any till he found it out such wherein he is not like to finde many followers though the way be opened I know it is no unusuall thing for works of different Arguments publisht at severall times and dedicated to severall persons to be drawn together into one Volume and being so drawn together to retain still those particular Titles and Dedications which at first they had But I dare confidently say that our Historian is the first who writing a Book of the same Argument not published by peece-meal as it came from his hand but in a full and intire Volume hath filled his Sheets with so many Title-leaves and Dedications as we have before us For in this one Book taking in the History of Cambridge which is but an Appendix to it there are no fewer then 12 particular Titles beside the generall as many particular Dedications and no fewer then fifty eight or sixty of those By-Inscriptions which are addrest to his particular Friends and Benefactors which make it bigger by fourty Sheets at the least then it had been otherwise Nay so ambitious he is of encreasing the Number of his Patrons that having but four Leaves to come to the end of his History he findes out a particular Benefactress to inscribe it to Which brings into my minde the vanity of Vitellius in bestowing and of Roscius Regulus for accepting the Consular Dignity for that part of the day on which Cecina by Order and Decree of the Senate was degraded from it Of which the Historian gives this Note that it was Magno cum irrisu accipientis tribuentisque a matter of no mean disport amongst the People for a long time after But of this Argument our Author heard so much at the late Act in Oxford that I shall say no more of it at this present time 3. In the next ranck of Impertinencies which are more intrinsecal part of the substance of the work I account his Heraldry Blazons of Arms Dâ—scenis of noble Families with their Atchievements intermingled as they come in his way not pertinent I am sure to a Church-Hâ—storian unless such persons had been Founders of Episcopal Sees or Religious Houses or that the Arms so blazoned did belong to either Our Author tells us lib. 5. fol. 191. that knowledge in the Laws of this Land is neither to be expected or required in one of his profession and yet I trow considering the great influence which the Laws have upon Church-matters the knowledge of the Law cannot be so unnecessary in the way of a Clergy-man as the study of Heraldry But granting Heraldry to be an Ornament in all them that have it yet is it no ingredient requisite to the composition of an Ecclesiastical History The Copies of Battle-Abbey Roll fitter for Stow and Hollingsheâ—d where before we had them can in an History of the Church pretend to no place at all though possibly the names of some may be remembred as their Foundations or Endowments of Churches give occasion for it The Arms of the Knights-Errant billeted in the Isâ—e of Ely by the Norman Conqueror is of like extravagancy Such also is the Catalogue of those noble Adventurers with their Arms Issue and Atchievements who did accompany King Richard the first to the War of Palestine which might have better serv'd as an Appendix to his History of the Holy Warâ— then found a place in the main Body of an History of the Church of England Which three alone besides many intercalatious of that kinde in most parts of the Book make up eight sheets more inserted onely for the ostentation of his skill in Heraldry in which notwithstanding he hath fallen on as palpable Errors as he hath committed in his History For besides those which are observed in the course of this work I finde two others of that kinde in his History of Cambridge to be noted here For fol. 146. he telleth us That Alice Countess of Oxford was Daughter and sole Heir of Gilbert Lord Samford which Gilbert was Hereditary Lord Chamberlain of England But by his leave Gilbert Lord Samford was never the Heriditary Chamberlain of the Realm of England but onely Chamberlain in Fee to the Queens of England betwixt which Offices how vast a difference there is let our Authour judge And secondly The Honor of Lord Chamberlain of England came not unto the Earls of Oxford by that Marriage or by any other but was invested in that Family before they had attained the Title and Degree of Earls Conferred by King Henry the first on Aubrey de Vere a right puissant Person and afterwards on Aubrey de Vere his Son together with the Earldom of Oxford by King Henry the second continuing Hereditary in that House till the death of Robert Duke of Ireland the ninth Earl thereof and then bestowed for a time at the Kings discretion and at last setled by King Charls in the House of Lindsey But because being a Cambridge Man he may be better skild in the Earls of that County let as see what he saith of them and we shall finde fol. 162. That Richard Plantagenet Duke of York was the eighth Earl of Cambridge Whereas first Richard Duke of York was not Earl of Cambridge And secondly If he had been such he must have been the