1854. George William Mareby, inventor of several kinds of apparatus for saving lives in shipwreck, died in England, aged 89.
NOVEMBER 19.
1231. Elizabeth of Thuringia, a saint of the church, died. She was distinguished by the mild virtues of her sex, and when the country was oppressed with famine and pestilence, she caused hospitals to be erected, and fed and clothed a multitude of the poor, wandering about in a humble dress relieving the sorrows of the wretched. She was regarded as a saint during her life, and four years after her death was canonized. Her monument is one of the most splendid remains of Gothic architecture in Germany.
1530. The diet at Augsburg issued a severe decree against the protestants, which was sanctioned by the emperor Charles V.
1590. Jerome Zanchius, a German protestant theologian, died. His commentaries on St. Paul's epistles were published after his death. He was a professor of theology at Heidelburg, and sustained the character of a learned, pious and benevolent man.
1628. John Felton, the assassin who killed the duke of Buckingham, favorite of Charles I of England, executed at Tyburn. The king proposed the rack previous to execution, that his accomplices might be discovered. But the judges unanimously declared that the English law did not allow of torture. This was the first adjudication on this subject.
1649. Caspar Scioppius, a learned German, died, aged 73. He acquired the name of the grammatical cur, from his indiscreet attacks upon every person of eminence. His talents and acquirements were extraordinary, and his works more numerous than his years.
1665. Nicholas Poussin, an eminent French painter, died. He was long unable to maintain himself by his pencil, till his genius finally burst through the clouds of
prejudice, and established his character as a great and sublime artist.
1672. John Wilkins, bishop of Chester, died; a most ingenious and learned English theologian, critic and mathematician.