Home1778 Edition

LANGUEDOC

Volume 6 · 892 words · 1778 Edition

heraldry, expresses such animals whose tongue, appearing out of the mouth, is borne of a different colour from the rest of the body.

large and maritime province of France; bounded on the north by Quercy, Rouergue, Auvergne, and Lionnois; on the east by Dauphiny and Provence; on the west by Gascony; and on the south by the Mediterranean Sea and Rouillon. It is 225 miles in length, and 100 in breadth where broadest. The clergy are more rich and numerous here than in the rest of France, there being three archbishops and 20 bishops. Languedoc is divided into the Upper and Lower; and in general it is a very pleasant country, fertile in corn, fruits, and excellent wines; and the inhabitants carry on a considerable trade. There are many curious medicinal plants, with iron mines, quarries of marble, and turquoise stones. There is also a great deal of kelp, and on the heaths are considerable numbers of the kermes oak. The principal rivers are the Rhone, the Garronne, the Aude, the Tarn, the Allier, and the Loire. There are also Languedoc a great number of mineral springs. Thoulouse is the capital town. This province is famous for the royal canal, which divides it in two, joining the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean. This canal was undertaken in 1666, and finished in 1680; the mathematician who undertook it made a basin 400 yards long, 300 broad, and seven feet deep, which is always kept full of water, and may be let out by means of a sluice on the side of the Mediterranean, as well as by another on the side of the Atlantic.

Languet (Hubert), born at Viteaux in Burgundy in 1518, gained great reputation by his learning and virtue, in the 16th century. Having read one of Melanchthon's books at Bologna, he conceived so high an esteem for the author, that he went to Wittenberg, purposely to visit him; he arrived there in 1549, when he contracted a strict friendship with Melanchton, and embraced the Protestant religion. In 1565, he was one of the first counsellors of Augustus elector of Saxony, who employed him in several important affairs and negotiations. He was afterwards admitted to the confidence of William prince of Orange; and died at Antwerp, on the 30th of September 1581. We have many of his letters written in Latin to Sir Philip Sidney, to Camerarius the father and son, and to Augustus elector of Saxony, which have been several times reprinted, in three volumes; and there is also attributed to him a famous treatise, entitled Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, and other works. His life is written by Philibert de la Mare.

Languet (John Baptist Joseph), the celebrated vicar of St Sulpice at Paris, and a doctor of the Sorbonne, was born at Dijon in 1675. He was received into the Sorbonne in 1698; and attached himself to the community of St Sulpice, to which parish he was of great service. M. de la Chetardie the vicar, conscious of his talents, chose him for his curate, in which capacity he officiated near ten years; and in 1714, succeeded to the vicarage. His parish-church being small and out of repair, he conceived the design of building a church suitable to the size of his parish, which he began with the sum of 100 crowns, but soon obtained considerable donations; and the duke of Orleans, regent of the kingdom, granted him a lottery, and laid the first stone of the porch in 1718. It was consecrated in 1745, after M. Languet had spared neither labour nor expense to render it one of the finest churches in the world both for architecture and ornament. Another work which did him no less honour, was the Maison de l'enfant Jesus. This establishment consists of two parts; the first composed of about 35 poor ladies of good families, and the second of more than 400 poor women and children of town and country. The order and economy in this house, for the education and employment of so many persons, gave cardinal Fleury so high an idea of the vicar of St Sulpice, that he proposed to make him superintendent-general of all the hospitals in the kingdom; which, however, was declined. Never man took more pains than he did to procure charitable donations and legacies, which he distributed with admirable discretion: he is said from good authority to have disbursed near a million of livres to the poor annually. When there was a general dearth dearth in 1725, he sold, in order to relieve the poor, his household goods, pictures, and some curious pieces of furniture that he had procured with difficulty; and when the plague raged at Marseilles, he sent large sums into Provence for the relief of the distressed. M. Languet was not only singular in this warm, disinterested, benevolent conduct, but also in another circumstance equally rare; and this was in the refusal of several bishoprics that were offered him: he resigned even his vicarage in 1748; but continued to preach every Sunday at his own parish-church, and to support the Mission de l'Enfant Jésus to his death, which happened in 1750. It is observed, that his piety and charity did not proceed from poverty of talents; for he was sensible and lively in conversation, and his genius often discovered itself in his agreeable repartees.