most Gracious Majesty HAving been informed that certain persons have by the good wishes of the Archbishop of Armagh been directed hither with a most humble Petition unto Your Majesty that You will be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel now resident upon a small Benefice in Suffolk Governor of your Colledge at Dublin for the good of that Society and my self being required to render unto Your Majesty some testimony of the said William Bedel who was long my Chaplain at Venice in the time of my first imployment there I am bound in all Conscience and Truth so far as Your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept my poor judgement to affirm of him That I think hardly a fitter man for that Charge could have been propounded unto Your Majesty in Your whole Kingdom for singular Erudition and Piety Conformity to the Rites of the Church and Zeal to advance the Cause of God wherein his Travels abroad were not obscure in the time of the Excommunication of the Venetians For it may please Your Majesty to know that this is the man whom Padre Paulo took I may say into his very soul with whom he did communicate the inwardest thoughts of his heart from whom he professed to have received more knowledge in all Divinity both Scholastical and Positive than from any that he had ever practised in his dayes of which all the passages were well known to the King Your Father of most blessed memory And so with Your Majesties good favour I will end this needless Office for the general Fame of his Learning his Life and Christian temper and those Religious Labours which himself hath dedicated to your Majesty do better describe him than I am able Your MAJESTIES Most humble and faithful Servant H. WOTTON TO this Letter I shall add this That he was to the great joy of Sir Henry Wotton made Governor of the said Colledge and that after a fair discharge of his duty and trust there he was thence removed to be Bishop of Kilmore In both which places his life was so holy as seemed to equal the primitive Christians for as they so he kept all the Ember-weeks observed besides his private devotions the Canonical hours of Prayer very strictly and so he did all the Feasts and Fast-dayes of his Mother the Church of England his Patience and Charity were both such as shewed his affections were set upon things that are above for indeed his whole life brought forth the fruits of the Spirit there being in him such a remarkable meekness that as St. Paul advised his Timothy in the Election of a Bishop That he have a good report of those that be without so had he for those that were without even those that in point of Religion were of the Roman perswasion of which there were very many in his Diocess did yet ever look upon him with respect and reverence and testified it by a concealing and safe protecting him in the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland when the fury of the wild Irish knew no distinction of persons and yet there and then he was protected and cherished by those of a contrary perswasion and there and then he dyed though not by violence And with him was lost many of his learned Writings which were thought worthy of preservation and amongst the rest was lost the Bible which by many years labour and conference and study he had translated into the Irish Tongue with an intent to have printed it for publick use More might be said of Mr. Bedel who I told the Reader was Sir Henry Wottons first Chaplain and much of his second Chaplain Isaac Bargrave Doctor in Divinity and the late learned and hospitable Dean of Canterbury as also of the Merit of many others that had the happiness to attend Sir Henry in his forreign imployments But the Reader may think that in this digression I have already carried him too far from Eaton-Colledge and therefore I shall lead him back as gently and as ordeâ—ly as I may to that place for a further conference concerning Sir Henry Wotton Sir Henry Wotton had propos'd to himself before he entred into his Collegiate life to write the life of Martin Luther and in it the History of the Reformation as it was carried on in Germany For the doing of which he had many advantages by his several Embassies into those parts and his interest in the several Princes of the Empire by whose means he had access to the Records of all the Hans Towns and the knowledge of many secret passages that fell not under common view and in these he had made a happy progress as is well known to his worthy friend Dr. Duppa the late Reverend Bishop of Salisbury but in the midst of this design His late Majesty King Charles that knew the value of Sir Henry Wottons Pen did by a perswasive loving violence to which may be added a promise of 500 l. a year force him to lay Luther aside and betake himself to write the History of England in which he proceeded to write some short Characters of a few Kings as a foundation upon which he meant to build but for the present meant to be more large in the story of Henry the sixth the Founder of that Colledge in which he then enjoy'd all the worldly happiness of his present being but Sir Henry dyed in the midst of this undertaking and the footsteps of his labours are not recoverable by a more than common diligence This is some account both of his inclination and the employment of his time in the Colledge where he seemed to have his Youth renewed by a continual conversation with that Learned Society and a daily recourse of other Friends of choicest breeding and parts by which that great blessing of a chearful heart was still maintained he being alwayes free even to the last of his dayes from that peevishness which usually attends Age. And yet his mirth was sometimes damp'd by the remembrance of divers old Debts partly contracted in his forreign Employments for which his just Arrears due from the King would have made satisfaction but being still delayed with Couâ—t-promises and finding some decayes of health he did about two years before his death out of a Christian desire that none should be a loser by it make his last Will concerning which a doubt still remains whether it discovered more holy wit or conscionable policy But there is no doubt but that his chief design was a Christian endeavour that his Debts might be satisfied And that it may remain as such a Testimony and a Legacy to those that lov'd him I shall here impart it to the Reader as it was found writ with his own hand IN the Name of God Almighty and All-merciful I Henry Wotton Provost of His Majesties Colledge by Eaton being mindfâ—â—â— of mine own mortality which the sin of our first Paâ—â—ents did bring upon all flesh Do by this last Will and Testament thus dispose of my self and the poor things I
Merit and did therefore desire him to accept of that Jewel as a Testimony of his good opinion of him which was a Jewel of Diamonds of more value then a thousand pounds This was received with all Circumstances and terms of Honour by Sir Henry Wotton but the next morning at his departing from Vienna at his taking leave of the Countess of Sabrina an Italian Lady in whose House the Emperour had appointed him to be lodg'd and honourably entertained He acknowledged her Merits and besought her to accept of that Jewel as a testimony of his gratitude for her Civilities presenting her with the same that was given him by the Emperour which being suddenly discovered by the Emperour was by him taken for a high affront and Sir Henry Wotton told so To which he replyed That though he received it with thankfulness yet he found in himself an indisposition to be the better for any gift that came from an Enemy to his Royal Mistress the Queen of Bohemia for so she was pleased he should alwayes call her Many other of his services to his Prince and this Nation might be insisted upon as namely his procuration of Priviledges and courtesies with the German Princes and the Republick of Venice for the English Merchants and what he did by direction of King James with the Venetian State concerning the Bishop of Spalato's return to the Church of Rome But for the particulars of these and many more that I mean to make known I want a view of some papers that might inform me his late Majesties Letter-Office having suffered a strange alienation and indeed I want time too for the Printers Press-stayes so that I must haste to bring Sir Henry Wotton in an instant from Venice to London leaving the Reader to make up what is defective in this place by this small supplement of the inscription under his Armes which he left at all those houses where he rested or lodged when he returned from his last Embassie into England Henricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus Thomae optimi viri filius natu minimus a serenissimo Jacobo I. Mag. Britt Rege in equestrem titulum adscitus ejusdemque ter ad Rempublicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius semel ad confaederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio