freer access unto the Princes Court then to any others of the same profession and so by consequence to the presence of the Queen her self who did not think much to enter into discourse with him apart and with much familiarity as often as there was offered any opportunity not onely in reference to his Profession and about matters of Law but also about the weighty affairs of State and the concernments of the kingdom and at all times he gave her such judicious answers that she received great satisfaction by them But though she abundantly cherisht him with the favour of her countenance yet never with the favour of a bountiful hand as never having advanc't him to any publick office either of honor or profit excepting onely one dry reversion of a Registers Office in the Star-Chamber computed at the yearly value of 1600. pound into the possession of which he came not till about twenty years after or thereabout of which office his Lordship said pleasantly in Queen Elizabeths time That it was like another mans Farm bordering upon his own house and so might help his prospect but not fill his Barn But in King James his Reign he at length enjoy'd that office and manag'd it by a deputy Now that he was not sooner preferr'd cannot be any way attributed to the least aversion or displeasure that the Queen had in her minde against him but to the fraud and envy of some one of the Noble men at that time powerful with the Queen who sought by all means possible to depress and hinder him lest if he should be advanced to any heighth of honour his own glory should be eclipsed by him However though in the time of his Mistris Queen Elizabeth his merited promotion was still forestalled or kept back yet after the change of Government and the coming in of his new master King James he with a quickned pace soon made a large progress being by this King eminently enobled with places of trust honour anst great revenues I have seen some letters written with his own hand to King James in which he acknowledgeth him to have been so good a master to him as to have nine times conferred upon him his iterated favours thrice titles of great honour six times offices of profit the Offices he means I suppose were these he being Councel extraordinary to his Majesty in which place he had formerly served the Queen the Kings Sollitour General the Kings Atturney General or principal Procurator made one of the Kings Privy Council while yet he held the place of Atturney General Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England lastly Lord Chancellour of England Which two last Offices although they are the same in Authority and Power yet in their Patent degree of honour and favour of the Prince they differ and since the time of his holding that Magistracy none of his successours hath been honoured with that title unto this day His honours were first his being Knighted by the King then he was created Baron Verulam lastly Viscount of St. Albons besides other rich gifts and extentions of a bountiful hand which his Majesty was pleased to bestow upon him as well out of the profits of the great Seal as out of the Office of Alienation When he had arrived to that part of his age in which fortune smiled upon him he began to think of marrying and at length took to Wife Alice the Daughter and one of the Heirs of Bennet Bernham Esquire and Alderman of London with whom he received a very considerable Dowry as well in Land as in ready money children he had none by her but for as much as children conduce very much to the perpetuating our names after death he was not altogether destitute of that advantage since it was his hap to be blest with an other kinde of Off-spring for the perpetuation of his memory to after times namely the Off spring of his brain in which he was alwayes wonderfully happy like Jove himself when he was delivered of Pallace Nor did this want of children in the least measure abate his affection to his Wife toward whom he behav'd himself as an indulgent Husband and shewed her all manner of conjugal love and respect bestowing upon her rich Furniture precious Jewels and likewise settled upon her a fair Joynture nor is it to be omitted in honourable remembrance of him that she wore a rich Wedding Gown which he had bestowed upon her about twenty years after his death for so long she surviv'd her most honoured Husband The last five years of his life retiring himself from Court-Affairs and all kinde of busie employments he bent himself wholly to study and contemplation which kinde of life seem'd indeed to be most pleasing to him as if he would have chosen by his good will to dwell rather in the shade then in the sun-shine Of which also we may find some not obscure intimations in the reading of his Works in which space of time he wrote the greatest part of his Books as well those that were written in English as in Latin which according to the order of time that they were written in I who was present all the while and observ'd shall endeavour to reckon up and they were these following The History of the Reign of Henry the Seventh King of England written in English The Abecedary of Nature a Metaphysical tractate which I know not by what evil fate perisht The History of the Windes The History of Life and Death The History of Dense and Rare never till now in Print The History of Heavy and Light which also is lost These Books were composed in the Latin tongue Next were certain English Fragments as namely these A Discourse concerning the carrying on of a War with Spain A Diologue concerning the Holy War The-Fable of new Atlantis A Preface to be plac't before the body of the Laws of England The beginning of the History of Henry the Eighth King of England Between some of these came that learned work of his call'd The Advancement of Learning in the Translating of which a thing undertaken of his own accord out of his native Tongue into the Latine our most honour'd Author took very great pains and from time to time inricht it with many and various additions After these came his Councels Civil and Moral formerly call'd Essays augmented both as to their number and weight in the English tongue Some of Davids Psalms Composed into English Verse Moreover divers of his Works already mention'd he converted out of English into Latin which were these The History of the Reign of Henry the Seventh King of England His Counsels Civil and Moral call'd Faithful sayings or the Inward sense of things The Diologue of the Holy War and the Fable of New Atlantis these he translated in favour of Forreigners by whom he heard they were desired Other Books that he writ originally in Latin were his book of the Wisdom of the Ancients review'd by himself The last
I desire that you would be silent and joyn with me in prayer and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the accomplishment of all happiness where every tear shall be wiped away from our eyes and every sad thought from our hearts And so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have mercy on my soul Having ended his Speech he addrest himself to prayer wherein he continued about a quarter of an hour and then standing up took his leave of all the Nobles and considerable Persons on the Scaffold which done he prayed again and then laying his head down on the Block had the same dissevered from his body by the Executioner at one blow His Body was afterwards embalmed and carried into Yorkshire there to be buried amongst his Ancestors I shall close the Scene and shut up all with Mr. Cleavelands excellent Epitaph on this Heroe Here lies wise and valiant Dust Huddled up 'twixt fit and just Strafford who was hurried hence 'Twixt treason and convenience He spent his time here in a mist A Papist yet a Calvanist His Prince's nearest joy and grief He had yet wanted all relief The Prop and Ruine of the State The Peoples violent love and hate One in extreams lov'd and abhor'd Riddles lies here and in a word Here lies and let it lie Speechless still and never cry The Life of VVILLIAM LAUD Archbishop of Canterbury THis reverend Father in God William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury the times he lived in neither knowing his worth nor worthy of his person have too much vilified He was of no extraordinary Extraction as well as Stature yet he rose by his deserts to the highest degree of Honour He was born at Reading in Barkshire the year of our Redemption 1573. His Father a man of a competent Estate willing to see his pregnant son well educated who in few years attained to such learning that he was sent to St John Baptists Colledge in Oxford where he was such a Proficient that in twelve years space he was looked upon and applauded even to admiration of the University from whence he proceeded Batchelour and Master of Arts. Not long after he was chosen Procter of the University about which time he also became Chaplain to the Earl of Devonshire where first he fell acquainted with the Nobility a great cause no doubt of his preferment Soon after he proceeded Batchelour then Doctour in Divinity and becoming Chaplain to Doctour Neal Bishop of Rochester was by him recommended to King James and made his Chaplain Being now in the path to promotion he neglected no opportunity conducible thereunto but proves very serviceable to all those who might be any wayes advantageous to his advancement more especially was he observient to the Duke of Buckingham the grant Favorite of the times So that in short space he was made Prebend of Bugden and Westminster Dean of Glocester Archdeacon of Huntington and President of Saint Johns Colledge in Oxford besides these several Benefices bestowed upon him Stanford in Northamptonshire West-Tilbury in Essex Cuckston in Kent and Ibstock in Leicestershire Not long after King James the best Master to his Servants that ever was bestowed the Bishoprick of St. Davids upon him and with it in Commendam the Parsonage of Creek King James dying his Son our late Sovereign Charles finding his abilities took him into more special regard making him first Bishop of Bathe and Wells then Dean of his Chappel next a Privy Councellour soon after Bishop of London then Chancellour of Oxford and not long after Archbishop of Canterbury Higher he could not be advanced in England in Rome he might who to gain him to their side made him a ridiculous tender of a Cardinals Cap to which he returned answer That somewhat dwelt within which would not suffer that till Rome were otherwise then it is Implying thereby that that Church had errours to which his conscience could no wayes conform Far different was Bishop Laud from his Predecessor D. Abbot whose judgement for the indifferency of things Ceremonial made the enjoyning of them by Bishop Laud be termed an innovation many in their writings at that time inveighed bitterly against Episcopal Government as also against the Bishops three of which violent opponents were Mr. Pryn a Barrester of Lincolns Inne Dr. Bastwick a Physician and Master Burton a Divine who were censured in the Star-Chamber to pay each of them five thousand pounds to the King to lose their ears in the Pillory and to be imprisoned perpetually The first in Canarvan Castle in Wales the second in Lanceston Castle in Cornwall and the other in Lancaster Castle Master Pryn over and above to be stigmatized on both cheeks with the letter S. for a Schismatick This severity with the obtruding of the Common Prayer Book altered on the Scots which was by the Kings special command so exasperated them and the English Commonalty that Libels were each day scattered about one pasted on the Cross in Cheapside That the Archbishop of Canterbury had his hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the blood of the Martyrs Another in the South Gate of Pauls That the Devil had let that house to him Another on the North Gate of Pauls That the government of the Church of England is a candle in the snuff going out in a stench Another hanged upon the Standerd in Cheapside wherein his Speech in the Star-Chamber was set in a kinde of Pillory c. Five hundred persons likewise under the name of Apprentices beset his house at Lambeth intending no doubt to have done to him as the unruly Rabble did to his Predecessour Simon Sudbury in the time of King Richard the second who was sacrificed to the fury of the people for which one of the chief named Thomas Bensteà being taken was hanged and quartered Many have been the reports that this Archbishop was addicted to Popery and a great friend to the Papists Certainly he who shall read the relation of his conference with the Jesuite Fisher will finde him so little theirs as he hath for ever disabled them from being so much their own as they were before it being the exactest Master-piece of Polemick Divinity of all extant as Sir Edward Deering in one of his Speeches writes that this Book of his mortally wounded the Jesuite in the fifth rib This learned Volume might have satisfied the people as touching his Religion and his Diary written by himself of the Integrity of his Life For he had not any intermission for his pen and best intentions of minde against the Roman Faction whatsoever the Covenanters have interpreted to the contrary he having continual occasions to lift up his eyes to heaven for the preservation of the glory of the Church and the honour and safety of his Majesty as by the abstract of a discovery made by Andreas ab Habernsfeid against the designs of the Papists to stir up a Commotion in Scotland and in the heat thereof to
intended to adjudge him a perjured person and also a traytor for not yielding temporal Allegiance to his temporal Sovereign as himself had sworn to do and accordingly the Prelates themselves by joynt consent adjudged him of perjury and by the mouth of the Bishop of Chichester disclaimed thence forward all obedience unto him as their Archbishop But Becket herewith nothing daunted caused to be sung before him the next day at the Altar that Psalm Principes fedent The Princes sit and speak against me and the ungodly persecute me c. and forthwith taking his Silver Crosier in his own hands enters armed therewith into the Kings Prefence who more and more enraged at Beckets insolency commandeth his Peers to sit in judgement on him as on a traytor and the Courtiers like Ecchoes answering the King the whole Court sounded nothing but Treason so that Becket afraid of being slain hasteth home and changing his costly Robes into course Rags passeth over into Flanders calling himself by the name of Dereman The Archbishop gone the King banishes all his Kindred out of his Dominions and he on the other side excommunicates all such as had to do against him at length the King of France with intreaty and the Pope with the terrour of the Churches censures made a full atonement and reconciliation between them the Archbishop in great triumph returned to England having been absent from his native Countrey for the space of seven years All controversies seemed now fully to be ended though the sequel thereof proved far otherwise for some excommunicated Bishops and other men of great account desiring to be absolved he refused to do it unless with this caution that they should stand to the judgement of the Church in those things for which they were excommunicated but they disdaining the pride of the Archbishop poste over into Normandy where the King was then informing him that Thomas was now grown more haughty then before that he went up and down with great Troops of men both Horse and Foot that attended on him as upon the Kings own Royal Person that to be a King indeed he wanted but the name and setting the Crown upon his head The King herewith highly incensed in a great rage said And is it possible that I cannot peaceably enjoy neither Kingdom Dignity nor Life and all this for one onely priest Cursed be all such as eat my bread since none will revenge me of this fellow These words being over-heard by four Knights Sir Morvil Sir William Tracy Sir Hugh Brito Sir Richard Fitz-urse they thinking to do the King a pleasure though as the sequel of his reign proved they could not have done him a greater injury hasted into England and in his own Church of Canterbury most barbarously murthered him being then about 48. years of age not long after he was Canonized by Pope Alexander and the day of his death being the 29. of December kept annually holy Many miracles are reported to have been done by him and his Shrine so inriched by Pilgrims which from all places came thither in devotion that at the defacing thereof in the time of King Henry the Eighth the spoil thereof in Gold and Precious Stones filled two great Chests such as six or eight strong men could do no more then convey one of them at once out of the Church Thus the Images of many men were richly clothed when many poor Christians Gods Image went almost naked so full of charity were those empty times of knowledge a shame to us who know more but practice less Draiton in his Polyolbion hath these verses on him Concerning whom the world since then hath spent much breath And many questions made both of his life and death If he were truly just he hath his right if no Those times were much to blame that have him reckoned so Stapleton a Jesuite put forth a book entituled Tres Thomas Saint Thomas the Apostle Thomas of Becket and of Sir Thomas Moor he Canonizes the two last of either of which he writes six times as much as of St. Thomas the Apostle The Life of RICHARD the First THis reign as it in part epitomizes the History of the holy War without being guilty of an omission of the most admired part of Chronical History I could not but insert Richard the first who for his inexpugnable and Lion-like heart obtained the sirname of Coeur de Lion he was a most valiant and magnanimous Prince accustomed to Wars he died in the fields of Mars of whom as a Prince we shall say nothing having so much to relate of him after he came to be King This martial Prince born in a martial age was third son to King Henry the Second and succeeded him in the Crown after his Decease his elder Brothers dying before their Father At his Coronation he commanded no Jews should be present but they desirous to see the solemnities hasted thither in great numbers but the price of their lives paid for the pleasure of their eyes the common people falling upon them and slaying a great number so ominous to the enemies of Christ was the first day of this Kings reign presaging saith one his following successes in the Jewish Countreys For intending a journey to Jerusalem not as a Pilgrim to see the City but as a Souldier to conquer the Countrey he raises an Army of thirty thousand Foot and five thousand Horse his next care was for money the sinews of War and notwithstanding his Father had left him eleven hundred thousand pound a vast sum for that age yet was it no thought sufficient for so great a journey Therefore to the end he might be able to go thorow with his work he sells the Castles of Berwick and Roxborough to the Scottish King for ten thousand pounds the Priory of Coventry to Hugh Bishop of Chester for 300. marks and the County of Northumberland to Hugh Bishop of Duresme for his Life jeasting he had made a new Earl of an old Bishop then feigning he had lost his old Seal he made a new one proclaiming that whosoever would safely enjoy those things which before time they had enrolled should come to the new Seal by which princely skill not to say cheat he squeezed much money out of his Subjects purses Having proceeded thus far towards his journey his next care was for securing the Kingdom of England in his absence On his Brother John whom he knew to be of an ambitious spirit and apt to take fire on the least occasion on him he heaped both riches and honour that by his liberality he might win him to loyalty but the chief Government of the Land he committed to William Longchamp Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellour of England chusing him for his Viceroy rather then any lay-Earl because a Coronet perchance may swell into a Crown but never a Mitre with him was joyned in Commission Hugh Bishop of Durham for the parts of England beyond Humber Yet as Suetonius reports of the
