dictus a Thoma Dempstero a Muresk, J. C. HistoricoRegio. Londini, 1615, 4to.

12. Strena Kal. Januar, ad Jacobum Hayum, Dominum ac Baronem de Saley. Lond. 1616, 4to.

13. Votum illustriss. generosiss. q. D. Roberto Caro, Periscelidis Equiti, Regi ab Arcanis Consiliis, Regiae Domus Majori, Somerseti Comiti, &c. 4to.—This publication consists of two leaves, without a title-page, and seems to have been printed in London.

14. Licitatio Professorum; sive Praefatio solemnis habita Pisis postridie Kal. Novembris M.DC.XVI. Ad illustrissimum reverendissimumque virum D. Franciscum Bon-cianum, Archiepiscopum Pisanum, &c. Pisis, 1616, 4to.

15. Troia Hetrusea; sive Gamelia Ludicra, sereniss. FedericoUrbinatium Principi decursa, sereniss. Cosmo

II. Magno Hetruriae Duce edente. Ad sereniss. Franc. Mariam Urbinatium Ducem. Florentiae, 1616, 4to.

16. Bandum Mediceum; sive Strena Kl. Jan. MDCXVII. de Stemmate, Pila, Hercule, Leone. Sereniss. Princip. Cosm. II. Magn. Hetruriae Duc. Florent. 1617, 4to.

17. Bononia; sive Praefatio solemnis, habita ix. Cal. Novembris. Bononiae, 1619, 4to.

18. Scotorum Scriptorum Nomenclatura, &c. Bonon. 1619, 4to.

19. Scotia Illustrior; seu Mendicabula repressa, modesta Parecbasi: qua libelli famosi impudentia detegitur, mendacia ridicula confutantur, Scotiae Sancti sui vindicantur, ac bona fide asseruntur. Lugduni, 1620, 8vo.—The title-page is without a date, but the dedication is dated at Rome on the fourth of October 1620. This work is chiefly directed against a publication bearing the title of “Bri-gida Thaumaturga; sive Dissertatio partim encomiastica in laudem ipsius Santae,” &c. Paris. 1620, 8vo. The anonymous author has subjoined a tract entitled “De Scriptorum Scotorum Nomenclatura a Thoma Dempstero edita Praecidaneum.” This Irishman and his country Dempster treated with the utmost scorn and contempt; and in the following work he was answered in a similar strain: “Hiberniae, sive Antiquioris Scotiae, Vindiciae adversus immodestam Parecbasim Thomae Dempsteri, moderni Scoti, nuper editam: in quibus currente calamo innumerae ipsius Dempsteri imposturae et mendacia deteguntur, atque ipse levi penicillo depingitur, ut intelligat qui quae vult dicit, quae non vult audit. His accessit Nomenclatura Scotorum et Scotiae, &c. Authore G. F. VeridicoHiberno.” Antverpiae, 1621, 8vo. Sir Thomas Pope Blount has stated that in 1623 both Dempster’s work and this answer were prohibited by the church. In 1621 his edition of Rosinus was prohibited till it should be corrected.^[23. Pope Blount, Censura celebriorum Authorum, p. 643. Lond. 1690, fol. ]

20. Asserti Scotiae Cives sui, S. Bonifacius Rationibus ix. Joannes Duns Rationibus xii. Excerptum e libris de Scriptoribus Scotis. Bonon. 1621, 4to.

21. Ulyssis Aldrovandi Quadrupedum omnium Bisulcorum Historia: Joannes Cornelius Uterverius Belga colligere incoepit, Thomas Dempsterus, Baro a Muresk Scotus, J. C. perfecte absolvit, Hieronymus Tamburinus in lucem edidit. Bonon. 1621, fol. Bonon. 1642, fol.

22. Menologium Scotorum; in quo nullus nisi Scotus gente aut conversatione; quod ex omnium gentium monimentis, pio studio Dei Gloriae, Sanctorum Honori, Patriae Ornamento, colligit, publicat, et inscribit illustriss. Principi, Moecaenati suo, D. Maphaeo S. R. E. Card. Barberino, Scotorum Protectori. Opus ecclesiasticae hierarchiae ac monasticae vitae dignitati augendae, haeresi in Scotia vigenti confundendae, operose utile. Bonon. 1622, 4to.

23. Apparatus ad Historiam Scoticam lib. ii. Accesserunt Martyrologium Scoticum Sanctorum DCLXXIX. Scriptorum Scotorum MDC11I. Nomenclatura. Opus e peregrinis omnium gentium historiis collectum, omnia orbis regna pio studio lustrantur, religiosae S. R. E. familiae nobilitantur, historia patria augetur, sectarii admonentur, catholica veritas contra hostes Dei et Scotiae firmatur. Justi et parati operis praenuntia. Bonon. 1622, 4to.—The first book treats “De Religione,” and the second “De Regno.” The work was intended as a prelude to his Historia Ecclesiastica.

24. Κίξαυνος και OCsaoς in Glossas lib. iv. Institutionum Justiniani. Bonon. 1622, 8vo.

25. De Juramento lib. iii. Locus ex Antiq. Rom. retractatus. Satisfactum Famae ill mi . b. m. Cardinalis Bellarmini, qui falso insimulabatur, theologice, juridice, historice, antiquaric, ex utriusque linguae, omnium gentium, omnis actatis monimentis. Illustriss. Principi, Jo. Gar-siae S. R. E. Card. Millino, S. D. N. Vicario Generali, Mecaenati suo. Bonon. 1623, 8vo.

