by the canons for bishops to be present and vote in cases of blood, the archbishop and his suffragans withdrew from the house of lords, having first entered a protest in relation to their peerage and privilege to sit upon all other matters. In 1399, he held a synod in St. Mary's church in Cambridge, in which a tenth was granted to the king, on condition that he should pass over into France with an army before the 1st of October following. This year, archbishop Courtney set out upon his metropolitical visitation, in which he was at first strongly opposed by the bishops of Exeter and Salisbury; but those prelates being at last reduced to terms of submission, he proceeded in his visitation without farther opposition: only, at the intercession of the abbot of St. Alban's, he refrained from visiting certain monasteries at Oxford. The same year, the king directed his royal mandate to the archbishop, not to countenance or contribute any thing towards a subsidy for the pope. In a parliament held at Winchester in 1392, archbishop Courtney, being probably suspected of abetting the papal encroachments upon the church and state, delivered in an answer to certain articles exhibited by the commons in relation to those encroachments, which is thought to have led the way to the statute of præmunire. The same year, he visited the diocese of Lincoln, in which he endeavoured to check the growth of Wickliff's doctrines. In 1395, he obtained from the pope a grant of four-pence in the pound on all ecclesiastical benefices; in which he was opposed by the bishop of Lincoln, who would not suffer it to be collected in his diocese, and appealed to the pope. But before the matter could be decided, archbishop Courtney died, July 31, 1396, at Maidstone in Kent, where he was buried, but has a monument in the cathedral church of Canterbury, on the south side, near the tomb of Thomas Becket, and at the feet of the Black Prince. His remains at Maidstone, only a few bones, were seen some years ago. This prelate founded a college of secular priests at Maidstone. He left a thousand marks for the repair of the cathedral church of Canterbury; also to the same church a silver-gilt image of the Trinity, with six apostles standing round it weighing 160 pounds; some books, and some ecclesiastical vestments. He obtained from king Richard a grant of four fairs to be kept at Canterbury yearly within the site of the priory.-The character of archbishop Courtney, weighed in the balance of

modern opinions, is that of a persecuting adherent to the church of Rome, to which, however, he was not so much attached as to forget what was due to his king and country. He appears to have exhibited in critical emergencies, a bold and resolute spirit, and occasionally a happy presence of mind. One circumstance, which displays the strength and firmness of Courtney's mind in the exercise of his religious bigotry, deserves to be noticed. When the archbishop, on a certain day, with a number of bishops and divines, had assembled to condemn the tenets of Wickliff, just as they were going to enter upon business, a violent earthquake shook the monastery. Upon this, the terrified bishops threw down their papers, and crying out, that the business was displeasing to God, came to a hasty resolution to proceed no farther. "The archbishop alone," says Mr. Gilpin in his Life of Wickliff, "remained unmoved. With equal spirit and address he chid their superstitious fears, and told them, that if the earthquake portended any thing, it portended the downfall of heresy; that as noxious vapours are lodged in the bowels of the earth, and are expelled by these violent concussions, so by their strenuous endeavours, the kingdom should be purified from the pestilential taint of heresy, which had infected it in every part. This speech, together with the news that the earthquake was general through the city, as it was afterwards indeed found to have been through the island, dispelled their fears. Wickliff would often merrily speak of this accident; and would call this assembly the council of the herydene; herydene being the old English word for earthquake."

In the Parliamentary History, some notice is taken of the speech which, as chancellor of Engiand, Courtney made at the opening of the parliament in 1382. The words which he took for his theme were rex convenire fecit consilium, and it is said that he made a notable oration upon it in English. He applied his text to the good and virtuous government of the kingdom during his reign. No reign, the archbishop affirmed, could long endure, if vice ruled in it, to remedy which evil the parliament was called, the laws then in being not having been found effectual to that purpose. 1

Biog. Brit. Parker de Antiq. Brit. Eccles.-Wharton's Anglia Sacra.Prince's Worthies of Devon,-Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, Introd, to vol. II.

COURTOIS (JAMES and WILLIAM). See CORTESI. COUSIN (GILBERT), in Latin, COGNATUS, a learned writer of the sixteenth century, was born at Nozeret, in Franche-Comté, Jan. 21, 1506. Having a turn for the law, he went to study at Dole in 1526, but not relishing it after six months application, he entered upon a course of divinity, and being introduced to Erasmus, was employed by him as an amanuensis or copyist. Erasmus also instructed him in the learned languages and in polite literature. In 1535 the prince of Orange conferred on him a canonry of St. Antony at Nozeret, in consequence of which preferment, he was obliged to leave Erasmus, who expressed a very high regard for him in several of his letters. When established at Nozeret, he appears to have taught school. In 1558, he accompanied the archbishop of Besançon on a tour into Italy; but being soon after suspected of heresy, he was arrested by order of pope Pius V. and thrown into prison, in which he died in 1567. It is generally agreed that he inclined in some measure to the sentiments of the reformers. His works, of which a collection was published in 1562, 3 vols. folio, at Basle, consist of translations from various authors, a treatise on grammar, erroneously ascribed to St. Basil; Latin dissertations; letters; historical and critical treatises, &c. Niceron has an elaborate article on this author; and in 1775 was published at Altorf, "Commentatio de vita Gilberti Cognati, et Commentatio de scriptis," by Schwartz, 4to. Cousin's notes upon Lucian are in Bourdelot's edition of that classic, 1615, folio, but had been published before by himself, in an edition printed at Basil, 1563, and reprinted in 1602, and 1619, 4 vols. 8vo.1