place was taken up by his Syvla Sylvarum or Natural History a work written in English And these were the fruits which ripened in the shade of the fore-mentioned five years The Books composed before that five years space I here pass by but it was fully determin'd by him at the command of the late most Serene King Charles to have compil'd the History of Henry the Eighth King of England but that Work proceeded not beyond designation onely it pleasing God to put a period to the life of this most famous Authour Yet there is extant a certain taste of that History which a few morning hours of one day brought forth publisht in English amongst his Miscellany Works and from thence you may discern the Lion by his claw The Vertues of this Heroe and the rich endowments of his mind were so many that to commemorate them would take up no less space then the whole course of life those faculties which you shall finde in other men though not of the meanest parts to lie dissever'd and solitary in him appear'd to be united and as it were joyn'd in Wedlock these were a ready and acute wit a faithfull memory a penetrating judgement and a flowing eloquution Of the former three his Books abundantly testifies of which as Hirtius saith of Julius Caesar As well and truly others may judge as we also know with what ease and celerity he writ them But of the fourth namely his Eloquution I judge it not amiss to mention that which I have heard the famous Sir Walter Raleigh a man endow'd with singular vertues and who well deserves to have his judgement rely'd on once discoursing viz. That the Earl of Salisbury was a good Oratour but a bad Writer and contrariwise that the Earl of Northampton was a good Writer but a bad Oratour but that Sir Francis Bacon excell'd in both as well in speaking as in writing Often came this thought into my minde that if ever God in these last times vouchsaft to enlighten any mortal man with a certain ray of humane Science doubtless it was this very man whom he so enlightned for though our Authour had been a diligent peruser of Books yet it cannot be granted that he took his knowledge out of Books onely but out of certain principles and notions kindled within which nevertheless he not rashly but with great caution and deliberation divulged That Work of his called Novum Organum to which he himself attributes the first place among his works was certainly no idle dream or comment of his own brain but as it were a fixt and radicated notition the off-spring of many years and hard labor I found among the Archives of his Lordship about a dozen Copies written with his own hand of this Novum Organum new labour'd and brought back to the Forge from year to year and every year more exactly polisht and corrected until at length it grew up to that Volume in which it was publisht just as some sort of creatures are wont to lick their young ones until such time as they bring them to a certain form and firmness of members In the composing of his Books he chiefly aim'd at the life and vigour of expression and perspicuity of Words rather then Elegancy or the quaint order of Phrase and as he was writing or dictating he would often ask whether his sense was very clear and perspicuously rendred as one who knew it to be equal that words should wait upon things not things upon words and if by chance he had lighted upon a more polite stile then ordinary as among us he was ever counted a grand master of English Eloquence it therefore happened as being a difficult thing for him to shun it for he was not overmuch taken with subtilties and allusions of words but alwayes set himself industriously to avoid them well knowing that such kinde of vanities were nothing else but deviations or wandrings from the intended aim and that they did not a little hurt and detract from the gravity and dignity of stile When he us'd to read he would not dwell so long upon a Book as to glut or weary himself for though he read much yet it was with great judgement and a rejection of all the Refuse that commonly we shall meet withal in most writers yet he still intermingled with his studies a convenient relaxation of minde as gentle walking riding in a Coach or on a Horse and that not swift but leasurely playing at Bowls and other exercises of the like nature nor did he give way to the loss of any time for as soon as he returned home he presently and without the least delay set himself afresh to reading and meditation so that he suffered not any moment or particle of time to perish or pass away in vain His Table you might well call a repast for the ears as well as for the belly not unlike those Attick Nights or the Banquets of the Deipnosophists at which men might feast their mindes and intellects no less then their bodies I have also known some men of excellent wit who profess that they betook themselves to their Common-place books as often as they arose from his Table He never counted it any glory to baffle or put to the blush any of his guests or those that discourst with him as some delight to do but whatsoever their parts or faculties were he was still ready to cherish and help them forward nor was it his custom to arrogate to himself onely the liberty of speech but to permit unto those that sate with him the freedom of speaking when ever it came to their turn adding this also that he would most willingly hear any one discourse in his own Art and was still forward to incite and draw him on to that manner of discourse as for himself he contemn'd no mans observations nor was he asham'd to light his own Lamp at anothers Candle His speeches and common sayings were scarce ever called in doubt as he discourst all heard him willingly no man opposing as if the things he uttered had been rather Oracles then sayings which I judge must be attributed either to the exact weighing of his words before he uttered them in the ballance of truth and reason or else to the esteem that all men had of him Whence that kinde of argumentation in which a controversie was held pro and con his Table was scarce acquainted with or if any such by chance did intervene it was manag'd with great submission and moderation I have aften observ'd and it was taken notice of by many noble persons that if haply any occasion fell out into discourse of repeating another mans speech he was still furnisht with a way to bring it forth in a new and better dress so that the Author of it might perceive his own saying brought to him back again more elegantly apparell'd then when he sent it from him although in sense and substance no whit injur'd as if to use handsome forms
place in less then four hours time he destroyed them all to their inestimable detriment not sixty of his own men being lost But to return into England June the 20. 1657. the Protector with great pomp and magnificence was installed at Westminster the Parliament then sitting to which purpose at the upper end of Westminster Hall a rich Cloath of State was set up and under it a Chair of State placed upon an ascent of two degrees covered with Carpets and before it a Table with a Chair appointed for the Speaker of the Parliament and on each side of the Hall upon the said structure were Seats raised one above another and decently covered for the Members of Parliament and below them Seats on one side for the Judges of the Land and on the other side for the Aldermen of the City of London About two of the Clock in the afternoon the Protector met the Parliament in the Painted Chamber and passed such Bills as were presented to him after which they went in order to the place appointed in Westminster Hall the Protector standing under the Cloath of Estate the Lord Widdrington Speaker of the Parliament addrest himself to him in this Speech May it please your Highness You are now upon a great Theatre in a large Chore of people you have the Parliament of England Scotland and Ireland before you on your right hand my Lords the Judges and on your left hand the Lord Major Aldermen and Sheriffs of London the most noble and populous City of England The Parliament with the interposition of your sufferage makes Laws and the Judges and Governours of London are the great dispensers of those Laws to the people The occasion of this great convention and intercourse is to give an investiture to your Highness in that eminent place of Lord Protector a name you had before but it is now settled by the full and unanimous consent of the people of these three Nations assembled in Parliament you have no new name but a new date added to the old name the 16. of December is now changed to the 26. of June I am commanded by the Parliament to make oblation to your Highness of four things in order to this Inauguration The first is a Robe of Purple an Embleme of Magistracy and imports righteousness and justice when you have put on the vestment I may say and I hope without offence that you are a Gown man This Robe is of a mixt colour to shew the mixture of justice and mercy which are then most excellent when they are well tempered together Justice without Mercy is wormwood and bitterness and Mercy without Justice is of a too soft a temper for government for a Magistrate must have two hands Plectentem Amplectentem The next thing is a Bible a Book that contains the holy Scripture in which you have the honor and happiness to be well versed This is the Book of life consisting of two Testaments the old and new In the first we have Christum velatum Christ in Types Shadows and Figers in the latter we have Christum revelatum Christ revealed This Book carries in it the grounds of the true Christian Protestant Religion it s a Book of Books it contains in it both precepts and examples for good government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows These are all but Legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in remembrance I finde it said in a part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut. 17. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write a copy of this Law in a Book out of that wich is before the Priests and the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord God and to keep all the words of his Law and those Statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel The next thing that I am to offer to your Higness is a Scepter not unlike a staff for you are to be a staff to the weak and poor it 's of ancient use in this kinde it 's said in Scripture in reference to Judah the Royal Tribe That the Scepter shall not depart from Judah It was of like use in other kingdoms and governments Homer the Prince of the Greek Poets calls Kings and Princes Scepter-bearers The last thing is a Sword not a Military but a Civil Sword a Sword rather for defence then offence not to defend your self onely but others also the Sword is an Embleme of Justice The noble Lord Talbot in Henry the Sixths time wrote upon his Sword Ego sum Talboti propter occidendum inimicos meos This Gallant Lord was a better Souldier then a Critick If I might presume to fix a Motto upon this Sword it should be this Ego sum Domini Protectoris ad protegendum populum meum I say this Sword is an Embleme of Justice and is to be used as King Solomon used his for the discovery of truth in the points of Justice I may say of this Sword as King David said of Goliah's Sword There is none like this Justice is the proper vertue of the Imperial Throne and by Justice the Thrones of Kings and Princes are established Justice is a Royal vertue which as one saith of it doth employ the other three Cardinal Vertues in her service 1. Wisdom to discern the nocent from the innocent 2. Fortitude to prosecute and execute 3. Temperance so to carry Justice that passion be no ingredient and that it be without confusion or precipitation You have given ample testimony in all these particulars so that this Sword in your hand will be a right Sword of Justice attended with Wisdom Fortitude and Temperance When you have all these together what a comely and glorious sight is it to behold A Lord Protector in a purple Robe with a Scepter in his hand a Sword of Justice girt about him and his eyes fixt upon the Bible Long may you prosperously enjoy them all to your own comfort and the comfort of the people of these three Nations The Speech being ended Master Speaker came from his Chair took the Robe and therewith vested the Protector being assisted therein by the Earl of Warwick the Lord Whitlock and others Which done the Bible was delivered him after that the Sword girt about him and last of all he had the Scepter delivered him These things being performed Master Speaker returned unto his Chair and admimistred him his Oath in haec verba I do in the presence and by the
the memory be the treasure of knowledge yet we must not trust it too much we so often finding our accounts fall short therefore the Student should be sure to rank his observations with all possible order otherwise they will be troublesome and less profitable The Authority of the Authour is seriously to be regarded it being the Basis of the whole building therefore before reading the best information ought to be had how he is esteemed whether suspected of faith or no whether disinterested in the business he treats of whether a Native or a Forreigner these latter grosly mistaking as Polydor Virgil doth too often in our History Philip Comines commonly mentions those from whom he had his relations it being the way whereby credit is extreamly courted learned men having had a great account of his writings In the next place those Authors are to be compared with others of the same subject that so if it may be possible to reconcile their differences or to encline to those that bring the most colourable reasons or best authority this will give you a great light to reading and be an extraordinary help to your judgement and memory and take it for a general Cannon never to read a Translation if you can understand and procure the Original translated Books being like removed Plants degenerating from their excellency and native worth because Translators though able and furnisht with the advantages of language are never able to attain to the Authors own genious to them joyn the choycest Commentators that handle the customs whether Tacticks or Stratagemicks few Classick Authors having not some if not all the understanding of either of these will mightily augment the life of a Narration 'T is now high time to descend to some particular directions as for the election of some Authors begin with the shortest I have already occasionally cited Justin I shall now amongst the Romans begin with Lucius Florus an elegant writer though somewhat too panegerical read Veleius Paterculus an excellent Author who besides the purity of his stile slices the time with a diligent calculation who most accurately Annatomizes the mindes of those great persons who were the chief Authors of those Affairs he treats of Then you may give essayes to Livy and Plutarch Dionyssus Halicarnassus c. For the Emperours begin with Tacitus rather then Suetonius both because he is not so confused as for the excellent Theorems of his policy which he hath almost in every line but alas his rents witness in him the wounds of Barbarisme but to remedy that procure in them what you can to succenturiate in the History diligently as I have already advised take the thred of time for conduct through the laborynth then set your minde to observe the customs and alterations there are some things not to instance them they are so generally known that were in the free State of Rome that were not in the Empire and on the contrary that in the latter which was not in the former look also into the manners of the people whose ghests you read and pry as much as you can into the secret humours of the Governours the inclinations of the people how when wantonning with success how when feeling the pinches of fortune observing also what nature they borrow from their climes the Northern being more fruitful the Southern more subtil of whom nevertheless the others have gained ground as the Gothes of the Romans