Bis ad Carolum Emanuel Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos superioris Gâ—rmaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi postremo ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wittembergensem Civitates imperiales Argentinam Ulmamque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum secundum Legatus Extraordinarius tandem hoc didicit Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo To London he came that year in which King James dyed who having for the reward of his forreign service promised him the reversion of an Office which was fit to be turned into present money for a supply of his present necessities and also granted him the reversion of the Master of the Rolls place if he out-lived charitable Sir Julius Caesar who then possessed it and then grown so old that he was said to be kept alive beyond Natures Course by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved But these were but in hope and his condition required a present support For in the beginning of these imployments he sold to his elder brother the Lord Wotton the Rent-charge left by his good Father and which is worse was now at his return indebted to several persons whom he was not able to satisfie but by the Kings payment of his Arrears due for his forreign Imployments He had brought into England many servants of which some were German and Italian Artists this was part of his condition who had many times hardly sufficient to supply the occasions of the day For it may by no means be said of his providence as himself said of Sir Philip Sidney's wit That it was the very measure of congruity He being alwayes so careless of money as though our Saviours wores Care not for to morrow were to be literally understood But it pleased God that in this juncture of time the Provostship of His Majesties Colledge of Eaton became void by the death ofâ— Murray for which there were as the place deserv'd many earnest and powerful Suiters to the King Sir Henry who had for many years like Siciphus rolled the restless stone of a State imployment and knowing experimentally that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business and that a Colledge was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts and to afford rest both to his body and mind which his age being now almost threescore years seemed to require did therefore use his own and the interest of all his friends to procure it By which means and quitting the King of his promised reversionary Offices and a piece of honest policy which I have not time to relate he got a Grant of it from His Majesty And this was a fair settlement for his mind but money was wanting to furnish him with those necessaries which attend removes and a settlement in such a place and to procure that he wrote to his old friend Mr. Nicholas Pey for his assistance of which Nicholas Pey I shall here say a little for the clearing of something that I shall say hereafter He was in his youth a Clerk or in some such way a servant to the Lord Wotton Sir Henry's brother and by him when he was Comptroller of the Kings Houshold was made a great Officer in His Majesties house This and other favours being conferred upon Mr. Pey in whom was a radical honesty were alwayes thankfully acknowledged by him and his gratitude exprest by a willing and unwearied serviceableness to that Family even till his death To him Sir Henry Wotton wrote to use all his inâ—â—â—â— at Court to procure Five hundred pounds of his Arrears for less would not settle him â—â—â— Colledge and the want of it wrinkled â—â—â—â—â— with care 't was his own expression and thâ—r being procured he should the next day after find him in his Colledge and Invidiae remedium writ over his Study door This money being part of his Arrears was by his own and the help of honest Nicholas Pey's interest in Court quickly procured him and he as quickly in the Colledge the place where indeed his happiness then seemed to have its beginning the Colledge being to his mind as a quiet Harbor to a Sea-faring-man after a tempestuous voyage where by the bounty of the pious Founder his very Food and Rayment were plentifully provided for him in kind where he was freed from all corroding cares and seated on such a Rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a Calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoyl'd and tossed in a tempestuous Sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like of another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise than
his hand a Walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany and he said Richard I do not give but lend you my Horse be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford And I do now give you Ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter and here is Ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother and tell her I send her a Bishops Benediction with it and beg the continuance of her prayers for me And if you bring my Horse back to me I will give you Ten Groats more to carry you on foot to the Colledge and so God bless you good Richard And this you may believe was performed by both Parties But alas the next News that followed Mr. Hooker to Oxford was that his learned and charitable Patron had changed this for a better life Which may be believed for that as he lived so he dyed in devout meditation and prayer and in both so zealously that it became a religious question Whether his last Ejâ—culations or his Soul did first enter into Heaven And now Mr. Hooker became a man of sorrow and fear of sorrow for the loss of so dear and comfortable a Patron and of fear for his future subsistence But Dr. Cole raised his spirits from this dejection by bidding him go chearfully to his Studies and assuring him he should neither want food nor rayment which was the utmost of his hopes for he would become his Patron And so he was for about nine months and not longer for about that time this following accident did befall Mr. Hooker Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York had also been in the dayes of Queen Mary forced by forsaking this to seek safety in another Nation where for some Years Bishop Jewell and he were Companions at Bed and Board in Germany and where in this their Exile they did often eat the bread of sorrow and by that means they there began such a friendship as lasted till the death of Bishop Jewell which was in September 1571. A little before which time the two Bishops meeting Jewell began a story of his Richard Hooker and in it gave such a Character of his Learning and Manners that though Bishop Sandys was educated in Cambridge where he had oblieged and had many Friends yet his resolution was that his Son Edwin should be sent to Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford and by all means be Pupil to Mr. Hooker though his Son Edwin was not then much yonger for the Bishop said I will have a Tutor for my Son that shall teach him Learning by Instruction and Vertue by Example and my greatest care shall be of the last and God willing this Richard Hooker shall be the Man into whose hands I will commit my Edwin And the Bishop did so about twelve moneths or not much longer after this resolution And doubtless as to these two a better choice could not be made for Mr. Hooker was now in the nineteenth year of his age had spent five in the University and had by a constant unwearied diligence attained unto a perfection in all the learned Languages by the help of which an excellent Tutor and his unintermitted Study he had made the subtilty of all the Arts easie and familiar to him and usefull for the discovery of such Learning as lay hid from common Searchers so that by these added to his great Reason and his Industry added to both He did not onely know more of Causes and effects but what he knew he knew better then other men And with this Knowledge he had a most blessed and clear Method of Demonstrating what he knew to the great advantage of all his Pupils which in time were many but especially to his two first his dear Edwin Sandys and his as dear George Cranmer of which there will be a fair Testimony in the ensuing Relation This for his Learning And for his Behaviour amongst other Testimonies this still remains of him That in four years he was but twice absent from the Chappel prayers and that his Behaviour there was such as shewed an awful reverence of that God which he then worshipped and prayed to giving all outward testimonies that his Affections were set on heavenly things This was his Behaviour towards God and for that to Man it is observable that he was never known to be angry or passionate or extream in any of his Desires never heard to repine or dispure with Providence but by a quiet gentle submission and resignation of his will to the Wisdome of his Creator bore the burthen of the day with patience never heard to utter an uncomly word and by this and a grave Behaviour which is a Divine Charm he begot an early Reverence unto his Person even from those that at other times and in other companies took a liberty to cast off that strictness of Behaviour and Discourse that is required in a Collegiate Life And when he took any liberty to be pleasant his Wit was never blemisht with Scoffing or the utterance of any Conceit that border'd upon or might beget a thought of Looseness in his hearers Thus milde thus innocent and exemplary was his Behaviour in his Colledge and thus this good man continued till his death still increasing in Learning in Patience and Piety In this nineteenth year of his age he was December 24. 