when that prince came over to England to seek the hand of Queen Elizabeth. Here he had the pleasure of finding that the République was studied at London and Cambridge, although in a barbarous Latin translation. This determined him to translate his work into Latin himself (1586). The latter part of Bodin’s life was spent at Laon, which he is said to have persuaded to declare for the League in 1589, and for Henry IV. five years afterwards. He died of the plague in 1596, and was buried in the church of the Carmelites.
With all his breadth and liberality of mind Bodin was a credulous believer in witchcraft, the virtues of numbers and the power of the stars, and in 1580 he published the Démonomanie des sorciers, a work which shows that he was not exempt from the prejudices of the age. Himself regarded by most of his contemporaries as a sceptic, and by some as an atheist, he denounced all who dared to disbelieve in sorcery, and urged the burning of witches and wizards. It might, perhaps, have gone hard with him if his counsel had been strictly followed, as he confessed to have had from his thirty-seventh year a friendly demon, who, if properly invoked, touched his right ear when he purposed doing what was wrong, and his left when he meditated doing good.
His chief work, the Six livres de la République (Paris, 1576), which passed through several editions in his lifetime, that of 1583 having as an appendix L’Apologie de René Herpin (Bodin himself), was the first modern attempt to construct an elaborate system of political science. It is perhaps the most important work of its kind between Aristotle and modern writers. Though he was much indebted to Aristotle he used the material to advantage, adding much from his own experience and historical knowledge. In harmony with the conditions of his age, he approved of absolute governments, though at the same time they must, he thought, be controlled by constitutional laws. He entered into an elaborate defence of individual property against Plato and More, rather perhaps because the scheme of his work required the treatment of that theme than because it was practically urgent in his day, when the excesses of the Anabaptists had produced a strong feeling against communistic doctrines. He was under the general influence of the mercantilist views, and approved of energetic governmental interference in industrial matters, of high taxes on foreign manufactures and low duties on raw materials and articles of food, and attached great importance to a dense population. But he was not a blind follower of the system; he wished for unlimited freedom of trade in many cases; and he was in advance of his more eminent contemporary Montaigne in perceiving that the gain of one nation is not necessarily the loss of another. To the public finances, which he called “the sinews of the state,” he devoted much attention, and insisted on the duties of the government in respect to the right adjustment of taxation. In general he deserves the praise of steadily keeping in view the higher aims and interests of society in connexion with the regulation and development of its material life.
Among his other works are Oratio de instituenda in republica juventate (1559); Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem (1566); Universale Naturae Theatrum (1596, French trans. by Fougerolles, 1597), and the Colloquium Heptaplomeres de abditis rerum sublimium arcanis, written in 1588, published first by Guhrauer (1841), and in a complete form by L. Noack (1857). The last is a philosophy of naturalism in the form of a conversation between seven learned men—a Jew, a Mahommedan, a Lutheran, a Zwinglian, a Roman Catholic, an Epicurean and a Theist. The conclusion to which they are represented as coming is that they will live together in charity and toleration, and cease from further disputation as to religion. It is curious that Leibnitz, who originally regarded the Colloquium as the work of a professed enemy of Christianity, subsequently described it as a most valuable production (cf. M. Carrière, Weltanschauung, p. 317).
See H. Baudrillart, J. Bodin et son temps (Paris, 1853); Ad. Franck, Réformateurs et publicistes de l’Europe (Paris, 1864); N. Planchenault, Études sur Jean Bodin (Angers, 1858); E. de Barthélemy, Étude sur J. Bodin (Paris, 1876); for the political philosophy of Bodin, see P. Janet, Hist. de la science polit. (3rd ed., Paris, 1887); Hancke, B. Studien über d. Begriff d. Souveränität (Breslau, 1894), A. Bardoux, Les Légistes et leur influence sur la soc. française; Fournol, Bodin prédécesseur de Montesquieu (Paris, 1896); for his political economy, J. K. Ingram, Hist. of Pol. Econ. (London, 1888); for his ethical teaching, A. Desjardins, Les Moralistes français du seizième siècle, ch. v.; and for his historical views, R. Flint’s Philosophy of History in Europe (ed. 1893), pp. 190 foll.
BODKIN (Early Eng. boydekin, a dagger, a word of unknown origin, possibly connected with the Gaelic biodag, a short sword), a small, needle-like instrument of steel or bone with a flattened knob at one end, used in needlework. It has one or more slits or eyes, through which cord, tape or ribbon can be passed, for threading through a hem or series of loops. The word is also used of a small piercing instrument for making holes in cloth, &c.
BODLE or Boddle (said to be from Bothwell, the name of a mint-master), a Scottish copper coin worth about one-sixth of an English penny, first issued under Charles II. It survives in the phrase “not to care a bodle.”
BODLEY, GEORGE FREDERICK (1827–1907), English architect, was the youngest son of a physician at Brighton, his elder brother, the Rev. W. H. Bodley, becoming a well-known Roman Catholic preacher and a professor at Oscott. He was articled to the famous architect Sir Gilbert Scott, under whose influence he became imbued with the spirit of the Gothic revival, and he gradually became known as the chief exponent of 14th-century English Gothic, and the leading ecclesiastical architect in England. One of his first churches was St Michael and All Angels, Brighton (1855), and among his principal erections may be mentioned All Saints, Cambridge; Eton Mission church, Hackney Wick; Clumber church; Eccleston church; Hoar Cross church; St Augustine’s, Pendlebury; Holy Trinity, Kensington; Chapel Allerton, Leeds; St Faith’s, Brentford; Queen’s College chapel, Cambridge; Marlborough College chapel; and Burton church. His domestic work included the London School Board offices, the new buildings at Magdalen, Oxford, and Hewell Grange (for Lord Windsor). From 1872 he had for twenty years the partnership of Mr T. Garner, who worked with him. He also designed (with his pupil James Vaughan) the cathedral at Washington, D.C., U.S.A., and cathedrals at San Francisco and in Tasmania; and when Mr Gilbert Scott’s design for his new Liverpool cathedral was successful in the competition he collaborated with the young architect in preparing for its erection. Bodley began contributing to the Royal Academy in 1854, and in 1881 was elected A.R.A., becoming R.A. in 1902. In addition to being a most learned master of architecture, he was a beautiful draughtsman, and a connoisseur in art; he published a volume of poems in 1899; and he was a designer of wall-papers and chintzes for Watts & Co., of Baker Street, London; in early life he had been in close alliance with the Pre-Raphaelites, and he did a great deal, like William Morris, to improve public taste in domestic decoration and furniture. He died on the 21st of October 1907, at Water Eaton, Oxford.
BODLEY, SIR THOMAS (1545–1613), English diplomatist and scholar, founder of the Bodleian library, Oxford, was born at Exeter on the 2nd of March 1545. During the reign of Queen Mary, his father, John Bodley, being obliged to leave the kingdom on account of his Protestant principles, went to live at Geneva. In that university, in which Calvin and Beza were then teaching divinity, young Bodley studied for a short time. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth he returned with his father to England, and soon after entered Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1563 he took his B.A. degree, and was admitted a fellow of Merton College. In 1565 he read a Greek lecture in hall, took his M.A. degree the year after, and read natural philosophy in the public schools. In 1569 he was proctor, and for some time after was deputy public orator. Quitting Oxford in 1576, he made the tour of Europe; shortly after his return he became gentleman-usher to Queen Elizabeth; and in 1587, apparently, he married Ann Ball, a widow lady of considerable fortune, the daughter of a Mr Carew of Bristol. In 1584 he entered parliament as member for Portsmouth, and represented St German’s in 1586. In 1585 Bodley was entrusted