the English of the French as also that mountainous people are ever more hardy then those of the Plains Husbandmen then Citizens for the former the Switz may exemplifie without whose Infantry the French who are excellent Horse-men dare hardly take the Field for the other the Lord Verulam in whose admiration I can never satisfie my self giving the reason why we breed so good Foot sayes it is because it depends on the yeomanry the great joysts of a state as well in peace as in War so nature hath infused into every Nation some particular condition in the Romans desire of Glory and Sovereignty and a great observation of their promises The Spaniards are reservedly proud zealous of the honour of their Countrey The French in the beginning of a Battel more then men in the prosecution less then women hot fiery and Mercurial spirits c. So Herodian observes the Antiochians apt to any change Comines the people of Gaunt in Flanders loving their Lords before they come into the Government and then having them inconstant seditious c. these things will speak themselves and are commonly the History of the whole Nation epitomized To be brief History hath this preheminency above Oratory and Poetry that Oratory hath been rejected by the Lacedemonians Poetry by Plato Tertullian and others as two pernicious instruments in a Commonwealth to pervert mens mindes but History was never yet rejected by any for what can be more profitable then to learn wisdom by other mens follies to get experience by other mens cost and labours and to be safe by other mens dangers History is like a watch-tower on which we may see dangers afar off and so avoid them and what can be more pleasant then to see a Tragedy acted to the life which onely is to be seen in History for here we shall see the whole world but as a Stage on which men of all sorts have acted their parts Princes Prelates Peasants of all ages acting the same things on the same Stage who after they have laid aside their discriminating Vizards and personating Garments they are all alike as they were before they put them on for Kings and Beggars have the same way of coming in and the same way of going out Mors Sceptra ligonibus aequat Diogenes cannot distinguish King Philips Skull from the rest nor is there any difference in Charons boat between the greatest and the meanest all must row there alike As for my other consideration of Epitomies what they are I acknowledge them to be but lively Landskips such as if naturally drawn are ex pede Herculem not to reflect on those common saws Homers Iliads in a Nut-shell that life is short and art is long nor to retort at the prolixity and dulness of some Historians some of which like Tom. Coriat memorize where they last urined to instance one for all Hollingshead who discourses of tempests of lightnings of thunders and trifling passages as the burning of Brewers Houses c. of whom that learned Historian of our Nation Doctor Heylin writes thus Volumnious Hollingshead and Stow full of confusion and commixture of unworthy relations Without question a great part of the perfection of a Historian consists in the wisdom of epitomizing in picking out the morrow of larger Histories they being so often fraught with impertinencies saucy censures and too partial adorations to read large Volumes young men in the heat of their youthful diversions will not condescend and Princes have not the leisure Virgil if we may reflect on Tradition after he had
Whitel of a Clock which moving all the rest hath not of its self any sensible motion or as we see the Circum-ambulation of the lower Spheres yet see not the primum mobile whose Revolution whirles them round about Lastly to consider the great delight of this Study then which what can be greater then in History as she reinforces Antiquity from her ruines what can be nobler then to make the gray head of time white again what more pleasant then to look back on that which is not to see great Empires more unknown in their Originals then the Fountain head of the Nile break out with such violent Cataracts that they have either over-run or terrified the amazed world and then in the height of their glory pulled down by some unexpected and improbable means and in a manner so annihilated that they have kept no Tract of their greatness save what is found in a piece of paper To draw to a conclusion to my own Addresses as to the right understanding of this Volume I must for my own part freely acknowledge that it is more then the Work of one man were he of never so strong forces to compose a passible contexture of the whole History of England indeed somewhat I might say for my self as it is well known I have spent some years in these Studies but withal I know quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum especially in this kinde where more is expected then hath been delivered before in respect of answering the height of some insatiate curiosities this I must write for my self what I may profess in singlenesse of heart that the ambition of my design hath been to keep close to truth which to me hath seemed more amiable then all other worldly Interests to which purpose I have rendred her as she is pictured naked without any unnecessary tires and advantages of Wit and Eloquence it having been my chiefest endeavour to set down things in an even and quiet order not quarrelling with the belief of Antiquity nor obseuring the least particle of truth which I know needs not though falshood requires supporters Thus as to the Authority of what I have writ I have bound my self to the truth of History onely retaining to my self the right of an Authour my own liberty As for the Method Manner and Phrase of writing for my Authours I have prefixed a Catologue of them that my Reader may know that I have not like the men of the times done things ex tempore if every where I have not charged my Book with them it is because the History for the Impartiality of it is Authour to its self onely to avoid too often citations where I could not go abroad as one writes the rest I have taken in at the window I acknowledge I had many supplies besides my own some years continued studies I have conversed with the most knowing persons of unquestionable esteem interested in most of the late Actions I have had the use of their Manuscripts consulted with Records turned over many Volumes so that my Reader as to the grand composure of this Work shall finde nothing so loose though one Life sometimes relates to another but that with Lipsius his soder he may cement them together in their main position as they will lead him by the hand into the Escurial of the History One writes that our Historians are now adayes not crook-back'd as is reported of the Jews but crook-sided warped and bowed to the right or to the left for my part I have declared my self unbyassed that posterity may know that some durst still write Truth whilest other mens fancies are more light then their hands As it is impossible for any man to ground a true History upon the printed Pamphlets of these times such things as passe the Presse without controul so lamentable is our condition that in such a Harvest of Printing we should have so few true Historians on the one side being either stifled with Pamphlets or on the other oppressed with monstrous swelled Volumes able to wear out the eyes with reading the hand in turning or the memory in receiving I must beg pardon if I have imitated Tacitus of whom one may say without partiality that he hath written the most matter with the best conceit in the fewest words of any Historian For my own part I am so greedy of well doing as that nothing suffices the appetite of my care herein I had rather be master of a small piece handsomely contrived then of vast Rooms ill proportioned and unfurnisht As for this Piece which I have extracted out of divers Historians and contracted into a brief Epitome I have endeavoured to set down in it all remarkable passages in as little room as I could the Compendiousness whereof will be useful and acceptable to most sorts of men as first to those who by reason of their other studies and employments in the world have no leasure to read over the many Volumes of Histories which have been written in reading of this they shall not need to spend much time which is but short and every wise man will be willing to husband it as well as he can 2. To those who have no patience to dwell too long upon prolix and tedious Histories from reading of which many are deterred as growing weary before they be half way despairing ever to attain the end of their journey 3. To these also Quibus res angusta domi who either cannot because of their narrow means or will not because of their narrow mindes part with too much money on Books in this they that cannot reach to the price of a long Gown may buy a short Cloak Lastly the benefit will accrew to all men who read this History that they shall buy at a far cheaper rate the experiences of others recorded here then they can buy their own for they that live long and travel far pay soundly for their experience but they who read Histories enjoy the experience of all that lived before which is far greater and much cheaper My onely fear is lest by essaying or epitomizing I should trespass too much on the soil of other mens inventions or judgements as to prejudice truth or the persons whose mutual off-springs they are but these things being but by the by the Reader will not much set by them I shall therefore come to the main and most important considerations this History though it begins with a distance of time yet the discerning Reader shall finde that it is not so far off that the foot-steps of time are worne out and for those passages that have come nearest to our times I have in my inquisitions gone betwixt the Bark and the Tree what I have mentioned in Letters I know from whose closet they came they are many of them never before printed of the Caballa of State of those of which Sir Robert Naunton sayes if they could have been procured would have told pretty tales of the
ibidem patria jura interpretantur frequentavit c. About the Latter end of King Richard the Seconds dayes he flourished in France and got himself into high esteem there by his diligent exercise in learning After his return home he frequented the Court at London and the Colledges of the Lawyers which there interpretted the Laws of the Land and among them he had a familiar Friend called John Gower a Yorkshire man born a Knight as Bale writeth of him This Gower in a Book of his entituled Confessio Amantis tearmeth Chaucer a worthy Poet and maketh him as it were the judge of his works He married a Knights Daughter of Henault called Paon de Ruel King of Arms by whom he had issue his Son Thomas to whom King Edward the Third in recompense of his Fathers services in France gave him in marriage the Daughter and Heire of Sir John Burgershe Knight This Thomas Chaucer had onely one Daughter named Alice married thrice first to Sir John Philip Knight then to Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury and the third time to William de la Pole Earl and after Duke of Suffolk who for love of his Wife and the convenient seat of her estate he removed into Oxfordshire and Barkshire where his Wives Lands lay This Alice had a Daughter by her second Husband Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury named after her Mother Alice married to Richard Nevill Son to Ralph Earl of Westmerland by whom she had Richard John and George Richard espoused Anne sister and sole heir to the Lord Beauchamp and after Duke of Warwick in whose right he was created Earl of Warwick But to return to our ancient Poet Geffery Chaucer he had alwayes an earnest desire to inrich and beautifie our English Tongue which in those dayes was very rude and barren and this he did following the example of Dante 's and Petrarch who had done the same for the Italian Tongue Alanus for the French and Johannes Mena for the Spanish neither was Chaucer inferiour to any of them in the performance hereof and England in this respect is much beholding to him as Leland well noteth Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra Poetam Cui veneres debet patria lingua suos Our England honoureth Chaucer Poet as principal To whom her Countrey tongue doth owe her beauties all He departed out of this world the 25. day of October 1400. after he had lived about 72. years Thus writeth Bale out of Leland Chaucerus ad canos devenit sensitque senectutem morbum esse dum causas suas Londini curaret c. Chaucer lived till he was an old man and found old age to be grievous and whilest he followed his causes at London he died and was buried at Westminster The old Verses which were written on his Grave at the first were these Galfridus Chaucer vates famae poesis Maternae haec sacra sum tumulatus humo But since Mr. Nicholas Brigham did at his own cost and charges erect a Monument for him with these Verses Qui fuit Anglorum vates ter maximus olim Gaufredus Chaucer conditur hoc tumulo Annum si quaeras Domini si tempora vitae Ecce notae subsunt quae tibi cuncta notant Anno Domini 1400. die mensis Octob. 25. It will not be amiss to these Epitaphs to adde the judgements and reports of some learned men of this worthy and famous Poet. And first of all Thomas Occleve who lived in his dayes writeth thus of him in his Book De regimine Principis But welaway is mine hart woe That the honour of English Tongue is dead Of which I wont was confaile have and réed O maister dere and fadre reverent My maister Chaucer floure of Eloquence Mirror of fructuous entendement O universal fadre of science Alas that thou thine excellent prudence In thy bed mortal mightest not bequeath What eyld death alas why would she thée fie O death thou didst not harm tingler in slaughter of him But all the Land it smerteth But natheless yet hast thou no power his name sle Hâ—â— hie vertue asterteth Vnslain fro thee which ay us lifely herteth With Books of his ornat enditing That is to all this land enlumining John Lidgaete likewise in his Prologue of Bocchas of the fall of Princes by him translated saith thus in his commendation My Master Chaucer with his fresh comedies Is dead alas chief Poet of Brittain That Whilom made full pitteous Tragedies The faule also of Princes he did complain As he that was of making sovereign Whom all this Land should of right prefer Sith of our language he was the Loadsterr Also in his Book which he writeth of the Birth of the Virgin Mary he hath these verses And eke my Maister Chaucer now is in Grave The noble Rethore Poet of Britaine That worthy was the laurel to have Of Poetry and the Palm attaine That made first to distill and raine The Gold dew drops of speech and eloquence Into our Tongue through his eloquence And as for men of latter time Mr. Ascham and Mr. Spenser have delivered most worthy testimonies of their approving of him Mr. Ascham in one place calleth him English Homer and makes no doubt to say that he valueth his Authority of as high estimation as ever he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greek And in another place where he declareth his opinion of English versifying he useth these words Chaucer and Petrark those two worthy wits deserve just praise And last of all in his discourse of Germany he putteth him nothing behinde either Thucidides or Homer for his lively descriptions of site of places and nature of persons both in outward shape of body and inward disposition of minde adding this withall that not the proudest that hath written in any Tongue whatsoever for his time have outstript him Mr. Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepards Kallender calleth him Tityrus the god of Shepards comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus Virgil in his Faerie Queene in his Discourse of Friendship as thinking himself most worthy to be Chaucers friend for his like natural disposition that Chaucer had he writes that none that lived with him nor none that came after him durst presume to revive Chaucers lost Labours in that unperfect tale of the Squire but onely himself which he had not done had he not felt as he saith the infusion of Chaucers own sweet spirit surviving within him And a little before he calls him the most renowned and Heroicall Poet and his writings the works of heavenly wit concluding his commendation in this manner Dan Chaucer well of English undefiled On fames eternal Bead-roll worthy to be filed I follow here the footing of thy feet That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet Mr. Cambden reaching one hand to Mr. Ascham and the other to Mr. Spenser and so drawing them together uttereth of him these words De Homero nostro Anglico illud verè asseram quod de