1573 admitted to be one of the twenty Scholars of the Foundation being elected and so admitted as born in Devon or Hantshire out of which Countries a certain number are to be elected in Vacancies by the Founders Statutes And now as he was much encouraged so now he was perfectly in oâ—porated into this beloved Colledg which was then noted for an eminent Library strict students and remarkable â—cholars And indeed it may glory that it had Cardinal Poole Bishop Jewel Doctor John Reynolds and Doctor Thomas Jackson of that Foundation The First famous for his Learned Apology for the Church of England and his Defence of it against Harding The Second for the learned and wise Menage of a publique Dispute with John Hart of the Romish perswasion about the Head and Faith of the Church and then printed by consent of both parties And the Third for his most excellent Exposition of the Creed and other Treatises All such as have given greatest satisfaction to men of the greatest Learning Nor was this man more Note-worthy for his Learning than for his strict and and pious Life testified by his abundant love and charity to all men And in the year 1576. Febr. 23. Mr. Hookers Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts Doctor Herbert Westphaling a man of note for Learning being then Vice-chancellour And the Act following he was compleated Master which was Anno 1577. his Patron Doctor Cole being Vice-chancellour that year and his dear friend Henry Savill of Merton Colledge being then one of the Proctors 'T was that
to wish what they were not able to hope for that they should be like the beasts that perish And wicked company which is the Atheists Sanctuary were so bold as to say so though the worst of Mankind when he is left alone at midnight may wish but cannot then think it a belief that there is no God Into this wretched this reprobate condition many had then sinned themselves And now when the Church was pestered with them and with all these other Irregularities when her Lands were in danger of Alienation her Power at least neglected and her Peace torn to pieces by several Schisms and such Heresies as do usually attend that sin for Heresies do usually out-live their first Authors when the Common people seemed ambitious of doing those very things that were attended with most dangers that thereby they might be punish'd and then applauded and pitied when they called the Spirit of opposition a Tender Consciouce and complained of persecution because they wanted power to persecute others when the giddy multitude raged and became restless to find out misery for themselves and others and the Rabble would herd themselves together and endeavour to govern and act in spight of Authority In this extremity of fear and danger of the Church and State when to suppress the growing evils of both they needed a man of prudence and piety and of an high and fearless fortitude they were blest in all by John Whitgift his being made Archbishop of Canterbury of whom Sir Henry Wotton that knew him well for he was his Pupil gives this true Character That he was a man of Reverend and Sacred memory and of the primitive temper such a temper as when the Church by lowliness of Spirit did flourish in highest examples of Virtue And though I dare not undertake to add to this excellent and true character of Sir Henry Wotton yet I shall neither do right to this Discourse nor to my Reader if I forbear to give him a further and short account of the life and manners of this excellent man and it shall be short for I long to end this digression that I may lead my Reader back to Mr. Hooker where we left him at the Temple John Whitgift was born in the County of Lincoln of a Family that was ancient and noted to be both prudent and affable and Gentile by nature he was educated in Cambridge much of his Learning was acquired in Pembroke-Hall where Mr. Bradford the Martyr was his Tutor from thence he was remov'd to Peter-house from thence to be Master of Pembroke Hall and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity Colledge About which time the Queen made him Her Chaplain and not long after Preâ—end of Ely and then Dean of Lincoln and having for many years past look'â— upon him with much reverence and favour gave him a fair testimony of both by giving him the Bishoprick of Worcester and which was not a usual favour forgiving him his First-fruits then by constituting him Vice-president of the principality of Wales And having experimented his Wisdom his Justice and Moderation in the menage of Her affairs in both these places She in the 26 th of Her Reign made him Archbishop of Canterbury and not long after of Her Privy Council and trusted him to manage all Her Ecclesiastical Affairs and Preferments In all which Removes he was like the Ark which left a blessing upon the place where it rested and in all his Imployments was like Jchoida that did good unto Israel These were the steps of this Bishops ascension to this place of dignity and cares in which place to speak Mr. Cambdens very words in â— is Annals he devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God and his painful labours to the â—â—od of his Church And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of Church-affairs which were much disordered at his entrance by reason of the age and remisness of Bishop Grindall his immediate Predecessor the activity of the Non-consormists and their chief assistant the Earl of Leicester and indeed by too many others of the like Sacrilegious principles With these he was to encounter and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause yet he foresaw that without a great measure of the Queens favour it was impossible to stand in the breach that was made into the Lands and Immunities of the Church or to maintain the remaining rights of it And therefore by justifiable sacred Insinuations such as St. Paul to Agrippa Agrippa believest thou I know thou believest he wrought himself into so great a degree of favour with Her as by his pious use of it hath got both of them a great degree of Fame in this World and of Glory in that into which they are now entred His merits to the Queen and Her favours to him were such that She called him Her little black Husband and called his Servants Her Servants and She saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all his cares and endeavours for the Churches and for Her good that She was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of Her Soul and to make him Her Confessor of which She gave many fair testimonies and of which one was that She would never eat Flesh in Lent without obtaining a Licence from her little black Husband and would often say She pitied him because She trusted him and had eased Her self by laying the burthen of all Her Clergy-cares upon his shoulders which he managed with prudence and piety I shall not keep my self within the promised Rules of brevity in this account of his Interest with Her Majesty and his care of the Churches Rights if in this digression I should enlarge to particulars and therefore my desire is that one Example may serve for a Testimony of both And that the Reader may the better understand it he may take notice that not many years before his being made Archbishop there passed an Act or Acts of Parliament intending the better preservation of Church-lands by recalling a power which was vested in others to Sell or Lease them by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them only in the Crown And amongst many that made a bad use of this power or trust of the Queens the Earl of Leicester was one and the Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls sacrilegious designs they two fell to a open opposition before Her after which they both quitted the Room not friends in appearance but the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found Her alone and spake to Her with great humility and reverence and to this purpose I Beseech Your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that Yours and the Churches safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell You that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers
all her Church-cares by his wise Menage of them he gave her faithful and prudent Counsels in all the Extremities and Dangers of her Temporal Affairs which were many he lived to be the Chief Comfort of her Life in her Declining age to be then most frequently with her and her Assistant at her private Devotions to be the greatest Comfort of her Soul upon her Death-bed to be present at the Expiration of her last Breath and to behold the closing of those Eyes that had long looked upon him with Reverence and Affection And let this also be added that he was the Chief Mourner at her sad Funeral nor let this be forgotten that within a few hours after her death he was the happy Proclaimer that King James her peaceful Successour was Heir to the Crown Let me beg of my Reader to allow me to say a little and but a little more of this good Bishop and I shall then presently lead him back to Mr. Hooker and because I would hasten I will mention but one part of the Bishops Charity and Humility but this of both He built a large Almes-house near to his own Palace at Croyden in Surry and endowed it with Maintenance for a Master and twenty eight poor Men and Women which he visited so often that he knew their Names and Dispositions and was so truly humble that he called them Brothers and Sisters and whensoever the Queen descended to that lowlines to dine with him at his Palace in Lambeth which was very often he would usually the next day shew the like lowliness to his poor Brothers and Sisters at Croydon and dine with them at his Hospital at which time you may believe there was Joy at the Table And at this place he built also a fair Free-School with a good Accommodation and Maintenance for the Master and Scholars Which gave just occasion for Boyse Sisi then Embassadour for the French King and Resident here at the Bishops death to say The Bishop had published many learned Books but a Free-school to train up Youth and an Hospital to lodge and maintain aged and poor People were the best Evidences of Christian Learning that a Bishop could leave to Posterity This good Bishop lived to see King James settled in Peace and then fell sick at his Palace in Lambeth of which when the King had notice he went to visit him and found him in his Bed in a declining condition and very weak and after some short discourse betwixt them the King at his departure assured him He had a great Affection for him and a very high value for his Prudence and Vertues and would indeavour to beg his life of God To which the good Bishop replied Pro Ecclesia Dei Pro Ecclesia Dei which were the last words he ever spake therein testifying that as in his Life so at his Death his chiefest care was of Gods Church This John Whitgift was made Archbishop in the year 1583. In which busie place he continued twenty years and some moneths and in which time you may believe he had many Tryals of his Courage and Patience but his Motto was Vincit qui patitur And he made it good Many of his many Trials were occasioned by the then powerful Earl of Leicester who did still but secretly raise and cherish a Faction of Non-conformists to oppose him especially one Thomas Cartwright a man of noted Learning sometime Contemporary with the Bishop in Cambridge and of the same Colledge of which the Bishop had been Master in which place there began some Emulations the particulars I forbear and at last open and high Oppositions betwixt them and in which you may believe Mr. Cartwright was most faulty if his Expulsion out of the University can incline you to it And in this discontent after the Earls death which was 1588 Mr. Cartwright appeared a chief Cherisher of a Party that were for the Geneva Church-government and to effect it he ran himself into many dangers both of Liberty and Life appearing at the last to justifie himself and his Party in many Remonstrances which he caused to be printed and to which the Bishop made a first Answer and Cartwright replyed upon him and then the Bishop having rejoyned to his first Reply Mr. Cartwright either was or was perswaded to be satisfied for he wrote no more but leftâ— the Reader to be judge which had maintained their Cause with most Charity and Reason After some silence Mr. Cartwright received from the Bishop many personal Favours and retired himself to a more private Living which was at Warwick where he was made Master of an Hospital and lived quietly and grew rich and where the Bishop gave him a Licence to Preach upon promises not to meddle with Controversies but incline his Hearers to Piety and Moderation and this Promise he kept during his Life which ended 1602 the Bishop surviving him but some few moneths each ending his daies in perfect Charity with the other And now after this long Digression made for the Information of my Reader concerning what follows I bring him back to venerable Mr. Hooker where we left him in the Temple and where we shall find him as deeply engaged in a Controversie with Walter Trevers a Friend and Favorite of Mr. Cartwrights as the Bishop had ever been with Mr. Cartwright himself and of which I shall proceed to give this following account And first this That though the Pens of Mr. Cartwright and the Bishop were now at rest yet there was sprung up a new Generation of restless men that by Company and Clamours became possest of a Faith which they ought to have kept to themselves but could not men that were become positive in asserting That a Papest cannot be saved insomuch that about this time at the Execution of the Queen of Scots the Bishop that preached her Funeral Sermon which was Doctor Howland then Bishop of Peterborough was reviled for not being positive for her Damnation And beside this Boldness of their becoming Gods so far as to set limits to his Mercies there was not onely one Martin Mar-prelate but other venemous Books daily printed and dispersed Books that were so absurd and scurrilous that the graver Divines disdained them an Answer And yet these were grown into high esteem with the Common people till Tom Nash appeared against them all who was a man of a sharp wit and the Master of a scoffing Satyrical merry Pen which he imployed to discover the Absurdities of those blind malitious sensless Pamphlets and Sermons as sensless as they Nash his Answer being like his Books which bore these Titles An Almond for a Parrot A Fig for my God-son Come crack me this Nut and the like so that his merry Wit made such a discovery of their Absurdities as which is strange he put a greater stop to these malicious Pamphlets than a much wiser man had been able And now the Reader is to take notice That at the Death of Father Alvie who was
and consent to what his Lordship proposed to prove out of those doubtful Books if he would but consent to the Judgement of Mr. Hooker in the other five that were the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker In this relation concerning these three doubtful Books of Mr. Hookers my purpose was to enquire then set down what I observ'd and know which I have done not as an engaged person but indifferently and now leave my Reader to give sentence for their legitimation as to himself but so as to leave others the same liberty of believing or disbelieving them to be Mr. Hookers and 't is observable that as Mr. Hooker advis'd with Dr. Spencer in the design and manage of these Books so also and chiefly with his dear Pupils George Cranmer whose Sister was the Wife of Dr. Spencer of which this following Letter may be a Testimony and doth also give Authority to some things mentioned both in this Appendix and in the Life of Mr. Hooker and is therefore added GEORGE CRANMER'S LETTER unto Mr. Richard Hooker February 1598. WHat Posterity is likely to judge of these matters concerning Church-Discipline we may the better conjecture if we call to mind what our own Age within few years upon better Experience hath already judged concerning the same It may be remembred that at first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined that way The Books then written for the most part savoured of the Disciplinary stile it sounded everywhere in Pulpits and in common phrase of mens speech the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong course many which impugned the Discipline yet so impugned it not as not being the better Form of Government but as not being so convenient for our State in regard of dangerous Innovations thereby like to grow one man alone there was to speak of whom let no suspition of flattery deprive of his deserved commendation who in the defiance of the one part and courage of the other stood in the gap and gave others respite to prepare themselves to the defence which by the sudden eagerness and violence of their adversaries had otherwise been prevented wherein God hath made good unto him his own Impress Vincit qui patitur for what contumelious indignities he hath at their hands sustained the World is witness and what reward of Honour above his Adversaries God hath bestowed upon him themselves though nothing glad