like being said not to be seen in all England no nor in all Europe again The Buildings Saint Werburges Church is a fair structure and had been more beautifull if the tower thereof intended some say for a steeple the first stone whereof was laid 1508. had been finished It was built long before the Conquest and being much ruined was afterward repaired by Hugh Lupus first Earl of Chester It was afterward made by King Henry the eighth one of his five Royal Bishopricks Oxford Gloucester Bristol and Peterborough being the other four I say Royal Bishopricks as whose Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions were never confirmed by the Pope nor Baronies by the Parliament The first is plain King Henry the eighth erecting them after he had disclaimed the Popes Supremacy and in the days of Queen Mary when England was in some sort reconciled to Rome the Pope thought not fit to contest with the Queen about that CriticismeÌ„ because these five Bishopricks were erected without his consent but suffer'd them to be even as he found them Their Baronries also were not though their Bishopricks were ever confirmed by Act of Parliament so that they owed their beings solely to the Kings Prerogative who might as well Create Spiritual as Temporal Peers by his own Authority And therefore when some Anti-praelatists in the late Long Parliament 1641. endeavoured to overthrow their Baronries as an Essâ—…y and Preludium to the rest of the Bishopricks for want of Parliamentary Confirmation they desisted from that design as fond and unfeisable on better consideration Proverbs When the daughter is stoln shut Pepper-gate Pepper-gate was a postern of this City on the East-side as I take it thereof but in times past closed up and shut upon this occasion The Mayor of the City had his daughter as she was playing at ball with other Maidens in Pepper-street stoln away by a Young-man through the same gate whereupon in revenge he caused it to be shut up though I see not why the City should suffer in her conveniences for the Mayor his want of Care or his Daughter her lack of Obedience But what shall we say Love will make the whole Walla Gate to procure its own Escape Parallel to this Proverb is the Latine Serò sapiunt Phryges when men instead of preventing postvide against dangers Martyrs GEORGE MARSH was condemned by Bishop Coats and cruelly burnt without this City near unto Spittle Boughton but because he was born elsewhere see his character in Lancashire Prelates GEORGE DOUNHAM D. D. son to John Dounham Bishop of Chester was born in this City as by proportion of time may most probably be collected He was bred in Christs-colledge in Cambridge elected Fellow thereof 1585. and chosen Logick-professor in the University No man was then and there better skill'd in Aristotle or a greater Follower of Ramus so that he may be termed the Top-twig of that Branch It is seldome seen that the Clunch-fist of Logick good to knock a man down at a blow can so open it self as to smooth and stroak one with the Palme thereof Our Dounham could doe both witness the Oration made by him at Cambridge preposed to his book of Logick full of Flowers of the choicest eloquence He preached the Sermon April 17. 160â—… at the Consecration of James Mountague Bishop of Bath and Wells irrefragably proving therein Episcopacy jure Divino He that receiveth a Bishop in the Name of a Bishop shall receive a Bishops reward It was not long before Doctor Dounham was made Bishop of Derry in Ireland then newly augmented with the addition of London-Derry because so planted with English it was easy to find London in Derry but not Derry in Derry so much disguised from itself with new buildings But this Learned Bishop was the greatest beauty thereof indeavouring by gentleness to Cicurate and Civillize the wild-Irish and proved very successfull therein The certain date of his death I cannot attain Sea men DAVID MIDDLETON was born in this City as his Kinsman and my Friend hath informed me He was one of those who effectually contributed his assistance to the making of Through lights in the World I mean New Discoveries in the East and West-Indies as we may read at large in his own Printed relation The tender-hearted Reader whose affections go along with his eye will sadly sympathize with his sufferings so many and great his dangers with Caniballs and Portugals Crocodiles and Hollanders till at last he accomplished his intentions and setled the English trade at Bantam I meet with no mention of him after 1610. Sir HENRY MIDDLETON Knight was younger brother as I take it to the former deservedly knighted for his great pains and perills in advancing the English trade Amongst many most remarkable is his Voyage into the Red-sea which had like to have proved the Dead sea unto him I mean cost him his life Here he was tolled to land at Moha by the treacherous Aga and then had eight of his men barbarously slâ—…in himself and seven more chained up by the Necks The pretence was because that Port was the Door of the Holy City which though it be Jerusalem in the language of the Scripture is Mecca in the Phrase of the Alcaron and it is Capitoll for any Christian to come so near thereunto Then was he sent eightscore miles and upwards to the Bashaw at Zenan in Arabia in the Month of January 1611. This City of Zenan lyeth but sixteen degrees and fifteen minutes of Northern latitude from the Equator and yet was so cold that there was Ice of a Fingers thickness in one night as the said Sir Henry did relate This confuteth the Character of these Countries misapprehended by Antiquity not to be habitable for the excess of heat therein At last the Turkish Bashaw gave him leave to depart and sailing Eastwards he repaired himself by a gainfull composition with the Indians for the losses he had sustained by the Turkes His ship called the Trades increase well answered the name thereof untill it pleased God to visit his men therein with a strange disease whereof one hundred English deceased the grief whereat was conceived the cause of this worthy Knights death May 24. 1613. whose name will ever survive whilst Middletons Bay from him so called appeareth in the Dutch Cards Writers ROGER of CHESTER was born and bred therein a Benedictine Monke in Saint Werburges In obedience to the Bishop of Chester he wrot a Brittish Chronicle from the beginning of the World This was the fashion of all Historians of that age running to take a long rise from the Creation it self that so it seems they might leap the further with the greater force Our Rogers Chronicle was like a ship with double decks first onely continuing it to the year 1314. and then resuming his subject he superadded five and twenty year more thereunto entitling it Polycratica Temporum Both Bale and Pitz praise him for pure latine a rarity in
that the world may see what time cureth in a weak mind that Discretion and Moderation helpeth in you in this accident where there is so just cause to demonstrate true Patience and Moderation Your gracious and loving Sovereign E. R. Now thoughâ—… nothing more consolatory and pathetical could be written from a Prince yet his death went so near to the heart of the Lord his ancient father that he dyed soon after Writers JOHN HANVILE took his name as I conceive from Hanwell a Village in this County now the habitation of the ancient Family of the Copes seeing none other in England both in sound and spelling draweth nearer to his Sirname He proceeded Master of Arts in Oxford then studied in Paris and travelled over most parts in Christendom He is commonly called Archithrenius or Priâ—…ce of lamentation being another Jeremy and man of mourning He wrote a book wherein he bemoned the errors and vices of his own Age and himself deserved to live in a better Yet this doleful Dove could peck as well as grone and somtimes was satyrical enough in his passion there being but a narrow â—…age betwixt grief and anger and bitterness is a quality common to them both He flourished under King John Anno 1200. and after his return from his travels is conceived by some to have lived and dyed a Benedictine of St. Albans JOHN of OXFORD was no doubt so named from his birth in that City otherwise had he onely had his Education or eminent learning therein there were hundreds Johns of Oxford as well as himself Hector Boethius sirnamed him a Vado Boum and owneth him the next Historian to Jeffrey Monmouth in age and industry He was a great Anti-Becketist as many more in that Age of greater learning except stubornness be made the standard thereof than Becket himself Being Dean of old Sarâ—…m and Chaplain to King Henry the second he was by him imployed with others to give an account to the Pope but I question wheâ—…her he would take it of the Kings carriage in the business of Becket He was preferred Anno 1175. Bishop of Norwich where he repaired his Cathedral lately defaced with fire built a fair Almes-house and Trinity-church in Ipswich His death happened Anno Dom. 1200. ROBERT BACON first Scholer of afterward a familiar Friend to St. Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury was bred a Doctor of Divinity in Oxford and when aged became a Dominican or preaching Fryer and for his Sermons he was highly esteemed by King Henry the third He was Lepidus Cynicus and a most profest enemy to Peter Roach Bishop of Winchester Matâ—…hew Paris gives him and another viz. Richard de Fishakle this praise Quibus non erant majores imò nec pares ut creditur viventes in Theologia aliis scientiis and I listen the rather to his commendation because being himself a Benedictine Monk he had an antipathy against all Fryers I behold this Robert Bacon as the senior of all the Bacons which like tributary streams disembogued themselves with all the credit of their actions into Roger Bacon who in process of time hath monopolized the honour of all his Sirname-sakes in Oxford Our Robert dyed Anno Dom 1248. ROBERT of OXFORD was not onely an Admirer but Adorer of Thomas Aquinas his contemporary accounting his Opinions Oracles as if it were a venial sin to doubt of and a mortal to deny any of them Mean time the Bishop of Paris with the consent of the Masters of Sorbonne the great Champions of liberty in this kind granted a licence to any Scholer Opinari de opinionibus to guess freely and by consequence to discuss in Disputations any mans Opinions which as yet by a general Council were not decided matters of faith Our Roberâ—… much offended thereat wrote not onely against Henricus Gandavensis and Aegiâ—…ius Romanus but also the whole College of Sorbonne an act beheld of many as of more boldness than brains for a private person to perform He flourished under King Henry the third Anno Dom. 1270. JEFFREY CHAUCER was by most probability born at Woodstock in this County though other places lay stiff claim to his Nativity Berk-shires title Londons title Oxford shires title Leland confesseth it likely that he was born in Barochensi provincia and Mr. Cambden avoweth that Dunington-castle nigh unto Newburie was anciently his Inheritance There was lately an old Oake standing in the Park called Chaucers Oake The Author of his life set forth 1602. proveth him born in London out of these his own words in the Testament of love Also in the Citie of London that is to mâ—…e â—…ot deare and swéete in which I was foorth growne and more kindely love have I to that place than to any other in yerth as every kindely creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindly ingendure Besides Mr. Cambden praiseth Mr. Edmund Spencer the Londoner for the best Poet Ne Chaucero quidem concive excepto Chaucer himself his fellow-citizen not being excepted Leland addeth a probability of his birth in Oxford-shire and Cambden saith of Woodstock Cuâ—… nihil habeat quod ostentet Hâ—…merum nostrum Anglicum Galfredum Chaucerum alumnum suum fuisse gloriatur Besides â—… Pits is positive that his father was a Knight and that he was born at Woodstock And Queen Elizabeth passed a fair stone-house next to her Palace in that Town unto the Tenant by the name of Chaucers house whereby it is also known at this day Now what is to be done to decide the difference herein Indeed Appion the Grammarian would have Homer concerning whose Birth-place there was so much controversie raised ab Inferis that he might give a true account of the place of his Nativity However our Chaucer is placed heâ—…e having just grounds for the same untill stronger reasons are brought to remove him He was a terse and elegant Poâ—…t the Homer of his Age and so refined our English Tongue Ut inter expolitas gentium linguas potuit rectè quidem connumerari His skill in Mathematicks was great being instructed therein by Joannes Sombus and Nicholas of Linn which he evidenceth in his book De Sphaera He being Contemporary with Gower was living Anno Dom. 1402. Since the Reformation THOMAS LYDYATE Now I find the old sentence to be true Difficile fugitivas mortuorum memorias retrahere seeing all my industry and inquiry can retrive very little of this worthy person and the Reader I hope will not be angry with me who am so much grieved with my self for the same Indeed contradicting qualities met in him Eminency and Obscurity the former for his Learning the later for his Living All that we can recover of him is as followeth He was born at Alkerton in this County bred first in Winchester school then in New college in Oxford being admitted therein Iune 22. 1593. An admirable Mathematician witness these his learned
of Edward the third England grew famous for Sea-fights with the French and encreased in credit especially since the Navy Royal was erected by Q. Elizabeth Some conceive it would be a great advancement to the perfecting of English Navigation if allowance were given to read a Lecture in London concerning that Subject in imitation of the late Emperour CHARLES the fifth who wisely considering the rawness of his Seamen and the manifold shipwracks which they sustained in passing and repassing between Spain and the West Indies established not only a Pilote Major for the examination of such as were to take charge of Ships in that voyage but also founded a Lecture for the Art of Navigation which to this day is read in the Contraction House at Sivil the Readers of which Lecture have not only carefully taught and instructed the Spanish Mariners by word of mouth but have also published sundry exact and worthy Treatises concerning Marine causes for the direction and encouragement of Posterity Here it were to be wish'd That more care were taken for and encouragement given to the breeding of Fishermen whom I may call the spawn or young Frie of seamen yea such as hope that Mariners will hold up if Fishermen be destroyed may as rationally exspect plenty of hony and wax though only old stocks of Bees were kept without either Casts or Swarmes Nor can Fishermen be kept up except the publick eating of Fish at set times be countenanced yea enjoyned by the State Some suspect as if there were a Pope in the belly of every Fish and some bones of superstition in them which would choak a conscientious person especially if fasting dayes be observed But know that such Customes grew from a treble root of Popery Piety and Policy and though the first of these be pluck'd up the other must be watered and maintained and Statesmen may be mortified and wise without being superstitious Otherwise the not keeping of Fasting-dayes will make us keep Fasting-Dayes I mean The not forbearing of Flesh for the feeding on Fish for the good of the STATE will in processe of time prove the ruine of Fishermen they of Seamen both of Englishmen We are sadly sensible of the truth hereof in part God forbid in whole by the decay of so many Towns on our North-east Sea Hartlepool Whitebay Bridlington Scarborough Wells Cromer Lestofâ—… Alborough Orford and generally all from New castle to Harewitch which formerly set out yearly as I am informed Two Hundred Ships and upwards inployed in the Fisherie but chiefly for the taking of Ling that Noble Fish corrival in his Joule with the surloin of Beef at the Tables of Gentlemen These Fishermen set forth formerly with all their male Family sea-men sea-youths I had almost said sea-children too seeing some learn'd the Language of lar-board and star-board with Bread and Butter Graduates in Navigation and indeed the Fishery did breed the natural and best elemented seamen But since our late Civil Wars not three ships are imployed yearly for that purposâ—… Fishermen preferring rather to let their Vesseâ—… lye and rot in their Havens than to undergo much pain and peril for that would not at their return quit cost in any proportion So that it is suspicious That in processe of time we shall lose the Masters being few and aged the Mystery of Ling-catching and perchance the Art of taking and handling some other kinde of sound and good Fish no Nation without flattery to our selves be it spoken using more care and skill in ordering of that Commodity Yea which is a greater mischief it is to be feared that the seminary of sea-men will decay For under correction be it spoken it is not the long voyages to the East-Indies c. which do make but marr sea-men they are not the Womb but rather the Grave of good Mariners it is the Fishery which hath been the Nursery of them though now much disheartened because their Fish turn to no account they are brought to so bad Markets Nor is there any hope of redressing this but by keeping up Fasting-Dayes which our Ancestors so solemnly observed I say Our Ancestors who were not so weak in making as we are willfull in breaking them and who consulting the situation of this Island with the conveniencies appendant thereunto suited their Lawes and accommodated their Customes to the best benefit thereof Nor was it without good cause why Wednesdayes and Fridayes were by them appointed for Fish-dayes I confesse some Forreigners render this Reason and father it upon Clemens Alexandrinus that Because those dayes were dedicated by the Heathen the one to Mercury the God of cheating the other to Venus the Goddesse of lust therefore the Christians should macerate themselves on that day with Fasting in sorrowful remembrance of their Pronity to the vices aforenamed But waving such fancies our English Fish or Fasting-Dayes are founded on a more serious consideration For our English Fishermen in Kent Sussex Hantsâ—…re c. set forth on Monday and catch their Fish which on Tuesday they send up to