being nevertheless so happy to have a Colledge of his name where he so profited in the Arts and Sciences that after an incredible proficiency in all the species of Learning he left the Accademical life for that of the Court whither he came by the invitation of his Uncle the Earl of Leicester of whose faction he was a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth he was of a comely presence framed by a naturall propension to arms and Warlike atchievements so that he soon attracted the good opinion of all men especially of the Queen fame having already blazed abroad his admirable parts she thought him fit for the greatest employments sent him upon an Embassy to the Emperour of Germany at Vienna which he discharged to his own honour and her approbation Yea his fame was so renowned throughout all Christendom that he was in election for the Kingdom of Poland and elective Kingdom but the Queen refused to further his advancement not out of emulation but for the loss of his company at Court He married Sir Francis Walsingams Daughter who impoverished himself to enrich the State from whom he expected no more then what was above all portions a Beautifull Wife and a Vertuous Daughter During his abode at the Court at his spare hours he composed that incomparable Romance entituled The Arcadia which he ded icated to his Sister the Countess of Pembroke A Book which considering his so Youthfull Years and Martial Employments it was a wonder that he had leasure for to write such a Volumn which as Dr. Heylin the Learned Ornament of our Nation in his exquisite Cosmography writes thus of Sir Philip Sidney of whom sayes he I cannot make too honourable a mention and of his Arcadia a Book which besides its excellent Language rare Contrivance and delectable Stories hath in it all the strains of Poesie comprehendeth the whole Art of Speaking and to them who can descern and will observe affordeth notable Rules of Demeanour both private and publick One writes that Sir Philip Sidney in the extream agony of his wounds so terrible the sense of Death is that he requested the dearest Friend he had living to burn his Arcadia On which one Epigrammatist writes thus Ipse tuam moriens sede conjuge teste jubebas Arcadiùm faevis ignibus esse cibum Sic meruit mortem quia flammam accendit amoris Mergi non uri debuit iste liber In librum quaecunque cadat sententia nulla Debuit ingenium morte perire tuum In serious thoughts of death 't was thy desire This sportful Book should be condemn'd with fire If so because it doth intend Love matters It rather should be quencht then drown'd i' th waters Which were it damn'd the Book the Memory Of thy immortal name shall never dye To make amends to such precise persons that think all that is not Divinity to be vain and lascivious he translated part of that excellent Treatise of Philip Morney de Plessis of the truth of Religion To pass by the follies of such supercillious Enthusiasts he wrote also severall other Works namely a defence of Poesie a Book entituled Astrophel and Stella with divers Songs and Sonnets in praise of his Lady whom he celebrated under that bright name so excellently and elegantly penned that as it is in a Poem 'T would make one think so sweet of Love he sings His Pens were Quills pluckt off from Cupids Wings So great were the Lamentations of his Funerals that a face might be sooner found without eyes then without tears no Persons of Honour at that time but thought it a dishonour not to mourn for him To recite the Commendations given him by several Authours would of its self require a Volumn to rehearse some few not unpleasing to the Reader Heylin in his Cosmography calleth him that gallant Gentleman of whom he cannot but make honourable mention Another in his Annals a most valiant and towardly Gentleman Speed in his Chronicle that worthy Gentleman in whom were compleat all vertues and valours that could be expected to reside in man Sir Richard Baker gives him this Character A man of so many excellent Parts of Art and Nature of Valour and Learning of Wit and Magnanimity that as he had equalled all those of former Ages so the future will hardly be able to equal him Nor was this Poet forgotten by the Poets who offered whole Hecatombs of Verses in his praise First hear the Brittish Epigrammatist Thou writ'st things worthy reading and didst do Things worthy writing too Thy Acts thy Valour show And by thy Works we do thy Learning know Divine Du Bartas speaking of the most Learned of the English Nation reckoneth him as one of the Chief in these words And world mourn'd Sidney warbling to the Thames His Swan-like tunes so courts her coy proud streams That all with childe with fame his fame they bear To Thetis Lap and Thetis every were The Renowned Poet Spenser in his Ruines of Time thus writes of him Yet will I sing but who can better sing Then thou thy self thine own self's valiance That whilest thou livedst thou mad'st the Forests ring And Fields resoun'd and Flocks to leap and dance And Shepheards leave their Lambs unto mischance To run thy shrill Arcadian Pipe to hear O happy were those dayes thrice happy were Sir John Harrington in his Epigrams thus If that be true the latter Proverb sayes Laudari à laudatis is most praise Sidney thy Works in Fames Books are enroll'd By Princes Pens that have thy Works extol'd Whereby thy Name shall dure to endless dayes Joyning with the rest that Kingly Poet King James the First late Monarch of Great Brittain amongst others writeth thus When Venus saw the noble Sidney dying She thought it her beloved Mars had been And with the thought thereat she fell a crying And cast away her Rings and Carknets clean He that in death a Goddess mockt and grieved What had he done trow you if he had lived These Commendations given him by so Learned a Prince made Mr. Alexander Nevil thus to write Harps others praise a Scepter his doth sing Of Crowned Poets and of Laureat King To conclude the Lord Burleigh the Nestor of those Times though otherwise an enemy to the Leicestrian Party both loved and admired him Yet was he not altogether addicted to Arts but given as much to the Exercise of Arms being a follower of Mars as well as a Friend to the Muses and although he himself used to say That Ease was the Nurse of Poesie yet his Life made it manifest that the Muses inhabited the Fields of Mars as well as the flowery Lawns of Arcadia that Sonnets were sung in the Tents of War as well as in the Courts of Peace the Muses Layes being warbled forth by a Warlike Sidney in as high a tune as ever they were sung by a peaceable Spenser And although the lamp of his life was extinguisht too soon yet left he a sufficient testimony to the world
time although a yast aspirer and provident storer It seems he thought the Kings Reign was given to the falling sicknesas but espying his time fitting and his Sovereignty in the hands of a Pupill Prince he thought he might as well then put up for it as the best for having then possession of blood and a purse with a head piece of a vast extent he soon got honour and no sooner there but he began to side it with the best even with the Protector and in conclusion got his and his Brothers heads still aspiring till he expired in the loss of his own so that Posterity may by reading the Father and Grandfather make Judgement of the Son for we shall finde that this Robert whose original we have now traced the better to present him was inheritour of the genius and craft of his Father and Ambrose of the estate of whom hereafter we shall make some short mention We take him now as he was admitted into the Court and Queen Elizabeths favour where he was not to seek to play his part well and dexterously but his play was chiefly at the fore-game not that he was a learner at the latter but he loved not the after wit for they report and not untruly that he was seldome behinde hand with his gamesters and that they alwayes went away with the loss To accomplish his direfull designs it is reported that Doctor Dee and Allen were his magical instruments his Physicians that waited upon him were admirable poisoners that could dispatch at the time appointed and not before At Cumner four or five miles from Oxford his first Wife fell down a pair of stairs and brake her neck he was also suspected for the death of Cardinal Castillian his great enemy after him he sent the Lord Sheffield as it was thought by an artificial Catarrhe Mounsieur Simers Ambassador to the French King he forced to fly this Kingdom for his too early prattling to the Queen of this his Marriage with the Lady Lettice He poysoned Sir Nicholas Throgmorton with a Saller The Earl of Sussex that called him the Son of a Traytor he sent out of the world with an Italian trick He employed his servant Killegray to slay the Earl of Ormond but he fell short of that design as the Poet hath it When Hanniball did not prevail by blows He used stratagems to kill his soes His servant Doughty that knew too much of his secrets he shipt away so as never to hear of him again Mr. Gates the Pandor of his leachery for contrived gilt of fellony was hanged whom he pretended to reprieve on the Gallows but never sent any to cut the rope for he knew he was then past telling of tales Thus he served one Salvatore an Italian who being more conversant of his privacies then he thought fit caused him to watch with him till midnight but the next morning he was found dead in his bed in his house He was otherwise for his out-side of a very goodly person and singular well featured and all his youth well favoured and of a sweet aspect but high foreheaded which as I should take it was of no discommendation but towards his latter end which with old men was but a middle-age he grew high colloured and red faced so that the Queen in this had much of her Father for excepting some of her kindred and some few that had handsome wits in crooked bodies she alwayes took personage in the way of her election for the people hath it this day in Proverb King Henry loved a man He had all advantages of the Queens grace she called to minde the sufferings of his Ancestours both in her Fathers and Sisters Reigns and restored his and his Brothers blood creating Ambrose the elder Earl of Warwick and himself Earl of Leicester c and he was ex prioribus or of her first choice for he rested not there but long enjoyed her favour and there with much what he listed till time and emulation the companions of great ones had resolved on his period And to cover him at his setting in a cloud at Cornbury not by so violent a death as that of his Fathers and Grandfathers was but as it is suggested by that poyson which he had prepared for others I am not bound to give credit to all vulgar relations or to the libels of the times which are commonly forced and falsified suitable to the moods and humors of men in passion and discontent His actions were so foul that I cannot think him to be an honest man as amongst others of known truth some already mentioned that of the Earl of Essex death in Ireland and the marriage of his Lady doth strongly asperse him questionless his deeds were good and bad as the times required He being such a Statesman as knew how to temporize He was wonderful popular To gain himself a good opinion of Religion he was free of his promises to the Cleargy Being Chancellour to the University of Oxford to raise himself a reputation of the Learned he was the more liberall And when he had a purpose to do a courtefie he had such power with the Queen as to do what he pleased either to bestow his favours or injuries as he could do good or wrong to others but not be wronged himself Those he placed about the Queen he had the wisdom to keep firme to himself The best of the Nobility being either linkt to him by alliance of else his friends In Wales he had the Earl of Pembroke Sir Henry Sidney a potent person was his friend in Ireland In Barwick the Lord Archbishop Hunsden He had a princely train another Mortimer for gallantry insomuch that he was called the heart of the Court He was a not able dissembler without which as Machiavel will have it he could not be rendred so grand a Politician Lascivious he was at any rate rather then fail he would Jupiter-like descend in a golden showre to which purpose he had as gracefull a carriage as if he meant civilly and onely carried the Reigns of honour in his hand There is a Book written of him called his Commonwealth in which there is more said of him then is true One of our modern Poets in two lines more truly determines of him Of him it may be said and censured well His Vertues and his Vices did excell To take him in the observations of his Letters and Writings which should best set him off for such as fell into my hands I never yet saw a stile or phrase more seeming religious and fuller of the streams of Devotion then some that I have seen are and he was too well seen in the Aphorismes and Principles of Nicholas the Florentine and in the reaches of Caesar Borgia I shall onely discover his Pen to two of the greatest Head-pieces of his time To my very Loving Friend Sir Francis Walsingham Ambassadour Resident for the Queens Majesty in France My Lord since my last Letter unto you I
into England lies on this Heroick Knight but as in the Life of Sir Francis Drake I have cleared him that his Marriners first brought it in So for that report that when he went to his Trial he took three Pipes in the Coach I rather look on him as he was too guilty of occasioning the mode of this vanity rather then that it was any Institution of his own The day appointed for his Execution being come a Scaffold was erected for him before the Parliament House upon which being brought with a chearful countenance and undaunted look he spake as followeth My Honourable Lords and the rest of my good Friends that are come to see me die know that I much rejoyce that it hath pleased God to bring me from darkness to light and in freeing me from the Tower wherein I might have died in disgrace by letting me live to come to this place where though I lose my life yet I shall clear some false accusations unjustly laid to my charge and leave behinde me a testimony of a true heart both to my King and Countrey Two things there are which have exceedingly possest and provoked his Majesties indignation against me viz. A confederacy or combination with France and disloyal and disobedient words of my Prince For the first his Majesty had some cause though grounded upon a weak foundation to suspect mine inclination to the French Faction for not long before my departure from England the French Agent took occasion passing by my house to visit me we had some conference during the time of his abode onely concerning my Voyage and nothing else I take God to witness Another suspicion is had of me because I did labour to make an escape from Plimouth to France I cannot deny but that willingly when I heard a rumour that there was no hope of my life upon my return to London I would have escaped for the safeguard of my life and not for any ill intent or conspiracy against the State The like reason of suspicion arose in that I perswaded Sir Lewis Stenkly my Guardian to flee with me from London to France but my answer to this is as to the other that onely for my safeguard and nought else was my intent as I shall answer before the Almighty It is alledged that I feigned my self sick and by art made my body full of blisters when I was at Salisbury True it is I did so the reason was because I hop'd thereby to defer my coming before the King and Councel and so by delaying might have gained time to have got my pardon I have an example out of Scripture for my warrant that in case of necessity and for the safeguard of my life David feigned himself foolish and mad yet it was not imputed to him for sin Concerning the second imputation laid to my charge that I should speak scandalous and reproachful words of my Prince there is no witness against me but onely one and he a Chymical Frenchman whom I entertained rather for his Jeasts then Judgement This man to incroach himself into the favor of the Lords and gaping after some great reward hath falsely accused me of seditious speeches against his Majesty against whom if I did either speak or think a thought hurtful or prejudicial Lord blot me out of the Book of Life It is not a time to flatter or fear Princes for I am a Subject to none but deatb therefore have a charitable conceit of me that I know to swear is an offence to swear falsely at any time is a great sin but to swear falsely before the presence of Almighty God before whom I am forthwith to appear were an offence unpardonable therefore think me not now rashly or untruly to confirm or protest any thing As for other Objections in that I was brought perforce into England that I carried sixteen thousand pounds in Money out of England with me more then I made known that I should receive Letters from the French King and such like with many protestations he utterly denied Having ended his Speech he saluted the Company and after he had made his addresses to heaven submitted his neck to the stroak of the Axe Thus ended this worthy Knight a man of such admirable parts that he is more to be admired then sufficiently praised Leaving him to his repose till the last great day I shall onely set down this following Epitaph made by himself Even such is time which takes in trust Our youth and joyes and all we have And payes us but with age and dust Within the dark and silent grave When we have wandred all our wayes Shuts up the story of our dayes From the which earth death grave and dust The Lord shall raise me up I trust The Life of Mr. William Cambden THis learned Antiquary who so diligently preserved the memories of many noble Families of this Nation and whose laborious Works have been a great light to Histories already extent and such as future Ages shall produce is deservedly placed amongst our Heroes that he whose pen made so many others live in his never dying Brittania may likewise live here in this present Work amongst the rest of our English Worthies He was Son to Master Sampson Cambden descended of an ancient family in Staffordshire his Mother was extracted from the worshipful family of the Curwens in Cumberland as he himself witnesseth in his Britannia He was born in the Old-Baily in the City of London Anno. 1550. That he was well educated his learned Works make manifest being put to School first in Christ-Church then at Pauls At fifteen years of age so soon was he ripened for the University he went to Magdalen Colledge in Oxford where having much profited he removed from thence to Broadgates Hall where he gave some proofs of his learning in those short Latin graces the Servitors still use From thence he went to Christ-Church where he attained to such eminency as his abilities preferred him to be Master of Westminster School There is as a learned Gentleman observes scarce any profession in the Common-wealth more necessary which is so slightly performed The reasons whereof he takes to be these First young Schollars make this calling their refuge yea perchance before they have taken any degree in the Vniversity commence Schoolmasters in the Countrey as if nothing else were required to set up this profession but onely a Rod and a Ferula Secondly others who are able use it onely as a passage to better preferment to patch the rents in their present fortune till they can provide a new one and betake themselves to some more gainful calling Thirdly they are disheartned from doing their best with the miserable reward which in some places they receive being Masters to the Children and slaves to their Parents Lastly being grown rich they grow negligent and scorn to touch the School but by the proxie of an Vsher But our Schoolmaster was of another temper studying his Schollars natures as carefully as
