Bellenden

Bellenden, WILLIAM, a Scottish author, who was born, it would seem, at Lasswade, about 1555, and who died about 1633. Most likely a Catholic, he was a professor in the university, and an advocate in the parliament, of Paris, and was employed in that city in a diplomatic capacity by Queen Mary, and also by her son, who about 1610 conferred on him the appointment of Master of Requests. His Ciceronis Princeps (1608), Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Populusque Romanus (1612), and De Statu Præsei Orbis (1615), he republished in 1616 under the title De Statu Libri tres. His crowning labour was De Tribus Luminibus Romanorum (1634), the 'three lmninaries' being Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny, out of whose works he intended to compile, on the same plan as his previous works, a comprehensive digest of the civil and religious history, and the moral and physical science, of the Romans. 'Bellenden,' says Hallam, 'seems to have taken a more comprehensive view of history, and to have reflected more philosophically on it, than perhaps any one had done before.' His works furnished the materials for Middleton's Life of Cicero. Warton first denounced the theft, which was afterwards made clear by Dr Parr in his edition of the De Statu (1787).