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BR  1700  .HB3T:8^5  v.l 
Hook,  Walter  Farquhar,  1798 

1875. 
An  ecclesiastical  biograph3i 


NOTICE  to  Purchasers  of  the  Work,  in  Parts  and 
single  Volumes. 

•    DIRECTIONS  TO  THE  BINDER. 

The  Title,  Dedication  and  Preface  given  herewith,  (dated 
May  15th,  1852,)  are  to  be  placed  at  the  commence- 
ment of  Vol.  I.,  and  the  Binder  is  requested  to 
cancel  the  Dedication  and  the  Prefaces  and  Tables 
which  have  already  appeared  in  that  and  the  rest  of 
the  Volumes. 

The  "Table"  to  be  placed  at  the  End  of  Vol.  VIII. 


AN 


ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGRAPHY, 


CONTAINING    THE 


ILibes  of  ^MCient  ^at^ers  anK  Plotrern  MUmn, 


INTERSPERSED    WITH    NOTICES    OF 


HERETICS      AND      SCHISMATICS, 


A    BRIEF     HISTORY    OF     THE     CHURCH     IN     EVERY    AGK 


BY  jf 

WALTER    FAEQUHAR    HOOK,    D.D. 

VICAR   OP    LEEDS. 


VOL.     VIII. 


LONDON : 

F.      AND      J.       RIVINGTON; 
PARKER,    OXFORD  ;     J.  AND    J.    DEIGHTON,    CAMBRIDGE 
T.   HARRISON,    LEEDS. 

1852. 


T.    HARRISON,    PRINTER,    BRIC4aATi;,    LIEDiS. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGRAPHY, 


CONTAINING    THE 


l^tbes  of  ^nctent  J^iatjers  anir  l^otKmt  Htbtnes, 


INTEESPERSED   WITH    NOTICES   OF 


HERETICS      AND      SCHISMATICS 


A    BRIEF     HISTORY    OB'    THE     CHURCH     IN     EVERY    AGE 


WALTER    FAEQUHAE    HOOK,    D.B, 

TICAR   OF    LEEDS. 


Vol.  I. 


LONDON : 

F.      AND      J  .       RIVINGTON  ; 
PARKER,    OXFORD  ;     J.  AND   J.    DEIGHTON,    CAMBRIDGE 
T.   HARRISON,    LEEDS. 


LEEDS  : 

T.    HAREISON,     PRINTER, 

BRIGGATE. 


TO  SIK  WILLIAM    PAGE    WOOD,   M.P. 

My  DEAR  Friend, 

Having  brought  to  a  conclusion  The  Ecclesiastical 
Biography,  in  the  compilation  of  which  I  have  found, 
for  several  years,  a  pleasing  occupation  for  my  few 
leisure  hours,  I  dedico.te  these  Volumes  to  you.  From 
our  boyhood  we  have  been  accustomed  to  take  sweet 
counsel  together  in  all  that  relates  to  religious  prin- 
ciple and  sentiment ;  you  have  walked  with  me  in  the 
House  of  God  as  my  Friend ;  you  have  stood  true  to 
the  Church  of  England  through  evil  report  and  good 
report ;  and  you  have  been  charitably  opposed  to 
religious  extremes  whether  on  the  side  of  Romanism 
or  on  the  side  of  Puritanism ;  treading  ever  in  that 
via  media  in  which  we  are  instructed  that  the  Truth 
must  always  be  found.  To  such  a  one  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  be  able  to  say  that,  at  the  termination  of 
this  Work,  I  find  myself  more  than  ever  confirmed 

A3 


DEDICATION. 


in  those  Principles  which  we  thought  out  together 
in  early  life,  and  long  before  the  controversies  arose 
which  now  unfortunately  disturb  the  Church;  and, 
with  an  increased  feeling  of  deep  gratitude  to  the 
merciful  Providence  which,  amidst  the  excitements 
of  the  Keformation,  over-ruled  the  passions  of  our 
ancestors  and  directed  their  minds,  while  removing 
the  corruptions  of  Medievalism  and  the  various 
errors  which  grew  up  in  the  dark  ages,  to  "stand 
in  the  ways  and  see  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,"  so 
that  we,  their  descendants,  find  rest  to  our  souls  in 
walking  in  that  good  way, — the  straight  and  narrow 
path, — which  they  marked  out  for  us  ;  and  possess  a 
Church,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  which,  not- 
withstanding many  defects  in  the  administration  of 
it,  is  the  glory  of  our  native  land,  the  terror  of  the 
Papist,  the  monitor  of  the  Puritan,  and  the  bulwark 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

Let  me  add  that  it  is  impossible  to  approach 
Ecclesiastical  History  or  Biography  without  being 
impressed  with  the  fact,  that  the  holiest  of  men, 
whether  Fathers,  Eeformers,  or  Modern  Divines  were 
not  only  fallible  but  sinful  men ;  and  never  let  us 
forget   that  Scriptural  truth   so  firmly  held    in  tlie 


DEDICATION.  V. 

Primitive  Church,  obscured  in  the  Medieval  Church, 
and  re-asserted  at  the  Keformation,  but  repudiated 
by  the  Tridentines,  that  we  must  rely  for  justification 
not  on  our  own  righteousness,  for  sin  cleaves  to 
our  holiest  things, —  but  on  the  alone  merits  and 
righteousness  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Head  of  the  Church,  and  the  King  of  Saints. 

I  am,  my  dear  Friend, 

Your's  most  truly, 

W.     F.     HOOK. 


LEEDS    VICARAGE, 

15th  May,  1852. 


PREFACE. 

The  following  compilation  is  one  of  very  humble 
pretensions  on  the  part  of  the  author,  although  he 
may  be  permitted  to  hope  that  its  usefulness  will 
be  considerable  to  those  for  whose  service  it  was 
composed. 

It  was  commenced  in  1844,  and  has  been  con- 
tinued in  monthly  parts  till  its  completion  in  1852. 
It  was  designed  for  those  among  the  author's 
parishioners,  who,  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits, 
and  without  much  time  for  study,  take  an  interest 
in  Ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  desire  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  History  of  the  Church  and  her 
divines.  If  it  shall  be  found  useful  by  masters  of 
National  Schools  and  their  pupil  teachers,  or  even 
by  those  of  the  clergy  who,  labouring  in  remote 
parishes,  have  no  extensive  library  at  hand,  the 
author  will  be  more  than  repaid  for  the  trouble 
he  has  taken  and  the  labour  he  has  expended  upon 
the  Work. 

Although  the  form  is  biographical,  yet  the  object 
is  historical.      The  reader  must  not  expect  to  find 


Vlll.  PREFACE. 

in  the  articles  of  a  Dictionary  necessarily  brief, 
the  anecdotes  which  render  Biography  one  of  the 
most  interesting  branches  of  study  ;  the  object  of 
a  Biographical  narrative  devoted  to  one  subject  is 
to  throw  light  upon  character  ;  whereas,  a  Bio- 
graphical dictionary  can  only  be  expected  to  state 
the  circumstances  under  which  a  distinguished  cha- 
racter has  been  placed. 

The  Biographies  in  these  volumes  have  been 
written  on  the  following  plan  :  All  points  of  minor 
interest  or  importance,  such  as  those  which  relate 
to  a  person's  family,  have  been  either  omitted  or 
slightly  noticed  :  for  these,  and  for  all  minuter  facts, 
the  reader  must  have  recourse  to  those  works,  which 
are  devoted  exclusively  to  the  history  of  the  person 
whose  life  can,  in  this  place,  be  only  briefly  noticed, 
and  to  which  reference  is  made  at  the  foot  of  each 
article. 

There  have  been  in  most  men's  lives  one  or 
two  important  events  to  which  a  peculiar  interest 
is  attached;  and,  by  omitting  points  of  minor 
importance,  an  opportunity  has  been  afforded  of 
dwelling  upon  these  at  considerable  length.  His- 
torical events  of  Ecclesiastical  interest  have  been 
narrated  with  some  minuteness  of  detail,  when 
the  subject  of  a  Biography  has  been  instrumental 
in  their  accomplishment;  when,  on  the  contrary, 
he  has  been  chiefly  distinguished  by  his  literary 
labours,  the  chief  dates  have  been  given,  which 
are   followed   by  extracts   from   his   works. 


PREFACE. 


On  doubtful  points,  relating  either  to  dates,  or  to 
other  matters  of  detail,  the  author  has  adopted  the 
conclusion  which  he  thinks  most  probable,  without 
entering  into  a  discussion  of  the  reasons  by  which  he 
has  been  influenced  in  his  decision ;  to  have  done 
this  would  have  been  to  occupy  more  space  than 
could,  in  such  a  work  as  this,  be  allotted  to  one 
subject. 

The  authorities  on  which  each  Biography  of  im- 
portance is  composed,  are  given  at  the  end  of  the 
article  :  the  very  words  of  a  biographer  or  historian 
have  been  adopted,  when  the  fact  he  relates  is  briefly 
or  happily  expressed. 

Besides  the  authorities  quoted  at  the  end  of  each 
article,  use  has  been  made  of  Moreri,  Bayle,  and 
Chalmers,  the  Biographia  Britannica,  the  Biographie 
Universelle,  and  other  similar  works. 

The  author  does  not  make  the  slightest  preten- 
sions to  impartiality;  and  he  never  gives  credit  to 
the  sincerity  of  an  author  who  professes  to  be 
impartial.  The  compiler  of  these  Biographies  has 
seen  every  event  with  the  eye  of  one  nurtured  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and,  he  hopes,  thoroughly  im- 
bued with  her  spirit  and  principles.  At  the  same 
time  he  trusts  that  he  has  done  justice  to  every  one, 
whether  Papist  or  Puritan,  when  sincerity,  even  in 
error,  and  real  piety  have  been  displayed.  The 
author  believes  that  he  proves  his  real  love  of  fair 
dealing  by  making  this  admission;  as  the  reader,  now 
knowing    the    bias    of    the    author's   mind,    will   be 


X.  PREFACE. 

prepared  to  make  due  allowance  for  those  prejudices, 
the  existence  of  which,  the  author  does  not  attempt 
to  conceal. 

The  names  of  divines  who  have  flourished  in  the 
present  century  are  not  included  in  these  volumes ; 
a  rule  which  it  was  found  expedient  to  adopt  after 
the  publication  of  the  first  parts  of  the  work. 

The  reader  is  indebted  to  Sir  William  Page  Wood, 
M.P.,  late  solicitor-general  to  her  Majesty,  for  the 
Life  of  Bishop  Berkeley ;  to  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Poole, 
for  the  Lives  of  B^de,  Cyprian  and  Wiclifi';  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Maitland,  for  the  Life  of  Foxe,  the  Mar- 
tyrologist ;  and  to  the  Rev.  G.  Wyatt,  for  the  Life  of 
Heylin. 

At  the  end  of  the  work  a  chronological  arrange- 
ment is  given  of  the  chief  characters  in  each  century, 
for  the  use  of  those  who  desire  to  employ  these 
volumes  as  an  Ecclesiastical  History. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGEAPHY. 


PEARCE,    ZACHARY. 


Of  this  learned  and  amiable  man,  we  have  an  auto- 
biography, but  it  contains  little  more  than  an  account 
of  his  publications,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  high 
preferments  in  the  Church  came  to  him  without  his 
seeking  them.  He  was  born  in  1690,  in  Holborn, 
where  his  father  was  a  distiller.  He  received  his  primary 
education  at  a  school  at  Ealing,  from  whence  he  was  re- 
moved to  Westminster,  and  from  Westminster  he  was 
elected  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  In  1716,  he 
published  an  edition  of  Cicero  de  Oratore,  with  notes 
and  emendations,  which  he  dedicated  to  Chief  Justice 
Parker. 

When  Parker  became  lord-chancellor,  he  appointed 
Pearce  to  be  his  domestic  chaplain,  and  by  his  lord- 
ship's influence  with  Dr.  Bentley,  Pearce  had  been  pre- 
viously elected  a  fellow  of  his  college.  He  was  ordained 
deacon  in  1717,  and  priest  in  1718.  In  1719,  he  was 
presented  to  the  living  of  Stapleton  Abbots,  in  Essex, 
to  which  was  added  the  next  year,  the  Rectory  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  by  the  Royal  Exchange,  London,  and  he 
was,  not  long  after,  appointed  chaplain  in  ordinary  to 
his  majesty.  In  17*23,  he  was  presented  to  St.  Mar- 
tin's-in-the-Fields,  and  received  a  Lambeth  degree  of 
D.D.  In  17^24,  he  published  his  edition  of  Longinus 
on  the  Sublime,  with  a  new   Latin  version  and  notes. 

VOL.    VIII.  B 


2  PEARCE. 

In  1739,  he  was  appointed  Dean  of  Winchester,  and  in 
1744,  he  was  prolocutor  of  the  House  of  Convocation. 
In  1748,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Bangor,  and  in 
1756,  was  translated  to  the  See  of  Rochester,  to  which, 
the  Deanery  of  Westminster  was  annexed. 

What  follows  is  given  in  his  own  words  : — "  In  the 
year  1763,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  being  then  seventy- 
three  years  old,  and  finding  himself  less  fit  for  the 
business  of  his  station,  as  bishop  and  dean,  informed 
his  friend  Lord  Bath  of  his  intention  to  resign  both, 
and  live  in  a  retired  manner  upon  his  own  private  for- 
tune. And  after  much  discourse  upon  that  subject,  at 
different  times,  he  prevailed  upon  his  lordship  at  last 
to  acquaint  his  majesty  with  his  intention,  and  to 
desire,  in  the  bishop's  name,  the  honour  of  a  private 
audience  from  his  majesty  for  that  purpose.  Lord  Bath 
did  so,  and  his  majesty  named  a  day  and  hour,  when 
the  bishop  went  and  was  admitted  alone  into  his  closet. 
He  there  made  known  his  request  to  his  majesty,  and 
acquainted  him  with  the  grounds  of  it,  telling  him,  that 
he  had  no  motive  for  resigning  his  bishopric  and  deanery 
from  dislikes  which  he  had  to  any  thing  in  the  Church 
or  State ;  that  being  of  the  age  before  mentioned  he 
found  the  business  belonging  to  those  two  stations 
too  much  for  him,  and  that  he  was  afraid,  that  it  would 
still  grow  much  more  so,  as  he  advanced  in  years ;  that 
he  was  desirous  to  retire  for  the  opportunity  of  spend- 
iiog  more  time  in  his  devotions  and  studies,  and  that 
he  was  in  the  same  way  of  thinking  with  a  general 
officer  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  who,  when 
he  desired  a  dismission  from  that  monarch's  ser\dce, 
and  the  emperor  asking  the  reason  of  it,  answered, 
'  Sir,  every  wise  man  would,  at  the  latter  end  of  life, 
wish  to  have  ain  interval  between  the  fatigues  of  busi- 
ness and  eternity. '  The  bishop  then  shewed  him,  in 
a  written  piaper,  instances  of  its  having  been  done  at 
several  times ;  and  concluded  with  telling  his  majesty 


PEARCE.  S 

that  he  did  not  expect  or  desire  an  immediate  answet 
to  his  request  ;  but  rather  that  his  majesty  would  first 
consult  some  proper  persons  among  his  servants  about 
the  propriety  and  legality  of  it.  This  the  king  consented 
to  do,  and  told  the  bishop,  that  he  would  send  for 
him  again,  when  he  was  come  to  a  determination. 

"  About  two  months  afterwards  he  sent  for  the  bishop 
and  told  him,  that  he  had  consulted  about  it  with  two 
of  his  lawyers;  that  one  of  them,  Lord  Mansfield,  saw 
no  objection  to  the  resignation  of  the  bishopric  and 
deanery ;  but  that  the  other  said,  he  was  doubtful  about 
the  practicability  of  resigning  a  bishopric ;  but  that 
however  the  same  law7er.  Lord  Northington,  soon  after- 
wards had  told  him,  that  upon  further  considering 
the  matter,  he  thought  the  request  might  be  complied 
with.  '  Am  I  then.  Sir,'  said  the  bishop,  '  to  suppose 
that  I  have  your  majesty's  consent  ?'  '  Yes,'  said  the 
king.  'May  I  then,  Sir,'  said  the  bishop,  'have  the 
honour  of  kissing  your  hand  as  a  token  of  your  con- 
sent ?'  Upon  that  the  king  held  out  his  hand,  and 
the  bishop  kissed  it. 

"  So  far  all  went  agreeably  to  the  Bishop's  inclination. 
Consent  was  given,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  is  seldom 
recalled  ;  it  being,  as  Lord  -Bath  expressed  it,  a  sort 
of  engagement. 

"  But  unfortunately  for  the  bishop.  Lord  Bath,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  of  the  king's  consent  being  given,  requested 
him  to  give  the  bishopric  and  deanery,  which  were 
to  be  resigned,  to  Dr.  Newton,  then  Bishop  of  Bristol. 
This  alarmed  the  ministry,  who  thought,  as  other 
ministers  had  done  before  them,  that  no  dignities  in 
the  Church  should  be  obtained  from  the  crown  ;  but 
through  their  hands.  They  therefore  resolved  to  oppose 
the  resignation,  as  the  shortest  way  of  keeping  the 
bishopric  from  being  disposed  of  otherwise  than  they 
liked :  and  the  lawyer,  who  had  been  doubtful,  and  who 
soon  after  had  been  clear,  was  employed  to  inform  his 


4  PEARCE. 

majesty  that  he  was  then  again  douhtful,  and  thai  the 
bishops  generally  disliked  the  design.  His  majesty 
upon  this  sent  again,  but  at  some  distance  of  time,  to 
the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and  at  a  third  audience  in 
his  closet  told  him,  that  he  must  think  no  more  about 
resigning  the  bishopric ;  but  that  he  would  have  all  the 
merit  of  having  done  it.  The  bishop  replied,  '  Sir,  I 
am  all  duty  and  submission,'  and  then  withdrew." 

The  affair  of  the  resignation  was  again  mooted, — "  In 
the  year  1768,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  having  first 
obtained  his  majesty's  consent,  resigned  his  Deanery  of 
Westminster  upon  Midsummer-day,  which  he  had  held 
for  twelve  years,  and  wtiich  was  nearly  double  in  point 
of  income  to  his  bishopric,  which  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
tain. As  dean  of  that  Church,  he  had  installed  twelve 
knights  of  the  Bath  in  1761 :  he  had  the  honour  of 
assisting  in  the  ceremonies  of  crowning  his  present 
majesty,  and  the  melancholy  office  of  performing  the 
funeral  service  over  King  George  the  Second,  and  six 
others  of  the  royal  family.  He  had  always  given  more 
attention  to  the  interests  of  that  society,  where  he  was 
the  dean,  than  to  his  own ;  and  when  he  quitted  it, 
which  was  without  any  conditions  attending  it,  he  was 
succeeded  in  the  deanery,  by  Dr.  Thomas,  who  had 
been  for  many  years  his  sub-dean  there,  and  whom 
he  favoured  no  farther  towards  his  getting  it,  than  by 
acquainting  him  some  months  before  with  his  intention 
of  resigning  it." 

He  died  at  Little  Ealing,  in  1774.  In  addition  to  the 
works  already  mentioned.  Bishop  Pearce  published  : — 
An  Account  of  Trinity-College,  Cambridge,  1720,  8vo; 
Epistolae  duae  ad  celeberrimum  doctissimumque  virum, 
F.  V.  Professorem  Amstelodamemsem  scriptae;  quarum 
in  altera  agitur  de  editione  Novi  Testamenti  a  clarissimo 
Bentleio  suscepta,  &c,  1721,  8vo  ;  A  Letter  to  the  Clergy 
of  the  Church  of  England,  on  occasion  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester's  commitment  to  the  Tower,  1722,  8vo;    Th© 


PEARSON.  5 

Miracles  of  Jesus  vindicated,  in  4  parts,  1727,  and  1728, 
8vo ;  in  answer  to  some  of  the  principal  parts  of  Mr. 
Woolston's  Six  Discourses  on  the  Miracles  of  Our  Saviour, 
&c. ;  Two  Letters,  in  controversy  with  Dr.  Middleton,  on 
the  subject  of  his  attack  upon  Dr.  Waterland,  1730,  and 
1731,  8vo  ;  Two  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Waterland,  upon 
the  Eucharist ;  Nine  occasional  Sermons  ;  A  Discourse 
against  Self-murder ;  and  a  Concio  ad  Clerum.  The  hu- 
morous pieces  sent  by  the  author  to  the  Guardian,  and 
Spectator,  are  No.  121  in  the  former  work,  and  No.  572 
in  vol.  viii  of  the  latter.  To  the  same  volume  he  com- 
municated the  Essay  on  the  Eloquence  of  the  Pulpit,  in 
No.  G33.  By  his  will  he  bequeathed  his  library  to  the 
Dean  and  Chapter  of  Westminster,  excepting  such  books 
as  they  already  possessed  ;  which  books,  together  with 
his  manuscripts,  he  gave  to  his  chaplain,  the  Rev.  John 
Derb3^  To  that  gentleman  was  bequeathed  the  care  of 
publishing  the  author's  great  work,  the  result  of  many 
years  studious  application.  It  made  its  appearance  in 
the  year  1777,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Commentary,  with 
Notes,  on  the  Four  Evangelists,  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  ;  together  with  a  new  translation  of  St.  Paul's 
first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  with  a  Paraphrase  and 
Notes.  "  &c.,  in  2  vols.  4to.  To  the  Commentary,  &c. 
are  added  some  of  the  author's  earlier  theological  pieces. 
Mr.  Derby  has  also  given  to  the  public,  from  the  author's 
manuscripts,  "  Sermons  on  several  Subjects,"  1778,  in 
4  vols.  8vo. — Life  i^'^fi^^f-l  to  Commentary,  and  Auto- 
biography, 


PEAESON,    JOHN. 

This  great  divine  was  born  at  Great  Snoring,  of  which 
place  his  father  was  rector,  on  the  28th  of  February, 
1612-13.  In  1623,  he  went  to  Eton,  where  he  con- 
tinued till  1631.  He  was  then  admitted,  on  the  10th 
B  3 


6  PEARSON. 

of  June,  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge  ;  but  within 
a  year,  in  April,  1632,  he  was  elected  scholar  of  King's, 
of  which  he  became  fellow,  in  1634.  He  proceeded 
B.A.  in  1635,  and  M.A.  in  1639,  in  which  year  he 
entered  into  holy  orders. 

There  are  many  stories  of  him  in  this  college, 
says  Cole,  who  was  himself  a  fellow  of  King's  ;  one 
of  which  is,  that  some  one  of  his  acquaintance,  seeing 
him  still  at  Eton  a  long  while  after  he  had  left  it, 
spoke  to  him  in  this  manner,  "So,  John!  what  here 
still?  To  my  knowledge  you  have  been  the  best 
scholar  in  the  school  these  ten  years."  Certain  it  is, 
that  such  was  his  propensity  to  books  and  knowledge 
while  a  school-boy,  that  all  the  money  he  could  get 
went  for  the  first,  and  all  the  time  out  of  school  to 
the  improvement  of  the  last:  nay,  he  hardly  allowed 
himself  time  for  natural  rest:  for  when  the  prepositor 
at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  saw  that  all  the  candles, 
according  to  rule,  were  put  out  in  the  long  chamber 
or  dormitory,  he  would  contrive  to  light  up  his  within 
an  hour  or  two  after,  when  all  the  boys  were  asleep ; 
and  by  this  means,  I  have  heard  it  affirmed  that 
before  he  left  Eton  to  come  here,  he  had  read  most 
of  the  Greek   and  Latin  fathers  of  the  Church. 

It  is  not,,  perhaps,  very  probable,  that  a  boy  at 
school  should  have  done  quite  so  much  as  is  here 
affirmed :  but  it  is  easily  supposed  that  the  vigor- 
ous and  deep  mind  of  Pearson  grew  early  accustomed 
to  lore  beyond  the  ordinary  study  of  school-boys. 
And  the  perfect  training  of  his  memory  in  the  writings 
of  the  fathers,  guiding  him  in  his  Exposition  of  the 
Creed,  and  other  works,  not  only  to  apposite  quotations 
on  every  doctrinal  point,  but  perhaps  to  the  most 
apposite  which  his  authors  contain,  is  in  itself  an 
evidence  of  the  zeal  his  youth  had  shewn  in  acquiring 
that  perfect  skill.  His  grateful  remembrance  of  Eton 
is  expressed   in  a  passage  of   the  Vindiciaelgnatianae, 


PEARSON.  r 

with  something  of  the  tone  of  a  man  who  is  conscious 
that  he  had  not  wasted  the  years  of  boyhood.  Sir 
Henry  Savile,  whom  he  mentions  in  the  same  sen- 
tence, was  dead  before  he  went  to  school ;  but  Savile 's 
Chrysostom  was  perhaps  accessible ;  and  there  was  a 
link  in  after-years  to  connect  him  with  Savile's  me- 
mory, when  he  became  acquainted  with  the  memorable 
John  Hales. 

Our  famous  Dr.  Pearson,  says  Allen,  was  a 
yery  hard  student  at  college ;  and  finding  that  the 
fireside  diverted  the  intention  of  his  thoughts,  and 
dulled  his  spirits,  he  avoided  coming  near  it  as  much 
as  possible,  contented  to  sit  close  to  his  books,  with  a 
blanket  thrown  over  his  shoulder.  This  is  very 
characteristic :  the  discipline  of  a  cold  room  to  quicken 
the  attention  is  still  not  unknown  to  hardy  students ; 
though  the  modern  luxuries  of  stoves  and  warm  air 
have  somewhat  rebated  the  keen  edge  of  such  literary 
enterprise. 

On  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1639,  Pearson  in- 
herited certain  lands,  mentioned  in  his  will,  situated  at 
Snoring  and  Downham ;  and  the  income  derived  from 
this  source  may  have  preserved  him,  during  the  troubled 
period  now  impending,  from  those  extreme  privations 
suffered  by  many  of  the  loyal  clergy.  About  the  same 
time,  he  was  collated  by  Dr.  John  Davenant,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  to  the  Prebend  of  Netherhaven,  in  that 
cathedral;  a  preferment  which,  no  doubt,  he  owed  to 
that  prelate's  regard  for  his  father;  Davenant  having 
been  with  him  a  fellow  of  Queen's,  over  which  college 
he  presided  as  master  before  his  elevation  to  the  See  of 
Salisbury.  Within  a  few  months  after  he  had  obtained 
this  preferment,  he  resigned  his  fellowship,  but  con- 
tinued to  reside  at  King's,  as  a  fellow-commoner. 

In  June,  1640,  he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  Lord 
Keeper  Finch.  He  was  about  the  same  time  presented 
to  the  hving  of  Thorington,  in  Suffolk,  but  not,  as  Arch- 


8  PEARSON. 

deacon  Churton  shews,  by  Lord  Keeper  Finch,  but  pro- 
bably by  Mr.  Henry  Coke,  son  of  the  great  lawyer,  Sir 
Edward  Coke. 

In  the  troublous  times  which  now  came  on,  Pearson 
took  his  side  manfully  and  devotedly  as  a  royalist.  He 
preached  strongly  on  the  subject  at  Cambridge,  and  we 
find  him,  in  1645,  acting  as  chaplain  to  the  forces  under 
the  command  of  Lord  Goring,  at  Exeter,  After  the  dis- 
persion of  this  last  hope,  he  appears  to  have  resigned  his 
living  and  to  have  taken  up  his  abode  in  London,  where 
he  is  said  for  a  time  to  have  been  chaplain  to  Sir  Piobert 
Coke,  and,  subsequently  to  George,  Lord  Berkeley. 

Pearson's  first  controversial  work  was  a  notice  of  a 
book  called  Exomologesis,  or  a  faithful  narration  of  his 
conversion,  written  by  Hugh  Paulin  de  Cressy,  an 
apostate  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  a  proselyte 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Pearson  attacks  him  in  a 
short  argumentative  preface  which  he  prefixed  to  Lord 
Falkland's  Discourse  on  the  Infallibility  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  :  in  which  he  takes  notice  of  some  singular 
admissions  of  Cressy 's  on  the  subject  of  this  infalli- 
bility, made  in  sec.  ii.,  c.  21.  of  his  Exomologesis. 
Cressy  replied  to  him  in  a  second  edition  of  his  book, 
printed  at  Paris,  1653,  by  an  appendix  of  great  length, 
in  which  he  professes  to  clear  "  the  misconstructions" 
of  J. P., — a  term  often  employed  by  a  controversialist, 
when  he  finds  he  has  allowed  his  opponent  too  much 
advantage  by  his  former  statements.  And  it  appears 
from  his  own  confessions  in  this  Appendix,  that  his 
book  had  met  with  some  severe  censure  on  this  ground 
from  his  new  friends  abroad.  The  point  of  infallibility 
is  indeed  one  that  is  maintained  with  great  latitude, 
and  in  many  discordant  ways,  by  the  advocates  of  the 
Church  of  Rome ;  as  is  admitted  by  Cressy  in  his 
reply,  and  was  afterwards  forcibly  urged  by  Charles 
Leslie,  and  allowed  by  one  who  undertook  to  answer 
him  with  more  learning  than  logic. 


PEARSON.  9 

In  1649,  he  published  an  answer  to  a  minor  as- 
sailant of  Catholic  practice  from  among  the  sectaries, 
in  a  short  tract  entitled  "  Christ's  Birth  not  Mistimed"; 
in  refutation  of  an  attempt  which  had  just  been  made 
to  throw  discredit  on  the  calculation  by  which  the 
Church  keeps  the  day  of  our  Lord's  Nativity  on  the 
25th  of  December.  The  argument  of  the  opponent 
was  founded  on  the  courses  of  the  Jewish  priests  with 
reference  to  St.  Luke,  and,  as  Hammond  says  of  it, 
"was  evidently  demonstrated  to  be  a  mere  deceit"  by 
Pearson,  from  the  testimony  of  Josephus  and  other 
Jewish  writers. 

The  next  memorable  circumstance  in  Pearson's  life  is 
the  engagement  which  he  made  with  the  parishioners 
of  St.  Clement's,  Eastcheap,  to  undertake  the  office 
of  preacher  in  their  parish  Church.  It  has  been  made, 
says  Archdeacon  Churton,  a  question  whether,  to  hold 
this  appointment,  he  complied  in  any  way  with  the 
times.  The  supposition  that  he  did  so  seems  to  have 
arisen  from  a  mistake  as  to  the  office  itself.  He  was 
not  rector  of  St.  Clement's,  or  minister,  as  the  style 
then  ran,  but  preacher  or  lecturer.  The  lawful  rector 
of  St.  Clement's  during  the  whole  period  of  the  usurpa- 
tion >vas  Benjamin  Stone,  a  chaplain  of  Bishop  Juxon's, 
who  was  also  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,  and  rector  of 
St.  Mary,  Abchurch ;  a  man  who  incurred  a  bitter 
persecution  at  the  hands  of  the  parliament,  was  very 
early  voted  unfit  to  hold  any  eccleisastical  benefice, 
and  suffered  a  long  imprisonment  at  Crosby  House, 
and  afterwards  at  Plymouth,  without  being  brought  to 
trial.  He  lived  to  be  restored  after  the  return  of  the 
royal  family.  The  intruder  in  his  room  at  St.  Mary 
Abchurch  was  one  John  Kitchin,  whose  name  appears 
with  that  of  Beynolds,  Matthew  Poole,  Manton,  Bates, 
and  about  sixty  other  presbyterian  ministers  of  London 
and  the  suburbs,  subscribed  to  the  *'  Seasonable  Exhor- 
tation" of  1660.     But  at  St.  Clement's  we  find  no  record 


10  PEARSON. 

of  any  rector  occupying  his  place ;  one  Walter  Taylor 
is  called  pastor  in  the  parochial  vestry-book  from  1649 
to  1040,  but  no  appointment  has  been  discovered  in 
the  episcopal  registers :  after  his  departure  the  church- 
wardens seem  to  have  managed  the  temporalities,  and 
the  entries  in  the  vestry- book  make  it  probable  that  the 
services  of  the  Church  were  during  this  time  entirely 
discharged  by  ditierent  voluntary  lecturers. 

Fortune  teaches  the  conquered  the  art  of  war.  It 
was  one  of  the  ordinances  of  the  long  parliament, 
which  had  now  the  force  of  law,  "  That  it  should  be 
lawful  for  the  parishioners  of  any  parish  in  England 
or  Wales,  to  set  up  a  lecture,  and  to  maintain  an 
orthodox  minister,  at  their  own  charge,  to  preach 
every  Lord's  day,  where  there  was  no  preaching,  and 
to  preach  one  day  in  every  week,  where  there  was  no 
weekly  lecture."  This  ordinance,  passed  in  September, 
1641,  was  designed  only  to  open  the  door,  which  Laud 
and  Wrenn  had  closed  in  their  efforts  for  conformity ; 
but  it  was  left  so  widly  ajar,  that  tliere  w;is  room  for 
Rutulian  as  well  as  Trojan  to  enter  in.  By  degrees 
several  Churches,  left  without  their  lawful  pastors,  were 
supplied  with  preachers  or  lecturers  who  were  known  to  be 
friends  of  the  exiled  family  and  the  deprived  episcopate. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  Triers,  Presbyterian  or 
Independent,  had  any  jurisdiction  beyond  the  admission 
to  benefices :  nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  lectures  could 
fall  under  their  province,  without  rescinding  the  liberty 
so  impetuously  demanded  and  so  eagerly  established 
at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle.  Thus  Dr. 
Thomas  Warmestry  was  lecttirer  at  St.  Margaret's 
Westminster,  till  one  of  Cromwell's  parliaments  peti- 
tioned the  protector  to  remove  him.  Thus  a  friend 
of  Pearson's,  a  man  of  gi'eat  learning  and  eloquence 
as  a  preacher,  Antony  Faringdon,  was  sometime 
preacher  at  St.  Mary  Magdalen's,  Milk-street :  imited, 
as   Wood    savs,    by  Sir  John  Robinson,  a  kinsman  of 


PEARSON.  It 

Laud's,  (afterwards  lieutenant  of  the  Tower  under 
Charles  II.)  "  and  others  of  the  good  jDarishioners." 
That  he  was  only  preacher,  and  not  incumbent,  is 
evident  from  his  own  beautiful  and  touching  sermon 
on  Gal,  iv.  12,  preached  on  his  recall  to  the  lecture- 
ship, from  which  a  temporary  misunderstanding  with 
tlie  parishioners  had  caused  his  temporary  removal. 

In  1655,  Pearson  published  his  Prolegomena  in 
Hieroclem,  prefixed  to  the  Oj)uscula  of  that  author 
edited  by  Meric  Casaubon.  It  was  two  years  after 
this,  that  we  find  him  engaged,  with  his  friend  Peter 
Gunning,  in  a  conference  with  two  Roman  Catholics 
whom  he  met  in  London,  on  the  question  whether 
the  Church  of  England  or  that  of  Rome  at  the  period 
of  the  Reformation  was  guilty  of  schism.  The  con- 
ference was  prolonged  by  several  adjournments  during 
the  months  of  May,  June,  and  July,  1657;  and  then 
virtually  abandoned  :  though  some  negotiations  for  a 
renewal  of  it  were  kept  up  for  some  time  afterwards 
with  Gunning.  In  the  course  of  the  next  year,  one 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  disputants  published  his  state- 
ment of  the  controversy  in  a  volume,  said  to  have 
been  printed  in  France,  under  the  title,  "  Schism  Un- 
masked; or,  a  late  Conference  between  Mr.  Peter 
Gunning  and  Mr.  John  Pierson,  Ministers,  on  the 
one  part,  and  two  Disputants  of  the  Romish  Profession 
on  the  other;  wherein  is  defined  both  what  Schism 
is,  and  to  whom  it  belongs."  A  volume  so  drawn  up, 
and  printed  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  one 
of  the  tv^^o  parties,  has  no  claim  to  be  considered  as  a  fair 
report  of  the  debate.  The  Romanist,  w^ho  pubhshed 
it,  is  stated  by  Baxter,  on  the  information  of  Tillotson, 
to  have  been  a  person  of  the  naiue  of  Tyrwhitt ;  with 
whom  he  also  had  a  controversy  on  paper  without 
knowing  his  opponent,  and  from  whom  he  attempted, 
without  success,  to  recover  a  young  Presbyterian  maiden, 
the  Lady  Anne  Lindsey,  daughter  of  the  Countess  of 


13  PEARSON. 

Balcarras,  whom  Tyrwhitt  had  persuaded  to  become 
a  convert  at  the  mature  age  of  seventeen,  and  after- 
wards conveyed  her  away  to  a  nunnery  in  France. 

Tyrwhitt's  book  contains  some  scattered  extracts  of 
the  papers  that  were  offered  in  the  conference  by  Gun- 
ning and  Pearson,  but  arranged  in  an  order  of  his 
own;  and  he  confesses  that  he  does  not  print  all  that 
they  offered,  and  particularly  speaks  of  a  long  letter 
of  six  folio  pages  from  Gunning,  with  which  the  treaty 
appears  to  have  closed,  as  "  too  long  to  be  inserted." 
No  notice  was  taken  of  the  publication  by  either 
Pearson  or  Gunning ;  and  indeed,  notwithstanding 
all  the  advantage  taken  of  arrangement  and  additions 
of  his  own,  the  book  does  not  present  a  favourable 
aspect  of  the  controversy  as  conducted  by  Tyrwhitt 
and  his  ally.  It  was  complained  of,  as  an  unfair 
relation  of  the  dispute,  in  the  following  year,  by 
Thomas  Smith,  of  Christ's  Coll.,  Cambridge,  in  a 
book  called  "  A  Gag  for  the  Quaker ; "  and  again, 
thirty  years  afterwards,  by  Dr.  William  Saywell,  mas- 
ter of  Jesus  Coll.,  in  an  able  pamphlet  entitled  "  The 
Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England  justified  ac- 
cording to  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Nice,  and  other 
General  Councils,"  in  answer  to  another  pamphlet  pub- 
lished by  a  Romanist  at  Oxford,  which  was  an  extract 
from  Tyrwhitt's  book,  with  the  title  "  The  Schism  of 
the  Church  of  England  demonstrated  in  four  Argu- 
ments formerly  proposed  to  Dr.  Peter  Gunning,  and 
Dr.  John  Pearson,  the  late  Bishops  of  Ely  and  Chester, 
by  two  Catholic  Disputants  in  a  celebrated  Conference 
on  that  point." 

In  1659,  he  published  the  first  edition  of  his  Expo- 
sition of  the  Creed,  being  the  substance  of  a  series 
of  sermons  or  lectures  preached  at  St.  Clement's,  "  the 
most  perfect  theological  work,"  as  Alexander  Knox 
well  characterises  it,  "that  has  ever  come  from  an 
English   pen."       To   say    more   of    it   than   to    repeat 


PEARSON.  13 

this,  which  is  indeed  the  common  sentence  of  approval 
it  has  received  from  the  Church  ever  since  it  first 
appeared,  is  altogether  unnecessary.  It  has  remained 
without  an  effort  made  to  amend  or  supersede  it.  It 
has  been  continually  reprinted  as  the  storehouse  and 
armoury  of  the  well-furnished  theological  student  ; 
repeatedly  abridged  by  judicious  and  learned  clergy- 
men, to  extend  its  use  as  a  manual  of  Christian 
education ;  and  it  was  at  an  early  period  translated 
into  Latin  by  a  German  scholar,  Simon  J.  Arnold, 
whose  version  has  been  once  or  oftener  reprinted 
abroad.  Among  the  abridgments  may  be  mentioned 
those  of  Basil  Kennett,  and  Dr.  Burney ;  but  the 
best  without  comparison  is  that  excellent  Analysis 
lately  published  at  Calcutta,  for  the  use  of  his  Indian 
pupils,  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Mill,  and  since  re-published  in 
London. 

In  this  same  year,  Pearson  wrote  a  preface  to  Dr. 
David  Stokes's  "  Paraphrastical  Explication  of  the  Minor 
Prophets,"  an  unpretending  work  of  considerable  merit, 
and  one  which  may  be  profitably  consulted  now  by 
those  who  desire  a  modest  and  safe  guide  to  the  mean- 
ing of  those  often  obscure  Scriptures.  Stokes  was 
one  of  Brian  Walton's  fellow-labourers  in  the  Poly- 
glott ;  he  had  lost  a  canonry  at  Windsor  and  a  living 
in  Berkshire  by  the  rebellion,  but  lived  to  be  restored 
to  both. 

He  wrote  also  a  Preface  to  the  "  Remains  of  the 
learned  and  ever-memorable  John  Hales,"  for  whom 
he  had  a  strong  personal   regard. 

The  noble  collection  of  the  "  Critici  Sacri  "  alone  re- 
mains to  be  mentioned  as  forming  a  portion  of  Pearson's 
literary  labours  at  this  period.  The  date  of  the  publi- 
cation is  1660  ;  but  as  it  was  for  several  years  previously 
in  preparation,  it  naturally  belongs  to  the  period  before 
the  restoration  of  the  royal  family.  It  appears  by  the 
preface,  which  bears  very  decisive  marks  of  the  hand 
VOL.   VI u.  c 


n  PEARSON. 

of  Pearson,  that  the  bookseller,  Mr.  Cornelius  Bee,  was 
the  chief  patron  and  promoter  of  the  work.  His  name 
has  been  honourably  mentioned  as  an  encourager  of 
works  relating  to  English  history  and  antiquities;  but 
the  great  publisher  of  the  theology  of  the  Church  at 
this  period  is  well  known  to  have  been  the  loyal  Richard 
Royston.  It  is  probable  that  Royston,  and  the  other 
booksellers  whose  names  are  on  the  title-page,  including 
Morden  and  Robinson,  the  booksellers  of  Cambridge 
and  Oxford,  had  a  share  in  the  undertaking;  but  it 
deserves  to  be  remembered  to  the  honour  of  Cornelius 
Bee,  that  such  a  monument  of  sacred  literature  was 
erected  by  the  laudable  zeal  and  enterprise  of  one 
who  was  by  profession  only  a  trader  in  the  service  of 
learning.  The  Polyglott  was  carried  on  by  the  help  of 
many  liberal  subscriptions  from  the  loyal  nobility  and 
gentry,  who,  after  suffering  a  second  decimation  under 
Cromwell,  had  still  something  to  spare  for  learning, 
and  the  learned  sufferers  by  whom  that  task  was  ac- 
complished. But  the  Critici  Sacri  was  a  bookseller's 
speculation,  requiring  a  very  great  outlay,  before  any 
return  could  possibly  be  made  ;  it  is  not  easy  to  say 
how  many  thousands  of  pounds  it  would  now  cost  to 
reprint  it.  It  is  however  to  be  reasonably  hoped,  that 
the  event  corresponded  to  his  wishes  ;  the  change  of 
dynasty  coming  in,  just  as  the  nine  volumes  were  ready 
to  be  issued,  must  no  doubt  have  had  a  favourable  effect 
upon  the  sale ;  and  there  would  not  be  many  libraries 
to  which  the  Polyglott  had  found  admittance,  to  which 
the  Commentators  did  not  follow. 

Pearson  was  engaged  in  some  controversies  in  defence 
of  the  Church  of  England,  which  cannot  be  more 
particularly  noticed  here ;  but  an  account  of  which 
may  be  found  in  Archdeacon  C burton's  Life  of  this 
great  divine. 

At  length,  the  Restoration  of  the  Church,  together 
with  that  of  the  monarchy,  was  effected  ;   and,  at  the 


PEARSON.  15 

close  of  1660,  Pearson  was  collated  by  Juxon,  Bishop 
of  London,  to  the  Rectory  of  St.  Christopher's,  in  the 
city:  he  was  created  D.D.  by  royal  mandate:  he  was 
installed  as  a  Prebendary  of  Ely:  nominated  Arch- 
deacon of  Surrey :  and  appointed  Master  of  Jesus 
College,  Cambridge. 

In  1661,  he  was  selected,  with  Earle,  Heylin,  Hacket, 
Barwick,  Gunning,  Thomas  Pierce,  Sparrow,  and  Thorn- 
dike,  to  act  as  one  of  the  representatives,  in  the  Savoy 
Conference,  of  such  of  the  bishops  as  should  be  hindered 
by  age  or  infirmity,  or  charge  of  other  duties,  from 
constantly  attending  at  the  meetings.  In  this  confe- 
rence he  seems  to  have  taken  some  part  from  the 
commencement  of  the  proceedings ;  but  we  have  no 
account  of  his  individual  share  in  them,  except  during 
the  written  disputation  of  the  last  few  days. 

On  one  of  these  days,  as  Baxter  relates,  Pearson 
having  offered  to  answer  the  objections  of  the  Presby- 
terians, it  was  determined  that  three  on  each  side 
should  take  by  turns  the  part  of  opponents  and  respon- 
dents. Upon  which  Baxter  and  his  friends  commenced 
by  offering  to  the  episcopal  disputants  the  following 
unpromising  syllogism : — 

"  To  enjoin  all  ministers  to  deny  the  communion 
to  all  that  dare  not  kneel  in  the  reception  of  the 
sacrament  on  the  Lord's  day,  is  sinful :  but  the  Com- 
mon Prayer-book  and  Canons  enjoin  all  ministers  to 
deny  the  communion  to  all  that  dare  not  kneel  in 
such  reception :  ergo,  the  Common  Prayer-book  and 
Canons  do,  or  contain,  that  which  is  sinful." 

To  prove  the  major,  Baxter  argued  that  it  was  con- 
trary to  the  custom  of  the  primitive  Church  to  commu- 
nicate on  Sundays  in  a  kneeling  posture ;  because 
the  twentieth  Nicene  canon  and  other  ancient  autho- 
rities shew  that  the  established  usage  was  not  to 
worship  by  genuflection  on  any  Lord's  day,  or  any 
day   between    Easter  and   Whitsuntide,       There    is   a 


16  PEARSON.       • 

remarkable  silence  in  Baxter's  statement  on  the  point 
which  he  was  more  concerned  to  prove ;  namely,  that 
there  was  any  primitive  sanction  for  the  custom  of 
sitting,  as  prescribed  by  the  Directory,  at  the  Lord's 
table :  and  an  equally  remarkable  assumption,  that 
by  excluding  kneeling  at  certain  times,  the  primitive 
Church  intended  to  exclude  all  posture  of  worship. 
Of  this  it  is  not  possible  to  suppose  that  Pearson 
and  his  brother  disputants  could  be  ignorant.  Baxter, 
however,  states  that  the  answer  in  which  they  rested 
was,  that  the  Nicene  canon  and  other  authorities 
spoke  only  of  prayer,  and  not  of  the  posture  at  the 
communion ;  an  answer  which,  though  it  did  not 
satisfy  him,  was  known  by  his  better  informed  oppo- 
nents to  be  sufficient,  since  it  is  clear,  from  testimony 
bearing  directly  on  the  question,  that  the  ancient 
custom  was  to  approach  the  altar,  either  kneeling,  or 
bowing  low,  which  was  equally  a  token  of  humble 
reverence. 

And  this  will  perhaps  help  to  explain  what  Baxter 
appears  not  to  have  understood  in  Pearson's  way  of 
dealing  with  his  minor.  The  Presbyterians  were 
desired  to  prove  the  minor;  and  Pearson  would  not 
allow  their  mode  of  proof,  by  which  they  joined  the 
Prayer-book  and  Canons  of  1603  together.  "Dr. 
Pierson  confessed,"  says  Baxter,  "that  the  Canons 
did  reject  them  that  kneel  not ;  but  the  words  of  the 
Common  Prayer-book  do  not :  they  only  include  kneel- 
ers,  but  exclude  not  others."  It  is  certain  that  there 
is  nothing  in  the  Rubric  amounting  to  a  prohibition 
of  administering  it  to  others.  It  may  therefore  have 
been  Pearson's  meaning,  that  before  the  canon  had 
fixed  it,  the  minister  would  not  violate  the  order  of 
the  Praper-book,  who  should  give  the  sacred  elements 
to  one  who  stood  and  bowed  himself,  though  he  did 
not  kneel.  This  mode  of  argument,  however,  was 
interrupted    by     Bishop    Morley,     whose    business    it 


PEARSON.  17 

was,  says  Baxter,  to  offend  the  Non-Conformists ;  and 
the  bishop  having  given  his  judgment  for  the  exclu- 
sive sense,  there  was  no  opportunity  for  further  expla- 
nation. 

It  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed,  that  Pearson 
would  have  shewn  any  indulgence  to  the  sitters  in  the 
pews,  to  whom  Tillotson  was  anxious  to  grant  every 
accommodation.  In  his  "  Articles  for  the  Primary 
Visitation  of  his  Diocese,"  this  point  of  inquiry  was 
strictly  attended  to ;  that  "  all  who  received  this  sacred 
mystery,"  should  do  it  "  with  that  outward  gesture 
of  humility  and  reverence,  as  became  them,  lur^^ekly 
kneeling  upon  their  knees."  But  it  is  now  in  our 
power  to  refer  to  a  still  more  decisive  testimony  from 
one  of  his  Cambridge  speeches,  delivered  not  long 
after  the  Savoy  Conference,  and  before,  or  near  upon 
the  time  of  the  secession  of  Baxter  and  his  eighteen 
hundred  followers  ;  a  time  at  which,  evidently,  he  had 
some  fears  lest  their  example  should  spread  insubor- 
dination in  the   university. 

At  the  conference,  it  is  possible  that  Baxter  mny 
have  misunderstood  him,  because  he  strictly  confined 
himself  to  the  logical  rules  of  conducting  a  disputa- 
tion,— rules  somewhat  too  rigid  for  the  erratic  genius 
of  his  opponent.  Accordingly,  after  many  attempts 
to  re- mod  el  the  syllogism,  being  closely  pressed 
with  the  formal  and  material  errors  pointed  out  by 
Pearson  and  Gunning,  Baxter  took  his  papers  home 
again,  and  was  prepared  with  a  new  dissertation  instead 
of  a  syllogism,  the  following  morning.  Gunning  re- 
plied to  this,  and  Baxter  rejoined  at  the  length  of 
seven  folio  pages,  but  not  without  a  further  paper  from 
Gunning,  who  seems  to  have  been  unwilling  that  the 
Presbyterian  leader  should  occupy  the  whole  time  of 
the  meetings. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  opponents  and  respondents 
having  changed  places,  that  none  of  the  space  left  for 
c3 


18  PEARSON. 

debate  might  be  unemployed,  the  same  argument  was 
debated  in  another  form,  Of  this  an  attested  account 
was  afterwards  given  by  Gunning  and  Pearson  to 
Bishop  Morley,  who  pubUshed  it  in  defence  of  himself 
in  the  following  year,  when  he  had  silenced  Baxter. 
The  account  was  also  published,  where  it  has  been 
more  generally  read,  in  good  Izaak  Walton's  Life  of 
Sanderson,  with  a  little  postscript  of  information  which 
he  had  received  from  Pearson.  Baxter  has  left  us 
a  more  diffuse  report  in  his  Autobiography,  but  nei- 
ther his  statement  nor  comment  add  any  circumstance 
which  is  materially  different.  The  account  of  Gunning 
and  Pearson  is  as  follows  : — 

"  This  proposition  being  brought  by  us,  viz.,  That 
command  which  commands  an  act  in  itself  lawful,  and 
no  other  act  or  circumstance  unlawful,  is  not  sinful  : 

*'Mr.  Baxter  denied  it  for  two  reasons,  which  he 
gave  in  with  his  own  hand  in  writing  thus  :  one  is, 
Because  that  may  be  a  sin  per  accidens,  which  is  not 
80  by  itself,  and  may  be  unlawfully  commanded, 
though  that  accident  be  not  in  the  command.  The 
other  is,  that  it  may  he  commanded  under  an  unjust 
penalty. 

"  Again,  this  proposition  being  brought  by  us,  That 
command  which  commandeth  an  act  in  itself  lawful, 
and  no  other  act  whereby  an  unjust  penalty  is  enjoined, 
nor  any  circumstance  whence  j:»er  accidens  any  sin  is 
consequent,  which  the  comramander  ought  to  provide 
against,  is  not  sinful : 

"Mr.  Baxter  denied  it  for  this  reason,  given  in 
with  his  own  hand  in  writing  thus :  Because  the  first 
act  commanded  may  be  per  accidens  unlawful,  and 
be  commanded  by  an  unjust  penalty,  though  no  other 
act  or  circumstance   commanded  be  such. 

"  Again  this  proposition  being  brought  by  us,  That 
command,  which  commandeth  an  act  in  itself  lawful, 
and    no  other  act  whereby  any  unjust  penalty  is  en- 


PEARSON.  19 

joined,  nor  any  circumstance,  whence  directly  or 
per  accidens  any  sin  is  consequent,  which  the  com- 
mander ought  to  provide  against,  hath  in  it  all  things 
requisite  to  the  lawfulness  of  a  command,  and  particu- 
larly cannot  be  guilty  of  commanding  an  act  per  accidens 
unlawful,  nor  of  commanding  an  act  under  an  unjust 
penalty : 

"  Mr.  Baxter  denied  it  upon  the  same  reasons. 

"  Peter  Gunning. 

"John  Pearson." 
**  Baxter's  talent,"  says  Collier,  in  reference  to  this 
passage,  "lay  in  retiring  to  foreign  distinctions,  and 
misapplications  of  the  rules  of  logic.  Whether  this 
involving  the  argument  in  mist,  was  art,  or  infirmity, 
is  hard  to  determine  :  however,  let  the  most  charitable 
construction  pass."  It  is  a  good  judgment  on  the  case : 
but  meantime  it  is  not  surprising  if  Bishop  Morley 
a  man  of  some  spirit,  but  sincere  and  benevolent, 
charged  Baxter  with  holding  principles  destructive  of 
all  authority,  human  and  divine ;  nor  if  Bishop 
Sanderson,  whose  mildness  and  patience  are  well 
attested,  thought  the  genius  of  logic,  to  whom  in  his 
youth  he  had  paid  great  honour,  somewhat  ill-used 
by  treatment  much  more  sophistical  than  subtle. 
It  seems  also  that  Pearson  himself,  when  he  related 
to  Izaak  Walton  the  incident  of  which  Baxter  rather 
bitterly  complains,  did  not  feel  quite  so  much  respect 
for  his  opponent  in  the  disputation,  as  Baxter  pro- 
fesses towards  Pearson. 

"  The  Bishop  of  Chester,"  says  Walton,  "  told  me, 
that  one  of  the  dissenters,  whom  I  could,  but  forbear 
to  name," — no  question,  Baxter  is  meant, — "  appeared 
to  Dr.  Sanderson  to  be  so  bold,  so  troublesome,  so 
illogical  in  the  dispute,  as  forced  patient  Dr.  Sander- 
son to  say  with  an  unusual  earnestness,  that  he  had 
never  met  a  man  of  more  pertinacious  confidence,  and 
less  abilities,  in  all  his  conversation." 


20  PEARSON. 

On  the  contrary,  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that,  of 
all  the  phalanx  of  episcopal  divines,  Pearson  is  the 
only  one,  of  whom  Baxter  speaks  with  entire  respect ; 
and  his  testimony  would  be  very  honourable  to  him, 
were  it  not  for  the  groundless  insinuations  with  w^hich 
it  is  accompanied,  that  the  equanimity  with  which  he 
commends  was  a  proof  of  his  indifference  to  the  cause 
in  which  he  was  engaged  : — 

•' Dr.  Pierson  and  Dr.  Gunning,"  says  Baxter,  "did 
all  their  work,  but  with  great  difference  in  manner. 
Dr.  Pierson  was  their  true  logician  and  disputant ; 
without  whom,  as  far  as  I  could  discern,  we  should 
have  had  nothing  from  them  but  Dr.  Gunning's  pas- 
sionate invectives,  mixed  with  some  argumentations. 
He  disputed  accurately,  soberly,  and  calmly,  being  but 
once  in  any  passion,  breeding  in  us  a  great  respect  for 
him,  and  a  persuasion  that  if  he  had  been  independent, 
he  would  have  been  for  peace,  and  that  if  all  were  in 
his  power,  it  would  have  gone  well.  He  was  the 
strength  and  honour  of  that  cause,  which  we  doubted 
whether  he  heartily  maintained." 

Baxter  probably  penned  this  before  the  appearance 
of  the  "  VindicifB  Ignatianre;"  and  perhaps  it  shews  no 
more  than  a  wish  to  persuade  himself  that  his  most 
learned  opponent,  was  one  who  desired  more  liberty 
than  the  Church  allowed,  a  wish  to  grace  his  own 
cause  as  far  as  possible  with  such  a  name  ;  but  the 
surmise  is  contradicted  by  the  whole  tenor  of  Pearson's 
life,  by  the  character  of  bis  friends,  by  all  his  writings, 
and  not  least,  by  some  of  those  which  are  now  first  made 
public,  by  Archdeacon  Churton. 

In  the  Convocation  which  first  met  during  this  Con- 
ference, on  the  eighth  of  May,  1661,  there  were,  as 
Pearson  said  of  it,  while  it  was  in  prospect,  "  divers 
particular  concessions  to  be  made  for  the  satisfaction  of 
all  sober  minds;"  and  it  appears  from  the  imperfect 
journals  which  remain  of  their  meetings,   that  he  took 


PEAKSON.  SI 

a  prominent  part  in  them.  For  some  of  the  duties 
imposed  on  him,  his  excellent  Latin  style  was  likely  to 
have  pointed  out  his  fitness  ;  as  when  he  was  chosen 
to  present  the  prolocutor  of  the  Lower  House  to  the 
Upper  House,  and  afterwards,  with  Dr.  John  Earle, 
the  Latin  translator  of  the  "  Eikon  Basilike,"  to  superin- 
tend a  version  into  Latin  of  the  amended  book  of 
Common  Prayer.  But,  though  something  has  been 
claimed  for  different  distinguished  names  which  are 
found  'among  the  members  of  this  synod,  there  is 
very  little  evidence,  beyond  the  public  records,  to  shew 
what  part  of  the  amendments  and  additions  was  executed 
by  individual  divines. 

Dr.  D'Oyly,  in  his  Life  of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  has 
published  an  important  extract  made  by  that  prelate 
from  the  Journal  of  the  Lower  House,  which  is  now 
lost ;  from  which  we  learn  that  Pearson  was  one  of  eight 
members  of  that  house  who  were  employed  in  drawing 
up  the  service  for  the  twenty-ninth  of  May,  and  one  of 
six  who  were  to  prepare  the  prayer  for  the  high  court  of 
parliament ;  and  when  they  met  again  in  the  winter,  he 
was  one  of  three,  to  whom  the  revision  of  all  the  additions 
and  amendments  was  committed,  in  order  to  its  being 
received  and  subscribed  by  the  members  of  both 
houses ;  which  was  done  on  the  twentieth  of  December, 
1661.  Thus  far  we  learn  from  the  journals  ;  and  the 
absence  of  all  private  memoirs  is  only  a  proof  of  the 
happy  unanimity  which  now  governed  their  proceedings. 

Pearson's  name  appears  again  in  the  journals  of  the 
Upper  House  in  reference  to  a  subject  comparatively  of 
minor  importance,  but  of  some  concern  to  the  interests 
of  learning, — a  proposal  to  prepare  one  general  Latin  and 
Greek  grammar  to  be  used  in  all  the  schools  of  England  ; 
which  proposal  was  occasionally  under  discussion  in  the 
sessions  of  1663  and  1664.  Pearson  presented  such  a 
grammar  to  the  Upper  House  on  the  fourth  of  May,  1664, 
when  it  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  seven  bishops ; 


n  PEARSON. 

but  from  that  time  no  further  notice  of  it  occurs,  and 
after  that  date  very  little  sjnodical  business  was  done. 

In  1661,  Pearson  was  appointed  Margaret  Professor 
of  Divinity,  where  he  delivered  those  lectures  which 
are  published  among  his  Minor  Theological  works.  In 
the  same  volumes  is  published  his  "Theological  Deter- 
minations." The  first  of  which  contains  an  admirable 
argument  on  the  apostolic  ordinance  of  episcopacy,  the 
dignity  of  which,  as  a  perpetual  distinct  order  in  the 
Christian  ministry,  he  vindicates  alike  from  the  errors 
which  have  had  their  rise  in  the  Papal  and  in  the 
Presbyterian  consistory.  "  For  nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain," says  Pearson,  "  than  that  all  diminution  of 
the  rights  of  episcopacy  had  its  source  in  the  papal 
usurpation  :  and  the  Pope  of  Rome  appears  to  me  in 
no  other  light,  than  as  an  individual  who  claims  to 
himself  all  the  authority  given  to  bishops  throughout 
the  whole  w^orld,  and  from  the  assumption  of  that 
authority  to  himself,  threatens  the  independence  of 
Christian  princes,  states,  and  churches.  Whatever  else 
relating  to  ceremonies  or  opinions  you  may  choose  with 
the  multitude  to  call  popish,  it  is  easy  to  shew  that 
it  prevails  as  much,  where  there  is  no  Pope,  or  where 
all  are  the  Pope's  enemies."  He  then  shews  how  some  of 
the  schoolmen,  considering  the  essence  of  the  Christian 
priesthood  to  reside  in  the  power  of  consecrating  the 
holy  eucharist,  first  taught  the  identity  of  orders  in 
bishops  and  presbyters. 

In  166:2,  Pearson  was  appointed  Master  of  Trinity, 
resigning  both  his  prebends  and  his  rectory.  In  1667, 
he  became  F.R.S.  In  1672,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Chester.  In  the  same  year  The  Vindicise  Epistolarum 
S.  Ignatii  were  published.  The  Introductory  Discourse, 
says  Archbishop  Churton,  divided  into  six  short  chap- 
ters, furnishes  an  account  of  the  rise,  progress,  and  state 
of  the  controversy  up  to  the  time  at  which  he  wrote,  the 
different  editions  both  of  the  interpolated  and  spurious 


PEARSON.  23 

Epistles,  and  the  doubts  and  perplexities  of  critics,  be- 
fore Ussher  in  1664  discovered  the  existence  of  two 
English  copies  of  the  shorter  Epistles  in  the  old  Latin 
version,  and  Isaac  Yossius  in  1646,  followed  up  his 
discovery  by  publishing  the  Greek  text  from  the  Floren- 
tine manuscript,  which  so  remarkably  agreed  with  it. 
This  event  had  changed  the  aspect  of  the  dispute. 
Andrew  Rivet,  a  respected  name  for  learning  among 
the  Dutch  Protestants,  and  the  eminent  Jesuit  critic, 
Petavius,  at  once  recognised  the  genuine  ancient  in  the 
Ignatius  of  Vossius  and  Ussher.  Salmasius  and  David 
Blondel  stood  on  their  old  ground  ;  but  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  while  Salmasius  allowed  the  supposed  impos- 
tor to  have  written  the  Epistles  under  the  reign  of  the 
Antonines,  Blondel  assigned  him  a  date  after  the  death  of 
Clement  of  Alexander,  about  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century.  These  critics  were  answered  briefly  by  Ussher, 
and  more  fully  by  Hammond  ;  and  a  short  pause  was 
made  in  the  controversy,  till  Daille  in  1666,  published 
his  treatise,  *'  De  Scriptis,  quae  sub  nominibus  Dionysii 
Areopagitae  et  Ignatii  circumferuntur,"  in  which  he  under- 
took to  prove,  that,  though  the  shorter  Epistles  and  the 
longer  were  the  work  of  different  hands,  neither  were 
written  by^Ignatius. 

The  great  celebrity,  which  the  name  of  this  remark, 
able  man  had  attained  both  in  England  and  on  the 
continent,  his  diligence  in  theological  research,  his 
shrewdness  of  remark  and  pointed  way  of  exposing 
and  exaggerating  fallacies,  his  success  in  argument  with 
Baronius  and  Perron  and  other  champions  on  the  Roman 
side,  and  on  the  other  hand  his  freedom  from  the  ex- 
treme Genevan  doctrines  of  the  preceding  age,  which 
liad  brought  him  into  disputes  with  Des  Marets  and 
other  zealous  contra-remonstrants, — all  combined  to 
make  his  appearance  in  the  controversy  an  important 
incident  to  both  parties.  Besides  which,  he  was  now  a 
veteran  in  the  service  of  literature,  having  entered  on 


91  PEARSON. 

his  seventy-second  year  when  he  made  his  formal  assault 
on  the  remains  of  Ignatius ;  though  he  had  before 
expressed  his  doubts  in  his  early  work  on  the  Use  of 
the  Fathers,  and  in  his  essay  "  De  Jejuniis  et  Quadra- 
gesima," had  declared  his  sentiments  to  be  unaltered 
by  Ussher's  discovery.  It  was  now  nearly  forty  years 
since  he  had  written  that  first  and  most  famous  of  his 
treatises,  "  De  I'Emploi  des  Peres," — a  treatise,  which, 
with  all  its  faults,  was  too  bold  and  striking  not  to  have 
had  a  powerful  effect  on  some  of  the  most  inquiring 
spirits  of  the  time.  Its  actual  influence  in  England 
may  have  been  over-rated,  but  was  not  inconsiderable. 
No  doubt  it  was  still  remembered  and  admired.  When 
Daille  therefore  came  forward  in  his  old  age  with  this 
elaborate  attempt  to  disprove  the  genuineness  of  all 
that  bore  the  name  of  the  apostolic  martyr,  it  was  a 
strong  proof  that  he  was  an  earnest  disbeliever  in  these 
writings,  and  a  plain  challenge  to  all  who  saw  cause 
to  trust  their  authenticity,  to  be  bold  in  their  defence. 

Daille's  view  differed  materially  from  that  of  Elondel 
and  Salmasius.  He  saw  the  improbability  or  inutility 
of  supposing  the  impostor  to  have  been  of  so  primitive  a 
date  as  the  middle  of  the  second  or  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century.  Forgeries  are  usually  the  work  of  an  age 
of  literary  ease  and  leisure,  and  do  not  so  easily  spring 
up  in  the  midst  of  persecution.  And  if  the  writer  had 
been  so  ancient,  under  whatever  name,  his  evidence  would 
have  been  of  some  weight  in  reference  to  the  doctrines 
and  practices  of  his  own  period.  He  therefore  resolved 
to  assign  him  a  date  near  the  time  of  Constantine,  to 
assert  that  Eusebius  was  first  taken  in  by  the  imposi- 
tion, and  that  his  error  was  followed  by  St.  Athanasius 
and  all  subsequent  writers.  There  was  however  a  serious 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  this  hypothesis,  since  it  had  been 
commonly  supposed  that  St.  Polycarp  and  St.  Irenseus 
had  referred  to  these  Epistles,  and,  besides  other  testi- 
monies less  express,  there  were  two  treatises  of  Origen, 


PEARSON.  J26 

which  quoted  two  sentences  from  the  Epistles  to  the 
Ephesians  and  Romans  severally,  as  they  were  yet  extant. 
Hence  it  became  necessary  to  extend  the  licence  of  scep- 
ticism, to  suspect  the  Epistle  of  Polycarp  of  a  partial 
interpolation,  to  question  whether  Irenaeus  did  not  speak 
of  some  traditional  saying  of  Ignatius  rather  than  of  his 
writings,  and  to  throw  doubts  on  the  genuineness  of  those 
works  of  Origen,  in  which  the  w^ords  of  the  Epistles  were 
contained.  Such  was  the  venturous  theory,  by  which  it 
was  attempted  to  set  aside  the  external  evidence  for  these 
primitive  records ;  to  whose  genuineness,  as  Pearson 
proved  by  a  long  array  of  authorities,  there  was  an  un- 
broken line  of  witnesses  in  every  age,  from  the  contem- 
poraries of  Ignatius  to  the  fifteenth  century. 

As  to  the  internal  evidence,  it  was  the  plan  of  Daille 
to  heap  together  objections  against  the  interpolated  and 
spurious  Epistle  with  those  that  concerned  the  genuine  ; 
calculating  probably,  that  a  greater  impression  would  be 
made  on  the  reader,  who  was  not  always  likely  to  ask 
whether  the  critical  flail  was  employed  upon  the  chaff 
or  upon  the  pure  grain,  and  that  it  would  give  more 
trouble  to  an  answerer  to  be  obliged  to  use  the  winnowing 
fan.  His  arguments  were  directed  chiefly  to  four  distinct 
points  :  first,  to  prove  that  there  were  allusions  to  facts 
or  persons  of  later  date  than  Ignatius  ;  secondly,  that  the 
doctrine  of  certain  passages,  especially  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  was  unsound  and  unfit  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  apostolic  martyr  :  thirdly,  that  there  were  indica- 
tions of  a  subsequent  age  in  the  style  and  phraseology  ; 
fourthly,  that  which  has  probably  been  at  the  root  of  all 
critical  suspicions  on  this  subject,  that  there  was  much 
too  distinct  an  enumeration  of  the  three  holy  orders  of 
the  Christian  ministry  for  a  writer  so  immediately  follow- 
ing the  Apostles. 

Against  both  these  classes  of  objection  the  body  of 
Pearson's  work  was  now  directed.  It  was  divided  into 
two   parts  of  nearly  equal  length,  the   first  embracing 

VOL.    VIII.  D 


26  PEARSON. 

the  defence  of  the  external,  the  latter  of  the  internal 
evidence.  Not  only  the  principal  arguments  of  Daille, 
as  they  directly  affect  Ignatius,  but  many  discursive 
critical  inquiries  illustrating  the  main  question,  of  the 
greatest  interest  to  the  student  of  Christian  antiquity, 
are  discussed  in  either  part  of  the  Vindicise ;  and  few 
have  risen  from  the  perusal  without  a  conviction,  that 
the  learned  vindicator,  after  a  most  patient  sifting  of 
separate  objections,  has  left  his  opponent  without  one 
position  which  is  any  longer  defensible. 

Indeed  the  main  difficulty  had  been  in  a  great  degree 
removed,    when   the   text   of  the   shorter  Epistles  was 
recovered.     The  previous  doubts  had  chiefly  arisen  from 
the  want  of  a  test  to  distinguish  between  what  had  the 
appearance  of  interpolation  and  the  true  antiquity ;  for 
that   there   were   portions   from   the    very   hand  of   St. 
Ignatius,  the  general  assent  of  candid  critics  had  allowed. 
It  was  no  unusual  or  unprecedented  case,  that  a  later 
writer  should  have  undertaken  to  accommodate  the  style 
of  an   ancient  author  to   his  own  time,  to  paraphrase 
what  seemed  to  him  brief  and  obscure,  and  otherwise 
to  enlarge  and  adapt  the  old  record  to  his  own  purposes. 
But  there  was  this  peculiarity  about  the   interpolator  of 
Ignatius,  that  no  principle  could  be  traced  in  his  altera- 
tions, no  design  was  avowed,  none  appeared  to  be  fol- 
lowed ;  it  was  nothing  but  a  sophistical  display  of  his 
powers   of  amplification,  or  some  poor  conceit  that  he 
could  improve  upon  the  matter  and  form  of  the  original. 
But  when  a  copy  was  found  closely  agreeing  with  the 
extracts    furnished   by  Eusebius,  Theodoret,   and  other 
Greek   fathers,   with   whom   the   interpolator's  portions 
were  at  plain  variance,  the  fact  itself  was  sufficient  to 
decide  the  question.      There   have  indeed  been  a  few 
persons  before  and  since  Pearson  wrote,  who  singularly 
enough  have  shown  an  inclination  to  defend  the  inte- 
grity of  the  interpolated  Epistles ;  such  as  the  learned 
ritualist,    Morinus,    and    our  countryman,   the   wrong- 


PEARSON.  27 

headed  Whiston;  and  it  is  not  much  to  the  credit  of 
Mosheim  that,  after  saying  what  he  can  to  perplex  the 
question,  he  ends  by  leaning  to  the  same  side.  But  the 
common  sense  of  all  good  critics  since  the  appearance 
of  the  Vindiciae,  is  well  expressed  by  a  late  worthy 
Oxford  scholar,  whose  later  performances  did  not  equal 
his  earlier  promise :  "  The  encomium  which  Pearson 
has  given  to  Eusebius  may  with  the  utmost  propriety 
be  applied  to  himself:  Ego  Eusebium  tanta  diligentia 
tantoque  judicio  in  examinandis  ChristianoiTim  pri- 
maevae  antiquitatis  scriptis,  fuisse  contendo,  ut  nemo 
unquam  de  ejus  fide,  aut  de  scriptis,  quae  ille  pro  indu- 
bitatis  habuerit,  postea  dubitaverit." 

Dr.  Pearson  held  the  Bishopric  of  Chester  for  thirteen 
years,  but  was  disqualified  from  all  public  ser^^ice  by 
his  infirmities,  and  especially  by  a  total  loss  of  memory, 
for  some  years  before  his  death,  which  took  place  at 
Chester,  on  the  IGth  July,  1686,  in  the  seventy-fifth 
year  of  his  age.  He  was  the  author  of  a  Preface  to 
The  Golden  Remains  of  the  ever-memorable  Mr.  John 
Hales,  of  Eton  College,  1660,  8vo;  No  Necessity  of 
Reformation  of  the  public  Doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
England,  &c.,  a  Sermon ;  a  Sermon  preached  before  the 
king,  on  Eccles.  vii.  14,  and  published  by  his  majesty's 
command;  the  learned  Preface,  (Praefatio  Paraenetica,) 
to  Field's  edition  of  The  Septuagint,  1665,  l^mo;  and 
of  Annales  Cyprianici,  sive  tredecim  Annomm,  quibus 
S.  Cyprianus  inter  Christianos  versatus  est,  Historia 
Chronologica,  printed  with  Bishop  Fell's  edition  of  the 
works  of  that  father,  1 682,  fol.  He  was  also  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Critici  Sacri ;  and  from  his  MSS.  were 
published,  after  his  death,  V.  CI.  Joannis  Pearsonii, 
S.  T.  P.  Cestriensis  nuper  Episcopi,  Opera  Posthuma 
Chronologica,  &c.  Singula  praelo  tradidit ;  edenda  curavit 
et  Dissertationis  novis  Additionibus  auxit  H.  Dodwellus, 
&c„  1668,  4to. 

In  1844,  the  minor  Theological  Works  of  Bishop  Pear- 


28  PECKHAM. 

son,  first  collected,  with  a  Memoir  of  the  author,  notes, 
and  index,  were  pubUshed  at  the  Universitj-press  at 
Oxford,  by  the  venerable  Archdeacon  Churton,  from 
which  memoir  this  article  is  an  abbreviation. 


PECKHAM,    JOHN. 

John  Peckham  was  born  in  the  county  of  Sussex,  about 
1Q40,  and  was  educated  in  the  monastery  of  Lewes. 
Thence  he  was  sent  to  Oxford  and  became  a  Minorite 
friar.  He  was  first  professor  of  Divinity,  and  afterwards 
provincial  of  his  order  in  England.  He  twice  visited 
Paris,  and  there  delivered  lectures  in  theology.  From 
thence  he  went  to  Lyons,  where  he  obtained  a  canonry 
in  the  cathedral  which,  according  to  Carr  and  Godwin, 
was  held  with  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury  for  two 
centuries  after.  It  was  convenient  as  a  resting-place 
between  Canterbury  and  Rome,  and  the  popes  were 
glad  to  facilitate  the  intercourse  by  which  they  enslaved 
our  Church.  On  going  to  Rome,  he  was  appointed  by 
the  pope  auditor  or  chief-judge  of  the  palace,  or  as  some 
say,  palatine-lecturer  or  reader. 

On  the  vacancy  of  the  See  of  Canterbury,  in  1278, 
the  Chapter  of  Canterbury  elected  Thomas  Burnell, 
Bishop  of  Bath,  to  the  vacant  see.  Nevertheless,  though 
this  was  a  unanimous  election,  the  Pope  of  Rome,  in 
the  plenitude  of  his  assumed  power,  set  the  election 
aside  and  gave  the  see  to  Peckham.  The  pope  claimed 
the  power  because  the  See  of  Canterbury  was  vacated 
by  his  advancing  Kilwardby  to  the  cardinalate,  making 
him  Bishop  of  Porto.  To  the  disgrace  of  England,  it 
submitted  to  this  act  of  aggression  on  the  part  of  a 
foreign  prelate.  The  worst  heresies  of  medievalism  were 
now  prevalent,  and  Friar  Peckham  came  to  England 
destined  to  carry  to  the  extreme  the  superstitions  in 
fashion  at  Rome.     To  shew  the  spirit  of  the  fiiar,  with 


PECKHAM.  29[- 

reference  to  certain  wise  regulations  which  had  been 
made  to  stay  the  progress  of  Popery,  we  will  present 
the  reader  with  the  substance  of  a  letter,  written  by 
him  to  the  king,  Edward  I.,  in  1281  : — "He  professes 
obedience,  and  owns  his  great  obligations  to  the  king, 
but  declares  that  he  could  not  be  bound  to  disobey  laws 
which  subsisted  by  a  divine  authority  by  any  human 
laws  or  oaths  :  he  observes  an  old  rivalry  between  the 
ecclesiastical  and  secular  powers;  and  speaks  of  the 
Churches  being  oppressed  contrary  to  the  decrees  of  the 
popes,  the  statutes  of  the  councils,  and  the  sanctions 
of  orthodox  fathers,  in  which  there,  says  he,  is  the 
supreme  authority,  the  supreme  truth,  the  supreme 
sanctity  (he  forgot  the  Holy  Scriptures,)  and  no  end  can 
be  put  to  disputes,  unless  we  can  submit  our  sublimity 
to  these  three  great  laws  :  for  out  of  these  the  canons 
(as  he  adds,  meaning  the  canon  law)  are  collected. 
He  undertakes  to  prove  the  authority  of  these  from 
Matt.  xvi.  18;  Deut.  xvii.  9—11,  18,  19;  Matt.  x.  SO; 
xviii,  19,  20,  and  then  goes  on  in  this  manner.  Con- 
stantine.  King  of  England,  and  emperor  of  the  world, 
granted  all  that  we  ask,  and  particularly,  that  clerks 
should  be  judged  by  their  prelates  only.  Wihtred, 
King  of  Kent,  granted  the  same,  as  is  plain  from  the 
council  held  by  Archbishop  Brithwald,  a.d.  794.  This 
Knute  declared  in  his  laws.  King  Edward  promised  to 
keep  the  laws  of  Knute ;  and  King  William,  to  whom 
St.  Edward  gave  the  kingdom,  granted  that  the  same" 
should  be  observed.  He  intimates,  that  these  oppressions 
began  under  King  Henry  I.,  but  proceeded  to  a  still 
greater  height  under  King  Henry  II.  He  gives  the 
epithet  damnable  to  the  Articles  [of  Clarendon]  because 
Archbishop  Thomas  suffered  banishment  and  death  for 
not  subscribing  them.  He  tells  the  king,  he  was  awed 
by  his  conscience  to  write  this  letter,  that  no  oath  could 
bind  against  the  liberties  of  the  Church;  and  further 
says  he,  we  absolve  you  from  any  oath,  that  can  any 
D  3 


30  PECKHAM. 

ways  incite  you  against  the  Church.  He  begs  of  the 
king  to  learn  this  lesson,  for  which  so  many  of  the  holy 
fathers,  and  the  last  but  one  [of  my  predecessors]  the 
Lord  Boniface,  your  mother's  uncle,  did  so  earnestly 
labour,  and  to  which  we  believe  you  inclined,  unless 
evil  counsellors  deceive  you.  Dated  from  Lambeth, 
4  Nones  of  November,  1281." 

The  archbishop  was  consecrated  in  1278,  upon  his 
agreeing  to  pay  the  pope  4000  marks,  which  bribe  he 
was  so  slow  to  pay  after  consecration,  that  the  pope  excom- 
municated him.  Such  was  medieval  corruption.  The 
archbishop  took  the  University  of  Oxford  under  his 
patronage,  and  the  following  constitution  will  be  read 
with  interest. 

"A  Protection  of  the  Liberties  of  the  Scholars  at  Ox- 
ford," by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: — Friar  John,  by 
divine  miseration  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  primate  of 
all  England,  to  his  beloved  in  Christ  the  chancellor,  and 
university  of  masters  and  scholars  at  Oxford  in  the 
diocese  of  Lincoln,  health,  grace,  and  benediction.  We 
show  all  possible  favour  to  them  who  are  seeking  the 
pearl  of  knowledge  in  the  field  of  scholastic  discipline, 
and  willingly  grant  them  what  may  advance  their  tran- 
quillity by  taking  away  the  occasion  of  their  grievances. 
Therefore  moved  by  devout  prayers,  we  receive  under  our 
protection  your  persons,  together  with  all  the  goods 
belonging  to  you  all,  which  you  at  present  do  by  fair 
means  possess,  or  which  ye  shall  hereafter  by  God's 
help  justly  get.  But  especially  we  with  the  unanimous 
express  consent  of  our  brethren,  do  by  the  authority  of 
these  presents,  and  by  the  patronage  of  this  present 
writing  confirm  to  you,  and  to  your  successors  by  you, 
the  liberties  and  immunities  duly  granted  you  by  bishops, 
kings,  great  men,  and  other  faithful  people  of  Christ, 
according  as  ye  do  now  justly  and  fairly  enjoy  them. 
Further,  because  we  are  given  to  understand,  that  some 
men  regardless  of  their  own  salvation,  when  they  have 


PECKHAM.  31 

been  laid  under  a  sentence  of  suspension,  or  excommuni- 
cation for  their  offences  committed  in  the  University  of 
Oxford,  by  the  chancellor  of  the  university,  or  by  inferior 
judges  deputed  by  him,  or  by  the  said  chancellor  together 
with  the  whole  university  of  regents  only,  and  sometimes 
both  of  regents  and  non-regents,  they  withdraw  from 
you  and  your  jurisdiction  in  contempt  of  the  keys  of 
the  Church ;  now  to  the  intent  that  the  said  sentences 
may  have  their  full  force  and  strength,  we  with  the 
express  unanimous  consent  of  our  brethren,  do  grant 
to  you  by  the  tenour  of  these  presents,  that  the  said 
sentences,  be  put  in  full  execution  within  our  province 
by  ourselves,  our  brethren,  and  their  officials,  as  often 
as  we,  or  our  brethren  are  lawfully  required  by  you  in 
this  respect.  And  being  willing  further  to  make  a  more 
plentiful  provision  for  your  tranquillity,  that  your  com- 
munity for  the  future  may  be  conducted  in  prosperity 
and  peace,  we  grant  to  you,  and  with  the  express  unani- 
mous consent  of  our  brethren,  we  ordain  and  enact, 
that  if  any  clerks  beneficed  in  our  province  be  found  in 
arms  by  night  or  by  day,  to  the  disturbance  of  your 
peace,  or  by  any  other  means  interrupting  the  tran- 
quillity of  the  university,  and  are  lawfully  and  duly 
convicted  hereof,  or  do  presumptively  confess  it  by  their 
running  away,  that  their  benefices  be  sequestered  in  the 
hands  of  their  prelates  for  three  years  upon  an  informa- 
tion made  to  the  bishops  by  the  chancellor  under  the 
common  seal  of  the  university;  and  that  lawful  satis- 
faction be  made  to  him,  or  them  that  have  been  hurt 
by  the  party  so  convicted,  confessing,  or  running  away, 
out  of  the  fruits  of  such  benefices  in  the  meantime  to 
be  received.  But  if  they  are  unbeneficed,  let  them  for 
five  years  be  esteemed  incapable  of  accepting  any  eccle- 
siastical benefice ;  unless  in  the  meantime  they  make 
competent  satisfaction  to  them  whom  they  have  hurt, 
and  have  by  merit  recovered  the  grace  of  the  university, 
with  a  saving  to  their  reputation  after  satisfaction  made. 


52  PECKHAM. 

In  testimony  of  all  which  our  seal,  together  with  the 
seals  of  our  brethren  here  present,  is  appendant  to  this 
writing  dated  in  our  council  at  Reading,  the  day  before 
the  Calends  of  August,  in  the  year  of  Grace,  1279, — 
Cantuar.  Lincoln.  Sarum.  Winton.  Exon.  Cicestern. 
Wygorn.  Bathon.  Landaven.  Herefordens.  Norwycen. 
Bangoren.    Rofiens." 

In  July,  1279,  the  archbishop  held  a  synod  at  Read- 
ing, to  force  upon  the  Church  of  England  popish  super- 
stitions and  papal  abuses.  The  constitutions  of  Othobon, 
made  in  the  council  of  London,  1268,  having  been  read, 
the  twelve  following  constitutions  were  published  : — 

1.  Renews  the  twenty-ninth  constitution  of  Othobon 
against  pluralities ;  and  directs  bishops  to  cause  a  re- 
gister to  be  kept  of  all  incumbents  in  their  dioceses, 
with  all  particulars  relating  to  them  and  their  livings. 

2.  Relates  to  commendaries,  and  declares  that  such 
as  are  held  otherwise  than  the  constitution  of  Gregory, 
made  in  the  council  of  Lyons,  1273,  permits,  to  be 
vacant. 

B.  Orders  all  priests,  on  the  Sunday  after  every  rural 
chapter,  to  explain  to  the  people  the  sentences  of  excom- 
munication decreed  by  the  council  of  Oxford  in  1222; 
and  to  publish  four  times  in  each  year  the  constitutions 
of  Othobon  concerning  Baptism  at  Easter  and  Pentecost, 
and  that  concerning  concubinaries  at  the  four  principal 
rural  chapters,  the  laity  being  first  dismissed. 

4.  Orders  that  children  born  within  eight  days  of 
Pentecost  and  Easter  shall  be  reserved  to  be  baptised 
at  these  times ;  but  that  children  born  at  other  times 
shall  be  baptised  at  once,  for  fear  of  sudden  death. 

5.  Orders  the  eighth  constitution  of  Othobon  (1268) 
against  concubinary  priests  to  be  read  openly  in  the  four 
principal  rural  chapters,  and  declares  that  such  reading 
shall  be  taken  as  a  monition.  If  the  dean  or  his  deputy 
neglect  this,  he  is  directed  to  fast  every  Friday  on  bread 
and  water  until  the  next  chapter. 


PECKHAM.  33 

6.  Relates  to  the  chrism  :  orders  that  what  remains  of 
the  old  chrism  shall  be  burnt  when  the  new  is  consecra- 
ted :  directs  that  priests  shall  be  bound  to  fetch  the 
chrism  for  their  Churches  every  year  from  their  bishops 
before  Easter  :  forbids  to  use  any  other  than  the  new 
chrism,  under  the  heaviest  penalties. 

7.  Orders  that  the  consecrated  host  be  kept  in  a  fair 
pyx,  within  a  tabernacle :  that  a  fresh  host  be  consecrated 
every  Lord's  day;  that  it  be  carried  to  the  sick  by  a  priest 
in  surplice  and  stole,  a  lanthorn  being  carried  before,  and 
a  bell  sounded,  that  the  people  may  "  make  humble 
adoration  wheresoever  the  King  of  Glory  is  carried 
under  the  cover  of  bread." 

8.  Declares  the  custom  of  praying  for  the  dead  to  be 
"  holy  and  wholesome  ;"  and  ordains  that  upon  the  death 
of  any  bishop  of  the  province  of  Canterbury,  his  survi- 
ving brethren  shall  perform  a  solemn  office  for  the  dead, 
both  singly  in  their  chapels,  and  together,  when  called  to 
assemble  in  council  or  otherwise,  after  the  death  of  the 
said  bishop ;  orders  further,  every  priest  to  say  one  mass 
for  the  soul  of  his  deceased  diocesan,  and  intreats  all 
exempt  religious  priests  and  seculars  to  do  likewise. 

9.  Relates  to  the  preaching  of  indulgences,  and  orders 
caution  in  so  doing,  "lest  the  keys  of  the  Church  be 
despised." 

10.  Forbids  to  set  free,  or  admit  to  purgation,  on  slight 
grounds,  clerks  who  having  been  put  into  prison  for  their 
crimes,  are  delivered  to  the  Church  as  convicts. 

11.  Enjoins  that  care  be  taken  to  preserve  the  chastity 
of  friars  and  nuns :  forbids  them  to  sojourn  long  in  the 
houses  of  their  parents  and  friends. 

12.  Forbids  parishioners  to  dispose  of  the  grass,  trees, 
or  roots,  growing  in  consecrated  ground  ;  leaves  such  pro- 
duce at  the  disposal  of  the  rectors  :  forbids  the  latter, 
without  sufficient  cause,  to  spoil  or  grub  up  such  trees 
as  are  an  ornament  to  the  churchyards  and  places  there- 
abouts. 


U  PECKHAM. 

Then  follows  (in  some  copies)  an  injunction  that  the 
clergy  of  each  diocese  should  send  at  least  two  deputies 
to  the  next  congregation,  to  treat  with  the  bishops  for 
the  common  interests  of  the  Church  of  England.  This 
injunction,  however,  is  by  some  persons  said  to  be  not 
genuine. 

But  the  most  important  council  in  Peckham's  episco- 
pate was  held  on  the  llth  of  October,  1281,  at  Lambeth, 
the  Canons  of  which  throw  much  light  on  the  very 
depressed  state  of  religion  in  the  middle  ages.  In  this 
council  the  acts  of  the  council  of  Lyons,  1274,  the 
constitutions  of  the  council  of  London,  1268,  and  those 
of  the  preceding  council  of  Lambeth,  1261,  were  con- 
firmed and  twenty-seven  fresh  Canons  were  published. 

The  first  Canon  runs  thus : — "  The  Most  High  hath 
created  a  medicine  for  the  body  of  man,  which  was  taken 
out  of  the  earth,  reposited  in  seven  vessels,  that  is,  in 
the  seven  sacraments  of  the  Church  which  are  handled 
and  dispensed  with  little  reverence  and  diligence,  as  our 
own  eyes  inform  us.  Here  then  let  us  begin  our  correc- 
tion, and  especially  in  the  sacrament  of  our  Lord's 
Body,  which  is  a  sacrament,  and  a  sacrifice  of  a  sacra- 
ment, sanctifying  those  who  eat  it;  and  a  sacrifice, 
which  by  its  oblation  is  profitable  for  all  in  whose  behalf 
it  is  made,  as  well  the  living  as  the  dead.  By  daily 
scandals  we  find,  that  there  are  many  priests  of  the 
Lord  in  number,  few  in  merit.  We  chiefly  lament  this 
among  their  damnable  neglects,  that  they  are  irreverent 
in  respect  to  this  sacrament;  that  they  consecrate  it 
with  accursed  tongues,  reposit,  and  keep  it  with  con- 
tempt ;  and  neglect  to  change  it  so  long,  that  the  con- 
taining species  is  corrupted ;  so  that  the  Author  of  our 
salvation,  Who  gave  Himself  for  a  viaticum  to  His  Church, 
is  justly  offended  with  such  irreverence ;  we  ordain  as  a 
remedy  to  this  mischief,  that  every  priest  that  hath  not 
a  canonical  excuse,  do  consecrate  once  every  week  at 
least,  and  that  a  tabernacle,    &c.,  as  in  the  seventh  of 


PECKHAM.  35 

this  archbishop's  constitutions  at  Reading,  to  the  word 
Lord's  day.  Let  the  bells  be  tolled  at  the  elevation  of 
the  body  of  Christ,  that  the  people  who  have  not  leisure 
daily  to  be  present  at  mass,  may,  wherever  they  are, 
in  houses,  or  fields,  bow  their  knees  in  order  to  the 
having  the  indulgences  granted  by  many  bishops.  And 
let  priests  who  are  negligent  in  keeping  the  Eucharist, 
&c.,  as  in  constitution  the  seventh  at  Reading,  to  the 
end.  Let  priests  also  take  care  when  they  give  the 
holy  communion  at  Easter,  or  at  any  other  time  to 
the  simple,  diligently  to  instruct  them  that  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  our  Lord  is  given  them  at  once  under 
the  species  of  bread;  nay  the  whole  living  and  true 
Christ,  Who  is  entirely  under  the  species  of  the  Sacra- 
ment:  and  let  them  at  the  same  time  instruct  them, 
that  what  at  the  same  time  is  given  them  to  drink  is 
not  the  Sacrament,  but  mere  wine,  to  be  drunk  for  the 
more  easy  swallowing  of  the  Sacrament  which  they 
have  taken.  For  it  is  allowed  in  such  small  churches 
to  none  but  them  that  celebrate,  to  receive  the  Blood 
under  the  species  of  consecrated  wine.  Let  them  also 
direct  them  not  overmuch  to  grind  the  Sacrament  with 
their  teeth,  but  to  swallow  it  entirely  after  they  have 
a  little  chewed  it ;  lest  it  happen  that  some  small  par- 
ticle stick  between  their  teeth,  or  somewhere  else.  Let 
parish  priests  beware  that  they  give  not  the  body  of  the 
Lord  to  any  that  have  not  evidence  of  their  having 
confessed  by  testimonial,  or  other  credible  assurance  : 
and  we  lay  the  stress  of  the  proof  upon  the  oath  of 
him  that  is  to  receive  the  Sacrament,  who  is  to  take 
care  of  what  concerns  his  salvation.  Let  no  priest 
give  the  Communion  to  the  parishioners  of  another 
priest  without  his  manifest  licence.  We  extend  not 
this  ordinance  to  travellers,  or  persons  in  danger,  or  in 
case  of  necessity. 

Transubstantiation  was  now  generally  received,  though 
in  fact  a  novelty,  (see  Paschasim  Radbert,)  and  according 


36  PECKHAM. 

to  the  theory  of  Transubstantiation,  communion  in  one 
kind  would  naturally  be  deemed  complete.  But  the 
withdrawal  of  the  cup  was  too  serious  an  innovation  to 
be  otherwise  that  cautiously  approached  ;  hence  the  cau- 
tion of  the  Canon  : — 

2.  Relates  to  masses  for  the  dead. 

3.  Runs  thus :  We  find  some  have  transgressed  as 
to  the  sacrament  of  Baptism.  For  whereas  it  is  allowed 
to  laymen,  or  women  to  baptize  children  in  case  of 
inevitable  necessity,  and  such  baptism  is  evidently  suffi- 
cient to  salvation,  if  the  due  form  be  observed;  and 
they  who  have  been  so  baptized  ought  not  to  be  baptized 
again  ;  and  yet  some  foolish  priests  re-baptize  them ; 
which  is  an  indignity  to  the  sacrament ;  now  we  firmly 
forbid  this  for  the  future.  But  let  the  Exorcisms,  and 
Catechisms  be  used  over  children  so  baptized,  in  re- 
verence to  the  ordinances  of  the  Church.  But  the 
form  of  the  sacrament  in  the  vulgar  tongue  consists 
not  only  in  the  signs,  but  in  the  series  of  the  words, 
as  it  was  instituted  by  God ;  inasmuch  as  Christ  the 
Lord  hath  conferred  a  regenerative  power  to  those  words 
80  arranged  as  they  are  in  the  Latin  tongue  :  Let  then  the 
baptizers  say  thus : — "  I  christen  thee  in  the  Name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  And  if 
the  priest  doubt  whether  the  child  was  baptized  in  due 
form,  let  him  observe  the  manner  in  the  Decretal,  to- 
gether with  the  Exorcisms,  and  Catechism,  saying,  "  If 
thou  art  baptized,  I  do  not  rebaptize  thee,  if  thou  art 
not  baptized,  I  baptize  thee  in  the  name  of,  &c."  Let 
priests  take  care  that  names,  which  carry  a  lascivious 
sound  be  not  given  to  children  at  their  baptism,  espe- 
cially to  those  of  the  female  sex.  If  they  be,  let  them  be 
altered  by  the  bishops  at  confirmation. 

4.  Denies  communion  to  persons  not  confirmed. 

5.  Forbids  to  confer  on  any,  holy  orders,  i.e.,  those  of 
sub-deacon,  deacon,  and  priest,  at  the  same  time  with 
the  four  lesser  orders,  i.e.,  the  ostiary,   the  lector,   the 


PECKHAM.  37 

exorcist,  and  the  acolyth ;  and  desires  that,  when  it 
may  be,  the  lesser  orders  shall  not  be  received  at  one 
and  the  same  time. 

6.  Denies  absolution  to  hardened  sinners,  while  they 
continue  in  sin.  Forbids  under  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion any  one  to  hear  confessions  without  licence  from 
the  bishop. 

7.  Orders  public  penance  for  notorious  sins,  reserves 
the  absolution  of  wilful  murder  to  the  bishop  only.  In 
both  of  these  canons  complaint  is  made  of  the  general 
ignorance  or  profligacy  of  the  clergy. 

8.  Directs  that  in  each  deanery  there  shall  be  a 
general  confessor  for  the  clergy. 

9.  Observing  that  the  ignorance  of  the  priests  plunges 
the  people  into  error,  and  that  the  stupidness  of  clerks 
who  are  commanded  to  instruct  the  faithful  in  the  Catho- 
lic faith,  does  rather  mislead  than  teach  them,  directs 
the  clergy  to  explain  four  times  in  the  year,  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  the  creed,  the  ten  commandments,  the 
two  evangelical  precepts,  the  seven  works  of  mercy, 
the  seven  deadly  sins,  the  seven  cardinal  virtues,  and 
the  seven  sacraments.  Then  follows  a  brief  explanation 
of  them  all. 

10.  Orders  the  publication  of  Archbishop  Peckham's 
sentences  of  excommunication. 

IL  Orders  rectors  to  exercise  hospitality. 

12.  Ptelates  to  certificates  given  by  rural  deans. 

13.  Is  directed  against  the  fraudulent  methods  too 
prevalent,  which  were  employed  to  get  possession  of 
benefices  during  the  absence  of  their  possessors. 

14.  Prelates  to  the  same,  shewing  the  extreme  corrup- 
tion of  the  clergy. 

15.  Renew^s  the  16th  canon  of  Langton  at  Oxford, 
1222,  against  farming  churches. 

16.  Orders  all  houses  of  Augustines  to  assemble  toge- 
ther in  the  general  chapter. 

17.  Enormous  lust  is  so  prevailing,  that  some  without 

VOL.  VIII.  E 


38  PECKHAM. 

any  regard  to  the  laws  and  canons  published  to  excite 
the  chastity  of  nuns,  commit  incest,  and  sacrilege  with 
them  ;  for  remedy  whereof  we  lay  all  clergymen  and 
laymen  who  practise  such  filthiness  under  sentence  of 
the  greater  excommunication ;  resersang  the  power  of 
absolving  them  to  the  persons  of  the  bishops  only, 
except  at  the  point  of  deaih,  at  which  time  any  priest 
may  absolve  them ;  uj)on  condition  that  if  they  recover, 
they  do  within  three  months  make  confession  to  their 
proper  bishops,  or  in  the  vacancy  of  the  see,  to  the 
guardian  of  the  spiritualities,  or  the  Dean  of  the  Cathe- 
dral Church,  under  pain  of  anathema. 

18.  Many  nuns,  like  Dinah,  delighting  in  an  ill  habit 
of  wandering,  frequently  fall  into  a  like,  or  greater 
scandal.  Now  we  consulting  their  salvation  rather  than 
their  pleasure,  to  provide  against  this  danger,  forbid 
any  one  of  them  under  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
stay  even  in  company  wdth  a  sister  nun,  much  less 
without  it,  in  the  house  of  her  parents,  or  relations, 
much  less  of  others,  of  how  great  estate,  dignity,  or 
sanctity  soever  they  be,  above  three  natural  days  for  the 
sake  of  diversion ;  nor  above  six  days  upon  any  occasion 
whatsoever,  except  sickness ;  unless  the  bishops  for  some 
necessary  cause  shall  sometimes  please  to  have  it  other- 
wise, whose  consciences  we  onerate  in  this  point  in 
respect  to  the  tremendous  judgment.  We  extend  not 
this  to  the  nuns  who  are  forced  to  beg  for  their  neces- 
sities :  and  some  nuns  are  so  far  deceived,  as  that 
though  they  are  of  lawful  age,  and  of  years  capable  of 
craft,  after  they  have  lived,  above  a  year,  a  monastic 
life  among  the  nuns,  they  think  they  are  not  professed, 
and  that  they  may  return  to  a  secular  life,  because  they 
have  not  received  the  bishop's  benediction,  nor  made 
their  solemn  vow.  We  to  remove  such  mistakes,  declare 
by  authority  of  the  present  council,  that  such  as  have 
voluntarily  led  a  regular  life  in  a  college  for  above  a 
year  be  deemed  ^/>so  facto  professed;  so  as  not  to  be 


PECKHAM.  39 

permitted  to  return  to  a  secular  life ;  though  they  are 
solemnly  to  be  consecrated,  or  veiled  by  the  bishop. 
We  give  the  same  judgment  as  to  monks,  and  all  other 
religious  where  there  is  no  canonical  impediment ;  that 
if  they  have  for  above  a  year  willingly  worn  the  religious 
habit  in  a  monastery,  and  then  rejecting  it  return  to 
a  secular  life,  they  be  repelled  as  apostates  from  eccle- 
siastical benefices ;  and  be  compelled,  as  the  law  requires, 
to  return  to  their  monasteries.  Let  archdeacons  make 
diligent  inquiry  concerning  these  ;  because  we  know- 
many  who  have  the  heart  of  a  wolf  under  the  fleece 
of  a  sheep. 

19.  Provides  for  the  reclamation  of  relapsed  monks. 

20.  Forbids  monks  to  become  executors  to  wdlls. 

21.  Though  the  name  of  religion  be  by  use  appro- 
priated to  the  monastic  life,  [yet]  the  good  behaviour  of 
clergymen  has  a  remarkable  degree  of  religious  life  in 
it,  if  those  things  be  observed  which  the  canons  have 
decreed.  But,  alas,  very  many  clergymen  of  this  famous 
country,  imitate  the  madness  of  the  Jews,  who  preferred 
the  fashions  of  the  Grecians  to  those  of  their  fathers. 
They  are  ashamed  to  appear  as  clergymen,  and  take  the 
military  dress  to  please  fools,  and  provoke  wise  men. 
And  whereas  the  crown  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
a  soldier  of  the  Church,  and  of  a  heart  enlarged  and 
open  to  the  celestial  rays,  they  hide  their  crowns  with 
hairlaces,  and  like  the  Jews  have  a  veil  upon  their 
hearts,  whereby  those  rays  are  repelled.  But  we  sticking 
to  the  statute  of  the  Lord  Othobon  do  strictly  order  and 
charge,  that  every  clerk  in  holy  orders  have  his  outward 
garment  unlike  to  soldiers  and  laymen,  for  shape  and 
comeliness.  And  because  the  said  legate  against  clerks 
that  wore  coifs  and  hairlaces  before  their  prelates,  or 
people,  ordained,  that  if  they  did  not  reform  upon  a 
monition,  they  should  ipso  facto  incur  a  suspension 
from  office,  in  which  if  they  continued  for  three  months 
they  should  then  be  suspended  from  benefice,  and  not 


40  PECKHAM. 

be  absolved  till  they  have  given  the  sixth  part  of  their 
ecclesiastical  goods  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  by  the 
hands  of  the  Bishops,  and  yet  be  otherwise  punished 
at  the  bishop's  discretion:  we  observing  how  little 
effect  this  statute  hath  had,  because  lesser  prelates  dare 
not  admonish  such  monstrous  clergymen,  on  which  ac- 
count they  seem  to  have  fallen  into  the  punishments 
ordained  by  the  said  legate  as  their  pusillanimity  de- 
serves, and  such  clerks  seldom  come  into  the  presence 
of  bishops ;  we  ordain,  that  (since  ignorance  of  the  law 
does  not  excuse  clergymen)  such  clergymen,  as  often  as 
they  w^ore  such  coifs,  or  hairlaces  before  their  prelates,  or 
people,  do  without  any  monition  fall  under  the  punish- 
ments aforesaid ;  unless  it  be  in  a  journey.  And  we 
command  that  special  enquiry  be  made  after  such  for 
the  future  in  every  deanery,  and  that  whatever  their  de- 
gree or  dignity  be,  they  be  proceeded  against  in  form 
of  canon. 

22.  Forbids  the  sons  of  rectors  to  succeed  immediately 
to  their  fathers  in  churches  where  they  ministered.  This 
shews  that  though  celibacy  was  enforced,  concubinage 
w^as  common. 

23.  Orders  bishops  to  give  to  every  clerk  upon  his 
admission  to  a  benefice  letters  patent  testifying  his 
admission. 

24.  Forbids  pluralities. 

25.  Relates  to  the  office  of  advocate. 

26.  Orders  that  when  an  archbishop  or  bishop  dies, 
one  mass  for  his  soul  shall  be  said  in  every  parish  and 
monastery. 

In  1282  he  went  in  person  to  the  prince  of  Wales,  then 
at  Snowdon,  in  order  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween him  and  the  king  (Edward  I.)  but  was  unsuccess- 
ful ;  and,  therefore,  when,  on  his  return,  he  passed 
through  Oxford,  he  excommunicated  the  prince  and  his 
followers.  He  died  at  Mortlake  in  1292,  and  was  buried 
in  Canterbury  Cathedral,  near  the  remains  of  Thomas  a 


PELAGIUS.  41 

Becket.  He  founded  a  college  at  Wingliam,  in  Kent. 
Wood,  in  liis  Annals,  makes  frequent  mention  of  Peck- 
ham's  attention  to  the  interests  of  the  University 
of  Oxford ;  and  Tanner  enumerates  a  great  number  of 
his  works  on  divinity,  which  show  him  accomplished  in 
all  the  learning  of  his  age.  These  remain,  however,  in 
manuscript,  in  our  different  libraries,  except  some  of  his 
letters  published  by  Wharton,  and  his  statutes,  institu- 
tions, &c.,  in  the  Concil,  Mag.  Brit,  et  Hib.  vol.  ii.  Two 
only  of  his  works  were  published  separately,  and  often 
reprinted  ;  viz.,  his  Collectanea  Bibliorum,  libri  quinque; 
and  his  Perspectiva  Communis. — Collier.  Johnson. 
Landon.     Tanner. 

PELAGIUS, — (See  the  Life  oj  Augustine. J 

This  heresiarch  of  the  5th  century,  was  born  in  Wales. 
His  vernacular  name  was  Morgan,  or  Marigena,  signify- 
ing Sea-born,  which  he  changed  into  Pelagius,  a  word  of 
Greek  derivation,  and  of  the  same  meaning.  He  em- 
braced the  monastic  life,  probably  in  the  celebrated 
monastery  of  Bangor.  About  the  year  400,  accompanied 
by  his  intimate  friend  Coelestius,  an  Irish  monk,  he  went 
to  Rome,  and  there  began  to  disseminate  his  peculiar 
notions. 

Pelagius  was  a  man  of  irreproachable  morals,  and  in 
his  zeal  for  morality  it  was  that  he  started  his  heresy. 
He  saw  the  truth  abused  and  leading,  in  its  abuse,  to  a 
laxity  of  morals,  and  therefore  he  tried  to  introduce  a 
stricter  code.  Such  a  man  found  it  easy  to  gain  a  crowd 
of  followers ;  and  the  heresy  spread  so  much,  that  it 
became  neccesary  for  him  to  quit  Rome,  in  the  year  400, 
going  to  Sicily,  and  accompanied  by  Coelestius.  They 
continued  in  Sicily,  till  the  report  of  a  conference,  held 
at  Carthage  between  the  Orthodox  and  the  Donatists, 
induced  them  to  go  to  Africa  ;  but  Pelagius  did  not  stay 
long  there ;    and  after  his    departure,   Coelestius  being 


42  PELAGIUS. 

accused  of  denying  original  sin  by  Paulinus,  was  con- 
demned by  a  council  held  at  Carthage  in  the  year  412, 
under  Aurelius,  primate  of  Africa.  Upon  this  he  re- 
paired to  his  friend  Pelagius,  who  had  retired  to 
Palestine.  Here  they  were  well  received  by  John, 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  the  enemy  of  St.  Jerome.  In 
Palestine  his  doctrine  was  approved  in  a  council  held 
at  Diospolis,  in  415,  consisting  of  fourteen  bishops.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  African  bishops  held  a  council,  accor- 
ding to  custom,  in  416,  at  Carthage,  and  decided  that 
Pelagius  and  Coelestius  ought  to  be  anathematized ;  and 
they  communicated  their  judgment  to  Innocent  I.  in 
order  to  join  the  authority  of  the  see  of  Rome  to  their 
own;  and,  prompted  by  St.  Augustine,  they  refuted  in 
a  summary  way  the  chief  errors  imputed  to  Pelagius, 
concluding  thus  :  "  Though  Pelagius  and  Coelestius  dis- 
own this  doctrine,  and  the  writings  produced  against 
them,  without  its  being  possible  to  convict  them  of  false- 
hood ;  nevertheless,  we  must  anathematize  in  general 
whoever  teacheth  that  human  nature  is  capable  of 
avoiding  sin,  and  of  fulfilling  the  commands  of  God; 
as  he  show^s  himself  an  enemy  to  His  grace." 

Pelagius,  who  certainly  was  guilty  of  such  prevarica- 
tions at  this  time  as  to  induce  us  to  suppose  that  he  had 
now  forfeited  the  character  he  once  sustained  as  a  moral 
man  and  a  lover  of  truth,  resorted  to  the  artifice  often 
employed  by  the  crafty,  and  sent  declarations  of  his 
orthodoxy  and  his  obedience  to  Rome.  The  wicked 
policy  of  the  see  of  Rome  has  always  been  to  encourage 
every  act  by  which  the  authority  of  its  bishop  can  be 
advanced.  Coelestius  came  to  Rome  at  the  time 
when  Zosimus  had  just  been  elected  bishop.  In  an 
evil  hour  for  himself  and  his  see,  Zosimus,  flattered 
by  the  personal  appeal  to  his  justice  on  the  part  of 
the  heretics  and  the  acknowledged  submission  to  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  pronounced  the  innocence  of  the 
Pelaoian  doctrine. 


PELAGIUS.  43 

The  Pope  of  Rome  was  an  avowed  Pelagian  heretic. 

But  the  African  Bishops,  though  they  pitied  the  heresy 
of  their  brother,  were  firm  in  their  orthodoxy.  They 
assembled  in  417,  to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and 
fourteen,  and  determined,  in  spite  of  the  heretical  Pope 
of  Rome,  to  adhere  to  their  decrees  against  Pelagius, 
and  before  excommunicating  Zosimus  remonstrated  with 
and  instructed  him.  In  418,  a  plenary  synod  of  Africa 
was  convened  at  Carthage,  and  in  eight  canons  it  con- 
demned the  principal  of  the  Pelagian  errors. 

The  Roman  Bishop  now  perceived  his  mistake,  and 
pretending  that  he  had  been  deceived,  although  he  had 
but  just  before  accepted  the  heresy,  joined  with  the 
African  bishops  in  condemning  the  heretic. 

Pelagius  was  banished  from  Italy  by  an  edict  of  the 
emperor  Honorius,  in  418.  It  is  supposed  that  he  after- 
wards retired  to  his  own  country. 

The  following  is  a  brief  statement  of  his  doctrines  as 
given  by  Dollinger. 

The  first  man  was  created  mortal,  and  must  conse- 
quently have  died,  whether  he  had  sinned  or  not.  As 
death  is  not  therefore  the  effect  of  sin,  sin  has  no  in- 
fluence generally  on  human  nature ;  and  being  a  thing 
unsubstantial,  it  cannot  affect  or  change  our  nature. 
Children  are  born,  therefore,  in  the  same  state  in  which 
Adam  was  before  his  fall,  and  men  are  as  free  now  as 
he  was  in  Paradise.  The  words  of  the  apostle,  "  that 
in  Adam  all  have  sinned,"  are  to  be  understood  to  signify 
only  that  all  imitate  the  first  man  in  the  sin  which  he 
committed,  for  that  which  is  unavoidable  is  no  sin,  and 
concupiscence,  even  in  its  present  state,  is  not  evil.  All 
men  can  consequently  exist  free  from  sin,  and  observe  all 
the  Divine  commandments.  That  man  can  desire  and 
perform  what  is  good,  is  a  power  which  he  has  received 
from  God  ;  and  it  is  in  the  bestowing  of  this  power, — 
that  is,  free-will  or  the  power  not  to  sin, — that  Divine 
grace  chiefly  consists  :  grace,  therefore,  is  an  assistance 


44  PELAGIUS. 

which  God  grants  to  us,  that  we  more  easily  perform 
those  things  which  He  has  commanded  us  to  perform  by 
virtue  of  our  free  will ;  this  grace  is  no  other  than  the 
law,  the  doctrine  and  the  example  of  Christ,  then  the 
remission  or  non-imputation  of  sin,  referring  only  to  the 
past,  not  connected  with  an  interior  sanctification  or 
strength  for  the  avoiding  of  future  offences.  In  addition 
to  these  external,  Pelagius,  during  the  contest,  allowed 
there  were  other  interior  and  supernatural  graces,  such 
as  the  in-dwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  which,  however, 
produced  no  more  than  an  enlightening  of  the  under- 
standing, not  that  sanctifying  grace  which  immediately 
affects  and  guides  the  will,  and  which  infuses  charity  into 
the  soul  of  man.  Of  this  doctrine  the  consequence  was, 
that  we  are  not  to  pray  to  God  that  He  would  grant  us 
His  grace  to  love  and  do  what  is  good,  but  only  the  grace 
to  know  it.  When,  therefore,  Pelagius  spoke  of  the  neces- 
sity of  grace,  he  thereby  understood  no  more  than  the 
first,  the  grant  of  free  will ;  and  this  he  defined  to  be  a 
state  of  indiff'erence,  or  equipoise  of  the  will  between 
good  and  evil :  the  assisting  or  helping  grace,  which  he 
admitted  was  not  necessary  to  man  for  overcoming 
temptation  or  for  fulfilling  the  commandments,  but 
with  it  man  was  enabled  to  perform  good  more  easily  : 
it  is  not  a  free  gift  of  God,  but  merited  by  man  by  the 
good  use  of  his  free  will :  for  God  gives  it  to  every  one, 
who,  by  the  sole,  proper,  due  employment  of  his  natural 
faculties,  disposes  himself  to  receive  it.  By  the  power  of 
his  free  will  alone,  man  can  attain  to  the  true  faith,  can 
merit  the  second  (the  assisting)  grace,  can  resist  every 
temptation,  and  comply  with  all  the  commandments. 
Baptism  is  necessary  to  adults  for  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  ;  but  to  children,  who  are  born  without  sin  and 
without  guilt,  it  is  necessary  only  that  they  may  obtain 
the  adoption  of  children  of  God,  and  the  inheritance  of 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven ;  for  children  who  die  unbap- 
tized,  and  Pagans  who  have  lived  unstained  by  crime, 


PELLICAN.  45 

enjoy  eternal  life ;  not,  indeed,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  which  is  open  only  to  those  who  have  been 
baptized,  and  who  have  been  made  partakers  of  the 
grace  of  Christ. 

Very  few  of  his  writings  remain.  He  was  confuted  by 
Augustine,  Jerome,  Prosper,  and  Fulgentius,  his  con- 
temporaries. The  history  of  the  Pelagian  schism  has 
been  written  by  Archbishoj)  Usher,  in  his  Antiq.  Eccles. 
Britan, ;  Laet ;  Gerard  Vossius  ;  Le  Clerc  ;  Cardinal 
Noris;  Father  Garnier,  in  his  Supplem.  Oper.  Theo- 
doreti ;  Jansenius,  in  his  Augustine  ;  and  by  the  Jesuits, 
Longueval  and  Patouillet. —  Usher.    Mosheim.    Dollinger. 

PELLICAN,    CONRAD. 

CoNEAD  Pellican,  was  born  at  Euffach,  in  Alsace,  Jan. 
8,  1478.  We  have  his  autobiography  in  Melchior  Adam 
at  some  length.  He  was  educated  first  at  Ptuffach,  and 
then  at  Heidelberg.  In  1492,  he  returned  to  his  parents, 
who  were  too  poor  to  support  him,  and  he  earned  his 
livelihood  by  keeping  a  school.  His  desire  of  improve- 
ment was,  however,  unabated,  and  he  was  enabled  to 
borrow  what  books  he  wanted  from  the  neighbouring 
monastery  of  the  Cordeliers.  His  frequent  intercourse 
with  the  monks  rendered  him  open  to  their  persuasions, 
and,  contrary  to  the  wish  of  his  relations,  he  entered 
into  their  community  and  took  the  habit  in  the  sixteenth 
year  of  his  age.  In  1494,  he  was  ordained  a  sub-deacon. 
In  1496,  at  the  request  of  an  uncle  who  had  befriended 
him  and  who  was  in  better  circumstances  than  his  parents, 
he  went  for  further  improvement  first  to  Basle  and  then 
to  Tubingen,  where  he  was  instructed  and  protected  by 
Paul  Scuptor,  one  of  the  professors.  In  1499,  he  began 
to  study  Hebrew  under  the  instruction  of  a  converted 
Jew.  In  1500,  Reuchlin  came  to  Tubingen,  and  under 
him  PeUican  pursued  his  studies  witli  such  success  that, 
next  to   Reuchlin,  he  was  considered  the  best  Hebrew 


40  PELLICAN. 

scholar  in  Germany.  In  ]501,hewas  ordained  priest 
and  in  the  following  year  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
Divinity,  in  the  convent  of  his  order  at  Basle,  and  edited 
the  works  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Chrysostom.  He  also 
superintended  an  edition  of  the  Psalter  in  four  languages. 
In  1508,  he  was  appointed  to  a  similar  professorship  at 
his  native  place,  and  having  held  other  high  offices  in  his 
order,  he  was  appointed,  in  1519,  guardian  of  the  convent 
of  Basle. 

By  the  study  of  Scripture  he  had  for  some  time  heen 
convinced  of  the  unscriptural  state  of  the  existing  Church, 
and  on  reading  the  writings  of  Luther  now  brought  to 
Basle,  his  convictions  were  strengthened  and  his  doubts 
confirmed.  He  became  by  degrees  a  convert  to  the  re- 
former. Pellican  fearlessly  propounded  his  opinions,  and 
in  1522,  was  accused  of  Lutheranism  in  a  chapter  of  his 
order.  We  are  not  told  how  he  defended  himself,  but  it 
was  with  such  success  that  he  obtained  permission  for 
the  ablest  of  the  students  and  preachers  to  read  the  works 
of  Luther.  In  1523,  Gaspar  Sazgar,  the  provincial, 
visited  the  convent,  and  hearing  complaints  of  Pellican 
and  other  members  of  the  fraternity,  of  their  being 
Lutherans,  prepared  to  remove  the  accused  from  their 
situations.  But  he  was  prevented  from  taking  that  step 
by  the  interference  of  the  senate,  who  confirmed  Pellican 
in  his  place,  and  appointed  him  fellow-professor  of 
divinity  with  Oi^colampadius.  Sometime  afterwards  he 
was  removed  from  the  office  of  guardian ;  but  he  still 
retained  his  post  at  the  university,  and  filled  the  theo- 
logical chair  alternately  with  his  learned  colleague.  In 
1526,  on  the  invitation  of  Zuinglius,  he  withdrew  to 
Zurich,  where  he  was  appointed  professor  of  divinity 
and  of  Hebrew.  He  now,  in  his  forty-eighth  year,  to 
show  that  he  finally  renounced  the  papal  communion, 
took  to  himself  a  wife.  He  doubtless  did  this  as  a 
protest  against  the  demoralizing  celibacy  enforced  upon 
the  clergy  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  but  he  had  the  vow 


PELLICAN.  47 

upon  him,  and  by  breaking  the  vow  he  disgusted  those 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome  who  were  beginning  to 
see  the  evil  of  their  system.  He  should  have  vindicated 
the  liberty  of  others  without  availing  himself  of  it 
on  his  own  account.  But  the  reformers  generally  took 
a  different  view  of  the  matter.  This  step  lost  him  the 
friendship  of  Erasmus,  with  whom  he  had  been  inti- 
mately connected. 

In  the  same  year  he  edited  a  second  impression  of 
the  Biblia  Hebraica,  cum  Comment.  R.  Abraam  Abe- 
neara,  et  R.  Salomonis  in  Prophetas  ;  and  also  of  the  Se- 
pher  Michlol,  first  printed  at  Constantinople.  In  1528, 
he  took  part  in  the  celebrated  disputation  at  Bern,  on  the 
subject  of  the  Eucharist,  and  published  a  volume  of  the 
debates  and  speeches  on  that  occasion.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  he  commenced  his  public  exposition  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament.  This  work,  entitled,  Commentarii 
Bibliorum  cum  Vulgata  Editione,  sed  ad  Hebraicam 
lectionem  accurate  emendata,  Zurich,  1531 — 1536,  4 
vols.,  fol ,  is  highly  commended  by  Richard  Simon. 
He  next  devoted  his  labours  to  an  illustration  of  the 
New  Testament,  which  he  published  in  2  vols.,  fol.  He 
had,  besides,  a  considerable  share  in  editing  the  commen- 
taries of  Sebastian  Meyer  upon  the  Apocryphal  books. 
He  also  translated  into  Latin  the  Chaldee  paraphrases, 
including  the  Targums  of  Onkelos,  Jonathan,  and  Jeru- 
salem, various  small  Talmudical  treatises,  and  Elias 
Levita's  edition  of  the  Massora.  He  published,  in  Ger- 
man, An  Exposition  of  the  Pentateuch,  Joshua,  Ruth, 
Samuel,  and  the  Books  of  Kings.  He  also  published, 
Psalterium  Davidis  ad  Hebraicam  veritatem  interpreta- 
tum,  cum  Scholis  brevissimis ;  and  he  bestowed  great 
labour  in  editing  various  commentaries,  dictionaries, 
&c.,  of  which  an  enumeration  may  be  seen  in  Melchior 
Adam.  He  died  in  1556.  His  works  have  been  col- 
lected together,  and  published  in  7  vols,  fol. — Melchior 
Adam. 


48  PEPJON. 


PEMBLE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Pemble,  was  bom  in  1591,  and  was  educated 
at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  He  was  a  learned  man, 
though  a  Calvinist ;  he  died  in  April,  1623. 

His  works,  all  of  which  were  separately  printed  after 
his  death,  were  collected  in  1635,  fol.,  and  reprinted  four 
or  five  times  ;  but  this  volume  does  not  include  his  Latin 
works,  De  Formarum  Origine;  De  Sensibus  internis; 
and  Enchiridion  Oratorium. — Wood.     Fuller. 

PEEION,    JOACHIM. 

Joachim  Perton  was  born  at  Cormeri,  in  the  Touraine, 
about  1500,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  entered  the 
Benedictine  abbey  at  his  native  place,  and  afterwards 
studied  at  Paris,  where  for  twenty  years  he  applied 
himself  to  the  reading  of  the  authors  of  antiquity, 
especially  Cicero.  He  was  admitted  to  the  degree  of 
doctor  by  the  faculty  of  theology  at  Paris,  and  during 
several  years  explained  the  Scriptures  in  that  city  with 
great  applause.  By  a  decree  of  the  university  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  defend  Aristotle  and  Cicero  against  Ramus  ; 
and  he  discharged  that  task  with  great  success.  He 
died  in  1559. 

His  printed  works  are ; — De  Dialectica  Lib.  III. ; 
Historia  Abdise  Eabylonii ;  Topicorum  Theologicorum 
Lib.  II. ;  De  Origine  Linguae  Gallicse,  et  ejus  cum 
Greca  Cognatione ;  Liber  de  sanctorum  Virorum  qui 
Patriarchae  ab  Ecclesia  appellantur  Ptebus  gestis,  ac 
Vitis  ;  De  Vita  Rebusque  Jesu  Christi ;  and,  De  Vita 
Virginis  et  Apostolorom;  in  both  of  these  the  Scrip- 
ture history  is  debased  by  the  intermixture  of  absurd 
fabulous  legends ;  De  Romanorum  et  Graecorum  Ma- 
gistratibus  Lib.  III. ;  Notes  on  the  Harangues  in  Livy  ; 
and,  a  Latin  Version  of  the  Commentary  of  Origen 
upon  Job,  &c. — Biog.   Universelle. 


PETAVIUS.  49 


PETAVIUS,    (PETAU)    DAVIS. 

Davis  (Petau)  Petavius  was  born  at  Orleans  in  1583. 
He  was  educated  at  Paris,  and  in  his  nineteenth  year 
was  appointed  to  the  chair  of  philosophy  at  Bourges. 
In  his  twenty-third  year  he  entered  into  the  society  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  a  veritable  Jesuit  he  became.  He 
studied  divinity  at  Pont  a  Mousson,  and  afterwards 
taught  Rhetoric  and  Theology  at  Rheims,  La  Pleche, 
and  Pans. 

In  1621,  he  succeeded  Fronton  du  Due  in  the  chair 
of  theology,  which  he  filled  with  distinguished  repu- 
tation for  twenty-two  years.  He  Vv'as  perfectly  versed  in 
the  learned  languages,  and  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
sciences ;  but  his  particular  study  was  chronology,  and 
it  is  upon  his  writings  on  that  topic  that  his  literary 
fame  is  chiefly  founded.  Declining  an  invitation  to 
Madrid  from  Philip  IV.,  and  to  Rome  from  Urban  VIlL, 
he  continued  to  live  in  his  cell  in  the  college  of  Clermont, 
where  he  died  in  1652,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age. 
He  had  been  a  great  sufferer  from  the  stone,  so  that  he 
regarded  death  as  a  desirable  release.  The  writings  of 
Petavius  are  numerous  and  various.  He  appeared  as  a 
translator  and  critical  editor  in  his  Latin  versions  and 
editions  of  several  pieces  of  St.  Epiphanius,  of  Synesius, 
Themistius,  the  emperor  Julian,  and  the  historical 
abridgment  of  the  Patriarch  Nicephorus.  He  exercised 
himself  in  poetry  both  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages, 
in  the  former  of  which  he  gave  a  paraphrase  of  all  the 
Psalms  and  Canticles. 

The  first  of  his  more  important  works  is,  De  Doctrina 
Temporum,  2  vols,  folio,  1627;  it  was  republished  with 
considerable  additions  by  himself,  as  well  as  by  Har- 
douin  and  others,  in  8  vols,  folio,  Antwerp,  1703;  it  is 
generally  accompanied  by  his  Uranologia,  in  quo  Graeci 
Auctores  varii  de  Sphsera  ac  Sideribus  commentati  sunt, 

VOL.    VIII.  F 


50  PETAVIUS. 

&c.  folio,  1630.  He  also  published  : — Rationarium  Tem- 
porum,  2  vols.  8vo.,  1652  ;  this  is  an  abridgment  of  his 
De  Doctrina  Temporum,  with  an  abstract  of  general 
history;  of  the  various  editions  of  this  useful  work,  the 
best  is  reckoned  to  be  that  of  J.  Conrad  Rungius,  2  vols. 
-Svo.  Lugd.  B.  1710;  Perizonius  published  an  edition  of 
it,  with  a  continuation  down  to  1715  ;  and,  Dogmata 
Theologica,  3  vols,  folio,  1644 — 1650;  the  best  edition 
is  that  of  Venice,  1758,  7  vols,  folio,  superintended  by 
Zaccaria,  with  dissertations,  notes,  and  a  life  of  the 
author. 

This  is  the  work  for  which  he  is  "  damned  to  fame"  in 
the  theological  world,  and  which  has  been  demolished  by 
our  own  Bishop  Bull.  His  object  was  to  prove  that  the 
Ante-Nicene  fathers  were  not  orthodox  or  Homoousians 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Hence,  the  Arians 
have  claimed  him  as  their  own,  and  "  Unitarians" 
in  their  own  unfairness  praise  him  for  the  "fairness 
of  his  statements."  Anything  but  fairness  of  state- 
ment appears  to  have  been  the  design  of  Petavius. 
Bishop  Bull  acquits  him  of  any  intention  of  advancing 
the  cause  of  Arianism,  and  suggests  that  he  had  in  view 
the  support  of  the  pope  rather  that  Arius,  and  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  than  of  any  other  sect.  His  course 
was  truly  Jesuitical,  and  such  as  other  writers  of  his 
communion  have  not  feared  to  pursue.  Truth  and 
Christianity  itself  they  would  sacrifice  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  Roman  see.  Petavius  perceived  that  if 
the  Catholic  writers  of  the  first  three  centuries  were 
almost  all  of  the  same  opinion,  which  was  afterwards 
condemned  in  Arius  for  heresy,  by  the  Council  of 
Nice ;  or  that  they  wrote  in  such  a  manner  as  they 
m.ight  at  least  be  thought  to  hold  such  an  opinion,  by 
their  loose  way  of  expressing  themselves ;  it  will  thence 
follow,  as  he  (Prooem.  88,)  has  himself  observed,  first, 
that  there  is  very  little  regard  to  be  had  to  the  fathers 
of  the  first  three  centuries,  to  whom  the  reformed  Catho- 


PETER.  61 

lies  generally  appealed,  and  secondly,  that  general  councils 
have  a  power  of  making  new  articles  of  faith,  or  of 
manifesting  and  declaring  them,  as  he  preferred  to  ex- 
press it :  the  inference  from  all  which  he  designed  to 
be  that  all  the  additions  to  the  primitive  faith,  voted  at 
the  pretended  Council  of  Trent,  ought  to  be  received 
without  examination.  With  this  view,  Petavius  set  to 
work  to  prove  the  heterodoxy  of  the  Ante-Nicene  fathers. 
How  completely  and  miserably  he  has  failed  may  be  seen 
in  the  incomparable  works  of  Bishop  Bull.  The  more 
honest  or  less  crafty  of  his  own  communion  became 
alarmed  at  his  boldness,  and  the  Sorbonne  compelled 
him  to  qualify  his  statements  in  an  orthodox  preface, 
which,  however,  has  only  made  him  appear  inconsistent 
with  himself.  In  like  manner  his  representations  of  the 
opinions  of  St.  Augustine  having  given  offence  to  his 
brethren  of  the  society,  he  was  forced  to  retract,  and 
adopt  the  Molinist  sense  of  those  doctrines.  It  is  re- 
ported that  he  said  to  a  friend,  as  a  reason  for  this  altera- 
tion, "  I  am  too  old  to  change  my  lodgings,"  intimating 
that  he  must  otherwise  have  quitted  the  society :  such 
was  its  tyranny  in  matter  of  opinion!  The  style  of 
Petavius,  when  writing  upon  these  abstruse  and  thorny 
subjects,  is  much  admired  for  its  purity  and  clearness. 
His  life  is  written  at  length  by  Father  Oudin,  in  the 
"Memoires  du  Niceron." — Oudin.    Bull.    Bayle. 


PETER. 

Peter,  Bishop  of  Alexander,  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
prelates  of  the  fourth  century,  was  educated  at  Alexan- 
dria, of  which  city  he  was  probably  a  native.  He  was  a 
pupil  of  Thomas,  the  bishop  of  that  see,  whose  successor 
he  became  in  the  year  300.  "  He  was,"  says  Eusebius, 
"  a  most  excellent  teacher  of  the  Christian  doctrine— an 
ornament  to  the  episcopal  character,  both  for  the  holiness 


53  PETEK,  BLESSENSIS. 

of  his  life,  and  his  laborious  application  in  studying  and 
explaining  the  sacred  Scriptures.  He  governed  the 
Church  three  years  before  the  persecution.  The  rest 
of  his  time  he  passed  in  a  more  strict  and  mortified 
course  of  life,  but  without  neglecting  the  common  good 
of  the  Churches."  "Without  any  crime  of  any  kind 
laid  to  his  charge,"  adds  the  same  writer,  "  beyond  all 
expectation,  on  a  sudden,  for  no  other  reason  but  the 
will  of  Maximin,  he  was  taken  into  custody  and  be- 
headed." His  martyrdom  took  place  in  311.  He  had  a 
quarrel  with  Meletius,  Bishop  of  Lycopolis,  which  pro- 
duced a  long  schism  in  the  Egyptian  Church.  He  is  the 
reputed  author  of: — A  Book  on  Penance,  thirteen  canons 
of  which  are  inserted  in  Greek  and  Latin,  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  Collect.  ConciL  ;  Some  fragments  also 
of  another  treatise  attributed  to  him.  Concerning  the 
Divinity,  may  be  met  with  in  the  third  and  fourth  vols, 
of  the  same  collection. — Eusehius.    Dupin. 

PETER,    BLESSENSIS. 

Blessensis  Peter,  or  Peter  of  Blois,  who  flourished 
in  the  12th  century,  was  educated  at  Paris  and  Bologna. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  John  of  Salisbury,  so  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  life  of  Thomas  a  Becket. 

In  1167,  he  travelled  into  Sicily  with  Stephen,  son  of 
the  Count  of  Perche,  and  cousin  to  the  queen  of  that 
island,  where  he  was  appointed  tutor,  and  afterwards 
secretary,  to  William  II.  of  Sicily.  When,  however, 
Stephen,  who  had  been  made  chancellor  of  the  king- 
dom, and  Archbishop  of  Palermo,  was  sent  into  banish- 
ment, Peter  was  involved  in  his  disgrace,  and  found  it 
necessary  to  take  refuge  in  his  native  country.  Hence 
he  was  invited  into  England  by  Henry  II.,  at  whose 
court  he  continued  for  some  time,  and  was  nominated 
Archdeacon  of  Bath.  He  next  entered  into  the  service 
of  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  (the  successor  of 


PETER,  CHRYSOLOGUS.  53 

Thomas  a  Becket,)  who  appointed  him  his  chancellor, 
and  deputed  him  to  negotiate  business  of  importance 
relating  to  his  metropolitan  see,  with  Henry  IT.  and 
Alexander  III.  and  Urban  III.  After  the  death  of 
Henry  he  resided  for  a  time  at  the  court  of  Queen 
Eleanor.  Late  in  life  he  was  deprived  of  his  Arch- 
deaconry of  Bath  ;  though  he  was  was  afterwards  in 
some  degree  compensated  for  his  loss  by  obtaining  that 
of  London.  He  died  in  1200.  The  word  Transubstan- 
tiation  is  said  to  have  been  first  of  all  made  use  of  by 
him  to  express  the  doctrine  of  the  Romish  Church  on 
the  subject  of  the  Eucharist.  The  most  considerable  of 
his  remains  consist  of  Letters,  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  in  number,  which  he  formed  into  a  collection  by 
order  of  Henry  II.  They  abound  in  quotations  from 
the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  from  ecclesiastical  and  profane 
writers.  There  are  also  still  extant  several  sermons  of 
this  author,  and  various  treatises  which  he  wrote  on 
doctrinal  and  moral  topics.  Peter  de  Goussainville 
published  a  new  edition  of  all  his  works,  1677,  fol., 
with  notes  and  various  readings,  which  is  inserted  in 
the  twenty-fourth  volume  of  the  Bibl.  Patr.  A  work  of 
his  on  Canon  Law  and  Process  has  lately  been  discovered, 
of  which  an  account  is  given  in  the  Zeitschrift  fiir 
Geschichtliche  Rechtswissenschaft,  vol.  vii.  p.  207. — 
Cave.     Lyttelton.     Moreri. 


PETER,     CHRYSOLOGUS. 

Peter,  surnamed  Chrysologus,  a  celebrated  Italian  pre- 
late of  the  fifth  century,  was  born  at  Forum  Cornelii, 
(Imola) ;  and  also  educated  at  his  native  place,  where 
he  became  deacon  to  Cornelius  the  Bishop.  Without 
noticing  the  legendary  tales  which  are  related  concerning 
him,  we  have  only  to  state,  that  he  was  elected  Bishop  of 
Ravenna  in  the  year  483,  and  died  before  451.  His 
F   3 


54  PETER  THE  HERMIT. 

eloquence  was  greatly  admired ;  whence  he  had  the  sur- 
name of  Chrysologus,  meaning  golden  speaker.  What 
remains  of  his  productions  consists  chiefly  of  Sermons, 
or  Homilies,  containing  short  explanations  of  portions 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  accompanied  with  moral  reflec- 
tions. They  are  drawn  up  in  a  perspicuous  and  pleasing 
style ;  and  are  distinguished  by  a  happy  union  of  con- 
sciousness and  elegance.  They  were  collected  together 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  his  death,  by  Felix, 
one  of  his  successors  in  the  see  of  Ravenna,  and  were 
first  printed,  to  the  number  of  176,  at  Cologne,  in  the 
year  1541.  Afterwards  they  underwent  repeated  impres- 
sions at  the  same  place,  Antwerp,  Paris,  Lyons,  Venice, 
and  Bologna,  and  were  inserted  in  the  seventh  volume 
of  the  Bibl.  Patr.  Six  others,  on  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
are  given  by  Father  D'Achery  in  his  "  Spicilegium." 
There  is  also  still  extant  "  A  Letter  to  Eutyches  the 
Archimandrite,"  in  which  Peter  declares  against  the 
sentiments  of  that  monk,  and  expresses  his  approbation 
of  the  conduct  of  Flaireneus.  It  was  first  published 
by  Gerard  Vossius  at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus. — Moreri.  Cave. 


PETER    THE    HERMIT. 

Peter  the  Hermit  was  born  in  the  eleventh  century, 
at  Amiens,  in  Picardy.  He  was  a  soldier  in  early  life, 
and  then  retired  to  a  hermitage  in  the  South  of  France, 
where  he  devoted  himself  to  austerities ;  abstaining 
from  flesh  meat  and  bread,  but  permitting  to  himself 
the  use  of  wine.  The  fanaticism  of  the  age  evinced 
itself  in  the  love  of  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem,  and  to 
Jerusalem,  in  1093,  Peter  bent  his  steps.  He  viewed 
with  horror  the  barbarity  of  the  Turks  and  the  sufferings 
of  the  faithful.  The  desire  and  the  hope  of  effecting 
the   deliverance  of  the  daughter   of   Zion   rose  in   his 


PETER  THE  HERMIT.  56 

bosom ;  he  sought  the  patriarch,  the  venerable  Simeon, 
and  they  mingled  their  tears  as  they  bemoaned  the  com- 
mon calamity.  "  The  sins  of  the  oriental  Christians," 
said  Simeon,  "have  made  nought  their  power;  the 
Greeks  have,  within  these  few  years,  lost  half  their 
empire ;  our  own  hope  lies  in  the  strength  and  piety 
of  the  nations  of  the  West."  The  enthusiasm  of  the 
hermit  broke  forth,  and  he  offered  his  aid.  "  I  send  thee 
then,"  said  the  patriarch,  "as  the  envoy  of  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem  to  her  daughter  in  the  West,  to  entreat  of 
her  pity  and  aid  for  her  unhappy  parent."  The  anchorite 
accepted  the  commission,  and  received  letters  for  the  pope 
and  potentates  of  the  W^est. 

Even  Heaven  itself  seemed  to  the  heated  imagina- 
tion of  the  hermit  to  interpose  in  his  mission.  As  in 
the  evening  he  poured  forth  his  soul  in  prayer,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Resurrection,  to  God  and  the  saints,  to  pros- 
per his  undertaking,  sleep  came  over  his  weary  frame,  and 
in  a  dream  Christ  appeared  to  him,  and  said,  "  Arise, 
Peter,  haste,  and  do  boldly  what  thou  hast  undertaken. 
I  will  be  with  thee,  for  the  time  is  come  that  the  sanc- 
tuary should  be  cleansed,  and  my  people  holpen."  He 
awoke  full  of  vigour,  went  and  told  his  dream  to  the 
patriarch,  and  hasted  to  Antioch  to  embark  for  Italy. 

This  dream  of  the  hermit  has  been  by  many  regarded 
as  a  pious  fraud ;  for  our  part  we  are  disposed  to  view 
it  as  a  reality.  There  is  nothing  in  the  character  of 
Peter  which  should  lead  us  to  look  on  him  as  a  hypocrite, 
but  he  was  a  man  constitutionally  timid,  with  a  very 
excitable  imagination.  To  such  a  man,  when,  over- 
whelmed with  the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  had 
assumed,  and  exhausted  by  fasting  and  the  fervour  of 
devotion,  he  sunk  in  sleep,  nothing  was  more  natural 
than  the  appearance  of  such  a  dream  as  we  have  related. 
Ill  is  he  qualified  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  crusades 
who  discerns  falsehood  and  imposture  at  every  step ! 

Peter  landed  at  Bari  in  ApuHa.    Without  loss  of  tima 


56  PETER  THE  HERMIT. 

he  hasted  to  Rome,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  Pope 
Urban  11.  the  letter  of  the  patriarch.  Urban  approved 
of  his  project,  and  gave  him  letters  from  himself  to  all 
Christian  princes.  The  hermit,  thus  furnished  with  cre- 
dentials, traversed  Italy  ;  he  crossed  the  Alps,  and  visited 
all  parts  of  France.  Mounted  on  a  mule,  his  head  and 
feet  bare,  his  coarse  pilgrim's  garment  bound  round 
him  with  a  cord,  and  a  crucifix  in  his  hand,  he  went 
from  province  to  province,  and  from  town  to  town. 
He  confined  his  addresses  not  to  the  great  alone;  he 
harangued  the  assembled  people,  he  set  before  them  with 
all  the  fire  of  his  eloquence  the  sufferings  of  pious 
pilgrims,  the  profanation  of  the  holy  places;  he  told 
them  how  the  Saviour  had  deigned  to  appear  to  him 
personally  ;  he  read  to  them  the  letters  of  the  patriarchs, 
and  other  Christians ;  he  even,  it  is  said,  shewed  them 
one  which  had  fallen  from  heaven.  The  benevolence  of 
the  pious  loaded  the  hermit  with  gifts,  these  he  bestowed 
on  the  poor,  or  employed  in  providing  husbands  for 
women  who  renounced  a  sinful  course  of  life.  Where- 
ever  he  came  he  preached  peace  and  concord,  and  his 
words  found  obedience  as  coming  from  God.  Wherever 
he  went  he  was  regarded  as  a  saint,  and  the  very  hairs 
that  fell  from  his  mule  were  preserved  as  relics. 

A  council  was  meantime  assembled  by  the  pope  at 
Piacenza,  which  was  so  numerously  attended  that  it 
could  not  as  usual  be  holden  in  a  church,  and  a  field  was 
the  scene  of  deliberation.  Ambassadors  appeared  from 
the  Greek  emperor,  who  pourtrayed  the  power  and  ferocity 
of  the  Turks,  and  the  peril  of  the  empire,  and  implored 
the  aid  of  the  Latin  Christians.  The  pope  supported 
their  prayer,  and  a  large  number  of  those  present 
swore  to  march  to  the  aid  of  Alexius  against  the  Infidels. 
But  Italy  was  not  the  place  where  a  spirit  of  holy  enthu- 
siasm could  be  best  excited.  The  feudal  principle  was 
not  strong  in  that  country,  the  imperial  party  was 
numerous,  and  commerce  with  the  East  had  taught  the 


PETER  THE   HERMIT.  ST 

people  to  view  the  Moslems  with  less  abhorrence  than 
was  felt  by  those  who  only  knew  them  by  fame.  Urban 
therefore  resolved  to  make  France,  of  which  country  he 
was  a  native,  the  scene  of  his  greatest  efforts. 

In  the  year  1095,  the  pope  crossed  the  Alps.  Having 
holden  councils  in  Puy  and  other  places  to  prepare  the 
clergy,  he  appointed  the  eighth  day  after  the  festival  of 
St.  Martin  (the  11th  Nov.)  for  the  meeting  of  a  general 
council  of  Clermont,  in  Auvergne,  whither  the  clergy  were 
commanded  to  repair  under  penalty  of  the  loss  of  their 
benefices.  More  than  three  hundred  prelates  and  abbots 
obeyed  the  summons  of  the  pontiff,  and  the  number  of 
the  inferior  clergy  was  proportionably  great ;  the  atten- 
dance of  the  laity  was  immense.  The  town  of  Clermont 
sufficed  not  to  contain  within  its  wall  the  prelates, 
princes,  ambassadors,  and  nobles  who  crowded  thither, 
"  so  that,"  says  an  old  chronicler,  "towards  the  middle 
of  the  month  of  November,  the  towns  and  villages 
around  were  all  filled  with  people,  and  many  were 
obliged  to  pitch  their  tents  in  the  meads  and  fields, 
though  the  season  and  the  country  were  full  of  extreme 
cold."  When  the  ordinary  business  of  the  council  had 
been  gone  through,  and  the  Truce  of  God  had  been 
again  enjoined,  the  pontiff  assembled  the  people  in  an 
open  square,  where  he  ascended  a  stage,  and  took  his 
seat  on  a  throne  surrounded  by  his  cardinals,  with  the 
Hermit  standing  at  his  side,  then  arose  and  addressed 
the  people  in  a  very  animated  discourse,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  which,  as  well  as  in  the  course  of  its  delivery, 
the  people,  melted  to  tears  and  glowing  with  enthusaism, 
shouted  "God  wills  it."  Ademar,  Archbishop  of  Puy, 
ran  forward  with  a  joyful  countenance,  and  falling  at  the 
feet  of  the  pontiff  craved  permission  to  share  in  the  holy 
war.  His  example  was  followed  by  William,  Bishop  of 
Orange.  Clergy  and  laity  pressed  forward  to  enter  on 
the  way  of  the  Lord.  They  all  cast  themselves  on  the 
ground,  and  one  of  the  cardinals  read  a  general  confes- 


58  PETER  THE  HERMIT. 

sion  in  their  names,  and  the  pope  bestowed  on  them  the 
absolution  of  their  sins.  Each  pilgrim  affixed  a  red 
cross  to  the  right  shoulder  of  his  garment,  hence  they 
were  called  the  Crossed  (Croises)  and  the  Holy  War 
named  a  Crusade  (Croisade).  The  pope  charged  the 
clergy,  on  their  return  home,  to  stimulate  the  warlike 
portion  of  the  people  to  the  holy  expedition,  and  to 
prohibit  all  others  from  sharing  in  it.  The  prelates 
besought  him  to  be  their  leader,  but  he  excused  himself, 
as  there  was  an  anti-pope,  and  he  was  still  on  ill  terms 
with  the  emperor  of  Germany  and  the  King  of  France, 
but  he  promised  to  join  them  as  soon  as  peace  was 
restored  to  the  Church.  Meantime  he  appointed  the 
Bishop  of  Puy  to  be  his  legate  in  the  camp  of  the 
faithful. 

The  crusaders  of  the  better  sort  were  led  by  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon.  A  promiscuous  horde  of  men  and  women 
to  the  number  of  60,000,  was  led  by  Peter  from  the 
borders  of  France,  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and 
the  Danube.  Their  progress  was  marked  by  pillage  and 
disorders  of  all  kinds,  and  by  the  massacre  of  all  the 
Jews  who  fell  in  their  way.  As  they  approached  the 
confines  of  Hungary  and  Bulgaria  the  fierce  natives  of 
those  countries  rose  upon  them,  and  cut  them  off  in  such 
numbers,  that  only  a  third  part,  with  Peter  himself, 
having  taken  refuge  in  the  Thracian  mountains,  at 
length  escaped  to  Constantinople.  Almost  all  these 
were  afterwards  slain  by  the  Turks  in  the  plain  of  Nice, 
while  Peter  had  prudently  withdrawn  from  the  camp, 
and  remained  in  the  Greek  capital.  He,  however, 
accompanied  the  better  disciplined  army  of  Godfrey, 
and  v^as  present  at  the  siege  of  Antioch  in  1097.  But 
his  fanatical  ardour  seems  now  to  have  deserted  him ; 
for  during  the  hardships  attending  that  enterprise  he 
attempted  to  make  his  escape.  He  was,  however, 
brought  back  by  Tancred,  who  obliged  him  to  swear 
that  he  would  never  desert  an  expedition  of  which  he 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  59 

was  the  first  mover.  He  afterwards  distinguished  him- 
seK  at  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  on  which  account  he  has 
obtained  immortal  renown  from  the  muse  of  Tasso. 
After  the  capture  of  that  city  he  was  appointed  by  the 
patriarch,  during  his  absence  in  Godfrey's  army,  to  act 
as  his  yicar-general.  Peter  died  the  7th  of  July,  1115, 
at  the  Abbey  of  Neu-Moutier,  near  Huy,  of  which  he 
was  the  founder. — Keightley. 


PETER    THE    VENERABLE. 

Maurice  Peter,  generally  known  as  Peter  the  Venerable, 
was  born  in  the  year  1093,  being  the  descendant  of  a 
noble  house  in  Arragon.  He  was  dedicated  by  his 
parents  to  a  monastic  life,  and  received  his  education 
in  the  Monastery  of  Clugni,  a  house  of  a  so-called 
reformed  branch  of  the  Benedictine  order.  In  his 
twenty-eighth  year  he  was  made  prior  of  Vezelay,  and 
soon  after  prior  of  Domnus.  He  was  called  to  fill  the 
vacant  place  of  abbot  of  Clugni,  in  the  year  1123,  and 
was  at  the  same  time  chosen  general  of  his  order. 

The  circumstances  of  his  appointment  are  remarkable 
and  illustrate  the  spirit  of  the  middle  ages.  The  order 
of  Clugni  originated  in  a  project  of  conventual  refor- 
mation, and  had  at  first  the  tendency  to  restore  the 
precise  and  literal  observance  of  the  Benedictine  rule, 
in  all  its  primitive  austerity.  The  convent  was  at  first 
only  distinguished  for  the  severity  of  its  discipline,  and 
the  frequency  of  its  devotional  exercises.  The  fame  of 
this  attracted  the  reverence  and  the  gifts  of  the  people  : 
a  succession  of  eminent  men  had  presided  over  the  order, 
whose  advice  and  participation  had  been  solicited  by 
popes  and  sovereigns  in  affairs  of  moment.  The 
benevolent  purposes  to  which  they  applied  their  wealth 
excited  general  esteem  and  affection.  But  the  wealth 
^nd  power  of  the  order  produced  their  usual  results,  the 


60  PETER  THE  VENERABLE. 

relaxation  of  their  original  severity  of  discipline,  and  the 
abandonment  of  that  mechanical  system  of  monkish 
devotion,  so  wearying  to  the  spirit.  The  convent  richly 
adorned,  had  now  become  the  seat  of  arts  and  learning, 
but  with  these  came  also  their  accustomed  and  pernicious 
followers — luxury  and  sensuality.  Under  the  sway  of 
Pontius,  a  young  and  worldly  man,  who,  in  the  year 
1109,  was  chosen  abbot  of  Clugni,  the  revenues  of  the 
monastery  were  squandered,  and  many  disorders  and 
abuses  inimical  to  its  interests  and  authority  suffered  to 
prevail.  The  case  at  last  became  so  notorious,  as  to 
reach  the  ears  of  Pope  Calixtus  the  second,  who  ad- 
monished Pontius  of  the  impropriety  of  his  conduct. 
In  consequence  of  this,  the  abbot  abdicated  his  post,  and 
resolved  on  undertaking  the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 

It  was  to  his  place,  declared  vacant,  that  Peter  the 
Venerable  was  appointed.  The  repentance  of  Pontius, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  transient.  At  the  end  of 
two  years  he  endeavoured  to  reinstate  himself  in  the 
supremacy  of  the  order ;  and  as  his  character  was  far 
more  suitable  to  the  general  inclinations  of  the  monks, 
than  that  of  Peter,  who,  though  far  more  gentle,  was  at 
the  same  time  stricter  in  moral  and  religious  require- 
ments, he  found  many  partizans,  and  having  forced  his 
way  into  the  convent  during  the  absence  of  Peter,  he 
seized  on  the  treasures  belonging  to  the  monastery,  even 
to  the  splendid  ornaments  of  the  church,  the  costly  cruci- 
fixes, and  the  golden  reliquaries,  in  order  to  gain  the  means 
of  strengthening  his  party.  These  proceedings  led  to 
the  greatest  confusion  in  the  order,  till  at  length  Pope 
Honorius  the  second  interfered,  and  by  his  authority  put 
an  end  to  the  strife,  and  in  the  year  1125  reinstated  and 
confirmed  the  abbot  Peter,  in  his  office.  But  these 
disorders  had  left  many  pernicious  results  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  order,  which  had  tended  greatly  to  the 
prejudice  of  his  authority.  At  this  era  the  Cistercian 
order  was  extending  itself  widely,  and  to  its  extension 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  61 

Bernard  contributed  far  more  than  the  presiding  abbot. 
By  their  rigid  ascetic  austerity,  and  their  hteral  adhe- 
rence to  the  Benedictine  rule,  the  Cistercian  monks  were 
pecuHarly  distinguished  from  the  luxurious  Clugniacs, 
and  obtained  in  consequence  the  greater  veneration. 
The  character  of  humihty  and  poverty,  conveyed  by  the 
unadorned  plainness  of  their  convent  and  churches, 
presented  a  remarkable  contrast  to  those  of  Clugni  with 
their  manifold  decorations  and  paintings,  and  this 
diversity  of  character  led  to  a  spirit  of  rivalry  between 
the  orders,  and  which  their  frequent  collisions  in  their 
efforts  for  extension  had  a  further  tendency  to  promote. 
The  men  who  had  sought  the  seclusion  of  the  cloister, 
in  order  that,  escaping  from  the  passions  and  the 
tumults  of  earth,  and  dead  to  the  attractions  of  the 
world,  they  might  live  to  the  Spirit,  here  gave  proof  that 
the  change  of  place  and  external  modes  of  life,  were 
insufficient  of  themselves  to  change  the  heart  of  man, 
(Naturam  expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  recurret)  and  that 
it  must  be  something  above  nature,  and  therefore  unat- 
tainable by  external  forms,  and  unconnected  with  any 
peculiar  localities,  which  can  alone  have  power  to  over- 
come nature.  The  same  vain  pride  and  petty  jealousies 
which  agitate  the  world,  were  seen  to  actuate  those  who 
had  withdrawn  from  it,  and  their  operation  was  but  the 
more  sensibly  felt,  from  the  limited  sphere  on  which 
they  were  now  exhibited,  and  from  the  restraint  which 
had  been  put  on  the  passions  inherent  in  human 
nature. 

Even  in  their  external  appearence  the  Cistercians  were 
distinguished  from  their  brethren,  having  exchanged  the 
original  black  garment  of  the  monks  for  one  of  white. 
This  widened  the  brea^^h,  for  the  rivals  could  not  now 
meet  without  immediately  recognizing  each  other.  But 
the  superiors  of  the  two  orders,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux, 
and  Peter  of  Clugni,  possessed  too  much  elevation  of 
mind,  and  had  formed  too  just  an  estimate  of  the  vital 

VOL     VIII.  G 


62  PETER  THE  VENERABLE. 

character  of  religion,  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  swayed 
by  these  passions,  or  to  become  enemies  on  account  of 
external  differences..  When  at  any  time  they  were 
alienated  by  contending  interests,  the  gentle  and  amiable 
Peter  was  always  ready  to  make  the  first  advances 
towards  reconciliation,  and  thus  their  original  friendship 
was  soon  restored.  They  were  united  in  the  bonds  of 
mutual  esteem  and  affection,  and  Peter  rejoiced  in  the 
universal  veneration  which  Bernard  attracted  ;  in  affairs 
of  moment  they  were  always  found  to  co-operate.  They 
had  both  expressed  their  views  of  the  reciprocal  relation 
of  the  two  orders,  in  several  papers  drawn  up  for  the 
purpose  of  exposing  the  defects  of  each,  and  of  clearing 
the  way  for  a  just  estimate  of  existing  differences ;  and 
in  the  hope  of  promoting  mutual  love  and  due  mode- 
ration. 

The  venerable  abbot  of  Clugni,  in  one  of  his  letters 
written  to  Bernard  to  solicit  his  co-operation  in  composing 
differences  between  the  rival  orders,  lays  down  as  a  principle 
the  fact  of  differences  with  regard  to  external  usages 
having  at  all  times  existed  between  different  Churches, 
without  operating  to  the  hindrance  of  mutual  love,  since 
they  involved  nothing  prejudicial  either  to  faith  or  love. 
And  thus  it  ought  to  be  with  the  members  of  both  orders, 
since  both  were  striving,  through  the  medium  of  the 
different  practices  by  which  they  were  severally  distin- 
guished, to  attain  the  same  object,  even  eternal  life.  It 
was  true,  indeed,  that  though  both  Cistercians  and 
Clugniacs  were  governed  by  the  same  Benedictine  rule, 
they  differed  in  its  application,  and  deviated  from  the 
letter  of  the  rule  ;  but  since  the  motive  in  which  all  had 
originated  was  the  first  thing  to  be  considered,  Christian 
love  as  the  soul  of  all  actions  must  decide  as  to  the 
application  of  the  law.  In  support  of  this,  he  quotes  the 
words  of  the  Saviour,  "  If  thine  eje  be  single,  thy  whole 
body  is  full  of  light,"  and  the  sublime  and  faithful  saying 
of  Augustine,  "  Habe  caritatem,  et  fac  quicquid  vis." 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  63 

He  carries  this  principle  still  further  in  a  letter  written 
to  Bernard,  to  defend  his  brethren  against  the  imputa- 
tions of  the  Cistercians.  In  order  to  justify  them  from 
the  reproach  of  having  departed  from  the  Benedictine 
rule,  he  appeals  to  the  practice  of  many  councils  and 
popes,  whereby  the  old  ecclesiastical  laws  had  been 
modified  and  altered,  so  as  to  adapt  them  to  the  circum- 
stances and  exigencies  of  the  times.  Then,  assuming 
his  opponent  to  have  answered  this  by  the  allegation  of 
greater  authority  and  sanctity;  he  rejoins  that  his  order 
also  numbered  among  its  members,  men  who  were 
honoured  by  the  Church  as  saints  ;  but  that  the  ques- 
tion here  was  not  one  of  sanctity,  but  of  authority,  and 
that  in  this  respect  the  authority  of  the  abbots  of  Clugni 
was  as  absolute  in  their  order,  as  that  of  bishops  in  their 
particular  sees,  or  of  popes  in  the  Church  at  large.  In 
general,  however,  neither  sanctity  nor  authority  suBced 
for  the  justification  of  these  changes,  since  the  holiness 
and  authority  of  the  successors  might  not  be  brought 
into  consideration  with  the  holiness  and  authority  of 
those  whom  they  had  succeeded ;  either  the  former 
practice  needed  to  be  changed,  or  that  which  has 
superseded  it  must  be  evil.  It  was  requisite  then  to 
have  a  rule  by  which  these  changes  might  be  judged, 
and  by  which  the  earlier  and  later  revelations  of  God 
and  the  laws  of  the  Church  might,  where  they  differed  in 
the  letter,  be  made  to  agree  in  the  spirit,  and  this  rule  is 
love.  Love  is  free  in  all  her  actions,  and  is  occupied  in 
ministering  to  the  welfare  of  mankind,  according  to  the 
various  wants,  and  the  differing  circumstances  of  divers 
times ;  it  is  for  her,  therefore,  to  give  and  to  change 
laws.  The  lawgivers  of  the  Church  are  but  the  sec- 
retaries of  this  love,  for  this  love  is  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  although  her  laws  may  vary,  yet  in  her  is  "no 
variableness,  nor  shadow  of  turning,"  for  she  remaineth 
ever  the  same.  The  Cistercians  themselves  are  the  real 
violators  of  the  rule  of  Benedict,  since  they  infringe  th§ 


64  PETER  THE  VENERABLE. 

law  of  love,  by  adhering  pertinaciousl}',  and  to  the  per- 
judice  of  their  brethren,  to  those  outward  things,  which  are 
to  be  adapted  to  the  different  circumstances  of  mankind. 
(The  councils  might,  indeed,  have  been  called  the  organs 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  if  they  had  been  possessed  with  this 
spirit,  this  idea  of  a  progressive  and  self-developing 
Church,  for  there  would  then  have  been  no  danger  of 
their  confounding  the  mutable  with  the  immutable, 
human  forms  with  divine  revelations,  and  of  fettering 
the  spirit  with  the  letter.) 

We  proceed  to  give  some  further  extracts  from  his 
letter,  on  account  of  the  characteristic  peculiarities  of 
the  imputations  cast  upon  the  monks  of  Clugni,  with 
the  grounds  on  which  these  are  refuted  by  Peter. 
"  The  monks,"  it  was  urged  against  the  Clugniacs, 
"  should  present  the  image  of  an  apostolic  fellowship  ; 
they  should  have  no  property,  but  should  live  by  the 
labour  of  their  hands ;  they  should  not  possess  parish 
churches,  tithes,  or  first-fruits,  as  do  the  Clugniacs;  for 
these  belong  of  right  to  the  clergy,  by  whom  the  churches 
are  served."  To  this,  Peter  replies,  "  Who  has  the 
greater  right  to  the  oblations  of  the  faithful ;  the  monks 
who  are  continually  supplicating  God  for  sinners:  or  the 
clergy,  who,  as  we  see  at  this  time,  devote  themselves 
entirely  to  the  eager  pursuit  of  earthly  things ;  to  the 
total  neglect  of  their  spiritual  calling,  and  the  salvation 
of  souls?"  But,  an  accusation  of  a  still  more  formidable 
character  was  brought  against  the  Clugniacs,  that  of  having 
indiscriminately  received  as  gifts — castles,  townships, 
peasants,  serfs,  maidens,  tolls,  and  of  having  defended 
themselves  in  the  possession  of  the  same  without  scruple 
against  all  aggressors.  To  this,  Peter  replied,  "  That 
these  possessions  were  turned  to  far  better  account,  and 
the  peasants  far  better  treated  by  the  monks,  than  they 
had  previously  been.  The  manner  in  which  the  tem- 
poral lords  exercise  their  power  over  their  bond  serfs,  is 
a  matter  of  notoriety.     Not  content  with  their  customary 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  65 

and  bond  service,  they  appropriate  to  themselves  the 
goods  with  the  persons,  and  the  persons  together  with 
the  goods ;  and  thus  it  is,  that  after  having  made  the 
usual  deductions,  they  come  and  plunder  these  unhappy 
people  three  or  four  times  in  the  year,  or  as  oft  as  they 
will ;  they  oppress  them  with  innumerable  services,  laying 
upon  them  heavy  burdens,  grievous  to  be  borne,  so  that 
at  last  they  force  them  to  abandon  their  native  homes, 
and  to  seek  shelter  in  a  foreign  land.  And  what  is  still 
more  abominable,  they  do  not  scruple  to  sell  the  men 
whom  Christ  hath  made  free,  and  purchased  at  the  cost 
of  His  own  blood,  in  exchange  for  so  vile  a  thing  as  gold. 
The  monks,  on  the  contrary,  only  avail  themselves  of  their 
bond  and  moderate  service,  in  order  to  procure  the  neces- 
saries of  life  ;  and  instead  of  vexing  them  with  deduc- 
tions, they  sustain  them  in  poverty,  from  their  own  stores  ; 
in  a  word,  they  treat  their  vassals  as  brothers  and  sisters." 
In  another  letter  he  writes  to  Bernard  : — "  It  has  long 
grieved  me  sore,  that  men,  who  to  this  very  hour  are  in 
hunger  and  thirst,  in  cold  and  nakedness,  labouring  with 
their  hands,  and  in  all  things  following  the  holy  Paul, 
should  yet,  while  they  perform  the  weightier  matters, 
leave  the  lighter  undone.  And  thou  art  one  of  those. 
Thou  keepest  the  hard  commands  of  Christ,  in  fasting, 
watching,  weariness,  and  labour,  and  yet  thou  disre- 
gardest  that  easy  one,  of  love."  He  then  calls  upon 
Bernard  to  exert  his  influence  with  the  Cistercians  so  far 
as  at  least  to  induce  them  to  receive  their  brethren  of 
Clugni  into  their  convents,  even  although  they  should 
persist  in  the  use  of  the  customs  and  the  dress  which 
had  first  given  rise  to  their  divisions,  that  so  by  frequent 
interchange  of  good  offices,  mutual  love  might  be  re- 
stored. He  had  himself  made  this  concession  fifteen 
years  before,  with  regard  to  all  the  convents  of  his  order, 
excepting  that  of  Clugni,  and  he  now  offered  to  extend 
the  privilege  to  that  chief  convent,  if  his  request  were 
complied  with. 

G  3 


C6  PETER,  COMESTOR. 

In  the  year  1140,  Peter  afforded  an  asylum  to  Peter 
Abelard,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  hfe  of  that  too  cele- 
brated person. 

So  high  was  his  reputation  for  wisdom  and  prudence, 
that,  in  the  year  1145,  Pope  Eugenius  sent  for  him  into 
Italy,  in  order  to  endeavour,  by  his  admonitions  and 
councils,  to  reconcile  the  hostile  factions  which  had  in- 
volved the  Tuscan  territories  in  civil  war ;  but  their 
obstinacy  and  inveterate  enmity  rendered  all  his  efforts 
for  that  purpose  ineffectual.  In  the  year  1150,  having 
occasion  to  take  a  journey  to  Rome,  on  business  relating 
to  his  monastery,  he  was  received  there  with  the  highest 
honours  by  Pope  Eugenius,  and  the  Roman  citizens. 
He  died  at  Clugni,  in  1156,  when  he  was  about  63  years 
of  age. 

He  acquired  the  surname  of  Venerable  from  the  great 
seriousness  and  gravity  of  his  demeanour.  He  procured 
the  Koran  to  be  translated  out  of  the  Arabic  into  Latin, 
and  wrote  a  treatise  in  four  books  against  the  Mahome- 
tans. He  was  also  the  author  of  several  other  polemical 
pieces,  against  the  Jews,  Petrobrusians,  &c.,  and  various 
miscellaneous  writings,  in  prose  and  verse.  His  works 
were  first  published  at  Ingoldstadt,  in  1546;  and  after- 
wards at  Paris,  w^ith  the  notes  of  Duchesne  and  Marrier, 
in  the  year  1614.  The  edition  last  mentioned  has  been 
inserted  in  the  22nd  vol.  of  the  Bibl.  Patr.  Two  of 
his  Letters,  not  before  edited,  were  printed  by  Father 
Mabillon,  in  the  2nd  vol.  of  his  Analecta ;  and  a  third 
by  DAchery,  in  the  2nd  vol.  of  his  Spicileg.  (Com- 
pare the  lives  of  St.  Bernard  and  of  Abelard.) — Cave. 
Neafiders  Life  of  Bernard. 


PETER,     G0ME3T0R. 

CoMESTOR"  Peter,  or  Peter  the  Eater,  was  a  native'of 
TroyeS;  in  Champagne,  where  he  flourished  in  the  12th 


PETER,  COMESTOR.  G7 

century.  He  was  Canon  and  afterwards  Dean  in  the 
Cathedral  Church  in  his  native  city,  whence  he  was 
removed  to  the  Deanery  of  Notre  Dame,  in  Paris.  This 
benefice  he  resigned  to  enter  a  regular  Canon  of  St. 
Victor,  in  Paris.  He  died  in  1198,  having  directed  the 
following  epitaph  to  be  placed  on  his  tomb  : — 

Petrus  eram,  quern  Petra  tegit,  dictusque  Comestor. 
Nunc  comedor.     Vivus  docui,  nee  cesso  docere 
Mortuus  ;  ut  dicant,  qui  me  vident  incineratum, 
"  Quod  sumus,  iste  fuit,  erimus,  quandoque  quod  hie  est." 

Geraldus  Cambrensis  was  one  of  his  pupils,  and  he 
inspired  his  pupil  with  his  own  hatred  of  the  monks. 
In  a  manuscript  of  that  author,  preserved  in  the  archie- 
piscopal  library  at  Lambeth,  he  tells  us  that  he  heard 
Peter  declare  before  his  whole  school,  in  which  many 
persons  of  distinguished  literature  were  present,  that 
the  old  enemy,  meaning  the  devil,  never  insidiously 
devised  a  more  injurious  measure  against  the  Church 
of  God,  than  the  law  which  enjoined  a  vow  of  celibacy  on 
the  clergy.  He  openly  and  truly  censured  other  sins  in 
practice  and  errors  in  doctrine  prevalent  in  the  middle 
ages.  He  was  the  author  of  Historiae  Ecclesiasticse  Lib. 
XVI.,  containing  a  summary  of  sacred  history,  from  the 
beginning  of  Genesis  to  the  end  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  intermixed  with  numerous  passages  fiom 
profane  history,  and  some  fabulous  narrations.  It  was 
fii'st  published  at  Reutlingen,  in  1473,  and  afterwards 
underwent  repeated  impressions  at  Strasburg,  Basle, 
Lyons,  and  other  places.  He  also  wrote.  Sermons  ;  and 
a  work  entitled,  Catena  Tempor^n:'.  &c,,  consisting  of 
an  indigested  compilation  of  universal  history,  published 
at  Lubeck  in  1475,  in  2  v. Is.  fol. ;  of  which  a  French 
translation  was  printed  at  Paris,  in  1488,  in  2  vois.  folio, 
under  the  title  of  Mer  des  Histoires. — Cave.  Dupin. 
Moreri. 


68  PETIT. 


PETIT,    MATTHEW    DIDIER. 

Matthew  Didier  Petit  was  born  at  St.  Nicholas,  in 
Loraine,  in  1659,  and  was  educated  at  the  Jesuit  College 
at  Nancy.  He  took  the  monastic  habit  as  a  Benedictine 
in  his  seventeenth  year.  In  1682,  he  was  appointed 
lecturer  in  philosophy  and  Divinity,  by  the  chapter 
general  of  the  congregation  of  St.  Vannes  and  St. 
Hydulphus,  to  which  he  belonged.  He  afterwards 
presided  over  an  academy  in  which  certain  monks  of 
the  Benedictine  order  engaged,  under  his  direction,  to 
read  all  the  fathers  of  the  Church.  As  is  the  case  with 
most  students  of  the  fathers,  they  commenced  with 
Dupin's  ecclesiastical  writers,  to  whom  the  readers  of 
these  volumes  are  so  much  indebted.  Petit-Didier  wrote 
notes  on  this  celebrated  work  and  published  them  under 
the  title  of  Piemarks  on  the  first  volumes  of  M.  Dupin's 
Bibliotheque  Ecclesiastique,  in  3  vols,  8vo,  the  first  of 
which  appeared  in  169JI,  and  the  third  in  1696.  He 
afterwards  published  an  answer  to  the  Dialogues  between 
Cleander  and  Eudoxus,  written  against  the  celebrated 
Provincial  Letters  of  Pascal,  and  attributed  to  father 
Daniel,  the  Jesuit.  This  answer  is  under  the  form  of 
seventeen  letters,  with  the  title  of,  An  Apology  for  the 
Provincial  Letters  of  Lewis  Mental te,  against  the  last 
Reply  of  the  Jesuits,  &c.,  IQmo.  About  1700  he  pub- 
lished in  Latin,  Critical,  Historical,  and  Chronological 
Dissertations  on  the  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, in  4to.  In  1715,  he  was  chosen  Abbot  of  Senones. 
In  1724,  he  published  A  Theological  Treatise  in  Defence 
of  the  Authority  and  Infallibility  of  the  Pope,  12mo. 
This  piece  was  attacked  by  different  writers,  Romanist 
and  Protestant,  and  defended  by  him  in  several  tracts.  In 
1725,  he  visited  Rome,  where  he  was  favourably  received 
by  Benedict  XIII. ,  on  account  of  his  writings,  in  which 
he  had  maintained  the  infallibility  and  highest  preten- 


PEZELIUS.  69 

sions  of  the  papal  see,  and  declared  hostility  against 
the  liberties  of  the  Galilean  Church.  As  a  reward  for 
such  obsequiousness,  in  1726  the  Pope  nominated  him 
Bishop  of  Macra,  in  partibus  infidelium.  He  died  in 
1728,  and  was  succeeded  by  Calmet.  He  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  author  of  an  Historical  and  Dogmatical 
Treatise  on  Ecclesiastical  Privileges  and  Exemptions, 
which  was  printed  at  Metz,  in  1699,  in  4to. — Moreri. 


PEZELIUS,    CHBISTOPHER. 

Christopher  Pezelius  w^as  born  in  the  year  1539,  at 
Plauen,  in  the  Voightland.  He  is  chiefly  distinguished 
for  the  part  he  took  with  certain  of  the  Saxon  theologians 
for  changing  the  doctrine  of  his  Church  (the  Lutheran)  on 
the  subject  of  the  Eucharist.  They  wished  to  introduce 
the  Calvinistic  view  and  were  called  Crypto-Calvinists. 
He  shewed  great  zeal  ih  the  cayse  and  composed  a  Cate- 
chism. He  was,  of  course,  subject  to  prosecution,  and 
retired  to  Egra,  in  Bohemia,  and  afterwards  became 
principal  of  a  seminary  at  Siegen,  and  finally  Pastor  of 
Herbon.  How  long  he  retained  that  situation  we  are 
not  informed,  but  we  find  that  he  was  professor  of 
divinity  at  Bremen,  in  the  year  1588,  and  was  also 
superintendent  of  the  Churches  in  that  district.  These 
posts  he  held  till  his  death  in  1604,  when  he  was  about 
65  years  of  age.  He  was  the  author  of  Commentarium 
in  Genesin,  1599,  8vo;  Enarratio  priorum  Capitum 
Evangelii  Johannis,  1586,  8vo;  Compendium  Theo- 
logise ;  Epitomen  Philosophise  Moralis ;  Mellificium 
Historicum,  forming  a  large  commentary  on  Sleidan's 
treatise  De  quatuor  monarchiis,  1610,  4to,  in  two  parts, 
to  which  a  third  was  afterwards  added  by  Lampidus ; 
Consilia  et  Judicia  Theol.  Philippi  Melanchthonis, 
consisting  of  extracts  from  Melanchthon's  works,  with 
objections   and    answers    on   subjects   of    a  theological 


70  PFAFF. 

nature,  the  whole  intermixed  with  Schoha,  and  extend- 
ing to  seven  or  eight  octavo  vokimes ;  besides  a  multi- 
tude of  controversial  pieces. — Bayle.     Mureri. 


PFAFF,    CHRISTOPHER    MATTHEW. 

Christopher  Matthew  Pfaff  was  born  at  Stuttgard,  in 
1G86,  and  was  educated  at  Tubingen,  where  his  father, 
John  Christopher  Pfaff,  author  of  a  dissertation  De 
AUegatis  Veteris  Testamenti,  was  Divinity  professor. 
In  early  life  he  travelled  at  the  expense  of  the  Duke  of 
Wurtemberg,  and,  among  other  places,  visited  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford. 

In  1717,  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Divinity  at 
Tubingen,  being  the  colleague  of  his  father,  w'hom  he 
succeeded  as  Dean  of  the  Church.  Afterw^ards  he  be- 
came chancellor,  and  first  professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
university  ;  and  the  emperor  made  him  a  count-palatine, 
and  gave  him  the  extraordinary  power  of  creating  doctors 
of  Divinity.  In  1727,  he  was  nominated  Abbot  of 
Laureac;  and  in  1731  he  was  appointed  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Academy  at  Berlin. 

He  published,  Dissertatio  critica  de  genuinis  Librorum 
Novi  Testamenti  Lectionibus,  ope  Canonum  quorundam 
feliciter  indagandis;  ubi  et  inter  alia  de  Joannis  Millii 
Collectione  variarum  Novi  Testamenti  Lectionum  modeste 
disseritur,  1709,  8vo  ;  Firmiani  Lactantii  Epitome  In- 
stitutionum  divinarum,  &c.,  anonymi  Historia  de  Hseresi 
Manichaeorum,  &c.,  ex  Codicib.  Taurinens,  1713,  8vo ; 
Sancti  Irenaei  Episcopi  Lugdunensis,  Fragmenta  Anec- 
dota,  ex  Biblioth.  Taurin.  eruta,  Latina  Versione  et  Notis 
illustrata,  &c.,  1715,  Svo  ;  Primitise  Tubigenses  ;  Insti- 
tutiones  Theologiae  dograaticae  et  moralis ;  Introductio 
in  Historiam  Theologiae  literariam,  1718,  4to,  and  after- 
wards greatly  enlarged ;  Syntagma  Dissertationum 
Theologicarum,     1720,    Svo;      Institutiones     Historiae 


PFEIFFER,  AUGUSTUS.  71 

Ecclesiasticse,  cum  Dissert,  de  Liturgiis,  17'21,  8vo ; 
Notse  Exegeticae  in  Evangelium  Matthsei,  1721,  4to ; 
Historia  Formulae  Consensus  Helveticae,  1722,  4to ; 
Collectio  Scriptorum  Irenicorum  de  Unione  inter 
Protestantes  faciendum ;  Ecclesiae  Evangelicae  Libri 
Symboli,  cum  variantibus  Lectionibus  et  Notis,  1730, 
8vo;  numerous  critical  remarks  and  observations  in  the 
edition  of  the  German  Bible  printed  at  Tubingen  in 
1729;  Dissertationes  anti-Bselianse  tres ;  and  various 
other  controversial  treatises.     He  died  in  1760. — Moreri. 


PFEIFFEK,    AUGUSTUS. 

Augustus  Pfeiffee  was  born  in  1640,  at  Lauenburg,  in 
Lower  Saxony.  He  received  his  primary  education  at 
Lauenburg,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Hamburg  and 
Wittemberg.  At  the  latter  place,  in  1668,  he  was 
appointed  professor  of  oriental  languages.  After  pas- 
sing through  various  preferments,  he  was,  in  1690, 
elected  superintendent  of  the  Churches  in  the  district 
©f  Lubeck  ;  which  station  he  held  till  his  death,  in  1698. 
He  was  the  author  of  a  variety  of  works,  in  sacred  criti- 
cism and  Jewish  antiquities,  the  principal  of  which  are, 
Critica  Sacra,  de  sacri  Codicis  Partitione,  Editionibus 
variis  Linguis  orientalibus,  Puritate  Fontium,  Interpre- 
tatione  sacrse  Scripturse  legitima,  Translationibus,  Masora, 
Cabala,  &c. ;  Tres  Dissertationes  de  Targumim,  sive 
Paraphrasibus  Chaldaicis  Vet.  Test,  de  Massora,  sive 
Critica  Sacra  Hebraeorum,  de  Trihseresio  Judaeorum, 
sive  de  Pharisaeis,  Sadducaeis,  et  Essaeis,  &c. ;  Sciagraphia 
Systematis  Antiquitatum  Hebraicarum,  Lib.  VIII.  ; 
Thesaurus  Hermeneuticus,  seu  de  legitima  Scripturae 
Sacrae  Interpretatione  Tractatio ;  Decades  duae  selectae 
Positionum  philologicarum  de  antiquis  Judaeorum 
Ritibus  et  Moribus;  Dubia  vexata  sacrae  Scripturae 
sive  Loca  difficiliora  Veteris  Tcstamenti  succincte  decisa 


72  PHILOSTORGIUS. 

quatuor  Centuriis ;  Commentarius  in  Obadiam,  praeter 
genuini  Sensus  Evolutionem  et  Collationem,  exhibens 
Versionem  Latinam  et  Exaraen  Commentarii  Don.  Isaaci 
Abrabarnelis,  &c. ;  Praelectiones  in  Jonae  Propbetiam 
recognitae  et  in  justum  Commentarium  redactse.  Several 
of  the  preceding  articles  were  afterwards  collected  to- 
gether, and  published  in  1704,  in  2  vols,  4to. — Moreri. 
Le  Long. 


PFLUG,    JULIUS. 

Julius  Pflug  was  born  about  the  year  1490,  but  the 
place  of  his  birth  is  unknown.  He  was  Bishop  of 
Naumberg  in  the  Palatinate.  He  is  chiefly  distin- 
guished for  being  one  of  the  three  divines  employed 
by  Charles  V.  in  drawing  up  the  famous  project  of  the 
Interim.  He  presided  as  his  representative  in  the  Diets 
of  the  empire  at  Ratisbon.  He  died  in  1564.  He  was 
the  author  of  Institutio  Christiana  Ecclesise  Numbur- 
gensis ;  De  Reipublicse  Institutione  ad  Principes  et 
Populum  Germanise  ;  De  Institutione  Hominis  Chris- 
tiani ;  De  Justicia  et  Salute  Christiani  Hominis ;  De 
vero  Dei  cultu ;  De  Creatione  Mundi ;  and  several 
doctrinal  and  controversial  treatises  in  Latin  and 
German. — Moreri. 


PHILOSTORGIUS. 

Of  PHILOSTORGIUS,  Mr.  Dowling,  in  his  introduction  to 
the  critical  study  of  ecclesiastical  history,  writes  thus : — 
Though  the  Arian  controversy  was  terminated  in  the 
east  by  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  it  was  but  natural 
that  some  of  the  zealous  adherents  of  the  sects  which 
had  so  long  distracted  Christendom,  should  give  expres- 
sion to  the  sentiments  of  vexation  and  disappointment 
with  which  they  regarded  the  triumph  of  their  orthodox 


PHILOTHEUS.  73 

opponents.  Among  the  writers  whose  zeal  thus  prevailed 
over  their  prudence  was  Philostorgius,  who  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  to  discover  the  value  of  Ecclesiastical 
History  as  a  controversial  weapon,  and  to  employ  it  in 
a  regular  and  systematic  attack  on  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church.  He  was  a  native  of  Cappadocia,  and  was  born 
in  368.  He  entertained  the  opinions  of  Eunomius,  and 
regarded  the  Semi-Arians  with  no  less  hostility  than  the 
friends  of  Athanasius.  He  began  his  work  with  the  rise 
of  Arianism,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
brought  it  down  to  the  year  425.  It  no  longer  exists 
entire.  But  the  very  copious  extracts,  which  we  owe  to 
Photius,  though  they  give  us  no  adequate  notion  of 
what  it  was  as  a  whole,  nor  enable  us  to  judge  for  our- 
selves of  its  literary  merits,  amply  confirm  his  remark' 
that  it  "  is  less  a  history  than  an  encomium  upon  the 
heretics,  and  a  mere  accusation  and  vituperation  of  the 
orthodox."  Great,  however,  as  are  the  prejudices  of 
Philostorgius,  it  is  highly  satisfactory  to  have  the  Arian 
view  of  the  great  events  of  this  period  ;  and  the  remains 
of  his  work,  whatever  may  have  been  its  actual  merit, 
are  of  no  inconsiderable  value  for  illustrating  the  history 
of  the  fourth  century. 

PHILOTHEUS. 

Phtlotheus  was  a  native  of  Greece  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  lived  as  a  monk,  first  at  Mount  Sinai,  and 
afterwards  at  Mount  Athol.  Of  the  last  named  monastery 
he  became  abbot.  He  was  consecrated  Archbishop  of 
Heraclea,  and  in  1355  was  appointed  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople. He  died  about  1371.  He  was  the  author 
of  Ordo  sacri  Ministerii,  published  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
by  James  Gear,  in  his  Ritulale  Grsecor.,  and  inserted  in 
the  xxvith  vol.  of  the  Bibl.  Patr. ;  De  Praeceptis  Domini 
Capitula  XXI.,  edited  in  Greek  and  Latin,  by  Peter 
Ponssines,  in  his  Thesaur.  Ascet.  ;  Sermo  encomiasticus 

VOL.  VIII.  H 


74  PHILPOT. 

in  tres  Hierarcbas,  Basilium,  Gregorium  Theologum,  et 
Joannem  Chn-sostomum,  published  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
by  James  Pontanus,  together  with  the  Dioptra  of  Phibp 
the  Solitary,  and  inserted  in  the  second  yob  of  Fronton 
du  Due's  Auctuar.  Patr. ;  two  Orations,  one,  De  Cruce, 
and  the  other,  In  tertiam  Jejuniorum  Dominicam,  edited 
in  Greek  and  Latin  by  Gesner,  in  the  second  vob  of  his 
treatise  De  Cruce. — Biofj.  Universelle. 


PHILPOT,    JOHN. 

John  Philpot  was  born  in  1511,  at  Compton,  in  Hamp- 
shire, and  was  educated  at  the  two  St.  Mary  Winton 
Colleges  of  William  of  W3dveham.  He  was  admitted 
fellow  of  New^  College  in  1534,  and  in  1541  he  forfeited 
liis  fellowship  "  because  of  absence,  being  then  on  his 
travels."  Italy  was  the  country  into  which  he  travelled, 
and  he  dwelt  principally  at  Rome.  When  Philpot 
returned  to  England,  he  gave  unequivocal  evidence  that 
liis  religious  views  were  totally  different  from  those  in 
which  he  had  been  nurtured.  This  change  had  begun 
to  work  for  several  years  before  he  travelled  to  Italy  : 
it  was  matured  and  deepened  by  his  residence  in  that 
country,  and  its  plain  fruits  appeared,  when,  upon  his 
return,  he  read  lectures  upon  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  tlie 
Iiomans  in  the  Cathedral  of  Winchester,  "which,  though 
gratis,"  says  Anthony  Wood,  "  were  not  acceptable  to 
tho  Cathedral  clergy  or  the  citizens  of  that  place." 
'J'here  is  no  record  to  fix  the  period  at  which  ho  entered 
into  holy  orders  ;  it  is  pretty  clear  that  he  had  not  taken 
that  step  before  he  went  abroad  ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
he  did  not  long  defer  it  after  his  return,  because  he 
seems  to  have  come  back  with  all  his  doubts  removed, 
and  his  mind  finally  made  up  as  to  the  principles  which 
he  would  advocate. 

The  advancement  of  Philpot  to  the   Archdeaconry   of 


PHILPOT.  -  75 

Winchester  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth ; 
but  the  precise  time  cannot  be  ascertained.  His  prede- 
cessor was  William  Bolen,  who  had  succeeded  to  the 
office  in  1528,  upon  the  resignation  of  Richard  Pates, 
who  became  Bishop  of  Worcester,  Bolen  held  the 
office  of  Archdeacon  for  twenty  years  ;  a  duration  which 
was  in  affecting  contrast  to  the  brief  and  suffering  space 
permitted  to  his  successor.  It  appears  that  Bishop 
Gardiner  had  nominated  him,  prospectively,  to  the  office 
of  Archdeacon  ;  a  promise  which  we  might  be  inclined 
to  suppose  had  been  given  many  years  before ;  since  it 
^vould  appear  improbable  that  that  prelate  would  have 
shewn  any  favour  to  him  after  his  principles  had  become 
so  changed  as  they  w^ere  on  his  return  from  Italy.  But 
however  this  may  be,  the  nomination  which  Gardiner 
had  given  him,  it  was  left  to  his  successor  to  make  good. 
If  Gardiner  had  been  mistaken  in  his  man,  not  so 
Bishop  Ponet,  who  found  inPhilpotall  he  desired.  But 
the  Archdeaconry  was  not  to  be  a  resting-place  for  his 
feet.  A  misunderstanding  arose  between  him  and  the 
Bishop,  through  the  malicious  interference  of  one  of  that 
prelate's  officials.  Let  Strype  tell  the  story  of  this 
quarrel:  "There  was,"  writes  that  historian,  "in  the 
latter  end  of  King  Edward,  an  unhappy  difference 
started  between  Ponet,  the  learned  Bishop  of  Winton, 
and  Philpot;  fomented  and  devised  by  Cook  the  register,  a 
man  that  hated  pure  religion,  He  informed  the  said 
Bishop,  whether  true  or  false  I  know  not,  that  there  was 
a  yearly  pension  due  to  him  from  the  Archdeacon,  This 
was  causing  contention  amongst  them,  hence  intolerable 
troubles  arose,  and  slanders  in  that  diocese  to  them  both  ; 
while  so  good  a  Bishop,  at  the  setting  on  of  so  rank  a 
knave,  could  find  in  his  heart  to  vex  his  brother,  so  con- 
spicuous both  for  learning  and  for  life.  Another  instance 
of  Cook's  malice  towards  the  Archdeacon  was  this :  Cook, 
having  married  a  lady,  rode  with  more  men  than  the 
Archdeacon   himself;    and    taking    this   opportunity   of 


76  PHILPOT. 

number  of  attendance,  once  forestalled  the  way  between 
Winchester  and  Mr.  Philpot's  sister's  house,  about  three 
miles  from  the  said  citj,  whither  he  was  going;  and, 
lying  in  wait  for  him,  set  his  men  upon  him  and  sore 
beat  him,  overdone  by  number ;  for  otherwise  the  Arch- 
deacon had  as  lusty  a  courage  to  defend  himself,  as  in 
disputation  against  Popish  prelates  to  impugn  their 
doctrine.  But  though  he  was  thus  beaten,  hurt  and 
wounded,  yet  remedy  could  he  have  none  in  the  spiritual 
court,  the  Bishop,  as  well  as  this  his  register,  being  in 
contest  with  him." 

In  the  year  1553,  Mary  ascended  the  throne,  and  the 
convocation  met  on  the  tenth  of  October. 

When  the  business  of  the  convocation  commenced, 
(either  on  the  16th  or  18th  of  October,  1553)  two  ques- 
tions were  first  proposed  for  consideration,  the  forty-two 
Articles,  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  :  and  with 
the  former  question  was  associated  the  Catechism  which 
had  been  published  a  short  time  before  King  Edward  s 
death.  On  Friday  the  20th  of  October,  Weston  the 
prolocutor,  presented  to  the  house  two  bills,  which  had 
ah'eady  obtained  his  own  signature ;  in  the  one  of 
which,  treating  of  the  Catechism,  that  formulary  was 
described  as  "  pestiferous  and  full  of  heresies,"  as 
having  been  "  foisted  upon  the  last  synod  fraudulently, 
and  therefore  that  the  present  synod  disowned  it."  It 
was  for  his  firm  refusal  to  sign  the  document  which 
branded  a  Catechism  that  had  both  truth  and  synodal 
authority  on  its  side,  quite  as  much  as  for  his  resistance 
to  transubstantiation  and  the  mass,  that  Philpot,  at  the 
close  of  this  convocation,  was  visited  with  the  penalties 
which  lighted  on  his  head. 

He  was  apprehended  and,  after  various  Examinations 
before  Bonner  and  a  rigorous  imprisonment  of  eighteen 
months,  was  condemned  to  be  burnt  in  Smithfield. 

We  have  his  own  account  of  his  Examinations,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  documents  of  Antiquity  throw- 


PHILPOT.  77 

ing  much  light  on  the  manners  of  the  times.  Philpot's 
ready  wit  and  learning  are  very  remarkable,  though  his 
temper  was  evidently  too  disputatious.  His  opponents 
seem  to  have  reiterated  the  same  arguments  and  asser- 
tions and  do  not  appear  to  advantage.  But  it  is 
evident  that  though  they  had  determined  to  burn  him 
if  he  did  not  recant ;  they  all  of  them  wished  to  save 
him.  Bonner,  on  one  occasion  said  to  him,  "  I  per- 
ceive you  are  learned  :  I  would  have  such  as  you  be 
about  me.  But  you  must  come  and  be  of  the  Church ; 
for  there  is  but  one  Church."  Philpot  replied,  "  God 
forbid  I  should  be  out  of  the  Church !  I  am  sure 
I  am  within  the  same  ;  for  I  know,  as  I  am  taught 
by  the  Scripture,  that  there  is  but  one  catholic  Church, 
one  dove,  one  spouse,  one  beloved  congregation,  out  of 
the  w'hich  there  is  no  salvation," 

it  appears  that  he  did  not  carry  the  notion  of  the  royal 
supremacy  to  an  extreme,  from  the  following  colloquy 
between  him  and  Dr.  Cook.  Being  asked  by  Mr. 
Cholmley,  "  Will  you  not  agree  that  the  queens 
majesty  may  cause  you  to  be  examined  of  your  faith  ?" 
Philpot  answered,  "  Ask  you  of  master  doctor  Cook, 
and  he  will  tell  you  that  the  temporal  magistrates  have 
nothing  to  do  with  matters  of  faith,  for  determination 
thereof.  And  St.  Ambrose  saith,  that  the  things  of  God 
are  not  subject  to  the  power  and  authority  of  princes." 
Cook  exclaimed,  "  No !  may  not  the  temporal  power 
commit  you  to  be  examined  of  your  faith  to  the  bishop !" 
Philpot  rejoined,  "  Yea,  sir,  I  deny  not  that.  But  you 
will  not  grant,  that  the  same  may  examine  any  of  their 
own  authority." 

Again,  Bonner  asking  him  why  he  had  not  replied  to 
the  queen's  commissioners,  Philpot  replied,  "  For  that 
they  were  temporal  men,  and  ought  not  to  be  judges 
in  spiritual  causes,  whereof  they  demanded  me,  without 
shewing  any  authority  whereby  I  was  bound  to  answer 
them;  and  hereupon  they  committed  me  to  your  prison." 
H    3 


78  PHILPOT. 

The  following  conversation  is  of  mucli  interest : — 

Bonner, — "  Is  there  any  more  Churches  than  one 
Catholic  Church?  And.  I  pray  you,  tell  me  into  what 
faith  you  were  bajDtized  ?" 

Philpot, — "  I  acknowledge  One  Holy  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church,  whereof  I  am  a  member  (I  praise 
God,)  and  am  of  that  catholic  Church  of  Christ  where- 
unto  I  was  baptized." 

Coventry, — "  I  pray  you,  can  you  tell  what  this  word 
'  catholic'  doth  signify?    shew,  if  you  can." 

Philpot, — "Yes,  that  I  can,  I  thank  God.  The 
catholic  faith,  or  the  catholic  Church,  is  not  as  now  a 
days  the  people  be  taught,  to  be  that  w'hich  is  most 
universal,  or  of  most  part  of  men  received,  whereby 
you  do  infer  our  faith  to  hang  upon  the  multitude, 
which  is  not  so  ;  but  I  esteem  the  catholic  Church  to 
be  as  St.  Augustine  defineth  the  same:  'We  judge,' 
saith  he,  '  the  catholic  faith,  of  that  which  hath  been, 
is,  and  shall  be.'  So  that,  if  you  can  be  able  to 
prove  that  your  Faith  and  Church  hath  been  from  the 
beginning  taught,  and  is,  and  shall  be,  then  you 
may  count  yourselves  Catholic :  otherwise  not.  And 
catholic  is  a  Greek  word,  compounded  of  Kara,  which 
signifieth  after,  or  according,  and  oAov,  a  sum,  or 
principal,  or  whole.  So  that  catholic  Church,  or  catho- 
lic Faith,  is  as  much  to  say,  as  the  first,  whole, 
sound,  or  chiefest  faith." 

Bonner, — "  Doth  St.  Augustine  say  so  as  he  allegeth 
it?  or  doth  he  mean  as  he  taketh  the  same?  How  say 
you,  master  Curtop  ?" 

Curtop, — "  Indeed,  my  lord,  St.  Augustine  hath  such 
a  saying,  speaking  against  the  Donatists,  that  the 
catholic  faith  ought  to  be  esteemed  of  things  in  time 
past,  and  as  they  are  practised  according  to  the  same, 
and  ought  to  be  through  all  ages  ;  and  not  after  a  new 
manner,  as  the  Donatists  began  to  profess." 
.  Philpot, — "  You  have  said  well,   master  Curtop,  and 


PHILPOT.  79 

after  the  meaning  of  St.  Augustine,  and  to  confirm  that 
which  I  had  said  for  the  signification  of  catholic." 

Coventry, — "  Let  the  book  be  seen,  my  lord." 

Bonner, — "  I  pray  you,  my  lord,  be  content,  or  in 
good  faith  I  will  break  even  off,  and  let  all  alone.  Do 
you  think  the  catholic  Church  (until  it  was  within  these 
few  years,  in  the  which  a  few  upon  singularity  have 
swerved  from  the  same)  have  erred  ?" 

Philpot, — "  I  do  not  think  that  the  catholic  Church 
can  err  in  doctrine  ;  but  I  require  you  to  prove  this 
Church  of  Rome  to  be  the  Catholic  Church." 

Curtop, — "  I  can  prove  that  Irenpeus  (which  was 
within  a  hundred  years  after  Christ)  came  to  Victor, 
when  Bishop  of  Rome,  to  ask  his  advice  about  the 
excommunication  of  certain  heretics ;  the  which  he 
would  not  have  done  (by  all  likelihood)  if  he  had  not 
taken  him   to  be   supreme  head." 

Coventry, — "  Mark  well  this  argument.  How  are  you 
able  to  answer  the  same?     Answer,  if  you  can." 

Philpot, — "  It  is  soon  answered,  my  lord,  for  that  it 
is  of  no  force ;  neither  this  fact  of  Irenseus  maketh  no 
more  for  the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  than 
mine  hath  done,  which  have  been  at  Rome  as  well  as 
he,  and  might  have  spoken  with  the  pope,  if  I  had  list : 
and  yet  I  would  none  in  England  did  favour  his  supre- 
macy more  than  I." 

St.  Asaph, — "  You  are  the  more  to  blame,  by  the  faith 
of  my  body,  for  that  you  favour  the  same  no  better,  since 
all  the  catholic  Church  (until  these  few  years)  have  taken 
him  to  be  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church,  besides  this 
good  man  Irenaeus." 

Philpot, — "  That  is  not  likely,  that  Irenseus  so  took 
him,  or  the  priaiitive  Church  :  for  I  am  able  to  shew 
seven  general  councils  after  Irenaeus's  time,  wherein  he 
was  never  so  taken ;  which  may  be  a  sufi&cient  proof, 
that  the  catholic  primitive  Church  never  took  him  for 
supreme  head." 


80  PHILPOT. 

The  other  Bishop, — "  This  man  will  never  be  satisfied 
say  what  we  can.  It  is  but  folly  to  reason  any  more  with 
him." 

Philpot, — "  Oh,  my  lords,  would  you  have  me  satisfied 
with  nothing  ?  Judge,  I  pray  you,  who  of  us  hath  better 
authority,  he  which  bringeth  the  example  of  one  man 
going  to  Rome,  or  I  that  by  these  many  general  councils 
am  able  to  prove,  that  he  was  never  so  taken  in  many 
hundred  years  after  Christ,  as  by  the  Nicene,  the  first 
and  second  Ephesine,  the  Chalcedonian,  the  Constan- 
tinopolitan,  the  Carthaginian,  and  that  at  Aquileia." 

Coventry, — "  Why  will  you  not  admit  the  Church  of 
Rome  to  be  the  catholic  Church  ?" 

Philpot, — "  Because  it  followeth  not  the  primitive 
catholic  Church,  neither  agreeth  with  the  same,  no  more 
than  an  apple  is  like  a  nut." 

Coventry, — "  Wherein  doth  it  dissent  ?" 

Philpot, — "  It  were  too  long  to  recite  all  ;  but  two 
things  I  will  name,  the  supremacy  and  transubstantia- 
tion." 

Curtop, — "  As  for  transubstantiation,  albeit  it  was  set 
forth  and  decreed  for  an  article  of  faith  not  much  above 
three  hundred  years,  yet  it  was  always  believed  in  the 
Church." 

Bonner, — "  Yea,  that  was  very  well  said  of  you,  master 
Curtop." 

Philpot, — "  Ye  have  said  right,  that  transubstantia- 
tion is  but  a  late  plantation  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ; 
and  you  are  not  able  to  shew  any  ancient  writer,  that 
the  primitive  Church  did  believe  any  such  thing." 

And  with  this  Curtop  shrank  away.  And  immediately 
after  the  ambassador  of  Spain  came  in,  to  whom  my 
Lord  of  London  went,  leaving  the  other  with  me. 

On  the  Eucharist  we  may  quote  the  following  passage : 
Philpot, — "  My  Lord  of  London  may  be  soon  answered, 
that  the  saying  of  St.  John  is,  that  the  humanity  of 
Christ,  which  He  took  upon  Him  for  the  redemption  of 


PHILPOT.  81 

man,  is  the  bread  of  life,  whereby  our  bodies  and  souls 
be  sustained  to  eternal  life,  of  which  the  sacramental 
bread  is  a  lively  representation  and  an  effectual  coapta- 
tion to  all  such  as  believe  on  His  passion.  And  as 
Christ  saith  in  the  same  sixth  of  John,  '  I  am  the  bread 
that  came  down  from  heaven  ;'  but  He  is  not  material 
natural  bread  neither;  likewise  the  bread  is  His  flesh, 
not  natural  or  substantial,  but  by  signification,  and  by 
grace  in  the  Sacrament. 

'*  And  now  to  my  Lord  Riche's  argument.  I  do  not 
deny  the  express  words  of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament. 
'This  is  My  body,'  but  I  deny  that  they  are  naturally 
and  corporally  to  be  taken  :  they  must  be  taken  sacra- 
mentally  and  spiritually,  according  to  the  express  decla- 
ration of  Christ,  saying  that  the  words  of  the  sacrament 
which  the  Capernaites  took  carnally,  as  the  Papists  now 
do,  ought  to  be  taken  spiritually  and  not  carnally,  as  they 
falsely  imagine,  not  weighing  what  interpretation  Christ 
hath  made  in  this  behalf,  neither  following  the  institution 
of  Christ,  neither  the  use  of  the  apostles  and  of  the 
primitive  Church,  who  never  taught  neither  declared  any 
such  carnal  manner  of  presence  as  is  now  exacted  of  us 
violently,  without  any  ground  of  Scripture  or  antiquity, 
who  used  to  put  out  of  the  Church  all  such  as  did  not 
receive  the  sacrament  with  the  rest,  and  also  to  burn 
that  which  was  left  after  the  receiving,  as  by  the  canon 
of  the  apostles,  and  by  the  decree  of  the  Council  of 
Antioch  may  appear." 

And,  again,  another  passage  may  be  quoted  to  the 
same  effect : — Chedsey, — "  Why,  then  you  would  not 
have  it  to  be  the  body  of  Christ,  unless  it  be  received  ?" 

Philpot, — "  No,  verily,  it  is  not  the  very  body  of  Christ 
to  any  other,  but  such  as  condignly  receive  the  same  after 
His  institution." 

London, — "  Is  not  a  loaf  a  loaf,  being  set  on  the 
table,  though  no  body  eat  thereof?" 

Philpot,—"  It  is  not  like,  my  lord  :  for  a  loaf  is  a  loaf 


82  PHILPOT. 

before  it  be  set  on  the  table  ;  but  so  is  not  the  sacrament 
a  perfect  sacrament,  before  it  be  duly  administered  at  the 
table  of  the  Lord." 

London, — "  I  pray  you,  what  is  it  in  the  mean  while, 
before  it  is  received?" 

Philpot, — "  It  is,  my  lord,  the  sign  begun  of  a  holy 
thing,  and  yet  no  perfect  sacrament  until  it  be  received. 
For  in  the  sacrament  there  be  two  things  to  be  considered, 
the  sign,  and  the  thing  itself,  which  is  Christ  and  His 
whole  passion  ;  and  it  is  that  to  none  but  to  such  as 
worthily  receive  the  holy  signs  of  bread  and  wine,  accord- 
ing to  Christ's  institution." 

Windsor, — "  There  were  never  any  that  denied  the 
words  of  Christ,  as  you  do.  Did  not  He  say,  '  This  is 
My  Body  ?' " 

Philpot, — "  My  lord,  I  pray  you,  be  not  deceived. 
We  do  not  deny  the  words  of  Christ :  but  we  say,  these 
words  be  of  none  effect,  being  spoken  otherwise  than 
Christ  did  institute  them  in  His  Last  Supper,  For  an 
example  :  Christ  biddeth  the  Church  '  to  baptize  in  the 
Name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost :'  if  a  priest  say  these  words  over  the  water,  and 
there  be  no  child  to  be  baptized,  these  words  only  pro- 
nounced do  not  make  baptism.  And  again,  baptism 
is  only  baptism  to  such  as  be  baptized,  and  to  none 
other  standing  by." 

Chamberlain, — "  I  pray  you,  my  lord,  let  me  ask  him 
one  question.  What  kind  of  presence  in  the  sacrament 
(duly  ministered  according  to  Christ's  ordinance)  do  you 
allow  r 

Philpot, — "  If  any  come  worthily  to  receive,  then  do 
I  confess  the  presence  of  Christ  wholly  to  be,  with  all 
the  fruits  of  His  passion,  unto  the  said  worthy  receiver, 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  Christ  is  thereby  joined 
to  him  and  he  to  Christ." 

Chamberlain, — "  I  am  answered," 

London, — "  My  lords,   take  no  heed  of  him,   for  he 


PHILPOT.  SS 

goeth  about  to  deceive  you.  His  similitude,  that  lie 
bringeth  in,  of  baptism  is  nothing  like  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar.  For  if  I  should  say  to  Sir  John  Bridges, 
being  with  me  at  supper,  and  having  a  fat  capon,  '  Take, 
eat,  this  is  a  fat  capon,'  although  he  eat  not  thereof,  is 
it  not  a  capon  still?  And  likewise  of  a  piece  of  beef, 
or  of  a  cup  of  wine  ;  if  I  say,  '  Drink,  this  is  a  cup  of 
wine,'  is  it  not  so,  because  he  drinketh  not  thereof?" 

Philpot, — "My  lord,  your  similitudes  be  too  gross  for 
so  high  mysteries  as  we  have  in  hand,  as,  if  I  were  your 
equal,  I  could  more  plainly  declare ;  and  there  is  much 
more  dissimilitude  between  common  meats  and  drinks, 
than  there  is  between  Baptism  and  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  Like  must  be  compared 
to  like,  and  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  and  not 
spiritual  things  with  corporal  things.  And  meats  and 
drinks  be  of  their  own  natures  good  or  evil ;  and  your 
words,  commenchng  or  discommending,  do  but  declare 
what  they  are.  But  the  sacraments  be  to  be  considered 
according  to  the  word  which  Christ  spake  of  them  ;  of 
the  which,  '  Take  ye,  and  eat  ye,'  be  some  of  the  chief, 
concurrent  to  the  making  of  the  same,  without  the 
which  there  can  be  no  sacraments.  And  therefore  in 
Greek  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  is 
called  KOLvcovia,  i.e.  communion;  and  likewise  in  the  Gos- 
pel Christ  commanded,  saying,  '  Divide  it  among  you,'" 

The  following  is  the  account  given  us  of  his  death  : 
"  Upon  Tuesday,  at  supper,  being  the  7th  of  December, 
there  came  a  messenger  from  the  sheriffs,  and  bade  mas- 
ter Philpot  make  him  ready,  for  the  next  day  he  should 
suffer,  and  be  burned  at  a  stake  vrith  fire.  Master 
Philpot  answered  and  said,  '  I  am  ready :  God  grant 
me  strength,  and  a  joyful  resurrection?'  And  so  he 
went  into  his  chamber,  and  poured  out  his  spirit  unto 
the  Lord  God,  giving  Him  most  hearty  thanks,  that 
He  of  His  mercy  had  made  him  worthy  to  suffer  for 
His  truth. 


84  PHILPOT. 

"  In  the  morning  the  sheriffs  came,  according  to  the 
order,  about  eight  of  the  clock,  and  called  for  him,  and 
he  most  joyfully  came  down  to  them.  And  there  his 
man  did  meet  him,  and  said,  'Ah!  dear  master,  farewell.' 
His  master  said  unto  him,  '  Serve  God,  and  He  will 
help  thee.'  And  so  he  went  with  the  sheriffs  to  the 
place  of  execution ;  and  when  he  was  entering  into 
Smith  field,  the  way  was  foul,  and  two  officers  took  him 
up  to  bear  him  to  the  stake.  Then  he  said  merrily, 
'What!  will  ye  make  me  a  pope?  I  am  content  to 
go  to  my  journey's  end  on  foot.'  But  first  coming  into 
Smithfield,  he  kneeled  down  there,  saying  these  words, 
'  I  will  pay  my  vows  in  thee,  0  Smithfield  ! ' 

"And  when  be  was  come  to  the  place  of  suffering, 
he  kissed  the  stake,  and  said,  '  Shall  I  disdain  to 
suffer  at  this  stake,  seeing  my  Redeemer  did  not  re- 
fuse to  suffer  a  most  vile  death  upon  the  cross  for  me  ?' 
And  then  with  an  obedient  heart  full  meekly  he  said 
the  106th,  the  107th,  and  the  108th  Psalms.  And 
when  he  had  made  an  end  of  all  his  prayers,  he  said 
to  the  officers,  'What  have  you  done  for  me?' — and 
every  one  of  them  declared  what  they  had  done ;  and 
he  gave  to  every  of  them  money, 

"  Then  they  bound  him  to  the  stake,  and  set  fire  unto 
that  constant  martyr,  who  on  the  18th  day  of  December, 
in  the  midst  of  the  fiery  flames,  yielded  his  soul  into 
the  hands  of  Almighty  God,  and  full  like  a  lamb  gave 
up  his  breath,  his  body  being  consumed  into  ashes. 

"  Thus  hast  thou,  gentle  reader,  the  life  and  doings 
of  this  learned  and  w^orthy  soldier  of  the  Lord,  John 
Philpot,  with  all  his  examinations  that  came  to  our 
hand,  first  penned  and  written  with  his  own  hand,  being 
marvellously  preserved  from  the  sight  and  hand  of  his 
enemies ;  who  by  all  manner  of  means  sought  not  only 
to  stop  him  from  all  writing,  but  also  to  spoil  and  deprive 
him  of  that  which  he  had  written  ;  for  the  which  cause 
he  was  many  times   stripped  and  searched  in  the  prison 


PHOTIUS.  85 

of  his  keeper:  but  yet  so  happily  these  his  writings 
were  conveyed  and  hid  in  places  about  him,  or  else  his 
keeper's  eyes  so  blinded,  that,  notwithstanding  all  this 
malicious  purpose  of  the  bishops,  they  are  yet  remaining 
and  come  to  light." 

He  wrote  : — Epistolae  Hebraicse  ;  De  Proprietate  Lin- 
guarum  ;  An  Apology  for  Spitting  upon  an  Arian,  with 
an  invective  against  the  Arians  ;  Supplication  to  King 
Philip  and  Queen  Mary;  Letters  to  Lady  Vane  ;  Letters 
to  the  Christian  Congregation,  that  they  abstain  from 
Mass  ;  Exhortation  to  his  Sister  ;  and.  Oration.  These 
are  all  printed  by  Fox,  except  the  last,  which  is  in  the 
Bodleian  Library.  He  also  wrote : — Translations  of 
Calvin's  Homilies ;  Chrysostom  against  Heresies  ;  and 
Coelius  Secundus  Curio's  Defence  of  the  old  and  ancient 
Authority  of  Christ's  Church ;  and,  Vera  Expositio  Dis- 
putationis  institutae  mandato  D.  Mariae  Reginae  Ang. 
&c.  in  Synodo  Ecclesiastico,  Londini,  in  comitiis  regni 
ad  18  Oct.,  anno  1553  ;  printed  in  Latin  at  Rome,  1554, 
and  in  English  at  Basle. — Examination  and  Writings  of 
Archdeacon  Philpot,  by  the  Parker  Society. 


PHOTIUS. 

Photius,  a  man  of  most  profound  and  universal  erudition, 
and  of  ambition  equally  great,  was  born  of  a  Patrician 
family  at  Constantinople,  where  he  received  his  educa- 
tion. He  flourished  in  the  ninth  century.  Devoting 
himself  in  early  life  to  the  service  of  the  state,  and 
supported  by  the  wealth  and  interest  of  his  family, 
after  passing  through  some  inferior  situations,  and  be- 
coming captain  of  the  guards,  he  was  appointed  secretary 
of  state,  under  the  Emperor  Michael  III.  He  now 
found  a  patron  in  the  Csesar  Bardas,  the  emperor's 
uncle.  Through  the  influence  of  Bardas,  Ignatius  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  having  been  degraded  from 

VOL.    VIII.  [ 


86  PHOTIUS. 

his  dignity  on  a  charge  of  treason  and  sent  into  exile, 
Photius,  though  a  layman,  was  appointed  his  successor. 
In  the  space  of  six  days,  Photius  was  ordained  deacon 
and  priest,  and  on  Christmas  day,  858,  he  was  conse- 
crated by  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Syracuse,  though  that 
prelate  had  been  deposed  by  the  Pope  of  Rome,  so  far 
as  the  Pope  of  Rome  had  power  to  depose  him. 

The  jealousy  between  the  Greek  Church  and  the 
Latin  Church  was  now  at  its  height,  and  the  imperti- 
nent claims  of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  and  the  ambition 
of  the  Romish  court,  w^ould  have  rendered  a  good  under- 
standing between  the  two  Churches  impracticable  ;  but 
the  first  open  rupture  was  that  which  was  occasioned 
by  the  consecration  and  subsequent  transactions  of  Pho- 
tius. His  ordination  ^Yas  hasty,  his  rise  irregular,  and 
his  abdicated  predecessor  was  supported  by  public  com- 
passion and  the  obstinacy  of  his  adherents.  Although 
Ignatius  was  as  strongly  opposed  as  Photius  to  the  lofty 
pretensions  of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  yet  the  adherents  of 
the  former,  in  the  madness  of  party  zeal,  appealed  to 
Nicholas  L,  one  of  the  proudest  and  most  aspiring  of 
the  Roman  Pontiffs.  He  at  once  availed  himself  of  the 
welcome  opportunity  of  judging  and  condemning  his 
rival  in  the  East.  Photius,  however,  knew  his  own 
position,  and  determined  to  maintain  it,  and  so  far  was 
he  from  caring  for  the  excommunication  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  that  he  returned  the  compliment,  and  in  a 
Council  assembled  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  866, 
he  declared  Nicholas  unworthy  both  of  the  place  he  held 
in  the  Church,  and  also  of  being  admitted  to  the  com- 
munion of  Christians. 

The  Roman  pontiff  alleged  a  specious  pretext  for  his 
appearing  in  this  matter  with  such  violence,  and  exciting 
such  unhappy  commotions  in  the  Church.  This  pretext 
was  the  innocence  of  Ignatius.  This,  however,  was  but 
a  mere  pretext ;  ambition  and  interest  were  the  true, 
though    secret   springs,    that  directed    the    motions   of 


PHOTIUS.  87 

Nicholas,  who  would  have  borne  with  patience,  nay, 
beheld  with  indifference  the  unjust  sufferings  of  Ignatius, 
could  he  but  have  recovered  from  the  Greeks  the  pro- 
vinces of  lUyricum,  Macedonia,  Epirus,  Achaia,  Thessalj, 
and  Sicily,  which  the  emperor  and  Photius  had  removed 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  Before  he 
engaged  in  the  cause  of  Ignatius,  he  sent  a  solemn 
embassy  to  Constantinople,  to  demand  the  restitution 
of  these  provinces;  but  his  demand  was  rejected  with 
contempt.  And  hence,  under  pretence  of  avenging  the 
injuries  committed  against  Ignatius,  he  indulged  without 
restraint  his  own  private  resentment,  and  thus  covered 
with  the  mask  of  justice  the  fury  of  disappointed  ambi- 
tion and  avarice. 

While  things  were  in  this  troubled  state,  and  the 
flame  of  controversy  was  growing  more  violent  from  day 
to  day,  Basil,  the  Macedonian,  who,  by  the  murder  of 
his  predecessor,  had  paved  his  way  to  the  imperial 
throne,  calmed  at  once  these  tumults,  and  restored  peace 
to  the  Church,  by  recalling  Ignatius  from  exile  to  the 
high  station  from  which  he  had  been  degraded,  and  by 
confining  Photius  in  a  monastery.  This  imperial  act 
of  authority  was  solemnly  approved  and  confirmed  by  a 
council  assembled  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  869, 
in  which  the  legates  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  Adrian  II., 
had  great  influence,  and  were  treated  with  the  highest 
marks  of  distinction.  The  Latins  acknowledge  this 
assembly  as  the  eighth  mcumenical  council,  and  in  it  the 
religious  contests  between  them  and  the  Greeks  were 
concluded,  or  at  least  hushed  and  suspended.  But  the 
controversy  concerning  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiffs, the  Hmits  of  their  ghostly  empire,  and  particularly 
their  jurisdiction  in  Bulgaria,  still  subsisted;  nor  could 
all  the  efforts  of  Papal  ambition  engage  either  Ignatius 
or  the  emperor  to  give  up  Bulgaria,  or  any  other  pro- 
vince to  the  See  of  Rome. 

The  contest  that  had  arisen  between  the  Greeks  and 


88  PHOTIUS. 

Latins  concerning  the  elevation  of  Photius,  was  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  admit  of  an  eas_y  and  effectual  remedy. 
But  the  haughty  and  ambitious  spirit  of  this  learned 
and  ingenious  patriarch  fed  the  flame  of  discord  instead 
of  extinguishing  it,  and  unhappily  perpetuated  the 
troubles  and  divisions  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  the 
year  866,  he  added  to  the  See  of  Constantinople  the 
province  of  Bulgaria,  with  which  the  Pontiff  Nicholas 
had  formed  the  design  of  augmenting  his  own  spiritual 
dominions,  and  was  most  bitterly  provoked  at  missing 
his  aim.  Photius  went  yet  further,  and  entered  into 
measures  every  way  unworthy  of  his  character  and  sta- 
tion ;  for  he  not  only  sent  a  circular  letter  to  the  oriental 
patriarchs  to  engage  them  to  espouse  his  private  cause, 
as  the  public  and  momentous  cause  of  the  Church,  but 
drew  up  a  most  violent  charge  of  heresy  against  the 
Roman  Bishops,  who  had  been  sent  among  the  new 
converted  Bulgarians,  and  against  the  Church  of  Rome 
in  general.  The  articles  of  corrupt  doctrine,  or  heresy, 
which  this  imperious  and  exasperated  prelate  brought 
against  the  Romans,  were  as  follows  : — First,  That  they 
fasted  on  the  Sabbath,  or  seventh  day  of  the  week. 
Secondly,  That  in  the  first  week  of  Lent  they  permitted 
the  use  of  milk  and  cheese.  Thirdly,  That  they  pro- 
hibited their  clergy  to  marry,  and  separated  from  their 
wives  such  as  were  married,  when  they  went  into  orders. 
Fourthly,  That  they  maintained  that  the  bishops  alone 
were  authorized  to  anoint  with  the  holy  chrism  baptized 
persons,  and  that  they,  of  consequence,  who  had  been 
anointed  by  presbyters,  were  obliged  to  receive  that 
unction  a  second  time  from  the  hand  of  a  bishop. 
Lastly,  That  they  had  adulterated  the  symbol  or  creed 
of  Constantinople,  by  adding  to  it  the  words  Jilloque, 
i.  e.  and  from  the  Son,  and  were  therefore  of  opinion  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  proceed  from  the  Father  only, 
but  also  from  the  Son.  Nicholas  L,  finding  the  Romish 
Church  thus  attacked,  sent  the  articles  of  this  accusation 


PHOTIUS.  69 

to  Hincmar,  and  the  other  Galilean  Bishops  in  the  year 
867,  desiring  them  to  assemble  their  respective  suffra- 
gans in  order  to  examine  and  answer  the  reproach  of 
Photius.  Pursuant  to  this  exhortation  of  the  pontiff, 
Odo,  ^neas,  and  Ado,  Bishops  of  Beauvais,  Paris,  and 
Vienne,  as  also  the  celebrated  Ratramn,  stept  forth 
gallantly  into  the  field  of  controversy  against  the  Greeks, 
answered  one  by  one  the  accusations  of  Photius,  and 
employed  the  whole  force  of  their  erudition  and  zeal 
in  maintaining  the  cause  of  the  Latin  Churches. 

Upon  the  death  of  Ignatius,  which  happened  in  the 
year  878,  the  emperor  took  Photius  into  favour,  and 
placed  him  again  at  the  head  of  the  Greek  Church  in 
the  patriarchal  dignity  from  whence  he  had  fallen.  This 
restoration  of  the  degraded  patriarch  was  agreed  to  by 
the  Pioman  Pontiff  John  VIII.,  upon  condition,  however, 
that  Photius  would  permit  the  Bulgarians  to  come  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  See  of  Rome.  The  latter  pro- 
mised to  satisfy  in  this  the  demands  of  the  pontiff,  to 
which  the  emperor  also  seemed  to  consent;  and  hence 
it  was  that  John  VIII.  sent  legates  to  the  council  whicli 
was  held  at  Constantinople,  a.  d.  879,  by  whom  he 
declared  his  approbation  of  the  acts  of  that  assembly, 
and  acknowledged  Photius  as  his  brother  in  Christ. 
The  promises,  however,  of  the  emperor  and  the  patri- 
arch, were  far  from  being  accomplished ;  for  after  this 
council,  the  former,  most  probably  by  the  advice,  or  at 
least  with  the  consent  of  the  latter,  refused  to  transfer 
the  province  of  Bulgaria  to  the  Ptoman  Pontiff;  and 
it  must  be  confessed  that  this  refusal  was  founded  upon 
most  weighty  and  important  reasons.  The  Pontiff, 
notwithstanding,  was  highly  irritated  at  this  disappoint- 
ment, and  sent  Marinus  to  Constantinople  in  the  cliar- 
acter  of  legate,  to  declare  that  he  had  changed  his  mind 
concerning  Photius,  and  that  he  entirely  approved  of  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  that  had  been  formerly 
given  against  him.      The  legate,   upon  delivering  this 


90  PHOTIUS. 

disagreeable  message,  was  cast  into  prison  by  the  em- 
peror, but  was  afterwards  set  free;  and  being  raised 
to  the  pontificate  upon  the  death  of  John  VIII.,  recalled 
the  remembrance  of  this  injurious  treatment,  and  levelled 
a  new  sentence  of  condemnation  against  Photius. 

This  sentence  was  treated  with  contempt  by  the 
haughty  patriarch  :  but  about  six  years  after  this  period, 
he  experienced  anew  the  fragility  of  sublunary  grandeur 
and  elevation,  by  a  fall  which  concluded  his  prosperous 
days.  For  in  the  year  886,  Leo,  surnamed  the  Philoso- 
pher, the  son  and  successor  of  Basil,  deposed  him  from 
the  patriarchal  see,  and  confined  him  in  an  Armenian 
monastery,  where  he  died  in  the  year  891.  The  death 
of  Photius,  who  was  tVie  author  of  the  schisms  that 
divided  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  might  have  been  an 
occasion  of  removing  these  unhappy  contests,  and  of 
restoring  peace  and  concord  in  the  Church,  if  the  Roman 
Pontiffs  had  not  been  regardless  of  the  demands  of 
equity  as  well  as  of  the  duty  of  Christian  moderation. 
But  these  imperious  lords  of  the  Church  indulged  their 
vindictive  zeal  beyond  all  measure,  and  would  be  satis- 
fied with  nothing  less  than  the  degradation  of  all  the 
priests  and  bishops,  who  had  been  ordained  by  Photius. 
The  Greeks,  on  the  other  hand,  were  shocked  at  the 
arrogance  of  these  unjust  pretensions,  and  would  not 
submit  to  them  on  any  conditions.  Hence  a  spirit  of 
resentment  and  irritation  renewed  the  spirit  of  dispute, 
w^hich  had  been  happily  declining ;  religious  as  well 
as  civil  contests,  were  again  set  on  foot ;  new  contro- 
versies were  added  to  the  old,  until  the  fatal  schism 
-took  i^lace,  which  produced  a  lasting  and  total  separation 
between  the  Greek  and  Latin  Church. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  merits  or  the  demerits 
of  Photius  in  his  public  capacity,  learning  is  under  great 
obligations  to  him.  His  work,  entitled,  Myriobiblon, 
is  a  kind  of  abstract  and  critical  judgment  of  279 
different  writers  in  the  departments  of  history,  oratory, 


PHOTIUS.  91 

grammar,  philosophy,  theology,  &g.,  of  many  of  whom 
no  other  memorial  exists.  Fabricius  (Biblioth.  Grseca, 
V.  35)  gives  an  accurate  list  of  the  works  noticed  by 
Photius.  Another  of  his  works  is  entitled,  Nomocanon, 
being  a  collection  of  the  canons  of  the  councils,  and 
canonical  epistles,  and  the  imperial  laws  concerning 
ecclesiastical  matters.  His  Myriobiblon,  or  Bibliotheca, 
was  first  printed  by  Hoschelius  in  1601 ;  the  best  edition 
is  that  of  Piouen,  Gr.  et  Lat.  fol.  1653.  Imm.  Bekker 
published  the  Greek  text,  corrected  after  a  Venetian 
and  three  Paris  MSS.,  with  an  index,  Berlin,  1824, 
2  vols.  4 to.  His  Nomocanon  was  printed  with  the 
Commentaries  of  Balsamon  at  Paris,  Gr.  et  Lat.  4to, 
1615.  There  are  also  253  Letters  of  Photius,  which 
were  published  in  1651,  fob,  with  a  Latin  version  and 
notes,  by  Puchard  Mountagu,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  from 
a  MS.  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  There  are  other  small 
pieces  of  Photius  that  have  been  printed,  and  not  a 
few  still  extant  in  manuscript  only.  The  most  remark- 
able is  a  very  considerable  fragment  of  a  Greek  lexicon 
in  which  the  greater  part  of  the  alphabet  is  complete. 
The  various  MSS.  of  this  Lexicon,  in  different  libraries 
on  the  continent,  are  mere  transcripts  from  each  other, 
and  originally  from  one,  venerable  for  its  antiquity, 
which  was  formerly  in  the  possession  of  the  celebrated 
Thomas  Gale,  and  which  is  now  deposited  in  the  library 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  A  copy  of  this  Lexicon, 
at  Florence,  was  transcribed  about  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  by  Richard  Thompson,  of  Oxford.  Per- 
son had  transcribed  and  corrected  this  Lexicon  for  the 
press ;  and,  after  his  transcript  had  been  consumed 
by  fire,  he  began  the  task  afresh,  and  such  were  his 
incredible  industry  and  patience,  that  he  completed 
another  copy,  which  was  printed  in  1822,  2  vols.  8vo, 
London,  under  the  superintendence  of  Dobree.  An 
edition  of  this  Lexicon  was  also  published  at  Leipsic, 
in   1808,   by  Godfrey  Hermann,   from   two  MSS.,   both 


92  PILKINGTON. 

of  them  very  inaccurate.  Photius  also  wrote  a  Treatise, 
Adversus  Latinos  de  Processione  Spiritus  Sancti,  and 
other  theological  and  controversial  works,  several  of 
which  are  still  unpublished ;  among  others,  one  against 
the  Paulicians,  of  which  Montfaucon  gives  some  frag- 
ments in  his  Bibliotheca  Cosliniana;  and,  Amphilochia, 
being  Answers  to  Questions  relative  to  various  Passages 
in  the  Scriptures,  with  an  Exposition  of  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul. — Mosheim.    Dupin. 


PIOTET,    BENEDICT. 

Benedict  Pictet  was  born  at  Geneva,  in  1655.  In  his 
youth  he  travelled,  but  having  returned  to  his  native 
town,  he  became  in  1680,  minister  of  the  Church  of 
St.  Gervas,  and  in  1686,  professor  of  Divinity.  One 
of  the  most  extroardinary  events  connected  with  his 
history  is  that  in  1706,  the  Society  for  propagating  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  admitted  him  as  one  of  its 
members. 

He  died  in  17*24.  He  was  of  a  mild  and  tolerant 
disposition,  and  a  father  to  the  poor. 

His  principal  works  are : — Theologia  Christiana,  3 
vols,  4to;  the  best  edition  of  which  is  that  of  1721  ; 
Christian  Morality,  or  The  Art  of  Living  Well,  8  vols, 
12mo;  The  History  of  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth 
Centuries,  intended  as  a  continuation  of  that  of  Le 
Sueur ;  but  the  supplementary  work  is  more  esteemed 
than  the  original ;  and,  A  Treatise  against  Indifference 
in  Religion. — Moreri. 


PILKINGTON,    JAMES. 

James  Pilkington  was  born  in   1520,  at  Rivington,  in 
Lancashire.     At  an  early  period  he  was  sent  to  Cam- 


PILKINGTON.  93 

bridge,  and  became  a  member  of  St.  John's  College,  of 
which  college  he  became  master  in  1558.  He  was  very 
active  in  encouraging  the  Study  of  Greek  in  the  university. 
By  King  Edward  VI.  he  was  presented  to  the  Vicarage 
of  Kendal  in  Westmoreland.  At  the  Visitation  of  Cam- 
bridge held  by  the  royal  commissioners  in  1549,  the 
subject  of  Transubstantiation  was  discussed,  and  it  was 
"learnedly  determined"  by  Ridley,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  one  of  the  visitors.  Alban  Langdale,  a  papist, 
attacked  this  determination,  and  Pilkington  published 
a  book  in  which  he  shewed  how  Ridley's  determination 
at  that  time  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  students. 
Where,  giving  account  of  this  matter,  he  writes,  that 
Dr.  Ridley,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  came  in  visitation  to 
Cambridge,  and  because  the  doctrine  of  the  sacrament 
seemed  then  strange  to  many,  he  propounded  this 
proposition  at  that  time  to  the  whole  university  to  dis- 
pute upon,  That  it  could  not  be  proved  by  any  ancient 
writer,  Greek  or  Latin,  which  lived  a  thousand  years 
since,  or  within  five  hundred  years  after  Christ,  that 
the  substance  of  the  bread  was  changed  in  the  sacra- 
ment to  the  substance  of  Christ's  Body.  Disputation 
being  ended,  the  bishop  made  all  things  so  clear  in  his 
determination,  that  they  were  so  convinced,  that  some 
of  them  would  have  turned  Archbishop  Cranmer's  book 
of  that  subject  into  Latin,  &c. 

During  the  Marian  persecution  he  left  the  country, 
and  went  first  to  Zurich,  and  afterwards  to  Basle.  On 
the  death  of  Mary,  we  find  his  name  the  first  attached 
to  a  document  of  great  moderation,  written  by  the 
English  divines  at  Frankfort,  in  answer  to  a  violent 
letter  from  the  exiles  who  were  at  Geneva.  This  docu- 
ment was  dated  on  the  3rd  of  Januay,  1559,  and  imputed 
"  That  it  would  not  be  in  either  of  their  hands  to 
appoint  what  ceremonies  should  be,  but  in  such  men's 
wisdoms  as  should  be  appointed  to  the  devising  of  the 
same;  and  which  should  be  received  by  common  consent 


94  PILKINGTON. 

of  parliament :  and  therefore  it  would  be  to  small  pur- 
pose to  contend  about  them.  Wherefore  as  they,  [viz. 
of  the  Church  at  Frankfort,]  trusting  they  should  not 
be  burdened  with  unprofitable  ceremonies,  purposed  to 
submit  themselves  to  such  orders  as  should  be  estab- 
lished by  authority,  (not  being  of  themselves  wicked,) 
so  they  would  wish  them  [of  Geneva]  to  do  the  same. 
And  that  whereas  all  reformed  Churches  differed  among 
themselves  in  divers  ceremonies,  and  yet  agreed  in  the 
unity  of  doctrine  they  saw  no  inconvenience,  if  they 
used  some  ceremonies  diverse  from  them ;  so  that  they 
agreed  in  the  chief  points  of  their  religion.  Notwith- 
standing, thai^  if  any  should  be  intruded  that  should 
be  offensive,  they,  [of  Frankfort,]  upon  just  conference 
and  deliberation  upon  the  same  at  their  meeting  with 
them  in  England,  (which  they  trusted  by  God  s  grace 
would  be  shortly,)  would  brotherly  join  with  them,  to  be 
suitors  for  the  reforming  and  abolishing  of  the  same." 

We  find  Pilkington  many  years  after  when  Bishop  of 
Durham,  writing  in  the  same  tone  of  moderation  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  Eodolph  Gualter.  He  laments  the 
state  of  the  times,  saying : — "  But  here,  I  pray  you, 
pause  awhile  with  me,  and  mourn  over  this  our  Church 
at  this  time  so  miserably  divided,  not  to  saj,  wholly  rent 
in  pieces.  Commend  her  to  the  Lord  your  God,  and 
entreat  Him  that,  having  compassion  upon  us.  He  may 
T61*y  soon  provide  some  godly  remedy  for  the  healing  of 
her  wounds,  that  she  may  not  be  utterly  destroyed.  Your 
prudence  has  heard,  I  well  know,  and  that  often  enough 
to  weary  you,  of  that  unhappy  dispute  among  some  of 
our  friends  respecting  the  affair  of  the  habits  and  the 
dress  of  the  clergy,  and  how  great  a  disturbance  it  has 
excited  ;  but  it  has  now  so  broken  out  afresh,  nay  more, 
that  which  heretofore  lurked  in  dissimulation  has  now 
so  openly  discovered  itself,  that  not  only  the  habits,  but 
our  whole  ecclesiastical  polity,  discipline,  the  revenues  of 
the  bishops,    ceremonies   or   public   forms  of  worship. 


PILKINGTON.  05 

liturgies,  vocation  of  ministers,  or  the  ministration  of 
the  Sacraments, — all  these  things  are  now  openly  attacked 
from  the  press,  and  it  is  contended  with  the  greatest 
bitterness,  that  they  are  not  to  be  endured  in  the  Church 
of  Christ.  The  doctrine  alone  they  leave  untouched  ; 
as  to  everything  else,  by  whatever  name  you  call  it,  they 
are  clamourous  for  its  removal.  The  godly  mourn,  the 
Papists  exult,  that  we  are  now  fighting  against  each  other 
who  were  heretofore  wont  to  attack  them  with  our  united 
forces  ;  the  weak  know  not  what  or  W'hom  to  believe  ;  the 
godless  are  altogether  insensible  to  any  danger;  the 
Piomish  priesthood  are  gaping  for  the  prey,  and  are  like 
bellow^s  carefully  blowing  up  the  flame,  that  the  mischief 
may  increase.  It  is  lamentable  to  behold,  and  dreadful 
to  hear  of  such  things  taking  place  among  those  who 
profess  the  same  religion  ;  and  yet  the  entire  blame  is 
laid  upon  the  Bishops,  as  if  they  alone,  if  they  chose, 
v/ere  able  to  eradicate  all  these  evils.  We  endure,  I 
must  confess,  many  things  against  our  inclinations,  and 
groan  under  them,  which  if  we  wished  ever  so  much,  no 
entreaty  can  remove.  We  are  under  authority,  and 
cannot  make  any  innovation  without  the  sanction  of  the 
queen,  or  abrogate  anything  without  the  authority  of  the 
laws ;  and  the  only  alternative  allowed  us  is,  whether  we 
will  bear  with  these  things  or  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Church.  I  wish  all  parties  would  understand  and  follow 
your  wholesome  advice  in  your  preface  to  the  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians,  respecting  the  variety  of  rites  and  dis- 
cipline in  individual  Churches.  But  these  men  are 
crying  out  that  nothing  is  to  be  endured  in  the  rites  of 
the  Church,  which  is  later  than  the  times  of  the  apostles, 
and  that  all  our  discipline  must  be  derived  from  thence, 
and  this  at  the  peril  of  the  soul  and  our  salvation." 

On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  Pilkington  returned 
to  England,  and  in  February  1561,  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Durham.  In  1562,  he  is  said  to  have  been 
queen's  reader  of  divinity  lectures.     During  this  prelates 


96  PISCATOR. 

time,  not  only  the  cause  of  religion,  but  also  political 
matters,  called  the  queen's  attention  towards  Scotland, 
and  the  borders  were  frequently  the  scene  of  military 
operations.  During  these  commotions,  the  queen  having 
seized  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland's  estates  within  the 
Bishopric  of  Durham,  Pilkington  instituted  his  suit,  in 
which  it  was  determined,  that  "  where  he  hath  jura 
regalia,  he  shall  have  forfeiture  of  high  treason."  By 
an  act  of  parliament,  made  in  the  13th  year  of  Elizabeth, 
1570.  c.  16,  "The  convictions,  outlawries,  and  attain- 
ders of  Charles,  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  and  fifty-seven 
others,  attainted  of  treason,  for  open  rebellion  in  the 
north  parts,  were  confirmed  ;"  and  it  was  enacted,  '-That 
the  queen,  her  heirs,  and  successors,  should  have,  for 
that  time,  all  the  lands  and  goods  which  any  of  the 
said  persons  attainted  within  the  Bishopric  of  Durham 
had,  against  the  bishop  and  his  successors,  though  he 
claimeth  jura  regalia,  and  challengeth  all  the  said  for- 
feitures in  right  of  his  church."  So  that  the  see  was 
deprived  of  the  greatest  acquisition  it  had  been  entitled 
to  for  many  centuries. 

He  wrote : — A  Commentary  of  Aggeus  (Haggai)  the 
Prophet,  1560,  8vo ;  A  Sermon  on  the  Burning  of  St. 
Paul's  Church,  in  London,  in  1561,  1563,  12mo;  Com- 
mentaries on  Ecclesiastes,  the  Epistles  of  St.  Peter, 
and  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Galatians  ;  and,  A  Defence  of  the 
English  Service.  After  his  death,  his  Exposition  on 
Nehemiah  was  published,  1585,  4to.  He  left  in  manu- 
script Statutes  for  the  Consistory.  He  died  Jan.  23rd, 
1575,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  at 
Auckland;  but  his  remains  were  afterwards  removed, 
and  interred  in  the  choir  of  Durham  Cathedral. — Strype. 
Zurich  Letters. 

PISCATOR,    OR    FISCHER,  JOHN. 

John  Piscator,  or  Fischer,  was  born  at  Strasburg,  in 


PLACETTE.  97 

1546,  and  received  his  education  in  his  native  place,  from 
which  he  withdrew  on  his  becoming  a  Calvinist,  and,  in 
1584,  he  became  theological  Professor  at  Herborn,  in 
Welterau.  He  died  in  1626.  In  his  late  years  he 
inclined  to  Arminianism. 

Piscator  made  an  almost  entirely  new  translation  of 
the  Bible,  from  the  original  languages  into  German, 
which  was  published  at  Herborn  ;  and  was  followed,  in 
1608,  by  An  Apology  for  that  version,  in  4to. 

He  was  the  author  of  Commentaries,  in  Latin,  upon 
all  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  1601 — 
1616,  in  24  vols.  Svo,  which  were  collected  together, 
and  published  in  1643 — 1645,  in  4  vols.  fol.  He  was 
also  the  author  of  Analysis  Logica  Epistolarum  Pauli 
ad  Roman.  Corinth.  Galat.  Ephes.  &c.  1590,  Svo;  Index 
in  Libros  Biblicos  Veteris  Testamenti,  1622,  in  6  vols. 
Svo  ;  Scripta  adversaria  de  Causa  Meritoria  Justifica- 
tionis,  1590,  Svo;  together  with  practical  and  contro- 
versial treatises,  &c. — Biog.   Univemelle. 

PLACE,    JOSHUA    DE    LA. 

Joshua  de  la  Place  was  born  in  1596,  and  educated  at 
Saumur,  of  which  university  he  became,  in  1633,  theo- 
logical Professor.     He  died  in  1665. 

He  wrote  : — An  exposition  of  the  Song  of  Songs  ;  A 
Treatise  on  Types ;  A  Treatise  concerning  the  Imputa- 
tion of  Adam's  first  Sin ;  On  the  Order  of  the  Divine 
Decrees ;  On  Free-will ;  A  Compendium  of  Divinity ; 
Dialogues  between  a  Father  and  his  Son,  relative  to  a 
Change  of  Religion;  A  Treatise  concerning  the  Invo- 
cation of  Saints  ;  and  An  Examination  of  the  Reasons 
for  and  against  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  &c.  A  collec- 
tion of  all  his  works  was  published  at  Franeker  in  1699 
and  1703,  in  2  vols.  4to. — Moreri. 

PLACETTE,  JOHN   DE    LA. 

John  de  la  Placette  was  born  in  1639,  at  Pontac,  in 

VOL.  VIII.  K 


9S  POCOCK. 

Beam,  and  was  for  some  time  a  Protestant  minister 
in  the  Church  of  Orthes,  in  Beam ;  he  removed  to  Naye, 
and  at  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  he  became 
minister  of  the  parish  Church  at  Copenhagen.  In  1711, 
he  removed  to  the  Hague,  and  afterwards  to  Utrecht, 
where  he  died  in  1718. 

He  wrote  : — New  Moral  Essays  ;  A  Treatise  on  Pride  ; 
A  Treatise  on  Conscience, — this  was  translated  into 
English  bv  Basil  Kennett,  under  the  title  of  The 
Christian  Casuist ;  A  Treatise  on  Good  Works  in 
general ;  A  Treatise  on  Oaths ;  Various  Treatises 
on  Matters  of  Conscience ;  The  Death  of  the  Just,  or, 
the  Manner  of  dying  well  ;  A  Treatise  on  Alms ;  A 
Treatise  on  Games  of  Chance;  A  Compendium  of 
Christian  Morality ;  Christian  Pieflections  on  several 
moral  Subjects ;  and,  A  Treatise  on  Divine  Faith. — 
Moreri. 

POCOCK,    EDWARD. 

Edwaed  Pocook  was  bom  at  Oxford,  in  1604.  He  was 
educated  at  the  Free-school  of  Thame, ^and  at  Magdalen 
Hall,  and  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  of  which  latter 
he  afterwards  became  fellow.  At  the  university  he  ap- 
plied himself  to  the  study  of  the  Eastern  languages, 
which  at  that  time  were  taught  privately  at  Oxford  by 
Matthew  Pasor.  He  found  also  another  able  tutor  for 
Eastern  literature  in  the  Rev.  William  Bedwell,  vicar  of 
Tottenham,  near  London,  whom  his  biographer  praises 
as  one  of  the  first  who  promoted  the  study  of  the  Arabic 
language  in  Europe.  And  now  the  statutes  of  the 
college  providing  that  he  should  speedily  take  orders, 
he  commenced  the  study  of  theology.  He  followed 
the  plan  suggested  by  James  I.,  who  directed  this  study 
to  be  pursued,  not  by  insisting  on  modern  compendiums 
and  tracts  of  divinity,  but  by  applying  himself  chiefly 
to  fathers    and   councils,    ecclesiastical   historians   and 


POCOCK.  99 

other  ancient  writers,  together  with  the  sacred  text, 
the  word  of  God.  For  though  he  perused  the  books 
of  some  late  writers  in  divinity,  it  was  not,  we  find, 
to  form  his  notions  on  matters  of  reUgion,  according  to 
their  conceptions  and  opinions,  but  to  take  their  direc- 
tion about  several  pieces  of  antiquity,  in  order  to  a 
general  knowledge  of  their  nature  and  excellency,  and 
to  distinguish  the  genuine  from  such  as  are  of  doubtful 
original,  or  manifestly  spurious.  This,  in  particular,  we 
learn  from  some  papers  begun  to  be  written  by  him, 
September  7,  1629,  was  the  use  he  made  of  a  treatise 
of  some  account,  then  reprinted  at  Oxford,  namely, 
Ger.  Vossius's  Theses  Theologicse,  out  of  which  he 
collected  several  things  of  this  nature  and  of  no  other. 
But  amidst  his  theological  studies  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  lay  aside  all  regard  for  those  Eastern  lan- 
guages to  which  his  mind  was  so  addicted,  and  on 
which  he  had  bestowed  so  much  time  and  pains.  He 
therefore,  about  this  time,  pursued  a  design  wherein 
both  were  joined  together,  and  that  was,  the  fitting  for 
the  press  those  parts  of  the  Syriac  version  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  had  never  yet  been  published.  Igna- 
tius, the  Jacobite  patriarch  of  Antioch,  had,  in  the  last 
age,  sent  Moses  Meridin^us,  a  priest  of  Mesopotamia, 
into  the  west,  to  get  that  version  printed,  in  order  to  the 
carrying  back  a  sufficient  number  of  copies  for  the  use 
of  his  Churches.  And  this  work,  by  the  care  and  dili- 
gence of  Albertus  Widmanstadius,  was  very  well  per- 
formed at  Vienna,  a.  d.  1555.  But  the  Syriac  New 
Testament  thus  brought  out  of  the  East,  and  followed 
in  that  impression,  wanted  the  second  epistle  of  St. 
Peter,  the  second  and  third  epistles  of  St.  John,  the 
epistle  of  St.  Jude,  and  the  whole  book  of  the  Revela- 
tion: because,  as  a  learned  man  conjectures,  those  parts 
of  Holy  Scripture,  though  extant  amongst  them,  were 
not  yet  received  into  the  canon,  by  those  Oriental 
Churches.      This  defect  no  body  took  care  to  supply, 


100  POCOCK. 

till  that  very  learned  person  Ludovicus  de  Bieu,  on 
the  encouragement  and  with  the  assistance  of  Daniel 
Heinsius,  set  about  the  Revelation ;  being  furnished 
with  a  copy  of  it,  which  had  been  given  with  many 
other  manuscripts,  to  the  university  of  Leyden  by  the 
famous  Joseph  Scaliger.  That  Version  of  the  Apo- 
calypse was  printed  at  Leyden  in  the  year  1627,  but 
still  the  four  Epistles  were  wanting,  and  those  Pocock 
undertook,  being  desirous  that  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment might  at  length  be  published  in  that  language, 
which  was  the  vulgar  tongue  of  our  Blessed  Saviour 
Himself,  and  His  holy  Apostles.  A  very  fair  manuscrij)t 
for  this  purpose  he  had  met  with  in  that  vast  treasure  of 
learning  the  Bodleian  library  ;  containing  those  epistles, 
together  with  some  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament. 
Out  of  this  manuscript,  following  the  example  of  de 
Dieu,  he  transcribed  those  epistles  in  the  Syriac  cha- 
racter ;  the  same  he  likewise  set  down  in  Hebrew  letters, 
adding  the  points,  not  according  to  the  ordinary,  but  the 
Syriac  rules,  as  they  had  been  delivered  by  those  learned 
Maronites,  Amira  and  Sionita.  He  also  made  a  new 
translation  of  these  epistles  out  of  Syriac  into  Latin, 
comparing  it  with  that  of  Etzelius,  and  shewing  upon 
all  considerable  occasions,  the  reason  of  his  dissent  from 
him.  Moreover,  he  added  the  original  Greek,  concluding 
the  whole  with  a  good  number  of  learned  and  useful 
notes. 

This  was  published  at  Leyden  in  1630.  Meanwhile, 
in  December,  1629,  Pocock  had  been  ordained  by  Corbett, 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the 
English  merchants  at  Aleppo,  where  he  arrived  in  Oct. 
1630,  and  remained  for  nearly  six  years.  Being  a  man 
of  meek  and  humble  temper,  and  naturally  in  love  with 
retirement  and  peace,  he  did  not  (as  many  travellers 
do)  carry  with  him  a  violent  desire  of  viewing  strange 
countries.  Nay,  he  was  so  far  from  being  delighted  either 
with  what  he  had  already  seen,  or  the  place  where  he  was 


pococK.  lor 

now  settled  ;  that,  in  a  letter,  written  about  two  months 
after  his  arrival  to  Mr.  Thomas  Greaves,  a  very  studious 
young  man,  then  scholar  of  Corpus  Christi,  he  gave  but 
a  very  melancholy  account  of  himself.  "My  chief 
solace,"  said  he,  "  is  the  remembrance  of  my  friends, 
and  my  former  happiness,  when  I  was  among  them. 
Happy  you  that  enjoy  those  places  where  I  so  often 
wish  myself  as  I  see  the  barbarous  people  of  this 
country.  I  think  that  he  that  hath  once  been  out  of 
England,  if  he  get  home,  will  not  easily  be  persuaded 
to  leave  it  again.  There  is  nothing  that  may  make  a 
man  envy  a  traveller."  However,  being  abroad,  he 
resolved  that  his  natural  aversion  for  such  a  kind  of 
life  should  not  make  him  neglect  the  doing  anything 
in  the  post  he  was  in,  which  was  either  his  duty  to 
God,  or  might  answer  the  expectation  of  good  and 
learned  men. 

Above  all  other  things  he  carefully  applied  himself  to 
the  business  of  his  place  as  chaplain  to  the  factory; 
performing  the  solemn  duties  of  religion  in  that  decent 
and  orderly  manner  which  our  Church  requires.  He 
was  diligent  in  preaching,  exhorting  his  countrymen 
in  a  plain,  but  very  convincing  way,  to  piety,  temper- 
ance, justice,  and  love,  which  would  both  secure  to  them 
the  favour  and  protection  of  the  Almighty,  and  also 
adorn  their  conversation,  rendering  it  comely  in  the 
sight  of  an  unbelieving  nation.  And  what  he  laboured 
to  persuade  others  to  he  duly  practised  himself,  pro- 
posing to  his  hearers,  in  his  own  regular  and  unspotted 
life,  a  bright  example  of  the  holiness  he  recommended. 

As  he  was  seldom  or  never  drawn  from  the  constant 
performance  of  these  duties  of  his  charge  by  a  curiosity 
tempting  him  to  the  view  of  other  places  of  that  country, 
so  he  would  not  omit  what  belonged  to  his  office,  even 
when  attended  with  a  very  affrightening  danger.  For 
in  the  year  1034,  as  the  plague  raged  furiouslj^  in 
Aleppo,    and   many   of    the   merchants   fled  two    days 


103  POCOCK. 

journey  from  it,  and  dwelt  in  tents  on  the  mountains  ; 
he  had  that  holy  confidence  in  the  Providence  of  God, 
and  that  readiness  to  meet  His  good  pleasure,  whatever  it 
should  be,  that  though  he  visited  them  that  were  in  the 
country,  he,  for  the  most  part,  continued  to  assist  and 
comfort  those  who  had  shut  up  themselves  in  the  city. 
And  indeed,  the  mercy  of  God  (as  he  most  thankfully 
acknowledged  in  a  letter  sent  a  little  after  to  a  friend 
in  Oxford)  was  signally  manifested,  at  the  time,  towards 
him,  and  all  our  nation  belonging  to  that  factory. 
For  though  the  pestilence  wasted  beyond  the  example 
of  former  times,  not  ceasing,  as  usually,  at  the  entrance 
of  the  dog-days,  all  the  English  were  preserved,  as  well 
they  that  continued  in  the  town  as  they  that  fled  from 
it.  God  covered  them  with  His  protection,  and  was 
their  shield  and  buckler  against  that  terrible  destruc- 
tion :  *'  A  thousand  fell  at  their  side,  and  thousands  at 
their  right  hand,  and  yet  it  did  not  come  nigh  them." 
But  he  knew  the  advantages  as  well  as  the  disadvan- 
tages of  his  position,  especially  as  they  related  to  bis 
favourite  studies.  He  immediately  engaged  a  master 
in  the  Arabic  tongue,  and  a  servant  of  the  nation  for 
the  purpose  of  familiar  converse  in  it ;  and  he  under- 
took the  translation  of  several  Arabic  books,  among 
which  was  a  collection  of  6000  proverbs.  Having  re- 
ceived a  commission  from  Dr.  Laud,  then  Bishop  of 
London,  for  the  purchase  of  Greek  coins,  and  Greek 
and  oriental  manuscripts,  he  employed  himself  in  its 
execution;  nor  amidst  these  literary  labours  did  he 
neglect  the  proper  duties  of  his  office,  but  discharged 
them  with  great  fidelity,  even  when  they  exposed  him 
to  imminent  danger  from  the  plague.  In  1636,  being 
informed  by  Laud  of  his  intention  of  nominating  him 
the  first  professor  of  the  Arabic  lecture  founded  by  that 
munificent  prelate  at  Oxford,  he  returned  to  occupy  a 
place  so  conformable  to  his  wishes.  To  this,  after  taking 
the  degree  of  B.D.,  he  was  formally  appointed  in  August, 


POCOCK.  103 

and  he  opened  his  lectures  with  an  eloquent  Latin 
oration  on  the  nature  and  use  of  the  Arabic  tongue. 
The  solicitations  and  generous  offers  of  his  friend  Mr. 
John  Greaves  to  procure  him  as  a  companion  -in  a 
journey  into  the  east,  induced  him,  however,  after  obtain- 
ing leave  of  absence,  to  embark  with  that  learned  mathe- 
matician, in  1637,  for  Constantinople.  During  his  stay 
in  that  city  he  employed  himself  in  perfecting  his  know- 
ledge of  the  oriental  tongues,  and  in  purchasing  manu- 
scripts for  Archbishop  Laud,  and  he  also  ojB&ciated  as  chap- 
lain to  the  English  ambassador.  In  1640,  he  set  out  on 
his  return,  and  passing  through  Paris,  had  an  interview 
with  the  illustrious  Grotius,  who  was  much  gratified  on 
being  consulted  by  him  on  an  Arabic  translation  of  his 
noted  book  De  Veritate  Christiange  Religionis.  While 
at  Paris,  and  on  the  road,  he  heard  of  the  commotions 
in  England,  and  on  his  arrival  he  found  his  liberal 
patron,  Laud,  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower.  Here  he  imme- 
diately visited  the  archbishop,  and  their  interview  was 
affecting  on  both  sides.  Pocock  then  went  to  Oxford, 
where  he  found  that  the  archbishop  had  settled  the 
Arabic  professorship  in  perpetuity  by  a  grant  of  lands. 
He  now  resumed  his  lecture  and  his  private  studies. 
In  1641  he  became  acquainted  with  Selden,  who  was  at 
this  time  preparing  for  the  press  some  part  of  Euty- 
chius's  Annals,  in  Latin  and  Arabic,  which  he  published 
the  year  following,  under  the  title  of  Origines  Alexan- 
drinae ;  and  Pocock  assisted  him  in  collating  and  extract- 
ing from  the  Arabic  MSS.  at  Oxford. 

In  1643,  he  was  presented  by  his  college  to  the  living 
of  Childry,  in  Berkshire  ;  and  he  set  himself  with  his 
utmost  diligence,  to  a  conscentious  performance  of  all  the 
duties  of  his  cure ;  labouring  for  the  edification  of  those 
committed  to  his  charge,  with  the  zeal  and  application  of  a 
man,  who  thoroughly  considered  the  value  of  immortal 
souls,  and  the  account  he  was  to  give.  He  was  constant 
in  preaching,   performing  that  work  twice  every  Lord's 


104  POCOCK. 

Day.  And  because  the  addition  of  catechizing,  which 
he  would  not  neglect,  made  this  a  burthen  too  heavy 
to  be  always  borne  by  himself,  he  sometimes  procured 
an  assistant  from  Oxford,  to  preach  in  the  afternoon. 
His  sermons  were  so  contrived  by  him,  as  to  be  most 
useful  to  the  persons  that  were  to  hear  them.  For 
though  such  as  he  preached  in  the  University  were  very 
elaborate,  and  full  of  critical  and  other  learning ;  the 
discourses  he  delivered  in  his  parish,  were  plain  and 
easy,  having  nothing  in  them,  which  he  perceived  to 
be  above  the  capacities,  even  of  the  meanest  of  his 
auditors.  He  commonly  began  with  an  explanation  of 
the  text  he  made  choice  of,  rendering  the  sense  of  it  as 
obvious  and  intelligible,  as  might  be  :  then  he  noted 
whatever  was  contained  in  it  relating  to  a  good  life ; 
and  recommended  it  to  his  hearers,  with  a  great  force 
of  spiritual  arguments,  and  all  the  motives,  which  ap- 
peared most  likely  to  prevail  with  them.  And  as  he 
carefully  avoided  the  shew  and  ostentation  of  learning ; 
so  he  would  not,  by  any  means,  indulge  himself  in  the 
practice  of  those  arts,  which  at  that  time  were  very 
common,  and  much  admired  by  ordinary  people.  Such 
were  distortions  of  the  countenance  and  strange  gestures, 
a  violent  and  unnatural  way  of  speaking,  and  affected 
words  and  phrases,  which  being  out  of  the  ordinary  way, 
were  therefore  supposed  to  express  somewhat  very 
mysterious,  and,  in  a  high  degree,  spiritual.  Though  no 
body  could  be  more  unwilling  than  he  was  to  make 
people  uneasy,  if  it  was  possible  for  him  to  avoid  it ; 
yet  neither  did  his  natural  temper  prevail  with  him, 
nor  any  other  consideration  tempt  him,  to  be  silent, 
where  reproof  was  necessary.  With  a  courage,  there- 
fore, becoming  an  ambassador  of  Jesus  Christ,  he 
boldly  declared  against  the  sins  of  the  times  ;  warning 
those  w^ho  were  under  his  care,  as  against  all  profane 
and  immoral  practices,  so  against  those  schisms  and 
divisions,  which  were  now  breaking  in  upon  the  Church, 


POCOCK.  105 

and  those  seditions  which  aimed  at  the  subversion  of 
the  state.  His  whole  conversation  too  was  one  con- 
tinued sermon,  powerfully  recommending,  to  all  that 
were  acquainted  with  him,  the  several  duties  of  Chris- 
tianity. For  as  he  was  "  blameless  and  harmless,  and 
without  rebuke  ;  "  so  his  unaffected  piety,  his  meekness 
and  humility,  his  kind  and  obliging  behaviour,  and  great 
readiness,  upon  every  occasion,  to  do  all  the  good  he  was 
capable  of,  made  him  shine  as  "  a  light  in  the  world." 