they their Books and rankt their dispositions into several forms for that Schoolmaster deserves to be beaten himself who beats nature in a Boy for a fault The truth is our English Schoolmasters I mean the unworthier sort of them to conceal their ignorance and continue their profits keep Boyes in Lillies Grammar first to get it by short lessons by heart and then to construe it which they have a Book to help themselves with continuing so long in this no less slothful and knavish practice of theirs that Foot-boyes and Mechanicks in other Countries speak good familiar Latine before we are out of our Quae Genus it being a custom beyond the Seas to chuse a large Grammar as Disputerius or the like which they onely explain and then fall to their Vocubularies familiar Authors and Dictionaries and in a short time are able to travel with the Latine Tongue over the world Mr. Cambden taking great pains in the erudition of youth continued so for a long space till that he was called aside Queen Elizabeth making him first Richmond Herald and not long after Clarenceaux King of Arms so that here was the story as Mr. Fuller writes of Dionysius inverted who from a King became a Schoolmaster but here a Schoolmaster became a King I mean of Arms which place he discharged with great integrity being very carefull to preserve the memories of extinguish'd families and restoring many to their own rightful Arms as also to curb their usurpation who unjustly entitle themselves to ancient families Spending his time under a peaceable Prince he had leasure to compose those most excellent Works of his which he left behinde him as a Monument of his never dying fame Viz. his Britannia which he wrote in Latine since translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physick A Book which will speak its own worth better then my rude Pen can set it forth His History of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the Original and true Edition of which he writ in Latin it was Printed at London in Folio The lesser Volumes Printed in Holland are corrupted That passage in favour of Mary Queen of Scots left out for which the doors of the Cloisters being shut too by one with a vizard to disguise he was soundly banged about the walks with these words often repeated For Queen Elizabeth and so was dismissed not knowing to his dying-day who bestowed so much pains upon him He wrote a Greek Grammar which for the clear method and brevity of it is out-done by no forreign nation His last book which one would have had written on his monument for his Epitaph Cambdens Remains contains the Languages Names Sirnames Allusions Annagrams Armories Monies Empresses Apparel Artillery wise Speeches Proverbs Posies and Epitaphs To recreate the Reader I think it not amiss to relate some few passages out of this last mentioned book that it may appear that our most gravest Authors would many times mix somewhat of mirth with their more solid writtings to draw the Reader on as well by pleasure as profit Amongst other pleasant passages he mentions Johannes Erigena sirnamed Scotus a man renowned for learning who sitting at the Table in respect of his learning with Charles the Bald Emperour and King of France behaved himself as a slovenly Schollar nothing courtly whereupon the Emperour asked him merrily Quid interest inter Scotum Sotum What is the difference between a Scot and a Sot He merrily but yet malapertly answered Mensa the Table as though the Emperour were the Sot and he the Scot. In another place he mentions the Emperour did set down unto him a dish with two fair great fishes and one little one willing him to be carver unto two other Schollars that sat beneath him this Master John who was but a little man laid the two great Fishes upon his own Trencher and set down the other little Fish unto the two Schollars who were big men which when the Emperour saw he smiling said In faith Master John you are no indifferent divider yes if it like your Highness very indifferent said he for here pointing to himself and the two great Fishes be two great ones and a little one and so yonder reaching his hand towards the Schollars are two big ones and a little one He continues with the pleasant relation of Winefridus born at Kirton in Devonshire after sirnamed Boniface who converted Freesland to Christianity was wont to say In old time they were golden Prelates and wooden Chalices but in his time wooden Prelates and golden Chalices Then discourses in another place of Ethelwold the Bishop of Winchester in the time of King Edgar in a great famine sold away all the sacred Gold and Silver Vessels of his Church to relieve the hunger-starved poor people saying That there was no reason that the senseless temples of God should abound in riches and living Temples of the Holy Ghost starve for hunger In another place that when Hinguar of Denmark came so suddenly upon Edmund King of the East-Angles that he was forced to seek his safety by flight he happened unhappily on a troop of Danes who fell to examining of him whether he knew where the King of the East-Angles was whom Edmund thus answered Even now when I was in the palace he was there and when I went from thence he departed thence and whether he shall escape your hands or no God knoweth But so soon as once they heard him name God the godless infidels pittifully martyred him In another place he takes notice of a quick retort to Geffery base Son to King Henry the Second who being by him advanced to the See of Lincoln would in his Protestations and Oaths alwayes protest By my faith and the King my Father But Walter Mapes the Kings Chaplaine told him You might do as well to remember sometimes your Mothers honesty as to mention so often your Fathers Royalty As also of Eubulus a scoffing Comical Greek Poet who cursed himself if ever he opened his mouth against women inferring albeit Medea were wicked yet Penelope was peerless if Clytemnestra were naught yet Alcestes was passing good if Phaedra were damnable yet there was another laudable But here saith he I am at a stand of good women I finde not one more but of the wicked I remember thousands To this purpose I have read in an old Manuscript Women are all in extrems too willing or too wilful too forward or too froward too friendly or too fiendly too courteous or too coy the mean they alwayes meanly account of As also of a certain Captain who being perswaded to marry replied no If I marry a Wife she will be wilfull if witty then wanton if poor then peevish if beautiful then proud if deformed then loathsome and the least of these is able to kill a thousand men But I fear I have been too prolix I shall onely adde one story concerning Cardinal Wolsey then give you a taste amongst many others of some of his
merry Epitaphs and so proceed There was a noble man merrily conceited and riotously given that having lately sold the Mannour of an hundred Tenements came ruffling into the Court in a new Suit saying Am not I a mighty man that bear a hundred houses on my back Which Cardinal Wolsey hearing said You might have better employed it in paying your debts Indeed my Lord quoth be you say well for my Lord my father owed my master your father three half pence for a Calves-head hold here is two pence for it Wolsey's Father being a Butcher I will onely set down a few lines of his merry Epitaphs as resemblances of the rest An Epitaph on Menalcas Here lieth Menalcas as dead as a log That liv'd like a Devil and dy'd like a Dog Here doth he lie said I then say I lie For from this place he parted by and by But here he made his descent into Hell Without either Book Candle or Bell. Upon one of a base condition yet in respect of his Name would have claimed Kindred of a most Noble Family and being a notorious Liar was this written Here lies M. F. the son of a Bearward Who would needs bear Arms in despight of the Herhaught Which was a Lion as black as a Jeat-stone With a Sword in his paws instead of a Whetstone Five sons had this Lyar 't is worth the revealing Two arrant Lyars and three hang'd for stealing His Daughters were nine never free from sores Three crooked Apostles and six arrant Whores Another on one that was bald Here lies John Baker enroll'd in mould That never gave a penny to have his head poll'd Now the plague and the pox light on such a device That undid the Barber and starved the Lice But to return where we left Master Cambden was so great a lover of Learning that he founded an History-Professour in Oxford to which he gave the Mannour of Bexley in Kent worth in present a hundred and forty pounds per annum but some few years expired treble as much And now having lived many years in honour and esteem death at last even contrary to Jus Gentium kill'd this worthy Herald so that it seems Mortality the Law of Nature is above the Law of Arms. He died the 74. year of his age November 9. 1623. He was buried in the Abbey of Westminster having this Epitaph upon his Funeral Monument Qui fide Antiqua opera assidua Britannicum Antiquatem indigavit Simplicitatem innatam honestis studiis excoluit Animi solertiam candore illustravit Gulielmus Camdenus ab Elizabetha R. Ad Regis Armorum Clarentii Titulo Dignitatem evocatus Hic spe certa resurgendi in Christo S. E. Q. Obiit Anno Domini 1623. 9. Novembris Aetatis suae 74. A base villain for certainly no person that had a right English soul could have done it hath defaced his Effigies not suffering his Monument to stand without violation whose learned Leaves have so preserved the Antiquities of the Nation Though we have met with most horrid transactions the inevitable dart of death hath deprived us of learned Master Dodsworth yet Divine Providence hath still left us two Argus-eyed Antiquaries Master Ashmole and Master Dugdale who by their studious Inquiries to their vaste expences in most learned Volumes have retrived from our late ruines the honor of the Nation On these Gentlemen I only look as fit to write the Life of their deceased Predecessour Master Selden one of the late Worthies of our Age and Wonders of the World The Life of THOMAS SUTTON Suttonum Ingenium locupletem industria fecit congestas miseris ille refudit opes FAith Hope and Charity these three divine Graces are a created Trinity and have some glimmering resemblance of the Trinity uncreated for as there the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them both so true Faith begets a constant Hope and from them proceeds Charity thus is Gods Temple built in our hearts St Augustin saith that the foundation of it is Faith Hope the erection of the walls and Charity the perfection of the roof an excellent vertue very rare in this contentious self-interested Age wherein fratrum quoque rara gratia est As a shame to these times and an honor to the former I have inserted the life of this worthy Gentleman which if I had omitted I had in some kinde detracted from the honor of the Nation Master Thomas Sutton was of a good extract born in the County of Lincoln the then seat of Baron Willoby of Eresby where in his youth he was generously and liberally brought up he had some knowledge of the Languages and might pass for more then an indifferent Schollar In his youth he attended Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk and afterwards presented his service to the Earl of Warwick with whom for some space of time he was in high favour as also with his Brother that Fox of the State Robert Earl of Leicester In process of time the eminency of his Qualifications being more particularly taken notice of he was preferred made Master of the Ordnance of Barwick of the Laws of which Castle I have seen a transcript reputed to have been under his own hand This place he held for a long time quietly the Barwick Ordinance having been since charged to Covenant purposes but by him onely shot off with silver for Charitable uses The truth is he first raised his estate from that employment by living sparingly and thrivingly continually purchasing and improving of what he had got by merchandize and otherwise Afterwards in his latter time he withdrew himself from the concourse of conversation and dwelt in a little Town called Castle-Camp in the County of Cambridge there he lived privately many years retained no great Family entertained few Guests obscured himself as much as he could and made no show of his Estate yet notwithstanding his wealth was so every where openly known that at last every one gave him the name of the Rich Sutton And now by this time it was the general wonder of all men he having no Heir how he would dispose of his great estate This made his Kindred with emulation one to another in his sickness most diligently to attend him and in his health against the time of his sicknes they strove who should present him with the richest gifts every one of them being freely accepted of The old man who as he received all so they thought at his death to have their own again with the largest Interest I have conversed with some of the Wits who credibly informed me that Ben. Jonsons Play of the Fox under the name of Vulpone had some allusion to Mr. Suttons maner of treating of his Kindred But to pass by such impertinences as he had vaste sums so he had vaste thoughts he had honourable wayes and determined uses to empty his bags with the word P. F. being not heard of in those dayes A Friend of his with
of speaking were a thing planted in him by nature not unlike what Ovid in the business of composing Verse sung of himself What ere I try'd to write became a Verse As aften as he was constrain'd by his Office to condemn any guilty person which duty was incumbent upon him as being learned Councel to the Kings majesty whether in criminal matters of a lesser nature or in capital offences he never carried himself proud or lofty towards the delinquent but always milde and of a moderate temper and though he knew that it was his duty in behalf of the King to urge and aggravate the crime as much as in him lay against the guilty person yet he so carried himself that at the same time he lookt upon the fact with an eye of severity upon the person with an eye of mercy In matters of State when he was called into the Kings Privy Council he ever observ'd the best manner of counselling not ingaging his master in any rash counsels or such as were grievous to the people but rather temporate and equal insomuch as King James honoured him with this testimony That he knew the method of handling matters after a milde and gentle manner and particularly exprest himself that it was a thing highly pleasing to his Majesty Nor was he when occasion serv'd less gracious with the Subjects of the Kingdom then with the King himself he was ever very acceptable to the Parliamentary Committees while he sate there of the Lower House in which he often made Speeches with great applause After he was advanc't to the office of Atturney General and elected to sit in Parliament liberty was granted to him by common suffrage of sitting in consultation among them a thing not known to have been granted to any other Atturney General And as he had the praise of a good Servant towards his Master for as much as in nineteen years administration as he himself affirm'd he never incurr'd the Kings displeasure for any offence immediately committed against the Kings Majesty so he obtained the name of a good Master towards his own Servants and freely rewarded their diligent services with eminent Offices as often as they came into his power to bestow which was a main cause why he was almost wearied with prayers to receive into the number of his Pages so many young men of the better sort and sprung from noble families and if any of them abus'd his grace and favour that was onely to be attributed to the errour of his native goodness though it redounds to their perpetual infamy and intemperance This our worthy was a strict worshiper of the Divine Majesty for although it hath been a custom among the vulgar to brand political persons and men of eminent wits with the note of Atheism yet that he both acknowledg'd and worshipt God appears most evidently by various testimonies dispersed through the whole course of his Works for otherwise he had destroyed and overthrown his own principles which were That Philosphy onely sipt and slightly tasted of draws us from God as that which magnifies second causes beyond their due but that Philosophy taken in a full draught brings us at length back unto God Now that he himself was a very profound Philosopher there is no man I suppose that can deny nor is this all but he was likewise both able and ready to render an account of that hope which was in him to any one that desired it and of this that Confession of Faith set forth at the end of his Volumne hath left a sufficient proof He very frequently us'd when he was in perfect health to be present at Divine service whether privately or publickly celebrated at the hearing of Sermons at the Participation of the holy Eucharist and at length he quietly slept in the true Faith establisht in the Church of England This is to be affirm'd for a certain that he was utterly void of all malice which as he said himself he never brought forth nor nourisht of the revenging of injuries he never so much as thought since to the performance thereof had he been so disposed he was sufficiently armed both with opportunity and power A remover of Officers from their places he was not in the least manner although he might have inricht himself by the destruction and ruine of others nor did he ever bear the name of a calumniator of any man to his Prince On a certain day when one of the chief Ministers of State who had borne him no good will being lately dead the King askt him what he thought of that Lord who was dead he answered That he was such a one as never had promoted his Majesties Affairs or made them better but that doubtless he had done his best to keep them from sinking or declining This was the hardest Sentence he would utter concerning him which indeed I reckon not among his Morall but his Christian vertues His name was more celebrated shin'd brighter abroad amongst forreigners then at home among his own Countreymen as it is mentioned in holy Writ A Prophet is not without honour except in his own Country and in his own House To make this good I shall produce a little passage out of an Epistle sent from Italy the shop of polite Wits to the late Earl of Devonshire at that time Baron Candish which was thus The new Essays of the Lord Chancellor Bacon as also his History and whatsoever besides he is now about I shall expect with infinite thirst of mind but especially in his History I promise to my self a perfect and well polisht work and chiefly in the Affairs of Henry the Seventh in the relating of which he will have liberty to exercise the gift of his accute wit That Lord daily increaseth in fame and his Works are more and more in chocie request among us and those who in humane Affairs are wise above the vulgar repute him among the greatest and most sublime wits of the age and so in truth he is Many of his Books were taught other languages as well the ancient and modern both heretofore and of late by those of forreign Nations Divers eminent men while he was living came over into England for no other cause but onely to see him and to have an opportunity of discoursing with him upon one of whom he bestowed his Picture drawn whole at length from head to foot to carry back with him into France which he thankfully receiv'd as a thing that would be very grateful and acceptable to his Countreymen that so they might enjoy the Image of his Person as well as the Images of his Brain viz. his Book Among others the Marquess of Fiat a Nobleman in France who came Ambassadour into England in the first year of Queen Mary's comming over the Wife of King Charles was affected with a very earnest desire of seeing him whereunto having gain'd an opportunity and coming into his Bed-chamber where he lay sick of of the Gout he addrest
