THE STATES-MEN And FAVOURITES OF ENGLAND Since the Reformation Their PRUDENCE and POLICIES SUCCESSES and MISCARRIAGES ADVANCEMENTS and FALLS During the Reigns of King HENRY VIII King EDWARD VI. Queen MARY Queen ELIZABETH King JAMES King CHARLES I. LONDON Printed by J. C. for SAMUEL SPEED at the Rainbow neer the Inner Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1665. TO The HOPE of ENGLAND It s Young Gentry Is most humbly dedicated The HONOUR of it It s Ancient States-men A Renowned Auncestry TO An Honourable Posterity Whitehall BY permission and License of the Right Honourable Mr Secretary Morice this book may be printed and published Jo Cook TO THE READER Courteous Reader FOr bestowing some vacant hour by that excellent Personages direction to whom I am equally obliged for my Employment and my Leasure in an attempt so agreeable to the Lord Verulam's judgement which may be seen in the next page and so pursuant of Sir Naunton's designe which may be traced in the following Book Another person's abilities might have gained applause and my weaknesse may deserve an excuse notwithstanding my years if yet any man be too young to read and observe or my profession if yet a Divine should not as times go be as well read in Men as Books Especially since I gratifie no man's ' fondness writing not a Panegyrick but an History Nor pleasure any persons malice designing Observations rather than Invectives Nor tyre any man's patience setting downe rather the remarkes of mens publick capacities than the minute passages of their private lives but innocently discourse the most choice instances our ENGLISH Histories afford for the three great Qualifications of men 1. Noblenesse in behaviour 2. Dexterity in business and 3. Wisdome in Government among which are twenty eight Secretaries of State eight Chancellours eighteen Lord-Treasurers sixteen Chamberlains who entertain Gentlemen with Observations becoming their Extraction and their hopes touching 1. The rise of States-men 2. The beginning of Families 3. The method of Greatnesse 4. The conduct of Courtiers 5. The miscarriages of Favourites and what-ever may make them either wise or wary The Chancellour of France had a Picture that to a common eye shewed many little heads and they were his Ancestors but to the more curious represented onely one great one and that was his own It 's intended that this Book should to the vulgar Reader expresse several particulars i. e. all this last Ages Heroes but to every Gentleman it should intimate onely one and that is himself It 's easily imaginable how unconcerned I am in the fate of this Book either in the History or the Observation since I have been so faithful in the first that is not my own but the Historians and so careful in the second that they are not mine but the Histories DAVID LlOYD The Lord Bacon's Judgement of a Work of this nature HIstory which may be called just and perfect History is of three kings according to the object it propoundeth or pretendeth to represent for it either representeth a Time a Person or an Action The first we call Chronicles the second Lives and the third Narrations or Relations Of these although the first be the most compleat and absolute kind of History and hath most estimation and glory yet the second excelleth it in profit use the third in verity and sincerity For history of Times representeth the magnitude of Actions and the publick faces or deportments of persons and passeth over in silence the smaller passages and motions of Men and Matters But such being the work manship of God as he doth hang the greatest weight upon the smallest wyars Maxima è minimis suspendens it comes therefore to pass that such Histories do rather set forth the pomp of business than the true and inward resorts thereof But Lives if they be well written propounding to themselves a person to 〈…〉 present in whom actions both greater a 〈…〉 smaller publick and private have a commixture must of necessity contain a mo 〈…〉 true native and lively representation I do much admire that these times have so little esteemed the vertues of the Times a 〈…〉 that the writing of Lives should be no mo 〈…〉 frequent For although there be not man 〈…〉 Soveraign Princes or absolute Commanders and that States are most collected into Monarchies yet are there many worthy personages that deserve better then dispersed Report or barren Elogies For herein the invention of one of the late Poets is proper and doth well inrich the ancient fiction For he feigneth that at the end of the thread or web of every mans Life there was a little Medal containing the person's name and that Time waiteth upon the Sheers and as soon as the Thread was cut caught the Medals and carried them to the River Lethe and about the bank there were many Birds flying up and down that would get the Medals and carry them in their beak a little while and then let them fall into the River Onely there were a few Swans which if they got a Name would carry it to a Temple where it was consecrate THE TABLE A SIr Thomas Audly Pag. 39 Fitz-Allan Earl of Arundel 232 Master Ascham 429 Arch-Rishop Abbot 522 Sir Edward Anderson 577 Bishop Andrews 796 Sir Walter Aston 702 Sir R Armstroder 723 Philip Earl of Arundel 725 B CHarles Brandon 11 Sir Thomas Bollen 102 Sir Anthony Brown 128 Sir David Brook 205 Sir John Baker 277 Arch-Bishop Bancrost 539 Sir Nieh Bacon 287 Sir Francis Bacon 600 Thomas Lord Burgh 401 Sir Thomas Bromley 425 Sir Richard Bingham 426 Thomas Lord Buckhurst 493 Sir Thomas Bodly 578 G. V. Duke of Buckingh 613 Sir John Bramston 696 Lord Chief-Justice Banks 732 C ARch-Bishop Cranmer 15 Cromwel 32-138 Sir William Compton 110 Sir Thomas Cheyney 283 Sir John Cheek 160 Sir William Cordel 195 Sir Anthony Cook 199 Sir W Cecil L. Burleigh 290 Sir Thomas Challoner 343 Sir James Crofts 379 The Cliffords Earls of Cumberland 497 Sir R Cecil Ea of Salisb. 56 Sir Giles Calvert 526 Sir Arthur Chichester 529 Sir Lionel Cranfield E. M. 553 Sir R Cary 568 Doctor Cosin 589 The Lord Cook 592 The Lord Cottington 676 Sir Dudly Carleton 680 The Lord Conway 689 Sir Julius Caesar 704 The Earl of Carnarvan 786 The Lord Capel 793 Sir John Culpeper 814 Sir George Crook 721 〈◊〉 Thomas Coventry 750 Secretary Cook 716 D SIr Thomas Darcy 95 Dudly Duke of Northumberland 237 Edward Earl of Derby 358 Sir William Drury 368 Doctor Dale 374 Sir James Dier 404 Secretary Davison 437 Sir R. Dudley 537 John Lord Digby E. B 607 The Digges 691 The Earl of Danby 719 E SIr Ralph Ewers 275 W Earl of Essex 303 Robert Earl of Essex 449 Sir Thomas Edmonds 734 The L. Chancellor Egerton 531 Sir Clement Edmonds 547 Sir John Ereskin E. K. 557 F SIr Jeffery Fenton 441 476 Sir John Fineux 48 Bishop Fox 53 Sir Edward Fines 225 Sir John Fortescue 367 Doctor Fletcher 477 Sir H. Sir Lucius
manage by which upon occasion he hath unravelled the studied cheats and intrigues of the Closet-men to which when you adde his happy faculty of communicating himself by a free and graceful elocution to charm and command his Audience assisted by the attractive dignity of his presence you will not admire that he managed his Justiceship with so much satisfaction to the Court and that he left it with so much applause from the Country for these two Peculiarities he had That none was more tender to the Poor or more civil in private and yet none more stern to the Rich I mean Justices of Peace Officers c. or more severe in publick He delighted indeed to be loved not reverenced yet knew he very well how to assert the Dignity of his Place and Function from the Approaches of Contempt Observations on the Life of the Earl of Worcester THe Lord of Worcester a no mean Favourite was of the ancient and noble Blood of the Beauforts and of the Queens Grandfathers line by the Mother which she could never forget especially where there was a concurrency of old Blood with Fidelity a mixture which ever sorted with the Queens Nature He was first made Master of the Horse and then admitted of her Council of State In his Youth part whereof he spent before he came to reside at Court he was a very fine Gentleman and the best Horse-man and Tilter of the Times which were then the manlike and noble recreations of the Court and when years had abated these exercises of Honour he grew then to be a faithful and profound Counsellour He was the last Liver of all the Servants of her favour and had the honour to see his renowned Mistress and all of them laid in the places of their rest and for himself after a life of a very noble and remarkable reputation he died in a peaceable Old Age full of Riches and Honour His Fathers temperance reached to 97 years of Age because he never eat but one Meal a day and his sparingness attained to 84 because he never eat but of one Dish He came to the Queens favour because as her Father so she loved a man he kept in because as her Father too so she loved an able man His Man-like Recreations commended him to the Ladies his prudent Atchievments to the Lords He was made Master of the Horse because active and Privy Counsellour because wise His Mistress excused his Faith which was Popish but honoured his Faithfulness which was Roman it being her usual speech that my Lord of Worcester had reconciled what she thought inconsistent a stiff Papist to a good subject His Religion was not pompous but solid not the shew of his life but the comfort of his soul A great Master he was of others affections and greater of his own passions many things displeased nothing angered my Lord of Worcester whose Maxime was That he would not be disordered within himself onely because things were out of order without him He had this Maxime whence he had his Nature from his prudent Father Sir Charles Somerset the first Earl of Worcester of that Name whose temper was so pliable and nature so peaceable that being asked as it is usually reported of him How he passed so troublesome a Reign as King Henry's so uncertain as King Edward's so fierce as Queen Mary's and so unexpected as Queen Elizabeth's with so quiet so fixed so smooth so resolved and ready a mind and frame answered It was because he understood the Interest of the Kingdome while others observed its Humours His first Publick Service was to represent the Grandeur of his Mistress at the Christening of the Daulphine of France and his last the like at the marriage of the King of Scots whom he honoured with the Garter from his Mistress and advised to beware of Papists from the Council The frame of this Noble Mans body as it is delineated by Sir W. P. seems suited to the Noble use it was designed for The entertaining of a most pure and active Soul but equally to the advantage of strength and comeliness befriended with all proportionate Dimensions and a most grave yet obliging Carriage There was a clear sprightfulness in his Complexion but a sad reservedness in his Nature both making up that blessed compositon of a wise and winning man of as great hardship of body as nobleness of spirit Of a quick sight and an accurate ear a steady observation and ready expression with the Torrent whereof he at once pleased King James and amazed King Henry being the most natural Orator in the world Among all which Endowments I had almost forgot his memory that was very faithful to him in things and business though not punctilio's and formalities Great Parts he had the range and compass whereof filled the whole circle of generous Learning in that Person as it hath done in the following Heroes of that Family to this day Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Killigrew TRavellers report That the place wherein the body of Absalom was buried is still extant at Jerusalem and that it is a solemn custome of Pilgrims passing by it to cast a stone on the place but a well-disposed man can hardly go by the memory of this worthy person without doing gratefuâ— homage thereunto in bestowing upon him one oâ— two of our Observations It 's a question sometimeâ— whether the Diamond gives more lustre to the Ring it 's set in or the Ring to the Diamond This Gentleman received honour from his Family and gave renown to it Writing is the character of the speech as that is of the mind From Tully whose Orations he could repeat to his dying day he gained an even and apt stile flowing at one and the self-same heighth Tully's Offices a Book which Boys read and men understand was so esteemed of my Lord Burleigh that to his dying day he always carried it about him either in his bosome or his pocket as a compleat piece that like Aristotle's Rhetorick would make both a Scholar and an Honest man Cicero's magnificent Orations against Anthony Catiline and Verres Caesar's great Commentaries that he wrote with the same spirit that he fought flowing Livy grave judicious and stately Tacitus eloquent but faithful Curtius brief and rich Salust prudent and brave Xenophon whose Person was Themistocles his Companion as his Book was Scipio Affrieanus his Pattern in all his Wars ancient and sweet Herodotus sententious and observing Thucydides various and useful Polybius Siculus Halicarnasseus Trogus Orosius Justine made up our young mans Retinue in all his Travels where as Diodorus the Sicilian writes he sate on the stage of Humane Life observing the great circumstances of places persons times manners occasions c. and was made wise by their example who have trod the path of errour and danger before him To which he added that grave weighty and sweet Plutarch whose Books said Gaza would furnish the world were all others lost Neither was he amazed in
Astrologer who told him that this his Infant-son should taste of much trouble in the middest of his life even to the want of a meals meat but his old age should make amends for all with a plentiful estate which came to passe accordingly For his Father dying in his infancy no plentiful provision was made for him and when his eldest Brother Thomas Duke of Norfolke was executed his condition was much impaired insomuch that being once in London not overstocked with money when his noble Nephews the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Thomas Howard were out of Town and loath to pin himself on any Table uninvited he was fain to dine with the Chair of Duke Humphrey but other not to say better company viz. reading of books in Stationers Shops in St. Paul's Church-yard though afterwards he attained to great wealth honour and command However that Lord gave little credit to and placed lesse confidence in such Predictions as appeared by a learned Work he hath written on that subject Observations on the Life of Sir John Ramsey Earl of Holderness and Sir Tho. Ereskin Earl of Kelly BOth their preferments began on the same occasion both their natures were eminent for the same innocence and goodnesse both their services tend to the same issâ—e and therefore both their Characters come under one observation which it's more proper to take in the word of their Countrey-man and Contemporary that knew them than in the expression of a stranger that onely heard of them The whole story runs thus The name of Ruthen in Scotland was not notorious until Anno 1568. when Ruthen amongst others Confederates in those divided times of trouble laboured much for the imprisoning Queen Mary Mother to King James In 1582. his son William was created Earl Gowry in the time of that King's minority though the Father bore deadly hatred to the King's prosperity And in 1584. himself was in actual Rebellion in which he suffered at Dondee His eldest son John then in Travel in Italy returns home to inherit his lands and honours but not one jot changed in disposition from the traiterous wayes of his Predecessors For not long after he falls into this Conspiracy which is not so ancient but that many then and now living can and my self have heard the repetition The house of Gowry were all of them much addicted to study Chymistry and these more to practise it often publishing as such Professors usually do more rare experiments then ever could be performed wherein the King a general Scholar had little faith But to infuse more credit to the practice Alexander Ruthen the second brother takes this occasion and withal conspires with Gowry to assassinate the King and taking opportunity in his hunting not far from his house St. Johnstone invites the King to be an eye-witnesse of his productions In their way Sir Thomas Erskin after Lord Kelly overtakes them and others Demanding of the Duke of Lenox then present why Alexander had ingrossed the King's eare to carry him from his Sports Peace man said the Duke Wee's all be turn'd into gold Not far they rid but that the Earl Gowry made good by protestation his Brother's story And thus was the King brought to be a Guest Neer the end of Dinner at his Fruit and the Lords and Waiters gone to eat Alexander begs of the King at this opportunity to withdraw and to be partaker of his Production to the view of that which yet he could not believe And up he leads the King into by-lodgings locking each door behind them till they came into a Back Room where no sooner entered but that Alexander claps on his Bonnet and with stern countenance faces the King and says Now Sir you must know I had a Father whose blood calls for revenge shed for your sake The King amazed deales gently with his fury excuses the guilt of his death by his then Infancy Advising him not to lay violent hands on the sacred Person of his Anointed Soveraign Especially in a cause of his Innocency Pleading the Laws of God Man which so much wrought upon him that he said Well I will speak with my Brother and so put the King into a Lobby Room next the Chamber where no sooner entered but that there appeared a fellow weaponed ready for execution to whose custody the King is committed till his return Alexander gone down the fellow trembles with Reverence puts down his Sword and craves pardon which gave the King occasion to work upon that passion and to ask him whether he resolved to murther him Being assured to the contrary the King gets leave to open a window that looked into a back Court When presently Alexander returns and tells the King that he must dye But much affrighted at the Fellow's 〈◊〉 with his sword offers violence to the King Which the fellow seemingly opposes and between them began a 〈◊〉 which gave advantage to the King to cry Treâ—son at the Window which looked into a back-Court where Sir Thomas Erskin and oâ—â— Herries were come in pursuit of the King who was rumoured to be gone out the back-way to his â—â—nting At the cry of Treason and known to be the King's voice they both hastened up a back-stair called the Turn-pike being directed by a servant of the house who saw Alexander ascend that way And so forcing some doors they found them above panting with the fray and up comes also at heels of them John Ramsey after Earl of Holdernesse by them Alexander was soon dispatched Not long after came the Earl Gowry by his double key the first way with a case of Rapiers his usual weapons and ready drawn To whom Erskin said as to divert his purpose What do you mean my Lord the King is kill'd for the King was shadowed having cast himself upon a Bed from his sight and his Cloak was thrown upon the Body of Alexander bleeding upon the ground At which Gowry stops sinking the points of his weapons when suddenly Herries strikes at him with a hunting Falchion And Ramsey having his Hawk on his â—ist casts her off and steps in to Gowry and stabs him to the heart and forthwith more Company came up Not long after this Conspiracy Herries dies well rewarded John Ramsey hath the Honour of Knighthood with an additional bearing to his Coat of Arms A Hand holding forth a Dagger reversed proper piercing a bloody Heart The point crowned Emperial with this Distick Haec Dextra Vindex Principis Pâ—triae Afterwards he was created Lord Haddington and Earl of Holdernesse Sir Thomas Erskin was afterwards created Earl of Kelly Knight of the Garter Captain of the King's Guard and Groom of the Stool and the Fellow designed for the Murtherer had a large Pension confirmed by Act of their Parliament And all these men but Herries were living with other witnesses at King James his journey when he went from hence to visit Scotland and met together by direction at the same house with Ceremony and