A  minister  that  thus  acquitted  himself,  one  would 
think,  should  have  met  with  much  esteem,  and  all 
imaginable  good  usage  from  his  whole  parish  ;  but  the 
matter  was  otherwise ;  he  was  one  of  those  excellent 
persons,  whom  the  brightest  virtue  has  not  been  able 
to  secure  from  an  evil  treatment ;  yea,  that  upon  ac- 
count, even  of  what  was  highly  valuable  in  them,  have 
been  contemned,  reproached,  and  injuriously  handled. 
Some  few,  indeed,  of  those  under  his  care,  had  a  just 
sense  of  his  worth,  and  paid  him  all  the  respect  that 
was  due  to  it ;  but  the  behaviour  of  the  greater  number 
was  such,  as  could  not  but  often  much  discompose  and 
afflict  him.  His  care  not  to  amuse  his  hearers,  with 
things  which  they  could  not  understand,  gave  some  of 
them  occasion  to  entertain  very  contemptible  thoughts 
of  his  learning,  and  to  speak  of  him  accordingly.  So 
that  one  of  his  Oxford  friends,  as  he  travelled  through 
Childry,  inquiring,  for  his  diversion,  of  some  people, 
who  was  their  minister,  and  how  they  liked  him, 
received  from  them  this  answer  :  "  Our  parson  is  one 
Mr.  Pocock,  a  plain,  honest  man ;  but  master,"  said 
they,  "he  is  no  Latiner."  His  avoiding,  as  he  preached, 
that  boisterous  action,  and  those  canting  expressions, 
which  were  then  so  very  taking  with  many  lovers  of 
novelty,  was  the  reason  that  not  a  few  considered  him 
as  a  weak  man,  whose  discourses  could  not  edify,  being 
dead  morality,  having  nothing  of  power  and  the  spirit : 
but  his  declaring  against  divisions,  sedition,  and  rebel- 


106  POCOCK. 

lion,  was  most  offensive,  and  raised  the  greatest  clamour 
against  him.  Because  of  this,  such  in  his  parish,  as 
had  been  seduced  into  the  measures  of  them  who  were 
now  endeavouring  the  overthrow  both  of  Church  and 
state,  were  ready,  upon  every  occasion,  to  bestow  on  him 
the  ill  names  then  so  much  in  use,  of,  "  a  man  addicted 
to  railing  and  bitterness  ;  a  malignant  and  one  Popishly 
affected."  But  disesteem  and  reproachful  language  were 
not  the  only  grievances  which  this  good  man  suffered 
under.  That  income,  which  the  laws  of  God  and  man 
had  made  his  just  right,  and  which  he  alwa^-s  endea- 
voured to  receive  with  as  much  peace  as  might  be,  was 
thought  too  much  for  him,  and  they  studied  to  lessen  it 
in  all  the  ways  they  could  :  besides  what  they  called  out- 
witting him  in  his  tithes,  of  the  contributions  and  great 
taxes  which  were  frequently  exacted,  a  sum  much  beyond 
the  just  proportion  was  still  allotted  to  him  ;  and  when 
any  forces  were  quartered  in  that  parish,  as  considerable 
numbers  often  were,  he  was  sure  to  have  a  double,  if  not 
a  greater,  share. 

This  usage  could  not  but  seem  very  strange  to  a  man, 
who  had  been  treated  with  respect  and  civility,  by  all  sorts 
of  persons  whom  he  had  hitherto  conversed  with  ;  and  it* 
was  impossible  for  him  to  reflect  upon  such  unsuitable 
returns,  without  a  great  deal  of  disquiet,  and  very  melan- 
choly thoughts.  The  barbarous  people  of  Syria  and 
Turkey,  whom  he  formerly  complained  of,  appeared  to 
him  now  of  much  greater  humanity  than  many  of  those 
he  was  engaged  to  live  with.  There  his  exalted  virtue 
had  won  upon  Mahometans,  and  had  made  even  Jew's 
and  Friars  revere  him ;  but  these  charms  had,  at  this  time, 
a  contrary  effect  on  the  pretenders  to  saintship  and  purer 
ordinances  at  home.  And  he,  who,  when  at  Aleppo, 
still  longed  to  be  in  England,  as  the  most  agreeable 
place  in  the  world,  now  considered  an  abode  in  the  East 
as  a  very  desirable  blessing.  Yea,  to  such  a  degree  of 
uneasiness  did  the, public  calamities,  and  the  particular 


POCOCK.  107 

troubles  he  was  every  day  exercised  with,  at  length  carry 
him,  that  he  began  to  form  a  design  of  leaving  his  native 
country  for  ever,  and  spending  the  remainder  of  his  days 
either  at  Alej)po  or  Constantinople :  in  which  places, 
from  his  former  experience,  he  thought  he  might  promise 
himself  fewer  injuries,  and  more  quiet  and  peace.  But 
upon  further  consideration,  and  a  due  use  of  those 
succours  which  both  reason  and  religion  afforded  him,  he 
fortified  his  mind  against  the  force  of  all  such  trials,  and 
learned  "  to  possess  his  soul  in  patience."  He  very  well 
knew,' that  it  is  the  part  of  "  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ, 
to  endure  hardship,"  and  that  he  that  has  devoted  him- 
self to  the  work  of  the  Gospel,  must  be  ready  in  "  afflictions 
and  distresses,  by  honour  and  dishonour,  by  evil  report 
as  well  as  good,  to  approve  himself  a  minister  of  God." 
He  considered  too,  that  his  case  was  not  singular,  but 
such  as  was  common,  at  that  time,  to  almost  all  others 
of  the  same  calling,  throughout  the  nation,  who  would 
not  humour  the  people  in  unreasonable  things,  nor 
descend  to  unlawful  compliances.  And  he  was  very 
well  satisfied,  that  all  the  evil  that  comes  to  pass  in  the 
world,  is  still  overruled  by  the  Providence  of  that  all- 
wise  God,  who,  in  the  moral  as  well  as  the  natural  world, 
brings  light  out  of  darkness,  and  order  out  of  confusion 
and  who  will  make  "  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  Him."  Upon  such  reflections  as  these, 
therefore,  he  resolved  to  stand  his  ground,  and  to  per- 
severe in  a  faithful  discharge  of  all  the  duties  he  was 
called  to,  notwithstanding  all  the  difficulties  that  attended 
it.  Having  thus  laid  aside  all  thoughts  of  a  remove,  to 
ease  himself  of  the  cares  of  housekeeping,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  a  family,  and  to  have  the  comfort  of  an  agreeable 
partner,  amidst  the  troubles  he  was  exposed  to,  he 
began  to  think  of  a  wife.  And  Providence  directed 
him  to  the  choice  of  a  very  prudent  and  virtuous  gentle- 
woman, namely,  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Burdett, 
Esq.,  of  West  Worlham,   in  Hampshire,   whom  he  mar- 


108  POCOCK. 

ried  about  the  beginning  of  the  year  1646,  and  by  whom 
God  was  pleased  to  bless  him  with  nine  children,  six 
sons  and  three  daughters. 

Immediately  after  the  execution  of  Archbishop  Laud, 
the  profits  of  Pocock's  professorship  were  seized  by  the 
sequestrators,  as  part  of  that  prelate's  estate.  But  in 
1647,  the  salary  of  the  lecture  was  restored  by  the  inter- 
position of  Selden,  who  had  considerable  interest  with 
the  usurpers.  In  1648,  on  the  reccommendation  of  Dr. 
Sheldon  and  Dr.  Hammond,  Pocock  was  nominated 
Hebrew  professor,  with  the  canonry  of  Christ  Church 
annexed,  by  Charles  I.,  then  a  prisoner  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  In  1649,  he  published  his  Specimen  Histories 
Arabum.  This  consists  of  extracts  from  the  work  of 
Abulfaragius,  in  the  original  Arabic,  together  with  a 
Latin  version  and  copious  notes.  In  November,  1650, 
he  was  ejected  from  his  canonry  of  Christ  Church,  for 
refusing  to  take  the  Engagement,  and  soon  after  a  vote 
passed  for  depriving  him  of  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic 
lectures  ;  but  upon  a  petition  from  the  heads  of  houses 
at  Oxford,  the  masters,  scholars,  &c.,  two  only  of  the 
whole  number  of  subscribers  being  loyalists,  this  vote 
was  reversed,  and  he  was  suffered  to  enjoy  both 
places. 

In  1655,  a  more  ridiculous  instance  of  persecution  was 
intended,  and  would  have  been  inflicted,  if  there  had 
not  yet  been  some  sense  and  spirit  left,  even  among 
those  who  had  contributed  to  bring  on  such  calamities. 
It  appears  that  some  of  his  parishioners  had  presented 
an  information  against  him  to  the  commissioners  ap- 
pointed by  Parliament,  "  for  ejecting  ignorant,  scanda- 
lous, insufficient,  and  negligent  ministers."  But  the 
connexion  of  the  name  of  Pocock  with  such  epithets 
was  too  gross  to  be  endured,  and,  we  are  told,  filled 
several  men  of  great  fame  and  eminence  at  that  time  at 
Oxford  with  indignation  :  in  consequence  of  which  they 
resolved  to  wait  upon  the  commissioners,  and  expostulate 


POCOCK.  109 

with  them  about  it.  In  the  number  of  those  who  went 
were,  Dr.  Seth  Ward,  Dr.  John  Wilkins,  Dr.  John 
WalUs,  and  Dr.  Owen,  who  all  laboured  with  much 
earnestness  to  convince  those  men  of  the  absurdity  of 
their  proceedings  ;  particularly  Dr.  Owen,  who  endea- 
voured, with  some  warmth,  to  make  them  sensible  of 
the  contempt  that  would  fall  upon  them,  when  it  should 
be  said,  that  they  had  turned  out  a  man  for  insufficiency, 
whom  all  the  learned,  not  of  England  only,  but  of  all 
Europe,  so  justly  admired  for  his  vast  knowledge  and 
extraordinary  accomplishments.  The  commissioners 
being  very  much  mortified  at  the  remonstrances  of  so 
many  eminent  men,  especially  of  Dr.  Owen,  in  whom 
they  had  a  particular  confidence,  thought  it  best  to  extri- 
cate themselves  from  their  dilemma  by  discharging 
Pocock  from  any  further  attendance.  In  the  same  year 
he  published  his  Porta  Mosis,  being  six  prefatory  dis- 
courses of  Moses  Maimonides's  Commentary  upon  the 
Mishna,  which  in  the  original  were  Arabic,  expressed  in 
Hebrew  characters,  together  with  his  own  Latin  trans- 
lation of  them,  and  a  very  large  appendix  of  miscella- 
neous notes.  In  1657,  Walton's  celebrated  Polyglott 
appeared,  in  which  Pocock  had  a  considerable  share. 
He  collated  the  Arabic  Pentateuch,  and  drew  up  a 
Preface  concerning  the  Arabic  Versions  of  that  part  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  reason  of  the  various  readings  in 
them.  He  contributed  the  loan  of  some  valuable  MSS. 
from  his  own  collection,  viz. — The  Gospels  in  Persian, 
his  Syriac  MS.  of  the  whole  Old  Testament,  and  two 
other  Syriac  MSS.,  together  with  an  Ethiopic  MS.  of 
the  Psalms.  In  1668,  his  translation  of  the  Annals  of 
Eutychius,  from  Arabic  into  Latin,  was  published  at 
Oxford,  in  2  vols,  4to.  This  was  undertaken  by  Pocock 
at  the  request  of  Selden,  who  bore  the  whole  expense 
of  the  printing,  although  he  died  before  it  appeared. 
Selden,  in  a  codicil  to  his  will,  bequeathed  the  property 
of  the  Annales   Eutychii   to   Langdaine    and    Pocock. 

VOL.    VIII.  L 


110  POCOCK. 

Immediately  after  the  Restoration,  Pocock  was  (June, 
1660)  replaced  in  his  Canonry  of  Christ  Church,  as 
originally  annexed  to  the  Hebrew  professorship  by 
Charles  I.,  and  on  September  20th,  took  his  degree 
of  D.D.  In  the  same  year,  he  was  enabled,  by  the 
liberality  of  Mr.  Boyle,  to  print  his  Arabic  translation 
of  Grotius  on  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion.  His 
next  publication,  in  1661,  was  an  Arabic  Poem,  entitled 
Lamiato'l  Ajam,  or  Carmen  Abu  Ismaelis  Tograi,  with 
his  Latin  translation  of  it,  and  large  notes  upon  it,  with 
a  preface  by  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  architypographus  to 
the  university,  who  had  the  care  of  the  press,  and  con- 
tributed a  treatise  of  his  own  on  the  Arabic  prosody. 
Pocock's  design  in  this  work  was,  not  only  to  give  a 
specimen  of  Arabian  poetry,  but  also  to  make  an  attain- 
ment of  the  Arabic  tongue  more  easy  to  those  who 
study  it;  and  his  notes,  containing  a  grammatical 
explanation  of  all  the  words  of  this  author,  were  un- 
questionably serviceable  for  promoting  the  knowledge  of 
that  language.  In  1663,  he  published,  at  Oxford,  his 
most  useful  work,  the  w^hole  of  Abulfaragius's  Historia 
Dynastiarum,  2  vols,  4to.  In  1677,  he  published  his 
Commentary  on  the  Prophecy  of  Micah  and  Malachi ; 
in  1685,  on  that  of  Hosea;  and  in  1691,  on  that  of 
Joel,  in  1674,  he  had  published,  at  the  expense  of 
the  university,  his  Arabic  translation  of  the  Church 
Catechism  and  the  Liturgy,  i.  e.  The  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayers,  The  Order  of  Administering  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  and,  The  Thirty-nine  Articles. 
He  died  on  the  10th  September,  1691,  after  a  gradual 
decay  of  some  months,  in  his  eighty-seventh  year. 

Of  this  great  man,  Dr.  Twells  remarks,  "  that  all  his 
words  and  actions  carried  in  them  a  deep  and  unfeigned 
sense  of  religion  and  true  piety ;  God  was  the  beginning 
and  the  end  of  his  studies  and  undertakings  ;  to  His 
glory  they  were  devoted,  and  professedly  finished  by 
His  help,   as    appears    by    expressions,    sometimes   in 


POCOCK.  ill 

Arabic  and  Hebrew,  and  at  other  times  in  English, 
whi^h  we  find  not  only  in  his  printed  works,  but  also 
in  his  note-books,  and  writings  of  any  account. 

"In  his  public  duties  of  religion  he  was  very  punc- 
'  tual ;  all  the  time  he  resided  at  Christ  Church,  which 
was  more  than  thirty  years,  hs  was  seldom  absent  from 
cathedral  prayers,  oft  frequenting  them,  when  he  was 
not  thought  well  enough  to  go  abroad  upon  any  otlier 
occasion. 

"  In  his  pastoral  capacity,  so  long  as  he  resided  con- 
stantly at  Childry,  he  shewed  the  greatest  diligence  and 
faithfulness,  preaching  twice  every  Lord's  Day,  and 
catechizing  likewise,  when  the  length  of  days  would 
permit  him.  Nor  was  he  less  exact  in  discharging  the 
private  duties  of  his  function,  such  as  visiting  sick  and 
ancient  people,  and  the  like  ;  and  during  that  part  of 
his  life  in  which  his  attendance  upon  his  professorships 
and  canonical  residence  called  him  to  Oxford  for  the 
greatest  part  of  the  year,  he  took  a  most  conscientious 
care  to  supply  his  absence  by  an  able  curate,  of  whom 
he  strictly  required  the  same  laborious  course  of  duty, 
and  for  his  encouragement,  allowed  him  fifty  pounds 
per  annum,  besides  surplice  fees,  all  which  amounted 
to  more  than  a  fourth  part  of  the  then  value  of  that 
rectory. 

"  As  a  member  and  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, though  with  all  due  charity  to  those,  who,  on  the 
score  of  conscience,  dissented  from  her,  he  steadily  con- 
formed to  her  appointments,  highly  reverenced  and  ap- 
proved every  part  of  her  constitution.  In  subscribing 
to  her  articles  his  hand  and  heart  went  together,  being 
an  enemy  to  all  prevarication,  however  coloured  or  pal- 
liated by  subtle  distinctions.  He  seemed  from  his 
youth  to  have  imbibed,  among  other  eminent  divines 
of  those  times,  an  opinion  of  the  illegality  of  usury, 
or  at  least  to  have  entertained  scruples  about  its  lawful- 
ness ;  but  this  appeared  rather  from  his  constant  prac- 


in  POLE. 

tice  of  lending  money  freely,  than  from  any  open  avowal 
of  his  sentiments  in  that  point :  his  friends  could  never 
get  from  him  his  reasons  against  usury,  and  the  cause 
of  his  reservedness  was,  that  the  thing  being  allowed 
by  our  laws,  and  not  disapproved  by  the  Church,  he 
would  disturb  neither  by  his  private  opinion.  How 
many  uncharitable  disputes  would  be  prevented,  if  every 
Christian  was  endued  with  this  laudable  moderation ! 
But  so  long  as  it  is  fashionable  to  have  no  concern 
for  the  peace  of  the  Church,  nor  reverence  for  authority, 
controversies  about  religion  will  increase  till,  without 
some  gracious  interposition  of  Providence,  they  eat  out 
out  the  vitals  of  it. 

"  It  would  be  endless  to  enumerate  all  the  virtues 
of  this  excellent  man,  or  to  be  particular  about  the 
constancy  and  frequency  of  his  devotions,  with  his  family, 
and  in  his  closet ;  his  strict  manner  of  observing  pub- 
lic fasts,  his  undissembled  grief  at  hearing  God's  name 
profaned,  or  the  Lord's  Day  unhallowed,  or  the  recital 
of  any  gross  immorality :  but  above  all,  his  charity 
under  each  branch  of  it,  giving  and  forgiving,  was  most 
exemplary. 

"The  largeness  of  a  family  was,  in  his  judgment, 
no  excuse  for  scanty  alms-giving :  but  besides  the  poor 
whom  he  daily  relieved  at  his  door,  he  gave  to  others 
quarterly  allowances.  His  charitable  disposition  was 
so  notorious,  and  brought  such  numbers  of  necessitous 
objects  to  him,  that  Dean  Fell,  himself  a  most  muni- 
ficent person,  used  complainingly  to  tell  Dr.  Pocock, 
that  he  drew  all  the  poor  of  Oxford  into  the  college." 
— Life  by  Twells. 


POLE,    REGINALD. 

Reginald    Pole    was   born   in   1500,    at    Stoverton,   or 
Stourton  Castle,  in  Staffordshire.      He  was  cousin   to 


POLE.  113 

ttenvy  VII.,  his  mother  being  the  daughter  of  the 
"false,  fleeting,  perjured  Clarence,"  brother  of  Edward 
IV.,  who  had  married  Richard  de  la  Pole,  Lord  Monta- 
cute.  He  was  educated  first  by  the  Carthusians  of  Shene, 
near  Pdchmond,  in  Surrey,  where  there  was  a  grammar 
school.  He  staid  there  five  years  ;  and  then  entered 
as  a  nobleman  in  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  w^iere  an 
apartment  was  assigned  him  in  the  president's  lodg- 
ings. Thomas  Linacre  and  William  Latimer  were 
his  tutors.  Few  things  could  prove  the  necessity  of 
a  Reformation  in  the  Church  more  than  the  fact  that, 
when  he  was  only  seventeen  years  of  age,  being  a 
layman,  he  was  nominated  by  the  king,  Prebendary 
of  Roscombe,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Salisbury;  and  held 
with  that  stall  the  Prebend  of  Yatminster  Secunda, 
in  the  same  church.  Soon  after,  he  had  the  Deanery 
of  Wimburne  Minster,  together  with  the  Deanery  of 
Exeter,  conferred  upon  him.  He  had  graduated  in 
1615,  but  he  was  not  in  holy  orders,  nor  had  even 
received  the  first  tonsure,  till  the  very  day  on  which 
he  was   appointed   a  cardinal  by  the  pope. 

In  1519,  the  youthful  dean  visited  the  University 
of  Padua;  which,  according  to  Erasmus,  was,  at  that 
time,  the  Athens  of  Europe.  On  his  return  to  England, 
in  1526,  he  was  received  at  court  with  every  demon- 
stration of  esteem  and  favour  by  Henry  VIII.  and  Queen 
Catherine.  This  princess  had  felt  all  the  horrors  of 
the  bloody  policy  by  which  the  death  of  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  was  made  a  necessary  stipulation  to  her  mar- 
riage, and  had  often  signified  her  forebodings  of  the 
vengeance  which  w^ould  wait  on  it.  It  was  apprehended 
that  the  title  of  the  House  of  York  might  one  day 
revive  in  this  young  prince;  and  Henry  VII.  and 
Ferdinand  had  got  rid  of  those  fears,  by  an  expedient 
suited  to  both  their  characters;  and,  by  adding  the 
mockery  of  justice  to  murder,  had,  on  a  pretended 
conspiracy,  taken  aw^ay  the  life  a  Prince,  whose  only 
L    3 


114  POLE. 

guilt  was  his  relation  to  the  crown.     The  queen  had 
already  done  everything  in   her  power  to  atone  for  the 
sin,  and  repair  the  injury  of  so  foul  a  deed.       The  Coun- 
tess of  Salisbury,  mother  to  Reginald  Pole,  being  sister 
to  the  unfortunate  victim  of  her  father's  jealousy,  she 
committed  the  care  of  the   Princess  Mary's    education 
to   her;    treated    her   and   and   all   her   children   with 
remarkable  affection ;    and  was  accustomed  to  say,  her 
mind  would  never  be  at  ease,  unless  the  crown  reverted 
again  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick's  family,   by  a  marriage 
of  one  of  his  sister's  sons  to  her  daughter ;    and  thus 
some  reparation   made   for   the   injustice   done   to   the 
brother :    and  amongst    all    that  lady's   numerous   off- 
spring, she  had  ever  shewn  a  predilection  to  Reginald. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  advantages  of  such  a  position, 
and  the   sunshine  of  royal  favour  which  encompassed 
him,    he   resolved   to   withdraw   from   it.        The   court 
was   become    a  scene  of  intrigue,  to  which  his  breast 
was   a   stranger.      He  was    a  constant   witness   to  the 
wanderings  of  a  prince,   to  whom  he  had  the  highest 
obligations,   and  whom  he  loved  with   all   the  sincerity 
of  a  loyal  and  thankful  heart:    nor   would   his  integ- 
rity   allow    him    to    interest  himself  less  in  the   case 
and  honour  of  the   Queen,  who  was  now  treated  with 
coldness    and    disregard.       However,*  that   this   retreat 
might  not  give  offence,  or  draw  on  him  his  displeasure, 
he  alleged  a   desire  of  prosecuting   his  studies,    where 
he  should  meet  with  fewer   avocations ;    and  obtained 
his    majesty's   consent   to    go    to    the    Carthusians    at 
Shene,    where    he    had    passed    several    years    of    his 
youth,    and  where   there  was  a   very  handsome    house, 
and   every  thing  fitted  to  his  purpose  within  the  inclo- 
sure  of  tbat  monastery. 

The  question  of  the  king's  divorce,  of  which  an 
account  is  given  in  the  Life  of  Cranmer,  soon  after 
arose,  and  Pole  sympathizing  with  Catherine  of  Aragon, 
and    naturally   wishing   to   be   out  of    the   way,    made 


POLE.  1]5 

his  desire  of  completing  his  theological  sudies,  a  plea 
for  his  going  to  Paris,  where  he  remained  till  October, 
1530. 

But  change  of  place,  did  not  save  him  from  respon- 
sibility and  trouble.  The  agents  of  Henry  VIII.  who 
had  determined  to  consult  the  universities  of  Europe, 
respecting  the  divorce,  arrived  at  Paris,  and  Pole  was 
solicited  to  concur  with  them  in  procuring  the  decision 
of  the  University  of  Paris  in  the  king's  favour.  As  this 
opinion  was  contrary  to  Pole's  sentiments,  he  was  thrown 
into  a  perplexity,  from  which  he  endeavoured  to  extricate 
himself  by  pleading  his  unfitness  for  such  a  business ; 
but  he  could  not  thereby  escape  the  king's  displeasure. 
After  his  return,  therefore,  he  thought  it  advisable  again 
to  retire  to  Shene,  where  he  spent  two  years  more,  un- 
molested, But  Henry's  impatience  under  the  delays 
he  met  with  respecting  the  divorce  having  brought 
him  to  the  final  resolution  of  throwing  himself  upon 
the  support  of  his  own  subjects,  it  became  a  step  of 
importance  to  gain  over  a  person  of  Pole's  rank  and 
reputation.  Both  hopes  and  menaces  were  therefore 
employed  to  shake  him,  and  he  was  persuaded  to  wait 
upon  the  king  in  order  to  give  him  all  the  satisfaction 
in  his  power.  Conscience,  however,  prevented  him  from 
concurring  in  the  arguments  for  the  divorce ;  and  though 
he  was  dismissed  with  tokens  of  regard,  yet  he  thought 
it  prudent  again  to  withdraw  to  the  continent.  He  took 
up  his  abode  successively  at  Avignon,  Padua,  and 
Venice,  applying  assiduously  to  the  study  of  divinity, 
and  cultivating  friendships  with  the  most  eminent  char- 
acters for  learning  and  piety. 

In  the  meantime  Henry  had  proceeded  to  extremities 
in  his  favourite  plans.  He  had  divorced  Catharine, 
married  Anne  Boleyn,  and  retaliated  the  hostility  of 
the  Roman  See,  by  declaring  himself  head  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  He  procured  a  book  to  be  written  in 
defence  of  this  title,  by  Dr.  Sampson,  Bishop  of  Chi- 


116  POLE. 

Chester,  which  he  caused  to  be  transmitted  to  Pole, 
perhaps  hoping  that  he  might  be  convinced  by  its  argu- 
ments. This,  however,  was  so  far  from  taking  place, 
that  Pole,  now  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  maxims  of 
Rome,  forgot  all  the  moderation  of  his  character,  and 
drew  up  a  Treatise,  "  De  Unitate  Ecclesiastica,"  in 
which  he  used  very  harsh  language  both  to  Sampson 
and  the  king,  comparing  the  latter  to  Nebuchadnezzar, 
and  even  exciting  the  emperor  to  revenge  the  injury 
offered  to  his  aunt.  He  sent  his  work  to  Henry,  who 
could  not  fail  to  be  much  displeased  with  its  contents, 
as  were  indeed  some  of  the  writer's  friends  in  England. 
Henry  dissembled  his  resentment,  and  invited  Pole  to 
come  over  in  order  to  explain  some  passages  in  his 
Treatise  for  his  satisfaction ;  but  his  kinsman  was  too 
wary  to  expose  himself  to  the  fate  of  More  and  Fisher. 

The  king  now  kept  no  measures  with  him,  but  with- 
drew his  pension,  alienated  his  preferments,  and  caused 
a  bill  of  attainder  to  be  passed  against  him.  But  Pole 
had  now  a  new  sovereign.  By  Paul  III.  he  was  nomi- 
nated a  cardinal,  and,  according  to  Mr.  Hallam,  he 
became  an  active  instrument  of  the  pope  in  fomenting 
rebellion  in  England.  At  his  own  solicitation  he  was 
appointed  Legate  to  the  Low  Countries,  in  1537,  with 
the  sole  object  of  keeping  alive  the  flame  of  the  Northern 
Rebellion,  and  exciting  foreign  powers  as  well  as  the 
English  nation  to  restore  Popery  by  force,  if  not  to 
dethrone  Henry.  It  is  difficult,  says  the  historian, 
not  to  suspect  that  he  was  influenced  by  ambitious 
views  in  a  proceeding  so  treasonable  and  so  little  in 
accordance  with  his  polished  manners  and  temperate 
life.  Philips,  his  able  and  artful  biographer,  both 
proves   and  glories  in  his   treason. 

Upon  the  failure  of  these  designs,  he  was  sent  as 
legate  to  Viterbo,  where  he  remainded  till  1543.  In 
that  year  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  three  Papal 
legates   to   the    Council   of   Trent ;    and   when   it   was 


POLE.  117 

actually  assembled,  he  attended  upon  its  deliberations 
as  long  as  his  health  would  permit.  He  is  said  to  have 
held  the  orthodox  Protestant  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith ;  whence  he  incurred  some  suspicion  of  being 
too  favourable  to  Protestantism.  His  friendship  for 
Flaminio,  who  was  an  inmate  with  him  and  died  in 
his  house,  and  the  lenity  he  shewed  to  some  Protestants 
at  Viterbo,  were  alledged  as  further  grounds  for  suspect- 
ing his  religion  ;  yet  of  his  attachment  to  the  interests  of 
the  Papal  See  he  had  given  such  valid  proofs  as  would 
not  suffer  it  to  be  doubted.  He  was  therefore  confi- 
dentially employed  in  the  political  affairs  of  the  Pioman 
court  during  the  life  of  Paul,  and  at  that  pontiff's  death 
in  1549,  he  was  seriously  thought  of  as  his  successor. 
Indeed,  during  the  cabals  of  the  conclave,  he  was  twice 
actually  nominated;  and  at  the  second  time  was  waited 
upon  late  at  night  by  the  cardinals  to  perform  the  cere- 
mony of  adoration.  But  his  scrupulosity  in  objecting 
to  the  unseasonable  hour,  and  insisting  upon  a  delay 
till  morning,  gave  them  time  to  change  their  minds, 
and  he  thus  missed  the  tiara. 

After  this  he  retired  to  the  Benedictine  monastei^  at 
Maguzano,  in  the  territory  of  Venice,  and  there  he  re- 
mained till  the  year  1553,  when  on  the  accession  of 
Mary,  he  was  invited  to  return  to  England.  He  set 
out  in  September,  1554,  but  being  detained  by  contrary 
winds  at  Calais  until  November,  he  did  not  cross  the 
water  until  the  twenty-first  of  that  month  ;  when  arriving 
at  Dover  he  went  thence  by  land  to  Gravesend,  where 
being  met  by  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  the  Earl  of  Salis- 
bury, who  presented  him  with  the  repeal  of  the  act  of 
his  attainder,  that  had  passed  the  day  before,  he  went 
on  board  a  yacht,  which  carrying  the  cross,  the  ensign 
of  his  legation,  at  her  head,  conveyed  him  to  Whitehall, 
where  he  was  received  with  the  utmost  veneration  by 
their  majesties;  and  after  all  possible  honour  and  respect 
paid  to  him  there,  he  was  conducted  to  the  archbishop's 


118     -  POLE. 

palace  at  Lambeth,  the  destined  place  of  his  residence, 
which  had  been  sumptuously  fitted  T;ip  by  the  queen 
for  the  purpose.  On  the  27th  he  went  to  the  parlia- 
ment, and  made  a  long  speech,  inviting  them  to  a 
reconciliation  with  the  See  of  Rome  from  whence, 
he  said,  he  was  sent  by  the  common  pastor  of  Christen- 
dom to  reduce  them,  who  had  long  strayed  from  the 
inclosure  of  the  Church.  On  the  29th,  the  speaker 
reported  to  the  commons  the  substance  of  this  speech ; 
and  a  message  coming  from  the  lords  for  a  conference, 
in  order  to  prepare  a  supplication  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  See  of  Rome,  it  was  consented  to,  and  the  petition 
being  agreed  on,  was  reported  and  approved  by  both 
houses ;  so  that  being  presented  by  them  on  their  knees 
to  the  king  and  queen,  these  made  their  intercession 
with  the  cardinal,  who  thereupon  delivered  himself  in 
a  long  speech,  at  the  end  of  which  he  granted  them 
absolution.  This  done,  all  went  to  the  royal  chapel, 
where  "Te  Deum  "  was  sung  on  the  occasion.  Thus 
the  pope's  authority  being  now  restored,  the  cardinal 
two  days  afterwards  made  his  public  entry  into  London, 
with  all  the  solemnities  of  a  legate,  and  presently  set 
about  the  business  of  reforming  the  Church,  of  what 
they  called  heresy.  How  much  soever  he  had  formerly 
been  suspected  to  favour  the  Reformation;  yet  he  seemed 
now  to  be  much  altered,  knowing  that  the  Court  of  Rome 
kept  a  jealous  eye  upon  him  in  this  respect.  He  there- 
fore expressed  great  detestation  of  the  Reformers,  nor 
did  he  converse  much  with  any  that  had  been  of  that 
party.  He  came  into  England,  much  changed  from 
that  freedom  of  conversation  he  had  formerly  practised. 
He  was  reserved  to  all,  spoke  little,  and  put  on  an 
Italian  temper,  as  well  as  behaviour ;  making  Priuli  and 
Ormaneto,  two  Italians  whom  he  brought  with  him,  his 
only  confidants.  In  the  meantime,  the  queen  dispatched 
ambassadors  to  Rome,  to  make  obedience  in  the  name 
of  the  whole  kingdom  to  the  pope;    who  had  already 


POLE.  119 

proclaimed  a  jubilee  on  that  occasion.  But  these  messen- 
gers had  scarcely  set  foot  on  Italian  ground,  when  they 
were  informed  of  the  death  of  Julius,  and  the  election 
of  Marcellus  his  successor ;  and  this  pontiff  dying  also 
soon  after,  the  queen  upon  the  first  news  of  it,  recom- 
mended her  kinsman  to  the  popedom,  as  every  way  the 
fittest  person  for  it ;  and  dispatches  were  accordingly 
sent  to  Eome  for  the  purpose,  but  they  came  too  late, 
Peter  Caraffa,  who  took  the  name  of  Paul  IV,,  being 
elected  before  their  arrival. 

This  pope  who  had  never  liked  the  cardinal,  was  better 
pleased  with  Gardiner,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  whose 
temper  exactly  tallied  with  his  own.  In  this  disposition 
he  favoured  Gardiner's  views  upon  the  See  of  Canterbury. 
Xor  was  Pole's  nomination  to  that  dignity  confirmed  by 
the  pope,  until  after  the  death  of  this  rival.  The  queen 
however,  confiding  in  Pole  for  the  management  and 
regulation  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  granted  him  a  licence 
to  hold  a  Synod  on  the  second  of  November,  1554.  In 
this  convention,  the  legate  proposed  the  next  year  a 
book  he  had  prepared,  containing  such  regulations  as  he 
judged  might  be  the  best  means  of  extirpating  heresy ; 
these  w^ere  passed  in  the  form  of  twelve  decrees,  and  they 
are  so  many  proofs  of  his  good  temper,  which  disposed 
him  not  to  set  the  clergy  upon  persecuting  the  Protes- 
tants, but  rather  to  reform  themselves,  and  seek  to  reclaim 
others  by  a  good  example,  as  the  surest  method  to  bring 
back  the  stragglers  into  the  fold.  How  unsuitably  to  the 
temper  of  these  decrees,  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  act  in 
many  instances  afterwards,  is  well  known.  The  same 
thing  is  confessed  also  by  Burnet,  who,  moreover, 
plainly  suggests  his  belief  of  the  report,  that  Cran- 
mer's  execution  was  of  Pole's  procuring.  It  is,  indeed, 
something  remarkable,  that  though  the  cardinal  had 
his  conge  d'elire,  as  well  as  two  bulls  dispatched 
from  Eome,  for  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  some 
months    before    Cranmers's    death:     and   deferred  his 


120  POLE. 

consecration  thereto,  apparently  because  he  thought 
it  indecent  while  Cranmer  lived ;  yet  he  chose  to 
have  it  done  the  very  next  day  after  the  prelate's 
execution ;  when  it  was  performed  by  the  Bishops  of 
London,  Ely,  Lincoln,  Rochester,  and  St.  Asaph,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Gray  Friars  at  Greenwich.  On  the  28th, 
he  went  in  state  to  Bow  Church,  where  the  Bishops  of 
Worcester  and  Ely,  after  the  former  had  said  mass,  put 
the  pall  upon  him.  Thus  invested,  he  went  into  the 
pulpit,  and  made  a  sermon  about  the  origin,  use,  and 
matter  of  that  vestment,  and  on  the  31st  of  the  same 
month,  he  was  installed  by  his  commissary.  In  Novem 
ber,  the  same  year,  1656,  he  w^as  elected  chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Oxford,  and  soon  after  of  Cambridge ;  and 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  following,  he  visited  both 
by  his  commissaries,  reforming  them  in  the  sense  of 
those  times,  but  not  without  committing  some  uncom- 
monly inhuman  persecutions. 

We  have  already  observed  how  unacceptable  he  was  to 
Paul  IV.,  who  now  sat  in  the  Papal  chair,  and  the  war 
which  England  was  drawn  into  with  France,  this  year 
by  King  Philip,  furnished  the  haughty  pontiff  with  a 
pretence  for  gratifying  his  ill-will  to  the  legate.  He  had 
passionately  espoused  the  quarrel  of  the  French  mon- 
arch, and  being  inflamed  to  see  England  siding  against 
his  friend,  he  resolved  to  revenge  it  on  Pole.  In  this 
spirit  having  declared  openly  that  it  might  now  be  seen 
how  little  the  cardinal  regarded  the  apostohc  see,  when 
he  suffered  the  queen  to  assist  their  enemies  against 
their  friends ;  he  first  made  a  decree  in  May,  for  a 
general  revocation  of  all  legates  and  nuncios  in  the 
King  of  Spain's  dominions.  Cardinal  Pole  being  men- 
tioned among  the  rest.  And  though  he  was  diverted  from 
carrying  his  project  into  execution  for  the  present,  by 
the  representations  of  Sir  Edward  Carne,  then  the  Eng- 
lish ambassador  at  Home  ;  yet  upon  the  fatal  blow  given 
to  the  French  at  St.  Quintin,  and  the  ill  success  of  his 


POLE.  121 

own  forces  in  Italy,  his  wrath  burst  out  with  fresh  fury, 
he  became  utterly  implacable,  accused  Pole  as  a  sus- 
pected heretic,  summoned  him  to  Rome  to  answer  the 
charge,  and  depriving  him  of  the  legatine  powers,  con- 
ferred them  upon  Peyto,  a  Franciscan  friar ;  whom  he 
had  sent  for  to  Rome,  and  made  a  cardinal  for  the  pur- 
pose, designing  him  also  to  the  See  of  Salisbury.  This 
appointment  was  made  in  September,  and  the  new  legate 
was  actually  on  the  road  to  England,  when  the  bulls 
came  to  the  hands  of  Queen  Mary,  who  having  been 
informed  of  their  contents  by  her  ambassador,  laid  them 
up  without  opening  them,  or  acquainting  her  cousin 
with  them ;  in  whose  behalf  she  wrote  to  the  pope,  and 
assuming  some  of  her  father  s  spirit,  she  wrote  also  to 
Peyto,  forbidding  him  to  proceed  on  his  journey,  and 
charging  him  at  his  peril  not  to  set  foot  on  English 
ground.  But  notwithstanding  all  her  caution  to  conceal 
the  matter  from  the  cardinal,  it  was  not  possible  to  keep 
it  long  a  secret,  and  he  no  sooner  became  acquainted 
with  the  pope's  pleasure,  or  rather  his  displeasure, 
than  out  of  that  implicit  veneration,  which  he  constantly 
and  unalterably  preserved  for  the  See  of  Rome,  he  volun- 
tarily laid  down  the  ensigns  of  his  legatine  power,  and 
forbore  the  exercise  of  it ;  dispatching  his  trusty  min- 
ister, Ormaneto,  to  Rome,  with  letters  wherein  he 
cleared  himself  in  such  submissive  terms,  as  it  is  said 
even  mollified  and  melted  the  obdurate  heart  of  Paul. 
The  truth  is,  the  pontiff  was  brought  into  a  better  tem- 
per by  some  late  events,  which  turned  his  regard  from 
the  French  towards  the  Spaniards,  and  the  storm  against 
Pole  blew  over  entirely,  by  a  peace  that  was  concluded 
this  year  between  the  pope  and  Philip ;  in  one  of  the 
secret  articles  of  which,  it  was  stipulated  that  the  car- 
dinal should  be  restored  to  his  legatine  powers.  But  he 
did  not  live  to  enjoy  the  restoration  a  full  twelvemonth, 
being  seized  with  a  double  quartan  ague,  which  carried 
him  off  the  stage  of  life  early  in  the  morning  of   the 

VIII.  M 


122  POLYCARP. 

18th  of  November,  1558.  His  death  is  said  to  have 
been  hastened  by  that  of  his  royal  mistress  and  kins- 
woman, Queen  Mary,  which  happened  about  sixteen 
hours  before. — Philijjs.    Dod.     Biog.  Brit. 


POLYCARP,     SAINT. 

Saint  Polycaep,  one  of  the  apostolical  fathers  and  a 
martyr,  was  born  during  the  reign  of  Nero ;  and,  as 
is  generally  supposed,  at  Smyrna,  in  Asia  Minor.  He 
was  a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John,  by  whom  he  was 
appointed  Bishop  of  Smyrna;  and  is  supposed  to  be 
the  "  angel  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna,"  to  whom  one 
of  the  epistles  in  Revelation  ii.,  is  directed  to  be  sent. 
It  is  also  stated  by  some  of  the  fathers  that  he  was 
acquainted  with  others  of  the  apostles  :  but  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  had  conversed  with  several  who  had  both 
heard  and  seen  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  he 
was  accustomed  to  relate  the  conversations  which  passed 
between  himself  and  them. 

In  the  year  107,  Polycarp  was  visited  by  St.  Ignatius, 
on  his  way  to  martyrdom ;  Ignatius  having  been,  like 
Poljxarp,  a  disciple  of  St.  John.  Ignatius,  ignorant 
of  any  right  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  bishop  to  inter- 
fere in  the  concerns  of  another  diocese,  recommended 
his  own  See  of  Antioch  to  the  superintendence  of 
Polycarp,  and  afterwards  sent  an  epistle  to  the  Church 
of  Smyrna,  from  Troas,  where  Polycarp  wrote  his  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians. 

Polycarp  commences  his  epistle  in  the  true  spirit 
of  a  martyr,  by  denominating  '*  the  bonds  of  the 
saints  the  diadems  of  such  as  are  chosen  by  God 
and  our  Lord."  The  presbyters  he  exhorts  to  '•  ab- 
stain from  all  anger  and  covetousness ;  not  easily 
to  belie%'e  accusations,  nor  to  be  severe  in  judging, 
knowing  that  we  are  aU  debtors  by  sin.*'      He  then 


POLYCARP.  123 

enforces  upon  the  Philippians  the  duty  of  receiving 
Christ,  as  the  propitiation  for  sin,  and  example  of 
hoHness. 

"  Let  us,  therefore,  perpetually  cleave  to  the  hope  and 
pledge  of  our  righteousness,  even  to  Jesus  Christ ;  Who 
His  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the 
tree,  "Who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His 
mouth ;  but  endured  all  for  us  that  we  might  live 
through  Him.  Let  us,  therefore,  be  imitators  of  His 
patience ;  and  if  we  suffer  for  His  Name,  we  glorify 
Him ;  for  this  example  he  has  given  us  by  Himself, 
and  so  have  w^e  believed."  He  afterwards  offers  up 
this  holy  aspiration  in  their  behalf; — "  Now  the  God 
and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  ever- 
lasting High  Priest  Himself,  the  Son  of  God,  even 
Jesus  Christ,  build  you  up  in  faith  and  truth,  and 
in  all  meekness  and  unity,  in  patience  and  long  suf- 
fering, in  forbearance  and  purity;  and  grant  unto  you 
a  lot  and  portion  among  His  saints,  and  to  us  with 
you,  and  to  all  that  are  under  the  heavens,  who  shall 
believe  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  His  Father, 
who  raised  Him  from  the  dead.  Pray  for  all  saints  ; 
pray  also  for  kings,  and  all  that  are  in  authority,  and 
for  those  who  persecute  and  hate  you,  and  for  the 
enemies  of  the  cross,  that  your  fruit  may  be  manifest 
in  all  things,  and  that  ye  may  be  perfect  in  Christ." 

The  controversy  with  respect  to  the  proper  day  on 
which  Easter  should  be  kept,  becoming  warm  between 
the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Churches,  Polycarp,  in 
L58,  travelled  to  Rome  to  confer  with  Anicetus  the 
bishop  of  that  city.  The  pope  was  not  then  regarded 
as  the  centre  of  unity,  or  the  matter  would  have  been 
settled  at  once.  Polycarp's  object  was  to  convince 
Anicetus  that  he  was  in  the  wrong,  but  when  he  did 
not  succeed  in  this,  he  did  i\pt  for  a  moment  defer 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 

It  is  indeed  sinc^ular  that  a  circumstance  of  so  little 


124  POLYCAEP. 

importance  in  itself  should  at  so  early  a  period,  and 
during  times  of  persecution,  have  excited  so  much  inter- 
est in  the  Christian  world.  The  one  party  were  of  opinion 
that  it  should  be  observed  like  the  Jewish  Passover,  as 
a  fixed  feast  at  the  full  moon  ;  the  other  contended  that 
it  should  be  considered  as  a  moveable  festival,  and  that 
it  should  be  observed  on  the  Lord's  day  following.  Each 
party  derived  their  own  practice  from  apostolical  tra- 
dition :  Anicetus,  and  the  generality  of  the  Western 
Churches,  favoured  the  latter  practice ;  Polycarp,  and 
the  Eastern  Churches,  the  former.  It  is  not  impro- 
bable that  they  were  both  in  the  right  as  to  fact ;  it 
being  the  known  practice  of  the  apostles  to  become 
all  things  to  all  men  in  matters  of  indifference,  and 
to  comply  with  the  customs  of  every  place  they  came 
to,  as  far  as  they  innocently  could.  Hence  Polycarp 
might  know  that  St.  John,  out  of  this  prudential  com- 
pliance, kept  Easter  upon  one  day  at  one  place,  and 
Anicetus  might  be  equally  certain  that  St.  Peter  ob- 
served it  upon  another  day  at  another  place,  for  the 
same  reason.  The  error  then  here  committed  was  a 
mistake  in  judgment,  and  not  in  fact,  a  disproportioned 
and  excessive  zeal  in  a  matter  not  worth  contending 
for. 

But  though  Polycarp  and  Anicetus  could  not  come  to 
an  agreement,  they  agreed  to  differ.  They  received  the 
Holy  Communion  together,  and  Anicetus,  according  to 
the  Christian  courtesy  of  the  age,  gave  Polycarp  prece- 
dence, though  in  his  own  city,  and  by  Polycarp  the 
elements  were  consecrated. 

Whilst  Polycarp  continued  in  Rome,  he  became  en- 
gaged in  a  much  more  important  controversy ;  and  his 
labours  appear  to  have  been  attended  with  considerable 
benefit  to  the  cause  of  Christianity.  The  heresy  of 
Marcion  was  at  that  ti^le  prevalent  in  the  city ;  and 
several  persons,  who  had  once  made  a  profession  of  the 
true  faith,  were  seduced  by  it.     In  the  meantime  Mar- 


POLYCARP.  ]95 

cion,  in  order  to  give  weight  to  his  sentiments,  endea- 
voured to  insinuate  into  the  'minds  of  the  people, 
that  there  was  an  agreement  between  himself  and  Poly- 
carp.  It  is  not  surprising  that  Marcion  should  make 
such  an  attempt,  or  that  Poljcarp  should  consider  it  as 
his  duty  to  use  the  most  decisive  measures  to  disclose 
the  falsehood  of  the  heretic.  Marcion  meeting  him  one 
day  in  the  street,  called  out  to  him,  "  Polycarp,  own  us," 
"  I  do,"  replied  the  zealous  bishop,  "own  thee, — to  be 
the  first-born  of  Satan." 

Some  years  after  the  return  of  Polycarp  from  Rome 
and  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  Christians 
were  persecuted  in  all  parts  of  the  Roman  empire  with 
unrelenting  rigour.  And  many  were  called  upon  at 
Smyrna  as  well  as  in  other  places  to  seal  their  profession 
with  their  blood. 

During  this  awful  season  Polycarp  "  in  patience 
possessed  his  soul,  "  neither  disheartened  by  the  fury 
of  his  enemies,  nor  countenancing  the  fanaticism  of  the 
times  in  courting  the  persecution  of  his  enemies. 

But  the  cry  of  the  populace  soon  reached  his  ears, 
"Take  away  the  Atheists  ;  let  Polycarp  be  sought  for." 
Three  days  previous  to  his  death,  Polycarp  was  fa- 
voured with  a  vision  whilst  engaged  in  prayer,  in  which 
it  was  figuratively  represented  to  him  that  he  should 
be  burnt  alive.  The  place  of  his  retreat  was  extorted 
from  a  young  man  of  his  household,  and  his  enemies 
immediately  afterwards  entered  his  dwelling.  As  he 
was,  however,  at  that  time  lying  down  in  an  upper 
room,  connected  with  the  flat  roof  of  the  house,  he 
might  still  have  possibly  escaped  them.  But  he  now 
deemed  it  his  duty  no  longer  to  avoid  their  scrutiny ; 
thinking  that  he  could  not  give  a  nobler  testimony 
to  his  uprightness  and  confidence  in  God,  than  by  shew- 
ing to  the  world  that  these  were  a  sufficient  security 
to  him  in  whatever  dangers  he  might  be  involved.  No 
sooner,  therefore,  had  he  heard  that  his  enemies  were 

M  3 


126  POLYCARP. 

at  hand  than  he  calmly  exclaimed,  "The  will  of  the 
Lord  be  done,"  and,  ^'ith  a  composed  countenance, 
entered  into  their  presence. 

The  advanced  age  of  Polycarp,  and  the  sanctity  of 
his  appearance,  sensibly  impressed  them.  Some  of 
them  even  said,  "  Surely  it  is  not  worth  while  to  appre- 
hend so  old  a  man  !  "  In  the  mean  time,  the  martyr 
courteously  ordered  refreshment  to  be  set  before  them ; 
and,  having  obtained  permission  to  engage  in  prayer, 
he  stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  prayed  aloud  with 
remarkable  fervour  and  devotion  for  two  successive 
hours.  The  spectators  were  astonished  at  the  scene ; 
and  many  of  them  repented  that  they  were  come  to 
seize  so  divine  a  character. 

As  soon  as  he  had  ended  his  devotions,  in  which 
he  had  referred  to  the  Church  in  general,  and  to  various 
individuals  that  were  personally  known  to  him,  his 
guards  set  him  on  an  ass,  and  led  him  towards  the 
city.  Whilst  on  the  road,  they  were  met  by  Herod, 
the  Irenarch,  or  keeper  of  the  peace,  and  his  father 
Nicetas,  who  took  him  into  their  chariot,  and  for  some 
time,  by  promises  and  threatenings,  endeavoured  to 
induce  him  to  sacrifice  to  the  heathen  gods.  Finding, 
at  length,  that  he  remained  unmoved,  they  abused  the 
old  man,  and  then  cast  him  down  from  the  chariot 
with  such  violence  that  his  thigh  was  severely  bruised 
by  the  fall.  He,  however,  cheerfully  went  on  with 
his  guards  to  the  stadium,  as  though  unhurt.  As  he 
was  entering  the  assembly,  a  voice  from  heaven  is  said 
to  have  addressed  him; — "Be  strong,  Polycarp,  and 
behave  yourself  like  a  man!  "  None  saw  the  speaker; 
but  many  that  were  present  heard  the  voice.  When 
he  was  brought  before  the  tribunal,  the  proconsul, 
struck  with  his  appearance,  earnestly  exhorted  him  to 
pity  his  advanced  age,  to  swear  by  the  fortune  of  Caesar, 
and  to  say,  *'  Away  with  the  Atheists,"  a  term  of  re- 
proach then  commonly  attached  to  the  Christians.      The 


POLYCARP.  U% 

saint,  with  his  hand  directed  to  the  multitude,  and 
his  eyes  Hfted  up  to  heaven,  with  a  solemn  countenance, 
said,  *'  Away  with  the  Atheists ;"  thereby  intimating 
his  fervent  desire  that  true  religion  might  prosper, 
and  impiety  be  restrained.  The  proconsul  still  con- 
tinued to  urge  him  to  apostatize.  "  Reproach  Christ," 
said  he,  "  and  I  will  immediately  release  you,"  Fired 
with  a  holy  indignation,  the  aged  martyr  replied, 
"Eighty  and  six  years  have  I  served  Him,  and  He 
hath  never  wronged  me;  how  then  can  I  blaspheme 
my  King  and  my  Saviour !  "  Being  still  urged  to 
recant,  he  added,  "  If  you  affect  ignorance  of  my  real 
character,  hear  me  plainly  declare  what  I  am — I  am 
a  Christian."  "  I  have  wild  beasts,"  said  the  procon- 
sul, "  I  will  expose  you  to  them,  unless  you  repent." 
"Call  them,"  cried  the  martyr.  "We  Christians 
are  determined  in  our  minds  not  to  change  from  good 
to  evil."  "I  will  tame  your  spirit  by  fire,"  said  the 
other,  "  since  you  despise  the  wild  beasts,  if  you  will 
not  recant."  "  You  threaten  me  with  fire,"  answered 
Polycarp,  which  burns  for  an  hour ;  but  you  are  igno- 
rant of  the  future  judgment,  and  of  the  fire  of 
eternal  punishment,  reserved  for  the  ungodly. — But 
why  do  you  delay?       Do  what  you  please." 

Firm  and  intrepid  he  stood  before  the  council,  not 
only  contemning,  but  even  desirous  of  death.  In  the 
meantime  the  proconsul  was  evidently  embarrassed ; 
but  at  length  he  sent  a  herald  to  proclaim  thrice  in  the 
assembly,  "  Polycarp  has  professed  himself  a  Christian." 

At  first  the  populace  desired  that  a  lion  should  be  let 
out  against  him ;  but,  as  this  could  not  then  conveni- 
ently be  done,  as  the  shews  of  wild  beasts  were  ended, 
they  cried  out  with  one  voice,  "  Polycarp  shall  be  burnt 
alive."  The  sentence  was  executed  with  all  possible 
speed;  for  the  people  immediately  gathered  fuel  from 
the  work-shops  and  baths,  the  poor  infatuated  Jews  dis- 
tinguishing themselves  in  this  employment  with  pecu- 


128  POLYCARP. 

liar  malice.  In  the  meantime  the  martyr  cheerfully 
awaited  his  fate,  fearing  neither  death,  nor  the  horrible 
form  in  which  it  was  now  presented  to  him. 

Every  thing  being  at  length  prepared  for  burning  him, 
the  executioners  were  proceeding  to  nail  him  to  the 
stake,  when  he  exclaimed,  "  Let  me  remain  as  I  am, 
for  He  Who  giveth  me  strength  to  sustain  the  fire,  will 
enable  me  also,  without  being  secured  by  nails,  to  re- 
main unmoved  by  the  fire."  They,  therefore,  only  bound 
him. 

Polycarp  then  offered  up  the  following  prayer  : — "  0 
Lord  God  Almighty,  the  Father  of  Thy  Beloved  and 
Blessed  Son  Jesus  Christ,  through  Whom  we  have 
attained  the  knowledge  of  Thee ;  the  God  of  Angels 
and  principalities,  and  of  every  creature,  and  of  all  the 
just  that  live  in  Thy  sight !  I  bless  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  vouchsafed  to  bring  me  to  this  day  and  this  hour  ; 
that  I  should  have  a  part  in  the  number  of  Thy  Martyrs 
in  the  cup  of  Christ,  for  the  resurrection  to  eternal  life 
both  of  soul  and  body,  in  the  incorruption  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  among  whom  may  I  be  accepted  before  Thee 
this  day,  as  a  sacrifice  well  savoured  and  acceptable,  as 
Thou,  the  faithful  the  true  God,  hast  ordained,  promised, 
and  art  now  fulfilliug.  Wherefore  I  praise  Thee  for  all 
those  things  ;  I  bless  Thee,  I  glorify  Thee,  by  the  eternal 
High  Priest,  Jesus  Christ,  Thy  Beloved  Son,  by  Whom, 
and  with  Whom,  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  glory  to  Thee 
both  now  and  for  ever.     Amen." 

As  soon  as  Polycarp  had  finished  his  prayer,  the 
executioners  lighted  the  fire,  which  blazed  to  a  great 
height ;  and  the  flame,  making  a  kind  of  arch,  like 
the  sail  of  a  ship  filled  with  wind,  surrounded  the 
body  of  the  holy  martyr.  One  of  the  executioners 
perceiving  that  his  body  was  not  burnt,  plunged  his 
sword  into  it,  and  then  cast  it  down  into  the  flames, 
where  it  was  soon  consumed.  And  now,  like  another 
Elijah,  he  ascended  in  a  chariot  of  fire;  but  not  with- 


POLYCRATES.  120 

out  having  first  communicated  a  portion  of  his  spirit 
to  those  around  him. 

This  venerable  saint  was  martyred  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  hundred  and  sixty- seven,  and  about  the  one 
hundred  and  twentieth  year  of  his  own  age.  Eleven 
Christians  suffered  with  him. 

The  only  writing  of  Polycarp  which  we  possess  is  the 
Epistle  to  the  Philippians  mentioned  above.  It  is  one 
of  the  writings  of  the  apostolical  Fathers  translated  by 
Archbishop  Wake,  who  has  also  translated  the  account 
of  Polycarp 's  death  written  in  the  name  of  the  Church 
of  Smyrna. — Eusebiiis.     Irenceus.     Wake.     Cox. 


POLYCEATES. 

PoLYCEATEs  flourished  towards  the  close  of  the  second 
century.     He  bore  a  distinguished  part  in  the  contro- 
versy respecting  the  observance  of  Easter,  being  at  that 
time  Bishop  of  Ephesus.     The  Eastern  Church  main- 
tained that  it  should  be  observed  on  the  fourteenth  day 
after  the  new  moon  in  March,  on  whatever  day  of  the 
week  it  should  fall,  the  Western  Church  kept  it  on  the 
Sunday.       Victor,    Bishop    of    Eome,    called  upon  the 
Eastern  Churches  to  conform  to  the  rule  of  the  Western 
Church.     Upon  this  Polycrates  convened  a  numerous 
synod  of  the  bishops  of  Asia,  who,  after  taking  the  lordly 
requisition  of  Victor  into  consideration,    determined  to 
adhere  to   their   own   rule.       With   their   approbation, 
Polycrates  wrote  to  Victor,  informing  him  of  their  reso- 
lution.    Exasperated  at  their  answer,  Victor  broke  off 
communion   with   them,    and   excluded  them   from   all 
fellowship  with  the  Church  of  Rome.     The  letter  which 
Polycrates  sent  to  Victor  is  no  longer  extant ;  but  there 
are  two  fragments  of  it  preserved  by  Eusebius. — Eusebius. 
Jerome. 


130  PONTIUS,  CONSTANTINE. 


PONTIUS. 

Pontius  flourished  about  the  year  250,  and  was  probably 
a  native  of  Africa.  He  was  deacon  to  St.  Cyprian  and 
is  chiefly  celebrated  as  the  author  of  the  Life  and  Papers 
of  St.  Cyprian.     He  is  supposed  to  have  died  a  martyr 

in  26S.—(See  St.  Cyprians  Works.) 


PONTIUS,  CONSTANTINE. 

CoNSTANTiNE  PoNTius  was  bom  at  St.  Clement,  in  New 
Castile,  and  was  educated  in  the  University  of  Valladolid. 
His  historical  name,  Pontius,  has  been  curiously  derived. 
His  real  name  was  De  la  Fuente,  and  this  we  are  told 
became  in  Latin  Fontius,  and  Fontius  became  Pontius. 
He  was  Canon  and  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Seville.  He 
was  preacher  to  Charles  V.,  (some  say  his  confessor)  and 
accompanied  his  son,  Philip  IL,  to  England.  In  Eng- 
land, his  mind  was  opened  to  the  errors  of  Piomanism, 
and  he  embraced  the  principles  of  the  Reformation.  On 
his  return  to  Spain  he  preached  manfully  against  the 
errors  of  Romanism,  Hence  he  drew  on  himself  many 
attacks  from  the  priests  and  monks,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Seville,  president  of  the  conclave  of  the  Inquisition, 
against  which  he  defended  himself  with  great  skill  and 
address.  At  length  they  made  a  seizure  of  his  books, 
which  he  had  carefully  endeavoured  to  conceal;  and 
among  them  was  found  one  in  his  own  handwriting, 
containing  a  pointed  condemnation  of  the  leading  points 
in  the  Popish  creed.  When  this  book  was  produced,  he 
undauntingly  avowed  it,  and  declared  his  determination 
to  maintain  the  truth  of  its  contents,  desiring  them, 
as  they  had  now  a  full  confession  of  his  principles,  to 
give  themselves  no  further  trouble  in  procuring  witnesses 
against  him,  but  to  dispose  of  him  as  they  pleased. 
From  this  time   he  was  kept  in  prison  for  two  years, 


POOLE.  131 

under  a  sentence  of  condemnation  to  the  flames ;  but 
before  the  day  of  the  Auto  da  Fe  on  which  it  was  to  be 
carried  into  execution,  he  died  of  a  dysentery,  occa- 
sioned by  the  excessive  heat  of  his  place  of  confine- 
ment, and  the  bad  quality  of  his  food.  This  event 
took  place  in  1559.  He  was  burnt  in  effigy.  His 
works  are : — Commentaries  on  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon, 
on  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  on  the  Song  of  Songs, 
and  on  the  Book  of  Job,  the  substance  of  which  was  de- 
livered in  his  course  of  theological  lectures  at  Seville ;  A 
Summary  of  the  Christian  Doctrine,  printed  in  Spanish, 
at  Antwerp;  Six  Sermons  on  the  First  Psalm,  in  the 
same  language,  and  published  at  the  same  place,  in 
1556  ;  The  Confession  of  a  Sinner,  marked  in  the 
index  as  particularly  deserving  of  condemnation  ;  and,  A 
Catechism  at  large. — Bayle.     Moreri. 


POOLE,    MATTHEW. 

Matthew  Poole  was  born  at  York,  in  1624,  and  from 
the  Grammar  School  at  York,  he  proceeded  to  Emmanuel 
College,  Cambridge,  where  he  embraced  the  doctrines 
of  Presbyterianism.  In  1648,  he  was  made  Rector 
of  St.  Michael  le  Querne,  in  London,  where  he  pub- 
lished a  variety  of  controversial  works,  and  bore  a  pro- 
minent part  in  the  Presbyterian  movement.  At  the 
Restoration,  he  was,  of  course,  obliged  to  resign  a  living 
which  he  never  had  a  right  to  hold.  Having  an  inde- 
pendent fortune,  he  now  determined  to  withdraw  from 
controversy  in  the  narrow  sense  of  the  word,  and  he 
became  a  student. 

He  commenced  his  celebrated  book,  the  Synopsis  Cri- 
ticorum  aliorumque  S.  Scripturse  Interpretum,  which 
contains  an  abridgment  of  the  Critici  Sacri,  together 
with  extracts  from  other  authors,  and  from  critical  trea- 
tises and  pamphlets  of  less  note,  but  often  of  conside- 


132  POOLE. 

rable  value.  A  man  so  profitably  and  peaceably  employed 
was  not  only  unmolested,  but  was  patronized  by  perso-jis. 
in  power. 

When  the  work  was  in  a  state  of  sufficient  forward- 
ness to  be  sent  to  the  press,  Charles  II.  granted  him 
a  patent  for  the  privilege  of  printing  it;  and  in  1669, 
the  first  two  volumes  were  published  in  London,  in  large 
folio,  which  were  afterwards  followed  by  three  others.  The 
publication  of  this  work  involved  Poole  in  a  dispute  with 
Cornelius  Bee,  the  publisher  of  the  Critici  Sacri,  who 
accused  him  of  invading  his  property  by  printing  the 
Synopsis.  In  1666,  Poole  published  a  treatise  con- 
cerning the  Infallibility  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
entitled.  The  Nullity  of  the  Romish  Faith ;  or  a  Blow 
at  the  Romish  Faith,  &c.  8vo ;  which  was  followed,  in  the 
next  year,  by  his  Dialogues  between  a  Popish  Priest  and 
an  English  Protestant,  wherein  the  principal  Points  and 
Arguments  of  both  Religions  are  truly  proposed,  and  fully 
examined,  8vo.  He  soon  after  retired  to  Holland,  where 
he  died  at  Amsterdam,  in  October,  1679,  in  the  fifty-sixth 
year  of  his  age. 

Besides  the  articles  already  enumerated,  he  was  the 
author  of: — A  Letter  to  the  Lord  Charles  Fleetwood,  1659, 
4to,  relating  to  the  state  of  affairs  at  that  period ;  a  short 
Latin  Poem,  and  some  Epitaphs,  which  evince  proofs  of 
classical  taste  and  genius  ;  some  Sermons,  in  the  collection 
by  various  Nonconformist  ministers,  entitled.  Morning 
Exercises  ;  some  single  Sermons ;  a  preface  to  a  volume  of 
Posthumous  Sermons,  by  Mr.  Nalton,  with  some  account 
of  his  character  ;  and  he  left  behind  him,  in  MS.,  Anno- 
tations on  the  Bible,  in  English,  which  his  death  prevented 
him  from  extending  further  than  Isaiah,  Iviii.  The  work 
was  afterwards  continued  by  other  hands.  These  Anno- 
tations were  printed  in  London,  in  1685,  in  two  volumes 
folio,  and  reprinted  in  1700,  which  is  usually  called  the 
best  edition,  although  it  is  far  from  being  correct.  A 
second  edition  of  the  Synopsis  was  printed  at  Frankfort, 


POTTER,  BARNABAS.  133 

in  1678,  in  5  vols,  fol ;  and  a  third  at  Utrecht,  supcrintpnded 
by  Leusden,  in  16^6,  A  fourth  edition  was  printed  at 
Frankfort,  in  1694,  in  5  vols,  4to  ;  and  a  fifth  at  the  same 
place,  in  1709,  in  6  vols.  fol.  The  two  last  mentioned 
editions  have  additions  and  improvements,  criticisms 
on  the  Apocrypha,  and  a  defence  of  the  compiler  against 
the  censures  of  father  Simon. — Wood.  Calamy.  Need. 
Nicewn. 


POTTER,    BARNABAS. 

Barnabas  Potter  was  born  at  Kendal,  in  1578,  and 
was  educated  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  of  which 
college  he  became  a  fellow.  On  his  ordination,  he 
became  a  favourite  preacher  among  the  Puritans,  and 
officiated  as  lecturer,  first  at  Abington,  and  then  at 
Totness,  in  Devonshire.  In  1610,  he  was  chosen 
Principal  of  Edmund  Hall,  but  resigned,  and  was 
never  admitted  into  that  office.  In  1616,  on  the  death 
of  Dr.  Airay,  he  was  elected  Provost  of  Queen's' College, 
which  station  he  retained  for  about  ten  years ;  and 
being  then  one  of  the  king's  chaplains,  resigned  the 
provostship  in  favour  of  his  nephew,  the  subject  of 
the  next  article.  In  1628,  he  was  nominated  Bishop 
of  Carlisle.  Wood  adds,  that  in  this  promotion 
he  had  the  interest  of  Bishop  Laud,  "  although  a 
thorough-paced  Calvinist."  He  continued,  however,  a 
frequent  and  favourite  preacher ;  and,  says  Fuller, 
"was  commonly  called  the  Puritanical  Bishop;  and 
they  would  say  of  him,  in  the  time  of  King  James, 
that  organs  would  blow  him  out  of  the  church  ;  which 
I  do  not  believe ;  the  rather,  because  he  was  loving 
of  and  skilled  in  vocal  music,  and  could  bear  his  own 
part  therein."  He  died  in  1642,  and  was  interred 
in  the  Church  of  St.  Paul,  Covent  Garden.  Wood 
mentions  as  his,  Lectures  on  some  Chapters  of  Genesis, 

VOL.    VIII.  N 


13i  POTTER,  CHRISTOPHEE. 

but  knows  not  whether  they  were  printed ;  and  several 
Sermons ;  one,  The  Baronet's  Burial,  on  the  burial 
of  Sir  Edmund  Seymour,  Oxon.  1613,  4to. ;  and 
another,  on  Easter  Tuesday,  one  of  the  Spital  Sermons. 
— Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


POTTER,    CHRISTOPHEE. 

Christopher  Potter,  nephew  to  Barnabas  Potter,  was 
born  at  Kendal,  in  1591,  and  was  educated  at  Queen's 
College,  Oxford,  of  which  college  he  became  chaplain 
in  1613.  In  1620,  he  succeeded  Dr.  Barnabas  Potter 
as  provost. 

In  1633,  he  published  his  Answer  to  a  late  Popish 
Pamphlet,  entitled.  Charity  Mistaken.  The  cause  was 
this :  a  Jesuit  who  went  by  the  name  of  Edward  Knott, 
but  whose  true  name  was  Matthias  Wilson,  had  published, 
in  1630,  a  little  book- in  8vo,  called  Charity  Mistaken, 
with  the  want  whereof  Catholics  are  unjustly  charged, 
for  affirming,  as  they  do  with  grief,  that  Protestancy 
unrepented  destroys  Salvation.  Dr.  Potter  published 
an  answer  to  this  at  Oxford,  1633.  in  8vo,  with  this 
title,  "  Want  of  Charitie  justly  charged  on  all  such 
Bomanists  as  dare  (without  truth  or  modesty)  affirme, 
that  Protestancie  destroyeth  Salvation ;  or,  an  Answer 
to  a  late  Popish  pamphlet,  entitled,  Charity  Mistaken," 
&c.  The  second  edition  revised  and  enlarged,  w^as 
printed  at  London,  1634,  in  8vo.  Prynne  observes, 
that  Bishop  Laud,  having  perused  the  first  edition, 
caused  some  things  to  be  omitted  in  the  second.  It  is 
dedicated  to  Charles  I. ;  and  in  the  dedication  Dr. 
Potter  observes,  that  it  was  "undertaken  in  obedience 
to  his  majesty's  particular  commandment."  In  this 
controversy,  as  is  well  known,  the  celebrated  Chilling- 
worth  was  afterwards  engaged.  In  1635,  Dr.  Potter 
was  promoted   to  the  Deanery  of  Worcester. 


POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER.  135 

In  early  life,  like  many  of  his  contemporaries,  Dr. 
Potter  had  been  Calvinistically  inclined  ;  but,  like  Bishop 
Sanderson,  Archbishop  Usher,  and  others,  at  a  later 
period  of  life,  he  saw  his  error,  and  avowed  an  altera- 
tion in  his  sentiments.  It  was  while  he  was  Dean 
of  Worcester,  (Dr.  Wordsworth  calls  him  Dean  of 
Windsor,)  that  he  wrote  the  Letter  to  Mr.  Vicars, 
which  was  re-published  at  Cambridge,  in  1719,  in  a 
"  Collection  of  Tracts  concerniug  Predestination  and 
Providence." 

Having  been  taxed  by  his  friend  with  the  desertion 
of  his  former  principles,  and  the  charge  being  coupled 
with  an  insinuation,  that  this  change  was  brought  about 
by  court  influence,  and  put  on  to  please  Archbishop 
Laud,  &c.  *'  It  appears,"  says  he,  ''  by  the  w^hole 
tenour  of  your  letter,  that  you  are  affected  wdth  a 
strong  suspicion,  that  I  am  turned  Arminian;  and 
you  further  guess  at  the  motive,  that  some  sprinkling 
of  court  holy  water,  like  an  exorcism  hath  enchanted 
and  conjured  me  into  this  new  shape.  How  loth  am  I 
to  understand  your  meaning  !  And  how  fain  would  I 
put  a  fair  interpretation  upon  these  foul  passages,  if  they 
were  capable  !  What  man  !  not  an  Arminian  only,  but 
hired  into  that  faith  by  carnal  hopes  !  one  that  can 
value  his  soul  at  so  poor  a  rate,  as  to  sell  it  to  the  times, 
or  weigh  or  sway  his  conscience  with  money  !  My  good 
friend,  how  did  you  thus  forget  me,  and  yourself ;  and 
the  strict  charge  of  our  Master,  Judge  not  ?  Well ; 
you  have  my  pardon  :  and  God  Almighty  confirm  it 
unto  you  with  His !  But  to  prevent  you  error  and  sin 
in  this  kind  hereafter,  I  desire  you  to  believe  that  I 
neither  am,  nor  ever  will  be  Arminian.  I  am  resolved 
to  stand  fast  in  that  liberty,  which  my  Lord  hath  so 
dearly  bought  for  me.  In  divine  truths,  my  conscience 
cannot  serve  men,  or  any  other  master  besides  Him 
Who  hath  His  chair  in  Heaven.  I  love  Calvin  very 
well ;    and  I  must  tell  you,    I   cannot  hate  Arminius. 


136  POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER. 

And  for  my  part,  I  am  verily  persuaded  that  these  two 
are  now  where  they  agree  well,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  ;  whilst  some  of  their  passionate  discij)les  are 
so  eagerly  brawling  here  on  earth.  But  because  you  are 
my  friend,  I  will  yet  farther  reveal  myself  unto  you.  I 
have  laboured  long  and  diligently  in  these  controversies, 
and  I  will  tell  you  with  what  mind  and  method,  and 
with  what  success. 

"  For  some  years  in  my  youth,  when  I  was  most  igno- 
rant, I  was  most  confident  :  before  I  knew  the  true  state, 
or  any  grounds  of  those  questions,  I  could  peremptorily 
resolve  them  all.  And  upon  every  occasion,  in  the  very 
jjulpit,  I  was  girding  and  railing  upon  these  new  heretics, 
the  Arminians,  and  I  could  not  find  words  enough  to 
decipher  the  folly  and  absurdity  of  their  doctrine ; 
especially  1  abhorred  them  as  venomous  enemies  of 
the  grace  of  God,  whereof  I  ever  was,  and  ever  will 
be  most  jealous  and  tender,  as  I  am  most  obliged, 
holding  all  I  am,  or  have,  or  hope  for  by  that  glorious 
grace.  Yet  all  this  while,  I  took  all  this  that  I  talked 
upon  trust,  and  knew  not  what  they  (the  Arminians) 
said  or  thought,  but  by  relation  from  others,  and  from 
their  enemies.  And  because  my  conscience  in  secret 
would  often  tell  me,  that  railing  would  not  carry  it  in 
matters  of  religion,  without  reason  and  divine  authority ; 
that  1  might  now  solidly  maintain  God  s  truth,  as  it  be- 
comes a  minister,  out  of  God's  word,  and  clearly  vindi- 
cate it  from  wicked  exceptions  ;  and  that  I  might  not 
only  revile  and  scratch  the  adversary,  but  beat,  and 
wound  him,  and  fight  it  out,  fortibiis  armis,  non  solum 
fulgentibiis,  I  betook  myself  seriously  and  earnestly  to 
peruse  the  w^ritings  of  both  parties ;  and  to  observe  and 
balance  the  Scriptures  produced  for  both  parties.  But 
my  aim  in  this  inquiry  was  not  to  inform  myself  whether 
1  held  the  truth,  (for  therein  I  was  extremely  confident, 
presuming  it  was  with  US,  and  reading  the  opposers  with 
prejudice  and  detestation,)  but  the  better  to  fortify  our 
tenets  against  their  cavils  and  subtilties. 


POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER.  137 

**  In  the  meanwhile,  knowing  that  all  light  and 
illumination  in  divine  mysteries,  descends  from  above 
from  the  Father  and  Fountain  of  all  light,  without  Whose 
influence  and  instruction  all  our  studies  are  most  vain 
and  frivolous ;  I  resolved  constantly  and  daily  to  solicit 
my  gracious  God,  with  most  ardent  supplications,  as  I 
shall  still  continue,  that  He  would  be  pleased  to  keep 
His  poor  servant  in  His  true  faith  and  fear ;  that  He 
would  preserve  me  from  all  false  and  dangerous  errors, 
how  specious  or  plausible  soever;  that  He  would  fill  my 
heart  with  true  holiness  and  humility ;  empty  it  of  all 
pride,  vain-glory,  curiosity,  ambition,  and  all  other  carnal 
conceits  and  affections,  which  usually  blind  and  pervert 
the  judgment;  that  he  would  give  me  the  grace  to 
renounce  and  deny  my  foolish  reason  in  those  holy 
studies,  and  teach  me  absolutely  to  captive  my  thoughts 
to  the  obedience  of  His  Heavenly  word  ;  finally,  that  he 
would  not  permit  me  to  speak  or  think  any  thing,  but 
what  were  consonant  to  His  Scriptures,  honourable  and 
glorious  to  His  majesty. 

"  I  dare  never  look  upon  my  books,  till  I  have  first 
looked  up  to  Heaven  with  these  prayers.  Thus  I  begin, 
thus  I  continue,  and  thus  conclude  my  studies.  In  my 
search,  my  first  and  last  resolution  was,  and  is,  to  believe 
only  what  the  Lord  tells  me  in  His  book  :  and,  because 
all  men  are  liars,  and  the  most  of  men  factious,  to 
mark  not  what  they  say,  but  what  they  prove.  Though 
I  must  confess,  T  much  favoured  my  own  side,  and 
read  what  was  written  against  it  with  exceeding  indig- 
nation;  especially  when  I  was  pinched,  and  found 
many  objections  to  which  I  could  find  no  answers. 
Yet  in  spite  of  my  judgment,  my  conscience  stood  as  it 
could ;  and  still  multiplying  my  prayers,  and  recurring 
to  my  oracle,  I  repelled  such  thoughts  as  temptations. — 
Well ;  in  this  perplexity  I  went  on  ;  and  first  observed 
the  judgments  of  the  age  since  the  Reformation.  And 
here  I  found,  in  the  very  Harmony  of  the  Confessions, 
N    3 


J  38  POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER. 

some  little  discord  in  these  opinions,  but  generally,  and 
the  most  part  of  our  reformed  Churches  favouring  the 
Remonstrants  ;  and  among  particular  writers,  many  here 
differing  in  judgments,  though  nearly  linked  in  affection, 
and  all  of  them  eminent  for  learning  and  piety  ;  and 
being  all  busied  against  the  common  adversary,  the 
Church  of  Rome,  these  little  differences  amongst  them- 
selves were  wisely  neglected  and  concealed.  At  length, 
some  of  our  ow^n  gave  occasion,  I  fear,  to  these  intestine 
and  woeful  wars,  letting  fall  some  speeches  very  scandal- 
ous, and  which  cannot  be  maintained.  This  first  put 
the  Lutheran  Churches  in  a  fresh  alarm  against  us,  and 
imbittered  their  hatred :  and  now,  that  which  was  but  a 
question,  is  made  a  quarrel ;  that  which  before  was  fairly 
and  sweetly  debated  between  private  doctors,  is  now  be- 
come an  appeal  to  contention  between  whole  reformed 
Churches,  they  in  one  army,  we  in  the  other.  But  still 
the  most  wise  and  holy  in  both  parties  desired  a  peace, 
and  ceased  not  to  cry  with  tears.  Sirs,  ye  are  brethren, 
why  do  ye  strive  ?  and  with  all  their  power  laboured  that 
both  the  armies  might  be  joined  under  the  Prince  of 
Peace. 

"  But  whilst  these  laboured  for  j)eace,  there  never 
wanted  some  eager  spirits,  that  made  all  ready  for  war ; 
and  whose  nails  were  still  itching  till  they  were  in  the 
wounds  of  the  Church  ;  for  they  could  not  believe  they 
had  any  zeal,  unless  they  were  furious  ;  nor  any  faith, 
unless  they  wanted  all  charity.  And  by  the  wicked 
diligence  of  these  Boutefem,  that  small  spark,  wdiich  at 
first  a  little  moderation  might  have  quenched,  hath  now 
set  us  all  in  a  woeful  fire,  worthy  to  be  lamented  with 
tears  of  blood. 

"  But  now  you  long  to  hear,  what  is  the  issue  of  all 
my  study  and  inquiry ;  what  my  resolution.  Why,  you 
may  easily  conjecture.  Finding  upon  this  serious  search, 
that  all  doubts  are  not  clearly  decided  by  Scripture ;  that 
in  the  ancient  Church,   after  the  age  of  St.  Augustine, 


POTTER,   CHRISTOPHER.  139 

who  was  presently  contradicted  by  many  Catholics,  as 
you  may  see  in  the  epistles  of  Prosper  and  Fulgentius  to 
him  upon  that  occasion,  they  have  ever  been  friendly 
debated,  and  never  determined  in  any  council  ;  that  in 
our  age,  whole  Churches  are  here  divided,  either  from  one 
another,  as  the  Lutherans  from  us  ;  or  amongst  them- 
selves, as  the  Romanists,  amongst  whom  the  Dominican 
family  is  w^iolly  for  the  contra-remonstrants;  that  in  all 
these  several  Churches,  some  particular  doctors  vary  in 
these  opinions ;  out  of  all  this  I  collect,  for  my  part, 
that  these  points  are  no  necessary  Catholic  verities,  not 
essential  to  the  faith,  but  merely  matters  of  opinion, 
problematical,  of  inferior  moment,  wherein  a  man  may 
err,  or  be  ignorant  without  danger  to  his  soul ;  yet  so 
still,  that  the  glory  of  God's  justice,  mercy,  truth, 
sincerity,  and  divine  grace  be  not  any  ways  blemished, 
nor  any  good  ascribed  to  man's  corrupt  will,  or  any  evil 
to  God's  decree  of  Providence ;  wherein  I  can  assure 
3^ou  I  do  not  depart  from  my  ancient  judgment,  but  do 
well  remember  what  I  affirmed  in  my  questions  at  the 
act,  and  have  confirmed  it,  I  suppose,  in  my  sermon. 
So  you  see,  I  am  still  where  I  was.  If  I  can  clearly 
discover  any  error  or  corruption  in  myself,  or  any  other, 
I  should  hate  it  with  all  my  might :  but  pity,  support, 
and  love  all  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus,  though  they  err  in 
doubtful  points  ;  but  never  break  charity,  unless  with 
him  that  obstinately  errs  in  fundamentals,  or  is  wilfully 
factious.  And  with  this  moderation  I  dare  with  confi- 
dence and  comfort  enough  appear  before  my  Lord  at  the 
last  day,  when  I  fear  what  will  become  of  him  that  loves 
not  his  brother,  that  divine  precept  of  love  being  so  often 
ingeminated ;  why  may  I  not,  when  the  Lord  hath 
assured  me  by  His  Beati  Pacifici?  You  tell  me  of  a  Dean 
that  should  say,  Maledicti  Pacijici ;  but  you  and  he  shall 
give  me  leave  in  this  contradiction,  rather  to  believe  my 
Saviour." 

In  1640,  he  was  made  vice-chancellor  of  the  University 


140  POTTER,  FRANCIS. 

of  Oxford,  in  the  execution  of  which  office  he  met  with 
some  trouble  from  the  members  of  the  long  parliament. 
Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars  he  sent  all  his 
plate  to  the  king,  and  declared  that  he  would  rather, 
like  Diogenes,  drink  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  than 
that  his  majesty  should  want ;  and  he  afterwards  suffered 
much  for  the  royal  cause.  In  January,  1646,  he  was 
nominated  to  the  Deanery  of  Durham,  but  was  prevented 
from  being  installed  by  his  death,  which  happened  at  his 
college  on  the  3rd  of  March  following.  He  translated 
into  English : — Father  Paul's  History  of  the  Quarrels 
of  Pope  Paul  V.  with  the  State  of  Venice,  London,  1626, 
4to ;  and  left  several  MSS.  prepared  for  the  press,  one 
of  which,  entitled,  A  Survey  of  the  Platform  of  Predes- 
tination, falling  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  William  Twisse, 
of  Newbury,  was  answered  by  him. — Wood.  Fuller.  Life 
of  Chillingworth.    Wordsivorth. 


POTTER,    FRANCIS. 

Francis  Potter  was  born  at  Meyne,  in  Wiltshire,  in 
1594,  and  was  educated  at  the  King's  School,  Worcester, 
and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  In  1637,  he 
succeeded  his  father  in  the  Rectory  of  Kilmington. 

In  1642,  he  published  at  Oxford,  in  4to,  a  Treatise 
entitled  "  An  Interpretation  of  the  number  666, 
Wherein  not  only  the  manner  how  this  number  ought 
to  be  interpreted  is  clearly  proved  and  demonstrated  ; 
but  it  is  also  shewed,  that  this  number  is  an  exquisite 
and  perfect  character,  truly,  exactly,  and  essentially 
describing  that  state  of  government,  to  which  all  other 
notes  of  Antichrist  do  agree.  With  all  known  objec- 
tions solidly  and  fully  answered,  that  can  be  materially 
made  against  it."  Prefixed  to  it  is  the  following  opinion 
of  the  learned  Joseph  Mede :  "  This  discourse  or  tract 
of  the  number  of  the  beast  is  the  happiest  that  ever 


POTTER,  FRANCIS.  141 

yet  came  iuto  the  world,  and  such  as  cannot  be  read. 
(save  of  those  that  perhaps  will  not  believe  it)  without 
much  admiration.  The  ground  hath  been  harped  on 
before,  namely,  that  that  number  was  to  be  explicated 
by  some  avTi(TToi)(ta  to  the  number  of  the  Virgin-com- 
pany and  new  Hierusalem,  which  type  the  true  and 
Apostolical  Church,  whose  number  is  always  derived 
from  XII.  But  never  did  any  work  this  principal  to 
such  a  wonderfull  discovery,  as  this  author  hath  done, 
namely,  to  make  this  number  not  only  to  shew  the 
manner  and  property  of  that  state,  which  was  to  be 
that  beast,  but  to  design  the  city  wherein  he  should 
reign;  the  figure  and  compass  thereof;  the  number 
of  gates,  cardinal  titles  or  churches,  St.  Peter's  altar, 
and  I  know  not  how  many  more  the  like.  I  read  the 
book  at  first  with  as  much  prejudice  against  the  nu- 
merical speculation  as  might  be,  and  almost  against 
my  will,  having  met  with  so  much  vanitie  formerly 
in  that  kind.  But  by  the  time  I  had  done,  it  left  me 
possessed  with  as  much  admiration,  as  I  came  to  it  with 
prejudice." 

This  treatise  was  afterwards  translated  into  French, 
Dutch,  and  Latin,  The  Latin  version  was  made  by 
several  hands.  One  edition  was  all  or  most  translated 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Gilbert,  of  Edmund  Hall,  in  Oxford, 
and  printed  at  Amsterdam,  1677,  in  8vo ;  part  of  the 
Latin  translation  is  inserted  in  the  second  part  of  the 
fourth  volume  of  Poole's  "  Synopsis  Criticorum."  Our 
authors  treatise  was  attacked  by  Mr.  Lambert  More- 
house, minister  of  Prestwood,  near  Kilmington,  who  asserts 
that  25  is  not  the  true,  but  propinque  root  of  666.  Mr. 
Potter  wrote  a  Reply  to  him.  Mr.  Morehouse  gave  a 
copy  of  this  dispute  to  Dr.  Seth  Ward,  Bishop  of  Sarum, 
in  1668.  Our  author  while  he  was  very  young,  had 
a  good  talent  at  drawing  and  painting,  and  the  founder's 
picture  in  the  Hall  of  Trinity  College  is  of  his  copying. 
He  had   likewise    an    excellent    genius   for    mechanics, 


Ua  POTTER,  JOHN. 

and  made  several  inventions  for  raising  water,  and. 
water-engines  :  which  being  communicated  to  the  Royal 
Society,  about  the  time  of  its  first  establishment,  were 
highly  approved  of,  and  he  was  admitted  a  member 
of  that  society.  Mr.  Wood  likewise  observes,  that 
about  1640,  "he  entertained  the  notion  of  curing 
diseases  by  transfusion  of  blood  out  of  one  man  into 
another ;  the  hint  whereof  came  into  his  head  from 
Ovid's  story  of  Medea  and  Jason ;  which  matter  he 
communicating  to  the  Royal  Society  about  the  time 
of  its  first  erection,  it  was  entered  into  their  books. 
But  this  way  of  transfusion  having  (as  it  is  said)  been 
mentioned  long  before  by  Andr.  Libavius,  our  author 
Potter  (who  I  dare  say  never  saw  that  writer)  is  not 
to  be  the  first  inventor  of  that  notion,  nor  Dr.  Richard 
Lewen,  but  rather  an  advancer."  He  became  blind 
before  his  death,  and  died  at  Kilmington,  about  April, 
1678,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  the  church 
there. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


POTTER,    JOHN. 

John  PottiIr  was  born  at  Wakefield,  where  his  father 
was  a  linen-draper,  in  1674.  Having  been  educated  at 
the  Wakefield  Grammar  School,  he  proceeded  to  Uni- 
versity College,  Oxford,  where,  after  taking  his  bachelor's 
degree,  he  was  employed  by  the  master  of  his  college. 
Dr.  Charlett,  to  compile  a  work  for  the  use  of  his 
fellow-students,  entitled,  Variantes  Lectiones  et  Notae 
ad  Plutarchi  Librum  de  audiendis  Poetis,  item  Variantes 
Lectiones,  &c.  ad  Basilii  Magni  orationem  ad  juvenes, 
quomodo  cum  fructu  legere  possint  Groecorum  Libros, 
8vo.  In  1694,  he  was  chosen  fellow  of  Lincoln  College, 
and  proceeding  M.A.  in  October  in  the  same  year,  he 
took  pupils,  and  went  into  orders.  In  1697,  he  pub- 
lished his  beautiful  edition  of  Lycophron's  Alexandria, 


POTTER,  JOHN.  143 

fol. ;  and  the  first  volume  of  his  Archseologia  Greeca, 
or  Antiquities  of  Greece ;  in  the  following  year  he  pub- 
lished the  second  volume.  This  valuable  work  was 
incorporated  in  Gronovius's  Thesaurus. 

It  is  almost  incredible  that  such  works  as  these  could 
have  been  produced  by  a  young  man  scarcely  past  his 
twenty-third  year,  In  1704,  he  commenced  B.D. ;  and 
being  about  the  same  time  appointed  chaplain  to  Arch- 
bishop Tenison,  he  removed  to  Lambeth.  The  arch- 
bishop also  gave  him  the  living  of  Great  Mongeham,  in 
Kent,  and  subsequently  other  preferments  in  Bucking- 
hamshire and  Oxfordshire.  He  proceeded  D.D.,  in  April, 
1706,  and  soon  after  became  chaplain  in  ordinary  to 
Queen  Anne.  In  1707,  he  published  his  Discourse  of 
Church  Government,  8vo.  In  this  his  great  work  he 
asserts  the  constitution,  rights,  and  government,  of  the 
Christian  Church,  chiefly  as  described  by  the  fathers  of 
the  three  first  centuries  against  Erastian  principles  ;  his 
design  being  to  vindicate  the  Church  of  England  from 
the  charge  of  those  principles.  In  this  view,  among 
other  ecclesiastical  powers  distinct  from  the  state,  he 
maintains  the  doctrine  of  our  Church,  concerning  the 
distinction  of  the  three  orders  of  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  superiority  of 
the  episcopal  order  above  that  of  presbyters,  which  he 
endeavours  to  prove  was  settled  by  divine  institution; 
that  this  distinction  was  also  in  fact  constantly  kept 
up  to  the  time  of  Constantine,  and  in  the  next  age 
after  that,  the  same  distinction,  he  observes,  was  con- 
stantly reckoned  to  be  of  divine  institution,  and  derived 
from  the  Apostles  down  to  those  times.  In  pursuing 
this  argument  he  considers  the  objection,  that  had  been 
raised  against  it  from  St.  Jerome's  conjecture  about  the 
original  of  Episcopacy,  of  which  he  gives  us  the  following 
account  from  the  writings  of  that  father  : — "  Having 
observed,  says  he,  that  the  names  of  Bishop  and  Pres- 
byter are  used  promiscuously  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that 


144  POTTER,  JOHN. 

the  Apostles  call  themselves  preshyters,  he  concludes, 
that  at  first  there  was  no  distinction  between  their 
offices,  but  that  apostle,  bishop,  and  presbyter,  were 
only  different  names  of  the  same  thing,  and  that  the 
Church  was  then  generally  governed  by  a  colle.c^e  of 
presbyters,  equal  in  rank  and  dignity  to  one  another. 
Afterwards  divisions  being  occasioned  by  this  parity 
among  presbyters,  when  every  presbyter  began  to  claim 
as  his  own  particular  subjects,  those  whom  he  had  bap- 
tized ;  and  it  was  said  by  the  people,  I  am  of  Paul,  I  of 
Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas  ;  to  remedy  this  evil,  it  was 
decreed  all  the  world  over,  that  one  of  the  presbyters  in 
every  Church  should  be  set  over  the  rest,  and  peculiarly 
called  bishop,  and  that  the  chief  care  of  the  Church 
should  be  committed  to  him.  Our  author  thinks  it 
strange,  that  such  a  conjecture  as  this  should  prejudice 
any  considering  man  against  the  divine  institution  of 
episcopacy  ;  and  observes,  that  in  this  account  St.  Jerome 
founds  the  right  of  episcopal  primacy  over  presbyters,  on 
the  synonymous  use  of  the  names  of  apostles,  bishops, 
and  presbyters,  which  was  observed  by  St.  Chrysostom, 
Theodoret,  and  other  ancient  fathers,  who  drew  no  such 
inference  from  it,  but  constantly  affirmed,  that'  there  was 
a  disparity  of  order  among  themx,  notwithstanding  their 
names  were  used  promiscuously  ;  and  I  hope,  continues 
the  Doctor,  it  has  been  fully  made  out  in  this  and  the 
last  chapter,  that  this  was  no  good  foundation  for  that 
opinion.  But  it  is  not  strange  that  having  raised  pres- 
byters to  a  parity  with  the  apostles,  contrary  to  the  most 
plain  testimony  of  the  Scriptures,  he  should  equal  them 
with  bishops,  contrary  to  the  sense  of  the  ancient  fathers. 
Thus  the  premises  on  which  the  opinion  is  founded 
being  inconclusive,  there  is  no  reason  to  regard  what  he 
says  of  the  decree  passed  in  all  Churches  for  the  raising 
of  one  presbyter  above  the  rest,  which  he  does  not  pre- 
tend to  support  by  any  testimony,  but  only  conjectures 
that  such  a  decree  must  have  passed,  because    he   had 


POTTER,  JOHN.  145 

before  conjectured,  that  apostles,  bishops,  and  presbyters, 
were  all  equal  at  first :  but  when  or  by  what  authority 
was  this  decree  enacted  ?  If  in  the  second  century,  as 
some  would  persuade  us,  for  no  better  reason  than  that 
they  are  unwilling  to  derive  episcopacy  from  the  apostles  ; 
it  is  strange  that  no  presbyter  in  the  world  should  take 
it  ill,  that  one  of  his  fellow-presbyters  should  be  ad- 
vanced above  him,  or  think  it  his  duty  to  oppose  this 
new  and  unscriptural  model,  but  that  so  great  a  change 
should  be  introduced  into  all  parts  of  the  world,  at  a 
time  when  the  Church  flourished  with  men  of  great 
parts  and  learning,  and  yet  not  the  least  mention  is 
made  of  it  in  any  of  their  writings  ;  but  on  the  con- 
trary, both  they  and  the  Christian  writers  in  the  next 
age  after  them,  should  constantly  speak  of  the  primacy 
of  bishops  over  presbyters  as  no  late  invention,  but  of 
ancient  right,  and  derived  from  the  apostles  themselves. 
We  may  as  well  affirm,  contrary  to  the  accounts  of  all 
historians,  that  all  nations  in  the  world  were  first  re- 
publics, and  afterwards,  on  a  certain  time,  upon  the 
consideration  of  their  being  obnoxious  to  factions,  by 
general  consent  became  monarchies.  But  it  is  needless 
to  raise  more  objections  against  this  notion,  since  Jerome 
himself  plainly  refers  the  making  of  this  decree  to  the 
apostles.  He  not  only  assigns  as  the  occasion  of  it,  the 
adherence  of  some  to  Paul,  of  others  to  Apollos,  and  of 
others  to  Peter,  which  is  reproved  in  St.  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  ;  but  in  his  before  mentioned  Epistle 
to  Evagrias,  he  expressly  calls  the  distinction  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  an  apostolical  tradition,  and  taken 
by  the  apostles  from  the  Old  Testament,  where  Aaron, 
his  sons,  the  priests,  and  the  Levites,  correspond  to  the 
three  orders  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  and  in  his  cata- 
logue of  ecclesiastical  writers,  he  affirms,  that  presently 
after  our  Lord's  Ascension,  James  was  ordained  Bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  by  the  apostles,  that  Timothy  was  made 
Bishop  of  Ephesus,  and    Titus  of   Crete,  by  St.  Paul, 

VOL.    VITI.  o 


146  POTTER,  JOHN. 

and  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  by  St.  John,  and  he 
mentions  several  other  bishops,  who  lived  in  the  next 
age  after  the  apostles.  So  that,  even  in  St.  Jerome's 
opinion,  the  primacy  of  bishops  over  presbyters  was 
an  apostolical  institution.  But  whatever  was  St.  Jerome's 
sense  of  this  matter,  since  it  has  appeared  to  be  ill 
grounded,  and  contrary  both  to  the  universal  consent  of 
primitive  antiquity,  and  of  the  Scriptures,  we  need  not 
have  the  least  concern  about  it.  The  truth  is  this  ;  some 
deacons,  who  enjoyed  wealthier  places  in  the  Church  than 
many  presbyters,  claimed  several  privileges  superior  to 
them,  and  were  unwilling  to  be  admitted  into  that  order; 
which  irregularity  was  so  highly  resented  by  St.  Jerome, 
who  was  a  man  of  passion,  and  only  a  presbyter,  that  to 
raise  his  own  order  beyond  the  competition  of  deacons, 
he  endeavoured  to  make  it  equal  by  its  original  institu- 
tion with  bishops  and  apostles ;  as  it  is  common  even 
for  the  best  of  men,  in  the  heat  of  disputation,  to  run 
into  one  extreme  by  avoiding  another.  Yet  even  at  the 
same  time  he  owns  in  the  forementioned  epistle  to 
Evagrias,  that  none  but  bishops  had  authority  to  ordain 
ministers,  and  in  many  other  places,  he  approves  the 
subordination  of  presbyters  to  bishops  ;  and  never  once 
allows  to  mere  presbyters  the  power  of  ordaining,  or 
seems  inclined  to  introduce  a  parity  of  ministers  into 
the  Church."  We  give  at  length  this  instance  of  our 
author's  judgment  in  using  the  authority  of  the  fa- 
thers, because  his  true  character  as  a  Churchman 
and  a  divine,  may  in  a  great  measure  be  collected 
from  it;  in  reality,  we  have  therein  a  fair  comment 
explaining  his  opinion  in  this  point,  as  declared  in 
the  preface.  "That  these  (the  fathers)  especially  of  the 
three  first  centuries,  are  the  best  interpreters  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  may  safely  be  relied  on  as  giving  us  its 
genuine  sense.  And,  continues  he,  if  any  of  them 
should  be  thought  to  speak  sometimes  with  less  caution, 
or  to  carry  their  expression  higher  than  might  have  been 


t>OTTER,  JOHN.  147 

wished,  as  the  best  men  in  the  heat  of  disputation,  or 
through  too  much  zeal  often  do,  all  candid  and  impartial 
readers,  will  easily  be  persuaded  to  make  just  allowance 
for  it," 

In  the  following  year,  he  succeeded  Dr.  Jane,  as 
regius  professor  of  divinity,  and  canon  of  Christ  Church  ; 
whereupon  he  returned  to  Oxford.  This  promotion  he 
owed  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  through  whose  influ- 
ence he  was  in  1715,  advanced  to  the  see  of  Oxford,  still 
retaining  the  divinity  chair.  Just  before  he  was  made 
bishop,  he  published  his  splendid  and  elaborate  edition 
of  the  works  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  *2  vols.  fol.  Gr. 
and  Lat.  In  this  he  has  given  a  new  version  of  the  Cohor- 
tatious.  When  Dr,  Hoadley,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  made 
public  those  opinions  which  brought  about  him  such 
a  storm  of  controversy  from  his  clerical  brethren,  Dr. 
Potter  was  one  of  the  combatants,  having,  in  a  charge 
to  his  clergy,  thought  proper  to  warn  them  against  some 
of  that  prelate's  opinions  respecting  religious  sincerity. 
Hoadley  answered,  and  Potter  rejoined. 

In  vindicating  himself,  Bishop  Potter  says,  "  I  must 
not  forget  under  this  head,  that  I  am  again  charged 
not  only  with  favouring  Popery,  but  with  being  a  Papist 
in  disguise,  with  '  acknowledging  the  Protestant  prin- 
ciples for  decency's  sake,  but  stedfastly  adhering  to  the 
Popish'  (p.  275),  and  all  this,  as  it  seems,  for  having 
referred  you  to  the  practice  and  writers  of  the  primi- 
tive times,  and  of  the  next  ages  after  the  apostles ; 
whereby  I  am  represented  to  understand  the  reign  of 
Constantino,  which  happened,  as  he  saith  (pp.  270 — 
274),  almost  three  hundred  years  after.  Now  I  am 
not  in  the  least  apprehensive  of  my  being  suspected 
as  a  favourer  of  Popery  by  any  man,  who  knows  the 
true  meaning  of  Popery;  but  sure  it  is  such  a  compli- 
ment to  the  Popish  religion,  as  no  Protestant  would 
have  made,  who  understands  his  own  principles,  to 
date  its  rise  from  the  time  of  Constautine;    the  claim 


148  POTTER,  JOHN. 

of  infallibility,  and  of  the  papal  supremacy,  as  now 
exercised,  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  invoca- 
tion of  saints,  image  worship,  prayers  in  an  unknown 
tongue,  forbidding  laymen  to  read  the  Scriptures,  to 
say  nothing  of  other  peculiar  tenets  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  having  never  been  heard  of  during  the  reign 
of  this  great  emperor,  or  for  a  long  time  after ;  as  a 
very  little  insight  into  the  Popish  Controversies,  or 
Ecclesiastical  Historians,  would  have  informed  this 
writer.  It  would  have  been  much  more  to  his  pur- 
pose, and  equally  consistent  with  truth  and  justice, 
to  have  told  his  readers  that,  by  the  next  age  after 
the  apostles,  I  meant  the  times  immediately  preceding 
the  Reformation  :  but  then  one  opportunity  would  have 
been  lost  of  declaiming  against  the  times  wherein  the 
Nicene  Creed  was  composed,  and  Arianism  condemned. 
As  to  the  primitive  writers,  I  am  not  ashamed,  or 
afraid  to  repeat,  that  the  best  method  of  interpreting 
Scripture  seems  to  me  to  be  the  having  recourse  to 
the  writers  who  lived  nearest  the  time  wherein  the 
Scriptures  were  first  published,  that  is,  to  the  next 
ages  after  the  apostles ;  and  that  a  diligent  inquiry 
into  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  Church  in  the  same 
ages,  would  be  the  most  effectual  way,  next  after  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures  themselves,  to  prevent  inno- 
vations in  doctrine;  and,  lastly,  that  this  hath  been 
practised  with  great  success  by  some  of  our  best  advo- 
cates for  the  Protestant  cause,  as  Bishop  Jewel,  for 
example,  Archbishop  Laud,  Archbishop  Ussher,  Bishop 
Cosins,  Bishop  Stillingfleet,  Dr.  Barrow,  Bishop  Bull, 
with  many  others  at  home  and  abroad.  To  which  it 
will  be  replied,  that  '  our  best  writers,  at  least,  in  their 
controversies  with  the  Papists,  are  so  far  from  appealing 
to  the  judgment  of  the  Church  in  the  next  centuries 
after  the  apostles,  in  any  such  sense  as  the  bishop  is 
arguing  for  against  his  adversaries;  that  the  very  best 
of  them,   Mr.   Chillingworth,    has    declared  upon  ths 


POTTER,  JOHN.  U9 

most  mature  consideration,  how  uncertain  generally, 
how  self-contradictory  sometimes,  how  insufficient  always, 
he  esteemed  this  judgment  to  be.  He  had  seen  fathers 
against  fathers,  councils  against  councils,  the  consent 
of  one  age  against  the  consent  of  another ;  the  same 
fathers  contradicting  themselves,  and  the  like,  and  he 
found  no  rest  but  in  the  Protestant  Rule  of  Faith. 
He  was  willing  to  yield  to  every  thing  as  truth,  Qiiod 
semper,  uhiqiie  et  ah  omnibus;  because  he  well  judged 
that  nothing  could  be  conceived  to  be  embraced  as 
truth  at  the  very  beginning,  and  so  continue  in  all  places 
and  at  all  times,  but  what  was  delivered  at  the  begin- 
ning. But  he  saw,  with  respect  to  some  controverted 
points,  how  early  the  difference  of  sentiment  was.' 
(pp.  265,  266.)  In  answer  to  this,  I  shall  not  take 
upon  me  to  determine  what  rank  Mr.  Chillingworth 
ought  to  bear  among  the  Protestant  writers ;  it  being 
sufficient  for  my  purpose,  that  many  others,  and  those 
of  chief  note  for  learning  and  judgment,  in  their  con- 
troversies with  the  Papists  and  others,  have  appealed, 
and  in  this  manner  I  have  recommended,  to  the  primi- 
tive writers,  as  every  one  may  soon  learn  who  will 
take  the  pains  to  look  into  their  books.  In  the  next 
place,  it  appears  from  this  very  passage  of  Mr.  Chil- 
lingworth, as  here  represented,  that  this  design  was 
to  prevent  appealing  to  fathers  and  councils  as  a  rule 
of  faith  ;  agreeably  whereunto  I  have  all  along  declared, 
that,  in  my  opinion,  the  Scripture  is  the  only  Rule 
of  Faith,  and  have  no  farther  recommended  the  study 
of  the  primitive  writers,  than  as  the  best  method  of 
discovering  the  true  sense  of  Scripture.  In  the  third 
place,  here  is  nothing  expressly  said  by  Mr.  Chilling- 
worth  of  the  most  primitive  writers  or  councils,  or 
of  any  who  lived  in  the  next  ages  after  the  Apostles  ; 
but  he  may  very  well  be  understood,  notwithstanding 
any  thing  here  produced,  of  those  latter  ages,  wherein 
both  fathers  and  councils  degenerated  from  the  faitii 
0  a 


150  POTTER,  JOHN. 

and  doctrine  of  those  who  went  before  them ;  which 
is  the  more  likely,  because  mention  here  follows  of 
the  Article  which  divided  the  Greeks  from  the  Roman 
communion ;  this  having  not  been  openly  disputed 
before  the  seventh  century.  Fourthly,  he  is  intro- 
duced as  speaking  in  express  terms  of  controverted 
points,  but  saying  nothing  of  any  principal  point  of 
faith,  nothing  of  any  Article  which  was  originally  in 
the  Nicene  Creed.  On  the  contrary  it  may  be  ob- 
served, in  the  last  place,  that  he  plainly  speaks  of 
doctrines  received  by  the  Church  in  all  places  and  at 
all  times,  even  from  the  very  beginning,  which  for  that 
very  reason,  he  presumed  not  to  reject.  Now  it  cannot 
possibly  be  known  what  these  are,  without  having 
recourse  to  the  writers  of  the  primitive  ages.  So  that, 
upon  the  whole,  the  method  I  have  recommended  is 
so  far  from  being  contradicted,  that  it  is  rather  enforced 
by  what  this  writer  hath  cited  from  Mr.  Chillingworth. 
—p.  358." 

Some  time  after  this,  he  became,  curiously  enough, 
a  favourite  with  Queen  Caroline,  then  Princess  of 
Wales ;  and,  upon  the  accession  of  George  IT.,  preached 
the  coronation  sermon,  Oct.  11th,  1727,  which  was 
afterwards  printed  by  his  majesty's  express  commands, 
and  is  inserted  among  the  bishop's  theological  works. 
It  was  generally  supposed  that  the  chief  direction  of 
public  affairs,  with  regard  to  the  Church,  was  designed 
to  be  committed  to  his  care ;  but  as  he  saw  that  this 
must  involve  him  in  the  politics  of  the  times,  he  de- 
clined the  proposal,  and  returned  to  his  bishopric, 
until  the  death  of  Dr.  Wake,  in  January,  1737,  when 
he  was  appointed  his  successor  in  the  archbishopric 
of  Canterbury.  This  high  office  he  filled  during  the 
space  of  ten  years  with  great  reputation,  and  towards 
the  close  of  that  period  fell  into  a  lingering  disorder, 
which  put  a  period  to  his  life  October  10th,  1747,  in 
the  seventy-fourth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  buried  at 
Croydon. 


POWELL.  151 

The  archbishop's  works  were  published  in  1753,  in 
3  vols.  8vo,  under  the  title  of  "  Theological  Works  of 
Dr.  John  Potter,  &c.,  containing  his  Sermons,  Charges, 
Discourse  of  Church-government,  and  Divinity  Lec- 
tures." He  had  himself  prepared  these  for  the  press ; 
his  divinity  lectures  form  a  continued  treatise  on  the 
authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  Some 
letters  of  his,  relative  to  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  &c.,  are 
printed  in  Atterbury's  Correspondence. — Potters  Works. 
Wood.     Nichol.     Biog.  Brit. 


POUGET,    FEANCIS    AIME. 

Fkancis  Aime  Pouget  was  born  at  Montpellier,  in  1666, 
was  educated  at  Paris,  and  became  Vicar  of  St.  Koch,  in 
that  city.  In  1696,  he  entered  the  Congregation  of  the 
Priests  of  the  Oratory.  He  died  in  1723.  His  chief 
work  is  entitled,  Instructions  in  the  Form  of  a  Cate- 
chism drawn  up  by  order  of  M.  Joachim  Colbut,  Bishop 
of  Montpellier.  It  is  said  to  be  in  high  repute  among 
the  Papists. — Moreri. 


POWELL,    WILLIAM    SAMUEL. 

William  Samuel  Powell  was  born  at  Colchester,  in 
1717,  and  was  admitted  at  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, in  the  year  1734,  of  which  college  he  became 
a  fellow  in  1740.  In  1741,  he  entered  into  the  family  of 
Lord  Viscount  Townshend,  as  private  tutor  to  his  second 
son  Charles,  who  was  afterwards  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer. Towards  the  end  of  the  same  year  he  was 
ordained  deacon  and  priest  by  Dr.  Gooch,  then  Bishop 
of  Norwich ;  and  was  instituted  by  him  to  the  Rectory 
of  Colkirk,  in  Norfolk,  on  Lord  Townshend's  presenta- 
tion.    He  returned  to  his  college  the  year  after;  took 


153  POWELL. 

the  degree  of  A.M. ;  and  began  to  read  lectures,  as 
assistant  to  Mr.  Wrigley  and  Mr.  Tunstall :  but  in  1744, 
he  became  principal  tutor  himself,  and  engaged  his 
eminent  friend,  Dr.  Thomas  Balguj,  as  an  assistant  lec- 
turer. Mr.  Powell  is  considered  to  have  discharged  the 
duties  of  his  tutorial  office,  in  a  very  able  and  satisfac- 
tory manner,  as  regards  both  the  morals  and  the  studies 
of  the  young  men  committed  to  his  care.  The  lectures, 
which  he  drew  up  in  the  four  branches  of  natural  philo- 
sophy, continued  to  be  the  text-book  at  St.  John's  College, 
until  they  were  superseded  by  the  more  elaborate  pub- 
lications of  Dr.  Wood,  and  his  coadjutor,  Professor 
Vince. 

In  1749,  Mr.  Powell  proceeded  to  the  degree  of  B.D. ; 
and  in  1753,  he  resigned  the  Rectory  of  Colkirk,  that 
it  might  be  consolidated  with  Stibbard,  another  of  Lord 
Townshend's  livings ;  and  was  again  instituted  the  next 
day.  At  the  commencement  in  1757,  he  was  created 
doctor  of  divinity;  on  which  occasion,  he  preached  his 
celebrated  sermon,  in  defence  of  the  subscriptions  re- 
quired by  our  Church. 

*'At  this  time,"  says  the  worthy  Mr.  Cole,  "things 
were  only  brewing;"  that  is,  projects  were  set  on  foot, 
not  only  to  dissolve  the  alliance  between  Church  and 
State,  under  the  specious  pretext  that  all  disqualifi- 
cations on  account  of  religious  scruples  are  to  be 
accounted  as  pains  and  penalties ;  but  also  to  weaken 
the  allegiance  due  to  the  Church  from  its  own  ministers, 
by  representing  her  requisition  of  assent  and  subscrip- 
tion to  any  human  interpretations  of  Scripture,  as  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  Protestantism  and  of  Christian 
liberty.  Dr.  Powell,  then  a  leading  character  in  the 
university,  was  the  first  of  those  who  placed  themselves 
in  the  gap  against  those  innovations.  Subscription  to 
the  thirty-nine  articles,  was,  at  this  period,  required  from 
undergraduates,  before  they  were  admitted  to  their  first 
degree ;  a  practice,  which  had  continued  from  the  time 


POWELL.  153 

of  James  L,  and  which  began  to  be  considered,  not  only 
as  encroaching  on  the  province  and  privileges  of  litera- 
ture, but  as  tending  to  render  youth  at  that  age  either 
reckless  or  hypocritical.  A  strong  spirit  of  dissatis- 
faction with  this  demand  now  began  to  manifest  itself 
amongst  the  undergraduates  themselves ;  many  of  whom 
remonstrated  against  it,  whilst  others  refused  subscrip- 
tion altogether,  and  forfeited  the  advantages  to  which 
their  previous  residence  in  the  university  had  entitled 
them.  Thus  agitated  as  their  minds  were,  and  fomented 
as  their  disaffection  was  by  some  who  had  ulterior  objects 
in  view,  Dr.  Powell's  sermon  was  directed  principally  to 
conciliate  them,  to  remove  difficulties  out  of  their  path, 
and  secure  their  adherence  to  established  forms  and 
usages. 

In  1760,  Dr.  Powell  entered  anonymously  into  a  con- 
troversy, which  we  are  inclined  to  think  detracted  some- 
what from  his  character.  The  celebrated  Edward  Waring, 
a  very  young  man,  and  only  bachelor  of  arts,  being  at  this 
time  candidate  for  the  Lucasian  professorship,  published 
the  first  chapter  of  Miscellanea  Analytica,  in  order  that 
the  electors,  and  the  university  at  large,  might  judge  of 
the  nature  of  his  pursuits,  and  his  qualifications  for  the 
high  office  which  he  solicited.  This  publication  was 
immediately  attacked  by  some  anonymous  Observations ; 
the  author  of  which  did  not  confine  himself  to  what  he 
thought  mathematical  errors,  but  indulged  in  severe 
reflections  on  the  age,  the  inexperience,  and  the  style 
of  the  analyst.  These  animadversions,  however,  not 
only  failed  in  their  object  of  stopping  Waring's  election, 
but  produced  a  reply  from  the  new  professor,  in  which 
he  vindicated  his  own  position,  and  retorted  the  charge 
of  error  on  his  adversary ;  and  this  again  was  followed 
by  a  "  Defence  of  the  Observations  :"  the  author  of  them 
however  having  become  well  known,  Waring  sent  forth  a 
Letter  to  Dr.  Powell,  which  closed  the  controversy  ;  and 
in  which,  whilst    he    animadverted   with  considerable 


154  POWELL. 

severity  on  his  antagonist,  he  did  not  forget  his  rank 
and  station. 

The  motive  generally  ascribed  to  Dr.  Powell  for  this 
interference,  was  a  desire  to  serve  the  cause  of  his  friend 
Mr.  Ludlam,  of  St.  John's,  who  aspired  to  fill  the  vacant 
chair  of  Newton :  and  certainly  if  he  felt  himself  fully 
competent  to  decide  on  the  deep  subjects  of  Waring's 
speculations,  this  was  a  good  excuse  for  his  attempting 
it :  but  if  he  was  deficient  in  the  necessary  skill  and 
science ;  if,  as  was  the  case,  he  proved  impar  congressus 
Achillei,  and  was  defeated  in  the  contest, — candour  re- 
quired him  to  confess  his  fault,  and  make  all  due 
reparation  to  his  antagonist. 

In  1765,  he  was  elected  Master  of  his  College,  and 
was  chosen  vice-chancellor  of  the  university  in  November 
following.  In  1766,  he  obtained  the  Archdeaconry  of 
Colchester.  In  1768,  he  was  instituted  to  the  living  of 
Freshwater,  in  the  lovely  Isle  of  Wight. 

In  the  meantime  the  course  of  events  brought  Df. 
Powell  more  conspicuously  before  the  public  eye.  His 
celebrated  commencement  sermon,  having  been  much 
read,  and  much  criticised,  had  brought  out  several 
answers.  By  some,  even  of  his  own  party,  it  was  thought 
to  have  betrayed  the  cause  which  it  undertook  to  support ; 
its  principal  aim  indeed  being  to  conciliate  inexperienced 
minds  and  tender  consciences,  rather  than  to  defend  the 
practice  of  subscriptions  on  high  Church  principles,  this 
untenable  ground  was  eagerly  seized  on  by  that  faction, 
which  opposed  all  terms  of  subscription  whatever,  and 
demanded  not  only  unlimited  toleration,  but  unlimited 
license.  The  doctor,  having  asserted  that  "  young  peo- 
ple may  give  a  general  assent  to  the  articles,  on  the 
authority  of  others,  and  thus  leave  room  for  improve- 
ments in  theology;" — this  was  taken  to  imply,  that  such 
subscribers  are  left  at  liberty  to  retract  their  assent,  if, 
in  the  progress  of  their  studies,  they  should  find  what 
they  assented  to  inconsistent  with  their  subsequent  dis- 


POWELL.  155 

coveries  and  theological  acquirements.  Then  came  the 
questions  : — How  will  you  limit  the  period  of  submission 
and  of  inquiry  ? — and  will  not  many  of  maturer  years 
avail  themselves  of  this  uncertainty,  and  so  readily 
subscribe  to  articles,  which  have  been  represented  as 
"  having  rules  of  interpretation  peculiar  to  themselves," 
whilst  the  subscription  itself  has  been  stated  to  mean 
little  more  than  "  an  acknowledgment  that  the  sub- 
scriber is  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England?"  Nay, 
it  was  even  asserted,  and  that  by  a  dignitary  of  the 
Church  itself,  that  '*  this  expedient  had  no  doubt  been 
most  thankfully  accepted  by  a  great  many  subscribers 
within  the  last  ten  years ;  and  the  rather,  as  in  all  that 
time  the  Church  had  not  declared  against  it."  Hence 
it  was  argued,  that,  if  subscription  to  the  articles  was 
intended  to  be  a  test  of  faith  and  doctrine,  this  benefit 
never  could  be  obtained  from  it,  by  reason  of  the 
latitude  allowed  by  its  advocates  and  taken  by  its  oppo- 
nents :  therefore  it  would  be  the  wisest  course  to  do 
away  altogether  with  a  test,  which,  whilst  it  prohibited 
many  worthy  persons  from  entering  into  the  service  of 
the  Church,  let  in  those  that  were  less  scrupulous  and 
less  conscientious. 

These  insinuations  and  attacks  could  not  fail  to  stir 
up  many  among  the  more  sturdy  champions  of  the 
Church.  One  of  the  first  that  buckled  on  his  armour 
was  Dr.  Rutherforth,  who  skirmished  with  the  author 
of  the  Confessional,  as  it  is  observed,  '*  in  the  old 
posture  prescribed  by  the  ancient  system  of  Church 
authority."  Among  others  that  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  same  cause,  were  Dr.  Randolph,  Dr.  Halifax, 
and  Dr.  Balguy ;  though  this  latter  gentleman  appeared 
rather  late  in  the  field. 

The  principal  writers  on  the  other  side  of  the  ques- 
tion were  Archdeacon  Blackburne,  author  of  the  Con- 
fessional, Dr.  Dawson,  Dr.  Priestley,  with  the  celebrated 
Pr.  Jebb  and  his  wife. 


156  POWELL. 

Great  efforts  were  now  making,  throughout  the  king- 
dom, by  the  anti-subscription  party:  petitions  were 
multiplied  on  the  subject,  and  the  minds  of  all  ranks 
excited:  until,  at  length,  a  regular  society  was  estab- 
lished at  the  Feathers  Tavern,  in  London,  with  Arch- 
deacon Blackburne  at  its  head;  the  avowed  purpose 
of  which  was  to  get  up  a  petition  to  parliament,  for 
setting  aside  altogether  the  test  of  subscription,  and 
admitting  every  one  into  the  service  and  preferments 
of  the  Church,  who  should  acknowledge  the  truth  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament.  They  were  also  for 
abolishing  subscriptions  in  the  university ;  "  and  so 
strong  was  the  infatuation,"  says  Mr.  Cole,  "  that 
several  members  of  the  university  were  led  astray ;  and 
I  am  sorry  to  record  it,  that  one  whole  college,  both 
head  and  fellows,  subscribed  this  petition."  The  under- 
graduates themselves  were  also  stirred  up  to  refuse 
subscription,  and  to  remonstrate  with  their  superiors. 
In  June,  1769,  they  presented  a  petition  to  the  heads 
for  an  alteration  of  their  scholastic  dress,  and  it  was 
granted:  for  it  went  no  farther  than  to  change  the 
figure  of  their  caps  from  round  to  square.  It  seems 
probable,  however,  that  this  was  only  put  forth  as  a 
feeler;  for  in  January,  1772,  another  petition  was 
offered,  which  went  the  length  of  demanding  a  release 
from  subscription,  unless  (as  it  was  added  with  a  show 
of  modesty)  they  were  instructed  beforehand  in  the 
articles  which  they  were  required  to  subscribe.  But 
this  being  considered  as  subversive  of  discipline,  and 
laying  a  foundation  for  sedition,  was  rejected. 

The  master  of  St.  John's,  however,  still  persevering 
in  his  design  of  conciliation,  called  together  his  own 
students,  and  laid  before  them  the  state  of  the  case 
relating  to  their  subscription ;  with  which  they  all 
seemed  to  be  thoroughly  satisfied.  "  He  was  a  man," 
says  Mr.  Cole,  "  of  too  open  a  nature  to  endeavour  by 
artifice  to  circumvent  their  judgment;    and  as  it  was 


POWELL.  15T 

the  fashion,  even  to  leave  boys  to  judge  for  themselves, 
he  fairly  stated  the  case  to  them,  and  left  it  with 
them."  Hoping  also  to  do  further  service  amongst 
the  main  body  of  undergraduates,  who  had  been  strongly 
instigated  to  refuse  subscription  for  their  first  degree, 
he  rejoublished  his  commencement  sermon,  which  soon 
became  the  signal  for  much  and  violent  abuse.  In  a 
letter,  signed  Camillus,  and  published  in  the  London 
Chronicle,  January  25th,  17T2,  he  was  complimented 
on  having  "originated  an  idea  by  which  the  devil 
himself  might  subscribe,"  &c.;  and  the  republication 
is  styled,  "  an  effort  to  despoil  the  unsuspecting  sim- 
plicity of  youth  of  that  native  honour  and  integrity, 
which  will  hereafter  be  but  ill  exchanged  for  a  superior 
knowledge  of  the  world." 

Dr.  Powell  made  no  reply  to  his  accusers :  but  the 
question  was  taken  up  by  his  friend.  Dr.  Balguy,  arch- 
deacon of  Winchester ;  who,  in  the  fifth  of  his  admi- 
rable charges,  seems  to  have  placed  the  question  on 
its  most  tenable  grounds ;  making  it  also  manifest  to 
his  opponents,  that  as  much  integrity  and  candour  may 
be  exercised  in  supporting  established  institutions,  as 
in  attacking  and  depreciating  them. 

The  hopes  of  the  faction  in  the  metropolis  were  at 
this  time  much  elated ;  and  they  fully  expected,  amidst 
the  alarm  of  republican  tumults,  and  the  seditious  cries 
of  "Wilkes  and  Liberty,"  to  carry  their  favourite  mea- 
sure :  but  the  parliament  saw  through  the  scheme  laid 
for  the  destruction  of  our  ecclesiastical  establishment 
by  dissenters  of  all  descriptions ;  nor  was  it  moved  by 
any  remonstrances  from  the  discontented  of  the  Church 
itself,  who  had  joined  themselves  to  its  adversaries: 
it  rejected  therefore  the  petition  by  a  very  large  ma- 
jority. 

Dr.  Powell  was  a  vehement  opposer  of  Mr.  Jebb's 
plan  of  University  Reform :  but  this  is  a  controversy 
too  long  to  enter   upon   here.       Although   low  in   his 

VOL.    VIII.  J? 


158  POYNET. 

Church  principles,  he  was,  as  such  persons  often  are, 
a  great  stickler  for  legal  rights  and  constituted  authority. 
He  died  in  1775.  His  published  works,  edited  by  Dr. 
Balguy,  contain  three  discourses  preached  before  the 
university ;  thirteen  preached  in  the  college  chapel ; 
one  on  public  virtue  ;  three  charges  to  the  clergy  of  the 
archdeaconry  of  Colchester ;  and  his  Disputation  on 
taking  his  doctor's  degree. — Balguy.     Hughes. 


POYNET,   OE    POXET. 

John  Poynet,  or  Ponet,  was,  according  to  Strype,  a 
Kentish  man,  and  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge.  He 
was  born  about  the  year  1516.  He  was  distinguished 
in  the  University  as  a  mathematician,  and  as  one  skilled 
in  Patristic  theology.  He  was  a  decided  advocate  for 
the  Reformation  of  the  Church,  and  was  appointed 
his  chaplain  by  Archbishop  Cranmer.  He  translated 
Ochin's  Dialogues  against  the  pope's  supremacy,  and 
was  so  highly  considered  that  in  his  thirty-third  year 
he  was  consecrated   Bishop  of  Rochester. 

The  consecration  took  place  on  the  29th  of  June, 
1550,  and  is  thus  described  by  Strype:  "The  bishop 
having  on  his  mitre  and  cope,  usual  in  such  cases, 
went  into  his  chapel,  handsomely  and  decently  a.dorned, 
to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the  cus- 
tom, and  by  prescript  of  the  book  entitled  The  Book 
of  Common-Service.  Before  the  people  there  assem- 
bled, the  holy  suffrages  first  began,  and  were  publicly 
recited,  and  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  read  in  the  vulgar 
tongue ;  Nicholas,  ^  Bishop  of  London,  and  Arthur, 
Bishop  of  Bangor,  assisting ;  and,  having  their  sur- 
plices and  copes  on,  and  their  pastoral  staves  in  their 
hands,  led  Dr.  John  Poynet,  endued  with  the  like 
habits,  in  the  middle  of  them,  unto  the  most  reverend 
fiather,  and  presented  him  unto  him,  sitting  in  a  de- 


POYNET.  159 

cent  chair;  and  used  these  words,  'Most  reverend 
father  in  God,  we  present  unto  you  this  godly  and  well- 
learned  man  to  be  consecrated  bishop.'  The  bishop 
elect  forthwith  produced  the  king's  letters  patents  before 
the  archbishop  :  which,  by  command  of  the  said  arch- 
bishop, being  read  by  Dr.  Glyn,  the  said  Poynet  took 
the  oath  of  renouncing  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  then 
the  oath  of  canonical  obedience  to  the  archbishop. 
These  things  being  thus  dispatched,  the  archbishop 
exhorted  the  people  to  prayer  and  supplication  to  the 
Most  High,  according  to  the  order  prescribed  in  the 
Book  of  Ordination,  set  forth  in  the  month  of  March, 
1549.  According  to  which  order  he  was  elected  and 
consecrated,  and  endued  with  the  episcopal  ornaments, 
the  Bishop  of  London  first  having  read  the  third  chap- 
ter of  the  First  Epistle  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  in  the  man- 
ner of  a  sermon.  These  things  being  done,  and  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  celebrated  upon  a 
table  covered  with  a  white  linen  cloth,  by  the  arch- 
bishop and  the  two  assisting  bishops,  the  same  arch- 
bishop decreed  to  write  to  the  Archdeacon  of  Canter- 
bury for  the  investiture,  installation,  and  inthroniza- 
tion  of  the  said  Bishop  of  Ptochester,  as  it  w^as  customary. 
Present,  Anthony  Huse,  principal  Register  of  the  arch' 
bishop;  Peter  Lilly,  John  Lewis,  John  Incent,  public 
notaries;  and  many  others,  as  well  clerks  as  laics." 
In  1551,  he  was  translated  to  the  See  of  Winchester, 
after  the  deprivation  of  Gardiner.  He  was  a  frequent 
preacher,  and  wrote  several  treatises  in  defence  of  the 
Reformation ;  but  his  most  remarkable  performance 
was  what  is  commonly  called  King  Edward's  Cate- 
chism, which  appeared  in  1513,  in  two  editions,  the 
one  Latin,  the  other  English,  with  the  royal  privilege. 
From  this  Catechism  Nowell  took  much  in  forming 
his  own.  When  Queen  Mary  came  to  the  crown,  Poy- 
net, with  many  others,  retired  to  Strasburgh,  where 
he   died   on   the    11th   of  April,   1556,   before   he  had 


160  PRESTON. 

completed  his  fortieth  year.  He  also  wrote  : — A  Tra- 
gedy, or  Dialogue  of  the  unjust  usurped  Primacy  of  the 
Bishop  of  Ptome,  translated  from  Bernard  Ochinus ; 
A  Notable  Sermon  concerning  the  Plight  Use  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  &c.,  preached  before  the  King  at  West- 
minster, 1550;  Dialecticon  Viri  boni  et  literati  de 
Veritate,  Natura,  atque  Substantia  Corporis  et  San- 
guinis Christi  in  Eucharistia ;  in  this,  Bayle  says, 
he  endeavoured  to  reconcile  the  Lutherans  and  Zuing- 
lians ;  A  Short  Treatise  of  Politic  Power,  and  of 
the  True  Obedience  which  Subjects  owe  to  Kings  and 
other  Civil  Governors,  with  an  Exhortation  to  all 
true  natural  English  men,  compiled  by  D.  I.  P.  B. 
R,  V.  v.,  i.e.  Dr.  John  Poynet,  Bishop  of  Rochester 
and  Winchester ;  and,  A  Defence  for  Marriage  of  Priests. 
— Godwin.     Strijpe. 


PEESTON,    JOHN. 

The  following  is  the  account  given  of  Preston,  by 
Fuller: — "He  was  born  at  Heyford,  in  Northampton- 
shire; bred  in  Queen's  College,  in  Cambridge,  whose 
life  (interwoven  much  with  church  and  state  matters)  is 
so  well  written  by  his  pupil,  Master  Thomas  Ball,  that 
all  additions  thereunto  may  seem  '  carrying  of  coals 
to  Newcastle.'  However,  seeing  he  who  carrieth  char- 
coal (a  different  kind  from  the  native  coal  of  that  place) 
may  meet  with  a  chapman  there,  on  the  same  confidence 
a  word  or  two  of  this  doctor. 

"  Before  he  commenced  Master  of  Arts,  he  was  so  far 
from  eminency,  as  but  a  little  above  contempt.  Thus 
the  most  generous  wines  are  the  most  muddy  before  they 
are  fine.  Soon  after,  his  skill  in  philosophy  rendered 
him  to  the  general  respect  of  the  university. 

"  He  was  the  greatest  pupil-monger  in  England  in 
man's  memory,  having  sixteen  fellow- commoners  (most 


PRESTON.  161 

heirs  to  fair  estates)  admitted  in  one  year  in  Queen's 
College,  and  provided  convenient  accommodations  for 
them.  As  WilHam  the  popular  Earl  of  Nassau  was 
said  to  have  won  a  subject  from  the  King  of  Spain,  to 
his  own  party,  every  time  he  put  off  his  hat ;  so  was 
it  commonly  said  in  the  college,  that  every  time  when 
Master  Preston  plucked  off  his  hat  to  Doctor  Davenant 
the  college  master,  he  gained  a  chamber  or  study  for  one 
of  his  pupils  ;  amongst  whom  one  Chambers  a  Londoner 
(who  died  very  young,)  was  very  eminent  for  his  learning. 
Being  chosen  Master  of  Emanuel  College,  he  removed 
thither  with  most  of  his  pupils ;  and  I  remember  when 
it  was  much  admired  where  all  these  should  find 
lodgings  in  that  college,  which  was  so  full  already, 
'Oh!'  said  one,  'Master  Preston  will  carry  Chambers 
along  with  him.' 

"  The  party  called  Puritan  then  being  most  active  in 
Parliament,  and  Doctor  Preston  most  powerful  with 
them,  the  duke  rather  used  than  loved  him,  to  work 
that  party  to  his  compliance.  Some  thought  the  doctor 
was  unwilling  to  do  it ;  and  no  wonder  he  effected  not, 
what  he  affected  not.  Others  thought  he  was  unable, 
that  party  being  so  diffusive,  and  then,  in  their  designs 
(as  since  in  their  practices)  divided.  However,  whilst 
any  hope,  none  but  Doctor  Preston  with  the  duke,  set  by 
and  extolled,  and  afterwards,  set  by  and  neglected,  when 
found  useless  to  the  intended  purpose.  In  a  word,  my 
worthy  friend  fitly  calls  him  the  court-comet,  blazing  for 
a  time,  and  fading  soon  afterwards. 

"  He  was  a  perfect  politician,  and  used  (lapwing-like)  to 
flutter  most  on  that  place  which  was  furthest  from  his 
eggs ;  exact  at  the  concealing  of  his  intentions,  with  that 
simulation,  which  some  make  to  lie  in  the  marches  of 
things  lawful  and  unlawful.  He  had  perfect  command 
of  his  passion ;  with  the  Caspian  Sea  never  ebbing  nor 
flowing ;  and  would  not  alter  his  composed  pace  for  all 
the  whipping  which  satrical  wits  bestowed  upon  him. 
p   3 


162  PRICE. 

He  never  had  wife,  or  cure  of  souls  ;  and  leaving  a 
plentiful,  no  invidious  estate,  died  anno  Domini  1628, 
July  20." 

PKICE,    RICHARD. 

Richard  Price  was  born  at  Langeinor,  in  Glamorgan- 
sliire,  in  1723.  He  received  his  education  first  at  Tal- 
garth, in  his  native  country,  and  next  at  an  academy 
in  London.  After  residing  some  years  with  a  gentleman 
at  Stoke-Newington,  he  became  morning-preacher  at  the 
Gravel-pit  meeting,  Hackney.  In  1769,  the  University 
of  Glasgow  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  doctor  in 
divinity;  and  the  same  year  he  published  his  "  Treatise 
on  Reversionary  Payments,"  which  was  followed,  in  1772, 
by  "  Observations  on  the  National  Debt."  During  the 
American  war,  he  printed  two  pamphlets  against  that 
measure,  one  entitled  "  Observations  on  Civil  Liberty" ; 
and  the  other,  "Observations  on  Civil  Government";  for 
which  the  corporation  in  London  voted  him  thanks,  and 
a  gold  box.  In  1778,  he  had  a  friendly  controversy  with 
Dr.  Priestley,  on  materialism  and  necessity.  On  the 
termination  of  the  war,  Mr.  Pitt  consulted  Dr.  Price 
respecting  the  best  mode  of  liquidating  the  national 
debt,  the  result  of  which  it  is  said,  was  the  adoption  of 
the  sinking  fund.  When  the  French  Revolution  broke 
out,  the  doctor  distinguished  himself  by  a  sermon,  in 
which  he  hailed  that  event  as  the  commencement 
of  a  glorious  era.  This  drew  upon  the  preacher  some 
strong  animadversions  from  Mr.  Burke  in  his  celebrated 
Reflections.  Dr.  Price  died  March  19th,  1791.  As  a 
calculator  he  was  pre-eminent;  and  the  Society  for 
Equitable  Assurances  was  greatly  indebted  to  him  for 
his  services.  He  was  also  an  active  member  of  the 
Royal  Society;  and  very  amiable  in  private  life.  His 
other  work's  are : — Review  of  the  Questions  and  Diffi- 
culties iu  Morals ;  Dissertations  on  Prayer,  Providence, 


PRIDEAUX.  163 

Miracles,  and  a  Future  State ;  Essay  on  the  Population 
of  England;  State  of  the  Public  Debts  and  Finances; 
On  the  Importance  of  the  American  Ptcvolution ;  and  a 
Volume  of  Sermons. — Watkins  Biog.  Diet. 


PEIDEAUX,    JOHN. 

Jqhn  Peideaux  was  born  in  1578,  at  Stowford,  in  the 
Parish  of  Harford,  near  Ivy  Bridge,  in  Devonshire. 
The  fallowing  is  the  account  given  of  him  by  Fuller. 
"  He  was  bred  scholar,  fellow,  and  rector  of  Exeter 
College,  in  Oxford,  Canon  of  Christ-Church,  and  above 
thirty  years  king's  professor  in  that  university.  An 
excellent  linguist;  but  so  that  he  would  make  words 
wait  on  his  matter,  chiefly  aiming  at  expressiveness 
therein ;  he  had  a  becoming  festivity,  which  was  Aris- 
totle's,  not  St.  Paul's,  EvrpaTreXta. 

"Admirable  his  memory,  retaining  whatever  he  had 
read.  The  Welsh  have  a  proverb  (in  my  mind  some- 
what uncharitable)  '  He  that  hath  a  good  memory, 
giveth  few  alms ;'  because  he  keepeth  in  mind  what 
and  to  whom  he  had  given  before.  But  this  doctor 
crossed  this  proverb,  with  his  constant  charity  to  all 
in  want. 

"  His  learning  w^as  admired  by  foreigners,  Sextinus 
Amma,  Pdvet,  &c.  He  was  not  vindictive  in  the  least 
degree ;  one  intimate  with  him  having  assured  me,  that 
he  would  forgive  the  greatest  injury,  upon  the  least 
show  of  the  party's  sorrow,  and  restore  him  to  the 
degree  of  his  form&r  favour;  and  though  politicians 
will  thence  collect  him  no  prudent  man,  divines  will 
conclude  him  a  good  Christian. 

"  Episcopacy  in  England  being  grievously  wounded  by 
malevolent  persons.  King  Charles  the  First  conceived 
that  the  best  wine  and  oil  that  could  be  poured  into 
these  wounds  was,  to  select  persons  of  known  learning 


164  PRIDE  AUX. 

and  unblameable  lives,  to  supply  the  vacant  bishoprics ; 
amongst  whom  Dr.  Prideaux  was  made  Bishop  of  Wor* 
cester." 

But  it  was  all  in  vain.  He  adhered  to  the  king's 
cause,  and  having  excommunicated  all  who  took  up 
arms  against  his  majesty  in  the  diocese  of  Worcester, 
he  was  plundered,  and  was  obliged  at  last  to  sell  his 
library.  Dr.  Gauden  said  of  him  that  he  had  become 
literally  a  Helluo  Librorum,  being  obhged  to  turn  his 
books  into  bread  for  his  children.  But  he  never  lost 
his  good  temper.  A  friend  coming  to  see  him,  and 
saluting  him  in  the  common  form  of  "  How  doth  your 
lordship  do?"  "Never  better  in  my  life,"  said  he, 
"  only  I  have  too  great  a  stomach ;  for  I  have  eaten 
that  little  plate  which  the  sequestrators  left  me  ;  I  have 
eaten  a  great  library  of  excellent  books ;  I  have  eaten 
a  great  deal  of  linen,  much  of  my  brass,  some  of  my 
pewter,  and  now  I  am  come  to  eat  iron,  and  what 
will  come  next  I  know  not."  He  died  in  the  year  1650, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-two,  leaving  to  his  children  no 
legacy  but  "pious  poverty,  God's  blessing,  and  a 
fathers  prayers,"  as  appears  from  his  last  will  and 
testament.  His  learning  was  very  extensive,  his  me- 
mory prodigious,  and  he  was  reputed  the  best  disputant 
in  his  time  in  the  university.  It  is  recorded  to  his 
honour  that  he  was  at  the  same  time  "  an  humble  man, 
of  plain  and  downright  behaviour,"  exemplary  in  his 
charity,  affable  in  conversation,  and  never  desirous  of 
concealing  his  lowly  origin.  He  was  often  heard  to  say, 
"  If  I  could  have  been  clerk  of  Ugborow,  I  had  never 
been  Bishop  of  Worcester ;"  and  so  far  from  being 
ashamed  of  his  original  poverty,  he  kept  in  the  same 
wardrobe  with  his  rochet,  the  leather  breeches  which 
he  wore  when  he  came  to  Oxford,  as  a  memorial  of  it. 

He  was  the  author  of: — Tabulae  ad  Grammaticam 
Graecam  introductoriae,  1608,  4to,  with  which  were 
printed,  Tyrocinium  ad  Syllogismum  contexendum,  and 


PRIDEAUX,  HUMPHREY.  165 

Heptades  Logicae,   sive  monita  ad    ampliores  Tractatus 
introductoria ;    Lectiones  decern   de   totidem  Religionis 
Capitibus,  &c.,   1625,   4to ;    Fasciculus  controversiarum 
theologicamm,   &c.,   1649,  4to ;     Theologise   Scholasticse 
Syntagma  Mnemonicum,  printed  in  1651,  4to ;    Conci- 
liorum    Synopsis,    printed   in   1661,    4to ;    Manuductio 
ad  Theologiam  Polemicam,  printed  in  1657,  8vo ;    Hy 
pomnemata   Logica,    Rhetorica,    Physica,    Metaphysica 
&c.,  8vo;  Twenty  Sermons,   1636,  4to ;    Nine  Sermons 
on   several   occasions,   1641,   4to ;    Histories  of  Succes 
sions  in  States,  Countries,  or  Families,  printed  in  1653 
Euchologia,  or,  the  Doctrines  of  Practical  Praying,  &c. 
printed   in    1655,    8vo;    The   Doctrine   of    Conscience 
framed  according  to  the  Form  in  the  Common  Prayer, 
&c.,   printed  in   1656,   8vo  ;    Sacred  Eloquence,  or,  the 
Art  of  Rhetoric,  as  it  is  laid  down  in  Scripture,  printed 
in   1656,   8vo;    and  various  other  w^orks  in  Latin  and 
English,  the  titles   of  which   are   inserted    in    Wood's 
Athen.  Oivon. — Fuller.     Wood.     Walker. 


PEIDEAUX,    HUMrHEEY. 

The  great  work  of  Dean  Prideaux,  the  Connection  of 
the  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  is  still  a 
standard  work  among  us,  and  gives  an  interest  to  his 
name.  A  life  was  published  of  him  in  1748,  which 
contains  nothing  of  any  general  interest,  being  merely 
the  narrative  of  a  respectable  and  learned  man,  who  did 
his  duty  respectably  in  the  various  places  to  which  he 
was  called,  and  who  rather  exaggerated  his  influence 
and  importance  in  his  own  mind.  He  was  born  at 
Padstow,  in  Cornwall,  in  1648,  and  was  educated  at 
Westminster,  and  Christ  Church.  At  Christ  Church  he 
Avas  a  diligent  and  successful  student,  as  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  he  obtained  the  patronage  of  Fell.  Dr. 
Fell  employed  him  in  supplying  notes  to  an  edition  of 


166  PRIDEAUX,  HUMPHREY. 

Lucius  Florus,  and  afterwards  in  completing  the  notes 
and  explanations  on  the  Arundel  Marbles,  which  had 
been  published  in  the  first  instance  by  Selden.  On  the 
latter  work  he  was  employed  for  two  years.  In  1676, 
he  published  his  Marmora  Oxoniensia  ex  Arundellianis, 
Seldenianis,  aliisque  constata,  cum  perpetuo  Commen- 
tario,  fol.  This  book,  published  when  he  was  only 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  gave  him  a  high  reputation  in 
the  university,  and  was  well  received  by  the  learned 
world,  particularly  in  Germany,  France,  and  Italy.  So 
great  was  the  demand  for  it,  that  it  soon  became  scarce, 
and  was  only  to  be  obtained  at  an  advanced  price. 
Prideaux,  however,  is  said  to  have  entertained  little 
value  for  the  work  himself,  owing  to  its  having  been 
drawn  up  in  too  great  haste,  and  to  the  number  of 
typographical  errors  with  which  it  abounds,  through  the 
negligence  of  the  corrector  of  the  University  press.  A 
more  correct  edition  was  published  under  the  inspection 
of  Michael  Maittaire,  in  1732,  fol.  Having,  by  order, 
presented  one  of  the  copies  of  the  Marmora  to  the  lord- 
chancellor  Finch,  this  introduced  him  to  his  lordship's 
patronage,  who  soon  after  placed  one  of  his  sons  under 
him,  as  tutor  at  Christ  Church  ;  and  in  1679,  presented 
him  to  the  Rectory  of  St.  Clement's,  in  the  suburb  of 
Oxford,  where  he  officiated  for  several  years.  The  same 
year  he  published  Two  Tracts  of  Maimonides  in  Hebrew, 
with  a  Latin  translation  and  notes,  under  the  title,  De 
Jure  Pauperis  et  Peregrin!  apud  Judeos.  This  he  did 
in  consequence  of  having  been  appointed  Dr.  Busby's 
Hebrew  lecturer  in  Christ  Church,  and  with  a  view  to 
teach  students  the  rabbinical  dialect,  and  to  read  it 
without  points.  In  1681,  the  lord-chancellor  Finch, 
then  Earl  of  Nottingham,  presented  him  to  a  prebend 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Norwich.  In  November,  1682,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  degree  of  bachelor  in  divinity,  and 
on  the  death  of  Lord  Nottingham,  found  another  patron 
in  his  successor,  Sir  Francis  North ;  who,   in  February 


PRIDEAUX,  HUMPHREY.  ]67 

of  the  following  year,  gave  hira  the  Rectory  of  Bladen, 
with   Woodstock    Chapelry,    in    Oxfordshire.      He   pro- 
ceeded D.D.  in  1686,  and  having  exchanged  his  living 
of  Bladen  for  that  of  Sahara,  in  Norfolk,   he  went  to 
settle  upon  his  prebend  in  Norwich.     Here  he  became 
engaged   in    some    severe    contests    with    the    Roman 
Catholics,  the  result  of  which  was  the  publication  of 
his  work,  The  Validity  of  the   Orders   of  the   Church 
of  England  made  out.     He  also  took  an  active  part  in 
resisting  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  James  II.,  which 
affected  the  interests   of  the  Established  Church.      In 
1688,  he  was  collated  to  the  Archdeaconry  of  Suffolk, 
and  not  without  due  consideration,   took  the   oaths   of 
allegiance  to  William  and  Mary,  and  acted  up  to  them 
faithfully;    but  he  always  looked  upon    the    nonjurors 
as   honest  men,    and  treated  them  with   kindness    and 
respect.     In   1694,   he  resigned  his  Hving  at  Saham  ; 
and   in    1696,    he    was   instituted    to   the   Vicarage    of 
Trowse,    near   Norwich.      He  published,   in    1687,    his 
Life  of  Mahomet.       In    1702,   he  was   made   Dean    of 
Norwich  ;    and    in    1707,    he   published   Directions    to 
Churchwardens  ;  a  w^ork  which  has  often  been  reprinted. 
The  best  edition  is  that  corrected  and  improved  by  Tyr- 
whitt,  London,  1833.     In  1710,  he  published  his  work 
upon  Tythes,  8vo  ;  and  in  the  same  year,   he  resigned 
the  Vicarage  of  Trowse.     He  was  during  the  latter  part 
of  his  life  greatly  afflicted  with  the  stone,  which  entirely 
disqualified   him  for  public  duties.      But  he  still   per- 
sued  his  private  studies,   and   at  length,  in   1715,    he 
brought  out  the  first  part  of  his  last  and  greatest  work, 
The  Connection  of  the  History  of  the   Old    and   New 
Testament,    and   the   second  part   in   1717,    fol.      His 
strength  had  been  long  declining,  and  he  died  November 
1st,  1724,  in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  and  was  buried 
in  Norwich   Cathedral.      About   three    days   before    his 
death  he  presented  his  collection  of  Oriental  books,  more 
than  300  in  number,  to  the  hbrary  of  Clare  Hall,  Cam- 


168  PRIESTLEY,  JOSEPH. 

bridge.  Several  posthumous  Tracts  and  Letters,  with' 
a  Life  of  Dr.  Prideaux,  the  author  of  which  is  not  named, 
were  published  in  1748,  8vo. — Life  above  refered  to. 


PRIESTLEY,    JOSEPH. 

Joseph  Priestley  is  chiefly  known  in  the  theological 
world  for  the  controversy  in  which  he  was  engaged 
with  Bishop  Horsley ;  and  for  an  account  of  which 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Biography  of  that  prelate, 
who  exposed  the  ignorance  and  want  of  scholarship, 
not  less  than  the  bad  principles  of  his  opponent. 
The  following  notice  is  taken  from  Watkins's  Univer- 
sal Biographical   Dictionary : — 

"  Priestley  was  born  at  Fieldhead,  in  Yorkshire, 
March  18th,  1733.  He  was  educated  in  an  academy  ^ 
at  Daventry,  after  which  he  became  minister  to  a  con- 
gregation at  Needham  Market,  in  Suffolk ;  from  whence 
he  removed  to  Nantwich,  in  Cheshire,  and  next  to 
Warrington,  where  the  dissenters  had  formed  a  semi- 
nary, on  a  plan  of  liberal  sentiment.  While  tutor 
in  this  institution,  he  published  the  History  of  Elec- 
tricity, which  procured  his  election  into  the  Eoyal 
Society,  and  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  from  Edin- 
burgh. Soon  after  this  he  left  Warrington,  and  went 
to  Leeds,  where  he  made  those  important  discoveries 
with  regard  to  the  properties  of  fixed  air,  for  which 
he  obtained  the  Copley  medal  from  the  Royal  Society 
in  1772.  In  1776,  he  communicated  to  the  same 
learned  body  his  observations  on  respiration,  being  the 
first  who  experimentally  ascertained  that  the  commoni 
inspired  air  becomes  both  lessened  and  injured,  by  the 
action  of  the  blood,  as  it  passes  through  the  lungs. 
After  this  he  made  some  curious  observations  on  the 
food  of  plants,  and  the  production  of  the  various  gases. 
These  pursuits  procured  him  the  appointment  of  com^ 


PRISCILLIAN.  169 

panion  to  the  Earl  of  Shelburne,  with  whom  he  resided 
seven  years,  and  then  retired  on  a  pension  to  Birming- 
ham, where  he  devoted  more  attention  to  polemics  than 
philosophy.  He  had,  indeed,  previously  published  some 
works  in  defence  of  materialism  and  necessity  ;  but  now 
he  made  more  direct  attacks  upon  the  common  faith  of 
Christians.  In  1783,  came  out  his  History  of  the  Cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity;  which,  though  a  compilation 
from  modern  books,  had  an  imposing  appearance  of 
learned  research.  On  this  account,  Dr.  Horsley  thought 
it  necessary  to  expose  the  sources  from  whence  the  work 
was  drawn,  and  to  show  the  fallacy  of  its  positions.  He 
next  engaged  warmly  in  the  proceedings  for  a  repeal 
of  the  corporation  and  test  acts.  But  it  was  the  French 
revolution  that  afforded  him  the  widest  field  ;  and  he 
did  not  fail  to  display  his  zeal  on  that  occasion.  This, 
however,  gave  much  offence  to  the  people  of  Birming- 
ham, among  whom  party-spirit  ran  very  high,  and  was 
excited,  beyond  doubt,  by  the  writings  of  Dr.  Priestley. 
At  length,  an  entertainment,  on  the  14th  of  July,  1791, 
to  celebrate  the  destruction  of  the  Bastile,  furnished- 
the  pretext  for  a  riot,  in  which  many  houses  were  de- 
stroyed, and  that  of  the  doctor's  among  the  rest.  After 
this  he  removed  to  Hackney,  where  he  succeeded  Dr. 
Price;  but  in  1794,  he  went  to  America,  and  died  there, 
February  6th,  1804. 


PRISCILLIAN. 

PRTSCILLIAN,  a  heretic  of  the  fourth  century,  was  by 
birth  a  Spaniard.  The  heresy  by  which  his  name  has  been 
rendered  infamous  is  a  modification  of  Manicheism. 
It  was  introduced  into  Spain  by  Marcus,  a  magician  of 
Memphis,  but  owed  its  success  to  the  patronage  of  Pris- 
cillian,  who  was  a  man  of  large  fortune  and  gifted  with 
great  talent  and  eloquence.      Their  followers  were  called 

VOL.    VIII,  Q 


170  PRISCILLIAN. 

Priscillianists.  Under  his  patronage,  the  new  doctrines 
were  rapidlj^  extended,  and  infected  even  some  amongst 
the  bishops,  as  Instantius  and  Salvianus.  Although 
condemned  by  a  council  at  Saragossa,  these  bishops 
were  not  deterred,  and  presumed  so  far  as  to  con- 
stitute PrisciUian  Bishop  of  Avila.  The  Emperor 
Gratian  expelled  them  from  Spain,  and  they  immediately 
went  to  Milan  and  to  Ptome,  to  gain  to  their  interests 
the  pontiff  Damasus  and  the  imperial  court.  They 
succeeded  by  their  arts  in  the  latter  attempt.  Their 
chief  opponent,  Ithiacus  Bishop  of  Ossonoba,  was  obliged 
to  leave  Spain,  but  in  a  short  time,  laid  his  complaint 
before  the  new  emperor,  Maximus,  who,  after  the  death 
of  Gratian,  began  to  rule  from  Treves  over  the  western 
provinces  of  the  empire.  The  usurper  commanded  the 
chiefs  of  the  Priscillianists  to  appear  before  a  council 
at  Bordeaux.  Here  Instantius  was  deposed,  but  Pris- 
ciUian appealed  to  the  emperor ;  and  the  council  which 
ought  not  to  have  been  diverted  by  this  artifice  from 
jjronouncing  over  him  sentence  of  deposition  and  ex- 
communication, granted  to  him  his  request.  Pris^ 
cillian  therefore  and  his  followers  on  the  one  side,  and 
Idiacus,  Bishop  of  Merida,  and  Ithiacus,  on  the  other, 
met  at  Treves.  Ithiacus,  a  short-sighted  zealot,  persuaded 
Maximus  to  violate  the  promise  which  he  had  made  to 
St.  Martin  of  Tours,  that  he  would  not  shed  the  blood 
of  PrisciUian.  The  prefect  Evodius  conducted  the 
examination  according  to  the  Roman  forms,  with  the 
application  of  the  torture,  and  the  emperor  signed  the 
sentence  of  death.  PrisciUian,  the  widow  Euchrocia, 
and  five  others  were  accused  of  odious  crimes,  and 
beheaded  in  385 ;  Instantius  and  others  were  excom- 
municated. 

The  system  of  PrisciUian  had  for  its  foundation  the 
Manichean  dualism.  It  taught  that  an  evil  principle, 
which  had  sprung  from  chaos  and  eternal  darkness,  was 
the  creator  of  the  lower  world  :  that  souls,  which  are  of 


PTOLEMY.  171 

a  divine  nature,  were  sent  by  God  from  heaven,  to  combat 
with  the  powers  of  darkness  and  against  their  kingdom, 
but  were  overcome  and  enclosed  within  bodies.  To 
free  these  souls,  the  Redeemer  descended  from  heaven, 
clothed  with  a  celestial  body,  which  was,  in  appearance 
only,  like  to  the  bodies  of  ordinary  men.  By  his 
sufferings, — which,  according  to  PrisciUian,  were  only 
apparent  and  symbolical, — he  erased  the  mark  which  the 
evil  spirits  had  impressed  upon  the  souls,  when  they 
confined  them  within  material  bodies.  The  sect  pro- 
hibited the  use  of  marriage,  commanded  abstinence 
from  animal  food,  and  rejected  the  belief  of  the  resur- 
rection. Their  mysteries  were  not  less  abominable  than 
those  of  the  Manichees.  To  conceal  their  own  doctrines, 
and  to  calumniate  the  Catholics,  by  lies  and  false  swearing, 
they  considered  perfectly  justifiable. — Dollinger. 


PKITZ,  JOHN  GEORGE. 

John  George  Pritz  was  born  at  Leipsic,  in  166-2,  and 
in  1698,  was  appointed  professor  of  divinity  and  meta- 
physics at  Zerbet  in  Saxony.  In  1711,  he  removed  to 
Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  where  he  died  in  1732.  He 
published,  Patris  Macarii  ^gyptii  Homiliae  L.  Greece 
et  Latine,  interprete  Zacharia  Palthenio  ;  Macarii  ^gyptii 
Opera ;  Introductio  in  Lectionem  Novi  Testamenti ;  an 
edition  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  original  Greek, 
with  various  Readings,  Geographical  Charts,  &c.  ; 
Sermons ;  Devotional  Treatises ;  translated  from  the 
English  into  German;  and  an  edition  of  the  Latin 
Letters  of  Milton. 


PTOLEMY    OF    LUCCA, 


Ptolemy  of  Lucca  is  the  historical  name  of  Bartholomew 


172  PYLE. 

Fiadoni,  which  he  assumed  on  entering  the  order  of 
St.  Dominic.  He  flourished  in  the  14th  century  and 
was  superior  of  the  monastery  both  at  Lucca  and  Florence. 
He  was  confessor  to  Pope  John  XXII.,  and  in  1318,  he 
was  made  Bishop  of  Torcello,  under  the  patriarchate  of 
Venice.  He  died  in  1327.  His  Annals  extend  from 
1060  to  1303,  and  were  published  at  Lyons  in  1619. 
But  his  great  work  is  his  Historiae  Ecclesiasticae,  Lib. 
XXIV.,  commencing  with  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  brought 
down  to  1313.  This  after  remaining  long  in  MS.  was 
published  at  Milan,  in  1727,  by  Muratori,  in  his  Pierum 
Italicarum  Scriptores. — Diqnn. 


PYLE,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Pyle,  a  latitudinarian  divine,  was  born  at  Stodey 
in  Norfolk,  in  1674.  He  graduated  at  Caius  College, 
Cambridge,  and  on  his  being  ordained,  became  curate 
of  St.  Margaret's  parish  in  King's  Lynn;  and  in  1701, 
he  was  appointed  minister  of  St.  Nicolas's  chapel. 
Between  the  years  1708  and  1718,  he  published  six 
occasional  sermons,  chiefly  in  defence  of  the  principles 
of  the  Revolution,  and  the  succession  of  the  Brunswick 
family.  He  was  violent  and  impetuous,  and  having 
taken  the  heterodox  side  in  the  Bangorian  controversy, 
in  which  he  published  two  pamphlets  in  vindication  of 
Bishop  Hoadley,  he  was  rewarded  by  a  prebend  and  a 
residentiaryship  in  that  cathedral.  In  1732,  he  obtained 
the  vicarage  of  St.  Margaret  at  Lynn.  He  died  in  1756. 
He  wrote  : — Paraphrase  on  the  Acts,  and  all  the  Epistles, 
in  the  manner  of  Dr.  Clarke,  This  was  followed  by  his 
Paraphrase  on  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  and  on  the 
Historical  Books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Sixty  sermons 
of  his  were  published  in  1773 — 1783,  3  vols  8vo,  by 
his  youngest  son  Philip. — Nichols  s  Bomjer. 


QUADRATUS.  173 


QUADEATUS. 

QuADEATUs,  one  of  the  earliest  Christian  apologists,  was 
born  or  at  least  educated  at  Athens,  of  which  city  he 
became  the  bishop.  Eusebius  in  the  history  of  affairs 
in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  writes  thus. — "  Of  those  that 
flourished  in  these  times,  Quadratus  is  said  to  have  been 
distinguished  for  his  prophetical  gifts.  There  were  many 
others,  also  noted  in  these  times,  who  held  the  lirst 
rank  in  the  apostolic  succession.  These,  as  the  holy 
disciples  of  such  men,  also  built  up  the  Churches,  where 
foundations  had  been  previously  laid  in  every  place  by 
the  Apostles.  They  augmented  the  means  of  promul- 
gating the  Gospel  more  and  more,  and  spread  the  seeds 
of  salvation,  and  of  the  heavenly  kingdom,  throughout 
the  world  far  and  wide.  For  the  most  of  the  disciples 
at  that  time,  animated  with  a  more  ardent  love  of  the 
Divine  word,  had  first  fulfilled  the  Saviour's  precept,  by 
distributing  their  substance  to  the  needy :  afterwards 
leaving  their  country,  they  performed  the  office  of  evan- 
gelists to  those  who  had  not  yet  heard  the  faith,  whilst 
with  a  noble  ambition  to  proclaim  Christ,  they  also 
delivered  to  them  the  books  of  the  holy  gospels.  After 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  faith  in  foreign  parts  as 
the  particular  object  of  their  mission,  and  after  appointing 
others  as  shepherds  of  the  flocks,  and  committing  to 
these  the  care  of  those  that  had  been  recently  introduced, 
they  went  again  to  other  regions  and  nations,  with  the 
grace  and  co-operation  of  God.  The  Holy  Spirit  also 
still  wTought  many  wonders  through  them,  so  that  as 
soon  as  the  gospel  was  heard,  men  voluntarily,  in 
crowds,  and  eagerly,  embraced  the  true  faith,  with 
their  whole  minds.  As  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  give 
the  number  of  the  individuals  that  became  pastors 
or  evangelists,  during  the  first  immediate  succession 
from  the  Apostles  in  the  Churches  throughout  the  world, 
Q  3 


174  QUADRATUS. 

we  have  only  recorded  those  by  name  in  our  history, 
of  whom  we  have  received  the  traditional  account,  as 
it  is  delivered  in  the  various  comments  on  the  apos- 
tolic doctrine  still   extant." 

He  also  adds  in  another  place;  "Trajan  having 
held  the  sovereignty  for  twenty  years,  wanting  six 
months,  was  succeeded  in  the  imperial  office  by  ^lius 
Adrian.  To  him,  Quadratus  addressed  a  discourse, 
as  an  apology  for  the  religion  that  we  profess ;  because 
certain  malicious  persons  attempted  to  harass  our  bre- 
thren. The  work  is  still  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the 
brethren,  as  also  in  our  own,  from  which  any  one 
may  see  evident  proof,  both  of  the  understanding  of 
the  man,  and  of  his  apostolic  faith.  The  writer  shew^s 
the  antiquity  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  in  these 
passages  :  '  the  deeds  of  our  Saviour,'  says  he,  '  were 
always  before  you,  for  they  were  true  miracles  :  those 
that  were  healed,  those  that  were  raised  from  the  dead, 
who  were  seen,  not  only  when  healed,  and  when  raised, 
but  were  always  present.  They  remained  living  a  long 
time,  not  only  whilst  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  but  likewise 
when  He  had  left  the  earth  ;  so  that  some  of  them  have 
also  lived  to  our  own  times.'  Such  was  Quadratus.  Aris- 
tides,  also,  a  man  faithfully  devoted  to  the  rehgion 
we  profess,  like  Quadratus,  has  left  to  posterity,  a 
defence  of  the  faith,  addressed  to  Adrian.  This  work 
is  also  preserved  by  a  great  number,  even  to  the 
present  day." 

Eusebius  also  adds  in  his  Chronicle,  and  he  is 
supported  in  that  statement  by  Jerome,  that  this 
piece  produced  the  wished-for  effect  upon  the  emperor's 
mind,  and  was  the  means  of  procuring  a  temporary 
calm  for  the  professors  of  Christianity.  Of  this  work, 
we  have  only  a  small  fragment  remaining,  preserved 
by  Eusebius.  Valesius,  Dupin,  Tillemont,  and  Basnage, 
maintain  that  Quadratus  the  Apologist  was  not  the 
same   person    with    the    bishop    of  Athens ;   but   this 


QUESNEL.  ]75 

opinion  has  been  refuted  by  Cave,  Grabe,  and  Lardner. 
— Eusehius.     St.  Jerome. 


QUESNEL,    PASQUIEE. 

The  life  of  Quesnel,  like  those  of  Arnauld,  Jansenius 
and  Pascal,  is  interesting  as  throwing  light  on  the 
history  of  the  Gallican  Church.  The  following  life  is 
taken  from  the  introductory  essay  supplied  to  the  English 
translation  of  the  Moral  Reflections  by  Dr.  Daniel 
Wilson,  the  present  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  Pasquier 
Quesnel  was  born  at  Paris,  July  14th,  1634.  His 
grandfather  was  a  native  of  Scotland ;  but  whether 
a  Roman  Catholic  or  not,  does  not  appear.  His  father 
was  most  probably  of  that  persuasion ;  and  Pasquier 
after  being  educated  at  the  University  of  Paris,  entered 
into  the  Religious  Congregation  of  the  Oratoire,  in  1657. 
He  devoted  himself  from  his  earliest  years,  to  the  study 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures  and  of  the  fathers  of  the  Church. 
He  began  soon  to  compose  books  of  piety,  chiefly  for 
the  use  of  the  young  people  intrusted  to  his  care.  It 
was  in  this  course  that  he  was  led  to  write  the  first 
portion  of  those  Reflections  which,  thirty  years  after- 
wards, kindled  so  ardent  a  controversy.  One  or  two 
persons  of  distinction  having  been  much  delighted  with 
them,  encouraged  him  to  extend  his  notes  to  the  whole 
of  the  Gospels  ;  for  at  first  they  comprehended  only 
some  portions  of  our  Lord  s  life,  and  they  thus  gra- 
dally  swelled  into  a  very  important  work,  w^hich  gave 
a  character  to  the  age  in  which  it  appeared.  It  was 
in  1671,  that  the  first  edition  was  published  under  the 
sanction  of  the  then  Bishop  of  Chalons  sur  Marne ;  for 
it  was  not  uncommon  for  persons  of  that  station,  if 
men  of  piety,  to  authorize  and  circulate  works  of  devo- 
tion, with  the  sufferance  of  their  superiors,  so  long 
iis  the    peculiar  tenets    of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 


176  QUESNEL. 

were  intermingled,  and  no  great  stir  was  excited  about 
the  evangelical  truths  which  they  contained.  Quesnel 
continually  added  to  his  Reflections  during  the  rest  of 
his  hfe.  He  embraced  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
the  Epistles  in  his  plan ;  besides  enriching  by  more 
than  one  half,  the  original  notes.  His  last  years  were 
dedicated  to  the  preparation  of  a  still  more  enlarged 
edition,  with  much  new  matter,  which  was  published 
in  1 727.  Nearly  sixty  years  were  thus  employed  more 
or  less,  upon  this  pleasing  and  elevated  task — another 
proof  amongst  a  thousand,  that  nothing  really  excellent 
is  the  fruit  of  haste.  When  you  come  to  understand 
the  real  facts,  you  discover  that  the  books  which  last, 
which  form  eras  in  theology,  which  go  out  with  a  large 
measure  of  the  Divine  blessing,  are  the  result  of  much 
prayer  and  meditation,  of  thoughts  often  revolved  and 
matured  by  degrees.  Thus  new  and  important  lights 
irradiate  the  mind,  the  proximate  ideas  are  suggested 
by  time  and  occasion,  errors  and  excrescencies  are 
detected,  topics  assume  a  new  face  and  consistency, 
prayer  brings  down  the  influences  of  grace,  all  the 
powers  of  the  mind  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
inquiry,  and  something  is  produced  for  the  honour  of 
God  and  the   permanent  welfare  of  His  Church. 

One  great  work  is  commonly  as  much  as  one  man 
produces ;  and  this  the  result  of  unexpected  incident, 
rather  than  of  express  intention,  in  the  first  instance. 
Pascal  left  his  Thoughts — Bacon,  his  Novum  Organum, 
Butler,  his  Analog}^ — Quesnel,  his  Reflections, — a  life 
having  been,  in  each  case,  devoted  to  the  particular 
inquiry ;  and  the  form  and  magnitude  and  importance 
of  each  work,  having  been  least  of  all,  in  the  first 
intentions  of  the  writers.  Pride  conceives  great  designs, 
and  accomplishes  little  ;  humility  dreads  the  promise  of 
difficult  undertakings,    and  accomplishes  much. 

Quesnel's  sentiments  on  religion  were  now  becoming 
known,  as  his  book   spread.     His    talents,  his    elegant 


QUESNEL.  177 

style,  his  brilliancy  of  imaginatioD,  were  acknowledged. 
His  deep  and  penetrating  piety  was  not  immediately 
understood.  His  whole  life  seems  to  have  been  dedicated 
to  the  love  of  his  Crucified  Saviour.  The  fall  and 
total  corruption  of  our  nature,  the  distinct  necessity  of 
grace  for  the  production  of  anything  really  good,  the 
grateful  adoration  of  the  purposes  and  will  of  God 
towards  His  elect :  these  formed  the  foundation  of 
Quesnel's  religious  principles.  They  were  not  held 
merely  as  doctrines ;  they  were  insisted  on,  felt,  followed 
out  into  their  consequences.  A  deep  and  tender 
humility  appears  in  his  spirit,  a  deadness  of  affection 
as  to  the  world,  a  perception  of  joy  and  peace  in 
the  spiritual  life,  a  faith  full  of  childlike  simplicity 
and  repose  of  soul  on  the  grace  and  power  of  Christ ; 
a  minute  conscientiousness  in  the  application  of  his 
principles  to  his  whole  conduct,  a  skill  in  detecting 
false  motives,  a  bold  and  uncompromising  courage  in 
speaking  truth :  these  were  the  fruits  of  the  great 
Scriptural   principles  which  he  had  imbibed. 

Mixed,  however,  with  these  sound  and  elevated 
principles  and  habits,  were  many  great  errors  and 
superstitions,  flowing  from  his  education  in  the  bosom 
of  the  apostate  Church.  His  study  of  the  fathers,  instead 
of  being  confined  to  a  fair  and  Scriptural  consultation 
of  their  writings,  was  cramped  by  his  reliance  on 
them  as  authoritative  guides.  They  warped  his  judg- 
ment instead  of  assisting  it.  The  doctrine  of  Justifi- 
cation was  confounded  with  that  of  Sanctifi cation  ;  and 
though  both  were  bottomed  upon  grace  in  the  most 
decisive  manner,  yet  so  wide  a  departure  from  the 
statements  of  Scripture,  could  not  but  have  an  unfa- 
vourable influence  upon  the  whole  tenor  of  his  religion. 
Thus,  like  Pascal,  Nicole,  Arnauld,  St.  Cyran,  and 
the  other  great  names  of  the  same  school,  the  highest 
order  of  excellence  on  capital  points,  was  combined 
with  some   glaring   errors.     Deep    spirituality  of  mind, 


178  QUESNEL. 

unaffected  humility,  holy  love  to  the  Divine  Saviour, 
a  simple  repose  on  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  a 
life  of  devoted  and  courageous  obedience,  were  associated 
with  much  uncommanded  prostration  of  the  under- 
standing to  human  authority,  many  dangerous  super- 
stitions, and  much  uncharitable  condemnation  of 
Protestants. 

It  was  in  1681,  that  persecution  first  burst  out 
against  Quesnel.  The  new  doctrines  (for  truth,  when 
it  re-appears  in  force,  is  new  to  fallen  man,  especially 
in  a  very  corrupt  Church,)  began  to  attract  attention. 
Numbers  espoused  them.  The  Jesuits  were  the  first 
to  take  the  alarm.  Harlai,  Archishop  of  Paris,  in- 
formed of  Pasquier's  sentiments,  obliged  him  to 
quit  the  capital.  He  took  refuge  at  Orleans.  Three 
years  afterwards,  he  fled  to  Brussels,  to  avoid  the 
necessity  of  signing  an  absurd  formulary,  in  which 
the  condemnation  of  Jansenism  was  allied  with  the 
renunciation  of  the  natural  philosophy  of  Descartes. 
Here  he  joined  the  great  Arnauld,  and  received  his 
last  instructions.  He  devoted  himself  now  to  the  con- 
tinuation of  his  Reflections;  and  in  1694,  published 
an  edition  which  comprised,  for  the  first  time,  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Jesuits  had  not 
yet  prevailed.  Louis-Antoine  de  Noailles,  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Vares,  and  cardinal,  was  now  Bishop 
of  Chalons-sur-Marne,  and  scrupled  not  to  recommend 
the  book  to  his  diocese.  The  Bishops  of  Limoges,  iVgen, 
Montpellier,  and   Sonez,   afterwards  did  the  same. 

The  celebrated  Bossuet  likewise  joined  in  defending 
the  book,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles  also,  when 
the  Jesuits  publicly  attacked  them.  Bossuet,  in  his 
earlier  life,  seems  to  have  inclined  more  to  the  sen- 
timents of  St.  Augustine  and  Jansenius,  than  to  the 
contrary  notions  of  the  Jesuits.  The  controversy  with 
Fenelon  had  not  yet  soured  his  mind,  nor  his  eleva- 
tion at  court  cooled  his  piety.     An  idea  may  be  formed 


QUESNEL.  179 

of  the  immense  circulation  of  the  Reflections,  and  the 
prodigious  eagerness  with  which  they  were  sought  for, 
from  what  the  Bishop  of  Meaux  observes : — •'  This 
book,  which  contained  at  first  only  the  text  of  the 
Gospels  and  the  Notes  upon  them,  was  received  with 
an  avidity  and  a  desire  of  edification,  which  seemed 
to  revive  in  our  days,  the  primitive  zeal  of  Christians 
for  continual  meditation  on  the  Word  of  God  night 
and  day.  And  when  the  Notes  on  the  rest  of  the 
New  Testament  w^ere  added,  the  complete  work  had 
so  great  a  success,  that  all  the  countries  w^here 
the  French  language  is  known,  and  the  royal  city 
more  particularly,  were  filled  with  it, — the  booksellers 
could  not  meet  the  eagerness  of  the  faithful — un- 
numbered editions  were  published  one  after  another 
and  instantly  taken  off;  so  that  we  may  apply  to  this 
event  what  is  written  in  the  Acts,  that  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  grew  mightily,  and  that  the  number  of  its 
zealous  readers  increased  eveiy  day." 

Such  was  th3  effect  which  the  persecution  and  the 
extraordinary  merit  of  the  w^ork  concurred,  under  the 
blessing  of  God,  to  produce. 

But  further  extremities  were  resorted  to  by  the 
Jesuits.  The  Reflections  had  been  before  the  world 
more  than  twenty  years.  Some  disturbance  had  been 
made,  and  the  Author  had  been  driven  from  his  coun- 
try. But  the  book  had  a  prodigious  sale  ;  influential 
names  were  attached  to  it ;  it  was  exciting  more  and 
more  the  hatred  of  the  human  heart  on  the  one  hand, 
and  gaining  converts  and  readers  almost  innumerable 
on  the  other.  Satan  would  not  let  this  state  of  things 
continue.  The  real  grace  of  God,  though  mixed  with 
error,  was  maintained,  and  maintained  boldly,  in  the 
Reflections ;  man  was  laid  low ;  the  Saviour  was 
exalted ;  the  power  of  fallen  nature  to  recover  itself 
was  denied ;  the  Holy  Ghost  was  honoured  ;  the  world 
and    its   pleasures  were    uncompromisingly  exposed ;   a 


180  QUESNEL. 

new  and  holy  life  was  delineated  and  insisted  on; 
heaven  and  hell  were  plainly  exhibited.  This  was 
enough  :  nothing  could  redeem  such  unpardonable  faults 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Jesuits.  They  could  not  endure 
the  strong  light  thrown  on  the  nature  of  man,  and 
the  one  person  of  the  Saviour.  They  saw  acutely 
enough,  (though  perhaps  Quesnel  did  not,)  that  such 
principles  went  to  undermine  Popery.  They  began 
their  schemes  anew.  They  attempted  to  detach  the 
powerful  defenders  of  Pasquier.  The  Cardinal  de  Noailles 
was  rudely  assailed.  Quesnel,  undaunted,  prosecuted 
the  improvement  of  his  book,  and  wrote  a  prodigious 
number  of  occasional  pamphlets.  He  composed  also 
several  larger  treatises,  on  the  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 
of  Jesus  Christ: — Elevations  of  Heart  towards  Jesus 
Christ  in  His  Passion  and  Death ;  The  Blessedness 
of  the  Christian's  Death ;  Christian  Prayers ;  Prayers 
to  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  for  Young  People  and 
those  who  desire  to  read  the  Word  of  God,  and  especi- 
ally the  Gospel ;  Tradition  of  the  Romish  Church  on 
the  Predestination  of  Saints,  and  on  Efficacious  Grace. 

These  productions  only  augmented  the  rage  of 
his  enemies.  The  impression  of  their  excellence,  as 
works  of  piety,  may  be  judged  of  from  what  the  cele- 
brated Father  de  Tournemine  is  reported  to  have  said — 
"  That  two  pages  of  the  Christian  Prayers  contained 
more  real  unction  than  all  that  had  issued  from  the 
pen  of  the  Jesuits,  not  excepting  Bourdaloue." 

In  the  meantime,  Quesnel  kept  himself  in  privacy 
at  Brussels.  The  Jesuits,  however,  contrived  to  dis- 
cover his  retreat ;  and  persuaded  Philip  V.  of  Spain 
(whose  conscience  they  directed,)  to  send  an  order  to 
the  Bishop  of  Malines  to  arrest  him.  He  was  now 
cast  into  prison  for  the  Name  of  Christ;  and  would 
probably  have  lingered  there  the  rest  of  his  days,  if 
he  had  not  been  rescued  by  a  Spanish  gentleman,  who 
succeeded  in  penetrating  the  walls  of  his  prison,    and 


QUESNEL.  181 

in  freeing  him  from  his  chains.  He  fled  to  Amster- 
dam, under  the  protection  of  the  new  Protestant  States, 
who  had  so  gloriously  succeeded  in  establishing  their 
liberty.  He  was  soon  publicly  condemned  as  a  heretic, 
and  a  contumacious  and  seditious  person,  names  ever 
ready  to  be  attached  to  the  followers  of  the  humble 
Saviour,  especially  under  a  superstitious  and  despotic 
government.  The  court  at  Rome  was  next  appealed 
to,  and  a  decree  of  Clement  XI.,  condemnatory  of  the 
Eeflections,  was  obtained.  Nothing,  however,  could 
stop  the  sale.  The  work  spread  wider  and .  wider. 
Editions  were  multiplied.  All  the  world  were  eager 
to  read  a  work  so  loudly  denounced  by  the  Papal  chair. 
Thus  does  persecution  promote  truth.  Never  would 
■Quesnel's  Reflections  have  been  read  by  one  thousandth 
part  of  those,  who  have  now,  for  a  century  and  a  half, 
been  edified  by  them,  unless  the  Jesuits  had  pursued 
the  book  with  so  bitter  a  hatred. 

An  arret  of  council  was  afterwards  obtained  from 
Louis  IV.  in  order  to  suppress  the  work.  This  was  in 
1711,  after  it  had  been  forty  years  before  the  world. 

At  length  the  Jesuits  urged  the  decrepit  and  super- 
stitious monarch,  through  Madame  de  Maintenon,  to, 
force  the  court  of  Rome  to  enter  into  a  detailed  exami- 
nation of  the  book,  and  thus  settle,  as  they  hoped,  the 
agitated  minds  of  men.  Three  years  were  consumed 
in  details.  At  last,  in  1714,  the  bull,  known  by  its 
first  word  unigenitus,  was  issued,  in  which  101  pro- 
positions were  extracted  from  Quesnel,  and  specifically 
condemned  as  heretical  and  dangerous, — a  step  which, 
like  every  other  since  the  fatal  Council  of  Trent,  (the 
band  and  chain  of  Popish  errors,)  tended  to  separate 
the  Church  of  Rome  more  and  more  widely  from  the 
true  foundation  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  brand  upon  her 
forehead  the  broadest  marks  of  departure  from  the 
faith  of  Christ.  The  spirit  of  Rome  was  never  more 
graphically  delineated,  than  in  her  selecting  all  the 
VOL.  vm.  R 


182  QUESNEL. 

most  express  points  of  the  Gospel,  and  denouncing 
them,  coolly  and  avowedly,  as  heretical  and  erroneous.. 

A  merely  secular  policy  was  so  openly  followed,  both 
by  the  Christian  King,  as  he  was  termed,  and  the 
supple  court  which  yielded  to  his  interference,  that 
the  truth  of  the  doctrines  scarcely  came  into  question. 
It  was  the  policy  of  Rome  which  was  consulted.  The 
Abbe  Renaudot  relates,  that,  on  entering  once  the 
cabinet  of  the  pope,  who  was  fond  of  literary  men,  he 
found  him  reading  Quesnel's  book. — "  This  is  an  extra- 
ordinary performance,"  said  the  pontiff;  "  we  have  no 
one  at  Rome  capable  of  writing  in  this  manner.  I 
wish  I  could  have  the  author  by  me." — Yet  this  very 
man  issued  first  the  decree,  and  then  the  bull,  which 
condemned  the  work.  On  the  feeble  mind  of  Louis, 
superstition  and  the  Jesuits  had  taken  up  their  seat. 
The  prince  who  revoked  the  edict  of  Nantz  in  the 
prime  of  life,  was  not  likely,  in  the  last  stage  of  decrepi' 
tude,  to  resist  the  influence  which  sought  to  overthrow 
an  individual  foe. 

But  it  is  more  lamentable  to  observe,  that  Bossuet 
and  Fenelon  seemed  to  have  joined  in  the  persecution. 
The  former  had,  some  years  before,  defended  the  book ; 
but  he  appears  to  have  shrunk  from  protecting  it  or 
the  author,  when  popularity  took  another  course.  And 
Fenelon,  the  amiable,  the  lovely,  the  pious  Fenelon, 
took  an  active  part  in  hastening  the  condemnation  at 
Rome.  His  correspondence,  lately  published,  demon- 
strates the  interest  he  felt,  and  exhibits  the  commenda- 
tions he  bestowed,  with  his  own  hand,  on  the  divine 
who  drew  up  the  bull.  Haughty  orthodoxy  and  mystical 
devotion  are  thus  found  to  yield  to  the  torrent  of  Papal 
authority,  and  to  lend  their  aid  to  support  a  corrupt 
and  tyrannical  Church. 

The  greatest  difficulty  was  found  in  obtaining  the 
reception  of  the  bull.  Nine  French  Bishops,  assembled 
under  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  determined  to  wait  fo? 


QUICK.  188 

further  information  before  it  was  registered.  It  was 
not  till  1718,  that  it  was  definitely  accepted.  In  the 
meantime,  all  Christendom  rang  with  the  praises  of 
Quesnel's  doctrine.  Surreptitious  editions  were  multi- 
plied ;  and  the  attempt  to  infix  upon  the  peculiarities 
of  the  Gospel  the  character  of  impiety  and  heresy, 
stamped  the  deepest  mark  of  reprobation  on  the  Church 
which  issued  the  condemnation. 

Quesnel  survived  the  publication  of  the  bull  six  years. 
These  he  spent  in  writing  works  of  piety,  and  in  pre- 
paring the  edition  of  the  Reflections,  which,  as  we 
have  observed,  appeared  in  1727,  with  all  the  new 
matter  which  he  had  noted  in  the  margin  of  his  copy. 
Admirable  was  almost  every  additional  thought;  and, 
with  an  undaunted  courage,  did  the  venerable  saint 
persevere  in  the  doctrine  of  the  grace  of  God.  He 
employed  himself,  likewise,  in  forming  Jansenist 
Churches  at  Amsterdam,  where  he  died,  December 
2nd,  1719,  aged  86. 


QUICK,    JOHN. 

John  Quick  was  born  at  Plymouth,  in  1636.  He 
graduated  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  in  1657,  and 
entered  into  holy  orders.  He  officiated  at  Ermington, 
in  Devonshire,  and  at  Kingsb ridge  and  Churchstow, 
in  the  same  county;  but  he  afterwards  removed  to 
Brixton,  whence  he  was  ejected  in  1662.  In  1679, 
he  was  chosen  pastor  of  the  English  Church  at  Middle- 
burgh,  in  Zealand,  whence  he  returned  to  England  in 
1681,  where  he  preached  privately  during  the  remain- 
der of  Charles  II. 's  reign ;  and  afterwards,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  James's  indulgence,  he  formed  a  congregation 
in  Bartholomew-close.     He  died  in  1706. 

Quick  published  :— The  Young  Man's  Claims  to  the 
Sacrament  of  the   Lord's   Supper;    An  Answer  to  that 


184  QUISTOKP. 

Case  of  Conscience,  Whether  it  be  lawful  for  a  man 
to  marry  his  deceased  wife's  sister?  And,  Synodicon 
in  Gallia  Reformata,  or  the  Acts,  Decisions,  Decrees, 
and  Law  of  the  famous  National  Councils  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  in  France,  &c.,  London,  1692,  fol., 
composed  of  very  interesting  and  authentic  memorials, 
collected,  probably,  while  he  was  in  Zealand.  It  com- 
prises a  history  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  France  down  to  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  in  1685. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


QUIEINI,    ATs'GELO    MARIA. 

Angelo  Maria  Quirini  was  born  in  1680,  or  in  1684. 
He  entered  early  into  an  abbey  of  the  Benedictines, 
at  Florence.  Innocent  XIIT.  created  him  Archbishop 
of  Corfu;  and  Benedict  XIII.  raised  him  to  the  car- 
dinalate,  after  having  made  him  Bishop  of  Brescia. 
To  the  library  of  the  Vatican  he  presented  his  own 
collection  of  books.  He  published  : — De  Mosaicse  His- 
torise  Prsestantia ;  Primordia  Corcyrae  ;  ex  antiquissimis 
Monumentis  illustrata;  Lives  of  certain  Bishops  of 
Bresse,  eminent  for  sanctity ;  Life  of  Paul  II. ;  Speci- 
men varise  Literaturse,  quae  in  Urbe  Brixia,  ejusque 
ditione,  paulo  post  incunabula  Typographias  florebat  ; 
An  Account  of  his  Travels ;  Letters  ;  Cardinal  Pole's 
Letters ;  and  an  Edition  of  St.  Ephrem,  He  died  in 
1755. — Moreri. 


QUISTORP,    JOHN. 

John  Quistoep  was  born  at  Rostock  in  1584.  He 
became  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Rostock  in  1614,  and 
in  1645,  Superintendent  of  the  Churches  in  that  District. 
He  was   the    friend    of  Grotius,   upon  whose  death  he 


RABAN.  185 

wrote  a  Latin  letter  to  Calovius,  containing  an  account 
of  the  sickness  and  last  sentiments  of  that  great  man ; 
which  is  inserted  in  the  Bibhotheque  Choisie  of 
Colomies,  and  in  the  Vindiciae  Grotianae,  under  the 
title  of  Grotii  manes.  Professor  Quistorp  died  in  1648, 
about  the  age  of  64.  He  was  the  author  of  Anno- 
tationes  in  omnos  Libros  Biblicos;  Commentarius  in 
Epistolas  Sancti  Pauli ;  Manuductio  ad  Studium  Theo- 
logicum  ;  Articuli  Formulse  Concordias  illustrati ;  besides 
numerous  Sermons,  and  Dissertations  on  a  variety  of 
subjects.  He  had  a  son  of  the  same  name,  who  was 
born  at  Rostock  in  1624,  and  died  in  1669.  He  became 
pastor,  professor  of  divinity,  and  rector  of  the  univer- 
sity in  that  city,  and  he  signalized  himself  by  his 
controversial  writings  against  the   Papists. — Moreri. 


RABAN,    OR    RABANUS    MAURUS    MAGNENTIUS. 

The  History  of  Raban  is  so  connected  with  that  of 
Gotteschalcus,  that  the  reader  is  referred  to  that  article 
for  an  account  of  his  public  life.  He  was  born  in  776, 
and  Mayence  was  his  native  place.  He  was  educated 
at  the  Abbey  of  Fulda,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Tours 
where  he  had  Alcuin  for  his  tutor.  On  his  return  to 
Fulda  in  810,  he  was  appointed  to  teach  grammar  and 
rhetoric,  and  in  822,  he  was  elected  Abbot  of  Fulda. 
In  847,  he  was  raised  to  the  archiepiscopal  see 
of  Mayence.  In  848,  he  summoned  a  council,  in 
which  he  procured  the  condemnation  of  Gotteschalcus 
for  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  St.  Augustine  res- 
pecting Predestination  and  Grace,  and  gave  him  up 
into  the  custody  of  Hincmar,  Archbishop  of  Rheims. 
Raban  died  in  856.  His  writings  were  so  popular 
that  during  four  centuries,  the  most  eminent  of  the 
Latin  divines  appealed  to  them  as  authority  in  religious 
matters,  and  adopted  almost  universally,  the  sentiments 
R  3 


186  RAINOLDS. 

which  they  contained.  These  writings  consist  of  Com- 
mentaries in  Latin,  on  many  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament,  and  the  Apocrypha,  which  entitle 
him  to  be  placed  in  the  first  rank  of  those  who  under- 
took to  illustrate  the  Scriptures  by  compilations  from 
the  Fathers  ;  Homilies,  in  Latin,  on  the  Epistles, 
and  Gospels ;  Scripture  Allegories,  in  Latin,  which 
secure  him,  an  eminent  place  among  the  allegorical 
commentators  on  Scripture;  Excerptio  de  Arte  Gram- 
matica  Priscilliani  ;  De  Universo,  Lib.  XX.  sive  Ety- 
raologiarum  Opus  ;  De  Clericorum  Institutione,  et 
Ceremoniis  Ecclesise,  Lib.  III. ;  De  Sacris  Ordinibus, 
Sacramentis  Divinis,  et  Vestimentis  Sacerdotalibus, 
Lib. ;  De  Disciplina  Ecclesiastica,  Lib.  III. ;  Lib.  III. 
De  videndo  Deo,  de  Puritate  Cordis,  de  Modo 
Pcenitentiae ;  De  Anima  et  Virtutibus ;  Martyrolo- 
gium  ;  Poemata  de  diversis  ;  Glossae  Latino-barbaricse ; 
and  De  Inventione  Linguarum  ab  Hebraea  usque 
ad  Theodiscam,  Lib. ;  both  edited  by  Goldast  in 
the  2nd  vol.  of  his  Rerum  Alamannicar.  Script. 
Vet. ;  together  with  numerous  other  pieces,  the  subjects 
of  which  may  be  seen  in  Cave  and  Dupin.  The 
greater  part  of  his  works  were  collected,  and  published 
at  Cologne  in  1627,  by  George  Colvenerius,  in  6  vols, 
fol.  ;  and  other  pieces,  not  in  that  collection,  may  be 
found  in  Baluze's  Miscellanea,  among  Father  Sirmond's 
publications,  and  in  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Collect. 
Concil. — Cave.     Dupin.     Mosheim. 


RAINOLDS,    OR   REYNOLDS,    JOHN 

John  Rainolds  was  born  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Exeter,  in  1549,  and  was  educated  at  Merton  College, 
Oxford,  from  which  college,  he  removed  to  Corpus 
Christi,  in  1563,  where  he  became  a  fellow  in  1566. 
He    was    distinguished    for    his    anti  poppiy  zeal,    and 


RAINOLDS.  187 

having  taken  his  D.D.  degree,  in  1585,  he  was  the 
next  year  appointed  to  a  new  Divinity  lectureship 
instituted  by  Sir  Francis  Walsingham.  In  1593, 
he  was  made  Dean  of  Lincoln,  but  in  1598,  ex- 
changed the  Deanery  for  the  Presidentship  of  Corpus 
Christi    College. 

In  1603,  when  the  Hampton-court  conference  took 
place,  we  find  him  ranged  on  the  Puritan  side;  on 
this  occasion  he  was  their  spokesman,  and  it  may 
therefore  be  necessary  to  give  some  account  of  what  he 
proposed,  as  this  will  enable  the  reader,  in  some 
measure,  to  determine  how  far  the  Puritans  of  the 
following  reign  can  claim  him  as  their  ancestor.  At 
this  conference,  he  proposed,  1.  That  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Church  might  be  preserved  in  purity  according 
to  God's  Word.  2.  That  good  pastors  might  be  planted 
in  all  Churches,  to  preach  the  same.  3.  That  the 
Church-government  might  be  sincerely  administered, 
according  to  God's  Word.  4.  That  the  book  of  Common 
Prayer  might  be  fitted  to  the  more  increase  of  piety. 
With  regard  to  the  first,  he  moved  his  majesty,  that 
the  Book  of  Articles  of  Picligion,  concluded  in  1659, 
might  be  explained  in  places  obscure,  and  enlarged 
where  some  things  were  defective.  For  example,  where- 
as, (Article  XIII.)  the  words  are  these,  "  After  we  have 
received  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  may  depart  from  Grace ;" 
notwithstanding  the  meaning  may  be  sound,  yet  he 
desired,  that  because  they  may  seem  to  be  contrary 
to  the  doctrine  of  God's  Predestination  and  Election 
in  the  17th  Article,  both  these  words  might  be  ex- 
plained with  this  or  the  like  addition,  "  yet  neither 
totally  nor  finally;"  and  also  that  the  nine  assertions 
orthodoxical,  as  he  termed  them,  i.e.  the  Lambeth 
articles,  might  be  inserted  into  that  book  of  articles. 
Secondly,  where  it  is  said  in  the  23rd  Article,  that 
it  is  not  lawful  for  any  man  to  take  upon  him 
the  office  of  preaching,  or  administering  the  Sacraments 


188  RAINOLDS. 

in  the  congregation,  before  he  be  lawfully  called,  Dr. 
Rainolds  took  exception  to  these  words  "in  the  con- 
gregation," as  implying  a  lawfulness  for  any  whatsoever, 
"out  of  the  congregation,"  to  preach  and  administer  the 
Sacraments,  though  he  had  no  lawful  calling  thereunto. 
Thirdly,  in  the  25  th  Article,  these  words  touching 
"  Confirmation,  grown  partly  of  the  corrupt  following 
the  Apostles,"  being  opposite  to  those  in  the  Collect 
of  Confirmation  in  the  Communion-book,  "  upon  whom 
after  the  example  of  the  Apostles,"  argue,  said  he, 
a  contrariety,  each  to  other;  the  first  confessing  Con- 
firmation to  be  a  depraved  imitation  of  the  Apostles ; 
the  second  grounding  it  upon  their  example,  (Acts, 
viii.  19,)  as  if  the  bishop  by  confirming  of  children, 
did  by  imposing  of  hands,  as  the  Apostles  in  those 
places,  give  the  visible  graces  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And  therefore  he  desired  that  both  the  contradiction 
might  be  considered,  and  this  ground  of  Confirmation 
examined.  Dr.  Rainolds  afterwards  objected  to  a  defect 
in  the  37th  Article,  wherein,  he  said,  these  words, 
"  The  Bishop  of  Rome  hath  no  authority  in  this  land," 
were  not  sufficient,  unless  it  were  added,  "  nor  ought 
to  have,"  He  next  moved  that  this  proposition,  "the 
intention  of  the  minister  is  not  of  the  essence  of  the 
Sacrament,"  might  be  added  to  the  book  of  Articles,  the 
rather  because  some  in  England  had  preached  it  to 
be  essential.  And  here  again  he  repeated  his  request 
concerning  the  nine  "  orthodoxical  assertions,"  con- 
cluded at  Lambeth.  He  then  complained  that  the 
Catechism  in  the  Common  Prayer-book  was  too  brief; 
for  which  reason,  one  by  Nowell,  late  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  was  added,  and  that  too  long  for  young  novices 
to  learn  by  heart.  He  requested,  therefore,  that  one 
uniform  Catechism  might  be  made,  which,  and  none 
other,  might  be  generally  received.  He  next  took 
notice  of  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
contempt  of  his   majesty's   proclamation  for   reforming 


RAINOLDS.  189 

that  abuse ;  and  desired  some  stronger  remedy  might 
be  applied.  His  next  request  was  for  a  new  translation 
of  the  Bible,  because  those  which  were  allowed  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI.  were  cormpt 
and  not  answerable  to  the  original ;  of  which  he  gave 
three  instances.  He  then  desired  his  majesty,  that 
unlawful  and  seditious  books  might  be  suppressed,  at 
least  restrained,  and  imparted  to  a  few.  He  proceeded 
now  to  the  second  point,  and  desired  that  learned 
ministers  might  be  planted  in  every  parish.  He  next 
went  on  to  the  fourth  point,  relating  to  the  Common 
Prayer,  and  complained  of  the  imposing  subscription, 
since  it  was  a  great  impediment  to  a  learned  ministiy; 
and  intreated,  "  that  it  might  not  be  exacted  as  for- 
merly, for  which  many  good  men  were  kept  out, 
others  removed,  and  many  disquieted.  To  subscribe 
according  to  the  statutes  of  the  realm,  namely  to 
the  articles  of  religion,  and  the  king's  supremacy,  they 
were  not  unwilling.  Their  reason  of  their  backward- 
ness to  subscribe  otherwise  was,  first,  the  books 
Apocryphal,  which  the  Common  Prayer  enjoined  to 
be  read  in  the  Church,  albeit  there  are,  in  some  of 
those  chapters  appointed,  manifest  errors,  directly 
repugnant  to  the  Scriptures.  The  next  scruple  against 
subscription  was,  that  in  the  Common  Prayer,  it  is 
twice  set  down,  '  Jesus  said  to  His  Disciples,'  when 
as  by  the  text  original  it  is  plain,  that  he  spoke 
to  the  Pharisees.  The  third  objection  against  sub- 
scription, were,  '  Interrogatories  in  Baptism,'  pro- 
pounded to  infants,"  Dr.  Rainolds  owned  "the  use 
of  the  Cross  to  have  been  ever  since  the  Apostles' 
time ;  but  this  was  the  difficulty,  to  prove  it  of  that 
ancient  use  in  Baptism."  He  afterwards  took  exception 
at  those  words  in  the  Office  of  Matrimony,  "  With  my 
body  I  thee  worship  ;"  and  objected  against  the  Church- 
ing of  women  under  the  name  of  Purification.  Under 
the  third   general  head,  touching    Discipline,    he  ^  took 


190  -  RAINOLDS. 

exception  to  the  committiDg  of  ecclesiastical  censures 
to  lay-chancellors.  "  His  reason  was,  that  the  statute 
made  in  King  Henry's  time  for  their  authority  that 
way  was  abrogated  in  Queen  Mary's  time,  and  not 
revived  in  the  late  queen's  days,  and  abridged  by  the 
bishops  themselves,  1571,  ordering  that  the  said  lay- 
chancellors  should  not  excommunicate  in  matters  of 
correction,  and  anno  1584  and  1589,  not  in  matters  of 
instance,  but  to  be  done  only  by  them  who  had  the 
power  of  the  keys."  He  then  desired,  that  according 
to  certain  provincial  constitutions,  they  of  the  clergy 
might  have  meetings,  once  every  three  weeks ;  first,  in 
rural  deaneries,  and  therein,  to  have  the  liberty  of  pro- 
phesying, according  as  Archbishop  Grindal  and  other 
bishops  desired  of  her  late  majesty.  Secondly,  that 
such  things  as  could  not  be  resolved  upon  there,  might 
be  referred  from  thence  to  the  episcopal  synods, 
where  the  bishop  with  his  presbyteri  should,  deter- 
mine all  such  points  as  before  could  not  be 
decided. 

Notwithstanding  our  author's  conduct  at  this 
conference.  Dr.  Simon  Patrick  observes,  that  he 
professed  himself  a  conformist  to  the  Church  of 
England,  and  died  so.  He  remarks  that  Dr.  Richard 
Crakanthorp  tells  the  Archbishop  of  Spalato,  that 
the  doctor  was  no  Puritan,  (as  the  archbishop  called 
him).  "  For  first,  he  professed  that  he  appeared 
unwillingly  in  the  cause  at  Hampton-court,  and 
merely  in  obedience  to  the  king's  command.  And 
then  he  spake  not  one  word  there  against  the 
hierarchy.  Nay,  he  acknowledged  it  to  be  consonant 
to  the  Word  of  God,  in  his  conference  with  Hart. 
And  in  an  answer  to  Sanders's  book  of  the  '  Schism 
of  England'  (which  is  in  the  archbishop's  library,) 
he  professes  that  he  approves  of  the  book  of 
'  consecrating  and  ordering  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons.'      He    was   also  a   strict   observer  of  all  the 


RANDOLPH.  191 

orders  of  the  church  and  university,  both  in  pubHc 
and  his  own  college ;  wearing  the  square  cap  and 
surplice,  kneeling  at  the  Sacrament,  and  he  himself 
commemorating  their  benefactors  at  the  time  their 
statutes  appointed,  and  reading  that  chapter  of  Eccle- 
siasticus,  which  is  on  such  occasions  used.  In  a  letter 
also  of  his,  to  Archbishop  Bancroft  (then  in  Dr. 
Crakenthorp's  hands,)  he  professes  himself  conformable 
to  the  Church  of  England,  '  willingly,  and  from  his 
heart,'  his  conscience  admonishing  him  so  to  be. 
And  thus  he  remained  persuaded  to  his  last  breath, 
desiring  to  receive  absolution,  according  to  the  manner 
prescribed  in  our  liturgy,  when  he  lay  on  his  death- 
bed ;  which  he  did  from  Dr.  Holland,  the  king's 
professor  in  Oxford,  kissing  his  hand  in  token  of  his 
love  and  joy,  and  within  a  few  hours  after  resigned, 
up   his  soul   to  God." 

Wood  says,  perhaps  justly,  that  the  "  best  matter" 
produced  by  this  Hampton-court  conference,  was  the 
new  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  is  now  the 
authorized  edition.  It  was  begun  in  1604,  by  forty- 
seven  divines  of  Westminster  and  the  two  universities. 
Dr.  Rainolds  had  too  much  reputation  as  a  Greek 
and  Hebrew  scholar  to  be  omitted  from  this  list.  Some 
of  the  prophets  appear  to  have  been  the  portion 
allotted  to  him,  but  his  growing  infirmities  did  not, 
it  is  thought,  permit  him  to  do  much.  The  Oxford 
translators  however  used  to  meet  at  his  lodging  once 
a  week,  and  compared  what  they  had  done  in  his 
company.  During  this  undertaking  he  was  seized 
with  the  consumption  of  which  he  died,  May  21,  1607, 
in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age. — Wood.  Fuller. 
Gen.  Diet, 


EANDOLPH,    THOMAS. 

Thomas    Randolph    was     born    in    1702,    at   Canter- 


192  READING. 

bury,  and  educated  at  the  King's  School  there,  and 
at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  of  which  he 
became  fellow  in  1723.  Dr.  Potter,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  collated  him  to  the  united  vicarages 
of  Perham  and  Waltham  in  Kent,  In  1744,  he 
published,  The  Christian's  Faith,  a  rational  assent, 
in  answer  to  the  deistical  treatise,  entitled,  Christianity 
not  founded  on  Argument.  In  1746,  his  patron,  the 
archbishop,  collated  him  to  the  Rectory  of  Saltwood, 
with  the  Chapel  of  Hythe  annexed  ;  and  he  was  soon 
after  chosen  President  of  Corpus  Christi  College.  In 
1753,  he  published: — The  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  in 
answer  to  the  Essay  on  Spirit.  From  1756  to  1759, 
he  held  the  office  of  vice-chancellor;  and  in  1768,  he 
was  elected  to  the  Margaret  professorship  of  divinity, 
on  the  death  of  Dr.  Jenner.  In  the  preceding  year, 
he  had  been  promoted  to  the  Arch-deaconry  of 
Oxford.  His  last  work  was  on  the  Citations  from 
the  Old  Testament  in  the  New.  He  died  in  1783. 
In  1784,  a  collection  of  his  principal  works  was 
published  under  the  title  of,  A  View  of  our  Blessed 
Saviour's  Ministry,  and  the  proofs  of  His  Divine 
Mission  arising  from  thence. — Life  prefixed  to  his 
Works. 


READING,    JOHN. 

John  Reading  was  born  in  Buckinghamshire,  in 
1588,  and  was  educated  first  at  Magdalen  Hall, 
and  then  at  St.  Alban  Hall,  Oxford.  In  1616,  he 
was  made  minister  of  St.  Mary's,  Dover,  and  was 
afterwards  appointed  one  of  the  chaplains  of  Charles  I. 
He  was  one  of  those  doctrinal  Puritans,  who  opposed, 
as  much  as  any  Churchman  of  opposite  religious 
sentiments,  the  violent  proceedings  of  the  authors 
of  the  rebellion,   and  had  exposed    them   so   frequently 


READING.  193 

in  his  sermons,  that  he  was  soon  marked  out  for 
vengeance.  In  April,  1642,  his  library  at  Dover 
was  plundered,  and  in  November  following,  he  was 
dragged  from  his  house  by  the  soldiers,  and  impri- 
soned for  one  year  and  seven  months.  In  January 
of  the  above  mentioned  year,  Archbishop  Laud, 
then  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  had,  at  his  majesty's 
request,  bestowed  on  him  the  living  of  Chartham 
in  Kent ;  but  from  that  the  usurping  party  took 
care  he  should  receive  no  advantage.  He  was  also 
with  as  little  effect,  made  prebendary  of  Canterbury. 
In  1644,  however,  Sir  William  Brockman  gave  him 
the  living  of  Cheriton  in  Kent,  which  he  was  not 
only  allowed  to  keep,  but  was  likewise  appointed  by 
the  assembly  of  divines,  to  be  one  of  the  nine 
divines  who  were  to  write  Annotations  on  the  New 
Testament  for  the  work  afterwards  published,  and 
known   by  the  title   of  the  "Assembly's   Annotations." 

His  sufferings  however,  were  not  yet  at  an  end ; 
for  soon  after  this  apparent  favour,  upon  a  suspicion 
that  he  was  concerned  in  a  plot  for  the  seizing  of 
Dover  Castle,  he  was  apprehended  and  carried  to 
Leeds  Castle,  where  he  was  imprisoned  for  some  time. 
In  March,  1650,  he  held  a  public  disputation  in  Folk- 
stone  Church  with  Fisher,  an  Anabaptist,  who  argued 
against  the  necessity  of  ordination,  and  quoted  as 
his  authority,  some  passage  in  Bishop  Taylor's 
"  Discourse  of  the  liberty  of  Prophesying,"  which 
obliged  Mr.  Heading  to  write  a  tract  on  the  subject. 
On  the  restoration,  when  Charles  II.  landed  at  Dover, 
Mr.  Reading  was  deputed  by  the  corporation  to 
address  his  majesty,  and  present  him  with  a  large 
Bible  with  gold  clasps,  in  their  name.  He  was  now 
replaced  in  the  Prebend  of  Canterbury,  and  the  living 
of  Chartham.  Here  he  died,  October  26,  1667,  and 
was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  the  church. 

He  published  several  occasional  sermons  from  1623  to 

VOL     VIII.  s 


194  EEDMAYNE. 

J  663;  and  1.  Brief  instructions  concerning  the  Holy 
Sacrament,  London,  1645,  8vo.  2.  A  Guide  to  the 
holy  City,  Oxon.  1651,  4to.  3.  An  Antidote  to  Anabap- 
tism,  1654,  4to.  It  was  in  this  he  animadverted  on 
those  passages  of  Bishop  Taylor's  Discourse,  which 
seemed  to  favour  irregular  preaching.  4.  An  Evening 
Sacrifice,  or  Prayers  for  a  family  in  these  times  of 
calamity.  5.  Speech  made  before  King  Charles  II. 
on  the  shore,  when  he  landed  at  Dover,  &c.,  1660, 
single  sheet,  with  verses.  Mr.  Reading  left  several 
manuscripts,  partly  in  the  hands  of  Basil  Kennet, 
whence  they  passed  to  his  son,  White  Kennet. — Wood. 
Watkins.   Fuller. 


REDMAN,    or    REDMAYNE,    JOHN. 

John  Redman,  or  Redmatne,  was  born  in  Yorkshire, 
in  1499,  and  was  educated  at  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Oxford,  and  afterwards  at  Paris.  On  returning  to 
England  he  settled  at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
of  which  he  became  a  fellow  in  1521. 

For  above  twenty  years  he  carefully  applied  himself 
to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  always  began 
and  ended  his  studies  with  humble  and  earnest  prayer 
to  Almighty  God,  to  guide  him  into  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  and  to  preserve  him  from  all  dangerous  errors 
and  delusions.  His  prayers  found  access  to  the  throne 
of  grace ;  and  God  opened  his  eyes  to  discern  those 
errors  which  he  had  been  led  into  by  the  prejudice  of 
education ;  and  when  the  truth  was  thus  discovered 
to  him,  he  embraced  it  in  the  love  thereof,  and  con- 
tinued a  stedfast  professor,  and  zealous  defender  of  it, 
unto  the  end. 

As  he  found  transubstantiation  to  be  the  received 
doctrine,  he  was  for  som^  time  very  much  disturbed, 
whenever  he  heard  it  disputed  and  contradicted;  and 


REDMAYNE.  195 

taking  up  a  resolution  to  write  in  defence  of  it,  he 
carefully  examined  the  Scriptures,  and  made  a  diligent 
search  into  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  for  materials 
towards  his  w^ork.  The  result  of  his  inquiry  was,  that 
he  found  this  doctrine  to  have  no  foundation  in  Scrip- 
ture and  the  purest  antiquity,  but  to  be  an  invention 
of  the  schoolmen  in  the  dark  and  later  ages,  and  clogged 
with  infinite  contradictions,  and  inexplicable  absurdities. 
Upon  this,  his  zeal  for  it  expired  at  once,  and  he 
preached  in  the  university  against  it,  and  against  the 
superstitious  custom  of  carrying  the  Host  in  pro- 
cession. 

He  was  at  first  a  sti^nuous  opposer  of  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  alone,  because  he  feared  it 
destroyed  the  necessity  of  good  works,  and  saw  how 
it  had  been  perverted  by  some  of  the  Anabaptists,  to 
build  most  detestable  and  blasphemous  heresies  upon. 
But  when  he  had  carefully  perused  the  writings  of  our 
reformed  divines  on  that  subject,  and  observed  with  what 
exactness  they  had  stated  the  doctrine  of  justification, 
and  guarded  it  from  the  least  tendency  to  any  of  those 
pernicious  consequences,  he  declared  himself  convinced, 
and  confessed  his  conviction  to  King  Henry,  whose 
chaplain   he  then  was. 

In  1537,  he  commenced  doctor  of  divinity,  and  about 
that  time  was  chosen  orator  of  the  university.  In  154U, 
he  was  made  Prebendary  of  Westminster,  of  which 
church  he  is  by  several  of  our  historians  said  to  have 
been  dean  ;  but  upon  careful  examination,  this  seems 
to  be  a  mistake.  He  was  for  some  time  Master  of 
King's  Hall;  and  in  1546,  on  the  dissolution  of  that 
Hall,  was  advanced  to  be  the'*first  Master  of  Trinity 
(JoUege,  by  the  Charter  of  erection.  In  this  station  he 
was  a  great  promoter  of  the  exact  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  tongues  ;  and  was  so  exceeding  liberal  to  poor 
students,  that  there  were  few  industrious  men  in  that 
university,  who   did  not  receive  a  comfortable   support 


196  REDMAYNE. 

from  his  bounty.  He  was  very  kind  in  particular  to 
that  learned  foreigner,  Martin  Bucer,  notwithstanding 
their  disagreement  in  some  points  of  religion,  in  which 
he  thought  Bucer's  zeal  against  Popery  carried  him 
into  the  contrary  extreme  ;  and  in  a  sermon  which  he 
preached  at  his  funeral,  did  justice  to  his  memory,  and 
detracted  nothing  from  his  due  praise. 

When  he  was  taken  ill  of  his  last  sickness  at  West- 
minster, finding  himself  decay  apace,  he  sent  for  Dr. 
Alexander  Nowell,  afterwards  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and 
some  other  of  the  reformed  divines  ;  and  to  prevent  any 
misrepresentations  after  his  death,  made  before  them, 
a  large  declaration  of  his  judgment  concerning  the  chief 
controversies  of  those  times,  which  he  desired  them  to 
attest.  The  most  remarkable  particulars  of  which  were 
these  : — 

1.  That  Christ  is  really  present  in  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Altar,  in  an  ineffable  manner,  to  those  who  receive 
it  worthily  ;  that  we  receive  Him  in  our  minds  and  souls 
by  faith ;  and  that  to  speak  otherwise,  savours  of  the 
gross  error  of  the  Capernaites. 

2.  That  the  wicked  are  not  partakers  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ,  but  that  they  receive  the  outward  Sacra- 
ment only. 

3.  That  nothing  which  is  seen,  or  perceived  by  any 
outward  sense,  in  the  Sacrament,  is  to  be  worshipped  ; 
and  that  at  the  Holy  Supper  we  must  \vorship  Christ  in 
heaven,  but  not  the  visible  elements. 

4.  That  purgatory,  as  taught  by  the  schoolmen,  was 
an  ungodly  and  pernicious  doctrine,  and  that  there  was 
no  such  place. 

5.  That  offering  masses  is  an  irreligious,  unprofitable, 
and  superstitious  usage. 

6.  That  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  is  not  prohibited 
by  any  law  of  Christ. 

7.  That  to  build  our  faith  on  the  consent  of  the  pre- 


KEDMAYNE.  197 

sent  Church,  is  but  a  weak  and  sandy  foundation ;  and 
that  the  Scriptures  are  the  only  rule  of  faith. 

8.  That  the  See  of  Rome  had  in  many  things  swerved 
from  God's  true  religion  and  worship,  and  was  so  griev- 
ously and  horribly  stained  and  polluted,  that  without 
speedy  repentance,  God's  righteous  vengeance  would 
suddenly  overtake  and  consume  it. 

This  declaration  is  a  full  proof,  that  Strype  is 
under  a  great  mistake,  in  asserting  that  this  illustrious 
ornament  of  our  Reformed  Church  died  in  the  Roman 
Communion. 

When  Dr.  Redmayne  had  finished  his  declaration,  he 
discoursed  more  largely  on  some  of  these  points,  and 
that  in  so  pathetic  and  affecting  a  manner,  that  Dr. 
Young,  one  of  the  divines  there  present,  who  was  not 
then  entirely  come  otf  from  the  prejudices  of  his  educa- 
tion, declared  that  he  was  so  moved  and  convinced,  that 
he  now  doubted  of  the  truth  of  some  things  for  which 
before  he  would  have  suffered  martyrdom. 

After  this,  Dr.  Redmayne's  whole  discourse  was  of  the 
joys  of  heaven,  the  last  judgment,  and  of  our  redemption 
through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  Whom  he 
earnestly  longed  to  be.  He  would  often,  with  tears  of 
joy,  praise  and  extol  the  ineffable  love  of  our  gracious 
Redeemer  to  us  miserable  sinners;  and  exhorted  his 
friends  to  be  always  prepared  for  Christ's  coming,  to 
love  one  another,  to  beware  of  this  corrupt  world,  and 
entirely  to  wean  their  affections  from  its  transitory- 
glories,  and  deceitful  pleasures.  He  bore  his  sickness 
with  the  greatest  patience,  and  a  perfect  resignation  to 
the  will  of  God,  whether  for  life  or  death,  yet  he  wished 
rather,  if  it  were  God's  blessed  will,  to  be  dissolved  and 
to  be  with  Christ,  and  to  be  delivered  from  the  troubles 
and  temptations  of  this  miserable  world.  He  practised, 
to  the  utmost  perfection,  all  those  virtues  and  graees, 
which  he  was  wont  to  recommend  to  others  in  this 
condition ;  and  when  be  found  his  end  approaching,  he 


198  REGIUS; 

broke  out  into  this  fervent  prayer : — "  Thy  will,  O 
blessed  Lord,  be  fulfilled  ;  0  God  of  all  comfort,  give 
me  grace  to  have  comfort  in  Thee,  and  to  have  m)' 
mind  wholly  fixed  on  Thee."  And  after  a  short  pause, 
he  added,  "  God  grant  us  grace,  that  we  have  a  true 
understanding  of  His  Word,  the  true  use  of  His  Sacra- 
ments, and  ever  preach  and  maintain  the  truth,  to  the 
glory  of  His  most  holy  Name."  Then  he  offered  up 
another  short  petition  for  the  unity  of  the  Church,  and 
soon  after  resigned  his  pious  and  holy  soul  to  God. 
He  died  in  November,  1551,  in  the  fifty-second  year 
of  his  age,  and  was  buried  in  the  north  isle  of  West- 
minster Abbey. 

He  wrote  a  Latin  Treatise  of  Justification,  and  ano- 
ther concerning  Grace,  which  were  published  after  his 
death. — Doivnes. 


EEGIUS,    URBAN. 

Urban  Regius,  properly  called  Le  Roi,  was  born  at 
Langenargen,  and  studied  at  Lindau,  Fribourg,  Basle, 
and  Ingoldstadt.  At  the  latter  place,  he  was  under  the 
tuition  of  Eck.  (See  his  Life.)  Here  Regius  read 
lectures,  but  unfortunately  was  induced  to  superintend 
the  education  of  some  j^ouths  of  noble  families,  and 
provided  them  with  books  and  other  necessaries,  which 
their  parents  neglecting  to  pay,  he  was  obliged  to  give 
up  what  little  property  he  had  for  the  benefit  of  his 
creditors,  and  in  despair  of  assistance  to  carry  on  his 
studies,  enlisted  as  a  common  soldier.  In  this  plight, 
however,  he  happened  to  be  discovered  by  Eck,  who 
procured  his  discharge,  and  prevailed  on  the  parents 
of  his  pupils  to  discharge  all  arrears  due  to  him. 

Urban  then  returned  to  his  studies,  and  became  so 
distinguished,  that  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  passing 
through      Ingoldstadt,     made     him      his     poct-laureat 


REGIUS.  199 

and  orator ;  and  he  was  afterwards  made  professor  of 
poetry  and  oratory  in  that  university.  But,  having 
applied  to  the  study  of  divinity,  he  engaged  with  warmth 
and  assiduity  in  the  controversies  of  the  times,  particu- 
larly in  that  between  Luther  and  Eck,  in  which  he 
inclined  to  Luther ;  but  unwilling  to  give  personal 
offence  to  his  preceptor  and  good  friend  Eck,  he  left 
Ingoldstadt '  and  went  to  Augsburg,  where,  at  the 
importunity  of  the  magistrates  and  citizens,  he  under- 
took the  government  of  the  Church.  Here  he  departed 
farther  and  farther  from  the  errors  of  Popery,  and 
soon  joined  with  Luther  in  preaching  against  them. 
In  his  opinion,  however,  concerning  the  Lord's  Supper 
and  original  sin,  he  sided,  for  a  time,  with  Zuinglius, 
in  consequence  of  a  correspondence  in  which  that  refor- 
mer explained  to  him  the  grounds  of  his  belief.  In  his 
preaching  against  errors  so  general  as  those  of  Popery 
then  were,  he  met  with  much  opposition,  but  appears  to 
have  been  supported  by  some  of  the  principal  citizens, 
one  of  whom  bestowed  on  him  his  daughter,  by  whom 
he  had  thirteen  children.  Eck,  both  by  letters  and  by 
the  intervention  of  friends,  endeavoured  to  gain  him 
back  to  the  Church,  but  his  principles  were  fixed,  and 
he  resisted  both  flatteries  and  promises. 

In  1530,  there  was  a  Diet  held  at  Augsburg,  at 
which  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  present,  who  pre- 
vailed on  Piegius  to  go  to  Lunenburg  in  his  dominions, 
to  take  care  of  the  Church  there.  The  duke  highly 
esteemed  him,  and  declared  to  the  people  of  Augsburg, 
who  petitioned  for  his  return,  that  he  would  as  soon 
part  with  his  eyes  as  with  Regius,  and  made  him  chief 
pastor  of  all  the  Churches  in  his  dominions,  with  an 
ample  and  liberal  salary.  Here  he  passed  the  greater 
part  of  a  useful  and  active  life  in  preaching,  writing, 
and  religious  conferences.  He  died  May  23rd,  1541, 
when  on  a  journey  with  the  Duke  to  Haguenau  ;  the 
place  of  his  death  is  said  to  be  Zell ;  but  we  have  no 


OOO  EEMIGIUS. 

account  of  his  age.  He  had  often  wished  that  he  might 
die  a  sudden  and  eas}^  death,  which  happened  to  be 
the  case.  His  works  were  collected  in  3  vols.,  folio. 
The  first  two  contain  the  pieces  he  published  in  Latin, 
the  other  his  German  compositions.  The  last  volume 
was  afterwards  translated  into  Latin,  and  published 
under  the  title  of  "  Vita  et  Opera  Urbani  Regii,  reddita 
per  Ernest.  Regium,"  Norib.  1562.  Some  of  his  pieces 
were  translated  in  the  16th  century  into  English,  as 
"  The  Sermon  which  Christ  made  on  His  way  to  Emmaus 
&c."  1578,  4to;  "A  Declaration  of  the  Twelve  Articles 
of  the  Christen  Faythe,  &c."  1548;  "An  Instruccyon 
of  Christen  Fayth,  &c."  15b8,  translated  by  Fox  the 
martyrologist ;  "  The  Olde  Learnyng  and  the  New 
compared,  &c."  1548,  8vo;  "Exposition  on  the  87th 
Psalm,"  1594,  8vo ;  "A  Homily  of  the  good  and  evil 
Angell,  &c."  1590,  8vo,  and  others.  Besides  what  are 
included  in  the  three  volumes  mentioned  above,  John 
Freder  of  Pomerania  published,  after  the  author's  death, 
a  work  of  his,  entitled  "  Loci  Theologici  ex  patribus 
et  scholasticis  neotericisque  collecti." 


EEMIGIUS. 

Remigius  was  a  native  of  Gaul,  and  was  made  grand 
almoner  to  the  Emperor  Lotharius.  About  853  or 
854,  upon  the  death  of  Amolo,  that  monarch  promoted 
him  to  the  archiepiscopal  See  of  Lyons.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  strenuous  and  able  defenders  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Gotteschalchus,  or  rather  of  St.  Augustine,  on 
the  subjects  of  Grace  and  Predestination,  among  the 
contemporaries  of  that  monk.  In  855,  he  presided  in  the 
Council  at  Valence,  which  confirmed  that  doctrine,  and 
passed  a  sentence  of  condemnation  on  the  canons 
against  Gotteschalchus,  ( see  his  life,)  which  had  been 
decreed  by  the  Council  of  Quiercy  six  years  before.    In 


RENNIGER.  201 

859,  he  presided  in  a  Synod  at  Langres,  which  confirmed 
the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Valence,  and  condemned 
the  propositions  of  John  Scotus  Erigena,  relating  to 
Predestination.  He  died  in  875.  Such  of  his  works 
as  are  extant,  may  be  found  in  the  fifteenth  vokune 
of  the  Bibl.  Patr.,  and  the  first  Yolume  of  Maguin's 
Collect.  Script,  de  Prsedestinat.  et  Gratia.  To  Remigius, 
Archbishop  Usher  has  attributed  that  Commentary 
upon  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  which  is  given  with 
his  name  in  the  Bibl.  Patr.,  but  which  ought  rather 
to  be  ascribed  to  Haymo. 


EEMIGIUS    OF   AUXERRE. 

Remigius  of  Auxeree  derived  his  surname  from  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Germain  at  Auxerre,  where  he  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  schools  belonging  to  his  monastery. 
About  822,  he  was  called  to  Rheims  by  Foulques,  the 
successor  of  Hincmar  in  that  see,  who  gave  him  the 
direction  of  the  literary  seminary  which  he  had  founded 
in  his  metropolitan  city.  He  is  said  to  have  afterwards 
gone  to  Paris,  where  he  opened  the  first  public  school 
in  that  city.  He  died  about  900.  He  was  the  author 
of  Commentarius  in  omnes  Davidis  Psalmos,  which 
was  published  at  Cologne  in  1536,  and  chiefly  consists 
of  the  opinions  and  explications  of  St.  Ambrose,  St. 
Augustine,  and  Cassiodorus,  reduced  into  one  mass  ; 
Enarratio  in  posteriores  XT.  minores  Prophetas,  pub- 
lished at  Antwerp  in  1545,  with  the  Commentaries  of 
Oecumenius  upon  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  their 
Epistles,  and  those  of  Arethas  upon  the  book  of  Reve- 
lation ;  and  Expositio  Missse. 


RENNIGER,    MICHAEL. 

Michael  Renniger  was  a  native  of  Hampshire,  where 


202  REYNOLDS. 

he  was  born  in  1529.  He  was  a  fellow  of  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford,  whence  he  was  expelled  by  Bishop 
Gardiner,  on  account  of  his  attachment  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation.  He  was  an  exile  for  religion 
in  Mary's  reign  and  resided  chiefly  at  Strasburg,  On 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  he  was  made  one  of  her 
chaplains,  and  proved  a  zealous  champion  for  the 
Reformation.  He  became  a  prebendary  of  Winchester, 
and  obtained  the  Rectory  of  Crawley,  near  that  city. 
In  1567,  he  was  installed  precentor  and  prebendary 
of  Lincoln.  In  1573,  he  took  his  degrees  in  divinity, 
and  in  1575,  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Winchester. 
In  1583,  he  had  the  prebend  of  Reculverland,  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Paul,  London.  He  died  in  1609. 
His  works  are : — Carmina  in  mortem  duorum  Fra- 
trum  Suffolciensium,  Henrici  et  Caroli  Brandon;  De 
Pii  V.  et  Gregorii  XIII.  furoribus  contra  Elizabe- 
tham  Reginam  Anglias ;  An  Exhortation  to  True 
Love,  Loyalty,  and  Fidelity  to  Her  Majesty ;  Syn- 
tagma hortationum  ad  Jacobem  Regem  Anglise.  He 
also  translated  from  Latin  into  English,  Bishop 
Poynet's  Apology  or  Defence  of  Priests'  Marriages. — 
Strype. 


REYNOLDS,    EDWARD. 

Edward  Reynolds  was  born  of  humble  parents,  at 
Southampton,  in  the  year  1599.  His  education  began 
in  the  Free  Grammar  School  of  his  native  town.  At 
the  usual  age,  he  was  removed  to  Merton  College? 
Oxford,  of  which  society,  he  became  a  postmaster  in 
1615,  and  in  1620,  a  probationed  fellow.  The  latter 
preferment  he  obtained  by  his  proficiency  in  the 
Greek  language,  and  his  eminent  talents  as  a  dis- 
putant and  orator.  After  he  had  taken  the  degree  of 
master  of    arts,    he    entered    into    orders,    and    was 


REYNOLDS.  203 

chosen  preacher  to  the  honourable  society  of  Lincoln's 
Inn.  He  was  also  preferred  to  the  Rectory  of  Brauns- 
ton,    in  Northamptonshire. 

When  the  unhappy  differences  between  Charles 
the  First  and  his  parliament,  issued  in  the  civil 
war  which  for  many  years  afflicted  the  nation,  Mr. 
Reynolds  joined  the  Presbyterian  party,  and  in  1643, 
was  appointed  one  of  the  assembly  of  divines  which 
met  at  Westminster,  avowedly  to  settle  the  contro- 
versies that  distracted  the  people,  but  in  fact  to 
establish  Presbyterianism  on  the  ruins  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church.  During  this  period,  he  was  a  frequent 
preacher  before  the  long  parliament,  and  stood  so 
high  in  their  estimation,  that  he  was  named  one  of 
the  seven  divines,  who  were  sent  to  Oxford  with 
authority  to  supersede  the  preachers  appointed  by  the 
university,  and  to  bring  that  city  to  a  more  favour- 
able view  of  the  parliamentary  cause.  In  the  following 
year  he  became  one  of  the  visitors  of  the  university 
and  soon  afterwards,  he  was  chosen  vice-chancellor, 
and,  by  a  mandate  from  the  parliament,  was  created 
doctor  in  divinity.  His  next  promotion  was  to  the 
Deanery  of  Christ   Church. 

Hitherto  Dr.  Reynolds  had  acted  with  the  adherents 
of  the  parliament,  but  he  was  neither  their  servile, 
nor  an  unprincipled  instrument.  When  called  on  to 
subscribe  to  the  engagement,  "to  be  true  and  faith- 
ful to  the  commonwealth  of  England,  without  a 
king  and  a  house  of  lords,"  he  refused  to  give  the 
disloyal  pledge,  and  was  consequently  deprived  of  his 
recently  acquired  honour.  From  this  time,  he  appears 
to  have  resided  chiefly  in  London,  where,  as  vicar 
of  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry,  he  faithfully  discharged  his 
ministerial  duties,  and  though  neglected  by  the 
independent  rulers  of  the  state,  was  very  highly 
esteemed  by  his  Presbyterian  brethren,  and  by  the 
country   at  large. 


•204  RIBADENEIRA. 

When  General  Monk  marched  his  troops  to  Lon- 
don, with  the  design  of  establishing  a  free  parliament 
and  restoring  the  monarchical  government,  Dr.  Rey- 
nolds entered  heartily  into  his  views,  and  used  his 
interest,  which  was  now  very  considerable,  to  bring 
about  the  desired  change.  After  the  vote  for  recalling 
the  king,  had  passed  the  new  parliament,  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  deputed  a  number  of  their  body 
to  wait  on  his  majesty  in  Holland.  Of  this  number 
Dr.  Reynolds  was  one,  and  his  zeal  in  the  royal 
cause  was  not  forgotten.  On  the  king's  arrival  in 
England,  he  was  appointed  one  of  his  chaplains, 
and  in  1660,  w^as  elected  warden  of  Merton  College, 
and  consecrated  Bishop  of  Norwich.  As  soon  as 
the  government  was  peaceably  settled,  he  retired  to 
his  diocese,  in  which  he  constantly  resided  till  his 
death,  which  took  place  at  Norwich,  in  1676,  in  the 
seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age. — Life  prefixed  to 
Sermons. 


EIBADENEIRA,     PETER. 

Peter  Ribadeneira  was  born  at  Toledo  in  1527, 
and  in  1540,  he  became  a  favourite  disciple  of  the 
founder  of  the  Jesuits,  {see  Life  of  Loyola.)  In 
1542,  he  studied  at  Paris,  and  was  afterwards  em- 
ployed in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  Jesuits,  in 
various  parts  of  Europe.  He  accompanied  the  Duke 
of  Feria  to  England  in  1558  ;  and  his  inquiries 
here,  or  what  he  made  subsequently,  encouraged  him 
to  publish  a  treatise,  On  the  English  Schism,  1594, 
8vo.  He  is,  however,  chiefly  known  for  his  Lives  of 
various  Saints  and  Jesuits,  and  as  the  founder  of 
that  biography  of  the  Jesuits,  which  Alegambe  and 
others  afterwards  improved  into  a  work  of  some 
importance.     One    of    his    principal    Lives,    published 


RICCA.  305 

separately,  is  that  of  the  founder,  St.  Ignatius  de 
Loyola.  His  Lives  of  the  Saints,  ( Ignatius  Loyola, 
Francis  Borgia,  Lainez,  Salmeron,  &c.)  were  translated 
into  English,  and  published  in  2  vols.  8vo.  He  also 
wrote,  The  Christian  Prince,  a  refutation  of  The 
Prince  of  Macchiavelli.  He  died  at  Madrid  in  1611. — 
Biog.   Universelle. 


EIBERA,    FRANCIS    DE. 

Francis  de  Ribeea  was  born  at  Villacaslin  in  1537, 
and  was  educated  at  Salamanca.  He  became  a 
Jesuit  in  1570.  From  this  time  he  was  employed 
by  his  superiors  in  interpreting  the  Scriptures, 
and  filled  the  chair  of  professor  of  divinity  in  their 
seminary  at  Salamanca  till  his  death  in  1591.  His 
works  are  : — Commentarii  in  XII.  Prophetas  Minores ; 
Sensum  eorundem  Prophetarum  historicum  et  moralem, 
ssepe  etiam  AUegoricum  complacentes ;  Commentarii 
Historic!  selecti  in  XII.  Prophetas  Minores ;  In 
Sacrum  Jesu  Christi  Evangelium  secundum  Jo- 
annem ;  In  Epistolam  ad  Hebrgeos ;  In  Sacram  B. 
Joannis  Apostoli  et  Evangelistse  Apocalypsin ;  De 
Templo  et  iis  quae  ad  Templum  pertinent,  Lib.  V. 
1593,  8vo ;  and.  The  Life  of  St.  Theresa,  foundress 
of  the  reformed  order  of  the  barefooted  Carmelites.— 
Moreri. 

RICCI,    MATTHEW. 

Matthew  Ricci  was  born  in  155Q,  at  Macerata  in 
the  March  of  Ancona.  He  became  a  Jesuit  at  19 
years  of  age.  He  had  not  completed  his  theological 
studies,  when  he  followed  to  the  East  Indies  his  pre- 
ceptor father  Valignan.  During  his  abode  at  Goa  he 
applied  assiduously  to  the  language  of  China,  to  which 

VOL.  VIII,  T 


^06  RICCA. 

country  he  was  destined.  He  was  furnished  with 
another  branch  of  knowledge  necessary  in  that  mission, 
that  of  mathematics,  which  he  had  acquired  at  Rome, 
under  the  celebrated  Clavius.  In  1583,  he  arrived  at 
Caoquin,  in  the  province  of  Canton,  where  he  settled 
with  some  brethren.  To  ingratiate  himself  with  the 
Chinese,  he  made  a  map  of  the  world,  in  which, 
whilst  he  corrected  their  prejudices  with  respect  to  the 
relative  dimensions  of  their  country,  he  complied  with 
them  by  altering  the  meridian,  so  as  to  place  it  in 
the  centre.  With  a  similar  spirit  of  compliance,  he 
drew  up  a  Chinese  catechism,  containing  only  the 
precepts  of  morality  and  natural  religion  ;  judging 
that  to  present  to  them  the  mysteries  of  the  Catholic 
faith,  without  previous  preparation  would  only  serve 
to  inspire  them  with  repugnance.  His  policy,  however, 
did  not  prevent  him  from  undergoing  some  persecu- 
tions in  consequence  of  Chinese  suspicion ;  and  it  was 
not  till  1600,  that  he  was  able  to  gain  access  to  the 
emperor  at  Peking,  employing  the  pretext  of  bringing 
him  a  present  of  curiosities  from  Europe.  He  was  well 
received,  and  permitted  to  settle  in  that  capital,  where 
his  mathematical  skill  rendered  him  acceptable  to  the 
court  and  men  of  letters.  He  purchased  a  house  there 
and  built  a  church ;  and  the  progress,  such  as  it  was, 
which  Christianity  made  in  the  metropolis  of  China, 
was  greatly  owing  to  his  exertions.  He  died  there  in 
1010,  leaving  curious  memoirs  on  China,  of  which 
Father  Trigault  made  use  in  his  work  "  De  Christiana 
expeditione  apud  Sinas."  In  the  "  Lettres  Edifiantes" 
is  a  dialogue  between  a  lettered  Chinese  and  an 
European,  on  the  necessity  of  a  first  cause.  Father 
Orleans,  in  a  life  of  this  missionary,  speaks  of  him 
as  an  apostle,  a  saint,  another  Xavier.  He  seems 
indeed,  to  have  possessed  all  the  indefatigable  zeal  of 
his  profession,  joined  to  the  peculiar  policy  of  his 
order. — Moreri.     Aiken. 


RICHARD  OF  ARMAGH.  207 


RICHARD    OF    ARMAGH. 

Richard,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  whose  real  name  was 
Fitz-Ralph,  aud  whose  historical  name  is  Armachanus, 
was  bom,  according  to  some,  in  Devonshire,  and  ac- 
cording to  others,  at  Dimdalk,  in  the  county  of  Louth. 
He  was  educated  at  Oxford,  first  at  University  and  then 
at  Balliol  Colleges.  He  commenced  D.D.,  and  in  1333 
was  commissary-general  of  that  university.  His  first 
Church  promotion  was  to  the  chancellorship  of  the 
Church  of  Lincoln,  in  July,  1334  ;  he  was  next  made 
Archdeacon  of  Chester  in  1336,  and  Dean  of  Lichfield 
in  the  following  year.  While  at  Oxford  he  had  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  opposition  to  the  Mendicant 
friars,  whose  affectation  of  poverty,  and  other  super- 
stitions and  irregularities,  he  exposed  in  his  lectures. 
In  1347,  he  was  advanced  to  the  Archbishopric  of 
Armagh.  The  friars  were  so  incensed  at  this  exposure 
of  them,  that  they  procured  him  to  be  cited  before 
Innocent  VI.  at  Avignon,  where  he  defended  his 
opinions  with  great  firmness. 

He  wrote  two  Tracts  against  the  Friars  Mendicant; 
one  of  them  entitled,  A  Defence  of  the  Curates  against 
the  Mendicants  ;  and  the  other,  De  Audientia  Confes- 
sionum.  His  Treatise  in  the  Defence  of  Parish  Priests 
is  nothing  but  the  Discourse  which  he  made  before  the 
pope  and  cardinals  at  Avignon.  It  begins  with  this 
text:  "Judge  not  according  to  the  appearance,  but 
judge  righteous  judgment."  And  here,  the  archbishop 
declares,  he  had  no  intention  to  oppose  any  doctrine  of 
the  Church,  neither  did  he  desire  the  dissolution  of  the 
Friars'  order,  but  only  to  bring  up  their  practice  to  their 
institution.  From  hence  he  proceeds  to  relate  the  sub- 
ject and  occasion  of  the  dispute.  He  reports,  that  being 
at  London,  he  met  with  some  doctors  engaged  in  a 
discourse   about   the   poverty  of  our   Saviour   and   His, 


^08  KICHARD  OF  ARMAGH. 

Apostles.  That  being  invited  to  preach  upon  this  sub- 
ject, he  laid  down  nine  conclusions  in  seven  or  eight 
sermons,  at  which  the  Friars  Mendicant  took  check, 
and  brought  a  frivolous  complaint  against  him  before 
his  holiness.     His  nine  conclusions  are  these  : — 

First, — That  if  a  question  be  moved  about  making 
confessions  with  respect  to  place ;  in  this  case,  the 
parish  church  is  to  be  preferred  before  that  of  the  friars. 

Secondly, — That  the  parishioners  ought  rather  to  apply 
to  a  parson  or  curate  for  confession  than  to  a  friar. 

Thirdly, — That  notwithstanding  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
was  poor  when  He  conversed  upon  earth,  yet  it  does 
not  appear  that  He  affected  poverty. 

Fourthly, — That  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  did  never  beg, 
nor  make  profession  of  voluntary  poverty. 

Fifthly, — That  our  Saviour  never  taught  people  to 
make  a  choice  and  profession  of  beggary. 

Sixthly, — That  Christ  our  Lord  held  the  contrary,  that 
men  ought  not  to  beg  by  inclination,  nor  without  being 
forced  to  it  by  necessity. 

Seventhly, — That  there  is  neither  sense  nor  religion 
in  vowing  voluntary  and  perpetual  beggary. 

Eighthly, — That  it  is  not  agreeable  to  the  rule  of  the 
Friars  Minorites  to  be  under  engagements  of  voluntary 
poverty. 

Ninthly, — That  the  Bull  of  Alexander  IV.,  which  con- 
demned the  Libel  of  the  Masters  of  Paris,  censured  none 
of  these  seven  last  conclusions. 

This  Discourse  is  followed  with  a  sort  of  Memorial 
which  he  delivered  in  to  the  pope's  commissioners.  The 
purport  of  it  is  to  reply  to  the  reasons  which  the  priors 
alledged  to  justify  their  begging.  He  likewise  laid  ano- 
ther Paper  before  the  cardinal  commissioners,  containing 
a  recital  of  the  abuses  committed  by  the  begging  friars 
in  their  preaching,  confessions,  and  devotions. 

Fie  died  in  1360,  at  Avignon,  not  without  suspicion 
of  poison.      Fox  says  that  a  certain  cardinal,  hearing 


RICHARD  OF  ST.  VICTOR.  209 

of  his  death,  declared  openly,  that  a  mighty  pillar  of 
Christ's  Church  was  fallen.  His  works  are  : — Sermones 
quatuor,  ad  Crucem  Londinensem  ;  Defensio  Curatorum 
adversus  Fratres  Mendicantes,  Paris,  1496.  Fox,  in 
his  Martyrology,  asserts  that  the  whole  Bible  was  trans- 
lated into  Irish  by  him,  and  preserved  in  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  and  Archbishop  Usher  says  that  there  were 
several  fragments  of  this  translation  in  Ireland  in  his 
time. — Collier.     Wharton  s  Ai^pendix  to  Cave. 


EICHARD    OF   ST.  VICTOR. 

Richard  of  St.  Victor  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  edu- 
cated at  Paris,  w'hen  he  studied  under  Hugh  de  St, 
Victor,  and  became  one  of  the  canons  regular  of  St. 
Augustine  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Victor.  In  1164,  he  was 
elected  prior  of  his  monastery  ;  where  he  died  in  the 
year  1173,  equally  respected  for  his  virtues  as  for  his 
learned  attainments.  Concerning  his  merits  as  a  writer 
Dupin  observes,  "  that  he  shews  a  great  deal  of  subtlety 
in  his  theological  treatises,  and  argues  methodically, 
with  an  exactness  becoming  an  able  logician.  His 
critical  pieces  are  very  accurate,  for  the  time  in  which 
he  lived.  His  style,  however,  is  not  very  elevated ;  on 
which  account  his  pious  treatises,  though  abounding 
in  excellent  matter,  are  greatly  deficient  in  weight  and 
energy." 

His  works  consist  of  critical  observations  and  remarks 
on  some  of  the  historical  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
relating  to  the  tabernacle,  and  the  temple  of  Solomon ; 
allegorical  and  moral  "  Commentaries  "  on  several  of  the 
Psalms,  the  Song  of  Songs,  and  the  Apocalj^pse  ;  Ques- 
tions on  certain  difficult  passages  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles 
and  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  part  of  which  is  printed 
among  the  works  of  Hugh  St.  Victor;  and  numerous 
critical,  doctrinal,  and  practical  treatises,  which  are  par- 
T   3 


no  RICHARDSON. 

ticularized  in  the  two  first  of  our  authorities.  The 
whole  of  them  have  been  frequently  printed  in  a  col- 
lective form  ;  and  the  best  edition  is  said  to  be  that 
of  Rouen,  in  1650,  in  2  vols,  folio. — Cave.    Diqnn. 


RICHARDSON,    JOHN. 

John  Richardson  was  an  Irish  prelate,  of  whose  early- 
life  little  is  known,  except  that  he  was  born  in  Chester 
and  educated  at  Dublin.  He  was  consecrated  to  the 
See  of  Ardagh  in  1633.  In  1641,  being  in  dread  of 
the  rebellion  which  broke  out  in  October  of  that  year, 
he  removed  to  England,  and  died  in  London  in  1654. 
He  was  a  man  of  profound  learning,  well  versed  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  skilled  in  sacred  chronology.  His  works 
are  : — A  Sermon  of  the  doctrine  of  Justification ;  and 
Choice  Observations  and  explanations  upon  the  Old 
Testament,  1655,  fol.  These  Observations,  which  extend 
to  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  seem  intended 
as  a  supplement  to  the  Assembly's  Annotations,  in 
■which  he  wrote  the  Annotations  on  Ezekiel ;  and  they 
were  prepared  for  publication  by  him  some  time  before 
his  death,  at  the  express  desire  of  Archbishop  Usher, 
with  whom  he  appears  to  have  long  lived  in  intimacy. — 
Harris's  Ware. 


RICHARDSON,    WILLIAM. 

William  Richardson  was  born  in  1 698,  at  Wilsham- 
stead,  near  Bedford,  and  educated  at  Westminster,  and 
at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  appointed 
Curate  of  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  which  he  held  until 
1726,  when  he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  that  parish.  He 
published  in  1727,  the  Praelectiones  Ecclesiasticae  of  his 
uncle,  John  Richardson,  author  of  a  Vindication  of  the 


EICHER.  211 

Canon  of  the  New  Testament,  against  Toland.  In  1724, 
he  was  collated  to  the  Prebend  of  Welton-Rivall,  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Lincoln.  In  1730,  he  published.  The  Use- 
fulness and  Necessity  of  Revelation ;  in  four  Sermons, 
preached  at  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  8vo;  and  in  1733, 
Relative  Holiness,  a  Sermon  preached  at  the  Consecra- 
tion of  the  Parish  Church  of  St.  John's,  Southwark. 
He  next  undertook,  at  the  request  of  Bishops  Gibson 
and  Potter,  to  publish  a  new  edition  of  Godwin  de 
Praesulibus  (which  api:)eared  in  J 743,  fol.)  He  then 
returned  to  Cambridge,  for  the  convenience  of  the 
libraries,  and  more  easy  communication  with  his 
learned  contemporaries;  and  in  1735,  he  proceeded 
D.  D.  In  1736,  he  was  chosen  master  of  Emmanuel 
College;  and  he  served  the  office  of  vice-chancellor  in 
1738,  and  again  in  1769..  In  1746,  he  was  appointed 
chaplain  to  the  king.  He  was  named  in  the  will  of 
Archbishop  Potter  to  a  precentorship  of  Lincoln  ;  which 
however,  was  contested  with  him  by  Archbishop  Pot- 
ter's chaplain  Dr.  Chapman.  The  lord-keeper  Henley 
decided  in  favour  of  Chapman  ;  but  on  Dr.  Richard- 
son's appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords,  the  decree  was 
reversed.  Burn  has  inserted  a  full  account  of  this 
cause  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Law.  Dr.  Richardson  died 
in  1775.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quaries, and  left  in  M.S.  some  valuable  collections 
relative  to  the  constitution  of  the  university ;  many 
biographical  anecdotes,  preparatory  to  an  Athente 
Cantabrigienses,  which  he  once  intended  to  publish ; 
and  an  alphabetical  list  of  all  the  graduates  of  the 
university  from  1500  to  1735  inclusive. — Gen.  Biog. 
Diet. 


RICHER,    EDMUND. 

Edmund  Richer  was  born  at  Chaource,  in  the  diocese 


212  RICHER. 

of  Langres,  in  the  year  15 GO.  He  studied  divinity 
at  the  University  of  Paris,  where  he  was  admitted  a 
member  of  the  house  and  society  of  the  Sorbonne,  and 
performed  the  exercises  for  his  licentiate  in  1587, 
with  great  reputation.  At  the  same  time  he  taught 
the  logical  class  in  the  College  of  Cardinal  le  Moine. 
Possessing  a  bold  and  impetuous  spirit,  he  was  enticed 
to  join  the  party,  and  to  embrace  the  sentiments  of 
the  league  ;  and  he  had  even  the  hardihood,  in  one 
of  his  theses,  to  express  his  approbation  of  the 
murder  of  Henry  the  Third  by  James  Clement.  His 
opinions,  however,  soon  underwent  a  radical  change,  and 
he  was  induced  from  motives  of  genuine  patriotism, 
to  espouse  the  cause  of  Henry  IV.  No  sooner  had 
he  taken  the  degree  of  doctor,  in  1590,  than  he 
openly  declared  in  favour  of  that  prince,  and  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  activity  and  success  in  bringing 
back  the  faculty  to  their  duty.  In  1594,  he  was 
made  grand  master  and  principal  of  the  College  of 
Cardinal  le  Moine.  In  1600,  he  made  his  first 
appearance  from  the  press,  as  editor  and  translator 
into  French,  of  Tertullian's  book  "DePallio."  About 
the  year  1605,  he  began  to  print  an  edition  of  the 
works  of  John  Gerson,  or  Charlier,  that  bold  defender 
of  the  authority  of  general  councils  above  that  of  the 
Pope,  (see  his  Life;)  but  'he  was  prevented  from 
publishing  them  for  some  time,  by  the  interposition 
of  the  papal  nuncio  at  Paris.  This  circumstance  did 
not  deter  him  from  defending  the  opinions  of  Gerson, 
for  whom  he  wrote  an  "Apology,"  which  he  caused 
to  be  published  in  Germany,  and  which  was  after- 
wards connected  with  his  edition  of  that  author's 
works.  In  the  year  1608,  Richer  was  elected  syndic 
of  the  faculty  of  divinity  at  Paris;  and  while  he  held 
that  office,  he  distinguished  himself  by  the  zeal  and 
spirit  which  he  discovered  in  support  of  the  ancient 
privileges  of  the  Galilean  clergy.      In  the  year   1611, 


HIGHER.  213 

at  the  request  of  Nicholas  de  Verdun,  first  president 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  he  published  his  treatise 
•*  De  Potestate  Ecclesiae  in  Rebus  Temporalibus,"  4to. 
by  way  of  answer  to  the  thesis  of  a  Dominican  of 
Cologne,  who  maintained  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope, 
and  his  superiority  to  a  general  council.  This  pro- 
duction made  a  considerable  noise,  and  excited  against 
Richer  the  intrigues  of  the  nuncio,  and  of  some 
doctors  devoted  to  the  Court  of  RomCj  who  endeavoured 
to  procure  his  deposition  from  the  syndicate,  together 
with  the  condemnation  of  his  book  by  the  faculty  of 
divinity ;  but  the  parliament  prevented  the  faculty 
from  passing  their  censure  upon  it^  Notwithwstanding 
the  interference  of  that  body,  Cardinal  du  Perron 
assembled  eight  bishops  of  his  province  at  Paris,  in 
the  year  1612,  who  condemned  the  work.  Against 
their  judgment  as  partial  and  improperly  obtained, 
Richer  entered  an  appeal  before  the  parliament,  which 
was  registered  according  to  the  customary  forms ;  but 
no  further  proceedings  on  the  subject  took  place  in 
that  court. 

That  Richer's  book  should  be  proscribed  at  Rome, 
was  naturally  to  be  expected  ;  and  the  papal  anathema 
was  speedily  followed  by  that  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Aix,  and  of  three  of  his  suffragans.  Immediately 
afterwards,  a  crowd  of  writers  entered  the  lists  against 
the  obnoxious  work,  whose  patrons  procured  an  express 
order  from  court,  that  the  author  should  not  publish 
anything  in  its  defence.  Not  satisfied  with  having 
thus  silenced  him,  his  enemies  availed  themselves  of 
their  influence  with  the  higher  powers,  to  obtain  letters 
of  command  from  the  king  and  queen  regent  to  the 
faculty  of  divinity,  enjoining  them  to  choose  another 
syndic.  Against  this  arbitrary  attack  on  the  privileges 
of  the  faculty.  Richer  publicly  protested ;  after  which 
having  first  read  a  written  defence  of  himself  and  his 
opinions,    he    withdrew   from    his    post.       From    this 


214  RICHER. 

time  be  ceased  to  attend  the  meetings  at  the  Sor- 
bonne,  and  shut  himself  up  chiefly  in  solitude, 
occupied  in  study  and  the  composition  of  works  which 
were  not  published  before  his  death.  His  enemies, 
however,  would  not  suffer  him  to  pursue  his  labours 
in  peace,  but  by  their  interest  procured  his  arrest, 
and  commitment  to  the  prison  of  St.  Victor.  They 
would  even  have  delivered  him  up  to  the  Pope,  had 
not  the  parliament  and  the  Chancellor  of  France 
prevented  them,  on  the  complaint  of  the  University 
against  their  proceedings.  Still  his  enemies  continued 
their  persecution;  and  in  the  year  1620,  he  was 
pressed  to  publish  a  declaration  condemning  his  book. 
This  he  was  determined  not  to  do ;  but  he  made  a 
declaration  of  his  readiness  to  explain  the  propositions 
which  it  contained  in  a  catholic  sense,  adding,  more- 
over, that  he  submitted  his  work  to  the  judgment  of 
the  holy  see  and  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Afterwards 
he  made  a  second  declaration  to  the  same  purport. 
In  1629,  he  reprinted  his  treatise  "De  Potestate," 
accompanied  with  such  a  comment  as  he  thought 
might  prove  satisfactory,  and  the  two  declarations 
just  mentioned.  The  Court  of  Rome,  however,  de- 
manding a  more  explicit  retractation  of  his  doctrine, 
Cardinal  Richelieu  determined  that  he  should  sign  a 
third  declaration  drawn  up  by  an  apostolic  notary 
who  was  sent  to  Paris  for  that  purpose  by  the 
pope.  Violence,  it  is  said,  was  resorted  to,  to  compel 
compliance,  which  hastened  the  old  man's  death, 
which  occurred  in  1631.  He  left  behind  him  several 
works,  which  discover  extensive  learning,  great  discern- 
ment, much  critical  skill,  and  a  commendable  boldness 
in  exploding  the  prejudices  of  the  schools.  Mosheim 
honourably  distinguishes  him  from  his  contemporaries, 
by  observing  that  he  "  was  the  only  doctor  in  the 
University  of  Paris  who  followed  the  literal  sense  and 
the   plain   and    natural   signification   of  the   words   of 


RIDLEY.  215 

Scripture;  while  all  the  other  commentators  and 
interpreters,  imitating  the  pernicious  example  of  several 
ancient  exj)ositors,  were  always  racking  their  brains 
for  mysterious  and  sublime  significations,  where  none 
such  were,  nor  could  be  designed  by  the  sacred  writers." 
Besides  the  articles  already  mentioned,  he  was  the 
author  of  Vindicise  Doctrinas  Majorum,  de  Auctori- 
tate  Ecclesiae  in  Rebus  Fidei  et  Morum  ;  De  Optimo 
Academiae  Statui ;  and  Obsterix  Animorum.  After 
his  death  were  published  from  his  M.S.S.,  Notes  on 
the  Censure  of  the  Books  of  Mark  Anthony  de  Domi- 
nis  by  the  Sorbonne ;  A  History  of  General  Councils 
in  Latin,  printed  at  Cologne  in  1682,  in  3  vols.  4to ; 
and  a  History  of  the  Syndicate  of  Edmund  Richer, 
written  by  himself.  He  also  left  behind  him  in  M.S. 
A  History  of  Joan  of  Arc,  or  The  Maid  of  Orleans, 
in  4  vols,  fol.,  of  which  the  Abbe  Lenglet  made  free 
use  in  composing  his  History  of  Joan  of  Arc. — 
Moreri.     Aiken. 


RIDLEY,    NICHOLAS. 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  within  the  compass  of 
an  article  in  this  work,  it  is  impossible  to  give  an 
adequate  account  of  this  illustrious  saint  and  martyr 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
in  every  relation  of  life,  the  power  of  his  intellect,  the 
integrity  of  his  principles,  and  the  piety  of  his  heart  were 
conspicuous.  For  the  public  affairs  and  general  history 
of  the  Church  at  this  period,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  Life  of  Cranmer.  Welmontswick,  in  Tynedale, 
in  the  county  of  Northumberland,  had  the  honour  of 
•being  the  birth  place  of  Nicholas  Ridley,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  was  educated  in  a  gram- 
mar school  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  and  thence  pro- 
ceeded to  Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge.     When  he  came 


216  RIDLEY. 

to  Cambridge,  about  the  year  1518,  he  found  it  in  some 
disturbance,  occasioned  by  setting  up  the  pope's  indul- 
gences upon  the  school-gates,  over  which  was  written 
this  verse  of  the  Psalmist,  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that 
hath  set  his  hope  in  the  Lord :  and  turned  not  unto 
the  proud,  and  to  such  as  go  about  with  lies."  (Psa.  xl.) 
The  person  who  stuck  it  up,  (though  then  unknown) 
was  excommunicated  by  the  chancellor  of  that  university, 
Bishop  Fisher;  it  seems  it  was  one  Peter  de  Valence, 
a  Norman.  Here  Ridley  had  an  oportunity  of  learning 
the  Greek  tongue,  at  the  public  lectures  of  Richard 
Crook,  who  about  that  time  began  to  teach  it  in  Cam- 
bridge ;  to  which  all  the  scholars  equally  contributed, 
whether  they  attended  it  or  not.  As  to  religious  opinions, 
his  first  prejudices,  the  public  discredit  of  Lollardy  before 
he  came  to  Cambridge,  and  the  diligent  and  severe  pro- 
secution of  Lutherans  after  he  came  there,  were  all  in 
favour  of  the  established  superstitions.  Nay  more,  his 
uncle,  Dr.  Robert  Ridley,  at  whose  expense  and  under 
whose  influence  he  was  now  educating  at  Pembroke 
Hall,  would  keep  him  steady  in  that  tract :  for  in  the 
year  1520,  or  1521,  when  the  cardinal  held  a  kind  of 
convocation  in  his  house,  for  the  discussing  and  refuting 
Luther's  doctrines,  Dr.  Ridley  (with  others)  was  sent 
from  the  University  of  Cambridge  to  assist  in  them. 

In  1522,  he  took  the  degree  of  B.A.,  and  in  1524, 
he  was  chosen  fellow  of  liis  college.  As  his  studies  were 
now  directed  to  divinity,  his  uncle,  at  his  own  charge, 
sent  him  for  farther  improvement  to  the  Sorbonne,  and 
thence  to  Louvain.  In  1530,  he  was  chosen  junior 
treasurer  of  his  college,  and  about  this  time  appears  to 
have  been  more  than  ordinarily  intent  on  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures.  For  this  purpose  he  used  to  walk 
in  the  orchard  at  Pembroke  Hall,  and  there  committed 
to  memory  almost  all  the  Epistles  in  Greek ;  which  walk 
is  still  called  Ridley's  Walk.  In  1533,  he  was  chosen 
senior  proctor  of  the  university. 