have heard it often discoursed that he writ on the window with the point of his Diamond reflecting on the then present affliction of his Marriage these words John Donne done and undone But long were they not there but Mr. Donne got himself enlarged and soon after his two Friends and long it was not ere the edge of his Father-in-laws passion was taken off by the advice of some Friends who approved his Daughters choice and although at present he refused to contribute any means that might conduce to their livelihood yet did he bestow upon them his Paternal Blessing and secretly laboured his sons restauration into that place of which his own rashness had bereft him although it found no success The Lord Chancellour replying That though he was sorry for what he had done yet it stood not with his credit to discharge and re-admit Servants at the request of passionate Petitioners And now Mr. Donne by means of his Father-in-law being brought out of employment the greatest part of his portion by many and chargeable travels wasted the rest disburst in some few Books and dear bought experience was surrounded with many and sad thoughts And indeed no apprehension of discourtesie strikes so deep into a man as to receive it from those where we expect the greatest courtesies certainly he who hurts his Son-in-law cannot chuse but harm his own Daughter Neither is it enough for him to say he repenteth him of what he hath done unless withal he endeavor for him a new employment and allow him maintenace so long as he is out of it As did this good Knight Sir George More who repenting of his errour gave Master Donne a Bond to pay him eight hundred pound at a certain day as a portion with his Wife and to pay him for their maintenance twenty pound quarterly as the Interest of it until the said portion were paid Master Donne during the time of his Father-in-laws displeasure was curteously entertained by their noble Kinsman Sir Francis Wally of Pirford where he remained many years who as their charge encreased for she had yearly a childe so did he encrease his love and bounty Sir Francis dying he for a while kept house at Micham near Croyden in Surrey but being importuned by his friends he left Micham and had a convenient house assigned him by that honourable Gentleman Sir Robert Drury next his own in Drury-Lane who not onely gave him his dwelling rent free but was also a daily cherisher of his studies And now was he frequently visited by men of greatest learning and judgement in this kingdom his company desired by the Nobility and extreamly affected by the Gentry his friendship was sought for of most forreign Ambassadours and his acquaintance entreated by many other strangers whose learning or employment occasioned their stay in this kingdom Divers of the Nobility interceeded for his preferment at Court and great hopes was given him of some State employment his Majesty having formerly known and much valued him was much pleased to hear his learned disputes frequently used as they sat at meals About this time was that great dispute in England concerning the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance in which the King had ingaged himself who talking occasionly with Mr. Donne concerning some arguments urged by the Romanists received such satisfactory answers that he commanded him to state the points and bring his reasons to him in writing which within six weeks he performed with such contentment to the King that he perswaded him to enter into the Ministery to which Mr. Donne seemed to be modestly unwilling his modesty apprehending it too weighty for his abilities his friends also knowing how his education had apted him mediated with his Majesty to prefer him to some civil employment but the King having a descerning spirit replyed I know Mr. Donne is a learned man will prove an excellent Divine and a powerful Preacher Which caused this learned King again to sollicit him to enter into Sacred Orders which yet he deferred for the space of three years applying himself in the mean time to an incessant study of Textual Divinity and attained to an admirable perfection in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues Soon after his entring into this holy profession the King made him his Chaplain in ordinary he attending his Majesty in his progress to Cambridge the University knowing his worth with a universal consent made him Doctor in Divinity Immediately after his return home his Wife dyed leaving him the careful Father of seven Children living having buried five to her he promised never to bring them under the subjection of a step-mother and although his age being but forty two years might promise the contrary yet kept he his word faithfully burying with his most dear and deserving Wife all his sublunary joyes in this world and living a retired life applyed himself wholly to the exercise of Divinity And now his preaching and godly conversation was grown so eminent that fourteen Advowsions of several Benefices were offered unto him in the Countrey but he having a natural inclination to London his Birth-place refused them and accepted of a Lecture at Lincolns-Inne being glad to renew his intermitted friendship with them where he continued for the space of three years constantly and faithfully dispensing the word of God and they as freely requiting him with a liberal maintenance About which time the Palsgrave usurping the Crown of Bohemia much trouble arose in those kingdoms for the composing whereof the King sent the Earl of Carlile then Viscount Doncaster his Ambassador to those unsettled Princes and by a special command from his Majesty Doctor Donne was appointed to go along with him which accordingly he did to the great comfort of that vertuous Lady the Queen of Bohemia who very gladly received him as the Ambassadour of Christ and during his abode there being a constant hearer of his most excellent and powerful preaching Within fourteen moneths he returned home and about a year after his return the Deanry of Saint Pauls being vacant by the removal of Doctor Cary to the Bishoprick of Exeter the King bestowed the same upon him at his entrance into the Deanry he repaired the Chappel belonging to his house Suffering as the Psalmist hath it his eyes and temples to take no rest untill he had first beautified the house of God Soon after the Vicarage of Saint Dunstans in London fell to him by the death of Doctor White with another Ecclesiastical endowment about the same time Thus God blessed him that he was enabled to be Charitable to the Poor His Father-in-law Sir George More coming to pay him the conditioned sum of twenty pound he refused it saying as good Jacob said when he heard his Son Joseph lived It is enough you have been kinde to me and careful of my Children and I thank my God I am provided for therefore I will receive it no longer and not long after freely gave up his Bond of eight hundred pounds But
Commons so satisfied therewith but that some of them stood it out even unto imprisonment Much debate was afterward about it and the King got not so much money as ill will of the Subjects thereby At this time the King received a Letter from Sidan King of Morocco the Contents follow A Letter from Sidan King of Morocco to Charles King of ENGLAND When these our Letters shall be so happy as to come to your Majesties sight I wish the Spirit of the righteous God may so direct your minde that you may joyfully embrace the Message I send presenting to you the means of exalting the Majesty of God and your own reward amongst men The Regal Power allotted to us makes us common servants to our Creatour then of those people whom we govern so that observing the duties which we owe to God we deliver blessings to the world in providing for the publick good of our State we magnifie the Honour of God like the Celestial Bodies which though they have much veneration yet serve onely to the benefit of the world It is the excellency of our Office to be Instruments whereby happiness is delivered to the Nations Pardon me Sir This is not to instruct for I know I speak to one of a more clear and quick sight then my self but I speak this because it hath pleased God to give me a happy victory over some part of those rebellious Pyrates that have so long molested the peaceable trade of Europe and hath presented further occasion to rout out the generation of those who have been so pernicious to the good of our Nations I mean since it hath pleased God to be so auspicious to our beginnings in the Conquest of Salla that we might joyn and proceed in hope of like success in the War against Tunis Algier and other places Dens and Receptacles for the inhumane villanies of those who abhor Rule and Government Herein whilest we interrupt the corruption of malignant spirits of the world we shall glorifie the great God and perform a Duty that will shine as glorious as the Sun and Moon which all the earth may see and reverence a work that shall ascend as sweet as the perfume of the most precious odours in the Nostrils of the Lord a work grateful and happy to men a work whose memory shall be reverenced so long as there shall be any that delight to hear the Actions of Heroick and magnanimous spirits that shall last as long as there be any remaining among men that love and honour the piety and vertue of noble mindes This action I here willingly present to you whose piety and vertues equal the greatness of your power that we who are servants to the great and mighty God may hand in hand triumph in the glory which this action presents unto us Now because the Islands which you govern have been ever famous for the unconquered strength of their shipping I have sent this my trusty Servant and Ambassadour to know whether in your Princely wisdom you shall think fit to assist me with such Forces by Sea as shall be answerable to those I provide by Land which if you please to grant I doubt not but the Lord of Hosts will protect and assist those who fight in so glorious a cause Nor ought you to think this strange that I who much reverence the peace and accord of Nations should exhort to a War Your great Prophet CHRIST JESVS was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as well as the Lord and Giver of peace which may signifie unto you that he who is a Lover and Maintainer of peace must alwayes appear with the terrour of the Sword and wading through Seas of Blood must arrive to Tranquillity This made James your Father of glorious memory so happily renown'd admongst all Nations It was the noble fame of your Princely vertues which resounds to the utmost corners of the earth that perswaded me to invite you to partake of that blessing wherein I boast my self most happy I wish God may heap the riches of his blessings on you encrease your happiness with your dayes and hereafter perpetuate the greatness of your name to all Ages The occasion of writing this Letter was as followeth a rabble of Pyrats rest themselves in Salla a Port Town of the Realm of Fess and belonging to the King of Morocca creating thence great mischief to him both by Sea and Land and not to them onely but to all the Merchants of other Countries whose business led them towards the Seas Vnable to suppress them for want of shipping he craved aid of King Charles of England by whose assistance he became Master of the Port destroyed the Pyrats and sent three hundred Christian Captives for a present to his sacred Majesty An. 1634. Nor staid he here but aiming at the general good of Trade and mankinde he sent this Letter to his Majesty by one of the chief Eunuchs of his Chamber handsomly attended in the Port and quality of an Ambassadour desiring the like aid against those of Tunis and Algiers who did as much infest the Mediterranean as the Pyrats of Salla did the Ocean In order whereunto his Majesty began immediately to strengthen and increase his Royal Navy and to that end required the wonted naval Aid lately best known by the name of Ship-money from all his Subjects and possible enough might have pursued this design for suppressing the Pyrats of Algiers and Tunis if he had not been unhappily hindered by the insurrection of the Scots and those continued troubles which ensued upon it I have the rather inserted this Letter considering how seriously our learned Doctor Heilin in his Cosmography reflected on it so as to blame Mr. Le-strange for omission of it the truth is the Letter carries some weight with it and savours of more piety then could be expected from a Mahometan His Ambassador was entertained with great honour with a magnificent Masque and a costly Antick Show through the Streets at the vast expences of the Inns of Court Gentlemen To proceed far greater troubles arose in Scotland concerning the Book of Common Prayer The King at his last being there observing that God Almighty was very negligently and as he thought undecently worshipt took the Reformation thereof into his Princely care to which end he gave directions to the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely and to divers other Bishops to Revise Correct Alter and Change as they pleased the Liturgy compiled in his Fathers time which accordingly they did and having shewed it to the King he approved thereof in regard that coming nearer to the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth in the Administration of the Lords Supper it might be a means to gain the Papists to the Church who liked far better of the first then second Liturgy But the Scotch a scrupulous Nation in their opinion who as one saith of them are more affraid of the name of yielding then resisting and would sooner offend against