COUSIN (JAMES ANTONY JOSEPH), an excellent French geometrician, a member of the old academy of sciences, and more recently of the conservative senate, and the national institute of France, was born at Paris, Jan. 28, 1739, and was early distinguished for literary industry, and habits of study and reflection, which were confined at last to the pursuit of mathematical knowledge and natural philosophy. In 1766 he was appointed professor of the latter in the college of France, as coadjutor of Le Monnier, which situation he filled for thirty-two years with great reputation. In 1769 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the

1 Moreri. Saxii Onomast.- Jortin's Erasmus.-Niceron, vol. XXIV. VOL. X.

BB

military school; in 1772 he was admitted into the academy of sciences as adjoint-geometer, and in 1777 he published the first edition of his lessons on the "Calcul differentiel, et Calcul integral," 2 vols. 12mo, reprinted in 1796 and 1797, in 2 vols. 4to, a work which manifests the depth and precision of his geometrical knowledge. In 1787 he published his "Introduction a l'etude de l'Astronomie physique," 8vo; and in 1798," Elemens d'Algebre," 8vo. There are also various essays by him in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences. In 1791 he was appointed municipal officer of the commune of Paris, and his office being to provide the metropolis with provisions at that distracted period, he must have executed its duties with no common prudence and skill to have given satisfaction. In 1796 he resumed his professor's chair in the college of France, and in 1799 was chosen a member of the conservative senate. His conduct in political life we are unacquainted with. He died at Paris December 30, 1808.1

COUSIN (JOHN), an eminent French artist, and the earliest historical painter France produced, was born at Souci near Sens, in 1530, and studied the fine arts so strenuously in his youth, that he became profoundly learned, especially in the mathematics. Painting on glass being very much in vogue in those days, he applied himself more to that than to the drawing of pictures. Several fine performances of his are to be seen in the churches of the neighbourhood of Sens, and some in Paris; particularly in St. Gervase's church, where, on the windows of the choir, he painted the martyrdom of St. Laurence, the history of the Samaritan woman, and that of the paralytic. There are several of his pictures in the city of Sens'; as also some portraits. But the chief of his works, and that which is most esteemed, is his picture of the Last Judgment, in the sacristy of the Minims at Bois de Vincennes, which was graved by Peter de Tode, a Fleming, a good designer. This picture shews the fruitfulness of Cousin's genius, by the numbers of the figures that enter into the composition; yet is somewhat wanting in elegance of design.

Cousin married the daughter of the lieutenant-general of Sens, and carried her to Paris, where he lived the rest of his days. His learning acquired him the name of the

1 Dict. Hist.

Great. He was well received at court, and in favour with four kings successively; namely, Henry II. Francis II. Charles IX. and Henry III. He worked also in sculpture, and made admiral Chabot's tomb, which is in the chapel of Orleans, belonging to the Celestines in Paris. The last French account of him 'fixes his death in 1589. Of his literary works, we have seen only the following: 1. "Livre de Perspective," Par. 1560, folio. 2. "Livre de Pourtraiture," ib. 1618, 4to, and 1671, both which are in the British Museum.1

COUSIN (LEWIS), president of the Mint, one of the forty members of the French academy, was born Aug. 12, 1627, at Paris. He was intended for the ecclesiastical profession, and admitted bachelor of the Sorbonne; but, quitting that situation afterwards, was received advocate, married, and attended the bar till 1657, when he was appointed president of the Mint. He assisted in the "Journal des Savans" from 1687 to 1702. President Cousin was well acquainted with ecclesiastical antiquity, and learned Hebrew at the age of 70, that he might spend his last years in reading the Scripture in the original. He died February 26, 1707, at Paris, aged 80. He founded six scholarships at the college of Laon, and left his library to the abbey of St. Victor, with 20,000 livres; the interest to be employed in augmenting that library. His works are, "The Roman History of Xiphilin," &c. 4to, or 2 vols. 12mo, a French translation of the "Ecclesiastical Histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomenus, and Theodoret," 4 vols. 4to, or 6 vols. 12mo: there are often but five, because the History of Constantine has been taken out, and added to that of Constantinople. A translation of the authors of the 66 Byzantine History," 1672-1674, in 8 vols. 4to, or 11 12mo; and some other works. These translations are written in very good French.2

COUSTANT (PETER), a learned Benedictine of the congregation of St. Maure, was born at Compiegne in 1654, and died at Paris October 18, 1721, in the abbey of St. Germain des Prés, of which he was dean. He employed much of his time, as was the case with other learned men of his order, in preparing editions of the fathers. In 1693, he published an edition of St. Hilary, folio, and in

1 Argenville, vol. IV.-Dict. Hist.

2 Moreri.-Dict. Hist. Niceron, vols. XVIII. and XX.