thereof must needs confess Now of late years the heat of men towards the Discipline is greatly decayed their judgements begin to sway on the other side the Learned have weighed it and found it light wise men conceive some fear left it prove not only not the best kind of Government but the very bane and destruction of all Government The cause of this change in mens Opinions may be drawn from the general nature of Error disguised and cloathed with the name of Truth which did mightily and violently possess men at first but afterwards the weakness thereof being by time discovered it lost that reputation which before it had gained as by the outside of an house the passers by are oftentimes deceived till they see the conveniency of the Rooms within so by the very name of Discipline and Reformation men were drawn at first to cast a fancy towards it but now they have not contented themselves only to pass by and behold afar off the Fore-front of this reformed house they have entered in even at the special request of Master-workmen and chief builders thereof thy have perused the Roomes the Lights the Conveniencies and they finde them not answerable to that report which was made of them not to that opinion which upon report they had conceived So as now the Discipline which at first triumphed over all being unmasked beginneth to droop and hang down her head This cause of change in opinion concerning the Discipline is proper to the Learned or to such as by them have been instructed another cause there is more open and more apparent to the view of all namely the course of Practice which the Reformers have had with us from the beginning the first degree was onely some small difference about the Cap and Surplice but not such as either bred division in the Church or tended to the ruine of the Government established This was peaceable the next degree more stirring Admonitions were directed to the Parliament in peremptory sort against our whole Form of Regiment in defence of them Volumes were published in English and in Latin yet this was no more than writing Devices were set on foot to erect the Practice of the Discipline without Authority yet herein some regard of Modesty some moderation was used Behold at length it brake forth into open outrage first in writing by Martin in whose kind of dealing these things may be observed first that whereas T. C. and others his great Masters had always before set out the Discipline as a Queen and as the Daughter of God He contrarywise to make her more acceptable to the people brought her forth as a Vice upon the Stage 2. This conceit of his was grounded as may be supposed upon this rare policy that seing the Discipline was by writing refuted in Parliament rejected in secret corners hunted out and deciyed it was imagined that by open rayling which to the Vulgar is commonly most plausible the State Ecclesiastical might have been drawn into such contempt and hatred as the overthrow thereof should have been most grateful to all men and in a manner desired by all the Common people 3. It may be noted and this I know my self to be true how some of them although they could not for shame approve so lewd an Action yet were content to lay hold on it to the advancement of their cause by acknowledging therein the secret Judgments of God against the Bishops and hoping that some good might be wrought thereby for his Church as indeed there was though not according to their construction For 4. contrary to their expectation that railing Spirit did not only not further but extremely disgrace and prejudice their Cause when it was once perceived from how low degrees of contradiction at first to what outrage of Contumely and Slander they were at length proceeded and were also likely to proceed further A further degree of outrage was also in Fact Certain Prophets did arise who deeming it not possible that God should suffer that to be undone which they did so fiercely desire to have done Namely that his holy Saints the favourers and Fathers of the Discipline should be enlarged and delivered from persecution and seeing no means of Deliverance Ordinary were fain to persuade themselves that God must need raise some extraordinary means and being persuaded of none so well as of themselves they forth with must needs be the instruments of this great work Hereupon they framed unto themselves an assured hope that upon their Preaching
out of a Pease Cart all the multitude would have presently joyned unto them and in amazement of mind have asked them Viri fratres quid agimus whereunto it is likely they would have returned an answer far unlike to that of St. Peter Such and such are men unworthy to govern pluck them down Such and such are the dear Children of God let them be advanced Of two of these men it is meet to speak with all Commiseration yet so that others by their example may receive instruction and withall some light may appear what stirring affections the Discipline is like to inspire if it light upon apt and prepared minds Now if any man doubt of what Society they were or if the Reformers disclaim them pretending that by them they were condemned let these points be considered 1. Whose associates were they before they entered into this frantick Passion whose Sermons did they frequent whom did they admire 2. Even when they were entering into it whose advice did they require and when they were in whose approbation whom advertised they of their purpose whose assistance by Prayer did they request But we deal injuriously with them to lay this to their charge for they reproved and condemned it How did they disclose it to the Magistrate that it might be suppressed or were they not rather content to stand aloof of and see the end of it as being loath to quench that Spirit No doubt these mad practitioners were of their society with whom before and in the practise of their madness they had most affinity Hereof read Dr. Bancrofts Book A third inducement may be to dislike of the Discipline if we consider not only how far the Reformers themselves have proceeded but what others upon their Foundations have built Here come the Brownists in the first rank their lineal descendants who have seised upon a number of strange opinions whereof although their Ancestors the Reformers were never actually possessed yet by right and interest from them derived the Brownists and Barrowists have taken possession of them for if the positions of the Reformers be tâ—ue I cannot see how the main and general Conclusions of Brownism should be false for upon these two points as I conceive they stand 1. That because we have no Church they are to sever themselves from us 2. That without Civil Authority they are to erect a Church of their own And if the former of these be true the latter I suppose will follow for if above all things men be to regard their Salvation and if out of the Church there be no Salvation it followeth that if we have no Church we have no means of Salvation and therefore Separation from us in that respect is both lawfull and necessary as also that men so separated from the false and counterfeit Church are to associate themselves unto some Church not to ours to the Popish much less therefore to one of their own making Now the grownd of all these Inferences being this That in our Church there is no means of Salvation is out of the Reformers Principles most clearly to be proved For wheresoever any matter of Faith unto Salvation necessary is denyed there can be no means of Salvation But in the Church of England the Discipline by them accounted a matter of Faith and necessary to Salvation is not onely denyed but impugned and the Professors thereof oppressed Ergo. Again but this reason perhaps is weak Every true Church of Christ acknowledgeth the whole Gospel of Christ The Discipline in their opinion is a part of the Gospel and yet by our Church resisted Ergo. Again the Discipline is essentially united to the Church by which term Essentially they must mean either an essential part or an essential property Both which wayes it must needs be that where that essential Discipline is not neither is there any Church If therefore between them and the Brownists there should be appointed a Solemn disputation whereof with us they have been oftentimes so earnest Challengers it doth not yet appear what other answer they could possibly frame to these and the like arguments wherewith they may be pressed but fairly to deny the Conclusion for all the Premisses are their own or rather ingeniously to reverse their own Principles before laid whereon so foul absurdities have been so firmly built What further proofs you can bring out of their high words magnifying the Discipline I leave to your better remembrance but above all points I am desirous this one should be strongly inforced against them because it wringeth them most of all and is of all other for ought I see the most unanswerable you may notwithstanding