style, but afterwards relinquished it for one more solid, though less alluring. Placentia and Milan possess his best works. He flourished about 1608. His eldest son, Charles Francis, was born in 1608, at Milan, and left the principles of G. C. Procaccino for the graces of Guido with a success that still insures him the name of the Lombard Guido. More choice than copious in composition, he forms his figures with grace and delicacy, and sweetly animates their countenances; hence his Madonnas always Occupy a distinguished place in galleries. He died in 1651. His younger brother, Joseph, who was born in 1619, with more fire and fancy, delighted in numerous composition, and sacrificed choice and delicacy to energy and effect. He painted much more than his brother, not only in Lombardy, but through the Venetian state and in various churches of Brescia. The large picture of a dead man resuscitated by S. Dominic, at Cremona, for expres sion and magnificence of arrangement, may be considered as one of his most powerful productions-totally exempt from those symptoms of decay which disfigure or debilitate many of his later works; for he lived to a great age, and continued to paint till death surprised him in 1703.

NUZZI (MARIO), commonly known by the name of Ma rio da' Fiori, a flower-painter, was born in 1603, at Penna, in the kingdom of Naples. He was educated under his uncle Tomaso Salini, and being an exact observer of na. ture, he employed himself in copying the finest flowers, by which a dealer made an extraordinary profit in selling them again. Mario, informed of this circumstance, and also learning that his performances sold still higher at Rome, resolved to visit that capital. Here he quickly rose to a high degree of reputation, and applied himself most diligently to attain perfection in his branch of the art. His representations of nature were equally exact and elegant ; he chose his subjects with taste, handled his pencil with wonderful lightness, and coloured with singular beauty; but, according to Fuseli, "the charm which Mario spread over his flowers was not a permanent one: the impurity of the vehicle soon absorbed the freshness and the bloom of

his glazings, and left a squalid surface." Hence his pictures did not long maintain the extraordinary prices at which they were purchased. He was elected a member of St. Luke, and died in 1673, at the age of seventy.

Pilkington, by Fuseli..

Ibid.-D'Argenville, vol. II.

NYE (PHILIP), an English nonconformist, was a native of Sussex, descended of a genteel family there, and born about 1596. After a proper foundation at the grammarschool, he was sent to Oxford, and entered a commoner of Brazen-nose college in 1615; whence he removed in a little time to Magdalen-hall, for the sake of a puritanical tutor to whom he was greatly attached. He took the degrees in arts in 1619 and 1622; about which time he entered into holy orders, and was, some time in 1620, admitted to officiate, it does not appear in what capacity, in St. Michael's church, Cornhill, London. Here having disclosed some of those opinions which were hostile to the constitution of the Church of England, he became obnoxious to the censures of the episcopal court; to avoid which, he went, with others of his persuasion, to Holland, in 1633. He continued for the most part at Arnheim in Guelderland, till 1640; when, his party gaining the ascendancy, and he fancying that his services would not only be useful but safe, he returned home, and was soon after made minister of Kimbolton, in Huntingdonshire, by Edward earl of Manchester.

In 1643, he was appointed one of the assembly of divines, became a great champion of the Presbyterians, and a zealous assertor of the solemn league and covenant; and was sent, with Stephen Marshall, whose daughter he had married, the same year, to procure the assistance of the Scotch, and join with them in their favourite covenant: and when, after his return, both houses of parliament took the covenant in St. Margaret's church, Westminster, he was the person who read it from the pulpit, and preached a sermon in defence of it, shewing its warrant from scripture, and was rewarded for his good service with the rectory of Acton near London. He was also one of the committee who drew up the preface to the "Directory," which was ordered to be substituted for the Book of Common Prayer; but, when the majority of the assembly of divines determined on establishing the Presbyterian form of churchgovernment, he dissented from them; and, closing with the Independents, when they became the reigning faction, paid his court to the grandees of the army, who often made use of his advice. In December 1647, he was sent by them, with Stephen Marshall, to the king, at Carisbrookcastle, in the Isle of Wight, in attendance upon the commissioners then appointed to carry the four dethroning

