DIGBY, Sra Kendal, English author, diplo matist and naval commander : b. Gothurst, Buck inghamshire, 11 July 1603; d. London, 11 June 1665. His great-grandfather bore arms for Henry VII on Bosworth field; his father, Sir Everard (q.v.), died on the scaffold as one of the leading Catholic gentry implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, 1606. Kenelm was brought up a Roman Catholic. After completing his aca demic studies at Oxford he went on his travels through France, Spain and Italy ; in 1628 equipped at his own cost a squadron against the Algerine corsairs, and incidentally defeated a Venetian force off Scanderoon (11 June). Re turning home, he appears for a time to have oscillated between Protestantism and Catholi cism; was imprisoned early in 1642 as a Royalist, and released in July 1643, but his property was confiscated, and he retired to France; there he was in high favor with the court and with men of learning and philosophers, among them Des cartes. At the overthrow of the Royalist cause he returned to England and labored in the Catholic interest, but was banished under pain of death by the Parliament. He then for a
time served the French king in various em bassies, but under the Protectorate came back to England and was admitted to the intimate friendship of Cromwell. He was one of the founders of the London Royal Society. His works on physical philosophy, on natural science and on metaphysical subjects possess now only the interest of curiosity; among them are a (Treatise on the Nature of Bodies,' Institutions,' (Treatise on the Soul,' etc. On religious matters he wrote many books, among them (A Conference About a Choice of- Re ligion,) and (Letters' on the same subject. His brief critique of Sir Thomas Browne's (Religio Medici' gives a specimen of his style of argu mentation. He was all his life an inquirer into occultism and wrote a book on (The Cure of Wounds by the Power of Sympathy' ; he hoped also to discover a means of conserving into old age the extraordinary personal beauty of his wife, and invented cosmetics to that end. Con sult Longueville, T., (Life of Sir Kenelm Digby> (New York 1896).