sixteen, he became a student in Magdalen college, Oxford, and proceeded B.A. in 1573, and M.A. in 1575. In 1574, during his stay at the university, he addressed an application to Lord Burghley, lord treasurer, for the exercise of his patronage, and the suit appears to have met with some success. The probability is that Lilly had powerful friends, for in March, 1577, on the decease of Sir Thomas Benger, master of the revels, Lilly petitioned the queen for the vacancy. The latter was not permanently filled up till July 1579, but it was then given to somebody else. In the same year appeared our author's first performance, "Euphues, or the anatomy of wit," 4to; and in 1580 it was followed by a second part entitled "Euphues and his England." Both these pamphlets were written in a turgid and artificial style, but they were wonderfully successful notwithstanding, and euphuism, or fine talking, became the universal fashion. Lilly took some part in the great Martin-Mar-prelate controversy, and wrote a tract (published in 1589) called "Pappe with a Hatchet, alias, a Fig for my Godson, a sound box on the ear for the idiot Martin." The author of "Euphues" enjoyed the esteem and respect of all his contemporaries; all the writers of that time, even Shakspeare, admired his compositions, and perhaps Jonson, Drayton, and Marston stood alone in ridiculing his pedantic affectation and extravagance of language. Lilly's circumstances were probably not very flourishing; he once facetiously called the history of his life "Lyly de mistibus," and in the queen it is to be feared that he found a cold patroness. In person he was little, and he was a great smoker. The period of his death is uncertain, but it occurred about the close of Elizabeth's reign. He left behind him eight dramas, which have been edited by Mr. Fairholt, 2 vols. 8vo, 1858; some of them contain passages of great force and humour.—W. C. H.
LILLY, William, an English astrologer of note, was born in 1602 at Diseworth in Leicestershire, and received some schooling at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. His father found himself unable to give him the university education originally intended, and at eighteen he repaired to London to seek his fortune. He began life as servant to a mantuamaker, and then united the keeping of accounts with more menial employments in the service of a tradesman in the Strand, who, though master of the Salters' Company, could not write. On the death of this master, Lilly married the widow, with whom he received a thousand pounds. In 1632 he began to dabble in astrology, which he learned from a broken-down Welsh clergyman, and soon acquired a reputation. In 1634 he was invited to search, with the aid of divining rods, for a supposed treasure buried in the cloister of Westminster abbey, and the dean of Westminster, Williams bishop of Lincoln, gave the requisite permission. The absurd proceedings were interrupted by a storm, ascribed to Lilly's demons, and the party returned home. His first wife dying he married again, and this time an extravagant woman who impoverished him and forced him into rural retirement. With the breaking out of the controversy between king and parliament he saw a chance of repairing his fortunes, and, returning to London, commenced his career of astrological authorship. In 1644 he began the publication of his astrological almanac, "Merlinus Anglicus Junior," which in those times of excitement and perplexity was immediately successful. Some lucky hits made amends for a multitude of misses; and in composing his predictions, it is but fair to say, Lilly showed a good deal of shrewdness. His almanac continued popular. He was consulted both by the royalists and the parliamentary party; and among his patrons were such men as Bulstrade Whitelocke, and Lenthall the speaker of the house of commons. For a year or two he even received a pension of £100 from the parliament for information respecting affairs in France, which, however, he acquired not by supernatural means, but by a correspondence with the confessor of one of the French ministers. While secretly taking the money of the royalists, he was publicly an adherent of the parliament. After the Restoration he sued out his pardon, studied physic, the practice of which he combined with that of astrology, and died a wealthy man at his estate of Hersham in 1681. Butler is sometimes supposed to have taken from Lilly the Sidrophel of his Hudibras. But Lilly has painted himself in the account of his life, written in his sixty-sixth year, and published with that of Ashmole in 1774. It is curious not only as the autobiography of a successful and conspicuous quack, but for its glimpses of some of the subterranean regions of a heroic age. Of Lilly's other works, chiefly astrological and prophetical, the one mainly worth mentioning is his "Observations on the Life and Death of Charles, late King of England."—F. E.
