those who refused to take the oaths to government, and who were in consequence under certain incapacities, and liable to certain severe penalties. It can scarcely be said that there are any nonjurors now in the kingdom; and it is well known that all penalties have been removed both from Papists and Protestants, formerly of that denomination, as well in Scotland as in England. The members of the Episcopal church of Scotland have long been denominated Nonjurors; but perhaps they are now called so improperly, as the ground of their difference from the establishment is more on account of ecclesiastical than political principles.

Nonius, Peter, in Spanish Nunez, a learned Portuguese, and one of the ablest mathematicians of the 16th century, was born at Alcacer. He was preceptor to Don Henry, King Emmanuel's son, and taught mathematics in the university of Coimbra. He published the following works, by which he gained great reputation: 1. De arte Navigandi. 2. Annotationes in theoriam planetarum Purbachii; which are greatly esteemed. 3. A treatise De Crepusculis. 4. A treatise on Algebra. It is observed in Furetiere's dictionary, that Peter Nonius in 1530, first invented the angles of 45 degrees made in every meridian, and that he called them rhumbs in his language, and calculated them by spherical triangles. Nonius died in 1577, aged 80.