RIDLEY.  317 

While  he  was  proctor,  the  important  point  of  the~ 
pope's  supremacy  came  before  the  university  to  be  ex- 
amined on  the  authority  of  Scripture.  For  this  purpose 
tliey  appointed  public  disputations  for  sifting  the  ques- 
tion thoroughly.  In  these  it  is  probable  that  Ridley's 
education  at  Paris  had  given  him  an  ability  to  assist 
with  great  success  ;  as  he  might  have  learned  there  to 
overcome  the  chief  difficulty  in  that  question,  which  was 
to  get  over  the  prejudice  of  human  authority  in  the 
decrees  of  popes  and  councils,  and  their  false  interpre- 
tations of  Scripture.  Their  famous  appeal  from  the 
pope's  repeal  of  the  acts  of  the  Council  of  Basle  was 
yet  fresh  in  memory,  and  the  writings  of  two  of  their 
members,  Gerson  and  Occam,  were  then  diligently  read 
there.  The  latter  of  these  determines,  that  neither  the 
pope  nor  the  clergy  are  exempt  from  the  emperor's  jurisdic- 
tion ;  and  that  whatever  greater  privileges  they  enjoy,  they 
hold  of  human  right  only.  Grounding  his  determina- 
tion on  this  Scripture,  that  each,  after  embracing  Chris- 
tianity, was  to  remain  in  the  same  condition  in  which 
he  was  before  he  was  called.  (1  Cor.  vii.  20.)  If  therefore, 
says  he,  before  ordination,  every  priest  was  subject  to 
his  own  prince ;  after  priesthood  taken,  he  was  to  con- 
tinue in  the  same  subjection :  and  consequently  the 
pope,  if  before  he  was  called  to  the  Papacy  he  was 
subject  to  the  emperor,  his  being  called  to  the  Papacy 
does  not  discharge  him  from  being  under  the  imperial 
jurisdiction.  The  University  of  Cambridge  therefore 
following  the  judgment  of  that  at  Paris,  after  mature 
deliberation  came  to  this  resolution  :  "  That  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  had  no  more  authority  and  jurisdiction  derived 
to  him  from  God,  in  this  kingdom  of  England,  than 
any  other  foreign  bishop."  Signed  in  the  name  of  the 
university.  May  2nd,  1534,  by  Simon  Heynes,  vice- 
chancellor;  Nicholas  Ridley,  Richard  Wilkes,  proctors. 

In  1534,  he  took  the  degree  of  B.D.,  and  was  chosen 
chaplain  of  the  university,  and  public  reader.     In  1537, 

VOL.  VIII.  u 


218  RIDLEY. 

liis  great  reputation  as  a  preacher,  and  his  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Scriptures  and  fathers,  led  Cranmer, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  appoint  him  his  domestic 
chaplain.  As  a  farther  mark  of  esteem,  he  collated 
him  in  April,  1538,  to  the  vicarage  of  Heme  in  Kent. 
Here  he  preached  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
excepting  that  he  still  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
corporal  presence  in  the  Eucharist;  and  among  other 
converts  whom  he  made  to  them,  was  the  Lady  Fiennes. 
In  ]')39,  when  the  act  of  the  Six  Articles  was  passed, 
Ridley  who  had  now  the  character  of  a  zealous  Scrip- 
turist,  bore  his  testimony  against  it  in  the  pulpit.  In 
1549  he  went  to  Cambridge,  and  took  his  degree  of  D.D. 
Soon  after  this  he  was  preferred  to  the  mastership  of 
Pembroke  Hall,  and  about  the  same  time,  through  the 
archbishop's  influence  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the 
king,  and  was  nominated  to  a  prebend  in  the  Cathe- 
dral Church  of  Canterbury,  which  was  now  made  a 
collegiate  church  with  a  deanery,  twelve  prebendaries, 
and  six  preachers. 

How  honestly  and  prudently  the  new  prebendary 
behaved  himself,  appears  in  good  measure  from  his 
endeavours  in  the  pulpit  to  set  the  abuses  of  Popery 
so  open  before  the  people's  eyes  in  his  sermons,  as  to 
provoke  the  prebendaries  and  preachers  of  the  old 
learning  to  exhibit  articles  against  him,  at  the  Arch- 
bishop's Visitation  for  preaching  contrary  to  his  tes- 
timony against  any  error  he  had  discovered ;  yet,  the 
statute  of  the  six  articles.  He  feared  not  to  bear 
with  respect  to  the  authority  by  which  the  six  articles 
were  enjoined,  delivering  his  opinion  so  cautiously,  as 
that  his  accusers  could  prove  nothing  but  the  malice 
of  their  accusation. 

His  subjects,  and  his  manner  of  handling  them,  we 
learn  from  his  adversaries.  His  subjects  were  chosen 
to  recommend  a  sensible  spirit  of  devotion;  maintain- 
ing that  prayer  ought  to  be  made  in  a  language  which 


RIDLEY.  219 

the  people  understood,  and  not  in  an  unintelligible 
tongue,  "for  so  it  were  but  babbling";  and  for  this  end  he 
introduced  in  his  own  parish  church  at  Heme  a  trans- 
lation of  the  excellent  hymn  of  St.  Ambrose,  Te  Deum ; 
directing  at  other  times  not  to  build  any  security  upon 
mere  ceremonies,  for  that  no  meeter  term  could  be  given 
them  than  beggarly  ceremonies  :  and  though  he  had  a 
very  high  opinion  of  the  usefulness  of  Auricular  Con- 
fession, as  in  a  letter  written  by  him  in  prison  he  de- 
clares he  always  had,  and  it  was  now  appointed  by 
statute,  that  of  the  six  articles,  yet  he  ingenuously  and 
faithfully  declared  the  truth  in  that  matter,  that  it  was 
but  a  mere  positive  law,  and  ordained  as  a  godly  mean 
for  the  sinner  to  come  to  the  priest  for  counsel ;  as  such 
he  recommended  and  wished  the  use  of  it ;  but  then  he 
declared,  that  as  to  the  doctrine  of  its  being  absolutely 
necessary  to  salvation,  he  could  not  find  it  in  Scripture. 
These  points  we  find  urged  against  him  by  the  preben- 
daries and  preachers  of  Canterbury  two  years  after. 
The  manner  in  which  he  treated  his  subjects  we  learn 
from  the  acknowledgment  of  Winchester  in  a  letter  to 
Ridley  in  King  Edward's  reign,  when  his  authority  and 
reputation  might  have  emboldened  him  to  be  more  dog- 
matical. He  says,  "You  declared  yourself  always  desirous 
to  set  forth  the  mere  truth,  with  great  desire  of  unity,  as 
you  professed ;  not  extending  any  of  your  asseverations 
beyond  your  knowledge :  but  always  adding  such  like 
words,  as  far  as  you  had  read,  and  if  any  man  could 
shew  you  further,  you  woidd  hear  him;  wherein  you 
were  much  to  be  commended."  Such  was  the  meek 
and  gentle  spirit  of  him,  whom  a  late  Popish  writer 
is  pleased  to  brand  for  "  his  virulent  temper  in  matters 
of  religion." 

Hitherto  Dr.  Ridley  had  been  an  unsuspecting  believer 
in  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation ;  but  in  the  year 
1545,  while  spending  a  considerable  time  in  retirement 
at  Heme,   he  employed  himself  in   carefully  and   dis- 


U2Q  RIDLEY. 

passionately  examining  into  its  truth  and  evidence.  To 
this  subject  his  attention  appears  to  have  been  drawn, 
by  the  apology  of  the  Zuinglians  for  their  doctrine 
respecting  the  Eucharist  in  opposition  to  Luther,  which 
had  been  lately  published,  and  was  very  generally  and 
eagerly  read.  He  had  also  procured  the  treatise  of 
Bertram  or  Ratramn,  (see  his  Life)  a  monk  of  Corbie 
in  the  ninth  century,  written  against  Paschasius 
Radbert,  at  the  request  of  the  Emperor  Charles 
the  Bald,  of  which  we  have  made  particular  men- 
tion in  our  life  of  the  author.  From  this  book 
Dr.  Ridley  learned,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  corporal 
presence,  or  transubstantiation,  was  for  the  first  time 
advanced  so  lately  as  about  the  year  840,  and  that 
it  met  wdth  the  strongest  opposition  from  some  of 
the  firm  supporters  of  the  Catholic  Church.  This  dis- 
covery razed  at  once  that  foundation  of  authority  on 
which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  establish  that  doc- 
trine, and  prepared  him  to  consider  without  prejudice 
what  the  writers  above  mentioned  had  published.  He 
now  determined  to  search  the  Scriptures  more  accurately 
upon  the  subject,  as  well  as  the  doctrine  of  the  primitive 
fathers.  As  he  proceeded,  he  honestly  communicated 
his  discoveries  and  his  scruples  to  his  friend  and  patron 
Cranmer,  who,  knowing  the  sincerity  of  the  man,  and 
his  cool  judgment,  was  prevailed  upon  to  examine  this 
doctrine  himself  with  the  utmost  care.  The  result  was, 
that  both  Dr.  Ridley  and  the  archbishop  became  fully 
convinced,  that  the  doctrine  in  question  was  not  a  doc- 
trine of  Scripture.  The  setting  aside  this  absurd  tenet 
was  a  very  important  article  of  the  Reformation ;  for,  as 
Cranmer  expressed  himself,  "  the  taking  away  of  beads, 
pilgrimages,  pardons,  and  such  like  Popery,  was  but 
the  lopping  a  few  branches,  which  would  soon  spring 
up  again,  unless  the  roots  of  the  tree,  which  were 
transubstantiation  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  were 
pulled  up."     And   this  he  acknowledged  was  owing  to 


RIDLEY.  aai 

conference  with  Dr.  Ridley,  "  who,  by  sundry  persua- 
sions and  authorities  of  doctors,  drew  him  quite  from 
his  old  opinion."  Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1545, 
Cranmer  procured  for  his  friend  the  eighth  stall  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Peter  at  Westminster.  Upon  the 
accession  of  Edward  VI.  in  1547,  Dr.  Ridley,  being 
appointed  to  preach  before  the  king  on  Ash- Wednesday, 
took  that  opportunity,  after  confuting  the  Bishop  of 
Rome's  pretended  claims  to  authority  and  power,  to 
discourse  concerning  the  abuses  of  images  in  churches, 
and  ceremonies,  particularly  the  use  of  holy  water  for 
driving  away  devils ;  which  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, who  was  among  his  auditors,  made  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  defend,  in  a  letter  which  he  sent 
to  him  on  the  following  Monday. 

In  1547,  Dr.  Ridley  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Rochester.  This  year,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Dr.  Cranmer,  communicated  to  Latimer,  (released  from 
his  confinement,  but  refusing  the  episcopal  charge,  and 
residing  with  the  archbishop)  those  truths  with  regard 
to  the  Lord's  Supper,  with  which  Ridley  had  brought 
him  acquainted  the  year  before.  The  idolatrous  vene- 
ration of  that  Sacrament  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  in 
worshipping  the  elements,  as  converted  into  the  very 
substantial  and  natural  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ ;  and 
the  extreme  reverence  paid  to  them  by  the  Lutherans, 
as  comprehending  and  containing  in  them  the  same 
substantial  and  natural  Body  and  Blood,  were  now 
openly  opposed:  but  the  Anabaptists,  who  fled  from 
Germany  hither ;  the  extravagant  among  ourselves,  who 
leap  from  one  extreme,  over  the  truth,  to  the  other ;  and 
some  Protestants,  who  confounded  truth  and  error  by 
their  scurrility,  carried  this  opposition  so  far  as  to 
bring  this  Sacrament  into  great  contempt.  Railing  bills 
against  it  were  fixed  upon  the  doors  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  and  other  places,  terming  it  Jack  in  the  box, 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Halter,  Round  Robin,  and  such 
u  3 


k'52  KTDLEY. 

like  irreverent  terms.  The  new  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
who,  was  as  far  removed  from  profaneness  as  from 
superstition,  set  his  face  strenuously  against  this  im- 
piety; and  publicly  rebuked  it  in  his  sermon  at  St. 
Paul's  Cross,  with  great  earnestness  asserting  the 
dignity  of  the  Sacrament,  and  the  presence  of  Christ's 
Body  there ;  reproving  with  great  freedom  those  who 
did  irreverently  behave  themselves  with  regard  to  it ; 
bidding  them,  who  esteemed  the  Sacrament  no  better 
than  a  piece  of  bread,  to  depart,  as  unworthy  to  hear 
the  mystery ;  as  the  Poenitentes,  Audientes,  Catechu- 
meni,  and  Energumeni,  in  the  primitive  times  were 
not  admitted  when  the  Sacrament  was  administered. 
He  observed  to  them  (as  Fecknam  reports)  that  the  devil 
believed  better  than  some  among  them  ;  for  he  believed 
that  Christ  was  able  of  stones  to  make  bread,  but  they 
would  not  believe  that  Christ's  Body  was  in  the  Sacra- 
ment :  but  to  the  receivers,  the  Sanctl,  he  so  explained 
the  Presence,  that  he  asserted,  that  the  material  sub- 
stance of  the  bread  did  still  remain,  and  that  Christ 
called  it  His  Body,  Meat,  and  Flesh,  giving  it  the 
properties  of  the  Thing  of  which  it  beareth  the  name. 
Here  we  find  the  same  lines  of  his  character  continued 
in  the  preacher,  which  were  observed  before  in  the 
disputant ;  modest  in  proposing  his  opinions  to  persons 
whose  judgments  only  w^ere  mistaken,  meekly  instruc- 
ting those  who  were  in  error:  but  earnest  and  severe 
wherever  he  discovered  a  fault  in  the  will,  boldly 
rebuking  vice.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  his  care  and 
caution,  this  sermon  was  afterwards  very  untruly  and 
unjustly  represented,  as  he  himself  complained,  as  if 
he  had  in  it  asserted  the  presence  of  Christ's  natural 
Body. 

We  may  mention  here  a  disputation  held  at  Cam- 
bridge on  this  subject,  at  which  Bishop  Pddley  presided. 
The  Protector  Somerset,  presuming  probably  on  the 
favours  lately  shewn  to   the   Bishop  of  Rochester,  and 


RIDLEY.  j^'23 

the  expectation  of  further  favours  in  «time  to  come, 
endeavoured  to  persuade  or  intimidate  him  to  coun- 
tenance one  of  those  foul  jobs  which  disgraced  so  many 
of  the  lay  reformers,  by  which  he  desired,  under  pre- 
tence of  Reformation,  to  rob  the  University  of  Cambridge 
and  to  enrich  himself.  Ridley  could  be  neither  per- 
suaded nor  intimidated,  and  the  proud  and  grasping 
protector  was  obliged  to  drop  the  affair.  The  commis- 
sioners to  whom  the  Protector  Somerset  intended  to 
assign  this  job,  were  appointed  also  to  preside  at  the 
disputation  just  alluded  to,  and  this  part  of  the  com- 
mission was  executed.  Two  positions  were  appointed 
to  be  the  subjects  of  this  public  disputation ;  and  after 
they  had  been  sufficiently  ventilated,  a  determination 
of  the  matters  debated  was  to  be  made  by  the  Bishop 
of  Rochester.     The  two  positions  were  : — 

1.  Transubstantiation  cannot  be  proved  by  the  plain 
and  manifest  words  of  Scripture,  nor  can  thereof  be 
necessarily  collected,  nor  yet  confirmed  by  the  consents 
of  the  ancient  fathers  for  these  one  thousand  years 
past. 

2.  In  the  Lord's  Supper  is  none  other  oblation  or 
sacrifice,  than  one  only  remembrance  of  Christ's  death, 
and  of  thanksgiving. 

The  first  disputation  was  on  Thursday  the  20th  of 
June,  Dr.  Madew  of  Clare  Hall,  respondent,  maintain- 
ing the  above  positions:  Dr.  Glyn,  Master  Langdale, 
Sedgwick  and  Young,  opponents.  The  second  dispu- 
tation was  held  on  Monday  the  24th,  Dr.  Glyn,  respon- 
dent, maintaining  the  contrary  positions  :  Master  Par- 
ker, (not  Matthew,  who  was  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury)  Pollard,  Vavasor,  and  Young,  opponents. 
There  is  one  difference  observed  between  the  disputa- 
tions at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge  :  Peter  Martyr 
admitted  a  change  in  the  elements  ;  and  Langdale, 
one  of  the  opponents,  the  first  day  at  Cambridge,  asked, 
supposing  a  change   admitted,    "  Whether  that  change 


^24  RIDLEY. 

was  wrought  in  the  substance,  or  in  the  accidents,  or 
else  in  both,  or  in  nothing?"  Ridley  interposed  and 
answered,  "There  is  no  change,  either  of  the  sub- 
stances or  of  the  accidents,  insomuch,  that  whereas  the 
bread  and  wine  were  not  sanctified  before,  nor  holy, 
yet  afterward  they  be  sanctified,  and  so  do  receive 
then  another  sort  or  kind  of  virtue,  which  they  had  not 
before." 

After  the  disputations  were  finished,  the  bishop 
determined : — 

First, — Against  Transubstantiation,  on  these  five 
principal   grounds : 

1.  The  authority,  majesty,  and  verity  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture: "I  will  not  drink  hereafter  of  the  fruit  of  the 
vine."  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke  call  it  bread  after  con- 
secration. They  speak  of  breaking,  which  agrees  with 
bread,  not  with  Christ's  Body.  It  was  to  be  done  in 
remembrance  of  Him.  "  This  is  the  Bread  that  came 
down  from  heaven ;"  but  Christ's  Body  came  not  down 
from  heaven.  "It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth,  the 
flesh  profiteth  nothing." 

'2.  The  most  certain  testimonies  of  the  ancient 
Catholic  fathers,  who  (after  my  judgment)  do  sufficiently 
declare  this  matter.  Here  he  produced  many  fathers, 
Dionysius,  Ignatius,  Irenasus,  Tertullian,  Chrysostom, 
Cyprian,  Theodoret,  Gelasius,  x\ustin,  Cyril,  Isychius 
and  Bertram,  who  call  it  bread  after  consecration, 
sacramental  bread,  the  figure  of  Christ's  Body  :  and 
expressly  declare  that  bread  still  continues  after  con- 
secration, and  that  the  elements  cease  not  to  be  the 
substance  of  bread  and  wine  still. 

3.  The  nature  of  a  Sacrament.  In  this  he  sujDposes 
natural  symbols  to  represent  like  spiritual  effects,  which 
in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  are  unity,  nutri- 
tion, and  conversion.  They  who  take  away  the  union 
of  the  grains  making  one  bread,  of  which  partaking 
we  become   one  mystical  Body  of  Christ ;    or  they  who 


HIDLEY.  j;)Q5 

deny  the  nutrition,  or  substance  of  tliose  grains,  by 
which  our  bodies  being  nourished  is  represented  the 
nourishment  of  our  souls  by  the  Body  of  Christ,  these 
take  away  the  simiUtude  between  the  bread  and  the 
Body  of  Christ,  and  destroy  the  nature  of  a  Sacrament. 
As  neither  is  there  any  thing  to  signify  our  being  turned 
into  Christ's  Body,  if  there  be  no  conversion  of  the  bread 
into  the  substance  of  our  bodies. 

The  4th  ground  was.  that  Transubstantiation  destroys 
one  of  the  natures  in  Christ. 

They  which  say  that  Christ  is  carnally  present  in  the 
Eucharist,  do  take  from  Him  the  verity  of  man's  nature. 
Eutyches  granted  the  divine  nature  in  Christ,  but  His 
human  nature  he  denied.  So  they  that  defend  Tran 
substantiation,  ascribe  that  to  the  human  nature,  which 
only  belongeth  to  the  divine  nature. 

The  5th  ground  is  the  most  sure  belief  of  the  article 
of  our  faith,  "  He  ascended  into  heaven." 

He  quotes  from  St.  Austin  on  St.  John,  "  The  Lord 
is  above,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world  :  but  yet  the 
verity  of  the  Lord  is  here  also.  For  His  Body  wherein 
He  rose  again  must  needs  be  in  one  place,  but  His 
verity  is  spread  abroad  everywhere." 

By  verity  he  means  an  essential  divine  presence  by 
His  invisible  and  unspeakable  grace,  as  he  distinguishes 
on  Matthew  xxviii,,  "  As  touching  His  majesty,  His 
providence,  His  invisible  and  unspeakable  grace,  these 
words  are  fulfilled,  which  He  spake,  '  I  am  with  you 
unto  the  end  of  the  world  :'  but  according  to  the  flesh 
which  He  took  upon  Him,  so  '  ye  shall  not  have  Me 
always  with  you.'  And  why?  because  as  concerning 
His  flesh  He  went  up  into  heaven,  and  is  not  here, 
for  He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father:  and 
yet  concerning  the  presence  of  His  divine  majesty  He 
is  not  departed  hence."  And  from  Vigilius  he  quoted, 
"  Concerning  His  flesh  we  look  for  Him  from  heaven  ; 
Whom,  as  concerning  the  Wo}d  (or  divine   nature)  we 


226  EIDLEY. 

believe  to  be  with  us  on  earth."  And  again,  "the 
course  of  Scripture  must  be  searched  of  us,  and  many- 
testimonies  must  be  gathered,  to  shew  plainly  what 
a  wickedness  and  sacrilege  it  is,  to  refer  those  things 
to  the  property  of  the  divine  nature,  which  do  only 
belong  to  the  nature  of  the  flesh  :  and  contrariwise, 
to  apply  those  things  to  the  nature  of  the  flesh,  which 
do  properly  belong  to  the  divine  nature."  This  he 
observes  the  Transubstantiators  do,  who  affirm  Christ's 
Body  not  to  be  contained  in  any  one  place,  and  ascribe  that 
to  His  humanity,  which  properly  belongs  to  His  divinity. 
Second, — Against  the  oblation  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's 
Supj)er  he  determined  on  these  two  grounds  : — 

1.  Scripture;  as  Paul  saith,  Hebrews,  ix.,  "Christ 
being  become  an  High  Priest  of  good  things  to  come, 
by  a  greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle  not  made  with 
hands,  that  is,  not  of  this  building  :  neither  by  the 
blood  of  goats  and  calves,  but  by  His  own  Blood,  entered 
once  into  the  Holy  place,  and  obtained  eternal  redemp- 
tion for  us.  And  now  in  the  end  of  the  world  He  hath 
appeared  once  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Him- 
self." And  again,  "  Christ  was  once  oflered  to  take  away 
the  sins  of  many."  Moreover  he  saith,  "With  one 
offering  hath  He  made  perfect  for  ever  those  that  are 
sanctified."  These  Scriptures  do  persuade  me  to  believe 
that  there  is  no  other  oblation  of  Christ  (albeit  I  am 
not  ignorant  that  there  are  many  sacrifices)  but  that 
which  was  07ice  made  on  the  cross. 

2.  The  testimonies  of  the  ancient  fathers.  Austin 
ad  Bonif.  Epist.  23.  Again,  in  his  book  of  forty- three 
questions,  question  forty-one,  contra  Transubstan.  lib. 
20.  cap.  21,  28.,  where  he  writes  how  the  Christians 
keep  a  memorial  of  the  sacrifice  past,  with  an  oblation, 
and  participation  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ. 
Fulgentius  in  his  book  de  Fide,  calls  the  same  a  com- 
memoration. And  these  things  are  sufficient  at  this 
time  for  a  scholastic  determination  of  these  matters. 


PJDLEY.  Sa-T 

In  1548,  Bishop  Kidley  was  employed  with  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  and  others,  in  reforming,  translating, 
and  compiling  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  (See  the 
Life  of  Cranmer. J 

On  the  suspension  of  Bishop  Bonner,  Bishop  Ridley 
was  translated  to  London,  and  was  enthroned  in  April, 
1550.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  piety,  zeal,  sound 
judgment,  and  decorum  with  which  he  conducted  him- 
self in  this  high  office.  We  have  a  minute  account 
of  his  domestic  arrangements,  w^hich  are  interesting, 
as  throwing  light  upon  the  customs  of  the  time,  while 
it  is  for  all  time  instructive.  When,  in  1551,  the 
sweating  sickness  prevailed  in  England,  and  made  its 
appearance  in  London  in  the  month  of  June,  while 
all  the  nobility  and  men  of  wealth  fled,  Bishop  Ridley 
remained  at  his  post,  braved  all  danger,  and  while 
hundreds  were  dying  daily  around  him,  he  laboured 
in  the  discharge  of  his  pastoral  functions  and  endea- 
voured to  improve  the  public  calamity  to  the  reformation 
of  the  manners  of  the  people. 

In  1551,  occurred  the  controversy  between  the  Bishop 
of  Lttndon  and  Dr.  Hooper,  the  elect  of  Gloucester, 
who  was  anxious  to  accept  the  episcopal  office  and 
revenues,  but  demurred  to  the  use  of  the  episcopal 
vestments.  There  were  long  arguings  between  them, 
and  at  last  the  dispute  kindled  into  some  heat.  The 
Bishop  considered  it  as  a  refractory  disobedience  to 
laws  and  governmxent,  which  it  is  necessary  at  all  times 
to  support,  but  was  then  more  particularly  so,  in  those 
days  of  faction ;  for  the  doctrine  of  Lady  Mary's  court 
w^as,  that  the  king's  laws  during  his  minority  were  not 
to  be  obeyed  ;  Bonner  and  Gardiner  had  refused  to 
preach  that  obedience  was  due  to  them ;  and  the  king- 
dom w^as  scarcely  quieted  from  insurrections  in  all  parts 
of  it  from  the  same  principle  :  nay  even  among  the  Gos- 
pellers, as  they  were  called,  their  whims  and  enthusiasm 
had  introduced  great  disorder :  not  only  Munster  had 


228  RIDLEY. 

taught  to  withdraw  all  obedience  from  the  civil  powers 
to  erect  an  unscriptural  kingdom  of  Christ,  but  Calvin's 
own  opinions,  to  which  Hooper  inclined,  were  probably 
too  well  known,  which  he  afterwards  published  in  his 
Prelections  upon  Amos  ;  where  he  says,  "  We  are  sen- 
sible of  the  consequence  of  that  unhappy  principle, 
which  gives  the  civil  magistrate  a  sovereignty  in  religion. 
The  complimenting  Henry  the  Eighth  wdth  such  a 
sovereign  authority  in  all  matters  shocked  me  extremely. 
They  who  call  him  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church 
under  Christ,  were  plainly  guilty  of  blasphemy."  On 
these  accounts  Ridley  looked  upon  it  as  a  point  of 
importance  that  Hooper  should  comply,  and  learn 
obedience  before  he  took  upon  him  the  office  of  a 
governor,  while  Hooper  endeavoured  to  represent  it  as 
a  contest  only  about  habits,  indifferent  at  best,  but  in 
his  judgment  sinful.  Hence  grew  a  warm  controversy 
about  religious  vestments ;  and  what  was  begun  by 
Cranmer  on  account  of  the  Premunire  was  now  called 
the  Bishop  of  London's  Controversy  de  re  vestiaria.  The 
pulpits  and  the  schools  engaged  in  the  dispute;  for 
Peter  Martyr  in  a  letter  to  Bucer  mentions  disputations 
at  Oxford,  about  the  middle  of  October,  on  this  ques- 
tion, "  whether  it  were  lawful  to  recall  the  Aaronic  cere- 
monies into  the  Christian  Church  ?"  In  which  letter 
he  blames  Hooper  for  not  coolly  canvassing  the  point 
among  his  friends,  which  would  have  prevented  that 
heat  of  preaching,  which  then  could  hardly  be  allayed. 
Hooper  himself,  who  was  a  popular  preacher,  and  soon 
after  silenced,  declaimed  liberally  on  the  subject.  Nor 
was  he  without  seconds  in  his  cause ;  John  a  Lasco  was 
entirely  of  his  opinion,  and  many  of  the  court  (as 
Martyr  heard)  favoured  him.  Nay  he  boasted,  that  the 
foreign  Churches,  and  particularly  the  two  professors, 
Bucer  and  Martyr,  sided  with  him  :  but  in  this  he  was 
mistaken,  for  John  a  Lasco,  who  warmly  espoused 
Hooper's  cause,  acknowledges  that  he  counselled  Hooper 


RIDLEY.  229 

to  give  out  confidently,  that  all  the  foreigners  then  in 
England  were  of  his  opinion  ;  for  being  so  straitened 
in  time,  that  he  had  no  opportunity  of  asking  their 
judgment,  he  boldly  ventured  to  strengthen  his  cause 
by  the  patronage  of  their  names :  but  in  this  both 
Hooper  and  a  Lasco  were  greatly  too  forward,  and  dis- 
appointed in  the  event.  These  flames  of  contention 
alarmed  the  council ;  they  knew  not  how  far  they  might 
reach,  nor  what  confusion  might  be  introduced  by  them. 
Therefore,  October  3rd,  they  sent  for  Hooper,  and 
required  him  to  cease  the  occasion  of  this  controversy, 
by  conforming  himself  to  the  laws.  Hooper  humbly 
besought  them,  that,  for  declaration  of  his  doings,  he 
might  put  in  writing  such  arguments  as  moved  him 
to  be  of  the  opinion  which  he  held.  This  was  granted 
him ;  and  he  offered  a  Book  to  the  Council  against 
the  use  of  those  habits  which  were  then  used  by  the 
Church  of  England  in  her  sacred  ministries.  The  next 
Sunday,  October  6th,  the  Council  wrote  to  the  Bishop 
of  London,  that  "whereas  there  had  been  some  dif- 
ference between  him  and  the  Elect  of  Gloucester,  upon 
certain  ceremonies  belonging  to  the  making  a  Bishop, 
wherein  their  lordships  desire  is,  because  they  would 
in  nowise  be  stirring  up  of  controversies  between  men 
of  one  profession,  that  he  would  cease  the  occasion 
thereof.  The  bishop  humbly  required  that  as  the  Elect 
of  Gloucester  had  leave  to  offer  in  writing  his  reasons 
for  dissenting,  he  also  in  his  own  justification  might 
put  in  writing  such  arguments  as  moved  him  to  be  of 
the  opinion  which  he  held."  This  was  granted,  and  he 
had  orders  to  attend  the  council  the  next  Sunday,  and 
to  bring  with  him  such  answer  as  he  thought  convenient. 
Part  of  Hooper's  Book,  says  Dr.  Gloucester  Eidley,  I 
have  by  me  in  M.S.,  but  Ridley's  Answer  I  have  never 
seen  :  yet  by  a  Letter  from  John  a  Lasco,  I  find  that 
it  was  not  only  defensive;  for,  besides  answering 
Hooper's  arguments,  some  objections  were  added ;  which 
VOL.  vriL  X 


•>30  RIDLEY. 

Hooper  by  another  writing  endeavoured  to  refute.  And 
this  refutation  was  again  refuted  in  a  pretty  long 
answer  from  the  bishop  and  it  appears  that  the  council 
were  so  well  satisfied  that  Hooper's  stiffness  was  more 
tlian  reasonable,  in  standing  out  still  against  any  com- 
pliance, that  even  his  great  friends  forsook  him,  and 
forthwith  commanded  him  to  keep  his  house,  unless  it 
were  to  go  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  the 
Bishops  of  London,  Ely,  or  Lincoln,  for  counsel  and 
satisfaction  of  his  conscience. 

In  June,  1550,  the  Bishop  of  London  held  his  pri- 
mary visitation,  and  directed  that  the  Romish  altars 
should  be  taken  down,  and  tables  substituted  in  their 
room. 

The  reasons  assigned  for  this  injunction  were : — 

1.  That  the  end  of  this  sacrament  was  to  eat  of 
Christ's  body,  and  to  drink  His  blood,  not  to  sacrifice 
and  crucify  Him  again :  the  end  therefore  required  a 
table  rather  than  an  altar. 

2.  It  is  sometimes  indeed  called  altar  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  as  that  on  which  the  sacrifice  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  is  offered;  but  it  is  also  called  the 
Lord's  table,  and  the  Lord's  board  indifferently,  without 
prescribing  any  particular  form.  So  that  this  injunction 
is  not  contrary  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

o.  The  Popish  opinion  was  that  an  altar  was  neces- 
sary for  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  which  superstitious 
opinion  was  kept  alive  by  the  continuance  of  altars  : 
therefore  the  removal  of  altars  was  necessary  for  abolish- 
ing that  superstitious  opinion. 

4.  An  altar  was  ordained  for  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  ; 
but  now  both  the  law  and  the  sacrifices  ceasing,  the 
altar  should  also  cease. 

5.  Christ  instituted  His  last  supper  at  a  table,  and 
not  upon  an  altar.  Nor  did  either  the  Apostles  or  the 
primitive  Church,  as  we  read  of,  ever  use  an  altar  in 
the  ministration  of  the  Holy  Communion.      Therefore 


RIDLEY.  231 

a  table,  as  more  agreeing  with  Christ's  institution  and 
primitive  practice  is  rather  to  be  used  than  an  altar. 

6.  Because  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  leaves  it  to 
the  diocesan  to  determine,  if  any  doubt  arises  about  the 
practice  of  it. 

He  was  soon  after  engaged  with  the  archbishop  in 
drawing  up  the  forty- two  articles.  (See  Life  of  Crafimer.J 
In  the  year  following,  he  visited  his  old  college  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  on  his  return  called  at  Hansdon,  to  pay 
his  respects  to  the  Princess  Mary,  afterwards  known 
as  the  bloody  queen.  The  arrogance,  insolence,  and 
bitterness  of  her  nature  she  displayed  on  this  occasion, 
in  the  insults  she  offered  to  the  venerable  prelate.  In 
1553,  the  bishop  preached  before  Edward  VI.,  and  so 
effectually  did  he  insist  upon  the  duty  of  almsgiving, 
beneficence,  and  charity,  that  the  king  sent  for  him 
to  inquire  how  he  might  best  put  into  practice  the  duties 
so  strongly  enforced.  The  bishop  conferred  upon  the 
subject  with  the  lord  mayor  and  corporation  of  London. 
The  result  was  such  a  representation  of  the  different 
classes  of  objects  which  called  for  the  attention  of  huma- 
nity, as  determined  the  king  to  found,  or  incorporate 
anew,  and  endow  with  ample  revenues,  those  noble 
charitable  institutions,  Christ's,  Bartholomew's,  Bride- 
well, and  St,  Thomas's  hospitals. 

When,  after  the  death  of  King  Edward  VI.,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  raise  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  the 
throne.  Bishop  Ridley  was  induced  heartily  to  concur 
in  it  by  his  attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  Refor 
mation.  Being  commanded  by  the  council  to  preach 
at  St.  Paul's,  and  to  recommend  Queen  Jane  to  the 
people,  he  obeyed  the  order  with  great  zeal  and  earnest 
ness,  pointing  out  the  dangerous  and  ruinous  conse- 
quences which  must  follow,  should  the  Princess  Mary 
succeed,  who  was  a  rigid  Papist,  determined  to  subvert 
the  true  religion  as  already  established,  and  to  betray 
the  kingdom  again  into  slavery  under  a  foreign  power. 


«32  KIDLEY. 

After  the  design  in  favour  of  Lady  Jane  had  miscarried, 
and  the  Princess  Mary  had  been  acknowledged  and 
proclaimed  queen,  Ridley  was  obliged  as  Bishop  of 
London  to  wait  upon  her  majesty,  expecting  doubtless 
to  be  accused  of  treason.  By  the  command  of  that 
bigotted  princess  he  was  sent  back  from  Framingham 
on  a  lame  horse,  and  committed  to  the  Tower  on  the 
26th  of  July,  1553,  to  be  proceeded  against,  not  as  a 
state  prisoner  for  treason,  but  for  heresy.  Notwith- 
standing this  treatment,  the  bishop  might  have  delivered 
himself  from  the  danger  which  threatened  him,  and 
recovered  the  queen's  favour,  if  he  would  have  brought 
the  weight  of  his  learning  and  authority  to  countenance 
her  proceedings  in  religion.  With  the  hope  of  winning 
him,  therefore,  he  was  treated  with  more  resjDect  and 
indulgence  than  the  other  prisoners  in  the  Tower, 
having  the  liberty  of  walking  about  in  it,  to  try  if  he 
would  vo-luntarily  go  to  mass.  In  the  meantime,  he 
was  very  desirous  of  conferring  with  Cranmer  and  Lati- 
mer, who  were  his  fellow  prisoners,  that  he  might  bring 
his  own  opinions  to  the  test,  and  either  correct  or  streng- 
then them  from  the  experience  of  those  veterans.  For 
this  purpose  they  had  several  conferences,  exchanging 
papers  and  letters  on  these  subjects.  When  Ridley  had 
been  about  eight  months  in  the  Tower,  he  was  con- 
veyed from  thence  to  Oxford,  together  with  Cranmer  and 
Latimer,  to  be  present  at  a  disputation,  when  it  was 
pretended  that  the  controversy  between  the  Papists  and 
Protestants  would  be  determined  by  a  fair  debate  be- 
tween the  most  eminent  divines  of  both  parties.  Of 
the  gratuitous  and  heartless  insults  offered  to  the  mar- 
tyrs, an  account  is  given  in  the  Lives  of  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  and  Bishop  Latimer.  The  important  point 
of  the  controversy  turned  on  the  subject  of  transub- 
stantiation.  The  Papists  represented  their  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  as  founded  on  these  three  firm  pillars. 
Scripture,  the  interpretation  of  the  primitive  writers, 
and  the  determination  of  the  Church. 


KIDLEY.  233 

The  Scripture  in  express  terms  affirms,  in  the  words 
of  Christ  Himself,  "  This  is  My  body  ;"  consequently,  say 
they,  this  was  transubstantiated  from  the  bread  it  had 
been,  into  the  body  of  Christ.  And  Christ  being  Truth 
itself  and  the  Wisdom  of  the  Father,  to  refuse  credit 
to  His  declarations,  or  to  suppose  that  when  He  said 
one  thing  He  meant  another,  is  impiety  and  infidelity. 

If  the  Protestants  expressed,  as  indeed  they  did,  the 
greatest  reverence  for  Christ's  words,  and  maintained 
that  they  themselves  understood  His  words  in  the  true 
sense,  while  the  adversaries  dishonour  Him  by  interpre- 
ting them  in  an  absurd  one  ;  the  Papists  urged  : — 
.  The  consent  of  antiquity;  for  that  all  the  primitive 
writers  interpret  the  words  as  the  Papists  do,  and  sub- 
mitting their  imaginations  to  the  wisdom  of  God,  boldly 
insist  upon  that  sense  which  the  Protestants  call  absurd  ; 
and  expressly  avow  that  Christ  bare  Himself  in  His  own 
hands :  that  he  did  eat  Himself,  ipse  cibus  et  conviva :  that 
He  took  His  flesh  to  heaven,  and  left  it  at  the  same  time  on 
earth.  And  that  while  He  sitteth  at  God's  right  hand, 
He  is  in  a  thousand  places  at  once  on  earth.  Unus  in 
multis,  idem,  in  diversis  locis.  Therefore  that  the 
Protestants  who  fly  to  a  figurative  interpretation,  con- 
vict themselves  of  holding  new  fangled  doctrines,  which 
they  lick  out  of  their  own  fingers,  contrary  to  all  the 
ancient  doctors  ;   and  contrary — 

To  the  determination  of  the  Church,  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth,  for  popes,  synods,  and  general 
councils  had  decreed  transubstantiation ;  which  the  Pro- 
testants themselves  do  not  deny. 

Now  would  it  have  been  a  sufficient  defence  in  these 
bishops  to  have  contented  themselves  with  disavowing 
the  authority  of  all  the  ancient  fathers  and  the  Church 
through  all  ages ;  and  to  have  insisted  that  although 
they  were  all  against  the  Protestant  opinion,  yet  the 
Protestant  opinion  was  right,  and  all  the  fathers  and 
the  Church  quite  mistaken  from  our  Saviour's  time 
X  3 


234  RIDLEY. 

down  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  ?  Or  would 
it  have  been  as  wise  a  part  in  them,  by  their  silence,  or 
by  disavowing  the  authority  as  insufficient,  to  have  con- 
ceded to  their  adversaries,  that  all  this  authority  was 
against  them,  when  they  could,  and  did  prove  the  con- 
trary? as  may  be  seen  in  Cranmer's  "Defence  of  the 
true  and  Catholic  Doctrine  of  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  our  Saviour  Christ ;"  and  Ridley's 
"  Brief  Treatise  of  the  most  Blessed  Sacrament  of  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ;"  and  in  his  Preface  to  the 
Disputation. 

As  to  Scripture,  Ridley  observes  the  four  evangelists 
and  St.  Paul  do  agree,  saying,  that  "  Jesus  took  bread, 
gave  thanks,  brake  and  gave  it  to  the  disciples,  saying, 
take,  eat,  this  is  My  body."  Here  it  appeareth  plainly 
that  Christ  called  very  bread  His  body :  but  say  the 
Papists,  (that  is.  Innocent  III.,  Duns  Scotus,  and  their 
followers)  when  He  gave  thanks  and  blessed  the  bread, 
He  changed  its  substance ;  so  that  He  brake  not  bread, 
which  then  was  not  there,  but  only  the  form  thereof. 
But  St.  Paul  saith  it  still  continueth  bread  after  the 
consecration ;  "  the  bread  which  we  break  is  it  not  the 
partaking  or  fellowship  of  the  Lord's  body  ?  "  Where- 
upon it  followeth,  that  after  the  thanksgiving  it  is  bread 
which  we  break.  And  how  often  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  is  the  Lord's  Supper  signified  by  breaking  of 
bread  ?  And  that  the  natural  substance  of  the  wine 
continues  is  proved  from  the  words  of  Christ ;  for  after 
he  had  said  of  the  cup,  "  This  is  My  blood  of  the  New 
Testament,"  he  says  expressly,  "  I  will  not  drink  hence- 
forth of  this  fruit  of  the  vinetree,  until  that  day  when 
I  shall  drink  it  new  in  My  Father's  kingdom."  Here 
note,  how  Christ  calleth  plainly  His  cup  the  fruit  of  the 
vinetree :  but  the  fruit  of  the  vinetree  is  very  natural 
wine :  wherefore  the  very  natural  substance  of  the  wine 
doth  remain  still  in  the  Sacrament  of  Christ's  blood. 

And  as  they  are  not  transubstantiated  at  all,  but  con- 


KIDLEY.  235 

tinue  in  their  substance  what  they  were  before  conse- 
cration, that  is,  bread  and  wine,  so  neither  can  they 
be  transubstantiated  into  the  natural  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  but  are  received  in  remembrance  of  Him,  namely 
of  His  body  given  for  us,  and  of  His  blood  shed  for  the 
remission  of  sins.  They  (the  Protestants)  deny  the 
presence  of  Christ's  body  in  the  natural  substance  of  His 
human  and  assumpt  nature,  and  grant  the  presence  of 
the  same  by  grace,  that  is,  they  affirm  and  say,  that  the 
substance  of  the  natural  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is 
only  remaining  in  heaven,  and  so  shall  be  unto  the 
latter  day,  when  He  shall  come  again  in  glory  accom- 
panied with  the  angels  of  heaven  to  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead :  but  by  grace  the  same  body  of  Christ  is  here 
present  with  us ;  as  we  say  the  sun,  which  in  substance 
never  removeth  his  place  out  of  the  heavens,  is  yet 
present  here  by  his  beams,  light,  and  natural  influence, 
where  it  shineth  upon  the  earth.  For  all  grant  that 
St.  Paul's  words  require,  that  the  bread  which  we  break 
should  be  the  communion  of  the  body  of  Christ;  and 
that  the  cup  of  blessing  should  be  the  communion  of 
the  blood  of  Christ ;  and  also  that  he  who  eateth  of  that 
bread  and  drinketh  of  that  cup  unworthily,  should  be 
guilty  of  the  Lord's  death,  and  that  he  eats  and  drinks 
his  own  damnation,  not  considering  the  Lord's  body. 
Wherefore  the  Papists  did  most  falsely  and  injuriously 
accuse  the  Protestants  with  making  the  Sacrament  no 
better  than  a  piece  of  common  broken  bread,  and  but  a 
bare  sign  and  figure  to  represent  Christ.  Of  this  great 
injustice  and  misrepresentation  Ridley  complains,  and 
says,  Alas !  let  us  leave  lying,  and  speak  the  truth  every 
man  not  only  to  his  neighbour,  but  also  of  his  neigh- 
bour; for  we  are  all  members  one  of  another. 

Ridley  was  quite  as  successful  in  refuting  the  Romish 
heresy  by  reference  to  the  teaching  of  the  fathers  of 
the  primitive  Church,  although  there  is  not  space  to 
quote  his  references  in  this  article. 


236  RIDLEY. 

His  letters  written  during  his  confinement  are  of  the 
deepest  interest,  and  it  is  onlj  for  want  of  space  that  we 
reluctantly  omit  the  various  notices  which  have  come 
down  to  us  of  the  truly  Christian  way  in  which  this 
godly  man  met  the  persecutions  to  which  he  was  sub- 
jected. No  sign  of  fanaticism  did  he  ever  exhibit;  he 
never  lost  his  presence  of  mind;  and  his  affectionate 
heart  was  to  the  last  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  all 
who  were  near  and  dear  to  him.  His  farewell  address 
is  one  of  the  most  affecting  productions  in  our  language, 
and  for  unpretending  eloquence  can  bear  comparison 
with  that  of  Gregory  Nazianzen. 

During  the  fortnight  in  which  he  continued  in  prison 
after  his  condemnation,  the  Popish  party,  as  though 
they  were  ashamed  to  sacrifice  a  man  of  such  acknow- 
ledged piety  and  learning,  tried  all  their  means  of 
persuasion  to  gain  him  to  their  cause.  Brookes,  Bishop 
of  Gloucester,  in  great  simplicity  pointed  out  to  him 
the  only  method  of  being  reclaimed  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  which  was,  to  "  captivate  his  senses,  and  subdue 
his  reason ;"  and  then,  "  he  doubted  not  but  that  he 
might  be  easily  induced  to  acknowledge  one  Church 
with  them."  About  the  same  time.  Lord  Dacres,  who 
was  kinsman  to  Ridley,  offered  ten  thousand  pounds 
to  the  queen,  if  she  would  preserve  so  valuable  a  life. 
But  to  this  proposal  she  would  not  agree,  on  any  other 
condition  than  that  of  the  bishop's  recantation;  and 
Ridley,  with  the  spirit  of  a  primitive  martyr,  nobly 
refused  life  on  such  terms. 

On  the  15th  of  October,  which  was  the  day  preceding 
that  appointed  for  his  execution,  our  excellent  prelate 
was  degraded  from  priest's  orders  by  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,  who  seems  to  have  considered  him  as  having 
before  invalidated  his  consecration  by  abjuring  the  pope. 
When  the  mummery  of  this  scene  was  finished,  Ridley 
prepared  himself  for  his  approaching  death,  which  a 
sound  judgment  and  a  good   conscience  enabled  him 


tllDLEY.  237 

to  regard  as  a  subject  of  joy  and  triumpli.  He  called 
it  his  marriage,  and  in  the  evening  washed  his  beard 
and  legs,  and  supped  in  company  with  his  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  Shipside,  and  some  other  friends,  behaving  with 
the  utmost  cheerfulness.  When  they  rose  from  table, 
Mr.  Shipside  offered  to  watch  all  night  with  him ;  but 
he  would  not  suffer  him,  saying,  that  he  intended  (God 
willing)  to  go  to  bed,  and  to  sleep  as  quietly  that  night, 
as  ever  he  did  in  his  life.  On  the  following  morning 
dressed  in  the  habit  which  he  used  to  wear  in  his 
episcopal  character,  he  walked  to  the  place  of  execution 
between  the  mayor  and  one  of  the  aldermen  of  Oxford ; 
and  seeing  Latimer  approach,  from  whom  he  had  been 
separated  after  their  condemnation,  he  ran  to  him  with 
a  cheerful  countenance,  embraced  him,  and  said,  "  Be 
of  good  heart,  brother,  for  God  will  either  assuage  the 
fury  of  the  flame,  or  else  strengthen  us  to  abide  it." 
Then  going  up  to  the  stake,  he  kneeled  down,  and  kiss- 
ing it,  prayed  with  great  fervour.  He  was  now  com- 
pelled to  hear  a  sermon  from  a  Popish  doctor,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  life  of  Latimer;  and,  after  it  was  ended, 
being  refused  permission  to  speak  a  few  sentences,  un- 
less he  recanted,  he  said,  "  Well,  so  long  as  the  breath 
is  in  my  body,  I  will  never  deny  my  Lord  Christ,  and 
His  known  truth.  God's  will  be  done  in  me !  "  He  was 
then  stripped  to  his  shirt,  and  fastened  by  an  iron  chain 
to  the  same  stake  with  Bishop  Latimer.  At  this  instant, 
when  a  cruel  death  awaited  him,  Ridley  shewed  a  won- 
derful greatness  of  mind  and  self-possession,  in  being 
so  regardless  of  his  own  sufferings,  as  to  spend  some  of 
his  last  moments  in  solicitations  for  the  interests  and 
happiness  of  others.  He  made  it  his  dying  request  to 
Lord  Williams,  that  he  would  support  by  his  interest  a 
supplication  which  he  had  made  to  the  queen  on  behalf 
of  his  sister ;  and  that  his  lordship  would  also  interfere 
in  favour  of  some  poor  men,  who  had  taken  leases  of 
Ridley,  under  the  see  of  London,  which  his  successor 


SB8  RIDLEY. 

had  unjustly  and  illegally  refused  to  confirm.  All  pre- 
parations having  now  been  made,  a  kindled  faggot  was 
laid  at  Ridley's  feet,  who,  when  he  saw  the  fire  flaming 
up  towards  him,  with  a  loud  voice  commended  his  soul 
to  God.  Latimer  soon  expired ;  but,  by  some  misman- 
agement of  the  fire  on  Ridley's  side  of  the  stake,  the 
flames  were  prevented  from  reaching  the  upper  part  of 
his  body,  and  his  legs  were  consumed  before  the  fire 
approached  the  vital  parts,  which  made  him  endure 
dreadful  torments  for  a  long  time.  At  length  his  suffer- 
ings were  terminated  by  the  explosion  of  a  bag  of  gun- 
powder which  had  been  suspended  from  his  neck,  after 
which  he  did  not  discover  any  remaining  signs  of  life. 
Such  was  the  end  of  Bishop  Ridley!  In  his  private 
character,  he  was  a  pattern  of  piety,  humility,  tempe- 
rance, and  regularity,  to  all  around  him.  His  temper 
was  cheerful  and  agreeable ;  his  manners  courteous  and 
affable ;  and  of  the  benevolence  of  his  heart  he  gave 
abundant  proofs,  in  his  extraordinary  generosity  and 
liberality  to  the  poor.  Anthony  Wood  says  of  him,  that 
"  he  was  a  person  small  in  stature,  but  great  in  learn- 
ing, and  profoundly  read  in  divinity,"  Among  other 
pieces  he  was  the  author  of  "A  Treatise  concerning 
Images,  not  to  be  set  up  nor  worshipped,  in  Churches," 
written  in  the  time  of  King  Edward  VI. ;  "  Brief  Decla- 
ration of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  first  printed  in  1555,  8vo, 
written  during  his  imprisonment  at  Oxford,  and  tran- 
slated into  Latin  by  William  Whittyngham ;  "  Certain 
godly  and  comfortable  Conferences"  between  him  and 
Latimer,  during  the  time  of  their  imprisonment,  first 
printed  in  1555,  8vo.  ;  "  A  friendly  Farewell  unto  all 
his  true  Lovers,"  written  during  his  imprisonment,  a 
little  before  his  death,  and  printed  in  1559,  8vo ;  "A 
pious  Lamentation  of  the  miserable  State  of  the  Church 
of  England,  in  the  Time  of  the  late  Revolt  from  the 
Gospel,"  8vo ;  "  A  Comparison  between  the  comfortable 
Doctrine  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Traditions  of  the  Popish 


RIDLEY,  GLOUCESTER.  239 

Religion,"  printed  with  the  former;  "An  Account  of  a 
Disputation  at  Oxford  in  1554,"  written  in  Latin,  and 
published  from  the  original  manuscript  in  1688,  4to, 
by  Dr.  Gilbert  Ironside,  warden  of  Wadham-college  ; 
"A  Treatise  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,"  published  with 
the  former;  and  "A  Letter  of  Reconciliation  written  to 
Bishop  Hooper,"  published  by  Samuel  Johnson,  in  1689, 
4to.  Many  of  his  "  Letters,"  and  also  some  of  the  pieces 
mentioned  above,  have  been  published  by  Fox  in  his 
"Acts  and  Monuments,"  and  may  likewise  be  seen  in 
Gloucester  Ridley's  Life  of  Bishop  Ridley. — Bidley's 
Life  of  Ridley.     Strype. 


RIDLEY,    GLOUCESTER, 

Gloucester  Ridley  was  born  on  board  the  Gloucester, 
East  Indiaman,  whence  his  Christian  name,  in  1702, 
and  was  educated  at  Winchester  and  New  College. 
For  a  great  part  of  his  life  he  had  no  other  preferment 
than  the  small  living  of  Weston  Longueville,  in  Norfolk, 
and  the  donative  of  Poplar,  in  Middlesex,  where  he 
resided.  To  these  his  college  added,  some  years  after, 
the  donative  of  Romford,  in  Essex. 

In  1740  and  1742  he  preached  eight  sermons  at 
Lady  Moyer's  lecture,  which  were  pubhshed  in  1742, 
8vo.  In  1763  he  published  the  Life  of  Bishop  Ridley, 
in  4to.  In  1765  he  published  his  Review  of  Philip's 
Life  of  Cardinal  Pole.  In  1761,  in  reward  for  his 
labours  in  this  controversy,  and  in  another  which  the 
confessional  produced,  he  was  presented  by  Archbishop 
Seeker  to  a  golden  prebend  at  Salisbury.  He  died  in 
1774.  Two  poems  by  Dr.  Ridley,  one  styled,  Jovi 
Eleutherio,  or  an  Offering  to  Liberty,  and  the  other 
called  Pysche,  were  printed  in  Dodsley's  Collection. 
Melampus,  the  sequel  of  the  latter,  was  afterwards  pub- 
lished by  subscription.     In  1761  he  published,  in  4to, 


•240  ROBERTS. 

De  Sjriacarum  Novi  Foederis  Versionum  indole  atque 
usu,  Dissertatio,  occasioned  by  a  Sjriac  version,  which, 
with  two  others,  were  sent  to  him  nearly  thirty  years 
before,  by  one  Mr.  Samuel  Palmer  from  Amida,  in 
Mesopotamia.  His  age  and  growing  infirmities,  the 
great  expence  of  printing,  and  the  want  of  a  patron, 
l^revented  him  from  availing  himself  of  these  MSS  ;  yet 
at  intervals  he  employed  himself  on  a  transcript,  which 
was  published  by  professor  White,  with  a  literal  Latin 
translation,  in  2  vols.,  4 to,  at  the  expense  of  the  dele- 
gates of  the  Clarendon  Press. — Gent.  Mag. 


ETNALDI,    0D0R[C. 

Odoric  Rinaldi  was  born  in  1595  at  Treviso,  and  was 
educated  at  Parma  under  the  Jesuits.  He  became  an 
Oratorian  at  Rome  in  1618.  Of  the  congreagation  of 
the  Oratory,  Baronius  was  a  member,  after  whose  death, 
Rinaldi  was  employed  in  continuing  his  Ecclesiastical 
Annals,  from  1198,  with  which  the  work  of  Baronius 
terminated,  to  1564,  when  the  council  of  Trent  was 
dissolved.  This  continuation  consists  of  ten  large  vol- 
umes in  folio,  which  made  their  appearance  in  Rome 
at  different  periods  from  1646  to  1677.  Rinaldi  pub- 
lished a  sufficiently  copious  abridgment,  in  Italian,  of 
the  whole  annals  compiled  both  by  Baronius  and  him- 
self, which  is  said  to  be  a  masterly  performance. — Biog. 
Universelle. 

ROBERTS,    FRANCIS. 

Francis  Roberts,  a  Puritan,  was  born  in  Yorkshire  in 
]609.  He  took  his  degrees  in  arts,  at  Trinity  College, 
Oxford ;  after  which  he  became  minister  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, Watling-street,  and  rector  of  Wrington,  in  Somer- 
setshire.    In  ]67'2,  he  w^ent  to  Ireland  with  the  Earl  of 


ROGERS.  Q41 

Essex ;  and  while  there  was  made  doctor  of  divinity. 
He  died  at  Wrington  in  1675.  His  principal  work  is 
entitled  "  Clavis  Bibliorum,  the  Key  of  the  Bible,"  2 
vols.  8vo,  1649  ;  and  again  in  folio,  1675.  He  pubhshed 
besides  some  single  sermons,  "  The  Believer's  Evidence 
for  Eternal  Life;"  "The  Communicant  Instructed;" 
"  Clavis  Bibliorum,  the  Key  of  the  Bible,  including  the 
order,  names,  times,  penmen,  occasion,  scope,  and  prin- 
cipal matter  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament;"  "  Myste- 
rium  et  Medulla  Bibliorum,  or  the  Mystery  and  Marrow 
of  the  Bible ;"  and,  "  The  True  Way  to  the  Tree  of 
Life." — Watkin's  Universal  Biog.  Vict. 


KOELL,    HERMANN    ALEXANDER. 

Hermann  Alexander  Roell  was  born  in  1653,  at 
Doelberg,  in  Westphalia.  He  was  educated  first  at 
Unna,  and  then  at  Utrecht.  In  1686,  he  accepted  the 
offer  of  a  professorship  in  divinity  from  the  University 
of  Franeker.  In  1704,  he  was  appointed  to  the  divinity 
chair  of  Utrecht,  and  he  retained  that  post  till  his  death, 
in  1718.  Among  his  publications  are  : — "A  Commentary 
upon  the  Commencement  of  the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to 
the  Ephesians ;"  "  the  second  part  of  the  same,  with  An 
Analysis  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians ;"  "  An  Ana- 
lysis and  Abridgment  of  the  Prophetical  Books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament;"  and,  "  An  Explication  of  the 
Catechism  of  Heidelberg. — Chaufepie. 


ROGERS,    JOHN. 

John  Rogers,  the  first  who  suffered  martyrdom  for  the 
principles  of  the  English  Reformation  in  the  days  of 
Mary,  was*  educated  at  Cambridge  ;  the  time  and  place 
of  his  birth  are  not  mentioned.  Soon  after  he  was 
vol.  yiii.  ¥ 


242  ROGERS. 

ordained,  the  company  of  merchant  adventurers,  as  they 
were  then  called,  appointed  him  their  chaplain  at 
Antwerp,  where  he  remained  for  many  years.  This  proved 
also  the  means  of  his  conversion  from  Popery,  for  meet- 
ing there  with  Tyndale  and  Coverdale,  he  was  induced 
by  their  conversation  to  examine  the  points  in  contro- 
versy more  closely,  the  result  of  which  was  his  em- 
bracing the  sentiments  of  the  Reformers.  He  also  joined 
with  these  colleagues  in  making  the  first  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  English,  which  appeared  at  Ham- 
burgh, in  1532,  under  the  name  of  Thomas  Matthew. 
Rogers  was  corrector  of  the  press  on  this  occasion,  and 
translated  that  part  of  the  Apocrypha  which  was  left 
unfinished  by  Tyndale,  and  also  contributed  some  of 
the  marginal  notes.  At  Antwerp  he  married,  and  thence 
w^ent  to  Wittemberg,  and  was  chosen  pastor  of  a  Dutch 
congregation  there,  w^hich  office  he  discharged  until  the 
accession  of  Edward  VI.,  when  Bishop  Ridley  invited 
him  home,  and  made  him  prebendary  and  divinity 
reader  of  St.  Paul's.  Mary  made  her  triumphal  entry 
into  London,  August  o,  1553;  and  Rogers  had  the 
boldness  to  preach  a  sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  on  the 
following  Sunday,  in  which  he  exhorted  the  people  to 
abide  by  the  doctrine  taught  in  King  Edward's  days, 
and  to  resist  Popery  in  all  its  forms  and  superstitions. 
For  this  he  was  immediately  called  before  the  privy 
council,  in  which  were  several  of  the  restored  Popish 
bishops ;  but  he  appears  to  have  defended  himself  so 
ably,  that  he  was  dismissed  unhurt.  This  security, 
however,  was  not  of  long  duration,  and  two  days  before 
Mary  issued  her  proclamation  against  preaching  the 
Reformed  doctrines,  (August  18)  he  was  ordered  to  re- 
main a  prisoner  in  his  own  house  at  St.  Pauls ;  thence 
after  six  months  he  was  removed  to  Newgate  ;  and  in 
January,  1555,  he  underwent  an  examination  before 
Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  an  interestiilg  account 
of  which  is  given  by  Fox. 


nOGERg.  243 

It  is  impossible  within  our  prescribed  limits  to  tran- 
scribe the  whole,  but  the  following  conversation  will 
give  his  view  of  the  subject  of  the  royal  supremacy. 
The  Lord  Chancellor  Gardiner  asked  him  whether  he 
would  conform  to  the  Catholic  Church  : — 

Bogers. — "  The  Catholicke  Church  I  never  didde  nor 
will  dissent  from." 

Lord  Chancellor. — "  Nay,  but  I  speak  of  the  state  of 
Catholicke  Church,  in  that  wise  in  which  we  stand  now 
in  England,  having  received  the  pope  to  be  supreme 
head." 

Rog. — "  I  knowe  none  other  head  but  Christ  of  His 
Catholicke  Church;  neither  will  I  acknowledge  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  to  have  any  more  authoritie  than  any 
other  bishop  hath  by  the  word  of  God,  and  by  the  doc- 
trine of  the  olde  and  pure  Catholicke  Church  four  hun- 
dred yeares  aftor  Christ." 

L.  Chan. — "  Why  didst  thou  then  acknowledge  King 
Henrie  the  Eighth,  to  be  supreme  head  of  the  Church, 
if  Christ  be  the  onlie  head  ?  " 

Bog. — "I  never  granted  him  to  have  any  supremacie 
in  spirituall  things,  as  are  the  forgivenesse  of  sinnes, 
giving  of  the  Holie  Ghost,  authoritie  to  be  a  Judge  above 
the  word  of  God." 

*'  Yea,  saide  hee,  and  Tonstall  Bishop  of  Duresme, 
and  Heath  Bishop  of  Worcester,  if  thou  hadst  said  so  in 
his  daies  (and  they  nodded  the  head  at  me  with  a  laugh- 
ter) thou  hadst  not  beene  alive  now." 

On  another  occasion,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  being 
asked  againe  by  the  Lord  Chancellor,  whether  I  would 
come  into  one  Church  with  the  bishops  and  whole 
realme,  as  now  was  concluded  by  parliament,  (in  the 
which  all  the  realme  was  converted  to  the  Catholicke 
Church  of  Rome)  and  so  receive  the  mercy  before  pro- 
fered  me,  rising  again  with  the  whole  realme,  out  of 
the  schisme  and  errour  in  which  we  had  long  been, 
with  recantation  of  my  errors :  I  answered,  that  before 


244  ROGERS,  JOHN. 

I  could  not  tell  what  his  mercy  meant,  but  now  I  under- 
stoode  that  it  was  a  mercy  of  the  Antichristian  Church 
of  Rome,  which  I  utterly  refused,  and  that  the  rising 
which  hee  spake  of,  w-as  a  very  fall  into  errour  and  false 
doctrine.  Also  that  I  had  and  would  be  able  by  God's 
grace,  to  prove  that  all  the  doctrine  which  I  had  ever 
taught,  was  true  and  catholicke,  and  that  by  the  Scrip* 
tures,  and  the  authority  of  the  fathers  that  lived  four 
hundred  yeares  after  Christ's  death." 

The  issue  of  his  trial  was  his  condemnation,  and 
having  been  degraded  from  his  ministerial  orders  by 
the  hands  of  Bishop  Bonner,  in  New^gate,  he  was  sum- 
moned to  the  stake  on  Monday,  the  4th  of  February. 
Before  he  left  the  prison,  one  of  the  sheriffs  urged  him 
"  to  revoke  his  abominable  doctrines  and  his  evil  opinion 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  altar."  The  victim  answered 
firmly  :  "  That  which  I  have  preached  I  will  seal  with 
my  blood."  "  Thou  art  an  heretic,  then,"  said  the 
magistrate.  The  reply  was  :  "  That  will  be  seen  at  the 
day  of  judgment."  "  Well  then,"  rejoined  the  sheriff, 
"  I  will  never  pray  for  thee."  Rogers  meekly  said : 
*'  But  I  will  pray  for  tliee.'"  On  entering  the  street,  he 
found  an  immense  crowd  waiting  to  see  him,  by  whom 
he  was  received  with  every  demonstration  of  pious  res- 
pect and  gratitude.  He  passed  along  repeating  the 
fifty-first  psalm,  and  in  his  way  he  suffered  the  momen- 
tary pain  of  observing  among  the  afflicted  spectators, 
his  wife  and  ten  of  his  children :  an  eleventh  hanging 
unconsciously  at  its  mother's  breast.  Being  arrived  in 
Smithfield,  a  pardon  was  offered  to  him,  if  he  would 
recant.  But  his  holy  magnanimity  forsook  him  not, 
and  he  refused  the  proffered  clemency. — Stryjie.   Soames. 


ROGERS,    JOHN. 

John  Rogers  was  born,  in   1679,   at  Ensham,  in  Ox- 


ROGERS,  JOHN.  245 

fordshire.  He  was  educated  at  New  College  School,  at 
Oxford,  and  in  1693,  became  a  scholar  of  Corpus  Christi 
College.  He  was  presented  to  the  vicarage  of  Buckland, 
in  Berkshire;  and  in  1712,  he  went  to  London,  where 
he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  St.  Clement  Danes.  He 
afterwards  became  lecturer  of  the  united  parishes  of 
Christ  Church,  and  St.  Leonard's,  Foster-lane.  In 
1716,  he  was  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  Wrington,  in 
Somersetshire  ;  and  some  time  after  he  was  elected  canon 
residentiary  of  the  Cathedral  of  Wells,  in  which  he  also 
bore  the  office  of  sub-dean.  In  1719,  he  engaged  in  the 
Bangorian  controversy,  and  published,  "  A  Discourse  of 
the  visible  and  invisible  Church  of  Christ:  in  which  it 
is  shown,  that  the  powers  claimed  by  the  officers  of  the 
visible  Church,  are  not  inconsistent  with  the  supremacy 
of  Christ  as  head,  or  with  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
Christians  as  members,  of  the  invisible  Church,"  8vo. 
Dr.  Sykes  having  published  an  answer,  Mr.  Rogers 
replied  to  him  in  "  A  Review  of  the  Discourse  of  the 
visible  and  invisible  Church  of  Christ."  In  1722,  the 
University  of  Oxford  conferred  on  him,  by  diploma,  the 
degree  of  D.D.  In  1726,  he  was  made  chaplain  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  George  II. ;  and  in  the 
following  year  he  published,  against  the  attacks  of  An- 
thony Collins,  in  his  "  Scheme  gf  Literal  Prophecy,"  a 
volume  of  sermons,  entitled,  "  The  Necessity  of  Divine 
Revelation,  and  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
asserted ;"  to  which  he  prefixed,  "  A  Preface,  with  Re- 
marks on  the  Scheme  of  Literal  Prophecy."  Collins 
having  written  "  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rogers,  on 
occasion  of  his  eight  Sermons  concerning  the  necessity 
of  Divine  Revelation,  and  the  Preface  prefixed  to  them," 
Dr.  Rogers  published,  "  A  Vindication  of  the  Civil 
Establishment  of  Religion,  wherein  some  positions  of 
Mr.  Chandler,  the  author  of  the  Literal  Scheme,  &c.. 
and  an  Anonymous  Letter  on  that  subject,  are  occasion- 
ally considered.     With  an  Appendix,  containing  a  Letter 

Y  3 


S46  ROMAINE.    , 

from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Marshall,  and  an  Answer  to  the  same, 

1728,  8vo." 

In  1728,  Rogers  reluctantly  accepted  the  vicarage  of 
St.  Giles',  Cripplegate,  in  London.  He  did  not  enjoy  his 
new  preferment  above  six  months;  for  he  died  May  1, 

1729,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  age.  After  his  decease 
several  of  his  sermons  were  published ;  and  two  tracts — 
Reasons  against  Conversion  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 
and,  A  Persuasive  to  Conformity,  addressed  to  Dissen- 
ters.— Life  hy  Burton,  prefixed  to  his  Sermons. 


EOMAINE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Romaine,  the  son  of  a  French  Protestant  who 
came  to  England  on  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  was  born  at  Hartlepool,  in  1714,  and  was 
educated  at  the  Grammar  School  of  Houghton-le-Spring. 
Thence  he  went  to  Hertford  College,  Oxford ;  but  re- 
moved from  thence  to  Christ  Church,  where,  in  1737,  he 
took  his  degree  of  master  of  arts.  One  of  his  first 
sermons  before  the  university,  was  directed  against 
Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  which  produced 
a  bitter  reply  from  that  powerful  writer.  After  this, 
Mr.  Romaine  engaged  in  an  edition  of  Calasio's  Hebrew 
Concordance,  into  which  he  introduced  some  alterations, 
to  serve  the  Hutchinsonian  system.  In  1748,  he  ob- 
tained the  lectureship  of  St.  Botolph,  Bishopgate;  the 
year  following  he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  St.  Dunstan, 
in  the  West ;  and  in  1750,  he  was  appointed  assistant 
morning  preacher  at  St.  George's,  Hanover-square.  Soon 
after  this  he  was  elected  Gresham  professor  of  astronomy, 
which  situation  he  soon  resigned.  He  obtained  such 
popularity  by  his  opposition  to  the  bill  for  the  naturali- 
zation of  the  Jews,  that  his  publications  on  that  subject 
were  printed  by  the  corporation  of  London. 

In  1764,  he  was  chosen  rector  by  the  inhabitants  of 


ROSCELLIN.  047 

St.  Andrew's  by  the  Wardrobe,  and  St.  Anne's  Black- 
friars.  This  election  produced  a  suit  in  Chancery, 
which  was  decided  in  his  favour  in  1776.  In  this  situa- 
tion he  continued  for  thirty  years.  He  died  on  the 
26th  of  July,  1795.  Besides  the  works  already  men- 
tioned, he  wrote  a  Comment  on  the  107th  Psalm; 
Twelve  Sermons  upon  Solomon's  Song;  Twelve  Dis- 
courses upon  the  Law  and  Gospel ;  The  Life  of  Faith. 
— Life  by  Cadogan. 


ROQUES,    PETER. 

Peter  Roques  was  born  at  Caune,  in  Languedoc, 
in  1685.  He  was  minister  of  a  French  congregation 
at  Basle,  being  appointed  in  1719,  and  at  Basle  he 
died  in  1748. 

He  wrote  : — The  Evangelical  Pastor ;  this  is  a  popular 
work:  Elements  of  the  Historical,  Dogmatical,  and 
Moral  Truths  contained  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures ;  and 
Genuine  Pietism.  He  also  edited  Moreri's  Dictionary  ; 
Saurin's  Discourses  on  the  Old  and  New  Testament; 
Martin's  Translation  of  the  Bible,  with  prefaces,  cor- 
rections, notes,  and  parallel  passages,  in  2  vols.  4to ; 
Basnage's  Dissertation  on  Duelling,  and  Orders  of 
Chivalry ;  various  theological  and  critical  Dissertations  ; 
controversial  Treatises;  and  numerous  papers  inserted 
in  the  Journal  Helvetique,  and  the  Bibliotheque  Ger- 
manique. — Moreri. 


ROSCELLIN,     OR    ROUSSELIN,    JOHN. 

John  Roscellin,  or  Rousselin,  a  Schoolman,  the  founder 
of  the  Nominalists,  flourished  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
and  the  beginning  of  the  12th  century,  and  was  a  native 
of  the  French   Province  of  Bretagne.     Having  distin- 


248  ROSCELLIN. 

guished  himself  in  the  literature  of  the  times,  he  was 
appointed  to  a  canonrj  of  the  Church  of  Cornelius,  at 
Compiegne,  in  the  Diocese  of  Soissons. 

The  practice  of  Dialectics,  and  the  questions  arising 
out  of  a  disputed  passsage  in  Porj^hyry's  Introduction 
to  the  Organum  of  Aristotle,,  respecting  the  different 
metaphysical  opinions  entertained  by  the  Platonists 
and  Peripatetics  of  the  nature  of  General  Ideas,  were 
the  causes  which  led  to  the  division  between  the  Nomi- 
nalists and  Piealists,  the  latter  adhering  to  Plato,  the 
first  to  Aristotle :  disputes  which  stirred  up  frequent 
and  angry  debates  in  the  schools,  without  any  other 
result  than  that  of  sharpening  their  powers  of  argu- 
mentation. This  long  discussion  was  begun  by  Ilos- 
cellin,  who,  (on  the  testimony  of  his  adversaries,)  main- 
tained that  the  ideas  of  Genus  and  Species  were  nothing 
but  mere  words  and  terms  (flatus  vocis,)  which  we  use 
to  designate  qualities  common  to  different  individual 
objects.  He  was  led  on  by  this  doctrine  to  some  here- 
tical opinions  respecting  the  Trinity,  which  he  was  ulti- 
mately compelled  to  retract  at  Soissons,  a.d.  1092.  It 
is  certain  that  Eoscellin  is  the  first  author  who  obtained 
the  appellation  of  a  Nominalist,  and  from  his  time  the 
school  previously  established,  which  held  the  creed  that 
Genus  and  Species  were  real  essences,  or  types  and 
moulds  of  things,  (Universalia  ante  rem  according  to 
the  phrase  of  the  Schoolmen,)  was  throughout  the  pre- 
sent period  perpetually  opposed  to  Nominalism,  whose 
partisans  maintained  that  the  Universalia,  subsisted  only 
in  re,  or  2)ost  rem  :  nor  was  the  difficulty  ever  definitively 
settled. 

With  respect  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  he  held 
it  to  be  inconceivable  and  impossible  that  the  Son  of 
God  should  assume  the  human  nature  alone,  that  is, 
without  the  Father  and  the  Holy  G  host  becoming  Incar- 
nate also,  unless  by  the  Three  Persons  in  the  Godhead 
were  meant  three  distinct  objects  or  natures   existing 


ROSE.  249 

separately  (such  as  three  angels  or  three  distinct  spirits,) 
though  endued  with  one  will  and  acting  by  one  power. 

Having  visited  England  he  here  excited  a  controversy 
of  another  kind,  by  maintaining,  among  other  things, 
that  persons  born  out  of  lawful  wedlock  ought  to  be 
deemed  incapable  of  admission  to  holy  orders.  Some 
even  of  the  prelates  being  in  this  condition,  Roscellin 
made  very  powerful  enemies,  among  whom  was  Anselm, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  and  he  was  finally  obliged 
to  quit  England.  He  then  went  to  Paris,  and  by 
propagating  his  doctrine  concerning  the  Trinity,  occa- 
sioned such  contests  as  made  him  glad  to  retire  to 
Aquitaine,  where  he  passed  the  rest  of  his  days  un- 
molested. He  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1106. 
None  of  his  writings  are  extant. — Tennemann.  Moreri. 
Mosheim. 


EOSE,    ALEXANDER. 

Alexander  Rose.  (See  the  Life  of  Sage.)  Of  this 
venerable  and  excellent  prelate  we  have  the  following 
brief  memoir  in  the  Life  of  Bishop  Sage,  published  by 
the  Spottiswoode  Society : — "  Born  of  an  ancient  family 
in  the  North  of  Scotland,  he  was  educated  and  gradu- 
ated at  King's  College,  Aberdeen ;  but  went  through  a 
theological  course  at  Glasgow  under  the  tuition  of  Dr. 
Gilbert  Burnet,  afterwards  minister  of  Saltoun,  in  Had- 
dingtonshire, and  the  well-known  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 
Having  been  admitted  into  holy  orders,  his  first  pre- 
ferment was  the  parish  of  Perth,  which  he  left  for  the 
appointment  of  professor  of  divinity  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow.  In  1684,  through  the  influence  of  his 
uncle,  the  Primate  of  all  Scotland,  he  was  nominated 
by  the  crown  to  the  Principality  of  St.  Mary's  College, 
in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews.  But  his  piety  and 
talents    recommended    him   for   elevation    to   a  higher 


2  50  HOSE. 

sphere  of  usefulness.  Accordingly,  in  1687,  the  royal 
mandate  was  issued  for  his  consecration  to  the  See  of 
Moray,  in  the  room  of  Bishop  Colin  Falconer  deceased; 
but  the  Diocese  of  Edinburgh  becoming  vacant  in  the 
same  year  by  the  translation  of  Bishop  Patterson  to 
Glasgow,  Dr.  Rose  was  selected  as  his  successor,  and 
was  translated  to  Edinburgh  'before,'  says  Keith,  'he 
had  taken  possession  of  the  See  of  Moray.'  Of  this 
illustrious  prelate  in  his  high  position  in  the  episcopate, 
much  has  been  already  written  by  various  authors; 
and  his  journey  to  London  at  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
his  affecting  interview  with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  by 
which  the  destiny  of  the  Episcopal  Church  as  an  Estab- 
lishment was  sealed,  and  his  noble  answer  when  asked 
to  follow  the  example  of  those  English  Bishops  who 
joined  the  standard  of  William,  are  so  well  known  that 
they  need  not  be  repeated  here.  Deprived  of  his  cathe- 
dral, spoiled  of  his  revenues,  and  stripped  of  his  civil 
dignities,  this  excellent  man  continued  after  the  Revo- 
lution and  overthrow  of  the  Church  in  Scotland,  to 
exercise  the  authority  of  a  successor  of  the  Apostles,  of 
which  no  efforts  of  man  could  deprive  him ;  and  under 
his  auspices  the  sacred  ark  was  directed  during  those 
trying  and  stormy  times,  when  the  face  of  the  civil  power 
was  turned  against  the  Church,  and  the  '  arm  of  flesh' 
was  lifted  up  in  the  vain  endeavour  to  root  out  Catho- 
licity from  Scotland.  He  is  described  by  a  contemporary 
as  '  a  sweet-tempered  man,  and  of  a  venerable,  aspect;' 
and  these  things,  his  excellent  disposition  and  benign 
appearance,  combined  with  his  discretion,  seem  com- 
pletely to  have  disarmed  the  Presbyterians,  even  in  those 
days  of  keen  party  spirit,  and  incautious  malevolence 
between  persons  attached  to  opposite  and  hostile  inte- 
rests, for  we  do  not  find  that  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
ever  ventured  to  assail  with  false  and  malicious  asper- 
sions the  character  of  this  genuine  servant  of  God. 
Having  outlived  all  the  brethren  of  his  order,  and  like* 


EU.E,  DE  LA.  951 

wise  all  the  Bishops  of  England  who  had  possessed  sees 
before  the  Kevolution,  he  remained  as  the  remnant  of  a 
band  hallowed  by  their  sufferings  for  conscience  sake  ; 
and  his  grey  hairs  went  down  to  the  grave  with  the  re- 
spect of  the  clergy  of  his  own  communion,  and  of  the 
laity  of  both  nations,  who,  whatever  were  their  opinions 
upon  the  question,  admired  the  firm  integrity  of  prin- 
ciple which  actuated  the  Scottish  prelates  in  their  refusal 
to  recognize  the  government  of  William  and  Mary,  and 
the  dignified  patience  with  which  they  submitted  to  the 
loss  of  all  those  things  which  absorb  and  engage  men's 
attention  and  time.  He  died  in  March,  17*20,  and  his 
mortal  remains  were  interred  in  the  Church  of  Restalrig, 
near  Edinburgh,  the  cemetery  of  which,  from  its  re- 
tired situation  and  other  causes,  was  much  used  by  the 
persecuted  Episcopalians  as  a  resting-place  for  their 
departed  friends." 


ROTHEEAM,  (see  Scott.J 


EUE,    CHARLES    DE    LA. 

Charles  de  la  Rue.  There  are  two  French  divines  of 
this  name;  the  first,  a  Jesuit,  was  born  at  Paris,  in 
1643,  and  died  in  17j^5.  He  determined  to  become 
a  popular  preacher.  He  took  lessons  in  the  art  of  de- 
claiming from  the  celebrated  actor  Baron,  with  whom 
he  was  well  acquainted.  He  became  the  favourite 
preacher  at  court  and  in  the  capital.  Voltaire  says 
that  he  had  two  sermons,  entitled,  "  The  sinner  dying," 
and  "  The  sinner  dead,"  which  were  so  popular,  that 
public  notice  was  given  by  bills  when  they  were  to  be 
delivered.  It  was  thought  extraordinary  that  one  who 
so  much  excelled  in  reciting  should  set  the  example  of 
reading  his  discourses,  instead  of  repeating  them  from 


252  RUE,  DE  LA. 

memory ;  but  he  asserted  that  not  only  time  was  saved 
by  the  indulgence,  but  that  the  preacher,  at  ease  with 
his  notes  before  him,  could  deliver  himself  with  more 
animation.  He  was  sent,  after  the  dragoons  had  done 
their  part,  to  make  converts  among  the  Protestants  in 
the  Cevennes,  and  had  considerable  success.  Like  many 
of  his  society,  he  joined  talents  for  conversation,  and 
the  manners  of  the  polite  world,  to  the  qualifications  of 
a  scholar  and  a  divine,  and  he  was  chosen  by  the  Dau- 
phiness  and  the  Duke  of  Berry  for  their  confessor. 
His  Latin  poems  in  four  books,  consisting  of  tragedies 
and  miscellaneous  pieces,  have  been  several  times 
printed.  His  French  works  are.  Panegyrics  of  Saints, 
Funeral  Orations,  and  Sermons.  He  was  one  of  the 
learned  men  employed  in  the  Dolphin  editions  of  the 
classics,  and  Virgil  fell  to  his  share,  first  printed  in 
1675,  4to. 

The  other  Charles  de  la  Rue  was  a  Benedictine  of 
St.  Maur,  and  was  born,  in  1684,  at  Corbie,  in  Picardy. 
Becoming  a  friend  of  Montfaucon  he  was  persuaded  by 
him  to  prepare  an  edition  of  all  the  works  of  Origen, 
the  Hexapla  excepted.  Accordingly  de  la  Rue  applied 
himself  to  this  task  with  becoming  diligence,  and  in 
1783  published  the  two  first  volumes,  in  folio,  with  pro- 
legomena, and  learned  and  useful  notes.  The  third 
volume  was  ready  for  the  press  in  1757,  when  he  was 
compelled  to  devolve  the  superintendence  of  the  impres- 
sion on  his  nephew  Vincent  de  la  Rue,  a  learned  mem- 
ber of  the  same  order,  whom  he  had  chosen  as  an  assis- 
tant in  his  labours.  Charles  de  la  Rue  was  carried  off 
by  a  paralytic  attack  in  1739,  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of 
his  age.  From  his  papers  his  nephew  carefully  printed 
the  third  volume  of  Origen ;  and  with  the  aid  of  his 
materials  he  completed  and  published  the  fourth  in 
1739.  Vincent  de  la  Rue  died  in  l76'2.—Biog.  Uni^ 
verselle. 


RUFINUS.  253 


RUFINUS. 


RuFiNUS,  called  by  some  Toranius,  flourished  in  the 
fourth  century,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  native 
of  Aquileia.  He  wss  baptized  in  869,  and  retiring  to 
a  monastery  in  Aquileia,  devoted  himself  to  theological 
studies.  He  became  a  presbyter  of  the  Church,  and 
becoming  acquainted  with  St.  Jerome,  they  vowed  eternal 
friendship,  a  vow  they  were  not  destined  to  keep.  Par- 
taking of  the  Ascetic  fanaticism  of  the  time,  he  dedi- 
cated himself  in  371  to  the  monastic  life,  and  to  the 
study  of  the  Ascetic  discipline,  under  the  monks  of  the 
deserts  of  Egypt.  Visiting  Rome  on  his  way  thither, 
his  design  recommended  him  to  the  confidence  of 
Melania,  a  widow  of  a  noble  family  and  great  wealth, 
who  resolved  to  accompany  him  to  that  country,  and  to 
expend  her  riches  on  the  establishment  of  monastic  and 
charitable  institutions.  From  Egypt  he  was  compelled 
by  the  x\rians  to  flee  into  Palestine,  where,  with  Melania, 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Jerusalem.  Here  he  built 
a  monastery  on  Mount  Olivet,  where  he  lived  for  many 
years. 

At  Jerusalem,  he  found  Jerome,  the  friend  of  his 
youth,  and  with  him  and  Bishop  John,  he  formed  a 
union  for  the  advancement  of  theological  science.  All 
these  at  that  time  shared  in  the  same  love  for  the  writ- 
ings of  Origen.  Jerome  had  indeed  sought  to  make 
several  of  his  works  more  widely  known  in  the  Western 
Church  by  means  of  translations,  and  had  in  his  prefaces 
spoken  of  him  with  the  greatest  admiration.  But  when, 
in  390,  the  controversy  concerning  the  opinions  of  Ori- 
gen w^as  started  between  Epiphanius  and  John  the 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  (see  the  lives  of  Epiphanius  and 
St.  Jerome)  Jerome  sided  with  the  opponents  of  Origen, 
while  Rufinus  maintained  vehemently  the  cause  of  the 
bishop  which  was  in  defence  of  Origen. 

VOL     VIII.  z 


254  RUFINUS. 

The  friends  were  now  separated,  both  being  persons 
of  excitable  temper,  until  the  year  396,  when  they  be- 
came reconciled  at  the  altar.  But  although  the  friendly 
relations  between  Jerome  and  Rufinus  seem  outwardly  to 
have  been  restored  again,  yet  the  communion  of  spirits 
which  had  once  been  disturbed,  certainly  could  not  be  so 
easily  renewed,  especially  in  the  case  of  so  irritable  and 
suspicious  a  person  as  Jerome.  It  needed  but  a  slight 
occasion  to  tear  open  again  the  slightly  healed  wound  ; 
and  this  was  given  by  Rufinus,  though  without  any 
intention  on  his  part,  yet  certainly  not  without  his  fault. 
In  the  year  397,  he  returned  from  his  travels  back  to 
the  West,  and  repaired  to  Rome.  There  he  w^as  in- 
duced, as  he  says,  by  the  wishes  of  his  friend  Macarius 
(who  being  engaged  in  writing  a  w^ork  against  the  astro- 
logical fate,  was  desirous  of  learning  the  views  of  Origen 
on  this  subject)  to  translate  Origen's  work  Hepi  dpxaiv 
into  Latin.  Now  this,  after  what  had  taken  place  before, 
was  manifestly  a  very  unwise  undertaking.  This  book, 
of  all  others,  was  directly  calculated  to  stir  up  anew  the 
narrow-minded  zealots  of  the  Roman  Church  against 
Origen ;  and  as  the  peculiar  ideas  of  this  work  were  so 
perfectly  alien  from  the  theological  spirit  of  the  Roman 
church,  no  good  whatever  would  result  from  making  it 
known  by  a  translation.  But  Rufinus  did  not  even 
furnish  the  means  for  studying  and  understanding  Ori- 
gen as  a  historical  phenomenon.  He  himself  was  too 
much  carried  away  with  wonder  at  the  great  man,  and 
too  much  fettered  by  the  dependence  of  his  own  mind 
on  the  dominant  scheme  of  the  Church,  to  be  able  rightly 
to  understand  Origen  in  his  theological  development. 
He  was  too  little  acquainted  wdth  the  relation  of  the 
hidden  depths  of  the  Christian  life  and  consciousness 
to  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  conception  of  them 
in  time,  to  be  able  to  form  any  correct  judgment  of  the 
relation  of  Origen's  theology  to  the  Church  scheme  of 
doctrine  in  his  own  age.     He  took  the  liberty  to  modify 


RUFINUS.  S55 

the  doctrines  of  Origen,  especially  in  those  passages 
which  had  reference  to  the  Trinity,  according  to  the 
decisions  of  the  Council  of  Nice.  But  he  frankly  con- 
fesses, also,  in  the  preface  to  his  translation,  that  in 
such  places  he  has  not  rendered  the  sense  of  Origen 
according  to  the  existing  readings.  Only  he  af&rms, 
that  he  had  introduced  no  foreign  matter,  but  had  sim- 
ply restored  the  original  reading,  which  had  been  cor- 
rupted by  heretics,  as  the  harmony  with  other  passages 
required.  But,  then,  as  he  did  not  consistently  carry 
through  even  this  method,  but  left  many  passages  unal- 
tered, which  sounded  no  less  heretical  to  these  times, 
so  he  exposed  himself  none  the  less  to  be  accused  by 
the  zealots  of  having  found  then  in  those  passages 
nothing  which  would  be  considered  as  heretical, — in 
spite  of  his  protestations,  that,  in  this  translation,  it  was 
not  his  design  to  exhibit  his  own  views,  but  the  original 
doctrines  of  Origen,  and  that  nothing  else  was  to  be 
learned  from  it  but  these.  At  the  same  time,  though 
perfectly  aware  of  Jerome's  excitable  temper,  and  of  the 
narrow  and  passionate  spirit  which  characterized  his 
principal  friends  at  Rome,  he  was  still  imprudent  enough 
to  refer  in  his  preface  to  the  praise  bestowed  on  Origen 
by  Jerome,  and  to  the  similar  plan  of  translating  his 
works  into  Latin,  which  the  latter  had  adopted. 

Scarcely  was  there  time  for  this  translation  and  pre- 
face to  become  known  in  Rome,  when  it  excited  among 
those  people  the  most  vehement  feelings  of  surprise  and 
displeasure.  Two  noble  Romans,  Pammachius  and  Oce- 
anus,  who  had  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  Jerome 
ever  since  the  period  of  his  residence  in  Rome,  were 
extremely  concerned  for  the  reputation  of  his  orthodoxy, 
and  hastened  to  inform  him  of  the  scandal  given  to  the 
Christians  at  Rome  by  Rufinus.  They  called  upon  him, 
by  a  faithful  translation  of  that  work,  to  exhibit  Origen 
in  his  true  colours,  and  to  clear  himself  from  the  sus 
picion   of  entertaining  the   same   doctrines   of  Origen, 


256  RUFINUS. 

which  Rufinus  had  cast  upon  him.  Jerome  wrote  back 
in  a  tone  of  high-wrought  excitement  to  his  two  friends 
and  to  Rufinus.  Even  at  present,  however,  he  continued 
to  express  himself  with  the  same  moderation  concerning 
Origen ;  he  spoke  highly  of  his  great  gifts,  of  his  Chris- 
tian ardour,  of  his  merits  as  an  expounder  of  the  Scrip- 
tures : — and  he  pronounced  those  to  be  the  worst  enemies 
of  the  great  man,  who  had  taken  pains  to  publish  those 
writings  of  his  which  ought  to  have  remained  concealed. 
"  Let  us  not,"  said  he,  "  imitate  the  faults  of  the  man 
whose  excellencies  lie  beyond  our  reach."  But  the  rela- 
tions betwixt  Jerome  and  Rufinus  grew  continually  more 
hostile,  and  both  of  them  in  controversial,  or  more 
properly  speaking,  abusive  tracts,  full  of  passionate  lan- 
guage, forgot  their  dignity  both  as  theologians  and  as 
Christians ;  as  Augustine  had  the  frankness  to  tell 
Jerome,  when  he  called  upon  him  for  their  own  sakes, 
and  out  of  respect  to  the  weak,  for  whom  Christ  died, 
to  put  an  end  to  these  revilings.  The  influence  of 
Jerome's  powerful  patrons,  in  Rome,  however,  could  not 
hinder  Rufinus  from  being  justified  by  a  letter  addressed 
to  him  from  the  Roman  Bishop  Siricius.  The  more 
zealously,  therefore,  did  they  exert  themselves  to  excite 
a  more  unfriendly  feeling  towards  Rufinus  in  the  mind 
of  Anastasius,  who,  in  the  year  399,  succeeded  Siricius. 
But  it  was  chiefly  the  influence  of  Marcella,  a  widow, 
and  ancient  friend  of  Jerome,  which  contributed  to  in- 
spire in  the  mind  of  this  Roman  bishop  (who,  according 
to  his  own  confession,  had  until  now  heard  but  little 
or  nothing  about  Origen)  great  anxiety  and  solicitude 
with  regard  to  the  spread  of  the  Origenistic  heresies. 
Rufinus  was  summoned  before  his  tribunal.  He  excused 
himself,  it  is  true,  on  account  of  his  great  distance, 
and  for  other  reasons,  from  personally  making  his  ap- 
pearance at  Rome.  But  he  sent  in  a  letter  of  defence 
and  justification,  containing  a  full  and  explicit  confession 
of  his  faith,  appealing  to  the  fact  that  on  the  question 


RUFINUS.  257 

respecting  the  origin  of  the  soul  nothing  had  as  yet  been 
determined  by  the  Church ;  and  declaring  that  he,  as  a 
translator,  was  in  nowise  responsible  for  the  assertions 
of  the  writer  translated  by  him.  Anastasius,  in  the 
public  declarations  which  he  thereupon  made,  expressed 
himself  with  great  violence  against  Origen,  and  also 
unfavourably  towards  Rufinus. 

In  the  year  410,  the  ravages  of  the  Visigoths  in  Italy, 
under  Alaric,  compelled  him  to  take  refuge  in  Sicily, 
where  he  appears  to  have  died  the  same  or  the  succeed- 
ing year.  He  is  now  chiefly  known  as  an  ecclesiastical 
historian,  and  the  continuator  of  Eusebius.  Having 
made  a  Latin  version  of  the  work  of  Eusebius,  he  con- 
tinued the  history  of  the  Church  to  the  death  of  the 
elder  Theodosius  (392).  Both  his  translation  and  his 
original  work  are  still  extant.  The  former,  through 
which  Eusebius  was  for  many  ages  known  to  the  West, 
like  his  other  translations,  is  only  remarkable  for  the 
liberties  which  he  has  taken  with  the  original :  and  the 
latter  possesses  so  very  little  historical  value,  that  it  has 
been  completely  superseded  by  the  labours  of  succeeding 
writers.  But,  defective  as  it  w^as,  the  "  Ecclesiastical 
History"  of  Rufinus  no  sooner  appeared,  than  it  was 
translated  into  Greek. 

His  original  works,  besides  the  pieces  in  controversy 
with  Jerome,  already  noticed,  consist  of,  De  Benedicti- 
onibus  Judse  et  Reliquorum  XI.  Patriarch  arum,  Lib.  II.  ; 
Commentariorum  in  Hoseam  Lib.  III.  cum  Prefatione 
in  xii.  Minores  Prophetas ;  Comment  in  Prophetas  Joel 
et  Amos ;  Expositio  Symboli,  ad  Laurentium  Episco- 
pum ;  Historise  Ecclesiasticse  Lib.  II.,  added  by  him  to 
his  Latin  version  of  Eusebius,  and  continuing  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  to  the  death  of  the  emperor  Theodo- 
sius. He  is  by  some  thought  to  have  been  the  author, 
but  by  others  only  the  translator  from  some  lost  work 
of  the  Vitae  Patrum,  which  constitute  the  second  and 
third  Books  of  Rosweide's  collection.  His  Explanation 
z  3 


258  SA,  OR  SAA. 

of  the  Apostle's  Creed  is  of  great  importance,  inasmuch 
as  it  contains  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  All  his  works,  excepting  his 
Apologies  for  Origen,  and  declaration  to  Anastasius, 
were  published  at  Paris  by  Sonnius,  in  1580,  fol.  He 
translated  from  the  Greek  into  Latin,  The  Works  of 
Josephus;  Eusebius's  Ecclesiastical  History,  reduced 
into  nine  books ;  The  Ten  Books  of  the  Recognitions 
of  St.  Clement  of  Rome;  The  Epistle  to  James,  the 
Brother  of  our  Lord ;  and,  The  Book  of  Anatorius  con- 
cerning Easter. — Cave.    Dupin.    Neander.    Doivling. 


SA,    OR    SAA,    EMANUEL. 

Emanuel  Sa,  or  Saa,  was  born  at  Villa  de  Conde,  in 
Portugal,  in  the  year  1530,  and  at  fifteen  years  of  age 
became  a  Jesuit.  After  having  filled  the  philosophical 
chair  at  Gandia,  in  Valentia,  he  was  called  to  Rome  in 
1557,  and  appointed  interpreter  of  the  sacred  writings 
and  professor  of  divinity  in  the  seminary  belonging  to 
his  order.  Here  he  commenced  preacher,  and  for  many 
years  attracted  crowded  audiences  by  his  pulpit  oratory. 
By  Pope  Pius  V.  he  was  employed  in  superintending, 
conjointly  with  Peter  Parra,  another  Jesuit,  a  new  edi- 
tion of  the  Bible.  Afterwards  he  was  sent  to  regulate 
the  seminaries  at  Loretto,  Milan,  Genoa,  and  other 
principal  cities  in  Italy,  where  he  was  as  much  admired 
and  followed  as  a  preacher  as  he  had  been  at  Rome. 
By  his  exertions,  however,  his  health  became  so  much 
injured,  that  he  was  obliged  to  decline  all  public  engage- 
ments, and  to  retire  to  Arona  in  the  diocese  of  Milan, 
where  he  died  in  1596,  in  the  66th  year  of  his  age. 

He  was  the  author  of.  Scholia  in  Quatuor  Evangelia, 
1596,  4to,  consisting  of  short,  but  learned  and  ingenious 
notes  on  the  Four  Gospels,  partly  original  and  partly 
selected  from  the  labours  of  preceding   commentators; 


SABELLIUS.  259 

Notationes  in  totam  Sacram  Scripturam,  quibus  turn 
omnes  fere  Loci  difficiles,  turn  varise  ex  Hebraeo,  Chal- 
daeo,  et  Graeco,  Lectiones  explicantur;  these  were  pub- 
lished after  his  death,  in  1598  ;  and,  Aphorismi  Confes- 
sariorum  ex  Doctorum  Sententiis  collecti,  1595,  12mo. — 
Dupin.    Moreri. 


SABELLIUS. 

Sabellius,  an  heresiarch  of  the  third  century,  was  born 
at  Ptolemais,  and  was  a  disciple  of  Noetus.  He  resided 
either  as  bishop  or  as  a  presbyter  in  the  Pentapolis  of 
Cyrenaica.  It  was  in  the  Pentapolis,  about  the  year 
255,  that  he  began  to  excite  troubles  in  the  Church 
by  propounding  his  heresy.  In  the  formation  of  his 
system,  he  employed  the  apocryphal  (but  which  was 
considered  by  him  the  genuine)  gospel  of  the  Egyptians, 
in  which  Christ  reveals  to  His  disciples,  that  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  all  one  and  the  same. 
Sabellius,  like  his  predecessors,  proceeded  with  the  idea, 
that  the  distinction  of  persons  or  hypostases  in  God, 
would  lead  to  the  belief  of  a  plurality  of  Gods,  and  his 
disciples  were  wont  to  inquire  of  those  whom  they  wished 
to  win  over  to  their  party,  "  Have  we  one  God,  or  have 
we  three  Gods?"  His  doctrine  was  the  following.  In 
the  beginning,  God  was  the  hidden,  formless,  unrevealed 
Monas,  who  afterwards  manifested  Himself  in  a  Trinity. 
For  when  God,  revealing  Himself  externally  by  the  work 
of  creation,  came  from  His  hidden  primeval  state,  and 
entered  into  a  relation  with  the  world  as  its  ruler  and 
preserver,  He  was  named  the  Father:  when  to  effect 
the  redemption  of  mankind,  a  second  emanation  from 
the  Deity  (immediately  from  the  Father)  went  forth,  it 
united  itself  in  power  and  might  (a/cpyeta  fjLovrj,  o^^^  Se 
ova-ias  vTToa-Taa-ei)  to  the  man  Christ,  Who  had  been 
formed  by  the  Father  in  the  womb  of  the  virgin :  in  this 


urn  SACHEVERELL. 

union,  and  on  account  of  the  same,  He  was  called  the 
Son.  Lastly,  a  third  power  proceeded  from  God,  work- 
ing in  the  body  of  the  faithful,  the  Church,  enlightening, 
regenerating  them,  and  perfecting  their  redemption : 
this  power  was  named  the  Holy  Ghost.  Sabellius,  it 
will  therefore  be  seen,  admitted  a  distinction  between 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  not  a  dis- 
tinction of  persons,  nor  extending  to  eternity :  His  is  no 
other  than  a  distinction  of  three  names,  of  three  appel- 
lations of  one  and  the  same  God,  in  the  threefold  rela- 
tion of  Creator,  Redeemer,  and  Sanctifier.  The  Re- 
deemer is,  indeed,  different  from  the  Creator,  another 
appearance  {TrpoaoiTrov) ;  not  another  hypostasis  or  person, 
only  another  power,  another  representation,  another  ema- 
nation from  the  Godhead,  which,  however,  does  not 
continue  in  its  individuality,  but,  like  the  emanation 
named  the  Holy  Ghost,  returns,  after  the  completion  of 
its  office,  to  the  Father,  from  Whom  it  had  proceeded,  as 
a  ray  shot  forth  from  the  sun  may  be  attracted  back,  and 
again  received  into  it.  It  is  only  an  expansion,  occur- 
ring in  time,  and  transitory,  of  the  Father  in  the  Son 
and  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Sabellius  compared  his  Trinity 
to  the  union  of  the  body,  of  the  soul  and  of  the  mind  in 
one  person;  to  the  sun,  in  which,  in  one  substance, 
there  are  three  distinct  properties — the  power  of  heat- 
ing, the  power  of  enlightening,  and  its  circumference ; 
and,  lastly,  to  the  distinction  of  graces  which  flow  from 
one  spirit.  This  Trinity  is,  therefore,  not  immanent, 
as  is  the  Trinity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  emanent, 
consisting  only  of  external  relations  of  God  with  the 
world  and  with  the  Church.  Sabellius  fell  into  error 
by  confounding  the  interior  with  the  exterior, — the  eter- 
nal wuth  the  temporal  manifestation  of  God. — Cave. 
Dollinger. 

SACHEVERELL,    HENEY. 

Henet  Sacheverell.      The  history   of  Sacheverell  be- 


SACHEVERELL.  261 

longs  rather  to  civil  than  to  ecclesiastical  history,  and 
our  notice  of  him,  therefore,  need  be  but  short.  He  was 
born  about  1673,  was  the  son  of  a  poor  clergyman  at 
Marlborough,  and  was  educated  by  the  kindness  of  his 
godfather,  and  placed  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  of^ 
which  he  became  fellow.  His  regularity  and  polite 
manners  rendered  him  a  favourite  tutor  in  the  college, 
and  his  Latin  poems,  some  of  which  appeared  in  the 
Musse  Anglicanas,  proved  him  an  elegant  scholar  and  a 
man  of  respectable  talents.  He  was,  at  Oxford,  chamber- 
fellow  with  Addison,  w^ho  inscribed  his  Farewell  to  the 
Muses  to  him,  as  his  friend  and  colleague.  He  took 
his  degree  of  M.A.  in  1696,  and  that  of  D.D.  in  1708. 
His  first  preferment  was  the  living  of  Cannock,  in 
Staffordshire,  to  which,  in  1705,  was  added  the  preach* 
ership  of  St.  Saviour's,  Southwark. 

In  a  sermon,  preached  at  St.  Paul's  on  the  fifth  of 
November,  17  09,  he  inveighed  against  the  ministry,  the 
Dissenters,  and  the  Low  Church ;  against  toleration,  the 
revolution,  and  the  union;  while  he  asserted  the  doc- 
trines of  non-resistance,  and  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
This  sermon,  entitled,  "  The  Perils  of  false  Brethren," 
being  printed,  although  a  worthless  composition,  and 
allowed,  even  by  the  Tories,  to  be  a  rhapsody  of  raving 
and  nonsense,  gave  offence  to  the  ministry,  who  com- 
plained of  it  to  the  Commons  ;  in  consequence  of  which, 
the  prisoner  was  taken  into  custody  and  impeached. 
After  a  solemn  trial,  which  lasted  three  weeks,  Atter- 
bury,  Smallridge,  and  Friend,  assisting  in  the  defence, 
he  was  declared  guilty,  and  suspended  for  three  years. 
His  sermon  was  burnt  before  the  Lord  Mayor,  in  whose 
presence  it  had  been  delivered  ;  and  another  book  of  the 
author's,  with  a  decree  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  on 
the  indefeasible  right  of  kings,  were  consigned  to  the 
same  bonfire. 

This  sentence  of  the  Peers,  designed  as  a  punishment, 
was  converted  by  the  heat  of  party  into  a  triumph.     On 


^Cr2  SADEEL. 

proceding  to  North  Wales,  the  preacher  was  everywhere, 
but  particularly  in  Oxford,  greeted  with  the  honours  due 
to  a  conqueror.  In  some  places  troops  of  horse  lined 
the  road,  and  the  corporations  went  forth  to  meet  him  ; 
.in  others,  the  hedges  were  festooned  with  garlands,  the 
steeples  decorated  with  standards,  flags,  and  colours, 
and  every  man  was  marked  out  for  vengeance  and  aggres- 
sion, who  refused  to  raise  the  cry  of  "  The  Church  and 
Sacheverell."  At  the  expiration  of  his  suspension,  in 
3  713,  these  popular  congratulations  were  renewed;  he 
was  requested  to  preach  before  the  Commons,  and  the 
Queen  presented  him  to  the  living  of  St.  Andrew's, 
Holborn. 

On  his  return  to  St.  Saviour's,  he  preached  in  the 
Christian  Temple,  on  the  duty  of  praying  for  our  ene- 
mies, and  published  his  discourse.  He  now  again  ap- 
peared as  an  author.  He  was  a  political  tool,  and  not  a 
divine,  and  was  one  of  those  who  set  the  example  which 
was  followed  for  nearly  a  century  afterwards  of  correcting 
the  Church  of  England,  which  belongs  of  right  to  all 
parties  in  the  state,  with  one  particular  faction.  Hence 
the  Church,  ill  supported  by  that  faction,  has  been  an 
object  of  hatred  to  all  other  factions,  and  especially  to 
the  Whigs,  whose  hatred  to  the  Church  of  England  is 
an  hereditary  prejudice.  Sacheverell  died  on  the  5th  of 
June,  1716. — HowelVs  State  Trials.     Grant. 


SADEEL,    ANTHONY. 

Anthony  Sadeel  was  born  at  the  Castle  of  Chabot,  in 
the  Maconais,  in  1534.  He  was  educated  at  Paris  in 
Calvinistic  principles.  He  studied  also  at  Toulouse 
and  Geneva,  and  became  acquainted  with  Calvin  and 
Beza.  At  twenty  years  of  age  he  was  appointed  as 
preacher  at  Paris.  Here,  he  and  his  congregation  were 
subjected  to  various  persecutions  and  misrepresentations, 


SADEEL.  263 

and  he  first  appeared  as  an  author  in  defence  of  these 
proceedings.  In  1558,  he  was  cast  into  prison,  from 
which  he  was  released  by  the  intervention  of  the  King 
of  Navarre. 

He  now  removed  to  Orleans;  and  when  the  danger 
seemed  to  be  over  he  returned,  and  drew  up  a  Confession 
of  Faith,  first  proposed  in  a  synod  of  the  reformed  clergy 
of  France,  held  at  Paris,  which  was  presented  to  the 
king  by  the  famous  admiral  Coligni.  The  king  dying 
soon  after,  and  the  queen  and  the  family  of  Guise  renew- 
ing with  more  fury  than  ever  the  persecution  of  the 
reformed,  Sadeel  was  obliged  again  to  leave  the  metro- 
polis. In  156-2,  he  presided  at  a  national  synod  at 
Orleans;  and  he  then  went  to  Berne,  and  finally  to 
Geneva,  where  he  was  associated  with  the  ministers  of 
that  place.  Henry  IV.  gave  him  an  invitation  to  his 
court,  which  he  accepted,  and  was  chaplain  at  the  battle 
of  Courtray,  and  had  the  charge  of  a  mission  to  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany ;  but  unable  at  length  to 
bear  the  fatigues  of  a  military  life,  which  he  was  obliged 
to  pass  with  his  royal  benefactor,  he  retired  to  Geneva  in 
1589,  and  resumed  his  functions  as  a  preacher,  and 
undertook  the  professorship  of  Hebrew.  He  died  in 
1591.  Hie  works  are  entitled,  Antonii  Sadeelis  Clian- 
dsei  Nobilissimi  Viri  Opera  Theologica,  Geneva,  1592, 
fol.;  reprinted  1593,  4to ;  and  1599  and  1615,  fol. 
They  consist,  among  others,  of  the  following  treatises, 
De  Verbo  Dei  Scripto ;  De  Vera  Peccatorum  Remissione  ; 
De  Unico  Christi  Sacerdotio  et  Sacrificio ;  De  Spirituali 
et  Sacramental!  Manducatione  Corporis  Christi ;  Posna- 
niensium  Assertionum  Refutatio  ;  Refutatio  Libelli  Clau- 
dii  de  Sainctes,  intitulati,  Examen  Doctrinae  de  Coena 
Domini ;  Histoire  des  Persecutions  et  des  Martyrs  de 
I'Eglise  de  Paris,  depuis  I'an  1557,  jusqu'au  Regno  de 
Charles  IX.;  this  was  printed  at  Lyons,  in  1563,  8vo, 
under  the  name  of  Zamariel ;  and,  Metamorphose  de 
Ronsard  en  Pretre,  in  verse. — Melchior  Adam.    Chalmers. 


264  SAGE. 


SAGE,    JOHN. 


In  the  life  of  this  amiable  and  learned  prelate,  we  shall 
be  enabled  from  his  Life  published  by  Bishop  Gillan, 
but  more  particularly  from  that  prefixed  to  his  works, 
published  by  the  Spottiswoode  Society,  to  present  our 
readers  with  a  view  of  the  Church  in  Scotland  in  its 
transition  state  as  it  passed  from  an  establishment 
into  its  present  freedom  from  state  control.  Sage  w^as 
born  at  Creich,  in  Fifeshire,  in  1652,  being  the  son  of 
Captain  Sage,  and  was  educated  at  St.  Andrew's.  He 
became  M.A.  in  1669,  and  became  parish  schoolmaster, 
at  Ballingray,  in  Fife,  and  afterwards  at  Tippermuir,  in 
Perthshire.  He  was  afterwards  tutor  to  the  children  of 
Mr.  Drummond  of  Cultmalundie,  and  accompanied  his 
sons  to  the  University  of  St.  Andrews's.  He  was  not 
ordained  till  1686,  when  he  officiated  as  a  presbyter 
in  the  city  of  Glasgow  till  the  Revolution.  What  cure 
he  held  is  not  known,  but  he  was  diocesan  or  Synod- 
clerk.  He  had  been  noticed  kindly  by  Dr.  Rose,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  and  was  ordained  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  the  uncle  of  Dr.  Rose.  He 
discharged  his  duties  so  well,  that  while  his  conduct 
gained  for  him  the  esteem  of  members  of  the  Church, 
it  procured  for  him  also  the  good-will  and  respect  of 
those  without  her  pale.  There  was  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  this  in  the  treatment  which  he  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  Hill  men,  v*^ho  persecuted  and  insulted 
the  clergy  just  before  the  Revolution  broke  out. 

These  disorderly  fanatics,  who  were  generally  of  the 
lower  orders,  were  unswerving  adherents  to  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  violently  opposed  to  the  ''usurp- 
ing'' goverment  of  the  Stuarts,  and  animated  by  a  deadl}' 
hatred  to  every  thing  in  any  way  connected  with  bishops 
and  their  authority.  Such  being  the  main  features  in 
the  character  of  these  zealots,  they  only  wanted  a  good 


SAGE.  265 

opportunity  for  shewing  their  antipathy  to  the  Church, 
and  inflicting  injury  and  insult  upon  her  ministers.  In 
the  palmy  days  of  the  Covenant,  after  the  famous  1638 — 
those  days  when  Henderson,  and  Loudon,  and  Johnston 
of  Warriston,  were  in  the  zenith  of  their  popularity  and 
powers — they  enjoyed  such  an  opportunity,  and  they  did 
not  fail  to  improve  it.  The  day  of  their  triumph  happily 
soon  came  to  an  end — Scotland  was  subdued  by  Crom- 
well, and  even  Scottish  Presbyterianism  had  to  bow 
down  beneath  the  galling  yoke  of  English  Dissent. 
"  Greek  had  met  Greek "  in  this  case,  and  the  result 
was,  that  Cromwell  ruled  Scotland  with  a  rod  of  iron, 
and  the  Covenanters,  in  lamenting  their  own  misfor- 
tunes, were  drawn  off  from  persecuting  the  unfortunate 
Prelatists.  At  the  Restoration,  the  government  of 
Charles  II.,  for  its  own  security,  kept  a  watchful  eye 
upon  the  movements  of  the  Covenanters,  and  restrained 
their  irregularities  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law.  At 
the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  the  ill-fated  James, 
the  lawlessness  of  these  disaffected  persons  was  effec- 
tually kept  in  check  ;  but  upon  the  news  of  the  landing 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  England,  the  king  was 
obliged  to  order  all  his  standing  forces  in  Scotland  to 
repair  to  the  royal  standard  in  the  South.  This,  while  it 
weakened  the  Scottish  government,  left  the  country  in 
a  defenceless  state,  and  furnished  a  splendid  occasion 
to  the  discontented  and  fanatical  for  creating  distur- 
bances, and  punishing  those  whom  they  chose  to  con- 
sider Malignants.  The  Hillmen,  or  Cameronians,  seized 
the  precious  moment,  and  began  a  shocking  system  of 
persecution  and  cruelty  against  the  incumbents  of  the 
different  parishes,  by  which  about  two  hundred  ministers 
and  their  families  were  driven  from  their  houses  in  the 
winter  season,  and  cast  upon  the  precarious  benevolence 
of  their  neighbours.  Their  method  of  procedure  has 
been  thus  narrated  by  a  contemporary,  and  a  sufferer  from 
their  violence  : — "  They  assembled    themselves   in    the 

VOL.  VIII,  A   A 


266  SAGE. 

night  time,  and  sometimes  in  the  day,  in  small  bodies, 
armed ;  and  in  a  hostile  way  went  through  the  countries, 
forcing  their  entry  into  private  men's  houses,  against 
whom  they  had  any  private  quarrel,  but  most  ordinarily 
into  ministers'  houses,  where  they  with  tongue  and  hands 
committed  all  outrages  imaginable  against  the  ministers, 
their  wives  and  children ;  where,  having  ate  and  drank 
plentifully,  at  parting  they  used  to  carry  the  minister 
out  of  his  house  to  the  churchyard,  or  some  public  place 
of  the  town  or  village,  and  there  expose  him  to  the  peo- 
ple as  a  condemned  malefactor — gave  him  strict  charge 
never  to  preach  any  more  in  that  place,  but  to  remove 
himself  and  his  family  out  of  it  immediately ;  and  for 
the  conclusion  of  all  this  tragedy,  they  caused  his  gown 
to  be  torn  over  his  head  in  a  hundred  pieces — of  some 
they  spared  not  their  very  clothes  to  their  skirts.  When 
they  had  done  with  the  minister,  they  called  for  the  keys 
of  the  church,  locked  the  door  and  carried  the  keys  with 
them  ;  and  last  of  all  they  threw  the  minister's  furniture 
out  of  his  house  in  many  places,  as  the  last  act  of  this 
barbarous  scene.  This  was  the  most  general  method 
when  the  minister  was  found  at  home,  but  in  case  he 
was  absent,  they  entered  his  house,  made  intimation 
of  their  will  and  pleasure  to  his  wife  and  servants,  bid- 
ding them  tell  him  to  remove  from  that  place.  If 
they  found  not  a  ready  obedience,  they  would  return 
and  make  him  an  example  to  others." 

Such  was  the  real  character  of  the  system  of  "  rabbling," 
which  the  clergy  had  to  endure  about  the  period  of  the 
Revolution.  It  seems,  however,  that  the  disorderly  mob 
treated  Mr.  Sage  with  more  mercy  than  they  displayed 
generally  to  the  rest  of  his  brethren  in  the  Diocese  of 
Glasgow ;  for,  as  his  venerable  biographer  quaintly 
informs  us — *'  the  saints  contented  themselves  by  giving 
him  a  ivarning  to  depart  from  Glasgow,  and  threatenings 
if  he  should  ever  adventure  to  return  thither  again." 
This  forbearance  on  their   part   was   singular  enough, 


SAGE.  267 

when'  it  is  considered  that  Mr.  Sage  was  a  strenuous 
opponent  and  an  avowed  disapprover  of  their  principles 
and  conduct.  As  a  minister  of  the  everlasting  Gospel, 
which  contains  rules  of  faith  and  practice,  he  felt  himself 
imperatively  called  upon  both  by  argument  and  pathetic 
exhortation,  to  enforce  the  duty  of  loyalty  and  obedience 
to  the  "  powers  that  be,"  which  he  saw  was  much  depre- 
ciated by  his  countrymen.  .  Being  firmly  persuaded  in 
his  own  mind  of  the  truth  of  the  Apostolical  Succession, 
and  convinced  of  the  invalidity  of  Orders  which  do  not 
emanate  from  duly  consecrated  bishops,  he  was  careful 
in  his  sermons  to  set  forth  the  necessity  of  communi- 
cating with  the  Episcopal  Church.  Having  marked  in 
the  sacred  Scriptures  that  striking  feature  of  external 
unity  by  which  the  Church  of  the  blessed  Kedeemer  is 
traced  by  the  pens  of  the  inspired  writers,  and  the 
warnings  which  are  thickly  strewn  upon  the  pages  of  the 
New  Testament  against  "  divisions,"  and  instability  in 
matters  of  religion,  he  was  wont  loudly  to  censure  the 
prevalent  disposition  for  "  change,"  and  to  insist  that 
separation  from  the  Church  of  Scotland — receiving  the 
Sacraments  from  other  hands  than  those  of  her  bishops, 
and  inferior  clergy — and  frequenting  places  of  worship, 
offered  to  God  by  unauthorised  men,  were  acts,  which 
constituted  the  sin  of  schism,  and  involved  those  who 
practised  them  in  the  serious  consequences  which  the 
Word  of  God  denounces  against  it.  In  these  his  dis- 
courses, he  had.  respect  to  two  opposite  parties  by  which 
the  Church  was  at  that  time  attacked — 1st,  To  the 
disciples  of  the  Covenant,  who,  besides  setting  at  nought 
the  command  to  "  give  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's,"  i.e.  to  obey  the  existing  laws,  and  reverence 
the  persons  of  those  in  whom  authority  was  invested, 
carried  their  notions  of  "  Gosjwl  liberty'  so  far  as  to  reject 
every  sort  of  restraint  upon  their  religious  opinions,  and 
to  regard  themselves  as  the  only  true  interpreters  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Bible,  and  the  late  discoverers  of  the 


ues  SAGE. 

Scriptural  model  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  What  the 
pious  and  amiable  Leighton  used  to  say  to  them  was 
strictly  characteristic — "  That  they  made  themselves  the 
standards  of  opinions  and  practices,  and  never  looked 
either  abroad  into  the  world,  to  see  what  others  were 
doing,  nor  yet  back  into  the  former  times,  to  observe 
what  might  be  warranted  or  recommended  by  antiquity." 
2nd,^ — To  the  members  of  the  Romish  schism,  who, 
though  loyal  so  far  as  civil  politics  were  concerned,  were 
the  open  enemies  of  the  Church  in  Scotland.  Believing 
that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  is,  jure  divino,  the  Supreme 
Prelate  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  that  all  spiritual 
authority  must  flow  through  him,  they  regarded  the 
Scotican  Church,  which  rejected  the  Pope's  authority 
in  Scotland,  as  schismatical,  and  zealously  strove  to 
effect  her  overthrow  both  by  secret  stratagem  and  open 
opposition. 

To  both  these  classes  of  men,  the  discourses  of  Mr.' 
Sage  were  directed,  and  he  wielded  against  them  "the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God," — the 
Word  of  God,  not  as  interpreted  by  Scottish  Covenan- 
ting Presbyterians,  nor  by  those  who  own  the  sway  of 
an  Italian  Bishop,  but  by  the  Catholic  Church,  making 
herself  heard  in  general  Councils,  the  decrees  of  which 
were  afterwards  universally  received  by  Christians  both 
in  the  East  and  West — both  in  the  Latin  and  Greek 
Churches.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  discourses  of  such 
a  nature  were  by  no  means  palatable,  and  that  a  clergy- 
man, who  in  the  "  west"  of  Scotland  was  so  bold  as  to 
preach  them,  stood  a  very  fair  chance  of  raising  up  a 
host  of  enemies  against  himself.  There  is,  however,  an 
intimate  charm  in  consistency  and  earnestness,  which 
cannot  fail  to  make  an  impression  on  all  who  are  not 
totally  blinded  by  prejudice,  and  cause  them,  even  though 
they  do  not  coincide  with  a  man's  opinions,  to  have  re- 
spect to  his  character.  This  was  the  case  with  Mr.  Sage, 
at  this  memorable  crisis  of  our  national  ecclesiastical 


SAGE.  269 

history.  An  uncompromising  Catholic  himself,  he  en- 
deavoured to  persuade  his  schismatical  countrymen  to 
come  within  the  pale  of  the  Church,  because  he  firmly 
believed  her  to  be  the  only  lawful  dispenser  of  the  Word 
and  Sacraments.  But  his  exhortations  breathed  the 
spirit  of  Christian  charity,  and  evinced  his  affectionate 
earnestness  for  the  souls  of  the  people.  Thus  the  malice 
of  the  enemies  of  the  Church  was  disarmed,  and  they 
were  compelled  to  esteem  the  bold  asserter  of  the  Apos- 
tolical claims.  "  To  this,"  says  Gillan,  "  it  may  in 
gome  measure  be  imputed  that  he  escaped  those  out- 
rageous insults  and  cruelties  which  the  rabblers  (after 
the  example  of  their  schismatical  forefathers — the  Cir- 
cumcilliones  in  Africk)  acted  against  others  of  his  bre- 
thren, especially  those  who  had  trimmed." 

Before  the  Revolution  had  occurred  it  was  intended 
to  place  him  in  the  divinity  chair  at  St.  Andrew's,  but 
in  the  turmoil  of  the  times  the  appointment  was  not 
effected.  It  has  been  already  stated,  that  by  the  with- 
drawal of  troops  from  Scotland  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution,  the  Cameronians,  or  Hillmen,  were  enabled 
to  exercise  unheard  of  cruelties  and  insults  towards  the 
members  of  the  then  Scottish  Establishment,  and  that 
by  their  illegal  proceedings  and  fanatical  violence,  about 
two  hundred  incumbents  were  ejected  from  their  parishes. 
We  must  now  inquire  in  what  light  the  new  government 
viewed  the  conduct  of  those  zealots,  and  whether  they 
took  any  steps  for  restoring  the  unfortunate  clergy  to 
their  benefices,  of  which  they  had  been  unjustly  deprived. 
The  sufferings  of  the  clergy  were  so  severe,  that  various 
accounts  were  sent  up  to  London  concerning  them,  in 
order  to  induce  the  authorities  there  to  interfere  in  their 
behalf.  The  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  and  many  of  the 
Scottish  Episcopal  Nobility,  who  were  then  in  London, 
applied  to  their  friends  in  high  stations  about  the  court, 
in  the  hope  of  persuading  them  to  use  their  influence 
for  the  afflited  clergy.  But  these  representations  ^nd 
A  a3 


S70  SAGE. 

private  appeals  were  all  in  vain.  At  last  the  clergy 
resolved  to  send  up  a  public  petition,  properly  attested, 
to  the  prince,  and  to  depute  one  of  their  number  to  go 
to  court  and  present  it.  Dr.  Scott,  Dean  of  Glasgow, 
was  the  person  selected  for  this  purpose.  Having 
arrived  in  London,  he  laid  the  petition  before  the  Prince, 
who  saw  at  once  the  reasonableness  of  its  prayer,  and 
issued  a  proclamation  on  the  6th  FebiTiary  1689,  order- 
ing the  peace  to  be  kept,  and  forbidding  any  one  from 
being  persecuted  or  disturbed  in  the  exercise  of  his 
religion,  whatever  that  might  be.  But  this  proclama- 
tion was  disregarded  by  the  rabblers,  and  a  serious  riot 
occurred  in  the  Cathedral  of  Glasgow  on  the  very  next 
Sunday  after  it  was  issued.  Another  representation 
therefore  was  made  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  through 
Dr.  Fall,  the  Principal  of  Glasgow  College,  who  was 
then  in  London ;  but  the  only  satisfaction,  which  he 
obtained,  was  an  assurance  that  the  case  of  the  perse- 
cuted clergy  should  be  referred  to  the  Meeting  of  Estates, 
which  was  to  be  held  on  the  14th  of  March. 

The  helpless  ministers  and  their  friends  looked  for- 
ward with  much  anxiety  to  the  approaching  day.  The 
Estates  were  convened,  and  the  first  business  of  impor- 
tance which  they  transacted  was  hearing  a  letter  from 
William  read,  recommending  them  "  to  enter  with  all 
speed  upon  such  consultations  with  regard  to  the  public 
good,  and  to  the  general  interests  and  inclinations  of 
the  people  as  may  settle  them  on  sure  and  lasting 
foundations  of  peace."  The  macer  entered  the  conven- 
tion, bearing  a  letter  from  the  king,  dated  on  board  the 
St.  Michael,  1st  March,  1689,  enjoining  them  to  loyalty, 
and  threatening  them  with  punishment  if  they  were 
disobedient.  This  epistle,  however,  was  *'  thrown  aside 
with  cool  indifference,"  and  they  passed  a  vote  decla- 
ratory of  their  determination  "  to  continue  undissolved 
until  they  settle  and  secure  the  Protestant  religion,  the 
government,   Imvs,   and   liberties  of  the  kingdom.'"      This 


SAGE.  271 

declaration  raised  the  hopes  of  the  ejected  ministers, 
who  were  not  conscious  of  having  any  tendency  to 
Popery,  and  who  had  rights  and  liberties  sanctioned  by 
law,  which  required  the  protection  of  their  legislators. 
But,  alas !  the  bright  prospects  which  had  cheered  them, 
became  speedily  overcast  with  a  gloomy  and  portentous 
cloud.  It  soon  became  evident  that  theirs  were  not  the 
"  rights  and  liberties  "  which  were  to  be  protected.  For 
numbers  of  the  West  Country  mob  came  flocking  into 
Edinburgh,  and  took  their  station  about  the  place  of 
meeting,  where  they  insulted  the  Episcopal  nobility  and 
gentry,  and  especially  the  bishops,  who  claimed  a  seat 
in  the  Convention.  The  lives  of  the  members  were 
endangered  by  their  tumultuous  and  violent  proceedings, 
and  accordingly  the  most  obnoxious  were  obliged  to  retire 
from  the  meeting,  and  many  of  them,  Lord  Dundee 
among  others,  to  leave  the  city,  in  order  to  escape  the 
plots  formed  for  their  destruction.  Having  by  this 
method  of  intimidation  cleared  the  house  of  all  "  sus- 
pected "  persons,  and  having  obtained  a  body  of  stand- 
ing troops  under  General  Mackay,  the  Convention  passed 
a  vote  of  thanks  to  those  very  persons  who  had  rabbled 
the  ministers,  and  complimented  them  as  being  "  well 
affected  to  the  Protestant  interest."  This  was  extremely 
disheartening  to  the  ejected  clergy,  and  greatly  dimin- 
ished their  chance  of  redress.  But  the  death-blow  to 
their  hopes  was  yet  to  be  fnflicted.  On  the  4th  of  April 
the  Meeting  of  Estates  passed  a  vote  that  King  James 
had  "  forfaulted  "  his  right  to  the  Crown,  and  declared 
the  throne  vacant.  On  the  11  th  they  brought  in  their 
Claim  of  Right,  in  which  the  "  Article"  controverted  by 
Bishop  Sage  in  the  Fundamental  Charter  occurs,  and 
proclaimed  William  and  Mary  King  and  Queen  of  Scot- 
land. As  yet  nothing  was  directly  done  either  for  or 
against  the  clergy,  and  the  Hillmen  were  amusing  them- 
selves, as  usual,  in  rabbling  them  from  their  livings ; 
but  the  minister  of  Ratho,  near  Edinburgh,  having  had 


?272  SAGE. 

a  visit  from  these  rioters,  his  case,  which  was  specially 
referred,  brought  the  subject  of  their  sufferings  before 
the  Convention.  And  now  came  the  fatal  thrust.  On 
the  13th  it  was  resolved,  that  King  James  should  be 
disowned — that  all  ministers  of  the  Gospel  should  pray 
by  name  for  William  and  Mary,  as  the  de  jure  sove- 
reigns of  the  realm — and  that  the  proclamation  to  this 
effect  should  be  read  by  all  ministers  in  Edinburgh  after 
sermon  next  morning  to  their  people,  and  by  others  on 
such  days  as  appointed,  threatening  them  with  depriva- 
tion of  their  benefices  if  they  refused  to  comply,  and 
promising  protection  to  all  "  then  in  possession  and 
exercise  of  their  ministry"  who  should  obey  it.  It  was 
proposed  as  an  amendment  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
the  president,  that  those  who  had  been  forcibly  extruded 
from  their  parishes  should  be  included  in  this  conditional 
protection  of  the  government ;  but  this  motion  was  over- 
ruled, upon  the  ground  that,  if  carried,  it  would  '•  dis- 
oblige the  Presbyterians,"  and  might  have  very  fatal 
(political)  consequences."  Accordingly,  the  **  rabbled" 
ministers  and  their  starving  families  were  omitted. 

The  Convention  of  Estates,  to  which  they  had  been 
taught  to  look  for  redress,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  cry, 
and  by  drawing  away  the  shelter  of  the  law,  gave  fresk 
encouragement  to  the  mob  to  persevere  in  their  lawless 
course  against  them.  While  this  was  the  case  with 
them,  matters  were  not  much  better  with  their  brethren, 
who  still  held  their  livings.  The  suddenness  of  the 
proclamation,  and  the  importance  of  the  duty  required 
of  them,  took  the  Edinburgh  clergy  quite  by  surprize, 
and  threw  them  into  a  state  of  perplexing  doubt.  They 
did  not  receive  the  astounding  command  till  late 
on  the  Saturday  evening,  and  they  were  ordered  next 
morning  to  dethrone  a  sovereign,  and  transfer  their 
allegiance  to,  and  invoke  the  Divine  blessing  upon, 
another.  As  was  to  have  been  expected,  many  of  them 
shrank  from  this  difficult  point  of  obedience,  and  begged 


SAGE.  273 

for  time  to  consider.     But  those  who  did  not  comply 

with  the  edict  were  called  before  the  Council  on  the 

following  day,   and   forthwith  deprived,    although   they 

offered  many  substantial  pleas   in  justification  of  their 

conduct,  in  addition  to  that  of  the  shortness  of  time 

afforded  them  for  consideration — as  for  instance  that  the 

order  to  make   public  prayers  for  the   new   king   and 

queen  did  not  come  to  them  through  their  ordinaries, 

whom   alone,    as  conscientious  ecclesiastics,    they   were 

bound  to  obey — that  William  and  Mary  had  not  accepted 

the  crown — and  other  equally  good  reasons.     All  these 

arguments,  however,    were    of  no    avail.       By   a   hasty 

severity,  unparalleled  in  Scottish  history,  the  clergy  in 

all  the  surrounding  neighbourhood,  who  refused  to  obey 

the  proclamation  of  the  13th  of  April,  were  ejected  from 

their  benefices,  and  the  rabble  in  the  meanwhile  were 

anticipating  the  sharpness  of  the  law.     This  posture  of 

affairs  continued   until  the    Convention   was    converted 

into  a  parliament,  which  met  under    the  authority  of 

William  and  Mary,   June   5th,   1689.     Henceforth  the 

"work"  went  more  rapidly  on.       On  the  19th  of  July, 

the  doom  of  the  Church  as  an  establishment  was  sealed, 

by  the  passing  of  an  act    "abolishing  prelacie."     The 

Parliament  adjourned  on  the   2nd  of  August ;  and   on 

the  22nd   of  the  same  month   an   edict  was    set   forth 

by  the  privy  council,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Earl  of 

Crawford,  "  allowing  and  inviting  parishioners  and  other 

hearers  to  inform  against  ministers  who  had  not  read 

the  proclamation  of  the  Estates,   and  prayed   for  King 

William  and  Queen  Mary." 

Such  a  general  invitation,  proceeding  from  such  an 
authority,  had  a  very  ready  obedience  given  to  it  by  an 
inflamed  populace ;  and  as  few  men  are  without  their 
secret  enemies,  it  afforded  an  ample' opportunity  for  the 
gratification  of  private  revenge.  The  result  of  it  was, 
that  in  the  course  of  a  short  time  almost  all  the  parochial 
clergy  in  the  Merse,  Lothians,  Fife,  Stirlingshire',  Perth- 


274  SAGE. 

shire,  besides  some  in  Aberdeen,  Moray,  and  Ross,  were 
expelled.  But  the  most  iniquitous  of  all  the  irregular 
proceedings  which  occurred  at  this  time,  was  an  inhibitory 
act  of  the  privy  council,  passed  29th  December,  by  which 
the  civil  courts  were  enjoined  not  to  take  up  the  cases 
of  the  rabbled  clergy,  who  should  appeal  to  them  for 
the  recovery  of  their  stipends,  which  had  not  been  paid 
before  their  expulsion.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
they  had  actually  done  the  amount  of  labour,  for  which 
they  were  justly  entitled  to  remuneration,  and  the  law, 
if  it  had  been  permitted  to  have  free  course,  would 
undoubtedly  have  decided  in  their  favour;  but  the  act 
of  council  precluded  this,  and  shut  their  last  remaining 
door  of  relief.  Such  were  some  of  the  main  features  of 
the  proceedings  which  took  place  at  this  time. 

Sage  appears  to  have  taken  up  his  residence  in  Edin- 
burgh after  his  having  been  "  rabbled  "  out  of  Glasgow. 
Here  he  eagerly  embraced  every  opportunity  which  pre- 
sented itself  of  applying  the  culture  of  true  religion  to 
the  souls  of  his  countrymen,  and  of  supporting  the 
cause  of  the  Church.  While  any  of  the  parochial  in- 
cumbents in  the  Scottish  metropolis  retained  possession 
of  their  churches,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  assisting  them 
in  the  performance  of  Divine  service,  and  of  occasionally 
relieving  them  from  the  burden  of  a  sermon ;  and  after- 
wards, when  the  "  inquisitorial  tribunal  "  of  the  Kirk, 
acting  upon  the  authority  delegated  to  them  by  the 
parliament  of  1690,  had  "purged  out  all  insufficient, 
negligent,  scandalous,  and  erroneous  ministers,'"  i.  e.  had 
by  a  system  of  continual  vexation  and  insult,  deprived 
all  the  Episcopal  clergy  in  the  city,  both  compilers  and 
noncompilers,  of  their  livings,  Mr.  Sage  was  appointed 
to  the  pastoral  care  of  one  of  the  principal  "  meeting- 
houses "  in  Edinburgh.  The  members  of  the  Church, 
when  they  saw  the  clergy  expelled  from  their  parish 
churches,  very  properly  fitted  up  places  of  worship  or 
chapels  in  different  parts  of  the  city,    in   which   they 


SAGE.  275 

might  enjoy  the  benefit  of  authorized  preaching,  and 
have  the  Sacraments  "rightly  and  duly  administered." 

But  he  was  not  permitted  long  to  pursue  the  even 
tenor  of  his  way,  in  fulfilling  his  pastoral  duties  to  the 
honour  of  God  and  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-Christians. 
The  relentless  jealousy  of  the  Presbyterians,  not  content 
with  driving  the  ministers  from  the  parish  churches, 
pursued  them  even  into  the  privacy  of  the  "  meeting- 
houses ;"  and  with  that  selfish  intolerance  which  was 
the  main  feature  of  all  their  proceedings,  they  resolved 
that  the  faithful  people  who  adhered  to  the  Church, 
should  be  deprived  of  the  valued  privilege  of  hearing 
the  Word  and  receiving  the  Sacraments  from  those 
persons,  whom  they  had  been  taught  to  regard  as  the 
■authorized  priests  of  God.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Sage  and 
others  of  his  brethren  were  dragged  before  the  privy- 
council,  and  ordered  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and 
assurance;  and  when  they  candidly  avowed  that  their 
conscientious  scruples  would  not  permit  them  to  comply 
with  the  mandate,  they  were  not  only  "  forbidden  to 
exercise  any  part  of  their  ministerial  function  within 
the  city,  but  also  banished  thence  by  an  act  of  the 
council."  It  must  be  remembered,  that  those  respec- 
table men  had  already  suffered  the  "  loss  of  all  things" 
without  complaint,  and  passively  obeying  the  rigorous 
laws  of  the  Convention,  had  retired  into  private  life  that 
they  might  possess  "  a  conscience  void  of  ofience  ;"  but 
even  here  they  were  not  allowed  to  remain  in  peace. 
This  is  mentioned  merely  to  show  that  Presbyterianism 
has  not  always  been  that  friend  of  "  civil  and  religious 
liberty,"  and  "  freedom  of  conscience,"  which  its  warm 
supporters  and  advocates  in  later  times  would  persuade 
us  to  believe. 

From  Edinburgh  he  retired  to  Kinross,  and  was  after- 
wards chaplain  in  the  family  of  the  Countess  of  Callen- 
dar,  and  tutor  to  the  young  earl.  When  his  engagement 
with  Lady  Callendar  terminated,  he  became  chaplain  to 


276  SAGE. 

Sir  James   Stewart,  of  Grandtully.      While   officiating 
in   the   "  meeting  house  "   at  Edinhurgh,   he  had  com- 
menced the   polemical  warfare   which   ended  only  with 
his  life,  and  had  sent  forth  some  of  those  controversial 
works  which  are  such  lasting  monuments  of  his  learning, 
abilities,  and  zeal.      It  seems  to  have  been  a  principle 
with   this   eminent  defender  of  Episcopacy  to  suffer  no 
assailant,  in  the  least  worthy  of  an  opponent,  to  remain 
long   unmatched   in  the  arena    of  controversy,    and   to 
permit  no  public   circumstance  to  pass   by  in    silence, 
if,    by   interfering,   there    was    the    slightest   chance    of 
either  vindicating  or  advancing  "  the  suffering  Church." 
Thus,   wherever  he  was,   his  watchful  eye  was  intently 
fixed  upon  the   movements  of  the   enemy,  and   closely 
following  them  through  all  their  torturous  paths ;  while 
his    ready   pen,    directed    by   learning    and    zeal,    was 
exerted    in   providing   a   counteracting   remedy    against 
their   erroneous    statements    and  hostile    designs.      Al- 
though,   therefore,    he  had    previousely   written   one   or 
two  able  pamphlets,  which    seemed  to  be  called  for  by 
passing  events,   his  leasure  and    retirement  at  Kinross, 
afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  executing  a  larger  and 
more  important  work.      Accordingly,    at   this    time,   he 
devoted    himself   to   writing    a    treatise    entitled   "  The 
Fundamental   Charter  of  Presbytery,  &c.  examined  and 
disproved ;  "   and  w^hen  it  was    finished,   he    sent   it    to 
London    to  be   published  ;    for   as   he  says   himself  in 
another  place  "  it  were  easier  to  pluck  a  star  from  the 
firmament  than  to  get  anything  published  in  Scotland 
against  the   tyranny  of  Presbytery,  or  in  vindication  of 
Episcopacy."     The  utmost  care  w^as  used  to  conceal  the 
name  of  the  author  of  these  offensive  works,  and  it  was 
hoped  that    the    distance   of   the   place   of  publication 
would  have  assisted  to  screen  him  from  the  notice  of 
his  enemies.      In  this,   however,   his  friends  were  dis- 
appointed, and  upon  an  early  occasion  he  had  a  toler- 
ably strong  proof  given  him,  that  he  was  a  "  marked 


SAGE.  377 

man,"  and  had  stirred  up  the  wrath  of  the  Presbyterians 
against  himself. 

Being  actuated  by  a  great  desire  to  see  some  dear 
friends  in  Edinburgh,  and  having  some  private  business 
to  transact  there,  he  ventured  to  revisit  the  metropoUs ; 
but  he  had  no  sooner  appeared  upon  the  street  than  a 
privy-councillor,  "  whose  greatest  pleasure  was  to  per- 
secute the  Episcopal  clergy,"  lodged  intimation  against 
him,  and  being  apprehended,  he  was  held  to  bail  to  quit 
the  town  forthwith,  although  the  authorities  connived 
at  many  of  those  who  had  been  previously  banished  with 
him,  remaining  in  it.  Expelled  again  from  Edinburgh 
by  this  severe  order,  he  returned  to  Kinross,  and  still 
further  employed  his  learned  and  eloquent  pen  in  de- 
fence of  the  Church,  and  in  confirmation  of  her  prin- 
ciples. At  this  time  he  reared  that  invincible  bulwark 
of  Diocesan  Episcopacy,  entitled  the  "  Cyprianic  Age," 
the  appearance  of  which  sharpened  the  resentment  of 
the  Presbyterians,  and  made  them  doubly  anxious  to 
secure  and  silence  so  strenuous  and  powerful  an  oppo- 
nent. 

The  most  severe  blow  inflicted  upon  the  Episcopal 
clergy  was  dealt  to  them  in  1695.  An  act  of  parliament 
was  then  passed  "  prohibiting  and  discharging  any  Epis- 
copal minister  from  hajnizing  any  children,  or  solem- 
nizing marriage  betwixt  any  parties  in  all  time  coming, 
under  pain  of  imprisonment"  and  perpetual  exile!  Like 
the  Apostles  when  prohibited  to  preach  any  more  in  the 
Name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  clergy  chose  rather  to 
obey  the  voice  of  God  than  the  commands  of  men,  and 
using  every  precautionary  method  for  avoiding  detection, 
they  went  about  administering  the  Sacraments  of  reli- 
gion, and  preaching  the  Gospel  to  those,  who  knew  the 
value  of  their  spiritual!  authority,  and  adhered  through 
"evil  report  and  good  report"  to  their  ministry.  In 
vain  did  the  EpiscopaUans  expostulate  against  the  seve- 
rity of  the  enactment,   and  represent   it  as  striking  at 

VOL.  VIII.  B    B 


278  SAGE. 

the  very  root  of  their  faith,  which  required  them  at 
least  to  have  the  Sacrments  performed  by  proper  admin- 
istrators— the  government  was  deaf  to  their  earnest 
entreaties,  and  their  rehgious  opponents  exulted  over 
their  depressed  condition.  In  this  state  they  remained 
until  the  death  of  William  in  1702,  when  a  brighter 
day  dawned,  and  induced  them  to  hope  that  the  time 
was  now  approaching  when  they  would  obtain  "  gentler 
and  more  equitable  treatment."  Queen  Anne  ascended 
the  throne  of  her  father,  and  her  known  attachment 
to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
led  the  members  of  the  suffering  sister  Church  in  Scot- 
land to  expect  that  she  would  sympathize  wdth  them, 
and  shelter  them  under  her  powerful  protection,  from 
the  tyranny  of  their  schisraatical  countrymen  ;  nor  were 
they  altogether  disappointed.  Although  the  expected 
relief  did  not  arrive  so  soon  as  they  could  have  wished, 
the  soothing  answer  which  the  queen  gave  to  their 
address  and  petition  in  the  beginning  of  her  reign,  and 
her  pointed  discouragement  of  all  legal  prosecutions 
against  them,  greatly  ameliorated  the  distressed  state 
of  the  Church,  and  revived  the  drooping  spirits  of  her 
members.  The  bare  idea  of  toleration  being  granted 
to  the  fallen  Church — an  event  to  which  the  course  of 
things  pointed  as  likely  to  happen — roused  the  fears  and 
animosity  of  the  Presbyterians  :  and  their  leading  minis- 
ters, in  their  sermons  on  public  occasions,  and  through 
the  press,  inveighed  loudly  against  it.  Hence  in  1703, 
a  fierce  polemical  strife  raged  on  this  subject,  and 
various  combatants  appeared  on  the  field — such  as  the 
renowned  David  Williamson  and  Mr.  George  Meldrum, 
on  the  side  of  the  Kirk.  Among  the  foremost  of  the 
defenders  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  rights  of  conscience 
on  this  occasion,  Mr.  Sage  came  forth,  and'seizing  upon 
Mr.  Meldrum's  "  Reasons  against  Toleration,"  he  over- 
turned them  by  that  masterly  reply  so  well  known  under 
the  title  of  the  "  Reasonableness  of  Toleration,"  which 


SAGE.  279 

demonstrates  not  only  the  sound  uncompromizing  Church 
principles  of  our  author,  but  the  solidity  of  his  learning, 
and  the  acuteness  of  his  reasoning  powers.  Though 
Mr.  Sage  did  not  live  to  reap  the  full  reward  of  his 
labour,  his  writings  had  an  effect  even  at  the  moment. 
The  Church  for  a  year  or  more  "  had  rest "  from  out- 
ward persecution,  and  a  mighty  change  was  working 
in  the  human  mind  with  regard  to  the  futility  of  the 
endeavour  to  fetter  the  conscience  by  acts  of  parliament, 
and  to  coerce  a  man  against  his  convictions  to  own 
whatever  system  of  religion  the  civil  powers  may  choose 
to  establish. 

During  this  brief  period  of  tranquility,  the  attention 
of  the  governors  of  the  Church  was  turned  upon  them- 
selves, and  one  of  the  most  anxious  subjects  which 
occupied  their  minds  was  the  duty  of  providing  for  the 
future  succession  of  the  Episcopal  Order.  By  the  death 
of  the  aged  primate,  Dr.  Ross,  in  1704,  the  number  of 
bishops  was  reduced  to  five,  most  of  whom,  worn  out 
with  years  and  calamity,  were  tottering  on  the  brink  of 
the  grave.  In  order,  therefore,  that  the  Apostolic  line 
might  not  be  interrupted,  the  venerable  survivors  re- 
solved to  commit  the  sacred  "  Deposit"  with  which  they 
had  been  entrusted,  to  "  other  faithful  men,  apt  to  teach, 
and  govern."  In  consequence  of  this  determination, 
Mr.  Sage,  and  Mr.  Fullarton  the  ejected  ministers  of 
Paisley,  were  selected  by  the  fathers  of  the  Church,  as 
persons  fit  to  be  elevated  to  the  episcopate,  and  were 
duly  and  canonically  consecrated  "  in  sacrario "  of  the 
house  of  Archbishop  Paterson,  at  Edinburgh,  on  the 
25th  of  January,  1705  ;  the  Archbishop,  Bishop  Rose  of 
Edinburgh,  and  Bishop  Douglas  of  Dunblane  perform- 
ing the  holy  rite. 

While  those  persons  were  thus  solemnly  invested  with 
the  episcopate,  an  agreement  was  entered  into  that  they 
were  not  to  have  diocesan  authority,  or  to  interfere  at  all 
in  the  government  of  the  Church.     Expediency  and  the 


^80  SAGE. 

exigency  of  the  Church  were  the  inducements  which  led 
the  bishops  to  insist  on  this  stipulation,  and  to  make  a 
temporary  deviation  from  the  usual  rule.  It  answered, 
indeed,  the  immediate  purpose,  for  which  it  was  designed 
by  those  excellent  men,  but  like  all  other  plans  founded 
upon  a  short  sighted  policy,  it  was  at  length  productive 
of  great  evil,  and  involved  the  Church  in  confusion 
and  unseemly  disputes.  The  controversies  between  the 
"  College  Party  "  and  the  assertors  of  "  Diocesan  Epis- 
copacy," are  too  well  known  to  require  further  notice 
here. 

Being  raised  to  the  episcopate,  Bishop  Sage  seems  to 
have  continued  in  the  Grandtully  family,  executing  his 
high  and  useful  duties  for  the  benefit  of  the  limited 
circle  around  him. 

Bishop  Sage  died  in  Edinburgh,  17th  June,  1711. 
His  works  are  : — The  Fundamental  Charter  ;  The 
Cyprianic  Age ;  The  Vindication  of  the  Cyprianic 
Age ;  An  Account  of  the  late  Establishment  of  Pres- 
bytery by  the  Parliament  of  Scotland  in  1690;  Some 
Kemarks  in  a  Letter  from  a  Gentleman  in  the  City  to  a 
Minister  in  the  Country,  on  Mr.  David  Williamson's 
Sermon  before  the  General  Assembly,  Edinburgh,  1703  ; 
A  Brief  Examination  of  some  things  in  Mr.  Meldrum's 
Sermon  preached  on  the  6th  of  May,  1703,  against  a 
Toleration  to  those  of  the  Episcopal  Persuasion;  The 
Eeasonableness  of  a  Toleration  of  those  of  the  Episcopal 
Persuasion  inquired  into  purely  on  Church  Principles, 
1704  ;  The  Life  of  Gawin  Douglas,  1710  ;  and  an  intro- 
duction to  the  Works  of  Drummond  of  Hawthornden, 
to  which  publication  his  friend  the  learned  Ruddiman 
lent  his  assistance.  Bishop  Sage  also  wrote  the  second 
and  third  Letters  concerning  the  persecution  of  the 
Episcopal  Clergy  in  Scotland,  and  left  several  unfinished 
MSS.,  one  intended  to  have  been  a  system  of  Divinity, 
in  which  the  Church  and  the  Sacraments,  as  the  chan- 
nels of  grace,  were  to  have  occupied  their  proper  place ; 


SAINCTES.  281 

another  containing  a  review  of  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession— a  Treatise  on  the  Culdees,  and  a  History  of  the 
Commission  of  the  General  Assembly. — Life  prejiiced  to 
Works.     Bishop  Gillan.     Bishop  Russell. 


SAGITTARIUS,    GASPAR. 

Gaspar  Sagittarius  was  born  at  Lunenburg,  in  1643, 
and  in  1674,  became  professor  of  history  at  Halle.  He 
died  in  1674.  He  wrote  : — On  Oracles;  On  the  Gates 
of  the  Ancients;  The  Succession  of  the  Princes  of 
Orange;  History  of  the  City  of  Herderwich  ;  Tractatus 
Varii  de  Historia  Legenda;  Historia  Antiqua  Nori- 
bergae ;  Origin  of  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick  ;  History  of 
Lubeck;  Antiquities  of  the  Kingdom  of  Thuringia; 
History  of  the  Marquises  and  Electors  of  Brandenburg, 
and  many  others,  enumerated  by  Niceron. — Niceron. 
Moreri. 


SAINCTES,    CLAUDE    DE. 

Claude  de  Satnctes,  in  Latin  Sanctetius,  was  born  at 
Perche,  in  1595,  and  was  admitted  a  canon  regular  of 
St.  Cheron,  near  Chartres,  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  After 
passing  through  various  preferments  he  was,  in  1561, 
appointed  principal  of  the  College  of  Boissy,  at  Paris, 
and  was  employed  as  a  champion  for  the  Romish  cause 
at  the  Conference  of  Poissy.  He  was  one  of  the  twelve 
French  doctors  sent  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  in 
1575,  he  was  made  by  Henry  III.  Bishop  of  Evreux. 
Forgetful  of  the  royal  favour  he  had  received,  he  sup- 
ported with  vehemence  the  interests  of  the  League. 
Having  been  made  prisoner  by  the  troops  of  Henry  IV.  his 
papers  were  examined,  and  were  found  to  contain  an 
attempt  to  justify  the  assassination  of  Henry  III.;  for 
B  b3 


282  SALTMARSH. 

which  he  was  tried  and  condemned  to  be  put  to  death 
as  a  traitor.  However,  in  consequence  of  the  interces- 
sion of  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  and  some  other  pre- 
lates, his  life  was  spared,  and  his  sentence  commuted 
for  perpetual  imprisonment.  He  died  at  the  Castle  of 
Crevecseur  in  1591,  when  about  sixty-six  years  of  age. 
The  most  considerable  of  his  works  are  : — a  Treatise 
in  Latin  On  the  Eucharist,  forming  a  large  volume  inr 
folio,  which  was  printed  in  1576,  and  has  been  much 
used  by  subsequent  writers  on  the  Catholic  side  of  the 
question ;  and  an  edition  of  a  curious  collection,  entitled, 
Liturgise,  sive  Missse  Sanctorum  Patrum  :  Jacobi  Apos- 
toli,  et  Fratris  Domini,  Basilii  magni,  Johannis  Chry- 
sostomi,  &c.,  1560,  8vo,  including  several  chapters  of  his 
own  composition.  Excepting  The  Acts  of  the  Council 
of  Rouen  in  1581,  which  he  published  in  Latin  and 
French,  and  his  own  Synodal  Statutes,  his  other  works 
were  all  controversial. — Dupin.     Moreri. 


SALMERON,    ALPHONSO. 

Alphonso  Salmeron  was  born  at  Toledo,  in  1516. 
Going  to  Paris  to  complete  his  studies,  he,  with  his 
friend  James  Laynez,  surrendered  himself  to  the  gui- 
dance of  Ignatius  Loyola,  underwent  the  initiating 
discipline  of  the  spiritual  exercises,  and  came  forth 
from  the  process  fired  with  zeal  to  carry  forward  the 
intentions  of  his  master.  He  died  at  Naples,  in  1585. 
His  works  which  contain  Commentaries  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, were  published  in  8  vols.  fol.  (See  the  Life  of 
Loyola.) 


SALTMARSH,    JOHN. 

John  Saltmarsh  was  a  Yorkshireman,  and  educated  at 


SAMPSON.  2S3 

Magdalen  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  a  chaplain  to  the 
army  of  Fairfax,  a  rebel  in  politics,  >  and  an  Antinomian 
in  religion.  He  died  at  Elford,  in  Essex,  in  1647.  He 
published  : — Free  Orace,  or  the  Flowings  of  Christ's 
Blood  freely  to  Sinners ;  Shadows  flying  away ;  The 
Smoak  in  the  Temple  ;  D awnings  of  Light ;  Sparkles 
of  Glory ;  and,  Wonderful  Predictions.  These  books 
made  a  great  noise,  and  were  answered  by  writers  of 
no  ordinary  name,  particularly  by  the  learned  Thomas 
Gataker. — Gen.  Diet. 


SAMPSON,    THOMAS. 

The  public  history  of  Sampson  is  so  closely  connected 
with  that  of  Humphrey,  that  to  the  Life  of  Humphrey 
the  reader  is  referred.  (See  also  the  Life  of  Parker.) 
Thomas  Sampson  was  born  at  Playford,  in  Surrey,  about 
the  year  1617,  and,  according  to  Strype,  was  educated 
at  Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge,  according  to  Wood,  at 
Oxford.  He  objected  to  the  habits  at  his  ordination  by 
Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  seems  to  have  yielded  to  the 
scruples  expressed  by  himself  and  some  others.  In 
1551,  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of  All  Hallows, 
Bread  Street,  London,  which  he  resigned  in  1553.  In 
1554,  he  was  promoted  to  the  Deanery  of  Chichester. 
On  the  accession  of  Mary,  he  at  first  concealed  himself, 
aud  then  fled  to  Strasburg,  where  he  found  a  refuge. 
He  had  some  share  in  the  Geneva  Bible.  On  the  acces- 
sion of  Elizabeth  he  returned  home,  not  only  confirmed 
in  his  aversion  to  the  habits,  but  with  such  a  dislike 
to  the  episcopal  office,  that  he  refused  the  Bishopric 
of  Norwich.  He  continued,  however,  to  preach,  parti- 
cularly at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  where  his  wonderful  memory 
and  eloquence  were  greatly  admired.  In  September, 
1560,  he  wa^s  made  a  prebendary  of  Durham;  and  in 
Michaelmas  term,  1561,  he  was  installed  Dean  of  Christ 


284  SAMPSON. 

Church,  Oxford.  At  this  time  Sampson  and  Humphrey 
were  the  only  Proteetant  preachers  at  Oxford  of  any 
celebrity.  In  1562,  he  resigned  his  prebend  of  Durham, 
and  became  so  open  and  zealous  in  his  invectives  against 
the  habits,  that,  after  considerable  forbearance,  he  was 
cited,  in  1564,  with  Dr.  Humphrey,  before  the  high 
commission  court  at  Lambeth,  and  was  deprived  of  his 
deanery,  and  for  some  time  imprisoned.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  nonconformity,  however,  he  was  presented,  in 
1568,  to  the  mastership  of  Wigston  Hospital,  at  Lei- 
cester, and  had  likewise,  according  to  Wood,  a  prebend 
in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  London.  The  queen  also 
permitted  him  to  hold  the  theological  lectureship  at 
Whittington  College,  in  the  metropolis,  to  which  he  had 
been  elected  by  the  Cloth  Workers'  Company. 

Mr.  Soames  observes  that  Sampson  and  Humphrey 
have  left  an  authentic  record  of  their  sentiments,  on  the 
vesture  question,  in  a  letter  to  Bullinger,  conjointly 
signed.  The  learned  Swiss  had  argued  for  the  habits 
on  civil  grounds.  His  English  correspondents  consider 
this  reasoning  unsound.  Usages  derived  from  the 
enemies  of  their  religion,  they  contend  could  not  be 
adopted  without  injuring  it.  Against  such  apparel,  too, 
they  protested,  as  a  revival  of  abrogated  Mosaic  cere- 
monies, and  an  unsuitable  adaptation  to  the  simple 
ministry  of  Christ,  of  that  which  had  served  the  Popish 
priesthood  for  theatric  pomp.  To  that  body  and  its 
friends  they  represent  this  concession  as  a  triumph : 
occasioning  exulting  appeals  to  Otho's  Constitutions, 
and  the  Pontifical,  in  proof  that  Protestants  had  been 
glad  of  dresses  borrowed  from  their  adversaries.  This 
concession  is  lamented  also  as  redolent  of  monkery, 
no  less  than  of  Popery  and  Judaism,  as  savouring  of 
Pharisaical  precision ;  as  the  first  step  by  which  a  con- 
ceit of  sanctity  in  garments  may  again  creep  over  men. 
Bucer  is  afterwards  mentioned  as  an  authority  for  deny- 
ing that  prescribed  apparel  agrees  with  Christian  liberty. 


SAMPSON.  285 

He  wished  all  such  distinctions  abolished,  mindful  of 
present  abuse,  anxious  for  a  fuller  declaration  of  detest- 
ing Antichrist,  for  a  removal  of  all  dissension  among 
brethren.  Such  were  the  reasons  why  they  strove  to 
have  every  trace  of  Antichristian  superstition  buried  in 
eternal  oblivion  ;  why  they  could  not  agree  to  the  obtru- 
sion of  that  which  does  not  edify  the  Church;  why 
they  felt  unable  to  join  sound  doctrine  with  halting 
worship ;  why  they  would  not  maim  Christ,  when  He 
might  be  entire,  pure,  and  perfect ;  why  they  preferred 
a  pattern  from  reformed  brethren,  to  one  from  Popish 
enemies ;  why  they  shrank  from  dishonouring  the  ser- 
vice of  that  heavenly  leader  whom  they  and  their  foreign 
friends  equally  obeyed,  by  raising  hostile  banners,  which 
it  was  their  duty  to  demolish  and  detest. 

Everything  from  such  men  as  Sampson  and  Hum* 
phrey,  must  at  least  be  specious.  Their  objections 
have  but  slender  chance  of  winning  any  higher  character 
in  modern  times.  But  ability,  aided  by  perseverance, 
will  command  attention  from  any  age.  In  this  case,  too, 
were  high  moral  worth,  considerable  station,  and  recent 
sufferings.  Opposition  to  power  and  estahlished  autho- 
rity is,  besides,  always  popular.  The  dean  of  Christ 
Church,  and  the  president  of  Magdalen,  became,  accor- 
dingly, the  leaders  of  a  powerful,  energetic,  and  uncom- 
promising party.  This  must,  however,  be  considered 
as  accidental,  neither  of  these  remarkable  men,  appa- 
rently, having  ever  calculated  upon  any  such  distinction, 
or  being  likely  to  desire  it.  Humphrey's  disposition 
was,  indeed,  eminently  mild  and  moderate.  Sampson 
showed  himself  more  unbending,  but  his  temper  was 
very  different  from  that  of  many  who  continued  t?ie 
resistance  that  he  and  his  brother-head  began. 

He  died  in  1589.  He  married  Latimer's  niece,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons.  His  works  are : — Letter  to 
the  professors  of  Christ's  Gospel,  in  the  parish  of  All- 
hallows  in  Bread-street,    Strasburg,  1554,  8vo  ;  this  is 


^86  SANCROFt. 

reprinted  in  the  Appendix  to  Strype's  Ecclesiastical 
Memorials :  A  Warning  to  take  heed  of  Fowler's  Psalter, 
London,  1576  and  1578,  Svo;  this  was  a  Popish  Psalter, 
published  by  John  Fowler,  once  a  Fellow  of  New  College, 
Oxford,  but  who  went  abroad,  turned  printer,  and  printed 
the  Popish  controversial  works  for  some  years  ;  Brief 
Collection  of  the  Church  and  Ceremonies  thereof;  and. 
Prayers  and  Meditations  Apostolike  ;  gathered  and 
framed  out  of  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostles.  He  was 
also  editor  of  Two  Sermons  of  John  Bradford,  on  Ptepen- 
tance,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  Baker  ascribes  to  him 
a  Translation  of  a  Sermon  of  John  Chrysostome,  of 
Pacience,  of  the  End  of  the  World,  and  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, 1550,  Svo;  and  of  An  Homelye  of  the  Piesurrec- 
tion  of  Christ  by  John  Brentius,  1550,  8vo. — Strpye. 
Wood.    Soames. 


SANCEOFT,    WILLIAM. 

William  Sancroft  was  born  at  Fresingfield,  in  Suffolk, 
in  1616.  He  received  his  primary  education  at  Bury 
School,  and  proceeded  thence  to  Emanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, of  which  he  became  a  fellow  in  1642.  Several 
Letters  addressed  by  him  to  his  father  have  been  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  D'oyley,  and  they  impress  us  with  the 
great  amiability  of  the  writer,  especially  one  which 
relates  to  the  death  of  a  college  friend.  The  Dissenters 
being  in  the  ascendant  in  1649,  they  deprived  him  of 
his  fellowship.  But  though  driven  from  the  university, 
and  silenced  in  the  pulpit,  he  knew  that  the  press  was 
still  open  to  him,  and  through  it  he  sought  to  further 
the  cause  of  social  order  and  true  religion.  Two  im- 
portant publications  proceeded  about  this  time  from  his 
pen,  which  were  extensively  circulated  and  read  with 
great  avidity  ;  both  admirably  adapted  as  prescriptions 
to  heal  the  distempers  of  the  times,  and  to  induce  a 
more  healthful  state  of  the  political  body. 


SANCROFT.  287 

The  first  of  these,  in  Latin,  was  called  Fur  Praedes- 
tinatus,  being  intended  to  expose  the  doctrines  of  rigid 
Calvinism,  the  extensive  prevalence  of  which  had  ad- 
vanced very  far  in  destroying  all  just  and  sound  views 
of  religion.  The  second,  entitled  "  Modern  Policies, 
taken  from  Machiavel,  Borgia,  and  other  choice  authors," 
was  designed  to  hold  up  to  deserved  contempt  the  hollow 
and  false  policy  which  had  been  too  successful  in  raising 
many  worthless  and  profligate  persons  to  stations  of 
authority. 

He  seems  to  have  supported  himself  on  his  small 
paternal  property,  and  out  of  that  he  saved  something 
to  assist  poor  Churchmen  worse  off  than  himself.  In 
1659,  he  went  abroad,  but  did  not  stay  long,  as  at  the 
Restoration  he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  Dr.  Cosin, 
now  appointed  to  the  Bishopric  of  Durham,  and  at  the 
consecration  of  his  patron,  with  six  other  new  bishops, 
he  was  selected  to  be  the  preacher.  The  Convocation 
assembled  on  the  8th  of  May,  1661,  in  which  the  last 
revision  of  our  Prayer  Book  took  place.  It  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Bancroft  was  eminently  useful  in  assis- 
ting in  these  alterations,  although  it  is  not  easy  to  ascer- 
tain on  what  particular  parts  of  the  work,  or  to  what 
extent,  his  services  were  employed.  As  he  was  not  a 
member  of  the  Convocation  at  the  time,  for  he  then  held 
no  preferments,  his  name  does  not  appear  among  those 
to  whom  the  preparation  of  any  portion  of  the  work  was 
committed;  and  it  seems  that  he  was  only  privately 
employed,  probably  by  the  recommendation  of  Bishop 
Cosin,  who  bore  a  considerable  share  in  this  business, 
and  in  consequence  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  his 
talents,  learning,  and  judgment. 

However  it  is  specially  recorded  that  he  assisted  in 
rectifying  the  calendar  and  the  rubrics,  and  that,  after  the 
work  was  completed,  he  was  one  of  those  appointed 
by  an  order  of  the  Upper  House  of  Convocation  for  the 
supervision  of  the  press.     In  the  common  accounts  of 


^88  SANCROFT. 

his  life,  it  is  stated  that  he  was  the  author  of  the 
Forms  of  Prayer  prepared  for  the  30th  of  January  and 
'^9th  of  May.  But  this  does  not  appear  from  any  com- 
petent authority.  Bishop  Burnet  gives  a  remarkable 
account  of  this  matter :  he  states,  that  when  the  new 
offices  for  the  30th  of  January  and  the  29th  of  May 
were  under  preparation,  Sancroft  drew  them  up  in  too 
high  a  strain ;  that  those  which  he  produced  were  in 
consequence  rejected,  and  others  of  a  more  moderate 
character  adopted  in  their  room.  He  adds,  that,  after- 
wards, when  Sancroft  was  advanced  to  the  See  of  Can- 
terbury, he  procured  the  substitution  of  his  own  offices 
in  the  place  of  those  formerly  adopted,  and  got  them 
"  published  by  the  king's  authority,  at  a  time  when  so 
high  a  style  as  was  in  them  did  not  sound  well  to  the 
nation." 

As  Burnet  himself  had  no  concern  in  the  transaction, 
and  does  not  state  the  authority  from  which  he  derived 
his  information,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  in  what 
degree  there  is  any  foundation  for  his  representation. 
Two  circumstances,  however,  should  be  mentioned  to 
show  that  his  statements  are  not  strictly  accurate.  The 
first  is,  that,  in  the  office  for  the  30th  of  January,  no 
alteration  of  the  slightest  importance  was  made  when 
Sancroft  held  the  primacy,  or  has  been  made  at  any 
period  subsequently  to  the  first  preparation  of  it :  for 
it  stands  now,  with  very  immaterial  exceptions,  precisely 
in  the  same  form  as  it  did  at  first.  The  second  is,  that 
the  office  for  the  29th  of  May,  as  it  was  adopted  with 
alterations  after  the  death  of  Charles  II.  and  during  the 
primacy  of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  could  not  have  been 
precisely  that  which  he  first  proposed  but  which  was 
rejected.  For  the  29th  day  of  May  being  the  day  of 
King  Charles's  birth,  as  well  as  of  his  return,  the  office 
during  his  life-time  was  adapted  to  both  these  events. 
After  his  death,  alterations  were  necessarily  required, 
in  order  to  make  the  office  commemorative  solely  of  the 


SANCROFT.  28a 

Restoration  of  the  royal  family.  It  is  true  that  some 
further  alterations  and  substitutions  took  place  at  this 
time ;  and  perhaps  it  may  be  allowed  that  mention  is 
made  in  the  new  office  of  the  Rebellion,  and  those  con- 
cerned in  it,  in  stronger  terms  than  had  been  done  in 
the  former  office,  and  this  is  probably  the  foundation 
of  Burnet's  assertion,  that  an  office  was  adopted  "  of 
a  higher  strain."  These  alterations  were  of  course  made 
under  Archbishop  Sancroft's  authority,  although  the  fact 
of  their  having  been  introduced  by  himself,  rests  only 
on  the  statement  of  Bishop  Burnet. 

The  rapidity  of  Sancroft's  rise  seems  to  be  surprising, 
as  industrious  mediocrity  rather  than  great  talents  or 
profound  learning  was  his  characteristic.  In  1662,  he 
was  elected  master  of  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge ;  in 
1664,  he  was  appointed  Dean  of  York,  and  soon  after 
he  was  removed  to  the  Deanery  of  St.  Paul's.  In  this 
new  situation  he  contributed  much  to  the  repairing  of  the 
cathedral ;  and  when  it  was  destroyed  by  the  fire  of 
London,  he  gave  £1400  towards  rebuilding  it.  In 
1668,  he  was  presented  to  the  Archdeaconry  of  Canter- 
bury by  Charles  II.,  who,  in  1677,  raised  him  to  the 
See  of  Canterbury. 

A  more  meek  and  gentle  spirit  few  persons  have  pos- 
sessed than  Archbishop  Sancroft,  but  he  was  called  to 
take  his  part  in  stirring  times,  when  his  firm  principles 
enabled  him  to  act  a  part  which,  if  not  the  wisest  accor- 
ding to  our  present  notions,  was  certainly  such  as  to 
command  universal  respect.  And  occasions  were  not 
wanting,  on  which  Archbishop  Sancroft  maintained  the 
disciphne  of  the  Church  with  a  just  degree  of  dignity 
and  firmness.  A  remarkable  and  unusual  instance  of 
this  occurred  in  his  suspension  of  Dr.  Thomas  Wood, 
Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry,  from  his  episcopal 
functions,  on  account  of  his  neglect  of  his  diocese  and 
other  misdemeanours.  In  this  bishop  we  have  an  un- 
happy example  of  a  very  undeserving  person  raised  to 

VOL.  VIII.  c    c 


290  SANCROFT. 

that  important  and  dignified  station  in  the  Church  by 
most  unworthy  and  disgraceful  means.  It  is  recorded 
that  he  obtained  his  bishopric  immediately  from  Charles 
II.,  through  the  interest  of  the  Duchess  of  Cleveland, 
and  that  he  recommended  himself  to  her,  by  contriving 
that  his  niece,  a  wealthy  heiress,  to  whom  he  was  guar- 
dian, should  marry  the  Duke  of  Southampton,  son  of 
the  duchess.  After  he  was  placed  in  the  bishopric,  he 
grossly  neglected  the  concerns  of  the  diocese,  residing 
entirely  out  of  it,  and  performing  none  of  the  functions. 
In  addition  to  this,  he  refused  to  build  an  episcopal 
house,  although  he  received  money  for  this  purpose  from 
the  heirs  of  his  predecessor,  and  although  he  cut  down 
from  the  >estates  of  the  see,  as  for  this  building,  timber, 
which  he  afterwards  sold.  The  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury considered  that  a  case  of  this  flagrant  nature 
demanded  the  interference  of  his  metropolitan  authority. 
He  accordingly,  in  April,  1684,  suspended  Bishop  Wood 
from  his  episcopal  dignity  and  functions.  The  bishop 
submitted  some  time  after,  and  the  suspension  was  taken 
off  in  May,  1686.  However,  this  exercise  of  authority, 
temperedwith  mildness,  unfortunately  seems  to  have  failed 
in  producing  the  desired  effect ;  for  the  bishop  appears  to 
have  continued  in  the  habit  of  residing  at  a  distance 
from  his  diocese,  and  of  neglecting  its  concerns. 

Archbishop  Bancroft,  though  enthusiastically  loyal,  was 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  true  religion  and  the  Church  of 
England,  and  when  a  traitor  king  was  on  the  throne, 
who  sought  to  use  his  prerogative  for  the  purpose  of 
introducing  Popery,  he  dared  to  defy  him  and  to  main- 
tain the  sacred  cause  at  the  head  of  which  he  was 
providentially  placed.  He  certainly  acted  too  cautiously 
at  first.  When  James  appointed  illegally  an  ecclesiastical 
commission,  Archbishop  Bancroft  refused  to  act  upon 
it,  though  nominated  its  head,  but  he  only  pleaded  ill- 
health,  though  by  his  being  forbidden  the  court,  it  is 
o\ed.v  that  his  real  feeling  was  understood. 


SANCROFT.  291 

We  must  enter  into  further  detail  in  regard  to  the 
events  of  the  reign  of  James  II.,  and  we  shall  avail 
ourselves  of  the  brief  but  spirited  sketch  of  the  iniqui- 
tous proceedings  of  the  traitor  king,  given  by  Mr. 
Chermside,  in  his  lecture  on  the  trial  and  acquittal 
of  the  Seven  Bishops. 

In  1688,  a  bill  was  drawn  up  and  prepared  to  be  laid 
before  the  parliament,  entitled  "  An  act  for  granting  of 
Liberty  of  Conscience,  without  imposing  of  oaths  and 
tests," — but  before  any  parliamentary  steps  were  taken 
in  the  matter,  the  king  on  the  27th  of  April,  thought 
fit  to  republish  his  declaration  of  indulgence,  and  im- 
mediately thereupon  appeared  the  following  announce- 
ment in  the  Gazette  : — 

"  At  the  Court  at  Whitehall,  May  4th. 

"  It  is  this  day  ordered,  by  his  majesty  in  council,  that 
his  majesty's  late  gracious  declaration,  bearing  date  the 
27th  of  April  last,  be  read  at  the  usual  time  of  divine 
service,  on  the  20th  and  27th  of  this  month,  in  all 
churches  and  chapels,  within  the  cities  of  London  and 
Westminster,  and  ten  miles  thereabout:  and  upon  the 
3rd  and  10th  of  June  next,  in  all  other  churches  and 
chapels  throughout  this  kingdom.  And  it  is  hereby 
further  ordered,  that  the  right  reverend  the  bishops 
cause  the  said  declaration  to  be  sent  and  distributed 
throughout  their  several  and  respective  dioceses  to  be  read 
accordingly." 

This  was  a  blow  well  struck — well  struck,  that  is,  if 
it  should  prove  successful ;  but  if  not,  then  most  disas- 
trous for  the  striker,  as  the  event  shewed  beyond  a  doubt. 
Every  eye  in  England,  Churchman's,  Nonconformist's, 
Romanist's,  must  needs  be  fixed  upon  the  Bishops  of 
the  Church :  the  breathless  anxiety  of  a  whole  nation 
awaited  their  decision,  and  the  decision  must  be  speedy, 
that  is,  if  we  remember  the  difficulties  which  then  im- 
peded communication,  and  seemed  likely  to  preclude  a 


293  SANCROFT. 

ready  concert  between  the  prelates.  The  clergy  of  Lon- 
don  in  those  days  enjoyed,  as  a  body,  a  great  reputation 
for  worth  and  learning.  Fowler  and  Patrick,  Stilling- 
fleet,  Sherlock,  and  Tillotson,  were  of  their  number; 
they  met  in  consultation,  and  determined  for  their  part 
to  refuse  the  reading  of  the  king's  declaration.  This 
resolution  they  made  known  to  the  archbishop,  who  had 
been  busy  in  the  meantime  to  summon  to  his  council  as 
many  of  his  brethren  as  it  was  possible.  A  copy  of  the 
letter  which  he  despatched  to  them  on  the  occasion  is  pre- 
served in  his  own  hand-writing. 

"  My  Lord, — This  is  only  in  my  own  name,  and  in 
the  names  of  some  of  our  brethren,  now  here  upon  this 
place,  earnestly  to  desire  you  immediately  upon  the 
receipt  of  this  letter  to  come  hither  with  what  conve- 
nient speed  you  can,  not  taking  notice  to  any  that  you 
are  sent  for.  Wishing  you  a  prosperous  journey  and 
us  all  a  happy  meeting. 

"  I  remain  your  loving  brother." 

On  the  12th  of  May,  a  meeting  took  place  at  Lambeth, 
where  there  were  present,  besides  Sancroft,  the  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  three  bishops,  Compton,  Turner,  and  White, 
together  with  Tenison ;  and  it  was  then  resolved  not  to 
read  the  declaration;  but  to  petition  the  king  to  dis- 
pense with  the  obedience  of  the  prelates,  and  to  entreat 
all  those  within  reach  of  London  "to  repair  to  the  aid  of 
their  brethren  forthwith.  On  the  18th  another  meeting 
took  place  at  the  archbishop's;  the  proposed  petition 
was  drawn  up,  written  in  the  primate's  own  hand,  and 
subscribed  as  well  by  him  as  by  the  following: — Dr. 
Lloyd,  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  Dr.  Ken,  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  Dr.  Turner,  of  Ely,  Dr.  Lake  of  Chichester,  Dr. 
White,  of  Peterborough,  and  Sir  Jonathan  Trelawney, 
of  Bristol. 


SANCROFT.  ^0S 

**The  humble  petition  of  William,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  of  divers  of  the  suffragan  bishops 
of  that  province  (now  present  with  him,)  in  behalf 
of  themselves  and  others  of  their  absent  brethren, 
and  of  the  clergy  of  their  respective  dioceses, 
humbly  sheweth, — 
*•  That  the  great  averseness  they  find  in  themselves 
to  the  distributing  and  publishing  in  all  their  churches 
your  majesty's  late  declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience, 
proceedeth  neither  from  any  want  of  duty  and  obedience 
to  your  majesty ;  our  holy  mother  the  Church  of  England 
being  both  in  her  principles  and  in  her  practice  unques- 
tionably loyal,  and  having,  to  her  great  honour,  been 
more  than  once  publicly  acknowledged  to  be  so  by  your 
gracious  majesty ;  nor  yet  from  any  want  of  due  tender- 
ness to  Dissenters,  in  relation  to  whom  they  are  willing 
to  come  to  such  a  temper  as  shall  be  thought  fit,  when 
that  matter  shall  be  considered  and  settled  in  parliament 
and  convocation.  But  among  many  other  considerations, 
from  this  especially,  because  that  declaration  is  formed 
upon  such  a  dispensing  power,  as  hath  been  often  de- 
clared illegal  in  parliament,  and  particularly  in  the  years 
1662  and  1672,  and  the  beginning  of  your  majesty's 
reign ;  and  is  a  matter  of  so  great  moment  and  conse- 
quence to  the  whole  nation,  both  in  Church  and  State, 
that  your  petitioners  cannot  in  prudence,  honour,  or 
conscience,  so  far  make  themselves  parties  to  it,  as  the 
distribution  of  it  all  over  the  nation,  and  the  solemn 
publication  of  it  once  and  again,  even  in  God's  house 
and  in  the  time  of  His  Divine  Service,  must  amount  to, 
in  common  and  reasonable  construction. 

"And  your  petitioners  will  ever  pray." 

The  petition  once   drawn   up  and  signed,  there  was 

no  trace  of  hesitation  or  delay  visible  in  the  conduct  of 

the  bishops.   Sancroft,  who   as  we  have  already  stated,- 

had  the  honour  to  be  under  the  king's  especial  displea- 

c  c3 


^U  SANCROFT. 

sure,  for  having  denied  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission 
the  sanction  of  his  venerable  name,  was  unable  to  appear 
at  court,  indeed  had  been  for  two  years  forbidden  so  to 
do. — (See  Life  of  Bishop  Compton.) — But  the  other  six 
subscribers  proceeded  at  once  to  seek  an  interview  from 
the  king,  in  order  to  present  their  petition.  Of  this 
interview  no  better  account  can  be  given  than  that  which 
is  printed  amongst  the  other  MSS.  of  the  archbishop, 
of  which  the  originals  are  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
at  Oxford. 

In  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  the  petition  being 
finished,  all  the  subscribers,  except  the  archbishop,  who 
had  been  forbidden  the  court  almost  two  years  before, 
went  over  to  Whitehall  to  deliver  it  to  the  king.  In 
order  thereto  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  went  first  to  the 
Earl  of  Middleton,  principal  secretary,  in  the  name  of 
all  the  rest,  to  desire  his  assistance  for  the  introducing 
them  to  his  majesty ;  but  he  had  been  sick  for  a  fort- 
night before,  and  so  confined  to  his  chamber.  Then 
St.  Asaph,  (his  brethren  staying  at  the  Earl  of  Dart- 
mouth's house,)  went  and  made  the  like  application  to 
the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  desiring  him  to  peruse  the 
petition,  and  acquaint  his  majesty  with  it,  that  he  might 
not  be  surprised  at  the  delivery  of  it;  and,  withal,  to 
beseech  his  majesty  to  assign  the  time  and  place,  when 
and  where,  they  might  all  attend  him,  and  present  this 
petition.  The  earl  refused  to  inspect  the  petition,  but 
went  immediately  and  acquainted  the  king  with  their 
desire,  and  they  were  presently  thereupon  brought  to 
the  king  in  his  closet,  within  his  bed-chamber,  when  the 
Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  with  the  rest  (all  being  upon  their 
knees,)  delivered  their  petition  to  his  majesty.  The 
king  was  pleased  (at  first)  to  receive  the  petitioners  and 
their  petition  very  graciously,  and  upon  the  first  opening 
of  it  to  say.  This  is  my  Lord  of  Canterbury's  own  hand  ? 
to  which  the  bishops  replied,  Yes,  sir,  it  is  his  own  hand. 


SANCROFT.  295 

But  the  king  having  read  it  over,  and  then  folding  it  up, 
said  thus,  or  to  this  effect : — 

"  King. — This  is  a  great  surprise  to  me  :  here  are 
strange  words.  I  did  not  expect  this  from  you.  This 
is  a  standard  of  rebellion. 

**  St.  Asaph,  and  some  of  the  rest,  replied,  that  they 
had  adventured  their  lives  for  his  majesty,  and  would 
lose  the  last  drop  of  their  blood  rather  than  lift  a  finger 
against  him. 

"  King, — I  tell  you  this  is  a  standard  of  rebellion.  I 
never  saw  such  an  address. 

"  Bristol  (falling  down  upon  his  knees)  said.  Rebellion ! 
Sir,  I  beseech  your  majesty,  do  not  say  so  hard  a  thing 
of  us.  For  God's  sake  do  not  believe  we  are,  are  can  be, 
guilty  of  a  rebellion.  'Tis  imposible  that  I  or  any  of  my 
family  should  be  so.  Your  majesty  cannot  but  remember 
that  you  sent  me  down  into  Cornwall  to  quell  Monmouth's 
rebellion,  and  I  am  as  ready  to  do  what  I  can  to  quell 
another,  if  there  were  occasion. 

"  Chichester. — Sir,  we  have  quelled  one  rebellion,  and 
will  not  raise  another. 

"  Ely. — We  rebel,  sir  !  We  are  ready  to  die  at  your 
feet. 

"  Bath  and  Wells. — Sir,  I  hope  you  will  give  that 
liberty  to  us  which  you  allow  to  all  mankind. 

"  Peterborough. — Sir,  you  allow  liberty  of  conscience  to 
all  mankind ;  but  really  this  declaration  is  against  our 
conscience. 

"  King. — I  will  keep  this  paper.  'Tis  the  strangest 
address  I  ever  saw  ;  it  tends  to  rebellion.  Do  you  ques- 
tion my  dispensing  powers  ?  Some  of  you  have  printed 
and  preached  for  it  when  it  was  for  your  purpose. 

"  Peterborough. — Sir,  what  we  say  of  the  dispensing 
power  refers  only  to  what  was  declared  in  parliament. 

"  King. — The  dispensing  power  was  never  questioned 
by  the  Church  of  England. 

'•  St.   Asaph. — It   was  declared    against   in   the   first 


296  SANCROFT. 

parliament,  called  by  his  late  majesty,  and  by  that 
which  was  called  by  your  majesty. 

"  King. — (Insisting  upon  the  tendency  of  the  petition 
to  rebellion)  said,  He  would  have  his  declaration  pub- 
lished. 

"  B.  and  W. — We  are  bound  to  fear  God  and  honour 
the  king.  We  desire  to  do  both ;  we  will  honour  you, 
we  must  fear  God. 

"  King. — Is  this  what  I  have  deserved,  who  have  sup- 
ported the  Church  of  England,  and  will  support  it?  I 
will  remember  you  that  have  signed  this  paper,  I  will 
keep  this  paper ;  I  will  not  part  with  it,  I  did  not  expect 
this  from  you  ;  especially  some  of  you.  I  will  be  obeyed 
in  publishing  my  declaration. 

"  B.  and  W. — God's  will  be  done. 

"  King.— What's  that? 

**  B.  and  W. — God's  wiU  be  done,  and  so  said  Peter- 
borough. 

"  King. — If  I  think  fit  to  alter  my  mind,  I  will  send 
to  you.  God  hath  given  me  this  dispensing  power, 
and  I  will  maintain  it.  I  tell  you  there  are  seven 
thousand  men,  and  of  the  Church  of  England  too,  that 
have  not  bowed  their  knees  to  Baal. 

"  This  is  the  sum  of  what  passed ;  as  far  as  the 
bishops  could  recollect  it ;  and  this  being  said  they  were 
dismissed." 

The  same  night  the  petition  was  printed  and  circu- 
lated ;  by  whom  it  is  not  known,  certainly  not  by  the 
bishops  themselves ;  but  all  London  and  all  England 
soon  knew  that  the  Church  and  the  Crown  were  fairly 
confronted.  The  bishops  had  parried  the  blow,  and  the 
king  must  either  strike  again  or  tacitly  allow  himself  to 
be  defeated.  As  for  the  declaration  and  the  order  to 
read  it  in  the  churches,  they  were  waste  paper;  the 
chief  effect  produced  by  this  publication  being  this,  that 
Baxter  and  all  the  wiser  and  truer  of  his  Nonconformist 


SANCROFT.  29t 

brethren,  took  occasion  to  use  the  granted  indulgence  of 
preaching  to  thank  and  to  extol  the  bishops  for  their 
determination.  In  London,,  four  only  of  the  parochial 
clergy  could  be  found  to  read  it — in  all  England  not 
above  two  hundred,  out  of  a  body  of  ten  thousand, 
would  do  so;  and  in  the  diocese  of  Durham,  Bishop 
Crew,  a  creature  of  the  king's,  is  said  to  have  suspended 
nearly  two  hundred  of  his  clergy  for  refusing  to  read  to 
their  people  the  royal  declaration.  Even  in  those  few 
churches  where  the  reading  was  attempted,  the  congre- 
gations in  many  cases  rose  and  left  the  churches  so  soon 
as  the  first  words  were  pronounced.  Such  was  the  case 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  where  Sprat,  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  officiated  as  dean,  and  could  scarce  hold  the 
paper  in  hand  for  trembhng.  At  Whitehall  it  was  read 
by  a  chorister,  for  want  of  a  better ;  at  Sergeant's  Inn, 
the  chief  justice  desiring  it  to  be  read,  the  clerk  signifi- 
cantly declared  that  he  had  forgotten  it.  Similar  scenes 
were  enacted  upon  the  second  of  the  two  appointed  Sun- 
days. On  that  day,  however,  the  27th  of  May,  the  king 
had  taken  his  resolution,  and  late  in  the  evening  a  king's 
messenger  arrived  at  Lambeth  to  serve  upon  the  arch- 
bishop a  summons,  by  which  he  was  required  to  appear 
before  his  majesty  in  council,  on  the  eighth  of  June, 
to  answer  for  a  misdemeanor ;  a  similar  summons  was 
served  at  once  upon  such  others  of  the  right  reverend  peti- 
tioners as  were  then  in  London,  and  despatched  after 
the  absent  ones  into  their  several  dioceses. 

On  the  day  appointed,  about  five  in  the  evening,  the 
whole  seven  attended  at  Whitehall,  and  upon  being  ques- 
tioned by  the  chancellor  and  the  king  as  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  petition,  whether  it  was  indeed  in  the  arch- 
bishop's hand,  they  at  first,  acting  upon  the  advice  of 
their  counsel,  were  unwilling  to  be  explicit  in  answer. 
The  archbishop  addressed  himself  to  James  and  said, 
"  Sir,  I  am  called  hither  as  a  criminal,  which  I  never 
was  before  in  my  life,  and  little  thought  I  ever  should 


S98  SANCROFT. 

be,  and  especially  before  your  majesty;  but  since  it 
is  my  unhappiness  to  be  so  at  this  time,  I  hope 
your  majesty  will  not  be  offended  that  I  am  cau- 
tious of  answering  questions.  No  man  is  obliged  to 
answer  questions  that  may  tend  to  the  accusing  of 
himself." 

His  majesty  called  this  chicanery,  and  hoped  he  would 
not  deny  his  hand ;  whereupon  Lloyd,  of  St.  Asaph, 
urged  that  all  divines  of  all  Christian  churches  were 
agreed  in  allowing  a  man  in  their  circumstances  to 
refuse  an  answer.  Still  the  king  pressed  for  one,  and 
at  last,  the  primate  said,  that  if  he  gave  one  it  must 
be  at  the  king's  express  command,  "  trusting  to  your 
majesty's  justice  and  generosity  that  we  shall  not  suffer 
for  our  obedience."  The  king  refused  then  to  give  an 
express  command,  and  the  chancellor  bade  them  then 
to  withdraw ;  they  did  so  for  a  short  time,  and,  upon 
their  return,  were  commanded  expressly  by  James  to 
answer,  and  then,  conceiving  their  condition  to  be 
allowed,  they  owned  the  petition.  Again  they  were 
bidden  to  withdraw,  and  a  third  time  were  summoned 
into  the  royal  presence  for  the  purpose  of  being  told 
by  Jeffreys  that  they  should  be  proceeded  against  "  with 
all  fairness,  so  he  was  pleased  to  say,  in  Westminster 
Hall ;  they  were  then  desired  to  enter  into  recogni- 
zances ;  but  to  this  also,  by  the  advice  given  beforehand 
to  them  by  eminent  counsel,  they  objected;  and  although 
the  archbishop  professed  himself  and  his  brethren  ready 
to  appear  and  answer  whensoever  they  should  be  called 
upon,  neither  the  king  nor  the  chancellor  upon  that 
occasion,  nor  the  Earl  of  Berkeley,  who  afterwards 
endeavoured  to  alter  their  determination,  could  prevail 
upon  them  to  disregard  their  determination,  could  pre- 
vail upon  them  to  disregard  their  counsel's  advice. 
The  key  to  their  conduct  on  this  occasion  is  to  be  found 
in  a  letter  from  the  Bishop  of  Ely  to  the  primate  which 
runs  as  follows  :— - 


SANCROFT.  290 

"  Ely  House,  Friday  mom. 
**  May  it  please  your  grace, — We  spent  much  time 
yesternight  with  our  ablest  and  kindest  advisers,  who 
are  unanimous  in  their  opinion,  that  we  should  by  no 
means  answer  particular  questions,  but  keep  to  the 
generals ;  what  are  the  matters  of  misdemeanour  against 
us  ;  and  desire  a  copy  of  our  charge.  Two  of  our  num- 
ber had  a  long  discourse  (even  'till  past  eleven  at 
night)  with  Sir  R.  Sawry,  from  whom  we  received  more 
instruction  than  from  all  the  rest.  That  conference  is 
summed  up  in  the  enclosed  half  sheet  of  paper,  and 
our  measures  of  answering  are  set  down  to  us.  The 
other  papers  are  the  minutes  out  of  the  counsel's  book 
in  my  Lord  Lovelace's  case.  All  our  wise  friends  are 
of  the  mind  that  we  should  give  no  recognizances.  We 
shall  attend  your  grace  between  two  and  three.  (Cum 
deo.)        Your  grace's  most  obedient  servant, 

"Fea.  Ely." 

The  next  step  was  taken  by  the  king  :  the  bishops  were 
committed  to  the  Tower,  by  a  warrant  which  fourteen 
privy  councillors  subscribed,  and  at  the  same  time  an 
order  in  council  (signed  by  nineteen  hands,  amongst 
which  is  observable  that  of  Father  Peter  the  Jesuit)  was 
issued  for  their  prosecution  by  the  law  officers  of  the 
crown  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench. 

Never,  perhaps,  if  we  except  the  day  on  which  these 
same  illustrious  and  venerable  accused  were  taken  from 
their  prison  to  the  Justice-hall  at  Westminster,  never 
were  the  banks  of  lordly  Thames  the  theatre  of  such  a 
scene,  as  they  displayed,  when  these  reverend  champions 
of  a  nation's  and  a  church's  liberties  embarked  under 
an  armed  escort  for  the  Tower  of  London.  You  might 
have  thought,  but  for  their  unwonted  attendants,  that 
these  prelates  were  pacing  in  solemn  procession  the  long 
drawn  isle  of  some  giant  cathedral ;  for  on  the  river's 
banks  a  countless  multitude,  forgetful  of  the  noise  and 


300  SANCROFT. 

riot  of  a  popular  display  of  feeling,  knelt  in  reverence 
to  receive  with  prayers  and  tears  the  dignified  and  calm 
benediction  of  the  persecuted  Churchmen.  Nay,  the 
very  guards  caught  the  spirit  of  the  crowd's  emotion,  for 
they  too  upon  landing,  knelt,  and  craved  the  blessing 
of  their  prisoners.  It  was  a  solemn  hour  too,  that  hour 
of  landing,  it  was  the  time  of  evening  prayer,  and  from 
the  barge  that  brought  them,  the  bishops  forthwith  betook 
themselves  to  the  Tower  Chapel,  where,  by  a  coincidence 
that  did  not  fail  to  strike  the  minds  of  all  men,  the 
second  lesson  for  the  evening  service  proved  to  be  that 
chapter  of  St,  Paul,  in  which  these  fitting  words  occur : 
"  Giving  no  offence  in  anything,  that  the  ministry  be 
not  blamed  ;  but  in  all  things  approving  ourselves  as 
ministers  of  God,  in  much  patience,  in  affiictions,  in 
necessities,  in  distress,    in  stripes,    in    imprisonment." 

The  fifteenth  day  of  June  saw  again  upon  the  river  a 
band  of  prisoners  passing  in  solemnity  and  triumph  to 
their  trial.  A  writ  of  Habeas  brought  the  bishops  upon 
that  day  before  the  King's  Bench.  "  Of  the  immense 
concourse  of  people,"  says  the  Pope's  Nuncio,  writing  to 
his  court  the  events  of  that  day — "  who  received  them 
on  the  banks  of  the  river,  the  majority  in  their  imme- 
diate neighbourhood  were  upon  their  knees ;  the  Arch- 
bishop laid  his  hands  on  the  heads  of  such  as  he  could 
reach,  exhorting  them  to  continue  stedfast  in  their  faith  ; 
they  cried  aloud  that  all  should  kneel,  while  tears  flowed 
from  the  eyes  of  many." 

In  court,  the  bishops  were  attended  by  nine  and 
twenty  peers,  who  had  offered  to  be  their  sureties  in 
case  of  need.  Their  counsel  consisted  of  Sir  Francis 
Pemberton,  and  Mr.  Pollexton,  accounted  the  most 
learned  among  the  elder  lawyers,  Sir  Creswell  Levins, 
who  endeavoured  subsequently  to  back  out  of  the  duty 
of  their  defence,  but  was  compelled  by  the  attornies  to 
proceed,  Sir  Robert  Sawyer,  Mr.  Trely,  and  Mr.  Somers, 
a  man,  as  it  subsequently  proved,  of  superior  intellect 


SANCROFT.  SOi 

and  great  attainments,  who  being  at  that  time  in  his 
thirty-eighth  year,  was  yet  at  one  of  the  consultations 
held  upon  this  matter  objected  to  as  a  person  too  young 
and  too  obscure  to  be  retained  in  so  important  a  cause. 
They  also  had  the  benefit  of  Sir  John  Holt's  advice, 
a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Gray's  Inn,  whose  name  does 
not  appear  in  the  list  of  their  counsel ;  but  who  was 
recommended  to  them  as  a  person  both  able  and  desirous 
to  serve  them,  by  Compton,  the  suspended  Bishop  of 
London.  The  bench  was  as  unfavourable  to  their  cause 
as  it  was  possible  for  it  to  be.  The  Lord  Chief  Justice, 
Sir  Robert  Wright,  and  Mr.  Justice  HoUoway,  had  been 
placed  there  by  the  unscrupulous  James,  to  betray  rather 
than  to  explain  or  to  administer  uprightly  the  law. 
Allibone,  who  is  described  in  contemporaries  as  an 
angry  Papist,  was  virtually  to  try  his  own  cause;  for 
his  seat  on  the  bench  depended  solely  upon  that  dis- 
pensing power  of  the  king  against  which  was  in  effect 
directed  the  petition  of  the  bishops — his  spirit  too  was 
subsequently  shown  by  his  conduct  at  the  Croydon  as- 
sizes, where  in  the  teeth  of  the  acquittal  pronounced 
upon  the  bishops,  he  had  the  audacity  to  stigmatise 
them  in  his  charge  as  guilty  of  a  seditious  libel,  the 
very  accusation  which  had  been  pronounced  null  and 
void  in  the  court  in  which  he  himself  sat  upon  their 
trial.  One  impartial  judge  then  was  all  that  could  be 
counted,  it  was  Mr.  Justice  Powell,  whom,  for  his  im- 
partiality, James  arbitrarily  dismissed  within  a  fortnight 
of  the  bishops'  acquittal. 

The  day's  proceedings  commenced  by  reading  the  writ 
and  return  under  which  the  bishops  were  brought  into 
court.  The  attorney-general  then  moved  that  the  infor- 
mation also  be  read,  and  the  bishops  be  called  upon 
to  plead.  To  which  their  council  objected  on  the 
ground  of  irregularity  in  the  warrant,  and  also  because 
the  bishops  being  peers  of  parliament  could  not  lawfully 
be  committed  for  trial — they  contended,  therefore,  that 

YOL.  VIII,  D    D 


303  SANCKOFT. 

their  lordships  were  not  legally  in  court.  The  bench  over- 
ruled both  objections,  and,  after  three  hours  debating, 
it  was  determined  that  the  bishops  should  plead,  and 
that  without  delay.  They  pleaded  Not  guilty,  and  upon 
their  own  recognizances  (£200  the  archbishop,  £100 
the  rest)  to  appear  on  the  trial,  which  then  was  fixed 
for  the  29th  of  June,  they  were  enlarged.  Even  in 
this  stage  of  the  affair,  the  joy  of  the  people  seems  to 
have  been  unbounded ;  and  yet,  relying  upon  the  temper 
of  the  bench,  hoping,  perhaps,  to  tamper  with  the  jury, 
which  the  king  took  measures  to  effect,  in  a  private 
interview  with  Sir  Samuel  Astry,  clerk  of  the  crown, 
whose  business  it  was  to  form  that  body — the  court 
party  were  confident  enough  as  to  the  result  of  the  trial, 
and  the  ominous  words,  fines,  imprisonment,  suspension, 
found  their  way  into  the  talk  of  the  town. 

Again  the  appointed  day  came  round,  and  again  the 
unshaken  champions  of  the  nation's  and  the  Church's 
right,  came  into  court,  surrounded  by  admiring  friends, 
and  bringing  with  them  the  anxious  earnest  sympathy 
of  almost  all  their  fellow-subjects.  It  was  a  strange 
sight  for  those  who  could  remember  the  ties  which  some 
forty  years  before  had  bound  together  England's  bishops 
and  her  king — who  could  remember  how  Laud's  blood 
shed  upon  the  scaffold  had  been  but  precursor  of  the 
blood  of  Charles :  it  was  strange  for  them  to  see  the 
primate  and  his  brethren  stand  confronted  with  the 
legal  officers  of  James — to  see  the  prelates  of  a  Church 
which  counted  the  father  as  her  martyr  arraigned  as 
seditious  libellers  by  order  of  his  Popish  son. 

But  in  truth,  had  the  circumstances  of  the  case  been 
other  than  they  were,  had  the  question  to  be  tried 
involved  no  such  momentous  consequences  as  it  did, 
had  the  people,  had  the  Church  of  England,  nay  had 
the  whole  of  Protestant  Europe,  possessed  no  interest  so 
vital  and  so  deep  in  the  doings  of  that  day,  as  certainly 
was  theirs,  still  the  very  persons  of  the  calm  and  dignified 


SANCROFT.  303 

accused  bore  with  them  such  character,  such  dignity,  as 
to  make  for  ever  memorable  the  day  which  heard  them 
tried. 

On  the  day  of  their  final  trial  the  bench  was  filled  by 
the  men  mentioned  before,  Wright  and  Powell,  Allibone 
and  Holloway.  The  king's  counsel  first  found  a  difii- 
culty  in  proving  the  hand-writing  of  the  bishops  who 
had  subscribed  the  petition,  and  here  an  important 
witness,  Blaithwaite,  clerk  of  the  privy  council,  was 
forced  at  last  by  Pemberton's  close  questioning  to  ac- 
knowledge the  circumstances  under  which  the  bishops 
had  owned  it  to  the  king;  and  though  no  promise  of 
his  majesty  could  be  adduced  directly  intimating  that 
he  accepted  the  condition  of  impunity  attached  by  them 
to  their  confession — still  it  was  apparent  to  all  men  that 
the  sovereign's  honour  was  tarnished  by  taking  advan- 
tage of  a  confession  made  as  theirs  had  been.  Then  the 
defendants'  counsel  insisted  much  upon  the  indictment 
being  laid  in  a  wrong  county,  in  Middlesex,  instead  of 
Surrey,  where  the  alleged  libel  must  needs,  as  it  was 
shewn,  have  been  written.  After  this  they  objected  to 
the  word  publislimg,  reminding  the  court  that  the  petition 
was  presented  in  the  most  private  way  imaginable  to  the 
king,  and  to  no  other  person.  Hereupon  things  were 
drawing  to  a  close,  the  Chief  Justice  was  beginning  to 
sum  up,  when  he  was  interrupted  by  Mr.  Finch,  who, 
on  behalf  of  the  bishops,  asked  him,  whether  what  had 
been  said  concerning  the  writing  and  publication  was 
evidence  or  no. — "  For,"  said  he,  as  it  seemed  incau- 
tiously, "if  it  be  evidence,  we  have  other  matter  to  offer 
in  answer."  The  king's  solicitor-general  took  advantage 
of  the  interruption  to  send  for  Lord  Sunderland,  the 
president  of  the  council,  who  upon  the  18th  of  May  had 
presented  the  bishops  to  the  king.  The  bishops'  other 
counsel  were  dissatisfied  with  Mr.  Finch,  and  wished  the 
chief  justice  to  proceed  forthwith  ;  this  he  refused  to  do, 
and  an  hour  was  spent  in  waiting  for  Lord  Sunderland, 


804  SANCROFT. 

When  he  came,  his  evidence  given  upon  oath  could  not 
fully  prove  the  delivery  of  the  petition  to  the  king ;  after 
its  giving,  the  bishops  council  were  asked  what  else  they 
had  to  plead.  And  now,  thanks  to  Mr.  Finch's  most 
fortunate  interruption,  as  we  must  call  it  at  this  day,  the 
serious  debate  began  in  which,  with  equal  boldness  and 
skill,  the  defendants'  advocates  disproved  the  charge  of 
seditious  libelling  brought  against  their  clients,  and, 
which  to  the  nation  was  of  weightier  import  still,  estab- 
lished beyond  doubt  the  illegality  of  this  famous  dis- 
pensing power,  the  engine  which  had  wrought  the 
greatest  mischiefs  done  by  James  to  the  State  and  the 
Church  committed  to  his  kingly  care.  Wright  and  Alli- 
bone  charged  against  the  bishops  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. Holloway,  contrary  to  expectation,  found  heart 
to  speak  in  favour  of  them,  for  which  he  shared  the 
disgrace  of  Powell,  who  manfully  maintained  that  the 
charges  of  libel  or  sedition  were  alike  evidently  unproved 
against  the  right  reverend  defendants,  and  asserted  that 
the  declaration  which  they  had  refused  to  read,  sup- 
posed in  the  king  a  power  of  dispensation  unknown  to 
the  laws  of  Britain.  All  night  the  jury  passed  in 
consultation,  and  all  night  long  the  bishops'  friends 
watched  anxiously  the  door  of  the  room  in  which  they 
were  confined.  Next  morning,  between  the  hours  of 
niue  and  ten,  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  shewed  such  as 
you  see  it  in  Mr.  Herbert's  painting  of  the  event.  It 
was  not  seven  men,  nor  seven  bishops,  but  England, 
that  awaited  there  the  saying  of  the  jury's  foreman,  Sir 
Roger  Langley;  and  aa  the  words  Not  Guilty  dropped 
from  that  foreman's  lips,  it  seemed  as  if  all  England 
had  caught  up  and  was  pealing  them.  You  might  have 
said  a  crested  billow,  fierce  but  impotent,  had  dashed 
itself  in  glassy  fragments  against  some  headland  of 
proud  rock  erect,  immovable,  and  that  along  the  shore 
from  bay  to  bay  the  echoing  coast  was  sounding  its 
discomfiture. 


SANCROFT.  305 

This  important  historical  event  it  has  been  necessary 
to  give  at  length,  and  we  have  used  the  words  of 
Mr.  Chermside.  It  is  referred  to  in  several  other  lives. 
The  remainder  of  Archbishop  Bancroft's  career  may  be 
briefly  told.  He  felt  that  he  ought  to  be  a  leader,  and 
yet  must  have  been  conscious  that  he  had  no  strength  of 
mind  to  lead.  He  was  an  excellent  martyr,  but  not 
fitted  for  a  general.  In  the  subsequent  events  of  the 
Revolution,  he  perceived  that  a  Revolution  was  neces- 
sary, and  yet  hesitated  to  transfer  his  oath  of  allegiance. 
He  would  have  accepted  William  as  a  regent,  the  king 
being  pronounced  to  be  incompetent  to  reign,  but  he 
would  not  concede  to  him  the  name  of  sovereign.  For 
refusing  to  take  the  oaths  to  William  and  Mary,  he 
was  suspended,  and  at  last  in  1691,  deprived  of  his 
archbishopric.  He  retired  to  his  paternal  estate  at 
Fresingfield,  respected  by  all  but  the  political  zealots  of 
the  Revolution,  and  reverenced  in  history,  if  not  as  a 
great,  yet  certainly  as  a  good  man ;  who  boldly  defended 
his  Church  against  a  tyrant,  and  yet  rendered  even  to 
that  tyrant  the  allegiance  he  conceived  to  be  due  to  his 
legitimate  sovereign. 

At  Fresingfield,  his  native  place,  he  lived  in  peace 
and  happiness.  After  he  had  made  the  great  sacrifice 
he  had  to  principle,  the  natural  turn  of  his  mind  must 
have  been  to  justify  to  himself  the  line  he  had  taken, 
by  confirming  and  strengthening  that  view  of  things  on 
which  the  resolution  was  founded.  In  addition  to  this, 
his  more  free  and  unreserved  communications  after  his 
retirement  were  principally  maintained  with  persons 
who  had  acted  on  the  same  views  with  himself;  and,  as 
many  of  these  carried  their  feelings  and  prejudices  on 
the  subject  which  divided  them  from  the  rest  of  the 
nation,  much  farther  than  he  did,  the  result  seems  to 
have  been  that  his  mind,  besides  being  confirmed  in  its 
approbation  of  the  part  which  he  had  taken,  gradually 
advanced  to  a  strong  conviction  of  the  error  and  even 

D  D    3 


306  SANCROFT. 

sinfulness  of  the  part  taken  by  others.  Thus,  as  we 
shall  find,  he  was  induced  to  think  and  speak  of  those 
of  the  prelates  and  clergy  who  refused  the  new  oath,  and 
were  in  consequence  ejected,  as  forming  the  true  Church 
of  England,  while  he  looked  upon  the  rest  who  remained 
in  possession  of  their  benefices,  or  were  appointed  to 
those  vacated  by  the  non-jurors,  as  forming  an  apostate 
and  rebellious  Church.  And,  under  the  influence  of  the 
same  feelings,  he  was  also  induced  to  take  steps  which 
no  friend  to  his  memory  can  justify  or  approve,  for  lay- 
ing the  foundation  of  a  permanent  schism  in  the  Church 
of  England. 

The  first  measure  which  he  took  for  this  purpose  was 
the  formal  consignment  of  his  archiepiscopal  powers,  on 
his  retiring  from  the  see,  to  Dr.  Lloyd,  the  deprived 
Bishop  of  Norwich. 

The  instrument,  by  which  he  appointed  Bishop  Lloyd 
his  vicar  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters,  is  dated  from  hig 
"hired  house,"  at  Fresingfield,  February  9th,  1691, 
rather  more  than  half  a  year  after  his  departure  from 
Lambeth.  He  styles  himself  in  it  ••  a  humble  minister 
of  the  metropolitan  Church  of  Canterbury."  He  states 
that,  having  been  driven  by  a  lay  force  from  the  house  of 
Lambeth,  and  not  finding  in  the  neighbouring  city  a 
place  where  he  could  conveniently  abide,  he  had  retired 
afar  off,  seeking  where,  in  his  old  age,  he  might  rest  his 
weary  head :  and,  as  there  remained  many  affairs  of 
great  moment  to  be  transacted  in  the  Church,  which 
could  be  most  conveniently  attended  to  by  one  resident 
in  London  or  its  vicinity,  he  therefore  appoints  him 
(Bishop  Lloyd)  his  vicar,  and  commits  to  him  all  the 
authority  belonging  to  his  place  and  pontifical  or  archie- 
piscopal office.  The  instrument  proceeds  "  whomsoever 
you,  my  brother,  as  occasion  may  require,  shall  take  and 
adjoin  to  yourself,  shall  choose  and  approve,  confirm  and 
appoint,  all  those,  as  far  as  of  right  I  can,  I  in  like 
manner  take  and  adjoin,  choose  and  approve,  confirm 


SANCROFT.  mt 

and  appoint.  In  a  word,  whatsoever  you  in  matters  of 
this  kind  may  do,  or  think  proper  to  be  done,  of  what- 
ever magnitude  or  description  it  may  be,  you  are  confi- 
dently to  impute  to  me." 

The  instrument  is  curious,  as  showing  the  state  of  the 
archbishop's  feeling  at  the  time,  and  the  firmness  with 
which  he  maintained  the  principles  he  had  imbibed. 
Bishop  Lloyd  continued  to  act  under  this  commission 
till  the  day  of  his  death,  but  with  so  much  caution  and 
prudence,  as  to  give  as  little  umbrage  as  possible  to  the 
bishops  who  were  in  possession  of  the  sees. 

A  second  measure,  which  he  took,  or  at  least  in  which 
he  concurred,  still  less  justifiable,  was  the  providing  for 
a  regular  succession  of  nonjuring  prelates  and  ministers. 
We  derive  our  principal  information  on  this  subject 
from  the  author  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  Kettle  well,  one  of 
the  most  eminent  nonjurors.  It  is  stated  that  at  some 
period  within  the  two  or  three  first  years  after  the 
Revolution,  probably  in  the  year  1691  or  1692,  the 
exiled  king  ordered  a  list  of  nonjuring  clergy  to  be 
sent  over  to  him ;  a  list  was  accordingly  made  out,  as 
perfect  as  could  be  procured  in  the  existing  state  of 
things,  considering  the  unwillingness  which,  for  obvious 
reasons,  many  must  have  felt  to  have  their  names  to 
a  pear  in  such  a  list.  Out  of  the  number  whose 
names  were  thus  sent  over,  it  is  related  that,  at  the 
request  of  the  nonjuring  bishops.  King  James  nominated 
two  for  the  continuance  of  the  episcopal  succession,  the 
one  to  derive  his  spiritual  functions  and  authority  from 
Archbishop  Sancroft,  the  other  from  Bishop  Lloyd,  of 
Norwich,  the  eldest  suffragan  bishop.  The  two  ap- 
pointed were  Dr.  George  Hickes  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Wagstaffe:  the  former  was  consecrated  by  the  title  of 
Suffragan  of  Thetford,  the  latter  by  that  of  Sufiragan  of 
Ipswich.  The  archbishop  died  before  their  consecration, 
and  his  archiepiscopal  functions  were  performed  on  the 


308  SANCROFT. 

occasion  by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  assisted  by  the  other 
nonjuring  bishops. 

His  death  occurred  on  the  24th  November,  1693. 
The  piety  of  his  last  moments  was  in  keeping  with  his 
whole  life.  Mr.  Needham  one  of  his  chaplains  men- 
tions a  few  particulars  relating  to  his  habits,  which  are 
given  as  illustrative  of  the  manners  of  that  age.  "  He 
was,"  he  states,  "  the  most  pious  humble  good  Christian 
I  ever  knew  in  all  my  life.  His  hours  for  chapel  were 
at  six  in  the  morning,  twelve  before  dinner,  three  in  the 
afternoon,  and  nine  at  night,  at  which  times  he  was  con- 
stantly present,  and  always  dressed.  His  usual  diet, 
when  it  was  not  fast  day,  was  two  small  dishes  of 
coffee,  and  a  pipe  of  tobacco,  for  breakfast;  at  noon, 
chicken,  or  mutton;  at  night,  a  glass  of  mum,  and  a 
bit  of  bread,  if  anything." 

•  Bancroft,  though  a  learned  and  laborious  scholar,  pub- 
lished but  little.  His  writings  are : — Three  Sermons, 
published  at  different  times,  and  reprinted  together  in 
1694,  8vo.  His  few  other  publications  consist  of  the 
Latin  Dialogue  already  mentioned,  entitled  Fur  Prsedes- 
tinatus,  sive,  Dialogismus  inter  quendum  Ordinis  Prae- 
dicantium  Calvinistam  et  Furem  ad  Laqueum  damnatum 
Habitus,  &c.,  1651,  12mo,  containing  an  attack  upon 
Calvinism ;  Modern  Politics,  taken  from  Machiavel,  Borgia, 
and  other  modern  Authors,  by  an  Eye-witness,  1653, 
12mo  ;  A  Preface  to  Bishop  Andrewes'  Defence  of  the 
Vulgar  Translation  of  the  Bible,  of  which  Sancroft  was 
the  editor.  In  1757,  Nineteen  Familiar  Letters  of  his 
to  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Henry  North,  of  Milden-hall, 
Bart.,  and  which  were  found  among  the  papers  of  that 
gentleman,  were  published  in  8vo.  His  numerous  col- 
lections in  MSS.  were  purchased  some  years  after  his 
death  by  Bishop  Tanner,  and  presented  to  the  Bodleian 
Library. — D'oyley.    Chetmside. 


SANDERS.  309 


SANDERS,    NICHOLAS. 


Nicholas  Sanders,  (see  Life  of  Jewell.)  Of  this  person 
the  following  account  is  given  by  Jeremy  Collier.  He 
was  born  in  Surrey,  and  educated  in  New  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  was  king's  professor  of  canon-law.  When 
the  times  turned  against  his  persuasion,  he  retired  to 
Rome,  where  he  was  ordained  priest,  and  commenced 
doctor  of  divinity.  He  attended  Cardinal  Hosius  to 
the  Council  of  Trent.  And  here  by  disputing  and 
making  speeches,  he  raised  himself  a  considerable  cha- 
racter. At  last  he  was  sent  Nuncio  into  Ireland,  which 
was  looked  on  as  a  hazardous  undertaking.  And  so  it 
proved ;  for  upon  the  miscarrying  of  his  treasonable 
practices,  he  was  forced  to  abscond  in  the  woods  and 
bogs,  where  he  perished  with  hunger.  This  Sanders 
was  a  desperate  rebel ;  his  business  in  Ireland,  as  Rish- 
ton,  who  published  his  history,  confesses,  was  to  raise 
the  natives  upon  the  government ;  or  to  speak  in  Rish- 
ton's  words,  to  comfort  the  afflicted  Catholics  who  had 
taken  the  field  in  defence  of  their  religion.  Cambden 
reports,  that  his  pormanteau,  found  about  him  when 
dead,  was  stuffed  with  letters  and  harangues  to  animate 
the  Irish  in  their  revolt.  And  here,  amongst  other 
things,  he  gave  them  great  expectations  of  succours  from 
the  pope  and  the  King  of  Spain. 

His  death  occurred  in  1583.  He  was  the  author  of: 
"  De  Origine  ac  Progressu  Schismatis  Anglicani,  Lib. 
III.,"  8vo,  which  was  published  from  his  manuscript, 
in  1585,  at  Cologne,  and  was  frequently  reprinted  in 
Catholic  countries.  The  manner  in  which  it  is  written, 
however,  justifies  the  severe  remark  of  Bayle,  that  it 
discovers  "  a  great  deal  of  passion  and  very  little  accuracy, 
two  qualities  which  generally  attend  each  other."  Bishop 
Burnet  has  noticed  a  vast  number  of  his  errors  and 
misstatements  towards  the  close  of  the  first  and  second 


310  SANDERSON. 

parts  of  his  "History  of  the  Reformation."  Sanders 
also  wrote  a  treatise,  entitled  "  Be  Clave  David,  seu 
Regno  Christi,"  published  in  1588,  &c.,"  "  De  Martyrio 
Quorundam  Tempore  Henrici  VIII.  et  Elizahethse,  4to, 
published  at  Cologne,  in  1610  ;  an  abusive  account  of 
"  The  Life  and  Manners  of  the  heretic,  Thomas  Cran- 
mer ;"  and  various  controversial  treatises  which  are  enu- 
merated in  Moreri.    Bayle. 


SANDEBSON,    ROBERT. 

Robert  Sanderson  was  born  at  Rotherham  in  York- 
shire, on  the  19th  of  September,  1587,  and  having  re- 
ceived his  primary  education  at  the  Grammar  School 
of  Rotherham,  he  proceeded  to  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 
Here  he  w^as  distinguished  for  his  industry  as  well  as 
for  his  genius,  and  as  regards  religion  he  tells  us  in 
the  preface  to  his  Sermons,  1657,  "I  had  a  desire  I 
may  truly  say,  almost  from  my  very  childhood,  to  under- 
stand as  much  as  it  was  possible  for  me,  the  bottom  of 
our  religion  ;  and  particularly  as  it  stood  in  relation  both 
to  the  Papists,  and  (as  they  were  then  styled)  Puritans ; 
to  inform  myself  rightly,  wherein  consisted  the  true 
differences  between  them  and  the  Church  of  England, 
together  with  the  grounds  of  those  differences  :  for  I 
could  even  then  observe  (which  was  no  hard  matter  to 
do),  that  the  most  of  mankind  took  up  their  religion 
upon  trust,  as  custom  or  education  framed  them  rather 
than  choice." 

At  the  university  he  generally  devoted  eleven  hours  a 
day  to  study ;  by  which  industry  he  was  enabled  at  an 
early  period  of  life  to  go  through  the  whole  course  of 
philosophy,  and  to  obtain  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
all  the  classical  authors.  From  most  of  these  he  made 
large  extracts ;  and  he  also  drew  up  indexes  to  them 
for  his  private  use,  either  in  a  kind  of  Journal,  or  at 


SANDERSON.  311 

the  beginning  and  end  of  each  book.  The  same  assi- 
duity he  continued  to  practise  during  the  whole  of  his 
life,  not  only  avoiding,  but  perfectly  hating  idleness,  and 
earnestly  advising  others  to  "be  always  furnished  with 
somewhat  to  do,  as  the  best  way  to  innocence  and  plea- 
sure." In  ]  G06,  he  was  elected  fellow  of  his  college ; 
and  in  the  following  year  he  proceeded  M.A.  In  1608, 
he  was  chosen  reader  of  logic ;  and  he  discharged  the 
duties  of  that  appointment  with  such  ability,  that  he 
was  rechosen  to  it  during  the  succeeding  year.  He 
also  distinguished  himself  greatly  in  the  capacity  of 
college-tutor.  In  1611,  he  was  admitted  to  holy  orders. 
Two  years  after  he  was  chosen  sub-rector  of  Lincoln 
College  ;  and  he  filled  the  same  office  in  1614  and  1616. 
In  1615,  he  published  his  lectures  on  logic,  under  the 
title  of  Logicse  Artis  Compendium,  8vo.  In  1617,  he 
took  the  degree  of  B.D. ;  and  in  1618,  he  was  presented 
to  the  Rectory  of  Wibberton,  in  Lincolnshire  :  this 
living  however,  he  resigned  in  the  following  year,  on 
account  of  the  unhealthiness  of  the  situation ;  and  about 
the  same  time  he  was  collated  to  the  Rectory  of  Boothby 
Pannell,  in  the  same  county. 

Here,  observes  Isaac  Walton,  in  his  quaint  and  plea- 
sant style,  he  was  so  happy  as  to  obtain  Anne,  the 
daughter  of  Henry  Nelson,  bachelor  in  divinity,  then 
Rector  of  Haugham,  in  the  county  of  Lincoln  (a  man  of 
noted  worth  and  learning.)  And  the  giver  of  all  good 
things  was  so  good  to  him,  as  to  give  him  such  a  wife  as 
was  suitable  to  his  own  desires ;  a  wife,  that  made  his 
life  happy  by  being  always  content  when  he  was  cheer- 
ful ;  that  was  always  cheerful  when  he  was  content ;  that 
divided  her  joys  with  him,  and  abated  of  his  sorrow,  by 
bearing  a  part  of  that  burden ;  a  wife,  that  demonstrated 
her  affection  by  a  cheerful  obedience  to  all  his  desires, 
during  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  at  his  death 
too  ;  for  she  outlived  him. 

And  in  this-  Boothby  Pannel  he  either  found  or  made 


312  SANDERSON. 

his  parishioners  peaceable,  and  complying  with  him  in 
the  constant,  decent,  and  regular  service  of  God.  And 
thus  his  parish,  his  patron  and  he,  lived  together  in  a 
religious  love,  and  a  contented  quietness  :  he  not  troub- 
ling their  thoughts  by  preaching  high  and  useless  no- 
tions, but  such,  and  only  such  plain  truths  as  were 
necessary  to  be  known,  believed,  and  practised  in  order 
to  the  honour  of  God  and  their  own  salvation.  And 
their  assent  to  what  he  taught  was  testified  by  such  a 
conformity  to  his  doctrine,  as  declared  they  believed  and 
loved  him.  For  it  may  be  noted  he  would  often  say, 
"  That  without  the  last,  the  most  evident  truths  (heard 
as  from  an  enemy,  or  an  evil  liver)  either  are  not,  (or  are 
at  least  the  less)  effectual ;  and  usually  rather  harden, 
than  convince  the  hearer." 

And  this  excellent  man,  did  not  think  his  duty  dis- 
charged by  only  reading  the  Church-prayers,  catechizing, 
preaching,  and  administering  the  sacraments  seasonably ; 
but  thought  (if  the  law,  or  the  canons  may  seem  to 
enjoin  no  more,  yet)  that  God  would  require  more  than 
the  defective  law  of  man's  making,  can  or  does  enjoin ; 
even  the  performance  of  that  inward  law,  which  Al- 
mighty God  hath  imprinted  in  the  conscience  of  all 
-■  good  Christians,  and  inclines  those  whom  he  loves  to 
perform.  He  considering  this,  did  therefore  become  a 
law  to  himself,  practising  not  only  what  the  law  enjoins, 
but  what  his  conscience  told  him  was  his  duty,  in 
reconciling  differences,  and  preventing  law-suits,  both 
in  his  parish  and  in  the  neighbourhood.  To  which  may 
be  added  his  often  visiting  sick  and  disconsolate  families, 
persuading  them  to  patience,  and  raising  them  from 
dejection  by  his  advice  and  cheerful  discourse,  and  by 
adding  his  own  alms,  if  there  were  any  so  poor  as  to 
need  it;  considering  how  acceptable  it  is  to  Almighty 
God,  when  we  do  as  we  are  advised  by  St.  Paul,  (Gal.  vi. 
2)  lieljp  to  hear  one  another's  burthen,  either  of  sorrow  or 
want :  and  what  a  comfort  it  will  be,  when  the  searcher 


SANDEESON.  313 

of  all  hearts  shall  call  us  to  a  strict  account  as  well  for 
that  evil  we  have  done,  as  the  good  we  have  omitted; 
to  remember  we  have  comforted  and  been  helpful  to  a 
dejected  or  distressed  family. 

Soon  after  he  was  made  a  prebendary  of  the  Collegiate 
Church  of  Southwell.  In  16Q5,  he  was  chosen  one  of 
the  clerks  in  Convocation  for  the  Diocese  of  Lincoln ; 
as  he  was  also  in  all  the  subsequent  Convocations 
during  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  In  1629,  he  was  in- 
stalled into  a  prebend  in  the  Cathedral  of  Lincoln.  In 
1631,  at  the  recommendation  of  Laud,  then  Bishop  of 
London,  the  king  appointed  him  one  of  his  chaplains 
in  ordinary.  In  1633,  he  was  presented  to  the  Eectory 
of  Muston,  in  Leicestershire,  which  he  held  for  eight 
years. 

At  the  time  of  his  being  first  appointed  a  proctor  to 
Convocation,  the  vehemence  with  which  Calvinistic  pecu- 
liarities were  forced  upon  the  public  induced  Sanderson 
as  well  as  others  to  examine  the  subject ;  and  it  was 
about  the  year  1625,  that  he  drew  up  for  his  own  satis- 
faction, such  a  scheme  (he  called  it  Pax  EcclesicB)  as 
then  gave  himself,  and  has  since  given  others  such 
satisfaction,  that  it  still  remains  to  be  of  great  esti- 
mation. 

"  When  I  began,"says  he, "  to  set  myself  to  the  study  of 
divinity  as  my  proper  business,  which  was  after  I  had  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  being  then  nearly  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  the  first  thing  I  thought  fit  for  me  do,  was 
to  consider  well  of  the  articles  of  the  Church  of  England, 
which  I  had  formerly  read  over,  twice,  or  thrice,  and 
whereunto  I  had  subscribed.  And  because  I  had  then 
met  with  some  Puritanical  pamphlets  written  against 
the  liturgy  and  ceremonies,  although  most  of  the  argu- 
ments therein  are  such  as  needed  no  great  skill  to  give 
satisfactory  answers  unto,  yet  for  my  fuller  satisfaction 
(the  questions  being  de  rebus  agendis,  and  so  the  more 
suitable  to  my  proper  inclination)  I  read  over,  with  great 

VOL.  VIII.  B  E 


314  SANDERSON. 

diligence  and  no  less  delight,  that  excellent  piece  of 
learned  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  PoHty.  And  I  have 
great  cause  to  bless  God  for  it,  that  so  I  did,  not  only  for 
that  it  much  both  cleared  and  settled  my  judgment  for 
ever  after  in  many  very  weighty  points  (as  of  scandal, 
Christian  liberty,  obligation  of  laws,  obedience,  &c.) 
but  that  it  also  proved  (by  His  good  providence)  a  good 
preparative  to  me  (that  I  say  not  antidote)  for  the  reading 
of  Calvin's  Institutions  with  more  caution  than  perhaps 
otherwise  I  should  have  done.  For  that  book  was  com- 
mended to  me,  as  it  was  generally  to  all  young  scholars, 
in  those  times,  as  the  best  and  perfectest  system  of 
divinity,  and  fittest  to  be  laid  as  a  groundwork  in  the 
study  of  that  profession.  And  indeed,  being  so  prepared 
as  he  said,  my  expectation  was  not  at  all  deceived  in  the 
reading  of  those  Institutions.  I  found,  so  far  as  I  was  then 
able  to  judge,  the  method  exact,  the  expressions  clear, 
the  style  grave  and  unaffected  :  his  doctrine  for  the  most 
part  conform  to  St.  Augustine's  ;  in  a  word,  the  whole 
work,  very  elaborate,  and  useful  to  the  Churches  of  God 
in  a  good  measure ;  and  might  have  been,  I  verily  believe, 
much  more  useful,  if  the  honour  of  his  name  had  not 
given  so  much  reputation  to  his  very  errors.  I  must 
acknowledge  myself  to  have  reaped  great  benefit  by  the. 
reading  thereof.  But  as  for  the  questions  of  Election, 
Eeprobation,  Effectual  Grace,  Perseverance,  &c.,  I  took 
as  little  notice  of  the  two  first,  as  of  any  other  thing 
contained  in  the  book ;  both  because  I  was  always  afraid 
to  pry  much  into  those  secrets,  and  because  I  could  not 
certainly  inform  myself  from  his  own  writings,  whether 
he  were  a  Supralapsarian,  as  most  speak  him,  and  he 
seemeth  often  to  incline  much  that  way,  or  a  Sublapsa- 
rian,  as  sundry  passages  in  the  book  seem  to  import. 
But  giving  myself  mostly  still  to  the  study  of  moral 
divinity,  and  taking  most  other  things  upon  trust,  as 
they  were  in  a  manner  generally  taught,  both  in  the 
schools  and  pulpits  in  both  universities,  I  did  for  many 


SANDERSON.  315 

years  together  acquiesce,  without  troubling  myself  any 
further  about  them,  in  the  more  commonly  received 
opinions  concerning  both  these  two,  and  the  other  points 
depending  thereuj)on :  yet  in  the  Sublapsarian  way  ever, 
(which  seemed  to  me  of  the  two  the  more  moderate,) 
rational  and  agreeable  to  the  goodness  and  justice  of 
God ;  for  the  rigid  Supralapsarian  doctrine  could  never 
find  any  entertainment  in  my  thoughts,  from  first  to 
last. 

"  But  in  1625,  a  parliament  being  called,  wherein  I 
was  chosen  one  of  the  clerks  o-f  the  Convocation  for  the 
Diocese  of  Lincoln,  during  the  continnance  of  that  par- 
liament, which  was  about  four  months,  as  I  remember, 
there  was  some  expectation  that  those  Arminian  points, 
the  only  questions  almost  in  agitation  at  that  time, 
should  have  been  debated  by  the  clergy  in  the  Convo- 
cation. Which  occasioned  me,  as  it  did  sundry  others, 
being  then  at  some  leisure,  to  endeavour  by  study  and 
conference  to  inform  myself,  as  thoroughly  and  exactly 
in  the  state  of  those  controversies,  as  I  could  have  oppor- 
tunity, and  my  wit  could  serve  me  for  it.  In  order 
whereunto,  I  made  it  my  first  business  to  take  a  survey 
of  the  several  different  opinions  concerning  the  ordering 
of  God's  decrees,  as  to  the  salvation  or  damnation  of 
men :  not  as  they  are  supposed  to  be  really  in  mente 
divind,  (for  all  His  decrees  are  eternal,  and  therefore 
co-eternal,  and  therefore  no  priority  or  posteriority  among 
them)  but  quoad  nostrum  intelligendi  modum,  because  we 
cannot  conceive  or  speak  of  the  things  of  God,  but  in 
a  way  suitable  to  our  own  finite  condition  and  under- 
standing; even  as  God  Himself  hath  been  pleased  to 
reveal  Himself  to  us  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  by  the 
like  suitable  condescensions  and  accommodations.  Which 
opinions,  the  better  to  represent  their  differences  to  the 
eye  uno  quasi  intuitu,  for  their  more  easy  conveying  to 
the  understanding  by  that  means,  and  the  avoiding  of 
confusion  and  tedious  discoursings,  I  reduced  into  five 


316  SANDERSON. 

schemes  or  tables,  much  after  the  manner  as  I  had 
used  to  draw  pedigrees,  (a  thing  which  I  think  you 
know  I  have  very  much  fancied,  as  to  me  of  all  others 
the  most  delightful  recreation);  of  which  scheme,  some 
special  friends  to  whom  I  shewed  them,  desired  copies ; 
who,  as  it  seemeth,  valuing  them  more  than  I  did,  (for 
divers  men  have  copies  of  them,  as  I  hear,  but  I  do  not 
know  that  I  have  any  such  myself)  communicated  them 
farther,  and  so  they  are  come  into  many  hands.  These 
are  they  which  Dr.  Reynolds,  in  his  Epistle  prefixed  to 
Master  Barlee's  Correptory  Correction,  had  taken  notice 
of.  Having  all  these  schemes  before  my  eyes  at  once, 
so  as  I  might  with  ease  compare  them  one  with  another, 
and  having  considered  of  the  conveniences  and  incon- 
veniences of  each,  as  well  as  I  could,  I  soon  discerned 
a  necessity  of  quitting  the  Sublapsarian  way,  of  which 
I  had  a  better  liking  before,  as  well  as  the  Supralap- 
sarian,  which  I  could  never  fancy."  Dr.  Hammond's 
Pacific  Discourse  of  God's  Grace  and  Decrees,  a.  d. 
1660.  Hammond's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  669.  It  may  be 
worth  observing  that  this  collection  of  schemes  or  tables 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  tract  published  by 
Isaac  Walton  under  the  title  Pax  Ecclesice,  which  Wal- 
ton attributes  to  the  year  1625.  In  that  tract  it  is 
plain,  that  he  still  retains  the  Sublapsarian  opinion  : 
and  there  are  other  reasons  to  prove  that  the  tracts 
are  not  the  same. 

In  1636,  when  the  court  was  entertained  at  Oxford, 
Sanderson  was  created  D.D.  In  1642,  the  king  ap- 
pointed him  regius  professor  of  divinity  at  Oxford,  and 
canon  of  Christ  Church ;  but  he  was  prevented  by  the 
civil  wars  from  entering  on  his  professorship  till  four 
years  afterwards,  and  even  then  he  held  it  undisturbed 
only  little  more  than  twelve  months.  When,  in  1643, 
the  parliament  summoned  the  famous  Assembly  of 
Divines  to  meet  at  Westminster,  for  the  purpose  of 
deliberating  on  ecclesiastical  affairs,  Dr.  Sanderson  was 


SANDERSON.  317 

nominated  one  of  that  body.  However,  he  dedined 
taking  his  seat  amongst  them ;  and  afterwards  he  re- 
fused to  take,  at  first  the  Covenant,  and  then  the 
Engagement.  The  consequence  of  his  refusal  to  take 
the  Covenant,  was  the  sequestration  of  his  Rectory  of 
Boothby  Pannel,  in  1644;  but,  so  great  was  his  repu- 
tation for  piety  and  learning,  that  he  was  not  deprived 
of  it.  He  had  the  principal  share  in  drawing  up  "  The 
Reasons  of  the  University  of  Oxford  against  the  solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  the  negative  Oath,  and  the  Ordi- 
nances concerning  Discipline  and  Worship;"  and  when 
the  parliament  had  sent  proposals  to  the  king  for  a  peace 
in  Church  and  state,  his  majesty  desired  that  Dr. 
Sanderson,  with  the  Doctors  Hammond,  Sheldon,  and 
Morley,  should  attend  him,  and  give  him  their  advice  how 
far  he  might  with  a  good  conscience  comply  with  them. 
This  request  was  at  that  time  rejected;  but  in  1647, 
and  1648,  when  his  majesty  w^as  at  Hampton  Court,  and 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  it  was  complied  with,  and  Dr.  San- 
derson both  preached  before  the  king,  and  had  many 
public  and  private  conferences  with  him,  from  which  his 
majesty  declared  that  he  received  the  greatest  satisfac- 
tion. While  he  was  at  Hampton  Court,  by  the  king's 
desire  he  drew  up  a  treatise,  containing  his  sentiments 
on  the  proposal  which  parliament  had  made  for  the 
abolition  of  episcopal  government  as  inconsistent  with 
monarchy.  What  he  wrote  upon  this  subject  was 
published  in  1661,  under  the  title  of  Episcopacy,  as 
established  by  Law  in  England,  not  prejudicial  to  regal 
Power,  8vo.  In  1648,  Dr.  Sanderson,  on  account  of  his 
adherence  to  the  royal  cause,  was  ejected  from  his  pro- 
fessorship and  canonry  at  Oxford  by  the  parliamentary 
visitors,  and  withdrew  to  his  living  of  Boothby  Pannell ; 
whence  he  was  soon  after  carried  prisoner  by  the  parha- 
mentary  party  to  Lincoln,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
exchanged  for  Mr.  Clarke,  a  Puritan  divine  and  minister 
of  Allington,  who  had  been  made  prisoner  by  the  king's 
E  E  3 


318  SANDERSON. 

party.  This  exchange  having  been  agreed  upon,  Dr. 
Sanderson  was  released  upon  articles,  by  which  it  was 
engaged  that  he  should  be  restored  to  his  living,  and 
that  he  should  remain  there  undisturbed. 

Here,  observes  Walton,  he  hoped  to  have  enjoyed  him- 
self in  a  poor,  yet  in  a  quiet  and  desired  ^J^ivacy ;  but 
it  proved  otherwise.  For  all  corners  of  the  nation  were 
filled  with  Covenanters,  confusion,  committee-men,  and 
soldiers,  defacing  monuments,  breaking  painted  glass 
windows,  and  serving  each  other  to  their  several  ends, 
of  revenge,  or  power,  or  profit;  and  these  committee- 
men and  soldiers  were  most  of  them  so  possessed  with 
this  covenant  that  they  became  like  those  that  were 
infected  with  that  dreadful  plague  of  Athens ;  the  plague 
of  which  plague  was,  that  they  by  it  became  maliciously 
restless  to  get  into  company,  and  to  joy  (so  the  historian 
saith)  when  they  had  infected  others,  even  those  of  their 
most  beloved  or  nearest  friends  or  relations ;  and  so 
though  there  might  be  some  of  these  covenanters  that 
were  beguiled,  and  meant  well ;  yet  such  were  the 
generality  of  them,  and  temper  of  the  times,  that  you 
may  be  sure  Dr.  Sanderson,  who  though  quiet  and 
harmless,  yet  was  an  eminent  dissenter  from  them, 
could  therefore  not  live  peaceably  ;  not  did  he.  For  the 
soldiers  would  appear,  and  visibly  oppose  and  disturb 
him  in  the  church  when  he  read  prayers,  some  of  them 
pretending  to  advise  him  how  God  was  to  be  served  more 
acceptably ;  which  he  not  approving,  but  continuing 
to  observe  order  and  decent  behaviour  in  reading  the 
Church  service,  they  forced  his  book  from  him,  and  tore 
it,  expecting  extemporary  prayers. 

At  this  time  he  was  advised  by  a  parliament  man  of 
power  and  note,  that  loved  and  valued  him  much,  not 
to  be  strict  in  reading  all  the  Common  Prayer,  but  to 
make  some  little  variation,  especially  if  the  soldiers  came 
to  watch  him ;  for  if  he  did,  it  might  not  be  in  the 
power  of  him  and  his  other  friends  to  secure  him  from 


SANDERSON.  319 

taking  the  covenant,  or  sequestration :  for  which  reasons 
he  did  vary  somewhat  from  the  strict  rules  of  the  rubric. 

Of  the  Prayer  Book  he  told  his  friend  Isaac  Walton, 
"  That  the  Holy  Ghost  seemed  to  assist  the  composers ; 
and,  that  the  effect  of  a  constant  use  of  it  would  be, 
to  melt  and  form  the  soul  into  holy  thoughts  and 
desires  :  and  beget  habits  of  devotions."  This  he  said  : 
and  "  that  the  Collects  were  the  most  passionate,  proper, 
and  most  elegant  comprehensive  expressions  that  any 
language  ever  afforded;  and  that  there  was  in  them 
such  piety,  and  that,  so  interwoven  with  instructions, 
that  they  taught  us  to  know  the  power,  the  wisdom,  the 
majesty,  and  mercy  of  God,  and  much  of  our  duty  both 
to  Him  and  our  neighbour;  and  that  a  congregation 
behaving  themselves  reverently,  and  putting  up  to  God 
these  joint  and  known  desires  for  pardon  of  sins,  and 
their  praises  for  mercies  received,  could  not  but  be  more 
pleasing  to  God,  than  those  raw  unpremeditated  expres- 
sions which  many  understood  not,  and  so  to  which  many 
of  the  hearers  could  not  say  Amen." 

For  some  years  before  the  Restoration  the  hand  of 
poverty  pressed  heavily  upon  Dr.  Sanderson,  but  he 
bo»e  all  his  afflictions  with  unrepining  resignation,  and 
continued  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the  suffering  Church 
with  vigour  and  courage.  He  hazarded  his  safety,  says 
Walton,  by  writing  the  large  and  bold  preface,  now  ex- 
tant, before  his  Sermons,  first  printed  in  the  dangerous 
year,  1655.  With  respect  to  this  admirable  treatise,  it 
is  to  be  wished  that  it  were  printed  as  a  tract  and  cir- 
culated, as  being  adapted  to  the  present  age  as  much  as 
to  that  for  the  benefit  of  which  it  was  especially  written. 
One  or  two  extracts  we  shall  make.  Having  declared 
that  he  preached  as  much  against  Popery  as  against 
Protestantism,  he  remarks  of  the  Puritans,  "  that  they 
preach  against  Popery,  I  not  at  all  mishke  ;  only  I  could 
wish  that  these  two  cautions  were  better  observed,  than 
(as  far  as  I  can  make  conjecture  of  the  rest,  by  the  pro- 


320  SANDERSON. 

portion  of  what  hath  come  to  my  knowledge),  I  fear  they 
usually  are,  by  the  more  zealous  of  that  party,  viz.  1. 
That  they  do  not  through  ignorance,  prejudice,  or  pre- 
cipitancy, call  that  Popery,  which  is  not;  and  then, 
under  that  name  and  notion,  preach  against  it.  2.  That 
they  would  do  it  with  the  less  noise,  and  more  weight. 
It  is  not  a  business  merely  of  the  lungs,  but  requireth 
sinews  too ;  or,  to  use  their  own  metaphor,  let  them  not 
think  that  casting  of  squibs  will  do  the  deed,  or  charging 
with  powder  alone  :  that  will  give  a  crack  indeed,  and 
raise  a  smoke ;  but  unless  they  have  bullet  as  well  as 
powder  it  will  do  little  execution. " 

In  another  place,  alluding  to  the  charge  brought 
against  the  Liturgy  that  the  ceremonies  are  Popish,  he 
says  of  the  Puritans  :  "  their  opinion  is,  that  the  things 
enjoined  are  popish  and  superstitious,  and  consequently 
unlawful  to  be  used,  and  this  they  render  as  the  reason 
of  their  nonconformity.  And  the  reason  were  certainly 
good,  if  the  opinion  were  true.  For  the  popishness  first, 
unless  we  should  sue  out  a  writ  de  finihus  regendis,  it 
will  be  hard  to  find  out  a  way  how  to  bring  this  contro- 
versy to  an  issue,  much  less  to  an  end,  the  term  hath 
been  so  strangely  extended,  and  the  limits  thereof  (if  yet 
it  have  any)  so  uncertain.  If  they  would  be  entreated  to 
set  bounds  to  what  they  mean  by  Popish  and  Popery,  by 
giving  us  a  certain  definition  of  it,  we  should  the  sooner 
either  come  to  some  agreement,  or  at  least  understand 
ourselves  and  one  another  the  better,  wherein  and  how 
far  we  disagreed.  In  the  meantime  it  is  to  me  a  won- 
der, that  if  reason  would  not  heretofore,  yet  the  sad 
experience  of  the  ill  consequents  so  visible  of  late  time, 
should  not  have  taught  them  all  this  while  to  consider 
what  infinite  advantage  they  give  to  the  Eomish  party  to 
work  upon  weak  and  wavering  souls,  by  damning  so 
many  things  under  the  name  of  Popery,  which  may  to 
their  understandings  be  sufficiently  evidenced,  some  to 
have  been  used  by  the  ancient  Christians  long  before 


SANDERSON.  321 

popery  was  hatched,  or  but  in  the  egg,  and  all  to  have 
nothing  of  superstition  or  Popery  in  them,  unless  every 
thing  that  is  used  in  the  Church  of  Rome  become 
thereby  popish  and  superstitious.  Nor  V7hat  great  ad- 
vantage they  give  to  our  newer  sectaries  to  extend  the 
name  yet  farther :  who,  by  the  help  of  their  new  lights, 
can  discern  Popery,  not  only  in  the  ceremonies  formerly 
under  debate,  but  even  in  the  churches  and  pulpits 
wherein  they  used  to  call  the  people  together  to  hear 
them.  These  are  by  some  of  them  cried  down  as  popish, 
with  other  things  very  many  which  their  Presbyterian 
brethren  do  yet  both  allow  and  practise ;  though  how 
long  they  will  so  do  is  uncertain,  if  they  go  on  with  the 
work  of  reformation  they  have  begun,  with  as  quick 
dispatch  and  at  the  rate  they  have  done  these  last  two 
seven  years.  The  having  of  godfathers  at  baptism, 
churching  of  women,  prayers  at  the  burial  of  the  dead, 
children  asking  their  parent's  blessing,  &c.,  which  for- 
merly were  held  innocent,  are  now  by  very  many  thrown 
aside  as  rags  of  Popery.  Nay,  are  not  some  gone  so  far 
already  as  to  cast  into  the  same  heap,  not  only  the 
ancient  hymn  Gloria  Patri  (for  the  repeating  whereof 
alone  some  have  been  deprived  of  all  their  livelihoods) 
and  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  but  even  the  use  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  itself? — And  what  will  ye  do  in  the  end  thereof? 
And  what  would  ye  have  us  to  do  in  the  meantime, 
when  you  call  hard  upon  us  to  leave  our  Popery,  and  yet 
would  never  do  us  the  favour  to  let  us  know  what  it  is  ? 
It  were  good  therefore,  both  for  your  own  sakes  that  you 
may  not  rove  in  infinitum,  and  in  compassion  to  us,  that 
you  would  give  us  a  perfect  boundary  of  what  is  Popery 
now,  with  some  prognostication  or  ephemerides  annexed, 
(if  you  please,)  whereby  to  calculate  what  will  be  Popery 
seven  years  hence. 

"  But  to  be  serious,  and  not  to  indulge  myself  too  much 
merriment  in  so  sad  a  business,  I  believe  all  those  men 
will  be  found  much  mistaken,  who  either  measure  the 


322  SANDERSON. 

Protestant  religion  by  an  opposition  to  Popery,  or  account 
all  Popery  that  is  taught  or  practised  in  the  Church  of 
Eome.  Our  godly  forefathers  to  whom  (under  God)  we 
owe  the  purity  of  our  religion,  and  some  of  which  laid 
down  their  lives  for  the  defence  of  the  same,  were  sure  of 
another  mind,  if  we  may  from  what  they  did,  judge  what 
they  thought.  They  had  no  purpose  (nor  had  they  any 
warrant)  to  set  up  a  new  religion,  but  to  reform  the  old 
by  purging  it  from  those  innovations  which  in  tract  of 
time  (some  sooner,  some  later,)  had  mingled  with  it,  and 
corrupted  it  both  in  the  doctrine  and  worship.  Accord- 
ing to  this  purpose  they  produced,  without  constraint 
or  precipitancy,  freely  and  advisedly  as  in  peaceable 
times,  and  brought  their  intentions  to  a  happy  end ;  as 
by  the  result  thereof  contained  in  the  Articles  and 
Liturgy  of  our  Church,  and  the  prefaces  thereunto,  doth 
fully  appear.  From  hence  chiefly,  as  I  conceive,  we  are 
to  take  our  best  scantling  whereby  to  judge  what  is,  and 
what  is  not,  to  be  esteemed  Popery.  All  these  doctrines 
then,  held  by  the  modern  Church  of  Rome,  which  are 
either  contrary  to  the  written  word  of  God,  or  but  super- 
added thereunto  as  necessary  points  of  faith,  to  be  of  all 
Christians  believed  under  pain  of  damnation;  and  all 
those  superstitions  used  in  the  worship  of  God,  which 
either  are  unlawful  as  being  contrary  to  the  word,  or 
being  not  contrary,  and  therefore  arbitrary  and  indif- 
ferent, are  made  essentials,  and  imposed  as  necessary 
parts  of  worship :  these  are,  as  I  take  it,  the  things 
whereunto  the  name  of  Popery  doth  properly  and  pecu- 
liarly belong.  But  as  for  the  ceremonies  used  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  which  the  Church  of  England  at  the 
Reformation  thought  fit  to  retain,  not  as  essential  or 
necessary  parts  of  God's  service,  but  only  as  accidental 
and  mutable  circumstances  attending  the  same  for  order, 
comeliness,  and  edification's  sake ;  how  these  should 
deserve  the  name  of  popish,  I  so  little  understand,  that 
I  profess  I  do  not  yet  see  any  reason  why,  if  the  Church 


SANDERSON.  323 

had  then  thought  fit  to  have  retained  some  other  of  those 
which  were  then  laid  aside,  she  might  not  have  lawfully 
so  done,  or  why  the  things  so  retained  should  have  been 
accounted  popish.  The  plain  truth  is  this  :  The  Church 
of  England  meant  to  make  use  of  her  liberty,  and  the 
lawful  power  she  had  (as  all  the  Churches  of  Christ  have, 
or  ought  to  have)  of  ordering  ecclesiastical  affairs  here, 
yet  to  do  it  with  so  much  prudence  and  moderation,  that 
the  world  might  see  by  what  was  laid  aside,  that  she 
acknowledged  no  subjection  to  the  see  of  Rome ;  and  by 
what  was  retained,  that  she  did  not  recede  from  the 
Church  of  Rome  out  of  any  spirit  of  contradiction,  but 
as  necessitated  thereunto  for  the  maintenance  of  her 
just  liberty.  The  number  of  ceremonies  was  also  then 
very  great,  and  they  thereby  burdensome,  and  so  the 
number  thought  fit  to  be  lessened.  But  for  the  choice 
which  should  be  kept,  and  which  not,  that  was  wholly  in 
her  power,  and  at  her  discretion.  Whereof,  though  she 
were  not  bound  so  to  do,  yet  hath  she  given  a  clear  and 
satisfactory  account  in  one  of  the  prefaces  usually  pre- 
fixed before  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer." 

It  is  curious  to  observe  that  a  fact  continues  to  exist 
just  as  Sanderson  found  it  in  the  17th  century.  He 
says,  "  that  in  those  counties,  Lancashire  for  one,  where 
there  are  the  most  and  most  rigid  Presbyterians,  (mean- 
ing Puritans)  there  are  also  the  most  and  most  zealous 
Roman  Catholics." 

The  Restoration  found  Dr.  Sanderson  an  old  man. 
He  was  reinstated  in  his  professorship  and  canonry,  in 
August,  1560  ;  and,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  true 
friends  of  the  Church,  was  included  with  Sheldon,  Mor- 
ley,  and  others,  in  the  list  of  bishops  consecrated  in 
October  following. 

The  see  chosen  for  him  was  that  of  Lincoln.  He 
possessed  it  about  two  years  and  a  half;  a  short  time, 
yet  long  enough  to  enable  the  Church  to  appreciate  his 
public  labours,  and  the  diocese  to  taste  his  munificence. 


324  SANDERSON. 

A  principal  share  was  taken  by  him  in  the  additions 
and  alterations  made  in  the  Liturgy  by  the  Convocation 
of  1661  :  in  particular,  the  general  Preface  to  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  Book  is  of  his  composition.  He  augmented, 
at  his  own  cost,  several  poor  livings  in  his  diocese; 
repaired  the  palace  at  Buckden,  on  which  Bishop  Wil- 
liams had,  in  the  last  reign,  bestowed  a  princely  ex- 
pense, but  which  had  been  ruined  in  the  civil  war  ;  and, 
after  distinguishing  his  brief  tenure  of  the  episcopal 
office  by  some  farther  proofs  of  his  liberality,  he  expired, 
in  January,  1663,  without  having  made  any  provision 
for  his  family.  His  preparations  for  his  departure  out 
of  the  world  were  made  with  the  pious  serenity  to  be 
expected  from  the  previous  tenor  of  his  life.  The  day 
before  his  death  he  received  the  Church's  absolution  ; 
pulling  off  his  cap  at  the  performance  of  that  solemn 
service  in  order  that  the  hand  of  the  chaplain  employed 
in  it  might  rest  on  his  bare  head. 

Bishop  Sanderson  was  unquestionably  one  of  the 
ablest  of  our  English  divines.  "  That  staid  and  well 
weighed  man,"  it  was  said  by  his  contemporary  Ham- 
mond, "  conceives  all  things  deliberately,  dwells  upon, 
them  discreetly,  discerns  things  that  differ  exactly,  pass- 
eth  his  judgment  rationally,  and  expresses  it  aptly, 
clearly,  and  honestly."  A  profound  scholar,  a  judicious 
divine,  a  great  preacher,  a  matchless  casuist; — in  poverty 
and  oppression,  patient  and  courageous — in  prosperity 
and  high  station,  simple  and  self-denying — distinguished, 
in  every  variety  of  circumstances,  by  the  same  Christian 
bearing  and  unaffected  piety, — Sanderson  holds  an  emi- 
nent place  among  those  true  sons  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, whose  memory  she  cherishes  with  joy  and  thank- 
ness ;  and  he  probably  realized  the  hope,  often  expressed 
by  him,  that  "  he  should  die  without  an  enemy." 

The  principal  works  of  Bishop  Sanderson  are: — 1. 
"  Logicse  Artis  Compendium,"  8vo,  ]615.  2.  "  De  Jura- 
menti  Promissorii  Obligatione,  Prselectiones  VII.,"  8vo, 


SANDYS.  325 

1647.  The  translation  of  this  work,  made  by  King 
Charles  I.,  was  printed  in  8vo,  in  the  year  1655.  3. 
"  Censure  of  Mr.  Anthony  Ascham's  Book  of  the  Confu- 
sions and  Revolutions  of  Government,"  8vo,  1649.  As- 
cham  was  English  resident  at  Madrid,  in  the  time  of  the 
Rump  Parliament.  4.  "  Thirty-six  Sermons  :  ad  aulam, 
clerum,  magistratum,  populum,"  foL,  1658.  Of  the 
discourses  contained  in  this  invaluable  collection  of 
divinity,  several  had  before  appeared  separately,  and 
twelve  as  collected  into  a  4to  volume,  in  1632.  To  the 
eighth  edition,  printed  in  1689,  is  prefixed  the  interest- 
ing Life,  by  Walton.  5.  "  De  Obhgatione  Conscientiae 
Praelectiones,"  4to,  1661.  6.  "Episcopacy,  as  estab- 
lished by  law  in  England,  not  prejudicial  to  the  Regal 
Power,"  8vo,  1661.  7.  "  Preface  to  Ussher's  work  on 
The  Power  communicated  by  God  to  the  Prince,  and  the 
Obedience  required  of  the  Subject,"  4to,  1661.  8.  "Ar- 
ticles of  Visitation  and  Enquiry  concerning  Matters 
Ecclesiastical,"  4to,  1662.  9.  "Nine  Cases  of  Con- 
science Resolved."  Several  of  these  had  been  already 
published  at  different  times.  8vo.  1678.  10.  "  Bishop 
Sanderson's  Judgment  concerning  Submission  to  Usur- 
pers." Annexed,  with  other  tracts,  to  Walton's  Life  of  San- 
derson, 1678.  11.  "Discourse  of  the  Church,  &c.,  first, 
concerning  the  Visibility  of  the  True  Church ;  secondly, 
concerning  the  Church  of  Rome,"  1688.  This  tract  was 
published  by  Dr.  Ashton,  of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford, 
from  a  MS.  communicated  to  him  by  the  domestic  chap- 
lain who  attended  Bishop  Sanderson  on  his  death-bed. 

Dr.  Sanderson  is  mentioned  by  Brian  Walton  among 
those  learned  friends  who  assisted  him  in  his  Polygot 
Bible. — Works.    Isaac  Walton.    Cattermole. 


SANDYS,    OR    SANDES,    EDWIN. 

Edwin  Sandys,  or  Sandes,  descended  from  the  ancient 
yOl.  yiii.  f  f 


326  SANDYS. 

barons  of  Kendal,  was  born  near  Hawkshead,  in  Fur- 
ness  Fells,  in  1519.  He  received  his  primary  educa- 
tion most  probably  at  the  School  of  Furness  Abbey,  and 
in  1532  or  1533,  went  to  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  graduated  in  1539.  In  1547,  he  became 
Master  of  Catherine  Hall;  about  which  time  he  was 
also  Vicar  of  Haversham,  in  Buckinghamshire,  and  a 
Prebendary  of  Peterborough.  He  embraced  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation  and  married.  At  the  death 
of  Edward  VI.,  he  was  also  a  Prebendary  of  Carlisle 
and  Vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge. 
When  Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland,  after  the  death 
of  Edward  VI.,  was  in  arms  for  the  cause  of  Lady  Jane 
Grey,  he  marched  through  Cambridge  on  his  way  to 
attack  the  Princess  Mary.  He  persuaded  Dr.  Sandys 
to  maintain  Lady  Jane's  title  in  a  Sermon  before  the 
university.  Dr.  Sandys  did  not  hesitate  to  undertake  an 
office  which  would  have  laid  the  new  queen,  had  Lady 
Jane  succeeded,  under  obligations  to  him.  The  spe- 
culation, however,  failed  by  the  success  of  Mary,  and 
Dr.  Sandys  found  himself  in  prison  instead  of  being 
in  a  palace.  He  contrived  to  escape  and  arrived  at 
Antwerp,  in  1554.  Finding  that  he  was  not  in  safety 
at  Antwerp,  he  proceeded  to  Strasburg.  Here  he 
took  up  his  abode  for  the  present,  and  here  unques- 
tionably spent  the  most  gloomy  portion  of  his  life. 
His  own  health  was  at  this  time  deeply  injured ;  he 
fell  sick  of  a  flux  (the  usual  concomitant  of  hardships 
and  afflictions,)  which  continued  without  abatement  for 
nine  months  ;  his  only  child  died  of  the  plague ;  and 
his  beloved  wife,  who  had  found  means  to  follow  him 
about  a  year  after  his  flight  from  England,  expired  of 
consumption  in  his  arms.  In  addition  to  his  sor- 
rows, the  disputes  concerning  Church  discipline  broke 
out  among  the  English  exiles,  on  which  several  of  his 
friends  left  the  place.  After  his  wife's  death,  he  went 
to  Zurich,  where  he  was  entertained  by  Peter  Martyr, 


but,  his  biograplier  thinks,  the  time  did  not  permit  him 
to  receive  any  deep  tincture  either  as  to  doctrine  or  dis- 
cipHne  from  Geneva  or  its  neighbours.  Within  five 
weeks  the  news  of  Queen  Mary's  death  arrived ;  and 
after  being  joyfully  feasted  by  Bullinger,  and  the  other 
ministers  of  the  Swiss  Churches,  he  returned  to  Stras- 
burg,  where  he  preached ;  after  which  Grindal  and  he 
set  out  for  their  native  country  together,  and  arrived  in 
London  on  the  day  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  coronation. 