the oldest that heard him for his Discourse and Policy The one preferred him to the ample Provo 〈…〉 ship of Kings the other to the great Trust of Secretary of State Prince Edward studied not his Book more sedulouslously then he studied him that his Rules might comply with his Inclination and his Lectures with his temper Lectures that were rather Discourses instilled to him Majestically as a Prince then Lessons beaten into him pedantiquely as a School-boy The wise man would not be debasing his Royal Pupils minde with the nauseated and low crumbs of a Pedant but ennobling it with the free and high Maximes of a States-man sugaring the more austere parts of Learning with the pleasures of Poetry Discourse Apologues and so deceiving the Royal Youth to an improvement before his own years and others comprehension His very Recreations were useful and his Series of lighter exercises for he observed a method in them too a constant study his Table his School his Meat his Discipline the industrious Tutour filling up each space of his time with its suitable instruction it being his Maxime That time and Observation were the best Masters and Exercise the best Tutor While others doated over their Rules his Pupils practised them no day passing without his Letters to the King as that Literae meae unum semper babet Argumentum Rex Nobilissime Pater Illustrissime hoc est in omnibus Epistolis ago tibi gratias c. or to the Queen as that Quod non ad se jamdiu scriberem in causa fuit non negligentia sed studium non enim hoc feci ut nunquam omnino scriberem sed accuratius scriberem c. I have two Tutors said King Edward to Cardan Diligence and Moderation Sir Jo. Cheeke and Doctor Coxe So exact an account he gave Prince Edward of his Fathers Kingdome and its Interest that King Henry designed him for Secretary and King Edward made him one Three years he had that place and in that three years did England more service so great his Parts Learning and Religion more kindness such his eminency in both and gave the people more satisfaction such his Integrity and Dexterity then all that went before him and most that came after him He was the first that brought in the use of a Diary and his Pupil the next that practised it His Aphorism it was That a dark and imperfect reflexion upon Affairs floating in the memory was like words dispersed and insignificant whereas a compleat view of them in a Book was like the same words pointed in a period and made significant Much did the Kingdome value him but more the King for being once desperately sick the King carefully enquired of him every day at last his Physitian told him there was no hope for his life being given over by him for a dead man No said the King he will not die at this time for this morning I begged his life from God in my Prayers and obtained it Which accordingly came to pass and he soon after against all expectation wonderfully recovered This saith Doctor Fuller was attested by the old Earl of Huntington bred up in his child-hood with King Edward to Sir Tho. Cheeke who anno 1654. was alive and 80 years of Age. But though his Prayers saved his Tutors life none could save his who died with the Protestant Religion in his heart and arms and Sir John had died with him but that being outed of all his preserments he outed himself from the Kingdome loving to all the English Exiles at Strasburgh and well beloved all over Germany until trusting to the Stars too much would he had either not gone so high or gone a little higher for advice and his friends too little he went to meet his dear Wife in Brabant where neither my Lord Paget's promise nor Sir Mason's pledges nor Abbot Fecknam's intercession could excuse him from being unhorsed and carted imprisoned and tortured vexed with all the arts of power and perplexed until his hard usage meeting with some fair promises brought him to a Recantation that broke his heart and after much melancholick sighing and silence brought him to his Grave The great example of Parts and Ingenuity of frailty and infirmity of repentance and piety Forced he was to sit with Bonner in his Courts but forced he would not be to joyn with him in his Judgement look on he did but weep and groan too A good Christian he was witness his pious Epistles an excellent States-man as appears by his True Subject to the Rebel a Book as seasonably republished by Doctor Langbaine of Queens Colledge in Oxford in the excellent King Charles his troubles as it was at first written in the good King Edward's commotions Vespasian said of Apollonius That his gate was open to all Philosophers but his Heart to Him And Sir John Cheeke would say to Father Latimer I haâ—e an Ear for other Divines but I have an Heart for You. A Country-man in Spain coming to an Image enshrined the extruction and first making whereof he could well remember and not finding from the same that respectful usage which he expected You need not quoth he be so proud for we have knâ—wn you from a Plum-tree Sir John Cheeke one day discoursing of the Popes Threats said He need not be so high for we have known him a Chaplain He took much delight in that saying of Herod the Sophist when he was pained with the Gout in his hands and feet When I would eat said he I have no hands when I would go I have no feet but when I must be pained I have both hands and feet Applying it thus When we would serve God we have no soul when we would serve our Neighbours we have no body but when we suffer for neglecting both we shall finde we have both a body and a soul Gustavus Adolphus some three days before his death said Our affairs answer our desires but I doubt God will punish me for the folly of my people who attribute too much to me and esteem me as it were their God and therefore he will make them shortly know and see I am but a man I submit to his will and I know he will not leave this great Enterprise of mine imperfect Three things Sir John Cheeke observed of Edward the sixth 1. That the peoples esteem of him would loose him 2. That his Reformation should be overthrown 3. That yet it should recover and be finished As to Publick Counsels 1. Sir John was against the War with Scotland which he said was rather to be united to England then separated from it 2. He was against King Edwards Will saying He would never distrust God so far in the preservation of his true Religion as to disinherit Orphans to keep up Protestantism 3. He laid a Platform of a War with Spain 4. He kept Neuter in the Court-factions 5. Bishop Ridley Doctor Coxe seconded and Sir John Cheeke contrived all King Edward's Acts of
Prince more dangerous his Disguise as who acts all things against his Master by his Authority Let no man upon this example ever repose so much upon any mans single Counsel Fidelity or Discretion as to create in himself or others a diffidence of his own Judgement which is likely to be most faithful and true to a mans own Interest Let every man have some things that no man shall obtain and some things that no man must dare ask because you see here if we let all go without reserve our Reputation is lost in the world by the Reputation our Favourite gains with us There was in Rome a certain man named Enatius somewhat entred in Age and of natural condition mutinous ambitious and troublesome Adrian being advertised that he was dead fell into a great laughter and sware That he could not but wonder he could intend to die considering what great business he had night and day Considering how many Affairs he had to manage how many cross accidents to accommodate I wonder what time he had to die And considering his many pretences for the Protestant Religion especially that for King Edward's I wonder with what face he could die a Papist But I have forgot my self for there are two sorts of persons in Machiavel that must either not believe or not profess any Religion The first the States-man that acts in publick Affairs the second the Historian that writes them Observations on the Life of Sir William Peter HE was born in that great Nursery of Parts Devonshire and bred in a greater Exeter-Colledge That Colledge made him a Scholar and All-Souls a Man His capacity was contemplative and his Genius active observing rather then reading with his eye more on men then Books studying behaviour rather then notion to be accomplished rather then knowing and not to erre in the main rather then to be excellent in circumstance His Body set off his Parts with a grave dignity of presence rather then a soft beauty of aspect His favour was more taking then his colour and his motion more then his favour and all such as made his early Vices blush and his riper Vertues shine The Earl of Wiltshire first pitched upon him for his Sons Tutor and then for his own Companion Noble Families set off hopeful Parts and improve them Cromwel's quick eye one day at my Lord spyeth his Personage and observes his Carriage He was a man himself and understood one Nothing would satisfie him but that the young Gentleman should come to Court and go to Travel King Henry loved any All-Souls man but was enamoured with him in whom concurred the three Perquisites of that Society 1. A Gentile Extraction 2. A graceful Behaviour 3. Competent Learning The young man designed for business was to travel for Education and the Scholar for Experience 1. His Pension is allowed him 125 l. a year 2. His Tutor is assigned who had been there before and could instruct him what he should see where he should go what acquaintance to entertain what exercise or discipline to undergo 3. His Instructions were drawn up as 1. That he should keep a Diary of what the chiefest places and the eminent persons either apart or in Conventions yielded worthy of Remarque and Observation 2. To have before him a Map or Card of every place he goeth to 3. Not to stay long in any one place 4. To converse with no Englishmen but Agents Embassadors or such grave persons as his Majesty would direct him to 5. To endeavour after Recommendations from persons of quality in one place to those in another keeping still his correspondence with the most publick and eminent persons of every respective place Within five years he returned a compleat Gentleman correcting the Vices of one Country with the Vertues of another and being one happy Composition of every Region Sir John Philpot was not so much the worse as Sir William was the better for travel He returning the shame of all Nations of his own by his weakness abroad of others by their follies at home This coming home the honour of his own by his abilities abroad of others by his perfections at home Two things improved his travel 1. An Artificial and careless freedome that opened others 2. A natural gravity that shut him up and was more capable of observing their Vertues and escaping their Vices Peter Earl of Savoy came to do his homage to Otho the fourth in a double attire on the one side Cloth of Gold on the other shining Armour the Emperour asked him what meant that Lindsey-Woolsey he answered Sir the attire on the right side is to honour your Majesty that on the left is to serve you Sir William Peter returns with those Gayeties of carriages on the one hand that might adorn a Court and with those abilities on the other that might support it His first employment was the Charts the Latine Letters and the Forreign Negotiation the next was Principal Secretary In which Office Wriothesley was rough and stubborn Paget easie Cecil close Mason plain Smith noble Peter was smooth reserved resolved and yet obliging Both the Laws he was Doctor of and both the Laws he made use of the Civil Law to direct Forreign Negotiations and the other t 〈…〉 give light to Domestick Occasions In the Kings absence in France 1544. Cranm 〈…〉 and Thorleby are to assist the Queen in matters o 〈…〉 Religion the Earl of Hertford in Affairs of War the Lord Parr of Horton and Doctor Peter in th 〈…〉 Civil Government whose Maxime it was It i 〈…〉 the interest of the Kings of England to be the Arbit 〈…〉 of Christendome Thus much he was to the Que 〈…〉 by Henry the eighth's Deputation and no less to King Edward by his Will A man would wonder how this man made a shift to serve four Princes of such distant Interests as King Henry King Edward Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth until he recollects the French King who enquired of a wise man how he might govern himself and his Kingdome the wise man took a fair large sheet of Paper and in stead of an infinite number of Precepts which others use to offer upon that subject he onely writ this word Modus A Mean In King Henry's time he observed his Humour in King Edward's he kept to the Law in Queen Mary's he intended wholly State-affairs and in Queen Elizabeth's he was religious his years minding him of death and his death of his faith He moved with the first Movers in most transactions to his apparent danger yet he had motions of his own for his real security Able he was at home and very dexterous abroad particularly at Bulloign The Philosophers exercising their Gifts before an Ambassador he asked one that was silent what he should say of him Repart to your King saith he that you found one among the Graecians that knew how to hold his tongue Ab said Mounsieur Chaâ—illon we had gained the last 200000 Crowns without Hostages had 〈…〉
for and that is Stratagems Now you should have him surprize a Town by Butter-women another time by Workmen anon he would face the Enemy and draw them with success upon a Train of Gunpowder he would lay for them and Iron Pricksteds he would sow for them He would steal their hands and seals buy the very keys of their Closets and so amuse them with Letters and distract them with Jealousies while in the mean time the vigilant man alarmed them every hour of the day and each watch of the night so that he tamed those wild Irish as we do some wild beasts by watching Observations on the Life of Roger Ashcam FRom his Cradle a Royal Servant and to his Grave a Favourite a good man saith Cambden and if his ambition had been but as great as the occasion was fair a great one too Born he was honestly in York shire and bred handsomely at Cambridge and both born and bred for that Age which was to refine Greek and Latine to a politeness and raise them to an Eloquence He was the University-Orator at Cambridge and at Court there using his Eloquence here his Interest against that Sacriledge that having Dined on the Church as he writ came to Sup on the Universities Thence he was rather removed then advanced more suitably to his merit then his expectation to be Queen Elizabeths Schoolmaster for the Latine Tongue in her Sisters time and her Secretary for the same in her own What he got by his Ingenuity he lost by his Gaming viz. at Dice and Cock-fighting dying rich onely in those two Books his Estate and Monument whereof the one is intituled Toxophilus and the other Scholarcha He and his dear Smith were the happiest men in the Nation their large and ingenious Souls clasping together in an entire friendship made up of kindness and integrity apart from the little fears the jealousies the suspitions that vex Mankinde What learned Letters what loving Expostulations what discreet Intimations what faithful Advertisements what indifferent Community what common Cares and Pities How they loved how they chid and how they loved again how plain how malleable how sweet What little Observations upon one anothers inadvertencies neglects or miscarriages how they improved their Mollia tempora to the great end of friendship information and advice How secretly they vented their thoughts into each others breasts and there looked upon them by reflexion and the advantage of a second consideration And it 's a happiness to have another self to shew our selves to before we appear to the world that all men wish and the good men onely enjoy An honest man this that abhorred all artifice and cunning and hated all concealments and pretensions which he had sagacity enough to discover and look through but a spirit too generous to practise it none being more able for yet none more averse to that circumlocution and contrivance wherewith some men shadow their main drift and purpose Speech was made to open Man to Man and not to hide him to promote Commerce and not betray it HOw happy is he born and taught That serveth not anothers will Whose Armour is his honest thought And simple Truth his utmost skill Whose Passions not his Masters are Whose Soul is still prepar'd for death Vntide unto the world by care Of publick Fame or private breath Who envies none that Chance doth raise Nor Vice bath ever understood How deepest wounds are given by praise Nor Rules of State but Rules of Good Who hath his life from rumours freed Whose Conscience is his strong retreat Whose state can neither flatterers feed Nor ruine make Oppressors great Who God doth late and early pray More of his Grace then Gifts to lend And entertains the harmless day With a Religious Book or Friend This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise or fear to fall Lord of himself though not of Lands And having nothing yot hath all Observations on the Life of Sir John Packington SIr John Packington was a Person of no mean Family and of form and feature no way despiseable for he was a brave Gentleman and a very fine Courtier and for the time which he stayed there was very high in the Queens Grace but he came in and went out and through disassiduity lost the advantage of her favor and then Death drawing a vail over him utterly deprived him of recovery They say of him saith the same Author that had he brought less to the Court then he did he might have carried away more then he brought for he had a time of it but he was an ill husband of Opportunity His handsome features took the most and his neat parts the wisest at Court He could smile Ladies to his service and argue States-men to his designe with equal ease His Reason was powerful his Beauty more Never was 〈◊〉 brave Soul more bravely seated Nature bestowed great Parts on him Education polished him to and admirable frame of prudence and vertue Queen Elizabeth called him Her Temperance and Leicester His Modesty It is a question to this day Whether his Resolution took the Souldiers his Prudence the Politicians his Complyance the Favourites his Complaisance the Courtiers his Piety the Clergy his Integrity and Condescention the People or his Knowledge the Learned most This new Court-star was a nine-days wonder engaging all eyes until it set satisfied with its own glory He came to Court he said as Solomon did to see its vanity and retired as he did to repent it It was he who said first what Bishop Sanderson urged afterwards That a sound Faith was the best Divinity good Conscience the best Law and Temperance the best Physick Sir John Packington in Queen Elizabeths time was vertuous and modest and Sir John Packington in King Charles his time Loyal and valiant the one did well the other suffered so Greenbam was his Favourite Hammond his the one had a competant Estate and was contented the other hath a large one and is noble this suppresseth Factions in the Kingdome the other composed them in the Court and was called by Courtiers Moderation Westmerland tempted his fidelity and Norfolk his stedfastness but he died in his Bed an honest and an happy man while one of them goes off tainted on the Scaffold and the other dies a Begger in Flanders Observations on the Lives of the Norrises and Knowles MY Lord Norris had by his Lady an ample Issue which the Queen highly respected for he had six sons all Martial brave men of haughty courage and of great experience in the conduct of Military Affairs Greater was not the Faction between Leicester and Sussex at Court then that between the Knowles and the Norrises in the Country both Families of Oxfordshire the one resolute at Greyes the other valiant at Rycote the former got great Estates at home the latter attained to great Honour abroad The Knowles were beloved by the Queen for their own sakes the Norrises for theirs