London where on Wednesday it is sold and eaten Such therefore who lately have propounded to antidate Fish-eating and to remove it from Wednesday to Tuesday must thereby occasion the encroaching on the Lords-Day to furnish the Markets with that Commodity Again such Fishermen as returned on Tuesday set forth afresh on Wednesday to take Fish which on Thursday they send up to London to supply the remainder of the Week It being observable that so great is the goodnesse of God to our Nation that there is not one week in the year wherein some wholesome Fish caught on our own Coast is not in the prime Season thereof As for Staple or Salt-Fish there are those that are acquainted in the Criticismes thereof and have exactly stated and cast up the proportions who will maintain that it will do the deed and set up the Fishery as high as ever it was if every one in England able to dispend a Hundred Pounds per annum were enjoyned to lay out Twenty Shillings a Year in staple-fish a Summ so inconsiderable in the Particulars that it will hurt none and so considerble in the total it will help all of our Nation If any censure this for a tedious Digression let it be imputed to my Zeal for the good of the Common-wealth CHAPTER IX Of Writers on the Cannon and Civil Law Physick Chemistry and Chirurgery I Sometimes wondered in my self at two things in the Primitive Church during the time of the Apostles First That seing they enjoyed all things in common what use they had of Lawyers seing no Propriety no Pleading and such a Communion of all things gave a Writ of Ease to that Profession And yet I find mention made of Zenas the Lawyer no Scribe of the Law as many amongst the Jews but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Advocate or Barrister therein Secondly I wondered what use there was of Physicians in the Church seeing the Apostles miraculously
in Catal. Episc. Londini impres anno 1616. See here four places challenge one man and I am as unwilling to accuse any of falshood as I am unable to maintain all in the Truth However the difference may thus be accomodated Bradwardins Ancestors fetch'd their Name from that place in Herefordshire according to Camden though he himself was born as Bale saith at Hartfeld in Sussex within the City saith Pits of Chichester interpret him exâ—…ensively not to the Walls but Diocesse and Jurisdiction thereof As for Suffolk in Bishop Godwin I understand it an Erratum in the Printer for Sussex Our usual expedient in the like cases is this to insert the Character at large of the controverted person in that County which according to our apprehension produceth the best Evidence for him yet so that we also enter his name with a reference in the other respective places which with probability pretend unto him If equal likelyhood appear unto us on all sides that County clearly carries away his character which first presenteth it self to our Pen in the Alphabetical Order Thus lately when the same Living was in the gift of the Lord Chancellour Lord Treasurer and Master of the Wards that Clerk commonly carried it who was first presented to the Bishop However though in the disputable Nativities of worthy men first come first serv'd a Caveat is also entred in other Counties to preserve their Titles unprejudiced It must not be forgotten that many without just cause by mistake multiply differences in the places of mens Births The Papists please themselves with reporting a Tale of their own inventing how the men of two Towns in Germany fell out and fought together whilst one of them was for Martin the other for Luther being but the several names of the same person If one Author affirms Bishop Jewel born at Buden another at Berinerber let none make strife betwixt these two Writers the former naming the House and Village the later the Parish wherein he was born a case which often occurs in the Notation of Nativities That the Children of Clergymen have been as successeful as the Sons of Men of other Professions There goeth a common Report no less uncharitable than untrue yet meeting with many Beleivers thereof as if Clergy mens Sons were generally signally unfortunate like the Sons of Ely Hophnies and Phineaz's dissolute in their Lives and doleful in their Deaths This I may call a Libell indeed according to Sir Francis Bacon his Description thereof for first it is a Lye a notorious untruth and then a Bell some lowd and lewd Tongue hath told yea Rung it out and perchance was welcome Musick to some hearers thereof It is first confest that the best Saints and Servants of God have had bad as well as good children extracted from them It is the Note of Illiricus on those words of Saint John to the Elect Lady I rejoiced greatly when I found of thy Children walking in the Truth He saith not all thy but of thy children intimating that she had mingled Ware Corn and Tares in those who were descended from her Thus Aaron for I desire to restrain my self in instances of the Priests had Nadab and Abihu two strange Fire Offerers as well as his Godly Sons Eliazar and Ithamar Yea I find one of the best Fathers having two and those I beleive all he had of the worst Sons even Samuel himself Nor do we deny but that our English Clergy have been unhappy in their off-spring though not above the proportion of other Professions whereof some have not unprobably assigned these causes First If Fellows of Colledges they are ancient beâ—…ore they marry Secondly their children then are all Benjamins I mean the children of their Old age and thereupon by their Fathers to take off as much as we may the weight of the fault from the weaker Sex cockered and indulged which I neither defend or excuse but bemone and condemn Thirdly Such Children after their Fathers Death are left in their Minority to the careless Care of Friends and Executors who too often discharge not their due trust in their Education whence it is such Orphans too osten embrace wild courses to their own destructions But all this being granted we maintain that Clergy-mens Children have not been more unfortunate but more observed than the Children of the Parents of other Professions There is but one Minister at one time in a whole Parish and therefore the fewer they are the easier they are observed both in their Persons and Posterities Secondly the Eminency of their place maketh them exposed and obvious to all discoveries Thirdly possibly Malice may be the Eye-salve to quicken mens Sight in prying after them Lastly one ill Success in their Sons maketh for the reasons aforesaid more impression in the Ears and Eyes of people then many miscarriages of those Children whose Fathers were of another Function I speak not this out of Intent to excuse or extenuate the Badnesse of the one by the Badnesse of the other but that both may be mutually provoked to Amendment In a word other mens Children would have as many Eyesores if they had as many Eyes seeing them Indeed if happinesse be confin'd unto outward Pomp and Plenty and if those must be accounted unfortunate which I in the true meaning of the word must interpret unprovidenced who swim not in equal Plenty with others then that Epithet may be fixed on the Children of the Clergy Whose Fathers coming late to their Livings and surprised by Death not staying long on them which at the best afforded them but narrow maintenance leave them oft-times so ill provided that they are forced without blame or shame to them as I conceive to take sometimes poor and painful Employments for their Livelyhood But by our following Endevours it will plainly appear that the Sons of Ministers have by Gods blessing proved as Eminent as any who have raised themselves by their own Endevours For Statesmen George Carew Privy Councellor of England Scotland and Ireland and as able a man absit Invidia as the age he lived in produced was Earl of Totnes the same place whereof his Father was Arch-deacon Sir Edwin Sandys Son to Arch-bishop Sandys will be acknowledged even by his Enemies a man of such merit that England could not afford an Office which he could not manage For Lawyers Sir Thomas Richardson lately and the never sufficiently to be commended Sir Orlando Bridgeman now Lord Chief Justice with many others For Seamen Sir Francis Drake that great Scourge and Terror to the Spanish Pride If any say these are but thin Instances out of so thick a number de tot modo milibus unus few of so many Hundreds know we have only taken some Eminent persons leaving the rest for fear to be counted Forestallers to the Collection of the Reader in our ensuing Book But the Sons of Ministers have never been more successeful then when bred in the Professions of their
