VIRGIL, Polydore, an English historian, born at Urbino in Italy, was sent in the beginning of the 16th century by Pope Alexander VI. as sub-collector of the Papal tax, called Peter-pence, in this kingdom. He had not been long in England before he obtained preferment in the church; for in 1503 he was presented to the rectory of Church-Langton in the archdeaconry of Leicester. In 1507 he was collated to the prebend of Scamleby in the church of Lincoln; and in the same year was made archdeacon of Wells, and prebendary of Hereford. In 1513, he resigned his prebend of Lincoln, and was collated to that of Osgate in St Paul's, London. We are told, that on his preferment to the archdeaconry of Wells, he resigned the office of subcollector to the pope, and determined to spend the remainder of his life in England, the History of which kingdom he began in the year 1505, at the command of Henry VII. That work cost him 12 years labour. In 1526, he finished his treatise on Prodigies. Polydore continued in England during the whole reign of Henry VIII. and part of that of Edward VI. whence it is concluded that he was a moderate Papist. In 1550, being now an old man, he requested leave to revisit his native country. He was accordingly dismissed with a present of 300 crowns, together with the privilege of holding his preferments to the end of his life. He died at Urbino in the year 1555. As an historian, he is accused by some as a malignant slanderer of the English nation; yet Jovius remarks, that the French and Scotch accuse him of having flattered that nation too much: (See his Elog. cap. 135. p. 179.). Besides the above, he wrote, 1. De Rerum Inventoribus; of which an English translation was published by Langley in 1663. It was also translated into French and Spanish. 2. De Prodiigiis et Sortibus. 3. Episcoporum Angliæ Catalogus. Manuscript. 4. De Vita Perfecta, Basil, 1546, 1553, 8vo. 5. Epistola Erudita; and some other works.