fanaticism got the better of sound reason. Székely was elected the leader of a mob of 40,000 men, which began to wage war against the landed proprietors. A civil war ensued, until John Zapolya dispersed the whole turbulent assemblage. Bakacs died in 1521, and his nephews, ancestors of the present Erdödis and Pálfis, divided his ill-gotten riches. (Engel. Magyar Ország polgár historiájora való Lexicon á XVI. Század végeig. vol. i. pp. 74-84. Ersch und Gruber.)

BAKE, (Reinhard,) born in Magdeburg in 1587, a pupil of rector Rollenhagen. He became in 1616 principal pastor of the cathedral of Magdeburg. When that town was taken on the 10th May 1631, by Tilly, Bake, with his colleague Decenius, and more than a thousand people of every age and rank, took shelter in the church, which was not opened till the third day by order of Tilly. He received the general with a Latin speech, which applied the words of Virgil on the destruction of Troy, to the fate of Magdeburg. Tilly, who might already repent his too great severity, received the allocution favourably. Bake died in 1657, and his monument is yet to be seen in the cathedral. He wrote

several homiletic and ascetic works, enumerated in Kestner, F. G. Clerus Mauritianus. Magdeb. 1762, 4to. Ejusdem, Clerus Neostdadio - Australis. Magd. 1733, 4to.

BAKE, (Laurent,) a Dutch poet of the seventeenth century, whose most remarkable work is a collection of sacred hymns. He was born of a distinguished family of Amsterdam, and was lord of Wulverhorst, and nephew of the celebrated poet and historian, Noost. He died in 1714. A collection of his poems was published by Vanden-Broek, Amst. 1737. (Biog. Univ.)

BAKER, (Geoffrey,) a monk of Oseney, who wrote, in 1347, a history of the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., or rather translated the history into Latin from the French original by Thomas de la More, at the author's request. He was born at Swinbrook, in Oxfordshire. Some writers call him, erroneously, Walter. His Chronicle was published by Camden. (Tanner.)

BAKER, (Humphrey,) a citizen of London in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and the author of a very popular work on arithmetic, entitled, The Well Spring of Sciences, which was first published in 1562, (12mo, Lond.) and continued to be constantly reprinted till 1687, the latest

edition we have met with. Of all works on arithmetic prior to the publication of Cocker's celebrated book on the subject, (1668) this of Baker's approaches nearest to the masterpiece of that celebrated arithmetician. Baker also translated from the French, a little work called Rules and Documents, touching the use and practice of the common almanacs, 4to, Lond. 1587.

BAKER, (Robert,) an English traveller in the sixteenth century, who made two voyages to Guinea, the first in 1562; soon after his return from which, in 1563, he set out upon the second. The merchant-ships of England and France were at this period in continual hostilities, although the two countries were not openly at war; and the two ships of the expedition in which Baker was embarked fought two French ships, which they took, and sold in a Spanish port, and then pursued their enterprise. On the coast of Guinea, while Baker had landed with eight men, a sudden storm drove his ship out to sea; and on their regaining the shore, as they did not find him, they sailed back to England, leaving him among the Indians, in a state utterly defenceless. He was at last saved by two French vessels which came to that coast, and with his companions carried to France as prisoners of war. After a short retention there, Baker obtained his liberty, and returned to England, where he died about 1580. He wrote in verse the accounts of both his voyages, which are printed in Hakluyt's collection.

