and commenced printer, "then esteemed (says Wood) a profession fit for any scholar or ingenious man." He married the sister of Sir Thomas More, with whom, we are told, he was very intimate, and whose writings he frequently defended. From the title-page of one of his books, he appears to have lived in Cheapside, at the sign of the mermaid. He died in the year 1526; and left two sons, William and John: the first of whom became a judge in queen Mary's reign, and the latter a justice of peace. This John Rastall, the subject of the present article, was a zealous Papist; but Bale says, that he changed his religion before his death. He wrote, 1. Natura naturata. Pits calls it a copious (prolifica) and ingenious comedy, describing Europe, Asia, and Africa; with cuts. What sort of a comedy this was, is not easy to conceive. Probably it is a cosmographical description, written in dialogue, and therefore styled a comedy. 2. The paftyme of the people; the chronicles of diverse realmys, and most especially of the realm of England, brevily compiled and emprinted in Cheapefyde, at the sign of the mermaid, next Polygate, cum privilegio, fol. 3. Ecclesia Johannis Rastalli, 1542. Was one of the prohibited books in the reign of Henry VIII. 4. Legum Anglicanarum vocabula explicata. French and Latin. Lond. 1567, 8vo. And some other works.a town of Germany, in the circle of Swabia and marquisate of Baden, with a handsome castle. It is remarkable for a treaty concluded here between the French and Imperialists in 1714; and is seated on the river Merg, near the Rhine. E. Long. 9. 14. N. Lat. 48. 52.