that perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a spiritual manner and received by Faith And to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion division Upon this these words were by common consent left out and in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them This shews that the Doctrine of the Church then subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real and Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Tho from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence Some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward 's time and that they were for a Real Presence And that our Protestant Bishops that were martyr'd in Queen Mary's days were against this expression of a Real Presence of Christ as a Natural Body appears by those Questions which they disputed on solemnly at Oxford before their Martyrdom The first Question Whether the Natural Body of Christ was Really in the Sacrament The second Whether no other substance did remain but the Body and Blood of Christ Both which they held in the Negative So that since this expression of a Real Presence of Christ's Body was not maintained by our first Protestant Reformers nor used by the Church of England in her Articles I do not see of what use it can be now tho perhaps only meant in a spiritual sence by most that make use of it For the real presence of a Body and yet unbodily I suppose those that speak thus understand as little as I do unless that some Men love to come as near the Papists as may be in their expressions tho without any hopes now of ever making them approach the nearer to us and in the mean time giving matter of offence and scandal to divers ignorant and weak Christians of our own Religion The fifth Point that the Doctor taxes the Lord Primat with as held by him contrary to the Church of England is That she teaches that the Priest hath power to forgive Sins as may be easily proved by three several Arguments not very easie to be answered The first is from those solemn words used in the Ordination of the Priest or Presbyter that is to say Receive the Holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive they are forgiven and whose Sins ye retain they are retained Which were a gross prophanation of the words of our Lord and Saviour and a meer mockery of the Priest if no such power were given unto him as is there affirmed The second Argument is taken from one of the Exhortations before the Communion where we find the people are exhorted by the Priest that if they cannot quiet their Consciences they should come unto him or some other discreet Minister of God's Word and open their grief that they may receive such ghostly advice and comfort as their Consciences may be relieved and that by the Ministry of God's Word they may receive Comfort and the benefit of Absolution to the quieting of their Consciences and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness The third and most material Proof is the Form prescribed for the Visitation of the Sick In which it is required that after the sick Person hath made a Confession of his Faith and professed himself to be in Charity with all Men he shall then make a special Confession if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter And then it follows that after such Confession the Minister shall absolve him in this manner viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to absolve all Sinners that truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Amen Of the first of these three places deduced all of them from the best Monuments and Records of the Church of England the Lord Primat takes notice in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge p. 109. where he treateth purposely of the Priests power to forgive Sins but gives us such a Gloss upon it as utterly subverts as well the Doctrine of this Church in that particular as her purpose in it And of the second he takes notice p. 81. where he speaks purposely of Confession but gives us such a Gloss upon that also as he did upon the other But of the third which is more positive and material than the other two he is not pleased to take any notice at all as if no such Doctrine were either taught by the Church of England or no such Power had been ever exercised by the Ministers of it For in the canvassing of this Point he declares sometimes that the Priest doth forgive Sins only declarative by the way of declaration only when on the consideration of the true Faith and sincere Repentance of the Party penitent he doth declare unto him in the Name of God that his Sins are pardoned and sometimes that the Priest forgives Sins only optativè by the way of Prayers and Intercession when on the like consideration he makes his prayers unto God that the Sins of the Penitent may be pardoned Neither of which comes up unto the Doctrine of the Church of England which holdeth that the Priest forgiveth Sins authoritativè by virtue of a Power committed to him by our Lord and Saviour That the Supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone against whose Divine Majesty all Sins of what sort soever may be truly said to be committed was never question'd by any who pretended to the Christian Faith The Power which is given to the Priest is but a delegated power such as is exercised by Judges under Soveraign Princes where they are not tied unto the Verdict of Twelve Men as with us in England who by the Power committed to them in their several Circuits and Divisions do actually absolve the party which is brought before them if on good proof they find him innocent of the Crimes he stands accused for and so discharge him of his Irons And such a power as this I say is both given to and exercised by the Priest or Presbyters in the Church of England For if they did forgive Sins only declarativè that form of Absolution which follows the general Confession in the beginning of the common-prayer-Common-prayer-Book would have been sufficient where the Absolution is put in the third person Or if he did forgive Sins only optativè in the way of prayers and intercession there could not be a better way of Absolution than that which is prescribed to be used by the Priest or Bishop after the general Confession made by such as
you may live many heathful and happy Years I rest Your Grace's most humbly devoted Servant John Bainbridg Oxon. Octob. 3. 1626. LETTER CXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir AFter I had writ the former Lines came to my hands your Lordship's Letter of the 31th of July from Oxford whereto I have given due perusal and thereby take notice that your Grace hath received mine of the 16th of January with the Books sent you by the Ship Patience of London being very glad thereof but more joy ful that your Lordship finds such content in them being sorry that I am not able to perform to the full what you desire The Patriarch's Name that sold me the Books of Moses is Jesu Jáb which in the Chaldee Tongue is as much as to say Jesus give me And whereas I writ he was a Jacobite I pray take notice that he is a Nestorian and hath his residence in Emite and Zert and continually comes to this Town to visit them that are of that Heresy His promise to me he hath not kept neither could I ever hear from him since he sent me that Book now in your Lordships possession yet I caused divers Letters to be writ to him and at this present have given order to write to him again But as I often writ to your Grace those Books are rare especially in the Chaldean Tongue and Character the greatest part of the Chaldee Books are written in the Arab Character which I think you would not have nor esteem As for the remainder of the Old Testament in the Chaldee I have sent a Man to Mount Libanus to take a Copy thereof intending to send you the whole Old Testament in one Volume notwithstanding I know you have the Books of Moses and the Psalms those you have are old Copies and this will be a new Transcript presuming your Lordship will not think much of the Charge which if I had excepted would have been very little less than now it will be And as for the Samaritan Books in the hands of the Damasceen Spahee I will use my best diligence to find him out again and redeem them at as easy a rate as I can And so continue my care in accomplishing your Lordship's Will in every thing desiring the benefit of your particular Prayers And so fearing to be further troublesom to your Grace humbly take my leave and remain Your Graces most humbly to command Thomas Davis Aleppo Novemb. 14. 1626. English Account The 14th day of the 3d Month of the Turkish Account and the 1036 of Mahomet The Turks and Moors begin their Month when they first see the Moon after the Change LETTER CXII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord IAcknowledg my self much bounden unto you for your Letter sent me from Liverpool in your return to Ireland Yet I confess I had not from this place where now I am returned you thanks but that I was desirous to acquaint you with an Accident lately fallen out some Circumstances whereof I had better occasion to know than many my betters It concerneth my Lady Faukland She within this fortnight hath declared her self to be a Papist One of the Priests who perverted her goeth under the Name of Fitz Gerard though his true Name is George Pettinger a York-shire Man an idle pâ—ating Companion and a Serving-man not many years ago a frequenter of Baudy-Houses and a Cozener of Trades-men in London as I my self in part know and as I am credily informed by Sir Tho. Savile to whom he was well known and by some Gentlemen of his own Kindred Mr. Mountague Mr. Coseâ—s and the Colledg as it is called at Durham-house are sensible of the disgrace which they sustain by reason of her fall Mr. Mountague told her That dying an English Papist she died in the state of Damnation Mr. Coosens told her That she had sinned damnably in departing from that Church wherein she was born and baptized before she had consulted with the Governors thereof Besides Mr. Coosens gave her a few Notes which she sent unto her Priest to answer whose Answer came to my hands and in my poor Opinion was a very silly one Yet Mr. Coosens would not reply but took his farewel of the Lady without purpose of ever visiting her again She protested that if ever she turned again she will turn Puritan not Moderate Protestant as she phraseth it for Moderate Protestants viz. Mr. Coosens c. are farther from Catholicks than Puritans And thus much concerning her who for any thing I know is neither fallen from Grace nor to Grace Here is 15000 l. offered as it 's said for the Bishoprick of Winchester by the Dean of Winchester And some say it is worth it for he may make of the Leases at his first entrance 10000 l. The other Bishopricks are rated proportionably and destinated to Men of corrupt Minds Dr. Laud is Dean of the Chappel and Dr. White Bishop of Carlisle Chamierus is lately come forth against Bellarmine they are sold as fast as they come over But Mr. Fetherston looks daily for 40 more of which I hope to have one The Papists brag that God hath not shewed himself a Hugonite for these three years last past They have great hopes but I trust their hopes shall perish Yet wise Men are afraid of what may follow and are more inquisitive than heretofore to know Whether Dotage may not be wrought by Sorcery I shall be glad to see your second part of the Succession of Christian Churches or any thing else of yours against the common Adversary Your Lordship had need now to do something for few go with a right foot and the Enemies are many I thought all this while I had been writing to Mr. Usher which made me write so carelesly but ere-now my Memory serves to tell me that it is my Lord Primat of Armagh to whom I ought to have written more respectively yet I cannot find in my heart to burn what I have written but to pass it a way as it is not doubting of a pardon from your Lordship if for no other respect yet for this that I live in the North where we know not well what Manners mean And so with remembrance of my humble Duty and Service I rest Your Lordship 's poor welwiller A. Cook Lond. Nov. 30. 1626. LETTER CXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy Falkland May it please your Lordship MY diligence hath not been wanting either in treating with my Lords the Bishops when they were present or in writing unto them when they were absent touching the Augmentation and the present paiment of the Loan-monies demanded of the Clergy in the Province of Armagh The Augmentation with one Voice they did deny alledging that your Lordship in your Letters directed unto them did not
the present than to keep the Courts my self and set some good Order in them And to this purpose I have been at Cavan Granard and Longford c. and do intend to go to the rest leaving with some of the Ministry there a few Rules touching those things that are to be redressed that if my Health do not permit me to be always present they may know how to proceed in mine absence I find it to be true that Tully faith Justitia mirifica quaedam res multitudini videtur and certainly to our proper Work a great advantage it is to obtain a good opinion of those we are to deal with But besides this there fall out occasions to speak of God and his Presence of the Religion of a Witness the Danger of an Oath the Purity of Marriage the preciousness of a good Name repairing of Churches and the like Penance it self may enjoined and Penitents reconciled with some profit to others besides themselves Wherefore albeit Mr. Cook were the justest Chancellor in this Kingdom I would think it fit for me as things now stand to sit in these Courts and sith I cannot be heard in the Pulpits to preach as I may in them albeit Innocency and Justice is also a real kind of preaching I have shewed your Grace my Intentions in this Matter Now should I require your direction in many things if I were present with you But for the present it may please you to understand that at Granard one Mr. Neugent a Nephew as I take it to my Lord of Westmeath delivered his Letter to Mr. Astre which he delivered me in open Court requiring that his Tenants might not be troubled for Christnings Marriages or Funerals so they pay the Minister his due This referred to a Letter of my Lord Chancellor's to the like purpose which yet was not delivered till the Court was risen I answered generally that none of my Lord's Tenants or others should be wronged The like Motion was made at Longford by two or three of the Farralls and one Mr. Faganah in Rosse to whom I gave the like answer and added that I would be strict in requiring them to bring their Children to be baptized and Marriages to be solemnized likewise with us sith they acknowleg these to be lawful and true so as it was but wilfulness if any forbear Here I desire your Grace to direct me for to give way that they should not be so much as called in question seems to further the Schism they labour to make To lay any pecuniary Mulct upon them as the value of a License for Marriage 3 or 4 s. for a Christening I know not by what Law it can be done To excommunicate them for not appearing or obeying they being already none of our Body and a multitude it is to no profit nay rather makes the Exacerbation worse Many things more I have to confer with your Grace about which I hope to do corà m as about the reedifying of Churches or employing the Mass-houses which now the State enquires of about Books Testaments and the common-Common-Prayer Book which being to be reprinted would perhaps be in some things bettered But specially about Men to use them and means to maintain them now that our English have engrossed their Livings About the printing the Psalter which I have caused to be diligently surveyed by Mr. James Nangle who adviseth not to meddle with the Verse but set forth only the Prose which he hath begun to write out fair to the Press Mr. Mortugh King I have not heard of a long time I hope he goeth on in the Historical Books of the Old Testament Mr. Crian was with me about a Fortnight after I came to Kilmore since I heard not of him Of all these things if by the will of God I may make a journey over to you we shall speak at fall As I was closing up these this Morning there is a Complaint brought me from Ardagh that where in a Cause Matrimonial in the Court at Longford a Woman had proceeded thus far as after Contestation the Husband was enjoined to appear the next Court to receive a Libel One Shane age in Ingerney the Popish Vicar-General of Ardagh had excommunicated her and she was by one Hubart in Cutril a Popish Priest upon Sunday lass put out of the Church and denounced excommunicate Herein whether it were more sit to proceed against the Vicar and Priest by virtue of the last Letters from the Council or complain to them I shall attend your Grace's advices And now for very shame ceasing to be troublesome I do recommend your Grace to the protection of our merciful Father and rest Your Graces in all Duty Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore Feb. 15. 1629. LETTER CLIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore Salutem in Christo Jesu I Thank your Lordship for the great pains you have taken in writing so large a Letter unto me and especially for putting me in mind of that comfortable place of the Apostle which you mention in the beginning thereof But as for the matter of Merriment as you call it contained in your inclosed Recusation I confess my Ignorance to have been such that I understood not where the Jest lay Yet when I shewed it to those that had better skill in the Law than my self I saw that they did heartily laugh at it whose Reasons I had no list to examine but referred the scanning thereof to the Judex ad quem to whom the cognisance of this Matter now properly belongeth Most of the Slanders wherewith you were so much troubled I never heard of till you now mentioned them your self only the course which you took with the Papists was generally cried out against neither do I remember in all my life that any thing was done here by any of ours at which the Professors of the Gospel did take more offence or by which the Adversaries were more confirmed in their Superstitions and Idolatry Whereas I could wish that you had advised with your Brethren before you would adventure to pull down that which they have been so long a building so I may boldly aver that they have abused grosly both of us who reported unto you that I should give out that I found my self deceived in you What you did I know was done out of a good intention but I was assured that your Project would be so quickly refuted with the present Success and Egent that there would be no need that your Friends should advise you to desist from building such Castles in the Air. Of Mr. Whiskins Mr. Creighton and Mr. Bexter's preaching I heard not a word till now Would God that all the Lord's People might prophesy and there might be thousands of his faithful Servants that might go beyond me in doing our Master's Work the Spirit that it in me I trust shall never last after such enuy For your judging of Mr.