In  the  month  of  March  following,  the  queen  and  her 
council  appointed  him  one  of  the  nine  Protestant  divines 
who  were  to  hold  a  disputation  against  an  equal  number 
of  the  Popish  clergy,  before  both  houses  of  parliament 
at  Westminster.  He  was  also  one  of  the  commissioners 
who  were  selected  to  prepare  a  new  liturgy,  and  to  de- 
liberate on  other  matters  for  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.  On  the  21st  December,  1559,  he  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Worcester.  When,  about  the  year 
1565,  it  was  determined  that  a  new  translation  of  the 
Bible  (called  afterwards  Parker's,  or  the  Bishops'  Bible) 
should  be  made.  Dr.  Sandys,  on  account  of  his  great 
skill  in  the  original  languages,  was  one  of  the  bishops 
who  were  appointed  to  undertake  that  work,  and  he 
had  allotted  to  him  as  his  portion  the  first  and  second 
books  of  Kings,  and  the  first  and  second  books  of 
Chronicles. 

At  his  first  visitation  in  1560,  five  or  six  priests  were 
presented  to  him  for  living  in  a  state  of  concubinage, 
and  he  took  occasion,  on  that  account  to  deliver  in  his 
cathedral  a  sermon  shewing  the  necessity  of  permitting 
priests  to  marry.  In  1570,  on  the  translation  of  his 
friend  Grindal  to  York,  he  succeeded  him  in  the  see 
of  London,  from  which,  in  1576,  he  was  translated  to 
York,  on  the  removal  of  Grindal  to  Canterbury.  In 
1577,  Archbishop  Sandys  resolved  to  visit  the  whole  of 
his  province.  Such  a  general  visitation  he  was  induced 
to  make,  it  is  said,  in  consequence  of  the  complaints  of 


328  SANDYS. 

Dr.  Barnes,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  that  he  had  in  vain 
attempted  to  bring  the  clergy  of  his  diocese  to  an  abso- 
lute conformity,  owing  to  the  lax  government,  which  had 
been  exercised  over  them  by  his  predecessor ;  and  that 
his  province  abounded  in  Non-conformists,  whom  he 
could  not  reduce  to  the  established  orders  of  the  Church. 

He  had  much  trouble  with  Whittingham,  Dean  of 
Durham,  who  had,  in  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs,, 
obtained  the  preferment  without  having  been  ordained. 
The  archbishop  was  determined  to  enforce  the  discipline 
of  the  Church,  although  perhaps  he  had  as  little  regard 
to  the  necessity  of  episcopal  ordination  as  Whittingham. 
The  Archbishop  of  York  was  indeed  more  of  a  practical 
partizan  than  a  divine,  and  seems  chiefly  to  have  studied 
theology  as  necessary  to  his  worldly  advancement.  He 
was  in  his  heart  opposed  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  that  Church,  to  enforce  which,  in  order  that  he  might 
find  favour  with  the  government,  he  was  harsh  and 
severe.  When  first  he  came  from  abroad,  being  a  liberal, 
he  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  use  of  clerical  habits, 
but  when  he  was  a  bishop  he  was  a  strict  enforcer  oi 
conformity  upon  the  Puritans.  His  real  sentiments 
came  out  in  his  last  will: — "  I  am  persuaded,"  says  he, 
"  that  the  rites  and  ceremonies  by  political  institution 
appointed  in  the  Church,  are  not  ungodly  nor  unlawful, 
but  may  for  order  and  obedience  sake  be  used  by  a  good 
Christian — but  I  am  now,  and  ever  have  been  persuaded, 
that  some  of  these  rites  and  ceremonies  are  not  expedient 
for  this  Church  now ;  but,  that  in  the  Church  reformed, 
and  in  all  this  time  of  the  gospel,  they  may  better  be 
disused  by  little  and  little,  than  more  and  more  urged." 

He  has  the  bad  preeminence  of  being  the  first  English 
bishop  who,  by  his  prudence  or  parsimony,  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  fortune  in  his  family,  which  has  justified 
their  subsequent  advancement  to  a  peerage.  With  his 
father's  savings,  the  manor  of  Ombersley,  in  Worcester- 
shire, was  purchased  by  Sir  Samuel  Sandys,  the  eldest 


SXKAVIA.  B$i0 

son,  whose  descendants,  since  ennobled  by  the  family 
name,  still  remain  in  possession  of  that  fair  and  ample 
domain. 

His  life  was  rendered  a  scene  of  perpetual  contention 
and  warfare,  in  which  he  had  numerous  enemies  by  whom 
many  attempts  were  made  to  ruin  his  reputation  and 
interest.  One  scheme  which  was  planned  with  this 
view  was  of  a  most  atrocious  nature.  He  quarrelled 
alike  with  Papists  and  Protestants,  with  the  clergy  who 
were  under  him,  and  with  his  brethren  on  the  episcopal 
bench.  He  seldom  kept  house  at  York  or  Southwark, 
but  lived  in  obscure  manor  houses  on  his  estates,  to 
accumulate  a  fortune  for  his  children.  Nevertheless,  he 
was  active  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  and  zealous  as 
a  preacher.  He  died  in  1588.  Twenty  two  of  his  dis- 
courses were  collected  together  in  1616,  and  printed  in 
■ito. — Life  hy  Whitaker.    Strype. 


SABAVIA,    ADEIAN. 

Of  Adrian  Saravia,  who  was  honoured  by  the  personal 
friendship  and  professional  confidence  of  the  illustrious 
Hooker,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  few  details  can  be  given. 
He  was  of  Spanish  extraction,  and  was  a  native  of  Artois, 
where  he  was  born  in  1531.  In  1582,  he  was  professor 
of  divinity  at  Leyden.  Being  well  skilled  in  ecclesi- 
astical antiquity,  he  was  a  strong  assertor  of  episcopacy, 
which,  raising  against  him  the  hostility  of  those  with 
whom  he  was  associated,  he  threw  himself  on  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Church  of  England  in  1587.  He  had 
some  time  before  recommended  himself  to  the  episcopal 
communion,  by  his  Answer  to  Beza's  book,  De  triplici 
Episcopatu.  Not  long  after  his  arrival  in  England, 
he  published  a  very  learned  book,  De  diversis  Gradibus 
Ministrorum  Evangelii.  In  this  tract,  he  proves  bishops 
not  only  of  a  superior  degree,  but  of  a  different  order 
3  F  F 


330  SARAVIA. 

from  priests.  This  book  was  dedicated  to  the  ministers 
of  the  Belgic  Churches,  where,  though  not  very  welcome, 
it  passed  without  contradiction.  But  Beza,  Danseus,  and 
the  rest  of  the  Genevians  gave  it  a  warmer  reception. 
They  looked  upon  the  principles  as  subversive  of  their 
ecclesiastical  government,  and  therefore  resolved  to  try 
their  strength  upon  it.  Beza,  it  seems,  had  other  busi- 
ness, and  therefore  left  the  undertaking  to  Danaeus. 
This  man,  whose  talent  lay  more  in  railing  than  rea- 
soning, made  little  of  it.  Beza  therefore  finding  it  ne- 
cessary to  reinforce  Danseus,  published  an  answer  in  the 
year  1593,  to  which  Saravia  replied  the  next  year.  Beza 
after  this  seemed  to  have  had  enough  of  the  controversy 
and  lay  by.  As  for  Saravia,  his  merit  was  not  overlooked 
by  the  English  bishops.  He  was  made  prebendary  of 
Westminster,  and  considered  in  other  respects  to  his 
satisfaction.  In  the  year  1594,  be  published  a  vindi- 
cation of  his  former  book,  of  which  an  account  is  given 
by  Strype,  who  says,  "  the  reason  that  moved  him  to  write 
upon  this  argument,  viz.,  that  the  three  orders  of  minis- 
ters were  anciently  and  universally  used  in  the  Christian 
Church,  was,  as  he  tells  us  himself,  that  he  had  observed, 
how  there  were  certain  scandalous  libels  (which  he  had 
read  before  he  came  into  England)  of  evil-tongued  men 
set  forth  ;  therein  impudently  and  rudely,  with  reproaches 
and  railing  speeches,  set  upon,  not  only  the  persons  of 
those  who  were  placed  over  the  Church  of  England, 
but  also  the  episcopal  dignity  and  degree  itself.  Which 
error,  he  said,  was  much  greater  than  they  could  be 
persuaded  of,  who  defended  it  with  the  very  great  scan- 
dal, not  only  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  of  all  the 
Christian   Churches   whatsoever. 

"That  what  he  had  done  therefore,  was  not  only, 
(whatsoever  some  thought)  to  defend  the  dignity  of  the 
English  bishops;  but  that  his  end  was,  if  not  to  take 
away,  yet,  at  least,-  to  lessen  the  offences  given  by  some 
of  their  own  men,  in   many  places,    to  the   bishops  of 


SAKAVIA.  sm 

all  the  Churches  of  Christ,  as  well  of  France  as  Ger- 
many, and  other  learned  men,  and  such  as  were  not 
ignorant  of  the  ancient  government  of  the  Church  ;  and 
to  supple  the  wound  which  they  then  had  made,  and 
would  never  heal,  and  as  much  as  might  be,  to  remove 
the  remoras  of  the  propagation  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel." 

"  That  he  had  therefore  some  notes  lying  by  him,  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  bishops,  and  the  dignity  of 
the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  comprised  in  a  few  chap- 
ters, which  he  thought  once  to  have  presented  to  the 
States  of  Holland.  Afterwards,  coming  into  England, 
he  fell  into  discourse  of  this  subject  with  some  pastors 
of  this  Church,  who  wondered  at  his  opinion  of  bishops 
and  seemed  to  him  to  believe,  that  he  rather  brought 
it  to  their  ears  as  a  matter  of  discourse,  than  that  he 
truly  thought  so  in  his  own  mind ;  besides,  he  saw 
their  own  Churches  (i.  e.  in  the  Low  Countries,  where 
he  lived)  look  that  w^ay,  as  favouring  the  seditious  and 
schismatic  party  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  might 
give  this  faction  in  England,  some  cause  to  depart 
from  and  contemn  this  Church.  That  he  therefore  on 
that  account,  to  free  those  Churches  where  he  lived, 
and  whereof  he  was  a  member,  from  such  suspicion, 
took  upon  him  the  pastoral  ministry  in  the  Church  of 
England,  and  withal  set  forth  his  tract  of  the  different 
Degrees  of  Ministers  in  the  Church ;  whereby  he  might 
(in  the  name  of  the  reformed  Churches  abroad)  give  a 
testimony  to  the  world  of  a  conjunction  of  their  minds 
in  one  and  the  same  faith.  And  this  he  was  invited 
to  do  by  the  good  example  of  the  bishops  of  the  Church 
of  England,  who,  notwithstanding  their  rites  and  cere- 
monies were  different  from  those  of  the  Churches  abroad 
among  whom  he  lived,  yet  did  not  only  bear  and  suffer 
strangers  to  use  their  own  customs  and  rites  in  their 
dioceses,  but  also  friendly  embraced  and  cherished  them. 
( As  they  did  the  Dutch  and  French  people  in  London, 


332  SARAVIA. 

Canterbury,  Norwich,  Colchester,  Sandwich,  Southamp- 
ton, &c.)  And  therefore  he  added,  that  they  did  ill, 
whosoever  separated  and  divided  one  from  another, 
because  of  external  rites  and  ceremonies. 

"And  when  he  saw,  that  all  the  best  sort  of  men  did 
not  abstain  from  the  communion  of  their  Churches 
abroad,  in  like  manner  he  always  thought,  that  he 
himself  ought  to  hold  communion  with  the  Churches 
of  England,  in  all  places  where  he  should  live.  And 
that  whensoever  it  happened  that  he  should  be  present 
in  their  churches  when  the  Lord's  Supper  was  cele- 
brated, he  partook  with  them  in  those  sacred  symbols 
of  the  peace  and  unity  of  Christians.  And  that  it  was 
a  certain  sign  of  a  very  w^ak  judgment,  or  else  of  a 
Pharisaical  pride  and  conceit,  to  refuse  the  communion 
of  the  Church,  (in  which  Christ,  and  grace  obtained 
for  us  by  Christ,  is  purely  taught)  only  for  different 
external  rites. 

"  The  same  learned  foreigner  farther  spake  his  mind 
concerning  this  venerable  order  of  bishops,  and  declared 
how  they  came  to  be  so  much  opposed ;  which,  me- 
thinks,  deserves  to  be  recorded,  being  historical.  Olivi 
Episcopos,  &c.  '  That  heretofore  no  good  man  did  dis- 
allow of  bishops  and  archbishops  ;  but  now  it  w^as  come 
to  pass,  by  the  hatred  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome's  tyranny 
and  his  party,  that  these  very  names  were  called  into 
question ;  and  that  by  divers,  on  a  different  account ; 
some,  because  they  believed  that  such  things  as  were 
invented  by  Anti-christ,  or  by  those  who  made  way  for 
him,  were  to  be  banished  forth  without  of  the  Church  ; 
others,  more  modest,  thought  for  the  reverence  of  an- 
tiquity, that  they  were  to  be  borne  withal,  (although 
they  approved  them  not,)  until  they  might  conveniently 
with  the  thing  itself,  be  antiquated.  They  dared  not 
openly  indeed  condemn  bishops  and  archbishops,  whom 
they  knew  to  have  presided  over  the  Church,  and  that 
with  great  fruit  and  benefit:   but  they  were  willing  to 


SARAVIA.  883 

let  them  go,  because  they  saw  some  reformed  Churches 
of  these  times,  which  had  received  the  Gospel,  and  re- 
jected the  tyranny  of  the  Romish  bishop,  and  had  cast 
off  all  the  government  of  bishops,  did  not  approve  these 
fathers,  and  were  more  pleased  with  a  new  form  of  eccle- 
siastical government,  as  believing  it  to  be  instituted  by 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Himself,  and  most  different  from 
all  ambition  and  tyranny,  &c.  But,'  added  he,  'why 
I  do  not  in  like  manner  approve  that  form,  this  is  my 
reason,  because  it  doth  not  seem  to  be  sufficiently  de- 
monstrated by  the  Word  of  God,  nor  confirmed  by  any 
example  of  those  that  were  before  us,  our  ancestors,  as 
being  partly  unknown  to  them,  and  partly  condemned 
in  such  as  were  heretics.' 

•'  Therefore,  of  this  new  manner  of  governing  the 
Church,  he  was,  he  said,  of  the  same  opinion  that  others 
held  of  the  government  of  bishops,  namely,  that  it  was 
human,  [as  Beza  did,]  and  to  be  borne  with,  till  another 
that  was  better  could  be  obtained:  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  which  was  disallowed  of,  as  human,  seemed 
to  him  to  be  divine ;  as  being  that  which,  as  well  in  the 
Old  as  New  Testament,  was  instituted  by  God.  But 
because  it  had  been  defiled  by  the  wicked  deeds  of  men, 
that  which  was  to  be  attributed  to  man's  impiety  was 
ascribed  [amiss]  to  the  function ;  as  if  no  like  calamity 
might  happen  to  this  new  kind  of  government,  &c.  If 
any  objected,  that  there  were  many  corruptions  in  the 
government  of  bishops,  of  that  matter  he  intended  no 
disputation ;  but  that  the  same  complaint  might  be 
made  of  the  government  of  civil  magistrates ;  but  no 
man  in  his  wits  ever  thought  that  a  fit  reason  to  remove 
from  the  magistracy  all  those  who  were  over  the  com- 
monwealth, [how  well  soever  they  governed.] 

"  The  question  then  was,  whether  our  Lord  forbade  a 
primacy,  with  more  eminent  power,  among  the  pastors 
of  the  Church,  and  ministers  of  the  Gospel :  that  a 
pastor  might  not  be  set  over  a  pastor,  and  a  bishop  over 


334  SAHPI. 

a  bishop,  to  preserve  external  polity;  not  how  bishops 
had  used  their  authority.  If  any  were  minded  to  accuse 
bishops  and  their  consistories,  either  of  neglect  of  their 
duties,  or  for  unjust  judgments  given,  there  was  nobody 
hindered  but  that  such  things  might  be  brought  before 
the  chief  magistrate.  That,  for  his  part,  he  undertook 
the  defence  of  no  bishop,  nor  was  he  so  considerable  to 
do  it ;  nor  had  they  need  of  his  defence ;  they  were  able 
to  speak  for  themselves,  and  to  answer  their  detractors. 
All  that  he  did  was  to  lament,  that  the  ancient  order, 
necessary  for  preserving  discipline  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  and  most  diligently  observed  by  the  fathers, 
should  be  quite  taken  away :  and  that  he  exceedingly 
feared,  lest  by  the  calamity  of  that  age,  it  might  be 
wholly  taken  away  ;  because  he  saw  the  men  of  his 
times  were  so  disposed,  as  to  desire  that  the  whole  min- 
istry of  the  Church  might  be  reduced  to  the  bare  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel.  These  were  the  sentiments  of 
Saravia,  that  learned  stranger,  which  was  the  cause  of 
his  writing  his  thoughts  concerning  the  ej)is copal  order." 
He  died  in  1613,  and  was  interred  in  Canterbury 
Cathedral.  All  his  works  were  published  in  1611,  in 
folio.  He  must  have  acquired  a  very  extensive  knowledge 
of  the  English  language,  as  we  find  his  name  in  the  first 
class  of  those  whom  James  I.  employed  in  the  new 
translation  of  the  Bible. — Collier.    Strype.    Walton. 


SARPI. 

Saepi,  commonly  called  Father  Paul,  or  Fra  Paolo,  was 
baptized  by  the  name  of  Peter,  but  according  to  an 
iniquitous  custom  of  the  Romish  Church  took  the  name 
of  Paul  when  he  entered  the  order  of  the  Servites. 
He  was  born  at  Venice,  in  1552.  He  was  the  son 
of  a  merchant  who  had  come  from  St.  Veit  to  Venice, 
and    of    a  lady    of  the    Venetian   family    of    Morelli, 


SARPI.  835 

which  enjoyed  the  privileges  of  cittadinanza.  His 
father  was  a  little,  swarthy,  impetuous,  quarrelsome 
man,  who  had  ruined  himself  hy  erroneous  speculations. 
His  mother  was  one  of  those  beautiful  Venetian  blondes 
not  unfrequently  to  be  seen ;  her  figure  was  large,  and 
her  character  marked  by  modesty  and  good  sense.  Her 
son  resembled  her  in  his  features. 

A  brother  of  hers,  Ambrosio  Morelli,  was  then  at  the 
head  of  a  school  which  enjoyed  peculiar  reputation,  and 
was  principally  devoted  to  the  education  of  the  young 
nobility.  Of  course  the  master's  nephew  was  admitted 
to  share  the  instruction.  Nicoli  Contarini  and  Andrea 
Morosini  were  Paolo's  school-fellows,  and  were  very  inti- 
mate wfth  him.  In  the  very  threshold  of  his  life  he 
formed  the  most  important  connexions. 

Nevertheless,  he  did  not  suffer  himself  to  be  restrained 
either  by  his  mother  or  by  his  uncle,  or  by  these  con- 
nexions, from  following  his  inclination  for  solitude,  and 
entering  a  convent  of  Servites  as  early  as  in  his  four- 
teenth or  fifteenth  year. 

Sarpi  spoke  little,  and  was  always  serious.  He  never 
ate  meat,  and  till  his  thirtieth  year  drank  no  wine ;  he 
abhorred  lewd  discourse :  '•  Here  comes  the  maiden," 
his  companions  used  to  say  when  he  appeared,  "let  us 
talk  of  something  else."  Every  wish,  inclination,  or 
desire  he  was  capable  of,  was  fixed  on  those  studies 
for  which  he  was  endowed  with  remarkable  aptitude. 

He  possessed  the  inestimable  gift  of  rapid  and  just 
apprehension ;  for  instance,  he  always  recognized  again 
a  person  whom  he  had  once  seen,  or  when  he  entered 
a  garden,  he  saw  and  remarked  everything  in  it  at  a 
glance ;  his  vision,  both  mental  and  bodily,  was  clear 
and  penetrating.  Hence  he  applied  himself  with  par- 
ticular success  to  natural  sciences.  His  admirers  ascribe 
to  him  the  discovery  of  the  valves  in  the  blood  vessels, 
and  of  the  dilatation  and  contraction  of  the  pupil,  the 
first  observation  of  the  dip  of  the  needle,  and  of  a  great 


386  SARPI. 

many  other  magnetic  phenomena,  and  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  he  took  a  Uvely  share  both  in  the  way  of 
suggestion  and  discovery,  in  the  labours  of  Aquapen- 
dente,  and  still  more  of  Porta.  To  his  physical  studies 
he  added  mathematical  calculations,  and  the  observation 
of  intellectual  phenomena.  In  the  Servite  library  in 
Venice,  was  kept  a  copy  of  the  works  of  Vieta,  in  which 
many  errors  of  that  author  were  corrected  by  the  hand 
of  Fra  Paola :  there  was  also  preserved  there,  a  little 
treatise  of  his  on  the  origin  and  decline  of  opinions 
among  men,  which,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  extracts 
given  from  it  by  Foscarini,  contained  a  theory  of  the 
intellectual  powers,  which  regarded  sensation  and 
reflexion  as  their  foundations,  and  had  much  analogy 
to  the  theory  of  Locke,  if  it  did  not  quite  so  strictly 
coincide  with  it,  as  some  have  asserted.  Fra  Paolo 
wrote  only  as  much  as  was  necessary :  he  had  no 
natural  promptings  to  original  composition:  he  read 
continually,  and  appropriated  what  he  read  or  observed : 
his  intellect  was  sober  and  capacious,  methodical  and 
bold  ;  he  trod  the  path  of  free  enquiry. 

With  these  powers  he  now  advanced  to  questions  of 
theology  and  of  ecclesiastical  law. 

It  has  been  said  he  was  in  secret  a  Protestant ;  biat 
his  Protestantism  could  hardly  have  gone  beyond  the 
first  simple  propositions  of  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
even  if  he  subscribed  to  these :  at  all  events,  Fra  Paolo 
read  mass  daily  all  his  life.  It  is  impossible  to  specify 
the  form  of  religion  to  which  he  inwardly  adhered ;  it 
was  a  kind  often  embraced  in  those  days,  especially  by 
men  who  devoted  themselves  to  natural  science, — a 
mode  of  opinion  shackled  by  none  of  the  existing  sys- 
tems of  doctrine,  dissentient  and  speculative,  but  neither 
accurately  defined  nor  fully  worked  out. 

Thus  much,  however,  is  certain,  that  Fra  Paolo  bore 
a  decided  and  implacable  hatred  to  the  temporal  autho- 
rity of  the  pope.     This  was  perhaps  the  only  passion 


SARPI.  337  • 

he  cherished.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  attribute 
it  to  the  refusal  of  a  bishopric  for  which  he  had  been 
proposed ;  and  who  may  deny  the  effect  which  a  morti- 
fying rejection,  barring  the  path  of  natural  ambition, 
may  have  even  on  a  manly  spirit?  Nevertheless,  the 
true  cause  lay  far  deeper.  It  was  a  politico-religious 
habit  of  thought,  bound  up  with  every  other  conviction 
of  Sarpi's  mind,  corroborated  by  study  and  experience, 
and  shared  with  his  friends,  his  contemporaries,  the 
men  who  once  had  assembled  at  Morosini's,  and  who 
now  swayed  the  helm  of  the  state.  Before  the  keenness 
of  his  penetrating  observation  vanished  those  chimerical 
arguments,  with  which  the  Jesuits  laboured  to  prop 
up  their  assertions,  and  those  doctrines,  the  real  foun- 
dation of  which  was,  in  fact,  to  be  looked  for  only  in 
a  devotion  to  the  Roman  See,  created  by  a  by-gone  con- 
dition of  society. 

About  the  year  1602,  commenced  the  great  contro- 
versy between  the  Republic  of  Venice  and  the  Pope  of 
Rome.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  enter  into  the  details. 
The  story  is  the  oft-repeated  one.  On  the  one  hand  the 
most  unjustifiable  pretensions  were  advanced  by  the 
Pope,  which,  under  the  direction  of  father  Paul,  were 
reasonably  and  manfully  resisted  by  the  Rulers  of  the 
Republic,  who,  nevertheless,  in  the  end  submitted  to  an 
unworthy  compromise.  The  conduct  of  Paul  Sarpi 
throughout  the  affair  was  such  as  to  raise  him  to  the 
highest  consideration  in  Europe.  Pending  these  dis- 
putes, being  appointed  theologian  and  one  of  the  coun- 
sellors of  the  Republic,  he  drew  up  a  treatise  entitled, 
Consolation  of  Mind  to  tranquillize  the  Consciences  of 
good  Men,  and  to  prevent  their  entertaining  any  Dread 
of  the  Interdict,  published  by  Paul  V.  As  this  work  was 
designed  for  the  sole  use  of  government,  it  was  not  pub- 
lished by  the  author,  but  was  locked  up  in  the  archives 
of  the  republic;  whence  a  copy  having  some  years 
afterwards  been  clandestinely  obtained,  it  was  published 

VOL.  VIH.  G    G 


•  338  SARPI. 

at  the  Hague  in  1725,  both  in  the  Italian  and  French 
languages.  In  the  same  year  an  English  version  of  it 
appeared  in  London.  Sarpi  also  published  a  translation 
of  A  Treatise  on  Excommunication,  by  Gerson,  both  in 
Latin  and  Italian,  with  an  anonymous  letter  prefixed  to 
it.  This  work  was  immediately  condemned  by  the  In- 
quisition ;  whose  sentence  Bellarmine  undertook  to  sup- 
port in  a  strain  of  sophistical  reasoning,  which  Sarpi 
ably  detected  in  An  Aj^ology  for  Gerson.  To  the  suc- 
ceeding champions  for  the  papal  see,  among  whom  were 
Baronius  and  Bzovius,  Sarpi  made  an  unanswerable 
reply  in  a  piece  entitled,  Considerations  on  the  Censures 
of  Paul  V. 

Sarpi  had  also  a  share  in  some  other  treatises  in  this 
memorable  controversy ;  particularly  in  A  Treatise  on 
the  Interdict,  published  in  the  names  of  seven  divines 
of  the  republic.  At  length  the  papal  court  cited  Sarpi 
by  a  decree,  October  30,  1606,  under  penalty  of  excom- 
munication, to  appear  in  person  at  Rome,  and  justify 
himself  from  the  heresies  of  which  he  was  accused. 
Despising,  however,  the  thunders  of  the  Vatican,  he 
refused  to  submit  to  the  citation. 

Even  when  the  pope  had  come  to  an  understanding 
with  the  republic,  the  court  of  Rome  could  not  forgive 
Sarpi's  attacks  on  the  pope's  authority ;  and  some  of  its 
fanatical  adherents  were  persuaded  that  it  would  be  a 
highly  meritorious  action  to  make  away  with  a  man  who 
had  been  condemned  for  heresy.  Sarpi  received  inti- 
mations from  various  quarters  that  designs  were  formed 
either  against  his  liberty  or  his  life ;  but,  trusting  to  the 
accommodation  which  had  taken  place,  and  the  rectitude 
of  his  own  conduct,  he  lived  in  a  state  of  security  which 
gave  his  enemies  favourable  opportuities  of  carrying 
their  plans  into  execution.  Returning  to  his  monastery 
on  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  October,  1607,  he  was 
attacked  by  five  assassins  armed  with  stilettoes,  who 
wounded  him  in  fifteen  places,   and  left  him  for  dead 


SARPI.  339 

upon  the  spot.  Providentially,  none  of  these  wounds 
proved  mortal,  though  three  of  them  were  exceedingly 
dangerous.  No  sooner  was  the  senate  informed  of  this 
murderous  attempt,  than,  to  show  their  high  regard  for 
the  sufferer,  and  their  detestation  of  such  a  horrid 
attempt,  they  broke  up  immediately,  and  came  that  night 
in  great  numbers  to  his  monastery ;  ordered  the  physi- 
cians to  bring  them  regular  accounts  of  him  :  and  after- 
wards knighted  and  richly  rewarded  Acquapendente, 
for  the  great  skill  which  he  discovered  in  curing  him. 
That  Sarpi  himself  entertained  no  doubts  respecting  the 
quarter  from  which  this  wicked  aim  at  his  life  proceeded, 
appears  from  his  saying  pleasantly  to  his  friend  Acqua- 
pendente one  day  while  he  was  dressing  his  wounds, 
that  they  were  made  Stylo  Romanse  Curiae.  One  of  the 
weapons,  which  the  assassin  had  driven  with  such  force 
into  Sarpi's  cheek  that  he  was  obliged  to  leave  it  in  the 
wound,  was  hung  up  at  the  foot  of  a  crucifix  in  the 
Church  of  the  Servites,  with  this  inscription,  Deo  Filio 
Liberatori. 

Sarpi  himself  was  now  aware  of  the  necessity  of  living 
more  privately  in  his  monastery.  In  this  retirement 
he  wrote  his  Account  of  the  Quarrel  between  Paul  V. 
and  the  Republic  of  Venice,  published  in  1608.  His 
attention  was  directed  in  the  next  place  to  the  arrange- 
ment and  completion  of  his  celebrated  History  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  for  which  he  had  long  before  collected 
ample  materials.  It  was  first  published  in  London,  by 
Sir  Nathaniel  Brent,  (by  whom  also  it  was  translated 
into  English,)  in  1619,  in  folio,  under  the  feigned  name 
of  Pietro  Soave  Polano,  which  is  an  anagram  of  Paolo 
Sarpi  Venetiano,  and  dedicated  to  James  I.  by  Anthony 
de  Dominis,  Archbishop  of  Spalatro,  then  a  resident 
in  England.  It  was  afterwards  published  in  the  original 
Italian,  the  French,  and  other  languages;  and  in  1736, 
father  Courayer  published  in  London  a  new  French 
translation  of  it  in  2  vols,  folio,  illustrated  with  valuable 


340  SAUEIN. 

critical,  historical,  and  theological  notes.  Sarpi  also 
in  the  retirement  of  his  monastery,  wrote  : — A  Treatise 
on  Ecclesiastical  Benefices,  pointing  out  the  means  by 
which  the  Church  had  acquired  its  immense  revenues, 
and  the  abuses  which  had  taken  place  in  the  disposal 
of  them ;  A  Treatise  on  the  Inquisition;  De  Jure  Asylo- 
rum ;  a  Treatise  On  the  Manner  of  conducting  the 
Government  of  a  Republic,  so  as  to  insure  its  Duration ; 
and  a  continuation  of  Minuccio  Minucci's,  Archbishop 
of  Zara's,  History  of  the  Uscocchi,  from  1602  to  1616. 
The  articles  already  enumerated,  together  with  a  volume 
of  Letters,  are  all  the  productions  of  Sarpi's  pen  which 
have  been  published. 

He  died  on  the  14th  of  January,  1623,  in  the  seventy- 
second  year  of  his  age. 

Of  Paul  Sarpi's  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
Ranke  concludes  an  elaborate  criticism  with  saying: 
"  His  authorities  are  diligently  collected,  very  well 
handled,  and  used  with  superior  intelligence ;  nor  can 
it  be  said  that  they  are  falsified,  or  that  they  are 
frequently  or  essentially  perverted  ; — but  a  spirit  of 
decided  opposition  pervades  the  whole  work. 

"  In  this  way  Sarpi  struck  anew  into  a  different  course 
from  that  commonly  pursued  by  the  historians  of  his 
day.  He  gave  to  their  system  of  compilation  the  unity 
of  a  general  tone  and  purpose :  his  work  is  disparaging, 
condemnatory,  and  hostile ;  he  set  the  first  example  of 
a  history  which  accompanies  the  whole  progress  of  its 
subject  with  increasing  censure ;  far  more  decided  in 
this  than  Thuanus,  who  first  made  a  cursory  use  of 
this  method.  Sarpi  has  found  numberless  imitators  on 
this  score.  (See  the  Life  of  Pallavicini.) — Fulgentio. 
Life  of  Walton.     Johnson.     Hanke. 

SAURIN,    JAMES. 

James  Saukin  was  born  at  Nismes,  in  1677,  and  upon 


SAVONAROLA.  341 

the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685,  he  went 
with  his  father  into  exile,  and  having  settled  at  Geneva, 
was  educated  there.  In  his  seventeenth  year  he  quitted 
his  studies  to  enter  the  army,  and  made  a  campaign  as  a 
cadet  in  Lord  Galloway's  company.  But  he  quitted  the 
army,  and  returned  to  his  studies  at  Geneva  in  1696. 

In  1700,  he  went  to  Holland,  and  thence  to  England, 
where  he  continued  nearly  five  years,  and  preached  with 
great  acceptance  among  his  fellow  refugees  in  London. 
In  1703  he  married.  Two  years  afterwards  he  returned 
to  Holland,  where  he  became  pastor  to  a  Church  of 
French  refugees,  who  were  permitted  to  assemble  in  the 
chapel  belonging  to  the  palace  of  the  Princes  of  Orange 
at  the  Hague,  in  which  he  officiated  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  He  died  in  1730,  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his 
age.  He  was  the  author  of  12  volumes  of  Sermons,  five 
of  which  were  published  by  himself,  between  the  years 
1708  and  1725,  in  8vo,  and  the  remainder  from  his  MSS. 

Saurin  also  published,  The  State  of  Christianity  in 
France  ;  A  Compendium  of  Christian  Divinity  and  Mo- 
rality, in  the  Catechetical  Form;  and.  Discourses  His- 
torical, Critical,  and  Moral,  on  the  most  memorable 
Events  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  This  last, 
which  is  his  principal  work,  forms  6  large  folio  volumes. 
He  died  before  the  3rd  volume  was  completed,  which 
was  finished  by  Roques,  who  added  a  fourth  volume  on 
the  Old  Testament;  Beausolve  adding  two  other  volumes 
on  the  New  Testament. — Life  prefixed  to  the  Translation 
of  his  Sermons  by  Robinson. 


SAVONAROLA,    GIROLAMO  MARIA  FRANCESCO  MATTHEO. 

This  extraordinary  person  is  regarded  by  some  as  a 
patriot  and  reformer,  and  by  others  he  is  represented 
as  a  fanatic  and  a  demagogue.  Impartial  history,  while 
it  cannot  entirely  acquit  him  of  fanaticism,  vyill  represent 
G  G   3 


343  SAVONAROLA. 

hira  as  a  pious  and  disinterested  man  whose  generous 
spirit  was  roused  to  indignation  by  the  iniquities  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  whose  objects  were  noble.  He 
was  born  on  the  21st  of  September,  1452.  He  was 
educated  at  first  by  his  grandfather,  and  on  his  death 
his  father  procured  for  him  teachers  from  whom  he 
became  acquainted  with  Greek  and  Roman  literature, 
the  study  of  which  had  been  lately  revived.  He  was 
intended  for  the  medical  profession,  but  having  been 
crossed  in  love,  he  suddenly  determined  "  to  leave  the 
world,"  as  the  Romanists  style  it,  and  in  1475,  he  sought 
refuge  in  the  Dominican  Cloister  at  Bologna,  acting  thus 
in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  his  father. 

Rigid  in  all  the  observances  of  his  ascetic  rule,  hum- 
ble, holy,  devoted,  Savonarola  soon  obtained  as  high  a 
reputation  for  sanctity  as  for  learning;  for  a  time  he 
was  entirely  occupied  in  reforming  himself,  and  his 
companions  were  glad  to  share  the  credit  of  his  piety, 
while  as  yet  their  repose  was  undisturbed  by  that  in- 
convenient goodness  which  aims  at  reforming  others. 

In  his  lonely  cell,  by  fervent  prayer  and  devout  medi- 
tation he  learnt  more  and  more  of  the  attributes  of  God, 
and  of  the  nature  of  His  commands  to  His  creatures. 
It  seems  natural  that  an  honest  mind,  enlightened  by 
just  ideas  of  the  Deity,  should  look  for  truth  in  the 
agreement  of  written  revelation  with  the  light  of  natural 
conscience,  and  with  the  providential  government  of  the 
universe,  since,  each  emanating  from  the  source  of  truth, 
they  must  agree  perfectly  together,  though  sometimes 
their  connection  is  concealed ;  and  that  in  any  apparent 
contradiction  it  should  suspect  some  error  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  one  of  these.  Savonarola  knew  his  Bible 
well ;  he  observed  that  the  consciences  of  his  Romish 
brethren,  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  were  so  far  from  re- 
sponding to  its  precepts  that  the  general  tone  of  morals 
was  thoroughly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and   his  first  alarm   was  the   discovery   of  this 


SAVONAROLA.  343 

darkened  conscience ;  he  did  not  yet  fully  perceive  the 
deeper  evil,  that  by  the  false  interpretations  of  his 
Church,  Scripture  itself  was  wrested  to  support  those 
who  called  evil  good,  though  suspicions  of  false  doctrines 
are  often  mingled  with  censures  of  moral  guilt. 

In  the  New  Testament  he  devoted  his  special  attention 
to  the  study  of  the  Apocalypse,  but  he  did  not  confine 
himself  to  the  New  Testament ;  he  had  indeed  a  strong 
partiality  for  the  Old.  The  brothers  of  his  order  were 
surprised  at  the  predilection  of  Savonarola  for  a  book 
which  had  fallen  into  such  neglect  in  the  seats  of  reli- 
gion ; — most  of  all,  they  wondered  at  the  great  attention 
and  regard  which  he  paid  to  the  more  ancient  writings. 
"Why,"  demanded  the  monks  of  Savonarola,  "do  you 
study  the  Old  Testament  ?  Surely  it  is  of  no  use  to  go 
over  again  the  past,  and  perplex  our  minds  with  the 
understanding  of  fulfilled  histories  ?"  To  this  question 
Savonarola  replied  by  another — "  For  what  purpose  then 
has  God  preserved  these  writings?  and  why  have  the 
fathers  of  the  Church  equally  expounded  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New,  and  recognized  the  inter- dependency 
of  the  one  with  the  other?"  Not  a  reason  for  study,  but 
an  excuse  for  their  indolence,  was  what  the  monks  had 
desired — so  they  left  Savonarola  unanswered,  and  the 
Scriptures  unread. 

When  he  was  ordained  he  soon  became  celebrated  as 
a  preacher,  although  in  his  first  attempts  at  sacred 
oratory  he  appears  to  have  failed.  And  from  an  early 
period  in  his  career  he  assumed  the  position  of  a  re- 
former. In  the  year  1485,  he  preached  in  Brescia, 
where  he  there  describes  the  state  of  the  medieval 
Church. 

"  The  popes  have  attained  through  the  most  shameful 
simony  and  subtlety  the  highest  priestly  dignities,  and 
even  then,  when  seated  in  the  holy  chair,  surrender 
themselves  to  a  shamefully  voluptuous  life  and  an  insa- 
tiable avarice.     The  cardinals  and  bishops  follow  their 


344  SAVONAROLA. 

example.  No  discipline,  no  fear  of  God  is  in  them. 
Many  believe  in  no  God.  The  chastity  of  the  cloister 
is  slain,  and  they  who  should  serve  God  with  holy  zeal 
have  become  cold  or  lukewarm.  The  princes  openly 
exercise  tyranny.  Their  subjects  encourage  them  in 
their  evil  propensities,  their  robberies,  their  adulteries, 
their  sacrileges.  But,  after  the  corrupted  human  race 
has  abused  for  so  many  centuries  the  long-suffering  of 
God,  then  at  last  the  justice  of  God  appears,  demanding 
that  the  rulers  of  the  people,  who  with  base  examples 
corrupt  all  the  rest,  should  be  brought  to  heavy  punish- 
ment, and  that  the  people  of  Asia  and  Africa,  now 
dwelling  in  the  darkness  of  ignorance,  should  be  made 
partakers  of  the  light." 

From  this  time  his  fame  as  a  preacher  and  even  as  a 
prophet  spread  far  and  wide,  until  in  1487,  he  became 
Prior  of  St.  Marco  in  Florence.  The  monastery  of  St. 
Marco  had  been  founded  by  Cosmo  di  Medici,  and  as 
the  patronage  still  remained  in  his  family,  they  naturally 
expected  the  deference  which  former  priors  had  willingly 
paid  to  protectors  so  powerful  and  so  worthy.  Savona- 
rola however  looked  with  a  jealous  eye  upon  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Medici  as  hostile  to  liberty ;  he  refused  on 
his  induction  to  acknowledge  Lorenzo  as  head  of  the 
republic,  and  shunned  his  presence  when  he  visited  the 
monastery,  alleging  that  he  held  communion  with  God 
and  not  with  man :  when  reminded  that  Lorenzo  was 
in  the  garden,  he  inquired,  "Did  he  ask  for  me?" 
"No."  "Then  let  him  proceed  with  his  devotions." 
By  reviving  in  example  and  precept  the  austere  rule  of 
St.  Dominic,  he  became  obnoxious  to  all  those  in  his 
convent  into  whom  he  could  not  infuse  some  portion  of 
his  own  enthusiasm,  and  to  whom  his  conduct  was  a 
constant  reproach.  He  was  a  great  enemy  to  idleness  ; 
slept  but  four  hours,  being  present  day  and  night  in 
choir  at  all  sacred  offices ;  and  he  gave  audiences  at 
certain  times  to  all  who  wanted  his  help  in  resolving 


SAVONAROLA.  345 

conscientious  scruples.  His  greatest  recreation  was 
when  a  little  leisure  remained  to  be  passed  with  the 
novices  :  he  often  said  to  the  old  fathers,  "  Do  you  wish 
I  should  preach  well  ?  give  me  time  to  converse  with  my 
children."  While  with  them  he  ever  spoke  of  divine 
things  and  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  acknowledged 
that  this  way  he  had  learned  much,  for  that  God  often- 
times spoke  and  expounded  His  revelation  by  these  sim- 
ple youths  as  by  pure  vessels  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  cells  of  the  monks  were  frequently  visited  by  their 
prior,  who  heard  or  inquired  what  was  the  subject  of 
their  conversation :  if  it  concerned  eternity,  he  excited 
them  to  greater  animation,  mingling  in  it,  and  remind- 
ing them  that  God  was  present ;  if  they  were  not  occu- 
pied in  celestial  things,  he  adroitly  changed  the  strain 
to  something  holy  in  such  a  way  that  none  were  embar- 
rassed, and  all  became  accustomed  to  spiritual  converse. 
He  was  strictly  abstemious,  and  no  man  ever  doubted 
his  chastity.  He  desired  the  coarsest  and  most  patched 
clothing ;  once  in  consulting  about  reformation  with  two 
abbots  of  Vallambrosa,  he  happened  to  glance  at  their 
cowls,  which  were  of  beautiful  velvet,  and  smiled;  the 
abbots,  somewhat  blushing,  said  by  way  of  excuse,  "  Bro- 
ther, do  not  wonder  at  the  fineness  of  our  cowls,  they 
last  so  much  the  longer;"  the  brother  replied,  •'  What  a 
pity  St.  Benedetto  and  St.  Gio.  Gualbert  did  not  know 
this  secret,  they  would  have  worn  the  same." 

Not  content  with  monastic  reform,  Savonarola  pro- 
ceeded openly  to  attack  the  authority  of  the  Medici, 
accusing  them  of  aiming  at  the  sovereignty  of  the  state  ; 
and,  according  to  the  account  of  some  contemporary 
authors,  predicting  the  fall  of  the  family  under  Pietro 
and  the  approaching  death  of  Lorenzo.  The  latter  how- 
ever showed  no  disposition  to  punish  this  presumption, 
but  merely  restrained  Savonarola  from  giving  public 
lectures,  and  declared  that  all  attempts  to  reform  the 
morals  of  the  Florentines  met  with  his  hearty  concur^ 


346  SAVONAROLA. 

rence.  He  gave  also  very  decided  testimony  of  his 
esteem  for  the  character  of  the  reformer,  in  sending  for 
him  when  at  the  point  of  death,  that  he  might  receive 
his  confession  and  bestow  absolution.  Savonarola  went. 
To  his  inquiries  if  Lorenzo  continued  firm  in  the  Catho- 
lic faith,  the  latter  replied  in  the  affirmative.  Then  he 
exacted  a  promise  that  whatever  had  been  unjustly 
obtained  from  others  should  be  restored ;  Lorenzo  an- 
swered, "  Certainly,  father,  I  shall  do  so'  or  if  not  able, 
I  shall  strictly  enjoin  the  duty  on  my  successors."  To 
an  exhortation  on  bearing  death  with  fortitude,  he  re- 
plied, "  Cheerfully,  if  it  be  the  will  of  God;"  but  when 
Savonarola  further  insisted  that  he  should  re-establish 
the  independence  of  Florence,  he  refused  to  comply, 
and  the  father  departed  without  absolving  him.  Poli- 
tiano,  who  might  probably  have  been  present,  says  that 
Savonarola  did  give  absolution,  but  as  his  narrative  does 
not  agree  so  well  with  the  characters  of  the  parties  as 
that  of  Pico,  the  friend  and  biographer  of  Savonarola, 
and  as  he  was  a  man  to  whom  all  religious  ordinances 
were  indifferent,  if  not  contemptible,  he  is  very  likely 
to  be  incorrect :  impartiality  is  out  of  the  question  in 
both  cases. 

Pietro  di  Medici  succeeded  his  father,  but  could  not 
hold  the  reins  of  government  with  so  firm  a  hand,  and 
Florence  was  soon  distracted  by  factions. 

Savonarola  now  took  a  more  decided  part  in  affairs  of 
state.  Not  only  in  the  Duomo  and  St.  Marco,  which 
were  crowded,  but  in  the  public  squares,  he  harangued 
assembled  thousands,  bitterly  inveighing  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  pontifical  court,  no  less  than  against 
the  general  licentiousness  of  manners  and  the  domineer- 
ing spirit  of  the  Medici.  He  even  delivered  prophecies 
of  future  miseries,  to  the  utterance  and  accomplishment 
of  which  friends  and  enemies  alike  bear  witness :  the 
latter  attributing  them  to  his  uncommon  sagacity  and 
extensive  information;    the   former   to  the   immediate 


SAVONAROLA.  347 

inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit, — both  probably  consider- 
ing as  deliberate  assertion  many  things  which  were  but 
scintillations  of  his  fiery  eloquence,  and  which  rather 
threatened  than  foretold  the  disastrous  future. 

But  his  politics  did  not  distract  his  mind  from  his 
spiritual  duties  as  a  preacher;  and  at  Florence,  as  for- 
merly at  Brescia,  we  find  him  drawing  a  picture  of  the 
state  of  religion,  when  Popery  was  predominant.  "  In 
our  days,"  says  he,  "  when  all  Christians  have  come  to 
such  a  pass,  that  they  communicate  only  once  a  year, 
and  that  with  very  sorry  preparation,  they  are  worse 
than  the  heathen  were,  and  every  day  become  more 
depraved.  Every  year  they  confess  their  sins,  and  yet 
return  to  the  same  sins,  promising  God  every  time  to 
live  better,  but  never  performing  their  promises.  Our 
priests,  who  without  devotion  and  reverence  administer 
the  Supper,  are  yet  worse  than  the  laity.  Thus  because 
Christians  have  forsaken  the  true  service  of  Christ,  they 
are  now-a-days  fallen  into  such  blindness,  that  they  know 
not  what  the  name  of  Christian  means,  and  wherein  the 
true  service  of  God  consists.  They  occupy  themselves 
with  outward  ceremonies,  and  know  nothing  of  the  inner 
service  of  God.  Seldom  or  never  they  read  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  or  if  they  read  them,  they  understand  them 
not;  or  if  they  understand  them,  they  have  no  taste 
for  them — yea,  they  only  say,  *  Our  soul  is  disgusted 
with  this  vulgar  feast.  Who  will  give  us  to  hear  Cicero's 
eloquence,  and  the  sounding  words  of  the  poets,  the  soft 
diction  of  Plato,  and  the  acuteness  of  Aristotle?  For 
the  Scriptures  are  far  too  simple,  contain  food  only  fit 
for  women.  Preach  to  us  the  refined  and  sublime.' 
And  thus  the  preachers  accommodate  themselves  to 
the  people.  Since  they  could  no  more  endure  sound 
doctrine,  the  people  have  given  themselves  to  lies, 
they  invite  such  teachers  as  suit  their  itching  ears,  they 
turn  themselves  away  from  the  truth,  and  follow  cun- 
ningly-devised fables.     Also  the  princes  and  heads  of 


us  SAVONAROLA; 

the  people  will  not  hear  the  truth,  but  say,  *  Preach  to 
us  what  pleases  us,  preach  to  us  flatteries,  and  tell  us 
something  good.'  And  hence.  Christian  people  now 
wander  in  great  darkness." 

Of  the  state  of  the  monasteries  and  the  ill  effects  of 
the  constrained  celibacy  of  the  clergy  we  have  his  opinion 
thus  stated: — "'The  chastity  of  the  cloister  is  slain!' 
Had  not  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  become  a  futile  pretext, 
provoking  fornication  and  adultery,  and  encouraging  con- 
cubinage ?  Had  not  the  Church  become  a  brothel  ?  was 
not  the  Church  of  Rome  even  the  Mother  of  Harlots  ? 
Was  it  not  written  on  her  front,  blazoned  shamelessly 
on  the  folds  of  her  tiara  ?  Did  she  any  longer  attempt 
to  conceal  it  ?  was  not  the  veil  altogether  withdrawn  ? 
Innocent  VIII.  regarded  as  no  crime  what  he  had  in- 
herited as  a  custom.  The  clergy  were  rendered  dissolute 
by  an  absurd  regulation,  which  outraged  nature  without 
ministering  to  grace,  and  violated  the  precept  of  Scrip- 
ture, declaring,  that  '  Marriage  is  honourable  in  all.' 
The  cloisters  were  grossly  immoral — most  odious  prac- 
tices were  indulged — all  due  to  what  Luther  calls  '  the 
hell  of  celibacy.' "  Savanarola  had  not  arrived  at  this 
perception;  he  was  a  monk.  He  thought  it  right  to 
take  the  vow  of  chastity — he  had  taken  it,  and  he  kept 
it.  In  all  the  relations  of  life,  he  w^as  a  sincere  man ; 
and  it  was  this  which  made  him  sternly  heroic — which 
fitted  him  for  a  reformer — which  predisposed  him  for  the 
martyr's  crown. 

It  does  not  fall  within  our  province  to  narrate  the 
political  conduct  of  Savonarola ;  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  in  acting  as  he  thought  for  the  good  of  his  country 
he  was  always  opposed  to  the  family  of  the  Medici.  The 
exiled  partisans  of  the  Medici  carried  their  complaints 
to  Rome,  where  they  were  favourably  received  ;  the  pope 
lent  a  willing  ear  to  accusations  against  his  most  formid- 
able adversary,  Savonarola.  He  was  now  doubly  ob- 
noxious as  the  political  favourer  of  the  French,  and  the 


SAVONAROLA.  349 

bold  denouncer  of  the  enormous  vices  of  the  pontifical 
court  and  family :  not  only  opposing  them  in  sermons, 
but  writing  to  the  emperor  and  the  King  of  Spain, 
representing  the  Church  as  falling  into  ruin,  and  en- 
treating the  convocation  of  a  general  council,  in  which 
he  undertook  to  prove  that  the  Church  was  without  a 
head,  since  he,  who  had  obtained  tlie  chair  of  St.  Peter 
by  bribery,  was  unworthy  not  only  of  his  high  dignity, 
but  of  the  name  of  Christian.  Copies  of  these  letters 
were  sent  to  Rome,  and  they  exasperated  Alexander  to 
the  utmost ;  rich,  clever,  and  a  pope,  he  could  not  fail  to 
have  a  party,  ami  found  the  Franciscans  willing  instru- 
ments of  vengeance  against  a  member  of  the  rival  order ; 
many  volunteered  a  service  more  applauded  and  better 
recompensed  at  Rome  than  any  other ;  but  there  was 
some  difficulty  in  finding  vulnerable  points  in  the  cha- 
racter of  Savonarola,  and  in  those  of  his  doctrines  which 
were  most  practically  obnoxious.  The  pope  sent  for  a 
learned  bishop,  and  said : — 

'*  I  wish  you  to  controvert  the  sermons  of  this  brother." 

Bishop. — "  Holy  father,  I  will  do  it ;  but  I  must  have 
arms  to  oppose  and  overcome  him." 

Pope. — "  How  arms?" 

Bishop. — "  This  brother  says  w^e  ought  not  to  keep 
concubines,  be  licentious,  or  commit  simony — he  says 
true  ;  what  can  I  answer  to  this  ?" 

Pope. — "  What  is  to  be  done  in  this  matter  ?" 

Bishop. — "Reward  him,  make  him  a  friend  by  honour- 
ing him  with  a  red  hat,  provided  he  leaves  off  prophe- 
sying, and  retracts  what  he  said." 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  a  learned  man,  Ludovrco, 
was  sent  to  Savonarola,  who  received  him  kindly,  and 
argued  with  him  three  days ;  Ludovico,  failing  to  con- 
vince by  reason,  offered  the  cardinalate,  which  Savona- 
rola refused,  and  invited  his  guest  to  hear  the  preaching 
next  morning,  when,  after  repeating  his  denunciations 
more  violently  than  ever,  he  declared  he  would  have  no 

VOL.  VIII.  H  H 


350  SAVONAROLA. 

other  red  hat  than  one  tinged  by  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrdom. The  messenger  returned  persuaded  that  the 
brother  was  indeed  a  true  servant  of  God. 

After  the  failure  of  this  lenient  measure,  the  pope 
first  silenced,  and  then  excommunicated  the  refractory 
monk,  causing  the  sentence  to  be  read  in  the  Duomo  of 
Florence  :  for  a  while  Savonarola  submitted,  and  relin- 
quished his  pulpit  to  Domenico  da  Pescia,  and  other 
friends  ;  he  hesitated  to  shake  off  an  authority  which 
had  long  been  the  cement  of  the  ecclesiastical  fabric, 
however  unjustly  it  was  now  exercised,  but  soon  he 
resumed  his  functions  in  defiance  of  the  pope's  mandate, 
affirming  that  he  knew  it  was  the  will  of  God  he  should 
not  submit  to  the  decisions  of  such  a  corrupt  tribunal, 
and  declared  that  he  should  be  condemned  of  God,  if 
ever  he  asked  absolution  for  this  resistance. 

In  this  proceeding  he  was  upheld  by  the  magistracy 
of  Florence,  as  appears  by  the  spirited  letter  they  sent 
to  Alexander. 

The  effect  of  Savonarola's  eloquence  and  especially 
of  his  preaching  was  wonderful  and  beneficial,  and  by 
success  he  was  morally  injured.  While  at  a  distance 
from  the  world  his  mind  had  been  open  to  the  reception 
of  all  truth,  he  had  listened  to  the  Word  of  God  almost 
exclusively,  and  learned  purer  doctrines  than  those  trans- 
mitted through  a  corrupt  Church,  doctrines  which  Luther 
continued  to  learn  with  a  mind  wholly  bent  on  theolo- 
gical investigation,  and  communicated  to  others  gradu- 
ally as  they  were  presented  to  himself;  but  Savonarola, 
with  only  an  imperfect  apprehension  of  them,  plunged 
into  the  temporal  affairs  of  men,  to  use  for  their  benefit 
the  little  knowledge  he  had  acquired,  and  amidst  the 
confusion  and  error  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  had 
much  difficulty  in  holding  fast  that  little,  and  no  leisure 
to  enlarge  his  store.  The  men  with  whom  he  was  neces- 
sarily associated  in  the  prosecution  of  his  designs  in- 
fected him  with  their  superstitions ;    the  injustice  and 


SAVONAROLA.  351 

opposition  he  encountered  disturbed  the  exercise  of  his 
cool  judgment ;  it  was  not  till  after  the  conclusion  of  his 
poHtical  career  that  he  advanced  again  beyond  his  times, 
and  left  behind  both  the  world  and  the  Church  of  Kome 
in  his  nearer  approach  to  Divine  Truth. 

Exhausted  by  fatigue,  abstinence,  and  incessant  emo- 
tion, Savonarola  fell  sick  and  was  compelled  to  retire 
from  public  duties,  and  commit  the  exposition  of  his 
doctrines  principally  to  Domenico  da  Pescia,  whose  zeal 
outran  his  judgment ;  he  appears  to  have  interrupted 
his  master's  expression  of  confidence  in  God,  "  Who," 
he  said  "  would,  if  necessary,  enable  him  to  pass  unhurt 
through  the  fire,"  into  an  appeal  to  miracles  in  support 
of  his  doctrine ;  and  though  repeatedly  warned  not  to 
give  way  to  a  wild  imagination,  he  suffered  himself  to 
be  so  far  transported  in  the  heat  of  declamation  as  to 
accept  a  challenge  thrown  out  by  a  monk  of  the  Minor 
Observantines,  and  refer  the  decision  between  their  re- 
spective opinions  to  the  result  of  an  ordeal  fire  !  This 
barbarous  proposition  had  not  hitherto  been  noticed  by 
Savonarola,  who  always  denied  that  it  originated  with 
him  or  his  party.  The  turbulent  and  divided  multitude 
gladly  caught  at  the  promise  of  a  spectacle,  and  the 
magistrates,  some  of  one  party  and  some  of  another, 
agreed  to  try  this  mode  of  ascertaining  the  truth,  though 
there  were  some  who  either  moved  by  humanity,  or  as 
one  might  suppose,  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  ridicule 
upon  the  whole  affair,  affirmed  that  it  would  be  quite 
as  satisfactory,  and  much  less  cruel,  if  the  two  monks 
were  immersed  in  a  tub  of  water  (for  their  greater  com- 
fort w^arm  water,)  and  he  who  came  out  dry  was  to  be 
considered  the  conqueror. 

A  day  was  appointed  for  the  trial.  Savonarola  with 
his  champion,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  procession, 
appeared  at  the  place,  and  thundered  out  the  psalm 
"  Let  the  Lord  arise  and  scatter  his  enemies."  The 
Franciscan  came ;  the  flames  were  kindled ;  when  Savo- 


852  SCHWARTZ. 

narola,  finding  that  the  adverse  party  was  not  to  be  inti-' 
midated,  proposed  that  Domenico  should  be  allowed  to 
carry  the  host  with  him  into  the  fire.  This  was  ex- 
claimed against  by  the  whole  assembly  as  an  impious 
and  sacrilegious  proposal.  It  was,  however,  insisted 
upon  by  Domenico,  who  thereby  eluded  the  ordeal.  But 
the  result  was  fatal  to  the  credit  of  Savonarola.  The 
populace  insulted  and  turned  against  him.  His  enemies, 
after  a  sharp  conflict,  apprehended  him,  with  Domenico 
and  another  friar,  and  dragged  them  to  prison.  An 
assembly  of  ecclesiastics,  directed  by  two  emissaries  from 
Eome,  sat  in  judgment  upon  them.  The  resolution  and 
eloquence  of  Savonarola  disconcerted  his  judges  at  the 
first  examination ;  but  upon  the  application  of  torture, 
his  constancy  gave  way,  and  he  acknowledged  the  impos- 
ture of  his  pretending  to  supernatural  powers.  He  and 
his  companions  were  condemned  to  be  first  strangled  and 
then  burnt,  and  the  sentence  was  put  in  execution  on 
the  23rd  of  May,  1498,  before  an  immense  crowd  of 
spectators,  a  part  of  whom  still  venerated  him  as  a  saint 
and  martyr,  while  the  rest  execrated  him  as  a  hypocrite 
and  seducer. — Life  and  Times  of  Savonarola.  Foreign 
Quarterly. 


SCHWARTZ,    CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK. 

This  illustrious  man  and  distinguished  missionary  was 
born  at  Sonnenburg,  in  the  province  of  Bradenburg, 
in  1726.  He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Halle, 
and  there  formed  his  resolution  to  engage  in  missionary 
labour.  Having  determined  to  make  India  the  seat  of 
his  ministry,  he  sailed  for  Tranquebar,  on  the  Coroman- 
del  coast,  in  1750,  to  superintend  the  Danish  Mission. 
In  1766,  he  became  one  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  to  which  the  Danish 
mission  was  afterwards  transferred.     He  removed  first  to 


SCOT.  353 

Trinchinopoly,  and  afterwards  to  Tanjore.  He  also  went 
on  a  successful  embassy  from  the  presidency  of  Madras 
to  Hyder  Ali  at  Seringapatam  ;  and  in  1783,  he,  through 
the  influence  of  his  high  moral  reputation,  saved  Tanjore, 
then  besieged  by  Hyder's  troops,  from  the  horrors  of 
famine.  In  1785,  he  engaged  in  a  scheme  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools  throughout  the  country  for  the  pur- 
pose of  teaching  the  natives  the  English  language,  which 
was  carried  into  effect  at  Tanjore  and  other  places.  In 
1787,  the  Raja  of  Tanjore  confided  to  the  care  of  Schwartz 
his  successor  Maha  Sarbojee,  a  minor,  who,  some  years 
afterwards,  manifested  his  fihal  affection  for  his  tutor 
and  protector  by  erecting  a  monument,  by  Flaxman,  to 
his  memory  in  the  mission  church  at  Tanjore.  Schwartz 
died  February  13th,  1798. 


SCOT,    OR,    ROTHEEHAM,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Scot,  alias  Rotherham,  a  munificent  bene- 
factor to  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  was  born  at  Rotherham, 
in  Yorkshire,  from  whence  he  took  his  name,  but  that 
of  his  family  appears  to  have  been  Scot.  He  rose  by  his 
talents  and  learning  to  the  highest  ranks  in  Church  and 
State,  having  been  successively  fellow  of  King's  College, 
Cambridge,  master  of  Pembroke  Hall,  chancellor  of  that 
university,  prebendary  of  Sarum,  chaplain  to  King  Ed- 
ward IV.,  provost  of  Beverley,  keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal, 
secretary  to  four  kings,  Bishop  of  Rochester  and  Lincoln, 
Archbishop  of  York,  and  lord-chancellor.  His  buildings 
at  Cambridge,  Whitehall,  Southwell,  and  Thorp,  are 
eminent  proofs  of  his  magnificent  taste  and  spirit. 

He  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Lincoln  in  1471,  and 
we  learn  from  his  preface  to  his  body  of  statutes,  that  a 
visit  through  his  diocese,  in  which  Oxford  then  was, 
proved  the  occasion  of  his  liberality  to  Lincoln  College. 
On  his  arrival  there,  in  1474,  John  Tristroppe,  the  third 
h  H  3 


354  SCOTT. 

rector  of  that  society,  preached  the  visitation  sermon 
from  Psalm  Ixxx.  14,  15  : — "  Behold  and  visit  this  vine, 
and  the  vine-yard  which  thy  right  hand  hath  planted, 
<&c."  In  this  discourse,  which,  as  usual,  was  delivered  in 
Latin,  the  preacher  addressed  his  particular  requests  to 
the  bishop,  exhorting  him  to  complete  his  college,  now 
imperfect  and  defective  both  in  buildings  and  govern- 
ment. Rotherham  is  said  to  have  been  so  well  pleased 
with  the  application  of  the  text  and  subject,  that  he 
stood  up  and  declared  that  he  would  do  what  was  desired. 
Accordingly,  besides  what  he  contributed  to  the  build- 
ings, he  increased  the  number  of  fellows  from  seven  to 
twelve,  and  gave  them  the  livings  of  Twyford  in  Buck- 
inghamshire, and  Long  Combe  in  Oxfordshire.  He 
formed  also  in  1479,  a  body  of  statutes,  in  which,  after 
noticing  with  an  apparent  degree  of  displeasure,  that 
although  Oxford  was  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  no  col- 
lege had  yet  made  provision  for  the  natives  of  that  dio- 
cese, he  enjoined  that  the  rector  should  be  of  the  Diocese 
of  Lincoln  or  York,  and  the  fellows  or  scholars  should 
be  persons  born  in  the  Dioceses  of  Lincoln  and  York, 
and  one  of  Wells,  with  a  preference,  as  to  those  from  the 
diocese  of  York,  to  his  native  parish  of  Rotherham.  This 
prelate  died  in  1500  at  Cawood,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Chapel  of  St.  Mary,  under  a  marble  tomb  which  he  had 
built. — Chalmers. 


SCOTT,    JOHN. 

John  Scott  was  born  at  Chippenham,  in  Wiltshire,  in 
1638.  He  was  originally  intended  for  trade,  but  after- 
wards went  to  New  Inn  Hall,  Oxford,  where  he  matricu- 
lated in  1657.  When  ordained  he  came  to  London, 
where  he  officiated  in  the  perpetual  curacy  of  Trinity  in 
the  Minories,  and  as  Minister  of  St.  Thomas's,  in  South- 
wark.     In  1677,  he  was  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  St, 


SCOTT.  355 

Peter  Le  Poor,  in  Old  Broad-street :  and  was  collated  to 
a  prebend  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  in  1684.  In  1685, 
he  accumulated  the  degrees  of  bachelor  and  doctor  in 
divinity. 

His  great  work  was  the  Christian  Life.  The  first  part 
was  published  in  1681,  8vo,  with  this  title,  *'  The  Christian 
Life,  from  its  beginning  to  its  consummation  in  Glory, 
together  with  the  several  means  and  instruments  of 
Christianity  conducing  thereunto,  with  directions  for 
private  devotion  and  forms  of  prayer,  fitted  to  the  several 
states  of  Christians;"  in  1685,  another  part,  "wherein 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Christian  duty  are  as- 
signed, explained,  and  proved;"  in  1686,  another  part, 
"  wherein  the  doctrine  of  our  Saviour's  meditation  is 
explained  and  proved."  This  admirable  work  was 
strongly  recommended  to  students  of  divinity  by  the  late 
Dr.  Lloyd,  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

When  Popery  was  encroaching  under  Charles  XL  and 
James  II.  he  was  one  of  those  champions  who  opposed  it 
with  great  warmth  and  courage,  particularly  in  the  dedi- 
cation of  a  sermon  preached  at  Guildhall  Chapel,  Nov. 
5,  1683,  to  Sir  William  Hooker,  lord-mayor  of  London, 
in  which  he  declares  that  "  Domitian  and  Dioclesian 
were  but  puny  persecutors  and  bunglers  in  cruelty,  com- 
pared with  the  infallible  cut-throats  of  the  apostolical 
chair." 

After  the  Revolution,  he  was  offered  the  Bishopric  of 
Chester,  which  he  refused  from  scruples  about  the  Oath 
of  Homage,  as  he  did  afterwards  another  bishopric,  the 
Deanery  of  Worcester,  and  a  prebend  of  Windsor,  because 
they  were  the  places  of  persons  who  had  been  deprived. 
In  1691,  he  succeeded  Sharp,  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
York,  in  the  Rectory  of  St.  Giles-in-the-Fields  ;  and  in 
the  same  year  he  was  made  canon  of  Windsor.  He  died 
in  1694.  Besides  the  Christian  Life,  he  published  also 
Examination  of  Bellarmine's  Eighth  Note  concerning 
Sanctity  of   Doctrine;     The    Texts    Examined,    which 


356  SCOQGAL. 

Papists  cite  out  of  the  Bible  concerning  Prayer  in  an 
Unknown  Tongue  ;  Certain  Cases  of  Conscience  resolved, 
concerning  the  lawfulness  of  joining  with  Forms  of 
Prayer  in  public  worship  ;  A  Collection  of  Cases  and 
other  discourses  lately  written,  to  recover  Dissenters 
to  the  Communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  1685, 
4to.  All  his  works  were  published  in  2  vols.,  folio, 
1104:.— Wood.    Biog.  Diet. 


SCOUGAL,    HENRY. 

This  admirable  writer,  whose  works  still  live,  and  which 
found  an  editor  of  late  years  in  the  late  incomparable 
Bishop  Jebb,  did  much  in  a  short  time,  since  he  was 
called  to  his  reward  in  his  twenty- seventh  year.  Of  a  life 
so  short,  little  is  known.  He  was  born  in  June,  1650,  at 
Salton,  in  East  Lothian,  and  was  son  of  the  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen.  In  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  he  received 
his  education,  and  so  distinguished  himself,  that  at 
the  age  of  twenty,  he  was  enabled  to  fill  the  office  of 
professor  of  philosophy,  with  honour  to  himself  and 
with  profit  to  his  pupils. 

He  maintained  his  authority  among  the  students  in 
such  a  way  as  to  keep  them  in  awe,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  gain  their  love  and  esteem.  Sunday  evenings 
were  spent  with  his  scholars  in  discoursing  of,  and 
encouraging  religion  in  principle  and  practice.  He 
allotted  a  considerable  part  of  his  yearly  income  for 
the  poor;  and  many  indigent  families  of  different 
persuasions,  were  relieved  in  their  difficulties  by  his 
bounty,  although  so  secretly  that  they  knew  not  whence 
their  supply  came. 

Having  been  a  professor  of  philosophy  for  four  years, 
he  was  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  admitted  into  holy 
orders,  and  settled  at  Auchterless,  a  small  village  about 
twenty  miles  from  Aberdeen.     Here  his  zeal  and  ability 


SCOUGAL.  35t 

in  his  great  Master's  service  were  eminently  displayed. 
He  catechised  with  great  plainness  and  affection,  and 
used  the  most  endearing  methods  to  recommend  religion 
to  his  hearers.  He  endeavoured  to  bring  them  to  a  close 
attendance  on  public  worship,  and  joined  with  them 
himself  at  the  beginning  of  it.  He  revived  the  use  of 
lectures,  looking  upon  it  as  very  edifying  to  comment 
upon  and  expound  large  portions  of  Scripture.  In  the 
twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
divinity  in  the  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  which  he  at 
first  declined,  but  when  induced  to  accept  it,  he  applied 
himself  with  zeal  and  diligence  to  the  exercise  of  this 
office.  After  he  had  guarded  his  pupils  against  the 
common  artifices  of  the  Roman  missionaries  in  making 
proselytes,  he  proposed  two  subjects  for  public  exercise  : 
the  one,  of  the  pastoral  care,  the  other,  of  casuistical 
divinity. 

The  inward  dispositions  of  this  excellent  man,  are 
best  seen  in  his  writings,  to  which  his  pious  and  blame- 
less life  was  wholly  conformable.  His  days,  however, 
were  soon  numbered  ;  in  the  twenty- seventh  year  of  his 
age,  he  fell  into  a  consumption,  which  wasted  him  by 
slow  degrees  ;  but  during  the  whole  time  of  his  sickness 
he  behaved  with  the  utmost  resignation,  nor  did  he 
ever  show  the  least  impatience.  He  died  June  20, 
]778,  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  was 
buried  in  King's  College  Church,  in  Old  Aberdeen. 
His  principal  work  is  entitled  *'  The  Life  of  God  in 
the  Soul  of  Man,"  which  has  undergone  many  editions, 
and  has  been  thought  alike  valuable  for  the  sublime 
spirit  of  piety  which  it  breathes,  and  for  the  purity 
and  elegance  of  its  style.  He  left  his  books  to  the  library 
of  his  college,  and  five  thousand  marks  to  the  office  of 
professor  of  divinity.  He  composed  a  form  of  morning 
and  evening  service  for  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Aber- 
deen, which  may  be  seen  in  Orem's  Description  of  the 
Canonry   of  Old  Aberdeen,   printed  in  No.  3.  of  the 


358  SECKER. 

Bibliotheca  Topographica  Britannica."  His  treatise  on 
the  "  Life  of  God,"  &c,  was  first  printed  in  his  hfe-time 
by  Bishop  Burnet  about  1677,  without  a  name,  which 
the  author's  modesty  studiously  concealed.  It  went 
through  several  subsequent  editions,  and  was  patro- 
nised by  the  Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge, 
and  was  reprinted  in  1786,  with  the  addition  of  •'  Nine 
Discourses  on  important  subjects,"  by  the  same  author, 
and  his  Funeral  Sermon,  by  Dr.  G.  G. — EncyclopcEdia 
Perthensis.    Bihl.  Topog.  Britan. 


SECKER,    THOMAS. 

Of  this  prelate,  Pope  said,  **  Seeker  is  decent ;"  and 
decent  and  decorous  he  was,  without  excellence,  in 
every  department  of  life.  He  was  respectable  as  a 
scholar,  as  a  divine,  as  a  writer,  as  a  parish  priest 
and  as  a  bishop.  And  he  lived  at  a  period  when  a 
government  hostile  to  the  Church,  looked  out  for  res- 
pectable mediocrity,  to  fill  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
stations.  He  was  born  in  1693,  at  Sibthorpe,  in  the 
Vale  of  Belvoir,  in  Nottinghamshire.  His  parents  were 
dissenters,  and  he  was  educated  for  the  dissenting 
ministry.  But  having  perceived  the  errors  of  dissenting 
principles,  he  declined  to  officiate  in  the  capacity  of  a 
minister,  although  with  his  usual  cautious  moderation 
he  abstained  from  declaring  himself  a  Churchman.  In 
1716,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  physic,  both 
in  London  and  at  Paris.  He  had  been  acquainted  with 
the  celebrated  Joseph  Butler  when  he  was  at  a  Dis- 
senting School,  at  Tewksbury,  and  while  at  Paris  he 
received  an  offer  from  Butler,  now  preacher  at  the  Rolls, 
to  obtain  for  him  a  preferment  in  the  Church  of 
England,  if  he  would  conform.  He  was  enabled  to 
make  the  offer  through  his  intimacy  with  Mr.  Edward 
Talbot,  son  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham,     Seeker  acceded 


SECKER.  869 

to  the  proposal,  and  proceeding  with  his  usual  regard  to 
propriety,  took  his  medical  degree  at  Leyden,  in  1721, 
and,  entering  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  received  a 
degree  by  diploma  at  that  university  after  a  year's 
residence. 

Having  been  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  his 
progress  was  rapid.  He  was  made  chaplain  to  Bishop 
Talbot ;  he  had  the  living  of  Hough ton-le- Spring,  which 
he  exchanged  in  1727  for  that  of  Ryton,  and  a  prebend 
of  Durham ;  in  1 732,  he  was  nominated  one  pf  the 
king's  chaplains,  and  in  the  following  year  Hector  of  St. 
James's,  Piccadilly.  In  that  year  he  went  to  Oxford 
to  take  his  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  (not  being  of  sutfi- 
cient  standing  for  that  of  divinity.)  On  this  occasion  he 
preached  his  celebrated  Act  Sermon,  on  the  advantages 
and  duties  of  academical  education,  which  was  printed 
at  the  desire  of  the  heads  of  houses,  and  quickly  passed 
through  several  editions.  .  Early  in  1  735,  he  was  made 
Bishop  of  Bristol.  In  1737,  he  was  translated  to 
Oxford.  In  1750,  he  gave  up  the  Rectory  of  St.  James's, 
and  his  Durham  prebend,  and  was  made  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's.     In  1758,  he  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Bishop  Porteus  observes,  that  when  translated  to 
the  Metropolitan  See,  all  designs  and  institutions  that 
tended  to  advance  good  morals  and  true  religion,  he 
patronized  with  zeal  and  generosity.  He  contributed 
largely  to  the  maintenance  of  schools  for  the  poor,  to 
rebuilding  or  repairing  parsonage  houses  and  places  of 
worship,  and  gave  at  one  time  no  less  than  £500 
towards  erecting  a  chapel  in  the  Parish  of  Lambeth, 
to  which  he  afterwards  added  near  d6 100  more.  To  the 
Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge  he  was  a 
liberal  benefactor,  and  to  that  for  propagating  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts,  of  which  he  was  the  president, 
he  paid  much  attention  ;  was  constant  at  all  the  meetings 
of  its  members,  (even  sometimes  when  his  health  would 
ill  permit  it,)  and  superintended  their  deliberations  with 


360  SECKER. 

consummate  prudence  and  temper.  He  was  sincerely 
desirous  to  improve  to  the  utmost  that  excellent  insti- 
tution, and  to  diffuse  the  knowledge  and  belief  of 
Christianity  as  wide  as  the  revenues  of  the  society, 
and  the  extreme  difficulty  of  establishing  schools  and 
missions  amongst  the  Indians,  and  of  making  any 
effectual  and  durable  impressions  of  religion  on  their 
uncivilized  minds,  would  admit.  But  Dr.  Mayhew,  of 
Boston,  in  New  England,  having  in  an  angry  pamphlet 
accused  the  society  of  not  sufficiently  answering  these 
good  purposes,  and  of  departing  widely  from  the  spirit 
of  their  charter;  with  many  injurious  reflections  inter- 
spersed on  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  design  of 
appointing  bishops  in  America;  his  grace  on  all  these 
accounts  thought  himself  called  upon  to  confute  his 
invectives,  which  he  did  in  a  short  anonymous  piece, 
entitled.  An  Answer  to  Dr.  Mayhew's  Observations  on 
the  Charter  and  Conduct  of  the  Society  for  propagating 
the  Gospel ;  printed  for  Rivington,  1764,  and  reprinted  in 
America.  The  strength  of  argument,  as  well  as  fairness 
and  good  temper,  with  which  this  Answer  was  written, 
had  a  considerable  effect  on  all  impartial  men,  and  even 
on  the  doctor  himself,  who  plainly  perceived  that  he  had 
no  common  adversary  to  deal  with ;  and  could  not  help 
acknowledging  him  to  be  "a  person  of  excellent  sense, 
and  a  happy  talent  at  writing ;  apparently  free  from  the 
sordid  illiberal  spirit  of  bigotry;  one  of  a  cool  temper, 
who  often  shewed  much  candour,  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  affairs  of  the  society,  and  in  general  a  fair  rea- 
soner."  He  was  therefore  so  far  wrought  upon  by  his 
*'  worthy  answerer,"  as  to  abate  much  in  his  Reply  of 
his  former  warmth  and  acrimony.  But  as  he  still  would 
not  allow  himself  to  be  "wrong  in  any  material  point," 
nor  forbear  giving  way  too  much  to  reproachful  language 
and  ludicrous  representations,  he  was  again  animad- 
verted upon  by  Mr.  Apthorpe,  in  a  sensible  Tract, 
entitled,    "A  Review  of  Dr.  Mayhew's  Remarks,"  &c., 


SECKER.  361 

printed  also  for  Rivington,  in  1765.  This  put  an  end 
to  the  dispute.  The  doctor  on  reading  it  declared  he 
should  not  answer  it,  and  the  following  year  he  died. 

It  appeared  evidently  in  the  course  of  this  controversy, 
that  Dr.  Mayhew,  and  probably  many  other  worthy 
men  amongst  the  Dissenters  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
had  conceived  very  unreasonable  and  groundless  jea- 
lousies of  the  Church  of  England,  and  its  governors ; 
and  had  in  particular  greatly  misunderstood  the  pro- 
posal for  appointing  bishops  in  some  of  the  Colonies. 
TJie  chief  reasons  for  desiring  an  establishment  of  this 
nature,  were,  the  want  of  persons  vested  with  proper 
authority,  to  administer  to  the  members  of  the  Church 
of  England  the  ancient  and  useful  office  of  confirmation  ; 
to  superintend  the  conduct  of  the  episcopal  clergy ;  and 
to  save  candidates  for  the  ministry  the  trouble,  cost,  and 
hazard  of  coming  to  England  for  ordination.  It  was 
alleged,  that  the  expence  of  crossing  the  Atlantic  for 
that  purpose  could  not  be  less  than  £100,  that  near  a 
fifth  part  of  those  w^ho  took  that  voyage  had  actually 
lost  their  lives ;  and  that  in  consequence  of  these  dis- 
couragements, one  half  of  the  Churches  in  several  pro- 
vinces were  destitute  of  clergymen.  Common  humanity, 
as  well  as  common  justice,  pleaded  strongly  for  a  remedy 
to  these  evils ;  and  there  appeared  to  be  no  other  eflPec- 
tual  remedy  but  the  appointment  of  one  or  more  bishops 
in  some  of  the  episcopal  Colonies.  The  danger  and 
inconveniences,  which  the  Dissenters  seemed  to  appre- 
hend from  that  measure,  were  thought  to  be  effectually 
guarded  against  by  the  mode  of  appointment  which  was 
proposed.  What  that  mode  was,  may  be  seen  in  the 
following  extract  from  the  archbishop's  Answer  to  Dr. 
Mayhew,  in  which  he  explains  concisely  and  clearly  the 
only  plan  for  such  an  establishment  that  was  ever  meant 
to  be  carried  into  execution. 

"  The  Church  of  England  is,  in  its  constitution,  epis- 
copal.    It  is,  in  some  of  the  Plantations,  confessedly  the 

VOL.  VIII  J    I 


362  .  SECKER. 

established  Church  ;  in  the  rest  are  many  congregations 
adhering  to  it ;  and  through  the  late  extension  of  the 
British  dominions,  it  is  likely  that  there  will  be  more. 
All  members  of  every  Church  are,  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  liberty,  entitled  to  every  part  of  what  they 
conceive  to  be  the  benefits  of  it,  entire  and  complete, 
so  far  as  consists  with  the  welfare  of  civil  government. 
Yet  the  members  of  our  Church  in  America  do  not  thus 
enjoy  its  benefits,  having  no  Protestant  bishop  within 
three  thousand  miles  of  them  ;  a  case  which  never  had 
its  parallel  before  in  the  Christian  world.  Therefore 
it  is  desired  that  two  or  more  bishops  may  be  appointed 
for  them,  to  reside  where  his  majesty  shall  think  most 
convenient;  that  they  may  have  no  concern  in  the  least 
with  any  persons  who  do  not  profess  themselves  to  be  of 
the  Church  of  England,  but  may  ordain  ministers  for 
such  as  do;  may  confirm  their  children  when  brought 
to  them  at  a  fit  age  for  that  purpose ;  and  take  such 
oversight  of  the  episcopal  clergy,  as  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don's commissaries  in  those  parts  have  been  empowered 
to  take,  and  have  taken  without  offence.  But  it  is  not 
desired  in  the  least  that  they  should  hold  courts  to  try 
matrimonial  or  testamentary  causes ;  or  be  vested  with 
any  authority  now  exercised,  either  by  provincial  gover- 
nors, or  subordinate  magistrates  ;  or  infringe  or  diminish 
any  privileges  or  liberties  enjoyed  by  any  of  the  laity, 
even  of  our  own  communion.  This  is  the  real  and 
the  only  scheme  that  hath  been  planned  for  bishops  in 
America ;  and  whosoever  hath  heard  of  any  other,  hath 
been  misinformed  through  mistake  or  design.  And  as 
to  the  place  of  their  residence,"  his  grace  further  de- 
clares, "that  it  neither  is,  nor  ever  was  intended  or 
desired  to  fix  one  in  New  England  ;  but  that  episcopal 
colonies  have  always  been  proposed." 

The  doctor  on  reading  this  account  confessed  that,  if 
it  were  the  true  one,  "he  had  been  misinformed  himself, 
Stud  knew  of  others  who  had  been  so  in  common  with 


SECKER.  363 

him;  and  that  if  such  a  scheme  as  this  were  carried 
into  execution,  and  only  such  consequences  were  to 
follow,  as  the  proposer  had  professedly  in  view,  he  could 
not  object  against  it,  except  on  the  same  principle  that 
he  should  object  against  the  Church  of  England  in 
general." 

As  it  came  however  from  an  unknown  writer,  he 
thought  himself  at  liberty  to  consider  it  as  nothing  more 
than  the  imaginary  scheme  of  '.a  private  man,  till  it  was 
confirmed  by  better  authority.  It  now  appears  to  have 
come  from  the  best  authority,  and  it  is  certain  that  this 
mode  of  establishing  bishops  in  xlmerica,  was  not  in- 
vented merely  "to  serve  a  present  turn,"  being  precisely 
the  same  with  that  proposed  by  Bishop  Butler  twenty 
years  ago;  and  with  that  mentioned  by  his  grace,  in 
his  Letter  to  the  Right  Honourable  Horatio  Walpole, 
written  when  he  was  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  published 
since  his  death  by  his  executors,  Mrs.  Catherine  Talbot, 
and  Dr.  Daniel  Burton;  in  which  the  whole  affair  is  set 
in  a  right  point  of  view,  his  own  sentiments  upon  it 
more  fully  explained,  and  an  answet  given  to  the  chief 
objections  against  such  a  proposal. 

Bishop  Porteus  remarks,  "  It  is  a  very  remarkable 
circumstance,  and  a  complete  justification  of  the  arch- 
bishop's sentiments  and  conduct  on  the  subject  of  an 
American  episcopacy,  that  notwithstanding  the  violent 
opposition  to  that  measure  when  he  espoused  it,  yet  no 
sooner  did  the  American  Provinces  become  independent 
States,  than  application  was  made  to  the  English  bishops 
by  some  of  those  States,  to  consecrate  bishops  for  them 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England.  And 
accordingly  three  bishops  were  actually  consecrated  here 
some  years  ago,  one  for  Pensylvania,  another  for  New 
York,  and  a  third  for  Virginia." 

He  died  in  1768,  and  was  buried  in  the  church-yard 
of  Lambeth  parish.  He  expended  upwards  of  £300  in 
arranging  and  improving  the  MS.  library  at  Lambeth. 


364  SEDGWICK. 

He  also  made  it  bis  business  to  collect  books  in  all 
languages  from  most  parts  of  Europe,  at  a  great  expense, 
and  left  them  to  the  library  at  his  death.  The  greatest 
part  of  his  noble  collection  of  books  he  bequeathed  to 
the  archiepiscopal  library  of  Lambeth.  To  the  MS. 
library  there  he  left  a  large  number  of  valuable  MSS. 
written  by  himself  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  critical 
and  theological.  His  well  known  Catechetical  Lectures, 
and  his  MS.  sermons,  hg  left  to  be  revised  by  his  two 
chaplains,  Dr.  Stinton  and  Dr.  Porteus,  by  whom  they 
were  published  in  1770. 


SEDGWICK,    OBADIAH. 

Obadiah  Sedgwick  was  born  at  Marlborough,  in  Wilt- 
shire, in  1000,  and  educated  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford; 
after  which  he  obtained  the  Vicarage  of  Coggeshall,  in 
Essex;  but  in  the  rebellion  he  removed  to  London,  and 
was  chosen  preacher  at  St.  Paul's,  Covent-garden,  and  a 
member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines. 

Wood  says,  "  that  while  he  preached  at  Mildred's, 
which  was  only  to  exasperate  the  people  to  rebel  and 
confound  episcopacy,  it  was  usual  with  him,  especially 
in  hot  weather,  to  unbutton  his  doublet  in  the  pulpit, 
that  his  breath  might  be  the  longer,  and  his  voice  more 
audible,  to  rail  against  the  king's  party,  and  those  who 
were  near  him,  whom  he  cdWed  popish  counsellors.''  The 
same  author  adds,  "  He  was  a  great  leader  and  abettor 
of  the  Reformation  pretended  to  be  carried  on  by  the 
Presbyterians ;  whose  peaceable  maxims,  like  razors  set 
with  oil,  cut  the  throat  of  majesty  with  a  keen  smooth- 
ness. This  he  did  in  an  especial  manner,  in  Sept ,  1644, 
when  he,  with  great  concernment,  told  the  people  several 
times,  that  God  was  angry  with  the  army  for  not  cutting 
off  delinquents.'" 

It  has  also  been  said,   that  Mr.   Sedgwick  was  "  a 


SEED.  365 

preacher  of  treason,  rebellion,  and  nonsense,"  even  in 
his  sermons  before  the  parliament. 

In  1653,  or  1654,  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  tryers 
or  examiners  of  ministers ;  and  soon  after  one  of  the 
commissioners  of  London  for  ejecting  "  ignorant  and 
scandalous  ministers,"  that  is,  orthodox  and  pious 
divines.  These  Covenanters  who  were  so  loud  in  their 
clamour  when,  at  the  Restoration  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  were  restored  to  their  property,  not 
only  ousted  them  when  they  had  the  power,  but  ma- 
ligned and  misrepresented  them  as  some  of  their  suc- 
cessors are  still  accustomed  to  do. 

He  died  in  1658.  He  pubHshed :— The  Fountain 
Opened ;  An  Exposition  of  Psalm  xxiii. ;  The  Anatomy 
of  Secret  Sins ;  The  Parable  of  the  Prodigal ;  Synopsis 
of  Christianity;  and  other  works  long  since  for- 
gotten, the  list  of  which  occupies  more  than  a  page 
in  Pteid's  History  of  the  Westminster  Divines.— TFoorf. 
Reid. 


SEED,    JEREMIAH. 

Little  is  known  of  the  life  of  this  very  clear  headed  and 
learned  divine,  whose  writings  stand  next  perhaps  to  those 
of  Dr.  Waterland  in  the  controversies  of  the  last  century. 
He  was  born  at  Clifton,  near  Penrith,  in  Cumberland, 
and  educated  at  Lowther,  and  at  Queen's  College, 
Oxford,  of  which  he  was  chosen  fellow  in  1732.  The 
greatest  part  of  his  life  was  spent  at  Twickenham,  where 
he  was  curate  to  Dr.  Waterland.  In  1741,  he  was 
presented  by  his  college  to  the  living  of  Enham,  in 
Hampshire,  where  he  died  in  1747. 

He  published  :  —  Discourses  on  several  important 
Subjects,  2  vols.  8vo ;  his  Posthumous  Works,  con- 
sisting of  Sermons,  Letters,  Essays,  &c.,  in  2  vols.  8vo, 
were  published  in  1750. 

3  II 


366  SHARP. 


SERARIUS,    NICHOLAS. 

Nicholas  Seraeius  was  born  at  Rambemlliers,  in  Lor- 
raine, in  1555.  He  studied  at  Cologne,  and  there 
became  a  Jesuit.  He  died  at  Mentz,  in  1609.  His 
collected  works  were  published  in  Mentz,  in  three  tomes, 
fol.  Of  these,  the  most  esteemed  w^ere  : — Commentaries 
on  several  Books  of  Scripture :  Prolegomena  on  the 
Holy  Scriptures ;  Trihseresium,  seu  de  celeberrimis 
tribus,  apud  Judaeos,  Pharisaeorum,  Sadducaeorum,  et 
Essenorum  Sectis ;  an  edition  of  this  work  was  pub- 
lished at  Delft,  in  1703,  with  the  addition  of  the  trea- 
tises of  Drusius  and  Scalier,  on  the  same  subject ;  De 
rebus  Moguntinis. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


SHARP,    JAMES. 

James  Sharp  was  born  in  1618,  at  Banff  Castle,  Banff- 
shire, and  was  educated  at  King's  College,  Aberdeen. 
In  1638,  he  fled  from  persecution  and  retired  to  Eng- 
land, being  expelled  from  his  college  for  refusing  to  take 
the  Covenant.  Although  he  was  only  twenty  years  of 
age,  his  merit  was  such  that  he  attracted  the  kindly 
notice  of  such  men  as  Saunderson,  Hammond,  and 
Jeremy  Taylor.  He  did  not  remain  long  in  England, 
but  was  driven  back  to  his  native  air  by  severe  indis- 
position. Through  the  interest  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes, 
he  was  appointed  to  the  chair  of  philosophy  at  St.  Leo- 
nard's College,  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrew's.  He 
resigned  the  professorship  soon  after,  and  retired  to  the 
living  of  Crail. 

Sharp  was  more  of  a  politician  than  a  divine,  and 
though  he  preferred  episcopacy  as  a  form  of  Church 
government,  and  even  avowed  his  predilection  to  Crom- 
well, yet  he  did  not  consider  it  as  a  necessary  or  divine 


SHAEP.  367 

institution.  There  seems,  therefore,  to  have  been  very 
little  inconsistency  in  his  conduct  either  in  holding  office 
under  the  Presbytery,  or  in  being  instrumental  in  the 
re-establishment  of  episcopacy. 

The  Presbyterians  were  at  this  time  divided  into  two 
parties,  the  Remonstrators  or  Protestors,  and  the  Resolu- 
tioners.  To  account  for  the  origin  of  the  two  parties 
we  must  look  back  to  the  year  1688,  when  a  General 
Assembly,  called  by  Charles  I.,  became  guilty  of  high 
treason,  and  refused  to  rise  when  legally  dissolved  by 
the  king.  This  illegal  assembly  condemned  the  Liturgy 
— Book  of  Canons — Book  of  Ordination — and  the  Court 
of  High  Commission.  It  repealed  all  the  acts  of  Assem- 
bly for  the  preceding  forty  years ;  condemned,  deposed, 
and  excommunicated  the  bishops,  as  an  Anti-christian 
corruption;  declared  them  infamous,  and  worse  than 
heathens  and  publicans.  It  refused  to  rise  when  dis- 
solved by  the  king's  commissioner ;  but,  indeed,  all  the 
succeeding  parliaments  and  assemblies  both  met  and 
enacted  laws  contrary  to  the  royal  authority.  At  that 
period,  the  General  Assembly  exalted  itself  above  the 
crown  and  parliament,  and  actually  repealed  acts  of 
parliament.  A  new  oath  was  invented,  called  the 
Solemn,  League  and  Covenant,  and  imposed,  contrary 
to  all  law,  upon  all  men  and  women,  and  even  children 
were  compelled  to  take  it ;  and  such  as  refused  were  ex- 
communicated. The  consequence  of  excommunication  in 
Scotland,  at  that  time,  was  the  confiscation  of  all  their 
moveables,  and  that  their  persons  were  placed  beyond 
the  protection  of  the  laws.  The  lives  of  the  bishops, 
therefore,  were  now  at  the  mercy  of  every  man  who  might 
lift  their  hands  against  them,  to  avoid  which  they  fled 
to  England.  Such  was  the  unhappy  posture  of  Charles's 
affairs,  that  he  found  himself  under  the  necessity  of 
ratifying  their  illegal  acts  of  assembly,  in  the  parliament 
of  1641.  By  that  mutilated  and  illegal  parliament, 
episcopacy  was  abolished,  and  the  Presbyterian  system 


368  SHARP. 

established.  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was 
sworn  by  the  now  dominant  Presbyterians,  and  all  men 
forced  to  comply  with  it ;  the  object  of  which  was  to 
"  endeavour  the  extirpation  of  Popery,  Prelacy,  (that  is 
Church  government  by  archbishops,  bishops,  their  chan- 
cellors and  commissaries,  deans,  deans  and  chapters, 
archdeacons,  and  all  other  ecclesiastical  officers  depend- 
ing on  that  hierarchy,)  superstition,  heresy,  schism,  pro- 
faneness  and  whatsoever  shall  be  found  contrary  to 
sound  doctrine  and  the  power  of  godliness."  The  con- 
vention, or  parliament,  as  it  had  been  called,  of  1641, 
abolished  patronages  by  an  ordinance,  which  by  the  godly 
was  thought  "  worthy  of  being  written  in  letters  of  gold." 
It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  in  the  history  of  Presbytery, 
whenever  it  reached  a  point  when,  in  their  own  opinion, 
it  had  neither  spot  nor  wrinkle,  it  immediately  began 
to  backslide.  "  After  this,"  says  Willison  in  his  Testi- 
mony, "  a  mournful  scene  opened,  by  the  breaking  divi- 
sion that  entered  into  the  Church,  which  tended  to  stop 
the  progress  of  reformation  work,  and  make  way  at 
length  for  restoring  Prelacy.  This  was  occasioned  by 
some  ensnaring  questions  put  to  the  commission  in 
December,  1650,  by  the  king,  (Charles  11.)  and  parlia- 
ment, (which  they  had  better  have  declined  to  answer,) 
concerning  the  admission  of  persons  into  places  of  public 
trust,  civil  and  military,  who  formerly  had  been  opposers 
of  the  Covenanted  reformation,  upon  their  making  public 
profession  of  their  repentance ;  those  who  were  for  ad- 
mitting them  being  called  Puhlic  Resolutioners,  and  thos,e 
against  it  being  called  Protestors.'' 

The  Protestors  or  Remonstrators,  were  the  violent  and 
fanatical  Presbyterians  attached  to  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant.  The  Resolutioners  were  the  remains  of 
the  Episcopal  clergy,  and  were  by  far  the  greatest  pro- 
portion of  the  kingdom. 

Sharp  was  a  Resolutioner.  He  occupied  so  eminent 
a  place  in  his  party  that  he  represented  them  when 


O 


SHARP.  369 

Cromwell  was  in  Scotland,  and  sought  to  reconcile  reli- 
gious differences.  He  was  consulted  by  Monck,  who 
seems  to  have  relied  much  on  his  judgment  when  de- 
signing to  restore  the  king.  He  was  sent  to  Breda,  and 
conferred  with  Charles  the  Second,  and  "  in  all  his 
transactions,"  says  Guthrie,  "  he  seems  to  have  acted 
with  great  prudence  and  frankness  towards  his  consti- 
tuents ;  I  can  see  no  great  ground  for  the  violent  charge 
brought  by  Bishop  Burnet  against  the  former,  for  ingra- 
titude and  treachery  towards  his  constituents  ; — he  fairly 
tells  Douglass  that  he  would  not  appear  for  Presbytery 
in  any  other  way  than  within  his  own  sphere." 

He  seems  to  have  been  desirous  at  first  of  establishing 
the  moderate  Presbyterian  system,  to  which  he  belonged 
in  Scotland.  But  he  soon  perceived  that  every  thing 
was  tending  towards  the  re-establishment  of  Episcopacy, 
to  which  he  had  always  inclined,  without  thinking  it 
essential.  He  writes  from  London  :  "  From  any  obser- 
vation I  can  make,  I  find  the  Preshijterian  cause  wholly 
given  up  and  lost.  The  influencing  men  of  the  Presby- 
terian judgment  are  content  wdth  Episcopacy  of  Bishop 
Usher's  model,  and  a  Liturgy  somewhat  corrected,  with 
the  ceremonies  of  surplice,  cross  in  baptism,  kneeling  at 
communion,  if  they  be  not  imposed  by  a  canon,  suh 
poena  aut  culpa.  And  for  the  Assembly's  Confession,  I 
am  afraid  they  will  yield  it  to  be  set  to  the  door ;  and 
that  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  some 
amendments,  take  place.  The  moderate  Episcopalians 
and  Presbyterians  fear,  that  either  the  high  Episcopal 
men  be  uppermost,  or  that  the  Erastians  carry  it  from 
both.  As  for  those  they  call  rigid  Presbyterians,  there 
are  but  few  of  them,  and  these  only  to  be  found  in  the 
province  of  London  and  Lancashire,  who  will  be  incon- 
siderable to  the  rest  of  the  nation.  A  knowing  minister 
told  me  this  day,  that  if  a  synod  should  be  called  by  the 
plurahty  of  incumbents,  they  would  infallibly  carry  Epis- 
copacy.    There  are  many  nominal, /eit;  real  Presbyterians. 


370  SHARP 

The  cassock-men  do  swarm  here ;  and  such  who  seemed 
to  be  for  Presbytery,  would  be  content  of  a  moderate 
Episcopacy.  We  must  leave  this  in  the  Lord's  hands. 
Who  may  be  pleased  to  preserve  to  us  what  He  hath 
wrought  for  us.  I  see  not  what  use  I  can  be  longer 
here.  I  wish  my  neck  were  out  of  the  collar.  Some 
of  our  countrymen  go  to  the  Common  Prayer.  All  matters 
are  devolved  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  in  whose  power 
it  is  to  do  absolutely  what  he  pleases,  in  Church  and 
state.  His  heart  is  in  His  hand,  upon  whom  are  our 
eyes."  In  another  letter  of  the  same  date,  Mr.  Sharp 
says,  '*  I  find  our  Presbyterian  friends  quite  taken  off 
their  feet,  and  what  they  talk  of  us  and  our  help,  is 
merely  for  their  own  ends.  They  stick  not  to  say,  that 
had  it  not  been  for  the  vehemency  of  the  Scots,  Messrs. 
Henderson  and  Gillespie,  &c.,  set  forms  had  been  con- 
tinued ;  and  they  tvere  never  against  them.  The  king  and 
(Scottish)  grandees  are  nholly  for  Episcopacy  ;  the  Epis- 
copal men  are  very  high." — "  The  parliament  when  it 
meets  will  make  all  void  since  1639,  and  so  the  king 
will  be  made  king,  (that  is,  absolute  there  ;  in  Scotland, 
to  wit,  as  here,)  and  dispose  of  places  and  offices  as  he 
pleases." 

Sharp  acted  according  to  the  best  of  his  judgment. 
He  had  never  been  a  Covenanter :  he  represented  the 
old  episcopal  clergy  who  had  been  ousted  by  the  red 
hot  Presbyterians,  and  the  more  moderate  of  the  Pres- 
byterian party.  He  evidently  supposed  that  in  consenting 
to  the  shadow  of  episcopacy  to  which  he  was  called  upon 
to  yield,  he  had  the  majority  of  his  constituents  with  him, 
and  by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  was  received  when 
he  returned  to  Scotland,  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  he 
had  judged  correctly.  Every  thing  was  to  remain  the 
same  as  under  the  Presbyterian  system ;  no  liturgy;  no 
ceremonies ;  no  cross  in  baptism,  no  altars,  no  kneeling 
at  the  Eucharist,  no  chancels  were  to  be  introduced  :  only 
the  chief  pastor  of  each  diocese  was  to  be  a  consecrated 


SHARP.  371 

person.  Well  might  the  English  Presbyterians  exclaim, 
"  What  would  our  brethren  in  Scotland  be  at  ?  What 
would  they  have  ?"  The  restoration  of  Episcopacy,  says 
Guthrie,  was  inevitable.  In  1661,  came  forth  the  act 
Rescissory  by  which  were  rescinded  all  the  acts  by  the  re- 
bellious parliaments  since  1633,  and  the  Church  was  thus 
virtually  restored  to  what  it  was  in  1612.  The  next  step 
was  to  restore  the  right  of  presentation  to  the  patrons  of 
Scottish  benefices,  of  which  right  they  had  been  deprived 
in  1649.  And  at  last  came  forth  the  Proclamation  from 
Whitehall,  declaring  it  to  be  the  king's  pleasure  to  restore 
the  government  of  the  Church  by  archbishops  and  bishops 
as  it  stood  settled  in  1637. 

Sharp  acted  unwisely  in  accepting  the  j^rimacy  under 
such  circumstances.  The  Covenanters  were  enraged 
beyond  endurance,  and  as  they  could  not  vent  their  rage 
on  the  king,  they  singled  out  Sharp.  These  feelings  were 
expressed  by  the  most  malignant  and  profligate  Covenanter 
then  in  existence,  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale,  who  addressed 
the  following  words  to  Sharp : — "  Mr.  Sharp,  bishops  you 
are  to  have  in  Scotland ;  and  you  are  to  be  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrew's.  But,  whoever  shall  be  the  man,  I  will 
smite  him  and  his  order,  below  the  fifth  rib."  And  well 
did  he  make  this  flagitious  saying  good  !  For  when  he 
perceived  that  the  restoration  of  bishops  was  inevitable, 
his  malignity  found  a  resource  in  the  resolution  to  make 
Episcopacy  hateful  and  intolerable.  "  My  lord,"  he  ex- 
claimed with  an  oath,  to  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  who 
had  expressed  his  anxiety  for  a  limited,  sober,  and 
moderate  Episcopacy, — "  My  lord,  since  you  are  for 
bishops,  and  must  have  them,  bishops  you  shall  have  : 
and  higher  than  they  ever  were  in  Scotland :  and  that 
you  shall  find."  It  is  well  known  that  he  was  faithful 
to  this  threat.  He  succeeded,  to  his  heart's  content,  in 
making  the  cause  he  wished  to  ruin,  utterly  detestable, 
by  often  labouring  in  its  behalf  with  the  merciless 
ferocity  of  an  inquisitor. 


372  SHARP. 

That  the  view  we  have  taken  of  Sharp's  principles  are 
correct,  namely,  that  he  regarded  Episcopacy  as  expe- 
dient, but  not  essential  to  the  validity  of  holy  orders, 
appears  from  what  took  place  in  the  preliminaries  to 
the  consecration  of  himself  and  three  other  Scottish 
clergymen.  Kirkton  says,  "  first,  there  was  a  question 
to  be  answered,  and  that  was,  whether  they  were  to  be 
re-ordained  presbyters,  yea,  or  no  ?  Sharp  desired  they 
might  be  excused,  and  that  their  Presbyterian  ordina- 
might  be  sustained.  Episcopal  they  could  not  have; 
and  the  former  English  bishops  had  sustained  Spottis- 
wood's  Presbyterian  ordination  in  the  year  1610;  but 
Sheldon  was  peremptory — either  they  must  renounce 
their  old  Presbyterian  ordination,  or  miss  their  expected 
Episcopal  coronation  ;  so  they  were  cont€nt  rather  to 
deny  themselves  to  be  presbyters,  than  not  to  be  re- 
ceived bishops ;  and  when  they  consented,  Sheldon  told 
Sharp  that  it  was  the  Scottish  fashion  to  scruple  at  every 
thing,  and  swallow  any  thing.  But  with  a  great  pro- 
cess of  change  of  vestments,  offices,  prayers,  bowing  to 
the  altar,  and  kneeling  at  the  communion,  they  were 
re-ordained  presbyters,  and  consecrated  bishops  both  in 
one  day,  and  this  was  a  preface  to  a  fat  Episcopal  ban- 
quet, and  so  their  work  ended.  This  was  done  Decenii- 
ber,  1661." 

Wodrow,  in  the  printed  history,  gives  the  same  account 
in  nearly  the  same  words ;  but  in  his  *'  Analecta,"  he 
relates  a  hearsay  story,  as  follows :—"  January,  1707. 
This  day,  Mr.  James  Webster  told  that  his  author  had 
this  account  from  Bishop  Hamilton;  that  after  the 
Restoration,  Sharp,  Leighton,  Hamilton,  and  Fairfowl, 
four  of  them,  were  at  London ;  and  that  there  were 
only  two  of  them  that  were  re-ordained,  that  were  Sharp 
and  Leighton :  that  when  Sharp  got  the  gift  of  the 
Archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews  from  the  king,  he  came 
to  Juxon,  Bishop  of  London,  with  the  orders ;  and  who 
says  that  is  very  good,  but  Mr.  Sharp,  where  are  your 


SHARP.  373 

orders?  You  must  be  re-ordained  presbyter,  before  you 
can  be  consecrated  bishop.  He  said  he  behoved  to  con- 
sult with  his  brethren,  and  returned  and  told  them  that 
they  behoved  to  be  re-ordained.  Mr.  Hamilton  and  the 
others  said,  that  they  were  ordained  before  the  thirty- 
eight,  by  bishops.  Mr.  Leighton  said,  J  will  yield, 
(although)  I  am  persuaded  I  was  in  orders  before,  and 
my  ministrations  were  valid,  and  that  they  do  it  cumu- 
lative, and  not  privative ;  and  although  I  should  be 
ordained  every  year,   I   will  submit." 

The  reception  of  the  new  prelates  in  Scotland  was 
enthusiastic.  On  the  6th  of  April,  the  primate  and 
the  other  bishops  arrived  at  Berwick-on-Tweed.  Many 
of  the  nobility,  gentry,  and  ministers  went  from  Edin- 
burgh as  far  as  Cockburn's-path,  a  hamlet  about  eight 
miles  beyond  Dunbar,  to  meet  and  escort  them  into 
the  capital.  A  vast  multitude  of  inferior  note  met 
them  at  Musselburgh,  whence  they  were  conducted 
into  Edinburgh,  in  triumph ;  "  and  with  all  reverence 
and  respect  received  and  embraced  them,  in  great  pomp 
and  grandeur,  with  sound  of  trumpet  and  all  other 
curtesies  requisite.  This  done  on  Tuesday,  the  8th  of 
April,  1662."  This  is  corroborated  by  Wodrow ;  but 
he  adds,  "  which  was  not  a  little  pleasing  to  Sharp's 
ambitious  temper."  There  is  no  doubt  it  would  be 
pleasing  not  only  to  him,  but  to  all  those  who  wished 
for  the  peace  of  their  country,  or  that  the  wounds  of 
the  Church  should  be  healed.  It  is  pleasing,  even  at 
this  day,  when  the  Covenanting  fire  is  smouldering  in 
its  ashes,  to  see  with  what  unanimity  so  good  a  work 
was  received  by  "  the  generality  of  the  new  upstart 
generation;  who  had  no  love  to  Presbyterial  govern- 
ment ;  feeding  themselves  with  the  fancy  of  Episcopacy." 
Let  the  Covenanters  say  what  they  will,  this  demonstra- 
tions is  a  decided  proof  of  "  the  inclinations  of  the 
people."  It  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  and  recorded  too 
by  Wodrow,  that  "the   generality  of   the    people  were 

VOL.  VIIl.  K    K 


374  SHARP. 

wearied"  of  the  Presbyterial  yoke,  and  none  but  the 
bigoted  Covenanters  were  opposed  to  the  Episcopal 
government. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  at  the  Scottish  metropolis,  the 
primate  consecrated  other  bishops  to  the  vacant  sees. 
Kirkton,  followed  by  Wodrow,  indulges  his  maUce  in 
giving  the  blackest  character  to  all  these  fathers  of  the 
Church,  but  especially  to  Dr.  Sharp.  Their  satanic 
malice,  and  indeed  that  of  the  whole  Covenanters, 
defeats  itself,  and  even  brings  a  direct  reproach  upon 
their  own  beloved  discipline.  If  the  bishops  were  such 
monsters  of  wickedness  as  they  represent  them  to  have 
been,  why  did  the  Kirk,  in  its  state  of  Philadelphian 
purity,  suffer  them  to  exercise  their  ministry  without 
rebuke  ?  Why  suffer  them  to  disgrace  the  Presbyterian 
discipline,  which  Kirkton  informs  us  was  so  severe,  and 
so  inquisitorial,  that  even  a  poor  peasant  could  not 
escape  its  searching  strictness,  far  less  its  ministry? 
We  leave  these  questions  to  be  answered  by  those  who 
believe  and  continue  the  malicious  misrepresentations 
of  those  persecutors  of  the  true  Church.  Had  they 
really  been  such  immoral  men,  under  such  an  inquisi- 
torial discipline,  it  would  have  been  next  to  impossible 
to  have  concealed  their  immorality,  even  although  Kirk- 
ton admits,  that  their  tyranical  discipline  made  hypocrisy 
the  besetting  sin  of  the  age.  It  says  very  little  for  the 
severe  morality  to  which  the  Presbyterian  discipline  is 
said  to  be  so  favourable,  to  wink  at  such  alleged  wicked- 
ness in  their  ministers.  Had  these  men,  however, 
remained  in  their  obscurity  of  parish  ministers ;  but 
more  particularly,  had  they  adopted  the  Presbyterian 
discipline,  the  world  would  have  been  unedified  by  the 
malicious  libels  of  Kirkton  and  Wodrow.  It  is  certain, 
there  never  was  the  slightest  accusation  of  immorality 
against  them  till  after  their  promotion  to  the  order  of 
bishops.  The  Covenanting  historians,  and  who  have 
been   but  too  thoughtlessly  copied   by  more   reputable 


SHARP.  375 

names,  have  heaped  the  most  atrocious  falsehoods  on 
the  Scottish  bishops ;  accusations  which  a  small  degree 
of  reflection  would  show  were  the  suggestions  of  malice 
and  envy  alone.  The  bishops  were  chosen  out  of  the. 
party  known  by  the  name  of  public  Resolutioners,  towards 
whom  the  Covenanters  entertained  the  most  fiendish 
hatred. 

None,  however,  suffered  so  much,  nor  more  unjustly, 
than  Archbishop  Sharp.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  chief 
and  paramount  object  with  his  enemies,  to  fix  on  him 
the  guilt  of  necromancy,  and  for  which  purpose  the  most 
absurd  and  improbable  falsehoods  have  been  gravely 
recorded  as  materials  for  future  history.  Such  "  weak 
inventions  of  the  enemy"  would  only  excite  contempt, 
as  being  the  childish  gossip  of  ignorant  and  silly  men, 
envious  of  his  superior  abilities  and  station,  were  it  not 
for  the  deep  and  fiendish  malice  which  lurks  under 
them.  The  atrocious  libels  which  the  chief  historian 
of  that  period  has  put  into  circulation,  and  which  have 
been  thoughtlessly  and  maliciously  repeated  without 
inquiry,  are  recorded  upon  no  better  authority  than  mere 
hearsay.  The  object  is  apparent,  and  hitherto  has  been 
eminently  successful ;  for  not  content  with  taking  his 
life  in  a  most  barbarous  manner,  they  have  never  ceased 
to  murder  his  character,  so  that  he  has  been  a  double 
martyr — in  deed  and  in  reputation.  Good  men  in  all 
ages  have  been  the  butt  of  the  wicked  ;  but  none  were 
ever  so  maligned  and  insulted  whilst  living,  nor  their 
memories  so  persecuted  when  dead,  and  some  of  them 
even  murdered,  as  these  fathers  of  the  Church,  but 
especially  the  archbishop.  The  persecution,  whether 
active  or  passive,  to  which  the  true  Church  has  ever 
been  subjected  by  heretics  and  schismatics,  may  consti- 
tute one  of  its  marks.  The  Church  in  England  was 
crushed  beneath  the  upper  millstone  of  Popish  Jesuits, 
and  the  nether  millstone  of  the  Puritans ;  and  the 
Church  in  Scotland  was  annihilated  by  the  united  fero- 


376  SHARP. 

city  and  intolerance  of  the  Covenanters  and  Popish 
emissaries,  at  the  grand  rebeUion.  It  has  been  all  along 
the  tactics  of  all  these  parties  to  persecute  the  Church, 
but  especially  the  Church  in  Scotland,  by  the  continued 
circulation  of  the  most  enormously  wicked  and  inconsis- 
tent falsehoods  on  the  memories  of  the  first  prelates  of 
that  branch  of  the  Church  Catholic. 

Of  the  persecutions  to  which  the  Covenanters  were 
subjected  by  the  civil  power  we  have  only  to  speak  with 
abhorrence,  and  with  the  greater  abhorrence  when  we 
know  that  the  profligate  instigator  of  these  was  himself 
of  the  same  way  of  thinking  with  those  he  persecuted, 
and  desired  to  make  Episcopacy  stink  in  the  nostrils  of 
the  people.  But  for  these  atrocities  Sharp  is  not  respon- 
sible, and  it  is  to  be  recollected  that  the  principles  of 
the  Covenanters  were  principles  as  much  opposed  to  the 
laws  of  common  humanity  as  to  the  laws  of  God,  They 
thirsted  for  the  blood  of  these  victims,  and  many  felt 
that  if  they  were  not  repressed  they  would  be  themselves 
destroyed.  The  principles  of  the  Covenanters  and  Pres- 
byterians of  that  age  are  sufficiently  exemplified  by  the 
concluding  events  of  Sharp's  life. 

In  the  year  1668,  when  the  primate  was  in  Edinburgh, 
and  engaged  "  in  distributing  alms  to  the  poor  in  the 
street,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  True  and  Impartial 
Account,"  he  was  shot  at  by  a  fanatical  preacher  of  the 
name  of  Mitchell,  who  had  been  out  with  the  armed 
insurrection  two  years  before  :  "  a  youth,"  says  Wodrow, 
"  of  much  piety  and  zeal " !  The  ball  missed  Sharp, 
but  wounded  Honyman,  Bishop  of  Orkney,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  beside  him,  and  who  died  of  the  w^ound 
a  few  years  after.  Here,  again,  Wodrow  remarks,  that 
"people  could  not  help  observing  the  righteousness  of 
Providence  in  disabling  Bishop  Honyman,"  because,  it 
seems,  in  former  times  he  had  written  in  favour  of  Pres- 
byterianism  !  The  assassin  made  his  escape  through 
the  crowd;  but  not  before  his  features  were  distinctly 


SHARP.  377 

seen  by  the  primate.  In  order  to  escape  from  justice, 
he  went  to  Holland,  where  he  remained  five  j^ears,  from 
whence  he  returned  with  a  resolution  to  make  a  second 
attempt  on  the  object  of  his  hatred.  Accordingly,  he 
came  with  his  wife  to  Edinburgh,  and  hired  a  small 
shop  within  a  few  doors  of  Sharp's  lodgings,  where  he 
sold  tobacco  and  groceries.  One  day  soon  after,  the 
primate  being  accidentally  in  Edinburgh,  perceived  this 
very  man  eyeing  him  with  a  malignant  scowl,  as  if 
watching  for  an  opportunity  of  doing  him  some  mischief. 
He  had  him  instantly  arrested ;  and  two  loaded  pistols, 
with  three  balls  each,  being  found  upon  him,  he  was 
brought  before  a  committee  of  the  privy  council,  who, 
it  is  alleged,  promised  him  his  life  if  he  would  confess 
that  he  was  the  person  who  had  attempted  to  shoot  the 
primate  on  the  former  occasion.  On  this  point,  however, 
the  accounts  are  conflicting.  One  asserts  that  Sharp 
only  promised  to  intercede  for  him,  on  the  condition  of 
his  confessing.  Burnet  (who  disliked  Sharp  personally, 
and  admits  that  he  received  his  account  from  one  of 
his  enemies)  says  that  he  swore  to  Mitchell  with  uplifted 
hands,  that  if  he  would  confess,  no  harm  whatever  should 
happen  to  him.  The  criminal,  it  would  appear,  made 
the  required  confession;  after  which  he  was  taken  for 
trial  before  the  Lords  of  Justiciary,  the  appointed  judges 
in  all  criminal  cases.  Some  one  had  hinted  to  him,  in 
the  meantime,  that  he  ought  not  to  confess  anything ; 
because,  though  he  might  get  his  life,  he  would  pro- 
bably lose  his  hand,  and  be  imprisoned  for  the  remainder 
of  his  days.  Being  called  upon  by  the  court  to  say 
whether  he  were  guilty  or  not,  he  pleaded  not  guilty, 
and  obstinately  refused  to  repeat  his  former  confession, 
though  informed  that  his  life  could  not  be  granted  to 
him  on  any  other  condition.  As  therefore  he  withdrew 
his  confession,  the  council  considered  themselves  justi- 
fied in  withdrawing  their  conditional  promise  of  pardon ; 
and  in  the  meantime,  till  he  should  think  better  of  it, 

3  KK 


378  SHARP. 

lie  was  sent  to  the  tolbooth,  where  he  was  imprisoned  two 
years.  At  the  end  of  that  period,  he  was  again  brought 
before  the  council,  and  had  the  cruel  torture  of  the 
boots  applied  to  one  of  his  legs,  but  without  producing 
the  required  confession.  Next,  he  was  remanded  to  the 
Bass  rock,  where  he  was  kept  another  two  years,  after 
which  his  trial  was  resumed,  according  to  Laing,  "  at 
the  instigation  of  Sharp."  The  evidence  against  him 
was  conclusive ;  and  was  so  far  from  being  contradicted, 
even  by  himself,  that  when  asked  by  Lord  Halton  why 
he  had  done  so  execrable  an  act,  he  answered,  "  Because 
the  archbishop  was  an  enemy  to  the  godly  people  in  the 
west."  His  trial  lasted  four  days ;  at  the  end  of  which, 
being  found  guilty  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  a  jury  con- 
sisting of  fifteen  gentlemen,  he  was  condemned  and 
executed.  In  his  last  words,  he  declared  openly  that 
he  laid  down  his  life  in  opposition  to  the  perfidious 
prelates,  and  in  testimony  to  the  cause  of  Christ :  and 
blessed  God  that  He  had  thought  him  worthy  of  so 
doing. 

The  foregoing  are  the  simple  facts  of  the  case,  so  far 
as  they  are  known,  as  we  find  them  briefly  detailed 
by  Mr.  Lyons,  in  his  History  of  St.  Andrews,  and  it  must 
rest  with  the  reader  to  judge  whether  Sharp  is  deserving 
of  the  odium  with  which  his  memory  has  been  loaded 
for  the  part  he  took  in  the  transaction. 

After  an  administration  of  eighteen  years,  Sharp,  as 
is  well  known,  was  cruelly  murdered  by  a  party  of  ruffians 
to  whom  he  had  made  himself  obnoxious.  Their  con- 
spiracy against  him  arose  out  of  a  quarrel  which  he  had 
with  one  Haxton  of  Rathillet,  and  his  brother-in-law, 
Balfour  of  Kinloch,  about  some  money  due  to  him,  which 
they  resisted,  while  he  took  legal  means  to  compel  pay- 
meut.  This  so  exasperated  them,  that  they  engaged  a 
party  of  seven  Covenanters  who  were  too  happy  to  wreak 
their  vengeance  on  the  primate  on  religious  grounds. 
With   their  help,  they  way-laid   him  on  Magus  Muir, 


SHARP.  379 

near  St.  Andrews,  as  he  was  travelling  home  in  his 
coach  from  Edinburgh,  accompanied  by  his  eldest 
daughter.  But  here  we  will  allow  his  biographer  to 
describe  what  occurred  on  his  part  immediatety  previous 
to  the  murder : — "  Upon  Friday,  May  2nd,  he  deter- 
mined to  take  a  journey  to  St.  Andrews,  with  a  design 
to  return  upon  Monday  to  Edinburgh,  and  thence  to 
begin  his  journey  for  court.  On  Friday  evening  he 
reached  Kennoway,  where  he  lodged  that  night ;  in  which, 
and  next  morning,  he  was  observed  to  have  eaten  or 
drunk  very  little,  but  was  known  to  have  been  very 
fervent  and  longer  than  ordinary  in  his  devotions ;  as 
if  God,  out  of  His  great  mercy,  had  thereby  prepared 
him  for  what  he  was  to  meet  with  from  the  worst  of  men. 
His  religious  behaviour  was  so  much  taken  notice  of  that 
morning  by  the  pious  and  learned  Dr.  Monro,  (who  had 
come  to  wait  on  him,)  that  he  said  he  believed  he  was 
inspired.  So,  on  Saturday,  May  3rd,  he  entered  his 
coach  with  his  daughter  Isabel,  and  went  on  his  journey. 
All  the  way  he  entertained  her  with  religious  discourses, 
particularly  of  the  vanity  of  life,  the  certainty  of  death 
and  judgment,  of  the  necessity  of  faith,  good  works,  and 
repentance,  and  daily  growth  in  grace,"  &c.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  his  murder  have  often  been  described. 
Let  it  suffice  to  say  here,  that  the  assassins,  after  making 
themselves  masters  of  the  servants  and  horses,  dragged 
the  unfortunate  prelate  out  of  his  coach,  and  despatched 
him  with  many  wounds.  Instead  of  trying  to  escape, 
they  retired  to  a  neighbouring  cottage,  where  they  devoted 
several  hours  to  prayer.  They  felt  no  fear  or  compunction, 
but  thanked  God  that  he  had  enabled  them  to  accomplish 
this  glorious  work,  and  asked  strength  that  they  might, 
if  necessary,  seal  it  with  their  blood !  Danziel,  one  of 
the  fanatics,  declared  that,  in  answer  to  this  prayer,  he 
heard  a  voice  from  heaven  saying,  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servants." 
The  murder  of  the   archbishop  was   received  with  a 


380  SHARP. 

savage  yell  of  exultation  throughout  all  the  regions  of 
remonstrant  Presbyterianism,  which  of  itself  shewed 
how  abhorrent  their  principles  were  from  the  spirit  of 
the  Gospel.  Their  malignity  has  defeated  itself  in  the 
portraiture  they  have  undertaken  to  draw  of  their  victim. 
They  have  represented  him,  not  only  as  a  traitor  and  a 
persecutor,  but  as  a  wretch,  stained  with  the  most  abomi- 
nable crimes, — with  infanticide,  adultery,  and  incest. 
And,  in  order  to  deepen  the  horrors  of  the  picture,  they 
have  not  scrupled  to  affirm,  that  he  was  in  a  dark  con- 
federacy with  the  evil  potentate  !  It  is  seriously  related 
by  Wodrow  that,  on  one  occasion,  the  archbishop  de- 
spatched his  footmen  to  St,  Andrews,  for  a  paper ;  and 
that,  when  the  man  arrived  at  St.  Andrews,  after  a  hasty 
journey,  to  his  terror  and  astonishment,  he  found  his 
grace  there,  quietly  sitting  at  his  table,  with  his  black 
gown  and  tippet,  and  his  broad  hat,  just  as  he  had  left 
him  at  Edinburgh.  Another  story  is,  that  one  Janet 
Douglas,  when  summoned  before  the  council,  on  a  charge 
of  sorcery,  declared  that  she  knew  who  were  witches, 
but  was  no  witch  herself.  Being  threatened  with  the 
plantations,  she  turned  to  the  primate,  and  said,  "  My 
lord,  who  was  with  you,  in  your  closet,  on  Saturday  night 
last,  between  twelve  and  one  o'clock  ?"  And,  when  after- 
wards privately  questioned  by  Lord  Rothes,  she  declared 
that  his  grace's  nocturnal  visitor  was  no  other  than  the 
muckle  black  deevil  himself.  It  was,  moreover,  asserted 
that  "he  bore  a  charmed  life,"  or,  at  least,  a  s/io^proof 
body,  upon  which  leaden  bullets  could  work  no  further 
mischief  than  to  leave  black  or  blue  marks  behind  them ! 
And,  all  this  trash  is  propounded  with  just  as  much 
confidence  and  gravity,  as  if  it  were  a  narrative  of  the 
best  authenticated  facts !  It  would  be  cruel  to  hang  a 
dog  on  the  sole  testimony  of  such  witnesses. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  picture,  it  is  undeniable 
that  in  his  personal  habits  of  life  he  was  blameless ;  we 
have  not  grounds   for  doubting  that  his   religion  was 


SHARP,  JOHN.  38] 

sincere,  and  it  is  beyond  question  that  he  was  charitable 
to  the  poor.  Neither  can  it  be  disputed  that  he  was 
capable  of  kind  and  generous  offices  towards  men  who 
w^ere  anything  but  his  well-wishers.  By  his  intercession 
with  the  king  he  saved  the  lives  of  two  traitors,  Simpson 
and  Gillespie;  and  he  made  a  similar  attempt,  though 
without  success,  in  favour  of  a  third,  the  notorious 
Guthrie,  author  of  the  treasonable  pamphlet  entitled, 
"  The  Causes  of  God's  Wrath,"  &c.  These  facts  were 
known  to  Wodrow ;  but  were  scandalously  suppressed 
by  ^im  in  his  calumnious  History.  His  commission 
was  "  to  aggravate  the  crimes,"  and  not  to  blazon  the 
virtues  of  the  royal  clergy. — Stephens.  Lyons  History  of 
St.  Andrews. 


SHABP,    JOHN. 

John  Shabp  was  born  at  Bradford,  now  one  of  the  first 
towns  in  Yorkshire,  but  at  that  time  little  more  than 
a  village,  on  the  16th  of  February,  1644,  his  father  being 
an  eminent  tradesman.  In  1660,  he  went  to  Cambridge, 
and  in  1667,  he  was  ordained  on  the  same  day  deacon 
and  priest  at  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  by  Dr.  Fuller, 
Bishop  of  Limerick,  and  he  became  domestic  chaplain 
to  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  then  attorney-general. 

In  1672,  he  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Berkshire,  aod 
in  1676,  Prebendary  of  Norwich,  next  Eector  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  near  the  Exchange,  and  afterwards  of 
St.  Giles'-in-the-Fields,  London.  In  1679,  he  took  his 
degree  of  D.D.,  and  became  lecturer  of  St.  Lawrence, 
Jewry.  In  1681,  he  was  made  Dean  of  Norwich,  by  the 
interest  of  his  friend  Finch,  at  that  time  lord-chancellor. 

As  a  parish  priest  and  as  a  preacher,  he  was  exem- 
plary and  laborious.  But  with  the  exception  of  a  con- 
troversy with  Dissenters,  occasioned  by  a  sermon  he  had 
preached  before  the   lord-mayor,   in  1674,  he  did   not 


382  SHARP,  JOHN. 

come  prominently  before  the  public  until  the  reign  of 
James  II. 

Dr.  Sharp,  in  1686,  having  preached  in  his  own 
church  a  sermon  against  Popery,  as  he  descended  from 
the  pulpit  a  paper  was  put  into  his  hand,  containing 
an  argument  for  the  right  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to 
the  title  of  the  only  visible  Catholic  Church.  This  he 
answered  from  his  pulpit  on  the  next  Sunday ;  which 
circumstance  being  represented  at  court  as  an  attempt 
to  produce  jealousy  and  disaffection  to  his  majesty's 
government,  and  an  infraction  of  his  order  concerning 
preachers,  the  king  was  greatly  incensed,  and  in  the 
June  following,  sent  a  mandate  to  Dr.  Compton,  Bishop 
of  London,  for  the  suspension  of  Dr.  Sharp  from  preach- 
ing in  any  church  or  chapel  in  his  diocese,  till  he  had 
given  satisfaction  for  his  offence.  The  bishop  sent  for 
the  doctor,  and  informed  him  of  the  royal  displeasure, 
who  replied,  that  he  had  never  been  called  upon  to 
answer  for  the  matter,  or  to  make  his  defence,  and  that 
he  was  ready  to  give  full  satisfaction.  The  bishop  there- 
upon wrote  to  Lord  Sunderland,  stating  the  impossibility 
of  his  complying  with  the  king's  command,  since  he 
must  act  in  the  case  as  judge,  and  could  not  condemn  a 
man  without  knowledge  of  the  cause,  and  citing  the 
accused  party.  He,  however,  advised  Dr.  Sharp  to 
intermit  the  exercise  of  his  function,  and  for  the  present, 
to  go  down  to  the  Deanery  at  Norwich.  With  this 
advice  he  complied,  and  employed  his  leisure  in  forming 
a  cabinet  of  coins,  chiefly  British,  Saxon,  and  English. 
At  length  he  presented  a  very  humble  petition  to  the 
king,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was  permitted  to 
return  to  his  duty  in  the  metropolis !  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that,  according  to  his  promise,  he  was  careful  to 
give  no  farther  offence  from  the  pulpit.  When,  however, 
in  1688,  the  archdeacons  were  summoned  to  appear 
before  the  ecclesiastical  commissioners  for  disobeying  the 
king's  orders  about  the  declaration,  he  concurred  with 


SHARP,  JOHN.  383 

his  brethren  in  declining  to  appear,  and  drew  up  the 
reasons  for  their  refusal.  Still  true  to  the  loyal  prin- 
ciples of  his  Church,  when  he  preached,  first  before  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  and  then  before  the  convention,  he 
prayed  before  sermon  for  King  James  ;  on  the  second  of 
these  occasions,  the  house  of  commons  having  now  voted 
that  the  king  had  abdicated,  he  gave  much  offence  by  his 
prayer,  and  also  by  some  passages  in  his  sermon,  that 
after  a  long  debate,  the  house  broke  up  without  voting 
him  the  usual  thanks ;  but  this  was  done  afterwards. 

He  had  no  doubt  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  revolution, 
but  he  had  a  deep  sense  of  duty,  and  we  may  therefore 
suppose  that  at  this  time  he  did  not  consider  all  hope 
of  an  accommodation  with  James  to  be  at  an  end. 

It  was  with  the  same  propriety  of  feeling,  that  while 
he  accepted  from  William  the  Deanery  of  Canterbury, 
in  1689,  he  refused  and  adhered  to  his  refusal,  to  accept 
any  of  the  bishoprics  vacant  by  the  ousting  of  the  non- 
juring  bishops.  He  risked  the  loss  of  William's  favour 
in  doing  so,  but  he  felt  the  claims  of  private  friendship, 
he  honoured  the  high  though,  as  he  thought,  the  mis- 
taken principle  of  the  non-jurors,  and  he  may  have 
doubted  of  the  lawfulness  of  the  process  by  which  they 
were  deprived.  But  on  the  death  of  Lamplugh  in  1691, 
he  accepted  the  Diocese  of  York.  As  Archbishop  of 
York,  his  conduct  was  as  exemplary  as  it  had  been  as 
a  parish  priest.  He  sympathised  with  his  clergy ;  he 
could  understand  their  difficulties,  and  acted  as  their 
adviser  and  friend.  He  bestowed  all  the  canonries  of 
his  church  upon  the  clergy  of  his  diocese :  he  was 
indefatigable  in  preaching  himself,  and  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity of  hearing  his  clergy  preach  that  so  he  might 
judge  of  their  powers  in  the  pulpit.  His  cathedral 
to  which  he  resorted  three  times  a  week,  (viz.,  on  the 
Litany  days,)  for  several  years  after  he  came  to  the  see, 
though  he  lived  two  miles  out  of  the  city,  served  him 
well  for  this  purpose.     For  in  that  church,  besides  the 


384  SHARP,  JOHN. 

preaching  courses,  distributed  among  t"he  prebendaries 
and  archdeacons,  on  all  the  Sundays  and  holidays  in 
the  year,  there  are  sermons  likewise  on  every  Wed- 
nesday and  Friday  in  Advent  and  Lent.  So  that  during 
those  seasons  at  least,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
three  sermons  a-week  from  different  hands.  But  as  all 
these  turns  in  the  Minster  were  chiefly  supplied  by  the 
members  of  it,  the  prebendaries  or  vicars-choral,  that 
he  might  also  exercise  and  know  the  talents  of  the 
city  clergy,  and  those  of  the  neighbouring  parishes,  he 
set  up  an  evening  lecture,  to  be  preached  on  every 
Friday,  at  All  Saint's  Church,  in  the  Pavement. 

He  was  particularly  careful  to  do  all  the  good  he 
could,  by  giving  advice  to  the  younger  clergy,  especially 
at  ordinations  and  visitations.  The  first  he  held  regu- 
larly at  all  the  stated  times,  when  he  was  in  his  diocese. 
And  as  it  was  a  business  of  the  greatest  weight  and 
consequence  that  appertained  to  his  office,  he  used  the 
properest  means  to  qualify  himself  for  the  discharge  of 
it.  He  usually  repaired  privately  to  his  chapel  to  beg 
God's  presence  with  him,  and  blessing  upon  him,  or, 
to  use  his  own  expression,  to  implore  the  guidance  of 
His  Spirit  in  that  work.  He  measured  candidates  for 
orders,  more  by  their  modesty  and  good  sense,  and  the 
testimonials  of  their  virtue,  than  by  their  learning.  To 
have  a  right  notion  of  the  main  doctrines  of  religion, 
to  understand  thoroughly  the  terms  of  the  new  covenant, 
both  on  God's  part  and  on  man's ;  and  to  know  the 
reasons,  and  apprehend  the  force  of  those  distinctions 
upon  which  the  Church  of  England  explained  and  stated 
those  terms  differently  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
other  communions  separating  from  her,  were  with  him, 
the  chief  qualifications  for  the  ministry  in  regard  to 
learning. 

When  consulted  about  the  Societies  for  the  Reformation 
of  Manners  which  were  established  in  various  parts  of 
the  country  about  the  year  1697,  he  declined  associating 


SHARP,  JOHN.  385 

with  dissenters  for  sucli  objects,  thougli  his  liberality 
towards  them,  not  to  their  principles,  was  well  known. 
And  referring  to  one  of  these  societies  instituted  at  Carlisle 
he  observes,  "  I  must  confess  if  a  society  was  entered 
into  at  York  upon  these  articles,  I  should  neither  give 
the  members  of  it  any  disturbance  nor  any  discourage- 
ment. I  should  only  wish  that  those  of  the  clergy  who 
joined  in  it  would  add  an  article  or  two  more,  w^hereby 
they  should  more  particularly  oblige  themselves  to  the 
reading  of  prayers  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and 
holidays,  or  in  populous  towns  every  day,  unless  they 
w^ere  hindered  by  some  urgent  business.  Secondly,  to 
the  holding  monthly  communions  in  their  parishes, 
and  lastly  to  the  diligent  attendance  upon  catechising 
and  instructing  the  youth  of  their  parishes  in  the 
principles  of  Christianity.  The  practice  of  which  things 
will  in  my  poor  opinion,  more  contribute  to  the  pro- 
moting a  reformation,  than  the  informing  against  crimi- 
nals, though  that  is  a  good  work   too." 

Whenever  he  was  consulted  by  the  clergy  about  their 
parochial  concerns,  he  immediately  answered  their 
queries,  and  clearly  and  positively  determined  them. 
In  all  his  letters  of  this  kind,  which  are  left,  there  is 
but  one  in  which  he  is  something  doubtful  what  to 
resolve ;  but  even  there  he  leaves  no  doubt  or  difJBculty 
upon  the  clergyman  who  consulted  him,  by  permitting, 
or  rather  advising  him  to  follow  his  own  first  deter- 
mination. The  case  not  being  very  common,  about  the 
marriage  of  a  person  with  a  quaker,  according  to  the 
usage  of  the  Church,  the  letter  itself  will  not  be  dis= 
agreeable  : — 

"November  30,  1700. 

"  Sir, — The  case  which  you  propose  hath  some  diffi- 
culty in  it,  since  our  present  canons  say  nothing  about 
it.  The  old  canons,  indeed,  are  express  against  any 
person  being  married,  who  was  not  first  baptized.  But 
then  in  those  times  marriage  was  accounted  a  sacrament, 

VOL.  VIII.  L  L 


386  SHARP,  JOHN. 

and  baptism  was  janua  sacramentorum.  On  the  other 
side,  though  marriage  be  no  sacrament,  but  all  men 
and  women  have  a  natural  right  to  it,  yet  whether 
any  who  are  not  initiated  in  Christianity,  ought  to  have 
the  solemn  benediction  of  the  Church  (as  it  is  upon  that 
account  that  the  clergy  have  anything  to  do  with  mar- 
riage,) is  a  thing  fit  to  be  considered.  Add  to  this,  that 
there  is  something  in  the  Church  office  which  supposeth 
that  both  the  married  persons  are  baptized.  For,  ac- 
cording to  the  Rubric,  it  is  "  convenient  that  they  re- 
ceive the  holy  communion  together  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity that  presents  itself."  And  therefore  they  must 
be  in  a  condition  of  receiving  it,  which  unbaptized 
persons  are  not. 

•'  Pray  ask  yourself  what  you  would  do  in  case  a  per- 
son excommunicated  should  desire  you  to  marry  him. 
Methinks  the  case  is  much  the  same. 

"I  do  think,  upon  the  whole,  it  is  not  advisable  to 
depart  from  your  first  resolution,  unless  the  party  will 
be  first  baptized,  which  I  am  not  against  your  doing  as 
privately  as  may  be. 

"  I  am,  &c.,  Jo.  Eboe." 

His  care  for  the  Church  extended  far,  and  when  he 
was  emploj^ed  in  1703,  in  preparing  measures  to  be 
laid  before  the  Convocation,  he  wished  to  add  a  proposal 
concerning  bishops  being  provided  for  the  plantations. 
"When  the  Occasional  Conformity  bill  was  introduced, 
there  was  one  point  which  he  laboured  to  carry,  and 
that  was  to  indemnify  parish  ministers  for  observing 
the  Rubric,  from  all  such  damages  as  by  the  Test  Act 
they  might  stand  liable  to,  for  refusing  to  give  the  sacra- 
ment in  any  instance  wherein  the  rubric  directed  repul- 
sion from  it.  In  the  debates,  December  4,  1702,  upon 
this  bill,  his  grace  applied  himself  to  this  point  alone. 
"  I  made  a  speech,  (says  he,)  against  the  clause  that  was 
then  brought  in  to  oblige  all  officers  to  receive  the  sacra- 


SHARP,  JOHN.  S8T 

ment  four  times  a  year,  unless  a  clause  might  be  brought 
in  to  indemnify  parish  ministers  for  repelling  such  from 
the  communion,  as  by  the  rubric  they  are  empowed  to 
do."  This  was  rather  securing  to  the  clergy  their  rights, 
than  opposing  the  dissenters  in  the  favour  they  desired. 
He  thought  the  consciences  of  the  parochial  clergy  doing 
their  duty  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments,  were 
as  much  to  be  considered,  and  to  be  as  tenderly  treated 
as  the  consciences  of  those  who  could  occasionally  con- 
form. And  that  it  was  hard  the  dissenters  should  be 
allowed  to  act  inconsistently,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
benefits  of  the  law ;  while  the  Church  ministers,  for 
acting  consistently,  and  according  to  rule,  incurred  the 
penalties  of  the  law ;  that  is,  were  liable  to  the  damages 
which  any  man  sustained  by  being  rejected  by  them 
from  the  communion.  There  were  also  several  others 
who  voted  with  him  for  the  bills  against  occasional  con- 
formity, who  yet  were  never  thought  unfavourable  to  the 
dissenters. 

In  the  attempt  to  introduce  the  Church  system  into 
Prussia,  Archbishop  Sharp  took  a  deep  interest  which  in 
some  degree  compensated  for  the  culpable  neglect  of  the 
then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Indeed,  in  every  thing 
relating  to  the  Church  at  large.  Archbishop  Sharp  shewed 
his  zeal.  To  the  distressed  Greek  Churches  in  America 
he  was  a  liberal  benefactor,  and  received  with  hospitality 
Arsenius,  Archbishishop  of  Thebais,  when  he  came  to 
England  in  1713.  But  the  proceedings  with  respect  to 
Prussia  are  of  more  immediate  interest. 

The  Protestant  subjects  of  the  kingdom  of  Prussia 
consist  partly  of  Lutherans,  and  partly  of  Calvinists; 
which  latter  call  themselves  the  Reformed;  the  word, 
Calvinist  being  disagreeable  to  them,  and  consequently 
used  only  by  such  as  are  not  their  friends. 

Frederick,  King  of  Prussia,  had  found  it  necessary, 
for  the  greater  solemnity  of  his  coronation,  in  1700, 
to  give  the  title  of  bishops  to  two  of  the  chief  of  his 


388  SHARP,  JOHN. 

clergy,  the  one  a  Lutheran,  the  other  a  Reformed.  The 
former  died  soon  after;  whereupon  the  other,  viz.  Dr. 
Ursinus,  continued  without  a  colleague,  and  with  the 
title  of  bishop.  Since  that  time  the  king,  who  was  a 
lover  of  order  and  decency,  conceived  a  design  of  uniting 
the  two  different  communions  in  his  kingdom,  the 
Lutherans  and  the  Reformed,  in  one  public  form  of 
worship.  And  as  he  had  a  great  respect  for  the  English 
nation  and  Church,  and  held  a  good  opinion  of  the 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  thought  that 
might  be  the  most  proper  medium  wherein  both  parties 
might  meet.  The  person  who,  above  all  others,  was 
instrumental  in  creating  in  the  king  a  favourable  opinion 
of  the  discipline  and  Liturgy  of  the  English  Church, 
and  in  improving  his  good  dispositions  to  establish 
them  in  his  own  realm,  was  Dr.  Daniel  Ernestus  Jab- 
louski,  a  man  of  great  credit  and  worth,  first  chaplain 
to  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  superintendent  or  senior 
of  the  Protestant  Church  in  Poland.  This  gentleman 
had  received  very  great  prejudices  in  his  youth  against 
the  Church  of  England,  from  those  among  whom  he 
was  educated.  But  after  he  had  been  twice  in  Eng- 
land, and  had  spent  some  time  in  Oxford,  and  in  the 
conversation  of  our  English  divines,  and  in  the  study 
of  our  Liturgy  and  Church  discipline,  he  became  not 
only  reconciled  to  them,  but  an  admirer  of  our  ecclesi- 
astical constitution  ;  and  took  all  opportunities  ever 
after,  of  expressing  his  friendship  and  zeal  for  the 
English  Liturgy  and  ceremonies. 

Dr.  Ursinus  was  likewise  very  well  inclined  to  a  con- 
formity in  worship  and  discipline  to  that  of  the  Church 
of  England;  but  if  he  did  not  prosecute  the  design 
with  a  warmth  and  zeal  equal  to  Jablouski's,  it  may  be 
imputed  to  his  never  having  seen  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  her  own  beauties  and  proper  dress  as  the  other 
had. 

By   the    advice    principally  of   these   two,   the   king 


SHARP,  JOHN.  dm 

ordered  the  English  Liturgy  to  be  translated  into  high 
Dutch,  which  was  done  at  his  University  of  Frankfort- 
upon-the-Oder,  where  the  professors  in  general  were 
friends  to  the  Church  of  England.  This  done,  he 
ordered  his  bishop  Dr.  Ursinus,  to  write  a  letter  in  his 
name  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  acquaint 
him  with  what  had  been,  and  with  what  was  intended 
to  be  done  ;  and  to  ask  his  grace's  advice  about  it.  The 
scheme  was,  if  the  king's  intentions  met  with  due  re- 
ception and  encouragement  from  England,  which  it  was 
presumed  could  not  fail,  to  have  introduced  the  Liturgy 
first  into  the  king's  own  chapel,  and  the  cathedral 
church;  and  to  leave  it  free  for  the  other  churches  to 
follow  the  example ;  and  the  time  prefixed  for  this 
introduction  was  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent,  1706.  It 
was  indeed  debated  in  the  king's  consistory  (called  so 
because  a  privy  counsellor  always  sits  with,  yet  presides 
over  the  divines,)  whether  the  English  Liturgy  should 
be  used,  or  a  new  one  composed  in  imitation  of  it, 
several  objecting,  that  they  should  seem  to  acknow- 
ledge a  dependance  on  the  Church  of  England,  by 
wholly  using  her  service ;  upon  which  some  divines, 
who  were  not  willing  the  design  should  miscarry,  drew 
up  a  formulary,  which  was  put  in  manuscript  into  the 
hands  of  the  king's  bishop. 

A  letter  was  written  by  Dr.  Ursinus  to  his  Grace  of 
Canterbury,  pursuant  to  the  king's  directions.  And 
two  copies  of  the  high  Dutch  version  of  the  English 
Liturgy  were  sent  along  with  it;  one  for  her  majesty 
the  queen,  the  other  for  his  grace.  And  orders  were 
given  to  form  a  correspondence  between  the  principal 
of  the  clergy  of  both  courts,  about  the  means  of  pro- 
moting the  design.  The  letter  and  the  copies  were 
put  into  the  hands  either  of  Baron  Spanheim,  or  M. 
Bonet,  the  king's  ministers.  Her  majesty,  upon  the 
receipt  of  her  copy,  ordered  my  Lord  Raby,  her  minister 
at  the  Court  of  Prussia,  to  return  her  thanks  to  the 
L  l3 


390  SHARP,  JOHN. 

king  and  to  the  bishop  which  was  done.  But  it  unfor- 
tunately happened,  that  the  other  copy,  and  the  letter, 
which  were  designed  for  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
by  some  neglect  or  mistake,  were  not  delivered  to  him  ; 
and  the  more  unfortunate  because  they  were  assured  at 
Berlin,  that  they  had  been  delivered  to  him  by  Mr. 
Knyster,  a  subject  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  then  in 
England.  This  occasioned  some  disgust ;  and  the  king 
having  often  asked  Dr.  Ursinus,  what  answer  the  arch- 
bishop had  given  to  his  letter,  greatly  wondered,  when 
the  bishop,  after  some  time,  continued  to  rej)ly,  that 
as  yet  none  had  been  sent.  And  it  was  thought,  that 
this  misfortune  (but  looked  upon  in  Prussia  rather  as 
a  neglect  in  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,)  was  one  of 
the  chief  occasions  which  made  the  king  grow  cool  in 
the  design. 

Notwithstanding  the  sinful  supineness  of  the  Whig 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  proposal  was  well  received 
by  the  clergy  of  England,  as  w^e  may  learn  from  a  des- 
patch to  the  King  of  Prussia  by  his  minister,  M.  Bonet, 
giving  an  account  of  an  interview  he  had  had  with  the 
English  secretary  of  state.  After  having  spoken  of  the 
Service  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  "  the  most  proper 
that  is  among  Protestants,"  he  addresses  himself  to 
other  considerations.  "  The  j&rst  is,  that  a  conformity 
between  the  Prussian  Churches  and  the  Church  of 
England  would  be  received  with  great  joy  here.  The 
second  is,  that  the  conformity  to  be  wished  for  beyond 
the  sea  relates  more  to  Church  government  than  to  any 
change  in  the  Pdtual  or  Liturgy.  The  clergy  here  are 
for  Episcopacy,  and  look  upon  it,  at  least,  as  of  apos- 
tolical institution,  and  are  possessed  with  the  opinion, 
that  it  has  continued  in  an  uninterrupted  succession 
from  the  Apostles  to  this  present  time ;  and  upon  this 
supposition,  they  allege  there  can  be  no  true  ecclesias- 
tical government  but  under  bishops  of  this  order ;  nor 
true  ministers   of  the  Gospel,  but  such   as   have  been 


SHARP,  JOHN.  391 

ordained  by  bishops ;  and  if  there  be  others  that  do  not 
go  so  far,  yet  they  all  make  a  great  difference  between 
the  ministers  that  have  received  imposition  of  hands 
by  bishops,  and  those  that  have  been  ordained  by  a 
synod  of  presbyters.  A  third  consideration  is,  that  the 
Church  of  England  would  look  upon  a  conformity  of 
this  nature  as  a  great  advantage  to  herself,  and  that  the 
clergy,  united  to  the  Court  and  the  Tories,  are  a  very 
considerable  and  powerful  body.  On  the  other  side, 
the  Whigs,  the  Presbyterians,  the  Independants,  and 
all  the  other  non-conformists  would  look  upon  this  con- 
formity with  great  concern  as  weakening  and  disarming 
their  party.  And  the  electoral  House  of  Brunswick, 
which  depends  more  upon  the  latter  than  the  former, 
may  fear  lest  this  conformity  should  have  other  conse- 
quences. But  though  the  Whigs  have  more  money, 
because  they  are  more  concerned  in  trade,  and  though 
their  chiefs  may  have  the  reputation  at  present  of  a 
superior  genius,  yet  the  others  have  more  zeal  and  con- 
stant superiority  and  interest, 

"  Ut  in  ratione  humillima,  &c." 

It  was,  perhaps,  the  jealousy  of  the  Whigs  and  the 
fear  of  the  Hanoverians  lest  they  should  offend  the  Dis- 
senters, which  prevented  this  noble  scheme  from  being 
accomplished.  Archbishop  Sharp,  however,  endeavoured 
to  further  it  to  the  day  of  his  death,  and  continued  his 
correspondence  with  his  Prussian  friends.  Much  im- 
portant information  is  given  on  this  subject  in  the 
Appendix  to  Sharp's  Life  of  Sharp. 

In  the  same  work,  from  which  this  article  is  taken,  we 
find  a  beautiful  and  affecting  specimen  of  the  archbishop's 
private  devotions,  taken  from  his  Diary.  When  he 
resided  at  London,  he  constantly  attended  the  early  sacra- 
ments, (for  the  most  part  at  Whitehall),  that  he  might  be 
at  liberty  to  preach  afterwards  in  the   Parish  Chnrch,  or 


392  SHARP,  JOHN. 

attend  the  Queen's  Chapel,  whither  he  generally  resorted 
for  the  morning  service,  when  he  had  not  engaged  to  sup- 
ply any  pulpit  in  town.  The  afternoon  service  he  had  in 
his  own  family.  In  short,  he  made  it  his  serious  endea- 
vour, as  he  often  remarks,  "'  to  spend  the  whole  Lord's 
day  in  the  best  manner  he  could  to  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  good  of  his  own  soul." 

Thursday  was  the  other  day  of  the  week  that  he  appro- 
priated to  thanksgivings ;  and  these  were  usually  his 
acknowledgments  to  God  of  his  "  great  temporal  mercies 
and  blessings  vouchsafed  to  his  country,  his  family  and 
to  himself,  in  that  he  and  all  who  belonged  to  him, 
lived  in  health,  peace,  and  safety;  joined  with  earnest 
petitions,  that  God  for  His  mercies'  sake,  would  have 
him  and  his  always  in  protection."  In  the  summer 
time,  when  he  resided  at  Bishopsthorp,  and  when  the 
weather  was  fair,  he  usually  offered  these  thanksgivings 
sub  dio,  either  in  his  garden  or  in  the  adjoining  fields  and 
meadows,  whither  he  frequently  walked  to  perform  his 
devotions.  The  parish  Church  of  Acaster  is  within  a 
little  mile  of  the  Archbishop's  Palace.  It  stands  by 
itself  in  the  fields.  Thither  he  frequently  retired  alone 
and  made  the  little  porch  of  that  church  his  oratory, 
where  he  solemnly  addressed  and  praised  God.  And 
here  it  was  that  for  some  years  he  resorted,  as  he  had 
opportunity,  to  perform  his  Thursday  thanksgivings; 
afterwards  he  removed  from  this  place  to  another  which 
was  more  pleasant,  and  more  commodious  too,  as  being 
nearer  his  house  ;  and  this  was  a  shed  or  little  summer 
house,  placed  under  a  shade  on  the  side  of  a  fish-pond 
which  stood  north  of  his  house  and  gardens.  Hither 
he  frequently  retired  for  prayer,  but  most  generally  on 
Thursday.  Afterwards,  when  the  plantations  that  he 
had  made  in  his  garden,  were  grow^n  up  to  some  per- 
fection he  again  changed  the  scene  of  his  thanksgivings 
and  offered  them  up  in  a  particular  walk,  which  from 
thence  he  called  his   Temple  of  Praise.     It  is  a  close 


SHARP,  JOHN.  303 

grass-plot  walk,  lying  north  and  south,  and  hedged  on 
each  side  with  yew,  so  thick  and  high,  as  to  be  com- 
pletely shaded  at  all  times  of  the  day,  except  noon. 
On  the  east  it  hath  a  little  maze  or  wilderness,  that 
grows  considerably  higher.  The  entrance  into  it  at 
each  end  is  through  arches  made  in  a  lime  hedge,  and 
the  view  through  these  arches  immediately  bounded  by 
a  hedge  of  horn-beam  at  one  end,  and  a  fruit  wall  at 
the  other.  So  that  from  within  the  walk,  scarce  any 
thing  is  to  be  seen  but  verdure  and  the  open  sky  above. 
In  this  close  walk,  and  in  the  adjoining  maze,  ( for  pro- 
bably he  adopted  both  at  the  same  time  for  his  Temple  of 
Praise,)  he  spent  many  a  happy  hour,  especially  in  the 
last  years  of  his  life.  Here  was  a  privacy  that  answered 
his  design,  and  a  solemnity  that  suited  his  taste  ;  and  here 
he  poured  out  his  soul  in  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  and 
had  such  delightful  intercourses  with  God,  as  would  affect 
him  to  a  very  great  degree.  Thus,  for  instance,  he  notes, 
in  the  year  1712  : —  "  After  evening  prayers,  I  walked  in 
my  garden,  and  there,  in  my  Temple  of  Praise,  poured 
out  my  soul  to  God  in  an  unusual  ardent  manner;  so 
that  I  think  I  was  never  so  rapturously  devout  in  my 
life."  This  passage  is  brought  to  shew  what  use  he 
made  of  that  place,  and  not  what  effect  the  place  had 
upon  him.  For  indeed  at  this  time  of  life,  he  had 
attained  to  such  a  habit  of  raising  his  affections,  beyond 
what  he  had  been  formerly  able  to  do,  that,  upon  several 
occasions,  he  wrought  himself  into  ardours  which  he 
had  not  felt  in  so  great  a  degree  before.  Thus  for 
instance,  in  the  same  summer: —  "  I  never  was  in  such 
transports  of  devotion  hardly  as  I  was  when  I  came 
home  from  the  Minster,  being  alone  in  the  coach.  I 
never  prayed  more  heartily  and  devoutly  in  my  life. 
And  I  hope  God  will  hear  my  prayers  which  I  put  up 
for  grace  and  mercy,  with  tears." 

He  did  not  neglect  general  literature  or  the  patronage 
of  hterary   men,      Mr.    Speaker    Onslow,    in  a  note  to 


394  SHELDON. 

Burnet's  History  of  his  own  Times,  says  of  Archbishop 
Sharp,  "  He  was  a  great  reader  of  Shakspeare.  Dr. 
Mangaj,  who  had  married  his  daughter,  told  me  that  he 
used  to  recommend  to  young  divines  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  and  Shakspeare.  And  Dr.  Lisle,  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  who  had  been  chaplain  at  Lambeth  to  Arch- 
bishop Wake,  told  me  that  it  was  often  related  there,  that 
Sharp  should  say,  that  the  Bible  and  Shakspeare  made 
him  Archbishop  of  York." 

In  every  relation  of  life,  he  seemed  to  excel,  and  was 
beloved  by  all  who  approached  him,  although  he  was 
very  plain  spoken,  and  remonstrated  without  fear,  but 
with  gentleness  with  the  highest  personages,  not  only  in 
his  own  diocese,  but  in  London  when  he  found  them 
transgressing,  and  felt  himself  responsible. 

He  died  at  Bath,  in  1714,  and  was  buried  in  York 
Cathedral,  where  an  inscription  by  Dr.  Smalridge  records 
his  merits.  His  Sermons,  in  7  vols.  8vo,  have  been 
published  since  his  death,  and  are  deservedly  popular. — 
Le  Neve.    Sharps  Life  of  Sharp. 


SHELDON,    GILBEET. 

This  munificent  prelate  was  born  at  Stanton,  in  Staf- 
fordshire, in  the  year  1598,  and  was  educated  at  Trinity 
College,  Oxford,  where  he  took  his  B.A.  degree  in  1617. 
In  1622,  he  was  elected  fellow  of  New  College,  and  soon 
after  became  chaplain  to  the  lord-keeper,  Coventry, 
by  whom  he  was  presented  to  a  stall  in  Gloucester 
Cathedral.  In  1633,  he  became  Vicar  of  Hackney, 
having  previously  held  the  Rectory  of  Ickford,  in  Buck- 
inghamshire. In  1634,  he  took  his  D.D.  degree,  and  in 
March,  1635,  was  elected  warden  of  All  Souls.  About  the 
same  time,  he  became  chaplain  in  ordinary  to  his 
majesty,  was  afterwards  clerk  of  his  closet,  and  by 
,laim  designed  to  be  made  master  of  the  Savoy  Hospital, 


SHELDON.  395 

and  Dean  of  Westminster ;  but  his  settlement  in  them 
was  prevented  by  the  rebellion. 

In  February,  1644,  he  was  one  of  the  king's  chap- 
lains sent  by  his  majesty  to  attend  his  commissioners 
(at  the  treaty  of  Uxbridge)  for  their  devotions,  and  for 
the  other  Service  of  the  Church,  as  the  management  of 
the  treaty  required,  which  could  not  be  foreseen. 

In  April,  1646,  we  find  him  attending  his  majesty 
at  Oxford,  and  witness  to  a  remarkable  vow  of  his, 
which  is  published  in  the  Appendix  to  Archdeacon 
Echard's  History  of  England,  p.  5  : — "  In  the  midst  of 
these  uncommon  difficulties,  the  pious  king,  as  it  were, 
reflecting  upon  his  concessions  relating  to  the  Churches 
of  Scotland  and  England,  and  being  extremely  tender 
in  case  of  sacrilegious  encroachments,  wrote  and  signed 
this  extraordinary  vow,  which  was  never  yet  published  : 
— I  do  here  promise  and  solemnly  vow,  in  the  presence 
and  for  the  service  of  Almighty  God,  that  if  it  shall 
please  the  Divine  Majesty,  of  His  infinite  goodness  to 
restore  me  to  my  just  kingly  rights,  and  to  reestablish 
me  in  my  throne,  I  will  wholly  give  back  to  His  Church 
all  those  impropriations  which  are  now  held  by  the  crown ; 
and  what  lands  soever  I  do  now,  or  should  enjoy,  which 
have  been  taken  away,  either  from  any  episcopal  see,  or 
any  cathedral  or  collegiate  church,  from  any  abbey,  or 
other  religious  house.  I  likewise  promise  for  hereafter 
to  hold  them  from  the  Church,  under  such  reasonable 
fines  and  rents  as  shall  be  set  down  by  some  conscien- 
tious persons,  whom  I  propose  to  choose  with  all  up- 
rightness of  heart,  to  direct  me  in  this  particular.  And 
I  most  humbly  beseech  God  to  accept  of  this  my  vow, 
and  to  bless  me  in  the  design  I  have  now  in  hand, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

"Oxford,  April  13,  1646.  Chaeles  K" 

This  is  a  true  copy  of  the  king's  vow,  which  was  pre- 
served thirteen  years  under  ground  by  me, 

3  660,  Aug.  21.  GiLB.  Sheldon. 


396  SHELDON. 

During  the  king's  being  at  Newmarket,  a.d.  1647,  and 
afterwards  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  Sheldon  had  the 
honour  to  attend  his  majesty  as  one  of  his  chaplains. 

In  the  latter  end  of  1647,  he  was  ejected  his  warden- 
ship  by  the  parliament  visitors,  and  in  1648,  was  im- 
prisoned ;  but  obtaining  his  liberty  some  time  after,  he 
retired  to  Snelston  in  Derbyshire,  whence  from  his  own 
purse,  and  from  others  which  he  made  use  of,  he  sent 
constantly  monies  to  the  exiled  king,  and  followed  his 
studies  and  devotions  till  matters  tended  to  a  happy 
restoration.  On  the  4:th  of  March,  1659,  Dr.  John 
Palmer,  w^ho  had  usurped  his  wardenship  almost  twelve 
years,  died  ;  at  which  time  there  being  an  eminent  fore- 
sight of  his  majesty's  return,  there  was  no  election 
made  of  a  successor,  only  a  restitution  of  Dr.  Sheldon, 
though  he  never  took  re-possession. 

On  the  king's  return  he  met  his  majesty  at  Canter- 
bury, and  was  soon  after  made  Dean  of  the  Chapel 
Royal,  and  upon  Bishop  Juxon's  translation  to  Canter- 
bury, was  made  Bishop  of  London,  to  which  he  was 
elected  Oct.  9,  1 660  ;  confirmed  the  23rd,  and  conse- 
crated in  King  Henry  the  Seventh's  Chapel,  at  West- 
minster, on  the  28th  of  the  said  month,  by  Brian 
Winchester,  assisted  by  Accepted  York,  Matthew  Ely, 
John  Rochester,  and  Henry  Chichester,  by  virtue  of  a 
commission  from  the  archbishop,  dated  Oct.  24,  and 
directed  to  them  for  that  purpose. 

He  held  the  mastership  of  the  Savoy  with  the  Bishop- 
ric of  London  ;  for  the  famous  conference  between  the 
episcopal  clergy  and  the  Presbyterian  divines  concerning 
alterations  to  be  made  in  the  Liturgy,  ad.  1661,  was 
held  at  his  lodgings  in  the  Savoy. 

Hence  the  name  of  this  great  historical  event ;  at  the 
first  meeting  of  the  commissioners  appointed  to  confer. 
Bishop  Sheldon  told  the  Presbyterian  theologians,  *'  that 
not  the  bishops,  but  they,  had  been  seekers  of  the  con- 
ference, and  desired  alterations  in  the  Liturgy  :  therefore, 


SHELDON.  397 

there  was  nothing  to  be  done  till  they  had  brought  in  all 
they  had  to  say  against  it  in  writing,  and  all  the 
additional  forms  and  alterations  which  they  desired.  The 
ministers  moved  for  an  amicable  conference,  according  to 
the  commission,  as  thinking  it  more  likely  to  contribute 
to  dispatch,  and  to  the  answering  the  great  end  :  whereas 
writing  would  be  a  tedious,  endless  business,  and  prevent 
that  familiarity  and  acquaintance  with  each  others  minds, 
which  might  facilitate  concord.  But  Bishop  Sheldon  ab- 
solutely insisted  upon  it,  *  that  nothing  should  be  done 
till  all  exceptions,  alterations,  and  additions,  were  brought 
in  at  once.'  And  after  some  debate,  it  was  agreed,  '  that 
they  should  bring  in  all  their  exceptions  at  one  time,  and 
all  their  additions  at  another  time.'  During  the  course 
of  the  conference  the  bishop  did  not  appear  often,  and 
engaged  not  in  all  the  disputation,  and  yet  was  well 
known  to  have  a  principal  hand  in  disposing  of  all  such 
affairs." 

While  he  was  Bishop  of  London  he  contributed  largely 
to  the  repairs  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  damaged  as  that 
college  had  been  by  the  iniquities  of  the  rebellion.  He 
also  had  the  chief  direction  of  the  province  of  Cantor 
bury,  owing  to  the  great  age  of  Archbishop  Juxon,  whose 
successor  he  became  in  1663.  He  expended  large  sums 
upon  the  episcopal  houses  of  the  See  of  London ;  and 
being  translated  to  that  of  Canterbury  in  1663,  he  re- 
built the  Library  at  Lambeth,  and  made  additions  to  its 
contents.  It  was  still  more  to  his  honour,  that  he 
remained  at  Lambeth  during  the  plague  of  London,  and 
exerted  himself,  both  by  his  own  liberal  contributions, 
and  by  promoting  collections  throughout  his  province,  for 
the  relief  of  the  afflicted.  On  the  removal  of  Lord 
Clarendon  from  the  chancellorship  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  he  was  chosen  to  succeed  him  in  December 
1667  ;  and  he  immortalized  his  bounty  to  that  university 
by  the  erection,  at  his  sole  expence,  of  the  celebrated 
theatre  at  Oxford  which  bears  his  name  :   "  Munus  (says 

VOL.  VIII.  M  M 


398  SHELDON. 

Dr.  Lowth  in  an  elegant  oration)  dignum  auctore — quod 
cum  intueor  et  circumspicio,  videor  mihi  in  ipsa  Roma 
vel  in  mediis  Athenis,  antiquis  illis,  et  cum  maxime 
florentibus,  versari,"  This  edifice  was  opened  in  July, 
1669,  soon  after  whicli  he  resigned  his  chancellorship,  and 
retired  from  public  business.  He  had  before  honourably 
lost  the  king's  confidence  by  importuning  him  to  part 
with  his  mistress,  Barbara  Villiers.  During  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  he  chiefly  resided  at  Croydon.  He  died 
at  Lambeth,  on  November  9th,  1677,  in  the  80th  year 
of  his  age. 

Besides  his  learning  and  piety  he  is  particularly  dis- 
tinguished by  his  munificent  benefactions.  We  are 
assured  by  his  relations,  that  from  the  time  of  his 
being  Bishop  of  London  to  that  of  his  death,  it  appeared 
in  his  book  of  accompts,  that  upon  public,  pious,  and 
charitable  uses  he  had  bestowed  about  £66,000.  Another 
author  has  the  following  paragraph. 

Dr.  Sheldon,  while  Bishop  of  London,  (not  to  enu- 
merate particulars)  gave  for  the  augmentation  of  vicarages 
belonging  to  his  see  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  forty 
pounds  a  year,  for  which  he  abated  in  his  fines  to  the 
value  of  £1680.  When  advanced  to  the  See  of  Canter- 
bury, he  augmented  the  vicarages  of  Whitestable  in 
Kent,  and  disposed  to  public  pious  uses,  in  acts  of 
munificence  and  charity  (in  his  life,  or  by  his  last  will 
and  testament)  the  sum  of  £72,000,  as  attested  by  his 
treasurer,  Ralph  Snow,  Esq.,  to  whom  his  grace  left  a 
generous  legacy  under  this  distinguishing  style,  "  to  my 
old  and  faithful  servant." 

Elsewhere  it  is  said,  after  the  civil  wars,  there  were 
several  bishops  who  gave  their  helping  hands  to  the 
repairing  and  enlarging  of  Trinity  College  in  Oxford, 
especially  Archbishop  Sheldon. 

His  works  of  piety  and  charity  are  enumerated 
as  follows  by  the  pen  of  the  learned  Mr.  Henry 
Wharton  :— 


SHELDON.  399 

To  my  Lord  Peter,  for  the  purchase       £.       s.    d. 
of  London  House         5200     0     0 

Abated  in  his  fines  for  the  augmen- 
tation of  Vicarages        1680     0     0 

In   the    repair   of   St.  Paul's   before 

the  fire 2169   17   10 

Repairs   of   his    houses   at    Fulham, 

Lambeth,  and  Croydon         4500     0     0 

To  All  Souls  Chapel,  Trinity  College 
Chapel,  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
and  Lichfield  Cathedral      ...      ...       450     0     0 

Charge  of  the  Theatre  at  Oxford  ...    14470  11   11 

To   the    University,   to   buy  land   to 

keep  it  in  perpetual  repair 2000     0     0 

When  he  was  made  bishop,  the 
leases  being  all  expired,  he  abated 
in  his  fines,  (I  suppose  the  above- 
mentioned  article  of  £1680  is 
included  in  this) 17733     0     0 

In  his  will  I  find  the  following  particulars  : — 

*'My  body  I  desire  may  be  decently  buried,  but  very 
privately  and  speedily,  that  my  funeral  may  not  waste 
much  of  what  I  leave  behind  for  better  uses. 

"I  give  to  good,  pious,  and  charitable  uses,  £1500  to 
be  disposed  of  as  I  shall  direct  either  by  writing  or  by 
word  of  mouth ;  or  for  want  of  such  directions,  as  my 
executors  and  overseers  shall  think  fit. 

"  To  my  successors  some  books  mentioned  in  a 
schedule. 

"  All  the  plate,  furniture  and  books  in  the  Chapel  at 
Lambeth  to  my  succesors  in  order. 

"  Whereas  I  formerly  subscribed  £2000  to  the  repair 
of  St.  Paid's,   my  executors  to  discharge  whatever  shall 
remain  unpaid  at  my  decease. 
"  Published  Feb.  5,  1672." 


400  SHERLOCK. 

Sheldon's  only  publication  is,  A  Sermon  preached 
before  the  king  at  Whitehall,  upon  June  8,  1660,  being 
the  day  of  solemn  Thanksgiving  for  the  happy  return 
of  his  majesty,  on  Psalm  xviii.  49,  London,  1660,  4to. — 
Le  Neve.    Wood. 


SHERLOCK,    THOMAS. 

This  distinguished  prelate,  son  of  the  succeeding,  was 
born  in  London  in  the  year  1678.  He  was  educated 
at  Eton,  where  he  was  distinguished  as  a  scholar,  and 
not  less  for  his  love  of  athletic  exercises,  especially  of 
bathing.  From  Eton  he  went  to  Catharine  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  obtained  a  fellowship.  Upon  the  re- 
signation of  his  father,  in  1704,  he  was  made  master  of 
the  Temple,  and,  notwithstanding  his  youth,  soon  ob- 
tained the  respect  of  the  members  of  that  society,  where 
his  preaching  was  blessed  for  many  years  with  eminent 
success.  His  sermons  are,  for  calm  and  steady  reason- 
ing, as  well  as  forcible  expression,  among  the  first  com- 
joositions  we  possess  in  that  department  of  literature. 
He  took  his  degree  of  D.D.  in  1707,  in  which  year  he 
married.  In  1714,  he  was  elected  master  of  Catharine 
Hall,  and  in  1716,  was  promoted  to  the  Deanery  of 
Chichester. 

Except  three  sermons,  preached  on  public  occasions, 
he  did  not  come  forth  as  an  author  until  the  famous 
controversy,  known  as  the  "Bangorian;"  and  he  was 
unquestionably  by  far  the  most  powerful  antagonist 
against  whom  Bishop  Hoadley  had  to  contend.  He 
published  a  great  many  pamphlets  on  the  subject,  the 
chief  of  which  is  entitled,  "  A  Vindication  of  the  Cor- 
poration and  Test  Acts,  in  answer  to  the  Bishop  of 
Bangor's  reasons  for  a  Repeal  of  them,  1718."  To 
this  the  bishop  lost  no  time  in  replying,  yet  while  he 
vehemently  opposed    the   principles    laid    down   in   the 


SHERLOCK.  401 

tract,  he  bore  the  most  unequivocal  testimony  to  the 
abilities  of  the  author.  It  has  been  said  that  Bishop 
Sherlock  afterwards  regretted  the  strong  line  of  conduct 
he  had  taken  with  respect  to  this  controversy,  and  re- 
pented of  the  language  he  had  employed.  Nothing, 
however,  can  be  further  from  the  truth  ;  so  far  from 
changing  his  opinion  on  the  subject,  he  wrote  some 
additional  treatises,  which  he  had  always  wished  to  pub- 
lish. His  views  appear  to  have  remained  unchanged : 
*'  I  have  been  assured,"  says  Bishop  Newton,  whose 
opinion  on  the  point  must  be  decisive,  *'  by  the  best 
authority — by  those  who  lived  with  him  most,  and  knew 
him  best — that  this  intimation  is  absolutely  false." 

The  period  at  which  Bishop)  Sherlock  lived  was  re- 
markable for  the  low  state  of  religious  feeling,  both 
within  and  without  the  pale  of  the  established  Church. 
The  age  of  fanaticism  had  passed  by,  and  had  been 
followed  by  one  in  which  the  great  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  were  thrown  into  the  shade.  The 
fact  has  been  attempted  to  be  denied  ;  but  to  no  purpose. 
The  published  religious  works  of  the  day  afford  proof 
positive  that  this  statement  is  true ;  and  the  testimony 
of  those  who  mourned  over  what  they  could  not  alter, 
places  the  matter  beyond  all  dispute.  A  race  of  un- 
principled men  sprung  up,  desirous  wholly  to  undermine 
the  Christian  faith,  and  on  its  ruins  to  erect  a  wretched 
system  of  deism,  utterly  subversive  of  every  moral 
principle,  loosing  man  from  all  moral  restraints,  and 
allowing  him  to  lead,  without  dread  of  a  judgment,  a  life 
of  unbounded  sensuality,  with  the  flattering  promise, 
"death  is  an  eternal  sleep."  "  All  who  had  objections 
of  their  own  to  offer,  or  who  might  hope  to  serve  their 
cause  by  reviving  the  calumnies  of  others,  were  at  perfect 
liberty  to  produce  them.  Accordingly  the  authenticity 
of  the  Bible,  more  especially  of  Christianity,  was  assailed 
at  all  points  by  a  host  of  free-thinkers  and  sophistical 
reasoners,  with  a  versatility  of  skill  unknown  to  its 
M  M    3 


402  SHERLOCK. 

ancient  adversaries,  and  a  zeal  as  indefatigable  in  its 
exertions  as  it  was  bold  and  ingenious  in  its  contri- 
vances. History,  philosophy,  literature,  and  romance, 
wit,  satire,  ridicule,  reproach,  and  even  falsehood,  were 
all  leagued  in  this  conspiracy,  and  furnished,  in  their 
turn,  arms  for  prosecuting  this  unnatural  rebellion 
against  light  and  truth,"  Although  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
even  where  he  sets  up  ridicule  as  the  test  and  criterion 
of  truth,  expresses  his  strong  and  decided  disapprobation 
of  scurrilous  buffoonery,  gross  raillery  and  an  illiberal 
kind  of  wit,  and  that  what  is  contrary  to  good  breeding 
is  in  this  repect  as  contrary  to  liberty. 

Anthony  Collins  published,  though  as  was  his  custom 
without  his  name,  his  "  Discourse  of  the  Grounds  and 
Reasons  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  a  book  which  made 
a  great  noise ;  for  "  the  turn  given  to  the  controversy,' 
says  Dr.  Leland,  "  had  something  in  it  that  seemed 
new,  and  was  managed  with  great  art ;  and  yet,  when 
closely  examined,  it  appears  to  be  weak  and  trifling." 
In  enumerating  the  many  admirable  and  convincing 
replies  to  this  work,  a  most  powerful  treatise  issued  from 
the  pen  of  Dr.  Chandler,  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coven- 
try. Dr.  Leland  says,  "  it  may  be  proper  also  to  men- 
tion a  book  which  was  occasioned  by  '  the  Grounds,'  &c., 
though  not  directly  in  answer  to  it,  entitled,  '  The  use 
and  Intent  of  Prophecy  in  the  several  ages  of  the 
Church,'  by  Dr.  Thomas  Sherlock,'  &c.  &c.  This  is 
an  excellent  performance ;  in  which  a  regular  series  of 
prophecy  is  deduced  through  the  several  ages  from  the 
beginning,  and  its  great  usefulness  shown.  The  various 
degrees  of  light  are  distinctly  marked  out,  which  were 
successively  communicated  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
answer  the  great  ends  of  religion  and  the  designs  of 
Providence,  till  those  great  events  to  which  they  were 
intended  to  be  subservient  should  receive  their  accom- 
plishment. Dr.  Sherlock  greatly  distinguished  himself 
by  this  publication,  which,  if  possible,  proved  more  fully 


SHERLOCK.  403 

the  strength  of  his  mental  powers,  and  the  depth  and 
extent  of  his  varied  acquirements,  Collins's  opinions 
were  that  man  is  a  mere  machine.;  that  the  soul  is 
material  and  mortal ;  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  built 
on  the  predictions  of  fortune-tellers,  and  divines;  that 
the  Prophets  were  mere  fortune-tellers  and  discoverers 
of  lost  goods ;  that  Christianity  stands  wholly  on  a  false 
foundation.  Yet  he  speaks  respectfully  of  Christianity, 
and  also  of  the  Epicureans,  whom  he  at  the  same  time 
regards  as  Atheists. 

Woolston  now  appeared  as  the  champion  of  infidelity. 
His  object  was  to  allegorize  away  the  miracles  of  our 
Lord,  as  Collins  had  attempted  to  act  with  respect  to 
the  prophecies.  But  his  conduct  was  flagrant  in  the 
extreme.  He  is  styled  by  JMosheim  "  a  man  of  an  in- 
auspicious genius,  who  made  the  most  audacious  though 
senseless  attempts  to  invalidate  the  miracles  of  Christ." 
"  Many  glaring  instances  of  unfairness  and  disingenuity 
in  his  quotations  from  the  fathers  were  plainly  proved 
upon  him.  It  was  shown  that  he  had  quoted  books 
generally  allowed  to  be  spurious  as  the  genuine  works 
of  the  fathers ;  and  hath,  by  false  taanslations  and 
injurious  interpolations,  and  foisting  in  of  words,  done 
all  that  was  in  his  power  to  pervert  the  true  sense 
of  the  authors  he  quotes ;  and  that  sometimes  he  inter- 
prets them  in  a  manner  directly  contrary  to  their  own 
declared  sense,  in  the  very  passages  he  appeals  to,  as 
would  have  appeared  if  he  had  fairly  produced  the  whole 
passage.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  an  author 
who  was  capable  of  such  a  conduct  should  stick  at  no 
methods  to  expose  and  misrepresent  the  accounts  given 
by  the  evangelists  of  our  Saviours  miracles.  Under 
pretence  of  showing  the  absurdity  of  the  literal  and 
liistorical  sense  of  the  facts  recorded  in  the  Gospels, 
he  hath  given  himself  an  unrestrained  license  in  invec- 
tive and  abuse.  The  books  of  the  Evangelists,  and  the 
facts  there  related,  he  hath  treated  in  a  strain  of  low 


404  SHERLOCK. 

and  coarse  buffoonery,  and  with  an  insolence  and  scur- 
rility that  is  hardly  to  be  paralleled." 

Dr.  Sherlock  took  up  the  cause  of  truth  with  great 
talent  and  decision.  He  clearly  perceived  the  knavery 
as  well  as  weakness  of  his  antagonist ;  and  he  published 
his  well  known  small  treatise^  "  The  Trial  of  the  Wit- 
nesses of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus,  1729  ;"  a  work 
which  has  gone  through  a  very  large  number  of  editions, 
and  which  Leland  describes  as  being  "universally 
admired  for  the  polite  and  uncommon  turn,  as  well 
as  the  judicious  manner  of  treating  the  subject." 

In  1728,  he  was  promoted  to  the  See  of  Bangor,  in 
which  he  succeeded  his  antagonist  Bishop  Hoadley ;  as 
he  did,  in  1738,  in  that  of  Salisbury.  As  his  intimacy 
with  the  members  of  the  legal  profession,  while  master  of 
the  Temple,  had  given  him  a  propensity  to  study  the 
law,  and  he  had  naturally  a  turn  to  business,  he  was  not 
a  silent  occupier  of  a  seat  in  the  house  of  lords,  but 
occasionally  joined  in  debates,  as  a  supporter  of  the 
interests  of  the  Crown  and  Church,  in  which  he  delivered 
himself  with  force  and  elegance.  He  opposed  the  bill 
brought  in  17B1  from  the  house  of  commons,  respecting 
members  being  pensioners,*  regarding  it  as  tending  to 
diminish  the  influence  of  the  crown  in  that  house,  and 
thereby  to  disturb  the  balance  of  the  constitution.  He 
not  only  spoke,  but  by  his  influence  excited  an  opposition 
out  of  doors,  against  an  attempt  to  settle  an  unvaried 
and  certain  stipend  on  the  clergy  in  lieu  of  tithes.  He 
was  considered  in  parliament  as  a  great  authority  in 
ecclesiastical  law,  and  frequently  led  the  judgment  of  the 
house.  Such  was  the  reputation  he  acquired  in  the  epis- 
copal character,  that  upon  the  death  of  Archbishop 
Potter  in  1747,  he  was  offered  the  See  of  Canterbury, 
which  he  declined  on  account  of  ill  health  ;  but  after- 
wards recovering,  he  accepted  the  See  of  London,  vacant 
in  1749. 

In  the  month  of  February,  1750,  a  violent  shock  of  an 


SHERLOCK.  405 

earthquake,  which  had  been,  as  it  were,  announced  by 
some  remarkable  coruscations  of  aurora  borealis,  with 
tremendous  tempests  of  thunder,  lightning,  hail  and 
rain,  greatly  terrified  the  inhabitants  of  the  metropolis  : 
and  this  terror  was  redoubled  by  a  similar  phenomenon, 
on  the  very  same  day  of  the  following  month,  between 
five  and  six  in  the  morning.  The  shock  was  immediately 
preceded  by  a  succession  of  thick  low  flashes  of  lightning, 
and  a  rumbling  noise  like  that  of  a  heavy  carriage  rolling 
over  a  hollow  pavement :  its  vibrations  shook  every  house 
from  top  to  bottom,  and  in  many  places  the  church-bells 
were  heard  to  strike ;  people  started  naked  from  their 
beds,  and  ran  to  their  doors  and  windows  in  a  state  of 
distraction  ;  yet  no  house  was  overthrown  and  no  life  was 
lost.  However,  the  periodical  recurrence  of  the  shocks, 
and  the  superior  violence  of  the  second,  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  the  minds  of  the  more  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious part  of  the  community ;  who  began  to  fear  lest 
another  such  visitation  should  be  attended  with  more 
dismal  consequences.  These  sentiments  of  terror  and 
dismay  soon  spread,  and  were  augmented  to  an  extraor- 
dinary degree  by  a  fanatical  soldier,  who  went  about  the 
streets  preaching  up  repentance,  and  boldly  prophesying 
that  another  shock  in  the  same  day  in  April  w^ould  lay 
the  mighty  Babylon  in  ruins.  '  Considering  the  infec- 
tious nature  of  fear  and  superstition,'  says  the  historian, 
and  the  emphatic  manner  in  which  the  imagination  had 
been  prepared  and  preposssssed,  it  was  no  wonder  that 
the  prediction  of  this  illiterate  enthusiast  should  have 
contributed  in  a  great  measure  to  augment  the  general 
terror.  The  churches  were  crowded  with  penitent  sin- 
ners ;  the  sons  of  riot  and  profligacy  were  overawed  into 
sobriety  and  decorum.  The  streets  no  longer  resounded 
with  execrations  or  the  noise  of  brutal  licentiousness  ; 
and  the  hand  of  charity  was  liberally  opened.  Those 
whom  fortune  had  enabled  to  retire  from  the  devoted  city, 
fled  to  the  country  with  hurry  and  precipitation ;  inso- 


408  SHERLOCK. 

much  that  the  highways  were  encumbered  with  horses 
and  carriages.  Many  who  had  in  the  beginning  com- 
bated these  groundless  fears  with  the  weapons  of  reason 
and  ridicule,  began  insensibly  to  imbibe  the  contagion, 
and  felt  their  hearts  fail  in  proportion  as  the  hour  of  pro- 
bation approached :  even  science  and  philosophy  were  not 
proof  against  the  unaccountable  effects  of  this  communi- 
cation :  in  after  ages  it  will  hardly  be  believed  that  on 
the  evening  of  the  8th  day  of  April,  the  open  fields  that 
skirt  the  metropolis  were  filled  with  an  incredible  num- 
ber of  people  assembled  in  chairs,  in  chaises,  and 
coaches,  as  well  as  on  foot,  who  waited  in  the  most  fear- 
ful suspense,  until  morning  and  the  return  of  day 
disproved  the  truth  of  the  dreaded  prophecy.  Then 
their  fears  vanished;  they  returned  to  their  respective 
habitations  in  a  transport  of  joy  ;  were  soon  reconciled  to 
their  abandoned  vices,  which  they  seemed  to  resume  with 
redoubled  affection;  and  once  more  bade  defiance  to  the 
vengeance  of  Heaven. 

The  Bishop  of  London  took  advantage  of  the  peculiar 
state  of  feeling  into  which  the  public  mind  had  been 
forced  by  these  extraordinary  events,  to  address  a  "  Pas- 
toral Letter  to  the  Clergy  and  Inhabitants  of  London 
and  Westminster,  on  occasion  of  the  late  Earthquakes." 
This  was  bougbt  up  and  read  with  such  avidity  by  all 
ranks  of  people,  that  more  than  100,000  copies  were  sold 
within  a  month.  A  tract  also  which  he  composed  on  the 
observance  of  Good  Friday  is  said  to  have  had  great 
effect,  in  a  moral  and  religious  point  of  view.  Nor  would 
it  be  right  if  we  omitted  to  mention  his  admirable 
Charge,  the  only  one  he  published,  which  he  printed  and 
distributed  among  his  clergy  in  1759,  and  in  which  a 
profound  knowledge  of  the  law,  both  of  Church  and 
State,  is  applied  with  paternal  affection  to  their  use  and 
service. 

He  still  held  his  ofiice  in  the  Temple  till  1753,  when 
he  resigned  it  in  an  Affectionate  Letter  to  the  Benchers. 


SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM.  407 

Infirmities  soon  after  accumulated  upon  him  ;  he  nearly- 
lost  the  use  of  his  limbs  and  speech,  but  still  retained 
vigour  of  understanding  sufficient  for  the  revision  and 
correction  of  a  volume  of  sermons,  which  was  follow^ed 
by  four  volumes  more.  He  died  on  the  18th  day  of 
July,  1761. — Hughes.  Church  of  England  Magazine. 
Hartwell  Homes  Introduction.  Nichols's  Funeral 
Sermon. 


SHERLOCK,    WILLIAM. 

William  Sheelock  was  born  in  the  year  1641,  at  South- 
wark,  and  was  educated  first  at  Eton  and  then  at  Peter 
House,  Cambridge,  where  he  graduated  in  1660.  In 
1669,  he  became  Rector  of  St.  George's,  Botolph-lane, 
London. 

In  this  parish  he  discharged  the  duties  of  his  function 
with  great  zeal,  and  was  esteemed  an  excellent  preacher. 
In  1673,  he  pubhshed  "A  Discourse  concerning  the 
knowledge  of  Christ,  and  our  union  and  communion 
with  Him,"  which  involved  him  in  a  controversy  with 
the  celebrated  nonconformist  Dr.  John  Owen,  and  with 
Mr.  Vincent  Alsop.  In  1680,  he  took  the  degree  of  D.D., 
and  about  the  same  time  published  some  pieces  against 
llie  Nonconformists.  Soon  after  he  was  collated  to  a 
Prebend  of  St.  Paul's,  was  appointed  master  of  the 
Temple,  and  had  the  Rectory  of  Therfield  in  Hertford- 
shire. In  1684,  he  published  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  The 
case  of  Resistance  to  the  Supreme  Powers  stated  and 
resolved,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ;"  and  continued  to  preach  the  same  opinion  after 
the  accession  of  James  11.  when  it  was  put  to  the  test. 
He  engaged  also  in  the  controversy  with  the  Papists, 
which  shows  that  he  was  not  a  servile  adherent  to  the 
king,  but  conscientious  in  his  notions  of  regal  power. 
This   likewise   he   shewed  at   the  revolution,  when  he 


408  SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM. 

refused  to  take  the  oaths  to  WilUara  and  Mary,  and  was 
therefore  suspended  from  all  his  preferments.  During  his 
suspension,  he  published  his  celebrated  treatise,  entitled 
"  A  practical  Discourse  on  Death,"  1690,  which  has 
passed  through  at  least  forty  editions,  and  is  indeed  the 
only  one  of  his  works  now  read.  But  before  the  ex- 
piration of  that  year,  he  thought  proper  to  comply  with 
the  new  government,  and  taking  the  oaths,  was  rein- 
stated in  all  his  preferments,  of  which,  though  forfeited, 
he  had  not  been  deprived. 

His  conduct  on  this  occasion,  involved  him  in  a  con- 
troversy of  a  personal  nature,  of  which  the  best  account 
that  we  have  seen  is  that  given  by  Mr.  Lathbui-y,  in 
his  interesting  History  of  Convocation.  Having  alluded 
to  the  publication  of  Bishop  Overall's  Convocation  Book 
by  Archbishop  Sancroft,  he  remarks,  that  it  produced  a 
remarkable  effect. 

"  Dr.  Sherlock,  who  hesitated  to  take  the  oaths  to  the 
new  government,  professed  that  his  scruples  were 
removed  by  this  book.  The  case  was  this :  the  Nether- 
lands had  revolted  from  the  Spaniards,  and  in  allusion  to 
their  case,  the  convocation,  though  on  all  other  points 
they  carried  the  royal  perogative  very  high,  decided,  that 
a  government  when  fully  settled,  though  commenced  in 
rebellion,  was  lawful,  and  that  submission  might  be 
yielded  to  it.  It  is  clear  that  Sancroft  had  not  consider^ 
the  passage  in  question.  Sherlock,  however,  took  the 
oaths  on  the  ground  that  the  Anglican  Church  recognised 
a  government  de  facto.  He  also  endeavoured  to  induce 
others  to  take  the  same  views,  by  quoting  Overall's  book. 
Thus  Sancroft  printed  the  book  for  one  purpose ;  and 
in  Sherlock's  case  it  answered  another.  In  all  proba- 
bility Sherlock  had  begun  to  repent  of  his  refusal  to 
comply  with  the  new  order  of  things.  In  my  opinion  he 
was  looking  about  for  a  reason  to  enable  him,  with  some 
colour  of  justice,  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  he  found  it  in 
this  Convocation  Book.     This  appears  to  have  been  the 


SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM.  409 

most  remarkable  result  produced  by  its  publication. 
Sherlock  was  actually  suspended  before  he  discovered  the 
lawfulness  of  taking  the  oaths.  He  then  published  his 
'  Case  of  Allegiance  due  to  Sovereign  Powers,'  &c.  in  which 
he  says,  '  That  he  had  some  of  the  thoughts  before ; ' 
but  he  says  further,  '  Stick  I  did,  and  could  find  no  help 
for  it,  and  there  I  should  have  stuck  to  this  day,  had  I 
not  been  relieved  by  Bishop  Overall's  Convocation  Book.' 
This  work  was  severely  attacked  by  several  individuals. 
There  soon  appeared  '  A  Review  of  Dr.  Sherlock's  Case  of 
Allegiance,'  &c.,  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  Wag- 
staffe.  Sherlock  published  '  A  Vindication  of  the  Case  of 
Allegiance,'  which  was  replied  to  by  Wagstaffe  in  '  An 
Answer  to  Dr.  Sherlock's  Vindication.'  The  author  of 
'  The  Review,'  in  allusion  to  Overall's  book,  says,  '  It  is  a 
shrewd  sign  the  doctor  was  hard  put  to  it,  when  he  caught 
hold  of  a  twig;  yet  nothing  will  serve  him,  but  it  must' 
be  the  judgment  of  the  Church  of  England.'" 

"  But  the  weapons  of  ridicule  and  satire  were  also 
used  against  Sherlock  on  this  occasion.  A  bitter  pamph- 
let was  published  under  this  title :  '  The  Trimming 
Court  Divine,  or  Reflections  on  Dr.  Sherlock's  Book  on 
the  Lawfulness  of  Swearing  Allegiance  to  the  present 
Government.'  The  author  observes,  '  They  were  wicked, 
according  to  him,  who  contributed  to  drive  out  King 
James ;  and  yet  they  are  no  less  wicked  who  shall  in  the 
least  contribute  to  bring  him  in  again.'  Again :  '  His 
scheme  of  government  is  calculated  for  every  meridian, 
nor  can  anything  happen  amiss  to  him,  provided  there  be 
but  an  actual  possessor  of  the  supreme  power,  which  'tis 
impossible  there  should  want.'  In  allusion  to  the  Convo- 
cation Book,  he  says — '  That  book  set  him  most  blessedly 
at  liberty ;  a  pretty  fetch  to  hale  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land  to  abet  his  untoward  principles.'  But  a  satirical 
poem  was  also  published  with  the  title,  ♦  The  Weesils,  a 
satyrical  Fable,  giving  an  Account  of  some  Argu  mental 
Passages  happening  in  the  Lion's  Court  about  Weesilion's 

VOL.  VIII.  N    N 


410  SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM. 

taking  the  Oaths;'  4to,  1691.  The  doctor's  wife  is 
represented  as  arguing  the  point.  Thus  the  argument 
of  the  first  section  explains  its  character  : — 

Husband  and  Avife  at  variance  are 

About  the  oaths,  till  female  art 
Informs  his  conscience  he  must  swear, 

And  brings  him  over  to  her  part. 

"  The  doctor  is  represented  as  arguing  against  the 
oaths  on  the  ground  of  character.  She  alludes  to  some 
of  his  writings,  which,  she  says,  favour  her  view.  He 
replies — 

Opinions  variously  the  wise  endite  : 
Ne'er  build  too  much  on  what  I  write  ; 
Thou  art  my  own,  and  I  may  boldly  say, 
My  pen  can  travel  this  and  t'other  way. 

"  The  wife  at  last  says,  the  doctor  having  exhorted  her 
to  depend  on  Providence — 

But  the  meantime  I  want  my  coach  and  six, 
The  neighbouring  wives  already  slight  me  too, 
Justle  to  the  wall,  and  take  the  upper  pew. 

"  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that  the  doctor  yields 
to  the  entreaties  of  his  wife,  and  takes  the  oaths  to  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary.  Tom  Brown  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  author  of  this  pungent  satire." 

With  respect  to  the  alleged  inconsistency  of  Sherlock, 
Mr.  Lathbury  in  another  work,  the  History  of  the  Non- 
jurors, justly  observes,  "  Sherlock  was  not  the  only 
inconsistent  man  of  that  period.  Burnet  and  Tillotson, 
in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  held  the  same  opinions. 
They  opposed  Popery  :  but  they  maintained  that  oppo- 
sition to  the  prince  could  not  be  justified :  and  that 
the  authority  was  in  his  person,  not  in  the  law.  Had 
Sherlock  complied  at  the  Revolution  without  scruple,  he 
would  have  been  in  the  same  situation  with  Burnet, 
Stillingfleet  and  Tillotson,  all  of  whom  had  written  in 
defence  of  the  doctrine   at  which  he  stumbled.     They 


SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM.  411 

Complied  at  first ;  while  he  hesitated,  yet  yielded  after- 
wards. His  two  works,  "  Obedience  and  Submission 
to  the  present  government,  &c.,"  and  the  "  Case  of 
Allegiance,"  were  attacked  by  several  of  the  Nonjurors. 
One  of  the  keenest  answers  was  written,  I  believe,  by 
Wagstaffe.  It  is  attributed  to  Ken  in  the  Biographia 
Britannica ;  but  this  is  clearly  a  mistake ;  and  in  a  copy 
now  in  my  possession,  which  was  once  the  property  of 
a  Nonjuror,  a  contemporary  of  Sherlock's,  it  is  assigned 
to  Wagstaffe.  Sherlock  replied  in  "  A  Vindication  of 
the  Case  of  Allegiance  ;"  but  nothing  could  relieve  him 
from  the  charge  of  fickleness  and  inconsistency.  Sher- 
lock had  told  the  Bishop  of  Killmore,  that  "  he  would 
be  sacrificed  before  he  took  the  new  oath  of  allegiance." 
This  is  stated  by  Hickes,  w^ho  very  justly  remarks,  "  if 
those,  who  took  that  oath  would  but  remember  their  own 
case,  they  would  have  more  compassion  for  those  who 
could  not  take  it  at  all.  There  were,  however,  some  who 
stepped  forward  in  Sherlock's  defence.  One  writer  in 
particular  asserts,  that  some  would  have  complied  but 
for  the  schemes  of  some  of  the  leaders  in  the  opposition 
to  King  William.  He  lauds  the  government  for  its 
leniency.  "  They  were  very  zealous  to  have  got  the  act 
for  taking  the  oaths  to  their  majesties  limited  to 
a  very  short  time,  that  men,  having  but  a  little  time  to 
bethink  them,  might  more  generally  have  refused  them, 
as  they  did  in  Scotland  :  but  the  six  months  that  was 
allowed  (much  against  their  wills)  was  so  well  employed, 
that  the  number  of  the  Non-swearers  was  very  small  in 
comparison;  and  if  these  very  men  had  not  made  it 
their  business  to  traduce  all  that  took  the  oath  as 
apostates,  time  servers,  and  perjured  men,  perhaps  it 
would  have  been  much  less  than  it  was."  Alluding 
to  those  who  complied,  he  says :  "  Every  man  that 
taketh  the  oath  raiseth  a  new  clamour :  so  that  it  is 
apparent  to  all  the  world,  some  men  fear  nothing 
more,    than    that  there    should    be    no    non-swearers.'' 


413  SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM. 

Sherlock  stated,  in  his  Preface,  that  he  had  renounced 
no  principle,  except  one  in  "  The  Case  of  Resistance ;" 
but  he  forgot,  that  that  one  was  the  hinge  on  which 
all  turned. 

The  truth  is  that  they  found  that,  what  appeared  to 
them  in  theory  correct,  could  not  be  maintained  without 
leading  to  consequences  the  most  dangerous,  and  very 
properly  they  reconsidered  their  principles,  and  found 
that  though  their  principles  were  right  in  the  main, 
they  admitted  of  exceptional  cases. 

Dr.  Sherlock  was  promoted  to  the  Deanery  of  St.  Paul's 
in  1691,  a  year  also  memorable  for  the  publication  of 
his  Vindication  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  and  ever 
Blessed  Trinity.  "In  this  elaborate  work,"  says  Bishop 
Van  Mildert,  "  he  proposed  a  new  mode  of  explaining 
that  '  great  mystery ; '  by  an  hypothesis,  which  (as  he 
conceived)  '  gave  a  very  easy  and  intelligible  notion  of  a 
Trinity  in  Unity,'  and  removed  the  charge  of  contradic- 
tions. His  mode,  however,  of  doing  this  was  much  dis- 
approved, not  only  by  Socinian  writers,  but  by  men  who 
were  no  less  sincere  advocates  of  the  doctrine  than  him- 
self. Dr.  Wallis,  Savilian  professor  of  geometry,  one  of 
the  most  profound  scholars  of  his  time,  though  he 
approved  of  much  of  Dr.  Sherlock's  treatise,  yet  regarded 
some  of  his  illustrations  as  approaching  too  nearly  to 
Triiheism.  Dr.  South,  a  man  of  no  less  powerful  intel- 
lect, opposed  it,  upon  similar  grounds,  with  great  vehe- 
mence, and  with  unsparing  reproach.  Both  those  dis- 
tinguished writers  substituted,  however,  for  Dr.  Sherlock's 
hypothesis,  theories  of  their  own,  far  from  being  gener- 
ally satisfactory  ;  and  were  charged  by  the  opposite  party 
with  leaning  towards  Sahellianism.  In  the  University  of 
Oxford,  Sherlock's  view  of  the  doctrine  was  pablicly  cen- 
sured and  prohibited.  This  produced  further  irritation  ; 
and  such  was  the  unbecoming  heat  and  acrimony  with 
which  the  controversy  was  conducted,  that  the  Royal 
Authority  was  at  last  exercised,  in  restraining  each  party 


SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM.  413 

from  introducing  novel  opinions  respecting  these  myste- 
rious articles  of  faith,  and  requiring  them  to  adhere  to 
such  explications  only,  as  had  already  received  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Church." 

"  These  unhappy  disputes  were  eagerly  caught  at  by 
Anti-Trinitarians  of  every  description,  as  topics  of  invec- 
tive or  of  ridicule ;  and  the  press  teemed  with  offensive 
productions  of  various  description,  calculated  to  agitate 
the  minds  of  the  people,  and  to  bring  the  doctrines  of 
the  Church  into  disrepute.  The  advocates  of  the  estab- 
lished creed  were  represented  as  being  now  divided  into 
two  distinct  and  irreconcileable  parties,  the  Tritheists  and 
the  Nominalists,  or  (as  they  were  sometimes  called)  the 
real  and  the  nominal  Trinitarians ;  the  former  intended 
to  denote  those  who  maintained  Sherlock's  hypothesis ;  the 
latter,  those  who  espoused  the  theories  of  South  and 
Wallis.  These  terms  of  reproach  were  readily  adopted 
by  Socinian  writers,  whose  policy  it  was  to  represent  all 
Trinitarians  as  implicated  in  the  errors  either  of  Trithe- 
ism  or  Sabellianism,  and  to  deny  that  any  intermediate 
theory  of  Trinitarian  doctrine  could  consistently  be 
maintained." 

At  length  the  contest  was  carried  on  with  so  much 
acrimony,  that  his  majesty,  on  the  suggestion  of  the 
bishops,  interposed  with  a  prohibition  of  the  use  of 
new  terms  in  the  explication  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  Another  deviation  of  this  divine  from  the 
sentiments  which  he  had  professed  at  an  early  period, 
appeared  in  a  sermon  which  he  preached  on  the 
Death  of  Queen  Mary,  expressing  an  approbation  of 
a  scheme  then  entertained  of  comprehension  with  the 
Dissenters. 

He  died  in  1707.  He  wrote  : — A  Discourse  con- 
cerning the  Knowledge  of  Christ;  The  Case  of  Resis- 
tance to  the  Supreme  Powers ;  A  Practical  Discourse 
concerning  Death ;  Discourse  on  Religious  Assemblies ; 
Discourse  on  Providence;  On  the  Happiness  of  Good 
3  N   N 


414  SHUCKFORD. 

Men,  and  Punishment  of  the  Wicked,  in  another  World  ; 
and,  A  Discourse  on  Judgment. — Birch.  Nichols.  Van 
Mildert's  Waterland.     Lathbury. 


SHUCEFOED,  SAMUEL. 

The  time  and  place  of  Shuckford's  birth  are  not  known, 
but  he  was  educated  at  Caius  College,  Cambridge,  where 
he  graduated  in  1716.  He  became  Rector  of  Shelton,  in 
Norfolk,  from  which  place  the  preface  to  his  learned  work 
on  the  "  Connection  between  Sacred  and  Profane  His- 
tory "  is  dated.  He  was  a  prebendary  of  Canterbury, 
and  held  the  living  of  All-Hallows,  Lombard-street,  in 
London. 

He  died  in  1754.  He  published  a  few  occasional 
sermons  ;  but  he  is  principally  known  for  his  History  of 
the  World,  Sacred  and  Profane,  3  vols.  8vo,  intended  to 
serve  as  an  introduction  to  Prideaux's  Connection,  but  he 
did  not  live  to  carry  it  down  to  the  year  747  b.c.  where 
Prideaux  begins.  He  wrote  also  a  Treatise  on  the 
Creation  and  Fall  of  Man,  intended  as  a  supplement 
to  the  preface  to  his  history. 

Jt  was  the  intention  of  Dr.  Shuckford  in  his  well- 
known  work  in  his  "  Connection  "  to  bring  down  the  nar- 
rative of  Sacred  History  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
to  the  epoch  at  which  Prideaux  begins  his  valuable  per- 
formance. But  he  did  not  live  to  complete  his  plan,  and 
the  work  which  thould  have  extended  to  the  reign  of 
Ahaz  proceeds  no  further  than  to  the  times  of  Joshua, 
leaving  about  eight  hundred  years  of  a  very  important 
period  to  the  pen  of  another.  That  pen  was  taken  up, 
and  Shuckfords  plan  was  completed  by  the  late  Dr. 
Russell  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow,  who  acquired  and  de- 
served for  his  learning  and  virtues  the  respect  of  his 
contemporaries. — Evan.  Brit.     FaisselVs  Connection. 


SIMEON.  415 


SHOWEK,    JOHN. 

John  Shower  was  born  at  Exeter  in  1657.  In  1679,  he 
became  assistant  to  Vincent  Alsop,  in  Westminster  ;  but 
in  1685,  he  went  abroad  as  tutor  to  a  young  gentleman, 
and  after  visiting  Italy,  remained  two  years  in  Holland, 
where  he  officiated  to  an  English  congregation  at  Eotter- 
dam.  In  1690  he  returned,  and  became  assistant  to  Mr. 
John  Howe ;  but  afterwards  he  discharged  the  pastoral 
office  at  a  meeting  in  the  Old  Jewry.  He  died  in  1715. 
His  works  are: — "  Eeflections  on  Time  and  Eternity;" 
"  Eeflections  on  the  late  Earthquakes ;  "  "  Family 
Eeligion ;  "  "  Life  of  Henry  Gearing ;  "  "  The  Mourner's 
Companion." — Watkin's  Gen.  Biog.  Diet, 


SIBBES,    RICHARD. 

EicHARD  SiBBEs  was  bom  at  Sudbury,  in  Suffolk,  in 
1577,  and  educated  at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  obtained  a  fellowship.  He  became  such  a 
popular  preacher  at  Cambridge,  that  the  society  of  Gray's 
Inn  invited  him  to  be  their  lecturer.  In  1625  he  was 
chosen  master  of  Catherine  hall :  having  refused  the 
provostship  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Dr.  Sibbes  died 
in  1635.  His  treatise  entitled,  The  Bruised  Reed,  is  said 
to  have  been  the  main  cause  of  Eichard  Baxter's  conver- 
sion. He  also  wrote  a  Commentary  on  the  first  Chapter 
of  the  second  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians. 
His  works  have  been  reprinted,  in  3  vols.  8vo. — Gen. 
Biog.  Diet. 

SIMEON,    STYLITESr 

Simeon  Stylites  was  born  about  392,  at  Sison,  a  border- 
town,  which  lies  between  Syria  and  Cilicia.      He  was  the 


416  SIMEON. 

son  of  a  shepherd,  and  followed  the  same  occupation  to 
the  age  of  thirteen,  when  he  entered  into  a  monastery. 
After  some  time  he  left  it,  in  order  to  devote  himself  to 
a  life  of  greater  solitude  and  austerity,  and  he  took  up 
his  abode  on  the  tops  of  mountains,  or  in  caverns  of 
rocks,  fasting  sometimes  for  weeks  together,  till  he  had 
worked  himself  up  to  a  due  degree  of  enthusiastic  extra- 
vagance. He  then,  as  it  is  said,  to  avoid  the  concourse 
of  devotees,  but  probably  to  excite  still  greater  admira- 
tion, adopted  the  strange  fancy  of  fixing  his  habitation 
on  the  tops  of  pillars  (whence  his  Greek  appellation); 
and  with  the  notion  of  climbing  higher  and  higher 
towards  heaven,  he  successfully  migrated  from  a  pillar 
of  six  cubits,  to  one  of  twelve,  twenty-two,  thirty-six, 
and  forty.  The  age  was  stupid  enough  to  consider 
this  as  a  proof  of  extraordinary  sanctity,  and  multitudes 
flocked  from  all  parts  to  pay  their  veneration  to  the  holy 
man.  What  is  truly  wonderful,  Simeon  passed  forty- 
seven  years  upon  his  pillars,  exposed  to  all  the  incle- 
mency of  the  seasons.  At  length  an  ulcer,  swarming 
with  maggots,  put  an  end  to  his  wretched  life  at  the 
age  of  sixty-nine. 

Many  of  the  inhabitants  of  Syria  and  Palestine, 
seduced  by  a  false  ambition,  and  an  utter  ignorance  of 
true  religion,  followed  the  example  of  this  fanatic,  though 
not  with  the  same  degree  of  austerity.  And  what  is 
almost  incredible,  this  superstitious  practice  continued^in 
vogue  until  the  twelfth  century,  when,  however,  it  was  at 
length  totally  suppressed. 

The  Latins  had  too  much  wisdom  and  prudence  to 
imitate  the  Syrians  and  Orientals  in  this  whimsical 
superstition.  And  when  a  certain  fanatic,  or  impostor, 
named  Wulfilaicus,  erected  one  of  those  pillars  in  the 
country  of  Treves,  and  proposed  living  upon  it  after  the 
manner  of  Simeon ;  the  neighbouring  bishops  ordered  it  to 
be  pulled  down,  and  thus  nipped  this  species  of  super- 
stition in  the  bud. — Mosheim. 


SIMPSON.  417 


SIMLEE,    JOSIAS. 

JosiAS  SiMLER  was  bom  at  Cappell,  in  Switzerland,  in 
1530.  He  was  educated  at  Zurich,  where,  in  1563,  he 
became  professor  of  theology. 

He  died  in  1 576.  Besides  commentaries  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, he  wrote  the  lives  of  Peter  Martyr,  Gesner,  and 
BuUinger,  each  in  a  thin  4to.  volume ;  published  an 
Epitome  of  Gesner's  Bibliotheca,  1555,  folio;  and  he 
was  editor  of  some  of  the  works  of  Peter  Martyr  and 
Bullinger  ;  ^thici  Cosmographia,  Antonini  Itinerarium, 
Eutiliani  Numantiani  Itinerarium,  et  alia  varia  ;  Helve- 
tiorum  Respublica ;  Vallesiae  Descriptionis  libri  duo, 
et  de  Alpibus  commentarius ;  Vocabularia  rei  nummarias 
ponderum  et  mensurarum,  Gr.,  Lat.,  Heb.,  Arab.,  ex 
diversis  auctoribus  collecta. — De  Thou.    Baillet. 


SIMPSON,  EDWARD. 

Edward  Simpson  was  born  at  Tottenham,  in  1573,  and 
was  educated  at  Westminster,  whence  he  proceeded  to 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  graduated  in  1600. 
In  1618,  he  was  presented  to  the  Ptectory  of  Eastling, 
in  Kent.  He  then  took  his  degree  of  D.D.,  and  was 
made  prebendary  of  Coringham.  In  1636,  he  published 
at  Cambridge  his  Mosaica ;  Sive  Chronici  Historiam 
Catholicam  complectentis  Pars  Prima,  in  qua  res  anti- 
quissimas  ab  Orbe  condito  ad  Mosis  obitum  Chronologice 
digestse  continentur,  4to.  Afterwards  he  undertook  his 
Chronicon  Catholicum  ab  exordio  Mundi,  but  did  not 
live  to  publish  it.  He  died  in  1651.  His  Chronicon, 
&c.,  was  published  at  Oxford,  in  1652,  with  a  Latin  life 
prefixed,  and  was  reprinted  by  Peter  Wesseling.  Dr. 
Reynolds,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Norwich,  in  his  license  of 
it  for  the  press,  speaks  of  it  as  "  egregium  et  absolutissi- 


418  SIRMOND. 

mum  opus,  summa  industria,  omuigena  eruditione, 
magno  judicio,  et  multorum  annorum  vigiliis  pro- 
ductum."  His  other  works  are  : — Positive  Divinity,  iu 
three  parts,  containing  an  Exposition  of  the  Creed, 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  Decalogue  ;  The  Knowledge  of  Christ, 
in  two  treatises  ;  A  treatise  concerning  God's  Providence 
in  regard  of  Evil,  or  Sin  ;  The  Doctrine  of  Regeneration, 
delivered  in  a  Sermon  on  John  iii.  6,  and  Defended  in  a 
Declaration ;  Tracatus  de  Justificatione.  Notse  Selec- 
tiores  in  Horatium  ;  Praelectiones  in  Persii  Satiras ; 
Anglicanse  Linguae  Vocabularium  Etymologicum  ;  Sanctae 
Linguae  Soboles  ;  Di  Gentium,  sive  Nominum,  quibus 
Deos  suos  Ethnici  appellabant  Explicatio. — Wesselmg, 


SIRMOND,    JAMES. 

James  Sirmond  was  born  at  Riom,  in  1559,  and  became 
a  Jesuit  in  1576.  In  1590,  he  was  sent  for  to  Rome  by 
the  general  of  his  order,  Aquaviva,  to  take  upon  him  the 
office  of  his  secretary,  which  he  held  for  sixteen  years. 
In  1617,  he  was  appointed  Rector  of  the  Jesuits  College, 
at  Paris,  and,  in  1 637,  he  became  confessor  to  Louis 
XIII.     He  died  in  1651. 

The  works,  edited  by  Sirmond,  were  chiefly  those  of 
authors  of  the  middle  ages,  the  manuscripts  of  which  he 
discovered  in  his  searches  among  the  libraries  at  Rome 
and  in  other  places.  Those  of  his  own  composition  were 
in  great  part  controversial,  and  in  some  of  them  he  was 
the  opponent  of  the  most  learned  men  in  that  age.  His 
work  entitled  "  Censura  de  Suburbicariis  Regionibus," 
which  related  to  the  suburbicary  churches  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  impunged  the  opinions 
of  Godefroy  and  Saumaise.  He  had  a  dispute  with  Peter 
x\urelius  respecting  the  second  canon  of  the  Council  of 
Orange,  which  was  conducted  with  a  degree  of  acrimony. 
A  dissertation,  which  he  wrote  to  prove  that  St.  Denis 


SKELTON.  419 

the  Areopagite  was  a  different  person  from  St.  Denis 
of  France,  raised  a  host  of  adversaries  against  him, 
as  touching  upon  a  favourite  national  tradition  ;  but  in 
the  end  all  competent  judges  were  convinced  by  his 
arguments.  He  was  less  successful  in  a  controversy 
respecting  predestination,  by  which  he  became  involved 
in  hostility  with  the  Jansenists.  It  is  said  to  have 
been  a  practice  with  him,  never  to  bring  out  at  first 
all  that  he  knew  of  a  subject,  but  to  reserve  some  argu- 
ments for  a  reply,  like  auxiliary  troops  in  a  battle. 
Though  upon  the  whole  candid  and  sincere,  he  is 
charged  with  having  sometimes  advanced  opinions  as 
those  of  the  French  clergy,  which  were  only  those  of 
his  order.  His  works  were  published  collectively  at 
Paris,  in  5  vols,  folio,  1696. — JDupin.    Moreri. 


SKELTON,    PHILIP. 

Of  this  learned  and  pious  but  eccentric  divine,  a  memoir 
has  been  published  by  Mr.  Burdy,  which,  though  coarse 
in  language  and  sentiment,  is  often  amusing.  Skelton 
was  born  in  the  parish  of  Derriaghly,  near  Lisburn,  in 
Ireland,  in  1707,  and  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
where  he  obtained  a  scholarship ;  but  he  left  the 
university  on  taking  his  first  degree.  In  1732,  he  settled 
on  the  curacy  of  Monaghan,  in  the  diocese  of  Clogher, 
Here  we  are  informed  by  his  biographer,  his  life  was 
most  exemplary,  and  his  preaching  efficacious.  It  was 
said  that  the  very  children  of  Monaghan,  whom  he 
carefully  instructed,  knew  more  of  religion  at  that  time, 
than  the  grown  people  of  any  of  the  neighbouring 
parishes,  and  the  manners  of  his  flock  were  soon  greatly 
improved,  and  vice  and  ignorance  retreated  before  so 
powerful  an  opponent.  His  charities  were  extraordinary 
for  all  he  derived  from  his  curacy  was  £40,  of  which  he 
gave  £10  a  year  to  his  mother,  and  for  some  years  a  like 


4S0  SKELTON. 

sum  to  his  tutor,  Dr.  Delany,  to  pay  some  debts  he  had 
contracted  at  college.  The  rest  were  for  his  maintenance 
and  his  charities,  and  when  the  pittance  he  could  give 
was  insufficient  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  he  solicited  the 
aid  of  people  of  fortune,  who  usually  contributed  accord- 
ing to  his  desire,  and  could  not  indeed  refuse  a  man, 
who  first  gave  his  own  before  he  would  ask  any  of  theirs. 
His  visits  to  the  jails  were  also  attended  with  the  happi- 
est effects.  On  one  remarkable  occasion,  when  a  convict 
at  Monaghan,  of  whose  innocence,  he  was  well  assured 
was  condemned  to  be  hanged  within  five  days,  he  set  off 
for  Dublin,  and  on  his  arrival  was  admitted  to  the  privy 
council  which  then  was  sitting.  Here  he  pleaded  for 
the  poor  man  with  such  eloquence,  as  to  obtain  his 
pardon,  and  returned  with  it  to  Monaghan,  in  time  to 
save  his  life.  In  order  to  be  of  the  more  use  to  his 
poor  parishioners,  he  studied  physic,  and  was  very 
successful  in  his  gratuitous  practice,  as  well  as  by  his 
spiritual  advice,  and  was  the  means  of  removing  many 
prejudices  and  superstitions  which  he  found  very  deeply 
rooted  in  their  minds. 

Mr.  Skelton  set  out  in  his  ministry  in  the  character 
of  an  avowed  champion  of  the  orthodox  faith.  Deriving 
his  religious  principles  from  the  pure  source  of  infor- 
mation, the  Holy  Scriptures  themselves,  he  could  find 
in  these  no  real  ground  for  modern  refinements.  Con- 
sequently he  declared  open  war  against  all  Arians, 
Socinians,  &e,  and  published  several  anonymous  pieces 
against  them.  In  1736,  he  published  "A  Vindication 
of  the  Right  Rev.  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Winchester,"  an 
ironical  attack  on  Hoadley's  "  Plain  Account  of  the 
nature  and  end  of  the  Lord's  Supper."  When  Bishop 
Sterne  read  it,  he  sent  for  Skelton,  and  asked  if  he  had 
written  it  ?  Skelton  gave  him  an  evasive  answer.  "  Well, 
well,"  said  the  bishop,  "  'tis  a  clever  thing — you  are  a 
young  man  of  no  fortune ;  take  these  ten  guineas,  you 
may  w*nt  them."     "  I  took  the  money,"  Skelton  told  his 


SKELTON.  421 

biographer,  "  and  said  nothing,  for  I  was  then  a  poor 
curate." 

He  published  the  same  year,  "  Some  proposals  for  the 
Revival  of  Christianity,"  another  piece  of  irony  against 
the  enemies  of  the  Church,  which  was  imputed  to  Swift, 
who,  as  usual,  neither  affirmed  nor  denied  ;  but  only  ob- 
served, that  the  author  "  had  not  continued  the  irony  to 
the  end."  In  1737,  he  published  a  "Dissertation  on 
the  Constitution  and  Effects  of  a  Petty  Jury,"  In  this, 
among  other  things,  he  seems  to  object  to  locking  up  a 
jury  without  food,  until  they  agree  upon  their  opinion. 
The  attorney-general  called  at  his  bookseller's,  who 
refused  to  give  up  the  name  of  the  author.  "Well," 
said  the  attorney-general,  "  give  my  compliments  to  the 
author,  and  inform  him  from  me,  that  I  do  not  think 
there  is  virtue  enough  in  the  people  of  this  country  ever 
to  put  his  scheme  into  practice." 

In  1748,  Skelton  having  prepared  for  the  press  his 
valuable  work,  entitled  "  Deism  Revealed,"  he  conceived 
it  too  important  to  be  published  in  Ireland,  and  therefore 
determined  to  go  to  London,  and  dispose  of  it  there. 
On  his  arrival,  he  submitted  his  manuscript  to  Andrew 
Millar,  the  bookseller,  to  know  if  he  would  purchase  it, 
and  have  it  printed  at  his  own  expence.  The  bookseller 
desired  him,  as  is  usual,  to  leave  it  with  him  for  a  day 
or  two,  until  he  could  get  a  certain  gentleman  of  great 
abilities  to  examine  it.  Hume  is  said  to  have  come  in 
accidentally  into  the  shop,  and  Millar  shewed  him  the  MS. 
Hume  took  it  into  a  room  adjoining  the  shop,  examined 
it  here  and  there  for  about  an  hour,  and  then  said  to 
Andrew,  print.  By  this  work  Skelton  made  about  £200. 
The  bookseller  allowed  him  for  the  manuscript  a  great 
many  copies,  which  he  disposed  of  among  the  citizens 
of  London,  with  whom,  on  account  of  his  preaching,  he 
was  a  great  favourite.  He  always  spoke  with  high 
approbation  of  the  kindness  with  which  he  was  received 
by  many  eminent  merchants.   When  in  London  he  spent 

VOL.  VIII.  0   0 


422  SKELTON. 

a  great  part  of  his  time  in  going  through  the  citj,  pur- 
chasing books  at  a  cheap  rate,  with  the  greater  part  of 
the  money  that  he  got  by  his  "  Deism  Revealed,"  and 
formed  a  good  library. 

"  Deism  Revealed  "  was  published  in  two  large  volumes. 
It  consists  of  eight  dialogues ;  in  the  first  seven  there 
are  four,  and  in  the  eighth  only  two,  speakers.  At  first 
three  unbelievers  attack  one  Christian,  who  at  last  makes 
a  convert  of  one  of  them,  a  young  gentleman  of  great 
fortune,  but  of  good  sense  and  candour.  In  these 
dialogues,  the  most  of  the  infidel  objections  against  the 
gospel  are  introduced  with  their  whole  force,  and  fully 
and  candidly  answered.  So  that  the  book  is  rather  a 
complete  answer  to  deistical  cavils,  than  a  regular  proof 
of  the  divine  authority  of  the  gospel.  But  if  their  cavils 
are  proved  groundless,  Christianity  consequently  is  true. 

The  title  of  "  Deism  Revealed "  shows  that  it  was 
intended  to  expose  the  craft  of  the  infidels.  In  this 
book  there  is  a  great  deal  of  good  sense,  sound  argu- 
ment, and  original  observation.  It  proves  the  author 
deeply  read,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  subject  of 
which  he  treats.  But  it  is  defective  in  point  of 
arrangement ;  the  matter  is  too  loosely  thrown  together, 
and  the  arguments  do  not  follow  each  other  in  regular 
order.  This  remark,  however,  only  holds  good  with 
respect  to  particular  places.  The  style  is  also  some- 
what coarse ;  words  are  uselessly  multiplied,  and  argu- 
ments drawn  out  beyond  their  proper  bounds.  The 
author,  in  his  attempts  at  wit,  frequently  fails  ;  he  is 
merry  himself,  but  the  reader  unhappily  cannot  join 
with  him  in  the  joke.  True  wit  subsists  where  the 
writer  is  grave,  and    the  reader  merry. 

This  book  was  in  high  repute  on  its  first  publica- 
tion. A  second  edition  was  required  in  little  more 
than  a  year.  Among  others.  Dr.  Delany  admired  it, 
well  pleased  with  the  growing  fame  of  his  pupil,  to 
whom    he    had    proved    himself    so    sincere    a  friend. 


SKELTON.  4S8 

And  even  now,  there  is  scarce  any  man  of  reading  in 
this  country  that  has  not  at  least  heard  of  '*  Deism 
Eevealed."  A  few  months  after  its  pubUcation,  the 
Bishop  of  Clogher  happened  to  be  in  company  with 
Dr.  Sherlock,  Bishop  of  London;  who  asked  him  if  he 
knew  the  author  of  this  book  ?  "  O  yes,"  he  answered 
carelessly,  "  he  has  been  a  curate  in  my  diocese,  near 
these  twenty  years."  "  More  shame  for  your  lordship," 
replied' he,  "to  let  a  man  of  his  merit  continue  so 
long  a  curate  in  your  diocese." 

The  ingenious  Bishop  of  London  sent  a  message 
once  to  inform  Mr.  Skelton,  that  he  would  promote 
him  in  his  diocese,  if  he  would  write  a  book  upon 
Christian  Morals.  On  which  he  desired  the  messenger 
to  ask  his  lordship,  what  objection  he  had  to  the  old 
"  Whole  Duty  of  Man  ?  "  To  this  question  he  never 
received  any  answer.  The  old  "  Whole  Duty  of  Man  " 
was  one  of  his  favourite  books.  The  style,  he  said, 
was  admirably  qualified  for  instruction,  being  so  simple 
as  to  be  easily  understood  by  the  most  unlearned. 

In  1750,  he  obtained  the  living  of  Pettigo.  In  1759, 
he  was  prefered  to  the  living  of  Devenish,  near  Ennsi- 
killen ;  whence  he  was  removed,  in  1766,  to  Fintona, 
in  the  county  of  Tyrone.  In  all  of  these  situations 
his  labours  as  a  parish  priest  were  exemplary,  and  he 
thoroughly  understood  and  adapted  himself  to  the  Irish 
character.  A  curious  anecdote  is  told  of  him  on  his 
going  to  Fintona.  Having  discovered  that  most  of  his 
protestant  parishioners  were  dissenters,  he  invited  their 
minister  to  dine  with  him,  and  asked  his  leave  to 
preach  in  his  meeting  on  the  next  Sunday;  and  con- 
sent being  given,  the  people  were  so  pleased  with  Mr. 
Skelton,  that  the  greater  number  of  them  quitted  their 
own  teacher.  After  some  time,  Skelton  asked  him  how 
much  he  had  lost  by  the  desertion  of  his  hearers  ? 
He  told  him  £40  a  year,  on  which  he  settled  that  sum 
on  him  annually. 


4:U  SMALBROKE. 

His  charities  were  almost  unbounded.  To  relieve  the 
poor  he  distressed  himself,  and  one  of  his  last  acts  was 
to  sell  his  beloved  library,  that  he  might  have  the  means 
of  assisting  his  parishioners  during  a  dearth  occasioned 
by  the    decline  of   the   yarn   manufactory,   at  Fintona. 

He  had,  in  1770,  published  his  works  by  subscription, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Magdalen  Charity  in  Dublin.  He 
died  May  4,  17 S7.— Life  by  Burdy. 


SMALBKOKE,    EICHARD. 

RicHAED  Smalbroke  was  born  at  Birmingham  in  1672, 
and  was  probably  educated  at  King  Edward's  School  in 
that  town.  He  proceeded  from  school  to  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford,  where  he  took  his  M.A.  degree  in  1694. 
He  engaged  in  the  controversies  of  the  time,  and  espe- 
cially as  an  opponent  of  Whiston. 

He  published  : — '*  Reflections  on  Mr.  Whiston 's  Con- 
duct," and  "Animadversions  on  the  New  Arian  Re- 
proved." But  his  great  work  was  "A  Vindication  of 
our  Saviour's  Miracles ;  in  which  Mr.  Woolston's  Dis- 
courses on  them  are  particularly  examined ;  his  pretended 
authority  of  the  fathers  against  the  truth  of  the  literal 
sense  are  set  in  a  just  light;  and  his  objections,  in 
point  of  reason,  answered,"  Lond.  1729,  8vo.  This 
involved  him  in  a  controversy  with  some  anonymous 
writers,  and  in  one  or  two  respects  he  laid  himself 
open  to  ridicule  by  an  arithmetical  calculation  of  the 
precise  number  of  the  devils  which  entered  into  the 
swine.  Dr.  Smalbroke  also  published  eleven  single 
Sermons  between  1706  and  1732,  and  one  or  two 
"  Charges,"  and  small  controversial  pieces  to  the 
amount   of  twenty-two. 

He  was  chaplain  to  Archbishop  Tenison,  and  was 
appointed  in  1712,  treasurer  of  Llandaff,  and  afterwards 
prebendary  of  Hereford.     In   1723,  he  was  consecrated 


SMALRIDGE.  4Q5 

Bishop  of  St.  David's,  whence  he  was  translated  to  the 
See  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry,  in  1730.  He  died  in 
1749. — Gent.  Mag.    Shaw's  Staffordshire. 


SMALRIDGE,    GEOEGE. 

George  Smaleidge  was  born  at  Lichfield,  in  1663,  and 
was  educated  at  Westminster.  In  1682,  he  became  a 
Westminster  student  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  and  was 
when  M.A.  distinguished  as  a  tutor.  While  in  this 
situation  he  took  part  in  the  controversy  against  Obadiah 
Walker,  the  Popish  master  of  University  College.  His 
work  is  interesting  especially  at  the  present  time  (1851), 
as  shewing  that  our  present  controversies  had  their 
counterpart  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Smalridge's 
work  was  entitled  "Animadversions  on  Eight  Theses 
laid  down,  and  inferences  deduced  from  them,  in  a 
Discourse,  entitled,  Church  Government,  Part  V.,  lately 
printed  at  Oxford."  The  Discourse  here  mentioned  was 
printed  by  Obadiah  Walker,  at  his  private  press,  and 
has  for  its  full  title,  "  Church  Government,  Part  V.,  a 
relation  of  the  English  Reformation,  and  the  lawfulness 
thereof  examined  by  the  Theses  delivered  in  the  four 
former  parts."  As  these  former  parts  were  never  pub- 
lished. Walker,  or  rather  the  real  author,  Abraham 
Woodhead,  was  exposed  to  the  indignant  reprehension 
and  severe  ridicule  of  his  opponents.  Smalridge  having 
mentioned  the  answer  of  Dr.  Aldrich,  gives  the  following 
reasons  for  his  own  undertaking: — "I  should  not,"  says 
he,  "  have  thought  myself  obliged  to  answer  the  extra- 
vagant singularities  of  a  private  fancy,  such  especially 
as  are  not  likely  to  do  any  mischief  to  the  public,  and 
such  I  esteem  the  notions  of  this  pamphlet,  which  is  too 
perplexed  for  a  common  reader's  understanding,  and  too 
sophistical  to  impose  upon  the  more  intelligent.  But 
considering  the  false  and  scandalous  reports  that  are 
o  0  3 


426  SMALRIDGE. 

of  late  so  industriously  spread  about  the  nation,  as 
if  Oxford  converts  came  in  by  whole  shoals,  and  all 
the  university  were  just  ready  to  declare  in  favour 
of  Popery,  I  have  just  reason  to  believe  that  this 
pamphlet  was  designedly  printed  at  Oxford  to  counte- 
nance those  reports,  for  no  doubt  the  Popish  presses  were 
at  the  editor's  service.  The  secret  is,  these  papers  are 
to  pass,  with  unwary  people,  for  a  specimen  of  the 
university's  government;  much  such  an  one  indeed  as 
the  tile  was,  which  Hierocles's  scholars  brought  to  mar- 
ket, for  a  sample  of  the  house  he  had  to  sell.  Now 
there  are  divers  aggravations  of  this  foul  play,  which 
make  it  yet  more  insupportable ;  as  where  it  is  said, 
'  Why  is  this  question  now  revived,  which  the  members 
of  our  Church  have  of  late  so  carefully  declined,  out  of 
pure  respect  to  those  ears,  which,  if  it  be  possible,  they 
are  not  willing  to  offend  ?  Or  why  are  we  of  the  univer- 
sity attacked  in  our  own  quarters,  and  so  defied  to  own  a 
truth,  that  we  can  neither  in  honour  nor  honesty  decline 
an  answer,  though  we  are  well  aware  with  what  design 
the  scene  of  the  controversy  is  laid  in  Oxford  ?  Or  how 
can  we  brook  this  usage  from  our  companions,  our  own 
familiar  friends,  with  whom  we  have  taken  sweet 
counsel  together,  and  walked  in  the  House  of  God  as 
friends  ?' "  This  piece  was  published  in  May,  and  how 
exactly  our  author,  whose  tract  followed  it  in  June,  has 
kept  to  the  same  lore,  appears  from  his  epistle  addressed 
to  the  university  reader,  where  he  observes,  '  that  the 
hopes  of  our  enemies  abroad  have  been  entertained,  and 
the  solicitude  of  our  friends  awakened,  by  the  news  of 
our  Oxford  converts  daily  flocking  into  the  bosom  of 
the  Romish  Church.  But  we  hope  all  men  are  by  this 
time  convinced,  that  they  deserve  as  little  consideration 
for  their  number,  as  they  do  regard  for  their  accom- 
plishments. No  one  needs  to  be  alarmed  at  the  deser- 
tion of  six  or  seven  members,  who  shall  consider  their 
dependance  on  one,  who,  by  the  magazines  which  he 


SMALRIDGE.  4Q7 

had  stored  up  against  us,  shews  that  he  has  not  now 
first  changed  his  complexion,  but  only  dropped  the 
vizor.' 

Smalridge  also  afforded  a  specimen  of  his  talent  for 
Latin  poetry  in  his  Auctio  Davisiana  (on  the  sale  of 
the  books  of  Davis,  the  Oxford  bookseller),  first  printed 
in  3  689,  4to,  and  afterwards  inserted  in  the  Musse 
Anglicanse.  In  the  same  year  he  entered  into  holy 
orders ;  and  about  169j^,  he  was  appointed  by  the  Dean 
and  Chapter  of  Westminster  to  be  minister  of  Tothill- 
fields  Chapel. 

In  1693,  he  was  collated  to  a  prebend  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Litchfield.  In  1700,  he  took  his  degree  of 
D.D.  In  ]  708,  he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  St.  Dunstan's 
in  the  West,  London,  which  he  resigned  in  1711,  when 
he  was  made  one  of  the  canons  of  Christ  Church,  and 
succeeded  Atterbury  in  the  Deanery  of  Carlisle,  as  he 
did  likewise  in  the  Deanery  of  Christ  Church,  in  171 3. 
In  1714,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Bristol ;  and 
Queen  Anne  soon  after  appointed  him  her  lord-almoner, 
in  which  capacity  he  for  some  time  served  her  successor 
George  I. ;  but  refusing  to  sign  the  declaration  which 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  bishops  in  and 
about  London  had  drawn  up  against  the  rebellion  in 
1715,  he  was  removed  from  that  place. 

The  passage  in  the  Declaration  to  which  he  objected, 
was  this,  "  We  are  the  more  concerned  that  both  the 
clergy  and  people  of  our  communion  should  shew  them- 
selves hearty  friends  to  the  government,  on  this  occasion, 
to  vindicate  the  honour  of  the  Church  of  England, 
because  the  chief  hopes  of  our  enemies  seem  to  arise 
from  discontents,  artificially  raised  amongst  us ;  and 
because  some  who  have  valued  themselves,  and  been  too 
much  valued  by  others  for  a  pretended  zeal,  have  joined 
with  Papists  in  these  wicked  attempts,  which  as  they 
must  ruin  the  Church  if  they  succeed,  so  they  cannot 
well  end  without  great  reproach  to  it,  if  the  rest  do 


428  SMITH. 

not  clearly  and  heartily  declare  our  detestation  of 
such  practices."  This,  he  thought  was  an  unjust  and 
invidious  party-reflection  upon  some,  whose  loyalty  was 
unquestionable. 

Bishop  Smalridge,  however,  soon  regained  the  favour 
of  the  Princess  of  Wales  at  least,  afterwards  Queen 
Caroline,  who  was  his  steady  patron  till  his  death,  in 
1719.  Besides  his  publications  already  mentioned,  he 
wrote  twelve  Sermons,  printed  by  himself  in  1717,  8vo., 
and  sixty  Sermons  published  by  his  widow  in  1726,  fol., 
of  which  another  edition  appeared  in  1727. — Biog.  Brit. 


SMITH,    JOHN. 

John  Smith  was  born  in  Warwickshire  in  1563,  and 
going  to  Oxford  in  1577,  became  a  fellow  of  St.  John's 
College.  He  succeeded  Bishop  Andrewes  as  lecturer  in 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  London,  and  was  popular  as  a 
preacher.  In  1592,  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of 
Clavering,  in  Essex.  He  died  in  1616.  His  works  are : 
— "  The  Essex  Dove  presenting  the  world  with  a  few  of 
her  Olive  Branches,  or  a  Taste  of  the  Works  of  the  Rev. 
John  Smith,  delivered  in  three  treatises ;  "  and  "  An 
Exposition  on  the  Creed  and  Explanation  of  the  Articles 
of  our  Christian  Faith,"  in  seventy-three  Sermons,  1682, 
folio. — Wood. 


smith,    JOHN. 

John  Smith  was  born  in  1618,  at  Achurch,  near  Oundle, 
in  Northamptonshire.  He  entered  at  Emmanuel  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  in  1636,  and  in  1644,  was  chosen  fellow 
of  Queen's.     He  died  Aug.  7,  1652. 

Certain  treatises  by  Smith  were  published  by  Dr.  John 
Worthington   at   Cambridge,  in    1660,  4to,  under    the 


SMITH,  MILES.  439. 

title  of  "  Select  Discourses,"  consisting  : — 1.  Of  the  true 
Way  or  Method  of  attaining  to  Divine  Knowledge  ;  2.  Of 
Superstition  ;  3.  Of  Atheism  ;  4.  Of  the  Immortality  of  the 
Soul;  5.  Of  the  Existence  and  Nature  of  God;  6.  Of 
Prophesy ;  7.  Of  the  Difference  between  the  Legal  and 
the  Evangelical  Righteousness,  the  old  and  new  Covenant, 
&c. ;  8.  Of  the  Shortness  and  Vanity  of  a  Pharisaical 
Eighteousness ;  9.  Of  the  Excellency  and  Nobleness  of 
true  Religion;  10.  Of  a  Christian's  conflict  with,  and 
conquests  over,  Satan. 

These  are  not  sermons,  but  treatises ;  and  are  less 
known  than  they  deserve.  They  shew  an  uncommon 
reach  of  understanding  and  penetration,  as  well  as  an 
immense  treasure  of  learning,  in  their  author.  A  second 
edition  of  them,  corrected,  with  the  funeral  sermon  by 
Patrick  annexed,  was  published  at  Cambridge,  in  1673, 
4to.  The  discourse  "  Upon  Prophecy,"  was  translated 
into  Latin  by  Le  Clerc,  and  prefixed  to  his  "  Commen- 
tary on  the  Prophets,"  published  in  1731. — Patrick's 
Sermon  at  his  Funeral. 


SMITH,    MILES. 

Miles  Smith  was  born  at  Hereford,  and  about  1568 
matriculated  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  but 
graduated  at  Brasen-nose.  He  afterwards  became  one  of 
the  Chaplains  of  Christ  Church,  and  as  a  member  of  that 
house  took  his  B.D.  degree.  He  was  in  due  course 
preferred  to  the  office  of  Residentiary  in  Hereford  Cathe- 
dral, and  in  1612  became  Bishop  of  Gloucester. 

His  knowledge  of  the  Oriental  languages  was  so 
extraordinary,  that  he  was  thought  worthy  by  James  I.  to 
be  employed  upon  the  last  translation  of  the  Bible.  He 
began  with  the  first,  and  was  the  last  man  in  the 
translation  of  '  the  work :  for  after  the  task  had  been 
finished  by  the  whole  number  appointed  to  the  business, 


4.^0  SMITH,  RICHARD. 

who  were  somewhat  above  forty,  the  version  was  revised 
and  improved  by  twelve  selected  from  them,  and,  at 
length,  was  referred  to  the  final  examination  of  Bilson, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  Dr.  Smith.  When  all  was 
completed  he  was  commanded  to  write  a  preface,  which  is 
the  same  that  is  now  extant  in  our  authorised  version  of 
the  Bible.  The  original  is  said  to  be  preserved  in  the 
Bodleian  library.  It  was  for  his  services  in  this  transla- 
tion that  he  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  and 
had  leave  to  hold  in  commendam  with  his  bishopric  his 
former  livings,  namely,  the  Prebend  of  Hint  on,  in  the 
Church  of  Hereford,  the  Rectories  of  Upton-on- Severn, 
Hartlebury  in  the  diocese  of  Worcester,  and  the  first 
portion  of  Ledbury,  called  Overhall.  According  to  Willis 
he  died  October  20 ;  but  Wood  says,  in  the  beginning  of 
November,  1624,  and  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral. 
He  was  a  strict  Calvinist,  and  of  course  no  friend  to  the 
proceedings  of  Dr.  Laud.  In  1632,  a  volume  of  ser- 
mons, transcribed  from  his  MSS.,  was  published  at 
London,  fol. ;  and  he  was  the  editor  of  Bishop  Babing- 
ton's  works,  to  which  he  prefixed  a  preface. — Wood, 
Fuller. 


SMITH,    RICHARD. 

This  person  is  notorious  for  being  the  second  bishop 
appointed  to  preside  over  the  Romish  schism  in  Eng- 
land. He  was  born  in  Lincolnshire,  in  1556,  and  was 
educated  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  He  afterwards 
went  to  Rome,  and  thence  to  Valladolid,  where  he  took 
his  doctor's  degree.  In  1603,  he  came  to  England  as 
a  Popish  missionary.  He  sided  with  that  party  in  the 
Romish  sect  which  was  opposed  to  the  Jesuits,  and  espe- 
cially against  Parsons,  and  when  this  party  carried  their 
point,  and  prevailed  upon  the  Pope  to  give  them  a 
bishop,   he   was   one   of   the   persons  recommended  to 


SMITH,  RICHARD.  431 

the  Pope.  The  Pope,  however,  chose  a  person  named 
Bishop,  who  was  also  recommended  by  the  English 
Papists,  who  was  consecrated  bj  the  title  of  Bishop  of 
Chalcedon. 

The  first  Bishop  of  Chalcedon  did  not  live  long  to 
enjoy  his  elevation.  After  appointing  a  Dean  with  nine- 
teen Canons,  five  Vicars  general,  twenty  Archdeacons, 
with  a  certain  number  of  Rural  deans,  and  striving  what 
he  could  to  promote  peace  and  good  order,  he  died 
April  16th,  1624,  aged  seventy-one.  Early  in  the 
following  year,  February  4th,  1625,  Dr.  Richard  Smith 
was  appointed  his  successor,  on  the  application  of  the 
chapter,  with  the  same  title  and  powers.  What  was 
the  extent  of  these  powers  seemed  ambiguous,  but  for 
some  time  all  went  on  quietly,  till  at  length  disputes 
were  raised  on  the  subject  by  the  regulars,  including 
of  course,  those  sleepless  enemies  of  good  order,  the 
Jesuits.  The  state  of  the  case  was  this: — The  Bishop 
of  Chalcedon  was  appointed  over  England  and  Scotland 
nominally  with  ordinary  powers,  (i.  e.  having  authority 
of  his  own,  and  in  himself,  to  govern  his  flock,)  but  as 
they  were  revocable  at  the  pope's  pleasure,  the  bishop 
had  not  in  reality  ordinary  jurisdiction,  but  was  in  fact, 
only  a  Roman  delegate.  He  however  called  himself 
Ordinary  of  England,  and  was  received  as  such.  This 
title  Dr.  Smith  peaceably  retained  for  two  years,  but 
it  was  at  length  called  in  question  on  the  following 
grounds.  By  a  bull  of  Pius  V.,  and  by  the  council 
of  Trent,  regulars  were  not  allowed  to  hear  the  confes- 
sions of  lay  persons  without  the  ordinary's  approbation. 
For  some  time  they  requested  the  approbation  of  Dr. 
Smith,  and  were  satisfied  therewith.  But  at  length, 
"  having,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  Memoirs  of  Panzani," 
"  more  maturely  weighed  the  case  among  themselves, 
they  flew  off,  alleging  that  the  pope,  being  the  universal 
Ordinary  of  the  whole  Church,  had  sufficiently  qualified 
them  to  hear  any  one's  confession  by  express  faculties 


432  SMITH,  SAMUEL. 

granted  for  the  mission;  and  for  the  future  they  were 
resolved,  they  said,  not  to  seek  the  Bishop  of  Chalcedon's 
approbation."  This  led  to  a  warm  controversy,  numer- 
ous books  being  written  on  both  sides,  and  several 
learned  men  abroad  taking  a  part  in  it.  The  pope, 
(Urban  VIII,)  at  last,  in  3  627,  interposed  his  authority, 
and  commanded  silence  to  both  parties ;  he  also  ad- 
monished Dr.  Smith  to  drop  the  title  of  Ordinary  of 
England,  which  belonged  not  to  the  Bishop  of  Chalcedon, 
and  "  declared  that  the  regulars,  by  virtue  of  their 
apostolic  mission,  were  exempted  from  the  canons  that 
required  episcopal  approbation ;  but  that  the  Bishop  of 
Chalcedon  might  claim  a  jurisdiction  as  to  the  three 
parochial  sacraments." 

Not  long  after  this,  1629,  two  proclamations  one  after 
the  other  were  issued  out  against  the  bishop,  which 
induced  him  at  length  to  leave  the  kingdom.  He  with- 
drew in  the  course  of  the  year  to  France,  whence  he 
exercised  his  jurisdiction  over  the  English  Romanists 
by  vicars  general  and  other  ecclesiastical  ofi&cers.  In 
his  retirement  he  experienced  the  kindness  of  Cardinal 
Kichlieu,  who  bestowed  upon  him  the  Abbey  of  Char- 
roux;  but  upon  the  death  of  his  benefactor,  in  1642, 
the  succeeding  minister  of  state,  Mazarin,  withdrew  his 
protection,  and  even  deprived  him  of  his  abbey.  He 
afterwards  retired  to  an  apartment  near  the  convent  of 
some  English  nuns,  in  Paris,  where  he  expired  in  1655, 
aged  eighty-eight,  and  with  him  the  title  of  the  Bishop 
of  Chalcedon. — Dod.     Memoir  of  Panzani.     Darwell. 


SMITH,    SAMUEL. 

Samuel  Smith  was  born  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dudley, 
in  Worcestershire,  in  1588,  and  was  educated  at  St. 
Mary  Hall,  Oxford.  He  left  the  university  without 
taking  a  degree,  and  became  beneficed  at  Prittlewell,  in 


SMITH,  WILLIAM.  '       433 

Essex,  and  afterwards,  as  Wood  says,  in  his  own  country, 
but,  according  to  Calaray,  he  had  the  perpetual  curacy  of 
Cressedge  and  Cound,  in  Shropshire.  On  the  breaking 
out  of  the  rebellion  he  came  to  London,  sided  with  the 
Presbyterians,  and  became  a  frequent  and  popular 
preacher.  On  his  return  to  the  country  he  was  appointed 
an  assistant  to  the  commissioners  for  the  ejection 
of  those  they  were  pleased  to  term  "scandalous  and 
ignorant  ministers  and  schoolmasters."  At  the  restora- 
tion he  was  ejected  from  Cressedge,  but  neither  Wood 
nor  Calamy  have  ascertained  where  he  died.  The  former 
says,  '*  he  was  living  an  aged  man  near  Dudley  in  1663." 
His  works  are  : — David's  Blessed  Man;  or  a  short  Expo- 
sition upon  the  first  Psalm,  Lend.  8vo,  of  which  the 
fifteenth  edition,  in  12mo.  was  printed  in  1686;  The 
Great  Assize,  or  the  Day  of  Jubilee,  12mo,  which  before 
1684  went  through  thirty-one  editions,  and  was  often 
reprinted  in  the  last  century ;  A  Fold  for  Christ's  Sheep, 
printed  thirty-two  times  ;  The  Christian's  Guide,  of  which 
there  were  numerous  editions.  He  published  some  other 
tracts  and  sermons,  which  also  had  a  very  numerous  class 
of  readers. — Wood.     Calamy. 


SMITH,    OK    SMYTH,  WILLIAM. 

William  Smith,  or  Smyth,  was  a  native  of  Lancashire, 
and  was  born  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  He 
took  his  L.L.B.  degree  at  Oxford  before  1492,  when  he 
was  presented  by  the  Countess  of  Richmond,  mother  of 
Henry  VII.,  to  the  Rectory  of  Cheshunt,  in  Hertford- 
shire. In  1493,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Lich- 
field and  Coventry.  He  was  shortly  afterwards  made 
president  of  the  Prince's  Council  within  the  marches 
of  Wales.  There  was  a  renewal  of  this  commission 
in  the  seventeenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VII., 
of  which  Smith  was  again  lord-president.  The  Prince's 
VOL.  viii.  p    p 


48i  SNAPE. 

Court  was  held  chiefly  at  Ludlow  Castle,  long  the 
seat  of  the  muses,  honoured  at  this  time  with  a  train 
of  learned  men  from  the  universities,  and  afterwards 
immortalized  by  Milton  and  Butler.  Here  Bishop 
Smith,  although  placed  in  an  office  that  seemed  likely 
to  divert  him  from  the  business  of  his  diocese,  took  espe- 
cial care  that  his  absence  should  be  compensated  by  a 
deputation  of  his  power  to  vicars-general,  and  a  suffragan 
bishop,  in  whom  he  could  confide  ;  and  here  he  conceived 
some  of  those  generous  and  liberal  plans  which  have  con- 
ferred honour  on  his  name.  The  first  instance  of  his 
becoming  a  public  benefactor  was  in  rebuilding  and  re- 
endowing  the  hospital  of  St.  John,  in  Lichfield,  which 
had  been  suffered  to  go  to  ruin  by  the  negligence  of  the 
friars  who  occupied  it.  Accordingly,  in  the  third  year  of 
his  episcopate,  he  rebuilt  this  hospital,  and  gave  a  new 
body  of  statutes  for  the  use  of  the  society.  In  1495,  he 
was  translated  to  the  See  of  Lincoln.  In  1500,  he  was 
elected  chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford.  In  1507-8, 
he  concerted  the  plan  of  Brasenose  College,  along  with 
his  friend  Sir  Richard  Sutton,  and  lived  to  see  it  com- 
pleted. He  died  at  Buckden,  January  2,  1513-14,  and 
was  interred  at  Lincoln  Cathedral. — Churtons  Lives  of 
Founders.     Chalmers  History  of  Oxford. 


SNAPE,   ANDEEW. 

Andrdw  Snape  was  born  at  Hampton-court,  and  edu- 
cated at  Eton,  and  at  King's  College,  Cambridge,  where 
he  obtained  a  fellowship.  In  1705,  he  was  created  D.D. ; 
in  1713,  he  was  made  Canon  of  Windsor.  In  1717,  on 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Bangorian  controversy,  he  took  a 
zealous  part  against  Hoadley,  in  a  "  Letter  to  the  Bishop 
of  Bangor,"  which  was  so  extremely  popular  as  to  pass 
through  seventeen  editions  in  a  year,  but  Hoadley 's 
interest  at  court  prevailed,    and  in  so  extraordinary  a 


SOANEN.  435 

degree,  that  in  the  same  year,  1717,  Dr.  Snape,  as 
well  as  Dr.  Sherlock,  were  removed  from  the  office  of 
chaplain  to  his  majesty.  Atterbury,  in  a  letter  to  Bishop 
Trelawney,  on  this  occasion,  says  ;  "  These  are  very  ex- 
traordinary steps  ;  the  effects  of  wisdom,  no  doubt ;  but 
of  so  deep  a  wisdom,  that  I,  for  my  part,  am  not  able  to 
fathom  it. 

In  1713,  he  had  been  installed  a  canon  of  Windsor, 
and  on  Feb.  21,  1719,  was  elected  provost  of  King's 
College,  although  the  court  interest  was  in  favour  of  Dr. 
Waddington.  In  1723,  he  served  the  office  of  vice- 
chancellor  of  the  university,  and  gave  every  satisfaction 
in  discharging  the  duties  of  both  offices.  The  revenues 
of  the  college  were  greatly  augmented  in  his  time,  by  the 
assistance  of  some  fellows  of  the  college,  his  particular 
friends.  It  was  said  that  in  1722  he  drew  up  the 
address  to  his  majesty,  George  II.,  upon  the  institution 
of  Whitehall  preachers,  "  an  address,"  says  Dr.  Zachary 
Grey,  "worthy  of  the  imitation  of  both  universities  on 
all  occasions  of  the  like  kind,  as  it  was  thought  to  have 
nothing  redundant  or  defective  in  it,"  He  was  for  a 
short  time  Rector  of  Knebworth,  in  Hertfordshire,  and 
afterwards,  in  1737,  of  West-Ildesley,  in  Berkshire. 
This  last  he  retained  till  his  death,  which  happened  at 
his  lodgings,  at  Windsor  Castle,  Dec.  30th,  1742.  His 
sermons  were  published  in  three  vols.  8vo. — Harwood's 
Alumni  Etonenses. 


SOANEN,    JOHN. 

John  Soanen  was  born  at  Riom,  in  J  647.  He  entered 
into  the  congregation  of  the  Oratory  at  Paris,  in  1661, 
where  he  took  for  his  confessor  the  celebrated  Father 
Quesnel.  After  teaching  the  languages  and  rhetoric  in 
several  of  the  seminaries  of  the  society,  he  devoted  him- 
self to  pulpit  services,  and  wath  so  much  success,  that  he 


436  SOCINUS. 

became  one  of  the  four  distinguisLed  preachers  of  the 
congregation,  who  were  popularly  termed  the  four  Evan- 
gelists. Fenelon  joined  him  with  Massillon  as  models  of 
pulpit  eloquence.  In  1695,  he  was  placed  in  the  See  of 
Senez,  a  bishopric  of  small  revenue,  but  which,  being  in 
a  retired  situation,  required  little  of  the  parade  of  office, 
and  permitted  him  to  expend  the  greatest  share  of  his 
income  in  charity.  To  all  the  virtues  belonging  to  a 
Christian  pastor,  he  united  a  firmness  which  enabled  him 
to  sustain  the  part  of  a  martyr  to  principle.  On  the  pub- 
lication of  the  famous  bull  Unigenitus,  which  contained 
a  condemnation  of  Quesnel's  opinions,  he  appealed 
against  it  to  a  future  council,  and  published  a  pastoral 
letter,  in  which  he  controverted  its  positions  with  great 
force.  Cardinal  Fleury,  resolving  to  make  an  example 
of  a  disobedient  prelate,  selected  Soanen  for  the  victim  ; 
and  assembling  in  1727,  the  Council  of  Embrun,  at 
which  the  licentious  Cardinal  de  Tencin  presided,  pro- 
cured a  condemnation  of  the  conscientious  bishop,  who 
was  suspended  from  his  priestly  and  episcopal  functions, 
and  exiled  to  Chaise-Dieu,  in  Auvergne.  He  had  nu- 
merous visitors  in  his  retreat,  who  paid  him  the  respect 
due  to  his  virtue  and  integrity. 

He  died  in  1740,  at  the  age  of  ninety- two,  revered 
by  the  Jansenists  as  a  saint,  and  stigmatized  by  the 
Molinists  as  a  rebel.  He  was  the  author  of  "  Pastoral 
Instructions,"  "Charges,"  and  "Letters,"  which  were 
printed,  with  his  Life,  in  2  vols.  4to.,  and  8  vols.  12mo. 
A  collection  of  Sermons  has  been  published  in  his 
name,  but  their  genuineness  is  doubtful. — Moreri. 


SOCINUS,    FAUSTUS. 

Although  the  Socini,  strictly  speaking,  are  not  en- 
titled to  a  place  in  this  Biography,  still  a  short  notice 
of  the  authors  of  so   much  mischief  may  be  expected. 


SOCINUS,  437 

Faustus  Socinus,  nephew  of  the  succeeding,  was  bora  at 
Sienna,  in  1539.  He  studied  but  little  in  his  youth  ;  he 
only  had  a  tincture  of  classical  learning,  and  learned  only 
the  elements  of  logic.  The  letters  his  uncle  wrote  to  his 
relations,  whereby  they  and  their  wives  were  imbibed  with 
many  seeds  of  heresy,  made  an  impression  upon  him  ; 
so  that  he  fled  away  as  the  rest,  when  the  inquisition 
began  to  persecute  that  family.  He  was  at  Lyons 
when  he  heard  of  his  uncle's  death,  and  immediately  set 
out  to  take  possession  of  all  the  writings  of  the  deceased. 
He  returned  into  Italy,  and  became  so  acceptable  to 
Francis  de  Medicis,  the  grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  that 
the  charms  of  the  court,  and  the  honourable  employ- 
ments bestowed  upon  him,  hindered  him  for  the  space 
of  twelve  years  from  remembering  that  he  had  been 
looked  upon  as  the  man,  who  was  to  put  the  last  hand 
to  the  system  of  Samosatenian  Theology,  whereof  his 
uncle  Lselius  had  drawn  but  a  rough  draught.  At 
last,  the  search  after  the  gospel  truths  appearing  to 
him  more  valuable  than  the  delights  of  a  court-life, 
he  voluntarily  left  his  country,  and  went  into  Germany 
in  the  year  1574,  nor  did  he  care  to  return,  though  he 
was  desired  to  do  it  by  the  grand  duke.  He  was  three 
years  at  Basil,  where  he  studied  divinity  the  whole  time 
with  great  application  ;  and  having  embraced  a  doctrine 
very  different  from  that  of  the  Protestants,  he  undertook 
to  maintain  and  spread  it ;  and  in  order  to  it,  he  wrote 
a  book,  De  Jesu  Christo  Servatore.  He  disputed  at 
Zurich  with  Francis  Puccius,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1578. 

