CLAUDE, Jean, an eminent divine of the Protestant church of France, was born in 1619 at La Sauve-Sauvetat, near Agen. His father, Francis Claude, who was also a protestant minister, gave him his first education, and afterwards sent him to the college of Montauban, where he was ordained in 1645. His first charge was at the Hague, his next at St. Afric, from which he was removed, after a pastorate of eight years, to the important position of Nismes, where he gave assistance in training candidates for the protestant ministry. Having incurred the resentment of the court by opposing, in the synod of Languedoc, a project for the reunion of the Roman catholics and protestants, he was prohibited by a decree of council to execute any longer the functions of the ministry in that province. He then became pastor at Montauban, and was again, after an interval of four years, forbidden to preach there also. In 1666 he accepted an invitation from the congregation of Charenton, and continued to labour there with great acceptance and with eminent public usefulness to the cause of his oppressed church, till the revocation of the edict of Nantes on the 22nd October, 1685. At ten o'clock in the morning of that day Claude had an order sent to him to quit France in twenty-four hours. On his arrival in Holland he was humanely received by the prince of Orange, who allowed him a liberal pension. But he survived his expatriation little more than a year. Be preached his last sermon at the Hague on Christmas-day, 1686, and died on the 13th of January following. He was a distinguished preacher, but still more distinguished as a polemical writer. He entered the lists against the most eminent controversialists of Rome—against Bossuet, Arnauld, Nouet, and Nicole—and proved himself an antagonist worthy of their steel. His chief writings are—"Défense de la Réformation contre le Livre intitulé, Préjugés Legitimes contre les Calvinistes," 1673, 1680; "Les Plaintes des Protestants cruellement opprimés dans le Royaume de France," 1686; "Sermons sur div. Textes de l'Écriture Sainte," Gen., 1724; "Traité de la Composition d'un Sermon," 1688, first published in his "Œuvres Posthumes," and translated into English in 1778, by Robert Robinson of Cambridge. A new edition was brought out in 1796 by Rev. Charles Simeon. Claude left two sons, Isaac and Jean Jacques, both of whom followed in the footsteps of their father. The former was born in 1653, and died in 1695; the latter was born in 1684, and died in London, where he was pastor of a French congregation, in 1712.—P. L.
CLAUDIANUS, Claudius, born about the year 365 of the Christian era, at Alexandria in Egypt. His mother tongue was Greek, and he only began to write Latin verse when he was past thirty. Claudian was patronized by Flavius Stilico, who held high place at the court of Honorius. In one of his poems he mentions having married an heiress at Alexandria. The poems of Claudian have for us but little interest; they are chiefly panegyrics—a class of poetry almost necessarily dull—and satires, which, to say the truth, are in Claudian's hands almost as dull as panegyrics. The praises of Stilico, of which he is never weary, have the merit of expressing real feeling. On Stilico's death he seems to have retired into private life. The "Rape of Proserpine" gives us more pleasure than any other of his longer poems. The power of commentators to find in a poem whatever they seek for, is illustrated by the notes on this poem, in which some have discovered the Eleusinian mysteries, and others the philosopher's stone. Claudian's "Old Man of Verona," is in our estimation worth all else that he has written, and it has been translated by Cowley with singular felicity.—J. A., D.
CLAUDIUS or CLAUDE, Clemens, Bishop of Turin, a Spaniard by birth, and the disciple of Felix, bishop of Urgel; died in 839. In the commentaries of this learned prelate, we meet with perhaps the earliest protest which was raised by an ecclesiastic of his rank against the errors of doctrine and discipline that had crept into the church of Rome.