Church may still either by preaching or writing maintain any point of Doctrine contained in those Articles without being either Heterodox or Irregular It was likewise reported and has been since written by some with the like truth that the Lord Primate should have some dispute with Dr. Bramhall then Bishop of London-Derry concerning these Articles Whereas the contest between the Lord Primate and that Bishop was not about the Articles but the Book of Canons which were then to be established for the Church of Ireland and which the Bishop of Derry would have to be passed in the very same form and words with those in England which the Lord Primate with divers other of the Bishops opposed as somewhat prejudicial to the Liberties of the Church of Ireland and they so far prevailed herein that it was at last concluded That the Church of Ireland should not be tyed to that Book but that such Canons should be selected out of the same and such others added thereunto as the present Convocation should judge fit for the Government of that Church which was accordingly performed as any man may see that will take the pains to compare the two Books of the English and Irish Canons together And what the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's judgment was on this affair you may see in a Letter of his to the Lord Primate published in this Collection About the end of this year the Lord Primate published his Anno 1639 long expected work entitled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates In which also is inserted a History of Pelagius and his Heresie which Work I suppose my Lord kept so long unpublished because he still found fresh matter to add to it as you may see by the many Additions and Emendations at the latter end of it and as it was long in coming out so it did fully answer expectation when it came abroad into the World being the most exact account that ever yet was given of the British Church beginning with the earliest notices we can find in Ancient Authors of any credit concerning the first planting of Christianity in these Islands within twenty years after our Saviour's Crucifixion and bringing it down with the Succession of Bishops as far as they could be retreived not only in our Britain but in Ireland also as far as towards the end of the VII Century collected out of the best Authors either Printed or Manuscript and is so great a Treasure of this kind of Learning that all that have writ since with any success on this subject must own themselves beholding to him for his elaborate Collections The Lord Primate having now sate Arch-Bishop sixteen years Anno 1640 with great satisfaction and benefit to the Church about the beginning of this year came into England with his Wife and Family intending to stay here a year or two about his private Affairs and then to return again But it pleased God to disappoint him in those resolutions for he never saw his native Country again not long after his coming to London when he had kissed his Majesty's hand and been received by him with his wonted favour he went to Oxford as well to be absent from those heats and differences which then happened in that short Parliament as also with greater freedom to pursue his Studies in the Libraries there where he was accommodated with Lodgings in Christ-Church by Dr. Morice Canon of that House and Hebrew Professor and whilst he was there he conversed with the most Learned Persons in that famous University who used him with all due respect whilst he continued with them so after he had resided there some time he returned again to London where after the sitting of that long and unhappy Parliament he made it his business as well by preaching as writing to exhort them to Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince endeavouring to the utmost of his power to heal up those breaches and reconcile those differences that were ready to break out both in Church and State though it did not meet with that success he always desired This year there was published at Oxford among divers other Treatises of Bishop Andrews Mr. Hooker and other Learned men Anno 1641 concerning Church Government the Lord Primate's Original of Bishops and Metropolitans wherein he proves from Scripture as also the most Ancient Writings and Monuments of the Church that they owe their original to no less Authority than that of the Apostles and that they are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Apoc. 2. So that there was never any Christian Church founded in the Primitive Times without Bishops which discourse was not then nor I suppose ever will be answered by those of a contrary judgment That unhappy dispute between his Majesty and the two Houses concerning his passing the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder now arising and he much perplexed and divided between the clamour of a discontented People and an unsatisfied Conscience thought fit to advise with some of his Bishops what they thought he ought to do in point of Conscience as he had before consulted his Judges in matter of Law among which his Majesty thought fit to make choice of the Lord Primate for one though without his seeking or knowledge but since some men either out of spleen or because they would not retract what they had once written from vulgar report have thought fit to publish as if the Lord Primate should advise the King to sign the Bill for the said Earl's Attainder it will not be amiss to give you here that relation which Dr. Bernard had under his own hand and has printed in the Funeral Sermon by him published which is as followeth That Sunday morning wherein the King consulted with the four Bishops of London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was not present being then preaching as he then accustomed every Sunday to do in the Church of Covent-Garden where a Message coming unto him from his Majesty he descended from the Pulpit and told him that brought it he was then as he saw imployed about God's business which as soon as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his pleasure But the King spending the whole Afternoon in the serious debate of the Lord Strafford's Case with the Lords of his Council and the Judges of the Land he could not before Evening be admitted to his Majesty's presence There the Question was again agitated Whether the King in justice might pass the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford for that he might shew mercy to him was no question at all no man doubting but that the King without any Scruple of Conscience might have granted him a Pardon if other reasons of State in which the Bishops were made neither Judges nor Advisers did not hinder him The whole result therefore of the determination of the Bishops was to this effect That therein the matter of Fact and matter of Law were to be distinguished That of the
though upon a sad occasion of his Majesty's excellent conversation in the same House who received him with his wonted kindness and favour Whilst he was here the Lord Primate preached before him in the Castle and when his Majesty went away and that the Lord Primate had taken his leave of him I heard him declare that nothing came nearer to his heart than the imminent danger of the King and Church with the effusion of so much Christian Blood His Majesty's necessities now not permitting him to leave many men in Garrisons he was now forced to unfurnish this as well as others of its Souldiers and Ammunition so that Sir Timothy Tyrrel was forced to quit that Government by reason of which the Arch-Bishop being forced to remove was in a great strait whether to go the ways from thence to Oxford being all cut off by the Enemy so that he had some thoughts being near the Sea of going over into France or Holland to both which places he had been formerly invited as hath been already mentioned But whilst he was in this perplexity the Lady Dowager Stradling sent him a kind invitation to come to her Castle of St. Donates as soon as he pleased which he accepted as a great favour But by that time he was ready to go with his Daughter the Lady Tyrrel the Country thereabouts was up in Arms in a tumultuous manner to the number of Ten Thousand as was supposed who chose themselves Officers to form them into a Body pretending for the King but yet would not be governed by English Commanders or suffer any English Garrisons in the Country this gave the Lord Primate a fresh disturbance the Welch-men lying upon the ways between that place and St. Donates but there were some at that time in Caerdiffe who would needs undertake to convey the Lord Primate and his company through by ways so that they might avoid this tumultuous Rabble which though it might be well advised by the then Governor of Caerdiffe and was faithfully enough executed by them that undertook it yet happened very ill for my Lord and those that were with him for going by some private ways near the Mountains they fell into a stragling Party that were scouting thereabouts who soon led them to their main Body where it was Crime enough that they were English so that they immediately fell to plundering and breaking open my Lord Brimate's Chests of Books and other things which he then had with him ransacking all his Manuscripts and Papers many of them of his own hand writing which were quickly dispersed among a thousand hands and not content with this they pulled the Lord Primate and his Daughter and other Ladies from their Horses all which the Lord Primate bore with his wonted patience and a seeming unconcernedness But now some of their Officers coming in who were of the Gentry of the Country seemed very much ashamed of this barbarous treatment and by force or fair means caused their Horses and other things which were taken from them to be restored but as for the Books and Papers they were got into too many hands to be then retrieved nor were these Gentlemen satisfied with this but some of them very civilly conducted him through the rest of this tumultuous Rabble to Sir John Aubery's House not far off where he was civilly received and lodged that Night When he came thither and had retired himself I must confess that I never saw him so much troubled in my life and those that were with him before my self said That he seemed not more sensibly concerned for all his losses in Ireland than for this saying to his Daughter and those that endeavoured to comfort him I know that it is God's hand and I must endeavour to bear it patiently though I have too much humane frailty not to be extremely concerned for I am touched in a very tender place and He has thought â—it to take from me at once all that I have been gathering together above these twenty years and which I intended to publish for the advancement of Learning and the good of the Church The next day divers of the neighbouring Gentry and Clergy came to Visit him and to Condole this irreparable loss promising to do their utmost endeavours that what Books or Papers were not burnt or torn should be restored and so very civilly waited on him to St. Donates And to let you see that these Gentlemen and Ministers did not only promise but were also able to perform it they so used their power with the people that publishing in the Churches all over those parts That all that had any such Books or Papers should bring them to their Ministers or Landlords which they accordingly did so that in the space of two or three Months there were brought in to him by parcels all his Books and Papers so fully that being put altogether we found not many wanting those most remarkable that I or others can call to mind were two Manuscripts concerning the VValdenses which he much valued and which he had obtained toward the continuing of his Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione As also another Manuscript Catalogue of the Persian Kings communicated by Elikmannus and one Volume of Manuscripts Variae Lectiones of the New Testament And of Printed Books only Tully's Works and some others of less concernment Whilst the Lord Primate was at St. Donates till he could get his own Books and Papers again he spent his time chiefly in looking over the Books and Manuscripts in the Library in that Castle and which had been collected by Sir Edward Stradling a great Antiquary and friend of Mr. Cambden's and out of some of these Manuscripts the L. Primate made many choice Collections of the British or Welch Antiquity which I have now in my Custody Within a little more than a Month after my Lord Primate's coming hither he was taken with a sharp and dangerous illness which began at first with the Strangury and suppression of Urine with extremity of torture which at last caused a violent bleeding at the Nose for near forty hours together without any considerable intermission no means applied could stop it so that the Physicians and all about him dispaired of his life till at last when we apprehended he was expiring it stanched of it self for he lay a good while in a trance but God had some farther work for him to perform and was pleased by degrees to restore him to his former health and strength but it is worth the remembering that whilst he was in the midst of his pain as also his bleeding he was still patient praising God and resigning up himself to his Will and giving all those about him or that came to visit him excellent Heavenly advice to a Holy Life and due preparation for death e're its Agonies seized them saying It is a dangerous thing to leave all undone till our last sickness I fear a Death-bed Repentance will avail us little if we have lived
