method of reconciling the Mosaic narrative with the indefinite antiquity of the globe which William Buckland (1784–1856) advanced in his Bridgewater Treatise, and which Dr Chalmers had previously communicated to him. His refutation of Hume’s objection to the truth of miracles is perhaps his intellectual chef-d’œuvre. The distinction between the laws and dispositions of matter, as between the ethics and objects of theology, he was the first to indicate and enforce, and he laid great emphasis on the superior authority as witnesses for the truth of Revelation of the Scriptural as compared with the Extra-Scriptural writers, and of the Christian as compared with the non-Christian testimonies. In his Institutes of Theology, no material modification is attempted on the doctrines of Calvinism, which he received with all simplicity of faith as revealed in the Divine word, and defended as in harmony with the most profound philosophy of human nature and of the Divine providence.
For biographical details see Dr W. Hanna’s Memoirs (Edinburgh, 4 vols., 1849–1852); there is a good short Life by Mrs Oliphant (1893). (W. Ha.)
CHALONER, SIR THOMAS (1521–1565), English statesman and poet, was the son of Roger Chaloner, mercer of London, a descendant of the Denbighshire Chaloners. No details are known of his youth except that he was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge. In 1540 he went, as secretary to Sir Henry Knyvett, to the court of Charles V., whom he accompanied in his expedition against Algiers in 1541, and was wrecked on the Barbary coast. In 1547 he joined in the expedition to Scotland, and was knighted, after the battle of Musselburgh, by the protector Somerset, whose patronage he enjoyed. In 1549 he was a witness against Dr Bonner, bishop of London; in 1551 against Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester; in the spring of the latter year he was sent as a commissioner to Scotland, and again in March 1552. In 1553 he went with Sir Nicholas Wotton and Sir William Pickering on an embassy to France, but was recalled by Queen Mary on her accession. In spite of his Protestant views, Chaloner was still employed by the government, going to Scotland in 1555–1556, and providing carriages for troops in the war with France, 1557–1558. In 1558 he went as Elizabeth’s ambassador to the emperor Ferdinand at Cambrai, from July 1559 to February 1559/60 he was ambassador to King Philip at Brussels, and in 1561 he went in the same capacity to Spain. His letters are full of complaints of his treatment there, but it was not till 1564, when in failing health, that he was allowed to return home. He died at his house in Clerkenwell on the 14th of October 1565. He acquired during his years of service three estates, Guisborough in Yorkshire, Steeple Claydon in Buckinghamshire, and St Bees in Cumberland. He married (1) Joan, widow of Sir Thomas Leigh; and (2) Etheldreda, daughter of Edward Frodsham, of Elton, Cheshire, by whom he had one son, Sir Thomas Chaloner (1561–1615), the naturalist. Chaloner was the intimate of most of the learned men of his day, and with Lord Burghley he had a life-long friendship. Throughout his busy official life he occupied himself with literature, his Latin verses and his pastoral poems being much admired by his contemporaries. Chaloner’s “Howe the Lorde Mowbray . . . was . . . banyshed the Realme,” printed in the 1559 edition of William Baldwin’s Mirror for Magistrates (repr. in vol. ii. pt. 1 of Joseph Haslewood’s edition of 1815), has sometimes been attributed to Thomas Churchyard. His most important work, De Rep. Anglorum instauranda libri decem, written while he was in Spain, was first published by William Malim (1579, 3 pts.), with complimentary Latin verses in praise of the author by Burghley and others. Chaloner’s epigrams and epitaphs were also added to the volume, as well as In laudem Henrici octavi . . . carmen Panegericum, first printed in 1560. Amongst his other works are The praise of folie, Moriae encomium . . . by Erasmus.... Englished by Sir Thomas Chaloner, Knight (1549, ed. Janet E. Ashbee, 1901); A book of the Office of Servantes (1543), translated from Gilbert Cognatus; and An homilie of Saint John Chrysostome . . . Englished by T. C. (1544).