High-Commision and Oath Ex Officio that he put his Adversary to silence Others lay to his charge that he gave ma 〈…〉 blanck Licences the common occasion of unlawful Marriages and the procurer is as bad as the th 〈…〉 robbing many a Parent of his dear Childe thereby But always malice looks through a multiplying glasse Euclio complained Intromisisti sexcentes 〈◊〉 quos Thou hast let in six hundred Cooks wh 〈…〉 there was but two truly told Antrax and Cong 〈…〉 so here was but one which a Fugitive servant sto 〈…〉 from a Register to make his private profit thereby GOD in his sicknesse granted him his desire which he made in his health that he might be free 〈…〉 from Torture which his corpulency did much suspect bestowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him a sweet and quiet departure Pious his dying expressions I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. The wages of sin is death Rom. 6. Come Lord Jesus comâ— quickly Revel 12. And his last words were these Farewell my surviving friends remember your Mortality and Eternal life He gave forty pounds to the building of a Chamber in Trinity-Colledge and fifteen pounds per annum for the maintenance of two Scholarships therein a good gift out of his estate who left not above fifty pounds a year clear to his Heir a great argument of his integrity that he got no more in so gainful a place Dying at Doctors Commons he was buried by his own appointment in Lambeth Church and Doctor Andrews preached his Funeral-Sermon Amongst the many Verses made by the University of Cambridge this with the allowance of Poetical Licence came from no bad Fancy Magna Deos inter lis est exorta creatas Horum qui lites dirimit ille deest Consinum potiere dii componeâ—e tantas Lites quod vero jure peritus erat A most moderate man he was in his own nature but more earnest in the businesse of the Church in the behalf of which he writ many Books of validity c. It must not be forgotten that Doctor Barlow afterwards Bishop of Lincoln was bred by Doctor Cosen at his charge in his own Family who in expression of his Thankfulness wrote this Dr. Cosen's Life out of which most of the aforesaid Character hath been taken Observations on the Life of the Lord Chief-Justice Cook THis accomplished person was well born at Mileham in Norfolk of Robert Cook Esquire and Winifred Knightly his Wise and as well bred 1. When ten years of age at Norwich School 2. At Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge 3. After four years University-study first in Cliffords Inne and then in the Inner Temple The first occasion of his Rise was his stating of the Cooks Case of the Temple so exactly that all the House who were puzzled with it admired him and his pleading it so that the whole Bench took notice of him Such his proficiency that at the end of six years exceeding early in that strict age he was call'd to the Bar and soon after for three years chosen Reader in Lyons Inne Here his learned Lecture so spread forth his fame that crouds of Clients sued to him for his Counsel and his own suit was the sooner granted when tendering his Affections in order to Marriage unto Bridget daughter and Coheir of John Paston Esquire whose portion moderately estimated Viis modis amounted unto thirty thousand pounds her vertues not falling under valuation and she enriched her Husband with ten Children Then began preferment to presse upon him the City of Norwich choosing him Recorder the County of Norfolke their Knight for Parliament the Queen her Speaker therein as also her Solicitor and Attorney King James honoured him with Knighthood and made him Chief-Justice first of the Common-Pleas then of the Kings-Bench Thus beginning on a good bottom left him by his Father marrying a Wife of extraordinary wealth having at the first great and gainful practice afterwards many and profitable Offices being provident to choose good pennyworths in Purchases leading a thrifty life living to a great age during flourishing and peaceable times born as much after the persecution under Qu Mary as dying before our Civil Wars no wonder if he advanced to a fair estate so that all his sons might seem elder brethren by the large possessions left unto them Some falsely character him a back-friend to the Church and Clergy being a grand Benefactor to the Church of Norwich who gratefully under their publick Seal honoured him with this ensuing Testimony Edwardus Coke Armiger saepius in multis difficillimis Negotiis Ecclesiae nostrae auxiliatus est Nuper eandem contra Templorum Hellâ—ones qui Dominia Maneria Haereditamenta nostra devorare sub Titulo obscuro Concelatum dicunt sponte suâ nobis insciis sine mercede ullâ legitimè tutatus est atque eandem suam nostri Defensionem in perpetuam tantae rei memoriam posterorum gratiâ si opus fuerit magna cum industria scriptis redegit Nostrae Ecclesiae donaevit As for the many Benefices in his own Patronage he freely gave them to worthy men being went to say in his Law-language That he would have Church-Livings passe by Livery and Seisin not Bargain and Sale He was our English Trebonianus very famous for his Comments on Littleton and our Common-Law 1628 A Parliament was call'd and the Court-party was jealous of Sir Edward's activity against them as who had not digested his discontentments as he had done the Law Hereupon to prevent his Election as a Member he was confined to Buckingbamshire as a Sheriffe He scrupled to take the Oath pretending many things against it and particularly that the Sheriffe is bound thereby to prosecute Lollards wherein the best Christians may be included It was answered That he had often seen the Oath given to others without any regret and knew full 〈◊〉 that Lollard in the modern sense imported the oppos 〈…〉 of the present Religion as established by Law in the Land No excuses would serve his turn but he must undertake that Office However his friends beheld it as an injurious degradation of him who had been Lord Chief-Justice to attend on the Judges at the Assizes Five sorts of people he used to fore-design to misery and poverty Chymists Monopolizers Concealers Promoters and rhyming Poets For three things he would give God solemn thanks That he never gave his body to Physick nor his heart to cruelty nor his hand to corruption In three things he did much applaud his own successe In his fair fortune with his Wife in his happy study of the Laws and in his free coming by all his Offices nec prece nec pretio neither begging nor bribing for Preferment His Parts were admirable he had a deep Judgement faithful Memory active Fancy and the Jewel of his minde was put into a fair Case a beautiful body with a comely countenance A case which he did wipe and
Princes and with the l 〈…〉 Statesmen the one discovers others while the other conceals you 5. Resolution I made often said he as if I would fight when they knew my calling allowe me onely to speak 6. Civility That man said the Prince of Orange is a great bargain who is bought with a bare salutation Fourthly To Privy-Counsellours That excellent caution Always to speak last and be Masters 〈◊〉 others strength before they displayed their own This was that rare man that was made for all but siness so dexterous This was he that was made for all times so complying This was he who live Doctor of both Laws and died Doctor of both Gospels the Protestant which had the Statesmans parts of this man and the Popish who had the Christiat Noah had two faces because he was a son of the old world before the flood and a father of the ne 〈…〉 one after Wotton sure had four faiths who was Favourite in King Henry's days of the Counsel is King Edward's of the Juncto in Queen Mary's and the second Statesman in Queen Elizabeth's With these two things of this person I shall conclude 1. His refusal of the Archbishoprick of Canterbury which argued his extraordinary humility of wariness 2. His admission of Doctor Parker as Dean of Canterbury to that See which argueth the legality of his calling there being no circumstance with any likelihood omitted by so exquisite a Civilian as Doctor Wotton or forgotten by so great an Antiquary as Doctor Parker Observations on the Life of Thomas Wriothesly the first Earl of Southampton THomas Wriothesly Knight of the Garter was born in Barbican Son to William Wriothesly descended from an Heir general of the antient Family of the Dunsterviles King of Arms. He was bred in the University of Cambridge as it appears by Mr. Ascam's Letter unto him writing in the behalf of the University when he was Lord Chancellour Quamobrem Academia cum omni literarum ratione ad te unum conversa cui uni quam universis aliis â—se chariorem intelligit partim tibi ut alumno suo cum authoritate imperat partim ut patrono summo demisse bumiliter supplicat c. His University-Learning prepared him for the Law and his indefatigable study of the Law promoted him to the Court where for his Honour he was created Baron of Tichbourn Jan. 1. 1543. and for his Profit the next year May 3. Lord Chancellour a place he discharged with more Applause then any before him and with as much Integrity as any since him Force he said awed bâ— Justice governed the world It is given to that Family to be Generous are Resolute This incomparable Person was under cloud in King Edward's time for being a rigidly conscientious Papist and his great Granchild suffered in King Charles his time for being a sincere honest Protestant Yet so reverenced was the first of this Family by his Adversaries that he was made Earl of Southampton and so honoured was the other by his Enemies that they courted him to the party Integrity hath a Majesty in its full and Glory in its lowest Estate that is always feared though not always loved No Nobleman understood the Roman Religion better then the first Earl of Southampton and non the Protestant better then the last the Right Honourable and truly Excellent Thomas Earl of Southampton and Treasurer of England His Court he said gave Law to the Kingdom His constant and exact Rules to the Court and hâ— Conscience guided by the Law of the Kingdom 〈◊〉 his Rules Affable and acceptable he was as More quick and ready as Wolsey incorrupt as Egerton apprehensive and knowing as Bacon Twice were all Cases depending in Chancery dispatched in Sir Wriothesley's time 1538. and in Sir More 's 1532. Truly did he judge intra Cancellos deciding Cases with that Uprightness that he wished a Window to his Actions yea and his Heart too King Philip was not at leasure to hear a poor Womans Cause Then said she cease to be King My Lord over-hearing a servant putting off a Petitioner because his Master was not at leasure takes him up roundly and replies You had as good say I am not at leasure to be Lord Chancellour Two things he would not have his servants gain by his Livings and his Decrees The first he said were Gods the second the Kings whom every man he said sold that sold Justice To honest men your places said he are enough to Knaves too much Every Week he had a Schedule of his own Accounts and every Month of his Servants Cato's greatest Treasure was his account-Account-Book of Sicily and my Lord of Southampton's was his Table of the Chancellours place A great Estate was conferred upon him which he took not in his own name to avoid the odium of Sacriledge as great an Inheritance he bought but in others names to escape the malice of Envy He loved a Bishop he said to satisfie his conscience a Lawyer to guide his Judgement a good Family to keep up his Interest and an University to preserve his name Full of Years and Worth he died 1550. at Lincoln-place and was buried at St. Andrews Church in Holborn where his Posterity have a Diocess for their Parish and a Court for their Habitation Observations on the Life of Sir John Fitz-James JOhn Fitz-James Knight was born at Redlinch 〈◊〉 Somersetshire of Right Antient and Wort 〈…〉 Parentage bred in the study of our Municip 〈…〉 Laws wherein he proved so great a Proficie 〈…〉 that by King Henry the Eighth he was advanced 〈◊〉 be Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. There needs 〈◊〉 more to be said of his Merit save that King He 〈…〉 the Eighth preferred him who never used eith 〈…〉 Dunce or Drone in Church or State but Men 〈◊〉 Ability and Activity He sat thirteen years in 〈◊〉 place demeaning himself so that he lived and di 〈…〉 in the Kings Favour He sat one of the Assista 〈…〉 when Sir Thomas More was arraigned for refu 〈…〉 the Oath of Supremacy and was shrewdly put 〈◊〉 it to save his own Conscience and not incur 〈◊〉 Kings Displeasure For Chancellour Audley 〈◊〉 preme Judge in that place being loth that 〈◊〉 whole burthen of More 's condemnation sho 〈…〉 lie on his shoulders alone openly in the Court a 〈…〉 ed the Advice of the Lord Chief Justice Fi 〈…〉 James Whether the Indictment were sufficient 〈◊〉 no To whom our Judge warily returned 〈…〉 Lords all by St. Gillian which was ever his Oat 〈…〉 I must needs confess That if the Act of Parliam 〈…〉 be not unlawful then the Indictment is not in my co 〈…〉 science insufficient He died in the Thirtieth Year of King Henry the Eighth and although now there be none left 〈◊〉 Redlinch of his Name and Family they flourish still at Lewson in Dorsetshire descended from Allured Fitz-James brother to this Judge and to Richard Bishop of London The two main Principles that guide
t not been for the man that said nothing meaning Secretary Peter Neither was he better at keeping his own counsel then at discovering other mens as appeared by the intelligence he had that the Emperour had sent Ships to transport the Lady Mary into Germany in case the King would not allow her the practice of her Religion though three men knew not that Designe in the German Court whereupon he fetched her to Leez and thence under the notion of preparing for Sea-matters he sent over five thousand pounds to relieve the Protestants Active he was about the Will in compliance with his duty to King Edward but as nimble in his intelligence suitably to his Allegiance to Queen Mary whom he assisted in two Particulars 1. In making the Match 2. In searching the bottom of Wiat's Insurrection therefore 1. When the Church-lands went against her conscience Sir William peter must be sent for 2. When the Pope sent another Legate to turn out Pool he must be sent for who advised her to forbid him this Land as she very resolutely did As serviceable was he to Queen Elizabeth till his Age not being able to go through the difficulties and his Conscience being impatient of the severities of those busie and harsh times he retired to Essex where his Estate was great and his Charity greater both which he bequeathed his Son John who was by King James made Baron of Writtle in that County Observations on the Life of Cardin 〈…〉 Pool HIs Extraction was so high that it awakene 〈…〉 King Henry the Eighth's Jealousies and his Spirit so low that it allayed i 〈…〉 When he reflected on his Royal Relation he w 〈…〉 enjealousied to hard thoughts of restraint and security when he observed his modest Hopefulness he was obliged to those more mild of Education and Care as more honourable than the other and a safe Religion and Study would enfeeble that Spirit to quiet contemplation which more manlike exercises might ennoble for Business and Action It was but mewing him up in a study with hopes of a Mitre and there would be no danger of his ambition to the Crown The Privacies of the School and Colledge made him a stranger to the transactions of Court and he was to follow his Book that he might not understand himself His preferments were competent to content him and yet but mean to expose him Three things concurred to his escape from King Henry's Toyl 1. His Relations ambition that could not endure he should be wrapped in Black that was born to be clothed in Purple 2. His own Inclination to adde Experience to his Learning 3. The Kings Policy to maintain him abroad who could not safely keep at home No sooner arriveth he at Paris than the Pope ca 〈…〉 esseth him as a person fit to promote his Interest The House of York supports him as one that kept 〈…〉 p their Claim and the general Discontent crieth him up as one that was now the Hope of England and might be its Relief That he