retained by God For the Priests put the Name of the Lord upon the Children of Israel but it was he himself that blessed them Neither do we grant hereby as the Adversary falsly chargeth us that a Lay-man yea or a Woman or a Child or any Infidel or a Parrat likewise if he be taught the words may in this sence as well absolve as the Priest as if the speech were all the thing that here were to be considered and not the power whereas we are taught that the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power Indeed if the Priests by their Office brought nothing with them but the Ministry of the bare Letter a Parrat peradventure might be taught to found that Letter as well as they but we believe that God hath made them able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and that the Gospel ministred by them cometh unto us not in vvord only but also in power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance For God hath added a speical beauty to the feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace that howsoever others may bring glad-tidings of good things to the penitent Sinner as truly as they do yet neither can they do it with the same authority neither is it to be expected that they should do it with such power such assurance and such full satisfaction to the afflicted Conscience The speech of every Christian we know should be imployed to the use of edifying that it may minister Grace unto the Hearers and a private Brother in his place may deliver sound Doctrine reprehend Vice exhort to Righteousness very commendably yet hath the Lord notwithstanding all this for the necessary use of his Church appointed publick Officers to do the same things and hath given to them a peculiar power for edification wherein they may boast above others and in the due execution whereof God is pleased to make them Instruments of ministring a more plentiful measure of Grace unto their Hearers than may be ordinarily looked for from others These are God's Angels and Ambassadors for Christ and therefore in delivering their Message are to be received as an Angel of God yea as Christ Jesus That look how the Prophet Esay was comforted when the Angel said unto him Thy Iniquity is taken away and thy Sin purged and the poor Woman in the Gospel when Jesus said unto her Thy Sins are forgiven The like Consolation doth the distressed Sinner receive from the mouth of the Minister when he hath compared the truth of God's Word faithfully delivered by him with the work of God's Grace in his own heart For as it is the Office of this Messenger to pray us in Christ's stead that we would be reconciled unto God so when we have listned unto this motion and submitted our selves to the Gospel of Peace it is a part of his Office likewise to declare unto us in Christ's stead that we are reconciled to God and in him Christ himself must be acknowledged to speak who to us-ward by this means is not weak but mighty in us Having now shewn what the Lord Primate hath said in that Treatise That the Absolution of the Priest or Minister tho it be declarativè yet is still authoritativè by virtue of that power which Christ hath commited unto him But that this is no absolute power but still only declarative I shall prove in the next place as well from what the Lord Primat hath here laid down as from the nature of the Absolution it self The Lord Primat having before declared that the prayer of the Priest is one great means of obtaining remission of Sins I shall now shew you that the Doctor did not so well peruse the Lord Primat's Book as he might have done when he so confidently affirms That tho the Lord Primat has spoken somewhat of the declarative and optative Forms of Absolution yet he hath taken no notice of the Indicative or that which is used in the Absolution of the Sick of which sort take the Lord Primat's words In the days of Thomas Aquinas there arose a Learned Man among the Papists themselves who found fault with that Indicative Form of Absolution then used by the Priest I absolve thee from all thy Sins and would have it delivered by way of deprecation alledging that this was not only the Opinion of Guliel Altisiodo Guliel Paris and Hugo Cardinal but also that thirty years were scarce passed since all did use this Form only Absolutionem Remissionem tribuat tibi Omnipotens Deus Almighty God give unto thee Absolution and Forgiveness This only will I add that as well in the ancient Rituals and in the new Pontificial of the Church of Rome as in the present practice of the Greek Church I find the Absolution expressed in the third Person as attributed wholly to God and not in the first as if it came from the Priest himself And after the Lord Primat hath there shewn That the most Ancient Forms of Absolution both in the Latin and Greek Church were in the third and not in the first person he proceeds thus Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure in the form of Absolution used in their time to observe that Prayer was premised in the Optative and Absolution adjoined afterward in the Indicative Mood Whence they gather that the Priest's Prayer obtaineth Grace his Absolution presupposeth it and that by the former he ascendeth unto God and procureth pardon for the fault by the latter he descendeth to the Sinner and reconcileth him to the Church For although a man be loosed before God saith the Master of the Sentences yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the Judgment of the Priest And this loosing of Men by the Judgment of the Priest is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring them to the peace of the Church and admitting of them to the Lord's Table again which therefore they usually express by the terms of bringing them to the Communion reconciling them to or with the Communion restoring the Communion to them admitting them to Fellowship granting them Peace c. Neither do I find that they did ever use any such formal Absolution as this I absolve thee from all thy Sins wherein our Popish Priests notwithstanding do place the very Form of their late-devised Sacrament of Penance nay hold it to be so absolute a Form that according to Thomas Aquinas his new Divinity it would not be sufficient to say Almighty God have mercy upon thee or God grant unto thee Absolution and Forgiveness because forsooth the Priest by these words doth not signifie that the Absolution is done but entreateth that it may be done Which how it will accord with the Roman Pontifical where the Form of Absolution is laid down Prayer-wise the Jesuits who follow Thomas may do well to consider Now how near the Doctor approaches to this Opinion
sanxerunt post istorum quatuor auctoritatem omni manent stabilita vigore quorum gesta in HOC OPERE condita continentur 2. Annotatio 6. principalium Synodorum item Annotatio 19. Synodorum quarum gesta in HOC CODICE continentur This is to be found in Gratian Distinct. 16. Cap. 10. 11. with some Additions at the end Whereof see the Roman Corrections in that place Now seeing in this Catalogue many Councils are reckoned which are not to be found in Isidore's Collection and some also in Isidorus which are not to be found in this Catalogue which seemeth to be the cause why this Catalogue was omitted by Crab as not agreeing to the Collections now extant it appeareth that Annotatio Synodorum quarum gesta in HOC CODICE continentur was translated hither out of some other Collection of Councils not now extant For beside the Book which had the Greek Canons there is no doubt but there were others which contained also the constitutions of the Western Councils One of which was used by Ferrandus who beside Concilium Cellense or Zellense which is the same with Concilium Tilense sub Siricio P. in Isidore and Crab citeth 7 other Councils not now to be found as I suppose Marazense or Marizanense Macrianense Suffetulense Incense Tusduritanum Thenitanum and Septimunicense But to return to the Printed Isidorus There follow there 3. The Epistle of Aurelius to Damasus and of Damasus to Aurelius extant also in Crab and the Copy of your publick Library which Epistles Baronius sheweth ad an 374. § 11. to have been counterfeited by this counterfeit Isidorus 4. Isidorus his Preface which is extant in Crab and the MS. of your publick Library Where he is called Isidorus Mercator for peccator Whereof see the Roman Correct of Gratian Distinct. 16. Cap. 4. and Baronius in Martyrolog Roman April 4. 5. The 50. Canons of the Apostles as they are in your Benett Copy 6. The Decretal Epistles of the Popes from Clemens to Melchiades inclusivè as in order they lie in the former part of the first Tome of the Decretal Epistles set out by the Authority of Sixtus V. at Rome An. 1592. fol. as also in your two Manuscripts 7. The Discourse De Primitivâ Ecclesiâ and Edictum D. Constantini Imperatoris which is the Lewd Donation fathered upon Constantine extant in Crab immediately before the Nicene Council 8. The Nicene Council with a Preface prefixed in your Copy of the publick Library as I remember The Acts of the Nicene Council are more largely set down than in the Printed Copy of Isidore I pray you make a Comparison with your Crab and Write unto me what you find 9. The Canons of Councils from Nicen. I. to Hispalense II. as in your Bennet Copy For in the Copy of the publick Library all this is wanting 10. Concilium Romanum sub Silvestro as in Crab pag. 271. the Counterfeit Epistles of Athanasius and the Aegyptian Bishops to Pope Mark c. in Crab pag. 299 with other Decretal Epistles from Marcus to Gregory the first in whom Isidorus ended his Collection as himself in his Preface signifieth Yet in the end are further added the Epistles of Gregorius Minor Vitalianus Martinus Gregorius III and Zacharias as they were found in the Ancient Copies of this Collection But enough or rather too much now of Isidorus Beside these Ancient Collections there were kept in later times greater Volumes of the Councils containing both Eastern and Western Councils Old and New not much unlike the first Edition of Crab set out at Colon. An. 1538 fol. Such a one have I seen fairly Written with Sr. Robert Cotton and such a one is that which you enquire of in Sr. Thomas Bodley's Library Pag. 34. c. 1. n. 7. Such a one also is that of Lorrain in bibliothecâ Canonicorum Ecclesiae Virdunensis mentioned by Fronto Ducoeus the Jesuit apud Baron An. 811. § 19. And hither do I refer the great Book of the Acts of the Councils of which Petrus de Aliaco about the end of his Book de Reformatione Ecclesiae wisheth care to be had Ut magnus Codex Conciliorum generalium qui modo rarus est saith he licet sit perutilis necessarius à Metropolitanis in magnis Ecclesiis reponeretur And sure a Faithful Record of the Acts of General Councils would be a matter of great moment We have long expected them from the Roman Press Where the good Fathers have been mending them a longer time than Nature requireth for bringing forth an Elephant Anno 1591. or about the Year 1593. at the farthest the Work was under the Press as appeareth by Baronius ad An. 360. § 17. ad An. 431. § 112. Jo. Antonius Petramellarius in his continuation of Onuphrius his Book of Popes and Cardinals set out Anno 1599. signified unto us that the work was Printed pag. 355. But that it was not yet finished Baronius after that maketh known unto us ad An. 787. § 9. 811. § 19. And whether this Birth of theirs as yet hath seen the Light I cannot learn We read in Socrates lib. 1. cap. 5. lib. 2. cap. 11. 13. lib. 3. cap. 21. that one Sabinus a Macedonian Heretick gathered together the Acts of the Councils But it seemeth that Work is perished except that be some abridgement of it which is extant in the Library of the Patriarch of Constantinople and intituled Sabini Monachi Epitome omnium Synodorum as it is in the Catalogue of Constantinople set out by Antonius Verderius in Supplemento Epitomes Gesnerianae But what should we talk of Works which we have no hope to come by J. U. LETTER XI A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Domino plurimam Good Mr. Usher I Received your large Letters c. As you were confirmed in your Opinion touching the Ancient Canonical Code by the Parisian which I sent you So I having long since observed the place of Dionysius Exiguus in his Epistle to the Bishop of Saling which is extant in Casiodorus was glad to see you jump with me which place I much marvel how it escaped our Parisian being a far better Evidence for the Ancient Code than is that of the Council of Chalcedon considering it setteth down exactly the Number of 165 That this Collection of the Council of Nice and the 5 Provincial was before the Council of Constantinople besides your conjecture from the placing of the Provincials after that General of Nice which you make out of Dionysius and is also in the Titles which are in the Greek Canons and in Codex Moguntinus methinks that may probably be gathered out of the 16th Action of the Council of Chalcedon When after that Constantine the Secretary of the Consistory had read the 6th Can. of the Nicene Council out of the Canonical Code which was in the Custody of Aetius the Arch-Deacon which no doubt was the same which is mentioned both in the 4.
