Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/95

O W E O W E 85 The History of the Indies first appeared at Madrid in the form of a Sumario in 1526. Of the full work, consisting of fifty books, the first twenty-one were published at Seville in 1535 (Eng. transl. by Eden, 1555 ; Fr. transl. by Poleur, 1556). The whole has recently been published for the first time by the Madrid Royal Academy of History (4 vols. fol., 1851-55). It contains a large mass of valuable information, but written in a loose rambling moralizing style which makes it somewhat difficult to use. According to Las Casas, it is " as full of lies almost as pages," but the judgment of the humane ecclesiastic was, necessarily perhaps, somewhat preju diced. The Qtiincnagcnas, devoted to reminiscences of the princi pal characters who had figured in Spain during his lifetime, consists of a series of imaginary conversations full of gossip and curious anecdote of great interest to the student of history. Several MSS. are extant, but the work has never been printed. OWEGO, a post village and township of the United States, capital of Tioga county, New York, lies at the mouth of Owego Creek, on the north side of the Susque- lianna (here crossed by a bridge), 237 miles north west of New York by the New York, Erie, and Western Railroad, which here connects with the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western and the Southern Central Rail roads. The village, built at the foot of a considerable hill in the heart of a fine agricultural district, is a pleasant place with broad maple-shaded side- walks along its principal streets. Grist-mills, soap-works, marble-works, a piano factory, and carriage-works are among the industrial establishments. The population of the village was 4756 in 1870 and 5525 in 1880; that of the whole township 9442 and 9984 respectively. OWEN, JOHN (Ovenus or Audoenus) (1560-1622), a writer of Latin epigrams, once very popular all over Europe, was of Welsh extraction, and was born at Armon, Caernarvonshire, in 1560. He was educated under Dr Bilson at Wykeham s School, Winchester, and afterwards studied at New College, Oxford, where he received a fellowship in 1584, and took the degree of bachelor of laws in 1590. Throwing up his fellowship during the follow ing year, he turned schoolmaster, and taught successively at Trylegh, near Monmouth, and at Warwick, where he was master of the free school founded by Henry VIII. He soon became distinguished for his perfect mastery of the Latin language, and for the humour, felicity, and point of his epigrams. As a writer of Latin verse he takes rank with Buchanan and Cowley. Those who, with Dryden, place the epigram "at the bottom of all poetry" will not estimate Owen s poetical genius very high ; yet the Continental scholars and wits of the day used to call him "the British Martial." "In one respect he was a true poet," says a biographer ; " namely, he was always poor." He was a staunch Protestant besides, and could not resist the temptation of turning his wit against Popery occasionally. This practice caused his book to be placed on the Ind?x Prohibitorius of the Roman Church in 1654, find, what was yet more serious, led a rich old uncle of the Roman Catholic communion, from whom he had "great expectations," to cut the epigrammatist out of his will. When the poet died in 1622, his countryman and relative, Bishop Williams of Lincoln, had him buried at St Paul s Cathedral, London, where he erected a monument to his memory bearing an elegant epitaph in Latin. Owen s Epigrammata are divided into twelve books, of which the first four were published in 1606, and the rest at four different times. Owen frequently adapts and alters to his own purpose the lines of his predecessors in Latin verse, and one such borrowing lias become celebrated as a quotation, though few know where it is to be found. It is the first line of this epigram : "Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: Quo modo? fit semper tempore pejor homo." (Lib I. ad Edoardum Noel, epig. 58.) This first line is altered from an epigram by Matthew Borbonius, one of a series of mottoes for various emperors, this one beino- for Lothaire I. " Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: Ilia vices quasdam res liabet, il a vices." There are editions of the Emgrammita by Elzevir and by Didot ; the be.st is that edited by Renouard (2 vols., Paris, 1795). Transla tions into English, either in whole or in part, have been made by Vicars, 1619; by Pecke. in his Parnassi I ucrpcrium, 1659; and by Harvey in 1677, which is the most complete. La Torre, the Spanish epigrammatist, owed much to Owen, and translated his works into Spanish in 1674. French translations of the best of Owen s epigrams have been published by A. L. Lebrun, 1709, ami by Kerivalant, 1819. OWEN, JOHN (1616-1683), theologian, was born of Puritan parents at Stadham in Oxfordshire in 1616. At twelve years of age he was admitted at Queen s College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree in 1632 and M.A. in 1635. During these years he worked with such diligence that he allowed himself but four hours sleep a night, and damaged his health by this excessive labour. In 1637 lie was driven from Oxford by his refusal to comply with the requirements of Laud s new statutes. Having taken orders shortly before, he became chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir Robert Dormer of Ascot in Oxfordshire. At the outbreak of the civil troubles he adopted Parliamentary principles, and thus lost both his place and the prospects of succeeding to his uncle s fortune. For a while he lived in Charterhouse Yard, in great unsettlement of mind on religious questions, which was removed at length by a sermon which he accidently heard at St Michael s in Wood Street. His first publication, in 1642, The Display of Arminian- ism, dedicated to the committee of religion, gained him the living of Fordham in Essex, from which a "scandalous minister" had been ejected. Here he was married, and by his marriage he had eleven children. Although he was thus formally united to Presbyterianism, Owen s views were originally inclined to those of the Inde pendents, and, as he acquainted himself more fully with the controversy, he became more resolved in that direction. He represented, in fact, that large class of persons who, falling away from Episcopacy, attached themselves to the very moderate form of Presbyterianism which obtained in England as being that which came first in their way. His views at this time are shown by his Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished. At Fordham he remained until 1646, when, the old incumbent dying, the presentation lapsed to the patron, who gave it to some one else. He was now, however, coming into notice, for on April 29 he preached before the Parliament. In this sermon, and still more in his Thoughts on Church Government, which he appended to it, his tendency to Ireak away from Presbyterianism is displayed. The people of Coggeshall in Essex now invited him to become their pastor. Here he declared his change by founding a church on Congregational principles, and, in 1647, by publishing Uthcol, as well as various works against Arminianism. He made the friendship of Fairfax while the latter was besieging Colchester, and urgently addressed the army there against religious persecution. He was chosen to preach to Parliament on the day after the execution of Charles, and succeeded in fulfilling his task without mentioning that event, and again on April 19, when he spake thus : " The time shall come when the earth shall disclose her slain, and not the simplest heretic shall have his blood unrevenged ; neither shall any atone ment or expiation be allowed for this blood, while a toe of the image, or a bone of the beast, is left unbroken. He now became acquainted with Cromwell, who carried him off to Ireland in 1649 as his chaplain, that he might regulate the affairs of Trinity College; while there he began the first of his frequent controversies with Baxter by writing against the lattcr s Aphorisms of Justification. In 1650 he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, and returned to Coggeshall in 1651. In March Cromwell, as chancellor, gave him the deanery of Christ Church, and made him