might not come short of their Expectation or his own Right his large capacity takes in the Learning of most Universities observeth the way of most Nations and keeps correspendence with all eminent men The first of these improved his Learning the second his Experience the third his Converse The Marquess of Exeter the Lord Mountacute Sir Nicholas Carew Sir Edward Nevil Sir Geoffery Poole would have made him a King but to gain him a Crown they lost their own Heads and Pope Julius made him a Kings Fellow but he was never Head of this Church since he put the Red Hat on this Cardinal The King had him declared for a Traytor in England and he him excommunicated for a Heretick at Rome His Friends are cut off by the King at home and the Kings Enemies cherished by him abroad But Princes are mortal though their hatred not so For before the Kings death he would needs be reconciled to Pool and as some thought by him to Rome wherefore he sends to him now in great esteem in Italy desiring his opinion of his late Actions clearly and in few words Glad was Pool of this occasion to dispatch to him his Book de Vnione Eeclesiarum inveighing against his Supremacy and concluding with an advice to Henry to reconcile himself to the Catholick Church and the Pope 〈…〉 Head thereof Our King having perused this a 〈…〉 knowing it could not lie hid in Italy though P 〈…〉 had promised not to publish it sends for him b◠Post to come into England to explain some Passag 〈…〉 thereof but Pool knowing that it was declar 〈…〉 Treason there to deny the Kings Supremacie refused desiring the King nevertheless in Letters to him and Tonstal to take hold of the present time and redintegrate himself with the Pope whereby he might secure his Authority and advance it with the honour of being the cause of a Reformation of the Church in Doctrine and Manners King Edward is King of England and the Cardinal like to be Pope of Rome keeping pace with the Royal Family He Head of the Church Catholick They of that in England But King Edward's weakness of Body suffered him not long to enjoy his Throne and the Cardinals narrowness and easiness of spirit suffered him not at all to sit in his chair For upon Paul the Third's death the Cardinals being divided about the Election the Imperial part which was the greatest gave their voice for Cardinal Pool which being told him he disabled himself and wished them to chuse one that might be most for the glory of God and good of the Church Upon this stop some that were no friends to Pool and perhaps looked for the place themselves if he were put off layed many things to his charge among other things That he was not without suspition of Lutheranism nor without blemish of Incontinence but he cleared himself so handsomely that he was now more importuned to take the place then before and therefore one night they say the Cardinal came to him being in bed and sent word they came to adore him a circumstance of the new Popes Honour but he being waked out of his sleep and acquainted with it made answer That this was not a work of darkness and therefore required them to forbear until next day and then do as God should put in their mindes But the Italian Cardinals attributing this put-off to a kinde of stupidity and sloth in Pool looked no more after him but the next day chose Cardinal Montanus Pope who was afterwards named Julius the Third I have heard of many that would have been Popes but could not I write this man one that could have been one but would not But though he would not be Pope of Rome yet when Mary was Queen he was one of England where he was Legate and if it had not been for the Emperour had been King For as soon as she was in the Throne of England he was sent for out
conducted by Reason engage those difficulties she encountereth in the execution of her designs Reason discovered him his enterprizes his Will enclined him to them and the noble transports of his regular passions set out both with that ardour and vehemencie as bear down obstacles and compass the design A hope he had that never rashly engaged him in desperate undertakings an audacity that precipitated him not weakly into impossibilities and a choler that led him not blindly to inevitable ruines Consideration managing the first Discretion and Foresight the second and Reason the third What doth it avail a man to be wise in knowing what is fit to be done prudent to invent means just to appropriate affairs to publick good authorized and happy to cause them to succeed if a Courage guided by Reason accompanied with Prudence ruled by Discretion animated by a generous Boldness be not diligent quick and prompt for Execution His Nature was generous and constant His Education like that of the Roman Youth among Statesmen manifold and solid His Soul was free and dis-engaged from any particular Design 3. Eloquence That added to his Parts what colours do to a Picture state grace and light Reason is the Ornament of a Man Speech the Interpreter of Reason and Elequence the grace of Speech wherein the Orator excelleth other men as much as they do other creatures His Wisdom advised his Prudence contrived his Courage resolved and his Eloquence perswaded adding at once gracefulness to his Designs and vigour to his Enterprizes as that wherewith he could satisfie mens Reasons and master their Passions by which he carried them whither he pleased His lively Expression animates his Reason his Eloquence his Expression and his Gesture his Eloquence whereby he charmed the Senses mollified Hearts incited Affections framed Desires checked Hopes and exercised a sacred Empire over every man he dealt with These qualities improved with Travel raised the Doctor to be the Chancellour's Secretary and the Legantine Courts chief Scribe at home a sly Agent in Italy a successful Orator in Germany and Leiger Embassador in France In Italy he with Doctor Fox having the King of France his Agent to second them gained the Popes Commission for hearing of the Cause between King Henry the VIII and Queen Katharine In Germany he undermined the French King and in France the Emperour Upon the poor Pope whom he found not worth 20 l. perplexed between the King of England who had set him at liberty and the King of Spain who had maintained him he wrought so far as to gain a dubious Letter in Cypher to the King and a clear promise to the Cardinal both about the suppression of some Monasteries and the Divorce which the crafty Agent extorted from the fearful man with his Necesse est c. although all this while he palliated this his main business with some impertinent overtures about King Henry the seventh's Canonization None better understanding the just degrees seasons and methods of Affairs then this Doctor Where he spoke one word for his Majesties Divorce he spoke two for the Cardinals Advancement having the French Kings Letter with him to that effect in omnem eventum In order whereunto he threatned the Pope from Germany and Germany from Rome so that their mutual jealousies forced them to a compliance with his Royal and Sacred Master A great Agent he was in this business while Wolâ—ey's Secretary a greater when the Kings in which capacity he writ they say one Book for the Pope's Supremacie in his Masters Name and another for the Kings in his own He draweth the Kingdom 's Remonstrance against the Pope and the Pope's against the Kingdom He and Doctor Fox are employed to gain the Vote of Cambridge for the Divorce where he brought it from the Negative to even Voices and from even Voices to a Disputation and upon that to a Determination on the Kings side for which we find him now Bishop of Winchester Archbishop Cranmer's Assistant at pronouncing the Divorce at the Priory of Dunstable and one of the two Embassadors at the Interview between King Francis and King Henry As he had declared himself by writing so he drew up a Form whereby others might declare themselves by oath for the Kings Supremacy And as he owneth the Kings Authority so he maintaineth it in his Apology for Fisher's Death But because no power is lasting when Religion is not vâ—nerable the wary Bishop promotes the Statutes of six Articles in the House of Commons in spight of Cromwel and Cranmer and urgeth the retaining of some essential Latin words in the translation in the Convocation Words for their genuine and native meaning and for the Majesty of the matter in them contained not to be Englished Though he could not keep the word from shining yet had he wit enough to keep it in a dark Lanthorn to keep the Laity at their distance and bear up the Will-worship of Rome Had he kept here King Henry had been satisfied but when his success improved his boldness and that precipitated his undertakings he must be quarreling with the Protestant Queens and so fall out with the Uxorious King under whose displeasure he continued while he lived as he did under his sons afterwards First for refusing a confession of his fault and then for not subscribing some Articles proposed unto him though he owned the Supremacy the Reformation and said of the Common-Prayer That though he would not have made it so himself yet be found in it such things as satisfied his conscience and therefore be would both execute it himself and cause others of his Parishioners to do it and if be were troubled in conscience he would reveal it to the Council and not reason openly against it so that he lost his Liberty and his Bishoprick until he was restored to both by Queen Mary who kissed and called him her Prisoner in the Tower and likewise advanced him to the Chancellourship wherein he did more harm by others then himself keeping alwayes behinde the Curtain and acting in Oxford by Visitors in London bv Bonner and in his own Diocess by Suffragans Onely in two Particulars he declared himself 1. Against the Princess Elizabeth saying In vain it is to lop the Branches while the Root remains 2. Against the Exiles Threatning that he would watch their supplies so that they should eat their nails and then feed on their fingers ends But threatned Folks live long and before the Confessors were brought to that Bill of fare the Bishop was eaten of worms himself dying suddenly and strangely wholly a Protestant in the point of merit who had been in other things so zealous a Papist One piece at once of his Prudence and Resolution and I have done The Lord Protector by Letters sollicited Gardiner to resign Trinity-Hall to the Kings hand who designed one Colledge out of that and Clare-Hall Most politick Gardiner saith my Author not without cause suspecting some design or casualty
and could not brook the obsequiousness and assiduity of the Court at that time He had more favour then he courted and he courted more rather to comply with the Queens humour then his own inclination then he desired He would say and that saying did him no good saith Sir Robert Naunton That he was none of the Reptilia being made rather to march as a Souldier then to creep as a Courtier But Civility must allay Nature in a Courtier Prudence regulate it in a States-man and modest submission check and soften it in a Subject It 's as dangerous to be stubbornly above the Kindnesses as it is to be factiously against the Power of Princes Willoughby got nothing Stanley lost all by his haughtiness which when it cannot be obliged is suspected But his service in France Holland and on the Borders compounded for his roughness so that to he who could not endure he should be high at Court were pleased he should be so in the Field Stiffness which displeased when looked on as Pride at home took when heard to be Resolution abroad Each Nature is advanced in its own Element Leicester among the Ladies my Lord Willoughby among the Souldiers It 's a step to Greatness to know our own way to it to exercise and shew our proper Vertues as he did his Magnanimity in these two instances among many others 1. When one challenged him then sick of the Gout he said That though he were lame in his feet and hands yet he would carry a Rapier in his teeth to fight his Adversary 2. Having taken a Spanish Gennet designed a present to that King and being offered either 1000l or 100 l. a year in exchange for it he nobly answered If it had been a Commander he would have freely released him but being onely a Horse he saw no reason be could not keep a good Horse as well as the King of Spain himself Sir Christopher Hatton was to an excess a Courtier and my Lord Willoughby so a Souldier Observations on the Life of Sir Philip Sidney HE was Son to Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy of Ireland and President of Wales A Person of great Parts and in no mean grace with the Queen His Mother was Sister to my Lord of Leicester from whence we may conjecture how the Father stood up in the place of Honor and Employment so that his Descent was apparently Noble on both sides For his Education it was such as Travel and the University could afford for after an incredible proficiency in all the Species of Learning he left the Academical life for that of the Court whither he came by his Uncles invitation famed aforehand by a Noble report of his Accomplishments which together with the state of his Person framed by a natural propension to Arms he soon attracted the good opinion of all men and was so highly prized in the good opinion of the Queen that she thought the Court deficient without him and whereas through the fame of his deserts he was in the election for the Kingdome of Poland she refused to further his advancement not out of Emulation but out of fear to loose the Jewel of her times He married the Daughter and sole Heir of Sir Francis Walsingham then Secretary of State a Lady destinated to the Bed of Honour who after his deplorable death at Zutphen in the Netherlands where he was Governour of Flushing at the time of his Uncles being there was married to my Lord of Essex and since his death to my Lord of St. Albans all persons of the Sword and otherwise of great Honour and Vertue He had an equal temperament of Mars and Mercury Valour and Learning to as high a pitch as Nature and Art could frame and Fortune improve him so Dexterous that he seemed born for every thing he went about His representations of Vertue and Vice were not more lively in his Books then in his Life his â—ancy was not above his Vertue his Humours Counsels and Actions were renowned in the Romancer Heroick in the States man His Soul was as large as his Parents and his Complexion as Noble an equal Line of both the modesty of the Mother allaying the activity of the Father A man so sweetly grave so familiarly staid so prettily serious he was above his years Wisdome gained by travel Experience raised from Observations solid and useful Learning drawn from knowing Languet his three years Companion and choicest Books accomplished him for the love of all and the reverence of most His Converse was not more close at home then his Correspondence abroad equally mixed with Policy Pleasure Wisdome and Love his Worth being penned up and smothered within the narrowness of his fortune sallied not out to discontent but pleasure sweetning the Affairs of State with the Debonnairness of the Stage his Romance being but Policy played with Machiavil in jest and State-Maximes sweetened to a Courtiers Palate He writ men as exactly as he studied them and discerned humours in the Court with the same deep insight he described them in his Book His Infant-discourses teach men O what had his riper years done He put Life into the dead Notions of Ancestors made Philosophy practicable joyned the Arts as closely in him as they are in themselves His Book is below his Spirit a Spirit to be confined with Kingdomes rather then Studies to do what was to be written then onely to write what was to be done All eyes were upon him but his own at first in all Affairs he was the last at last he was the first obliging all men that ever he saw and seeing all that were worth obliging All were pleased with his Arcadia but himself whose years advanced him so much beyond himself as his Parts did beyond others He condemned his Arcadia in his more retired judgement to the fire which wise men think will continue to the last Conflagration His private Correspondence with William of Nassau about the highest Affairs of Europe was so exact and prudent that he assured Sir Fulke Grevil he deserved a Kingdom in Forreign Parts though he had not an Office in England The Earl of Leicester held his Authority in the Low-Countries by his Counsel when alive and gave it over when he was dead Sir Francis Walsingham was so much overshot by him in his own Bow that those with whom Sir Philip were acquainted with for his sake were his friends for Sir Philips King James was honoured when King of Scotland with his friendship Henry the fourth with his correspondence Don Juan highly obliged with his Visits the King of Spain himself concerned in his death whom England he said lost in a moment but could not breed in an Age. The Universities were proud of his Patronage the Field of his Presence the Studious in all Parts communicated with him the Hopeful were encouraged by him all excellent Persons thronged to him all serviceable men were entertained by him and he among them a Prince whose minde was great