due time the Clouds and Mists of errors being dispersed and vanished it will shine forth as bright as the clear Sun at Noontyde As touching the Books you wrote for I told this Messenger that I meant to send them and therefore I appointed him to call for them together with my Letter this Day But since I have altered my purpose not envying you the sight of them but expecting your coming into England ere long as of custom once within three or four years at which time I shall be glad to shew you them and to confer them together with your Ptolemy's Canons In the mean time if you have any more urgent occasion of desiring to be resolved of any thing in them do but acquaint me with your purpose what you would prove out of them and I will truly give my best diligence to â—â—â— what may be found in them for the same and so save you that Labour on seeking which I suppose you may better bestow otherwise and so I trust I shall deserve better of you than if I sent you the Books Thus desiring your daily Prayers as you have mine for Gods blessing to bend our Studies to the best ends and make them most profitable to the setting forth of his glory and the good of his Church and of our Countries I take leave of you for this time resting Yours to be commanded in all Christian duties Thomas Lydyan 〈◊〉 July 8 1617. LETTER XXVIII Mr. William Eyres Letter to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Eximio Doctori Domino Jacobo Usserio Guilielmus Eyre S. P. D. Praestantissime Domine FAteor me tibi plus debere quà m verbis exprimere possim etiamsi centiès ad te quotannis literas darem idque non solùm propter privatae benevolentiae erga me tuae fructus uberrimos sed etiam ob magnitudinem tuorum erga nos omnes qui Theologiae studiosi sumus meritorum Macte virtute tua faxitque Christus Opt. Max. cujus sub vexillo militamus ut Scripta tua polemica cedant in nominis sui gloriam Antichristi interitum quo de in Sibyllinus memini me legisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod de scriptis doctissimorum Virorum quidam interpretantur Nos hic plerique omnes ut opinor preces fundimus dum vos sive gubernatores sive nautae vel clavum tenetis vel per foros cursitatis c. navali praelio dimicatis preces lachrymae arma nunquam magis necessaria fuerunt quà m in hac in exulceratissima tempestate omnium pessimâ morum corruptelâ Serenissimus Rex noster Jacobus jam denuò collegium illud Chelseiense prope Londinum Theologorum Gratia qui controversiis dent operam adornare locupletare coepit Matthaeus Sutlivius ea in re nullum lapidem immotum relinquit Quid fiet nescio Res agitur per Regias literas ad Episcopos apud Clerum eorum operâ apud subditos ditiores ut opus tandem perficiatur Forsan majora adhuc à vobis in Dubliniensi Collegio quà m ab illis Chelseiensibus expectare possumus quamdiù vivit acviget amicus ille meus de quo Draxus quidam nostras in libello nuper edito lumen illud Irlandiae in Academia Dubliniensi Professor regius Theologus tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut sive scripta sive disputationem requiras idoneus est qui cum tota Papistarum natione concertet Sed quid ego haec autem ne quicquam ingrata revolvo Me quod atinet ita nuper praesertim per integrum annum novissime elapsum eo plus secularibus negotiis quotidianis contra genium voluntatem meam concionibus ad populum nimis ut videtur frequentibus quasi demersus fuerim ut nihil in Hebraicis quaestionibus me posse videar atque in quibusdam absque te quem pure indigitare possim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita haeret aqua ut ulterius progredi non liceat fas sit igitur mihi Oraculum tuum consulere limatissimum judicium tuum expiscari Nolo tamen in hoc tempore diutiùs te interpellare Gratulor tibi ex animo purpuram tuam costam illam quam tibi Deus restituit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cura Valetudinem Gratia Jesu Christi sit cum omnibus vobis Amen G. Eyres Colcestriae 170 die Augusti 1617. LETTER XXIX A Letter from Mr. Edward Warren to Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh at St. Patricks Reverend Sir THat the Beast which was and is not and yet is should be Romanus Pontifex I like your Conjecture very well and the Ground seems to me firm and such as I may tread safely on And that which you quote out of Dionys. Halicarnas touching his Immunity brought me to consider better of his Office and Authority set down by Livy lib. 1. Caetera quoque omnia publica privataque sacra pontificis scitis subjecit Numa ut esset quò consultum Plebs veniret ne quid divini juris negligendo patrios ritus peregrinósque asciscendo turbaretur Which in my conceit is some Resemblance of that Head-ship which the latter Pontifex now challengeth to himself In the other Part I take all to be clear save only that I stick somewhat at the Accommodation of those Words pag. 10. That when he cometh he shall continue but a short Space I heartily thank you that for my satisfaction you have taken so much Pains Your poor Friend Edward Warren Kilkenny Novemb. 4. 1617. The God of Peace be with you Usserii notae Of Pontifex Maximus see Plutarch in Vitâ Numae Ciceronem in orat pro domo apud Pont. et de aruspic Resp. Val. Max. lib. 1. cap. 1. Georg. Fabrice observat lect Virgil. Aenead 6. Insolentia superbia eorum abiit in Proverbium Horat. Od. 2. 14. Mero Tinget pavimentum superbo Pontificum potiore Coenis Vid. loc ubi Interpres not at proelautas coenas Proverbio Pontificales appellari solitas Exemplum hujus Coenae vide in Macrobio lib. 2. Saturnal cap. 9. LETTER XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. Thomas Lydyat Rector of Askerton in Oxford-shire Salutem in Christo. AS I was now going out of the House I met with Robert Allen who told me he was to go presently for England and required my Letters unto you I have nothing that upon this sudden I can well write of but the renewing of my former Request for those two Books which I wrote for in my two former Letters And therefore according to the Form which our Canonists use in their Court Proceedings Peto primò secundò tertio instantèr instantiùs instantissimè That you will let me have the use of your Geminus and Albategnius which shall God willing be returned unto you as safely and as speedily as you shall desire which I hope you will the rather condescend unto because I have no purpose to see England these many
Parts wherein was certified of them ducentis abhinc annis ex regione Pedemontanâ profectos in provinciae partemillam commigrasse c. as may be seen in Crispin lib. 3 o Actionum Moniment Martyrum Thuanus hath here 300 Years but 200 of these times they were persecuted under the Name of the Beghardi I alledge the Testimony of Matthias Parisiensis who lived in Bohemia about the year 1390. Qui alienant se strenuè saith he in lib. de Sacerdotum Monachorum spiritualium abominatione Cap. 30. ab exercitio tulium à contubernio propter Domini Jesu timorem amorem mox à vulgo Christiano hujus mundi conviciantur confunduntur nota pessima singularitatum vel Hoeresum criminantur propter quod tales homines devoti qui similia vulgo profano non agunt Bechardi vel Turspinii lego Turebipini aut aliis nominibus blasphemis communiter jam nominantur quod figuratum est in illis primis in Babylone quibus alia nomina impofuerunt quà m habuerunt in terra Israel There cometh also unto my mind another place which is not common touching the Beghardi and Fratricelli out of the Book de squaloribus Romanae Curiae written by Matthew de Cracovia who was Bishop of Worms ab anno 1405 ad 1410. Thus he there complaineth Vadunt Beckardi Fratricelli Sectuarii suspectissimi de hoerefi clero infestissimi erectis capitibus absque ullo timore in urbe et seducunt liberè quotquot possunt And mark that this fell upon the time of Pope Gregory the XII who usually did send his Letters to the Princes and Bishops of Christendom per Lollardos seu Beguardos ad quos semper videbatur ejus affectio specialitèr inclinari As is affirmed by Theodoricus à Niem lib. 3. de Schism cap. 6. Whereby we see what Rest and Boldness the same Professors got by the great Schism in the Papacy agreeable to that which Wickliff writeth lib. 3. de Sermone Domini in monte You see when I begin I know not how to make an end and therefore that I prove not too tedious I will abruptly break off desiring you to remember in prayers Your most Assured Loving Friend and Brother James Usher Dublin Aug. 16. 1619. LETTER XXXIX A Letter of Dr. James Usher 's afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh Sir YOU hear I doubt not ere this of the lamentable news out of Bohemia how it pleased God on the 29th of October last to give victory to the Emperor's Army against the King of Bohemia His whole Army was routed 3000 flain on the ground others taken Prisoners who have yielded to save their lives to serve against him Himself and the chief Commanders fled with 2000 Horse came to Prague took away the poor Queen being with Child and some of his Councellors with such things as in that hast could be carried away and so left that Town it not being to be held and withdrew himself into Silesia where he hath another Army as also in Moravia though not without an Enemy there invading also How those of the Religion in Bohemia are like to be dealt with you may imagine and what other evil effects will follow God knoweth if he in mercy stay not the fury of the Enemy who in all likelihood intendeth to prosecute the Victory to the uttermost Spinola also prevaileth still in the Palatinate one Town or two more with two or three little Castles he hath gained and now we hear that a Cessation of Arms is on either side agreed upon for the space of five months The Spaniard hath made himself Master of the Passage betwixt Italy and Germany by getting Voltelina where he hath put down five Protestant Churches and Erected Idolatry in their places He hath so corrupted many among the Switzers as they cannot resolve on any good course how to help the mischief or how to prevent the further increasing of it The French that should protect them are Hispaniolized The Germans have their hands full at home And the Venetians that would dare not alone enter into the business And now newly while I am writing this addition we are certified here that the King of Bohemia hath quit Moravia and Silesia seeing all things there desperate and hath withdrawn himself unto Brandenburgh God grant we may lay this seriously to heart otherwise I fear the judgment that hath begun there will end heavily upon us and if all things deceive me not it is even now marching toward us with a swift pace And so much touching the Affairs of Germany which you desired me to impart unto you whether they were good or evil Concerning Mr. Southwick's departure although not only you but divers others also have advertised me yet I cannot as yet be perswaded that it is intended by him for both himself in his last Letter unto me and his Wife here no longer than yesterday hath signified unto me the plain contrary Your Son Downing wisheth the place unto Mr. Ward your neighbour Mr. Johnson unto Mr. Cook of Gawran and others unto one Mr. Neyle who hath lately preached there with good liking as I hear The last of these I know not with the first I have dealt and am able to draw him over into Ireland Your assured loving Friend James Usher 1619. LETTER XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath SIR I Marvel much at the Deputy's exceptions he discovers a great deal of unworthy suspicion What answer I have made unto him you may here see I doubt not but he will rest satisfied with it unless he hath resolved to do me open wrong You may seal it up with any but your own Seal I pray you lend me your best furtherance it shall not go unacknowledged howsoever I speed As for the Manuscripts you desire to hear of neither one nor the other is to be found It is true according unto Dr. James his Catalogue there was one Gildas in Merton Colledge Library but he was Gildas Sapiens not Gildas Albanius whom Pitts says was the Author of the Book entituled De Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii neither is that Gildas Sapiens now to be seen in Merton Colledge he hath been cut out of the Book whereunto he was annexed Yet there is one in our Publick Library who writes a story De Gestis Britannorum in whom I find mention of King Lucius his Baptism His words be these Post 164 annos post adventum Christi Lucius Britannicus Rex cum Universis Regulis totius Britaniae Baptismum susceperunt missa legatione ab Imperatore Papa Romano Evaristo As for the Orations of Richard Fleming there be no such to be heard of in Lincoln Colledge Library Neither can I find or learn that the Junior Proctor's Book relates any passage of the Conversion of the Britains If you have any thing else to be search'd for I pray make no scruple of using me further So wishing you comfort in your
decay the which I rather mention because it is within your Province The more is taken away from the King's Clergy the more accrews to the Pope's and the Servitors and Undertakers who should be Instruments for settling a Church do hereby advance their Rents and make the Church poor In a word in all Consultations which concern the Church not the Advice of sages but of young Counsellors is followed With all particulars the Agents whom we have sent over will fully acquaint you to whom I rest assured your Lordship will afford your Countenance and best Assistance And my good Lord now remember that you sit at the Stern not only to guide us in a right Course but to be continually in action and standing in the Watch-Tower to see that the Church receive no hurt I know my Lord's Grace of Canterbury will give his best furtherance to the Cause to whom I do not doubt but after you have fully possessed your self thereof you will address your self And so with the remembrance of my Love and Duty unto you praying for the perfect recovery of your Health I rest Your Lordship 's most true and faithful Servant to command Tho. Kilmore c. March 26. 1624. LETTER LXXXI A Letter from Mr. Tho. Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend MAY it please your Grace upo the 8th of July past I received your Letter baring date the 12th of March from Much-Haddam and the 5th of the last Month the Copy thereof by way of Legorn whereby I perceive that my Letter of the 29th of Spetember 1624 together with the five Books of Moses in the Samaritan Character came in safety to your hands being very glad it proves so acceptable to your Lordship however find myself to have been abused by a Jew who pretends to have knowledg in that Tongue affirming to me that it contained all the Old Testament How they read those Books I have enquired having no better means of him who I perceive knows no more if so much than their Alphabet and to hear him read the first two Verses of Genesis I could not because another of those Books is not here to be had The Name of God Jehovah is pronounced by them as saith he Yehueh and the fist eight and sixth of these Letters of their Alphabet are pronounced hef chef ef the ch of the eight Letters must be pronounced deep in the throat Chef I sent to Damascus to see if I could procure the Grammer Chronicles and Calendar which your Lordship desires but could not obtain any of them there being but one poor Man of the Samaritan race left in Damascus who is not able to satisfy me in any thing you desire only he said there were certain Books in their Language pawned to a great Spahee of that City but what they contained the poor Fellow knew not The Spahee would not part with them under 200 Dollers which is 60 l. Sterling so I durst not venture upon them being ignorant of their worth yet I will not cease labouring as occasion shall serve to give satisfaction to your Grace in what you require touching the Samaritans and I hope to prevail in some things unless the Troubles in and about Jerusalem do hinder the free passage of Caravans this ensuing Spring A former Letter which it seems your Lordship writ and sentaway by Marcelles I never received but as for the Old Testament in the Chaldean Tongue my diligence hath not wanted to procure and to this end sent divers times to Tripoly and Mount Libanus but could not prevail I have seen here the two first Books of Moses but examining them according to your Direction I found them to be out of the Greek whereupon I resolved to send to Emmit and Carommitt a City in Mesopotamia where divers of the Sect of the Jacobites do remain and after a long time there was sent me which I received eight days past the five Books of Moses only in an old Manuscript and according to the Hebrews with a promise ere long to send the rest of the Old Testament the Party that sent me this is the Patriarch of the Jacobites in those Parts who writ also that I should have Eusebius his Chronicle with some of the Works of Ephraem which if he do shall be sent by the first good Conveyance Those parcels of the New Testament viz. the History of the Adulterous Woman the second Epistle of St. Peter the second and third of John the Epistle of Jude with the Book of the Revelations I have procured and sent them together with the five Books of Moses and a small Tract of Eprhaem by the Ship Patience of London With the said Books I have sent another in the same Tongue which I humbly present your Grace if it shall yeild any matter worthy your reading I have obtained my desire however it may prove I presume it will be accepted as a Token of his Love who will ever be ready in what he can to observe and effect what your Lordship shall command him I have sought the Old Testament in that Tongue which is out of the Greek and distinguished by certain Marks and Stars but I cannot hear of any such From Emmit I hope to have some good News to write your Lordship and to send you a Catalogue of such Books as be here to be had When this Book which I now send shall be received I beseech your Grace to give your Secretary order to advise me thereof in the mean time if any of the Books you desire shall be brought or sent unto me I will not let them go for a small matter more or less such Books are very rare and esteemed as Jewels by the Owners tho they know not how to use them neither will they part with them but at dear rates especially to Strangers who they presume would not seek after them except they were of good worth and indeed they give a kind of superstitious Reverence to all Antiquity Thus have I related my proceedings and what intend to do in what your Lordship writes for and I should be very glad to accomplish your desire but I presume my willing and ready mind shall be accepted Here is News from Bagdat that the Vizier with the Army have been thereabouts now three Months past but have done little worthy so great a force and now for 70 or 80 days have besieged Bagdat but can do no good upon it The Persians have made divers Sallies out of the City and after a small Skirmish returned giving the Turks the worst the King of Persia if report be true draws all his Forces that way but rather to fear the Turk than encounter him unless by some Stratagem wherein he hath the advantage of the Turks the sequel and issue of this War we expect and greatly desire in this place the rather because our Trade depends much thereupon There hath of late happened some Troubles about Jerusalem by the
Insolence of an Arab called Emeere Farrach there is a force of Men gone against him he being of no great power will be soon quiet The Estate of his Empire decays and will be utterly ruined by the Tyranny and Oppression of the Spahees and Janisaries who are Lords and Governors of the Country what Man is he that dare oppose a Souldier The Mahometans are Slaves to the Souldiers the Christian and Jew under both it would grieve a Man's Heart to see the poor Estate and Condition of the Christians in these Parts nor so much for their outward Estate tho that be marvelous grievous but they are to be pitied for their Estate of Christianity for I know that in a manner all true knowledg is departed both from Minister and People the Lord in Mercy visit them Pardon my Tediousness and Presumption and excuse my weakness who shall daily pray unto the Lord of Lords to prosper all your ways and bless all your Endeavours and grant you a long Life here with Happiness and everlasting Glory in the Life to come and will ever rest Your Graces in all humble observance to be commanded Thomas Davis Aleppo the 16th of January 1625. LETTER LXXXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend in Christ and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter of the 26th of March for which I return many humble Thanks I have written to Mr. Pat. Young both concerning his Transcript of Epistles and the nameless Annal but I could yet receive no Answer from him and I have not yet had time to go to him myself I have spoken with Sir Rob. Cotton concerning Malmesbury and the two Books of Saints Lives in Sarisbury Library all which he hath undertaken your Lordship shall have with all convenient speed As for the other two Books he tells me that you have one of them if not both already but if you want either of them you shall have it sent to you Giraldus Cambrensis of the Lives of David and Patrick was in my hands which I send your Lordship herewithal I have transcrib'd him for the Press only I will desire that when the Printer is ready for that part I may have it to compare with my Transcript for I purpose to go in hand with the Impression of his Works tho I make some adventure of my own Purss. If my Memory fail me not that Arabick Book is in my Lord Marshall's Library but I have not had opportunity to go in since the receipt of your Lordship's Letter by the next I will give your Lordship an account of it I received some Letters out of Ireland of the 25th of March but containing little memorable only which is very lamentable of five hundred Souldiers lately transported from the River of Chester three hundred at least are lost by Shipwrack upon the Coast of Wales Sir Ed. Chichester is created Baron of Belfast and Viscount of Carikfergus Here is much preparation for the Solemnities of the Funeral Parliament and Coronation The new Writs are gone out returnable the 17th of May. The Funeral-day is appointed the 10th of May which doubtless will be very great and sumptuous It is said that the King of Bohemia his eldest Son comes over to be chief Mourner There is no day certain for the Coronation because it depends upon the Marriage that both may be done together Italy which hath been quiet sixty Years some few Brables of the D. of Savoy excepted is now grown the Stage of War The French the Duke of Savoy and the Venetian Forces are 50000 and are come within twelve Miles of Genoa having already taken divers of their Towns But now my Paper bids me end wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher as also to Sir Garret Harvy and my Lady I will ever remain Your Graces most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 7. 1625. LETTER LXXXIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father and my no less honoured Lord IT is a good while since I writ your to Grace for want of a good occasion not presuming to trouble you with unnecessary Lines so trust my long silence will be excused The five Books of Moses with those parcels of the New Testament which your Lordship writ for in the Caldean Tongue sent you ten Months ago I trust in safety are come to your hands whereof I should be glad to hear I have used my best Industry to procure those other Books that you would have bought but hitherto have not been so happy as to light upon any of them such Books being very rare and valued as Jewels tho the Possessors are able to make little use of them Amongst all the Caldeans that lay in Mount Libanus Tripoly Sidon and Jerusalem there is but only one old Copy of the Old Testament in their Language extant and that in the custody of the Patriarch of the Sect of the Maronites who hath his residence in Mount Libanus which he may not part with upon any terms only there is liberty given to take Copies thereof which of a long time hath been promised me and indeed I made full account to have been possessed of one ere this time having agreed for it but I was deluded which troubled me not a little so in fine resolved to send a Man on purpose to Libanus to take a Copy thereof who is gone and I hope in four or five Months will finish it and by the assistance of the Almighty I trust to be able to send it by our next Ships By our Ships lately departed I have sent your Lordship some of the Works of Ephrem which if they prove useful I have my desire however I trust will be acceptable The last Letter I received from your Lordship bears date the 21st of February and came to my hands the 18th of July where I perceive you would have the New Testament in the Aethiopian Language and Character wherein my best Endeavours have not wanted for which purpose I have sent to Damascus where a few of the Abissines do inhabit yet have had no answer thence and in case do not prevail here I purpose to send to Jerusalem where divers of them do attend upon the Sepulcher of our Lord whence I hope to be furnished and in due time to send it with the Old Testament in the Syriack Tongue by the next Ships Thus much I beseech your Lordship to be assured of that I will omit no time nor neglect any means for effecting what you have or shall command me Touching such Occurrences which are worthy your Lordship's knowledg this unsettled tottering Estate affords little The Turks Forces were before Bagdat and during the Siege the Persians sallied out of the City divers times and had many Skirmishes with the Turks but ever came off with Honour
Letter for his Consecration is like to be there as soon as this I am heartily glad of his good Preferment but am somewhat grieved withal that the Colledg hath enjoyed him for so small a time who was like to make it much happy by his careful Government Some fear there is conceived that one or other from hence may be put upon the House who will not it may be so truly aim at the religious Education of the Students for some one deeply tainted with the Arminian Tenets putteth in close to be recommended thither by his Majesty and thinks to prevail by that means This I thought good to certify that your Grace may give timely warning thereof to the Fellows that they may make a wary and a safe Election of some sound Scholar and Orthodox Divine I will not presume to name any but I think Mr. Mead might be well thought of the place being formerly intended for him and he generally reputed a very able Man for such a Charge The Earl of Totnes departed this Life some ten days since his Corps is not yet buried Soon after his decease I went and made enquiry after that Press of Books and Manuscripts which only concern Ireland and asked whether he had left them as a Legacy to our Colledg as your Lordship heretofore moved him and as he himself lately promised to Sir Fran Annesly and my self that he would whatsoever the good Man intended or whatsoever direction he gave I cannot learn but the Colledg is not like to get them for one Sir Thomas Stafford the reputed Son of the said Earl hath got them and many other Things of my Lord 's into his hands out of which there will be hard wringing of them Sir Fran. Annesly and I have earnestly dealt with him that he would give them to the Colledg as the Earl intended to leave them and if not that he would let your Lordship have the refusal of them before any other if they be to be made away he absolutely refuseth to part with them upon any terms alleadging that he purposeth to erect a Library wherein they and all other the Earl's Books are to be preserved for his everlasting memory He promiseth withal that if your Grace or any that your Lordship will appoint hath a mind to exemplify write out or collect any thing out of any of the said Books and Manuscripts he will most willingly affoyd your Lordship or them a fire and leasurely use of the same as to you shall seem sitting and this was all that we could get from him If your Lordship's Letter can be so powerful it were not amiss to write to himself for it may be conjectured for all his fair pretences that a ready sum of Mony may make an easy purchase of them In my last Letter I advertised your Lordship how far I had proceeded in the business of Armagh since which time I have driven it to no further perfection partly because I expect to hear your Lordship's express pleasure therein and partly by reason of the Lord Keeper and Lord Grandison's late Sickness which hath kept them and the rest of the Committees from meeting to make a final determination of their Report that his Majesty's Letter may be procured accordingly for the setting off all things to your Lordship's desire If the Report were once made the Letter shall come speedily over and in a sufficient time to settle all before the Parliament sit or can conclude any Acts for restraining of Bishops to set any Leases for any longer term than one and twenty Years Thus recommending your Lordship to the blessed protection of the Almighty and humbly intreating your Lordship to have a vigilant care for the providing of an able Head to the Colledg I humbly take leave and remain Your Grace's Servant Archibald Hamilton White-hall April 8. 1629. LETTER CXXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter of the 22d of March by Sir Jo. Neutervill I doubt not but your Grace hath heard of the Greek Library brought from Venice by Mr. Fetherston which the Earl of Pembroke hath bought for the University-Library of Oxford it cost him 700 l. there are of them 250 Volumes Dr. Lindsell now Dean of Litchfield tells me that it is a great Treasure far exceeding the Catalogue He likewise tells me that there are a great number of excellent Tracts of the Greek Fathers never yet published besides divers ancient Historians and Geographers and particularly that there is as much of Chrysostom as will make a Volume equal to any of those published by Sir H. Savil I do not hear of any Books brought home by Sir Thomas Rae besides the ancient Greek Bible which was sent to his Majesty by him from Cyrill the old Patriarch sometime of Alexandria but now of Constantinople It is that which went among them by Tradition to be written by St. Tecla the Martyr and Scholar of the Apostles but it is most apparent not to be so ancient by some hundreds of years and that as for divers reasons so especially because there is before the Psalms a Preface of Athanasius I hear he hath brought home a rare Collection of Coyns and Medals I now spend my spare time in gathering Matter for the Story of Hen. 8. which in time if God spare me Life and Health I intend to publish And thus with the tender of my Love and Service to your Grace I will remain Your Grace's very affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. April 13. 1629. LETTER CXXXIX A Letter from the Right Honourable the Lord Falkland Lord Deputy of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Have received information both of the unreverend manner of publishing the late Proclamation at Drogedah and the ill observance of the same since it was published For the first That it was done in scornful and contemptuous sort a drunken Souldier being first set up to read it and then a drunken Serjeant of the Town both being made by too much Drink uncapable of that task and perhaps purposely put to it made the same seem like a May-game And for the latter That there is yet very little obedience shewed thereto by the Friers and Priests only that they have shut up the Fore-doors of some of their Mass-houses but have as ordinary recourse thither by their private Passages and do as frequently use their superstitious Service there as if there were no command to the contrary those Mass-houses being continued in their former use though perhaps a little more privately without any demolishing of their Altars c. I expected to have been informed as well of the publishing thereof there as of the Effects it had wrought from no Man before your Lordship both in respect of your Profession and the eminent place you hold in the Church and of your being a
