he there obtained a familiar acquaintance with the classical languages. Returning to his native country at the commencement of Queen Eliza beth's reign, he prosecuted his studies at Oxford. He married the daughter of Nicasius Yetswiert, French secretary to the queen, and one of the clerks of the signet; and by means of this connexion was introduced to the notice of the court. He was appointed one of the clerks of the privy council. Rogers, who died on the eleventh of February 1591," is represented as a man of an excellent character; and he was undoubtedly possessed of talents and learning. Sir Thomas Randolph, LL. D. whose name is familiar to the readers of Scotish history, was also a warm admirer of Buchanan's genius and virtues. h Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. i, col. 199. i Three Latin poems by Rogers are inserted in Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, edit. Antv. 1579, fol.: nine in Latin, and one in Greek, are published in Humphrey's Vita Joannis Juelli. Many of his occa sional verses occur in other books. See Douse Poemata, p. 470, Heinsii Epistola Selectiores, p. 667, Meursii Athena Batava, p. 28, and Hearnii Præf. in Camdeni Annales, p. cxxxix. "De veterum Britannorum moribus et legibus," says Ortelius, " scripsit commentarium Daniel Rogersius cognatus meus. Idem de Romanorum in Britannia imperio præ manibus habet." (Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, f. 10.) In the Cotton Library is a quarto MS. entitled " Danielis Rogersii Angli Antiquas Britanniæ Observationes [manu propria].” At p. 89, occurs a division of the work, entitled "Politia, seu Documenta Administrationis Romanæ in Britaniis." These observations, which merely consist of digested extracts from ancient and modern writers, were apparently never intended for publication. Rogers was a very intimate friend of Janus Dousa; who has dedicated to him his Præcidanea pro Satyrico Petronii Arbitri, and addressed him in sẹo teral of his poems. (Dousæ Premata, p. 5, 18, 174, 185, 604.) He was the son of Avery Randolph of Badlesmere in Kent; prosecuted his studies in Christ Church at Oxford; and about the period when he took his bachelor's degree, was made a notary public. In 1549, he was constituted principal of Broadgate Hall, and retained the office till 1558. In the reign of Elizabeth, he was employed in various embassies to Scotland, France, and Russia. Nor were his faithful services unrewarded; he received the honour of knighthood, and enjoyed the office of chamberlain of the ex-、 chequer, and that of comptroller general of the post-horses. He died on the eighth of June 1590, at the age of sixty-seven. Of the mutual epistles of Buchanan and Randolph, only two have been preserved: Buchanan's is written in the Scotish," * Some papers of Randolph may be found in Hakluyt's Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation, p. 399. Lond. 1589, fol. Buchanan has addressed to him his verses on the character of a good king, and has written the epitaph of his lady, Anne Walsingham. (Icones, p. 89. Miscell. xxvii.) + Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. i, col. 195. m Buchanan's letter, which occurs in Mr. Ruddiman's preface, p. xix, is not unworthy of attention. "To Maister Randolf Squiar, Maister of Postes to the Quenes Grace of Ingland. · Maister, I haif resavit diverse letters frome you, and yit I have ansourit to naine of thayme: of the quhylke albeit I haif mony excusis, as age, forgetfulnes, besines, and disease, yit I wyl use nane as now, eccept my sweirness and your gentilnes; and geif ye thynk nane of theise sufficient, content you with ane confession of the falt wout fear of punition to follow on my onkindnes. As for the present, I am occupiit in writyng of our historie, being assurit to content few, and to displease mony tharthrow. As to the end of it, yf ye gett it not or thys winter be passit, lippin not for it, nor nane other writyngs The rest of my occupation is wyth the gout, quhilk håldis me besy both day and nyt. And quhair ye say ye haif not lang to lyif, I traist to God to go before yow, albeit I be on fut, and ye ryd the post: from me. and Randolph's in the English language. In the collection is a French letter of Buchanan, addressed to M. de Sigongues, who had been governor, while Buchanan was preceptor, to Timoleon de Cossé," and who was afterwards governor of the city and castle of Dieppe. These two are the only epistles of his which are not written in Latin. The correspondence of Buchanan was originally published by James Oliphant; who appears to have been but indifferently qualified for such an undertaking. The collection only occupies a very inconsiderable volume; nor can' it be sufficiently regretted that there is little probability of its ever being augmented. Though so small a portion of his correspondence has been preserved, it