much altered here where this Lords Granchilde was at once the chiefest Councellour and the most eminent Scholar of his Age. It 's a reverend thing to see any ancient piece standing against Time much more to see an ancient Family standing against Fortune Certainly Princes that have able men of their Nobility shall finde ease in employing them and a better slide into their business for people naturally bend to them as born in some sort to command Observations on the Life of Sir Thomas Challoner THis Gentlemans birth in London made him quick his Education in Cambridge knowing and his travail abroad expert In Henry the eighth's time he served Charles the fifth in the expedition of Algier where being ship-wracked after he had swum till his strength and arms failed him at the length catching hold of a Cable with his teeth he escaped not without the loss of some of his teeth We are consecrated by dangers to services and we know not what we can do until we have seen all we can fear In Edward the sixth's Reign he behaved himself so manly at Muscleborough that the Protector honoured him with a Knighthood and his Lady with a Jewel the delicate and valiant man at once pleasing Mars and his Venus too The first week of Queen Elizabeths Reign he is designed an Embassadour of Honour to the Emperour such his port and carriage and the second year her Leiger for business in Spain such his trust and abilities The first he performed not with more Gallantry then he did the second with Policy bearing up King Philips expectation of the Match with England for three years effectually until he had done the Queens business abroad and she had done her own at home In Spain he equally divided his time between the Scholar and the States-man his recreation and his business for he refreshed his more careful time with a pure and learned Verse de rep Anglorum instauranda in five Books whilst as he writes in the Preface to that Book he lived Hieme in furno aestate in Horreo i. e. Wintered in a Stove and Summered in a Barn He understood the Concerns of this estate well and those of his own better it being an usual saying engraven on all his Plates and Actions Frugality is the left hand of Fortune and Diligence the right Anthony Brown Viscount Mountacute urged with much Zeal and many Arguments the Danger and Dishonour of revolting off from the Catholick and Mother-Church Sir Thomas Challoner with more Eloquence enlarged on the just Cause for which we deceded from the Errours of Rome the true Authority by which we deceded from the Usurpation of Rome and the Moderation in what we deceded from the Superstition of Rome When the Spanish Embassadour urged that some Catholicks might with the Queens leave remain in Spain he answered him in a large Declaration That though the instance seemed a matter of no great moment yet seeing the Parties concerned would not receive so much advantage by the license as the Commonwealth would damage by the President it was neither fit for the King of Spain to urge or for the Queen of England to grant He was very impatient of Injuries pressing his return home when his Coâ—â—ers were searched but admonished by his Mistress That an Embassadour must take all things in good part that hath not a direct tendency to the Princes dishonour or his Countries danger His death was as honourable as his life Sir William Cecil being chief Mourner at his Funeral St. Pauls containing his Grave and he leaving a hopeful Son that should bring up future Princes as he had served the present being as worthy a Tutor to the hopeful Prince Henry as his Father had been a faithful Servant to the renowned Queen Elizabeth Observations in the Life of Sir Edward Waterhouse SIr Edward Waterhouse was born at Helmstedbury Hartfordshire of an ancient and worshipful Family deriving their descent lineally from Sir Gilbert Waterhouse of Kyrton in Low-Lindsey in the County of Lincoln in the time of King Henry the third As for our Sir Edward his Parents were John Waterhouse Esquire a man of much fidelity and sageness Auditor many years to King Henry the eighth of whom he obtained after a great Entertainment for him in his house the grant of a weekly Market for the Town of Helmsted Margaret Turner of the ancient House of Blunts-Hall in Suffolk and Cannons in Hertfordshire The King at his departure honoured the children of the said John Waterhouse being brought before him with his praise and encouragement gave a Benjamins portion of Dignation to this Edward foretelling by his Royal Augury that he would be the Crown of them all and a man of great honour and wisdome fit for the service of Princes It pleased God afterwards to second the word of the King so that the sprouts of his hopeful youth onely pointed at the growth and greatness of his honourable Age. For being but twelve years old he went to Oxford where for some years he glistered in the Oratorick and Poetick sphere until he addicted himself to conversation and observance of State-affairs wherein his great proficiency commended him to the favour of three principal Patrons One was Walter Devereux Earl of Essex who made him his bosome-friend and the said Earl lying on his death-bed took his leave of him with many kisses Oh my Ned Oh my Ned said he Farewel thou art the faithfullest and friendliest Gentleman that ever I knew In testimony of his true affection to the dead Father in his living Son this Gentleman is thought to have penned that most judicious and elegant Epistle recorded in Holinshed's History pag. 1266. and presented it to the young Earl conjuring him by the Cogent Arguments of Example and Rule to patrizare His other Patron was Sir Henry Sidney so often Lord Deputy of Ireland whereby he 〈…〉 ame incorporated into the familiarity of his Son Sir Philip Sidney between whom and Sir Edward there was so great friendliness that they were never better pleased then when in one anothers companies or when they corresponded each with other And we finde after the death of that worthy Knight that he was a close-concerned Mourner at his Obsequies as appeareth at large in the printed Representation of his funeral Solemnity His third Patron was Sir John Perrot Deputy also of Ireland who so valued his counsel that in State-affairs he would do nothing without him So great his Employment betwixt State and State that he crossed the Seas thirty seven times until deservedly at last he came into a port of honour wherein he sundry years anchored and found safe Harbour For he receiving the honour of Knighthood was sworn of her Majesties Privy-Council for Ireland and Chancellour of the Exchequer therein Now his grateful soul coursing about how to answer the Queens favour laid it self wholly out in her service wherein two of his Actions were most remarkable First he was highly instrumental
the Common Law that he was preferred second Justice of the Common Pleas by Queen Elizabeth which Place he discharged with so much Ability and Integrity that not long after he was made chief Baron of the Exchequer which Office he most wisely managed to his great commendation full fourteen years to the day of his death Much was he employed in matters of State and was one of the Commissioners who sate on the tryal of the Queen of Scots He wrote a Book on the Forest-Laws which is highly prized by men of his Profession In vacation-time he constantly inhabited at St. Stephens in Canterbury and was bounteously liberal to the poor Inhabitants thereof and so charitable was he that he erected and endowed a fair Free-school at Sandwich dying in the 35 of Queen Elizabeth anno Dom. 1593. Cloaths for necessity warm Cloaths for health cleanly for decency lasting for strength was his Maxime and Practice who kept a State in decent plainness insomuch that Queen Elizabeth called him her Good-man-Judge In Davison's Case Mildmay cleared the man of malice but taxed him with unskilfulness and rashness Lumley said he was an ingenuous and an honest man but presumptuous I will ever esteem him an honest and good man said Grey The Archbishop of Canterbury approved the fact commended the man but disallowed of the manner and form of his proceedings Manwood made a narrative of the Queen of Scots proceedings confirmed the sentence against her extolled the Queens clemency pitied Davison and fined him 10000 l. A man he was of a pale constitution but a clear even and smooth temper of a pretty solid consistence equally sanguine and flegmatique of a quiet soul and serene affections of a discreet sweetness and moderate manners slow in passion and quick enough in apprehension wary in new points and very fixed and judicious in the old A plausible insinuating and fortunate man the Idea of a wise man having what that elegant Educator wisheth that great habit which is nothing else but a promptness and plentifulness in the flore-house of the mind of clear imaginations well fixed which was promised in his erect and forward stature his large breast his round and capacious forehead his curious and observing eye the clear and smart argument of his clearer and quicker soul which owned a liveliness equally far from volatileness and stupidity his steady attention and his solid memory together with what is most considerable a grand Inclination to imitate and excel What Plutarch saith of Timoleon with reference to Epaminond that we may say of this Gentleman That his Life and Actions are like Homer's Verses smooth and flowing equal and happy especially in the two grand Embelishments of our Nature Friendship and Charity 〈◊〉 Friendship that sacred thing whereof he was a passionate Lover and an exact Observer promoting it among all men he conversed with Surely there is not that Content on Earth like the Union of Minds and Interests whereby we enjoy our selves by reflexion in our Friend it being the most dreadful Solitude and Wildness of Nature to be friendless But his Friendship was a contracted beam to that Sun of Charity that blessed all about him His Salary was not more fixed then his Charity He and the Poor had one Revenue one Quarter-day In stead of hiding his face from the Poor it was his practice to seek for them laying out by Trustees for Pensioners either hopeful or indigent whereof he had a Catalogue that made the best Comment upon that Text The liberal man deviseth liberal things This is the best Conveyance that ever Lawyer made To have and to hold to him and his Heirs for ever Observations on the Life of Sir Christopher Wray SIr Christopher Wray was born in the spacious Parish of Bedal the main motive which made his Daughter Francis Countess of Warwick scatter her Benefactions the thicker in that place He was bred in the study of our Municipal Law and such his Proficiency therein that in the sixteenth of Queen Elizabeth in Michaelmas-Term he was made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. He was not like that Judge who feared neither God nor man but onely one Widow lest her importunity should weary him but he heartily feared God in his religious Conversation Each man he respected with his due distance off of the Bench and no man on it to byass his Judgement He was pro tempore Lord Privy Seal and sat Chief in the Court when Secretary Davison was sentenced in the Star-Chamber Sir Christopher collecting the censures of all the Commissioners concurred to Fine him but with this comfortable conclusion That as it was in the Queens Power to have him punished so Her Highness might be prevailed with for mitigating or remitting of the Fine and this our Judge may be presumed no ill Instrument in the procuring thereof He bountifully reflected on Magdalen-Colledge in Cambridge which Infant-foundation had otherwise been starved at Nurse for want of Maintenance We know who saith The righteous man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children and the well-thriving of his third Generation may be an evidence of his well-gotten Goods This worthy Judge died May the eighth in the thirty fourth of Queen Elizabeth When Judge Mounson and Mr. Dalton urged in Stubs his Case that Writ against Queen Elizabeth's marriage with the Duke of Anjou That the Act of Philip and Mary against the Authors and sowers of seditious Writings was mis-timed and that it died with Queen Mary my Lord Chief Justice Wray upon whom the Queen relied in that case shewed there was no mistaking in the noting of the time and proved by the words of the Act that the Act was made against those which should violate the King by seditious writing and that the King of England never dieth yea that that Act was renewed anno primo Eliz. during the life of her and the heirs of her body Five Particulars I have heard old men say he was choice in 1. His Friend which was always wise and equal 2. His Wife 3. His Book 4. His Secret 5. His Expression and Garb. By four things he would say an Estate was kept 1. By understanding it 2. By spending not until it comes 3. By keeping old Servants 4. By a Quarterly Audit The properties of Infancy is Innocence of Child-hood Reverence of Manhood Maturity and of Old Age Wisdome Wisdome that in this grave Person acted all its brave parts i. e. was mindful of what is past observant of things present and provident for things to come No better instance whereof need be alledged then his pathetick Discourses in the behalf of those two great Stays of this Kingdome Husbandry and Merchandize for he had a clear discerning Judgement and that not onely in points of Law which yet his Arguments and Decisions in that Profession manifest without dispute but in matters of Policy and Government wherein his Guess was usually as near Prophecy as any mans as also in the little mysteries of private
week The time lost upon his misfortunes which made it necessary for him often to break his great series and method of undertaking He I say that shall compute and sum up this the particulars whereof are nakedly told without any straining of the truth or flourish of expression must be much to seek how a man of so many actions should write any thing and one of so many writings should do any thing and more how one of so many fatall diversions could keep up a steady minde for those great but exact arguments that it hath left in the world especially when there was one very difficult particular in all his composures viz. that none of his Discourses with which his History or other Books are embellished passed his exact hand before the most knowing and most learned men in that faculty to which those discourses belonged had debated them before him who after their departure summed up all into those excellent pieces now abroad under his name which I blame not King James for envying being the nearest his own though I think not that learned Prince of so low a spirit as out of an impertinent emulation to affect Sir Walter Rawleigh the lesse for the great repute that followed him because of his pen which being more dangerous than his Sword I wonder that wise Prince indulged him especially since that Master Hampden a little before the Wars was at the charge of 〈…〉 3. 52 sheets of his Manuscripts as the 〈…〉 himself told me who had his close chamber his fine and candle with an Attendant to deliver him the Originals and take his Copies as fast as he could write them 2 To the second viz. the weaknesse of the last part of his life 1. There was not a greater reach in that advice of his to the Queen when some were for attacquing Spain one way and some another to cut off its commerce with the Indies than there was shortnesse of spirit in trusting the most hopeful part of that expedition to Sir John Burroughs when he sunke under the most disastrous himself Yet 2. That he when Captain of the Guard Warden of the Cinque-ports Governor of Virginia a place of his own discovery preferments enough to satisfie a regular spirit should stand on termes with King James against the Law of the Land the Genius of the Nation the resolution of the Nobility and Reason it self that knoweth there is no cautions that hold Princes but their interest and nature was a greater infirmity But 3. That he upon the Kings frown for his former indiscretion upon him and Cobham should engage upon so shallow a Treason so improbable to hurt others or benefit themselves that if ever folly was capable of the title or pity due to innocence theirs might claim so large a share as not possible to be too severely condemned or slightly enough punished and that with such weak and inconsiderable men as were rather against the government than for one another Grey being a Puritan and Cobham a Protestant were the greatest but there is one particular more behind That he who could employ his restraint so well should lye under the justice as well as jealousie of K. James And knowing that Princes must not pardon any able man that either they have wronged or that hath wronged them be so intent upon a foolish liberty wherein he lost himself and his in that unhappy voyage of Guiana a voyage that considering King James his inclination to the Match his own obnoxiousnesse to that King abroad and Cecil here for obstructing the Peace with Spain and Gondamor's vigilance must needs be as unsuccessful as it was disgustful Methinks he that was of so incomparable a dexterity in his judgement as the Treasurer grew jealous of his excellent parts left he should supplant him of so quick and ready apprehension and conduct that he puzzled the Judges at Winchester of so good a Head-piece that it was wished then on the Secretary of State 's shoulders of so considerable an interest that notwithstanding his fourteen years imprisonment Princes interceded for him the whole Nation pitied him and King James would not execute him without an Apology And to say no more of so much magnanimity that he managed his death with so high and religious a resolution as if a Christian had acted a Romane or rather a Roman a Christian might have gone off the world at a higher rate but that there is an higher power governs wisdome as invisibly yet as really as wisdome doth the world which when I look back upon my Lord of Essex I call fate but when from him I look forward to Sir Walter Rawleigh I believe a providence He had a good presence in a handsome and well-compacted person a strong natural wit a better judgement with a bold and plausible tongue which set off his parts to the best advantage to these he had the adjuncts of a general Learning which by diligence and experience those two great Tutors was augmented to a great perfection being an indefatigable Reader and having a very retentive memory before his Judges at Winchester humble but not prostrate dutiful yet not dejected to the Jury affable but not fawning hoping but not trusting in them carefully perswading them with reason not distemperately importuning them with conjurations rather shewing love of life than fear of death patient but not careless civil but not stupid Observations on the Life of Thomas Sackvil Lord Buckhurst HE was bred in the University of Oxford where he became an excellent Poet leaving both Latine and English Poems of his to posterity Then studied he Law in the Temple and took the degree of Barrister afterwards he travelled into Foreign parts was detained for a time a Prisoner in Rome which he revenged afterwards in the liberty of his speech at the Powder-Traytors Tryal Wen his liberty was procured for his return into England he possessed the vast inheritance left him by his Father whereof in short time by his magnificent prodigality he spent the greatest part till he seasonably began to spare growing neer to the bottom of his Estate The story goes that this young Gentleman coming to an Alderman of London who had gained great penny worths by his former Purchases of him was made being now in the wane of his wealth to wait the coming down of the Alderman so long that his generous humour being sensible of the incivility of such Attendance resolved to be no more beholding to Wealthy Pride and presently turned a thrifty improver of the remainder of his Estate But others make him as abovesaid the Convert of Queen Elizabeth his Cousin-German once removed who by her frequent Admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion Indeed she would not know him till he began to know himself and then heaped places of Honour and Trust upon him creating him 1. Baron of Buckhurst in Sussex Anno Dom. 1566. 2. Sending him Ambassador into France Anno 1571. Into the Low-Countries Anno Dom. 1566.