BAKER, (Sir John,) a statesman of the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, was a Kentishman by birth, and educated a lawyer. But early in life he turned himself to politics, and in 1526 accompanied the bishop of Saint Asaph in an embassy to Denmark. On his return, being a member of the House of Commons, he was elected speaker; was soon after appointed attorney-general, and sworn of the privy council. In 1545 he was made chancellor of the exchequer. Mr. Lodge, from whose biographical notice in his Illustrations of British History, vol. i. p. 51, these particulars are taken, observes that after this his name is rarely mentioned, except on one occasion, and that a memorable one. He was the only privy counsellor who refused to sign the bill of king Edward VI. by which his two sisters were to be excluded from the throne. Sir John Baker acquired a good estate at Sissinghurst, in Kent, where he built

death appeared Sancta Sophia, or Directions for the Prayer of Contemplation, extracted out of divers treatises written by him. This was published by Hugh Cressy, whose church history owes much to the labours of Baker. Reyner's Apostolatus Benedictorum in Anglia is said to be chiefly derived from Baker's collections, which it is supposed are lost. BAKER, (Richard,) a clerk in one of the public offices of England, about 1650. He was the author of a little work, entitled, An Idea of Arithmetick, 12mo, Lond. 1655, published anonymously, but in a copy in the public library of the university of Cambridge, there is a contemporary MS. note informing us of the name of its author.

BAKER, (George,) an English surgeon in the sixteenth century. He was surgeon in ordinary to queen Elizabeth, and published several works in surgery and chemistry. He is only known by these and an engraved portrait, to which is affixed the date of 1599, probably the year of his decease. His works consist of the Book of Distillations, containing sundry excellent remedies of Distilled Waters, Lond. 1556, 4to; second edition, 1598, 4to; The New Jewel of Health, Lond. 1570, 4to; The composition, or making of the moste excellent and pretious Oil, called Oleum Magistrale; also the third Book of Galen of curing of Pricks and Wounds of Sinewes, Lond. 12mo, 1574; De Compositione Medica of Galen, Lond. 1574, 8vo, and 1599, 4to; An Antidotary of Select Medicines, Lond. 1579, 4to; the Workes of Guy de Chauliac, Lond. 1579, 8vo; On the Nature and Properties of Quicksilver. This is inserted in Clowes' Briefe Treatise touching the Disease Morbus Gallicus, Lond. 1584, 4to; The Workes of John de Vigo, Lond. 1586, 8vo; The Preface to an edition of Gerard's Herbal, Lond. 1597, fol. He also translated the Apologie and Voyages of Ambrose Paré, from the French into English, as mentioned by Johnson in his Preface to the Works of Parey, Lond. 1634, fol.

BAKER, (Thomas,) an English mathematician of considerable eminence, was born at Ilton, in Somersetshire, in 1625. He entered himself at Oxford in 1640, where he remained seven years. He was afterwards appointed vicar of Bishop's-Nymmet, in Devonshire, where he lived for many years in retirement, chiefly pursuing the study of mathematics, and more particularly algebra. He is now known by a very important

publication at the time of its appearance, entitled, the Geometrical Key; or the Gate of Equations Unlocked, 4to, Lond. 1684, in which he gives some new methods for finding the roots of equations inferior to the fourth degree. This book was published in English and Latin, and soon obtained the favourable notice of mathematicians both at home and abroad. In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1684, is some account of Baker's work; and, shortly afterwards, the council of that body having proposed a medal for the best answers to certain scientific queries, it was adjudged to Baker. He was intimate with Dr. Pell, as may be seen from Pell's MS. papers in the British Museum, in which collection are several letters from Baker to him on algebraical subjects. In the British Museum is preserved a single printed sheet (among Bagford's papers) entitled, a Complete List of Mr. Baker's Mathematical Works, with proposals for printing the same; but it does not appear that these proposals met with sufficient encouragement to justify the publication of any one of them. In a letter preserved in the archives of the Royal Society, addressed to Oldenburgh, he deeply laments his inability to risk the publication of his "many new discoveries in algebra:" this letter is dated in 1685, and perhaps may serve to fix the date of the proposals abovementioned. He died at Bishop's-Nymmet in 1690, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Baker also discovered a rule or method, for determining the centre of a circle which shall cut a given parabola in as many points as a given equation, to be constructed, has real roots. This method is generally known as the central rule. The central rule is founded on this property of the parabola: that if a line be inscribed in the curve perpendicular to any diameter, the rectangle of the segments of this line is equal to the rectangle of the intercepted part of the diameter and the parameter of the axis.