in one shew you the wonder of our times such a Proteus as few ages can produce such another he having like Ishmael every mans hand against him and his against all Who more violent against the Hierarchy of the Bishops then he none more against King and Kingly Government then he how violent was he aganst the House of Lords and they being down and another Government established without King and Lords he sets himself against that too such an opposite and Antagonist to all forms of Government whatsoever that he might fitly be compared unto the Rainbow which is never on that side of the world that the Sun is but wheresoever it appears it is in opposition against the Sun But to come to his Life he was Son to Richard Lilburne of the County of Durham during his miniority an Apprentice in London near London-stone to one Mr. Hewson a a dealer in Cloath whom he served about five years his Master declining his trade he moved him that he might have his liberty to provide for himself to which purpose he went into the Countrey to have the consent of his friends and afterwards made a voyage into Holland Before this his transportation he had made his ends having been of such an insinuating spirit that he won the love of some silly Schismaticks who for his strange though empty expressions deemed him as they have done others one inspired So that by that time he came out of his time and had served his Apprentiship who but Lilburne of note amongst the Sectaries his approbation desired and his counsels followed in all tumultuous and factious transactions It happened during the imprisonment of Doctor Bastwick censured for libelling by the Archbishop of Canterbury divers persons affecting the said Doctor out of their love resorting to him amongst the rest one of them took John Lilburne with him as his associate after plenty of chear Doctor Bastwick to solace his guests read to them his Lettany which he had written against the Prelates which Book was highly pleasing to them all Lilburne also hearing the said Lettany read and knowing that whatsoever was written in defiance of that power then generally hated would be very acceptable he desired of Doctor Bastwick to have a copy of one of them with which he would travel beyond Sea and cause it to be printed not doubting to be enriched by it the winde of this fancy transported him over Sea accompanied with a fellow whose fidelity he doubted not there he printed many Books and by them got much money selling them even at what rates he pleased afterwards coming into England bringing with him his printed trinkets hoping to have a new Mart the fellow that accompanied him was his betrayer who gave information to the Archbishop of Canterbury both where Lilburne and his Libels were who immediately dispatched a Pursivant with plenary authority who attached Lilburne and seized on his Books which were all afterwards burnt Lilburne himself was committed to the Fleet and refusing to take his Oath in the Star-Chamber was by them fined five hundred pound and censured to be whipt from the Fleet to Westminster and afterwards to stand in the Pillory which accordingly was executed and because he fell into a long speech against the Bishops and their Hierarchy they caused him to be gagged wherein he continued an hour and a half But the times altering the Bishops being Voted down by Parliament and a War ensuing betwixt them and the King these his sufferings caused him to be looked upon by the Parliament who preferred him to the Office of Lieutenant Collonel in their Army wherein he behaved himself most gallantly particularly at Brainford where he with about 700. men withstood the Kings whole Army about five hours together and fought it out to the very Swords point and to the Butt end of the Musket and thereby hindred the King from his then possessing the Parliaments Train of Artillery and by consequence the City of London in which act he was taken prisoner without Articles or capitulation and was by the King and his Party then lookt upon as one of the most active men in the whole company and should have been therefore Tryed for his life had not he by his wit avoyded the same by sending to the Parliament who thereupon sent a Letter to Oxford threatning them with lex talionis they having at the same time many of their great eminent men prisoners in the Tower Warwick Castle and other places which put a period to all further proceedings against him and freed him by an exchange Returning to London he begins to set abroach his factious opinions writing a Pamphlet wherein he termed the Laws Norman innovations with other unparallel'd speeches all which he sent to Judge Reeve who himself or some other for him made a complaint unto the Lords who immediately summoned him to appear before them which accordingly he did where being commanded to kneel at the Bar he refused saying That he had learned both better Religion and manners then to kneel to any humane or mortal power how great soever with many other aggravating and ambitious speeches which committed him close prisoner first to Newgate and afterwards to the Tower where he continued above twelve moneths together but this not a whit calmed his spirit but was rather like Oyl cast on the fire finding occasion from these his troubles and imprisonments to enveigh more bitterly against the Government and Governours then in being terming the Parliament to use his own words in his scurrulous pamphlets A pack of dissembling juggling knaves a company of tyrants the most perfidious false faith and trust-breakers that ever lived in the world and ought by all rational men to be most detested of all men that breathe treacherous self-seeking usurpers of the name and power of a Parliament most treacherously to do what they list Saying That Corah Dathan and Abiram were never more against Authority as the General viz. the Lord Fairfax and his Councel nor the Anabaptists at Munster with John of Leidon and Knipperdolling were never more contemners of Authority nor Jack Straw and Wat Tyler nor all those famous men mentioned with a black pen in our Histories These with infinite other railing tearms his pamphlets are stuffed and farced withal not fit to be bestowed on the most inveterate enemies can be encountred in this Life the young Gentleman was very prodigal of such Rabshekah expressions as his impudence was most conducing to his desperate designs c. For these and many other single rapired expressions of the nature contained in several Books which he wrote he was committed to the Tower and by a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer tryed upon a Charge of High Treason at the Guild Hall in London October 24 25. 26. 1649. Many were the Commissioners that sat upon his Tryal and multitudes of Spectators that came to behold it I have inserted his Tryal thus at large not onely as in respect of the
Arbitrary wayes but we will try you by the rules of the good old Laws of England and whatsoever priviledge in your Tryal the Laws of England will afford you claim it as your Birth-right and Inheritance and you shall enjoy it with as much freedom and willingness as if you were in Westminster Hall to be tryed amongst your own Party and this we will do for that end that so at London your friends shall not have any just cause to say we murthered you with cruelty or denied you the benefit of the Law in taking away your life by the rules of our own wills Nay further said he Captain Lilburne it is true I am a Judge made by my Sovereign Lord the King according to his right by Law and so in a special manner am his Servant and Councellour and am to act for his good benefit and advantage And yet notwithstanding it is by the known Laws of this Land my duty to be indifferent and free from partiallity betwixt my Master and you the Prisoner and I am specially bound unto it also by my Oath and therefore you shall have the utmost priviledges of the Law of England which is a Law of Mercy and not of Rigour and hath the life of a man in tenderest and highest estimation and therefore it is the duty of a Judge by Law to be of counsel with the Prisoner in things wherein by his ignorance he falls short of making use of the benefit of the Law especially when he is upon the Tryal of his life Yea and to exhort him to answer without fear if he perceive him daunted or amazed at the presence of the Court Yea it is my duty to carry my self with all fairness and evenness of hand towards you and wherein that there shall seem any mistakes to appear in circumstances of Formalities to rectifie you For 't is my duty to help you and not to use any boisterous or rough language to you in the least to put you in fear or any wayes prevent the freedom of you defence and according to the Laws of England this is my duty and this is the Law And accordingly he gave me liberty to plead to the errors of my Indictment before ever I pleaded not guilty yea and also became willing to assign me what Councel I pleased to nominate freely to come to prison to me and to consult and advise with me and help me in point of Law This last he did immediately upon my pleading to the Indictment before any Fact was proved all which is consonant to the declared Judgement of Sir Edward Cook that great Oracle of the Laws of England whose Books are published by speciall Orders and Authority of Parliament for good Law who in his 3. part Institutes Chapt. Of High Treason fol. 29.34 compared with fol. 137.230 asserts the same Truly Sir I being now come before you to answer for my life and being no professed Lawyer may through my own ignorance of the practick part of the Law especially in the Formalities Nisities and Puntillio's thereof run my self with over-much hastiness in snares and dangers that I shall not easily get out of And therefore being all of a sudden bid to hold up my hand at the Bar I cannot chuse but a little demur upon it and yet with all respect to you to declare my desirableness to keep within the bounds of Reason Moderation and Discretion and so to carry my self as it doth become a man that knows what it is to answer for his life And therefore in the first place I have something to say to the Court about the first Fundamental liberty of an English man in order to his Tryal which is that by the Laws of this Land all Courts of Justice alwayes ought to be free and open for all sorts of peaceable people to see behold and hear and have free access unto and no man whatsoever ought to be tryed in holes or corners or in any place where the Gates are shut and bar'd and guarded with armed men and yet Sir as I came in I found the Gates shut and guarded which is contrary both to Law and Justice Sir the Laws of England and the Priviledges thereof are my Inheritance and Birth-right And Sir I must acquaint you that I was sometimes summoned before a Committee of Parliament where Mr. Corbet and several others have had the Chair and there I stood upon my right by the Laws of England and refused to proceed with the said Committee till by special order they caused their Doors to be wide thrown open that the people might have free and uninterrupted access to hear see and consider of what they said to me although I think the pretence that I am now brought before you for be the very same in substance that I was convened before Mr. Corbet for which was about Books and I am sure there I did argue the case with him and the rest of the Committee soundly out in Law proving that they were bound in Law and Justice freely to open their Doors for the free access of all sorts and kindes of Auditors And I did refuse as of right to proceed with them till by special order they did open their Doors For no tryal in such cases ought to be in any place unless it be publick open and free and therefore if you please that I may enjoy that Legal Right and Priviledge which was granted unto me by Mr. Miles Corbet and the rest of that Committee when I was brought before them in the like case that now I am brought before you which priviledge I know to be my right by the Law of England I shall as it becomes an understanding Englishman who in his actions hates deeds of darkness holes or corners go on to a tryal But if I be denyed this undoubted priviledge I shall rather dye here then proceed any further And therefore foreseeing this beforehand and being willing to provide against all jealousies of my escape the fear of which I supposed might be objected against me as a ground to deny me this my legal right and therefore beforehand I have given my engagement to the Lieutenant of the Tower that I will be a faithful and true prisoner to him He enlarged himself as to other particulars but these being the most material as to the relation of some passages of his Life I thought it necessary to insert them He having these requested freedoms granted him from Judge Keble his tryal went on which because of it self it is a large printed volume I shall onely hint at some things not to be omitted in it After he had ended his Speech Judge Keble told him that his requests were granted bid him look behinde him the Doors were open Mr. Prideaux the Atturney General excepted against the favour done him of the liberty of his Speech as at the beginning of his arraignment he had denyed to hold up his hand he further expressed that the Commission for the Tryal
his first principles of self-denying he having before waved many advantages of the times to make certain his Protectorship which was to grasp all at once The Articles of the Government to which he signed are as followeth 1. That his Excellency be chief Protector of the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland 2. That he will call to his assistance Councellours not under the number of thirteen nor above twenty one 3. That he shall not act without the advice of his Councel 4. That there shall be every three years a Parliament called freely chosen to begin in September next viz. four hundred and the number for every County proportionable 5. That no Parliament shall adjourn till they have sat above five moneths 6. When ever any Bill is passed in Parliament the Lord Protector shall have twenty dayes to advise with his Councel if he sign it not in twenty dayes it shall pass without unless contrary to these Articles 7. That no Parliament be dissolved by the Protector but end every three years and the Protector to issue out Warrants 8. All the Crown Revenues left to go to the maintenance of the Lord Protector 9. To make Peace or War as he pleaseth with the advice of his Councel in the intervall of Parliaments but not to raise money without the Parliament unless in extraordinary causes 10. Whatsoever goes out in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England to go out in the name of the Lord Protector 11. That it is treason to speak against the present Government 12. That all forfeited and confiscated Estates go to the maintenance of the Lord Protector 13. That all Acts of Parliament made and Estates sold stand good and be enjoyed 14. That the Lord Protector have power to confer titles of Honour and to dispose of the great places of trust 15. That in the intervall of Parliaments the Lord protector with his Councel do order the Affairs of the Nation 16. That all Articles of War be kept 17. That the known Laws of the Common-wealth be continued 18. That a standing Army be maintained of ten thousand Horse and twenty thousand Foot 19. That Christian Religion be maintained such as is contained in the Word of God 20. That all persons shall have Liberty of Conscience provided that they disturb not the Civil Government except the Popish and Prelatical party 21. That no Papist or Delinquent in Arms since the year 1649. elect or be elected a Parliament Man under penalty of forfeiture of one years revenue and the Moiety of his personal Estate 22. That the Lord Protector have power to pardon all offenders except Murther 23. That Writs be issued out in July next for summoning the Parliament either by the Protector or in course 24. That when the Protector dyes the Council then sitting shall summon all the members of the Council the Major part to elect one to be Protector before they stir out of the Council Chamber and the person so chosen not to be under the age of twenty one years nor of the family of the Stuarts These Articles sworn to he was proclaimed Lord Protector in the Palace-yard at Westminster and by the Lord Major and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns at the Royal Exchange who to ingratiate themselves with their new Governour bestowed on him a costly feast at Grocers Hall it is an usual observation that persons that make their wayes with their Swords that their shows to take the people generally are more stately then those of successive Princes what he admitted of as with his own permission was nothing to those dutiful solemnities that pursued his memory without dispute he had studied the art and ordinance of self-denying insomuch that the Parliament perceiving that he did but complement his Generalship which he might with fafety and most right have accepted they pressed him the less as he seemed to push away that with his little finger that they were certain he was ready to grasp with both his hands this was not so miraculous in him according to that of Ovid. Os homini sublime dedit caelumque videre Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus The greatest admiration that hath surprised me hath bin what in the compass of a year I have observed the tides and streams of petitions out of most Counties that at the first rise or promise of greatness have pursued every alteration as party-coloured as Josephs Coat and as variable as the Rainbow it is not to be depictured how Janus-faced they have been on all occasions with how many religious expressions and wishes they have made their addresses and masqued their self-interests if it were possible in so short an interim of time at once adoring so many rising Suns I shall reflect no otherwise on such confused transactions then in the citation of a Verse which the Reader may understand as he pleases Pope Innocent the chief of all the rout Answer'd his name but how if In were out Since I have so strangely digressed it will not be amiss to take notice of a book lately come forth intituled History and Policy reviewed concerning the political transactions of the Protector publisht in a strange name written in the stile of the holy Court in which the Author undertakes a prodigious enterprise to compare Cromwel to Moses his pen is too palpably fraught with flattery yet not without unparalleld subtilty he having like the little Indian Gentleman in the short jacket pickt the verminout of Nic. Machiavels head for his use throwing of one side principals honester then this own Machiavel never so disguising himself with the vizard of Religion that he appears to be an arranter devil then the Florentine certain I am that I never read a book that more pleased or dispeased me But to proceed at his first instalment Heavens bless us immediately follows a plot miraculously discovered eleven of the grand conspirators being apprehended were committed to the Tower where having remained a while they were again set at liberty This web was not well spun his spies and informers which he entertained at a vast expence put on their spectacles that they might see better against the next occasion In the interim the Scots under the Earls of Glencarne and Kenmore raised another Army of 4000. Horse and Foot but were soon dissipated by the vigilancy of Collonel Morgan who after a short but smart fight killed one hundred and fifty of them and defeated all the rest Suspicions are necessary allarms as they at least suffer persons not to be overtaken with too much security of their affairs Another great plot was now again discovered the chief conspirators were said to be Mr. Thomas and John Gerrard Brothers John Jones an Apothecary and Thomas Tender Somerset Fox and Master Peter Vowel who were all condemned but two onely suffered viz. Mr. Vowel who was hanged Also about the same time the Portugal Ambassadors Brother was brought to his tryal for the pistolling of one Mr. Greenwood
