VENANTIUS
742
VENETA VEllSIO
He then supplied the Church at Paris, 111., from Oct. 1, ISJ'.l. until Dec. 1. 1841. At the hitter date, lie founded the Edgar Female Academy at I'aris, and devoted his time and labors wholly thereto until 1850. This acad- emy grew and iiourished, expanding into the Edgar Collegiate Institute. From 1853 to ISoti he supplied tiie Church at Charleston, 111.; then Oakland (other- wise called Belliel) Church from April 1, 18o(;, to INIay 1. 18(10. At tlie latter date, having accepted a call, he was installed jiastor of Oakland Church. This relation was tlissolved, because of inadequate support, April 18. \StJi), after which he supi)lied the Ciiurch at Newton from 1805 to 18i;7, then Carlisle aiul Claiborne church- es thirteen months, and York Cliurch (all in Illinois) for one year. In September, 1870, by earnest request of the parties interested, he became principal of the Edgar Collegiate Institute, which he had founded near- ly thirty years before, and continued in charge of it un- til, not long before his death, he was compelled to do- sist from all labor. He died at Paris, Edgar Co., 111., May '2-2, 1878. His death was peaceful, trustful, and without fear. He was a truly godly man, an earnest and faithful minister of the (iospel, a true and sincere friend, and universally esteemed and loved by his bretliren. (W. P. S.) '
Venantius, Honorius CLKMiiNTiANus Fortuxa-
TL'S. See FORTCNATUS.
Venanzi, Antonio (also called Gioraimi, Ginranni B(i/l/.<f'i. and Fiaiwciai), an Lallan painter, was born about 1(;'27. He was tirst instructed by Ciiido, and then entered the school of Simone Caiitarini. He painted two histories o^ St. Anthoni/ in the church of that saint at Pesaro, and the Descent of the Hithj Ghost ill one of the churches of Bologna. It is said that he was employed at the court of Parma. He died Oct. 2, 1705. See Spooner, Bioy. Hist, of the Fine Arts, s. v.
Venatorius, TiioJtAs, whose real name was Ge- chdiijf. takes rank as the earliest Protestant writer in the department of ethics. He was born about 1488 at Nuremberg, and received a liberal education at several universities. His earliest essay in literature was the |iublication, in 1514, of the works of Archimedes, and this was followed in 1531 by a metrical translation of the Plutus of Aristophanes and by an issue of Pirkheim- er's Antibasis. After completing his university course, he entered the Order of Dominican monks, and in 1520 took up his abode at Nuremberg, where he gave him- self zealously to the work of promoting the reformatory movements then rife. He became preacher in the Hos- pital and the Dominican churches in 1523, and ten years later pastor of the Church of St. James. In 1524 he helped to introduce Osiander's Gvteti Unterficht . . . mis i/ottlichcr Svhrift ; in 1525 he participated in the religious colloquy which determined the case of the Cospel in Nuremberg; and in 152G he began the issue of that series of theological works for which he is chiefly noted with the book Axiomata Rerum Christiana mm. His next work was a Defensio pro Baptismo et Fide Pamdorii m, directed against the Anabaptist theories (1527). The most important work of Venatorius is the De Virtute Christiana (I52'j),in three books. Its start- ing-point is the Osiandrian idea of faith [see Osiandilr], and the line of its argument is to show that faith is the centre and sum of Christian virtue and the principle from which .sjirings the performance of all good works. The success of the work was hindered by the dogmatic opposition of Lutheran theology and the author's Osi- andrian leanings; but it deserved notice for its real value as well as for the reason that it was unquestiona- l)ly the earliest independent Protestant essay in the Held of ethics. In 1534 Venatorius wrote an Epistola Apo/o- <jet. de Sola Fide Justijicante, etc., Avhich shows that he had come over to the orthodox Lutheran view of justi- fication, though he still continued his relations of friend- ship with Osiander. After a temporary sojourn at Ko- thenburg in the interest of the Keformation, in 1544, he
returned to his Nuremberg parish, and remained in the exercise of his jiastoral functions and literary lalmrs un- til he died, Feb. 1, 1551. See Will. Xiinibirfj. Gehhrten- Lexrikoii. iv,83 sq. ; and an art. in the Stud. u. Krit. 1850, No. 4 ; also Herzog, Reul-Eiuykiop. s. v.
Vence, Henri Fran(,ois dk, a French Hebraist, was born about 1G75 at I'areid, in Voivre (liarois). Having entered the monastic ranks, he graduated at the Sorbonne; and after being preceptor to the chiklren of Leopold, duke of Lorraine, he was rewarded by being appointed provost of the Church of Nancy. He super- intended the printing of tlie Jiible of De Carrieres (Nan- cy, 1738-43, 22 vols. 12mo), and added numerous disser- tations, which were afterwards inserted in Calmet's Bible (1748-50, and later). He died at Nancy, Nov. 1, 1749. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Vendidad, in the Parsee philosophy, is the twen- tieth viisk, or division, of the Zendavesta (q. v.). It is in the fonn of a dialogue between Ormuzd (q. v.) and Zoroaster (q. v.).
Venefici (poisoners, sorcerers) were magicians who practice their arts against the lives of men. In the laws of the early Christian emperors of Home, which granted indulgence to criminals at' the Easter festival, the Ve- nejici were always exce|)ted as guilty of too heinous a crime to be comprised within the general (lardon granted to other offenders. See Bingham, Christ. A utiq. bk. xvi, ch. V, § 5.