satis laudatas subjungit Symbolum fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ut in versione Turriani nisi quod recte conjectavit Canisius quod Spiritum Sanctumrà patre procedere dicit Nulla uti Turrianus adjecerat filii mentone factà Inde Narrationem de septem Synodis instituit quam Turrianus misit Sed latine dedit Binius Concil Tom. 3. p. 400. Demum monita plura politica subjicit Quae in latinis Turriani enim comparent Vid. Cod. African ad finem Crabbe F. 155 308. LETTER CCXV A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Received yours of the 22d upon the 25th of April and have bestowed the most part of the last Week in the search of those Particulars there mention'd I am sorry the Event has not answered my Desires and Endeavours I do not doubt but your Lordship will make good that Assertion of the Nicene Creed though I profess I yet look upon it with some prejudice as being prepossessed with an anticipated Notion to the contrary Something in these Papers which I have collected in haste do in the general look that way upon perusal if it be not too much trouble to your Lordship and the time not overpast already your Lordship will make the Consequence In that Synodicon of Basilius Jalimbanensis I met with nothing directly to the purpose only in the beginning of the Book this enclosed of Germanus de sex Synodis What he says of the two first as only to the purpose I have transcribed In each of them is mention of a Symbol but not of the difference I have in the same Argument sent to and confronted two pieces of Photius the one out of his Epistles the other I met with in a Copy of his Nomocanon with Balsamon's Scholia much larger than the printed I have looked upon that in Gregory Nazianzen and compared it with that in Crab which he calls Fides Romanorum and do readily subscribe that by Romanorum must be meant the Eastern Church but then he that made that Title must be supposed to have writ since the division of the Empire In Magd. Coll. Library I spent two days in search after Nazianzen's Translation by Ruffin but in vain I do not find they have any such Book What seem'd next like it was some pieces of Basil of Ruffin's Translation at the end whereof there is indeed a part of his Exposition on the Creed While I was there tumbling amongst their Books I light upon an old English Comment upon the Psalms the Hymns of the Church and Athanasius's Creed which I presently conjectured though there be no Name to it to be Wickliffs and comparing the beginning with Bale found that I had not erred in the Conjecture and therefore writ this piece out in which he calls the Nicene Creed the Creed of the Church I remember two Years ago when I had an opportunity to read some Saxon Books that had formerly as I suppose belonged to the Church of Worcester I met twice with the Nicene Creed in Saxon but I do not remember any difference from that we use I have sought in the ancientest Editions of Ambrose but return with a non est inventus Wicelius we have not and for the Russian Offices if I can find any thing you shall have it by the next I presume you have already a Copy of that old Latin Creed at the end of the ancient Copy of the Acts given by my Lord of Canterbury and therefore I forbore to send it Gulasius in the Acts of the Nicene Council brings in the Philosopher disputing against the Holy Ghost as well as against the Son and that may be as far as the authority of the Author will bear somewhat to the purpose I received my Copy of the Arch-bishops of Constantinople and do return unto your Grace with thanks that Oration of Himerius which I had from your Lordship The Papers which I send are somewhat confused and some not right writ I fear some my Boy has left in the Publick Library and the Carrier will be gone before the Library be open I have in the Margent thus * marked what I conceive your Grace may possibly make use of I am very much straitned in time and therefore desire your Lordship's favour for thus scribling I am Your Lordship 's to command Gerard Langbaine Q. C. Oxon. May 4. 1647. LETTER CCXVI A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SInce my last this day seven-night I have enquired and I do here send you what I met with concerning the use of the Nicene Creed among the Russians which I conceive full to your purpose I perceive my haste made me then omit at sealing that Oration of Himerius which I now return with thanks to your Lordship and perhaps by mistake I might send some other Papers no way pertinent I have thought sometimes and have not yet found any sufficient reason to remove me from that Opinion That notwithstanding what Vossius hath said the Church was never without some Form of Confession which they required before they admitted any to Baptism I know not otherwise how to expound that of Heb. 6. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For though Vossius affirm no more to have been required but barely In nomina Patris Filii Spiritus sancti yet methinks that of Repentance from dead Works of the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting Judgment are made parts of those Fundamental Doctrines and Faith in God seems to comprehend the rest To this purpose I conceive Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. pag. 93. speaks for the Requisites to Baptism in the Practice of the Church in his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then follows the mention of the Three Persons of the Trinity not simply but with equipollent Attributes to those in the Creed of the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which what is it else but what we read both in Cyrill of Jerusalem and Epiphanius and the latter part of the Nicene Creed In like manner Clemens Alex. Paedagog lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 92 93 94. gives this Attribute to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and speaking then of Baptism under the various names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quotes Joh. 5. for everlasting Life mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Resurrection of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he produceth again a Testimony out of John 3. That every one that believes hath Life everlasting and I will raise him up again at the last Day Where considering the proper importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Matter there treated of Baptism and the Points there spoken of Resurrection Life Eternal I suppose it may not absurdly be collected that he implies these Doctrines were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
your return to London may be hastned if it may stand with your own conveniency for if you had not been so wholly taken up with Printing and Preaching truly my Lord I would have been bold to have taken your advice in some Points of Learning And now you are in the Country I suppose you are at best leasure but you want your Library yet I doubt not the good Lady with whom you are God reward and bless her for being such a Nursing-Mother hath many good English Books and I suppose amongst others you may find Bishop Andrews's Sermons I pray peruse that Sermon at Easter upon this Text If any one will be contentious we have no such custom and then let me know whether any Man did ever speak more for Traditions than he doth there for Customs both which words are the same in effect Then how many things there are in the old Law whereof we have no Scripture but only Tradition Then I pray let me have your Opinion of Torniellus I have read him over though I have forgotten much yet I remember he shows some defects And I pray let me know when the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel were divided upon the death of Solomon whether the Power of the High Priest were acknowledged in both Kingdoms alike until Israel fell to Idolatry I will trouble your Grace no further at this time if you please to return any answer I pray let it be left at the House where you were and once within a fortnight my Servant shall call there So desiring that we may remember each other in our Prayers I commit you to God's protection and rest Your most humble Servant Godfrey Goodman Chelsy July 8. 1650. LETTER CCLV. A Letter from the Right Reverend Jos. Hall Bishop of Norwich to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh ACcepi à te pridem Honorandissime Praesul munus egregium teque uno dignum Annales Sacros Veteris Testamenti accuratissimè digestos Non enim mihi traditum est volumen quà m oculi mei in tam gratum diuque expetitum opus irruerint illico neque se exinde avelli patiuntur Obstupui sanè indefessos Labores industriam incredibilem reconditissimae eruditionis monumenta quae se istic passim vel supino lectori ultrò objiciunt Praecipuè vero subit animum mirari faelicitatem otii tui quò inter tam continuam concionum doctissimarum seriem studiis hisce paulò asperioribus abstrusissimarum quarumcunque utpote ex imae antiquitatis caligine erutarum historiarum indagini vacare potueris Hoc fieri non potuisset ilicet sine numine mirum in modum tibi propitio Ecclesiae in cujus unius gratiam haec tibi singularia artium linguarum charismata tam ubertim collata fuisse facilè persentisces Perge porro Decus praesulum ita nos beare adornare tibi coronam gloriae sempiternae faxis mirentur posteri tale lumen tam infaelici seculo indultum Expectare nos jubes Chronologicum opus toti Christiano orbi exoptatissimum sed Annales insuper alios Quid non à tanto authore speremus Deus modo protrahat tibi dies ut aevi maturus hinc tandem demigres seroque in coelum redeas Misit mihi Librum nuper à se editum Christophorus Elderfeldius noster non uti fatetur injussu tuo sanè doctum ae probè elaboratum nisi in deploratum incidissimus aevum non inutilem Quantum debeo Authori Patrono Habeat suas à me uterque gratias Ego quod superest Paternitatae vestrae Reverendissimae preces meas animitus voveo quin meipsum Jos. Norvicens E. tuguriolo nostro Highamensi In festo Sancti Jacobi Anno MDCL LETTER CCLVI. A Letter from Dr. Meric Casaubon to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Lincolns-Inn May it please your Grace I Was with Mr. Selden after I had been with your Grace whom upon some intimation of my present Condition and Necessities I found so noble as that he did not only presently furnish me with a very considerable Sum but was so free and forward in his Expressions as that I could not find in my heart to tell him much somewhat I did of my purpose of selling lest it might sound as a further pressing upon him of whom I had already received so much Neither indeed will I now sell so much as I intended for I did not think besides what I have in the Country to keep any at all that would yield any Mony Now I shall and among them those Manuscripts I spoke of to your Grace and Jerom's Epistles particularly the rather because I make use of it in my de Cultu Dei the first part whereof your Grace hath seen which I think will shortly be printed As for my Father's Papers I do seriously desire to dispose of them some way if I can to my best advantage but with a respect to their preservation and safety Which I think would be if some Library either here or beyond the Seas had them I pray good my Lord help me in it if you can and when you have an opportunity conser with Mr. Selden about it I will shortly within these few weeks God willing send a Note to your Grace of what I have that is considerable and will part with Not but that I had much rather keep them had I any hopes at all ever to be accommodated with Books and Leasure to fit them for publick use my self But that I have no hopes of and certainly so disposed of as I would have them in my life time they will be safer than in my keeping in that condition I am It would be a great ease to my mind to see that well done for I have always reckoned of them as of my Life and if any mischance should come to them whilst they are in my keeping and indeed they have been in danger more than once since this my tumbling condition I should never have any comfort of my Life I have sent your Grace the Jerome that you may see it and if you desire to keep it by you I shall humbly crave a Note of it under your Grace's hand So I humbly take my leave Your Grace's in all humble Duty Mer. Casaubon Lond. Oct. 21. 1650. LETTER CCLVII A Letter from Dr. Isaac Vossius to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissimo Reverendissimo viro Ja. Usserio Armachano S. P. SI non plane ignores eruditionem et magnitudiem CHRISTINAE dubitare non possis vir Reverendissime opus tuum Chronologicum longe ei fuisse gratissimum Bidui tantum effluxit spatium quod id ad manus ejus pervenerit plurimum vero praeteriit temporis ut existimo ex quo nullum ei tam carum contigit munus Placuit ei supramodum cum ipsius operis ordo oeconomia tum etiam illud quod res Aegyptiacas Asiaticas Ã
