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VOLUSENUS, FLORENTIUS [FLORENCE WOLSO...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 210 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VOLUSENUS, FLORENTIUS [See also:FLORENCE WOLSON, Or See also:WOLSEY, in later writers See also:WILSON, though in letters in the See also:vernacular he writes himself VOLUSENE] (c. 1504-c. 1547) , Scottish humanist, was See also:born near See also:Elgin about 1504. He studied See also:philosophy at See also:Aberdeen, and in the See also:dialogue De Animi Tranquillitate says that the description of the See also:abode of tranquillity was based on a See also:dream that came to him after a conversation with a See also:fellow-student on the See also:banks of his native Lossie. He was then a student of philosophy of four years' See also:standing. Proceeding to See also:Paris, he became See also:tutor to See also:Thomas Wynter, reputed son of See also:Cardinal Wolsey. He paid repeated visits to See also:England, where he was well received by the See also:king, and, after Wolsey's fall, he acted as one of See also:Cromwell's agents in Paris. He was in England as See also:late as 1534, and appears to have been See also:rector of Speldhurst in See also:Kent. In Paris he knew See also:George See also:Buchanan, and found patrons in the cardinal See also:jean de See also:Lorraine and Jean du Bellay. He was to have gone with du Bellay on his See also:mission to See also:Italy in 1535, but illness kept him in Paris. As soon as he recovered he set out on his See also:journey, but at See also:Avignon, by the See also:advice of his friend See also:Antonio Bonvisi (d. 1558), he sought the patronage of the See also:bishop of the See also:diocese, the learned and pious See also:Paul Sadolet, who made him See also:master in the school at See also:Carpentras, with a See also:salary of seventy crowns.

Volusenus paid frequent visits to See also:

Lyons (where See also:Conrad See also:Gesner saw him, still a See also:young See also:man, in 1540), probably also to Italy, where he had many See also:friends, perhaps even to See also:Spain. A See also:letter addressed to him by Sadolet from See also:Rome in 1546 shows that he had then resolved to return to See also:Scotland, and had asked advice on the attitude he should adopt in the religious dissensions of the See also:time. He died on the journey, however, at See also:Vienne in See also:Dauphine, in 1546, or See also:early in the next See also:year. Volusenus's linguistic studies embraced See also:Hebrew as well as See also:Greek and Latin. His reputation, however, rests on the beautiful dialogue, De Animi Tranquillitate, first printed by S. See also:Gryphius at Lyons in 1543. From See also:internal See also:evidence it appears to have been composed about that time, but the subject had exercised the writer for many years. The dialogue shows us See also:Christian See also:humanism at its best. Volusenus is a See also:great admirer of See also:Erasmus, but he criticizes the purity of his Latin and also his philosophy. His own philosophy is Christian and Biblical rather than classical or scholastic. He takes a fresh and See also:independent view of Christian See also:ethics, and he ultimately reaches a See also:doctrine as to the See also:witness of the Spirit and the assurance of See also:grace which breaks with the traditional See also:Christianity of his time and is based on ethical motives akin to those of the See also:German Reformers. The verses which occur in the dialogue, and the poem which concludes it, give Volusenus a See also:place among Scottish Latin poets, but it is as a Christian philosopher that he attains distinction.

The dialogue was reissued at See also:

Leiden in 1637 by the Scots writer See also:David Echlin, whose poems, with a selection of three poems from the dialogue of Volusenus, appear, with others, in the famous See also:Amsterdam collection Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum hujus and, printed by Blaev in 2 vols. in 1637. Later See also:editions of the dialogue appeared at See also:Edinburgh in 1707 and 1751 (the latter .edited by G. \Vishart). All the reissues contain a See also:short See also:life of the author by Thomas Wilson, See also:advocate, son-in-See also:law and biographer of See also:Arch-bishop See also:Patrick See also:Adamson. Supplementary facts are found in the letters and See also:state papers of the See also:period, and in Sadolet's Letters.

End of Article: VOLUSENUS, FLORENTIUS [FLORENCE WOLSON, Or WOLSEY, in later writers WILSON, though in letters in the vernacular he writes himself VOLUSENE] (c. 1504-c. 1547)

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