votes, as they are now called; for which service they were rewarded with no less than 500l. a-piece. About the same time also Nye was employed by the same masters to get subscriptions from the apprentices in London, &c. against a personal treaty with the king, while the citizens of that metropolis were petitioning for one. In April of the next year, he was employed, as well as Marshall and Joseph Caryl, by the Independents, to invite the secluded members to sit in the house again; but without success. In 1653, he was appointed one of the triers for the approbation of public preachers; in which office he not only procured his son to be clerk, but, with the assistance of his father-in-law, obtained for himself the living of St. Bartholomew, Exchange, worth 400l. a-year. In 1654, he was joined with Dr. Lazarus Seaman, Samuel Clark, Richard Vines, Obadiah Sedgwick, Joseph Caryl, &c. as an assistant to the commissioners appointed by parliament to eject such as were then called scandalous and ignorant ministers and school-masters in the city of London. After Charles the Second's restoration, in 1660, he was ejected from the living of St. Bartholomew, Exchange; and it was even debated by the healing parliament, for several hours together, whether he, John Goodwin, and Hugh Peters, should be excepted for life: but the result was, that if Philip Nye, clerk, should, after the 1st of September, in the same year 1660, accept, or exercise, any office, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, he should, to all intents and purposes in law, stand as if he had been totally excepted for life.

He died in the parish of St. Michael, Cornhill, London, in Sept. 27, 1672, and was buried in the upper vault of the said church. Wood represents him to have been a dangerous and seditious person, a politic pulpit-driver of independency, an insatiable esurient after riches, and what not, to raise a family, and to heap up wealth; and his friends, while they give him the praise of considerable learning and abilities, allow that he engaged more in politics than became his profession. Calamy says but little in favour of his character. His works were, 1. "A Letter from Scotland, to his Brethren in England, concerning his

1 These were, 1. To acknowledge the war raised against him to be just. 2. To abolish episcopacy. 3. To settle the power of the militia in persons no

minated by the two houses. 4. To sacrifice all those that had adhered to him.

success of affairs there," 1643. Stephen Marshall's name is also subscribed to it. 2. "Exhortation to the taking of the Solemn League and Covenant, &c." 1643. 3. "The excellency and lawfulness of the Solemn League and Covenant," 1660, 2nd edit. 4. "Apologetical Narration, submitted to the honourable Houses of Parliament," 1643. To this there came out an answer, entitled "An Anatomy of Independency," 1644. 5. "An Epistolary Discourse about Toleration," 1644. 6. "The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and Power thereof," &c. 1664. 7. "Mr. Anthony Sadler examined," &c. by our author's son, assisted by his father, 1654. 8." The Principles of Faith presented by Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, &c. to the Committee of Parliament for Religion," &c. 1654. 9. "Beams of former Light," &c. 1660. 10. "Case of great and present Use," 1677. 11. "The Lawfulness of the Oath of Supremacy and Power of the King in Ecclesiastical Affairs, with queen Elizabeth's admonition," &c. 1683. It was then reprinted, and, being printed again in 1687, was dedicated by Henry Nye, our author's son, to James II. 12. "Vindication of Dissenters," &c. printed with the preceding, in 1683. 13. "Some account of the Nature, Constitution, and Power, of Ecclesiastical Courts," printed also with the former, in 1683, and other tracts. 1

NYSSENUS, GREGORY. See GREGORY.

1 Ath. Ox. vol. II,-Calamy.-Wilson's Hist. of Dissenting Churches.

O.

OATES

ATES (TITUS), a very singular character, who flourished in the seventeenth century, was born about 1619. He was the son of Samuel Oates*, a popular preacher among the baptists, and a fierce bigot. His son was educated at Merchant Taylors' school, from whence he removed to Cambridge. When he left the university, he obtained orders in the church of England, though in his youth he had been a member of a baptist church in Virginia-street, Ratcliffe Highway, and even officiated some time as assistant to his father; he afterwards officiated as a curate in Kent and Sussex. In 1677, after residing some time in the duke of Norfolk's family, he became a convert to the church of Rome, and entered himself a member of the society of Jesuits, with a view, as he professed, to betray them. Accordingly, he appeared as the chief informer in what was called the popish plot, or a plot, as he pretended to prove, that was promoted for the destruction of the protestant religion in England, by pope Innocent XI.; cardinal Howard; John Paul de Oliva, general of the Jesuits at Rome; De Corduba, provincial of the Jesuits in New Castille; by the Jesuits and seminary priests in England; the lords Petre, Powis, Bellasis, Arundel of Wardour, Stafford, and other persons of quality, several of whom were tried and executed, chiefly on this man's evidence; while public opinion was for a time very strongly in his favour. For this service he received a pension of 1200%. per annum, was lodged in Whitehall, and protected by the guards; but scarcely had king James ascended the

* There was another Samuel Oates or Otes, of Norfolk, who was of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, and rector of Marsham and South Keppes, in his native county. He died in the early part of the seventeenth century, leav

ing "An Explanation of the General Epistle of St. Jude," which was published by his SOD Samuel, in 1633, fol.; but it does not appear that he was related to Oates the baptist.