Bed by studying Sir Philip Sidney had her Heart for writing and Sir Fulke Grevil had her favour for both one great argument for his worth was his respect of the worth of others desiring to be known to posterity under no other notions than of Shakespear's and Johnson's Master Chancellor Egerton's Patron Bishop Overal's Lord and Sir Sidney's friend His soul had the peace of a great fortune joyned to a greater minde His worth commended him to Majesty his affablenesse indeared him to the popularity his mornings were devoted to his Books his afternoons to his knowing Friends his nights to his debonair Acquaintance He was the Queens Counsellor for persons as others were for matters and things Sweet was his disposition winning his converse fluent his discourse obliging his looks gestures and expressions publick his spirit and large his soul his Genius prompted him to prepare himself for Domestick services by Foreign employments but the great Mistriss of her Subjects affections and duties forbad it and his own prudence checked it So dear was he to the Queen that when his horses were shipped at Dover for the Netherlands her Mandate by Sir Edward Dier stopped him When he went over with Walsingham he was remanded and when with Leicester he was checked He was the exact image of action and quiet happily united in him seldome well divided in any He would have acted his great principles of Government yet he could be confined only to write them He could sit down with some Poetick and polite Characters of Vertue when he was debarred the real exercises of it He had kept Essex his head on had not that unhappy man's Parasites made the Earl deaf to his Counsels and his Enemies removed him from his presence under a pretence of guarding the Seas against his Enemies while his Kinsman was betrayed by his Friends Observations on the Life of Sir Robert Cecil SIr Robert Cecil since Earl of Salisbury was the heir of the Lord Burleigh's prudence the inheritour of his favour and by degrees a successor to his places though not to his Lands for he was a younger Brother He was first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of her Reign came to be Lord Treasurer all which were the steps of his Fathers greatnesse and of the honour he left to his house For his person he was not much beholding to Nature though somewhat for his face which was the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said he was his Father's own son and a pregnant Proficient in all discipline of State He was a Courtier from his Cradle yet at the age of twenty and upwards he was much short of his after-proof but exposed and by change of climate he shewed what he was and what he would be He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of men of weight and amongst able ones this was a chief as having his sufficiency from his instructions that begat him the Tutorship of the Times and Court then the Academy of Art and Cunning when English prudence and Counsel was at the highest as most exercised with Foreign dangers and Domestick practices Vast was his apprehension because so large his prospect Sir Francis Walsingham having opened the Conclave of Rome and his Father the Cabals of Spain insomuch that he knew each design in both places every Port every Ship with the Burthens whither bound what impediments for diversion of Enterprizes Counsels and Resolutions as appears by his private dispatches as his manner was with those of the Councel one whereof to my Lord Mountjoy since Earl of Devonshire with whom he seasonably closed runs thus I must in private put you out of doubt for of fear I know you cannot be otherwise sensible than in a way of honour that the Spaniard will not come to you this year for I have it from my own what preparations are in all Parts and what he can do For be confident he beareth up a reputation by seeming to embrace more than he can gripe but the next year be assured he will cast over unto you some Forlorn-Hopes which how they may be re-inforced beyond his present ability and his first intention I cannot as yet make any certain judgement but I believe out of my Intelligence that you may expect their Landing at Munster and the more to distract you in several places as at Kingsale Beer-haven and Baltimore where you may be sure coming from Sea they will first fortifie and learn the strength of the Rebels before they dare take the Field This States-man's character is engraven upon his honour and his portraicture drawn in his Patent for Earl of Salisbury which to many formal words hath added these effectual expressions As also for his faithfulnesse circumspection stoutnesse wisdome dexterity providence and care not onely in the great and weighty Affairs of Counsell but generally also in all other Expeditions of the Realm And indeed not a man upon the Helme of this Common-wealth understood all points of the Compasse better than himself who in a stayed and calm setlednesse looked on the private designs that were promoted upon his Mistriss declining and privately overthrowed them and their Masters while in an uninterrupted course of integrity towards his Mistriss and faithfulness to his Countrey he kept clear the succession equally careful not to enjealous his present Mistress and not to obstruct his future Master with whom he kept an honest correspondence although there goeth this story of him that a Post from Scotland meeting her Majesty upon Greenwich-heath Sir Robert Cecil in all hast would needs cut open the Packet and pretending it stunk had time to perfume it her Majesty being very curious in her smelling and convey away his own Letters be this so or so it 's certain that when assistant to the Earl of Derby in his French Embassie he promoted the young King of Scots interest against his Mothers when Sir Walsingham's Colleague he defeated her Counsels against him and when principal Secretary he sounded crossed and undid the little plot that was shrowded under the great name of Essex turning and winding raising and ruining the Authors of it at his own pleasure No sooner was the Queen dead than his Messenger was with the King at Edenburgh and he himself with his Favourite Sir George Humes at Yorke with whose assistance and honest Sir Roger Aston's mediation King James makes him his bosome-friend his house Theobalds his residence and his account of the English Laws Government and temper his rule Finding him but Knight and Secretary he created him Baron of Essenden Viscount Cranbourn Knight of the Garter and Earl of Salisbury He promoted him Master of the Wards and Lord Treasurer in all which capacities how vigilant he was against the Papists and their Plots their Libels which he answered in English and Latine very elegantly and wisely demonstrate how careful of the publique Treasure this
to the buildding of Audley-End as might displace his Father An Apothecaries boy giveâ— the first and a servant that carried the money the second both whom he surprized with the Spanish proverb Di mentura y sacaras verdad Tell a lye and finde a truth Indeed the natures and dispositions the conditions and necessities the factions and combinations the animosities and discontents the ends and designs of most people were clear and transparent to this watchful man's intelligence and observation who could do more with King James by working on his fear than others by gratifying his pleasure When I observe how close and silent he was at the Council-Table it puts me in minde of the man that gave this reason why he was silent in a Treaty and Conference Because said he the Enemy might know that as there are many here that can speak so here is one that can hold his peace Observations on the Life of Sir Francis Bacon SIr Francis was born where we are made men bred where we are made States-men being equally happy in the quicknesse of the City and politeness of the Court He had a large minde from his Father and great abilities from his Mother his parts improved more than his years his great fixed and methodical memory his solid judgement his quick fancy his ready expression gave high assurance of that profound and universal knowledge and comprehension of things which then rendered him the observation of great and wise men and afterwards the wonder of all The great Queen was as much taken with his witty discourses when a School boy as with his grave Oracles when her Counsel learned He was a Courtier from his Cradle to his Grave sucking in experience with his milke being inured to policy as early as to his Grammar Royal Maximes were his Sententia Puerilis and he never saw any thing that was not noble and becoming The Queen called him her young Lord Keeper for his grave ingenuity at seven years of age and he could tell her Majesty be was two years younger for her happy Reigne At twelve his industry was above the capacity and his minde above the reach of his Contemporaries A prodigy of parts he must be who was begot by wise Sir Nicholas Bacon born of the accomplished Mrs. Anne Cook and bred under the wise learned and pious Doctor Whitgift His strong observations at Court his steady course of study in the University must be improved by a well contrived Travell abroad where his conversation was so obliging his way so inquisitive his prudence so eminent that he was Sir Paulet's Agent between the Juncto of France and the Queen of England He allayed the solidity of England with the Ayre of France untill his own Affairs and the Kingdomes service called him home at his Fathers death to enjoy a younger Brothers estate and act his part Policy was his business the Law was onely his livelyhood yet he was so great a States-man that you would think he only studied men so great a Scholar that you would say he onely studied Books Such insight he had in the Law that he was at thirty her Majesties Advocate such his judgement that he was the Student of Grayes-Inn's Oracle so generous and affable his disposition that he was all mens love and wonder He instilled wholsome precepts of Prudence and Honour to Noble-men particularly the Earl of Essex to whom he was more faithful than he to himself Great principles of Arts and Sciences to the learned noble Maximes of Government to Princes excellent rules of Life to the Populacy When his great Patron Essex sunk he was buoyed up by his own fleadiness and native worth that admitted him to the Qu own presence not onely to deliver matter of Law which was his profession but to debate matters of State which was his element his judgement was so eminent that he could satisfie the greatest his condescention so humble that he instructed the meanest his extraordinary parts above the modell of the age were feared in Queen Elizabeths time but employed in King James his Favour he had in her Reign but Trust onely in his It 's dangerous in a factious Age to have my Lord Bacon's parts or my Lord of Essex his favour Exact was his correspondence abroad and at home constant his Letters frequent his Visits great his Obligations moderate and temperate his Inclination peaceable humble and submissive his minde complying and yielding his temper In Queen Elizabeths time when he could not rise by the publick way of service he did it by that more private of Marriage and other commendable Improvements whereby he shewed a great soul could be rich in spight of Fortune though it scorned it in point of Honour In the House of Commons none more popular none more zealous none so knowing a Patriot In the house of Lords none more successfully serviceable to the Crown the easie way of Subsidies was his design in Queen Elizabeths time the union with Scotland was his contrivance in King James's His make and port was stately his speech flowing and grave each word of his falling in its place the issue of great reason when conceived and of great prudence when expressed so great skill he had in observing and contriving of occasions and opportunities in suiting of Humours and hitting of Junctures and Flexures of Affairs that he was in his time the Master of speech and action carrying all before him The Earl of Salisbury saith Sir Walter Rawleigh was a good Orator but a bad Writer the Earl of Northampeon was a good Writer but a bad Orator Sir Francis Bacon excelled in both Much he said he owed to his Books more to his innate Principles and Notions When he thought he said he aimed more at Connexion than Variety When he spake he designed rather the life and vigour of expression and perspicuity of words than the elegancy or order of phrase His axiome was Words should wait on things rather than things on words and his resolution was That all affected elegance was below the gravity and majesty of a publick discourse He rather judged Books and Men than either read or talked with them His Exercises were man-like and healthful his Meditations cohaerent his Table temperate and learned where his great Discourses were the entertainment and he himself the treat resolving Cases most satisfactorily stating Questions most exactly relating Histories most prudently opening great Secrets most clearly answering Arguments and replying most familiarly and speaking what he had thorowly weighed and considered most effectually All matters and speeches came from him with advantage so acute and ready his wit so faithful his memory so penetrating his judgement so searching his head so large and rational his soul My Lord of Salisbury said he had the clearest prospect of things of any man in his age and K. James said That he knew the method of handling Matters after a milde and gentle manner His Religion was rational and sober his spirit publick
Nothing else have I to observe of his name save that hereditary Learning may seem to run in the veins of his Family witnesse Sir Dudly Digs of Chilham-Castle made Master of the Rolls in the yaer 1636. whose abilities will not be forgotten whilest our age hath any remembrance This Knight had a younger son of a most excellent wit and a great judgement Fellow of All-Souls in Oxford who in the beginning of our Civil Wars wrote so subtile solid a Treatise of the difference betwixt King and Parliament that such Royallists who have since handled that Controversie have written plura non plus yea aliter rather than alia of that Subject The Son writes down those Rebellions that the Father countenanced The Father I say who by a bold impeachment against his Majesties chief Minister of State to his face taught a discontented People to draw a bolder against his Majesty himself Wherefore it was that after his undutiful Prologue against his Majesties Prerogative in favouring his Servants the Preface to more disloyal methods against his right in governing his People he and Sir John Eliiot were whispered out of the Lords House when they were hottest against the Duke to speak with a Gentleman and thence sent immediately by two Pursevants that attended to the Tower where and in the Country this Gentleman lay under just displeasure until it was thought fit to take off so dangerous a piece of boldnesse and eloquence upon the growing distempers of the age by favour and preferment to a Neutrality at least if not to the just measures of his duty But our observation here is this That faction is one of those sins whereof the Authors repent most commonly themselves and their posterities are always ashamed Observations on the Life of Sir Tho. Ridly Dr. LL. THis Knight and Dr. was born at Ely in Cambridge-shire bred first a Scholar at Eaton in Buckingham-shire then Fellow of Kings-Colledge in Cambridge He was a generall Scholar in all kinde of Learning especially in that which we call Melior Literatura He afterwards was Chancellor of Winchester and Vicar-general to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury His memory will never dye whilest his Book called The view of the Ecclesiastical Laws is living a book of so much merit that the Common Lawyers notwithstanding the difference betwixt the professions will ingenuously allow a due commendation to his learned performance in that subject Although it startled them to hear King James was so affected with it insomuch that Sir Edward Coke undertook from thence to prophecy the decay of the Common-Law though in that prophecy of his others foresaw nothing but his fall Never book came out more seasonably for the Church than this never Comment came out more suitably than Mr. Gregories Notes upon it He writ well and advised better being good to give better to manage Counsel which he never offered till called and never urged longer then it pleased answering no question of consequence unlesse upon emergent occasion without deliberation observing the design of people that aske most commonly to try his sufficiency as well as improve their own However being sure that time is likelier to increase than abate the weight of a result discovering as well what may be returned suitably to the general temper as what may be answered fitly to the particular instance What alterations he designed for the Churches benefit were not sodain but leisurely To force men out of one extreamity into another is an attempt as dangerous as it is invidious as awakening most opposition and obnoxious to most hazard Wise Tacitus observeth that men have reformed inveterate habits more by yielding to them than engaging against them though a man must so yield as not to encourage while he doth so countermine as not to exasperate Although he was always able yet was he never willing to mend the Copy his Superiors had set him unlesse owned as from former instruction lest they grew jealous he valued his own experience before theirs who measure mens sufficiency from their caution and not from their parts from what they can forbear rather than from what they can do To conclude he was one of those able men that cannot be eminent unlesse they be great men of great merit behave themselves so negligently in small affairs as that you shall never understand their abilities unlesse you advance their persons Mens capacities sufficiencies have certain bound◠prescribed them within the limits of which they are able to acquit themselves with credit and applause But if you advance them above or depre 〈…〉 them below their spheres they shew nothing but debilities and miscarriages Onely this he was alway◠commended for That having the management of Affairs intrusted to him he under went all the miscarriages himself ascribing all the honour and sufficency to his Patron carrying his hand in all actions so that his Master had the applause of what ever was either conceded or denyed in publick without any other interruption from Mr. Ridley than what became the bare instrument of his commands however he ordered the mater in private Observations on the Life of Sir Henry Martin HE would merrily say That if his Father had left him fourscore pounds a year where he left him but forty he would never have been a Scholar but have lived on his Lands whereas his Inheritance being a large encouragement but a small maintenance he made up in study what he wanted in Estate first at Winchester and then at New-Colledge where his inclination led him to Divinity but Bishop Andrews his advice perswaded him to the Civil Law wherein he attained that great proficiency he was eminent for thus He had weekly transmitted to him from some Proctors at Lambeth the brief heads of the most important Causes which were to be tryed in the High-Commission Then with some of his familiar friends in that faculty he privately pleaded those Causes acting in their Chamber what was done in the Court But Mr. Martin making it his work exceeded the rest in amplifying and aggravating any fault to move anger and indignation against the guilt thereof or else in extenuating or excusing it to procure pity obtain pardon or at least prevail for a lighter punishment Whence no Cause came amisse to him in the High Commission For saith my Author he was not to make new Armour but onely to put it on and buckle it not to invent but apply arguments to his Clients As in decision of Controversies in his Courts he had a moderate and middle way so in managing of affairs in Parliament he had a healing Method Whence in most Debates with the Lords where Mr. Noy's Law and Reason could not convince Sir Martin's Expedients could accommodate For which services and his other merits he was made Judge of the Prerogative-Court for probate of Wills and of the Admiralty for Foreign Trade Whence King JAMES would say merrily He was a mighty Monarch by Sea and Land over the Dead