say that you would be heartily glad these their positions might be salved as the Brownists might not appear to have issued out of their Loynes but untill that be done they must give us leâ—ve to think that they have cast the Seed whereout these tares are grown Another sort of men there are which have been content to run on with the Reformers for a time and to make them poor instruments of their own designs These are a sort of Godless Politicks who perceiving the Plot of Discipline to consist of these two parts the overthrow of Episcopal and erections of Presbyterial Authority and that this latter can take no place till the former be removed are content to joyn with them in the Destructive part of Discipline bearing them in hand that in the other also they shall find them as ready But when time shall come it may be they would be as loath to be yoaked with that kind of Regiment as now they are willing to be released from this These mens ends in all their actions is Distraction their pretence and colour Reformation Those things which under this colour they have effected to their own good are 1. By maintaining a contrary faction they have kept the Clergy alwayes in Aw and thereby made them more pliable and willing to buy their peace 2. By maintaining an Opinion of Equality among Ministers they have made way to their own purposes for devouring Cathedral Churches and Bishops livings 3. By exclaiming against abuses in the Church they have carried their own corrupt dealings in the Civil State more covertly for such is the Nature of the multitude that they are not able to apprehend many things at once so as being possessed with a dislike or liking of any one thing many other in the mean time may escape them without being perceived 4. They have sought to disgrace the Clergy in entertaining a conceit in mens minds and confirming it by continual practise That men of Learning and specially of the Clergy which are imployed in the chiefest kind of Learning are not to be admitted or sparingly admitted to matters of State contrary to the practice of all well-governed Commonwealths and of our own till these late years A third sort of men there are though not descended from the Reformers yet in part raised and greatly Strengthned
After which Sermon the Emperour declar'd openly That the Preacher had begot in him a resolution to lay down his Dignities to forsake the World and betake himself to a Monastical life And he pretended he had perswaded John Valdesso to do the like but this is most certain that after the Emperour had called his son Philip out of England and resign'd to him all his Kingdoms that then the Emperour and John Valdesso did perform their resolutions This account of John Valdesso I receiv'd from a Friend that had it from the mouth of Mr. Farrer And the Reader may note that in this retirement John Valdesso writ his 110 considerations and many other Treatises of worth which want a second Mr. Farrer to procure and Translate them After this account of Mr. Farrer and John Valdesso I proceed to my account of Mr. Herbert and Mr. Duncon who according to his promise return'd the fifth day and found Mr. Herbert much weaker than he left him and therefore their Discourse could not be long but at Mr. Duncons parting with him Mr. Herbert spoke to this purpose Sir I pray give my brother Farrer an account of my decaying condition and tell him I beg him to continue his prayers for me and let him know that I have consider'd That God only is what he would be and that I am by his grace become now so like him as to be pleas'd with what pleaseth him and do not repine at my want of health and tell him my heart is fixed on that place where true joy is only to be found and that I long to be there and will wait my appointed change with hope and patience -And having said this he did with such a humility as seem'd to exalt him bow down to Mr. Duncon and with a thoughtful and contented look say to him Sir I pray deliver this little Book to my dear brother Farrer and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual Conflicts that have past betwixt God and my Soul before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master in whose service I have now found perfect freedom desire him to read it and then if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor Soul let it be made publick if not let him burn it for I and it are less than the least of Gods mercies Thus meanly did this humble man think of this excellent Book which now bears the name of The TEMPLE Or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations of which Mr. Farrer would say There was the picture of a Divine Soul in every page and that the whole Book was such a harmony of holy passions as would enrich the World with pleasure and piety And it appears to have done so for there have been Ten thousand of them sold since the first Impression And this ought to be noted that when Mr. Farrer sent this Book to Cambridge to be Licensed for the Press the Vice-Chancellor would by no means allow the two so much noted Verses Religion stands a Tip-toe in our Land Ready to pass to the American Strand to be printed and Mr. Farrer would by no means allow the Book to be printed and want them But after some time and some arguments for and against their being made publick the Vice-Chancellor said I knew Mr. Herbert well and know that he had many heavenly Speculations and was a Divine Poet but I hope the World will not take him to be an inspired Prophet and therefore I License the whole Book So that it came to be printed without the diminution or addition of a syllable since it was deliver'd into the hands of Mr. Duncon save only that Mr. Farrer hath added that excellent Preface that is printed before it At the time of Mr. Duncons leaving Mr. Herbert which was about three Weeks before his death his old and dear friend Mr. Woodnot came from London to Bemerton and never left him till he had seen him draw his last breath and clos'd his Eyes on his Death-bed In this time of his decay he was often visited and pray'd for by all the Clergy that liv'd near to him especially by the Bishop and Prebends of the Cathedral Church in Salisbury but by none more devoutly than his Wife his three Neeces then a part of his Family and Mr. Woodnot who were the sad Witnesses of his daily decay to whom he would often speak to this purpose I now look back upon the pleasures of my life past and see the content I have taken in beauty in wit in musick and pleasant Conversation how they are now all past by me as a shadow that returns not and are all become dead to me or I to them that as my father and generation hath done before me so I shall now suddenly with Job make my Bed also in the dark and I praise God I am prepar'd for it and that I am not to learn patience now I stand in such need of it and that I have practised Mortification and endeavour'd to dye daily that I might not dye eternally and my hope is that I shall shortly leave this valley of tears and be free from all fevers and pain and which will be a more happy condition I shall be free from sin and all the temptations and anxieties that attend it and this being past I shall dwell in the new Jerusalem dwell there with men made perfect dwell where these eyes shall see my Master and Saviour Jesus and with him see my dear mother and relations and friends but I must dye or not come to that happy place And this is my content that I am going daily towards it and that every day that I have liv'd hath taken a part of my appointed time from me and that I shall live the less time for having liv'd this and the day past These and the like expressions which he utter'd often may be said to be his enjoyment of Heaven before he enjoy'd it The Sunday before his death he rose Suddenly from his Bed or Couch call'd for one of his Instruments took it into hand and said My God my God My Musick shall find thee And every string Shall have his attribute to sing And having tun'd it he play'd and sung The Sundayes of mans life Thredded together on times string Make Bracelets to adorn the Wife Of the eternal glorious King On Sundayes Heavens dore stands ope Blessings are plentiful and rife More plentiful than hope Thus he sung on earth such Hymns and Anthems as the Angels and he and Mr. Farrer now sing in Heaven Thus he continued meditating and praying and rejoycing till the day of his death and on that day said to Mr. Woodnot My dear Friend I am sorry I have nothing to present to my merciful God but sin and misery but the first is pardon'd and a few hours will put a period to the latter Upon which expression Mr. Woodnot took occasion to remember him of the Re-edifying