seventh Earl and not the eighth For thus those Earls are marshalled in our Catalogues of Honor and Books of Heraldry viz. 1. William de Meschines 2. Iohn de â—amalt 3. William Marquess of Iuliers 4. Edmond of Langley D. of York 5. Edward D. of York 6. Richard de Conisburgh yonger Brother of Edward 7. Iames Marquess Hamilton c. No Richard Duke of York to be found amongst them his Father Richard of Konisburgh having lost that Title by Attainder which never was restored to Richard his Son though most improvidently advanced to the Dukedom of York nor unto any other of that Line and Family 4. Proceed we in the next place to Verses and old ends of Poetry scattered and dispersed in all parts of the History from one end to the other for which he hath no precedent in any Historian Greek or Latine or any of the National Histories of these latter times The Histories of Herodotus Xenophon Thucydides and Plutarch amongst the Greeks of Caesar Livy Salust Taciâ—us and Sueâ—onius amongst the Latines afford him neither warrant nor example for it The like may be affirmed of Eusâ—bius Socrates Sâ—zomen Theodoret Russin and Evagrius Church Historians all though they had all the best choice and the most excellent Poets of the world to befriend them in it And he that shall consult the Histories of succeeding times through all the Ages of the Church to this present day will finde â—hâ—m all as barren of any incouragements in this kinde as the ancients were Nay whereas Bishop Godwin in his Annals gives us an Epitaph of two Verses onely made on Queen Iane Seymour and afterwards a Copy of eighteen verses on the Martyrdom of Arch Bishop Cranmer
he ushers in the last with this short Apology Contra morâ—m â—â—storiae liceat quaeso inserere c. Let me saith he I beseech you insert these following verses though otherwise against the Rule and Laws of History But what alass were eighteen or twenty verses compared with those many hundred six or seven hundred at the least which we finde in our Author whether to shew the universality of his reading in all kinde of Writers or his faculty in Translating which when he meets with hard Copies he knows how to spare I shall not determine at the present Certain I am that by the interlarding of his Prose with so many Verses he makes the Book look rather like a Church-Romance our late Romancers being much given to such kinde of Mixtures then a wellâ— built Ecclesiastical History And if it be a marter so inconvenient to put a new piece of cloth on an old garment the putting of so many old patches on a new piâ—â—e of cloth must be more unfashonable Besides that many of these old ends are so light and ludicrous so little pertinent to the business which he has in hand that they serve onely to make sport for Children ut pueris placeas Declamatio fias and for nothing else 5. This leads me to the next impertinency his raking into the Chanel of old Popish Legends writ in the daâ—ker times of Superstition but written with an honest zeal and a good intention as well to raise the Reader to the admiration of the person of whom they write as to the emulalation of his vertues But being mixt with some Monkâ—â—h dotages the most learned and ingenious men in the Church of Rome have now laid them by and it had been very well if our Author had done so to but that there must be something of entertainment for the gentle Reader and to inflame the reckoning which he pays not for But above all things recommend me to his Merry Tales and scraps of Trencherâ— jests frequently interlaced in all parts of the History which if abstracted from the rest and put into a Book by themselves might very well be serv'd up for a second course to the Banquet of Iosts a Supplement to the old Book entituled Wits Fits and Fancies or an Additional Century to the old Hundred Merry Tales so long since extant But standing as they do they neither do become the gravity of a Church-Historian nor are consistent with the nature of a sober Argument But as it seems our Author came with the same thoughts to the writing of this present History as Poets anciently addrest themselves to the writing of Comedies of which thus my Terence Poeta cum primum animum ad scribendum appulit Id sibi negâ—tii credidit solum dari Populo ut placerent quas â—ecisset fabulas That is to say Thus Poets when their minde they first apply In looser verse to frame a Comedy Think there is nothing more for them to do Then please the people whom they speak unto 6. In the last place proceed we to the manifold excursions about the Antiquity of Cambridge built on as weak Authoritie as the Monkish Legends and so impertinent to the matter which he hath in hand that the most Reverend Mat. Parker though a Cambridge Man in his Antiquitates Britanicae makes no business of it The more impertinent in regard that at the fag-end of his Book there follows a distinct History of that University to which all former passages might have been reduced But as it seems he was resolved to insert nothing in that History but what he had