Argental (Charles Augustin de Ferriol) Count d', French diplomat, b. Paris 20 Dec. 1700, was a nephew of Mme. de Tencin, the mother of D'Alembert. He is known for his long and enthusiastic friendship for Voltaire. He was said to be the author of Mémoires du Comte de Comminge and Anecdotes de la cour d'Edouard. Died 5 Jan. 1788. Aristophanes, great Athenian comic poet, contemporary with Socrates, Plato, and Euripides, b. about 444 B.C. Little is known of his life. He wrote fifty-four plays, of which only eleven remain, and was crowned in a public assembly for his attacks on the oligarchs. With the utmost boldness he satirised not only the the political and social evils of the age, but also the philosophers, the gods, and the theology of the period. Plato is said to have died with Aristophanes' works under his pillow. Died about 380 B.C. Aristotle, the most illustrious of ancient philosophers, was born at Stagyra, in Thrace, 384 B.C. He was employed by Philip of Macedon to instruct his son Alexander. His inculcation of ethics as apart from all theology, justifies his place in this list. After the death of Alexander, he was accused of impiety and withdrew to Chalcis, where he died B.C. 322. Grote says: "In the published writings of Aristotle the accusers found various heretical doctrines suitable for sustaining their indictment; as, for example, the declaration that prayer and sacrifices to the gods were of no avail." His influence was predominant upon philosophy for nearly two thousand years. Dante speaks of him as "the master of those that know." Arnold of Brescia, a pupil of Abelard. He preached against the papal authority and the temporal power, and the vices of the clergy. He was condemned for heresy by a Lateran Council in 1139, and retired from Italy. He afterwards returned to Rome and renewed his exertions against sacerdotal oppression, and was eventually seized and burnt at Rome in 1155. Baronius calls him "the patriarch of political heretics."