LILY, George, an English historian, son of William Lily, born in London in 1559. He studied at Oxford, and then went to Rome, where he became chaplain to Cardinal Pole. On the accession of Queen Mary he returned to England, and became canon of St. Paul's and prebendary of Canterbury. He left several works, and published the first good map of Great Britain.
LILY, LILLY, or LILYE, William, a distinguished schoolmaster and grammarian, was born at Odiham in Hampshire about 1468. After a careful training at school, he was sent at eighteen to Magdalen college, Oxford, and admitted a demy. Having taken his B.A. degree, he travelled in the East as far as Jerusalem, according to some authorities. It is more certain that he resided for five years at Rhodes, studying Greek under native scholars, who received protection from the knights of Rhodes after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. Having subsequently studied at Rome, he established a private grammar-school in London on his return to England, and was the earliest teacher of Greek in the metropolis, he attained such success and reputation, that when Dean Colet in 1512 founded St. Paul's school in St. Paul's Churchyard, Lilly was appointed the first master. He filled the office for eleven years until his death in 1523, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law and usher, John Rightwise. Among his pupils was Leland the antiquary, and he was intimate with Sir Thomas More. He published some poems and other pieces, but his most famous production is his "Brevissima Institutio, seu ratio grammatices cognoscendi," London, 1513, commonly called Lilly's Grammar, which has gone through numerous editions, and is still taught from at St. Paul's school. To this work Erasmus and Colet contributed, and the preface to the first edition is said to have been written by Cardinal Wolsey. In the Biographia Britannica there is a detailed account of the mixed authorship of the "Brevissima Institutio."—F. E.
LIMBORCH, Philip van, a distinguished Arminian theologian, was born at Amsterdam on the 19th June, 1633. His early education was received in Utrecht and Leyden; after which he returned to Amsterdam, and enjoyed the benefit of studying under such teachers as Gerhard Vossius, Blondel, and Curcellæus. He also spent two years in the academy at Utrecht in studying theology, philology, philosophy, and mathematics. In philosophy he was an eclectic. His chief attachment was to theology, which he studied thoroughly. At the age of twenty-two he became a Remonstrant pastor at Alcmar. In 1657 he went in the same capacity to Gouda, where he spent ten happy years. In 1667 he was called to Amsterdam to the professorship of theology in the Remonstrant college; in which office he continued till his death, which took place on the 30th April, 1712, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. Limborch was the most prominent and distinguished theologian of the Remonstrant party. His spirit was mild and tolerant; his judgment clear and practical; his memory tenacious. His mind was well balanced; all its powers contributing to the completeness of its development. His theology was thoroughly practical—a reflex of the man, who was more of the ethical than the dogmatic theologian. It is not surprising that one so deservedly esteemed in his own party, and occupying such a position, should have formed a correspondence with the most distinguished divines of other lands, especially of England. In this way his influence became far-reaching. His principal works are "Institutiones theologiæ Christianæ," 1686, 4to; "De veritate religionis Christianæ amica collatio cum erudito Judæo;" "Liber sententiarum Inquisitionis Tolosanæ; ab anno Christi, 1307-23, præmissis quatuor de historia inquisitionis libris," Amstel., 1692, folio; "Historia Inquisitionis," 1692, folio, afterwards translated into English by Samuel Chandler, 2 vols. 4to, 1731. In 1711 appeared his commentary on the Acts, epistles to the Romans and Hebrews; and in 1700 a work on the preparation of the sick for death. Thus Limborch was not only a doctrinal theologian, but a writer on the evidences, an expositor, a church historian, and practical divine, evincing in all departments the same learning, repose, mildness, and perspicuity. His "Institutiones," or system of theology, is the chief production of his pen, and the best exhibition of old Arminianism.—S. D.
LIMOSIN or LIMOUSIN, Leonard, famous as the founder of the later and most esteemed style of Limoges enamel. Authorities differ greatly alike as to the place and time of birth and death of the subject of this notice, and even as to his name. It used to be said that he was born at Limoges in 1480, and