some probable ground for leaving the Legendary part thereof to the Church-Romance as mâ—st proper for it And certainly he is wondrous wise in his generation For fearing lest he might be asked for those Bulls and Chartularies which frequently he relates unto in the former Books he tells us in the History of Cambridge fol. 53. That they were burnt by some of the seditious Townsmen in the open Market place Anno 1380. or thereabouts So that for want of otâ—eâ— ancient evidence we must take his word which whether those of Cambridge will depend upon they can best resolve For my part I forbear all intermedling in a controversie so clearly stated and which hath lain so long asleep till now awakened by our Author to beget new quarrels Such passages in that History as come under any Animadversion have been reduced unto the other as occasion served which the Reader may be pleased to take notice of as they come before him 7. All these extravagancies and impertinencies which make up a fifth part of the whole Volumn being thus discharged it is to be presum'd that nothing should remain but a meer Church History as the Title promiseth But let us not be too presumptuous on no better grounds For on a Melius inquirendum into the whole course of the Book which we have before us we shall finde too little of the Church and too much of the State I mean too little of the Ecclesiastical and too much of the Civil History It might be reasonably expected that in a History of the Church of England we should have heard somewhat of the foundation and enlargement of Cathedral Churches if not of the more eminent Monasteries and Religious Houses and that we should have heard somewhat more of the succession of Bishops in their several and respective Sees their personal Endowments learned Writings and other Acts of Piety Magnificence and publick Interess especially when the times afforded any whose names in some of those respects deserv'd to be retain'd in everlasting remembrance it might have been expected also that we should have found more frequent mention of the calling of National and Provincial Synods with the result of their proceedings and the great influence which they had on the Civil State sparingly spoken of at the best and totally discontinued in a maner from the death of King Henry the fourth until the Convocation of the year 1552. of which no notice had been taken but that he had a minde to question the Authority of the Book of Articles which came out that year though publisht as the issue and product of it by the express Warrant and Command of King Edward the sixth No mention of that memorable Convocation in the fourth and fifth years of Philip and Mary in which the Clergy taking notice of an Act of Parliament then newly passed by which the Subjects of the Temporaliâ—y having Lands to the yearly value of five pounds and upwards were charged with finding Horse and Armour according to the propertion of their yearly Revenues and Possessions did by their sole Authority as a Convocation impose upon themselves and the rest of the Clergy of this Land the finding of a like number of Horses Armour and other Necessaries for the War according to their yearly income proportion for proportion and rate for rate as by that Statute had been laid on the
England is much beholding to our Author for making question whether their adhering to the Liturgy then by Law established were not to be imputed rather unto obstinacy and doating then to love and constancy The Liturgy had been lookt on as a great blessing of God upon this Nation by the generality of the people for the spâ—ce of fourscore years and upwards they found it estâ—â—lisâ—t by the Law seal'd by the bloud of those that made it confirm'd by many godly and religious Pâ—inces and had almost no other form of making their ordinary addresses to Almighty God but what was taught them in the Book of Common-Prayer And could any discreet man think or wise man hope that a form of Prayer so univeâ—sally receiv'd and so much esteem'd could be laid by without reluctancy in those who had been so long accustom'd to it or called obstinacy or doating in them if they did not presently submit to every new nothing which in the name of the then disputable Authority should be laid before them And though our Author doth profess that in the agitating of this Controveâ—sie pro and con he will reserve his private opinion to himself yet he discovers it too plainly in the present passage Quid verba audiam cum facta videam is a good rule here He must needs shew his private opinion in this point say he what he can who makes a question whether the adhesion of the people generally to the publick Liturgy were built on obstinacy and doating or on love and constancy But if it must be obstinacy or doating in the generality of the people to adhere so cordially unto the Book of Common-Prayer I marvel what it must be called in Stephen Marshall of Essex that great Bel-weather for a time of the Presbyterians who having had a chief hand in compiling the