later years of King Charles of blessed Memory you have for the most part omitted the Sheriffs in your Catalogue Answer There was then as I may say a Schisme in that Office betwixt the Sheriffes and Anti Sheriffes As for the former made by the Kings Designation and beheld as the only Legal Ones I durst not Name them as the times then stood when I collected that Catalogue for fear lest thereby I might betray some of them till that time concealed to a Sequestration I therefore preferred to leave a void space in my List and wish it were the worst Breach or Desolation made by our late Civil Wars Exception 19. But since the happy turn of the times you might have inserted them not only without any Danger but with great Honour unto them Answer When the Danger was removed the Difficulty did deter me For in those Tumultuary times the Royal Sheriffes did not Regularly according to ancient Custome pass their Accounts in the Exchequer at London so that I was at a losse to recover Certainty herein Wherefore according to my General Motto a Blank is better then a Blot I left a Vacuity for them For which Bald Place the Reader if so pleased may provide a Perewake and with his pen insert such Sheriffes as come to his Cognizance Exception 20. It was expected that you should have presented the Maps of all Shires which would have added much Light and Lustre to your Work which now is as an House without Windows very Dark and uncomfortable as also that you should have Cut the Arms of all Gentlemen in Copper at the least in VVood which would have been more satisfactory to them and Ornamental to your Book Answer 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 as I have found by dear Experience Besides when they are done they are not done the working them off at the Rowling Presse being as expensive as the Graving them both which will mount our Book to an unreasonable price Secondly it would be disgraceful to Cut those Maps worse and difficult if not impossible to do them better then they are done already Thirdly such Gentlemen not formerly furnished therewith may procure them at a cheaper rate then I could afford them Lastly such new Re-Graving them would be injurious to the Owners of the Old Maps and I will not bottome my Profit on another mans prejudice Exception 21. You betray unworthy partiality in omitting and inserting of Persons For John of Gaunt though son to a King and worthy VVarrier can get no room in your Book whilst Simon de Gaunt a Bishop of Salisbury both of them by their Sirnames equally appearing Forreigners hath a place found for him therein It seems a Prelate finds more favour from you then a Prince Answer Is there not a cause and that a Satisfactory one I prefer not a Prelate before a Prince but Truth before both and the methodical regulation of my book according to the rules premised without which all will fall to confusion It is as notoriously known that John of Gaunt was born at Gaunt in Flanders and so an Alien from our Subject as plainly it appeareth that Simon de Gaunt though his Father was a Fleming was born in London Magister Simon de Gaunt saith Mattâ—…ew of VVestminster Editus Londini vir in arte Theologiae peritus Exception 22. You discover much negligence in dateing of particular persons instancing the time only when they flourished without observing when they were born or dyeâ—… and this mindeth me of a passage in Tully charging Verres the Deputy of Sicily with notorious Lazinesse quod nunquam solem nec orientem nec occidentem viderat that he never saw the sun rising being in bed after nor setting being in bed before it Thus your Pen is altogether a Sluggard only taking notice of them when shining in the Vertical Height without either beholding them Rising out of their Cradle or setting in their Coffin Answer Let Tully tell out his Story and it will befriend and furnish me with a just defence Sicily saith he enjoyeth so clear a Skie that the Sun is seen there every day in the year rising or setting Intolerable therefore the Sloth of Verres noble at nothing but oppression that he never saw the Sun either to rise or set as Roosted after or before Were it so that either the rising or setting of eminent persons their Birth and Death were with the Sicilian Sun ever visible as always recorded by Authors I would confess my self justly taxed with unexcusable Lazinesse But seeing sometimes a Pannick silence herein not meeting either with the Midwife or Sexton who delivered or buryed such people we conceive our selves have satisfied if instanceing only the time wherein such persons flourished Exception 23. It had been more proper and more Satisfactory for you to have placed your Exceptions and Answers rather at the end then beginning of your Book when the Reader had wholly perused it only Premising you will be responsible to such Objections as would be made against your Endevours herein Answer I am of his opinion who said Premising is better then Promising Sure it is a safer way to prevent a disease then to remove it Besides I hope that clearing these obstructions in the Front of my Book I shall smooth the Readers way and invite him the rather to peruse it However these Answers whereever placed are placed aright if meeting which I desire a Candid acceptance thereof Exception 24. It is easie for one to cast down a Pillar of his own erection but let another set it up and then let him trye his Strength thereat None will pinch themselves so as to fetch blood though others may do it Your Exceptions are all of your own making to your own advantage Answer I have endevoured to propound them without any Partiality However if my labours meet with greater and more exception from others against them I hope they shall also meet with the general Courtesie and Candor of Course which Custome hath in some sort made due to Authors to forgive their smaller faults on which comfortable confidence I proceed CHAP. XXV An Apologie for the unvoluntary Omissions in this BOOK WHen I first communicated my design herein to a person of Honour he offered this grand Objection against it That no Industry could be so circumspect or Intelligence so comprehensive but that many Memorable persons would escape his Observation and then Exception will be taken at such Omissions This Objection many since have renewed and enforced alledging that the Omitting of One shall get me more Anger then the inserting of many gain me good will To this I Answer first in general It is the priviledge of Divine Writ alone to be so perfect that nothing may be taken thence or added thereunto The best humane Authors have had their failings in their best performances far be it from me to pretend my dimme Eyes more quick-sighted then St. Bernards who notwithstanding non vidit omnia I trust therefore that
any cause they should undergoe the punishment of death Whereas henceforward in England many were brought to the fire by the Bishops and others of the Clergy whose opinions were neither so blasphemous nor deportment so inhumane as ancient Hereticks I confesse not onely simple heresie was charged on this Sautre but also a relapse thereinto after abjuration in which case such is the charity of the Canon-Law that such a person is seculari judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus not affording any audience to one relapsed though he should revoke his opinions Quite contrary to the charitable Judgement of St. Chrysostome who sticked not to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou fall a thousand times and repent thee of thy folly come boldly into the Church There is some difference amongst Authors about the legal proceedings against this Sautre by what power he was condemned to dye Walsingham will have him die during the sitting of the Parliament secundo Henrici quarti by vertue of the Law then made against Hereticks Others will have him put to death not by any Statute-Law then made but as convicted in a Provincial Councel of the Archbishop of Canterbury The latter seemeth most true because the Writ De Haeretico comburendo sent down by the advice of the Lords Temporal to the Mayor of London to cause his execution bare date the 26 of February whereas it was ordered in that Parliament that the penal Statutes made therein should not take effect till after VVhitsontide But by what power soever it was done poor Sautre was burnt in Smithfield about the 28 of February 1400. One criticisme of cruelty and hypocrisie is most remarkable The close of the Archbishops sentence of degradation when Sautre was committed over to the Secular Court endeth with this expression Beseeching the Court aforesaid that they will receive favourably the said William unto them thus recommitted We are much beholding to Baronius for the better understanding this passage informing us that it was ever fashionable with their Clergy to this day that when they consigne an Heretick over to the Secular for execution they effectually intercede that he may not be punished with death For it appeareth in Prosper that 4 Bishops were excommunicated An. 392. for being accusers of Priscilian the first Heretick who was confuted with steel that age conceiving all tendency to cruelty utterly inconsistent with Clerical profession And hence it was thinks the aforesaid Baronius that this custome was taken up of the Clergie's mock-mercy in their dissembled mediation for condemned Hereticks I say dissembled for if the Lay having them in his power shall defer the doing of it more than ordinary it is the constant tenet of the Canonists relying on a Bull of Alexander the 4th 1260. he is to be compell'd unto it by spiritual censures We have been the larger upon this Sautre's death because he was the English Protestant pardon the Prolepsis Proto-martyr But every son must not look to be an heir we will be shorter on the rest in