CLAUDIUS I., Roman emperor. His full name was Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus. He was the younger son of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, and of Antonia, the niece of Augustus, and was born at Lyons b.c. 10. In his youth he was exceedingly weak and sickly, and often laboured under cruel maladies. He was shamefully neglected by his relatives. His mother said he was an abortion, and the rough draught of a man, and Augustus used to call him misellus, little wretch. He was left to the company of slaves and freedmen, and was allowed no share in public affairs. He appears, however, to have devoted a great part of his time to study, and became a proficient in the Greek and Latin languages. He was elevated to the consulship by the Emperor Caligula his nephew, a.d. 37, but on the expiry of his term of office, he withdrew again into private life. On the death of Caligula, the mutinous pretorians who were overrunning the palace, discovered Claudius concealed behind some tapestry, and trembling for fear. They dragged him from his place of refuge, and carried him on their shoulders to the camp, where he was proclaimed emperor in spite of the opposition of the senate. He was then fifty years of age, and for some time governed with justice and moderation, endeavoured in various ways to make compensation for the oppressive deeds of his predecessors, and executed the famous Claudian aqueduct and other works of great utility, for the embellishment of the city and the comfort of the citizens. But he afterwards fell completely under the control of his wife and freedmen, who induced him to give his consent to many cruel and tyrannical acts which he never would have committed of his own accord. His third wife, the notorious Messalina, brought great scandal upon his government and family by her shameless licentiousness. After her execution, the emperor married in a.d. 50 his niece Agrippina. Claudius died in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign. He visited Britain in a.d. 43, and in his reign it first became a Roman province.—J. T.
CLAUDIUS II. (Marcus Aurelius, surnamed Gothicus), one of the best of the Roman emperors, born in Illyricum, a.d. 214. His origin was obscure, but he acquired distinction by his military services under Decius and Valerian. On the death of Gallienus in 268, Claudius was raised to the imperial throne by the army, and their choice was immediately ratified by the senate. Soon after his accession he defeated, at Milan, Aureolus, who had revolted against Gallienus. He then marched against the Alemanni, who had invaded Italy, and routed them on the banks of the lake of Garda (Benacus). He entered Rome in triumph, and set himself vigorously to reform the abuses of the government. Next year he gained a great victory over an immense host of Goths or Scythians, who had invaded the province of Mœsia, and took a vast number of prisoners, whom he compelled to labour on the public works. This victory gained him the surname of Gothicus. He died in the following year, a.d. 270, at Sirmium in Pannonia, after a short but brilliant reign of two years, and was succeeded by Aurelian.—J. T.
CLAUDIUS, Appius Pulcher, held the office of prætor in 57 b.c., and next year was proprætor in Sardinia. In 54 he was consul along with L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and in 53 he was appointed proconsul of Cilicia, and governed that province with great tyranny and rapacity. Two years later he was superseded by Cicero, whose appointment he regarded with great displeasure. On his return to Rome he was impeached by Dolabella, but was acquitted through the influence of Pompey. He was appointed censor in 50, along with L. Piso, and expelled a number of senators belonging to Cæsar's party—among others, the historian Sallust. On the breaking out of the civil war, he embraced the cause of Pompey, and was in consequence compelled to flee from Rome. He died in Greece before the battle of Pharsalia. He wrote a work on augural science, which he dedicated to Cicero.—J. T.
CLAUDIUS, Matthias, a German popular writer of eminence, was born at Rheinfeld in Holstein, 15th August, 1743, and after having studied at Jena, settled at Wandsbeck, near Hamburg. In 1778 he was appointed reviser to the Altona bank, with permission to reside at Wandsbeck. Under the assumed name of Asmus he published from 1770 till 1775 the "Wandsbecker Bote," a quaint miscellany of poetry, essays, reviews, &c., written in a powerful and highly popular style. All the productions of his pen evince a mind as serene as it was pious, and a generous sympathy with the interests of the people. Many of his poems are sung to this day, for instance his beautiful "Rheinweinlied." After a happy old age he died at Hamburg, 21st January, 1815. His collected writings appeared under the title "Asmus Omnia sua secum portans," in 8 vols., new ed. 1844. His life has been written by W. Herbst, Gotha, 1857.—K. E.
CLAUDIUS, Publius Appius Pulcher, the first of the famous Claudian family who bore the name of Pulcher, lived about 250 b.c. Like the rest of his family, he was noted for his pride and haughtiness, and his resistance to the demands of the plebeians, as well as for his deficiency in military skill and valour. He was elected consul in 249 b.c.; and, in defiance of the auguries, attacked the Carthaginian fleet in the harbour of