Directory did notwithstanding marry his own Daughter by the form prescrib'd in the Common-Prayer Book and having so done paid down five pound immediately to the Church-wardens of the Parish as the fine or forfeiture for using any other form of Marriâ—ge then that of the Directory The like to which I have credibly been infoâ—med was done by Mr. Knightly of Fawsley on the like occasion and probably by many others of the same strain also With like favour he beholds the two Universities as he dâ—e the Liturgy and hard it is to say which he injureth most And first beginning with Oxford he lets us know that Fol. 231. Lately certain Delegates from the University of Oxford pleaded their priviledges before the Committee of Parliament that they were only visitable by the King and such who should be deputed by him But their Allegations were not of proof against the Paramount power of Parliament the rather because a passage in an Article at the rendition of Oxford was urged against them wherein they were subjected to such a Visitation Our Author here subjects the Vniversity of Oxford to the power of the Parliament and that not only in regard of that Paramount power which he ascribes unto the Parliament that is to say the two Houses of Parliament for so we are to understand him above all Estates but also in regard of an Article concerning the surrendry of Oxford by which that Vniversity was subjected to such Visitations I finde indeed that it was agreed on by the Commissioners on both sides touching the Surrendry of that City That the Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxon and the Governors and Students of Christ-Church of King H. 8. his Foâ—ndation and all other Heads and Governors Masters Fellows and Scholars of the Colledges Halls and Bodies Corporate and Societies of the same University and the publiâ—â—â— Professors and Readers and the Orator thereoâ— and all other persons belonging to the said University or to any Colledges or Halls therein shall and may according to their Statutes Charters and Customs enjoy their antient form of government suboâ—dinate to the immediate Authority and power of Parliament But I finde not that any of the Heads or Delegates of that University were present at the making of this Article or consented â—o it or thoâ—ght themselves oblig'd by any thing contained in it Nor indeed could it stand with reason that they should wave the patronage of a gracious Soveraign who had been a Nursing Father to them and put themselves under the arbitrary power of those who they knew minded nothing but destruction toward them And that the University did not think it self oblig'd by any thing contained in that Article appears even by our Author himself who tells us in this very passage that the Delegates from the Vniversity pleaded their priviledges before the Committee of Parliament that they were only visitable by the King and such as should be deputed by him which certainly they had never done unless our Author will conclude them to be fools or mad-men had they before submitted to that Paramount power which he adscribes unto the Houses Nor did the Houses of Parliament finde themselves impowered by this clause of the Article to obtrude any such Visitation on them And therefore when the Delegates had pleaded and prov'd their priviledges a Commission for a Visitation was issued by the two Houses of Parliament in the name of the King but under the new broad Seal which themselves had made which notwithstanding the University stood still on their own defence in regard that though the Kings name was us'd in that Commission yet they knew well that he had never given his consent unto it Whereupon followed that great alteration both 〈◊〉 the Heads and Members of most Colledges which our Author speaks of Nor deals he much more candidly in relating the proceedings of the Visitation which was made in Cambridge the Visitors whereof as acting by the Paramount power of Parliament he more sensibly favoureth then the poor sufferers or malignant members as he calls them of that Vniversity For whereas the Author of the Book called Querela Cantabrigionsis hath told us of an Oath of Discovery obtruded by the Visitors upon several persons whereby they were sworn to detect one another even their dearest friends Our Author who was out of the storm seeming not satisfied in the truth of this relation must write to Mr. Ash who was one of those Visitors to be inform'd in that which he knew before and on the reading of Mr. Ash his Answer declares expresly that no such Oath was tendred by him to that Vniversity But first Mr. Ash doth not absolutely deny that there was any such Oath but that he was a stranger to it and possibly he might be so far a stranger to it as not to be an Actor in that part of the Tragedy Secondly Mr. Ash only saith that he cannot call to minde that any such thing was mov'd by the Earl of Manchester and yet I â—row such a thing might be mov'd by the Earl of Manchester though Mr. Ash after so many years was willing not