delighted in the quiet of that rural retirement, and still more in exercising the duties of the ministry among its simple and attached people. He was most indefatiga- ble in performing all the duties of the parish— preached in some district of it daily ; and by his pastoral visits to the poor, as well as to the rich, secured the affections and esteem of all his parishioners. His high character for propriety and talents brought him into general no- tice, and he was soon appointed prebendary of Peter- borough, and not long afterwards, in 1767, he became rector of Lambeth. In the same year he took the de- gree of D.D. at Cambridge, and in 1769 was made chap- lain to king George III, and master of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester. In 1773 Dr. Porteus, with a few other clergymen, joined in an unavailing applica- tion to the bishops, requesting that they would review the Liturgy and Articles for the purpose of making some slight alterations. In 1776 Dr. Porteus, without any so- licitation on his part, was made bishop of Chester; and in 1787, on the death of bishop Lowth, he was promoted to the diocese of London, over which he presided till his death. This appointment, with the new duties to which it called his attention, put a temporary stop to the im- mediate prosecution of several important undertakings he had contemplated; but they were resumed shortly after. The first of these was the publication of his ex- cellent Summary of the Principal Evidences of the Truth and /Urine Origin of the Christian Revelation, designed chiefly for the instruction of young persons. Besides, as a member of the Legislature, he pursued a long-formed plan for improving the condition of the negro slaves in the West Indian islands, and particularly for their in- struction in religious knowledge. He was for many years one of the vice-presidents of the British and For- eign Bible Society, and took a lively interest, as well as an active part, in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In short, his public influence, as well as private patronage, were constantly exerted in devising or supporting measures for the diffusion of pure and un- defiled religion. In 1798 he began a course of lectures on St. Matthew's Gospel, which he delivered at St. James's Church on the Fridays in Lent. These lect- ures, which he afterwards published, have been per- haps the most popular of all his works. He died May 14, 1808. Though bishop Porteus cannot be called a profound scholar or divine, he was a man of consider- able learning and ability ; and he pursued through life a steady course of pious exertion for the benefit of his fellow-creatures, which procured him a high reputation among men of all parties. He was a prelate of liberal and enlarged views, one proof of which may be adduced in the fact that when a bill was introduced into Parlia- ment for the relief of dissenting ministers and school- masters, he pronounced it " a measure no less consonant to the principles of sound policy than to the genuine spirit of the Gospel." He was in private life distin- guished by a cheerful disposition, affable manners, great benevolence, and deep and unaffected piety. As a preacher, few in his day surpassed him either in elo- quence or pathos. He is conspicuous for sound judg- ment, solid argument, great knowledge of the human heart, accurate observation of the world, an unshrinking reprobation of vice, the most persuasive exhortations to piety, and an unqualified avowal of all the essential, fundamental truths and doctrines of the Gospel. His works, consisting of sermons and tracts, with a Life of Archbishop Seeker, and the poems and lectures already mentioned, were collected and published, with his Life, making another volume, by his nephew, the Rev. Rob- ert Hodgson, afterwards dean of Carlisle (1811, 6 vols. 8vo, and often). There are a few letters, sermons, etc., not included in this collection (see Darling, Cyclop. Bibliogr. i, 2425). Besides Hodgson's Life of Bishop Porteus (also published separately, 1810, 8vo), see Churchman's Magazine, vol. viii; Jones, Christian Biogr. s.v.; Perry, Ch. Hist, of Engl, iii, 428, 476; Clissold, Lamps of the Church, p. 69 sq.; Chambers, Cyclop. Engl
PORTHAISE
430
PORTIFOKIl'M
Lit. ii, fi.'l : Lohd. Quar. !,'■ vit w, March, 1812, p. 3-1- 38; British Critic, 1811 ; North American Review,*, 11. 396; Matbia . I wits of Literature (ed. 1812), p. 270 sq.
L VWoT Tomb of Bishop Porteus, at Tanbridge, Kent.
Porthaise, Jean, a French Franciscan monk of the Kith century, noted tor his decided polemies against Protestantism, was born at Saint-Denis-de-Ga- tines, near the beginning of that asra. In l">»;i we find him in ili<' monastery of Sables d'Olonne, where he probably made Ins profession, lie was more than once conspicuous by the vehemence of his speeches and the extravagance of his conduct A certain dean Tri- oche, minister of the Reformed Church at Chateauneuf, near Sable, in Anjou, had distinguished himself by his preaching. Porthaise, as soon as informed of it, went to a place where lie might meet his adversary; but Jean ["rioc-be tailed to put in an appearance. Por- thaise forthwith drew up a list of questions, to which he
requested theCalvinisI minister i" reply. The answers rami- two months afterwards. Porthaise's rejoinder to these declarations of Ids adversary are extant. At- tached t" the Church of Tours in 1566, Porthaise was meditating a great enterprise: it was nothing less than