this City contenting our selves with their bare names except some extraordinary matter present it self to our observation JOHN BADBY was an Artificer in Black Friars in London condemned and burned in Smithfield about 1401. Henry Prince of VVales afterwards King Henry the 5th happened to be present at his execution who not onely promised him pardon on his recantation but also a stipend out of the Kings Treasury sufficient for his support all which Badby refused He was put into an empty Tun a ceremony of cruelty peculiar to him alone and the fire put therein At the first feeling thereof he cryed Mercy Mercy begging it of the God of heaven which Noble Prince Henry mistook for a kind of Revocation of his Opinions and presently caused the fire round about him to be quenched renewing his promises unto him with advantage which Badby refused the second time and was Martyred But Reader I will engage no deeper in this copious subject lest I lose my self in the Labyrinth thereof * Joseph left off to Number the Corn in Egypt for it was without number the cause alone of my desisting in this subject Yea Bloudy Bonner had murdered many more had not that Hydropical Humor which quenched the life of Queen Mary extinguished also the Fires in Smithfield Prelates Here in this City we are at a greater losse as to this Topick than in any Shire in England for in vain it is for any man to name himself Thomas of London John of London c. such Sirnames not reaching their end nor attaining their intention viz. 〈◊〉 diversifie the Person the laxity of so populous a place leaving them as unspecified as it found them We therefore have cause to believe that many Clergy-men both Bishops and Writers born in this City did not follow suit with others of their Coat to be named from the Place of their Nativity but from their Fathers the Reason why we can give so slender an account of them as followeth SIMON OF GAUNT was born in this City his Mother being an English Woman his Father a Flemming and being bred in good literature became so famous that by King Edward the first he was preferred Bishop of Salisbury 1298. He gave the first leave to the Citizens thereof to fortifie that place with a deed Ditch partly remaining and a strong wall wholly demolished at this day Now seeing good Laws are the best walls of any foundation no lesse was his care for the Church than City of Salisbury making good Statutes whereby it was ordered even unto our age He dyed about the year 1315. JOHN KITE was born in London bred in Oxford sent Embassadour into Spain made a Grecian titulary Arch bishop receiving thence as much profit as men shear wool from hogs and at last the real Bishop of Carlisle yet is his Epitaph in the Church of Stepney neither good English Latine Spanish or Greek but a barbarous confusion as followeth Under this Stone closyd marmorate Lveth John 〈◊〉 Londoner naciste Encreasing invirtues rose to hyghestate In the fourth Edwards chappel by his yong life Sith which the Seuinth Henries service primatife Proceeding still in virtuous efficase To be in favour with this our Kings grase With Witt endewyed chosen to be Legate Sent into Spain where he right joyfully Combined both Princes in pease most amate In Grece Archbishop elected worthely And last of Carlyel ruling postorally Kepyng nobyl houshold with great hospitality On thousand fyve hundred thirty and seuyn Inuyterate with carys consumed with Age The nineteeth of Jun reckonyd full euyn Passed to Heauyn from worldly Pylgramage Of whose Soul good peopul of Cherite Prey as ye wold be preyd for for thus must you lye Ieâ—…u mercy Lady help These if made 300 years ago had been excusable but such midnight verses are abominable made as it appears in the dawning of good learning and pure language Yet
Esquire of Addington by Isabel his wife sister and at last sole heir to Henry Green of Drayton Esquire of whom formerly This Henry was afterwards Knighted and dying without Issue-male Elizabeth his daughter and co heir was married to John first Lord Mordant to whom she brought Draiton-house in this County and other fair lands as the partage of her portion NICHOLAS VAUX Mil. He was a jolly Gentleman both for Camp and Court a great Reveller good as well in a March as a Masque being Governour of Guines in Picardie whom King Hen. the eight for his Loyalty and Valour Created Baron of Harouden in this County Ancestor to Edward Lord Vaux now living This Sir Nicholas when young was the greatest Gallant of the English-Court no Knight at the marriage of Prince Arthur appearing in so costly an equipage when he wore a gown of purple velvet pight with pieces of gold so thick and massive that it was valued besides the silk and furs at a thousand pounds and the next day wore a Colar of S. S. which weighed as Goldsmiths reported eight hundred pounds of nobles Some will wonder that Empson and Dudley the Royal Promoters then in prime did not catch him by the Collar or pick an hole in his Gown upon the breach of some rusty penal sumptuary Statute the rather because lately the Earl of Oxford was heavily fined for supernumerous attendance But know that King Henry could better bear with 〈◊〉 then greatness in his Subjects especially when such expence cost â—…imself nothing and conduced much to the solemnity of his Sons Nuptials Besides such plate as wrought employed Artizans as massive retain'd its intrinsecal value with little loss either of the owners or Common-wealth HENRY the Eight 1 THOMAS PAR Mil. His former residence was at Kendal-Castle in Westmerland whence he removed into this Country having married Maud one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir Thomas Green of Green-Norton He was father to Queen Katharine Par which rendereth a probability of her nativity in this County and to William Marquiss of Northampton of whom hereafter 15 WILLIAM FITZ-WILLIAMS Sen. Mil. This must be the person of whom I read this memorable passage in Stows Survey of London Sir William Fitz-Williams the elder being a Merchant-Taylor and servant sometime to Cardinal Wolsey was chosen Alderman of Bread-street-Ward in London Anno 1506. Going afterward to dwell at Milton in Northamptonshire in the fall of the Cardinal his former Master he gave him kind entertainment there at his house in the Country For which deed being called before the King and demanded how he durst entertain so great an Enemy to the State his Answer was that he had not contemptuously or wilfully done it but onely because he had been his Master and partly the means of his greatest fortunes The King was so well pleased with his Answer that saying himself had few such servants immediately Knighted him and afterwards made him a Privy Counsellour But we have formerly spoken of the benefactions of this worthy Knight in the County of Essex whereof he was Sheriffe in the sixth of King Henry the eight 17 WILLIAM PAR Mil. I have cause to be confident that this was he who being Uncle and Lord Chamberlain to Queen Katharine Par was afterwards by King Henry the eight Created Baron Par of Horton Left two daughters onely married into the Families of Tressame and Lane The Reader is requested to distinguish him from his Name-sake Nephew Sheriffe in the 25. of this Kings reign of whom hereafter 21 JOHN CLARKE Mil. I find there was one Sir John Clarke Knight who in the fifth of Henry the eight at the Siege of Terrowane took prisoner Lewis de Orleans Duke of Longevile and Marquiss of Rotueline This Sir John bare for his paternal Coat Argent on a Bend Gules three Swans proper between as many Pellets But afterwards in memory of his service aforesaid by special command from the King his Coat armour was rewarded with a Canton Sinister Azure and thereupon a Demi-ramme mounting Argent armed Or between two Flowers de lices in Chief of the last over all a Batune dexter-ways Argent as being the Arms of the Duke his prisoner and by Martial-law belonging to him He lieth buried in the next County viz. in the Church of Tame in Oxfordshire where his Coat and cause thereof is expressed on his Monument If this be not the same with Sir John Clarke our Sheriffe I am utterly at a loss and desire some others courteous direction All I will adde is this If any demand why this Knight did onely give a parcel and not the entire Arms of the Duke his prisoner a learned Antiquary returns this satisfactory answer That he who â—…aketh a Christian Captive is to give but part of his Arms to mind him of charitable moderation in using his success intimating withall that one taking a Pagan prisoner may justifie the bearing of his whole Coat by the laws of Armory I must not conceal that I have read in a most excellent Manuscript viz. the View of Staffordshire made by Sampson Erderswicke Esquire That one William Stamford in that County had good land given him therein for taking the Duke of Longevile prisoner August the 16. in the fifth of King Henry the eight History will not allow two Dukes of Longevile Captives and yet I have a belief for them both that Sir John Clarke and William Stamford were causae sociae of his Captivity and the King remunerated them both the former with an addition of honour the later with an accession of Estate 23 WILLIAM SPENCER Miles DAVID SISILL Arm. 24 DAVID CECILL Arm. Sir William Spencer dying it seems in his Sherivalty David Sissill supplied the remainder of that and was Sheriffe the next year This David had three times been Alderman of Stamford part whereof called Saint Martins is in this County viz. 1504. 1515. and 1526. and now twice Sheriffe of the County which proves him a person both of Birth Brains and Estate seeing in that age in this County so plentiful of capable persons none were advanced to that office except Esquires at least of much merrit The different spelling of his name is easily answered the one being according to his extraction of the Sitsilts of Alterynnis in Herefordshire the other according to the vulgar pronunciation All I will adde is this that his Grand-child William Cecil afterwards Baron of Burghley and Lord Treasurer of England being born Anno 1521. was just ten years of age in the Sherivalty of this David his Grand-father 25 WILLIAM PAR Mil. He was son to Sir Thomas Par of whom before Ten years after viz. in the 35. year of his reign King Henry the eight having newly married his Sister Queen Katharine Par made him Lord Par of Kendall and Earl of Essex in right of Anne Bourcher his wife King Edward the sixth Created him Marquiss of Northampton Under Queen Mary