The  differences  occasioned  by  the  ill-doctrine  of 
Francis  David,  about  the  Honours  and  the  Powers  of 
the  Son  of  God,  caused  a  great  disturbance  in  the 
Churches  of  Transylvania.  Blandrata,  a  man  of  great 
authority  in  those  Churches,  and  at  court,  sent  for 
Socinus,  whom  he  took  to  be  a  person  well  qualified  to 
pacify  those  troubles.  He  lodged  him  in  the  same  house 
p  p  3 


438  SOCINUS. 

with  Francis  David ;  but  the  latter  could  not  be  unde- 
ceived, and  maintained  his  opinion  so  openly  and  so 
boldly,  that  he  was  imprisoned.  He  died  soon  after ;  and 
Socinus  was  ill-spoken  off  upon  that  account,  though  it 
is  affirmed  he  had  no  hand  in  the  counsels  that  were 
given  to  the  Prince  of  Transylvania,  in  order  to  oppress 
Francis  David.  He  retired  into  Poland  in  the  year  157^, 
and  desired  to  be  admitted  into  the  communion  of  the 
Unitarians  ;  but,  because  he  differed  from  them  in  some 
points,  and  would  not  be  silent,  he  met  with  a  repulse. 
Nevertheless,  he  wrote  in  favour  of  their  churches  against 
their  enemies.  The  book  he  wrote  against  James 
Paleologus  afforded  his  enemies  a  pretence  to  exasperate 
the  King  of  Poland  ;  and  yet  that  book  was  nothing  less 
than  seditious.  But  though  the  bare  reading  of  that 
book  was  sufficient  to  confute  the  informers,  Socinus 
thought  it  expedient  to  leave  Cracow,  after  he  had  been 
there  four  years,  and  to  take  sanctuary  in  the  house  of 
a  Polish  lord.  He  lived  above  three  years  under  the  pro- 
tection of  several  lords  of  the  kingdom,  and  even  married 
a  woman  of  good  family.  He  lost  her  in  the  year  1587, 
at  which  he  was  extremely  afflicted  ;  and  to  complete  his 
affliction,  he  was  deprived  of  the  yearly  income  of  his 
patrimony  by  the  death  of  Francis  de  Medicis,  grand  Duke 
of  Florence.  The  satisfaction  he  had  to  see  his  doctrine 
approved  at  last  by  many  ministers,  was  very  much 
troubled  in  1598,  for  he  received  a  thousand  insults  at 
Cracow,  and  his  friends  had  much  ado  to  rescue  him  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  mob.  He  lost  his  household  goods, 
and  some  of  his  manuscripts,  the  loss  of  which  he  ex- 
tremely lamented.  He  lost  among  others,  that  which  he 
had  written  against  the  Atheists.  To  avoid  the  like  dan- 
gers for  the  time  to  come,  he  retired  to  a  village  about 
nine  miles  distant  from  Cracow,  where  he  spent  the 
remaining  part  of  his  life  in  the  house  of  Abraham 
Blonski,  a  Polish  gentleman.  He  died  there  on  the  3rd 
of  March,  IQOL—Bayle. 


SOCINUS,  LiELIUS.  439 


SOCINUS,  L^LIUS. 


L^Lius  SociNUS  was  born  at  Sienna,  in  1525,  and  was 
educated  by  his  father  an  eminent  civilian  at  Bologna,  for 
the  civil  law.  Convinced  of  the  errors  of  the  Romish 
Church,  he  left  Italy,  and  after  visiting  several  foreign 
countries,  he  settled  at  last  at  Zurich,  where  he  became 
intimate  with  Calvin,  BuUinger,  Beza,  Melanchthon, 
and  others.  But  having  soon  discovered,  by  the  doubts 
he  proposed  to  them,  that  he  had  adopted  sentiments 
the  most  obnoxious  to  these  reformers,  he  became  an 
object  of  suspicion  ;  and  Calvin,  in  particular,  wrote  to 
him  an  admonitory  letter,  of  w^hich  the  following  is  a 
part : — "  Don't  expect,"  says  he,  "  that  I  should  answer 
all  your  preposterous  questions.  If  you  choose  to  soar 
amidst  such  lofty  speculations,  suffer  me,  an  humble 
dis(5iple  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  meditate  upon  such  things 
as  conduce  to  my  edification ;  as  indeed  I  shall  endea- 
vour by  my  silence  to  prevent  your  being  troublesome 
to  me  hereafter.  In  the  mean  time,  I  cannot  but 
lament,  that  you  should  continue  to  employ  those  ex- 
cellent talents  with  which  God  has  blessed  you,  not 
only  to  no  purpose,  but  to  a  very  bad  one.  Let  me  beg 
of  you  seriously,  as  I  have  often  done,  to  correct  in 
yourself  this  love  of  inquiry,  which  may  bring  you  into 
trouble."  It  would  appear  that  Socinus  took  his  advice 
in  part,  as  he  continued  to  live  among  these  orthodox 
divines  for  a  considerable  time,  without  molestation. 

He  found  means,  however,  to  communicate  his  no- 
tions to  such  as  were  disposed  to  receive  them,  and  even 
lectured  to  Italians,  who  wandered  up  and  down  in 
Germany  and  Poland.  He  also  sent  writings  to  his 
relations,  who  lived  at  Sienna.  He  took  a  journey  into 
Poland  about  1558  ;  and  obtained  from  the  king  some 
letters  of  recommendation  to  the  Doge  of  Venice  and 


440  SORBONNE. 

the  Duke  of  Florence,  that  he  might  be  safe  at  Venice, 
while  his  affairs  required  his  residence  there.  He  after- 
wards i^eturned  to  Switzerland,  and  died  at  Zurich  in, 
1562,  in  his  thirty-seventh  year.  Being  naturally 
timorous  and  irresolute,  he  professed  to  die  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  Reformed  Church,  but  certainly  had  con- 
tributed much  to  the  foundation  of  the  sect  called  from  his 
or  his  nephew's  name,  for  he  collected  the  materials  that 
Faustus  afterwards  digested  and  employed  with  such 
dexterity  and  success.  He  secretly  and  imperceptibly 
excited  doubts  and  scruples  in  the  minds  of  many,  con- 
cerning several  doctrines  generally  received  among  Chris- 
tians, and,  by  several  arguments  against  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  which  he  left  behind  him  in  writing,  he  so  far 
seduced,  even  after  his  death,  the  Arians  in  Poland, 
that  they  embraced  the  communion  and  sentiments  of 
those  who  looked  upon  Christ  as  a  mere  man,  created 
immediately,  like  Adam,  by  God  himself.  There  are 
few  writings  of  Ltelius  extant,  and  of  those  that  bear 
his  name,  some  undoubtedly  belong  to  others. — Diipin. 
Gen.  Diet.    Mosheim. 


SOEBONNE,    EGBERT   DE. 

RoBEET  DE  SoEBONNE  was  bom  Octobor  9th,  1203,  at 
Sorbonne,  in  the  diocese  of  Rheims.  He  was  educated 
at  Paris,  and  became  chaplain  and  Confessor  to  Louis 
IX.  He  became  a  Canon  of  Cambray  in  1251.  Having 
reflected  on  the  difficulties  which  he  had  himself  en- 
countered, in  order  to  obtain  his  doctor's  degree,  he 
determined  to  exert  himself  in  order  to  provide  for  the 
assistance  of  poor  scholars.  For  this  purpose  he  judged 
that  the  most  convenient  and  efficacious  plan  would  be  to 
form  a  society  of  secular  ecclesiastics,  who,  living  in  a 
community,  and  having  the  necessaries  of  life  provided 
for  them,  should  be  wholly  employed  in  study,  and  teach 


SORBONNE.  441 

gratis.  All  his  friends  approved  the  design,  and  offered 
to  assist  him  both  with  their  fortunes  and  their  advice. 
With  their  assistance,  Robert  de  Sorbonne  founded,  in 
1253,  the  celebrated  college  which  bears  his  name.  He 
then  assembled  able  professors,  those  most  distinguished 
for  learning  and  piety,  and  lodged  his  community  in  the 
tms  des  deux  2^ortes,  opposite  to  the  palace  des  Thennes. 
Such  was  the  origin  of  the  famous  College  of  Sorbonne, 
which  proved  the  model  of  all  others,  there  having  been 
no  society  in  Europe  before  that  time  where  the  seculars 
lived  and  taught  in  common.  The  founder  had  two 
objects  in  view  in  this  establishment,  theology  and  the 
arts ;  but  as  his  predilection  was  to  the  former,  he  com- 
posed his  society  principally  of  doctors  and  bachelors  in 
divinity.  Some  have  said  that  his  original  foundation 
was  only  for  sixteen  poor  scholars  (hoursiers)  or  fellows ; 
but  it  appears  by  his  statutes  that  from  the  first  estab- 
lishment, it  consisted  of  doctors,  bachelor-fellows,  bache- 
lors not  fellows,  and  poor  students  as  at  present,  or  at 
least  lately.  The  number  of  fellows  was  not  limited,  but 
depended  on  the  state  of  the  revenues.  The  number  in 
the  founder's  time  appears  to  have  been  about  thirty,  and 
be  ordered  that  there  should  be  no  other  members  of  his 
college  than  guests  and  associates  (hospites  et  socii,)  who 
might  be  chosen  from  any  country  or  nation  whatever.  A 
guest,  or  perhaps  as  we  should  call  him,  a  commoner, 
was  required  to  be  a  bachelor,  to  maintain  a  thesis,  called, 
from  the  founder's  name,  Robertine,  aud  was  to  be  ad- 
mitted by  a  majority  of  votes  after  three  different 
scrutinies.  These  hospites  remained  part  of  the  estab- 
lishment until  the  last,  were  maintained  and  lodged  in 
the  house  like  the  rest  of  the  doctors  and  bachelors,  had 
a  right  to  study  in  the  library  (though  without  possessing 
a  key),  and  enjoyed  all  other  rights  and  privileges,  except 
that  they  had  no  vote  in  the  assemblies,  and  were  obliged 
to  quit  the  house  on  becoming  doctors.  For  an  associate, 
Socius,  it  was  necessary,  besides  the  Robertine  thesis,  to 


443  SORBONNE. 

read  a  course  of  philosophical  lectures  gratis.  In  1764, 
when  the  small  colleges  were  united  with  that  of  Louis- 
le-grand,  the  course  of  philosophy  was  discontinued,  and 
a  thesis  substituted  in  its  place,  called  the  second 
Robertine. 

As  to  the  fellowships,  they  were  granted  to  those  only 
among  the  Socii  who  had  not  forty  livres,  of  Paris  money, 
per  annum,  either  from  benefices  or  paternal  inheritance  ; 
and  when  they  became  possessed  of  that  income,  they 
ceased  to  be  fellows.  A  fellowship  was  worth  about  five  sous 
and  a  half  per  week,  and  was  held  ten  years.  At  the  end 
of  seven  years  all  who  held  them  were  strictly  examined, 
and  if  any  one  appeared  incapable  of  teaching,  preaching, 
or  being  useful  to  the  public  in  some  other  way,  he  was 
deprived  of  his  fellowship.  Yet,  as  the  founder  was  far 
from  wishing  to  exclude  the  rich  from  his  college,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  sought  to  inspire  them  with  a  taste  for 
learning,  and  to  revive  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences  among 
the  clergy,  he  admitted  associates,  who  were  not  fellows, 
"Socii  non  Bursales."  These  were  subject  to  the  same 
examinations  and  exercises  as  the  Socii,  with  this  only 
difference,  that  they  paid  five  sols  and  a  half  weekly 
to  the  house,  a  sum  equal  to  that  which  the  fellows 
received.  All  the  Socii  bore  and  still  bear  the  title  of 
"  Doctors  or  Bachelors  of  the  House  and  Society  of 
Sorbonne,"  whereas  the  Hospites  have  only  the  appellation 
of  "  Doctors  or  Bachelors  of  the  House  of  Sorbonne." 
Their  founder  ordered  that  every  thing  should  be  mana- 
ged and  regulated  by  the  Socii,  and  that  there  should  be 
neither  superior  nor  principal  among  them.  Accordingly 
he  forbade  the  doctors  to  treat  the  bachelors  as  pupils, 
or  the  bachelors  to  treat  the  doctors  as  masters,  whence 
the  ancient  Sorbonists  used  to  say  "  We  do  not  live 
together  as  doctors  and  bachelors,  nor  as  masters  and 
pupils  ;  but  we  live  as  associates  and  equals."  In  con- 
sequence of  this  equality,  no  monk  of  whatever  order, 
has  at  any  time  been  admitted  '*  Socius  of  Sorbonne ;  " 


SORBONNE.  443 

and  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  who- 
ever is  received  into  the  society  takes  an  oath  on  the 
gospels,  "  That  he  has  no  intention  of  entering  any 
society  or  secular  congregation,  the  members  of  which 
live  in  common  under  the  direction  of  one  superior,  and 
that  if  after  being  admitted  into  the  Society  of  Sorbonne, 
he  should  change  his  mind,  and  enter  any  such  other 
community,  he  will  acknowledge  himself  from  that  time, 
and  by  this  single  act,  to  have  forfeited  all  privileges  of 
the  society,  as  well  active  as  passive,,  and  that  he  will 
neither  do  nor  undertake  any  thing  contrary  to  the 
present  regulation."  Robert  de  Sorbonne  permitted  the 
doctors  and  bachelors  to  take  poor  scholars,  whom  he 
wished  to  receive  benefit  from  his  house ;  and  great 
numbers  of  these  poor  scholars  proved  very  eminent 
men.  The  first  professors  in  the  Sorbonne  were  William 
de  Saint  Amour,  Odon  de  Douai,  Gerard  de  Rheims, 
Laurence  the  Englishman,  Gerard  d'Abbeville,  &c.  They 
taught  theology  gratis,  according  to  the  founder's  inten- 
tion; and  from  1253,  to  the  revolution,  there  have  been 
always  six  professors  at  least,  who  gave  lectures  on  the 
different  branches  of  that  science  gratis,  even  before  the 
divinity  professorships  were  established.  Fellowships 
were  given  to  the  poor  professors,  that  is,  to  those  whose 
incomes  did  not  amount  to  forty  livres  ;  but  it  appears 
from  the  registers  of  the  Sorbonne,  that  the  first  pro- 
fessors above  mentioned,  were  very  rich,  consequently 
they  were  not  fellows.  Robert  de  Sorbonne  ordered  that 
there  should  always  be  some  doctors  in  his  college  who 
applied  particularly  to  the  study  of  morality  and 
casuistry ;  whence  the  Sorbonne  has  been  consulted  on 
such  points  ever  since  his  time  from  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom.  He  appointed  different  offices  for  the  govern- 
ment of  his  college.  The  first  is  that  of  the  Proviseur, 
who  was  always  chosen  from  among  the  most  eminent 
persons.  Next  to  him  is  the  Frieux,  chosen  from  the 
Socii  bachelors,  who  presided  in  the  assemblies  of  the 


444  SORBONNE. 

society,  at  the  Robertine  acts,  at  the  reading  of  the  Holy- 
Scriptures,  at  meals,  and  at  the  Sorboniques,  or  acts  of  the 
licentiates,  for  which  he  fixed  the  day  ;  he  also  made  two 
public  speeches,  one  at  the  first,  the  other  at  the  last  of 
these.  The  keys  of  the  gates  were  delivered  up  to  him 
every  night,  and  he  was  the  first  person  to  sign  all  the 
acts.  The  other  offices  are  those  of  "  Senieur,  Conscrip- 
teur,  Procureurs,  Professors,  Librarian,  &c."  There  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  Sorbonne,  from  its  founda- 
tion, contained  thirty-six  apartments,  and  it  was  doubtless 
in  conformity  to  this  first  plan  that  no  more  were  added 
when  Cardinal  Richelieu  rebuilt  it  in  the  present  magni- 
ficent style.  One,  however,  was  afterwards  added, 
making  thirty-seven,  constantly  occupied  by  as  many- 
doctors  and  bachelors.  After  Robert  de  Sorbonne  had 
founded  his  divinity  college,  he  obtained  a  confirmation 
of  it  from  the  pope,  and  it  was  authorised  by  letters 
patent  from  St.  Louis,  who  had  before  given  him,  or  ex- 
changed with  him,  some  houses  necessary  for  that  esta- 
blishment in  1256,  and  1258.  He  then  devoted  himself 
to  the  promotion  of  learning  and  piety  in  his  college,  and 
with  success,  for  it  soon  produced  such  excellent  scholars 
as  spread  its  fame  throughout  Europe.  Legacies  and 
donations  now  flowed  in  from  every  quarter,  which 
enabled  the  Sorbonists  to  study  at  their  ease.  The 
founder  had  always  a  particular  partiality  for  those  who 
were  poor,  for  although  his  society  contained  some  very- 
rich  doctors,  as  appears  from  the  registers  and  other 
monuments  remaining  in  the  archives  of  the  Sorbonne, 
yet  his  establishment  had  the  poor  principally  in  view, 
the  greatest  part  of  its  revenues  being  appropriated  to 
their  studies  and  maintenance.  He  would  even  have  his 
college  called  "  The  House  of  the  Poor,"  which  gave  rise 
to  the  form  used  by  the  Sorbonne  bachelors,  when  they 
appear  as  respondents,  or  maintain  theses  in  quality  of 
Antique ;  and  hence  we  also  read  on  many  MSS.  that 
they  belong  to  the  "  Pauvres  Maitres  de  Sorbonne."  The 


SORBONNE.  445 

founder,  not  satisfied  with  providing  sufficient  revenues 
for  his  college,  took  great  pains  to  establish  a  library. 
From  the  ancient  catalogue  of  the  Sorbonne  library 
drawn  up  in  1289  and  1290,  it  appears  to  have  consisted 
at  that  time  of  above  a  thousand  volumes  ;  but  the  col- 
lection increased  so  fast,  that  a  new  catalogue  became 
necessary  two  years  after,  i.e.  in  1292,  and  again,  in 
1338,  at  which  time  the  Sorbonne  library  was  perhaps 
the  finest  in  France.  All  the  books  of  whatever  value 
were  chained  to  the  shelves,  and  accurately  ranged 
according  to  their  subjects,  beginning  with  grammar, 
the  belles  lettres,  &c.  The  catalogues  are  made  in  the 
same  manner,  and  the  price  of  each  book  is  marked  in 
them.  These  MSS.  are  still  in  the  house.  Robert  de 
Sorbonne  (very  different  from  other  founders,  who  begin 
by  laying  down  rules,  and  then  make  it  their  whole  care 
to  enforce  the  observance  of  them),  did  not  attempt  to 
settle  any  statutes  till  he  had  governed  his  college  above 
eighteen  years,  and  then  prescribed  only  such  customs  as 
he  had  before  established,  and  of  which  the  utility  and 
wisdom  were  confirmed  to  him  by  long  experience. 
Hence  it  is  that  no  attempt  towards  reformation  or  change 
has  ever  been  made  in  the  Sorbonne ;  all  proceeds 
according  to  the  ancient  methods  and  rules,  and  the  ex- 
perience of  five  centuries  has  proved  that  the  constitution 
of  that  house  is  well  adapted  to  its  purposes,  and  none  of 
the  French  colleges  since  founded  have  supported  them- 
selves in  so  much  regularity  and  splendour.  Robert  de 
Sorbonne  having  firmly  established  his  society  for 
theological  studies,  added  to  it  a  college  for  polite  litera- 
ture and  philosophy.  For  this  purpose  he  bought  of 
William  de  Cambrai,  canon  of  St.  Jean  de  Maurienne,  a 
house  near  the  Sorbonne,  and  there  founded  the  college 
de  Calvi,  in  1271.  This  college,  which  was  also  called 
"  the  little  Sorbonne,"  became  very  celebrated  by  the 
great  men  who  were  educated  there,  and  subsisted  till 
1636,  when  it  was  demolished  by  Cardinal   Richeheu's 

VOL.  VIII.  Q   Q 


446  SOUTH. 

order,  and  the  Chapel  of  the  Sorbonne  built  upon  the 
same  spot.  The  cardinal  had,  however,  engaged  to  erect 
another,  which  should  belong  equally  to  the  house,  and 
be  contiguous  to  it ;  but  his  death  put  a  stop  to  this  plan  : 
and  to  fulfil  his  promise  in  some  degree,  the  family  of 
Richelieu  united  the  college  du  Plessis  to  the  Sorbonne 
in  1648.  Robert  de  Sorbonne  had  been  Canon  of  Paris 
from  1258,  and  became  so  celebrated  as  to  be  frequently 
consulted  even  by  princes,  and  chosen  for  their  arbiter  on 
some  important  occasions. 

He  bequeathed  all  his  property,  which  was  very  con- 
siderable, to  the  Society  of  Sorbonne,  and  died  at  Paris, 
August  15th,  1274,  aged  seventy-three,  leaving  several 
works  in  Latin.  The  principal  are  : — A  Treatise  on 
Conscience ;  another  on  Confession ;  and  the  Way  to 
Paradise,  all  which  are  printed  in  the  "  Bibl.  Patrum." 
He  wrote  also  other  things,  which  remain  in  MS.  in  the 
library.  The  House  aiid  Society  of  Sorbonne  is  one  of 
the  four  parts  of  the  faculty  of  theology  at  Paris,  but 
has  its  peculiar  revenues,  statutes,  assemblies,  and  pre- 
rogatives.— Chalmers.     Diet.  Hist,  de  L'Avocat. 


SOUTH,  PtOBEKT. 

Robert  South  was  born  in  the  year  1633,  at  Hackney. 
In  1647,  he  was  sent  to  Westminster,  and  was  elected 
a  student  of  Christ  Church  in  1651.  He  took  his  B.A, 
degree  in  the  usual  course,  but  he  had  some  difficulty 
in  obtaining  that  of  M.A.,  for  dissent  being  now  in  the 
ascendant,  he  was  caught  in  the  very  act  of  commit- 
ting what,  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  had  rule  in  the 
college,  was  a  great  sin,  even  that  of  worshipping  God 
after  the  form  and  manner  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Upon  this  Dr.  Owen,  who  was  then  vice-chancellor,  and 
had  been  invested  with  that  character  some  years  before, 
was  pleased  to  express  himself  very  severely,  and  after 


SOUTH.  447 

threatening  him  with  expulsion,  if  he  should  be  guilty 
of  the  like  practices  again,  to  tell  him  that  he  could  do 
no  less  in  gratitude  to  his  highness  the  protector,  and 
his  other  great  friends  who  had  thought  him  worthy  of 
the  dignities  he  then  stood  possessed  of.  To  which 
Mr.  South  made  this  grave  but  very  witty  reply,  "  Grati- 
tude among  friends,  is  like  credit  among  tradesmen,  it 
keeps  business  up,  and  maintains  the  correspondence : 
and  we  pay  not  so  much  out  of  a  principle  that  we  ought 
to  discharge  our  debts,  as  to  secure  ourselves  a  place  to 
be  trusted  another  time ;"  and  in  answer  to  the  doctor's 
making  use  of  the  name  of  the  protector  and  his  other 
great  friends,  he  said,  "  Common-wealths  put  a  value  upon 
men,  as  well  as  money,  and  we  are  forced  to  take  them 
both,  not  by  weight,  but  according  as  they  are  pleased  to 
stamp  them,  and  at  the  current  rate  of  the  coin,"  by 
which  he  exasperated  him  two  different  ways,  and  made 
him  his  enemy  ever  after ;  as  he  verified  his  own  sayings, 
which  were  frequently  applied  by  him  to  his  fellow- 
students,  viz.: — "That  few  people  have  the  wisdom  to 
like  reproofs  that  would  do  them  good,  better  than 
praises  that  do  them  hurt." 

But  though  the  doctor  did  what  he  could  to  shew  his 
resentment  by  virtue  of  his  office,  the  majority  of  those 
in  whose  power  it  was  to  give  him  the  degree  he  had 
regularly  waited  the  usual  terms  for,  was  an  over-match 
to  all  opposition,  and  he  had  it  conferred  on  him. 

In  1659,  South  having  been  admitted  into  holy  orders 
the  year  before,  according  to  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Church  of  England,  (then  abolished)  by  a  regular, 
though  deprived  bishop,  was  pitched  upon  to  preach  the 
Assize  sermon  before  the  judges.  For  which  end,  he 
took  his  text  from  the  10th  chapter  of  St.  Matthew's 
Gospel,  V.  33,  "Whosoever  shall  deny  Me  before  men, 
him  will  I  also  deny  before  My  Father  which  is  in  hea- 
ven." This  sermon  was  called  by  him.  Interest  Deposed, 
and  Truth  Restored,  &c.,  and  had  this  remarkable  para- 


448  SOUTH. 

graph  in  it  concerning  the  teachers  of  those  days,  viz. — • 
"  When  such  men  talk  of  self-denial  and  humility,  I 
cannot  but  think  of  Seneca,  who  praised  poverty,  and 
that  very  safely,  in  the  midst  of  his  riches  and  gardens, 
and  even  exhorted  the  world  to  throw  away  their  gold, 
perhaps,  (as  one  well  conjectures)  that  he  might  gather  it 
up  :  so  these  desire  men  to  be  humble,  that  they  may 
domineer  without  opposition.  But  it  is  an  easy  matter 
to  commend  patience,  when  there  is  no  danger  of  any 
trials,  to  extol  humility  in  the  midst  of  honours,  to  begin 
a  fast  after  dinner." 

In  the  close  of  the  said  sermon,  after  having  applied 
himself  to  the  judges,  with  proper  exhortations  that  be- 
spoke his  intrepidity  of  soul,  he  addressed  himself  to 
the  audience  in  these  words  : — "  If  ever  it  was  seasonable 
to  preach  courage  in  the  despised,  abused  cause  of  Christ, 
it  is  now,  when  His  truths  are  reformed  into  nothing ; 
and  when  the  hands  and  hearts  of  His  faithful  ministers 
are  weakened,  and  even  broke,  and  His  worship  extir- 
pated in  a  mockery,  that  His  honour  may  be  advanced, 
well  to  establish  our  hearts  in  dut}^  let  us  before  hand 
propose  to  ourselves  the  worst  that  can  happen.  Should 
God  in  His  judgment  suffer  England  to  be  transformed 
into  a  Munster,  should  the  faithful  be  everywhere  mas- 
sacred, should  the  places  of  learning  be  demolished, 
and  our  colleges  reduced  not  only  (as  one  in  his  zeal 
would  have  it)  to  three,  but  to  none :  yet  assuredly  hell 
is  worse  that  all  this,  and  is  the  portion  of  such  as  deny 
Christ.  Therefore  let  our  discouragements  be  what  they 
will,  loss  of  places,  loss  of  estates,  loss  of  life  and  rela- 
tions, yet  still  this  sentence  stands  ratified  in  the  decrees 
of  Heaven.  Cursed  be  the  man  that  for  any  of  these 
deserts  the  truth,  and  denies  his  Lord." 

Soon  after  the  restoration,  he  was  chosen  public  orator 
of  the  university,  in  cod  sequence,  it  is  believed,  of  his 
excellent  sermon  preached  before  the  king's  commis- 
sioner, and  entitled  The  Scribe  Instructed,  Matt.  xiii.  52. 


SOUTH.  449 

In  this  office  he  acquitted  himself  so  much  to  the  satis- 
faction of  Lord  Clarendon,  when  complimenting  him  at 
his  investiture  as  a  chancellor  of  the  university,  that  he 
was  taken  under  the  protection  of  that  eminent  man, 
and  appointed  his  domestic  chaplain.  He  was  presented 
to  a  prebend  of  Westminster  in  1663,  and  by  virtue  of 
a  letter  from  the  chancellor  was,  in  the  same  year,  ad- 
mitted to  the  degree  of  D.D.  In  1670,  he  was  made  a 
canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford;  and  in  1673  he 
attended,  in  quality  of  chaplain,  Laurence  Hyde,  younger 
son  of  the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  in  his  embassy  to  Poland. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  Poland,  he  was  by  the 
dean  and  chapter  of  the  Collegiate  Church  of  West- 
minster, in  consideration  of  his  great  abilities  to  dis- 
charge the  pastoral  office,  made  choice  of  to  succeed 
Dr.  Edward  Hinton,  as  Rector  of  Islip,  in  Oxfordshire, 
a  living  of  £200  per  annum  ;  one  hundred  of  which, 
out  of  his  generous  temper  he  allowed  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Penny,  student  of  Christ  Church,  his  curate,  and  the 
other,  he  expended  in  the  educating  and  apprenticing 
the  poorer  children  of  that  place.  After  having  been 
two  years  incumbent  there,  he  caused  the  chancel  that 
had  been  suffered  miserably  to  run  to  ruin  by  his  prede- 
cessor, to  be  rebuilt. 

He  also  rebuilt  the  parsonage.  It  appears  that 
Dr.  South  had  frequent  opportunities  of  being  advanced 
to  the  episcopal  bench,  and  when  his  friend,  Lord 
Clarendon,  w^as  lord-lieutenant  of  Ireland,  he  refused  an 
Archbishopric  in  the  Irish  Church.  He  acted  nobly  in 
these  instances:  although  he  was  generous,  learned,  and 
pious,  yet  his  temper  was  irritable,  he  was  sarcastic, 
bitter  in  his  mode  of  expressing  himself,  and  either 
unable  or  unwilling  to  keep  his  art  in  proper  restraint. 
He  doubtless  felt  that  such  a  person  was  not  a  man  cal- 
culated to  fill  the  office  of  bishop  in  those  days  with  com- 
fort to  himself  or  advantage  to  the  Church.  He  continued, 
therefore,  where  his  eccentricities  were  regarded  with 
3  Q  Q 


450  SOUTH. 

toleration,  where  bis  character  was  understood,  and  where 
he  was  both  useful  and  beloved. 

His  principles  were  severely  tested  at  the  Revolution, 
In  common  with  most  of  the  divines  of  the  Church  of 
England  he  had  in  the  re-action  after  the  Revolution, 
pushed  the  doctrine  of  the  royal  prerogative  to  an 
extreme;  and  in  the  reign  of  James  11.  he  found  a 
traitor  king  using  that  prerogative,  to  subvert  the  institu- 
tions of  the  country  and  to  undermine  the  Church  he  was 
sworn  to  support.  South,  loyal  on  the  one  hand,  and 
yet  a  determined  foe  to  Popery  on  the  other,  was  per- 
plexed how  to  act,  and  passed  his  time  in  fasting  and 
prayer.  He  refused  to  sign  the  Invitation  to  the  Prince 
of  Orange,  but  when  the  Revolution  was  effected  he 
acquiesced  in  it  and  took  the  oaths  to  the  Sovereigns  de 
facto.  Again  he  was  pressed  to  accept  one  of  the  vacant 
sees,  and  again  his  answer  was  Nolo  Episcopari. 

No  sooner  had  the  occurrence  of  the  Revolution  with- 
drawn the  public  attention  from  the  dangers  of  Popery, 
than  Socinianism,  encouraged  by  the  Act  of  Toleration, 
and  the  general  license  of  the  times,  began  to  thrust 
forward  its  pretensions  with  unprecedented  boldness.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  South  became  engaged  in  the  violent 
controversy  with  Dr.  Sherlock,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  to 
which  allusion  was  made  in  the  notice  of  Bishop  Bull. 
Sherlock's  "  Vindication  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  " 
appeared  in  1690.  This  work  was  answered  by  South, 
in  a  volume  in  4to,  entitled  "Animadversions "  on  it, 
published  in  1693  ;  a  production  of  great  ability,  but 
deformed,  in  the  view  of  calmer  judgments,  by  a  more 
than  commensurate  infusion  of  asperity  and  contemptu- 
ousness.  In  1694,  Sherlock  replied  in  a  "  Defenc'e  "  of 
his  notion  of  the  Trinity.  This  work  also  South 
answered,  in  the  following  year,  in  *'  Tri theism  charged 
upon  Dr.  Sherlock's  new  Notion  of  the  Trinity ;  "  again, 
as  in  the  former  volume,  asserting,  with  a  warmth  of  zeal 
for  which  the  epithet  furious  is  not  too  strong,  his  own 


SOUTH.  451 

different  views  of  that  doctrine,  which  with  justice  he 
terms,  the  Church's  "  palladium — the  prime,  the  grand, 
the  distinguishing  article  of  our  Christianity ;  without 
the  belief  of  which,  a  man  can  be  no  more  a  Christian, 
than  he  can  without  a  rational  soul  be  a  man  ;  "  and  de- 
claring the  system  of  Sherlock  to  be  "  Paganism — the 
introduction  of  a  plurality  of  Gods." 

That  this  strongly  attached  son  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land wholly  disapproved  of  those  plans,  which,  in  his 
time,  were  successively  entertained  for  the  comjDrehension 
of  dissenters,  was  of  course  to  be  expected :  in  fact,  he 
opposed  them  on  all  occasions,  with  that  want  of  mod- 
eration in  the  use  of  language  which  was  too  character- 
istic of  his  zealous  mind  ;  including,  in  his  fearless  and 
indiscriminate  censures,  all  those  who  favoured  such 
attempts,  as,  equally  with  the  Puritans  of  a  past  age, 
"  wolves  in  sheeps'  .clothing."  He  was  therefore  naturally 
displeased  with  the  course  which  public  opinion  now 
took,  as  well  as  at  the  extreme  partiality  of  the  govern'^ 
ment  in  favour  of  the  low,  or  liberal  party  in  the  Church  ; 
and  lost  no  opportunity  of  expressing  it  in  his  own 
inimitable  manner. 

Less  worthy  of  an  enlightened  mind  was  his  jealous 
dislike  of  the  new  school  of  experimental  philosophy, 
and  its  promoters.  An  instance  is  recorded  by  Dr. 
Wallis,  as  occurring  on  a  very  marked  occasion.  In  a 
letter  from  Wallis  to  Mr.  Boyle  describing  the  ceremonies 
at  the  dedication  of  the  theatre  at  Oxford,  then  recently 
erected,  the  writer  mentions  the  oration  delivered  on  the 
occasion  by  South,  as  university  orator ;  and  complains 
that  "  the  first  part  of  it  consisted  of  satirical  invectives 
against  Cromwell,  fanatics,  the  Royal  Society,  and  the 
new  philosophy." 

Through  the  greater  part  of  Queen  Anne's  reign.  Dr. 
South  was  a  severe  sufferer  from  illness  ;  yet  he  neither 
lost  his  wonted  alacrity  of  spirit  and  pleasure  in  the 
society  of  his  friends,  nor  would  wholly  remit  his  habits 


452  SPARKE. 

of  study.  On  the  decease  of  Dr.  Sprat,  the  historian  of 
the  Royal  Society,  he  was  once  more  soKcited  to  take 
preferment.  The  bishopric  of  Rochester,  with  the 
deanery  of  Westminster,  was  offered  him ;  but  he  again 
refused  to  quit  a  private  station, — now,  at  least,  on 
sufficient  grounds  ;  and  Atterbury  was,  in  consequence, 
chosen  to  occupy  the  vacant  see. 

He  expired  July  8th,  1716.  His  sermons,  in  six  vols. 
8vo,  have  been  often  printed  ;  the  last  edition  was  printed 
at  the  Oxford  University  Press.  After  his  death  appeared 
his  Opera  Posthuma  Latina,  and  his  English  Posthu- 
mous Works,  consisting  of  three  more  sermons,  his 
Travels  into  Poland,  and  Memoirs  of  his  Life,  in  two 
vols,  8vo. — Life  prefixed  to  Posthumous  Works.     Catter- 


SPAEKE,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Spaeke  was  born  at  South- Somercote,  in  Lin- 
colnshire, in  1548,  and  became  fellow  of  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford.  In  1575,  he  became  Archdeacon  of 
Stow,  being  Rector  at  the  same  time  of  Bletchlej,  in 
Buckinghamshire.  In  1582,  he  w^as  presented  to  a 
secondary  stall  in  Lincoln  Cathedral. 

In  1603,  he  was  called  to  the  conference  at  Hampton- 
court,  as  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  Puritans  ; 
as  he  had  been  one  of  their  champions  in  1584,  at  the 
dispute  at  Latnbeth ;  but  the  issue  of  the  Hampton- 
court  conference  was,  that  he  inclined  to  Conformity, 
and  afterwards  expressed  his  sentiments  in,  A  Brotherly 
Persuasion  to  Unity  and  Uniformity  in  Judgment  and 
Practice,  touching  the  received  and  present  ecclesiastical 
government,  and  the  authorized  rites  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Church  of  England;  London,  1607,  4to.  He  died 
in  October,  1616. 

His  works,  besides  those  already  mentioned,  are : — 


SPARROW.  453 

A  Comfortable  Treatise  for  a  Troubled  Conscience  ;  Brief 
Catechism,  printed  ^vith  the  former,  and  a  Treatise  on 
Catechising;  Answer  to  Mr.  Joh.  de  Albine's  notable 
Discourse  against  Heresies;  The  Highway  to  Heaven, 
&c.  against  Bellarmine  and  others,  in  a  Treatise  on  the 
37th,  38th,  and  39th  verses  of  the  viith  chapter  of  St. 
John;  London,  1597,  8vo. — Wood.    Neal. 


SPAEEOW,    ANTHONY. 

Of  the  author  of  the  well-known  and  much  valued 
Rationale  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church 
of  England,  less  is  known  than  those  who  have  been 
benefited  by  his  labours  w^ould  desire.  He  was  born  at 
Depden,  in  Suffolk,  and  was  first  a  scholar  and  then  a 
fellow  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  guilty  of 
what  rebels  regard  as  a  sin,  loyalty  to  his  sovereign  and 
fidelity  to  his  religion,  and  therefore  he  was  ejected  from 
his  fellowship  by  the  Dissenters  in  1643.  He  was  for  the 
same  reason,  and  for  praying  to  God  in  his  own  way,  by 
using  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  ejected  by  the  same 
parties  from  his  living  of  Hawkedon,  in  Suffolk. 

After  the  Restoration  he  returned  to  his  living,  was 
elected  one  of  the  preachers  at  St.  Edmund's  Bury,  and 
w^as  made  archdeacon  of  Sudbury,  and  a  prebendary  of 
Ely.  About  1577,  he  was  elected  master  of  Queen's 
College,  and  he  then  resigned  his  charge  at  St.  Edmund's 
Bury,  and  the  rectory  of  Hawkedon.  In  1667,  he  was 
made  Bishop  of  Exeter ;  and  on  the  death  of  Dr. 
Reynolds,  in  1678,  he  was  translated  to  Norwich,  where 
he  died  in  1685. 

Of  his  Rationale  the  best  edition  is  that  of  1722,  8vo, 
with  Downes's  Lives  of  the  Compilers  of  the  Liturgy, 
and  Bishop  Sparrow's  Sermon  on  Confession  of  Sins  and 
Absolution.  He  also  published,  A  Collection  of  Articles, 
Injunctions,  Canons,  Orders,  Ordinances,  &c.  1671,  4to. 
—  Wood.     Willis  s  Cathedrals. 


454  SPINCKES. 


SPINCKES,    NATHANIEL. 

A  LIFE  of  Spinckes  is  prefixed  to  "  The  Sick  Man 
Visited,"  but  it  is  meagre,  and  it  is  the  more  unsatisfac- 
tory, as  a  good  life  of  Spinckes  by  a  contemporary  would 
have  given  us  a  history  of  the  Nonjurors  at  an  interesting 
period.  He  was  born  at  Castor,  in  Northamptonshire,  in 
1653.  He  received  his  first  classical  instruction  from  the 
Eev.  Mr.  Morton,  Rector  of  Haddon,  and  then  went  to 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge;  but  on  the  12th  of  October, 
1672,  tempted  by  the  prospect  of  a  Rustat  scholarship, 
he  entered  himself  of  Jesus  College,  where,  in  nine  days 
he  was  admitted  a  probationer,  and  May  20,  1673,  sworn 
a  scholar  on  the  Rustat  foundation.  After  residing  some 
time  in  Devonshire,  as  chaplain  to  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe, 
he  removed  to  Petersham,  where,  in  1681,  he  was  asso- 
ciated with  Dr.  Hickes,  as  chaplain  to  the  Duke  of 
Lauderdale.  On  the  duke's  death,  in  1683,  he  removed 
to  St.  Stephen's  Wal brook,  London,  where  for  two  years 
he  was  curate  and  lecturer.  In  1685,  the  dean  and 
chapter  of  Peterborough  conferred  on  him  the  Rectory  of 
Peakirk  or  Peaking-cum-Glynton,  in  Northamptonshire  ; 
and  in  1687,  he  was  made  a  prebendary  of  Salisbury, 
and  instituted  to  the  Rectory  of  St.  Mary,  in  that  town. 
Being  decided  in  his  attachment  to  the  Stuart  family,  he 
was  deprived  of  all  his  preferments  in  1690,  for  refusing 
to  take  the  oaths  to  William  and  Mary. 

He  now  became  eminent  among  the  Nonjurors,  and  in 
1713,  he  consented  to  be  consecrated  aNonjuring  Bishop 
under  circumstances  of  more  than  questionable  propriety. 
The  deprived  bishops,  with  Archbishop  Sancroft  at  their 
head,  were  now  no  more.  In  1693,  after  Sancroft's 
death,  Hickes  and  Wagstaffe  had  been  consecrated,  but 
Wagstaffe  died  in  1712  ;  so  that  Hickes  was  left  alone. 
He  therefore  could  not  continue  the  succession,  as  three 
bishops   are   required   by   the  canons   at  consecrations. 


SPINCKES.  455 

Under  these  circumstances  he  had  recourse  to  Scotland, 
and  Campbell  and  Gadderer  assisted  in  1713,  in  the  con- 
secration of  Jeremy  Collier,  Samuel  Hawes,  and 
Nathaniel  Spinckes.  Spinckes  became  the  antagonist  of 
Collier,  (see  Life  of  Collier,)  on  the  subject  of  the  Usages ; 
Spinckes  advocating  a  strict  adherence  to  the  present 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  He  was  often  in  great  pecu- 
niary distress  ;  but  never  swerved  from  his  principles. 
He  died  in  1727. 

It  has  been  remarked,  in  reference  to  his  consecration 
as  a  bishop,  "  happy  would  it  have  been  for  any  diocese 
had  he  been  legally  appointed  to  it."  The  following  des- 
cription of  his  person  and  acquirements  is  full  of  interest : 
— "  he  w^as  of  low  stature,  venerable  of  aspect,  and  ex- 
alted in  character.  He  had  no  wealth,  few  enemies,  many 
friends.  He  was  orthodox  in  his  faith  :  his  enemies 
being  judges.  He  had  uncommon  learning  and  superior 
judgment :  and  his  exemplary  life  was  concluded  by  a 
happy  death.  His  patience  was  great :  his  self  denial 
greater  :  his  charity  still  greater :  though  his  temper 
seemed  his  cardinal  virtue  (a  happy  conjunction  of  con- 
stitution and  grace),  having  never  been  observed  to  fail 
him  in  a  stage  of  nine  and  thirty  years."  He  was  buried 
on  the  north  side  .of  the  cemetery  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
London. 

He  Tvas  a  proficient  in  Greek  and  Saxon,  and  had  made 
some  progress  in  the  Oriental  languages.  He  assisted  in 
the  publication  of  Grabe's  Septuagint,  Newcourt's  Eeper- 
torium,  Howell's  Canons,  Potter's  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
and  Walker's  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy.  His  own  works 
are  : — An  Answer  to  the  Essay  towards  a  proposal  for 
Catholic  Communion,  &c. ;  The  New  Pretenders  to 
Prophecy  re-examined,  &c.  ;  Two  pamphlets  against 
Hoadley's  Measures  of  Submission;  Two  pamphlets  on 
The  Case  stated  between  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the 
Church  of  England,  as  to  Supremacy;  Two  pamphlets 
against  Restoring  the  Prayers  and  Directions  of  Edward 


456  SPOTSWOOD. 

VI. 's  Liturgy.  His  most  popular  work  is,  The  Sick  Man 
Visited,  &c.,  1712. — Life  as  above.  History  of  Nonjurors, 
by  Lathbury. 


SPOTSWOOD    OR   SPOTTISWOODE,    JOHN. 

John  Spotswood  or  Spottiswoode  was  born  in  1565,  in 
the  parish  of  Mid-Calder,  in  the  county  of  Edinburgh, 
and  was  educated  at  Glasgow.  He  succeeded  his  father 
as  minister  of  Calder  when  he  was  only  eighteen  years  of 
age.  But  for  the  sake  of  seeing  the  world,  he  accepted 
an  appointment  in  the  suite  of  Ludowick,  Duke  of  Lenox, 
when,  in  1601,  that  nobleman  was  sent  on  an  embassy 
to  France.  Spotswood  had  at  this  time  the  advantage  of 
visiting  England,  where,  perhaps,  he  first  imbibed  those 
Church  principles  by  which  he  was  afterwards  distin- 
guished. It  is  probably  to  these  circumstances  that  we 
may  attribute  the  fact  that  in  1603,  James  I.  selected 
Spotswood  to  be  one  of  the  clergy  to  attend  him  to  Eng- 
land. Spotswood  was  in  the  same  year,  1603,  appointed 
titular  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  and  a  Privy  Councellor 
for  Scotland.  The  Church  was  not  at  this  time  re-estab- 
lished in  Scotland,  and  the  bishops  were  called  Tulehan 
Bishops.  (See  Life  of  Adamson.)  Spotswood  evinced  his 
munificence,  while  at  Glasgow,  by  repairing  both  the 
Cathedral  and  the  Episcopal  Castle,  and  was  so  much 
beloved  that  he  was  regarded  by  the  people  as  their 
**  tutelar  angel." 

In  June,  1610,  he  presided  as  the  elected  moderator 
over  an  assembly  of  the  Kirk,  at  Glasgow,  when,  after 
three  days  discussion,  it  was  agreed  with  great  unanimity, 
"  that  the  calling  of  all  general  assemblies  did  belong  to 
his  Majesty  by  the  prerogative  of  his  crown  :  that  synods 
should  be  kept  in  every  diocese  twice  in  the  year,  in  April 
and  October,  to  be  moderated  by  the  bishop,  and  where 
he  cannot  attend,   by  such  of  the  ministers  as  he  shall 


SPOTSWOOD.  457 

appoint  for  that  turn  :  that  no  excommunication  or  abso- 
lution be  pronounced  against,  or  for  any  person,  without 
the  knowledge  and  approbation  of  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  and  the  sentence  to  be  pronounced  at  his  direc- 
tion by  the  minister  of  the  parish  where  the  offender  has 
his  dwelling :  that  in  time  coming  all  presentations  be 
directed  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  with  power  to  him 
to  confer  all  benefices  void  after  the  lapse,  jure  devoluto  : 
that  in  the  suspension  or  deprivation  of  ministers,  the 
bishop  is  to  call  in  some  of  the  neighbouring  ministers, 
and  in  their  presence  to  try  the  fact,  and  pronounce  sen- 
tence :  that  the  visitations  of  the  diocese  be  made  by  the 
bishop  himself,  or  by  such  worthy  minister  as  he  shall 
depute  in  his  place,  and  every  minister,  who  without 
leave  or  just  excuse  shall  be  absent  from  the  visitation  or 
diocesan  synod,  be  suspended  from  his  office  and  benefice ; 
and  if  he  does  not  amend,  be  deprived :  and  that  every 
minister  at  his  admission  swear  obedience  to  the  king  and 
to  his  ordinary,  according  to  the  form  agreed  upon  in 
1571." 

In  consequence  of  these  conclusions,  when  the  assem- 
bly rose,  the  king  called  up  the  moderator,  Spotswood,  to 
London,  and  desired  him  to  bring  with  him  any  other 
two  of  his  brethren  titulars  whom  he  should  think  fit. 
Accordingly  he  made  choice  of  Andrew  Lamb,  of  Brechin, 
and  Gavin  Hamilton,  of  Gallqway,  and  with  them  arrived 
at  London  about  the  middle  of  September.  At  their  first 
audience,  the  king  told  them,  "  that  he  had  with  great 
charge  recovered  the  temporalities  out  of  lay  hands,  and 
bestowed  them,  as  he  hoped,  upon  worthy  persons  :  but 
as  he  could  not  make  them  bishops,  nor  could  they 
assume  that  honour  themselves,  he  had  therefore  called 
them  to  England  to  receive  regular  consecration  from  the 
bishops  there,  that  on  their  return  home  they  might  com- 
municate the  same  to  the  rest,  and  thereby  stop  the 
mouths  of  adversaries  of  all  denominations."  To  this 
truly  sensible  speech,   Spotswood  answered  in  name  of 

VOL.  VIII.  R    R 


458  SPOTSWOOD. 

them  all,  "  that  their  only  fear  was,  lest  this  might  be 
taken  for  a  sort  of  subjection  to  the  Church  of  England, 
because  of  old  pretensions  that  way."  But  the  king  had 
provided  against  that  danger,  by  secluding  both  the  Arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury  and  York,  the  only  pretenders  to 
that  subjection,  from  having  any  hand  in  the  office,  and 
nominating  the  Bishops  of  London,  Ely,  and  Bath,  to 
administer  the  rite :  which  was  done  accordingly  on  the 
21st  of  October,  in  the  Chapel  of  London  House,  and 
thereby,  the  Scottish  bishops  obtained  the  reality  of 
that  high  character  which  they  had  hitherto  borne 
only  in  name.  We  are  told  that  before  the  consecra- 
tion. Bishop  Andrewes  of  Ely  proposed  their  being  first 
ordained  presbyters,  as  they  had  received  no  ordination 
from  a  bishop,  but  was  answered  by  Bancroft,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  who  was  present,  that  the  orders  they  had, 
being  of  necessity  for  want  of  bishops,  were  sufficient, 
"  otherwise  the  vocation  of  the  foreign  reformed  churches 
might  be  called  in  question."  That  this  popular  argu- 
ment was  made  use  of  by  Bancroft,  Archbishop  Spots- 
wood  himself  tells  us,  and  rests  there,  without  taking 
notice  of  any  thing  further.  But  we  have  information 
from  other  hands,  that  Dr.  Bancroft  added  a  more  con- 
vincing solution,  and  the  only  solution  which  could  give 
satisfaction  to  a  man  of  xlndrewes'  strict  principles,  that 
according  to  many  examples  in  the  primitive  Church,  the 
Episcopal  order  included  all  below  it,  and  consequently 
the  regular  conferring  of  it  supplied  every  real  or  sup- 
posed defect. 

Upon  this  occasion  too,  the  king  instituted  a  Court  of 
High  Commission  in  Scotland,  for  ordering  of  all  ecclesi- 
astical causes,  and  gave  directions  to  the  clergy,  which 
they  all  approved  of,  as  agreeable  to  the  conclusions  that 
had  passed  among  themselves  in  their  late  assembly  in 
June.  The  three  consecrated  bishops,  on  their  return 
home,  conveyed  the  Episcopal  powers,  which  they  had 
now  received  in  a  canonical  way,  to  their  former  titular 


SPOTSWOOD.  459 

brethren,  to  Mr.  George  Gladstanes  in  St.  Andrews,  Mr» 
Peter  Blackburn,  in  Aberdeen,  Mr.  Alexander  Douglas, 
in  Moray,  Mr.  George  Graham,  in  Dunblain,  Mr.  David 
Lindsay,  in  Ross,  Mr,  Alexander  Forbes,  in  Caithness, 
Mr.  James  Law,  in  Orkney,  Mr.  Alexander  Lindsay,  in 
Dunkeld,  Mr.  John  Campbell,  in  Argyle,  and  Mr.  Andrew 
Knox,  in  the  Isles.  Thus,  after  fifty  years  of  confusion, 
and  a  multiplicity  of  windings  and  turnings,  either  to 
improve  or  set  aside  the  plan  adopted  in  1560,  we  see  an 
Episcopal  Church  once  more  settled  in  Scotland,  and  a 
regular  Apostolical  succession  of  Episcopacy  introduced 
upon  the  extinction  of  the  old  line  which  had  long  before 
failed,  without  any  attempt,  real  or  pretended,  to  keep  it 
up.  The  king  had  been  long  projecting  this  settlement, 
and  had  gone  on  by  gradual  advances,  from  one  step  to 
another,  with  much  patience  and  great  perseverance  to 
the  last. 

In  16 J  5,  Archbishop  Spotswood  was  very  reluctantly, 
on  his  part,  translated  to  St.  Andrews,  and  became  the 
Primate  of  all  Scotland. 

In  1617,  the  king  determined,  after  thirteen  years' 
absence,  to  visit  his  native  country,  and  among  other 
preparations  for  his  reception,  he  gave  orders  to  repair 
the  Chapel  of  Holyroodhouse,  and  sent  down  some  por- 
traits of  the  Apostles,  to  be  set  up  in  proper  places,  as 
ornaments  to  it.  But  it  being  signified  to  his  majesty,  by 
the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  the  Bishops  of  Aberdeen, 
Galloway,  and  Brechin,  in  a  joint  letter,  how  ready  the 
people  w^ould  be  to  take  offence  at  a  thing  so  uncommon 
among  them,  though  he  was  much  displeased  with  such 
unreasonable  grumblings,  and  even  in  some  measure  with 
these  bishops,  who,  he  thought,  humoured  the  people  in 
them,  yet  for  the  sake  of  peace,  he  condescended  to  recall 
his  orders,  but  cautiously  put  it  upon  the  footing  of  want 
of  time  to  get  the  work  properly  done.  In  prosecution 
therefore  of  his  design,  he  took  his  journey  from  London, 
and  in  the  beginning  of  May,  came  to  Berwick,  where  he 


460  SPOTSWOOD. 

was  met  by  the  Privy  Council  of  Scotland,  and  by  their 
advice  summoned  a  parliament  to  convene  at  Edinburgh 
on  the  13th  of  June.  On  the  day  appointed  the  parlia- 
ment was  held,  and  the  king  in  a  long  speech  recom- 
mended to  the  estates  the  establishment  of  religion  and 
justice,  neither  of  which,  he  said,  could  be  looked  for, 
unless  due  regard  was  had  to  the  ministers  of  both.  The 
first  article  proposed  to  public  deliberation  was,  touching 
the  royal  authority  in  causes  ecclesiastical,  concerning 
which  he  desired  it  might  be  enacted,  "  that  whatsoever 
conclusion  was  taken  by  his  majesty,  with  advice  of  the 
archbishops  and  bishops  in  matters  of  external  policy,  the 
same  should  have  the  power  and  strength  of  an  ecclesias- 
tical law."  But  Spotswood  tells  us,  that  the  bishops 
interceding,  humbly  intreated  that  the  article  might  be 
better  considered,  as  in  making  ecclesiastical  laws,  they 
said,  the  advice  and  consent  of  presbyters  was  also  re- 
quired :  upon  which,  the  king,  with  much  reluctance, 
agreed  that  the  article  should  pass  in  this  form  "  that 
whatever  his  majesty  should  determine  in  the  external 
government  of  the  church,  with  the  advice  of  the  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  and  a  competent  number  of  the  min- 
istry, should  have  the  strength  of  a  law." 

So  far  were  the  bishops,  we  see  by  these  two  instances, 
from  humouring  or  flattering  the  king  in  all  his  proposals, 
as  a  few  malignants  falsely  upbraided  them ;  and  so 
cautious  were  they  in  this  last  instance,  not  to  stretch  the 
prerogative  inherent  in  their  character,  to  too  great  a 
height  above  their  brethren  of  the  lower  clergy. 

On  the  25th  of  August,  1618,  a  general  assembly  was 
convened  by  the  Archbishop,  the  Church  having  increased 
her  strength,  notwithstanding  the  violent  opposition  of 
the  Presbyterians.  The  assembly  met  at  Perth,  where 
the  following  articles,  five  in  number,  were  discussed  and^ 
accepted — "  1.  That  the  Holy  Sacrament  be  received 
meekly  and  reverently  by  the  people  upon  their  knees. 
^.  That  if  any  good  Christian  known  to  the  pastor,  be  by 


SPOTSWOOD.  461 

long  visitation  of  sickness  unable  to  resort  to  the  church 
for  receiving  the  Holy  Communion,  and  shall  earnestly 
desire  to  receive  the  same  in  his  own  house,  the  minister 
shall  not  deny  him  so  great  a  comfort,  but  shall  adminis- 
ter it  to  him,  with  three  or  four  to  communicate  with  him, 
according  to  the  form  prescribed  in  the  Chnrch.     3.  That 
in  cases  of  great  need  and  danger,  the  minister  shall  not 
refuse  to  baptize  an  infant  in  a  private  house,  after  the 
form  used  in  the  congregation,  and  shall,  on  the  first 
Lord's   day   after,   declare   such  private  baptism  to  the 
people.     4.  That  for  stopping  the  increase  of  Popery,  and 
settling    true    religion   in   the    hearts    of  people,    it    is 
thought  good  that  the  minister  of  every  parish  catechize 
the  young  children  of  eight  years  of  age  in  the  belief,  the 
ten  commandments,  and   the  Lord's  Prayer,   and  that 
children  so  instructed  shall  be  i^resented  to  the  bishop, 
who  shall  bless  them  with  prayer  for  the  increase  of  their 
knowledge,   and  continuance   of  God's  heavenly  graces 
with  them.     5.  That  considering  how  the  inestimable 
benefits  of  our  Lord's  birth,  passion,  resurrection,  ascen- 
sion, snd  sending  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were  commendably 
and  godly  remembered  at  certain   particular   days   and 
times  by  the  whole  Church  of  the  world,  and  may  be  so 
now,  therefore  it  is  thought  meet,  that  every  minister 
shall  upon  these  days  make  commemoration  of  the  said 
inestimable   benefits  from  pertinent  texts  of    Scripture, 
framing  his  doctrine  and  exhortation  thereto,   and  re- 
buking all  superstitious  observation,  and  licentious  pro- 
fanation thereof." 

There  was  of  course  much  opposition  upon  the  part  of 
the  rabid  Presbyterians,  but  still  there  was,  during  the 
reign  of  James  I.,  much  peace  and  harmony  even  in  the 
Scottish  Church.  But  of  all  the  instances  of  the  king's 
tender  regard  for  the  peace  and  honour  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  none  was  more  conspicuous  than  his  constant 
method  of  filling  up  such  bishoprics  as  fell  vacant  in  his 
time.  For  upon  every  such  event  he  appointed  the  Arch- 
il r  3 


462  SPOTSWOOD. 

bishop  of  St.  Andrews  to  convene  the  rest  of  the  bishops, 
and  all  of  them  to  name  three  or  four  whom  they  thought 
sufficiently  qualified  for  that  high  office,  so  that  there 
might  be  no  error  in  the  choice  which  he  reserved  the 
privilege  of  to  himself,  out  of  that  approved  list.  This 
was  keeping  up  such  a  harmony  between  the  rights  of 
the  Church  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  prerogatives  of  the 
crown  on  the  other,  now  that  they  were  so  intimately 
connected,  and  as  it  were  intermixed  with  one  another, 
that  neither  of  the  two  could  be  aggrieved,  either  by  the 
weight  of  royal  authority  bearing  hard  upon  the  freedom 
of  the  one,  or  the  claim  of  total  exemption  encroaching 
upon  the  dignity  of  the  other.  And  if  any  failure  or 
mistake  was  to  slip  into  the  management  of  Church  mat- 
ters, which  the  greatest  caution  cannot  always  prevent, 
the  blame  would  by  this  means  fall  where  it  properly 
ought,  upon  those  who,  by  the  original  constitution  of  the 
Church,  were  the  spiritual  governors  of  it. 

Thus  was  the  Church  of  Scotland  quietly  governed  in 
the  time  of  James  I.  But  there  remained  one  flagrant 
defect  in  that  plan  of  uniformity  which  the  king  so 
ardently  desired, — there  was  no  authorised  Liturgy.  A 
form  had  indeed  been  drawn  up  and  had  been  sanctioned 
by  the  king,  but  his  attention  having  been  directed  to 
political  events  at  the  close  of  his  reign,  it  was  not 
enforced.  The  subject  was  discussed  in  the  counsels  of 
Charles  I.,  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign,  but  it  was 
again  deferred.  In  the  meantime  an  agitation  against 
the  introduction  of  a  Liturgy  were  made  a  party  move- 
ment by  the  unprincipled  portion  of  the  aristocracy,  who, 
having  enriched  themselves  with  Church  lands  at  the 
Reformation,  feared  less  they  should  be  compelled  to  sur- 
render them  if  the  Church  were  fully  re-established. 
Hence  there  was  a  union  between  the  rebellious  and 
sordid  aristocracy  and  the  schismatical  and  malignant 
among  the  clergy,  which,  as  is  too  well  known,  was 
attended  by  the  most  disastrous  consequences. 


SPOTSWOOD.  463 

In  16B3,  Charles  I.  came  to  Edinburgh,  and  was 
crowned  with  great  pomp  by  Archbishop  Spotswood. 
Before  the  king  left  Scotland,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Archbishop,  he  erected  Edinburgh  into  a  bishopric  ;  and 
with  a  view  to  the  settlement  of  the  Church,  he  appointed 
Laud,  then  Bishop  of  London,  whom  he  had  brought 
with  him  into  Scotland,  to  preach  in  the  Abbey  Church 
before  his  majesty.  Bishop  Laud  was  heard,  says 
Clarendon,  "  with  all  the  marks  of  approbation  and 
applause  imaginable."  This  was  a  good  introduction  to 
the  king's  design,  and  produced  a  conference  between 
Laud  and  such  of  the  Scotch  bishops  and  clergy  as  were 
at  hand  :  at  which  meeting  Laud  could  not  help  lament- 
ing the  strange  and  almost  singular  nakedness  of  the 
Scottish  manner  of  worship,  for  want  of  a  liturgy  and  a 
proper  collection  of  Canons,  which  he  thought  would 
supply  all  defects.  The  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  re- 
plied, "  that  in  the  late  king's  time  a  motion  had  been 
made  to  frame  a  liturgy,  and  collect  some  Canons  for  the 
Church,  but  was  deferred  at  that  time,  because  of  the 
stirs  at  first  about  the  Perth  articles  ;  and  he  still  had 
apprehensions,  that  the  attempting  of  it  even  yet  might 
have  some  disagreeable  consequences."  But  the  other 
bishops  pressing  the  undertaking,  and  declaring  there 
was  no  danger  in  it,  the  king  consented  that  there  should 
be  a  liturgy  for  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

The  king  and  the  Bishop  of  London  were  anxious  that 
the  English  Liturgy  should  be  introduced  without  altera- 
tion, but  Archbishop  Spotswood  and  the  Scottish  prelates 
represented  so  strongly  the  prejudice  such  a  proceeding 
would  excite  in  the  minds  of  their  countrymen,  that  it 
was  arranged  that  a  new  liturgy,  with  some  variations 
from  the  English,  should  be  composed,  and  also  a  collec- 
tion of  Canons  put  together,  to  regulate  and  enforce  the 
ecclesiastical  discipline  :  all  which  were  to  be  transmitted 
from  time  to  time  to  England,  to  be  approved  by  the 
king,  after  having  been  revised  by  Dr.  Laud,  who  in  Sep- 


464  SPOTSWOOD. 

tember,  1633,  was  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
by  two  other  divines,  Dr.  Juxon,  Bishop  of  London,  and 
Dr.  Wren,  of  Norwich. 

Thus  the  great  work  was  begun,  which,  if  all  those 
concerned  had  done  their  part  honestly  and  uprightly, 
according  to  the  king's  pious  intentions,  might  have 
been  gradually  and  peaceably  accomplished,  without  those 
tumults  and  commotions,  of  which,  by  treachery  and 
double-dealing,  it  was  made  the  ostensible  cause.  The 
book  of  Canons  was  first  undertaken,  for  which  these 
strong  reasons  were  assigned,  "  that  by  this  means  there 
might  be  a  fixed  measure  for  stating  the  power  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  practise  of  the  laity  :  that  the  acts  of  the 
General  Assemblies  being  only  in  manuscript,  could  not 
reach  the  generality,  and,  being  not  easy  to  be  transcribed 
because  of  their  bulkiness,  or  to  be  removed  from  place 
to  place  because  of  the  risk  of  it,  few  of  the  inferior 
clergy  knew  where  to  apply  for  information  :  that  in  con- 
sequence of  this,  not  one  in  the  kingdom  governed  his 
practice  by  these  acts  of  General  Assemblies  :  and,  there- 
fore, that  by  reducing  these  regulations  in  a  lesser  com- 
pass, and  laying  them  open  to  the  public  view,  nobody 
could  miscarry  through  ignorance,  or  complain  of  being 
overcharged."  The  Canons  being  with  great  deliberation 
among  the  Scottish  prelates,  and  by  the  singular  activity 
of  Dr.  Maxwell,  lately  made  Bishop  of  Ross,  drawn  up 
with  this  view,  and  presented  to  his  majesty,  he  signed  a 
warrant  to  Laud  and  Juxon,  to  examine  the  draught,  and 
bring  it  to  as  near  a  conformity  as  possible  to  the  English 
code  of  J  603:  which  being  done,  and  a  book  prepared 
for  the  press,  the  king  confirmed  it  by  letters  patent 
under  the  great  seal,  at  Greenwich,  May  23rd,  1635, 
"  enjoining  all  archbishops,  bishops,  and  others  exercising 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  Scotland,  to  see  them 
punctually  observed."  These  Canons  were  printed  at 
Aberdeen,  in  1636,  and  as  soon  as  published,  became  the 
subject  of  much  clamour  and  criticism :  which,  indeed, 


SPOTSWOOD.  465- 

was  no  more  than  might  be  expected,  as  any  rules,  how- 
ever innocent  and  useful,  will  for  a  while  be  apt  to  give 
offence  to  people  who  have  long  been  accustomed  to  no 
rule,  or  rather  to  be  all  rulers  promiscuously  or  alter- 
nately, over  one  another. 

It  was  about  the  time  of  forming  these  Canons,  that, 
on  the  death  of  the  old  Chancellor,  the  Earl  of  Kinnoul, 
the  king  was  pleased,  out  of  love  and  esteem  to  Arch- 
bishop Spotswood,  whose  fidelity  both  the  late  king  and 
himself  had  long  experienced,  to  intrust  hfhi  with  that 
highest  office  of  state  in  the  kingdom,  by  a  commission 
under  both  the  seals,  in  customary  form,  January  14th, 
1635,  constituting  and  creating,  John,  Archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Scotland  during  life, 
being  the  first  and  only  Protestant  churchman  that  ever 
bore  that  high  dignity.  And  as  a  further  testimony  of  his 
royal  affection  to  the  Church,  he  ordered  six  or  seven  o 
the  other  bishops  to  be  admitted  into  the  privy  council 
hoping,  by  thus  giving  them  a  legal  share  of  power  in  the 
civil  government  and  judicatories  of  the  kingdom,  to  put 
them  in  a  better  capacity  of  regulating  and  settling  the 
polity  of  the  Church.  But  in  this,  both  he  and  they 
were  sadly  disappointed  :  for  this  unseasonable  accumu- 
lation of  honours,  to  which  their  functions  did  not  entitle 
them,  exposed  them,  as  Lord  Clarendon  remarks,  to  the 
envy  of  the  whole  nobility,  many  of  whom  wished  them 
well  as  to  their  spiritual  character,  but  could  not  bear  to 
see  them  possessed  of  those  offices  and  employments 
which  they  looked  upon  as  naturally  belonging  to  them- 
selves. 

The  royal  proclamation  directed  that  the  new  Liturgy 
should  be  used  in  all  the  churches  of  Edinburgh,  on 
Easter-day,  1637 ;  but  owing  to  some  unforeseen  delay, 
this  was  not  carried  into  effect  till  the  23rd  of  July  fol- 
lowing. Meanwhile,  the  leaders  of  the  Puritanical 
democracy  had  been  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  throw 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  its  reception  ;  and  concerted  their 


466  SPOTSWOOD. 

measures  so  skilfully,  that  success  was  almost  certain  to 
attend  them.  Messrs.  Henderson,  Dickson,  and  Cant, 
Lord  Balmerino,  Sir  Thomas  Hope,  and  Johnston  of 
Warriston,  held  a  private  meeting  in  Edinburgh,  "  with 
certain  matrons  and  serving  women."  These  last  were 
instructed  to  "  give  the  first  affront  to  the  book,  and  were 
assured  that  men  would  afterwards  take  the  business  out 
of  their  hands."  Having  thus  laid  the  train,  they  with- 
drew to  a  convenient  distance  to  await  the  explosion. 
When  the  Sunday  came,  and  the  Dean  of  Edinburgh 
had  proceeded  but  a  few  minutes  with  the  service,  he  was 
suddenly  saluted  by  the  "  matrons  and  serving  women  " 
with  such  indecent  and  abusive  epithets  as  "ye  devil's 
gett !  "  [child],  and  "  ane  of  a  witch's  breeding."  After 
numerous  expressions  of  this  kind  had  been  poured  forth, 
a  woman  named  Janet  Geddes,  hearing  the  Dean  an- 
nounce the  collect  for  the  day,  exclaimed,  "  Deil  colic 
the  wame  [belly]  o'  ye !  "  and  aimed  at  his  head  the 
small  moveable  folding-stool  on  which  she  had  been  sit- 
ting. A  young  man  happened  to  respond  the  "  Amen  " 
somewhat  audibly  at  the  end  of  one  of  the  prayers,  a 
"matron  "  who  sat  near  him,  turned  quickly  round,  and, 
after  heating  both  his  cheeks  with  the  weight  of  her 
hands,  thus  shot  forth  the  thunderbolt  of  her  passion, 
"  False  thief!  is  there  nae  ither  part  of  the  kirk  to  sing 
your  mass  in,  but  ye  maun  sing  it  at  my  lug  ?  "  [ear].  In 
the  midst  of  this  tumult.  Dr.  Lindsay  the  Bishop  of 
Edinburgh  mounted  the  pulpit,  and  tried  to  recall  the 
unruly  mob  to  a  sense  of  what  was  due  to  the  holy  placQ 
in  which  they  were  assembled  ;  but  his  efforts  were  fruit- 
less. The  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  in  his  capacity 
both  of  primate  and  chancellor,  then  rose  up  in  his  gal- 
lery, and  attempted  to  address  the  people,  but  with  as 
little  success.  At  length  the  magistrates  interfered,  and 
eventually  succeeded  in  clearing  the  cathedral  of  the 
rioters.  But  when  the  doors  were  closed,  and  the  service 
had   once  more  commenced,  they  attacked  the  windows 


SPOTSWOOD.  467 

with  stones,  and  kept  up  such  a  loud  and  incessant  howl 
around  the  walls,  as  effectually  interrupted  the  devotions 
of  the  worshippers.  After  the  service  was  over,  the 
bishop  had  the  utmost  difficulty  in  reaching  his  home  in 
safety,  and  could  not  have  done  so  but  that  a  nobleman 
gave  him  shelter  in  his  carriage.  A  woman  who  was 
near  him  exclaimed,  "  Fy,  if  I  could  get  the  thrapple 
[windpipe]  out  of  him  ;  "  to  whom  another  responded, 
"  Though  ye  got  your  desire,  perchance  anither  waur  nor 
him  micht  come  in  his  room  ;  "  on  which  the  first 
rejoined,  "  Na,  na,  after  Cardinal  Beaton  was  stickit,  there 
never  anither  Cardinal  in  Scotland  sinsyne  [since]  ;  and 
if  that  false  Judas  were  now  stickit,  scarce  ony  ane  durst 
hazard  to  come  after  him."  Singular  as  it  may  seem, 
the  contemporary  but  anonymous  relator  of  these  anec- 
dotes tells  them  to  the  women's  praise,  and  thus  winds 
up  his  narrative  : — "  These  speeches,  I  persuade  myself, 
proceeded  not  from  any  particular  revenge  or  inveterate 
malice  which  could  be  conceived  against  the  bishop's 
person,  but  only  from  a  zeal  to  God's  glory  wherewith 
their  heart  was  burnt  up."  The  character  of  these 
women  was,  no  doubt,  worthy  of  their  cause  ;  nor  is  other 
comment  on  their  behaviour  necessary,  except  what  is 
expressed  by  Baillie  himself,  who,  though  their  general 
vindicator,  is  honest  enough  at  times  to  speak  out  his 
mind  : — "  I  think,"  he  says,  "  our  people  were  possessed 
with  a  bloody  devil,  far  above  anything  I  could  have 
imagined,  though  the  mass  in  Latin  could  have  been 
presented." 

And  yet,  in  the  face  of  these  historical  facts,  it  is  con- 
stantly asserted,  that  the  king  tried  to  force  the  Liturgy 
on  the  people  of  Scotland.  The  truth  is,  the  force  used 
was  in  opposing,  not  in  imposing  it.  And  thus,  to  serve 
their  own  factious  ends,  the  leaders  of  the  Puritanical 
movement  inflicted  an  irreparable  religious  injury  on  the 
great  bulk  of  their  countrymen,  in  robbing  them,  perhaps 
for  ever,  of  a  form  of  prayer  which  was  not  only  in  exact 


468  SPOTSWOOD. 

conformity  with  what  was  used  throughout  the  Church 
Catholic  in  the  earUest  age  of  Christianity,  but  is  allowed 
to  be  the  sublimest  compilation  that  uninspired  men  ever 
framed  for  the  performance  of  public  worship,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  the  purest  manual  for  the  exercise  of 
private  devotion. 

For  this  animated  account  of  these  proceedings  we  are 
indebted  to  Lyon's  interesting  History  of  St.  Andrews, 
who  observes,  that  when  the  Presbyterians  found  that 
they  had  embarked  in  the  cause  of  treason  and  rebellion, 
they  were  not  scrupulous  as  to  the  means  they  chose  to 
accomplish  their  ends.  Their  great  object  was  to  keep 
up  the  excitement  they  had  already  raised  in  the  public 
mind.  This  they  effected,  partly  by  the  pulpit  harangues 
of  the  disaffected  ministers.  "  From  every  pulpit,"  says 
the  Presbyterian  author  of  Henderson's  Life,  *'  the  lan- 
guage of  calm  defiance  was  heard."  The  same  end  they 
advanced  by  means  of  their  voluntary  fast  days,  and 
prayer  meetings,  which  they  made  far  more  numerous,  as 
well  as  more  stringent,  than  the  ancient  fasts  and  festi- 
vals of  the  Church ;  and  which,  under  the  pretence  of 
humbling  themselves  before  God  for  their  sins,  were 
embraced  as  occasions  for  stirring  up  the  people  against 
the  king  and  Episcopacy ;  for  they  well  knew  that  the 
most  effectual  method  of  gaining  over  the  people  to  their 
side,  was  to  call  in  the  aid  of  religion — "  Quoties  vis 
fallere  plebem,  finge  Deum." 

The  same  object  they  farther  promoted  by  means  of  a 
National  Covenant  which  they  caused  to  be  drawn  up,  by 
which  they  bound  the  subscribers,  by  the  most  solemn 
obligation  of  religion,  to  persevere  at  all  hazards  in  the 
cause  they  had  undertaken. 

Nearly  every  nobleman  in  the  country  took  this  cove- 
nant, and  the  civil  authorities  in  most  of  the  great  towns 
submitted  to  its  requirements ;  and  though  most  of  the 
clergy  in  the  rural  districts  objected  to  it,  their  objections 
were  silenced  by  threats,  or  drowned  in  clamour. 


SPOTSWOOD.  466 

Now  the  progress  of  revolution  and  bloodshed  was 
unimpeded,  and  the  Presbyterians  carried  all  before 
them.  An  assembly  of  the  Kirk  met  at  Glasgow,  in 
Nov.  1638,  where  they  proceeded  to  degrade,  as  they 
called  it,  from  their  sacred  office  all  of  their  brother 
ministers  whom  they  suspected  of  malignancy,  i.e.  of 
loyalty  to  their  king  and  of  duty  to  their  Church ;  they 
abolished  Episcopacy  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  the  Five 
Articles  of  Perth,  the  Canons  and  the  Liturgy.  Their 
next  measure  was  the  daring  excommunication  and 
deposition  of  their  ''pretended  archbishops  and  bishops," 
as  they  were  pleased  to  call  them.  But  here  a  formidable 
difficulty  occurred.  Most  of  these  refractory  presbyters 
had  been  ordained  by  the  said  "  pretended  "  prelates  ; 
and,  according  to  the  universal  practice  of  the  Church 
Catholic,  had,  at  their  ordination,  taken  an  oath  of 
canonical  obedience  to  them.  How,  then,  were  they, 
with  any  show  of  consistency,  to  depose  from  their  holy 
office  those  whom  they  had  sworn  to  obey  ?  Their 
expedient  was  this :  they  passed  an  act  "  annulhng  the 
oath  exacted  by  prelates  from  ministers  when  admitted 
to  their  callings ! "  We  have  all  heard  of  the  pope 
granting  dispensations  to  his  spiritual  subjects  from  the 
observance  of  oaths ;  but  it  was  a  new  sight  to  behold 
Protestants  dispensing  themselves  from  the  observance 
of  their  own  oaths.  Yet  we  need  not  wonder ;  for  ex- 
tremes meet.  "  Puritanism,"  says  Dr.  South,  "  is  only 
reformed  Jesuitism,  as  Jesuitism  is  nothing  else  but 
popish  Puritanism ;  and  I  could  draw  out  such  an  exact 
parallel  betwixt  them  both,  as  to  principles  and  practices, 
that  it  would  quickly  appear  they  are  as  truly  brothers  as 
ever  were  Piomulus  and  Remus ;  and  that  they  sucked 
their  principles  from  the  same  wolf."  When  the  above 
difficulty  had  been  thus  jesuitically  removed,  a  committee 
was  nominated  to  arrange,  bring  forward,  and  substan- 
tiate the  charges  against  the  bishops  ;  so  that,  not  being 
present  themselves,  either  personally  or  by  proxy,  and 

VOL.  VIII.  s  s 


470  SPOTSWOOD. 

'the  judges,  jury,  and  witnesses  all  consisting  of  their 
avowed  enemies,  they  were  condemned  as  a  matter  of 
course.  They  were  accused  of  almost  every  crime  which 
the  vocabulary  of  their  language  afforded;  accusations 
which  the  members  were  but  too  eager  to  believe,  as 
some  apology  for  their  enormous  wickedness  in  so 
treating  their  ecclesiastical  rulers.  When  unprincipled 
men  are  bent  on  any  favourite  object,  they  do  not  allow 
conscientious  scruples  to  stand  in  their  way.  The 
bishops  accordingly  were  deposed,  or  excommunicated, 
or  both ;  were  "  declared  infamous,  and  commanded  to 
be  so  holden  by  all  and  every  one  of  the  faithful,  and  to 
be  denounced  from  every  pulpit  in  Scotland  as  ethnicks 
and  publicans  ;"  and  all  on  the  pretext  of  "  zeal  for  the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  purging  of  the  Kirk."  The  primate 
in  particular,  one  of  the  best  and  most  learned  men  of 
that  or  any  other  age,  was  found  guilty  of  "  drunkenness, 
adulteries,  breach  of  Sabbath,  papistical  doctrine,  preach- 
ing Arminianism,  incest,  et  ccetera .'"  for  w^hich  he  was 
both  deposed  and  excommunicated  by  this  anti-Christian 
court. 

Soon  after  the  king  proposed  to  the  Archbishop  to 
resign  his  office  of  chancellor,  in  consequence  of  the  bad 
spirit  of  the  times,  but  would  not  insist  upon  it  if  he 
chose  to  keep  it.  The  archbishop  consented,  and  received 
£•2500  for  the  sacrifice  which  he  made.  When  he  saw 
his  countrymen  plunging  into  rebellion,  his  sovereign 
insulted,  the  Church  in  Scotland  overthrown,  and  himself 
and  order  proscribed,  he  thought  it  prudent  to  leave  his 
country,  where  his  person  was  no  longer  safe ;  and 
retired  to  Newcastle,  depressed  in  spirits,  and  in  a  very 
infirm  state  of  health.  When  he  grew  a  little  better,  he 
proceeded  to  London ;  but  there  he  soon  became  worse, 
and  was  visited  by  his  friend  Archbishop  Laud,  from 
whose  hands  he  received  the  Holy  Eucharist. 

Spotswood  died  on  the  29th  of  November,  1639,  and 
by  the  command  of  the  king  was  buried  by  torch-light, 


SPOTSWOOD.  in 

in  Westminster  Abbey.  "  The  manner  of  his  burial," 
says  his  biographer,  "  by  the  command  and  care  of  his 
religious  king,  was  solemnly  ordered  ;  for  the  corpse  being 
attended  by  many  mourners,  and  at  least  eight  hundred 
torches,  and  being  brought  near  the  Abbey  Church  of 
Westminster,  the  nobility  of  England  and  Scotland  then 
present  at  court,  with  all  the  king's  servants  and  many 
gentlemen,  came  out  of  their  coaches,  and  conveyed  the 
body  to  the  west  door,  where  it  was  met  by  the  dean  and 
prebendaries  of  that  church  in  their  clerical  habits,  and 
buried  according  to  the  solemn  rites  of  the  English 
Church,  before  the  extermination  of  decent  Christian 
burial  was  come  into  fashion." 

A  more  generous,  learned,  and  munificent  prelate  has 
seldom  been  called  to  rule  in  the  Church  ;  and  his  advice 
was  at  all  times  given  for  moderate  measures,  and  for  the 
sacrifice  of  any  thing  but  principle  for  peace. 

Archbishop  Spotswood  was  the  author  of  a  '*  History 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  beginning  with  the  year  203, 
and  continued  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  James  VI." 
published  at  London  in  1655,  fol.  This  work  was  under- 
taken at  the  command  of  King  James,  who,  when  Spots- 
wood  told  him  that  some  passages  in  it  might  bear  hard 
on  the  memory  of  his  mother,  said,  "  Write  the  truth 
and  spare  not."  The  king  knew  that  what  he  regarded 
as  a  nearer  interest,  was  in  safe  hands.  Of  the  history, 
the  first  book  relates  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
in  Scotland,  in  which  it  was  shewn  that  episcopacy  was 
its  primitive  form  in  that  kingdom  ;  the  second  gives  an 
account  of  the  bishops  in  the  several  sees  ;  the  five  fol- 
lowing relate  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Reformation, 
confuting  the  opinion  of  those  who  maintain  that  it 
began  with  presbytery.  Spotswood  also  wrote  a  tract  in 
defence  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  in  Scotland, 
entitled  "  Refutatio  Libelli  de  Regimine  Ecclesise  Scoti- 
canae." — Life  prefixed  to  Spotswood' s  History.  Skinner. 
Lyons. 


473  SPRAT. 


SPRAT,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Sprat  was  born  at  Tallerton,  in  Devonshire,  in 
1636,  and  from  a  school  at  his  native  place  proceeded 
to  Wadham  College,  Oxford  in  1651,  and  took  his  M.A. 
degree  in  1657.  He  was  a  versifier  and  exercised  his 
powers  of  imagination  in  describing  the  virtues  of  Oliver 
Cromwell  on  the  Usurper's  death.  After  the  restoration 
he  became  chaplain  to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and 
was  eminent  in  literature  and  science,  his  chief  work 
being  the  History  of  the  Royal  Society  of  which  he  was 
one  of  the  first  fellows.  In  1668,  he  became  a  preben- 
dary of  Westminster,  and  he  afterwards  became  rector 
of  St.  Margaret's.  He  was  in  1680,  made  canon  of 
Windsor,  in  1683,  dean  of  Westminster,  and  in  1684, 
Bishop  of  Rochester.  The  court  having  thus  a  claim 
upon  his  diligence  and  gratitude,  he  was  required  to 
write  a  History  of  the  Ryehouse  Plot;  and  in  1685, 
he  published  A  True  Account  .and  Declaration  of  the 
horrid  Conspiracy,  against  the  fate  King,  his  present 
Majesty,  and  the  present  Government.  The  same  year, 
being  clerk  of  the  closet,  to  the  king,  he  was  made 
dean  of  the  chapel-royal :  and  the  next  year,  he  was 
appointed  one  of  the  commissioners  for  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  On  the  critical  day,  when  the  Declaration  dis- 
tinguished the  true  sons  of  the  Church  of  England, 
he  stood  neuter,  and  permitted  it  to  be  read  at  West- 
minster, but  pressed  no  one  to  violate  his  conscience  : 
and,  when  the  Bishop  of  London  was  brought  before 
him,  he  gave  his  voice  in  his  favour.  When  James 
II.  fled,  and  a  new  government  was  to  be  settled,  Sprat 
was  one  of  those  who  considered,  in  a  conference,  the 
great  question,  whether  the  crown  was  vacant,  and  man- 
fully spoke  in  favour  of  his  old  master.  He  complied 
however,  with  the  new  establishment,  and  was  left  un- 
molested ;  but  in  1692  an  atrocious  attempt  was  made 


SQUIRE.  4.n 

by  two  unprincipled  informers  to  involve  him  in  trouble 
by  affixing  his  counterfeited  signature,  to  a  seditious 
paper.  But  he  succeeded  in  a  little  time  in  establishing 
his  innocence.     He  died  in  1713. — Biog.  Brit. 


SPURSTOWE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Spurstowe  was  educated  at  St.  Katharine  Hall, 
Cambridge,  of  which  he  became  a  fellow.  He  was 
minister  at  Hampden  in  Buckinghamshire,  when  the 
rebellion  broke  out.  He  joined  the  rebel  army,  as 
chaplain,  and  in  1643  he  became  a  member  of  the  so- 
called  assembly  of  Divines,  becoming  at  the  same  time 
pastor  of  Hackney.  He  was  made  master  of  Katharine 
Hall  but  was  turned  out  for  refusing  the  engagement ; 
so  ready  were  the  schismatics  to  persecute  one  another. 
He  was  obliged  to  give  place,  to  an  orthodox  clergy- 
man at  Hackney  in  1662,  and  died  in  1666.  He  was 
author  of  a  Treatise  on  the  Promises ;  The  Spiritual 
Chemist;  The  Wiles  of  Satan;  and  Sermons.  He  was 
also  engaged  in  the  attack  on  episcopacy,  under  the 
name  of  Smectymnuus. — Reid. 


squire,    SAMUEL. 

Samuel  Sqdire  was  born  at  Warminster,  in  Wiltshire, 
in  1714,  and  in  due  course  became  a  fellow  of  St. 
Johns  College,  Cambridge.  He  is  better  known  as  a 
scholar  than  as  a  divine.  In  1739,  he  was  made  Chan- 
cellor and  Canon  of  Wells,  and  Archdeacon  of  Bath. 
In  1748,  he  was  presented  by  the  king  to  the  Eectory 
of  Topsfield  in  Essex;  and  in  1749,  when  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  to  whom  he  w^as  chaplain,  was  installed 
Chancellor  of  Cambridge,  he  took  the  degree  of  D.D. 
In  1750,  he  was  presented  by  Archbishop  Herring  to 
ss  8 


474  STACKHOUSE. 

the  Rectory  of  St.  Anne,  Westminster,  being  his  grace's 
option  on  the  see  of  London  ;  and  soon  after  he  was 
presented  by  the  king  to  the  Vicarage  of  Greenwich. 
On  the  estabhshment  of  the  household  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  afterwards  George  III.,  he  was  appointed 
his  royal  highness's  clerk  of  the  closet.  In  1760,  he 
was  presented  to  the  Deanery  of  Bristol ;  and  in  the 
following  year  he  was  advanced  to  the  Bishopric  of  St 
David's.  He  died  in  1T66.  Among  his  theological 
works  are  the  following ;  Indifference  for  Religion  In- 
excusable, or,  a  Serious,  Impartial,  and  Practical  Re- 
view of  the  Certainty,  Importance,  and  Harmony  of 
Natural  and  Revealed  Religion ;  The  Principles  of 
Religion  made  easy  to  Young  Persons,  in  a  short  and 
familiar  Catechism. — Geiifs  Mag. 


STACKHOUSE,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Stackhouse  w^as  born  in  1680.  Of  his  early 
history,  nothing  is  known,  not  even  the  place  of  his 
birth.  In  his  history  of  the  Bible  he  styles  himself 
M.A.  but  this  was  probably  a  Lambeth  degree,  as  his 
name  does  not  appear  on  the  Books  of  Oxford  or  the 
boards  of  Cambridge.  He  was  for  some  time  Minister 
of  the  English  Church  at  Amsterdam,  and  afterwards 
successively  Curate  at  Richmond,  in  Surrey,  and  at 
Ealing  and  Finchley,  in  Middlesex,  In  1733,  he  was 
presented  to  the  Vicarage  of  Benham  Valence,  alias 
Beenham  in  Berkshire,  where  he  died  in  1752.  He 
wrote,  The  Miseries  and  great  Hardships  of  the  inferior 
Clergy  in  and  about  London;  and  A  Modest  Plea  for 
their  Rights  and  better  Usage,  in  a  Letter  to  a  Right 
Rev.  Prelate ;  Memoirs  of  Bishop  Atterbury,  from  his 
Birth  to  his  Banishment ;  A  Funeral  Sermon  on  the 
Death  of  Dr.  Brady ;  A  Complete  Body  of  Divinity ; 
A  Defence  of  the  Christian  Religion  from  the  Several 


STANHOPE.  4r§ 

Objections  of  Anti-Scripturists  ;  Reflections  on  the  Na- 
ture and  Property  of  Languages ;  The  Bookbinder, 
Bookprinter,  and  Bookseller  Confuted,  or  the  Author's 
Vindication  of  Himself  from  the  Calumnies  in  a  paper 
industriously  dispersed  by  one  Edlin ;  New  History  of 
the  Bible  from  the  Beginning  of  the  World  to  the 
Establishment  of  Christianity,  1732,  2  vols.  fol.  Of 
this  work,  a  new  and  valuable  edition  was  published 
with  copious  additions,  corrections  and  notes  by  Bishop 
Gleig  in  1817.  By  the  plan  of  the  work,  the  author 
states  the  objections  made  to  Christianity  and  its  doc- 
trines, and  as  Bishop  Gleig  observes,  the  author's 
answers  to  the  objections  which  he  has  stated  with 
great  force  are  really  feebler  than  they  might  have  been 
made.  Many  important  doctrines  are  also  stated  in 
vague  and  ambiguous  terms.  He  also  wrote  A  New 
and  Practical  Exposition  on  the  Creed ;  Vana  Doc- 
trinae  Emolumenta,  a  poem;  An  Abridgment  of  Bur- 
net's Own  Times  ;  The  Art  of  Shorthand  ;  A  System 
of  Practical  Duties ;  and  several  single  Sermons : — 
NicholVs  Bowyer.    Gleig. 


STANHOPE,    GEOEGE. 

Geoege  Stanhope  was  born  March  5th,  1600,  at 
Hertishoon,  in  Derbyshire,  and  was  educated  at  Eton 
and  at  King's.  He  graduated  in  1681,  and  continued 
for  some  time  a  resident  at  the  university,  and  through- 
out his  life,  his  deep  and  earnest  piety  won  for  him  the 
respect  of  all  pious  persons,  by  whom  he  was  regarded  as 
a  saint ;  his  mild  and  friendly  temper  made  him  the 
delight  of  his  friends;  and  his  sympathy  with  the 
unfortunate  endeared  him  to  all  who  were  brought 
under  his  influence.  He  officiated  first  at  the  Church  of 
Quoi,  near  Cambridge;  and  in  1688  he  was  made  vice- 


476  STANHOPE. 

proctor  of  the  University,  and  was  preferred  to  the  Rectory 
of  Tewing,  in  the  county  of  Hertford;  and  in  1689  he 
was  presented  by  Lord  Dartmouth,  to  whom  he  was 
chaplain,  and  to  whose  son  he  had  been  tutor,  to  the 
vicarage  of  Lewisham,  in  Kent.  He  was  soon  after 
appointed  chaplain  in  ordinary  to  king  William  and 
Queen  Mary ;  and  he  enjoyed  the  same  honour  under 
Queen  Anne.  He  also  had  a  share  in  the  education  of  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  heir  presumptive  to  the  crown. 
In  July,  1697,  he  took  the  degree  of  D.  D.  In  1701,  he 
preached  the  Boyle  Lectures,  which  he  published.  In 
1703,  he  was  presented  to  the  Vicarage  of  Deptford,  in 
Kent,  on  which  he  relinquished  the  Rectory  of  Tewing. 
In  the  same  year  also  he  was  promoted  to  the  deanery  of 
Canterbury.  He  was  also  Tuesday  lecturer  at  the  Church 
of  St.  Lawrence  Jewry,  where  he  was  succeeded,  in  1 708, 
by  Dr.  Moss.  At  the  Convocation  of  the  Clergy,  in 
February,  1714,  he  was  chosen  to  fill  the  prolocutor's 
chair:  and  he  was  twice  afterwards  re-chosen.  In  1717, 
when  the  fierce  spirit  of  controversy  raged  in  the  Convo- 
cation, he  checked  the  Bangorian  champion,  archdeacon 
Edward  Tenison,  in  his  observations,  by  reading  the 
shedule  of  prorogation.  The  archdeacon,  however,  not 
content  with  protesting  against  the  proceedings  of  the 
House,  entered  into  a  controversy  with  the  prolocutor 
himself.  In  the  following  year  a  correspondence  com- 
menced between  the  dean  and  his  diocesan.  Bishop 
Atterbury,  on  the  increasing  neglect  of  public  baptisms  ; 
from  which  it  appears,  that  Stanhope  had  "  long  dis- 
couraged private  baptisms."  He  died,  universally 
lamented,  at  Bath,  March  18th,  1728,  aged  sixt3'-eight, 
and  was  buried  at  the  Church  at  Lewisham.  He  was 
celebrated  as  a  preacher,  and  was  very  influential  in  all 
affairs  relating  to  the  church.  He  published  a  transla- 
tion of  Thomas  a  Kempis  De  Imitatione  Christi;  a 
translation  of  Charron  on  Wisdom ;  the  Meditations  of 
the  Emperor  M.  Aurelius   Antoninus,   translated,    with 


STANLEY.  m 

Dacier's  Notes  and  Life  of  the  emperor ;  Sermons  upon 
several  occasions,  fifteen  in  number,  with  a  scheme,  in 
the  preface,  of  the  author's  general  design;  a  translation 
of  Epictetus,  with  the  Commentary  of  Simplicius  ; 
Paraphrase  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  1705,  4  vols. 
8vo;  this,  which  was  his  greatest  work,  was  written 
originally  for  the  special  use  of  his  pupil,  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester  ;  the  truth  and  excellence  of  the  Christian 
Religion  asserted,  against  Jews,  Infidels,  and  Heretics, 
in  sixteen  sermons  preached  at  Boyle's  Lectures ; 
Rochefoucault's  Maxims,  translated ;  an  edition  of  Par- 
sons's  (the  Jesuit's)  Christian  Directory,  put  into  more 
modern  language ;  St.  Augustin's  Meditations,  a  free 
version ;  A  Funeral  Sermon  on  Mr.  Richard  Sayer, 
bookseller ;  Twelve  Sermons  on  several  occasions ;  The 
Grounds  and  Principles  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
translated  by  Wanley  from  Ostervald,  and  revised  by  Dr. 
Stanhope ;  Several  Sermons  on  particular  occasions, 
between  1692  and  1724  ;  a  Posthumous  Work,  being  a 
Translation  from  the  Greek  Devotions  of  Dr.  Launcelot 
Andrewes,  1730,  in  8vo. — Chalmers.  Todd's  Deans  oj 
Canterbury. 


STANLEY,    WILLIAM. 

William  Stanley  was  born  at  Hinckley,  in  Leicester- 
shire, in  the  year  1647,  and  was  educated  at  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge.  In  1689,  he  was  made  a  canon 
residentiary  of  St.  Paul's.  In  1692,  archdeacon  of 
London  ;  and  in  1706,  dean  of  St.  Asaph.  He  died  in 
1731.  He  published  some  Sermons;  and  two  tracts, 
one  entitled.  The  Devotions  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
compared  with  those  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and 
the  other,  The  Faith  and  Practice  of  a  Church  of 
England  Man. — Life  iwefixed  to  Works. 


478  STEPHENS.  WILLIAM. 


STEPHENS,    JEEEMY. 

Jeremy  Stephens  was  born  at  Bishop's  Castle,  in 
Shropshire,  in  1592,  and  entered  at  Brasenose  College, 
in  Oxford,  1609.  He  became  chaplain  at  All  Soul's 
College,  and  afterwards  Rector  of  Quinton,  and  of 
Walton,  both  in  Northamptonshire.  He  assisted  Sir 
Henry  Spelman  in  the  first  volume  of  his  edition  of  the 
Councils,  and  so  won  the  favour  of  that  great  patron  of 
literature,  Archbishop  Laud,  who  procured  him  a 
prebend  in  Lincoln  Cathedral.  But  the  Dissenters 
spared  neither  learning  nor  piety  where  they  obtained 
the  ascendant,  and  he  was  deprived  of  his  preferment  in 
1644.  At  the  Restoration  he  was  replaced  in  his  former 
livings,  and  had  also  a  prebend  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Salisbury.  He  died  in  1665.  He  published,  Notae  in 
D.  Cyprian,  de  unitate  Ecclesise  ;  Notse  in  D.  Cyprian, 
de  bono  patientiae ;  Apology  for  the  Ancient  Right  and 
Power  of  the  Bishops  to  sit  and  vote  m  Parliament; 
B.  Gregorii  Magni,  episcopi  Romani,  de  Cura  pastorali 
Liber  vere  aureus,  accurate  emendatus  et  restitutus  e  vet. 
MSS.  cum  Romana  Editione  collatis.  He  also  edited 
Spelman 's  work  on  Tithes,  and  his  Apology  for  the 
Treatise  De  non  temerandis  Ecclesiis. —  Wood. 


STEPHENS,    WILLIAM. 

William  Stephens  was  a  native  of  Devonshire,  and 
becoming  a  fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Cambridge,  gra- 
duated there  in  1715.  He  was  first  vicar  of  Brampton, 
and  afterwards  rector  of  St.  Andrew's,  in  Plymouth, — 
a  post  to  which  he  was  elected  by  the  corporation.  He 
was  an  orthodox  and  learned  divine,  and  from  his  publi- 


STERNE.  479 

cations  which  remain,  his  early  death  which  took  place 
in  1786,  is  much  to  be  lamented.  His  first  sermons 
against  the  Arians,  and  the  two  volumes  of  Sermons 
published  since,  are  highly  and  justly  esteemed. — Pre 
face  to  Sermons. 


STERNE,    RICHARD. 

Richard  Sterne  was  born  at  Mansfield,  in  Shirwood, 
in  the  county  of  Nottingham,  in  1596;  and  in  1611, 
matriculated  at  Cambridge  as  a  member  of  Trinity 
College.  He  afterwards  migrated  to  Bene't  College,  of 
which  he  was  elected  fellow.  He  then  took  pupils  with 
great  credit  to  himself  and  to  the  college,  and  proceeded 
B.D.  the  following  year,  and  was  incorporated  in  the 
same  degree  at  Oxford,  in  1627.  He  had  been  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  university  preachers  the  year  before, 
and  was  in  such  high  reputation,  that  he  was  made 
choice  of  for  one  of  Dr.  Love's  opponents  in  the  philo- 
sophical act,  kept  for  the  entertainment  of  the  Spanish 
and  Austrian  ambassors,  and  fully  answered  their  expec- 
tations. In  1632,  he  was  made  president  of  the  college; 
and  upon  Dr.  Beale's  translation  from  the  mastership 
of  Jesus  to  that  of  St.  John's  College  soon  after,  he 
succeeded  him  in  March,  1633. 

His  promotion  is  thus  noticed  in  a  private  letter: — 
"  One  Sterne,  a  solid  scholar  (who  first  summed  up  the 
3,600  faults  that  were  in  our  printed  Bibles  of  London) 
is  by  his  majesty's  directions  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely, 
(who  elects  there)  made  master  of  Jesus."  This  occa- 
sioned him  to  take  the  degree  of  D.D.  in  1635,  and 
he  then  assumed  the  government  of  the  college,  to  which 
he  proved  a  liberal  benefactor. 

In  1641,  he  was  presented  by  his  college  to  the  Rectory 
of  Harleton,  in  Cambridgeshire ;  but  some  contest 
arising,  he  did  not  get  possession  of  it  till  the  summer 


480  STERNE. 

following.  He  had,  in  1634,  been  presented  to  the 
living  of  Yeovilton,  in  the  county  of  Somerset,  through 
the  favour  of  Archbishop  Laud,  one  of  whose  chaplains 
he  was,  and  so  highly  esteemed  by  him,  that  he  chose 
him  to  attend  him  on  the  scaffold. 

Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  he  was  very 
active  in  sending  the  Cambridge-plate  to  his  majesty; 
for  which  he  (together  with  Dr.  Beale,  master  of  St. 
John's,  and  Dr.  Martin,  master  of  Queen's,)  was  by 
Cromwell  (who  had  with  some  parties  of  soldiers  sur- 
rounded the  several  chapels,  whilst  the  scholars  were  at 
prayers,)  seized  and  carried  in  triumph  to  London ;  and 
though  there  was  an  express  order  from  the  Lord's  house, 
for  their  imprisonment  in  the  Tower,  which  met  them  at 
Tottenham- High-Cross,  (wherein  notwithstanding  there 
was  no  crime  expressed,)  yet  were  they  led  captive  through 
Bartholomew-fair,  and  so  as  far  as  Temple-bar,  and  back 
through  the  city  to  the  prison  in  the  Tower ;  on  purpose 
that  they  might  be  hooted  at,  or  stoned  by  the  rabble-rout. 
Since  which  time  now  above  three  years  together,  says  an 
account  hereof  then  written,  they  have  been  hurried  up 
and  down  from  one  prison  to  another,  at  excessive  and 
unreasonable  charges  and  fees  exacted  from  them,  far 
beyond  their  abilities  to  defray ;  having  all  their  goods 
plundered,  and  their  masterships  and  livings  taken  from 
them,  which  should  preserve  them  from  famishing. 
And  though  in  all  this  time  there  was  never  any  accusa- 
tion brought,  much  less  proved  against  any  of  them,  yet 
have  they  suffered  intolerable  imprisonment  ever  since, 
both  by  land  and  water ;  especially  that  in  the  ship  ; 
where  for  ten  days  together,  they  (with  many  other  gentle- 
men of  great  rank)  were  kept  under  deck,  without  liberty 
to  breathe  in  the  common  air,  or  to  ease  nature,  except  at 
the  courtesie  of  the  rude  sailors,  which  oftentimes  was 
denied  them :  in  which  condition  they  were  more  like 
gally-slaves  than  free-born  subjects,  and  men  of  such 
(quality  and  condition ;    and  had  they  been  so  indeed, 


STERNE.  481 

some  migbt  have  had  their  wills,  who  were  bargaining 
with  the  merchants  to  sell  them  to  Algiers,  or  as  bad  a 
place,  as  has  been  since  notoriously  known,  upon  no  false 
or  fraudulent  information.  Besides  which  there  are  some 
other  circumstances,  which  render  the  usage  of  Dr. 
Sterne,  and  his  fellow  sufferers,  in  a  peculiar  manner 
barbarous  and  inhuman.  For  when  they  were  first  seized, 
they  were  used  with  all  possible  scorn  and  contempt, 
(Cromwell  being  more  particularly  insolent  towards  them), 
and  when  one  of  them  desired  a  little  time  to  put  up  some 
linen,  Cromwell  told  him,  that  it  w^as  not  in  his  com- 
mission. In  the  villages,  as  they  passed  from  Cambridge 
to  London,  the  people  were  called  by  some  of  their 
agents  to  come  and  abuse  and  revile  them  ;  they  were 
also  led  leisurely  through  the  midst  of  Bartholomew-Fair; 
as  they  passed  along  ;  they  were  entertained  with  excla- 
mations, reproaches,  scorns,  and  curses  ;  and  it  was  a 
great  Providence,  considering  the  prejudice  which  the 
people  had  to  them,  that  they  found  no  worse  usage. 
After  their  confinement,  though  they  often  petitioned  to 
be  heard,  yet  they  could  never  obtain  either  a  trial,  or  their 
liberty.  They  had  been  a  full  year  under  restraint  in 
other  prisons,  when  they  were  at  length,  Friday,  August 
11,  1643,  by  order  of  the  parliament,  sent  on  board  the 
ship,  the  name  of  which  was  the  Prosperous  Sailor,  then 
lying  at  Wapping.  As  they  went  to  Billingsgate  to  take 
water,  a  fellow  was  like  to  have  been  committed  for  say- 
ing, that  they  looked  like  honest  men.  But  another  of 
the  true  stamp,  looking  these  grave,  learned  divines 
in  the  face,  reviled  them,  saying,  that  they  did  not  look 
like  Christians ;  and  prayed,  that  they  might  break  their 
necks  as  they  went  down  the  stairs  to  take  water.  This 
harsh  usage  they  found  by  land  ;  but  yet  they  found  far 
worse  by  water.  Being  come  on  shipboard,  they  were 
instantly  put  under  hatches,  where  the  decks  were  so  low, 
that  they  could  not  stand  upright ;  and  yet  were  denied 
stools  to  sit  on,  or  so  much  as  a  burthen  of  straw  to  lie  on* 

VOL.  VIII.  T  T 


482  STERNE. 

Into  this  little  ease,  in  a  small  ship,  they  crowd  no  less  than 
80  prisoners  of  quality;  and  that  they  might  stifle  one 
another,  having  no  more  breath  than  what  they  sucked 
from  one  another's  mouth,  most  maliciously  and  certainly 
to  a  murderous  intent,  they  stop  up  all  the  small  augur- 
holes,  and  all  other  inlets  which  might  relieve  them  with 
fresh  air.  An  act  of  such  horrid  barbarism,  that  nor  age, 
nor  story,  nor  rebellion  can  parallel !  Whilst  Dr.  Sterne 
thus  continued  in  durance,  March  13,  1643,  he  was  by  a 
warrant  from  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  ejected  from  the 
mastership,  and  one  Mr.  Young  substituted  in  his  room  ; 
whom  that  Earl  coming  in  person  to  the  College- Chapel 
put  into  the  master's  seat,  and  with  some  other  Formali- 
ties gave  him  the  investiture  of  this  headship,  April  12, 
1644:  of  which  he  was  afterwards  himself  dispossessed, 
November  14,  1650,  for  refusing  the  engagement.  After 
this  Dr.  Sterne  was  removed  from  the  ship,  but  still  kept 
under  confinement  in  some  other  prison :  only  when  the 
blessed  martyred  archbishop  (whose  chaplain  he  was) 
suffered  on  Tower-hill,  he  was  allowed  to  attend  him  on 
the  scaffold,  and  perform  the  last  offices  of  piety  about 
him.  At  length  having  lost  all  he  had,  and  suffered  to 
the  last  degree  for  his  loyalty,  he  was  permitted  to  have 
his  liberty.  After  which  he  lived  obscurely  until  the 
restoration. 

Soon  after  the  restoration,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Carlisle,  and  was  concerned  in  the  Savoy  Conference, 
and  in  the  revisal  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  On 
the  decease  of  Dr.  Frewen,  he  was  translated  to  the 
archiepiscopal  see  of  York.  He  died  in  1683,  in  the 
eighty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Chapel  of  St.  Stephen  in  his  own  cathedral,  where  a 
superb  monument  was  afterwards  erected  to  his  memory 
by  his  grandson,  Richard  Sterne,  of  Elvington,  Esq. 
Bishop  Burnet  censures  him  for  being  too  eager  to  enrich 
his  family.  But  his  many  benefactions  to  Benet  and 
Jesus  colleges,  to  the  rebuilding  of  St.  Paul's,  London, 


STIGAND.  483 

and  other  public  and  charitable  purposes,  attest  his 
liberality.  As  an  author,  besides  some  Latin  verses,  in 
the  Genethliacon  Caroli  et  Mariae,  1631,  at  the  end  of 
Winterton's  translation  of  the  Aphorisms  of  Hippocrates 
in  1633,  on  the  birth  of  a  prince  in  1640,  and  others  in 
Irenodia  Cantab,  ob  paciferum  Caroli  e  Scotia  reditum, 
1641,  he  was  one  of  the  assistants  in  the  publication  of 
Walton's  Polyglott ;  published  a  Comment  on  Psalm  ciii. 
Lond.  1649,  8vo.  ;  and  wrote  a  Treatise  on  Logic,  which 
was  published  after  his  death,  in  1686,  8vo.,  under  the 
title  of  Summa  Logicee,  &c. —  Walker.    Le  Neve. 


STIGAND. 

The  following  account  of  Stigand  is  taken  from  Godwin : 
Stigand  was  chaplain  unto  King  Edward  the  Confessor, 
and  preferred  by  him  first  unto  the  Bishopric  of  the  East 
Saxons  at  Helmham  1043,  and  after  unto  Winchester 
the  year  1047.  He  was  a  man  stout  and  wise  enough, 
but  very  unlearned  (as  in  a  manner  all  the  bishops  were 
of  those  times)  and  unreasonably  covetous.  Perceiving 
the  king  highly  displeased  with  Piobert  the  Archbishop, 
he  thrust  himself  into  his  room,  (not  expecting  either  his 
death,  deprivation  or  other  avoidance)  without  any 
performance  of  usual  ceremonies.  And  whether  it 
were  that  he  mistrusted  his  title  to  Canterbury,  or  inex- 
cusable covetousness  I  cannot  tell ;  certain  it  is,  that  he 
kept  Winchester  also  together  with  Canterbury,  even 
until  a  little  before  his  death  he  was  forced  to  forego  them 
both.  Many  times  he  was  cited  unto  Piome  about  it  ; 
but  by  gifts,  delays,  and  one  means  or  other  he  drove  it 
off,  never  being  able  to  procure  his  pall  thence  so  long  as 
king  Edward  lived.  William  the  Conqueror  having  slain 
king  Harold  in  the  field,  all  England  yielded  presently 
unto  his  obedience,  except  only  Kentishmen,  who  follow- 
ing the  counsel  of  Stigand  and  Egelsin  the  abbot  of  St. 


484  STIGAND. 

Augustines,  gathered  all  their  forces  together  at  Swans- 
combe  near  Gravesend,  and  there  attended  the  coming 
of  the  king  (who  doubted  of  no  such  matter)  every  man 
holding  a  green  bough  in  his  hand  ;  whereby  it  came  to 
pass  that  he  was  in  the  midst  of  them  before  he  dreamed 
of  any  such  business  toward.  He  was  greatly  amazed  at 
the  first,  till  he  was  given  to  understand  by  Stigand,  there 
was  no  hurt  meant  unto  him,  so  that  he  would  grant 
unto  that  country  their  ancient  liberties,  and  suffer  them 
to  be  governed  by  their  former  customs  and  laws,  called 
then  and  till  this  day.  Gavelkind.  These  things  he  easily 
yielded  unto,  upon  this  armed  intercession,  and  after- 
w^ard  very  honourably  performed  :  but  he  conceived  so 
profound  a  displeasure  against  Stigand  for  it,  as  he  never 
ceased  till  he  had  revenged  it  with  the  other's  destruction. 
A  while  he  gave  him  very  good  countenance,  calling  him 
father,  meeting  him  upon  the  way  when  he  understood 
of  his  repair  toward  him,  and  affording  him  all  kinds  of 
gracious  and  favourable  usage  both  in  words  and  be- 
haviour :  but  it  lasted  not  long.  The  first  sign  of  his 
hidden  rancour  and  hatred  toward  him  was,  that  he 
would  not  suffer  himself  to  be  crowned  by  him,  but  made 
choice  of  Aldred  Archbishop  of  York :  for  which  he 
alleged  other  reasons,  as  that  he  had  not  yet  received 
his  pall,  &c.  But  the  matter  was,  he  was  loth  in  that 
action  to  acknowledge  him  for  archbishop.  Soon  after 
his  coronation,  he  departed  into  Normandy  carrying  with 
him  Stigand  and  many  English  nobles,  under  a  pretence 
to  do  them  honour :  but  in  truth  he  stood  in  doubt  lest 
in  his  absence  they  should  practice  somewhat  against 
him  ;  and  namely  Stigand  he  knew  to  be  a  man  of  a 
haughty  spirit,  subtile,  rich,  gracious  and  of  great  power 
in  his  country.  Presently  upon  his  return,  certain 
Cardinals  arrived  in  England,  sent  from  the  Pope  as 
legates  to  redress  (as  they  said)  certain  enormities  and 
abuses  of  the  English  clergy.  Stigand  by  and  by  per- 
ceiving himself  to  be  the  mark  that  was  especially  shot 


STIGAND.  485 

at,  hid  himself  a  while  in  Scotland  with  Alexander 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  afterwards  in  the  Isle  of  Ely. 
At  last  2)erceiving  a  convocation  to  he  called  at  Winches- 
ter, he  came  thither  and  hesought  the  king  in  regard  of 
his  own  honour,  and  the  promise  made  unto  him  at 
Swanscombe,  (which  was  not  to  be  offended  with  him  or 
any  other  for  their  attempt  at  that  time)  to  save  him 
from  the  calamity  he  saw  growing  toward  him,  which  he 
could  not  impute  unto  any  thing  so  probably,  as  his 
undeserved  displeasure.  The  king  answered  him  with 
very  gentle  words,  that  he  was  so  far  from  endeavouring 
to  take  any  revenge  of  that  or  any  other  matter,  as  he 
loved  him,  and  wished  he  knew  how  to  protect  him  from 
the  danger  imminent :  but  that  which  was  to  be  done  at 
that  time,  must  be  done  by  the  pope's  authority  which  he 
might  not  countermand.  So  do  what  he  could,  he  was 
deprived  of  his  livings  by  these  prelates.  The  causes 
alleged  against  him  were  these  :  first  that  he  had  held 
Canterbury  and  Winchester  both  together  (which  was  no 
very  strange  thing,  for  Saint  Oswald  had  long  before  held 
Worcester  with  York,  and  St.  Dunstan,  Worcester  with 
London.)  Secondly,  that  he  had  invaded  the  See  of 
Canterbury,  Robert  the  Archbishop  being  yet  alive  unde- 
prived;  and  lastly,  that  he  presumed  to  use  the  pall  of 
his  predecessor  Robert,  left  at  Canterbury,  and  had  never 
received  any  pall  but  of  Pope  Benedict,  at  what  time  he 
stood  excommunicate  for  simony  and  other  like  crimes. 
In  the  same  convocation  many  other  prelates  were 
deprived  of  their  promotions,  as  Agelmare,  Bishop  of 
Helmham,  brother  unto  Stigand,  divers  abbots  and  men 
of  meaner  places.  All  which  was  done  by  the  pro- 
curement of  the  king,  who  was  desirous  to  place  his 
countrymen  in  the  rooms  of  the  deprived  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  his  new  gotten  kingdom.  Poor  Stigand 
being  thus  deprived,  as  though  he  had  not  yet  harm 
enough,  was  also  clapt  up  presently  into  prison  within 
the  Castle  of  Winchester,  and  very  hardly  used  there, 
T  T   3 


486  STILLINGFLEET. 

being  scarcely  allowed  meat  enough  to  hold  life  and  soul 
together.  That  was  thought  to  be  done  to  force  him  to 
confess  where  his  treasure  laj,  whereof  being  demanded, 
he  protested  with  great  oaths  he  had  no  money  at  all ; 
hoping  belike  so  to  procure  his  liberty  the  rather,  and 
make  himself  merry  with  that  he  had  laid  up  against 
such  a  dear  year.  He  died  soon  after  of  sorrow  and 
grief  of  mind,  or  (as  others  report)  of  voluntary  famine, 
17  years  after  he  first  obtained  the  Archbishopric,  After 
his  death,  a  little  key  was  found  about  bis  neck,  the  lock 
whereof  being  carefully  sought  out,  shewed  a  note  or  direc- 
tions of  infinite  treasures  hid  under  ground  in  divers 
places.  All  that  the  king  pursed  in  his  own  coffers. 
The  bones  of  this  archbishop  lie  entombed  at  this  day 
upon  the  top  of  the  north  wall  of  the  Presbytery  of  the 
Church  of  Winchester  in  a  coffin  of  lead,  upon  the  north 
side  whereof  are  written  these  words,  Hie  iacet  Stigandus 
Archiepiscopus.  He  was  deprived  ann.  1069,  and  died 
within  the  compass  of  the  same  year. 


STILLINGFLEET,    EDWAKD. 

This  eminent  divine  though  of  a  Yorkshire  family  was 
born  on  the  17th  of  April,  1635,  at  Cranbourne  in 
Dorsetshire.  His  primary  education  he  received  at  his 
native  place,  and  at  Rmgwood  in  Hampshire.  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  had  the  honor  of  enrolling  him 
among  their  fellows  in  the  year  1653.  In  the  following 
year  he  accepted  the  invitation  of  Sir  Roger  Burgoyne, 
who  wished  him  to  reside  with  him  at  his  seat  at 
Wroxhall,  in  Wanvickshire  ;  and  in  1655,  he  was  ap- 
pointed tutor  to  the  Hon.  Francis  Pierrepoint,  brother  of 
the  Marquis  of  Dorchester.  In  1657,  he  returned  to 
Wroxhall,  and  was  presented  by  his  patron,  Sir  Roger 
Burgoyne,  to  the  living  of  Sutton  in  Bedfordshire. 
Being  yet  a  youth  and  every  thing  being  in  an  unsettled 


STILLINGFLEET.  487 

state  around  him,  he  published  in  1659,  his  Irenicum,  a 
Weapon  Salve  for  the  Church's  Wounds,  or  the  Divine 
Right  of  particular  forms  of  Church  Government  dis- 
cussed and  examined  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
Law  of  Nature  ;  the  positive  laws  of  God ;  the  practice 
of  the  Apostles ;  and  the  primitive  Church  ;  and  the 
judgment  of  reformed  Divines,  whereby  a  foundation  is 
laid  for  the  Church's  peace,  and  the  accommodation  of 
our  present  differences. 

Mr.  Catermole  in  the  short  biography  with  which  he 
prefaces  his  extracts  from  Bishop  Stillingfleet's  writings, 
and  which,  like  all  his  other  biographies,  is  written  with 
much  discernment  and  sound  judgment,  observes  that 
this  was  one  of  the  many  fruitless  attempts,  to  effect 
that  proposed  union,  which,  in  the  language  of  those 
times,  has  already  been  referred  to  under  the  term 
"  comprehension ;  "  the  effusion  of  a  young  and  generous 
mind,  little  acquainted  with  men,  proposing  to  itself,  by 
recommending  liberal  concessions,  to  remove  those  dif- 
ferences, the  sight  of  which  filled  him  with  pain.  With 
the  view  of  facilitating  the  admittance  of  Nonconformists 
into  the  Church,  the  claims  of  all  religious  communities 
to  an  inprescriptible  right,  derived  from  divine  authority, 
were  to  be  broken  down  ;  and  no  other  conditions  of 
communion  imposed  than  such  as  Scripture  expressly 
requires. 

This  treatise  was  admired  by  all  for  its  learning  and 
ingenuity,  and  by  many  for  its  liberal  views  ;  but  it  did 
not  convince ;  and  its  author  himself  saw  reason,  after- 
wards, to  repudiate  the  principle  which  it  advances.  He 
apologized  for  it,  in  more  than  one  of  his  later  publica- 
tions, as  designed  indeed  to  serve  the  Church  of 
England,  but  as  containing  things  which  ought  in 
justice  to  be  ascribed  to  the  writer's  "  youth,  and  want  of 
consideration. 

While  diligently  performing  his  duty  as  a  country 
pastor,  he  composed  his  second  work,  printed  in  1662* 


488  STILLINGFLEET. 

with  the  title  of  "  Origines  Sacrse;  or  a  ratiooal  Account 
of  the  Christian  Faith,  as  to  the  truth  and  divine 
authority  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  matters  therein  con- 
contained,"  4to.  This  is  a  performance  of  extensive  and 
accurate  learning,  in  a  perspicuous  style  and  method, 
and  has  always  been  esteemed  one  of  the  best  defences  of 
the  Christian  religion. 

For  the  following  brief  account  of  the  work  w^e 
are  again  indebted  to  Mr.  Catermole.  It  consists  of 
three  books.  The  first  is  directed  against  the  alleged 
irreconcileableness  of  the  chronology  of  Scripture,  with 
that  of  the  learned  Pagan  nations ;  and  demonstrates 
that,  as  far  as  the  heathen  accounts  of  time  differ 
from  the  Scriptural,  they  are  unworthy  of  credit.  In 
the  second,  the  author  undertakes  to  refute  the  pre- 
tence that  faith  in  Scripture  is  inconsistent  with  reason  ; 
with  which  view  he  states,  on  rational  grounds,  the  claims 
to  credibility  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  our  Saviour  and 
His  apostles,  who  through  successive  ages  were  employed 
in  revealing  the  mind  of  God  to  the  world.  The  third 
regards  the  pretended  sufficiency  of  that  explanation  of 
the  origin  of  things  which  may  be  drawn  from  philosophy 
independent  of  revelation ;  and  here  the  truths  them- 
selves revealed  in  Scripture  are  insisted  on,  and  the 
fallacy  of  those  opinions  and  principles  demonstrated, 
which  appeared  to  be  contradictory  to  any  of  them. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  this  work  was  completed  be- 
fore the  author  had  entered  his  twenty- eigth  year,  it  will 
appear  to  be  a  marvellous  production.  Soon  after  its 
publication,  he  attended  the  visitation  of  his  diocesan 
the  celebrated  Bishop  Sanderson,  who,  hearing  his  name, 
approached  him  and  enquired  whether  he  Vvas  any  re- 
lation of  the  very  learned  divine  who  was  the  author  of 
the  Origines  Sacrse.  The  venerable  prelate  could  scarcely 
be  persuaded  that  in  the  young  man  before  him  he 
saw  the  author  of  a  work  so  distinguished  by  extent  of 
knowledge  and  ripeness  of  understanding. 


STILLINGFLEET.  489 

The  reputation  he  had  acquired  procured  for  him  the 
commission  of  Dr.  Henchman,  Bishop  of  London,  to 
draw  up  a  vindication  of  Archbishop  Laud's  conference 
with  Fisher  the  Jesuit,  to  which  a  reply  had  appeared. 
The  title  of  his  work  was,  "A  Rational  account  of  the 
grounds  of  the  Protestant  Religion,"  1664,  foL,  and  it  was 
pronounced  by  Dr.  Tillotson  fully  answerable  to  this 
appellation.  He  was  soon  after  elected  preacher  at  the  Rolls 
Chapel ;  and  becoming  thereby  personally  known  in  the 
metropolis,  he  was  presented,  by  the  Earl  of  Southampton, 
in  1665,  to  the  living  of  St.  Andrew's,  Holborn,  and  was 
likewise  appointed  lecturer  at  the  temple.  In  1668,  he 
took  the  degree  of  doctor  in  divinity,  on  which  occasion 
he  kept  an  act,  and  greatly  distinguished  himself  by  his 
fluency  in  the  Latin  language,  and  his  logical  acuteness. 
Various  other  preferments  were  successively  conferred 
upon  him,  among  which  was  that  of  canon- residentiary  of 
St.  Paul's,  on  the  nomination  of  Charles  II.,  to  whom  he 
had  for  some  time  been  chaplain.  This  was  followed  by  the 
Archdeaconry  of  London,  and,  in  1678,  by  the  Deanery 
of  St.  Paul's,  the  last  being  the  highest  promotion  he 
attained  during  that  reign. 

During  the  following  years  he  published  a  volume  of 
sermons,  of  which  one,  being  on  The  Reason  of  Christ's 
Suffering  for  us,  was  attacked  by  the  Socinians.  Stilling 
fleet  vindicated  the  orthodox  doctrine,  in  a  separate  treatise, 
and  followed  this  up  by  several  other  publications  relating  to 
the  controversy  with  that  sect.  His  defence  of  Laud 
remained  hitherto  unnoticed  by  the  Romanists  ;  but,  by 
their  conduct  with  regard  to  other  questions,  they  pro- 
voked him  to  more  serious  efforts  against  them.  He 
began  by  his  celebrated  Discourse  concerning  the  Idolatry 
Fanaticism,  and  Divisions,  of  the  Church  of  Rome  This 
he  followed  up  by  other  tracts  ;  as  that  against  Mr.  Cressy, 
author  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History,  in  which  he  exposes 
the  unsoundness  of  the  mystical  divines  of  that  com- 
munion ;    and  one  in  reply  to   Dr.    Geddon,   who   had 


490  STILLINGFLEET. 

undertaken   to  refute  the   charge    of   idolatry,   brought 
against  his  Church. 

It  may  not  be  undesirable,  at  the  present  time,  when 
this  accusation  is  regarded  by  so  many  lukewarm  Pro- 
testants as  uncharitable  and  unfounded,  to  direct  the  less 
informed  reader  where  to  lind  this  whole  matter  discussed 
with  the  learning  and  ability  it  demands.  Geddon 
asserted,  that  in  accusing  the  Romish  Church  of  idolatry, 
Stillingfleet  dissented  from  the  opinions  of  his  own. 
This  assertion  the  dean  refutes,  from  the  Homilies,  from 
the  Liturgy  and  Injunctions  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  from 
Cranmer's  Articles  of  Visitation,  from  the  Injunctions 
and  other  monuments  of  Elizabeth,  and  from  the 
writings  of  Whitgift,  Bancroft,  Bishop  Montagu,  and 
others.  He  then  considers  the  nature  and  species  of 
idolatry  ;  and,  comparing  them  with  the  worship  used 
by  the  Roman  Catholics  infers,  that  in  their  worship  of 
the  Host,  of  saints,  relics,  images,  and  especially  of  the 
cross,  they  are  certainly  guilty  of  that  sin.  Other 
labours  of  his  indefatigable  pen  followed,  in  the  same 
strain  ;  in  one  or  other  of  which,  every  corrupt  portion  of 
the  Popish  system  was,  in  its  turn,  handled  with  such 
vigour  and  effect,  that  no  other  controversial  books  were 
80  much  read  and  valued  as  Stillingfleet's.  In  fact,  con- 
troversy, and  in  particular  the  Romish  controversy,  was 
his  peculiar  province.  The  vastness  and  variety  of  his 
polemic  labours,  continued  through  the  reigns  of  Charles 
the  Second  and  James  the  Second,  are  truly  astonishing. 
He  was  looked  up  to  by  the  members  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  the  light  of  her  most  powerful,  and,  as  they 
believed,  her  invincible  champion.  The  writer  of  his 
Life  informs  us,  that  on  account  of  his  zeal  against 
Popery  and  his  convincing  refutations  of  it,  "  he  received 
several  threats,  and  more  than  once  had  notice  of  bar- 
barous designs  against  him."  He  proceeded  undaun- 
tedly, notwithstanding,  in  the  strenuous  discharge  of 
what  he   deemed   his  duty ;  rather  animated   than   dis- 


STILLINGFLEET.  491 

couraged  by  the  favour  which  the  Romish  sect  received 
at  court. 

A  sermon  which  he  preached  about  the  time  of  the 
Popish  plot,  in  which  his  object  was  to  unite  the  Dissen- 
ters in  the  common  cause,  by  persuading  them  to  quit 
their  separation  from  the  estabhshed  Church,  involved  him 
in  a  controversy  with  Baxter,  Owen,  and  others  of  that 
party,  who  were  not  likely  to  concur  in  his  position,  that 
"  since,  according  to  the  judgment  of  divers  among  them- 
selves, a  conformity  to  our  church's  worship  was  not 
unlawful,  by  consequence  their  separation  must  be  sinful 
and  dangerous."  Their  strictures  upon  his  sermon  drew 
from  him  a  reply,  entitled,  "  The  Unreasonableness  of 
Separation  :  or  an  impartial  Account  of  the  History, 
Nature,  and  Pleas  of  the  present  Separation  from  the 
Communion' of  the  Church  of  England,"  1681  and  1683. 

The  extent  of  learning  and  powers  of  investigation 
possessed  by  this  eminent  divine  were  farther  manifested 
by  two  publications,  the  first  of  which  was  written  on 
occasion  of  the  impeachment  of  the  Earl  of  Danby,  when 
a  discussion  arose,  whether  bishops  ought  to  be  permitted 
to  vote  at  that  trial.  He  thereupon  wrote  a  treatise  on 
"  The  Jurisdiction  of  Bishops  in  capital  Cases,"  in  which 
he  maintained  the  affirmative  of  the  question  by  argu- 
ments which  proved  him  to  be  extraordinarily  versed  in 
parliamentary  history,  and  common  and  statute  law. 
The  second  was  a  work  published  in  1685,  entitled 
"  Origines  Britannicse,  or  the  Antiquities  of  the  British 
Churches,"  fol.  ;  a  performance  of  wide  and  profound 
research,  giving  a  view  of  the  origin  and  progress  of 
Christian  Churches  in  Britain,  from  the  first  introduction 
of  Christianity  in  the  island,  to  the  conversion  of  the 
Saxons.  It  is  however  to  be  observed,  that  Dr.  Stilling- 
fleet  was  not  the  first  who  exercised  himself  in  enquiries 
on  this  topic,  and  that  much  of  the  ground  had  been 
cleared  by  the  learned  Archbishop  Usher,  in  his  work 
"  De   Ecclesiarum   Britannicarum    Primordiis."     When 


4^  STILLINGFLEET. 

King  James  had  instituted  an  ecclesiastical  commission, 
Stillingfleet,  who  had  long  been  prolocutor  of  the  Lower 
House  of  Convocation,  was  summoned  to  appear  before 
it ;  on  which  occasion  he  drew  up  a  "  Discourse  con- 
cerning the  Illegality  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission, 
in  answer  to  the  Vindication  and  Defence  of  it ;  not 
published  however,  till  1089. 

At  the  revolution,  the  merits  of  this  eminent  clergy- 
man towards  the  Church  of  England  were  recognized  by 
his  promotion  to  the  episcopal  bench  as  Bishop  of  Wor- 
cester, to  which  see  he  was  consecrated  in  October, 
1694.  In  this  station  he  zealously  engaged  in  the 
dischage  of  his  professional  duties,  instructing  and 
admonishing  his  clergy  in  several  learned  charges, 
which  were  printed,  correcting  abuses  in  his  courts, 
and  defending  the  rights  of  his  order  by  speeches  in 
parliament.  On  the  death  of  Archbishop  Tillotson,  in 
1694,  there  was  an  intention  of  advancing  him  to  the 
See  of  Canterbury,  the  Queen  being  very  desirous  of 
that  measure,  through  veneration  for  his  character  and 
attainments ;  but,  according  to  Bishop  Burnet,  the 
Whigs  opposed  it  from  the  apprehension  "  that  both 
his  notions  and  his  temper  were  too  high."  The 
Socinians  and  Unitarians  being  at  the  time  assiduous 
in  propagating  and  defending  their  opinions,  the  Bishop 
of  Worcester  thought  it  his  duty  to  appear  again  as  an 
asserter  of  orthodoxy  :  he  accordingly  reprinted  his 
"  Discourse  concerning  the  True  Reason  of  the  Suffering 
of  Christ ;  "  and  afterwards  published  a  *'  Vindication 
of  the  Trinity,  with  an  Answer  to  the  late  Objections 
against  it  from  Scripture,  Antiquity,  and  Reason."  In 
this  last  piece  he  was  induced  to  make  some  animadver- 
sions on  Locke's  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding, 
conceiving  that  the  definition  of  substance,  and  the  notion 
of  ideas,  contained  in  that  celebrated  work,  were  unfavour- 
able to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Locke  was  the  idol 
of  the  Metaphysicians  during  the  last  century,  and  it 


STILLINGFLEET.  493 

was  then  the  fashion  of  those  who  read  the  Philosopher 
without  understanding  him,  as  well  as  of  those  who 
Bincerely  embraced  his  system,  to  represent  the  Bishop  as 
having  been  defeated  by  the  philosopher  in  the  contro- 
versy which  ensued.  In  the  present  day,  by  most 
thinking  persons  the  bishop  is  regarded  as  right  and  the 
philosopher  in  error. 

Bishop  Stillingfleet's  constitution,  though  naturally 
strong,  gave  way  to  repeated  attacks  of  the  gout,  fostered 
by  his  studious  sedentary  life,  and  he  died  on  March  27th, 
1699,  having  nearly  completed  his  64th  year. 

The  principal  works  of  Stillingfleet  are  : — Irenicum  ; 
A  Weapon  Salve  for  the  Church's  Wounds,  4to,  1659  ; 
Origines  Sacree,  or  a  Eational  Account  of  the  Christian 
Faith,  as  to  the  Truth  and  Divine  Authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, &c.  4to,  1662 ;  A  Rational  Account  of  the 
Grounds  of  the  Protestant  Religion,  being  a  Vindication 
of  the  Lord  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  Relation  of  a 
Conference  between  him  and  John  Fisher,  &c.  fol.,  1664; 
Tracts  in  Reply  to  Strictures  on  the  '  Vindication,'  &c.  ; 
Six  Sermons,  fol.,  1669  ;  A  Discourse  concerning  the  true 
Reason  of  the  Sufferings  of  Christ,  fol.,  1669,  a  second 
part  afterwards  appeared ;  A  Discourse  concerning  the 
Idolatry  practised  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  &c.,  8vo, 
1671 ;  Answer  to  several  Treatises,  occasioned  by  that 
work,  8vo,  1673  ;  Conferences  between  a  Romish  Priest, 
a  Fanatic  Chaplain,  and  a  Divine  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, concerning  Idolatry,  &c.  8vo,  1679  ;  Answers  to 
some  Papers  lately  printed,  concerning  the  Authority  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Matters    of  Faith,  &c.  4to.  1686. 

The  papers  referred  to  in  this  tract  were  said  to  have 
been  written  by  Charles  the  Second.  Dryden,  recently  a 
servile  convert  to  Popery,  wTote  a  defence  of  them,  to 
which  Stilhngfleet  replied. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  Transubstantiation 
compared,  4to,  1686. 

Numerous  other  treatises  relating  to  this  controversy, 

VOL.  VIII.  u  u 


4  94  STONHOUSE. 

were  published  by  him,  about  this  time,  in  rapid 
succession. 

The  Council  of  Trent  examined,  and  disproved  by 
Catholic  Tradition,  &c.  4to,  1688;  The  Unreasonable- 
ness of  Separation,  &c,  4to,  1681 ;  The  grand  Question 
concerning  the  Bishops'  Right  to  vote  in  Parliament,  in 
Cases  capital,  &c.  Svo,  1 680  ;  Origines  Britannicae,  or  the 
Antiquities  of  the  British  Churches,  fol.,  1685  ;  A  Dis- 
course concerning  the  Illegality  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commission,  &c.  1689  ;  Discourse  in  Vindication  of  the 
Trinity,  &c.  1696. 

This  was  a  defence  of  his  '  Discourse  on  the  Sufferings 
of  Christ ' — the  controversy  occasioned  by  that  publica- 
tion having  been  revived  by  the  appearance  of  a  new 
edition.  Several  other  tracts  were  also  put  forth  by  him 
against  the  Socinians. 

Correspondence  with  Mr.  Locke,  1697,  1698;  Eccle- 
siastical Cases,  1698  ;  Sermons  on  some  of  the  principal 
Doctrines  of  the  Christian  Religion,  8vo,  1696. 

Many  other  tracts  (some  of  them  sent  forth,  in  the 
first  instance,  anonymously)  were  included  in  his  works, 
published  by  his  son,  in  six  volumes,  in  folio,  1710. 

The  same  editor  likewise  gave  to  the  public.  Miscellane- 
ous Discourses,  1735. — Goodwins  Life,  1710.  Cattermole, 


STONHOUSE,    SIR    JAMES. 

Sir  James  Stonhouse  was  born  in  1716  at  Tubney,  near 
Abingdon  in  Berkshire.  He  was  a  Wykehamist,  and  pro- 
ceeded from  Winchester  to  St.  Jobn's  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  took  his  M.B.  degree  in  1742,  and  M.D.  in 
1745.  He  rose  to  eminence  as  a  physician,  first  in  the 
ancient  city  of  Coventry,  and  afterwards  at  Northampton. 
He  succeeded  to  a  baronetcy  late  in  life,  by  the  death  of 
his  collatual  relation,  Sir  James  Stonhouse,  of  Radley. 
After  he  had  practiced  as  a  physician  at  Northampton 


STRATFORD.  495 

for  twenty  years,  having  laboured  in  the  cause  of  virtue 
and  reUgion  and  having  succeeded,  not  without  much 
opposition,  in  estabUshing  an  infirmary,  he  determined  to 
seek  holy  orders  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Hereford  acceded  to  his  proposal.  In  1764, 
he  was  presented  to  the  living  of  Little  Cheverell,  and 
in  1779,  to  that  of  Great  Cheverell,  where  he  became 
very  pojDular  as  a  preacher.  He  died  in  1795.  Among 
other  ways  of  doing  good,  he  was  convinced  that  the  dis- 
persion of  plain  and  familiar  tracts  on  important  subjects 
was  one  of  the  most  important ;  and  he  accordingly  wrote 
several  of  these,  some  of  which  were  adopted  by  the 
Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge.  His  cor- 
respondence was  published  in  1805,  2  vols.  r2mo,  with 
the  title,  Letters  from  the  Rev.  Job  Orton  and  the  Rev. 
Sir  James  Stonhouse,  &c. — Orton  s  Letters.      Gent.  Mag. 


STEATFORD,    NICHOLAS. 

Nicholas  Steatford  was  born  at  Hemel  Hempstead,  in 
Hertfordshire,  in  1683,  and  was  a  fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Oxford.  He  was  Warden  of  Manchester,  and  in 
1673,  Dean  of  St.  Asaph.  In  1689,  he  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Chester.  He  died  in  1707.  Besides  some 
occasional  sermons,  and  a  charge  to  his  clergy,  his  works 
were  chiefly  levelled  at  the  doctrines  of  Popery,  in  which 
controversy  he  published.  Discourse,  concerning  the 
necessity  of  Reformation,  with  respect  to  the  Errors  and 
Corruptions  of  the  Church  of  Rome  ;  Discourse  on  the 
Pope's  Supremacy,  in  answer  to  Dr.  Godden ;  The  Peo- 
ple's Right  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures  asserted ;  The 
Lay-Christian's  Obligation  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures ; 
and,  Examination  of  Bellarmin's  fourteenth  note  con- 
cerning the  Unhappy  End  of  the  Church's  Enemies,  &c. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  and  most  zealous  promoters  of 
the  Societies  estabhshed  in   the  beginning  of  the    last 


496  STRYPE. 

century  for  the  reformations  of  manners.  For  an  account 
of  which  see  the  Life  of  Bishop  Beveridge. — Wood. 
Nicolsons  Letters. 


STEYPE,     JOHN. 

To  this  venerable  compiler,  reference  has  been  con- 
tinually made  in  these  volumes,  and  in  our  Lives  of 
the  Reformers  and  our  historical  notices  of  the  refor- 
mation copious  extracts  have  been  made  from  his  works 
The  history  of  his  happy  peaceful  life  is  soon  told. 
He  was  born  in  the  parish  of  Stepney  in  1643,  and 
having  been  educated  at  St.  Paul's  School,  London, 
removed  in  1662,  to  Jesus  College,  Cambridge.  In 
1669,  he  was  nominated  to  the  perpetual  Curacy  of 
Theydon  Boys  in  Essex,  but  he  held  it  only  for  a  few 
months,  having  been  appointed  to  Low  Leyton  in  the 
same  county,  a  living  which  he  possessed  till  the  time 
of  his  death.  Soon  after  he  came  to  reside  at 
Low-Ley  ton,  he  obtained  access  to  the  valuable  manu- 
scripts of  Sir  Michael  Hickes,  knight,  once  of  Ruck- 
holt's  in  this  parish,  and  secretary  to  William  Lord 
Burleigh,  and  began  from  them,  some  of  those 
collections  which  he  afterwards  published.  It  appears 
however,  that  he  extended  his  inquiries  much  further^ 
and  procured  access  to  every  repository  where  records 
of  any  kind  were  kept ;  made  numerous  and  indeed, 
voluminous  transcripts,  and  employed  many  years  in 
comparing,  collating,  and  verifying  facts,  before  he 
published  anything.  At  the  same  time  he  carried  on 
an  extensive  correspondence  with  Archbishop  Wake, 
and  the  Bishops  Atterbury,  Burnet,  Nicolson,  and  other 
eminent  clergymen  or  laymen,  who  had  a  taste  for  the 
same  researches  as  himself.  Towards  his  latter  days, 
he  had  the  sinecure  of  Terring,  in  Sussex,  given  him 
by  Archbishop  Tenison,  and  was  lecturer  of  Hackney» 


SUAREZ.  497 

till  1724,  when  he  resigned  that  lecture.  When  he 
became  old  and  infirm,  he  resided  at  Hackney  with  Mr. 
Harris  apothecary,  who  had  married  his  granddaughter, 
and  there  he,  died  Dec.  11,  1737,  at  the  very  advanced 
age  of  ninety  four,  one  instance  at  least,  that  the  most 
indefatigable  literary  labour  is  not  inconsistent  with 
health. 

His  publications  were: — The  second  volume  of  Dr. 
John  Lightfoot's  works,  1684,  fol. ;  Life  of  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  1694,  fol. ;  The  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith, 
1698,  8vo ;  Lessons  for  Youth  and  Old  Age,  1699, 
12mo ;  The  Life  of  John  Elmer,  Bishop  of  London, 
1701,  8vo;  The  Life  of  Sir  John  Cheke,  1705,  8vo; 
Annals  of  the  Reformation,  4  vols;  vol.  1.  1709,  (re- 
printed 1725;  vol.  2.  1725;  vol.  3.  1728;  vol.  IV. 
1731, ;  Life  of  Archbishop  Grindal,  J  710,  fol.  :  Life  and 
Letters  of  Archbishop  Parker,  1711,  fol;  Life  of  Arch- 
bishop Whitgift,  1718,  folio:  An  accurate  edition  of 
Stow's  Survey  of  London,  1720,  2  vols,  folio,  for  which 
he  was  eighteen  years  collecting  materials:  Ecclesias- 
tical Memorials,  1721,  3  vols.  fol.  ;  He  also  published 
a  sermon  at  the  assizes  at  Hertford,  July  8,  1689;  and 
some  other  single  sermons,  in' 1695,  1699,  1707,  1711, 
1724.  He  kept  an  exact  diary  of  his  own  life,  which 
was  once  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Harris ;  and  six 
volumes  of  his  literary  correspondence,  were  lately  in 
the  possession  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Knight  of  Milton,  in 
Cambridgeshire.  The  materials  for  many  of  his  works, 
part  of  the  Lansdowne  library,  are  now  in  the  British 
Museum.  A  complete  edition  of  Strype's  works  has 
been  published  by  the  University  of  Oxford,  with  a 
valuable  index  in  two  volumes. — Biog.  Brit,  hysoris 
Environs. 

SUAREZ,    FRANCIS. 

Fr.\ncis  Suarez,  a  Spanish   Jesuit,  from  whose  works, 
u  u  3 


498  SUTCLIFFE. 

the  most  pernicious  immoralities,  of  that  sect  can  h6 
extracted,  was  born  at  Granada,  in  1548,  and  was 
educated  at  Salamanca.  He  filled  several  professorships 
of  his  order,  and  was  so  voluminous  a  writer,  that  his 
works  extended  to  twenty-three  volumes  folio.  He  died 
in  1615.  The  Jesuits  consider  Suarez  as  the  greatest 
and  best  scholastic  divine  their  order  has  produced,  and 
lavish  the  highest  encomiums  upon  him.  He  was  the 
principal  author  of  the  system  of  Congruism,  which  is 
at  bottom  only  that  of  Molina.  Father  Noel,  a  French 
Jesuit,  made  an  abridgment,  of  the  works  of  this 
commentator,  which  was  published  at  Geneva,  in 
1732,  fol. 

SUICEE,    JOHN    CASPAR. 

This  learned  divine  to  whose  Thesaurus  the  student 
of  divinity  is  so  deeply  indebted,  and  which  supplies 
the  place  of  a  Patristic  library,  was  born  in  1620,  at 
Zurich,  in  Switzerland.  He  studied  at  Montauban,  and 
having  first  acted  as  pastor  to  a  congregation  of  the 
Eeformed  Church,  he  became  in  1660,  professor  of 
Hebrew  and  Greek  in  the  university  of  his  native  town. 
He  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Greek  Fathers. 
He  died  in  1684.  His  principal  work  is  that  to  which 
allusion  has  been  made,  and  is  entitled,  Thesaurus 
Ecclesiasticus  e  Patribus  Graecis,  ordine  Alphabetico, 
exhibens  qusecunque  Phrases,  Eitus,  Dogmata,  Hsereses. 
et  hujusmodi  alia  hue  spectant,  Amsterdam,  1682, 
2  vols.  fol. ;  best  edition,  Amsterdam,  1728,  2  vols.  fol. 
with  a  supplement  by  his  son.  This  work  is  said 
to  have  been  the  fruit  of  twenty  years'  labour.  He 
also  wrote  a  work  on  the  Nicene  Creed ;  a  Greek 
Syntax;  and  a  Greek  and  Latin  Lexicon. — Moreri. 


SUTCLIFFE,    MATTHEW. 

Of  the  year  or  place   of  Sutcliffe's   birth,   there  is  no 


SUTCLIFFE.  499^ 

account.  It  is  only  known,  that  he  was  educated  at 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  in  1586  he  was  made 
Archdeacon  of  Taunton  and  in  1588,  Dean  of  Exeter. 
He  projected  a  college  of  polemical  divines  to  be 
employed  in  opposing  the  doctrines  of  Papists  and 
"  Pelagianizing  Arminians,"  and  others,  that  draw 
towards  Popery  and  Babylonian  slavery,  &c."  Prince 
Henry  was  a  zealous  friend  to  it :  the  king  consented 
to  be  deemed  the  founder ;  called  the  college  after  his 
own  name,  "  King  James's  College,  at  Chelsea;"  endowed 
it  with  the  reversion  of  certain  lands  at  Chelsea,  which 
were  fixed  upon  for  its  site ;  laid  the  first  stone  of  the 
building ;  gave  timber  out  of  Windsor  Forest ;  issued 
his  royal  letters  to  encourage  his  subjects  throughout 
the  kingdom  to  contribute  towards  the  completion  of 
the  structure  ;  and,  as  a  permanent  endowment,  pro- 
cured an  act  of  parliament  to  enable  the  college  to 
raise  an  annual  rent,  by  supplying  the  city  of  London 
with  water  from  the  river  Lea.  It  appears  by  the 
charter  of  incorporation,  dated  May  8,  1010,  that  the 
college  consisted  of  a  provost  and  twenty  fellows,  eighteen 
of  whom  were  required  to  be  in  holy  orders  ;  the  other 
two,  who  might  be  either  laymen  or  divines,  were  to  be 
employed  in  writing  the  annals  of  their  times.  Sutcliffe 
himself  was  the  first  provost;  Camden  and  Haywood 
the  first  historians ;  and  among  the  fellows  we  find  the 
well-known  names  of  Overall,  Morton,  Field,  Abbot, 
Howson,  Spencer,  Boys.  &c. 

Sutcliffe  devoted  his  time  and  property  to  this  great 
work,  but  after  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1629,  the 
undertaking  failed.  The  chief  of  his  works  are: — A 
Treatise  of  Ecclesiastical  Discipline ;  De  Presbyterio, 
ejusque  nova  in  Ecclesia  Christiana  Politeia ;  De  Tnrco- 
Papismo,  or,  on  the  Resemblance  between  Mahometanism 
and  Popery;  De  Purgatorio,  adversus  Bellarminum; 
De  Versa  Christi  Ecclesia;  De  Missa,  adversus  Bellar- 
minum; The    laws   of  Armes;    Examination  of  Cartr 


500  SYNESIUS.  ^ 

Wright's  Apology,  1596,  4to;  and  many  other  works^ 
enumerated  in  the  Bodleian  catalogue,  of  the  controversial 
kind,  against  Bellarmine,  Parsons,  Grant,  and  other 
Popish  propagandists. — Fuller,  hyson.  Faulkner  s  History 
of  Chelsea. 


SYNESIUS. 

Synesius  was  born  at  Cyrene,  in  Africa,  at  the  close 
of  the  fourth  century.  Under  Hypatia,  the  female 
philosopher  of  the  Platonic  School  of  Alexandria,  and 
under  the  eminent  mathematicians  Theon,  Pappus  and 
Hero,  he  received  that  education  in  philosophy  for 
which  more  than  for  his  Christianity  he  was  celebrated. 
He  became  distinguished  for  his  learning  as  much  as 
for  his  noble  birth.  The  Church  of  England  has  for 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  complained  of  the 
unworthy  motives  which  have  frequently  influenced  the 
ministers  of  the  Crown,  in  forcing  unfit  or  unworthy 
persons  into  the  episcopal  sees.  The  abuse  of  power 
is  always  to  be  lamented,  and  judicious  reforms  to 
guard  against  the  despotism  which  is  part  of  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  human  heart,  are  to  be  desired.  But  no 
reform  will  prevent  the  occurence  of  abuses  under  any 
system.  And  the  reader  of  ecclesiastical  history  will 
not  fail  to  remember  how  bad  were  frequently  the  epis- 
copal appointments,  when  they  were  the  results  of  popular 
election  under  ecclesiastical  influence.  This  was  the 
case  with  Synesius;  he  was  certainly  a  heretic  and 
scarcely  a  believer  in  Christianity,  yet  a  bishopric  was 
forced  upon  him,  even  when  he  was  not  yet  in  holy 
orders. 

About  the  year  420,  the  people  of  Ptolemais  applied 
to  Theophilus  of  Alexandria  for  a  bishop,  and  Synesius 
was  appointed  and  consecrated,  though  he  declared, 
that  he  would  not  renounce  his  philosophical  pursuits, 


SYNGE.  501 

that  he  believed,  that  the  souls  of  men  existed  before 
their  bodies,  that  the  world  would  never  end,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  resurrection  of  the  body.  Theophilus 
overruled  these  objections  to  the  confirmation  of  the 
bishop  elect,  maintaining  that  a  man  whose  life  and 
manners  were  in  every  respect  so  exemplary  could  not 
long  be  a  bishop,  without  being  enlightened  with 
heavenly  truth.  He  is  said  to  have  become  orthodox 
in  his  late  years,  and  it  is  certain  that  being  a  married 
man  and  living  in  his  episcopal  palace,  with  his  wife, 
he  so  ordered  his  family  as  to  render  it  a  model  to 
his  diocese  which,  in  an  age  when  the  celibacy  of  the 
clergy  though  not  insisted  upon,  was  growing  into 
fashion,  was  very  advantageous.  The  year  of  his 
death  is  not  known.  There  are  extant  of  Synesius, 
several  writings  on  different  topics,  and  155  epistles, 
all  in  Greek.  One  of  these  is,  An  Oration  concerning 
Government,  or  the  Art  of  Reigning,  pronounced  before 
Arcadius  when  he  was  deputy  from  Gyrene.  A  singular 
and  ingenious  piece  of  his,  is  entitled,  The  praise  of 
Baldness,  in  which,  he  has  enlivened  that  apparently 
barren  subject  with  many  amusing  remarks  and  images. 
He  wTote,  Homilies  which  are  much  commended ;  and 
Ten  Hymns,  formed  of  a  most  singular  mixture  of 
Christian  truths,  poetic  images,  and  new  Platonic 
dreams.  The  best  edition  of  his  whole  works  is  that 
of  Petau,  Greek  and  Latin,  fol.  Paris,  1612. — Dupin. 
Cave. 


SYNGE,     EDWARD. 

Of  this  prelate,  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  he  belonged 
to  an  ancient  family,  to  which  the  name  of  Synge 
(sing)  was  given,  by  Henry  VIII.  The  ancestor  of 
the  bishop  was  a  chorister,  of  Rochester  Cathedral,  and 
on  the  occasion  of  Henry  Vlll.th's  attending  the  service 


502  SYNGE. 

of  that  cathedral,  the  chorister  sang  so  well,  that  his 
majesty  was  pleased  to  direct  that  he  should  henceforth 
bear  the  name  of  Synge.  It  is  presumed,  that  the 
chorister  was  more  skilled  in  music,  than  in  orthography 
and  the  ancient  name  was  retained,  when  the  family 
became  eminent.  Edward  Synge  was  the  son  of  a  bishop, 
the  nephew  of  a  bishop,  and  the  father  of  two  bishops. 
He  was  the  second  and  youngest  son  of  Edward,  Bishop 
of  Cork,  and  was  born  April  5,  1659,  at  Inishonane,  a 
village  about  ten  miles  from  Cork.  His  father  was, 
at  that  time,  vicar  of  the  place,  and  had  boldly  dared  to 
use  "the  liturgy,  during  the  time  of  the  usurpation, 
notwithstanding  the  severe  prohibition  of  the  dominant 
dissenting  faction  to  the  contrary.  From  the  school 
at  Cork,  Edward  Synge  went  to  Christ  Church  Oxford, 
where  he  graduated,  he  then  repaired  to  the  University 
of  Dublin,  where  he  finished  his  studies.  After  offici- 
aiing  as  a  parish  priest  for  twenty  years,  at  Cork,  he 
became  Chancellor  of  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  with  which 
situation  he  held  the  living  of  St.  Werburgh's,  in  that 
city.  In  ]  714,  he  was  made  Bishop  of  Raphoe  ;  and 
in  1716,  he  was  translated  from  thence  to  the  Arch- 
bishopric of  Tuam. 

Very  soon  after  his  translation,  he  voluntarily  and 
generously  gave  up  the  quarter-archiepiscopal  parts, 
which  his  predecessors  had  enjoyed  for  a  long  time. 
These  were  originally  that  portion  of  oblations,  which, 
before  the  institution  of  parishes,  was  reserved  to  the 
bishop  for  his  maintenance ;  the  other  three  parts  being 
employed  for  the  support  of  the  inferior  clergy,  the 
repairing  fabrics  of  churches,  and  the  sustenance  of 
the  poor.  After  the  institution  of  parishes,  the  tithes 
were  distributed  for  a  time  in  the  same  way.  But  when 
bishoprics  came  to  be  endowed  with  lands  and  other, 
firm  possessions,  then  the  bishops,  to  encourage  a 
quick  foundation  of  churches,  and  to  establish  a  better 
provision  for  the    resident  clergy,  tacitly  receded   from 


SYNGE.  503 

their  quarter  part.  This  portion  the  Archbishop  of 
Tuam,  and  his  suffragan  bishops,  were  originally  entitled 
to,  as  well  as  the  rest,  in  their  respective  bishoprics, 
to  make  up  a  sufficient  revenue  for  the  support  of  the 
dignity  of  their  places.  At  the  Reformation,  the  Conaught 
clergy  became  more  poorly  provided  for  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  kingdom  which  was  partly  occasioned 
by  lay-impropriations,  partly  for  want  of  a  settled  form 
of  tithing,  and  partly  by  the  quarter-episcopals,  which 
gave  the  bishops,  a  fourth  part  of  the  tithes  of  most 
of  the  parishes  in  their  dioceses ;  and  that,  with  the 
impropriator's  right  to  two  parts,  left  the  clergy  but  a 
fourth,  a  poor  and  miserable  maintenance.  The  bishops 
of  that  province  were  not  much  better  provided  for,  and 
without  the  quarter-episcopals  would  have  been  in  as 
mean  a  condition  as  the  rest  of  the  clergy.  The  Arch- 
bishopric of  Tuam,  for  instance,  was  reduced  to  £160  per 
annum. 

In  1836,  the  then  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  jointly  with 
the  Bishops  of  Elphin,  Clonfert,  and  Killala,  petitioned 
King  Charles  I.  to  grant  them  such  lands  as  they 
could  by  good  proof,  or  strong  probability,  shew  to 
have  belonged  to  their  sees :  or  which  they  had  an 
equitable  right  to ;  and  that  were  withheld  from  them 
by  unjust  pretences,  to  the  end  they  might  be  enabled 
to  maintain  themselves  with  their  own  lands,  without 
the  episcopal  quarter-part  of  tithes,  any  great  addition 
of  charge  to  the  king,  or  the  plurality  of  commendams. 
This  petition,  through  the  hearty  concurrence  of  the 
Lord  Deputy  Wentworth,  met  with  a  favourable  recep- 
tion. But  the  ensuing  rebellion,  in  1641,  hindered  the 
final  and  happy  settlement  of  that  affair. 

Good  Archbishop  Synge,  at  the  meeting  of  the  next 
parliament  after  his  consecration,  took  care  to  have  an 
act  passed,  in  1717,  for  divesting  his  see  for  ever  of  the 
said  quarter-episcopal  part,  and  for  settling  the  same 
on  such  rectors,  vicars,  or  curates,  as  do  personally  dis- 


504  TANNER. 

charge  the  respective  cures  within  the  dioceses  of  Tuam 
and  Enaghdune.  He  also  procured  a  clause  in  that  act, 
to  enable  him  to  demise  a  share  of  the  demesne  lands 
of  the  archbishopric,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  by  law 
could  demise  other  lands,  not  demesne,  belonging  thereto, 
at  the  rent  of  three-fourths  of  the  full  yearly  value. 

He  died  in  1741.  Several  of  his  tracts  are  circulated 
by  the  Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge.  They 
have  been  published  in  four  volumes,  12 mo. 


TANNER,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Tanner  was  born  in  1674,  at  Market  Lavington, 
in  Wiltshire.  He  entered  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  in 
1689,  and  became  first  a  chaplain  and  then  a  fellow  of  All 
Souls.  In  1701,  he  was  Rector  of  Thorpe,  and  in  1721, 
was  made  an  archdeacon  in  the  diocese  of  Norwich.  In 
1713,  he  obtained  a  prebend  in  the  Cathedral  of  Ely, 
which  he  resigned  on  being  appointed  to  a  canonry  of 
Christ  Church,  in  1723.  He  was  elected  prolocutor  of 
the  Convocation  of  1727,  and  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  St.  Asaph,  in  1732.  He  died  in  1735.  The  work 
which  first  brought  him  into  notice  was  his  Notitia 
Monastica,  or  a  short  account  of  the  Religious  Houses 
in  England  and  Wales  which  was  published  in  1695. 
He  also  ipublished  a  second  edition  of  Wood's  Athense 
Oxonienses,  much  corrected  and  enlarged,  with  the 
addition  of  more  than  500  new  Lives  from  the  author's 
Original  Manuscript,  London,  1721,  2  vols.  fol. 

Wood,  on  his  death-bed  had  made  a  present  to 
Tanner,  then  a  fellow  of  All  Souls',  of  his  papers,  con- 
taining a  continuation  of  his  work.  Dr.  Tanner  left 
ready  for  the  press  a  large  work,  founded  on  his  Notitia, 
bearing  the  following  title,  Notitia  Monastica,  or,  an 
Account  of  all  the  Abbies,  Priories,  and  Houses  of 
Friers,  heretofore  in  England  and  Wales,   and  also  of 


TAULER.  505 

all  the  Colleges  and  Hospitals  founded  before  1540. 
This  was  published  by  his  brother,  the  Rev.  John  Tanner, 
London,  1744,  fol.  A  third  edition,  considerably  im- 
proved by  the  Rev.  James  Nasmith,  was  published  at 
Cambridge,  in   1787,  fol. 

Bishop  Tanner  had  likewise  prepared  for  the  press 
Bibliotheca  Britannico-Hibernica ;  sive  de  Scriptoribus 
qui  in  Anglia,  Scotia,  et  Hibernia,  ad  Saeculi  XVIL 
initium  floruerunt,  literarum  ordine,.  juxta  familiarum 
nomina,  dispositis,  Commentarius.  This  work,  the  fruit 
(with  the  former)  of  forty  years  application,  was  pub- 
lished in  1748,  fol.  under  the  care  of  Dr.  David  Wilkins, 
who  prefixed  a  long  and  learned  preface.  Bishop  Tanner 
was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Antiquarians. — Wood. 
Biog.  Brit. 


TAULEE,    OR   TAULERUS. 

John  Tauler,  or  Taulerus,  was  a  native,  either  of 
Cologne  or  of  Strasbourg,  and  was  born  about  the  year 
1294.  He  was  a  Dominican  monk,  and  became  a 
popular  preacher.  He  flourished  at  a  period,  when  the 
credit  and  influence  of  the  scholastic  system,  was 
declining ;  and,  when  a  disposition  to  mysticism  arose 
out  of  a  feeling  of  disgust  for  the  unmeaning  verbal 
disputes  of  the  schools,  mysticism  was  preached  with 
ardour  by  John  Tauler,  who  acquired  the  title  of 
the  Illuminated  Doctor.  He  died  at  Strasbourg  in 
1361.  The  celebrated  work  entitled  Theologia  Germa- 
nica,  which  was  admired  by  Dr.  Henry  More,  and 
was  translated,  into  German,  first,  by  Luther,  and 
then  by  Ardnt,  has  been  attributed  to  Tauler.  But 
this  can  hardly  be  correct,  for  Tauler  is  in  that 
work  referred  to  as  an  authority.  The  first  edition  of 
his  sermons  appeared  at  Leipsic,  1498,  4to.  This 
edition  was  followed  by  another  at  Augsburg,  1508,  fol., 

VOL.  VIII.  X  X 


506  TAUSEN. 

and  a  more  complete  one  at  Basle,  1521,  fol.  A  trans- 
lation of  these  sermons,  into  the  dialect  of  Lower 
Germany,  was  published  at  Halberstadt,  in  1523,  fol. 
and  another  into  High  German  by  P.  J.  Spener,  at 
Nuremburg,  1688,  4to.  A  new  edition  in  modern  High 
German  was  published  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  in 
3  vols.  8vo,  1825.  His  Nachfolgung  des  armen  Lebens 
Christi,  was  first  printed  at  Frankfort  in  1621.  The 
most  recent  edition  is  that  by  Schlosser,  Frankfort, 
1833.  A  collection  of  all  the  treatises  of  Tauler,  was 
commenced  in  1823,  at  Lucerne,  by  N.  Casseder. — 
Tennemann.     Biog.   Universelle. 


TAUSEN,  OH  TAGESEN,  JOHN. 

John  Tausen  or  Tagesen,  was  born  at  Birkendi  in  the 
Island  of  Funen,  in  1494.  He  was  educated  at  Aarhuus, 
and  Odensa.  Becoming  a  monk,  he  entered  into  a  con- 
vent of  the  order  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem  at  Antwors- 
kow.  Having  obtained  leave  to  travel,  he  visited  Lou- 
vain  and  Cologne,  where  he  became  acquainted  with 
the  writings  of  Luther.  Notwithstanding  a  prohibition 
from  his  prior,  he  afterwards  visited  Wittemberg,  and 
formed  an  acquaintance  with  Melanchthon.  On  his 
return  to  his  native  country,  he  delivered  lectures  in 
theology  in  the  University  of  Copenhagen,  and  in  1524, 
avowed  himself  a  disciple  of  Luther.  His  course  of 
conduct  naturally  gave  offence  to  his  former  friends, 
especially  the  monks,  and  having  been  expelled  from 
one  convent  he  was  imprisoned  in  another.  But  he 
continued  to  preach  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth, 
and  after  undergoing  some  hardships,  he  was  in  1526, 
appointed  chaplain  to  Frederick  I.,  King  of  Denmark, 
and  gathered  a  large  congregation  at  Wiborg.  Here, 
to  protect  themselves  from  the  violence  of  the  papists, 
Ijis    followers    were    obliged    to    go    to    church  armed. 


TAYLOR.  5  07 

He  was  appointed  to  the  Church  of  St.  Nicholas  at 
Copenhagen  in  1529,  where  he  remained  till  1537, 
preaching  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  and  defending 
them  against  the  attacks  of  the  Papists.  In  1537,  he 
was  appointed  theological  professor  at  Roeskilde,  and  in 
1542,  he  was  made  Bishop  of  Ripen.  He  died  in  1561. 
He  published  several  theological  treatises,  and  some 
Danish  Hymns,  besides  a  Danish  translation  of  the 
Psalms.  He  is  sometimes  called  the  Danish  Luther. — 
Biog.   Universelle. 


TAYLOR,    JEREMY. 

This  eminent  divine,  who  is  sometimes  called  the 
Shakspeare  of  theology,  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the 
illustrious  martyr  whose  life  is  given  in  the  succeeding 
article.  He  was  born  in  Trinity  Parish,  Cambridge,  on 
the  15th  of  August,  1613.  His  father  was  a  barber  ; 
but  a  barber  in  those  days  practised  also  in  surgery  and 
pharmacy,  and  took  a  higher  position  in  society  than 
that  which  is  now  assigned  to  the  trade.  This  is  men- 
tioned not  to  detract  from  the  merit  of  Jeremy  Taylor  in 
raising  himself  from  a  low  to  a  high  station  in  life,  but 
to  account  for  the  fact  asserted  by  himself,  that  his 
father  was  "  reasonably  learned,"  and  that  *'  he  solely 
grounded  his  children  in  grammar  and  the  mathe- 
matics." 

From  the  study  of  his  father,  Jeremy  Taylor  passed 
into  the  lecture  room  of  Caius  College,  of  which  he 
was  a  sizar,  and  where  he  graduated  in  1631.  Shortly 
after  his  becoming  master  of  arts,  in  1633,  having 
already  been  admitted  into  holy  orders,  he  was  employed 
by  one  Risden,  who  had  been,  according  to  the  acade- 
mical habits  of  the  time,  his  chamber-fellow,  and  who  was 
now  lecturer  in  St,  Paul's  Cathedral,  to  supply  his  place 
for  a  short  time  in  that  pulpit,  where  his  graceful  person 


508  TAYLOR. 

and  elocution,  together  with  the  varied  richness  of  his 
style  and  argument,  and,  perhaps,  tlie  singularity  of  a 
theological  lecturer  of  twenty  years  of  age,  very  soon 
obtained  him  friends  and  admirers.  He  was  spoken  of 
in  high  terms  to  Laud,  who  had  then  recently  left  the 
See  of  London  for  that  of  Canterbury. 

He  sent  for  Taylor  to  preach  before  him  at  Lambeth, 
and  made  use  of  the  influence  he  possessed  as  visitor 
of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford,  to  obtain  for  him  a  fellow- 
ship in  that  house.  The  proceeding  appears  to  have 
been  irregular,  and  as  such,  was  opposed  by  the  warden, 
the  celebrated  Sheldon,  but  the  great  majority  of  the 
fellows  co-operated  with  the  archbishop,  and  felt  them- 
selves honoured  by  admitting  into  their  society  a  young 
man  who,  if  not  "  bene  natus,"  was  more  than  "  medio- 
criter  doctus." 

He  was  soon  after  appointed  chaplain  to  Charles 
L,  having  been  already  made  chaplain  to  Archbishop 
Laud,  and  in  1638,  he  was  presented  by  Bishop  Juxon  to 
the  Rectory  of  Uppingham,  in  Rutlandshire.  During 
this  time  he  is  said  by  Wood  to  have  first  become  the 
object  of  a  suspicion,  which,  however  undeserved,  con- 
tinued through  life  to  haunt  him,  of  a  concealed  attach- 
ment to  the  Romish  communion.  Such  a  report  was 
almost  sure  to  be  raised  at  the  expense  of  any  man 
whom  Laud  esteemed  and  promoted.  And  if  Taylor 
had  already  adopted  his  ascetic  notions  of  piety,  his 
profound  veneration  for  antiquity,  and  his  attachment 
to  the  picturesque  and  poetical  features  of  religion,  he 
would  be  only  the  more  likely  to  incur  a  charge  which 
in  a  more  advanced  period  of  his  life,  and  while  con- 
tending against  the  errors  of  Popery,  he  solemnly 
declared  to  have  been  always  unfounded  and  slanderous. 
Being  a  young  man,  and  also  unsuspicious,  he  seems 
at  this  time  to  have  lived  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
Christopher  Davenport,  a  wily  Franciscan,  who  assumed 
the  title  of  Francis  a  Sancta  Clara.     He  was  a  learned 


TAYLOR.  509 

man,  and  having  been  unable  to  refute  the  arguments 
of  young  Taylor,  sought  to  damage  his  character  by 
representing  him  as  being  inclined  to  apostatize  to 
Popery.  Doubtless  in  those  days  as  in  these  the  Papists 
had  agents  in  the  Church  of  England,  whose  business 
it  was  to  lead  astray  the  ignorant,  and  to  misrepresent 
and  malign  those  who  were  true  and  consistent  members 
of  the  Church  of  England,  especially  if  they  were  of  a 
generous  disposition  and  liberal  character. 

At  Uppingham  he  continued  to  reside  until  1642.  In 
May,  1639,  he  married  Phoebe  Landisdale,  orLangsdale, 
by  whom  he  had  four  sons  and  three  daughters.  In 
1642,  he  produced  his  Episcopacy  Asserted  against  the 
Acephali  and  Aerians  New  and  Old,  which  was  pub- 
lished at  Oxford  by  the  king's  command.  This  is  dedi- 
cated to  Sir  Christopher  Hatton,  afterwards  Lord  Hatton 
of  Kirkby,  whose  son  he  afterwards  assisted  in  preparing 
an  edition  of  the  Psalms,  according  to  the  authorized 
version,  which  appeared  in  1644,  entitled.  The  Psalter 
of  David,  with  Titles  and  Collects  according  to  the 
matter  of  each  Psalm,  by  the  Right  Hon.  Christopher 
Hatton. 

The  outrageous  proceedings  of  the  Presbyterian  party 
had  already  produced  a  considerable  revulsion  of  the 
national  feeling  in  favour  of  Episcopacy,  and  Taylor  took 
high  ground  in  his  "  Episcopacy  asserted."  We  may 
quote  the  following  passage  from  his  Introduction: — 
"  Antichrist  must  come  at  last,  and  the  great  apostasy 
foretold  must  be,  and  this  not  without  means  proportion- 
able to  the  production  of  so  great  declensions  of  Christi- 
anity. '  When  ye  hear  of  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  be 
not  afraid,'  says  our  blessed  Saviour,  '  the  end  is  not  yet' 
It  is  not  war  that  will  do  '  this  great  work  of  destruction ;' 
for  then  it  might  have  been  done  long  ere  now.  What 
then  will  do  it  ?  We  shall  know  when  we  see  it.  In 
the  meantime,  when  we  shall  find  a  new  device,  of  which, 
indeed,  the  platform  was  laid,  in  Aerius  and  the  Ace- 
xx3 


510  TAYLOR. 

phali,  brought  to  a  good  possibility  of  completing  a  thing, 
that  whosoever  shall  hear,  his  ears  shall  tingle,  '  an 
abomination  of  desolation  standing  where  it  ought  not,' 
'  in  sacris,'  in  holy  persons,  and  places,  and  offices,  it  is 
too  probable  that  this  is  the  preparatory  for  the  Anti- 
christ, and  grand  apostasy. 

"  For  if  Antichrist  shall  exalt  himself  above  all  that  is 
called  God,  and  in  Scripture  none  but  kings  and  priests 
•are  such,  '  dii  vocati,  dii  facti,'  I  think  we  have  great 
reason  to  be  suspicious,  that  he  that  divests  both  of  their 
power,  (and  they  are,  if  the  king  be  Christian,  in  very 
near  conjunction,)  does  the  work  of  Antichrist  for  him  ; 
especially  if  the  men  whom  it  most  concerns  will  but  call 
to  mind,  that  if  the  discipline  or  government  which  Christ 
hath  instituted  is  that  kingdom  by  which  He  governs  all 
Christendom,  (so  themselves  have  taught  us,)  when  they 
(to  use  their  own  expressions)  throw  Christ  out  of  His 
kingdom  ;  and  then  either  they  leave  the  Church  without 
a  head,  or  else  put  Antichrist  in  substitution. 

"  We  all  wish  that  our  fears  in  this  and  all  things  else 
may  be  vain,  that  what  we  fear  may  not  come  upon  us;  but 
yet  that  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy  is  the  forerunner,  and 
preparatory  to  the  great  Apostasy,  I  have  these  reasons  to 
show,  at  least,  the  probability.     First,  &c.  *  *  * 

''Sections  2  and  3.  This  government  was  by  immediate 
substitution  delegated  to  the  Apostles,  by  Christ  Himself, 
*  in  traditione  clavium,  in  spiratione  Spiritus,  in  missione 

in  Pentecosto  ' This  power  so  delegated,  was  not  to 

expire  with  their  persons  ;  for  when  the  great  Shepherd 
had  reduced  His  wandering  sheep  into  a  fold.  He  would 
not  leave  them  without  '  guides  to  govern'  them,  so  long 
as  the  wolf  might  possibly  prey  upon  them,  and  that  is, 
till  the  last  separation  of  the  sheep  from  the  goats.  And 
this  Christ  intimates  in  that  promise,  «  Ero  vobiscum 
(Apostolis)  usque  ad  cosummationem  seculi.'  '  Vobiscum  ;' 
not  wMth  your  persons,  for  they  died  long  ago  :  but 
'  vobiscum  et  vestri  similibus,'  with  Apostles  to  the  end 


TAYLOR.  511 

of  the  world.  And,  therefore,  that  the  Apostolate  might 
be  successive  and  perpetual,  Christ  gave  them  a  power  of 
Ordination,  that  by  imposing  hands  on  others,  they  might 
impart  that  power  which  they  received  from  Christ." 

In  August,  164'2,  when  Charles  I.  went  to  Oxford, 
Taylor  was  called  upon  to  attend  him  in  his  capacity  of 
chaplain,  and  was  there  honoured  with  a  doctor's  degree; 
but  in  the  same  year,  his  living  of  Uppingham  was 
sequestered  by  the  parliament.  It  is  probable  that  he 
retired  into  Wales,  either  in  the  summer  of  1645,  or  the 
spring  of  the  following  year. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  he  contracted  his  second 
marriage.  His  second  wife  was  a  Mrs.  Joanna  Bridges, 
who  was  possessed  of  a  competent  estate  at  Mandinam, 
in  tbe  parish  of  Llanguedor,  and  county  of  Carmarthen. 
Her  mother's  family  is  unknown ;  but  she  was 
generally  believed  to  be  a  natural  daughter  of  Charles 
the  First,  when  Prince  of  Wales,  and  under  the  gui- 
dance of  the  dissipated  and  licentious  Buckingham. 
That  the  martyr's  habits  of  life,  at  that  time,  were 
extremely  different  from  those  which  enabled  him,  after 
a  twenty  years'  marriage,  to  exult,  while  approaching 
the  scaffold,  that,  during  all  that  time,  he  had  never, 
even  in  thought,  swerved  from  the  fidelity  which  he 
owed  to  his  beloved  Henrietta  Maria,  there  is  abun- 
dant reason  to  believe;  nor  are  the  facts,  by  any  means, 
incompatible. 

When  the  Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster  pub- 
lished their  Directory,  which  abolished  the  usual  forms 
of  prayer,  Taylor  published  A  Discourse  concerning 
Prayer  Extempore,  or  by  Pretence  of  the  Spirit,  in 
Justification  of  authorised  and  set  Forms  of  Liturgie. 
This  was  printed  in  1646.  It  had  been  preceded, 
probably  about  1644,  by  An  Apology  for  authorised  and 
set  Forms  of  Liturgy  against  the  Pretence  of  the  Spirit. 
While  in  Wales,  he  was  obliged  to  maintain  himself  and 


hV2  TAYLOR. 

his  family  by  keeping  school  at  Newton,  in  Carmar- 
thenshire, where  he  was  assisted  by  Mr.  Nicholson, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  and  Mr.  Wyat,  of  St. 
John's  College,  Oxford,  afterwards  prebendary  of  Lincoln; 
and  they  jointly  produced,  in  1647,  a  New  and  Easie 
Institution  of  Grammar,  London,  12mo.  Taylor  found 
also  a  generous  patron  in  Richard  Vaughan,  Earl  of 
Carbery,  who  resided  at  Golden  Grove,  the  seat  of  his 
ancestors,  in  the  parish  of  Llanfihangel  Aberbythick, 
near  Llandillo  Fawr,  in  Carmarthenshire.  Into  this 
hospitable  family  he  was  received  as  chaplain.  The 
first  fruit  of  the  learned  quiet  he  now  enjoyed  was  his 
Liberty  of  Prophesying,  1647,  4to,  written  in  behalf 
of  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  were  now 
generally  excluded  from  their  benefices,  and  forbidden 
to  minister  according  to  her  Liturgy. 

The  next  work  was  one  of  greater  bulk,  and  far  more 
extensive  popularity,  (the  first,  perhaps,  of  his  writings 
which  was  speedily  and  widely  popular,)  The  Life  of 
Christ ;  or,  the  great  Exemplar. 

Of  the  three  parts  into  which  this  splendid  work  is 
divided,  each  has  a  separate  dedication ;  an  engine  of 
harmless  flattery,  which  Taylor  was  too  grateful,  or  too 
poor,  to  omit  any  fair  opportunity  of  employing.  The 
first  is  inscribed  to  his  friend.  Lord  Hatton,  and  the 
second  to  Mary,  Countess  of  Northampton ;  whose  hus- 
band, Spencer  Compton,  Earl  of  Northampton,  had, 
as  it  appears  from  some  of  Taylor's  expressions,  been 
engaged,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  (which  took  place 
in  the  battle  at  Hopton  Heath,  on  the  royal  side,)  in  a 
work  of  a  similar  character.  The  third,  in  the  first 
edition,  was  dedicated  to  Frances  Lady  Carbery;  and 
after  her  death,  another  dedication  was  added,  in  the 
third  edition,  to  her  successor,  the  Lady  Alice  Egerton. 

This  work  is  still  read  with  profit  and  delight  by  the 
student  of  divinity,  and  as  a  specimen  of  that  union 
of  learned  orthodoxy  with  a  devotional  spirit  by  which  it 


TAYLOR.  613 

is  distinguished,  we  present  the  reader  with  the  following 
notice  of  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism.  '*  In  Baptism  we  are 
born  again  ;  and  this  infants  need  in  the  present  circum- 
stances, and  for  the  same  great  reason  that  men  of  age 
and  reason  do.  For  our  natural  birth  is  either  of  itself 
insufficient,  or  is  made  so  by  the  fall  of  Adam,  and  the 
consequent  evils,  that  nature  alone,  or  our  first  birth, 
cannot  bring  us  to  heaven,  which  is  a  supernatural  end, 
that  is,  an  end  above  all  the  power  of  our  nature  as  now 
it  is.  So  that  if  nature  cannot  bring  us  to  heaven,  grace 
must,  or  we  can  never  get  thither ;  if  the  first  birth  can- 
not, a  second  must :  but  the  second  birth  spoken  of 
in  Scripture  is  baptism  ;  '  a  man  must  be  born  of 
water  and  the  Spirit.'  And  therefore  baptism  is  Xovtoov 
TraXiyycvecrtas,  '  the  laver  of  a  new  birth.'  Either  then 
infants  cannot  go  to  heaven  any  way  that  we  know  of,  or 
they  must  be  baptized.  To  say  they  are  left  to  God, 
is  an  excuse,  and  no  answer  ;  for  when  God  hath  opened 
the  door,  and  calls  that  the  '  entrance  into  heaven,'  we  do 
not  leave  them  to  God,  when  we  will  not  carry  them  to 
Him  in  the  way  which  He  hath  described,  and  at  the 
door  which  Himself  hath  opened  :  we  leave  them  indeed, 
but  it  is  but  helpless  and  destitute  :  and  though  God  is 
better  than  man,  yet  that  is  no  warrant  to  us ;  what  it 
will  be  to  the  children,  that  we  cannot  warrant  or  conjec- 
ture. And  if  it  be  objected,  that  to  the  new  birth  are 
required  dispositions  of  our  own,  which  are  to  be  wrought 
by  and  in  them  that  have  the  use  of  reason  ;  besides  that, 
this  is  wholly  against  the  analogy  of  anew  birth,  in  which 
the  person  to  be  born,  is  wholly  a  passive,  and  hath  put 
into  him  the  principle  that  in  time  will  produce  its  pro- 
per actions ;  it  is  certain  that  they  that  can  receive  the 
new  birth,  are  capable  of  it.  The  effect  of  it  is  a  pos- 
sibility of  being  saved,  and  arriving  to  a  supernatural 
felicity.  If  infants  can  receive  this  effect,  then  also  the 
new  birth,  without  which  they  cannot  receive  the  effect. 
And  if  they  can  receive  salvation,  the  effect  of  the  new 


5U  TAYLOR. 

birth,  what  hinders  them  but  they  may  receive  that,  that 
is  in  order  to  that  effect,  and  ordained  only  for  it,  and 
which  is  nothing  of  itself,  but  in  its  institution  and  rela- 
tion, and  which  may  be  received  by  the  same  capacity,  in 
which  one  may  be  created,  that  is,  a  passivity,  or  a 
capacity  obediential  ? 

Fourthly:  concerning  pardon  of  sins,  which  is  one 
great  effect  of  baptism,  it  is  certain  that  infants  have  not 
that  benefit,  which  men  of  sin  and  age  may  receive.  He 
that  hath  a  sickly  stomach,  drinks  wine,  and  it  not  only 
refreshes  his  spirits,  but  cures  his  stomach  :  he  that 
drinks  wine,  and  hath  not  that  disease,  receives  good  by 
his  wine,  though  it  does  not  minister  to  so  many  needs  ; 
it  refreshes  though  it  does  not  cure  him  :  and  when  oil  is 
poured  upon  a  man's  head,  it  does  not  always  heal  a 
wound,  but  sometimes  makes  him  a  cheerful  countenance, 
sometimes  it  consigns  him  to  be  a  king,  or  a  priest.  So 
it  is  in  baptism  :  it  does  not  heal  the  wounds  of  actual 
sins,  because  they  have  not  commited  them;  but  it  takes 
off  the  evil  of  original  sin  :  whatsoever  is  imputed  to  us 
by  Adam's  prevarication,  is  washed  off  by  the  death  of 
the  second  Adam,  into  which  we  are  baptized." 

In  October,  1650,  he  lost  his  valuable  patroness  the 
Countess  of  Carbery,  and  delivered  a  funeral  sermon  on 
that  occasion,  which  was  published  the  same  year. 
Previous  to  the  death  of  the  countess,  he  had  been 
occupied  in  writing  his  Rule  and  Exercises  of  Holy 
Dying,  and  several  sermons  preached  by  him  at  Golden 
Grove.  These,  with  the  addition  of  the  funeral  sermon 
lately  delivered,  and  a  Discourse  of  the  Divine  Insti- 
tution, Necessity,  and  Sacredness  of  the  Office  Minis- 
terial, he  published  in  1651.  In  1652,  he  published 
A  Short  Catechism  composed  for  the  use  of  the  school 
in  South  Wales,  which  he  afterwards  reprinted  under 
the  head  '  Credenda,'  in  his  Golden  Grove,  and  again,  in 
1655,  considerably  enlarged,  In  the  same  year  he 
pubUshed  a  Discourse  on  Baptism,  its  Institution,  and 


TAYLOR  615 

Efficacy  upon  all  Believers  ;  which  was  followed  in  1653 
by  another  collection  of  Twenty-five  Sermons.  These 
Sermons,  with  ten  others,  preached  after  the  Restoration, 
were  republished  in  fol.  In  1654,  he  published  The 
Real  Presence  and  Spiritual  of  Christ  in  the  blessed 
Sacrament,  proved  against  the  doctrine  of  Transub- 
stantiation.  This  was  followed  in  the  next  year  by  his 
Unum  Necessarium,  or  the  Doctrine  and  Practice  of 
Repentance.  In  this  work  he  had,  as  its  title  implies, 
expressed  himself  concerning  the  nature  of  original  sin, 
and  the  extent  of  man's  corruption,  in  a  manner,  if  not 
unprecedented  and  unwarrantable,  at  least  at  variance 
with  the  opinion  of  Christians  in  general,  and  more 
particularly  of  the  Protestant  Churches  ;  and  he  appears 
to  have  felt,  and  not  without  reason,  considerable  anxiety 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  his  work  would  be  received 
by  them.  From  the  Calvinists  he  neither  expected  nor 
wished  for  approbation ;  but,  in  order  to  conciliate  the 
favour  or  soften  the  opposition  of  the  members  of  his 
own  communion,  a  single  dedication  did  not  appear 
sufficient.  Beside  an  epistle  to  Lord  Carbery,  he  has 
introduced  his  treatise  with  a  preface  inscribed  to  the 
Bishops  of  Salisbury  and  Rochester,  and  the  rest  of 
the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  which  he 
strenuously,  though  with  many  expressions  of  humility 
and  submission  to  his  spiritual  superiors,  exculpates 
himself  from  the  charge  of  heresy,  or  of  holding  Ian 
guage  inconsistent  with  the  liturgy  and  articles  of 
religion. 

This  apology  was  not  however  thought  sufficient,  and 
considerable  alarm  was  excited  among  the  orthodox 
clergy,  not  only  by  the  supposed  danger  of  the  doctrine 
thus  advanced,  but  by  the  scandal  to  which  their  per- 
secuted Church  would  be  exposed,  if  the  charge  of 
Pelagianism,  so  often  brought  against  it,  should  re- 
ceive support  from  the  writings  of  one  of  its  most 
distinguished  champions.     Warner  addressed  him  in  st, 


516  TAYLOR. 

private  letter  of  expostulation  and  argument,  of  which 
we  now  know  nothing  except  through  the  answer.  The 
venerable  Sanderson,  too,  (who,  though  honoured  and 
courted  by  the  ruling  party,  had  relinquished,  for  con- 
science sake,  the  chair  of  regius  professor  of  divinity 
in  Oxford,)  though  he  had  by  this  time  abandoned  the 
high  Calvinistic  interpretation  of  the  articles  which  in 
his  earlier  life  he  had  defended,  is  said  to  have  deplored, 
with  much  warmth,  and  even  with  tears,  this  departure 
from  the  cautious  and  Scriptural  decision  of  the  Church 
of  England  ;  and  to  have  bewailed  the  misery  of  the 
times,  which  did  not  admit  of  suppressing,  by  authority, 
so  perilous  and  unseasonable  novelties. 

About  this  time  he  was  in  confinement  in  Chepstow 
Castle,  on  suspicion  of  having  been  concerned  in 
the  insurrection  of  the  royalists  at  Salisbury.  In 
the  beginning  of  1657,  he  went  to  London,  where  he 
officiated  to  a  private  congregation  of  royalists.  In  1657, 
he  collected  several  of  his  smaller  pieces,  with  collateral 
improvements,  into  a  folio  volume,  and  published  them 
under  the  title  of  A  Collection  of  Polemical  and  Moral 
Discourses ;  adding  two  hitherto  unpublished,  a  Dis- 
course on  Friendship,  and  Two  Letters  to  Persons 
changed  in  their  Religion.  In  the  same  year  he  was 
induced  by  Lord  Conway  to  take  up  his  residence  at 
Portmore,  the  mansion  of  that  nobleman  in  the  county 
of  Antrim.  Here  he  wrote  his  Ductor  Dubitantium, 
or  the  Rule  of  Conscience  in  all  her  general  measures ; 
serving  as  a  great  instrument  for  the  determination  of 
Cases  of  Conscience,  1660,  fol.  This  was  dedicated  to 
Charles  II. 

In  the  spring  of  1660,  he  went  to  London,  where  he 
subscribed  the  declaration  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  that 
adhered  to  the  late  king  in  and  about  that  city ;  and 
when  the  vacant  sees  were  filled  up.  Bishop  Lesley  was 
promoted  to  that  of  Meath,  and  Taylor  succeeded  him  in 
that  of  Down  and  Connor.     He  was  also  made  one  of 


TAYLOR.  «1T 

the  Irish  privy  council.  Before  he  left  London  he  pub- 
lished his  book  on  the  Sacrament,  entitled  The  Worthy 
Communicant,  &c.  On  his  return  to  Ireland  he  was 
chosen  vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Dublin.  On 
opening  the  parliament  in  May,  1661,  he  preached  before 
the  members  of  both  houses  at  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral, 
and  his  sermon  was  printed  at  London,  in  4to.  The 
same  year,  on  the  translation  of  Dr.  Robert  Lesley  to  the 
see  of  Raphoe,  the  king,  by  grant  of  June  21,  committed 
to  the  Bishop  of  Down  and  Connor  the  administration 
of  the  see  of  Dromore ;  which  he  held  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  Finding  the  choir  of  the  Cathedral 
of  Dromore  in  ruins,  he  undertook  to  rebuild  it.  In  the 
same  year  he  held  a  visitation  at  Lisnegarvy;  at  which 
he  issued  Rules  and  Advices  to  the  Clergy  of  his 
diocese  for  their  deportment  in  their  personal  and  public 
capacities. 

In  1663,  he  published  Three  Semaons  which  he  had 
preached  in  the  Cathedral  of  Christ  Church,  Dublin; 
Eleven  Sermons,  preached  since  the  Restoration;  and  a 
Discourse  on  Confirmation.  In  July,  1663,  he  preached 
the  funeral  sermon  of  Dr.  John  Bramhall,  Archbishop  of 
Armagh.  In  the  same  year,  at  the  request  of  the  Bishops 
of  Ireland,  he  published  A  Dissuasive  from  Popery, 
addressed  to  the  people  of  Ireland.  A  second  part  was 
published  after  his  death.  He  had  also  begun  a  Dis- 
course on  the  Beatitudes,  when  he  was  attacked  by  a 
fever,  which  carried  him  off  in  ten  days,  at  Lisburn, 
August  13,  1667,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He 
was  interred  in  the  choir  of  the  Cathedral  of  Dromore. 

His  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by  his  friend  Dr. 
Rust,  who  succeeded  him  in  the  see  of  Dromore,  the 
conclusion  of  whose  Sermon  we  may  be  permitted  to 
quote.  "  This  great  prelate  had  the  good  humour 
of  a  gentleman,  the  eloquence  of  an  orator,  the  fancy 
of  a  poet,  the  acuteness  of  a  school-man,  the  profound- 
ness of  a  philosopher,  the  wisdom  of  a  counsellor,  the 

VOL.  VIII.  Y  z 


518  TAYLOR,  ROWLAND. 

sagacity  of  a  prophet,  the  reason  of  an  angel,  and  the 
piety  of  a  saint ;  he  had  devotion  enough  for  a  cloister, 
learning  enough  for  an  university,  and  wit  enough  for  a 
college  of  virtuosi :  and,  had  his  parts  and  endowments 
been  parcelled  out  among  his  poor  clergy  that  he  left 
behind  him,  it  would,  perhaps,  have  made  one  of  the 
best  dioceses  in  the  world." 

The  works  of  Bishop  Taylor  are  too  many  to  enume- 
rate here.  They  were  collected  and  published  in  fifteen 
volumes,  8vo.,  in  1828,  with  a  Life  of  the  Author,  by 
Bishop  Heber.  There  is  an  edition  now  passing  through 
the  press  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Eden,  the  learned  vicar  of  Aber- 
ford,  in  Yorkshire,  late  fellow  of  Oriel  College. — Rust. 
Heber.     Bonny. 


TAYLOR,    ROWLAND. 

Where  this  holy  martyr  was  born  or  in  what  year  is 
unknown.  It  has  been  supposed  that  he  was  a  York- 
shireman.  He  was  educated  at  Cambridge  and  became 
the  Head  of  Border  Hostle,  near  to  Caius  College.  Here 
he  commenced  doctor  of  Laws.  He  was  presented  by 
Archbishop  Cranmer,  to  the  Rectory  of  Hadley,  in 
Suffolk.  The  times  were  corrupt  and  it  is  mentioned 
to  his  credit  that  at  his  first  entering  into  his  benefice, 
he  did  not  as  the  common  sort  of  beneficed  men  do,  let  out 
his  benefice  to  a  farmer,  that  should  gather  up  the  profits, 
and  set  in  an  ignorant  unlearned  priest  to  serve  the 
Cure,  and  so  they  may  have  the  fleece,  little  or  nothing 
care  for  feeding  the  flock.  But  contrarily  he  forsook 
the  Archbishop  of  Conterbury,  Thomas  Cranmer,  with 
whom,  he  before  was  in  household,  and  made  his 
personal  abode  and  dwelling  at  Hadley  among  the 
people  committed  to  his  charge.  Where  he  was  a  good 
shepherd,  abiding  and  dwelling  among  his  sheep,  gave 


TAYLOR,  ROWLAND.  519 

himself  wholly  to  the  study  of  Holy  Scriptures,  most 
faithfully  endeavouring  himself  to  fulfil  that  charge, 
which  the  Lord  gave  unto  Peter,  saying;  Peter  lovest 
thou  me  ?  Feed  my  lambs :  Feed  my  sheep  :  feed  my 
sheep.  This  love  of  Christ  so  wrought  in  him,  that 
no  Sunday  nor  holyday  passed,  nor  other  time  when 
he  might  get  the  people  together,  but  he  preached 
to  them  the  Word  of  God,  the  doctrine  of  their 
salvation . 

In  1553,  the  Papists  being  again  dominant  in  the 
Church,  he  was  summoned  to  appear  in  London  before 
Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  lord  high-chancellor, 
having  resisted  the  performance  of  the  Popish  mass  at 
Hadley.  It  is  said  that  Gardiner  was  stimulated  in 
this  instance  by  feelings  of  avarice  as  well  as  of  bigotry, 
as  he  desired  to  obtain  possession  of  the  Taylor  estate 
at  Frampton,  which  would  revert,  on  Dr.  Taylor's 
condemnation,  to  the  crown.  He  defended  his  cause 
with  firmness,  and  was  committed  to  the  King's  Bench 
prison,  where  he  remained  till  the  22nd  of  January, 
1555,  when  he  was  sentenced  to  be  burnt.  The  execution 
took  place  on  the  8th  of  February,  1555,  on  Aldham 
Common,  near  Hadley.  There  is  nothing,  says  Bishop 
Heber,  more  beautiful  in  the  whole  beautiful  Book  of 
Martyrs,  than  the  account,  which  Fox  has  given  of 
Rowland  Taylor,  whether  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty 
as  a  parish  priest,  or  in  the  more  arduous  moments 
when  he  was  called  on  to  bear  his  cross  in  the  cause 
of  religion.  His  warmth  of  heart,  his  simplicity  of 
manners,  the  total  absence  of  the  false  stimulants  of 
enthusiasm  or  pride,  and  the  abundant  overflow  of  better 
and  holier  feelings,  are  delineated  no  less  than  his 
courage  in  death,  and  the  buoyant  cheerfulness,  with 
which  he  encountered  it,  with  a  spirit  only  inferior  to 
the  eloquence  and  dignity  of  the  Phsedon,  Something 
indeed,  must  be  allowed  for  the  manners  of  the  age, 
before  we  can  be  reconciled  to  the  coarse  vigour  of  his 


620  TAYLOE,  JOHN. 

pleasantry,  his  jocose  menace  to  Bonner,  and  his  jests 
with  the  sheriff  on  his  own  stature  and  corpulency. 
But  nothing  can  be  more  delightfully  told,  than  his 
refusal  to  fly  from  the  lord-chancellor's  oflScers ;  his 
dignified,  yet  modest  determination  to  await  death  in 
the  discharge  of  his  duty;  and  his  affectionate  and 
courageous  parting  with  his  wife  and  children.  His 
recollection,  when  led  to  the  stake,  of  "  the  blind  man 
and  woman,"  his  pensioners,  is  of  the  same  delightful 
character, ;  nor  has  Plato,  any  thing  more  touching 
than  the  lamentation  of  his  parishioners  over  his  dis- 
honoured head,  and  long  white  beard,  and  his  own 
meek  rebuke  to  the  wretch  who  drew  blood  from  that 
Ysnerable  countenance. — Fuller.     Fox.     Heher. 


TAYLOR,    JOHN. 

Taylor  John,  a  dissenting  minister,  was  born  in  1694,  at 
or  near  Lancaster,  He  received  his  education  at  White- 
haven under  Dr.  Dixon  and  other  teachers,  and  in  1715, 
was  nominated  by  one  of  the  Disney  family  to  the  Chapel 
of  Kirkstead,  in  Lincolnshire,  a  cure  exempt  from  all 
episcopal  jurisdiction,  and  which,  from  the  latter  end  of 
the  preceding  century,  had  been  occupied  by  dissenting 
ministers.  Here  he  kept  a  school,  and  after  eighteen 
years  removed  to  a  dissenting  meeting  house,  in  Norwich, 
and  obtained  a  doctor's  degree  in  Scotland.  After  offici- 
ating some  years  to  a  congregation  at  Norwich,  he  went 
to  Warrington  as  tutor  in  the  academy.  He  died  there 
in  1761.  His  works  are — 1.  The  Scripture  Doctrine  of 
Original  Sin.  2.  A  Paraphrase  on  the  Romans.  3.  The 
Scripture  Doctrine  of  Atonement.  4.  An  Hebrew  and 
English  Concordance,  2  vols,  folio.  3.  A  Sketch  of 
Moral  Philosophy. — Gen.  Biog,  Diet, 


TENISON.  621, 


TENISON,    THOMAS. 


Thomas  Tenison,  was  born  at  Cottenhan,  in  Cambridge- 
shire. He  received  his  primary  education  at  the  Gram- 
mar School  at  Norwich,  and  proceeded  thence  to 
Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  gradu- 
ated in  1656 — 7.  His  father  had  been  a  sufferer 
under  the  rebellion  for  his  loyalty  to  the  king  and  his 
faithfulness  to  the  Church,  and  the  son  was  not  willing, 
therefore,  to  become  a  preacher  under  the  Independents, 
when  that  sect  being  in  the  ascendant  tolerated  no  reli- 
gion but  their  own.  He  therefore  pursued  the  medical 
profession.  But  on  the  prospect  of  the  Reformation  he 
betook  himself  to  the  study  of  divinity,  and  was  ordained 
privately  at  Richmond,  in  Surrey,  by  Dr.  Duppa,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury.  He  became  fellow  of  his  College  in  1662, 
and  held  the  cure  of  St.  Andrew  the  Great,  in  Cambridge. 
Here  he  remained  faithfully  doing  his  duty,  when  the 
Plague  broke  out,  and  all  who  bad  no  claim  of  duty  upon 
them  quitted  the  University.  So  faithfully  did  he  dis- 
charge his  duty,  that  before  he  quitted  that  cure  his 
parishoners  voted  him  a  piece  of  plate, — a  compliment 
less  common  at  that  time  than  at  present.  In  1667, 
he  obtained  a  Rectory  in  Huntingdonshire  from  the 
Earl  of  Manchester,  who  made  him  his  chaplain. 
He  first  appeared  as  an  author  in  1670,  in  a  work 
entitled,  "  The  Creed  of  Mr.  Hobbes  examined,  in  a 
feigned  Conference  between  him  and  a  Student  in  Divi- 
nity." In  1674,  he  was  chosen  principal  minister  to  the 
church  of  St.  Peter's  Mancroft,  Norwich  :  and  in  1678,  he 
published  a  "  Discourse  of  Idolatry ;"  and  in  the  following 
year,  "  Baconiana,"  or  some  pieces  of  the  great  Lord 
Verulam,  with  a  general  account  of  his  writings.  Being 
one  of  the  royal  chaplains  in  1680,  he  took  the  degree  of 
D.D.,  and  was  presented  by  the  King  to  the  vicarage 
of  St.  Martin'sin-the-fields,  London.  As  Whitehall  and 
Y  y3 


52Q  TENTSON. 

the  court  were  in  the  hmits  of  his  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion, he  thought  it  his  duty  to  engage  in  the  foremost 
rank  against  Popery,  the  great  object  of  apprehension 
during  that  and  the  subsequent  reign ;  and  he  wrote  several 
works  in  controversy  with  the  advocates  for  the  Church 
of  Rome,  not  omitting  the  Defence  of  Orthodoxy  against 
Socinianism.  At  the  same  time  he  did  honour  to  his 
station  by  his  liberal  benefactions  to  the  poor,  and  by 
beginning  the  endowment  of  a  charity-school  and  public 
library,  which  he  afterwards  completed.  He  was  selected 
to  prepare  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  for  execution,  and  so 
conducted  himself  as  to  win  the  respect  of  the  Traitor- 
monarch  James  II.,  at  the  very  time  that  he  exerted  him- 
self most  manfully  against  that  monarch's  religion.  He 
appears,  in  truth,  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  tact;  and 
though  not  a  great  divine  or  a  learned  man,  he  was 
generous  and  munificent,  and  conducted  himself  respect- 
ably in  every  station.  As  a  politician,  he  was  not  only  a 
Whig,  but  a  person  ready  to  back  the  Whig  party  in  all 
their  measures.  This  circumstance  added  to  the  medioc- 
rity of  his  talents,  and  his  latitudinarian  notions  in 
Church  matters,  marked  him  out  for  preferment  in  the 
reign  of  William  III.  He  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Lon- 
don, and  was  one  of  the  commissioners  for  altering  the 
Liturgy,  a  design  which  happily  failed  and  of  which  an 
account  will  be  given  in  the  Life  of  Tillotson. 

The  commission,  which  consisted  of  twenty  persons, 
was  appointed  to  prepare  matters  for  the  convocation. 
Tenison's  province  was  to  collect  the  words  and  expres- 
sions excepted  against  throughout  the  Liturgy,  and  to 
propose  others  more  clear  and  plain  in  their  room,  and 
less  liable  to  objections.  The  original  Papers  of  all  the 
alterations  proposed  by  the  Commissioners,  rested  in  his 
hands  ;  and  he  was  always  cautious  in  trusting  them  out 
of  his  own  keeping,  alleging,  that  if  they  came  to  be 
public,  they  would  give  no  satisfaction  on  either  side,  but 
be  rather  a  handle  for  mutual  reproaches,  as  one  side 


TENISON.  523 

would  upbraid  their  brethren  for  having  given  up  so  much, 
while  the  other  would  justify  their  nonconformity,  because 
those  concessions  were  too  little,  or,  however,  not  yet 
passed  into  a  law.  The  original  book  came  afterwards 
into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Gibson,  late  Bishop  of  London. 

In  1691,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  He 
was  soon  after  offered  the  Archbishopric  of  Dublin,  but 
he  made  it  a  condition  of  his  acceptance  of  it,  that  the 
impropriations  belonging  to  the  estates  forfeited  to  the 
crown  should  all  be  restored  to  their  respective  parish 
Churches.  Although  the  King  thought  this  reasonable 
there  were  found  to  be  difficulties  so  great  that  the  mea- 
sure could  not  be  carried  into  execution,  and  Tenison, 
instead  of  being  translated  to  Dublin  was  raised  to  the 
Metropolitan  See  of  Canterbury,  in  1694.  One  of  his 
first  duties  as  archbishop  was  to  attend  Queen  Mary,  who 
died  of  the  small  pox,  and  to  preach  her  funeral  sermon. 
For  this  sermon  he  was  called  to  task  by  good  Bishop 
Ken,  who  reproached  him  for  not  exhorting  the  Queen  to 
repentance  on  the  ground  of  her  undutiful  conduct  to  her 
father. 

One  of  the  first  steps  taken  by  the  archbishop  was 
to  suggest  to  the  king  the  necessity  of  preserving  and 
restoring  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  he  prevailed 
upon  his  majesty  to  issue  certain  injunctions  to  be  by 
him  communicated  to  the  bishops  and  the  rest  of  the 
clergy.     The  injunctions  commenced  thus  : — 

•'  Most  Reverend  Father  in  God,  our  right  truly  and 
right  entirely  beloved  counsellor,  and  most  reverend 
father  in  God,  we  greet  you  well.  We  being  very 
sensible,  that  nothing  can  more  effectually  conduce  to 
the  honour  and  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  support  of 
the  Protestant  religion,  than  the  protecting  and  main- 
taining of  the  Church  of  England,  as  it  is  by  law 
established,  which  we  are  resolved  to  do  to  the  utmost 
of  our  power,  have  therefore,  upon  mature  deliberation 
with  you  and  other  our  bishops,  by  virtue  of  our  royal 


524  TENISON. 

supreme  authority,  thought  fit,  with  the  advice  of  our 
privy  council,  to  ordain  and  publish  the  following  in- 
junctions : 

"  I.  That  the  34th  and  35th  Canon  concerning  Ordi- 
nation, be  strictly  observed. 

"  II.  That  every  person  to  be  admitted  to  Holy 
Orders,  do  signify  his  name  and  the  place  of  his  abode 
to  the  bishop  fourteen  days  before  he  is  ordained,  to  the 
end  that  inquiry  may  be  made  into  his  life  and  conver- 
sation. And  that  he  appear  at  the  furthest  on  Thursday 
in  Ember-week,  that  so  such,  who  upon  examination 
shall  be  found  fit,  may  have  time  to  prepare  themselves 
by  fasting  and  prayer,  before  the  day  of  ordination. 

"  III.  That  every  bishop  shall  be  well  satisfied,  that 
all  persons  that  are  to  be  ordained  have  a  real  title  with 
a  sufficient  maintenance,  according  to  the  33rd  canon ;  in 
which  matter  we  require  the  bishops  to  use  an  especial  care. 

Then  follow  some  injunctions  relative  to  nonresidents, 
and  curates,  and  the  document  continues  : — 

*'  XL  That  the  bishops  do  use  their  utmost  endea- 
vours to  oblige  their  clergy  to  have  public  prayers  in 
the  church,  not  only  on  Holydays,  but  as  often  as  may 
be  ;   and  to  celebrate  the  Holy  Sacrament  frequently. 

"  XII.  That  the  bishops  shall  require  the  clergy  to 
use  their  utmost  endeavours,  that  the  Lord's  Day  be 
religiously  observed,  that  they  set  a  good  example  to 
their  people,  and  exhort  them  frequently  to  their  duty 
herein. 

*'  XIII.  That  the  bishops  remind  their  clergy  to  visit 
the  sick  frequently ;  and  require  them  to  perform  their 
duty  with  great  care  and  diligence,  according  to  the  67th 
canon. 

"  XIV.  That  the  catechizing  be  duly  performed  ac- 
cording to  the  59th  canon. 

♦'  XV.  That  the  bishops  be  careful  to  confirm,  not 
only  in  their  triennial  visitations,  but  at  other  con- 
venient seasons. 


TENISON.  525 

"  XVI.  That  care  be  taken,  that  the  archdeacons  make 
their  visitations  personally  ;  and  that  as  much  as  may 
be  they  live  between  the  bounds  of  their  jurisdiction, 
and  do  their  duty  according  to  the  canons. 

"  XYII.  That  no  commutation  of  penance  shall  be 
made,  but  by  the  express  order  and  directions  of  the 
bishop  himself,  which  shall  be  declared  in  open  court. 
And  that  the  commutation-money  shall  be  applied  only 
to  pious  and  charitable  uses,  Articidi  pro  Clew,  made  in 
the  year  1584,  and  the  constitution  made  in  the  year 
1597."' 

These  injunctions  were  issued  in  1694,  and  were 
followed  by  a  letter  from  the  archbishop  himself  to  his 
suffragans,  in  1695,  in  which  among  other  things  he 
insists  upon  the  clergy  in  their  prayer  before  the  sermon, 
"  Keeping  to  the  effect  of  the  55th  canon."  He  also  "  com- 
mends to  their  care  the  preaching  of  the  clergy  in  the 
afternoon,  upon  catechetical  heads,  both  that  the  peo- 
ple may  be  better  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  faith, 
and  also  kept  from  other  assemblies."  He  concludes 
with  desiring  that  "  when  any  person  comes  to  you  to 
be  ordained,  you  lay  it  upon  his  conscience,  to  ob 
serve  such  fasting  as  is  prescribed  upon  Ember-days, 
and  to  give  himself  in  most  serious  manner  to  medita- 
tion and  prayer.  After  some  competent  time  after  every 
ordination,  whether  intra  or  extra  Ternpora,  at  least 
between  Michaelmas  or  Christmas,  I  desire  you  to  send 
a  return  under  your  hand,  attested  by  the  archdeacon, 
and  such  other  clergymen  as  assisted  at  the  ordination, 
containing  the  names  and  surnames  of  all  the  persons 
then  ordained ;  the  place  of  their  birth,  their  age,  and 
college  where  they  were  educated,  with  the  degree  they 
have  taken  in  the  university,  the  title  upon  which  they 
were  ordained,  and  upon  whose  letters  demissory,  if  they 
came  out  of  another  diocese  ;  and  to  subjoin  a  particular 
account  of  all  such  as  then  offered  themselves  to  ordina- 
tion, and  were  refused  :   as  also  of  the  reasons  for  which 


526  TENISON. 

they  were  refused.  All  which  I  undertake  and  promise, 
to  cause  to  be  entered  into  a  ledger  book  for  that  purpose. 
By  this  means  counterfeit  orders  may  be  detected ;  men 
who  come  up  for  preferment  may  be  the  better  under- 
stood and  distinguished  ;  and  such  who  have  had  the 
misfortune  either  to  lose  their  orders  or  to  want  them 
here,  upon  any  emergent  occasion  may  be  in  some 
measure  helped. 

"  And  that  the  king  may  be  the  better  enabled  to  give 
you  his  further  assistance,  in  these  and  other  affairs  of 
the  Church,  you  are  desired  and  required  to  comply  with 
his  majesty's  command  to  me  signified,  in  giving  me 
an  account  of  what  has  been  done  in  your  diocese,  in 
pursuance  of  his  injunctions,  when  you  come  next  to 
parliament ;  as  also  of  the  present  state  of  it,  in  as 
particular  a  manner  as  you  well  can  ;  that  such  accounts 
may  be  laid  before  him,  in  order  to  the  supplying  of 
what  is  wanting,  and  rectifying  of  what  is  amiss.  Not 
doubting  of  your  lordship  s  care  and  zeal  in  these  weighty 
matters,  I  recommend  you,  and  all  your  affairs  to  the 
blessing  of  God  Almighty,  and  remain 

Your  very  loving  friend  and  brother, 

Thos.  Cantaur. 

The  reader  is  referred  to  the  lives  of  Sherlock  and 
South  for  the  controversy  originating  with  those  divines 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  The  controversy 
became  so  vehement  that  Archbishop  Tenison  advised 
the  issue  of  the  following  directions  in  the  king's  name: — 

"  Most  Reverend,  and  Right  Reverend  Fathers  in 
God,  we  greet  you  well.  Whereas  we  are  given  to 
understand,  that  there  have  of  late  been  some  differ- 
ences among  the  clergy  of  this  our  realm,  about  their 
ways  of  expressing  themselves  in  their  sermons  and 
writings,  concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  Trinity, 
which  may  be  of  dangerous  consequence,  if  not  timely 
prevented :   We  therefore,  out  of  our  princely  care,  and 


TENISON.  527 

zeal  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace  and  unity  of  the 
Church,  together  with  the  purity  of  the  Christian  faith, 
have  thought  fit  to  send  you  these  following  directions, 
which  we  straightly  charge  and  command  you  to  publish, 
and  to  see  that  they  be  observed  within  your  several 
dioceses. 

"  I.  That  no  preacher  whatsoever,  in  his  sermon  or 
lecture,  do  presume  to  deliver  any  other  doctrine  con- 
cerning the  Blessed  Trinity,  than  what  is  contained  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  is  agreeable  to  the  three  creeds, 
and  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  Religion. 

"  II.  That  in  the  explication  of  this  doctrine  they  care 
fully  avoid  all  new  terms,  and  confine  themselves  to  such 
ways  of  explication,  as  have  been  commonly  used  in  the 
Church. 

"  III.  That  care  be  taken  in  this  matter,  especially  to 
observe  the  fifty-third  canon  of  this  Church,  which  for- 
bids public  opposition  between  preachers  ;  and  that  above 
all  things  they  abstain  from  bitter  invectives,  and  scur- 
rilous language  against  all  persons  whatsoever. 

"  IV.  That  the  foregoing  directions  be  also  observed 
by  those  who  write  any  thing  concerning  the  said 
doctrine. 

"  And  whereas  we  also  understand,  that  divers  per- 
sons who  are  not  of  the  clergy,  have  of  late  presumed, 
not  only  to  talk  and  dispute  against  the  Christian  faith, 
concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  but  also 
to  write  and  publish  books  and  pamphlets  against  the 
same,  and  industriously  spread  them  through  the  king- 
dom, contrary  to  our  known  laws  established  in  this 
realm :  We  do  therefore  strictly  charge  and  command 
you,  together  with  all  other  means  suitable  to  your  holy 
profession,  to  make  use  of  your  authority  according  to 
law,  for  the  repressing  and  restraining  of  all  such 
exorbitant  practices.  And  for  your  assistance  we  will 
give  charge  to  our  judges,  and  all  other  our  civil 
officers,  to  do  their  duty  herein,  in  executing  the  laws 


528  TENISON. 

against  all  such  persons  as  shall  by  these  means  give 
occasion  of  scandal,  discord,  and  disturbance  in  our 
Church  and  kingdom. 

*'  Given  at  our  court  at  Kensington,  the  third  day  of 
February,  1695.  In  the  second  year  of  our  reign  : 
By  his  Majesty's  command. 

Shrewsbury." 

In  1699,  the  Archbishop  addressed  another  letter  to 
the  bishops  of  his  province,  but  it  is  not  worth  transcrib- 
ing, containing  merely  the  most  common-place  directions 
and  exhortations  as  to  their  conduct,  and  mode  of  acting 
at  a  period  of  great  profaneness. 

Tenison,  following  the  example  of  Tillotson,  advised 
King  William  not  to  call  a  convocation,  being  desirous  to 
adopt  those  arbitrary  principles  in  Church  matters  which 
he  repudiated  in  the  affairs  of  State.  Hence  arose  that 
controversy,  for  an  account  of  which  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  Life  of  Atterbury,  to  which  article  he  is  also  referred 
for  a  general  account  of  the  convocations  over  which 
Tenison  presided,  when  at  last  by  public  opinion  he  was 
compelled  to  yield,  and  convocation  was  convened. 

In  1700,  the  archbishop  obtained  a  commission,  au- 
thorizing him,  with  the  Archbishop  of  York,  with  four 
other  prelates,  Burnet,  of  Salisbury ;  Lloyd,  of  Worcester; 
Patrick,  of  Ely  ;  and  Moor,  of  Norwich  ;  to  recommend 
to  his  majesty  proper  persons  for  all  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ments in  his  gift  above  the  value  of  £20  in  the  king's 
books. 

Archbishop  Tenison,  a  man  of  generous  disposition  and 
good  intentions,  felt  deeply  the  want  of  influence  he 
possessed  in  the  Church,  and  the  suspicion  with  which 
he  was  regarded.  Forced  by  a  party  into  a  high  station 
above  his  abilities,  and  to  preside  over  a  Church  which 
he  valued  rather  for  its  political  than  for  its  spiritual  posi- 
tion, he  could  hardly  have  expected  the  support  of  true 
Churchmen ;  but  every  impartial  reader  of  history  will 


TENISON.  52» 

admit  that  the  party  spirit  of  his  opponents  transported 
them  beyond  due  bounds,  and  that  he  deserved  better  treat- 
ment than  he  received.  Besides  the  donations  ah'eady 
mentioned,  he  founded  a  charity  school  at  Lambeth 
for  the  education  of  twelve  poor  girls,  and  another  at 
Croydon.  He  built,  in  1706,  the  episcopal  throne  in 
the  Church  of  Canterbury,  at  the  expense  of  £'244  8s.  2d. 
In  1707,  he  gave  books  to  the  library  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  London,  to  the  value  of  £256  17s.  In  1709, 
he  gave  seventy  guineas  to  the  poor  Palatines.  In  1710, 
he  gave  £30  towards  beautifying  the  parish  Church  of 
Cranbrook,  in  Kent.  In  1713,  he  presented  to  the 
Church  of  Lambeth,  a  velvet  pall,  which  cost  him  £46, 
and  he  had  before  been  a  great  encourager  of  Strype 
in  writing  his  Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,  besides  bearing 
the  expense  of  the  plate  of  his  grace's  figure  prefixed 
thereto.  To  these  must  be  added  his  benefactions  to 
Benet  College,  in  Cambridge,  to  the  amount  of  about 
£3000,  and  to  the  university  £50,  to  advance  printing 
there,  besides  the  copy  of  Dr.  Spencer's  book,  "  De 
Legibus  Hebrseorum." 

By  his  will  he  gave  to  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel,  £1000  towards  the  settlement  of  two  Protes- 
tant bishops,  one  on  the  continent,  the  other  on  one  of 
the  isles  in  North  America.  The  interest  of  which  sum  was 
to  be  given  in  the  meantime  to  such  disabled  missionaries 
of  the  province  of  Canterbury  as  have  discharged  their 
trusts  faithfully.  To  the  governors  of  Queen  Anne's 
bounty  for  the  augmentation  of  five  small  livings  in 
Kent,  £1000.  To  the  corporation  for  the  relief  of  clergy- 
men's widows  and  children,  £500.  To  Bromley  College, 
fifty  guineas,  towards  repairing  the  house,  and  the  like 
sum  to  the  poor  widows  thereof  To  the  French  Pro- 
testant refugees,  £100.  To  the  parish  of  Lambeth,  a 
piece  of  ground  for  a  burying  place,  whereon  his  school 
was  erected.  To  Archbishop  Whitgiffs  Hospital  at 
Croydon,  £100,.  with  £400  to  the  school  founded  there 

VOL.  VIIT.  z    z 


530  TERTU^^^^ 

in  his  life-time.  To  ten  poor  .^^^^^.^  ^^  ^^^ars  in  the 
diocese  of  Canterbury,  £10  ea^^  r^^  those  of  St. 
Martin's-in-the-Fields,  London,  arl,  g^  James's,  West- 
minster, £30  each.  And  to  those  of  -.^^^roft,  Tharston, 
and  Bracon-Ash,  in  Norfolk,  Cottenham  in  '^.ambridge- 
shire,  and  Holywell  in  Huntingdonshire,  £10  eacv..  tJe 
gave  his  fire-engine,  maps,  and  pictures,  in  Lambeth 
house,  to  the  use  of  his  successors ;  and  many  books 
and  papers  to  the  library  there.  To  his  chaplains, 
relations,  and  servants,  &c.  he  made  handsome  bequests ; 
and  to  Dr.  Lilly  Butler,  minister  of  Aldermanbury,  who 
had  many  children,  £50. 

He  thus  deserved  the  character  of  a  munificent  prelate. 
He  lived  to  see  the  great  object  of  his  wishes  accom- 
plished and  the  Protestant  Succession  secured.  He 
crowned  George  I.,  and  died  Dec.  14th,  1715. 

He  wrote  : — The  Creed  of  Mr.  Hobbes  examined  ; 
Discourse  of  Idolatry;  and,  Baconiana,  or  some  pieces 
of  the  great  Lord  Verulam,  with  a  general  account  of 
his  writings. — Memoirs  of  his  Life  and  Times.  Le  Neve. 
Kennet. 


TEETULLIAN,    QUINTUS    SEPTIMTUS    FLOEEKS. 

QuiNTUs  Septimius  Florens  Tertullian,  was  born,  ac- 
cording to  Allix,  in  the  year  145,  or  150,  was  converted 
to  Christianity  about  185  ;  married  in  186 ;  was  admitted 
into  the  Priesthood  192;  adopted  the  opinions  of  Montanus 
about  199;  and  died  220.  But  these  dates  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln  observes  rest  entirely  upon  conjecture.  The 
following  is  the  account  given  of  Tertullian  by  St. 
Jerome  : — 

"  Tertullian  a  presbyter,  the  first  Latin  writer  after 
Victor  and  Appollonius,  was  a  native  of  the  province  of 
Africa  and  city  of  Carthage,  the  son  of  a  proconsular  cen- 
turion :  he  was  a  man  of  a  sharp  and  vehement  temper, 


TERTULLIAN.  63t 

flourished  under  Severus  and  Antoninus  Caracal] a,  and 
wrote  numerous  works,  which,  as  they  are  generally 
known,  I  think  it  unnecessary  to  particularize.  I  saw  at 
Concordia,  in  Italy,  an  old  man  named  Paulus.  He  said 
that,  when  young,  he  had  met  at  Eome  with  an  aged 
amanuensis  of  the  blessed  Cyprian,  who  told  him  that 
Cyprian  never  passed  a  day  without  reading  some  portion 
of  Tertullian's  works,  and  used  frequently  to  say.  Give 
me  my  master,  meaning  Tertullian.  After  remaining  a 
presbyter  of  the  Church  until  he  had  attained  the  middle 
age  of  life,  T  ertullian  was  by  the  envy  and  contumelious 
treatment  of  the  Roman  clergy  driven  to  embrace  the 
opinions  of  Montanus,  which  he  has  mentioned  in  several 
of  his  works  under  the  title  of  the  New  Prophecy ;  but 
he  composed,  expressly  against  the  Church,  the  Treatises 
de  Pudicitia,  de  Persecutione,  de  Jejuniis,  deMonogamia, 
and  six  books  de  Ecstasi,  to  which  he  added  a  seventh 
against  Apollonius.  He  is  reported  to  have  lived  to  a 
very  advanced  age,  and  to  have  composed  many  other 
works  which  are  not  extant." 

In  his  Tract  de  Praescriptione  Haereticorum,  Tertullian 
takes  a  rapid  survey  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  the 
Church.  "  Christ,"  he  says,  "  during  his  residence  on 
earth,  declared  the  purposes  of  his  mission,  and  the  rule 
of  faith  and  practice,  either  publicly  to  the  people  or 
privately  to  the  disciples,  of  whom  he  attached  twelve 
more  immediately  to  his  person,  intending  they  should 
be  the  teachers  of  the  Gentiles.  One  of  them  betrayed 
him ;  but  the  remaining  eleven  he  commanded  to  go  and 
instruct  all  nations,  and  to  baptise  them  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  These  eleven, 
having  added  to  their  number  a  twelfth,  in  the  room  of 
him  who  had  been  cut  off,  and  having  received  the  pro- 
mised effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  which  they  were 
endowed  with  supernatural  powers,  first  preached  the 
Gospel  and  founded  Churches  in  Judea  :  they  then  went 
forth   to   the   Gentiles,   preaching   in  like  manner  and 


532  TERTULLIAN. 

founding  Churches  in  every  city.  From  these  Churches 
others  were  propagated  and  continue  to  he  propagated 
at  the  present  day,  which  are  all  reckoned  in  the  number 
of  Apostolic  Churches.  Moreover  all  these  Churches 
constitute  one  Church ;  being  joined  together  in  the 
unity  of  faith  and  in  the  bond  of  peace." 

He  bears  testimony  also  to  the  distinction  of  orders 
among  the  Clergy.  One  of  his  charges  against  the  Here- 
tics is,  that  they  neglected  this  distinction.  *'  With 
them,"  he  says,  "  one  man  is  a  Bishop  to-day,  another  to- 
morrow :  he  who  is  to-day  a  Deacon,  will  be  to-morrow  a 
Reader ;  he  who  is  a  Priest  to-day,  will  tomorrow  be  a 
Layman,"  In  the  Tracts  de  Baptismo  and  de  Fuga  in 
Persecutione,  the  three  orders  of  Bishops,  Priests,  and 
Deacons  are  enumerated  together;  and  in  the  former  the 
superior  authority  of  the  Bishop  is  expressly  asserted. 

The  episcopal  office,  according  to  Tertullian,  was  of 
Apostolic  institution.  In  the  Tract  de  Prescriptione 
Haereticorum,  he  throws  out  the  following  challenge  to 
the  Heretics.  "  Let  them  shew,"  he  says,  "the  origin  of 
their  Churches  ;  let  them  trace  the  succession  of  their 
Bishops,  and  thus  connect  the  individual  who  first  held 
the  office,  either  with  some  Apostle,  or  som.e  Apostolic 
man  w^ho  always  remained  in  communion  with  the  Church. 
It  is  thus  that  the  Apostolic  Churches  shew  their  origin. 
That  of  Smyrna  traces  its  Bishops  in  an  unbroken  line 
from  Polj^carp,  who  was  placed  there  by  St.  John  :  that 
of  Piome  from  Clemens,  who  was  placed  there  by  St. 
Peter :  and  every  other  Church  can  point  out  the  indi- 
vidual to  whom  the  superintend ance  of  its  doctrine  and 
discipline  was  first  committed  by  some  one  of  the  Apos- 
tles." The  same  statement  is  repeated  in  the  fourth 
Book  against  Marcion. 

For  various  other  quotations  from  Tertullian  condem- 
natory of  the  peculiar  tenets  of  Romanism  and  confirma- 
tory of  Anglican  Protestantism,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Bishop  Kaye's  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  second  and 


TERTULLIAN.  533! 

third  centuries,  illustrated  from  the  writings  of  Tertul- 
lian. 

TertuUian's  most  celebrated  work  is  his  Apologeticus, 
or  Apology  for  the  Christian  Religion.  To  this  work 
different  dates  are  assigned,  from  198  to  205.  It  is 
commonly  supposed  to  have  been  written  before  he 
became  a  Montanist.  Its  object  is  to  show  the  injustice 
of  the  persecutions  inflicted  upon  the  Christians,  and  the 
falsehood  of  the  charges  brought  against  them  ;  and  at 
the  same  time  to  display  the  excellence  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  the  folly  and  absurdity  of  that  of  the 
heathens.  This  is  a  valuable  performance,  containing 
much  information  as  to  the  manners  and  conduct  of  the 
early  Christians,  whom  it  defends  in  a  manly  strain. 
Connected  with  it  are  his  two  books  Ad  Nationes,  in  which 
with  his  characteristic  vehemence,  he  carries  the  attack 
into  the  enemy's  quarters.  This  work  [was  discovered 
in  MS.  by  James  Gothofred,  and  printed  by  him  in 
1625,  4to. 

His  other  extant  works  are,  Liber  ad  Scapulam ; 
De  Fuga  in  Persecutione ;  De  Corona  Militis ;  Ad 
Martyres ;  De  Spectaculis  ;  De  Idololatria ;  De  Testimo 
nio  Animse  ;  Contra  Gnosticos  Scorpiace  :  De  Patientia ; 
De  Oratione  ;  De  Baptismo  ;  De  Poenitentia ;  Libri  Duo 
ad  Uxorem ;  De  Cultu  Feminarum ;  De  Virginibus 
Velandis;  De  Exhortatione  Castitatis ;  DeMonagamia; 
De  Jejuniis  ;  De  Pallio  ;  De  Praescriptionibus  Hseretico- 
rum  ;  Adversus  Marcionem  Libri  V.  ;  Ad  versus  Valenti- 
nianos ;  De  Carne  Christi ;  Adversus  Hermogenem  ; 
Adversus  Praxeam ;  and  Adversus  Judseos.  He  wrote 
other  works,  which  are  lost.  The  best  editions  of  Ter- 
tullian  are  those  of  Rhenanus,  Rigaltius,  and  Semler.  A 
full  account  of  editions  and  illustrative  works  is  given  at 
the  end  of  the  small  edition  of  Tertullian  by  Leopold, 
in  Gersdorfs  Bibliotheca  Patrum  Ecclesiasticorum  Latin- 
orum  Selecta,  4  vols.  12mo,  Leips.  1839-41,  Tauchnitz; 
and  also  in  the  candid  and  learned  work  above  referred 
z  z  3 


534  THEODORE. 

to  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  The  works  of  Tertullian 
have  been  accurately  translated  by  the  Rev.  Charles 
Dodgson,  examining  Chaplain  of  the  Bishop  of  Ripon. 
TertulliarCs  Works.     Bishop.  Kaye. 

THEODORE    OF   MOPSUESTTA. 

For  the  events  in  general  Ecclesiastical  History  with 
which  this  person  is  connected,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
the  Life  of  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  and  of  Nestorius.  He 
was  a  disciple  of  Diodorus,  Bishop  of  Tarsus,  in  the  year 
378  ;  and  he  became  Bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  a  city  in 
Cilicia,  in  393.  He  died  in  429.  The  Heresy  of  Apol- 
linaris  had  led  to  the  necessity  of  distinguishing  the 
two  natures  of  God  the  Son,  with  greater  exactness  than 
before.  This  necessity  was  increased  by  the  tendency  to 
confound  the  Substance,  which  prevailed  in  Egypt. 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  consequently  fell  into  the  oppo- 
site extreme  and  was  regarded  as  the  real  originator  of 
the  error  of  Nestorius  who  divided  the  Person.  His 
Biblical  Commentaries  are  the  standard  of  the  Nestorian 
Chaldaean  or  Thomas  Christians  in  the  East. 

Those  parts  of  his  works  supposed  to  contain  the  dis- 
tinction of  two  persons  in  Christ,  the  letter  from  Ibas, 
Bishop  of  Edessa,  who  defended  him,  and  the  anathemas 
published  by  the  celebrated  Theodoret,  Bishop  of  Cyrus, 
against  St.  Cyril,  in  favour  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia, 
occasioned  no  little  disturbance  in  the  Church.  This 
dispute  is  called  the  affair  of  the  Three  Chapters,  and 
was  not  settled  till  the  fifth  general  council  (the  second 
council  of  Constantinople),  553,  when  he  and  his 
writings  were  anathematized. — Fleury.     Guiseler. 

THEODORE. 

Theodore  was  a  native  of  Tarsus,  whose  historical  life 
commences  in  669,  when  he  was  sixty  years  of  age.     The 


THEODORE.  535 

Anglo'S&xons  had  been  converted  to  Christianity  partly 
by  British  bishops,  partly  by  missionaries  from  Ireland, 
and  partly  by  the  successors  of  the  Italian  mission  which 
had  been  sent  by  Gregory  the  Great  under  Augustine. 
The  ambition  of  the  Italian  missionaries  and  their  intol- 
erance of  any  churches  who  did  not  adhere  to  the  Roman 
customs  involved  the  British  churches  in  painful  contro- 
versies and  in  divisions  much  to  be  deplored.  In  vain 
did  the  native  bishops  make  proposals  for  peace,  the 
Italian  missionaries  received  orders  from  Rome  to  insist 
on  the  Romish  ceremonies.  We  may  regret,  but  we  can 
hardly  wonder  at  their  conduct ;  it  was  natural  for  them 
to  defer  to  their  own  Church  and  think  slightingly  of 
churches  which  differed  from  it.  In  the  conversion  of 
the  Chinese  at  the  present  time,  two  Churches  are 
engaged,  the  North- American  and  the  English :  by  the 
North-American  Bishop  a  plan  of  joint  operation  was 
agreed  upon,  but  the  English  Bishop  wrote  home  for 
instructions,  and  sought  them  not  only  from  Primate 
Sumner,  but  also  from  a  voluntary  association  of 
Christians  called  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  who 
advised  him  to  act  independently  of  the  American 
Prelate.  Just  so,  the  Italian  Missionaries  sought  and 
acted  upon  the  advice  received  from  Rome,  and  their  views 
were  thus  sectarian  and  narrow.  The  Roman  party 
eventually  triumphed,  though  the  triumph  probably  in- 
volved little  or  no  change  in  the  articles  of  Belief.  If 
we  except  Prayers  for  the  dead  we  have  indeed  no 
sufficient  evidence  that  papal  peculiarities  of  doctrine 
were  then  established.  Gregory  the  Great  is  known 
from  his  Epistles  to  have  repudiated  the  authority  since 
claimed  for  his  See,  and  to  have  disapproved  of  the  Ado- 
ration of  Images.  Undoubtedly,  we  find  in  his  works 
the  germ  of  Romanism,  but  still  the  system  established 
under  his  auspices  was  widely  different  from  that 
eventually  established  at  Trent,  when  Romanism  was 
authoritatively  confirmed  by  the  Romish  Church. 


536  THEODORE. 

The  Church  being  under  these  circumstances,  on  the 
death  of  Deusdedit,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  kings 
of  Kent  and  Northumbria  agreed  to  appoint  Wighard,  a 
native  priest,  to  the  vacant  See,  and  to  give  him  the 
Primacy  over  all  the  bishops  of  England.  They  sought 
to  conciliate  the  native  clergy  by  appointing  one  of  their 
body,  and  they  hoped  to  conciliate  the  Italian  party  by 
sending  the  person  so  appointed  to  be  consecrated  by  the 
Bishop  of  Rome.  It  was  thus  gradually  that  the  Romish 
influence  advanced  in  England. 

Unfortunately  Wighard  died  at  Rome  before  he  could 
be  consecrated ;  and  the  two  kings,  Oswy  and  Egbert 
immediately  sent  a  message  to  Vitalian,  the  Pope  of 
Rome,  desiring  that  he  would  select  a  fit  person  for  the 
See  of  Canterbury,  and  undertaking  to  receive  him  as 
Primate.  Vitalian  evidently  wished  to  act  in  a  concilia- 
tory spirit.  lie  would  not  select  one  like  Wighard,  of 
"  the  English  race,"  as  Bede  styles  him,  for  this  would 
have  been  offensive  to  his  Italian  missionaries,  but  still 
he  hoped  to  avoid  offence  to  the  native  clergy  by  not 
appointing  an  Italian.  He  found  a  man  who  would 
exactly  answer  his  purpose  in  Hadrian,  an  African  by 
birth,  but  enthusiastically  and  superstitiously  devoted  to 
the  Roman  customs.  He  offered  the  vacant  See  to 
Hadrian,  who  refused  it,  but  strongly  recommended 
Theodore  ;  a  man,  says  Bede,  well  instructed  in  worldly 
and  divine  literature ;  of  known  probity  of  life,  and 
venerable  for  age,  being  sixty-six  years  old.  The  Pope 
acted  on  the  recommendation,  but  evidently  with  some 
reluctance,  for  Thedore  being  by  education  a  member  of 
the  Greek  Church,  Vitalian  suspected  that  he  might  not 
maintain  the  Roman  interests  with  sufficient  zeal,  and 
that  he  might  introduce  the  Greek  instead  of  the  Roman 
customs.  He  would  only  consecrate  him,  therefore,  on 
condition  that  Hadrian,  in  whose  zeal  for  Rome  he  had 
full  confidence,  would  accompany  him.  He  was  sent, 
according  to  Bede,  that  he  might  take  especial  care  that 


THEODORE.  637 

Theodore  should  not  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
Greeks  introduce  into  his  Church  anj'thing  not  approved 
by  the  Roman  Church.  Theodore  was  consecrated  on 
Sunday  the  26th  of  March,  668,  and  on  the  27th  of 
May,  was  sent  with  Hadrian  into  Britain,  They  pro- 
ceeded by  sea  to  Marseilles,  and  thence  by  land  to  Aries  ; 
at  Aries,  and  afterwards  at  Paris  they  remained  a  consid- 
erable time,  the  severity  of  the  winter  delaying  their 
progress,  and  a  suspicion  being  entertained  at  the  French 
court  that  they  came  with  some  secret  message  from  the 
Greek  emperor  to  the  English  kings.  It  was  not  till 
Egbert  sent  his  Prsefect,  Redfrid,  into  France,  that 
Theodore  was  allowed  to  proceed  to  England,  Hadrian 
being  detained  a  short  time  longer. 

Theodore  arrived  at  his  church  the  second  year  after 
his  consecration  on  the  27th  of  May,  and  held  the  See 
twenty-one  years  three  months  and  twenty-six  days.  He 
immediately  visited  all  the  Island  wherever  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  tribe  could  be  found  ;  and  besides  preaching  the 
Gospel,  urged  by  Hadrian,  he  established  the  Roman 
custom  of  celebrating  Easter,  in  opposition  to  that  of  the 
British  Churches.  Thi^  seems  to  have  been  the  badge 
of  party  at  that  time.  He  was,  says  Bede,  the  first 
archbishop  whom  all  the  English  Church  obeyed.  Of 
Anglo-Saxon  literature  he  may  be  regarded  as  the  parent, 
and  forasmuch  as  both  he  and  Hadrian  were  well  read 
both  in  sacred  and  secular  literature,  .they  gathered 
around  them  a  crowd  of  disciples,  and  together  with 
holy  writ  they  also  taught  them  the  arts  of  ecclesiastical 
poetry,  astronomy,  and  arithmetic.  Greek,  of  course, 
they  delighted  to  teach,  and  with  such  success,  that  in 
Bede's  time  there  were  living  some  of  their  scholars  who 
were  as  well  versed  in  Greek  and  Latin  as  in  their  native 
language.  The  times  were  flourishing,  for  the  kings 
beiug  brave  men  and  good  Christians,  were  a  terror  to  all 
barbarous  nations,  and  the  minds  of  all  men,  according 
to  Bede,  were  bent  on  the  joys  of  the  heavenly  kingdom, 


538  THEODORE. 

and  all  who  desired  to  be  instructed  in  sacred  reading 
had  masters  at  hand  to  teach  them.  From  that  time, 
according  to  the  same  authority,  they  also  began  in  all 
churches  of  the  English  to  learn  sacred  music,  which  till 
then  had  only  been  known  in  Kent.  We  may  also 
remark  that  before  Theodore's  time  there  were  no  parish 
churches  or  residences  for  single  clergymen ;  but  whether 
married  or  not  the  clergy  dwelt  together  near  the  bishop's 
residence,  and  awaited  his  direction.  To  Theodore 
we  are  indebted  for  the  introduction  of  the  parochial 
system. 

In  the  year  673,  a  national  synod  was  convened  by 
Theodore,  at  Hertford,  a  frequent  residence  of  the  East 
Saxon  kings.  "  When  we  were  all  met  together,"  saith 
Theodore,  in  an  account  of  the  procedings  preserved  in 
Bede,  "  and  were  set  down  in  order,  I  said,  •  I  beseech  you, 
most  dear  brothers,  for  the  love  and  fear  of  our  Kedeemer, 
that  we  may  all  treat  in  common  for  our  faith  ;  to  the  end 
that  whatsoever  has  been  decreed  and  defined  by  the  holy 
and  revered  fathers,  may  be  inviolably  observed  by  all.' 
This  and  much  more  I  spoke  tending  to  the  preservation 
of  the  charity  and  unity  of  the  Church  ;  and  when  I  had 
ended  my  discourse,  I  asked  every  one  of  them  in  order, 
whether  they  consented  to  obverve  the  things  that  had  been 
formerly  canonically  decreed  by  the  fathers  ?  To  which 
all  our  fellow-priests  answered,  '  It  so  pleases  us,  and  we 
will  all  most  willingly  observe  with  a  cheerful  mind  what- 
ever is  laid  down  in  the  canons  of  the  holy  fathers.'  I 
then  produced  the  said  book  of  canons,  and  publicly 
showed  them  ten  chapters  in  the  same,  which  I  had 
marked  in  several  places,  because  I  knew  them  to  be  of 
the  most  importance  to  us,  and  entreated  that  they  might 
be  most  particularly  received  by  them  all. 

*'  Chap.  I.  That  we  all  in  common  keep  the  holy 
day  of  Easter  on  the  Sunday  after  the  fourteenth  moon 
of  the  first  month. 

*'  II.     That  no   bishop   intrude  into   the   diocese  of 


THEODORE.  539 

another,   but  be  satisfied  with  the  government  of  the 
people  committed  to  him. 

"  III,  That  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  Bishop  to 
trouble  monasteries  dedicated  to  God,  nor  to  take  any 
thing  forcibly  from  them. 

"  IV.  That  monks  do  not  remove  from  one  place  to 
another,  that  is,  from  monastery  to  monastery,  unless  by 
the  consent  of  their  own  abbot ;  but  that  they  continue 
in  the  obedience  which  they  promised  at  the  time  of 
their  conversion. 

*'  V.  That  no  clergyman,  forsaking  his  own  bishop, 
shall  wander  about,  or  be  any  where  entertained  without 
letters  of  recommendation  from  his  own  prelate.  But 
if  he  shall  be  once  received,  and  will  not  return  when 
invited,  both  the  receiver,  and  the  person  received,  be 
under  excommunication. 

"VI.  That  bishops  and  clergymen,  when  travelling, 
shall  be  content  wdth  the  hospitality  that  is  afforded 
them  ;  and  that  it  be  not  lawful  for  them  to  exercise 
any  priestly  function  without  leave  of  the  Bishop  in 
whose  diocese  they  are. 

"  VII.  That  a  synod  be  assembled  twice  a  year ;  but 
in  regard  that  several  causes  obstruct  the  same,  it  was 
approved  by  all  that  we  should  meet  on  the  1st  of 
August  once  a  year,  at  the  place  called  Clofeshoch. 

"  VIII.  That  no  bishop,  tlirough  ambition,  shall  set 
himself  before  another ;  but  that  they  shall  all  observe 
the  time  and  order  of  their  consecration. 

*'  IX.  It  was  generally  set  forth,  that  more  bishops 
should  be  made,  as  the  number  of  believers  increased; 
but  this  matter  for  the  present  was  passed  over. 

"  X.  Of  marriages,  that  none  be  allowed  any  but  law- 
ful wedlock ;  that  none  commit  incest ;  no  man  quit  his 
true  wife,  unless,  as  the  Gospel  teaches,  on  account  of 
fornication.  And  if  any  man  should  put  away  his  own 
wife,  lawfully  joined  to  him  in  matrimony,  that  he  take 


540  THEODORE. 

no  other,  if  he  wishes  to  be  a  good  Christian,  but  continue 
as  he  is,  or  else  be  reconciled  to  his  own  wife. 

"  These  chapters  being  thus  treated  of  and  defined  by 
all,  to  the  end,  that  for  the  future  no  scandal  of  conten- 
tion might  arise  from  any  of  us,  or  that  things  be 
falsely  set  forth,  it  was  thought  fit  that  every  one  of  us 
should,  by  subscribing  his  hand,  confirm  all  the  par- 
ticulars so  laid  down.  Which  definitive  judgment  of 
ours,  I  dictated  to  be  written  by  Titillus  our  notary. 
Done  in  the  month  and  indiction  aforesaid.  Whosoever, 
therefore,  shall  presume  in  any  way  to  oppose  or  infringe 
this  decision,  confirmed  by  our  consent,  and  by  the  sub- 
scription of  our  hands  according  to  the  decree  of  the 
canons,  must  take  notice,  that  he  is  excluded  from  all 
sacerdotal  functions,  and  from  our  society.  May  the 
Divine  Grace  preserve  us  in  safety,  living  in  the  unity  of 
his  holy  church." 

Theodore,  after  thus  providing  a  national  code  of 
ecclesiastical  jurisprudence,  authorised  two  episcopal 
depositions.  Winfrid,  Bishop  of  Mercia,  having  given 
some  offence,  was  driven  from  his  bishopric,  and  the  me- 
tropolitan approved.  He  did  the  same -in  Wilfrid's  case. 
Egfrid,  the  Northumbrian  king,  had  married  Etheldred, 
an  East  Anglian  princess,  bred  a  zealous  Christian,  and 
smitten  with  a  superstitious  trust  in  monastic  austerities. 
A  subject  of  high  distinction  had  been  her  husband  in 
early  youth,  but  she  repelled  his  embraces.  As  a  queen, 
this  pertinacity  continued:  vain  were  Egfrid's  iraporiu- 
nities,  vain  his  promises  and  persuasions  to  her  spiritual 
adviser,  Wilfrid.  At  length  her  humour  was  indulged, 
and  she  gladly  left  the  profusion  of  a  court  for  the  priva- 
tions of  a  cloister.  The  new  queen,  probably,  found 
Egfrid  prejudiced  against  Wilfrid,  as  an  abettor  of  his 
late  wife's  mortifying  repugnance.  The  Northumbrian 
prince,  accordingly,  became  an  attentive  hearer,  when  she 
painted  invidiously  his  extensive  acquisitions  and  osten 


THEODORE.  541 

tatious  habits.  Two  prelacies,  it  was  urged,  might  be 
maintained  upon  his  endowments,  and  the  charge  was 
too  great  for  one.  His  own  consent,  howevfer,  for  any 
division,  appears  to  have  been  hopeless  :  hence  the  case 
was  laid  before  Theodore,  under  whose  deliberate  sanction 
he  was  deprived  of  his  bishopric.  National  authorities 
being  all  against  him,  he  determined  upon  trying  the 
effect  of  papal  interposition.  At  Rome,  he  found  some 
sort  of  a  council  sitting,  and  before  it  he  laid  his  case. 
This  body  pronounced  his  treatment  uncanonical,  and 
Pope  Agatho  furnished  him  with  a  letter,  announcing  this 
decision.  Papal  jurisdiction,  however,  being  unknown 
to  Wilfrid's  countrymen,  they  spurned  Agatho's  inter- 
ference, and  angrily  thrust  the  disgraced  prelate  into 
prison ;  nor,  when  liberated,  could  he  regain  his 
bishopric. 

About  this  time,  Theodore  being  informed  that  the  faith 
of  the  Church  at  Constantinople  was  much  perplexed  by 
the  heresy  of  Eutyches,  and  desiring  to  preserve  the 
Churches  of  the  English,  over  which  he  presided,  from 
that  infection,  an  assembly  of  many  venerable  priests  and 
doctors  was  convened,  at  which  he  diligently  inquired 
into  their  doctrines,  and  found  that  they  all  unanimously 
agreed  in  the  Catholic  faith.  This  he  took  care  to  have 
committed  to  writing  by  the  authority  of  the  synod,  as  a 
memorial,  and  for  the  instruction  of  succeeding  genera- 
tions ;  the  beginning  of  which  instrument  is  as  follows  : — 

"  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
in  the  tenth  year  of  the  reign  of  our  most  pious  lord, 
Egfrid,  king  of  the  Northumbrians,  the  seventeenth  of 
October,  the  eighth  indiction ;  and  in  the  sixth  year  of 
the  reign  of  Ethelfrid,  king  of  the  Mercians,  in  the 
seventeenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Aldhulf,  of  the  East 
Angles,  in  the  seventh  year  of  the  reign  of  Lothair,  king 
of  Kent ;  Theodore,  by  the  grace  of  God,  archbishop  of 
the  island  of  Britain,  and  of  the  city  of  Canterbury, 
being  president,  and  the  other  venerable  bishops  of  the 

VOL.  VIIT.  3    A 


543  THEODORE. 

island  of  Great  Britain  sitting  with  him,  the  holy 
Gospels  being  laid  before  them,  at  the  place  which,  in 
the  Saxoii  tongue,  is  called  Heathfield,  we  conferred 
together,  and  expounded  the  true  and  orthodox  faith,  as 
our  Lord  Jesus  in  the  flesh  delivered  the  same  to  his 
disciples,  who  saw  him  present,  and  heard  his  words,  and 
as  it  is  delivered  in  the  creed  of  the  holy  fathers,  and  by 
all  holy  and  universal  synods  in  general,  and  by  the 
consent  of  all  approved  doctors  of  the  Catholic  Church ; 
we,  therefore,  following  them  jointly  and  orthodoxly,  and 
professing  accordance  to  their  divinely  inspired  doctrine, 
do  believe  and  do,  according  to  the  holy  fathers,  firmly 
confess,  properly  and  truly,  the  Father,  and  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  a  Trinity  consubstantial  in  unity,  and  unity 
in  Trinity,  that  is,  one  God  subsisting  in  three  con- 
substantial  Persons,  of  equal  honour  and  glory." 

And  after  much  more  of  this  sort,  appertaining  to  the 
confession  of  the  true  faith,  this  holy  synod  added  to  its 
instrument,  "  We  have  received  the  five  holy  and  general 
councils  of  the  blessed  fathers  acceptable  to  God  ;  that  is, 
of  318  bishops,  who  were  assembled  at  Nice,  against  the 
most  impious  Arius  and  his  tenets ;  and  at  Constanti- 
nople, of  150,  against  the  madness  of  Macedonius  and 
Eudoxius,  and  their  tenets  ;  and  at  Ephesus,  first  of  200, 
against  the  most  wicked  Nestorius,  and  his  tenets  ;  and 
at  Chalcedon,  of  630,  against  Eutyches  and  Nestorius, 
and  their  tenets;  and  again,  at  Constantinople,  in  a 
fifth  council,  in  the  reign  of  Justinian  the  younger, 
against  Theodorus  and  Theodoret,  and  the  epistles  of 
Iba,  and  their  tenets  against  Cyril;"  and  again  a  little 
lower,  "  the  synod  held  in  the  city  of  Rome,  in  the  time 
of  the  blessed  Pope  Martin,  in  the  eighth  indiction,  and 
in  the  ninth  year  of  the  most  pious  Emperor  Constantine, 
we  receive :  and  we  glorify  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as 
they  glorify  Him,  neither  adding  nor  diminishing  any 
thing  :  anathematizing  those  with  our  hearts  and  mouths 
whom  they  anathematized,   and  receiving  those  whom 


THEODORE.  543 

they  received,  glorifying  God  the  Father,  who  is  without 
beginning,  and  his  only  begotten  Son  generated  from 
eternity,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeding  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son  in  an  ineffable  manner,  as  those  holy  apos- 
tles, prophets,  and  doctors,  whom  we  have  above-men 
tioned,  did  declare.  And  all  we,  who,  with  Archbishop 
Theodore,  have  thus  expounded  the  CathoUc  faith,  have 
also  subscribed  thereto." 

Among  the  divines  at  Hatfield  was  John  the  Precentor, 
an  illustrious  foreigner  brought  over  by  Benedict  Biscop, 
who  succeded  Hadrian  as  a  spy  upon  Theodore  who  was 
still  regarded  with  suspicion  at  Rome,  although  his  fault 
actually  was  that,  while  maintaining  his  independence, 
he  had  the  pardonable  weakness  of  yielding  to  the  pre- 
valent feeling,  and  of  deferring  too  much  to  Roman 
precedent.  Theodore  reached  the  age  of  eighty-eight, 
and  was  then  released  from  his  labours.  His  life, 
observes  Mr.  Soames,  had  been  no  less  honourable 
than  long ;  and  he  must,  undoubtedly,  be  ranked  among 
the  ablest  of  English  primates.  A  Protestant  may 
possibly  regret  that  such  eminent  qualities  laid  the 
foundation  of  an  insidious  influence,  which  eventually 
adulterated  sound  religion,  and  insulted  the  national 
independence.  The  days  of  Theodore,  however,  were 
anterior  to  most  Roman  innovations,  and  he  seems 
always  to  have  Iboked  upon  the  papal  see  under  an 
oriental  feeling  of  independence.  Far  inferior  persons 
in  the  religious  history  of  ancient  England  have,  accord- 
ingly, been  canonized.  The  name  of  Theodore,  although 
he  was  the  corner  stone  of  pontifical  authority  through 
all  the  British  isles,  will  be  vainly  sought  among  the 
saintly  rubrics  in  a  Romish  calendar :  but  his  reputation 
stands  on  higher  grounds.  He  first  gave  stabihty  to  the 
rehgious  establishment  of  England,  by  defining  prin- 
ciples of  doctrine  and  discipline.  He  provided  for  the 
nation's  intellectual  growth,  by  a  zealous  and  active 
patronage  of  learning.      During  the  earlier  years  of  his 


544  THEODORET. 

English  residence,  instruction  was  indeed  given  person- 
ally, both  by  himself  and  by  his  friend  Hadrian,  in  every 
branch  of  scholarship  then  known  to  students.  As  a 
theologian  Theodore  long  maintained  a  high  degree  of 
importance.  He  had  adopted  a  prevaling  opinion,  that 
every  sin  must  be  visited  by  some  corresponding  penalty. 
For  the  just  apportionment  of  this,  he  compiled  his 
famous  Penitential,  an  assumed  authority  for  the  modern 
Romish  confessional,  of  extraordinary  value  from  its 
antiquity  and  bulk.  Theodore,  however,  has  afforded 
Romanists  considerable  embarrassment,  by  pronouncing 
confession  to  God  alone  sufficient  for  spiritual  safety. 
His  authority,  therefore,  is  unfavourable  to  sacramental 
absolution,  that  scholastic  lure,  so  ominous  to  attrite 
souls,  but  admirably  fitted  for  a  ready  and  powerful  hold 
upon  mankind. — Bede.    Collier.    Soames.    Churton. 


THEODORET. 

Theodoket  was  born  at  Antioch,  about  the  year  385, 
Of  his  early  history  little  is  known  except  that  at  an 
early  period  of  life  he  had,  for  bis  masters  in  theology 
and  Science,  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  and  St.  Chrysostom, 
and  that  he  was  when  very  young  appointed  one  of  the 
public  readers  of  Scripture.  In  the  "year  4'23,  he  was 
consecrated  Bishop  of  Cyrus  a  city  of  Syria,  near  the 
Euphrates,  and  honourable  mention  is  made  of  his 
activity  in  promoting  the  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual 
welfare  of  his  people. 

In  the  Nestorian  controversy  he  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  heretic  Nestorius.  (See  his  Life,  and  Cyril 
of  Alexandria.)  The  distinguishing  tenet  of  Nes- 
torius  was,  his  refusal  to  give  to  the  Virgin  Mary  the 
title  of  Q^oTOKo?,  or  Mother  of  God.  That  Theodoret 
should  have  sided  with  this  heresiarch  can  only  be 
accounted   for  upon  the   supposition   that    he  did   not 


THEODORET.  545 

perceive,  that  unlike  most  of  the  disputes  of  the  period, 
this  heresy  was  not  a  mere  quibble  about  words,  but 
involved  a  doctrine  of  no  less  importance  than  the  Son 
of  God.  Theodoret  uniformly  and  strenuously  adhered 
to  this  doctrine,  although  he  rejected  this  particular 
term,  ©ioroKO's.  Most  probably  his  conduct  in  rejecting 
the  term,  while  he  maintained  the  thing  signified,  was 
mainly  if  not  wholly,  attributable  to  the  friendship  which 
had  long  subsisted  between  him  and  Nestorius,  and  to 
the  personal  pique  which  had  arisen  between  him  and 
St.  Cyril,  the  principal  opponent  of  the  heresy. 

In  the  year  431,  the  council  of  Ephesus  was  convened  by 
the  Emperor  Theodosius,  for  the  purpose  of  allaying  the 
dissensions  which  the  Nestorian  heresy  had  excited  in 
the  Church.  At  this  council  Nestorius  was  excommuni- 
cated, and  his  heresy  condemned.  Several  of  his  most 
zealous  partizans,  and  among  them  was  Theodoret,  were 
deposed  from  their  ecclesiastical  ofiSces.  The  disputes, 
however,  still  continued  with  unabated  acrimony  ;  and  it 
was  not  till  the  year  435  that  Theodoret  was  induced,  by 
the  entreaties  of  certain  holy  brethren,  to  become  recon- 
ciled with  the  hostile  party  :  he  then  renounced  the 
defence  of  Nestorious,  and  was  accordingly  reinstated  in 
his  bishopric. 

The  remainder  of  his  life  was  not  spent  in  tranquillity. 
He  soon  became  involved  in  a  fresh  controversy  with 
Dioscorus,  the  successor  of  St.  Cyril  in  the  see  of 
Alexandria.  Theodoret  was  accused  of  maligning  the 
memory  of  St.  Cyril.  Another  cause  of  the  dispute 
was  that  Theodoret  vehemently  opposed  the  Eutychian 
heresy,  which  Dioscorus  as  firmly  upheld.  The  heresy  of 
Eutyches  was  directly  opposite  to  that  of  Nestorius ;  for 
while  the  latter  denied  that  the  divine  nature  was  truly 
united  to  the  human  nature  in  Christ  in  one  person,  the 
former  denied  that  the  two  natures  in  Christ  remained 
distinct.  In  this  controversy  Theodoret  suffered  a  second 
defeat.  Dioscorus  raised  up  enemies  against  him  in 
3  A  3 


646  THEODORET. 

Constantinople,  who  accused  him  of  propagating  heresy 
in  the  church,  and  of  teaching  that  there  are  two  Sons. 
Theodosius  the  younger  received  these  calumnies  without 
examination  :  he  signed  the  deposition  of  Theodoret, 
and  forbad  his  quitting  Cyrus.  This  mandate  was 
pronouced  about  the  year  447.  Theordoret  was  then  at 
Antioch :  he  quitted  the  city  without  saying  farewell  to 
any  one,  and,  according  to  this  sentence  retired  to  Cyrus, 
where  he  remained  till  450,  wholly  occupied  in  literary 
labours,  and  in  writing  letters  in  self-justification.  One 
of  these  letters  was  addressed  to  Dioscorus,  but  na 
regard  was  paid  to  it :  on  the  contrary  Theodoret  was 
j)ublicly  anathematised  in  Alexandria,  and  fresh  com- 
plaints against  him  were  laid  before  the  emperor.  Soon 
after,  another  council  was  held  at  Ephesus,  at  which 
Dioscorus  presided,  and  here  Theodoret  was  excom- 
municated. 

Theodoret  yindicated  his  character  and  conduct  in  a 
long  letter  to  the  learned  Leo  at  that  time  Bishop  of 
Rome,  and  referred  to  his  many  works  as  a  proof  of 
his  orthodoxy.  He  complained  of  the  injustice  of  the 
council  in  condemning  him  unheard  and  during  his  ab- 
sence. In  450,  he  obtained  permission  from  Theodosius 
to  quit  Cyrus,  and  to  retire  to  a  monastery.  Theodosius 
died  the  same  year  (450),  and  was  succeeded  by  Marcian, 
who  had  married  his  sister  Pulcheria.  Marcian  recalled 
Theodoret ;  and,  at  the  instance  of  Leo,  convened 
the  council  of  Chalcedon.  Here  the  enemies  of  Theodoret 
raised  loud  clamours  against  him,  recommenced  their 
accusations,  and  insisted  upon  his  pronouncing  anathema 
against  Nestorius.  Theodoret  desired  rather  to  explain 
his  own  doctrines  than  to  anathematise  his  friend :  at 
length,  overpowered  by  the  numbers  of  his  enemies,  he 
exclaimed,  "Anathema  to  Nestorius,  and  to  all  who  do 
not  confess  that  the  Virgin  Mary  is  the  Mother  of  God." 
Upon  this  compliance  with  the  demands  of  the  council, 
he  was  formally   re-instated   in   his  episcopal   dignity. 