for your memory is a State-cloth and Presence which I reverence though you be away though I need not seek that there which I have about and within me There though I found my accusation yet any thing to which your hand is is a pardon yet I would not burn my first Letter because as in great destiny no small passage can be omitted or frustrated so in my resolution of writing almost daily to you I would have no link of the Chain broke by me both because my Letters interpret one another and because only their number can give them weight If I had your Commission and Instructions to do you the service of a Legier Ambassadour here I could say something of the Countess of Devon of the States and such things But since to you who are not only a World alone but the Monarchy of the World your self nothing can be added especially by me I will sustain my self with the honour of being London July 23. 1607. Your Servant Extraordinary And without place John Donne To the worthiest Lady Mrs. Magdalen Herbert Madam AS we must dye before we can have full glory and happiness so before I can have this degree of it as to see you by a Letter I must almost dye that is come to London to plaguy London a place full of danger and vanity and vice though the Court be gone And such it will be till your return redeem it Not that the greatest vertue in the World which is you can be such a Marshal as to defeat or disperse all the vice of this place but as higher bodies remove or contract themselves when better come so at your return we shall have one door open to innocence Yet Madam you are not such an Ireland as produceth neither ill nor good no Spiders nor Nightingales which is a rare degree of perfection But you have found and practised that experiment That even nature out of her detesting of emptiness if we will make that our work to remove bad will fill us with good things To abstain from it was therefore but the Childhood and Minority of your Soul which hath been long exercised since in your manlier active part of doing good Of which since I have been a witness and subject not to tell you some times that by your influence and example I have attained to such a step of goodness as to be thankful were both to accuse your power and judgement of impotency and infirmity August 2d 1607. Your Ladiships in all Services John Donne FINIS On Mr. George Herbert's Book Intituled The Temple of Sacred Poems sent to a Gentlewoman KNow you Fair on what you look Divinest Love lies in this Book Expecting Fire from your Eyes To kindle this his Sacrifice When your hands untye these strings Think you 've an Angel by the wings One that gladly will be nigh To wait upon each morning sigh To flutter in the balmy Air Of your well perfumed Prayer These white Plumes of his Hee 'll lend you Which every day to Heaven will send you To take acquaintance of the Sphere And all the smooth-fac'd Kindred there And though Herberts Name do owe These Devotions Fairest know That while I lay them on the shrine Of your white Hand they are mine FINIS * In his Preface to Pseudo-Martyr * In his Book of Devâ—tions Ezek. 37. 3. * In his Book of Devotions * Dr. King and Dr. Monfort * La Corona * In his Chronicle * Cambden in his Britannia * Holinshed * Mr. Nic. Oudert and others * St. Austin's confession * Watson in his Quodlibets * Dr. Donne * Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge * 1 Tim. 3. 7. * Javen * In it were Italian locks picklocks screws to force open doors and things of worth and rarity that he had gathered in his foreign Travel * This you may find in the Temple Records William Ermstead was Master of the Temple at the Dissolution of the Priory and dyed 2 Eliz. Richard Alvey Bat. Divinity Pat. 13 Febr. 2 Eliz. Magister five Custos DomuÌ„s Ecolesiae novi Templi dyed 27 Eliz. Richard Hooker succeeded that year by Patent in terminis as Alvey â—ad it and he left it 33 Eliz. That year Dr. Balgey succeeded Richard Hooker * Mr. Dering * Vide Bishop Spotswoods History of the Church of Scotland * In his â—â—nnals â—199 * Sin 〈…〉 this Appendix to the Life of Mr. Hooker Mr. Fulman o 〈…〉 Christi Colledge hath shewed me a good Authority for the very 〈…〉 and hour of Mr. Hookers death in one of his Books of Politiâ—â— which was Archbishop Lauds In which Book beside many considerable Marginal Notes of some passages of his time under the Bishops own hand there is also written in the Title page of that Book which now is Mr. Fulmans this Attestation Richardus Hooker vir summis Doctrinae dutibus ornatus de Ecclesia praecipuè Anglicana optimè meritus obiit Novemb. 2. circiteâ— horam secundam post neridianam Anno 1600. * John Whitgift the Archbishop * Hacket and Coppinger Raphael Urbin the famous painter * Albumizer Igâ—oramus
l. 24. r. do it 32. l. 2. r. fortune 63. l. 121. r. Dort In Sir H. Wotton 29. l. 10. r. samed 35. l. 9. as well 37. l. 22. dele Mr. Bedell 38. l. 17. dele mis 41. l. 8. r. delivery 45. l. 5. r. mont 47. l. 19. r. Syfiphâ— 53. l. 7. r. against 56. l. 24. r. Elegy 75. l. 19. r. those In Mr. Hoooker 25. l. 4. r. assiduous still 42. l. 7. r. God and so These must be thus corrected or that Paragraph will not be senceâ— 42 l. 11. r. and in wicked 42. l. 15. dele it 56. l. 20. r. answers In George Herbert 14. l. 4. r. his 24. dele of 32. l. 22. â—r Parish Church 33. l. 26. r. she 34. l. 4. dele at 49. l. 10. r. wants it 63. l. 24. dele too 65. l. 24. r. spirits and 72. l. 3. r. for the 80. l. 1. r. to their The Copy of a Letter writ to Mr. Isaac Walton by Doctor King Lord Bishop of Chichester Honest Isaac THough a Familiarity of more then Forty years continuance and the constant experience of your Love even in the worst times be sufficient to indear our Friendship yet I must confess my Affection much improved not onely by Evidences of private Respect to many that know and love you but by your new Demonstration of a publick Spirit testified in a diligent true and useful Collection of so many Material Passages as you have now afforded me in the Life of Venerable Mr. Hooker of which since desired by such a Friend as your self I shall not deny to give the Testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned Books but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you that you have been happy in choosing to write the Lives of three such Persons as Posterity hath just cause to honour which they will do the more for the true Relation of them by your happy Pen of all which I shall give you my unfeigned Censure I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable Friend Dr. Donne late Dean of St. Pauls Church who not onely trusted me as his Executor but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent Sermons of his now made publick professing before Dr. Winniff Dr. Monford and I think your self then present at his bed side that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the Press together with which as his best Legacy he gave me all his Sermon-Notes and his other Papers containing an Extract of near Fifteen hundred Authours How these were got out of my hands you who were the Messenger for them and how lost both to me and your self is not now seasonable to complain but since they did miscarry I am glad that the general Demonstration of his Worth was so fairly preserved and represented to the World by your Pen in the History of his Life indeed so well that beside others the best Critick of our later time Mr. John Hales of Eaton Colledge affirm'd to me He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the Subject or more reputation to the Writer then that of Dr. Donnes After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne you undertook the like office for our Friend Sir Henry Wotton betwixt which two there was a Friendship begun in Oxford continued in their various Travels and more confirmed in the religious Friendship of Age and doubtless this excellent Person had writ the Life of Dr. Donne if Death had not prevented him by which means his and your Pre-collections for that Work fell to the happy Menage of your Pen a Work which you would have declined if imperious Persuasions had not been stronger then your modest Resolutions against it And I am thus far glad that the first Life was so imposed upon you because it gave an unavoidable Cause of Writing the second if not 't is too probable we had wanted both which had been a prejudice to all Lovers of Honour and ingenious Learning And let me not leave my Friend Sir Henry without this Testimony added to yours That he was a Man of as Florid a Wit and as Elegant a Pen as any former or ours which in that kind is a most excellent Age hath ever produced And now having made this voluntary Observation of our two deceased Friends I proceed to satisfie your desire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker who was Schismaticorum Mallcus so great a Champion for the Church of Englands Rights against the Factious Torrent of Separatists that then ran high against Church-Discipline and in his unanswerable Books continues to be so against the unquiet Disciples of their Schism which now under other Names still carry on their Design and who as the proper Heirs of Irrational