26. Benedicti Accolti de Bello a Christianis contra Barbaros gesto, pro Christi Sepulchro et Judaea recuperandis, libri iiii. Thomas Dempsterus, J. C. Baro a Muresk Scotus, cum aliis scriptoribus collatos, et mendis expurgavit, et notis non vulgaribus illustravit. Florentiae, 1623, 4to. Nunc denuo ad exemplar Florentinum C1□I□CXXIII. ab innumeris et foedissimis mendis expurgatum, emaculatius recudendos curavit Henricus Hofsnider, cum indice satis luculento. Groningae, 1731, 8vo.

27. Lessus; sive Laudatio Funebris illustriss. D. Julio Caesari Signio, Episcopo Reatino, dicta ad Divi Joannis in Monte: Extemporale Thomae Dempsteri, J. C. Scoti, Baronis a Muresk, Profess. Eminentis. Bonon. 1623, 4to.

28. Votum Divae Virgini Sanlucianae. Bonon. 1623, 8vo.

29. Tragoedia Stilico lib. i. Sammaxentii.—His own list likewise contains the following titles: “Tragicooedia Maximilianus lib. i.” “Tragoedia Maximilianus lib. i. Duaci acta, scripta a puero.” As he does not mention any place of printing, we may suppose these dramas to have been unpublished.

30. Epithalamium Marchionis Brandeburgici lib. i. Francofurti.
[7:7:716]

31. Epithalamium Vicecomitis Hadintonii lib. i. Londini.

32. Pancgyricus Clementi VIII. Pontifici lib. i. Romae.

33. Panegyricus Paulo V. Pontifici lib. i. Romae.

34. Expostulatio eum Musis et Senatu Aremorico dum custodiam suae innocentiae ultro subivit. Nemausi.

35. Divinatio ad Regem lib. i. Londini.

36. Eucharistico Alberto Archiduci lib. i. Duaci et Lovanii.

37. Actio Scholastica de S. Catharina lib. i. Lutetiae.

38. Poemata de S. Thoma Aquinate lib. i. Tolosae.

39. Acrosticha de Europae Principibus lib. i. Duaci.

40. In Elizabetham Angliae Reginam lib. i. Duaci.

4L Lachrymae ad Timoleontem d’Espinay Sanlucium in Funere Uxoris lib. i. Parisiis et Lugduni.

42. Judicium de omnibus omnium Gentium et Temporum Historicis lib. i. Parisiis.

43. .Notae in Sphaeram lib. i. Francofurti.

44. Politicae Parecbases, nuncupatae Alexandro Razi-villo, Principi Polono, auditori suo, lib. i. Parisiis.

45. Genethliacon Delphini Franciae, nunc Regis Ludo-vici XIII. lib. i. Flexiae.

46. De Inundatione Anglicana lib. i. Flexiae.

47. Votum Scipioni Burghesio, S. R. E. Cardinali, lib. i. Romae.

• 48. Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum lib. xix. qua viri sanctitate, literis, dignitatibus, toto orbe illustres, et samiliae Scoticae, in varias urbes transmissae, et praecipue Placentiam, recensentur. Illustrissimo viro Fabio Scoto Plac o . Miceni Com. dicata. Bononiae, 1627, 4to.—This posthumous work is printed in the most negligent manner, insomuch that very many passages are scarcely intelligible. It has recently been reprinted for the use of the Bannatyne Club: “Thomae Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum: sive, de Scriptoribus Scotis. Editio altera.” Edinb. 1829, 2 tom. 4to. This edition was superintended by Dr Irving, who, in a preface of considerable length, has given an account of the author and his singular performance. He has endeavoured to amend a great variety of passages, by referring to writers whom Dempster quotes, by altering the vicious punctuation, by attending to the ordinary rules of grammar, and sometimes, where the sense seemed perfectly clear, by substituting one letter for another. Of the more material changes, he has given a detailed statement in the preface.

49. Cerasum et Sylvestre Prunum; opus poematicum, de Virtutum et Vitiorum Pugna; sive Electio Status in Adolescentia: authore primo nobili Domino Alexandro Montgomrio Scoto, poeta regio, idiomatis materni laureato: nune rursus auctum et in Latinos versus translatum, per T. D. S. P. Μ. B. P. P. in gratiam illustris et generosi herois D. Alexandri Brussii, Capitanei Cohortis Peditum Scotorum, Domini de Kinkawil. Arctauni Francorum, 1631, 8vo. Edinburgi, 1696, 8vo.

50. De Etruria Regali libri vii. nunc primum editi, curante Thoma Coke, Magnae Britanniae Armigero. Florentiae, 1723-4, 2 tom. fol.—The title-page of the first volume bears an inscription “Regiae celsitudini Cosmi III. Magni Ducis Etruriae,” that of the second, “Regiae celsitudini Jo. Gastonis, Magni Ducis Etruriae;” and Dr Towers has erroneously supposed that the work was published at their expense. It was published at the expense of the editor, Sir Thomas Coke, afterwards earl of Leicester, whose library contained the original manuscript, nor is the book unworthy of so magnificent an editor: it is elegantly printed, and is illustrated with engravings. A supplement to this work was published by Giambattista Passeri under the subsequent title: “In Thomae Dempsteri libros de Etruria Regali Paralipomena, quibus Tabulae eidem operi additae illustrantur. Accedunt Dissertationes de Re Num maria Etruscorum, de Nominibus Etruscorum, et Notae in Tabulas Eugubinas.” Lucae, 1767, fol. (x.)

Dempster of Court, the name formerly given in Scotland to the common executioner or hangman.