THEODORET.  647 

The  few  remaining  years  of  his  life  seem  to  have  been 
passed  in  retirement.  He  is  thought  to  have  died  about 
A.  D.  458,  probably  in  the  seventieth  or  eightieth  year  of 
his  age.  Even  after  his  death  his  enemies  renewed  their 
attacks,  and  again  called  his  orthodoxy  into  question. 
His  works  were  condemned  as  heretical  at  the  fifth 
general  council  :  but  according  to  the  almost  unanimous 
decision  of  posterity,  this  sentence  was  unjust;  for  from 
his  earliest  youth  he  had  been  diligently  instructed  in 
the  doctrines  of  the  Nicene  confession  of  faith ;  and 
throughout  his  life  he  invariably  adhered  to  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Homoousians,  or  those  who  maintained  the 
consubstantiality  of  the  three  divine  Persons  of  the 
Trinity.  The  condemnation  of  the  council  referred  to 
thos«  points  wherein  he  was  blameless,  while  the  real 
errors  of  his  doctrines  escaped  undetected.  The  defective- 
ness of  his  views,  especially  with  respect  to  justification, 
adoption,  and  regeneration,  may,  however,  be  easily 
detected  by  all  who  feel  inclined  to  peruse  his  volumious 
writings,  and  at  the  same  time  to  search  the  Scriptures 
as  to  whether  these  things  be  so. 

Of  Theodoret,  Mr.  Dowliug  remarks,  that  like  sO 
many  other  persons  of  high  literary  distinction,  he  wanted 
that  consistency  and  firmness  of  character  without  which 
no  one,  however  talented,  can  act  with  honour  in  public 
life.  But  his  works  have  secured  him  an  undying 
reputation.  His  exegetical  writings  are  not  exceeded  in 
value  by  any  thing  of  the  kind  produced  by  the  ancient 
writers  ;  and  his  homilies  rank  among  the  happiest 
efforts  of  Christian  eloquence.  His  Ecclesiastical  History 
is  supposed  to  have  been  written  towards  the  year  450, 
It  begins  with  the  rise  of  Arianism ;  and  it  is  not  a 
little  to  the  honour  of  his  moderation  and  judgment  that 
he  discontinued  it  when  he  was  in  danger  of  being  no 
longer  impartial,  and  made  the  year  427  the  term  of  his 
historical  labours,  instead  of  prolonging  them  beyond 
the  Council  of  Ephesus,  and  the  controversy  to  which  it 


548  THEODORUS. 

led.  It  does  not  yield  in  literary  merit  to  the  labours  of 
any  of  his  contemporaries  on  the  same  subject.  He 
has  communicated  much  information,  especially  with 
respect  to  the  East,  which  was  omitted  by  Socrates  and 
Sozomen ;  and  is  declared  by  Photius  to  have  excelled 
all  his  predecessors  in  the  style  suitable  to  historical 
composition. — Life  prefixed  to  Works. 


THEODOPwUS,    LECTOB. 

We  are  not  acquainted  with  the  particulars  of  the  life 
of  the  author  so  designated ;  his  writings  only  have 
saved  his  name  from  oblivion.  But  these  were  im- 
portant. He  appears  to  have  been  the  only  orthodox  eccle- 
siastical historian  of  his  time.  His  first  work  was  an  origi- 
nal history  in  two  books,  of  the  period  between  the  council 
of  Ephesus,  (431,)  and  the  reign  of  the  elder  Justin,  (518), 
which  was  held  in  great  esteem  by  succeeding  writers, 
and  appears  to  have  been  written  with  judgment  and 
accuracy.  It  has  not  come  down  to  posterity  :  we  only 
possess  a  series  of  extracts  made  from  it  by  Nicephorus 
Callisti  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  a  few  other 
fragments.  But  these,  though  they  throw  little  light  on 
the  form  and  method  of  the  work  to  which  they  belonged, 
afford  much  authentic  information  respecting  the  state  of 
the  Eastern  Church  from  the  death  of  Theodosius  II.  to 
that  of  Anastasius. 

But  Theodore  the  Reader  has  an  especial  claim  for 
notice  in  the  present  work,  as  the  earliest  writer  of  a  new- 
kind  of  Ecclesiastical  history.  The  writers,  who  had 
hitherto  attempted  to  illustrate  the  fortunes  of  the 
Church,  had  confined  themselves  to  original  composi- 
tion. Theodore  condescended  to  edit  the  labours  of  his 
predecessors.  At  the  suggestion,  as  he  tells  us  of  a 
Paphlagonian  presbyter,  or  bishop,  he  employed  himself 
in  reducing  the  works  of  the  three  historians,  Socrates, 


THEOPHANES.  549 

Sozomen,  and  Theodoret,  into  one  connected  narrative, 
with  a  view  probably  of  providing  a  convenient  connexion 
between  the  history  of  Eusebius  and  his  own  work.  But 
it  does  not  appear  that  this  Tripartite  history  was  com- 
pleted. His  labours  probably  were  interrupted.  We 
find  two  books  only  of  this  arrangement  mentioned  by 
ancient  writers  ;  and  the  manuscript  of  the  work,  which 
was  in  the  possession  of  Leo  Allatius,  brought  down  the 
history  merely  to  the  death  of  Constantius.  (36 1 ,)  We  have 
no  reason  to  regret  that  it  never  became  popular,  as  we 
are  no  doubt  indebted  to  the  circumstance  for  the 
preservation  of  the  original  works  in  their  integrity.  If 
the  Tripartite  history  of  Theodore  had  been  read  as  widely 
and  as  exclusively  in  the  east,  as  that  of  Cassiodorus  was 
in  the  west,  it  is  scarcely  likely  that  we  should  now 
possess  a  complete  work  of  any  Greek  ecclesiastical 
historian  of  the  fifth  century. — Voiding. 


THEOPHANES. 

Theophanes  was  himself  a  person  of  some  importance 
in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  eastern  empire.  His 
father,  who  was  a  member  of  a  noble  family,  and 
ftad  been  employed  in  offices  of  trust  and  dignity  by 
Constantino  Gopronymus,  died  while  he  was  yet  in  his 
infancy.  He  was,  therefore,  educated  under  the  care  of 
his  mother,  and  early  derived  from  a  domestic  of  the 
family  a  strong  desire  to  lead  an  ascetic  life.  But  his 
splendid  fortune  rendered  it  difficult  for  him  to  indulge 
his  inclination.  Under  the  Iconoclast  emperors  to  be  a 
monk  was  to  be  a  rebel.  He  was  compelled  to  marry 
the  daughter  of  a  favoured  courtier;  but  the  bride, 
fortunately,  was  not  indisposed  to  her  husband's  views, 
and  he  gladly  embraced  the  opportunity  which  was  soon 
after  afforded  by  the  regency  of  Irene  (781),  to  retire 
altogether   from  the  world,  and   employ   his  wealth   in 


550  THEOPHILUS. 

founding  a  monastery.  As  the  superior  of  this  establish* 
ment  he  heartily  co-operated  in  the  restoration  of  the 
images.  The  circumstances  under  which  he  had  devoted 
himself  to  the  monastic  life,  and  his  character  for 
sanctity  procured  him  reputation  ;  and  when  the  Icono- 
clasts again  triumphed  (814),  he  had  the  opportunity  of 
evincing  the  sincerity  of  his  principles  by  enduring 
persecutions  which  obtained  for  him  a  place  in  the 
Menologium,  and  the  title  of  Confessor.  When  we  take 
into  consideration  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  it  would 
be  almost  unreasonable  to  expect  to  find  in  the  historical 
writings  of  Theophanes  either  moderation  or  candour. 
In  his  Chronographia,  which,  as  it  has  been  already 
explained,  was  written  in  continuation  of  the  work  of 
Georgius  Syncellus,  and  which  extends  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Diocletian  to  the  end  of  that  of 
Michael  Khangabe  (814),  he  makes  no  profession  of 
impartiality,  but  denounces  the  Iconoclasts  with  un- 
measured violence.  For  his  information,  however,  he 
professes  to  follow  preceding  writers,  and  his  work 
cannot  but  be  regarded  as  a  history  of  the  Church. 


THEOPHILUS  OF  ANTIOCH. 

Of  the  history  of  this  writer  little  is  known,  except 
that  he  was  a  convert  to  Christianity  from  Heathenism, 
and  became  Bishop  of  Antioch  in  170.  He  died  in 
182  or  184. 

He  was  a  vigorous  opponent  of  heresy,  and  wrote  a 
book  against  Marcion,  and  a  treatise  against  Hermogenes, 
with  some  other  tracts  which  have  perished.  There  are 
extant  three  books  addressed  to  him  by  Autolycus,  a 
learned  heathen,  who  had  written  a  vindication  of  his 
religion  against  the  Christians.  These  books  afford  the 
earliest  example  of  the  use  of  the  word  Trinity,  applied 
by  the  author  to  the  three    persons  of  the    Godhead, 


THEOPHYLACT.  551 

the  third  of  whom  he  terms  Wisdom.  The  books 
of  Theophilus  to  Autolycus  were  published  in  Latin  by 
Conrad  Gesner,  Zurich,  1546,  and  were  inserted  in  the 
Orthodoxographia,  Basle,  1555.  They  were  annexed  in 
Greek  and  Latin  to  the  supplement  of  the  Bibliotheca 
Patrum,  1624;  and  were  printed  at  the  end  of  the 
edition  of  Justin  Martyr's  works  by  Morell ;  they  were 
also  published  at  Oxford,  in  1684,  12mo.,  by  Dr.  Fell ; 
and  at  Hamburgh,  in  1723,  8vo,  by  J.  C.  Wolfius. — Cave. 
Dupin. 

THEOPHYLACT. 

This  distinguished  commentator  flourished  in  the 
eleventh  century,  according  to  Fabricius,  about  the  year 
1070,  and  according  to  Cave,  about  1077.  This  was 
about  the  time  of  his  being  appointed  Archbishop  of 
Achridia,  and  Metropolitan  of  Bulgaria.  The  year  of  his 
death  is  not  known.  His  principal  work  is.  Comment- 
aries upon  the  Four  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
and  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  They  are  chiefly  abridged 
from  Chrysostom  and  others,  but  contain  observations  of 
his  own.  He  likewise  wrote  Commentaries  upon  the 
Twelve  Minor  Prophets.  Meursius  published,  in  1617, 
seventy-five  Epistles  of  this  author  in  Greek,  of  which  a 
Latin  translation  was  printed  in  1622.  They  have  been 
inserted  in  the  Bibliotheca  Patrum.  A  tract  in  the 
name  of  Theophylact,  entitled  Oratio  in  Adorationem 
Crucis  medio  Jejuniorum  Tempore,  was  published  by 
Gretser;  and  Poussines  printed  at  Paris,  in  1651,  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  a  piece  attributed  to  this  author,  with 
the  title,  Institutio  Regia  ad  Constantinum,  Porphy- 
rogenitum,  reprinted  in  the  Imperium  Orientale  of 
Banduri.  His  works  were  published,  Gr.  et  Lat.  at 
Venice,  1754,  fol. — Cave.    Lardner. 

THOMAS,  AQUINAS. — (See  Aquinas.) 


652  THOMAS. 


THOMAS,    WILLIAM. 


William  Thomas  was  bora  at  Bristol,  in  1613.  He 
received  his  primary  education  at  the  School  of  Caermar- 
then,  of  which  place  his  grandfather  was  recorder ;  and 
thence  went  to  St.  John's  College,  Oxford.  He  afterwards 
obtained  a  fellowship  at  Jesus  College.  His  first  pre- 
ferment was  the  Vicarage  of  Penbryn,  in  Cardiganshire. 
He  afterwards  had  the  Vicarage  of  Laugh  arn,  with  the 
Rectory  of  Lansedurnen  annexed.  Here  he  performed 
every  duty  of  a  parish  priest,  esteeming  his  employment 
not  a  trade,  but  a  trust,  till  about  1644,  a  party  of 
the  parliament  horse  came  to  Laugharn,  and  inquired 
whether  that  Popish  priest,  Mr.  Thomas  was  still  there, 
and  whether  he  continued  reading  the  liturgy,  and 
praying  for  the  queen ;  and  one  of  them  added  that  he 
should  go  to  church  next  Sunday,  and  if  Mr.  Thomas 
persevered  in  praying  for  that  drab  of  the  whore  of 
Babylon,  he  would  certainly  pistol  him.  Upon  this, 
Mr.  Thomas's  friends  earnestly  pressed  him  to  absent 
himself;  but  he  refused,  thinking  it  would  be  a  neglect 
of  duty.  He  no  sooner  began  the  service,  than  the 
soldiers  came  and  placed  themselves  in  the  next  pew  to 
him,  and  when  he  prayed  for  the  queen,  one  of  them 
snatched  the  book  out  of  his  hand,  and  threw  it  at  his 
head,  sajnng,  "  What  do  you  mean  by  praying  for  a 
whore  and  a  rogue  ?"  The  preacher  bore  it  with'patience 
and  composure ;  but  the  soldier  who  had  committed 
the  affront  was  instantly  seized  with  such  anxiety  and 
compunction,  that  his  companions  were  forced  to  carry 
him  away.  Mr.  Thomas  continued  the  service,  and 
delivered  the  sermon  with  his  usual  emphasis  and 
propriety;  and  when  he  returned  to  his  house,  he  there 
found  the  soldiers  ready  to  beg  his  pardon,  and  desiring 
his   prayers  to  God  for  them.      When   this  happened, 


THOMAS.  S5S 

he  was  about  thirty- three  years  old.  Soon  after,  the 
parliament  committee  deprived  him  of  his  living  of 
Laugharn  ;  and  though  a  principal  member  of  that 
body  had  been  his  pupil  and  particular  friend,  yet  he 
refused  to  shew  him  any  favour,  saying,  "  If  he  was  his 
father,  he  would  do  him  no  service  unless  he  would  take 
the  covenant."  From  this  time  till  the  restoration, 
Mr.  Thomas  endured  great  hardships,  being  a  sufferer 
to  the  amount  of  above  fifteen  hundred  pounds,  and,  for 
the  support  of  his  family,  he  was  obliged  to  teach  a  private 
school  in  the  country ;  and  though  his  friends  often 
made  him  liberal  presents,  yet  his  wife  and  numerous 
family  were  frequently  in  want  of  common  necessaries. 
At  the  restoration  Mr.  Thomas  was  re-instated  in  his 
living,  and  by  the  king's  letters  patent  made  chanter  of 
St.  Davids. 

In  1605,  he  was  made  Dean  of  Worcester,  and  in 
T677,  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  with  which  he  held  the 
Deanery  of  Worcester  in  commendam.  He  was  very 
acceptable  to  the  gentry  and  clergy  of  that  diocese :  he 
had  been  bred  up  among  them,  spoke  their  language, 
and  had  been  a  fellow- sufferer  with  many  of  them  in  the 
late  troublesome  times.  His  behaviour  confirmed  their 
expectations,  his  generous  temper  agreed  with  theirs,  but 
his  chief  concern  was  not  so  much  to  please  their 
humours,  as  to  correct  their  morals,  and  save  their  souls ; 
to  promote  true  piety  and  goodness,  and  to  sow  the  seeds 
of  holiness  among  them.  He  began  to  repair  the  palaces 
at  Brecknock  and  Aberguilly;  he  preached  frequently  in 
several  parts  of  his  diocese  in  the  language  of  the 
country,  and  was  very  instrumental  in  promoting  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  Welsh.  He  endeavoured 
all  he  could  to  remove  the  cathedral  service  from  St. 
David's  to  Caermarthen ;  the  former  being  a  place  of  no 
trade,  little  frequented,  situated  in  a  corner  of  the  king- 
dom, twelve  long  miles  from  any  market  town,  the 
cathedral  ruinous,  the  bishop's  palace  quite  demolished, 

VOL.  viii.  3  B 


554  THOMAS. 

no  residence  kept,  the  canons  never  attending,  except  to 
receive  their  revenues,  and  not  one  shiUing  laid  out  in 
repairing  the  cathedral  after  the  restoration.  On  the 
contrary,  Caermarthen  he  knew  to  be  a  rich  and  populous 
town  ;  the  great  church  capable  of  being  made  decent 
and  handsome,  and  the  episcopal  house  of  Aberguilly 
very  near,  where  the  bishop  constantly  resided.  On 
those  motives  he  set  about  the  work  very  heartily,  but 
met  with  the  same  success  as  bishop  Barlow  had  done 
before. 

Having  been  Bishop  of  St.  David's  six  years,  he  was 
translated  to  the  See  of  Worcester,  in  the  place  of  Bishop 
Fleetwood.  As  soon  as  he  knew  of  this  appointment, 
his  lordship,  who  never  was  a  lover  of  money,  desisted 
from  any  further  treaty  with  several  tenants  of  the 
Bishoprick  of  St.  David's,  and  refused  very  considerable 
fines,  afterwards  received  by  Bishop  Womack.  He  went 
to  Worcester  in  August,  1683,  and  wslh  conducted  to  his 
palace  by  the  gentry  and  clergy  of  his  diocese,  where  they 
were  entertained  very  handsomely,  and  ever  after  found 
a  plentiful  table  and  hearty  welcome  ;  he  being  always 
of  opinion  that,  in  order  to  amend  the  morals  of  the 
people,  the  first  step  was  to  gain  their  acquaintance  and 
affection.  Upon  this  principle,  he  was  a  great  lover  of 
hospitality  and  charity ;  the  poor  of  the  neighbourhood 
were  daily  fed  at  his  door,  and  he  sent  provisions  twice  a 
week  to  the  common  prison,  besides  very  large  sums 
given  where  he  saw  occasion.  Some  may  think  that  he 
carried  this  matter  to  excess ;  for  though  he  frequently 
was  heard  to  say,  '*  he  dreaded  debt  as  a  sin,"  through 
his  extensive  charity,  and  the  necessary  calls  of  a 
numerous  family,  he  sometimes  brought  himself  to  the 
verge  of  it,  and  laid  not  up  for  himself  or  his  children  ; 
and  when  charged  by  several  for  not  providing  for  his 
own  household,  his  answer  always  was,  "  that  no  bishop 
or  priest  was  to  enrich  himself  with,  or  raise  his  family 
out  of  the  revenues  of  the  Church ;    that   the   sacred 


THOMAS.  655 

canons  forbade  it ;  and  that  for  his  part  he  was  resolved 
that  none  of  his  should  be  the  richer  for  them,  as  he 
was  only  God's  steward,  and  bound  to  dispense  them  to 
His  glory  in  works  of  charity  and  piety."  He  was 
extremely  careful  what  persons  he  ordained ;  his  censures 
were  also  expressed  in  the  softest  words,  and  with  an 
humble  air  of  such  tenderness  and  brotherly  compassion 
as  always  gained  the  more  ingenuous,  and  left  the 
incorrigible  without  excuse.  He  constantly  attended 
six  o'clock  prayers  in  the  cathedral,  so  long  as  his  health 
would  permit;  and  upon  complaint  from  Archbishop 
Sheldon,  dated  June  4,  1670,  that  the  duties  of  reading 
the  Church  Service  and  administering  the  sacraments 
were  too  much  neglected  by  dignified  persons,  "  the 
deans  and  canons,  as  if  it  were  an  office  below  them,  and 
left  for  the  most  part  to  be  performed  by  their  vicars  or 
petty  canons,  to  the  offence  of  the  Church's  friends  and  the 
advantage  of  sectaries,  and  their  own  just  reproach ;" 
he,  together  with  the  prebendaries,  so  ordered  the 
residence  that  one  or  two  of  them  generally  officiated  at 
the  Communion.  The  bishop,  at  his  first  visitation  of 
the  dean  and  chapter,  by  his  own  authority,  and  their 
concurrence,  procured  a  Chapter- act  to  be  made,  to 
oblige  the  prebendaries  to  be  resident  two  at  a  time  in 
every  month;  this  being  done  with  the  concurrence  of 
Dr.  Hickes,  then  dean,  and  Dr.  Hopkins,  a  worthy 
prebendary  of  the  Church,  passed  without  the  least 
appearance  of  uneasiness  in  any  one  member  of  the 
society.  The  money,  which  at  former  visitations  was 
usually  expended  in  entertaining  the  bishops,  he  ordered 
to  be  laid  out  in  books  for  the  library,  and  entertained 
the  Church  at  his  own  charge ;  he  was  besides  a  con- 
siderable benefactor  to  the  library,  the  books  about  this 
time  being  brought  from  an  inconvenient  room  on  the 
south  side  of  the  church,  and  placed  in  the  chapter- 
house, a  very  elegant  room,  capable  of  containing  a  noble 
collection  of  books.      The  bishop  was  often  present  in 


556  THOMAS. 

the  Consistory  court,  whereby  he  much  prevented  the 
frivolous  suits,  and  expedited  the  dilatory  proceedings,, 
which  at  that  time  were  much  complained  of.  In  1683, 
Archbishop  Bancroft  wrote  a  letter  to  the  bishop  com- 
plaining of  a  custom  which  then  and  for  many  years 
after  continued,  of  preaching  the  sermon  in  the  body  of 
the  cathedral,  the  prayers  being  read  in  the  choir :  the 
origin  of  this  custom  was,  that  as  there  was  no  sermon 
in  the  parish  churches,  the  several  parishioners  might, 
after  their  own  prayers,  attend  the  sermon  of  some 
eminent  preacher  in  the  cathedral.  He  was  a  great 
patron  of  the  French  Protestants,  and  contributed  largely 
to  their  support.  In  1687,  when  the  king  made  his 
progress  through  part  of  England,  the  bishop  sent  his 
servant  to  Bath,  to  invite  his  majesty  to  his  palace  at 
Worcester,  where  he  had  the  honour  of  entertaining  him 
on  the  23rd  day  of  August,  the  eve  of  St.  Bartholomew. 
He  met  him  at  the  gate  of  his  palace,  attended  by  his 
clergy,  and  in  a  short  Latin  speech  welcomed  him  to 
the  city.  His  majesty  walked  upon  a  large  piece  of 
white  broad  cloth  of  the  manufacture  of  the  city,  all 
strewed  with  flowers,  which  reached  from  the  palace 
gate  to  the  stairs  leading  up  to  the  great  hall :  as  he 
went  along,  he  said,  "  My  lord,  this  looks  like  White- 
hall." Having  refreshed  himself  after  his  journey,  he 
went  to  see  the  cathedral,  the  dean  attending  his 
majesty  to  the  college  gate,  from  whence  he  went  to  see 
the  curiosities  of  the  town,  and  among  the  rest,  was 
shewn  where  the  battle  was  fought  between  Oliver  and 
his  royal  brother. 

The  next  morning  being  the  feast  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
the  king  went  to  hear  mass  at  the  Popish  Chapel,  built 
at  his  accession  to  the  crown,  on  the  east  side  of 
Foregate-street,  attended  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen, 
whom,  when  they  came  to  the  gate  of  the  chapel,  his 
majesty  asked  if  they  would  not  go  in  with  him  ;  to  which 
the  mayor  with  a  becoming  spirit  replied,  "  I  think  we, 


THOMAS.  557 

have  attended  your  majesty  too  far  already."  This 
worthy  magistrate  who  preferred  his  religion,  and  duty 
to  his  country,  to  every  other  consideration,  should  have 
his  name  recorded  in  letters  of  gold :  Dr.  Nash  took 
pains  to  find  out  who  it  was,  and  believed  it  to  be  either 
Thomas  Bearcroft  or  Thomas  Sherwin  ;  the  former  was 
elected  by  the  new  charter,  the  latter  by  the  old  charter 
restored.  Upon  this  answer  made  by  the  mayor,  the 
king  went  into  the  Popish  chapel,  and  the  mayor,  with 
all  the  Protestants  who  attended  him,  went  to  the 
College  Church,  where,  when  divine  service  was  ended, 
the  bishop  waited  on  his  majesty  till  dinner  came  in, 
and  the  meat  being  set  on  the  table  he  offered  to 
say  grace ;  but  the  king  w^as  pleased  to  say  that  he  would 
spare  him  that  trouble,  for  he  had  a  chaplain  of  his  own, 
upon  which  the  good  old  man  withdrew,  not  without 
tears  in  his  eyes.  As  soon  as  the  dinner  was  over,  his 
majesty  proceeded  in  his  progress  to  Ludlow,  having 
expressed  himself  well  pleased  with  the  attendance  of 
the  gentlemen  of  the  county,  and  his  entertainment  by 
the  bishop,  which  his  lordship  says  in  a  private  letter  to  a 
friend,  though  very  chargeable  to  him,  yet  he  did  not 
grudge  it,  as  he  hoped  he  had  done  the  Church  some 
credit  by  it.  The  white  broad  cloth  on  which  his 
majesty  walked  from  the  palace  gate  to  the  stairs  leading 
to  the  great  hall  cost  his  lordship  £27  :  it  was  rolled  up 
after  his  majesty,  and  taken  away  by  the  attendants  as 
belonging  to  his  ^vardrobe. 

While  the  king  was  at  Worcester,  the  neighbouring 
Dissenters  of  all  denominations  sent  their  addresses  to 
him,  which  the  Earl  of  Plymouth,  being  lord-lieutenant, 
was  to  receive,  and  to  deliver  to  the  king.  When  he 
brought  the  two  first  the  king  asked  him  what  religion 
the  men  who  brought  them  were  of,  "  Indeed,  sir," 
replied  the  lord-lieutenant,  "  I  did  not  ask  them  ;  but  I 
know  by  their  looks  they  are  neither  of  your  religion  nor 
mine."  But  now  the  good  bishop's  troubles  drew  on  apace: 
3b  3 


568  THOMAS. 

the  penal  laws  against  Non-conformists  were  suspended  ;' 
and  May  4,  1688,  the  king  ordered  the  bishops  to  take 
care  that  his  declaration  should  be  read  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  London,  on  the  20th  and  27th  of  the  said 
month,  and  in  all  other  churches  and  chapels  the  3rd 
and  10th  of  June.  The  archbishop  and  six  bishops 
presented  a  petition  against  it ;  the  consequence  of  which 
was,  that  thej  were  sent  to  the  Tower ;  this  was  a  great  grief 
to  the  bishop,  not  that  he  was  concerned  for  any  fault 
or  misbehaviour  of  his  brethren,  or  for  the  calamity  that 
had  befallen  them,  for  he  often  wished  that  he  had 
been  with  them,  to  bear  his  testimony  in  so  good  a 
cause,  and  to  have  a  share  with  them  in  their  honourable 
sufferings,  but  he  was  troubled  to  think  on  that  im- 
pending storm  which  he  foresaw  might  fall  on  the 
Church  :  however,  both  he  and  the  dean,  (Dr.  Hickes) 
resolved  not  to  disperse  the  declaration,  and  signified 
to  all  the  clergy  his  utter  dislike  of  it.  Soon  after  he 
received  a  letter  from  court,  containing  a  reprimand-  for 
not  obeying  the  king  s  orders :  the  answer  to  which  was, 
as  he  himself  says,  without  any  tincture  of  collusion, 
but  declaratory  of  his  firm  resolution  not  to  comply. 
Upon  King  William's  accession,  his  ill  health  would  not 
allow  him  to  attend  the  convention ;  and  indeed  he 
never  approved  of  the  Prince  of  Orange's  being  declared 
king,  and  much  less  of  that  act  which  obliged  all  per- 
sons to  take  oaths  of  allegiance  to  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary,  or  to  forfeit  their  offices,  their  livings,  and 
their  temporal  subsistence.  For  his  own  part  he  was 
resolved  to  forsake  all,  rather  than  to  act  contrary  to  his 
former  oaths,  and  homage,  which  he  had  paid  to  King 
James;  and  although  he  whites  to  Kettlewell,  and  says, 
♦'  If  my  heart  do  not  deceive  me,  and  God's  grace  do  not 
fail  me,  I  think  I  could  suffer  at  a  stake  rather  than  take 
this  oath,"  yet  it  does  not  appear  that  he  used  any  per- 
suasions to  prevent  others  from  taking  it,  only  freely 
g^vve  his  opinion,  and  advised  them  sincerely  to  consult 


THOMAS.  559 

their  own  consciences.  This  was  what  he  said  to  the 
clergy;  and  when  a  grandson  of  his,  Dr.  William 
Thomas,  then  a  student  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
consulted  him  on  this  critical  point,  he  left  him  to  his 
own  liberty,  and  the  feelings  of  his  own  conscience.  In 
one  of  his  sermons  he  says,  "  An  humble  man  submits, 
suspects  his  own  judgments,  hath  a  venerable  esteem 
for  his  superiors  ;  if  startled  by  any  constitutions  in 
Church  and  State,  he  frequently  prays,  seriously  dis- 
courses, modestly  counsels  with  others ;  if  after  all  ex- 
pedients he  remains  dissatisfied,  if  he  cannot  swim  with 
the  stream,  he  wnll  not  trouble  the  waters." 

The  limited  time  for  taking  the  oaths  drawing  near, 
he  prepared  himself  for  leaving  the  palace,  and  vacating 
the  see.  He  had  agreed  with  Mr.  Martin,  then  vicar  of 
Wolverly,  to  come  and  live  with  him ;  and  he  wrote  to 
Dr.  Stillingfleet,  telling  him  that  he  would  use  all  his 
interest  that  he  might  succeed  him.  While  he  was  thus 
preparing  all  things  for  his  retirement,  God  was  pleased 
to  prepare  better  for  him,  for,  about  the  20th  of  June, 
after  a  very  severe  fit  of  the  gout,  he  grew  continually 
weaker  and  weaker,  though  his  friends  did  not  think 
him  in  any  immediate  danger.  The  bishop,  however, 
perceiving  himself  decaying,  on  Sunday  the  23rd,  re- 
ceived the  Sacrament  in  his  own  chapel ;  on  Monday 
all  his  servants  were  called  in,  and  he  gave  every  one 
of  them  his  blessing ;  that  night  he  endeavoured  to 
sleep,  but  in  vain ;  his  daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  Anne 
Thomas,  sat  up  with  him,  and  was  much  edified  by  him, 
for  the  most  part  of  that  restless  night  he  spent  in  ejacu- 
lations and  prayer  to  God,  that  he  would  be  pleased  to 
release  him  from  his  miseries,  and  the  troubles  of  this 
vain  world :  there  was  no  weight  or  clog  on  his  con- 
science ;  death  did  not  appear  at  all  troublesome  to  him, 
the  sting  was  gone,  his  earnest  desire  was  to  depart,  and 
be  wdth  Christ.  Thus  he  passed  the  few  remaining 
^ours  of  his  life,  being  sensible  to  the  last ;  but,  growing 


560  THORNDIKE. 

still  weaker  and  weaker,  about  three  o'clock  the  next  day, 
being  the  25th,  he  patiently  submitted  to  the  stroke  of 
death,  and  resigned  his  spirit  into  the  hands  of  God  that 
gave  it.  He  died  in  the  seventy-sixth  year  of  his  age. 
He  published  : — An  Apology  for  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land ;  A  Sermon  preached  at  Caermarthen  Assizes ;  and, 
The  Mammon  of  Unrighteousness,  a  Sermon.  A  Letter 
to  the  Clergy,  and  an  imperfect  work,  entitled  Roman 
Oracles  Silenced,  were  published  after  his  death. — 
Nash's  Worcestershire. 


THOMASSIN,    LEWIS. 

Lewis  Tpiomassin,  was  born  at  Aix,  in  Provence,  in 
1619.  At  fourteen  years  of  age,  he  was  admitted  into 
the  congregation  of  the  Oratory,  where  he  was  professor 
of  moral  philosophy,  until  he  was  appointed  professor 
of  divinity  at  Saumur.  In  J  654,  he  removed  to  Paris. 
He  died  in  1695. 

His  principal  works  are  : — L'Ancienne  et  Nouvelle 
Discipline  de  I'Eglise,  1725,  3  vols,  folio  ;  Dogmes  Theo- 
logiques ;  Traite  Dogmatique  et  Historique  des  edits  et 
autres  Moyens  dont  on  s'est  servi  dans  tons  les  tems 
pour  etablir  et  maintenir  I'unite  dans  I'Eglise ;  Direc- 
tions for  Studying  and  Teaching  Philosophy  in  a  Chris- 
tian manner ;  the  same  "  for  the  Profane  Historians ;" 
A  plan  of  the  same  kind  for  Grammar  or  the  Languages 
with  relation  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  A  Universal 
Hebrew  Glossary, — in  this  he  endeavours  to  trace  all 
words  in  other  languages  to  Hebrew  roots  ;  Dissertations 
on  the  Councils ;  and,  Memoires  sur  la  Grace. — Moreri. 


THOBNDIKE,    HERBERT. 

Of   this   eminent  divine,  we   are  not  aware   that  any 


THORNDIKE.  561? 

account  exists  except  the  short  notice  in  the  General 
Biographical  Dictionary,  and  in  Walker's  Sufferings 
of  the  Clergy.  To  the  edition  of  his  works  published 
in  the  Anglo- Catholic  library,  no  biography  is  prefixed. 
We  give  the  life,  therefore,  as  it  is  in  Chalmers.  The 
year  of  his  birth  is  not  stated,  but  he  was  educated 
at  Trinity  College,  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  of 
which  he  was  fellow.  In  1638,  he  was  proctor  of  that 
university.  In  July,  1642,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Rectory  of  Barley,  in  Hertfordshire  ;  and  upon  the 
death  of  Dr.  Samuel  Ward,  in  September,  1643,  he 
was  elected  master  of  Sidney  College,  in  Cambridge, 
from  which.  Dr.  Walker  says,  he  w^as  kept  out  "  by  the 
oppressions  of  the  times  ;"  but  there  was  also  somewhat 
of  court  intrigue  in  this  affair,  as  related  in  Walter 
Pope's  life  of  Bishop  Ward.  He  tells  us,  that  upon 
the  death  of  the  latter,  the  fellows  of  the  college 
assembled  to  choose  a  new  master.  Mr.  Seth  Ward,, 
with  nine  of  them,  gave  their  suffrages  for  Mr.  Thorn- 
dike  of  Trinity  College  ;  for  Mr.  Minshull  there  were 
eight  votes  including  his  own.  But  while  they  w^ere  at 
the  election,  a  band  of  soldiers  rushed  in  upon  them, 
and  forcibly  carried  away  Mr.  Parsons,  one  of  those 
fellows,  who  voted  for  Mr.  Thorndike,  so  that  the  num- 
ber of  suffrages  for  Mr.  Minshull,  his  own  being  ac- 
counted one,  was  equal  to  those  Mr.  Thorndike  had. 
Upon  which  Mr.  Minshull  was  admitted  master,  the 
other  eight  only  protesting  against  it,  being  ill-advised, 
for  they  should  have  adhered  to  their  votes.  Two  of 
them,  whereof  Mr.  Ward  was  one,  went  to  Oxford,  and 
brought  thence  a  mandamus  from  the  king,  commanding 
Mr.  Minshull,  and  the  fellows  of  Sidney  College,  to 
repair  thither,  and  give  an  account  of  their  proceedings 
as  to  that  election.  This  mandamus,  or  peremptory 
summons,  was  fixed  upon  the  chapel-door  by  Mr.  Linnet, 
who  was  afterwards  a  fellow  of  Trinity  College,  but  at 
that  time  attended  on  Mr.  Thorndike. 


562  THORNDIKE. 

On  the  other  side,  one  Mr.  Bertie,  a  kinsman  of  the 
Earl  of  Lindsey,  being  one  of  those  who  voted  for  Mr. 
Minshull,  was  also  sent  to  Oxford  on  his  behalf.  This 
gentleman,  by  the  assistance  and  mediation  of  my  lord 
of  Lindsey,  procured  an  order  from  the  king  to  confirm 
Mr.  Minshull  s  election ;  but  he,  not  thinking  this  title 
sufficient,  did  corroborate  it  with  the  broad  seal,  to  which 
Mr.  Thorndike  consented,  Mr.  Minshull  paying  him  and 
the  rest  of  the  fellows  the  charges  they  had  been  at  in 
the  management  of  that  affair,  amounting  to  an  hun- 
dred pounds.  This  was,  therefore,  evidently  a  matter  in 
which  "  the  oppressions  of  the  times"  (which  are  usually 
understood  to  mean  those  which  arose  from  the  usurpa- 
tion) were  not  concerned.  He  was,  however,  afterwards,  to 
experience  the  latter  also,  and  was  ejected  from  his 
living  of  Barley,  which  was  given  to  the  Rev.  Nath. 
Ball,  of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  who,  Calamy  informs 
us,  punctually  paid  a  fifth  part  of  the  income  to  Mr. 
Thorndike.  At  the  restoration  he  was  replaced  in  this 
living,  but  resigned  it  on  being  made  a  prebendary  of 
Westminster.  He  very  much  assisted  Dr.  Walton  in 
the  edition  of  the  Polyglot  Bible,  particularly  in  marking 
the  variations  in  the  Syriac  version  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  and  wrote  several  treatises  :  A  Discourse  con- 
cerning the  primitive  Form  of  the  Government  of 
Churches,  Cambridge,  1641,  8vo;  A  Discourse  of  Reli- 
gious Assemblies  and  the  Public  Service  of  God,  Cam- 
bridge, 1642,  8vo;  A  Discourse  of  the  Right  of  the 
Church  in  a  Christian  State,  with  a  Review  by  way  of 
Appendix,  London,  1649,  8vo  ;  Just  Weights  and  Mea- 
sures ;  that  is,  the  present  state  of  Religion  weighed  in 
the  Balance,  and  measured  by  the  Standard  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary, London,  1662,  4to  ;  A  Discourse  of  the  Forbearance 
of  the  Penalties,  which  a  due  Reformation  requires,  Lon- 
don, 1670,  8vo;  Origines  Ecclesiae,  seu  de  ratione  ac 
jure  finiendi  Controversias  Ecclesiae,  London,  1670, 
8vo.     To  these  we  may  add,  what  is  called  his  famous 


THORNDIKE.  660 

book,  published  in  1659,  under  the  title  of  An  Epilogue 
to  the  Tragedy  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  three 
books,  viz. :  1.  Of  the  Principles  of  Christian  Truth. 
2.  Of  the  Covenant  of  Grace.  3.  Of  the  Laws  of  the 
Church.  By  a  letter  from  Chancellor  Hyde,  in  the 
Appendix  to  Dr.  Barwick's  Life,  it  would  appear  that 
this  work  had  given  offence,  as  being  unseasonable  and 
injudicious.  Hyde  says,  "  Pray  tell  me  what  melancholy 
hath  possessed  poor  Mr.  Thorndike?  And  what  do  our 
friends  think  of  his  book  ?  And  is  it  possible  that  he 
would  publish  it,  without  ever  imparting  it,  or  commu- 
nicating with  them?  His  name  and  reputation  in 
learning  is  too  much  made  use  of,  to  the  discountenance 
of  the  poor  Church  ;  and  though  it  might  not  be  in 
his  power  to  be  without  some  doubts  and  scruples,  I  do 
not  know  what  impulsion  of  conscience  there  could  be 
to  publish  those  doubts  to  the  world,  in  a  time  when  he 
might  reasonably  believe  the  worst  use  would  be  made, 
and  the  greatest  scandal  proceed  from  them."  This 
seems  to  allude  to  some  opinions  he  held  that  were 
unfavourable  to  the  measures  of  the  court :  and  we  find 
that  there  was  some  difficulty  in  admitting  him  into  the 
convocation  in  1661,  *'  on  account  of  his  speaking  much  of 
the  Bohemian  Churches,  called  Uiiitas  Fratrum."  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Savoy  conference,  and  in  the  little 
he  said  completely  undeceived  the  Nonconformists,  who, 
from  his  early  publications,  had  supposed  he  was  of 
their  side.  There  was  also  a  suspicion  that  he  had  a 
little  too  much  leaning  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  so  that 
his  character  has  not  descended  to  us  with  all  the 
evidences  of  consistency;  but  that  he  was  a  man  of 
great  learning,  and  an  able  oriental  scholar,  seems 
indisputable. 

He  died  July,  1672,  and  was  interred  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  There  were  some  remarkable  passages  in  his 
last  will,  dated  July  3rd  that  year ;  particularly  these 
words:  "  My  will  is,  that  if  my  nieces,  or  either  of  them, 


■564  TILLEMONT. 

shall  return  to  New  England  after  my  decease,  or  shall 
maruy  with  any  that  goes  to  mass,  or  any  of  the  new 
licensed  conventicles,  then  whatsoever  is  given  them  by 
this  my  will,  exceeding  the  four  hundred  pounds,  which 
I  have  absolutely  given  them  by  deed,  shall  be  void  and 
not  due  ;  so  that  when  either  or  both  of  them  shall  be 
married  here  to  such  as  sincerely  cleave  unto  the  Church 
of  England,  then  the  payment  to  be  made. — As  for  my 
body,  I  charge  my  executor  to  write  these  words  upon 
my  grave-stone  :  '  Hie  jacet  corpus  Herbert!  Thorndike, 
prebendarii  hujus  ecclesJEe,  qui  vivus  veram  reformandae 
ecclesise  rationem  ac  raodum  precibusque  studiisque  pro- 
sequebatur.  Tu,  lector,  requiem  ei  et  beatam  in  Christo 
resurrexionem  precare.' "  It  is  evident,  from  this  last 
clause,  that  he  believed  in  the  eflBicacy  of  prayer  for  the 
dead. — Chalmers. 


TILLEMONT. 

Louis  Sebastian  Le  Nain  de  Tillemont  was  born  in 
Paris,  on  the  30th  of  Nov.,  1637,  and  was  educated  at 
Port  Royal.  His  taste  for  historical  studies  developed 
themselves  at  an  early  period  of  life.  At  the  age  of 
twenty- three,  he  entered  the  Episcopal  seminary  at 
Beauvais ;  and  there  he  remained  for  three  or  four 
years,  and  then  went  to  reside  with  Godefroi  Hermant, 
a  canon  of  the  Cathedral  of  Beauvais,  with  whom  he 
remained  five  or  six  years.  He  then  returned  to  Paris, 
and,  after  receiving  the  other  orders  of  his  Church,  and 
being  ordained  priest,  in  1676,  he  settled  at  Tillemont, 
(whence  he  took  his  name,)  about  a  league  from  Paris, 
near  Vincennes.  About  this  time  he  was  employed, 
along  with  his  friend  M.  de  Sacy,  on  a  life  of  St.  Louis  ; 
•and  two  years  after  he  travelled  in  Flanders  and  Holland. 
In  1590,  he  began  to  publish  his  History  of  the  Em- 
-perors,  4to,  and  completed  it  in  five  volumes.     It  met 


TILLEMONT.  665 

with  great  success,  and  was  reprinted  at  Bmsselsrand 
translated  into  English.  This  was  followed  by  his 
Ecclesiastical  History,  Memoirs  pour  servir  a  I'Histoire 
Ecclesiastique  des  Six  Premiers  Siecles,  &c.,  1693,  &c., 
completed  in  sixteen  volumes,  4to. 

His  writings,  remarks  Mr.  Bowling,  may  be  fairly  said 
to  have  exhausted  the  sources  of  history  which  had 
hitherto  come  to  light,  and  to  exhibit  all  that  was  known 
of  the  empire  and  the  Church  during  the  first  six 
centuries.  But  his  great  work,  (Memoires  pour  servir  a 
I'Histoire  Ecclesiastique  des  six  premiers  Siecles),  is 
correctly  described  by  its  title ;  it  is  a  magazine  of 
materials  selected,  arranged,  and  labelled,  rather  than  a 
history.  It  is  a  book  less  suitable  to  be  read  than  to  be 
consulted.  It  is,  however,  a  perfect  model  of  historical 
research,  not  less  admirable  for  its  tone  and  spirit,  than 
for  its  accuracy  and  learning.  The  scholar  always  turns 
to  the  pages  of  Tillemont  with  satisfaction,  and  the 
thoughtful  student  of  Ecclesiastical  history  cannot  but 
revere  the  memory  of  a  writer  in  whom,  after  allowing 
for  the  peculiarities  of  a  pious  Eomanist,  he  ever  finds 
liberality  without  latitudinarianism  and  candour  without 
scepticism. 

He  died  Jan.  lOth,  1698,  aged  sixty-one.  He  was 
interred  at  Port  Royal,  agreeably  to  his  desire ;  but  when 
that  abbey  was  destroyed  in  1711,  his  remains  were 
removed  to  St.  Andre  des  Arcs,  his  parish  church. 
M.  Tronchai,  canon  of  Laval,  published  Tillemont 's  life 
in  1711,  12mo. 

He  supplied  materials  for  several  works  published 
by  others, — the  Life  of  St.  Louis,  begun  by  De  Sacy, 
and  finished  and  published  by  La  Chaise ;  the  lives  of 
St.  Athanasius  and  St.  Basil,  by  Godefroi  Hermant; 
and  the  Lives  of  Tertullian  and  Origen,  by  Du 
Fosse,  under  the  name  of  La  Mothe. — Biog.  Generale. 
Dowling. 

VOL.  viii.  3  c 


566  TILLOTSON. 


TILLOTSON,    JOHN. 


TiLLOTsoN  John  was  born  at  Sow  erby  in  the  parish  of 
Halifax,  in  the  county  of  York,  where  his  father  was 
a  clothier,  in  October,  1630.  His  parents  were  Puritans, 
though  Tillotson  himself  at  an  early  period  of  life  seems 
to  have  renounced  the  Calvinistic  peculiarities.  He  was 
indeed  accused,  but  unjustly,  of  Socinianism.  His 
extreme  liberality  sometimes  caused  the  sincerity  of  his 
principles  to  be  doubted,  though  it  is  quite  certain  that 
if  he  did  not  fully  believe,  he  did  not  deny  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  as  held  in  the  reformed  Church  of 
England.  Tillotson  was  educated  at  Clare  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, of  which  college  he  was  admitted  a  pensioner  on 
the  23rd  of  April,  1647.  He  graduated  in  1650,  in 
which  year  he  became  fellow.  In  1654,  he  became  M.  A. 
Tillotson  was  a  student  at  this  time  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  among  the  fathers,  especially  of  St.  Chrysostom  and 
St.  Basil.  In  1656,  he  was  tutor  to  the  son  of  Edmund 
Prideaux,  Cromwell's  attorney-general,  and  resided  in 
the  family.  He  was  at  this  time  a  Presbyterian.  But 
he  took  a  careless  and  philosophical  view  of  all  points 
relating  to  the  Church,  and  shortly  after  the  Restoration 
was  ordained  by  Dr.  Sydserf,  Bishop  of  Galloway.  He 
did  not  hesitate  to  conform,  when  in  1662,  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  passed,  and  he  became  curate  in  Cheshunt 
in  Hertfordshire.  He  here  encountered  an  Oliverian 
soldier  who  set  up  as  an  Anabaptist  preacher ;  this 
man  preached  in  a  red  coat,  and  was  followed  by  many 
people,  but  Tillotson  succeeded  in  persuading  him  to 
desist  from  "  an  encroachment  upon  the  priest's  office 
and  to  betake  himself  to  an  honest  employment." 

In  1663,  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of  Kedington, 
in  Suffolk,  which  he  soon  after  resigned  on  being  chosen 
preacher  of  Lincoln's  Inn. 

In    1664,   he  was   chosen  Tuesday   Lecturer   at   St. 


TILLOTSON.  567 

Laurence,  Jewry.  In  the  same  year  he  married  Elizabeth 
daughter  of  Dr.  French,  canon  of  Christ  Church,  by  a 
sister  of  OHver  Cromwell,  which  lady  was  remarried  to  the 
celebrated  Bishop  Wilkins,  then  rector  of  St.  Laurence, 
Jewry;  and  in  the  following  year  Tillotson  was  appointed 
lecturer  to  the  same  parish.  He  was  now  become  a 
distinguished  preacher;  and  he  obtained  great  reputation 
by  a  sermon  preached  before  the  corporation  of  London, 
on  the  Wisdom  of  being  religious,  which  was  printed. 
He  also  began  to  engage  in  controversy,  by  writing 
The  Rule  of  Faith,  in  reply  to  a  book  written  by  one 
Sargeant  or  Smith,  a  convert  to  Popery.  In  1666,  he 
took  the  degree  of  D.  D.,  and  in  1669,  he  was  made 
chaplain  to  Charles  II.,  and  presented  to  a  prebend  of 
Canterbury. 

Popery  was  now  becoming  a  great  subject  of  alarm  to 
the  nation;  and  when  the  king,  in  1672,  issued  a 
declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience,  supposed  to  be  for 
the  purpose  of  favouring  the  Roman  Catholics,  the 
bishops  recommended  to  the  clergy  to  preach  against 
Popery.  The  king  complaining  of  this,  as  an  attempt 
to  excite  disaffection  among  the  people,  the  Bishop  of 
London  convoked  some  of  the  clergy  to  consider  what 
answer  should  be  made  to  his  majesty.  Tillotson,  who 
was  one  of  the  number,  suggested  the  reply,  that  "  since 
his  majesty  professed  the  Protestant  religion,  it  would  be 
an  unprecedented  thing  that  he  should  forbid  his  clergy 
to  preach  in  defence  of  a  faith  which  they  believed,  and 
which  he  declared  to  be  his  own."  This  was  a  pretty 
plain  insinuation  of  his  doubts  of  the  king's  sincerity 
and  he  soon  after  preached  a  noted  sermon  at  Whitehall 
on  the  hazard  of  salvation  in  the  Church  of  Rome ; 
notwithstanding,  however,  the  offence  he  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  given,  he  was  advanced  in  1672  to  the 
Deanery  of  Canterbury.  In  the  following  year  he  was 
presented  to  a  prebend  in  the  Church  of  St.  Paul's ;  and 
in  that  year  he  published  Bishop  Wilkins's  "  Principles  of 


568  TILLOTSON. 

Natural  religion,"  with  a  recommendatory  preface.  That 
prelate,  who  died  in  his  house,  had  entrusted  him  with 
the  disposal  of  all  his  papers. 

It  was  much  to  Tillotson's  honour  that  Dr.  Barrow 
also  at  his  death  conferred  upon  him  a  similar  trust, 
in  consequence  of  which  he  published  that  eminent 
person's  Treatise  on  the  Pope's  Supremacy.  Popery 
was  so  much  the  object  of  Dr.  Tillotson's  dread  and 
aversion,  that  in  a  sermon  preached  before  the  king 
in  April,  1680,  and  published  by  his  majesty's  special 
command,  entitled,  "  The  Protestant  Religion,  vindicated 
from  the  charge  of  Singularity  and  Novelty ;"  he  was 
betrayed  into  a  sentiment  of  intolerance  which  exposed 
him  to  heavy  censure.  It  is  contained  in  the  following 
passage :  "  I  cannot  think,  till  I  am  better  informed, 
which  I  am  always  ready  to  be,  that  any  pretence  of 
conscience  warrants  any  man  that  is  not  extraordinarily 
commissioned,  as  the  apostles  and  first  publishers  of  the 
gospel  were,  and  cannot  justify  that  commission  by 
miracles,  as  they  did,  to  affront  the  established  religion 
of  a  nation,  though  it  be  false,  and  openly  to  draw  men 
off  from  the  profession  of  it,  in  contempt  of  the  magis- 
trate and  the  law.  All  that  persons  of  a  different 
religion  can  in  such  a  case  reasonably  pretend  to,  is,  to 
enjoy  the  private  liberty  and  exercise  of  their  own 
conscience  and  religion,  for  which  they  ought  to  be  very 
thankful,  and  to  forbear  the  open  making  of  proselytes 
to  their  own  religion  (though  they  be  never  so  sure 
that  they  are  in  the  right)  till  they  have  either  an 
extraordinary  commission  from  God  to  that  purpose,  or 
the  providence  of  God  make  way  for  it  by  the  permission 
of  the  magistrate."  It  is  said  that  after  the  sermon  a 
nobleman  stept  up  to  the  king,  who  had  slept  the 
greatest  part  of  the  time,  and  said,  "It  is  a  pity  your 
majesty  was  asleep,  for  we  have  had  the  rarest  piece  of 
Hobbism  that  ever  you  heard  in  your  life  :"  to  which 
Charles  answered,  "  Odds-fish,  then  he  shall  print  it;" 


TILLOTSON.  569 

"which  was  the  cause  of  the  order.  It  is  certain  that 
Tillotson  was  highly  blamed  for  it,  both  by  the  estab- 
lished clergy,  and  by  his  former  Presbyterian  friends  ; 
and  indeed  a  more  direct  assertion  of  the  right  of  every 
government  to  suppress  innovation  or  reformation  of 
religion  cannot  be  produced,  and  the  Papists,  in 
particular,  might  use  it  to  great  advantage.  When  the 
bill  for  the  exclusion  of  the  Duke  of  York  was  in 
agitation,  he  warmly  2:)romoted  it ;  and  he  refused  to 
sign  the  address  of  the  London  clergy  to  the  king  on  his 
declaration  that  he  could  not  consent  to  such  a  bill. 

In  1682,  Dr.  Tillotson  published  a  volume  of  Sermons 
by  Bishop  Wilkins  from  his  manuscripts,  to  which  he 
prefixed  a  defence  of  that  prelate's  character  from  the 
aspersions  thrown  upon  it  in  the  Hist.  et.  Antiq.  Univers. 
Oxon.  of  Anthony  Wood.  He  was  the  editor  in  the  fol 
lowing  year  of  the  three  folio  volumes  of  Dr.  Barrow's 
Sermons,  a  task  which  must  have  cost  him  much  labour, 
and  for  which  English  divinity  is  much  indebted  to  him. 
This  was  the  year  of  the  Rye-house  plot,  and  of  its  melan- 
choly consequences,  the  execution  of  Lord  Bussell  and 
Algernon  Sidney.  To  the  former  of  these  sufferers 
Tillotson  was  called,  with  Burnet,  to  assist  in  the 
religious  preparation  for  his  death. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  these  divines,  leaders  in 
the  revolution,  urged  on  this  as  on  other  occasions 
the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience.  Against  the  Church 
of  England  divines,  who  held  this  doctrine,  and  yet 
justify  the  revolution,  a  charge  of  inconsistency  is  some- 
times brought,  and  by  no  one  is  it  more  strongly  urged 
than  by  Mr.  Macaulay.  Yet  that  gentleman  ought  to 
give  some  weight  to  what  is  said  by  the  favourite  divine 
of  William  ILL,  Bishop  Burnet,  "  As  I  have,"  says  his 
lordship,  "  expressly  and  publicly  owned  a  reserve  for 
resistance  in  case  of  a  total  subversion ;  so  I  must  add, 
that  to  my  knowledge,  other  divines  still  understood 
that  doctrine  of  non  resistence  with  this  reserve ;  though 
3c  3 


570  TILLOTSON. 

they  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  mention  it.  If  a  man 
were  to  exhort  married  persons  to  their  duty,  he  might 
use  that  general  expression  of  St.  Paul,  '  That  the 
husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  as  Christ  is  the  head 
of  the  Church ;  and  that  as  the  Church  is  subject  unto 
Christ,  so  wives  ought  to  be  subject  to  their  own  hus- 
bands in  every  thing  :'  he  might  say  all  this  without  an 
exception  ;  and  yet  in  the  case  of  intolerable  cruelty,  the 
wife  may  see  to  her  own  preservation  ;  but  desertion  or 
adultery  sets  her  more  at  liberty.  In  the  same  manner, 
when  we  exhort  children  to  obey  their  parents  in  all 
things;  we  do  not  suppose  the  case  of  their  parents 
going  about  to  kill  them,  nor  argue  what  they  may  do 
in  such  a  case.  Extraordinary  cases  ought  not  to  be 
supposed,  when  we  give  the  directions  that  belong  to 
the  ordinary  course  of  life  ;  and  therefore  divines  might 
preach  submission  in  very  large  and  full  expressions, 
who  yet  might  believe,  that  a  total  subversion  was  a  case 
of  another  nature,  which  might  warrant  more  violent 
remedies.  This  I  am  sure  was  our  late  primate's 
opinion." 

"A  Discourse  against  Transubstantiation,"  published 
near  the  close  of  Charles  II. 's  reign  and  another  against 
Purgatory  at  the  commencement  of  that  of  James  II. 
were  the  prelude  to  a  volumicus  controversy,  which 
occupied  Tillotson  till  the  approach  of  the  revolution. 

The  revolution  found  Dr.  Tillotson,  Dean  of  Canter- 
bury, and  Residentiary  of  St.  Paul's  ;  but  it  found  him 
also  in  high  favour  with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  all 
the  more  because  it  was  through  Tillotson's  persuasion 
that  the  Princess  Ann  of  Denmark  had  declared  in 
favour  of  the  prince.  In  1689,  he  was  appointed  clerk 
of  the  closet  to  William  III.  and  obtained  permission  to 
exchange  his  Deanery  of  Canterbury  for  that  of  St. 
Paul's,  an  exchange  rendered  necessary  by  his  having 
become  the  confidential  adviser  in  Ecclesiastical  affairs 
to  the  new  king  and  queen. 


TILLOTSON.  571 

William  anxious  to  conciliate  the  Dissenters,  endea- 
voured to  abolish  the  sacramental  test ;  but  the  Bill  of 
Comprehension,  which  included  a  dispensation  from 
kneeling  at  the  sacrament,  encountering  various  ob- 
stacles, fell  to  the  ground. 

Tillotson  and  Burnet  (the  latter  created  Bishop  of 
Sarum)  admonished  the  king  on  this  failure,  to  submit 
the  business  of  comprehension  to  a  synod  of  divines  as 
being  the  method  at  once  the  most  acceptable  to  the 
clergy,  and  the  best  calculated  to  silence  the  Popish 
objectors,  who  sneered  at  a  religion  established  by  Acts 
of  Parliament.  Thirty  divines,  (among  whom  we  find 
the  names  of  Tillotson,  Tenison,  Patrick,  Burnet^ 
Stillingfleet,  and  Kidder)  were  accordingly  directed  to 
prepare  such  alterations  as  they  should  judge  expedient 
in  the  Liturgy  and  Canons,  with  proposals  for  reform- 
ation in  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  in  other  matters 
relative  to  the  Church ;  all  which  were  first  to  be 
submitted  to  Convocation,  and  afterwards  reconsidered 
in  parliament.  After  four  divines  of  this  committee  had 
withdrawn  in  dissatisfaction,  the  remainder  proposed 
that  canonical  lessons  should  be  read  in  churches 
instead  of  the  Apocraphal  books,  and  the  Athanasian 
Creed  left  at  the  option  of  the  officiating  minister;  that 
new  Collects,  more  glowing  in  devotion,  should  be  drawn 
up,  and  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms  prepared;  that 
chanting  in  cathedrals  should  be  discontinued,  and 
legendary  saints  expunged  from  the  calendar ;  that  the 
cross  in  baptism,  the  surplice,  and  the  posture  of  kneel- 
ing at  the  sacrament,  should  not  in  future  be  insisted 
on ;  that  the  word  Minister  should  be  introduced  in  the 
place  of  Priest ;  that  fasts  in  Lent  should  not  consist  in 
abstinence  from  meats ;  and  that  sponsors  in  baptism 
should  not  be  held  essential.  They  submitted,  that  re- 
ordination,  where  Presbyters  had  imposed  hands  should 
be  conditional ;  and  pronounced  the  damnatory  clause  in 
the  Athanasian  Creed  to  be  applicable  only  to  those  who 


572  TILLOTSON. 

denied  the  substance  of  the  Christian  religion.  Among 
these  proposed  changes,  a  few  might  perhaps  be  ex- 
pedient; others  were  useless;  and  many  highly  objec- 
tionable. But  the  Tories  so  far  succeeded  in  alarming 
the  public  mind,  that  little  could  be  expected  from 
Convocation  by  the  schemers  of  this  conciliatory  plan. 

The  Convocation  was  dissolved  and  not  permitted  to 
sit  again  for  ten  years. 

At  the  time  when  Tillotson  kissed  hands  for  the 
Deanery  of  St.  Paul's,  King  William  hinted  his  deter- 
mination to  advance  him  to  the  See  of  Canterbury. 
From  Tillotson's  private  letters  we  learn  how  far  from 
satisfactory  to  him  was  the  idea  of  such  promotion ;  and 
we  may  well  conceive  it.  The  heart  of  a  usurper  is 
seldom  at  rest.  He  w^as  forced  by  the  strong  hand  of 
power  into  the  chair  of  Sancroft, — (See  Sancroft.J 

He  was  consecrated  in  1691.  The  following  is  his 
own  account  of  his  preparation  for  the  sacred  office  to 
which  he  was  raised  : — "  May  30th,  1691.  The  day 
before  my  consecration  to  the  Archbishopric,  which  was  on 
Whit-Sunday,  at  St.  Mary-le-Bow,  when,  on  Whit-Sunday 
eve  I  retired  to  Edmonton,  to  spend  that  day  in  fasting 
and  prayer,  to  implore  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God 
upon  that  action,  and  the  assistance  of  His  grace  and 
Holy  Spirit  to  be  vouchsafed  to  his  sinful  and  unworthy 
servant,  whom  His  wise  providence,  and  the  impor- 
tunate desire  of  their  majesties.  King  WilHam  and 
Queen  Mary,  the  best  of  princes,  (whom  God  in  great 
mercy  to  a  most  sinful  and  perverse  people  hath  by  a 
most  signal  providence  set  upon  the  throne  of  these 
kingdoms,  and  sent  (I  trust)  to  be  our  deliverers  and 
benefactors  for  many  generations  yet  to  come)  have 
called  to  the  government  and  conduct  of  this  miser- 
ably distracted  Church  in  a  very  difficult  and  dangerous 
time. 

"I  began  with  a  short  prayer  to  Almighty  God  to 
prepare  mj  heart  for  the  duty  of  this  day,  and  to  assist 


TILLOTSON.  67a 

me  in  the  discharge  of  it,  in  such  a  manner  as  might 
be  acceptable  in  his  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ  my 
blessed  Saviour  and  Redeemer. 

"  I  proceeded  next  to  a  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God 
for  His  mercy  and  goodness  to  me  in  the  conduct  of  my 
whole  life,  from  my  first  entrance  into  the  world,  to 
this  day. 

"Next,  I  made  an  humble  and  penitent  confession 
of  my  sins,  and  earnest  supplication  for  the  pardon  and 
forgiveness  of  them. 

"  Next  a  prayer  for  God's  blessing  upon  me,  and  His 
Holy  Spirit  to  be  conferred  upon  me,  in  the  solemn 
dedication  of  me  the  day  following  to  this  high  and 
holy  office. 

"  Then  I  read  the  prayers  in  the  consecration  office. 
I  concluded  with  a  prayer  for  the  king  and  queen,  and 
a  short  ejaculation," 

He  was  consecrated  the  following  day  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Mary-le-Bow,  by  the  then  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
Lloyd  of  St.  Asaph,  Burnet  of  Salisbury,  Stillingfleet 
of  Worcester,  Ironside  of  Bristol,  Hough  of  Oxford. 

The  rest  of  his  life  was  passed  in  the  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  his  high  office.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the 
works  or  refer  to  the  acts  of  Tillotson  without  being 
impressed  with  the  notion  of  his  being  a  good  and 
sincere  man.  He  was  a  man  of  good  common  sense 
and  of  much  worldly  wisdom ;  truly  benevolent,  always 
ready  to  serve  his  friends.  He  was  no  theologian,  and  his 
cold  and  cautious  temperment  made  him  approach  the 
Socinian  school,  though  against  the  Socinian  heresies 
he  was  careful  and  consistent  in  protesting.  The 
extreme  bitterness  of  the  Non-jurors  against  him  is  very 
natural,  but  it  is  not  one  of  the  points  upon  which  we 
can  concede  praise  to  those  conscientious  and  often  ill- 
used  men. 

He  died  in  1694,  and  was  buried  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Laurence,  Jewry,      Tillotson's  Sermons  have  been 


574  TOPLADY. 

reprinted  in  three  volumes,  folio,  and  in  1 6mo.  To  the 
last  edition,  in  folio,  is  prefixed  a  Life  of  him  by  Dr. 
Birch. — Birch.    Burnet.    Young. 


TiNDALE,  WILLIAM, — (See  TyndaU.) 


TOLET,    FRANCIS. 

Francis  Tolet  was  born  at  Cordova,  in  153'2,  and 
became  a  Jesuit  in  1559.  He  was  the  first  Jesuit  who 
was  advanced  to  the  purple,  being  made  a  cardinal  in 
1593.  He  died  in  1596.  He  was  one  of  those  whom 
Sixtus  V.  employed  in  revising  his  edition  of  the  Vul- 
gate. He  published,  Commentaries  upon  Aristotle's 
Philosophy;  Commentaries  upon  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
Twelve  Chapters  of  St.  Luke,  and  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans ;  A  Sum  of  Oases  of  Conscience,  or  Instruc- 
tions to  Priests. — Biog.  Universelle. 


tonstall, — (See  Tunstall.) 


TOPLADY,  AUGUSTINE  MONTAGUE. 

Montague  Augustine  Toplady  was  born  at  Farnham, 
in  Surrey,  in  1740.  He  was  educated  at  Westminster, 
and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College,  in  Dublin.  He  was 
ordained  in  1762,  and  soon  after  obtained  the  living  of 
Broad  Hembury,  in  Devonshire.  In  1775,  he  removed 
to  London,  where  he  officiated  in  the  chapel  belonging 
to  the  French  Calvinists,  near  Leicester  Fields.  Al- 
though a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  was 
himself  a  violent  Calvinist.     He  died  in  1778. 

His  works  are  : — The  Church  of  England  vindicated 


TOWERSON.  575 

from  the  charges  of  Arminianism ;  and  the  case  of 
Arminian  Subscription  particularly  considered,  in  a 
Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nowell ;  The  Doctrine  of  Abso- 
lute Predestination  stated  and  asserted,  with  a  pre- 
liminary Discourse  on  the  Divine  Attributes,  translated 
in  great  measure  from  the  Latin  of  Jerom  Zanchius, 
with  some  account  of  his  life  prefixed  ;  A  Letter  to  the  Rev. 
Mr.  John  Wesley,  relative  to  his  pretended  abridgment 
of  Zanchius  on  Predestination ;  Free  Thoughts  on  the 
projected  Application  to  Parliament  for  the  Abolition  of 
Ecclesiastical  Subscriptions  ;  More  work  for  Mr.  John 
Wesley,  or  a  Vindication  of  the  Decrees  and  Providence 
of  God  from  the  defamations  of  a  late  printed  paper, 
entitled  The  Consequence  Proved;  Historical  Proof  of 
the  Doctrinal  Calvinism  of  the  Church  of  England ; 
The  Scheme  of  Christian  and  Philosophical  Necessity 
Asserted,  in  answer  to  Mr.  John  Wesley's  Tract  on  that 
subject :  Collection  of  Hymns  for  Public  and  Private 
Worship ;  and.  Sermons,  preached  on  special  occasions. 
His  works  have  been  published  with  his  Life,  in  6  vols. 
8vo.  He  was  for  some  time  editor  of  the  Gospel  Maga- 
zine, commenced  in  1774. 


TOWERSON,    GABRIEL. 

Gabriel  Towerson,  a  native  of  Middlesex,  was  educated 
at  Queen's  College,  Oxford.  He  became  M.A.  in  1657, 
and  in  1660,  was  elected  Fellow  of  All  Soul's.  He 
obtained  from  his  College  the  Rectory  of  Welwyn,  in 
Hertfordshire,  and  in  1693,  was  presented,  through  the 
interest  of  Tillotson,  to  the  living  of  St.  Andrew,  Under- 
shaft,  in  the  city  of  London.  He  took  his  degree  of 
D.D.  in  1677.     He  died  in  1697. 

His  works  are  : — A  brief  account  of  some  expressions 
in  St.  Athanasius's  Creed ;  An  Explication  of  the 
Decalogue,  or  Ten  Commandments ;  and,  Explication  of 


676  TOWGOOD. 

the  Catechism  of  the  Church  of  England;  Of  the 
Sacraments  in  general,  in  pursuance  of  an  explication 
of  the  Catechism  of  the  Church  of  England ;  Of  the 
Sacrament  of  Baptism  in  particular;  Of  the  Rite  of 
Baptism  among  the  Heathen  and  the  Jews ;  and,  Of 
the  Institution  of  Christian  Baptism. — Wood.  Funeral 
Sermon  by  Stanhope. 

TOWGOOD,     MICAH. 

MiCAH  TowGooD,  was  born  at  Axminster,  in  Devon- 
shire, in  1700,  and  educated  under  the  Eev,  Mr. 
Chad  wick,  of  Taunton,  and  in  the  academy  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Stephen  James  and  Mr.  Grove, 
in  the  same  town.  Soon  after  he  had  commenced  a 
preacher,  he  settled  with  a  congregation  of  dissenters 
at  Moreton-Hampstead,  in  Devonshire.  He  removed  to 
Crediton,  in  the  same  county,  in  3  735,  and  soon  after 
published,  without  his  name,  a  tract  entitled  Recovery 
from  Sickness,  and  a  pamphlet  entitled  High-flown 
Episcopal  and  Priestly  Claims  freely  examined,  in  a 
Dialogue  between  a  Country  Gentleman  and  a  Country 
Vicar,  1737.  In  1739,  he  published  the  Dissenter's 
Apology,  in  which  he  endeavours  to  vindicate  a  separa- 
tion from  the  Church.  In  1741,  when  the  nation  was 
engaged  in  a  war  with  Spain,  he  assumed  a  different 
character,  by  publishing,  Spanish  Cruelty  and  Injustice 
a  justifiable  plea  for  a  Vigorous  War  with  Spain.  But 
his  principle  work  is,  The  Dissenting  Gentleman's 
Answer  to  Mr.  White,  a  clergyman  of  the  diocese  of 
Norwich,  who  had  written  against  the  principles  of  the 
dissenters  with  great  ability.  In  1750,  he  settled  at 
Exeter,  where  he  published  some  pamphlets  in  defence 
of  Infant  Baptism.  In  1761,  he  became  a  teacher  in  a 
Dissenters'  academy  in  that  city.  He  died  in  1792. 
In  his  religious  sentiments  he  was  an  Arian. — General 
Biographical  Dictionary, 


TOWNSON.  577 


TOWNSON,    THOMAS. 


An  admirable  biographical  sketch  of  this  eminent  divine 
exists,  says  that  learned  prelate  and  admirable  man, 
Bishop  Jebb,  uniting  the  fine  simplicity  of  Izaac  Walton 
with  the  classic  elegance  of  Louth.  It  is  from  the  pen 
of  the  elder  Archdeacon  Churton.  Bishop  Jebb  has 
himself  with  his  usual  good  taste  and  sound  judgment 
abridged  this  Life,  and  the  following  is  a  further  abridg- 
ment from  the  Preface  to  the  Practical  Discourses  of 
Townson,  edited  by  Bishop  Jebb.  Thomas  Townson 
was  descended  from  a  family  originally  of  Yorkshire, 
was  eldest  son  of  a  native  of  Lancashire,  the  Piev.  John 
Townson,  M.A.,  rector  of  Much  Lees,  in  Essex,  by  his 
wife  Lucretia,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Wiltshire, 
rector  of  Kirkanders,  in  Cumberland,  He  was  born  in 
1715,  and  baptized  on  the  7th  of  April,  in  that  year. 

Having  been  instructed  a  while  by  his  father,  he  was 
placed  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Nott,  vicar  of 
the  neighbouring  parish  of  Terling ;  where  he  was  early 
distinguished  for  quickness  of  apprehension,  and  a  most 
retentive  memory.  Thence  he  was  removed  to  the  Free 
School  at  Felsted  ;  where,  besides  other  eminent  persons, 
Dr.  Wallis,  and  Dr.  Barrow  were  educated.  The  master, 
at  that  time,  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wyatt;a  man  studious 
alike  to  cultivate  in  his  young  charge,  purity  of  morals, 
and  accuracy  of  learning. 

But  Mr.  Townson,  the  father,  did  not  neglect  one 
great  precaution  :  he  placed  in  his  son's  hands,  editions 
or  copies  of  Horace,  and  other  classics,  from  which 
those  passages,  that  cannot  enter  the  mind  without  con- 
taminating it,  had  been  carefully  expunged;  with  an 
injunction,  religiously  to  avoid  the  danger  of  perusing 
them.  A  parential  precept,  which  Dr.  Townson,  through- 
out life,  gratefully  remembered  ;  and,  as  occasion  served, 
gave  similar  advice  to  others  :  convinced,  that  the  absence 

VOL.  VTII.  3  D 


578  TOWNSON. 

of  temptation,  and  ignorance  of  vice,  are  among  the  best 
preservatives  against  its  contagion. 

He  was  entered  a  commoner  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
March  13,  1733.  Here,  as  at  school,  his  proficiency  was 
rapid :  and  his  poetical  as  well  as  general  talents,  united 
with  the  utmost  regularity  and  obligingness  of  manners, 
soon  recommended  him  to  notice  and  esteem. 

In  July,  1735,  he  was  elected  demy  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalen  College;  in  1737,  fellow  of  that  society, 
having,  on  Oct.  20th,  been  admitted  bachelor  of  arts. 
He  commenced  master  of  arts,  June  20th,  1739,  and 
was  ordained  deacon,  Dec.  20th,  1741,  and  priest,  Sept. 
19th,  1742,  by  Dr.  Seeker,  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

Three  days  after  his  ordination,  he  set  out  for  France 
with  Mr.  Dawkins,  in  company  with  Mr.  Drake  and  Mr. 
Holdsworth,  Thence  he  proceeded  to  Italy,  where  he  con- 
tinued about  a  year  and  a  half ;  and,  having  crossed  the 
Alps  by  Mount  Cenis,  passed  through  Germany,  and 
Holland  ;  and  landed  at  Harwich,  August  26th,  1745. 

While  on  the  classic  ground  of  Italy,  where  every 
scene  revived  the  memory  of  some  splendid  achieve- 
mlent,  or  introduced  him  to  some  illustrious  ancient, 
he  did  not  forget  his  own  proper  studies.  At  Naples, 
while  he  twice  visited,  with  sympathetic  fondness,  the 
tomb  of  his  favourite  Virgil,  he  found  time,  neverthe- 
less, with  a  more  honoured  name,  and  sublimer  poet, 
to  contemplate  the  glory  of  God,  in  the  works  of  crea- 
tion, and  in  his  written  law :  and  the  result  of  his  medita- 
tions appears  in  a  very  fine  sermon  on  the  nineteenth 
Psalm,  begun  while  he  was  in  this  city. 

On  his  return  from  the  continent,  he  resumed,  at 
the  university,  the  office  of  tuition.  Mr.  Lovibond, 
author  of  the  "  Tears  of  old  May-day,"  was  one  of  his 
pupils,  before  he  travelled;  and,  after  he  came  back. 
Lord  Bagot  stood  in  the  same  relation  to  him.  At  this 
time,  was  laid  the  foundation  of  that  entire  friendship 
between  them,  which  was  interrupted  only  by  death. 


TOWNSON.  579; 

In  1746,  he  was  instituted  by  Bishop  Gibson,  to  the 
vicarage  of  Hatfield  Peverel,  in  Essex,  on  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  patron,  Mr.  Dabbs. 

In  1749,  he  was  senior  proctor  of  the  university. 
The  speech  deUvered  by  this  officer,  upon  the  expiration 
of  his  office,  is  usually  a  review  of  the  events  of  the 
year;  and  Mr.  Townson,  on  that  occasion,  in  an 
oration  of  classical  elegance,  applauded  the  graceful 
eloquence  of  the  public  orator,  Dr.  King;  mentioned, 
with  merited  praise,  his  two  friends,  Mr.  Drake,  Mr., 
afterwards  Lord  Bagot;  and  spoke  thus  of  the  poetry 
professor,  Mr.  Lowth :  "  Quern  de  poetica  sacra  sic  ex 
cathedra  explicantem  audivimus,  ut  omnibus  ornari 
rebus  videretur,  quee  aut  naturae  munera  sunt,  aut 
instrumenta  doctrinae." 

A  candid  and  honourable  testimony  :  the  more  so, 
because  Mr,  Lowth  and  the  speaker  were  generally 
looked  up  to,  as  the  two  first  scholars  in  the  university : 
a  circumstance  which,  in  ordinary  minds,  might  have 
created  some  jealousy.  But  jealousy  was,  in  this  case, 
out  of  the  question ;  thongh  there  had  been  a  design 
of  bringing  forward  Mr.  Townson,  as  Lowth's  competitor 
for  the  professorship  of  poetry.  Such  competition  his 
modesty  could  not  suffer:  and  the  learned  world  will 
be  for  ever  delighted  and  improved,  by  the  admirable 
"  Praelections  on  Hebrew  Poetry." 

In  this  same  year,  (1749)  he  resigned  Hatfield  ;  and 
was  presented  to  the  Ptectory  of  Blithfield,  in  Stafford- 
shire, by  Sir  Walter  Wagstaffe  Bagot,  Bart.  June  15th, 
he  was  admitted  B.D.  The  same  summer,  Mr.  Drake 
offered  him  the  lower  mediety  of  Malpas,  in  the  county 
of  Chester.  This  living,  though  of  considerable  value, 
he  was,  at  first,  unwilling  to  accept ;  at  length,  however, 
he  gave  his  consent;  and,  on  the  second  of  January, 
J  751,  was  instituted  by  Bishop  Peploe.  At  the  close  of 
the  year,  he  left  Oxford,  and  resigned  his  fellowship. 

In  1758,  he  had  some  accession  of  fortune:  and  in 


580  TOWNSON. 

1759,  having  previously  divided  his  time  between 
Blithfield,  and  Malpas,  he  resigned  the  former  in  favour 
of  the  Rev.  Walter  Bagot,  son  of  his  friend  and 
patron. 

In  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  a  parish  priest,  he 
was  most  exemplary,  and  at  the  same  time,  though  a 
working  clergyman,  he  retains  the  highest  rank  among 
the  theologians  and  men  of  learning.  He  greatly  ad- 
mired, from  full  conviction  of  its  excellence,  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  spirit 
of  devotion,  which  pervades  and  animates  it,  the  energy 
and  simplicity  of  it,  are  incontestable;  but  it  was  his 
opinion,  that  the  prayers,  compressed  as  they  are  in 
short  collects,  or  couched  in  single  petitions,  were,  at 
once,  well  adapted  for  the  family  or  the  closet,  and 
incomparably  the  best  for  social  and  public  worship. 
For,  though,  possibly,  an  individual  may,  with  equal 
improvement,  use  a  longer  form,  the  words  of  which 
he  himself  utters;  yet,  when  numbers  join  mentally 
in  prayers  spoken  by  one,  their  attention  is  less  likely 
to  grow  weary,  or  to  wander,  when  assisted  by  frequent 
pauses;  by  alternate  petitions,  responses,  and  ejacula- 
tions as  in  the  established  Liturgy. 

His  attention  extended  to  small  matters  as  well  as 
more  important;  and  there  being  a  difference  in  the 
mode  of  reading  the  introductory  invocations  of  the 
Litany,  where  some  persons  lay  stress  on  the  pro- 
noun (us),  others  on  the  preposition  preceding  (upon,) 
the  latter  he  esteemed  the  proper  way  of  pronouncing 
the  clause;  since  the  Litany  is  not  a  prayer  for  the 
congregation  exclusively,  but,  as  the  rubric  explains  it, 
"a  general  supplication" for  all  mankind. 

He  thought  a  certain  decency  and  solemnity  of  form 
were  of  great  use,  in  giving  life  and  effect  to  religious 
offices  intrinsically  excellent.  "  Order"  indeed,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  divine  Hooker,  is  that,  •*  without  which 
peace  could  not  be  in  heaven ;"  but  it  is  fit,  that  a  reli- 


TOWNSON.  581 

gion  intended  for  an  inferior  and  compound  being  should 
be  adapted  to  his  whole  nature,  and  engage  whatever  is 
innocent  in  him,  on  the  side  of  virtue ;  so  that,  while 
the  sentiments  have  the  concurrence  of  the  understand- 
ing, and  the  spirit  and  energy  warm  the  hearty  the  ex- 
terior circumstances  may  catch  the  imagination,  and 
influence  the  passions.  Thus  the  whole  man  is  em- 
ployed in  his  best  service ;  and  every  faculty  conspires 
in  paying  homage  to  Him  who  gave  it.  Such  were  his 
sentiments,  of  whom  we  are  speaking ;  and,  in  addition 
to  the  regular  order  which  he  found  at  Malpas,  he  him- 
self introduced  one  custom  now  observed  there,  that  two 
of  the  clergy  should  officiate  on  Sundays  at  the  altar. 
It  appeared,  he  thought,  decent  and  respectful,  that  the 
Almighty  should  be  well  attended  at  His  holy  table. 

When  he  had  been  rector  of  Malpas  some  time,  a 
handsome  pair  of  silver  chalices  were  found  in  the 
church;  and  it  was  afterwards  discovered  that  he  was 
the  donor  of  them.  They  were  inscribed  with  this 
verse  :  •'  All  things  come  of  thee,  0  Lord ;  and  of  thine 
own  have  we  given  Thee."  (1  Chron.  xxix.  14.)  He 
afterwards  gave  a  chalice  to  the  neighbouring  Church 
of  Harthill,  with  the  same  inscription. 

From  parochial  labours,  to  literary  pursuits,  the  tran- 
sition is  easy  and  natural.  About  the  year  1766,  and 
for  some  time  afterwards,  he  employed  himself,  with 
much  care  and  dihgence,  in  composing  an  exposition  of 
the  Apocalypse.  The  work  was  finished,  but  never 
published ;  and  he  once  mentioned  the  circumstance  to 
a  very  worthy  friend,  as  an  instance  of  the  success  of 
prayer.  It  was  his  humble  request  to  God,  that  if  his 
system  were  wrong,  the  work  might  never  see  the  light ; 
and  it  so  proved,  that,  whenever  he  thought  of  revising 
his  papers,  and  preparing  them  for  the  press,  something 
still  intervened  and  hindered  his  design.  With  regard 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  unaccomplished  prophecies 
in  this  awful  book,  he  remarked  at  a  later  period,  having 
3  D  3 


582  TOWNSON. 

an  eye  to  what  he  had  written  on  the  subject,  *' I  once' 
thought  I  had  it  all  very  clearly  before  me ;  but  I  now 
suspect  we  know  very  little  of  the  matter." 

In  1767,  and  1768,  he  pubhshed  three  short,  but 
able  pamphlets,  on  the  subject  of  the  Confessional :  his 
name,  however,  he  did  not  give ;  partly,  no  doubt,  from 
his  native  modesty,  and  still  more,  to  avoid,  as  far  as 
possible,  dispute  and  altercation. 

In  1768,  he  again  went  abroad  for  a  year.  His 
welcome,  when  he  returned  to  his  parish  was  such  as 
must  have  made  the  pastor  feel  that  he  was  amply 
repaid  for  all  his  labours.  The  whole  parish  crowded 
to  see  him ;  and  every  one  that  saw  him,  blessed  him. 
His  own  joy  on  the  occasion,  if  more  serene  (as  the 
poet  pourtrays  the  passion,  "  taciturn  pertentant  gaudia 
pectus")  was  not  less  hearfelt :  for,  indeed  he  loved  his 
flock  with  sincere  affection ;  and,  upon  his  return  to 
them,  applied  himself,  with  new  ardour,  to  his  pastoral 
duties  and  theological  studies. 

Of  these  his  studies,  one  of  his  first  productions  was 
the  •'  Discourses  on  the  Four  Gospels."  The  sermon 
which  opens  the  subject  was,  in  substance,  first  preached 
in  the  parish  Church  of  Blithfield :  probably  while  he 
was  rector;  but  certainly  before  the  year  1768.  It  was 
afterwards,  June  2nd,  1771,  preached  before  the  uni- 
versity, of  which  he  still  continued  a  member.  His 
learned  audience  desired  him  to  publish  what  they  had 
heard  with  so  much  satisfaction.  Such  approbation 
induced  him  maturely  to  reconsider  the  subject ;  and  he 
threw  into  an  appendix  the  proofs  of  certain  points, 
which  it  had  been  necessary,  in  the  sermon,  to  assume 
as  granted.  The  matter  grew  upon  him,  till  the  work 
acquired  its  present  form  and  size.  Having  submitted 
it,  at  different  times,  to  the  perusal  and  censure  of  some 
very  learned  and  judicious  friends,  he  at  last,  in  com- 
pliance with  their  repeated  solicitations,  gave  up  the 
manuscript  for  publication.     It  came  out  in  the  spring 


TOWNSON.  583 

of  1778  :  but  even  then  by  his  own  good  will,  his  name 
would  not  have  appeared  ;  which  was  given,  with  his 
acquiescence  rather  than  by  consent,  by  his  worthy  friend 
and  brother-in-law,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Winchester,  who  super- 
intended the  publication. 

In  the  course  of  this  work,  it  afforded  him  great 
satisfaction,  to  find  that  the  internal  evidence  all  along 
confirmed  external  testimony ;  that  the  Gospels  were 
published  in  the  same  order  in  which  they  now  stand ; 
and  that  each  of  them  was  written  with  that  especial 
view  and  design,  which  the  early  fathers  and  the  tradition 
of  the  Church  respectively  assigned  to  them. 

The  University  of  Oxford  expressed  its  approbation  of 
this  work  by  conferring  on  the  author  the  degree  of  D  D. 
by  diploma.  In  1780,  he  was  collated  by  Bishop  Porteus 
at  that  time  Bishop  of  Chester,  to  the  Archdeaconry  of 
Richmond ;  and  two  years  subsequently  he  was  offered, 
through  Lord  North,  the  honourable  office  of  Regius 
Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  He 
modestly  declined  the  offer,  because  '•  being  now  so  far 
in  the  decline  of  life,"  as  he  expressed  himself,  "  I  am 
very  apprehensive,  or  rather  satisfied,  that  I  am  not 
equal  to  the  exertions,  which  a  faithful  discharge  of  the 
•duties  of  that  office  would  require." 

In  1778,  his  attention  having  been  particularly  drawn 
to  the  subject  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  it  engaged,  at 
intervals,  his  best  thought  and  pains  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life.  In  ]  784,  he  printed  a  few  copies  of  a  part 
of  his  work  for  distribution  among  his  friends  ;  that  he 
might  obtain  their  free  opinion  of  the  whole,  and  their 
objections  to  any  particular  part.  He  afterwards  new 
modelled  his  plan;  and  in  the  last  part  of  his  last 
illness,  revised  the  discourse  again.  In  the  last  letter 
he  ever  wrote,  April  12th,  1792,  he  intrusted  the  corrected 
manuscript  for  publication,  to  his  friend  Dr.  Loveday; 
under  whose  inspection  it  was,  early  in  the  next  year, 
given  to  the  world. 


584  TRAPP. 

His  health  after  this  gradually  declined,  and  on  the 
15th  of  April,  1792,  in  the  presence  of  his  biographer, 
Ralph  Churton,  who  thus  states  his  general  character, 
"  Never,  perhaps,  in  these  latter  ages,  has  any  man  in 
a  like  situation,  been  equally  esteemed  and  equally 
lamented.  His  works  were  published  in  two  vols,  8vo., 
in  1810,  by  Archdeacon  Churton.  His  Practical  Dis- 
courses in  1828,  by  Bishop  Jebb. 


TKAPP,    JOSEPH. 

Joseph  Teapp  was  born  in  1679,  at  Cherrington,  in 
Gloucestershire,  and  became  in  1704,  a  fellow  of  Wad- 
ham.  He  was  elected  professor  of  poetry  in  1708,  and 
in  1710,  acted  for  Dr.  Sacheverell  at  his  trial.  In  1711, 
he  went  as  chaplain  to  the  lord-lieutenant  to  Ireland. 
In  1720,  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of  Dauntzey,  in 
Wiltshire,  which  he  resigned  in  the  following  year  for 
the  united  parishes  of  Christ  Church,  Newgate-street,  and 
St.  Leonard's,  Foster-lane,  London.  In  February,  1727, 
in  consequence  of  the  merit  and  usefulness  of  his  two 
books,  entitled  Popery  Truly  Stated,  and  Answer  to 
England's  Conversion,  both  printed  in  that  year,  he 
was  presented  by  the  University  of  Oxford  with  the 
degree  of  D.D.  by  diploma.  In  1733,  he  was,  on  the 
demise  of  Robert  Cooper,  M.A.,  and  Archdeacon  of 
Dorset,  preferred  to  the  Rectory  of  Harlington,  in 
Middlesex,  on  the  presentation  of  Lord  Bolingbroke,  to 
whom  he  had  been  appointed  chaplain  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  Swift,  and  in  defence  of  whose  adminis- 
tration he  had  written  a  number  of  papers  in  the 
Examiner,  during  1711,  and  the  two  following  years. 
In  1734,  he  was  elected  one  of  the  joint-lecturers  of  St. 
Martin's-in-the-Fields.     He  died  in  1747. 

He  was  successful   as  a  political  writer  against  the 
Whigs,  but  pre-eminently  unsuccessful  as  a  poet  and  a 


"       TULLY.  585 

translator.  One  of  his  best  Theological  works  is  his 
Notes  on  the  Gospels,  published  in  1747.  He  pubHshed 
also  Sermons,  at  Lady  Mayers'  Lectures  ;  various  single 
Sermons,  and  a  Defence  of  the  Church  of  England 
against  the  Church  of  Kome.  His  father,  John  Trapp, 
Vicar  of  Weston-upon-Avon,  and  schoolmaster  of  Strat- 
ford-upon-Avon, published  a  Commentary  upon  most  of 
the  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  six  vols,  folio, — 
Biog.  Brit.    Nichols. 


TULLY,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Tully  chiefly  celebrated  for  the  fact  of  his 
having  entered  into  controversy  with  Bishop  Bull,  was 
born  at  Carlisle  in  1622.  He  became  a  fellow  of  Queen's 
College,  Oxford,  and  in  1642,  was  appointed  master  of 
the  Grammar  School  at  Tetbury,  in  Gloucestershire.  In 
1657,  he  took  his  degree  of  bachelor  of  divinity,  and 
soon  after  was  made  master  of  Edmund-hall.  After  the 
Restoration  he  was  created  D.D.  and  appointed  chaplain 
to  the  king  ;  and  was  also  presented  by  one  of  his  pupils 
to  the  Rectory  of  Grittleton,  in  Wiltshire,  to  which  was 
added  the  Deanery  of  Ripon.     He  died  in  1656. 

His  principal  works  are,  Logica  Apodeictica  sive 
Tractatus  brevis  et  dilucidus  de  demonstratione :  cum 
dissertatiuncula  Gassendi  eodem  pertinente  ;  Enchiridion 
didacticum,  ^cum  appendice  de  Coena  Domini,  et  exposi- 
tione  Symboli  Apostolici  et  Orationis  Dominicae;  Justi- 
ficatio  Paulina  sine  Operibus,  cum  dissertat.  ad  Rom. 
vii.  14  ;  this  was  levelled  chiefly  at  Bulls  Harmonia 
Apostolica,  and  Baxter's  Aphorisms  on  Justification  ;  and 
both  replied  to  Tully,  Bull  in  his  Apology  for  the 
Harmony,  and  Baxter  in  a  Treatise  on  Justifying 
Righteousness,  &c.  To  the  latter  Tully  rejoined  in 
A  Letter  to  Mr.  Richard  Baxter,  &c.  Oxon,  1675,  4to  — 
Wood. 


686  TUNSTALL. 


TUNSTALL,    OR   TONSTALL,    CUTHBERT. 

CuTHBERT  TuNSTALL,  or  ToNSTALL  was  bom  in  1474,  at 
Ilatchford,  near  Richmond,  in  Yorkshire,  being  the 
natural  son  of  a  country  gentleman  of  high  station  in 
that  part  of  the  country.  About  the  year  1491,  he 
entered  at  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  but  soon  left  Oxford 
on  account  of  the  plague,  when  he  entered  at  King's 
Hall,  now  part  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  of  which 
Hall  he  became  a  fellow.  He  took  his  degree  of  doctor 
of  laws  in  the  University  of  Padua,  where  he  had 
Latimer  for  a  fellow-student.  He  returned  to  England 
in  1511,  when  he  attracted  the  notice  of  Archbishop 
Warham,  who  preferred  him  to  the  Rectory  of  Harrow- 
on- the-Hill,  and  made  him  his  chancellor.  In  1514,  he 
was  made  a  Prebendary  of  Lincoln,  and  in  1515, 
Archdeacon  of  Chester.  In  1516,  he  was  made  master 
of  the  Rolls  ;  and  in  the  same  year  he  was  sent  on  an 
embassy,  with  Sir  Thomas  More,  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  then  at  Brussels,  where  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Erasmus.  In  1519,  he  obtained  the 
prebend  of  Botevant,   in  the  Cathedral  of  York  ;  and  in 

1521,  that  of  Combe  and  Hornham,  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Sarum,  together  with  the  Deanery  of  Salisbury ;  and  in 

1522,  he  was  promoted  to  the  Bishopric  of  London. 
In  1523,  he  was  made  keeper  of  the  privy  seal :  and  in 
1525,  he  and  Sir  Richard  Wingfield  went  as  ambassadors 
into  Spain,  in  order  to  confer  with  the  emperor,  after  the 
King  of  France,  Francis  I.  had  been  taken  prisoner  at 
the  battle  of  Pavia.  In  1527,  he  attended  Cardinal 
Wolsey  in  his  embassy  to  France  ;  and  in  1529,  he  was 
one  of  the  English  ambassadors  employed  to  negotiate 
the  treaty  of  Cambray.  It  was  on  his  return  from  this 
last  place,  that  he  exerted  himself  to  suppress  Tyndale's 
edition  of  the  New  Testament.  "  Even  in  this  matter," 
Bishop  Burnet   observes,    "judicious  persons  discerned 


TUNSTALL.  587 

the  moderation  of  Tunstall,  who  would  willingly  put 
himself  to  a  considerable  expense  in  burning  the  books 
of  the  heretics,  but  had  too  much  humanity  to  be 
desirous,  like  many  of  his  brethren,  to  burn  the  heretics 
themselves,"  In  1530,  he  was  translated  to  the  Bishop- 
ric of  Durham.  When  the  great  question  of  Henry 
VIII.'s  divorce  was  agitated,  Tunstall  at  first  favoured 
the  divorce,  and  even  wrote  on  that  side  of  the  question, 
though  he  afterwards  chauged  his  opinion. 

When  Henry  VIII.  assumed  the  title  of  supreme  head  of 
the  Church  of  England,  Tunstall  recommended  it,  both  in 
his  injunctions,  and  in  a  sermon  preached  at  Durham  ; 
though  he  had  before  in  1531,  solemnly  protested  against 
that  title.  The  same  point,  of  the  king's  supremacy,  he 
earnestly  vindicated  also  in  1538,  in  a  sermon  preached 
before  his  majesty,  upon  Palm  Sunday,  wherein  he 
zealously  condemned  the  usurpations  of  the  Bishop  of 
Eome.  In  1535,  he  was  one  of  the  commissioners  for 
taking  the  valuation  of  Ecclesiastical  benefices,  in  order 
to  settle  the  first-fruits  and  tenths.  And  in  1537,  the 
king  commanded  him,  on  account  of  his  learning  and 
judgment,  to  peruse  Reginald  Pole's  book  of  Ecclesias- 
tical union,  which  occasioned  some  letters  between  the 
Cardinal  and  our  bishop  ;  particularly  a  severe  joint  one 
from  him,  and  John  Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  against 
the  pope's  supremacy.  The  year  following,  he  was 
appointed  to  confer  about  the  reformation  of  religion, 
with  some  ambassadors  from  the  Protestant  German 
princes ;  but  things  were  not  yet  ripe  for  a  proper 
alteration  in  this  kingdom.  In  1541,  came  out  anew 
edition  of  the  Bible  in  English,  revised  by  him  and 
Nicholas  Heath,  Bishop  of  Piochester.  He  did  not 
approve  of  every  part  of  Popery ;  but  was  of  opinion, 
that  old  usages  and  traditions  were  not  to  be  broken 
without  a  great  cause,  and  that  some  of  them  were  in 
no  wise  to  be  broken.  In  the  reign  of  King  Edward  VI., 
he  went  along  with  the  Reformation  for  some  years  ;  and 


588  TUNSTALL. 

was  one  of  the  privy-council,  and  of  the  king's  council 
in  the  north.  At  length,  some  of  the  courtiers  coveting 
the  revenues  of  his  rich  bishopric,  took  the  advantage  of 
an  accusation  of  misprision  of  treason  brought  against 
him  ;  for  which  he  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  on  the 
20th  December,  1551.  The  parliament,  sitting  on  the 
28th  of  March,  a  bill  was  brought  into  the  house  of 
lords,  to  attaint  him  for  misprision  of  treason.  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  spoke  warmly  and  freely  against  it, 
not  satisfied,  it  seems,  with  the  charge  that  was  laid. 
However,  the  bill  passed,  and  the  archbishop  protested. 
But  when  it  came  down  to  the  commons,  they  were 
not  satisfied  with  the  evidence,  which  consisted  of  bare 
depositions  of  witnesses ;  but  required  that  the  accusers 
might  be  brought  face  to  face  :  and  so  it  went  no  farther. 
When  he  could  not  be  ruined  in  a  parliamentary  way, 
means  were  contrived  to  do  it  in  a  more  private  and 
effectual  manner.  For  that  purpose,  a  commission 
was  granted,  September  21st,  1552,  to  seven  persons  ; 
empowering  them  to  call  before  them  Cuthbert,  Bishop 
of  Durham  ,and  examine  him  of  all  manner  of  conspir- 
acies, &c.  and  if  he  were  found  guilty,  to  deprive  him 
of  his  bishopric.  Accordingly  he  was  deprived,  either 
the  11th  or  14th  of  October,  and  remained  a  prisoner  in 
the  Tower  all  the  rest  of  King  Edward's  reign.  Upon 
his  deprivation,  the  bishopric  w^as  offered  to  Dr.  Robert 
Home,  dean  of  the  same  church,  who  refused  to  accept 
it :  next,  to  Nicholas  Ridley,  Bishop  of  London.  Then 
a  project  was  formed  of  dividing  the  bishopric  into 
two,  by  founding  a  new  one  at  Newcastle  :  but  that 
design  did  not  take  effect ;  nor,  very  probably,  was  it 
ever  intended  it  should.  For,  though  that  is  mentioned 
in  a  private  act  of  parliament,  in  March,  1552-3,  whereby 
it  was  actually  dissolved  ;  yet,  in  April,  1553,  being  con- 
verted into  a  County  Palatine,  it  was  given  to  the  ambitious 
John  Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland.  Upon  Queen 
Mary's  accession  to  the  throne,  in  1553,  Bishop  Tonstall 


TUNSTALL.  S89 

was  not  only  delivered  from  his  imprisonment,  on  the 
5  th  of  August,  but  also  reinstated  in  his  bishopric. 
March  3th,  1554,  he  was  put  in  commission  with 
Gardiner,  Bonner,  and  others,  to  deprive  Robert  Holgate, 
Archbishop  of  York,  and  John  Bird,  Robert  Farrar,  and 
Paul  Bush,  Bishops  of  St.  David's,  Chester,  and  Bristol, 
on  account  of  their  being  married.  Otherwise  he 
behaved,  during  this  whole  cruel  reign,  with  great  lenity, 
moderation,  and  good  nature  ;  no  ways  imbruing  his 
hands  in  the  blood  of  the  faithful  and  unfortunate 
Protestants,  who  were  brought  to  the  stake  :  so  that  his 
diocese  escaped  the  persecutions,  which  were  too  frequent 
in  others  at  that  time.  When  Queen  Elizabeth  came  to 
the  crown,  there  were  great  hopes  that  a  man  of  his 
great  meekness  and  knowledge  would  have  readily  come 
into  the  Reformation  ;  but  being  attached  to  some  of  the 
errors  of  Popery,  and  being  indeed  so  far  advanced  in 
years,  that  he  had  in  all  probability,  but  a  very  little 
time  to  live,  he  conscientiously  chose  rather  to  lose  his 
rich  bishopric,  than  act  against  his  own  judgment. 
Being  therefore  deprived  in  July,  1559,  for  refusing  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  he  was  committed  to  Matthew 
Parker,  Archbishop  elect  of  Canterbury,  in  free  custody, 
where  he  was  entertained  in  a  most  kind,  friendly,  and 
brother-like  manner.  The  archbishop,  in  his  frequent 
conversations  with  him,  brought  him  off  from  many  of 
the  errors  of  Popery. 

It  appears  that  Tunstall  told  his  nephew  Bernard 
Gilpin,  that  in  the  matter  of  Transubstantiation,  Inno- 
cent III.  had  done  unadvisedly  in  making  it  an  article 
of  faith ;  and  he  further  confessed  that  the  pope  had 
committed  a  great  error  in  the  affair  of  indulgences, 
and  in  other  things.  Tunstall  also  held  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  only.  He  died  November  18th, 
1559,  aged  eighty-five,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel 
of  Lambeth  Church,  at  the  expense  of  Archbishop 
Parker,  with  a  Latin  epitaph  by  the  learned  Dr.  Haddon. 

VOL.  VIII.  3   E 


590  TURNER. 

His  principal  publications  are. — In  Laudem  Matri- 
monii ;  De  Arte  Supputandi ;  A  Sermon  on  Palm 
Sunday,  1539 ;  De  Veritate  Corporis  et  Sanguinis 
Domini  in  Eucharistia;  Compendium  in  decem  Libros 
Ethicorum  Aristotelis;  Contra  impios  Blaspbematores 
Dei  Praedestinationis ;  Godly  and  Devout  Prayers  in 
English  and  Latin. — Strype.  Burnet.  Collier.  Biog. 
Britannica. 


TURNEE,    FRANCIS. 

Francis  Turner  was  the  son  of  Thomas  Turner,  Dean 
of  Canterbury,  who  suffered  much  from  the  Dissenters, 
in  the  great  rebellion.  He  was  a  Wykehamist,  having 
been  educated  both  at  Winchester  and  at  New  College. 
In  1669,  he  was  a  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,  and  in 
1670,  he  became  master  of  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. In  1683,  he  was  made  dean  of  Windsor,  and 
in  the  same  year,  he  was  promoted  to  the  See  of 
Rochester,  from  which  in  the  following  year,  he  was 
translated  to  that  of  Ely.  He  was  one  of  the  six 
bishops  who  joined  Archbishop  Sancroft  on  May  18th, 
1688,  in  subscribing  and  presenting  a  petition  to 
James  II.,  setting  forth  their  reasons  why  they  could 
not  comply  with  his  commands  to  cause  his  majesty's 
'*  Declaration  for  Liberty  of  Conscience,"  to  be  read  in 
their  churches.  In  consequence  of  this  he  was  sent, 
with  his  brother  prelates,  to  the  Tower — (See  the  Life 
of  Sancroft.) 

In  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  he  became  a 
Non-juror.  Not  long  before  the  day  fixed  by  the  Act 
for  the  Deprivation  of  the  Bishops,  a  plot  against  the 
government  was  discovered,  in  which  Lord  Preston, 
Mr.  Ashton,  and  some  others  were  implicated.  Lord 
Preston  and  Mr.  Ashton  were  tried  and  executed;  but 


TURNER.  591 

t"he  evidence  on  which  the  conviction  was  founded  was 
of  a  very  slender  description.  A  quantity  of  letters 
was  discovered  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Preston,  among 
which  were  two,  said  to  be  written  by  Turner,  Bishop 
of  Ely.  In  one,  the  waiter  says,  '*  I  speak  in  the 
plural,  because  I  write  my  elder  brother's  sentiments 
as  well  as  my  own,  and  the  rest  of  the  family,  though 
lessened  in  number ;  yet  if  we  are  not  mightily  out  in 
our  accounts,  we  are  growing  in  our  interest,  that  is  in 
yours."  In  the  second  letter,  the  writer,  after  expressing 
his  determination  not  to  swerve  from  his  course,  adds, 
'•  I  say  this  in  behalf  of  my  elder  brother,  and  the  rest 
of  my  nearest  relations,  as  well  as  for  myself."  That 
these  letters  were  written  by  the  bishop  of  Ely  was  never 
proved ;  but  Burnet  and  others  chose  to  assert,  that  the 
proof  was  conclusive.  It  is  indeed  doubtful  whether  the 
other  parties  were  engaged  in  any  plot.  "  In  December, 
1690,  says  Wood,  there  was  a  pretended  discovery  of  a 
pretended  plot  of  the  Jacobites  or  Non-jurers,  whereupon 
some  of  them  were  imprisoned ;  and  Dr.  Turner  being 
suspected  to  be  in  the  same  pretended  plot,  he  withdrew 
and  absconded."  A  proclamation  was  issued  for  the 
apprehension  of  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  but  not  for  some 
time  after,  not  indeed  until  the  5th  of  February,  when 
the  sees  of  the  bishops  were  become  vacant  by  the 
operation  of  the  Act  of  Parliament.  This  circumstance 
seems  to  support  the  idea,  that  the  charge  against 
Turner  was  made  for  the  purpose  of  reflecting  odium  on 
the  Nonjuring  Prelates,  so  that  the  government  might 
have  a  better  colour  for  filling  up  the  vacancies.  Tindal, 
who  assumes  the  guilt  of  Turner,  says  that  the  discovery 
of  the  bishop  of  Ely's  correspondence^  gave  the  king  a 
fair  opportunity  to  fill  up  the  vacant  sees.  As  Turner 
was  permitted  to  live  quietly  afterward,  we  may  assume 
that  the  government  did  not  consider  him  guilty.  Burnet 
says  :  "  The  discovery  of  the  Bishop  of  Ely's  correspon 


59JJ  TURNER. 

dence  in  the  name  of  the  rest,  gave  the  king  a  great 
advantage  in  filling  these  vacant  sees,  which  he  resolved 
to  do  on  his  return  from  the  Congress."  Burnet  pro- 
duces no  evidence  against  Turner ;  and  we  cannot  but 
conclude,  that  the  charge  was  not  only  unfounded,  but 
that  it  was  fabricated  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the 
suspended  bishops  obnoxious  to  the  people  at  the  period 
when  the  strong  step  of  removing  them  from  their  sees 
was  about  to  be  put  in  execution.  The  circumstances 
are  peculiar.  The  plot  was  discovered  in  December  :  the 
trials  occurred  in  January :  Lord  Preston  and  Mr. 
Ashton  were  executed  during  that  month :  and  the  first 
of  February  was  the  day  fixed  by  Act  of  Parliament  for 
the  deprivation  of  the  bishops.  A  charge,  therefore, 
against  Turner,  and  such  a  charge  as  implicated  Bancroft 
and  the  rest  of  the  bishops,  was  the  very  thing  to  excite 
the  public  mind,  and  to  deprive  them  of  that  sympathy, 
which  their  sufferings  in  the  cause  of  the  Church  in  the 
previous  reign,  and  their  present  misfortunes,  were  hkely 
to  produce.  Calamy  rather  improves  upon  Burnet :  he 
says,  the  sees  were  not  filled  "  till  letters  were  discovered 
that  shewed  what  correspondencies  and  engagements 
there  were  among  them."  This  is  from  a  man  who 
professed  a  great  regard  for  truth  and  holiness :  yet 
he  joins  in  traducing  men,  without  any  evidence 
whatever. 

He  died  in   extreme  poverty,  leaving  behind  him  a 
large  family  in  1700. 

He  published,  a  Vindication  of  the  late  Archbishop 
Bancroft  and  his  Brethren,  the  rest  of  the  deprived 
bishops,  from  the  Reflections  of  Mr.  Marshall,  in  his 
Defence  of  our  Constitution  ;  Animadversions  on  a 
Pamphlet  entitled  The  Naked  Truth  ;  these  were 
answered  by  Andrew  Marvell,  under  the  name  of 
Rivet;  and  Letters  to  the  Clergy  of  his  Diocese. — 
Lathhury. 


TURRETINI.  593 


TUERETINI,    JOHN    ALPHONSO. 


John  Alphonso  Tueretini  was  the  son  and  grandson  of 
eminent  men.  His  grandfather,  Benedict,  published  a 
Vindication  of  the  Genevan  version  of  the  Bible  against 
the  work  of  father  Coton;  and  his  father,  Francis, 
Institutio  TheologicsD  Elenchticae ;  De  Satisfactione 
Christi :  and  other  works.  John  Alphonso  was  born  at 
Geneva  in  1671.  Having  finished  his  studies  in 
divinity,  in  1691,  he  travelled  for  improvement;  and 
after  visiting  England,  Holland,  and  France,  and  be- 
coming acquainted  with  the  learned  in  those  countries, 
he  returned  home,  and  was  admitted  to  the  evangelical 
ministry  in  1694,  and  aggregated  to  the  society  of 
pastors  in  the  following  year.  In  1697,  he  became  the 
first  professor  of  ecclesiastical  history  at  Geneva,  and  in 
1705,  professor  of  theology,  both  which  offices  he  held 
during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  not  less 
distinguished  for  his  liberality  than  for  his  learning  and 
abilities ;  and  besides  engaging  with  Wake,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  and  some  German  divines,  in  schemes 
for  a  re-union  among  Protestants,  he  assisted  in  obtain- 
ing a  dispensation  from  signing  the  formulary  of  faith 
called  Consensus,  to  which  the  Genevan  clergy  had  been 
subjected.  Among  his  principal  works  are  "  Pyrrhonis- 
mus  Pontificius,"  1692,  designed  as  an  antidote  to  the 
celebrated  Bossuet's  Variations  des  Eglises  Protestantes  ; 
"  Nubes  Testium  pro  moderato  et  pacifico  de  Rebus  Theo- 
logicis  Judicio  cum  Praemissa  Disquisotione  de  Articulisne 
fundamentalibus,"  1719,  4to.  ;  "Historiae  EcclesiasticsB 
Compendium,  a  Ch.  N.  usque  ad  an.  1700.''  1734,  8vo. 
Commentaries  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians,  and 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ;  Sermons ;  and  numerous 
academical  Discourses  and  Dissertations.  Professor 
Turretini  died  in  1737.  His  works  were  published 
collectively  at  Leu  warden,  1775,  3  vols.  4  to. — Gen. 
Biog.  Diet. 

3e  3 


594  TWISSE. 

TWELLS,    LEONAED. 

Leonaed  Twells  was  educated  at  Jesus  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  graduated  in  1704.  After  holding 
the  Vicarage  of  St.  Mary's,  Marlborough,  he  was  ap- 
pointed in  1737,  to  the  rectories  of  St.  Matthew,  Friday- 
street,  and  St.  Peter  Cheap,  in  London.  He  was  also 
a  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's. 

He  published  : — A  critical  Examination  of  the  late 
new  Text  and  Version  of  the  Testament,  in  Greek  and 
English,  in  three  parts,  the  first  two  were  printed,  in 
1731,  and  the  last  in  1732,  8vo. ;  the  work  here  ex- 
amined was  entitled.  The  New  Testament  in  Greek  and 
English,  containing  the  original  text  corrected,  from  the 
authority  of  authentic  MSS.  and  a  new  version  formed 
agreeably  to  the  illustrations  of  the  most  learned  com- 
mentators and  critics,  with  notes  and  various  readings, 
&c. ;  A  Vindication  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew ;  and 
a  Supplement  to  the  Vindication ;  Answer  to  the  Inquiry 
into  the  meaning  of  the  Demoniacks  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  Answer  to  the  Further  Inquiry ;  The  Theological 
Works  of  Dr.  Pocock.  After  his  death,  1743,  two 
volumes  of  his  Sermons  at  Boyle's  and  Lady  Meyer's 
lectures  were  published  in  8vo. — Nav.  Gen.    Biog.  Diet. 


TWISSE,  WILLIAM. 

William  Twisse  was  born  at  Speenham  Land,  near 
Newbury  in  Berkshire,  in  1575.  He  was  a  Wykehamist 
and  passed  through  the  two  St.  Mary's  Colleges  with 
great  credit.  In  1604,  he  took  his  M.  A.  degree,  and  in 
1614,  his  degree  of  D.D.  He  attended  the  Queen  of 
Bohemia,  on  her  journey  to  the  Palatinate,  as  chaplain, 
having  been  appointed  to  the  office  by  James  I.  On  his 
return  to  England,  he  accepted  the  Curacy  of  Newbury, 
oi'  which  place  be  afterwards  became  Vicar,  and  rejoicing 


TYNDALE.  595 

in  the  learned  leisure  he  here  enjoyed,  he  refused  several 
offers  of  perferment,  and  among  others  the  Wardenship 
of  Winchester  College,  and  a  stall  in  Winchester  Cathe- 
dral. With  reference  to  the  latter  appointment  he  said 
that  '*  he  thought  himself  unfit  for  Cathedral  employ- 
ment :  it  was  hard  for  him,  among  such  eminent  men  as 
the  Prebendaries  of  Winchester,  either  to  sing  musically 
enough,  or  to  preach  rhetorically  enough,"  which  shews 
that  the  Prebendaries,  at  that  time,  were  accustomed  to 
chaunt. 

Upon  the  publication  of  the  Book  of  Sports,  Dr. 
Twisse  declared  his  opinion  against  it,  and  refused  to 
read  it ;  yet  he  was  still  such  a  favourite  with  James  I. 
that  he  forbade  his  being  molested  on  this  account. 
During  the  rebellion  he  suffered  considerably  by  the 
violence  of  the  soldiery.  In  1640,  he  was  chosen  one 
of  the  sub-committee,  to  assist  the  committee  of  accom- 
modation appointed  by  the  house  of  lords,  to  consider 
the  innovations  introduced  into  the  Church,  and  to 
promote  a  more  strict  reformation.  In  1643,  he  was 
nominated  by  an  order  of  the  parliament,  prolocutor  to  the 
Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines.  He  preached  (the 
Assembly  opening  on  July  1st,)  before  both  houses  of 
parliament,  in  Henry  VII. 's  Chapel.  He  died  about 
the  20th  of  July,  1646. 

His  works  are  : — Vindiciae  Gratis,  Amst.  1632  and 
1648,  folio,  against  Arminius;  A  Discovery  of  Dr.  Jack- 
son's Vanity ;  Dissertatio  de  Scientia  Media  tribus  libris 
absoluta ;  Of  the  Morality  of  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment ;  Treatise  of  Reprobation :  with  some  other  works 
printed  after  his  death.  He  also  corrected  Bradwar- 
dine's  works,  edited  by  Sir  Henry  Savile. — Eeid.    Clark. 


TYNDALE,  OR   TINDALE,   WILLIAM. 

William  Tyndale,  or  Tindale  was  born  on  the  Borders 


596  TYNDALE. 

of  Wales,  sometime  before  the  year  1500.  He  was  of  Mag- 
dalen Hall,  Oxford.  But  having  taken  his  degrees,  he  after- 
wards removed  to  Cambridge,  and  from  thence  after  some 
time,  he  went  to  live  with  a  gentleman  (Sir  John  Welch) 
in  Gloucestershire,  in  the  capacity  of  tutor  to  his  children. 
While  he  continued  there,  he  had  frequent  disputes  with 
abbots  and  doctors,  who  visited  the  family,  both  about 
learned  men,  divinity,  and  the  Scriptures.  One  day 
Sir  John  Welch  and  his  lady  went  to  return  a  visit,  where 
several  of  those  dignitaries  conversed  with  all  freedom, 
Tyndale  not  being  present :  and  in  the  evening,  they 
returned  full  of  arguments  against  Tyndale,  all  which 
he  answered  by  Scripture,  maintaining  the  truth,  and 
reproving  their  false  opinions.  Upon  which  Lady  Welch 
(who  was,  says  Tyndale,  a  sensible  woman)  broke  out  in 

the  following  exclamation  :--"  Well,  there  was  doctor , 

who  can  spend  a  hundred  pounds ;    there  was  doctor 

,  who  can  spend  two  hundred  pounds  ;  and  doctor 

,  who  can  spend  three  hundred  pounds;   and  what, 

is  it  reason,  think  you,  that  we  should  believe  you  before 
them?"  Tyndale  made  no  reply,  and  in  future  spoke 
less  of  those  matters. 

At  this  time  he  was  translating  a  book  of  Erasmus, 
entitled  Enchiridion  militis  Christiani,  which  when 
finished,  he  gave  to  Sir  John  and  Lady  Welch,  who 
carefully  perused  it;  and,  it  seems,  were  so  far  convinced 
of  the  truth,  in  opposition  to  the  Popish  doctrines  of 
the  abbots  and  priests,  that  these  gentlemen  afterwards 
met  with  a  very  cool  reception  at  their  house,  and  soon 
declined  their  visits  altogether.  This,  as  it  was  natural 
to  suppose,  brought  upon  Tyndale  the  wrath  of  all  the 
Popish  clergy  in  the  neighbourhood,  who  soon  had  him 
accused  of  many  heresies  to  the  bishop's  chancellor, 
before  whom  he  had  been  cited  to  appear ;  but  nothing 
being  proved,  after  railing  at  him  and  abusing  him,  they 
dismissed  him.  In  his  way  home  he  called  upon  a 
certain   doctor,  who  had   been  an  old  chancellor  to  a 


TYNDALE.  597 

bishop,  and  his  very  good  friend ;  to  him  he  opened 
his  heart,  and  consulted  him  upon  many  passages  of 
Scripture.  Before  they  parted  the  doctor  said  to  him, 
"Do  you  not  know  that  the  pope  is  very  antichrist, 
whom  the  Scripture  speaketh  of?  But  beware  what 
you  say ;  if  it  should  be  known  you  are  of  that  opinion, 
it  will  cost  you  your  life :"  and  added,  "  I  have  been  an 
officer  of  his  ;  but  I  have  given  it  up,  and  defy  him  and 
all  his  works." 

Not  long  after  this  affair,  Tyndale  fell  in  company 
with  a  certain  divine,  not  remarkable  for  his  learning,  with 
whom  he  disputed,  and  drave  him  so  close,  that  at  length 
the  divine  blasphemously  cried  out,  "  We  had  better  be 
without  God's  laws  than  the  pope's."  Tyndale,  fired  at 
this  expression,  and  filled  with  zeal,  replied,  "I  defy 
the  pope  and  all  his  laws ;"  and  added,  "  That  if  God 
spared  his  life,  ere  many  years,  he  would  cause  a  boy 
that  drives  the  plough  to  know  more  of  the  Scriptures 
than  he  did."  After  this,  the  hatred  of  the  priests  was 
so  great,  that  he  was  obliged  to  leave  the  country,  which  he 
did,  with  the  consent  and  hearty  wishes  of  Sir  John  Welch 
for  his  welfare.  Tyndale,  remembering  the  high  com- 
mendations Erasmus  had  given  of  Tunstall's  learning, 
then  Bishop,  of  London,  hoped  he  should  find  favour 
and  protection  with  him ;  but  as  this  was  not  the  way 
God,  in  his  providence  had  marked  out  for  him,  the 
bishop  excused  himself,  saying,  "  That  his  house  was 
full,  that  he  had  already  more  than  he  could  accommo 
date,  but  that  he  advised  him  to  seek  about  in  London, 
where  he  could  not  fail  to  obtain  employment." 

Tyndale  remained  in  London  about  a  year,  when  being 
desirous  to  translate  the  New  Testament  into  English,  as 
the  most  effectual  means  (in  his  own  opinion,  and  in 
that  of  his  dear  friend,  John  Frith,)  to  remedy  the  great 
darkness  and  ignorance  of  the  land,  but  judging  it  could 
not  safely  be  done  in  England  ;  he,  by  the  kind  assist- 
ance of  Mr.   Humphrey  Monmouth   and   others,  went 


598  TYNDALE. 

into  Germany,  where  he  laboured  upon  the  work,  and 
finished  it  in  the  year  1527.  In  a  letter  to  Frith,  he 
says  of  it ;  "I  call  God  to  recorde  agaynst  the  daye  we 
shall  appeare  before  our  Lord  Jesus,  to  geve  a  reckenyng 
of  our  doynges,  that  I  never  altered  one  syllable  of  God's 
word  agaynst  my  conscience,  nor  would  this  daye,  if  all 
that  is  in  the  earth,  whether  it  be  pleasure,  honour,  or 
riches,  might  be  given  me."  It  was  the  first  translation 
of  the  Scripture  into  modern  English.  He  then  began 
with  the  Old  Testament,  and  finished  the  five  books  of 
Moses,  prefixing  excellent  discourses  to  each  book,  as  he 
he  had  done  to  those  of  the  New  Testament.  Cranmer's 
Bible,  or  (as  it  was  called)  the  Great  Bible,  was  no 
other  than  Tyndale's  revised  and  corrected,  omitting  the 
prologues  and  tables,  and  adding  Scripture  references 
and  a  summary  of  contents.  At  his  first  going  over 
into  Germany,  he  went  into  Saxony,  and  had  much 
conference  with  Luther  and  other  learned  men ;  and 
then  returning  to  the  Netherlands,  made  his  abode  at 
Antwerp,  at  that  time  a  very  populous  and  flourishing 
city. 

The  translation  was  printed  in  8vo,  in  1526,  without 
the  translator's  name.  As  there  were  only  1,500  printed, 
and  all  the  copies  which  could  possibly  be  got  in  England 
were  committed  to  the  flames,  copies  of  this  first  edition 
are  very  scarce.  When  this  translation  was  imported 
into  England,  the  supporters  of  Popery  became  very 
much  alarmed ;  they  asserted  that  there  were  a  thousand 
heresies  in  it;  that  it  was  too  bad  to  be  corrected,  and 
ought  to  be  suppressed ;  that  it  was  not  possible  to 
translate  the  Scriptures  into  English  ;  and  that  it  would 
make  the  laity  heretics,  and  rebels  to  their  king.  It  is 
more  painful,  however,  to  record  that  such  men  as 
William  Warham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
Cuthbert  Tunstall,  Bishop  of  London,  issued  their  orders 
and  monitions  to  bring  in  all  the  New  Testaments 
translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue,  that  they  might  be 


TYNDALE.  599 

burnt.  To  destroy  them  more  effectually,  Tunstall,  being 
at  Antwerp  in  1526  or  1527,  procured  Augustin  Pack- 
ington,  an  English  merchant,  to  buy  up  all  the  copies  of 
the  English  Testament  which  remained  unsold  ;  these 
were  accordingly  brought  to  England,  and  publicly  burnt 
at  St.  Paul's  Cross.  But  this  ill  judged  policy  only  took 
off  many  copies  which  lay  dead  upon  Tyndale's  hands, 
and  supplied  him  with  money  for  another  and  more 
correct  edition,  printed  in  1535.  Strict  search,  however, 
continued  to  be  made  among  those  who  were  suspected 
of  importing,  and  concealing  the  volume.  Humphrey 
Monmouth,  Tyndale's  great  patron  and  benefactor,  was 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  and  almost  ruined.  In  the 
mean  time  the  Dutch  printers  made  new  impressions  of 
the  first  edition,  which  were  sold  at  a  cheap  rate,  and 
obtained  a  wide  circulation  ;  so  that  the  diffusion  of  the 
Scriptures  in  the  vernacular  tongue  could  no  longer  be 
prevented.  In  1529,  Sir  Thomas  More  had  pubhshed 
a  dialogue,  in  which  he  endeavoured  to  prove  that  the 
books  burnt  were  not  New  Testaments,  but  Tyndale's 
or  Luther's  Testaments  ;  and  so  corrupted  and  changed 
from  the  good  and  wholesome  doctrine  of  Christ  to  their 
own  develish  heresies,  as  to  be  quite  another  thing.  In 
1530,  Tyndale  published  an  answer  to  this  Dialogue,  and 
the  king,  at  a  court  of  Star  Chamber,  in  1531,  with 
the  concurrence  of  the  prelates,  universities,  and  clergy, 
pronounced  a  severe  condemnation  of  it,  together  with 
other  heretical  books. 

This  active  and  learned  reformer  was  in  the  mean 
time  proceeding  in  his  labours,  and  as  soon  as  he  had 
finished  his  New  Testament,  he  set  about  a  translation 
of  the  five  books  of  Moses  from  the  Hebrew.  He  had 
the  misfortune,  however,  in  going  by  sea  to  Hamburgh, 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  it  printed  there,  to  be  ship- 
wrecked on  the  Dutch  coast,  with  the  loss  of  his  books, 
papers,  and  money.  Not  dispirited  at  this  accident,  he 
reached  Hamburgh  by  another  conveyance,  where  he  met 


600  TYNDALE. 

Miles   Coverdale,    by    appointment,    and    they   worked 
together  till  they  had   finished  the  Pentateuch,   which 
was  printed  in  1530.      Tyndale  afterwards   translated 
the  prophecy  of  Jonah,  prefixing  a  large  prologue,  and 
published  it  in  1531  ;    and   this  was  the  whole  of  his 
labour   on  the   Scriptures,  though  other  versions  have 
been  ascribed  to  ^him.      He  then  returned  to  Antwerp, 
and  1534  took  up  his  lodging  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Pointz, 
an  English  merchant,   doubtless  thinking  that  he  might 
there  pursue   his  studious  plans  in  safety.      But   the 
detestable  spirit  of  the  times  would  not  suffer  a  heretic 
to  exist  in  any  place  where  he  might  be  reached.      The 
tyrant,  Henry  VIII.  and  his  subservient  council  suborned 
one   Henry  Phillips  to  betray  him  under  the  mask  of 
friendship.      This    man   insinuated    himself    into   the 
acquaintance  of  Tyndale  and  Pointz,   and  gained  their 
confidence,  whereby  he  was  enabled  to  give  notice  to  the 
imperial  procurator  general  at  Brussels  of  an  opportunity 
for  seizing  the  unsuspecting  Tyndale,  and  conveying  him 
as  a  prisoner  to  Vilvorden.    He  remained  there  in  confine- 
ment a  year  and  a  half ;    and  in  the  mean  time  Pointz 
and  the  English  merchants  obtained  letters  from  Crom- 
well, secretary  of  state,  and  a  friend  of  the  Reformation, 
to  the  Court  of  Brussels,  for  his  liberation.     But  by  the 
contrivance  of  Philips,  an  accusation  was  brought  against 
Pointz,  who  was  himself  thrown  into  prison,  whence  he 
escaped  by  night.      Tyndale  was  at   length,   in  1536, 
brought   out    for   trial    upon   the   emperor's   decree   at 
Augsburg.     He  was  offered  council  to  assist  him  in  his 
defence,  which  he  declined,  saying  he  would  answer  for 
himself.     He  was  condemned,  and  executed  by  strang- 
ling at  the  stake,   after  which  his  body  was  reduced  to 
ashes.     His  last  words  were   "  Lord  open  the  King  of 
England's  eyes." 

Besides  his  translations,  Tyndale  wrote  various  theo- 
logical and  controversial  tracts,  which  were  collected 
together,  and  printed  by  John  Day,  1572,  folio,  is  together 


TYNDALE.  601 

with  John  Frith's  and  Barnes's  works.  A  new  an^ 
beautifully  printed  edition  of  Tyndale's  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  was  published  in  London,  by  Bagster,  in 
small  4to,  in  1836 :  it  professes  to  be  printed  verbatim 
from  a  unique  copy  in  the  library  of  the  Baptist  College 
at  Bristol,  of  the  first  impression  of  1526.  A  reprint 
of  the  edition  of  1534  was  published  by  Bagster  in  his 
Enghsh  Hexapla,  London,  4to,  1841.  All  Tyndale's 
original  writings  were  published  along  with  those  of 
Frith,  and  Barnes,  at  London,  in  1573,  fol. ;  an  edition 
of  them,  aloni?  with  those  of  Frith,  under  the  title  of 
The  Works  of  the  English  Reformers,  William  Tyndale 
and  John  Frith,  was  edited  by  Thomas  Russell,  A.M.,  3 
vols.  8vo,  London,  1831. — Foxe.   Middleton.   Burnet. 


UDAL,    NICHOLAS. 

Nicholas  Udal  was  born  in  Hampshire,  in  1506.  He 
received  his  education  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford. 
He  shewed  his  inclination  to  Lutheranism  so  early  in 
life  that  he  did  not  take  his  M.A.  degree.  He  held  the 
living  of  Braintree,  in  Essex,  and  that  of  Calbourne, 
in  the  beautiful  Isle  of  Wight,  with  the  Mastership  of 
Eton  College,  from  whence  he  was  removed  to  West- 
minster. He  was  in  the  service  of  Queen  Catherine 
Parr.  In  1555,  he  had  been  appointed  head-master  of 
Westminster-school.  He  died  in  1564.  He  is  said  to 
have  written  several  comedies,  and  Bale  mentions.  The 
Tragedy  of  Popery.  But  none  of  these  now  exist.  A 
specimen,  however,  of  his  abilities  in  this  way  may  be 
seen  in  a  long  quotation  from  a  rhyming  interlude  by 
him,  printed  in  Wilson's  Art  of  Logick,  1587,  and 
reprinted  in  Bliss's  edition  of  Wood's  Athense.  His 
other  works  are,  Flowers  for  Latin  speaking,  selected  and 
gathered   out  of   Terence,   and   the  Comedies  of  that 

VOL.  YIII.  3  F 


602^  USHER 

"^Jriter  translated  into  English,  &c.  often  printed,  par- 
ticularly in  1533,  1538,  1568,  and  1575  ;  Leland  and 
Newton  wrote  encomiastic  verses  on  this  book  ;  a  Trans- 
lation of  the  Apophthegms  of  Erasmus ;  Epistolae  et 
Carmina  ad  Gul.  Hormannum  et  ad  Joh.  Lelandum ; 
a  Translation  of  Erasmus's  Paraphrase  on  the  Gospels 
and  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  1551,  folio;  and  a  Trans- 
lation of  Peter  Martyr's  Treatise  on  the  Sacrament. 


USHEE,    OR   USSHER,   JAMES. 

This  celebrated  prelate  and  excellent  man  was  born  in 
the  parish  of  St.  Nicholas,  in  the  city  of  Dublin,  on  the 
4:th  of  January,  1580 — 1,  Of  his  early  life  only  a  few 
anecdotes  have  been  transmitted  to  us.  But  it  appears, 
says  Dr.  Elrington,  that  he  was  one  of  those  happy 
individuals,  who,  educated  in  a  deep  sense  of  religion, 
and  brought  up  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  had  duly 
cherished  the  grace  vouchsafed  to  him  in  Baptism,  and 
had  been  day  by  day,  assisted  from  on  high  to  imitate, 
in  all  humility,  his  Divine  Master,  and  "  grow  in  wisdom 
and  stature,  and  favour  with  God  and  man." 

He  was  sent  to  the  school  which  was  kept  by  James 
Fullerton,  afterwards  Sir  James ;  and  James  Hamilton, 
afterwards  Lord  Clandeborge,  whom  James  I.  when  King 
of  Scotland,  sent  to  Ireland  to  secure  his  interest  among 
the  Irish  nobility  in  the  event  of  Elizabeth's  death  ;  and 
who,  to  escape  the  jealousy  or  suspicions  of  Elizabeth, 
undertook  the  office  of  schoolmasters. 

To  the  school,  opened  under  these  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances, he  was  sent  when  eight  years  of  age,  and 
continued  there  for  five  years.  On  the  9th  of  January, 
1593 — 4,  Trinity  College,  Dublin  was  first  opened,  for 
the  admission  of  students,  and  Dr.  Bernard  states  that 
Usher  was  the  first  scholar  entered  upon  the  books, 
though  probably  he  meant  the  first   student.      Usher 


USHER.  603 

says  of  himself  that  he  was  inter  primos  in  illam  admis- 
sos.  He  was  indefatigable  in  his  studies.  The  circum- 
stances of  the  times  and  the  peculiar  situation  of  his  own 
family,  divided  as  it  was  between  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Churches,  exercised  an  irresistible  force 
upon  the  mind  of  Usher,  to  devote  a  considerable  portion 
of  his  time  to  the  study  of  polemical  divinity.  With 
that  candour  which  distinguished  him  through  the  whole 
period  of  his  life,  he  appears  to  have  studied  the  works 
of  the  principal  writers  on  both  sides  of  the  question, 
and  the  work  which  exercised  a  considerable  influence 
upon  the  course  of  his  subsequent  studies  was  Stapleton'a 
"  Fortress  of  the  Faith."  The  chief  strength  of  Staple- 
ton's  argument  lay  in  the  attempt  to  establish  the 
antiquity  of  the  Romish  faith  and  the  novelty  of  the 
reformed  Church,  which  he  professed  to  maintain  by  the 
whole  current  of  tradition  transmitted  through  the 
works  of  the  Fathers.  Usher,  even  at  that  early  period, 
was  impressed  with  the  truth  of  Tertullian's  maxim, 
"Verum  quodcunque  primum,  adulterum  quodcunque 
posterius,"  and  he  determined  to  read  through  the  works 
of  the  Fathers,  and  ascertain  whether  the  appeal  of 
Stapleton  was  founded  in  fact.  This  prodigious  task  he 
executed  in  eighteen  years,  commencing  in  the  twentieth 
and  terminating  in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  his  age. 
The  fruit  of  his  labours  he  intended  to  have  commu- 
nicated to  the  world  in  the  Bibliotheca  Theologica,  but 
he  never  completed  the  work,  never  indeed  finished  any 
part  of  it. 

His  father  wished  him  to  become  a  student  of  law, 
but  on  his  father's  death,  he  felt  himself  at  liberty  to 
pursue  his  own  inclinations  and  to  devote  himself  to 
divinity.  The  paternal  estate  he  gave  to  his  brothers 
and  sisters,  that  he  might  himself  be  free  from  secular 
cares,  and  he  became  a  fellow  of  his  college.  It  does 
not  appear  in  what  year  he  was  elected,  but  he  took  his 
M.A.  degree  in  1600. 


604  USHER. 

About  this  time  the  Jesuit  Fitz- Simons,  a  prisoner 
in  Dublin  Castle,  put  forth  a  challenge,  defying  the 
ablest  champion  that  should  come  against  him,  to  dis- 
pute with  him  about  the  points  in  controversy  between 
the  Roman  and  the  Protestant  Churches.  Usher,  though 
but  in  his  nineteenth  year,  accepted  the  challenge  ;  and 
when  they  met,  the  Jesuit  despised  him  as  but  a  boy  ; 
jet,  after  a  conference  or  two,  he  was  so  sensible  of  the 
sagacity  of  his  mind,  the  strength  of  his  arguments, 
and  his  skill  in  disputation,  as  to  decline  any  farther 
contest  wuth  him. 

Usher  was  unfortunate  in  the  superiors  assigned  to 
him  by  the  English  government,  for  the  superintendence 
of  the  New  College,  as  they  were  decidedly  of  the  Puritan 
school.  In  Usher,  Dr.  Elrington  observes,  however 
apparent  were  the  traces  of  early  associations,  yet.  in 
later  years,  the  effects  of  this  prava  disciplina  were 
almost  obliterated. 

The  pernicious  practice,  the  same  author  observes, 
which  marred  the  early  progress  of  the  Irish  University, 
extended  over  the  whole  Irish  Church.  Whenever  a 
man  became  so  troublesome  that  it  was  necessary  to  get 
rid  of  him,  whenever  powerful  interest  claimed  promotion 
for  an  individual  whom  the  government  were  ashamed 
to  promote  in  England,  he  was  sent  over  to  Ireland,  and 
obtained  a  high  station  in  its  Church.  This  state  of 
things  continued  after  the  restoration ;  the  abuse  was 
strongly  and  frequently  complained  Of  by  Primate 
Boulter,  and  traces  of  it  have  existed  even  in  the 
memory  of  the  present  generation. 

As  catechist,  Usher  distinguished  himself  in  a  very 
remarkable  manner.  Every  week  he  explained  the  pure 
principles  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  professed  and 
maintained  by  the  reformed  Churches,  in  opposition  to 
the  errors  which  had  mixed  themselves  with  primitive 
Christianity  in  the  creed  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church ; 
and   this   task  he  performed   with   such   a  display  of 


USHER.  605 

accurate  knowledge  on  the  most  controverted  subjects, 
and  such  a  readiness  and  fluency  of  expression,  that  his 
friends  anxiously  pressed  him  to  appear  in  the  pulpit. 
This  he  steadily  refused,  pleading  his  youth  as  a  suffi- 
cient excuse,  until  he  was  called  forward  by  an  appoint- 
ment which  compelled  him  to  appear  in  public.  Such 
was  the  scarcity  of  qualified  preachers,  that  when  it 
became  necessary  to  appoint  persons  to  preach  at  Christ's 
Church,  before  the  members  of  the  Irish  government,  a 
selection  was  made  of  three  lay  masters  of  arts  in 
Trinity  College.  The  persons  selected  were  James 
Usher,  Abel  Walsh,  and  John  Richardson.  The  duty 
imposed  upon  Richardson  was  to  preach  every  Wednes- 
day, and  explain  the  Prophecies  of  Isaiah.  Walsh  was 
to  preach  on  Sundays,  in  the  forenoon,  and  establish  the 
principal  points  of  theology  from  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
Usher  preached  in  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  on  the 
principal  points  of  controversy  with  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  "  His  part,"  says  Dr.  Bernard,  "  was  to  handle 
the  controversies  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  Papists,  which 
he  did  so  perspicuously,  ever  concluding  with  matter  of 
exhortation,  that  it  was  much  for  the  confirmation  and 
edification  of  the  Protestants,  which  the  elder  sort  of 
persons  living  in  my  time  I  have  often  heard  acknow- 
ledging." 

Usher  did  not  continue  long  in  this  strange  situation  ; 
he  felt  strong  scruples  at  discharging  the  office  of  a 
preacher  without  being  admitted  into  holy  orders,  and 
procured  the  removal  of  the  only  impediment,  want  of 
the  canonical  age,  by  a  special  dispensation.  He  was 
ordained  deacon  and  priest  on  the  fourth  Sunday  in 
Advent,  16.01,  by  his  uncle,  Henry,  Archbishop  of 
Armagh. 

In  1603,  he  first  visited  England,  with  Dr.  Chaloner, 

on  a  deputation  for  the  purchase  of  books  for  the  library 

of  Dubhn  College.      He  soon  after  obtained  his  •  first 

ecclesiastical  preferment,  that  of  the  chancellorship  of 

Sje-  3 


606  USHER. 

St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  to  which  the  living  of  Finglass 
was  annexed ;  and  he  performed  more  of  the  pulpit  duty 
than  necessarily  belonged  to  his  office. 

In  1606,  he  revisited  England,  where  he  contracted 
an  intimacy  with  the  two  eminent  antiquaries,  Camden 
and  Sir  Robert  Cotton.  To  the  former  he  communi- 
cated some  valuable  information  relative  to  the  ancient 
state  of  Ireland,  which  were  inserted  in  a  new  edition  of 
the  '*  Britannia."  He  was  made  professor  of  divinity  in 
the  University  of  Dublin  in  1607. 

About  this  time  he  drew  up  a  learned  treatise  concern- 
ing the  Corban  lands,  or  those  anciently  appropriated  to 
the  chorepiscopi,  the  substance  of  which  was  afterwards 
published  in  Spellman's  Glossary.  Another  visit  to 
England,  in  1609,  made  a  large  addition  to  his  literary 
connections,  and  caused  him  to  be  noticed  at  court. 
From  this  period  he  paid  regular  visits  to  the  sister 
island  every  three  years,  passing  several  of  the  sum- 
mer months  at  the  universities  or  the  metropolis,  for 
the  advantage  of  books  and  learned  conversation  in 
pursuing  the  inquiries  in  which  he  was  engaged. 
These  avocations  probably  induced  him  to  decline  the 
post  of  provost  of  the  University  of  Dublin,  to  which 
he  was  unanimously  elected  in  his  30th  year.  Two 
years  afterwards,  he  was  admitted  to  the  degree  of  doc- 
tor in  divinity. 

In  1613,  he  printed  in  England  his  first  work,  entitled 
"  Gravissimse  Qusestionis  de  Christianarum  Ecclesiarum, 
in  Occidentis  prsesertim  Partibus,  ab  Apostolicis  tem- 
poribus  ad  nostram  usque  aetatem,  continua  successione 
et  statu,  Historica  Explicatio."  In  this  work  he  takes 
up  the  history  of  the  Western  Church  from  the  sixth 
century,  where  it  had  been  left  by  Bishop  Jewel  in  his 
"  Apology  for  the  Church  of  England,"  carrying  it  down 
in  the  first  part  to  the  accession  of  Pope  Gregory  VII. 
in  the  tenth  century.  A  second  part  extends  it  beyond 
the  middle   of   the   thirteenth    century ;    a  third   was 


USHER.  COT 

planned  to  bring  the  history  to  the  era  of  the  Refor- 
mation,  but  was  never  executed.  Dr.  Usher  in  this 
year  entered  into  the  marriage-state  with  the  daughter 
of  Dr.  Chaloner,  who  was  an  heiress  with  a  considerable 
fortune,  and  with  whom  he  passed  forty  years  of  his  life 
in  great  harmony.  A  convocation  of  the  Irish  clergy 
being  held  in  1615,  it  was  determined  that  they  should 
assert  their  independence  as  a  national  Church,  by 
drawing  up  a  set  of  articles  of  their  own. 

This  was  the  ostensible  reason,  and  was  perhaps  the 
real  motive  with  many.  But  the  more  powerful  and 
really  actuating  motive  with  most  of  the  Irish  clergy  was 
that  innovating  spirit,  which,  having  failed  some  years 
before  in  the  attempt  to  ingraft  the  doctrine  of  Calvin  on 
the  profession  of  faith  of  the  Anglican  Church,  by  means 
of  the  notorious  Lambeth  Articles,  was  now  to  be  em- 
ployed in  attempting  to  substitute  in  the  Irish  Church, 
a  new  profession,  with  which  those  articles  should  be 
incorporated. 

The  articles,  which  were  accordingly  now  drawn  up, 
consisted  of  one  hundred  and  four  paragraphs,  oi  sec- 
tions, under  nineteen  heads ;  each  head  being  divided 
into  several  sections.  Thus,  for  example,  the  first,  which 
is  entitled,  "  Of  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  the  Three 
Creeds,"  is  divided  into  seven  parts,  which  relate,  re- 
spectively, to  the  Holy  Scripture  as  the  ground  of  our 
religion  and  the  rule  of  faith ;  to  the  canonical  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  to  the  apocryphal  books ; 
to  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  all  languages 
for  the  common  use  of  all  men ;  to  their  clearness  ;  to 
their  sufficiency  for  salvation  ;  and  to  the  three  creeds, 
as  capable  of  being  proved  by  most  certain  warrant  of 
Holy  Scripture. 

They  comprehended,  "  almost  word  for  word,"  as 
stated  in  a  notice  prefixed,  "  the  nine  articles  agreed 
on  at  Lambeth,  the  20th  of  November,  anno  1595; 
but  whereas  it  is  stated,   that  they  were   *'  agreed  on 


608  USHER. 

at  Lambeth,"  it  is  omitted  to  be  added,  that  they  were 
immediately  suppressed  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  withdrawn 
by  Archbishop  Whitgift,  and  afterwards,  at  the  instance 
of  such  men  as  Bishops  Overall,  Andrewes,  and  other 
luminaries  of  the  English  Church,  disapproved  and 
rejected  by  King  James,  when  proposed  to  him  by 
Dr.  Reynolds,  in  the  conference  at  Hampton  Court. 
However  the  attempt,  which  had  been  defeated  in 
England,  was  for  the  present  more  successful  in  Ire- 
land. And  accordingly,  under  the  influence  of  James 
Usher,  not  yet  warned  from  the  consequences  which 
prevailed  some  time  after  the  Reformation,  of  studying 
divinity  in  the  systems  of  modern  divines,  instead  of 
learning  the  true  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  the 
real  sense  of  Scripture  in  difficult  or  controverted  pas- 
sages, by  having  recourse  to  the  guidance  of  the  pri- 
mitive Church,  and  the  writings  of  the  early  fathers, 
the  Lambeth  Articles  were  adopted. 

This  was  the  great  mistake  in  this  great  man's  life ; 
and  he  seems  soon  to  have  been  aware  of  it.  He  by  no 
means  desired  to  be  classed  with  the  Puritans  and  con- 
sequently on  going  to  England  in  1619,  he  thought  it 
necessary  to  provide  himself  with  an  attestation  to  his 
orthodoxy  and  professional  character  from  the  lord-deputy 
and  his  council ;  the  effect  of  which,  together  with  the 
satisfaction  he  gave  to  his  majesty  in  a  private  con- 
ference, not  only  removed  all  suspicions,  but  procured 
the  king's  spontaneous  nomination  of  him  to  the  vacant 
See  of  Meath,  to  which  he  was  consecrated  on  his  return 
to  Ireland  in  the  following  year. 

It  may  here  be  proper  to  give  the  opinion  of  Usher 
on  the  doctrine  of  Episcopacy.  He  was  embarrassed 
in  maintaining  the  cause  of  episcopacy,  without  denying 
the  validity  of  the  orders  of  continental  Churches ; 
hence  he  was  led  to  lower  his  doctrine  of  episco- 
pacy as  far  as  was  possible,  and  perhaps  farther  than 
was    consistent    with     his     upholding    its    apostolical 


USHER.  600 

origin.  Dr.  Bernard  states,  that  a  report  was  cir- 
culated of  the  primate  having  given  an  unfavourable 
judgment  of  the  ordination  beyond  the  sea,  founded  on 

the  following  statement :  "  Mr.  asked  the  Bishop 

of  Armagh  on  occasion  of  ordination,  what  he  thought 
of  them  that  were  ordained  of  presbyters ;  he  said  he 
judged  their  ordination  to  be  null  and  looked  on  them 
as  laymen.  He  asked  him  what  he  conceived  of  the 
Churches  beyond  the  sea.  The  bishop  answered  he  had 
charitable  thoughts  of  them  in  France :  but  as  for 
Holland  he  questioned  if  there  was  a  Church  amongst 

them  or  not ;  or  words  to  that  purpose  :  this  Dr. 

confidently  reports,"  The  paper  containing  this  state- 
ment was  forwarded  to  the  primate  by  Dr.  Bernard, 
who  gives  the  following  extracts  from  his  grace's  answer  : 
it  is  unfortunate  and  rather  extraordinary  that  he  did 

not  give  the  whole  letter  :  '*  Touching  Mr. 1  cannot 

call  to  mind  that  he  ever  proposed  to  me  the  question 
in  your  letter  enclosed,  neither  do  I  know  that  doctor 
who  hath  spread  the  report;  but  for  the  matter  itself 
I  have  ever  declared  my  opinion  to  be  that  Episcoj^us  et 
Presbyter  gradu  tantum  differunt,  non  ordine,  and  con- 
sequently that  in  places  where  bishops  cannot  be  had, 
the  ordination  of  presbyters  standeth  valid :  yet  on  the 
other  side,  holding  as  I  do,  that  a  bishop  hath  a 
superiority  in  degree  over  a  presbyter,  you  may  easily 
judge  that  the  ordination  made  by  such  presbyters,  as 
have  severed  themselves  from  those  bishops  unto  whom 
they  had  sworn  canonical  obedience,  cannot  possibly  by 
me  be  excused  from  being  schism atical ;  and  howsoever 
I  must  needs  think  that  the  Churches  which  have  no 
bishops,  are  thereby  become  very  much  defective  in 
their  government,  and  that  the  Churches  in  France, 
who  living  under  a  Popish  power,  cannot  do  what  they 
would,  are  more  excusable  in  this  defect  than  the  Low 
Countries,  that  live  under  a  free  state,  yet  for  testifying 
my  communion  with  these  Churches  (which  I  do  love  and 


610  USHER. 

honour  as  true  members  of  the  Church  Universal)  I  do 
profess  that  with  like  affection  I  should  receive  the 
blessed  Sacrament  at  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  ministers, 
if  I  were  in  Holland,  as  I  should  do  at  the  hands  of  the 
French  ministers  if  I  were  in  Charentone." 

In  1622,  he  supported  the  Protestant  cause  by  pub- 
lishing a  treatise  on  The  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish 
and  Britons,  the  scope  of  which  was  to  show  the  con- 
formity of  the  rites  and  doctrines  of  the  early  ages  of 
Christianity  in  these  countries  with  those  of  Protes- 
tantism, and  to  point  out  the  periods  in  which  the 
practices  of  the  Church  of  Rome  were  successively  intro- 
duced. In  1623,  he  was  constituted  a  privy  counsellor 
for  Ireland ;  and  in  the  same  year  he  made  another 
visit  to  England,  in  order  to  collect  materials  for  a 
work  concerning  the  antiquities  of  the  Churches  of 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  which  the  king  him- 
self (struck  by  the  profound  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical 
and  national  antiquities  exhibited  by  him  in  the  last- 
mentioned  work,)  had  employed  him  to  write ;  and  soon 
after  his  return  to  Ireland  he  was  engaged  in  answering 
the  challenge  of  Malone,  an  Irish  Jesuit  of  the  College 
of  Louvain.  He  again  visited  England,  when  King 
James,  just  before  he  died,  (January,  1624,)  advanced 
him  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Armagh ;  but,  as  he  was 
preparing  to  return  to  Ireland,  he  was  seized  with  a 
quartan  ague,  which  detained  him  nine  months.  Before 
he  left  England  he  had  a  disputation  with  a  Popish 
priest  at  Drayton,  in  Northamptonshire,  the  seat  of  Lord 
Mordaunt,  afterwards  Earl  of  Peterborough,  a  zealous 
Papist,  who  wished  to  bring  his  lady  into  the  pale  of  the 
Romish  Church.  With  this  view  he  chose,  for  the 
champion  of  his  own  cause,  the  Jesuit  Beaumont,  whose 
true  name  was  Rookwood  (brother  of  that  Rookwood  who 
was  executed  for  the  Gunpowder  Treason).  Against  this 
antagonist.  Lady  Peterborough  made  choice  of  Arch- 
bishop  Usher  for  her  champion  in   the   cause   of  the 


USHEfl.  611 

Protestant  faith.  The  heads  of  the  dispute  were  agreed 
to  be  upon  transubstantiation,  the  invocation  of  saints, 
of  images,  and  the  perpetual  visibility  of  the  Church. 
After  it  had  been  held  for  three  days,  for  five  hours 
each  day,  in  which  Usher  sustained  the  part  of  respon- 
dent, that  office  for  the  fourth  day  lay  upon  Beaumont, 
according  to  the  regulation  settled  by  himself.  But  he 
sent  a  letter  to  Lord  Mordaunt,  with  an  excuse,  alleging, 
"  that  all  the  arguments  which  he  had  formed  had  slipt 
out  of  his  memory,  nor  was  he  able  by  any  effort  to 
recollect  them,  imputing  the  cause  of  the  misfortune 
to  a  just  judgment  of  God  upon  him,  for  undertaking  of 
his  own  accord,  without  the  license  of  his  superiors,  to 
engage  in  a  dispute  with  a  person  of  so  great  eminence 
and  learning  as  the  primate."  Such  shameful  tergiver- 
sation sunk  deeply  into  the  mind  of  Lord  Mordaunt, 
who,  after  some  conferences  with  the  archbishop,  re- 
nounced Popery,  and  continued  in  the  profession  of  the 
Protestant  faith  to  the  #nd  of  his  life.  And  Lady  Peter- 
borough evinced  her  sense  of  the  archbishop's  services 
to  the  cause  of  the  true  religion,  by  the  kindness  and 
respect  which  she  showed  to  him  all  his  life  after. 
In  the  administration  of  his  archbishopric.  Usher  acted 
in  a  most  exemplary  manner. 

Being  now  returned  to  his  native  land,  says  Dr.  Parr, 
and  settled  in  this  great  charge,  (having  not  only  many 
churches,  but  dioceses,  under  his  care,)  he  began  care- 
fully to  inspect  his  own  diocese  first,  and  the  man- 
ners and  abilities  of  the  clergy,  by  frequent  personal 
visitations;  admonishing  those  he  found  faulty,  and 
giving  excellent  advice  and  directions  to  the  rest,  charg- 
ing th«iii  to  use  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  in  all  public 
administrations;  and  to  preach  and  catechize  diligently 
in  their  respective  cures ;  and  to  make  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures the  rule,  as  well  as  the  subject,  of  their  doctrine 
and  sermons.  Nor  did  he  only  endeavour  to  reform  the 
clergy,  among  whom,  in  so  large  a  diocese,  and  where 


612  USHER. 

there  was  so  small  encouragement,  there  could  not  but 
be  many  things  amiss ;  but  also  the  proctors,  apparitors, 
and  other  officers  of  his  ecclesiastical  courts,  against 
whom  there  were  many  great  complaints  and  abuses 
and  exactions  in  his  predecessor  s  time  :  nor  did  he  find 
that  Popery  and  profaneness  had  increased  in  that 
kingdom  by  anything  more  than  the  neglect  of  due 
catechising  and  preaching ;  for  want  of  which  instruction 
the  poor  people  that  were  outwardly  Protestants,  were 
very  ignorant  of  the  principles  of  religion;  and  the 
Pa23ists  continued  still  in  a  blind  obedience  to  their 
leaders.  Therefore  he  set  himself  with  all  his  power  to 
redress  these  neglects,  as  well  by  his  own  example  as  by 
his  ecclesiastical  discipline ;  all  which  proving  at  last  too 
weak  for  so  inveterate  a  disease,  he  obtained  his  majesty's 
injunctions  to  strengthen  his  authority,  as  shall  be  here- 
after mentioned. 

Having  met  with  an  old  treatise  bearing  upon  the 
Predestinarian  controversy,  he  published  it  in  1631,  at 
Dublin,  under  the  title  of  Goteschalci  et  PredestinariansB 
Controversice  ab  eo  MotsB  Historia,  4to  ;  this  is  said  to 
have  been  the  first  Latin  book  ever  printed  in  Ireland. 
He  published  another  work  in  163 2,  concerning  the 
ancient  Irish  Church,  entitled,  Veterum  Epistolarum 
Hibernicarum  Sylloge,  a  collection  of  letters  out  of  several 
ancient  MSS.  and  other  authors,  to  and  from  Irish  bishops 
and  monks  from  592  to  1180,  concerning  the  affairs  of 
the  Irish  Church ;  which  show^  the  great  esteem,  as  well 
for  learning  as  piety,  in  which  the  bishops  and  clergy  of 
that  Church  were  held  at  Eome,  in  France,  England, 
and  elsewhere ;  with  several  matters  relating  to  the  great 
controversies  of  those  times  about  the  keeping  of  Easter, 
and  also  every  thing  relating  to  ecclesiastical  discipline 
and  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  of  that  kingdom.  In 
the  convocation  which  met  in  1634,  he  had  a  principal 
share  in  the  composition  and  establishment  of  the  Irish 
Canons. 


USHER.  613 

In  this  convocation  it  was  agreed  to  receive  the  thirty- 
nine  Articles,  although  the  Irish  Articles  of  1615  were 
not  at  that  time  rejected.  The  agreement  with  the  Church 
of  England  in  doctrine  having  been  settled  in  the  con- 
vocation, it  was  further  moved  by  the  Bishop  of  Derry, 
(Dr.  Bramhall)  that,  as  they  had  received  the  Articles, 
so  they  would  likewise  the  Canons,  of  the  Church  of 
England,  in  order  that  the  two  Churches  might  have 
the  same  rule  of  government  as  well  as  of  belief.  An 
objection  to  this  proposal  was  made  with  great  earnest- 
ness by  the  Lord  Primate,  that  it  would  appear  to  be 
the  betraying  of  the  privileges  of  a  national  Church  : 
that  it  might  lead  to  placing  the  Church  of  England  in 
a  state  of  absolute  superintendence  and  dominion  over 
that  of  Ireland:  that  it  was  convenient  for  some  dis- 
crepancy to  appear,  if  it  were  but  to  declare  the  free 
agency  of  the  Church  of  Ireland,  and  to  express  her  sense 
of  rites  and  ceremonies,  that  there  is  no  necessity  of  the 
same  in  all  Churches,  which  are  independent  of  each 
other ;  and  that  different  canons  and  modes  might  co- 
exist with  the  same  faith,  charity  and  communion. 

By  these  and  similar  arguments  the  Lord  Primate 
prevailed  with  the  convocation,  in  which  the  preposses- 
sions of  many  of  its  members  inclined  them  to  a 
favourable  reception  of  his  reasonings.  The  fact,  indeed, 
seems  to  have  been  in  some  degree  agreeable  to  the 
statement  of  Mr.  Carte,  in  his  Life  of  the  Duke  of 
Ormonde,  that  the  convocation  contained  many  members 
inclined  in  their  hearts  to  the  Puritanical  peculiarities, 
as  distinguished  from  the  more  sober  and  -chastised 
ordinances  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  of  themselves 
prepared  to  object  to  some  of  the  English  Canons,  now- 
offered  to  their  judgment  and  approbation  ;  particularly 
to  such  as  concerned  the  solemnity  and  uniformity  of 
divine  worship,  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments, 
and  the  ornaments  used  therein  ;  the  qualifications  for 
holy  orders,  for  benefices,  and  for  pluralities;  the  oath 

VOL  vrir.  3  g 


614  USHER. 

against  simony,  the  times  of  ordination,  and  the  obli- 
gations to  residence  and  subscription. 

It  was  accordingly  concluded,  that  such  canons  as 
were  fit  to  be  transplanted  should  be  adopted  in  the 
Church  of  Ireland,  and  others  be  added  to  them,  having 
been  constructed  afresh  for  the  purpose  so  as  to  form 
a  complete  rule  peculiarly  suited  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  country. 

The  execution  of  this  task  was  committed  to  the 
Bishop  of  Derry ;  and  the  result  was  the  Book  of  Con- 
stitutions and  Canons  for  the  regulation  of  the  Church 
of  Ireland,  which,  having  been  passed  in  convocation, 
received  its  final  confirmation  and  authority  from  his 
majesty's  assent,  according  to  the  form  of  the  statute, 
or  Act  of  Parliament,  made  in  that  behalf. 

These  canons  for  the  most  part  agreed  in  substance 
and  intention  with  the  English  Canons,  from  which, 
however,  they  differed  much  in  arrangement  and  con- 
struction, without  any  obvious  improvement,  rather  per- 
haps the  contrary.  In  number  also,  they  were  less, 
amounting  to  one  hundred  only,  whereas  the  English 
code  comprised  one  hundred  and  forty  one.  This 
diminution  is  attributable  in  a  considerable  degree  to 
a  combination,  occasionally,  of  more  than  one  of  the 
English  into  one  only  of  the  Irish  Canons. 

x^ll  this  while  he  kept  up  a  correspondence  in  every 
country  for  the  advancement  of  learning ;  and  he  pro- 
cured in  1634  a  copy  of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  from 
the  East ;  besides  one  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Syriac, 
and  other  valuable  MSS.  The  former  was  one  of  the 
first  of  those  Pentateuchs  that  ever  were  brought  into 
these  western  parts  of  Europe,  as  Selden  and  Walton 
acknowledge  ;  and  the  Syriac  Testament  was  much  more 
perfect  than  any  other  that  had  hitherto  been  seen  in 
these  parts.  The  other  MSS.  were  procured  through 
Mr.  D aires,  a  merchant  at  Aleppo.  The  archbishop 
collated  the   Samaritan  with  the  Hebrew,  and  marked 


USHER.  61.5 

the  differences;  after  which  he  intended  to  present  it 
to  the  library  of  Sir  Robert  Cotton.  It  is  now  in  the 
Bodleian  Library. 

Although  the  archbishop  opposed  the  excellent  Arch- 
bishop Brarahall,  as  we  have  seen,  on  one  occasion,  yet 
he  took  other  opportunies  to  testify  his  regard  for  his 
person,  and  his  respect  for  his  principles.  In  some  of 
their  opinions  there  must  have  been  a  difference  between 
Archbishop  Usher,  and  Archbishop  Laud,  and  yet. 
Archbishop  Laud  was  a  prelate  whom  Archbishop  Usher 
was  proud  to  regared  as  his  friend.  In  vol.  xv.  of  his 
works,  published  by  Dr.  Elrington,  there  is  a  letter 
(cxc)  to  the  most  Rev.  William  Laud,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  in  which,  he  excuses  himself  for  not 
having  sooner  congratulated  him  on  his  promotion  to 
Canterbury,  which  he  there  does  with  all  the  warmth 
of  a  sincere  friend  and  admirer.  "  I  may  truly  say 
thus  much  for  myself,"  writes  Usher,  "that  since  the 
time  I  received  the  letter  you  wrote  me  the  day  before 
you  began  your  journey  into  Scotland,  no  day  hath 
passed  hitherto,  wherein  I  have  not  made  particular 
mention  of  you  in  my  prayers  unto  Almighty  God,  Who 
both  graciously  heard  my  request  and  granted  therein 
as  much  as  my  heart  could  desire." 

But  further,  the  high  opinion  which  he  entertained  of 
Archbishop  Laud,  induced  him  to  exert  all  the  interest 
he  possessed,  to  secure  his  appointment  to  the  chan- 
cellorship of  the  University  of  Dublin.  The  following 
are  the  words  of  Usher  to  Laud,  in  the  same  letter : 
"  By  the  death  of  your  predecessor,  our  University  of 
Dublin  was  left  to  seek  a  new  chancellor,  whom  I  advised 
to  pitch  upon  no  other  but  yourself;  which  they  did  with 
all  readiness  and  alacrity.  If  your  grace  will  deign  to 
receive  that  poor  society  under  the  shadow  of  your  wings, 
you  shall  put  a  further  tie  of  observance,  not  upon  that  only, 
but  upon  me  also,  who  had  my  whole  breeding  there."  This 
letter  not  being  so  quickly  responded  to  as  Usher   had 


616  USHER. 

expected,  he  wrote  a  second  letter  to  Laud,  urging  upon 
him  the  necessity  of  taking  this  high  office  upon  him. 

His  greatest  work,  Emmanuel,  or  a  Treatise  on  the 
Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  was  published  at  Dublin 
in  1638,  and  in  1639  appeared  his  celebrated  Britanni- 
carum  Ecclesiarum  Antiquitates.  In  1640,  he  came  to 
England  with  his  family  and  repaired  to  Oxford.  He 
intended  to  remain  in  England  only  a  short  time,  but 
he  never  returned  to  his  native  land,  the  troubles  having 
now  commenced.  He  had  at  one  time  inclined  to  yield 
some  points  on  the  subject  of  episcopacy,  but  he  now 
threw  all  the  weight  of  his  character  and  learning  on 
the  side  of  the  Episcopate.  He  inserted  two  pieces  in 
a  collection  of  tracts  published  at  Oxford  in  1641. 
These  were,  "  A  Discourse  on  the  Origin  of  Bishops  and 
Metropolitans,"  deducing  these  dignities  from  the  apos- 
tolic times;  and,  "  A  Geographical  and  Historical  Dis- 
quisition on  the  Lydian  or  Proconsular  Asia,"  in  which 
he  confirmed  the  former  opinion  by  shewing  that  the 
seven  cities,  the  Churches  of  which  are  mentioned  in 
the  Book  of  Revelations,  were  all  seats  of  metropolital 
civil  government  under  the  Romans.  He  also,  in  defence 
of  monarchy  drew  up  at  the  king's  command,  a  treatise 
concerning  "  The  Power  of  the  Prince  and  Obedience  of 
the  Subject,"  in  which,  he  strongly  maintained,  the 
absolute  unlawfulness  of  taking  up  anns  against  the 
sovereign. 

In  the  impeachment  of  Lord  Strafford,  which  was 
the  first  great  blow,  struck  by  the  long  parliament 
against  royalty,  Usher  was  one  of  the  five  prelates  who 
were  consulted  by  his  majesty  on  the  question  whether 
he  might  conscientiously  pass  the  bill  of  attainder 
against  the  earl,  after  he  had  given  him,  a  solemn 
assurance  of  personal  safety.  Of  the  number,  Juxon, 
Bishop  of  London,  was  the  only  one  who  decided  that 
the  king  ought  in  no  case  to  break  his  promise.  The 
others    gave   a   kind   of  middle    opinion,    which    had 


USHER.  617 

probably  a  considerable  influence  in  overcoming  the 
king's  scruples,  and  if  any  blame  were  imputable  to 
their  casuistry  on  this  occasion,  they  must  all  share 
in  it.  There  is  however  the  king's  own  testimony  upon 
record,  that  Usher  was  in  fact  extremely  shocked  at  the 
passing  of  the  bill,  and  he  performed  every  pious  and 
friendly  office,  to  the  unfortunate  sufferer,  after  his 
condemnation.  In  the  same  year,  1641,  the  Irish  rebellion 
broke  out  in  all  its  horrors :  and  the  primate,  though 
out  of  the  reach  of  personal  injury,  incurred  great 
loss  of  property  from  the  pillage  which  was  its 
consequence,  having  nothing  left  him  in  the  island, 
excejDt  the  furniture  and  books  at  his  house  in  Drog- 
heda.  His  books  were  safely  conveyed  to  him  by 
sea,  and  he  sold  his  plate  and  jewels  for  present  sup- 
port ;  but  he  soon  after  obtained  a  regular  though  much 
reduced  provision  from  the  temporalities  of  the  vacant 
See  of  Carlisle.  The  civil  war  being  now  commenced, 
he  took  up  his  abode  at  Oxford,  where  he  occasionally 
preached  before  the  king,  and  received  from  him  many 
tokens  of  esteem.  By  these  he  was  so  much  confirmed 
in  his  cause,  that  when  nominated  by  the  parliament 
to  be  a  member  of  the  assembly  of  divines  of  different 
persuasions  sitting  at  Westminster  in  1648,  he  not  only 
refused  to  take  a  seat  among  them,  but  publicly  con- 
troverted their  authority,  and  decried  their  purposes. 
By  this  conduct,  he  gave  so  much  offence  to  the  parlia- 
ment, that  an  order  passed  for  confiscating  his  library 
then  deposited  at  Chelsea,  which  was  however,  through 
the  interposition  of  his  friend,  the  learned  Selden, 
suffered  to  be  redeemed  for  a  small  sum  by  one  who 
kept  it  for  him. 

Intent  upon  his  studies,  as  the  only  relief  to  his 
mind  in  the  present  calamitous  state  of  public  affairs, 
he  brought  to  a  conclusion  in  1644,  a  labour  in  which 
he  had  been  long  engaged,  that  of  a  corrected  edition 
of  the  Epistles  of  Ignatius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  origi- 
'6  Q  o 


618  USHER. 

ginally  collected  by  Polycarp,  but  transmitted  to  pos- 
terity in  a  very  corrupted  state.  This  work  he  printed 
at  Oxford ;  and  the  additions  from  manuscripts,  and 
elucidations  by  his  own  notes  and  dissertations,  rendered 
it  a  mass  of  critical  erudition,  -which  obtained  the  general 
applause  of  the  learned  world  and  made  a  great  accession 
to  his  reputation.  The  decline  of  the  royal  cause  having 
in  ]  645,  brought  Oxford  in  danger  of  a  siege,  the  primate 
with  the  king  s  permission  quitted  that  city,  and  repaired 
to  Cardiff,  of  which  place,  his  son-in-law,  Sir  Timothy 
Tyrrel,  was  governor  for  his  majesty.  In  that  fortress 
he  resided,  in  peace  and  safety,  for  almost  a  year, 
pursuing  his  studies  by  the  aid  of  some  chests  of  books 
which  he  had  brought  with  him  ;  but  after  the  battle 
of  Naseby,  the  necessities  of  the  king  obliging  him  to 
disfurnish  his  garrisons  of  men  and  ammunition.  Sir 
T.  Tyrrel  quitted  his  command,  and  the  primate  was 
left  to  seek  another  refuge.  In  this  emergency  he 
received  a  welcome  invitation  from  the  Dowager  Lady 
Stradling,  possessor  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Donate's  in 
Glamorganshire,  w^hither  he  proceeded  with  his  daugh- 
ter ;  but  they  had  the  misfortune  by  the  way  to  fall  in 
with  a  body  of  armed  Welsh  mountaineers,  by  whom 
they  were  pillaged  ;  and  what  was  peculiarly  distressing 
to  the  primate,  his  papers,  the  fruit  of  long  study,  were 
in  an  instant  dispersed  into  a  thousand  hands.  Some 
gentlemen  of  the  county  coming  up  were  ashamed  of 
this  treatment,  of  a  venerable  stranger,  and  caused 
all  his  property  to  be  returned  that  could  be  found; 
and  by  great  exertions,  all  his  books  and  papers,  with 
the  exception  of  a  very  few,  were  afterwards  recovered. 
He  remained  some  months  longer  in  Wales,  experiencing 
a  high  degree  of  respect  from  the  gentry,  several  of 
whom  secretly  sent  him  considerable  supplies  of  money. 
During  Usher's  residence  in  Wales,  a  book  was  pub- 
lished under  his  name  by  Mr.  Downham,  entitled,  "  A 
Body  of  Divinitv:    or  the   Sum  and   Substance  of  the 


USHER.  619 

Christian  Religion."  Of  this  Body  many  editions  have 
been  published,  and  on  the  credit  of  its  contents,  a 
character  has  been  made  for,  and  fixed  upon  Archbishop 
Usher,  most  singularly  at  variance  with  his  true  one. 
Although  the  book  was  disowned  by  him  and  declared  "  to 
be  in  divers  places  deponant  from  his  judgment,"  and 
"  could  not  by  any  means  be  owned  by  him ;"  yet  edition 
after  edition  of  this  work  has  been  published  by  those 
who  were  aware  of  the  primate's  disavowal  and  dis- 
approval of  the  work :  and  every  advocate  of  Supra- 
lapsarian  doctrines,  quotes  in  his  support,  the  opinions 
of  Archbishop  Usher,  as  put  forth  in  this  "  his  Body 
of  Divinity!"  The  letter  to  the  editor  disavowing  the 
work  is  as  follows  : — 

"  SiE, — You  may  be  pleased  to  take  notice  that  the 
Catechism  you  write  of  is  none  of  mine ;  but  transcribed 
out  of  Mr.  Cartwright's  catechism,  and  Mr.  Crook's  and 
some  other  English  divines,  but  drawn  together  in  one 
method  as  a  kind  of  common-place  book,  where  other 
men's  judgments  and  reasons  are  strongly  laid  down, 
though  not  approved  in  all  places  by  the  collector ; 
besides  that,  the  collection  (such  as  it  is)  being  lent 
abroad  to  divers,  in  scattered  sheets,  hath  for  a  great 
part  of  it  miscarried ;  the  one  half  of  it  (I  suppose)  well 
nigh,  being  no  way  to  be  recovered,  so  that  so  imperfect 
a  thing,  copied  verbatim  out  of  others,  and  in  divers 
places  dissonant  from  my  own  judgment,  may  not  by 
any  means  be  owned  by  me.  But  if  it  shall  seem  good 
to  any  industrious  person  to  cut  off  what  is  weak  and 
superfluous  therein,  and  supply  the  wants  thereof,  and 
cast  it  into  a  new  mould  of  his  own  framing,  I  shall  be 
very  well  content  that  he  make  what  use  he  pleaseth  of 
any  of  the  materials  therein,  and  set  out  the  whole  in 
his  own  name ;  and  this  is  the  resolution  of 

"  Your  most  assured  loving  friend, 
"  May  J  3th,  1645,  "  Ja.  Aemachanus." 


620  USHER. 

As  some  persons  have  expressed  their  disappointment 
that  Dr.  Elrington  has  not  published  "  The  Body  of 
Divinity  "  among  the  works  of  the  archbishop,  that  learned 
divine  remarks  :  "  Had  the  authorship  been  a  matter  of 
doubtful  evidence,  there  might  be  a  plausible  ground 
for  that  complaint,  but  there  can  be  none  for  not  pub- 
lishing among  the  works  of  Archbishop  Usher  what 
Archbishop  Usher  declared  was  not  his." 

The  Calvinistic  and  Supralapsarian  character  which 
has  so  long  and  so  gratuitously  been  given  to  Archbishop 
Usher,  (built  on  the  supposition  that  this  work  was  his,) 
vanishes  as  untrue,  made  for  him,  and  assigned  to  him 
for  party  purposes. 

The  friendship  he  had  so  well  merited  from  Lady 
Mordauut,  now  Countess  of  Peterborough,  was  now  to 
become  a  principal  source  of  the  comfort  of  his  remaining 
life.  She  sent  him  an  invitation  to  take  up  his  residence 
at  her  house  in  London,  with  which  he  willingly  com- 
plied ;  and  from  that  period  to  the  day  of  his  death, 
he  was  usually  an  inmate  in  some  one  of  her  ladyship's 
mansions,  where  he  met  with  the  most  respectful  treat- 
ment. He  arrived  in  London,  in  June,  1645,  when  some 
captious  questions  were  put  to  him  by  the  parliamentary 
commissioners,  and  an  oath  was  proposed  to  him,  which 
he  required  some  time  to  consider.  At  length  the  influ- 
ence of  Selden  and  other  friends  delivered  him  from 
further  molestation,  and  he  was  suffered  to  live  in  quiet. 
An  order  was  even  made  in  parliament  for  paying  him 
£400  yearly,  though  it  is  uncertain  how  long  he  received 
it.  In  1647,  he  was  elected  preacher  to  the  Society  of 
Lincoln's-Inn,  which  office  he  discharged  nearly  eight 
years,  being  supplied  by  the  benchers  with  handsome 
furnished  lodgings  and  rooms  for  his  books. 

At  last  his  eyesight  and  teeth  beginning  to  fail  him, 
he  could  not  be  well  heard  in  so  large  a  congregation, 
and  he  was  forced  to  quit  this  place  about  a  year  and  a 
half  before  his  death.     In  the  meanwhile,  amidst  all  the 


USHER.  621 

convulsions  of  the  times,  he  continued  his  studies,  and 
in  the  year  in  which  he  was  chosen  to  Lincoln's-inn,  he 
pubHshed  his  Diatriba  de  Romanse  Ecclesise  Symbolo 
Apostolico  Vetere,  ahisque  Fidei  Formulis  dedicated  to 
Gerard  J.  Vossius  ;  which  he  followed  by  bis  Dissertatio 
de  Macedonum  et  Asianorum  Anno  Solari ;  cum  Grase- 
corum  Astronomorum  Parapegmate,  1648,  8vo.  About 
this  time  he  w^as  called  to  the  Isle  of  Wight  by  Charles  I. 
to  assist  him  in  treating  with  the  parliament  upon  the 
point  of  Episcopacy ;  when  he  proposed  an  expedient, 
which  he  called  Presbyterian  and  Episcopal  Government 
Conjoined,  which  the  king  approved  as  the  likeliest  means 
of  reconciling  both  parties.  But  no  proposals  how 
moderate  soever,  would  satisfy  the  Presbyterians.  His 
majesty  was  at  length  taken  out  of  their  hands  by  the 
army  and  brought  to  the  scaffold,  the  sight  of  which 
struck  the  archbishop  with  the  utmost  horror.  The 
Countess  of  Peterborough's  house,  where  the  primate 
then  lived,  being  exactly  opposite  to  Charing  Cross, 
several  of  the  family,  at  the  time  of  the  king's  execution, 
went  up  to  the  leads,  which  commanded  a  full  view  of 
Whitehall ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  king  came  upon  the 
scaffold,' some  of  them  went  down  and  told  the  primate, 
asking  him  if  he  would  not  see  the  king  once  more 
before  he  was  put  to  death.  Though  unwilling  at  first, 
yet  he  w^as  persuaded  at  length  to  go  up,  as  well  out  of 
a  desire  to  see  the  king  once  again,  as  from  curiosity, 
since  he  could  scarce  believe  what  they  told  him.  When 
he  came  upon  the  leads  his  majesty  was  in  his  speech. 
The  primate  stood  still,  and  said  nothing,  but  sighed  : 
and,  lifting  his  hands  and  eyes  full  of  tears  towards 
heaven,  seemed  to  pray  earnestly.  But  when  the  king 
had  done  speaking,  and  had  taken  off  his  clothes  and 
doublet,  and  stood  stript  in  his  waistcoat,  and  the 
executioners  in  vizards  began  to  put  up  the  king's 
hair,  he  grew  pale,  and  would  have  fainted  if  he  had 
not    been    immediately   supported    and    carried    away. 


622  USHER. 

He  ever  after  observed  the  30th  of  January  as  a  private 
fast. 

In  1650,  he  pubhshed  the  first  part  of  his  Annals 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  second  in  1654.  The 
two  parts  were  printed  together,  under  the  title  of 
Annales  Veteris  et  Novi  Testamenti,  at  Paris,  1673,  and 
at  Geneva,  1722,  folio ;  this  last  edition  is  the  best. 
In  1652,  he  published  his  Epistola  ad  Ludovicum 
Capellum  de  variantibus  Textus  Hebraici  Lectionibus. 

Cromwell,  who  had  now  possessed  himself  of  the 
supreme  power,  showed  his  respect  for  the  character  of 
Usher  by  desiring  a  conference  with  him  on  a  plan  he 
had  formed  for  the  general  interests  of  Protestants,  both 
at  home  and  abroad ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  had 
any  result.  In  1655,  he  preached  Mr.  Selden's  funeral 
sermon  in  the  Temple  Church,  and  published,  De  Graeca 
Septuaginta  Interpretum  verum  Syntagma;  this  was 
reprinted  at  Leipsic  in  1695.  On  the  20th  of  March, 
1656,  he  was  taken  ill,  and  he  died  the  day  following, 
in  the  Countess  of  Peterborough's  house,  at  Ryegate, 
in  Surrey,  in  the  seventy-sixth  year  of  his  age,  and  was 
buried  by  order  of  Cromwell,  in  the  Chapel  of  Erasmus, 
in  Westminster  Abbey.  Besides  the  works  above  men- 
tioned, the  following  were  printed  from  his  papers  after 
his  death: — The  Judgment  of  the  late  Archbishop; 
Chronologia  Sacra ;  the  Judgment  and  Sense  of  the 
present  See  of  Rome ;  A  volume  of  Sermons ;  Historia 
Dogmatica  Controversise  inter  Orthodoxos  et  Pontificios 
de  Scripturis  Sacris  Vernaculis ;  A  collection  of  Three 
Hundred  Letters  written  to  James  Usher,  Lord  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  &c.,  collected  by  Richard  Parr,  D.D., 
his  lordship's  chaplain,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  folio, 
London,  1686, — to  this  collection  Parr  has  prefixed  an 
ample  biographical  memoir  of  the  archbishop.  Usher 
left  his  library,  being  the  chief  part  of  his  property^  as 
a  portion  to  his  daughter  and  only  child.  It  was  first 
bought  by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  Cromwell's  army 


VERGERIO.  623 

in  Ireland,  and  lodged  in  Dublin  Castle,  where  it  lay 
till  the  Restoration,  when  Charles  II.  gave  it,  according 
to  the  primate's  intention,  to  the  University  of  Dublin, 
where  it  now  remains.  The  library  consisted  of  10,000 
volumes,  printed  and  manuscript ;  but  many  of  the  books 
were  stolen.  Both  the  king  of  Denmark  and  Cardinal 
Mazarin  had  offered  large  sums  for  it  by  their  agents 
here ;  but  the  executors  had  been  forbidden,  by  an  order 
from  Cromwell  and  his  council,  to  sell  it  to  any  one 
without  his  consent. — Parr.    Elrington. 


VEKGERIO,  OR  VERGEEIUS,  PETER  PAUL. 

Peter  Paul  Vergerio,  or  Vergerius,  the  son  of 
an  eminent  man  of  the  same  name,  was  born  at  Capo 
d'Istria  at  the  commencement  of  the  16th  century. 
Having  studied  at  Padua,  he  became  eventually  Bishop 
of  Capo  d'Istria.  He  had  been  previously  employed  by 
the  Roman  See,  and  was  zealous  in  promoting  its 
interests.  By  Clement  VII.  he  was  sent  as  nuncio  to 
Ferdinand,  King  of  the  Romans  to  prevent  the  assem- 
bling of  a  general  council.  He  had  an  interview  also 
with  Luther,  of  which  conflicting  accounts  have  been 
given.  Certain  it  is  that  he  remained  opposed  to 
Lutheranism  till  the  time  of  his  consecration  as  Bishop. 
Having  however  fallen  under  suspicion  from  his  liberality 
and  candour,  he  determined  to  vindicate  his  character 
by  writing  a  work  against  the  "  The  German  Apostates." 
But  in  reading  their  publications  he  himself  became  a 
convert  to  their  opinions,  communicated  his  change  of 
sentiments  to  his  brother,  who  was  Bishop  of  Pola,  and 
who,  after  inquiry,  adopted  the  same  opinions ;  and  they 
resolved  to  propagate  them  in  their  respective  dioceses. 
Vergerio,  deeming  himself  in  danger,  retired  to  the 
protection  of  Cardinal  Hercules  Gonzaga  at  Mantua; 
but  he  was  obliged  to  quit  that  asylum ;  and  in  1546, 


624  VINCENTIUS. 

he  presented  himself  before  the  council  at  Trent  for 
his  justification.  He  was  not  allowed  to  enter  upon  it 
there,  but  obtained  a  dispensation  from  going  to  plead 
his  cause  at  Rome,  and  was  referred  to  the  nuncio  and 
patriarch  of  Venice.  The  affair  was  protracted  till  ]548, 
when  he  received  an  order  not  to  return  to  his  church ; 
soon  after  which  he  withdrew  to  the  country  of  the 
Grisons,  where,  and  in  the  Valteline,  he  officiated  some 
years  as  a  minister.  He  at  length  received  an  invitation 
to  Tiibingen  from  the  Duke  of  Wirtemburg,  where  he 
died  in  1565.  Vergerio  wrote  a  number  of  works  against 
Popery,  all  in  the  Italian  language. — Melchior  Adam. 

YILLALPANDA,    JOHN    BAPTIST. 

John  Baptist  Villalpanda  was  born  at  Cordova,  in 
155'2,  became  a  Jesuit,  and  died  at  Rome,  in  1608. 
He  assisted  Jerome  Prado  in  a  commentary  on  Ezekiel. 
He  particularly  distinguished  himself  in  a  dissertation 
upon  the  structure  of  Solomon's  Temple,  in  respect  to 
which,  having  adopted  a  theory  that  it  was  perfect,  as 
the  model  had  been  given  by  God  himself,  he  exhausted 
much  fancy  and  ingenuity  to  describe  an  edifice  which 
should  answer  that  character.  Calmet's  Dictionary  con- 
tains some  account  of  this  curious  inquiry,  as  also  several 
engravings  in  illustration  of  it.  Villalpanda  likewise 
edited  a  theological  tract  by  St.  Remi. — Calmet. 

VINCENTIUS      LIRINENSIS. 

ViNCENTius  LiRiNENsis,  tlic  wcll-known  author  of  the 
Commonitorium  adversus  Hsereticos  was  a  native  of 
Gaul.  The  year  of  his  birth  is  not  known.  Having 
served  first  as  a  soldier,  he  retired  afterwards  to  the 
Monastery  of  Lerius,  in  Provence,  where  he  became  a 
priest.     He  died  about  the  year  440. — Dupin.   Moreri. 


VITRINGA.  625 


VINCENT,    THOMAS. 


Thomas  Vincent  was  born  at  Hertford,  in  1634,  and 
was  educated  at  Westminster  and  Christ  Church.  He 
held,  as  a  dissenter,  the  living  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen, 
Milk-street,  London,  from  which  he  was  ejected  on  the 
Restoration  of  the  Church,  in  16G2.  His  conduct  during 
the  plague  of  London  was  noble  ;  he  threw  himself  into 
the  midst  of  the  plague,  preached,  and  visited  the  sick 
wherever  he  was  sent  for.  This  remarkable  instance  of 
courage  and  humanity  probably  reconciled  many  to  him 
who  disapproved  of  his  nonconformity ;  for  although  he 
preached  afterwards  at  a  dissenting  meeting  at  Hoxton, 
and  was  the  founder  of  another  at  Hand-Alley,  Bishops- 
gate-street,  we  do  not  find  that  he  was  molested.  He 
died  in  1678,  in  the  forty- fourth  year  of  his  age.  He 
was  the  author  of  several  pious  tracts,  which  went  through 
many  editions  in  his  lifetime,  and  afterwards ;  and  he 
had  some  controversy  with  William  Penn  the  Quaker,  and 
with  Dr.  William  Sherlock.  The  most  popular  of  his 
tracts  were  his  Explanation  of  the  Assemblies'  Catechism ; 
and,  God's  terrible  Voice  to  the  City  by  Plague  and 
Fire;  this  was  first  printed  in  1667,  12mo,  and  went 
through  thirteen  editions  before  1671.  He  published  a 
work  of  the  same  kind,  occasioned  by  an  eruption  of 
Mount  Etna,  entitled  Fire  and  Brimstone,  &c.  1670,  8vo. 
Calamy. 

VITEINGA,    CAMPEGIUS. 

Campegius  Vitringa  was  born  at  Laenwarden,  in  Fries- 
land  in  1659,  and  graduated  in  divinity  at  Leyden, 
in  1679. 

He  died  at  Francker,  in  1722,  at  which  place  he  had 
honourably  discharged  the  duty  of  professor  in  various 
faculties  for  several  years.    His  works  are : — Commentary 

VOL.  VIII.  3    H 


626  VORSTIUS. 

on  Isaiah,  2  vols.  fol.  in  Latin  ;  Apocalypseos  Anachrisis, 
1719,  4to;  Tjpus  Theologiae  Practicae,  8vo ;  Hypotvposis 
HistorisD  et  Chronologiae  Sacra3,  8vo ;  Synagoga  Vetus, 
4to;  Archisynagogues,  4to  ;  De  Decemviris  Otiosis  Syna- 
gogae,  4to ;  Observationes  Sacrse,  4to ;  Doctrina  Religio- 
nis  Christianas  per  Aphorismos  Descripta ;  Verklaring 
over  de  Evangelische  Parabolen ;  and,  Aenleiding  tot 
het  rechte  Verstand  van  den  Tempel  Ezechielis. — Niceron. 
Saxii  Onom. 

VOET,    GISBERT. 

GiSBEKT  VoET  was  bom  at  Hensde,  in  15S9.  In  1634, 
he  became  professor  of  theology  at  Utrecht.  He  was  a 
vehement  Calvinist.  He  died  in  J  667.  Contemporary 
with  Yoet  was  Descartes ;  and  in  Voet  the  philosophy 
of  Descartes  found  a  sturdy  opponent.  He  charged  its 
supporters  with  an  atheistical  tendency.  The  theo- 
logical system  of  Cocceius  being  held  by  the  same  per- 
sons who  were  votaries  of  the  Cartesian  philosophy, 
though  not  at  all  connected  with  it,  the  sect  of  CxDcceians 
was  considered  as  opposite  to  that  of  the  Voetians ;  and 
those  designations  were  applied  to  two  parties  in  the 
schools  of  Holland,  which  were  long  engaged  in  violent 
contests.  Voet  continued  in  the  exercise  of  his  functions 
at  Utrecht  till  his  death  in  1677,  at  the  age  of  88.  Be- 
sides his  writings  against  Descartes,  he  was  the  author 
of  various  theological  works ;  among  these  are,  Selecta 
Disputationes  Theologicse,  5  vols.  4to ;  and  Politica 
Ecclesiastica,  4  vols.  4to,  Amsterdam,  1663-1676. — His 
son  Paul,  born  in  161 9,  was  professor  of  law  at  Utrecht, 
and  published  various  works  on  juridicial  topics.— 
Mosheim.    Biog.  Univ. 

VOESTIUS,    CONRAD. 

Conrad  Vorstius  (Von  Dem  Vorst)  was  born  in  1569, 


VORSTTUS.  627^ 

at  Cologne  ;  his  father  was  a  dyer,  and  with  his  wife  had 
been  converted  to  Protestantism.  Conrad  was  educated 
at  Dusseldorf.  In  1587,  he  entered  the  College  of  St. 
Lawrence,  at  Cologne,  where  he  did  not  graduate  being 
unable  to  subscribe  to  the  articles  of  the  Council  of 
Trent.  He  was  then  for  a  season  engaged  in  secular 
employments,  but  in  1589  resumed  his  studies  at 
Herbon.  He  received  a  D.D.  degree  at  Heidelberg, 
whither  he  had  gone  with  some  pupils  in  1593.  He 
then  visited  the  universities  of  Switzerland  and  Geneva. 
At  the  latter  place,  he  gave  lectures  under  the  patronage 
of  Beza,  but  declined  the  offer  of  a  professional  chair 
on  account  of  a  similar  offer  which  he  accepted  at 
Steinfurt. 

It  appears  that  some  suspicions  had  been  raised  con- 
cerning his  orthodoxy,  in  consequence  of  which  he 
repaired  to  Heidelberg,  where  he  had  taken  his  degree, 
and  obtained  a  certificate  of  his  soundness  in  the  faith, 
after  he  had  made  a  protestation  against  the  opinions 
of  Socinus,  and  apologized  for  some  incautious  expres- 
sions,   he    had    used,    which   seemed   to   favour   them. 

He  remained  at  Steinfurt,  where  he  also  officiated 
as  minister  till  1610,  when  he  received  a  call  to 
succeed  Arminius  in  the  professorship  of  theology  at 
Leyden.  This,  after  considerable  hesitation,  he  accepted, 
and  was  thereby  at  once  involved  in  the  controversial 
war  then  raging  in  the  United  Provinces.  Although  he 
had  brought  with  him  the  fullest  attestations  to  his 
orthodoxy,  as  well  as  to  his  morals,  the  Gomarists  or 
rigorous  Calvinists,  could  not  bear  to  see  a  man  of  senti- 
ments different  from  their  own  in  possession  of  a  chair 
in  so  distinguished  a  seminary;  and  taking  advantage 
of  a  book  which  Vorstius  had  lately  published  at  Stein- 
furt, entitled  "  Tractatus  theologicus  de  Deo,  sive  de 
Natura  et  Attributis  Dei,"  they  accused  him  of  a  number 
of  heresies,  and  engaged  several  foreign  universities  in 
their  party.      In   particular,    they  obtained   the  aid  of 


esr  voRSTius. 

King  James  I.,  whose  supreme  gratification  was  to 
exercise  his  dictatorial  authority  in  reHgious  controversy. 
The  king  was  hunting  when  Vorstius's  book  was  brought 
to  him,  which  he  perused  with  so  much  dihgence,  that 
in  an  hour  s  time  he  drew  up  a  catalogue  of  heresies 
from  it,  which  he  sent  to  his  resident  at  the  Hague,  with 
orders  to  notify  to  the  States  how  much  he  detested  these 
errors,  and  those  who  should  tolerate  them.  He  also 
caused  the  received  mode  of  condemning  a  book,  by 
committing  it  to  the  flames,  to  be  practised  on  several 
copies  of  Vorstius,  at  London,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge. 
The  States  having  replied  to  the  English  resident,  that 
if  Vorstius  was  found  guilty  of  the  errors  imputed  to 
him,  they  would  not  retain  him,  his  majesty's  zeal  was 
by  no  means  satisfied ;  and  he  wrote  in  person  to  the 
States,  vehemently  urging  them  to  dismiss  the  Professor, 
even  were  he  to  equivocate  about  his  blasphemies ;  for 
were  he  to  maintain  them,  there  could  be  no  doubt  that 
he  would  deserve  to  be  burnt.  He  added,  "  that  if  they 
did  not  proceed  with  ardour  to  extirpate  these  germs  of 
Atheism,  he  would  publicly  separate  from  such  false  and 
heretical  Churches,  and  in  quality  of  Defender  of  the 
Faith,  would  exhort  all  the  other  reformed  Churches  to 
take  common  council  for  extinguishing  and  sending  back 
to  hell  these  abominable  heresies  ;  and  would  forbid  all 
his  own  subjects  to  haunt  so  infected  a  spot  as  the 
University  of  Leyden."  Such  was  the  despotic  violence 
of  this  pacific  monarch,  when  he  had  only  men  of  the 
robe  and  gown  to  contend  with !  James,  moreover  em- 
ploj^ed  his  controversial  pen  against  Vorstius,  who  wrote 
a  short  and  respectful  reply  to  his  royal  adversary. 

The  States  appear  not  to  have  been  much  moved  by 
these  menaces  ;  for,  although  they  suspended  the  Pro- 
fessor from  the  exercise  of  his  charge  till  he  should  have 
justified  himself  from  the  accusations  against  him,  yet 
after  a  conference  held  at  the  Hague  in  April,  1611, 
between  six  ministers  of  each  of  the  opposite  parties,  in 


VORSTIUS.  629} 

presence  of  the  curators  of  the  University  of  Leyden,  at 
which  Vorstius  pleaded  his  own  cause,  the  States  de- 
termined, that  nothing  appeared  to  prevent  the  vocation 
which  had  been  addressed  to  him  from  having  its  full 
effect.  He  was  thus  about  to  triumph,  when  an  un- 
fortunate circumstance  raised  a  storm  against  him  which 
he  could  not  resist.  Some  of  his  disciples  printed  a 
small  tract  "  De  Officio  Christiani  Hominis,"  which 
contained  several  Anti-trinitarian  doctrines.  A  great 
clamour  was  raised  against  it ;  and  in  order  to  implicate 
Vorstius  himself,  his  works  were  minutely  examined,  to 
find  matter  of  charge  of  a  similar  kind  against  him. 
He  was  called  upon  publicly  to  explain  himself  on  these 
topics  ;  and  although  he  signed  a  profession  of  faith 
conformably  to  the  Trinitarian  system,  such  a  load  of 
suspicion  and  odium  rested  upon  him,  that  he  found  it 
expedient  provisionally  to  renounce  his  professorship, 
and  withdraw  from  Leydeh  till  a  definitive  judgment 
should  be  given  on  his  case.  In  1612,  he  retired  to 
Tergou,  where  he  passed  more  than  seven  years  in 
retreat,  comporting  himself  in  an  irreproachable  manner. 
The  Synod  of  Dort  was  at  length  held  in  1619,  in  which 
the  party  opposed  to  the  Arminians  bore  sway.  That 
assembly  thought  fit,  without  hearing  Vorstius,  to  de- 
clare him  unworthy  of  the  professorship,  in  consequence 
of  which  he  was  deprived  of  it  by  the  States  of  Holland, 
and  for  ever  banished  from  their  territories.  For  two 
years  more  he  lived  in  secrecy  frequently  changing  his 
abode.  At  length  the  Duke  of  Holstein  having  collected 
the  dispersed  relics  of  the  Arminians,  and  assigned  them 
a  place  for  a  town,  Vorstius  repaired  thither  in  1622; 
but  being  soon  taken  ill,  he  died  at  Tonningen  in  the 
month  of  September,  at  the  age  of  53.  His  body  was 
conveyed  to  Friedrichstadt,  the  new  Arminian  settlement, 
where  he  was  interred  with  great  solemnity.  Besides 
the  work  above  mentioned,  he  w^as  the  author  of  a 
3  H  3 


630  WAKE. 

number  of  theological  writings,  chiefly  in  controversy 
both  with  the  Roman  Catholics  and  his  Protestant 
antagonists.  —Bayle.    Aikin. 


WAKE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Wake  was  born  at  Blandford,  in  Dorsetshire, 
in  1657.  Through  the  patronage  of  Bishop  Fell,  he 
obtained  a  studentship,  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  where 
he  matriculated  in  1672.  At  the  proper  age  he  was 
ordained,  and  in  1682,  accompanied  Viscount  Preston 
who  was  appointed  envoy  extraordinary  to  the  court  of 
France,  as  his  lordship's  chaplain.  He  was  not  idle  in 
the  French  metropolis,  but  was  employed  by  Bishop 
Fell  to  procure  the  collection  of  some  valuable  Greek 
manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament  at  Paris,  for  the  use 
of  Dr.  Mill,  whose  edition  was  patronized  by  that  muni- 
ficent prelate.  On  his  return  to  England,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  James  XL's  reign,  he  was  appointed  preacher  of 
Gray's  Inn. 

During  his  residence  in  France,  a  copy  of  The  Exposi- 
tion of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church  by  Bossuet, 
the  celebrated  Bishop  of  Meaux,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Wake,  and  furnished  him  with  a  remarkable  oppor- 
tunity of  discovering  the  dangerous  craft  made  use  of  by 
that  prelate  to  disguise  and  palliate  some  of  the  Romish 
doctrine.  He  was  induced  to  publish  what  he  called  byway 
of  contrast  to  the  work  of  the  French  prelate,  an  Exposi- 
tion of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England.  To  this 
he  prefixed  a  particular  account  of  the  Copy  of  Bossuet's 
Exposition  just  mentioned.  He  states  that  it  was  de- 
signed to  satisfy  or  seduce  the  great  Turenne  who  was 
educated  a  Protestant.  Wake  presumes  that  Turenne 
could  not  have  been  convinced  by  the  work  in  question, 
and  supposes  that  Bossuet  supplied  either  by  personal 


WAKE.  631 

conferences  with  him,  or  by  some  other  papers  to  us 
unknown,  what  was  wanting  to  the  first  draught  which 
he  had  seen  of  this.  For  he  observes,  that  the  manu- 
script copy  which  then  appeared,  and  for  about  four 
years  together  passed  up  and  down  through  private 
hands  with  great  applause,  wanted  all  those  chapters  of 
the  Eucharist,  Tradition,  the  Authority  of  the  Church 
and  Pope,  which  now  make  up  the  most  considerable 
part  of  it;  and  in  the  other  points  which  it  handled, 
seemed  loosely  and  favourably  to  propose  the  opinions  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  that  not  only  many  undesigning 
persons  of  that  communion  were  offended  at  it,  but 
the  Protestants,  who  saw  it,  generally  believed,  that 
Bossuet  dared  not  publicly  to  own,  what  in  his  Exposition, 
&c.  he  privately  pretended  to  be  their  doctrine  ;  and  the 
event  shewed  that  they  were  not  altogether  mistaken  : 
For,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1671,  the  Exposi- 
tion being,  with  great  care,  and  after  the  consideration 
of  many  years,  reduced  into  the  form  in  which  we  novf 
see  it,  and  to  secure  all,  fortified  with  the  approbation  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  and  nine  other  bishops,  who 
profess,  that  having  examined  it  with  all  the  care  which 
the  importance  of  the  matter  required,  they  found  it 
conformable  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  and  as  such 
recommended  it  to  the  people  which  God  had  committed 
to  their  conduct,  it  was  sent  to  the  press  :  the  impres- 
sion being  finished  and  just  ready  to  come  abroad,  the 
author,  who  desired  to  appear  with  all  the  advantage 
to  himself  and  his  cause  that  was  possible,  sent  it  to 
some  of  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  for  their  appro- 
bation, to  be  joined  to  that  of  the  bishops,  that  so  no 
authority,  either  ordinary  or  extraordinary,  might  be 
wanting  to  assert  the  doctrine  contained  in  it  to  be  so 
far  from  the  suspicion  conceived  of  it  by  the  Protestants, 
that  it  was  truly,  and  without  disguise.  Catholic,  Apostolic, 
Pioman.  But  to  the  great  surprise  of  Bossuet,  and  those 
who  had  cried  up  his  treatise  before,  the  doctors  of  the 


632  WAKE. 

Sorbonne,  to  whom  it  was  communicated,  instead  of  the 
approbation  tliat  was  expected,  confirmed  what  the  Pro- 
testants had  said  of  it,  and,  as  became  their  faculty, 
marked  several  of  the  most  considerable  parts  of  it, 
wherein  the  Exposition,  by  the  too  great  desire  of  pal- 
liating, had  absolutely  perverted  the  doctrine  of  the 
Church.  Mr.  Wake  continues  to  observe,  that  to  prevent 
the  open  scandal  which  such  a  censure  might  have 
caused,  the  whole  edition,  with  great  industry  and  all  the 
secrecy  possible,  was  suppressed,  the  several  places  which 
the  Doctors  had  marked  changed,  and  the  copy  so 
speedily  sent  to  the  press  again,  that  in  the  end  of  the 
same  year  another,  much  altered,  was  publicly  exposed, 
as  the  first  impression  that  had  at  all  been  made  of  it. 
Yet  thii  could  not  be  so  privately  carried  on,  but  that  it 
soon  came  to  a  public  knowledge,  insomuch  that  some  of 
the  first  answers  that  were  made  to  it  charged  Bossuet 
with  this  change.  '*  I  don't  hear,"  proceeds  Mr.  Wake, 
'•  that  he  has  ever  yet  thought  fit  to  deny  the  relation, 
either  in  the  advertisement  prefixed  to  the  later  edition 
of  his  book,  wherein  he  replies  to  some  other  passages 
of  the  same  treatise,  or  in  any  other  vindication.  Whe- 
ther it  be  that  such  an  imputation  was  not  considerable 
enough  to  be  taken  notice  of,  or  that  it  was  too  true  to  be 
denied,  let  the  reader  judge.  But  certainly  it  appears 
to  us  not  only  to  give  a  clear  account  of  the  design  and 
genius  of  the  whole  book,  but  to  be  a  plain  demonstration, 
how  improbable  soever  Bossuet  would  represent  it,  that  it 
is  not  impossible  for  a  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
either  not  to  be  sufficiently  instructed  in  his  religion  to 
know  what  is  the  doctrine  of  it,  or  not  sufficiently  sincere, 
to  represent  it  without  disguise.  And  since  a  copy  of  that 
very  book  so  marked,  as  has  been  said,  by  the  doctors  of 
the  Sorbonne,  is  fallen  into  my  hands,  I  shall  gratify 
the  reader's  curiosity  with  a  particular  view  of  the  changes 
that  have  been  made,  that  so  he  may  judge  whether  of 
the  two  was  the  cause  of  those  great  advances  which  the 


WAKE.  633^ 

author  in   that  first   edition  had   thought  fit  to  make 
towards  us." 

This  \York,  which  is  generally  called,  Wake's  Catechism, 
was  answered  in  A  Vindication  of  the  Bishop  of  Condom's 
Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in 
answer  to  a  book  entitled,  An  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Church  of  England,  &c.  with  a  Letter  from  the 
said  Bishop,  1686,  4to ;  to  this  Wake  replied  in  a  book 
entitled,  A  Defence  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Church  of  England  against  the  Exceptions  of  Mon- 
sieur de  Meaux,  late  Bishop  of  Condom,  and  his  Vin- 
dicator, London,  1686,  4to.  This  occasioned,  A  Reply 
to  the  Defence  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Church  of  England ;  being  a  farther  vindication  of  the 
Bishop  of  Condom's  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Catholic  Church  :  with  a  second  Letter  from  the  Bishop 
of  Meaux,  1687,  4to.  In  answer  to  which  Wake  pub- 
lished, A  second  Defence  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Doc- 
trine of  the  Church  of  England,  against  the  new  Excep- 
tions of  Monsieur  de  Meaux  and  his  Vindicator,  London, 
1688,  4to.  Wake  afterwards  wrote  several  tracts  in  the 
controversy  against  Popery,  which  was  carried  on  with 
great  zeal  during  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  James 
II.  (1687  and  1688.)  As  he  was  a  favourer  of  the 
Revolution,  he  was,  after  that  event,  appointed  deputy 
clerk  of  the  closet  to  WilHam  III.  In  July,  1689, 
according  to  Wood,  he  accumulated  his  degrees  in  divinity 
at  Oxford  ;  but  another  account  says  that  he  was  created 
D.D.,  having  been  the  preceding  month  preferred  to  a 
canonry  of  Christ  Church,  in  the  room  of  Dr.  Aldrich, 
appointed  dean.  With  a  view  to  contribute  to  a  defence 
of  the  doctrine  and  government  of  the  Church  of  England 
against  the  adversaries  of  its  hierarchy,  he  published  in 
1693,  An  English  version  of  the  genuine  Epistles  of  the 
Apostolical  Fathers,  with  a  preliminary  discourse  con- 
cerning the  use  of  those  Fathers.  Of  this  work  he 
published  a  new  edition  in  1710  ;  and  it  was  afterwards 


634  WAKE. 

twice  reprinted  during  his  life-time.  In  July,  169^, 
he  was  preferred  to  the  Rectory  of  St.  James's,  West- 
minster. He  took  a  very  active  part  in  the  memorable 
controversy  with  regard  to  the  Convocation  ;  and  in  1697, 
in  answer  to  A  Letter  to  a  Convocation  Man,  concerning 
the  Rights,  Powers,  and  Privileges,  of  that  Body,  he 
published  a  ref)ly,  entitled,  The  Authority  of  Christian 
Princes  over  their  Ecclesiastical  Synods  asserted,  with 
particular  respect  to  the  Convocations  of  the  Clergy  of 
the  Realm  and  Church  of  England,  Hvo. 

In  this  book  he  undertakes  to  prove,  that  under 
the  government  of  a  Christian  Prince,  the  Church* 
has  no  other  right  to  assemble  in  synods,  but  what  it 
receives  from  the  grant  or  express  consent  of  such  a 
Prince,  and  consequently  no  person  can  be  deputed 
to  call  a  synod  without  his  particular  leave ;  and 
when  the  synod  is  assembled,  they  have  no  right  to 
sit,  debate,  dispute,  or  determine  upon  any  point  of 
doctrine  or  discipline,  any  farther  than  is  allowed  by 
the  Prince,  who  may  ratify,  annul,  or  alter  their  pro- 
ceedings as  he  thinks  proper,  and  suspend  the  execu- 
tion of  all  or  any  of  their  constitutions  and  decrees. 
In  short,  that  the  authority  of  their  acts  depends  entirely 
and  solely  upon  him ;  and  that  no  synod  can  dissolve 
themselves  without  his  permission.  The  piece  being 
somewhat  imperfect,  and  some  mistakes  slipt  into  it 
through  haste,  did  not  escape  the  animadversions  of  his 
antagonists :  whereupon  Dr.  Kennet,  who  engaged  after- 
wards on  the  same  side  with  Wake,  published  an 
apology  for  him  on  these  terms,  observing,  that  his 
attempt  upon  this  subject  was  the  more  difficult,  because 
no  writer  before  him  had  professedly  treated  of  these 
matters.  And  truly,  continues  Kennet,  since  our  Church 
was  reformed,  no  occasion  had  been  given,  no  disputing 
among  Churchmen  with  the  King's  Supremacy  as  by  law 
established,  from  25  Henry  VIII.  to  the  9  William  III. 
For  this  reason  the    doctor  had   a  better  title  to  civil 


WAKE.  635 

usage,  because  he  was  the  first  adventurer,  and  made 
discoveries  of  a  world  unknown,  as  it  were  before.  That 
he  had  a  further  right  to  some  allowance,  in  that  he 
owned  himself  in  haste,  and  spoke  modestly  of  what  he 
had  done.  He  offers  it  "  as  a  rude  hasty  performance  at 
most  but  an  imperfect  essay,  and  the  first  lines  of  a 
draught,  shews  rather  what  he  designed,  than  what  he 
was  able  in  any  tolerable  manner  to  finish;"  with  many 
other  acknowledgments  ingenuous  and  free ;  not  insult- 
ing his  adversary,  nor  catching  at  a  word  for  triumph, 
but  with  a  good  easy  air  approving  himself  a  writer  of 
some  breeding  and  some  conscience,  for  an  example  to 
his  answerers  and  accusers. 

Wake  vindicated  himself  in  An  Appeal  to  all  the  true 
members  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  behalf  of  the 
King's  Ecclesiastical  Supremacy,  as  it  was  by  law  estab- 
lished ;  by  our  convocations  approved  ;  and  by  our  most 
eminent  bishops  and  clergymen  stated  and  defended, 
against  both  the  Popish  and  fanatical  opposers  of  it, 
1698,  8vo.  In  1700,  Atterbury  entered  into  this  dispute 
with  great  vigour  and  resolution,  and  published  an 
answer  to  Dr.  Wake's  book,  entitled,  the  Rights,  Powers, 
and  Privileges,  of  an  English  Convocation,  stated  and 
defended,  8vo  ;  printed  in  1701,  with  additions.  The 
controversy  now  grew  warm,  and  several  writers  of  con- 
siderable note  engaged  in  it.  (See  for  a  detailed  account 
of  this  controversy.  The  Life  of  Atterbury.)  Burnet, 
Bishop  of  Salisbury,  and  Kennet,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Peterborough,  wrote  animadversions  upon  Atterbury 's 
work.  Hody,  Gibson,  and  Hooper,  were  concerned  in  it : 
Hooper  was  on  the  side  of  Atterbury ;  Hody  and  Gibson 
were  against  him.  But  the  most  considerable  and  deci- 
sive answer  to  Atterbury  was  Dr.  Wake  s  w^ork,  entitled 
The  State  of  the  Church  and  Clergy  in  England,  in 
their  Councils,  Synods,  Convocation,  Conventions,  and 
other  Public  Assembhes,  historically  deduced  from  the 
Conversion  of  the  Saxons  to  the   present  times,   1703, 


636  WAKE. 

folio.  This  work  was  esteemed  not  only  a  full  and 
sufficient  answer  to  Atterbury,  (who  never  attempted  to 
reply  to  it,)  but  decisive  with  regard  to  the  controversy 
in  general.  In  1701,  Dr.  Wake  was  installed  Dean  of 
Exeter,  whence,  in  1705,  he  was  promoted  to  the 
Bishopric  of  Lincoln.  In  January,  1716,  on  the  death 
of  Archbishop  Tenison,  he  was  translated  to  the  See  of 
Canterbury;  and  as  he  had  lived  to  see  the  folly  of  giving 
way  to  the  enemies  of  the  hierarchy  by  way  of  recon- 
ciling them  to  it,  he  both  voted  and  spoke  in  the  house 
of  lords  against  the  repeal  of  the  Schism  and  Conformity 
Bill  in  1718.  From  the  same  experience  he  was  led  to 
oppose  the  design  entered  into  by  some  very  powerful 
persons,  in  the  year  following,  to  repeal  the  Corporation 
and  Test  Acts.  It  was  well  known  that  Hoadley  was  at 
the  bottom  of  this  design,  and  that  his  famous  Sermon 
on  The  Nature  of  Christ's  Kingdom  was  a  preparatory 
step  to  it.  The  archbishop  therefore  thought  it  proper 
to  declare  his  dislike  of  the  measure,  as  Hoadley  had 
proposed  it,  in  an  indirect  way,  and  wrote  a  Latin  letter 
addressed  to  the  superintendent  of  Zurich,  which  was 
published  there  under  the  title  of  Oratio  Historica  de 
Beneficiis  in  Ecclesiam  Tigurinum  collatis.  In  1721, 
the  archbishop  joined  the  Earl  of  Nottingham  in  bring- 
ing a  bill  into  parliament,  levelled  at  the  Arian  heresy, 
and  entitled,  A  Bill  for  the  more  effectual  Suppression 
of  Blasphemy  and  Profaneness;  which,  however,  was 
rejected  in  the  house  of  lords,  and  brought  on  him  the 
charge  of  inconsistency,  because  in  the  cases  of  Whiston 
and  Clarke,  in  1711  and  1712,  he  had  spoken  with 
moderation  of  their  Arianism.  Whiston  wrote  a  very 
angry  letter  to  the  archbishop  on  this  occasion,  which  is 
printed  in  his  Life. 

While  the  archbishop  was  thus  labouring  to  preserve 
the  purity  and  dignity  of  the  Church  at  home,  we  find 
him  exerting  his  wisdom  to  remove  the  errors  and  pre- 
judices concerning  its  doctrine  and  government  among 


WAKE.  637 

the  nations  abroad;  and  foreigners  had  a  share  in  his 
universal  catholic  affection.  Some  mutual  civilities 
having  passed  in  1717,  between  his  grace  and  Lewis 
Ellis  Dupin,  Doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  at  Paris,  as  men  of 
letters,  by  the  means  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Beau  voir,  then 
chaplain  to  Lord  Stair,  the  English  ambassador  at  that 
court ;  Dupin  wrote  to  the  archbishop  a  Latin  letter  in 
January,  1717 — 18,  wherein  having  congratulated  the 
Church  of  England  on  the  enjoyment  of  so  eminent  a 
prelate  for  its  Metropolitan,  he  took  occasion  to  express 
his  desire  of  an  union  between  the  two  churches  of 
England  and  France,  and  of  entering  into  a  correspon- 
dence with  his  grace  for  that  purpose.  The  archbishop, 
in  return,  thanking  him  for  his  civilities,  observed  that 
it  was  full  time  both  for  himself  and  the  rest  of  his 
brethren  of  the  Sorbonne  to  declare  openly  their  true 
sentiments  of  the  superstition  and  ambition  of  the  court 
of  Rome  :  that  it  was  the  interest  of  all  Christians  to 
unmask  that  court,  and  thereby  reduce  it  to  those 
primitive  limits  and  honours  which  it  enjoyed  in  the 
first  ages  of  the  Church.  In  the  course  of  this  corres- 
pondence, the  archbishop  explained  the  Belief,  Tenets, 
and  Doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  manner  of 
its  beginning  to  reform  and  shake  off  all  foreign  power 
and  superstition  both  in  Church  and  State,  and  its 
acknowledgment  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only 
Founder,  Source,  and  Head  of  the  Church.  His  Grace 
insisted  constantly  on  this  Article  in  the  letters  he  wrote 
not  only  to  Dr.  Dupin,  but  Quinault  and  Piers  de 
Girardin,  both  doctors  also  of  the  Sorbonne ;  and  he  always 
maintained  the  justice  and  orthodoxy  of  every  individual 
Article  of  the  Church  of  England,  without  making 
the  least  concession  towards  approving  the  ambitious 
pretensions  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  if  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  readily 
concurred  in  a  scheme  which  some  of  the  principal  of 
them  singly  wished  for.    Dr.  Patritius  Piers  de  Girardin, 

VOL    VIII.  3   I 


638  WAKE. 

in  an  oration  spoken  in  an  extraordinary  Assembly  of  the 
Sorbonne,  March  17,  1718,  N.S.,  openly  proposed  it;  and 
before  the  July  following,  Dr.  Dupin  drew  up  an  Essay 
towards  an  Union,  which  was  to  receive  the  approbation 
of  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  and  then  to  be  transmitted  to 
his  grace.  This  piece,  which  was  called,  A  Commoni- 
torium,  was  read  by,  and  had  the  approbation  of,  the 
Sorbonne,  and  in  it  was  ceded  the  administration  of  the 
Eucharist  in  both  kinds,  the  performing  of  divine  service 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  the  marriage  of  the  Protestant 
Clergy ;  and  the  invocation  of  Saints  was  given  up  as 
unnecessary.  The  project  engrossed  the  whole  con- 
versation of  the  city  of  Paris.  Lord  Stanhope,  who 
about  that  time  went  thither  upon  some  extraordinary 
emergency,  and  Lord  Stair,  the  ambassador,  were  con- 
gratulated thereupon  by  some  great  personages  in  the 
royal  palace.  The  Piegent  himself  (Duke  of  Orleans) 
and  Abbot  du  Bois,  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  as  also 
M.  Jely  de  Fleury,  attorney-general,  gave  the  line  at 
first,  and  let  things  run  on  to  certain  lengths.  But  the 
Jesuits  and  Constitutioners  rung  the  alarum-bell,  and 
overturned  the  whole  scheme,  by  spreading  a  report  that 
Cardinal  Noailles  and  his  friends  the  Jansenists  were 
upon  the  point  of  making  a  coalition  with  the  Heretics. 
Hereupon  Dr.  Piers  de  Girardin  was  sent  for  to  court, 
and  severely  reprimanded  by  Abbot  Du  Bois,  and  strictly 
charged,  upon  pain  of  being  sent  to  the  Bastille,  to  give 
up  all  the  letters  he  had  received  from  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  as  also  a  copy  of  all  his  own.  The 
doctor  was  forced  to  obey ;  and  all  the  letters  were  im- 
mediately sent  to  Rome,  as  so  many  trophies  gained  from 
the  enemies  of  the  Church.  Abbot  du  Bois  was  then  in 
pursuit  of  a  cardinal's  cap,  which  met  with  some  stop  at 
Rome  :  his  discovery  of  what  was  in  agitation  in  France, 
and  in  concert  with  whom,  is  supposed  to  have  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  removing  all  difficulties,  and  to 
procuring  that  dignity,  which  he  soon   after  obtained. 


WAKE.  639 

Thus  ended  this  noble  project !  His  grace  was  perfectly 
sensible  that  nothing  could  be  done  in  it  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  state,  however  well  disposed  the 
principal  men  of  that  Church  might  be  towards  it. 
Nevertheless  the  change  of  affairs  contributed  to  the 
reputation  of  the  archbishop,  his  letters  being  admired 
even  by  the  then  Pope  Clement  XI.  who  declared  it  was 
a  pity  the  author  of  such  profound  letters  was  not  a 
member  of  their  Church.  And  notwithstanding  this 
affair  met  with  so  unhappy  a  fate,  yet  several  learned 
Divines  of  the  Gallican  Church  became  thereby  very 
sensible  of  his  grace's  catholic  benevolence  and  abilities. 
It  was  from  a  conviction  of  these  that  Peter  Francis 
Courayer,  canon  regular  and  principal  librarian  of  the 
Cathedral  Church  of  St.  Genevieve  at  Paris,  applied 
not  long  after  to  his  grace  for  his  assistance  to  clear 
up  some  difficulties  in  the  accounts  he  had  met  with  of 
the  English  Ordinations.  The  archbishop  gladly  com- 
plied with  this  request,  and  spared  no  pains  to  give  his 
correspondent  full  satisfaction  on  that  point.  And  as 
Father  Courayer  had  also  desired  some  information 
concerning  other  branches  of  the  constitution  of  the 
English  Church,  the  archbishoj)  sent  him  also  a  particular 
account  of  each.  The  correspondence  began  in  1721, 
and  continued  till  1727;  during  the  course  of  which 
that  learned  Parisian  divine  received  from  his  grace 
such  indisputable  proofs  of  the  validity  of  our  ordinations, 
as  fully  convinced  him :  whereupon  he  v,-as  not  afraid  to 
declare  his  sentiments  to  the  public.  But  at  length  he 
found  it  necessary  to  provide  for  his  safety  by  flying 
under  the  shelter  of  the  archbishop's  wing.  His  grace 
sat  in  the  Metropolitan  Chair  several  years  after 
this ;  but  towards  the  close  of  his  life,  he  grew  so 
much  disabled,  by  age,  and  infirmities,  that  some 
part  of  the  care  of  the  Church  was  transferred  to  Dr. 
Edmund  Gibson,  Bishop  of  London,  who  in  consequence 
thereof,  had   the   recommendation  to   all   ecclesiastical 


640  WALAFRIDUS* 

preferments  at  court.  The  archbishop  having  reached, 
in  this  feeble  state  of  body  and  mind,  the  verge  of 
fourscore  years,  sunk  into  the  arms  of  death  at  his 
palace  of  Lambeth,  January  24,  1736 — 37,  and  was 
interred  in  a  private   manner  at  Croydon. 

Archbishop  Wake  was  a  very  munificent  prelate ;  he 
left  MSS.  to  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  which  were  valued 
at  £10,000.  Three  volumes  of  his  Charges  and  Sermons 
were  published  after  his  death. — Biog.  Brit.  Wood. 
Athen.  Ox. 

WALAFRIDUS,    STRABO. 

Strabo  Walafridus  was  a  native  of  Suabia,  and  flourished 
in  the  early  part  of  the  ninth  century.  He  studied  under 
Eabanus  Maurus,  in  the  Monastery  of  Fulda,  having 
received  his  primary  education  in  that  of  St.  Gallen,  of 
which  he  became  afterwards  dean.  In  842,  he  was 
chosen  Abbot  of  Keichexau.  He  died  in  849.  He 
"wrote 

On  Divine  Offices  : — explaining  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Church,  their  origin  and  increase.  Among  other  things 
he  says  that,  at  first  people  were  assembled  in  Church 
without  any  express  summons,  then  horns  were  used, 
and  last  of  all  bells,  the  large  ones  called  Campanse,  and 
the  smaller  Noise,  from  the  town  Nola,  where  they  were 
first  used. — The  whole  work  is  one  of  very  considerable 
importance  and  utility.  It  was  edited  by  Cochlseus,  and 
printed  at  Rome,  1590. 

Lives — of  St.  Gallus,  in  two  books ;  and  of  St. 
Othmar  :  both  to  be  found  ap.  Surium. 

On  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  : — being  a  kind  of 
Historical  Sermon  on  the  19th  chapter  of  St.  Luke. — 
Canis.  vol.  ii.  pt.  ii.  p.  277. 

Poems  : — containing  the  Lives  of  some  Saints  ;  Verses 
on  the  Festivals  ;  verses  on  and  to  various-  Individuals, 
and  many  Miscellaneous  Poems  in  several  measures. 


WALKER.  641 

The  Garden  : — A  Poem  in  which  he  describes  uncon- 
nectedly,  the  fruits  and  productions  of  a  Garden. — These 
Poems  are  in  Canis.  vol.  ii.  pt.  ii.  p.  1 84  ;  and  while  they 
prove  him  to  have  largely  partaken  of  the  love  of  the 
times,  for  the  marvellous,  they  evince  no  small  skill  as  a 
Poet,  much  being  harmonious  in  sound  and  elegant  in 
true  description. — Cave.    Clarke. 


WAIJ)ENSIS, 

The  historical  name  of  Thomas  Netter,  taken  from 
Walden,  the  place  of  his  birth  in  1367.  Receiving  his 
early  education  among  the  Carmelites,  he  completed  his 
studies  at  Oxford.  Having  taken  his  Doctor's  Degree 
and  having  assumed  the  habit  of  a  Carmelite,  he  repre- 
sented the  Church  of  England  at  the  councils  both  of 
Pisa  and  of  Constance.  He  became  provincial  of  his 
order  and  confessor  to  King  Henry  Y.,  who  died  in  his 
arms  in  1422.  He  became  a  favourite  with  Henry  VI. 
as  he  had  been  with  his  father  and  grandfather,  and 
while  attending  his  young  sovereign  to  France,  he  died 
at  Rouen  in  1430.  His  principal  work  is  his  Doctrinale 
Antiquum  Fidei  Ecclesiae  Catholicae,  Paris,  1521 — 1523, 
3  vols,  fol.,  and  reprinted  at  Saumur,  Venice  and  Paris. — 
Bale.    Fits. 


WALKEK,    JOHN. 

This  valuable  writer  who  is  often  referred  to  in  these 
pages  was  a  Devonshire  man  and  a  fellow  of  Exeter 
College.  He  took  his  Master's  degree  in  1699.  He  was 
Rector  of  St.  Mary-the-More,  Exeter,  when  he  commenced 
his  great  work.  His  spirit  was  stirred  up  within  him 
when  Calamy  endeavoured  to  represent  as  martyrs  or 
at  least  as  confessors  the  Dissenters  who  having  usurped 
3  1  3 


649  WALL. 

the  livings  of  the  English  clergy  were  ejected  for  non- 
conformity, at  the  Restoration.  Walker  shews  that 
when  the  Dissenters  had  triumphed  over  Church  and 
Crown,  they  ejected  between  seven  and  eight  thousand 
clergymen  for  conformity.  He  shews  that  of  the  Clergy 
of  the  English  Church  between  seven  and  eight  thousand 
were  by  the  triumphant  Dissenters,  "  imprisoned,  ban- 
ished, and  sent  a-starving."  His  work  was  published  in 
folio,  in  1714,  with  the  title  of  An  Attempt  towards 
recovering  an  Account  of  the  Numbers  and  Sufferings  of 
Clergy,  who  were  sequestered  in  the  Grand  Rebellion. 
For  this  performance  he  received  the  degree  of  D.D. 
from  the  University  of  Oxford.     He  died  about  1730. 


WALL,    WILLIAM. 

Of  the  learned  author  of  the  great  work  on  Infant  Bap- 
tism little  is  known.  He  was  born  in  the  year  1645,  or 
1646  ;  but  what  was  the  place  of  his  nativity,  at  what 
school  he  was  educated,  or  whether  he  ever  became  a 
member  of  either  of  our  universities,  does  not  appear  to 
be  known. 

About  the  year  1676,  he  was  presented  to  the  living 
of  Shoreham,  in  Kent ;  a  vicarage  in  the  diocese  of 
Rochester,  in  the  gift  of  the  dean  and  chapter  of  West- 
minster. Here  he  resided,  in  the  faithful  discharge  of 
his  pastoral  duties,  during  the  long  space  of  fifty-three 
years.  It  is  said  that  he  once  declined  the  offer  of  a 
second  benefice  (Chelsfield),  of  the  value  of  three  hun- 
dred pounds  a  year,  from  conscientious  motives,  although 
it  was  situate  within  three  miles  of  Shoreham  ;  but  sub- 
sequently he  accepted  one,  of  about  one  fifth  of  that 
value,  namely,  Milton,  near  Gravesend,  at  a  distance  of 
twelve  miles  from  his  residence. 

In  1676,  or  1677,  he  married  Catharine,  daughter  of 
Edward  Davenant,  Esq.,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons, 


WALLIS.  643 

William  and  Thomas,  both  of  whom  became  citizens  of 
London,  but  died  before  their  father  :  also  two  daughters 
who  died  in  their  infancy;  and  a  third,  Catharine, 
married  to  Mr.  Waring  of  Rochester,  by  whom  he  left 
sixteen  grandchildren,  eight  sons  and  eight  daughters. 
He  published  his  History  of  Infant  Baptism  in  1707. 

After  a  long  life,  silently  but  honourably  passed  in 
professional  studies,  and  the  duties  of  his  sacred  calling, 
Dr.  Wall  expired  on  the  13th  of  January,  1727-8,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-two. 

After  his  death  (1733)  were  published,  Critical  Notes 
on  the  Old  Testament,  wherein  the  present  Hebrew  text 
is  explained,  and  in  many  places  amended,  from  the 
ancient  versions,  more  particularly  from  that  of  the 
LXX.  :  to  which  is  prefixed,  a  large  introduction,  ad- 
justing the  authority  of  the  Masoretic  Bible,  and  vindi- 
cating it  from  the  objections  of  Mr.  Whiston,  and  the 
author  of  the  Grounds  and  Reasons  of  the  Christian 
Religion,  2  vols.  8vo. — Nichols's  Atterbury.     Bowyer. 

WALLTS,    JOHlsr. 

John  Wallis,  better  known  as  a  mathematician  than 
a  divine,  though  a  divine  of  some  eminence,  was  born 
at  Ashford,  in  Kent,  in  1616,  and  in  1632,  went  to 
Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge.  He  afterwards  became 
fellow  of  Queen's.  He  was  ordained  by  Dr.  Walter 
Curie,  Bishop  of  Winchester.  In  1643,  he  obtained  the 
sequestered  living  of  St.  Gabriel,  in  Fenchurch-street. 
From  which  time  he  easily  complied  with  all  the  changes 
of  the  times,  rather  preferring  monarchy  and  episcopacy 
to  any  other  style  of  government  either  in  Church  or 
State.  He  became  secretary  to  the  Assembly  of  Divines, 
and  in  1649,  was  appointed  Savilian  Professor  of  Geo- 
metry at  Oxford.  At  the  Restoration  he  conformed  and 
retained  his  academical  offices.  He  died  in  1703.  He 
was  one  of  the  originators  of  the  Royal  Society.    His 


644  WALTON. 

Theological  works  were  published  in  1699,  in  three  vols, 
folio ;  dedicated  to  William  III.,  for  he  complied  with 
the  Ptevolution  as  he  had  done  with  the  Rebellion.  He 
is  chiefly  remembered  as  a  theologian,  for  Eight  Letters 
concerning  the  Blessed  Trinity,  originally  published  in 
]690,  and  reprinted  by  Fhntoff  in  ISAO.— Life  prefixed 
to  Sermons. 


WALTON,    BRIAN. 

Brian  Walton,  the  editor  of  the  English  Polyglott  Bible, 
which  has  been  justly  styled  the  glory  of  the  English 
Church  and  nation,  was  a  native  of  Yorkshire.  He 
has  been  represented  by  several  writers  as  born  at 
Cleveland,  in  that  county ;  more  correctly,  by  the  writer 
of  his  Life  in  the  Biographia  Britannica,  in  that  part  of 
the  North  Fading  of  Yorkshire  called  Cleveland.  Yet 
the  particular  place  of  his  birth  has  been  so  little  known, 
and  so  unsuccessfully  inquired  after,  as  to  occasion  a 
modern  historian  of  this  very  district  to  declare,  and 
many  biographers  of  eminent  men  to  admit,  that  they 
could  discover  no  trace  of  it.  A  learned  fellow-country- 
man long  since  informed  the  world,  that  Seymour  or 
Seamer,  in  Cleveland,  was  the  place. 

He  was  born  in  1600,  and  in  July,  1616,  he  is  said  to 
have  been  admitted  a  sizar  of  Magdalene  College,  in 
Cambridge ;  whence  he  removed  to  Peter  House,  as  a 
sizar  also,  in  1618.  In  1619,  he  took  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts  ;  in  1623,  that  of  Master  of  Arts. 

From  Cambridge  he  departed  for  a  curacy  and  master- 
ship of  a  school  in  Suffolk  ;  and  thence  to  the  metropolis, 
as  an  assistant  at  the  Church  of  Allh allows,  Bread-street : 
where  he  soon  became  possessed  of  a  London  Rectory, 
that  of  St.  Martin's  Orgar,  in  1626.  Distinguished,  as 
he  then  was,  for  great  activity  and  diligence,  for  abilities 
by  which  he  could  command  any  learning  though  he  had 


WALTON.  645 

not  much  studied  it,  and  for  judgment  by  which  he 
could  manage  to  the  best  advantage  any  important  sub- 
ject ;  it  is  no  wonder,  that  to  him  was  confided,  soon 
afterwards,  the  principal  management,  on  the  part  of  the 
London  clergy,  in  a  very  arduous  undertaking ;  namely, 
a  minute  inquiry  into  the  law,  and  a  proposal  of  improve- 
ment in  the  payment  of  tithes  in  that  city. 

From  oblations,  made  to  them  by  their  parishioners 
upon  certain  days  and  occasions,  the  revenues  of  the 
London  clergy  anciently  accrued.  Contests  and  decrees 
about  them,  in  succeeding  times,  were  at  last  merged 
in  a  statute  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  which  fixed  the  tithes 
or  oblations  at  two  shillings  and  nine-pence  in  the 
pound.  To  avoid  the  regular  payment,  thus  established, 
not  only  were  true  rents  subsequently  concealed,  but  other 
means  of  depreciation  invented  :  so  that  when  James  the 
First  commenced  his  reign,  the  clergy  sought  redress  from 
the  legislature.  A  bill  was  accordingly  brought  into 
parliament ;  which,  however,  did  not  pass  into  a  law. 
Nor  did  a  similar  bill  in  1620  meet  with  the  desired 
success.  At  length,  in  1634,  the  clergy  renewed  their 
petition  for  relief  in  a  statement,  to  King  Charles  the 
First,  of  the  greatness  of  their  benefices  in  former  days, 
and  of  the  meanness  of  them  then,  together  with  an 
exposition  of  the  causes.  Of  the  practices,  against  which 
they  complained,  there  were  palpable  detections.  Yet 
arbitration  was  the  measure  to  which  both  the  injured 
and  the  injurious  party  submitted  :  and  the  arbitrator 
was  the  king,  who  was  pleased  to  hear  the  matter  him- 
self. Nevertheless,  the  business  proceeded  slowly,  till 
1638 ;  when  the  clergy  were  ordered  to  exhibit  a  copy  of 
the  valuation  of  their  respective  tithes,  with  the  value 
likewise  of  the  houses  in  their  parishes.  Dr.  Walton's 
copy  bears  the  title  of  *'  a  moderate  valuation"  of  the 
houses  in  his  parish,  made  according  to  his  majesty's 
direction,  dated  April  22,  1638.  But  to  these  statements 
exceptions  were  taken  ;  and  therefore  another  royal  order 


646  WALTON. 

authorized  the  incumbent  on  the  one  part,  and  the 
alderman  of  the  ward  or  persons  to  he  appointed  by  him 
on  the  other,  to  discuss  tlie  subject,  and  call  in  such 
assistance  upon  the  occasion  as  they  might  choose. 
There  were  also  committees  of  three  aldermen  appointed 
for  the  city,  generally ;  and  three  of  the  clergy  for  the 
rest;  to  treat  of  accommodation.  In  the  latter  selection 
was  Dr.  Walton.  The  national  distractions,  however, 
soon  closed  their  proceedings. 

Walton  was  soon  after  presented  to  the  two  rectories 
of  St.  Giles  in  the  Fields,  London,  and  of  Sandon,  in 
Essex,  on  the  same  day,  January  15,  1635-6.  But  the 
former  he  did  not  retain,  as  we  find  both  a  successor  to 
it  in  1636,  and  himself  long  afterwards  in  possession  of 
St.  Martin's  Orgar.  He  is  supposed  to  have  been,  at 
this  time,  chaplain  to  the  king ;  and  to  have  been 
collated  also  to  a  prebend  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  In 
1639,  he  commenced  doctor  in  divinity,  at  Cambridge; 
where,  in  keeping  his  act  upon  the  occasion,  he  main 
tained  this  thesis  :  Pontifex  Romanus  non  est  judex 
infallibilis  in  controversiis  fidei:  a  circumstance  to  which 
he  referred,  after  a  lapse  of  twenty  years,  with  an  avowal, 
against  the  calumny  of  an  enemy,  that  he  professed  him- 
self to  be  still  of  the  same  judgment,  and  to  be  rather 
more  confirmed  in  that  persuasion  [of  the  pope's  falli- 
bility] than  any  way  doubting  it. 

Having  earnestly  contended  for  all  that  a  liberal  and 
learned  profession  had  endeared  to  his  brethren  and 
himself,  he  became,  as  rebellion  advanced  successfully, 
the  scorn  of  those  who  then  respected  neither  learning 
nor  liberality  ;  and  was  pronounced  a  delinquent. 

The  follvving  are  among  the  articles  and  charges 
brought  against  Dr.  Walton.  First,  he  is  accused  of 
ordering  his  churchwarden  to  place  the  communion 
table  under  the  east-window ;  which  the  churchwarden 
declining.  Dr.  Walton  himself,  the  bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  other  friends  then  present,    there  placed  it.     This 


WALTON.  64T 

the  accusers  considered  as  superstition  and  innovation ; 
which,  as  the  arraigned  primate  of  all  England  about 
the  same  time  obsei'ved,  was  but  the  Restoration  of  the 
ancient  approved  ceremonies  since  the  Reformation,  and 
settled  either  by  law  or  custom  ;  till  the  faction  of  such 
as  then  openly  and  avowedly  separated  from  the  Church 
of  England  opposed  them,  and  cried  them  down.  To 
the  next  charge,  also,  against  Dr.  Walton,  the  same 
remark  applies.  For  the  accusers  complained  of  his 
reading  part  of  the  morning-service  in  the  usual  reading 
pew  of  the  church,  and  part  at  the  altar.  They  likewise 
noticed  his  not  preaching  on  Sundays  in  the  afternoon, 
in  order  to  express  their  indignation  at  his  not  permit- 
ting them,  "  to  procure  a  preacher,  though  at  their  own 
charge."     His  firmness  is  to  be  admired  and  imitated. 

About  the  latter  end  of  1G4'2,  we  find  Dr.  Walton 
"  sent  for  into  custody  as  a  delinquent."  And  then  it 
was,  that  the  triumphant  enemies  of  the  king  and  clergy 
had  recourse  to  a  kind  of  pastime,  as  it  was  termed,  in 
summoning  before  a  committee  of  religion,  or  of  seques- 
tration, or  of  that  which  was  called  "  of  or  for  plundered 
ministers,"  as  Lilly,  one  of  their  own  tools,  relates,  (such 
"  ambodexters,"  he  says,  "they  were,)"  many  loyal  and 
learned  ecclesiastics  who  were  treated  with  all  the  in- 
solence of  which  none  but  men  of  ignoble  minds  are 
capable. 

"  These  committees,"  (they  are  the  words  of  an  eye- 
witness,) "  these  committees  were  made  as  several  stages 
for  continual  clergy-baitings.  Mine  ears  still  tingle  at 
the  loud  clamours  and  shoutings  there  made,  especially 
at  the  committee  which  sat  at  the  court  of  wards,  in 
derision  of  grave  and  reverend  divines,  by  that  rabble  of 
sectaries,  which  daily  flocked  thither  to  see  this  new 
pastime  ;  where  the  committee-members,  out  of  their  vast 
privilege  to  abuse  any  man,  (though  their  betters,  and 
some,  members  of  the  convocation,  whose  privileges  are, 
and  by  law  ought  to  be,  as  large  as  those  of  the  house  of 


648  WALTON. 

commons,)  without  control,  have  been  pleased  to  call  the 
ministers  of  Christ  brought  before  them,  saucy  Jacks, 
base  fellows,  brasen- faced  fellows.  And  in  great  scorn 
has  the  cap  of  a  known  orthodox  doctor  been  called  to 
be  pulled  off,  to  see  if  he  were  not  a  shaven  Popish  priest! 
And  to  some  eminent  doctors  of  divinity  in  the  city  of 
London,  Dr.  Baker,  Dr.  Brough,  and  Dr.  Walton,  giving 
testimony  in  a  cause  then  before  them,  it  was  said  by  a 
citizen,  member  of  that  committee,  (Isaac  Pennington,) 
What  shall  we  believe  these  doctors  for  ?  And  Sir  Robt. 
Harlow,  going  to  his  committee-chair,  the  chair  of  the 
scorner,  bragged  to  his  friend,  how  he  would  bait  the 
dean  of  Christ  Church  !" 

When  Dr.  Walton  was  ejected  from  his  preferments, 
he  betook  himself  for  refuge  to  Oxford ;  and  on  the  12th 
August,  1645,  was  incorporated  in  that  university.  Here 
he  formed  the  design  of  publishing  his  Polyglott ;  and 
upon  the  decline  of  the  king's  cause,  he  retired  to  the 
house  of  his  father-in-law,  Dr.  William  Fuller,  Vicar  of 
St.  Giles's,  Cripplegate,  London,  where,  though  fre- 
quently disturbed  by  the  prevailing  powers,  he  lived  to 
complete  it.  The  Polyglott  Bibles  which  had  preceded 
were  the  Complutensian,  or  that  of  Cardinal  Ximenes  ; 
(see  Ximenes)  the  Antwerp,  or  Royal  Polyglott,  printed 
at  the  expense  of  Philip  II.,  of  Spain';  and  the  Paris  Poly- 
glott, by  Le  Jay,  the  most  magnificent  of  all.  That  of 
Walton  is  regarded  as  the  most  useful.  Nine  languages 
are  employed  in  it ;  and  the  convenience  of  the  reader  is 
carefully  consulted.  Its  title  runs  thus  :  Biblia  Sacra 
Polyglotta  complectentia  (textus  originales)  Hebraicum 
cum  Pentateucho  Samaritano,  Chaldaicum,  Graecum  ; 
(versionumque  antiquarum)  Samaritanae,  Graecse  LXX 
Inter.,  Chaldaicae,  Syriacse,  Arabicae,  ^Ethiopicae,  Persicae, 
Vulg.  Lat.  quicquid  comparari  poterat.  Cum  textuum 
et  versionum  Orientalium  translationibus  Latinis.  Ex 
vetustissimis  MSS.  undique  conquisitis,  optimisque  ex« 
emplaribus   impressis,   summa  fide  coUatis.      Quae  in 


WALTON.  649 

prioribus  editionibus  deerant  suppleta.  Multa  antehac 
inedita,  de  novo  adjecta.  Omnia  eo  ordine  disposita,  ut 
t€xtus  cum  versionibus  uno  intuitu  conferri  possent. 
The  Biblia  Polyglotta  was  published  at  London,  in  ]657, 
in  6  vols,  folio.  In  this  great  work,  so  far  as  related 
to  the  correcting  of  it  at  the  press,  and  the  collating 
of  copies,  he  had  the  assistance  of  several  learned  per- 
sons; the  chief  of  whom  was  Mr.  Edmund  Castell, 
afterwards  professor  of  Arabic  at  Cambridge.  Among 
his  other  assistants  were  Mr.  Samuel  Clarke,  of  Merton 
College,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Hyde,  of  Queen's  College, 
Oxford :  he  had  also  some  help  from  Mr.  Whelock,  Mr. 
Thorndike,  Mr.  Edward  Pocock,  Mr.  Thomas  Greaves, 
&c.  Towards  printing  the  work  he  had  contributions  of 
money  from  many  noble  persons  and  gentlemen,  which 
were  put  into  the  hands  of  Sir  W.  Humble,  treasurer 
for  the  work.  The  Prolegomena  and  Appendix  to  it 
were  attacked,  in  1659,  by  Dr.  John  Owen,  in  Consi- 
derations, &c.  who  was  answered  the  same  year  by  Dr. 
Walton,  in  a  piece  under  the  title  of,  The  Considerator 
Considered ;  or  a  Brief  View  of  certain  Considerations 
upon  the  Biblia  Polyglotta,  the  Prolegomena,  and  Ap- 
pendix. Wherein,  among  other  things,  the  certainty, 
integrity,  and  the  divine  authority  of  the  original  text  is 
defended  against  the  consequences  of  Atheists,  Papists, 
Anti-Scripturists,  &c.,  inferred  from  the  various  readings 
and  novelty  of  the  Hebrew  points,  by  the  author  of  the 
said  Considerations ;  the  Biblia  Polyglotta  and  Transla- 
tions therein  exhibited,  with  the  various  readings,  pro- 
legomena, and  appendix,  vindicated  from  his  aspersions 
and  calumnies ;  and  the  questions  about  the  punctuation 
of  the  Hebrew  text,  briefly  handled,  8vo.  Walton's 
Prolegomena  consist  of  sixteen  parts  : — 1.  Of  the  nature, 
origin,  division,  number,  changes,  and  use  of  languages. 
2.  Of  letters,  or  characters,  their  wonderful  use,  origin, 
and  first  invention,  and  their  diversity  in  the  chief 
languages.     3.  Of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  its  antiquity,  pre- 

VOL    VIII.  3   K 


650  WALTON. 

servation,  change,  excellency,  and  use,  ancient  characters, 
vowel  points,  and  accents.  4.  Of  the  principal  editions 
of  the  Bible.  5.  Of  the  translations  of  the  Bible.  6. 
Of  the  various  readings  in  the  Holy  Scripture.  7.  Of 
the  integrity  and  authority  of  the  original  texts.  8.  Of 
the  Masora,  Keri,  and  Ketib,  various  readings  of  the 
Eastern  and  western  Jews,  Ben  Ascher,  and  Ben  Naph- 
tali,  and  of  the  Cabala.  9.  Of  the  Septuagint,  and  other 
Greek  translations.  10.  Of  the  Latin  Vulgate.  11.  Of 
the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  and  the  versions  of  the  same. 
12.  Of  the  Chaldee  language,  and  versions.  13.  Of  the 
Syriac  tongue,  and  versions.  14.  Of  the  Arabic  language 
and  versions.  15.  Of  the  Ethiopic  tongue,  and  versions  ; 
and,  16.  Of  the  Persian  language,  and  versions.  As 
these  instructive  Prolegomena  were  highly  valued  by 
scholars  on  the  continent,  they  were  reprinted  at  Zurich 
in  1573,  foL,  by  Heidegger,  with  Drusius's  collection  of 
Hebrew  proverbs;  and  about  1777,  Dathe  printed  an 
edition  at  Leipsic,  in  Svo,  with  a  preface  containing 
many  judicious  and  learned  remarks  on  several  of  Dr. 
Walton's  opinions.  Nine  languages,  as  we  have  observed, 
are  used  in  this  Polyglott,  yet  there  is  no  one  book  in 
the  whole  Bible  printed  in  so  many.  In  the  New  Test- 
ament, the  four  Evangelists  .are  in  six  languages  ;  the 
other  books  only  in  five ;  and  those  of  Judith  and  the 
Maccabees  only  in  three.  The  Septuagint  is  printed 
from  the  edition  at  Home,  in  1587.  The  Latin  is  the 
Vulgate  of  Clement  VIII. 

It  has  been  said  that  Dr.  Walton  thought  himself 
bound  in  gratitude  to  dedicate  his  Polyglott  to  Cromwell ; 
and  some  have  supposed  that  this  republican  dedication, 
as  it  has  been  called,  was  actually  made.  Dr.  Todd 
rectifies  these  matters,  in  Dr.  Walton's  own  words  ;  which 
contain  information,  hitherto  unnoticed,  and  certainly 
of  a  very  interesting  description. 

It  appears  in  the  dedication  of  the  Polyglott  to  King 
Charles  the  Second,  of  which  the  existence  has  been  by 


WALTON.  651 

some  denied,  that  Dr.  Walton  had  sent  a  specimen  of 
the  work  to  the  exiled  monarch,  before  he  had  entered 
upon  it ;  and  had  received  an  answer,  worthy  of  a  king 
to  give  :  namely,  "  that  if  means  had  not  been  wanting, 
in  his  exile,  he  would  have  supplied  the  costs  of  such  a 
work."  Dr.  Walton  proceeds  to  inform  his  majesty  of 
the  resolution  he  had  formed,  after  he  was  deprived  of 
his  preferments,  and  not  allowed  to  officiate  publicly 
as  a  clergyman  ;  lest,  as  he  modestly  expresses  himself 
^'he  should  seem  to  have  lived  wholly  useless."  He  then 
says,  that  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  work  he  intended 
to  dedicate  it  to  his  majesty  ;  that  many  could  attest  this: 
that  during  the  usurpation  the  intention  could  only  be 
concealed  ;  and  that  the  usurper  of  royalty  was  not  fairly 
entitled  to  a  dedication  of  it.  For  Cromwell,  whom  he 
emphatically  calls  the  great  dragon,  seems  to  have  con- 
sidered the  Polyglott,  at  its  outset,  as  affording  an. 
opportunity  of  exhibiting  himself,  as  a  great  literary 
patron ;  and  perhaps,  he  communicated  to  Dr.  Walton, 
the  desire  of  having  the  work  dedicated  to  him,  which 
the  learned  editor,  if  he  did  not  absolutely  refuse,  hesi- 
tated to  promise.  Perhaps  the  coldness  of  Dr.  Walton 
upon  this  occasion,  was  the  reason  why  neither  the  once 
expected  thousand  pounds,  nor  any  part  of  it,  in  aid 
of  the  work,  are  believed  to  have  been  advanced  by  the 
influence,  or  from  the  purse  of  Cromwell.  However, 
through  the  dependants  of  the  Usurper,  it  is  evident 
that  Dr.  Walton  understood  a  suppression  of  his  work 
unless  it  should  be  dedicated  to  Cromwell.  For  a 
deliverance  from  the  implication,  as  well  as  from  any 
fury  of  the  usurper,  Dr.  Walton,  is  therefore  truly 
grateful.  It  is  probable,  that  this  tribute  of  welcome 
was  sent  to  the  king  in  1659  ;  about  which  time  also, 
we  may  suppose  the  two  last  leaves  of  the  original  Preface 
to  the  Polyglott  to  have  been  cancelled,  and  three  others 
substituted  in  their  place.  The  former  mentioned  Crom- 
well thus ;  Primo  autem  commemmorandi,  quorum  fa- 


652  WALTON 

vore  chartam  a  vectigalibus  immunem  habuimus,  quod 
quinque  ab  hinc  annis  (1652)  a  Concilio  secretion  primo 
consessum,  postea  a  Serenissimo  D.  Protectore  ejusque 
Concilio,  operis  promvendi  causa,  benigne  confirmatum 
et  continuatum  erat.  In  the  latter,  there  was  merely  the 
mention  of  acknowledgment  for  the  favour  of  having  his 
paper  duty-free,  omitting  the  Protector's  name,  and  in- 
cluding him  and  his  Council  under  the  simple  description 
of  eos,  quorum  favore  chartam  a  vectigalibus  immunem 
habuimus.  It  would  have  certainly  been  in  conformity 
to  the  liberal  notions,  encouraged  by  the  republic  of 
letters,  not  to  have  disjoined  a  benefactor  and  the  bene- 
faction. But  Dr.  Walton  had  been  working  under  a 
government  which  allowed  him  indeed  his  paper  free 
from  duty,  but  had  deprived  him  of  all  his  preferments ; 
the  head  of  which  had  also  ungenerously  aimed  to  extort 
a  dedication  from  him. 

After  the  Eestoration,  Dr.  Walton  had  the  honour 
to  present  the  Polyglott  Bible  to  Charles  II.  who  made 
him  chaplain  in  ordinary,  and  soon  after  (Dec,  J  660) 
promoted  him  to  the  Bishopric  of  Chester.  In  the 
following  year  he  was  one  of  the  commissioners  at  the 
Savoy  Conference.  On  the  11th  of  September,  1661, 
he  was  installed  at  Chester  with  great  ceremony;  but, 
returning  to  London,  he  died  at  his  house  in  Aldersgate- 
street,  on  the  29th  of  November  following,  and  was 
interred  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  Dr.  Walton  was  twice 
married.  His  first  wife  was  Anne,  of  the  Claxton  family, 
of  Suffolk.  She  died  May  25th,  1 640,  aged  forty-three, 
and  was  hurried  in  the  chancel  of  Sandon  Church,  where 
a  handsome  monument  was  erected  to  her  memory.  His 
second  wife  was  Jane,  daughter  of  Dr.  Fuller,  vicer  of 
St.  Giles's,  Cripplegate.  Dr.  Walton  had  published  at 
London,  in  1655,  Introductio  ad  Lectionem  Linguarum 
Orientalium,  8vo. — Memoirs  by  Todd. 


WARBURTON.  653 


WAKBUKTON,    WILLIAM. 

William  Warbueton  was  born  at  Newark,  24th  Decem- 
ber, 1698.  He  was  first  put  to  School  under  Mr.  Twells, 
but  had  the  chief  part  of  his  education  at  Okeham,  in 
Rutlandshire,  under  Mr.  Wright.  His  education  was 
finished  under  his  cousin,  Mr.  William  Warburton,  who 
was  made  head  master  at  Newark,  and  under  whom  the 
subject  of  the  present  Biography  was  placed  in  1714. 
He  never  went  to  the  University,  but  was  put  out  clerk 
in  1714,  to  Mr.  Kirke,  an  eminent  attorney,  of  Great 
Markham,  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  continued  with  that 
gentleman  till  1719.  He  returned  to  Newcastle  at  the 
expiration  of  his  clerkship,  and  then  determining  to  seek 
Holy  orders,  he  studied  diligently,  and  was  assisted  by 
his  cousin,  the  master  of  Newark  School,  whose  friend- 
ship was  invaluable  to  him.  He  was  ordained  deacon  in 
1723,  in  the  Cathedral  of  York,  by  Archbishop  Dawes, 
and  remained  a  deacon  till  1726-7,  when  he  was  ordained 
priest  in  St.  Paul's,  London,  by  Bishop  Gibson.  In 
1723,  he  published  Miscellaneous  translations  in  Prose 
and  Verse,  from  Roman  authors,  with  a  Latin  preface  to 
Sir  Robert  Sutton.  These  are  styled  by  Bishop  Hurd, 
Juvenile  Essays  of  his  pen,  hasty  and  innocent;  but 
they  so  far  pleased  Sir  Robert,  that  in  1726,  he  gave 
Warburton  the  Vicarage  of  Griesley  in  his  native  coun- 
ty. He  projected  also  a  new  edition  of  Velleius  Pater- 
culus,  but  dropped  the  design  by  the  advice  of  Dr. 
Middleton.  Among  "  these  blossoms  of  his  youth"  were 
some  notes  communicated  to  Theobald,  and  inserted  in 
his  edition  of  Shakspeare.  In  1727,  he  published  A 
Critical  and  Philosophical  Enquiry  into  the  Causes  of 
Prodigies  and  Miracles  as  related  by  Historians;  with 
an  Essay  towards  restoring  a  Method  and  Purity  in 
History :  in  which  the  Characters  of  the  most  celebrated 
Writers  of  every  Age,  and  of  the  several  stages  and 
3  K  3 


654  •         WARBURTON. 

Species  of  History,   are   occasionally  criticised   and  ex- 
plained. 

Through  Sir  Robert  Sutton's  interest  he  obtained  in 
1728,  an  M.  A.  degree,  having  been  put  on  the  king's  list 
on  the  occasion  of  his  majesty's  visit  to  Cambridge.  In 
1728,  he  was  indebted  to  the  same  patron  for  the  Rectory 
of  Brand-Broughton,  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln.  This  pre- 
ferment, from  its  vicinity  to  Newark,  pleased  him  much, 
and  here  he  resided  with  his  mother  and  sisters,  from 
1728  to  1746.  It  was  not  till  the  year  ]  736,  that  he  pub- 
lished the  first  of  those  works,  on  which  his  great  repu- 
tation is  raised.  This  was,  The  AlUance  betwixt  Church 
and  State  ;  the  occasion  and  end,  and  substance  of  which 
work,  cannot  be  expressed  in  fewer  or  clearer  terms, 
than  his  own. 

After  a  short  historical  view  of  religious  parties  in 
England  from  the  Reformation  downwards;  of  the  dis- 
cordant notions  entertained  of  religious  establishments 
and  of  the  heats  and  animosities  which  those  notions 
had  produced ;   he  speaks  thus. — 

"  In  this  ferment,  and  in  this  embroiled  condition, 
the  author  of  the  Alliance  between  Church  and  State, 
found  the  sentiments  of  men  concerning  religious  liberty 
and  establishments,  when  he  proposed  his  theory  to 
their  consideration ;  a  theory,  calculated  to  vindicate  our 
present  happy  constitution  on  a  principle  of  right,  by 
adjusting  the  precise  bounds  of  either  society ;  by  shew- 
ing how  they  came  to  act  in  conjunction ;  and  by 
explaining  the  nature  of  their  union ;  and  from  thence 
by  natural  and  necessary  consequence,  inducing  on  the 
one  hand  an  estabhshed  religion,  with  all  its  rights  and 
privileges,  secured  by  a  test  law;  and  on  the  other,  a 
full  and  free  toleration  to  all  who  dissented  from  the 
national  worship. 

"  He  first  shewed  the  use  of  religion  to  Society,  from 
the  experience  and  practice  of  all  ages  :  he  inquired 
from  whence  the  use  arose,   and  found  it  to  be  from 


WARBURTON.  655 

certain  original  defects  in  the  very  essence  and  plan 
of  civil  society.  He  went  on  to  the  nature  of  religion ; 
and  shewed  how,  and  for  what  causes,  it  constituted  a 
society  ;  and  then,  from  the  natures  of  the  two  societieSj 
he  collected,  that  the  object  of  the  civil,  is  only  the 
body  and  its  interests ;  and  the  object  of  the  religious, 
only  the  soul.  Hence  he  concluded,  that  both  Societies 
are  sovereign  and  independent ;  because  they  arise  not 
out  of  one  another ;  and  because,  as  they  are  concerned 
in  contrary  provinces,  they  can  never  meet  to  clash ;  the 
sameness  of  original,  or  the  sameness  of  administration, 
being  the  only  causes,  which  can  bring  one,  of  two 
distinct  societies,  into  natural  subjection  to  the  other. 

"  To  apply  religion  therefore,  to  the  service  of  civil 
society,  in  the  best  manner  it  is  capable  of  being  applied, 
he  shewed  it  was  necessary  that  the  two  societies  should 
unite  ;  for,  each  being  sovereign  and  independent,  there 
was  no  other  way  of  applying  the  service  of  religion  in 
any  solid  or  effectual  manner.  But  no  such  union  could 
arise  but  from  free  compact  and  convention.  And  free 
convention  is  never  likely  to  happen,  unless  each  society 
has  its  mutual  motives,  and  mutual  advantages.  The 
author,  therefore,  from  what  he  had  laid  down  of  the 
two  societies,  explained  what  these  motives  and  advan- 
tages were.  Whence,  it  appeared  that  all  the  rights, 
privileges  and  prerogatives  of  the  two  societies,  thus 
united,  with  the  civil  magistrate  at  their  head,  were 
indeed  those  very  rights,  privileges,  and  prerogatives, 
which  we  find  established  and  enjoyed  under  our  present 
happy  constitution  in  church  and  state.  The  result  of 
this  was,  that  an  established  church  and  a  free  tole- 
ration are  made  perfectly  to  agree  by  the  medium  of  a 
test  law.  This  law,  therefore,  the  author  in  the  last 
place  proceeded  to  vindicate,  on  the  same  general  prin- 
ciples of  the  law  of  nature  and  nations.  This  is  a  true 
though  short  analysis  of  the  Alliance  between  Church 
and  State." 


656  WARBURTON. 

Bishop  Hurd  complains  that  the  alliance  was  not 
generally  understood.  But  Warburton  did  not  wait  for 
the  reward  of  public  favour,  to  encourage  him  in  the 
resolution  he  had  taken,  of  dedicating  his  great  talents 
to  the  service  of  religion.  In  the  close  of  this  first 
edition  of  The  Alliance,  he  announced  his  next  and 
greatest  work,  The  Divine  Legation  of  Moses;  which 
he  had  now  planned,  and  in  part  composed.  For,  when 
such  a  writer  as  this,  has  by  a  long  course  of  study 
laid  in  the  proper  materials  for  invention  to  operate 
upon,  and  has,  by  one  vigorous  essay,  assured  himself 
of  his  own  strength,  his  progress  to  perfection  is  rapid, 
and  almost  instantaneous  :  like  the  pace  of  Homer's 
gods,  whose  first  step  reaches  to  Olympus,  and  the  second 
to  the  end  of  the  earth. 