BAKER, (Thomas,) an eminent antiquary of the early part of the eighteenth century, who in the latter part of life, when he had been deprived of his fellowship of St. John's college, Cambridge, was accustomed to add to his name, when he wrote it, Socius Ejectus. He was born at Crook, in the bishopric of Durham, a hamlet of the parish of Lancaster, which is remarkable for the many Roman antiquities discovered there. His father was George

Baker, esq., son of Sir George Baker, who, being recorder of Newcastle-uponTyne, took the command of the place, and defended it against the Scots.

The subject of this article was born in 1656, was educated in the grammar school at Durham, from thence he passed to St. John's college, Cambridge, where he took his degree of bachelor and master of arts, and in 1679 became a fellow of the college. He was ordained deacon in 1685, and priest very soon after, and was appointed one of the university preachers. He was soon after nominated by Crew, then bishop of Durham, his chaplain, who gave him in June, 1687, the rectory of Long Newton. His connexion with the bishop was, however, but of short continuance; for king James's declaration for liberty of conscience coming forth, the bishop was earnest with his chaplain to read it in his own chapel at Auckland. Baker, how ever, declined; and also gave his commands to the curate of his own church to forbear to read it. This produced a coolness between him and the bishop. Baker was a man of principle, firm and uncompromising, and having given this first proof of it, he was soon called upon to give another; for the revolution succeeding, and the clergy being required to take the oaths to the new government, Baker declined to take them, and on the 1st of August, 1690, gave up in consequence his living of Long Newton.

He now retired to his college, and lived on the income of his fellowship and an annuity of 401. a year, his own private property. This fellowship he was allowed to retain without taking the oaths; but in January 1716-7, he (with twenty-one other fellows of that society) was deprived of his fellowship. He did not, however, leave his college, but continued to reside as a commoner-master.

Living thus in the college he had all the means and opportunities of study; and his life appears to have been that of a most laborious student, collector, and transcriber, with a particular leaning to historical inquiries, and in them to his own university, and especially to his own college. He was somewhat of a recluse, mixing little personally in the world, but keeping up an extensive literary correspondence, and rather disposed to amass information which might be used by other persons, than to construct finished works in which he might use his collections for himself, and appear as an author before the public. He lived to a good

old age, dying on the 2d of July, 1740, aged eighty-three. He was buried in his college chapel. The only considerable work of which he was the author was entitled, Reflections on Learning, wherein is shown the insufficiency thereof in its several particulars, in order to evince the usefulness and necessity of revelation; a book which had a great popularity, and has been often reprinted. He published also at this period of his life, an edition of the Funeral Sermon, by bishop Fisher, for Margaret countess of Richmond, the foundress of St. John's college, with much prefatory matter; and this appears to have been his only published work. But though he published little, his assistance was afforded to many other writers; and there is scarcely a work in the department of English history, biography, and antiquities, that appeared in his time, in which we do not find acknowledgments of the assistance which had been received from Mr. Baker. We may mention particularly, Dr. Walker, in his Account of the Sufferings of the Clergy, Burnet, Dr. John Smith, the editor of Bede, Dr. Knight, in his Life of Erasmus, Brown Willis, Francis Peck, Dr. Ward in his Lives of the Gresham Professors, Dr. Richardson, in his work on the Lives of the English Bishops, Ames, in his Typographical Antiquities, Lewis, in his History of the English Translations of the Bible, Strype and Hearne, in many of their works.