Maximus Venerandae Dignissimae Amplitudini Tuae tuisque in Ecclesiâ suâ magnis laboribus abunde benedicere pergat Vale. Tuae Excellentiae Observantissimus cultor Gothofredus Hotton Propria manu Dabam xxviii Januarii 1652. Amstelodami LETTER CCLXX. A Letter from R. Vaughan to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverend Father MY Duty most humbly remembred unto you with thanks for your Opinion of King Cadwalader which hereafter shall be unto me a Tract to follow as best agreeing with Reason and Truth I hope you have received your Books in November last and if they are any way impaired in the carriage if you please to send them me I will have them fairly written again for you What I omitted in my last Letter by reason of the Bearers haste is that in your Giraldus his first Book Laudabilium and 8. Cap. I observe that my Countrymen in his time used to yoke their Oxen for the Plow and Cart four in a breast in these words Boves ad aratra vel plaustra non binos jungunt sed quaternos c. which I find not in the printed Book This may happily give some light and help to understand a clause in our ancient British Laws treating of Measures made as is there alleged by Dyfrewal Moel-mud King of Britain where it is said that the Britains in his time used four kinds of Yokes for Oxen the first was four foot long the second eight foot the third twelve and the fourth was sixteen foot long The first was such as we use now a-days for a couple of Oxen the second was that mentioned by Giraldus serving for four Oxen the third as I suppose suitable with those two for six Oxen and the fourth consequently for eight Oxen. The two last are clean forgotten with us and not as much as a word heard of them saving what is in that old Law but of the second mentioned by Giraldus we have a Tradition that such was in use with us about sixscore Years ago and I heard how true I know not that in Ireland the People in some places do yet or very lately did use the same I pray you call to your mind whether that be true or whether you have heard or read any thing of the use of the other two in any Country and be pleased to let me know thereof The Copy of Ninnius you sent me hath holpen me well to correct mine but finding such difference between the three Manuscript Books which the Scribe confesseth to have made use of I presume your Transcript comprehends much more in regard you have had the benefit of eleven Copies as you confess to help you which Differences are very requisite to be known of such as love Antiquity And also where those several Copies that you have seen are extant and to be found at present and how many of those Copies bear the name of Gildas before them and how many the name of Ninnius And what those of Gildas do comprehend more or less in them than those of Ninnius And whether the Notes of Samuel Beulan are found in any of those of Gildas or yet in every one of the Copies of Ninnius and whether the name of Samuel be added to those Notes in any of those Copies and to which of them All which with the antiquity of the Character of those several Copies are very necessary to be known and may easily be discovered by you and very hardly by any other ever after you Moreover about three Years ago I sent a Copy of the Tract concerning the Saxon Genealogies extant if I mistake not in Gildas and Ninnius unto you to be corrected by your Book and Sir Simon D'Ewes undertaking that charge for you as Mr. Dr. Ellis told me returned me only this Answer upon the back of my own Papers viz. The eldest Copy of this Anonymon Chron. doth in some places agree with the Notes sent up but in others differs so much as there can be no collation made of it c. But those my Notes do agree very well with the Book you sent me and differs not in twenty words in all the Tract whereof either many are only Letters wanting or abounding and therefore I marvel what he meant in saying so unless he had seen a larger Copy of the same than that I had but your last Letter unto me tells that it is only extant in Sir Thomas Cotton's two Books and wanting in all the other Books that bear the name either of Gildas or Ninnius and that Book you sent me was copied out of one of Sir Thomas Cotton's Books and examined by the other He further addeth that the Author of that Tract being as he saith an English-Saxon lived in the Year of our Lord 620 upon what ground I know not Yet I cannot think otherwise but that Sir Simon D'Ewes had some grounds for the same and it may be the very same that Leland the famous Antiquary had to say that Ninnius lived tempore inclinationis Britannici imperii and Jo. Bale who more plainly saith that he lived in the Year 620 just as Sir Simon D'Ewes hath And for that Sir Simon is dead I desire to know of you whether the said Tract be not more copious in one of Sir Thomas Cottom's Books than it is in the other Or whether Sir Simon D'Ewes might not find a larger Copy of the same elsewhere for if it be not the work of Ninnius nor Samuel Beulan it may as well be in other Books as in those especially if an English-Saxon was Author of it But if it be not found elsewhere I pray you tell me upon what grounds is the Author of it said by Sir Simon to live Anno 620 and Ninnius by Leland and Bale likewise said to live in the same Time when by the first Chapter of some Copies of Ninnius his Book it seemeth he wrote not two hundred Years after Moreover in regard you prefer that small Tract so much spoken of by me before all the rest of the Book it were a deed of Charity for you to paraphrase a little upon it whereby such as are but meanly skilled in Antiquity may reap some profit by it Truly some remarhable Passages from the Reign of Ida to the Death of Oswi Kings of Northumberland are contained in it which being well understood would add a greater luster to the British History Lastly Most Reverend Father I pray you be pleased to lend me your Copy of that Fragment of the Welch Annals sent by the Bishop of St. David's Rich. Davies to Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury who bestowed a Copy thereof upon the Library in Bennet-Colledg in Cambridg or your Copy of the Book of Landaff and I shall rest most heartily thankful unto you and I do hereby faithfully promise to return whatsoever you shall send me as soon as I shall have done writing of it I have already taken order to provide a little Trunk or Box for the safe carrying of
be thankful if you will vouchsafe to impart your learned Meditations either therein or in ought else unto me whom I beseech the Lord to bless with his Spirit to his Glory your Comfort and the Churches Good desiring always to be accounted Yours to command Thomas Whalley Aug. 15. LETTER CCXXXVIII A Letter from Mr. Arnold Boate to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace HAving written to you this day fortnight a fourth Letter since I had the honour to hear last from you I got three or four days after an Answer upon the three first dated the 14 24th of April and give you humble thanks for having been pleased to satisfy therein those several Questions which I had made bold to propound unto you The second part of your Annales is here extreamly longed for by all of them that have seen the first but I find by what you tell me of at this time that it goeth therewith as it hath done with my Work against Morinus and Capellus quòd crescat sub manu whereby it hath come to pass that instead of a Prodromus of fourteen or fifteen Sheets which at first I thought to have had it is now come to be a compleat Vindiciae Veritatis Hebraicae of full thirty Sheets I have made an end a sennight since and the Printer promiseth me to do as much for his part before the end of the next week and I hope I shall suddenly find an occasion of sending to London the 250 Copies for Mr. Pullen wherewith I intend to send likewise the Chronological Work of Labbaeus the which I bought the next day after I had received your Letter In my last I told you how I had enquired of Friar Goare about the Addenda ad Eusebii Chronicon Graecum and what answer I had of him And by this Letter of his which he hath brought me since you will find a much more ample account concerning the same Monsieur Sionita being gone out of Paris into Burgundy a few months before his decease and having carried all his Papers and Books with him thither they are fallen into the hands of some Persons who will never let them appear insomuch as Monsieur Auvergne Flavignii his Colleague in Professione Linguae Hebraicae who died the matter of half a Year ago could never hear any news of them although he used all possible diligence for that end But as for his Syriack and Arabick Bible by which those in Le-jayes Edition have been printed they were two excellent Copies and of a venerable Antiquity as he assured me and I partly discovered my self when I saw them with him at my first coming to this Town But I believe it is not unknown to you how that in printing the Syrrack he hath interpolated it in very many places and so utterly spoiled the Authenticalness of it according to what I have informed you very amply some Years since so as the Editores of the Biblia Polyglotta there must in no wise take his Syriack Edition for their Pattern or else they will spoil all I am no ways taken with their designs of putting in so much For besides that it is a very superfluous thing to add the Samaritan Pentateuch of which nothing should be printed but the Discrepancies from ours which is not an hundredth part all the rest being word for word the same I cannot see to what purpose it is to the like Editions with the Hebrew and Greek Texts with their Latin Translations and with the Vulgar Latin these being so easy to be had apart and no Body being without them And I would think it much more commendable and of much more utility for the Publick and for themselves too in regard of the ready venting of the Impression to print nothing else but the Syriack Chaldee Arabick Ethiopick and the Pentateuch in the Samaritan Language with the Latin Translations And that Edition too will not be worth a Rush if it be not done with the self-same exactness as the Biblia Regia were whereas those of Le jay are basely defaced with innumerable Faults and therefore fit for nothing but to be burnt When I shall send you any Books hereafter I will observe your directions of addressing them to Mr. Booth at Calais being most heartily sorry that Theophanes has been so unreasonably long before he came to your hands Thus humbly kissing your Hands and praying God to bless his Church and us your Servants with the prolonging of your days in perfect health and strength I remain ever Your Grace's most humble and most devoted Servant Arnold Boate. If it be not too troublesome for your Grace I would very gladly know in your next Letter what Edition or Manuscript-Copy hath been followed in the 〈…〉 Bible lately printed at London whether it hath 〈…〉 done and what the Bulk and Price of it is I delivered unto Mr. Balthazar your Letter to him and to Mr. Buxtorf and a Copy of your Epistle LETTER CCLXXXIX Illustrissimo Amplissimo Domino D. Jacobo Usserio Episcopo Armacano Jacobus Goar Ordinis Praedicatorum S. P. SEgnius est fateor in acceptum beneficium acceptum olim dico Tuâ eruditione plenum codicem animi non ingrati testimonium mutuâ aestimatione nondum merita rependendâ ad Tuas vir Illustrissime proficisci tardiores Proficiscuntur inquam à beneficio extortae verum ex officio spontaneo qua excidere dignae fuerant obsequio levissimo tentant mercari benevolentiam tuam Clar. Bootio quid de Collectaneis cunctis Eusebianis dicam an Scaligerianis cujus Authoris ex quibus Codicibus prodierint quaesivisti Is ad me qui Codicem Regium Syncelli in quo laboravit Scaliger contrectaverim quique ad Syncelli laborem passusque pedemque ex parte fuerim insequutus quaesitum retulit me resolvere impulit Ut comperi enuncio Apud Batavos Collectanea sua congessit Scaliger neque ex Regiis Parisiensibus in unum cuncta comportavit addidit quandoque propria Regia etiamnum collegit ex singulis 〈…〉 Chronici pars prior ex Regio eodem quo usus sum Syncelli 〈…〉 simis quae ad pag. 521 522. annotavi demptis tota prodiit 〈…〉 nomine quasi Stylo exaratam cum Syncelli textu comparavi 〈…〉 pag. 504. seqq Quae sequitur Eusebii rursus nomen ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fert quae non nisi ex methodo ordine Eusebii est Audens dico sincerus ad Eusebii Chronici Latina Hieronymi verba ex Syncelli verbis propria Minervâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plasmavit Scaliger Quo motus Eusebium reparare voluit Quo ordine Latinae interpretationis cui tamen nonnulla velut è cerebro Palladem novam Coss. nimirum numerum alia adjungere quia sic scripsisse somniavit Eusebium non est ver 〈…〉 Subduntur ad Eusebium ut putat Addenda quae Thesauri illius pag. 213. quae ex Regiis
whom I make to be the very same with Simeon Metaphrastes being altogether wanting I send you also herewith six of my Annales newly come forth one for your self the other for Monsieur Sarrarius Puteani fratres Sirmondus Petavius and Bignonius the King's Advocate into whose Acquaintance I had the honour to be brought by Dr. Price his means I would not have forgotten Dr. Blondel but that I perswade my self he is gone from you to Amsterdam there to succeed Vossius in his Historical Profession I desire to know what is done for the publishing of Georgius Syncellus Ja. Armachanus Lond. July 5 15 1650. LETTER CCC A Letter from the most R. Ja. Usher Archb. of Armagh to Dr. Arn. Boate. I Am sorry Sirmondus is proved so unkind The best is we have no need at all of any of Fronto's Variae Lectiones we have as good Books here as any he did use Only we desired that out of our own Book the very Original whereof Sir Rob. Cotton so lovingly sent unto him we might have those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcribed for us that are betwixt the 27th and 29th Chapt. of the Book of Gen. which was so equal and easy a Request that we thought none could be so envious as to deny unto us But the main thing we want is a Transcript of Cardinal Rupitfucaldius his Copy of the Prophets which I see they labour by all means to hide from us But if Sir K. Digby be in Paris and you go to him in my Name and tell him how much it will make for the honour of his Country that we may have the benefit of it I assure my self his Credit will reach to the borrowing of it for himself and then it may be easily transcribed and collated Esay the longest Book being omitted as already printed I have oft made use in mine Annales of the excerpta ex Polybio Diodoro Appiano c. set out by Henr. Valesius a very Learned Man who hath also written upon Ammianus Marcellinus If you can learn from the Puteani Fratres where he resideth I should be glad that the Copy of the Annales remaining should be sent unto him To the same The Catalogue of the High-Priests which Altinus sent unto me out of his Syncellus was this Onias Filius Jaddi Annis 21. Anno M. 5170. Simon annis 19. Eleazar annis 32. Manasses annis 26. Onias F. Simonis annis 14. Simon annis 2. Jesus Filius Sirach annis 6. Onias annis 5. Jason annis 3. Simon annis 19. Mattathias anno m. 5328. The 2 Years of Simon which you sent unto me out of Goartus his Copy belong to the second Simon But the Years which I desired to know were of the first Simon whether they were 9 or 19 whereof I would willingly hear again from you and receive any thing out of Goartus his Notes which may make for the clearing of the dimness of this dark Succession I thank you very much for your large Narrative of the proceedings in the Controversy touching Grace and Free-will by occasion whereof if any ancient Treatise or Epistles shall be hereafter published by Sirmondus or any other of his Society I should be glad to have it sent unto me by the first opportunity Ja. Armachanus LETTER CCCI. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Arnold Boate. MR. Young having now done with those Variantes Lectiones I send them back again unto you with much thanks He was wonderfully taken with the perusing of them as finding them very exactly to agree with the Alexandrian Copy in the Library of St. James which he intendeth shortly to make publick Mr. Selden and my self every Day pressing him to the Work Neither will he be unmindful to make honourable mention of Mons. Sarau as he well deserveth unto whom he acknowledgeth himself much bound for vouchsafeing to communicate unto him so great a rarity And I for my self must entreat herein a further favour at your hands That you will be pleased to spend one Day in the transcribing of the places noted with Obelisks in the fragments of Gen. LV. and Numb I thank you for the great pains you have taken in writing out the passages of Georgius Syncellus concerning the Succession of the High Priests after the times of Jaddus Wherein finding my self deceived by the trust I gave to Scaliger I shall be forced in the next Edition of mine Annals to alter the whole course of the times of that Succession I should be much also to blame if I did forget to return you thanks for your defending of me against Capellus I did not condemn his Book before I saw it as he chargeth me but declared hypothetically That if there were such a Proposition therein as you told me there was and he himself denieth not it was both very unreasonable and very dangerous I see by your Reply that you intend to set out a full Refutation both of his and of Morinus his particular Objections against the integrity of the Hebrew Text But how you can spare so much time from your practices I know not Yet if you shall continue still in that Mind the Psalter being the only Book wherein the Papists generally stand for the Greek reading out of which their vulgar Latin is rendred against the verity of the Hebrew Text I will send you Mr. William Eyre his censure upon all the particular places excepted against therein which forasmuch as concerneth that Book will ease you of much Labour I pray send me Raimundi Pugio and the Latin Translation of the Arabick Chronology assoon as it shall be suffered to be Publick Ja. Armachanus June 1651. LETTER CCCII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Arnold Boate. Good Doctor I Received both your last Letter and your entire dispute against Capellus in the publication whereof I see you do still bewray your old error of loading me with those Encomiums the least measure whereof I dare not own but pray only unto God that by his Grace I may hereafter endeavour to be that which the abundance of your affection maketh me to be already The Books are much desired here I am sorry I have put you to so much pains in seeking out for your Valesius and am not altogether out of hope of obtaining Rochefoculd's Copy by your industrious Negotiation with the Puteani Fratres and S. K. Digby But I was out of measure pleased with your good News you brought me of Mons. Sarau's pieces of the Septuagint and his willingness to impart the Transcript of the Variae Lectiones thereof unto Mr. Patrick Young He most earnestly desireth you to see those Variations transcribed for his use Wherein he entreateth you to have a special care of the places noted with Obelisks and Asterisks and carefully to set down the Marks of the ending of every one of them I pray send me the Volume of Anastasius Bibliothecarius his Works and the
for to get a License of Mortmain for the holding of 240 Acres of Capite Land which a Gentleman would give to our Colledg but I find great difficulty in effecting it so as I fear me I must return re infectâ If you would be pleased to send Mr. Lively's Chronology I think Mr. Whalley would see to the publishing of it And thus with tender of my best Service and my best Wishes and Prayers for the happy success of your good Designs and prospering of all your Endeavours and for the publick Peace and Safety of both the Nations Yours and Ours in these tottering and troublesome Times I commend your Lordship and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all Service Samuel Ward London Feb. 13. 1626. LETTER CXVIII A Letter from the Right Honorable the Lord Deputy Falkland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord YOur judicious apprehension of the Perils which threaten the Peace of this Kingdom which your dutiful consideration of the King's Wants through his other manifold Occasions of Expence together with your Zeal to his Service is clearly manifested by conforming your Tenants to the good Example of others to join with the rest of the Inhabitants in contributing to the relief of the new Supplies and other Souldiers sent hither for the publick Defence notwithstanding your Privileges of Exemption by Patent from such Taxes which I will take a fitting occasion to make known to his Majesty for your Honour And where your Lordship doth complain that other Country Charges are imposed upon your Tenants whereof you conceive they ought to be free by virtue of your Patent I can give no direct answer thereunto until I be informed from your Lordship of what Nature they be but do faithfully assure your Lordship that neither my Lord Chichester nor my Lord Grandison did ever shew more respect to your Predecessors than I will be ready to perform towards your Lordship as well in this your Demand as in all other things which lie in my Power not being prejudicial to the King's Service which I know is as much as your Lordship will ever desire and do pray your Lordship to send me a Copy of their Warrants for my information what hath been done in that behalf before my Time I have kept Sir Charles Cootes Company from that County as long as I could and will remove them thence as soon as I can conveniently But your Lordship may please to understand that by the earnest intercession of some well-willers to that County it hath been less burthened with Souldiers than any other within that Province saving only Fermannagh which is much smaller in scope than it And for the Distinction you desire to be made between your Town-Lands which you alleadg are generally less by one half than those that are held by others that Error cannot be reformed without a general admeasurement and valluation of the different Fertilities for we all know that a hundred Acres in a good Soil may be worth a thousand Acres of Lands that are mountainous and barren and therefore it will surely prove a Work of great difficulty and will require a long time to reduce it to any perfection so as it is best to observe the custom in usage until such a reformation shall be seriously debated and agreed upon For the Bridg to be built at Charlemount it was propounded to the Board by the Lord Caulfield he informing that the old one was so decayed that it could hardly last out another Year The usesul Consequence of that Bridg in time of War guarded by a strong Fort which Defence others want being well known to the Table did make it a short Debate every Man concurring in Opinion with an unanimous consent that it was most necessary for the King's Service that a substantial Bridg should be erected there with expedition Then the Question grew At whose Charge whether at the King 's or Countries Which upon mature debate was ordered that the Country should bear as well for that it is a place of equal conveniency with any other that is or can be made elsewhere for passage of the Inhabitants over that deep River in times of Peace as because they shall enjoy great security by their Neighbourhoods to that strong Fort of Charlemount in times of Combustion built and maintained without their Charge These Considerations did move us to give direction to certain of the Justices of Peace of each of these Counties of Tyrone and Armagh to view the place and treat with Workmen which they accordingly did Upon whose Certificate we gave Warrant to applot the same according to their Agreement with Workmen which I wish may be levied without opposition or interruption and do make it my request unto your Lordship to give way and furtherance thereunto for this Work tending so much to the Service of the King and Country which I shall take in very good part from your Lordship and you cannot want your Reward in Heaven for it it being a Work of that kind which is accounted pious And so I commit your Lorship to God's protection and rest Your Lordships very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle March 15. 1626. I have given order for the preparing a Fyant for the passing of those Particulars your Lordship desired by Mr. Singe Falkland LETTER CXIX A Letter from the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Send unto you Mr. Sibbes who can best report what I have said unto him I hope that Colledg shall in him have a very good Master which hitherto it hath not had You shall make my excuse to the Fellows that I write not unto them You shall do well to pray to God that he will bless his Church but be not too sollicitous in that Matter which will fall of it self God Almighty being able and ready to support his own Cause But of all things take heed that you project no new ways for if they fail you shall bear a grievous Burthen If they prosper there shall be no Thanks to you Be patient and tarry the Lord's leasure And so commending me unto you and to the rest of your Brethren I leave you to the Almighty and remain Your Lordship's loving Brother G. Cant. Lambeth March 19. 1626. LETTER CXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir MAY it please your Lordship to take a view of my Proceedings for the procuring of such Books you gave me order for such as I could get and have in readiness to be sent by our next Ships which may depart this Port about four months hence are certain Books and loose Papers in the Samaritan Tongue of what use or value I cannot learn The Old Testament in the Chaldean which after seventeen months time is written in a fair Character wanting only the Book
of the Psalms and the second of Esdras I have also a small Tract of Ephraems in the Syriack I have used the best means I could to procure the New Testament in the Abyssins Language and Character but to this day have not been able Fourteen days past I sent again to Jerusalem to try if it or any other of the Books your Lordship would have in the Samaritan Tongue may be had For obtaining whereof I have made use of the favour of a Gentleman of Veniee that is Consul for that Nation in this Place who I presume will endeavour to satisfy my great desire in this Particular and if he fail me I have no farther hopes of prevailing I am sorry that I can do no better service in a business that may be so beneficial as your Grace hath intimated to the Church of God and so acceptable to your self Such Papers as I have or can procure shall God willing with a Note of their Cost and Charges be sent by our Ships aforesaid News this place affords not worth your knowledg By our last Letters from Constantinople they write of great preparation for the Wars and that they will this Spring go against the Rebel Abbassa that holds the City of Assaraune In their last Years Siege of that place they lost many Men and much Honour The Common Adversary the Persian in the mean while hath time to provide himself to welcome the Turks when they shall think good to visit him They write also from Constantinople that a Greek Patriarch or Bishop that spent three Years in England was resolved to print being furnished out of Christondom with all things necessary having leave of the Caymo-cham some of the Greek Fathers whose Writings it should seem the Papists have abused Which when the Jesuits that live in Constantinople understood they went to the Bashaw and told him That the Greek under pretence of Printing would coin and stamp false Mony Whereupon without examination of the Business order was given to apprehend and instantly to hang the old Man his House and Goods to be seised upon for the King's use The latter was effected but God so provided that the Man was at that instant of time in our Ambassador's House where the Officers came to take him and execute that tyrannical Sentence But the Ambassador examining the Business undertook his Protection and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Person yea so far prâ—seâ—uted the Business against the Jesâ—its that they were cast into Prison their House Library and all their Goods taken for the King's use and liberty given to the old Greek to go on with his intended Work And for the Jesuits the best they could expect was to be banished Constantinople and never to come into any part of the Grand Signior's Dominions But I fear their Mony will produce too good an issue of so foul a Business Their Malice is inveterate God deliver all good Men out of their Power Thus I humbly take leave and ever rest Your Grace's in all Duty to be commanded Thomas Davis Aleppo the 14th of March 1627. Of the Turks Account the 18th day of the 7th Month called Raged and the 1037 Year of Mahomet LETTER CXXI A Letter from the Right Reverend Dr. John Hanmer Bishop of St. Asaph to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace I Have received the Chronicle of Ireland penn'd by my Uncle and perfected by Mr. Molineux together with the History of Ireland compiled by Edmund Campian I have cursorily ran them both over and do find some defects in both not only in Orthography by reason of the unskilfulness of the Transcriber but also in the Sense by reason of dissonancy in the coherence and the very Context it self But as it is I do purpose God willing to send it this week to London unto some Friends of mine to give the Printers there a view of the Volume as also to deal with them touching the Profit that may be raised to the advancement of the Widow my Aunt I will not fail to prefix in the Epigraphe and Title to Mr. Campian's History that direction which your Lordship very kindly affordeth in your loving Letter And I am sensible enough that Campian's Name honoured with your Grace's Publication to the Work will be a Countenance unto it and much further the sale And for Mr. Daniel Molineux not only my self but the whole Realm of Ireland together with this of great Britain shall owe a large beholdenness unto him If it please God that the Work take success for the Press I will take care that his Name for his care and pains-taking therein shall live and have a being in the memory of Posterity so long as the Books shall live When the Copies shall be returned from London and the Printer agreed withal I and my Friends here will review them again and again and to our Capacities make them fit for the Press for I find by perusing that such a Work must be framed by such Men as be skilful both in the Irish and Welsh Tongues and reasonably versed in their Stories Between this and Michaelmass I hope to bring all Passages to perfection and agreement with the Printer and then I will not fail to certify your Grace of the Proceedings Till when and ever I commit you and yours to the Grace of the Almighty Resting Your Lordships most assured loving Brother and Servant in Christ Jesus Joh. Asaph Peâ—re Paâ—t May 28. 1627. LETTER CXXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Mr. John Selden Worthy Sir YOur Letter of the 9th of September came not unto my hands before the 13th of November And to give you full satisfaction in that which you desired out of my Samaritan Text I caused the whole fifth Chapter of Genesis to be taken out of it as you see and so much of the 11th as concerneth the Chronology you have to deal with The Letters in the second and third Leaf are more perfectly expressed than those in the first and therefore you were best take them for the Pattern of those which you intend to follow in your Print there being but 22 of them in number without any difference of Initials and Finals and without any distinction of Points and Accents Matrices may be easily cast for them all without any great Charge which if you can perswade your Printer to undertake I will freely communicate to him the Collection of all the Differences betwixt the Text of the Jews and the Samaritans throughout the whole Pentateuch a Work which would very greedily be sought for by the Learned Abroad howsoever such things are not much regarded by ours at Home The Original it self after the Collation is perfected I have dedicated to the Library of our Noble Friend Sir Robert Cotton In the Samaritan Chronology published by Scaliger Lib. 7. de Emend temp pag. 618. there are reckoned 130 Years from Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his Death