15 Hen. Rainford ar   16 Will. Babington m.  Ar. ten Torteauxes 〈◊〉 -3. 2. 1. 17 Mich. Molyns ar   18 Rob. Doyle mil. Ioh. Coop ar ut infra ut infra  19 Will. Hawtry ar   20 Ric. Corbet ar  Or a Raven proper 21 Edm. Bray ar   22 Ric. Hudleston ar  Gul. Frettee Arg. 23 Tho. Denton ar   24 Anth. Cope ar Hanwell Arg. on a Chev. Az. betwixt 3. 25 Ric. Fines ar ut prius Roses G. slipped and leaved 26 On. Oglethoâ—…p ar a Newingt Vert 3. Flower de luces Or. 27 Ioh. Doyle ar b  a Arg. a Chev. varry Or and 28 Idem ut prius Vert betwixt 3. Boyes heads 29 Mich. Blount ar c Maph Du. sable cut of G. 30 Ioh. Danvers ar ut prius b Or two Bends Arg. 31 Will. Clarke ar  c Barry Formy Nebâ—…le of 6. 32 Will. Spencer ar d Yardingt Or and Sable 33 Anth. Cope mil. ut prius d Quarterly Ar. G. a Fret 34 Ro. Chamblayn a. e  Or. on a Bend sab 3. Escalops of the first 35 Fran. Stonard ar f Stonard  36 Ric. Fenys mil. ut prius e Gul. a Cheveron Arg. betwixt three Escalops Or. 37 Oni. Oglethorpe ar ut prius  38 Will. Freer ar g Water E. f Az. two Bars Dancettee Or a Chief Arg. 39 Gorg. Broome ar   40 Mich. Blount ar ut prius g Gul. two Flanches Or three VVheat-ears erect in Fess counterchanged 41 Fran. Curson ar   42 Will. Greene ar   43 Will. Pope ar Wiscot Per pale Or Az. on a chev betw 3. Griffins heads erazed 4. Flower de luces all counterchanged 44 Ric. Farmer mil. *  * Arg. a Fess sab twixt three Leopards heads erazed Gul. JACOB   Anno   1 Anth. Cope mil. ut prius  2 Gorg. Tipping ar   3 Iac. Harrington m.  Sable a Fret Arg. 4 Tho. Temple mil. Buckin Arg. on two Bars sab 6. 5 Roland Lacy mil.  Martlets Or. 6 Hen. Samborne ar   7 Mich. Dormer mil.  Az. ten billets 4. 3. 2. 1. 8 Bene. WinchcoÌ„be a  Or in a Chief of the second a Lion issuant sable 9 Tho. Moyle ar † †Gul. a Mule passant Arg. 10 Will. Clerke mil.   11 Hen. Lee bar Dichley Arg. a Fess betw 3. cressants S. 12 Edw. Dunch ar  S. a chev betw 3. Towers Arg. 13 Tho. Read ar  G. a saltire twixt 4. Garbs O. 14 Th. Spencer m. b. ut prius  15 Ioh. Curson mil.   16 Edw. Fenner ar   17 Will. Cope m. b. ut prius  18 Ric. Baker mil.   19 Fra. Stoner mil. ut prius  20 â—…owlan Lacy ar   21 Will. Aishcombe m   22 Walt. Dunch ar ut prius  CAROL I.   Anno   1 Ric. Blount mil. ut prius  2 Ric. Lovelace mil. modo dom Lovelace Cope Doyley mil. Berk-shire ut prius Gul. a Chief indented sable 3. Martlets Or. 3 Ric. Wenman mil. modo dom Wenman ut prius ut prius  4 Rob. Dormer mil. ut prius  5 Will. Cobb mil. Adderbury  6 Ioh. Lacy mil.   7 Ioh. Harborne ar   8 Tho. Coghill ar modo Miles Bleâ—…hing Gules on a Cheveron Arg. 3. Ogresses a Chief sable 9 Ioh. Mellor mil.   10 Pet. Wentworth Miles Baranit  Sable a Cheveron betwixt 3. Leopards heads Or. 11 Fran. Norris mil.  Quarterly Arg. Gâ—…a a Fret or with a Fess Az. 12 Will. Walter ar * Saresden * Az. 3. Eagles displayed Arg 13 T. Peniston m. b. † †Arg. 3. Cornish-choughs prop. 14 Ioh. Doyly ar ut prius  15 Rad. Warcoppe ar   16 Ric. Libb ar   17 Tho. Tippin ar   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   Q. Elizabeth 11. WILLIAM TAVERNER Arm. This was he who in the year of his Sherivalty came to Oxford and went up into the Pulpit at St. Maries with a sword by his side and a gold chain about his neck where he made a Sermon or an Oration rather to the University the stuff or rather bombace whereof we have set down in our Ecclesiastical History Now though this was an odde act wherein his zeal was conceived by most to trespass on his discretion yet was it born the better in those darker dayes from a person well-affected in Religion and abhorring to invade the Ministerial Function 18. ROBERT DOYLE Mil. This year if I mistake not were the black Assizes at Oxford wherein contrary to the common course the Prisoners caused the death of the Judge Chief-Baron Bell the Sheriff some of the Lawyers many of the Justices and most of the Jury besides other persons of Quality there present It was generally imputed to the stench of the prisoners clothes and bodies for whereas other offensive smells are open enemies and violently assaulting the brain warn men in some sort to avoid or resist them a Gaolstench trecherously pretendeth alliance as made of man-sweat and so insinuates it self with the less suspicion and more danger into the spirits 31. WILLIAM CLARKE Arm. He was son or if the same with Sir VVilliam Clarke Sheriff in the 10. of K. James grand-child to Sir John Clarke of Northampton-shire in the 21. of K. Henry the eight whose Armes with the honourable augmentation and the worthy cause thereof are there largely described 36. RICHARD PENYS Mil. He was a worthy Gentleman and bred Fellow being the Founders Kinsman of New-college in Oxford He was also lineally descended from James Lord Say and Seal Tresurer of England in the reign of K. Henry the sixth and in consideration thereof was 1. Jacobi created Lord Say and Seal He dyed Anno Dom. 1612. William Fenys his eldest son was since created Viscount Say and Seal and is still alive K. Charles I. 3. RICHARD WENMAN Mil. This worthy Knight was by K. Charles the first created first Baron Wenman of Chilmaynam in the County of Dublin and then Viscount Wenman of Tuant in the County of Galloway both in the Kingdom of Ireland by Letters Patents dated at Cambrey the 25. of July 1628. 4 Caroli The Farewell As for the poorer sort of Husbandmen in this County I wish there may be more Sir Henry Kebles for their sakes This Knight though a Native of London and Lord Mayor thereof had such an affection for this and Warwick-shire that he singled out an hundred and fifty of the poorest Husbandmen therein and gave each of them a new Plough-share and a new Coulter of Iron and in my mind that is the most charitable Charity which inableth decayed industry to follow its Vocation RUTLAND-SHIRE is by a double Diminutive called by Mr. Cambden Angliae Provinciola
or used some indirect means to inrich himself The Knight calmly gave in the unquestionable particulars of the Bottom he began on the accrewment by his Marriage and with what was advanced by his industry and frugality so bringing all up within the view though not the Touch of his present Estate For the rest my Lords said he you have a good Mistris our Gracious Queen and I had a good Master the Duke of Sommerset which being freely spoken and fairly taken he was dismissed without further trouble Nor were his means too big for his Birth if descended as Camden saith from the Antient Family of the Bottevils 41 WALTER VAUGHAM Ar. His Armes too large to be inserted in that short space were Sable a Cheverâ—…n betwixt three Childrens-heads Cooped at the Shoulders Argent their Peruques Or Inwrapped about their Necks with as many Snakes Proper whereof this they say the Occasion because one of the Ancestors of this Family was born with a Snake about his Neck Such a Neck-Lace as Nature I believe never saw But grant it How came the Peruques about the Infants Heads So that Fancy surely was the sole Mother and Midwife of this Device The Lands of this Walter Vaugham afterwards Knighted descended to his Son Sir George a Worthy Gentleman and after his Issueless decease to a Brother of his who was born blind bred in Oxford brought up in Orders and Prebendary of Sarum King Charles 1 FRANCIS SEYMOUR Mil. This wise and religious Knight grand-child to Edward Earl of Hartford and brother to William Duke of Sommerset was by King Charles the first Created Baron of Troubridge in this County since for his Loyalty made Privy-councellour to K. Charles the second and Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster Battles Lansdoune Fight This was fought in the Confines of this County and Somerset the 13. of July 1643. It was disputed by parcells and peece-meals as the Place and narrow Passages would give leave and it seemed not so much one intire Battle as a Heap of Skirmishes hudled together It may be said in some sort of both â—…des Victus uterque fuit Victor uterque fuit For the Parliament Forces