Zeal would again take into the scarce closed Wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church And first though I dare not say that I knew Mr. Hooker yet as our Ecclesiastical History reports to the honour of S. Ignatius that he lived in the time of St. John and had seen him in his Childhood so I also joy that in my Minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my Father who was then Bishop of London from whom and others at that time I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the History of his Life and from my Father received such a Character of his Learning Humility and other Virtues that like Jewels of unvaluable price they still cast such a lustre as Envy or the Rust of Time shall never darken From my Father I have also heard all the Circumstances of the Plot to defame him and how Sir Edwin Sandys outwitted his Accusers and gained their Confession and I could give an account of each particular of that Plot but that I judge it fitter to be forgotten and rot in the same grave with the malicious Authors I may not omit to declare that my Fathers Knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occasioned by the Learned Dr. John Spencer who after the Death of Mr. Hooker was so careful to preserve his unvaluable Sixth Seventh and Eighth Books of ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY and his other Writings that he procured Henry Jackson then of Corpus Christi Colledge to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers many of which were imperfect for his Study had been rifled or worse used by Mr Chark and another of Principles too like his but these Papers were endeavored to be compleated by his dear friend Dr. Spencer who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father after whose Death they rested in my hand till Dr. Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of my custody by authorizing Dr. John Barkcham to require and bring them to him to his Palace in Lambeth at which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops Library and that they remained there till the Martyrdom of Archbishop Laud and were then by the Brethren of
that Faction given with all the Library to Hugh Peâ—ers as a Reward for his remarkable service in those sad times of the Churches Confusion and though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand yet there wanted not other Endeavours to corrupt and make them speak that Language for which the Faction then fought which indeed was To subject the Soveraign Power to the People But I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular his known Loyalty to his Prince whilest he lived the Sorrow expressed by King James at his Death the Value our late Soveraign of ever-blessed Memory put upon his Works and now the singular Character of his Worth by you given in the passages of his Life especially in your Appendix to it do sufficiently clear him from that Imputation and I am glad you mention how much value Thomas Stapleton Pope Clement the VIII and other Eminent men of the Romish Perswasion have put upon his Books having been told the same in my Youth by Persons of worth that have travelled Italy Lastly I must again congratulate this Undertaking of yours as now more proper to you then any other person by reason of your long Knowledge and Alliance to the worthy Family of the Cranmers my old Friends also who have been men of noted Wisdom especially Mr. George Cranmer whose Prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys proved very useful in the Completing of Mr. Hookers matchless Books one of their Letters I herewith send you to make use of if you think fit And let me say further you merit much from many of Mr. Hookers best Friends then living namely from the ever renowned Archbishop Whitgift of whose incomparable Worth with the Charactâ—â— of â—he Times you have given us a more short and significant Account then I have received from any other Pen. You have done much for Sir Henry Savile his Contemporary and familiar Friend amongst the surviving Monuments of whose Learning give me leave to tell you so two are omitted his Edition of Euclid but especially his Translation of King James his Apology for the Oath of Allegeance into elegant Latine which flying in that dress as far as Rome was by the Pope and Conclave sent to Salamanca unto Francisous Suarez then residing there as President of that Colledge with a Command to answer it When he had perfected the Work which he calls Defensio Fidei Catholicae it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquisitors who according to their custom blotted out what they pleased and as Mr. Hooker hath been used since his Death added whatsoever might advance the Popes Supremacy or carry on their own Interest commonly coupling Deponere Occidere the Deposing and Killing of Princes which cruel and unchristian Language Mr. John Saltkel his Amanuensis when he wrote at Salamanca but since a Convert living long in my Fathers house often professed the good Old man whose Piety and Charity Mr. Saltkel magnified much not onely disavowed but detested Not to trouble you further your Reader if according to your desire my Approbation of your Work carries any weight will here find many just Reasons to thank you for it and for this Circumstance here mentioned not known to many may happily apprehend one to thank him who heartily wishes your happiness and is unfainedly Chichester Novem. 17. 1664. Sir Your ever-faithful and affectionate old Friend Henry Chichester THE LIFE OF D r. JOHN DONNE late Dean of S t Paul's Church LONDON The Introduction IF that great Master of Language and Art Sir Henry Wotton the late Provost of Eaton Colledge had liv'd to see the Publication of these Sermons he had presented the World with the Authors Life exactly written And 't was pity he did not for it was a work worthy his undertaking and he fit to undertake it betwixt whom and the Author there was so mutual a knowledge and such a friendship contracted in their Youth as nothing but death could force a separation And though their bodies were divided their affections were not for that learned Knight's love followed his Friends fame beyond death and the forgetful grave which he testified by intreating me whom he acquainted with his designe to inquire of some particulars that concern'd it not doubting but my knowledge of the Author and love to his memory might make my diligence useful I did most gladly undertake the employment and continued it with great content 'till I had made my Collection ready to be augmented and compleated by his curious Pen but then Death prevented his intentions When I heard that sad news and heard also that these Sermons were to be printed and want the Authors Life which I thought to be very remarkable Indignation or grief indeed I know not which transperted me so far that I reviewed my forsaken Collections and resolv'd the World should see the best plain Picture of the Authors Life that my artless Pensil guided by the hand of truth could present to it And if I shall now be demanded as once Pompey's poor bondman was The grateful wretch had been left alone on the Sea-shore with the forsaken dead body of his once glorious lord and master and was then gathering the scatter'd pieces of an old broken boat to make a funeral pile to burn it which was the custom of the Romans who art thou that alone hast the honour to bury the body of Pompey the great so who I am that do thus officiously set the Authors memorie on fire I hope the question will prove to have in it more of wonder then disdain But wonder indeed the Reader may that I who profess my self artless should presume with my faint light to shew forth his Life whose very name makes it illustrious but be this to the disadvantage of the person represented Certain I am it is to the advantage of the beholder who shall here see the Authors Picture in a natural dress which ought to beget faith in what is spoken for he that wants skill to deceive may safely be trusted And if the Authors glorious spirit which now is in Heaven can have the leasure to look down and see me the poorest the meanest of all his friends in the midst of this officious dutie confident I am that he will not disdain this well-meant sacrifice to his memory for whilst his Conversation made me and many others happy below I know his Humility and Gentleness was then eminent and I have heard Divines say those Vertues that were but sparks upon Earth become great and glorious flames in Heaven Before I proceed further I am to intreat the Reader to take notice that when Doctor Donn's Sermons were first printed this was then my excuse for daring to write his life and I dare not now appear without it The Life MAster John Donne was born in London of good and vertuous Parents and though his own Learning and other multiplyed merits may justly appear sufficient to dignifie both Himself and his Posteritie yet the