Cavalcante (Guido), noble Italian poet and philosopher, b. Florence, 1230. A friend of Dante, and a leader of the Ghibbelin party. He married a daughter of Farinata delgi Uberti. Bayle says, “it is said his speculation has as their aim to prove there is no God. Dante places his father in the hell of Epicureans, who denied the immortality of the soul.” Guido died in 1300. An edition of his poems was published in 1813.
Cavallotti (Felice Carlo Emanuel), Italian poet and journalist, b. Milan, 6 Nov. 1842, celebrated for his patriotic poems; is a pronounced Atheist. He was elected member of the Italian parliament in 1873.
Cayla (Jean Mamert), French man of letters and politician b. Vigan (Lot) 1812. Became in ’37 editor of the Emancipator of Toulouse, a city of which he wrote the history. At Paris he wrote to the Siècle, the République Française and other journals, and published European Celebrities and numerous anti-clerical brochures, such as The Clerical Conspiracy, ’61; The Devil, his Grandeur and Decay, ’64; Hell Demolished, ’65; Suppression of Religious Orders, ’70; and The History of the Mass,’74. He died 2 May, 1877.
Cazelles (Emile), French translator of Bentham’s Influence of Natural Religion, Paris, 1875. Has also translated Mill’s Subjection of Women and his Autobiography and Essays on Religion.
Cecco d’Ascoli, i.e., Stabili (Francesco degli), Italian poet, b. Ascoli, 1257. He taught astrology and philosophy at Bologna. In 1324 he was arrested by the Inquisition for having spoken against the faith, and was condemned to fine and penitence. He was again accused at Florence, and was publicly burnt as an heretic 16 Sept. 1327. His best known work is entitled Acerba, a sort of encyclopædia in rhyme.
Cellarius (Martin), Anabaptist, who deserves mention as the first avowed Protestant Anti-trinitarian. He studied Oriental languages with Reuchlin and Melancthon, but having discussed with Anabaptists acknowledged himself converted, 1522, and afterwards gave up the deity of Christ. He was imprisoned, and on his release went to Switzerland, where he died 11 Oct. 1564.
Celsus, a Pagan philosopher, who lived in the second century. He was a friend of Lucian, who dedicated to him his treatise on the False Prophet. He wrote an attack on Christianity, called The True Word. The work was destroyed by the early Christians. The passages given by his opponent, Origen, suffice to show that he was a man of high attainments, well acquainted with the religion he attacked, and that his power of logic and irony was most damaging to the Christian faith.
Cerutti (Giuseppe Antonio Gioachino), poet, converted Jesuit, b. Turin, 13 June, 1738. He became a Jesuit, and wrote a defence of the Society. He afterwards became a friend of Mirabeau, adopted the principles of 1789, wrote in defence of the Revolution, and wrote and published a Philosophical Breviary, or history of Judaism, Christianity, and Deism, which he attributed to Frederick of Prussia. His opinions may also be gathered from his poem, Les Jardins de Betz, 1792. Died Paris, 3 Feb. 1792.
Chaho (J. Augustin), Basque man of letters, b. Tardets, Basses-Pyrénées, 10 Oct. 1811. His principal works are a Philosophy of Comparative Religion, and a Basque dictionary. At Bayonne he edited the Ariel. In 1852 this was suppressed and he was exiled. Died 23 Oct. 1858.
Chaloner (Thomas), M.P., Regicide, b. Steeple Claydon, Bucks, 1595. Educated at Oxford, he became member for Richmond (Yorks), 1645. Was a witness against Archbishop Laud, and one of King Charles’s Judges. In 1651 he was made Councillor of State. Wood says he “was as far from being a Puritan as the east is from the west,” and that he “was of the natural religion.” He wrote a pretended True and Exact Relation of the Finding of Moses His Tomb, 1657, being a satire directed against the Presbyterians. Upon the Restoration he fled to the Low Countries, and died at Middelburg, Zeeland, in 1661.