five times by the confession of the Royalists beat them back with much Disorder Sir Bevill Greenfield being slain in the Head of his Pikes Major Lowre in the Head of his Party of Horse Yet the Kings Forces alleadge Demonstration of Conquest that Prince Maurice and Sir Ralph Hopton remained in the Heads of their Troops all Night and next Morning found themselves possessed of the Field and of the Dead as also of three hundred Armes and nine 〈◊〉 of Powder the Enemy had left behind them Round way Fight Five days after Prince Maurice with the Earl of Carnarvan returning and the Lord Wilmot coming from Oxford with a gallant supply of Select Horse charged the Parliament Forces under the Conduct of Sir William Waller With him were the Horse of Sir Arthur Haslerigg so well Armed that if of Proof as well within as without each Souldier seemed an Impregnable Fortification But these were so smartly Charged by the Prince that they fairly forfook the Field leaving their Foot which in English Battles bear the heat of the day to shift for themselves In the mean time Sir Ralph Hopton hurt lately with the blowing up of Powder lay sick and sore in the Town of the Devizes His Men wanted Match whom Sir Ralph directed to beat and to boyl their Bed-cords necessity is the best Mother of Ingenuity which so ordered did them good service when Marching forth into the Field they effectually contributed to the totall routing and ruining of the Parliament â—…oot which remained The Farewell This County consisting so much of sheep must honour the Memory of King Edgar who first free'd the Land from all Wolves therein For the future I wish their flocks secured From 1. Two-legg'd Wolves very destructive unto them 2. Spanish Ewes whereof one being brought over into England Anno .......... brought with it the first generall contagion of sheep 3. Hunger-Rot the effect of an over-dry summer I desire also that seeing these seem to be of the same breed with Labanâ—… and Jethros sheep which had their solemn times and places of drinking which in other Shires I have not observed that they may never have any want of wholesome water WORCESTER-SHIRE hath Stafford-shire on the North Warwickshire on the East Gloucester-shire on the South Hereford and Shorp-shires on the West It is of a Triangular but not equilaterall form in proportion stretching from North to South Twenty two Miles South to North-west Twenty eight Miles Thence to her North-east point Twenty eight Miles Be this understood of the continued part of this Shire which otherwise hath Snips and Shreds cut off from the whole cloth and surrounded with the circumjacent Countries even some in Oxford-shire distanced by Gloucester-shire interposed What may be the cause hereof it were presumption for me to guess after the conjectures of so many Learned men Some conceive that such who had the Command of this County probably before the Conquest and had parcells of their own Land scattered in the Vicinage desired to Unite them to this County so to make their own authority the more entire Or else as a Worthy Writer will have it rendering a reason why part of Devon-shire straggleth into Cornwall it was done that there might rest some cause of Intercourse betwixt this and the Neighbouring Counties adding moreover that a late great man ensued and expressed the like consideration in the division of his Lands betwixt two of his Sons All I will say is this that God in the partage of Palestine Reader if you forget I must remember my own profession betwixt the twelve Tribes on the same account as the learned conceive made some Tribes to have In-lots within another And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Bethshean and her Towns and Ibleam and her Towns c. This County hath a childs portion and that I assure you a large one in all English and especially in these Naturall Commodities Lampreys In Latine Lampetrae à lambendo petras from licking the rocks are plentifull in this and the neighbouring Counties in the river of Severn A deformed fish which for the many holes therein one would conceive nature intended it rather for an Instrument of Musick then for mans food The best manner of dressing whereof says my Author is To kill it in Malmesey close the mouth thereof with a nutmegg the holes with so many cloves and when it is rolled up round putting in thereto filbard-nut-kernells stamped crums of bread oyle spices c. Others but those Mâ—…so-lampreys doe adde that after all this cost even cast them away seeing money is better lost then health and the meat will rather be delicious then wholesome the eating whereof cost King Henry the first his life But by their favour that King did not dye of
Lampreys but of excess in eating them and I am confident the Jews might surfet of Manna it self if eating thereof above due proportion Perry This is a Drink or a Counterfeit Wine made of Pears whereof plenty in this County though such which are least delicious for tast are most proper for this purpose Such the Providence of Nature to design all things for mans service Peter Martyr when Professor in Oxford and sick of a Feaver would drink no other liquor though it be generally believed both cold and windy except corrected with spice or some other addition Salt I have twice formerly insisted hereon and doe confess this Repetition to be flatly against my own Rules laid down for the regulating of this work save that the necessity of this Commodity will excuse it from any offence I beheld England as a long well-furnish'd Table and account three principal Salt-cellars set at distance thereon Worcester shire I fancy the Trencher Salt both because it is not so much in quantity though very considerable and because it is whiter finer and heavier then any other Châ—…shire I conceive deserveth to be reputed the Grand-salt-cellar placed somewhat beneaâ—…h the middle whilst the third is the Salt of New-castle set far North at the lower end of the Table for the use of those who otherwise cannot conveniently reach to the former The usefulness of this not-duely-valued-blessing may be concluded from the Latine word Salarium so usuall in antient and modern Authors which importeth the entertainment or wages of Souldiers antiently paid chiefly if not only in Victuals and taketh its name by a Synecdoche fr om Sal or Salt as of all things most absolutely needfull without which condiment nothing can be wholesome nutriment I read in a modern Author describing his own County of Che-shire and measuring all things to the advantage thereof that There is no Shire in England or in any other Country beyond the seas where they have more then one salt-well therein neither at Droitwich in Worcester-shire is there more then one whereas in Che-shire there be four all within ten wiles together Here let me enter this Caveat in preservation of the right of Worcester-shire that many salt-fountains are found therein but stopped up again for the preservation of woods so that the making of salt at one place alone proceeds not from any Natural but a Politick restriction Nor must I forget how our German-Ancestors as Tacitus reports conceited such places where salt was found to be nearest to the heavens and to ingratiate mens pâ—…ayers to the gods I will not say founding their superstition on the mis-apprehension of the Jewish-worship Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt The Buildings I am sorry I have never seen the Cathedrall of Worcester so that I cannot knowingly give it a due commendation and more sorry to hear that our late Civil Wars have made so sad an Impression thereon The Market-towns are generally handsomely built and no Shire in England can shew a brace of them so neat and near together as Beaudley and Kiddermister in this County being scarcely two miles asunder Saints Saint RICHARD born at Wich alias Droitwich from which he took his name was bred in Oxford afterwards at Paris lastly at Bononia in Italy where for seven years together he heard and read the Canon-law Having thus first plentifully laid in he then began to lay out in his Lectures in that University and returning Home became Chancellor of Oxford then of Canterbury till at last chosen Bishop of Chichester He was a great Becketist viz. a stout opposer of Regal Power over Spiritual Persons on which and other accounts he wrot a Book to Pope Innocent the fourth against King Henry the third These his qualities with the reputation of his holy life so commended his memory to the notice of Pope Urban the fourth that seven years after his death viz. Anno 1260 he canonized him for a Saint It seems men then arrived sooner at the maturity oâ—… Popish Saintship then now a days more distance being now required betwixt their death and canonization As for their report that the Wiches or Salt-pits in this County were miraculously procured by his prayers their unsavory lye hath not a graine of probability to season it it appearing by antient Authors that salt-wâ—…ter flowed there time out of mind beâ—…ore any sweet-milk was given by Mother or Nurse to this Saint Richard This County affording no Martyrs such the moderation of Bshop Pates let us proceed to Cardinals JOHN COMIN or Cumin It must cost us some pains but the merit of the man will