See “The Chaloners, Lords of the Manor of St Bees,” by William Jackson, in Transactions of the Cumberland Assoc. for the Advancement of Literature and Science, pt. vi. pp. 47-74, 1880–1881.
CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE, a town of north-eastern France, capital of the department of Marne, 107 m. E. of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Nancy, and 25 m. S.S.E. of Reims. Pop. (1906) 22,424. Châlons is situated in a wide level plain principally on the right bank of the Marne, its suburb of Marne, which contains the railwaystations of the Eastern and Est-État railways, lying on the left bank. The town proper is bordered on the west by the lateral canal of the Marne, across which lies a strip of ground separating it from the river itself. Châlons is traversed by branches of the canal and by small streams, and its streets are for the most part narrow and irregular, but it is surrounded by ample avenues and promenades, the park known as the Jard, in the south-western quarter, being especially attractive. Huge barracks lie to the north and east. There are several interesting churches in the town. The cathedral of St Étienne dates chiefly from the 13th century, but its west façade is in the classical style and belongs to the 17th century. There are stained-glass windows of the 13th century in the north transept. Notre-Dame, of the 12th and 13th centuries, is conspicuous for its four Romanesque towers, two flanking the apse; the other two, surmounted by tall lead spires, flanking the principal façade. The churches of St. Alpin, St Jean and St Loup date from various periods between the 11th and the 17th centuries. The hôtel-de-ville (1771), facing which stands a monument to President Carnot; the prefecture (1750–1764), once the residence of the intendants of Champagne; the college, once a Jesuit establishment; and a training college which occupies the Augustinian abbey of Toussaints (16th and 17th centuries), are noteworthy civil buildings. The houses of Châlons are generally ill-built of timber and plaster, or rough-cast, but some old mansions, dating from the 15th to the 16th centuries, remain. The church of Ste Pudentienne, on the left bank of the river, is a well-known place of pilgrimage. The town is the seat of a bishop and a prefect, and headquarters of the VI. army corps; it has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a museum, a library, training colleges, a higher ecclesiastical seminary, a communal college and an important technical school. The principal industry is brewing, which is carried on in the suburb of Marne. Galleries of immense length, hewn in a limestone hill and served by lines of railway, are used as store-houses for beer. The preparation of champagne, the manufacture of boots and shoes, brushes, wire-goods and wall-paper also occupy many hands. There is trade in cereals.
Châlons-sur-Marne occupies the site of the chief town of the Catalauni, and some portion of the plains which lie between it and Troyes was the scene of the defeat of Attila in the conflict of 451. In the 10th and following centuries it attained great prosperity as a kind of independent state under the supremacy of its bishops, who were ecclesiastical peers of France. In 1214 the militia of Châlons served at the battle of Bouvines; and in the 15th century the citizens maintained their honour by twice (1430 and 1434) repulsing the English from their walls. In the 16th century the town sided with Henry IV., king of France, who in 1589 transferred thither the parlement of Paris, which shortly afterwards burnt the bulls of Gregory XIV. and Clement VIII. In 1856 Napoleon III. established a large camp, known as the Camp of Châlons, about 16 m. north of the town by the railway to Reims. It was situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Grand Mourmelon and Petit Mourmelon, and occupied an area of nearly 30,000 acres. The “Army of Châlons,” formed by Marshal MacMahon in the camp after the first reverses of the French in 1870, marched thence to the Meuse, was surrounded by the Germans at Sedan, and forced to capitulate. The camp is still a training-centre for troops.
About 5 m. E. of Châlons is L’Epine, where there is a beautiful pilgrimage church (15th and 16th centuries, with modern restoration) with a richly-sculptured portal. In the interior there is a fine choir-screen, an organ of the 16th century, and an ancient and much-venerated statue of the Virgin.
CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE, a town of east-central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Saône-et-Loire,