is certain that his intercourse with learned foreigners was very extensive: and he may be supposed to have been acquainted with most of the remarkable scholars of whom his native country could then boast; with the exception however of such as were separated from him by theological and political praying you als not to dispost my hoste at Newwerk, Jone of Kelsterne. Thys I pray you, partly for his awyne sake, quhame I tho2 ane gud fellow, and partly at request of syk as I dar not refuse. And thus I tak my leif shortly at you now, and my lang leif quhen God pleasis committing you to the protection of the almytty. At Sterling xxv. day of August, 1577, Yours to command wt service, G. BUCHANAN." n Brantome, Vies des Honumes Illustres, tom. iii, p. 409. • Georgii Buchanani Scoti ad Viros sui seculi Clarissimos, eorumque ad eundem, Epistolæ. Lond. 1711, 8vo. prejudices. The celebrated John Knox, who had. likewise been a pupil of Mair at St. Andrews, seems to have belonged to the number of his friends. The talents of Knox, if we may judge from their effects, were powerful and commanding his share of acquired knowledge was far from being inconsiderable; his eloquence was vehement and impressive; his vernacular style is copious, foreible, and, for the age in which he lived, not inelegant. He died at Edinburgh in + Buchanani Epistolæ, p. 8. Bezæ Epistolæ Theologica, p. 336. 9 King James, if we may rely on John Barclay, regarded Knox as a warlock. "Ut de cæteris sileam, Knoxium (quem Beza Apostolum Scotia vocat) non impium modo fuisse, sed magum, serenissimus Britanniarum rex sæpe magnis argumentis asseruit." (Paranesis ad Sectarios, p. 38. Romæ, 1617, 8vo. Calvin and Beza seem to have regarded him in a very different light. Two epistles from Calvin to Knox, and one from Knox to Calvin, are preserved. (Calvini Epistolæ, p. 460, 461, 503, edit. Lausan 1576, 8vo.) Two of the epistles of Beza are addressed to this Scotish apostle. (Bezæ Epistola Theologice, p. 333, 344. Genevæ, 1573, 8vo.) One of them opens in an elegant strain of affection. “Etsi tanto terrarum et maris ipsius intervallo disjuncti corporibus sumus, mi Cnoxe, tamen minime dubito quin inter nos semper viguerit et ad extremum vigeat summa illa animorum conjunctio, unius ejusdemque spiritus fideique vinculo sancita." A high elogium of Knox occurs in Beza's Icones Virorum İllustrium, sig. Ee. ïij. Genevæ, 1580, 4to. Of this work, a French version was published under the title of Les Vrais Pourtraits des Hommes Illustres en Pieté et Doctrine. Geneve, 1581, 4to. In the translation are inserted original verses on Knox, Patrick Hamilton, Adam Wallace, and Alexander Hales. It is not professedly executed by Beza himself; but it is hardly to be supposed that a mere translator would have intermingled verses of his own. A remarkable passage respecting Knox occurs in Milton's Areopagitica, p. 302. "Nay, which is more lamentable, if the work of any deceased author, though never so famous in his life-time, and even to this day, come to their hands for licence to be printed or reprinted, if there be found in his book one sentence of a ventrous edge, utter'd in the height the month of November 1572, and the Papists immediately began to revile his memory in a most inhuman manner. Archibald Hamilton, one of their most bitter revilers, attempted to involve Buchanan in the same infamy. His work was formally refuted by Thomas Smeton, principal of the university of Glasgow; who has vindicated the character of Knox with great zeal and sucSmeton has incidentally extolled Buchanan as the glory of the age, as a miracle of erudition, as the prince and parent of all learning and of all the learned, as an exemplar of ancient virtue and piety, as an ornament to Scotland and to human nature." cess. Andrew Melvin, principal of St. Mary's College St. Andrews, is entitled to a place among the accomplished friends of Buchanan. He was himself a Latin poet of no mean character; and of zeal, and who knows whether it might not be the dictat of a divine spirit? yet not suiting with every low decrepit humor of their own, though it were Knox himself, the reformer of a kingdom, that spake it, they will not pardon him their dash: the sense of that great man shall to all posterity be lost, for the fearfulnesse, or the presumptuous rashnesse of a perfunctory licencer. And to what an author this violence hath bin lately done, and in what book of greatest consequence to be faithfully publisht, I could now instance, but shall forbear till a more convenient season." This treatise of Milton appeared in 1644; and in the very same year, David Buchanan's edition of Knox's history of the reformation was published in London. r Hamiltonius de Confusione Calvinanæ Sectæ apud Scotos. Paris. +577, 8vo. Smetonii ad Virulentum Hamiltonii Dialogum Orthodoxa Responsio, p. 44, 89. Edinb. 1579, 4to. |