quit cost to clear him to be of English extraction For the proof whereof we produce the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis his contemporary and acquaintance who saith he was Viâ—… Anglicus natione Hereby the impudent falsehood of John Demster the Scotish Historian doth plainly appear thus expressing himself Johannes Cuminus ex nobilissimo Comitum Buchaniae stemmate ortus Banfiae natus falsissimè inter Anglos reponitur cum ipse viderim quaedam ipsius nuper Parisiis scripta quibus suorum Popularium causam Pontifici Lucio commendavit in bibliotheca Pauli Petavii Senatoris Parisiensis John Cumin descended from the most noble stock of the Earls of Buchan born at Banfe is most falsely set down amongst the English seeing I my self lately saw some of his writings at Paris in the Library of Paulus Petavius Senator of Paris in which he recommended the cause of his Countrimen to Pope Lucius In plain English this Scotish Demster is an arrant rook depluming England Ireland and Wales of famous Writers meerly to feather his own Country therewith so that should he according to the Jewish Law be forced to make four-fold restitution for his felony he would be left poor enough indeed Besides Alexander Comin was Created first Earl of Buchan by King Alexander the second who began to raign Anno Dom. 1214. whereas Comin by the testimony of Demster himself died 1212. and therefore could not properly descend of their stock who were not then in being I cannot certainly avouch him a Worcester-shire man but know that he was bred a Monke at Evesham therein whence he was chosen the King procuring it à clero Dublinensi consonè satis concorditer Arch-bishop of Dublin He endowed Trinity-Church in Dublin with two and twenty Prebends and was made by Pope Lucius Cardinal of Saint Vellit in Italy HUGH of EVESHAM so called from the place of his Nativity in this County applyed himself to the Study of Physick with so good success that he is called the Phoenix in that Faculty Great also was his skill in the Mathematicks and especially in Astrology Some questions arising at Rome about Physick which consequencially were of Church government Pope Martin the fourth sent for our Hugh to consult with him who gave such satisfaction to his Demands that in requitall he Created him Cardinal
Palmes-sunday before his Majesty Anno Domini 1539. And yet man is but man he returned to his errour in the raign of King Edward the sixth continuing therein in the first of Queen Elizabeth for which he was deprived of his Bishoprick He shewed mercy when in Power and found it in his Adversity having nothing but the Name of a prisoner in which condition he died and was buried at Lambeth 1560. RALPH BAINES was born in this County bred Fellow of Saint Johns-colledge in Cambridge An Excellent Linguist in Latine Greek and Hebrew I say Hebrew then in its Nonage whereof Baines was a good Guardian first in learning then in teaching the Rules thereof Hence he went over into France and became Hebrew Professor at Paris He wrot a Comment on the Proverbs in three Volumes and dedicated it to King Franc is the first of France that Grand Patron of good Men and great Scholars Pitz telleth us ferunt it is reported that the Ministers of Geneva have much depraved many of his writings in severall places which I doe not believe Such passages doubtlesly according to the Authors own writing being reducible to two Heads First his fair mentioning of some learned Linguists though Protestants with whom he kept an Epistolary Correspondency Secondly some expressions in preferring the Original of Scripture to the Diminution of the Vulgar Translation Returning into England he was by Queen Mary 1555 made Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield Hitherto no ill could be spoken of his Intellectualls and hereafter no good of his Moralls in point of his Cruelty he caused such persecution in his Diocess His greatest Commendation is that though as bad a Bishop as Christopher son he was better then Bonner In the first of Queen Elizabeth he was deprived of his Bishoprick and dying not long after of the Stone was buried in Saint Dunstans 1560. Since the Reformation THOMAS BENTHAM was born in this County bred Fellow of Magdalen-colledge in Oxford Under King Henry the eight he was a Complier with no Promoter of Popery In the first of Queen Mary repenting of his former he resolved not to accumulate sin refusing not onely to say Mass but also to correct a scholar in the Colledge though urged thereto by Sir Robert Reed the Prime Visitor for his absence from Popish Prayers conceiving it injurious to punish in another that omission for a fault which was also according to his own Conscience He also then assisted Henry Bull one of the same Foundation to wrest out and throw down out of the hands of the Choristers the Censer when about to offer their superstitious Incense No wonder then if he was fain to fly into Forraign parts and glad to get over into Germany where he lived at Basil Preacher to the English Exiles to whom he expounded the intire book of the Acts of the Apostles Now seeing the Apostles suffering was above all their Doing it was a proper portion of Scripture for him hence to press patience to his banished Country-men Towards the end of Queen Mary he was secretly sent for over to be superintendent of the London Conventicle the onely true Church in time of Persecution where with all his Care and Caution he hardly escaped In the second of Queen Elizabeth he was Consecrated Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield succeeding Ralph Baines therein one of the same County with him but a different Judgement and died on the 21. of February 1578. EDMUND GUEST was born at Afferton in this County bred Fellow of Kings-colledge in Cambridge where he proceeded Doctor of Divinity He was afterwards Almoner to Queen Elizabeth and he must be both a wise and a good man whom she would trust with her Purse She preferred him Bishop first of Rochester then of Salisbury John Bale saith my Author reckoneth up many books made by him of considerable value He died February 28. 1578. the same year and month with his Country-man Thomas Bentham aforesaid MILES COVERDALE was born in this County bred in the University of Cambridge and afterwards became an Augustine Frier till his eyes being opened he quitted that Superstitious Profession Going into Germany he laboured greatly in Translating of the Bible and in writing many books reckoned up by John Bale He was made Doctor of Divinity in the University of Tubing and returning into England being incorporated in Cambridge was soon after made Bishop of Exeter by King Edward the sixth 1551. But alas he was not comfortably warme in his place before his place by persecution grew too hot for him and in the first of Queen Mary he was cast into prison a certain forerunner of his Martyrdome had not Frederick King of Denmark seasonably interposed This good King with great Importunity hardly obtained this small Courtesie viz. that Coverdale should be enlarged though on this condition to be banished out of hâ—…s Country In obedience whereunto he went over into Germany In the first of Qâ—…een Elizabeth he returned to England but not to Exeter Never resuming that or accepting any other Bishoprick Severall men assigned severall causes hereof but Coverdale onely knew the true reason himself Some will say that for the Books he made he had better been placed under the title of Learned Writers or for the Exile and Imprisonment he suffered ranked under Confessors then under the title of Prelats manifesting an aversness of his own judgement thereunto by not returning to his Bishoprick But be it known that Coverdale in his judgement approved thereof Being one of those Bishops who solemnly Consecrated Mathew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Now quod efficit tale magis est tale I understand it thus He that makes another Arch-bishop is abundantly satisfyed in his Judgement and Conscience of the lawfullness thereof Otherwise such dissembling had been inconsistent with the sincerity of so grave and godly a person He died Anno Dom. 1588. and lyes buried in Saint Bartholomews behind the Exchange under a fair Stone in the Chancell ADAM LOFTUS was born in this County and bred in Trinity-colledge in Cambridge where he Commenced Doctor of Divinity the same year with John Whitgift afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury He was Chaplain to Robert Earl of Sussex Deputy of Ireland and was first made Arch-bishop of Armagh Anno 1562. and afterwards Arch-bishop of Dublin Anno 1567. Wonder not that he should desire his own degradation to be removed from Armagh then Primate of Ireland to Dublin a Subordinate Arch bishoprick seeing herein he consulted his safety and perchance his profit more then his Honour Armagh being then infested with Rebells whilst Dublin was a secure City After the death of Sir William Gerrard he was made Chancellour of Ireland which place he discharged with singular Ability and Integrity untill the day of his death And that which in my judgement commendeth him most to the notice of Posterity and most ingageth Posterity in thankfullness to his memory is that he was a profitable