The value of Baker's labours has been also felt by many inquirers in these departments of literature since his decease. He made very large historical collections, transcribing, in his own clear and most legible hand, a great mass of curious papers collected from every quarter, and annotating on several books to a great extent. Twenty-three volumes of manuscripts were given by him to the earl of Oxford, who was then amassing that noble library of manuscripts, which is so well known as the Harleian Manuscripts in the library of the British Museum, to which they came by purchase from the heirs of the earl of Oxford. These twenty-three volumes are now in that library, where they are numbered from 7028 to 7050. A particular account of their contents may be read in the printed catalogue, and also in the Life of Baker by Robert Martin, 8vo, 1784; where also may be seen an account of the contents of another great section of his manuscripts, which he bequeathed to the public library at Cambridge, together

with many printed works with his notes in the margins. His Godwin de Præsulibus Angliæ, and his Ware de Præsulibus Hiberniæ, he left to his kinsman, Mr. George Smith, with all their marginal notes. His history of his own college is the first of the volumes which came to the earl of Oxford. The history of his life, published by Martin, is taken for the most part from the papers of Baker's great friend, Dr. Zachary Grey. Horace Walpole wrote a life of him, which is printed in the quarto edition of his works. Much respecting him may also be found in that great storehouse of original information, Mr. Nichols' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, and in various volumes of Coles's Manuscript Collections in the British Museum.

BAKER, (Henry,) a poet and naturalist of the last century, but chiefly and only deservedly known in the latter character. His father, William Baker, was a clerk in Chancery, and Henry was born May 8, 1698, in Chancery-lane, London. In his fifteenth year, he was apprenticed to a bookseller, but on the expiration of his indentures, he entered the office of Mr. John Forster, an eminent attorney. Mr. Forster having a daughter who was deaf and dumb, Mr. Baker undertook to teach her the elements of general knowledge; and in this he succeeded so well, that he devoted his time and attention to the art as a profession. Whether his method were at all analogous to any of those now employed, we have no means of ascertaining; as it was his invariable rule to require a bond from each pupil, not to divulge to any other person the plans he adopted. This has been much censured by some persons; but it is still as defensible, and on the same grounds, as the patent protections of our own time for the exercise of any peculiar invention. His celebrity was so great, that his pupils were of families of the highest consideration in England, and from this he in a few years derived an ample fortune. In 1724 and 1725 he published several poems, which partook too much of the licentious character of the poetry of the period in which he lived; and from that time till 1737, his writings were almost exclusively of a literary nature. Probably his contemplated union with Sophia, the youngest daughter of Daniel De Foe, whom he married in 1729, might have given this turn to his labours. In 1740 he was elected a fellow of the

Society of Antiquarians, and the year following of the Royal Society. Prior to this period, he was known to have devoted himself to subjects better worthy of his powers; and in 1742 he published his first scientific work, The Microscope Made Easy, and soon after his Employment for the Microscope. In 1744 the Copley medal was awarded him for his microscopical observations on the crystallizations and configurations of saline particles. Mr. Baker appears to have been the first to observe with any degree of care and attention the structure and motions of the freshwater polype and other animalcules of our stagnant waters. He also introduced into this country the larger alpine strawberry and the true rhubarb, and was the first to investigate the history of the coccus polonicus, or cochineal of the north.

Henry Baker died at his house in the Strand, Nov. 25, 1774, in his seventyseventh year, and was buried in the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. The following year, his museum was sold by auction, and occupied ten days. In private society Baker was much respected; but he was the object of continued attacks for his published labours, almost entirely to the end of his life. Amongst the most active of his detractors was the splenetic and disappointed charlatan, Dr. Hill, whose conduct was rendered more disgraceful by the great obligations under which he was laid by Baker's kindness to him in early life.

The Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society was founded by the will of Henry Baker; who left a fund for the production of a small annual income. It is treated by the council as a prize for the best paper of the year presented to the society and printed in its Transactions. It is, of course, the honour, rather than the value of this prize that renders the Bakerian Lecture an object of ambition amongst the fellows of the society. This award has, of late years at least, been made with impartiality, and generally with good judgment: for though the small number constituting the council of that body renders it impossible that every branch of science can be properly represented in it, and therefore a fair claim made for each paper by members of the council themselves; yet the formation of committees of fellows for each subject, to report to the council the conclusions to which they arrive, respecting the merits of the several papers in their own depart