Evidences of the work of Grace by J. Collins of Norwich 18. Jacobs Seed or the excellency of seeking God by prayer by Jer. Burroughs 14. The sum of practical Divinity or the Grounds of Religion in a Catechistical way by Master Christopher Love late Minister of the Gospel a useful Piece 20. Heaven and Earth shaken a Treatise shewing how Kings and Princes and all other Governments are turned and changed by J. Davis Minister in Dover admirably useful and seriously to be considered in these times 21. The Treasure of the Soul wherein we are taught by dying to sin to attain to the perfect love of God 22. A Treatise of Contentation fit for these sad and troublesome times by J. Hall Bishop of Norwich 23. Select thoughts or choice helps for a pious spirit beholding the excellency of her Lord Jesus by J. Hall Bishop of Norwich 24. The Holy Order or Fraternity of Mourners in Zion to which is added songs in the night or chearfulness under afflictions by J. Hall Bishop of Norwich 25. The Celestial Lamp enlightening every distressed soul from the depth of everlasting darkness by T. Fetisplace Admirable and Learned Treatises of Occult Sciences in Philosophy Magick Astrology Geomancy Chymistry Phisiognomy and Chyromancy 26. Magick and Astrology vindicated by H. Warren 27. Lux veritatis Judicial Astrology vindicated and Demonology confuted by W. Ramsey Gent. 28. An Introduction to the Teutonick Philosophy being a determination of the Original of the soul by C. Hotham Fellow of Peter House in Cambridge 29. Cornelius Agrippa his fourth Book of Occult Philosophy or Geomancy Magical Elements of Peter de Abona the nature of spirits made English by R. Turner 30. Paracelsus Occult Philosophy of the Mysteries of Nature and his secret Alchimy 31. An Astrological Discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations proving the influence of the Planets and fixed Stars upon Elementary Bodies by Sir Christ Heyden Knight 32. Merlinus Anglicus Junior the English Merlin revived or a Prediction upon the Affairs of Christendom for the year 1644. by W. Lilly 33. Englands Prophetical Merlin foretelling to all Nations of Europe till 1663. the actions depending upon the Influences of the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter 1642. by W. Lilly 34. The Starry Messenger or an Interpretation of that strange Apparition of three Suns seen in London the 19 of November 1644. being the Birth-day of King Charles by W. Lilly 35. The Worlds Catastrophe or Europes many Mutations until 1666. by W. Lilly 36. An Astrological Prediction of the Occurrences in England part of the Years 1648 1649 1650. by W. Lilly 37. Monarchy or no Monarchy in England the Prophesie of the White King Grebner his Prophesie concerning Charles Son of Charles his Greatness illustrated with several Hieroglyphicks by W. Lilly 38. Annus Tenebrosus or the Dark Year or Astrological Judgements upon two Lunary Eclipses and one admirable Eclipse of the Sun in England 1652. by W. Lilly 39. An easie and familiar way whereby to judge the effects depending on Eclipses by W. Lilly 40. Supernatural Sights and Apparitions seen in London June 30. 1644. by W. Lilly as also all his Works in one Volume 41. Catastrophe Magnatum an Ephemerides for the Year 1652. by N. Culpeper 42. Teratologia or a discovery of Gods Wonders manifested by bloody Rain and Waters by J. S. 43. Chyromancy or the Art of divining by the Lines engraven in the hand of man by dame Nature in 198. Genitures with a learned Discourse of the soul of the World by G. Wharton Esq 44. The admired Piece of Physiognomy and Chyromancy Metoposcopy the Symmetrical Proportions and signal Moles of the Body the Interpretation of Dreams to which is added the Art of Memory illustrated with Figures by R. Sanders folio 45. The no less exquisite then admirable Work Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum containing several Poetical Pieces of our famous English Philosophers who have written the Hermitick Mysteries in their own ancient Language faithfully collected into one Volume with Annotations thereon by the Indefatigable Industry of Elias Ashmole Esq illustrated with Figures Excellent Treatises in the Mathematicks Geometry of Arithmetick Surveying and other Arts or Mechanicks 46. The incomparable Treatise of Tactometria seu Tetagmenometria or the Geometry of Regulars practically proposed after a new and most expeditious manner together with the Naural or Vulgar by way of Mensural comparison and in the Solids not onely in respect of Magnitude or Demension but also of Gravity or Ponderosity according to any Metal assigned together with useful experiments of Measures and Weights observations on gauging useful for those that are practiced in the Art Metricald by T. Wybard 47. Tectonicon shewing the exact measuring of all manner of Land Squares Timber Stones Steeples Pillars Globes as also the making and use of the Carpenters Rule c. fit to be known by all Surveyors Land-meters Joyners Carpenters and Masons by L. Diggs 48. The unparalel'd Work for ease and expedition entituled The Exact Surveyor or the whole Art of Surveying of Land shewing how to plot all manner of Grounds whether small Inclosures Champian Plain Wood-lands or Mountains by the plain Table as also how to finde the Area or Content of any Land to Protect Reduce or Divide the same as also to take the Plot or Chart to make a Map of any Mannor whether according to Rathburne or any other eminent Surveyors Method a Book excellently useful for those that sell purchase or are otherwise employed about Buildings by J. Eyre 49. The Golden Treatise of Arithmetick Natural and Artificial or Decimals the Theory and Practice united in a simpathetical Proportion betwixt Lines and Numbers in their Quantities and Qualities as in respect of Form Figure Magnitude and Affection demonstrated by Geometry illustrated by Calculations and confirmed with variety of Examples in every Species made compendious and easie for Merchants Citizens Seamen Accomptants c. by Th. Wilsford Corrrector of the last Edition of Record 50. Semigraphy or the Art of Short-writing as it hath been proved by many hundreds in the City of London and other places by them practised and acknowledged to be the easiest exactest and swiftest Method the meanest capacity by the help of this Book with a few hours practice may attain to a perfection in this Art by J. Rich Authour and Teacher thereof dwelling in Swithins-Lane in London 51. Milk for Children a plain and easie Method teaching to read and write useful for Schols and Families by J. Thomas D. D. 52. The Painting of the Ancients the History of the beginning progress and consummating of the practice of that noble Art of Painting by F. Junius Excellent and approved Treatises in Physick Chyrurgery and other more familiar Experiments in Cookery Preserving c. 53. Culpeper's Semiatica Vranica his Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the decumbiture of the sick much enlarged the way and manner of finding out the cause change and end of the Disease also whether the sick be likely to
Dispensatory in what Language soever 86. Cabinet of Jewels Mans Misery Gods Mercy Christs Treasury c in eight excellent Sermons with an Appendix of the nature of Tythes under the Gospel with the expediency of Marriage in publique Assemblies by J. Crag Minister of the Gospel 87. Natures Secrets or the admirable and wonderful History of the generation of Meteors describing the Temperatures of the Elements the heights magnitudes and influences of Stars the causes of Comets Earthquakes Deluges Epidemical Diseases and Prodigies of Precedent times with presages of the weather and descriptions of the weather-glass by T. Wilsford 88. The Mysteries of Love ane Eloquence or the Arts of Wooing and Complementing as they are managed in the Spring Garden Hide Park the New Exchange and other eminent places A work in which is drawn to the life the Deportments of the most Accomplisht Persons the Mode of their Courtly entertainments Treatment of their Ladies at Balls their accustomed Sports Drolls and Fancies the Witchcrafts of their perswasive Language in their Approaches or other more Secret Dispatches c. by E. P. 89. Helmont disguised or the vulgar errors of imparcial and unskilful Practicers of Physick confuted more especially as they concern the Cures of Feavers the Stone the Plague and some other Diseases by way of Dialogue in which the chief rareties of Physick are admirably discourcoursed of by J. T. Books very lately Printed and in the Press now Printing 1. Geometry demonstrated by Lines and Numbers from thence Astronomy Cosmography and Navigation proved and delineated by the Doctrine of Plain and Spherical Triangles by T. Wilsford 2. The English Annals from the Invasion made by Julius Caesar to these times by T. Wilsford 3. The Fool transformed A Comedy 4. The History of Lewis the eleventh King of France a Trage-Comedy 5. The Chaste woman against her will a Comedy 6. The Tooth-drawer a Comedy 7. Honour in the end a Comedy 8. Tell-tale a Comedy 9. The History of Donquixiot or the Knight of the ill favoured face a Comedy 10. The fair Spanish Captive a Trage-Comedy Sir Kenelm Digby and other Persons of Honour their rare and incomparable secrets of Physick Chyrurgery Cookery Preserving Conserving Candying distilling of Waters extraction of Oyls compounding of the costliest Perfumes with other admirable Inventions and select Experiments as they offered themselves to their Observations whether here or in Forreign Countreys 11. The soul 's Cordial in two Treatises the first teaching how to be eased of the guilt of sin the second discovering advantages by Christs Ascension by that faithful Labourer in the Lords Vineyard Mr. Christopher Love late Minister of Lawrence Jury the third Volume of his Works 12. Jacobs seed the excellency of seeking God by prayer by the late Reverend Divine Master Jeremiah Burroughs 14. The Saints Tomb-stone or the Remains of the Blessed A plain Narrative of some remarkable Passages in the holy Life and happy Death of Mistress Dorothy Shaw Wife of Mr. John Shaw Preacher of the Gospel at Kingston upon Hull collected by her dearest Friends especially for her sorrowful Husband and six Daughters consolation and imitation 15. The so well entertained Work the New World of English Words or a general Dictionary containing the Terms Etymologies Definitions and perfect Interpretations of the proper significations of hard English Words throughout the Arts and Sciences Liberal or Mechanick as also other subjects that are useful or appertain to the Language of our Nation to which is added the signification of Proper Names Mythology and Poetical Fictioâ—s Historical Relations Geographical Descriptions of the Countreys and Cities of the World especially of these three Nations wherein their chiefest Antiquities Battles and other most memorable Passages are mentioned A Work very necessary for Strangers as well as our own Countrey-men for all persons that would rightly understand what they discourse or read Collected and published by E. P. for the greater honour of those learned Gentlemen and Artists that have been assistant in the most Practical Sciences their Names are presented before the Book 16. The so much desired and learned Commentary on Psalm the fifteenth by that Reverend and Eminent Divine Mr Christopher Cartwright Minster of the Gospel in York to which is prefixed a brief account of the Authours Life and of his Work by R. Bolton 17 The Way to Bliss in three Books being a learned Treatise of the Philosophers Stone made publick by Elias Ashmole Esq 18. Wit restored in several Select Poems not formerly publisht by Sir John Mennis Mr. Smith and others 19. The Judges Charge delivered in a Sermon before Mr. Justice Hall and Mr. Serjeant Crook Judges of the Assize at St. Mary Overies in Southwark by R. Purre M. A. Pastor of Camerwel in the County of Surrey a Sermon worthy of the perusal of all such persons as endeavour to be honest and just Practitioners in the Law 20. The Modern Assurancer the Clerks Directory containing the Practick part of the Law in the exact Forms and Draughts of all manner of Presidents for Bargains and Sales Grants Feoffements Bonds Bills Conditions Covenants Joyntures Indentures to lead the uses of Fines and Recoveries with good Proviso's and Covenants to stand seized Charter parties for Ships Leases Releases Surrenders c. And all other Instruments and Assurances now in use intended for all young Students and Practicers of the Law by John Hern. 21. Moor's Arithmetick the second Edition much refined and diligently cleared from the former mistakes of the Press A Work containing the whole Art of Arithmetick as well in Numbers as Species Together with many Additions by the Authour to come forth at Machaelmas Term. Likewise 22. Exercitatio Elleiptica Nova or a new Mathematical Contemplation on the Oval Figure called an Elleipsis together with the two first Books of Midorgius his Conicks Analiz'd and made so plain that the Doctrine of Conical sections may be easily understood a Work much desired and never before publisht in the English Tongue by Jonas Moor Surveyor General of the great Level of the Fennes to come forth at Michaelmas Term 27. Naps upon Parnassus a sleepy Muse nipt and pincht though not awakened such voluntary and Jovial Copies of Verses as were lately receiv'd from some of the Wits of the Universities in a Frolick dedicated to Gondibert's Mistress by Captain Jones and others Whereunto is added for D monstration of the Authors Prosaick Excellencies his Epistle to one of the Universities with the Answer together with two Satyrical Characters of his own of a Temporizer and an Antiquary with Marginal Notes by a Friend to the Reader 24. America painted to the Life the History of the Conquest and first Original undertakings of the advancement of the Plantations in those Parts with an exquisite Map by F. Gorges Esq 25. Culpeper's School of Physick or the Experimental Practice of the whole Art so reduced either into Aphorisines or choice and tried Receipts that the free born Students of the three Kingdoms may
in this Method finde perfect wayes for the operation of such Medicines so Astrologically and Physically prescribed as that they may themselves be competent Judges of the Cures of their Patients by N. C. 26. Blagrave's admirable Ephemerides for the Year 1659. 27. The Joyes of Heaven promised to the Saints on Earth Christs sermons on the Beatiudes preacht on the Mount An Exposition on the fifth Chapter of St. Matthew delivered in several sermons by Master Jeremiah Burroughs being the last sermons he preacht a little before his death at St. Giles Cripple-gate London printed with the approbation of those godly and learned Divines who were intrusted for the publishing of his Works 28. Dr. Martin Luthers Treatise of the Liberty of a Christian an useful Treatise for the stateing of the Controversies so much disputed in these times about this great point 29. The Key of Knowledge a little Book by way of Question and Answer intended for the use of all degrees of Christians especially for the Saints of Religious Families by John Jackson 30. The true Evangelical temper a Treatise modestly and soberly fitted to the present grand concernments of the State and Church by John Jackson 31. The Book of Conscience opened and read by John Jackson 32. Williams Clowes his Chyrurgical Observations for those that are burned with flames of Gun-powder as also for the curing of wounds and of the Lues venerea c. 33. The Moderate Baptist in two parts shewing the Scripture way for the administring of the Sacrament of Baptisme discovering that old error of orignal sin in Babes by William Baitten 34. History and Policy Reviewed in the Heroick Transactions on Oliver late Lord Protectour declaring his steps to princely perfection drawn in lively Parallels to the Ascents of the great patriarch Moses to the height of thirty degrees of Honour by H. D. Esquire 35. J. Cleaveland Revived Poems Orations Epistles and other of his Genuine Incomparable Pieces a second Impression with many Additions 36. The Exquisite Letters of Master Robert Loveday the late admired Translatour of the Volumes of the famed Romance Cleopatra for the perpetuating his memory published by his dear Brother Mr. A. L. 37. England's Worthies Select Lives of the most Eminent Persons from Constantine the Great to the death of Oliver Cromwel late Protector by W. Winstanley Gent. 38. The Accomplisht Cook the Mystery of the whose Art of Cookery revealed in a more easie and perfect Method then hath been publisht in any Language expert and ready wayes for the dressing of Flesh Fowl and Fish the resing of Pastes the best directions for all manner of Kickshaws and the most poinant Sauces with the terms of carving and sewing the Bills of Fare an exact account of all dishes for the season with other Ala mode Curiosities together with the lively Illustrations of such necessary figures as are referred to practice approved by the many years experience and careful industry of Robert May in the time of his attendance on several Persons of Honour 39. A Character of France to which is added Gallus Castratus or an Answer to a late slanderous Pamphlet called the Character of England as also a fresh Whip for the Mounsieur in Answer to his Letter in vindication to his Madam the second Edition 40. The History of the Life and Death of Oliver late Lord Protectour wherein from his Cradle to his Tomb are impartially transmitted to posterity the most weighty Transactions Forreign and Domestick that have happened in his time either in Matters of Law Proceedings in Parliament or others Affairs in Church or State by S. Carrington 41. The Scales of Commerce and Trade the Mystery revealed as to traffick with a Debitor or Creditor for Merchants Accounts after the Italian way and easiest Method as also a Treatise of Architecture and a computation as to all the charges of Building by T. Wilsford Gent. FINIS These are to give notice that the true and right Lozenges and Pectorals so generally known and approved of for the cure of Consumptions Coughs Astama's Colds in general and all other Diseases incident to the Head are rightly made onely by John Piercy Gent. the first Inventor of them and whosoever maketh them besides do but counterfeit them they are to be sold by Nathaniel Brook at the Angel in Cornhill