It  had  been  pretended  by  those  who  called  themselves 
Deists,  and  in  the  modesty  of  free-thinking  which  then 
prevailed,  had,  or  affected  to  have,  a  respect  for  the 
natural  doctrine  of  a  future  state,  that  the  omission  of 
this  doctrine  in  the  Mosaic  Law  was  a  clear  decisive  proof 
of  its  imposture,  as  no  institute  of  religion,  coming  from 
God,  could  be  without  that  principle. 

The  author  of  the  Alliance  saw  the  omission  in  an- 
other light ;  and  was  so  far  from  admitting  the  Deist's 
conclusion,  that  he  thought  himself  able  to  prove,  in  the 
clearest  manner,  and  with  the  evidence  of  what  is  called 
Moral  demonstration,  the  divinity  of  the  Mosaic  Law 
from  that  very  circumstance. 

Such  then  was  the  subject  and  scope  of  Mr.  Warbur- 
ton's  capital  work.  The  Divine  Legation  of  Moses  demon- 
strated on  the  principles  of  a  rehgious  Deist.  But  in  the 
conduct  of  this  new  and  paradoxical  argument,  so  many 
prejudices  and  objections,  both  of  believers  and  unbe- 
liever, w^ere  to  be  removed  :  and  so  many  collateral  lights 
to  be  let  in  upon  it ;  that  the  discourse  extended  itself 
far  and  wide,  and  took  in  all  that  was  most  curious  in 
Gentile,  Jewish,  and  Christian  antiquity. 


WARBURTON.  657 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1738,  the  first  volume  of 
this  work  appeared,  and  immediately  drew  all  eyes  upon 
it.  Some  were  too  weak,  and  some  were  too  much  dim- 
med or  distorted  by  prejudices,  to  take  a  full  and  distinct 
view  of  its  contents.  No  wonder,  then,  if  such  readers 
misconceived  the  writer's  purpose,  rand  misrepresented 
it.  Yet  few  were  so  blind,  as  not  to  admire  the  execu- 
tion. "  I  hear  nobody  speak  of  your  book,"  says  the 
Bishop  of  Chichester,  "  who  do  not  express  themselves 
highly  entertained  with  it ;  though  they  think  the  prin- 
ciple point  which  remains  to  be  proved,  a  paradox." 

This  is  Bishop  Kurd's  account,  and  the  voice  of  pos- 
terity has  very  generally  condemned  the  theory,  but 
admitted  that  the  work  for  its  various  learning  is  worthy 
of  attention.  A  future  state,  that  is,  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  is  involved  in  the  promise  of  a  Redeemer,  for 
how  could  the  Redeemer  be  a  blessing  to  the  Patriarchs, 
unless  they  are  to  be  raised  from  the  dead  ?  and  in  the 
blessings  to  be  effected  by  the  Messiah,  the  Patriarchs 
always  expected  to  have  a  part. 

Within  two  months  of  the  publication  of  the  Divine 
Legation,  Warburton  published  a  Vindication.  In  1738, 
he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
There  was  a  nobleness  of  character  about  Warburton. 
He  had  become  connected  with  Dr.  Middleton,  and  until 
the  infidel  principles  of  that  learned  man  became  too 
apparent  to  be  doubted,  he  placed  the  best  construction 
on  his  opinions,  and  damaged  his  own  character  by  de- 
fending him.  The  same  noble  sentiments  which  induced 
him  to  take  part  with  the  assailed,  made  him  the  Vindi- 
cator of  Pope.  In  1739,  he  drew  up  and  published  a 
short  defence  of  Mr.  Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  against  M. 
de  Crousaz,  who  had  written  a  book  to  shew  that  it  was 
constructed  on  the  principles  of  Spinosa,  and  contained  a 
dangerous  system  of  irreligion.  But  though  this  was  a 
slight  thing,  and  took  up  little  of  his  time,  yet  as  it 
respected  so  eminent  a  person,  and  had    great   conse- 


658  WARBURTON. 

quences  with  regard  to  himself,  it  will  be  propef  to 
enlarge  upon  it. 

It  has  been  objected  to  Mr.  Warburton,  that  in  his 
earlier  days,  he  had  himself  entertained  a  prejudice 
against  Mr.  Pope,  and  had  even  expressed  it  in  very 
strong  terms.  The  offence  taken  had  probably  been 
occasioned  by  a  severe  reflection,  in  one  of  his  satires  on 
Mr.  Warburton's  friend  and  patron,  Sir  Robert  Sutton. 
And  in  that  case  it  is  likely  that  he  might  express  him- 
self of  the  poet,  with  too  much  warmth.  For,  says 
Bishop  Hurd,  I  will  not  conceal  or  disguise  the  infirmity 
of  my  friend.  When  his  moral  feelings  were  touched,  he 
was  apt  to  be  transported  into  some  intemperance  of 
expression,  and  was  not  always  guarded,  or  even  just,  in 
his  censures  or  commendations.  But  a  mind,  naturally 
great,  does  not  long  retain  this  fervour,  and  when  cooled 
by  reflection,  is  in  haste  to  make  amends  for  its  former 
excesses.  It  is  impossible,  indeed,  that,  under  any  pro- 
vocation, he  should  be  blind  to  so  much  merit,  as  our 
great  poet  possessed ;  and  what  he  saw  of  this  sort  in  any 
man,  he  was  not  backward  to  declare  to  others.  In  his 
Vindication  of  himself,  last  year,  he  had  shewn  how 
much  he  admired  Mr.  Pope,  by  quoting  a  fine  passage 
from  him,  and  applying  it  to  himself  in  a  way  that 
showed  an  esteem  of  his  morals,  as  well  as  poetry. 
Since  that  time,  he  had  suffered  so  much  himself  from 
angry  zealots,  and  felt  so  strongly,  in  his  own  case,  what 
is  was  for  a  well-meaning  man  to  have  his  religious  senti' 
ments  misrepresented,  that  this  attack  of  M.  de  Crousaz 
would  naturally  find  him  in  a  disposition  to  resent  it. 

Add  to  all  this,  that  he  saw  with  concern  the  ill  use 
which  some  were  ready  to  make  of  the  supposed  fatalism 
of  Mr.  Pope,  and  how  hurtful  it  was  to  religion  to  have  it 
imagined,  that  so  great  a  genius  was  ill-inclined  towards 
it. 

These  reasons,  working  together,  seem  to  have  deter- 
mined him  to  take  the  part  of  the  injured  poet;  as  indeed 


WARBURTON.  659 

lie  explains  the  matter  himself  in  a  letter  of  July  16/ 
1739,  to  Dr.  Middleton  : — "  A  certain  great  man  is  very 
angry  with  me  for  speaking  of  you  in  the  manner  I  did. 
I  make  no  question  but  another  sort  of  those  they  call 
great  men  will  hold  themselves  outraged  by  me  in  my 
vindication  of  Mr.  Pope  against  M.  de  Crousaz  in  some 
letters  which  are  going  to  be  collected  together  and  pub- 
lished. But  I  cannot  forbear  shewing  my  esteem  of 
merit,  and  my  contempt  of  their  calumniators,  or  thinking 
that  it  is  of  use  to  religion  to  prove  so  noble  a  genius 
is  a  friend  to  it." 

These  letters  were  much  read,  and  gave  a  new  lustre  to 
Mr.  Warburton's  reputation.  They  shewed  the  elegance 
of  his  taste  in  polite  literature,  as  well  as  his  penetration 
into  moral  subjects.  Mr.  Pope  was  supremely  struck 
with  them,  and  might  now  exult,  as  his  predecessor, 
Boileau,  had  done,  when  he  cried  out  in  the  face  of  his 
enemies. 

"Arnauld,  le  grand  Arnauld,  fait  mon  Apologie." 

From  this  time  there  was  an  intimate  acquaintance 
formed  between  the  poet  and  his  commentator. 

Through  his  intimacy  with  Pope,  Warburton  became 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Allen  of  Prior  Park,  near  Bath, 
at  whose  house  he  became  a  frequent  visitor.  In  1744, 
Pope  died,  and  bequeathed  to  Warburton  half  his  library 
and  the  property  of  all  such  of  his  works  already  printed 
as  he  had  not  otherwise  disposed  of;  a  legacy  which  Dr. 
Johnson  estimates  at  not  less  than  £4,000.  The  nume- 
rous attacks  made  on  the  Divine  Legation  elicited  from 
Warburton  in  1744  and  1745  a  collective  defence  under 
the  title  of  Remarks  on  Several  Occasional  Reflections, 
&c.,  and  though  his  list  of  antagonists  comprised  some 
names  well  known  in  literature,  as  those  of  doctors 
Middleton,  Pococke,  Grey,  Sykes,  and  Stebbing,  he 
assumed  towards  them  all  that  air  of  confident  superiority 
which  constantly  marked  his  controversial  publications. 
His   acquaintance  with  Mr.  Allen  was  ripened  into  an 


660  WARBURTON. 

intimate  family  connexion  in  September  1745,  by  his 
marriage  with  that  gentleman's  niece,  Miss  Gertrude 
Tucker,  from  which  time,  Prior  Park  became  his  prin- 
cipal residence  ;  and  on  Allen's  death  in  1764,  War- 
burton  became  in  her  right,  proprietor  of  that  splendid 
seat.  In  April,  1746,  he  was  chosen  preacher  to  the 
society  of  Lincoln's-innr  on  the  particular  recommendation 
of  Mr.  Murray,  then  solicitor  general,  afterwards  Lord 
Mansfield. 

The  preachership  of  Lincoln's-Inn  had  been  offered 
him  in  so  handsome  a  manner,  that  it  could  not  be 
refused.     Otherwise,  the  thing  was  not  agreeable  to  him. 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Taylor  from  Prior-park,  May  22nd, 
1746,  he  says — "  I  think  I  told  you  in  my  last,  that  "the 
Society  of  Lincoln's-Inn  had  made  me  an  unanimous 
offer  of  the  preachership ;  which  therefore  I  could  not 
refuse,  though  I  would  gladly  have  done  it.  For  it  will 
require  five  or  six  months  attendance.  And  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  thing  itself  you  may  judge  of,  by  this  : 
Mr.  Allen  would  have  me  take  a  house,  for  which  I  pay 
as  much  rent  as  the  whole  preachership  is  worth.  This 
only  to  you.  And  don't  think  I  speak  with  any  affection 
when  I  tell  you  in  your  ear,  that  nothing  can  be  more 
disagreeable  to  me,  than  this  way  of  life.  But  I  hope 
and  determine  that  it  shall  not  continue  long.  Don't 
you  pity  me  ?  I  shall  be  forced  to  write  sermons  :  and 
God  knows  what  will  become  of  the  D.  L.  But  if  I  can 
do  any  good  in  this  new  station,  I  shall  know  how  to  bear 
the  disagreements  of  it,  and  that's  all.  How  capricious 
is  the  fate  of  mortals  !  Any  other  clergyman  would  think 
himself  happy  in  such  an  honour  as  the  society  has  done 
me.  I  believe  it  is  the  first  that  has  been  done  to  their 
preacher.     Yet  I  have  no  joy  in  it." 

The  truth  is,  the  attendance  on  the  term  broke  in  upon 
his  leisure  ;  and  what,  in  his  opinion,  was  worse,  the 
necessity  he  was  under  of  composing  sermons,  with  which 
he  was  but  slenderly  provided,  diverted  him  from  other 


WAEBURTON.  661 

things,  for  which  he  judged  himself  better  quahfied,  and 
which  he  had  more  at  heart. 

In  1747,  Warburton  published  his  edition  of  Shaks- 
peare,  in  8  volumes,  8vo.  This  is  acknowledged  to  have 
been  a  failure.  The  publication  of  Dr.  Middleton's 
Enquiry  concerning  the  miraculous  powers  led  Warburton 
to  publish  in  1750,  an  able  piece,  entitled  Julian,  or  a 
Discourse  concerning  the  Earthquake  and  fiery  Erup- 
tion which  defeated  that  emperor's  attempt  to  rebuild 
the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  In  the  same  year,  he  pub- 
lished a  complete  edition  of  Pope's  Works,  in  9  vols. 
8vo,  accompanied  with  notes  of  his  own.  In  1753  and 
1754  he  published  two  volumes  of  his  Sermons  preached 
at  Lincoln's  Inn  ;  and  in  those  years  and  the  following 
he  gave  A  View  of  Lord  Bolingbroke's  Philosophy  in  a 
series  of  Letters  to  a  Friend,  first  anonymously,  but 
afterwards  with  his  name,  written  with  much  strength 
and  acuteness.  In  1753,  he  was  promoted  to  a  prebendal 
stall  in  the  Cathedral  of  Gloucester.  In  1754,  he  was 
nominated  one  of  the  king's  chaplains  in  ordinary ;  and 
in  the  following  year,  he  exchanged  his  prebend  of 
Gloucester  for  one  of  Durham.  About  the  same  time. 
Archbishop  Herring  conferred  upon  him  a  Lambeth 
degree  of  D.D.  His  promotion  to  the  deanery  of  Bristol, 
took  place  in  1757  ;  and  in  the  close  of  1759,  he  was 
made  Bishop  of  Gloucester.  Dr.  Warburton  had  made 
some  severe  reflections  on  the  rising  sect  of  Methodists 
in  the  second  edition  of  his  second  volume  of  The  Divine 
Legation  in  1742;  and  he  now  in  1762,  made  a  direct 
attack  upon  their  leading  principles,  in  a  work  entitled 
The  Doctrine  of  Grace,  or,  the  Office  and  Operation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  vindicated  from  the  Insults  of  Infidelity 
and  the  Abuses  of  Fanaticism.  A  third  volume  of  his 
Sermons  was  pubHshed  in  1767;  and  in  the  following 
year  he  gave  a  testimony  of  his  zeal,  for  revealed  religion, 
by  transferring  £500  to  trustees  for  the  purpose  of  found- 
ing a  lecture  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  in  the  form  of  a  course  of 

VOL.  VIII.  3   L 


663  WARD. 

sermons,  to  prove  the  truth  of  Christianity  from  the  com- 
pletion of  the  prophecies  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
relative  to  the  Christian  Church.  From  this  time  his 
faculties  underwent  a  rapid  decline,  and  he  fell  into  a 
melancholy  state,  which  was  aggravated  by  the  loss  of 
his -son  and  only  child,  who  died  of  consumption  in  his 
nineteenth  year.  He  died  at  Gloucester,  on  the  7th  of 
June,  1779,  in  the  eighty-first  year  of  his  age.  His 
works  were  printed  in  1788,  in  7  vols.  4to,  under  the 
inspection  of  his  friend  Dr.  Hurd,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
who  in  1794,  printed,  by  way  of  preface  to  them,  an 
account  of  the  life,  writings,  and  character  of  the  author. 
In  1809,  there  was  published.  Letters  from  a  late  emi- 
nent Prelate  to  one  of  his  Friends,  (Warburton  to  Hurd,) 
Svo ;  and  in  1841,  another  8vo.  volume  was  published 
by  Mr.  Kilvert,  entitled  Literary  Remains  of  Bishop 
Warburton.  In  1789,  Dr.  Parr  published  Tracts  by 
Warburton  and  a  Warburtian. — Life  by  Hurd.  Quarterly 
Revietv. 

WARD,    SETH. 

Seth  Ward  was  born  in  1617,  or  1618,  at  Buntingford, 
in  Hertfordshire,  He  received  his  primary  education 
at  his  native  place,  and  in  16-32  was  sent  to  Sidney 
Sussex  College,  Cambridge,  and  became  servitor  to  Dr. 
Ward,  the  suffering  master  of  this  house ;  who  being 
much  taken  with  his  parts  and  industry,  got  him  in 
upon  the  foundation.  In  1640,  he  was  Prevari- 
cator, and  when  his  patron  and  master  was  impri- 
soned in  this  university,  he  attended  him  during  his 
confinement,  as  he  did  afterwards  on  his  death-bed,  being 
either  at  that  time  a  prisoner  also  himself,  or  else  im- 
prisoned afterwards,  as  well  as  ejected  from  his  fellow- 
ship, for  refusing  the  covenant ;  against  which  he  soon 
after  joined  with  Mr.  Gunning,  Mr.  Barrow,  &c.  in 
drawing  up  that  noted  treatise,  which  was    afterwards 


WARD.  663* 

published.  When  he  was  thus  ejected,  he  was  invited 
to  reside  at  sev^oral  places  :  but  he  prefered  that  of  R. 
Freeman's,  Esq.,  at  Aspenden,  in  his  own  county ;  where 
he  continued  off  and  on  till  1 649  ;  about  which  time 
(having  then  been  some  months  with  Lord  Wenman, 
at  Thame,  in  Oxfordshire,)  Mr.  Greaves,  the  astronomy- 
professor  in  Oxford,  laboured  to  get  him  for  his  successor 
in  that  lecture,  after  he  had  himself  been  turned  out  of 
it ;  which  was  accordingly  effected.  But  it  must  not  be 
concealed,  that  Mr.  Ward  had  at  that  time  very  much 
degenerated  from  his  former  principles,  and  even  taken 
the  engagement.  He  was  some  time  also  chaplain  to 
Bishop  Brownrigg,  who,  on  the  death  of  Mr.  William 
Cotton,  collated  him  about  the  year  1649,  or  16.50,  to 
the  Ghantery  of  Exeter ;  in  which  he  was  afterwards 
installed,  little  prospect  as  there  was  of  such  a  turn  at 
the  time  of  his  collation,  as  also  to  Mr.  Cotton's  canonry 
and  prebend,  September  15th,  J  660.  In  3  654,  he  pro- 
ceeded, D.D.  at  Oxford,  after  which  he  was  elected 
principal  of  Jesus  College  in  that  University,  by  the 
direction  of  Dr.  Mansel,  who  had  been  ejected  from 
that  headship  several  years  before :  but  the  protector, 
according  to  the  plentitude  of  his  power,  put  in  one 
Howel,  with  a  promise  however  of  £80  per  annum  to 
Dr.  Ward,  which  yet  was  never  paid  him.  In  1659,  he 
was  elected  president  of  Trinity  College,  in  Oxford  ;  but 
was  forced  soon  after  to  give  it  up  to  Dr.  Potter,  the  right 
owner.  Afterwards,  he  had  St.  Laurence-Jury  conferred 
upon  him  by  his  majesty.  In  166J,  he  became  dean  of 
Exeter,  (about  the  same  time  also  fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society,)  the  year  following  he  w^as  nominated  to  the 
Episcopal  See  of  that  Church  ;  and  in  1667,  was  trans- 
lated to  Salisbury.  Whilst  he  was  dean  of  Exeter 
he  got  £25,000  of  the  Churches'  ov^n  money  to  be  laid 
out  in  repairing  and  beautifying  that  cathedral  after  the 
ravages  made  in  it  by  the  Puritans,  and  in  erecting 
the  noble  organ  there.     Whilst  he  sat  in  the  episcopal 


664  WARD. 

chair,  he  augmented  several  poor  vicarages,  increased  the 
stipends  of  the  prebendaries,  got  the  'deanery  of  St. 
Burian  annexed  to  the  bishopric,  and  reduced  the  Dio- 
cese to  great  conformity.  When  he  was  removed  to 
Sahsbury,  he  Hkewise  repaired  and  beautified  that  Cathe- 
dral, gave  considerable  sums  to  it  out  of  his  own  pocket, 
and  laid  out  no  less  than  £2000  in  the  repairs  of  the 
palace  ;  which  was  in  a  manner  quite  demolished  during' 
the  confusions,  having  been  sold  by-  the  parliament  to 
one  Van  Ling,  a  Dutch  tailor.  In  both  dioceses  also 
he  drew  up  notices  of  them,  setting  down  in  distinct 
columns,  the  names,  degrees,  inclinations,  learning,  &c. 
of  the  several  incumbents  ;  together  with  the  patrons' 
value  of  the  livings,  &c.  He  had  also  the  same  watchful 
eye  over  the  Dissenters  in  the  Diocese  of  Salisbury,  as  in 
that  of  Exeter,  insomuch  that  there  was  not  one  Con- 
venticle in  the  city  of  Salisbury,  and  but  few  in  the 
whole  county  of  Wilts  ;  and  these  two  were  in  the 
extreme  parts  of  it  towards  Somersetshire.  He  kept  a 
most  hospitable  table,  and  many  poor  pensioners  in 
weekly  pay,  besides  great  numbers  whom  he  relieved 
daily  at  his  gate  ;  and,  which  was  a  much  greater  charity, 
sought  out  such  poor  house  keepers  as  were  ashamed  to 
beg,  and  sent  them  money ;  insomuch  that  thousands  of 
blessings  from  the  poor  constantly  attended  him  when- 
ever he  rode  out  or  returned  to  his  palace.  He  was  also 
chancellor  of  the  Garter,  and  procured  that  honour  to 
be  annexed  to  the  See  of  Salisbury.  He  made  it  his 
business  likewise  to  serve  the  city,  in  their  public  affairs, 
when  he  went  to  parliament,  and  contributed  largely 
towards  making  their  river  navigable.  He  was  a  bene- 
factor to  the  Eoyal  Society  ;  procured  £400  towards 
printing  Castellus's  Lexicon  ;  built  and  endowed  a  noble 
college  for  ten  clergymen's  widows  in  the  close  at  Salis- 
bury ;  he  built  also  an  hospital  at  the  place  of  his  nati- 
vity, for  ten  poor  aged  men,  with  a  stipend  of  £10  per  an. 
each;  and  founded  four  scholarships  at  Christ's  College, 


WARHAM.  665 

in  Cambridge.  Towards  the  latter  end  of  his  life  he  had 
a  tender  made  him  of  the  Bishopric  of  Durham,  which 
he  refused.  At  length  this  person  of  wonderful  parts 
and  learning,  began  to  lose  his  memory,  and  the  use  of 
his  reason  in  a  very  great  measure  ;  under  which  circum- 
stances he  died  in  January,  1689. 

His  works,  besides  Sermons,  are  : — A  Philosophical 
Essay  towards  an  Eviction  of  the  Being  and  Attributes 
of  God,  the  Immortality  of  the  Souls  of  Men,  and  the 
Truth  and  Authority  of  Scripture,  Oxford,  165^,  8vo ; 
De  Cometis,  ubi  de  Cometarum  Natura  disseritur,  Nova- 
Cometarum  Theoria  et  Novissimae  Cometae  Historia  pro- 
ponitur ;  Prselectio  Oxonii  habita,  et  Inquisitio  in  Ismae- 
Jis  Bullialdi  Astronomise  Philolaicae  Fundamenta,  Oxon. 
1653,  4to  ;  Idea  Trigonometrise  Demonstrates,  in  Usum 
Juventutis,  Oxon.  1654,  4to  ;  In  Thomas  Hobbesii  Phi- 
losophiam  Exercitatio  Epistolica,  ad  D.  J.  Wilkinsium 
Guardianum  Coll.  Wadhami,  Oxon.  1656,  4to  ;  Astrono- 
mia  Geometrica;  ubi  Methodus  proponiturqua  primario- 
rum  Planetarum  Astronomia  sive  EUiptica  sive  Circularis 
possit  geometrice  absolvi,  Lond.  1656,  8vo. — Walker. 


WARHAM,    WILLIAM. 

William  Warham  was  born  at  Okeley,  in  Hampshire, 
and  was  a  Wykehamist,  proceeding  from  Winchester  to 
New  College  in  1475.  In  1488,  he  quitted  the  Univer- 
sity, and  was  employed  in, the  diplomatic  line,  and  in  an 
embassy  to  the  court  of  Burgundy,  conducted  himself  so 
much  to  the  satisfaction  of  Henry  VII.  that  in  1493,  he 
was  appointed  Master  of  the  Rolls.  On  the  11th  of 
August,  1502,  he  was  made  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal, 
and  on  the  1st  of  January,  1503,  he  was  made  Lord 
High  Chancellor.  In  the  beginning  of  1503,  he  was 
consecrated  to  the  See  of  London.  In  1504,  he  was 
translated  to  Canterbury ;  and  in  1506,  he  was  made 
3l  3 


666  WARHAM. 

Chancellor  of  Oxford.  When  Henry  VIII.  ascended  the 
throne,  Warham  found  a  rival  in  Wolsey.  Both  these 
prelates  are  to  be  considered  as  statesmen  rather  than 
as  divines,  and  the  notice  of  them,  therefore,  in  these 
pages  is  brief.  Warham  resigned  the  seals  in  1515,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Wolsey.  Wolsey,  as  Archbishop  of 
York,  mortified  Warham  by  refusing  an  established  mark 
of  homage  due,  according  to  the  established  usages  of  the 
time,  to  the  primate  of  all  England.  It  was  customary 
that  the  cross  of  the  Archbishop  of  York  should  not  be 
advanced  in  the  same  province,  or  in  the  same  place, 
with  the  cross  of  Canterbury.  Yet  Wolsey,  in  defiance 
of  this  ancient  custom,  had  ordered  his  cross  to  be 
advanced  and  carried  before  himself,  not  only  within  the^ 
precincts  of  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury,  but  even  in 
the  archbishop's  presence.  When  that  primate  expostu- 
lated with  him  concerning  the  indignity,  which  he  appre- 
hended to  have  been  offered  to  himself,  Wolsey  projected 
how  he  might  for  the  future  have  a  right  to  do  it,  with- 
out incurring  any  imputation  of  acting  contrary  to  rule. 
And  though  his  being  cardinal  did  not  exempt  him  from 
that  submission,  on  which  the  Archbishopric  of  Canter- 
bury of  right  insisted ;  yet  he  was  sensible,  that  if  he 
could  once  be  invested  with  the  character  of  legate  a  latere, 
it  would  put  the  matter  out  of  dispute,  and  even  render 
him  that  primate's  superior:  that  post  therefore  he  soli- 
cited, and  shortly  after  obtained. 

Under  this  commision  he  set  up  a  new  court,  called 
curia  legatina  ;  by  means  of  which  he  drew  all  manner  of 
jurisdiction  throughout  England  into  his  own  hands, 
and  appointed  officials,  registers,  &c.  in  every  diocese, 
who  took  up  all  causes,  and  obliged  the  other  officers,  to 
whom  the  jurisdiction  really  belonged,  to  sit  still  without 
regard  or  profit.  He  had,  in  particular,  erected  a  court  at 
Whitehall  for  matters  testamentary ;  which  was  thought 
a  considerable  infringement  upon  the  rights  of  the  Arch- 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  in  whose  court  it  had  been  the 


WARHAM.  667 

constant  usage  to  prove  wills  and  testaments.  The  ])n- 
mate  therefore  finding  his  authority  superseded  in  so 
enormous  a  degree,  wrote  two  letters,  by  way  of  remon- 
strance, to  the  cardinal,  concerning  the  injuries  done 
himself;  in  one  of  which  he  represents,  that  such  a 
course  of  proceeding  would  in  effect  reduce  him  to  the 
mere  shadow  of  an  archbishop.  But  finding  no  redress 
by  this,  or  any  other  method  of  complaint  to  the  cardinal, 
he  at  last  thought  himself  obliged  to  lay  the  state  of  the 
case  before  the  king,  who  directed  him,  in  his  name,  to 
go  to  the  cardinal ;  and,  if  he  had  done  any  thing  amiss, 
to  admonish  him  of  it.  This  admonition  only  tended  lo 
irritate  the  cardinal  against  him  ;  and  had  in  other 
respects  so  little  effect,  that  the  king  himself  afterwards 
found  it  necessary  to  discourse  with  his  chief  minister 
upon  the  subject,  after  such  a  manner,  as  made  a  better 
and  more  lasting  impression  upon  him. 

When,  in  1529,  Wolsey  was  deprived  of  all  his  honours, 
the  great  seal  was  again  offered  to  Warham,  who,  being 
now  far  advanced  in  years,  declined  it.  He  died  at 
Canterbury,  in  1532,  and  was  interred  at  his  cathedral, 
in  a  little  chapel  built  by  himself  for  the  place  of  his 
burial,  on  the  north  of  Becket's  tomb,  where  a  monument 
was  erected  to  him,  which  was  defaced  in  the  civil  wars. 
He  left  his  theological  books  to  the  library  of  All  Souls' 
College,  his  civil  and  canon  law  books  to  New  College, 
and  all  his  books  of  Church  music  to  Winchester  College. 
He  was  the  warm  friend  and  generous  patron  of  Erasmus, 
to  whom,  besides  many  letters,  he  sent  his  portrait, 
which  Dr.  Knight  supposes  to  have  been  a  copy  of  that 
at  Lambeth  by  Holbein.  Erasmus,  in  return,  sent  him 
his  own  :  and  he  also  dedicated  his  edition  of  St.  Jerome 
to  the  Archbishop,  and  in  other  parts  of  his  works 
bestows  the  highest  encomiums  on  him ;  he  calls  him  his 
only  Maecenas,  and  says  that  his  generosity  and  liberality 
extended  not  to  him  only,  but  to  all  men  of  letters. — 
Godwin.     Collier.    Burnet. 


668  "WARNER. 


WARNER.    JOHN. 


John  Warner  was  born  in  the  Parish  of  St.  Clement's 
Danes,  according  to  Lloyd  ;  but  Wood  asserts  that  he  was 
elected  demy  of  Magdalen  College,  in  Oxon,  as  a  native 
of  the  county  of  Surrey.  In  J  605,  he  became  fellow 
of  that  house ;  afterwards  rector  of  St.  Dionyse,  Back 
Church,  London,  chaplain  to  his  majesty,  prebendary 
of  Canterbury,  (to  which  cathedral  he  gave  a  most 
curious  and  beautiful  font,)  governor  of  Sion  College, 
Dean  of  Lichfield,  and  in  1G37,  was  promoted  to 
the  See  of  Rochester.  When  the  seeds  of  rebellion 
and  anarchy  began  to  ripen,  in  1641,  he  shewed 
himself  a  most  zealous  assertor  of  Episcopacy  in  the 
house  of  lords,  speaking  for  the  function  as  long  as 
he  had  any  voice  left,  and  very  pertinently  and  vali- 
antly defended  the  antiquity  and  justice  of  bishops'  votes 
in  the  house  of  parliament.  Afterwards  he  did  not  only 
suffer  with  his  brethren,  by  having  the  lands  of  his  see 
taken  away,  but  by  compounding  for  his  temporal  estate, 
which  was  considerable.  However  by  thus  parting  with 
some  of  his  estate  to  save  the  rest,  he  was  enabled  to 
assist  his  suffering  brethren ;  and  was  accordingly  a 
great  support  to  the  sequestered  clergy  and  their  families, 
as  well  as  to  other  indigent  persons,  often  using  this 
homely  expression,  says  Lloyd,  "  That  he  did  eat  the 
crag  ends  of  the  neck  of  mutton  himself,  that  he  might 
leave  the  poor  the  shoulders."  He  was  one  of  those 
bishops  that  lived  to  see  the  King  and  Church  restored, 
and  died  in  .1666,  in  the  eighty  sixth  year  of  his  age. 
He  was  noted  for  a  good  school  divine,  and  one  well 
read  in  the  fathers  ;  but  he  was  more  especially  eminent 
for  his  great  charity ;  as  a  most  noble  monument  of  which 
he  left  his  personal  estate  for  the  erecting  of  an  hospital 
near  his  cathedral  church,  for  the  maintenance  of  twenty 
poor  widows  of  orthodox  and  loyal  clergymen,  to  each  of 


WATERLAND.  669 

which  he  allotted  twenty  pounds  per  annum,  and  ap- 
pointed them  a  chaplain,  with  a  stipend  of  fifty  pounds 
yearly.  He  gave  a  thousand  pounds  to  augment  the 
library  of  Magdalen  College,  and  five  hundred  pounds 
to  that  of  Rochester,  for  the  same  use ;  one  thousand 
pounds  for  the  repair  of  Rochester  Cathedral ;  one  thou- 
sand and  fifty  pounds  for  that  of  St.  Paul ;  and  two 
thousand  pounds  to  purchase  impropriations  for  the 
smallest  vicarages  in  the  Diocese  of  Rochester.  He 
likewise  founded  the  four  Scotch  Exhibitions  in  Balliol 
College,  and  gave  several  other  charitable  legacies. — 
Walker. 

WATERLAND,    DANIEL. 

Few  names,  says  Bishop  Van  Mildert,  recorded  in  the 
Annals  of  the  Church  of  England,  stand  so  high  in  the 
estimation  of  its  most  sound  and  intelligent  members 
as  that  of  Dr.  Waterland.  Well  would  it  be  if  his 
works  were  in  these  days  more  attentively  studied,  and 
if  the  sound  wisdom  which  directed  him,  were  to  ani- 
mate those  who  seek  to  take  a  lead  in  the  Church. 
This  great  and  judicious  divine  was  born  at  Walesby,  in 
the  Lindsey  division  of  Lincolnshire,  on  the  14th  Feb., 
1683.  He  was  educated  at  Flixborough,  and  at  the 
Free  School  of  Lincoln,  whence  he  was  removed  to 
Magdalen  College,  Cambridge.  In  December,  1702,  he 
obtained  a  scholarship,  and,  proceeding  A.B.  in  Lent  term 
following,  was  elected  fellow  in  Feb.  1704,  and  became 
distinguished  as  a  private  tutor.  In  February,  1713, 
on  the  death  of  Dr.  Gabriel  Quadrin,  master  of  the 
college,  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  in  whose  family  the  right  is 
vested,  conferred  the  mastership  upon  Waterland,  who, 
having  taken  holy  orders,  v.as  also  presented  by  that 
nobleman  to  the  Rectory  of  EUingham,  in  Norfolk.  He 
however,  still  continued  to  take  pupils,  and  for  their 
advantage  wrote  his  Advice   to  a  Young  Student,  w'ith 


670  WATERLAND. 

a  Method  of  Study  for  the  first  Four  Years,  which  went 
through  several  editions.  In  1714,  he  took  the  degree 
of  B.D.,  at  the  exercise  for  which  he  chose  for  his  first 
question,  upon  which  consequently  his  Thesis  was  made, 
Whether  Arian  Subscription  be  lawful  ? — a  question,  says 
Mr.  Seed,  worthy  of  him,  who  had  the  integrity  to  abhor, 
with  a  generous  scorn,  all  prevarication  :  and  the  capa- 
city to  see  through  and  detect  those  evasive  arts,  by 
w'hich  some  would  palliate  their  disingenuity. 

When  Dr.  James,  the  professor,  had  endeavoured 
to  answer  his  Thesis,  and  embarrass  the  question, 
with  the  dexterity  of  a  jDcrson  long  practised  in  all 
the  arts  of  a  subtle  disputant;  he  immediately  replied 
in  an  extempore  discourse  of  above  half  an  hour  long, 
with  such  an  easy  flow  of  proper  and  significant  words, 
and  such  an  undisturbed  presence  of  mind,  as  if  he  had 
been  reading,  what  he  has  since  printed.  The  Case  of 
Arian  Subscription  considered,  and  the  Supplement  to  it. 
He  unravelled  the  professor's  fallacies,  reinforced  his 
own  reasonings,  and  shewed  himself  so  perfect  a  master 
of  the  language,  the  subject,  and  himself;  that  all 
agreed,  no  one  ever  appeared  to  greater  advantage. 
There  were  several  members  of  the  University  of  Oxford 
there,  who  remember  the  great  applauses  he  received, 
and  the  uncommon  satisfaction  which  he  gave.  He  was 
happy  in  a  first  opponent,  one  of  the  greatest  ornaments 
of  the  Church,  and  finest  writers  of  the  age,  who  gave 
full  play  to  his  abilities,  and  called  forth  all  that  strength 
of  reason,  of  which  he  was  master.  This  opponent  was 
Dr.  Thomas  Sherlock,  afterwards  Bishop  of  London. 
It  has  been  observed,  that  probably  the  account  of  this 
performance  having  reached  Dr.  Clarke's  ears,  gave  occa- 
sion to  his  omitting  in  the  second  edition  of  his  Scripture 
Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  passage  in  his  first  edition, 
respecting  Subscription  to  the  Articles,  which  had  given 
offence. 

In  January,  1714-15,  Dr.  Sherlock   being  then  Vice- 


WATERLAND.  671 

Chancellor,  the  thanks  of  the  Senate  were  unanimously 
voted  to  Dr.  Bentley,  for  his  Eeply  to  Collins  s  Discourse 
on  Free-thinking.  The  following  Grace  for  this  pur- 
pose appears  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  Waterland,  and 
was  presented  by  him,  with  two  other  distinguished 
friends  of  Bentley,  Roger  Cotes,  and  Mr.  Bull,  of  Queen's 
College  : — "  Whereas  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bentley,  Master  of 
Trinity  College,  besides  his  other  labours,  published  from 
our  press,  to  the  great  advancement  of  learning,  and 
honour  of  our  University,  has  lately,  under  the  borrowed 
name  of  Phileleutherus  Lipsiensis,  done  eminent  service 
to  the  Christian  religion  and  the  clergy  of  England,  by 
refuting  the  objections  and  exposing  the  ignorance  of  an 
impious  set  of  writers  that  call  themselves  Free-thinkers, 
may  it  please  you,  that  the  said  Dr.  Bentley,  for  his  good 
service  already  done,  have  the  public  thanks  of  this 
university;  and  be  desired  by  Mr.  Vice-chancellor,  in 
the  name  of  the  whole  body,  to  finish  what  remains  of  so 
useful  a  work." 

Mr.  Waterland  was  elected  vice-chancellor,  according 
to  the  usual  rotation,  on  Nov.  14,  1715,  and  during  the 
whole  time  he  was  in  that  office,  he  proceeded  to  no 
higher  degree  than  that  of  bachelor  in  divinity. 

He  took  his  D.  D.  degree  when  George  I.  visited  the 
University  of  Cambridge  in  1717,  in  which  year  he  was 
also  appointed  chaplain  to  the  king. 

In  the  following  year  he  published  an  Answer  to  Dr. 
Whitby's  Latin  Disquisitions  on  Bishop  Bull's  Defence 
of  the  Nicene  Creed, — (See  Life  of  Whitby, J — and  An 
Answer  to  Dr.  Whitby's  Reply  to  that  attack.  In  1719, 
he  published  the  first  Dpfence  of  his  Queries,  in  vindica- 
tion of  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  which  engaged  him  in  a 
controversy  with  Dr.  Clarke.  The  Queries  which  he 
thus  defended  were  originally  drawn  up  for  the  use  of  the 
Rev.  John  Jackson,  rector  of  Rossington,  in  Yorkshire, 
and  it  was  intended  that  the  debate  should  be  carried 
on  by  private  correspondence ;  but  Jackson  having  sent 


673  WATERLAND. 

au  answer  to  the  Queries,  and  received  Waterland's  reply, 
informed  him  that  both  were  in  the  press,  and  that  he 
must  follow  him  thither,  if  he  wished  to  prolong  the 
controversy.  On  this,  Waterland  published  a  Vindica- 
tion of  Christ's  Divinity ;  being  a  Defence  of  some 
Queries,  &c.  in  answer  to  a  Clergyman  in  the  Country ; 
which  being  soon  attacked  by  the  Arian  party,  Waterland 
published,  in  1723,  A  Second  Vindication  of  Christ's 
Divinity,  or  a  Second  Defence  of  some  Queries  relating 
to  Dr.  Clarke's  Scheme  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  answer  to 
the  Country  Clergyman's  Reply,  &c.  This  has  always 
been  regarded  as  Waterland's  most  accurate  performance 
on  the  subject.  In  answer  to  this  work.  Dr.  Clarke  pub- 
lished in  the  following  year,  Observations  on  the  Second 
Defence,  &c.,  to  which  Waterland  replied  in  A  farther 
Defence  of  Christ's  Divinity.  (See  Life  of  Samuel 
Clarke.)  In  consequence  of  the  reputation  which  he 
had  acquired  by  his  first  publication  on  this  subject, 
Waterland  was  appointed  by  Dr.  Robinson,  Bishop  of 
London,  to  preach  the  first  course  of  sermons  at  the 
lecture  founded  by  Lady  Moyer.  This  he  accomplished 
in  1720,  and  afterwards  printed  Eight  Sermons,  &c.  in 
defence  of  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  &c.  8vo. 

In  the  year  1721,  soon  after  the  publication  of  his 
Sermons  at  the  Lady  Meyer's  Lecture,  he  was  presented 
by  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  St.  Paul's  to  the  Rectory  of 
St.  Austin  and  St.  Faith,  in  the  city  of  London  ;  Dr. 
Godolphin,  (Provost  of  Eton,)  being  dean,  and  Dr. 
Stanley,  (Dean  of  St.  Asaph,)  Dr.  Hare,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Chichester,)  and  Dr.  Younger  the  residen- 
tiaries.  ^ 

His  literary  labours  evidently  suffered  no  interruption 
from  these  additional  calls  upon  his  time.  Both  his 
tracts  on  the  Case  of  Arian  Subscription,  his  Second 
Vindication,  his  Farther  Vindication,  and  his  Critical 
History  of  the  Athanasian  Creed,  besides  some  minor 
performances,  were  published  within  three  years  from 


WATERLAND.  673 

his  acceptance  of  this  benefice.  Nor  was  his  attention 
to  the  concerns  of  the  university  materially  slackened; 
for  it  was  during  this  period  that  the  proceedings  against 
Bentley,  and  other  matters  of  more  than  ordinary 
interest,  occurred,  in  which  Waterland  had  no  incon- 
siderable share.  At  the  same  time,  his  correspondence 
with  Mr,  Lewis  respecting  the  lives  of  WiclifF  and  Pecock 
was  carried  on.  These  were  occupations  sufficient  almost 
to  have  engrossed  the  time  and  labour  of  a  less  active  and 
powerful  mind. 

Within  about  two  years  after  his  presentation  to  this 
London  benefice,  Dr.  Waterland  was  promoted  to  the 
Chancellorship  of  the  Diocese  of  York,  by  Sir  William 
Dawes,  Archbishop  of  that  province.  That  this  dignity 
was  conferred  upon  him,  solely  from  the  high  estimation 
in  which  his  public  services  were  held  by  that  truly 
excellent  prelate,  is  evident  from  the  terms  in  which 
Waterland  acknowledges  the  favour,  in  the  dedication  of 
his  Critical  History  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  After 
paying  his  tribute  of  respect  to  the  Archbishop,  as  "the 
watchful  guardian  and  preserver  of  the  Christian  Faith," 
and  congratulating  him  on  "the  happy  fruits  of  his 
conduct,  visible  in  the  slow  and  inconsiderable  progress 
that  the  new  heresy  had  been  able  to  make  in  his  grace's 
province,"  he  adds,  with  reference  to  his  own  work, 
"  what  advantage  others  may  reap  from  the  publication 
will  remain  in  suspense;  but  I  am  sure  of  one  to  mijself, 
(and  I  lay  hold  of  it  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure,)  the 
opportunity  I  thereby  have  of  returning  mj  public  thanks 
to  your  grace  for  ^owx  iniblic  favours."  The  archbishop's 
feelings  in  this  respect  are  shewn  in  the  following  letter, 
on  the  receipt  of  Dr.  Waterland's  book,  dated  Bishop's 
Thorpe,  November  9,  1723  : — "  Sir,  I  can  never  thank 
you  enough  for  the  service  which  you  have  done  to 
orthodox  Christianity  by  your  Critical  History  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed ;  nor  for  the  honour  which  you  have 
done  me  and  my  whole  province,  in  the  epistle  dedica- 

VOL.  VIII.  3    M 


674  WATERLAND. 

tory  to  it.  With  great  pleasure  I  read  it,  both  upon 
account  of  the  subject-matter  of  it,  and  the  manner  in 
which  you  have  treated  it ;  the  one,  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  the  Christian  faith ;  the  other,  a  pattern 
to  all  writers  of  controversy,  in  the  great  points  of  reli- 
gion. God  grant  that  it  may  attain  the  end,  which  I 
dare  say  you  designed  by  it,  and  which  it  is  so  well 
fitted  for,  the  quelling  of  that  spirit  of  heresy  which  has 
of  late  so  much  prevailed  amongst  us,  and  the  preserving 
our  holy  faith  entire  and  undefiled.  I  am,  sir,  your 
obliged  and  affectionate  friend  and  brother,  W.  Ebor." 

The  next  step  in  our  author's  ecclesiastical  promotions 
was  to  a  Canonry  of  Windsor,  in  the  year  1727.  This 
favour  is  said  to  have  been  conferred  through  the  joint 
recommendations  of  the  Lord  Townshend,  Secretary  of 
State,  and  Dr.  Gibson,  Bishop  of  London.  It  led  to  his 
obtaining  also  the  Vicarage  of  Twickenham,  in  Middle- 
sex, from  the  chapter,  on  a  vacancy  made  by  Dr.  Booth's 
advancement  to  the  deanery,  in  1730.  On  his  presenta- 
tion to  this  vicarage,  he  resigned  the  Rectory  of  St. 
Austin  and  St.  Faith.  In  the  same  year  he  was 
collated  by  Bishop  Gibson  to  the  Archdeacon  of  Middle- 
sex ;  an  appointment  peculiarly  well  suited  to  his  habits 
and  acquirements. 

On  the  publication,  in  1730,  of  Dr.  Clarke's  Exposition 
of  the  Church  Catechism,  Water] and  printed  some  re- 
marks upon  it ;  and  in  doing  this  he  advanced  a  position 
concerning  the  comparative  value  of  positive  and  moral 
duties,  which  drew  him  into  a  controversy  with  Dr.  Sykes. 
Waterland's  attention  was  next  called  to  Tindal's  deistical 
publication  of  Christianity  as  old  as  the  Creation,  against 
which  he  wrote,  Scripture  Vindicated,  in  answer  to  Chris- 
tianity as  old  as  the  Creation,  1730-1732,  three  parts; 
and  two  charges  to  the  clergy  of  the  archdeaconry  of 
Middlesex  on  the  same  subject.  He  now  found  an 
antagonist  in  Middleton,  who  published,  A  Letter  to  Dr. 
Waterland,     (See  Middleton. J     This  last  controversy  was 


WATERLAND.  675) 

succeeded  by  one  with  the  Rev.  John  Jackson,  before 
mentioned,  on  account  of  Dr.  Clarke's  Demonstation  of 
the  Being  and  Attributes  of  God,  Dr.  Waterland  under- 
taking to  shew  the  weakness  of  the  argument  a  priori, 
which  Clarke  had  thought  proper  to  employ  on  that 
occasion.  In  1734,  Waterland  published  The  Import' 
ance  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity  asserted.  He 
pursued  the  same  subject  in  two  charges  delivered  to  the 
clergy  of  his  archdeaconry,  in  that  and  the  following 
year.  In  1737,  he  published  A  Review  of  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Eucharist,  as  laid  down  in  Scripture  and  Antiquity. 

This  standard  work  is  intended  to  state  the  Anglican 
view  of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  correcting  in  many  in- 
stances the  errors  of  Johnson  and  Brett,  but  upholding 
the  true  Sacramental  system  as  it  was  maintained  in  the 
primitive  Church. 

An  additional  honour  now  awaited  Dr.  Waterland, 
of  which  he  could  not  but  be  deeply  sensible.  In  the 
year  1734,  the  clergy  of  the  lower  house  of  convocation 
determined  upon  choosing  him  their  prolocutor.  To 
this  mark  of  high  favour  and  distinction  he  adverts,  in 
one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Loveday,  and  in  another  to  Dr. 
Grey;  and  assigns  as  his  reason  for  declining  it,  his 
sedentary  disposition  and  his  uncertain  state  of  health. 
Probably  it  was  pressed  upon  him  with  some  urgency. 
The  Archdeacon  of  London,  Dr.  Cobden,  had  actually 
prepared  the  speech  to  be  delivered  on  presenting  him  to 
the  upper  house  ;  and  it  was  afterwards  printed  in  a 
volume  of  his  miscellaneous  writings. 

From  this  period,  few  particulars  occur  in  Waterland's 
Life  requiring  especial  notice.  Mr.  Seed  informs  us  that 
Dr.  Waterland  was  offered  and  refused  the  Bishopric  of 
Landaff.  He  died  on  the  23rd  of  December,  1740,  in 
his  fifty-eighth  year.  Of  his  latter  end,  Mr.  Seed,  his 
friend  and  curate,  writes  thus :  "  The  meek  and  candid 
Christian  was  not  lost  in  the  disputer  of  this  world.  I 
never  saw  him  in  a  different  humour,  no,  not  even  in 


676  WATERLAND. 

his  last  illness.  The  same  unaffected  cheerfulness,  the 
same  evenness  and  sedateness,  which  was  his  distin- 
guishing character,  appeared  from  the  first  commence- 
ment of  our  acquaintance  to  the  last.  Whatever  painful 
operations  were  thought  necessary,  he  submitted  to  them 
without  reluctance,  and  underwent  them  with  patience 
and  resignation.  He  was  very  amiable  in  a  domestic 
light.  Though  he  felt  great  uneasiness,  he  gave  none 
but  what  arose  from  a  fellow-feeling  of  his  sufferings. 
Even  then,  humane  and  benevolent  to  all  about  him, 
but  especially  to  her  with  whom  he  had  lived  in  an 
uninterrupted  harmony  for  twenty-one  years ;  bringing 
forth  valuable  things  out  of  the  good  treasures  of  his 
head  and  heart ;  communicative  of  any  thing  that  was 
good,  he  would  have  engrossed  nothing  to  himself,  but 
his  sufferings  ;  w4iich  jet  he  could  not  engross.  For 
every  good-natured  person  that  saw  him  could  not  but 
suffer  ivith  a  man,  by  and  from  whom  they  were  sure  to 
suffer  nothing.  The  same  sound  principles,  from  which 
he  never  swerved,  and  of  which  he  never  expressed  the 
least  diffidence,  which  he  had  unanswerably  defended  in 
his  health,  supported  and  invigorated  his  spirits  during 
his  sickness  :  and  he  died,  a  little  before  his  entrance  on 
his  fifty- eighth  year,  with  the  same  composure  with  which 
he  lived  ;  and  is  now  gone  to  offer  up  to  God  a  whole 
life  laid  out,  or  rather  worn  out,  in  His  service," 

In  his  lifetime  he  published  some  single  sermons,  and 
after  his  death  two  volumes  more  were  added,  with  two 
Tracts,  1.  A  Summary  View  of  the  Doctrine  of  Justifica- 
tion. 2.  An  Inquiry  concerning  the  Antiquity  of  the 
Practice  of  Infant  Communion,  as  founded  on  the  notion 
of  its  necessity.  The  whole  published  from  the  originals, 
in  pursuance  of  the  request  of  the  author,  by  Joseph 
Clarke,  M.A.,  1742.  A  complete  edition  of  Waterland's 
works,  with  a  life  of  the  author,  by  Bishop  Van  Mildert, 
was  published  at  Oxford,  in  1823,  in  11  vols.  8vo. — Van 
Mildert.     Seed. 


WAYNFLETE.  67% 


WATTS,    ISAAC. 

Isaac  Watts  was  born  at  Southampton  in  1674,  and 
after  being  educated  there,  under  a  clergyman  of  the 
Established  Church,  he  removed,  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
to  an  academy  for  Dissenters,  in  London,  kept  by  the 
Eev.  Thomas  Rowe.  After  pursuing  his  studies  five 
years  with  great  credit  and  advantage,  he  returned  to 
Southampton,  and  remained  two  years  at  home,  em- 
ployed in  the  farther  cultivation  of  his  talents.  In 
1696,  he  became  tutor  to  the  son  of  Sir  John  Hartopp, 
at  Stoke  Newington,  near  London :  and  in  1702,  he 
succeeded  Dr.  Isaac  Chauncy  (to  whom  he  had  previously 
been  assistant)  as  minister  of  a  Dissenting  congregation 
in  the  metropolis.  An  attack  of  fever  in  1712,  obliged 
him  to  relinguish  for  a  time  his  pastoral  duties,  when 
he  obtained  an  asylum  at  the  house  of  Sir  T.  Abbey,  a 
London  alderman  at  Newington,  and  there  he  resided 
during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

He  received  diplomas  of  D.D.  from  the  Scotch  uni- 
versities, and  died  universally  respected  in  1748. 

Among  his  works  are  : — Lyric  Poems ;  Psalms,  and 
Hymns  ;  Sermons  ;  Philosophical  Essays  ;  A  Discourse 
on  Education ;  An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Astronomy 
and  Geography;  A  Brief  Scheme  of  Ontology;  Logic; 
and  a  valuable  supplement  to  it,  entitled,  The  Improve- 
ment of  the  Mind ;  besides  theological  tracts,  and 
various  controversial  pieces. — Gen.  Diet. 


WAYNFLETE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Waynflete,  founder  of  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford,  whose  proper  name  was  Patten,  alias  Barbour, 
was  born  at  Waynflete,  a  market  town  on  the  Seacoast 
of  Lincolnshire.  He  was  a  Wykehamist,  but  not  on  the 
3  M  3 


678  WAYNFLETE. 

foundation  of  Winchester  College  and  consequently  not 
a  fellow  of  New  College.  His  college  at  Oxford  is 
indeed  unknown.  He  was  ordained  deacon  in  14Q0, 
and  presbyter  in  1426. 

In  1429,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Headmastership 
of  Winchester  College.  The  situation  was  more  hon- 
ourable, at  that  time,  than  lucrative  ;  the  income  of 
the  master  being  derived  from  permission  to  take 
boarders  rather  than  from  the  endowment. 

William  of  Wykeham  has  directed  that  the  master  of  his 
school  at  Winchester  should  be  a  person  sufficiently 
learned;  possessed  of  skill  in  teaching,  of  good  fame 
and  conversation,  hired  and  removable  ;  that  he  should 
instruct  and  inform  the  scholars  of  his  college  with 
assiduity ;  superintend  them,  their  lives  and  manners, 
with  diligence  ;  reprove  or  punish  sloth,  idleness,  or  other 
delinquency,  without  distinction  or  partiality.  He  has 
forbidden  his  demanding,  asking,  or  exacting  from  the 
scholars,  their  parents  or  friends,  any  recompence ;  and 
the  reader  will  not  be  displeased  to  know  the  reward 
assigned  for  his  labour.  He  has  allowed  the  master 
weekly  commons,  the  same  as  the  fellows  and  chaplains ; 
to  wit,  twelve  pence  in  plentiful  years ;  an  increase  to 
thirteen,  fourteen,  and  sixteen  pence,  when  wheat  shall 
happen  to  be  at  the  high  price  of  two  shillings  a  bushel, 
and  no  further;  also,  every  Christmas,  eight  yards  of 
cloth,  about  one  shilling  and  nine-pence  the  yard,  the 
price  limited  for  the  warden,  fellows,  and  chaplains;  the 
colour  not  to  be  white  or  black,  russet  or  green  ;  and  this 
he  is  to  have  made  into  a  decent  robe,  reaching  to  his 
heels,  with  a  hood ;  the  robe  to  be  trimmed  with  fur,  for 
which  he  is  allotted  three  shillings  and  fourpence. 
They  are  all  inhibited  from  selling,  pawning,  or  giving 
away  their  livery  within  five  years  from  the  time  of  their 
receiving  it.  The  stipend  for  teaching  is  ten  pounds ; 
and  the  whole  salary,  consisting  of  several  articles,  is 
now  thirty-eight  pounds,  eleven  shillings,  and  two-pence. 


WAYNFLETE.  679 

In  1438,  he  was  also  made  master  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalen  Hospital,  near  Winchester.  Henry  VI.  when 
projecting  the  college  at  Eton,  was  led  to  examine  in 
person  the  plan  of  William  of  Wykeham's  foundation 
at  Winchester.  His  first  visit  to  the  college  was  on  the 
30th  of  July,  1440.  Waynflete  had  executed  his  office 
there  so  ably,  with  such  diligence,  judgment,  and  suc- 
cess, that  the  king,  perhaps  by  the  advice  of  Beaufort 
and  Beckyngton  who  knew  his  merits,  resolved  to  trans- 
plant him  to  Eton  :  and,  as  he  adopted  Wykeham's 
institution  for  his  model,  to  begin  the  seminary  with  a 
colony  under  his  master.  Waynflete  had  presided  in 
the  school  about  eleven  years,  when  he  was  thus  sud- 
denly distinguished  by  good  fortune,  and  became  an 
object  of  royal  attention  and  favour. 

The  college  at  Eton,  as  that  at  Winchester,  was 
established  chiefly  on  account  of  the  School.  It  was  at 
first  designed  to  consist  of  a  provost,  ten  priests,  four 
clerks,  and  six  boys,  choristers,  to  minister  daily  at  divine 
worship ;  of  twenty-five  indigent  scholars ;  the  same 
number  of  poor  and  infirm  men;  and  of  one  master 
or  teacher  to  instruct  gratis,  in  the  rudiments  of  gram- 
mar, the  scholars,  and  all  others  who  should  come  to 
the  college  from  any  part  of  the  kingdom  of  England. 
In  the  charter  of  foundation,  which  passed  the  great 
seal  in  1441,  Waynflete  is  named  to  be  one  of  the  six 
fellows  under  provost  Sever.  He  removed  in  1442,  with 
five  of  the  fellows  and  thirty-five  scholars ;  and  assumed 
at  Eton  the  station  which  he  had  already  filled  with  so 
much  honour  to  himself  and  advantage  to  the  public  at 
Winchester. 

When  Waynflete  had  been  master  about  three  years, 
the  school  being  formed,  he  was  promoted  by  the  king 
to  be  provost  of  Eton.  The  day  fixed  for  his  admission, 
and  for  the  introduction  of  the  statutes,  was  the  festival 
of  St.  Thomas,  the  21st  of  December,  1443.  The  com- 
missaries, who  were  Bishop  Beckyngton  and  William  de 


680  WAYNFLETE. 

la  Pole,  afterwards  Duke  of  Suffolk,  with  two  notaries 
public,  met  in  the  choir  of  the  Collegiate  Church ;  and 
the  prelate  declared  their  business  to  be,  to  receive  the 
oath  of  the  provost  to  observe  the  statutes,  and  to  see 
him  administer  a  like  oath  to  the  other  members  of  the 
college.  Waynflete  then  appeared ;  and  after  the  read- 
ing of  a  dispensation,  which  the  insufficiency  of  the 
buildings,  and  certain  articles  not  yet  fully  arranged, 
had  rendered  necessary  in  some  particulars,  looked  into 
and  touched  the  holy  Gospels,  and,  kneeling  deliberately 
and  reverently,  took  the  oath.  He  was  then  placed  in 
the  chief  seat  on  the  right  hand  of  the  choir,  and  there 
tendered  the  oath  prescribed  to  the  persons  concerned, 
each  in  his  turn,  in  the  presence  of  the  commissaries. 
This  has  been  styled  the  formal  admission  of  certain 
members  upon  what  is  called  the  second  foundation; 
the  provost,  five  fellows,  two  clerks,  and  ten  scholars  and 
choristers.  Two  masters  of  arts,  and  two  poor  scholars, 
admitted  gremials  of  Eton  by  the  new  provost,  became 
in  the  same  year  (1443)  the  two  first  fellows  and  scholars 
of  King's  College,  not  named  in  the  charter.  The 
statutes  prepared  for  the  Eoyal  Colleges  were  accepted  in 
July  (20th)  1446,  by  the  visitors,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  The  king  had 
then  enlarged  his  plan  for  Eton,  and  added,  among  other 
members,  an  usher.  To  the  master  he  allowed  ten 
pounds  yearly,  a  stipend  far  beyond  what  is  allotted  to 
any  one  besides,  except  the  provost,  to  whom  he  assigned 
thirty.  The  successor  to  Waynflete  in  the  school  was 
William  Westbury,  master  of  arts,  of  New  College  ;  who, 
it  is  not  improbable,  had  been  educated  under  him,  as 
many  eminent  and  learned  persons  were,  at  Winchester 
or  Eton  ;  and  whom  he  afterwards,  in  3465,  collated  to 
the  mastership  of  St.  Cross,  vacant  by  the  resignation  of 
Dr.  Chaundler.  Budden  mentions,  that  by  favour  of 
Sir  Henry  Saville,  he  had  seen  leases  at  Eton  signed  by 
provost  Waynflete. 


WEBBE.  681 

On  the  death  of  Cardinal  Beaufort,  Henry  VI.  deter- 
mined that  Wilham  Waynflete  should  be  his  successor. 
It  was  perhaps  necessary.  In  October,  1456,  he  was 
appointed  lord  high-chancellor  in  the  room  of  Bourchier^ 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  and  the  following  year  he 
sat  in  judgment  with  the  archbishop  and  other  prelates, 
upon  Dr.  Reginald  Pecock,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  who 
had  advanced  some  doctrines  contrary  to  the  prevailing 
religious  opinions.  Waynflete  resigned  the  office  of 
chancellor  in  July,  1460,  about  which  time  he  accom- 
panied the  king  to  Northampton,  and  was  with  him  a 
few  days  before  the  fatal  battle  near  that  place,  in  which 
the  royal  army  was  defeated.  Waynflete's  attachment  to 
Henry's  cause  had  been  uniform  and  decided ;  yet  his 
high  character  and  talent  appear  to  have  protected  him. 
Edward  IV.  treated  him  not  only  with  respect,  but  with 
some  degree  of  magnanimity,  as  he  twice  issued  a  special 
pardon  in  his  favour,  and  condescended  to  visit  his 
newly-founded  college  at  Oxford. 

In  1448,  Waynflete  obtained  a  royal  grant  to  found  a 
hall  to  be  called  after  St.  Mary  Magdalene,  at  Oxford, 
and  in  1456,  he  obtained  the  royal  grant  to  found  his 
noble  college  of  the  same  name  in  the  same  university. 

He  died  in  1486,  and  was  interred,  with  great 
funeral  pomp,  in  Winchester  Cathedral,  in  a  magni- 
ficent sepulchral  chapel,  which  is  kept  in  excellent 
preservation,  by  the  Society  of  Magdalen  College.  He 
established  a  free  school  in  his  native  town,  and  was 
a  benefactor  to  Eton  College,  and  Winchester  Cathe- 
dral.— Chandler. 


WEBBE,  GEORGE. 

George  Webbe  was  born  in  1581,  at  Bromham,  Wilt- 
shire. He  went  to  Oxford  in  1598,  being  matriculated 
at  University  College  but  becoming  afterwards  a  scholar 


682  WELCHMAN. 

of  Corpus.  He  kept  a  grammar  school  first,  at  Steeple 
Aston,  and  afterwards  at  Bath.  Charles  I.  made  him 
his  chaplain  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  and 
in  1629,  he  baptized  his  majesty's  first  child. 

He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Limerick,  in  December, 
1634.  He  was  confined  by  the  rebels  in  Limerick 
Castle,  where  he  died  in  the  latter  end  of  1641.  His 
principal  work  is  his  Practice  of  Quietness,  directing  a 
a  Christian  to  live  quietly  in  this  troublesome  world. 
The  best  edition  is  that  of  1705,  8vo.  His  other  publi- 
cations are  : — A  Brief  Exposition  of  the  Principles  of  the 
Christian  Religion  ;  Arraignment  of  an  Unruly  Tongue, 
wherein  the  Faults  of  an  Evil  Tongue  are  opened,  the 
Danger  discovered,  and  Remedies  prescribed,  &c.;  Agur's 
Prayer,  or  the  Christian  Choice  ;  Catalogus  Protestan- 
tium,  or  the  Protestant's  Calendar,  containing  a  survey 
of  the  Protestant  Religion  long  before  Luther's  days; 
Lessons  and  Exercises  out  of  Cicero  ad  Atticum.  He 
published  also  some  other  books  for  grammar  schools,  a 
Latin  and  English  edition  of  two  of  Terence's  Comedies ; 
and  several  Sermons,  which  appeared  from  1609  to  1619. 
Wood.     Ware. 

WELCHMAN,    EDWARD. 

Edward  Welchman  was  born  in  1665,  at  Banbury,  in 
Oxfordshire.  He  entered  the  University  of  Oxford  as  a 
scholar  of  Magdalen  Hall,  in  1679.  B.A.  1683.  .  Fellow 
of  Merton,  1684.  M.  A.,  1688.  He  held  the  livings  of 
Lapworth  and  of  Solihull,  in  Warwickshire,  He  was 
Archdeacon  of  Cardigan.  He  died  in  1739.  His  prin- 
cipal work  is  his  Illustration  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles, 
written  originally  in  Latin,  but  afterwards  translated 
from  the  sixth  edition,  under  the  title  of  The  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  illustrated  with 
notes,  &c.,  8vo.  He  published  also,  A  Defence  of  the 
Church  of  England   from  the  Charge  of  Schism   and 


WELLS.  683 

Heresy,  as  laid  against  it  by  the  Vindicator  of  the 
Deprived  Bishops,  (Mr.  Henry  Dodwell,)  London,  1693, 
4to  ;  the  Husbandman's  Manual :  Directing  him  how  to 
improve  the  Several  Actions  of  his  Calling,  and  the  most 
Usual  Occurrences  of  his  Life,  to  the  Glory  of  God,  and 
Benefit  of  his  Soul,  London,  1695,  8vo,  written  for 
the  use  of  his  parishioners  in  Lapworth ;  Dr.  Clarke's 
Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  examined  ;  A  Confer- 
ence with  an  Arian.  He  also  edited  Novatian's  Works, 
published  at  Oxford  in  1724,  Svo. — Wood. 


WELLS,    EDWARD. 

Of  this  learned  divine  and  useful  author  the  place  and 
time  of  his  birth  is  unknown.  He  was  admitted  a 
scholar  of  Westminster  in  1680,  and  was  in  his  turn 
elected  a  student  of  Christ  Church.  He  took  his  M.A. 
degree  in  1693,  and  his  D.D.  in  1704.  He  was  a 
censor  of  Christ  Church,  and  was  presented  by  his  pupil 
Browne  Willis  to  the  Rectory  of  Bletchley,  in  Bucking- 
hamshire. Dr.  Wells  also  obtained  the  Rectory  of 
Cottesbach,  in  Leicestershire,  in  1717.  He  died  in 
1727.  He  published  : — An  Historical  Geography  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  illustrated  with  Maps  and 
Chronological  Tables ;  The  Young  Gentleman's  Course 
of  Mathematics  ;  An  Historical  Geography  of  the  New 
Testament;  Arithmetic  and  Geometry;  A  Paraphrase, 
with  Annotations,  on  all  the  Books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament ;  An  Help  for  the  Right  Understanding  of 
the  several  Divine  Laws  and  Covenants  ;  Controversial 
Treatises  against  the  Dissenters;  An  Exposition  of  the 
Church  Catechism;  Prayers  on  Common  Occasions; 
Harmonia  Grammaticalis,  or  a  View  of  the  Agreement 
between  the  Latin  and  Greek  Tongues,  as  to  the  declin- 
ing of  Words  ;  A  Letter  to  a  Friend  concerning  the 
Great  Sin  of  taking  God's  Name  in  Vain;    Elementa 


684  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

Arithmeticae  Numerosae  et  Speciosse.  He   also  edited 

Dionysius's  Geography,  Gr.  and   Lat  Oxford,  1706. — 
Nichols's  Hist,  of  Leicestershire. 


WESLET,    JOHN.  • 

John  Wesley  was  born  at  Epworth,  in  Lincolnshire,  in 
1703.  In  1714,  he  went  to  the  Charter  House.  And 
in  his  seventeenth  year,  he  was  sent  to  Christ  Church, 
Oxford.  At  the  university  he  was  distinguished  for  his 
good  and  steady  conduct,  his  great  talents,  his  industry, 
his  abstemiousness,  and  his  high  Church  principles. 
One  of  his  rules  then,  and  throughout  life,  was,  "without 
fasting  and  early  rising  it  is  impossible  to  grow  in  grace." 
He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1725,  by  Potter,  at  that  time 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. In  1726,  he  was  elected  fellow  of  Lincoln  College. 
In  1727,  he  became  his  fathers  curate,  at  Wroote.  In 
1728,  he  returned  to  Oxford,  and  was  ordained  priest, 
but  immediately  after  his  ordination  he  set  out  for  Lin- 
colnshire, and  did  not  again  visit  Oxford  till  June,  1729, 
when  he  found  the  seed  of  Methodism  sown,  and  only 
waiting  for  him  to  cultivate  its  growth.  He  found  that 
his  brother  Charles,  Mr.  Morgan,  and  one  or  two  others, 
had  formed  themselves  into  a  society.  Their  first  meet- 
ings, except  on  Sunday  evenings,  were  rather  literary 
than  religious ;  and  their  chief  reading  was  the  classics. 
In  a  little  time,  they  applied  these  meetings  chiefly  to 
religious  purposes;  when  their  regular  and  exemplary 
conduct  first  gave  them  the  name  of  Methodists.  On 
this  subject  the  authority  of  Mr.  Wesley  is  decisive, 
who  explains  it  in  these  words :  "  The  regularity  of  their 
behaviour  gave  occasion  to  a  young  gentleman  of  the 
college  to  say,  '  I  think  we  have  got  a  new  set  of  Metho- 
dists,' alluding  to  a  set  of  physicians,  who  began  to 
flourish  at  Rome  about  the  time  of  Nero,  and  continued 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  685 

for  several  ages.  The  name  was  new  and  quaint.  It 
clave  to  them  immediately;  and  from  that  time,  both 
those  four  young  gentlemen,  and  all  that  had  any  reli- 
gious connexion  with  them,  were  distinguished  by  the 
name  of  Methodists." 

Mr.  Wesley  ascribes  his  first  religious  impressions  at 
Oxford,  to  Bishop  Taylor's  Rules  for  holy  Living  and 
Dying,  which  fell  in  his  way ;  and  those  impressions 
were  confirmed  and  increased  by  reading  Stanhope's 
Kempis,  and  the  Serious  Call  and  Christian  Perfection 
of  Mr.  Law.  In  reading  these  books,  he  tells  us,  that 
he  found  such  comfort  as  he  had  never  felt  before  :  and 
that,  meeting  with  a  religious  friend,  he  began  to  alter 
"  the  form  of  his  conversation,  and  to  set  out  in  earnest 
upon  a  new  life."  He  saw,  as  he  observes,  more  and 
more  of  the  value  of  time  ;  shook  off  all  his  trifling 
acquaintance ;  applied  himself  more  closely  to  study ; 
watched  against  actual  sins,  and  advised  others  to  be 
religious,  according  to  that  scheme  of  religion  by  which 
he  modelled  his  own  life.  In  a  little  time,  says  he, 
**I  was  convinced  more  than  ever  of  the  exceeding  height 
and  breadth,  and  depth  of  the  lawjof  God.  The  light 
flowed  in  so  mightily  upon  my  soul,  that  every  thing 
appeared  in  a  new  view.  I  cried  to  God  for  help,  and 
resolved  not  to  prolong  the  time  of  obeying  Him,  as  I 
had  never  done  before.  And  by  my  continued  endeavour 
to  keep  his  whole  law,  inward  and  outward,  to  the  best  of 
my  power,  I  was  persuaded  that  I  should  be  accepted  of 
Him,  and  that  I  was  even  then  in  a  state  of  salvation." 

The  society,  with  which  he  was  connected,  to  an  un- 
usual strictness  of  deportment,  and  frequent  meetings 
with  each  other,  soon  added  a  more  diffusive  scheme  of 
utility.  The  principal  and  most  active  among  them  was 
Mr.  Morgan.  By  his  advice  and  example,  they  visited 
the  sick  and  the  prisoners  in  the  castle ;  they  instituted 
a  fund  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  were  so  diligent  in 
the  ordinances  of  religion,   and  so  industrious  in  doing. 

VOL.  VIII.  3   N 


630  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

good,  that  they  began  to  be  taken  notice  of,  and  were 
presently  distinguished  by  the  name  of  Methodists,  Sacra- 
mentarians,  and  the  Godly  Club. 

The  better  to  accomplish  his  benevolent  designs,  Mr. 
Wesley  abridged  himself  of  all  the  superfluities,  and  of 
some  things  that  are  called  the  necessaries  of  life ;  and 
proposing  their  scheme  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  to 
several  gentlemen,  they  increased  their  fund  to  about 
eighty  pounds  a  year.  These  things,  added  to  their 
observance  of  the  fasts  of  the  ancient  Church,  and  their 
strict  attention  to  every  kind  of  religious  duty,  rendered 
them  more  and  more  obnoxious  to  censure  ;  so  that  they 
were  now  not  only  laughed  at  by  the  young  men,  but 
some  of  the  seniors  of  the  university  began  to  interfere. 
One  gentleman,  a  man  of  learning,  and  esteemed  a  man 
of  piety,  threatened  his  nephew,  that,  if  he  went  any 
more  to  the  weekly  communion,  he  would  turn  him  out 
of  doors.  The  young  gentleman,  however,  went  as  usual. 
His  uncle  now  shook  him  by  the  throat,  and  threatened 
him  to  no  purpose  ;  so  that,  being  disappointed  in  such 
methods,  he  changed  his  plan,  and  by  great  mildness 
and  condescension,  prevailed  on  him  to  absent  himself 
for  at  least  five  Sundays  in  six,  which  he  continued  to 
do  ever  after. 

In  consequence  of  this,  another  gentleman  prevailed 
on  some  of  the  rest  to  promise  that  they  would  receive 
the  sacrament  only  three  times  a  year.  It  was  now  reported 
that  the  college  censors  were  going  to  blow  up  the  Godly 
Club ;  and  Mr.  Wesley,  perceiving  the  opposition  they 
would  meet  with,  consulted  his  father,  and  some  other 
gentlemen  of  piety  and  learning,  whether  they  should  re- 
treat or  go  forward.  The  answers  were  such  as  they  ought 
to  be.  They  were  advised  to  go  on.  The  Bishop  of  Oxford' 
and  the  officiating  minister  at  the  Castle  were  consulted,, 
who  greatly  approved  of  their  proceedings  :  and  indeed, 
unless  a  man  were  a  determined  enemy  to  all  religion, 
it  was  impossible  not  to  approve  them.       Of  this  Club 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  68t 

HaiTey  and  Whitefield  were  members.  In  1732, 
he  paid  a  visit  to  the  celebrated  William  Law, 
with  whose  writings  he  was  much  fascinated.  He  was 
now  a  student  of  the  mystic  writers,  and  particularly 
admired  the  Theologia  Germanica,  incorrectly  attributed 
to  Tauler.  We  find  him  urged  by  his  family  to  seek  for 
or  accept  the  presentation  of  the  living  to  Epworth,  as 
his  father's  successor.  His  father  urged  it  upon  him. 
The  people  wished  it.  It  was  important  for  his  family 
that  he  should  take  the  situation  placed  in  his  way  by 
Providence.  But  the  love  of  excitement  was  one  of 
Wesley's  besetting  sins,  and  he  could  not  prevail  upon 
himself  to  settle  down  as  a  country  clergyman.  His  love 
of  excitement  was  soon  to  be  gratified,  for  in  1735,  he 
received  an  appointment  from  the  venerable  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  as  first  mis- 
sionary in  Georgia ;  and,  as  it  is  remarked  in  the  report 
published  in  1851,  though  he  remained  in  America  only 
two  years,  no  one  ever  exhibited  more  zeal  or  greater 
devotion  to  his  duties.  His  manner  of  life  was  remark- 
ably plain  and  frugal.  He  was  indefatigable  in  his 
ministrations ;  and,  as  there  were  scattered  settlements 
of  French,  Italians,  and  Germans,  within  his  mission,  he 
officiated  to  those  several  congregations  in  their  own 
tongue.  No  soldier  of  Christ  was  ever  more  ready  to 
endure  hardness  than  John  Wesley,  for  "  he  frequently 
slept  on  the  ground,  sometimes  waded  through  swamps, 
or  swam  over  rivers,  and  then  travelled  till  his  clothes 
were  dry.  Who  shall  say  what  might  have  been  the 
happy  results  had  such  a  man  stood  steadfastly  by  that 
Church  which  he  had  proved  himself  so  well  able  to  serve  ? 
Alas  !  it  is  vain  to  indulge  in  such  conjectures  ;  but  it  is 
due  to  truth  to  say  that  John  Wesley  at  least  did  not 
leave  the  Church  because  there  was  no  occupation  for  his 
energies  found  for  him  within  it." 

Notwithstanding  his  ministerial  exertions,  he  became 
the  hero  of  a  love  story,  and  not  conducting  himself  with 


688  WESLEY,  JOHK. 

his  usual  good  sense,  he  found  it  expedient  to  leave  a 
position  where  he  had  rendered  himself  ridiculous,  and 
was  about  to  be  prosecuted  for  defamation.  He  returned 
to  England  in  1738,  a  few  hours  after  George  Whitefield, 
who  was  a  member  of  the  Methodists'  Society  at  Oxford, 
had  set  sail  from  the  Downs  for  Georgia.  During 
Wesley's  residence  of  several  weeks  in  London,  after  his 
return  from  America,  he  preached  in  many  of  the 
churches;  but  such  was  the  effect  of  his  unfashionable 
doctrine,  that  after  the  first  sermon  in  every  church,  he 
was  generally  informed,  he  must  preach  there  no  more. 
The  doctrine,  to  which  we  particularly  allude,  is  what  he 
calls  "  saving  faith,"  which,  he  informs  us,  he  saw  clearly 
on  Monday,  March  6th,  1738,  and  *'  declared  it  without 
delay."  The  consequence  of  this  mode  of  preaching,  he 
says,  was,  that  God  then  began  to  work  by  his  ministry, 
as  He  had  never  done  before. 

He  now  spent  some  time  in  visiting  some  of  his  friends 
and  relations  ;  met  with  Peter  Bohler,  Schulius  Eichter, 
and  other  Moravians  just  landed  from  Germany  ;  in 
whose  company  and  conversation  he  expressed  a  particu- 
lar satisfaction.  Soon  after,  going  to  Oxford  to  see  his 
brother  Charles,  who  was  said  to  be  dying,  he  found  him 
recovering  from  the  pleurisy.  Here  he  again  met  with 
Bohler,  who  thought  him  too  philosophical,  or  too 
rational  (for  we  cannot  tell  which)  and  laconically  told 
him,  "  mi  frater,  mi  frater,  philosphia  ista  tua  excoquen- 
da  est."  It  was  by  him,  he  tells  us,  he  was  convinced  of 
the  want  of  that  faith,  whereby  alone  we  are  saved  ;  and 
by  his  advice  he  hegan  to  preach  *'  salvation  by  faith 
alone."  Peter's  words  are  remarkable:  "preach  faith 
till  you  have  it ;  and  then  because  you  have  it  you  will 
preach  faith."  The  first  to  whom  he  preached  this 
doctrine,  was  a  prisoner  under  sentence  of  death.  The 
effect  is  not  mentioned. 

Much  of  this  spring  was  spent  in  travelling  with  Mr. 
Kinchlin,  a  fellow   of    Corpus,  to  Manchester,   Holms 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  689 

Chapel,  Newcastle  in  Staffordshire,  and  several  other 
towns,  where  they  frequently  preached  and  exhorted, 
either  embracing  or  making  occasions  of  speaking  in 
public  and  private,  in  inns  and  stables,  and  wherever 
they  came,  on  matters  of  religion,  and  with  various 
success.  Some  stared  in  silent  astonishment  at  their 
reproofs  and  exhortations  ;  while  others  seemed  thankful 
and  willing  to  receive  instruction.  In  some  instances 
prudence  held  their  tongues,  and  prevented  them  from 
embracing  opportunities  of  speaking  to  those  who 
attended  them  at  their  inns,  and  in  other  places ;  and  Mr. 
Wesley  mentions  some  occasions,  in  which  he  supposes 
they  were  providentially  rebuked  for  their  negligence. 
Among  others  he  gives  the  following  instance :  "The 
next  day,  March  11th,  we  dined  at  Birmingham,  and 
soon  after  we  left  it,  were  reproved  for  our  negligence 
there  (in  letting  those  who  attended  us,  go  without 
either  exhortation  or  instruction)  by  a  severe  shower 
of  hail !" 

In  the  latter  end  of  March,  or  the  beginning  of 
April,  he  left  off  his  custom  of  confining  himself  to  a  form 
of  prayer.  This  change  first  took  place  at  the  Castle,  in 
Oxford,  where  he  and  Mr.  Kinchlin  went  to  visit  a 
prisoner.  They  first  prayed  in  several  forms,  and  then 
in  "such  words  as  were  given  them  in  that  hour."  The 
man  kneeled  down  in  "  great  heaviness  and  confusion." 
After  a  short  space  he  rose  up,  and  eagerly  said,  '*  I  am 
now  ready  to  die.  I  know  Christ  has  taken  away  my 
sins,  and  there  is  no  more  condemnation  for  me."  He 
adds,  "  the  same  composed  cheerfulness  he  shewed, 
when  carried  to  execution  :  and  in  his  last  moments  he 
was  the  same,  enjoying  a  perfect  peace,  in  confidence, 
that  he  w^as  accepted  in  the  Beloved."  Mr.  Wesley 
again  observes,  that  on  Monday,  April  1st,  being  at 
Mr.  Fox's  society,  his  heart  was  so  full,  that  he  could 
not  confine  himself  to  the  usual  forms  ;  and  that  he  did 
not  propose  to  be  confined  to  them  any  more,  but  to 
3  N  3 


690  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

pray  indifferently,  with  a  form  or  without,  as  he  should 
find  suitable  to  particular  occasions." 

At  this  time,  his  mind  having  been  warmed  by  the 
discourses  of  his  Moravian  friends,  he  was  waiting  in 
anxious  expectation  for  his  own  conversion.  He  says, 
that  he  had  now  no  objection  to  what  Bohler  had  said 
of  the  nature  of  faith,  and  of  the  holiness  and  happiness, 
which  he  described  as  the  fruit  of  it.  But  he  could  not 
comprehend  what  he  spoke  of  an  instantaneous  work. 
He  could  not  understand,  *'  how  this  faith  should  be 
given  in  a  moment ;  how  a  man  could  at  once  be  thus 
turned  from  darkness  to  light,  from  sin  and  misery,  to 
righteousness  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  To  satisfy 
himself  on  this  subject,  he  searched  the  Scriptures,  par- 
ticularly the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  and  the  result  was, 
that,  to  his  utter  astonishment,  he  *'  found  scarce  any 
other  instances  there,  than  instantaneous  conversions ; 
scarce  any  so  slow  as  that  of  St.  Paul,  who  was  three 
days  in  the  pangs  of  the  new  birth."  The  only  retreat 
he  now  had,  was  in  the  difference  between  the  present 
and  the  primitive  times.  He  was  persuaded,  that  "  God 
wrought  thus  in  the  first  ages  of  Christianity ;"  but  the 
times  being  changed,  he  was  not  certain  that  he  would 
"  work  in  the  same  manner  now." 

On  Sunday,  the  22nd  of  April,  he  was  driven  out  of 
this  retreat,  by  "  the  concurring  testimony  of  several 
living  witnesses,  who  declared,  that  God  had  thus 
wrought  in  themselves,  giving  them  in  a  moment,  such 
a  faith  in  the  blood  of  his  Son,  as  translated  them 
out  of  darkness  into  light,  out  of  sin  and  fear  into 
holiness  and  happiness."  Here,  says  he,  ended  my 
disputing.  I  could  only  cry  out,  "  Lord  help  thou 
my  unbelief." 

His  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  this  doctrine  was 
increased,  as  he  informs  us,  by  "  hearing  the  experiences 
of  Mr.  Hutchins  of  Pembroke  College,  and  Mrs.  Fox  ; 
two  living  witnesses,  that  God  can  at  least,  if  he  does 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  69J 

not  always,  give  that  faith,  whereof  cometh  salvation,  in 
a  moment,  as  lightning  falling  from  heaven." 

The  day  from  which  Mr.  Wesley  dates  his  conversion, 
is  May  24th,  1738.  He  has  introduced  it  with  a  studied 
solemnity,  by  an  enumeration  of  the  various  circum- 
stances we  have  recited,  with  many  more  of  ihe  same 
sort ;  and  it  is  immediately  prefaced  by  an  account  of 
himself,  from  his  infancy  till  that  moment.  It  was  on 
the  evening  of  this  day,  that  he  went  to  a  society  in 
Aid ersgate- street,  where  some  one  was  reading  Luther's 
preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  About  a  quarter 
before  nine,  says  he,  while  he  was  describing  the  change 
that  God  works  in  the  heart,  through  faith  in  Christ, 
•'  I  felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed.  I  felt,  I  did  trust 
in  Christ,  Christ  alone  for  my  salvation :  and  an  assu- 
rance was  given  me,  that  he  had  taken  away  my  sins, 
even  mine,  and  saved  me  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 
He  adds,  that  he  immediately  began  to  pray,  particularly 
for  his  enemies  and  persecutors,  and  declared  to  all  that 
were  present  what  he  now  felt.  With  some  intervals  of 
doubt  and  fear,  he  continued  in  this  situation,  and  went 
up  and  down  preaching  and  labouring  with  all  his  might. 

Various  were  the  effects  of  those  peculiar  doctrines, 
which  Mr.  Wesley  had  preached  for  some  time  before  he 
professed  to  have  experienced  them  himself.  Many  were 
offended,  and  among  the  rest,  his  brother  Charles  ;  who 
told  him,  he  did  not  know  what  mischief  he  had  done, 
by  talking  in  this  manner ;  and  he  observes,  that  God 
did  indeed  from  that  time  kindle  a  fire,  which  he  hoped 
would  never  be  extinguished.  The  influence  of  this  fire 
was  fierce  and  decisive.  Many  are  represented  as  falling 
suddenly  to  the  ground,  in  horror  and  agony  not  to  be 
conceived,  and  rising  again  with  equal  expressions  of 
peace  and  consolation.  Their  conversions  were  usually 
attended  with  these  violent  symptoms ;  and,  for  several 
years,  few  meetings  occurred,  where  Mr.  Wesley  presided* 
without  one  or  more  instances  of  the  same  kind. 


692  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  May  that  the  first  Methodist 
society  was  formed  in  London.  Mr.  Wesley  is  particu- 
larly careful  to  distinguish  the  origin  of  Methodism  into 
three  distinct  periods.  The  first  commenced  at  Oxford, 
m  1729;  the  second  at  Savannah,  in  1736,  when  twenty 
or  thirty  met  at  his  house ;  and  the  last  in  London,  on 
the  first  of  May,  1788,  when  about  fifty  agreed  to  meet 
together  once  a  week,  in  order  to  a  free  conversation, 
begun  and  ended  with  singing  and  prayer." 

About  this  time  his  friend  Bohler  embarked  for 
America.  On  this  occasion  he  contemplates,  in  a  kind 
of  rapture,  the  happy  effects  of  his  arrival  in  England ; 
such,  says  he,  as  will  remain  "when  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  pass  away."  Mr,  Wesley  was  now  much  per- 
plexed with  doubts  and  fears,  concerning  his  own  state, 
and  determined  to  retire  for  some  time  to  Germany; 
hoping  that  the  conversation  he  would  meet  with  there, 
might  be  the  means  of  establishing  him  more  fully  in 
the  faith.  Taking  leave  of  his  mother,  he  embarked  on 
Tuesday,  the  13th  of  June,  1738,  and  on  Thursday 
landed  at  Rotterdam.  He  arrived  at  Marienburn  on  the 
4th  of  July,  and  was  introduced  to  Count  Zinzendorf. 

At  Hernhut,  he  remained  a  fortnight,  and  returned  to 
England  in  1738.  Reaching  London  on  the  16th  of 
September,  he  began  to  exhort  and  preach,  which  he 
frequently  did  three  or  four  times  a  day,  at  Newgate  and 
in  different  parts  of  the  city.  He  still  retained  his  fel- 
lowship ;  but  made  several  excursions  into  the  country, 
and  with  astonishing  rapidity,  made  a  multitude  of  con- 
verts, and  established  societies  in  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom.  The  reproaches  poured  upon  him  from 
various  quarters,  and  the  reports  eagerly  circulated 
against  him,  seem  to  have  had  no  other  effect,  than  to 
stimulate  his  courage  and  inflame  his  zeal.  Whether 
followed  or  despised,  persecuted  or  applauded,  he  never 
lost  sight  of  his  object. 

Mr.  Wesley's  first  essay  in  field  preaching  appears  not 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  693 

to  have  been  adventured  without  some  deliberation ;  and 
it  was  finally  determined  upon,  in  consequence  of  the 
example  set  him,  the  day  before,  by  Mr.  Whitefield,  who 
had  lately  returned  from  America.  It  seems,  it  was 
some  time  before  he  could  reconcile  himself  to  "  this 
strange  way  :"  but  happening,  or  perhaps  choosing  by 
way  of  preparation,  to  expound  to  his  congregation  at 
Bristol  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Vv^hich,  he  observes, 
is  "one  pretty  remarkable  precedent  of  field-preaching;" 
and  being  encouraged  by  the  countenance  of  his  old 
friend,  he  gave  his  scruples  to  the  winds,  and  took  the 
field  on  an  eminence,  on  the  suburbs  of  Bristol,  on  the 
2nd  of  April,  1739.  A  memorialist,  in  one  of  the  mag- 
azines, who  has  made  himself  very  merry  at  his  expense, 
remarks  that  this  event  will  form  "  an  epoch  of  some 
consequence  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  eighteenth 
century." 

It  will  hardly  be  expected,  and  is  indeed  impossible, 
if  we  would  avoid  endless  repetitions,  that  we  should 
follow  Mr.  Wesley  through  the  track  laid  down  in  his 
journals.  We  can  only  touch  upon  the  principal  events. 
From  1738  to  1747,  he  and  his  brethren  were  employed 
in  various  parts  of  England;  particularly  in  London, 
Bristol,  and  Newcastle-upon  Tyne,  in  Lincolnshire,  Staf- 
fordshire and  Cornwall ;  and  among  the  colliers  both  at 
Kingswood  and  in  the  north.  In  August,  1747,  he  went 
over  to  Dublin,  where  a  society  had  been  collected  by  a 
Mr.  Williams,  who  we  believe  was  a  clergyman,  or  at 
least  officiated  in  that  character.  Considering  the  im- 
mense number  of  papists  (who  are  not  easily  proselyted) 
and  the  fierceness  of  their  opposers,  Mr.  Wesley  and  his 
fellow-labourers  were  more  successful  than  could  have 
been  expected.  In  1790,  they  had  erected  meeting- 
houses in  every  part  of  the  kingdom ;  and  had  formed 
twenty-nine  circuits,  which  employed  sixty-seven  itine- 
rants, and  a  considerable  number  of  local  preachers. 

The    Methodists   of    this    country    have    been   long 


694  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

distinguished  among  the  mob,  by  the  elegant  term, 
swadlers.  Mr.  Wesley  seems  to  have  been  much  pleased 
with  the  character  and  behaviour  of  the  Irish,  and  agrees 
with  every  candid  observer  of  that  polite  and  hospitable 
people,  in  giving  them  the  just  praise  of  their  liberal  and 
courteous  manners.  In  those  attentions  which  constitute 
one  great  charm  of  civil  society,  and  are  peculiarly  grate- 
ful to  a  stranger,  we  know  not  whether  they  are  equalled; 
they  certainly  are  not  exceeded  by  any  people  we  have 
known.  Mr.  Wesley  has  somewhere  observed,  that  he 
has  seen  as  true  courtesy  in  an  Irish  cabin,  as  could 
have  been  found  at  St.  James's,  or  the  Louvre. 

It  was  not  till  April,  1751,  that,  invited  by  an  officer 
in  quarters  at  Musselborough,  he  made  his  first  tour  into 
Scotland.  In  this  town  he  preached  once  or  twice ;  but 
made  no  stay.  In  April,  1753,  he  visited  the  north  once 
more,  and  went  immediately  to  Glasgow.  Here,  at 
Edinburgh,  Dundee,  Aberdeen,  Inverness,  and  a  few 
other  places,  societies  were  at  length  established  :  but 
his  success  in  Scotland,  and  in  the  other  parts  of  the 
nation,  bore  no  sort  of  proportion.  In  1790,  the  number 
of  circuits,  north  of  Tweed,  was  no  more  than  eight ; 
which  were  supplied  by  twenty  itinerants.  That  of  the 
people  was  equally  inconsiderable. 

The  persecutions  which  Wesley  and  his  associates 
had  to  endure  were  disgraceful,  and  it  would  hardly  be 
believed  that  a  brutal  mob  was  often  urged  on  by  gentle- 
men, and  aided  in  their  lawless  proceedings  by  magis- 
trates, if  we  had  not  ourselves,  in  the  present  age,  been 
witnesses  of  a  similar  attempt.  It  is  curious  to  observe 
that  the  Calvinists,  from  the  time  when  Calvin  per- 
secuted Servetus  to  the  days  of  the  Puritans,  and  from 
the  days  of  the  Puritans  to  the  present  hour,  have 
always  been  the  most  violent  and  persecuting  in  their 
spirit  and  actions  against  their  opponents. 

John  Wesley  was  early  impressed,  (and  the  principle 
was  more  powerful  and  uniform  in  his  brother  Charles,) 


WESLEY,  JOHN,  695 

with  a  strong  predilection  for  the  clergy ;  which  would 
naturally  induce  him  to  wish  for  assistants  in  holy 
orders.  It  was  from  this  principle,  and  perhaps  too 
from  their  former  intimacy  at  Oxford,  that  he  took  some 
pains  to  cement  the  union  between  Mr.  Whitefield 
and  himself.  Had  they  harmonized  in  opinion,  a 
coalition  might  have  taken  place  ;  but  with  their  views 
it  was  impossible.  The  former  was  an  advocate  for 
particular,  the  latter  for  universal  redemption  ;  the  one 
a  staunch  Predestinarian,  the  other  as  resolute  an  Armi- 
nian  :  and  such  was  the  effect  of  this  distinction,  that 
they  resolved  finally  to  separate  ;  their  converts  mutually 
dividing  under  their  respective  leaders. 

Though  this  contention  might  have  a  tendency  to 
weaken,  it  does  not  appear  to  have  eradicated  in  Mr, 
Wesley  his  esteem  for  Mr.  Whitefield.  He  entertained 
the  highest  opinion  of  his  character,  and  constantly 
spoke  of  him  in  terms  infinitely  more  respectful,  than 
of  any  other  of  his  antagonists,  especially  his  former 
friends,  the  Moravians.  These  he  treated  with  as  little 
ceremony  as  they  seem  to  have  treated  him,  and  alter- 
nately attacked  them  with  the  seriousness  of  argument 
and  the  poignancy  of  ridicule. 

In  1751,  Wesley  surprised  his  friends  by  marrying  a 
widow,  Mrs.  Vizelle.  The  marriage  was  a  very  unhappy 
one.  Wesley  was  too  busy  to  be  domestic,  and  the  lady 
was  jealous.  In  the  early  stages  of  his  career,  Wesley's 
sentiments  suffered  a  variety  of  revolutions,  or  at  least 
of  progressions,  and  sometimes  led  him  to  take  notice, 
both  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  of  several  things, 
which  might  well  have  been  spared.  A  discourse  on 
Tea,  or  a  learned  lecture  on  the  importance  and  superior 
advantages  of  Celibacy,  will  scarcely  strike  the  mind  as 
the  most  proper  subjects  of  clerical  discussions,  or  as 
having  any  necessary  connexion  with  our  religious 
concerns.  As  for  the  first  of  these,  there  seems  to  be 
but  one  point  of  view  in  which  it  is  worth  notice,  and' 


696  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

in  that  view,  it  belongs,  not  to  theology,  but  to  medicine. 
Of  the  latter,  every  one  must  judge  for  himself.  An 
apostle  might  surely  recommend  a  single  life,  in  times 
of  danger  and  general  perplexity,  without  ever  intending 
it  to  be  established  as  a  standing  rule.  The  expressions 
of  our  Lord  on  this  subject,  as  well  as  those  of  St.  Paul, 
seem  merely  applicable  to  a  particular  season.  And 
though  Mr.  Wesley  insists,  that  "  celibacy  is  the  more 
excellent  way,"  and  that  St.  Paul  has  laid  down  such 
advantages  of  it,  "  as  are  by  no  means  confined  to  a 
state  of  persecution,"  we  beg  leave  to  doubt  the  truth 
of  a  position,  which,  if  generally  admitted,  would  tend  to 
the  destruction  of  society,  and  is  directly  levelled  against 
the  unalterable  laws  of  nature,  and  a  positive  command 
of  its  great  author.  To  combat  these,  is  to  be  at  war 
with  reason.  The  doctrine  he  so  zealously  inculcated, 
is  not  only  unscriptural,  but  dangerous.  It  may  well 
enough  comport  with  the  Papal  superstition;  but  true 
religion  must  ever  abhor  so  chimerical  a  system.  Among 
those  sects,  who  have  most  favoured  it,  the  purity  they 
pretended  to  induce  by  an  opposition  to  the  law  of  nature, 
was  in  fact  never  attained  ;  and  they  frequently  fell  into 
vices,  which  were  the  natural  consequence  of  so  absurd  a 
principle. 

It  is  possible  that  Wesley  may  have  determined  to 
marry  to  give  a  practical  proof  that  in  this  respect 
his  opinions  had  undergone  a  change.  In  order  to 
form  the  numerous  societies  of  which  the  Methodists 
consist,  Wesley's  labours  as  a  preacher  are  without  pre- 
cedent. During  the  fifty  years  which  compose  his 
itinerant  life,  he  travelled  about  4,500  miles  every 
year,  one  year  with  another,  which  amount,  in  the 
above  space  of  time,  to  225,000  miles.  It  had  been 
impossible  for  him  to  perform  this  almost  incredible 
degree  of  labour  without  great  punctuality  and  economy 
in  the  management  of  his  time.  He  had  stated  hours 
for  every  purpose  ;  and  his  only  relaxation  was  a  change 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  697 

of  employment.  For  fifty-two  years,  or  upwards,  he 
generally  delivered  two,  frequently  three  or  four,  ser- 
mons in  a  day.  If  to  this  it  be  added  that  he  was  a 
very  copious  writer,  it  is  probable  that,  few  men  ever 
lived  whose  time  was  more  fully  occupied.  Time,  indeed, 
was  the  possession  on  which  he  set  the  highest  value  ; 
and  by  very  early  rising  and  exact  punctuality  he  seemed 
to  enjoy  more  of  it  than  usually  belongs  even  to  a  life 
protracted  as  his  was.  At  first  it  had  been  supposed 
that  Wesley's  intention  was  to  revive  a  religious  spirit 
with  the  aid  of  regular  clergymen ;  but  he  soon  found 
it  impossible  to  find  a  number  sufficient  for  the  exten- 
sive design  he  had  formed.  He  therefore,  although  at 
first  with  some  reluctance,  employed  laymen  to  preach, 
who  soon  became  numerous  enough  to  carry  on  his 
purpose. 

Although  this  wrong  doing  on  the  part  of  Wesley 
was  not  relished  by  the  rich  and  the  great,  it  was 
better  received  among  the  lower  class.  It  flattered 
their  natural  fondness  for  equalization ;  while  it  laid 
a  foundation  for  a  perpetual  and  inexhaustible  supply 
of  preachers,  and  consequently,  was  no  small  source  of 
the  rapid  increase  of  the  societies. 

In  Mr.  Wesley's  plan,  almost  every  thing  that  could 
be  thought  of,  as  having  a  tendency  to  create  influence, 
and  conciliate  esteem,  was  sanctioned  by  a  standing 
rule.  Visiting  from  house  to  house ;  a  punctual  atten- 
tion to  the  sick  and  afflicted ;  frequent  collections  for 
the  poor,  and  the  strict  morality  which  is  inculcated  in 
the  regulations  he  established,  have  an  air  of  much  piety 
and  humanity,  and  doubtless  had  no  small  influence  on 
the  success  of  his  undertakings. 

In  this  system  the  order  is  as  follows :  — the  preachers, 
the  stewards,  the  leaders,  the  people.  The  office  of  a 
preacher  is,  to  preach  twice  a  day,  to  visit  the  sick,  to 
meet  the  stewards  and  leaders  once  a  week,  and  to  pre- 
side in  the  various  meetings  whenever  he  shall  happen 

VOL.  VIII.  3   0 


698  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

to  be  present.  One  preacher,  in  every  circuit,  is  called 
the  assistant.  It  is  his  business  to  superintend  the 
conduct  of  the  other  preachers,  and  of  the  societies  at 
large ;  to  appoint  all  the  occasional  assemblies,  such  as 
watch-nights,  and  quarterly  meetings ;  to  make  the  col- 
lections at  stated  periods ;  and  to  give  an  account,  at 
the  annual  conference,  of  the  state  of  the  societies  in 
his  circuit. 

The  office  of  a  steward,  is  to  receive  the  collections, 
and  to  superintend  the  temporal  economy  of  the  societies. 
That  of  a  leader  is  to  meet  once  a  week  a  certain 
number  of  people,  who  are  called  his  class ;  to  re- 
ceive their  contributions,  which  he  gives  in  to  the 
steward,  to  superintend  their  conduct,  and  to  assist 
the  preachers  in  visiting  the  sick. 

It  is  expected  of  the  people,  that  they  strictly  observe 
the  rules  of  the  society,  by  punctually  attending  the 
meetings,  public  and  private ;  by  keeping  up  public 
worship  in  their  families  ;  by  abstaining  from  all  games, 
such  as  cards  and  dice,  and  whatever  is  usually  classed 
under  the  head  of  amusement;  and  above  all,  by  avoid- 
ing every  species  of  immorality. 

The  meetings  among  the  Methodists,  especially  in 
large  towns,  are  almost  without  number.  Every  society 
is  divided  into  companies  of  ten  or  fifteen,  called  classes ; 
each  of  which  regularly  meets  the  leader  once  a  week. 
Many  of  these  are  subdivided  into  smaller  companies, 
called  bands,  which  also  meet  once  a  week  ;  and  these 
are  again  collected  into  a  general  company,  called  the 
body  bands,  and  another  called  the  select  band ;  each  of 
which  is  met  by  the  preacher  once  a  week.  It  is  need- 
less to  add,  that  these  meetings  are  purely  religious. 
The  select  bands  are  made  up  chiefly  by  those  vrho  pro- 
fess perfection,  and  as  the  name  signifies,  are,  for  some 
real  or  supposed  distinction  in  piety,  selected  from  the 
rest.  These  were  the  peculiar  favourites  of  Mr.  Wesley ; 
and,  at  one  time,  that  is  during  the  rage  of  prophecy, 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  699 

in  1763,  amounted  in  London  alone  to  six  hundred. 
If,  to  the  meetings  already  enumerated,  we  add  from 
thirteen  to  fourteen  sermons  preached  in  the  course  of 
the  week,  which  was  the  case  in  many  places  in  the  king- 
dom, and  the  love-feasts,  the  watch-nights,  and  occa- 
sional meetings  for  prayer,  as  on  Wednesdays  and 
Fridays,  the  number  will  appear  astonishing !  Indeed,  we 
do  not  scruple  to  say,  that  they  were  much  too  frequent ; 
and  a  relaxation,  in  this  instance,  especially  among  the 
large  societies,  soon  became  necessary,  not  only  to  the 
preachers,  who,  in  more  senses  than  one,  were  exhausted 
and  worn  out  by  this  excessive  labour,  but  also  to  the 
people  who  were  too  frequently  called  away  from  their 
families,  and  their  temporal  concerns. 

Much  fault  has  been  found  with  the  mode  of  con- 
ducting many  of  these  meetings.  To  the  classes  and 
bands,  it  has  been  particularly  objected,  that  they  turn 
too  much  on  personal  examination  and  inquiry  into  the 
states  of  individuals ;  and  have  a  tendency  to  produce, 
in  the  ignorant  or  hypocritical,  false,  and  absurd  preten- 
sions to  superior  sanctity.  In  this  instance,  we  are  of 
opinion,  that  an  alteration  might  easily  be  made  for  the 
better;  and  that,  if  advice  and  exhortation,  or  even  a 
free  conversation  on  some  scriptural  subject,  were  sub- 
stituted, it  would  be  more  conducive  to  the  interests  of 
religion. 

In  the  beginning  of  Methodism,  and  always  till  the 
execution  of  the  deed  in  1784,  every  preacher  was  con- 
sidered, when  admitted,  to  travel,  as  a  member  of  con- 
ference ;  which  was  held  in  the  months  of  July  or  August, 
at  London,  Bristol,  Leeds,  or  Manchester. 

In  this  meeting  Mr.  Wesley  presided.  Here  young 
preachers,  offered  upon  trial,  were  admitted  or  rejected. 
The  character  of  every  itinerant  underwent  a  scrutiny, 
and,  in  case  of  immorality,  or  any  sufficient  cause,  the 
punishment  was  suspension  or  dismission.  Each  preacher 
on  admission,  paid  one  guinea,  and  half  a  guinea  an 


700  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

nually,  as  a  fund  for  the  support  of  superannuatecl 
preachers  and  their  widows.  Collections  were  here 
received  from  all  quarters,  for  the  support  of  the  work ; 
and  the  preachers  were  appointed  to  their  districts  for 
the  ensuing  year. 

It  may  naturally  be  supposed,  that,  among  two  or 
three  hundred  persons,  there  would  sometimes  happen 
a  clashing  of  interests ;  and  that  several,  being  anxious 
for  an  appointment  to  the  same  circuit,  some  unpleasant 
altercations  would  arise.  But  this  was  much  less  fre- 
quent than  might  have  been  expected.  Mr.  Wesley 
generally  marked  their  respective  circuits  in  his  own 
plan,  and  regulated  almost  every  thing  of  importance, 
previous  to  the  meeting  of  conference;  so  that,  within 
twenty  years  of  his  death,  this  meeting  was  in  fact 
rather  for  the  declaration  or  ratification  of  his  decisions 
than  for  any  purposes  of  deliberation  and  counsel :  and 
such  was  the  ascendency  he  had  acquired,  and  such  their  ^ 
esteem  and  veneration  for  this  extraordinary  man,  that 
though  the  Whigs  now  and  then  complained,  and  felt  a 
little  sore,  on  being  treated  like  a  French  parliament,  as 
he  sometimes  called  them,  in  general,  they  did  not  fail 
to  acquiesce.  There  were  however  some  instances  to  the 
contrary.  Some  not  only  remonstrated  against  any  thing 
they  disapproved,  but  even  challenged  him  to  dispute 
the  point ;  an  invitation,  which,  it  is  needless  to  add, 
was  not  often  accepted.  But  rebellion  was  seldom  suc- 
cessful, and  the  malcontents  were  commonly  under  the 
necessity  of  submitting,  or  of  leaving  the  connexion. 

At  the  meetings  of  conference,  Mr.  Wesley  usually 
preached  both  night  and  morning.  On  these  occasions 
he  took  care  to  exemplify  in  his  own  practice,  and  in  a 
manner  peculiar  to  himself  to  enforce,  early  rising,  with 
similar  regulations.  And  every  one  knows,  that  he  had 
a  superior  talent,  for  making  trifles  appear  important, 
and  for  turning  indifferent  things,  when  he  disapproved 
them,  into  ridicule  and  contempt.     The  most  judicious 


WESLEY,  JOHN.  701 

of  his  preachers  and  people  always  thought  he  went  too 
far  in  trifles  and  non-essentials  ;  but  they  all  admired 
the  address  with  which  he  recommended  them. 

By  some  of  his  followers,  his  conduct  and  opinions 
were  observed,  as  an  infallible  rule  of  judgment  and 
practice.  Some  of  his  preachers  carried  their  admiration 
so  far  as  to  quote  his  writings  in  public,  as  others  quote 
the  Scriptures,  and  to  imitate  him  in  almost  every  thing. 
If  he  left  off  tea,  which  he  did  in  1742,  they  did  the 
same.  If  he  lay  upon  the  boards,  or  lived  on  vegetables, 
they  did  so  too ;  and  because  he  was  fond  of  morning 
preaching,  they  observed  the  practice,  at  five  in  the 
morning,  winter  and  summer,  though  very  often,  they 
could  scarcely  collect  half  a  dozen  hearers.  Some 
imitated  his  hand  writing,  and  so  exactly  copied  his 
style  and  manner  of  speaking,  that  the  difference  was 
almost  imperceptible. 

How  he  accomplished  it,  is  not  easy  to  say.  Perhaps 
his  extreme  attention  to  these  minutiae  might  be  a  pow- 
erful instrument  in  his  popularity.  The  fact,  however, 
is  certain.  Scarcely  any  man  has  ever  possessed  in  such 
perfection,  the  talent  of  attaching  mankind  to  his  person 
and  opinions ;  and  this  enabled  him  to  establish  a  dis- 
cipline, not  naturally  pleasing  to  the  human  mind  ;  and 
to  inforce  its  observance,  with  a  punctuality  that  is  incon- 
ceivable. We  incline  to  think,  that  the  opinion  of  his 
sincerity  and  zeal,  was  the  chief  source  of  this  singular 
docility ;  and  that  really  conceiving  these  regulations  to 
be  important,  he  the  more  easily  persuaded  others,  that 
they  were  so. 

Throughout  this  article  we  have  been  indebted  largely 
to  Hampson's  account  of  Wesley,  not  as  approving  the 
tone  of  that  writer,  but  because  he  was  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with,  without  being  unduly  attached  to,  the 
Methodist  system.  We  subjoin  what  he  says  with 
respect  to  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Wesley ;  the  first  of 
these  doctrines  is  that  of  the  "direct  witness,"  or  the 
3  0  3 


702  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

Methodistic  as  distinguished  from  the  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine of  assurance.  The  dangerous  use  that  has  been 
made  of  this  doctrine,  says  Mr.  Hampson,  cannot  be 
more  clearly  perceived  than  in  a  remark  in  one  of  Mr. 
Wesley's  sermons,  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the 
first  Methodists  insisted  upon  it.  We  give  it  in  his  own 
words.  "Near  fifty  years  ago,  the  preachers  were  not 
sufficiently  apprized  of  the  difference  between  a  servant 
and  a  child  of  God.  They  did  not.  clearly  understand, 
that  every  one  who  feareth  God,  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness, is  accepted  of  Him.  In  consequence  of  this,  they 
were  apt  to  make  sad  the  hearts  of  those  whom  God  had 
not  made  sad.  For  they  frequently  asked  those  who 
feared  God,  *  do  you  know  that  your  sins  are  forgiven  ?' 
And  upon  their  answering  no,  immediately  replied,  'then 
you  are  a  child  of  the  devil.'  " 

The  other  doctrine,  in  which  Mr.  Wesley  seems  to  stand 
alone,  and  to  differ  from  the  divines  of  the  Church,  is 
"  Christian  perfection."  Of  this  he  has  treated  at  large 
in  several  parts  of  his  writings,  and  in  one  or  two  distinct 
treatises.  His  meaning  seems  to  be,  that  there  is  a  state 
to  be  attained,  at  almost  any  period  of  life,  in  which  we 
may  be  delivered,  not  only  from  sinful  actions,  but  from 
the  very  nature  and  being  of  sin;  or,  in  other  words, 
from  every  irregular  desire,  and  from  all  inordinate  pas- 
sions and  affections.  This  he  calls  Christian  perfection; 
and  this  state  he  supposes  may  be  acquired  in  a  moment, 
by  an  act  of  faith. 

Wesley,  though  driven  by  the  force  of  circumstances, 
to  do  many  things  which  a  Churchman  must  severely 
censure,  ever  retained  his  attachment  to  the  Church, 
and  until  the  later  period  of  his  life  was  accustomed  to 
maintain  that  he  was  still  a  consistent  member  of  the 
Church  of  England.  His  opinions  with  reference  to  the 
Church  of  England  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
extracts  made  from  his  works  : — 

"  I,  John  Wesley,  hold  all  the  doctrines  of  the  Church 


WESLEY.  JOHN.  703 

of  England,  I  love  her  liturgy,   I  approve  her  plan  of 
discipline." — Wesley's  Sermon  on  the  Ministerial  Office. 

"  We  do  not,  we  dare  not  separate  from  the  Church. 
Never  let  us  make  light  of  going  to  Church,  either  by 
word  or  deed." — Minutes  of  Conference,  1770. 

"  None  who  regard  my  judgment  or  advice  (John 
Wesley's)  will  evek  separate  from  the  Church."  Decem- 
ber, llSO.—John  Wesley. 

"  If  you  are  resolved,  you  may  have  your  service  in 
Church  hours ;  but  remember,  from  that  time,  you  will 
see  my  face  no  more.  This  struck  deep,  and  from  that 
hour,  I  (John  Wesley)  have  heard  no  more  of  sepa- 
rating from  the  Church." — Wesley's  last  Journal. 

"  They  who  dissuade  people  from  attending  the 
Church  and  Sacraments,  do  certainly  draw  them  from 
the  Church." — John  Wesley's  Letter,  Dec,  1756. 

"  I  believe  there  is  no  Liturgy  in  the  world,  either 
in  ancient  or  modern  language,  which  breathes  more  of 
a  solid  Scriptural  rational  piety,  than  the  Common- 
Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England." — Preface  to  Wesley's 
Prayer  Book. 

"  My  brother  and  I  closed  the  conference  by  a  solemn 
declaration  of  our  purpose,  never  to  separate  from  the 
Church." — Extract  from  Minutes  of  Conference,  Aug.  25, 
1756. 

"  We  believe  that  it  would  not  be  right  for  us  to 
administer  either  Baptism  or  the  Lord's  Supper, 
unless  we  had  a  commission  so  to  do  from  those 
bishops  whom  we  apprehend  to  be  in  succession 
from  the  Apostles." — Wesley's  Journal,  vol.  ii.  p.  829. 

"  They  no  more  take  upon  themselves  to  be  priests 
than  to  be  kings — they  take  not  upon  them  to  admi- 
nister the  Sacraments,  an  honour  peculiar  to  the  priests 
of  God." — Wesley's  Appeal  to  Men  of  Reason,  part  iii., 
vol.  xii.  p.  253. 

'•  I  believe  one  reason  why  God  is  pleased  to  continue 
my  life  so  long  is,  to  confirm  them  (his  followers)  in  the 


704  WESLEY,  JOHN. 

present  purpose  not  to  separate  from  the  Church." — 
Wesley's  Sermon  on  the  Ministerial  Office. 

"  In  flat  opposition  to  these  I  declare  once  more,  that 
I  will  live  and  die  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  that  none  who  regard  my  judgment  or  advice,  will 
ever  separate  from  it." — John  Wesley's  Further  Thoughts 
on  Separation  from  the  Church. 

Surely  at  a  period  when  Romanism  and  Pantheism  are 
from  opposite  sides  assailing  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
the  Methodists  and  the  Church  of  England  should 
endeavour  to  re-unite.  Concessions  on  both  sides  would 
be  necessary ;  on  the  side  of  the  Church  it  might  be 
fairly  conceded  that  Methodism  should  be  attached  to 
the  Church  of  England,  as  Papal  institutes  are  to  the 
Church  of  Rome,  submitting  to  the  general  discipline, 
but  preserving  its  peculiarities.  Methodists  might  retain 
their  conference,  their  classes,  their  chapels,  their  hymn 
books,  and  even  their  local  preachers.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  chapels  would  have  to  be  episcopally  licensed, 
and  extempore  prayer  only  used  at  class  meetings,  the 
Liturgy  being  strictly  observed  in  the  chapels  ;  and  the 
ministers  officiating  in  the  chapels  would  have  to  be 
episcopally  ordained.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  pride 
of  preachers  would  resist  this,  and  yet  this  point  the 
Church  of  England  could  not  yield  without  renouncing 
her  status  as  a  Church.  Surely  there  is  nothing  derog- 
atory from  true  dignity,  in  receiving  something  in  addi- 
tion to  what  is  now  possessed.  The  past  is  not  interfered 
with,  when  the  future  is  made  regular. 

Wesley  is  sometimes  accused  of  exorbitant  love  of 
power,  and  by  his  own  people  the  charge  was  brought 
against  him.  We  think  unjustly.  Wesley  is  the 
Napoleon  of  the  religious  world.  He  wielded  a  despotism, 
and  he  felt  that  if  he  did  not  keep  the  reins  tight  in 
his  own  hands,  the  system  would  soon  be  annihilated. 
He  was  surrounded  by  persons  of  inferior  minds,  whose 
ambition  he  had  excited,  and  he  saw  that  they  must  be 


WESLEY,  CHARLES.  705 

kept  in  check.  The  few  men  of  superior  intelligence  who 
were  associated  with  him  had,  on  the  other  hand,  almost 
too  much  influence  over  his  mind.  He  was  accused  of 
partiality,  because  these,  the  exceptions  among  his  fol- 
lowers, were  able  to  carry  their  points  with  him,  while 
others  were  kept  at  a  distance,  with  their  suggestions  un- 
heeded and  their  advice  unasked.  We  think  that  his 
grand  error  was  in  yielding  to  the  importunities  of  his 
coadjutors,  and  in  pretending  to  give  holy  orders.  From 
that  time,  Wesley  became  a  schismatic,  and  his  institute 
soon  grew  into  a  sect  and  denomination  distinct  from 
the  Church.  We  repeat  our  conviction,  that  those  will 
act  most  perfectly  on  the  real  principle  of  Mr.  Wesley, 
on  the  principle  on  which  he  would  now  act,  who  shall 
endeavour  to  retrace  this  false  step,  and  unite  Metho- 
dism, without  removing  its  distinctive  features,  with  the 
Church  of  England. 

This  great  and,  notwithstanding  his  defects,  we  will 
say,  this  truly  good  man,  continued  his  labours  almost  to 
his  last  hour.  Sweet,  calm,  peaceful,  full  of  faith  and 
hope,  were  his  last  moments ;  his  powerful  mind  unim- 
paired by  age.  His  death  took  place  at  his  house,  near 
the  City-road,  London,  on  the  2nd  of  March,  1791,  in  the 
eighty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  He  died  comparatively 
poor,  after  having  had,  in  a  principal  degree,  the  man- 
agement of  the  whole  funds  of  the  Methodist  society. 
His  works,  of  various  literary  merit,  but  exhibiting 
always  the  traces  of  a  master  mind,  were  printed  together 
in  1776,  in  32  vols.  8vo.  The  family  of  Wesley  is  at 
present  represented  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wesley,  the  learned 
and  orthodox  Sub-dean  of  Her  Majesty's  Chapels  royal, 
the  grandson  of  Charles  Wesley. — Hamioson.  Benson. 
Southey.     Watson. 

WESLEY,    CHABLES. 

Chables  Wesley  was  born  at  Epworth,  in  Lincolnshire, 


706  WETSTEIN. 

in  1708.  He  was  educated  at  Westminster,  and  in  1720y 
was  elected  a  student  of  Christ  Church.  For  his  pro- 
ceedings at  Oxford,  (see  the  Life  of  his  brother  John,)  in 
whose  history  his  own  was  involved. 

In  1735,  he  was  prevailed  upon  by  his  brother  to 
accompany  him  in  his  mission  to  Georgia.  Accordingly, 
after  having  taken  orders,  he  engaged  himself  as  secretary 
to  General  Oglethorpe,  in  which  character  he  left  Eng- 
land. After  preaching  to  the  Indians,  and  undergoing 
various  difficulties  and  hardships,  he  returned  home  in 
1736.  In  England  he  officiated  as  a  public  minister 
among  those  of  the  Methodist  persuasion  with  great 
popularity ;  sometimes  in  the  metropolis,  but  generally 
as  an  itinerant  preacher. 

Better  constituted  than  his  brother  for  domestic  enjoy- 
ment, Charles  had  a  happy  home,  where  the  gentle 
affections  of  a  gentle  nature  found  room  to  expand  ;  and 
his  zeal  was  thus  attempered.  More  discriminative  and 
cautious,  he  shewed  more  firmness  and  judgment  than 
his  brother  in  what  related  to  the  discipline  of  Metho- 
dism, and  if  his  advice  had  been  followed,  Methodism 
would  probably  have  been  an  institute  of  the  Church  of 
England,  instead  of  becoming  as  it  has  done,  a  sect  in 
opposition  to  it.  He  was  a  true  poet,  and  was  the 
author  of  the  Hymns  which  form,  in  fact  the  Liturgy  of 
the  Methodist  connexion.  These  compositions  embody 
the  theory,  the  practice,  the  theopathy  of  the  Christian 
system ;  and  they  do  so  with  very  little  admixture  of 
what  is  questionable  in  point  of  doctrine.  He  died  in 
1788., 

WETSTEIN,    JOHN   JAMES. 

John  James  Wetstein  was  born  at  Basle,  in  1693.  He 
was  appointed  to  the  ministry  in  1713.  In  1714,  he  visi- 
ted Zurich,  Berne,  and  Geneva.  At  the  latter  place  he 
remained  some  time,  and  then  travelled  through  France 


WETSTEIN.  707 

and  England ;  in  all  places  he  searched  out  the  MSS. 
of  the  New  Testament  to  compare  them  with  the  printed 
editions.  Having  passed  through  Holland  and  Germany, 
he  returned  to  Basle,  in  1717.  In  England  he  became 
acquainted  with  Bentley,  and  he  revisited  this  country 
in  1720.  In  1730,  appeared  his  Prolegomena  to  a  pro- 
posed new  edition  of  the  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment according  to  the  ancient  codices.  About  this  time 
the  Calvinists  entertained  suspicion  of  his  orthodoxy, 
and  resorted  to  such  acts  of  persecution  as  to  drive  him 
from  his  native  country.  He  retired,  in  1729,  to  Hol- 
land, and  was  appointed  by  the  Remonstrants  one  of  their 
professors  at  Amsterdam,  in  1732. 

In  the  summer  of  1746,  he  came  a  third  time  to 
England,  to  examine  the  MS.  of  the  Syriac  version  of 
the  New  Testament,  which  was  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  Gloster  Ridley.  After  these  preparations,  he  began 
to  think  seriously  of  printing  his  work ;  and  being  en- 
couraged by  a  great  many  literary  men  in  England, 
Germany,  and  Holland,  he  at  length  accomplished  his 
laborious  undertaking,  having  published  the  first  volume 
in  1751,  and  the  second  the  year  following.  He  printed 
the  text  from  that  commonly  received,  without  any  vari- 
ation ;  and  he  placed  under  the  text  all  the  different 
readings  which  he  had  met  with  in  the  course  of  his 
researches.  Beneath  these  various  readings  he  printed  a 
critical  commentary,  in  which  he  inserted  all  the  remarks 
he  had  collected  at  various  times  from  a  great  number  of 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Roman  writers.  The  first  volume 
of  a  reprint  of  Wetstein's  work,  in  4to,  corrected  and 
improved,  appeared  at  Rotterdam  in  1831,  edited  by 
J.  A.  Lotze ;  but  his  death  prevented  its  being  continued. 
The  portion  published  contains  only  the  Prolegomena. 
There  is  also  a  previous  republication  of  the  Prolego- 
mena at  Halle,  1764,  under  the  care  of  Dr.  John 
Solomon  Semler.  To  his  New  Testament  Wetstein 
added   two  Epistles  of  Clemens  Romanus,   printed  for 


708  WHARTON. 

the  first  time  from  a  Syriac  MS.,  with  a  Latin  version; 
but  Lardner  has  proved  them  both  to  be  spurious.  In 
1752,  Wetstein  was  made  a  foreign  associate  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  at  Berlin ;  and  in  the  following 
year  he  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
London. — He  died  in  1754. — Biog.  Universelle. 


WHARTON,    HENRY. 

Henry  Wharton  was  born  on  the  9th  of  November, 
1664,  at  Worsted,  in  Norfolk.  In  1679-80,  he  was 
admitted  a  pensioner  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College, 
Cambridge ;  and  soon  after  was  elected  a  scholar  of  that 
house.  He  resided  at  college  till  1686,  when  he  became 
secretary  to  the  learned  Dr.  Cave — (See  Caves  Life) — who 
was  then  engaged  on  his  Historia  Literaria.  Wharton 
was  so  useful  in  this  employment,  that  the  doctor  made 
grateful  mention  of  him  in  his  Prolegomena,  and  ac- 
knowledges the  appendix  of  the  last  three  centuries  to  be 
almost  wholly  Wharton's.  But  Wharton  was  not  content 
with  this ;  although  he  remained  with  Dr.  Cave  only 
seven  or  eight  months,  Wharton  insinuated  to  his 
friends  that  he  had  a  greater  share  of  the  work  than 
could  possibly,  during  that  period  of  time,  have  been  the 
case.  A  Letter  from  Dr.  Cave  to  Archbishop  Tenison, 
in  vindication  of  himself,  and  explaining  clearly  what 
was  Wharton's  employment,  is  published  in  the  Life  of 
Archbishop  Sancroft  by  Dr.  D'Oyley,  who  observes,  that 
the  real  state  of  the  case  seems  to  have  been,  that  Mr. 
Wharton,  a  young  man  of  uncommon  natural  powers, 
indefatigable  industry,  and  ardent  spirit  of  research, 
availed  himself,  with  great  rapidity,  of  the  materials  and 
references,  which  the  extensive  reading  of  Dr.  Cave  sup- 
plied for  carrying  on  the  Historia  Literaria  :  and,  feeling 
conscious  of  his  powers  and  of  the  assistance  which  he 
really  contributed,  he  forgot  that  the  foundation  of  the 


WHARTON.  709 

whole  was  furnished  by  the  eruditiou  of  Dr.  Cave,  and 
arrogated  more  to  himself  than  he  really  ought.  Dr. 
Cave,  too,  seems  to  have  irritated  the  young  scholar  by 
some  moroseness  and  harshness  of  temper,  by  under- 
valuing the  assistance  which  he  afforded,  and  by  shewing 
towards  him  some  feelings  of  jealousy  to  which  a  person 
of  his  high  eminence  ought  to  have  been  superior. 

He  was  ordained  in  1687,  and  soon  after  he  was 
employed  by  Dr.  Tenison,  then  vicar  of  St.  Martin 's- 
in- the -Fields,  London,  to  translate  and  epitomize  a 
Latin  MS.  on  The  Incurable  Scepticism  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  written  by  Jean  de  la  Placette,  a  French 
Protestant  divine.  Soon  after  he  was  introduced  to 
the  notice  of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  who  put  into  his 
hands  a  MS.  of  Primate  Usher,  entitled,  Historia  Dog- 
matica  Controversise  inter  Orthodoxos  et  Pontificios, 
&c.,  which  he  published  with  additions.  He  further 
wrote  and  edited  various  works  against  the  doctrines  of 
Popery  ;  and  approved  himself  so  well  to  the  archbishop, 
that,  although  as  yet  only  in  deacon's  orders,  he  obtained 
a  license  for  preaching  throughout  the  province  of  Canter- 
bury, and  was  appointed  one  of  his  grace's  chaplains. 

The  archbishop  gave  him  the  living  of  Minster,  in 
the  Isle  of  Thanet,  and  in  1689,  the  Rectory  of  Char- 
tham.  His  principal  work  he  undertook  by  the  advice 
of  Dr.  Lloyd,  the  learned  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph.  It  is  en- 
titled, Anglia  Sacra,  sive  Collectio  Historiarum,  partim 
recenter  Scriptarum,  de  Archiepiscopis  et  Episcopis 
Angliae  a  prima  Fidei  Christianae  susceptione  ad  An- 
num, 1540,  2  vols.  fol.  London,  1691.  He  had  designed 
a  third  part,  which  the  deprivation  of  his  patron  pre- 
vented him  from  completing ;  but  a  portion  of  it,  con- 
taining an  account  of  the  Bishops  and  Deans  of  London 
and  St.  Asaph,  was  published  after  his  death  in  169,5, 
with  the  title  Historia  de  Episcopis  et  Decanis  Lon- 
dinensibus ;  necnon  de  Episcopis  et  Decanis  Assaven- 
sibus  ;  a  Prima  Sedis  utriusque  Fundatione  ad  Annum 

VOL.  VIII.  3   p 


7J0  WHEATLEY. 

1540.  In  1692,  he  published  A  Defence  of  Pluralities. 
In  1693,  he  was  the  editor  of  some  ancient  theological 
pieces :  and  published,  under  the  name  of  Anthony 
Harmer,  a  Specimen  of  some  Errors  and  Defects  in  the 
History  of  the  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England, 
writtten  by  Gilbert  Burnet,  D.D.  This  attack  excited 
the  indignation  of  that  divine,  who  immediately  printed 
a  complaint  against  it,  and  has  spoken  with  asperity  of 
Wharton  in  the  introduction  to  the  third  volume  of  his 
History  of  the  Reformation.  Wharton's  last  publication 
was,  The  History  of  the  Troubles  and  Trial  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  from  the  MS.  of  that  prelate  which  had 
been  delivered  to  him  by  Archbishop  Sancroft,  a  few  days 
before  the  death  of  the  latter,  with  an  injunction  to  send 
it  to  the  press.  There  was  added  Laud's  own  Diary, 
with  some  other  pieces.  Besides  the  works  above  men- 
tioned, he  gave  a  new  edition  of  the  Life  of  Cardinal 
Pole,  by  Bacatelli :  and  some  remarks  and  aninadver- 
sions  on  Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
printed  at  the  end  of  that  performance.  He  also  edited 
some  theretofore  unpublished  works  of  Bede,  under  the 
title  of  Bedse  Venerabilis  Opera  qusedam  Theologica. 
He  died  much  regretted  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  his 
age,  in  1695. — Life  iwejixed  to  his  Sermons.  D'oyleys 
Sancroft. 

WHEATLEY,    CHARLES. 

Charles  Wheatley,  the  useful  and  well-known  author 
of  the  illustration  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  was 
born  in  1686,  in  Paternoster- row,  London.  He  was 
through  his  mother  a  descendant  of  Sir  Thomas  White, 
the  founder  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford.  In  1699, 
he  was  sent  to  Merchant  Taylor's  School.  In  1706,  he 
went  as  a  commoner  to  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  where 
he  soon  after  was  admitted  fellow  as  Founder's  kin,  and 
he  became  B.A.  in  1T09  ;  and  M.A.  in  1713. 


WHELER.  711 

In  1717,  he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  St.  Mildred's  in 
the  Poultry,  London.  He  was  afterwards  presented  to 
the  vicarages  of  Brent  and  Furneaux  Pelham,  in  Hert- 
fordshire. He  died  in  1742.  He  left  some  valuable 
books  and  MSS.  to  the  library  of  St.  John's  College, 
Oxford.  He  published.  Rational  Illustration  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer, — this  is  his  chief  work,  and 
has  been  often  reprinted  ;  An  Historical  Vindication  of 
the  65th  canon,  shewing  that  the  Form  of  Bidding- 
prayer,  before  Sermon,  has  been  prescribed  and  enjoined 
ever  since  the  Reformation;  Christian  Exceptions  to 
the  Plain  Account  of  the  Nature  and  End  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  with  a  method  proposed  of  coming  at  the  true 
and  Apostolic  sense  of  that  Holy  Sacrament;  Private 
Devotions  at  the  Holy  Communion,  adapted  to  the 
Public  Office  in  the  Liturgy ;  The  Nicene  and  Athana- 
sian  Creeds,  so  far  as  they  are  expressive  of  a  Co-equal 
and  Co-eternal  Trinity  in  Unity,  and  of  a  perfect  God- 
head and  Manhood  in  one  only  Christ,  explained  and 
confirmed,  &c.,  in  Eight  Sermons,  preached  at  Lady 
Meyer's  Lecture,  in  the  years  1733  and  1734,  London, 
1738,  8vo.  After  his  death,  three  volumes  of  his  Ser- 
mons, 8vo,  were  published  in  1746,  by  Dr.  Berriman. — 
Berriman's  Preface  to  his  Sermons.    Nichols's  Bowyer. 


WHELER,    OE   WHEELER,    SIR    GEORGE. 

Sir  George  Wheler,  or  Wheeler  was  born  in  1650, 
at  Breda,  in  Holland,  his  parents  as  loyalists,  being 
exiles  from  this  country.  In  1667,  he  became  a  pupil 
of  the  learned  Dr.  Hickes  and  was  a  commoner  of  Lin- 
coln College,  Oxford.  Before  he  graduated  he  started 
on  his  travels,  which  extended  through  Greece  and  Asia 
Minor.  On  his  return  to  England,  Wheler  presented  to 
Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  a  valuable  collection  of  Greek 
and  Latin  MSS.  which  he  had  collected ;  upon  which, 


7m  WHICHCOTE. 

in  1683,  the  degree  of  M.A.  was  conferred  upon  him, 
he  being  then  a  knight.  He  now  took  orders,  and  in 
1684  was  installed  into  a  prebend  of  the  Cathedral  of 
Durham.  He  was  also  made  vicar  of  Basingstoke,  and 
was  afterwards  presented  to  the  rich  Rectory  of  Houghton- 
le-Spring,  in  the  diocese  of  Durham,  by  Bishop  Crew. 
In  1702,  he  was  created  D.D.  by  diploma. 

In  1682,  he  pubhshed  an  account  of  his  Journey  into 
Greece,  in  the  company  of  Dr.  Spon,  of  Lyons,  in  Six 
Books,  fol.  He  also  published  in  1689,  An  Account  of 
the  Churches  and  Places  of  Assembly  of  the  Primitive 
Christians,  from  the  Churches  of  Tyre,  Jerusalem,  and 
Constantinople,  described  by  Eusebius ;  and  ocular  ob- 
servations upon  several  very  ancient  edifices  of  Churches 
yet  extant  in  those  parts ;  with  a  seasonable  application ;, 
and,  The  Protestant  Monastery,  or,  Christian  CEcono- 
mics :  this  contains  directions  for  the  religious  conduct 
of  a  family. — Wood.    Biog.  Brit. 


WHICHCOTE. 

Whichcote  was  born  at  Stoke,  in  Shropshire,  in  1610. 
He  went  to  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  in  1626. 
He  took  his  B.A.  degree  in  1629,  and  his  M.A.  in  1633. 
In  the  last  named  year  he  was  elected  fellow  and  tutor 
of  his  college.  He  was  ordained  in  1636.  In  1643, 
he  was  presented  to  the  College-living  of  North  Cadbury, 
in  Somersetshire.  When  in  1644,  Dr.  Collins  was 
ejected  from  the  provost's  place  of  King's  College, 
Whichcote  was  appointed  his  successor.  He  took  his 
D.D.  degree  in  1649.  He  was  a  Latitudinarian  rather 
than  a  Puritan,  but  was  justly  deprived  of  his  usurped 
provostship  at  the  Restoration.  But  as  he  had  no 
scruples  about  conforming,  he  was  in  1662,  elected 
minister  of  St.  Ann's,  Blackfriars,  London.  After  the 
destruction  of   his  church,  in  1666,  he  was  presented 


WHISTON.  713 

by  the  crown  to  the  living  of  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry.  He 
died  in  1683. 

The  fate  of  his  Sermons,  which  have  been  so  much 
admired,  was  somewhat  singular.  They  were  first  ushered 
into  the  world  by  one  who  could  not  be  supposed  very 
eager  to  propagate  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  the 
celebrated  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  author  of  the  Charac- 
teristics, &c. 

In  1698,  his  lordship  published  Select  Sermons  of 
Dr.  Whichcote,  in  two  parts,  8vo.  He  employed  on  this 
occasion  the  Rev.  William  Stephens,  rector  of  Sutton,  in 
Surrey,  to  revise,  and  probably  superintend  the  press ; 
but  the  long  preface  is  unquestionably  from  his  lordship. 
The  same  collection  was  republished  at  Edinburgh  in 
1742,  12mo,  with  a  recommendatory  epistle  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  William  Wishart,  principal  of  the  College  of  Edin- 
burgh. Three  more  volumes  of  Dr.  Whichcote 's  Sermons 
were  published  by  Dr.  Jeffery,  archdeacon  of  Norwich,  in 
1703,  and  a  fourth  by  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  in  1707.  The 
best  edition  of  the  whole  was  published  in  1751,  at 
Aberdeen,  in  4  vols.  8vo,  under  the  superintendence  of 
Drs.  Campbell  and  Gerard.  Dr.  Jeffery  also  published 
in  1703,  Moral  and  Religious  Aphorisms  collected  from 
Dr.  Whichcote's  MSS.  Of  these  an  elegant  edition  was 
published  in  1753,  by  Dr.  Samuel  Salter,  with  large 
additions,  and  a  correspondence  with  Dr.  Tuckney  which 
we  have  already  noticed  in  our  account  of  that  divine. 
Long  before  this,  in  1688,  some  Observations  and  Apoph- 
thegms of  Dr.  Whichcote's,  taken  from  his  own  mouth 
by  one  of  his  pupils,  were  published  in  8vo. — Gen.  Diet. 


WHISTON,    WILLIAM. 

William  Whiston  was  born  at  Norton  juxta  Twycrosse, 
in  the  county  of  Leicester,   1667.      In  the  year  1684, 
he  was  sent  to  school  at  Tamworth,  under  Mr.  George 
3  p3 


714.  WHISTON. 

Antrobus,  one  of  whose  daughters  he  afterwards  married. 
He  appears  from  an  early  period,  by  his  own  account  to 
have  been  hardly  of  a  sane  mind.  After  staying  a  year 
and  three-quarters  at  Tamworth,  he  was  sent  to  Clare- 
hall,  Cambridge.  In  1690,  he  became  M.A.  and  a  tutor 
of  his  College.  The  year  after  his  ordination,  1693,  he 
was  made  chaplain  to  Dr.  Moore,  Bishop  of  Norwich.  In 
that  year  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Newton,  whose 
Principia  he  had  already  studied.  In  1696,  he  pub- 
lished his  first  work,  entitled  a  New  Theory  of  the  Earth, 
from  its  Original  to  the  Consummation  of  all  Things ; 
wherein  the  Creation  of  the  World  in  Six  Days,  the 
Universal  deluge,  and  the  General  Conflagration,  as  laid 
down  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  are  shown  to  be  perfctly 
agreeable  to  Reason  and  Philosophy,  8vo. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton,  in  1701,  made  him  his  deputy  in 
the  Lucasian  professorship  at  Cambridge,  giving  him  all 
the  profits  of  the  place  till  1703,  when  he  resigned,  in 
his  favour.  Whiston  in  the  mean  time  had  published 
several  works,  and  in  1707,  was  appointed  to  preach  the 
Boyle  Lecture.  Up  to  this  period  Whiston  was  an  ortho- 
dox Christian.  A  gradual  change  now  began  to  take 
place  in  his  opinions,  which  ended  in  his  becoming  an 
Arian ;  he  finally  added  the  rejection  of  infant  baptism 
to  his  system.  His  views  on  the  matter  were  much 
influenced  by  a  persuasion  that  the  Apostolic  Constitu- 
tions were  not  only  genuine  books,  but  "  the  most  sacred 
of  the  canonical  books  of  the  New  Testament."  The 
change  of  his  opinions  soon  appeared  in  his  sermons 
and  in  his  writings,  which  came  out  with  great  rapidity, 
and  were  very  numerous.  During  the  course  of  his  inqui- 
ries he  sent  the  papers  he  had  drawn  up  to  the  two 
archbishops,  requesting  their  revision  of  them ;  and  in 
August,  1708,  having  written  an  Essay  on  the  Apostolical 
Constitutions,  he  ofl'ered  it  to  the  vice-chancellor  of 
Cambridge  to  be  printed  at  the  university  press,  but  it 
was  rejected.     He  then  published  in  1709,  a  volume  of 


WHISTON.  715 

Sermons  and  Essays,  in  which  these  opinions  were  sup- 
ported ;  and  he  regulated  himself  according  to  the  same 
tenets,  both  in  his  catechetical  discourses,  and  in  reading 
the  Liturgy.  The  first  consequence  of  this  conduct  was 
a  complaint  of  him  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  who  found 
himself  obliged  to  desire  him  to  discontinue  his  cate- 
chetical lecture,  promising  him,  however,  to  continue  the 
salary  ;  but  this  offer  Whiston  declined  to  accept.  On 
the  30th  October,  1710,  he  was  deprived  of  his  professor- 
ship, and  was  expelled  the  university,  after  having  been 
formally  convened  and  interrogated  for  some  days  before. 
In  1710,  appeared  the  work  which  has  given  him  the 
greatest  notoriety.  It  was  entitled  An  Historical  Preface 
to  Primitive  Christianity  revived.  This  fell  under  the 
notice  of  the  lower  House  of  Convocation  in  1711,  when 
a  Paper  on  the  Subject  was  presented  to  the  archbishop, 
in  which  the  members  of  Convocation  stated  that 
Whiston's  work  contained  assertions  opposed  to  the 
fundamental  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  arch- 
bishop addressed  the  bishops  on  the  subject,  agreeing  in 
opinion  with  the  clergy,  that  the  book  should  be  noticed 
by  convocation,  and  stating  that  two  points  were  espe- 
pecially  to  be  considered ;  first,  the  censure  of  the  book 
and  its  doctrines  :  secondly,  the  censure  of  the  author. 
To  censure  the  book  two  things  were  necessary  :  first,  to 
examine  it,  and  to  make  a  selection  of  passages  ;  second- 
ly, to  fix  the  passages  of  Scripture,  in  the  council  of 
Nice,  and  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  upon  which  a 
charge  of  heresy  might  be  grounded.  The  archbishop 
also  stated,  that  the  book  might  be  censured  in  convo- 
cation, provided  certain  difficulties  were  removed,  espe- 
cially the  Act  of  the  1st  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  from  which 
it  would  seem,  that  all  jurisdiction  respecting  heresy  was 
annexed  to  the  Crown.  There  was  also  another  difficulty, 
namely,  that  the  High  Commission  Court,  in  which  such 
matters  had  been  adjudicated,  was  suppressed  after  the 
Kestoration,  when  it  was  enacted,  that  no  similar  court 


716  WHISTON. 

should  be  erected.  So  that  it  was  necessary  to  consider 
whether  the  revival  of  the  judicial  authority  of  the  con- 
vocation was  the  erection  of  such  a  court.  Two  other 
methods  presented  themselves  in  such  a  case  :  first, 
the  archbishop  might  hold  a  court  of  audience,  his 
suffragans  being  present,  and  then  examine  into  and  give 
sentence  in  the  cause :  or  secondly,  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese  might  cite  the  offender  into  his  own  court.  The 
archbishop  considered  that  the  two  last  mentioned  plans 
were  encumbered  with  the  fewest  difficulties.  Another 
letter  was  addressed  by  the  archbishop  to  the  bishops, 
dated  the  11th  of  April,  1711,  containing  one  from 
Whiston  to  his  grace.  As  the  case  was  involved  in  dif- 
ficulties, the  upper  house  presented  an  address  to  her 
majesty  on  the  subject,  stating  the  offence  alleged  against 
Whiston,  namely,  that  he  had  advanced  certain  positions 
which  were  damnable  and  blasphemous  against  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity,  expressly  contradicting  the  two 
fundamental  articles  of  the  Nicene  creed,  and  defaming 
the  whole  Athanasian.  They  then  express  their  desire 
to  repress  blasphemy,  according  to  the  powers  granted 
by  her  majesty's  license :  but  that  certain  doubts  have 
arisen  respecting  their  powers.  They  were  especially  in 
doubt  on  one  point,  namely,  whether  an  appeal  would 
lie  from  the  convocation  to  the  crown,  the  convocation 
being  a  final  court,  and  appeals  from  it  not  being  specified 
in  the  Statute  of  Appeals  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII., 
while  the  statute  of  Elizabeth  annexed  all  jurisdiction  to 
the  crown.  Under  these  circumstances  they  beseech  her 
majesty  to  submit  the  case  to  the  consideration  of  the 
judges. 

Accordingly  the  judges  were  consulted  :  and  eight  of 
the  twelve,  with  the  attorney  and  solicitor-general,  con- 
curred in  opinion  that  the  convocation  had  a  jurisdiction 
in  cases  of  heresy.  They  agreed  that  there  was,  by 
common  right,  an  appeal  to  her  majesty  from  all  eccle- 
siastical courts,   by  virtue  of  the   supremacy,  whether 


WHISTON.  717 

given  by  express  words  of  an  act  of  parliament,  or  not ; 
that  such  power  had  not  been  taken  away  by  act  of 
parliament :  and  that  consequently  a  prosecution  in  con- 
vocation, not  excluding  an  appeal  to  her  majesty,  was 
not  inconsistent  with  the  Act  of  the  1st  of  Queen 
Elizabeth.  They  further  agreed,  that  jurisdiction  in 
matters  of  heresy  might  be  exercised  in  convocation,  no 
law,  as  they  believed,  having  taken  it  away.  But  a 
reservation  was  made.  They  stated  that,  "  This  being 
a  matter,  which  upon  application  for  a  prohibition  on 
behalf  of  the  persons  who  shall  be  prosecuted,  may  come 
in  judgment  before  such  of  us  as  have  the  honour  to 
serve  your  majesty  in  places  of  judicature,  we  desire  to 
be  understood  to  give  our  present  thoughts  with  a 
reserve  of  an  entire  freedom  of  altering  our  opinions,  in 
case  any  records  or  proceedings,  which  we  are  now 
strangers  to,  shall  be  laid  before  us,  or  any  new  con- 
siderations, which  have  not  occurred  to  us,  be  suggested 
by  the  parties,  or  their  counsel,  to  convince  us  of  our 
mistakes." 

Four  of  the  judges  came  to  a  different  conclusion. 
They  gave  it  as  their  opinion,  that  since  the  Statute  of 
Appeals  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  convocation  had 
no  jurisdiction  in  cases  of  heresy,  but  that  the  eccle- 
siastical courts,  from  which  appeals  would  lie  to  the 
crown,  were  the  proper  places  in  which  such  matters 
should  be  decided.  They  thought,  that  such  a  power 
in  the  convocation  would  be  an  invasion  of  the  rights 
of  the  archbishops  and  bishops  in  their  various  courts. 

Her  majesty's  council  adopted  the  views  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  judges:  and  an  answer  to  that  effect  was 
addressed  to  the  archbishop,  so  that  the  convocation  was 
authorized  to  proceed.  There  were  other  difficulties 
respecting  the  author,  namely,  whether  the  lower  house 
were  to  take  a  part  in  the  proceedings,  or  whether  the 
sentence  should  be  confirmed  by  the  convocation  of 
York.     In  consequence  of  these  difficulties,  the  bishops 


718  WHISTON. 

resolved  on  commencing  with  the  book,  for  on  that 
point  no  doubt  now  existed  as  to  their  jurisdiction. 
Their  inquiry  was  to  ascertain  whether  it  contained 
positions  contrary  to  Scripture  and  to  the  decisions  of 
the  first  four  general  councils,  which  are  the  standards 
appointed  by  law  in  cases  of  heresy. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  book  was  proceeded 
with.  Certain  propositions  were  extracted  and  censured 
as  Arian  in  their  tendency;  and  having  been  agreed 
upon  by  the  bishops,  they  were  sent  down  to  the  lower 
house,  who  concurred  in  the  censure,  so  that  the  pas- 
sages were  condemned  by  the  authority  of  the  whole 
convocation.  In  one  passage  Whiston  asserts,  that  the 
Arian  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity  was  the  true 
doctrine ;  in  another,  that  when  the  Scriptures  speak  of 
one  God,  they  mean  one  supreme  God  the  Father  only : 
in  others,  that  the  Son  is  inferior  and  subordinate  to  the 
Father,  that  the  Son  was  created  only  before  the  world, 
and  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  inferior  and  subordinate  to 
the  Father.  Other  positions  of  a  similar  kind  were 
also  extracted,  and  embodied  in  the  judgment  or  censure 
of  the  convocation.     They,  therefore,  concluded  : 

"  We  do  declare,  that  the  above-mentioned  passages  do 
contain  assertions  false  and  heretical,  injurious  to  our 
Saviour  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  repugnant  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  contrariant  to  the  decrees  of  the  two 
first  General  Councils  and  to  the  Liturgy  and  Articles 
of  our  Church." 

On  the  30th  of  May,  the  prolocutor  presented  a  letter 
to  the  bishops,  which  had  been  addressed  to  him  by 
Whiston,  and  delivered  by  Emlyn,  the  Unitarian 
preacher,  at  the  door  of  the  Convocation-house.  In 
this  letter  he  asks  for  a  copy  of  the  propositions  ex- 
tracted from  his  writings.  The  request  was  considered 
to  be  reasonable  by  the  lower  house,  who  agreed  that 
he  should  be  permitted  to  make  his  explication  and 
apology  respecting  the  extracts.     They  concluded  with 


WHISTON.  719 

a  request,  that  he  should  be  cited  before  the  convoca- 
tion for  that  purpose. 

The  judgment  of  the  convocation  was  sent  to  her 
majesty,  who  promised  to  take  it  into  consideration ; 
but  on  the  1 2th  of  June  the  convocation  closed,  and  no 
answer  had  been  forwarded.  When  the  convocation 
assembled  in  the  ensuing  winter,  two  bishops  were 
deputed  to  wait  upon  the  queen  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  her  assent  to  the  censure;  but  an  excuse 
was  made  that  the  document  could  not  be  found.  Other 
messengers  were  afterwards  sent;  but  it  was  said  that 
the  queen  could  not  remember  to  whom  she  had  given 
the  paper.  Thus,  under  the  shelter  of  the  crown, 
Whiston  escaped  altogether.  The  book  was  condemned 
by  the  convocation ;  but  the  condemnation  could  not  be 
carried  into  effect,  because  it  was  not  confirmed  by  the 
crown.  Burnet  expresses  his  satisfaction  that  nothing 
was  done;  but,  surely,  to  suffer  the  matter  to  be  alto- 
gether  laid  aside  was  not  the  way  to  support  the  Angli- 
can Church  or  the  cause  of  religion. 

Although  nothing  further  was  done  by  convocation, 
yet,  in  1713,  a  prosecution  was  instituted  against 
Whiston  in  the  spiritual  court.  He  was  cited,  and  not 
appearing  at  the  proper  time,  was  declared  contuma- 
cious. The  lay-judges,  however,  refusing  to  proceed 
further  without  a  court  of  adjuncts  to  determine  what 
heresy  was,  the  matter  was  deferred,  till  an  act  of  grace 
in  1715,  pardoning  those  accused  of  the  supposed  crime, 
put  an  end  to  the  prosecution. 

The  grievance  was  that  Whiston  could,  during  all  this 
time,  represent  himself  to  be  a  member  of  the  Church  of 
England.  But,  in  1715,  being  refused  the  Eucharist  in 
his  parish  church,  he  opened  his  own  house  for  public 
worship,  using  a  liturgy  of  his  own  composition ;  but 
towards  the  close  of  his  life  he  became  a  Baptist,  In 
1719,  he  published  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Nottingham, 
"  On  the  Eternity  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  His  Holy 


720  WHITAKER. 

Spirit,"  which  afforded  that  nobleman  an  opportunity 
for  signalizing  his  orthodoxy,  and  prevented  Whiston 
from  being  chosen  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  where 
he  was  proposed  as  a  candidate  in  1720.  He  subse- 
quently distinguished  himself  by  an  abortive  attempt  to 
discover  the  longitude;  and  by  his  professed  opinions 
relative  to  an  approaching  millennium,  and  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Jews.  Among  his  latest  labours  were  his 
Memoirs  of  his  own  life,  1749-50,  3  vols.  8vo.  He  died 
in  London,  in  1752.  Besides  his  original  productions, 
which  are  extremely  numerous,  he  published  a  valuable 
translation  of  the  works  of  Josephus,  with  notes,  dis- 
sertations, &c. — Whistons  Memoirs.  Lathburi/s  Convo- 
cation. 


WHITAKEE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Whitaker  was  born  in  1547,  at  Holme,  in 
Lancashire.  He  was  educated  first  at  the  school  of 
Burnley,  in  which  parish  Holme  is  situated ;  he  was 
afterwards  sent  to  St.  Paul's  School,  in  London:  thence 
he  went  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  In  1578,  he 
published  a  Greek  translation  of  Nowell's  Catechism,  but 
this  was  not  his  first  publication,  as  is  sometimes  sup- 
posed, as  in  1569,  he  published  the  Prayers  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  Greek.  Nowell  was  uncle  to 
Whitaker.  Whitaker  also  translated  into  Latin  Jewel's 
Apology.  His  character  as  a  scholar  now  stood  so  high 
that  in  1579,  he  was  made  Regius  professor  of  Divinity 
at  Cambridge.  He  became  an  able  disputant  on  the 
Protestant  side  in  the  Romish  controversy ;  so  much  so, 
that  Bellarmine  pronounced  him  to  be  "  the  most  learned 
heretic  he  had  ever  read."  But  he  was  tainted  with 
Calvinism.  In  1579,  he  was  made  chancellor  of  St. 
Paul's,  and  soon  after  master  of  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge. 


WHITAKER.  731 

In  1587,  he  resigned  the  chancellorship  of  St.  Paul's 
for  what  reason  does  not  appear  ;  but  in  1591  Dr.  Goad, 
provost  of  King's  College,  presented  a  request  to  Dean 
Nowell,  in  behalf  of  Dr.  Whitaker,  that  he  might  be 
preferred  to  some  more  valuable  benefice.  The  vener- 
able dean,  anxious  to  serve  his  friend  and  kinsman, 
forwarded  Dr.  Goad's  letter  the  day  he  received  it, 
together  with  one  of  his  own,  to  the  lord  treasurer ; 
reminding  his  lordship  of  Dr.  Whitaker's  great  learning, 
well  known  at  Cambridge  by  the  productions  of  his  pen 
in  Greek  and  Latin  ;  and  not  unknown  to  his  lordship, 
to  whom  several  of  his  works  had  been  dedicated.  His 
fitness  for  presiding  over  a  learned  society  (Trinity 
college  was  in  view,  then  about  to  be  vacant)  had  partly 
appeared,  from  the  quietness  and  good  order  which  had 
been  established  in  St.  John's  college  since  he  became 
master ;  and  as  to  his  circumstances,  they  were  so  far 
from  being  affluent,  that  the  dean,  in  consideration  of 
his  poverty,  had  now  for  two  years  past  taken  upon  him- 
self the  maintenance  of  one  of  his  sons.  This  applica- 
tion, however,  for  whatever  reason,  proved  unsuccessful. 

In  1589,  an  assembly  was  held  at  his  college,  by  the 
celebrated  puritan  Cartwright  and  others,  for  the  purpose 
of  promoting  a  purer  form  of  discipline  in  the  Church. 
Whitaker,  as  appears  by  a  letter  to  Whitgift,  was  by  no 
means  a  favourer  of  Cartwright's  opinions,  many  of 
which  he  thought  intemperate,  and  intemperately  ex- 
pressed ;  but  when,  in  consequence  of  this  meeting,  some 
imperfections  in  the  "  Book  of  Discipline"  were  corrected, 
altered,  and  amended,  he  had  no  objection  to  join  in 
subscribing  the  book  thus  amended.  The  year  following, 
he  was  charged  with  holding  or  forming  a  presbytery  in 
his  college,  and  with  other  accusations,  which  he  appears 
to  have  repelled  with  success,  although  the  particulars 
are  not  upon  record.  Some  have  doubted  whether  he 
were  a  puritan,  or  ought  to  be  classed  with  those  who 
were  hostile  to  the  forms  of  the  Church.     But  upon  the 

VOL.  VIII.  3  Q 


%^Z  WHITAKER. 

•whole,  although  far  more  moderate  than  any  of  his  con- 
temporaries, he  not  only  associated  with,  but  counte- 
nanced the  objections  of  some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
puritans  to  certain  points  of  Church  discipline  and 
government.  He  held  many  meetings  in  the  university 
with  Fulke,  Chaderton,  Dod,  and  others ;  but  the 
purpose  of  these  was  only  to  expound  the  Scriptures. 
In  1595,  however,  there  were  some  warm  disputes  about 
points  of  Christian  doctrine ;  and  when  these  began  at 
Cambridge,  Dr.  Whitaker  had  no  inconsiderable  share  in 
them.  Deeply  rooted,  says  Mr.  Archdeacon  Churton,  in 
the  principles  of  Calvinism,  he  is  yet  to  be  commended 
for  his  candour  in  acknowledging,  at  the  very  time  when 
the  predestinarian  dispute  ran  high,  that  "  these  points 
•were  not  concluded  and  defined  by  public  authority  in 
our  Church." 

That  controversy,  however,  appears  to  have  cost  him 
his  life.  For  coming  up  to  London  with  the  five 
Lambeth  articles,  as  they  were  called,  and  pursuing  that 
business  warmly,  but  without  success,  and  having  paid 
what  proved  to  be  a  farewell  visit  at  the  deanery  of  St. 
Paul's,  on  his  return  to  Cambridge,  fatigued  and  disap- 
pointed, he  fell  sick,  and  within  a  fortnight  died,  in  the 
forty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  December  4,  1595. 

His  works  are : — An  Answer  to  Edmund  Campian  his 
ten  reasons;  A  Defence  of  his  Answer  against  John 
Durye ;  a  Refutation  of  Nicholas  Saunders  his  Demon- 
stration, whereby  he  would  prove  that  the  Pope  is  not 
Antichrist  ;  A  Collection  thereto  added  of  Ancient 
Heresies  raked  up  again  to  make  the  Popish  Apostacy  ; 
a  Thesis  propounded  and  defended  at  the  Commence- 
ment in  1582,  that  the  Pope  is  the  Antichrist  spoken  of 
in  Scripture ;  Answer  to  William  Rainolds  against  the 
Preface  to  that  against  Saunders  in  English :  a  Dispu- 
tation concerning  the  Scripture  against  the  Papists  of 
tliese  Times,  particularly  Bellarmine  and  Stapleton ;  A 
Defence  of  the  Authority  of  the  Church  ;  Lectures  on 


WHITBY.  733 

thB  Controversies  concerning  the  Bishop  of  Rome ;  Lec- 
tures on  the  Controversie  concerning  the  Church ; 
Lectures  on  the  Controversie  concerning  Councils;  A 
Treatise  of  Original  Sin,  against  Stapleton's  three  former 
Books  of  Justification  ;  A  Lecture  on  1  Tim.  ii.  4,  read 
on  February  27,  1594,  before  the  Earl  of  Essex,  and 
other  honourable  persons  ;  Lectures  concerning  the  Sacra- 
ments in  general,  and  the  Eucharist  and  Baptism  in 
particular.  Whitaker's  works  were  published  in  Latin, 
at  Geneva,  in  1610,  2  vols,  fol. — Gataker.    Strype. 


WHITBY,    DANIEL. 

Daniel  Whitby  was  born  at  Rushden  or  Rusden,  in 
Northamptonshire,  in  1638.  He  was  elected  a  scholar  of 
Trinity  College,  Oxford,  in  1655.  B.A.,  1657.  MA., 
1660.  In  1664,  he  was  elected  fellow  of  his  College. 
In  the  same  year  he  engaged  in  controversy  with  the 
Popish  writers,  by  publishing,  1.  "  Romish  Doctrines 
not  from  the  beginning:  or  a  Reply  to  what  S.  C.  (Sere- 
nus  Cressy),  a  Roman  Catholic,  hath  returned  to  Dr. 
Pierce's  Sermon  preached  before  his  Majesty  at  White 
hall,  Feb.  1,  1662,  in  vindication  of  our  Church  against 
the  novelties  of  Rome,"  Lond.  4to.  This  was  followed 
in  ]  668,  by  another  piece  against  Serjeant,  entitled,  2. 
*'  An  Answer  to  Sure  Footing,  so  far  as  Mr.  Whitby  is 
concerned  in  it,"  &c.  8vo.  3.  "  An  endeavour  to  evince 
the  certainty  of  Christian  Faith  in  general,  and  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Christ  in  particular."  Oxford,  1671,  8vo. 
4.  "A  Discourse  concerning  the  Idolatry  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  ;  wherein  that  charge  is  justified,  and  the  pre- 
tended Refutation  of  Dr.  Stillingfleet's  Discourse  is 
answered."  London,  1674,  8vo.  5.  "  The  absurdity 
and  idolatry  of  Host-worship  proved,  by  shewing  how 
it  answers  what  is  said  in  Scripture  and  the  Writings 
of  the  Fathers;  to  shew  the  folly  and  idolatry  committed 


7U  WHITBY. 

in  the  worship  of  the  Heathen  Deities.  Also  a  full 
Answer  to  all  those  pleas  by  which  Papists  would  wipe 
off  the  charge  of  Idolatry ;  and  an  Appendix  against 
Transubstantiation ;  with  some  Reflections  on  a  late 
Popish  Book,  called,  The  Guide  of  Controversies,"  Lend. 
1679,  8vo.  6.  "  A  Discourse  concerning  the  Laws 
Ecclesiastical  and  Civil  made  against  Heretics  by  Popes, 
Emperors,  and  Kings,  Provincial  and  General  Councils, 
approved  by  the  Church  of  Rome  ;  shewing,  I.  What 
Protestant  subjects  may  expect  to  suffer  under  a  Popish 
Prince  acting  according  to  those  Laws.  11.  That  no 
Oath  or  Promise  of  such  a  Prince  can  give  them  any 
just  security  that  he  will  not  execute  these  laws  upon 
them.  With  a  Preface  against  persecuting  and  destroy- 
ing Heretics,"  London,  1682,  4to.  Reprinted  at  London 
1T23,  in  8vo,  with  an  Introduction  by  Bishop  Kennet, 
who  ascribes  this  piece  to  Dr.  Maurice,  but  it  was  re- 
claimed by  Dr.  Whitby  himself  in  his  "  Twelve  Sermons 
preached  at  the  Cathedral  of  Sarum." 

Thus  far  Dr.  Whitby  had  proceeded  with  credit  to 
himself,  and  with  satisfaction  to  the  Church  to  which 
he  belonged,  and  the  patron  who  had  befriended  him. 
Dr.  Seth  Ward,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  who  made  him  his 
chaplain,  and,  in  Oct.  1668,  collated  him  to  the  prebend 
of  Yatesbury  in  that  cathedral,  and  in  November  follow- 
ing to  the  prebend  of  Hurstborn  Tarrant  and  Burbach. 
He  was  also,  in  September,  1672,  admitted  precentor  of 
the  same  church,  about  which  time  he  accumulated  the 
degrees  of  B.D.  and  D.D.,  and  was  preferred  to  the 
Rectory  of  St.  Edmund's  Church,  in  Salisbury.  But  in 
1682,  he  excited  general  censure  by  the  publication  of 
'•  The  Protestant  Reconciler,  humbly  pleading  for  con- 
descension to  Dissenting  Brethren  in  things  indifferent 
and  unnecessary,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  shewing  how 
unreasonable  it  is  to  make  such  things  the  necessary 
conditions  of  Communion.  By  a  well-wisher  to  the 
Church's  Peace,  and  a  Lamenter  of  her  sad  Divisions.'^ 


WHITBY.  7231 

London,  1683,  in  8vo.  Although  this  work  was  pub- 
lished anonymously,  the  author  was  soon  known.  It 
involved  him  in  a  controversy :  the  book  was  condemned 
by  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  Whitby  was  compelled 
by  Bishop  Ward  to  make  a  public  retractation. 

This  retractation  is  styled  by  one  of  his  biographers  "  an 
instance  of  human  weakness,"  but  it  was  of  such  weakness 
as  seems  to  have  adhered  to  this  divine  throughout  life, 
for  we  shall  soon  find  him  voluntarily  retracting  opinions 
of  far  greater  consequence.  In  the  meantime  he  carried 
the  same  iveakness  so  far,  as  to  publish  a  second  part  of 
his  "  Protestant  Eeconciler,  earnestly  persuading  the 
Dissenting  Laity  to  join  in  full  communion  with  the 
Church  of  England ;  and  answering  all  the  objections  of 
Nonconformists  against  the  lawfulness  of  their  submis- 
sion unto  the  rights  and  constitutions  of  that  Church." 
Lond.  1683,  8vo.  His  next  publications  were  two  pam- 
phlets in  vindication  of  the  Revolution,  and  the  oath  of 
allegiance.  He  also  published  some  more  tracts  on  the 
Popish  controversy,  and  an  excellent  compendium  of 
ethics.  "  Ethices  compendium  in  usum  academicae 
juventutis,"  Oxford,  1684,  I2mo,  which  has  often  been 
reprinted  and  used  as  a  text-book.  In  1691,  he  pub- 
lished "  A  Discourse  concerning  the  truth  and  certainty 
of  the  Christian  Faith,  from  the  extraordinary  gifts  and 
operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  vouchsafed  to  the  Apostles 
and  primitive  professors  of  that  faith." 

His  most  important  publication  was,  his  "  Paraphrase 
and  Commentary  on  the  New  Testament,"  which  appeared 
in  1703,  2  vols.  fol.  and  was  the  fruit  of  fifteen  years  study. 
He  published  afterwards  the  following  pieces  as  a  sequel 
to,  or  connected  with  his  Commentary:  "  Aditional  An- 
notations to  the  New  Testament;''  with  seven  discourses; 
and  an  Appendix,  entitled  "  Examen  variantium  Lectio- 
num  Johannis  Millii  in  Novum  Testamentum ;"  or,  "An 
Examination  of  the  various  readings  in  Dr.  Mill's  New 
Testament ;"  "  The  necessity  and  usefulness  of  the  Chris- 
3q3 


726  WHITBY. 

tian  Revelation,  by  reason  of  the  corruptions  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  natural  religion  among  Jews  and  Heathens," 
Lond.  1705,  8vo;  "Reflections  on  some  assertions  and 
opinions  of  Mr.  Dodwell,  contained  in  a  book  entitled 
'An  Epistolary  Discourse,  proving  from  the  Scripture 
and  first  fathers  that  the  soul  is  a  principle  naturally 
mortal.'  Shewing  the  falsehood  and  the  pernicious  con- 
sequences of  them.  To  which  is  added  an  answer  to  a 
pamphlet,  entitled,  some  passages  in  Dr.  Whitby's  Para- 
phrase and  Annotations  on  the  New  Testament  contrary 
to  Scripture  and  the  received  Doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
England,"  London,  1707,  8vo. 

He  now  published  his  Refutations  of  Calvinism,  first, 
"  Four  Discourses,  shewing,  I.  That  the  Apostle's  words, 
Romans  the  ninth,  have  no  relation  to  any  personal 
Election  or  Reprobation.  XL  That  the  Election  men- 
tioned in  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Gentiles  is  only  that 
of  the  Gentiles  to  be  God's  Church  and  people.  III. 
That  these  two  assertions  of  Dr.  John  Edwards,  namely, 

1.  That  God's  foreknowledge  of  future  contingencies 
depends  upon  His  decree  and  that  He  foreknows  them, 
because  He  decreed  them :  2.  That  God  did  from  all 
eternity  decree  the  commission  of  all  the  sins  in  the 
world :  are  false,  blasphemous,  and  render  God  the 
author  of  sin.  IV.  Being  a  Vindication  of  my  Anno- 
tations from  the  Doctor's  cavils.  To  which  is  added  as 
an  Appendix,  a  short  answer  to  the  Doctor's  discourse 
concerning  the  fixed  term  of  human  life,"  London,  1710, 
8vo.  And  secondly,  "  A  Discourse- concerning,  1.  The 
true  import  of  the  words  Election  and  Reprobation  ; 
and  the  things  signified  by  them  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

2.  The  Extent  of  Christ's  Redemption.  3.  The  Grace 
of  God  :  where  it  is  required,  whether  it  be  vouchsafed 
sufficiently  to  those  who  improve  it  not,  and  irresistibly 
to  those  vv'ho  do  improve  it ;  and  whether  men  be  wholly 
passive  in  the  work  of  their  regeneration  ?  4.  The  Liberty 
of  the  Will  in  a  state  of  Trial  and  Probation.     5.  The 


WHITBY.  727 

Perseverance  or  Defectibility  of  the  Saints  :  with  some 
Reflections  on  the  state  of  the  Heathens,  the  Providence 
and  Prescience  of  God."  London,  1710,  8vo. 

We  next  find  this  fickle  theologian  attacking  the  very- 
vitals  of  Christianity.  When  he  wrote  his  Commentary 
on  the  New  Testament,  the  study  of  fifteen  years  be- 
stowed on  that  work  had  discovered  nothing  to  him  to 
shake  his  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity;  but 
what  fifteen  years  could  not  do,  as  many  days  were 
sufficient  to  effect  in  the  present  fluctuating  state  of  his 
opinions ;  for  immediately  on  the  appearance  of  Dr^ 
Clarke's  "Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,"  Whitby 
became  a  decided  Arian,  and  published,  but  in  Latin, 
a  treatise  to  prove  "  that  the  controversies  raised  about 
the  Trinity  could  not  be  certainly  determined  from  the 
fathers,  councils,  or  catholic  traditions ;"  and  a  discourse, 
shewing,  that  the  exposition  which  the  ante-Nicene  fathers 
have  given  of  the  texts  alleged  against  the  Ptev.  Mr.  Clarke 
by  a  learned  layman  (Mr.  Nelson),  are  more  agreeable  to 
the  interpretation  of  Dr.  Clarke  than  to  the  interpretations 
of  that  learned  layman."  On  this  subject  he  had  a  short 
controversy  with  Dr.  Waterland. 

It  was  in  1718,  that  he  published  this  volume  under 
the  title  of  Disquisitiones  modestse  in  clarissimi  Bulli 
Defensionem  Fidei  Nicenae.  This  work  he  dedicated  to 
Dr.  Clarke ;  acknowledging,  however,  that  he  had  not 
yet  entirely  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  correctness  of 
Dr.  C.'s  view  of  the  doctrines  in  question;  but  was 
desirous  of  shewing  that  the  controversies  then  agitated 
on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity  could  not  be  decided  by 
any  clear  and  certain  evidence  from  the  writings  of  the 
Fathers ;  and  that  Bishop  Bull,  in  endeavouring  to 
prove  the  conformity  between  modern  orthodox  believers 
and  the  ante-Nicene  fathers,  had  wandered  from  the 
truth,  and  laboured  in  vain. 

Bishop  Bull  died  in  1709.  His  Defensio  Fidei  Nicense 
was  published  in  a.d.  1685.     Why  Dr.  Whitby  so  long 


V28  WHITBY. 

delayed  his  animadversions  on  this  book,  and  thought  fit 
to  reserve  them  till  the  author  was  laid  in  his  grave,  it 
might  be  difficult  satisfactorily  to  explain.  The  tone  and 
temper  of  his  Disquisitions  do  not,  indeed,  perfectly 
correspond  with  the  candour  and  deference  towards  that 
venerable  prelate,  which  the  title-page  seems  to  indicate. 
This  did  not  escape  Waterland's  notice; — fsee  Life  of 
Waterland) — and,  accordingly,  in  the  defence  of  his 
26th  Query,  he  comments  with  some  severity  upon  Dr. 
Whitby's  book.  He  charges  him  with  some  general 
fallacies  running  through  the  whole  work; — 1st,  His 
making  no  distinction  between  essence  and  person,  but 
always  subjoining  to  the  term  essence  the  words  indi- 
vidual or  numerical,  so  as  to  identify  it  with  person, 
and  to  make  the  Nicene  faith  appear  to  be  mere  Sabelli- 
anism  ;  2ndly, — His  assuming,  that  because  the  Arians 
did  not  scruple  sometimes  to  use  the  same  high  and 
strong  terms  to  denote  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  therefore 
the  ante-Nicene  fathers,  when  they  used  such  expressions, 
meant  no  more  by  them  than  the  Arians.  Srdly, — His 
assuming,  on  the  other  hand,  that  because  the  ante- 
Nicene  fathers  distinguished  God  from  Christ,  or  the 
Father  from  the  Son,  and  called  the  Father  God,  abso- 
lutely, and  without  any  distinguishing  appellation,  there- 
fore they  intended  thereby  (as  the  Arians  did)  to  exclude 
the  Son  from  that  title,  in  its  unqualified  acceptation. 
Dr.  Waterland  then  proceeds  to  the  next  general  charge 
of  defects,  misquotations,  misconstructions,  and  misre- 
presentations;  which  is  pursued  more  in  detail,  though 
not  extended  to  any  considerable  length. 

Dr.  Whitby's  reply  is  keen  and  acrimonious.  In  re- 
pelling the  general  fallacies  charged  upon  him,  he  is 
certainly  not  successful ;  neither  explicitly  denying,  nor 
satisfactorily  defending  them ;  but  lightly  passing  them 
over,  as  of  minor  importance.  On  the  charge  of  mis- 
quotations, misconstructions,  &c.,  he  is  more  diff'use  and 
more  vehement;  always  bold  and  confident,  sometimes 


WHITBY.  729 

dexterous  and  acute ;  but,  in  general,  much  inferior  in 
point  of  wariness  and  discretion  to  his  friend  Dr.  Clarke ; 
whom,  indeed,  he  seems  less  anxious  to  defend,  than  to 
heap  obloquy  upon  Bull  and  Waterland.  Towards  the 
conclusion,  he  more  openly  drops  the  defensive  character, 
and  assumes  that  of  the  assailant ;  retorting  the  charges 
of  fallacies,  misrepresentations,  and  misconstructions ; 
accusing  his  opponent  of  not  clearly  defining  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  person  and  personality,  nor  confirming 
the  doctrine  of  consubstantiality  and  co-equality  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  by  any  authorities  among  the  ante-Nicene 
fathers.  He  also  accuses  Dr.  Waterland  of  "  a  per- 
petual fallacy,  in  using  the  word  hypostasis  to  signify- 
neither  a  general  essence,  that  is  an  essence  common  to 
all  the  three,  neither  an  existent,  nor  an  individual 
essence." 

To  this  angry  pamphlet,  Waterland  returned  a  speedy 
answer ;  in  which  he  again  noticed  the  author's  general 
fallacy  of  making  essence  and  person  to  signify  the 
same,  and  his  unfair  application  of  the  term  indivi- 
dual or  numerical  essence,  in  order  to  fix  upon  the 
Trinitarian  doctrine  the  appearance  of  Sabellianism. 
This,  he  contends,  was  raising  a  dispute,  not  upon  what 
Bishop  Bull  himself  had  maintained,  but  upon  some- 
thing which  his  opponent  presumed  to  be  his  opinion. 
"  The  question  with  Bishop  Bull,"  says  Waterland,  "was 
whether  the  ante-Nicene  fathers  believed  the  Son  to  be 
of  an  eternal,  uncreated,  and  strictly  divine  substance. 
But  with  you,  it  is,  whether  they  believed  him  to  be  the 
same  numerical  intellectual  essence  (that  is,  as  you  in- 
terpret it,  person)  with  the  Father.  Thus  you  have 
changed  the  very  state  of  the  general  question." — "Your 
excuses  for  this,"  he  adds,  "  are  reducible  to  three  heads. 
1st,  That  you  did  not  know  what  Bishop  Bull  meant. 
2ndly,  That  you  had  interpreted  numerical  essence  as  all 
the  present  orthodox  do,  whose  cause  Bishop  Bull  is 
supposed  to   have   espoused.      3rdly,    That    numerical 


^30  WHITBY. 

essence  does  and  must  signify  what  you  pretend,  and 
nothing  else  : — taking  it  for  granted  that  there  is  no 
medium  between  numerical,  in  your  sense,  and  specific ; 
that  is,  no  medium  between  Sabellianism  and  Tritheism. 
This,  indeed,  is  the  Trpwrov  i}/ev8o<5,  the  prime  falsehood, 
which  you  set  out  with,  and  proceed  upon ;  and  which 
makes  all  your  discourses  on  this  head  confused,  and 
wide  of  the  point."  Upon  these  fallacies  our  author  en- 
larges with  great  effect ;  and  since  they  lie  at  the  root  of 
Arianism,  extend  to  all  its  ramifications,  and  equally 
apply  to  Dr.  Clarke  and  Mr.  Jackson,  as  to  Dr.  Whitby : 
the  exposure  of  them  may  be  regarded  as  of  more  general 
importance,  than  the  proofs  he  again  urged,  and  con- 
-firmed  by  additional  evidence,  of  Whitby's  misquotations 
and  misconstructions  of  the  ante-Nicene  fathers.  Ad- 
verting also  to  Whitby's  peremptory  assertion,  that  his 
sense  of  the  phrase  numerical  essence  is  the  only  proper 
sense  that  it  will  bear,  Waterland  takes  occasion  thus  to 
expostulate  with  him,  in  terms  equally  applicable  to 
every  other  rash  attempt  to  dogmatize  metaphysically 
upon  the  nature  and  essence  of  the  Godhead  : — "  I  will 
give  you  a  plain  reason  why  you  can  never  prove  your 
sense  of  the  words  to  be  the  only  proper  sense  :  it  is 
because  you  can  never  fix  any  certain  principle  of  indi- 
viduation. It  is  for  want  of  this,  that  you  can  never 
assure  me,  that  three  real  persons  may  not  be,  or 
are  not,  one  numerical,  or  individual  substance.  In 
short,  you  know  not,  precisely,  what  it  is  that  makes 
one  being,  or  one  essence,  or  one  substance.  Here  your 
metaphysics  are  plainly  defective :  and  this  it  is  that 
renders  all  your  speculations  upon  that  head  vain  and 
fruitless.  Tell  me  plainly,  is  the  divine  substance 
present  in  every  place,  in  whole  or  in  part  ?  Is  the  sub- 
stance which  is  present  here  upon  earth,  that  very  in- 
dividual numerical  substance  which  is  present  in  heaven, 
or  is  it  not?  Your  answer  to  these  questions  may 
perhaps  suggest  something  to  you,  which  may  help  you 


WHITBY.  731 

out  of  your  difficulties  relating  to  the  Trinity;  or  else 
the  sense  of  your  inability  to  answer  either,  may  teach 
you  to  be  less  confident  in  matters  so  much  above  you, 
and  to  confess  your  ignorance  in  things  of  this  nature, 
as  I  do  freely  mine."  To  the  charges  retorted  upon  him 
by  Dr.  Whitby,  Waterland  postponed  any  answer,  until 
they  should  assume  a  more  tangible  character.  In  the 
mean  while,  he  concludes  with  warning  him  against  a 
recurrence  to  certain  presumptions  in  argument,  which 
run  through  the  whole  of  his  writing  in  this  controversy, 
and  which  betray  him  into  continual  sophistries  easy  to 
be  detected. 

Dr.  Whitby,  with  great  alacrity,  resumed  the  contest, 
and  published  The  second  part  of  a  Reply  to  Dr.  Water- 
land's  Objections,  wnth  an  Appendix  in  defence  of  the 
first  part  of  the  Reply.  In  this  he  reiterates  and  enlarges 
upon  the  several  charges  of  fallacy  before  imputed  to 
Waterland,  with  respect  to  the  terms  person  and  person- 
ality ;  vindicates  his  own  application  of  the  terms,  nature, 
essence,  and  substance ;  and  lays  down  ten  metaphysical 
"  postulata,  or  propositions,  confirmed  (as  he  asserts)  by 
the  clearest  evidence  of  reason,"  to  serve  as  criteria  by 
which  the  several  points  in  dispute  should  be  determined. 
Had  these  postulata  been  admitted  as  indubitable  truths, 
they  would  indeed  have  superseded  any  further  discus- 
sion ;  since,  in  substance,  they  included  almost  every 
point  for  which  Dr.  Whitby  had  contended.  But  with 
respect  to  any  weight  of  authority,  or  argument,  that 
could  be  claimed  for  them,  they  were  nothing  more  than 
the  mere  placita  of  Dr.  Whitby  himself ;  opinions,  already 
controverted  by  his  opponent,  and  which  he  had  been 
called  upon  to  estabhsh  by  satisfactory  proofs.  Upon 
such  gratuitous  assumptions,  almost  the  whole  reasoning 
of  this  pamphlet  is  founded.  It  amounted,  therefore,  to 
little  more  than  a  repetition  of  the  former  Reply ;  and 
this  was  probably  the  reason  that  Waterland,  for  the 
present,  suffered  it  to  pass  unnoticed.     His  attention, 


73a  WHITE. 

indeed,  just  at  this  period,  was  drawn  off  in  another 
direction. 

He  afterwards  published  some  pamphlets  in  defence 
of  Hoadley,  in  the  Bangorian  controversy.  His  last 
work,  but  which  he  did  not  live  to  see  published,  is 
entitled,  The  Last  Thoughts  of  Dr.  Whitby,  containing 
his  correction  of  several  passages  in  his  Commentary  on 
the  New  Testament.  To  which  are  added  five  Discourses. 
He  died  on  the  24th  of  March,  1726,  aged  eighty-eight 
years.  Of  all  his  works,  his  Commentary  on  the  New 
Testament  only  is  now  in  reputation,  being  generally 
joined  with  those  of  Patrick  and  Lowth,  to  form  a  series 
of  Commentaries  on  the  whole  of  the  Bible. — Chalmers. 
Van  Mildert,    Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


WHITE,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  White  was  born  in  Temple  Parish,  in  the  city  of 
Bristol.  He  was  entered  of  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford,  about 
1566,  took  his  degrees  in  arts,  was  ordained,  and  became 
a  noted  and  frequent  preacher.  He  afterwards  settled  in 
London,  where  he  had  the  living  of  St.  Gregory's,  near 
St.  Paul's,  and  in  1575,  was  made  vicar  of  St.  Dunstan's, 
Fleet  street,  where  his  pulpit  services  were  much  ad- 
mired. In  1584,  he  was  licensed  to  proceed  in  divinity, 
and  commenced  doctor  in  that  faculty.  In  1588,  he  had 
the  prebend  of  Mora,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Paul,  conferred 
upon  him,  and  in  1590,  was  made  treasurer  of  the 
church  of  Sarum  by  the  queen's  letters.  In  1591,  he 
was  made  canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  in  1593,  canon 
of  Windsor.  He  died  March  1st,  1623-4,  according  to 
Reading,  but  Wood  says  1622-3,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Chancel  of  St.  Dunstan's  Church.  In  his  will  he  ordered 
a  grave-stone  to  be  placed  over  his  remains,  with  a  short 
inscription,  but  this  was  either  neglected  or  has  been 
destroyed.      As  soon  as  an  account  of  his  death  arrived 


WHITE.  753 

at  Oxford,  the  heads  of  the  university  in  honour  of  his 
memory  as  a  benefactor,  appointed  Mr.  Price,  the  first 
reader  of  the  moral  philosophy  lecture,  to  deliver  an 
oration,  which,  with  several  encomiastic  verses,  by  other 
members  of  the  university,  was  printed  under  the  title 
of  "  Schola  Moralis  Philosphise  Oxon.  in  funere  Whiti 
pullata,"  Oxon.  1624,  4to. 

Dr.  White  published,  1.  "  Two  Sermons  at  St.  Paul's 
in  the  time  of  the  plague,  8vo.  2.  '*  Funeral  Sermon  on 
Sir  Henry  Sidney,"  Lond.  1586,  8vo.  3.  "  Sermon  at 
St.  Paul's  Cross  on  the  queen's  day  (Nov.  17]  1589," 
8vo.  But  his  memory  is  chiefly  to  be  venerated 
for  his  works  of  charity,  and  his  liberal  encouragement 
of  learning.  In  1613,  he  built  an  hospital  in  Temple 
parish,  Bristol,  endowing  it  with  £92  per  annum.  He 
also  founded  the  moral  philosophy  lecture  at  Oxford,  for 
the  maintenance  of  which  he  gave  the  manor  of  Langdon 
Hills,  in  the  county  of  Essex,  which  was  conveyed  by 
him  to  the  university,  under  the  form  of  a  purchase,  by 
his  deed  enrolled,  bearing  date  June  20,  1621.  Out  of 
the  revenues  of  this  manor,  besides  an  annual  stipend  of 
£100  to  the  philosophy  lecturer,  he  appointed  several 
sums  to  be  paid  to  other  uses  ;  as,  to  Christ  Church 
library ;  to  the  Tuesday's  preachers  of  the  university ;  to 
the  Easter  sermons ;  to  the  prisoners  in  the  castle,  &c. 
He  founded  also  small  exhibitions  for  four  poor  scholars, 
and  for  five  divinity  students  at  Magdalen  Hall,  most  of 
which  are  still  continued.  But  his  greatest  benefaction 
was  to  Sion  college.  He  directed  in  his  will  that  £3000 
should  be  applied  in  building  a  college  and  alms-house 
on  the  ruins  of  Elsynge  priory,  London-wall.  His  exe- 
cutors accordingly  purchased  the  site  of  this  priory  for 
£2,450  and  erected  Sion  college.  The  charters  of  incor- 
poration are  dated  July  3,  6  Charles  I.  and  June  20,  16 
Charles  II.  By  these  authorities,  a  president,  two 
deans,  and  four  assistants,  with  all  the  rectors,  vicars, 
&c.  of  the  city  of  London  and  suburbs,  were  constituted 

VOL.  VIII.  3  E 


734  WHITEFIELD. 

a  corporation.  At  the  same  time,  alms-houses  for  ten 
men,  and  as  many  women  were  established.  Dr.  White 
had  appropriated  by  will  separate  funds  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  these  poor  people.  The  library,  now  the  most 
copious  in  the  city  of  London,  was  principally  the 
foundation  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Wood,  rector  of  St. 
Michael's,  Crooked-lane.  Dr.  White  left  his  own  library 
to  the  dean  and  canons  of  Windsor. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


WHITEFIELD,    GEOEGE. 

George  Whitefield  was  born  at  the  Bell  Inn,  in  the 
city  of  Gloucester,  at  the  close  of  the  year  1714.  He 
describes  himself  as  froward  from  his  mother's  womb ; 
so  brutish  as  to  hate  instruction;  stealing  from  his 
mother's  pocket,  and  appropriating  to  his  own  use  the 
money  that  he  took  in  the  house.  He  enacted  a  female 
part  in  a  play,  composed  by  the  master,  when  he  was  at 
St.  Mary  de  Crypt's  School.  From  school  he  persuaded 
his  mother  to  take  him  when  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age, 
and  he  served  as  a  waiter  at  the  inn.  In  his  own  lan- 
guage he  "put  on  his  blue  apron  and  his  snuffers, 
washed  mops,  cleaned  rooms,  and  became  a  professed 
and  common  drawer."  At  the  same  time  he  read  Ken's 
Manual  for  Winchester  Scholars,  and  Thomas  a  Kempis, 
and  giving  up  the  romances  which  inchned  him  at  one 
time  to  the  theatre,  he  composed  two  or  three  sermons. 
The  inn  being  made  over  to  a  married  sister,  he  seemed 
to  be  likely  to  lose  his  situation,  when  unexpectedly 
through  some  friends  of  his  mother's,  a  prospect  was 
held  out  to  him  of  a  servitor's  place  at  Oxford.  He 
immediately  returned  to  his  Grammar  School,  shook  off 
all  evil  and  idle  courses,  fasted  as  well  as  prayed,  became 
a  communicant,  and  in  1733,  became  a  servitor  of  Pem- 
broke College,  Oxford. 
He  had  heard  of  the  Methodists,  (see  Life  of  Wesley,) 


WHITEFIELD.  735 

and  longed  to  be  one  of  them.  He  soon  obtained  his 
wish,  and  began  with  them  "  to  live  by  rule,  and  to  pick 
up  the  very  fragments  of  his  time  that  nothing  might  be 
lost."  His  life  was  ascetic.  He  practised  austerities 
such  as  Romish  superstition  encourages.  He  exposed 
himself  to  cold  in  the  morning,  till  his  hands  were  quite 
black.  He  kept  Lent  so  strictly  that  before  the  termina- 
tion of  the  forty  days,  he  had  scarcely  strength  enough  to 
creep  down  stairs,  and  was  under  a  physician  many 
weeks.  For  improvement  of  health  he  returned  to  his 
native  place,  where  his  general  character,  his  demeanour 
at  church,  and  praying  with  the  prisoners,  attracted  the 
notice  of  Dr.  Benson,  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester.  This 
should  be  remarked  by  those  who  represent  the  last  cen- 
tury as  destitute  of  religious  characters,  and  by  those 
who  think  that  the  aberrations  of  Whitefield  and  his 
friends  might  have  been  prevented,  if  they  had  received 
encouragement.  Bishop  Benson  sent  for  Whitefield  one 
day  after  evening  service,  and  having  conversed  with 
him,  and  being  satisfied  with  his  piety,  he  asked  him  his 
age,  which  was:  little  more  than  twenty-one.  The  good 
bishop  told  him  that  although  he  had  resolved  not  to 
ordain  any  one  under  twenty-three,  he  should  think  it 
his  duty  to  ordain  him  whenever  he  came  for  holy 
orders.  Sir  John  Philips,  of  London,  who  was  ready 
to  assist  in  religious  works  by  his  purse,  had  generously 
given  an  annuity  of  £30  a  year  to  Whitefield,  on  con- 
dition that  he  continued  at  Oxford,  and  this  the  bishop 
considered  as  a  sufi&cient  title.  Whitefield  prepared 
himself  by  abstinence  and  prayer,  and  was  ordained  at 
Gloucester,  in  1736.  Bishop  Benson  appears  to  have 
felt  a  sincere  regard  for  the  young  man  he  thus  ordained, 
little  aware  of  the  course  he  was  to  run.  Whitefield's 
first  sermon  was  preached  in  St.  Mary  de  Crypt,  where 
he  had  been  baptized,  and  where  he  received  his  first 
communion.  So  stirring  was  the  discourse,  that  while 
many  profited  by  it,  some  of  those  incessant  snarlers 


736  WHITEFIELD. 

and  faultfinders,  who  can  never  make  allowance  for 
defects,  complained  to  the  bishop  that  fifteen  persons  were 
driven  mad  by  the  sermon.  The  good  bishop  replied  that 
he  hoped  the  madness  would  not  be  forgotten  before  the 
next  Sunday.  Whitefield  soon  after  returned  to  Oxford. 
In  1737,  he  first  came  up  to  London  to  ojSiciate  for  a 
time  in  the  chapel  of  the  Tower  ;  but  his  first  sermon  in 
the  metropolis  was  preached  in  Bishopsgate  church. 
He  preached  also  at  various  other  places ;  and,  while 
here,  letters  came  from  the  Wesleys  at  Georgia,  which 
made  him  desirous  to  join  them  ;  but  he  was  not  yet 
quite  clear  as  to  this  being  his  duty."  He  afterwards 
supplied  a  curacy  at  Dummer,  in  Hampshire  ;  and 
being  at  length  convinced  that  it  was  his  duty  to  go  to 
Georgia,  he  went  in  January,  1737,  to  take  leave  of  his 
friends  in  Gloucester.  Here  he  underwent  a  severe  trial 
from  his  mother's  grief,  while  his  worldly-minded  friends 
reproached  him  for  sacrificing  his  chance  of  preferment 
from  Bishop  Benson.  Little  did  they  understand  the 
noble  spirit  by  which  Whitefield,  with  all  his  faults,  was 
animated,  and  his  single-hearted  devotion  to  his  Master's 
cause.  The  good  Bishop  of  Gloucester  approved  of  his 
determination  to  go,  received  him  like  a  father,  as  he 
always  did,  not  doubting  that  God  would  bless  him, 
and  that  he  would  do  much  good  abroad.  He  himself 
was  in  a  state  of  high  enthusiasm.  Having  been  ac- 
cepted by  General  Oglethorpe  and  the  trustees,  and 
presented  to  the  Bishop  of  London  and  the  primate, 
and  finding  that  it  would  be  some  months  before  the 
vessel  in  which  he  was  to  embark  would  be  ready,  he 
went  for  a  while  to  serve  the  church  of  one  of  his  friends 
at  Stonehouse,  in  his  native  county ;  and  there  he  de- 
scribes the  habitual  exaltation  of  his  mind  in  glowing 
language. 

He  afterwards  visited  Bristol  and  London,  where  he 
was  followed  by  incredible  multitudes,  and  excited  an 
enthusiasm  which  baffles  description. 


WHITEFIELD.  737 

On  the  23rd  December,  1737,  he  set  sail  :  but 
owing  to  adverse  winds  he  was  detained  in  the  Downs ; 
and  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  January  following  that 
that  the  ship  got  fairly  under  weigh.  He  arrived  at  the 
parsonage-house  at  Savannah,  May  7,  1738,  where  he 
remained  until  August.  As  some  amelioration  of  the 
deplorable  condition  of  the  colonists,  he  projected  an 
Orphan-house,  for  which  he  determined  to  raise  contri- 
butions in  England ;  and  accordingly  he  embarked  in 
September,  and  after  a  boisterous  passage,  landed  at 
Limerick.  There  he  was  received  kindly  by  the  Bishop, 
who  engaged  him  to  preach  in  the  cathedral;  and  at 
Dublin,  where  he  also  preached,  he  was  courteously 
received  by  Dr.  Delany,  Bishop  Rundle,  and  Archbishop 
Bolton.  In  the  beginning  of  December,  he  arrived  in 
London,  where  the  trustees  of  the  colony  of  Georgia 
expressed  their  satisfaction  at  the  accounts  sent  to  them 
of  his  conduct,  presented  him  to  the  living  of  Savannah, 
and  granted  him  500  acres  of  land  for  his  intended 
Orphan-house. 

Whitefield  found  Bishop  Benson  still  living  and  by 
him  he  was  ordained  priest.  He  again  repaired  to 
London,  where  his  preaching  was  so  popular  that  the 
churches  could  not  hold  the  congregations  who  flocked 
to  hear  him.  His  head  began  to  be  turned.  He  defied 
the  authorities  of  the  Church,  and  spake  evil  of  digni- 
ties ;  certainly  without  cause,  for  he  had  been  every 
where  received  by  the  bishops  hitherto  with  courtesy 
and  respect,  although  they  desired  to  promote  his  real 
usefulness  by  restraining  his  excesses.  He  first  preached 
in  the  open  air,  on  the  afternoon  of  Saturday  the  1 7th 
of  February,  1739,  on  Hannam-mount,  at  Rose-green, 
Kingswood,  near  Bristol,  a  place  inhabited  chiefly  by 
colliers.  His  singular  mode  of  address  collected  thou- 
sands of  those  people,  on  whom  his  discourses  produced 
a  most  extraordinary  efiect.  He  afterwards  preached  in 
the  open  air  at  Bristol  itself,  where  the  pulpits  were 
3b3 


738  WHITEFIELD. 

closed  against  him.  After  this  he  preached  often  in  the 
open  air  in  the  vicinity  of  London,  particularly  in  Moor- 
fields,  and  on  Kennington  Common. 

In  August,  1739,  he  embarked  again  for  America, 
and  landed  in  Pennsylvania  in  October.  Afterwards 
he  went  through  that  province,  the  Jersies,  New  York, 
and  back  again  to  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  preaching  every  where  to  vast  congregations. 
In  the  beginning  of  Jan.  1 740,  he  arrived  at  Savannah, 
"where  he  founded,  and  in  a  great  measure  established, 
his  Orphan-house,  by  the  name  of  Bethesda.  He  then 
took  another  extensive  tour  through  America,  and  re- 
turned to  England  in  March,  1741. 

He  arrived  in  England  exasperated  with  the  Wesleys, 
on  account  of  their  determined  opposition  to  Calvinism. 
The  Wesleys  were  prepared  to  make  every  allowance  for 
their  friend's  Calvinistic  errors.  But  Calvinism  is  like 
Piomanism  always  intolerant,  and  often  bitter  in  its  in- 
tolerance, although  the  piety  of  many  Calvinists  is  beyond 
dispute ;  and  it  could  not  entirely  pervert  the  natural 
kindness  of  Whitefield's  heart.  In  an  irritated  state 
of  mind,  Whitefield  reached  London.  Charles  Wesley 
■was  there,  and  on  their  meeting  old  feelings  of  respect 
and  love  revived  with  such  strength  in  Whitefield's  heart, 
that  he  promised  never  to  preach  against  the  Wesleys, 
whatever  his  private  opinion  might  be.  But  many 
things  combined  to  sour  him  at  this  time.  He  had 
written  against  Archbishop  Tillotson's  works,  and  the 
Whole  Duty  of  Man,  a  bod^l^  in  those  days  of  unrivalled 
popularity,  in  a  manner  which  he  himself  then  acknow- 
ledged to  be  intemperate  and  injudicious  ;  and  this 
had  offended  persons,  who  were  otherwise  favourably 
disposed  towards  him.  His  celebrity  also  seemed  to 
have  passed  away;  the  twenty  thousands  who  used  to 
assemble  at  his  preaching  had  dwindled  down  to  two 
or  three  hundred  ;  and  in  one  exhibition  at  Kennington 
Common,  the  former  scene  of  his  triumphs,  scarcely  a 


WHITEFIELD.  739 

hundred  were  gathered  together  to  hear  him.  Worldly 
anxieties,  too,  were  fretting  him,  and  those  of  a  kind 
which  made  the  loss  of  his  celebrity  a  serious  evil.  The 
Orphan-house  in  Georgia  was  to  be  maintained ;  he  had 
now  nearly  a  hundred  persons  in  that  establishment, 
who  were  to  be  supported  by  his  exertions ;  there  were 
not  the  slightest  funds  provided,  and  Georgia  was  the 
dearest  part  of  the  British  dominions.  He  was  above  a 
thousand  pounds  in  debt  upon  that  score,  and  he  himself 
not  worth  twenty.  Seward,  the  wealthiest  and  most 
attached  of  his  disciples,  was  dead,  and  had  made  no 
provision  for  him,  nor  for  the  payment  of  a  bill  for 
£350  on  the  Orphan-house  account,  which  he  had 
drawn,  and  for  which  Whitefield  was  now  responsible, 
and  threatened  with  an  arrest.  If  his  celebrity  were 
gone,  the  Bank  of  Faith,  upon  which  he  had  hitherto 
drawn  with  such  confidence  and  such  success,  would 
be  closed  against  him.  He  called  it  truly  a  trying  time : 
"  Many,  very  many  of  my  spiritual  children,"  says  he, 
"  who,  at  my  last  departure  from  England,  would  have 
plucked  out  their  own  eyes  to  have  given  me,  are  so 
prejudiced  by  the  dear  Messrs.  Wesleys  dressing  up  the 
doctrine  of  election  in  such  horrible  colours,  that  they 
will  neither  hear,  see,  nor  give  me  the  least  assistance ; 
yea,  some  of  them  send  threatening  letters  that  God  will 
speedily  destroy  me."  This  folly  on  the  part  of  Wesley's 
hot  adherents  irritated  him,  and  that  irritation  was 
fomented  by  his  own.  He  began  naturally  to  regard 
his  former  former  friends  as  heretics  and  enemies ;  and 
when  Wesley,  who  had  been  summoned  by  his  brother 
Charles  to  London  on  this  occasion,  went  to  him,  to 
see  if  the  breach  might  yet  be  closed,  Whitefield 
honestly  told  him,  that  they  preached  two  different 
Gospels,  and  therefore  he  not  only  would  not  join 
with  him,  or  give  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship, 
but  would  publicly  preach  against  him  wheresoever  he 
preached   at  all.      He   was   reminded  of  the  promise 


740  WHITEFIELD. 

which  he  had  but  a  few  days  before  made,  that  what- 
ever his  opinion  might  be  he  would  not  do  this:  but 
he  replied,  that  promise  was  only  an  effect  of  human 
weakness,  and  he  was  now  of  another-mind. 

The  conduct  of  Whitefield  towards  the  Wesleys  was 
certainly  very  blameworthy  at  this  time,  but  Whitefield 
was  a  truly  religious  man,  and  his  conscience  reproach- 
ing him,  he  acknowledged  his  fault,  and  asked  pardon, 
which  Wesley,  also  a  truly  religious  and  we  may  add  a 
truly  generous  and  placable  man,  readily  conceded. 
The  difference  betwen  them,  as  far  as  it  was  personal, 
was  made  up ;  but  upon  the  doctrines  in  dispute  they 
remained  as  widely  separated  as  ever,  and  their  respective 
followers  were  less  charitable  than  themselves. 

Whitefield,  who  would  not  have  played  a  second  part 
to  Wesley,  even  if  in  doctrine  they  had  agreed,  with  the 
help  of  some  colleagues,  began  to  form  distinct  societies  of 
persons  who  held  Calvinistic  sentiments.  This  produced 
in  a  short  time  a  new  house  at  Kingswood,  and  the  two 
tabernacles  in  Moorfields  and  Tottenham-court-road.  He 
visited  also  many  parts  of  England,  where  similar  socie- 
ties were  established;  and  he  then  went  to  Scotland, 
where  he  preached  in  all  the  principal  towns.  In  17 IQ, 
he  visited  Wales,  where  at  Abergavenny,  he  married 
Mrs.  James,  a  widow  of  that  place.  The  marriage  was 
not  a  happy  one;  and  Mrs.  Whitefield  died  in  1768. 
By  her  he  had  one  child,  a  son,  who  died  in  infancy. 
In  August,  1744,  he  embarked  again  for  America, 
whence  he  returned  in  July,  1 748.  He  now  assumed 
a  new  position.  He  became  acquainted  with  Selina, 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  a  lady  of  extreme  Calvinistic 
views,  and  very  self-sufficient.  Whitefield  was  invited 
to  the  house  of  the  "  noble  and  elect  lady"  as  she  was 
profanely  called  by  her  flatterers,  as  soon  as  he  landed. 
After  he  had  officiated  there  twice,  she  wrote  to  him, 
inviting  him  again,  that  some  of  the  nobility  might  hear 
him.     "  Blessed  be  God,"  he  says,  in  his  reply,  "  that 


WHITEFIELD.  741 

tlie  rich  and  great  begin  to  have  an  hearing  ear :  I  think 
it  is  a  good  sign  that  our  Lord  intends  to  give,  to  some 
at  least,  an  obedient  heart.  How  wonderfully  does  our 
Redeemer  deal  with  souls ;  if  they  will  hear  the  Gospel 
under  a  ceiled  roof,  ministers  shall  be  sent  to  them  there: 
if  only  in  a  church,  or  a  field,  they  shall  have  it  there. 
A  word  in  the  lesson,  when  I  was  last  with  your  lady- 
ship, struck  me, — Paul  preached  privately  to  those  that 
were  of  reputation.  This  must  be  the  way,  I  presume, 
of  dealing  with  the  nobility,  who  yet  know  not  the  Lord." 
This  is  characteristic  ;  and  his  answer  to  a  second  note, 
respecting  the  time,  is  still  more  so.  *'  Ever  since  the 
reading  your  ladyship's  condescending  letter,  my  soul  has 
been  overpowered  with  His  presence.  Who  is  all  in  all. 
When  your  ladyship  styled  me  your  friend,  I  was 
amazed  at  your  condescension  ;  but  when  I  thought  that 
Jesus  was  my  friend,  it  quite  overcame  me,  and  made 
me  to  lie  prostrate  before  Him,  crying,  why  me?  why 
me?  I  just  now  rose  from  the  ground,  after  praying 
the  Lord  of  all  lords  to  water  your  soul,  honoured 
madam,  every  moment.  As  there  seems  to  be  a  door 
opening  for  the  nobility  to  hear  the  Gospel,  I  will  defer 
my  journey,  and,  God  willing,  preach  at  your  ladyship's. 
Oh  that  God  may  be  with  me,  and  make  me  humble !  I 
am  ashamed  to  think  your  ladyship  will  admit  me  under 
your  roof;  much  more  am  I  amazed  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
will  make  use  of  such  a  creature  as  I  am; — quite 
astonished  at  your  ladyship's  condescension,  and  the 
unmerited  superabounding  grace  and  Goodness  of  Him 
Who  has  loved  me,  and  given  Himself  for  me."  Wesley 
would  not  have  written  in  this  strain,  which,  for  its  ser- 
vile adulation,  and  its  canting  vanity,  might  well  provoke 
disgust  and  indignation,  were  not  the  real  genius  and 
piety  of  the  writer  beyond  all  doubt.  Such,  however,  as 
the  language  is,  it  was  natural  in  Whitefield,  and  not  ill 
suited  for  the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

Lady   Huntingdon   built   chapels   in   various  places, 


742  WHITGIFT. 

which  were  called  by  her  name ;  and  she  procured 
Calvinistic  clergymen  to  officiate  in  them,  until  not 
finding  a  sufficient  supply  of  ordained  persons,  she 
employed  laymen,  who  were  called  Lady  Huntingdon's 
preachers.  Among  these  persons  Whitefield  preached 
until  he  returned  to  America,  in  1769.  The  following 
year  he  died.  A  fear  of  outliving  his  usefulness  had 
often  depressed  him  :  and  one  day,  when  giving  way 
to  an  irritable  temper,  he  brought  tears  from  one 
who  had  not  deserved  such  treatment,  he  burst  into 
tears  himself,  and  exclaimed,  *'  I  shall  live  to  be  a 
poor  peevish  old  man,  and  every  body  will  be  tired 
of  me!"  He  wished  for  a  sudden  death,  and  that 
blessing  was  so  far  vouchsafed  him,  that  the  illness 
which  proved  fatal,  was  only  of  a  few  hours'  con- 
tinuance. It  was  a  fit  of  asthma :  when  it  seized 
him  first,  one  of  his  friends  expressed  a  wish  that  he 
would  not  preach  so  often ;  and  his  reply  was,  "  I  had 
rather  wear  out  than  rust  out."  He  died  at  Newbury - 
Port,  in  New  England,  and  according  to  his  own  desire, 
was  buried  before  the  pulpit,  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  that  town. 

A  collection  of  his  Sermons,  Tracts,  and  Letters,  in 
6  vols,  8vo,  was  published  at  London,  in  1771 :  his 
Journals  he  published  himself.  A  Life  of  Whitefield, 
by  the  Rev.  J.  Gillies,  minister  of  the  College  Church 
of  Glasgow,  appeared,  in  8vo,  at  London,  in  1813;  and  a 
volume,  entitled  The  Life  and  Times  of  the  Rev.  George 
Whitefield,  by  Robert  Philip,  was  pubished  in  1838. — 
Southeys  Life  of  Wesley.     Life  of  Whitefield  by  Gillies. 


WHITGIFT,    JOHN. 

The  events  in  the  early  life  of  John  Whitgift  may  be 
passed  over  without  dwelling  upon  details.  He  was 
born  at  Great  Grimsby,  in  Lincolnshire,  in  1530,  accord; 


WHITGIFT.  743 

ing  to  Strype,  in  1533,  according  to  Paule.  In  1548, 
he  went  to  Queen's  College,  Cambridge,  but  migrated 
soon  after  to  Pembroke  Hall.  He  became  a  fellow  in 
1555  of  Peter  house.     He  proceeded  to  M.A.  in  1557. 

About  this  time  he  had  a  severe  fit  of  sickness ;  and 
soon  after  his  recovery  happened  the  remarkable  visita- 
tion of  this  university  by  the  authority  of  Cardinal  Pole, 
in  order  to  purge  out  the  heretics.  To  avoid  this  storm, 
Whitgift's  first  resolution  was  to  go  to  Strasburg,  Frank- 
fort, or  somewhere  in  Switzerland ;  but  Dr.  Perne,  the 
master  of  his  college,  though  at  that  time  a  professed 
Papist,  yet  having  a  great  esteem  for  him,  undertook  to 
screen  him  from  the  commissioners,  which  prevailed  on 
him  not  to  leave  the  university.  The  master's  promise 
was  faithfully  performed ;  and  notwithstanding  the  seve- 
rity of  that  visitation,  he  escaped  without  any  injury, 
by  the  connivance  of  his  friend,  who  being  then  vice- 
chancellor,  and  shewing  himself  active  in  the  present 
transactions,  was  the  less  suspected  to  favour  any  but 
thorough  devotees  of  Rome. 

In  1560,  he  was  ordained,  and  was  made  chaplain  to 
Richard  Cox,  Bishop  of  Ely,  by  whom  he  was  presented 
to  the  Rectory  of  Teversham,  in  Cambridgeshire.  In 
1563,  he  was  appointed  Margaret  professor  of  Divinity. 
In  1567,  he  was  chosen  Master  of  Pembroke  Hall,  but 
this  place  within  three  months  he  resigned,  being  made 
Master  of  Trinity.  The  same  year,  the  university 
admitted  him  inceptor  for  the  degree  of  doctor  in 
divinity  ;  and  being  appointed  likewise  to  keep  the 
commencement  act,  he  chose  for  his  thesis  upon  that 
occasion,  Fa'pa  est  ille  antichristus ;  the  pope  is  the 
antichrist.  In  1570,  having  first  applied  to  Cecil  for 
the  purpose,  he  compiled  a  new  body  of  statutes  for 
the  university,  which  were  of  great  service  to  that 
learned  community. 

This  work  he  finished  in  August,  and  the  same  month 
he  was  the  principal  agent  in  procuring  an  order  from 


744  WHITGIFT. 

the  vice-chancellar  and  heads  to  prohibit  Carfcwright, 
who  was  now  Margaret  professor,  from  reading  any 
more  lectures  without  some  satisfaction  given  to  them 
of  his  principles  and  opinions.  Whitgift  informed  the 
chancellor  of  this  step,  and  at  the  same  time  acquainted 
him  with  Cartwright's  principles,  and  the  consequences 
of  them,  upon  which  he  received  the  chancellor's  appro- 
bation of  what  had  been  done.  Upon  this  Cartwright, 
being  convened,  and  refusing  to  renounce  his  principles, 
was  deprived  of  his  professorship ;  and  as  he  gave  out 
that  his  assertions  were  rather  suppressed  by  authority, 
than  refuted  by  reason,  Whitgift  took  an  effectual  method 
to  obviate  that  calumny.  In  the  meantime,  at  the  chan- 
cellor's request  he  likewise  wrote  a  confutation  of  some 
of  the  chief  of  those  principles,  and  sent  them  to  Arch- 
bishop Parker,  in  a  letter  dated  December  29th,  with  an 
intention  to  publish  them,  but  was  prevented.  In  1671, 
he  served  the  ofiBce  of  vice-chancellor.  The  same  year 
an  order  was  made  by  the  archbishop  and  bishops,  that 
all  those  who  had  obtained  faculties  to  preach,  should 
surrender  them  before  the  third  of  August;  and  that 
upon  their  subscription  to  the  thirty-nine  articles,  and 
other  constitutions  and  ordinances  agreed  upon,  new 
licences  should  be  granted.  This  being  signified  to  the 
university,  and  an  order  sent,  requiring  them  to  call  in 
all  the  faculties  granted  before,  Whitgift  in  pursuance 
thereof  surrendered  his  former  licence,  obtained  in  1566, 
and  had  another  granted  him  September  17,  1571, 
wherein  he  was  likewise  constituted  one  of  the  university 
preachers.  On  the  19th  of  June,  in  consequence  of  the 
queen's  nomination,  he  was  elected  dean  of  Lincoln,  into 
which  dignity  he  was  installed  on  the  2nd  of  August  follow- 
ing. On  the  31st  of  October,  he  obtained  a  dispensation 
from  the  archbishop,  impowering  him  together  with  this 
deanery,  his  prebend  of  Ely,  and  rectory  of  Teversham 
(besides  the  mastership  of  Trinity  college)  to  hold  any 
other  benefice  whatsoever.    Towards  the  end  of  the  same 


WHITGIFT.  745 

year  he  preached  the  Latin  sermon  at  the  meeting  of 
the  convocation,  being  then  proctor  for  the  clergy  and 
chapter  of  El j.  On  the  1 4th  of  May  the  next  year,  he 
was  presented  to  the  lower  house  for  their  prolocutor, 
and  chosen.  In  August  the  same  year,  he  resigned  the 
rectory  of  Teversham. 

He  was  now,  by  particular  appointment  from  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  writing  his  answer  to  the 
Admonition,  which  requiring  more  ease  of  mind  and 
leisure  hours  than  the  execution  of  his  office  as  master 
of  Trinity  college  (where  he  met  with  so  much  trouble 
and  opposition)  seemed  to  admit,  he  even  desired  to 
leave  the  university.  However,  the  heads  applied  to  the 
chancellor  in  a  letter  dated  September  the  28th,  to 
prevent  it.  He  had  a  little  before,  in  the  same  month 
this  year,  expelled  Cartwright  from  his  fellowship,  for 
not  taking  orders  in  due  time,  according  to  the  statute 
of  the  colleges.  On  the  2nd  of  November  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Bishop  of  London,  he  preached  at  Paul's 
Cross  ;  and  before  the  expiration  of  the  year  came  out 
his  answer  to  the  '  Admonition,' 

As  Archbishop  Parker  was  the  chief  person  that  set 
Whitgift  about  this  work,  so  he  gave  him  considerable 
assistance  therein  ;  and  the  several  parts  of  the  copy  as 
it  was  finished  were  sent  to  him  to  revise ;  and  Cooper, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  another  of  the  most  learned  bishops 
of  that  time,  together  with  other  bishops  and  learned 
men,  were  consulted.  In  this  book,  as  Strype  observes, 
may  be  seen  all  the  arguments  and  policy  used  in 
those  times  for  laying  episcopacy  and  the  liturgy  aside, 
and  all  the  exceptions  to  them  drawn  up  to  the  best 
advantage ;  and  herein  also  are  subjoined  a  full  and 
particular  answer  and  refutation  of  the  one,  and  vindi- 
cation of  the  other;  together  with  the  favourable  sense 
of  the  learned  men  abroad,  as  Peter  Martyr,  Bucer, 
Zuinglius,  BuUinger,  Calvin,  Gualter,  expressed  in  their 
letters,  or  other  writings  of  their's,  and  their  approbation 

VOL.  VIII.  3  s 


74«  WHITGIFT. 

of  this  church's  frame  and  discipline,  and  the  goTem- 
ment  of  it  by  bishops.  Strype  was  of  opinion,  that  this 
book  may  be  justly  esteemed  and  applied  to  as  one  of 
the  public  books  of  the  Church  of  England  concerning 
her  profession  and  principles,  and  as  being  of  the  like 
authority  in  respect  to  its  worship  and  government,  in 
opposition  to  the  disciplinarians,  as  Bishop  Jewel's 
Apology  and  Defence  in  respect  of  the  Reformation  and 
doctrine  of  it,  in  opposition  to  the  Papists.  It  was  first 
printed  in  4to,  and  reprinted  in  the  year  following,  with 
this  title ;  An  Answer  to  a  certain  Libel,  intitled.  An 
Admonition  to  the  Parliament  by  John  Whitgift,  D.  of 
Divinity,  newlie  augmented  by  the  Authour,  as  by 
Conference  shall  appear.  Imprinted  at  London  by 
Henrie  Bynneman,  for  Humfrey  Toy,  Anno  1573.  To 
this  a  reply  being  published  by  Mr.  Cartwright  the 
next  year,  1573,  Whitgift  wrote  his  defence  the  same 
year. 

At  the  same  time  Whitgift  appeared  with  that  warmth 
that  was  natural  to  his  temper,  against  a  design,  then 
on  foot,  for  abolishing  pluralities,  and  taking  away  the 
impropriations,  and  tythes,  from  bishops  and  spiritual 
(not  including  temporal)  persons,  for  the  better  provision 
of  the  poorer  clergy.  On  the  24th  of  March  the  last  day  of 
the  year  1576,  he  was  nominated  to  the  Bishopric  of  Wor- 
cester, to  which  being  confirmed  on  the  16th  of  April;  he 
was  consecrated  April  21st,  1577  ;  and  as  this  bishopric 
brought  him  into  the  council  for  the  marches  of  Wales, 
he  was  presently  after  appointed  vice-president  of  those 
marches  in  the  absence  of  Sir  Henry  Sydney,  lord 
president,  made  lord-lieutenant  of  Ireland.  He  did  not 
resign  his  mastership  of  Trinity  College  till  June ;  and 
in  the  interim  procured  a  letter  from  the  chancellor,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  [practice  (then  in  use)  of  taking 
money  for  the  resignation  of  fellowships. 

The  queen  had  it  in  her  eye  to  raise  him  to  the 
highest  dignity  in  the  Church  before  her  intentions 


WHITGIFT.  U7 

took  place,  and  shewed  an  inclination,  as  was  said,  to 
put  him  into  Archbishop  Grindal's  room  before  that 
prelate's  death.  So  much  is  certain,  that  Grindal,  in 
the  condition  he  then  was,  had  been  desirous  to  resign, 
and  was  desirous  of  Whitgift  for  his  successor  ;  but 
Whitgift  could  not  be  persuaded  upon  to  comply  with 
it ;  and  in  the  queen's  presence  begged  her  pardon  for 
not  accepting  thereof  upon  any  condition  whatsoever, 
during  the  life  of  the  other.  But  upon  Grindal's 
death,  which  happened  on  the  6th  of  July,  1583,  the 
queen  nominated  Whitgift  to  succeed  him,  and, 
accordingly,  he  was  elected  on  the  23rd  of  August, 
and  confirmed  on  the  23rd  of  September.  On  the 
17th  of  November,  the  queen's  accession  happening 
on  a  Sunday,  he  preached  at  Paul's  Cross  upon 
this  text :  "  Put  them  in  mind  to  be  subject 
to  principalities, "  &c.  (Titus,  iii.)  At  his  first 
entrance  upon  this  charge  he  found  the  archbishopric 
over-rated,  and  procured  an  order  for  the  abate- 
ment ^f  one  hundred  pounds  to  him  and  his 
successors,  on  the  payment  of  first-fruits.  He  shortly 
after  recovered  from  the  queen,  as  part  of  the  possessions 
of  the  archbishopric,  Long-Beach  Wood,  in  Kent,  which 
had  been  many  years  detained  from  his  predecessor  by 
Sir  James  Croft,  comptroller  of  her  majesty's  household. 
But  that  which  most  concerned  him  was  to  see  the 
established  uniformity  of  the  Church  in  such  great  disorder 
as  it  was  from  the  non-complying  Puritans,  who,  taking 
advantage  of  his  predecessor's  easiness  in  that  respect, 
were  possessed  of  a  great  many  ecclesiastical  benefices 
and  preferments,  in  which  they  were  supported  by  some 
of  the  principal  men  at  court.  He  therefore  set  himself 
with  extraordinary  zeal  and  vigour  to  reform  these 
infringements  of  the  constitution,  for  which  he  had  the 
queen's  express  orders.  With  this  view,  on  the  5th  of 
December  this  year,  he  moved  for  an  ecclesiastical  com- 
mission, which  was  soon  after  issued  to  him  with  the 


748  WHITGIFT. 

Bishop  of  London,  and  several  others.  To  the  sSm* 
purpose  in  ]584,  he  drew  up  a  form  of  examination, 
containing  twenty-four  articles,  which  he  sent  to  the 
hishops  of  his  province,  enjoiniog  them  to  summon  all 
such  clergy  as  in  their  respective  dioceses  were  suspected 
of  Nonconformity,  and  to  require  them  to  answer  those 
articles  severally  upon  oath,  "ex  officio  mere,  "  likewise  to 
subscribe  to  the  queen's  supremacy,  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  religion. 

At  the  same  time  he  held  conferences  with  several  of 
the  Puritans,  and  by  that  means  brought  some  to  a 
compliance  ;  and  Avhen  others  appealed  from  the  ecclesi- 
astical commission  to  the  council,  he  resolutely  asserted 
his  jurisdiction,  and  vindicated  his  proceedings  at  the 
peril  of  his  life,  and  even  in  some  cases  against  the 
opinion  of  Lord  Burghley,  who  was  his  chief  friend 
there.  He  waited  this  year  also,  about  these  matters^ 
upon  the  queen,  who  had  been  solicited  in  favour  of 
some  of  the  innovators  against  the  Liturgy,  and  soon 
after  sent  her  highness  his  answer  to  all  their  most 
plausible  objections  that  were  commonly  urged  by 
them,  and  gave  her  several  reasons  why  the  discipline 
was  rather  to  be  suppressed,  than  by  writing  con- 
futed. In  the  meantime  he  prevailed  to  have  some 
of  the  sees  filled  that  had  been  vacant  ever  since  the 
ejection  of  the  Popish  bishops;  and  obtained  a  promise 
from  Burghley  to  complete  the  whole  bencR.  Nor  did 
his  zeal  for  the  established  ecclesiastical  polity  display 
itself  with  less  warmth  in  opposing  the  election  this  year 
of  "Walter  Travers  to  the  mastership  of  the  Temple, 
and  in  advising  a  restraint  to  be  laid  upon  the  press  at 
Cambridge.  Several  petitions  being  offered  to  this  par- 
liament in  favour  of  the  Puritans,  for  receiving  their 
new  platform  and  book  of  public  prayer,  as  also  against 
pluralities  and  the  court  of  faculties,  the  archbishop 
answered  them,  and  presented  his  answer  to  the  queen 
in   person.      He   sent  notes   also  upon  them  to   Lord 


WHITGIFT.  749 

Burghley.  However,  being  made  sensible  of  the 
justness  of  a  complaint  against  the  excessive  fees 
taken  in  spiritual  courts,  he  set  about  drawing  up  a 
new  state  of  those  fees,  according  to  the  ancient  custom, 
and  at  the  same  time  prevailed  with  the  queen  not  to 
give  her  assent  to  some  bills  that  had  passed  both 
houses,  which  affected  the  present  good  estate  of  the 
clergy ;  namely,  one  giving  liberty  to  marry  at  all  times, 
another  for  the  trial  of  ministers'  sufficiency  by  twelve 
laymen,  and  such  like.  This  last  was  a  precedent  for  a 
like  act  passed  and  rigidly  executed  against  the  royalists 
during  the  rebellion  and  usurpation  of  Cromwell. 

In  the  same  parliament  he  procured  an  act  for  the 
better  foundation  and  relief  of  the  poor  of  the  Hospital 
of  East-bridge,  in  Canterbury  ;  and,  before  the  year  was 
expired,  he  found  means  to  put  a  stop  to  a  commission 
that  was  then  upon  the  anvil  for  a  "melius  inquirendum." 
In  1585,  by  special  order  from  the  queen,  he  drew  up 
rules  for  regulating  the  press ;  which  were  confirmed 
and  set  forth  by  the  authority  of  the  star-chamber, ' 
June  23rd.  In  all  his  transactions  for  uniformity,  he 
had  constantly  both  the  permission  and  countenance  of 
the  queen,  as  well  as  the  general  concurrence  of  Burghley, 
Leicester,  and  Walsingham.  Yet  in  his  proceedings 
with  the  Nonconformists  his  grace  had  received  some- 
times, even  from  these  his  friends,  very  hard  words. 
Upon  which  account,  about  this  time,  he  joined  himself 
in  a  more  close  friendship  with  Sir  Christopher  Hatton, 
then  vice-chamberlain  to  the  queen,  -to  whom  he  now 
(July  16th)  opened  his  mind,  and  complained  of  the 
other's  usage  of  him.  The  Earl  of  Leicester  particularly, 
not  content  with  having  made  Cartwright  master  of  his 
hospital  newly  built  at  Warwick,  attempted  by  a  most 
artful  address  to  procure  a  licence  for  him  to  preach 
without  the  subscription ;  but  the  archbishop  perempto- 
rily refused  to  comply.  Presently  after  this,  the  same 
earl  applied  to  him  to  declare  his  judgment  about  the 
3  s  3 


750  WHITGIFT. 

queen's  aiding  the  Low  Countries,  to  which  he  gave  & 
Tery  wary  answer.  This  was  in  the  end  of  July;  and 
before  the  end  of  August  he  prevented  the  issuing  of  a 
commission  for  farming  out  the  first  fruits  and  tenths, 
with  a  view  of  enhancing  those  payments,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  clergy.  This  year  he  silenced  Travers 
from  preaching  at  the  Temple  ;  notwithstanding,  about 
the  same  time  being  called  upon  for  his  judgment  in  the 
dispute  betwixt  him  and  Hooker,  he  gave  his  opinion 
less  in  favour  of  the  Papists  than  Hooker  had  done. 

On  Candlemas-day,  he  was  sworn  into  the  privy  coun- 
cil, and  the  next  month  framed  the  statutes  of  cathedral 
churches,  so  as  to  make  them  comport  with  the  Reform- 
ation. And  the  year  was  not  expired,  when  he  sent  a 
prohibition  to  Cartwright,  forbidding  him  to  publish  his 
answer  to  the  Rhemish  Bible.  In  1586,  his  name 
appears  among  those  counsellors  who  condemned  secre- 
tary Davison,  for  procuring  the  execution  of  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots,  without  the  consent  of  his  sovereign  ;  and  upon 
the  discovery  of  Babington's  design  to  marry  the  said 
queen,  the  archbishop  put  forth  some  prayers  under 
the  title  of  A  Form  of  Prayer  for  these  dangerous 
Times. 

Upon  the  alarm  of  the  Spanish  invasion  he  pro- 
cured an  order  of  the  council  to  prevent  the  clergy 
from  being  cessed  by  the  lord-lieutenants  for  furnishing 
arms,  and  wrote  circular  letters  to  the  bishops,  to  take 
care  that  their  clergy  should  be  ready  with  a  voluntary 
appointment  of  arms,  &c.  In  1587,  came  out  a  virulent 
pamphlet,  entitled,  Martin  Marprelate,  in  which  the 
archbishop  was  severely  handled  in  very  coarse  language. 
The  University  of  Oxford  losing  their  chancellor,  the  Earl 
of  Leicester,  this  year,  several  of  the  heads  and  others 
signified  to  the  archbishop  their  intention  to  choose  him 
into  that  post.  This  offer,  being  a  Cambridge  man,  he 
declined  for  himself,  but  made  use  of  it  to  recommend 
his   friend   Sir   Christopher  Hatton,  who  was  elected : 


WHITGIFT.  751 

By  which  means  the  archbishop  came  into  a  great 
share  of  the  government  of  that  university.  In  1590, 
Cartwright  being  cited  before  the  ecclesiastical  com- 
mission for  several  misdemeanours,  and  refusing  to  take 
the  oath,  ex  officio,  was  sent  to  the  Fleet  prison  ;  and 
the  archbishop  drew  up  a  paper  containing  several 
articles,  more  explicitly  against  the  Disciplinarians  than 
the  former,  to  be  subscribed  by  all  licensed  preachers. 
The  next  year,  1591,  Cartwright  was  brought  before  the 
star-chamber,  and  upon  giving  bail  for  his  quiet  beha- 
viour, was  discharged  at  the  motion  of  the  archbishop, 
who  this  year  was  appointed,  by  common  consent,  to  be 
arbitrator  between  two  men  of  eminent  learning  in  a 
remarkable  point  of  Scripture  chronology.  These  were 
Hugh  Broughton,  of  Christ's  College,  in  Cambridge,  the 
greatest  scholar  in  Hebrew  and  Jewish  learning  in  those 
times,  and  Dr.  Reynolds,  of  Corpus  Christi,  in  Oxford, 
divinity  professor  there.  The  point  in  dispute  was, 
"  Whether  the  chronology  of  the  times  from  Adam  to 
Christ,  could  be  ascertained  by  the  Holy  Scriptures  ?" 
The  first  held  the  affirmative,  which  was  denied  by  the 
latter.  The  same  year,  the  archbishop  presented  and 
instituted  Hooker  to  the  living  of  Boscomb,  in  Wiltshire, 
and  to  the  prebend  of  Nether-haven,  in  the  Church 
of  Sarum. 

In  1592,  he  visited  All  Souls'  College,  and  the 
following  year  Dr.  Bancroft  published  his  Survey  of 
Discipline,  wherein  he  censured  Beza  s  conduct  in  inter- 
meddling with  the  English  affairs  in  respect  of  Church- 
government,  upon  which  that  minister  complained  of 
this  usage  in  a  letter  to  the  archbishop,  who  returned  a 
long  answer,  in  which  he  not  only  shewed  the  justice  of 
Dr.  Bancroft's  complaint,  but  further  also  vindicated 
Saravia  and  SutclifFe,  two  learned  men  of  the  English 
Church,  who  had  written  in  behalf  of  the  order  of  epis- 
copacy against  Beza's  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  and  a  ruling  presbytery.     In  159i,  fresh 


762  WHITGIFT. 

complaints  being  made  in  parliament  of  the  corruption 
of  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  the  archbishop  made  a  general 
survey  of  those  courts  and  their  officers ;  and  the  same 
year  he  put  a  stop  to  the  passing  of  some  new  grants  of 
concealed  lands  belonging  to  the  cathedrals.  This  year 
he  likewise  procured  of  the  queen  for  Hooker  the 
Rectory  of  Bishops  Bourne,  near  Canterbury.  The 
same  year  he  summoned  the  famous  Hugh  Broughton 
to  give  an  account  of  some  of  his  doctrines  concerning 
the  article  of  Christ's  descent  into  hell. 

The  year  1595  is  notorious  for  the  grand  mistake  of 
Whitgift's  life,  the  publication  of  the  Lambeth  articles. 
This  is  so  important  a  circumstance  in  the  history  of 
the  English  Church,  that  we  shall  lay  before  the  reader 
the  facts  of  the  case  as  they  are  given  in  Carwithen. 
Calvinism  was  at  this  time  the  fashionable  religion  at 
Cambridge,  so  far  as  doctrine  is  concerned.  But  Barret, 
a  fellow  of  Caius  College,  in  a  Latin  sermon  delivered 
before  the  university,  declared  his  hostiUty  to  the  Cal- 
vinistic  doctrines  of  election  and  grace,  reflecting  with 
great  acrimony  on  the  personal  character  of  Calvin,  and 
cautioning  his  hearers  against  reading  the  works  of  the 
Genevese  reformer.  For  this  sermon  Barret  was  sum- 
moned before  the  vice-chancellor  and  heads  of  colleges, 
and  was  commanded  to  make  a  retractation  of  his  sermon 
in  the  church  where  he  delivered  it.  He  complied,  but 
read  his  retractation  in  a  manner  which  shewed  its  in- 
sincerity, and  it  was  considered  as  an  aggravation  of  his 
first  offence.  So  unpopular  were  both  the  sermon  and 
the  retractation,  that  several  graduates,  of  different  colleges, 
signed  a  petition  to  the  archbishop,  praying  that  the 
matter  might  not  be  suffered  to  rest,  but  that  the  memory 
of  Calvin,  and  other  great  names  who  had  been  aspersed, 
might  receive  some  reparation.  Barret,  not  discouraged 
joined  in  the  appeal ;  and  Whitgift,  at  the  first  hearing 
of  the  dispute,  condemned  the  university  for  its  precipitate 
censure ;  but  the  heads  of  the  colleges  vindicated  their 


WHITGIFT.  753 

conduct,  and  insisted  on  the  privileges  of  the  university. 
The  academical  delinquent  was  summoned  to  appear  at 
Lambeth  before  the  archbishop  and  some  other  divines, 
and  having  submitted  himself  to  their  examination,  his 
judges  decided  that  some  of  his  opinions  were  erroneous. 
They  enjoined  him  to  confess  his  ignorance  and  mistake 
with  due  contrition ;  but  the  temper  of  Barret  revolted 
at  the  prescribed  humiliation,  and  he  prepared  to  quit 
the  university. 

The  controversy  which  was  at  this  time  commenced  by 
Barret  was  not  terminated  by  his  condemation  and 
departure.  The  same  opinions  which  Baroe  had  main- 
tained in  his  prelections,  he  published  in  a  sermon 
before  the  university.  In  this  discourse  he  asserted  that 
God  created  all  men  according  to  his  own  likeness  in 
Adam,  and  consequently  to  eternal  life,  from  which  no 
man  was  rejected  but  on  account  of  his  sins;  that  Christ 
died  for  all  mankind,  was  a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world,  original  and  actual ;  the  remedy  pro- 
vided being  as  extensive  as  the  evil ;  that  the  promises 
of  life  eternal,  made  to  us  in  Christ,  are  to  be  generally 
and  universally  taken  and  understood,  being  made  as 
much  to  Judas  as  to  Peter. 

For  maintaining  these  propositions,  Baroe  was  sum- 
moned before  the  vice-chancellor  and  heads  of  colleges, 
who  examined  him  by  interrogatories,  and  having  heard 
his  answers,  peremptorily  commanded  hiru  to  abstain 
from  publishing  such  opinions,  either  in  his  sermons  or 
lectures.  Apprehensive  that  their  censure  of  Baroe  might 
be  thought  harsh,  they  communicated  their  proceedings 
to  their  chancellor,  Burghley,  and  justified  their  condem- 
nation of  Baroe's  tenets  by  representing  him  as  inclined 
to  Popery.  His  opinions  were  contrary  to  those  which 
had  prevailed  in  the  university  since  the  accession  of  the 
queen ;  and  they  expressed  a  fear  that  if  such  novelties 
were  not  suppressed,  the  whole  body  of  Popery  might  be 
forced  upon  them ;   they  therefore  earnestly  besought 


754  WHITGIFT. 

their  chancellor  to  join  them  in  opposing  such  doctrines. 
On  the  other  hand,  Baroe  wrote,  not  to  the  chancellor 
of  the  university,  but  to  the  archbishop  ;  and  without 
entering  into  a  defence  of  his  opinions,  gave  a  promise 
not  to  publish  them  in  future,  and  to  join  in  preserving 
the  peace  of  the  university  by  dropping  the  controversy 
in  silence.  He  next  addressed  Burghley,  praying  him 
to  stay  any  further  proceedings  of  the  vice-chancellor, 
and,  in  acceding  to  this  petition,  Burghley  concurred 
with  Whitgift.  On  the  merits  of  the  question,  and  on 
the  conduct  of  the  university  towards  Baroe,  these  emi- 
nent men  were  divided.  Whitgift  coincided  with  the 
university,  and  Burghley  inclined  to  Baroe.  The  chan- 
cellor, in  his  letter  to  the  university,  expressed  his 
indignation  at  the  conduct  of  that  body  over  which  he 
presided,  and  scrupled  not  to  ascribe  the  late  persecution 
of  Baroe  to  envy  or  hatred. 

In  order  to  terminate  the  dispute  with  honour  to 
themselves,  the  heads  of  the  university,  declining  any 
farther  appeal  to  their  chancellor,  deputed  two  of  their 
body  to  repair  to  Lambeth.  The  object  of  their  mission 
was,  to  consult  with  the  archbishop,  assisted  by  some 
other  prelates  and  divines,  on  the  formation  of  certain 
articles  on  the  controverted  points ;  and  to  propose  that 
a  conformity  to  these  articles  might  be  required,  in  order 
to  secure  the  peace  of  the  university. 

Whitgift  having  associated  with  himself  the  Bishop  of 
London,  the  Bishop  elect  of  Bangor,  and  some  others,  a 
consultation  took  place  with  the  divines  of  Cambridge; 
and  the  result  of  their  deliberations  was  an  agreement 
on  the  following  propositions,  afterwards  known  under 
the  title  of  the  Lambeth  articles. 

1.  God  from  all  eternity  has  predestinated  some  per- 
sons to  life,  and  others  to  death.  2.  The  moving  or 
efficient  cause  of  predestination  to  life  is  not  foreseen 
faith,  or  perseverance  in  good  works,  or  any  other  quality, 
in  the  persons  predestinated,   but  the   sole   will  and 


WHITGIFT.  755 

pleasure  of  God.  3.  The  number  of  the  predestinated 
is  predetermined  and  certain,  and  cannot  be  increased  or 
lessend.  4.  Those  who  are  not  predestinated  to  salva- 
tion are  necessarily  condemned  on  account  of  their  sins. 
5.  A  true,  lively,  and  justifying  faith,  and  the  sanctifying 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  not  extinguished. 
neither  does  it  fail,  nor  vanish  away  in  the  elect,  either 
finally  or  totally.  6.  A  man  who  is  truly  faithful,  or 
endowed  with  justifying  faith,  has  a  certain  and  full 
assurance  of  the  remission  of  his  sins,  and  of  his  ever- 
lasting salvation  by  Christ.  7.  Saving  grace  is  not 
afforded  to  all  men,  neither  have  all  men  such  a  com- 
munication of  the  divine  assistance,  that  they  may  be 
saved  if  they  will.  8.  No  man  can  come  to  Christ 
unless  it  be  granted  to  him,  and  unless  the  Father  draw 
him;  and  all  men  are  not  drawn  By  the  Father  that 
they  may  come  to  Christ.  9.  It  is  not  in  the  will  and 
power  of  every  man  to  be  saved. 

Before  these  propositions  were  agreed  on  at  Lambeth, 
they  were  transmitted  by  Whitgift  to  Hutton,  Archbishop 
of  York,  soliciting  his  opinion  on  them,  and  acquainting 
him  with  the  animosities  prevailing  at  Cambridge. 
Hutton,  in  his  reply,  while  he  lamented  that  dissen- 
sions on  such  points  should  ever  have  been  raised, 
appeared  to  impute  the  blame  to  the  Anti-Calvinists. 
It  was  his  original  intention  to  have  offered  his  senti- 
ments at  length  on  each  of  the  articles  ;  but  fearing  that 
he  might  exasperate  some  persons  for  whom  he  enter- 
tained a  sincere  respect  and  affection,  he  was  contented 
to  deliver  his  opinion  briefly  on  the  points  of  election 
and  reprobation.  He  reminded  Whitgift  that,  while  they 
were  both  at  the  University  of  Cambridge,  there  was  no 
disagreement  between  them  in  religious  matters. 

It  is  probable  that,  as  soon  as  these  articles  were 
settled,  they  were  communicated  to  Burghley,  before 
they  were  submitted  to  the  queen.  Whitaker  thought 
it  an  indispensable  duty  to  ask  a  personal  conference 


756  WHITGIFT. 

with  the  Chancellor  of  Cambridge,  at  which  he  presented 
a  copy  of  the  articles,  together  with  a  sermon  preached 
by  himself.  Though  oppressed  by  bodily  infirmitiy, 
Burghley  retained  his  vigour  of  mind  and  soundness 
of  judgment,  and  did  not  shrink  from  an  argument, 
even  with  Whitaker,  on  a  question  of  theology.  With 
great  freedom  he  signified  his  disapprobation  of  the 
articles  in  general,  and  especially  that  on  predestina- 
tion. He  entered  into  a  long  discussion  on  this  point, 
and  to  his  forcible  reasoning,  Whitaker  was  either  unable 
or  unwilling  to  offer  a  reply.  These  two  great  men 
parted,  never  to  meet  again ;  for  Whitaker  died  shortly 
after  his  return  to  Cambridge. 

When  the  articles  were  exhibited  to  the  queen,  she 
expressed  her  dissatisfaction  more  strongly  even  than 
Burghley.  The  Calvinists  have  insinuated  that  she 
agreed  in  their  substance;  but  the  advocates  of  pre- 
destination will  gain  little  by  enlisting  EHzabeth  under 
their  banners.  But  her  displeasure  was  unequivocally 
shown,  because  they  were  framed  without  her  authority, 
and  even  without  her  knowledge,  and  because  such 
unfathomable  mysteries  were  imposed  as  articles  of  faith. 
Sir  Robert  Cecil,  one  of  her  secretaries,  communicated 
these  sentiments  of  his  sovereign  to  Whitgift,  and  the 
archbishop  enjoined  the  Vice-chancellor  of  Cambridge  to 
use  his  own  discretion  with  respect  to  the  publication  of 
the  articles,  since  they  were  not  well  received  by  the 
court  or  by  the  queen  herself. 

Whitgift  this  year,  (1595)  obtained  letters  patent  from 
her  majesty,  and  began  the  foundation  of  the  hospital  at 
Croydon.  On  the  death  of  Queen  Ehzabeth,  in  1602, 
the  archbishop  sent  Dr.  Neville,  Dean  of  Canterbury, 
into  Scotland  to  King  James,  in  the  name  of  the  bishops 
and  clergy  of  England,  to  tender  their  allegiance,  and 
to  understand  his  majesty's  pleasure  in  regard  to  the 
government  of  the  Church  ;  and,  though  the  dean 
brought    a    gracious   message    to   him  from   the   king 


WHITGIFT.  7&7 

assuring  his  grace  that  he  would  maintain  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Church  as  his  predecessor  had  left  it, 
yet  the  archbishop  was  for  some  time  not  without  his 
apprehensions. 

The  Puritans  on  the  death  of  the  queen  conceived 
fresh  hopes  of  some  countenance,  if  not  establishment 
of  their  new  discipline,  and  began  to  talk  loudly  of 
challenging  forthwith  all  exemption  from  the  censure 
of,  and  subjection  to,  the  ecclesiastical  authority.  A 
book  had  been  printed  the  year  before  by  that  party, 
entitled,  The  Plea  of  the  Innocents,  and  this  year  in 
April  there  came  out,  The  humble  Petition  of  the  thou- 
sand Ministers  for  redressing  Offences  in  the  Church,  at 
the  end  of  which  they  required  a  conference  ;  and  in 
October,  a  proclamation  was  issued  touching  a  meeting 
for  the  hearing  and  determining  things  pretended  to  be 
amiss  in  the  Church.  The  archbishop's  diligence  in 
this  affair  is  seen  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Earl 
of  Shrewsbury  soon  after,  by  which  it  appears  also,  that 
he  was  then  (viz.  in  December)  so  much  indisposed  with 
the  jaundice  (a  disorder  incident  to  his  constitution)  as 
not  to  be  able  to  wait  upon  the  king  and  court  abroad 
that  summer.  The  conference  was  held*  at  Hampton 
Court,  and  lasted  three  days.  An  account  of  it  was 
afterwards  written  by  Dr.  Barlow,  then  Dean  of  Chester, 
at  the  particular  request  of  the  archbishop. 

The  time  of  the  parliament's  meeting  now  drawing 
near,  the  archbishop,  that  he  might  be  the  better  pre- 
pared, appointed  a  meeting  at  the  Bishop  of  London's 
house  at  Fulham,  to  confer  with  some  of  the  bishops  and 
judges  of  his  court  concerning  the  affairs  of  the  Church, 
which  were  then  to  be  treated  on.  As  he  was  thus 
going  in  his  barge  on  a  very  cold  day,  and  having  his 
barge-cloth  tied  up  (as  his  custom  was)  to  the  top  of  the 
bales,  the  wind  blew  so  sharp,  that  the  young  gentlemen 
in  waiting  desired  to  have  the  cloth  down,  which  he 
would  by  no  means  permit,  because  the  water  was  rough, 

VOL.  VIII.  3   T 


758  WHITTINGHAM. 

and  he  would  therefore  see  his  way.  At  night  he 
complained  of  having  taken  a  cold  in  his  head.  How- 
ever, the  next  Sunday  being  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent,  he 
went  to  Whitehall,  where  the  king  held  a  long  discourse 
with  him  and  the  Bishop  of  London  about  the  affairs  of 
the  Church.  Going  thence,  after  fasting  till  near  one 
o'clock,  to  the  council  chamber  to  dinner,  he  was  taken 
with  a  fit,  which  ended  in  the  dead  palsy  on  the  right 
side,  and  the  loss  of  his  speech.  On  Tuesday  he  was  visited 
by  the  king,  who  told  him,  "  he  would  pray  to  God  for 
his  life,  and  that  if  he  could  obtain  it,  he  should  think 
it  one  of  the  greatest  temporal  blessings  that  could  be 
given  him  in  this  kingdom."  The  archbishop  would 
have  said  something  to  the  king,  but  his  speech  failed 
him,  so  that  he  uttered  only  imperfect  words.  But  so 
much  ol  his  speech  was  heard,  repeating  it  once  or  twice 
earnestly,  with  his  eyes  and  hands  lifted  up,  pro  ecclesia 
Dei:  i.  e.  *'  for  the  Church  of  God."  And  as  he  would 
have  spoken  his  mind  to  the  king  being  present,  so  he 
made  two  or  three  attempts  to  write  his  mind  to  him, 
but  could  not,  the  pen  falling  out  of  his  hand  by  rea- 
son of  the  prevailing  of  the  disease,  which  put  an  end 
to  his  life  th6  day  following,  being  the  twenty-ninth  day 
of  Feb.,  1603-4. — Strype.  Erasmus  Middletons  Biog- 
raphia  Evangelica.  Carwithens  History  of  the  Church 
of  England. 


WHITTINGHAM,    WILLIAM. 

William  Whittingham  was  a  native  of  Chester,  born  in 
15Q4.  He  became  a  commoner  of  Brazenose  College, 
Oxford,  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  and  was  elected 
a  fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  in  1545.  He  afterwards 
held  some  office  at  Christ  Church,  when  it  was  founded 
by  King  Henry  VIII.,  but  whether  he  was  canon,  as  is 
probable,  or  only  tutor,  does  not  appear.     In  1550,  he 


WHITTINGHAM.  759 

travelled  into  France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  and  returned 
to  England  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
In  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  he  was  with  the  exiles  at 
Frankfort,  and  upon  the'  division  then  went  with  that 
part  of  the  congregation  which  was  opposed  to  the 
Prayer  Book  to  Geneva,  and  became  their  minister, 
being  ordained  in  the  Genevan  form.  He  had  a  con- 
siderable share  in  the  translation  of  the  Genevan  Bible, 
and  he  is  the  translator  of  those  of  the  metrical  Psalms 
in  the  old  version  which  appear  with  the  first  letter  of 
his  name,  (W.)  over  them.  On  his  return  to  England 
he  was  preferred  to  the  deanery  of  Durham  in  1563, 
through  the  interest  of  the  notorious  and  profligate  Earl 
of  Leicester.  He  had  been  opposed  to  the  habits  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  when,  in 
1654,  the  order  was  issued  for  wearing  them,  he  thought 
proper  to  comply  rather  than  resign  his  deanery.  Never- 
theless he  evinced  his  puritan  zeal  by  destroying  some 
of  the  antiquities  and  monuments  of  Durham  Cathedral. 
At  length  a  metropolitical  visitation  of  the  province  of 
York  discovered  these,  together  with  numerous  irregula- 
rities in  Durham  Cathedral.  As  the  dean  disputed  the 
archbishop's  right  to  visit  it,  two  royal  commissions 
were  successively  issued,  authorizing  investigation.  The 
chief  commissioner  was  the  repulsed  primate  himself, 
Edwin  Sandys,  lately  translated  from  London  to  York, 
who  had  entered  upon  his  new  duties  by  that  laborious 
and  costly  tour  of  inspection,  which  gave  rise  to  ,the 
proceedings.  He  had  already  questioned  Whittingham's 
ordination,  and  he  began  the  inquiry  by  desiring  him  to 
prove  its  validity.  Matthew  Hutton,  dean  of  his  own 
cathedral,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  Archbishop 
of  York,  successively,  maintained  that  the  dean  of 
Durham  had  been  ordained  in  better  sort  than  Sandys 
himself,  and  indeed  than  most  of  the  ministers  in  Eng- 
land. But  the  archbishop,  though  like  Whittingham, 
he  had  been  an  exile,  and  had  entertained  Puritanical 


160  WICLIFF. 

views,  was  not  to  be  driven  from  an  important  ques- 
tion by  the  obloquy  that  it  had  brought  upon  him,  or 
by  vague  offensive  generalities.  He  was  even  likely  to 
account  for  the  opposition,  by  Button's  personal  pique, 
being  upon  ill  terms  with  him,  and  having  charged  him 
with  an  unseemly  fondness  for  money.  The  dean  of 
Durham  was,  accordingly,  in  spite  of  a  violent  party 
outcry,  put  upon  his  defence.  He  confessed  himself  to 
be  '•  neither  deacon  nor  minister,  according  to  the  law  of 
the  realm,"  but  pleaded  a  sufficient  ordination  at  Geneva. 
This,  on  the  other  side  was  denied  ;  most  injuriously  to 
the  discredit,  it  was  urged,  of  the  orders  given  in  a 
distinguished  Protestant  church.  Sandys  would  not 
allow  Geneva  to  be  any  way  compromised,  Whittingham 
being  treated  as  a  mere  layman,  regularly  ordained 
neither  there  nor  anywhere  else.  The  dean  alleged  a 
call  to  the  ministry,  "  by  lot  and  election  of  the  whole 
English  congregation  there,"  and  produced  a  certificate 
to  that  effect.  Sandys  excepted  against  the  terms  **  lot 
and  election,"  as  conclusive  in  themselves,  none  such 
being  used  on  these  occasions  in  any  reformed  church. 
In  the  course  of  a  month,  Whittingham  produced 
another  certificate,  which  had  suffrages  in  the  place  of 
lot  and  election,  and  which  testified  besides,  that  he 
••  was  admitted  minister  with  such  other  ceremonies  as 
there  is  used  and  accustomed.  A  solemn  adjudication 
of  this  case  was  precluded  by  the  dean's  death,  but 
Archbishop  Whitgift  declared  soon  after,  that  he  would 
have  been  deprived  had  he  lived,  without  "  especial 
grace  and  dispensation." 

He   died   the    10th   of  June,  1579.      He  published 
nothing  of  importance. — Strype.    Soames. 


WICLlFF,   JOHN. 


John  Wicliff  was  born  about  the  yeat  1324,  and,  most 


WICLIFF.  761 

probably,  in  the  village  of  WiclifF,  near  Richmond,  in 
Yorkshire ;  but  the  first  authentic  passage  of  his  life  is 
his  admission  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  then  (1340) 
just  founded  by  Philippa,  the  royal  consort  of  Edward 
III. ;  thence  he  removed  to  Merton,  and  obtained  much 
reputation  in  that  college  for  his  skill  in  dialectics,  and 
was  called  the  Evangelic  Doctor,  for  the  zeal  with  which 
he  acquitted  himself  of  his  duties  as  an  expounder  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  As  an  author,  he  first  appeared 
before  the  world  in  a  tract  called  the  Last  Age  of  the 
Church,  in  which  he  feels  warranted  in  interpreting  the 
dreadful  pestilence  which  had  lately  disturbed  the  world 
into  one  of  the  signs  of  the  last  days  ;  and  in  which  he 
inveighs  with  great  severity  against  the  disorders  in  the 
Church,  which  were  bringing  down,  as  he  not  unjustly 
supposed,  the  vengeance  of  God  on  a  devoted  people. 

That  these  strictures  were  well  deserved  is  undeniable. 
The  conviction  that  these  evils  were  coming  upon  the 
Church,  through  the  corruptions  of  the  higher  clergy, 
and  the  relaxation  of  discipline  consequent  on  enormous 
wealth  and  tinbounded  secularisation  of  habits,  had 
already  been  forced  upon  the  Church  :  but  the  papal 
court,  whose  influence  was  first  threatened,  and  in  which, 
if  any  where,  resided  the  power  to  remedy  the  evil,  ap- 
plied but  a  temporary  remedy  in  the  institution  of  the 
mendicant  friars.  This  was  to  substitute  a  body  of  men, 
poor  by  profession,  and  for  a  while,  in  fact,  for  the  self- 
denial  of  the  whole  body  ;  and  to  seek  for  the  Church  in 
general  the  blessings  and  the  strength  of  poverty,  by  a 
vicarious  humility.  For  a  while  the  expedient  succeeded 
wonderfully,  and  the  Church  was  reverenced  and  obeyed 
in  the  persons  of  her  professed  beggars,  while  she  was 
sitting  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  and  fared  sumptuously 
every  day,  in  the  persons  of  her  wealthy  hierarchy.  But 
by  the  time  that  Wicliff  appeared  on  the  public  stage, 
the  mendicants  had  forgotten  poverty,  their  only  strength 
and  credit,  and  had  become  the  authors  of  intolerable 
3  t3 


769  WICLIFF. 

confusion.  They  kept  their  name,  but  contrived  to  eludfe 
all  the  hardships  which  it  implied,  and  to  amass  im- 
mense wealth.  The  mendicants  thus  degenerated,  and 
become  the  weakest  instead  of  the  strongest  point  in  the 
Church,  were  the  objects  of  Wicliff  s  first  decided  attack ; 
iand  while  Fitzralph,  archbishop  of  Armagh,  was  carrying 
his  complaints  against  "  the  poor  brethren"  to  Rome, 
Wicliff  was  opposing  them  with  his  growing  reputation  at 
Oxford,  not  without  the  sympathy  of  that  university, 
since  the  influence  of  the  obnoxious  friars  had  reduced 
the  number  of  students  from  30,000  to  6,000. 

The  labours  of  Wicliff  were  rewarded  with  the  Rectory 
of  Lillingham  (which  he  afterwards  exchanged  for  that 
of  Lutgershall),  and  with  the  wardenship  of  Baliol 
College,  which  he  resigned  for  the  headship  of  Canter- 
bury Hall.  A  series  of  revolutions  in  the  affairs  of  the 
latter  institution  at  length  deprived  him  of  this  office, 
after  an  unsuccessful  appeal  to  the  pope.  But  more 
important  matters  for  the  Church  in  England,  and  even 
for  Wicliff  (when  the  results  of  his  present  employments 
on  his  future  controversial  course  are  considered),  were 
then  pending  at  Rome.  The  pope  revived  his  claim 
of  homage  and  tribute  from  the  English  crown  ;  and 
Wicliff,  in  a  spirited  tract,  answered  the  challenge  of  a 
monk  to  repel  the  papal  claim.  His  engagement  against 
the  exactions  of  Rome,  where  he  had  an  easy  victory, 
would  not  tend  to  moderate  his  controversial  temper, 
nor  to  teach  him  humility  of  spirit,  and  a  nice  distinction 
between  her  services  to  the  Church  and  her  injustice 
and  false  teaching.  Rome  as  yet  held  the  place  of  an 
authority  in  Wicliff's  system;  and  to  be  forced  on  the 
necessity  of  attacking  authority  on  a  weak  side  is  always 
of  dangerous  moral  consequences. 

The  services  of  Wicliff  soon  found  themselves  amply 
acknowledged.  He  proceeded  Doctor  in  Divinity  in  1371, 
and  was  immediately  after  made  theological  professor ; 
and  in  1375,  having  been  in  the  interim  employed  by 


WICLIFF.  n^ 

Edward  in  an  embassy  to  Avignon,  where  the  papal  court 
was  then  held,  (and  where  the  often-mooted  question  of 
provisions  was,  for  the  hundredth  time,  left  undecided), 
he  was  presented  by  the  crown  to  the  prebend  of  Aust, 
and  to  the  Rectory  of  Lutterworth.  But  these  dignities 
made  him  the  more  obnoxious  to  the  attacks  of  the 
enemies  whom  his  philippics  against  the  degeneracy  of 
the  Church  had  raised  up  against  him ;  and  several  false 
and  dangerous  opinions  were  collected  out  of  his  books 
and  his  theological  course  at  Oxford,  which  were  asso- 
ciated with  others  true  in  themselves,  though  false 
according  to  the  notions  of  those  times,  and  he  was 
summoned  to  answer  before  Courtney,  Bishop  of  London, 
in  synod  at  St.  Paul's.  Wicliff  appeared  on  the  day 
appointed  ;  but  he  came  as  if  in  triumph,  under  the 
protection  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and 
Percy  the  earl  marshal.  The  disturbance  occasioned  by 
such  a  concourse  within  the  sacred  precincts,  called 
forth  a  rebuke  from  the  bishop,  which  Lancaster  retorted 
most  uncourteously.  (See  Life  of  Courtney  J.  The  court 
was  broken  up  in  tumult. 

Though  Wicliff  had  escaped  this  time,  there  were 
many  anxious  for  his  destruction ;  and  the  court  of 
Rome  thought  him  not  a  mark  beneath  its  most  pointed 
enmity.  Bulls  were  sent  to  the  University  of  Oxford, 
and  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of 
London,  lamenting  that  though  the  effects  of  Wicliff's 
doctrines  had  been  felt  at  Rome,  they  had  not  yet  been 
checked  in  England  ;  and  commanding  that  the  person 
of  Wicliff  should  be  seized,  and  that  he  should  be  pro- 
ceeded against  with  all  diligence.  The  papal  bull  met 
with  tardy  acceptance  at  Oxford ;  but  being  summoned 
to  appear  before  the  pope's  commissioners  at  Lambeth, 
Wicliff  exhibited  his  apology,  wherein  he  somewhat 
smoothed  over  many  of  the  conclusions  which  were 
charged  against  him,  though  by  no  means  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  incur  the  blame  of  cowardice :  nor,  indeed. 


764  WICLIFF. 

more  than  every  one  may  be  allowed  to  explain  the  pro* 
positions  collected  from  his  works  by  his  enemies,  and 
imputed  to  him  for  his  condemnation.  Again,  however, 
it  was  the  violence  of  his  faction  that  saved  him.  The 
mob  broke  into  the  chapel  where  the  court  was  sitting, 
and  declared  themselves  no  patient  witnesses  of  the 
process  against  their  favourite ;  and  Sir  Lewis  Clifford 
came  at  the  same  time  with  a  message  from  the  queen 
mother,  forbidding  the  delegates  to  proceed  to  any 
sentence  against  WiclifF.  Thus  supported  by  the  lowest 
and  the  highest  in  worldly  station,  WiclifF  again  escaped, 
with  an  injunction  to  silence,  which  of  course  he  did  not 
obey. 