to Henry Lord Falkland whose quick and extraordinary parts and notable spirit performed much and promised more having a great command in the Countrey where he was Lord-Lieutenant a general respect in the house where he was Member a great esteem at Court with his Majesty and his Royal Highness the Duke of Yorke where he was both wit and wisdome When there was the first opportunity offered to honest men to act he laid hold of it and got in spight of all opposition to a thing called a Parliament By same token that when some urged he had not sowed his wilde Oats he is said to reply If I have not I may sowe them in the House where there are Geese enough to pick them up And when Sir F. N. should tell him he was a little too wilde for so grave a service he is reported to reply Alas I am wilde and my Father was so before me and I am no Bastard as c. In which Contention he out-did the most active Demagogues at their own weapon speaking When Major Huntington and his followers were for the long Parliament Sir F. N. L. S c. were for the secluded Members My Lord carried all the County for an absolute free Parliament which he lived to see and act in so successfully that he was voted generally higher in trusts and services had he not been cut off in the prime of his years as much missed when dead as beloved when living A great instance of what a strict Education for no man was harder bred a general Converse and a noble Temper can arrive to and what an Orator can do in a Democracy where the Affections of many is to be wrought upon rather than the judgement of few to be convinced A golden tongue falling under a subtle head under such a constitution hath great influence upon the whole Nation Observations on the Life of Sir James Ley Earl of Marlborough SIr James Ley son of Henry Ley Esquire one of great Ancestry who saith my Author on his own cost with his men valiantly served King Henry the Eighth at the siege of Boloin being his Fathers sixth son and so in probability barred of his inheritance endeavoured to make himself an Heir by his Education applying his book in Nose-Colledge and afterwards studying the Laws of the Land in Lincolns-Inne wherein such his proficiency King James made him Lord Chief-Justice in Ireland Here he practised the charge King James gave him at his going over yea what his own tender Conscience gave himself namely not to build his Estate upon the ruines of a miserable Nation but aiming by the unpartial execution of Justice not to enrich himself but civilize the People But the wise King would no longer loose him out of his own Land and therefore recalled him home about the time when his Fathers Inheritance by the death of his five elder brethren descended upon him It was not long before Offices and Honours flowed in fast upon him being made by King James King Charls 1. Attorney of the Court of Wards 1. Earl of Marlborough in Wiltshire 2. Chief-Justice of the Upper Bench the 18 of his Reign Jan. 29. immediately after the King's Coronation 3. Lord Treasurer of England in the 22 of his Reign Dec. 22. 2. Lord President of the Council in which place he died Anno. Dom. 1629. 4. Baron Ley of Ley in Devonshire the last of the same month  He was a Person of great Gravity Ability and Integrity And as the Caspian Sea is observed neither to ebbe nor flow so his minde did not rise or fall but continued the same constancy in all conditions a good temper enough for a Judge but not for a States-man and for any States-man but a Lord Treasurer and for any Lord Treasurer but in King CHARLES his active time who was put to it to finde out such stirring men as might recover him from the hazard and defection he was fallen into in Purse and Power Observations on the Life of Henry Vere Earl of Oxford THis noble person had more of the Camp in h 〈…〉 temper than the Court whence his rougâ— Armour-constitution grated often against the our tiers Silks for when one of them laughed at h 〈…〉 milk-white Feather he returned smartly upon him with reflections on his Ancestors That it had no 〈…〉 in t in it His Predecessors had not been more 〈…〉 placable enemies to Spain in the Low-Countries 〈…〉 an he was at White-Hall backing those arguments against the Match stoutly in the Presence-Chamber that Doctor Hackwel had urged zealously in the Pulpit and as resolutely suffering imprisonment for the one as the Doctor did suspension for the other declaring himself as freely against the Agent Gondomar as against his business â—he Marriage For chancing to meet Gondomar at â—n Entertainment the Don accosted him with high Complements vowing That amongst all the 〈…〉 obility of England there was none he had tendered his service to with more sincerity than to his Lordship though hitherto such his unhappinesse that his affections were not accepted according to his integrity that tendered them It seems replyed the Earl of Oxford that your Lordship hath good leisure when 〈…〉 ping in your thoughts to one so inconsiderable as my self whose whole life hath afforded but two things memorable therein It is your Lordships modesty returned the Spaniard to undervalue your self whilest we the spectators of your Honours deserts make a true and impartial estimate thereof hundreds of memorables have met in your Lordshipe life But 〈…〉 od my Lord what are those two signal things more 〈…〉 spicuous than all the rest They are these two said the Earl I was born in the year 88 and chri 〈…〉 ned on the fifth of November Neither was he a more inveterate enemy to the Church of Rome than a cordial friend to that of England for presenting one Mr. Copinger to 〈…〉 neham he added to try him He would pay no tythes of his Parke Mr. Copinger desired again to resign it to his Lordship rather than by such sinful gratitude to betray the rights of the Church Well if you be of that minde said the Earl then take the tythes I scorn that my Estate should swell with Church-goods Observations on the Life of Sir John Cook SIr John Cook younger brother to Sir Francis Cook born at Trusley in the Hundred of Apple-tree in Derby-shire of ancient and worshipful Parentage and allied to the best Family in that County was bred Fellow of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridg where his wit being designed his Estate he was chosen Rhetorick-Lecturer in the University where he grew eminent for his ingenious and critical reading in that School where Rhetorick seemed to be not so much an art as his nature being not onely the subject but the very frame of his discourse then travelled he beyond the Seas for some years when his judgement was fitted for Foreign observations by Domestick experience in the company of a person of quality
and allowing them to be published for the common benefit His onely defect was that he was against the ancient Naval-aid called Ship-money both publickly in Westminster-Hall and privately in his judgement demanded by the King even at that time when our Neighbours not onely incroached upon our Trade but disputed our right in the Narrow-seas though concluded to subscribe according to the course of the Court by plurality of Voices The Country-mans wit levelled to his brain will not for many years be forgotten That Ship-money may be gotten by Hook and not by Crook though since they have paid Taxes Leynes to the little finger and Scorpions to the rod of Ship-money but whether by Hook or Crook let others enquire Hampden's share for which he went to Law being but eighteen shillings though it cost the Nation since eighteen millions Considering his declining and decaying age and desiring to examine his life and prepare an account to the supream Judge he petitioned King Charles for a Writ of Ease which though in some sort denyed what wise Master would willingly part with a good Servant was in effect granted unto him For the good King exacting from his Subjects no services beyond their years and abilities and taking it better at his hands that he confessed his infirmities than if he had concealed them discharged him from the pains though he allowed him the fees and honour of Chief-Justice while he lived Wherefore in gratitude as well as conscience however he was misled in the foresaid matter of Ship-money he abhorred the Faction heartily for he would say of Hampden He is a dangerous person take heed of him and loved the Church as heartily for we are told by a person of great worth and credit That having read over the book of Canons 1640. when it first came out and was so much spoken against he lifted up his hands and gave hearty thanks to Almighty God that he had lived to see such good effects of a Convocation In a word he was no lesse in his Life than he is in h 〈…〉 Epitaph now dead which runs thus Georgius Crook Eques Auratus unus justiciari 〈…〉 cum de Banco Regis Judicio Linceato ani 〈…〉 presenti insignis veritatis haeres quem nec min 〈…〉 nec hâ—nos allexit Regis authoritatem populi 〈◊〉 bertatem aequâ lance Libravit Religione cordatu 〈…〉 vitâ innocuus manu expansâ Corde humili pauperes irrogavit mundum vicit deseruit Anno Aetat Lxxxii Annoque R. C. I. xvâ—i Anno Domini MDCXLI Observations on the Life of Sir Rob. Armstroder HE was a great Soldier a skilful Antiquary and a good Fellow In the first capacity I finde him bringing off five hundred English for three miles together without the losse of a man from six thousand Spanyards along a plain Champion where the Enemy might have surrounded them at pleasure Well he could handle bright Armour in the Field better he understood that more rusty in the Tower therefore in his second capacity we have him picking up old Coyn traluing more a Dollar which he might study than a pound he might spend Yet though his minde was taken with the Curiosities of former Times his â—nclination was very compliant with the mode of his own for he was excellent company in which capacity none more prevalent than he in Germany where they talk much none more acceptable in Denmarke where they drink hard none more taking in Sweden where they droll smartly His humble proposition and submission in behalf of the Elector was accepted by the Emperour 1630. He went to Denmarke and the first night he arrived he pleased the King so well in drinking healths that his Majestie ordered that his businesse should be dispatched that very night and he shipped when asleep as he was to his own amazement when awaked and the amazement of all England when returned he being here before some thought he had been there Humour is the Mistresse of the world Neither was he more intent upon the pleasing of Foreign Princes than careful in the honour of his own especially in his faith word and impregnable honesty for he knew a faithlesse Prince is beloved of none but suspected by his friends not trusted of his enemies and forsaken of all men in his greatest necessities Yet he was not so taken with antique Medals abroad but he promoted a new invention at home for to him Sir H. Wotton we owe it that F. Klein the German a very eminent Artist in working Tapestry came over to serve K. Charls the first a Virtuoso judicious in all Liberal mechanical Arts and for 100 pounds per ann pension so improved that Manufacture at this time very compleat at Mortlack in a house built by Sir Francis Crane upon King James his motion who gave two thousand pounds towards it in that place General Tilly would say before Gustavus Adolphus came into Germany that he was happy for three things That he heard Masse daily that he had never touched a woman and that he had never lost a battel What-ever Sir Robert could say to the first he was very prosperous for the last that he never failed of success either in fighting or treating in the Field or in the Chamber Observations on the Life of Philip Earl of Arundel HAd his Faith been as Orthodox as his Fathers Faithfulnesse was eminent K. James his gratitude and his Uncle Northampton's policy had raised him as high as his Father hath been and his son is But since his opinion made him a Separatist from the Church and his temper a recluse from the Court we have him in a place of Honour onely as Earl Marshal while we finde his Brother in a place of Profit as Lord Treasurer though both in a place of Trust as Privy-Counsellors where this Earl approved himself a confutation of his Uncles maxime That a through-paced Papist could not be a true-hearted Subject being as good an English-man in his heart is he was a Catholick in his conscience onely the greatnesse of his spirit would not suffer any affronts in Parliament whence he endured some discountenance from the Court insomuch that the House of Lords finding him a Prisoner when they sate 1626 would not act until after several of their Petitions he was released when his temper yielding with years he was very complying onely he â—resumed to marry his Son to an Heiress the King â—nd disposed of elsewhere which yet he laid upon the women that made the Match Indeed the 〈◊〉 Observator saith That women of all creatures are the most dextrous in contriving their designs their natural sprightfulnesse of imagination attended with their leasure furnishing them with a thousand Expedients and proposing all kinds of Overtures wi 〈…〉 such probability of happy suceâ—sse that they easily desire and as eagerly pursue their design When he was sometimes barred the service of his own time he studied those before him being a fond Patron of Antiquaries
side or party but all so far as he saw they agreed with the Reformed Church of England either in Fundamentals or innocent and decent Superstructures Yet I believe he was so far a Protestant and of the Reformed Religion as he saw the Church of England did protest against the Errors Corruptions Usurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome or against the novel opinions and practices of any party whatsoever And certainly he did with as much honour as justice so far own the Authentick Authority Liberty and Majesty of the Church of England in it's reforming and setling of it's Religion that he did not think fit any private new Masters whatsoever should obtrude any Foreign or Domestick Dictates to her or force her to take her copy of Religion from so petty a place as Geneva was or Frankefort or Amsterdam or Wittenbergh or Edenborough no nor from Augsburg or Arnheim nor any foreign City or Town any more than from Trent or Rome none of which had any Dictatorian Authority over this great and famous Nation or Church of England further than they offered sober Counsels or suggested good Reasons or cleared true Religion by Scripture and confirmed it by good Antiquity as the best interpreter and decider of obscure places and dubious cases Which high value it is probable as to his Mother the Church of England and her Constitutions was so potent in the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that as he thought it not fit to subject her to the insolency of the Church of Rome so nor to the impertinencies of any other Church or Doctor of far lesse repute in the Christian world No doubt his Lordship thought it not handsome in Mr. Calvin to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so censorious of the Church of England as to brand it's Devotion or Liturgy with his tolerabiles ineptiae who knew not the temper of the Nation requiring then not what was absolutely best but most conveniently good and such not onely the Liturgy was but those things which he calls tolerable toys I having occasion to speak with him he upon a time was pleased to grant me access some freedom of speech with him and withal asked me the opinion of the people of him I told him they reported his Lordship endeavoured to betray the Church of England to the Roman correspondency and communion He at length very calmly and gravely thus reylyed protesting with a serious attestation of his integrity before God's Omniscience that however he might mistake in the mean and method yet he never had other design than the glory of God the service of his Majesty the good order peace and decency of the Church of England that he was so far from complying with Papists in order to confirm them in their Errors that he rather chose such Methods to advance the honour of the reformed Religion in England as he believed might soon silence the cavils of fiercer Papists induce the more moderate Recusants to come in to us as having lesse visible occasion given them by needlesse Distances and Disputes to separate from us which he thought arose much from that popular Variety Inconstancy Easinesse Irreverence and Uncomeliness which might easily grow among us in the outward profession of Religion for want of observing such uniformity and decency in Religion as were required by the Laws and Canons of this Church and State He added that he had further a desire as much as he could to relieve the poor and depressed condition of many Ministers which he had to his grief observed in Wales and England where their Discouragements were very great by reason of the tenuity and incompetency of their Livings that in his Visitations he had sometime seen it with grief among twenty Ministers not one man had so much as a decent Garment to put on nor did he believe their other treatment of Life was better that he found the sordid and shameful Aspect of Religion and the Clergy gave great Advantages to those that were Popishly inclined who would hardly ever think it best for them to joyn with that Church which did not maintain either it's own Honour or it's Clergy to some competency and comeliness Much more discourses his Lordship was pleased to use at several times to this purpose which commands my charity to clear him as far as I can judge of any tincture of Popery truly so called or of any superstition which placeth a Religion in the nature and use of that thing which God hath not either particularly commanded or in general permitted I suppose he thought that where God hath allowed to his Church and to every private Christian so far as may consist with the Churches Order and Peace a liberty of ceremonious and circumstantial decency as to God's worship there neither himself was to be blamed nor did he blame other men if they kept within those discreet and inoffensive bounds which either the Churches publick peace required or its indulgence to promote Christians permitted That Uniformity he pressed was not more advantageous to Religion which must of necessity have been propagated when Controversies had been turned to devotion than it was necessary for the State which cannot be secure as long as there is a marke of distinction under which all Male-contents may shrowd themselves a note of separation whereby the Factions may reckon their parties and aestimate their strength and a way open to popularity to the ambition of any whose interest or desperatenesse shall adventure to make himself head of so great a party He was a person of so great abilities which are the designations of nature to dignity and command that they raised him from low beginnings to the highest Office the Protestant profession acknowledgeth in the Church and he was equal to it His learning appeared eminent in his Book against Fisher and his piety illustrious in his Diary He was of so publick a spirit that both the Church and State have lasting Monuments of the virtuous use he made of his Princes favour at his admittance into which he dededicated all the future Emolumeuts of it to the glory of God and the good of men by a projection of many noble Works most of which he accomplished and had finished the rest had not the fate of the Nation checked the current of his Design and cut off the course of his Life He was not contented by himself onely to serve his Generation for so he might appear more greedy of fame than desirous of the universal benefit but he endeavoured to render all others as heroick if they aimed at a capacity for his friendship For I have heard it from his Enemies no great man was admitted to a confidence and respect with him unlesse he made Addresse by some act that was for the common good or for the ornament and glory of the Protestant Faith Learned men had not a better Friend nor Learning it self a greater Advance◠He searched all the Libraries of
to raise other mens He neglected the minute and little circumstances of compliance with vulgar humors aiming at what was more solid and more weighty Moderate men are applauded but the Heroick are never understood Constant he was in all that was good this was his heroick expression when solicited by his Wives Father to desist from his engagement with the King Leave me to my Honour and Allegiance No security to him worth a breach of Trust no interest worth being unworthy His conduct was as eminent in War as his carriage in Peace many did he oblige by the generosity of his minde more did he awe with the hardinesse of his body which was no more softned to sloath by the dalliances of a Court than the other was debauched to a carelesnesse by the greatnesse of his Fortune His prudence was equal to his valour and he could entertain dangers as well as despise them for he not onely undeceived his enemies surmises but exceeded his own friends opinion in the conduct of his soldiers of whom he had two cares the one to discipline the other to preserve them Therefore they were as compleatly armed without as they were well appointed within that surviving their first dangers they might attain that experience resolution which is in vain expected from young and raw soldiers To this conduct of a General he added the industry of a Soldier doing much by his performances more by his example that went as an active soul to enliven each part and the whole of his brave Squadron But there is no doubt but personal and private sins may oft-times over-balance the justice of publick engagements Nor doth God account every Gallant a fit instrument to assert in the way of war a righteous cause the event can never state the justice of any cause nor the peace of mens consciences nor the eternal fate of their souls They were no doubt Martyrs who neglected their lives and all that was dear to them in this world having no advantageous designe by any innovation but were religiously sensible of those ties to God the Church their King their Countrey which lay upon their souls both for obedience and just assistance God could and I doubt not but he did through his mercy crown many of them with eterlife whose lives were lost in so good a cause the destruction of their bodies being sanctified as a means to save their souls Observations on the Life of the Lord Herbert of Cherbury Edward Herbert son of Richard Herbert Esq and Susan Newport his Wife was born at Montgomery-Castle and brought to Court by the Earl of Pembrook where he was Knighted by K. James who sent him over Embassador into France Afterwards K. Charles the first created him Baron of Castle-Island in Ireland and some years after Baron of Cherbury in Montgomery-shire He was a most excellent Artist and rare Linguist studied both in Books and Men and himself the Author of two Works most remarkable viz. A Treatise of Truth written in French so highly prized beyond the Seas and they say it is extant at this day with great Honour in the Popes Vatican and an History of King Henry the Eighth wherein his Collections are full and authentick his observation judicious his connexion strong and â—ohaerent and the whole exact He married the Daughter and sole Heir of Sir William Herbert of St. Julians in Monmouth-shire with whom he had a large Inheritance in England and Ireland and died in August Anno Dom. 1648. having designed a fair Monument of his own invention to be set up for him in the Church of Montgomery according to the model following Upon the ground a Hath-pace of fourteen foot square on the middest of which is placed a Dorick Column with its right of Pedestal Basis and Capitols fifteen foot in height on the Capitol of the Column is mounted an Urn with a Heart Flamboul supported by two Angels The foot of this Column is attended with four Angels placed on Pedestals at each corner of the said Hath-pace two having Torches reverst extinguishing the Motto of Mortality the other two holding up Palms the Emblemes of Victory When this noble person was in France he had private Instructions from England to mediate a Peace for them of the Religion and in case of refusal to use certain menaces Accordingly being referred to Luynes the Constable and Favourite of France he delivereth him the Message reserving his threatnings till he saw how the matter was relished Luynes had hid behind the Curtain a Gentleman of the Religion who being an Ear-witnesse of what passed might relate to his friends what little expectations they ought to entertain from the King of England's intercession Luynes was very haughty and would needs know what our KING had to do with their affairs Sir Edward replyed It 's not you to whom the King my Master oweth an account of his actions and for me it 's enough that I obey him In the mean time I must maintain That my Master hath more reason to do what he doth than you to aske why he doth it Nevertheless If you desire me in a gentle fashion I shall acquaint you further Whereupon Luynes bowing a little said Very well The Embassador answered ' That it was not on this occasion onely that the King of Great Britain had desired the Peace and prosperity of France but upon all other occasions when ever any War was raised in that Countrey and this he said was his first reason The second was That when a Peace was setled there his Majesty of France might be better disposed to assist the Palatinate in the affairs of Germany Luynes said We will have none of your advices The Ambassador replyed That he took that for an Answer and was sorry onely that the affection and the good will of the King his Master was not sufficiently understood and that since it was rejected in that manner he could do no lesse then say That the King his Master knew well enough what he had to do Luynes answered We are not afraid of you The Embassador smiling a little replyed If you had said you had not loved us I should have believed you and made another answer In the mean time all that I will tell you more is That we know very well what we have to do Luynes hereupon rising from his Chair with a fashion and countenance a little discomposed said By God if you were not Monsieur the Embassador I know very well how I would use you Sir Edw Herbert rising also from his Chair said That as he was his Majesty of Great-Britain ' s Embassador so he was also a Gentleman and that his Sword whereon be laid his band should do him reason if he had taken any offence After which Luynes replying nothing the Embassador went on his way toward the door and Luynes seeming to accompany him he told him there was no occasion to use such Ceremony after such Language and so departed expecting to hear