In  the  midst  of  his  harassing  and  exciting  labours, 
WiclifF  was  seized  with  an  attack  of  paralysis  while  at 
Oxford  (1379),  which  threatened  to  terminate  fatally. 
This  sickness  gave  occasion  to  the  only  incident  that 
has  been  recorded  of  Wicliff's  life  at  all  of  the  character 
of  a  personal  anecdote.  His  enemies,  the  mendicants, 
hoping  to  extort  some  confession  of  error  and  some 
amends  for  his  attacks  upon  them  from  his  weakness, 
took  the  opportunity  of  sending  a  deputation  of  their 
number  to  his  sick  bed,  and,  to  pursue  the  narrative  in 
the  words  of  Le  Bas,  in  order  to  heighten  the  solemnity 
of  the  proceeding,  they  took  care  to  be  attended  by  the 
civil  authorities.  Four  of  their  own  doctors  or  regents, 
together  with  as  many  senators  of  the  city,  or  aldermen 
of  the  wards,  accordingly  entered  his  chamber  ;  and 
finding  him  stretched  upon  his  bed,  they  opened  their 
commission  by  wishing  him  a  happy  recovery  from  his 
distemper.  They  soon  entered,  however,  on  the  more 
immediate  object  of  their  embassy.  They  reminded 
him  of  the  grievous  wrongs  he  had  heaped  upon  their 
fraternity,  both  by  his  sermons  and  his  writings ;  they 
admonished  him  that  to  all  appearance,  his  last  hour 
was  fast  approaching  ;  and  they  expressed  their  hope 
that  he  would  seize  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  him, 


WICLIFF.  7^5 

of  making  them  the  only  reparation  in  his  power,  and 
penitently  revoking,  in  their  presence,  whatever  he 
might  have  uttered  or  published  to  their  disparagement. 
This  exhortation  was  heard  by  him  in  silence  ;  but  when 
it  was  concluded,  he  ordered  his  servants  to  raise  him 
on  his  pillows ;  and  then  fixing  his  eyes  upon  the  com- 
pany, he  said,  with  a  firm  voice,  *  I  shall  not  die  but  live, 
and  again  declare  the  evil  deeds  of  the  friares.' 

The  consternation  of  the  doctors,  continues  Le  Bas, 
may  easily  be  imagined.  They  immediately  retired  in 
confusion.  Yet  surely  it  is  not  very  easy  to  imagine 
that  such  a  body  of  men  would  be  appalled  under 
such  circumstances,  or  that  they  would  retire  except 
with  contempt,  however  ill  bestowed,  for  the  apparently 
dying  man.  The  story,  indeed,  does  not  look  very 
like  a  true  one  from  the  beginning,  the  kind  of  visit 
being  as  unlikely  to  a  sick  man  under  such  circum- 
stances as  its  conclusion  is  strange  :  yet  it  always  makes 
a  part  of  the  account  of  Wicliff  s  life.  The  death  of 
Edward  the  Third  had  intervened  between  these  several 
events.  Richard  II.  was  still  a  minor  when  a  series  of 
rebellions  broke  out  in  England  as  they  had  done  shortly 
before  in  many  parts  of  the  continent. 

These  disturbances  were  attributed,  with  about  equal 
truth  perhaps,  by  two  opposite  parties,  to  the  designs  of 
Wicliff,  and  to  the  anger  of  the  Almighty  against  the 
Church  and  State  for  allowing  his  doctrines  to  spread 
unchecked.  There  were,  doubtless,  Wickliffites  among 
the  rioters ;  and  some  use  was  of  course  made  of  the 
doctrines  concerning  property  which  he  had  contributed 
to  render  popular  :  but  it  would  be  most  unjust  to 
draw  the  bond  of  connexion  closer  between  the  parson  of 
Lutterworth  and  the  followers  of  Jack  Straw. 

One  circumstance  occurred  which  could  not  fail  to 
strengthen  Wicliff's  party,  and  to  add  poignancy  to  his 
satire  against  the  papal  pretensions.  Clement  V.,  a 
relation  of  Philip  the  Fair  of  France,  had  been  induced 


766  WICLIFF. 

to  remove  tlie  seat  of  the  papacy  to  Avignon,  where  it 
continued  until  the  death  of  Gregory  XI.,  in  1378;  a 
term  which  the  Italians  stigmatise  as  the  Babylonish 
captivity.  On  the  death  of  Gregory,  the  conclave,  under 
the  influence  of  Italian  violence,  chose  Bartholomeo  de 
Pregnano,  who  took  the  title  of  Urban  VI. :  but  soon 
after,  disgusted  by  the  object  forced  upon  them,  they 
declared  his  election  void ;  and  Robert,  Count  of  Geneva, 
was  chosen  by  them,  and  resided  at  Avignon,  with  the 
title  of  Clement  VII.  The  two  pontiffs  of  course  carried 
on  their  war  with  the  reckless  use  of  all  spiritual  wea- 
pons, and  anathematised  the  persons  and  adherents  of 
each  other  without  remorse.  "  The  head  of  Antichrist," 
to  use  Wicliff's  expressions,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  apply 
that  name  of  deep  and  mysterious  horror  to  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  "  was  cloven  in  twain,  and  the  two  parts  were 
made  to  fight  against  each  other."  But  other  weapons 
were  soon  wielded  in  this  controversy;  the  cause  of 
Clement  was  of  course  espoused  by  France,  and  with 
France  followed  Spain  and  Scotland :  Italy,  as  much  of 
course,  adhered  to  Urban,  and  England,  always  opposed 
to  France,  also  maintained  his  cause.  Thus  supported, 
Urban  published  a  crusade  against  his  rival,  and  Spen- 
cer, Bishop  of  Norwich,  as  the  pope's  nuncio,  was  em- 
powered to  grant  to  all  who  would  engage  in  it  the  same 
privileges  as  those  had  received  who  fought  against  the 
infidels.  The  sale  of  indulgences  brought  large  sums 
into  his  hands,  and  many  joined  the  expedition  ;  and  the 
bishop  himself  assuming  the  command,  led  the  troops 
thus  assembled  into  Flanders,  where  for  a  while  he  waged 
successful  war  against  the  Flemings  ;  but  he  was  driven 
back  to  England,  totally  discomfited,  by  the  approach  of 
Charles  IV.,  before  the  end  of  the  year. 

Wicliff,  who  had  already  written  on  this  papal  schism, 
renewed  his  attack  at  this  juncture,  and  wrote  against 
the  crusade,  in  the  Sentence  of  the  Curse  Expounded, 
and  in  the  Objections  to  the  Freres: — the  mendicants 


WICLIFF.  76T 

being  the  most  industriously  engaged  in  preaching  the 
crusade,  and  in  vending  the  indulgences  connected  with 
it.  He  condemns,  however,  all  wars,  even  those  of  self- 
defence  ;  so  that  here,  as  in  many  other  instances,  he 
overshoots  his  mark,  and  the  truth  which  he  holds, 
running  beyond  its  due  bounds,  becomes  error.  And 
indeed,  it  should  never  be  forgotten,  that  almost  all 
heresies  and  errors  have  originated  in  the  overstraining 
of  a  truth :  and  it  is  the  truth  in  it  that  gives  the 
erroneous  system  much  of  its  power  over  men's  minds, 
and  so  makes  the  falsehood  more  dangerous.  This 
thought  should  greatly  humble  human  intellect;  and 
teach  us  charity  in  judging  others,  and  greater  jealousy 
over  ourselves. 

Perhaps  Wicliff  himself,  and  certainly  some  of  his 
followers,  require  the  same  apology  and  indulgence  in 
another  controversy,  which  commenced  before  and  long 
outlived,  that  on  the  crusade  against  Clement.  Wicliff 
had  passed  from  his  strictures  on  the  polity  and  tyranny 
of  the  papal  court,  to  the  doctrines  then  maintained  in 
the  Western  Church,  and  upheld  chiefly  by  the  authority 
of  Rome  ;  and  especially  to  the  extraordinary  dogma  of 
transubstantiation :  one  of  late  introduction  even  into 
the  Roman  Church,  and  of  still  later  entrance  into  the 
English  Church;  and  which  offered  to  the  keen  and 
somewhat  too  irreverent  satire  of  Wicliff  many  points 
of  assault.  He  was  actually  engaged  in  enforcing  his 
startling  doctrine  in  the  theological  chair,  when  he  was 
denounced  by  a  convention  summoned  by  the  chancellor 
of  the  university,  and  the  instrument  of  their  sentence 
was  promulgated  in  the  schools.  The  sentence  was  met 
by  an  appeal  to  the  king ;  the  first  appeal,  we  may  well 
believe,  in  matters  purely  doctrinal,  that  was  ever  made 
to  a  secular  power  by  one  whose  .'principles  were  not 
simply  Erastian  :  yet,  whatever  were  his  errors,  Erastian, 
Wicliff  certainly  was  not. 

In  May,  1382,  the  tenets  of  Wicliff  were  farther  con. 


V68  WICLIFF. 

<iemned  at  a  synod  of  divines,  held  under  Archbishop 
Courtney,  before  whom,  when  he  was  Bishop  of  London, 
WiclifF  had  already  appeared.  Admonitions  were  sent 
into  the  archdeaconry  in  which  WiclifF's  living  was ; 
religious  processions  were  ordered  in  the  metropolis ; 
and  the  lords  spiritual  petitioned  the  crown  against  the 
sect  of  Lollards.  A  royal  ordinance  issued,  empowering 
the  sheriffs  to  imprison  those  who,  under  pretence  of 
greater  zeal,  disturbed  the  Church  and  the  realm  by 
preaching  their  new  doctrines  in  churchyards,  markets, 
and  fairs.  The  commons  petitioned  against  this  ordi- 
nance, as  converting  the  powers  of  the  state  into  instru- 
ments of  an  irresponsible  hierarchy ;  and  it  was  recalled, 
but  the  storm  still  lowered  over  Wicliff  and  his  adhe- 
rents, among  the  chief  of  whom,  rendered  notorious,  if 
not  illustrious,  by  the  processes  against  them,  were 
Hereford,  Kepingdon,  Ashton,  and  Redman,  popular 
preachers  of  the  new  doctrines  at  Oxford.  Wicliff  him- 
self was  at  last  summoned  to  answer  before  the  convo- 
cation at  Oxford :  and  published  two  confessions,  in 
which  he  seemed  to  have  so  modified  his  expressions 
as  to  escape  actual  punishment,  though  not  by  any 
means  to  satisfy  his  opponents.  And  yet  Wicliff  and 
his  followers,  when  questioned,  as  many  of  them  were, 
before  the  spiritual  courts,  on  their  faith  touching  the 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  gave 
such  answers,  almost  without  exception,  as  might  have 
amply  satisfied  their  judges,  unless  they  had  been 
determined  on  eliciting  statements  inconsistent  with 
the  scholastic  deductions  from  the  doctrine  of  Christ's 
Presence,  rather  than  contradictory  of  the  simple  con- 
fession of  their  own  doctrine,  as  it  might  be  held  im- 
plicitly by  an  humble  and  reverent  mind.  Thus,  in  his 
confession,  Wicliff  says  :  "  I  acknowledge  that  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  altar  is  very  God's  body  in  form  of  bread; 
but  it  is  in  another  manner  God's  body  than  it  is  in 
heaven;  for  in  heaven  it  is  visibly  apparent,  in  form 


WICLIFF.  769 

and  figure  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  in  the  Sacrament 
God's  body  is  by  divine  miracle  in  form  of  bread ;"  and 
this  he  proves  by  the  saying  of  Christ,  who  cannot  lie, 
*'  This  is  My  body."  Surely  this  ought  to  satisfy  those, 
of  how  extreme  opinions  soever  themselves,  who  will  not 
press  others  into  dangerous  subtleties.  And  so,  again, 
both  Sawtrey,  and  Sir  John  Oldcastle  were  driven  from  a 
sound  confession  on  this  point,  by  a  demand  to  answer 
rather  to  subtleties  and  inferences  than  to  a  dogma 
simply  expressed,  before  the  charge  of  heresy  could  be 
substantiated  against  them. 

The  controversial  works  of  Wicliff  were  very  numerous, 
and  appeared  on  every  occasion  which  he  felt  that  he 
could  turn  to  the  weakening  of  the  Papal  influence  : 
but  of  all  his  polemical  weapons,  his  Translation  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  into  the  vulgar  tongue  was  incom- 
parably the  most  efifective.  We  do  not  mean  that  either 
Wicliff"s  intentions,  or  the  effects  of  this  work,  were 
simply  polemical :  on  the  contrary,  he  doubtless  intended 
and  as  certainly  effected  much  direct  and  purely  practical 
good,  by  the  successful  issue  of  his  undertaking.  But 
still  his  object  was  certainly  in  part  polemical,  and  no- 
thing could  be  more  skilfully  chosen  and  applied  than 
this  powerful  weapon.  The  very  fact  that  the  transla- 
tion was  effected,  was  a  refutation  of  the  prescriptive 
claim  of  the  Vulgate  to  sole  authority  and  reference. 
Men  felt  the  boon  that  had  been  conferred  upon  them ; 
and  all  the  more  because  it  was  in  fact,  so  far  as  it  was 
to  serve  a  controversial  purpose,  an  appeal  to  their  pri- 
vate judgment  from  the  authority  and  sense  of  the 
Church ;  a  process  of  reasoning  which  never  yet  failed 
to  make  many  converts,  whether  the  truth  or  falsehood 
has  been  the  gainer.  The  copies  of  his  work,  multiplied 
with  labour,  and  bought  at  enormous  prices,  shewed  the 
value  which  was  felt  for  the  precious  gift;  while  the 
rage  of  the  Papal  supporters,  and  the  severity  with 
which  they  denounced  the  possessors  of  the  cherished 

VOL.  VIII.  3  u 


110  WICLIFF. 

volume,  sufficiently  indicated  the  effects  it  had  produced 
on  the  controvei'sies  which  Wicliff  was  waging  against 
them. 

This  was  the  first  complete  translation  of  the  sacred 
volume  that  had  ever  appeared  in  England ;  and  there 
can  be  no  question  but  that  the  Church  of  England  owes 
a  debt  of  thanks  not  easily  repaid  to  Wicliff  for  his 
opportune  labour.  It  was  a  powerful  instrument  in 
preparing  the  way  for  a  better  reformation  than  ever 
Wicliff  would  have  effected  out  of  it,  with  the  help  of 
private  opinion  ;  that  most  dangerous  court  of  final 
appeal  which  Wicliff  would  have  established.  We  have 
still,  through  the  providence  of  God,  the  Bible  in  our 
oWti  tongue  which  Wicliff  was  the  first  to  give  us  ;  but 
we  have  at  the  same  time,  what  renders  it  a  gift  alto- 
gether safe,  and  what  Wicliff  would  have  removed,  the 
wholesome  authority  of  the  Church  in  its  interpretation. 

The  translation  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  was  not  only 
transcribed  by  many  copyists,  but  was  the  companion 
and  the  storehouse  of  a  body  of  men  whom  Wicliff 
encouraged,  and  perhaps  employed  (though  it  does  not 
appear  what  degree  of  subordination  and  order  there 
might  be  in  their  mission),  under  the  name  "poor 
priests,"  who  were  to  the  tenets  of  Wicliff  exactly  what 
the  mendicant  friars  were  to  those  of  Rome.  The  prin- 
ciples on  which  these  dangerous  itinerants  were  engaged 
were  utterly  subversive  of  all  order.  Their  mission, 
which  they  could  refer  to  nothing  but  their  own  private 
conviction  of  duty,  was  to  override  all  authority,  and  to 
extend  to  all  spiritual  offices  in  all  parishes ;  in  short, 
they  were  to  be  amenable  to  no  authority  but  their  own 
sense  of  duty,  and  to  be  judged  by  no  rule  but  that  of 
( their  own)  private  judgment. 

From  Oxford  Wicliff  retired,  still  with  broken  health, 
and  capable  of  only  diminished  exertion,  to  Lutterworth, 
where  he  received  a  summons  from  the  pope  to  defend 
himself  in  person  against  the  charge  of  heretical  teaching. 


WILKINS.  771 

The  sickness  which  had  fallen  upon  him  prevented 
his  appearing  at  Rome  to  this  summons ;  but  he  wrote 
an  epistle  to  the  pope,  in  which  he  took  on  himself 
rather  to  be  the  adviser  of  his  holiness,  than  to  occupy 
the  place  of  the  accused.  He  continued  for  two  years 
to  labour,  with  such  strength  as  remained  in  him,  in 
his  charge;  and  on  the  29th  Dec.  1384,  he  was  again 
attacked  by  paralysis  during  the  celebration  of  the  holy 
communion,  and  just  about  the  time  of  the  elevation  of 
the  Host;  a  circumstance  which  the  enemies  of  the 
veteran  opponent  of  the  doctrines  then  most  commonly 
maintained,  construed  into  a  signal  mark  of  God's  dis- 
pleasure ;  but  those  who  more  justly  appreciated  his 
character  and  teaching,  may  be  allowed,  without  being 
committed  to  all  his  opinions,  to  entertain  the  happier 
thought,  that  he  was  gently  stricken  by  the  Lord's  hand 
while  he  was  engaged  in  the  duties  of  his  holy  calling, 
and  when  he  might  best  choose  to  receive  the  summons 
to  eternity.  The  attack  entirely  deprived  him  of  his 
speech,  and  two  days  after  he  died,  in  the  sixty-first 
year  of  his  age. 

Most  of  Wicliff's  writings,  still  remain  in  MS. 
Even  of  his  Translation  of  the  Scriptures,  only  the 
New  Testament  has  been  printed,  first,  by  his  biogra- 
pher, the  Rev.  John  Lewis,  minister  of  Margate,  in 
folio,  in  1731 ;  this  was  printed  in  4to,  in  1810,  under 
the  care  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Hervey  Baber,  of  the  British 
Museum ;  and  for  the  third  time,  in  Baxter's  English 
Hexapla,  4to,  London,  184L — Lewis.    Le  Bos. 


WILKINS,    JOHN. 

John  Wilkins  was  born  in  1614,  at  Fawseby,  near 
Daventry,  and  was  educated  at  a  private  school  in  the 
parish  of  All  Saints',  Oxford.  He  went  at  sixteen  years 
of  age  to  New  Inn  Hall,  and  removed  from  thence  to. 


773  WILKINS. 

Magdalen  Hall,  where  he  graduated.  After  his  ordi- 
nation, he  became  chaplain,  first,  to  Lord  Say,  and 
then  to  Charles,  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine.  At  the 
breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  he  became  a  traiior  to 
his  King  and  his  Church,  and  took  the  solemn  league 
and  covenant.  He  had  his  reward,  and  by  a  committee 
appointed  for  reforming  the  university  was  made  warden 
of  Wadham  College.  In  1649,  he  was  created  D.D., 
and  in  1656,  he  married  Robina,  widow  of  Peter  French, 
formerly  canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  sister  to  Oliver 
Cromwell,  then  Lord-protector.  In  1659,  he  was  nomi- 
nated by  Richard,  the  protector,  to  be  master  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge.  He  was  of  course  obliged  to  resign 
the  offices  he  had  usurped,  when  the  Restoration  of  the 
Church  and  monarchy  took  place.  But  he  soon  found 
it  expedient  to  conform,  and  became  preacher  to  the 
society  of  Gray's  Inn,  and  Rector  of  St.  Lawrence, 
Jewry,  London,  on  the  promotion  of  Dr.  Seth  Ward 
to  the  Bishopric  of  Exeter.  About  this  time  he  was 
admitted  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  chosen 
one  of  its  council.  Soon  after  he  was  made  dean  of 
Ripon;  and,  by  the  interest  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
he  was  raised  to  the  See  of  Chester,  in  1668.  Dr. 
Tillotson,  who  had  married  his  stepdaughter,  preached 
his  consecration  sermon.  He  died  of  suppression  of 
urine,  on  the  1 9th  Nov.  167*2,  at  the  house  of  his  friend 
Dr.  Tillotson,  in  Chancery-lane,  London,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Church  of  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry. 

He  was  chiefly  distinguished  as  a  mathematician. 
His  theological  works  are  : — Ecclesiastes,  or,  a  Discourse 
of  the  Gift  of  Preaching,  as  it  falls  under  the  Rules 
of  Art,  1646, — this,  no  doubt,  was  written  with  a  view 
to  reform  the  prevailing  taste  of  the  times, — it  has  gone 
through  nine  editions,  the  last  in  1718,  Svo  ;  Discourse 
concerning  the  Beauty  of  Providence,  in  all  the  Rugged 
Passages  of  it,  1649 ;  Discourse  concerning  the  Gift  of 
Prayer,  showing  what  it  is,  wherein  it  consists,  and  how 


WILLIAMS.  773 

far  it  is  attainable  by  Industry,  &c.  1653, — this  was 
directed  against  enthusiasm  and  fanaticism.  These 
were  published  in  his  life  time.  After  his  death  Tillot- 
son  published  from  his  MSS.,  Sermons  preached  on 
Several  occasions  ;  and,  Of  the  Principles  and  Duties 
of  Natural  Religion,  8vo. — Burnet.     Birch.     Biog.  Brit. 


WILLIAMS,  JOHN. 

John  Williams  was  born  at  Aberconway,  in  Caernar- 
vonshire, on  the  25th  of  March,  1582.  He  received 
his  primary  edncation  at  the  public  school  of  Ruthvin, 
and  at  sixteen  years  of  age  was  admitted  of  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge.  After  taking  his  successive  degrees 
he  was,  by  mandamus  from  James  I.,  made  fellow  of 
his  college.  When  he  was  not  more  than  twenty-four, 
his  business  habits  had  become  such  that  he  was  deputed 
by  the  master  and  fellows  of  his  college,  as  their  court- 
agent,  to  petition  James  I.  for  a  mortmain  in  augmen- 
tation of  their  maintenance :  upon  which  occasion  he 
not  only  succeeded  in  his  suit,  but  was  particularly 
noticed  by  his  majesty ;  as  he  told  him  long  afterwards, 
when  he  became  his  principal  officer.  In  his  twenty- 
seventh  year,  he  entered  into  orders ;  and  accepted  a 
small  living,  which  lay  beyond  Bury  St.  Edmund's, 
upon  the  confines  of  Norfolk.  In  1611,  he  was  insti- 
tuted to  the  Rectory  of  Grafton-Regis  in  Northampton- 
shire on  the  king's  presentation,  and  the  same  year  was 
recommended  to  the  Chancellor  Egerton  for  his  chap- 
lain ;  but  he  obtained  his  lordship's  leave  to  continue 
one  year  longer  at  Cambridge,  in  order  to  serve  the 
office  of  proctor  of  the  university.  In  1612,  he  was 
presented  to  the  Rectory  of  Grafton-Underwood,  in 
Northamptonshire,  by  the  Earl  of  Worcester,  and  the 
same  year  he  took  the  degree  of  B.D.  In  1613,  he 
was  made  precentor  of  Lincoln;  rector  of  Waldegrave, 
3  u  3 


774  WILLIAMS. 

in  Northamptonshire,  in  1614;  and  within  the  three 
years  immediately  following,  was  successively  collated 
to  a  prebend  and  residentiaryship  in  the  Church  of 
Lincoln,  and  to  prebends  in  those  of  Peterborough, 
Hereford,  and  St.  David's. 

In  1619,  he  was  collated  to  the  Deanery  of  Salisbury  ; 
and,  the  year  following  removed  to  that  of  Westminister. 
This  preferment  he  obtained  through  the  interest  of  the 
Marquis  of  Buckingham,  whom  for  some  time  he  neglected 
to  court,  as  we  learn  from  Hacket,  for  two  reasons ;  first, 
because  he  mightily  suspected  the  continuance  of  the 
marquis  in  favour  at  court;  and  secondly,  because  he 
saw  that  his  lordship  was  very  apt  suddenly  to  look 
cloudy  upon  his  creatures,  as  if  he  had  raised  them  up 
on  purpose  to  cast  them  down. 

The  chancellor  (Bacon)  being  removed  from  his  office 
in  May,  1621,  Dr.  Williams  was  appointed  keeper  of  the 
great  seal,  on  the  10th  of  July  following ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  the  same  month,  was  consecrated  Bishop  O'f 
Lincoln,  with  the  Deanery  of  Westminster,  and  the 
Rectory  of  Waldegrave  in  commendam. 

On  the  accession  of  Charles  I.,  Williams  was  deprived 
of  the  great  seal,  which  was  given  to  Sir  Thos.  Coventry. 
And  henceforth  he  became  an  encourager  of  the  Puritans 
and  a  strong  opponent  of  Laud.  When  it  was  first 
proposed  to  observe  the  ceremonials  of  the  Church,  and 
to  conduct  public  worship  decently  and  in  order,  Dr. 
Williams,  as  Heylyn  expresses  it,  had  taken  cognizance 
of  these  matters,  and  had  made  very  material  alterations 
in  St.  Martin's,  Leicester ;  and  the  altar  of  his  own 
chapel  was  more  splendidly  decorated  than  many  in  the 
kingdom.  But,  being  now  determined  to  oppose  Laud 
by  every  expedient,  he,  on  the  13th  of  December,  3  633, 
thought  proper  to  abrogate  this  in  a  particular  instance, 
whereby  he  directly  encouraged  those  acts  of  profaneness. 

Fortunately,  however.  Laud  was  metropolitan,  and 
Williams  one  of  his  suffragans,  so  that  the  former  was 


WILLIAMS.  776 

possessed  of  a  power  which  enabled  him  to  rectify  abuses. 
Williams'  conduct  was  certified  to  Laud,  and,  accord- 
ingly, in  his  visitation,  he  suspended  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  during  its  continuance.  The 
bishop  opposed  this  act,  which  appeared  to  him  an  un- 
reasonable assumption  of  power ;  and  in  a  letter  to  the 
archbishop,  he  writes,  that,  in  examining  the  records  of 
several  registers,  he  found  that  his  diocese  had  never 
been  visited  since  1285,  during  the  episcopate  of  Dr. 
Robert  Grosthead,  and  never  afterwards,  but  by  a  bull 
from  the  pope,  or,  since  the  Reformation,  by  a  letter  of 
assistance  from  the  king,  because  the  revenues  of  the 
bishopric  had  been  seized  by  the  Duke  of  Somerset  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  and  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion being  re-modelled,  his  fees,  arising  thence,  were 
his  chief  support ;  moreover,  this  metropolitan  visitation 
would  be  much  more  grievous  to  him,  as  it  was  the  year 
of  his  own  triennial  visitation.  Archbishop  Laud  replied, 
that  he  would  not  do  him  injustice,  but  that  he  was 
resolved  to  assert  his  own  metropolitan  rights.  It  was 
agreed  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  attorney- general,  who 
decided  in  favour  of  the  primate,  and  Laud  produced 
sufficient  proofs  that  his  procedure  was  according  to 
ancient  metropolitan  law.  The  objections  of  the  bishop, 
however,  were  heard  by  the  privy  council,  and  there  also, 
were  proved  to  be  groundless ;  the  vicar-general  proceeded 
in  his  visitation,  which  was  more  vexatious  to  Williams, 
because  his  old  enemy  Sir  John  Lamb,  now  Dean  of  the 
Arches,  presided,  and  endeavoured,  as  far  as  possible, 
to  enjoin  the  commands  of  the  Church,  leaving  the 
bishop  to  see  that  these  injunctions  were  observed. 
But  no  sooner  had  the  vicar-general  removed  into  another 
diocese,  than  Williams  proceeded  to  visit  his  own  diocese 
in  person,  bestowing  especial  marks  of  favour  upon 
those  who  were  of  the  Puritan  faction.  "  Insomuch," 
says  Heylyn,  who  relates  the  above  facts  at  length,  "  that 
meeting  in  the  archdeaconry  of  Buckingham  with  one 


776  WILLIAMS. 

Dr.  Bret,  a  very  grave  and  reverend  man,  but  one  who 
was  supposed  to  be  inclined  that  way,  he  embraced 
him  with  these  words  of  St.  Augustine,  '  Quamvia 
Episcopus  major  est  Presbytero,  Augustinus  tamen 
minor  est  Hieronymo.' " 

In  1637,  Williams  was  censured  in  the  star-chamber 
on  the  11th  of  July,  for  tampering  and  corrupting  of 
witnesses  in  the  king's  cause ;  in  other  words,  he  was 
tried  for  revealing  the  king's  secrets,  on  the  information 
of  Sir  John  Lamb  and  Dr.  Sibthorpe  ;  for  scandalous 
language  reflecting  on  the  king  and  his  ministers ;  and 
for  refusing  to  pay  the  tax  of  ship-money,  which  had 
been  levied  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  navy ;  which 
complaint  had  been  lodged  against  him  in  1636,  by  the 
high-sherifif  of  Huntingdonshire. 

The  prosecution  for  revealing  the  king's  secrets,  con- 
trary to  his  oath  as  a  privy-councillor,  had  been  com- 
menced against  Bishop  Williams  in  1627,  but  he  had 
contrived  to  stop  or  delay  the  proceedings  for  ten  years 
by  shifts  and  evasions.  The  attorney-general,  fearing  a 
defeat  in  the  evidence,  set  aside  this  charge,  and  pre- 
ferred a  new  bill  against  him  for  tampering  with  the 
king's  witnesses,  on  which  bill  he  was  condemned. 

Williams  was  sentenced  by  the  whole  court,  and  the 
first  mover  of  the  sentence  was  Lord  Cottington,  to  pay 
a  fine  of  £10,000  to  the  king,  to  be  imprisoned  in  the 
Tower  during  the  king's  pleasure,  and  to  be  suspended 
by  the  high  commission  court  from  all  his  offices,  pre- 
ferments, and  functions  ;  which  was  accordingly  done 
on  the  24th  of  July,  and  his  goods  were  seized  at  his 
Palace  of  Bugden,  to  the  value  of  the  fine. 

Another  information  was  laid  against  him  in  February 
1638-9,  for  holding  a  correspondence  with  Lambert  Osbal- 
distone,  master  of  Westminster  School,  whose  letters 
were  found  in  his  own  house  at  Bugden,  written  by 
that  individual  to  him  in  1633,  in  which  Archbishop 
Laud  was  grossly  libelled,  and  styled  '•  the  little  urchin," 


WILLIAMS.  777 

(alluding  to  the  archbishop's  diminutive  stature,)  •'  the 
little  meddling  Hocus  Pocus."  For  this  he  was  sen- 
tenced to  pay  £5000  more,  and  £3000  to  the  arch- 
bishop. 

Upon  the  meeting  of  the  long  parliament  in  Novem- 
ber 1640,  Williams  addressed  a  petition  to  his  sovereign 
that  he  might  be  released,  and  receive  his  writ  as  a  peer 
to  sit  in  parliament :  but,  through  the  influence  of  Laud, 
and  the  Lord-keeper  Finch,  his  requests  were  refused. 
The  lords,  however,  again  thought  proper  to  exert  their 
authority  upon  this  occasion ;  for,  about  a  fortnight  after- 
ward, they  sent  the  usher  of  the  black  rod,  to  the 
lieutenant  of  the  tower  to  demand  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
and  the  king  not  daring  to  oppose  the  measure,  he  was 
peaceably  surrendered,  and  instantly  took  his  seat  in  the 
upper  house.  His  majesty,  likewise,  thought  proper  to 
be  reconciled  to  him,  and  ordered  all  the  minutes  of 
the  information  and  proceedings  against  him  to  be  des- 
troyed ;  not  as  some  have  asserted,  "  that  nothing  might 
stand  on  record  against  him,"  but  in  order  to  screen 
Laud  and  the  other  judges  from  the  parliamentary 
inquiry,  which  was  threatened  by  the  leaders  of  the 
opposition.  Such,  however,  was  the  amiable  disposition 
of  Bishop  Williams,  that  no  intreaties  could  induce  him 
to  prosecute  his  enemies,  or  even  to  lodge  any  complaint 
against  them  before  the  house. 

Every  one  has  heard  of  the  sophistry  of  Williams 
when  the  attainder  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford  was  in 
agitation.  He  it  was  who  persuaded  the  king  to  sign 
the  warrant ;  otherwise  Strafford  had  not  suffered.  "  A 
king,"  said  he  to  Charles,  "  has  a  public  and  a  private 
conscience,  and  he  might  do  that  as  a  king  for  his  public 
conscience,  which  militated  against  his  private  conscience 
as  a  man."  This  is  despicable  casuistry,  unworthy  to 
proceed  from  the  lips  of  any  man,  still  more  unworthy 
to  come  from  a  Christian  bishop.  Contrasted  with 
Bishop   Juxon,    how   does    this    ambitious    theologian 


778  WILLIAMS. 

sink  in  our  esteem!  That  venerable  prelate  advised 
the  king,  thereby  giving  a  proof  of  the  most  heroical 
integrity,  that  "  he  ought  to  do  nothing  with  an  un- 
satisfied conscience  upon  any  consideration  in  the 
world." 

The  See  of  York  becoming  vacant  in  1641,  Williams 
upon  the  strength  of  the  late  king's  promise,  claimed  the 
reversion ;  and  the  situation  of  public  affairs  rendering 
it  expedient  for  Charles  to  retain  him  in  his  service,  he 
was  promoted  to  that  dignity.  In  the  same  year  he 
made  a  long  and  learned  speech  in  the  house  of  lords, 
in  opposition  to  the  bill  for  depriving  the  bishops  of  their 
seats  in  parliament,  which  occasioned  it  to  lie  upon  the 
table  five  months.  At  length,  the  mob  flocking  about 
the  doors  with  cries  of  "  No  Bishops !  No  Bishops !  " 
and  insulting  many  of  them  as  they  passed,  particularly 
the  new  archbishop,  who  had  his  robes  torn  from  his 
back,  he  lost  his  usual  serenity  of  temper,  and  retiring 
to  his  residence  at  the  Deanery,  Westminster,  summoned 
all  the  bishops  then  in  town  (amounting,  with  himself, 
to  twelve)  in  whose  joint  names  he  despatched  a  paper 
to  the  house  of  lords,  complaining  of  "  the  violence  by 
which  they  were  prevented  from  attending,  and  protest- 
ing against  all  the  acts  which  were  or  should  be  done 
during  the  time  that  they  should  by  force  be  kept  from 
discharging  their  duties  in  that  house."  Upon  receiving 
this  protestation,  the  lords,  who  had  exerted  themselves 
in  favour  of  the  bill,  joyfully  exclaimed,  "it  was  Digitus 
Dei,  to  accomplish  that  which  they  had  despaired  of;' 
and  without  passing  any  judgment  upon  it  themselves, 
desired  a  conference  with  the  lower  house,  who  readily 
concurred  in  charging  the  protesters  with  high-treason, 
and  sending  them  to  the  Tower.  There  they  remained 
till  the  bill  was  passed,  which  did  not  happen  till  some 
months  afterwards. 

In  June  1642,  when  the  king  was  at  York,  the  arch- 
bishop was  enthroned  in  the  cathedral.    But  bis  majesty 


WILLIAMS.  779 

being  obliged  in  the  following  months  to  quit  that  city, 
his  grace  did  not  remain  long  behind  him  :  for  the 
younger  Hotham  having  sworn  to  put  him  to  death  for 
certain  opprobrious  words  spoken  against  him  concerning 
his  treatment  of  his  sovereign  at  Hull,  he  retired  toCawood 
Castle ;  where  he  received  advice,  late  one  night,  that  his 
adversary  with  a  strong  force  intended  to  attack  him  early 
next  morning.  Upon  this  intelligence,  he  made  his  escape  at 
midnight  with  a  few  horse,  and  fled  to  his  estate  in  Wales, 
where  he  repaired  and  fortified  Conway  Castle  for  the  king's 
service.  The  beginning  of  the  following  year,  being 
summoned  to  attend  his  majesty  at  Oxford,  he  cautioned 
him  against  Oliver  Cromwell,  as  his  most  dangerous 
enemy :  assuring  him,  that  although  he  was  at  that  time 
of  mean  rank  and  use  in  the  army,  he  would  soon  climb 
higher.  '•  I  knew  him,"  said  the  archbishop  "at  Bugden, 
but  never  knew  his  religion.  He  was  a  common  spokes- 
man for  sectaries,  and  maintained  their  parts  with  stub- 
bornness. He  never  discoursed,  as  if  he  was  pleased 
with  your  majesty  and  your  great  officers  :  indeed,  he 
loves  none  that  are  more  than  his  equals.  Your  majesty 
did  him  but  justice,  in  repulsing  a  petition  put  up  by 
him  against  Sir  Thomas  Stewart  of  the  Isle  of  Ely.  But 
he  takes  them  all  for  his  enemies,  that  would  not  let  him 
undo  his  best  friend :  and  above  all  that  live,  I  think  he 
is  injuriarum  persequentissimus,  as  Fortius  Latro  said 
of  Catiline.  He  talks  openly,  that  it  is  fit  some  person 
should  act  more  vigorously  against  your  forces,  and  bring 
your  person  into  the  power  of  the  parliament.  He  can- 
not give  a  good  word  of  his  general,  the  Earl  of  Essex, 
because  (he  says)  '  the  earl  is  but  half  an  enemy  to  your 
majesty,  and  hath  done  you  more  favour  than  harm.* 
His  fortunes  are  broken,  that  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  subsist,  much  less  to  be  what  he  aspires  to,  but  by 
your  majesty's  bounty,  or  by  the  ruin  of  us  all  and  a 
common  confusion ;  as  one  said,  Lentulus  salvd  repuhlica 
salvus  esse  non  potuit.     In  short  every  beast  hath  som^ 


780  WILLIAMS. 

evil  properties  ;  but  Cromwell  hath  the  properties  of  all 
evil  beasts.  My  humble  motion  is,  that  either  you  should 
win  him  to  you  by  promises  of  fair  treatment,  or  catch 
him  by  some  stratagem,  and  cut  him  short." 

After  some  stay  at  Oxford,  he  returned  to  Wales, 
having  received  fresh  instructions  from  the  king  to 
"take  care  of  the  whole  of  North  Wales,  but  more  par- 
ticularly of  Conway  Castle,  in  which  the  neighbouring 
natives  by  his  permission  had  placed  their  most  valuable 
effects.  In  1647,  however,  Sir  John  Owen,  a  colonel  in 
the  royal  army,  having  entered  Wales  after  a  defeat,  was 
appointed  by  Prince  Rupert  to  the  command  of  that 
castle  ;  and,  accordingly  he  took  possession  of  it  by  force, 
though  Williams  produced  a  letter  from  his  majesty,  in 
which  he  granted  the  command  to  himself  or  his  deputy, 
till  his  expenses  in  repairing  and  fortifying  it  should  be 
reimbursed.  Having  vainly  remonstrated  against  the 
conduct  of  this  domestic  invader,  who  even  refused  him 
his  own  beer  and  wine  for  present  use,  and  finding  no 
other  means  of  redress,  he  joined  in  assisting  Colonel 
Mytton,  a  zealous  officer  in  the  parliament-service  to 
retake  it.  He  even  attended  in  person  on  this  occasion 
and  surrendered  the  castle  to  Mytton  upon  the  express 
condition,  that  every  person  should  receive  back  his 
property,  which  had  been  detained  by  Owen,  with  the 
strictest  exactness :  yet  was  he  loudly  censured  by  the 
royalists  for  this  transaction. 

Thenceforward,  nd  further  mention  is  made  of  his 
Grace  in  public  life.  He  was  so  affected  with  the  horrors 
of  the  civil  war,  and  finally  with  the  king's  execution,  that 
he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  study  and  devotion 
at  the  house  of  Lady  Mostyn,  at  Llandegai,  his  natural 
cheerfulness  having  given  way  to  dejection,  which  put  a 
period  to  his  life  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  March,  1650,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-eight.  He  was  interred  in  the  parish-church 
of  Llandegai,  where  several  years  after  his  decease,  his 


WILSON.  781 

nephew    and    heir,    Sir    Griffith  Williams,  erected    a 
monument  to  his  memory. 

He  was   the  author   of  some    Sermons :  *'  The  Holy 
Table,  Name  and  Thing,"  &c. — Hackett.  Lawson's  Laud. 


WILSON,     THOMAS. 

Good  Bishop  Wilson,  as  he  is  affectionately  designated, 
whose  writings  are  still  among  the  most  popular  of  our 
religious  works,  was  born  at  Burton,  a  village  in  the 
Hundred  of  Wirral,  in  the  county  palatine  of  Chester, 
on  the  20th  of  December,  1663.  At  a  suitable  age  he  was 
placed  under  the  tuition  of  Mr.  Harper,  a  learned  school- 
master in  the  city  of  Chester;  and  when  his  school  education 
was  finished  he  was  sent  to  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  with 
an  allowance  of  twenty  pounds  a  year.  He  entered  the 
university  with  the  intention  of  becoming  a  physician,  but 
it  was  otherwise  ordered  by  an  over-ruling  Providence. 
He  had  providentially,  become  acquainted,  with  Arch- 
deacon Hewitson,  who  persuaded  him  to  prepare  for  holy 
orders,  and  in  1686,  on  St.  Peter's  day,  Thomas  Wilson 
was  ordained  deacon.  It  is  evident  the  piety  of  the 
young  man  had  deeply  impressed  the  archdeacon,  who, 
on  his  ordination  day,  gave  him  the  following  excellent 
advice.  "  M.  H.  advises  his  dear  T.  W.,  now  entered 
into  holy  orders,  to  resolve  to  proceed  in  them  ; 
and  to  endeavour  to  render  himself  worthy  of 
them ;  and  to  that  end  always  to  keep  in  mind  the 
discourse  we  had  the  Sunday  before  he  was  ordained, 
when  we  together  read  over  and  considered  the  canons 
of  both  Churches,  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  the  Office 
of  Ordination.  That  he  would  be  careful  to  read  over 
the  thirty-nine  articles,  and  as  many  of  the  canons  as 
are  requisite  for  him  to  be  acquainted  with,  at  least  once 
every  year  ;  and  that  he  would  frequently  peruse  and 
consider  all  the  rubrics    on  the  liturgy   while   he  is 

TOL.  VIII.  3   X 


782  WILSON. 

deacon,  to  the  intent,  (as  the  Church  prudently  advises 
in  a  rubric  at  the  end  of  that  office)  he  may  be  perfect, 
as  well  as  expert  in  all  things  pertaining  to  the  ecclesias- 
tical administration. 

"  That  when  he  is  licensed  and  quahfied  for  perform- 
ing any  part  of  his  ministerial  function,  he  strictly 
observes  the  laws  of  the  holy  Church ;  nor  ever  deviates 
from  the  rubric,  except  when  he  is  commanded  so  to  do, 
or  is  dispensed  with  by  his  ordinary,  if  it  lies  in  the 
power  of  any  ordinary  to  contradict  or  dispense  with 
what  is  established  either  by  acts  of  parliament  or 
canons.  He  is  further  advised  to  observe  the  Church's 
festivals  and  fasting-days,  as  far  and  as  well  as  he 
possibly  can,  and  as  his  health  (I  mean,  as  to  the  latter) 
will  bear.  And  if  upon  every  Sunday  and  Holy-day  he 
read  the  proper  collect,  epistle,  and  gospel  privately 
before  he  goes  to  church,  and  one  chapter  in  the  '  Whole 
Duty  of  Man'  every  Sunday,  he  would,  in  so  doing, 
imitate  the  practice  of  his  dear  friend. 

'•  To  say  the  morning  and  evening  prayer  either  publicly 
or  privately,  every  day  is,  he  knows,  the  Church's  express 
commands  in  one  of  the  rubrics  before  the  calendar.  And  if, 
besides,  he  used  private  devotions  at  least  twice  a  day,  and 
read  every  day  one  chapter  in  the  English  Bible  to 
choose,  that  he  may  be  well  acquainted  with  the  letter 
of  the  text,  he  will  do  a  thing  in  itself  pious,  to  himself 
profitable,  and  will  herein  too  comply  with  the  usage  of 
his  dearest  friend.  Never  to  miss  the  Church's  public 
devotions  twice  a  day,  when  unavoidable  business,  want 
of  health,  or  of  a  church,  as  in  travelling,  does  not 
hinder.  In  church  to  behave  himself  always  very  reve- 
rently, nor  ever  turn  his  back  upon  the  altar  in  service- 
time,  nor  on  the  minister  when  it  can  be  avoided  ;  to 
stand  at  the  lessons  and  epistles,  as  well  as  at  the  gospel, 
and  especially  when  a  psalm  is  sung  ;  to  bow  reverently 
at  the  name  of  Jesus,  whenever  it  is  mentioned  in  any 
of  the  Church's  offices;  to  turn  towards  the  east  when' 


WILSON.  783 

the  Gloria  Patri  and  the  creeds  are  rehearsing ;  and  to 
make  obeisance  at  coming  into  and  going  out  of  the  church, 
and  at  going  up  to  and  coming  down  from  the  altar— are  all 
ancient,  commendable,  and  devout  usages,  and  which 
thousands  of  good  people  of  our  Church  practise  at  this 
day,  and  amongst  them,  if  he  deserves  to  be  reckoned 
amongst  them,  T.W.'s  dear  friend. 

"  When  he  has  a  cure  of  souls,  T.  W.  is  earnestly 
desired  to  celebrate  a  communion  as  often  as  he  can  get 
a  convenient  number  to  communicate  with  him  ;  and  to 
urge  his  people  to  the  frequent  performance  of  that 
more  than  any  other  Christian  duty, — it  being,  indeed, 
the  end  of  all  the  rest,  as  well  as  the  chief  of  them  all ; 
and  in  the  meantime  never  to  miss  any  opportunity  of 
receiving  it  that  oifers  itself  in  the  place  where  he 
resides  ;  no,  not  to  turn  his  back  when  he  sees  the 
holy  elements  upon  the  altar,  although  he  knew  not 
that  there  would  be  a  communion  until  he  came  into 
church. 

'•  To  avoid  in  his  sermons  all  deep  and  unuseful 
speculations ;  all  matters  of  controversy  that  do  not 
necessarily  offer  themselves ;  and  all  juvenile  affectation 
of  fine  language,  wit,  and  learning.  St.  Paul,  his  king, 
and  his  own  discretion  will  direct  him,  and  therefore 
he  needs  none  else  to  Qounsel  him. 

"As  to  his  usual  conversation  and  behaviour,  the 
Apostle  tells  him  that  a  deacon  must  be  grave,  which 
seems  to  direct  what  his  garb  should  be,  what 
places  he  should  refrain  going  to,  from  what  kind 
of  company  he  should  abstain,  and  how  he  should 
demean  himself  in  company.  Neither  should  such 
books  be  usually  read  or  delighted  in,  or  such  persons 
be  chosen  for  companions,  or  such  places  be  frequented 
by  a  clergyman,  as  appear  profane,  atheistical  or  dis- 
serviceable  to  religion. 

"  But  he  is  especially  advised  to  forbear  conversing 
frequently  and  familiarly  with  that  sex  which  gives  the 


784  WILSON. 

most  temptation,  and  the  most  to  unmarried  clergymen, 
seeing  we  are  commanded  to  abstain  from  all  appearance 
of  evil." 

Wilson  did  not  long  continue  in  Ireland,  for  on  the 
10th  of  December,  1686,  he  was  appointed  to  the  curacy 
of  New  Church,  in  the  parish  of  Winwick,  in  Lancashire, 
of  which  Dr.  Sherlock,  his  maternal  uncle,  was  then 
rector. 

In  1692,  the  Earl  of  Derby  having  noticed  Mr.  Wil- 
son's exemplary  conduct  as  a  parish  priest  made  him 
his  domestic  chaplain,  and  at  the  same  time  appointed 
him  tutor  to  his  son.  Lord  Strange.  He  was  also  soon 
after  elected  master  of  the  Alms-house  at  Latham.  Hav- 
ing now,  by  these  several  appointments,  received  an 
addition  of  fifty  pounds  to  his  former  income,  he  made 
a  corresponding  increase  in  his  charitable  donations. 
In  a  memorandum  made  on  Easter-day,  1693,  he  ob- 
serves, "  It  having  pleased  God,  of  his  mere  bounty 
and  goodness,  to  bless  me  with  a  temporal  income  far 
above  my  hopes  or  deserts  [an  income,  the  reader  should 
remember,  not  amounting  to  more  than  what  is  received 
by  many  an  artisan  in  our  manufacturing  towns],  I  have 
hitherto  given  but  one-tenth  part  of  my  income  to  the 
poor :  I  do  therefore  purpose,  g.nd  I  thauk  God  for 
putting  it  into  my  heart,  that  of  all  the  profits  which  it 
shall  please  God  to  give  me,  and  which  shall  become 
due  to  me  after  the  6th  of  August  next  (after  which 
time  I  hope  to  have  paid  my  small  debts,)  I  do  purpose 
to  separate  the  fifth  part  of  all  my  incomes,  as  I  shall 
receive  them,  ,for  pious  uses,  and  particularly  for  the 
poor." 

Wilson  had  the  advantage  of  travelling  with  his  pupil, 
and  remained  abroad  with  him  for  three  years.  Nor  did 
he  regard  his  ofiice  of  chaplain  as  a  sinecure.  Lord 
Derby  having  by  a  course  of  continued  extravagance, 
brought  his  affairs  to  such  an  embarrassed  state  as  to  bo 


WILSON.  785 

unable  to  meet  the  demands  of  his  numerous  creditors, 
his  pious  chaplain  addressed  to  him  a  letter  which  is  a 
model  of  sympathetic  remonstrance  from  a  friend  inferior 
to  the  person  advised  in  age  and  position.  And  from 
the  letter  it  appears  that  the  chaplain  often  spoke  to 
his  lordship  on  the  subject,  and  was  accustomed  to  refute 
the  arguments  brought  forward  in  self-vindication  by  the 
offender. 

Such  were  the  views  and  sentiments  of  Mr.  Wilson, 
when  an  all-wise  Providence  was  pleased  to  call  him 
to  fill  a  higher  station  in  the  Christian  Church.  The 
Bishopric  of  Sodor  and  Man  had  been  vacant  since  the 
death  of  Dr.  Baptiste  Levinz,  who  died  in  the  year 
1693.  Lord  Derby,  in  whom  the  right  of  appointment 
lay,  ojEfered  his  chaplain  this  preferment.  The  offer, 
however,  was  modestly,  but  firmly  rejected.  Whilst 
Mr.  Wilson  thankfully  acknowledged  the  favour  which 
was  intended  him,  he  at  the  same  time  declared  himself 
unworthy  of  so  high  an  office,  and  incapable  of  so  ardu- 
ous an  undertaking.  This  was  far  from  being  a  display 
of  affected  disinterestedness,  or  a  pretended  contempt 
for  honour  and  riches ;  but  proceeded  from  unfeigned 
humility,  and  a  deep  sense  of  the  awful  responsibility 
of  the  episcopal  office.  It  appears  that  Lord  Derby 
was  unwilling  to  appoint  any  other  person  to  the 
bishopric,  which  continued  vacant  for  such  a  length  of 
time,  that  at  last  Dr.  Sharp.  Archbishop  of  York,  and 
Metropolitan  of  the  Diocese  of  Sodor  and  Man,  com- 
plained to  King  William  that  the  See  of  Man  had  been 
vacant  for  four  years,  and  urged  the  necessity  of  filling 
it  without  delay.  In  consequence  of  this  complaint,  the 
king  sent  for  the  Earl  of  Derby,  and  insisted  on  an 
immediate  nomination  of  a  bishop  for  the  See  of  Man  ; 
at  the  same  time  declaring  his  resolution  of  filling  up 
the  vacancy  himself,  if  his  lordship  delayed.  Lord 
Derby  now  importuned  his  chaplain  to  accept  the  pre- 
ferment, and  would  take  no  denial.  Accordingly,  Mf. 
3x3 


786  WILSON. 

Wilson,  as  he  expressed  it  himself,  "  was  forced  into 
the  bishopric."  Possessed  of  all  the  powers  of  mind, 
and  qualities  of  heart,  which  eminently  qualified  him 
for  this  important  charge,  he  was  consecrated  a  bishop 
on  the  16th  of  January,  1697,  at  the  Savoy  Church,  by 
Dr.  Sharp,  Archbishop  of  York,  assisted  by  the  Bishops 
of  Chester  and  Norwich. 

His  first  business  was  to  set  his  own  house  in  order. 
He  found  the  episcopal  residence  in  ruins,  and  he  re- 
built it.  He  then  looked  out  for  a  help  meet  for  him. 
On  the  29th  of  September,  1698,  he  set  sail  for  Eng- 
land, and  landed  the  day  following  at  Liverpool ;  from 
thence  he  proceeded  to  Warrington,  where  he  was  united 
to  Miss  Mary  Patten,  daughter  of  Thomas  Patten,  Esq. 
He  was  married  on  the  27th  of  October,  the  same  year, 
at  Winwick  Church,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Finch.  Having 
continued  with  his  friends  in  England  about  half  a  year, 
he  returned  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  arrived  safe  in  his 
diocese  on  the  7th  of  April,  1699,  accompanied  by  his 
amiable  and  pious  consort. 

Of  Bishop  Wilson's  daily  walk  we  may  here  be  per- 
mitted to  speak,  before  we  proceed  to  his  public  works. 
He  was,  says  Mr.  Stowell,  continually  devising  and 
executing  plans  of  piety  and  benevolence,  suited  to  the 
condition  and  exigencies  of  the  people  committed  to  his 
charge.  Though  the  revenues  of  the  bishopric  at  that 
period  are  said  not  to  have  exceeded  £300  per  annum  in 
money,  yet  in  the  hands  of  frugality  and  charity,  they 
•were  found  sufficient  for  every  purpose.  The  wants  of 
the  poor  were  principally  supplied  out  of  the  produce 
of  the  demesne.  The  fleece  and  the  sheaf  were  in  a 
state  of  constant  requisition,  and  the  most  effectual 
means  were  adopted  for  multiplying  both.  As  the 
bishop  had  a  poor's  drawer  in  his  bureau  for  the  re- 
ception of  all  monies  dedicated  to  charitable  uses,  so 
he  had  a  poor's  chest  in  his  barn,  for  the  reception  of 
com  and  meal,  designed  for  the  relief  of  the  indigent. 


WILSON.  787 

This  chest  he  was  in  the  habit  of  frequently  inspecting, 
that  he  might  he  satisfied  that  it  was  filled  even  up  to 
the  brim.  At  a  season  of  unusual  scarcity  in  the  island, 
when,  according  to  custom,  he  w^as  inspecting  the  poor 
man's  repository,  he  found  it  almost  empty,  whilst  the 
family-chest  was  abundantly  supplied.  He  expressed 
great  displeasure  on  the  occasion,  and  gave  a  strict 
charge  to  the  steward  of  his  house,  that  whoever  were 
neglected,  the  poor  should  not.  He  regarded  the  claims 
of  the  poor  as  sacred,  and  made  provision  for  every 
species  of  want  and  distresss.  When  corn  was  measured 
for  the  poor,  he  gave  express  orders  to  his  steward  not 
to  strike  it,  as  is  usual,  but  to  give  heaped  measure. 
He  often  conversed  with  the  objects  of  charity,  who 
applied  for  relief,  and  minutely  inquired  into  the  cir- 
cumstances of  their  case.  One  day  a  pauper,  who  had 
a  large  family,  calling  at  Bishop's- court,  was  asked  by 
the  bishop  how  he  contrived  to  get  food  for  his  children. 
*'  May  it  please  your  lordship,"  says  he,  "  I  go  round 
with  my  bag  from  house  to  house,  and  generally  get  a 
herring  from  each  housekeeper.  This  is  our  food;  and 
as  to  drink,  we  quench  our  thirst  at  the  nearest  stream 
of  water."  '•  Poor  man !  "  said  the  bishop,  "  that  is  hard 
fare  ;  but  mind  you  call  here  whenever  you  pass  this 
way,  and  you  shall  get  your  bag  filled."  Many  a  bag 
was  filled,  and  many  a  family  sustained  by  provisions 
from  the  stores  of  this  generous  friend  of  the  poor. 

A  more  interesting  spectacle  could  scarcely  have  been 
exhibited  to  the  eye  of  the  philanthropist,  than  the 
bishop's  demesne  presented.  There  he  might  have 
seen  manufactories  of  different  kinds,  carried  on  with 
greater  energy  and  activity,  than  any  prospect  of 
secular  advantage  could  have  produced.  Benevolence 
gave  motion  to  the  wheels,  and  charity  guided  every 
operation.  Days  of  patriarchal  simplicity  seemed  to 
have  returned.  The  materials  required  in  manufac- 
turing garments  for  the   poor,   were   procured   in  ex- 


788  WILSON. 

change  for  the  produce  of  the  demesne.  Artisans  of 
different  kinds  were  busily  employed  in  manufacturing 
these  materials.  The  poor's  wardrobe  was  kept  always 
supplied  with  garments  of  every  size,  suited  to  every 
sex  and  age.  The  poor  who  could  weave  or  spin,  re- 
paired to  Bishop 's-court  with  their  webs,  their  yarn 
and  their  worsted,  as  to  a  general  mart,  where  they 
bartered  their  different  articles  for  corn.  This  trafi&c 
of  charity  was  regularly  carried  on.  Every  species  of 
distress  found  relief  at  Bishop 's-court.  Whether  the 
hungry  or  naked  applied,  their  claims  were  sure  to  be 
duly  considered,  and  liberally  answered.  The  attention 
of  this  real  friend  to  the  poor,  extended  to  the  minutest 
circumstances  of  their  condition.  He  was  in  the  habit 
of  purchasing  an  assortment  of  spectacles,  and  distri 
buting  them  to  the  aged  poor,  whose  eye-sight  began 
to  fail,  that  such  of  them  as  could  read,  might  read 
their  Bibles  by  means  of  this  seasonable  aid,  and  that 
such  of  them  as  could  not,  might,  as  their  kind  bene- 
factor expressed  it,  use  these  glasses  "  to  help  them 
to  thread  a  needle  to  mend  their  clothes."  Imagina- 
tion can  scarcely  picture  a  more  pleasing  and  interesting 
scene,  than  that  which  presents  the  pious  and  venerable 
Bishop  Wilson  distributing  spectacles  amongst  a  crowd 
of  the  aged  poor  for  such  purposes  as  these.  He  con- 
sidered no  condescension  too  great,  when  there  was  a 
prospect  of  doing  good.  As  his  motives  were  pure  and 
his  eye  single,  he  was  not  deterred  from  abounding  in 
acts  of  charity,  because  he  sometimes  met  with  ungrate- 
ful returns,  and  sometimes  his  alms  were  bestowed  on 
unworthy  objects.  All  who  engage  in  *'  labours  of  love," 
must  expect  to  meet  with  circumstances  of  this  painful 
nature.  Charity,  like  every  other  Christian  grace  and 
virtue,  has  its  peculiar  trials  ;  but  as  the  obstacles  which 
oppose  the  river  in  its  course,  only  serve  to  increase  its 
force,  so  is  it  with  the  current  of  charity ;  in  spite  of 
all  opposition,  it  flows,  and  '*  as  it  flows,  for  ever  will  flow 


WILSON.  789 

on."  The  bishop,  whose  whole  conduct  was  regulated 
by  discretion  and  good  sense,  employed  all  prudent 
measures  to  prevent  imposition  in  the  distribution  of 
his  charities,  yet  such  imposition  would  occasionally 
occur.  The  sagacious  worldly-wise  men  are  fond  of 
recounting  instances,  in  which  the  pauper,  in  their 
favourite  phrase,  "  outwitted  the  bishop,"  and  under 
various  artful  pretences,  extorted  charity  where  it  was 
not  wanted.  Individuals  who  possessed  no  feelings  in 
common  with  his  lordship,  and  who  could  ill  judge  of 
the  secret  springs  of  his  actions,  frequently  told  him 
that  his  alms  were  bestowed  on  undeserving  objects. 
"  It  may  be  so,"  was  his  reply,  "  but  I  would  rather  give 
to  ten  unworthy,  than  that  one  deserving  object  should 
go  away  without  relief."  This  was  a  sentiment  worthy 
of  Bishop  Wilson. 

His  vigilance  in  visiting,  admonishing,  assisting,  bene- 
fitting, comforting,  and  supporting  his  clergy,  was  very 
remarkable.  He  established  with  the  assistance  of  Dr. 
Bray,  parochial  libraries.  In  1699,  he  pubhshed  the  first 
work  ever  printed  in  the  Manx  language ;  The  Principles 
and  Duties  of  Christianity.  In  the  same  language  he 
afterwards  published  the  Church  Catechism  for  the  use 
of  Schools.  In  1703,  he  established  the  following  Eccle- 
siastical Constitutions.  "  Insula  Mansis.  At  a  Convo- 
cation of  the  clergy  at  Bishop 's-court,  the  3rd  day  of 
February,  1703  :— 

"  In  the  name  of  our  great  Lord  and  Master,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  glory  and  increase  of  His 
kingdom  amongst  men. 

"  We,  the  bishop,  archdeacon,  vicars-general,  and 
clergy  of  this  Isle,  who  do  subscribe  these  articles,  that 
we  may  not  stand  charged  with  the  scandals  which 
wicked  men  bring  upon  religion,  while  they  are  admitted 
to,  and  reputed  members  of,  Christ's  Church  ;  and  that 
we  may  by  all  laudable  means  promote  the  conversion  of 
sinners,  and  oblige  men  to  submit  to  the  discipline  of 


790  WILSON. 

the  Gospel;  and  lastly  that  we  may  provide  for  the 
instruction  of  the  growing  age  in  Christian  learning  and 
good  manners :  we  have  formed  these  following  consti- 
tutions, which  we  oblige  ourselves  (by  God's  help)  to 
observe,  and  to  endeavour  that  all  others  within  our 
several  cures  shall  comply  with  the  same. 

"1.  That  when  a  rector,  vicar,  or  curate  shall  have 
any  number  of  persons,  under  twenty,  of  his  parish 
desirous  and  fit  to  be  confirmed,  he  shall  give  the  lord 
bishop  notice  thereof,  and  a  list  of  their  names,  and  shall 
suffer  none  to  offer  themselves  to  be  confirmed  but  such 
as  he  has  before  instructed  to  answer  in  the  necessary 
parts  of  Christian  knowledge,  and  who,  besides  their 
Church  Catechism,  have  learned  such  short  prayers  for 
morning  and  evening  as  shall  be  immediately  provided 
for  that  purpose. 

"2.  That  no  person  be  admitted  to  the  holy  sacra- 
ment till  he  has  first  been  confirmed  by  the  bishop  ;  or, 
(in  case  of  his  lordship's  absence  or  indisposition)  to 
bring  a  certificate  from  the  archdeacon,  or  vicars-general, 
that  he  is  duly  qualified  for  confirmation. 

"3.  That  no  person  be  admitted  to  stand  as  god- 
father or  godmother,  or  to  enter  into  the  holy  state  of 
matrimony,  till  they  have  received  the  holy  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  ;  unless,  being  an  orphan,  there  be  a 
necessity  for  his  speedy  marriage  :  and  this  to  be  ap- 
proved of,  and  dispensed  with,  by  the  ordinary  for  a 
limited  time,  to  fit  himself  for  the  sacrament  ;  and 
where  any  of  them  are  of  another  parish,  they  are  to 
bring  a  certificate  from  their  proper  pastor. 

"  4.  That  all  children  and  servants  unconfirmed,  of 
such  a  division  of  the  parish  as  the  minister  shall  appoint 
(which  shall  be  at  least  one-fourth  part  thereof),  shall 
constantly  come  to  evening  prayers,  to  be  instructed  in  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  religion ;  at  which  time  every 
rector,  vicar,  or  curate  shall  employ  at  least  half  an  hour 
in  their  examination,  and  explaining  some  part  of  the 


WILSON.  791 

Church  Catechism,  And  that  all  parents  and  masters 
who  shall  be  observed  by  their  children's  and  servants' 
ignorance,  to  be  grossly  wanting  in  their  duty,  in  not 
teaching  them  this  catechism,  shall  be  presented  for 
every  such  neglect,  and  severely  punished.  And,  to  the 
end  that  this  so  necessary  an  institution  may  be  reli- 
giously observed,  every  minister  shall  always  (by  the 
assistance  of  the  churchwardens)  keep  a  catalogue  of 
such  persons  as  are  not  confirmed,  and  is  hereby  re- 
quired to  present  those  that  are  absent  without  urgent 
cause,  who  shall  be  fined  two  pence  the  first  Sunday 
they  omit  to  come,  four-pence  the  second,  and  sixpence 
the  third ;  in  which  case  the  parents  are  to  be  answerable 
for  their  children,  and  masters  for  their  servants  ;  unless 
where  it  appears  that  the  servants  themselves  are  in  the 
fault. 

"5.  For  the  more  effectual  discouragement  of  vice, 
if  any  person  shall  incur  the  censures  of  the  Church, 
and,  having  done  penance,  shall  afterwards  incur  the  same 
censures,  he  shall  not  be  admitted  to  do  penance  again  (as 
has  been  formerly  accustomed)  until  the  Church  be  fully 
satisfied  of  his  sincere  repentance ;  during  which  time 
he  shall  not  presume  to  come  within  the  church,  but  be 
obliged  to  stand  in  a  decent  manner,  at  the  church-door 
every  Sunday  and  Holy-day,  the  whole  time  of  morning 
and  evening  service,  until  by  his  penitent  behaviour,  and 
other  instances  of  sober  living,  he  deserve  and  procure  a 
certificate  from  the  minister,  churchwardens,  and  some 
of  the  soberest  men  of  the  parish,  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  ordinary  ;  which  if  he  do  not  so  deserve  and  procure 
within  three  months,  the  Church  shall  proceed  to  ex- 
communication :  and  that  during  these  proceedings,  the 
governor  shall  be  applied  to  not  to  permit  him  to  leave 
the  island. 

*'  And  this  being  a  matter  of  very  great  importance,  the 
minister  and  churchwardens  shall  see^  it  duly  performed, 
under  penalty  of  the  severest  ecclesiastical  censures. 


792  WILSON. 

"  And  whenever  any  daring  offender  shall  be  and 
continue  so  obstinate  as  to  incur  excommunication,  the 
pastor  shall  affectionately  exhort  his  parishioners  not  to 
converse  with  him,  upon  peril  of  being  partaker  with 
him  in  his  sin  and  punishment. 

"  6.  That  the  rubric  before  the  Communion,  con- 
cerning unworthy  receivers  thereof,  may  be  religiously 
observed,  every  rector,  vicar,  or  curate  shall,  first  pri- 
vately, and  then  publicly  admonish  such  persons  as  he 
shall  observe  to  be  disorderly  livers ;  that  such  as  will 
not  by  this  means  be  reclaimed  may  be  hindered  from 
coming  to  the  Lord's  Table,  and  being  presented  may 
be  excommunicated. 

"  And  if  any  minister  knowingly  admit  such  persons 
to  the  holy  sacrament,  whose  lives  are  blemished  with 
the  vices  of  tippling,  swearing,  profaning  the  Lord's-day,- 
quarrelling,  fornication,  or  any  other  crime  by  which  the 
Christian  religion  is  dishonoured,  before  such  persons 
have  publicly  acknowledged  their  faults,  and  solemnly 
promised  amendment,  the  minister  shall  be  liable  to 
severe  ecclesiastical  censures. 

"7.  If  any  moar  [bailiff],  sergeant,  proctor,  or  any 
other  person,  shall  presume  on  the  Lord's-day  to  receive 
any  rent  or  sums  of  money,  both  he  and  the  person 
paying  such  rent  or  sums  of  money  shall  be  liable  to 
ecclesiastical  censure,  and  shall  always  be  presented  for 
the  same. 

"8.  That  the  practice  of  commutation  as  has  been 
formerly  accustomed,  namely,  of  exempting  persons  ob- 
noxious to  the  censures  of  the  Church  from  penance, 
and  other  punishment,  appointed  by  law,  on  account  of 
paying  a  sum  of  money,  or  doing  some  charitable  work, 
shall  for  the  future  cease. 

"  9.  For  the  promotion  of  religion,  learning,  and 
good  manners,  all  persons  shall  be  obliged  to  send 
their  children,  as  soon  as  they  are  capable  of  receiving 
instruction,  to  some  petty  school,  and  to  continue  them 


WILSON.  793 

there  until  the  said  children  can  read  English  distinctly, 
unless  the  parents  give  a  just  cause  to  excuse  themselves, 
approved  of  by  the  ordinary  in  open  court ;  and  that 
such  persons,  who  shall  neglect  sending  their  children 
to  be  so  taught,  shall  (upon  a  presentment  made  thereof 
by  the  minister,  churchwardens,  or  chapter-quest)  be 
fined  one  shilling  per  quarter  to  the  use  of  the  school- 
master, who  may  refuse  to  teach  those  children  who  do 
not  come  constantly  to  school  (unless  for  such  cause  as 
shall  be  approved  of  by  the  minister  of  the  parish),  and 
their  parents  shall  be  fined  as  if  they  did  altogether 
refuse  to  send  them  to  school. 

"  And  for  the  future  encouragement  of  the  school- 
masters, they  shall  respectively  receive,  over  and  above 
the  salaries  already  allowed  them,  sixpence  quarterly 
from  the  parents  of  every  child  that  shall  be  taught  by 
them  to  read  English,  and  nine-pence  quarterly,  from 
such  as  shall  be  taught  to  write  ;  which  sums  being 
refused,  the  sumner  shall  be  ordered  to  require  punctual 
payment  within  fourteen  days;  and  upon  default  thereof, 
they  are  to  be  committed  till  they  submit  to  law.  Not- 
withstanding, where  the  parents  or  relations  are  poor, 
and  not  able  to  pay  as  aforesaid,  and  this  be  certified  by 
the  minister  and  churchwardens  of  the  parish  to  the 
ordinary,  such  children  are  to  be  taught  gratis. 

"  And  whereas  some  of  the  poorer  sort  may  have  just 
cause,  and  their  necessities  require  it,  to  keep  their 
children  at  home  for  several  weeks  in  the  summer  and 
harvest;  such  persons  shall  not  be  liable  to  the  pen- 
alties aforesaid,  provided  they  do  (and  they  are  hereby 
strictly  required  to)  send  such  children,  during  such  ab- 
sence from  school,  every  third  Sunday  to  the  parish 
church,  at  least  one  hour  before  evening  service,  there  to 
be  taught  by  the  schoolmaster,  to  prevent  losing  their 
learning;  and  if  any  schoolmaster  shall  neglect  his 
duty,  and  complaint  be  made  and  proved,  he  shall  be 
discharged,  and   another   placed  in    his    stead   at  the 

yoL.  VIII.  3  X 


794  WILSON. 

discretion  of  the  ordinary;  and  every  rector,  vicar,  or 
curate  shall,  the  first  week  of  every  quarter,  visit  the 
petty  school,  and  take  an  account  in  a  book  of  im- 
provement of  every  child,  to  be  produced  as  often  as 
the  ordinary  shall  call  for  it. 

"10.  For  the  more  effectual  suppression  of  vice,  &c., 
the  ministers,  and  churchwardens,  and  chapter-quest 
shall,  the  last  Sunday  of  every  month,  after  evening 
prayers,  set  down  in  writing  the  names  of  all  such 
persons  as  without  just  cause  absent  themselves  from 
church ;  of  parents,  masters,  and  mistresses  who  neglect 
to  send  their  children  and  servants  to  be  catechised  ; 
of  parents  and  guardians  who  send  not  their  children 
to  school ;  and  all  other  matters  they  are  bound  by  their 
oaths  to  present.  x\nd,  that  they  may  conscientiously 
discharge  their  duty,  the  Articles  of  Visitation  are  to  be 
read  to  them  at  every  such  meeting ;  and  this  is  to  be 
done  under  pain  of  the  severest  ecclesiastical  censures. 

•'  Now,  forasmuch  as  some  of  the  orders  and  consti- 
tutions in  this  Synod  agreed  unto  are  such  as  do  require 
the  authority  of  the  civil  power  to  make  them  efifectual 
to  the  ends  they  are  designed,  the  bishop  and  archdeacon 
are  earnestly  desired  to  procure  confirmation  from  the 
lord,  his  council,  and  the  twenty-four  keys,  to  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  welfare  of  His  Church. 

"  And  for  the  better  government  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  for  the  making  of  such  orders  and  constitutions 
as  shall  from  time  to  time  be  found  wanting,  and  that 
better  inquiry  may  be  made  into  the  execution  of  those 
that  are  in  force,  there  shall  be  (God  willing)  a  convo- 
cation of  the  whole  clergy  of  the  diocese  on  Thursday, 
in  Whitsun-week,  every  year  after  this,  at  the  Bishop's 
Chapel,  if  his  lordship  be  within  this  isle,  or  as  soon 
as  conveniently  after  his  return. 

"  And  that  by  these  constitutions  we  may  more  effec- 
tually oblige  ourselves  and  others,  we  do  each  of  us  sub- 
scribe our  names,  this  3rd  day  of  February,  1703." 


WILSON.  795 

For  about  twenty  years,  the  due  observance  of  these 
excellent  constitutions  made  the  Diocese  of  Man  an 
image  of  those  happy  times  when  the  "  muUitude  of 
them  that  believed  were  of  one  mind,  one  heart,  one 
soul."  The  number  of  the  clergy  increased,  new  churches 
and  schools  were  built,  and  the  laity  became  more  im- 
pressed with  a  sense  of  the  privileges  and  duties  of  their 
Christian  profession  ;  so  that  Lord -chancellor  King  ob- 
served, "if  the  ancient  discipline  of  the  Church  were 
lost,  it  might  be  found  in  all  its  purity  in  the  Isle  of 
Man." 

But  the  quietude  of  the  Church,  no  less  than  of  indi- 
viduals, is  seldom  of  long  continuance ;  for  it  would 
seem  as  if,  in  either  case,  suffering  were  necessary  to 
prevent  that  indifference  and  self-confidence  which  unin- 
terrupted prosperity  so  generally  occasions. 

About  the  year  1720,  a  spirit  of  insubordination,  and 
its  twin  sister  infidelity,  the  natural  result  of  Hoadley's 
pernicious  views,  was  fearfully  prevalent  in  England  ; 
for  the  propagation  of  which,  the  licentiousness  of  the 
press  was  too  ready  an  engine.  By  this  means  it  was 
that  the  country  became  accursed  with  an  unsound 
popular  literature ;  and  works  of  the  most  demoralising 
principles  were  permitted  to  spread  their  poison  in  every 
direction.  It  was  not  long  before  this  moral  pestilence 
reached  the  happy  Isle  of  Man. 

Bishop  Wilson  used  all  the  influence  of  his  station  to 
suppress  the  work  and  to  counteract  the  evil  of  which  it 
was  the  the  occasion.  But  the  strenuous  efforts  of  the 
good  bishop  were  soon  to  be  frustrated.  The  governor, 
Captain  Home,  an  ignorant  and  cruel  man,  who,  from 
his  position,  might  have  been  expected  to  aid  in  de- 
nouncing what  so  obviously  aimed  at  the  destruction  of 
the  very  authority  which  he  himself  possessed,  became  a 
most  violent  partisan  of  the  odious  principles  advocated 
in  the  "Independent  Whig,"  and  did  all  in  his  power  to 
impede  the  operation   of  that  ecclesiastical   discipline 


796^  WILSON. 

which  was  found  so  useful  in  checking  them.  Personal 
pique — the  origin  of  most  opposition — probably  led 
to  this  conduct;  for  the  governor's  wife  having  been 
found  guilty  of  slandering  a  lady  in  the  island,  the 
bishop  commanded  her  to  be  refused  the  Eucharist 
until  she  asked  forgiveness  for  the  great  injury  she  had 
done.  This  raised  the  governor's  resentment  ;  and 
when  his  chaplain,  Archdeacon  Horrobin,  had  violated 
the  bishop's  command  by  admitting  Mrs.  Home  to  com- 
munion, the  governor  defended  the  archdeacon  against 
the  suspension  pronounced  upon  him  for  his  disobe- 
dience. 

It  was  on  account  of  the  suspension  of  this  man 
that  the  governor  summoned  the  bishop  and  his  vicars- 
general  to  a  mock  trial,  "during  which  they  were  treated 
in  the  most  contemptuous  manner  imaginable,  and  for 
several  hours  were  made  to  stand  like  criminals  at 
the  bar."  The  result  is  well  known.  The  tyran- 
nical governor  fined  the  bishop  £50,  and  his  two 
officials  £20  each,  for  presuming  to  exercise  the 
power  of  suspension  ;  and  when  they  conscientiously 
refused  to  pay  such  an  illegal  demand,  the  governor  sent 
a  party  of  soldiers  to  convey  the  prelate  and  his  clergy 
to  Castle  Rushen  (St.  Peter's  Day,  1722,)  where  they 
were  kept  confined  for  nine  weeks,  no  one  being  ad- 
mitted within  the  walls  to  see  or  converse  with  them. 

Although  it  is  a  melancholy  thing  to  contemplate  so 
devoted  a  servant  of  his  Lord  thus  falling  into  the  hands 
of  wicked  men,  torn  from  his  family  and  diocese,  and 
condemned  to  the  privations  of  a  prison,  where  both  his 
health  and  fortune  received  injuries  from  which  they 
never  recovered,  it  is  consoling  to  reflect  how  truly  God's 
promises  of  protecting  those  who  trust  in  Him,  and  of  con- 
founding the  counsels  of  the  ungodly,  were  here  accom- 
plished. Not  only  was  the  governor's  iniquitous  sentence 
reversed,  and  his  tyranny  justly  rebuked  by  his  superiors 
in  England,  but  Bishop  Wilson  found  his.  imprisonment 


WILSON.  797 

the  occasion  of  much  spiritual  improvement.  Thence  he 
addressed  pastoral  letters  to  his  clergy,  scarcely  inferior  to 
those  of  St.  Cyprian  under  somewhat  similar  circumstances. 
Here  he  offered  the  most  earnest  of  his  prayers  ;  here  he 
formed  the  plan  of  translating  the  Scriptures  into  the 
Manx  language ;  and  here  we  have  his  own  testimony 
for  asserting  that  he  governed  his  diocese  better  than 
ever  he  did  during  his  long  episcopate.  His  character, 
too,  as  a  confessor,  and  meek  and  patient  sufferer  for  the 
truth's  sake,  hereby  acquired  its  brightest  lustre. 

The  bishop's  appeal  was  heard  before  the  lords-jus- 
tices in  council,  July  18th,  1723,  and  the  proceedings  of 
the  governor  were  reversed,  as  extrajudicial  and  irregular; 
and  the  fines  were  ordered  to  be  restored  to  the  bishop 
and  his  vicars -general.  The  king,  some  time  after, 
offered  him  the  Bishopric  of  Exeter,  then  vacant,  to 
reimburse  him  for  his  losses ;  but  the  unambitious 
prelate  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  quit  his  own 
diocese ;  upon  which  his  majesty  promised  to  defray 
his  expenses  out  of  the  privy  purse,  and  gave  it  in 
charge  to  Lord  Townsend,  Lord  Carlton,  and  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  to  remind  him  of  it ;  but  the  king  going  soon 
afterwards  to  Hanover,  and  dying  before  his  return,  this 
promise  was  never  fulfilled.  The  only  recompense  he 
had  was  by  a  subscription  set  on  foot  by  the  Archbishop 
of  York,  amounting  to  £300, — not  a  sixth  part  of  the 
expenses  of  his  application  to  the  crown.  He  was 
advised  to  prosecute  the  governor,  in  the  English  courts 
of  law,  to  recover  damages;  but  this  he  could  not  be 
persuaded  to  do.  After  this  absence  from  his  diocese 
of  eighteen  months,  which  he  had  spent  mostly  in  Lon- 
don, he  returned  to  the  island,  and  resumed  his  ex- 
emplary course.  In  1735,  he  came  to  England,  for  the 
last  time,  to  visit  his  son. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected    that  a  man  like   Bishop 
Wilson  could  visit  England  without  creating  that  im- 
pression  which   the   moral  influence   of  a   good   name 
3  Y  3 


798  WILSON. 

always  more  or  less  produces.  On  being  introduced  at 
court,  where  he  appeared  in  his  usual  simple  dress, 
having  a  small  black  cap  on  his  head,  with  flowing 
silvery  hair,  and  his  shoes  fastened  with  leather  thongs 
instead  of  buckles,  George  the  Second  was  so  struck 
with  his  venerable  appearance,  that  the  king  rose  to 
meet  him,  and,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  said,  "  My 
lord,  I  beg  your  prayers."  Wherever  he  went,  the 
people  knelt  before  him,  and  implored  his  blessing. 

Wilson  was  particularly  noticed  by  Queen  Caroline,  who, 
though  an  unbeliever  herself,  was  truly  feminine  in  her 
admiration  of  every  thing  distinguished.     She  was  very 
desirous  of  keeping  him  in  England ;  but  he  could  not 
be  prevailed  upon  to  quit  his  poor  diocese,  the  value  of 
which  did  not  exceed  £300  a-year.     On  his  return  he 
visited  the  Diocese  of  York  at  the  request  of  Archbishop 
Blackburn,  and  confirmed  upwards  of  fifteen  thousand 
persons.     In  1739,  on  the  death  of  the  Earl  of  Derby 
without  issue,  the  lordship  of  Man,  as  a  barony  in  fee, 
became  the    property  of   the   Earl  of  Athol,  who  had 
married  the  heiress  of  the  late  Earl  of  Derby.     In  his 
latter  days,  Bishop  Wilson  formed  a  plan  for  translating 
the  New  Testament  into  the  Manx  language  ;   but  he 
did  not  live  to  make  any  further  progress  than  to  trans- 
late  the  four  Gospels,  and  print   that  of  St.  Matthew. 
This  important  work  was  completed  by  his  successor, 
Dr.    Mark    Hildesley,     (See    Hildesley).      This   seems 
to    have   been    the  last    concern   of    a   public    nature 
in  which  he  was  engaged,  beyond  the  immediate  duties 
of  his  bishopric,  which  he  continued  to  execute  to  the 
latest  period  of  his  life,  notwithstanding  the  infirmities 
naturally  attending  his  great  age.     He  had  attained  his 
ninety-third  year,  when,  in  consequence  of  a  cold  caught 
by  walking  in  his  garden  in  very  cold  weather,   after 
reading  evening  prayers  in  his  own  chapel,  he  was  con- 
fined for  a  short  time  to  his  bed,  and  expired  March  7th, 
1755.      He  was  interred  in  the  church-yard  of  Kirk- 


WINCHESTER.  799 

Michael,    almost   the   whole   population   of    the   island 
attending  the  funeral,  and  lamenting  their  loss. 

His  works  consisting  of  religious  Tracts,  most  of 
which  have  been  repeatedly  printed  separately,  and 
extensively  circulated,  and  of  Sermons,  were  collected 
by  his  son,  and  pubhshed  in  1780,  3  vols.  4to,  and 
reprinted  in  2  vols,  folio,  by  the  editor,  the  Rev. 
Clement  Cruttwell,  who  also  edited,  in  1785,  an  edition 
of  the  Bible  in  3  vols.  4to,  with  Notes  by  Bishop  Wilson, 
and  various  readings  from  the  older  English  versions. — 
Stowell.     Teale. 


WINCHESTEK,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Winchester  was  born  at  Faringdon,  in  Berk- 
shire, where  his  father  was  a  surgeon.  The  year  of  his 
birth  is  not  known.  He  was  jQrst  a  chorister,  then  a  demy 
of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford;  M.A.,  1736  ;  B.D.  in  1747  ; 
D.D.  in  1749.  In  1761,  he  resigned  his  fellowship  to 
which  he  had  been  elected  in  1747,  on  being  presented 
to  the  Rectory  of  Appleton,  in  Berkshire.  He  also  had 
the  curacy  of  Astley  Chapel,  near  Arbury,  in  Warwick- 
shire, a  donative  given  him  by  Sir  Roger  Newdigate. 
He  also  wrote  some  letters  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
on  the  Confessional  Controversy,  and  topics  arising  from 
it.  The  only  separate  publication  from  his  pen  was  pub- 
lished, but  without  his  name,  in  1773,  under  the  title 
of  A  Dissertation  on  the  XVIIth  Article  of  the  Church 
of  England  ;  wherein  the  Sentiments  of  the  Compilers 
and  other  Contemporary  Reformers,  on  the  subject  of 
the  Divine  Decrees,  are  fully  deduced  from  their  own 
Writings  ;  to  which  is  subjoined  a  short  Tract,  ascer- 
taining the  Reign  and  Time  in  which  the  Royal  Decla- 
ration before  the  XXXIX  Articles  was  first  published. 
This  work  was  reprinted  in  1803,  with  a  biographical 
preface  from  the  pen  of  the  elder  Archdeacon  Churton, 
from  which  this  account  is  taken. 


800  WISHART. 


WISHART,    OR   WISCHEART,   GEORGE. 

George  Wishart,  or  Wischeart  was  born  in  East- 
Lothian,  in  1609,  and  was  educated  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  where  he  graduated,  and  entered  into 
holy  orders.  He  became  minister  of  North  Leith  and 
one  of  the  professors  of  the  University  of  St.  Andrews. 
But  in  1639,  he  was  deposed  by  the  triumphant  Dis- 
senters, for  reading  the  Liturgy,  preaching  Anti-Cal- 
vinism, and  protesting  against  the  Covenant.  For  his 
attachment  to  the  cause  of  loyalty  and  Episcopacy,  he 
was  more  than  once  thrown  into  prison  and  treated  with 
extreme  severity.  When  the  gallant  Marquis  of  Montrose 
had  swept  away  the  force  of  the  Covenanters,  and  was 
approaching  Edinburgh  in  triumph,  Wishart  was  one 
of  a  deputation  of  cavalier  prisoners  whom  the  terrified 
citizens  sent  to  implore  his  clemency.  From  that  time, 
he  remained  with  the  marquis  as  his  chaplain,  and  sub- 
sequently wrote  his  life  in  elegant  Latin — a  work  little 
valued  in  Scotland,  but  which  was  eagerly  read,  and  went 
through  many  editions,  on  the  continent.  The  Cove- 
nanters to  show  their  hatred  of  this  work,  and  how 
keenly  they  felt  the  truth  of  its  statements,  tied  it  round 
the  neck  of  Montrose,  when  they  afterwards  executed 
him  !  Wishart  then  went  abroad,  and  became  chaplain 
to  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  Bohemia,  with  whom  he  came 
to  England  to  visit  her  nephew  Charles  II.,  after  his 
majesty's  happy  restoration.  He  had  first  the  Rectory 
of  Newcastle  conferred  on  him ;  and  on  the  re-establish- 
ment of  Episcopacy  in  Scotland,  he  was  made  Bishop 
of  Edinburgh,  and  consecrated  at  St.  Andrews,  in  June, 
1662.  In  that  situation,  he  distinguished  himself  by 
returning  good  for  evil  to  his  former  enemies  the  Cove- 
nanters, and  especially  by  his  kindness  to  the  captive 
insurgents,  after  their  defeat  at  Pentland.     He  died  in 


WITSIUS.  801 

1671,  and  is  buried  in  the  Abbey  Church  of  Holyrood, 
where  there  is  a  handsome  monument  to  his  memory. — 
Keith.    Lyons. 

WITHERSPOON,    JOHN. 

John  Witberspoon,  a  missionary  of  the  Scottish  Kirk, 
a  native  of  Tester,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh, 
born  1722.  Having  received  a  theological  education  in 
the  University  of  the  Northern  Metropolis,  he  was  or- 
dained according  to  the  Presbyterian  forms  to  the  Parish 
of  Beith,  and  afterwards  officiated  at  Paisley,  till  in 
1768  he  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  became  president  of 
Princetown  College,  in  America.  He  was  the  author  of 
a  Tract  written  in  condemnation  of  Theatrical  amuse- 
ments; three  volumes  of  Devotional  Essays;  Ecclesi- 
astical Characteristics ;  and  some  Sermons  on  Miscel- 
laneous Subjects.  His  death  took  place  at  Princetown, 
in  1794. — Prot.  Dissenters'  Mag. 


WITSIUS,    HERMAN. 

Herman  Wits,  or,  as  he  is  commonly  called,  Witsius, 
was  born  at  Enkhuysen,  a  town  of  West-Friesland,  in 
1636.  In  1651,  he  was  sent  to  the  University  at 
Utrecht.  He  was  called  to  the  ministiy  among  the 
Dutch  Calvinists,  in  1657.  He  so  distinguished  him- 
self by  his  abilities  and  learning,  that  he  was  chosen 
theological  professor,  first  at  Francker,  afterwards  at 
Utrecht,  and  lastly  at  Leyden.  He  applied  himself 
assiduously  to  the  study  of  the  oriental  languages,  and 
was  well  versed  in  all  the  branches  of  learning  necessary 
to  form  a  divine.     He  died  in  1708. 

His  writings  are  numerous,  and  some  of  them  are 
still  in  use.  The  most  remarkable  are: — ^gyptiaca, 
et  Decaphylon,  sive,  de  ^gyptiacorum  Sacrorum  cum 


80$J  WOLSEY. 

Hebraicis  collatione  Libri  tres,  et  de  Decern  Tribubus 
Israelis  Liber  singularis,  accessit  Diatribe  de  Legione 
Fulminatrice  Christianorum,  sub  Imperatore  Marco 
Aurelio  Antonino,  Amst.  1683,  and  1696,  4to;  and,  The 
(Economy  of  the  Covenants  between  God  and  Man,  in 
3  vols.  8vo. — Life  extracted  from  Dr.  Mank's  Funeral 
Oration. 

WOLSEY,    THOMAS. 

The  Life  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  belongs  to  a  history  of 
statesmen  rather  than  to  ecclesiastical  biography,  but 
it  must  not  pass  entirely  unnoticed  in  these  pages. 
Thomas  Wolsey  was  born  at  Ipswich,  in  the  year  1471. 
The  common  tradition  is  that  he  was  the  son  of  a 
butcher.  But  Dr.  Fiddes  asserts  that  he  can  discover 
no  authentic  ground  for  such  a  report,  and  he  shews 
that  his  father  was  possessed  of  some  property.  He 
was  probably  a  tradesman  in  humble  life,  who  had 
realised  a  competence,  and  who  thought  to  raise  the 
station  of  his  family  by  destining  his  son  Thomas  for 
holy  orders.  Wolsey,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  was  a  student 
in  Oxford,  and  had  already  obtained  the  degree  of  B.A. 
which  procured  him  at  the  university  the  name  of  the 
boy-bachelor.  Few,  so  young,  with  all  the  advantages 
of  rank  and  affluence,  attained,  in  that  age,  academical 
honours.  Continuing  to  prosper  in  philosophy,  he  was 
elected  a  fellow  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  appointed 
a  tutor  of  the  school,  and  entrusted  to  educate  the  three 
sons  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset.  The  proficiency  which 
the  young  noblemen  made  under  his  tuition,  and  his 
own  conversational  accomplishments,  displayed  while 
passing  the  Christmas  holidays  with  their  father,  pro- 
cured him  the  patronage  of  the  marquis,  who  afterwards 
rewarded  him  with  the  Rectory  of  Ly mington,  in  Somer- 
setshire. 

He  was  at  this  time  bursar  of  Magdalen  College  ;  but 


WOLSEY.  803 

having,  without  a  sufficient  warrant,  applied  the  funds 
to  complete  the  great  tower  of  the  buildings,  he  found 
himself  obliged  to  resign.  The  tower  is  one  of  the 
ornaments  of  Oxford,  and  may  be  regarded  not  only  as 
a  specimen  of  his  taste  in  architecture,  but  as  a  monu- 
ment of  that  forward  spirit,  and  intrepid  disrespect 
of  precedents,  which  he  so  amply  manifested  in  greater 
affairs. 

Among  his  pupils  at  Oxford  was  the  Marquis  of 
Dorset,  who  in  1500,  presented  him  to  the  Rectory  of 
Lymington  in  Somersetshire.  Here  Wolsey's  conduct 
as  an  ecclesiastic  was  disgraceful,  and  being  concerned 
in  one  of  the  riots  of  a  fair  in  the  neighbourhood,  he  was 
placed  in  the  stocks,  as  was  generally  reported  in  his 
life-time,  or  subjected  to  some  other  punishment  equally 
disgraceful.  The  circumstance  rendered  his  residence  at 
Lymington  unpleasant,  and  nothing  shows  the  laxity  of 
the  Church's  prevalent  disregard  of  morals  among  eccle- 
siastics before  the  Reformation  more  plainly  than  the  fact, 
that,  to  extricate  himself  from  this  difficulty,  Wolsey  had 
interest  to  have  himself  promoted  to  the  office  of  chap- 
lain in  the  household  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Henry  Dean.  The  apology  for  Wolsey  is  only  a  further 
condemnation  of  the  ante- Reformation  Church,  namely, 
that  he  only  entered  into  orders  to  have  the  way  for 
secular  employment.  He  had  now,  however,  "sown 
his  wild  oats,"  and  had  an  opportunity  in  the  arch- 
bishop's household  to  make  known  his  wonderful  talents 
and  intellectual  power. 

At  the  death  of  the  archbishop,  he  went  to  Calais, 
where  Sir  Richard  Nanfan,  then  treasurer,  appointed 
him  to  manage  the  business  of  his  office.  In  this  situa- 
tion, Wolsey  conducted  himself  with  so  much  discretion, 
that  Sir  Richard  was  induced  to  exert  his  influence  to 
procure  him  promotion,  and  succeeded  in  getting  him 
nominated  one  of  the  chaplains  to  the  king. 

Wolsey,  when  he  obtained  this   situation,  possessed 


804  WOLSEY. 

many  of  those  endowments  which  at  court,  are  often 
more  advantageous  than  virtues.  He  spoke  and  acted 
with  a  generous  assurance;  and  that  superiority  of  de- 
portment which,  in  the  glare  of  his  full  fortune,  was 
felt  so  like  arrogance,  seemed  then  only  calculated  to 
acquire  and  secure  respect.  In  the  performance  of 
his  duty,  he  had  frequent  opportunities  of  improving 
the  impression  of  his  exterior  accomplishments ;  and 
his  advancement  accompanied  the  development  of  his 
talents.  The  ahbot  of  the  rich  Monastery  of  St. 
Edmund  appointed  him  to  the  Rectory  of  Redgrave, 
in  the  Diocese  of  Norwich ;  Fox,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, who  at  that  time  held  the  privy-seal,  and  Sir 
Thomas  Lovell,  then  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  also 
distinguished  him  by  their  friendship.  They  thought 
that  his  uncommon  capacity  might  be  usefully  employed 
in  affairs  of  state  ;  and,  accordingly,  while  the  treaty  of 
marriage  was  pending,  between  the  King  and  Margaret 
the  dowager  of  Savoy,  they  proposed  him  as  a  fit  person 
to  be  sent  to  her  father,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  on 
that  business.  The  king  had  not  before  particularly 
noticed  Wolsey ;  but,  after  conversing  with  him  on  this 
subject,  he  was  satisfied  with  his  qualification,  and  com- 
manded him  to  be  in  readiness  for  the  embassy. 

The  court  was  then  at  Richmond,  from  which  Wolsey 
proceeded,  with  his  despatches,  to  London,  where  he 
arrived  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  He  had 
a  boat  waiting,  and  in  less  than  three  hours  was  at 
Gravesend.  With  post-horses,  he  got,  next  morning,  to 
Dover,  reached  Calais  in  the  course  of  the  forenoon,  and 
arrived  the  same  night  at  the  imperial  court.  The  em- 
peror, informed  that  an  extraordinary  ambassador  had 
come  from  England,  immediately  admitted  him ;  and 
the  business,  being  agreeable,  was  quickly  concluded. 
Wolsey,  without  delay,  returned.  He  reached  Calais 
at  the  opening  of  the  gates  ;  found  the  passengers  going 
on  board  the  vessel  that  brought  him  from  England ; 


WOLSEY.  805 

embarked ;  and,  about  ten  o'clock  was  landed  at  Dover. 
Relays  of  horses  having  been  provided,  he  reached 
Richmond  the  same  evening.  Reposing  some  time,  he 
rose,  and  met  the  king  as  he  came  from  his  chamber 
to  hear  the  morning  service.  His  majesty,  surprised, 
rebuked  him  for  neglecting  the  orders  with  which  he 
had  been  charged  :  "  May  it  please  your  highness,"  said 
Wolsey,  "I  have  been  with  the  emperor,  and  executed 
my  commission,  to  the  satisfaction,  I  trust,  of  your 
grace."  He  then  knelt,  and  presented  Maximilian's 
letters.  Dissembling  the  admiration  which  such  un- 
precedented expedition  excited,  the  king  inquired  if  he 
had  received  no  orders  by  a  pursuivant  sent  after  him  ? 
Wolsey  answered,  that  he  had  met  the  messenger  as  he 
returned  ;  but,  having  preconceived  the  purpose  for  which 
he  was  sent,  he  had  presumed,  of  his  own  accord,  to 
supply  the  defect  in  his  credentials,  for  which  he  soli- 
cited his  majesty's  pardon.  The  king,  pleased  with 
this  foresight,  and  gratified  with  the  result  of  the  nego- 
tiation, readily  forgave  his  temerity ;  and  commanding 
him  to  attend  the  council  in  the  afternoon,  he  desired 
that  in  the  meantime  he  would  refresh  himself  with 
repose.  Wolsey,  at  the  time  appointed,  reported  the 
business  of  his  mission  with  so  much  clearness  and 
propriety,  that  he  received  the  applause  of  all  present ; 
and  the  king,  when  the  Deanery  of  Lincoln  became 
vacant,  bestowed  it  on  him  unsolicited. 

It  has  been  alleged  that  Bishop  Fox,  in  order  to  coun- 
teract the  power  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  who  then  mono- 
polized almost  the  whole  favour  and  patronage  of  the 
crown,  was  induced  to  promote,  and  avail  himself  of, 
Wolsey 's  rising  genius.  Whatever  were  his  motives,  it 
may  be  inferred,  that  the  personal  merits  of  Wolsey  were 
beginning  to  awaken  the  envious  apprehensions  of  that 
sordid  race,  who  ascribe  the  prosperity  of  others  to  any 
cause  rather  than  to  the  efforts  of  ability,  and  to  whom 
talents  form  a  matter  of  offence.     Wolsey  had  not  long 

VOL.  VIII.  3  z 


806  WOLSEY. 

been  Dean  of  Lincoln,  when  Henry  VII.  died  (22nd  of 
April,  1509,)  and  was  succeeded  by  his  only  surviving 
son,  then  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age. 

Wolsey  was  now  in  his  thirty-eighth  year.  Notwith- 
standing his  high  station  in  the  Church,  he  frequented 
the  entertainments  of  the  young  courtiers  with  the 
license  of  a  dissipated  layman,  and  this  without  rebuke ; 
a  circumstance  which  again  reminds  us  of  the  need 
of  a  reformation.  The  Marquis  of  Dorset,  who  had 
now  succeeded  to  the  honours  of  his  family,  was  still 
Wolsey 's  friend,  and  was  the  intimate  companion  of 
the  king.  In  his  company,  Wolsey  probably  obtained 
opportunities  of  studying  the  temper  and  inclinations  of 
his  master,  and  of  recommending  himself  to  his  serious 
favour  by  the  knowledge  of  public  affairs  which,  in  the 
midst  of  pleasure  and  dissipation,  he  dexterously  took 
occasion  to  display.  Riches  and  honours  flowed  in  upon 
him.  In  the  first  year  of  Henry,  he  received  a  grant 
of  lands  and  tenements  in  London,  was  admitted  to  the 
privy  council,  and  appointed  almoner.  Soon  after,  the 
king  gave  him  the  Rectory  of  Torrington,  made  him 
canon  of  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Windsor,  and  re- 
gistrar  of  the  order  of  the  garter.  Archbishop  Bam- 
bridge  appointed  him  to  be  a  prebendary  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  York,  (1512,)  where  he  was  soon  advanced  to  the 
deanery ;  and  the  pope,  informed  of  his  increasing 
ascendency  over  the  monarch,  allowed  him  to  hold 
benefices  to  the  amount  of  two  thousand  marks  an- 
nually, (though  consisting  of  more  than  three  parochial 
churches,)  if  a  precedent  for  such  a  dispensation  could 
be  found  in  the  records  of  England.  But  no  particular 
office  in  the  state  was  committed  to  his  charge  until  after 
the  French  war,  in  1513. 

When  the  king  had  determined  on  an  invasion  of 
France  in  conjunction  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
the  commissariat  of  the  army  was  committed  to  Wolsey. 
On  the  taking  of  Tournay,  in  Flanders,  Henry  appointed. 


WOLSEY.  BOY 

him  bishop  of  that  city,  as  an  easy  way  of  providing  him 
with  an  income.  In  1514,  he  was  advanced  to  the  See 
of  Lincoln,  and,  eight  months  after,  he  vv^as  translated 
to  that  of  lork.  In  the  year  1515,  he  was  made  Car- 
dinal of  St.  Cecilia,  and  soon  after  Lord  High  Chancellor 
of  England.  Henceforth  he  may  be  considered  as  the 
prime  minister  of  England,  and  perhaps  the  secular 
historian  may  find  it  difficult  to  point  to  a  more  gifted, 
powerful,  or  patriotic  statesman  in  any  country.  So 
long  as  Henry  was  under  the  guidance  of  Wolsey,  the 
conduct  of  that  tyrannical  prince  was  respectable,  and 
through  his  minister  he  controlled  the  affairs  of  Europe. 
Wolsey,  however,  was  in  advance  of  the  age,  and  his 
wisdom  was  not  fully  appreciated  till  modern  times. 
His  arrogance,  contempt  of  others,  his  ambition  and 
ostentation,  created  him  enemies,  whom  he  would  not 
condescend  to  conciliate,  though  we  may  perceive  from 
the  interesting  work  of  Cavendish,  that  his  ostentation 
was  founded  on  principle  and  was  not  merely  an  indul- 
gence of  his  personal  pride.  He  lived  in  an  age,  when 
unless  those  who  were  high  in  station  maintained  great 
Btate  they  were  sure  to  be  despised,  and  he,  being  of  low 
birth,  was  anxious  to  comport  himself  as  a  nobleman.  But 
great  as  Wolsey  was  as  a  statesman,  the  very  circumstances 
which  conduced  to  his  greatness  add  to  his  disgrace  as  an 
ecclesiastic.  It  was  with  the  eye  of  a  statesman  that  he 
looked  upon  the  Church,  and  his  sagacity  perceived  that 
unless  the  Church  were  reformed,  it  would  become  a 
public  nuisance.  Wolsey  was  a  reformer,  but  his  object 
was  to  strengthen  the  papacy  by  correcting  abuses,  and 
by  restraining  the  licentiousness  of  the  clergy.  He 
obtained,  therefore,  a  Bull  which  conferred  on  him  a 
legatine  right  to  visit  all  the  monasteries  of  the  realm, 
and  to  suspend  the  pontifical  laws  in  England,  at  dis- 
cretion, during  the  whole  year.  His  motive,  at  first,  for 
seeking  this  commission,  was  to  reduce  the  swarm  of 
monks,  who,  from  the  days  of  the  Saxon  kings,  had  con- 


808  WOLSEY. 

tinued  to  multiply.  He  regarded  them  as  consuming 
locusts,  a  reproach  to  the  Church,  and  wasteful  to  the 
State,  and  he  resolved  to  convert  their  habitations  into 
cathedrals  and  colleges,  with  the  view  of  restoring  the 
clergy  to  the  mental  superiority  which  they  anciently  pos- 
sessed over  the  people.  The  rumour  of  an  innovation 
so  terrible  alarmed  all  the  ecclesiastical  orders.  Their 
clamour  was  loud,  incessant,  and  almost  universal. 
Every  levity  that  the  upstart  reformer  had  committed 
was  brought  before  the  public  and  magnified  to  the 
utmost ;  and,  as  if  it  could  diminish  the  worthlessness 
of  his  brethren,  it  was  alleged  to  be  little  less  than 
monstrous,  that  a  man  so  prone  to  the  pleasures  of  life 
himself,  should  abridge  the  senualities  of  others.  Those 
who  were  free  from  the  reprobate  inclinations  with  which 
the  priesthood  were  charged  in  the  bull,  exclaimed  against 
the  generality  of  the  charge,  and  the  criminals  were  en- 
raged at  the  prevention  and  punishment  of  their  infamies. 

By  virtue  of  his  commission,  Wolsey,  as  legate,  insti- 
tuted a  court,  which  he  endowed  with  a  censorial  juris- 
diction over  the  priesthood.  It  was  empowed  to  inves- 
tigate matters  of  conscience,  conduct  which  had  given 
scandal,  and  actions  which  though  they  escaped  the 
law  might  be  found  contrary  to  good  morals.  The 
clergy  furnished  abundant  employment  to  this  inqui- 
sitorial institution  ;  and  as  the  fines  were  strictly  levied, 
and  the  awards  sternly  executed,  it  enhanced  their  ex- 
asperation against  the  founder. 

At  the  death  of  Leo  X.,  Wolsey  aspired  to  the  tiara. 
It  was  the  legitimate  object  of  ambition  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical statesman,  and  on  this  and  on  the  other  vacan- 
cies, Wolsey  became  one  of  the  candidates,  without 
subjecting  himself  to  any  mean  artifices  to  obtain  it, 
and  without  evincing  any  improper  mortification  when 
he  failed.  He  must  have  been  conscious  that  his 
failure  was  to  be  attributed  to  the  fears  which  the  supe- 
riority of  his  genius  excited. 


WOLSEY.  809 

The  unpopularity  of  Wolsey  among  the  clergy  must 
have  increased  when  they  saw  the  greediness  with  which 
he  grasped  at  pluralities  in  the  Church.  In  1513,  the 
pope  granted  him  the  administration  of  the  bishopric 
of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  the  king  bestowed  upon  him  its 
temporalities.  This  see  with  those  of  Worcester  and 
Hereford,  which  the  cardinal  likewise  formed,  were  filled 
with  foreigners,  who  were  allowed  non-residence,  and 
compounded  for  this  indulgence  by  yielding  a  share  of 
the  revenues.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  he 
would  regard  this  wealth  as  the  salary  of  the  chancellor- 
ship, for  which  probably  he  received  no  direct  pay.  And 
though,  of  the  immense  riches  which  he  derived  from  his 
various  preferments  some  were  no  doubt  spent  in  luxuries 
which  left  only  a  sorrowful  remembrance,  still  the  greater 
part  was  employed  in  those  magnificent  edifices  which 
have  immortalised  his  genius  and  spirit.  In  1514,  he 
began  to  build  the  palace  at  Hampton  Court,  and  having 
finished  it,  with  all  its  sumptuous  furniture,  in  1528,  he 
presented  it  to  the  king,  who  in  return  gave  him  the 
palace  of  Richmond  for  a  residence.  In  this  last- 
mentioned  year,  he  acceded  to  the  bishopric  of  Win- 
chester by  the  death  of  Fox. 

As  a  statesman,  Wolsey  perceived  the  importance  of 
giving  encouragement  to  literature,  and  literary  men 
found  in  him  a  patron ;  but  the  history  of  his  munifi- 
cence to  literature  relates  chiefly  to  public  institutions. 
The  character  of  his  mind  fitted  him  to  act  happily  only 
with  wide  and  prospective  considerations.  The  warmth 
of  his  temper,  and  the  pride  of  conscious  greatness,  how- 
ever high  his  aims,  and  noble  his  motives,  rendered  him 
harsh  in  familiar  intercourse,  and  unqualified  to  acquire 
the  affection  of  those  men  of  endowment  and  knowledge 
whom  ostentation  invited  to  his  house,  and  affluence 
entertained.  The  court  happened  to  be  at  Abington  in 
the  year  1523,  and  a  deputation  of  the  heads  of  the 
colleges  being  sent  from  Oxford  to  pay  the  compliments 
3  z  3 


810  WOLSEY. 

of  the  university,  the  queen  was  afterwards  induced  to 
visit  that  city,  accompanied  by  Wolsey.  They  were 
received  with  the  customary  ceremonies;  and  the  car- 
dinal, in  reply  to  the  oration  which  was  addressed  to 
him,  declared,  that  he  had  the  interests  of  his  parental 
university  much  at  heart,  and  that  he  was  desirous  of 
substantially  evincing  his  filial  attachment.  He  accord- 
ingly proposed  to  found  certain  public  lectures,  and 
offered  to  undertake  the  revisal  of  the  statutes,  which 
were  at  variance  in  tenour  with  one  another,  and  adverse 
in  spirit  to  the  prosperity  of  learning.  These  proposals 
were  gladly  received,  and  letters  on  the  subject  were 
without  delay  sent  to  the  chancellor.  Archbishop  War- 
ham.  This  jealous  and  captious  old  man  was  sensibly 
affected  by  everything  that  tended  to  the  aggrandisement 
of  Wolsey ;  and  therefore,  although  he  could  not  possibly 
object  to  the  instituting  of  the  lectures,  he  strenuously 
opposed  the  plan  of  committing  to  him  the  revision  of 
the  statutes.  In  the  end,  however,  he  was  constrained 
to  yield  his  personal  antipathy  for  the  public  advantage ; 
and  the  senate  in  full  convocation  decreed,  that  the  laws 
should  be  placed  in  the  cardinal's  hands  to  be  corrected, 
reformed,  changed,  or  expunged,  as  he  in  his  discretion 
should  think  fit.  Cambridge  soon  after  adopted  the 
same  measure,  and  even  exceeded  Oxford  in  adulation. 
The  address  voted  on  the  occasion  declared,  that  the 
statutes  were  submitted  to  be  modelled  according  to  his 
judgment,  as  by  a  true  and  settled  standard  ;  for  he  was 
considered  as  a  man  sent  by  a  special  order  of  divine 
providence  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  In  order  to 
evince  still  more  the  unlimited  extent  of  this  confidence, 
the  senate  conferred  on  him  the  power  for  life  of  legis- 
lating for  the  university;  and  proposed  to  honour  his 
memory  with  perpetual  yearly  commemorations.  These 
acts  of  homage,  in  themselves  remarkable  proofs  of  the 
ready  subserviency  of  public  bodies  to  the  existing 
powers,  are  worthy  of  observation,   as  they  form  an  im- 


WOLSEY.  811 

portant  era  in  the  history  of  English  literature.  From 
the  date  of  the  revisal  of  the  statutes  by  cardinal  Wolsey, 
the  progress  of  popular  learning  and  the  improvement 
of  the  language  were  rapid  and  extraordinary  in  the 
universities ;  in  which,  prior  to  that  epoch,  there  was 
scarcely  a  member  distinguished  by  any  projficiency  in 
practical  knowledge. 

He  now  aspired  to  the  honour  of  being  the  founder  of 
a  college  in  Oxford.  But  he  proceeded  in  his  own 
peculiar  way.  He  did  not  think  of  denying  himself  that 
he  might  effect  his  object,  but,  anticipating  the  conduct 
of  modern  statesmen,  he  merely  devised  the  means  of 
a  re-appropriation  of  the  funds  at  the  disposal  of  the 
public.  As  we  have  seen,  he  had  determined  to  suppress 
the  monasteries  which,  with  several  honourable  exceptions, 
had  become  nests  of  idleness  and  immorality  throughout 
the  land,  and  he  now  determined  that  the  confiscated 
property  should  be  dedicated  to  the  advancement  of  learn- 
ing. By  two  bulls,  the  one  dated  1524,  the  other  1525, 
Wolsey  obtained  of  Pope  Clement  VII.  leave  to 
enrich  his  college  by  suppressing  twenty-two  priories 
and  nunneries,  the  revenues  of  which  were  estimated 
at  nearly  £2,000 ;  but,  on  his  disgrace,  some  of  these 
were  given  by  the  king  for  other  purposes.  The 
king's  patent,  after  a  preface  paying  high  compliments  to 
the  cardinal's  administration,  enables  him  to  build  his 
college  principally  on  the  site  of  the  priory  of  St.  Frides- 
wide  ;  and  the  name,  originally  intended  to  be  "  The 
College  of  Secular  Priests,"  was  now  changed  to  Cardinal 
College.  The  secular  clergy  in  it  were  to  be  denominated 
the  "  dean  and  canons  secular  of  the  Cardinal  of  York," 
and  to  be  incorporated  into  one  body,  and  subsist  by 
perpetual  succession.  He  was  also  authorised  to  settle 
upon  it  £2000  a  year  clear  revenue.  By  other  patents 
and  grants  to  the  dean  and  canons,  various  church 
livings  were  bestowed  upon  them,  and  the  college  was 
to  be  dedicated  to  the  praise,  glory  and  honour  of  the 


8ia  WOLSEY. 

Holy  Trinity,  the  Virgin  Mary,  St.  Frideswide  and  All 
Saints. 

With  respect  to  the  constitution  of  this  college,  there 
is  a  considerable  variation  between  the  account  given  by 
the  historian  of  Oxford,  and  that  by  Leonard  Hutten, 
canon  of  Christ  Church,  in  1599,  and  many  years  sub- 
dean.  His  manuscript,  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
college,  and  quoted  in  the  Monasticon,  states  that, 
according  to  Wolsey's  design,  it  was  to  be  a  perpetual 
foundation  for  the  study  of  the  sciences,  divinity,  canon 
and  civil  law,  also  the  arts,  physic,  and  polite  literature,  and 
for  the  continual  performance  of  divine  service.  The  mem- 
bers were  to  be,  a  dean,  and  sixty  regular  canons,  but  no 
canons  of  the  second  order,  as  Wood  asserts. 

Of  these  Wolsey  himself  named  the  dean  and  eighteen 
of  the  canons.  The  dean  was  Dr.  John  Hygden,  pre- 
sident of  Magdalen  College,  and  the  canons  first  nomi- 
nated were  all  taken  from  the  other  colleges  in  Oxford, 
and  were  men  of  acknowledged  reputation  in  their  day. 
He  afterwards  added  others,  deliberately,  and  according 
as  he  was  able  to  supply  the  vacancies  by  men  of  talents, 
whom  he  determined  to  seek  wherever  they  could  be 
found.  Among  his  latter  appointments  from  Cambridge, 
we  find  the  names  of  Tyndal  and  Frith,  the  translators 
of  the  Bible,  and  who  had  certainly  discovered  some 
symptoms  of  so-called  heresy  before  this  time.  Cranmer 
and  Parker,  afterwards  the  first  and  second  Protestant 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  were  also  invited,  but  de- 
clined :  and  the  cardinal  went  on  to  complete  his 
number,  reserving  all  nominations  to  himself  during 
his  life,  but  intending  to  bequeath  that  power  to  the 
dean  and  canons  at  his  death.  In  this,  however,  he  was 
as  much  disappointed  as  in  his  hopes  to  embody  a  force 
of  learned  men  sufficient  to  cope  with  Luther  and  the 
foreign  reformers,  whose  advantage  in  argument  he  con- 
ceived to  proceed  from  the  ignorance  which  prevailed 
among  the  monastic  clergy. 


WOLSEY.  818 

The  society,  as  he  planned  it,  was  to  consist  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  persons,  according  to  Wood,  or,  omit- 
ting the  forty  canons  of  the  second  order,  in  the  enumer- 
ation of  whom  Wood  was  mistaken,  one  hundred  and 
forty- six ;  but  no  mention  could  yet  be  made  of  the 
scholars  who  were  to  proceed  from  his  school  at  Ipswich, 
although  had  he  lived,  these  would  doubtless  have 
formed  a  part  of  the  society,  as  the  school  was  estab- 
lished two  years  before  his  fall.  This  constitution 
continued  from  1525  to  1529-30,  when  lie  was  deprived 
of  his  power  and  property,  and,  for  two  years  after,  it 
appears  to  have  been  interrupted,  if  not  dissolved.  It 
is  to  his  honour  that  in  his  last  correspondence  with 
secretary  Cromwell  and  with  the  king,  when  all  worldly 
prospects  were  about  to  close  upon  him,  he  pleaded  with 
great  earnestness,  and  for  nothing  so  earnestly,  as  that 
his  majesty  would  be  pleased  to  suffer  his  college  at 
Oxford  to  go  on.  What  effect  this  had,  we  know  not  ; 
but  the  urgent  entreaties  of  the  members  of  the  society, 
and  of  the  university  at  large,  were  at  length  successful ; 
while  at  the  same  time  the  king  determined  to  deprive 
Wolsey  of  all  merit  in  the  establish^ient,  and  transfer 
the  whole  to  himself.  The  subsequent  history  of  Christ 
Church  it  would  be  unnecessary  to  detail  in  this  place. 

The  school  at  Ipswich  was  intended  to  be  a  nursery 
for  his  college  at  Oxford.  In  this,  like  Henry  VI.,  in 
establishing  his  colleges  at  Eton  and  Cambridge,  Wol- 
sey designed  to  follow  the  example  of  the  illustrious 
William  of  Wykeham. 

But  Wolsey 's  designs  were  interrupted  by  his  fall,  the 
circumstances  of  which  are  well  known.  He  fell  through 
the  intricacies  in  which  he  was  involved  by  his  inability 
to  adjust  the  claims  of  a  divided  allegiance.  When  he 
found  Henry  determined  upon  a  divorce  from  Queen 
Katharine,  he  did  what  in  him  lay  to  further  his  wishes. 
When  the  pope,  under  fear  of  the  emperor,  determined 
not  to  proceed  in  the  matter  of  the  divorce,  Henry  ex-. 


.814  WOLSEY. 

pected  Wolsey  to  sustain  the  obloquy  of  the  Roman 
Consistory  by  pronouncing  sentence  of  divorce.  Wolsey 
demurred.  His  mind  was  filled,  as  a  statesman,  with 
the  idea  of  a  great  spiritual  empire,  to  controul  the 
states  of  Europe,  and  a  rupture  with  Rome  was  more 
than  he  could  endure.  Henry  with  the  mean  spirit  of 
a  tyrant,  permitted  him  to  be  impeached  and  insulted, 
but  never  lost  his  affection  for  him ;  he  hoped  that 
Wolsey  would  yield,  and  on  his  yielding  would  have 
restored  him  to  power. 

In  1529,  Wolsey  was  impeached  in  parliament ;  but 
^0  impossible  was  it  to  substantiate  a  charge  of  high- 
treason  against  him,  that  the  charges  w^ere  repelled  by 
the  house  of  commons.  He  was,  however,  banished  to 
York,  his  enemies  knowing  that  Henry's  affections  were 
not  alienated  from  his  faithful  friend  and  minister,  and 
fearing  his  influence  if  he  remained  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  court.  Wolsey  s  conduct  at  York  was  characteristic. 
We  have  no  sign  of  repentance  exhibited  by  him;  he 
seems  to  have  known  little  of  religion ;  but  he  directed 
his  powerful  mind  to  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  intended 
still  to  act  the  statesman  on  a  smaller  scale.  He  was 
ambitious  to  shew  the  world  what  an  archbishop  ought 
to  be.  He  was  preparing  to  be  enthroned  on  the 
Monday  after  All  Saints'- day;  and  was  in  high  spirits, 
being  flattered  by  several  friendly  messages  from  the 
king.  He  probably  thought  that  he  had  now  discovered 
the  way  of  reconciling  his  duty  to  both  his  sovereigns. 
He  was  willing  to  be  dismissed  from  the  Royal  council, 
rather  than  rebel  against  the  pope  :  he  was  prepared  to 
establish  a  high  character  as  an  ecclesi-astic,  and  hoped 
to  be  employed  again  by  the  king,  when  the  existing 
difficulty  should  be  removed.  But  all  his  hopes  were 
to  be  disappointed.  His  enemies  triumphed.  The 
Friday  before  his  enthonization  he  was  arrested  for 
high-treason.  He  now  sunk  under  his  misfortunes. 
As  he  proceeded  by  slow  journeys  to  London,  he  stop- 


WOMOCK.  815 

ped  at  Leicester,  and  there,  on  the  29th  of  November, 
1530,  he  died. — Cavendish.    Fiddes.    Gait. 


WOMOCK,   LAWEENCE. 

Lawrence  Womock  was  horn  in  1612,  and,  as  his 
father  was  rector  of  Lopham  in  the  county  of  Norfolk, 
Lopham  was  probably  his  native  place.  He  went  to 
Cambridge  in  1629,  being  first  a  pensioner  and  after- 
wards a  scholar  of  C.C.C.  He  graduated  in  1632  ;  he 
became  M.A.  in  1639.  In  1642,  he  succeded  his  father, 
as  is  supposed,  at  Lopham ;  but  he  was  ejected  by  the 
Dissenters  in  their  ascendancy  and  subjected  to  much 
persecution,  being  imprisoned  on  account  of  his  prin- 
ciples. After  the  restoration,  however,  he  was  promoted, 
by  letters  mandate,  to  the  degree  of  D.D.,  and  made  both 
Archdeacon  of  Suffolk  and  a  prebendary  of  Ely.  In 
1662,  he  was  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  Horningsheath, 
in  Suffolk,  and  in  1663,  to  that  of  Boxford,  in  the  same 
county.  In  1683,  he  was  advanced  to  the  Bishopric  of 
St.  David's.  He  died  in  1685.  He  took  an  active  part 
in  the  controversies  of  the  times.  His  chief  publica- 
tions, besides  some  single  Sermons,  are.  Beaten  Oyle  for 
the  Lamps  of  the  Sanctuarie, — this  is  a  defence  of  the 
Liturgy ;  The  Examination  of  Tilenus  before  the  Triers ; 
Arcana  Dogmatum  Anti-Remonstrantium,  —  this  was 
written  against  Baxter,  Hickman,  and  the  Calvinists ; 
The  Result  of  False  Principles  ;  Uniformity  Re-asserted  ; 
The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  Arraigned  and  Con^ 
demned ;  An  Antidote  to  Cure  the  Calamities  of  their 
Trembling  for  Fear  of  the  Arke ;  the  Verdict  upon  the 
Dissenter's  Plot ;  Two  Letters  containing  a  farther  Jus-* 
tification  of  the  Church  of  England,  London,  J  682 ; 
Suffragium  Protestantium,  wherein  our  Governors  are 
justified  in  their  Impositions  and  Proceedings  against 
Dissenters ;  Meisner  also,  and  the  Verdict  rescued  from 


816  WORTHINGTON. 

the   Cavils  and   Seditious    Sophistry  of   Dr.  Whitby's 
Protestant  Reconciler,  London,  1683,  8vo. 


WOETHINGTON,    JOHN. 

John  Woethington  was  born  at  Manchester,  in  the 
beginning  of  February,  1617-1 8.  Going  to  Cambridge  he 
became  fellow  of  Emmanuel  College.  He  complied  with 
the  times,  and  when  Dr.  Richard  Sterne  was  ejected  by 
the  Dissenters  from  the  headship  of  Jesus  College,  he 
received  that  appointment ;  he  had  to  resign  his  usurped 
office  at  the  Restoration  ;  but  again  complying  with  the 
times,  he  was  presented  to  the  cure  of  St.  Bene't  Fink, 
London ;  and  soon  after  the  fire  of  London  he  was  pre- 
sented to  the  living  of  Ingoldsby,  near  Grantham,  in  Lin- 
colnshire, and  to  a  prebend  of  Lincoln  Cathedral.  He 
died  in  1671,  at  Hackney,  where  he  had  resided  as  lecturer 
to  the  church.  His  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by 
Tillotson,  who  edited  his  Select  Discourses,  in  1725, 
8vo.  He  published,  Form  of  Sound  Words,  or  a  Scrip- 
ture Catechism ;  The  great  Duty  of  Self- Resignation  ; 
The  Doctrine  of  the  Resurrection  considered.  His  work 
on  Self- Resignation  was  much  esteemed  and  recom- 
mended by  the  late  Bishop  Jebb. — BircJis  Tillotson. 


WORTHINGTON,    WILLIAM. 

William  Worthington  was  born  in  1703,  at  some 
place  in  Merionethshire.  He  received  his  primary 
education  at  Oswestry  School,  and  thence  proceeded  to 
Jesus  College,  Oxford.  He  became  D.D.  in  1757.  He 
was  presented  by  Bishop  Hare  to  the  Vicarage  of  Llany- 
blodwell  in  the  county  of  Salop,  whence  be  was  re- 
moved to  Llanrhayader,  in  Denbighshire.  He  had  a 
stall  in  the  Cathedral  of  St,  Asaph.     He  afterwards  ob- 


WREN.  817 

tained  a  stall  in  York  Cathedral  from  Archbishop  Drum- 
mond.  He  died  at  his  living  of  Llanrhayader,  in  Den- 
bighshire, in  1778.  His  principal  works  are  : — Essay  on 
the  Scheme  and  Conduct  of  Man's  Redemption ;  His- 
torical Sense  of  the  Mosaic  Account  of  the  Fall  proved ; 
The  Evidences  of  Christianity,  deduced  from  Facts,  &c. 
preached  at  Boyle's  Lectures ;  The  Scripture  Theory  of 
the  Earth;  An  Enquiry  into  the  Case  of  the  Gos- 
pel Demoniacks ;  and,  a  Defence  of  the  same  against 
Farmer,  2  vols.  8vo. — NichoVs  Bowyer. 


WHEN,    MATTHEW. 

Matthew  Ween  was  born  in  the  parish  of  St.  Peter- 
cheap,  London,  in  1585,  and  fell  under  the  notice  of 
Bishop  Andrewes,  while  he  was  yet  a  boy.  He  went  to 
Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge,  in  1601,  and  became  a 
fellow  in  1605;  M.A.  in  1608. 

Bishop  Andrewes,  who  had  assisted  him  in  his  studies, 
appointed  him  his  chaplain  in  1615,  and  presented  him 
the  same  year  to  the  Rectory  of  Teversham,  in  Cam- 
bridgeshire. In  1621,  he  was  made  chaplain  to  Prince 
(afterwards  king)  Charles,  whom  he  attended  in  that 
capacity  to  Spain  in  1623.  After  his  return  to  England, 
he  was  consulted  by  the  Bishops  Andrewes,  Neile,  and 
Laud,  as  to  what  might  be  the  prince's  sentiments  to- 
wards the  Church  of  England,  according  to  any  obser- 
vations he  had  been  able  to  make.  His  answer  was  "  I 
know  my  master's  learning  is  not  equal  to  his  father's, 
yet  I  know  his  judgment  is  very  right :  and  as  for  his 
affections  in  the  particular  you  point  at  (the  support  of 
the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church)  I  have  more 
confidence  of  him  than  of  his  father,  in  whom  you  have 
seen  better  than  I  so  much  inconstancy  in  some  parti- 
cular cases."  Neile  and  Laud  examined  him  as  to  his 
grounds  for  this  opinion,  which  he  gave  them  at  large ; 

VOL.  VIII.  4  A 


a;i^^  WREN. 

and  after  an  hour's  discussion  on  the  subject,  Andrewes, 
who  had  hitherto  been  silent,  said,  **  Well,  doctor,  God 
send  you  may  be  a  true  prophet  concerning  your  master's 
inclination,  which  we  are  glad  to  hear  from  you."  "  I  am 
sure  I  shall  be  a  true  prophet :  I  shall  be  in  my  grave, 
and  so  shall  you  my  Lord  of  Durham  (Neile)  but  my 
Lord  of  St.  David's  (Laud)  and  you,  doctor,  will  live  to 
see  the  day,  that  your  master  will  be  put  to  it  upon  his 
head  and  his  crown,  without  he  will  forsake  the  support 
of  the  Church." 

In  1624,  the  Rectory  of  Bingham  in  Nottinghamshire 
was  conferred  upon  Mr.  Wren,  together  with  a  stall  in 
the  Church  of  Winchester.  In  July,  1625,  he  was 
chosen  master  of  Peterhouse,  in  Cambridge,  to  which 
he  became  a  great  benefactor,  building  a  great  part  of 
the  college,  putting  their  writings  and  records  in  order, 
and  especially  contributing  liberally,  and  procuring  the 
contributions  of  others  towards  the  beautiful  chapel, 
which  was  completed  and  dedicated  by  him  in  1632. 
In  July,  1628,  he  was  promoted  to  the  dignity  of  Dean 
of  Windsor  and  Wolverhampton.  The  same  year  he 
served  the  office  of  vice-chancellor,  and  was  made  regis- 
trar of  the  garter.  While  he  held  this  office,  he  com- 
posed in  Latin,  a  comment  upon  the  statutes  of  Henry 
VIII.,  respecting  the  order.  This  was  published  by 
Anstis,  in  the  "  Register  of  the  most  noble  order  of  the 
Garter."  Ashmole  had  a  high  opinion  of  this  work, 
and  regretted  that  he  had  not  met  with  it  before  he  had 
almost  finished  his  "  Institution  of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter." 

In  April,  1629,  Mr.  Wren  was  sworn  a  judge  of  the 
star-chamber  for  foreign  causes.  In  1633,  he  attended 
Charles  I.  in  his  progress  to  Scotland,  and  he  had  some 
hand  in  composing  the  Liturgy  for  that  country.  On 
his  return  home,  he  was  made  clerk  of  the  closet  to 
his  majesty,  and  was  about  the  same  time  created  D,D. 
at  Cambridge.     In  163  4,  he  was  installed  a  prebendary 


Wren.  si'q 

t)f  Wesminster,  and  the  same  year  promoted  to  the 
Bishopric  of  Hereford,  which  he  held  only  until  the 
following  year,  when  he  was  translated  to  the  See  of 
Norwich,  in  which  he  sat  two  years  and  a  half,  and 
appears  to  have  been  very  unpopular  with  the  Puritan 
party.  Lord  Clarendon  informs  us  that  he  "so  pas- 
sionately and  warmly  proceeded  against  the  Dissenting 
congregations,  that  many  left  the  kingdom,  to  the  les- 
sening of  the  wealthy  manufacture  there  of  kerseys  and 
narrow  cloths,  and,  which  was  worse,  transporting  that 
mystery  into  foreign  parts."  But  the  author  of  the 
Parentalia  says,  "  that  this  desertion  of  the  Norwich 
weavers  was  chiefly  procured  through  the  policy  and 
management  of  the  Dutch,  who,  wanting  that  manufac- 
ture, which  was  improved  there  to  great  perfection,  left 
no  means  unattempted  to  gain  over  these  weavers  to 
settle  in  their  towns,  with  an  assurance  of  full  liberty 
of  conscience,  and  greater  advantages  and  privileges 
than  they  had  obtained  in  England."  This  author  com- 
mends his  modesty  and  humility,  particularly  in  never 
seeking  preferment :  but  he  says  too  little  of  his  zeal, 
which  was  indeed,  ardent  and  active.  This  drew  upon 
him  the  unjust  imputation  of  Popery.  Nothing  seems 
to  have  rendered  him  more  hateful  and  invidious  to  the 
parliament,  than  his  standing  high  in  the  favour  of  his 
sovereign. 

In  1636,  he  succeeded  Juxon,  as  Dean  of  his  Majesty's 
Chapel,  and  in  May,  1638,  was  translated  to  the  Bishop- 
ric of  Ely.  He  had  not  enjoyed  this  above  two  years, 
when  in  December,  1640,  the  day  after  the  impeachment 
of  Laud,  Hampden  was  sent  by  the  commons  with  a 
message  to  the  house  of  peers,  acquainting  their  lord- 
ships that  the  commons  had  received  informations  of  a 
very  high  nature  against  Matthew  Wren,  Bishop  of  Ely, 
for  setting  up  idolatry  and  superstition  in  divers  places, 
and  acting  some  things  of  that  nature  in  his  own  per- 
son, and  also  to  signify,  that  because  they  hear  of  his 


820  WKEN. 

endeavouring  to  escape  out  of  the  kingdom,  some  course 
might  be  taken  for  his  putting  in  security  to  be  forth- 
coming, &c.  Their  lordships  fixed  his  bail  at  £10,000  ; 
and,  this  being  given,  he  was  impeached  July  5th,  1641, 
of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanours. 

These  v^ere  contained  in  twenty  four  articles,  and  are 
as  follows.  1.  Whereas  many  chancels  of  churches 
during  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  and  ever  since  were  flat 
and  ordered  to  continue  as  they  were  by  the  rubrick,  he 
being  Bishop  of  Norwich,  without  any  lawful  authority, 
injoined,  in  J  636,  that  the  same  should  be  raised  with 
two  or  three,  and  sometimes  four  steps,  that  the  com- 
munion table  placed  altar  wise  might  be  seen  by  the 
people.  2.  In  the  same  year  he  ordered  that  the 
communion  table,  appointed  by  the  rubrick  to  be  placed  in 
the  body  of  the  church,  should  be  set  at  the  east  end  of 
the  chancel.  3.  In  the  same  year,  he  ordered  that  a  rail 
should  be  set  about  the  table,  within  which  the  minister 
only  should  enter,  as  being  too  holy  for  the  people  :  some 
of  whom,  as  Daniel  Weyman,  were  punished  for  going 
within.  4.  The  more  to  advance  blind  superstition,  he 
in  the  same  year,  caused  all  the  pews  in  the  church  to  be 
so  placed,  that  all  the  people  might  kneel  with  their  faces 
towards  the  communion  table  so  set  altarwise.  5.  He  in 
the  same  year  injoined  that,  after  morning  prayer  was 
read  in  the  desk,  the  minister  should  go  to  that  table  as 
a  more  holy  place,  and  read  part  of  the  communion 
service.  6.  Both  he  and  his  chaplains,  used  many 
bowings  and  other  adorations  towards  it.  7.  In  the  same 
year,  he  injoined  all  the  people  to  receive  the  sacrament 
kneeling.  8.  In  the  same  year  he  injoined  that  there 
should  be  no  sermon  in  the  afternoon  on  the  Lord's  Day, 
or  on  week  days,  without  his  licence ;  and  no  catechising 
besides  such  questions  and  answers  as  are  contained  in 
the  common  prayer  book  ;  and  injoined  ministers  to  read 
publicly  in  the  churches  the  book  of  sports,  and .  sus- 
pended some  for  disobeying.      9.  He  ordered  that  the 


WREN.  821 

different  ringing  of  bells  used  when  there  was  a  sermon 
and  when  only  prayers  should  be  left  off.  10.  He 
prohibited  the  preaching  a  preparation  sermon,  as 
usual  two  or  three  days  before  the  communion.  11. 
He  injoined,  that  no  minister  should  pray  before 
sermon,  but  only  move  the  people  to  pray  in  the  wordfe 
of  the  50th  canon.  12.  He  ordered  all  ministers  to 
preach  in  their  hood  and  surplice.  13.  During  his 
being  Bishop  of  Norwich,  he  ordered  several  ministers 
to  be  excommunicated,  suspended,  or  deprived,  for  not 
readiug  the  second  service  at  the  communion  table.  14. 
He  forced  the  parishes  to  contribute  towards  raising 
their  chancels  about  the  communion  table.  15.  He 
harrassed  and  vexed  many  with  his  excommunications, 
penances,  and  censures,  for  not  coming  up  and  kneeling 
at  the  communion  rails,  nor  standing  at  the  Gospel,  &c. 

16.  By  rigorous  prosecutions  he  caused  three  thousand 
of  the  king's  subjects,  many  of  whom  using  trades,  em- 
ployed a  hundred  poor  people  each,  to  go  into  Holland 
and  other  places  beyond  the  sea,  where  they  have  set  up 
and  taught  their  manufactures,  to  the  great  hindrance  of 
trade,  and  impoverishing  of  the  people  of  this  kingdom. 

17.  He  often  publicly  said,  he  introduced  innovations  by 
the  king's  command  ;  thereby  tending  to  alienate  the 
minds  of  his  subjects  from  his  Majesty.  18.  At  Ipswich, 
in  1638,  he  used  idolatrous  actions  in  consecrating  the 
bread  and  wine,  by  bowing  with  his  face  towards  the 
east,  elevating  them,  and  bowing  with  his  face  to  them 
when  set  down  on  the  table.  19.  To  manifest  his 
Popish  affections,  he  in  the  same  year  caused  a  crucifix 
to  be  engraven  on  his  episcopal  seal.  20.  He  has  em- 
ployed commissioners  affected  to  Popery.  21.  He  has 
filled  up  vicarages  with  his  own  chaplains,  to  the  injury 
of  the  patrons,  to  whom  he  had  promised  the  contrary 
in  verbo  sacerdotis.  22.  He  enjoined  penance  to  several 
churchwardens,  for  not  presenting  according  to  a  book  of 

4  A  4 


823  WREN. 

statutes  of  his  own  ridiculous  making,  and  contrived  to 
raise  fees.  23.  He  forced  the  inhabitants  of  Norwich  to 
pay  two  shiUings  in  the  pound  of  their  rents  as  tythes, 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  realm  and  the  ancient 
usage  of  that  city.  24.  He  compelled  the  parishioners 
to  pay  excessive  wages  to  parish  clerks,  threatening 
to  prosecute  such  as  refused  in  the  High  Commission 
Court. 

His  defence  was  long  and  spirited,  but,  though  his 
life  was  spared,  the  Dissenters  obtained  an  order  for  his 
being  confined  in  the  Tower  during  their  pleasure.  And 
their  pleasure  it  was  that  he  should  remain  there  for 
eighteen  years.  He  had  offers  of  release  from  Cromwell, 
but  he  disdained  the  terms,  which  were  an  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  favour,  and  submission  to  the  usurper. 
When  the  Restoration  drew  nigh,  he  was  released  in 
March,  1659,  and  returned  to  his  palace  at  Ely  in  1660. 
In  May,  1661,  he  introduced  to  the  convocation  the  form 
of  prayer  and  thanksgiving,  which  is  still  in  use,  on  the 
29th  of  May.  In  1663,  he  built  a  new  chapel  at  Pem- 
broke Hall,  Cambridge,  at  his  own  expence,  and  settled 
an  estate  upon  the  college  for  the  perpetual  support  of 
the  building. 

Bishop  Wren  died  at  Ely  House,  London,  April  24th, 
1667,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  and  was  buried  at  Pem- 
broke Hall  Chapel.  He  distinguished  himself  by  some 
publications;  as,  1.  "  Increpatio  Bar  Jesu,  sive  Polemicae 
adsertiones  locorum  aliquot  Sacrae  Scripturse  ab  impos- 
turis  perversionum  in  Catechesi  Racoviana,  Lon.,  1660, 
4to,  and  reprinted  in  the  ninth  volume  of  the  Critici 
Sacri.  2.  The  Abandoning  of  the  Scots  Covenant,  1661, 
4to.  3.  Epistolae  Variae  ad  Viros  doctissimos  ;  particu- 
larly to  Gerard  John  Vossius.  4,  Two  Sermons  ;  one 
printed  in  1627,  the  other  in  1662.  Dr.  Richardson 
made  use  of  some  of  his  MSS.  in  his  De  Prsesulibus 
Angliae. — Chalmers.    Biog.  Brit. 


WYKEHAM.  823 


WYKEHAM,    WILLIAM    OF. 


William  of  Wykeham. — This  illustrious  man  is  justly 
venerated  as  the  founder  of  that  system  of  public  school 
education  which  has  made  England  what  it  is,  and 
English  gentlemen,  the  leading  characters  in  Europe. 
He  devised  a  plan  which  was  in  advance  of  his  own 
age,  and  to  which,  in  principle,  the  present  age  adheres. 
The  Body  of  Statutes  which  William  of  Wykeham  drew 
up  for  his  colleges  at  Winchester  and  at  Oxford  was  the 
result  of  great  meditation  and  much  study,  and  was 
brought  to  maturity  by  long  observation  and  experi- 
ence. It  has,  accordingly,  been  always  considered  as 
the  model  to  be  followed  by  founders  in  succeeding 
times,  and  which  most  of  them  have  copied  or  closely 
imitated.  The  founder  of  the  two  St.  Mary's  Winton 
Colleges,  was  born  of  poor  parents,  at  Wykeham,  in 
Hampshire,  in  1324.  By  some  it  is  said  that  his 
father's  surname  was  Long,  and  by  others  it  is  said  to 
have  been  Perrot.  But  surnames  were  not  at  that 
time  common.  A  man  was  called  by  his  Christian 
name,  and,  if  many  who  were  neighbours  bore  the 
same  Christian  name,  he  was  designated  by  some  per- 
sonal peculiarity  or  occupation  ;  and,  if  he  went  out 
into  the  world,  by  the  place  of  his  birth.  The  latter 
was  the  case  with  respect  to  that  great  man  who  is 
known  in  history  as  WiUiam  of  Wykeham.  It  is  nearly 
certain  that  he  did  not  receive  an  academical  education. 
But  he  was  noticed  early  by  lived  ale,  lord  of  the  manor 
of  Wykeham.  And  by  Uvedale,  who  was  governor  of 
Winchester  Castle,  William  of  Wykeham  was  placed  at 
a  school  in  Winchester,  where  he  was  distinguished  for 
his  piety  and  diligence.  He  employed  his  leisure  hours 
in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  arithmetic,  mathematics, 
logic,  divinity,  canon  and  civil  law.  At  an  early  age 
he  was  appointed  secretary  to  his  patron,  and  when  he 


824  WYKEHAM. 

was  only  two  or  three  and  twenty  he  attracted  the  notice 
of  that  discerning  monarch,  King  Edward  III.  These 
facts  are  sufficient  to  shew  the  early  development  of 
those  powers  which  made  William  of  Wykeham  the 
foremost  man  of  his  age.  To  enter  into  the  history  of 
Wykeham's  public  life  would  be  to  give  a  history  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  and  the  whole 
of  that  of  Richard  II. ;  for  William  of  Wykeham  was 
not  only  a  learned  divine,  he  was  the  most  distinguished 
statesman  of  his  age, — honoured  by  Edward  III.,  the 
friend  of  the  Black  Prince,  beloved  by  his  countrymen, 
a  loyal,  and  at  the  same  time,  a  popular  patriot.  He 
shared  the  fate  of  all  statesmen,  and  was  sometimes  op- 
pressed by  faction;  but,  in  all  political  difficulties,  to 
his  wisdom  recourse  was  had ;  and  his  enemies  found 
that  it  was  their  best  policy  to  conciliate  his  friendship  ; 
while  all  history  shews  that  he  added  to  the  firmness 
of  a  man  of  principle,  the  placability  of  a  true  Christian. 
His  first  ecclesiastical  preferment  was  the  Rectory  of 
Pulham,  in  Norfolk.  In  1366,  he  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Winchester.  In  1367,  he  was  made  Lord 
High  Chancellor  of  England,  and  he  retained  that 
office  till  1371,  when  parliament  complained  of  the  too 
extensive  power  of  ecclesiastics.  He  was  forced  into 
office  again  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  but  resigned 
it  as  soon  as  he  could,  wishing  to  devote  himself  to 
his  episcopal  duties.  He  found  great  abuses  existing 
in  many  charitable  institutions,  especially  in  that  of 
St.  Cross,  the  mastership  of  which  some  of  his  prede- 
cessors had  conferred  on  their  nephews  or  relations,  as 
a  sinecure  place,  and  they  had  misapplied  or  appro- 
priated the  revenues,  while  they  defrauded  or  neglected 
the  poor.  Those  who  are  so  eager  to  detect  existiug 
abuses  should  remember  that,  while  the  abuses  should 
be  reformed,  they  existed  in  the  middle  and  dark  ages, 
under  circumstances  much  more  aggravated  than  at  the 
present,  and   without  those  alleviations,  which  public 


WYKEHAM.  8fJ5 

opinion,  in  a  more  civilized  age,  and  at  a  time  of  greater 
purity  in  the  Church,  cannot  fail  to  supply. 

At  the  same  time  that  Wykeham  was  thus  engaged 
in  the  reformation  of  these  charitable  institutions,  he 
was  forming  the  plan  of  a  much  more  noble  and  exten- 
sive foundation  of  his  own,  and  taking  his  measures  for 
putting  it  into  execution.  He  had  long  resolved  to 
dispose  of  the  wealth  which  the  Divine  Providence  had 
so  abundantly  bestowed  upon  him,  to  some  charitable 
use  and  for  the  public  good;  but  was  greatly  embar- 
rassed when  he  came  to  fix  his  choice  upon  some  design 
that  was  likely  to  prove  most  beneficial,  and  least  liable 
to  abuse.  He  tells  us  himself,  that  upon  this  occasion 
he  diligently  examined  and  considered  the  various  rules 
of  the  religious  orders,  and  compared  with  them  the 
lives  of  their  several  professors ;  but  was  obliged  with 
grief  to  declare,  that  he  could  not  find  that  the 
ordinances  of  their  founders,  according  to  their  true 
design  and  intention,  were  at  present  observed  by  any 
of  them.  This  reflection  affected  him  greatly,  and 
inclined  him  to  take  the  resolution  of  distributing  his 
riches  to  the  poor  with  his  own  hands,  rather  than  to 
employ  them  in  establishing  an  institution,  which  might 
become  a  snare  and  an  occasion  of  guilt  to  those  for 
whose  benefit  it  should  be  designed.  After  much  de- 
liberation, and  devout  invocation  of  the  divine  assistance, 
considering  how  greatly  the  number  of  the  clergy  had 
been  of  late  reduced  by  continual  wars  and  frequent 
pestilences,  he  determined  at  last  to  endeavour  to  remedy, 
as  far  as  he  was  able,  this  desolation  of  the  Church,  by 
relieving  poor  scholars  in  their  clerical  education ;  and 
to  establish  two  colleges  of  students  for  the  honour  of 
God  and  the  increase  of  His  worship,  for  the  supper 
and  exaltation  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  for  th  ; 
improvement  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences;  hoping 
and  trusting,  that  men  of  letters  and  various  know- 
ledge,  and  bred   up   in   the  fear  of  God,    would   see 


^2B  WYKEHAM. 

more  clearly,  and  attend  more  strictly  to  the  obligations 
lying  upon  them  to  observe  the  rules  and  directions 
which  he  should  give  them.  Wykeham  seems  to  have 
come  to  this  resolution,  and  in  some  measure  to  have 
formed  in  his  mind  his  general  plan,  as  early  as  his 
becoming  Bishop  of  Winchester :  for  we  find,  that  in 
little  more  than  two  years  after,  he  had  made  purchases 
of  several  parcels  of  ground  in  the  city  of  Oxford,  which 
make  the  chief  part  of  the  site  of  his  college  there.  His 
College  of  Winchester,  intended  as  a  nursery  for  that  of 
Oxford,  was  part  of  his  original  plan :  for  as  early  as  the 
year  1373,  before  he  proceeded  any  further  in  his  design 
for  the  latter,  he  established  a  school  at  Winchester,  of 
the  same  kind  with  the  former,  and  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. He  agreed  with  Richard  de  Herton,  that  for  ten 
years,  beginning  from  Michaelmas  of  the  year  above- 
mentioned,  he  should  diligently  instruct  in  grammatical 
learning  as  many  poor  scholars  as  the  bishop  should 
send  to  him,  and  no  others  without  his  leave ;  that  the 
bishop  should  provide  and  allow  him  a  proper  assistant ; 
and  that  Herton,  in  case  of  his  own  illness,  or  necessary 
absence,  should  subsitute  a  proper  master  to  supply  his 
place. 

Wykeham's  munificence  proceeded  always  from  a  con- 
stant generous  principle,  a  true  spirit  of  liberality.  It 
was  not  owing  to  a  casual  impulse,  or  a  sudden  emotion, 
but  was  the  ejffect  of  mature  deliberation  and  prudent 
choice.  His  enjoyment  of  riches  consisted  in  employing 
them  in  acts  of  beneficence ;  and  while  they  were  in- 
creasing upon  him,  he  was  continually  devising  proper 
means  of  disposing  of  them  for  the  good  of  the  public ; 
not  delaying  it  till  the  time  of  his  death,  when  he  could 
keep  them  no  longer ;  nor  leaving  to  the  care  of  others 
what  he  could  better  execute  himself;  but  forming  his 
good  designs  early,  and  as  soon  as  he  had  the  ability, 
putting  them  in  execution,  that  he  might  have  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  the  beneficial  effects  of  them  ;  and  that 


WYKEHAM.  827 

by  constant  observation  and  due  experience  he  might 
from  time  to  time  improve  and  perfect  them,  so  as  to 
render  them  yet  more  beneficial. 

The  progress  of  his  generous  plans  was  for  some 
time  impeded  by  political  factions  and  the  disturbed 
state  of  public  affairs.  Still  William  of  Wykeham  kept 
his  eye  steadily  on  the  one  great  object  which  has  ren- 
dered his  name  immortal.  His  whole  plan  was  designed 
at  once,  and  was  noble,  uniform,  and  complete.  It  was 
no  less,  says  Dr.  Lowth,  than  to  provide  for  the  per- 
petual maintenance  and  instruction  of  two  hundred 
scholars,  to  afford  them  a  liberal  support,  and  to  lead 
them  through  a  perfect  course  of  education  ;  from  the 
first  elements  of  letters,  through  the  whole  circle  of  the 
sciences ;  from  the  lowest  class  of  grammatical  learning 
to  the  highest  degrees  in  the  several  faculties.  It  pro- 
perly and  naturally  consisted  of  two  parts,  rightly  forming 
two  establishments,  the  one  subordinate  to  the  other. 
The  design  of  the  one  was  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
science,  that  of  the  other,  to  raise  and  complete  the 
superstructure;  the  former  was  to  supply  the  latter 
with  proper  subjects,  and  the  latter  was  to  improve 
the  advantages  received  in  the  former.  The  plan  was 
truly  great,  and  an  original  in  its  kind :  as  Wykeham 
had  no  example  to  follow  in  it,  so  no  person  has  yet 
been  found,  who  has  had  the  ability  or  the  gene- 
rosity to  follow  his  example,  except  one,  and  that  a 
King  of  England,  who  has  done  him  the  honour  to 
adopt  and  copy  his  whole  design. 

The  work  which  demanded  his  attention  at  this  time,  was 
the  erection  of  his  College  at  Oxford  ;  the  society  of  which 
he  had  already  completed  and  established,  and  that  some 
years  before  he  began  to  raise  the  building.  For  he 
proceeded  here  in  the  same  method  which  he  took  at 
Winchester;  as  he  began  there  with  forming  a  private 
grammar  school  provided  with  proper  masters,  and 
maintained   and  supported  in  it   the  full   number  of 


828  WYKEHAM. 

scholars,  which  he  afterwards  established  in  his  college; 
so  at  Oxford,  in  the  first  place,  he  formed  his  society, 
appointed  them  a  governor,  allowed  them  a  liberal  main- 
tenance, provided  them  with  lodgings,  and  gave  them 
rules  and  directions  for  their  behaviour ;  not  only  that 
his  beneficence  might  not  seem  to  lie  fruitless  and  in- 
effectual while  it  was  only  employed  in  making  his  pur- 
chases of  lands,  and  raising  his  building,  which  would 
take  up  a  considerable  time ;  but  that  he  might  bestow 
his  earliest  attention,  and  his  greatest  care  in  forming 
and  perfecting  the  principal  part  of  his  design,  and 
that  the  life  and  soul,  as  it  were,  might  be  ready  to 
inform  and  animate  the  body  of  his  college  as  soon  as 
it  could  be  finished,  and  so  the  whole  system  be  at 
once  completed  in  every  part  of  it.  This  preparatory 
establishment,  took  place  about  the  same  time  with  that 
at  Winchester,  that  is,  in  the  year  1373 ;  which  agrees 
with  the  account  that  some  authors  give,  that  it  was 
seven  years  before  the  foundation  of  the  building  was 
laid :  but  they  are  mistaken  in  supposing  that  there 
were  only  fifty  scholars  maintained  by  him  in  this'  man- 
ner; for  it  appears  by  the  rolls  of  accompts  of  New 
College,  that  in  the  year  1376,  the  society  consisted 
of  a  warden  and  seventy  fellows,  called  pauperes 
scholares  Venerabilis  Domini  Wilhelmi  de  Wykeham 
Wynton  Episcopi;  and  that  it  had  been  established, 
probably  to  the  same  number,  at  least  as  early  as  Sept., 
1375.  Richard  Toneworth,  fellow  of  Merton  College, 
was  appointed  by  him  governor  of  this  society,  with  the 
title  of  warden,  and  a  salary  of  £20  per  annum.  The 
fellows  were  lodged  in  Blakehall,  Herthall,  Shulehall, 
Maydenhall,  and  Hamerhall;  the  expence  of  their 
lodging  amounted  to  £10.  13s.  4d.  per  annum.  They 
were  allowed  each  of  them  Is.  6d.  per  week  for  their 
commons  ;  and  they  had  proper  servants  to  attend  them, 
who  had  suitable  stipends. 

In  the  year  1379,  the  bishop  completed  his  several 


WYKEHAM.  629 

purchases  of  lands  for  the  site  of  his  college,  and  ini' 
mediately  took  his  measures  for  erecting  his  building. 
In  the  first  place,  he  obtained  the  king's  patent,  grant- 
ing him  licence  to  found  his  college  :  it  is  dated  June  30th, 
1379.  He  procured  likewise  the  pope's  bull  to  the 
same  effect.  He  published  his  Charter  of  Foundation, 
Nov.  Q6th  following ;  by  which  he  entitled  his  college, 
"  Seinte  Marie  College  of  Wynchestre,  in  Oxenford." 
It  was  then  vulgarly  called  the  New  College,  which 
becamig  in  time  a  sort  of  proper  name  for  it,  and  in 
common  use  continues  to  be  so  to  this  day.  At  the 
same  time,  upon  the  resignation  of  Toneworth,  he  con- 
stituted his  kinsman  Nicholas  Wykeham,  warden,  with 
a  salary  of  £40  per  annum.  On  the  5th  of  March 
following,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  foun- 
dation stone  was  laid :  the  building  was  finished  in  six 
years,  and  the  society  made  their  public  entrance  into 
it  with  much  solemnity  and  devotion,  singing  Litanies, 
and  marching  in  procession,  with  the  Cross  born  before 
them,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  on  the  ]4th  of 
April,  1386.  The  society  consists  of  a  warden  and 
seventy  poor  scholars,  clerks,  students  in  theology, 
canon  and  civil  law,  and  philosophy:  twenty  are  ap- 
pointed to  the  study  of  laws,  ten  of  them  to  that  of 
the  canon,  and  ten  to  that  of  the  civil  law;  the  re- 
maining fifty  are  to  apply  themselves  to  philosophy  (or 
arts)  and  theology ;  two  of  them  however,  are  permitted 
to  apply  themselves  to  the  study  of  medicine,  and  two 
likewise  to  that  of  astronomy;  all  of  whom  are  obliged 
to  be  in  priests'  orders  within  a  certain  time,  except 
in  case  of  lawful  impediment.  Beside  these  there  are 
ten  priests,  three  clerks,  and  sixteen  boys  or  choristers, 
to  minister  in  the  service  of  the  chapel. 

The  body  of  statutes,  which  Wykeham  gave  to  his 
college,  was  a  work  upon  which  he  bestowed  much  time 
and  constant  attention.  It  was  the  result  of  great 
meditation  and  study,  assisted,  confirmed,  and  brought 

TOL.  VIII.  4  B 


880  WYKEHAM. 

to  maturity  by  long  observation  and  experience.  He 
began  it  with  the  first  establishment  of  his  society,  and 
he  was  continually  improving  and  perfecting  it  almost 
as  long  as  he  lived.  And  accordingly,  it  has  been 
always  considered  as  the  most  judicious  and  the  most 
complete  performance  in  its  kind,  and  as  the  best 
model  which  the  founders  of  colleges  in  succeeding 
times  had  to  follow,  and  which  indeed  most  of  them 
have  either  copied  or  closely  imitated. 

That  the  first  draught  of  his  statutes  was  made  as 
early  as  we  have  mentioned,  appears  from  a  letter  of 
Wykeham  himself,  which  he  wrote  to  the  warden  of 
his  college,  soon  after  the  society  had  made  their  first 
entrance  into  it.  In  this  letter  he  speaks  of  his  sta- 
tutes, as  duly  published  and  promulged,  and  in  times 
past  frequently  made  known  unto  them.  The  great 
care  and  attention  which  he  employed  in  revising  his 
statutes  from  time  to  time,  and  in  improving  them  con- 
tinually, appears  very  evidently  from  an  ancient  draught 
of  them  still  extant,  in  which  the  many  alterations, 
corrections,  and  additions  made  in  the  margin,  shew 
plainly  how  much  pains  he  bestowed  upon  this  impor- 
tant work ;  with  how  much  deliberation,  and  with  what 
great  exactness  he  weighed  even  the  most  minute  par- 
ticular belonging  to  it.  The  text  of  these  statutes 
appears,  by  some  circumstances  which  it  is  needless 
here  to  enlarge  upon,  to  have  been  drawn  up  about  the 
year  1386  ;  and  therefore  they  cannot  be  the  first  which 
he  ever  made,  since  at  that  time  he  speaks  of  his  statutes 
as  often  and  long  before  published.  At  the  end  of  the 
year  1389,  he  appointed  commissaries  to  receive  the 
oaths  of  the  warden  and  scholars  of  his  college  to  ob- 
serve the  statutes  which  he  then  transmitted  to  them, 
sealed  with  his  seal ;  this  was  a  new  edition  of  them, 
much  corrected  and  improved ;  for,  we  suppose,  it  con- 
tained all  the  marginal  alterations  and  additions  above- 
mentioned.      He  gave  a  third  edition  of  his  Statutes, 


WYKEHAM.  831 

reckoning  from  the  time  when  his  college  was  finished, 
still  much  enlarged  and  corrected,  an  ancient  copy  of 
which  likewise  is  yet  remaining  :  it  was  probably  of  the 
year  1393.  In  the  year  1400,  he  appointed  another 
commission  for  the  same  purpose,  and  in  the  same  form 
with  that  of  the  year  1389  :  at  the  same  time  he  sent  to 
his  college  a  new  edition  likewise  of  his  Statutes,  still 
further  revised  and  enlarged :  it  is  the  last  which  he 
gave,  and  is  the  same  with  that  now  in  force. 

While  the  bishop  was  engaged  in  building  his  College  at 
Oxford,  he  established  in  proper  form  his  Society  at 
Winchester.  His  charter  of  foundation  bears  date  Oct. 
20th,  1382,  by  which  he  nominates  Thomas  de  Cranle, 
warden,  admits  the  scholars,  and  gives  his  college  the 
same  name  of  "  Seinte  Marie  College  of  Wynchestre." 
The  next  year  after  he  had  finished  his  building  at 
Oxford,  he  began  that  at  Winchester,  for  which  he  had 
obtained  both  the  pope's  and  the  king's  licence  long 
before.  A  natural  afi'ection  and  prejudice  for  the  very 
place  which  he  had  frequented  in  his  early  days,  seems 
to  have  had  its  weight  in  determining  the  situation  of 
it :  the  school  which  Wykeham  went  to  when  he  was  a 
boy,  was  where  his  college  now  stands.  The  first-stone 
was  laid  on  March  26th,  1387,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  :  it  took  up  six  years  likewise  in  building,  and 
the  warden  and  society  made  their  solemn  entrance  into 
it,  chanting  in  procession,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, on  March  the  28th,  1393.  The  school  had  now 
subsisted  near  twenty  years,  having  been  opened  at 
Michaelmas,  1373. 

This  college  was  completely  established  from  the  first 
to  its  full  number  of  seventy  scholars,  and  to  all  other 
intents  and  purposes ;  and  continued  all  along  to  furnish 
the  society  at  Oxford  with  proper  subjects  by  election.  It 
was  at  first  committed  to  the  care  of  a  master  and  under- 
master  only;  in  the  year  1382,  it  was  placed  under  the 
superior  government  of  a  warden.     This  was  the  whole 


832  WYKEHAM. 

society  that  made  their  formal  entrance  into  it,  as  above- 
mentioned.  Till  the  college  was  erected,  they  were  pro- 
vided with  lodgings,  in  the  parish  of  St.  John  upon  the 
Hill.  The  first  nomination  of  fellows  was  made  by  the 
founder  on  the  20th  of  December,  1394.  He  nominated 
five  only,  though  he  had  at  that  time  determined  the 
number  to  ten.  But  the  chapel  was  not  yet  quite  finished ; 
nor  was  it  dedicated  and  consecrated  till  the  middle  of 
the  next  year :  soon  after  which  we  may  suppose  that 
the  full  number  of  fellows,  and  of  all  other  members 
designed  to  bear  a  more  particular  relation  to  the  service 
of  it,  was  completed  by  him.  The  whole  society  con- 
sists of  a  warden,  seventy  poor  scholars,  to  be  instructed 
in  grammatical  learning,  ten  secular  priests — perpetual 
fellows,  three  priests  chaplains,  three  clerks,  and  sixteen 
choristers :  and,  for  the  instruction  of  the  scholars,  a 
schoolmaster,  and  an  under-master  or  usher. 

The  statutes  which  he  gave  to  his  college  at  Win- 
chester, and  which  are  referred  to  in  the  charter  of  foun- 
dation, are  as  it  were  the  counterpart  of  those  of  his 
college  at  Oxford  ;  he  amended,  improved,  and  en- 
larged the  former  by  the  same  steps  as  he  had  done  the 
latter;  and  he  gave  the  last  edition,  and  received  the 
oaths  of  the  several  members  of  the  society  to  the  ob- 
servance of  them,  by  his  commissaries  appointed  for 
that  purpose,  Sept,  9th,  1400.  In  this  case  he  had  no 
occasion  to  make  a  particular  provision  in  constituting 
a  visitor  of  his  college;  the  situation  of  it  coincided 
with  his  design,  and  he  left  it  under  the  ordinary  juris- 
diction of  the  diocesan,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester. 

Wykeham  enjoyed  for  many  years  the  pleasure, — a 
pleasure  the  greatest  to  a  good  and  generous  heart  that 
can  be  enjoyed,  of  seeing  the  good  effects  of  his  own 
beneficence,  and  receiving  in  them  the  proper  reward 
of  his  pious  labours;  of  observing  his  colleges  growing 
up  under  his  eye,  and  continually  bringing  forth  those 
fruits  of   virtue,    piety,    and    learning,  which    he   had 


WYKEHAM.  83S 

reason  to  expect  from  them.  They  continued  still  to 
rise  in  reputation,  and  furnished  the  Church  and  State 
with  many  eminent  and  able  men  in  all  professions. 
Not  long  after  his  death,  one  of  his  own  scholars,  whom 
he  had  himself  seen  educated  in  both  his  societies,  and 
raised  under  his  inspection,  and  probably  with  his  favour 
and  assistance  in  conjunction  with  his  own  great  merits, 
to  a  considerable  degree  of  eminence,  became  an  illus- 
trious follower  of  his  great  example.  This  was  Henry 
Chicheley,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  who,  besides  a 
chantry  and  hospital,  which  he  built  at  Higham-Ferrers, 
the  place  of  his  birth,  founded  likewise  All  Souls  Col- 
lege, in  Oxford,  for  the  maintenance  of  forty  fellows, 
(beside  chaplains,  clerks,  and  choristers)  who  according 
to  Wykeham's  plan  are  appointed,  twenty-four  of  them 
to  the  study  of  theology  and  philosophy,  and  the  re- 
maining sixteen  to  that  of  the  canon  and  civil  laws. 
He  gave  a  handsome  testimony  of  his  ajffection,  esteem, 
and  gratitude  towards  the  college  in  which  he  had  re- 
ceived his  academical  education,  by  a  considerable  pre- 
sent, (£123.  6s.  8d.  to  be  a  fund  for  loans  to  the  fellows 
on  proper  occasions,)  and  by  appointing  Dr.  Richard 
Andrews,  one  of  that  society,  and  with  whom  he  had 
contracted  a  personal  acquaintance  there,  to  be  the  first 
governor  of  his  own  college. 

Shortly  after  this,  Henry  the  Sixth  founded  his  two 
Colleges  at  Eton  and  Cambridge,  entirely  on  Wykeham's 
plan,  whose  statutes  he  has  transcribed  without  any 
material  alteration.  While  the  king  was  employed  in 
this  pious  work,  he  frequently  honoured  Winchester 
College  with  his  presence ;  not  only  to  testify  the  favour 
and  regard  which  he  bore  to  that  society,  but  that  he 
might  also  more  nearly  inspect  and  personally  examine 
the  laws,  the  spirit,  the  success,  and  good  effects  of  an 
institution  which  he  proposed  to  himself  for  a  model. 
From  hence  it  appears,  that  his  imitation  of  Wykeham's 
plan  was  not  owing  to  a  casual  thought  of  his  own,  or  a 
4b3 


834  WYKEHAM. 

partial  recommendation  from  another,  or  an  approbation 
founded  only  on  common  report  or  popular  opinion  ;  but 
was  the  result  of  deliberate  inquiry,  of  knowledge  and 
experience.  He  came  to  Winchester  College  five  several 
times  with  this  design,  and  was  afterwards  frequently 
there,  during  his  residence  for  above  a  month  at  Win- 
chester, when  the  parliament  was  held  there  in  the  year 
1449.  He  was  always  received  with  all  the  honours  and 
respect  due  to  so  illustrious  a  guest,  and  as  constantly 
testified  his  satisfaction  by  some  memorial  of  his  good- 
will and  affection  towards  the  society.  At  one  time  he 
made  them  a  present  of  one  hundred  nobles  to  adorn 
the  high  altar,  with  which  was  purchased  a  pair  of  large 
basons  of  silver  gilt :  at  another  he  gave  his  best  robe 
save  one,  consisting  of  cloth  of  tissue  of  gold  and  fur  of 
sables,  which  was  likewise  applied  to  use  of  the  chapel, 
at  others  he  gave  a  chalice  of  gold,  two  phials  of  gold, 
and  a  tabernacle  of  gold,  adorned  with  precious  stones, 
and  with  the  images  of  the  Holy  Trinity  and  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  of  Crystal.  He  moreover  confirmed  and  en- 
larged the  liberties  and  privileges  which  his  royal  pre- 
decessors had  granted  to  that  society. 

William  of  Waynflete  was  schoolmaster  of  Winchester 
College,  at  the  time  when  the  king  made  his  first  visit, 
and  had  been  so  about  eleven  years :  he  had  filled  that 
important  post  with  such  ability,  and  had  executed  his 
office  with  such  diligence,  judgment,  and  success,  that 
the  king,  to  give  his  new  seminary  the  greatest  advan- 
tage it  could  possibly  have,  that  of  an  excellent  and 
approved  instructor,  removed  him  next  year  to  the  same 
employment  at  Eton.  He  soon  afterwards  made  him 
provost  of  Eton  College,  and  then  by  his  recommendation 
Bishop  of  Winchester.  Waynflete  continued  many  years 
in  this  station  and  was  thence  enabled  to  become  another 
generous  imitator  of  his  great  predecessor  Wykeham, 
in  his  noble  and  ample  foundation  of  Magdalen  College 
in  Oxford.     He  also  paid  New  College,  out  of  his  esteem 


XAVIER.  835 

for  it,  and  respect  to  its  founder,  ( for  he  had  never  been 
himself  of  that  Society)  the  compliment  of  choosing 
from  thence  Dr.  Richard  Mayhew  to  be  president  of 
his  college ;  and  of  permitting  his  fellows  to  have  an 
equal  regard  to  the  members  of  the  same  society  with 
those  of  their  own,  in  the  choice  of  their  presidents 
for  the  future. 

Full  of  years  and  honour,  and  vigorous  in  body  as  well 
as  in  mind  almost  to  the  last,  in  1404  William  of  Wykeham 
died,  leaving  by  his  will  a  continuation  of  those  acts  of 
munificence  and  pious  charity,  which  he  had  begun  in 
his  life.  If  a  Wykehamist  sometimes  regrets  that  the 
founder  does  not  lie  in  one  of  his  own  colleges,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  Winchester  Cathedral  where  he  was 
interred,  is  itself  one  of  the  triumphs  of  his  skill  as 
well  as  a  memorial  of  his  munificence ;  the  main  body 
of  the  building,  from  the  tower  to  the  west  end,  was 
rebuilt  by  him.  The  writer  of  this  article,  himself  a 
Wykehamist,  has  observed  with  satisfaction  and  com- 
placency, throughout  the  work  now  nearly  brought  to  a 
close,  that  from  Waynflete  to  Warham,  and  from  War- 
ham  to  Howley,  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  no  foundation 
has  produced  a  greater  number  of  sound  divines  than 
the  two  St.  Mary  Winton  Colleges,  which  owe  their 
existence  to  the  enlightened  wisdom  and  the  pious  muni- 
ficence of  William  of  Wykeham. — Lowth. 


XAVIEB,    FEANCIS. 

Francis  Xavier  an  eminent  Romish  missionary  was 
born  in  1506,  at  the  castle  of  Xavier  in  Navarre,  the 
youngest  of  a  numerous  family.  In  the  eighteenth  year 
of  his  age  he  was  sent  to  the  University  of  Paris,  He 
was  afterwards  admitted  M.A.  and  taught  philosophy  at 
Beauvais  with  an  intention  of  entering  the  Society  of  the 
Sorbonne ;   but  having  formed  a  friendship  with  Igna- 


836  XAVIER. 

tius  Loyola,  he  became  one  of  his  disciples.  Xavier  then 
went  to  Italy,  where  he  attended  the  sick  at  the  hospital 
of  incurables  at  Venice,  and  was  ordained  priest.  Some 
time  after,  John  III.  King  of  Portugal,  having  applied  to 
St.  Ignatius  for  some  missionaries  to  preach  the  gospel  in 
the  East  Indies,  Xavier  was  chosen  for  that  purpose,  who 
embarking  at  Lisbon,  April  7th,  1541,  arrived  at  Goa,  May 
6th,  1542.  In  a  short  time  he  spread  the  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  religion,  or,  to  speak  more  properly,  of  the 
Komish  system,  over  a  great  part  of  the  continent,  and  in 
several  of  the  islands  of  that  remote  region.  Thence  in 
1549,  he  passed  into  Japan,  and  laid  there,  with  amazing 
rapidity,  the  foundation  of  the  famous  church  which 
flourished  during  so  many  years  in  that  vast  empire. 
His  indefatigable  zeal  prompted  him  to  attempt  the 
conversion  of  the  Chinese,  and  with  this  view  he  em- 
barked for  that  extensive  and  powerful  kingdom,  but 
died  on  an  island  in  sight  of  China,  Dec,  2nd,  1552. 
The  body  of  this  missionary  lies  interred  at  Goa,  where 
it  is  worshipped  with  the  highest  marks  of  devotion. 
There  is  also  a  magnificent  church  at  Cotati  dedicated 
to  Xavier,  to  whom  the  inhabitants  of  the  Portuguese 
settlements  pay  the  most  devout  tributes  of  veneration 
and  worship.  In  1747,  the  late  king  of  Portugal  ob- 
tained for  Xavier,  or  rather  for  his  memory,  the  title  of 
protector  of  the  Indies,  from  Benedict  XIV. 

The  Romish  biographers  of  Xavier  ascribe  miracles  to 
their  hero  which  are  among  the  most  incredible  of  the 
"  lying  wonders"  of  Rome.  For  this,  however,  Xavier, 
who  appears  to  have  been  only  a  zealous  enthusiast,  ought 
not  to  be  censured.  He  claims  no  miracles  for  himself, 
nor  were  any  such  heard  of  for  many  years  after  his  death; 
on  the  contrary,  in  his  correspondence  with  his  friendi 
during  his  mission,  he  not  only  makes  no  mention  of 
miracles,  but  disclaims  all  supernatural  assistance.  For 
the  miracles,  therefore,  his  biographers  must  be  account- 
able, and  we  know  of  no  evidence  they  have  produced 
in  confirmation  of  them. — Gen.  Diet. 


XIMENES.  837 


XIMENES,  FRANCIS. 


Francis  Ximenes,  of  Cimeros,  was  born  in  the  year 
1437,  at  Torrelaguna,  a  small  town  of  Spain  in  the 
province  of  New  Castile.  Although  he  was  a  devout 
ecclesiastic,  he  is  better  known  to  the  world  as  a  states- 
man. He  was  educated  at  Alcala  and  Salamanca, 
whence  he  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  the  pope  gave  him 
a  bull  for  the  first  vacant  prebend  in  his  native  country. 
This  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo  not  only  refused,  but 
confined  Ximenes  in  the  tower  of  Uceda.  On  regaining 
his  liberty  he  obtained  a  benefice  in  the  diocese  of  Sigu- 
enca.  Soon  after  this  he  entered  into  the  order  of  the 
Franciscans.  On  his  return  to  Toledo,  queen  Isabella 
made  him  her  confessor,  and  in  1495,  nominated  him 
to  that  archbishopric.  He  established  an  university  at 
Alcala,  where  he  also  founded  the  college  of  St.  Ildefonso. 
What  gives  to  his  name  a  peculiar  interest  in  the 
religious  world  is  the  publication  of  his  Polyglott  Bible. 
He  had  long  projected  an  edition  of  the  sacred  writings 
and  he  commenced  it  in  1502.  To  secure  success  in 
this  important  undertaking,  he  sought  the  assistance  of 
those  whose  species  of  learning  was  most  likely  to  suit 
his  views.  Intending  to  have  the  text  in  the  three 
languages  in  which  it  was  originally  written,  he  em- 
ployed such  persons  as  were  most  conversant  in  them. 
For  the  Hebrew,  he  selected  Alphonso,  a  physician  of 
Alcala,  Paul  Coronel,  and  Alphonso  Zamora,  Jewish 
proselytes,  and  noted  for  their  skill  in  that  tongue. 
For  the  Greek,  he  had  recourse  to  a  native  of  that 
country,  Demetrius  of  Crete,  and  with  him  he  associ- 
ated for  the  ascertainment  of  both  the  Greek  and  Latin 
text,  Anthony  of  Nebrissa,  Ferdinand  Pintian,  and  Lo- 
pez Astuniga.  To  an  edition  of  the  scriptures  in  these 
languages,  he  enjoined  them  to  add  the  Chaldee  para- 
phrase, with  a  Latin  interpretation,  and  a  collection  of 


838  XIMENES. 

the  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  radicals  :  thus  distributing  the 
work  into  six  divisions.  To  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Latin,  he  assigned  three  columns,  the'  bottom  of  the 
page  to  the  Chaldee  paraphrase  with  the  interpretation, 
and  the  margin  to  the  radicals.  The  Old  Testament  was 
to  contain  the  Hebrew,  the  Vulgate,  the  Septuagint  with 
a  Latin  version,  and  the  Chaldee  paraphrase,  interpreted 
in  the  same  language.  The  New,  the  Greek  text,  and 
the  Vulgate. 

Having  chosen  his  instruments,  and  allotted  to  them 
their  portion  of  labour,  his  next  care  was  to  provide  them 
with  materials.  He  sent  to  every  quarter  for  manuscripts  : 
he  even  made  application  to  the  Vatican,  and  Leo  X. 
obhged  him  with  a  communication  of  what  he  possessed. 
He  collected  seven  copies  in  Hebrew,  for  which  he  was 
at  the  expense  of  four  thousand  ducats,  besides  procuring 
from  Rome  a  number  in  Greek,  and  from  other  quarters 
many  Latin  manuscripts  in  Gothic  characters ;  not  one 
of  this  collection  bearing  the  antiquity  of  less  than  eight 
hundred  years.  The  whole  charge  of  the  undertaking 
amounted  to  the  immense  sum  of  fifty  thousand  ducats, 
which  he  most  cheerfully  expended. 

He  was  beyond  description  eager  to  accelerate  the 
work.  He  was  ever  urging  his  learned  society  to  dis- 
patch, saying,  "  Hasten  my  friends  lest  I  fail  you,  or  you 
fail  me,  for  you  need  such  patronage  as  mine,  and  I 
equally  want  assistance  such  as  yours."  By  these  ex- 
hortations, and  the  most  liberal  encouragement,  he  ren- 
dered them  assiduous  to  their  occupation. 

In  1509,  the  work  was  begun,  and  in  1517,  the 
impression  was  printed  off;  so  arduous  was  the  toil,  as 
to  occupy  the  space  of  fifteen  entire  years. 

Ximenes,  upon  hearing  of  the  completion  of  this 
great  undertaking,  was  overjoyed.  "  My  God,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "I  return  thee  endless  thanks  for  protracting 
my  life  to  the  completion  of  these  labours;"  and  turning 
to  some  of  his  friends,  who  stood  near  him,  "  My  friends" 


ZANCHI.  839 

said  he,  "  God  assuredly  has  crowned  many  of  my  un- 
dertakings with  success,  but  never  did  the  completion 
of  any  undertaking  give  me  pleasure  equal  to  what  I 
feel  from  the  completion  of  this." 

Such  is  the  history  of  this  famous  Polyglott.  It  is 
usually  denominated  the  Complutensian,  from  Com- 
plutum,  the  Latin  name  of  Alcala  de  Henares,  the  city 
in  which  it  was  conducted. 

In  1607,  Julius  II.  gave  him  a  cardinal's  hat;  and 
soon  after  Charles  V.  appointed  him  prime  minister. 
He  died  November  8th,  1517,  and  was  buried  in  the 
College  of  St.  Ildefonso,  at  Alcala. — Barrett.    Chaufepie. 


ZANCHI,  OR  ZANCHIUS,  JEROME. 

Jerome  Zanchi,  or  Zanchius,  was  born  in  1516.  He 
was  a  native  of  Alzano,  in  the  Bergamasco,  and  descend- 
ed from  a  family  distinguished  in  the  republic  of  letters. 
He  was  persuaded  by  his  relation,  Basilic,  to  enter  a 
convent  of  Canons  Regular,  where  he  formed  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  Celso  Martinengho.  They  were  asso- 
ciated in  their  studies,  in  reading  the  works  of  Melanc. 
thon,  Bullinger,  Musculus  and  other  reformers,  and  in 
attending  the  lectures  of  Martyr.  They  left  Italy  about 
the  same  time,  and  their  friendship  continued  uninter- 
rupted till  the  death  of  Martinengho.  Having  come  to 
Geneva  in  1553,  by  the  way  of  the  Grisons,  Zanchi  agreed 
to  accompany  Martyr  into  England  ;  but  when  about  to 
set  out  for  this  country,  he  received  an  invitation  to  be 
professor  of  divinity  in  the  College  of  St.  Thomas  at 
Strasburg.  This  situation  he  filled  with  great  credit 
and  comfort  for  several  years,  until  after  the  death  of 
James  Sturmius,  the  great  patron  of  the  academy,  who 
had  been  his  steady  friend,  he  was  involved  in  contro- 
versy with  some  of  the  keen  Lutherans,  led  on  by  John 
Marbach,  who  took  offence  at  him   for  opposing  their 


840  ZINZENDORF. 

novel  notion  of  the  omnipresence  of  the  human  nature 
of  Christ,  and  teaching  the  doctrines  of  predestination 
and  the  perseverance  of  the  saints.  In  the  midst  of 
the  uneasiness  which  this  quarrel  gave  him,  he  rejected 
the  proposals  made  to  him  by  the  papal  nuncio,  but 
accepted  in  the  end  of  the  year  1563,  a  call  from  the 
Italian  Church  at  Chiavenna.  In  the  beginning  of  1568, 
he  came  to  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  where  he  taught 
during  ten  years ;  but  finding  that  the  prejudice  which 
he  had  encountered  -at  Strasburg  followed  him  to  this 
place,  he^  gave  way  to  it  a  second  time,  and  removed  to 
Neustadt,  where  Count  John  Casimir,  the  administrator 
of  the  Electorate  Palatine,  had  recently  endowed  an 
academy.  He  died  in  1590,  during  a  visit  which  he 
paid  to  his  friends  at  Heidelberg,  in  the  76th  year  of 
his  age.  The  mx)deration  of  Zanchi  has  been  praised 
by  writers  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  though  his  love 
of  peace  did  not  lead  him  to  sacrifice  or  compromise  the 
truth.  His  celebrity  as  a  teacher  procured  him  invita- 
tions from  the  academies  of  Zurich,  Lausanne  and 
Leyden.  John  Sturmius,  called  the  German  Cicero, 
was  wont  to  say,  that  he  would  not  be  afraid  to  tmst 
Zanchi  alone  in  a  dispute  against  all  the  fathers  as- 
sembled at  Trent.  Nor  was  he  less  esteemed  as  an 
author  after  his  death.  !tJis  writings,  consisting  of 
commentaries  on  Scripture  and  treatises  on  almost  all 
questions  in  theology,  abound  with  proofs  of  learning ; 
but  they  are  too  ponderous  for  the  arms  of  a  modern 
divine. — M'Crie. 


ZINZENDORF,   NICHOLAS   LEWIS. 

Count  Von  Zinzendorf  was  born  in  Misnia,  in  1 700.  At 
the  age  of  ten  years  he  went  to  the  academy  at  Halle, 
and  was  educated  by  Professor  Franke,  a  celebrated 
pietist.     In  his   seventeenth  year  he  was  sent  to  the 


ZINZENDORF.  841 

University  of  Wittemberg,  where  he  would  have  entered 
as  a  student  of  divinity  if  he  had  been  permitted  to 
follow  his  own  inclinations,  but  submitting  to  the  wishes 
of  his  friends,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
law. 

AftQT  spending  about  two  years  at  Wittemburg,  he 
entered  upon  his  travels  :  visited  Holland,  Switzerland, 
and  France,  and  remained  a  considerable  time  at  Paris, 
mixing,  as  his  rank  enabled  him,  with  persons  of  dis- 
tinction, wherever  he  went.  In  1721,  he  accepted  a 
situation  in  the  government  of  Saxony,  and  fixed  his 
residence  at  Dresden.  In  his  own  house  he  held  reli- 
gious meetings,  and  wrote  in  a  periodical  called  The 
German  Socrates.  He  soon  after  purchased  the  lordship 
of  Bertholdsdorf  in  Lusatia,  meaning  there  to  pass  his 
life  in  retirement,  as  soon  as  he  could  be  released  from 
his  secular  appointments.  To  this  purchase  he  was 
indebted  for  his  connexion  with  the  Moravians,  the 
connexion  which  gives  to  his  name  an  historical  interest. 
And  to  their  history  we  must  briefly  advert.  In  the 
ninth  century  Christianity  was  introduced  into  Bohemia 
from  Greece.  When  Bohemia  was  united  to  the  empire 
by  Otho  I.,  the  people  were  brought  under  the  yoke  of 
Rome  and  compelled  to  receive  a  Liturgy  which  they  did 
not  understand.  Their  first  king  Wratislas  remon- 
strated against  this,  but  in  vain ;  the  pope  insolently 
rejected  his  request  for  a  Liturgy  in  the  vulgar  tongue, 
and  commanded  submission.  The  papacy  supported  by 
the  secular  power  prevailed ;  but  many  still  retained  the 
custom  of  their  fathers ;  and  when  some  of  the  Wal- 
denses  sought  refuge  from  persecution  in  Bohemia,  they 
found  people,  who,  if  not  in  fellowship  with  them,  were 
disposed  to  receive  their  doctrines.  The  ground  was 
thus  ready  for  the  seed  when  WicklifF's  writings  were 
introduced,  and  those  writings  produced  a  more  im- 
mediate effect  than  they  did  in  England.  Persecution 
ensued  and  a  religious  war,  in  which  the  best  blood  of 

TOL.  Till.  4   c 


842  ZINZENDORF. 

Bohemia  was  shed  by  the  executioner,  and  her  freedom 
was  extinguished.  After  the  failure  of  the  final  struggle 
for  reformation  under  the  ill-fated  Elector  Palatine,  the 
protestant  clergy  were  banished,  first  from  Prague  and 
soon  after  from  the  whole  kingdom.  The  nobles  of  the 
same  persuasion  were  soon  after  subjected  to  the  same 
sentence,  but,  what  was  more  tyrannical,  the  common 
people  were  forbidden  to  follow,  for  the  law  regarded 
them  as  belonging  to  the  soil.  Among  the  exiled  preach- 
ers was  John  Amos  Comenius.  He  emigrated  through 
Silesia  into  Poland.  At  a  sj^nod  held  at  Lissa,  in  1632, 
Comenius  was  consecrated  bishop  of  the  dispersed  Bre- 
thren from  Bohemia  and  Moravia.  During  the  thirty 
years'  war  he  lived  in  a  state  of  high  excitement  and 
turbulent  hope,  till  disappointment  and  age  brought  with 
them  more  wisdom,  and  a  more  contented  reliance  on 
Providence.  He  found  a  melancholy  consolation  in  re- 
cording the  history  and  discipline  of  a  Church,  which  he 
believed  would  die  with  him.  Notwithstanding  this 
impression  on  his  mind,  he  was  induced  by  the  only 
surviving  bishop  of  the  Brethren,  to  assist  in  consecra- 
ting two  successors,  that  the  episcopal  succession  among 
them  might  not  be  broken  :  one  of  these  was  his  son-in- 
law,  Peter  Figalus  Jablonsky,  who  was  consecrated  for  the 
Bohemian  branch,  in  spem  contra  spem,  in  hope  against 
all  expectation,  that  that  branch  might  be  restored. 

From  time  to  time,  as  opportunities  occurred,  emigra- 
tions took  place  from  Bohemia  and  Moravia  to  the 
Protestant  parts  of  Germany ;  and  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  such  emigrants  having  arrived  in  Germany  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth,  and  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  Christian  David,  by  trade  a 
carpenter,  and  a  man  of  zeal,  energy  and  devotion, 
endeavoured  to  procure  a  safe  establishment  for  himself 
and  his  brethren.  By  his  means  application  was  made 
to  the  Count  of  Zinzendorf,  and  Zinzendorf  replied 
that  they  might  come  when  they  pleased  and  he  would 


ZINZENDORF.  843 

endeavour  to  provide  for  them  a  place  where  they  should 
not  be  molested,  and  meantime  would  receive  them  at 
Bertholsdorf.  Accordingly  two  persons  from  the  village 
of  Schlen  in  Moravia  set  off  for  this  asylum  under 
Christian  David's  guidance.  On  their  arrival  they  were 
located  on  a  piece  of  ground  near  a  hill  called  the  Hut- 
berg  or  Watch-hill.  The  count's  grandmother,  lady 
Gersdorf,  sent  them  a  cow,  and  the  first  tree  was  felled 
on  the  17th  of  June,  1722.  On  the  7th  of  October,  they 
entered  their  house,  and  they  called  the  place  Hernhut. 
Zinzendorf  was  himself,  meantime,  engaged  in  wooing 
and  wedding  the  countess  Erdmuth  Dorothea  Eeuss, 
but  at  the  close  of  the  year  he  visited  the  Brethren 
and  joined  with  them  in  their  devotions.  He  was  now 
the  patron  of  the  Brethren,  and  succeeded  in  allaying 
controversies  which  at  first  seemed  likely  to  lead  to 
their  dissolution.  Zinzendorf  himself  wished  them  to 
coalesce  with  the  German  Protestants,  but  this  they 
refused  to  do,  and  he  yielded.  The  work  of  God  was 
evidently  progressing  at  Hernhut,  and  consequently  the 
devil  raised  opposition  to  it.  The  new  community  was 
attacked  from  various  quarters.  A  Jesuit  began  the  war, 
and  there  were  Lutheran  theologians  who  entered  into  it 
upon  the  same  side.  The  government  took  offence,  and 
although  Zinzendorf's  conduct  was  uniformly  discreet, 
he  was  ordered  to  sell  his  estates  and  was  afterwards 
banished.  Against  the  first  of  these  mandates  he  had 
provided  by  conveying  his  estates  to  his  wife  ;  and 
though  he  was  soon  permitted  to  return  his  own  country, 
yet  as  the  Brethren  were  only  continuing  in  Saxony 
upon  sufferance,  it  was  judged  advisable  to  enlarge  them- 
selves by  establishing  colonies  where  the  magistrates 
would  not  interfere  with  them,  and  no  foreign  prince 
would  interfere  with  their  protectors.  This  feeling  led 
these  pious  men  to  that  false  position  which  they  have 
occupied  in  England.  In  England,  w^here  the  bishops 
received   them  with  cordiality   and   as   brethren,   they 


844  ZINZENDORF. 

thought  fit,  after  a  time,  to  form  separate  communities, 
and  so  they,  in  fact,  though  never  in  spirit  or  intention 
became  schismatics.  They  were  in  duty  bound  to  con- 
form to  the  English  Church,  in  England,  though  free  to 
act,  in  countries  where  no  reformed  episcopal  Cburch 
exists,  according  to  their  traditional  notions.  In  foreign 
parts  the  Moravians  are  the  most  eminent,  wise,  and 
successful  missionaries.  There  they  are  free  to  carry 
out  their  system  as  an  independent  Church ;  it  is  much 
to  be  regretted  that  by  the  position  they  occupy  in 
England,  they  cannot  receive  in  their  missionary  labours 
all  that  support  which  many  hearts  are  pining  to  afford 
them. 

Count  Zinzendorf,  on  his  return  to  Germany,  de- 
termined to  renounce  all  his  worldly  prospects,  and 
devote  himself  to  the  Christian  ministry.  He  went 
under  a  disguised  name,  as  tutor  in  a  merchant's 
family,  that  he  might  pass  through  the  regular  exam- 
ination of  the  clergy  in  that  character,  as  a  student  of 
divinity ;  and  having  passed  his  examination  he  went 
to  England  where  the  learned  Archbishop  Potter  pre- 
sided over  the  interests  of  the  Church.  He  consulted 
with  the  archbishop  whether  or  no  there  could  be  any 
objection  on  the  part  of  the  Church  of  England  to  em- 
ploying the  Brethren  as  their  missionaries  in  Georgia. 
The  good  archbishop  replied  that  the  Moravian  brethren 
were  an  apostolical  and  episcopal  Church,  not  sustaining 
any  doctrines  repugnant  to  the  Church  of  England ; 
that  they  therefore  could  not  wdth  propriety  nor  ought 
to  be  hindered  from  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the 
heathen.  Their  line  of  duty  was  thus  clearly  and  wisely 
indicated, — pity  it  is  that  they  did  not  entirely  adhere 
to  it. 

Zinzendorf  now  went  to  Berlin,  and  on  the  20th  of 
May,  1737,  he  was  consecrated  a  bishop  by  Bishop 
Jablonsky  in  the  presence  of  some  of  the  brethren  at 
Hernhut,  Bishop  Nitschmann  and  Bishop  Sitkovius  as- 


ZINZENDORF.  845 

sisting.  The  king  of  Prussia  wrote  to  the  count,  saying, 
"  It  was  with  satisfaction  I  learned  that,  according  to 
your  desire,  you  have  been  consecrated  bishop  of  the 
Moravian  brethren.  The  letter  of  Archbishop  Potter 
was  as  follows  :  "  John  by  divine  Providence,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  To  the  Right  Rev.  Count  Nicholas  Lewis, 
Bishop  of  the  Moravian  Church,  sendeth  greeting. 

"  Most  sincerely  and  cordially  I  congratulate  you  upon 
your  having  been  lately  raised  to  the  sacred  and  justly 
celebrated  episcopal  chair  of  the  Moravian  Church,  (by 
whatsoever  clouds  it  may  now  be  obscured,)  by  the  grace 
of  divine  Providence,  and  with  the  applause  of  the 
heavenly  host :  for  the  opinion  we  have  conceived  of  you 
does  not  suffer  us  to  doubt  it.  It  is  the  subject  of  my 
ardent  prayer,  that  this  honour,  so  conferred,  and  which 
your  merit  so  justly  entitles  you  to,  may  prove  no  less 
beneficial  to  the  Church,  than  at  all  times  acceptable  to 
you  and  yours.  For,  insufficient  as  I  am,  I  should  be 
entirely  unworthy  of  that  high  station,  in  which  divine 
Providence  has  placed  me,  were  I  not  to  show  myself 
ever  ready  to  use  every  exertion  in  my  power,  for  the 
assistance  of  the  universal  Church  of  God  :  and  espe- 
cially to  love  and  embrace  your  Church,  united  with  us 
in  the  closest  bond  of  love ;  and  which  has  hitherto,  as 
we  have  been  informed,  invariably  maintained  both  the 
pure  and  primitive  faith,  and  the  discipline  of  the 
primitive  Church  ;  neither  intimidated  by  dangers,  nor 
seduced  by  the  manifold  temptations  of  Satan.  I 
request,  in  return,  the  support  of  your  prayers,  and 
that  you  will  salute  in  my  name,  your  brother  bishop, 
as  well  as  the  whole  Christian  flock,  over  which  Christ 
has  made  you  an  overseer.  Farewell.  Given  at  West- 
minster, the  10th  of  July,  1737." 

Zinzendorf  continued  to  act  with  great  zeal,  but  with- 
out much  discretion.  His  notions  with  respect  both  to 
the  doctrine  and  the  discipline  of  the  Church  were 
deficient,  and  sometimes  erroneous.  The  religion  of  the 
4c  3 


846  ZINZENDORF. 

Hernhuters  was  degraded  for  a  time  into  a  fanaticism 
which  exposed  them  often  to  just  obloquy ;  and  in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  "  from  the  pecuHarly  offensive 
grossness  of  language  in  use  among  them  they  excited 
suspicions  of  the  very  worst  nature."  Wesley,  who  for  a 
time  was  connected  with  them,  describes  them  thus : 
"  lazy  and  proud  themselves,  bitter  and  censorious 
towards  others,  they  trample  on  the  ordinances  and 
despise  the  commands  of  Christ."  In  such  freaks  of 
perverted  fancy  as  that  in  which  the  Moravians  at  first 
indulged,  Mr.  Southey  remarks,  '•  the  abominations  of 
Phallus  and  Lingam  have  unquestionably  originated, 
and  in  such  abominations  Moravianism  might  have 
ended,  had  it  been  instituted  among  the  Mingratian  or 
Malabar  Christians,  where  there  was  no  anti-septic  in- 
fluence of  surrounding  circumstances  to  preserve  it  from 
putrescence.  Fortunately  for  themselves  and  for  that 
part  of  the  Heathen  world,  among  whom  they  have 
laboured,  and  still  are  labouring  with  exemplary  devotion, 
the  Moravians  were  taught  by  their  assailants  to  correct 
their  perilous  errors  in  time.  They  were  an  innocent 
people,  and  could  therefore  with  serenity  oppose  the 
testimony  of  their  lives  to  the  tremendous  charges  which 
upon  the  testimony  of  their  own  writings  were  brought 
against  them.  And  then  first  seeing  the  offensiveness, 
if  not  the  danger,  of  the  loathsome  and  impious  extra- 
vagances into  which  they  had  been  betrayed,  they  cor- 
rected their  books  and  their  language ;  and  from  that 
time  they  have  continued  not  merely  to  live  without 
reproach,  but  to  enjoy  in  a  greater  degree  than  any  other 
sect,  the  general  good  opinion  of  every  other  religious 
community." 

The  fanaticism  here  alluded  to  broke  out  at  Herrahaag, 
in  1746,  and  soon  spread  widely  among  the  Moravians. 
The  bold  style  and  often  eccentric  expressions  used  by 
Zinzendorf  have  with  some  appearance  of  truth  been 
considered  as  the  origin  of  this  error.      Yet  he  soon 


ZINZENDORF.  847 

became  aware  of  the  evil  of  fanaticism,  and  after  a  time 
exerted  himself  to  put  a  stop  to  the  scandal.  A  synod 
was  held  in  1750,  and  what  the  Moravians  called  a 
sifting  took  place,  when  those  ministers  and  labourers 
who  were  not  sufficiently  established,  and  in  whom  a 
relapse  might  be  apprehended,  were  deposed  from  their 
office. 

Zinzendorf  was  much  in  England,  and  presided  at 
a  synodal  conference  of  his  community  in  London,  in 
1741.  Two  years  after  he  repeated  the  visit.  In  1751, 
he  came  again  to  England  and  made  it  his  chief  place 
of  residence  till  1755.  He  received  so  much  kindness 
from  the  bishops  and  clergy  from  whom  neither  in  dis- 
cipline nor  doctrine  he  dissented,  that  it  argues  ill  alike 
for  his  power  of  mind  and  his  goodness  of  heart,  that,  as 
we  have  before  remarked,  he  permitted  his  followers  to 
form  a  distinct  sect  in  this  country.  Moravians,  says 
their  chronicler.  Bishop  Holmes,  for  some  time  continued 
in  connection  with  the  English  Church,  receiving  the 
sacranaents  at  the  hands  of  her  ministers,  and  restricting 
their  religious  meetings  to  the  public  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  and  private  assemblies  for  edification ;  but  as  the 
majority  wished  for  a  complete  union  with  the  Brethren, 
they  formed  a  schism  in  1742,  and  have  established 
congregations  in  London  and  other  places  observing  a 
ritual  and  discipline  of  their  own. 

Zinzendorf  was  perhaps  influenced  by  the  example  of 
Wesley,  who  was  at  one  time  himself  under  the  influence 
of  the  Moravians,  and  became  ambitious  of  establishing 
a  sect,  instead  of  forming  an  order  in  union  with  the 
Church.  But  Zinzendorf  had  not  the  mental  power  of 
Wesley.  He  obtained  the  lead  among  the  Moravians 
chiefly  through  his  rank,  and  the  Moravians  of  his 
day  must  have  been  from  the  lowest  class  of  society,  if 
we  may  judge  from  the  absurd  and  offensive  deference 
which  they  seem  to  have  paid  to  rank.  It  appears  even 
in  Holmes's  interesting  History  of  the  Moravians.    Zin- 


us  ZINZENDORF. 

zendorf  was  indefatigable  in  visiting  his  establishments 
and  in  the  composition  of  almost  innumerable  works  of 
little  intrinsic  value.     He  died  in  May,  1760. 

His  biographer  thus  describes  his  death.  Early  in  the 
morning  of  the  9th  May,  he  said  to  one  of  his  visitors, 
"  I  am  perfectly  content  with  the  ways  of  my  Lord.  He 
determines  with  the  utmost  precision  what  concerns  his 
children ;  but  in  the  present  instance  you  do  not  think 
80.  I  believe  my  work  among  you  is  done  ;  and  should 
I  now  depart  this  life,  you  know  my  mind."  His  voice 
became  weak,  and  he  could  say  no  more.  His  son- 
in-law)  Bishop  Watteville  having  seated  himself  close 
by  his  bedside,  he  thus  addressed  him:  "My  dear 
Johannes,  I  am  going  home  to  our  Saviour;  I  am 
ready.  I  am  fully  resigned  to  the  will  of  my  Lord,  and 
He  is  satisfied  with  me,  for  He  has  pardoned  me.  If 
He  has  no  further  use  for  me  here,  I  am  quite  ready  to 
go  to  Him  ;  for  there  is  nothing  in  my  way."  After  this 
he  gave  directions  about  a  few  things  he  wished  to  be 
done.  , 

Baron  Frederick  Von  Watteville  and  David  Nitsch- 
mann  now  entered  his  room.  He  addressed  them  in  a 
few  words,  which,  however,  were  scarcely  intelligible. 
Hereupon  he  sent  for  his  children  ;  but  was  not  able 
to  speak.  By  this  time  near  a  hundred  persons  had 
collected  in  the  room  and  the  adjoining  apartment. 
He  raised  himself  in  bed,  looked  at  them  with  a 
mien  expressive  of  serenity  and  affection;  and  then 
reclining  his  head,  and  closing  his  eyes,  fell  gently 
asleep  in  Jesus,  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
having  attained  the  age  of  sixty  years." 

A  circular  was  immediately  sent  to  all  the  congrega- 
tions, notifying  this  painful  event.  It  concludes  with 
the  following  sentence :  "  You  know  what  a  gift  of  grace 
our  Church  has  had  in  this  disciple  of  our  Lord.  This 
witness  of  the  death  and  atonement  of  Christ,  this  re- 
storer of  the  Brethren's  Church,  this  apostle  to  so  many 


ZWINGLI.  849 

nations  of  the  earth,  this  founder  of  the  villages  of  the 
Lord,  this  faithful  friend  of  every  poor  distressed  soul, 
this  true  philanthopist,  to  whom  it  was  a  princely  repast 
to  do  good — hath  now  been  called  by  his  Lord  from 
his  labours  into  eternal  rest,  this  forenoon  in  the  tenth 
hour.  The  Daily  Word  is :  'He  shall  doubtless  come 
again  with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him.' 
(Psa.  cxxxi.  6.)  Whoever  desires  this  let  him  8ay» 
Amen." — Holmes.     La   Trohe.    Southeijs  Life  of  Wedey. 


ZWlNaLI.  OB  ZUINGLIUS,  ULEICH,   OR  HALDREICH. 

ZuiNGLius,  or  ZwiNGLi  was  born  on  New-year's  day,  1484, 
in  the  parish  of  Wildenhaus,  in  Toggenburg.  He  studied 
at  the  schools  of  Basle  and  Bern;  thence  he  went  to 
the  University  of  Vienna,  a^d  back  again  to  Basle.  In 
1506,  he  became  priest  in  Glarus,  when  he  devoted  all 
the  leisure  his  duties  gave  him  to  study.  He  made  some 
attempts  at  composition  in  the  style  of  the  Latinists  of 
that  time;  but  he  never  succeeded  in  throwing  his 
thoughts  with  full  freedom  into  antique  forms.  He 
rather  contented  himself  with  reading  and  studying  the 
ancients.  He  was  more  captivated  by  their  matter, 
by  their  lofty  feeling  for  the  simple  and  the  true,  than 
excited  to  imitation  by  their  beauty  of  form.  He  thought 
that  the  influences  of  the  Divine  Spirit  had  not  been 
confined  to  Palestine ;  that  Plato,  too,  had  drunk  from 
the  sacred  font ;  he  calls  Seneca  a  holy  man  ;  above  all, 
he  reveres  Pindar,  who  speaks  of  his  gods  in  language 
so  divine,  that  some  sense  of  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  Diety  must  have  inspired  him  !  He  is  grateful  to 
them  all;  for  he  has  learned  from  all,  and  has  been  led 
by  them  to  the  truth.  While  occupied  with  such  pur- 
suits, he  took  up  Erasmus's  edition  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment,  in  Greek,    and   applied   himself   to  it  with  th© 


850  ZWINGLI. 

greatest  industry.  In  order  to  make  himself  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  he  did  not  shrink 
from  the  labour  of  transcribing  them  in  a  fair  hand,  and 
writing  on  the  margin  the  expositions  of  the  fathers  of 
the  Church.  Occasionally,  he  was  bewildered  by  the 
theological  notions  he  had  brought  with  him  from  the 
university ;  but  he  soon  formed  the  determination  to 
throw  aside  all  other  considerations,  and  to  learn  God's 
will  from  His  pure  and  simple  Word.  From  the  time 
he  thus  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  text  of  Scrip- 
ture, his  intellectual  sight  became  clearer.  But,  at  the 
same  time,  convictions  extremely  at  variance  with  the 
established  order  of  things  in  the  Church,  took  posses- 
sion of  his  mind.  At  Einsiedeln,  whither  he  had 
removed  in  1516,  he  said  plainly  to  Cardinal  Schiner, 
that  Popery  had  no  foundation  in  Scripture. 

But  it  was  another  circumstance  which  gave  to  his 
labours  their  characteristic  direction.  Zwingli  was  a 
republican ;  reared  in  the  perpetual  stir  of  a  small  com- 
monwealth, a  lively  interest  in  the  political  business  of 
his  country  was  become  a  second  nature  to  him.  At 
that  time  the  war  with  Italy  set  all  the  energies  of  the 
Confederation  in  motion,  and  raised  it  to  the  rank  of  a 
great  power  in  Europe.  Zwingli  more  than  once  took 
the  field  with  his  warlike  flock.  He  was  present  at  the 
battle  of  Marignano. 

It  is  remarkable  that  he  retained  his  warlike  propen- 
sities to  the  last.  But  at  this  time  he  was  a  priest  of 
the  Romish  Church,  and  the  want  of  discipline  then 
existing  in  the  Church  is  proved  by  the  fact  now  alluded 
to.  It  is  to  be  added  that  even  his  apologists  admit  that 
he  was  not  free  from  youthful  vices,  sometimes  of  an  offen- 
sive kind  ;  but  his  correspondence  shews  how  earnest 
were  the  self-reproaches  of  this  soldier-priest,  until  at 
length  his  conduct  became  irreproachable.  The  violence 
of  his  politics,  in  1516,  and  his  noble  stand  against  the 
French  interest,  rendered  it  necessary  for  him  to  quit  his 


ZWINGLI.  851 

parish,  and  take  the  subordinate  place  of  vicar  at  Einsie- 
deln.  In  1519,  his  ambition  was  gratified  by  his  removal 
to  a  higher  sphere  of  action ;  and  he  was  posted  at  Zurich, 
the  principal  town  of  the  Swiss  confederation.  The 
effects  of  the  Lutheran  movement  just  then  began  to  be 
felt  in  Switzerland.  No  man  was  better  prepared,  or 
more  eager  to  take  part  in  it  than  Zwingli.  He  too  had 
had  a  battle  on  his  own  ground  with  a  vender  of  indul- 
gences, and  had  succeeded  in  keeping  him  at  a  distance. 
He  wrote  against  the  conduct  of  the  court  of  Rome  to 
Luther,  and  published  an  apology  for  him,  in  answer  to 
the  bull. 

His  preaching,  for  which  he  had  a  singular  natural 
gift,  produced  a  great  effect.  He  attacked  the  prevalent 
abuses  with  uncompromising  earnestness.  On  one 
occasion  he  painted  the  responsibility  of  the  clergy  in 
such  lively  colours,  that  several  young  men  among  his 
hearers  instantly  abandoned  their  intention  of  taking 
orders.  "  I  felt  myself,"  said  Thomas  Plater,  "  as  it 
were  lifted  up  by  the  hair  of  the  h'ead."  Occasionally 
some  individual  thought  the  preacher  aimed  his  remarks 
at  him  personally,  which  Zwingli  thought  it  necessary 
to  guard  against :  "  Worthy  man,"  he  exclaimed,  "  take 
it  not  to  thyself;"  and  then  proceeded  in  his  discourse 
with  a  zeal  which  rendered  him  regardless  of  the  dan- 
gers which  sometimes  even  threatened  his  life. 

But  his  efforts  were  mainly  directed  to  rendering  the 
meaning  of  Scripture  plainer  to  his  hearers. 

A  question,  not  very  important,  has  been  raised 
whether  Zwingli's  attempts  to  reform  the  Church  had 
precedence  of  those  made  by  Luther.  It  is  not  to  be 
denied  that,  even  before  the  y^ar  1517,  he,  in  common 
with  many  others,  had  evinced  dispositions,  and  ex- 
pressed opinions,  which  tended  that  way.  But  the 
essential  point  was  the  struggle  with  the  spiritual  power, 
and  the  separation  from  it.  This  struggle  Luther  under- 
took first,  and  sustained  alone;  he  first  obtained  freedom 


863  ZWINGLI. 

of  discussion  for  the  new  doctrines  in  a  considerable 
German  state ;  he  began  the  work  of  liberation,  At  the 
time  Luther  was  condemned  by  Rome,  Zwingli  was  still 
receiving  a  pension  from  Rome.  Luther  had  already 
stood  impeached  before  the  emperor  and  the  empire,  ere 
Zwingli  had  experienced  the  least  attack.  The  whole 
field  of  his  activity  was  different.  While  *in  the  one 
case,  we  see  the  highest  and  most  august  power  of  the 
world  in  agitation,  in  the  other,  it  is  a  question  of  the 
emancipation  of  a  city  from  an  episcopal  power. 

This  was  the  first  great  object  to  which  the  mind  of 
Zwingli  was  directed,  namely,  the  emancipation  of  the 
town  of  Zurich  from  the  episcopal  government  of  Con- 
stance. In  this  contest  Zwingli  evinced  firmness,  zeal, 
temper,  sound  judgment,  and  powers  of  government,  but 
he  propounded  the  most  latitudinarian,  republican,  and 
Erastian  principles.  His  triumph,  however,  was  com- 
plete, and  with  the  concurrence  of  the  civil  authorities, 
the  chief  corruptions  of  the  Romish  system  whether  in 
doctrine  or  practice  were  removed,  and  a  form  of  worship 
was  established  according  to  Zwingli 's  notions  of  pro- 
priety. The  Mass,  in  1525,  having  been  abolished  by 
the  senate  of  Zurich,  a  form  of  communion  was  prepared 
by  Zwingli,  which  was  as  follows  :  After  the  conclusion 
of  the  sermon,  a  table  was  brought  into  the  Church  and 
covered  with  a  clean  cloth,  and  the  bread  and  wine  were 
placed  upon  it.  The  minister  with  the  deacons,  ap- 
proached the  table,  and  called  the  people  to  attention ; 
then,  after  a  short  prayer,  one  of  the  deacons  read  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  from  the  epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  and  another  recited  a  part  of  the  sixth  of  St. 
John,  to  shew  in  what  sense  the  communicants  do  truly 
eat  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  Next,  after  reciting 
the  Creed,  the  minister  exhorted  the  people  to  self  exami- 
nation. Then  all  knelt  down,  and  repeated  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  on  which  the  minister  took  in  his  hands  unlea- 
vened bread,  and,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  faithful,  recited 


ZWINGLI.  853 

with  a  loud  voice,  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
He  then  delivered  the  bread  and  cup  to  the  deacon,  to 
present  to  the  people,  for  the  people  to  distribute  them 
to  each  other.  During  this  process,  one  of  the  ministers 
read  from  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  those  edifying  dis- 
courses held  by  our  Lord  with  His  disciples  after  the 
ablution  of  their  feet.  The  congregation  then  again  fell 
down  on  their  knees,  and  returned  thanks  for  the  benefit 
of  their  redemption  by  Christ  Jesus. 

For  the  everlasting  establishment  of  their  work,  Zwingli, 
with  Leo  Judse  and  other  learned  coadjutors,  published 
in  the  same  year  the  Pentateuch,  and  other  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  after  the  version  of  Luther, 
correcting  such  errors  as  they  discovered  in  it,  and 
accommodating  the  language  to  the  dialect  of  Switzerland. 

The  great  consequence  of  Zwingli,  as  the  head  of  the 
new  establishment  of  rehgion,  was  evinced  about  this 
time,  by  a  design  against  his  life.  The  object  was  to 
draw  him  away  from  the  protection  of  Zurich ;  and  for 
this  purpose  Faber,  grand-vicar  of  the  Bishop  of  Con- 
stance, planned  with  Eckius,  chancellor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Ingoldstadt,  and  a  noted  antagonist  of  Luther, 
a  challenge  to  Zwingli  to  hold  a  public  conference,  at 
which  Eckius  would  undertake  to  convince  him  of  his 
errors.  The  cantons  were  induced  to  propose  the  mea- 
sure at  a  Diet,  and,  with  the  exception  of  Zurich,  fixed 
upon  the  town  of  Baden,  in  Argovia,  as  the  place  for  the 
interview,  and  required  the  senate  of  Zurich  to  send 
Zwingli  thither.  This  body,  however,  knowing  that  the 
town  of  Baden  could  not  guarantee  the  safety  of  their 
pastor,  and  that  the  cantons  had  declared  inveterate 
hostility  to  his  person  and  doctrines,  would  not  permit 
him  to  trust  himself  out  of  their  protection;  and  the 
conference  was  held  without  him. 

(Ecolampadius,  who  appeared  as  the  principal  advocate 
for  the  Reformation,  undertook  to  answer  the  arguments 
of  Eckius.    The  result  of  the  conference  was  a  decision 

VOL.  vni.  4  D 


854  2WINGLI, 

in  strong  terms  against  Zwingli  and  his  adherents,  in 
which,  however,  all  the  cantons  did  not  concur.  Bern, 
in  particular,  distinguished  itself  in  its  refusal ;  and 
the  Reformation  made  such  a  progress  in  that  powerful 
canton,  that  in  1527,  several  of  its  municipalities  ad- 
dressed the  senate  for  the  abolition  of  the  mass,  and 
the  introduction  of  the  form  of  worship  established  at 
Zurich.  That  bodj,  before  its  determination,  thought  it 
advisable  to  know  the  opinion  of  their  ecclesiasticB 
relative  to  the  subjects  in  dispute,  and  for  this  purpose 
summoned  a  convocation,  to  which  the  clergy  of  the 
other  Helvetic  states,  and  the  neighbouring  bishops, 
were  invited.  The  Reformers  of  Bern  were  very  de- 
sirous of  Zwingli's  attendance  on  this  important  occa- 
sion ;  and  he  was  not  backward  in  availing  himself  of 
an  opportunity  of  doing  essential  service  to  the  cause. 
He  appeared,  and,  with  his  learned  coadjutors,  CEcO' 
lampadius,  BuUinger,  Collinus,  Pellican,  Bucer,  and 
Capilo,  defended  with  so  much  force  the  ten  theses  of 
the  Reformation  drawn  up  by  Haller,  the  leader  of  the 
party  at  Bern,  that  they  were  completely  triumphant, 
and  the  grand  council  of  that  canton  fully  adopted  the 
measures  of  that  of  Zurich.  This  accession  occasioned 
a  great  alarm  in  the  cantons  most  attached  to  the  old 
religion,  five  of  which  entered  into  a  solemn  engagement 
not  to  suffer  the  doctrines  of  Zwingli  and  Luther  to  be 
preached  among  them.  A  considerable  difference  pre- 
vailed "from  the  commencement  of  their  preaching  be^ 
tween  the  Saxon  reformer  and  the  Swiss  reformer  with 
respect  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist. 

For  a  history  of  this  which  is  called  the  Sacramen- 
tarian  Controversy,  we  refer  the  reader  to  the  Lives  of 
Luther  and  Melanchthon,  where  it  is  given  at  some 
length.  We  will  content  ourselves  here  with  pointing 
out  from  Ranke,  the  leading  points  of  difference  be- 
tween Luther  and  Zwingli. 

The    principal   difference    is,   that,   whereas    Luther 


ZWINGLI.  855 

wished  to  retain  every  thing  in  the  existing  ecclesias- 
tical institutions  that  was  not  at  variance  with  the 
express  words  of  Scripture,  Zwingli  was  resolved  to 
get  rid  of  every  thing  that  could  not  be  maintained  by 
a  direct  appeal  to  Scripture.  Luther  took  up  his  station 
on  the  ground  already  occupied  by  the  Latin  Church : 
his  desire  was  only  to  purify  ;  to  put  an  end  to  the  con- 
tradictions between  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  and  the 
Gospel.  Zwingli,  on  the  other  hand,  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  restore,  as  far  as  possible,  the  primitive  and 
simplest  condition  of  the  Christian  Church;  he  aimed 
at  a  complete  revolution. 

We  know  how  far  Luther  was  from  inculcating  the 
destruction  of  images ;  he  merely  combated  the  super- 
stitions which  had  gathered  around  them.  Zwingli,  on 
the  contrary,  regarded  the  veneration  addressed  to  im- 
ages as  sheer  idolatry,  and  condemned  their  very  exis- 
tence. In  the  Whitsuntide  of  1524,  the  Council  of 
Zurich,  in  concert  with  him,  declared  its  determination 
of  removing  all  images ;  which  it  held  to  be  a  godly 
work.  Fortunately,  the  disorders  which  this  measure 
excited  in  so  many  other  places,  were  here  avoided.  The 
three  secular  priests,  with  twelve  members  of  the  council, 
one  from  each  guild,  repaired  to  the  churches,  and  caused 
the  order  to  be  executed  under  their  own  supervision. 
The  crosses  disappeared  from  the  high  altars,  the  pic- 
tures were  taken  down  from  the  altars,  the  frescoes 
scraped  off  the  walls,  and  whitewash  substituted  in 
their  stead.  In  the  country  churches  the  must  pre- 
cious pictures  were  burnt,  "  to  the  praise  and  glory  of 
God."  Nor  did  the  organs  fare  better;  they  too  were 
connected  with  the  abhorred  superstition.  The  reformers 
would  have  nothing  but  the  simple  Word.  The  same 
end  was  proposed  in  all  the  practices  of  the  Church. 
A  new  form  of  baptism  was  drawn  up,  in  which  all  the 
additions  "  which  have  no  ground  in  God's  Word"  were 
omitted.     The  next  step  was,  the  alteration  of  the  mass. 


866  ZWINGLI. 

Luther  had  contented  himself  with  the  omission  of  the 
■words  relating  to  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice,  and  with  the 
introduction  of  the  Sacrament  in  both  kinds.  Zwingli 
established  a  regular  love  feast  (Easter,  1525.)  The 
communicants  sat  in  a  particular  division  of  the  benches 
between  the  choir  and  the  transept,  the  men  on  the 
right,  the  women  on  the  left ;  the  bread  was  carried 
about  on  large  wooden  platters,  and  each  broke  off  a 
bit,  after  which  the  wine  was  carried  about  in  wooden 
cups.  This  was  thought  to  be  the  nearest  approach 
to  the  original  institution. 

We  come  now  to  a  difference,  the  ground  of  which 
lies  deeper ;  and  which  related  not  only  to  the  applica- 
tion, but  also  to  the  interpretation,  of  Scripture,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  most  important  of  all  spiritual  acts. 

It  is  well  known  how  various  were  the  views  taken, 
even  in  the  earliest  times,  of  this  mystery ;  especially  from 
the  ninth  to  the  eleventh  century,  before  the  doctrine 
of  transubstantiation  became  universally  predominant. 
It  is  therefore  no  wonder  if,  now  that  its  authority  was 
shaken,  new  differences  of  opinion  manifested  them- 
selves. 

At  the  former  period,  they  were  rather  of  a  specula- 
tive nature  ;  at  the  latter,  in  conformity  with  the  altered 
direction  of  learning,  they  turned  more  on  interpretation 
of  Scripture. 

Luther  had  no  sooner  rejected  the  miracle  of  transub- 
stantiation, than  others  began  to  inquire  whether,  even 
independently  of  this,  the  words  by  which  the  Sacra- 
ment was  instituted  were  not  subject  to  another  inter- 
pretation. 

Luther  himself  confesses  that  he  had  been  assailed 
by  doubts  of  this  kind;  but  as,  in  all  his  outward 
and  inward  combats,  his  victorious  weapons  had  ever 
been  the  pure  text  of  Scripture  taken  in  its  literal 
sense,  he  now  humbly  surrendered  his  doubts  to  the 
sound   of   the  words,  and  continued   to   maintain  the 


ZWINGLI.  857 

real  presence,  without  attempting  further  to  define  its 
mode. 

But  all  had  not  the  same  reverent  submission  to  the 
literal  meaning  as  Luther. 

Carlstadt  was  the  first  who,  in  the  year  1524,  when 
he  was  compelled  to  flee  from  Saxony,  offered  a  new 
explanation.  This  was  indeed  exegetically  untenable 
and  even  absurd,  and  he  himself  at  last  gave  it  up :  in 
the  attempt  to  establish  it,  however,  he  put  forth  some 
more  coherent  arguments,  which  gave  a  great  impulse 
to  the  public  minc^  in  the  direction  it  had  already 
taken  upon  this  point. 

CEcolampadius  of  Basle,  among  whose  friends  similar 
notions  were  current,  began  to  be  ashamed  that  he  had 
so  long  suppressed  his  doubts  and  preached  doctrines 
of  the  truth  of  which  he  was  not  thoroughly  convinced ; 
he  took  courage  no  longer  to  conceal  his  view  of  the 
sense  of  the  mysterious  institutional  words. 

The  young  Bullinger  approached  the  question  from 
another  side.  He  studied  Berengarius's  controversy, 
and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  on  this  important  point, 
— the  very  point  afterwards  established  by  the  Reforma- 
tion,— injustice  had  been  done  to  that  early  reformer. 
He  thought  Berengarius's  interpretation  might  even  be 
found  in  St.  Augustine. 

The  main  thing,  however,  was,  that  Zwingli  declared 
his  opinion.  In  studying  the  Scripture  after  his  man- 
ner, rather  as  a  whole  than  in  detached  passages,  and 
not  without  a  continual  reference  to  classical  antiquity, 
he  had  come  to  the  conviction  that  the  is  of  the  insti- 
tutional words  signifies  nothing  more  than  "  denotes." 
Already,  in  a  letter  dated  June,  1523,  he  declares  that 
the  true  sense  of  the  Eucharist  cannot  be  understood, 
until  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  Lord's  Supper  are  re- 
garded in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  the  water  in 
baptism.  While  attacking  the  mass,  he  had  already 
conceived  the  intention  of  restoring  the  Eucharist  to 
4d  3 


858  ZWINGLL 

itself,  as  he  expressed  it.  As  Carlstadt  now  brought 
forward  a  very  similar  interpretation,  which  he  was 
unable  to  maintain,  Zwingli  thought  he  could  no  longer 
maintain  silent.  He  published  his  exposition ;  first  in 
a  printed  address  to  a  parish  priest  in  Keutlingen  (Nov., 
1524,)  then  more  at  length  in  his  Essay,  on  True  and 
False  Religion.  Although  he  was  little  satisfied  with 
Carlstadt's  explanation,  he  nevertheless  availed  himself 
of  some  of  the  same  arguments  which  that  theologian 
had  employed;  e.g.  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  in 
heaven,  and  could  not  possibly  be  divided  realiter 
among  His  disciples  on  earth.  He  rested  his  reason- 
ing chiefly  on  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John,  which  was  thus,  as  he  thought,  rendered  perfectly 
clear. 

No  longer  ago  than  the  autumn  of  1524,  the  great 
division  of  the  Church,  into  Catholic  and  Evangelical 
had  been  formally  accomplished ;  and  already  an  opinion 
was  broached  which  was  destined  to  work  a  violent  schism 
in  the  Evangelical  Church. 

Luther  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  Zwingli  as  a 
wild  enthusiast,  with  whom  he  had  frequently  had  to 
contend. 

Zwingli  had  none  of  Luther's  deep  and  lively  con- 
ception of  the  Universal  Church,  or  of  the  unbroken 
connexion  of  the  doctrines  of  past  ages.  We  have  seen 
that  his  mind,  formed  in  the  midst  of  republican  insti- 
tutions, was  far  more  occupied  with  the  idea  of  the  Com- 
mune ;  and  he  was  now  intent  on  keeping  together  the 
Communes  of  Zurich  by  a  stricter  Church  discipline. 
He  tried  to  get  rid  of  all  public  criminals ;  put  an  end 
to  the  right  of  asylum,  and  caused  loose  women  and 
adulterers  to  be  turned  out  of  the  city.  With  these 
views  of  politics  and  morals,  he  united  an  unprejudiced 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  freed  from  the  whole  dogmatic 
structure  that  had  been  raised  upon  them.  If  I  do  not 
mistake,  he  did,  in  fact,  evince  an  acute  and  apt  sense 


ZWINGLI.  859 

of  their  original  meaning  and  spirit.  He  regarded  the 
Lord's  Supper  (as  the  Ritual  he  introduced  proves)  in  the 
light  of  a  feast  of  commemoration  and  affection.  He  held 
to  the  words  of  Paul ;  that  we  are  one  body,  because  we 
eat  of  one  bread ;  for,  says  he,  every  one  confesses  by 
that  act  that  he  belongs  to  the  society  which  acknow- 
ledges Christ  to  be  its  Saviour,  and  in  which  all  Chris- 
tians are  one  body ;  this  is  community  in  the  blood  of 
Christ.  He  would  not  admit  that  he  regarded  the 
Eucharist  as  mere  bread.  '*  If,"  said  he,  "  bread  and 
wine,  sanctified  by  the  grace  of  God,  are  distributed, 
is  not  the  whole  body  of  Christ,  as  it  were,  sensibly 
given  to  His  followers  ?"  It  was  a  peculiar  satisfaction 
to  him  that,  by  this  view  he  arrived  directly  at  a  prac- 
tical result.  For,  he  asked,  how  can  the  knowledge 
that  we  belong  to  one  body  fail  to  lead  to  Christian  life 
and  Christian  love  ?  The  unworthy  sinned  against  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ.  He  had  the  joy  of  seeing 
that  his  ritual  and  the  views  he  had  put  forth,  con- 
tributed to  put  an  end  to  old  and  obdurate  hostilities. 

Although  Zwingli  insists  much  on  what  there  still 
was  of  supernatural  in  his  scheme  of  the  Eucharist  it  is 
clear  that  this  was  not  the  mystery  which  had  hitherto 
formed  the  central  point  of  the  worship  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  We  can  easily  understand  the  effect  produced 
on  the  common  people,  by  the  attempting  to  rob  them 
of  the  sensible  presence  of  Christ.  Some  courage  was 
required  to  resolve  on  such  an  experiment;  but  when 
this  was  actually  made,  the  public  mind  was,  as  (Eco- 
lampadius  says,  found  to  be  far  better  disposed  for  its 
reception  than  could  have  been  suspected.  This  is, 
however,  very  explicable.  People  saw  they  had  gone 
too  far  to  retract,  in  their  defection  from  the  Church 
of  Rome ;  and  they  found  a  certain  gratification  of  the 
feeling  of  independence  which  that  defection  had  gene- 
rated, in  rendering  it  as  complete  as  possible. 

Luther  had,  from  the  first  moment,  been  treated  with 


860  ZWINGLI. 

the  greatest  harshness ;  Zwingli,  on  the  contrary,  with 
the  utmost  gentleness:  even  in  the  year  1523,  he  re- 
ceived an  extremely  gracious  letter  from  Adrian  VI.,  in 
which  no  allusion  was  made  to  his  innovations.  Yet 
it  is  obvious  that  Zwingli's  opposition  to  the  existing 
forms  and  institutions  of  the  Church,  was  far  more 
violent  and  irreconcilable  than  that  of  Luther.  Neither 
ritual  nor  dogma,  in  the  forms  which  they  had  acquired 
in  the  course  of  centuries,  any  longer  made  the  smallest 
impressions  upon  him ;  alterations,  in  themselves  inno- 
cuous, but  to  which  abuses  had  clung,  he  rejected  with 
the  same  decision  and  promptitude  as  the  abuses  them- 
selves ;  he  sought  to  restore  the  earliest  forms  in  which 
the  principle  of  Christianity  had  found  an  expression : 
— forms,  it  is  true,  no  less  than  those  he  abolished,  and 
not  substance ;  but  purer  and  more  congenial. 

Luther,  notwithstanding  his  zeal  against  the  pope, 
notwithstanding  his  aversion  to  the  secular  dominion  of 
the  hierarchy,  was  yet,  both  in  doctrine  and  discipline, 
as  far  as  it  was  possible,  conservative,  and  attached  to 
the  historical  traditions  of  the  Church ;  his  thoughts 
and  feeling  were  profound,  and  profoundly  impressed 
w;th  the  mysteries  of  religion. 

Zwingli  depended  entirely  on  his  private  judgment, 
both  in  rejection  and  alteration,  and  had  regard  to 
nothing  but  what  appeared  to  himself  to  be  expedient. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that,  at  the  Conference 
at  Marpurg,  of  which  a  full  account  is  given  in  the 
Life  of  Luther,  the  attempt  to  bring  these  two  men 
to  an  agreement,  entirely  failed.  They  were  exasperated 
against  each  other,  but  they  had  their  distinct  spheres 
of  action;  while  Luther  contended  for  his  principles 
on  the  wider  theatre  of  the  world,  Zwingli  with  equal 
energy  threw  himself  into  the  petty  squabbles  of  his 
native  country,  and  united  the  characters  of  politician, 
warrior  and  theologian.  In  1531,  a  civil  war  com- 
menced in  Switzerland,  between  the  five  Roman  Catholic 


ZWINGLI.  861 

Cantons  on  the  one  side,  and  those  of  Zurich  and  Bern 
on  the  other.     The  result  is  well  known  to  every  one. 

On  the  11th  of  October,  a  tumultuous  affair  took 
place  at  Cappel,  at  the  distance  of  only  three  leagues 
from  Zurich,  in  which  the  Zurichers,  through  conster- 
nation, through  inferiority  in  numbers,  through  want  of 
subordination  and  discipline,  were  completely  routed, 
with  no  inconsiderable  loss  both  of  life  and  reputation. 
But  this  might  have  been  repaired.  The  loss  which 
could  not  so  well  be  replaced  was  that  of  Zwingli.  In 
the  morning  of  that  fatal  day,  when  the  civic  banner 
was  put  in  motion  against  the  invaders,  Zwingli  received 
the  order  of  the  magistrates  to  march  along  with  them 
under  it.  He  would  willingly  have  declined  the  service ; 
for,  though  gifted  with  much  personal  courage,  he  had 
evil  forebodings  as  to  the  issue  of  that  expedition.  But 
the  others  insisted :  it  was  an  immemorial  usage  that 
the  sovereign  banner  should  be  attended  by  the  first 
pastor  of  the  city ;  the  counsels  of  Zwingli  were  at  that 
crisis  peculiarly  necessary  to  the  chiefs ;  his  exhortations 
would  be  efiQcacious  with  the  people ;  by  his  eloquence 
and  credit  he  would  be  serviceable  in  any  negociations 
that  might  arise  for  the  restoration  of  peace.  Zwingli 
yielded,  not  to  the  weight  of  the  arguments,  but  to  the 
authority  which  urged  them,  and  to  a  sense  of  w^hat  so 
many  would  deem  his  duty.  But  in  the  hasty  march 
which  followed,  it  was  observed  that  he  talked  and  acted 
like  one  advancing  to  the  grave ;  and  those  who  remarked 
his  gestures  perceived  that  he  was  oftentimes  absorbed 
in  prayer,  fervently  recommending  his  soul  and  his 
cause  to  the  protection  of  his  Omnipotent  Master. 

But  when  the  danger  came,  he  displayed  a  martyr's 
heroism.  "  I  will  advance  in  the  name  of  the  Lord," — 
thus  he  addressed  some  of  his  wavering  companions — 
"  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  will  I  advance  to  the  succour 
of  my  brave  comrades,  resolved  to  die  with  them  and 
among  them,  or  to  effect  their  deliverance."    And  in 


862  ZWINGLI. 

the  fury  of  the  unequal  and  hopeless  strife  which  ensued, 
his  armed  hand  was  seen  raised  in  battle,  and  the  voice 
with  which  he  rallied  the  fugitives  was  heard  above  all 
the  uproar. — "  Be  of  good  courage  and  fear  nothing. 
If  we  are  to  suffer,  our  cause  is  not  the  worse  for  that. 
Commend  yourselves  to  God,  who  can  protect  us  and 
ours." 

When  the  field  was  in  possession  of  the  Koman 
Catholics,  they  went  round  to  the  wounded  Zurichers, 
severally  asking  them,  whether  they  were  willing  to 
invoke  the  saints,  and  to  confess  ?  The  few  who  accepted 
the  condition  were  spared ;  but  by  far  the  greater  num- 
ber rejected  it,  and  most  of  these  were  massacred. 
Among  those  unfortunate  men  was  one,  whose  hands 
and  eyes  were  continually  raised  to  heaven,  as  if  to 
second  the  supplications  expressed  by  the  silent  move- 
ment of  his  lips.  Some  soldiers  put  the  interrogation 
to  him.  He  merely  shook  his  head  in  sign  of  refusal. 
They  replied,  "  If  you  cannot  speak,  so  as  to  confess, 
invoke  at  least  the  Mother  of  God,  and  the  other  Saints, 
for  theii;  intercession."  He  persisted.  "  This  man,  too,  is 
an  obstinate  heretic" — whereupon  an  officer,  who  came  up 
at  that  moment  thrust  a  pike  into  his  throat  and  extin- 
guished what  remained  of  life.  This  man  was  Zwingli. 
Wounded  and  thrice  overthrown  in  the  press  of  the 
fugitives,  he  again  raised  himself  on  his  knees,  and  in 
that  position  was  heard  to  exclaim,  and  it  was  his  last 
exclamation — "  Alas  what  a  calamity  is  this !  Well, 
they  can  kill  the  body,  but  not  the  soul."  It  was  not 
till  the  morrow  that  he  was  recognized  among  the  heaps 
of  slain,  and  it  was  then  that  the  full  hatred  of  the 
enemy  broke  out  against  him — hatred,  not  occasioned 
by  his  religious  innovations  only,  but  even  more  by  his 
exertions  against  the  lucrative  system  of  foreign  pen- 
sions. After  offering  many  indignities  to  his  corpse, 
as  it  lay  on  the  battle-field,  they  held  the  mockery  of 
a  council,  and  summoned  it  before  them;  and  then, 


^WINGLI.  863 

when  they  had  passed  upon  it  the  double  sentence  of 
treason  and  heresy,  they  carried  it  to  the  place  of 
most  resort,  and  by  the  hand  of  the  public  exe- 
cutioner of  Lucerne,  applied  the  flames  which  con- 
sumed it. 

His  works,  polemical,  exegetical  and  hermeneutical, 
produced  in  little  more  than  twelve  years, — years  dis- 
tracted by  a  thousand  other  cares  and  occupations,  are 
a  lasting  memorial  of  his  industry  and  genius ;  they 
have  been  published  in  4  vols,  folio,  at  Basle,  in  1544; 
at  Zurich,  in  1581,  and  at  Basle  again,  in  1593.  They 
were  chiefly  written  in  German  and  translated  into 
liBitin. —Mosheim.    Eanke.    Waddington. 


FINIS. 


LEEDS : 

T.  HARRISON,  PRINTER, 

f)5,   BBIOGATE. 


TABLE. 

This  Table  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  Index,  nor  does  it 
contain  a  list  of  all  the  Lives  which  are  given  in  these 
Volumes.  The  chief  characters  have  been  classed  under 
their  respective  centuries,  that  the  student  may  be  enabled 
to  read  the  work  as  an  Ecclesiastical  History. 


CENTURY    I. 

Dionysius  of  Rome. 

Cerinthus. 

Firmilian. 

Clemens  Romanus. 

Gregory  Theodorus. 

Ebion. 

Hippolytus. 

Manes,  or  Manichseus. 

Noetus. 

CENTURY    11. 

Novatus  of  Carthage. 

Basilides. 

Novatus,  or  Novatian. 

Dionysius  of  Corinth. 

Origen. 

Ignatius. 

Sabellius. 

Ireuaeus. 

Tertullian. 

Justin  Martyr. 

Marcion. 

CENTURY  IV. 

Montanus. 

Papias. 

Aerius. 

Polycarp. 

Aetius. 

Ambrose. 

Apolinarius. 

CENTURY  III. 

Arius. 

Alban.  . 

Arsenius. 

Anthony. 

Athanasius. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus. 

Atticus. 

Cyprian. 

Augustine. 

Dionysius  of  Alexandria. 

Basil. 

VOL.  VIII. 

4    E 

866 


TABLE. 


Basil  of  Ancyra. 

Pelagius. 

Basil,  Martyr. 

Theodoret. 

Chrysostom. 

Cyril  of  Jerusalem. 

CENTURY  VI. 

Donatus. 

Ephraim,  or  Ephrem. 

Augustine. 
Benedict. 

Epiphanius. 

Columba. 

Eudoxius. 

Eanomius. 

Eusebius  of  Nicomedia. 

CENTURY  VII. 

Eusebius  Pamphilus. 

Adrian. 

Eustathius. 

Aldbelm. 

Flavian. 

Benedict,  Bissop. 

Gregory  Nazianzen. 

Cutbbert. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa. 

Maximus. 

Hilary. 

Theodore. 

Lactantius. 

Macedonius. 

Peter,  Bp.  of  Alexandria. 

CENTURY  VIII 

Priscillian. 

Alcuin. 

Rufinus,  or  Toranius. 

Bede. 

Boniface. 

CENTURY  V. 

Cuthbert. 

Arsenius. 

Atticus. 

CENTURY  IX. 

Augustine. 

Bertram. 

Basil,  Archbp.  of  Seleucia. 

Ceolfrid. 

Cassian,  Jobn. 

Gotteschalcus. 

Cyril  of  Alexandria. 

Hincmar. 

Eutyches. 

Photius. 

Gregory  tbe  Great. 

Hilary  of  Aries. 

Jerome. 

CENTURY  X. 

Leo  the  Great. 

MUric. 

Nestorius. 

Dunstan. 

Patrick. 

Erigena. 

TABLE, 


867 


CENTURY  XI. 

Peckham,  John. 

Aldred. 

Sorbonne,  Robert  de. 

Anselm. 

Berengarius. 

CENTURY  XIV. 

Hildebrand. 

Ailly,  or  D'Ailly. 

Lanfranc. 

Arundel,  Thomas. 

Stigand. 

Bradwardin. 
Courtney,  William. 

Langham,  Simon  de. 

CENTURY  XII. 

Richard  of  Armagh. 

Abelard. 

Wicliff. 

Arnold  of  Brescia. 

Wykeham. 

Baldwin. 

Barri,  Giraldensis. 

CENTURY   XV. 

Becket,  Thomas  £t. 

Adrian  de  Castello. 

Bernard  of  Clairvaux. 

Aleander. 

Bruys,  Peter. 

Arundel,  Thomas. 

Eadme. 

Bassarion. 

Peter  the  Hermit. 

Beaufort. 

Peter  the  Venerable. 
Roscellin,   or  Rousselin, 

Beaufort,  Henry. 
Bessarion,  John. 

John. 

Bourcher. 

Bouchier,  Thomas. 

CENTURY  XIII. 

Chichele,  Henry. 

Agnelli. 

Albertus  Magnus. 
Aquinas,  Thomas. 
Buonaventure. 
Boniface. 
Dominic. 

Francis  de  Paula. 
Huss,  John. 
Pecock,  Reynold. 
Savonarola. 
Waynflete,  William. 
Ximenes,  Francis. 

Edmund. 

Francis  of  Assisi. 

CENTURY  XVI. 

Grosseteste,  Robert. 

Abbot,  George. 

Langton,  Stephen. 

Abbot,  Robert. 

Occam. 

Adamson,  Patrick. 

868 


TABLE. 


Agricola. 

Alan,  or  Allen,  William. 
Alley,  William. 
Alsop. 

Anderson,  or  Andrese,  Lau- 
rence. 
Andrese,  or  Andreas,  James. 
Andrewes,  Launcelot. 
Arminiuts,  James. 
Aylmer,  John. 
Bale,  John. 
Bancroft,  Richard. 
Barlow. 

Barnes,  Robert. 
Baro,  or  Baron,  Peter. 
Baronius,  Caesar. 
Beaton. 
Beccold,  John. 
Becon,  Thomas. 
Bentham,  Thomas. 
Beza,  Theodore. 
Bilney,  Thomas. 
Bonner,  Edmund. 
Borromeo,  Charles, 
Bossuet. 
Bradford,  John. 
Browne,  George. 
Bucer,  Martin. 
BuUinger,  Henry. 
Cajetan. 
Calvin. 

Campegio,  or  Campejus. 
Campian,  or  Campion. 
Carolostadt. 
Cartwright,  Thomas. 
Cassander,  George. 


Cheney,  Richard. 
Cole,  Henry. 
Colet,  John. 
Coverdale,  Miles. 
Cox,  Richard. 
Cranmer,  Thomas. 
Bering,  Edward. 
Dowdall,  George. 
Eck,  John. 
Erasmus. 

Feckenham,  John  de. 
Eerrar,  Robert. 
Fisher,  John,  (Bishop) 
Fisher,  John,  (Jesuit) 
Fletcher,  Richard. 
Fox,  John. 

Fox,  Richard,  (Bishop) 
Francis  de  Borgia. 
Gardiner,  Stephen. 
Gilpin  Bernard. 
Grindal,  Edmund. 
Heath,  Nicholas. 
Hooker,  Richard. 
Hooper,  John. 
Humphrey,  Laurence, 
Jewel,  John. 
Knox,  John. 
Latimer,  Hugh. 
Loyola,  Ignatius. 
Luther,  Martin. 
Martyr,  Peter. 
Melanchthon. 
Muncer. 

Osiander,  Andrew. 
Parker,  Matthew. 
Philpot,  John. 


TABLE. 


869 


Pole,  Reginald. 

Biddle,  John. 

Redmayne,  John. 

Bilson,  Thomas. 

Regius,  Urban. 

Bishop,  William. 

Ridley,  Nicholas. 

Blackwell,  George, 

Rogers,  John. 

Bramhall,  John. 

Sandys,  or  Sandes,  Edwin. 

Brevint,  Daniel. 

Saravia,  Adrian. 

Brown,  Robert. 

Socinus,  Eaustus. 

Brownrig,  Ralph. 

Socinus,  Loelius. 

Buckeridge,  John. 

Taylor,  Rowland. 

Bull,  George. 

Tunstall,  Cuthbert. 

Burges,  Cornelius. 

Tyndale,  William. 

Burnet,  Gilbert. 

Warham,  William. 

Burton,  Henry. 

Whitgift,  John. 

Butler,  Joseph. 

Wolsey,  Thomas. 

Cartwright,  Thomas. 

Xavier,  Francis. 

Casaubon,  Isaac. 

Zanchi,  or  Zanchius,  Jerome. 

Cheynell,  Francis. 

Zuinglius,  or  Zwingli. 

Chillingworth,  William 

Comber,  Thomas. 

Compton,  Henry. 

CENTURY    XVII. 

Cosin,  John. 

Aidan. 

Donne,  John. 

Ainsworth,  Henry. 

Edwards,  Thomas. 

Aldrich,  Henry. 

Episcopius,  Simon. 

Allestree,  Richard. 

Ferrar,  Nicholas. 

Alleine. 

Field,  Richard. 

Allix,  Peter. 

Fox,  George. 

Arnauld,  Antoine. 

Francis  de  Sales. 

Asheton. 

Hall,  Joseph. 

Atterbury,  Francis. 

Hammond,  Henry. 

Barrow,  Isaac. 

Harsnet,  Samuel. 

Barwick,  John. 

Henderson,  Alexander. 

Basire. 

Herbert,  George. 

Baxter. 

Heylin,  Peter. 

Bellarmine. 

Hody,  Humphrey. 

Beveridge. 

Horneck,  Anthony. 

870 


TABLE. 


Jansen. 

Juxon,  William. 
Kettlewell,  John. 
Laud,  "William. 
Lightfoot,  John. 
Lucar,  Cyril. 
Melville,  Andrew. 
More,  Henry. 
Morton,  Thomas. 
Mountagu,  Eichard. 
Parsons,  Kobert. 
Patrick,  Symon. 
Pearson,  John. 
Pocock,  Edward. 
Potter,  Christopher. 
Prideaux,  John, 
Rainolds,  John. 
Reynolds,  Edward. 
Richer,  Edmund. 
Sampson,  Thomas. 
Bancroft,  William. 
Sanderson,  Robert. 
Sarpi. 

Sharp,  James. 
Sheldon,  Gilbert. 
Sherlock,  William. 
Spotswood,  orSpottiswoode, 

John. 
Sterne,  Richard. 
Stillingfleet,  Edward. 
Taylor,  Jeremy. 
Thomas,  William. 
Tillotson,  John. 
Usher,  or  Ussher,  James. 
Vorstius,  Conrad. 
Walton,  Brian. 


Williams,  John. 
Wishart,  or  Wischeart, 

George. 
Witsius,  Herman. 
Womock,  Laurence. 
Worthington,  John. 
Wren,  Matthew. 


CENTURY  XVIII. 

Alexander. 
Bentley,  Richard. 
Berkeley,  George. 
Bingham,  Joseph.. 
Bisse,  Thomas. 
Brett,  Thomas. 
Clarke,  Samuel. 
Collier,  Jeremy. 
Courayer,  Peter  Francis. 
Dupin,  Louis  Ellis. 
Fenelon. 
Ganganelli. 
Gibson,  Edmund. 
Grabe,  John  Ernest. 
Hickes,  George. 
Hoadley,  Benjamin. 
Home,  George. 
Horsley,  Samuel. 
Hough,  John. 
Johnson,  Samuel. 
Ken,  Thomas. 
King,  William. 
Leslie,  Charles. 
Lloyd,  William. 
I         Potter,  John. 


TABLE. 


871 


Powell,  William  Samuel. 
Prideaux,  Humphrey. 
Sacheverell,  Henry. 
Sage,  Bishop. 
Seeker,  Thomas. 
Sharp,  John. 
Sherlock,  Thomas. 
South,  Robert. 
Tenison,  Thomas. 
Townson,  Thomas. 
"Wake,  William. 


Warburton,  William. 
Waterland,  Daniel. 
Wesley,  John. 
Whiston,  William. 
Whitby,  Daniel. 
Whitefield,  George. 
Wilson,  Thomas. 
Winchester,  Thomas. 
Witherspoon,  John. 
Worthington,  William. 
Zinzendorf,  Nicholas  Lewis. 


Leeds,  May,  1852. 


FINALIS. 


liat  nf  atnrks, 
BY  THE   EEV,  W.  F-  HOOK,    D.D. 


VICAR    OF     LEEDS. 


AN    ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGRAPHY,    containing    the 

Lives  of  Ancient  Fathers  and  Modem  Divines,  interspersed  with  Notires 
ol'  Heretics  and  Schismatics,  forming  a  brief  History  of  the    Church  in 
every  age.    Vols.  1,  2,  3,4,  and  5,  uniformly  bound  in  cloth  boards,  (is. 
each.    Also,  uniform -with  the  above,  Vol.  VI. ,6s.  6d;   Vol.  VII.,  6s. 
Vol.  VIII.,  just  published,  uniform  with  the  preceding  vols.,  Price  8s.  6d  . 

A    CHURCH   DICTIONARY.      Sixth  Edition,   8vo.     In 

THE  Press. 

THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  VINDICATED  AGAINST 

KOMANISM  AND  ULTEA-PKOTESTANTISM,  in  Sermons  preached 
and  published  on  various  occasions.     Price  4s.  6d.  cloth  boai-ds. 

THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST ;   or  Meditations  on  the  Death 

and  Passion  of  our  Blessed  Lord  and  Saviour.  Edited  by  \V.  F. 
Hook,  D.D.    Second  Edition,    Price  3s.  cloth. 

THE   LAST   DAYS   OF  OUR  LORD'S  MINISTRY.    A 

Course  of  Lectures  delivered  during  Passion  Week.  Foolscap  8vo.,  boards. 
Price  6s.    Fourth  Edition. 

FIVE  SERMONS,  preached  hefore  the  University  of  Oxford. 

Third  Edition.     Foolscap  8vo.,  Price  3s. 

SERMONS  ON  THE  MIRACLES  OF  OUR  LORD: 

preached  in  Lent.    2  vols.    Price  10s. 

PASTORAL  ADVICE  to  YOUNG  PEOPLE  PREPARING 

FOR  CONFIRMATION.    Second  Edition.    Price  2d.,  cloth,  4d. 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  ON  CONFIRMATION.  2d. 
PRIVATE  PRAYERS.     Fourth  Edition. 

These  Prayers  are  dei-ived  almost  exclusively  from  ancient  sources,  the 
business  of  the  Compiler  having  chiefly  been  to  adapt  them  for  modern 
use,  and  the  purposes  of  Private  devotion. 

FAMILY  PRAYERS.       The  object  of  this  publication  is  to 

adapt  to  thefpurposes  of  Family  Prayer,  the  Morning  and  Evening  Services 
of  the  Church. 

A  LETTER  TO  HIS  PARISHIONERS,  on  the  Use  of  the 

Athanasian  Creed,  with  Scripture  References.    Fourth  Edition. 

A  CALL  TO   UNION  ON  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE 

ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  A  Visitation  Sermon.  Fourth  Edition. 
Price  2s.  6d. 

THE  THREE  REFORMATIONS ;    Lutheran,  Roman,  and 

Anglican.     Third  Edition.    Price  3s.    (MURRAY.) 


2  WORKS    PUBLISHED    BY   T.HARRISON,   LEEDS. 

SERMONS    ON    VARIOUS    SUBJECTS.      Demy   12mo., 

boards.    Second  Edition.    Price  7s.  6d. 

REASONS    for  Contributing  towards  the  Support  of  an 

English  Bisliop  at  Jerusalem,  stated  in  a  Letter  to  a  Friend.  8vo., 
stitched. 

ON  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  ESTABLISHMENT.  Two 

Plain  Sermons.    Price  4d. 

THE   CATHOLICISM   OF  THE  ANGLICAN   CHURCH 

AND  ITS  BRAN^CHES.    A  Sermon.    Price  3d. 

THE  SIN  AND  DANGER  OF  LUKEWARMNESS.     A 

Sermon,  preached  at  the  Opening  of  the  Nave  of  the  Paiish  Church  of 
Leamington  Priors,  on  Thursday,  the  9th  of  May,  1844.  Price  2d.,  or  100 
for  14s. 

TAKE   HEED  WHAT   YE   HEAR.      A  Sermon,  with  a 

Preface  on  some  of  the  existing  Controversies  in  the  Church.  Second 
Edition,    Price  6d. 

THE  CATHOLIC  CLERGY  OF  IRELAND ;  Their  Cause 

Defended.  A  Sei-mon  preached  in  the  Parish  Church  of  Buckingham,  on 
Thursday,  January  7th,  1836.    Price  4d. 

THE  NOVELTIES  OF  ROMANISM :   or,  Popery  Refuted 

by  Tradition.  A  Sermon,  preached  in  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Manches- 
ter.   Price  3d. 

THE  GOSPEL,  AND  THE  GOSPEL  ONLY,  THE  BASIS 

OF  EDUCATION.  A  Sermon,  preached  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Liverpool. 
Price  4d. 

FAREWELL  SERMON.    Preached  at  Coventry.    Price  2d. 
AN  INAUGURAL  DISCOURSE.    Preached  in  the  Parish 

Church  of  Leeds.    Price  2d. 

MUTUAL  FORBEARANCE  IN  THINGS  INDIFFERENT. 

A  Sermon,  preached  at  the  Consecration  of  St.  John's  Church,  Hawarden. 
Price  3d. 

PERIL  OF  IDOLATRY.     A  Sermon,  preached  at  the  Con- 

secration  of  Clifford  Church,  in  the  Diocese  of  York.    Price  2d. 

HEAR  THE  CHURCH.  A  Sermon  preached  at  the  Cha- 
pel Royal,  St.  James's  Palace,  on  the  First  Sunday  after  Trinity,  June  17th, 
1838.    Price  2d. 

SHE  LOVED  MUCH ;    and,  THE  HEM  OF  HIS  GAR- 

MENT.    Two  Sermons,  with  a  Preface  on  the  late  Schisms.    Price  Is. 

THE   EUCHARIST,  A   SACRAMENT   AND    A  SACRI- 

FICE.      A  Sermon,  preached  at  Birch  Church,  on  Sunday,  the  5th  July, 

1846,  being  the  Sunday  immediately  following  the  Consecration.   Price  6d. 

THE  MOTHER  OF  OUR  LORD,  AND  MaRIOLATRY. 

A  Sermon,  preached  in  the  Paj-ish  Church  of  Leeds,  on  the  7th  February, 

1847.  Price  6d. 

MODERATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  A 

Sermon.    Price  6d. 


WORKS   PUBLISHED    BY    T.  HARPaSON,   LEEDS.  3 

I  MAGNIFY  MINE  OFFICE.    A  Sermon  preached  in  the 

Cathedral  Church  of  Ripon,  on  Sunday,  19th  September,  1847,  at  the 
General  Ordination  of  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Ripon.  Published  at  the 
request  of  his  Lordship,  and  of  the  Candidates  for  Holy  Orders.     Price  6d. 

THE   INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS,  A  Romish  Sin  ;  THE 

COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS,  an  Article  of  the  Creed.  A  Sermon, 
preached  in  the  Parish  Church  of  Leeds,  on  the  31st  January,  1847. 
Price  6d. 

OIJR    HOLY    AND    OUR  BEAUTIFUL   HOUSE,   THE 

CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  A  Sermon  preached  at  the  Re-opening  of 
the  Parish  Church  of  Leeds,  September,  3rd,  1848.  With  reference  to  a 
late  Act  of  Apostacy.     Price  6d. 

AURICULAR  CONFESSION.      A  Sermon  preached  in  the 

Parish  Church  of  Leeds,  October  29th,  1848,  with  a  Preface,  Appendix,  and 
Copious  Notes.    Price  Is. 

THE   NONENTITY  OF   ROMISH   SAINTS,  AND  THE 

INANITY  OF  ROMISH  ORDINANCES.    Price  2s.  6d.    (Murray.) 

ON  THE  MEANS  OF  RENDERING  MORE  EFFICIENT 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  A  Letter  to  the  Lord  Bishop 
of  St.  David's.     Tenth  Edition.    8vo.,  2s.  6d,    (Murray.) 

THE  DUTY  OF  ENGLISH  CHURCHMEN,  AND  THE 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  LEEDS.  A  Seimon  preached 
on  the  Tenth  Anniversary  of  the  Consecration  of  the  Leeds  Parish  Church, 
Sept.  2nd,  18-51.    8vo,  price  One  Shilling.    (Murray.) 

IHorppti)  ©ottsecratton  Sermons. 

1.  THE  ORDER  OF  THE  VISITATION  OF  THE  SICK. 

with  Remarks  on  Confession  and  Absolution.    Price  6d. 

2.  THE  ORDINATION  SERVICES   OF  THE  CHURCH 

OF  ENGLAND.    Price  6d. 

3.  THE  BAPTISMAL  OFFICES.    Price  6d. 

4.  ON  CONFIRMATION.      Price  2d.  each,  or  14s.  per  100. 


WHAT   ARE   THE   BEST   MEANS  OF  RECLAIMING 

our  Lost  Population?  A  Report  presented  to  the  Ruri-Decanal  Chapter, 
of  Leeds  ;  from  a  Commitee  of  that  Body,  Oct.  20th,  1851.  Published  by 
authority  of  the  Chapter.    Demy  8vo,  price  8d. 

RITUAL  WORSHIP,    A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE 

Consecration  of  St.  Thomas,  in  Leeds,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Purification 
of  St.  Mary,  1852.  By  the  Rev.  Charles  Dodgson,  M.A.,  Rector  of 
Croft,  Rural  Deau,  and  Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
Ripon.    Price  6d. 

A  LETTER  TO  THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  RIPON,  WITH 

reference  to  a  Sei-mon  recently  published,  under  the  title  of  "Ritual 
"Worship."  By  the  Rev.  Charles  Dodoson,  M.A.,  his  Lordship's 
Chaplain,  and  the  Author  of  the  Sermon,    Price  6d. 


4  WORKS    PUBLl^UEi)    BY    T.  HAIiillSOK,    LEEDS. 

A  CATECHISM   ON   GOSPEL    HISTORY ;    FOR   OUR 

National  and  Sunday  Schools,  and  for  Private  Schools  and  FamiJies ; 
where  those  engaged  in  the  work  of  Christian  Education  are  desirous  of 
implanting  true  Chiu-ch  Principles.  By  the  Rev.  Samuel  Kettlkwkll, 
Leeds.    Foolscap  Svo,  Cloth  boards.    Price  2s.  6d. 

NO    NEED   OF   A   LIVING  INFALLIBLE  GUIDE  IN 

MATTERS  OF  FAITH.  A  series  of  Sermons,  recently  preached  in 
V/hitliirk  Church.  By  the  Rev.  Arthur  Martineau,  -M.A,,  Vicar  of  "Whit- 
kirk,  Yorkshire,  and  Rural  Dean.     Published  by  request.    8to,  bds.  2s. 6d. 

WHAT   IS    MY    DUTY?      A  SERIES  OF   CHAPTERS 

on  the  Moral  and  Religious  Duties  of  Christians.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  A. 
Martiueau,  M.  A.,  Yicar  of  Whitkirk.    Price  3s.  6d. 

THE   DUTY  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP  PROVED :  AVITH 

Directions  for  a  Devout  Behaviour  therein;  and  an  Account  of  the  Use 
and  Method  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer;  in  Question  and  Answer. 
By  Francis  Fox,  M.A.    Price  4d. 

THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  TEACHER'S   MANUAL.      This 

interesting  Volume  forms  a  valuable  Help  to  Sunday  School  Instruction. 
Price  2s.,  handsomely  bound  in  crimson  cloth. 

CONSTITUTION  AND    HISTORY  OF  THE   ENGLISH 

CHURCH.  A  Catechism  for  the  use  of  Parochial  Schools.  Second 
Edition,  improved.    Price  4d. 

OUTLINES   OF   ENGLISH   HISTORY,   being  a  List  of 

the  most  remarkable  events  in  the  History  of  England.  Tliird  Edition. 
Foolscap  8vo.    Price  6d. 

POOR    HENRY   AND   OTHER    STORIES;    Comprising, 

Poor  Henry,  or  the  Little  Pilgrim;  the  Cripple  of  Rothenstein;  and  the 
Young  Drummer,  or  the  Affectionate  Son,  a  Tale  of  the  Russian  Campaign. 
Crimson  cloth,  gilt.    Price  Is.  6d. 

FORTUNE  SEEKING  IN  THE  CAPITAL.    A  true  Story, 

Translated  from  the  French.  By  the  Countess  of  Agenor  de  Gasparin. 
And,  the  Life  of  Stephen  Mirbel,  being  a  Translation  from  the  German. 
Crimson  cloth,  gilt.    Price  Is.  6d. 

JOSEPH    PAEHLER    AND    OTHER    STORIES.      Com- 

prising,  Joseph  Paehler,  or  the  Man  who  Would  be  Rich;  The  School- 
master, a  Tale  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War;  and  Frederic  Lambert,  or  the  Stu- 
dent of  Leipzig.     Crimson  cloth,  gilt.    Price  Is.  6d. 

THE     CHURCH     SUNDAY     SCHOOL     MAGAZINE.— 

Published  MoNTHLr, — Pkice  One  Penny. — Designed  to  afford 
reading  of  an  interesting,  instructive,  and  religious  character,  for  Pupil 
Teachers,  Sunday  Scholars,  and  the  younger  members  generally,  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Recommended  as  admirably  adapted  for  distribution 
in  Sunday  Schools.  The  Sixth  Volume,  (for  1851)  hand.somcly  bound  iu 
crimson  cloth,  forming  an  appropriate  Present  or  Reward  Book,  recently 
published.  Price  Is.  8d.  A  few  copies  of  former  vols,  uniform  therewith, 
may  still  be  hnd. 

London:  RiviNGTONs;    Oxford:  Parker;    Derby :  Mozley  ; 
and  T.  HARRISON,  LEEDS. 


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