of England he that was one of King Henry's Executors King Edward's Secretary of State Queen Mary's right hand and that refused the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury in in Queen Eliz. days 3. Being bred 1. In Winchester that eminent School for Discipline and Order 2. In New-Colledge and Queens those famous Colledges for the method of Living by rule could promise no lesse than he did in his solidly sententious and discreetly humoured Play at Queens called Tancredo in his elegant Lecture of the nobleness manner and use of Seeing at the Schools for which the learned Albericus Gentilis called him Henrice Mi Ocelle and communicated to him his Mathematicks his Law and his Italian learning in his more particular converse with Doctor Donne and Sir Richard Baker in the University and his more general conversation with Man-kinde in travells for one year to France and Geneva where he was acquainted with Theodore Beza and Isaac Casaubon at whose Fathers he lodged for eight years in Germany for five in Italy whence returning balanced with Learning and Experience with the Arts of Rome Venice and Florence Picture Sculpture Chimistry Architecture the Secrets Languages Dispositions Customes and Laws of most Nations set off with his choice shape obliging behaviour sweet discourse and sharp wit he could perform no lesse than he did 1. In the unhappy relation he had to the Earl of Essex first of Friend and afterward of Secretary 2. In his more happy Interest by his Secretary Vietta upon his flight out of England after the Earl's apprehension with the Duke of Tuscany then the greatest patron of Learning and Arts in the world who having discovered a design to poyson King James as the known successor of Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Henry Wotton with notice of the plot and preservatives against the poyson by the way of Norway into Scotland under the borrowed name of Octavio Baldi where after some suspicion of the Italian message discovering himself to the King by Lindsey's means he was treated with much honour complacency and secrecy for three months After which time he returned to Florence staying there till King James enquiring concerning him of my Lord Wotton the Comptroller the great Duke advised his return to congratulate his Majesty as he did the King embracing him in his arms calling him the best because the honestest Dissembler that he met with and Knighting him by his own name Adding withal That since he knew he wanted neither Learning nor Experience neither Abilities nor Faithfulnesse he would employ him to others as he was employed to him which accordingly he did to Venice the place he chose as most suitable to his retyred Genius and narrow Estate where 1. Studying the dispositions of the several Dukes and Senators 2. Sorting of fit Presents curious and not costly Entertainments sweetned with various and pleasant discourse particularly his elegant application of Stories He had such interest that he was never denyed any request whereby he did many services to the Protestant interest with his Chaplain Bishop Biddle and Pauloe's assistance during the Controversie between the Pope and the Venetians especially in transmitting the History of the Councel of Trent sheet by sheet to the King and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as it was written And in his three Embassies thither gained many Priviledges for the English along all those Coasts In the second of which Embassies calling upon the Emperour he had brought Affairs to a Treaty had not the Emperour's successe interposed whereupon he took his leave wishing that Prince to use his Victory soberly an advice his carriage indeared to his Majesty together with his person so far that he gave him a Diamond worth above a thousand pounds which he bestowed on his Hostess saying He would not be the better by a man that was an open Enemy to his Mistress so the Queen of Bohemia was pleased he should call her Onely while abroad and writing in the Album that friends have this sentence Legatus est vir bonus peregre missus ad mentiendum reipublicae causâ whereof Scioppius made a malicious use in his Books against King James He lost himself a while for using more freedome abroad than became his Employment until his ingenuous clear and choicely eloquent Apologies recovered him to more respect and cautiousnesse until he writ Invidiae remedium over his Lodgings at Eaton-Colledge the Provostship whereof he obtained in exchange for the reversion of the Mastership of the Rolls and other places promised him Where looking upon himself in his Surplice as Charles 5 or Philip 2. in Cloysters his Study was divine Meditations History and Characters His recreation Philosophical conclusions and Angling which he called his idle time not idly spent saying he would rather live five May-months than sorty Decembers His Table was exquisite where two youths attended upon whom he made the observations that were to furnish his designed discourse of Education His Histories and Observations remarkable his Apophthegms sage and quick 1. Being in a Popish Chappel a merry Priest that knew him sent a Paper to him with this question Where was your Religion before Luther Under which he writ Where yours is not in the written word of God 2. Being asked whether a Papist could be saved He replyed You may be saved without knowing that look to your self 3. Hearing one rayl against Arminius Popery he answered Sâ—â— he that understands amisse concludeth worse If you had studied Popery so much as I have and knew Arminius so well as I did how learned how strict and how rare a man he was you would not fall so foul on his person nor thinke that the further you go from the Church of Rome the nearer you are to God 4. One pitched upon for Embassador came to Eaton and requested from his some Experimental rule for his prudent and sase carriage in his Negotiation to whom he smilingly gave this for an in 〈…〉 ble Aphorism That to be in safety himself serviceable to his Country be should alwayes and upon all occasions speak the truth For said he you shall never be believed and by this meanes your truth will secure your self if you shall ever be called to any account and it will also put your Adversaries who will still hunt counter to a losse in all their disquisitions and undertakings 5. And when he made his Will two years before he died out of policy to let the King understand his Debts and Arrears to which end he bestowed in that Will on his Majesty Sir Throgmorton's Papers of Negotiation in Queen Elizabeths dayes on the Queen Dioscorides in Tuscany with the Herbs naturally coloured on the Prince the Queen of Bohemia's picture on my Lord of Canterbury the picture of Divine love to my Lord of London high Treasurer Heraclitus and Democritus and to Secretary Windebanke old Bastano's four Seasons he directed that this onely should be written on his plain Marble Hie jacet hujus sententiae primus auctor Disputandi Pruritus
fair habitation in this City and another in Herne in this County where his Motto still remaineth in each Window Misericordias Domini cantabo in Aeternum Nile's original is hidden but his stream is famous This Judge's Ancestors were not so obscure as he was illustrious His Device upon his Sergeants Ring was Suae quisque fortuna faber and his was always to this purpose That no man thrived but he that lived as if he were the first man in the world and his father were not born before him Forty years he said he lived by his industry Twenty by his reputation and Ten by favour King Henry the seventh knew not how well this Gentleman could serve him until he saw how effectually he did oppose him about the Tenth Peny raised for the War in Britain which raised another in York where though the Rabble that murthered Henry Earl of Northumberland who was to levy the Tax had not his Countenance for their Practice yet had they his Principle for their Rule which was this Before we pay any thing let us see whether we have any thing we can call our own to pay So able though reserved a Patriot thought the wise King would be an useful Courtier and he that could do so well at the Bar might do more at the Bench. Cardinal Morton was against his advancement as an encouragement to the Factious whose Hydra-heads grow the faster by being taken off by Preferment and not by an Ax the King was for it as the most probable way of weakening of them as who when the most sober and wise part of them draweth off are but a rude multitude and a rope of sand when a Commoner none so stiff for the subjects priviledge when a Judge none so firm to the Princes Prerogative two things however they fatally clashed of late that are solid felicities together and but empty notions asunder for what is Prerogative but a great Name when not exercised over a free people and what is Priviledge but a fond imagination when not secured under a powerful King that may keep us from being slaves one to another by Anarchy while we strive to be free from his Tyranny That People is beyond president free and beyond comparison happy who restrain not their Soveraigns power to do them harm so far as that he hath none left him to do them good Careful he was of the Law for he was a Judge and as careful of his Soveraigns Right for he was a Subject No ominous clashing between Courts in his time nor setting the Kings Conscience in Chancery against his Will in the Kings Bench. A man tells Aristides to make him party in his cause that his Adversary had abused him I sit not here saith that Impartial Judge to right you but my self When a notorious enemy of Judge Fineux had a cause depending before him It might have gone against you my friend said he had you been my Enemy Ten things which are indeed ten of the most remarkable particulars of his life raised him 1. An indefatigable industry 1. In his reading leaving behinde him 23 Folio's of Notes 2. In his practice bequeathing 3502 Cases he managed himself to his Executor 2. A freedome of converse as about his business none more close so in company none more open having so compleat a command of himself that he knew to a minute when to indulge and to a minute too when to restrain himself A gay and cheerful humour a sprightful conversation and cleanly manners are an exceeding useful accomplishment for every one that intends not to wind himself into a solitary retirement or be mewed in a Cloyster 3. A rich and a well-contrived marriage that at once brought him a large Estate and a larger Interest the same tie that allied him to his Wives Family engaged him to many 4. A great acquaintance with Noble Families with whose dependants he got in first devoting an hour a day for their company and at last with themselves laying aside his vacation-leisure for their service He was Steward of 129 Mannors at once and of Counsel to 16 Noble-men 5. His Hospitality and Entertainments None more close then he abroad none more noble at home where many were tied to his Table more obliged by his company and discourse 6. His care and integrity in managing his Repute in promoting his Reason and Eloquence in pleading and his Success in carrying his causes 7. His eminence and activity in the two profitable Parliaments of Henry the seventh where he had the hearts and purses of the people at his command and the eye of his Soveraign upon his person It was thought a reward adequate to the greatest merit and adventure in the Grecian Wars to have leave to play the Prizes at Olympus before Kings It was judged the most ambition could be aimed at in King Henry the seventh's time to shew a mans parts before his judicious and discerning Majesty then whom none understood Worth better none valued it higher 8. His Opposition to Empson and Dudley's too severe Prosecution of Poenal Laws while Henry the seventh was living and his laying of it before him so faithfully that he repented of it when he was a dying He is high a while that serves a Princes private interest he is always so that is careful of his publick good 9. His entire Devotion to that sacred thing called Friendship that Bliss on this side Heaven made up of Peace and Love None a worse Enemy none a better Friend Choice he was in commencing but constant in continuing Friends Many Acquaintance but few Friends was his Observation saying He had been undone by his Acquaintance had he not been raised by his Friends 10. His care of time To day I have not reigned said the Emperour when he had done no good To day I have not lived said the Judge when he had done nothing So much he prayed Morning Evening and at Noon according to the way of those times as if he never studied so much he studied as if he never practised so great his practice as if he never conversed and so free his converse with others as if he lived not at all to himself Time of which others are so prodigally expensive was the onely thing he could be honestly covetous of full whereof he died leaving this instruction to posterity That we should not complain we have little time but that we spend much either in doing nothing or in doing evil or in doing nothing to the purpose Observations on the Life of Edward Fox Bishop of Hereford EDward Fox born in Dursley in Gloucestershire was first brought up in Eaton then in Kings Colledge in Cambridge and died Provost thereof He was Almoner to King Henry the eighth and was the first that brought Doctor Cranmer to the knowledge of the King as he brought the King to the knowledge of himself Being after wards Bishop of Hereford was a great Instigator of the Politick and Prudential part of the Reformation and was
not less able but more active then Cranmer himself yea so famous was he that Martin Bucer dedicated unto him his Comment upon the Gospel so painful that he wrote many Books whereof that de Differentia utriusque potestatis was the chief so worthy he was that the King employed him on several Embassies into France and Germany He died May 8. 1538. In his first years none more wild in his his last none more stayed The untoward Youth makes the able Man He that hath mettle to be extravagant when he cannot govern himself hath a spirit to be eminent when he can His friends devotion to the Church and relation to the Bishop of Winchester made him a Scholar his own Inclination a Politician an Inclination that brake through all the ignoble restraints of pedantique studies and coertions wherewith many a great Soul in England enjoying not the freedome of forreign parts but tied to such employments though never so unsuitable as their friends put them to are debased and lost to an eminencie more by observation and travel then by reading and study that made him the Wonder of the University and the Darling of the Court. When he was called to the Pulpit or Chair he came off not ill so prudential were his parts for Divinity when advanced to any Office of Trust in the University he came off very well so incomparable were his parts for Government His Policy was observed equally in the subject and in the contrivance of his Sermons and discourse where though all knew he read but little yet all saw that by a Scheme and method his strong head had drawn up of all Books and Discourses he commanded all Learning his Explications of the Text were so genuine so exact as if he had spent his time in nothing else but Criticks and Commentators His Divisions so Analytical as if he had been nothing but Logick His Enlargements so copious and genuine as if he had seen nothing but Fathers and Schoolmen The curious and pertinent mixture of Moral Sentences so various as if he had been but a Humanist the drift and designe of all so close that it argued him but what indeed he was a pure Pate-Politician His Parts commended him to Cardinal Wolsey as his support the Cardinal brings him to his Master as his second and he thrusts out Wolsey as his Rival but yet pretended to advance that ambitious Man more highly that he might fall more irrecoverably He sets him upon his designes of being Pope in Rome and those make him none in England He caught the Cardinal by his submission as he would have done Sir Thomas More by his Interrogations at which he was so good that he would run up any man either to a Confession or a Praemunire Fox was his name and Cunning his nature He said His Fathers money helped him to his Parsonage meaning his small Preferments and his Mothers wit to his Bishoprick meaning his greater Discoursing one day when Ambassador of terms of Peace he said Honourable ones last long but the dishonourable no longer then till Kings have power to break them the surest way therefore said he to Peace is a constant preparedness for War Two things he would say must support a Government Gold and Iron Gold to reward its Friends and Iron to keep under its Enemies Themistocles after a Battel fought with the Persians espying a Prize lying on the ground Take up these things saith he to his Companion for thou art not Themistocles Take the Emperours Money said Fox to his Followers that were afraid to accept what he had refused for you are not all the King of England ' s Ambassadors Often was this saying in our Bishops mouth before ever it was in Philip the second 's Time and I will challenge any two in the world Portugal being revolted the Conde d' Olivares came smiling to King Philip the fourth saying Sir I pray give me las Albricius to hansel the good news for now you are more absolute King of Portugal then ever for the people have forfeited all their priviledges by the Rebellion and the Nobility their Estates and now you may confirm your old Friends with their money and make you new ones with their estates When the Clergy began to ruffle with the King I tell you News said this Bishop we are all run into a Praemunire you shall have Money enough to make your own Courtiers and Places enough to advance your own Clergie Observations on the Life of Sir Anthony St. Lieger WE may say of him he was born in Kent and bred in Christendome for when twelve years of Age he was sent for his Grammar-Learning with his Tutor into France for his Carriage into Italy for his Philosophy to Cambridge for his Law to Grays-Inne and for that which compleated all the government of himself to Court where his Debonnairness and Freedome took with the King as his Solidity and Wisdome with the Cardinal His Master-piece was his Agency between King Henry the eighth and Queen Anne during the agitation of that great business of the Divorce between the said King and his Queen Katherine His Policy was seen in catching the Cardinal in that fatal word The King may ruine me if be please but that ruined him His service was to be Cromwel's Instrument in demolishing Abbeys as he was the Kings Caesar was the first that came to undo the Commonwealth sober Sir Anthony St. Lieger was the first that saved this Kingdome drunk for in being abroad one night very late and much distempered he must needs fancy an extraordinary light in the Cardinal's Closet with which Fancy he ran to the King and although much in drink prevailed with him so far that he sends to the Cardinal and there findes that Juncto that threatned his Kingdome He was the first Vice-Roy because Henry the eighth was the first King of Ireland King Henry's affection would promote him any where but his own resolution and spirit commended him to Ireland He was a man whom all Ireland could not rule therefore as the Jest goes he should rule all England Three times had the Irish Rebels made their soremn submission to other Deputies the fourth time now they make it to him throwing down their Girdles Skins and Caps So great a man was the Lieutenant so great his Master No sooner was be possessed of the Government but he thought of Laws those Ligaments of it The most rational and equitable Laws were those of England but too rational to be imposed on the Brutish Irish therefore our Knight considering as he saith in the Preface of his Constitution that they poor souls could not relish those exact Laws to live or be ruled by them immediately enacted such as agreed with their capacity rather then such were dictated by his ability his Wisdome as all mens must doing what was most fit and convenient rather then what was most exact what they could bear more then what he could do as remembring he had to